In solidarity we can move foward, but how do we get there, what can we all agree on that will unite us? Wallowing in frustration that our leaders have taken us where we should not be is no answer. And neither is watching TV. Through education comes compassion and that is our way out. Understanding the roots of why there is terrorism is the first step, and it began in 1948 in the Holy Land. The second thing to do, is to DO SOMETHING! Imagine the possibilities to change hearts and minds by an outpouring of reconciliation through the Olive Branch. My humble attempt to DO SOMETHING about both are addressed in my just released FACT-FILLED historical novel with 100% of all royalties going to provide olive trees in Gaza through the non-profit Olive Trees Foundation for Peace and their connection to the YWCA Bethlehem and YMCA in Jerusalem's KEEP HOPE ALIVE OLIVE TREE CAMPAIGN. So far nearly one million olive trees have been uprooted and destroyed for the separation wall. The olive tree lives for millenia if it is NOT plowed down by Caterpillars to build a wall which does NOT follow the Green Line and has been deemed illegal and must come down by the International Court of Justice. IMAGINE this Hannuka, Christmas, Eid season literally extending the olive branch of reconciliation from America to the Holy Land, and in particular occupied Gaza. 25 olive tress can support the average sized family in Gaza, and "the fierce urgency of now"[MLK] should compel all people of good will to respond as Gaza is dying. The Toll so far: * After the kidnap of Cpl Gilad Shalit by Palestinians on 25 June, Israel launched a massive offensive and blockade of Gaza under the operation name Summer Rains. * The Gaza Strip's 1.3 million inhabitants, 33 per cent of whom live in refugee camps, have been under attack for 77 days. * The UN has criticised Israel's bombing, which has caused an estimated $1.8 billion in damage to the electricity grid and leaving more than a million people without regular access to drinking water. * The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says 76 Palestinians, including 19 children, were killed by Israeli forces in August alone. Evidence shows at least 53 per cent were not participating in hostilities. * 950 olive trees belonging to 5 families in Gaza that were provided by Internationals supporting the KEEP HOPE ALIVE OLIVE TREE Campaign were uprooted and destroyed last week in Gaza by the IDF and Caterpillar's without reason, cause or compensation. Ready to DO SOMETHING? Details on WAWA http://www.wearewideawake.org

by Eileen Fleming (172 articles, 101 quicklinks, 274 diaries, 650 comments [16 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 10, 2006 at 9:12:41 AM

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WAWA: Thanks for the input. I agree with most of what you have said.... John E. Carey Cultural Attentiveness and the War Against Terror By John E. Carey The Washington Times On September 1, 2006 the United States successfully demonstrated the ability to shoot down a ballistic missile like those being developed now in North Korea. The North Korean propaganda machine immediately cracked-up and went into action with a long diatribe which included several ridiculous sentences so imbecilic that we, in the west, should take notice. We notice ignorance in North Korea. We should not have fear. We should notice exploitation and ignorance. We should feel pity. We should listen to and notice the immaturity, the lack of education and awareness and the lack of hope of people being "used" and exploited. America's missile defense system demonstrated exactly what it says it is: defense. Yes, there is a rocket and guidance system. No, there is no warhead or offensive capability. No, you would never want to modify missile defense to be offensive. The missile defense system is engineered and optimized to provide a hit-to-kill space vehicle that can find and smash into a nuclear weapon carrying reentry vehicle. If you wanted to hit a target on land; you sure wouldn't start with this technology. In fact, everyone from the American media to common Russian men and women on the streets of Moscow have, for years, referred to the missile defense system as "the shield." There is an old saying about a warrior, intent upon threatening his foe as he "rattles his saber." Have you ever heard about a warrior "rattling his shield"? The men and women who wrote that blatantly foolish, foaming at the mouth North Korean reaction to America's missile defense test, are probably low to mid-level Communist functionaries trying to please their bosses. The bosses are so naïve that they think someone in America might take notice. Or they just don't care if we pay attention or not because they only have to make their bosses happy. The big bosses are the ones with decent houses and lives. Most of the people in North Korea are starving or living just above the line Americans would consider to be Neolithic. Many of the Middle Eastern "terrorists" we encounter live within a similar construct. When Fox New reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were captured by Hammas terrorists in the Gaza region of Israel, the two were threatened with death because, the terrorists said, "you are both Americans." Wiig, a New Zealander, protested the accusation from his captors. But they didn't know where New Zealand was; or that it was a sovereign nation and not a part of the United States. Wiig had to draw them a map. The point is this: many of the "terrorists" and other foes America faces are not very sophisticated. They are being exploited or used by powers with the money and influence to manipulate masses of people to achieve dubious aims. Usually the users are seeking more wealth and prosperity. They care nothing for the lives of the minions they manipulate and cause to be killed. Didn't Yasser Arafat become wealthy? And how did he do that? Hard work? No. "Chairman" Arafat pulled the wool over the eyes of the ignorant. He used his people to become a world leader. It is hard to prove that he helped his people achieve anything except their own terror. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is no different from the other dictators who use and manipulate people. Iran has the poorest airline safety record in the world. On September 1, 2006, another Iranian air liner bit the dust. As many as 80 souls were lost, all innocent citizens of Iran who placed their lives and trust in the hands of their careless government. They were on a holy pilgrimage. The airliner, on landing, blew a tire, probably because the tire was well beyond its recommended service life. For want of a tire 80 lives were lost. Some will say that Iran's airliners are in such poor shape because the US imposes economic sanctions upon Iran, prohibiting Iran from buying the highest quality Boeing equipment. But the facts would belie the claim. The sanctions against Iran started in 1979, and the United States works hard to ensure that economic sanctions are largely targeted at national leaders and not the population en masse. The US ambassador to the UN just said yesterday, "We have no quarrel with the Iranian people. In fact, we work hard to ensure that sanctions limit the leadership and have little effect on the people." Ahmadinejad has a responsibility to buy new Russian airliners and then to maintain them to the highest safety standards possible. But he doesn't have to take care of the people. He is an absolute ruler with no obligation to the people. There are no real "voters" in Iran the way there are in the US. There is no free and open media in Iran. Like in North Korea, the people can hear little but what the government feeds them. And we all know that Ahmadinejad backs Hezbollah and offers to "eliminate the Zionist state from the face of the earth" whenever he can. Do you think for one second that Ahmadinejad cares one bit for the lives of Hezbollah or the innocent lives of the Lebanese lost in the recent war? Cuba, Vietnam and China also come to mind as nations with similar characteristics. The leadership has no true accountability to the people. Any voting is window-dressing and rigged. And no free and open media. No freedom of speech. In Vietnam and China you can't even get to such internet websites as the one maintained by the US Department of State or The Washington Times. When Fidel Castro went into the hospital last month, what was the first major political decision of his designated stand-in, his brother Raul? Raul proclaimed an end to TV satellite dishes in Cuba. No more western TV and news. What we in the west need to realize is this: there is a mass of humanity, much of it living under Communism or poverty or ignorance or all three. Many of these people, in fact most, share two things: they are exploited and powerless to control their real destiny because they cannot vote in free and open elections. And secondly, they have limited access to education and news and the media. Maybe none at all. The war on terror has similarities to the Cold War. Both confrontations featured oppressed, exploited and uninformed zealots managed by bosses using them who faced a free and open society relying upon democratic values and volunteer military men and women to fill the armed forces. The North Koreans demonstrated in spades as they feverishly and eagerly prepared a press release on missile defense what it is like in North Korea. That press release only demonstrated what we already knew: in North Korea and elsewhere the population lives in an upside-down world. We should pity them. We should not rush to their destruction. We need to draw them a map. President Bush has said before that democracies do not make war on other democracies. Yet we still are waiting for the "Hearts and Minds" campaign that can end oppressive regimes aligned against us. "We are great with TV but we are getting crushed on the P.R. [Public Relations] front," President George W. Bush told NBC News reporter Brian Williams on August 29, 2006. Why is that? Why can't we explain the benefits of democracy? The western democracies need to figure out how best to strike a blow at the oppressive user leaders who manipulate masses of uninformed zealots against us.

by John E. Carey (208 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 107 comments) on Sunday, Sep 10, 2006 at 9:35:48 AM

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1. There was a crime commited against our people on our soil and there was neither an investigation nor the trial. 2. None of the people negligently or deliberately making that crime possible were held accountable. None resigned in disgrace. 3. The primary beneficiaries of that crime benefited even more through those five years. 4. Our country was lured into war under false pretences and overall deceit. Our Secretaary of State made a speech in front of the UN full of lies and malicious assumptions. Thaat led to war which so far had claimed the toll of astronomical propportions and made the uS an enemy of humanity. 5.Our government demonstrated total negligence and criminal intent towards its own citizens. It is morally and economically bankrupt. ALL institutions so far supporteed or created by our government are HARMFUL to the US and mankind. 6. Our President is mad and his officials are either evil or crooks. We have not even one honest official in the current admministration. 7. Out Congress is a bunch of cowards and /or crooked idiots who lost control even over their own level of crookedness. 8. Our economy is in shambles and runs on debt. We lost most of our professional worrkforce. About 50 million US citizens have no medical coverage. 9. Our military is engaged in self- destruction. 10. Our foreign enemies are rejoicing because they do not have to do anything to harm us: we do that ourselves. 11. There is only one good thing: we are in dusunion because at least half of the population sees the light at last. How about them apples?

by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4103 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 10, 2006 at 9:37:42 AM

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You posted an article you wrote for the Washington Times, a Sun Myung Moon right wing rag. I listen to Tony Blankely, a managing editor of that paper, on the McGoughlin Report and find him very intelligent and extremely far right. Can you explain your affiliation with this Newspaper? As to the unending "war on Terror" what would you expect? Do you think that this administration has any reason to end a situation that makes the electorate fearful and quite easily herded?

by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Sunday, Sep 10, 2006 at 10:07:03 AM

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If after all those things we've been through thanks to Bush we still hear rant about communists, North Korea, Iran or necessity to profile people that to me points at the unstable state of mind. This is not to engage in personal attack. But for goodness sake, there has to be some limit to conformity if there is any..

by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4103 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 10, 2006 at 10:11:08 AM

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Many thanks to Mr. Carey for examining a question that many of the advocates of military action ignore: the effect of a foreign war on what the founders termed domestic tranquility. America cannot be defeated when America is resolved and united. The problem with America today is that it is neither. The above quotation from Mr. Carey's piece is incorrect, America can be defeated, we are not mythically invincible, we are still human. Yet his statement that we are destined to be victorious if united has been used by the GOP and other advocates of foreign wars to push everyone into supporting them. We will win if we all stand behind the President they will say and if anyone breaks ranks they are defeatist and worse, they are offering aid and comfort to the enemy. This mentality of rallying to the colors has not served us well in the past and is lilely to create even more disasters in the future as -in large part due to the squandering of strenght in Iraq- the other world powers become relatively more powerful. The potential in the mid-term future of regional blocs of hostile powers emerging that can challenge our regional hegemonies is emerging clearly. In Latin America, Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela are forming the nucleus of what could become a potent anti-Imperialist bloc. Should stronger countries, such as Mexico, Brazil or Argentina join them they could seriously erode our political influence and economic interests in Latin America. Similarly, Iran is actively seeking to establish itself as a regional power capable of challenging the Persian Gulf task force and other US elements of strength in their region. China may use its market power and its foreign reserves to covertly assist these and any other challenges to the US. Iraq has demonstrated that we will not commit sufficient forces to successfully suppress our enemies; that our goals are not the straightforward and achievable goals advanced for comitting forces, i.e., regime change; and worst of all that large segments of American forces can be tied down indefinitely with relatively much smaller committments of force by those who desire bad things for us. Robert Chapman Lansing, NY

by Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 556 comments) on Monday, Sep 11, 2006 at 10:43:58 AM

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In Iraq as in Vietnam, a much smaller and weaker enemy has tied down a large segment of the American armed forces. Military people will say that the low intensity level of Iraq is not comparable to Vietnam and that I have exagerated the level of our committment. They are probably right, but when one compares the Vietnam era force levels to current force levels, I think one can make the case that the combined Iraq and Afghani campaigns require an effort from our forces comparable to that expended in Vietnam. During our Vietnam committment our force levels were stretched, equipment, materiel and weapons were stripped from the seventh army in Europe and CONUS and sent to Vietnam. The hollow army syndrome that we endured after the close of the Vietnam conflict was due in large measure to stripping away our forces to support the mission in Vietnam. Our forces confronting the Warsaw Pact forces in Europe and communist insurgencies in other parts of the world simply did not have the weaponry, ammunition and logistical support needed. DARPA, an acronym for the armed forces accounting agency is already defunding research projects and other non-essential activities to free up funds for bombs and operations in Iraq. The hollow army symptoms are already showing up. Interestingly, Don Rumsfeld was the Secretary of Defense the last time we hollowed our forces, too. Today a Marine report announced that US forces have not been able to establish sufficient control in Anbar province to provide the security basis needed for the Iraqi government to establish control. This is to say that US main force efforts, as contrasted to counter-insurgency or small scale urban warfare, has been ineffective in suppressing the Iraqi resistance. A third world Arab irregular army has taken on the vaunted USMC and won. It is not clear that American forces are strong enough to be invincible even if we were united. As a result of the Bush-Rumsfeld hollowing of our armed forces, we will be weaker when we confront our next enemy. Robert Chapman Lansing, New York

by Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 556 comments) on Monday, Sep 11, 2006 at 10:58:01 AM

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Worse than the disasterous occupation and the chilling and real prospect of military defeat in Anbar province is the weakening of our government's prestige and credibility among our people. The public mood of restlessness, of dissatisfaction and of impotency is unprecedented and in NYS very dispiriting. The economy is unravelling and people are leaving in droves. I am sure that people in the southern states are wondering who left the gate open up here. Because of the distraction caused by Bush's war and his social agenda, our progress has been impeded. The economy which had been healing in the eighties and nineties is again heading down hill. This is a high price to pay for a foreign war and a conservative social agenda. It is particularly galling in view of the fact that we were the one's who took the attack. It is almost as if the rest of America is using our misfortune as an excuse to attack others. One can easily imagine the millions of people whose jobs are dependent on military expenditures and their deep support for the war. It is harder to visualize the greater numbers who do the productive work that pays for the military expenditures. We are not benefitting in any way from the war. We are not safer. Cheney may brag that we haven't been attacked, but every time a kid gets killed in Iraq he has again been made a liar. Bush and Cheney, both multi-millionaires from no bid cost plus government contracts can talk about the cost of freedom, but the economic downturn they have caused has robbed us of that freedom. Many families now have both parents and the older kids working. Some freedom. Worst of all is the dispiriting and the decline in public service ethic. GW Bush campaigned as a compassionate conservative who claimed to want to help volunteerism and community based efforts in solving our problems. Yet our ambulance corps, our fire departments and our other volunteer agencies are all suffering from the triple threat of military mobilization (yes a lot of volunteer firemen are also reservists), economic uncertainty and the lack of public spirit. I will close with a conversation I heard between some high school kids. A girl was telling some friends her brother was coming home from LeJeune and was going to ship out to Iraq. The other kids all said poor boy. The girl obviously crest fallen asked why they felt that way. One boy stated, "better take it in the butt in jail, than take a bullet in Iraq." Resistance to the war is not following the pattern of passionate protest, instead it is following the path of resigned apathy. How will democracy survive a generation who nod in agreement when asked but who then fail to show up to perform democracy's chores? Robert Chapman Lansing, NY

by Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 556 comments) on Monday, Sep 11, 2006 at 11:17:01 AM

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As I have established in the previous three comments, the War in Iraq is an unmitigated disaster with enormous risk and danger and virtually no benefits. What to do them becomes the question. First; the United States must renounce the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war. The Bush Doctrine is the moral equivalent of the Japanese militarists' strategy against America. Second; we must renounce unilateral military actions unless directly attacked. We reserve the right to defend ourselves, but we aren't the world's policeman. Third we should our military to train multi-national forces that can establish and maintain lawful and just peace. The mission in Colombia where we are training Colombian forces to wage a civil war is the wrong approach. The mission in Afghanistan or Bosnia where American forces are working with competent international organizations to protect well defined and just constitutional governments show what we are capable of. But America should not bear these legitimate military burdens alone. Fourth we should use our soft power to the greatest extent possible. The other peoples of the world still are willing to buy from us, they love our culture and for the most part they like Americans. Let them. We should stop pushing them away by pointing guns at them. Fifth, we should begin nation building at home. We need to examine and revitalize volunteerism. We need to examine and restructure our economy so that it gets better at providing for human needs. We need to examine our lives and figure out how to get off the treadmill and how to contribute something worthwhile. I admire the military ethos of service, but the military is not the only way to serve. I think there are many people in our communities who would willingly come forward to serve, but who are overwhelmed by the overly competitive, overly materialistic culture we have shaped. It is time to come together as human beings and figure out how to share the bounty that God has lavished upon this continent. Robert Chapman Lansing, NY

by Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 556 comments) on Monday, Sep 11, 2006 at 11:30:27 AM

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