Here's What's Being Said

Here's What's Being Said

The United States cannot turn back now. It has set itself on a path of no return. - Having stored up so many enemies, the bully must now remain forever a bully to ensure his own survival.

By: M.N. Dean

05/14/03: America has been hijacked by an evil and corrupt administration. The Bush administration has used the country as a weapon of mass destruction. All civilized and intellectual beings know only too well, that the Muslim populations they have encountered, and despite Bush's lies, the Muslims are a good, honest and peaceful people. Bush is using lies, racism and religion to persecute and kill innocent people and to rape and steal their countries.

We live in a world full of differences and those differences must be accepted, embraced and learned from, not used against one another. Bush and Blair have isolated themselves and their countries from the world and peace. They have also isolated themselves within their respective countries.

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Richard Perle etc, are members of a vile neo- conservative group: Project for a New American Century (PNAC). They have targeted Iraq for its oil fields and Middle East location to fund and support future theatres of war against the Middle East and Asia. They have a hit list, written in the mid-1990s, that includes Syria, Libya, Iran, North Korea and many others.

This agenda regrettably was not stopped in Iraq. And one should not support occupation, with troops in Iraq, we must support the innocent and the intelligent -- not the evil doers who are slaughtering them or the ill advised, and some say, idiots who support the Bush administration. The Middle East must have our heart and our prayers.

Governments have always masked brute self-interest with moral purpose, of course. But much blatant hypocrisy has done much to undermine the international goodwill that America garnered in the first months after the twin towers, particularly in the Arab world.

In a deeper sense, self-deceit also corrupts one's intentions and one's self. The fact is that the coalition didn't send troops to Afghanistan to stop women being made to wear the burqa. They sent them to remove a regime that was harbouring a group that had launched a vile and bloody attack on civilians in America.

Once that was achieved, the great plans for the rebuilding of Afghanistan have been let quietly slip from the table. It is difficult to imagine anything, but the same would happen now that Saddam Hussein has been removed. The US oil companies would be given the oil concessions and the future of Iraqi society would be pushed into the "not our responsibility" tray

The US have won the war in Iraq if indeed it can be called that, instead of premeditated genocide but its stocks in the market place of public opinion on the international stage has sustained irreparable harm. The US will never be the same after this bloody demonstration of arrogance.

It has choices however. It can genuflect before the world and seek forgiveness or it has to show that it will discard the more Zionist than even Israel, image of America. It has to show the World, or while still holding on to its big stick or, it could continue on its natural path to become the world bully, the righter of wrongs, the evangelical purveyor of the Anglo Saxon way, the ordained kingdom.

The United States cannot turn back now. It has set itself on a path of no return. All bullies at some stage recognise that a lifetime of offensive behaviour can become boring. The problem is, the bully cannot afford to affect the behaviour of the pacifist or, he will be taken out very quickly. Having stored up so many enemies, the bully must now remain forever a bully to ensure his own survival. Pretty soon America will become the biggest threat to world peace. Perhaps. It already is.

With all the talk of the US warmongers about liberating Iraq and rebuilding it, let us be reminded, about the US objectives in rebuilding Afghanistan after the end of the campaign in November 2001. The objectives were; Education, Health, Sanitation facilities, Enhancement of administrative capacity, Development of Agricultural sectors and Rebuilding of Roads, Energy and Telecommunication links.

What has happened since? Zilch. Afghanistan is still the country with much less than a GNP per capita of US$800, a literacy rate of 36% and a life expectancy at birth of 47 years. Following the trendsetter Bush, to quote from Professor AfnanFaxan ,universityof Jeddah, in his article in the "Arab News" Quote ( as recently as April 10, during a pro-war demonstration in New York, Gov. Pataki told a cheering crowd: "The war started here on Sept. 11, 2001." Like President Bush, Pataki is just one of countless US officials busy justifying the invasion of Iraq and promoting the lie that the Iraqis were responsible for the death of 3,000 people in the World Trade Centre. Nobody mentions Osama Bin Laden anymore. Nobody mentions the fact that half the population of southern Iraq will die from cancers linked to the use of US uranium-tipped shells and missiles. Nobody mentions the chaos, lawlessness, looting and torching prevalent in post-war Iraq under US leadership and occupation.

What these politicians are doing is basically denying the relevance of morality in politics and preaching the Machiavellian self-serving doctrine of the "end justifies the means." The logic is it's good to destroy and kill and maim thousands of civilians if it means getting rid of their leader who never actually attacked you but could possibly think of doing so in a distant future; it's good to leave millions of people without water, power, food, sanitation or security just as long as you bring American democracy to the region. The last time I checked the American Heritage Dictionary, Machiavellian was an ugly word suggestive of deceit, cunning and expediency. It will continue to be ugly, even if American dictionary compilers decide to change the hard-core meaning of the word and impose a new definition.) Unquote

In effect, the ongoing looting and torching of museums, libraries, universities, schools, hospitals and other cultural and civic institutions in Iraq is not an attempt at regime change but at culture change. By stripping the Iraqi people of their collective heritage and destroying their ancient Mesopotamian roots, the Bush administration thinks it can recreate Iraq from scratch, reshape and remould its proud and nationalistic people and turn them into a nation of illiterates, thieves, cutthroats, and informants who willingly accept US occupation and Zionist hegemony. The Iraqis are well aware of these vindictive intentions. This is what the director of Iraq's National Library had to say to Los Angeles Times about the American-led destruction of Iraq: "They burned the history of this country. Now we are standing here beginning from zero. Our memory is destroyed."

Just think of the irony. When deadly tornadoes ravaged the four-block-long business district in Pierce City, Mo., last weekend, one devastated business owner had this to say to a visibly shaken Missouri Gov. Bob Holden: "How can we save this? This town is 130 years old and you just don't find this anymore." Yes, 130 years is definitely tragic, but at least the Missouri twister was an unpreventable natural disaster. Can anyone begin to imagine or comprehend how Iraqis must feel at the deliberate man-made destruction of thousands and thousands of years of their history and spectacular culture?

Where did US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld get his creative ideas of culture destruction and culture change? Probably while he was sifting through the history books at the Pentagon trying to find a creative way to contain the Iraqi threat to Israel. He probably hit upon the Third Punic war in 146 BC when the Romans physically destroyed and occupied what is today known as Tunisia and founded a new city of Carthage _ a Roman one. They called it the province of "Africa" _ a name that was eventually used to refer to the entire continent. In the same manner, by destroying Iraq and looting its cultural heritage, Rumsfeld thinks that the US can create the new American province of Iraq and ultimately rename and repopulate the entire Middle East.

At the heart of this diabolical plan to culture-change Iraq professor Faxan states, are the evangelical Christians of Samaritan Purse and the Southern Baptist Convention, who form a large part of Bush's electoral base and who are deeply pro-Israel. Why on earth are these Islam phobic missionaries now camped in Jordan waiting to swoop like vultures into Iraq? The answer is simple. They're there to confiscate what they perceive to be biblical land, retrieve it from the hands of the heathens and terrorists and triumphantly claim it for Christendom. This is what the Reverend Franklin Graham wrote in his book ("The Name") published last year: "The God of Islam is not the God of Christian faith_ The two are as different as lightness and darkness." Richard Land, the chairman of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, had this to say: "The reason most evangelicals support Israel is that we believe in the bible."

Again to quote from Professor Faxan (Quote) "By and large, the first eleven chapters of Genesis are set in southern Iraq, in the land of Shinar or Babylonia, Including the cities of Babel, Uruk, and Akkad. The cities of northern Iraq, Nimrod and Nineveh, is also part of Judeo-Christian heritage, just as they are integral to Arab and Muslim traditions. Till today, well-preserved remains of all these cities can be seen in Iraq and there's the rub. Can religious extremists in the US and Israel afford to ignore such a goldmine of archaeological treasures? It's no wonder that many Christian-Zionist missionaries have already started settling with the Kurds of northern Iraq, insisting that Jewish Kurds who migrated to Israel in 1948 must now be repatriated and given a voice in the interim government. In short, these evangelists believe that God gave the land of Iraq, indeed all the lands of Arabia from the Nile to the Euphrates, to the Jews forever. To them, the invasion of Iraq consecrated "the victory of the Cross over the Crescent," to quote a famous line said by the French General, Henri Gouraud, as he kicked Saladin's tomb after the fall of Damascus in July 1920.

Tragically, this crusader mentality is today prevalent in the White House. Just listen to the same venomous words of Michael Leedon, a senior adviser to Bush, who is perhaps the most vocal and violent of Bush's evangelist team: "God willing, Judgment day is coming to the Middle East." Let us not forget that Hulegu's army included Christian soldiers from Armenia and Georgia sent by King Bohemond of Antioch-Tripoli and King Hethum I of Armenia, who both wanted to liberate Christian holy places from the Muslim "infidels". An estimated 800,000 Muslims were massacred by the Mongols in February 1258; Christians and Jews were fortunately spared since Hulegu's wife, Dokuz, and his chief general, Kitbugha, were both Christians. Like today's neoconservative advisers to Bush, these two confidantes saw the destruction of Baghdad as a fulfilment of biblical prophecy heralding the Day of Judgment. The pleasant irony of course is that the Mongol conquerors themselves converted to Islam in less than a century after their invasion." (unquote)

It is also quite telling that Jay Garner, pro-Likud American viceroy of Iraq and close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has set up permanent camp in biblical Ur, the reputed birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, where excavations in the 1920s and 1930s had yielded a great temple complex as well as royal tombs packed with sacrificed servants and gold treasures rivalling the riches of Tutankhamen. His choice of location is foreboding; it foreshadows the inevitable expulsion of Iraqi civilians and their replacement with Israeli settlers and missionaries like Franklin Graham. He has already started repopulating not only Ur but also the city of Qurna, believed to be the Garden of Eden, the mythic place where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join and where the ancient Eucalyptus known as Adam's tree stands as a symbol of paradise on earth. This city revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike is now home to the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment. In addition, the US State Department has organized and funded the Eden Again project, headed by a group of American geologists who hope to restore the Garden of Eden and to populate the city with people they refer to as "refugees and Westernised Iraqi exiles." The same destiny awaits the fabled ancient cities of Uruk, Nineveh, Nimrod, Babylon, and many other medieval Muslim villages in the western reaches of Baghdad now abandoned by their inhabitants. In the marshland of Uruk (from which the modern name of Iraq is derived), Western archaeologists have now cordoned off what they believe to be the lost grave of Iraq's King Gilgamesh, the hero of the world's oldest epic poem recounting a devastating flood which has been linked to the story of Noah's Ark. They hope to unearth Gilgamesh's grave next year if and when the political situation allows. Just wait until you see wildcat settlements or giant armour-plated D9 Israeli bulldozers roaming the streets of Uruk, Ur and other ancient cities of Iraq looking for lucrative sites to excavate or demolish. Surely then George Bush and Jay Garner wouldn't be able to masquerade as the Good Samaritans. Or would they?

This war reeks of Israeli revenge and the coming months and years will see Iraq turning into a grotesque mirror-image of occupied Jerusalem or the West Bank and Gaza _ replete with the confiscation of land and revenue, the mass detention of civilians, the demolition of homes, the door-to-door searches, the roadblocks and 24-hour curfews. Even the very language and terminology of US Marines is becoming jarringly like that of the Israeli Defence Forces. Mark Franchetti in The Times recounts the words of US Marines who had just machine-gunned 15 civilian vehicles at a roadblock in Nassiriya. Here is Corporal Ryan Dupre venting the same hatred and spewing the same vindictive analogies as the Israelis: "The Iraqis are sick people and we are the chemotherapy. I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I get hold of a friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill him."

Just think. While we were watching the bereavement, the wailing, the mourning and the funeral processions in Iraq, a callous Colin Powell was addressing a cheering AIPAC crowd of ecstatic Zionists. In a theatrical delivery, he told his pro-war Jewish audience what they wanted to hear. This war will make Israel "safe" and "secure," he exclaimed in a rising crescendo, not forgetting to add the White House cliché "Let there be no doubt about the outcome. We will drive Saddam Hussein out." Was this the appropriate time and place to hold such a radical war rally? Watching him perform that night in front of this ultra-radical group chillingly explained why he was fighting so hard to discredit UN weapon inspectors and to stop the process of inspections in Iraq by any means possible even to the extent of presenting forged documents of Iraqi uranium procurement.

Obviously, the Arabs and Muslims have been duped into thinking that America's first black secretary of state is inherently good and peace loving. They should have known better. Even in 1991, when he was questioned about the number of Iraqis killed in the Gulf War, Powell replied: "It's really not a number I am terribly interested in." Well, Mr. Powell better be interested this time round, because many people all over the world are counting the death toll and sooner or later he will be charged with legitimising the mass murder of Iraqi civilians. Undoubtedly, there will be a day of reckoning as Bush predicts, but this time it will be the turn of Bush and his war Cabinet. Clearly the major objective of this war is not to liberate the people of Iraq; they hardly count in the equation. The military goal is simply to destroy the country first, obliterate Iraqi culture next and then try to coerce the natives into accepting subjugation and invasion. Sharon is closely watching how his old friend Jay Garner establishes his rule and culture-changes Iraq from enemy to closest friend and ally. Seeing that President Bush wants to democratise Iraq and the rest of the Arab world, shouldn't he have asked the Iraqis first whether they want to be liberated? Why not hold elections? Let's vote and see how many Iraqis want Tommy Franks or retired Gen. Jay Garner as their governor. There's no use pretending that President Bush is a saviour who wants to liberate the Iraqis. In Iraqi eyes, he is not. And while we're at democratisation, why not hold global elections to see how many people want President Bush to be the "leader of the free world," as his Zionist supporters now introduce him.

Egged on by radical Zionists, Bush has legitimised everything that was once thought to be in violation of common laws of decency and morality: Pre-emption, invasion, assassination, regime change, culture change, wanton destruction, mass detention, torture and the use of brutal overwhelming force. But history has shown us what befalls people who perpetrate such crimes.

If we examine it dispassionately we will come to the conclusion that America has a natural affinity for waging war against non-white countries. Lest we forget, we must remind ourselves that America, that bastion of freedom, Christianity, Capitalism and televangelists is the only country to have used atomic bombs on another country. Not only did the United States drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945, but three days later when the Japanese were still dazed over that 'shock and awe', the Americans dropped another one on Nagasaki.

World opinion gained exponential traction against this war but, we as a World failed to prevent it. Pretty soon the American public will come to realise the error of their ways in electing (?) a president who has always sounded like a high school dropout rather than an Ivy League graduate. Pretty soon the US population will wake up to the realisation that other people in disparate parts of this globe whether they be black, yellow, mottled or cross- hatched, are very similar to the typical individual on Wall Street.

As his Top Gun fantasy last week made only too obvious, Mr Bush enormously enjoys playing soldier -- especially when the situation permits him to order others (blacks and poor-whites, mainly, meaning those whom Mr Bush's scary, to note, fiscal policies are destined to turn into un-persons in the New America) to go out and do the killing and the getting killed, while, in preparation for his carrier landing, Perhaps, he takes ditching lessons in the White House swimming pool.

There was a time when patriotic Americans from both parties would have denounced any president who tried to take political advantage of his role as commander-in-chief. But that, it seems, was another country.' a long time ago. The American, in the street has got to be roused out of his slumber, we pray, to recognise the world as a True global village, with links not only of economic aspirations, but also pain, blood, tears and sweat, the harder it will be for them to create home-grown despots with power to bring about chaos in this world.

The Iraqis do not want a foreigner to rule them, especially when they see the Americans exporting their oil, while they go hungry. Nor, are the Iraqi 's sure, America has a truly "Made in America" brand of democracy for export to Iraq. America has got to first legitimately elect Presidents!

Everyone knows, Americans count in the World as hardworking, Industrious and Compassionate and loved. It's the present Administration that came into power under questionable terms that is causing America to be known as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.

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