Two Weeks In Falluja
Before I print this article, I must reveal that Ja...as in Fallu-ja...has in it as its name...or character of what God is...a derivitive of the same word used by the Hebrews...Jah...which was an affectionate name of endearment for and towards God...it was a shortend version of the word, "Jehovah," the Almighty, self-Existant, most vehement ( i.e., marked by intensity of conviction, or feelin; charactgerized by great energy,, vigour, or forc:, Eternal Diety.
There is not a single word in Aramaic that begins with the letter "F"...so I am at a loss at this moment to determine for you what "Fallu' means in correspondance to "JA" or God , other than Fallu is "miraculous, in that it revealed by much bloodshed Gods truth as to who and what the beast is."...but I prefer...the Aramaic word..."Padayahuw" which means..."Jah (God) has ransomed."...He does this by the blood of the innocent...in that god has ransomed God...as in God has ransomed god...let him who has hearing , hear...and so listen for God's truth...
They , ( the Iraqi population of innocent civilians)...see absolutely no justification for this war and were constantly asking me to explain how the American people can support these acts against a civilian population. For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American....why...because I had no answer.
By Mark Manning03/30/05 "ICH" - -
I got back from Iraq a few weeks ago where I stayed inside the city of Falluja and lived with the refugees of that city for over two weeks. I decided to go there because it seems to be the heart of the trouble in Iraq and the place to see if any sense or peace can be found. I had also heard that the city had 250,000 citizens in it who were told to leave when my government attacked, yet there had been no stories of their situation in our media.
As an American, I felt responsible for this and decided to take a look myself. On February 10th 2005 I flew into Iraq and drove to the city of Falluja. For over two weeks I was a resident and a refugee of Falluja and I am honored and privileged for that experience.
They hosted me in their homes, and cared for me because they believed that I was there to listen to them and to honestly bring home their stories to the American people. I came to Falluja without military escort or armed protection in any way. I think because of this they thought I was crazy, but they honored what they thought was courage and they trusted me.
Trust means everything there and they look deep into your eyes as they decide who you are. I lived with them and listened to their stories. They told me they do not trust American journalists to accurately tell the story of Iraq. They believe that the American public does not know what is really happening there, and that if they did they would feel differently about the war. They feel that the American people are their brothers and sisters and they are asking them for help. They wanted me to tell you their story.
The horrors of war have been brought to the people of Falluja. The people there say the city had 500,000 people in it, not the 250,000 quoted by our media. The refugees told me that they were given one week notice to leave the city. After three days, they were told they could no longer drive out, they had to walk. No camps were established for them and no refugee location was given. There was no planning by the American government for the people, no food, no shelter, and no water. They were just told to leave or be killed. Anyone who stayed in the city after one week would be considered a terrorist and would be killed.
For five months these people have been living in any location they could find, nothing was established for them in the surrounding areas of the Falluja countryside. They are living in tents in the mud, schools, abandoned chicken coups, burned out buildings, cars and other buildings that people were not using or where others have made room for them. The weather is bad, with much rain and it is very cold.
When they were told to leave the city, it was summer and they were not dressed for this cold and many could not carry out their clothes. Some lucky children are going to school in tents and all the classes have been shortened to 2 hours per day. Food is short and they are eating what the farmers grow and the surrounding community can spare. Again, even after five months they have received no outside aid from either the American government or the new Iraqi government.
The city itself has been devastated. Most houses have been seriously damaged, with about 65% of them totally destroyed. Evidence of depleted uranium (DU) shells is everywhere. This leaves radioactive contamination behind which has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. (See note1).
Unexploded ordinance is a common sight. Many residents who were there speak of chemical weapons, napalm, cluster bombs and phosphorous used by the Americans. These are all illegal weapons and considered war crimes by the international community.
Many of the houses were fired, meaning that the troops burned them down after searching them. Many houses with white flags and markings stating "Family Here" were destroyed.
Some families who had nowhere to go stayed in the city during the fighting and have paid dearly. I interviewed many people who were there and their stories will live forever in my mind. Here are somesamples:·
A mother whose son was killed by DU shells. He was in his bed sleeping when the shells came through the walls.·
A father who at 65 years of age was shot during a raid of his house, whose son was arrested during that raid and has not been seen since (he states that his son was not a fighter.)·
A 17 year old girl who hid under her bed with her 13 year old brother during a raid of her house and witnessed her father, her cousin, and her two sisters 18 and 19 years old, all shot to death. She hid for three more days with the dead bodies of her family and then they returned and shot her and her brother after finding them under the bed. Her brother died. She survived and told me her story.·
A Family of ten who lived through all the fighting. The kids were 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 12. They were a mess. These kids will never be ok. Their faces were marked with open and oozing sores and they were exhibiting serious signs of emotional damage.
There is presently very little medical aid available to the residents and refugees, and again, no aid has been provided to the refugees in the surrounding area. The medical centers in the city have been destroyed and have not been rebuilt. The main hospital has been reopened, but to get there you have to walk, as the ambulances are still being shot by the Americans and the Iraqi National Guard.
The doctors have been beaten and their lives have been threatened by the Iraqi National Guard. These are the security forces that the Americans are training. The new government has warned them not to talk to any journalists about the conditions in Falluja. They understand this threat to be very real and a direct threat on their lives and the lives of their families.
To walk to the hospital you must go through checkpoints, sometimes through fighting, and only at certain daylight hours. The checkpoints are manned by the Iraqi National Guards and they are very hostile to the residents of Falluja. When we were at the hospital, an old man died of a heart attack because he was not allowed through the checkpoint. A woman gave birth in the ambulance because they would not let the ambulance back to the hospital after 5 pm and instead turned it away with her in labor.
We delivered by hand the medical aid provided by some of you to the hospital in Falluja. Me and one Iraqi woman, WE were the international medical aid to Falluja. We carried these boxes one at a time through the checkpoints, across the bridge and into the hospital. They would not let us drive in, we had to walk these boxes in. We did it every day for a week, one box at a time.All of the people I talked to had messages to the American people.
They said:
"We did not attack you! We have done nothing to the Americans. Why have you done this to us?"These are the people who hosted me, fed me, and worried about my safety. They took care of me and I will never forget their generosity, compassion and grace. They want peace with America and they want the fighting to stop. They feel they are the ones being attacked and that the Americans are the terrorists. They see absolutely no justification for this war and were constantly asking me to explain how the American people can support these acts against a civilian population.
For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American.There are so many more stories to tell you and I will be making a film about it all. But for now, what I want you to know is that I spent two weeks in the heart of the beast. The place where our government and media said is the heart of the resistance, terrorists, and Saddam Loyalists, and guess what; the place is full of people. People like you and me. Kids are everywhere.
The average Fallujan family has 10 people in it. That means about 8 kids. 500,000 people in the city, you do the math. That is a lot of kids.There are fighters in Falluja. That is a fact. But they are surrounded by some 490,000 innocent people. As a country, we have decided the damage to the innocents is worth the end result, whatever that may be. These people are being shattered by this very serious situation that they have no control over. They are the innocent victims of this war.
I cannot tell you what to do. This is a story of just one area in Iraq. These stories are all over the area we call the Sunni Triangle. But I was there and lived with these people and they taught me about love, forgiveness, truth and compassion.
They, after all that has happened to them, still have the ability to differentiate between the acts of an enemy and the people of a nation. They cry out to us to save them from the ignorance that has brought this destruction on them. They have suffered 33 times 9/11.
Over 100, 000 Iraqis have died at the hands of the American invasion (note 2) and still they say that they have nothing against the American people. This is grace. I learned from these people how to find peace. By deeply listening to my "enemy" I have found that the real enemy is ignorance and fear and acting from that place of weakness.
I will never forget the people of Falluja. Thank you for listening to them.
www.conceptionmedia.net1. http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/du.htm ,http://www.sundayherald.com/325222. http://progressivetrail.org/articles/041029Cole.shtmlCopyright: Mark Manning all rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit, or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8407.htm
This is that which agrees with the final reality of what our nations leaders are doing…and what, in our silence we support.
Pride and arrogance precede every downfall.
The USA's Tragic Withdrawal From the Rule of Law: Pentagon Confirms Unilateral Pre-emptive Strikes Are Now U.S. Policy
By Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D., 03/24/05 "ICH" - -
The Pentagon has released a new strategic plan that explicitly endorses unilateral preemptive strikes.
[1] This is yet another indication that the Bush administration is dramatically accelerating away from longstanding doctrines that are upheld by both general international law and seemingly-important transatlantic coalitions like NATO.
[2] Alarmingly, this plan also equates respected international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court, with ... terrorism. According to this sentence from the Pentagon's new strategic plan, the Pax Americana Imperium's overwhelming military and economic strength somehow is being "challenged" by "a strategy of the weak": "Our strength as a nation state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak focusing on international fora, judicial processes and terror."
[3] The entire world must be wondering WHY the Pentagon's wildly-irrational language conflates diplomatic and legal challenges to US policy in international forums with terrorism? It's bad enough that the scofflaw Bush administration has resorted to grossly mischaracterizing Western civilization's time-honored international conflict-resolution methods as "challenges" which MUST BE DETERRED AS A MATTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY. Nevertheless, it gets even worse. During a Pentagon news conference on 3-18-05, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith removed all doubt about the fascistic nature of these new policies when he clarified points from the document, titled "The National Defense Strategy of the United States of America." Quote the wild-eyed Feith: "There are various actors around the world that are looking to attack or constrain the United States, and they are going to find creative ways to do that, that are not the obvious conventional military attacks.... We need to think broadly about diplomatic lines of attack, legal lines of attack, all kinds of asymmetric warfare that various actors can use to try to constrain, shape our behavior."
[4] Consider Mr. Feith's absurdly-hypermilitarized Orwellian conflations, which are either criminally stupid or deliberately evil:
(1) he defames diplomacy and adjudication by unjustly conflating them with insidious methods of "attack"; and
(2) he inexplicably conflates any "actor" -- whether individual, group, or national -- who contends that America must honor its treaty obligations with "asymmetric warfare" against the USA, despite the fact that duly-ratified treaties are "the supreme law of the land" under Article VI of the United States Constitution! So ... let's see if we've finally gotten our new national-security policy straight:
A) the Bush administration declares that it has a unique "right" to engage in a legally-standard less "preemptive/preventive" war against anyone, anywhere, anytime, even if it merely feels subjectively threatened by the theoretical possibility that it might be "attacked" at some undefined place in the indefinite future;
AND B) any diplomatic or legal disagreement with the USA under international law is going to be construed as such an "attack" -- indeed, as a form of "asymmetric warfare";
ERGO C) the Bushites will inflict "preemptive/preventive" war upon any nation that attempts to "attack" the USA through a cheeky act of diplomacy or adjudication under the rule of law, which is henceforth deemed to be the substantive equivalent of an act of terrorism! Overarching Conclusions: Who's Guarding The Guardians? It says a great deal -- but nothing good -- about the USA's mainstream media that this Pentagon document and Mr. Feith's laughable-yet-fascistic clarifications were not subjected to intense questioning during the news conference, and to scathing journalistic criticism thereafter. Moreover, the Pentagon's outrageously-regressive strategic plan underscores the fact that Mr. Bush has chosen NOT to hold dysfunctional neocons, like Messrs. Feith and Rumsfeld, accountable WITHIN the rule of law. Rather, he's chosen to grant the neocons a second-term stranglehold over his national-security policy, evidently so they can withdraw the USA from the rule of international law BEFORE they begin another propaganda campaign for his next petro-state conquest. Furthermore, it's worth noting in this context that Untergrüppensführer Feith is:
1) the DoD's third-ranking civilian official, behind Rummy and Wolfe, who is primarily responsible for formulating new national-security policies;
2) the DoD official who was directly responsible for the shadowy "Office for Special Plans" -- an ultrasecret propaganda unit inside the Pentagon that concocted pre-war "intelligence" about Iraq's phantom WMD arsenals and nonexistent ties to al-Qaeda -- and who, for purposes of plausible denial,
disbanded the OSP after the invasion [5]; and
3) a longtime militarist, war-profiteer, and fundamentalist Zionist who has numerous ulterior motives for both withdrawing the USA from the rule of law and promoting wars of aggression against Islamic nations in the Middle East.
[6] The Bottom Line: Neofascism In Our Name? Americans ought to be asking themselves:
(A) whether we really want the Pentagon to be implementing its fascistic "national security" policies IN OUR NAME; and
(B) if NOT, why aren't we then creating a firestorm of public protest in opposition to these lunatic-fringe policies? Finally, you'll find more evidence, in endnote
#7 below, which proves, when taken as a whole, that the Bushites are withdrawing the USA from the overarching rule of international law because they regard it as a necessary precondition for more wars of aggression against petro-states like Iran, and then maybe Venezuela.
[7] ENDNOTES
1. John Hendren's 3-19-05 CD/LAT article, "Pentagon: Unilateral, Preemptive Strikes Now US Policy": http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0319-01.htm
2. A. Nicholas Davies' 12-31-04 OJ essay, "The Crime of War: From Nüremberg to Fallujah": http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/123104Davies/123104davies.html B. TJSL Professor Marjorie Cohn's 11-9-04 TO essay, "Aggressive War: Supreme International Crime": http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110904A.shtml
3. John Lumpkin's 3-19-05 CHB/AP article, "Terrorism Report Decries 'Strategy Of The Weak'": http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_6428.shtml
4. Lumpkin, ibid.
5. A. Julian Borger's 7-17-03 GU special report, "The Spies Who Pushed for War": http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html B. Right Web's 2-11-04 special report, "Office Of Special Plans": http://rightweb.irc-online.org/govt/osp.php
6. Right Web's 9-3-04 special report, "Douglas Feith": http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/feith/feith.php
7. A. Jim Lobe's 3-11-05 CD/IPS article, "Bush's Unipolar World View Re-Affirmed" [Significant trends in Mr. Bush's second-term appointments -- like naming neocons John Bolton as his UN Ambassador and then Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank -- confirm both his unipolar worldview and his ongoing intention to pursue a unilateralist national-security policy that will be centered around "preemptive war."]: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0311-0
8.htm B. Evan Augustine Peterson III's 3-13-05 TPV essay, "US Withdraws From The Rule Of Law: Now Death-Row Foreigners Can't File International Appeals": http://liberty.hypermart.net/voices/2005/print/US_Withdraws_From_The_Rule_Of_L aw_Now_Death-Row_Foreigners_Cant_File_International_Appeals.htm C. Michael Leavitt's 3-14-05 FL essay, "Is the Bush Administration Repudiating International Law?" [Concludes that his titular question must be answered "yes."]: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/leavitt/20050314.html D. Tom Turnipseed's 3-15-05 CD essay, "A Scofflaw In The White House: Undermining Respect For Law" [Among other salient points, lists the many international conventions from which the Bushites have withdrawn the USA.]: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0315-25.htm E. Ray McGovern's 3-2-05 CD/TD essay, "Attacking Iraq: I Know It Sounds Crazy But..." [Explains the neocrazy groupthink under which the Bushites operate their Mideastern policy and why it's likely to manifest in war during their second term.]: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0302-31.htm F. Fabiola Sanchez's 3-16-05 USAT/AP article, "Chavez Followers Get Paramilitary Training": http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-16-venezuela-chavez_x.htm G. Stuart Munckton's 3-20-05 GLW essay, "Venezuela: Bush's Next Oil War?": http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/619/619p17.htm H. Davidson Loehr's 11-7-04 ICH essay, "Living Under Fascism": http://207.44.245.159/article7478.htm Author: Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D., is the Executive Director of the American Center for International Law ("ACIL").© 2005 EAPIII
All rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit, or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8352.htm
You decide...we...the people!!!
There is not a single word in Aramaic that begins with the letter "F"...so I am at a loss at this moment to determine for you what "Fallu' means in correspondance to "JA" or God , other than Fallu is "miraculous, in that it revealed by much bloodshed Gods truth as to who and what the beast is."...but I prefer...the Aramaic word..."Padayahuw" which means..."Jah (God) has ransomed."...He does this by the blood of the innocent...in that god has ransomed God...as in God has ransomed god...let him who has hearing , hear...and so listen for God's truth...
They , ( the Iraqi population of innocent civilians)...see absolutely no justification for this war and were constantly asking me to explain how the American people can support these acts against a civilian population. For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American....why...because I had no answer.
By Mark Manning03/30/05 "ICH" - -
I got back from Iraq a few weeks ago where I stayed inside the city of Falluja and lived with the refugees of that city for over two weeks. I decided to go there because it seems to be the heart of the trouble in Iraq and the place to see if any sense or peace can be found. I had also heard that the city had 250,000 citizens in it who were told to leave when my government attacked, yet there had been no stories of their situation in our media.
As an American, I felt responsible for this and decided to take a look myself. On February 10th 2005 I flew into Iraq and drove to the city of Falluja. For over two weeks I was a resident and a refugee of Falluja and I am honored and privileged for that experience.
They hosted me in their homes, and cared for me because they believed that I was there to listen to them and to honestly bring home their stories to the American people. I came to Falluja without military escort or armed protection in any way. I think because of this they thought I was crazy, but they honored what they thought was courage and they trusted me.
Trust means everything there and they look deep into your eyes as they decide who you are. I lived with them and listened to their stories. They told me they do not trust American journalists to accurately tell the story of Iraq. They believe that the American public does not know what is really happening there, and that if they did they would feel differently about the war. They feel that the American people are their brothers and sisters and they are asking them for help. They wanted me to tell you their story.
The horrors of war have been brought to the people of Falluja. The people there say the city had 500,000 people in it, not the 250,000 quoted by our media. The refugees told me that they were given one week notice to leave the city. After three days, they were told they could no longer drive out, they had to walk. No camps were established for them and no refugee location was given. There was no planning by the American government for the people, no food, no shelter, and no water. They were just told to leave or be killed. Anyone who stayed in the city after one week would be considered a terrorist and would be killed.
For five months these people have been living in any location they could find, nothing was established for them in the surrounding areas of the Falluja countryside. They are living in tents in the mud, schools, abandoned chicken coups, burned out buildings, cars and other buildings that people were not using or where others have made room for them. The weather is bad, with much rain and it is very cold.
When they were told to leave the city, it was summer and they were not dressed for this cold and many could not carry out their clothes. Some lucky children are going to school in tents and all the classes have been shortened to 2 hours per day. Food is short and they are eating what the farmers grow and the surrounding community can spare. Again, even after five months they have received no outside aid from either the American government or the new Iraqi government.
The city itself has been devastated. Most houses have been seriously damaged, with about 65% of them totally destroyed. Evidence of depleted uranium (DU) shells is everywhere. This leaves radioactive contamination behind which has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. (See note1).
Unexploded ordinance is a common sight. Many residents who were there speak of chemical weapons, napalm, cluster bombs and phosphorous used by the Americans. These are all illegal weapons and considered war crimes by the international community.
Many of the houses were fired, meaning that the troops burned them down after searching them. Many houses with white flags and markings stating "Family Here" were destroyed.
Some families who had nowhere to go stayed in the city during the fighting and have paid dearly. I interviewed many people who were there and their stories will live forever in my mind. Here are somesamples:·
A mother whose son was killed by DU shells. He was in his bed sleeping when the shells came through the walls.·
A father who at 65 years of age was shot during a raid of his house, whose son was arrested during that raid and has not been seen since (he states that his son was not a fighter.)·
A 17 year old girl who hid under her bed with her 13 year old brother during a raid of her house and witnessed her father, her cousin, and her two sisters 18 and 19 years old, all shot to death. She hid for three more days with the dead bodies of her family and then they returned and shot her and her brother after finding them under the bed. Her brother died. She survived and told me her story.·
A Family of ten who lived through all the fighting. The kids were 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 12. They were a mess. These kids will never be ok. Their faces were marked with open and oozing sores and they were exhibiting serious signs of emotional damage.
There is presently very little medical aid available to the residents and refugees, and again, no aid has been provided to the refugees in the surrounding area. The medical centers in the city have been destroyed and have not been rebuilt. The main hospital has been reopened, but to get there you have to walk, as the ambulances are still being shot by the Americans and the Iraqi National Guard.
The doctors have been beaten and their lives have been threatened by the Iraqi National Guard. These are the security forces that the Americans are training. The new government has warned them not to talk to any journalists about the conditions in Falluja. They understand this threat to be very real and a direct threat on their lives and the lives of their families.
To walk to the hospital you must go through checkpoints, sometimes through fighting, and only at certain daylight hours. The checkpoints are manned by the Iraqi National Guards and they are very hostile to the residents of Falluja. When we were at the hospital, an old man died of a heart attack because he was not allowed through the checkpoint. A woman gave birth in the ambulance because they would not let the ambulance back to the hospital after 5 pm and instead turned it away with her in labor.
We delivered by hand the medical aid provided by some of you to the hospital in Falluja. Me and one Iraqi woman, WE were the international medical aid to Falluja. We carried these boxes one at a time through the checkpoints, across the bridge and into the hospital. They would not let us drive in, we had to walk these boxes in. We did it every day for a week, one box at a time.All of the people I talked to had messages to the American people.
They said:
"We did not attack you! We have done nothing to the Americans. Why have you done this to us?"These are the people who hosted me, fed me, and worried about my safety. They took care of me and I will never forget their generosity, compassion and grace. They want peace with America and they want the fighting to stop. They feel they are the ones being attacked and that the Americans are the terrorists. They see absolutely no justification for this war and were constantly asking me to explain how the American people can support these acts against a civilian population.
For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American.There are so many more stories to tell you and I will be making a film about it all. But for now, what I want you to know is that I spent two weeks in the heart of the beast. The place where our government and media said is the heart of the resistance, terrorists, and Saddam Loyalists, and guess what; the place is full of people. People like you and me. Kids are everywhere.
The average Fallujan family has 10 people in it. That means about 8 kids. 500,000 people in the city, you do the math. That is a lot of kids.There are fighters in Falluja. That is a fact. But they are surrounded by some 490,000 innocent people. As a country, we have decided the damage to the innocents is worth the end result, whatever that may be. These people are being shattered by this very serious situation that they have no control over. They are the innocent victims of this war.
I cannot tell you what to do. This is a story of just one area in Iraq. These stories are all over the area we call the Sunni Triangle. But I was there and lived with these people and they taught me about love, forgiveness, truth and compassion.
They, after all that has happened to them, still have the ability to differentiate between the acts of an enemy and the people of a nation. They cry out to us to save them from the ignorance that has brought this destruction on them. They have suffered 33 times 9/11.
Over 100, 000 Iraqis have died at the hands of the American invasion (note 2) and still they say that they have nothing against the American people. This is grace. I learned from these people how to find peace. By deeply listening to my "enemy" I have found that the real enemy is ignorance and fear and acting from that place of weakness.
I will never forget the people of Falluja. Thank you for listening to them.
www.conceptionmedia.net1. http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/du.htm ,http://www.sundayherald.com/325222. http://progressivetrail.org/articles/041029Cole.shtmlCopyright: Mark Manning all rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit, or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8407.htm
This is that which agrees with the final reality of what our nations leaders are doing…and what, in our silence we support.
Pride and arrogance precede every downfall.
The USA's Tragic Withdrawal From the Rule of Law: Pentagon Confirms Unilateral Pre-emptive Strikes Are Now U.S. Policy
By Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D., 03/24/05 "ICH" - -
The Pentagon has released a new strategic plan that explicitly endorses unilateral preemptive strikes.
[1] This is yet another indication that the Bush administration is dramatically accelerating away from longstanding doctrines that are upheld by both general international law and seemingly-important transatlantic coalitions like NATO.
[2] Alarmingly, this plan also equates respected international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court, with ... terrorism. According to this sentence from the Pentagon's new strategic plan, the Pax Americana Imperium's overwhelming military and economic strength somehow is being "challenged" by "a strategy of the weak": "Our strength as a nation state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak focusing on international fora, judicial processes and terror."
[3] The entire world must be wondering WHY the Pentagon's wildly-irrational language conflates diplomatic and legal challenges to US policy in international forums with terrorism? It's bad enough that the scofflaw Bush administration has resorted to grossly mischaracterizing Western civilization's time-honored international conflict-resolution methods as "challenges" which MUST BE DETERRED AS A MATTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY. Nevertheless, it gets even worse. During a Pentagon news conference on 3-18-05, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith removed all doubt about the fascistic nature of these new policies when he clarified points from the document, titled "The National Defense Strategy of the United States of America." Quote the wild-eyed Feith: "There are various actors around the world that are looking to attack or constrain the United States, and they are going to find creative ways to do that, that are not the obvious conventional military attacks.... We need to think broadly about diplomatic lines of attack, legal lines of attack, all kinds of asymmetric warfare that various actors can use to try to constrain, shape our behavior."
[4] Consider Mr. Feith's absurdly-hypermilitarized Orwellian conflations, which are either criminally stupid or deliberately evil:
(1) he defames diplomacy and adjudication by unjustly conflating them with insidious methods of "attack"; and
(2) he inexplicably conflates any "actor" -- whether individual, group, or national -- who contends that America must honor its treaty obligations with "asymmetric warfare" against the USA, despite the fact that duly-ratified treaties are "the supreme law of the land" under Article VI of the United States Constitution! So ... let's see if we've finally gotten our new national-security policy straight:
A) the Bush administration declares that it has a unique "right" to engage in a legally-standard less "preemptive/preventive" war against anyone, anywhere, anytime, even if it merely feels subjectively threatened by the theoretical possibility that it might be "attacked" at some undefined place in the indefinite future;
AND B) any diplomatic or legal disagreement with the USA under international law is going to be construed as such an "attack" -- indeed, as a form of "asymmetric warfare";
ERGO C) the Bushites will inflict "preemptive/preventive" war upon any nation that attempts to "attack" the USA through a cheeky act of diplomacy or adjudication under the rule of law, which is henceforth deemed to be the substantive equivalent of an act of terrorism! Overarching Conclusions: Who's Guarding The Guardians? It says a great deal -- but nothing good -- about the USA's mainstream media that this Pentagon document and Mr. Feith's laughable-yet-fascistic clarifications were not subjected to intense questioning during the news conference, and to scathing journalistic criticism thereafter. Moreover, the Pentagon's outrageously-regressive strategic plan underscores the fact that Mr. Bush has chosen NOT to hold dysfunctional neocons, like Messrs. Feith and Rumsfeld, accountable WITHIN the rule of law. Rather, he's chosen to grant the neocons a second-term stranglehold over his national-security policy, evidently so they can withdraw the USA from the rule of international law BEFORE they begin another propaganda campaign for his next petro-state conquest. Furthermore, it's worth noting in this context that Untergrüppensführer Feith is:
1) the DoD's third-ranking civilian official, behind Rummy and Wolfe, who is primarily responsible for formulating new national-security policies;
2) the DoD official who was directly responsible for the shadowy "Office for Special Plans" -- an ultrasecret propaganda unit inside the Pentagon that concocted pre-war "intelligence" about Iraq's phantom WMD arsenals and nonexistent ties to al-Qaeda -- and who, for purposes of plausible denial,
disbanded the OSP after the invasion [5]; and
3) a longtime militarist, war-profiteer, and fundamentalist Zionist who has numerous ulterior motives for both withdrawing the USA from the rule of law and promoting wars of aggression against Islamic nations in the Middle East.
[6] The Bottom Line: Neofascism In Our Name? Americans ought to be asking themselves:
(A) whether we really want the Pentagon to be implementing its fascistic "national security" policies IN OUR NAME; and
(B) if NOT, why aren't we then creating a firestorm of public protest in opposition to these lunatic-fringe policies? Finally, you'll find more evidence, in endnote
#7 below, which proves, when taken as a whole, that the Bushites are withdrawing the USA from the overarching rule of international law because they regard it as a necessary precondition for more wars of aggression against petro-states like Iran, and then maybe Venezuela.
[7] ENDNOTES
1. John Hendren's 3-19-05 CD/LAT article, "Pentagon: Unilateral, Preemptive Strikes Now US Policy": http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0319-01.htm
2. A. Nicholas Davies' 12-31-04 OJ essay, "The Crime of War: From Nüremberg to Fallujah": http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/123104Davies/123104davies.html B. TJSL Professor Marjorie Cohn's 11-9-04 TO essay, "Aggressive War: Supreme International Crime": http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110904A.shtml
3. John Lumpkin's 3-19-05 CHB/AP article, "Terrorism Report Decries 'Strategy Of The Weak'": http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_6428.shtml
4. Lumpkin, ibid.
5. A. Julian Borger's 7-17-03 GU special report, "The Spies Who Pushed for War": http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html B. Right Web's 2-11-04 special report, "Office Of Special Plans": http://rightweb.irc-online.org/govt/osp.php
6. Right Web's 9-3-04 special report, "Douglas Feith": http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/feith/feith.php
7. A. Jim Lobe's 3-11-05 CD/IPS article, "Bush's Unipolar World View Re-Affirmed" [Significant trends in Mr. Bush's second-term appointments -- like naming neocons John Bolton as his UN Ambassador and then Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank -- confirm both his unipolar worldview and his ongoing intention to pursue a unilateralist national-security policy that will be centered around "preemptive war."]: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0311-0
8.htm B. Evan Augustine Peterson III's 3-13-05 TPV essay, "US Withdraws From The Rule Of Law: Now Death-Row Foreigners Can't File International Appeals": http://liberty.hypermart.net/voices/2005/print/US_Withdraws_From_The_Rule_Of_L aw_Now_Death-Row_Foreigners_Cant_File_International_Appeals.htm C. Michael Leavitt's 3-14-05 FL essay, "Is the Bush Administration Repudiating International Law?" [Concludes that his titular question must be answered "yes."]: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/leavitt/20050314.html D. Tom Turnipseed's 3-15-05 CD essay, "A Scofflaw In The White House: Undermining Respect For Law" [Among other salient points, lists the many international conventions from which the Bushites have withdrawn the USA.]: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0315-25.htm E. Ray McGovern's 3-2-05 CD/TD essay, "Attacking Iraq: I Know It Sounds Crazy But..." [Explains the neocrazy groupthink under which the Bushites operate their Mideastern policy and why it's likely to manifest in war during their second term.]: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0302-31.htm F. Fabiola Sanchez's 3-16-05 USAT/AP article, "Chavez Followers Get Paramilitary Training": http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-16-venezuela-chavez_x.htm G. Stuart Munckton's 3-20-05 GLW essay, "Venezuela: Bush's Next Oil War?": http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/619/619p17.htm H. Davidson Loehr's 11-7-04 ICH essay, "Living Under Fascism": http://207.44.245.159/article7478.htm Author: Evan Augustine Peterson III, J.D., is the Executive Director of the American Center for International Law ("ACIL").
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You decide...we...the people!!!
posted by hugh lipsius at 4:23 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Hugh, it's Julie here.
I took a few minutes to look over your blog and this article really caught my eye. I am in agreement with your ideas and beliefs. We've already established that, but I know very few people who are aware of the damage this Country has done to Iraq! The DU used in the War on Iraq is destined to decimate the population of this Country and leave it desolate for...well, ETERNITY! 4.5 billion years is a LONG TIME!! The spewing forth of lies from this Government ("ours") regarding the WMD that the Iraqi's supposedly had. Then, they turn around and USE THEM ON THE CIVILIANS OF IRAQ!! I try not to get angry. I try to keep Faith and Hope. But the evil that this Regime is perpetrating upon the World. Well, this is what my S/O and I discuss often: That ALL people are the same. If you cut us, we all bleed red! No matter the color, nation or level of wealth, everyone has feelings and we are all human. The problem is that the Powerful come to believe that a certain Nation or Race of people are sub-human, and then they feel vindicated in their evil!! They can wage war on them, destroy the women and children and the entire county's infra-structure, and feel that they are "right" in doing so! I do not understand such evil and hatred...and I sincerely hope that I never do!! For that would make me one with them in their hatred and fear!
I hope that those of us who know the Truth and have the Light can continue to shed that light on enough people to maybe WAKE THEM UP!! I know that God is in control, but I never saw a passage in the Bible that stated one is to sit idly by and allow evil to flourish!! Turn the other cheek is NOT pacivity!! Not in the sense of, as I stated, allowing evil men to prosper and conquer using fear, and not speak out!
I have been very openly rejecting this Regime for months! I have been banned from AOL's message boards and have had my e-mail and my home spied on! Jim worries at times that I have made myself a target. I do not worry, for I fear the wrath of God more than man!! Plus, I know what will happen to me when I die! I, too, have stood on the precipice of Hell. And I have been THROUGH Hell! And I don't care to ever experience anything like it again! The fear...THE TERROR! Only in Jesus have I found peace, and I am not afraid to speak up about it, either! If the President declares his Martial Law; And the New Gestapo come for me, I only pray for the strength to stand strong in my Faith and never, ever give in!!! I pray the same for you and all of my brothers and sisters in Christ!!
Thank you for having the heart to print the truth!!
May God continue to Bless you,
Julie AKA Jewels
The only thing we have to temper our anger...which Satan desires we own by the fear He spreads in order to develp our pride... is hope in the promises of love and faith in the God who made them ...everything else...anger, frustration, hate, judgementalism, condemnation, fear, doubt, are all from the same source...these things morphasize from one to another and are not the unchangable attributes of God, but are the deceits and lies of the devil.
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