Omnipotent Power?
By: Kirwan
When will our obsession with oil begin to translate into human
blood?
How much longer can this situation be tolerated?
Secretary Powell,
formerly General Powell has told the United Nations recently on more
than one occasion: "Iraq is a country the size of California, and
we can't possibly be expected to locate all their weapons of mass
destruction, unless they tell us where everything is." And now
this: "thousands of helicopter-borne troops and paratroopers would
be flown deep into Iraq to seize oilfields, dams and banned weapons, and
advance as far as Baghdad on day one of fighting." according to
Pentagon officials. Wow! That's an awesome military plan considering
that we've been telling the world just how dangerous these Iraqi's
are-so dangerous in fact that we are willing to risk starting World War
III just to contain the massive threat to world peace that Iraq
supposedly represents.
Mr. Powell seems to have forgotten his basic knowledge of the
vulnerabilities that go with oil wells and oil fields. Having grown up
with roughnecks, on the fringes of the oil fields in Oklahoma I see some
huge holes in the Pentagon's pronouncements. Oil fields and oil wells
are extremely vulnerable to things like missiles and bombs; even
grenades and rifle bullets can wreak havoc. Saddam has had many months
if not years to plant explosives into the cogs of those wellheads, and
rather than let them fall into our hands, he would most likely destroy
them himself.
Is the Pentagon seriously trying to tell the world that we can invade a
country "the size of California" and seize all its oil fields,
and defang all its weapons of mass destruction within 24 hours? http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/14/1044927804208.html
Now that's a serious ego problem, and a blatant lie. But since the USA
really doesn't want to conquer an Iraq without its oil fields - what
else can they promise?
This is the ultimate aphrodisiac for a gullible public that wants to
have a bloodless war-a videogame-that provides the world with an
immediate gratification, without the horror or the realities of a real
war. At the very least this war will not be televised - No. This coming
'war' will be managed by Dick Cheney, who was the Secretary of Offense
during the first Gulf War. In 1991 the US media was blindfolded, gagged
and generally held hostage to US military censors. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4604952,00.html
These people are dreaming - but what the Bush Cadre of Outlaws are
dreaming of in reality, is the stuff of literal nightmares for the rest
of the civilized world. It is past time for the world to demand full
press coverage of whatever happens in Iraq. "Full": meaning
uncensored and complete coverage of the victories and the defeats, the
actual successful 'hits' and the heart-rending murderous slaughter of
helpless civilians. Someone needs to tell Dick Cheney that his
fastidiously obscene "reining in" of the media for pure
political advantage, is a crime of the highest order. If what the USA is
planning to do to Iraq is of such importance for the literal survival of
the free world - then show us all, in real time footage, all that can be
seen of what we will do to those 22 million Iraqis. If we won't do that,
then the USA should stay the hell out of that country.
This new American obsession with Security and Secrecy at all costs, is
the first step toward complete corruption of both our national agenda,
and the freedom and viability of the rest of the people on this planet.
Either there is "just cause," and we want the whole world to
see why this ferocious action was necessary-or-we have everything to
hide, because everything that we've been telling the world about the
dangers of Iraq is a lie. Powell and his henchmen cannot have it both
ways.
Bush and Powell and Rumsfeld and Cheney have been telling every mass
gathering of troops that they address, about the wonders of our
invincibility. Yet none of these self-appointed leaders will dare to
hold an open news conference, because they fear the questions of a
concerned public: a public that Is now global in its concern for the
lives that are about to be lost in this dangerous and unnecessary
"adventure."
If our cause is so righteous, and our purposes so noble - then why not
answer a few questions without hiding behind 'national security?'
Look at the pitiful
state of nation when it comes to our 'security status.' Duct tape and
plastic-the 1950s are over Mr. Ridge! Our protection in the world has
always been our way of life. And that used to be able to be seen through
our foreign policy towards the rest of the world. Bush changed all that
with his 'hit first and talk later' policies, both at home and abroad.
Powell speaks about his professional life as a diplomat; that's never
been the case. Colin Powell is a military man - a general, nothing more.
Pinning a paper hat over his helmet won't make Powell diplomatic because
he is and always will be an advocate of force.
The USA is in danger now, no question. But that danger comes directly
from our foreign policies, and political decisions that have been taken
at the highest levels of this nation. http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030209-020607-8252r
The world knows it; the sentient beings in the United States know it.
The days of the Bush Administration as a controlling force in the US are
numbered. The reason for their coming departure rests on their
hopelessly inept policies, their bankrupt and irrational use of force,
and perhaps most of all on the lies, the deceptions, and the arrogance
with which they have tried to bully the world into accepting American
hegemony in all things and in every area of life around the plant.
This administration is using a double standard. We have said that one of
the most dangerous thoughts for the world is of Iraq being able to use
its bio-chemical weapons of mass destruction. And yet the United States
is proposing to do just that in our own coming attack on Iraq.
http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr070203.html
Rumsfeld has also issued several statements about our "need"
to use nuclear weapons in defeating heavily fortified bunkers in Iraq.
The Department of Defense has informed congress: "nuclear weapons
in the US arsenal are no longer to be kept separate from other
weaponry." In other words-we will use nukes whenever some commander
thinks that it might speed the conclusion of a battle. So now we're
officially going to "win the battles and lose the war."
Because what we'll leave behind on the land will stay there for more
years than people have been on the earth to date. So what's the point?
We've been told that this war is necessary to rescue our economy.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It's not "our
economy" that's in trouble; it's our worldview and our total
ineptitude with governance that is at the core of this problem. The
government has spent hundreds of billions on weapons and military
contractors, while letting the entire infrastructure of the nation go
straight to hell. We're approaching trillions for war while slashing
even subsistence payments to the states and to all federal programs. We
don't have a country anymore; all we have is an enclave of capitalistic
pirates who want nothing less than to militarily steal the world.
What is needed now is a spotlight on the truth. This political game of
conspiracy and secrecy and paranoia has been crawling through the sewers
of the capital since the 1970s when Cheney and Rumsfeld got their
ignoble start in the Ford administration. It's way past time that their
careers should be taken before congress - where they should be tried for
their efforts to pervert the Constitution while enriching themselves in
the bargain.
This is a pivotal moment in the life of this nation and for the
viability of the world. These amateurs must be removed from authority or
that Orwellian nightmare of theirs will replace what we all call daily
life. We've been told: "everything in America has now changed since
9-11." That's not true. What has changed is that this
administration has become so entrenched in their paranoiac grab for
global power - that indeed this nation is about to become the permanent
target of choice for the wholeworld. That need NOT happen.
If the United States removed these imitation political figures from
office, and resumed a conciliatory and constructive role in world
affairs, then the path to war might evaporate. In fact the most
dangerous thing the US could do now - is exactly what Bush wants to do;
namely to prosecute a flagrantly unwarranted war in the Middle East.
Bush has destroyed whatever good will the US had with so many nations,
that it's almost as if that had been his purpose from the beginning.
When that belligerence is combined with his total disregard for any of
his responsibilities to the average Americans who are paying for His
"dreams of global supremacy" - the resulting fiasco has
obviously only just begun!
Where is Congress in all this? Congress was the same inept body that
allowed the image on the gravestone to become reality. The two-party
system is a joke, and their non-performance since 2000 is beneath
contempt. The major sell-out of Congress to the corporate capitalists is
what got us into this 'Catch 22.' .A pox on both their houses - but then
what's left? The USA has been deceased for a very long time. Maybe now
it's the time for this dying nation to just lie down - and let the truth
come out. Bush is determined to have his war, with or without the
consent of the people. But to massacre hundreds of thousands if not
millions in the process - that's not something that we have any right to
do - no
matter what we choose to call it.
When you look past the borders of the USA - then you can see that real
events are coming. There will be a regime change here - but when it
comes - it may be dictated by the fury of the mob - and not the noble
speeches of elected representatives: it's "what happens"
whenever political leaders over reach their grasp - and that's exactly
what the current bunch of imposters have been trying to do. What will
count in the end is what each of us will have tried to do. Whether we
succeed as a nation or not - whatever will happen - will happen because
the ordinary people of this country chose to either get involved or to
abstain.
Kirwan is an independent freelance writer and illustrator, who lives and
works in the United States. He can be reached at:
kirwanstudios@earthlink.net
