Americans have been driven by fear, lies, and the propaganda of the profoundly ruthless into a collective hysteria, a madness that has been exploited by its authors to manipulate us into a devastating and unjust war – and there’s another even bigger one coming up. What is so amazing is that even the ‘leaders’ on our side of the aisle are acting as though it is all perfectly acceptable – entirely and indisputably sane. They have bought into the patently false GWOT meme and are shamelessly chugging the Kool-Aid in public like a bunch of drunken power whores fiends.
Edit: For the record, I believe in legitimate self-defense and the appropriate use of military force. I just see it as the very last option and think that making up excuses to use force is unforgivable.
I also made a full commitment to marshal American power, resources and values in the global fight against these terrorists. That begins with insuring that America does have the world’s strongest and smartest military force. We’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq and in some areas particularly in Al Anbar province it's working. We're just years too late in changing our tactics. We can't ever let that happen again. We can't be fighting the last war. We have to keep preparing to fight the new war. And this new war requires different tactics and strategies. We’ve got to be prepared to maintain the best fighting force in the world. I’ve proposed increasing the size of our Army by 80,000 soldiers, balancing the legacy systems with newer programs that help us keep our technological edge, re-evaluating the training and education programs that service members need in the 21st century, and let’s be sure that the American military does not fight terrorism alone.
~ recent quote from the mainstream establishment ‘Democratic’ candidate
All war all the time seems perfectly ok to Hill. And this is a liberal Democrat? Go figure.
None of them care about the truth any more. They’ve abandoned it. They’ve discovered how useful it is to lie to us, how much easier it is to tell us simple lies than explain complicated truths – like the fact that their loyalties lie with the Military Industrial Complex rather than with the American people. They’ve given up everything in the way of principles, leaving them with nothing but a naked lust for power. They’ve marveled at what Bush has gotten away with and decided to get a little of it for themselves.
Kissinger speaks for them all:
It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true.
~ Henry Kissinger
I’ve got news for Henry, and I’ve got news for any politician of any party who would willfully lie to the American people: we won’t accept your lies any more – because we don’t have to. We can counter your lies as fast as you can cook them up.
For one thing, there is no war on terror. It's all a manufactured hoax.
This war on terrorism is bogus
The 9/11 attacks gave the US an ideal pretext to use force to secure its global domination
Michael Meacher
Saturday September 6, 2003
The Guardian
(snip)
The conventional explanation is that after the Twin Towers were hit, retaliation against al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan was a natural first step in launching a global war against terrorism. Then, because Saddam Hussein was alleged by the US and UK governments to retain weapons of mass destruction, the war could be extended to Iraq as well. However this theory does not fit all the facts. The truth may be a great deal murkier.
We now know that a blueprint for the creation of a global Pax Americana was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), Jeb Bush (George Bush's younger brother) and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defences, was written in September 2000 by the neoconservative think tank, Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says "while the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."
The Guardian
We made al Qaeda from the ground up, back when it served ‘our interests’ in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. And we enraged a generation of Muslims by propping up evil dictatorships in their countries while teaching their Secret Police how to torture and terrorize their populations at the School of the Americas and elsewhere. And for the most part we have avoided a cold hard look at what we did that led to our being attacked. They didn’t attack us because they are crazy, and they didn’t attack us because we were an easy target, they attacked us because we ruthlessly fucked them over in the first place. Our own misguided big bully policies led to the conflict that fueled the attack. We have lacked the courage and honesty to examine our own role in the chain of causation – and we have failed in our obligation to our fellow man.
The September 11 attacks were consistent with the overall mission statement of al-Qaeda, as set out in a 1998 fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, Shaykh Mir Hamzah, and Fazlur Rahman.[93] The fatwa lists three main "crimes and sins" committed by the Americans: U.S. military occupation of the Arabian Peninsula, U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people, and U.S. support of Israel. The fatwa also specifically condemns the U.S. for "plundering" the resources of the region, oppressing the people by supporting abusive regimes in the region, and dictating policy to legitimate leaders. It also opposes the presence of U.S. military bases and installations in the region, especially on Muslim holy land, which are used to "threaten" Muslim countries, while fomenting disunity and strife. By a similar token, it decries the continued refusal to address the "occupation of Palestine".
Note: The above is from Wikipedia but I couldn’t get the link to work so I left it out.
Our failure to resolve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and our brutish imperialism in the region have fueled the hostilities. It is, to a very large extent, our own damned fault. And yes, I believe that if we were fully committed to bringing peace to the Middle East we could have achieved it. You don’t resolve such matters by having a lot of happy talk while still actively raping the land. Peoples’ sovereignty must be respected.
We should be talking instead of fighting, reaching out to each other instead of blowing each other to shreds, we should be leading the word in the cause of peace. We should be putting an end to war. We should stop the insanity. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
The Republicans have made an amazing amount of hay with the ‘war on terror’. They still have many of us spooked, which of course makes us play right into their hands. It’s deadly cynical of them, to cast it in the politest possible terms, but also deadly effective. Fear is a mighty weapon against people who lack courage, and speaking particularly for our leadership, we do.
Glenn Greenwald
TUESDAY AUGUST 21, 2007 13:13 EST
Why is the Democratic Congress so unpopular?
The most misused and exploited political statistic is, far and away, the low (and rapidly shrinking) approval ratings for Congress. A new Gallup poll released today found "Congress' approval rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974."
For the past several months, Congress' approval ratings have been as low as, and often lower than, George Bush's unprecedentedly low ratings. Various media pundits and right-wing advocates use this fact constantly to insinuate that Bush is not uniquely unpopular and Americans have not really turned against Republicans, but rather, there is just a generic dissatisfaction with our political institutions, or more misleadingly still, that Americans are actually angry at Congress for not "doing enough" (by which it is meant that they are excessively investigating and obstructing and not "cooperating" enough).
But the reason for these low approval ratings is as clear as it is meaningful -- the overall ratings for Congress are so low because Democrats disapprove of the Democratic Congress almost as much as Republicans do. There is nothing unusual about how Republicans or independents rate the Democratic Congress; the only aspect of any of this that is unusual is that Democrats rate the Congress so low even though it is controlled by their own party. Virtually every poll demonstrates this. From the most recent CBS News poll:
That is just extraordinary. Democrats express disapproval for the Democratic Congress almost to the same extent as Republicans do. Today's Gallup Poll Report noted how unusual this is:
Frustration with Congress spans the political spectrum. There are only minor (but not statistically meaningful) differences in the approval ratings Democrats (21%), Republicans (18%), and independents (17%) give to Congress. Typically, partisans view Congress much more positively when their party is in control of the institution, so the fact that Democrats' ratings are not materially better than Republicans' is notable.
Glenn Greenwald
I have to hand it to Greenwald, he nails it every time:
Glenn Greenwald
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22, 2007 09:34 EST
Carl Levin reveals the Democrats' Iraq "strategy"
Carl Levin, probably the most influential Senate Democrat on Iraq policy, just returned from a "visit to Iraq." In a joint statement with GOP Sen. John Warner, he pronounced that "the military aspects of President Bush's new strategy in Iraq, as articulated by him on January 10, 2007, appear to have produced some credible and positive results."
Glenn Greenwald
More and more of ‘our guys’ are drinking the Kool-Aid. I find it very sad that Democrats are either buying into the madness or avoiding it as a subject. They seem to be acting like it’s all perfectly normal, not even worthy of impeachment, not batshitcrazyassedinsane, really no big deal at all.
Well, except for Dennis Kucinich, and we all know how he’ll never be President. Sure he’s thoughtful, intelligent and right on the issues...but he’s not tall enough, or not handsome enough - he just doesn’t have the right stuff – not presidential ya know. He’ll never be President! Unless of course everyone ends up voting for him. We could do a lot worse. And probably will.
We’ll probably end up with a fully Hollywood-qualified bullshit artist who is owned lock, stock and barrel by the Military Industrial Complex and whose only agenda is perpetuating the ‘all war all the time’ meme for the sole benefit of the war profiteering crowd, and the American people be damned – rather than a thoughtful, truthful man who wants to bring us peace and justice.
Oh well...our leaders are all insane (most of them anyway).
Had enough of being stabbed in the back by the establishment Dems? Sick of war for the sake of war? Don't want to vote 3rd party? I say ignore the naysayers and donate to Kucinich here:
OPOL for Kucinich at Act Blue
"I’d rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don’t want and get it."
~ Eugene V. Debs
Vote your conscience.
P.S. Help these folks out if you can, they're going to DC to talk to the Man! Road2DC