AS THE WORLD SQUIRMSâ
Monday, July 30, 2007
"The 'common
good' of a collective – a race, a
class, a state – was the
claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over man. Every
major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive.
Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetuated by the
disciples of altruism? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere. They
believed in the perfect society reached through the guillotine and the firing
squad. Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were murdering for
an altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man be sacrificed for other
men." ~Ayn Rand~ (Speaking through the character Howard Roark - The hero in The Fountainhead) |
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US death toll in Iraq passes 3500
Sunday: 2 GIs, 66 Iraqis Killed;
63 Wounded
Monday: Explosion
Rocks Baghdad City Center, 4 Killed DC Notes: Disability claims from Iraq, Afghanistan vets top
176,000 |
Why is Iraq in Chaos?
NO END IN SIGHT
Learn the Truth!
7/27/07
Army
Offering $20,000 Bonus For 'Quick' Recruits
Bonus Goes To Those Willing To Ship Out Within Month WLWT.COM July 27,
2007-07-30 (Excerpt) The
$20,000 bonus is in addition to previous offers already in place. The
Army has had trouble meeting recruiting goals, especially in southwest Ohio,
in the past few months as the Middle East conflicts continue. Soldiers
have often complained about the traditionally low pay as well. Foley said some
recruits could tally bonuses up to $40,000 during this period with
enlistments of four years or more. |
Martial Law is Now a Real Threat Declaring
the U.S. a Battlefield “If ordered to turn their guns and
bayonets on their fellow Americans, would our "heroes" in uniform follow
their consciences, and their oaths to "uphold and defend" the
Constitution of the United States? Or would they follow the orders of their
Commander in Chief?” By
Dave Lindorff Counterpunch.org July
27, 2007 (Excerpt) The looming collapse of the US
military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals,
including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is happening none
too soon, as it my be the best hope for preventing military rule here
at home. From the looks of things, the
Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a
declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only
the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have
done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of
the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress. |
Iraqi leader tells Bush: Get General
Petraeus out
The Telegraph –
London, UK 7.29.07 (Excerpt) Relations between the top United States
general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, are so bad
that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President
George W Bush. Although
the call was rejected, aides to both men admit that Mr Maliki and Gen
David Petraeus engage in frequent stand-up shouting matches,
differing particularly over the US general's moves to arm Sunni tribesmen to
fight al-Qa'eda. One Iraqi source said Mr Maliki used a video conference with Mr Bush to call for the general's signature strategy to be scrapped. "He told Bush that if Petraeus continues, he would arm Shia militias," said the official. "Bush told Maliki to calm down." |
Iraq Team
Captain Calls for US to Leave the Country International
Herald Tribune July
29, 2007 (Excerpt) "I want America to go
out," he said. "Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but
out. I wish the American people didn't invade Iraq and hopefully it will be
over soon." |
George Bush’s Latest ‘Escapade’ By Robert
Novak Humanevents.com July 30,
2007 (Excerpt) ·
WASHINGTON
-- The morass in Iraq and deepening difficulties in Afghanistan have not
deterred the Bush administration from taking on a dangerous and questionable
new secret operation. At a high level, U.S. officials are working with
their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish
guerrillas and capture their leaders. Through covert activity, their goal is
to forestall Turkey from invading Iraq. ·
|
PUTTING OUT FIRE WITH GASOLINE! Washington’s Disastrous, Interventionist, “Mideast” Foreign Policy” Washington’s Self-Serving ‘Congressional’ Israel Lobby seeks $30.4 billions in U.S. Taxpayers’ Debt-Financed military
aid to bolster the Israeli
Apartheid-Regime over the next decade, “a significant
increase over what Israel has received in the past 10 years.” Supplemental “Aid” For Israel: US
Taxpayers to fund “defense” systems for Israel Ynetnews.com July 27, 2007 Israel
Voices ‘Satisfaction’ with U.S. Taxpayer Financed Aid Increase Defensenews.com July 29, 2007
·
As Rice and Gates Travel to
Middle East, Air of Futility Pervades ·
US State Department Funding Blair as
Mideast Envoy |
Foreign Policy Is Central in 2008
Presidential Races By
Doyle McManus (Excerpt) Not every foreign policy issue is as polarizing as Iraq. There
are even signs of potential bipartisan consensus on other issues: reinvigorating
traditional alliances, rebuilding a war-weary Army and Marine Corps,
preventing nuclear proliferation, and maintaining aid to Africa, to name
some. But Iraq is the issue many voters say
will determine their choice in the presidential election; the rest have
barely rated a mention in the campaign so far. |
Republican Youtube Debate Show By Michael Kraft Charlotte
Conservative News (Excerpt) With the Charleston, SC Democratic debate behind
us, hundreds of video questions pour into Youtube in preparation for the
Republican turn at the wheel handling user questions. The problem
is, the candidates don’t seem excited, or even interested in the gimmicky
format scheduled for September 17th. So far only
Sen. John McCain and Rep.
Ron Paul have agreed to participate in the debate, hosted by the
Republican Party of Florida in St. Petersburg, CNN and Youtube. Ron Paul is
widely popular on the internet so this is no surprise, and McCain is dying
fast in the polls and likely desperate for any bone he can get. “Aside from those two
candidates, we haven’t heard from anyone else,” said Sam
Feist of CNN, who is sponsoring the debate with the popular video site
YouTube. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, who are the current frontrunners and “big fish” both have very busy YouTube channels, but neither seem all too interested in the debate as it stands. |
Bush’s Real Agenda In Palestine By Ramzy Baroud AlArab Online July 29, 2007 (Excerpt) It is vital that we keep this seemingly obvious reality at the
forefront of any political discussion dealing with the conflict: the occupied
Palestinian territories represent a mere 22 per cent of historic Palestine.
Currently, Israel is on a quest to reduce this even
further by officially conquering the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem..
Gaza is only relevant to this issue insofar as it represents a golden
opportunity to divide Palestinians further, to confuse their national project
and to present a grim picture of them as an unruly people who cannot be
trusted as peace partners to the far more civilised and democratic Israelis. |
What should Brown say to Bush this
weekend? Gordon
Brown heads to the US this weekend for his first meeting with Bush as PM. We asked
lawyers, writers, a former Guantánamo inmate...what should he say?
Saturday July 28, 2007 (Excerpt)
Gordon
Brown must explain that US governments need to return to a realistic view of
the world. The US is the world's single most powerful country, but much
weaker than the rest of the world put together. The attempt by one country to
unilaterally impose itself on the rest of the world is not only undesirable
but simply won't work. Ignoring this led to the disastrous invasion of Iraq. ·
Gorbachev says U.S. is sowing World
‘disorder’ ·
Putin stresses that the World should
rest on norms of International law |
When “Officer Friendly” Comes Home… Be Afraid Citizen, Be Very Afraid! Accustomed to Their Own Atrocities in Iraq, U.S.
Soldiers Have Become Murderers After four years of war, American Marines and soldiers have become
socialized to atrocity. The war in Iraq is now primarily about murder. There
is very little killing. By Chris Hedges Posted on July 27, 2007, Printed on July
27, 2007
|
If You Miss the First Time, Try
Firing Another 300,000 Rounds by Robert Higgs, Independent
Institute (Excerpt) According
to the educated guess of military researcher John
Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, U.S. forces
have expended at least 250,000 small-caliber bullets for every insurgent
killed in the present wars. That's a lot of misses, for
which the people of Iraq and Afghanistan are no doubt grateful. With better
marksmanship, U.S. forces could have already slain a large fraction of the
people residing in those unfortunate countries. Of course, medium- and heavy-caliber bullets, artillery and mortar
shells, rockets, and bombs have also killed many people in the present wars,
their vastly greater force compensating for the smaller numbers expended. The application of overwhelming firepower
in lieu of alternative tactics has long been the American way of fighting a
war. In World War II, U.S. factories cranked out, along with mountains of
other munitions,
about 41.4 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition, enough to permit the
users to take about ten shots at every man, woman, and child alive on earth
at that time. Military historians tell us that the U.S. warriors actually
concentrated their fire somewhat, so some of the earth's inhabitants were
spared exposure to that particular risk. |
Nazi Germany’s “War on Terror”: The Warnings of History Time
For Change 7.24.07 Germany – February 27, 1933: It started when the
government… received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign
ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings… When an aide brought him word that the
nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the
terrorist who had struck and then rushed to the scene and called a press
conference. "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in
history," he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building,
surrounded by national media. "This fire," he said, his voice
trembling with emotion, "is the beginning." He used the occasion -
"a sign from God," he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism
and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to
the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion. – Thom Hartmann,
March 16, 2003 |
International Monetary Fund says
China, India and Russia will boost World economic growth EuroNews July 25, 2007 (Excerpt) The International Monetary Fund has raised its
world economic growth forecast for this year and next due to
accelerating expansion in China, India and Russia. In an
update of its forecasts made in April, the IMF also said the mortgage default
problems in the United States do pose risks to financial markets, but for now
the damage appears "likely to remain largely contained." |
Sami al Hajj – al Jazeera Cameraman
No Charges: But 5 years later, al
Jazeera cameraman still held at Guantanamo
By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers
July 27, 2007 (Excerpt) KHARTOUM, Sudan — He is all but unknown in the United States, the
country of his jailers, but in his homeland of Sudan, Sami al Hajj is a
national hero. The president has spoken out about him, demonstrations have
been held in his name, and a bakery in Khartoum has printed his picture on
its packaging. A 38-year-old cameraman for the Arabic news
network al Jazeera, Hajj has been imprisoned as an “enemy combatant” at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
for five years, but never charged with any crime. He was arrested by Pakistani police in December
2001 while on his way to a news assignment in Afghanistan, but he's denied
having any links to terrorism. The independent, Qatar-based network earned
the wrath of top U.S. officials after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks for airing statements by Osama bin Laden. Hajj has been interrogated
approximately 130 times, according to his attorneys, and nearly every
question has been about whether the network or its journalists are connected
to al Qaida or other terrorist groups. British Report Criticizes US
Treatment of Terror Suspects: LONDON, July 27 |
America, Where is Your Conscience?
Facing the Truth
By
Monica Benderman Counterpunch.org July
21/22, 2007 (Excerpt) It's about time Americans faced the truth. Today a Marine
not only convicted of conspiring to commit kidnapping, larceny, and making
false statements; but the murder--MURDER--of an innocent Iraqi man, was given
his sentence. He is to receive a reduction in rank and a bad conduct
discharge. THIS is what America has become. It is now considered "bad conduct" to murder an
unarmed man, knowingly return to the scene to fabricate the appearance of
self-defense and hide the facts after the fact. Murdering an innocent Iraqi is now
considered "Bad Conduct." In 2004 my husband, a ten-year US Army
veteran, made a conscious decision to no longer participate in war--he spoke
openly of the bad conduct of his commanders in giving orders to soldiers in
his unit which not only jeopardized the lives of innocent Iraqis, and
children, but also those of the soldiers he served with. For his decision to no longer be part
of the destruction, wanton killing, and unjust, immoral action this war has shown
itself to be, my husband was accused of being a deserter, faced trumped up,
fabricated charges of intentionally missing his unit's movement, and when the
first court-martial attempt failed, was handed additional trumped up charges
of larceny for combat pay his command erroneously placed in his paycheck.
During a second court-martial attempt he was found guilty of missing movement
or not getting on a plane and was sentenced to 15 months in prison, loss of
all pay, reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge. A veteran with ten years of honorable
service, who took a stand to no longer participate in an action in which
murdering innocents is acceptable is now considered "Dishonorable."
How low do you intend to go, America
? How far are you going to let your
values dip before you stop the slide? We don't need to see the documents
"executive privilege" is denying us the right to see. Their content
is evident in the actions of our military courts--Justice in America no
longer has a conscience, and the travesty continues as Americans sleep
through the reality of what it is they are about to lose. The United States Congress spent an
entire night--wasted an entire night--in a public display of ridiculous
bantering over a war which has now caused the deaths of almost 4000 US
military personnel and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians--CHILDREN
are dying every day in Iraq because of what this country has allowed to
happen, and our Congress has the foresight to remember to place cots in the
Senate chambers in case one of the illustrious elite might grow weary of
their repetitious "pillow talk" and need a rest. I am weary of the talk--the Iraqis
are weary of the talk--and I know for a fact that American soldiers are weary
of the talk. There are some who, while wearing our
nation's uniform, have committed horrendous crimes in this war, and in a
great many instances have received little more than a slap on the hand for
their actions. Hundreds of thousands more soldiers have served honorably
under the most horrendous conditions, fighting against their instincts for
survival to maintain morality in their actions in the most difficult
circumstances. They deserve better than to see those who cannot control
themselves face so little consequence for their lack of character. The administration that sent our military to war has become nothing more than a dictatorship in emperor's clothing and our congress is clearly displaying how little backbone they have when it comes to defending the truth in the hallowed halls within which our Constitution is supposed to still matter. |
Ron Paul and the Greased Pig
Presidency, noun: The greased pig in the
field game of America’s politics. by Gary North LewRockwell.com July
28, 2007 (Excerpt) I generally avoid discussing national
politics. I always have. That’s
because I don’t think
democratic involvement makes much difference except at the local level. The
size of the permanent national bureaucracy is so enormous, in every large nation
that political activities are capable of changing very little. Except in times of
enormous crisis – mainly national
wars – political change is
marginal. War centralizes everything. This is why national
politicians lie their countries into wars. This is a bi-partisan practice. It
rarely fails. If you doubt me, click here. |
2008 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul
in discusion with Google executive
Elliot Schrage as part of the company's
Candidates@Google series.
that the Shebaa Farms