Proper Perspectives

“In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come,” he told the US political website Politico

Finally a president with guts enough to put the WTC-attack in its proper perspective! A horrible incident in USonian history, but nothing more than that.

And again the world is faced with the USonian ignorance and arrogance that make the majority of USonians look dumb, self-centered and boorish:

“He’s off-base,” said former New York fire department deputy chief Jim Riches, whose son died at the World Trade Centre. “These were terrorist attacks, not something caused by people trying to make money.”

From the perspective of the impact on the minds of normal, sane and thinking human beings, the leaking, burning oil-well that is spewing its deadly innards into the sea, unto beaches and wet-lands, is a disaster no less in magnitude for the sea-life, wild-life and ecology of the Gulf Coast, than “9/11” was for the citizens of NY.

The President is right on the money. Almost.

Considering the damage to the sea-life, wild-life and ecology of the Gulf Coast – including several species of animals and birds that live only there – in the wet-lands of Louisiana – and are either endangered or on the brink of being endangered – like the Brown pelican and the manatee, he is actually falling short in his ‘comparison’. More Wild-life will be lost as a result of the USonian short-sighted and egotistical use of fossil-fuels than the 2500+ human lives that were lost in the toppling of the WTC. While those humans are gone forever and their relatives have every right to mourn, they in no way make even a small dent in the human population on this planet. Yet every Brown pelican lost, every Manatee or other animal dead, either to the oil spill itself or to the ensuing starvation that will follow because feeding grounds are destroyed, will deprive the endangered birds, animals and sea-life of diversity in their gene pool, and in the end they will be extinct. Gone forever.

Now, that is a true catastrophe, a disaster that if not understood in its entirety is worthy of human grief and USonian shame. Jim Riches lost his son, true, but does that mean others have to suffer the loss of never seeing a Brown Pelican or a Manatee?

Jim Riches sees only himself and his loss. Barack Obama sees beyond all the Jim Riches, and realizes that the Deepwater Horizon continuous attack on the coast of the Mexican Gulf is an attack much more devastating to the USonian people living along that coast, in terms of having their environment, livelihoods, families and damaged, destroyed and decimated for YEARS to come, and for what? USonian greed, isolationism and arrogance.

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Now EARN it, Mr President!

Mr President, Mr Obama,

You were awarded Nobel’s Peace Prize this year. Despite not having kept one single promise you made to the World during your election campaign. Shall I remind you?

1. Close Guantanamo Bay ‘Detention Center’ and other American ‘black ops’ prisons around the globe.

2. Withdraw all American troops from Iraq.

3. Withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan.

You promised these things, not just to those Americans who voted for you – the entire Democratic and Human’s Rights Oriented World rooted for you during the campaign and cheered for you when you won. On the night of your election to the Presidency of the United States of America an entire world went to bed happy and hopeful, trusting and believing that the very first Executive Orders you signed would be fulfillments, effective immediately, of the three promises listed above, promises you made to the American People and to the World, promises that were largely the reason you were actually elected.

Speaking with the various warring factions of the world, verbally encouraging your adversaries to ley down their weapons, speaking about the importance of International Organizations and Cooperations, shaking hands with other political leaders – that is all good an well, and you should do that – but the world is still waiting for the closure of American Torture Centers around the globe, the complete withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. So what will it be, Mr President? Will you now step up and EARN that prestigious prize you won on the merit of your skin color and promises alone and actually BE the leader of the free world? Or shall you go down in history as just another power hungry, lying, cheating and full of himself American President?

Another Chauvinistic American Project

The Crane Project; What is It?

This project uses the symbol of peace and of long life to tell the story of loss in Iraq. The soldiers who lost their life in Iraq, the citizens of Iraq who died as a result of the conflict, the journalist covering the war who were killed doing their jobs. Different parties, with different interests. But all human beings, with lives ended too soon for those who love them and knew them.

Polymer clay cranes are being folded, with information about each individual, for the soldiers. They will be hung in strands to represent each week in the war, in order to present the passage of time, as well as a visual representation of their numbers.

Waxed paper cranes are being folded by volunteers across the country. These cranes will represent the Iraqis who have lost their lives. A count by the Iraq Body Count project is shown below. This is considered to be a conservative estimate.

Cranes will also be folded from newspaper stories about the war to represent journalists who lost their lives in Iraq. Without journalists telling the story, we would know even less about the cost of war.

Wonderful! Fold a crane to represent a dead victim of the war in Iraq… Excellent idea! My wife found the site, and at first she thought it was great…

But the entire idea fell flat, because the American chauvinism and arrogance poisoned the idea – polymer clay is almost indestructible, while news paper and waxed paper are perishable materials, so the cranes made for American soldiers are to last forever, but the cranes folded for Iraqis and journalists are to perish with time – moral: Only Americans are to be remembered…

And Americans wonder why the rest of the world think they are Arrogant, Loudmouthed, Bigoted and Chauvinist Idiots? Well we do, thanks to ideas like this…

Blame the Jews – Part Umpteenth

Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11

I have no problem agreeing with the author about his points about the Provocations as Pretext for attacking other nations, which it is obvious and clear from history that the US has been engaged in since its inception.

But when he starts claiming that “the Zionists” (Zionists is just a code word for Jews) planned and executed 9/11 he passes the line between reality and antisemitic bull-shit.

Like most Antisemites/AntiZionists he fails to make the distinction between Jews and Zionists (to be distinguished from zionists who support Israel’s right to exist) and Jews and Israel as a nation.

Conspiracy Theories are very nice in that they provide explanations to life’s hardships that provide the Conspiracy Theorists with a sense of control (“I know why this is happening to me”.)

Unfortunately for the Conspiracy Theorists all CTs at one point or other leave the realm of the plausible and enter the realm of implausible – which only leaves the CTists vulnerable to exposure as frauds and charlatans, which in the end are only serving themselves.

Israel, as the only Democracy in the Middle East, has a very precarious position (regardless of their relations to the Palestinians) because it is surrounded by nations that has only one wish and one goal for her in the end – total annihilation.

Claming, as the author does, that Israel is engaged in a war on Iran and Syria (and not the other way around) is ludicrous – especially since Israel has not threatened either Iran or Syria with “wiping them of the face of the earth”. If Israel and/or the Zionists had truly been behind the War on Terror, the US would not have attacked Afghanistan and Iraq – they would have gone after Iran and Syria. They didn’t.

Neither Iran, nor Syria care about the Palestinians enough NOT to make good their threats to nuke Israel.

It must be nice to live in a world where any evil in the world can be attributed to ONE source, instead of having to sort through the political and personal diversities that is a natural part of being human.

The 9/11-Industry

“Will people view the date “May 3rd” the way they do “September 11th”?
The current death toll estimate from the Cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) is 100,000.

100,000 humans dead, 42,000 missing and who knows how many displaced. The death toll will probably climb in the aftermath and it will depend on how much assistance is given by how many and when.

The death toll from 9/11 was 2,998 not including the hijackers.

Will we in North America be participating in massive public displays of mourning every May3rd with pictures of giant bald eagles with the Burmese flag painted over its left eye flying over a depiction of rescue workers covering the land that was destroyed or will this whole incident fade from public memory within the next three months because, quite frankly, those people were poor and brown-skinned, and not quite as important as us?” (Christian Bobak, Toronto, Canada)

The sad answer to those questions is NO. This entire posts (in Care2) made me write some things.

One poster came in and said:

Myanmar is like comparing apples and oranges, but because of his hate-america syndrome C can’t or won’t figure out the difference.

A comparable event would be the Madrid Bombings or the London Bombings – and I bet neither of the North Americans here can even put those two events in the right month, much less pin-point the day.

The original poster continues:

I’m not downplaying the tragedy of 9/11, merely pointing out that there have been far worse tragedies and always will be, yet no one in this part of the world seems to realize that. Instead, they focus on 9/11 repeatedly, year after year as if it was the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the world. To this day, I still get NMs and forwards about 9/11 and why I should “never forget”. Well, why shouldn’t we “never forget” May 3rd?

He is making an extremely good point.

Considering the lack of NMs on the matter of the Cyclone in Myanmar, people might actually not be aware that it happened or the scope of it.

Just another foot-note.

I also have to agree with Kevin. If 9/11 had happened somewhere else that too would have been merely foot-notes in the margins of the consciousness of NA (or, I am going to narrow it down to the US). The reason it’s not, is because of the political value of it. After all, terror attacks have happened all over the world in modern times, and they haven’t gotten a GLOBAL impact zone, the way 9/11 has, despite the fact that they have definitely impacted countless lives.

To which another poster threw in this inane comment:

Pure, unadulterated bull droppings.

It became clear that the longer the discussion went on the USonians saw any attempt to discuss the lack of interest in the Myanmar Disaster was going to be met by defensive attempts to throw red herrings and derail the focus on the USonian obsession with 9/11 and their dismissal of that which does not touch the US.

I continued:

Myanmar is not big business, Myanmar is not on the North American map, Myanmar doesn’t impact an entire world through its foreign policies, so it’s “uninteresting”.

Someone once said something about humans killed in terms of 1 = murder 100 = massacre and 1000 = statistics.

I think that’s true – it’s difficult to fathom the scope of 100.000 dead/missing/injured. It is hard to see the HUMANS in such numbers.

Why is 9/11 sacrosanct to a point where an entire world is forced to commemorate something that actually only impacted the US?
Why not the same turn-out of NMs, emails, blog-entries and whatnot over 11/3 and 7/7 or 5/3?
How about commemorating 22/2? Not only were a lot of people injured and had their lives impacted by what happened that day – one of the world’s most beautiful ANCIENT buildings was lost forever…

The entire world is reluctantly involved in some way in a “war on terror” that has nothing to do with any other nation than the US and its obsession with 9/11.

Until 9/11 2001 terror happened frequently all over the world, based in various ideologies, and each nation that was struck picked up the pieces and went on with their lives.
Then the US was struck, and citizens in Sweden have their salaries and assets frozen for YEARS simply because they wanted to help their relatives abroad.

Every 9/11 since 2001 – 6 years – re-runs of footage is aired on International Media Channels across the globe – demanding that we “never forget”. The world would have to black-out the International Media (read Fox News and CNN) for a week around 9/11 to avoid the force-feeding of an Usonian national tragedy.

9/11 has become the choke-collar by which the US is holding the world hostage – “you are either with us or you are with the terrorists…”

I don’t think 9/11 is any more important than any other act of terrorism throughout history – I don’t think American lives are any more important than Burmese lives, or Iraqi Lives, or Swedish lives or Danish lives. And I refuse to be emotionally blackmailed into thinking there is a difference.

Of course it’s an important date to those who live in the U.S.?  If only because it exhibited to Americans how easily our national security can be shattered.  Why shouldn’t it be?

I don’t think anyone here said that it shouldn’t be remembered by USonians. Go ahead, remember, but don’t make the rest of the world part of the “commemoration”.

But you don’t see the British do re-runs on footage from 7/7, not even on BBC World, year after year. You don’t get NMs and emails from Spaniards demanding that we never forget 11/3 or hear either of those governments demand that anyone out-side Britain or Spain, who send money to destitute relatives have their salaries frozen or their savings impounded because they used the “wrong” channels to deliver the money – nor did you hear the British PM or the Spanish President say on International TV that “you are either with us or you are with the terrorists”.

What you saw the British and the Spanish do was cover it on National TV for as long as there was an investigation, and then they moved on, got on with their lives  and accepted the fact that it happened. I don’t get NMs about 7/7 from my British friends every year, nor from my Spanish friends about 11/3. But I do get those NMs and emails from my American friends about 9/11 EVERY year, in droves, piles and packs. And forwards.

Who the hell forces you or anyone else to commemorate 9/11? We are not required to observe it even in the US. That statement is asinine, but typical SOB. As I said to C, 9/11 is not your concern.

No, 9/11 SHOULDN’T be of any concern to any other nation than the US. But it has been made the concern of the rest of the world by the US, through an illegal war, through a yearly flooding of NMs, emails and American Media Coverage broadcast to the entire world, through political and emotional blackmail, that makes it virtually impossible to avoid being aware of, unless one chooses to move out into the middle of nowhere and get ear-plugs and blinders.

You yourself actually made my point by responding to C with “but because of his hate-america syndrome” – i.e because he has the guts to bring up the issue of why 9/11 is more important than 5/3 you label him an America hater.

The US made 9/11 my problem by involving the entire world in a national trauma and demanding that the rest of the world cow-tow to US policies in the aftermath of that national trauma.
It might not be our concern/problem, but the US is certainly shoving it down the Collective International throats through how it has handled what should really have stayed within US National Borders.

The British have suffered Terror from the IRA since the 1920’s, yet they don’t broadcast this fact through International Media, nor do they blackmail the rest of the world politically and/or emotionally into detaining every Irish person or freeze their assets or intimidate the world to attack the US (has the biggest Irish Population out-side Great Britain and Ireland) because there might very possibly be Irish people there that have IRA sympathies…(we know there are, because they frequently flee there from British Justice…)

No one has said that the US has forced the world PRIOR to 9/11, and if you read that from my posts, you are way dumber than I thought your were.

I am strictly speaking about post-9/11.

Up until 9/11 2001 terror attacks have always been considered the internal affair of the country hit by it – but just as in the past, as soon as the US is hit, it becomes a Global Affair. WWI – the US didn’t join the war until Lusitania was hit. WWII, the US didn’t enter the war until Pearl Harbor. Those are historical facts, K, and they are giving empirical evidence that “The War on Terror” didn’t exist until the US was hit, and then THAT war became a Global Affair.

London 7/7 and Madrid 11/3 would not have happened if it had not been for the US making 9/11 a global affair.

Don’t you try and make this about people blaming the US for things they had nothing to with – that’s just idiotic red herrings, K – you G-damn know better than that.

Say one syllable about the US that might be interpreted in a negative manner, and the majority of USonians have knee-jerk hissy-fit reactions – not on what is being said, but what they think is being said.
I am Danish, I live in Sweden, and I have the guts, balls and ding-dings to admit that when it comes to how both nations have stood up to the US “you are either with us or you are with the terrorists” bully tactics, I am embarrassed beyond belief.
However, as both C and Kevin have pointed out, this thread is not about Denmark or Sweden or even about the US, but about how 9/11 is being given more significance and importance than f.i May 3rd or July 7 or March 11 or for that matter February 22nd, and how the entire world is being taught, by the USA, that 2998 dead and 9/11 is somehow special, while 100.000 dead and 5/3 is not, or will not be in a few weeks.

The fact that the majority of Americans in this thread cannot see how 9/11 is being used again and again, and again to garner all sorts of sympathy, military assistance, illegal surveillance and apprehension of non-Americans out-side the US without warrants and even a shred of evidence that they have done anything illegal, as well as to justify torture, black ops and political blackmail, is staggering, and when it comes to some here, the imbecile pig-headedness on this particular issue, the knee-jerk reaction and the throwing about of red herrings, blue herrings and even white herrings is rapidly reducing their credibility as discerning, logical, level headed and educated people to 0 on the Respect-Scale.

I repeat: London 7/7 and Madrid 11/3 would not have happened if it had not been for the US making 9/11 a global affair.

The US is like a testosterone crazed spoiled teenager on acid – he scrapes his knee, another kid punches him on the nose and he is ready to go have a chainsaw-massacre, not just on the specific kid who punched him, but that kid’s entire neighborhood. On the way there he threatens everyone else with torching their house unless they put a band-aid on his nose and swear to join his chainsaw-massacre on the other kid’s neighborhood. In addition to this he also hires people to drive around the City with bullhorns on the anniversary of that nose-punch, blasting every corner of the Municipality with the message about how hurt he was and how many liters of blood he lost when that other kid punched him.

Get your heads out of your asses and try and see just how things look from the out-side – for just 5 minutes – you might actually be enlightened and become better people for it. On the other hand, you might get embarrassed over how self-centered and self-absorbed you are.

The most “funny” comment was this:

Or get real issues to talk about.

Oh, I see, the US running around like a drunk three-year-old with a gun shouting “Bang-Bang, your dead!” when the rest of the world doesn’t do what the US wants it to, is a non-issue now?
Tell that to the Swedish Citizens who had their salaries and their savings frozen for three years, because they used the halawa system to send money to their destitute relatives in Somalia, and the US screamed “Terrorists” without a shred of evidence…and yes, Sweden didn’t say anything – but I guess that is a non-issue too.
I am beginning to see what Norman Finkelstein means when he speaks about the Holocaust-Industry –  only when it comes to the US it’s the “9/11-Industry”.

Then someone asked me about the news…

Then why don’t you take your beef about what they feed you on the newsreels to the International News Media? 

Usually BBC, isn’t it?  Hello?

No, it’s not BBC – they didn’t even cover London 7/7 much beyond the few facts of the investigation, and then they only returned to the issue whenever there was a news-worthy update in the investigation and apprehension of some of the involved. They didn’t cover 9/11 beyond the 1 anniversary.

I am speaking about CNN International and Fox News – and as far as I am aware they are US Media-outlets. I could of course write a mail and complain, but I doubt they would listen.

Besides, nowadays with the Patriot Act in place of the Constitution, they only broadcast what the US Government considers kosher.

The comment made by this person only shows how extremely uneducated and ignorant about what “International News” is to the rest of the world the Americans are.

She continued:

It’s like this for me … when I see sh1t on the telly that I don’t want to watch, I switch the channel or get off my butt and do something else.

Yes, of course, why didn’t I think of that? THAT attitude is the reason so many Americans are ignorant and complacent – if they don’t like what they see, they bury their heads up their arses and pretend it doesn’t exist.

Almost every month, maybe more, brings massive natural disasters. What, must we officially commemorate Days of Remembrance for them all?

I don’t think anyone here is calling for that. I know I am not.

In Denmark April 9 and May 5 are days all Danes know what they signify, and most, at least in my and my parents generations do commemorate them, at least mentally – there used to be specific rituals as well, but I doubt anyone does those anymore. Of course we should all remember such dates as are important to us, individually and nationally. That is my point in this – besides agreeing with C – 9/11 is a US national tragedy, but because of what happened in the WORLD thanks to the action of the US AFTER 9/11, that date has been made an International Affair.

If the US had not decided to go to war on terror and invade two countries, against the wishes of the International Community, and if the US had not started all kinds of illicit and covert operations OUT-SIDE the US to intimidate and interrogate non-US citizens, 9/11 would have remained a national US affair, but because the US did all of the above, 9/11 has taken on ridiculous proportions, both in the way it’s commemorated and in the way it’s immortalized as The Event.

US was hit, like nations has been hit before her, and the entire world suffer as a result. That is MY point here. That and the fact that 6 years later the entire world is still aware of what happened in New York September 11, 2001 – while the death of 100.000 people in Myanmar will be forgotten in three months by the entire world except Myanmar and those non-Myanmarans who were directly impacted.

The TV woman comes back:

Then, knowing this, why do you watch those broadcasts if they are so irksome?

Why do I watch International News? Because the rest of the world interests me – but let’s agree that 9/11 2001 stopped being News 10/11 2001. Re-runs on news channels aren’t news, especially not when the news is 6 years old…

And I do try to avoid watching that which I do not like, but it’s really hard, because there’s a World War going on out there because of 9/11, and every now and then the American News Out-lets here will start reminiscing or think that the world has forgotten why there’s a World War going on out there.

We have three International News Channels here – CNN International, Fox News and BBC World – I usually go through all of them in the course of a day – for the variety of angles on the main stories.

With a World War out there directly based in 9/11, any story that covers the War will also cover, from time to time, references to 9/11 – also BBC World, though they are not as hysterical about it as Fox or CNN. To me the alternative is not watching the news at all, other than Swedish National News Channels, and that doesn’t cover issues I am interested in.

That is MY point here. That and the fact that 6 years later the entire world is still aware of what happened in New York September 11, 2001″

So what? Maybe they are aware it could happen to them?

The thing is it happened in the US because “America’s chicken has come home to roost!” – there is no reason the rest of the world should have to pay for what the US has done to itself. Madrid 11/3 and London 7/7 happened as a direct result of 9/11.

It could happen in Madrid and in London, not because of anything Britain or Spain had done, but because of what US has done, and is still doing.

Europeans have always been aware that something like NY 9/11 could happen to them even before 9/11 – you are forgetting that Spain has been living with ETA and Britain has been living with IRA since before WWII – that’s why you don’t see the British or the Spanish making a big number of 7/7 and 11/3. They have been there and done that for decades.

The Americans weren’t aware it could happen to them, despite Oklahoma City and the Atlanta Olympics… Europeans have been plenty aware. In fact many Europeans weren’t especially surprised.

The US has made an Political industry out of 9/11 2001, and they are not going to stop capitalizing on it until the rest of the world as ONE refuses to play in their little melodrama.

Memorial Day Lie 2

I post things like:

The Memorial Day Lie

and people call me America-hater. I think they over-dramatize. I think they have irrational knee-jerk reactions born out of a misguided patriotism that unfortunately for the world in general means that we cannot count on the American public to correctly understand the impact US Politics have on the world.

They don’t realize that as the US IS the largest political force on the International Arena, who is in power in the US is of concern to the entire world – free or otherwise. The will of the American People expressed through Elections has consequences throughout the entire world.

When the United States of North America violates Human Rights and International Laws through their Troops deployed out-side US proper this impacts not only the countries the US attacks and their citizens, but also the citizens in countries where Human Rights and International Laws are already being violated.

China, Sudan, North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Burma and others can leisurely go about violating Human Rights and International Laws, because “if the US can, so can we…”

When the US refuses to ratify and comply with International Accords like the Kyoto Accord, because it might mean they cannot use fossil fuels as much as their economy would like, or that they would actually have to go after big business for their violations of Environmentally sound legislation, it gives less economically stable countries carte blanche on how to deal or not deal with f.i their part of global warming.

If you want to be the Biggest and the Best – as Americans so want to keep telling the world that the US is, then you have to live with the responsibility of being just that – and that means the rest of us have a right to criticize to our hearts content.

The question is – do I hate Americans? No I don’t. I never did. But just as I can criticize my own country of origin (Denmark) and the country I live in (Sweden) for its vices and failures on the national and international level without this in anyway being a sign of hatred, I can likewise criticize the United States of America.

Unfortunately for many Americans they live in a country that has a record of war of aggression that supercede every other nation in the world, a nation whose soldiers are known and feared all over the world for their war crimes, arrogance and violence against civilians. A country that not only condones torture, capital punishment and general humiliation of other nationalities out-side its borders, but actively practice those based on suspicion rather than proof and due judicial process (as if torture and humiliation can ever be acceptable methods of punishment!?). I do hold the American General Public responsible for the current state of affairs.

“But I am not a Republican, I didn’t vote for Bush in the last election…” True, but you didn’t vote for the Democratic Candidate with the biggest chance of throwing Bu$hco of the White House either, now did you? No, you didn’t, you voted for some independent to satisfy your own political self-interest, instead of thinking about what’s best for the US, and as the US is as it is, what is best for the entire world. So every soldier deployed out-side the US after the 2004 election is an American responsibility – regardless of political affiliation. Truly. If you did not vote for John Kerry in 2004, you are responsible.

The day after the election there should have been a Revolutionary Committee formed, so that Bu$hco could have been ousted. There should have been protests and demonstrations throughout the US, lead by the parties that “lost”. Demonstrations, riots and rallies – but were there? No. Why? Because most Americans are complacent and politically lazy.

Instead of eulogizing, immortalizing and canonizing American Soldiers this Memorial Day – spend some time practicing remorse and study up on how to get the civil courage to get a peaceful revolution going – a revolution to have the Constitution repealed and re-written to include a prohibition against sending US troops out-side the US without direct request from the International Community.

From On Memorial Day:

“current Memorial Days are not celebrations. We are grieving for the lost, lives lost for no good reason. Savagery and butchery with no ennobling purpose. The sacrifice of blood and treasure for the benefit of politicians, oil company executives and foreign oligarchs.

So despite the parades, picnics and baseball games, despite the unveiling of statues and monuments, despite the plaques freshly dedicated with the new names of “those who made the ultimate sacrifice”, I still feel that the only legitimate celebration of Memorial Day in 2008 is to find some posturing blow hard politician and kick him right in the nuts.”

Go ahead, mourn your dead – but also remember that it is your responsibility to make sure there are no more dead of any nationality anywhere.

The Memorial Day Lie

If you are reading this message, thank a soldier. Let us not forget that every right that you still have was paid for with a soldiers blood, sweat and tears.

None of the Human Rights that are in the Constitutional Laws of either the US or any other country has been paid for by soldiers.

That is the First Lie of misguided Patriotism. It is especially not true about a country like the US, which has not had foreign troops in-side its borders since 1776. (No, the attack on Pearl Harbor didn’t land any foreign troops in the US…) Any American Troops being immortalized during Memorial Day this year was in-side other countries when they died – more often than not as the invaders and the attackers, violators and criminals against International Laws. They weren’t protecting the US – they were attacking someone else.

Never has the US taken military action out-side the US without there being a monetary, political or ideological self-interest involved – not even in the two Great Wars (WWI and WWII). The US joined both only after US interests had been attacked.

Today, US Troops litter the globe like hungry locusts, eating, burning, violating and bragging their way through area after area, claiming they are defending American freedoms. That might be, but they are doing so at the expense of the people and countries they violate and demean with their presence.

Yes, each soldier has a mother/father, a wife/husband a daughter/son – and they grieve when that soldier dies away from home playing at war and chauvinism in foreign lands – I acknowledge that. However I also ask those parents, spouses and children to dare to hold the Government, who sent them out to pillage the world in their name, responsible for those crimes against humanity, and use this Memorial Day to protest and to refuse to celebrate US violations of other peoples rights in the name of the American Constitution.

These people have the US soldiers to thank for nothing – and ultimately – is what you saw in those videos the price YOU want to pay for your freedom – regardless of whether it is being threatened or not?

America in a Nutshell

“Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

I read this and I see just how accurate a description of the US it is. Especially after 9/11 2001.

It has been denounced by the Republicans and Neo-Cons as not true. All kinds of attempts to prove that this assertion is false have been made – and they have all failed. This is a very accurate description of what goes on in the US, and the violations of civil rights that the American People is being subjected to by its Government.

Political events after 9/11 2001 that are described above which have taken place in the US:

The War on Terror, specifically on Muslim/Arab/Islamist Terror, about which President George W. Bush said:

Any government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.

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Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

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Our enemies are a radical network of terrorists — and every government that supports them.

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Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure.

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Iraq is no diversion. It is a place where civilization is taking a decisive stand against chaos and terror, we must not waver.

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On September 11 2001, America felt its vulnerability even to threats that gather on the other side of the Earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat from any source that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.

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Some have argued that confronting the threat from Iraq could detract from the war against terror. To the contrary, confronting the threat posed by Iraq is crucial to winning the war on terror.

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Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

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The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war.

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The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States – and war is what they got.

Note that the terrorists are being connected with two Islamic countries – Iraq and Afghanistan – thus very clearly establishing that the terrorists he is speaking of are Muslims. This has also been evidenced by the US lack of action throughout history against terrorism that has not been carried out by Islamists.

America’s war on terror is fundamentally a war on Islam and on Muslims.

The Leader of the US has clearly stated who is the Enemy that is attacking the US.

The Patriot Act – especially created to monitor and disrupt any dissension with the Governmental Ideology in regards to the War, and in any given case label and silence such dissension as unpatriotic.

George W Bush on the matter of Patriotism and War:

Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty.

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We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge.

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I’m a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office and foreign policy matters with war on my mind.

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There is no telling how many wars it will take to secure freedom in the homeland.

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I don’t give a goddamn. I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way. … Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!

That last quote is from the “White House cabinet meeting to discuss the renewal of the Patriot Act, in response to GOP leaders presenting a valid case that the Patriot Act undermined the Constitution. Doug Thompson, Capital Hill Blue, Dec 5, 2005”

Yes – The President of the USA regards the Constitution – i.e the safeguard of Human and Civil Rights for all citizens of the US – a piece of paper that he can dismiss as so much garbage. He basically replaced the Constitution with the Patriot Act.

Public Libraries in the US are required to turn over their records to the Homeland Security so the HS can see who has borrowed what from the library. The only way the libraries can get around this, and thus protect the constitutional rights of Americans to read and take part in any information they wish, is by destroying their customer records…

NGO Charities or individuals that transfer money to predominantly Islamic countries or organizations as humanitarian aid frequently have their assets frozen, also if they are not living in the US. All it takes is the mere suspicion that the money might, perhaps, maybe be passing through an area that the US consider “terrorist territory”. No proof is needed.

Any protests against current US policies, even wearing a T-shirt with anti-war slogans can end you in Police custody without any questions asked.

American Citizens who immigrated from any country where Islam exists are routinely being monitored and put under surveillance, simply because there might be a connection to Islam and thus to terrorism. Police Officers routinely mistreat individuals who “look Muslim” or have an Arabic name.

If the US Government wants to know what you wrote in your email or said on your phone – they can just simply spy on you without any real reason or a court order based in the probability that you are committing a crime.

Yes, the initial quote is a very accurate description of the US. Who said it?

Herman Goering.

The Kettle is throwing horse manure in a glasshouse…

A working reactor would make Syria the first Arab nation with nuclear capability and potentially would put nuclear weapons in the hands of a regime that the United States accuses of committing human rights abuses and supporting international terror groups.

Whoa! Didn’t they just claim that Iran was…?

Any way, how credible is this claim, considering that the claims made about Iraq were nothing but pure Texan horse manure?

The United States has a history of trying to prove that countries have stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, he said, comparing the new claims to former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s presentation to the United Nations about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

The United States not only has a history of falsely accusing other nations of having nuclear weapons and such, they also have a history of wanting to divert attention from their own human rights abuses by pointing fingers at others.

The truly is a case of the kettle throwing horse manure in a glasshouse – and as said in the article:

“Don’t be gullible and fall for this,”

The US-ual disregard for human life

(CBS) The Department of Veterans Affairs came under fire again Monday, this time in California federal court where its facing a national lawsuit by veterans rights groups accusing the agency of not doing enough to stem a looming mental health crisis among veterans. As part of the lawsuit, internal emails raise questions as to whether top officials deliberately deceived the American public about the number of veterans attempting and committing suicide.

CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

In San Francisco federal court Monday, attorneys for veterans’ rights groups accused the VA of nothing less than a cover-up – deliberately concealing the real risk of suicide among veterans. “The system is in crisis and unfortunately the VA is in denial,” said Veterans Rights Attorney Gordon Erspamer. The charges were backed by internal e-mails written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA’s head of Mental Health.

In the past, Katz has repeatedly insisted while the risk of suicide among veterans is serious, it’s not outside the norm. “There is no epidemic in suicide in VA,” Katz told Keteyian in November. But in this e-mail to his top media advisor, written two months ago, Katz appears to be saying something very different, stating: “Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our metical facilities.” Katz’s e-mail was written shortly after the VA provided CBS News data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007 – a fraction of Katz’s estimate.

“This 12,000 attempted suicides per year shows clearly, without a doubt, that there is an epidemic of suicide among veterans,” said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense. And it appears that Katz went out of his way to conceal these numbers. First, he titled his e-mail: “Not for the CBS News Interview Request.” He opened it with “Shh!” – as in keep it quiet – before ending with “Is this something we should (carefully) address … before someone stumbles on it?” Today we showed the e-mail to Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. “This is disgraceful. This is a crime against our nation, our nation’s veterans,” Filner told CBS News. “They do not want to come to grips with the reality, with the truth.” And that’s not all.

Last November when CBS News exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report. “Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate,” he said last November. But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later. He wrote: there “are about 18 suicides per day among America’s 25 million veterans.” That works out to about 6,570 per year, which Katz admits in the same e-mail, “is supported by the CBS numbers.” In an e-mail late Monday to CBS News, Katz wrote that the reason the numbers were not released was due to questions about the consistency and reliability of the findings – and that there was no public cover-up involved.

This really does not need any comment – it stands on it’s own – as an example of the usual US disregard for human life in general and US lives in particular.

If nothing else it’s a nice way to save money – dead people don’t need pensions and health care…

Follow up: VA Struggles With Vets’ Mental Health.
How we got the numbers behind the story.
VA Doctor on Veteran Suicides.
FYI: Suicide Risk Resources and Warning Signs.