Coming -- The Middle East

We are asking our readers to bear with us.  We are trying to put together a unified commentary on the Middle-East and it will take a bit to get it all down.

Right now, preliminary results explain why Iraq, Lybia, and Syria are welcome targets while Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen, among others, still have as much support as we can get away with.

Who Hates Whomw and What and Why?

THE ABSURD TIMES

We have been fortunate lately. After one of you sent along the ET warnings, another sent this bit of information. Actually, this and similar material has been posted here on the Times, but that hardly qualifies as mass distribution.

Anyway, here it is:

William Blum, a US foreign policy expert, also has a explanation from a different point of view:

From his article "Myth and Denial in the War on Terrorism":

Let us look at some actual cases. The terrorists responsible for the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 sent a letter to the New York Times which stated, in part: "We declare our responsibility for the explosion on the mentioned building. This action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel the state of terrorism and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region."[5] Richard Reid, who tried to ignite a bomb in his shoe while aboard an American Airline flight to Miami in December 2001, told police that his planned suicide attack was an attempt to strike a blow against the US campaign in Afghanistan and the Western economy. In an e-mail sent to his mother, which he intended her to read after his death, Reid wrote that it was his duty "to help remove the oppressive American forces from the Muslims land."[6] After the October 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, which destroyed two nightclubs and killed more than 200 people, one of the leading suspects told police that the bombings were "revenge" for "what Americans have done to Muslims." He said that he wanted to "kill as many Americans as possible" because "America oppresses the Muslims".[7] In November 2002, a taped message from Osama bin Laden began: "The road to safety begins by ending the aggression. Reciprocal treatment is part of justice. The [terrorist] incidents that have taken place ... are only reactions and reciprocal actions."[8] That same month, when Mir Aimal Kasi, who killed several people outside of CIA headquarters in 1993, was on death row, he declared: "What I did was a retaliation against the US government" for American policy in the Middle East and its support of Israel.[9] It should be noted that the State Department warned at the time that the execution of Kasi could result in attacks against Americans around the world.[10] It did not warn that the attacks would result from foreigners hating or envying American democracy, freedom, wealth, or secular government. Similarly, in the days following the start of US bombing of Afghanistan there were numerous warnings from US government officials about being prepared for retaliatory acts, and during the war in Iraq, the State Department announced: "Tensions remaining from the recent events in Iraq may increase the potential threat to US citizens and interests abroad, including by terrorist groups."[11] ...... Jimmy Carter told the New York Times in a 1989 interview:

"We sent Marines into Lebanon and you only have to go to Lebanon, to Syria or to Jordan to witness first-hand the intense hatred among many people for the United States because we bombed and shelled and unmercifully killed totally innocent villagers -- women and children and farmers and housewives -- in those villages around Beirut. ... As a result of that ... we became kind of a Satan in the minds of those who are deeply resentful. That is what precipitated the taking of our hostages and that is what has precipitated some of the terrorist attacks."[14] Colin Powell has also revealed that he knows better. Writing of this same Lebanon debacle in his 1995 memoir, he forgoes clichés about terrorists not believing in democracy:

The USS New Jersey started hurling 16-inch shells into the mountains above Beirut, in World War II style, as if we were softening up the beaches on some Pacific atoll prior to an invasion. What we tend to overlook in such situations is that other people will react much as we would.[15]

(For references and full article, please visit the article) You can find it at: http://understanding-terrorism.blogspot.com/

According to Blum, Islamic terrorists hate the USA for all its bombings and killings, not for all its "freedoms."

Also, the US government seems to agree with this view: By early 2006, America's National Intelligence Assessment on terrorism concluded that the Iraq conflict was "breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement".

Just Like home

Illustration: It actually says it all by itself and I will let it stand except to mention that he would probably be more mainstream or in tune with the general populace than the majority of our politicians.

FEELS JUST LIKE HOME

On Monday of this week, Patriot’s Day, we had the largest mass shooting in the history of educational institutions in this country at Virginia Tech. About 33 were shot.

Every educator and minister, every politician and pundit, every moron with a microphone will be more than ready to express outrage, sadness, anger, and sympathy with those who died and those close to them. There is not a doubt about the proper emotions of the moment, so I need not serve that purpose. But there is something about the incident that may teach us more about the world we live in.

The most telling of the coverage was the video shot by Jamal AlBarghouti (as the networks spelled it). He described the chaos succinctly and clearly, gave a clear impression of what it was like. Then, one of the Anchors asked “Tell us how horrified and surprised you were to see this happening all around you.”

His response was “Well, see I come from the Middle East, after all, and this is not all that new to me.”

That particular response was aired only once, but it said volumes, albeit not intentionally. The name is Palestinian, and as best as transliteration allows, I suspect two relatives of his are members of the Palestinian Parliament, at least one of whom was kidnapped by Israel, tried, and sentenced to life in Prison.

The Decider gave a speech. Warner gave a speech. Coverage was wall-to-wall. Analysts will again debate gun-control.

No one pointed out that the same thing happens every day in Baghdad.

This is why in international polls, the U.S. is consistently ranked in the top tree most dangerous nations, along with Israel and North Korea – let’s call it the Axis of Avarice.

Before the right-wingers of FNC (Fox Noise and Cacophony) get started, the killer was a South Korean and no terrorism was involved. He probably was in the same state of hormonal imbalance most people are in when they swear that they will live together in love, respect, and virtue for the rest of their lives. The motto: “If you fall in love, this could happen to you.”

There is only one article this issue, sent by a contributor – actually sent to him by our illustrator in chief. Kurt Vonnegut died last week and this is posted as a memorial to him. Actually, it sums up the Bush Presidency and Neo-Cons admirably. (I can not resist adding that when I hear the term NEO-CONS, I do not think of a political philosophy so much as a modern way to bull-shit.

*Custodians of chaos** *

In this extract from his forthcoming memoirs, Kurt Vonnegut is horrified

by the hypocrisy in contemporary US politics

By Kurt Vonnegut

*06/17/06 “**Information Clearing House*

<http://informationclearinghouse.info/>*” * -- -- “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.” A lot of people think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, five hundred years before there was that greatest and most humane of human beings, named Jesus Christ.

The Chinese also gave us, via Marco Polo, pasta and the formula for gunpowder. The Chinese were so dumb they only used gunpowder for fireworks. And everybody was so dumb back then that nobody in either hemisphere even knew that there was another one.

We’ve sure come a long way since then. Sometimes I wish we hadn’t. I hate H-bombs and the Jerry Springer Show

But back to people like Confucius and Jesus and my son the doctor, Mark, each of whom have said in their own way how we could behave more humanely and maybe make the world a less painful place. One of my favorite humans is Eugene Debs, from Terre Haute in my native state of Indiana.

Get a load of this. /Eugene Debs/

<http://www.google.com/custom?domains=informationclearinghouse.info&q=Eugene+Debs&sa=Search&sitesearch=informationclearinghouse.info&client=pub-5174720432180771&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A1%3B&hl=en>,

who died back in 1926, when I was not yet four, ran five times as the Socialist party candidate for president, winning 900,000 votes, almost 6 percent of the popular vote, in 1912, if you can imagine such a ballot.

He had this to say while campaigning:

“As long as there is a lower class, I am in it.

“As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it.

“As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?

When you get out of bed each morning, with the roosters crowing, wouldn’t you like to say. “As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

And so on.

Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly George W Bush, Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld stuff.

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

It so happens that idealism enough for anyone is not made of perfumed pink clouds. It is the law! It is the US Constitution.

But I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened instead is that it was taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’état imaginable.

I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show.

I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end:

“C-Students from Yale”.

George W Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka Christians, and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences.

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr Hervey Cleckley, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia, published in 1941. Read it!

Some people are born deaf, some are born blind or whatever, and this book is about congenitally defective human beings of a sort that is making this whole country and many other parts of the planet go completely haywire nowadays. These were people born without consciences, and suddenly they are taking charge of everything.

PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And they are waging a war that is making billionaires out of millionaires, and trillionaires out of billionaires, and they own television, and they bankroll George Bush, and not because he’s against gay marriage.

So many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick. They have taken charge. They have taken charge of communications and the schools, so we might as well be Poland under occupation.

They might have felt that taking our country into an endless war was simply something decisive to do. What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. They are going to do something every fuckin’ day and they are not afraid. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they don’t give a fuck what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilise the reserves! Privatise the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: only nut cases want to be president. This was true even in high school. Only clearly disturbed people ran for class president.

The title of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury’s great science-fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. Four hundred and fifty-one degrees Fahrenheit is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury’s novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.

While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and destroyed records rather than have to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

And still on the subject of books: our daily news sources, newspapers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books do we learn what’s really going on.

I will cite an example: House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger, published in early 2004, that humiliating, shameful, blood-soaked year.

In case you haven’t noticed, as the result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida, in which thousands of African-Americans were arbitrarily disenfranchised, we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war-lovers with appallingly powerful weaponry - who stand unopposed.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are now as feared and hated all over the world as Nazis once were.

And with good reason.

In case you haven’t noticed, our unelected leaders have dehumanised millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We wound ‘em and kill ‘em and torture ‘em and imprison ‘em all we want.

Piece of cake.

In case you haven’t noticed, we also dehumanised our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class.

Send ‘em anywhere. Make ‘em do anything.

Piece of cake.

The O’Reilly Factor.

So I am a man without a country, except for the librarians and a Chicago paper called In These Times.

Before we attacked Iraq, the majestic New York Times guaranteed there were weapons of mass destruction there.

Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn’t even seen the first world war. War is now a form of TV entertainment, and what made the first world war so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun.

Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don’t you wish you could have something named after you?

Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now give up on people, too. I am a veteran of the second world war and I have to say this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine.

My last words? “Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse.”

Napalm came from Harvard. Veritas

Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler. What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without senses of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations, and made it all their own?

© 2005 Kurt Vonnegut Extracted from /A Man Without a Country/:

<http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&tag=informati06f8-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&location=/gp/search%3F%26index=blended%26keywords=Kurt%20Vonnegut%26_encoding=UTF8>

: A Memoir of Life in George W Bush’s America.