Countdown: Bitter Battle + The Bitter Truth + War of Words

Dandelion Salad

April 15, 2008

videocafeblog

Bitter Battle

Keith reports on the political aftermath of Bitter-Gate, and who it’s helped and harmed and Michelle Obama has a few words to say about elitism.

The Bitter Truth

Keith talks to Rachel Maddow about the truth of Obama’s statements relating to Bitter-Gate and whether Americans actually do have a reason to be angry.

War of Words

Keith talks to Sen. Joe Biden about how Bush and McCain’s strategy for Iraq is a failure and how they’re fueling the feelings in the Arab world that we’re there to steal Iraq’s oil.

Bushed!

Tonight’s: Waterboarding-Gate, G.I. Bill-Gate and Privatizing the Government-Gate.

Worst Person

And the winner is…. Cindy McCain. Runners up Bill O’Reilly and Jeff Hunt.

Torture: Impeachment or Complicity? With Graphic Photos (video; over 18 only)

Dandelion Salad

Warning

.

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

davidcnswanson

April 15, 2008
Is it such a hard choice?

see

Cheney, Torture & the Chance to Restore the Rule of Law By John Nichols

Too Much of Nothing: Crime Without Punishment, War Without End by Chris Floyd

John Yoo: Spearhead or scapegoat? By Glenn Greenwald

Activism: Appoint a Special Prosecutor!

Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved ‘Enhanced Interrogation’

John Yoo-4th Amendment-Torture

Mosaic News – 4/14/08: World News from the Middle East

Dandelion Salad

Warning

.

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

linktv

“Carter Shunned in Israel,” IBA TV, Israel
“Shin Bet Admits Torturing Palestinian Prisoners,” Dubai TV, UAE
“Security Plan Implemented in Samara,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Fighting Intensifies Between Mahdi Army and Iraqi Forces,” Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
“Funeral of an Iraqi Father,” Alsumaria TV, Iraq
“Two British Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Rock Petroleum in Jordan,” Jordan TV, Jordan
“Cairo Traffic,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.

see

Uri Avnery congratulates Carter for decision to meet with Hamas leaders

Global Hunger, Corporate Greed: When will enough be enough?

Dandelion Salad

By Debnath Guharoy
ICH
04/15/08 “Jakarta Post”

Media around the world are currently feeding off the increasing price of food everywhere. The World Bank chief has joined in with the prediction that starvation is a distinct possibility for many of the weaker nations, leading to political turmoil.

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) chief says only 14 percent of available water is used in Asia, 2 percent in Africa, with the rest flowing into the oceans each year. If this is the sorry state of affairs, what do our political leaders and their henchmen do at the office every day?

The instinctive urge to shoot the messenger is of course misdirected energy. But when you put the disparate pieces of our puzzling world on the table, the emerging picture is embarrassing indeed.

A kilogram of rice costs more than US$1 and a barrel of oil costs over $100. One influences the other. The subprime loan crisis will cost more than $1 trillion and the Iraq war will cost the United States alone as much as $3 trillion.

Different problem, same instinct. Many pundits will argue none of this has any connection to global hunger, as if these colossal costs aren’t real and do not affect the common man.

It is all too easy to throw stones at our politicians and bureaucrats. But those of us in business would do well to spend a minute pondering the glass houses we go to work in.

The altar of the shareholder has become the convenient excuse for inexcusable conduct. The voracious appetite for dividends and stock prices has allowed CEOs to hold boards and investors alike to ransom.

Systemic deception has become acceptable culture in too many boardrooms, with nothing more than a wink and a nod required down the chain of command. When it gets to a point that an accountant is unable to explain complex new financial instruments and their equally befuddling acronyms, disaster cannot be far away.

Not even a decade ago, the Internet bubble exploded with disastrous consequences, ripples felt around the globe. Everybody who then believed the lessons were learned have been proven wrong not even a decade later. For every errant CEO who has gone to jail, there are hundreds who have made millions in severance pay alone. Regulators and lawmakers appear not to be troubled.

It seems as if the profit motive is no longer an adequate driver of business today. Unbridled greed has taken over, a global corporate culture spreading like a cancer unchecked.

Anybody who would like to believe Indonesia has yet to be tainted by this malaise could ask a simple question as a test. How many people have a cellular phone connection? A simple answer, a number that resembles the truth, should not be too much to expect. But you are unlikely to get one.

You are more than likely to be told that it all depends on “terminology” or “definitions”. Forty million. Sixty million. Eighty million. One hundred million subscribers. These numbers have all been quoted in this newspaper in the last 60 days. They cannot all be right; only one comes close to the truth. Similar mysteries abound in other industries.

On the other hand, does anybody want to know that at least 60 million SIM cards will be thrown away this year? It’s not a number you will find rolling off an industry analyst’s lips.

That’s apparently because that kind of talk doesn’t build investor confidence. As if shareholders, investors, bankers and financial advisers were incapable of handling the truth.

Regardless of the rising price of rice, the Indonesian people seem constantly divided in a 40:60 ratio, the “haves” and “have-nots”. At any point in time, only about 40 percent “feel financially stable”, or think it’s a “good time to buy major appliances”, or have not “cut down their spending recently”, or believe that “the Indonesian economy appears to be improving”.

For the remaining 60 percent the everyday struggle to put food on the plate gets occasionally even harder, as when the price of fuel jumps up. For the overwhelming majority, having to choose between a 4 kg bag of rice or a cell phone is an easy decision.

Yet many industry analysts and bankers have difficulty coming to the same conclusion.

These observations are based on Roy Morgan Single Source, the country’s largest syndicated survey with over 27,000 Indonesian respondents annually, projected to reflect almost 90 percent of the population over the age of 14. The results are updated every 90 days. The opinions expressed are my own.

The silent majority have little ability to improve their lot all by themselves. As corporate citizens and fellow humans, working with the truth should be a basic prerequisite.

There is plenty of opportunity in Asia and in Indonesia, if effort and monies are directed appropriately. What is unfortunately in oversupply is greed, fostered too often with the need to distort the truth.

The writer can be contacted at debnath.guharoy [at] roymorgan.com

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Israel kills top Palestinian commander

Dandelion Salad

www.presstv.ir
Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:07:16

A senior Palestinian resistance commander has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza Strip, Hamas police officials say.

The Israel Air Force attacked two Palestinians as they rode a motorcycle in Jabalya refugee camp on Tuesday, killing one and wounding the other.

They were identified as members of Islamic Jihad.

The dead man was named as Mohammed Ghausain, Islamic Jihad’s commander in northern Gaza.

The Israeli army confirmed that its troops had carried out the airstrike.

Israel frequently targets Gaza fighters in airstrikes, trying to bring an end to Palestinian national resistance.

In a similar missile strike Late Monday, Israel Air Force killed Ibrahim Abu Elba a leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

NOW: Taxing the Poor (video link)

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t r u t h o u t
Programming Note
NOW

Are the rich getting a sweet deal on taxes?

Watch the show RIGHT NOW at: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/415/index.html

This month, millions of Americans are filing their taxes and hoping for the best, but are rich people actually paying a smaller percentage of taxes than the poor? NOW looks at plans in many states to raise sales taxes and lower property taxes in an effort to generate revenue. But those changes may come at an even bigger price. Anti-poverty advocates say this shift would place the heaviest tax burden on the poorest households – and benefit higher-income Americans. Despite the charge, it’s a model many states have long embraced.

NOW travels to one of these states, Alabama, to document the personal impact of regressive tax policies on three very different families. They include a working mom who shows us how a ten percent sales tax on groceries makes a significant difference in what her family eats; a couple living in a ramshackle house in the backwoods, who’ve always held jobs but still face hunger; and a well-to-do suburban couple who benefit from huge tax breaks.

Are taxes being levied fairly when it comes to the rich and the poor?

At NOW’s web site at www.pbs.org/now …

See the income gap between rich and poor in your state:
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/415/states-income-inequality.html

Take their quiz for surprising facts about family, taxes and fairness:
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/415/family-taxes.html

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Source: U.S. Strike on Iran Nearing

Dandelion Salad

By Jim Meyers
http://www.newsmax.com
Monday, April 14, 2008 9:37 PM

Contrary to some claims that the Bush administration will allow diplomacy to handle Iran’s nuclear weapons program, a leading member of America’s Jewish community tells Newsmax that a military strike is not only on the table – but likely.

“Israel is preparing for heavy casualties,” the source said, suggesting that although Israel will not take part in the strike, it is expecting to be the target of Iranian retribution.

“Look at Dick Cheney’s recent trip through the Middle East as preparation for the U.S. attack,” the source said.

Cheney’s hastily arranged 9-day visit to the region, which began on March 16, included stops in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Turkey, and the Palestinian territories.

Tensions in the region have been rising.

While Israel was conducting the largest homefront military exercises in its history last week, Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned Tehran about expected attacks on the Jewish state.

“An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel, which will destroy the Iranian nation,” he said.

…continued

h/t: ICH

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Tim Robbins Decries Media ‘Abyss’ in NAB Keynote (audio)

Dandelion Salad

By Tom Steinert-Threlkeld
http://freepress.net
Broadcasting & Cable, April 14, 2008

Actor Tim Robbins, noting that he has been labeled a traitor for previous comments he made about this nation and its pre-emptive war in Iraq, pre-empted a planned dialogue on new media at the National Association of Broadcasters’ annual show and launched a humorous, profanity-laced attack on both the state of the country and the consolidation of viewpoints being carried by national media.

“We are at an abyss as an industry and as a country,” Robbins said. (To listen to audio of the speech, click here.)

Ditching the chance to give his views in an exchange with TV critic David Bianculli, who appears on National Public Radio and in the pages of Broadcasting & Cable magazine, Robbins described that abyss using expletives that would not be allowed on free over-the-air radio or television by the Federal Communications Commission. In addition to using the common vulgarity for copulation, known as the f-bomb, Robbins joked that “Die, you Nazi c___suckers” was the lesser known of Edward R. Murrow’s signoffs at the end of his London blitz broadcasts.

To read the article, click here.

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We encourage reproduction and distribution of original materials on this site for educational and personal use. All content on this site created by Free Press (unless otherwise noted) is available to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Uri Avnery congratulates Carter for decision to meet with Hamas leaders

Dandelion Salad

Global Research, April 15, 2008
Gush Shalom – 2008-04-13

“It would have been best for all of us, Mr. President, had you gone to Damascus with a full mandate from the Government of Israel and from you successor in the White House. To promote to the best of your ability the solution to the conflict and the end to both peoples’ suffering. But even in the absence of an official government mandate, you are going to Damascus with the warm regards and full support of the peace seekers in Israel” ends Avnery’s letter to former president Carter.”

Former Knesset Member Uri Avnery, activist of Gush Shalom (The Israeli Peace Bloc), congratulates Jimmy Carter for his wise and courageous decision to meet in Damascus with Haled Mash’al and other Hamas leaders and talk with them on the ways to promote peace in our region. Simultaneously, Avnery sent letters to PM Olmert as well as to Foreign Minister Livny and Defence Minister Barak – calling upon them to terminate the orchestrated campaign against Carter and make use of the former US President’s position and prestige in order to end the suffering and bloodshed among both peoples, as well as achieve at last an exchange of prisoners which would restore to their homes and families the captured Israeli soldier Gil’ead Shalit as well as a significant number of Palestinian prisoners.

The policy of boycotting Hamas, starting on the day that the movement won the democratic elections held among the Palestinians, has failed utterly and caused terrible suffering and bloodshed among both peoples. The Government of Israel, with the support of the US Government, has undertaken large and small military operations; constantly sought to foment civil war among Palestinians; and imposed an inhuman economic boycott of the Gaza Strip, which exactly today reaches a cruel new peak with the denial of fuel to a million and half people. Not only did all these acts fail to break Hama’s power; on the contrary, they resulted in increasing its popular support and severely weakening Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who is increasingly perceived as a collaborator, unable to bring his people any real achievement.

The time has come to turn a new page, based on recognition of reality: Hamas is a significant force among Palestinians, and will continue to be such, for better or worse, in the foreseeable future. It is impossible to reach an Israeli-Palestinian Agreement – and actually implement it – without Hamas being a party to that agreement. The visit of former US President Jimmy carter can impart an enormous momentum to a move including a full ceasefire, between all Israelis and all Palestinians, which will end the suffering at Sderot and Gaza alike; removal of the shameful economic siege, which is a terrible collective punishment for Gaza inhabitants of Gaza; and above all – encouraging the creation of a Palestinian National Unity Government, representing all significant factions and able to negotiate on behalf of the entire Palestinian people, instead of the complete veto which the governments of Israel and the US at present impose over the creation of such a government.

“It would have been best for all of us, Mr. President, had you gone to Damascus with a full mandate from the Government of Israel and from you successor in the White House. To promote to the best of your ability the solution to the conflict and the end to both peoples’ suffering. But even in the absence of an official government mandate, you are going to Damascus with the warm regards and full support of the peace seekers in Israel” ends Avnery’s letter to former president Carter.”

Contact: Adam Keller adam [at] gush-shalom.org

Full Text of Letter

Tel-Aviv, April 13, 2008

To Mr. Jimmy Carter Former President of the United States

Dear Mr. President

I am writing to you on behalf of Gush Shalom, The Israeli Peace Bloc, to congratulate you on your wise and courageous decision to meet in Damascus with Hamas leaders and talk with them on the ways to promote peace in our region. I believe this is an act whose time had come – or rather, is already long overdue – and I would have liked the Government of Israel to avail itself of your position, your prestige and your tireless energy, in order to help end the suffering and bloodshed among both peoples.

As an increasing number of people are coming to realize, the policy of boycotting Hamas, starting on the day that the movement won the democratic elections held among the Palestinians, has failed utterly and caused terrible suffering and bloodshed to both peoples. The Government of Israel, with the support of the present US Administration, has undertaken large and small military operations; constantly sought to foment civil war among Palestinians; and imposed an inhuman economic boycott of the Gaza Strip, which exactly today reaches a cruel new peak with the denial of fuel to a million and half people. Not only did all these acts fail to break Hamas’ power; on the contrary, they resulted in increasing its popular support and severely weakening Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who is more and more perceived as a collaborator, unable to bring his people any real achievement.

The time has come to turn a new page, based on recognition of reality: Hamas is a significant force among Palestinians, and will continue to be such, for better or worse, in the foreseeable future. It is impossible to reach an Israeli-Palestinian Agreement – and actually implement it – without Hamas being a party to that agreement.

Your visit to our region, Mr. President, has the potential of imparting an enormous momentum to removing the obstacles presently hindering serious negotiations aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands conquered in 1967. To the mind of myself the my fellow activists, what is most urgently needed at present includes:

* A full ceasefire, between all Israelis and all Palestinians, which will proved a safe daily life to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip as to those of the Israeli communities near to it;

* Removal of the shameful economic siege, which is a terrible collective punishment for Gaza inhabitants of Gaza;

* Achieving at last an exchange of prisoners which would restore to their homes and families the captured Israeli soldier Gil’ead Shalit as well as a significant number of Palestinian prisoners

* Encouraging the creation of a Palestinian National Unity Government, representing all important factions and able to negotiate on behalf of the entire Palestinian people – instead of the complete veto which the governments of Israel and the US at present impose on the creation of such a government among Palestinians.

It would have been best for all of us, Mr. President, were you able to go to Damascus with a full mandate from the Government of Israel and from you successor in the White House, to promote to the best of your ability the solution to the conflict in our region and the end to both peoples’ suffering. But even in the absence of an official government mandate, know that you are going to Damascus with the warm regards and full support of the peace seekers in Israel.

Most Sincerely Yours

Uri Avnery
Former Member of the Knesset

On behalf of Gush Shalom (The Israeli Peace Bloc)

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For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com
© Copyright , Gush Shalom, 2008
The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8687

Self-help for self-haters

Dandelion Salad

By Seth Freedman
ICH
04/15/08 “The Guardian“

Though my detractors often claim otherwise, I see myself as anything but a “self-hating Jew”, and the more vocal I am in my criticism of the Israeli government’s crimes, the more credence I give that claim. I passionately love my religion, and just as fervently defend its teachings to the hilt when it comes to how to treat our fellow man. That Zionism has come along, hijacked Jewish doctrines, and twisted them to form part of an all-out supremacist movement is not something I can swallow if I want to stay loyal to the true values of Judaism.

Unfortunately, by demanding that the world sees Zionism as a philosophy essentially based on Jewish principles, Zionists have managed to unforgivably drag the religion’s name through the mud for over 60 years. However, I drew some comfort from an unlikely source after talking to a boy my age in the Deheisha refugee camp in Bethlehem.

I was there as part of a marathon tour that took in Hebron, the village of al-Nueman, the Machpelah mosque, the Church of the Nativity and various other stops along the way – including the pitiful, crumbling buildings of Deheisha. Half-way through the trip, my eyes began to glaze over, as I sought to put a barrier between myself and the relentless barrage of proof we were shown of how cruelly the authorities deal with the Palestinians.

Sneering soldiers manning checkpoints, freshly-demolished family homes, welded-shut shop fronts, blood-thirsty settler graffiti crudely daubed on Palestinian houses … the list was endless, and the evidence was overwhelming. While it was clearly an invaluable experience for those on the tour who’d never seen the awful truth of the occupation up close and personal, I’d seen it all before – not that it gets any easier to take, however many times I am exposed to the reality.

But that was before I met Jihad, a young man charged with showing us round the garbage-strewn streets and decrepit homes of Deheisha. The first thing I noticed about him were his eyes, which were as dead as any I’ve seen in all my four years living here. As he sat on a chair facing our 10-man semicircle, his face was utterly devoid of emotion, and he simply went through the motions as he reeled out his clearly well-polished introduction to life in the camp.

I could hardly begrudge him his lack of enthusiasm; we were probably the hundredth group he’d spoken to about his community’s plight, and what difference had all the lip-service made to their situation? He and his people were still here, still caged in their concrete prison, still at the mercy of the Israelis, and still no nearer to achieving their dreams of independence and freedom from the shackles of their overseers.

“I just want to be like you,” he said tiredly as he gazed into the middle distance, and with those seven words summed up the eternal plight of the downtrodden and discriminated against. “I’ve got two arms, two hands … why am I any different from other people?” he went on – and, of course, the answer was staring us in the face from the gun turrets of the guard towers overlooking the camp.

As we wended our way up the narrow alleys where skinny children clad in ill-fitting clothes played among the refuse, I asked Jihad to elaborate on how he could be “like us”. His answer was simple, and – he said – representative of the views of the majority of Palestine’s millions of refugees. “We want to go home”, he said flatly. “There is no other way [that will suffice]. A two-state solution will not bring peace – the fight will go on.” He told me that although he’d chosen to use pen rather than sword to get his message across, he had no truck with those who chose to join the armed resistance.

He was vicious in his condemnation of those at the helm of the Israeli government, castigating them for their decades spent keeping his people down and subjugating them with brute force and bloodshed – however, he was adamant that he did not view their actions as emanating from Jewish sources. “Zionism is far, far removed from the Jewish religion,” he assured me. “I have no issue with Jews – just as I have no problem with Christians or Buddhists. I don’t mind Jews living here, just so long as they do it peacefully.”

He echoed the words of another local I’d met earlier, who had asked why Zionists had felt the only way to emigrate to the region was via conquest and control, rather than “the way my brother moved to the United States. He went there not to kill, not to occupy, but just to live there in peace and be a citizen like anyone else.” Both his and Jihad’s ability to clearly distinguish between Zionism and Judaism is a chink of light in an otherwise pitch black situation – and must be capitalised on by those with an interest in bringing this 60-year-old conflict to an end.

The window of opportunity won’t stay open for ever. Islamic radicals and fundamentalists are highly adept at conflating the Zionist philosophy with the Jewish faith, and Israel’s hiding behind a façade of acting on behalf of World Jewry only plays into their hands. Which is why it’s essential that those Jews who recoil at the criminal actions of the Israeli government make it quite clear that this is not being done in their names.

The dominant form of Zionism might be a racist, supremacist ideology – but Judaism is most definitely not. And the more Jews who make this distinction, the better: both for the security of their fellow Jews, as well as to prove to the Israeli authorities that they most definitely do not have carte blanche to crush the Palestinians for ever more under the guise of religious values.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

“In the beginning, there was Alan Greenspan…” + Palast video

Dandelion Salad

by Loretta Napoleoni
Author of Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality (Seven Stories Press) Just released!
April 15, 2008

Exclusive to Gregpalast.com

Hedge-fund Hogs, Lunatic Leverage & Banks Gone Beserk

In the beginning there was Alan Greenspan. Appointed by Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Greenspan was a Master of the Universe, a title he earned by working for decades on Planet Wall Street. Greenspan took office as Fed chairman while the Evil Empire of Moscow was collapsing; after years of ruthless conflict, known as the Cold War, the Confederation of the Free World gained victory and Greenspan was tasked with helping Western capitalism colonize Planet Earth. Worshipped by Western high finance – the Supreme Council of the Free World – Greenspan was considered the High Priest of future profits.

…continued

***

Greg Palast interviews Loretta Napoleoni

GregPalastOffice

http://www.GregPalast.com

Loretta Napoleoni is the author of Rogue Economics. Palast and Loretta discuss the potential for another 1929 and how’s it come to this.

http://www.RogueEconomics.com

‘When you’re ready to take a big leap beyond Freak-o-nomics, strap yourself in for Rogue-o-nomics, Loretta Napoleoni’s devilishly enjoyable journey into the money veins of the new global order’ -Greg Palast

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Financial Collapse will End the Occupation: And it won’t be “A time of our choosing”

Dandelion Salad

By Mike Whitney

04/14/08 “ICH”

“Come and see our overflowing morgues and find our little ones for us…
You may find them in this corner or the other, a little hand poking out, pointing out at you…
Come and search for them in the rubble of your “surgical” air raids, you may find a little leg or a little head…pleading for your attention.
Come and see them amassed in the garbage dumps, scavenging morsels of food…
Come and see, come…” “Flying Kites” Layla Anwar

The US Military has won every battle it has fought in Iraq, but it has lost the war. Wars are won politically, not militarily. Bush doesn’t understand this. He still clings to the belief that a political settlement can be imposed through force. But he is mistaken. The use of overwhelming force has only spread the violence and added to the political instability. Now Iraq is ungovernable. Was that the objective? Miles of concrete blast-walls snake through Baghdad to separate the warring parties; the country is fragmented into a hundred smaller pieces each ruled by local militia commanders. These are the signs of failure not success. That’s why the American people no longer support the occupation. They’re just being practical; they know Bush’s plan won’t work. As Nir Rosen says, “Iraq has become Somalia”.

The administration still supports Iraqi President Nouri al Maliki, but al-Maliki is a meaningless figurehead who will have no effect on the country’s future. He has no popular base of support and controls nothing beyond the walls of the Green Zone. The al-Maliki government is merely an Arab facade designed to convince the American people that political progress is being made, but there is no progress. Its a sham. The future is in the hands of the men with guns; they’re the ones who have divided Iraq into locally-controlled fiefdoms and they are the one’s who will ultimately decide who will rule the state. At present, the fighting between the factions is being described as “sectarian warfare”, but the term is intentionally misleading. The fighting is political in nature; the various militias are competing with each other to see who will fill the vacuum left by the removal of Saddam. It’s a power struggle. The media likes to portray the conflict as a clash between half-crazed Arabs–“dead-enders and terrorists”—who relish the idea killing their countrymen, but that’s just a way of demonizing the enemy. In truth, the violence is entirely rational; it is the inevitable reaction to the dissolution of the state and the occupation by foreign troops. Many military experts predicted that there would be outbreaks of fighting after the initial invasion, but their warnings were shrugged off by clueless politicians and the cheerleading media. Now the violence has flared up again in Basra and Baghdad, and there is no end in sight. Only one thing seems certain, Iraq’s future will not be decided at the ballot box. Bush has made sure of that.

The US military does not rule Iraq nor does it have the power to control events on the ground. It’s just one of many militias vieing for power in a state that is ruled by warlords. After the army conducts combat operations, it is forced to retreat to its camps and bases. This point needs to be emphasized in order to understand that there is no real future for the occupation. The US simply does not have the manpower to hold territory or to establish security. In fact, the presence of American troops incites violence because they are seen as forces of occupation, not liberators. Survey’s show that the vast majority of the Iraqi people want US troops to leave. The military has destroyed too much of the country and slaughtered too many people to expect that these attitudes will change anytime soon. Iraqi poet and blogger Layla Anwar sums up the feelings of many of the war’s victims in a recent post on her web site “An Arab Women’s Blues”:

“At the gates of Babylon the Great, you are still struggling, fighting away, chasing this or the other, detaining, bombing from above, filling up morgues, hospitals, graveyards and embassies and borders with quesesfor exit-visas.

Not one Iraqi wishes your presence. Not one Iraqi accepts your occupation.

Got news for you Motherfuckers, you will never control Iraq, not in six years, not in ten years, not in 20 years….You have brought upon yourself the hate and the curse of all Iraqis, Arabs and the rest of the world…now face your agony.” (Layla Anwar; “An Arab Women’s Blues: Reflections in a sealed bottle”

Is Bush hoping to change the mind of Layla or the millions of other Iraqis who have lost loved ones or been forced into exile or seen their country and culture crushed beneath the bootheel of foreign occupation? The hearts and minds campaign is lost. The US will never be welcome in Iraq.

According to a survey in the British Medical Journal “Lancet” more than a million Iraqis have been killed in the war. Another four million have been either internally-displaced or have fled the country. But the figures tell us nothing about the magnitude of the disaster that Bush has caused by attacking Iraq. The invasion is the greatest human catastrophe in the Middle East since the Nakba in 1948. Living standards have declined precipitously in every area—infant mortality, clean water, food-security, medical supplies, education, electrical power, employment etc. Even oil production is still below pre-war levels. The invasion is the most comprehensive policy failure since Vietnam; everything has gone wrong. The heart of the Arab world has descended into chaos. The suffering is incalculable.

The main problem is the occupation; it is the primary catalyst for violence and an obstacle to political settlement. As long as the occupation persists, so will the fighting. The claims that the so-called surge has changed the political landscape are greatly exaggerated. Retired Lt. General William Odom commented on this point in an interview on the Jim Lerher News Hour:

“The surge has sustained military instability and achieved nothing in political consolidation….Things are much worse now. And I don’t see them getting any better. This was foreseeable a year and a half ago. And to continue to put the cozy veneer of comfortable half-truths on this is to deceive the American public and to make them think it is not the charade it is…..When you say that the Lebanization of Iraq is taking place, yes, but not because of Iran, but because the U.S. went in and made this kind of fragmentation possible. And it has occurred over the last five years….The al-Maliki government is worse off now…The notion that there;’s some kind of progress is absurd. The al-Maliki government uses its Ministry of Interior like a death squad militia. So to call Sadr an extremist and Maliki a good guy just overlooks the reality that there are no good guys.” (Jim Lerher News Hour)

The war in Iraq was lost before the first shot was fired. The conflict never had the support of the American people and Iraq never posed a threat to US national security. The whole pretext for the war was based on lies; it was a coup orchestrated by elites and the media to carry out a far-right agenda. Now the mission has failed, but no one wants to admit their mistakes by withdrawing; so the butchery continues without pause.

How Will It End?

The Bush administration has decided to pursue a strategy that is unprecedented in US history. It has decided to continue to prosecute a war that has already been lost morally, strategically, and militarily. But fighting a losing war has its costs. America is much weaker now than it was when Bush first took office in 2000; politically, economically and militarily. US power and prestige around the world will continue to deteriorate until the troops are withdrawn from Iraq. But that’s unlikely to happen until all other options have been exhausted. Deteriorating economic conditions in the financial markets are putting enormous downward pressure on the dollar. The corporate bond and equities markets are in disarray; the banking system is collapsing, consumer spending is down, tax revenues are falling, and the country is headed into a painful and protracted recession. The US will leave Iraq sooner than many pundits believe, but it will not be at a time of our choosing. Rather, the conflict will end when the United States no longer has the capacity to wage war. That time is not far off.

The Iraq War signals the end of US interventionism for at least a generation; maybe longer. The ideological foundation for the war (preemption/regime change) has been exposed as a baseless justification for unprovoked aggression. Someone will have to be held accountable. There will have to be international tribunals to determine who is responsible in the deaths of over one million Iraqis.

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History of Republican Economic Malfeasance (2008)

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Part 1

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The War on Greed starring Larry the Loophole (video)

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Mel Goodman: 9/11 Could Have Been Prevented

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Added: April 14, 2008
Former CIA analyst Mel Goodman discusses the failure and corruption of intelligence that allowed the attacks of 9/11 to occur and the Iraq War to be justified. Speaking before the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire, 4/5/08.