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Trenchant Political Comment, Videos and More…

 

~Note: Articles & commentaries contained herein may have hotlinks, emphasis and formatting added to afford an additional perspective.~

 

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

 





THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES... The Rise of the Politics of Fear -- A BBC Special Presentation...

 

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Monetary cost of the War in Iraq - thus far

$413,076,434,019

 

  

 

To see more details, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

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SPECIAL REPORTS - SPECIAL REPORTS - SPECIAL REPORTS - SPECIAL REPORTS - SPECIAL REPORTS

WAR CRIMES

Bush Has Destroyed Iraq and America

By Paul Craig Roberts

LewRockwell.com

4.30.07

(Excerpt)

 

Every American who voted Republican shares responsibility for the great evil America has brought to the Middle East.

The evil that America brought to Iraq transcends the tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been killed and maimed in the conflict. The evil goes beyond the destruction of ancient historical artifacts and the civilian infrastructure of a secular state and the decimation of the lives, careers, and families of millions of Iraqis.

The violence and killing that Bush brought to Iraq has spread antagonism between Sunni and Shiite throughout the Middle East with potentially draconian consequences. Bushs war has turned Muslim hearts and minds against America and made terrorism an acceptable means to resist American hegemony. With his mindless war, Bush has created more terrorism than the world has ever seen.

The reasons given for the American invasion of Iraq have been exposed as lies, revealing America as either a country of fools and idiots or of war criminals. Worldwide polls show that America is no longer regarded as a guiding light but is tied with Israel as the second greatest threat to world stability.

The nuclear-armed Russians, alarmed by Americas gratuitous aggression and interference in Russian and Middle Eastern internal affairs and by Bushs aggressive withdrawal on June 13, 2002 from the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty, no longer see the US as a partner in peace but as a dangerous militaristic aggressor. The chance for understanding and trust with Russia has been destroyed by the stupid Bush administration. The White House Moron, who cannot successfully occupy Baghdad, believes he can run over Russia.

Former CIA director George "Slam-Dunk" Tenet writes in a new book, At the Center of the Storm: My years at the CIA that Vice President Dick Cheney and the neoconservatives caused America to invade Iraq without ever holding a serious debate about whether Iraq was a threat. Tenet writes: "There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat."

The 2003 American invasion of Iraq is a war crime under international law. The invasion caused sectarian violence far beyond anything Iraq had ever experienced under Saddam Hussein. Tenet writes that "sectarian violence in Iraq has taken on a life of its own and that US forces are becoming more and more irrelevant to the management of that violence."

More…

 

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War and the Police State: Complicity of the American People

 

by Donna J. Thorne

Global Research, April 21, 2007

 

(Excerpt)

"We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not..? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know.. it now."  Patrick Henry, 1775.

In this era of perpetual warfare, escalating domestic tyranny, government-sanctioned torture, and a Nazi-like pursuit of Middle-East domination, one would expect, at the very least, an audible outcry from the People who proclaim resolute devotion to the ideals of liberty and justice for all. Yet for the most part, Mainstream America continues to assume a posture of apathy, bitterness, or eerie silence.

 

When confronted with hard facts and scientific evidence linking key government officials to the attacks of 9/11, ostensibly intelligent, levelheaded people angrily and defiantly reject said information without a moment's deliberation. Sincerely compassionate and peace-loving individuals support the criminal invasion of Iraq and close their eyes to the U.S. slaughter of 600,000 Iraqi civilians, choosing instead to believe in the myth of American supremacy, at the heart of which lies the notion that foreigners alone are capable of such atrocities.

And now, in the aftermath of 9/11 and the subsequent establishment of Homeland Security, previously rigid supporters of civil rights quietly tolerate the piecemeal deconstruction of the U.S. Constitution under the pretext of protection, and to their own peril, disregard increasingly strident warnings and signs of a growing and imminent police state. Clearly, Mainstream America has surrendered to the subjugation of a power-crazed, despotic administration whose control continues to expand exponentially with each passing rumor of imminent peril.

 

Why, when confronted with a black-and-white record of autocratic offenses, are so many sensible Americans ignoring and even endorsing the current administration as it openly paves a tyrannical road to hell? Are we so deluded by rhetoric and weapons-grade propaganda, that we are no longer able to distinguish truth from fiction, thereby allowing, if not abetting our own enslavement?

 

Inarguably, a collective set of circumstances exist to explain the acquiescence of the American People. What follows is the first in a series of explorations by which this writer will attempt to identify possible core factors contributing to the scourge of apathy in American society today.

 

More…

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Real Cost of Iraq War: More Than $500 Billions

 

May 1, 2007

(Excerpt)

 

The cost for President George W. Bush's failed Iraq war will soon top $500 billion.

That half a trillion dollars or ten times what administration officials claimed the war would cost before Bush launched the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Reports Ron Hutcheson of McClatchy Newspapers:

 

More…

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Wolfie Shakes Down Global Loan Shark Outfit

By Kurt Nimmo

4.30.07

(Excerpt)

 

According to Steven C. Clemens, not only does the war criminal Paul Wolfowitz want some acknowledgment that the world-class loan sharking operation known as the World Bank shares complicity in the messy circumstances surrounding his and Shaha Rizas situation, but it appears Wolfie will attempt to ride it out until June 1st, when he is eligible for some large financial bonusfor performance and time on the job. One estimate puts this figure at about $400,000. Wolfowitz wants to make sure those funds are credited to his private bank account before saying farewell to an institution that has come to despise him.

More…

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The body of the former Russian president Boris Yeltsin lies in state in Moscow.

Yeltsin died of heart failure on April23, aged 76 [AFP]

 

 

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Iran surrounded, wouldn’t you be nervous?

 

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Current News & Views

 

·        President Bush Vetoes Troop Withdrawal Bill

·        Democrats fail to override Bush on war funding

·        AFGHANISTAN MASSACRE: Karzai Says 51 Civilians Killed in US Assault

·        Key US Army Ranks Begin to Thin

·        US Cites 91 Percent Rise in Terrorist Acts in Iraq by Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post

·        British Death Toll Hits 200

·        No Body? Claim of Iraq Al-Qaeda Leader's Death in Question

·        Happy "Mission Accomplished" Anniversary by James Bovard LewRockwell.com

·        Seiler and Hamburg | IRAQ: Why There Was No Exit Plan

·        Agency Wars: White House Attacks CIA Chief Tenet's Iraq Account

·        Spying on Americans Editorial The New York Times

·        Bush Regime Changes Mind: Abrogates Agreement on Surveillance

·        How Rumsfeld Micromanaged Torture by Andrew Cockburn

·        Gitmo: Still a "Legal Black Hole" Editorial Los Angeles Times

·        US citizen abandoned to secret prison in Ethiopia

·        Getting Iraq War Funding Wrong Again by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)

·        Neocon Richard Perle’s Swine Song by Taki Theodoracopulos

 

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An extraordinarily prescient TV interview with General Norman Schwarzkopf and Robert Gates - Deputy National Security Advisor to Former President George Bush Sr.

 

Why Invading Iraq Was A Very Stupid Idea…

 

(Click on blinking dot above for video)