Kirwan Articles 

Omnipotent Power?

Mr. Powell seems to have forgotten his basic knowledge of the vulnerabilities that go with oil wells and oil fields. Having grown up with roughnecks, on the fringes of the oil fields in Oklahoma I see some huge holes in the Pentagon's pronouncements. Oil fields and oil wells are extremely vulnerable to things like missiles and bombs; even grenades and rifle bullets can wreak havoc. Saddam has had many months if not years to plant explosives into the cogs of those wellheads, and rather than let them fall into our hands, he would most likely destroy them himself.

Is the Pentagon seriously trying to tell the world that we can invade a country "the size of California" and seize all its oil fields, and defang all its weapons of mass destruction within 24 hours?
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/14/1044927804208.html 

Now that's a serious ego problem, and a blatant lie. But since the USA really doesn't want to conquer an Iraq without its oil fields - what else can they promise?

This is the ultimate aphrodisiac for a gullible public that wants to have a bloodless war-a videogame-that provides the world with an immediate gratification, without the horror or the realities of a real war. At the very least this war will not be televised - No. This coming 'war' will be managed by Dick Cheney, who was the Secretary of Offense during the first Gulf War. In 1991 the US media was blindfolded, gagged and generally held hostage to US military censors. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4604952,00.html 

This new American obsession with Security and Secrecy at all costs, is the first step toward complete corruption of both our national agenda, and the freedom and viability of the rest of the people on this planet. Either there is "just cause," and we want the whole world to see why this ferocious action was necessary-or-we have everything to hide, because everything that we've been telling the world about the dangers of Iraq is a lie. Powell and his henchmen cannot have it both ways.

Bush and Powell and Rumsfeld and Cheney have been telling every mass gathering of troops that they address, about the wonders of our invincibility. Yet none of these self-appointed leaders will dare to hold an open news conference, because they fear the questions of a concerned public: a public that Is now global in its concern for the lives that are about to be lost in this dangerous and unnecessary "adventure."

If our cause is so righteous, and our purposes so noble - then why not answer a few questions without hiding behind 'national security?'

Look at the pitiful state of nation when it comes to our 'security status.' Duct tape and plastic-the 1950s are over Mr. Ridge! Our protection in the world has always been our way of life. And that used to be able to be seen through our foreign policy towards the rest of the world. Bush changed all that with his 'hit first and talk later' policies, both at home and abroad. Powell speaks about his professional life as a diplomat; that's never been the case. Colin Powell is a military man - a general, nothing more. Pinning a paper hat over his helmet won't make Powell diplomatic because he is and always will be an advocate of force.

The USA is in danger now, no question. But that danger comes directly from our foreign policies, and political decisions that have been taken at the highest levels of this nation.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030209-020607-8252r 

The world knows it; the sentient beings in the United States know it. The days of the Bush Administration as a controlling force in the US are numbered. The reason for their coming departure rests on their hopelessly inept policies, their bankrupt and irrational use of force, and perhaps most of all on the lies, the deceptions, and the arrogance with which they have tried to bully the world into accepting American hegemony in all things and in every area of life around the plant.

This administration is using a double standard. We have said that one of the most dangerous thoughts for the world is of Iraq being able to use its bio-chemical weapons of mass destruction. And yet the United States is proposing to do just that in our own coming attack on Iraq.
http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr070203.html 

Rumsfeld has also issued several statements about our "need" to use nuclear weapons in defeating heavily fortified bunkers in Iraq. The Department of Defense has informed congress: "nuclear weapons in the US arsenal are no longer to be kept separate from other weaponry." In other words-we will use nukes whenever some commander thinks that it might speed the conclusion of a battle. So now we're officially going to "win the battles and lose the war." Because what we'll leave behind on the land will stay there for more years than people have been on the earth to date. So what's the point?

We've been told that this war is necessary to rescue our economy. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's not "our economy" that's in trouble; it's our worldview and our total ineptitude with governance that is at the core of this problem. The government has spent hundreds of billions on weapons and military contractors, while letting the entire infrastructure of the nation go straight to hell. We're approaching trillions for war while slashing even subsistence payments to the states and to all federal programs. We don't have a country anymore; all we have is an enclave of capitalistic pirates who want nothing less than to militarily steal the world.

What is needed now is a spotlight on the truth. This political game of conspiracy and secrecy and paranoia has been crawling through the sewers of the capital since the 1970s when Cheney and Rumsfeld got their ignoble start in the Ford administration. It's way past time that their careers should be taken before congress - where they should be tried for their efforts to pervert the Constitution while enriching themselves in the bargain.

This is a pivotal moment in the life of this nation and for the viability of the world. These amateurs must be removed from authority or that Orwellian nightmare of theirs will replace what we all call daily life. We've been told: "everything in America has now changed since 9-11." That's not true. What has changed is that this administration has become so entrenched in their paranoiac grab for global power - that indeed this nation is about to become the permanent target of choice for the whole world. That need NOT happen.

If the United States removed these imitation political figures from office, and resumed a conciliatory and constructive role in world affairs, then the path to war might evaporate. In fact the most dangerous thing the US could do now - is exactly what Bush wants to do; namely to prosecute a flagrantly unwarranted war in the Middle East. Bush has destroyed whatever good will the US had with so many nations, that it's almost as if that had been his purpose from the beginning. When that belligerence is combined with his total disregard for any of his responsibilities to the average Americans who are paying for His "dreams of global supremacy" - the resulting fiasco has obviously only just begun!

Where is Congress in all this? Congress was the same inept body that allowed the image on the gravestone to become reality. The two-party system is a joke, and their non-performance since 2000 is beneath contempt. The major sell-out of Congress to the corporate capitalists is what got us into this 'Catch 22.' .A pox on both their houses - but then what's left? The USA has been deceased for a very long time. Maybe now it's the time for this dying nation to just lie down - and let the truth come out. Bush is determined to have his war, with or without the consent of the people. But to massacre hundreds of thousands if not millions in the process - that's not something that we have any right to do - no matter what we choose to call it.