Mission Accomplished?PNAC may be closing their doors after 9 years. The neoconservative think tank headed by William Kristol getting ready to shut down as they are, is causing me to ponder what exactly their mission was in the first place.
As is well known in informed circles, there was pretty much no way we weren’t going to invade Iraq. If 9-11 would not have happened, providing them with huge approval ratings, and a convenient excuse, the United States still would have invaded. The justification just would have been different. Remember, twice in the 90’s we bombed Baghdad, using different reasons both times. How hard would it have been to manufacture yet another excuse to deploy troops?
What exactly is the mission? What is being accomplished, and why are we building
all those permanent military bases out there?
Chaos was the plan.Chaos was the plan from the beginning. There was never any intention of “winning”. The United States Military was, after all, going against an undersized, under-funded Iraqi military that had been crippled by 10+ years of economic sanctions. There is no doubt that they could have easily wiped the Iraqis off the planet in the first week of the war if they wanted to. What would that have accomplished though?
The current quagmire ensures that U.S. multinationals are getting exactly what they wanted. Bechtel, Halliburton, GE, SAIC, Northrop Grumman; just to name a few, are raking in record profits.
Since 2005, global military spending has shot to a record high. The United States accounted for nearly half of that total. Along with the huge profits, comes the command of local Iraqi oil, the raiding of the Iraqi treasury, the looting our own treasury for “rebuilding” Iraq, the construction of permanent military bases, and the building of a palatial embassy larger then Vatican City to run all of it from.
One of many lies leading up to the invasion and subsequent occupation that the Bush Administration repeatedly told the American public; was that Iraq’s oil would pay for the country’s reconstruction. Behind the scenes, the Administration quietly set in motion a series of resolutions that safeguarded Iraq’s oil for American corporations.
• May 22, 2003-- United States pressure, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approves Resolution 1483, setting up a “Development Fund for Iraq,” financed mainly Iraqi oil exports. The fund was controlled by the United States, with advice from the Washington-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
• The fund was controlled by Paul Bremer, and swelled to $7 billion, primarily due to a $3.1 billion contribution from Congress, and billions of dollars more in seized assets of the Iraqi government.
• Bush quietly signed Executive Order 13303, providing absolute legal protection for United States interests in Iraqi oil. Bush prohibited all judicial processes regarding Iraqi oil that was in the possession of United States corporations. It also decreed that “any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void,” with respect to the Development Fund for Iraq and “all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products and interests therein.”
There are many other examples of “treasury looting” and war profiteering besides the above. They are all equally as disturbing, especially to a veterans such as myself. This was all done with the knowledge that the U.S. must sacrifice our military over a long period of time in a prolonged war. The next step will be the creation of death squads to cause civil war in the region. How do I know this will all happen? Because it has already happened before. If one reads the histories of various empires through the ages you can see the pattern develop. Rome under Nero. France under Napoleon. Egypt under the Pharaohs. The weapons have gotten more efficient over the millennia, but the methods remain the same. This scenario has repeated itself many times before and ours is no exception. Divide-Conquer-Control. Mission accomplished.
Divide-Conquer-Control. The American WayA lot of people have told me how the U.S. has forever been changed for the worse, since the invasion of Iraq. My response; is that unfortunately how we have failed to change at all.
Our history is all about the forceful domination of others. United States history started with the slaughter and genocide of the Native Americans who occupied the land before us. It segued into manifest destiny throughout the westward expansion, where we fought pitched wars with other European empires such as the Spaniards, who were conquering and expanding out here as well. Later we continued our hegemony to distant shores. The Spanish-American war where we “liberated” the Philippines from Spain, and afterward refusing to leave. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq. Our history is packed with expansionism, war, and empire building. Divide-Conquer-Control.
The United States currently has military bases in over
130 countries, including one of our enemies-Cuba. They're everywhere. Iraq is simply more of the same. Ever since the Vietnam war, the hawks in our country just have not felt good about themselves. They have been waiting to sink their teeth into something that they can actually win, and get some sort of a twisted sense of vindication. Now there is chaos, misery, and confusion in Iraq. There are our children coming home in body bags, and a massive polarization in our country. Divide-Conquer-Control.
There is no chance at all that the U.S. is leaving Iraq. Not as long as this current Administration occupies all three branches of our government. Presently, the United States is saber-rattling in the Direction of Iran. They are attempting to use the exact same strategy of lies, deceit, and fear-mongering here in the United States that has been so successful so far. What is the REAL reasons that there is constant U.S. pressure on Iran? Do the math; an Iranian sponsored Iraqi government is the only way to force the United States out of the Middle East. Divide-Conquer-Control.
There Is Hope from the LeftOn and on it will go unless we do something about it. Us; We The People. Liberals such as myself that want change. That in itself may sound small, and hopeless. Look at the current state of our oversized-bloated government. Look at the borderline scary people that still think that this Administration can do no wrong. Look at how the neo-cons use the same concept of Divide-Conquer-Control, by using our differences to pit all of us against each other even though we are all Americans, and all live under the same flag. They make the rules, they have the guns, and they have the will to use them as they see fit. All “We The People” on the left have are our voices, and our righteous indignation. How far has that gotten us so far?
It’s gotten us a hell of a long way actually. Because Liberals like us have changed history in the past, and we can change our current course today. The first thing we need to do; is take bake the term “Liberal.” Embrace it. It’s ours. It’s who the hell we are. If you can’t be proud of the fact that Liberalism bore the original concept of Democracy in Greece, and that it bore the love not hate, forgiveness not vengeance theme of Christianity, you should be. If you can’t be proud of the fact that Liberals like us, when we work together can bring about such things as the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Renaissance, you should be. Liberals like us halted slavery, ended the concept of women as property, stopped child labor, promoted unions, and created the middle class. Liberals fought to give women the vote, and bring the old out of poverty with programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Liberals stood up to beat Hitler, marched by the millions to stop Jim Crow, segregation, and ensure everyone had equal rights regardless of their skin color. It ended the war in Vietnam, put a dent in the grievous pollution of our air and water, and it at least tries to pull children out of poverty.
Conservatives throughout time, fought all those issues tooth and nail. Think about that next time a hate merchant such as Ann Coulter, or Sean Hannity attempt to degrade the term Liberal.
Undoing the Neo-Con Damage To Our CountryIt is true, that today, the United States is not a nation which our founding fathers would have envisioned. For Americans to truly be free, we must break the conservative shackles between government and business interests. Only then can the nation work toward the interests of its people rather than that of faceless corporations.
Sometimes, against my overwhelmingly cynical nature I actually do manage a positive thought. In this case, I am wondering if maybe we are meant to be where we are with this current government. Maybe we are meant to go through these 8 years of hell with this current group to wake everyone up in this country so that they see the damage that a lack of checks and balances can do. This neo-con cycle of crushing debt, war, and feeding the massive Military-Industrial-Complex will end. If it does not end by our hands, and by our changes, it will end by imploding and collapsing in on itself. It’s the way of war-like empires. The Romans, the French, the British; they were all were massive empires that once dominated the world. History proves that they could not sustain themselves, and history will prove the same of the United States as well; unless we change it.
The way to true change in the United States, is to take back the country that used to belong to us. Here are some of the steps.
Step 1- Get out and vote in November. Get people out and vote in November. Find a way to get people to the polls no matter what. We desperately need control of at least the legislative branch back. There is going to be no better opportunity to do so than this November. The Conservative poll numbers are the lowest that they have been since the neo-cons took them in 2000. Get our people in office. Only then can we proceed to the next step
Step 2-Out of Iraq. The Iraqis have their new Government. They have their new Parliament. They want us out of there. They have said so. Leave. Sell the embassy and the military bases back to the Iraqi government, and get the hell out, and that includes any future military presence we had planned. We do have a responsibility to clean up the mess that the Bush Administration has caused however. We can do that by assisting them financially for the first year in their rebuilding. But the Iraqi government is going to have to do the work, and hire the people, No Halliburton contracts, no outside contractors coming in to do the work. The point is, to get the Iraqi people back to work, earning a living again, and supporting their families like they were before the United States came in and destroyed that.
Step 3-Take back the media. Knowledge is power. Unfortunately the media is now
in the hands of a few select corporations that are loyal only to their investors and shareholders. This has to change. Integrity, truth and investigation have been replaced with bottom line and profit. We have “talking heads” that don’t even bother talking about the real issues confronting America instead of reporters. The American people desperately need to know the issues confronting them and the world. These communications monopolies need to be broken up, and this unholy, and un-American alliance between the news stations and the Pentagon need to end. The media being little more than unpaid advertisers and dispensers of government propaganda is something that the old Soviet Union used to do.
Step 4-Roll back all of the regressive tax cuts to the super-wealthy. The only way we can even hope to get back in the black here, is by taxing these super wealthy businesses like they should be. “Oh. More tax and spend liberalism” the right wing shills will scream. Screw them. They caused this current mess that we are in, it’s time for them finally start paying for it. It’s because of these ultra wealthy multinationals we are throwing money into black holes in places like Iraq. It’s because these places don’t pay their fair share that we are selling off parts of our national parks to keep our heads above water. It’s time for them to pay their bills like grownups.
Even the conservative Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the Military-Industrial complex in his farewell address. None the less, between the 60s and the 00s, the defense budget has continued, year after year, to skyrocket. One-third of the national budget is annually awarded to the Pentagon, and they in turn funnel billions of these dollars into the coffers of corporations such as Bechtel and GE. During the Vietnam War, the top Ten American Corporations netted $11.6 trillion. And they dare to call US “greedy tax and spend liberals?”
Step 5-Repeal NAFTA, CAFTA, and all the other *FTA’s. It was a mistake. We should admit it and move on. It has done nothing but take jobs out of our country, and make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. It has also caused a completely un-sustainable trade imbalance with the rest of the world.
Step 6-Public financing of campaigns ONLY, and term limits etched in stone. Likewise, each legislator must live on their Congressional or Senatorial salary, and show proof that they are living within those means. No money from lobbyists, no money from special interest groups, no campaign contributions, no $25000 dollar a plate dinners to fundraise from big business shills. No outside money period, and they must account for every penny that they spend during their entire term. If they get caught, they get run out of office on a rail. Period, no exceptions. That’s the only way we can start to rid our Government of this never-ending string of bribery and corruption scandals, and stop this fascist merger of big business and Capital Hill.
Step 7-Redirect the money we are spending. You want to win the war on terror? Start by REALLY winning hearts and minds. For goodness sake,
$427 Billion Dollars this year ALONE in defense spending? Not to mention the
$290-plus BILLION that the Iraq war has cost us so far. Where I come from, that is known as “jaw-droppingly absurd.” I’m a veteran. I served in the U.S. Navy, and I believe in providing for the common defense. I believe we need a military to protect our borders. But we need a military this bloated and out of control why? If we took just HALF of the the money we have used for nationalism and war, and redirected it to agriculture, education, health care, and shelter we would be witness to a very different world in which the poorest and most vulnerable would be much better off. It would put the terrorists out of business. They wouldn’t have that base of people with “nothing to lose” to draw from.
Just a startThis, of course is all just a start. The work never ends, To have a true legacy, we must constantly keep moving forward. Education, Health care reform, the growing disparity between the rich and poor, global warming and disregard for the environment, and the disappearing middle class. Where to start? Makes your head spin sometimes.
I start by believing that the Constitution is meant to protect individual rights, establish personal responsibilities, and describe the operations of government, as well as describing the general principles of how our society is to be run. But, I also temper that with the knowledge that the Constitution originally served the interests of rich white male landholders, and needed to be changed from time to time. Remember that African-Americans were forbidden to vote until 1870. Women were forbidden to vote until 1920. Tax debtors were forbidden to vote until 1964. Young people were forbidden to vote until 1971.
Similarly, much of the Bill of Rights was not defended or enforced until recently. It is because of Liberals such as us, that the Constitution changed.
Keep that in mind, the next time a “Constitutional Scholar” such as Rush Limbaugh attempts to push his revisionist twists of reality upon us.
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