Not content to have sacrificed the lives of US soldiers in his failed war of aggression against Iraq, Bush now says that the deaths of some 4,000 US soldiers in Iraq have 'laid the foundations for peace'. It's another bald face lie from the man who fabricated evidence against Saddam when, in fact, Iraq had no 'weapons of mass destruction', when, in fact, Bush sent US soldiers to their deaths upon a calculated, evil fraud!
"One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come,' " Bush told reporters after a meeting at the State Department.
It's another bald-faced lie from an habitual liar, sociopath and traitor. People will look back and marvel that Bush --the worst 'leader' since Nero -got away with it for so long! The prospects for peace have never been worse and will continue to deteriorate as long as Dick Cheney et al are given the resources of a nuclear power! They have exploited that power to steal the oil resources of nations like Iraq and, eventually, Iran.
Bush would rather you did not know that, in fact, the world is more dangerous, terrorism is worse, and deaths from the Iraq war mount daily. Total US and Iraqis deaths from Bush's order to attack, invade and occupy Iraq now top 1.2 million. This act of mass murder has now cost the American tax payer about 525 billion dollars that might have been spent educating people, improving infrastructure, encouraging neighborhood development, improving job prospects and leveling playing fields.
The US taxpayer was suckered into writing out the check for Dick Cheney's plunder of the middle east. Cheney and his 'energy task force' plotted to carve up the oil fields of Iraq prior to 911 and prior to the attack and invasion of Iraq. The oil fields of Iraq are clearly 'divvied' up among the plotters --Exxon Mobil, Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil, BP America Inc et al. The common sense interpretation of the undeniable timeline (in the public record) is that Bush and Cheney conspired with their neocon and oil industry 'base' to perpetrate a hoax upon the US --a 911 pretext --upon which they would raise the bogus specter of 'terrorism'! While the nation was still in shock, Colin Powell would peddle the cover story at the UN with falsified papers, bogus 'evidence and lies. It was a deliberate and treasonous fraud!
One embarrassing revelation about Powell's speech was that a key part of his evidence against Iraq was cut and pasted from a California graduate student's outdated academic paper, ripped directly from the Internet. In academia, we call this plagiarism. Stealing something straight off of a website, an act easily detected by feeding a string of words into a Google search, is plagiarism in its cheesiest form. Students who do it fail classes--this is nonnegotiable. In Powell's case, he isn't the plagiarizer. He properly cited a British intelligence service report--four pages of which were ripped off without citation, complete with spelling and grammatical errors--from a paper that appeared in October 2002 in an obscure academic journal.
and ten year old satellite photos in support of a bald faced lie that Saddam had WMD.
Powell presented satellite photos of industrial buildings, bunkers and trucks, and suggested they showed Iraqis surreptitiously moving prohibited missiles and chemical and biological weapons to hide them. At two sites, he said trucks were "decontamination vehicles" associated with chemical weapons.
These and other sites have now undergone 500 inspections in recent months. Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix, a day earlier, had said his well-equipped experts had found no contraband in their inspections and no sign that items had been moved. Nothing has been reported found since.
Addressing the Security Council a week after Powell, Blix used one photo scenario as an example and said it could be showing routine as easily as illicit activity. Journalists visiting photographed sites hours after the Powell speech found similar activity to be routine.
Norwegian inspector Jorn Siljeholm told AP on March 19 that "decontamination vehicles" U.N. teams were led to by U.S. information invariably turned out to be simple water or fire trucks. On June 24, Blix said of the entire Powell photo package, "We were not impressed with that particular evidence."
Amid Powell's warnings, a critical fact was lost: Iraq's military industries were to have remained under strict, on-site U.N. monitoring for years to come, guarding against the rebuilding of weapons programs.
The world is not safer and may never be as safe again. We have George W. Bush and his evil regime to thank.
The new study, by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, argues that, on the contrary, "the Iraq conflict has greatly increased the spread of al-Qa'ida ideological virus, as shown by a rising number of terrorist attacks in the past three years from London to Kabul, and from Madrid to the Red Sea.
"Our study shows that the Iraq war has generated a stunning increase in the yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks, amounting to literally hundreds of additional terrorist attacks and civilian lives lost. Even when terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is excluded, fatal attacks in the rest of the world have increased by more than one third."
In trying to gauge the "Iraq effect", the authors had focused on the rate of terrorist attacks in two periods - from September 2001 to 30 March 2003 (the day of the Iraq invasion) and 21 March 2003 to 30 September 2006. The research has been based on the MIPT-RAND Terrorism database.
The report's assertion that the Iraq invasion has had a far greater impact in radicalising Muslims is widely backed security personnel in the UK. Senior anti-terrorist officials told The Independent that the attack on Iraq, and the now-discredited claims by the US and British governments about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, had led to far more young Muslims engaging in extremist activity than the invasion of Afghanistan two years previously.
The combination of bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, continued terrorist attacks from Britain to Somalia, and a presidential election in which candidates are defining themselves based on how they would stare down the threats has many seeing shades of gray. Six years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, just 29 percent of Americans believe the United States is winning the war on terror-the lowest percentage at any point since 9/11.
Len Hart is a Houston based film/video producer specializing in shorts and full-length documentaries. He is a former major market and network correspondent; credits include CBS, ABC-TV and UPI. He maintains the progressive blog: The Existentialist Cowboy
Claiming to have furthered peace after aggressively attacking a nation for no legitimate reason is beyond mere delusion, it's beyond criminal, it's setting the standards of hubris to a level that few, if ever, will ever reach again.
Of course the ultimate in-your-face is if none of these cretins ever receives justice.
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 9 diaries, 1253 comments)
on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 11:58:58 AM
Len and commented on a few. I only want to point out that Colin Powell, though a man of mixed images and messages, put his name on documents to transfer weapons that the Traitor Ollie North used in his rouge government under Reagan with Iran-Contra.
I too, one day in the recent future desire to see the entire former and current Bu$h cabal impeached, have guilty verdicts of Treason judged against them, before being turned over to the Hague for War Crimes. Let the "Goon's & Thug's" rot in cells at Gitmo, spending their life sentences enduring what "Enemy Combatant's " have.
Confiscate their illegally amassed fortunes, and give it to UN humanitarian projects where the War Of Terror has been waged both domestically and abroad. Then the world will see that the USA is serious about prosecuting its War against "Terrorist's".
The map says it best, with the USA below, while the vilified China is above the medium, go figure.
I like Mr M's use of the word cretins, which he used in his latest article post.
by
Stanimal (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 429 comments)
on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 2:13:18 PM
Thanks for your comments, stanimal. Indeed the map is an eye opener. Certainly, the most dangerous parts of the world represent areas in which coxrporations would like to sink their hooks. It's a corporate version of the 'old west' out there. If corporate power can be broken up and made to respond to the will and needs of REAL people, the world might yet have a chance to achieve peace.
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Len Hart (123 articles, 159 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 477 comments)
on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 3:29:37 AM
The media did. Without the corporate and shadow control, the suppression, and the pro-government propaganda... All this never could have happened. That's why when considering how to stop it all, MSM must be at the top of the list. They must be broken, the suppression must be forced to end, and the media "freed". THEN and only then will see significant change for the better.
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Steve Windisch (jibbguy) (11 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 163 comments)
on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 4:18:48 PM
If the corporate media will not cover or report the truth, then it's time for the people to take back the media and get rid of the big media monopolies that the Bush dictatroship makes possible. Notably, it was the Ronald Reagan administration that led the assault on various FCC regulations and the 'Fairness Doctrine' --rules despised by corporate media! The rules required 'media' to serve the public interest. Corporate media, clearly, had no other god but profit. The 'public' be damned.
A good first step would be to smash the 'media' lobby on K street. We need to get over the idea that corporations have a right to lobby the government! Corporations are NOT people. As far as I'm concerned, corporations have no rights whatsoever, certainly no right to lobby. Only real, flesh and blood people have 'rights' of any sort.
CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE!
If we the people decide that Fox and the handful of HUGE CORPORATIONS do not have a right to lobby the US government for privileges, then, we the people should simply shut down their lobby, possibly shut down FOX itself.
Begin by organizing and insisting upon an FCC with teeth. Insist upon restoring the Fairness Doctrine. Insist upon limitations to corporate ownership of media. Insist upon ownership rules that will make make it impossible for all media to be owned by a handful of huge, global corporations. Measures like this existed before Ronald Reagan began an assault upon the Fairness Doctrine and upon prudent restrictions on the corporate ownership of media.
Thanks to Ronald Reagan and the GOP, one is hard pressed to find in any US market, a locally owned radio station or TV outlet. Before Reagan, it was not unusual to find locally owned radio and TV stations in small to major markets across the nation. Now ---it seems --all are owned by some five to seven major conglomerates.
The people have paid for Reagan/GOP fascism with the truth itself.
In America, possibly the world, corporations ARE the problem.
Wage revolution against corporate 'person-hood'. In the absence of corporate influence, government will simply have NO CHOICE but to respond to PEOPLE.
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Len Hart (123 articles, 159 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 477 comments)
on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 2:54:48 AM
Imo the best and only way to take on the media is to attack them whenever and however possible, so that a national debate on the media is started. Then, their weapon of suppression is turned against them: By definition they cannot hide their sins... Like the treatment they gave Ron Paul and Kucinich during the primaries, their whoring over the war, and their refusal to report on Sibel Edmonds or a whole host of other stories that were harmful to the Bush regime.
If they are cornered, they will have to change, at least outwardly, or face public outrage.
Now how to energize the large masses of people needed to write the letters, make the phone calls, and convince others to say the "unsayable" on air and embarrase them.... That is a little more difficult but it can be done. It will work like a snow ball: Once the word is out that the media is under unending, relentless, serious grass roots attack, there will be defectors, and even pols who will help defeat them... By outing them as controlled shills with no journalistic honor or principles.
Because how can they even broach the subject of their being controlled, without looking like fools? Admitting there is even a debate in the first place will sink them.
It won't be easy, they are well entrenched, but working towards that goal beats sitting around moaning about what an a-hole Bush is ;)
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Steve Windisch (jibbguy) (11 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 163 comments)
on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 7:31:36 PM
Admitting there is even a debate in the first place will sink them.
A good beginning would be to focus the attention of some national organizations on the bogus idea of 'corporate personhood'. If large organizations like Moveon.org et al would zero in on the source of out national malaise, much good would come of it.
Instead of playing 'whack-a-mole' with every cockamamie right wing idea that comes up, more could be accomplished by going for the jugular --the corporations themselves.
Corporations --as legal abstractions --have NO inherent rights and should, by right, have NO influence on government. "Corporate person-hood" is itself a legal abstraction giving to other legal abstractions the status of living breathing people. This is absurd and stupid.
If this idea is challenged and smashed, every 'corporate evil' will simply fade away. Then --when an 'individual' commits a heinous crime, he or she is simply charged, tried, and punished for the crime. Corporations simply go to court and pay a measly fine which is written off. The word 'corporation' puts them, literally, above laws that apply to people. Absurd!
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Len Hart (123 articles, 159 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 477 comments)
on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 3:19:10 AM
"Exxon Mobil, Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil, BP America Inc et al" are the primary beneficiaries of the war. The American People - get to pay the bills. There are a few criminals to prosecute here. I think their corporate charters ought to be revoked for the damage they have caused society (the Iraq war, being just one). The resources should be owned by the people and we should end the "profit" on commodities - they should become public utilities instead of private cash cows. These businesses, which as part of their charters are supposed to provide service, should also be charged for the damage they cause by profiteering and instigating this war for the Oil Rights (after all, initially this was called Operation Iraqi Liberation OIL). And the biggest corporate insiders are in the White House (Cheney and Rice).
The military industrial complex and the newly created military support and security operations provided by the likes of Halliburton and companies like Blackwater have drained the financial future of the United States middle class tax payers. The insiders should be prosecuted and have their fortunes removed (Bush, Bush Sr. Cheney, Rice et al).
It's time to end the illegal war, try and hang the criminals. The Founders cure of Impeachment has failed, maybe it's time to bring back the systems that worked permanently. The French Guillotine seemed to work quite well, and none of those royals ever bothered the French again.
Maybe it's time for some American heads to roll.
by
August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 429 comments)
on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 9:01:41 PM
How much longer are the people of this country gonna allow this nefarious administration and the complicit corporate media's mendacity to continue? And do any of these so called journalists have an ounce of integrity left in their bodies? Do they understand that what they're doing is shilling for war crimes and treason?
Professor Mark Crispin Miller was on the Mike Malloy program this past Thursday and he basically stated that we (several thousand of us) should begin protesting right outside of where these media shills broadcast. He's right! The corporate media are the ones responsible for fomenting the propaganda, the "Shock and Awe" which left most Americans spell-bound. These same people wanted revenge for the blatant attacks 9/11 and they wanted it yesterday. Shock and Awe provide just that. However, little did these pople know that they'd been deceived, and in the worst way possible. 9/11 was all a sham. Thanks in part to this feckless media's sales pitch, an enthralled America bought the bill of goods hook, line and sinker. Sadly, many of these same Americans haven't awoken from the corporate media's spell, which could very well lead to a repeat in Iran.
Professor Mark Crispin Miller was on the Mike Malloy program this past Thursday and he basically stated that we (several thousand of us) should begin protesting right outside of where these media shills broadcast.
I support that idea fully. Zero in on media, the corporate ownership of media, and the STUPID IDEA that corporations are 'people'. They 'ain't'!
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Len Hart (123 articles, 159 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 477 comments)
on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 3:35:11 AM
If corporations are indeed human, why is there still corporate law? There should be only one set of laws for everybody.
Excellent point! If corporations are to be thought of as 'persons', then WHY are they not executed in Texas when they've committed capital crimes! I have in mind terminal cancers caused by cigarettes! Why was not the board and major stockholders of Union Carbide tried for mass murder at Bhopal? Corporate law still exists because the concept of 'corporate personhood' is a cruel fraud, a hypocritical ruse to place corporations ABOVE the law! They want to have it both ways --the privileges of 'personhood' but NOT the responsibilities!
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Len Hart (123 articles, 159 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 477 comments)
on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 1:40:54 PM
Any attempt to have President Bush or any of these elected officials killed will wind up putting various unhinged people in prison, never to see the light of day again. The unhinged portion of the American public ought to be thankful that the media is not exposing them.
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Scott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 415 comments)
on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 9:43:36 PM
There is a call to stop buying anything except what you can not live without on 9-11-08. There were 2 marches planned on D.C. which combined into one.
I long for the day when thekings are thrown in jail and the profits of the world used for those who need it, as Isaiah 23:17-18 and 24:21-24 pretty much talks about.-for it not history yet.
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Michael Dewey (3 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 170 comments)
on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 12:40:21 AM
The only things the ruling oligarchs understand are money and power. Thanks to GOP economics, those who create wealth have been robbed of it. But --as a BLOCK the people have the power of the purse.
Support the national strike!!!
Follow it up with TOTAL boycotts of Fox and Walmart --for a start. If anyone else should have a more complete, targeted list, please share.
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Len Hart (123 articles, 159 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 477 comments)
on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 2:32:51 AM
