Twelfth Bough

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Archive for category Injustice

‘Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.’

May 22

Posted by Marlena in Afghanistan, Bush/Cheney, Citizenship, Corruption & Crime, Injustice, Iraq, Media, Military, Nuclear Weapons, Psychology, Sustainability, Unreality | No Comments

Winter Patriot has a couple of really good posts up that you should go read, here and here. Regarding the second post about Depleted Uranium, this horror show will be touring the USA. Thanks to our useless and complicit corporate media, Americans will realize much too late the consequences and implications of this crime against humanity known as the War on Terror.

As Moret testified, depleted uranium turns into an infinitesimally fine dust after it explodes; individual particles are smaller than a virus or bacteria. And, “It is estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person’s body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment.”

And DU dust is everywhere. A minimum of 500 or 600 tons now litter Afghanistan, and several times that amount are spread across Iraq. In terms of global atmospheric pollution, we’ve already released the equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs, Moret said.

The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get worse. DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who breathe or touch it; the substance also alters one’s genetic code.

This is from a Global Research article written in May 2006:

PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have malignancies.

Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states:,

“Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity.”

Rokke’s own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He stated:

“When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy,”

After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others”including Rokke himself”developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems.

“We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.

Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is “not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases.”

Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases?

Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb.

“That’s exactly what they are. They fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way.”

According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact. “The larger the bang” the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100 percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the “micron size” or smaller, he said.

When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific:

“I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.”

You can find photographs of the hideously deformed babies born in Afghanistan and Iraq on the web. I realize people don’t like to look at things like this, but they had better get over their delicate sensibilities. This is your tax dollars at work. Here’s just one picture in an article posted at Uruknet, and there are many more. Many of the infants die at birth, and this has been going on for years.

I repeat, our government knows about this and has known about it for years.

Question: Why does the US military use these weapons, which are polluting the earth and killing indiscriminately? Are these the actions of a just and moral nation, or does this reflect a purely psychopathic mentality, a mentality firmly arrayed against life itself - whether foreign or domestic, young or old, human or plant or animal? In truth, a cult of death.

Answer: ‘Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.’

It’s time for human beings to comprehend this arrogance because nothing will get better until normal people can wrap their minds around the reality of psychopaths. The psychopaths will continue to terrorize all the inhabitants of the earth as long as we remain dazed and confused. Understanding this reality is the most important knowledge any human being can possess right now.

Question: Are we a nation of psychopaths, or are we merely controlled by psychopaths, and what, if anything, are we planning to do about this problem? And when, pray tell, might we begin? I’m just asking.

Answer: You tell me.

Extra Credit: You might note the comment to the Uruknet story.

Please search for “CAMP FALCON What really happened”

A MAJOR DU fire just covered up and lost in the pile of lies.

But not for me. No i can fathom the event and it’s importance.

Have a look for your own self.

I saw this fire on CNN live that night and i can tell you they instantly EDITED the footage after the first 1:30 second clip of this event (That was never seen by me again without color temperature editing) And the whole event is long since down the memory hole.

I did the search. Here’s one link. Nine huge transport planes of American casualties. You’d think Camp Falcon, Baghdad, October 10, 2006 would be an infamous day in Official Iraq War History. But no. I never heard of it before yesterday.

Please, people. We can’t flunk this test.

Then and Now

May 20

Posted by Marlena in Afghanistan, Africa, Citizenship, Injustice, Iraq, Israel | No Comments

Here you can see photographs of Palestinians before the state of Israel was ‘declared’. I see dignified people. I see peace.

This photojournalist brings us a view of Gaza today. I hope you will look around his site.In towns across America, the news of somebody’s seriously sick child or the sudden death of a young parent spreads quickly. It’s a tragedy, we all agree, and then we do something to help.

Imagine living in Gaza, or the West Bank, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or many other places throughout the world. These people had lives once, and futures. They eat tragedy, they breathe it, and they sleep it. Day after day, year after year. But who here says it’s a tragedy? Who rushes to help? I think you would if you could see, so please look. I want you to see what I see.

It’s a terrible mistake and an immeasurable injustice to think that other people’s suffering is somehow less than our own. Do you really think people in other lands love their children less than you love yours? Do you really think that little children far away love their parents less than your children love you? On what basis can anyone believe that? Where is the proof?

There is no proof. It’s just a delusion we tell ourselves to justify sacrificing their futures for ours. But there is no future for people who can justify such sacrifice. If you want a future, you must want a future for everybody and live your life accordingly.

The American Failure of Imagination

May 3

Posted by Marlena in 9-11, Afghanistan, Bush/Cheney, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Injustice, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Media, Military, Nuclear Weapons, Pakistan, Psychology, Russia, Stupidity, Unreality | 1 Comment

The following blog post from Opening Inner Space is reprinted in full. To my mind, this seems about right. Just last night I was talking with some enlightened people who mainly focused on the election and what might happen after that. Instead of banging my head against the wall, I suggest we focus on what’s happening right now, or it will not matter on whit who gets elected in November. The scariest thing happening right now remains our continued, stubborn failure of imagination about the consequences of striking Iran. People need to break free of the thought parameters constantly reinforced through corporate media.

Believe it or not, there are way more important things to focus on than the election. Attacking Iran is not like invading Grenada, though you’d never know as long as you rely on the corporate media for news. These media shills will be our deaths and the deaths of millions. They already are.

The truth about what could happen in the Middle East must be made known to our fellow citizens immediately.

War doesn’t bring peace. People don’t just lay down and die because the US or Israel tell them to. They fight back. I often wonder just who, exactly, we think we are that basic human nature confounds us daily. Do we think we’re somehow above other people? The inability to predict how people will respond to being attacked (in Iraq, Palestine, Iran, etc.) belies the truth that we are racists and find ‘others’ mysterious. Thus the continual shock and surprise when Iraqis and Palestinians fight for their own survival, though this is a perfectly normal and predictable reaction that any human being would take and should readily be able to understand. You would do the exact same thing.

Having said that, there are ‘others’ among us, but they’re not who you think. 94% of people in the world are normal people who want to live normal, peaceful lives. The remaining 6% are clinical psychopaths. Being free from conscience, many psychopaths have attained positions of power in the world. They are highly successful precisely because they can do things that normal people can’t do and still sleep fine at night. That’s one out of every 30 people. You know some, and you probably think of them as the assholes in your life because that’s what they are. For more information, start here. Understanding the presence and role of psychopaths in the general population helps everything make sense, and it frees up the imagination to accept the reality that people in and unfortunately leading our government will willingly sacrifice not only innocent foreign lives, but also our own American civilian and military lives in pursuit of their hidden agendas. Again, they already have on 9/11 and in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Set your naivety aside, my fellow citizens. The wolves are here among us, and they have a plan that will rock your world.

Newsmax: USA To Declare Nuclear War On 1.3 Billion Muslims This Summer

Newsmax.com has an influential Jewish American source who said the decision has already been made to use nuclear weapons against Iran this summer but that is only on Day 1. I took the liberty to point out in my headline what Day 31 will look like as it is the purpose of this essay to show the world the consequences of dropping nuclear weapons on tens of thousands of Muslim civilians in Iran.

Newsmax has recently published two stories citing an “inside source” saying that a nuclear attack against Iran is to take place this summer. In the first of these two stories they claimed to have an influential Jewish source who told them that Cheney’s recent 9 day trip to the Mideast, which included stops in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Turkey, was made to organize the coming war against Iran. At the time Dick Cheney went to Israel, the Israelis were completing the largest homefront military exercises in its history. The Israelis have also recently unveiled their new million dollar TV control center which is to be used to propagandize the viewers both inside and outside of Israel after the rockets start flying in retaliation for the forthcoming invasion of Lebanon. The Israeli army has been training to re-fight their last war which against Hezbollah. I believe Israel will invade Lebanon again as a first step to World War III. Israel wants to deplete Hezbollah of its rockets and push them back from Israel’s borders before they attack Syria.

Newsmax also said that Saudi Arabia started preparations to protect their oil kingdom from the radioactive fallout expected to be unleashed by the nuclear attack against Iran. The Iranian nuclear facilities are deep under ground so they cannot be the source of the planned for radiation. [More info here. - Ed.] I believe Saudi Arabia was told by vice-President Cheney during his trip in March to make preparations for nuclear war as their preparations began after his recent visit. The radioactive source will be nuclear bunker buster bombs which George W. Bush has re-classified as conventional weapons. But no amount of obfuscating rhetoric can turn a nuclear weapon into a conventional one.

The Bush-Cheney administration has made other moves that pave the way to war this summer. General David Petraeus will replace Admiral William Fallon as head of CENTCOM, the U.S. Central Command, which means that, if there is war this summer, General Petraeus will be the commander in charge of executing the policy. Admiral Fallon had said he was opposed to war with Iran. Unfortunately, the Senate Democrats, including Barrack Obama, have decided to support the nomination of the man who could be the commander responsible for launching WW III.

George W. Bush lacks the political capital to do what Dick Cheney’s visit was promising in March which is to launch a nuclear first strike against Iran’s atomic facilities that are buried deep under ground and have tens of thousands of civilians living on the surface above. That is why I have been saying since last year that Israel will launch the first strike against Iran and that she will retire from the field of battle very quickly after starting World War III. Israel will allow the United States to fight 1.3 billion Muslims in general and the nation states of Iran, Syria. Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular though Israel will help us fight Syria which does border them.

The Iranians have Russian made anti-ship missiles The SS-N-22 Sunburn and the SS-N-26X Yakhonts which were designed to sink aircraft carriers. They have Mach 4 speed and have ranges of 120 and 180 miles respectively. They are deadly accurate which is a necessity if you are planning to sink a modern aircraft carrier with a lot of separate compartments that can be sealed off. The Iranians also have Russian made rocket torpedoes that travel several hundred miles per hour underwater. And they have rocket artillery with ranges up to 150 kilometers. The Iranians have said that they will fire 11,000 rockets and artillery shells at Americans and Israelis in the first 60 seconds of an attack by either Israel or the United States.

Soviet military doctrine dictated that you have a few very advanced weapons and a lot of deadly but cheap older ones to throw into the mix. The Iranians also have hundreds of NATO and Chinese made anti-ship missiles to use on the two American carrier task forces which have 17,500 sailors and marines on board. I have been warning the world since 2007 that those American men and women are in harms way in the Persian Gulf and not in the safety of the Indian Ocean precisely so they can be sacrificed in a 21st century Pearl Harbor. Think about it. If Bush, Cheney and the Israelis cared about the lives of those men and women, they would not place them in range of Iran’s Russian made missiles. When the Bush-Cheney administration came into office in 2001, they tasked the Navy to develop a plan to protect our aircraft carriers from Russian made missiles. No such plan has been forthcoming and Dick Cheney knows that even if President Bush does not.

My regular readers are well aware that I believe since Bush lacks the clout to attack Iran which is protected by Russia’s Caspian Sea declaration and is seeking additional protection from China by asking to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. This means that only Israel can launch the first strike against Iran as Russia is currently obligated to come to the aid of Iran if it is attacked and China could soon be required to do the same. Israel is above international law and Russia has at least 12,000,000 Jews. And 8 of the 9 men that the Russian economy was given to after the fall of the Soviet Union were Jewish. Russia cannot attack Israel. That is why I have been saying since last year that Israel will attack Iran with American supplied nuclear bunker buster bombs. Iran will respond by sinking the ships holding 17,500 sailors and marines. They also have 1,000 fast rubber boats and lots of suicide volunteers to capture as many survivors as they can.

The United States Central Command homepage list 27 nations which currently allow America to station troops. 25 of 27 of these nations are Muslim. When we and the Israelis start bombing Muslim civilians with nuclear weapons, I would expect rogue army officers in many of those 25 states to fire artillery shells at American air bases. After one minute, no planes will be able to either land or take off. Then the artillery batteries can concentrate their fire on fuel depots. ammunition dumps and finally upon defenseless American troops until they either surrender or die. We could lose our entire Central Command in a matter of weeks.

In Iraq the pro-Iranian militia, military and police could join the resistance and attack the American supply lines. The Iranians have lots of oil money and could have already bought thousands of shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles to take out our 550 helicopters in Iraq. Their primary objective would be to cut off supplies coming in on the two roads from Kuwait to Baghdad. The Iranians would have already cut off all oil going out of the Persian Gulf and all military supplies coming in. The Iranians have already recruited and trained 40,000 suicide volunteers many of whom would be used against our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Israeli jets will need to be refueled by jet tankers to make the round trip from Israel to Iran. If America were not controlled by Zionists, our military would tell the Israelis that they would shoot down the refueling tanker jets making the Israeli air strike a one way suicide mission. Saudi Arabia could scramble its jets to shoot down the refueling planes, but that is not even remotely possible. The Saudi government might be the protector of Mecca but to date has been unwilling to defend Muslims. However, Pentagon planners must be made aware that the rank and file Saudi military cannot be relied upon to do nothing while unarmed Muslim civilians are killed by American nuclear weapons given to Israel. Just a few Saudi pilots and a radar crew could cancel the return flight from Iran to Israel. The Israeli jets would have to land in Iraq to refuel which would make life extremely difficult for the American occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If America is willing to allow Israeli jets loaded with American supplied nuclear weapons to bomb Iranian civilians by transiting U.S. controlled Iraqi air space, then the army officers and the spiritual leaders of the 25 Muslim nations that host U.S. Central Command troops will conclude that America is no longer their ally so they must act to protect innocent Muslim civilians from American and Israeli nuclear weapons. If the American opinion leaders and the military brass in the Pentagon learned what their 25 Muslim allied nations would do after they see the evidence America has turned against them, then the Pentagon just might be forced to say no to allowing Israeli jets safe passage through Iraqi skies to Iran.

The military and religious leaders of our 25 Muslim allies are likely already contemplating doing considerably more than shelling American air bases, fuel depots, and ammunition dumps. They will certainly take hostages, civilian and military and sponsor terrorist attacks on Americans worldwide including inside the U.S. The American Military and public must be made to understand that its troops in the Central Command will be sacrificed for nothing. They will not die protecting their homes and families. They will die to fulfill the imagined needs of Israel or rather its insane leaders. A clear majority of both Israelis and American Jews are opposed to war with Iran but the Zionist leadership routinely disregards the wishes of its people and does [sic] care what happens to Americans.

If the Israelis want to feel safe, they ought to make Muslims feel safe. Israel is the only nation in the world where it is perfectly legal for soldiers to shoot unarmed 12 year-old school girls for fun and for howling mobs of adults armed with automatic weapons to beat five and six year-old children as they walk to school.

By Day 20 of World War III the United States could be reduced to dropping nuclear weapons on Muslim civilians from planes stationed either at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean or on American aircraft carriers sent to replace the two we will certainly lose in the Persian Gulf on Day 1. Pakistan has hydrogen bombs. I would expect a coup or revolution in Pakistan by Day 7. It is entirely possible that one H-bomb could take out our base at Diego Garcia between Day 7 and Day 31.

The price of oil is currently pushing against the $120 a barrel barrier. Even without a war I have calculated that within months the American trade deficit will exceed one trillion dollars a year. America is buying 12,000,000 barrels a day on credit. The U.S. is also fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on credit. If Iran is forced to defend itself, it will cut off all oil coming out of the Persian Gulf. If Persian Gulf Oil is withdrawn from the world market, China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea could afford to pay cash in advance for a year’s supply of oil at $400 a barrel. If America were forced to buy its 4.4 billion barrels of imported oil on credit, the dollar would crash. American society would be destabilized to say the least. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve theoretically has a daily withdrawal of 4.4 million barrels which means we would have to pay $400 a barrel for the remaining 7,600,000 barrels a day the U.S. must import Unemployment could at least double or even triple. Nearly half of those Americans who do have jobs would not be able to afford to buy gas to get to work and food to eat so they would have the strength to work. Inflation would wipe out the meager incomes of the 43,000,000 Americans on Social Security.

You might question why would America risk destroying itself and the world we knew to drop nuclear weapons on Iran ? The only real answer was given in a public forum by Ann Lewis, a Democratic political operative and sister of Congressman Barney Frank. She said, “The role of the President of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel.” She is herself Jewish and her remarks were quoted by a Jewish columnist in a Jewish owned newspaper. She was applauded by her Jewish audience but her statement of the obvious regarding the relationship between America and Israel not been made known to the general public. I wonder why?

My purpose in writing this essay is to stop World War III before it starts. I believe we will be under martial law before we get to Day 10 of WW III. That means that attending anti-war demonstrations could get you a one way ticket to one of those concentration camps the Senate and House of Representatives have been funding with American tax dollars or more truthfully by borrowing from foreigners who should never expect to be paid back.

There are Central Bankers, foreign corporations and wealthy individuals who would be willing to dump dollars in order to cut the funding of endless Zionist inspired wars. They know of these wars are fought on credit. They feel it is long past time for the world to tell American militarists that the joy of killing unarmed civilians, polluting foreign lands with Depleted Uranium and giving the unborn children of both their allies and their enemies birth defects is over. They firmly believe America should no longer be allowed to commit war crimes on credit.

These men and women are a minority but if enough act at a time when America is about to destroy itself and the world with still another suicidal war, they can cause a stampede in the markets as all investors know the dollar will soon crash. They just don’t know the specific day. If the majority of rational investors saw an imminent war America cannot win and a lot of people stampeding for the exits, these more logically inspired men and women would certainly dump the dollar rather than risk the loss of their entire fortunes defending a losing cause.

If American opinion leaders knew the world financial community was seriously contemplating sending the United States into an inflationary depression that will personally bankrupt them, then they just might give the Senate and the Congress the spine to say no to Israel and yes to the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

If America allows Israel and the Bush-Cheney administration to sacrifice 17,500 sailors and marines in order to launch World War III, their leaders will demonstrate just how ruthless, insane and depraved the New American-Israeli World Order will be if it is not stopped.

My suggestion is that we tell as many people as possible that Israel will attack Iran precisely so they can sacrifice 17,500 American sailors and marines in the Persian Gulf. Our servicemen and women are to be deliberately sacrificed in a 21st century Pearl Harbor just so Israel and the Bush-Cheney administration can start a world war killing tens of millions if not billions of people. If enough people are made aware of the plan for war in advance, then the conflict cannot take place.

It is time for every man and every woman to say no to war. Even if you personally survive the coming holocaust, you will likely despise the world Bush, Cheney and Israel will allow you and your family to live in until either you or someone you care for dares to speak out against the corruption and the mass murder that has become our new government.

References

The Ann Lewis quote can be found here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031702440.html

These are the URLs to the two Newsmax articles.

http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/iran_nuclear_strike/2008/04/14/87887.html?s=al&promo_code=4940-1

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Ross_Warning_iran/2008/04/23/90322.html?s=al&promo_code=49D1-1

When I say she lies like other people breathe…

May 1

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Injustice, Israel, Language & Meaning, Stupidity, Unreality | No Comments

I am not kidding.

There’s so much to deconstruct in Condi Rice’s remarks to the American Jewish Committee, and I hope to get to some of that tomorrow. I don’t think my stomach can handle it at the moment. For now, I will just address this nugget:

I still remember my first time visiting Israel: It felt like coming home to a place that I had never been. And every time I return, and as I look upon the land where Israelis have made the desert literally bloom, and as I drive past the aging hulks of Israeli tanks, which recall the dear cost that generations of Israeli patriots have paid for their nation’s survival, as I see all of these things, it is clear to me that a confident Israel can achieve things that many think impossible.

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Capital Hilton
Washington, DC
April 29, 2008

First of all, suck up much?

Second of all, confidence?!? Does she think a lack of confidence is Israel’s problem? It is to die laughing.

As usual, the truth is 180 degrees in the opposite direction. The Israelis need to try on some humility for a change. But of course, that’s not something Condi could recognize in a thousand million years, being the arrogant, haughty and smug little princess that she is.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Living with Uncertainty

Apr 30

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, Iran, Israel, Nuclear Weapons, Stupidity | No Comments

The entire argument for attacking Iran rests on a hypothetical future scenario, also known as fear-mongering: If we allow Iran to develop nuclear power technology, they might start up a secret nuclear weapons program, and then they might use a nuclear weapon to attack Israel. Therefore, we must attack Iran and stop all these things from ever possibly happening. (Notice that Iran might attack Israel in this hypothetical scenario, not the United States.)

I’m sorry, but that is just lame, especially given that Iran has the right to develop peaceful nuclear power technology, and Iran has complied with the IAEA, and Iran has not attacked another country in a couple hundred years. Israel, on the other hand, has nuclear weapons but never declared them, and Israel has repeatedly attacked its neighbors and continues to do so. So let’s get real. Israel is the country that needs to be controlled here, not Iran.

But if that does not satisfy those who can’t stand living with the possibility that some horrible thing might happen to Israel somewhere down the road, let’s just talk about the horrible things that would definitely happen to all of us here on Earth if the US or Israel attack Iran’s nuclear power plants. There’s a moral argument to be made here, or at least an argument about justice. Let’s set up our little scales of justice with Israel’s paranoid fears of Iran on one side and the consequences of bombing Iran’s nuclear power plants on the other side, shall we?

Never in history has it happened that nuclear power plants and nuclear enrichment facilities have been deliberately bombed. Such facilities, everywhere in the world, operate under severe safety conditions because the release of radioactive materials is deadly, immediately and also long after exposure. If the USA or Israel deliberately bomb a fully fueled nuclear power plant or nuclear fuel enrichment facilities, containment will be breached; radioactive elements will be released into the environment. There will be horrific deaths for families in the surrounding vicinity. The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated 3 million deaths would result in 3 weeks from bombing the nuclear enrichment facilities near Esfahan, and the contamination would cover Afghanistan, Pakistan, all the way to India.

Reactors and enrichment facilities are built of extra strong concrete, often with multiple layers of containment domes, often built underground. Bombing such facilities will require powerful explosives, earth penetrator war heads, maybe nuclear warheads. The explosions will blow the contamination high into the atmosphere. Where will it go is a question that is difficult to predict.

…The nuclear fallout from bombing Iran will have a half life of 700 million years. That is a duration difficult to comprehend. Jesus Christ was preaching a mere 2 thousand years ago. In the evolution of humans, our earliest ape-like ancestors were walking upright a mere 5 million years ago. The Bush administration and its Israeli advisors are now planning to contaminate the planet for 700 million years. From the rhetoric of Presidential candidates John McCain and Hillary Clinton, they, too, think that is a good idea. The US media seem to applaud.

Either Americans do not understand what it is they are preparing to do, or they think themselves immune to the consequences. The planet is not large. What goes around, comes around. Smoke from the Gulf War oil fires went around the world and was detected in South America. Radioactive fallout from bombing a nuclear reactor will also go far, especially considering that it has millions of years to make the trip. The Persian Gulf nations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran have more than half the world’s known oil reserves. The 1981 study by Fetter and Tsipis in Scientific American on “Catastrophic Releases of Radioactivity” estimated that bombing a nuclear reactor would cause 8600 square miles around the reactor to be uninhabitable, depending on which way the wind blows. Bombing the Bushehr reactor will mean half of the world’s oil is instantly inaccessible. Bombing Iran means that Americans will not be driving cars any where, any more, for a long, long time. The American Way of Life will be finished. An economic collapse unimagined by Americans will follow. Mechanized farming and food transport will be finished. Famine is a possibility. Food riots are a certainty, in the land of plenty, with the fuel gauge on empty.

Hmm. I dunno. I’m thinking the Israelis better learn to live with a little uncertainty, because honestly, I think polluting our planet with nuclear contamination for 700 million years is asking just a wee bit too much of the rest of us. But, admittedly, I’m a bitch that way.

Settlers

Apr 24

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Citizenship, Injustice, Israel, Language & Meaning, Media | No Comments

I notice today a story about the Israeli settlers: Israelis Claim Secret Agreement with US.

A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president’s efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office.

Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush’s letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush’s peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank. In an interview this week, Sharon’s chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed this understanding in a secret agreement reached between Israel and the United States in the spring of 2005, just before Israel withdrew from Gaza.

U.S. officials say no such agreement exists, and in recent months Rice has publicly criticized even settlement expansion on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which Israel does not officially count as settlements. But as peace negotiations have stepped up in recent months, so has the pace of settlement construction, infuriating Palestinian officials, and Washington has taken no punitive action against Israel for its settlement efforts.

Israeli officials say they have clear guidance from Bush administration officials to continue building settlements, as long as it meets carefully negotiated criteria, even though those understandings appear to contradict U.S. policy.

Who are these people, the settlers?

The word settler has a nice, wholesome, Laura Ingalls Wilder feel to it, no? It’s a word that evokes the rugged individualism of those hardy souls who set off in covered wagons across the prairies, killing and displacing Native Americans heroically fighting off savage Indians as they set up their little towns and villages in the heartland. Oh, they were God-fearing people, our settlers, were they not? Or perhaps we think of the Pilgrims or the tragic souls who founded Jamestown, fleeing religious persecution and striking out on their holy errand to make a shining city on the hill. It’s all good, right? Who wouldn’t be proud to trace the family tree back to some quintessentially American settlers?

Settlers are by definition people who bravely go into the unknown, fighting off hostile natives as they valiantly fulfill their God-given calling to make ’something’ out of ‘nothing’.

Is that what the Israeli settlers are doing? Is that the narrative we’re being fed, subconsciously and overtly?

It’s not true. It occurs to me that good Americans might assume that they can relate to these people based on a vague historical narrative that we barely articulate. Some Israeli settlers might be lovely people. But you should know, my fellow Americans, that some of these settlers are absolutely despicable. They hate, and most disturbingly, they teach their children to hate from a very young age.

Please watch this video to see what I mean.

Do you understand? These settlers have gone into Palestinian areas and planted themselves. The spit on the Palestinians, verbally abuse them, throw rocks, even murder them, and the IDF soldiers do nothing. The settler children act like little monsters, obviously encouraged by their parents. The entire situation reeks of moral depravity. I have read that IDF soldiers consider some of the settlers pure evil — that’s how bad they are. The IDF! Not exactly a bunch of boyscouts.

Go to the main page and watch some more videos. It’s unbelievable. Watch Rt 443, night vigils, forced eviction, water shortage. This is the reality of the Occupation. This is the reality of settlements and the Occupation. This is the reality that you are not supposed to know, American Citizen, because when you understand this you must admit that this is wrong. So utterly, morally wrong. So incredibly offensive to decent people everywhere.

It’s easy to go about our lives while this outrage happens on the other side of the planet, but we need to wake up. American public opinion and American tax dollars and American leaders make this all possible. From now on when you read these sanitized stories about settlements, understand what that word really means. It’s a clever euphemism for a despicable policy, and it’s long past time to pull the plug on this bullshit.

More White House Lies

Apr 24

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Injustice, Israel, Language & Meaning, Politics | 1 Comment

Knowing how much the wingers love to hate Jimmy Carter, and knowing that Condi Rice lies like other people breathe, it comes as no surprise to learn that the current ‘outrage’ over Carter’s discussions with Hamas is completely fabricated.

Supposedly the State Department told Carter not to speak to Hamas, and supposedly he disregarded this warning. Some news accounts say he ‘defied’ the warnings. And supposedly Hamas showed it’s ‘true colors’ on Saturday when 13 Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded at a Gaza border crossing.

The State Department has said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, issued the warning before Carter, a veteran of Middle East diplomacy, went on his trip last week.

Rice said in Kuwait on Tuesday: “We counseled President Carter against going to the region and particularly against having contact with Hamas.”

That’s so funny because Carter says the complete opposite. So somebody must be lying. Let’s see…which party must be lying?

“No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him (Carter) to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President (Bashar) Assad or leaders of Hamas,” it said.

It said Carter attempted to call Rice before making the trip and a deputy returned his call since Rice was in Europe.

“They had a very pleasant discussion for about 15 minutes, during which he never made any of the negative or cautionary comments described above. He never talked to anyone else,” the statement said.

Carter had already on Monday, in an interview with National Public Radio, described as “absolutely false” any suggestion he had been warned not to meet Hamas.

“The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we certainly told President Carter that we did not think that meeting with Hamas was going to help the Palestinians,” Rice said Tuesday while attending a conference in Kuwait.

The White House backed Rice and said events after Carter’s meeting showed Hamas’ true character.

Carter “is a private citizen and he made a decision to not comply with what the State Department asked him to do,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters on Wednesday.

Perino made an apparent reference to an attack on Saturday in which a Palestinian suicide bomber and two other gunmen were killed when they attacked a border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, wounding 13 Israeli soldiers.

“Actions speak louder than words,” said Perino of Hamas.

I love that lying little tart Dana Perino, official spokesliar for the lyingest government on earth, curtly admonishing people that actions speak louder than words. Why yes, Dana. Yes they do. Thanks for pointing that out.

As for the ‘true colors’ comment, give me a break. The people in Gaza are dying. Their children are starving, they have no fuel, their ambulances can’t travel, their hospitals can’t treat people, and the IDF kills them indiscriminately. The Palestinians in Gaza live in a filthy cage under constant threat of violence, and they’re trying to break the cage before they all die of starvation and illness or are killed by the IDF. Can you blame them? Who is really showing their true colors, the people forced to live inside the cage, or the people who put them there?

The Proper Use of Video and Marketing Skills

Apr 23

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Injustice, Media, Military, Torture | No Comments

Killed for Paying Attention

Apr 17

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, Israel, Media, Military | 2 Comments

Yesterday the IDF murdered some people in Gaza. One of them was a journalist who happened to be holding his camera when an Israeli tank blew him away. Another person nearby filmed the rest. You can watch the video here.

These people killed posed no threat whatsoever to the tank parked far off in the distance. The IDF soldiers simply murdered them for no good reason. It’s inexplicable by any rational standards. How many Palestinians have been killed for no good reason?

In addition, the tank round used exploded with flechettes, or little darts, which fly out from the shell and into anyone nearby.

A medical examination showed on Thursday that metal darts from an Israeli tank shell that explodes in the air caused the death of a Reuters cameraman killed a day earlier in the Gaza Strip, doctors said.

X-rays displayed by physicians who examined the body of Fadel Shana in Gaza’s Shifa hospital showed several of the controversial weapons, known as flechettes, embedded in the 23-year-old Palestinian’s chest and legs.

Several of the 3 cm (1 inch)-long darts were also found in Shana’s flak jacket, emblazoned with a fluorescent “Press” sign, and in his vehicle, an unarmoured sport utility vehicle bearing “TV” and “Press” markings.

Back in 2001 there was some controversy in the IDF over whether or not to use these barbaric little darts. Some officers felt their use would cause an international backlash against Israel.

Although the IDF spokesman refused to comment on operational matters, other IDF sources told JDW that commanders are under orders to use the round sparingly and insist it has been employed on only a “handful” of occasions in Gaza. They said the round is used against targets such as mortar crews who cannot be engaged effectively by automatic fire.

“The Israeli military obtained these weapons from the USA after the 1973 war and we have thousands of old shells in warehouses,” said an Israeli defence source. “The weapon is not regarded as reliable or effective and gunners have a difficult time in aiming this properly.”

Hmm. It looks like any strict standards governing their use back in 2001 have clearly been relaxed, and the gunner in this case did not seem to have any trouble aiming the weapon. Nor do I hear any international backlash. You can see more pictures here.

Abu Mizyed said he and Shana were following ambulances that left the scene of an Israeli air strike, when the cameramen pulled over to take some wide shots of the area. An Israeli tank, Abu Mizyed said, was about a kilometre (half-mile) away.

“Fadel put his camera on a tripod and filmed for several minutes,” Abu Mizyed said.

Disturbed by a group of children, Shana asked Abu Mizyed to move them away. As he did so, Abu Mizyed heard an explosion behind him. Turning around, he saw Shana and two children — who also died — lying in pools of blood.

What were they doing wrong? Looking? Using their eyes? Being in Gaza? Does their very existence threaten the IDF? What other conclusion can one possibly draw?

On top of it all, the comments by Reuters’ editor-in-chief, David Schlesinger, strike me as completely inadequate.

“The evidence from the medical examination underlines the importance of a swift, honest and impartial investigation by the Israel Defense Forces and by the government,” said David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Reuters News.

“The markings on Fadel Shana’s vehicle showed clearly and unambiguously that he was a professional journalist doing his duty. We and the military must work together urgently to understand why this tragedy took place and how similar incidents can be avoided in the future,” Schlesinger added.

He made some other remarks about how journalists should be able to do their jobs without fearing for their lives. That’s all well and good, but there’s no mention of all the other people killed in Gaza every day by the IDF. When a journalist dies, people notice, but why don’t people notice when innocent civilians die? This strike killed several people and was a blatant murder, caught on film. Is this all Schlesinger can muster when one of his employees and some nearby kids get pierced to death by darts?

Not that I’m surprised, but it still bears pointing out because I’m sick and tired of people shrugging off all sorts of barbaric behavior. Where’s the outrage? Where’s the accountability? This has been going on for a long time, so what good is a measured demand for a ’swift, honest and impartial investigation’? Has anything like that ever been forthcoming in all these years? No. The IDF will blow this off just like they surely blow off any complaints about people getting killed in the occupied territories. They don’t care. These soldiers have been given carte blanche to do whatever they want. Maybe the guy in the tank woke up on the wrong side of bed, so he decided to kill some people yesterday. He knows there will be no negative consequences for him, so what’s to stop him? Apparently nothing.

Every person killed is somebody’s son or daughter, brother or sister, mother or father.

The Haughty Condi Rice is a Liar

Apr 16

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, Injustice, Military | No Comments

Just in case there are still people around who think this woman has any credibility or character, this video should put that delusion to rest. She has lied in our faces about more things, and so many people have died because of her lies. She belongs in prison along with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest. What a pack of murderous thieves. Condi Rice particularly bothers me since so many have considered her someone special, someone acquainted with the downtrodden (at least theoretically), and so they have put more hope in her. Therefore she has abused people’s trust more than the old white men ever could, and that’s a pretty amazing feat.