What's Really Going on in Syria?

As most of us already know, the US has been calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s removal from power and Washington has already admitted to providing logistical and communication assistance to militants in Syria. Now, US intelligence agencies have detected that Assad's government is preparing its chemical weapons stockpile for possible use. Of course, that conveniently follows Hilary Clinton's chemical weapons red-line rhetoric. The "there will be consequences" hype echos loud and clear, reminiscent of the Bush administration's false “weapons of mass destruction in Iraq” pretext for the Iraq War. Meanwhile, there are 17 US Warships and thousands of US soldiers near the Syrian coast.

"It is in close proximity to the coast of Syria. On board the ship are 70 fighter-bombers and a total 8,000 US servicemen."

However, despite what we see and hear from our officials and the mainstream media "news" outlets, the Syrian government claims that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country. You may not believe that, but consider this: President Bashar Al-Assad, a former physician who said, "Syria faces not a civil war, but terrorism by proxies," banned GMOs in food ‘to preserve the health of human beings.' Now, does that sound like someone who doesn't care about his people?  Even if he doesn't give a damn about innocent human life, anyone with the slightest bit of common sense knows that to use those chemical weapons would be tantamount to suicide.

The reality is right now that fear mongering, media manipulation and creating pretexts for regime change are just as prevalent, if not increased since the last administration.

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More Soldiers Dying From Suicide than Combat.

Suicides are sky-rocketing among the 1.4 million active-duty military personnel , averaging one per day since the beginning of 2012, the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war. That's not counting all the soldiers who have come home. Once they are discharged, they immediately begin falling through the cracks, so much so that it’s doubtful there are any accurate numbers on suicide rates among veterans of recent wars. One thing we do know is that the numbers are very high.

The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan — about 50 percent more — according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press.The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of 2012 far outnumber U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan — about 50 percent more — according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press.

Kim Ruocco, widow of Marine Maj. John Ruocco, a helicopter pilot who hanged himself in 2005 between Iraq deployments, said he was unable to bring himself to go for help.

"He was so afraid of how people would view him once he went for help," she said in an interview at her home in suburban Boston. "He thought that people would think he was weak, that people would think he was just trying to get out of redeploying or trying to get out of service, or that he just couldn't hack it - when, in reality, he was sick. He had suffered injury in combat and he had also suffered from depression and let it go untreated for years. And because of that, he's dead today."

One man responded to the article:

I was very moved by this article. Being a soldier who was made a example after I reported I was having problems and suicidal. The military has not changed since my discharge 20 years ago.Recently I was forced to use the military confidential line and was first hung up on, then put on hold, and finally told to call back Monday. This was a crisis line. To my horror after obtaining a copy of my medical records for treatment and services outside the VA medical system. There was a note by my doctor saying I made a call and was "Babbleing". I have still not been seen nor helped with this problem(s).That General lied, and the VA doesnt care. Just pick up the phone and call the confidential number. I cannot explain the cost of my reporting being suicidal as a active duty soldier. But it ruined my life. If your in the service your best off doing it and dont live as I am and have been.Thank you for this article and getting the word out. I will be more than happy to share my medical records publicly for any doubters.

Is it any wonder that so many take their lives after they find out they're fighting a global war for corporate plunder by those who profit from death and destruction?

War Is A Racket - Smedley Butler, 1935

Who Pays The Bills?

[T]he soldier pays the biggest part of the bill.

If you don't believe this, visit the American cemeteries on the battlefields abroad. Or visit any of the veteran's hospitals in the United States. On a tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at the time of this writing, I have visited eighteen government hospitals for veterans. In them are a total of about 50,000 destroyed men -- men who were the pick of the nation eighteen years ago. The very able chief surgeon at the government hospital; at Milwaukee, where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me that mortality among veterans is three times as great as among those who stayed at home.

Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. There they were remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the order of the day. They were put shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. We used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed.

Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about face" ! This time they had to do their own readjustment, sans [without] mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and sans nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them any more. So we scattered them about without any "three-minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades. Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed, mentally, because they could not make that final "about face" alone.

In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana, 1,800 of these boys are in pens! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around outside the buildings and on the porches. These already have been mentally destroyed. These boys don't even look like human beings. Oh, the looks on their faces! Physically, they are in good shape; mentally, they are gone.

There are thousands and thousands of these cases, and more and more are coming in all the time. The tremendous excitement of the war, the sudden cutting off of that excitement -- the young boys couldn't stand it.

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Déjà vu: Lies About “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and "Terrorism"

Remember the exchange between French president Nicolas Sarkozy and President Barack Obama that went out on an open microphone?

Sarkozy: “I can’t stand (Netanyahu) any more. He’s a liar.”
Obama: “You're sick of him? I have to deal with him every day.”

Well, could that have something to do with Iran? Because anyone who's paying attention knows that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu   continues to ratchet up the warnings about Iran, nukes, and the end of the world; meanwhile President Obama is supposedly doing his best quiet the bellicose old fool, asking him for a commitment not to launch a unilateral attack against Iran.

Iran is the new Iraq. It's no secret that the Israelis have been using the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) terrorists - trained, financed and armed by Israel's Mossad - against Iran. Yet, the claim is that the bombing incidents in India, Thailand and Georgia were targeting Israeli diplomats, so, of course, Israel is on high alert. The clear message is: if we - US and Israel - don’t act soon, Iran will get nuclear weapons, which will, most assuredly, bring about Armageddon.

That is, despite the fact that Iran has never started a war; despite the fact that Iran’s nuclear energy program is regularly monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency; despite fact that the US possess 10,600 nuclear warheads, while  Israel possesses hundred; despite the fact that Israel, unlike Iran, refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into Israel to monitor its nuclear program.

It wasn't all that long ago that the Bush administration created false links connecting Iraq to 9/11 and Niger uranium. The propaganda campaign designed to demonize Iran as Israel prepares for, or even better for them, convinces the US to attack is in full swing. But, then again, Iran has even more oil than Iraq - fourth largest oil reserve in the world. Hence, the déjà vu situation: the demonization of Iran as a threat to world security.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Related Links:

U.S./NATO bombers massacre children in eastern Afghanistan – once again!

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Sounds of Silence Technologies and Nervous System Manipulations and HDTV.

By now, most people are familiar with the terms, 'neuromarketing' and 'neuroeconomics', and most people have heard of the CIA mind control research program that lasted from the 1950s through the 1970s, called Project MK-ULTRA.   These experiments were often conducted without the subjects' knowledge or consent.

To be sure, whatever was discovered some 50-years ago is considered child's play, today, as we live in a era of exponential technological growth with no end in sight. In fact, psychotrnic weapons, which are non-lethal weapons that use electromagnetic waves to effect the "human nervous system and brain, altering emotional states and behavior" dates back to the 1930s. 

In January, 1991, in the first Gulf War, Silent Sound Spread Spectrum (SSSS) waves were used against Iraqi troops to cause mass surrender (without a shot being fired) of thousands of Iraqi troops from underground bunkers in Kuwait and Iraq.

The physical, emotional, and psychological effects of this technology were so severe that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops surrended en masse without firing even a single shot against US led coalition forces. The numbers reported in the news were staggering: 75,000 and then annother 125,000 (or more) Iraqi troops would come out of their deep desert bunkers waving white flags and falling to their knees before approaching US troops and literally kiss their captor’s boots or hands if given the opportunity.

The technology called FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance) Patent for ssss waves

USP # 6,488,617 (December 3, 2002)

Title: Nervous System Manipulation by EM Fields from Monitors.

Issued to: Loos, Hendricus.

Abstract: Physiological effects have been observed in a human subject in response to stimulation of the skin with weak electromagnetic fields that are pulsed with certain frequencies near 1/2 Hz or 2.4 Hz, such as to excite a sensory resonance.

Many computer monitors and HD TV screens, when displaying pulsed images, emit pulsed electromagnetic fields of sufficient amplitudes to cause such excitation. It is therefore possible to manipulate the nervous system of a subject by pulsing images displayed on a nearby computer monitor or DIGITAL TV set. For the latter, the image pulsing may be embedded in the program material, or it may be overlaid by modulating a video stream, either as an RF signal or as a video signal.
The image displayed on a computer monitor may be pulsed effectively by a simple computer program.

For certain monitors, pulsed electromagnetic fields capable of exciting sensory resonances in nearby subjects may be generated even as the displayed images are pulsed with subliminal intensity.

The following is from a study published by the U.S. Army’s Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The section titled “Incapacitation Effect: Microwave Hearing,” reads as follows:

Microwave hearing is a phenomenon, described by human observer as the sensations of buzzing, ticking, hissing or knocking sounds that originate within or immediately behind the head. There is no sound propagating through the air like normal sound. This technology in its crudest form could be used to distract individuals: if refined, it could also be used to communicate with hostages or hostage taken directly by Morse code or other message systems, possibly even by voice communications.

Application of the microwave hearing technology could facilitate a private message transmission. It may be useful to provide a disruptive condition to a person not aware of the technology. Not only might it be disruptive to the sense of hearing, it could be psychologically devastating if one suddenly heard “voices within one’s head.”

Congressman Dennis Kucinich attempted to ban “non-lethal” weapons in (HR2977), Space Preservation Act of 2001.

Links:

“Bioeffects of Selected Nonlethal Weapons,” U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), 17 February 1998

This addendum to Nonlethal Technologies -- Worldwide (NGIC-1147-101-98) study addresses, in summary, some of the most often asked about questions of non-lethal weapons technology, the physiological responses observed in clinical settings of the biophysical coupling and susceptibility of personnel to nonlethal effects weapons.

We are moving ever closer to the era of mind control

Books:

"Hidden Persuaders” by Vance Packard, 1957

“Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television,” by Jerry Manders 1977

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$18.7 Billion Missing From Bush's Plane Full of $20 Billion in Shrink-Wrapped Cash

Six years, and three audits later, the US still cannot account for $18.7 billion of the $20 billion that George W, shrink-wrapped, stuffed into a C 130, and then hurled it like a ho for turning free tricks, overseas to Iraq for distribution. Oh, you thought it was $6.6 billion that went missing? Wrong. That figure has now tripled.

This was money that had come from Iraqi development fund - oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets.  Moreover, the documents of expenditure are missing. Who got it, where it was spent, or whether anything was actually built with the money is "unknown".  Yeah right, you can make a good faith bet that someone knows.   Just like someone knows where the $2.3 trillion missing, reported on 9/10/01, went. Such a coincidence that the very next day, three towers -- probably containing much of that information --  and thousands of people --  who most certainly had a clue -- dissolve into dust.

The bottom line is that the American government was responsible for safeguarding that money, and they did not. Yet, a bank-teller's drawer, is found to be one penny short, or over (as I learned long ago), and that person can potentially go to jail. Yes...to jail, if it's found out that he or she added or took a penny to break even.

Billions, and trillions of dollars go missing on a regular basis, since W entered office, and it's no big deal?!? Come on people! How much evidence do you need to figure out that stone-cold, straight up gangster thugs, rollin' deep, and bustin' caps in anyone who gets in their way, transformed the United States of America into their own personal Babylon? That is, if there ever was a United States of America. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

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President George H.W. Bush Found Guilty of War Crimes?

Did you know about the International Tribunal that found former President George H.W. Bush guilty of 19 war crimes in his Iraq war? Because of  his war's "destruction of Iraq, killing at least 125,000 persons directly by its bombing while proclaiming its own combat losses as 148, and because it destroyed the economic base of Iraq and because its acts are still inflicting consequential deaths that may reach hundreds of thousands."

It's true.  On February 29, 1992, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium in New York, a 22 member International War Crimes Tribunal representing 5 continents, before a public meeting of 1,500 people (completely blocked out by the media in America) headed by former United States Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, wrapped up 12 months of gathering and reviewing evidence of the the Initial Complaint of the Commission of Inquiry dated May 6, 1991 against President George H. W. Bush, Vice President J. Danforth Quayle, Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, and others named in the Complaint charging them with 19 separate crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the First Protocol thereto, and other international agreements and customary international law.

The Tribunal found George Bush and others in his administration guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Okay, am I the only one who missed this historic event?

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Signing Statements, The Military-Petroleum Complex and Oil Wars

If you have any doubt as to why we went to war with Iraq, read on.

Contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers, as stated by the American Bar Association in 2006, President Bush went ahead and issued another signing statement on Tuesday that would allow him to ignore parts of the new military authorization act he signed into law.

Why? To ensure U.S. control of Iraq' oil, of course.

In the authorization bill, Mr. Bush challenged four sections. One forbid the money from being used “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq”; another required negotiations for an agreement by which Iraq would share some of the costs of the American military operations there.

Bush objected to one section of the bill barring attempts “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.” Bush also declared the right to ignore sections of a bill meant to protect oversight at federal agencies; he rejected a provision that would allow inspectors general the right to their own counsel instead of politically appointed attorneys, and he rejected a section that would require the White House to tell lawmakers what each inspector general said about the administration’s budget proposals for their offices.

The signing statements Bush issued are necessary to keep - as Nick Turse calls it, in his book, The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives - The Military-Petroleum Complex, functioning.

The Pentagon awarded Shell a $338 million contract, on September 17th, in addition to the over $1 billion it was already awarded the previous year. The following day on September 22nd, Iraq and Shell officially signed a $4 billion deal to process and market natural gas. The very next day, Shell "established an office in Baghdad.

Bush scored some major points a few days ago when the Iraqi government put 40 billion barrels of oil up for sale...that's 40% of Iraq’s reserves. This is the biggest sale of oil assets ever. All the big players - Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP, and Chevron - who show up regularly on Pentagon's payroll, taking home more than $4.1 billion - are involved.

It should come as no surprise that President Bush is doing all he can to ensure the future profits of oil companies, especially at a time when when the number of oil discoveries are less, the size of those discoveries, smaller, and the demand for oil is greater than ever, across the globe,

Americans use twenty million barrels of oil per day, or seven billion barrels of oil per year, that's 25% of what the world uses. That may not sound like a lot until you consider Americans make up 4-5% of the world population, and that the US reached peak oil in 1970. Our dependence on other countries will continually increase as we import approx. 70-75%, between crude oil and finished products currently.

Is there an oil shortage? I doubt it because by the time we run out of oil, we should have the technology available to harvest energy from the sun. However, shoddy oil infrastructure and waste is a problem.

After the oil price of oil collapsed in 1982, massive amount of down-sizing occurred in the industry leaving us with the "shortage" problem we have today...shortage of equipment and professionals, that is. One deep water rig costs $1 billion and takes 4-5 years to build. There are approximately 500 off shore oil rigs worldwide, today and they are on average about 28-years old...it used to be that oil rigs were retired after 25-years. In addition, there is a shortage of geologists, rig hands, reservoir engineers, drilling crews and seismic crews.

Combine an outdated oil infrastructure with the explosive economic growth of other parts of the world -- China and India -- and you can imagine the problems this might cause. Since these "underdeveloped" countries of yesteryear have morphed into the "developing" countries of today, due to , as Matthew Simmons, author of Twilight in the desert: The Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. says, "in a nutshell, the supply is too old and the demand is too new".

If we could contain the economic blueprint -- two or more cars per household, trucking industry, excessive use of electricity etc. -- to the U.S., Canada, Western Europe and more recently Korea and Japan, oil supply wouldn't be so problematic. However with China, India and other parts of the world adopting our wasteful ways, oil supply, demand and waste become an enormous issue.

The Iraq war may only be the beginning of whats to come. For example, the tribes of the Niger Delta are sick and tired of the oil companies taking but never giving back. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is blowing up pipelines and siphoning off the oil in an effort to rid their country of these greedy companies. Their ultimate goal is to totally destroy the capacity of the Nigerian government to export oil.

What could all this lead too? Oil wars, according to Simmons. But, hasn't that already started? Yes, however, so far we've been spared the brutality. If things continue on the same path...well, let's just say karma's a bitch.

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Lynched!

Look how happy everyone is.
Less than fifty-years ago, lynching, defined as, "To execute without due process of law, especially to hang, as by a mob", was socially acceptable as long as the victim lynched was African American, but acceptance of this extralegal practice also extended toward non African Americans who stood up for civil rights.

Today, lynching, as defined above, is no longer as accepted. I say no longer as accepted, instead of unacceptable because if the victim is homosexual, it's doubtful that the perpetrators would be subject to the same punitive extremes of the law, than if the victim were not gay. Gay males (of hate crimes based on sexual orientation. 61% of these attacks were against gay men, 14% against lesbians, 2% against heterosexuals and 1% against bisexuals) in particular, have replaced the African American as America's acceptable scapegoat.

Violence and corruption have always been accepted as a part of our culture, however as we have "evolved", conspicuous acts of violence and corruption are not as politically correct anymore, therefore instead of disappearing altogether, have mutated into a more refined version of violence and corruption that escapes our radar, either through deliberate ignorance, or through the deliberate calculation of the perpetrators of such acts.

In 1900, Ida Wells-Barnett defined lynching as the following, “cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people.” This definition defines the lynching that takes place today, more accurately. The result of this type of "lynching" can be financial, emotional, and even spiritual devastation, which in the extreme; can only be compared to the first definition, hanging by neck until death.

The "lynching" that takes place now is less conspicuously gruesome, however, can be just as deadly. Instead of killing one person at a time, current lynching methods take life on a grand scale. Often times, rather than the characteristically extralegal activity we associate with the first definition, the current definition of "lynching" is deliberately and calculatingly written into law especially regarding our health care, financial, legal and economic systems, therefore is more a form of legal corruption.

Lynched:

Since the Iraq War began, 3382 Americans soldiers died , and 30,662 soldiers were wounded, many whose quality of life will never be the same. At the same time, our wealthiest citizens profit, directly or non-directly (tax cuts), from this war, the result of the cool, calculating deliberation of "intelligent" people. Intelligent? After all, this war was a catastrophe. Well, check their bank accounts...certainly not a catastrophe for them.



A 2006 update by the Urban Institute reported at least 22,000 U.S. adults died in 2006 because of a lack of health insurance, according to Families USA.





Then we have victims of law - too many to count or keep track of - as our legal system works almost entirely for those who can afford the steep price of the self-regulating law profession, the same profession that all of our judges emerge.

The law profession, more and more, operates independent of the law, where anything goes. We, the people can do little about it because as Judge Dennis Jacobs says, "Judges can be counted on to rule in favor of anything that protects and empowers lawyers.” The lawyer discipline board does not hold lawyers accountable. Laws are broken, the rules of the court mean very little, and the line between opposing parties is often smeared and crossed as attorneys collude rather than work in the best interest of their client. Of course there are good attorneys who try their best to work within the framework of the law, however, the corruption has become embedded in that framework and will continue to spread unless we rise up to take back our system of justice.

We can't forget the victims of our financial system as it has topped the news everyday for the last few weeks. Every single taxpayer has not been "lynched" by our financial system, however, starting 30-years ago, when the greed and corruption started to infiltrate, the number of people who were "lynched" as a result far exceeds most estimated statistics as it is impossible to track, considering all of those who fell through the cracks over the last three decades.

Nothing will change until we finally realize that "We the People" that begins our Constitution, does not translate to greed, power and profit for the tiny minority at the top, rather it means we all need to take care of each other, because we are all in this together and what we allow to happen to the "least of our brother", we increase the chance that the same thing will happen to us.

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The Dangerous Coward

I always thought of President Bush as a fox in sheep's clothing. How could one man start a war; unravel the Constitution; increase the power of the Executive Branch; complete the Reagan mission of transforming this country from democracy to oligarchy; increase the gap between the rich and the poor beyond our wildest imagination (think hedgefund manager: $3.5 billion/year), and get elected to office twice, all the while, harboring the brains of a "sheep"? It's not possible, or is it?

Is George W. Bush a puppet? Do the real brains belong to Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and the neoconservatives who have worked incessantly since the 1970's to achieve the aforementioned that I just gave President Bush full credit? We may never know who deserves the "credit", however, most of us do know the President's lion-king, military bravado, masquerades the cowardly innards of a sheep. So, why did we elect him twice?

Picture the word "coward". The first thing that may come to mind is someone lacking an ego... someone apparently frail, timid, maybe cowering in a corner, afraid of his own shadow. What are our expectations when we see that kind of person? Pretty low, right? Therefore, if he is indeed a coward, he poses very little danger to anyone, because his chances of winning a position of power are slim to none.

However, whose to say that underneath that "cowardly" veneer may beat the heart of a hero... think Clark Kent, Dennis Kucinich. Someone's unpresumptuous and unassuming appearance just might camouflage a man who faces adversity and injustice head on, sacrificing his self-interest for the noble cause...a man who is not afraid to acknowledge his own mistakes, and realizes that leaders accept responsibility for the mistakes of their subordinates -- "the buck stops here". He then fully engages himself and stops at nothing to make amends for "his" defective judgment.

If we stop and think, we understand that the truly courageous do their very best not to bully, not to deceive, not to evade responsibility, or engage in thoughtlessly bold behavior. They do not risk the safety and lives of others unnecessarily, or condemn people to death without batting an eyelash. Yet we knowingly elect people into positions of power whose very character is defined by this kind of behavior. For ex. John Kerry, the war hero vs. George W. Bush the draft dodger... just one example of what we knew about George W. Bush beforehand and elected him anyway.

George W. Bush had big ideas, big goals, a big ego and an unflinching certainty that refused to question himself, as if he were incapable of making a mistake. Like a small child who tackles the ocean without the faintest idea of how to swim, George W. Bush tackled the world without the faintest idea of how vast, complex, how far beyond his comprehension...and most importantly, how infinitesimally small he and "We, the People" are in comparison. However, unlike the child who innocently risks only his own life, George W. Bush, without the excuse of innocence, risked the lives of millions of people without any risk to his own life or the lives of the people who matter, the "power elite".

Bob Woodward confirmed what most of us suspected, on Fresh Air, a few days ago, when he said President Bush knew we were "losing" the Iraq war but told the American people how well things were going anyway. President Bush told Mr. Woodward, 3 1/2 years into the Iraq War, "this is not something you rush," from the comfort of his plush surroundings.

In addition, President Bush did not attend critical meetings when the level of violence in Iraq was at its peak...six to eight attacks an hour, where one attack could result in a body count of fifty or twenty-five throats slit. In other words, prior to the surge, when Iraqis and Americans were dropping like flies, President Bush had "other things to do", as he told Mr. Woodward.

Now, more than ever, we cannot afford to rely on superficial and sparkly appearances. Cowards come in all shapes and sizes, however, the dangerous ones, the truly cowardly, take cowardice one step further. They conceal their lilied livers by disguising themselves in lion's skin, roaring slick slogans, and simple ideas to extraordinarily complex problems, and bash anyone who might reveal the tail between their legs.

With information literally at our fingertips, we have no excuse for not taking the time to dig beneath the surface before we decide who should lead the way.

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Just the Tip of the Iceberg

The following pictures are the tip of the iceberg or an infinitesimally small representation of the harm, misfortune and destruction I referred to when blogging the Antichrist out of my system.

The worst kind of enemy is the deceitful kind who operates in an inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way, but in actuality, is committing atrocities that appear to be the fault of someone or something else, and all the while, laying the groundwork for that which causes harm, misfortune, and destruction to become infectious and spread sort of like a cancer or disease, without marked symptoms, but ready to become active upon the slightest unavoidable change.

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President Bush's "Grand" Exit

As the clock counts down to President George W. Bush's second, and thankfully, last term, one has to wonder what he has planned to guarantee that his effort to unravel the Constitution; his strenuous endeavors to ensure poor to average American citizens find it harder and harder to make ends meet; and how hard the man worked to create and destroy legislation so that a hyper -Aristocracy will prevail, do not go to waste.

Oh, and we mustn't forget his greatest achievement of all, the Iraq War.

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

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Resources For Our Troops

Since the current administration shows little interest in doing anything substantial to support our troops and veterans:

Citizen Soldier - GI Vetern's rights advocacy group founded during the Vietnam War.

GI Rights Hotline - who provide information to servicemembers about military discharges, grievance and complaint procedures, and other civil rights.

Military Law Task Force - assists those working on military law issues as well as military law counselors working directly with GIs.

National Gulf War Resource Center - help veterans of recent and current wars and operations.

National Institute Of Military Justice - to advance the fair administration of military justice and foster improved public understanding of the military justice system. NIMJ is not a government agency.

National Veterns Foundation - Lifeline for America's Veterns

National Veteran's Legal Services Program - ensuring that the U.S. government honors its commitment to our veterans by providing them the federal benefits they have earned through their service to our country.

Objector - supports and promotes individual and collective resistance to war and preparations for war.

Don't Ask Don't Tell:

ServiceMembers Legal Defense Network - a national, non-profit legal services, watchdog and policy organization dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel affected by "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and related forms of intolerance.

Soloman Response - a place to voice opposition to the military discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

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Last year it was reported that the Bush Administration thought an additional $6/month was too much for our troops we better support.

The Bush Administration also strongly opposes:

• An additional $40 per month for widows of slain soldiers.
• An additional $100,000 death benefit for surviving family members of civilian employees who died supporting US forces in military operations.
• Price controls for prescription drugs under TRICARE, the military’s health care plan for military personnel and their dependents.

In addition, the administration does not want stricter accountability on contract employees, meaning the contractors doing the same or less work as the soldiers will get paid more than twice as much but we're going to look the other way.

Back in 2004 the Bush Administration's proposed budget cuts:

• Cut $1.5 billion from military family housing.
• Underfunded veterans' health care by $2 billion resulting in 200,000 United States veterans waiting more than six months for a medical visit because of health care shortages and 173,000 veterans across the country would be cut off from health care because enrollment fees and higher out-of-pocket costs.
• Opposed plan to give National Guard and Reserve Members access to health insurance.
• Cut $172 million allotted for educating the children of military personnel.
• Denied military families increase in child tax credit.

According to President Bush and friends, as long as America plasters "I Support the Troops" bumper stickers all over their gas-guzzling, road hogging, cup-holder happy Cadillac Escalades, tank-like Hummers, and Chevy Suburbans, United States citizens are doing their part.

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Bush is Going is Going to Veto Pay Raise for Troops

What's it going to take for people to wake up and realize "President" Bush has absolutely no interest in preserving what this country was founded on?

First he vetoes health insurance for poor kids, not once, but twice and now he wants to veto legislation, the Defense Authorization bill, that's already passed Congress. The extremely small pay raise, 0.5% out of the 3.5% the troops had expected, will be completely removed if Bush follows through and vetoes this bill. This "raise" doesn't even begin to compensate the troops for the hell they are trudging through over in Iraq, many of whom, if lucky enough to make it out alive, will come home either physically or mentally injured, sometimes to the point of no return.

Bush's objection centers on his fear of "massive liability in lawsuits concerning the misdeeds of the Saddam Hussein regime," from his father's war. It's strange that this is the first we're hearing of his concerns regarding this bill when clearly this legislation has been around long enough for President Bush to protest anything he found questionable long before this.

"The administration should have raised its objections earlier, when this issue could have been addressed without a veto. The American people will have every right to be disappointed if the president vetoes this legislation, needlessly delaying implementation of the troops' pay raise, the Wounded Warriors Act and other critical measures." -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a joint statement.

Senator Biden, the only Presidential contender with a specific exit strategy, criticized President Bush yesterday for his veto of the Defense Authorization Conference Report and called on him to immediately begin implementing the Biden-Brownback Resolution, the main provisions of the amendment urging the U.S. government to assist Iraq in devolving power from the central government.
“Yesterday’s tragic events in Pakistan underscore the sobering effects of our failed policy in Iraq. As I’ve said, when President Bush abandoned Afghanistan to go to war in Iraq, it sent a message to Musharraf that the U.S. might not be there to protect him.

Ending the war in Iraq would allow us to go after al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and assist the Pakistani moderates in taking control of their country. And it would allow us to get our sons and daughters out of the middle of Iraq’s civil war.

Just moving to enact the Biden-Brownback resolution would bring the international community into the cause of long-term peace in the region. And we would further stabilize the region by committing to the bill’s provision that the U.S. foreswear any long-term military bases in Iraq.

This war must end and the Biden-Brownback resolution is the key to that endgame. It is essential that the President sign this provision as soon as possible and help the Iraqis implement the federal system called for in their Constitution." -- Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Chairman of the senate foreign relations committee

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How Many Hours of War Spending Would it Take to Fund Health Insurance?

"We the People" apparently have no problem with spending over $14 million dollars an hour to injure and kill others but can't scrape up the cash to provide health care for our own children. I know I'm repeating myself over and over, trying to present the information in a slightly different way each time, but the basic message is we better liposuction the lip-service and start proving what our priorities are with the real deal, cold hard cash.

It's too easy to blame Bush. Just as Hitler would be powerless without the Nazis, Bush would be powerless without "us". I didn't vote for Bush but I include myself as a "Bush supporter" because it took me far too long to catch on to his plans to eliminate the "New Deal" and shred the Constitution.

I sit safely at my desk typing whatever the hell I feel like without worrying about whether I am risking anything but my eyesight or if I'll hear my alarm clock tomorrow morning. At the same time, I realize all this freedom and security I enjoy could disappear in a flash if America becomes victim to another act of terror.

The opportunity cost of this war is incomprehensible. Not only are we paying out $3,850 per second to fight this war but the cost of what we could be doing with the time and energy devoted to this war is astronomical.

"That translates into $333 million a day, $14 million an hour, $231,000 a minute and $3,850 a second. Even for the world's richest country, this is serious money."

On top of what this war is costing Americans, the toll this war is taking on Iraqis is beyond comprehension.

"Many of the internally displaced Iraqis -- IDPs in the language of aid organizations -- live in grim conditions, in makeshift camps without running water, electricity, even latrines.

[...]

This summer, the Iraq Chief of Mission of the International Organization of Migration (IOM), Rafiq Tschannen, said "only a fraction" of internally displaced Iraqis were getting basic assistance. It was difficult to understand, he said, why there was so little response to appeals for help.

[...]

U.S. contributions to various relief organizations quadrupled in 2007, to just under $200 million from $43 million in 2006, pocket change in terms of the war's cost. The sharp increase makes Washington the biggest single donor in the refugee crisis, according to the U.S. Department of State.

As to the $85 million appeal by the IOM, made in June -- by September, the organization had received $6 million, 5 million from the United States and 1 million from Australia.

The shortfall, $79 million, would be covered by less than six hours of war spending.

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Frank Rich Nails it Again

[...]"Should Baghdad implode, our contractors, not having to answer to the military chain of command, can simply “drop their guns and go home.” Vulnerable American troops could be deserted by those “who deliver their bullets and beans.

This potential scenario is just one example of why it’s in our national self-interest to attend to Iraq policy the White House counts on us to ignore. Our national character is on the line too. The extralegal contractors are both a slap at the sovereignty of the self-governing Iraq we supposedly support and an insult to those in uniform receiving as little as one-sixth the pay. Yet it took mass death in Nisour Square to fix even our fleeting attention on this long-metastasizing cancer in our battle plan."[...]

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Have We Become a House of Cards?

More and more the emphasis seems to be on what we have or own versus who we are, which, in my very humble opinion is very dangerous to a nation no matter how powerful that nation is. Human nature makes the "House of Cards" syndrome almost inevitable from what history tells us.

Power and control go hand in hand with how much a person or country has acquired.

Captain Ian Fishback wrote a letter to Senator McCain

A Matter of Honor


Wednesday, September 28, 2005; Page A21

The following letter was sent to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sept. 16:

Dear Senator McCain:

I am a graduate of West Point currently serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army Infantry. I have served two combat tours with the 82nd Airborne Division, one each in Afghanistan and Iraq. While I served in the Global War on Terror, the actions and statements of my leadership led me to believe that United States policy did not require application of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan or Iraq. On 7 May 2004, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's testimony that the United States followed the Geneva Conventions in Iraq and the "spirit" of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan prompted me to begin an approach for clarification. For 17 months, I tried to determine what specific standards governed the treatment of detainees by consulting my chain of command through battalion commander, multiple JAG lawyers, multiple Democrat and Republican Congressmen and their aides, the Ft. Bragg Inspector General's office, multiple government reports, the Secretary of the Army and multiple general officers, a professional interrogator at Guantanamo Bay, the deputy head of the department at West Point responsible for teaching Just War Theory and Law of Land Warfare, and numerous peers who I regard as honorable and intelligent men.

Instead of resolving my concerns, the approach for clarification process leaves me deeply troubled. Despite my efforts, I have been unable to get clear, consistent answers from my leadership about what constitutes lawful and humane treatment of detainees. I am certain that this confusion contributed to a wide range of abuses including death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment. I and troops under my command witnessed some of these abuses in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is a tragedy. I can remember, as a cadet at West Point, resolving to ensure that my men would never commit a dishonorable act; that I would protect them from that type of burden. It absolutely breaks my heart that I have failed some of them in this regard.

That is in the past and there is nothing we can do about it now. But, we can learn from our mistakes and ensure that this does not happen again. Take a major step in that direction; eliminate the confusion. My approach for clarification provides clear evidence that confusion over standards was a major contributor to the prisoner abuse. We owe our soldiers better than this. Give them a clear standard that is in accordance with the bedrock principles of our nation.

Some do not see the need for this work. Some argue that since our actions are not as horrifying as Al Qaeda's, we should not be concerned. When did Al Qaeda become any type of standard by which we measure the morality of the United States? We are America, and our actions should be held to a higher standard, the ideals expressed in documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Others argue that clear standards will limit the President's ability to wage the War on Terror. Since clear standards only limit interrogation techniques, it is reasonable for me to assume that supporters of this argument desire to use coercion to acquire information from detainees. This is morally inconsistent with the Constitution and justice in war. It is unacceptable.

Both of these arguments stem from the larger question, the most important question that this generation will answer. Do we sacrifice our ideals in order to preserve security? Terrorism inspires fear and suppresses ideals like freedom and individual rights. Overcoming the fear posed by terrorist threats is a tremendous test of our courage. Will we confront danger and adversity in order to preserve our ideals, or will our courage and commitment to individual rights wither at the prospect of sacrifice? My response is simple. If we abandon our ideals in the face of adversity and aggression, then those ideals were never really in our possession. I would rather die fighting than give up even the smallest part of the idea that is "America."

Once again, I strongly urge you to do justice to your men and women in uniform. Give them clear standards of conduct that reflect the ideals they risk their lives for.

With the Utmost Respect,

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Are We "Giving the President a Blank Check" to Continue this War?

The Senate voted 94-1 Thursday, to allot billions of additional dollars to fund the Iraq war... Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold the only dissenter.

"I am disappointed that we are about to begin the 2008 fiscal year without having enacted any of the appropriations bills for that year. I am even more disappointed that we voted on a continuing resolution that provides tens of billions of dollars to continue the misguided war in Iraq but does not include any language to bring that war to a close. We need to keep the federal government operating and make sure our brave troops get all the equipment and supplies they need, but we should not be giving the President a blank check to continue a war that is hurting our national security." -- Senator Russ Feingold

The Bush administration asked Congress on Wednesday for $42 billion more next year for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an increase that would raise spending to more than $600 billion for Iraq alone.

The administration has also been given emergency authority to tap into a $70 billion "bridge fund" to provide additional money for this war.

3,801 American soldiers are dead, and more than 27,000 have been wounded, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and government security forces that have lost their lives since we decided to invade Iraq.

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"Progress Offset By Failure Everywhere"

Five soldiers, died Monday when their truck overturned near the Iraqi capital. Two soldiers, Staff Sgt. Yance Gray and Sgt. Omar Mora, were among the soldiers who wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in the New York Times on August 19. They wrote that the chance of success in Iraq is "far-fetched" and said any progress reported was being "offset by failures elsewhere."

"Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence," they wrote. "When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages."

The soldiers also wrote that American soldiers were operating..

"in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear."

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Is Bush Trying to Pacify the Masses, Perhaps?

President Bush ordered the troop surge in Iraq urging Congress to give the new plan until at least September to work. September's here and President Bush is optimistically hinting that a reduction of U.S. troops may be on the horizon.

President Bush's intimation that he may decrease the number of troops in Iraq may even be followed up with an empty gesture, possibly sending home a few token soldiers to appease us, so whatever he's planned will go ahead without delay.

The symbolic few will come home from war and everyone will cheer only to find out several days later that we are at war with Iran or that the returning soldiers will be replaced with brand new soldiers as a result of the new draft.

I really hope I'm wrong.

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Marine Tells of Order to Execute Haditha Women and Children

During a subsequent search of the house, Mendoza said he received an order from another Marine, Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum, to shoot seven women and children he had found in a rear bedroom.

"When I opened the door there was just women and kids, two adults were lying down on the bed and there were three children on the bed ... two more were behind the bed," Mendoza said.

"I looked at them for a few seconds. Just enough to know they were not presenting a threat ... they looked scared."

After leaving the room Mendoza told Tatum what he had found.

"I told him there were women and kids inside there. He said 'Well, shoot them,'" Mendoza told prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Sean Sullivan.

"And what did you say to him?" Sullivan asked.

"I said 'But they're just women and children.' He didn't say nothing."

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