It's Not Too Late!

An hour to go, I'm going to sneak this in yet. It's too important to not.

Happy International Day of Peace!

The International Day of Peace, sometimes unofficially known as World Peace Day, is observed annually on 21 September. It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid access. The day was first celebrated in 1982, and is kept by many nations, political groups, military groups, and peoples. In 2013, for the first time, the Day was dedicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to peace education, the key preventive means to reduce war sustainably.

To inaugurate the day, the United Nations Peace Bell is rung at UN Headquarters (in New York City). The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents except Africa, and was a gift from the United Nations Association of Japan, as "a reminder of the human cost of war"; the inscription on its side reads, "Long live absolute world peace".

Imagine.

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

What Republican Leaders Said--and Promised---About Iraq

Yet they blame and blamed President Obama

A truth about The New York Times, the Iraq War and future wars

With as badly--horribly, really--as The New York Times buckled and let down both its readers and the nation on George W. Bush & Company's unprecedented, unwarranted, unnecessary and nationally and internationally illegal attack on and war with Iraq from 2003 on, doesn't it seem as though now they should be hounding down every fact and detail they can find on the hopefully remote possibility that we would now or are now or in the near future considering attacking Iran?

Don't you think they owe that to us, the American public, all their readers and the world?

I know I do.

I hope I'm not being naive.

And I hope I'm not being naive again.

Link: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2957

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/06/03/bill-keller-speaks-out-on-judy-miller-iraq-war/180289

On this Memorial Day

Let's face it, if we really "respected our troops", we wouldn't have sent them in harm's way, first in Iraq, for the chosen, arbitrary, unnecessary, ignorant-to-the-point-of-stupid and illegal war that was and then into Afghanistan, where those people didn't want us, either.

We have George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to thank--rather, to hold responsible--for both.

They are war criminals, by their own words. We should hold them accountable, charge them and put them on trial.

We won't. We never will.

But we should.

The ultimate indictment of George W. Bush and his administration

Former Secretary of State and General Colin Powell has written a book, covering his years in the Bush Administration and is to come later this month.

What he says is damning to former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their administration.

I'll cut to the article I saw today:

Colin Powell's New Book: War With Iraq Never Debated

WASHINGTON -- In his new book, former Secretary of State Colin Powell provides what may be the most authoritative confirmation yet that there was never a considered debate in the George W. Bush White House about whether going to war in Iraq was really a good idea.

In a chapter discussing what he calls his “infamous” February 2003 speech to the United Nations where he authoritatively presented what was later exposed as gross misinformation about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Powell notes that by that time, war “was approaching.”

“By then, the President did not think war could be avoided,” Powell writes. “He had crossed the line in his own mind, even though the NSC [National Security Council] had never met -- and never would meet -- to discuss the decision.”

Someone in the George W. Bush White House was proposing we--the United States--attack a foreign, sovereign nation peremptorily, against our own, internal, national laws as well as against external, international laws and that President and his administration didn't think it necessary to even consult the National Security Council.

Insane.

Totally irresponsible.

When we were building up to attack Iraq and for what ended up being war, many of us protested the entire idea, ahead of time. I know I did. Had we known the George W. Bush administration had already made up its collective mind to do this, without considering all the issues, details and possible ramifications, even more Americans would have protested and insisted we not undertake this action.

Not only that, but the article I cite here also shows that other people have written and documented the same thing, that this administration had no conversations on the wisdom or ignorance of attacking Iraq and that the decision to attack was apparently a foregone conclusion.

Between this and the fact that that administration had 21 planeloads of American dollars literally flown into Iraq, after the initial confrontation, it's amazing the American people aren't in an uproar over what that group of people did and all in our name.

When added to everything else we know about the debacle that became the second Iraq War, it seems even more clear that George W. Bush, at least, if not also his Vice President, Dick Cheney, should clearly, absolutely be tried for war crimes.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/09/colin-powell-book_n_1503592.html

Quote of the day

"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -­ kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervour -­ with the cry of grave national emergency. Always, there has been some terrible evil at home, or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it." --General Douglas MacArthur

What's going on with Americans?

What's up with Americans today? What has happened to America? The America I knew? The tough, smart one? I see, hear and read so much paranoia and suspicion anymore, it's shocking. There is expectation of much ugliness and evil and huge "powers that be" and it's surprising and new to me. It seems paranoid and really gets tiresome. We had a financial collapse in 2008, we elected a black man president in 2010 and lots of large weather anomalies have taken place in the recent past. That and a lot of people have lost their jobs or their socio-economic status and still others are having to get used to women having more power and clout in our society possibly. I understand all that but the suspicion or paranoia or whatever it is is really getting out of hand. I've never known Americans to be like this. What brings this about is a conversation on Facebook with "friends" due to this video: People were saying it's chemtrails they think and that the government must be poisoning us, instead of just jet contrails. And sure, it could, remotely be possible. Governments around the world have done some of this stuff. England recently admitted to doing it from the 40's to the 70's but honestly, I see and hear so many people saying that it's "the end of the world", literally, and that the government is preparing to either kill us, like this, or heard us all into FEMA camps and it gets really old. Here's the thing, if everyone's so upset now, why weren't they raising hell when that white moral and mental midget George W. Bush was spending us into oblivion, giving away tax cuts to his already-obscenely rich friends and taking us into a horrible, tragic, needless, mindless, nationally and internationally illegal war in Iraq? Where were these people then? Why didn't they raise hell about the honky who was screwing things up? I'd love to know. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory

What we denied about the George W. Bush administration and the Iraq War

I ask you, is this not what happened, ladies and gentlemen?

Things our soldiers are doing in our name

We send them over there. The least we could do is know what they're having to do for us.

The Iraq War

What the Iraq War was

In a soldier's own words:

The official end of the Iraq War

On this, the official end of the Iraq War, it's so vitally important to remember a few things, at least: 1.5 million American soldiers served, 4,487 American Soldiers lost their lives, 32.226 American Soldiers were wounded, $806 billion were spent on it, it was a longer war than WWII or Vietnam, no weapones of mass destruction were ever found--just as the United Nations inspectors were verifying--and it was all based on lies. (Tragically, this doesn't even take into consideration the destruction of the Iraqi country and so many Iraqi lives). Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/world/middleeast/panetta-in-baghdad-for-iraq-military-handover-ceremony.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

On this 9/11 Anniversary

I wrote earlier, I refuse to watch any of the coverage of this 9/11 anniversary. It depresses me for so many reasons it's nearly overwhelming. News junkie that I am, 'm going to skip them all. Besides the worst tragedy of all these attacks, what gets me most is that it was so unnecessary and so avoidable. The FBI, internally, knew Al Qaeda members were learning how to fly planes, hastily and in pretty good numbers, across the country and, worst of all, President at the time, George W. Bush had a Daily Presidential Brief back in August, warning that Osama bin Laden was trying to do this very thing. That is, that he was preparing to attack New York by plane. Finally, that same administration was still allowing small pocket knives on commercial flights across the nation. As you'll recall, that was how one group of terrorists were able to take over at least one plane, with small pocket knives. European security hadn't allowed such things for years. What it boils down to is, 9/11 shouldn't have happened, absolutely. It was totally, utterly and completely avoidable. That it did happen is shameful. Yet George W. Bush is off in Texas, fully enjoying his cushy, wealthy, fatcat life. It would be nice if Americans recognized and kept in mind his dereliction of duty and what it ended up meaning to the thousands of people who died that day, unnecessarily. Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030700216.html; http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131432&page=1; http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040801215339657; http://www.slate.com/id/2097476/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US

"The Onion" as prophet

Days before George W. Bush took office, "The Onion" predicted a massive increase in defense spending, a Gulf war, a recession brought on by substantial tax cuts, deregulation of industry, defunding of social-service programs, and a return to deficit spending. Who would have thought great humor could be that cynical but, ultimately, correct? See the original "The Onion" post here: http://www.theonion.com/articles/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peace-and-pros,464/

Now that it's nearly Autumn....

What Fox "News", the Right Wing, the Rethuglicans, Tea Party and all the other crazies would want you to believe:

America flaunts international law, more, again, still

First, President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney trounced international law by pre-emptively and unilaterally attacking Iraq for their 2nd Iraq War, against both popular opinion and, far worse, international law. We've been paying for that with soldiers lives, American prestige and money and materiel ever since. Next, there were "reports that the Obama administration had flown a Somali man accused of ties to terrorism to New York to face prosecution after holding and interrogating him at sea for more than two months." Yeehaw. At least we're consistent, huh? Now, finally today, anyway we find that Governor Rick Perry and the State of Texas "has executed a Mexican national for the kidnapping and rape of a 16-year-old San Antonio girl. Humberto Leal Garcia, 38, was put to death less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-to-4 vote, rejected pleas from the Obama administration for a delay to avoid what it called serious international repercussions." Here's where the problems come in regarding international law: "Texas authorities failed to inform him of his right to speak with officers from the Mexican consulate and failed to inform the consulate that a Mexican national had been arrested. Both of those failures violated a 1963 treaty signed by the U.S. Indeed, the consular access provision was added to the treaty at the insistence of the United States." But now, here's the tricky part, at least for the US--while we repeatedly trounce international law as shown by these 3 instances and more, regarding this last one, the US actually likes to use this treaty for its own citizens. Background: "The U.S. relies on the treaty to secure legal help and often to win release of Americans imprisoned abroad, some in countries such as Iran, Libya and Syria. Last year alone the U.S. invoked the treaty for 3,500 Americans imprisoned in other countries." So we like to invoke this law for our own citizens but for people of other countries and their governments, we figure "screw you guys, we're going our own way on this." If we were in school, the US would get a checkmark in the "Doesn't get along with others" column, at least. Can you say "blatant hypocrisy"? Trouble is, executing this Mexican National last evening was good for Texas Governor Rick Perry's presidential run that isn't even official yet. So one Humberto Leal Garcia died last night so Rick Perry could be shown as tough on crime and help his popularity. Yahoo, huh? Isn't that just terrific? I wonder what international laws we'll disregard next. And some people wonder why we have a not-so-great-name and reputation in some parts of the world. Links: http://www.representativepress.org/ViolatingInternationalLaw.html; http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/cra0868.htm; http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/u.s.-may-have-violated-domestic-and-international-law-capturing-and-holding-somali-months-sea; http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/texas-executes-mexican-national-after-supr; http://news.yahoo.com/texas-executes-mexican-court-stay-rejected-233305430.html; http://news.yahoo.com/un-official-us-execution-leal-broke-intl-law-160400028.html

More proof of Dubya's brilliance---and incompetence

As though we needed it.

Out in the news today:

Over $6 billion in Iraq reconstruction cash remains unfound

The Iraqi and U.S. governments have been unable to account for a substantial chunk of the billions of dollars in reconstruction aid the Bush administration literally airlifted into the country. If the cash proves to have been stolen, the heist could represent "the largest theft of funds in national history," according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

The Times' description of how the billions of dollars entered the country is a must-read:

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

Special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction Stuart Bowen told the paper the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history."

That last administration thought this was a great idea.

We let this happen to ourselves.

Idiots.

I say again:  Worst.  President.  Ever.

Bar none.

The inevitable: ObL jokes

"It looks like President Obama has a new campaign slogan:  'Yes I Did'."  --Jay Leno

"I think the next election just got a lot easier for President Obama 'cause his response to every question during the debates will be:  'Wait, I forgot...Did you kill Osama bin Laden?  Or did I kill Osama bin Laden?  Oh, no it was me, wasn't it?'"  --Craig Ferguson

"Osama bin Laden was apparently shot twice in the face.

It looks like Dick Cheney may have been involved."  --Jay Leno

Links:  http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/osamabinladen/a/Osama-Bin-Laden-Jokes.htm
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/osamabinladen/a/Osama-Bin-Laden-Jokes.htm

On fear as a tool in America

“It’s not hard to bring out the worst in large numbers of citizens by constantly pressing their buttons; fear, hate, greed, false pride and blind loyalty are the main emotions used to manipulate people so much these last years. Reversing this process and empowering people through courage, love, generosity, humility and critical thinking is harder but it can and must be done.” -- Coleen Rowley for RootsAction; FBI whistle blower


Link:  http://rootsaction.org/

Huh. Democracy breaking out in the Middle East. Imagine that

First it was Yemen.

Then it was Syria.

Next up was Egypt, of course, against Hosni Mubarak.

Now it's Jordan, whose King Jordan just let go his cabinet.

Democracy seemingly breaking out in all these places in the Middle East and it wasn't because the US attacked them, blew them up and tried to "give them" Democracy.

More than 4,300 American soldiers gave their lives so we could spread Democracy in Iraq.  We've committed the nation to, it's been estimated, 3 trillion dollars and now a huge debt burden.

But maybe, just maybe--and this is entirely possible--Democracy would have broken out in Iraq without the debacle the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney/Donald Rumsfeld/Paul Wolfowitz/Condoleeza Rice group selectively took us into.

Iraq has had an undercurrent of protests during and after Saddam Hussein's reign.  With the current examples of citizens rebelling against their governments, it is entirely possible to the point of likely that the Iraqis could and would have brought down their own government.

Sure, it's second-guessing and arm chair quarterbacking but it is an entirely possible scenario.

It is yet further proof I believe, if even in retrospect, that we just shouldn't have attacked Iraq, all those years ago.  (And for clarification, I protested the Iraq War before it took place.)

Links:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_jordan_cabinet;_ylt=AjOSiPYSSaj9bz2VwIGwfkHuOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTJ2Y3Y0NXQ0BGFzc2V0Ay9zL2FwL21sX2pvcmRhbl9jYWJpbmV0BGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwMyBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDam9yZGFuc2tpbmdm

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/01/28/if-egypt-falls-syria-must-follow/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/27/yemen-protesters-demand-change-government