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From
911 forward, the world has been consumed with discovering what really
happened on that day, to the three buildings in the World Trade Center; to
the plane that supposedly crashed in Pennsylvania and as to how that
missile managed to hit the Pentagon. This is the latest video of what has
been learned thus far. (1)
The single largest tragedy here
is the one thing not in dispute: That is the "unending war" that
Bush promised the world, supposedly in retaliation for 911. This will
indeed be "never-ending" unless people in the United States
demand the immediate withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. Many of he same
people that were in-charge of US policies when 911 happened, are still
in-charge today, and they have yet to answer for their parts in the crimes
committed on that day.
The head of the FBI then is still
in place today, Rumsfeld still has an office in the Pentagon, and others
like Richard Pearl, John Ashcroft, Richard Armitage, along with Paul
Wolfowitz, and General Powell have not disappeared. There was also John
Bolton our stealth ambassador to the UN. Cheney, Rice, Rove and Bush are
all still active and have been joined by Chertoff at DHS and now Gates at
Offense. None of these people have been seriously questioned about their
parts in what happened on 911.
The only member of government
that did speak openly was Richard Clark who tried to warn Rice. But as CIA
has largely taken the fall for the intelligence failures on 911 - the
agency has changed hands several times. However, Richard Clark, the
counter-terrorism chief in the Clinton Administration is still claiming
responsibility for having created Al Qaeda, not as our enemy, but as an
operating arm of the CIA, prior to 911. (2)
Exactly how Al Qaeda went from
being an operating arm of the CIA to becoming "responsible for 911'
needs further on-the-record elaboration. Just as Rummy needs to finally
explain what happened to the $2.3 trillion that he admits his agency
"lost" in Iraq. ($2.3 trillion would buy a lot of help for our
bankrupt federal government). Where are the subpoenas? Where is the
outrage? More importantly where is our sense of ourselves as a coherent
people, within a nation that we say we claim as 'our country'?
The United States has adopted
international threats and global-instability as our weapons of choice,
backed up by overwhelming violence and military force, in dealing with the
rest of the planet.
This has never worked for any
length of time-throughout the long march of world history-and there is no
reason to expect that it will ever work for us in this instance, either.
Bush is fond of portraying himself as a loner, a cowboy who stands against
the world, and defies anyone and everyone that opposes his insanities. Yet
the fact is that he is nothing but a deluded puppet in a
theater-of-the-absurd that has never drawn a crowd: except perhaps for
others of his kind-a crowd that has equally oppressed their own people,
for monetary gain and for petty-political-powers that by definition shall
have to end, in infamy!
Bush believes he is bold and
daring, and believes that he has much in common with Winston Churchill,
the man who replaced British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, with his
policy of appeasement in dealing with the Nazi's. However the facts of
history make clear that it is Chamberlain, not Churchill that most closely
represents Bush-the-lesser in the world today. (3)
In the Middle-East Bush has been
a partner in the continuing Israeli massacre of the Palestinian people.
For fifty years this country has worn many hats in regard to Palestine and
Israel. But with the coming of the Bush-men in 2000, all of that began to
change. Over the previous five decades we have given Israel trillions of
dollars, and we've occasionally tried to play the part of an "honest
broker" for peace in the Middle-East. But under the Decider, we have
aided and abetted so many crimes against the Palestinians-while we have
repeatedly failed to point out to the world that Israel wants to destroy
the Palestinian people.
We stood by while Israel
orchestrated the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, only to serve again as
Israel's bully-boy protector while Israel's pitiful military tried
unsuccessfully to invade Lebanon. The world held its breath for thirty
days, back then, while that obscene farce was played out. And then we
actually wondered why there was no movement toward
"peace-in-Palestine." (4)
Then again we backed Israel when
they recently scoffed at the open and freely democratic election that
brought Hamas to power in Palestine. We not only endorsed Israel's view,
but we blocked humanitarian aide from getting to the Palestinians from
anyone else as well. We're still supporting the extremist Israeli
government's decision to make war on Gaza and Hamas, while blackmailing
the Palestinians in the West Bank with promises of food and water, if they
do not come to the aid of Gaza and the rest of Palestine.
This behavior of the US, in favor
of the blatantly criminal state of Israel, whose president kept sex
slaves, and was evicted from office for that and other crimes: speaks
volumes to all parties in the region, and the world. How then can wee
expect anyone in the Middle-East to take the United States seriously about
anything else we might have to say - such as what we are now demanding in
Iran, or suggesting for Lebanon, or Syria or anywhere else where we are
manufacturing more lies as an excuse to do our worst, and steal more of
what is still not ours. The whole world knows that the USA today is
nothing more than a blunt instrument in mercenary service to the global
criminal-elites. The new Quartet under the direction of Tony Blair shall
make this ever more clear, as that failed leader takes charge of yet
another group of Bandits; this time Hell-bent on creating a Middle-East
without Arabs or Palestinians.
At home, things are no better.
All the wrong priorities have arisen to block anything and everything that
this country needs to survive. Health care has become a con-game being run
by those who directly profit from their failure to provide the services
that they take money to provide. The nation reels from the failures of
this government to help its people whether the topic is Katrina, or
Education: Retirement or Social Security: Justice or ordinary daily
survival: the United States Government has become the open and belligerent
enemy of the people of this nation.
Our economy is in ruins, because
the same philosophy that drove the nation prior to the Crash of 1929 is
back in business again (thank Bill Clinton for that one), and they've just
met: to consider how ready the conditions are for a repeat version of
1929. This collapse is not a question of if but when the bounty can begin
to flow to those who shall have escaped the markets before they fall,
again!
We kid ourselves that we have a
diverse business economy when in fact what we have are the scraps left
over from all the mergers and acquisitions that have left this nation
almost totally under the spell of corporate oligarchies that thrive on
conglomerate acquisitions and mergers and leave most of small business
completely unprotected from their iron-fisted controls over profits, no
matter how far removed those small businesses might appear to be from the
global-corporatocracy that actually owns all their once private business
opportunities: not to mention access to real 'capital.'
Oil Company's brag about the
virtues of teaching every child about the wonders of Math & Science:
when what is really needed are the humanities in mega-doses, if there is
to be a world left for anyone to live in. They brag about burning corn
instead of oil, when what should be happening is that hemp ought to be
reintroduced so that the corn can be eaten, and the hemp can replace the
sugar, the corn and everything else used to make artificial fuels. Hemp
was once used in virtually everything-Henry Ford used it to make parts for
the bodies his early automobiles. And, if we had a ready supply, plastics
could be eliminated.
The same is true of much of what
we now use to create medicines - nature's gift to mankind was this plant
that we have banned from commercial use: "hemp." It was banned
so that oil and chemical companies might be able to prosper undisturbed,
look it up: it is fascinating reading!
The world that Bush and his
handlers have created for us all is as false as their insurance company's
promises that amount to the kind of extortion that has resulted in death,
in far too many cases. The cynical and privileged elite have always tried
to corner all the profits and relegated the poor to virtual slavery to
achieve their ends. The time has come to reign in the artificial
life-expectancy that most corporations now enjoy. The joys of
multinational Corporate power should have limits placed upon them: just as
the people who work for Corporations need to have their own separate and
inviolate "Bill of Rights" for anyone that has to deal with
corporate-anything. We have the power to demand that the government we pay
for must work for all of us and not for those who seek to steal our lives
and dreams.
By that token we ought to be able
to have Universal Health Care. After all, as Michael Moore just so clearly
pointed out in his film "Sicko" 'if we can pay out trillions for
illegal and unnecessary wars then we can definitely afford to provide
healthcare for every American' - for free! And if we can subsidize
big-business to the obscene levels that we have raised corporate welfare
to: then we can definitely begin to make some real demands of
"our" federal government-so that it is no longer a feral threat
to every man, woman and child in this country. We had rights once upon a
time, but we had them only as long as we were willing and able to fight
for those rights.
What we do now to change this
equation for the future is really up to each and every one of us. Those
who choose to act will be part of the solution: the rest will remain as
part of the problem that will need to be removed. The choices will not be
easy, but then freedom never was or is. If any of us are to ever have
dreams worth dreaming once again-then something very different must begin
to shape our thoughts!
Jim Kirwan
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