On Power - Open letter to the US Congress
ON POWER
AN OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS FROM A VETERAN AND MILITARY DADÂ
By Stan Goff
(Disclaiming in advance for the rare exceptions in Congress)
If there is one thing we can always count on, it’s politicians who walk over human corpses to show fear only in the face of something as formless and abstract as an opinion poll. The veterans and military families antiwar movement are well-versed on so-called realism – and that deference we are supposed to exercise when we approach elected officials, hat in hand, for a few crumbs of your attention and support.
We understand power very well.
You are fighting each other for your careers, and you are retaining your power over us through distance and guile, and trying to promote that power by pretending you are hearing our “concerns.â€Â But we have more than “concerns†at stake here.
It is because we understand power that we haven’t the slightest intention of allowing ourselves to be used to promote your careers past the 2006 elections. If you fail to demand US withdrawal now, you are supporting the war; and if you support the war, as far as we are concerned, you can go straight to hell in 2006.
It is because we understand power that we are not going to forgive and forget that when the war fever was up, fed by the lies of Republicans, the war was facilitated by the eager xenophobic complicity of most Democrats, and by the slavish obedience of the corporate press. Most of you not only co-signed what you knew to be an illegal invasion – you have continued to sign the checks to perpetuate the war.
You wanted to be lied to about the war, because the polls supported the war, and you were sniffing the political air.
It is because we understand power that we know that most of you did this out of craven opportunism and a concern for your political ambitions – knowing full well that no one you loved was likely to be sent home without a limb, without an eye, without a life.
It is because we understand power that we know how cynically cavalier you are with the lives of others, and how narcissistically self-promoting.
It is because we understand power that we understand why many of you are backpedaling in your support for the war. You are maneuvering to be “critical†of the war. You “demand†the administration provide “an effective exit strategy.â€Â And you haven’t said a goddamned substantive thing, as the cameras shutter away for you. And you want us to play along – so you can beat Republicans without taking a single real position. You don’t want to stop this war. You want to win an election. By the time you win that election, another thousand troops and another 20,000 Iraqis could be dead. We do not calculate time the way you do.
It is because we understand power that we know most of you will stand by while those of us with less privilege see our loved ones sent to kill and die. The real corpses produced by the exercise of power are no more to you than a political calculation.
We understand power, because we know what really stands behind it. Power is embodied in the mounted cops you use to police our protests. Power is expressed by the armed guards for your gated communities. Power is the ability to kill and maim and get away with it, even if you dress it up in $5,000 suits and trot it out on the talk-show circuit, on C-Span, in your interviews with CNN.
Power is projected onto other peoples using your Cruise missiles and A-10s and Bradley fighting vehicles and the people who join the military. And the price of that power doesn’t merely come from our pockets. We probably wouldn’t fight you about how you rob us for your pork barrel defense contracts. The price that has us in motion right now – you really must understand this, because it means we will never back off – is exacted on the bodies of human beings.
The price is exacted with mortars, with IEDs, with high powered rifle ammunition, with bombs, with the same A-10s and Bradleys; and it is exacted on the bodies of our loved ones and the loved ones of the Iraqi people.
That’s why we are not going to grant you the power to manipulate us, to contain us, to corral us, or to pimp our grief over this war and its costs on behalf of your political careers or the needs of a political party. That’s why were are going to be rudely explicit when we say that your bombast against the Bush administration – as if they did this without your help – in calling for a more effective “exit strategy†and demanding that people merely think about a plan for withdrawal from Iraq that will take months or years… this verbiage is meaningless and manipulative. We will never stand for studying a withdrawal, for phasing a withdrawal, for delaying a withdrawal, for setting conditions for a withdrawal, or for partial withdrawal. Never.
Our demand from the beginning remains unchanged. It is for withdrawal, and for immediate, unilateral, unconditional withdrawal; and if political careers go up in smoke as a consequence, we do not give a good goddamn. People are dying in Iraq as a direct result of this war every single day. Go back to your fucking law offices and let our children live.
Gradual, phased, planned, strategized, conditioned, delayed, partial withdrawals get implemented, if at all, while those military sedans continue to roll up in front of people’s houses to announce the extinction of a human being to his or her family… and while the bodies are dropped into the fresh graves at the cemeteries of Iraq.
Gradual, phased, planned, strategized, conditioned, delayed, partial withdrawals get implemented, if at all, while the poisons accumulate in the soil and water and food of Iraq, and in the bodies of Iraqis and occupation troops.
Gradual, phased, planned, strategized, conditioned, delayed, partial withdrawals get implemented, if at all, while the hospitals fill up with the lamed, maimed, blinded, and disfigured.
Gradual, phased, planned, strategized, conditioned, delayed, partial withdrawals get implemented, if at all, while the grief and horror associated with this criminal war become the daily emotional fare of more and more people, occupation forces and Iraqis.
No member of Congress has the moral right to dither on the question of his or her precious career while a single constituent is facing the fear of that devastating knock on the door. We say the emperor has no clothes; and we say we know you when you feign “concern†with your eye fixed firmly on your ambition.
An exit is not a strategy. An exit is a command.
If the commander in chief won’t give that command, then you in Congress – if you want to salvage anything that looks vaguely like a conscience or a soul – will refuse to grant this administration another penny to continue this war. We are not hearing you when you tap dance about political “realism.â€Â The mounting mass of corpses, that you have walked over every time you voted a cent to continue this war, is about as real as it gets. Don’t you dare ever lecture military families and veterans about realism. And don’t you doubt that we understand power.
You may think you can respond to your careerist concerns in the face of reversing polls. You may think you can pretend to do something, that you can bewilder us into accepting half a loaf better than none.
To the tiny handful of you in Congress who have said what we say, “Out Now!,†we commend you and thank you for your principled voices.
To those of you who are openly supporting this criminal administration, we’ll see you in the street, and history will consign your names to the chapters about imperial bullying, comb-over machismo, and cognitive mediocrity.
To those of you who call for half measures, phases, and strategies, you are directly in front of us now. You are standing directly in our path, and we are not going to go around you.
We are not going to commend you on being “better†than the reactionaries.
We are not going to thank you for our half a loaf.
We are not going to try and give you the political cover you need to wiggle around those shifting opinion polls while you salvage your careers.
We do not love you. We find your ambivalence contemptible.
We love the people who are facing the real consequences of this war while you schmooze your way through the chicken-salad circuits of imperial power, nattering on about realism and phases and strategies.
You will not divert our attention away from you. You will redirect neither our anger nor our will away from you. It is you who are standing directly in our way; and every time you try to dicker about people’s lives with us like we are in street market, every time you try to pimp our outrage at this crime, as a mere “concern†that only you are entitled to address with your careerist half-measures, we will call you to account. We will embarrass you. We will shine a spotlight on your cowardice, your opportunism, and your grotesque cynical hypocrisy.
November 2006 is not an election to us; it is a body count. If you think you can take us for granted over an election, think again.
Get it right, because we have never wavered on our position. The mass of American society is moving toward us, not you. They are listening more and more to us, and less and less to you. We are about saving lives, not saving face. So get it right, and get it right fast. We are looking at your political house with an eye to pulling it down.
We understand power very well.
egwah:
Thank you.
Many now realise what I am about to say is TRUE.
The ballot boxes are corrupted by Diebold, the Congress is the corrupters.
When the ballot box fails, we have another box we can rely on….the bullet box.
God bless america
1 December 2005, 8:03 pmStan:
This pretty much misses the whole point. And neither this site nor its author will go on record in support of bullets.
I wasn’t talking about Republicans who are the biggest purveyors of vote rigging. This is directed primarily at Democrats.
1 December 2005, 8:35 pmSteve:
Thank you Mr. Goff. It’s time to strap guns to the asses of congress men and women, whitehouse men and women, Pentagon men and women, jam them on a plane to Iraq and let them learn reality the hard way.
Your son should get to stay home and all of the other sons and daughters should get to come home. Alive and in one piece.
I’ve been reading your articles, off and on, since the first month after 9/11. As I sit here today, the CBC’s Passionate Eye on the reality of reporting in Iraq.
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/targets.html
I don’t know what else to say, I originally just intended to say thank you, but I wiil say if there is to be justice, then there are some people in the highest levels of government that need to spend the rest of their lives in jail.
P E A C E
1 December 2005, 9:26 pmwitheheld:
Should we vote for Green party?
1 December 2005, 10:32 pmPrissy Patriot:
Stan,
I am right there with you. Did you see the my posted list of Chickenhawks? See:
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9346
Only Chickenhawks Squawk for More War in Iraq
Note: The ones yelling the loudest have never seen combat themselves.
MILITARY SERVICE RECORDS OF DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, PUNDITS AND PREACHERS listed
Prissy Patriot
1 December 2005, 10:46 pmMary:
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. — Abraham Lincoln First Inaugural Address
1 December 2005, 11:10 pmPreston:
Stan,
Well said, my man. Your post says what needs to be shouted from every rooftop; preached with conviction from every street corner; expressed by every American with a voice and a concience to each and every career politician that THEY WORK FOR US and we’re sick and tired of their sycophantic, myopic, self-serving politicking at the expense of OUR CHILDREN and OUR MONEY. The only thing they will understand is if WE THE PEOPLE simply throw them out of office and vote honest servants back into office. And if that bunch won’t put the needs of the American people first, throw them out as well. It isn’t about pork, hand-outs, partisan one-upmanship, or any other stupid Washingtonian game. This is about the lives of our loved ones; about the right to live free from tyranny; about the freedom to say NO to government. There is no freedom without the freedom to say NO.
Read “It’s Not Yours To Give” by Davy Crockett.
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men”—Plato
1 December 2005, 11:11 pmJolly Roger:
Nice work, Stan. We will prevail.
1 December 2005, 11:46 pmm.c.:
There is some modest good news. Rep. John Murtha(D-PA) on Hardball last night said his office has received ~14,000 phone calls & emails in the last 5 days or so about his recent stand on the war in Iraq. He said 80% were favorable. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has finally come out in support of Murtha’s position. My personal opinion is she has realized that the train is leaving the station and she had better be on it. So be it.
If Members of Congress continue to receive phone calls, faxes, emails, snail mail, visitors with petitions, they will pay attention. We need more volunteers, including returning veterans like Paul Hackett in Ohio and others to speak out as to how things actually are and get involved: this could mean anything from going to PTA meetings to church groups to introducing a local anti-war activist or politician at a high school, etc… I understand the great courage that it took Cindy Sheehan and the countless others like her to drive all the way to Crawford and camp out next to a ditch. AMEN.
1 December 2005, 11:53 pmMarvin:
I say RIGHT ON TO THE ABOVE ARTICLE! I believe there are many who feel the same way its just a matter of time before we connect-up and come together to make the needed changes. Which should include putting some people behind bars for the rest of their lives.
2 December 2005, 12:11 amAlso I would like to share the following web site as a possible solutin to are situation. http://www.NESARA.US It is a congressional Act passed in 2000.
Shae:
I agree 100%. I don’t believe for one moment most of the Democrats didn’t know why Bush wanted to invade Iraq. Maybe all of them did but their moral values demanded better of them when they voted no. I don’t understand the straight seperation of the two parties in voting about other issues right now other than they know who will win anyway. I believe they all have blood on their hands because it would have taken just one person in the Senate or Congress to blow the whole scheme up and to have told the truth about everything. It may have stopped this. Every day I’m reading stories in valid newspapers of new fraud cases. Just today one implicates Democrats also. We need a new party and we need it now. We need a new leader and we need to NOT vote in the primary’s for whoever the media says is the frontrunner. I honestly believe the media decides who runs in the elections because they are told who to “assist” on TV. We all know most Americans think if they didn’t hear it on TV then it isn’t so. Somehow we need to get people to think on their own and connect the dots in front of their eyes.
Good job with this article. It’s right on!!!!
2 December 2005, 12:33 ampeggy:
Dear Stan, I am so sorry. There can hardly be anything worse than watching your child go off against your will to a war you hate. May your son come home soon, safe and sound, but having learned for himself in Iraq the truth you learned in Haiti.
2 December 2005, 1:29 amLove,
Ken Hall:
You have translated into words, the emotions screaming from my heart. Thank you. Never give up this struggle for decent, hard working humanity.
As a Brit, I have no say in your elections or electoral process, and as a Brit I am indeed envious of your written constitution and your Bill of rights. Your un-accountably elected leaders are raping these documents and feasting on the decaying corpse of it’s spirit.
Democrats and Republicans alike are engaged in the on-going support for the scouring of the land of the Founding Fathers’ spirit. If you can find any pro-constitution party to unite around, the whole world would be very grateful and hopefully come back to thinking of the United States as a Great, Honorable and Noble country once more. I love America, but I hate what your leaders are doing to her! It is time to target the Congressional turncoats, name and shame and drive them from office.
2 December 2005, 4:49 amJim:
“Should we vote for Green party?”
2 December 2005, 6:39 amIf people got behind voting against the incumbent whether they be Republican or Democrat, you would have a fresh lot of congressmen who would KNOW they are in because the last lot were corrupt and if they dont do what their constituents want, then they Know they willl be thrown out quicksmart. The party politics stop and it starts getting mighty personal all of a sudden.
It will make congressmen and women resposive to their electors rather thatn their party and the lobbyists as is the case now. Afterall, this is what AIPAC does and it has been very effective for them.
Oh, and BTW, great post, Stan!
grant noble:
Yes, they can do what they want because our elections are basically fraudulent. See below. Grant Noble January 6, 2005
To the Editor,
My fellow Republicans, it’s easy to make fun of what’s going on in Washington D.C. today. Senator Barbara Boxer and Congressman Conyers are objecting to the presidential election in Ohio. The members of the party that practically invented vote fraud, the party of Tammany Hall, LBJ’s “Box 13†and the 1960 Chicago ghost voters, are complaining about voting “irregularitiesâ€. In the Washington State governor race, King County (Seattle) has “found†new votes nine times since November 2nd, allowing the Democrat to turn a 2300 vote defeat into a 129 “victory†7 weeks after the election. Republicans have witnesses swearing that provisional ballots were counted without verifying their legality—a big reason why King County “counted†3,500 more ballots than it has voter records. The dead voting, 500 “voters†whose address is a warehouse, military ballots “lost in the mail‗when the fraud in Washington state is so blatant, why should anyone except an extreme partisan listen to anything Conyers & Co. are saying?
George Bush beat John Kerry in Ohio 2,859,764 to 2,741,165 or 50.81% to 48.71%. In the race for Chief Justice of the Ohio State Supreme Court, a black liberal from Cleveland, C. Ellen Connally, lost to Republican Thomas J. Moyer 2,358,135 to 2,073, 886 or 53.21% to 46.79%. It’s not surprising that a black Cleveland liberal ran behind Kerry. But it is surprising that this race only had 78.75% of the Presidential vote—about the biggest down ballot fall off this part time political consultant has ever seen. But what’s strains credulity and doesn’t meet the smell test is that a black liberal from Cleveland could run ahead of Kerry in votes in Auglaize, Champaign, Highland, Miami, Putnam, Van Wert and Warren Counties. These and 6 other counties where Connally virtually tied Kerry in votes are all REPUBLICAN controlled counties. And it is an incontrovertible fact that the biggest of these counties, Warren County, was the only county in the country that locked out all election observers to its courthouse due to some vague “terrorist†threat.
The fact is that any election—-punch card, optical scan, touch screen—that is “counted†by computer is at the mercy of the computer program. Even a paper trail can be quietly switched on the way to the courthouse or at the courthouse late at night when no outsider is around. That’s why an advanced country like Canada counts ballots the old fashion way—paper ballots put in an empty glass box, counted in each precinct in front of election observers of all sides. By the way, paper ballots cost less than other systems, which is why penny-pinching New Hampshire still uses them. Sure you might have to wait another hour to get the results, but isn’t that better than the all these post election fiascoes that drag on for weeks?
Yes, at least one major Democrat controlled county in Ohio (Stark) had strange numbers, too. (Moyer ran well ahead of Bush). But even if the “stealing evens out†in the general election, what do you think happens in the primary election? Have you ever wondered why both parties seem so unresponsive and corrupt when they are in office, why it seems impossible to “throw the bums out†no matter who is elected? As long as those who feed on government pork control the computer program that “counts†the primary votes, they win no matter who is officially “electedâ€.
Paper ballots counted in precinct and no voting (provisional or otherwise) unless you produce a valid photo ID. Until we get these ballot security measures in place, our elections will continue to be farces that give us George Ryan/Gray Davis bipartisan corruption.
Grant D. Noble
2 December 2005, 9:44 am580 Broadsmore Dr.
Lake Forest, Il. 60045
847-234-3520 gnoble@sbcglobal.net
barbara:
thank you for writing this. i hope it gets a lot of circulation. by the way i first came to it on the democratic underground.
2 December 2005, 12:51 pmKavika LoveAll:
It has been said, in a recent teaching, that this dark cabals’ supreme arrogance and illusion of superiority (since stealing control of North America) will lead only to their timely end, their demise, their doom. We all must be ever vigilant, strong, patient and divinely compassionate as we witness the last death gasps of global (& galactic!) tyranny. To Humanity’s benefit ( & the Earth’s), many events are taking shape behind the scenes (just beyond our ‘limited’ senses) that are about to reveal a new world, filled with technology the rest of the Universes have enjoyed for the good part of 25 million years. This and more is about to materialize as we speak. Do not despair! Great Hope is just the tip of the iceberg! It has been an uncomfortable road since the elections of 2000 and we cannot thank the supremely inferior court system for what they did in installing gwb (just like reagan when he installed saddam hussein back in ‘79! with rummy selling those elusive wmd’s that began his dictatorship in IraQ!). We wouldn’t be where we are now had it not been for their thought-filled and responsible decision.
2 December 2005, 3:42 pmfelipe:
is desertion not an option? your son is rolling the dice a third time.
2 December 2005, 4:43 pmanother veteran who objects:
I’m a veteran and my point is exactly this: This nation is on a very wrong path. It is spending itself into a deficit that it cannot afford to spend itself into. It is sending our soldiers to die in a war that is unjustified and very illegal and wrong.
Our congressmen and our senators are not our representatives any longer. They do not listen to their constituents. Instead of working dilligently to solve these dire crisis’ in our nation, the most important one being the War in Iraq, and the endless billions of dollars wasted there, these folks are at home kicking back planning their next run for re-election. They don’t care about us.
Chinese loans to this government, in-effect, financing the war, are very very wrong and a crime against future, not yet born American’s.
A president and his very fascist regime that was not elected is also
quite wrong, and needs to be impeached and removed from office before he and his band of criminals can do additional grave damage to our national security and our future as American’s.
Our nation’s reputation is in the toilet, and the world is waking up to the unchecked threat of american aggression for oil. We can afford to fly torture flights to places offshore, but we cannot afford to feed and clothe vietnam veteran’s and other veteran’s from the latest
illegal wars, when they need clothing and shelter. We cannot afford to pay for Pell grants because we are squandering the money on a war we have already lost.
Like the gentleman who wrote this OPEN LETTER, I too, very sadly, know that someday, a whole lot of former veteran’s like myself will probably have to suit up again, but we won’t be doing it to be squandered in Iraq, Syria or Iran. It’ll be to dismantle this corrupt and way out of control monster called the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX that took over this nation and is leading it to ruin. Not a threat, mind you, but a very serious promise. We will take this house down if it fails to reform itself and reverse course. That is both the duty and the right of true Patriots when they see their nation disintegrating and collapsing due to unfit, and wholly corrupt leadership, or a lack thereof. Some of us wore a uniform so that this nation might live, and a lot of us may someday put one on to ensure that it does indeed survive, but not in it’s present state of disarray and wrong mindedness and utter shameless evil.
2 December 2005, 4:51 pmKavika LoveAll:
Any semblance of credibility, relevancy or legitimacy the us inferior court posessed prior to the elections of 2000 (& 2004 for that matter!) was lost when the majority justices selected gwb ( & his fake republican cohorts) under dark pretenses. With the help of rehnquist and his cowardly minions, the project for a new american century demons and their ‘convenient’ pearl harbor/ 9-11-2001 terror attack on wtc/NYC and now an atrocious, vile, illegal take-over of Iraq will inevitably set the stage for a New Nuremberg Trial of global proportions that will reveal the final pieces of knowledge and wisdom tyranny has to offer to Humanity. We can truly accelerate this process by continuing to participate (in whatever way feels comfortable) in this ‘Quiet Revolution’ with global as well as Galactic importance. Heaven and The Divine Plan has set into motion the events and scenarios necessary to bring about our new reality of Peace and Full Consciouness.
My heart aches for everyone that have given their life & passed on because of this disaster in Iraq. bush/cheney/rummy/wolfowitz/rice are drowning in blood and they love it.
2 December 2005, 5:14 pmStan:
If it were my decision he would already have deserted. But it’s not. Those dice are all I can think of sometimes.
2 December 2005, 5:43 pmSteve Schoenberg:
On Power is among the most eloquent expressions of outrage about this war. That said, it is hard to see how to get beyond the “lesser of two weevils” thinking that dominates on election day. Despite a liberal and well educated population, my area keeps electing the execrable Tom Lantos. We have made public office attractive only to narcissists and sociopaths. Worse, Washington DC has the unique capacity of turning even decent people (John Kerry, circa 1972) into cowardly scum. I fear that if we sent the Dali Lama to congress he would come back as Tom DeLay.
2 December 2005, 6:00 pmRobert B. Livingston:
Dear Stan Goff,
I have the exact same sentiments.
Thank you for putting them in words I could not find!
Sincerely,
Robert B. Livingston
2 December 2005, 6:12 pmSan Francisco
John Gilbert:
I like the first poting do afgree if the Ballot Boxes aren’t working anymore and are contrlled by Diebold it is time to go to the Bullet Box, This country i s on the verge of Dictatorship I am not participating!! SEMPER FI!! ‘;
Repeal the Patriot Act!!
Repeal The National ID card!!
Repeal Fatherland Secuirty!!
J GILBERT
2 December 2005, 9:12 pmVETERAN GULF WAR 1 1987-1995 Marine Detachment /USN
Janet W:
Stan,
You write, and publish, what I only (more dimly) think and feel. You accomplish for me what every true writer accomplishes for his/her readers: your unique expression illuminates our current nightmare, and you touch my soul. I thank and honor you for that. I recognize in you the same rage, disgust and determination that has motivated me, less consistently than you, to work against this crime called “the war in Iraq.” Like so many others, I do not only “agree” with your writing. I need it.
I am sending you (and whoever reads this) an excerpt from my letter to “my” Congresswoman, Ellen Tauscher in response to an utterly muddled, mendacious and baffling letter she sent me on the subject of Iraq. Of course, I never heard back. I was too “shrill,” no doubt.
I wish so much that your son were not going to Iraq, and I also wish with all my heart that my nephew were not in training with the Marines Officer Corps. May they return to us from hell.
– Janet W
Dear Hon. Ellen O. Tauscher:
Thank you for your detailed, three-page letter in response to my letter on US withdrawal from Iraq NOW. Your letter, however, was so filled with wishful thinking and factual errors that I feel compelled to respond…
(NOTE: I challenged, point-by-point, several preposterous statements Tauscher made about the UN, getting “help” from other countries and NATO in Iraq, torture being the actions of individual soldiers instead of being ordered from above, and general nonsense about how she was going to “press for greater transparency.” I ended thus:)
…Congresswoman Tauscher, while you admit that things have gone wrong with “Operation Iraqi Freedom,†and continue to go wrong, such as “persistent evidence of shortagesâ€(her words) that will result in the injury and death of mostly 18- to 24-year-olds, you also express your wishes for various sources of relief. “An international conference on Iraq.†(One has already been held this year, in Istanbul: the World Tribunal on Iraq. You can read the extensive expert testimonies at http://www.worldtribunal.org.) “Sustained support from the international community.†(Why should others pay in money and blood to help clean up our mess – which they opposed?) “A true ‘coalition of the capable.’†(Arnold Schwarzenegger turning vegan is more probable.) NATO training Iraqi police and military. (Somebody help us, please!)
Congresswoman Tauscher, you tell me we must have the political will to match the military means. Since the US military has never even secured the road to the Baghdad airport, I’m not sure about “military means.†What “political will†means in reality is that mostly lower-income Americans will be willing to go to Iraq after all the pretexts for this war have been shown to be lies, get blown up in their inadequately armored vehicles, hurt and kill civilians, face hostility at every turn, and, if they survive, come home to closed VA hospitals and high gas prices.
If you really think that the US can someday “leave behind a safe, prosperous, and democratic Iraqâ€, then I call upon you to make it happen with the people who have NOT sacrificed. Introduce legislation to draft ONLY the children of upper-income folks and elected officials to replace those who have been stop-lossed, who have served two and now even three tours of duty, whose families have suffered terrible privation and anxiety.
From every upscale community in your district, let Iraqi freedom ring! For the rest, bring them home now!
2 December 2005, 9:33 pmDeAnander:
fine stuff Stan.
I’m keeping fingers crossed for your boy.
2 December 2005, 10:00 pmMelissa Shutta:
I will vote Green, The Democrats, except for Cynthia McKinney and a couple of others are just like the Republicans. I will not vote for anyone who indorses this war in any way. I will not vote for the ‘least bad candidate’ anymore. I will vote for the best person I can find and most of them seem to be in the Green Party at this time.
3 December 2005, 5:29 amI am VERY concerned over the voting machines though. However, NO bullet box NO NO NO
john schneider:
there is plenty of blame to go around for this current military fiasco. I think veterans pay back their part in these mistakes by serving and risking it all. Then speaking up for peace.
The rest of US who let these war mongering neoconmen mislead the nation are the ones who need to pay back our part in this murderous mess. You did your part…do not blame yourselves.
These neorats fooled 80 percent of the country with their big lie campaign about WMD and Saddam’s supposed connection to 911. Were military families supposed to see through these lies? Many did, but the rest of US weren’t listening.
Heres hoping your son and the rest of our soldiers get out of this safe and sound. Meanwhile the nonviolent fight for peace is what we need to pursue here at home.
Pulling all US troops out of Iraq into Kuwait over the next 6 months is a good start. At least we maybe able to get that much done with political action.
3 December 2005, 6:53 amjenny hanniver:
I hope you’re touring with Cindy Sheehan! The two of you together could really wake up a lot of people.
I’m a veteran, one of many who detest the NeoCon(federate) Chickenhawks. I joined the U.S. Navy early in 1957–out of patriotic convictions–and served on active duty nearly 12 years. I was “career” so it took me a long time to realize that the Vietnam war was based on stupidity and lies, that it was wrecking this country as well as Vietnam. Finally, after being locked into active duty for nearly a year (that’s nothing new), I got out in December 1968, joined VVAW and took up the cause of getting everyone out of a disaster we ourselves had caused.
Years pass and bad memories fade. I did not object when my son, on graduating from high school in 1989, was eager to enlist in the Navy. Then the Gulf War began–and the guilt and worry and sleepless nights. His ship took up station-keeping in the Gulf, but he came home alive, neither wounded nor poisoned by the depleted uranium that has harmed so many Gulf War in-country veterans–and now poisons everyone in Iraq and seeps around the world.
I’ve seen both sides–as a veteran servicewoman and as the mother of a sailor in a war zone. I honestly don’t know what I’d have done if my son had died in Iraq, probably gone to pieces, not behaved with the seething rational passion that radiates out of Cindy Sheehan. And you.
If you are the parent of a serviceperson, I can hope and fear and work with you to get him or her back home as quickly as possible.
If you have lost someone you love, or more than one, I mourn and weep with you, as I do with Cindy, Celeste, and everyone else who’s lost someone forever–or who’s watched them try to get around without sight, totter on artificial legs, or need to be helped out of their wheelchair to pee.
If you are a veteran, I’m glad you’ve looked the power elite in the eye and are spitting back. More and more vets are realizing that the current squalid crop of political hacks wouldn’t be in power if the system itself didn’t need major repairs. I’m working for a whole bunch of changes and repairs, every day, but first we MUST end this worthless, lying war.
3 December 2005, 10:46 amjim ferner:
Stan,
3 December 2005, 10:56 amSome of your statements about power of the eleite classes in this last article remind me of the book I just finished reading “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paulo Freire. If you haven’t read it I recommend it.
My hope is that your son stays safe for the third over there. My son is in the Peace Corps ahere his enemies are poverty, ignorance and power. Strangely similar scenarios. Thank you for speaking out.
Jim Ferner
Consumer:
Thank you, Mr. Goff. Inspirtional and right on target. As soon as I read it, I sent an e-mail to my state’s congressman. Let’s keep the pressure up.
3 December 2005, 6:05 pmThomas Paine:
Democrats Lack Unified Position on Iraq By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
Sat Dec 3,11:02 AM ET
WASHINGTON - House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says it’s time for U.S. troops to start coming home from Iraq. Her top lieutenant, Rep. Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record), says a precipitous pullout could be disastrous….
Pelosi, D-Calif., Wednesday endorsed a call by her top adviser on defense issues, the hawkish Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa., for U.S. troops to begin pulling out of Iraq. He says all could be home in six months.
At the same time, Hoyer, D-Md., released a statement responding to a Bush speech on Iraq. It contradicted Pelosi, saying: “a precipitous withdrawal of American forces in Iraq could lead to disaster, spawning a civil war, fostering a haven for terrorists and damaging our nation’s security and credibility.”….
AP Photo: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks to reporters as Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., left, listens, Friday, Dec. 2, 2005, before touring the Moakley Cancer Center in Boston.
3 December 2005, 9:05 pm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note(AKA giving Nancy Pelosi the benefit of the doubt): When pro Bill Clinton & pro-NAFTA speaker of the house Tom Foley lost his reelection bid in ‘94, it allowed anti-NAFTA Reps. Gephardt & Bonior to assume the Leader & Whip positions respectivly in the House. When they retired Pelosi won election as Leader. Her top competitor, Hoyer came in 2nd in votes, and thus the #2 position as Whip.
{Now, Hoyer represents the 5th district swamplands & tobacco farm part of Maryland. Yes, North Carolina, MD grows the cancer leaf too. But, Maryland, especially Baltimore is a strong labor union state & is overall opposed to the war. Like Rep. D. Price, those poor folks in that district deserve better too. Stan, remember my overgeneralization that if you don’t know anything else about some lost soul, that if they have Yale or Georgetown on their resume, we can make a pretty good educated guess.}
the lib pat:
Stan,
Deeply moving and right on target!
Re: Steve Schoenberg — 12/2/2005 @ 6:00 pm, Sadly Steve is correct. DC corrupts. It’s the money tsunami. Both the money needed to campaign to keep their jobs and the dishonet corporate bag me that throw it around like sawdust in exchange for favorable legislation.
Job 1 in 2006 when “We” elect a new “House”, none, zero, corporate donations. None, zero donations from any group that represents a for profit company or industry, none, zero, not some or jsut a little bit if….none, zero.
It’s simple, any cop will tell take away the opporunity and they can’t do the crime.
4 December 2005, 4:40 amsharon d kerley:
One thing is certain, this war has nothing to do with Freedom or Democracy or weapons. It only has to do with money and who gets it. Listen to Randi Rhodes on Air America, I would say she knows exactly what it is all about. My own opinion is, it has a lot to do with breaking our country down as well as our economy. The Christian hype is just that hype. If anyone was worried about God or wanted to do what Jesus said to do, we would not be killing people we would be feeding them. Christian stuff was to get the vote and they still had to do voter fraud to win. sharobn
4 December 2005, 11:11 amAbacus:
Grant Nobel is right about election systems. We need to junk the machines and go for paper ballots, hand counted. There are problems; our ballots are often more complicated than Canada’s. But there are ways to manage.
He’s right about costs, too. Canada’s annual budget for elections comes to $1.80 per citizen. Sarasota County, Florida, with e-machines, spends $8.00 per citizen.
I’m an old-line information/control systems engineer. Nota only is the whole idea of e-voting a disaser; the designs of the machines themselves and their qualification processare almost unbelievably bad….don’t let me start.
But he’s off track about the Dems and the Washington State Governor’s election.
First, Boxer and Conyers are not Dems of the Boss Tweed school. For any Rep to criticize pols on voting needs a lot of guts; remember Florida’s massive disenfranchisement of black votgers in 2000? But that’s just a sideshow here.
I live in King County. What Grant left out is that after all the recounts and an elaborate set of court hearings the judge threw it out. He explicitly found no evidence of fraud.
Which is not to say we don’t have a lot to fix.
Respects and best wishes
Fifth AF, WWII; ARD , Korean incident; MIT; Stevens
4 December 2005, 6:38 pmDon Bacon:
Thank you for that moving letter. I posted part of it, with a link, on thinkprogress, and it was reorinted in full at militaryproject.
Another leading lib website, dailykos, has been Dem-pol oriented with an emphasis on getting Dems elected and LITTLE emphasis on what they stand for. I just posted there, encouraging them to take a stand (kos himself is generally pro-war) for what it’s worth. We need more posters there.
The rumored takeover of the Pentagon by Lieberman will be an added challenge to the ant-war movement, since he has strong ties to the Dems and to Israel.
And remember, folks, this stuff started long before Bush. He’s merely the worst manifestation of U.S. manifest destiny. Hey, that almost rhymes.
5 December 2005, 12:49 amGary Myrick:
There are PLENTY of Democrats in this country, such as myself, who have ALWAYS been opposed to this war. Some of them even hold public office. MORE of them should. MORE of them WILL, because YOU and I can do something about that. WE can continue to TAKE OVER the Democratic Party. It’s OURS. It always was. It’s time to CLAIM IT. To TAKE IT. I advocate punishing and removing from influence any pro-war “Republican-Lite”, business-bribed Democrats by imbedding and participating in their party - OUR party - itself. We can also punish and remove these whores in the next Democratic PRIMARY and in the coming mid-term elections and at the LOCAL level, but NOT by dilluting our strength, Not by replacing them with still more frigging Republicans and NOT by guaranteeing future Bushite victories by splintering into yet another Green Party or third party vote-splitting debacle. If you take your marbles and go home now you will LOSE. Yes, there are likely to be crooked voting machines (which need to be fought, too), but it is much HARDER to fake the results when ONE side scores an OVERWHELMING, unambiguous victory!
5 December 2005, 3:38 amI hope that many of you who are reading this wil RUN FOR OFFICE YOURSELVES. You don’t need to build a new clubhouse. TAKE OVER the ones that are already there. Otherwise, it reminds me of someone LEAVING their own country instead of STAYING to CHANGE it. SOLIDARITY!
Mark C:
On the subject of voter fraud;
5 December 2005, 8:57 amWhen we focus on the fact that voter fraud was prevelant here or there , we miss the point entirely.
The fundamental problem is that the argument takes you on a circular journey into nowhere while the Constitution of the United States of America and the Bill of Rights hang in the balance.
Voter fraud is inevitable because, where there are people seeking power, there IS corruption and fraud.
The brilliance of the Sons of Libertys self governing document is that it recognizes that the people of a nation need to be protected from the bloodthirsty politicians who would sell their mothers to “Al CIA-DA” for a nickle and a voting district.
Voter fraud only effects us now because we are no longer governed by the Constitution. All one needs to do is point to “The War Powers Act” to make this point.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights (the latter they don’t even try to pretend exists anymore) are only used as sales pitches for the powerpimps at the vertable cirlce jerks that we call “elections”.
I cry everytime I hear “The Night they Drove Dixie Down”. I understand this song. I know what they did to our nation in the late 19′th early 20′th century.
The subsequent years have brought us Draconian laws that have covertly enslaved this nation to where we are today.
Until or unless we a collective epiphany, we are doomed to our inevitable fate.
I’m sorry America…this is the truth!
James:
Stan,
I’ve been reading more and more of your work these past 6 months or so. I appreciate your experience and ability to put into words many of the things that have been running through my mind lately. I’ve been serving in the military for 13 years now and feel I’m coming to some sort of crossroads that will be more than likely painful no matter which direction I take. Articles like yours help to put things into perspective. Take care and keep up the good work.
5 December 2005, 1:31 pmNaomi Zentmyer:
Unless we DEMAND a varifiable vote, i.e., that can’t be hacked, enough voting machines for ALL DISTRICTS, Black and white, this next election is going to read just like the last two: The Fix is in!
Just like Joseph Stalin said: “It’s not who votes that matters, it’s who counts the votes”…..
5 December 2005, 3:24 pmConsumer:
Mr. Myrick, when it comes to US foreign policy, when was the last time the stance of the Dymocrite Party differed significantly from that of the Refucklicans?
The problem here is the illusion of a two-party system. You cannot change the Dymocrites because although some of their roots draw from deep grassroots, the strongest most entranched roots are fed from the same aquifer of cynicism and domination that nourishes the Refucklicans. It’s not only the same tree, it’s the same branch.
Voting in this farcical system is a waste of time. Pressure needs to be applied elsewhere, as has been demonstrated by Ms. Sheehan’s movement.
5 December 2005, 4:08 pmm.c.:
Dear Consumer,
I’m not defending Gary Myrick, but the position I’m advocating is thus: any alternative movement/party takes time/energy/resources to get off the ground(the example I currently use is the Liberal Democrats in the U.K.) they aren’t perfect but its taken them 20 years or so to be reckoned with. In the 2005 election, they received 22% of the vote and have 62/646 seats in Parliament.
5 December 2005, 10:46 pmIf the Dems retake the House with Pelosi as Speaker, its not the end of all evil/incorrigibility in the world but its one mechanism to put some serious brakes to the current ‘manifest destiny’.
Julian Real:
Dear, dear Stan.
Thanks so much for that empassioned, brilliant letter. I hope every member of Congress somehow receives a copy, sent in such a way that they have to sign for it, so you/we know it got to each and every one of them. Maybe someone with extra paper, envelopes, and mailing money can make that happen, or at least could email it to every congressperson.
I hope your son, and the world’s sons and daughters, and the rest of us, are safer as a result of that letter, and the growing support behind its sentiments and perspective. Thanks for telling the truth. It’s like a blast of fresh, clean air coming through the pollution.
Love, Julian
6 December 2005, 2:46 pmThomas Paine:
I hope with the following I help open the debate a little more.
Leo Strauss, the nominal ‘Godfather’ of the Neo-Conservative Movement, can have his philosophies boiled down to two major themes, at least in the political arena:
A)The world consists of three groups of people; 1) The Wise Men(I believe straight from the philosopher-kings of Plato’s Republic) 2)The Gentlemen & 3) The Masses.
The Wise Men(philosopher-Princes={Machiavelli}are pretty self-described), The Gentlemen consist of select members of the ruling elite who are receptive to the ideas of the Wise Men; think of a Consigliere & a Capo. We might assume that Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld could be considered Gentlemen in the modern equation. The Masses are everyone else.
B) The second big idea is the concept of the “Noble Lie”. This also is straight from Plato’s Republic. The Gentlemen are required to explain these Noble Lies to the Masses so that they relent to the bigger picture of the Wise Men. But Houston, we have a problem, don’t we? Plato never meant for his Republic to be used as a how-to manual, did he?
7 December 2005, 12:05 amGee Wiz:
Stan
I’ve read a number of your articles and something tells me that you’re probably still attached to the military (though indirectly). Furthermore, being an open socialist would provide an excellent screen for the infiltration of the far left.
Have a good one
7 December 2005, 2:06 pmStan:
Dearest Gee,
You have me now, you clever rascal.
I am working so hard to persuade people to my point of view as part of my ruse as a deep “infiltrator.” So far, there have been disappointing results. The vast majority of people I have actually convinced to work with me hardly identify themselves as “far left,” but we both know they are undercover… Either that, or none of them are being particularly secretive about what they believe or do. But then, what’s to infiltrate?
I guess I’ll have to “infiltrate” further.
Of course, as an “infiltrator,” I should simply delete your post, then no one would ever have thought of this… you being so much smarter than all those far-leftists. Instead, I am leaving this post to show others that I will leave it, and thereby convince the “far left” that I am the genuine article — a real [brrrrr] socialist — because “they” would never believe that I would do that…
I am also “infiltrating” the highly secretive cells of radical feminism with my rantings against gender as a system of social power.
Next week, I plan to anounce that I am gay, and thereupon “infiltrate” the Queer Nation.
So many subversives… so little time.
And I am DIRECTLY tied to the military. I draw a pension check for my time spent, and my son is on active duty.
I’ve been wondering when someone from the right would try this one out. COINTELPRO you ain’t.
7 December 2005, 2:28 pmRandy Morris:
Where does an agent get his “Secret Stan” Decoder Ring ™? I sent my boxtops in, but nothing ever shows up in my mailbox! Until I get my ring, I’ll never be able to get my subversive leftist instructions out of these posts.
8 December 2005, 2:41 amGee Wiz:
Stan:0000
Very few people in this life are selected for SF, much less get to run ops with a CT unit like Delta. I read you as a disgruntled trooper, but certainly not as a socialist.
Have a good one.
9 December 2005, 3:09 pmSoul Rebel:
Stan,
Brilliant letter. I abandoned the Democrats after my congressman, Jay Inslee - a supposed progressive and liberal Democrat voted for the off-budget war funding of $80 (or so) billion bakc in March. I figured if he didn’t “get it” (and his reason for voting the appropriation was pathetically political) the Democrats were well and truly screwed. So I liked best your sentiments about power, and how we will take it from them - Democrats included (even especially, because they should know better) - if not by peaceful and legal means, then by revolutionary means. We are a nation that blasphemes the Constitution, ridicules peace, and impales democracy on the pike of global imperialism. The world can’t - won’t stand for this much longer.
Remember Kennedy: If you make peacful revolution impossible, you make violent revolution inevitable.
We are close.
Peace
10 December 2005, 2:04 amStan:
Dear Gee,
Have you read anything I’ve written?
I’m sure I don’t follow your logic… that having passed selection and assessment when I was younger for certain military units means… what? I can’t be a socialist?
Ever heard of the Spetznaz?
Stop throwing darts at the hundred-meter targets, and go review what I’ve written. There isn’t the slightest attempt to conceal my political orientation… in fact, I’m fairly well mixed up in all kinds of arcane intra-socialist debates, along with my continual public hectoring about the calamities of capitalism, and the urgent need for the refoundation of a coherent, effective revolutionary socialist left in the US.
To Randy: No more rings available. But you can get the decryption key by reading the inactive ingredients in over-the-counter Prilosec, backwards, eliminating the redundant letters and integers, then submitting them to a two-letter regression between each five-character group. Simple really. (-:
10 December 2005, 6:10 pmJennie Johnstone:
What ever one’s preference of governance might be, the real sinister aspect of any of them is power abuse and exploitation of trust. This bunch running the bloody show, drenched in the blood of innocents (our devoted well meaning soldiers, and the 118,000+ Iraqi civilians) are purely sociopathological, serving only thier own. Those that profit while others die, are like cattle ranchers feeding lies and “patriotism” as feed, and sending the true (although deluded) patriots off to be slaughtered for profit, just like cattle. They get away with it because the unfathomability of such horrid inhumanity living within our government. I suggest every one read the very small, but richly knowledge packed book by a highly decorated general. General Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket”. It spells it out.
Another point to be made is: Do you think that those willing to lie us into a war, aren’t willing to let the 911 WTC disaster occur with foreknowledge, and allowing it to fuel their empirical ambitions ? Those who roll their eyes, I ask you, is it because it seems outrageous and you don’t want to be in a “fringe” group, or you’ve actually studied the case, and considered the evidence (which I might add is very plentiful)? If you’re trusting that “they wouldn’t do such a thing” I’m calling you naive’. Power abuse and exploitation of trust is what they are about in every vile breath these reptiles take. I hope everyone googles up the great bunch of information on 911 and what is the real evidence in contrast with the “official story”. Thank-you for reading this.
As always, applause to Stan for his eloquent and precise voice, stating with such passion and well deserved angry indignation, that which the rest of us feel. You are loved by many, Stan. Thank-you.
12 December 2005, 12:43 amJennie Johnstone
Rhisiart Gwilym:
Let me say it again, Stan, loud and clear: Stan Goff is the Tom Payne of our time. Power to your good American arm, brother!
Rhisiart Gwilym, Cymru, Britain
12 December 2005, 1:48 pmRandy Morris:
Stan: I actually tried that already. All I got was “Fight the Power!” over and over again. That and instructions for brewing really good French roast coffee (”fair trade” of course!).
But hey, what more does a guy really need other than a great philosophy and lots of coffee, right?
12 December 2005, 3:40 pmErda:
Stan, honey, you took the words right out of my mouth — thanks for cleaning ‘em up and making ‘em shine!
14 December 2005, 12:36 amI have just been wondering how long it is going to be till the feeblebrains of this country wake up and see what our “representatives” have done for us.
I am so SICK of getting a dozen email “petitions” every day to sign, “respectfully requesting” that these slimy congressional maggots please, pretty-please, end the killing and maiming and abusing in our name, quit robbing our own working class, quit slashing and burning our environment, quit bankrupting our country — yeah, we ask it humbly, and for the teeniest concession to our unworthy begging we will kiss their holy asses and VOTE for them again, and again.
And oh, yeah — the petition-mongers would like a small donation, please.
As ever, the “left” (i.e., anything slightly to the west of Mussolini) is a jillion splinters all blindly going for their own thing, while the Right sticks together, tight as a tick, with one goal in mind — impoverishing and enslaving the rest of us.
This government is the mother lode for comedians, the bull’seye for editorial venom, the pariah of the rest of the world. Bush and Co.are liars, crooks, torturers, murderers and we know it.
And while we KNOW it, they go right along with their agenda, unimpeded by our “pleas,” and oblivious to our outrage.
What are we going to do about it?
When?
scout:
Hey,
14 December 2005, 8:52 pmI just came across your essay. A case could most certainly be made for an increase in evil during the past 50 years; and most certainly since the early 90’s. Our current regime in DC is the product of the ‘trinity’ of institutions: corporate, political and military. Most certainly this is a group of arrogant effete that have zero difficulty in ordering children to support regime/historical goals of profiteering.
Please do a search on all the pillage wars we have initiated in the Western Hemisphere during the past 100 years. There must be one gangster action per year. Add to this the number of tactical actions around the world. Add all of them and multiply by a factor of 10 or even 20 and that is the number of terrorists acts we’ve done undercover since WWII. (We learned from both Stalin and Hitler.)
What has changed since the 90’s is that the cabal entrenched in DC have ‘come out’ Godless: they do not pretend to fear God. At least the hypocrites of yesteryear pretended to study God and go to church. These guys openly idolize any whoredom that is popular.
There is one social institution, on the surface, that changed since the marriage of the unholy trinity, (this marriage was structured during the Civil War; it was during the Civil War that we figured out that poor soldiers without understanding of anything will win a battle if given a more powerful weapon than the adversary). I am talking about the female card. Please let me digress just a little in an effort to connect the female psyche to the DC cabal.
There is nothing complex about human nature: it not only enjoys filth, but loves filth just as a dog defends its own vomit to eat later. The DC cabal doesn’t worry about man’s innate evil drive, or about mundane things such as weapons of mass destruction; human rights; true democracy; family values; homosexual self destruction; destruction of Biblical marriage; women killing their babies for self gain; women destroying families for self gain; women insisting upon ‘equal rights’ for self gain; women insisting upon pre-marital/extra marital sex, science that ‘creates’ paradigms that ignore God’s power; the organized and managed self destruction of young people in our schools; (just to mention a very small fraction of our modern evil that we proudly define as ‘democratic freedom,’) no, our modern Machiavelli students (they’re not as sophisticated as Mach.) of DC use the above social crimes to justify any profiteering sub-structure. Our culture enables higher crimes built upon mundane crimes against God and ourselves.
Again, women kill their babies and destroy families. Women love homosexuals (they are not threatened by gays) even in the light of their pedophilia desires. Women love to have authority over men, even in light of they are not equal to men. Once our society embraced all of the above as mainstream, (and more) the stage is set for Judgment Day. Without God, our evil nature is allowed to run its course. A delusion/illusion/blindness/anti-wisdom sets in that tricks individuals, with a stain of conscience, into believing that they are doing ‘right.’ The trickster uses human pride to enable social blindness to God.
Stan, I see your points about power. Understanding the power concept does not go far enough. We must understand man’s basic nature is pure evil. The only good is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yes, that well known but little read book, the Bible, has the answers. But the answers are only available to those that God gives ears to hear with and eyes to see with, (spiritual).
scout:
This connects to the earlier post: the cabal uses our history of social crime to both hide and legitimate our drive for oil. They must secure the oil fields, both economically and politically. Democracy is most easily manipulated by corporate king-makers as it is powered by capital greed. While some Islam may be bought, and has been, there is a sizable portion that will not sell out to the modern evils purported as ‘freedom’ by capitalist democracy. Our cabal is banking upon the young Islamic whoremongering after western porn and music cd’s, etc. The US is currently waiting for the Iraqi’s to unconditionally surrender; two days afterward, we will fly decapitation flights over both Iran and Syria in combination with everything else the CIA has bought in terms of political support to install our puppet government. They have not thought any deeper than the above, because they don’t need much other than time. The cabal has very little time as China and possibly Russia and even possibly Europe may suddenly get some balls or overcome their confusion/blindness to US motivation. This is not just another capital adventure, these guys are most serious. This is not tactical, as Vietnam, but strategic. 9/11, in combination with the female psyche that washes our collective mind-set/unconscious/political correctness, (whatever) that powered these boys to play with real toys for real stakes: he who controls the world’s oil fields will control the world.
14 December 2005, 9:14 pmMay God have mercy.
Stan:
Okay Scout,
Just so people don’t say those who disagree don’t get a chance here, I’ve posted your two bizarre screeds. That’s so people will know why I won’t post any more.
Misogyny and homophobia are plentiful and cheap. That’s why the rules here “just say no.”
Here are the rules, in case you haven’t seen them.
http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=25
You, sir, are deranged.
14 December 2005, 10:16 pmRandy Morris:
I have to say, I’m still caught off-guard when I come across one of these forum posts that displays a person’s filters so clearly. Mr. Scout seems to have a pretty good handle on geopolitics compared to 90% of American zombie culture, but then the “tinted glasses” come out and everything gets totally skewed toward a particular dogma instead of applied observation.
Makes me wonder even more what frequency my filters operate at nowadays–like, how much of my perceptions are still colored by comfortable assumptions?
As always, still so much self-work to be done. *sigh*
16 December 2005, 12:52 amm.c.:
Jay Rockefeller’s 2003 handwritten letter to Dick Cheney is available on Josh Marshall’s webpage & http://www.huffington post.com(Marty Kaplan’s post today)
Since 1978 when the FISA law went into effect in response to the Church/Pike Committees, the special court has approved ~19,000 cases; with only (5)! dismissals. The appeals court part of this, according to James Bamford, has never been used. This illustrates how lax the law is in favor of the feds. Why break the law when you don’t need to break it?
20 December 2005, 8:24 pmm.c.:
A commenter on http://www.afterdowningstreet.org mentioned that not only a FISA warrant be applied for retroactively up to 72 hours after the fact, in times of war(which POTUS keeps reminding us) the warrant can be applied for up to 15 days later. This collapses the argument that the Executive branch needs complete unbridled powers to keep us sheep & lambs safe from the bad evildoers.
21 December 2005, 4:58 pmm.c.:
James Bamford on Hardball tuesday said the penalty for violating the 1978 FISA law; i.e. spying on someone without a FISA warrant is 5 years & a $10,000 fine. I don’t think there are any exceptions in the law.
29 December 2005, 8:01 pmGary Goodman:
LETTER to PDA local official
I have but marginal respect for most Dems on the PDA website. Cynthia McKinney is the ONLY Dem I know of who directly confronted Rumsfeld and Myers and/or Eberhard on the 5 War games running on the morning of 9-11. I have it on my website on my third home page extension.
http://home.neo.rr.com/takeoverworld/index-b.html#mckinney
Cynthia McKinney Grills Rumsfeld On Dyncorp Sex Rings, Missing Pentagon Trillions & 9/11 Wargames
However, I also saw a video of McKinney with the 9-11 Truth post-Commission Report meeting which made me suspicious. Cynthia, only slightly suspicious. The two CIA “antiwar” guys with her … grrr. I really wanted to like Ray McGovern and Mel Goodman.
Both McKinney and McGovern emphasized the widows FEELINGS … about being lied to and betrayed by their govt … their husbands murdered, sacrificed over some New Pearl Harbor vision of PNAC neo-con-dom … or even if it were some coverup of gross incompetence, which it’s not.
Who asks a widow about their personal FEELINGS of grief in a PUBLIC meeting about govt secrecy and lies .. and WHY emphasize that twice in 5 minutes?
It just seemed like a bizarre and creepy line of questioning, it looked uncomfortable to the two widows. Everyone who’s not a sociopath knows how they FEEL. It was like Cynthia was trying to be Oprah, in the middle of a fact-finding session about one of the world’s biggest crimes of recent times.
Then, McKinney’s other CIA guest, Mel Goodman, suggested that there was not systemic failure (needing more money and power to correct) (true) but rather personal failure on the part of govt officials in preventing Sept 11 (false). He avoided the evidence of complicity, with which McKinney herself challenged Rumsfeld, and he suggested that the problem would be resolved if some Intelligence experts were on the Commission — like Brent Scowcroft or George Schultz. Sure, substitute skilled criminals for unskilled.
Anyhow, I can’t decide if McKinney’s emphasis on FEELINGS over FACT was just her style or part of the larger flow of psy-op. I don’t mean to sound whacko, but that’s how psy-ops are done. Subtle — like a skilled “passive-aggressive” — so subtle that it’s nearly invisible and if exposed, hard to tell if it’s intentional or not.
I wished that the widows would have just said, “What the FUCK is it YOUR business what my FEELINGS are? Grief. Sadness. Shock. Betrayal. Frustration. Et Cetera. Satisfied?”
SO, Cynthia is one of the strongest and most bold Dems. I don’t know a single one — Conyers, McDermott, Barbara Lee, I don’t think even Kucinich who dared to ask publicly — WHY are we not investigating Sept 11? Is there something to HIDE?
Call me a one-trick pony, but everything Neo-con ultimately boils down to Sept 11. They constantly baited antiwar activists asking if we’d “forgotten” 9-11, starting like 2 weeks after the attacks. NO. THEY have forgotten it, on purpose. I’m NOT.
21 March 2006, 12:18 amJonathan:
how many of you have served in the military? how many of you know what it is like to fight the war? the consequences of leaving Iraq would be the greatest humanitarian disaster in history, is that the right thing to do? no matter how the war started, we must remain committed, or are we cowards?
6 August 2006, 1:37 amStan:
Jonathan, the world is not divided into courage and cowardice… and it takes more courage to admit a mistake and cede to reality than it does to continually try an prove ones masculinity (an effort motivated by fear).
Many on this blog are veterans; and I reitred from the Army after a full career, one that took me to eight conflict areas.
Hyperbole like calling it the greatest humanitrian disasterin history only discredits your argument. First, that’s what they said about Vietnam, and it was dead wrong. Second, there have been worse disasters, and there ar some going on right now, ie, the wrecking then abandonment of sub-Saharan Africa to disease and starvation.
6 August 2006, 9:57 amTimothy R. Anderson:
Perhaps I should not do this , by which I mean comment on Jonathan’s comment , but aw , heck, I must have my say : Uh, Jonathan.
Uh, Jonathan. The Bush administration has failed to get the governments of the world, barring Great Britain, to join in and help the ” commitment ”
in Iraq . Which means, simply, that the Bush administration suuuuuuuuuuucks at doing the very thing your comment indicates you care about.
For if the consequences of leaving Iraq prematurely are soooooooo troubling, why’s
the American government being soooooo
crappppy at getting the U.S. soldiers some help ?
Because the Bush administration suuuuuucks
at what they do. Fact.
http://www.warisaracket.org
Take care, Jonathan. Timothy R. Anderson
6 August 2006, 3:52 pm