I’ve mentioned the planned coup against FDR before, but it’s worth revisiting especially since I found another site about it.
Society
18
Aug 02
Hypocrisy
Back when Saddam Hussein was ‘our guy’ we backed his use of chemical weapons against Iran. Isn’t this hypocritical in light of the way the US Government is trying to portray Hussein as a menace?
And now, the more sedate, calculating, war-mongering Republicans, people like Brent Scowcroft and Henry Kissinger are coming out against the Bush Jr. invasion of Iraq. Scowcroft and Kissinger are advising a containment policy towards Iraq rather than a war. This will avoid the messy subjects of Kurdish independence and the discovery of US weapons sold to Hussein while justifying a continued American presence in the region. These are the same reasons Bush Sr. left Hussein during the last charade. With Hussein gone they would have had to find a new justification for the American buildup in the Mideast.
17
Aug 02
Military finding it hard to recruit
Smart kids. Great news. From the Seattle Times:
- WASHINGTON — Despite a threefold increase in advertising in recent years, efforts by the U.S. military to bolster its recruitment ranks are bearing little fruit, a study released yesterday says.
Why on earth would you want to work for some militaristic bureaucracy? Most of us have higher hopes. As the US no longer fights to defend itself, a ‘job’ in the military no longer has honor nor deserves respect.
15
Aug 02
What is populism?
Based on the Hicks definition of populism, it can therefore be stated that there are two fundamental propositions of conservatism:
(1) That government should stand aside and not protect the poor and the needy from exploitation by the rich and the greedy; and
(2) That in order to accomplish the first proposition, government must be plutocratic instead of democratic.
America’s corrupt system of legalized bribery to fund its public elections makes our system of government a plutocracy. Plutocracy simply means government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. But America’s particular brand of plutocracy is even more insidious to freedom and justice than a simple plutocracy. That’s because it’s not just based on power and privilege for the rich–it’s based on power and privilege for the corporate rich. That’s why I call the American system of government “corpocracy.” The conservative ideology supports and reinforces America’s corpocracy the same way the communist ideology supported that of the Soviet Union for over 70 years. It also employs the same propaganda techniques to fool the people.
The purpose of any ideology is to stop people from thinking. When people buy into an ideology, they have checked their brains at the door. They accept a package of beliefs based on the wrapping of the package rather than by examining the contents. That is what the conservative ideology seeks to accomplish–to get people to stop thinking, and to persuade them to accept the complete package without ever opening it and examining the contents. And it’s why people need to understand more about the conservative ideology in order to protect themselves and their interests from it, as well as to protect the interests of society as a whole.
15
Aug 02
Your tax dollars at work..killing civilians
War in Afghanistan: A $28 Billion Racket. Old story, but nice mention of Smedley Butler among other things:
In 1919 Joseph Schumpteter described ancient Rome in a way that sounds eerily like the United States in 2002.
“There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the interests were not Roman, they were those of Rome’s allies; and if Rome had no allies, the allies would be invented. When it was utterly impossible to contrive such an interest — why, then it was the national honor that had been insulted. The fight was always invested with an aura of legality. Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbours…The whole world was pervaded by a host of enemies, it was manifestly Rome’s duty to guard against their indubitably aggressive designs.”
Ring any bells?
“There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack.” Is there any known corner of the world the United States does not claim to have a vital strategic interest in, which it must aggressively safeguard?
“Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbours.” And the United States, Washington assures us, is always under threat from evil-minded countries. Today, the threat is said to come from “the axis of evil.”
11
Aug 02
Hope Always Dies Last
Finally, a spot of potentially good news. The Mirror had an article, BUSH STANCE ON IRAQ CRUMBLING, which described the widespread lack of support for an invasion of Iraq. Maybe untold thousands won’t be killed for oil after all. If that’s true it would be a rare and fleeting victory for peace.
10
Aug 02
Well, Duh
Experts say ‘terror’ threat overblown. From UPI:
Parachini believes that the White House’s declaration of war against the terrorists can lead to policy abuses.
“I think that as a tool, war can justify a lot of activities, but there needs to be a recognition that this isn’t a war like World War II, World War I or even Vietnam,” he said. “It is a ‘war,’ in quotes, in the same sense that we have a war on crime or drugs. You can’t ever reduce the risk to zero, that is impossible.”
Congleton believes that the declaration of war may lead the government to overstep societal boundaries with unwarranted “drastic new domestic policies,” given the potential threat.
10
Aug 02
Some fun history: The Order of the Assassins
The Order of Assassins was a branch of the Ismaili sect of Islam, founded by Hassan ibn Sabbah (The Old Man of the Mountain). In 1090, the hill fortress of Alamut was constructed by Hassan in central Persia, and several other forts were built in the hills of that country. Although they were heavily persecuted, pressure on other Muslim states from first the Crusaders and then the Mongols (along with the obligatory program of political assassination), saved the Assassins from destruction. The Assassins expanded into Syria, often cooperating with the Christians against local Muslim rulers. The Mongols pushed the Assassins out of Persia in 1256. The Order survived in Syria until 1272, when the Mamluk Sultan Baybars destroyed their last stronghold. (Footnotes to history) …
Hassan’s devoted followers were prepared to follow his orders unquestioningly, even when this would result in their own certain deaths. He frequently sent them on missions to kill hostile princes, the generals of armies sent to oppose him, and anyone else of whom he disapproved. His fanatical, highly-trained and highly-disciplined killers would blend with the enemy population disguished as merchants or soldiers, awaiting their opportunity. They would then sneak into their target’s encampment or palace, and dispatch him with their long daggers. They were known as Hashishin from their habit of smoking hashish, either to generate visions of paradise or to give themselves courage before their (usually fatal) missions. This is the origin of the English word “assassin”.
10
Aug 02
American Machiavellianism: ‘The Grand Strategy’ to take the Mideast
The Pentagon participated in a pretty disturbing briefing on Saudi Arabia. It shows a little of what’s going on in the Mideast that no one is talking about. The real reasons behind the march to war on Iraq. From Slate’s The PowerPoint That Rocked the Pentagon:
Diplomatic china rattled in Washington and cracked in Riyadh yesterday when the Washington Post published a story about a briefing given to a Pentagon advisory group last month. The briefing declared Saudi Arabia an enemy of the United States and advocated that the United States invade the country, seize its oil fields, and confiscate its financial assets unless the Saudis stop supporting the anti-Western terror network.
I understood most of the presentation, but can you explain the final slide:
- Grand strategy for the Middle
- Iraq is the tactical pivot
- Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot
- Egypt the prize
East
Why those three things and why is Egypt the prize?