Oh man, gimme some humor please....

Yikes.......... a little levity! Levity over here....! Somebody....?!

Ah, thank goodness.

Here we go....


Backyard Blitzkrieg

BushHoax.gif (image)

Things we've been wondering about

Handy guide to the housing market

The comedic genius of Alan Greenspan

Republicans and Democrats: a brief parable

The quest for common ground

What will Democrats do? ~ This Modern World

Exploring the Mysteries of the Quantum Cheneyverse

Sorry, we're you saying something?

How the news works - once again

The Neocon Gameshow

Ok - this one's a tad dark:
Extraordinary rendition or free surprise vacation?

Um....this one too:
CIA Backed Saddam: Thanks for the Memories

Ya, and this one:
Bush is not a Nazi - So stop saying that!

Ah, one more:
Stephen Colbert: Enjoy the Police State

But not this one. This one is smiley: happy clown candy land!
Changes - Presidential Candidates feat. Bowie

Powder Keg USA: US heading toward fascism and civil war

“In the long run it is far more dangerous to adhere to illusion than to face what the actual truth is.” – David Bohm

It is very important that we now divest ourselves of any remaining willful ignorance. It is too late, and the stakes too high, for denial and wishful thinking to persist. Dream of better times, generate and hold fast to a more noble vision, but do not let our view of reality be skewed by a fear of facing the truth.

A year and a half ago I came across information pertaining to a number of very large issues, and was compelled to research them, and their inter-relationships, implications, and probable outcomes, and then to summarize as concisely as possible these research findings and analyses. What I concluded then, in October of 2006, was that a number of very large patterns were in motion which, as they unfold, will profoundly affect the US and the world, and further, that the United States was a powder keg, set to explode. Less than eighteen months later, we can see that the analysis was clearly correct, in all major facets, and the US is even more clearly, a powder keg waiting to explode. Here’s why, and here are some of the implications. The patterns are of profound significance and are unfolding rapidly, with increasing speed, therefore understanding them and forming appropriate responses is of urgent necessity.

From the October 2006 research summary:

A number of points which are now either undeniable, or at least have increasing and very strong evidence to support them:

1. The United States is in a deep and growing crisis of legitimacy, a serious and deepening internal political crisis, with the result of very significant and mounting instability – a crisis which will only get worse by ignoring it, and will be further exacerbated by the other related unfolding crises, both manufactured and otherwise. The following inter-related dynamics will affect the growing US political crisis profoundly.

2. The US is on the verge of economic collapse. 14 months later, this now is admitted by nearly everyone. When economic collapse hits the US, the political crisis will move from deeply serious to explosive as public discontent reaches a flashpoint. US elites are most certainly taking actions in advance to deal with the deepening political crisis.

3. Peak oil is about to hit globally, with profound economic, social and political implications for the US and the world. That was the best analysis in fall 2006. It now has hit, and is unfolding, as is being admitted. As predicted, oil prices rose dramatically, causing global economic shock and downturn. Oil prices went from US$ 50 a barrel in 2006 to US$ 100 a barrel in 2007. Between 2002 and 2007 world oil prices rose from US$ 20/barrel to US$ 100/barrel – a five-fold increase, again, as predicted. The economic ramifications are severe and growing as energy costs for all manufacturing and shipping rise exponentially.

In case you haven’t been watching:

World oil production is expected to decline sharply by 2030: report

EWG_Oilreport_Summary_10-2007.pdf (application/pdf Object)

4. A political scandal of simply tectonic magnitude is unfolding rapidly within the US – speaking from October 2006 - on top of the already precarious situation of a long-standing and slowly deepening political crisis. (Remember that the slowly deepening crisis of legitimacy which unfolded over decades within the Soviet Union led ultimately to a “tipping point” in which the entire structure collapsed, virtually overnight.) In September and October 2006 two things happened which moved the US domestic political crisis from deep and growing, to precipitous and potentially cataclysmic in terms of its effects, as least as far as the political and business elite of the country are concerned. One: Hugo Chavez stated before the UN that there is growing evidence, and a growing number of people around the world and within the US are coming to believe, that elements within the US government actively participated in the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11. The media around the world and across the US reported on a story that was too big to silence: the story of the accusation, that is. A much more important event occurred that fall: the number of US citizens who believe it is very likely or somewhat likely that elements within the US government were actively involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US reached 36% - and the number of Americans who do not believe the official story reached a stunning 84%. As of October 2006 only 16% of Americans believed the official story. This is a cataclysmic scale crisis of legitimacy, a scandal of truly tectonic proportions. This is what I would call a “house of cards event.”

By now, fourteen months later, over 100 scholars, prominent military, intelligence, government and media figures have stated that the official story is untenable, and that there are serious questions as to active involvement in the attacks by high level US government officials and agents. The former head of the Russian air force has stated the official story is impossible (that statement actually came in fall 2001). Former German parliamentarian Helmut Schmidt has said that WTC-7 was brought down by controlled demolition, in order to conceal the evidence as to who orchestrated the attack, which was coordinated out of that same building. Former assistant editor for the Wall Street Journal, and creator of Reaganomics, Paul Craig Roberts, has said that the evidence is incontrovertible that WTC-7 was brought down by controlled demolition. Former Italian Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga has publicly declared that, “the disastrous attack was planned and carried out by the American CIA and the Mossad” – and went on to state that every intelligence agency in the world knows this.

The domestic political crisis in the US, though smoothed over by the network media, is fast approaching a tipping point, and the political and business elite are highly aware of this fact. When popular discontent is already deep and wide, and a scandal of such magnitude is erupting, even the conditions that set off the first American Revolution seem to pale in comparison. Such gross criminal activity on the part of domestic elites is bound to provoke a full scale crisis of confidence, to put it mildly.

This makes Watergate look like a love-in. This is the stuff of a Boston Tea Party. US elites are not taking this lightly, of course.

5. For geo-strategic reasons, primarily control over world energy resources, as well as for reasons of domestic instability and internal political crisis (I’ll explain why in a moment), the US is likely to attack Iran, if the people of the US and the world do not stop a government that is out of control. This is only becoming more and more evident.

6. An attack on Iran would require an enormous pretext, given that the American people do not want even to continue the war in Iraq, let alone expand it. Opposition to the war in Iraq has now grown to approximately 70%. Yet the US government seems intent on expanding the war in the Middle East, and attacking Iran, possibly with nuclear weapons. (Controlling the Middle East means controlling approximately 70% of world oil supplies. Controlling world oil supplies means dominating the global economy and the world, as PNAC and the Pentagon have openly stated is their aim. Peak oil only adds to their sense of urgency.)

(Note that none of the remaining US presidential candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul and Mike Gravel, are willing to stop the current trend toward escalating war in the Middle East, so counting on electoral change is patently foolish, unless somehow Ron Paul or Mike Gravel were to win. Obama and Hillary have both said with regard to Iran, “Everything is on the table” – nuclear first strike and all.)

Not only would an attack on Iran risk ecological and humanitarian disaster, as well as seriously risk a world war, but would require the greatest of pretexts to get the American people to go along with it. In the words of the neo-con think tank PNAC, it would seem to require a “cataclysmic event,” or as Zbig himself described it in his 1997 book on global geo-strategy, The Grand Chessboard, a “Pearl Harbor type event.”

This begs a very frightening question. Following my analysis in the fall of 2006, less than six months later, Zbigniew Brzezinski warned the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that just such a false flag event, a terrorist attack on the US, “blamed on Iran….and a quote, unquote, defensive retaliation against Iran,” was a likely scenario. Congressman Ron Paul has also stated that he believes the danger of a Gulf of Tonkin event is great. (He is softening the blow for us. It would be, rather, much more severe than an offshore event which would be needed, in all likelihood, given the extremely strong public opposition to expanding or even continuing the war.)

Remember also that former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Tommy Franks said in an interview a couple of years ago that if there is another terrorist attack on the US it would likely be the end of democracy – Congress would not likely be reconvened, he said.

Of course, the final destruction of what remains of democracy, freedom and civil rights in America, under a police state, would provoke civil war. Again, the elite surely know this very well. Civil war in turn gives further pretext and justification for crackdown on dissent. “Domestic terrorism” charges will be used to eliminate all political opposition and dissenting voices – most likely via media spin, while individuals and groups are quietly rounded up in mass arrests, without trial or due process of law.

Witness the Green Zone and giant high-security embassy in Bagdad: US forces are training in maintaining full dominance within a setting of permanent civil war. Iraq is the laboratory for what is to be applied at home. War justifies repression, repression ensures continuing war, and war and repression yield dominance and plunder. It is a simple yet effective strategy, at least in the short run. Permanent war means a permanent state of emergency, as well as great profits for the military-industrial complex. It would be a return to the walled cities of feudal times, backed by new mercenaries armies such as Blackwater. Outside the walls, chaos, violence, war and poverty reign. Inside the walls, it is a pampered police state for those who are sufficiently obedient. It is a very dark road that the US has set upon. It is a path into what one might most appropriately call feudal fascism, both at home and abroad.

Note also that this current trajectory ties in perfectly with the business elites’ agenda for a “new security environment” in “Fortress North America” within the framework of feudal fascist rule via the NACC and SPP. Canada and Mexico will thus also be drawn into this morass unless resistance and an alternative vision are quickly generated. US business elites want Canadian oil and Mexican labour, as well as continental “security.” The popular movement to resist this agenda of fascism under continental corporate rule must therefore be international. We are now clearly in this together.

In each of these cases, the evidence has only grown more compelling.

Put the pieces together.

a) Deep and growing crisis of legitimacy in the US.

b) Rapidly unfolding economic crisis in the US, which will only exacerbate the
underlying political crisis.

c) Peak oil crisis unfolding rapidly, compounding both the economic and political
crises.

d) A “house of cards event” emerging rapidly with the 9/11 scandal – a scandal big enough to bring down not just a government, but an entire socio-political order, a la the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-90.

e) A war planned on Iran to secure geostrategically vital world energy reserves, requiring a giant pretext to get the American people to accept expansion of war in the Middle East, when what they want now is to end it.

f) The warnings of former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski that such an unfolding of events is “likely.”

g) Tommy Franks statement that another event would precipitate the foreclosure of democracy in America.

Conclusion:

Elements of the US political and business elite are sufficiently desperate, power hungry and reckless as to consider and plan for a series of events, which, if successful, would resolve the political crisis in the US - by dissolving democracy and invoking a police state - while securing control over the majority of the world’s remaining energy reserves in an era of diminishing oil supplies. For some, this must seem a wonderful win-win scenario. Of course, for the vast majority, this means living hell.

If unsuccessful, the consequences may be global thermonuclear annihilation of the entire Northern Hemisphere – but you have to take some risks, right?

There are other profound implications, such as global economic collapse, due to the strangulation of oil shipments and spiking oil prices within the context of an already volatile and unstable global economy, but the very real potential of nuclear disaster tops the list, followed closely by the nightmare scenario of the re-emergence of fascism in the Western world.

By the way, Russia and China are now economic and military allies with Iran, and both are nuclear powers with ICBMs. Word is, the mad fools in Washington, or those at the helm at least, are actively seeking a confrontation with two of the world’s military, economic and nuclear superpowers. The insanity is truly mind-boggling.

As we speak, five air craft carrier groups are stationed off Iran, the war propaganda continues, preparing the public mind for acquiescence, and the political crisis in the US sinks deeper, while the US economy slides steadily off a cliff, and the peak oil crunch continues to unfold.

Think about it. This is end game. The US elite know this. We should harbour no illusions.

Note that this entire analysis does not even mention one giant and now undeniable pattern which is also rapidly unfolding, by clearly conscious design, and that is the war on democracy and the assault on freedom and civil liberties, which has been on-going and escalating since September 11 in particular. (It began earlier, but 9/11 was the “catalyst” to greatly speed up the process.) Consider the above in light of this.

The “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) has been used, and it is increasingly self-evident that it has been very consciously used, for the purpose of creating a state of permanent global imperial warfare on the one hand, and in order to “win” the war on democracy on the other. “Winning” in this context means global dominance is consolidated for the transnational business elite who already dominate the governments of the G-8 and the Western world. “Winning” is thus slavery for humanity – at home and abroad – and the destruction of democracy and freedom.

Note also that the Washington Post published a leaked memo from the Pentagon which was addressed to high level military and government officials, and which stated that the Global War on Terror is to be completed, won, by October 2008. The memo made explicit that this was a performance-related objective, communicating in definite terms that pay would be affected if targets are not reached.

What do we conclude from that? Bush and Cheney said this would be a war without end. Iraq has bogged down into civil war and quagmire and drags on endlessly, while neocons and Democrats bicker and posture while agreeing to “stay the course” and keep the troops in occupation position. Now the Pentagon wants the war wrapped up, completed and won within the next nine months (before the 2008 election). What dark entity is the Pentagon planning to birth in that time frame? What does the Pentagon consider “completion” or “winning” of the “global war on terror” – particularly when any intelligent observer can see that it is not a war on terrorism, but a war of empire and a war on democracy? Are we to assume then that the Pentagon has set a firm target, and that global consolidation of the empire, particularly, secure control over the Mid-East oil reserves, is to be complete by October 2008? That the war on democracy is to be won by October 2008? I think that we must give some very sober-minded consideration to these statements, in light of recent developments. A tremendous amount is at stake here.

I believe it is time we speak the truth directly. This is a war on the people of the earth. It must stop. And it is the people of the earth who must stop it.

I would say it is time for the people of the United States, and the people of the world, to stand up, and say in no uncertain terms, that this has gone far enough, and to demand, a) an end to military adventurism and imperial designs, and b) a respect for human rights, civil liberties, constitutional democracy, freedom and the self-determination of peoples in all nations – and in action, and not simply rhetoric.

Stop the madness!

People of the United States, people of the world, speak now. The stakes are high. This is our future. This is our children’s future. Too much is at stake to leave the future of humanity in the hands of those who are drunk with power. It is time to take the power back.

The future is in our hands. If we continue to give our power to a small band of elites, the above scenario will most likely unfold in all its terrible fullness. It is up to us, as always, the people of the Earth. Choose wisely. The powerful rule only when and if we give them our power. Remove that power and they fall like a house of cards. The Soviet Empire’s collapse proved this. It is now time for the collapse of the Western empire, and the birth of true democracy. Stay alert. The story is not yet over. We can write the next chapter if we so choose. Allowing the power elite to write it for us would be disastrous. Pick up the pen. Reclaim your power. Let us write a better story for the future of humanity and the earth.

"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs: when he first appears, he is a protector." - Plato

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - U.S. President James Madison

"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death". - Adolph Hitler

"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, speaking before the Nuremberg Trials.

"The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened". - Josef Stalin

But it can’t happen here. Or can it?

Do we really believe that certain countries are immune from the plots of evil men?

Really now.

JTR,

February 1, 2008

“War can never stop terrorism because war is the ultimate form of terrorism.”
- John Deer

“Empires don’t bring democracy, they control people…..Predictably, anyone who threatens imperial power is treated as if they were, to put it mildly, a trouble-maker, or even a terrorist….No-one in power really wants democracy, because democracy would challenge their power structures.” - Tony Benn

Noam Chomsky on Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest For Global Dominance

“The End of America”: Naomi Wolf Warns U.S. in Slow Descent into Fascism - Democracy Now!

Power to the People (In Suits )

Ex-Italian Prime Minister - '9/11 Carried Out By CIA and Mossad' // Current

911 Proof

9-11 Research: Insider Trading

911 - Aftermath : Unanswered Questions from 9/11 (1 of 3)

THE TRUTH & LIES OF 9/11

911 L.A. Symposium - Webster Griffin Tarpley on 911 Evidence

Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex.

The War On Terror Is A Fabrication - Michel Chossudovsky

America's "Long War" From the Truman Doctrine to the NeoConservatives - Chossudovsky

Noam Chomsky on U.S. policy towards Iran

Chomsky: Do the Democrats have a different answer on Iran?

Brzezinski warns of Pearl Harbor type event, a pretext for war on Iran

Ron Paul - Gulf of Tonkin

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama & John Edwards Equal No Change

Noam Chomsky - The Political system in the USA

Changes - Presidential Candidates feat. Bowie

Vote for Change? Atrocity-Linked U.S. Officials Advising Democratic, GOP Presidential Frontrunners - Democracy Now!

YouTube - Dennis Kucinich War on Iraq

YouTube - Dennis Kucinich - On Iraq

Pirates, Emperors and the Masters of the Universe - Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky on human destiny

Big Ideas That Changed The World : Democracy-Tony Benn

Overview: Geopolitics 2006-2008

America: A Fork In the Road

My Buddy Obama

“Meet the new boss – same as the old boss”

A lot of people love Barack Obama. I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, and I don’t enjoy being the bearer of bad news, but I have to say, Obama strikes me as a poser. I’m afraid he would be a neoliberal corporate hack, a continuation of the policies of Bush and company – imperial empire abroad and war on constitutional democracy and civil rights at home – but with a pretty face, and a much more slippery façade. “Meet the new boss – same as the old boss.” Why do I say this? Take a look at the man’s voting record.

Obama, like Hilary, voted in favour of the draconian, and frankly, anti-democratic, unconstitutional, fascist legislation which is the Patriot Act. Not only did he vote in favour of this vile rights-shredding, constitution-nullifying Orwellian bill, he actually voted, along with Hilary, again, to make 12 provisions of the Patriot Act permanent. Now I don’t know about you, but a basic respect for democracy and civil rights seems like a prerequisite for any legitimate political candidate. Neither Obama nor Hilary fit this description. Both of them fail at democracy 101.

Obama furthermore, while speaking against the war in Iraq, has, like Hilary, voted in favour of every budget request from the Pentagon, voting in 2006 alone, in favour of over $580 billion of tax payer money to support the military-industrial complex, including funding requests specifically targeted to continuation of war in Iraq. Now maybe words mean more than actions, I don’t know; but if actions also count, then this man is either a liar, or has no spine. He says one thing, and votes another.

If Obama or Hilary, or anyone in the Democratic-controlled Congress were serious about ending imperial war in the Middle East, the first thing that would be done would be to pull the plug: Congress has the power not only to issue bland statements of opposition to war, but to refuse to fund it – no money, no war. It’s that simple. Because the majority of the Democrats who control Congress refuse to pull the plug on the war and stop funding it, the war continues, and Barack Obama, along with Hilary Clinton, shares directly in the responsibility for the on-going disaster - and war crimes - that is war in Iraq.

Nice words are one thing, but Congress persons and Senators act with their vote: and Obama’s record of action speaks volumes – support for wars of empire overseas, and support for the war on democracy and the Constitution at home. I wouldn’t elect him to watch my dog for the weekend.

Obama also voted to endorse John Negroponte, the man who oversaw and directed the death squads of Central America, as Director of National Intelligence. He also voted to endorse Michael Chertoff as head of the Department of Homeland Security, and Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State. Creepy connections if you ask me.

Another consideration in the up-coming U.S. federal election is the party apparatus of the Democrats and Republicans both. It has been accurately said that the U.S. is a one party system: the Republicans and Democrats are two wings of the business party. Both party’s are deeply entwined with corporate America, both are deeply indebted to corporate America for election, party, and representative financing, both vote and act consistently to uphold and defend, not the Constitution, not civil rights and liberties, not peace, order or good government, not justice or the well-being of American citizens, and not the interests of great majority of Americans, but the interests of the corporate elite and the investment class, which they studiously represent and serve. Anyone who gains the easy endorsement of the party machinery within the Democratic or Republican bureaucracy, must be viewed with skepticism from the outset. Hilary and Obama were endorsed by the Democratic party machinery early on. The rest of the candidates were swept aside, and the media followed suit: these two are presented as the only contenders. What does this say about Hilary and Obama? They have endorsement from the party machine, which supports and is backed by the U.S. corporate elite – by far the nation’s most powerful lobby. It would most likely indicate that they have been chosen because they are considered safe: safe for the financial interests that dominate the party.

I would suggest that if you want genuine leadership, you have to look, not at the chosen heirs of the party elite, but to the long-shot, the candidates who stand little or no chance of winning the party nomination. These are the people who might actually take a stand for the people, and not just the rich.

Personally, I find no reason whatsoever to favour one party over another in the U.S. system. They are both party’s of, by and for big business interests – as the vast majority of Americans rightly view them. There are, however, a few good people in each of the official parties. I would support anyone, in either party, who favours democracy – in practice, and not just in words – who opposes the drift into fascism, and who opposes wars of empire abroad – again, in action, and not just in rhetoric.

The only two legitimate contenders in the up-coming U.S. presidential candidacy that I can see so far, are two long-shot candidates, one a Democrat, the other a Republican. They can win, and I hope one of them will. They are New Deal Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who carries on the tradition of social justice and constitutional democracy a la FDR, and traditional conservative, pro-constitution, anti-imperialist Ron Paul. God grant them the means to win, and help end this slide into a police state at home, and end the barbaric and brutal, bloody wars of empire abroad.

The long-shot candidates will not likely win the Party nomination for Presidential candidate, nor are they likely to get any major media coverage. They would have to form a campaign that is truly grassroots based: by-pass the party machinery as well as the major media conglomerates, and utilize the internet, face-to-face town hall style meetings, public rallies, and massive populist networking. This can be done. A maverick can win the U.S. election for president. It would take a lot of work, and it would take wide-spread grassroots fund-raising, avoiding the pitfalls of corporate sponsorship, as well as a popular movement to support such a candidate. But it can be done. I would like to see it happen.

The candidates that have been groomed as potential heirs to the throne, in either party, are of highly questionable legitimacy. There are others, but they need to be supported in order to win. We cannot, in any country, have a functioning democracy where everyone sits on the couch and watches the mass media play up or defame this or that candidate, doing nothing to support the people we believe would make good representatives in government, only to walk to the ballot box, and then maybe bemoan the outcome. This passive spectator politics has to come to an end if we are to see real democracy in action.

I hope I’m wrong about Obama. I would like to be. However, all evidence points to him being another corporate hack. Pretty words won’t compensate for a voting record that shows anti-democratic as well as imperialist impulses. If I’m wrong about Obama, I’d be thrilled to be enlightened. However, I don’t know how you can get around his voting record. A man who votes in favour of the Patriot Act, and in favour of continued funding for imperial war overseas, is no friend of democracy, no friend of the Constitution, and no friend of humanity, whether inside the United States, or beyond.

J. Todd Ring

April 9, 2007

See for yourself:

Voting Record of Senator Barack Obama:

Appropriations voting record – including Pentagon and Iraq war funding:

Project Vote Smart - Senator Obama - Voting Record

See votes on these dates:

03/29/2007

06/22/2006

06/15/2006

05/04/2006

12/21/2005

11/15/2005

Key endorsements:

Project Vote Smart - Senator Obama on John Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence

Project Vote Smart - Senator Obama on Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security

Project Vote Smart - Senator Obama on Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State

Patriot Act:

Project Vote Smart - Senator Obama on USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization

Dennis Kucinich:

"Peace Insurgency": Rep. Dennis Kucinich Challenges War Criminals in High Office

Truthdig - Interviews - Kucinich Blasts Democrats

The Raw Story | Kucinich: 'Impeachment may well be the only remedy which remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran'

Project Vote Smart - Representative Kucinich - Voting Record – No to the Patriot Act.

Project Vote Smart - Representative Kucinich - Voting Record
No to war funding, no to bloated defense budgets and financial – tax-payer – support for the military-industrial complex.

Project Vote Smart - Representative Kucinich - Voting Record
No to the Military Commisions Act.

Ron Paul:

YouTube - Texas Republican slams Bush "demented philosophy of conquest

Defund the War by Rep. Ron Paul

Rep.Ron Paul on Iran: The Next Neocon Target « Dissident

YouTube - Ron Paul on Interventionism

Presidental candidate Ron Paul to 'reinstate Constitution'

*YouTube - Ron Paul Revolution - Phoenix

Ron Paul 2008

Project Vote Smart - Representative Paul - Biography

* Ron Paul: A North American United Nations?

Vote Ron Paul For President 2008

Iran: Oil, Nukes & War, Pretexts for Martial Law

On nukes in Iran – or rather, the second WMD pretext for mid-east war:

The U.S. Defense Intelligence estimate, as well as the analysis made by the CIA, tells us that Iran is 10 years away, at the earliest, from developing nuclear weapons. Why then the rush to set off a powder keg in the Middle East? Clearly this is another WMD scare tactic to create a pretext for war, as we saw in 2003 with Iraq. It was a lie then, and it is a lie now. The real motive is oil.

The biggest threat by far, with regards to nuclear weapons, is not from the few that Iran might possibly develop over the coming 10 years, but from the global conflict between already existing nuclear super-powers – the U.S., Russia and China – that might erupt as a result from a U.S. attack on Iran. If we are at all sane, we will do everything in our power to keep the U.S., Israel or NATO from attacking Iran and throwing a match into this powder keg. Any future danger posed by Iran pales completely in comparison to the danger we all face if the U.S. or Israel launches an attack. (See War on Iran: A Most Dangerous Gambit.)

If we are genuinely concerned with nuclear proliferation, there are far saner voices than those of Bush, Cheney and Rice. Military analyst Sergei Plekhanov is one. He warns that the most serious threat posed by Iran lies not in any future arms development in that nation, but in the aforementioned possibility of conflict between nuclear superpowers that may be set off by a U.S. attack on Iran. With Iran, Russia and China having formed a military and economic alliance, the danger is real. Joint military training maneuvers have already begun.

“When we think about the danger of nuclear war nowadays, the mind zeros in on North Korea and Iran and stays there, preoccupied with the fact that North Korea has a few nuclear bombs, while Iran may or may not build a few of its own in the next decade. The international community is tying itself in knots trying to respond to the colossal threats to world peace and security that these two countries present.

“Now, the reality is that of the world’s estimated 22,000 nuclear weapons, about 21,000 belong to the U.S. and Russia, each of the two possessing nearly equal numbers and keeping about 1,000 of them ready for launching within 30 minutes.

“If we should worry about the existence of nuclear weapons with their unique capacity to put an end to human life on this planet, it is odd that we overlook the thousands and peer at the murky single digits through a magnifying glass and tremble with fear.

“What happened to the clarity of mind that defined world thinking about nuclear weapons 20 years ago, when it was obvious that the really dangerous nukes were those in massive numbers that the Americans and the Russians trained on each other and were ready to use on a few minutes’ notice?

“The new U.S.-Russian relationship, as it is currently evolving, contains a potential for very serious threats to international security. In a major international crisis, conflict between the two major nuclear powers may escalate to extreme levels.”

- Sergei Plekhanov, Truthdig - The Nightmare Scenario

For a sane response to the question of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, we should listen less to Bush, Cheney and Rice, who are proven liars, and more to the people like Sergei Plekhanov and senior CIA veteran analyst Ray McGovern.

“Preaching to Iran and others about not acquiring nuclear weapons is, indeed, like the village drunk preaching sobriety — the more so as our government keeps developing new genres of nuclear weapons and keeps looking the other way as Israel enhances its own nuclear arsenal. Not a pretty moral picture, that. Indeed, it reminds me of the Scripture passage about taking the plank out of your own eye before insisting that the speck be removed from another’s.”

- Ray McGovern, senior veteran CIA analyst for 27 years,

from JFK through Bush I, co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

“The ideal approach would, of course, be to destroy all nuclear weapons in the world and ban them for the future, with a very intrusive global inspection regime to verify compliance. A total ban is worth holding up as an ideal, and I think we must. But this approach seems unlikely to bear fruit over the next four years. So what then?

“How about a nuclear-free Middle East? Could the US make that happen? We could if we had moral clarity — the underpinning necessary to bring it about. Each time this proposal is raised, the Syrians, for example, clap their hands in feigned joyful anticipation, saying, “Of course such a pact would include Israel, right?” The issue is then dropped from all discussion by U.S. policymakers. Required: not only moral clarity but also what Thomas Aquinas labeled the precondition for all virtue, courage. In this context, courage would include a refusal to be intimidated by inevitable charges of anti-Semitism.

“The reality is that, except for Israel, the Middle East is nuclear free. But the discussion cannot stop there. It is not difficult to understand why the first leaders of Israel, with the Holocaust experience written indelibly on their hearts and minds, and feeling surrounded by perceived threats to the fledgling state’s existence, wanted the bomb. And so, before the Syrians or Iranians, for example, get carried away with self-serving applause for the nuclear-free Middle East proposal, they will have to understand that for any such negotiation to succeed it must have as a concomitant aim the guarantee of an Israel able to live in peace and protect itself behind secure borders. That guarantee has got to be part of the deal.

“That the obstacles to any such agreement are formidable is no excuse not trying. But the approach would have to be new and everything would have to be on the table. Persisting in a state of denial about Israel’s nuclear weapons is dangerously shortsighted; it does nothing but aggravate fears among the Arabs and create further incentive for them to acquire nuclear weapons of their own.

“A sensible approach would also have to include a willingness to engage the Iranians directly, attempt to understand their perspective, and discern what the United States and Israel could do to alleviate their concerns.

“To remember why the United States is no favorite in Tehran, one needs to go back at least to 1953 when the U.S. and Great Britain overthrew Iran’s democratically elected Premier Mohammad Mossadeq as part of a plan to insure access to Iranian oil. They then emplaced the young Shah in power who, with his notorious secret police, proved second to none in cruelty. The Shah ruled from 1953 to 1979. Much resentment can build up over a whole generation. His regime fell like a house of cards, when supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini rose up to do some regime change of their own.

““The crazies” are not finished. …In an immediate sense, with U.S. military power unrivaled, they can be seen as “crazy like a fox,” with a value system in which “might makes right.” Operating out of that value system, and now sporting the more respectable misnomer/moniker “neoconservative,” they are convinced that they know exactly what they are doing. They have a clear ideology and a geopolitical strategy, which leap from papers they put out at the Project for the New American Century over recent years.

“The very same men who, acting out of that paradigm, brought us the war in Iraq are now focusing on Iran, which they view as the only remaining obstacle to American domination of the entire oil-rich Middle East.

“Has everyone forgotten that deterrence worked for some 40 years, while for most of those years the U.S. and the USSR had not by any means lost their lust for ever-enhanced nuclear weapons?

“As was the case with Iraq two years ago, there is no imminent Iranian strategic threat to Americans — or, in reality, to anyone. Even if Iran acquired a nuclear capability, there is no reason to believe that it would risk a suicidal first strike on Israel. That, after all, is what mutual deterrence is all about; it works both ways.”

- CIA veteran Ray McGovern,

Attacking Iran: I Know It Sounds Crazy, But...

There is no rational basis for attacking Iran if our concern is the danger of nuclear warfare. This much should be obvious. What then are the real motives of the U.S.?

Peak Oil, Geopolitics & Imperial Warfare

Imperial warfare is, of course, not new to the U.S. or to the world, nor is it a recent invention of the Washington neo-conservatives. Economic interests and hegemony – first regional, then global – have been the primary and consistent over-riding objectives of U.S. foreign policy since the Indian Wars, the Mexican-American War, and the conquest of the gems of the Caribbean in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.

“We have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population… In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality… We should cease to talk about vague and…unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts.”

- Chief long-term strategic planner for the U.S. National Security Council,
George F. Kennan, in a 1948 State Department Brief: the now-declassified NSC 68.

This is not new. Bush is only the latest of war criminals. He is the successor to empire - an empire that is in crisis and crumbling, desperate to shore itself up while it may still be possible.

“The Neo-conservative agenda under the Bush administration should be viewed as the culmination of a (bipartisan) “Post War” foreign policy framework, which provides the basis for the planning of the contemporary wars and atrocities including the setting up of torture chambers, concentration camps and the extensive use of prohibited weapons directed against civilians.

“From Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, to the CIA sponsored military coups in Latin America and Southeast Asia, the objective has been to ensure US military hegemony and global economic domination, as initially formulated under the “Truman Doctrine”. Despite significant policy differences, successive Democratic and Republican administrations, from Harry Truman to George W. Bush have carried out this global military agenda.

“What distinguishes the Bush administration in relation to the historical record of US sponsored crimes and atrocities, is that the concentration camps, targeted assassinations and torture chambers are now openly considered as legitimate forms of intervention, which sustain “the global war on terrorism” and support the spread of Western democracy.

“To reverse the tide of war requires a massive campaign of networking and outreach to inform people across the land, nationally and internationally, in neighborhoods, workplaces, parishes, mosques, schools, universities, municipalities, on the dangers of a US sponsored war which contemplates the use of nuclear weapons. The message should be loud and clear: It is not Iran which is a threat to global security but the United States of America.

“The corporate media also bear a heavy responsibility for the cover-up of US sponsored war crimes. Until recently these war preparations involving the use of nuclear weapons have been scarcely covered by the corporate media. The latter must also be forcefully challenged for their biased coverage of the Middle East war.

“What is needed is to break the conspiracy of silence, expose the media lies and distortions, confront the criminal nature of the US Administration and of those governments which support it, its war agenda as well as its so-called “Homeland Security agenda” which has already defined the contours of a police State.”

- Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, Ottawa University, founder and director of the Center for Research on Globalization

“Intelligent people realize that American claims to be a moral and democratic force are mere pretense behind which hides a policy of military aggression.”

- Paul Craig Roberts, former associate editor, Wall Street Journal

Imperial warfare has always been primarily about securing resources - land and labour being the first and most primary, followed closely by minerals and other resources. Control of energy resources - whether they be in the form of feudal land-holdings, slave holdings, serfs, forests, or more recently, the energy source the industrial world runs on, oil – has always been central to the objectives of empire.

The politics of oil, in this context, is the politics of empire, in one particular and very central facet. Peak oil simply adds to the urgency of controlling world oil reserves. With world oil production near or at its peak, oil prices will rise dramatically, the era of cheap energy will soon be over, demand will outstrip supply, and controlling world oil reserves, more than ever before, will mean holding global economic hegemony. The stakes are high for the seekers of empire; as they are high for the rest of us, due to the risks and bloodshed involved in such maneuvers for control.

The Real Threats We Face

We should bear in mind a few things. One, the CIA and Defense Intelligence have stated that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons for another 10 years. Two, the risk posed by Iran anytime in the near future is negligible compared to the extreme risks entailed in an attack on Iran. Three, the Bush administration lied repeatedly, and in much the same way, to get the American people to accept war on Iraq – which by all honest accounts has been a disaster, not to mention an atrocity. Four, both “pre-emptive war” and regime change are acts of aggression, and as such are war crimes under both international law and the U.S. Constitution. Five, with the nuclear proliferation pretext so manifestly a deceit, the objective of war on Iran is clearly control of the fourth largest oil reserves in the Middle East – which the neocons’ PNAC documents state clearly and explicitly. Six, such an attack would entail mass murder, and for no less vulgar reasons than control of energy reserves, economic hegemony, and imperial ambition.

Finally, a last consideration, and a very serious one, is the risk entailed in the pretext to war, and not simply in the act or war or the ensuing fall-out. This is, aside from the real possibility of WW III, one of the greatest dangers of an attack on Iran. The neocon “crazies” - as many apparently referred to them during the 1980’s and `90’s, before they came to the center of power in Washington - have made it clear in their “Project for a New American Century” (PNAC) planning and strategy papers, that their objectives of “full spectrum dominance” cannot be achieved in any short time, unless there is a “catalyzing event” of sufficient magnitude, another Pearl Harbour-type event. We had one such horrific event, but that may not be enough to expand the “Global War on Terror” at home or across the Middle East. A further pretext may be needed, and an unlikely source has warned of just that.

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinksi warned the Senate this February 1 of just such an “event.” Read the following carefully. Better yet, read “Zbig”’s statement, then watch the video clip as he emphasizes his stark warning.

“[A] plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran [is]… Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks, followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure, then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in, quote/unquote, ‘defensive’ US military action against Iran…”
- Zbigniew Brzezinski, before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 1, 2007

YouTube - Brzezinski predicts provoking war with Iran.

A second 9/11 attack, possibly of greater magnitude, would be a horror in itself. But when we also consider General Tommy Franks statements on such an event, the horror becomes an even greater nightmare. Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Tommy Franks has stated that the next terrorist attack would likely be the end of democracy: the Constitution would be suspended, martial law declared, and Congress probably not reconvened.

The implications of what is unfolding are almost unthinkable. Yet, we would be wise to give them due thought. If there is no resistance to the madness being orchestrated, we may see a very dark time ahead. Fortunately, there is great, broad and world-wide popular resistance to this grim direction of what can only honestly be called Machiavellian imperial ambition. The resistance now must be galvanized. We may be in for a serious challenge ahead.

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

~ James Madison

“The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.”
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd American President

“Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.” - Thomas Jefferson

J. Todd Ring

April 5, 2007

YouTube - Brzezinski predicts provoking war with Iran.

* White House brushes off CIA report on Iran: report | Top News | Reuters.com

Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern: British Sailors the Justification for War against Iran?

The War on Iran - Michel Chossudovsky

Attacking Iran: I Know It Sounds Crazy, But...

Alex Jones Interviews Scott Ritter

Appetite for Oil Fuels America’s Warmongering

Smoking Gun:The CIA’s Interest in Peak Oil

Democracy Now! | Target Iran: Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter and Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh on White House Plans for Regime Change

Rep.Ron Paul on Iran: The Next Neocon Target « Dissident

Truthdig - Interviews - Pentagon Whistle-Blower on the Coming War With Iran

Chomsky on Iran - It all comes down to control

Gangsters for Capitalism

A Timeline of CIA Atrocities

ZNet |Foreign Policy | American Empire For Dummies « Dissident

ZNet |Foreign Policy | We Had a Democracy Once , But You Crushed It

Iraq War Timeline: Lie by Lie

Truthdig - The Nightmare Scenario

War on Iran: A Most Dangerous Gambit.

Nuclear Bunker Buster Bombs againt Iran: This Way Lies Madness

Brzezinski: Avoid disaster with Iran

Evidence of US coercion of IAEA members against Iran revealed

Looking for a Gulf of Tonkin-like Incident

Why is the US press silent on Brzezinski’s warnings of war against Iran?

The Pentagon’s “Second 911″

The Other 9/11

***The Police State Is Closer Than You Think - by Paul Craig Roberts « Dissident

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann: U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Gone

Olbermann: Bush Signs Military Commissions Act

Olbermann: The Death of Habeas Corpus

Harvard Law Students Hold Funeral for US Constitution

Impending Police State in America: Interview with Professor Francis Boyle

Texas Congressman Urges Repeal of Neo-Fascist Laws

Bush and the Forbidden C-Word by Rev. William Alberts

The Criminalization of US Foreign Policy

Bill Moyers: The Secret Government - PBS Video

The Power of Nightmares: BBC Documentary Shreds the War on Terror Myth

Bill Moyers: Media, Democracy and Pillage by the Elite - Part 1

Mind Control - History Chanel Video Documentary

*** Even Conservatives Hate Republicans Now

Dems' Big Middle Finger to the American Voter

Empire v. Democracy: Why Nemesis Is at Our Door - by Chalmers Johnson and Tom Engelhardt

US generals ‘will quit’ if Bush orders Iran attack

America’s nuclear ticking bomb

Peak Oil intro - CBC 2min.

‘Living on an illusion’ - CNN video on oil depletion

How to avoid oil wars, terrorism, and economic collapse | EnergyBulletin.net | Peak Oil News Clearinghouse

Peak Oil alert - Houston Business Journal:

An Open Letter to Greg Palast on Peak Oil

Will The End of Oil Mean The End of America?

We Were Warned: Tomorrow’s Oil Crisis - CNN

The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror

The War for Oil - BBC - Part 1/3

War for Oil - BBC - Part 2/3

War for Oil - BBC - Part 3/3

Video - Robert Newman History of oil - Google Video

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil - order video

Making Sweden an OIL-FREE Society

Oil Wars or Adaptation?

Iran attack would cause market chaos - The Business - London's First Global Business Magazine

OPEC sells the Dollar

Digital Journal - Tehran Times: Iran Has Started Substituting Euros for Dollars in Oil Sales

* Hysteria Over Iran and a New Cold War with Russia: Peak Oil, Petrocurrencies and the Emerging Multi-Polar World « Dissident

ZNet |Economy | China and the Dollar

ZNet |Economy | Dollar Crisis and American Empire

Crouching Chinese Tiger, Tumbling US Economy

Paul Craig Roberts:The Vicious Downward Cycle of the American Economy

War, Neoliberalism & Empire – Chomsky

YouTube - Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex .

Eisenhower's Worst Nightmare Now Harsh Reality For U.S. « Dissident

YouTube - Bob Dylan - Masters Of War - full version

YouTube - Texas Republican slams Bush "demented philosophy of conquest"

Gulf of Tonkin 2: Iran

Left-Right Alliance Against War? - by Jon Basil Utley

International Mobilization To Stop U.S. Attack on Iran « Dissident

StopIranWar.com

North America: Timeline to a Fascist State

Overview: Geopolitics 2006-2008

The Endgame is Unfolding

Whew, time for some good news

What Must Be Done: When corporatism and Leninism have both failed - part 1

What Must Be Done: When corporatism and Leninism have both failed - part 2

A Bit of Humour

Imperial Hubris and Brzezinski's Second Chance « Writings of J. Todd Ring

North America: Timeline to a Fascist State

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

- James Madison

“Behind every great fortune is a great crime.”
- Balzac

The imperial adventure of Bush and company that may soon be launched against Iran could spell the final blow to democracy at home. Here’s how.

“Common sense tells us the war in Iraq soon will spread to Iran. Fear of imaginary nuclear weapons or an incident involving Iran– whether planned or accidental– will rally the support needed for us to move on Muslim country #3. All the past failures and unintended consequences will be forgotten.

Even with deteriorating support for the Iraq war, new information, well planned propaganda, or a major incident will override the skepticism and heartache of our frustrating fight. Vocal opponents of an attack on Iran again will be labeled unpatriotic, unsupportive of the troops, and sympathetic to Iran’s radicals…

I smell an expanded war in the Middle East, and pray that I’m wrong. I sense that circumstances will arise that demand support regardless of the danger and cost. Any lack of support, once again, will be painted as being soft on terrorism and al Qaeda… I worry that before we can finish the war we’re in and extricate ourselves, the patriotic fervor for expanding into Iran will drown out the cries of, “enough already!....The agitation and congressional resolutions painting Iran as an enemy about to attack us have already begun.”

- U.S. Representative Ron Paul

“Bush is the amalgamation of all the hideous and sad parts of the Republican Party. He is a Republican Frankenstein. He has the temperament of Barry Goldwater, the integrity of Richard Nixon, and the brains of Dan Quayle.

And we trust this guy with his finger on the button?

God help us all if he bombs Iran. And if you think he's not that stupid, you haven't been paying attention.

He says the idea of bombing Iran is "wild speculation." He also said we weren't wiretapping anybody without a court order. He says we're trying diplomacy first. That's exactly what he said about Iraq when we found out he was planning for the war all along. He says Iran is a gathering threat…

Now, who do you trust more -- George Bush or General Anthony Zinni? General Zinni is the former head of US Central Command. He said he saw no evidence of Iraqi WMD before the war. He thought we didn't have enough troops to get the job done right. And now he thinks going into Iran is an even worse idea. Is there a single American who really believes George Bush knows better than General Zinni?”

- Cenk Uygur, If You Liked the Iraq War, You’ll Love the War on Iran

The U.S. is set to attack Iran. Of this there is little question. There are doubts as to whether the military generals, or the people of the United States, will go along with it (Congress at this point is irrelevant, having neutered itself) – in fact, many military, intelligence and high level political elites are dead set against it, along with the majority of the population. Yet the neoconservatives and their timid “opponents” in the Democratic party appear to be blithely unconcerned with popular opinion, or that of any dissenters.

But how can the U.S. government get away with this – even domestically? More to the point, are they wiling to take such a great risk – a risk of complete loss of legitimacy at home, not to mention the fall-out world-wide – in order to achieve their goals of further dominance of energy reserves in the Middle East (which, by any rational assessment, is the true motive)? Even within the military, support for such imperial adventures is failing. Seventy-two percent of our troops now serving in Iraq say it’s time to come home. Two thirds of Americans oppose war on Iran. Senator Joseph Biden has warned that an attack on Iran would provoke a constitutional crisis in America. The crisis of legitimacy is deepening, and widening. U.S. political elites risk losing all if they push further with this “long war” agenda.

All indications are that they are willing to take the risk. It must be viewed therefore, as an act of desperation. The empire is falling, the emperor is in a panic, his minions and acolytes are fearful in the extreme, and desperate measures are perceived to be necessary to avoid total loss.

A gambit is in the offing, and it is a gambit of the greatest proportions and the greatest magnitude of danger to humanity. The U.S. government is set upon invading Iran, using nuclear weapons – “all options are on the table,” is the chorus we hear from Bush, Edwards, Hillary and other apparatchiks - against a relatively small and weak nation - though a much more formidable foe than Iraq, which it cannot subdue - in order to secure control of world oil reserves. In doing so, it will risk the unfolding of WWIII. Russia and China, both superpowers, and both nuclear powers, have entered into a formal military and economic alliance with Iran. Russia and China also have eyes set on the strategic prize of Iranian oil. The U.S. and NATO, backed by the EU, are willing, apparently, to risk global war in order to make a desperate bid to control the world’s energy reserves.

The Western empire of the U.S. and Europe is, after all, being eclipsed rapidly by the BRIC alliance – Brazil, Russia, India and China – and the business and political elite do not want to face the loss of their global economic dominance, which is rapidly slipping away.

“Madam Federal Chancellor already mentioned this.The combined GDP measured in purchasing power parity of countries such as India and China is already greater than that of the United States. And a similar calculation with the GDP of the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – surpasses the cumulative GDP of the EU. And according to experts this gap will only increase in the future.”

- Vladimir Putin, President, Russian Federation,

to the 43^rd Munich Conference on Security Policy, February 2007

The U.S. economy is now a house of cards, its negative balance of payments, deficit and debt spiraling wildly out of control, beyond the realm of even imagination. The U.S. dollar is sinking, and will in all likelihood collapse in the near future.

The U.S. went from being the world’s leading creditor to the world’s leading debtor – thanks to the Vietnam War, the U.S. oil production peak, and the Reagan and Bush military spending and rich-man’s tax cut extravaganza. Bush Jr. alone pushed up the debt by $3.3 trillion since 2001. Globalization has gutted U.S. manufacturing. Everything is imported from China now. The U.S. now exports Hollywood and weapons, and little else. The U.S. trade deficit is now $700 billion a year. The debt is now $8.8 trillion. That is over half of the total value of all American stock – which is valued at $15 trillion. Overseas investors are financing the enormous U.S. deficit, and they are beginning to balk. China alone now holds $1 trillion in U.S. currency – in cash. The U.S. has to bring in $2.8 billion dollars a day – mainly from China – just to keep afloat. Now the head of China’s central bank says, “we have enough” of U.S. currency. The tap is running dry, and nobody wants to keep buying U.S. treasury bills and currency to keep this debtor nation propped up. The writing is on the wall.

“Historically whichever country has been the world’s leading lender, deploying its capital for use around the world has always accrued a particular kind of influence in world affairs, whether it’s the Dutch in the 17th century, or before that the Spanish in the 16th century, or more recently the British from the mid 19th century through the twentieth century or the United States in the great part of the 20th century after World War I.

“Again and again it has always been the world’s leading lending country that has been the premier country in terms of political influence, diplomatic influence and cultural influence. It’s no accident that we took over that role from the British at the same time that we took over from the the job of being world’s leading lending country. Today we are no longer the world’s leading lending country. In fact we are now the world’s biggest debtor country, and we are continuing to wield influence on the basis of military prowess alone. As an American citizen, I hope that we can continue to do this but I have to observe that the tides of world history do not speak well for that strategy.”

“This is not a normal state of affairs. And it’s certainly not something we expect to see from the world’s richest country. Back when Britain was on top they were lending money to the world, but we’re borrowing from the rest of the world. Our current account trade deficit is now more than our defense spending and incredibly we’ve been borrowing from the rest of the world like this for several years now. I think we’re going to reach a point where the rest of the world decides that they don’t want to lend to us. And that can be kind of traumatic.”

- Harvard Economic Professor and former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund, Kenneth Rogoff, speaking in the documentary film TIME-BOMB: America’s Debt Crisis, Causes, Consequences and Solutions. Time-Bomb

Rogoff spoke like a typically understated professor when he said the coming economic crisis may be “kind of traumatic.” When the U.S. dollar goes down (not if) the U.S. economy goes with it; and more, the global economy will collapse as well. Central banks around the world are selling off the dollar, but not fast enough – U.S. currency comprises over 60% of global currency reserves held in the central banks and other financial institutions world-wide.

The U.S. and EU – or at least the corporate elite and the investment class which dominates political policy, both foreign and domestic – feel the need to do something now, in order to secure their global position of economic predominance, or else concede defeat, and watch the BRIC alliance of Asia and the South take precedence.

Given all of this, it is easy to see why the U.S. and its NATO allies in Europe are acting so desperately, why they would even consider such a desperate plan. It is end-game.

Controlling the Middle East means controlling over 65% of world oil reserves. The world’s economy runs on oil. To control world energy reserves is to ensure – it is hoped – one’s dominance of the global economy. The Western business elite and their political lap dogs must strike now, before the U.S. goes bankrupt and can no longer afford such extraordinarily costly imperial adventures, and seize the world’s largest remaining energy reserves - taking the greatest of risks, hoping to come out the other side having retained global economic dominance, without too much loss.

Yet, even if the neoconservatives in Washington and their cowardly silent accomplices in the Democratic party are willing to take such enormous risk, how can they get away with it without losing all credibility, all legitimacy at home, and thus be swept from power shortly after? This must surely be a consideration as well.

The people pushing for this extremely dangerous gambit in Iran are not stupid – Bush may be, but his advisors are most certainly not; nor are they willing to risk all on plans that are not well thought-out – reckless maybe, dangerous certainly, insane, quite possibly, but well deliberated, without a doubt.

The consideration of popular discontent and backlash against such an extremely unpopular plan as to invade Iran, has certainly been given ample thought and deliberation. The clear majority of American people now want an end to the war in Iraq. They certainly have no desire to expand the war into Iran. Any such attempt to invade Iran would be met with great hostility and disgust at home.

The risk to political elites in engaging in such a perilous and arrogant game of global power politics is that even if they succeed in gaining control over the Middle East and its oil treasures, and therefore have a shot at continued global dominance, in launching such a brazen and deeply unpopular escapade they risk losing all power at home, in the heartland of the empire. A pretext, a cover, a smokescreen is clearly needed, or the neocons and their allies may lose even if they win.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship….voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

- Herman Goering, at the Nuremburg Trials, shortly before being sentenced to hanging for war crimes

“All war is based in deception.” - Sun Tzu

Therefore, in order to carry out this desperate plan to consolidate control over the world’s primary energy reserves, without losing power at home due to broad and deep-seated popular discontent and loss of legitimacy, it will be necessary to increase the sound and fury of the “War on Terror” to a true fever pitch, in order to whip the populace into such a frenzied state of panic that they will agree to almost anything, including the attack on Iran. All of this is unfolding now, and, judging by U.S. and NATO military build-up in the region, and by the statements being made by U.S. political elites, will likely unfold over the next few weeks to few months.

Remember that, “The events of Sept. 11, 2001, served as a trigger for full-scale enactment of the neoconservative program: the declaration of war on international terrorism and “the axis of evil,” the assertion of U.S. military superiority, the doctrine of preemptive war, the weaponization of space, etc... Support the new U.S. war or fall into the category of an enemy.”

- Sergei Plekhanov, The Nightmare Scenario

What would bring the “War on Terror” propaganda to a point where the people of the U.S. may be outraged and fearful enough to support yet another war, when the American people already want out of the present war with Iraq? Most likely, only another crisis, another “catalyzing event”, another 9/11, would be enough to gain support for an expansion of the war on the Middle East. This, it would seem by logical analysis of the present unfolding events, is the most probable scenario, given that the Washington neoconservatives and their allies, particularly the Western business elite, are in a desperate position of being rapidly eclipsed, are desperate to shore up and consolidate their global dominance, via control of world energy reserves, and are simultaneously in a deep crisis of legitimacy at home already, and are unwilling either to risk losing global dominance through inaction in controlling the Middle East, or to lose power through a deepening crisis of legitimacy at home. The solution is simple, and simply Machiavellian: attack Iran, but justify it by staging a terrorist attack on home soil, which is then blamed on Iran.

Should this sound like the ravings of a paranoid “conspiracy theorist” (to use that tired red herring terminology), it would be wise to consider the testimony of one of the pre-eminent establishment intellectuals of the U.S., before the Senate this February 1. Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brezinski stated clearly that the probable unfolding of events would include a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, staged by elements within the U.S. government, and blamed on Iran in order to justify the planned attack with a “defensive” cover.

“And I stress what I am about to say….[A] plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran [is]... Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks, followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure, then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in, quote/unquote, ‘defensive’ US military action against Iran...”
- Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor, before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 1, 2007 (emphasis added)

This is not John Doe conspiracy theorist with his tinfoil hat – this is one of the leading long-term strategic planners for the National Security Council. We had better take such warnings seriously. It’s not often we get such a clear warning of imminent and grave danger.

Now, bearing this in mind, that the U.S. government is poised to make a grand escapade, an enormously dangerous gambit to secure Middle East oil reserves, and must create terror in order to create a cover and a pretext for such a war, which involves, in all likelihood, another 9/11; what else would another terrorist attack, probably of bigger proportions, entail? Well we don’t have to guess. Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Tommy Franks was explicit. The next terrorist attack on the West will be the end of democracy. The Constitution will be suspended, and Congress will not likely be reconvened.

So, we are looking at the likelihood of an imminent attack on Iran, and the need to create a pretext in advance of any attack, which means, in order to pump up the War on Terror rhetoric and fears, quite possibly another 9/11. But we have Tommy Franks also saying that the next terrorist attack will be the end of democracy. So we may have a police state arising in the next few weeks to months, if we are to judge from these revelations. Horrifying, but a very real danger none the less.

There are many who cannot admit that such a scenario is possible. I would argue that such a response is willful naivete, judging by what we have seen before in history. There are great lengths that some will go in the pursuit of power, and the lust of gold. It would be wise never to underestimate the machinations of such Machiavellian men and women. Simply because the vast majority of us could never conceive of carrying out such ruthless and predatory acts, does not mean that there are not others who can – and do.

Add to this the statement by the U.S. Department of Defense’ number two official, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, in two internal memos sent to high level civilian and military officials, December 5 and February 15, that the “Global War on Terror” is to be completed by October 2008 – just one month before the next U.S. Presidential election. (The contents of these memos were reported by the Washington Post on February 28.) Note that the memos specified that job performance ratings would be judged on these whether the targets were met: that is, their pay would be affected. We were told this was a war without end. Not that I’d like to see it continue, but if the plan is to have “completed” the war by October 2008, the question that arises is, just how do the neocons and their allies plan to complete this “global war on terror” in just a year and a half?

Intelligent observers have recognized that the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) has served as a cover for imperial wars - in the Middle East primarily, in order to control world energy reserves – as well as for an attack on civil rights and democracy at home. While the executive powers of the White House have been greatly expanded, draconian legislation has been introduced that provides the unconstitutional and illegal “legal” framework for martial law and a police state.

The general direction of the GWOT has been to consolidate corporate power over government, primarily by influence over a government out of balance, with extreme and excessive powers transferred to the executive, to suspend or destroy the constitution, human rights and freedom, to destroy democracy and create the mechanisms for a fascist order, and overseas, to attempt to secure world dominance through control of world oil reserves. What makes us think the “completion” of the GWOT would be any different in spirit and direction that what we have already seen? The completion would thus be the culmination of these trends: consolidation of power at home, in the heart of the empire, which means full-fledged fascism, and consolidation of power globally.

Most Americans, along with the majority of the world, now know that Bush and company stole the U.S. Presidential election of 2000 that brought them to power. One has to ask, given the anti-democratic record of this administration, do they intend to leave? October 2008 the war on terror is planned to be complete. Do the neocons and their corporate backers have plans for the next 18 months that would preclude holding the next election? I hate to think, but it is more than plausible; it seems in fact, quite probable.

Add to this the statement in England’s memos that, "At noon on Jan. 20, 2009, many of the civilian Department of Defense (DOD) leadership positions will transition to a new Administration Team. This change, coupled with the normal rotation of military leadership, could disrupt many of the management process changes currently underway in the Department." Therefore, "it would be highly desirable to complete current projects by the summer/fall of 2008." A potential disruption in the continuity of efforts to pursue the GWOT objectives, is to be avoided.

Bush has also made reference to “institutional continuity”, with regards to the implementation of the SPP and the de facto corporate government of the new North American Council on Competitiveness. Just what did Bush reveal about the thinking of his corporate backers when he referred confidently to “institutional continuity”? The SPP, which by any reasonable estimation is the entrenchment and institutionalization of continent-wide corporate rule, is slated to complete full “regulatory harmonization” across the three nations of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico in 2007. A political tsunami may be expected as a result, as the citizens of the three nations realize what has been invoked in their names. In order to ensure “institutional continuity” of the new order - the trans-continental corporate state - a military regime may need to be in place, as the people of the U.S., Canada and Mexico are known by the political and corporate elite to be overwhelmingly opposed to any institutional change such as the SPP which seriously undermines sovereignty and democracy. It is time to consolidate power at home, or so the thinking of the political and business elite would seem to be.

The above is an analysis of probabilities. It is not prophecy, nor is it speculation. It is an examination of the best evidence and indications available. Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski has stated that at least major elements of this scenario are likely. I don’t have a crystal ball, but given the best available evidence, the scenario outlined above is, I would say, highly probable. I hope, I pray, that I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. However, as Yogi Berra, or some other source of down-home common sense put it, “It ain’t over `till the fat lady sings.” More to the point, “It ain’t over `till it’s over.”

It’s two down, bottom of the ninth, and the bases are loaded. We need to bring out our heavy hitter. We need to bring out our best. And the best is not some heroic figure on a white horse. The best is the best in us all. Now it is time to draw up all that is good and decent in humanity; now it is time to shine.

We need our best, and we need it from every last one of us. It will take the best of our courage, compassion and dedication to bring this sad era of corporatocracy and cynical fascism, swiftly to a close, and defeat it in its infancy. It will take the transcending of our perceived limitations. It will take us coming together in a spirit of kinship across humanity.

It will take our best. Now is the time to shine. Corporatism must be defeated. The attack on democracy must be defeated. Imperial warfare must now come to an end. The world has had enough. Enough!

"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force."
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd American President

"Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism."
- Thomas Jefferson

"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest." - Thomas Jefferson

This is hardly the spirit of the Bush administration, nor is it the spirit of the neoconservatives or neoliberals that now “lead” – or rather, dominate – the Western world. It is, however, a spirit we would be wise to heed. And it would be wise to heed such words of common sense, and not just kind, moral, compassionate or just. To do otherwise would be to risk our own self-annihilation. Chomsky was right: it is now a matter of choice between hegemony or survival.

It may be that another pretext for the war in Iran – a Gulf of Tonkin event - will be found. It may be that the British sailor incident will be sufficient pretext. I doubt this will be enough in itself, but in any case, the completion of the GWOT, which is scheduled for this year according to the U.S. Defense department, will likely require a lock-down on power at home. And the full implementation of the overwhelmingly unpopular SPP and NACC will also likely require the suspension of liberties and the invocation of martial law in order to ram it through, along with a “catalyzing event” of sufficient magnitude to justify such extreme measures.

I don’t see how the power elite can pull off an expansion of the war in the Middle East, and more importantly, the completion of the GWOT, which by any reasonable analysis is a war on democracy, or the implementation of continental corporate rule via the SPP and NACC, without another major “catalyzing event” – to use the language of PNAC. Thus it would seem we should hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

It may be that the new Pearl Harbour, the catalyzing event to spell the end of democracy at home, as Tommy Franks baldly described, will come not before an attack on Iran, but after, in apparent or actual response. Whatever the order of events, such an event is likely, and the results have already been predicted by Franks.

If we are lucky, and we work hard, we may be able to stop the war on Iran before it begins. Maybe the Bush administration and its backers will decide the risk at present is too great, and at least postpone the adventure. The thugs at the helm may also back down from launching another terrorist attack, for the moment – particularly if war against Iran is going to be postponed, or if another pretext for war is found or created.

I doubt either of these will be the case, but in any event, the war on democracy is very real, very deliberate, and escalating: whatever happens, democracy must be defended – at home, not overseas. Likewise, imperial warfare is an abomination on the face of the planet: it is time for the age of empires to end. This may not be as far off as it seems. Whatever happens in the interim, we must remain strong. The future is in our hands. It is not too late to reclaim our dreams.

We have faced the threat of fascism before. Our fathers and grandfathers fought this beast sixty some years ago. We defeated fascism before, and we will defeat it again.

How did we get to this point? First of all, we failed to head the warnings of Jefferson and others, two hundred years ago, that concentrations of financial power, particularly the new corporate aristocracy, were a grave and imminent threat to democracy.

Secondly, you could say, it is simply a matter of class – that “c” word that no-one likes to talk about. The elite of the investment class, which is now globalist, and has little allegiance to any particular nation, has gained such awesome power, that they feel they can make a bid for all power.

At the same time, the elite investment class also clearly recognizes that, while they dominate the economic and political spheres at present, they face a world-wide, deep and growing crisis of legitimacy. The global poll conducted by the World Economic Forum in 2002 showed, to the great disappointment of the Western financial and political elite, that business and political “leaders” now have about as much legitimacy and confidence in the eyes of the people, as used car salesmen and lawyers.

The power elite, to use sociologist C. Wright Mills’ expression, recognize that they presently have more power than ever before, but that that power is simultaneously highly vulnerable, unstable, tenuous and threatened. Thus, the power elite must consolidate power in the heart of the global financial empire now, while they still may be able to do so, before they watch themselves either slowly be eclipsed by the rising East and South, or be cast from power more swiftly by a collapse of legitimacy at home.

A third and more minor element in the drift toward fascism is the 1947 – 1954 CIA recruitment of 7,000 Nazis. While Europe was undergoing what was called “de-Nazification,” America was quietly undergoing Nazification. This in no small way has led the U.S. to where it is today: leader in the world in the war on democracy and freedom.

With America having gone the furthest, the fastest, in losing democracy, freedom and human rights, it may turn out that it is America that takes the lead in turning the tide, and restoring authentic democracy and freedom – and not overseas, by military aggression, but at home, and by example.

The war on democracy will ultimately fail. The people of the Western world have been steeped in the values of freedom, democracy and human rights for over two hundred years. When it finally sinks in that all of these things, which we now take for granted, are being stripped away, the people will not take it lying down. That I can assure you.

In the near term, however, I see insufficient resistance to this most obvious trend toward a police state. I think, at the time of this writing at least, that the powers that now threaten democracy and freedom at home, may in fact have some short-term temporary success. If this is the case, it will be a nightmare. I also believe that whether or not the powers that threaten democracy and freedom at home achieve the success they seek, even temporarily, there will be a very ugly time arise if they even make the attempt. Any end-game act of trying to lock down power at home, will bring in a very dark age. And I think we are in for an end-game attack.

The power elite may back down. I just thought a heads up was in order, in case they don’t.

Further information: articles and videos

The emergence of fascism in the West:

General Tommy Franks calls for Repeal of US Constitution

*** Habeas Corpus Your words are lies Sir - YouTube - olbermann 10-18-06

Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex. - Video: 1961 Farewell Address

The Secret Government: PBS video

Power of Nightmares - BBC Documentary

Mind Control: America's Secret War - History Channel Documentary

***Bush Moves Toward Martial Law

Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (12/15 - 2006)

Demolishing Democracy At Home and Abroad - Noam Chomsky video

The Return of Total Information Awareness - Bush Asserts Dictatorial "Inherent" Powers

Examples of the president's signing statements - The Boston Globe

Air Force chief : Test weapons on testy US mobs - Sep 12 ...

*Private: Routine and systematic torture is at the heart of Americas war on terror | Columnists | Guardian Unlimited

* Top-Secret Torture - washingtonpost.com

* American Concentration Camps Soon? by Frederick Meekins

The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army - Los Angeles Times « Dissident

Noam Chomsky on Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest For Global Dominance - audio

War on Terrorism Watch: CAUT Resource Website - Home Page

Global Ruling Class: Billionaires and How They ‘Made It’

Power to the People (in Suits)

Secret Banff Meeting of CEOs & the Defense Establishment

De Facto North American Government in the Making: "Canadians must take back Canada"

Full Implementation of Corporate Rule Via the SPP & NACC

Integrate This! A Citizen's Guide to Fighting Deep Integration

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - video short

* The Raw Story | Pentagon's number two suggests terror war will end in Oct. 2008

War on Iran:

YouTube - Brzezinski predicts provoking war with Iran.

If You Liked the Iraq War, You'll Love the Iran War

Olbermann, YouTube - Bush speaks before Iran war as he spoke before Iraq war

Iranians capture British sailors - Flashpoint for war?

Planned Attack on Iran : Bush Will Expand War Before Blair Resigns

Rep.Ron Paul on Iran: The Next Neocon Target « Dissident

Gary Leupp: Iran, a Chronology of Disinformation

Why is the US press silent on Brzezinski’s warnings of war against Iran?

Bush Faces Opposition on Iran Attack

Kucinich: 'Impeachment may well be the only remedy which remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran'

Bush Is About to Attack Iran: Why Can't Americans See it?

US Threats against Iran: War Plans and Pretexts in Place

The Next War: Public in the Dark about Government's Plans for War in Iran - Daniel Ellsberg

* "Cold War Shivers": War Preparations in the Middle East and Central Asia

Debating World Domination: Bilderberg Meets in Canada's Capital

ZNet |Foreign Policy | We Had a Democracy Once, But You Crushed It

StopIranWar.com

Scott Ritter warns an attack on Iran will also be the end of Democratic Party

YouTube - Brzezinski: Colonial war in post-colonial period does not work.

Truthdig - The Nightmare Scenario

U.S. Faces “Economic Armageddon”:

*** Former World Bank Chief Economist Predicts Global Crash within 24 months

* The Dollar's Full-System Meltdown

Time-Bomb

Economic " Armageddon " Predicted

Dollar Catching Asian Flu - Asia Times

OPEC sells the Dollar

Arab central banks sell dollar

As Dollar Plunges, Watch for US Government Bonds Sell -off - DEBKAfile –

The War To Save The U.S. Dollar - Trinicenter.com –

Fears for dollar as central banks sell US assets

BBC NEWS | Business | Is the global economy set for trouble?

Collapse of the Petrodollar Looming

Iranian Oil Bourse Opens for Business: A Final Step Toward US Dollar Collapse & Preemptive Nuclear Strike

An empire at twilight:

Superpower’s global dominance in question

50 Years After Suez, US Hegemony Ebbing Fast

"The United States is Terrified" - Noam Chomsky on Latin America's Move Towards "Independence and Integration"

The Crumbling Empire: Latin America and Asia Breaking Free of Washington's Grip - Noam Chomsky

The crisis of legitimacy:

Global corporate rule is now fragile

Confronting the Empire - Chomsky at the World Social Forum

The Global Crisis of Legitimacy of Liberal Democracy - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum

US generals ‘will quit’ if Bush orders Iran attack

9/11: Pretext for imperial war and the destruction of democracy

YouTube - Brzezinski predicts provoking war with Iran.

Looking for a Gulf of Tonkin-like Incident

** Senior Military, Intelligence, and Government Officials Question 9/11 Commission Report

9/11 Statement Signed by Prominent Americans

Scholars for 9/11 Truth

ONE IN 3 AMERICANS SAY U.S. AIDED 9/11 By THOMAS HARGROVE and GUIDO H. STEMPEL III - New York Post Online Edition: News

* Scientific Poll: 84% Reject Official 9/11 Story

* Radio Poll: 85% Of Canadians Believe 9/11 Inside Job

ABC News: U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba

National Security Archive - Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962

Venezuela's Chavez says Bush planned 9/11 attacks - video

War and Globalization - The Truth Behind September 11 - Google Video

Alex Jones, Bob Bowman at American Scholars Symposium - Google Video

The Pentagon's "Second 911"

North American Union: "New 9/11 crisis could be catalyst to merge U.S., Mexico & Canada."