4.12.2003
Tired of "all war, all the time"? Yup, me too.
Estimated Prophet would like you to tune in to a bunch of Peace songs, courtesy Ani DiFranco and friends...
To turn on to George Bush Psychedelic Republican...
Drop out. Shut down that 'puter. Get outdoors, breathe deeply, listen for birds. Feel the air on your skin. This is Life. Share it with someone, a smile, a kind word. We have such little time to be here...
Peace
peace salaam shalom...
4/12/2003
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4.11.2003
{A long post, but the propaganda stuff is worth scrolling down to.}
Corporate Media and War
...Fifteen years before the National Socialist Party came to power there was the opportunity of carrying out these revisions by peaceful settlements and understanding. On my own initiative I have, not once but several times, made proposals for the revision of intolerable conditions. All these proposals, as you know, have been rejected - proposals for the limitation of armaments and, even if necessary, disarmament, proposals for the limitation of warmaking, proposals for the elimination of certain methods of modern warfare ... You know the endless attempts I made for peaceful clarification and understanding of the problem...
Adolf Hitler, as he started WWII
Quoted from "Familiar, Haunting Words" by Jimmy Breslin
"Hitler" has caused controversy ever since CBS announced its intentions last summer. In an interview with TV Guide about the four-hour film, scheduled for May, Gernon compares many Americans' acceptance of a war in Iraq to the fearful climate in post-World War I Germany, of which Hitler took advantage to become its ruler.
"It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole nation into war," Gernon said in the interview. "I can't think of a better time to examine this history than now."
Ed Gernon, the executive producer of the mini-series on Hitler was fired for his comment. A very simplistic, yet partially accurate assessment of the German third Reich as well as 43rd presidency. For one thing, the role of propaganda, the media has been left out.
CBS has weathered charges from some critics who have said the miniseries - to air May 18 and 20, and starring Robert Carlyle as Hitler - will humanize the Nazi dictator.
This biopic started filming last year, I find the timing interesting; moreso now that there is a sense of perpetual war in the air. And a film that humanizes a villain, a Saddam Hussein; but Hussein didn't attack other countries... Will it show Hitler praying over the "hard" decision to sacrifice his troops in the name of Empire? Will it portray radio announcers inciting people 'loyal' to the Reich to beat up dissenters who don't blindly follow the Furher? Industrialists making millions on government contracts?
Will it show anything about the Bush family financial connections to Adolf Hitler?
Shortly after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued a stark warning to Iran and Syria last week, declaring that any "hostile acts" they committed on behalf of Iraq might prompt severe consequences, one of President Bush's closest aides stepped into the Oval Office to warn him that his unpredictable defense secretary had just raised the specter of a broader confrontation.
Mr. Bush smiled a moment at the latest example of Mr. Rumsfeld's brazenness, recalled the aide. Then he said one word — "Good" — and went back to work.
Next stop Syria seems to be the message of Rumsfeld Wolfowitz et al. They seem to be the heavies, while Powell's role is that of the moderate, the thinker- who if his role is unchanged will reluctantly but righteously join the attack team after a well publicized international slight. Read a bit about Mr Powell's history, you'll see he is ideally suited to his role.
My appraisal of what is being offered to us from Washington is a slickly designed lowest common denominator melodrama engineered to sweep a public overwhelmed with contentless "information" that is often contradictory , graphics of knee jerk patriotism, mixed with fear and and 'righteous' nationalism into supporting that which is, when thought about, anathema to all the US stands for. Think about the Patriot Act both 1 and 11. Think about attacking another country pre-emptively.
This illegal attacking of Iraq, an attack that Mr Bush broke his solemn oath to uphold the Constitution {link fixed} to carryout, is getting spun in the corporate media as a victory to embolden other non-Democratic actions. In the code of conduct that our military folks swear to they to are pledged to uphold the principles that make our country free. Mr Bush has done them a great disservice by putting them in harms way as well as causing them to prosecute an illegal war.
In the Constitution all treaties are part of the supreme law of the land. The use of American troops in defiance of the U.N. Charter is a degradation of military service. Bush is subjecting our troops-once viewed as defenders of the sovereignty of states-to condemnation of world opinion. It is a humiliation.
Source How Bush Betrayed our Troops by Paul Rockwell
Would the media purposefully manipulate our feelings about this endeavor? That wouldn't be very Patriotic in a country that claims freedom of speech as one of the rights that set apart.
You've seen the US Marine putting the lag on the Saddam statue, I'm sure. Just high spirited , spontaneous Patriotism from one of Iraq's liberators, right? Nope. Photo op for the US public, "our boys and all", a subtle victory reference to blot out the thinking anti-war folks might ask of one. . Psy-op for us and the world.
The mood of Iraqi civilians was briefly muted in Baghdad Wednesday as Chin climbed up and covered Saddam's face with an American flag.
The crowd's loud cheers faded, and in less than a minute the Stars and Stripes was removed from the massive statue and replaced with Iraq's black, white and red flag.
Chin, of the 3rd battalion, 4th Marines regiment, says he was just following orders in the minutes before the statue was pulled to the ground in a joint effort by jubilant Iraqis and U.S. troops.
"I was just trying my best to get the chain around his neck and put the flag on his head," Chin told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "Pretty much at the moment I was just doing what I was told to do by my commanding officer," he said.
Now do you know the significance of the flag or where Mr Chin is from?
"And the flag — it was on the Pentagon when it got hit on 9/11. That was the same flag, and me being from New York, it kind of all goes together a little bit. It was a team effort, which made it even better, you know," he said.
And a large percentage of American people wrongly believe there is a Saddam /911 connection. Why would our leaders reinforce that? Because it will be on the news, Mr Chin will be interviewed: propaganda with foresight that will create an unconscous impression months down the road as you hear him in a 30 second inteview on "Good Morning America" or the like- an appearance that will subtly reinforce Saddam Hussein/ 911. You gotta hand it to these guys...
Now the cheering Iraq's participating in the pulling down of the Saddam statue, showing their joy and solidarity with the Americans to the whole world. Right? (Go to link for phots that support quote)
The up close action video of the statue being destroyed is broadcast around the world as proof of a massive uprising. Still photos grabbed off of Reuters show a long-shot view of Fardus Square... it's empty save for the U.S. Marines, the International Press, and a small handful of Iraqis. There are no more than 200 people in the square at best. The Marines have the square sealed off and guarded by tanks. A U.S. mechanized vehicle is used to pull the statue of Saddam from it's base. The entire event is being hailed as an equivalent of the Berlin Wall falling... but even a quick glance of the long-shot photo shows something more akin to a carefully constructed media event tailored for the television cameras.
The Bob Kemper of the Chicago Tribune has written an eye opening piece about The Office of Global Communications and it's mission to keep the world's media on message.
The communications office helps devise and coordinate each day's talking points on the war. Civilian and military personnel, for example, are told to refer to the invasion of Iraq as a "war of liberation." Iraqi paramilitary forces are to be called "death squads."
The effects of that discipline are evident almost daily. When questions arose recently about whether the United States could find Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, U.S. spokesmen and spokeswomen--from the White House to the Pentagon to the Central Command in Qatar--simultaneously insisted that the war was "not about one man."
So controlled is the administration's message that officials from Bush on down often use identical anecdotes to make their points...
A technique Hitler knew as part of "the Big Lie"
The article goes on to mention:
The Global Communications Office was created about a year after the Pentagon met with disaster with a similar operation. The Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence was accused of planning to spread disinformation. The Pentagon denied the accusations but shut it anyway.
A rose by any other name...
Kari Lynderson expands on this in an Alternet article:
According to PR Week, a trade publication of the PR industry: "The OGC, an office born out of post-September-11 efforts to combat anti-American news stories emerging from Arab countries, will be key in keeping all U.S. spokespeople on message. Each night, U.S. embassies around the world, along with all federal departments in DC, will receive a 'Global Messenger' e-mail containing talking points and ready-to-use quotes."
The PR industry, as many may know, was actually started by the military during World War I, when persuasive techniques were developed to recruit soldiers.
"After the war a lot of those people went to work for the private sector and are seen as the grandfathers of PR," says Laura Miller, associate editor of PR Watch (www.prwatch.org), a corporate and media watchdog group. "They were very up front about the fact that [in their opinion] in a democracy, public opinion needs to be controlled by a small number of people who know what's best for the public."
Here is an exhaustive list of propaganda from the first ten days of the invasion of Iraq.
There is so much information to wade through if you have the time to look. And what to believe? After the pre- invasion deceptions from the White House it seems like a stretch to find them credible, war is a product and our government has the best resources in the world at its' disposal to sell it to us. It is up to us to listen closely for inconsistancies, generalities:
Remember the following first rule of disinformation analysis: truth is specific, lie is vague. Always look for palpable details in reporting and if the picture is not in focus, there must be reasons for it.
Advertising, Propaganda, Infotainment- it is all aimed at affecting our attitudes, to sell us something. And the nexus of Corporate/Republican governance has our minds in the hands of the PR/Advertising industries best:
"This is propaganda," a Chinese journalist told Kristof at a U.S. military briefing in Doha. "I was born and grew up in a propaganda country, and so I know it well." The Chinese journalist continues, "Actually, they do the propaganda very well, better than we do it. We in China can learn from this propaganda."
Stop by the Political Compass, take the quick test and see where you stand. Pretty interesting.
4/11/2003
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4.10.2003
You've probably already read "The Reason Why" by George McGovern. I read the Nation as hardcopy, and had just found the time to give it a read.
4/10/2003
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I hope things in Iraq are going as smoothly as the reports from corporate media paint them. I worry about our troops there now as well as troops that will be there for the foreseeable future.
I remember hearing the US had won in Afghanistan, and was going on to jumpstart democracy there, rebuild the war torn country- be "Heroes", after it all, in a sense.That "war torn" link goes to Salon.com, if you are not a member you need to click on the link in the right hand corner and watch an ad for a day pass- yeah, I know, but the article is really informative:
The White House calls Afghanistan a success story. But the failure to commit needed resources has left it a chaotic, increasingly dangerous country where violent warlords run amok. Are we going to repeat our mistake in Iraq?
April 10, 2003 | President George W. Bush signed the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act into law last Dec. 4, authorizing $3.3 billion in economic, political, humanitarian and security assistance for Afghanistan over the next four years. The next month, Bush submitted the 2003 budget authorization to Congress but requested slightly less than that.
As in: $0.00.
I had a bunch of thoughts running through my head (as did this journalist I found today) when I saw that Mr Bush and Blair were going to talk about liberating the Iraqi people in a place both ironic and portentious; Belfast of all places. It reminds me that religion is used is a smokescreen to obscure more complex less 'telegenic' issues such as autonomy dignity and justice.
I hope that our troops can come home now that we have bombed the inhabitants of Iraq into freedom, that regime change has occured, Hussein is out of power. I hope our soldiers do not become an occupying force. England has occupied Ireland for hundreds of years at a great and ongoing cost to human life. The occupation of Iraq also has me in mind of the Israeli Defence Forces treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Occupation is bad for both sides of the equation, those in power as well as those subjected to power, I offer this link to B`Tselem, which illustrates the horror for both Israeli and Palestinian folks. Take time to explore the site.. There is a dehumanizing effect on the society in power as well as the individual who as a soldier enforces it. As an American I find 'exjudicial killings' known as assassinations to be wrong. Often innocent civilians are killed or maimed. In a Democratic state no one person can be prosecuting Attorney Judge and Executioner.
People are people, and a society that sees "the other", Palestinians, Bedouin nomads as so dehumanized that gas mask containing protective kits are not supplied to them as they are to Israeli citizens and when court ordered the state supplies ones that are expired or about to be we see just what effect Occupation has. Whether it is a young person blowing himself up as a weapon or a young soldier shooting a stone throwing child these are both fatal symptoms of a system bereft of humanity.
I hope stabilizing Iraq will be smooth and safe for our troops as well as the Iraqi people; although it seems like a jump to be able to go from bombing folks to being their pals. Time will tell..
How Iraq is rebuilt will determine whether the United States will use its immense power to act as a quasi-imperial power, or as a responsible global partner. It will say a great deal about whether this is the last unilateralist war for regime change launched by the Bush junta, or the first in a series of "wars without end" to reshape the globe.
The stakes in this debate are too high for the anti-war movement to sit it out
Please write your Legislators and talk to everyone you know about the Patriot Act I and II (Go here for comprehensive links), Bush and Congrssional Republicans want to further rob America from "we the People". Standing by the principles your country was founded on is the best way to show your Patriotism, a way your kids and your kid's kids will appreciate. We need to reclaim America and help her stay the course.
I'm having computer problems (IE), excuse the post if it seems choppy: I've lost work on Blogger a couple times...
4/10/2003
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4.09.2003
Onward Christian Idiot
- In this dry desert world near Najaf, where the Army V Corps combat support system sprawls across miles of scabrous dust, there's an oasis of sorts: a 500-gallon pool of pristine, cool water.
It belongs to Army chaplain Josh Llano of Houston, who sees the water shortage, which has kept thousands of filthy soldiers from bathing for weeks, as an opportunity.
''It's simple. They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized,'' he said
....First, though, the soldiers have to go to one of Llano's hour-and-a-half sermons in his dirt-floor tent. Then the baptism takes an hour of quoting from the Bible.
Thanks to Peace Blog for this gem.
You'll note that Llano is a Fundamentalist of the Southern Baptist variety; the one Christian denomination that supported a pre-emptive attack on Iraq.
Added@ 3:00:
If you think that the above story illustrates a pathetic lack of support for our troops, E-mail these gentlemen:
Chief of Chaplains Maj. Gen. Gaylord T. Gunhus gunhugt@occh-nt.army.mil
Deputy Chief of Chaplains Brig. Gen. David H. Hicks hicksd@occh-nt.army.mil
Sourced to Upper Left Coast Review via Byte Back.
4/09/2003
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He [Saddam Hussein] will go quickly, but not alone: in a parting irony, he will take the UN down with him. Well, not the whole UN. The "good works" part will survive, the low-risk peacekeeping bureaucracies will remain, the chatterbox on the Hudson will continue to bleat. What will die is the fantasy of the UN as the foundation of a new world order. As we sift the debris, it will be important to preserve, the better to understand, the intellectual wreckage of the liberal conceit of safety through international law administered by international institutions.--Richard Perle Italics mine.
Taken from CounterPunch, well worth reading.
Then we have folks like Mr Ron Paul who want us out of the UN H.R. 1146. So I scooted around a bit at the Texan's site. He is the sort of fellow that complains about government "pork" being added to bills, you know things like funding the Government Accounting Office; while he termed the Bush porking of the average American for the benefit of the richest "a very modest tax cut". You know what I'm saying: A partisan Republican that is either well meaning and just ignorant of current affairs or a real turd. He is no Jim Hightower.
But I feel we will be in the UN for a while. You see, John Negroponte and his wife are having the kitchen at their Waldorf Astoria digs remodeled, just add the 600,000 dollars it is going to cost on to the 25,000 a month the US pays for rent. Just another instance of your tax dollars at work, and I mean your tax dollars, it is safe to say Negroponte is a beneficiary of Mr Bush's tax cuts.
A quote from Mr Negroponte, from a statement he made concerning why the US should not be under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court:
" Our government was founded by Americans to protect their freedom. Our Declaration of Independence states that and I quote "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government" end of quote, "from the consent of the governed," excuse me, in order to secure their rights. " (my emphasis)
The US would like to start its own International Criminal Court.
Go figure...
I have to quote Carla Binion: Today we're again getting a whiff of fascism from the Bush administration. This isn't the equivalent of Hitler or Mussolini—just sort of a creeping fascism light—and the corporate controlled television news networks are only one example of the way even light fascism undermines American values.
4/09/2003
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4.08.2003
Moshe Dayan: "We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is a Jewish state here. In considerable areas of the country [the total area was about 6%] we bought the lands from the Arabs. Jewish Villages were built in place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist; not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal [Dayan's own village] arose in the place of Mahalal, Gevat-- in the place of Jibta, [Kibbutz] Sarid-- in the place of Haneifs and Kefar Yehoshua-- in the place of Tell Shaman. There is not one place in the country that did not have a former Arab population." [Ha`aretz, April 4 1969]
Quoted from"The Question of Palestine" by Edward Said
Another American citizen has been shot in Israel. 24 year old New Mexico native Brian Avery was shot in the face . It seems that he and another peace activist, wearing reflective vests and under a streetlight had thier hands in the air at the time the IDF soldier fired the machinegun on the Armored Personel Carrier. Read a bit more on current "land confiscation" as it applies to Palestinian folks; there is also some more Avery information toward the bottom. Mr Avery has a birthday coming up, wish him well.
brianjenin AT yahoo DOTcom
Your tax dollars at work.
The Sharon government seems set on adding some speedbumps to the "Roadmap for Peace", maybe better put as "Checkpoints"; while it looks like our Legislators from both sides of the aisle will see it stall.
Ariel Sharon has brushed aside an appeal by the White House to stop an unprecedented move by Jewish settlers into a Palestinian district of Jersualem which his critics say will further hinder a political settlement.
After more than two years of legal and political wrangling, Mr Sharon's office approved the plan last week and the first Jewish families have moved into new flats in the Ma'aleh Ha'zeitim settlement, beside the densely populated Arab district of Ras al-Amoud.
It is the first time a Jewish settlement has been built in a Palestinian area of Jerusalem since Israel seized control of the entire city in 1967.
The first settlers at the apartment complex, just a few hundred metres from the Wailing Wall, include a millionaire, Irving Moskowitz, and his son-in-law Ariel King, a far-right political activist.
More than 100 more families are expected to move in during the coming months.
I'll offer you a bit of context to help make sense of the above article.
"When Caliph Umar took possession of the holy city of Jerusalem, he ensured that the Christians remain in secure possession of their holy places and enjoy full religious liberty. Umar also invited the Jews, who had always been forbidden to reside permanently in Jerusalem while it was under Christian rule, to return to the holy city. Seventy families from Tiberias came to settle in Jerusalem, establishing a quarter for themselves beside the Muslim community at the foot of their old Temple Mount. Umar also
purified the site of the ancient Jewish Temple, which had remained in ruins for nearly six centuries. Umar built a simple wooden mosque at the southern end of the cleared platform, where al-Aqsa Mosque now stands. For this piety, some Jews hailed the Muslims during the seventh century as the precursors of the Messiah." (Karen Armstrong, Journal of Palestine Studies, The Holiness of Jerusalem, Volume XXVII, Number 3, Spring 1998, p. 15)
You'll note that the "Right of Return" is invoked; a right not given to the displaced inhabitants that have had roots there for the last eighteen and a half hundred years. Here is a historical reference.
Now AIPAC is in the news a lot lately.
Here is Mr Powells speech to AIPAC if you'd like to give it a look.
The April 1 news story "For Israel Lobby Group, War Is Topic A, Quietly," about the recent convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, reported that half of the Senate and a third of the House were present. It also said that AIPAC seeks to avoid public scrutiny and that the White House insisted that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's address to 2,000 members of the organization be off the record.
Thanks to this article we know that Ms Rice was booed at one point, while talking about illegal settlements (really good links and maps)in the West Bank and Gaza.
Please read this report from MERIP and get a handle on the complex mix of right wing think tanks and neocon ideologues that find violence more expediant than diplomacy for the aims of corporate Empire.
...conservative and hawkish think tanks like the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), established in 1997 and chaired by William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. Before they entered the administration, JINSA's board of advisors included Cheney, Undersecretary of State John Bolton and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith. Richard Perle, recently compelled to resign from the chairmanship of the quasi-governmental Defense Policy Board under a cloud of scandal, still serves on the board of JINSA. PNAC affiliates include Cheney and his chief of staff Lewis Libby, Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, Bolton, special envoy to "Free Iraqis" Zalmay Khalilzad, Secretary of State Colin Powell's deputy Richard Armitage and Elliott Abrams, a rehabilitated Iran-contra criminal who now serves as National Security Council adviser for the Middle East. JINSA and PNAC, along with a similar think tank called the Center for Security Policy, combine WINEP's vocal advocacy for the US-Israeli alliance with calls for greatly increased US defense spending and unapologetic US intervention abroad.
Where WINEP and AIPAC tend to hew to the line of whichever Israeli government is in power, JINSA associates align themselves with the territorial ambitions of the Israeli right. As early as July 8, 1996, Perle, Feith and a special assistant to John Bolton named David Wurmser sought to make common cause with the Likud Party for a war against Iraq. Perle presented a position paper prepared in consultation with Feith, Bolton, Wurmser and others to newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The paper, written under the auspices of the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies based in Washington and Jerusalem and entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," advocated that Israel repudiate the Oslo accords and seek permanent annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Even more provocatively, it urged Israel to support Jordan in advocating restoration of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq and the elimination of the regime of Saddam Hussein -- "an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right."
The "Clean Break" paper appealed to the Likud's general strategic vision. A preemptive war against Iraq would legitimate the principle of using force to solve diplomatic and political problems...
PNAC Info to learn about and keep an eye on the Program for a New American Century.
American Samizdat has been pretty hot lately; inspiring me today while suffering the slings and errors of Blogspot and my home pc.
4/08/2003
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The frustration of working to save Democracy with questionable technology...
Permalinks seem fixed... Now about that error thing all of a sudden plagueing the 'puter...
4/08/2003
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I'm working on fixing my permalinks; PLEASE send any suggestions along...
4/08/2003
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