Columnist – John Sammon “Naturally, the common people don’t want war. 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 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 way in any country.”
When war criminal Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trial in 1946 said the above, he didn’t realize he was a prophet. This statement fits George Bush like a glove.
I want the United Nations to formally charge Bush and the United States with war crimes in Iraq. Below is a first draft copy of the proposed indictment.
Indictment Iraq War
The United Nations Charges: Count One
Introduction
The Defendant
1. The United States president is sworn to uphold the Constitution and represent the American people responsibly and to seek through its own creation, the United Nations, peaceful resolutions to crisis unless all other options have been exhausted.
The Conspiracy
2. From in or about 2001, through 2003, the defendants George Bush and Richard (Dick) Cheney knowingly, willfully and unlawfully concocted a scheme to convince the American people that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction as they put it, “such as the world had never seen,” and intended to use these weapons in an attack upon the United States, and that such an attack was imminent.
3. It was the object of the conspiracy to use war to replace the leader of Iraq, to do a regime change, because said leader was acting in a bellicose manner after previous American administrations had professed friendship, guaranteed the sovereignty of, equipped with military hardware, and encouraged said Iraq leader in military adventurism prompting him to believe he could invade Kuwait in 1990 without repercussion. Thus, the United States itself was a party to laying the groundwork for a miscalculation that led to war.
4. It was further a part of the conspiracy to use the attacks on the World Trade Center of 9-11, 2001 to create a climate of fear and hysteria by falsely connecting Iraq to the event, when it had in fact no involvement at all. Said defendants Bush and Cheney used 9-11 to gain public support for war against Iraq.
5. It was further a part of the conspiracy to end a United Nations weapons inspection process in Iraq when it became clear that no such weapons were being found, the defendants Bush and Cheney realizing that if the situation continued, the war would be harder to sell.
6. It was further a part of the conspiracy that Iraq possessed rich oil reserves that could be controlled by the installation of a new government and that said defendants Bush and Cheney knew this and that contracts to rebuild war damage could be farmed out to American companies such as Halliburton, thus allowing the United States to acquire by force Iraq’s economy.
7. It was further a part of the conspiracy that once war was underway, the defendants and their coconspirators maintained a campaign of lies and disinformation to keep Congress and the American people compliant. Too numerous to include all, two examples are: For two years the defendants sought unsuccessfully to prove that an Iraqi weather balloon van was a mobile chemical weapons lab. On another occasion, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was given a prepared statement to read to the public, and angrily threw the paper down and said, “I’m not going to read this shit!” Powell, who eventually was asked to resign for being too honest, has since openly expressed regret for being a dupe in the plot. In addition, defendants Bush and Cheney fired military officers or advisors who expressed doubt about the operation or raised troubling questions.
8. It was further a part of the conspiracy in that once war was underway; the defendants conducted it in an incompetent manner. As an example, troops were sent into combat without flak vests, leading to further American casualties.
9. It was further a part of the conspiracy to gain revenge on an official who was sent to Africa to see if a country there had sold “yellow pancake,” an ingredient in weapons of mass destruction, to Iraq. A report by the official that found no such transaction had taken place led the defendants and coconspirators to leak the identity of the official’s wife, who was an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.
10. Congress is complicit as an accomplice in that they cowardly failed to do their job and raise tough questions and simply bought the falsehoods of the defendants, thereby becoming a rubber stamp.
End Result
1. The resulting war killed half a million people and destroyed Iraq resulting in widespread suffering and damage, far beyond the numbers of “evil people” the defendants said the war was being fought to bring to justice. Thousands of “innocents” were killed, whose only guilt was living in the wrong country, including women and children caught in the resulting cross fire. The war also resulted in the loss, perhaps for decades, of the United States being considered a humanitarian nation in the eyes of the world, despite the debate whether that designation was ever truly deserved.
2. The war and the power vacuum it left after the deposing of Iraq’s leader gave Al-Qaeda an opportunity to establish a base there to conduct operations. Al-Qaeda had not been in Iraq before this.
3. The war in Iraq resulted in the war in Afghanistan being largely ignored, which in turn led to deterioration in the situation in Afghanistan.
4. It is clear that the American government, and many of its people, want to shrug and forget the whole thing. This is an immoral position that operates under the supposition that because the United States is powerful and in control, it can do something wrong and simply walk away from it.
Developments that took place in Bolivia and Venezuela, and more specifically the two recent referenda held in the Latin American countries, create a new dynamic which is of vital importance for all African nations that have been the target of the colonial powers France and England, and the postcolonial superpowers. The United States is not anymore an omnipotent superpower, if it had ever been. The United States is confronted with the world’s worst financial and economic crisis of all times, and as it has been the global economy’s locomotive over the past 60 years, it will experience the forthcoming dismantlement of the capitalist system in the most adverse way.
Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis [ Enlarge ] Many had assumed that the November 2008 presidential elections in America would be of great significance for Africa, and the still tyrannized African nations that have been the victims of European colonialism and American post-colonialism. These erroneous analysts had based their argumentation and hopes on the extremely unlikely hypothesis that the origins and the family background of the (then candidate) 44th president of the United States would play a considerable role in his foreign policy making, and more specifically in the US African policy.
The aforementioned hypothesis was absolutely wrong for two reasons; first, a US president’s family background and his personal origins matter little if not at all when it comes to the US foreign policy making, which remains a hermetically closed and utterly restricted area for newcomers. Behind the scenes, groups of influence, lobbying centers, and dark forces exercise an absolute control over the US foreign policy making, and can easily eliminate a bothersome president – one way (1963) or another (1976).
Second, the United States is not anymore an omnipotent superpower if it had ever been. The United States are confronted with the world’s worst financial and economic crisis of all times, and as it has been the global economy’s locomotive over the past 60 years, it will experience the forthcoming dismantlement of the capitalist system in the most adverse way.
In fact, the US cannot influence developments in other parts of the world – except through a trickery which is smartly produced and overwhelmingly diffused by the adroit US State Department propaganda machine. The trickery consists precisely in the incessant projection of the old US image of the sole superpower, as if it has continued down to our times. What has truly been left of America is its old image, namely an amalgamation of the rising economic dynamo of the 50s and the 60s, and the aura of the Cold War’s victor of the early 90s.
If one does not accept as true the deception projected by the US political Marketing machinery, one can achieve miracles in these days of real freedom of political action. This is a reality that has been detected by few thus far; with the precipitation of the economic collapse, which is practically speaking absolutely unhindered, more and more people allover the world will come to terms with the reality that the colonial restrainer has been removed. Had Saddam Hussein survived until 2009 and had he remained in power, today’s America would have been totally unable to undertake Gulf War I to remove the Baathist army from Kuwait, if that adventure had been attempted with a 19-year delay.
If the November 2008 American presidential elections are not a determinant date for Africa’s future, what are the elections that matter today for the tyrannized Ogadenis, the persecuted Berbers, the dehumanized Sidamas, the massacred Furis of Darfur, the forgotten Bejas of Eastern Sudan, and so many severely maltreated and permanently targeted African nations?
Nigeria’s General Obasanjo and Jimmy Carter — 1970’s
Bolivia and Venezuela More Influential than the US
One has to shift focus to the South; developments that took place in Bolivia and Venezuela, and more specifically the two recent referenda held in the Latin American countries, create a new dynamics which is of vital importance for all African nations that have been the target of the colonial powers France and England, and the postcolonial superpower.
In fact, Latin America gradually becomes the center of gravitation for African liberation fronts, political parties and movements of oppressed nations whose existence has been so bothersome for the criminal colonials and their local lackeys, the shameful and unrepresentative tyrants who rule based on racist and cruel, tribal militias, like Meles Zenawi of the pseudo-Ethiopian Abyssinia, Omar al Bashir of the Sudan, Buteflika of Algeria, Kibaki of Kenya, Mohamed VI of Morocco, and many others.
Four Impotent Challengers of Colonialism in Africa: Russia, China, India and Japan
As it happens, not only is Latin America closer to Africa than any major non Western power (Russia, China, India and Japan) but also Bolivia and Venezuela come to cover a great political vacuum.
Russia has been a great colonial power in Asia and in Europe; under the coverage of Marxism – Leninism, it continued its colonial expansionism until the early 90s. But Russia had always failed in Africa; the Russian Orientalism and Africanism proved to be inconsiderate replicas of the French Orientalism and Africanism, which have been composed by the Western European colonial powers, England and France, in order to function to their profit. In other words, the Western European colonial system of interpretation cannot function to the benefit of other users. It is an inherently Western European system of fallacious interpretation adequately adjusted in order to alter the real data and transfigure the realities according to benefit of its launchers. The paranoid Soviet policy in the wider Horn of Africa area in the late 70s highlights precisely the suicidal perception of African History and Politics by Russia / Soviet Union.
India was colonized, but after it became independent, just 60 years ago, it never managed to become a fully de-colonized country and state; the Indian foreign policy, despite (or because of) the fake nationalism of several parties, bears all the insignia of an approach to world politics that perfectly reflects the colonial countries’ interests. The eternalized internal divisions testify to the prevalence of situations created by the colonial powers elsewhere. In no way did the African policy of India oppose the colonial powers’ interests in the region.
Japan was a limited circumference colonial power (East – Southeast Asia) for a relatively brief period of time; following its defeat in WW II, Japan has been politically and economically, ideologically and culturally colonized. Its presence in Africa has been complementary to that of the European colonial powers and America, thus perfectly contributing to the perpetuation of the colonial plan.
China was never colonized, only partly invaded by the Japanese militarists during the wars with Japan in the first half of the 20th century; yet, China had already been severely targeted by the colonial powers, and to this testify the famous Opium Wars (1839 – 1842) and the heroic Boxer Rebellion (1898 – 1901). However, the rise of the Communist Party as ruling power and the Maoism as political ideology proved to be a sort of late westernization of China. The reformist policies initiated Deng Xiaoping did not however reflect Chinese authenticity in Beijing’s foreign policy making. The socialist market economy helped only shape a quantitative approach to the world politics and China’s global role, despite its economic rise as the world’s second economy (GDP in terms of purchasing power parity: US $ 7.8 trillion), is still very limited and highly volatile. Worse, by allying itself with rogue dictators, Beijing has lost any chance of dynamically influencing groundbreaking developments in various parts of the world. In brief, China’s rising influence only quantitatively challenges the interests of the colonial powers. The pillars of theoretical, cultural, intellectual, academic, ideological, economic and political colonialism in Africa have been left intact by China’s presence in the Black Continent. There has never been a real, new concept of African Identity, Peace, Progress and Development to be initiated by China; as the no 1 challenge to Washington, Beijing proved to be a poor conceptual thinker, gullibly playing the colonial game – to the ultimate benefit of the colonial powers.
The Rise of the Indigenous Nations in Bolivia
Why are then the two recent referenda so important? For both, ideological and political reasons.
First took place the referendum organized by President Evo Morales Ayma of Bolivia; on January 25, 2009 more than 62% of the Bolivians ratified a New constitution for Bolivia, which is the epitome of the prevalence of Identity and Authenticity over the racist, colonial plans of mixed, altered or alien identity.
In fact, President Evo Morales Ayma of Bolivia led his country into a real re-foundation geared according to the interests of the Bolivia’s indigenous peoples who constitute the outright majority of the country and yet, they had been deprived of basic rights, considered as second class citizens, culturally oppressed, economically exploited, and politically erased.
• Does this remind Africans of anything similar?
• What place do the Bejas occupy in Sudan’s colonial state?
• Can the Beja schoolchildren pursue primary and secondary education in their language?
• What role do the Afars play in Eritrea?
• Is there any Afar University functioning in Eritrea?
Quite exemplarily, the establishment of three universities, which will be fully functioning in the major native languages, Aymara and Queshua, has been announced in Bolivia in the aftermath of the referendum.
What position do the Sidamas have in Abyssinia (the colonial coffin that has been fallaciously re-baptized as Ethiopia)? Could one compare the electrification projects undertaken over the past 18 years in the Tigray province with those completed in the Sidama land?
What is the status of the Berbers in Algeria? How many Berberic native speakers have been elected in the two chambers of the Algerian Parliament? Can they write their official documentation in the Berberic writing which represents the African Atlas’ cultural continuity and historical authenticity?
These questions could easily be multiplied by 10 or 50, if one intended to make parallelisms, referring to all the oppressed and persecuted African nations – victims of the Anglo-French colonial conspiracy.
The solemn declaration of President Evo Morales Ayma, an Aymara Indian and the nation’s first indigenous president, are in fact the dream of every African leader of a National Liberation movement:
“The colonial state ends here. Internal colonialism and external colonialism end here. Sisters and brothers, neo-liberalism ends here too.”
This great discourse was pronounced in La Paz; but, who would not like to utter these relieving words in Ogaden, Darfur, Kordofan, Luo land, Western Sahara, and so many other African lands?
In fact, President Evo Morales’ victory in the referendum of January 25 shows what the correct meeting place is for all African National Liberation movements’ leaders.
The new charter voted by the great majority of the Bolivians establishes water as a basic right, grants the state greater control over the natural resources, and guarantees indigenous and women representation in Congress.
Even more spectacularly, it provides for the institutionalization of all of Bolivia’s 36 native languages as official! This shows that the number of languages is not a problem when the right principles are adopted without tergiversation.
In addition, the constitution offers indigenous groups the right to administer their own resources, to levy taxes and allocate funds, to promulgate their own laws, and to carry out community justice as long as national laws are not violated.
The great news from Bolivia need further focus, and I intend to expand in several forthcoming articles in order to help African readerships better understand and share the great experiment of Indigenous Identity, Historical Authenticity, and Cultural Continuity that is currently blossoming in Bolivia.
The Consolidation of President Chavez in Venezuela
To take over from the Bolivians, the Venezuelans have just consolidated President Chavez’s power in a referendum held only yesterday. The results allow the socialist leader to continue running for president in the forthcoming presidential elections. More than 54% of Venezuelans voted in favour of abolishing the existing term limits for elected officials, which represents a wider margin of victory than expected. President Chavez, a close ally of Bolivia’s Evo Morales, announced that he would stand for re-election when his current six-year term expires in January 2013. Addressing a great number of gathered followers, after the announcement of the electoral triumph, President Chavez said emotionally: “the gates to the future have been opened wide.”
Both referenda demonstrate the real dynamics of our times and throw to the dustbin of the World History the irresponsible leaders of various oppressed African nations’ liberation fronts – all those who disastrously link the destiny of their nations, as well as their own careers and personal ambitions, with the colonial trash of England and France, and the collapsing and impotent America, a nation that needs to undergo a great shock and an even greater revolution than that of 1783, before truly changing and re-adopting its original, anti-colonial Declaration of Independence.
About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis – is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 52, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages. [ EXTENDED PROFILE ]
The McCain campaign — in a rerun of Hillary Clinton’s frustrations — are still searching for an effective formula for countering Obama’s appealing personality and fearsome political machine.
Too often, GOP insiders grumble, McCain’s strategy seems simply reactive. On Sunday, Obama announced he’d be meeting with his economic advisers on Monday. On Monday morning, the McCain campaign announced a conference call with his economic advisers.
McCain’s bitterness, frustration and near-obsession with Obama are on plain display: He even gave some free advertising to his opponent’s book the other day, complaining about the Illinois Democrat’s headline-grabbing trip.
“We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right,” the Arizona Republican said Friday, playing off the title of Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.” …[ MORE >> ]
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The BUMBLING senator from Arizona is feeling the heat, and has resorted to what amounts to hurling insults via un-coordinated TV ads and stupid “I am more patriotic” statements in Town Hall meetings. For example, the one below in which he accuses obama of not visiting the troops in Germany — using footage of Obama with the troops in Kuwait!!:
Obama — We are one America
Perhaps the most stupid of McCain’s current Ads — is the one in which, a narrator ominously intones that gas prices have gone to “$4, $5 [with] no end in sight, because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America. No to independence from foreign oil.” Then the announcer asks, “Who can you blame for rising prices at the pump?” A crowd chants, “Obama, Obama,” and Obama’s face appears.
McCain TV Ad — “Pump”
Typical Republican poison — that will escalate as these THUGS become more desperate, as the campaign finale approaches.
The notion that Obama is singlehandedly responsible for rising gasoline prices is ludicrous.
The war in Iraq and Afghanistan, increasing demand from emerging powers like China and India, “big-Oil-business” manipulations by the current and previous Republican administrations, and the extravagance and greed of Americans — are responsible for the current crisis.
Not Obama, Mr. McSAME!!!
It is my opinion that the only reasons why McCain has survived this far are:
1. The damage Hillary Clinton inflicted on Obama during their brutal primary contest
2. A good chunk of America is still fearful of a black man ruling them, even if he is 50% white and 50% black. As high-octane as Obama is — if he were 100% pure white, McCain would have been dead-meat as early as the first day he became the presumptive nominee of the ReTHUGlican party.
Meanwhile, the criminal cabal of George Bush and Dick Cheney have their guns “fully loaded” in support of John McCain — A fusillade of “500 LB” bombs aimed squarely at Obama.
We will see.
Paul Jenkins Writes:
That Obama is actually able to listen to facts, absorb them and analyze them should be a good thing. We assume that those skills came in handy throughout his life, not least at Harvard, where he graduated near top of his law school class.
This, of course, now makes him an elitist, as he would not be expected by the old DC guard to possess any such competence (charisma perhaps, analytical ability no.)
Both McCain (894th out of 899 at Annapolis) and George W. Bush revel in their under-achieving school days, as if this made these scions of hyper-privilege any closer to real people.
This tactic clearly succeeded well enough for Bush to be elected president twice, and McCain to be nominated once. But there is a sense that American voters may not be taken in again and that they may actually enjoy as president someone who isn’t an inbred moron or a senile fratboy. ….[ MORE >> ]
Barack Obama earlier today launched his fact-finding tour with a brief stop in Kuwait and then off to Afghanistan. Next, he will visit Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England, not necessarily in that order.
Mr. Obama hopes thatb the tour of the Middle East and Europe will enhance his foreign policy credentials, confront questions at home about his readiness to be commander in chief, and signal the possibility of a new era in U.S. relations with the rest of the world.
Obama at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait earlier today
Obama meets a soldier during a breakfast visit to Camp Eggers in Kabul
“Naturally, the common people don’t want war. 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 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 way in any country.”
