Are We Being Screwed by our Elected World Governments?

"Our" democratically elected governments are the result of the "intelligent manipulations of the organized habits and opinions of the masses, which are an important element in a democratic society", and the manipulators constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power in our country. During the First World War, our American tobacco industry hired Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, to send an army into the bloodbath of Europe. In his book, 'Propaganda' he developed the concept of public relations as a euphemism for the manipulation of the American masses. In 1954, he conjured a communist menace in Guatemala as an excuse for overthrowing the democratically elected government of that country, calling his devious act: "public relations". The American tobacco industry hired Bernays to convince women that they should smoke in public, calling cigarettes: "Torches of Freedom". Manipulating public opinion can be fun: According to President Barack Obama, because our TV screens are filled images of the last US combat troops crossing into Kuweit, we are led to believe that the Iraq war has ended, though in fact our soldiers are still there, and at least 50,000 troops will continue to operate from 94 bases. American air assaults are unchanged, as are assassinations by our Special Forces. Military contractors, who earn a lot more money than our soldiers, are currently 100,000 and rising. Most Iraqi oil is now under direct foreign control. In fact, there is no "victory" of any sort. There is, in fact, a catastrophic disacter, and attempts to present it otherwise are merely a model of Bernays' clever manipulations of television sound-bytes. Don't trust the American Media or Obama! They all work for the same lying propaganda machine.
Please click on my heading, to read the full story of our "government's manipulation machine". You can't cay you haven't been warned!

Obama's Iraq Speech: An Exercise in Cowardice and Deceit

According to Author Bill Van Auken, President Barack Obama's nationally televised speech from the White House Oval Office Tuesday night was an exercise in cowardice and deceit. It was deceitful to the people of our United States and the entire world in its characterization of the criminal war against Iraq. The groveling address could inspire only disgust and contempt among those who viewed it. Obama, who had presented himself as a "peace" president to our war-weary nation, used his status as president to glorify war, and the misery with which our great country had burdened the Iraqi people and our American military, which owes its existence to the American search for peace. Obama's double-talk about troop withdrawals was rhetoric befitting a military-ruled banana republic or a fascist state. Those who serve in our military do so voluntarily to help guard a world at peace for the volunteer soldiers and their progeny, and not to steal the resources of other nations for the benefit of mega-rich oil companies. Obama's Administration has no intention of ending our military presence in Iraq, but continues to build permanent bases, as the former Bush Administration had intended, in order to enrich mega-billion oil companies. After destroying the homes of ordinary Iraqi citizens as well as the infrastructure of that country, Obama reneged on his promise to remove our army from that country, and instead leave our army there to ensure that fifty thousand combat troops would remain in order to blackmail the Iraqi people into relinquishing their country's resources for the robber barons of this world. President Bush had launched a war against the Iraqi people in order to steal their oil for mega-billion corporations, and now we have sanctioned his outrage of laying waste to the Iraqi infrastructure by George W's invasion! SHAME, Mr. President!!!
Please click on my heading to read the entire well-written article by Bill Van Auken on Information Clearing House.

USS Liberty Survivor Threatened by Unknown Israeli

As I documented in a recent posting, I was the Intelligence Operations Officer of our 4th US Armored Division in Germany, when our so-called "Allies", the Israelis, decided to sink our Intelligence Gathering Ship, the USS Liberty. Many sailors died as a result of the treachery of our so-called Israeli "Allies". Since I was near our teletype, I was the first person to receive the bad news. Colonel Aantero Aakkula, our Intelligence Officer ordered me to run the information to General Scherrer, the commander of our division. Almost out of breath after the many stairs to his office upstairs, I handed the sad news to the General's Aide. General Scherrer looked up briefly, before he glanced at me again, and commented: "With the Israelis as our allies, we have no need for other ruthless enemies!" So now, one of these murderers of our sailors, a decorated war hero and survivor of the Israeli attack on our ship, is verbally threatened by a foreign national claiming to work for the government of Israel. Despite being subjected to threats over the years, Tourney has refused to remain silent concerning the attack on his ship and the subsequent cover-up. These threats have included middle-of the night night phone calls, where the names of his children and grandchildren have been read aloud, and he has heard what sounded like guns being fired a few inches from the phone's receiver. More recently, there were two occasions when the lug nuts on both of his trucks were loosened, resulting in both vehicles being totaled in crashes. Why do we still support the Israelis, when they feel empowered to kill those who survived their treachery so many years ago?
Please click on my heading to read the full story of Israeli treachery toward our great country at the American Free Press!

Is there Something Rotten in America?

When William Shakespeare, the great Playwright in our English language, wanted to make a point about the corruption in his country, he used the analogy of a ghost walking the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark, as a warning of all of those who could see and hear him, explaining to his listeners to be extremely careful about all they could see and hear. Please bear with me while I provide a similar warning about those who believe mistakenly that the alleged dramatic release of Wikileaks, to warn our citizens about the meaning of Wikileaks' "Revelation". In fact, were these leaks a warning at all, but only another method to obfuscate what WE are doing in Afghanistan: The latest "coup" allegedly involved leaks of thousands of pages of supposedly sensitive documents regarding US informers within the "Taliban" in Afghanistan and their ties to senior people linked to Pakistan's ISI military intelligence. As a former Intelligence Operations Officer of our 4th US Armored Division in Germany, I immediately smelled a "rat". The "release" was merely calculated disinformation to obfuscate the REAL events in Afghanistan: The one figure most prominently mentioned, General Hamid Gul, former head of the Pakistani military intelligence agency, ISI, is the man who during the 1980's coordinated the CIA-financed Mujahideen guerilla war in Afghanistan against the Soviet regime there. Gul is accused of regularly meeting Al Qaeda and Taliban, and orchestrating suicide attacks against NATO forces in the war zone. Please check rense.com, and read the entire fraudulently "leaked" story, as reported by F. William Engdahl. Though the premise is false, the story is still very good reading!

Robert Scheer: Two Wars Don't Make a Right!!

Most of my friends, especially those who served with me in Vietnam, are completely disgusted with Obama's attempt to put the best face on the ignominious US occupation of Iraq. What Obama and his henchmen might consider a well done card trick - has not gone down well among those Iraqi's who lost their homes and their places of work. The lies that empowered George W. Bush to invade Iraq represent an enduring stain on the reputation of American democracy. Our much-vaunted system of checks and balances failed to temper the mendacity of the president who acted like a king and got away with it. As Robert Scheer so aptly reported, it is utter nonsense for Obama, who in the past has made clear his belief that the Bush administration's case for this war was a web of lies, now states boldly and deceptively: "The United States has paid a huge price, simply to assuage the arrogance of a president that was unfettered by the restraints of common sense expected in a functioning democracy. Particularly shameful was the betrayal by the Congress and the mass media of the obligations to challenge a president who exploited post-9/11 fears to go to war with a nation that had nothing whatsoever to do with that attack. Now, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Americans are dead and maimed, at a cost of $3 trillion to American taxpayers, and our Imperial adventure has left Iraq in a horrible mess, controlled by a corrupt and deeply divided elite that shows no serious inclination to effectively govern. Thanks to you, Mr. President, the price in shattered lives and dollars will continue, as Iraq remains haunted by ethnic and religious conflict that WE did so much to provoke.
Please check truthdig.com Robert Scheer's excellent report, posted on Sep 1, 201o, about the dismal incompetence about our two most recent presidents!

Those who object to a mosque near ground zero are a bunch of MORONS!

I don't give a damn what your faith is: According to our "Constitution", we are all equal under our law: Not the one pumped by our idiotic news media, but the hallowed treasure which separates most of us from the rest of our troubled world. Anyway, that's the one I, and my Advisory Teams fought for, and a few of us failed to return from that conflict without our limbs entirely intact.
But I digress: After my reasonably unspectacular return from that terrible war zone, and seeing one Chinese Adviser killed just a few feet in front of me: I did a lot of thinking. What are we REALLY fighting for? My wonderful black Sergeant, and Medic knew the answer: We are here, as always, to help each other survive for another day. I have no idea what you perceive a medic's job to be, but after a lot of bullets disturb the tranquility of your mission, he is the one who stitches your wounds, and does so under fire, so that you have at least an even chance to survive that particular mission, and so that you can earn your meager salary as an Advisory Team Leader. In that capacity, you have a lot of people counting on you: The tribesmen in your AO (Area of Operations), your team, and the assholes who want you to recover, and do it all over again. Please forgive my ramblings, but that is what war is REALLY all about.

Our Country's Sins in Iraq

After our 20 year occupation, while stationing 50,000 soldiers, 18,000 mercenaries, and 84,000 support contractors in massive and permanent military bases in Iraq, Barack Obama has certainly not deserved his "Nobel Peace" prize. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, who lived from 1833 to 1896, a brilliant chemist, inventor, and philanthropist, established the peace prize since he apparently felt guilty for his invention of dynamite. A few years later, in 1867, he produced ballistite, one of the first smokeless powders. At the time of his death, he controlled factories for the manufacture of explosives in various parts of the world. His will provided that the major portion of his $9,2oo,000 estate be set up as a fund to establish yearly prizes for merit in physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, literature, and world peace. After his death, a prize in economics was also awarded from his fund. Nobel specifically stated that money should only be awarded to those persons who shall have contributed most materially to the benefit of mankind during the year immediately preceding. Having corresponded with many of the readers of my blog, I am ABSOLUTELY certain that not a single one of these would have considered a president who appears to enjoy stirring up wars for our troubled planet as a worthy recipient of Nobel's legacy! As Mr. Dees, Jeff Rense's illustrator commented at the time of the award: "Nobel Peace Prize with Oil Change". As they say here in the American South: "NUFF SAID"!!

The Withdrawal of US Troops from Afghanistan in June 2011 is Impossible

That is the sad news from US defense officials, who allege that there is a "misunderstanding" in comprehending a "complex, nuanced" message from Obama. There "may be"the "beginning" of a "withdrawal" starting in July, but in fact, the word "withdrawal" itself may not even be "optimal".
Indeed, US officials "prefer" to speak about the "process" and "transition", rather than "withdrawal". As all of our US citizens, who are not totally brain-dead are certainly aware, this carefully worded adventure in "double-speak" is par for the course for our current deceptive US administration, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already stated that there is NO precise date for the withdrawal of the US contingent from Afghanistan at all. Gates told ABC news: "Draw downs" early on will be of 'fairly' limited numbers, and will 'depend on the conditions on the ground'. Analyst Lisa Curtis at the Heritage Foundation believes that setting the pull-out date on July 2011 was a mistake (like the vote to elect Obama as President). President Karzai is one of those who will joyfully welcome our departure: Many of the 'Blackwater soldiers' have looted his country, and otherwise created a serious hardship for his Afghan people.

Difficult Life Awaits Returning American Soldiers

As thousands of American troops prepare to return from a war zone, many will wind up homeless. In San Diego, California, thousands of vets from the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars are sleeping on the streets. According to RT (Russia Today), Navy Veteran Brian Little, who has been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome since his discharge, he has not been able to find work in his city, so he has now become suicidal. A female veteran, Pamela Brisson, who has been taking care of her 9-year old son, Chris, "A lot of people really don't know what to expect or where to go to get the help they need." She served in Afghanistan and has been homeless for two years. The largest growing population of homeless women in San Diego consists of veterans returning from current combats, according to those who operate shelters in that city. Her son has been able to maintain straight A's, even while bouncing around from shelter to shelter, and often sleeping on the street. Brisson admits it is easy to become discouraged when our government doesn't want to help. According to our federal government, help is NOT on the way! SHAME!!!

Obama Must Dismantle America's Empire: America's Last Best Hope.

According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our costly empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas US territories. "We" deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In Japan , at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 people connected to US military forces living and working there - 49,364 members of our armed services, 45,753 dependent family members, and 4,178 civilian employees. Some 13,975 of these were crowded into the small island of Okinawa, the largest concentration of foreign troops anywhere in Japan. These massive concentrations of military power outside the United States are NOT needed for our defense. They are, if anything, a prime contributor to our numerous conflicts with other countries, and they are also unimaginably expensive. According to Anita Dancs, an analyst for the website Foreign Policy in Focus, our United States spends approximately $250 billion each year maintaining its global military presence. The sole purpose of these expenditures is to gain control over as many nations on our planet as possible. Like the British at the end of World War II, we are desperately trying to shore up an empire that we never needed, and can no longer afford.
Please check Chalmers Johnson's new book: Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope, from Metropolitan Books, 2010.