Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The View From Abroad

The View From Abroad by Fred Reed

In case you haven't wondered what the rest of the world thinks about America these days ...

"The United States is the most hated country in the world, followed closely by Israel, and then by nobody. Why? Why not Ecuador? China? Russia? East Timor? The hostility puzzles many Americans, who genuinely believe their country to be a force for good, a pillar of democracy, a defender of human rights.

To the rest of the world, none of this is even close."




Bill

Monday, March 11, 2013

The Crucifixion of Tomas Young

The Crucifixion of Tomas Young By Chris Hedges

"Young will die for our sins. He will die for a war that should never have been fought. He will die for the lies of politicians. He will die for war profiteers. He will die for the careers of generals. He will die for a cheerleader press. He will die for a complacent public that made war possible. He bore all this upon his body. He was crucified. And there are hundreds of thousands of other crucified bodies like his in Baghdad and Kandahar and Peshawar and Walter Reed medical center. Mangled bodies and corpses, broken dreams, unending grief, betrayal, corporate profit, these are the true products of war. Tomas Young is the face of war they do not want you to see."

Bill




Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Worst Mistake in U.S. History

The Worst Mistake in U.S. History -- America Will Never Recover from Bush's Great Foreign Policy Disaster By Peter Van Buren

Somehow, despite the fact that this is a very well written article by a very knowledgeable person, it falls short of nailing his thesis. He should talk with Phil Donahue and take a look at the Lobby.

He should find a way to summarize what Nick Turse describes, and I stand witness to.

And Bradley Manning case going on now exemplifies how easily it is for evil to beat the shit out of good.

And maybe the title should include the word Justice. Good ol' Justice. What happened to it? Justice was as American as apple pie when I grew up. Now its a word nobody even uses. The travesty of justice that was Bush, Cheney and the neocons invasion of the middle east, in a nutshell, destroyed and obliterated this country's notion of justice - so much so that nobody talks about it anymore. As recently as Nixon we thought we were taught a lesson in how justice will in the end prevail. Was it really another charade, and Nixon's removal from office was not really an eruption of justice after all, just the sword of Brutus?

We have the facts now. The story of Building 7 is by itself a vein of golden information Read all about it. Combine this with the story of the "dancing Israeli's" and it becomes a fact that some people knew of the attack in advance. Is there more evil to be uncovered there?

Combine these facts, put them together, and what do you see? What I see is a force of evil pushing aside my notion of good. I see justice trampled more rapidly in this generation then all preceding. I see tools and weapons with incredible power in the hands of evil people.

The biggest tool the force of good has going for it is the facts. We're sitting today on a veritable mountain of facts that support the argument against evil. What we're missing is people like Mr Van Buren, with his thinking and writing skills to bring all of the important facts together on one page with just the right title. I can't do it, or I would have, but I see people with his skill not hitting the high note and I just wish he or someone else of his caliber would!

And we do have the facts. The Internet is so vast, and growing, that it defies description. With practice, clear thinking and a mission, it's possible to navigate through this ocean of knowledge to find islands of data relevant to a particular subject. We all have the capability to study any particular subject and learn more about it then mankind ever had. Throughout history people were educated in ways that are quaint when compared to what's available to a person connected to the Internet. We're talking orders of magnitude and a need for words that don't come easily to mind. Here in the space of this post, I've included links to some very important facts. Don't believe them? Keep an open mind and do more searching. If you don't believe the neocons even exist, do some googling. Try 'neocon videos' if you don't like to read, some people have put the time and effort into creating videos that you can watch in your leisure. And you can always turn to books.

Jung's brilliant analysis of the opposites in human nature explains how and why forces such as good and evil exist. I have no doubt he himself was inclined to the good, but I think even he left it to poets and philosophers to describe how and why good must prevail. We need someone now, a Kennedy type, to lead, and we need it now. The forces of good are being stricken down around around us on a daily basis. Not a day goes by without another attack on good people. Be it a new security clampdown, more economic woes, more war, more enemies, more killing, more distrust, more lies, etc. Because they control our information supply they get to set the frame of reference, telling us what's important and what's not. Look at all the ink about Iran for just one example of how it works.

And all the while those with the power have tools and weapons that grow bigger by the day.

God help us.


Bill

Monday, March 4, 2013

Bradley Manning: The Face of Heroism

Bradley Manning: The Face of Heroism By Glenn Greenwald

"In December, 2011, I wrote an Op-Ed in the Guardian arguing that if Bradley Manning did what he is accused of doing, then he is a consummate hero, and deserves a medal and our collective gratitude, not decades in prison"

I hope you're following this trial. As important (and a true hero) that Bradley Manning is, what's really on trial here is transparency in government and the fate of people who decide to be whistle blowers when confronted with the situation Bradley Manning discovered he was in.

You might want to recall Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, because that event was remarkably similar to this, yet Ellsberg was treated as a hero in his day and never brought to trial for basically the same reason Bradley Manning is on trial today. Why is this? For some insight, click here. You can also google "ellsberg manning" for much, much more on this subject.

Aside: we should be so appreciative for the Internet! Let's use it to put the pieces together and sort out the terrible situation we're in, the lousy road we're on, and how we're going to solve these problems. I truly believe the heart of the solution is to update our election system with modern capabilities. As a long time computer systems person I can see how it should work, but I would love nothing more than to be bested by an even better solution.


Update: Please see Glenn Greenwald: Why the Obama Administration's Persecution of Bradley Manning Should Terrify Us All By Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald



Bill

How the World Forgot About Iraq

How the World Forgot About Iraq by PATRICK COCKBURN

This report provides insight into the state of Iraq today. America should be so ashamed and humbled by what was wrought on that country in our name.

Jumping ahead to a conclusion: at the very top of the list of corrective actions we so badly need to undertake is the prosecution of Bush and the neocon gang for war crimes.

Why is this so important that it should be job # 1 for America? Because the invasion of Iraq represents the corruption of justice at the highest level of our being, and without justice we have nothing.


Bill