War
Making 101 - A User's Manual
By Stephen Lendman
24 March, 2006
Countercurrents.org
I've
lived through seven decades and can remember the late 1930s before WW
II began. In fact, I began my formal education in kindergarten within
days of when Hitler sent his Wehrmacht across the Polish border in an
act of illegal aggression and began that near six year horror. I was
too young to understand it then, and I can barely remember that fateful
"first Pearl Harbor" on December 7, 1941. Franklin Roosevelt
wanted in on that fight and did all he could to goad the Japanese to
attack us. He knew with enough prodding they would, and when it came,
we knew about when and where it would happen. We were ready to mobilize
and join the battle, we did it, and nothing's been the same since.
FDR at least took the country
to war as the Constitution says we must. On December 11,1941 he asked
the Congress to make that declaration against Japan and also Nazi Germany
in response to Hitler's declaring it against us. It was the last time
a US Congress would ever use the constitutional authority it alone is
allowed in Article I, Section 8 of that sacred document. The Founding
Fathers thought that authority so important they codified it. They believed
that on what is the single most important issue a nation ever faces,
that awesome power should never placed in the hands of a single person.
They wanted only the Legislative Branch to have it and only exercise
it after careful, deliberative debate. That Branch still has it if it
so wishes, but for the last 65 years it decided in its infinite indifference
to abrogate it's authority and allow the President to usurp it and use
it at his pleasure and choice. We've seen the result - a mess without
end. We've had war after war after endless war (includingthe ones fought
by others we encouraged and financed plus all the CIA covert mischief
and abuse) with no end in sight and in every instance since WW II against
designated "enemies" that never threatened or attacked us
or had any intention to. Doing that by direct intervention based on
no provocation, as we have, is called illegal aggression, which is exactly
the crime the Nazis were tried for at Nuremburg. In the words of the
Tribunal: "To initiate a war of aggression....is not only an international
crime, it is the supreme crime, differing only from other war crimes
in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
The worst of those found guilty in that Tribunal were hanged. Think
any of our leaders will ever meet the same fate as they should, of course?
Fat chance, even though the worst of ours are as guilty of war crimes
and crimes against humanity as were the worst Nazis.
THE RESULT OF THE
CONGRESS SCRAPPING THE MOST IMPORTANT CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY IT ALONE
HAS
Here's one definition of
a dictator or at least one practicing to become one. It's a head of
state able to decide alone with unchallengeable authority whether or
not to take a nation to war for any reason. Here's an add-on to that
definition. If a leader does it for any reason other than to respond
to an attack by another nation or clear evidence an attack is coming,
that leader is also a war criminal. Noam Chomsky believes every US president
since WW II was and is a war criminal. Ditto, so do I.
This essay will concentrate
on the current "war criminal in charge." With some background
for the historically uneducated, I'll then fast forward to the present
and take you into the heart of the beast we better get to know well
and quickly before it eats us alive. I'll lay out what I call a war
maker's manual, step by step or rule by rule, from when we were new
at this ugly business and still learning to the present. Ready? Here
we go.
I can't match the famous
Chinese general Sun Tzu who wrote his masterful Art of War 2400 years
ago and won't even try. But I've seen the modern day script played out
enough times and think I've gotten the hang of it now. First, some basic
rules:
A. Get the language right.
It's not enough to say Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Venezuela are threats
to our national security. We have to say or imply it's the new Hitler
Saddam, the "crazed Arabs and mullahs" running Iran (sorry
- they're Persians, not Arabs, and only changed the country's name to
Iran in 1934......you can call them "crazed Arabs" though,
who'll know the difference besides the Iranians), the demonic Taliban
who beat up on defenseless women, or the "demagogue" Hugo
Chavez "awash in oil money and trying to destroy democracy and
destabilize the region"........he happens to have the most vibrant
democracy in the Western Hemisphere and is selling the country's oil
at a discount to poor nations and poor US communities in need. Think
Exxon-Mobil would do that?Now you're getting it.
B. Always pick on a much
weaker target country, the weaker the better, preferably defenseless
and unable to fight back. It's then best to soften them up in advance
by stealth bombing or sabotaging their strategic infrastructure. It's
also best to pick on a weak nation of color (we almost always do - Yugoslavia
was a rare exception), and best of all is to pick on a Muslim nation
of color. Arab nations (and Persia/Iran) qualify as they're not quite
white enough, not at least the "crazed Arab ones."
C. When you "pull the
trigger", strike the target with overwhelming force. You know the
new "Militaryspeak" language - "shock and awe."
Who dreams up this stuff? You can bet it's a big PR firm, ad agency
or something out of a Hollywood bad dream factory. The target country
may be defenseless, and likely is, but you gotta hit 'em like a using
a howitzer to kill a gnat even though a strong wind will do the trick.
The reason for the "blitzkrieg" approach is it not only grinds
your enemy to dust and fast, it also scares hell out of all other nations
worried they may be next or in the queue and moving up.
D. There's one other element
peculiar to today in the US that's not a rule but a resurrection of
sorts from the First Crusade 900 years ago. Back then Pope Urban II,
who no doubt believed he got his marching orders from the Almighty,
launched his assault against Islam and Muslims in his holy Crusade to
regain control of the sacred city of Jerusalem. When his forces finally
got into the city they weren't very nice to the Muslims, Jews and even
Eastern Christians living there.
It's timely for this essay
to note that the Vatican has begun to rehabilitate the Crusaders by
sponsoring a late March conference that portrays those holy wars as
having been fought with the "noble aim" of regaining the Holy
Land for Christianity. I'm sure all Muslims around the world will understand,
forgive and forget.
Students of Western Civilization
might also recall that Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 for "glory"
(that's French for empire) and to restore Islam to its genuine teachings
(I guess meaning to bring those misguided souls back to their Christian
roots). The Little Corporal didn't fare much better there than he did
at Waterloo or that a latter day Napoleon wannabe is now doing in Iraq.
It's a shame he's not still around to explain that to our current "head
dreamer of empire." But I doubt it would do much good as below
I explain the only authority our warrior president listens to.
The point from my brief history
lesson is to connect it to our own present situation. For the first
time ever, we now have a president, at least the first one admitting
it publicly, who also believes the Almighty speaks to him, tells him
what to, and he's just following orders from that higher authority.
I don't think he's kidding when he says God told him to invade Afghanistan
and Iraq. I wonder if that same God told him to steal from the poor
and give to the rich. I also wonder what God he's referring to. It's
not the one I was brought up to believe in and the principles I was
taught to think are pretty sacred in the Ten Commandments, especially
the core "golden rule" one.
NOW LET'S GO THROUGH
THE STEPS/RULES
Rule No. 1- Develop a tradition
of militarism over time. It takes many years of practice to hone skills
and perfect them. The US has followed this practice and incredibly has
been at war (real war with mass slaughter) internally and/or abroad
every year without exception with one or more adversaries since its
inception.
No other nation today is
more addicted to war than the US. It seems like it's always been that
way, and it has. Of course, you'd never know it from the sanitized history
we're taught up to the highest levels in all our schools - even the
best of them like the two esteemed universities I was lucky enough to
attend. I later understood their mission was to program my mind, teach
me acceptable doctrine to "make me a good citizen." It's part
of the package called "The American Way." Fill their heads
with mush and make 'em believe the sun is out when it's really dark
and pouring rain. They did teach me how to learn though, and I've tried
to use that skill ever since to discover and understand what they should
have taught me but never did.
Militarism and empire go
way back to our Founding Fathers including the one we call the Father
of the country. Some Father. He referred to the nation as a "rising
empire", and he helped build it during and after the Revolutionary
War. During that conflict he not only dispatched the British (they really
just decided it wasn't worth it and left), he waged a second war against
our native Indians, all of whom he thought of as subhumans (American
Untermenschen). He called for their total annihilation and sent General
John Sullivan and 5,000 troops to attack the noncombatant Onondaga people
in 1779 with orders to destroy all their villages, homes, fields, food
supplies, cattle herds and orchards. He also stole Indian land from
the Onieda people who aided him when he was most in need at Valley Forge.
I guess it was his way of showing gratitude. The guy we're taught to
revere was a racist and genocidist. With that kind of Father what could
we expect from the "offspring." I'll bet they're still teaching
Gerge's military tactics to the recruits at West Point and telling these
impressionable kids that "Father knew best."
George's tradition was handed
down and became more robust over time. Along the way to the present
day, we expanded the frontier west and south and slaughtered about 18
million of our native people in the process. Their only offense was
they happened live on the land we wanted, so we stole it from them.
It didn't matter that they'd been there for about 20-30,000 years. How
could we let a "little tradition" stand in the way of "progress"
and "development." Once we had it all from coast to coast
(including the half of Mexico we also stole), we set our sights offshore
for conquests and easily found a few. In our beneficence to our southern
"neighbor" we let the Mexicans keep half their country, but
only because the majority population was in the southern half, and we
didn't want all those dark-skinned people "diluting" our white
Anglo-Saxon majority.
As fate would have it we
spared Canada. But it was touch and go for our northern neighbor as
we coveted their land too, and it may only have been our attention diverted
to other "adventures" plus a few cooler heads that kept us
from taking it. During our so-called War of 1812, there were those in
the US more interested in annexing territory in "British North
America" than fighting the British over their naval blockades,
interception of our ships and impressment of our seamen. We were humming
"O Canada" again in the 1920s, when the "Canucks"
as now were friendly allies with no hostile intention toward us or anyone
else. We actually drew up serious war plans to invade the country and
occupy it. I'm not kidding. Why? The same reason we invaded Iraq or
at least one of them. To steal their oil, and back then we had plenty
of our own and lots more we'd find. We also had a similar war plan approved
in 1919 to attack Mexico and steal their oil too. We want everyone's
oil and most everything else they hav as well. One day we may change
our mind and just declare both countries and all others (or just their
resources, markets and cheap labor) US property by an act of Congress
or a Presidential directive or decree. Our neighbors (and all other
nervous nations) shouldn't worry though. Whenever we conquer or colonize
we make it clear we come as friends to help them. In the old days it
was to bring them civilization. Now that "help" comes in our
special style of "friendship" at the barrel of an M1A1 tank
or sights of a cruise missile or nuclear bomb. But "it's for their
own good, to bring them democracy and freedom" and the rest of
the tired old rhetoric. It was shameless bunk back then just as now.
Fast forward a bit to WW
II and its aftermath when the US emerged as the only nation left standing
as the world's sole superpower. The Soviets may have developed "the
bomb", but the war so devastated them (along with most of Europe
and East Asia) it took about 15 years of redevelopment for them to regain
even a semblance of normalcy. The US was now free to run amuck and took
full advantage. What "amuck" we've run since needs much more
space than I have here. So fast forward again to the current era and
let Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter explain more recent US policy and its
incurable addiction. He did it eloquently when he said "US foreign
policy can be defined as follows: kiss my arse or I'll kick your head
in." He said that during the Clinton years. He had a lot more to
say about the Bush administration in his 2005 Nobel lecture and acceptance
speech when he called the invasion of Iraq "a bandit act, an act
of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the
concept of international aw." He went on to say the US "quite
simply doesn't give a damn about the UN, international law or critical
dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant."
YOU GOTTA SHOW YOU
MEAN BUSINESS
That brings us to Rule No.
2 - When you're the meanest, toughest, baddest guy in the neighborhood,
you gotta show it by beating up on a weakling occasionally. Otherwise
no one will take you seriously, and someone else might try to challenge
your supremacy. That's how a local godfather does it in my city of Chicago.
It works the same on the global stage as it does on the South Side here.
I can hardly improve on Harold
Pinter's eloquence so I'll just add to it by calling the Bush-Cheney
administration an unchallengeable practioner of reckless and outrageous
policies at home and abroad and being the most reactionary, statist
and psychopathic administration in our history. It stands alone in its
brazen uncompromising methods, fanatical extremism, bold and deceptive
rhetoric and almost pathological insistence on secrecy. In sum - they're
crazy and out-of-control. How's that Harold? It all came out after 9/11
that we now know was an event much different than the official explanation
we were given. On that fateful day, the mask came off, the ugly face
of a threatening tyranny could be spotted, and the bombs began falling.
So what's going on with us?
Was this warped proclivity always there but never understood or quite
so visible as now? Or is there something in our DNA that makes us like
a modern day out-of-control Sparta? Is it a "bad seed?" Is
it curable? Not a chance with the crowd running wild in Washington now
declaring they'll throw nuclear bombs around like hand grenades in future
wars and are already doing it below the radar in the two we're now fighting
- that's right two ongoing wars, the other one being in Afghanistan
which in case you hadn't noticed is still "hot" and killing
US and other occupying forces. And that one has no end in sight either.
THEY PUT THEIR PLANS
IN WRITING AND WE CAN ALL READ THEM - AND SHUDDER
Rule No. 3 - Write it all
down clearly and in detail. That way everyone can read it and understand
you mean business. What better way to scare shaky allies and intimidate
and deter other nations thinking about defying us to forget about it
or we'll beat up on them. It works most of the time.
The Bush-Cheney crowd try
to make it work every time and since 9/11 have kept practicing to let
everyone know they're not kidding. We believe 'em. But just to make
sure no one forgets they just updated their September, 2002 National
Security Strategy with more belligerent language than the original.
The original, in case you didn't know or forgot, lays out an "imperial
grand strategy." It's nothing less than a declaration of "preventive
war" (the term "pre-emptive" is used incorrectly as that
can only apply in a defensive action against a known impending attack)
against any nation or force this administration decides is a threat
to our national security. It doesn't mean it is, just that we say it
is. That threat includes any nation we label "unstable" or
a "failed state" (whatever that is). And a little add-on to
the original NSS was their FY 04 Air Force Space Command Strategic Master
Plan. It laid out a plan to "own outer space" (think the Martians
will buy it), weaponize it with the most advancedand destructive weapons
and technology including nuclear ones, and develop and place out there
unmanned space vehicles to surveille the entire planet.
And there are two more gems
everyone should know about. One is the May, 2000 DOD Joint Vision 2020
that outlined a plan for "full spectrum dominance." That's
code language ("Militaryspeak" again) meaning total control
over all land, sea, air and space and using any means including nuclear
war to achieve it and keep it. The other jewel is the Nuclear Policy
Review of December, 2001 that claims a unilateral right to declare and
wage future wars using first strike nuclear weapons. Anyone nervous?
You'd better be because the Bush administration declared a permanent
state of war against "bad guys" we call "terrorists."
I have my own definition of what each of those terms means and it's
lots different from theirs. Dick Cheney gave us his message when he
declared a "global war on terrorism" that may last for decades
and may include in our target queue dozens of countries (the number
keeps changing, but they have plenty in mind and don't plan to run out).
THEY'RE NOT KIDDING
AND IT JUST GOT WORSE
Rule No. 4 - Just in case
anyone still misunderstands, ratchet up the rhetoric, make it even meaner
and tougher and start beating the war drums to announce you're planning
to demonstrate your seriousness. That should get everyone's full attention.
If all this doesn't scare
you, then you didn't read the morning papers right after the ides of
March (amazing they didn't choose that day when another noted warning
was made, went unheeded and led to a bad ending for a guy whose initials
were JC - no, the other one). On March 16 we learned that an updated
National Security Strategy outlined the first full statement of US strategic
goals since the original 2002 document written in the run-up to the
Iraq war and which, in fact, was a declaration of war against that country
six months before it began. The new Strategy identifies Iran as the
"single country" that may pose the biggest threat to the US
and reaffirms our unilateral right to take preventive military action
against them. It denounced Tehran as an "ally of terror" and
"enemy of freedom" along with daily accusations they're trying
to acquire nuclear weapons and even use them. It also audaciously claims
"we may face no greater challenge from a single country than from
Iran."
Iran never attacked any other
nation or even threatened to. It endorses a negotiated settlement (didn't
we use that ploy with Saddam) but warns of "confrontation"
if that effort fails. Sound familiar? Haven't we heard that song before?
The clincher will be when we call the Iranian mullahs and/or President
Ahmadinejad "Hitler." And haven't we overdone that one too?
Can't we let the old brute stew in his special hell without degrading
his ignominy by equating all our other designated "bad guys"
with him? And shouldn't the public have caught on to this snake oil
sales pitch by now? You're giving them too much credit. They never get
it or understand in this nation the renowned author and social critic
Gore Vidal calls the "United States of amnesia." The equally
renowned author and my fellow Chicagoan, Studs Terkel, calls our malady
a "national Alzheimer's disease." Sadly, it's true. The public
can't recall last week's headlines let alone the events of months or
years past or heaven knows any knowlede or sense of history - the real
kind, that is, not the mythology we're fed in school or through the
corporate media.
The updated document goes
further and claims the right to take preventive action against any nation
we designate an enemy state or any undefined terrorist group we say
seeks to acquire WMD. Again, it doesn't matter if it's true, only that
we say it's true. And we never explain what WMD is, so I will. Only
nuclear weapons so qualify, not chemical or biological. The war hawks
want you to think all three types do, but all weapons experts know otherwise.
The latter two types can only cause havoc over a small area while only
the former can really cause mass destruction not only on its target
but over a vast area affected by deadly toxic radiation fallout that
can never be remediated.
The report goes on to warn
us that while al-Qaeda has been "significantly degraded" since
the Afghan war it's also been dispersed and decentralized which now
poses new challenges. And it claims the "fight in Iraq has been
twisted by terrorist propaganda as a rallying cry." I wish someone
would explain what that means. And there's more:
Besides Iran, clearly number
one in the target queue, the document also lists North Korea, Syria,
Cuba, Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe as "despotic systems." It
specifically labels Syria an ally of terror and enemy of freedom - meaning
Israel wants us to do their dirty work by ousting their leader and replacing
him with someone more subservient to Israeli and Western interests.
It says the US must "isolate
enemy elements" but engage those willing to give up violence (read:
they're violent because we say they are, but we'll forgive them if they
surrender their national sovereignty to the "Godfather").
It specifically singles out
Venezuela and Hugo Chavez as "a demagogue awash in oil money (who
is) undermining democracy and seeking to destabilize the region."
This stuff is breathtaking, and allow me to translate it. First, though
let me thank and commend President Chavez for being one of the few world
leaders with the courage and backbone to respond to the reckless US
policy and vicious lies about him and all else by pointing his finger
at the real king of destabilizers and state terrorists. In comments
he made on March 19 during his regular Sunday TV program, Hello, President,
for ordinary Venezuelans to call and speak to him directly, ask a question
and get his response, he called George Bush "Mr. Danger",
the world's greatest terrorist, a coward, murderer, immoral and sick
among other things. The man's very perceptive.
Now the translation of the
NSS comments on President Chavez. What they're saying is that the Chavez
extraordinary reforms bringing the Venezuelan people vital social benefits
like free health care and education they never had before; his most
vibrant democracy in the Americas; his innovative trade agreements that
are fair to all participating countries and his opposition to the US
promoted exploitive ones; and his beneficent policy of helping his neighbors,
other developing countries, and some poor communities in US cities like
selected neighborhoods in my own city of Chicago by selling them discounted
oil (or heating oil to US cities - again, think Exxon-Mobil would do
that?) are not in the interests of the US or the giant transnational
corporations who want the right to exploit the country and every other
developing one as well for their own benefit. That means no social programs
for the people, just opportunities for US giant transnationals to have
open and free access to plunder for profit. We call tat "free trade."
I call it "the American way." Hugo Chavez and the great majority
of Venezuelans justifiably want no part of it. Neither should we.
It also emphasizes the need
to enhance the administration's post-conflict capabilities and to create
a "civilian reserve corps" to rebuild countries after a war
ends - meaning after we destroy them by illegal aggression we'll award
big no-bid contracts to the likes of Halliburton and Bechtel to rebuild
them......shoddily..... and steal the US taxpayers blind while doing
whatever it is they're doing. We do know Halliburton is expert at building
US military bases and "torture-prisons."
Finally, it states a policy
to promote nuclear power abroad to provide "reliable, emission-free
energy." I love this one too. This is a sales pitch for General
Electric and all other US corporations that will profit big time if
we can convince other countries to let US corporations build nuclear
power plants for them and all the rest that goes with them. And, oh
yes, these plants most definitely are not emission-free. Where I live
in Chicago is testimony to that. I'm surrounded by 11 nuclear power
plants, many of them aging (as are most others) and all of them have
a disturbing history of safety violations caused by aging and shoddy
maintenance (another common problem in many other cities). Even without
a serious accident (which will happen one day), these facilities (and
all others everywhere including any newly built ones) discharge enough
deadly toxic radiation daily in their normal operations to contaminate
the food we eat (even organic food), the water we drink and the air
we breathe into our luns. And if one of these plants ever has a core
meltdown and metropolitan Chicago is downwind from the fallout, the
city and suburbs alone will become uninhabitable for the next 4.5 billion
years (forever) and would have to be evacuated quickly with all possessions
left behind and lost (including our homes) except for what we could
carry in suitcases or in the trunks of our cars if we own one which
I don't. This is the kind of madness our government is trying to sell
the US public and the world. But no matter. They'll do that and anything
else to help their corporate friends......even if it kills us.
SELLING WAR - IT'S
NOT HARD TO DO
Rule No. 5 - After putting
your intentions clearly in writing and showing you mean business, the
next step is scaring the public by choosing a "target country"
and convincing them it threatens our security and welfare. You explain
you're trying to reason with it, but if it won't listen, force may be
necessary as a last resort. But not to worry. We'll only do this for
our own safety and security. If you do this well enough (and these guys
are experts, they've had so much practice), you hope the public will
go along with your madness even if things don't go well and despite
what your real objectives are.
With two out-of-control wars
on their hands, why would they ever want to start another one? We don't
have enough troops to handle Iraq and Afghanistan, there's growing discontent
in the ranks including desertions in the thousands, and our military
spending is off the charts and running up massive budget deficits even
the new Fed chairman is alarmed about. He and other experts know they're
only sustainable by "the kindness of strangers" that one day
may become less kind as well as the wholesale shredding of our social
safety net to fund wars. For me that's a clinical definition of insanity,
but that doesn't deter this crowd. The war drums are beating loudly
and the demonizing of our new number one public enemy is clearly Iran.
In mid-February Secretary of State Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee the US would "actively confront" Iran and asked
for an extra $75 million in funding for anti-Tehran propaganda and support
for opposition groups outside the country. And she just turned up the
hea a notch or two more by accusing Iran of lying about its (nuclear)
activities and calling the country "a central banker to terrorism"
- an overused false, deceptive and demonizing line she and others have
used before.
Of course, this is all part
of "the big lie" and prepping of the public for the "fun
and games" they have in mind. What's never mentioned and what the
sleepwalking public doesn't understand is there's only one "king"
and undisputed world champion of "terrorism" (the state-sponsored
most deadly kind of all) and central banker of terrorism. There may
be a few other bit players around that come and go, but the US for at
least many decades has been financing the most widespread and egregious
terrorist activities on the planet - mainly its own, but it spreads
it around when it can get other willing co-conspirator nations to join
in. I'll let some of the worst of them go unnamed, but the reader need
only check what nations have become part of our "coalitions of
the willing" in victim countries now under the heel of the oppressive
US boot. And then they can add a few more to that list like our closest
of all allies in the Middle East and a few more in South and East Asia.
The issue with Iran has nothing
to do with the furor over that country's wanting to develop its commercial
nuclear industry, having the right to enrich its own uranium and even
the right to develop weapons to defend itself against really hostile
enemies. They'd be crazy and irresponsible not to want to want an adequate
defense. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT), is in full compliance with it, and has every legal right to enrich
its uranium. But that doesn't cut it with the "Godfather"
because Iran won't sell out its sovereignty to the US and our oil and
other corporate interests. India, Pakistan and Israel, on the other
hand, are nuclear outlaws, have known stockpiles of nuclear bombs, and
have not signed the NPT. But they know "who's boss", show
proper deference, can build and stockpile nuclear bombs (maybe even
use a few) and they're valued and trusted strategic allies. It follows
that attacking Iran is quite acceptable because the "Godfather"
tolerates no disobedient outliers", and such behavior must be severely
punished to oust their leaders, replace them with more "friendly"
ones, and deter other nations from showing the same independence or
notion of moving that way.
WELCOME TO THE MODERN
NUCLEAR AGE UNMASKED
Rule No. 6 - First the rule
and then the message from it. The rule is: when you've got 'em, use
'em. Of course, that means using whatever most destructive or high tech
weapons you have, especially if the target country only has lesser ones.
It also means: what's the point of having 'em if you can't or don't
use 'em. The message then is: toxic radiation is good for you. That
must be what they're selling because the US has now stated its intent
to use industrial strength nuclear bombs in any future wars if it chooses
to. Can they really sell this line of sheer madness? They're trying,
and I don't hear anyone screaming about it yet.
Waging war by illegal aggression
is bad enough, but doing it recklessly in another so-called "shock
and awe" attack with so-called "bunker-buster mini-nukes"
that aren't mini is reckless and insane. The rhetoric about them is
false and deliberately deceptive. These bombs are industrial strength
and can be made to any potency and likely would be from one third to
two thirds as powerful as a Hiroshima bomb. They're designed to penetrate
a designated target and explode underground for supposed protection.
The DOD falsely claims this fantasy. They deceptively state that these
weapons are safe to use because only the protected target is destroyed
while the toxic radiation from the detonation is contained underground.
Baloney. This is just another shameless lie. Some of it will be contained,
but any bomb this powerful will release most of its toxic and lethal
radiation into the atmosphere contaminating a vast area depending only
on how many targets are struck, where they are, and by how many nuclear
bombs Let's be clear what will happen if this attack goes ahead as planned
or any other like it they may have in mind. It will likely be Hiroshima
and Nagasaki x you pick the multiple - anywhere from double to infinity.
And the result will be many thousands of innocent people murdered, many
more thousands poisoned by toxic, lethal radiation and a vast area irremediably
contaminated for the next 4.5 billion years. Think it's worth it, never
mind unjustified, egregious and a gross breach of international law.
Should this administration
be insane enough to do this (and after the announcement of March 16
it looks more likely than ever), the entire Middle East may boil over,
and the US will have descended even deeper into its hellish sinkhole
of endless (and now full-scale) nuclear war, massive destruction and
killing, and nation bankrupting levels of endless spending with no end
in sight. Doesn't this crowd understand this? They must, but that doesn't
deter the damn fools. They're often wrong but never in doubt. Haven't
they ever heard the great lyrics to folk singer Pete Seeger's Vietnam
era ode to the damn fool of that period - "Waste deep in the Big
Muddy and the big fool says push on." And don't they remember the
memorable Stanley Kubrick 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove, that even I saw
back then, and I dislike movies. Kubrick portrayed a nuclear Doomsday
Machine. The film's subtitle was "how to stop worrying and love
the bomb." Anyone believing that then or now can only love great
suffering and large-scaledeath and destruction instead of life. But
you can bet these guys will convince a lot of people it's worth it -
for what and whom. Them maybe, but not us.
AND NOW THE NEXT
STEP - THE MOVE FROM
A REPUBLIC TO TYRANNY
Rule No. 7 (the last one)
- Your manual is almost complete, and you're about to become as expert
at this game as the big boys actually playing it. The only step left
is to do at home everything you want to do abroad without having to
nuke the public to sell it. Scaring hell out of them should do the trick.
We may find out and sooner
than we think if it'll work. But this time we may be getting in over
our heads and headed for the abyss if the alarm sounded by retired General
Tommy Franks proves true. A few months after he retired he gave an interview
to Cigar Aficionado magazine (a most unlikely venue - maybe he envisioned
the world going up in smoke) and made what to some was an astonishing
statement. He said if another terrorist attack occurs in the US "the
Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of
government." He went on to say such an attack will result in our
losing our "freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred
years......(and that Bush)..... will likely declare martial law......."
Have I ruined your day? Fasten
your seat belt, it gets worse. For some time now, a number of US government
officials and private "terrorism" experts are on record predicting
it's just a matter of when, not if, the US will be struck again. Some
say it will be worse than 9/11. And on June 6, 2003, the AP quoted a
US government report that "there is a high probability that al-Qaida
will attempt an attack with weapons of mass destruction in the next
two years." Now I'd never advise anyone believe anything said by
any government official. But those of us, including myself, convinced
our own government was behind or complicit in the first 9/11 attack,
should take this warning very seriously. It means if that conclusion
is true (and again, I believe it is) this warning and General Franks'
grim assessment may, in fact, be advance word of what's ahead. We should
heed that warning and be prepared as best we can. One astute observer
I heard comment said in all seriousness that for anyone with enough
resourcesa prudent option today would be to have "a second passport
and a little property in Vancouver." He added we should think out
our escape route in advance and be ready to take it.
HERE'S THE NIGHTMARISH
SCRIPT YOU CAN PRACTICE LOSING SLEEP OVER
Rule (or reality) No. 8 -
The script is written and the plans are ready to go. Here's how it's
likely to play out.
I've discussed this scenario
before in another essay, but it deserves repeating here with some added
embellishment to scare you even more. I began by suggesting we're being
set up (as well as being given fair warning if we can read the tea leaves)
for a planned major strike against us. I then went on to say.......You
know the drill by now. A major attack happens on US soil, the Bush administration
and complicit corporate media hype what happened, scare the public and
get them mad enough to demand retribution. If they haven't yet attacked
Iran, they blame this on them so they now have public and outside support
to do it claiming secret intelligence they can't reveal and it's (nuclear)
bombs away - and George Bush's approval rating skyrockets just like
after 9/11, and the Republicans keep control of both houses of Congress
in November. Karl Rove couldn't plan it any better.
And there's one more thing
I didn't write before but will add here. Tommy Franks' assessment and
vision will become reality, the Constitution will be suspended, martial
law will be declared and we'll have crossed the Rubicon and passed from
a republic (what's left of it) to tyranny just as it happened in ancient
Rome and more recently in Weimar Germany. We're no different or safer
than they were. It works the same in every country, and we should understand
nothing is more fragile than our sacred freedom and liberty. It can
easily be taken from us without our knowledge or with our compliance
when we think it guarantees us security. The reputed old Chinese proverb
and curse (likely derived from another source) said "May he (or
you) live in interesting times." It didn't mean "let the good
times roll and all is well in the world." Whether of Chinese origin
or not, I'll settle for the curse and say it surely applies to today
in this country like never before in our history.
I've tried to use this essay
to warn everyone reading it how deadly serious the times we're now living
in are. We must understand that, spread the word, enlist the support
of others, and desperately try to head off the impending disaster I
think lies ahead if we all don't act in time. It's really that serious.
I could end this a lot of
ways. I usually do it either inspirationally or with a warning. This
time it's the latter because the situation is grave, and the time is
short. What's at stake is nothing less than saving the republic (again
what's left of it) and our sacred Constitutional rights. Unless enough
of us are willing to fight for both and do it soon, there may be nothing
left to fight for. Understand the threat, get mad, energized and heed
Pogo's advice and wisdom that "we've met the enemy and it's us."
Now what are we gonna do about it?" It's our move next.
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog address at sjlendman.blogspot.com.