Hope for Civilization Still Remains
The UK daily, Independent, brings together the utterances of the architects of the ill-fated Iraq war, which itself was a result of the PNAC . The PNAC was the wet dream of power-drunk unprincipled "intellectuals". The efforts of bloggers and the Internet have been painful for Rumsfeld and company, and his brilliant plan to embed and co-opt the MSM. The MSM has been literally forced to catch up and utter some half-truths due to the pressures of the Internet-based accessed to blogs, first-hand information and the Arab media.
It should now be our effort to keep nipping at these "intellectuals", especially Fukuyama, the shameless "end-of-historian", who have still not bowed their heads in shame. At the same time, support the tireless work of academics and writers who have been bludgeoned into silence.
Similarly, it is up to bloggers to force a change in the monetary policy of the US, and the resulting pressures on world trade that keeps the world silent. The merchants have co-opted our governments and the press, but they cannot silence us. So, while we can take a pat on the back for having some effect, the work is far from done: the goal being a world of respect and peace for all, with sustainable prosperity equally shared, and the single-minded pursuit of reason to solve our problems. It is a unique opportunity.
So, finally, enjoy these quotes:
William Buckley Jnr
INFLUENTIAL CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST AND TV PUNDIT
'One can't doubt the objective in Iraq has failed ... Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an army of 130,000 Americans. Different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgement of defeat.'
Francis Fukuyama
AUTHOR AND LONG-TERM ADVOCATE OF TOPPLING SADDAM
'By invading Iraq, the Bush administration created a self-fulfilling prophecy: Iraq has now replaced Afghanistan as a magnet, a training ground and an operational base for jihadists, with plenty of American targets to shoot at.'
Richard Perle
ARCH-WARMONGER AND PIVOTAL REPUBLICAN HAWK
'The military campaign and its political aftermath were both passionately debated within the Bush administration. It got the war right and the aftermath wrong We should have understood that we needed Iraqi partners.'
Andrew Sullivan
PROMINENT COMMENTATOR AND INFLUENTIAL BLOGGER
'The world has learnt a tough lesson, and it has been a lot tougher for those tens of thousands of dead, innocent Iraqis ... than for a few humiliated pundits. The correct response is not more spin but a sense of shame and sorrow.'
George Will
RIGHT-WING COLUMNIST ON 'THE WASHINGTON POST' AND TV PUNDIT
'Almost three years after the invasion, it is still not certain whether, or in what sense, Iraq is a nation. And after two elections and a referendum on the constitution, Iraq barely has a government.'
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, March 09, 2006
15 Comments:
A summary:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article350104.ece
Channel 4 in UK showed "Road to Guantanamo", in theatres and DVD tomorrow.
brilliant opening akber! thx.
blog on!
re the guantanamo movie, you can download it here
Hey Akber! Great post! Yes, there's a lot of work to do. But, we cannot and must not confine ourselves to the internet.
Every day, I make it a point to educate at least two people I meet on the bus or on the train about the monetary system. On a good day, I sometimes have the opportunity to speak to 4 people; which is pretty good, really.
Almost without exception, everyone I speak to is not only surprised by the information I impart on them, but they are also genuinely grateful, which is an added bonus (the main goal being to spread the truth).
I watched Road to Guantanamo last night.
It was a compelling film of the madness of US policy
Okay, I have read more about the situation, and Christopher Hitchens makes eminent sense.
http://www.slate.com/id/2137560/
Furthermore, I love Andrew Sullivan, and I am pleased he finally has admit he was wrong about Iraq.
After reading up on the situation about Iran, I think the Russian plan simply makes sense.
We'll see what happens.
P.S.:
Akber,
You and I may disagree on things (and less than you thnink), but I always enjoy reading what you have to say. I just wanted to state that, for the record.
I actually generally agree that runaway interest is bleeding society dry, that the monetary system needs to be overhauled, and that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have accomplished nothing but badness. I realize that this may shock many people when reading that, but they are my thoughts nonetheless. :-p
you know at first i didn't get it. why would these people "apologize?" then i thought hold on, this feigned contriteness, this faux mea culpa is there to ensure us that "we won't make tne same second twice, so if you back us up on iran we'll get the job done and done right."
and kurt nimmo posted this:
In Stuart Rosenberg’s classic film, Cool Hand Luke, Strother Martin, playing the Captain of Road Prison 36, tells Luke Jackson, played by Paul Newman: “What we have here is… failure to communicate.” As I read the news this morning, I am reminded of the film and this memorable line. Rupert Cornwell, writing for the Independent, tells us “the neo-conservatives who sold the United States on this disastrous war are starting to utter three small words. We were wrong.” Cornwell cites the examples of William Buckley, Andrew Sullivan (described as “an influential commentator and blogmeister”), the “patrician conservative columnist” George Will, Francis Fukuyama, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the disgusting William Kristol, all who apparently have second thoughts about the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Cornwell seems satisfied these neocon icons, actually little more than common criminals with expensive educations, have admitted they were “wrong” and have accepted “realistic Wilsonianism,” in the words of Fukuyama, or as Cornwell pegs it, neo-realism. “And if that brings a smile to the face of a certain former US high priest of realism with a pronounced German accent, who can blame him?” Cornwell concludes, apparently making reference to the Leo Strauss, the late student of Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger, the former exploited by the Nazis and the latter having collaborated with them directly.
[snip]
t is foolish to consider all of this a “mistake,” an unintended result of the over-zealousness on the part of a few “neoconservatives” who are in fact neo-Jacobins, murderous radicals, as Professor Claes Ryn and Paul Craig Roberts note. “More dangerous an enemy of the US and its traditional values than Muslims, neo-Jacobins have seized control of the Bush presidency and US foreign policy. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goal of World War IV in the Middle East,” Roberts warns. “The neo-Jacobins are rushing to get America involved in a general Middle Eastern war before Americans have time to think. The terrorist scare which worked the first time is being employed again. Once we have attacked other sovereign Islamic countries, we will have to bring back the draft in order to raise the necessary armies or resort to nuclear weapons…. If the American public falls for the second round of neo-Jacobin propaganda [in the current context, against Iran], neither do they deserve, nor will they have, liberty and democracy.”
In fact, we are well on our way to a Straussian hierarchical dictatorship in America. Once the opponents are dealt with, either rounded up and forced into Halliburton constructed concentration camps or slaughtered outright, the Straussians will construct their nihilistic paradise of pseudo-masculinity based on a chicken hawk war ethos, i.e., the bamboozled masses will be used as cannon fodder.
Not unlike Orwell’s dystopian world, the New America of Straussian fascism and total war will be unrecognizable to those of us who dream of resurrecting a constitutional republic based on a classical liberalism so reviled by the Straussian neocons, who we are told simply made “mistakes” and now wish to repent, or at least explain themselves. Of course, this fake and criminal contriteness is simply more deception, as one of the primary tenets of Straussian fascism is deception, a tactic used to great effect by Hitler and Nazis. Unfortunately, if we don’t get our act together and soon, America will suffer the same consequences of Nazi Germany, or more likely a consequence far worse.
* * * * *
so, you see. now rumsfeld's "long war" (planned by the very same nihilistic coterie) makes sense. they're going to fix the whole middle east.
syria and iran are "terrorist funding regimes" and the "terrorists" they fund happen to be in the palestine and iraq."
iran's next.
Andrew Sullivan has very little influence in the GOP. He voted for Kerry. He also is a gay libertarian conservative Catholic from England who believes in a liberal social policy that the conservatives balk at.
His blog is great. He highlights moderate Muslims at every chance he gets, while having no tolerance for intolerance, even in the name of religion.
He has not stated a stance on Iran one way or another, as far as I can see. he simply is wary of the situation.
I cannot speak for the rest, as I do not read their blogs or writings on a daily basis.
I can say that Christopher Hitchens wrote an eloquent and very persuasive article against war in Iran that certainly swayed my opinion.
Miss R,
The relentless pursuit of reason, in the Jeffersonian style, was the founding of the US. Even if we disagree, we can use reason to find the human biases that make us disagree and then apply reason to those biases - it will ultimately boil down to instinctive tribalism I am sure.
JC,
I think the reference was to Kissinger (heavy German accent). I found a PDF of Kissinger's meeting (just declassified) that shows the mind-boggling contempt for the UN and Resolution 242.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/73docs/octwar-63.pdf
Regarding the effect of US monetary policy around the world, I am thinking on the following lines:
1. After WWII, UK tried to keep ex-colonies on a strict cross-country policy; France achieved it (Central African Franc); while US FED and IMF undermined the UK efforts - invoking patriotism to get rid of colonial currency boards etc.
2. The size of many countries is too small to ever be politically viable in the 21st century. Catching up is starting with China, India, Russia, and is expected to continue with Pakistan, Iran . . . in declining population and resources. The sheer technical expertise required to run the modern financial system is impossible for smaller countries. For example, Africa should be four zones.
3. Regional alliances - at least at the currency level - are now a requirement for survival and the surest way to undermine the dollar. EU is gone - ASEAN is going soon with a single currency. South Asia is far off, Gulf countries are thinking about it, and Africa is still lost.
4. With the UN being co-opted since its inception, this is one area where NGOs can work to try to raise these pint-sized countries above petty differences and into a self-sufficient currency zones.
5. Without this, the US continues to buy influence in these countries by sending printed dollars as aid, while rebuffing them in agricultural deals or in the UN.
6. This is of course based on the premise that no group of humans is evil or incompetent or racially inferior.
7. It is the international clout of the dollar, backed by the "intangible" military strength capable of stealing world resources that is the real "de facto" backing of the US dollar. Soon, it will outstrip the value of all the resources of the world. More self-sufficient currency zones is the only way to a semblace of financial self-control in poor parts of the world. Going off the gold standard to the "full faith and credit of the US" necessitates military build-up and deployment all over the world to increase the "faith and credit of the US". Warren Buffet, in his recent letter, substantiated everything he stated except ONE: the US is rich and expected to get richer (silence).
Please enlighten me further on this, or if this line of reasoning is worth pursuing and makes sense.
Akber,
You mentioned the gold standard, so I do have a question for you...
What is the worth of gold, anyway?
Isn't that rather arbitrary?
Think about it. It's simply shiny metal. Does it tuck you in at night? Does it keep you wrm when it is cold outside? Can it love you and give you a hug when you need it?
Gold itself is worthless, except as a tool that helps industrial machinery. Humans have arbitrarily decided they like gold, but it has no intrinsic value.
The only things with intrinsic value are human life, shelter, warmth, food, sanitary conditions, good health care, mobility of citizens to connect with one another, material that enriches the mind and spirit, and those appliances/gizmos that enable this to happen. Everything else is as worthless as pieces of paper.
Miss R,
Gold is an easily-subdivisible commodity. You are right, it can be substituted by other similar tangible commodity like silver or platinum etc.
However, bringing intangibles (credit and faith of the US) into the picture leads us to protect the fragile system of intangibles with military force, dehumanization, resource theft, etc.
The current international financial system does work, but it is fragile (as the Asian collapse of a few years ago showed). It also separates the real business environment from the financial sector (banks making profits during a recession) and monetary policy is then purely arbitrary. On 9/11, massive infusions of liquidity by the Europeans were required to keep the system afloat.
The crash may never come, or it may happen this year, but the intangibles-based framework is fragile. At the end of the day, no merchant is going to give me a loaf of bread for a hug or my faith or my reputation. The ever-exotic market of currencies and hedge funds and derivatives and monetary aggregates hit the rubber at some point - and that is tangible wealth.
The other problem is that unless the system is run by a world government and the world is multi-polar, the financial system will be the first to be cut off when the US or China or USSR embark on the next belligerent campaign.
The floating currencies have created immense wealth and also immense poverty - and the time period of the growing gap and floating currency is very similar. How? I don't know yet, but there is something that is making the world miserable at the times of record billionaires.
Akber,
You raise good points. These are questions I have been floating around in my head for quite some time.
Money is a psychological fiction. We choose to accept it because we were born into a reality in which the dollar means something. All I am saying is that gold is also a fiction.
Ultimately, we need a monetary system that is backed by something of worth. That is where the Ithaca Hour makes sense. (go see the link on this page's link bar)
It's a revolutionary and yet obvious concept - back up the dollar by units of labor. Because our labor is the only thing we have that really is worth anything.
I agree with Miss r, here. But, something like that can only be implemented on a local basis with fixed exchange rates for international trade. Lyndon Larouche and others have proposed sound solutions for the crisis.
Regarding the coincidence you mention akber, there is of course a causal relationship between billionaires and poor people. Billionaires make their billions off the backs of poor people, through the fraud of the monetary system.
jc, I think you're right, they're trying to gain credibility before going for Iran's jugular.
QRS,
Something else to think about.
I know scores of people (myself included) whose job mostly consists of being a cubicle monkey. We sit in front of the computer all day...not accomplishing a hell of a lot, compared to the skills we have.
MEANWHILE, workers are factories have their job cut...while "office monkeys" get pay raises.
We need to have a definition of what "units of labor" are, and the appropriate valuation for labor, because as of right now, those who work the hardest get paid the least.
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