Book Review: “The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert” by Ron Ridenour

Ron Ridenour’s masterfully-written indictment of U.S. militarism and its take-all-prisoners imperial project is of such breathtaking scope and astonishing depth, it would be hard to exaggerate its value and timeliness, as the foreign policy of the Empire of Chaos now as never before in recorded history, steers the world toward apocalyptic confrontation and puts the survival of the entire human race at risk.

Those readers still in the embrace of the most toxic pile of propaganda ever assembled by a world power, that America is a force of good, spreading democracy, defending human rights, standing with the oppressed and marginalized, should have medics in the room with them to apply emergency procedures as the truth pours off the pages of this book.  Ridenour pulls no punches and with meticulous research and documentation, leaves little doubt that his narrative offers nothing less than the explicit and savage truth of over a century of exploits and exploitation.  We see brutal, barbaric, merciless application of military and economic power, with the clear and unambiguous goal of world domination — the U.S. as the ultimate empire blessed by God and history and the Fates, exempt from the rules of international law and judgment by anyone who would challenge it.  While the focus is Russia, this book covers a lot more ground, offering glimpses into many theaters of confrontation and conflict: China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, of course the Middle East, as well as many countries in its more immediate sphere of influence, Central and South America.  With its 800+ bases currently sprawling across the planet, we’re hard-pressed to find anywhere where the heavy foot of American power does not exercise its self-serving prerogative.

Those readers who already are familiar with the scope of U.S. hypocrisy, who understand that behind the smiley face of official beneficence and goodness lies an agenda that serves a ruling elite at the expense of the vast number of everyday citizens, both inside the U.S. and out, will still benefit enormously from this book.  Much of it might constitute a refresher course, but I suspect many, myself included, will be pleasantly — or unpleasantly — rewarded with both disturbing factual knowledge and Ridenour’s fresh insights and analysis.  It may be for such readers “preaching to the choir” but I’ve never heard a choir that didn’t need to be tuned up from time to time.

Ridenour quotes “The Naked Human”, a poem written by Gustav Munch-Petersen.

I am only a human
but I shall one day
raise earth’s mountains
and let them shake
in the ears of those who sleep

I am only a human
but I shall one day
take the sun down from heaven
and light up all the dark holes
with merciless white light

I am only a human
but I shall one day
steal the gods lightning
and sweep the earth clean of dust

If I may do some metaphorical borrowing, I’d say that with The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert Ron Ridenour has raised some mountains, taken the sun down from heaven, and stolen lightning from the gods.  Let’s hope his exceptional scholarship and writing wakes up some people, lights up the dark holes, and sweeps away the dust.
Our survival as a species depends on it.


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



Book Review: “The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert” by Ron Ridenour

Is this really happening?

I've avoided writing very much about the presidential election.  I know I'm in a very tiny minority, many of whom are housed in large buildings with locked doors and bars on the windows.  But I really see it as an entertaining distraction, a three-ring circus, keeping us all enthralled and on the edge of our seats, while out in the parking lot they are stripping our cars of anything that can be fenced to pawn brokers, body shops and used-tire dealers.

So while the photo at the head of this article would seem to suggest otherwise, I'm not going to add to the big noxious cloud of vaporous analysis and shock-jock commentary about who is up, who is down, where is Bernie, who is Jill, can you find Waldo.

Instead I'm staying the course here, announcing my latest initiative, and doing so, risking adding even more evidence to my public file that I'm masochistic and delusional.

Yes . . . I'm at it again, giving it one more shot, attempting to drive home my message.

"What is that message?" you ask innocently -- your acting about as convincing as Obama on his visit to Hiroshima when he donned such a sad face and declared nuclear weapons a very bad thing, though he's spending another $1 trillion to upgrade our nuclear arsenal.

Come on!  You know my message!  I'm more of a broken record than Bernie Sanders.

 

Speaking of whom, isn't it amazing how easy it is to marginalize and destroy a good man?  A little voter fraud here, some media bias there, well-placed dollars to lock in the loyalty of super-delegates, the nauseating duplicity of "progressives" like President Obama and Elizabeth Warren, the nomination victory manufactured by the pundits, and BINGO!

Bye-bye, Bernie!

That's where things allegedly stand right now anyway.

But back to my message.  Which is built around this certainly vulgar but perhaps thought-provoking question:

WHO GIVES A FLYING FUCK?

Because . . . (brace yourselves, folks, here it comes again) . . . regardless of who ends up in the Oval Office . . . 

IT'S CONGRESS THAT MAKES THE LAWS!

So this time . . .

I'm reaching out to progressive congressional candidates!

Anyone out there who is running for the Senate or the House, anyone out there who knows someone who is running for the Senate or the House, or anyone out there who knows what the Senate and the House of Representatives do, please look at my new activist website:

NO CONTRACT NO VOTE!

I have proposed this approach in countless blogs, published articles, and in three books.

It is a methodology, a strategy, a powerful political device for WINNING ELECTIONS!

Ha ha ha!

"Winning elections?  Why would we want to win elections?"

If you have to ask, you might want to read this.

Anyway . . .

In my left-of-left, radical-revolutionary dreams -- or are they actually hallucinations? -- I imagine pink-slipping the current crop of corporate suck-ups, the pay-for-play political toadies, plutocratic lapdogs, flunky footmen for the rabidly rich, insatiable plunderers of our economy and destroyers of the American Dream, the sycophantic Yes-men of Wall Street looters and the too-big-too-jail banksters, the sniveling servants of crony-capitalists and ruthless kleptocrats pillaging our national wealth, the cynical complicit despoilers of democracy who are cravenly turning America into a Third World banana republic (if it's not completely obvious, I'm referring to the execrable frauds now serving in Congress), then replacing them with unselfish, committed, truly progressive public servants who honorably represent all of us, not just the rich and powerful.

And . . .

After completing my imagined shake-up of government and rooting out the corruption, installing a Congress of the people, by the people, for the people, a legislature serving the needs of all Americans, thereby assuring a healthy, safe, fulfilling, prosperous future for our children and our children's children -- YES! -- at this glorious juncture I see all of us, united, delirious, grateful-beyond-words, turning to one another and asking . . .

Is this really happening?



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Is this really happening?

Oratory as a Weapon of Mass Deception

 

I used to say President Obama is a great orator.

In retrospect, particularly in view of his speeches over the past two years, I would have to modify my appraisal: Mr. Obama is a mind-numbingly effective orator -- with major emphasis on 'mind-numbing' -- whose powers of persuasion are both awe-inspiring and reality-altering.

But great? I think not.

You see, great orators don't insult their audiences by lying and using their enormous gifts to wreak havoc on the world, demean other world leaders, and generally inflict listeners with self-serving propaganda.

Great orators ennoble, enlighten, inspire!

There is so much deception, obfuscation, manipulative innuendo, faulty logic, sheer raw hypocrisy in his recent U.N. speech, I could write volumes. But it's not worth your time or mine, since so many of the lies upon which he built this petty and self-aggrandizing show have been repeated with such relentless regularity, they are part of the accepted collective wisdom of both the American public and the government propaganda apparatus, aka the main stream media.

I'll just throw out a few comments.

"But we cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated. If that happens without consequence in Ukraine, it could happen to any nation gathered here today."

Like Yemen being bombed by the U.S.-supported tyrannical government of Saudi Arabia? Like Iraq? Or Libya? Or Afghanistan? Or any of the 30+ countries the U.S. has attacked or effected regime change by proxy?

Here's a real gem.

"It is not a conspiracy of U.S.-backed NGOs that expose corruption and raise the expectations of people around the globe; it’s technology, social media, and the irreducible desire of people everywhere to make their own choices about how they are governed."

Oh really? One of America's favorite 'NGOs' is the National Endowment for Democracy. First of all even calling it an NGO is a laugh. Everyone knows -- at least in the crowd I run with -- that the NED was created by the CIA and is funded by Congress. For some reason, whenever it shows up on the scene, countries become immersed in chaos and insurrection, with regime change soon to follow. The most recent victim of its handiwork is Ukraine, where it fomented the overthrow of the legitimate democratically-elected government, then installed a chocolate puppet doll to do the bidding of the U.S.

Here the President deftly conflated bragging and threats, as in, "See how we've messed up things for you, Russia? If you don't tow the line, you ain't seen nothing yet, baby!"

"Sanctions have led to capital flight, a contracting economy, a fallen ruble, and the emigration of more educated Russians."

Then, just when I though it was safe to stop gagging and listen further, I picked up on this.

"When a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people, that is not just a matter of one nation’s internal affairs — it breeds human suffering on an order of magnitude that affects us all."

Which is why we supplied chemical weapons to Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein in order to get the job done right back when he was one of our buddies? Which is why we overthrew the democratically-elected leader of Chile and replaced him with a brutal autocrat who then proceeded to kill tens of thousands of his people? Of course, I could go on with many more examples. But it's tedious and pointless, as hypocrisy is apparently now considered one of the great virtues in the Empire of Chaos.

"Assad reacted to peaceful protests by escalating repression and killing that, in turn, created the environment for the current strife."

Really? Is that the whole story? Or just the one the U.S. creates for its fairy tale version of every uprising it seeds and supports to overthrow governments it doesn't like?

Oh yes . . . about those crazy Muslims running around beheading people, driving tens of thousands to flee their native lands and seek refuge in Europe:

"We know that ISIL — which emerged out of the chaos of Iraq and Syria — depends on perpetual war to survive."

Like the U.S. military-industrial complex? Or the U.S. itself which can't stop bombing countries into complying with its dictates?



Credit where credit is due, however:  Our president did stumble into the truth a few times. Thus, here is absolutely my favorite quote from his speech . . .

"On this basis, we see some major powers assert themselves in ways that contravene international law. We see an erosion of the democratic principles and human rights that are fundamental to this institution’s mission; information is strictly controlled, the space for civil society restricted. We’re told that such retrenchment is required to beat back disorder; that it’s the only way to stamp out terrorism, or prevent foreign meddling."

. . . because it perfectly describes the United States of America, in particular the policies aggressively promoted by Mr. Obama himself.

---

Watch President Obama's entire speech and judge for yourself whether this man is ever capable of doing anything but creating a smokescreen for America's malfeasance in the world, its monomaniacal fixation with its power, its self-proclaimed right to lecture and dictate to others how the world should be run.

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

The Bully Pulpit vs. American Idol

I have long criticized Obama for not using the bully pulpit. When he had the vast majority of the country at his feet after his election in 2008, instead of laying out a positive vision for the country and leading the charge for rebuilding the nation, he embarked on a charm offensive directed at Wall Street, big banks, neoconservative empire builders, and became the Appeaser-In-Chief towards those responsible for the Afghanistan and Iraq disasters, a wink-and-nod apologist for the criminal bankers who crashed the economy in 2008, and a card-carrying member of the inside circle who continue to inflict our country with the fraudulent War on Terror.

It was all in the name of love __ the cuddly love Obama craved from the oligarchs, whose approval was more important to him than the enormous groundswell of support he had from the people. Remember them? The ones who have to work to make ends meet, the ones who see their kids off to school in the morning __ the same ones who flocked to the polls and elected our first black president, duped into thinking he was one of them, a man of the people with their best interests at heart.

In a fascinating analysis of Obama's presidency that appeared in Truthdig, author David Bromwich
discusses what a shallow and self-serving enterprise it has proved to be.

What an understatement.

There is no coherency to this president's policies. In a clear attempt to promote image as a substitute for substance and apparently with an insatiable desire to be loved by everyone, President Obama often fashions positions totally at odds with one another.

Protect the environment vs. drill baby drill.

World peace vs. bomb bomb bomb.

Individual freedom vs. the NDAA.

Jobs for Americans vs. TPP and TTIP.

To add insult to confusion, in critical areas of leadership, we see policies diametrically opposite to the high sounding and noble words of Obama's breathtaking rhetoric and crafted public image, offering inconsistencies, even outright hypocrisy and treachery.

You've got a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has become a drone assassin.

You've got an putative constitutional scholar who using his phenomenal intellectual gifts to trample on the Constitution, squashing dissent, and openly harassing journalists and undermining freedom of the press.

You've got a president who spoke eloquently during his first campaign about inclusive democracy and transparency in government __ promising to change the way Washington DC does business __ who has built upon the worst aspects of Bush's nascent police state and now oversees a vast growing domestic surveillance complex spying on its own citizens, who is classifying record volumes of government documents, restricting citizen access to the inner workings of our government, conducting questionable military adventures often in secret, fostering aggression against the express will of the American citizenry who are sick of war and the self-defeating politics of confrontation, and prosecuting well-meaning whistleblowers at an unprecedented rate.

You got the self-declared "environmental president" who refuses to even attend the Kyoto summits, who is promoting risky East Coast and Arctic drilling, nuclear power, fracking for natural gas, so called “clean coal”, and now boasts about America being the number one oil and gas producer in the world __ so much for concern about climate change.

You've got a man who offered the world the outstretched hand of peace in the first months of his presidency, who has since bombed his way into creating more enemies and hatred for America than ever before in our history.

But we get what we pay for. Obama is just another brand, like Cheerios and StarKist Tuna.

We wanted a great president. We got a rock star.

We desperately needed leadership. We got self-aggrandizement.

I will say this. Obama talks a good game. He is incredibly articulate. Charming. Funny. Always gives an Oscar level performance at all of his public outings.

And he is beautiful . . . his wife is beautiful . . . his family is beautiful!

But when presidential elections are run as beauty pageants, talent contest spectacles, when making history is just more reality TV, we can't expect real leadership. We can only expect a president who struts and works the audience, plays the judges, postures and poses for his fan base, puts on dazzling, crowd-pleasing shows, and soaks up the all the love he can get. We certainly can't expect thoughtful, principled stands on the vital issues, responding to the greater needs of the country and serving the general welfare of the public.

There's no business like show business.

And politics has become American Idol.

We no longer look for results. We look for good ratings.

What an epic disappointment. We certainly had high hopes, didn't we?

There is one thing I will concede. Who can deny it? . . .

He sure looks great in a suit and tie!


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

The ‘H’ Word

 

It used to be imprudent or just plain vulgar to say the 'F' word.

Now we just say it . . . fuck.

It's such common parlance, so acceptable, it's become the language of diplomacy,
as with the policy declaration by Deputy Secretary of State Victoria 'F**k the EU' Nuland about the crisis she and her neocon friends precipitated in the Ukraine. 

But I'll tell you a word we don't dare say anymore.

You know the one . . .

The 'H' word.

Sometimes it's written as 'h*pe' or 'ho*e'.

We used to actually use the word often. It was on everyone's lips.

 

But after President Obama __ or I should say Brand Obama __ and the
corporate lapdog Democrats made it central to their 2008 and 2012
campaigns, then turned it into both the brunt of cruel jokes and the
poisonous pill of despair, it became as popular as leprosy, not even
whispered anymore in polite company.

Who wants to cry in public?

They sure got us all wide-eyed and teary-eyed with all those 'H*pe and Change'
bumper stickers and campaign posters. People started believing things
would turn around and America would get back on track, after eight
tortuous years immersed in the stupidity, boorishness and arrogance of
George W.

Then this phalanx of feel-good experts and spin doctors responsible for the
propaganda juggernaut we experienced __  especially during the heady
days running up to the 2008 election __ took the faith and good will,
the higher aspirations of the American public and threw them in the
toilet, took several healthy dumps on our heartfelt desire to embrace
the American Dream. They even continue cynically to this day to peddle
fresh variants of their snide charm-offensive h*pe-and-change
trash-talk, assuming the public is none the wiser, and still thirsty for
the arsenic-spiked lemonade of their duplicity.

This is shameful on so many levels. After the horror of George W. and his band
of blatant liars, the ignorant, delusional, self-serving oligarchs who
mockingly led us into a false war, bankrupted the economy, reversed
fifty years of progress toward becoming a humane and sane society, we
had all but given up. Then the sun burst through the storm clouds of our
collective misery and revulsion. People were so engorged with h*pe,
many even heralded Obama as the new Messiah. Okay. Okay. That was over
the top. Yet not just America, but the entire world was at his feet,
expecting this man who spoke with such eloquence, such passion,
sincerity, intelligence, to deliver on the noble promises contained in
his books, Dreams From My Father and Audacity of Hope,
given in soaring oratorical performances at his campaign rallies, in
his inaugural address, and any number of speeches given during the first
few months of his presidency __ most notably the one delivered June 4,
2009 at Cairo University titled "A New Beginning".
Many of us, arguably an overwhelming majority, naively thought this
heralded a new age built around peace and prosperity spanning the entire
globe, and the ascendancy of justice and respect for others.
And what do we have?  You know . . .

Mr. Nobel Peace Prize has proven to be more trigger happy than the sneering
gun-slinging Texan he replaced, Mr. Transparency is far more secretive
and presides over a regime that spies on everyone, the jails
are bulging with more and more people of color __ but none of the
bankers and financial predators who crashed the world economy in 2008 __
the rich just get richer, the poor get poorer, the banks are looting
the treasury, corporations are out of control, fracking is out of
control, global warming is out of control, wealth inequality is out of
control, poisoning our food, air and water are out of control, the
police are out of control, the imperial neocon warmongers are out of
control, the military is out of control, maybe everything is out of control.

Or more accurately, it's in control of the wrong people.

So now the 'H' word is a very dirty word. It's too charged with treachery, the
violation of the best intentions and wholesome expectations of a lot of
very good but obviously gullible people. No one dares utter it without
everyone within earshot going into convulsions of indignation or crying
fits of despair.

There is, however,  another 'H' word I'm hearing more and more these days . . .

Hypocrisy.



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Extreme? Radical? Or just realistic?

 

We are constantly being lied to. We are being sold wars  we don't want. 
We are having our best social programs cut. Our jobs and tax dollars are
being shipped overseas.  Our treasury is being looted by Wall Street
banks and corporate oligarchs. Our education system at all levels is
being systematically destroyed. Our privacy and personal freedoms are
being whittled away. We are being asked to work harder for less money.
Our minimum wage is so minimum, no one can possibly live on it. We are
told we have to tighten our belts while the rich are carting away
billions from the public till as tax breaks and corporate subsidies.
7-11 clerks and fast food cooks pay higher tax rates than corporate CEOs
and rich Wall Street bankers.

How long does this have to go on before the American people have finally 
had enough?

The typical American citizen is being shafted on so many levels, what
totally astounds me is that there are not outraged mobs in the streets
demanding the heads of the politicians and the cold calculating country
club elites they serve.

Okay . . . okay . . . mass insurrection is not going to happen. At least not for now.

So it seems obvious to me that since we're not going to have a revolution in
this country, the very least we can do is replace the elected officials
in our federal government who have been the cheerleaders and
implementers of these onerous policies. The very least! 

I've stated over and over that we need to replace at least 500 of our
legislators, then put someone in the White House who understands and
serves the needs of all Americans, not just the filthy rich. I've even
dug up that old electoral battle cry: "Throw the bums out!"

As a result, I've had people say I'm extreme . . . out-of-touch . . . radical . . .
and even call me an ungrateful, unpatriotic, American-hating whiner. I get it.
Attack the messenger.

Let's be honest here. If our government on practically every critical front is
headed in completely in the wrong direction and I say it's time to clean
house . . .

Am I extreme?

Am I radical?

Or am I just being realistic?

I am proposing here simple, straightforward tests, applied locally within
each community. These are based on the electoral strategy outlined in my
recent book, "An Unlikely Truth." Just ask yourself . . .

• Did my congressman or senator vote against raising the federal minimum wage?
  If he or she did, it means that this elected official is voting against
  the stated will of 72% of the American voting public. Apparently the
  demands of the greedy businessmen who fill his or her election campaign
  coffers are more important than people being able to earn a decent
  living.

• Did my congressman vote for the Ryan budget in the House or did my senator
  vote for continuing tax breaks for the rich in the Senate? That
  vote would go against the 71% of the voting public who think the wealthy
  should bear more of the burden, as they did for most decades of the
  20th Century. Supporting historically low income tax and capital gains
  tax rates means more money into the pockets of the already wealthy, paid
  for by the rest of us who are struggling to make ends meet. It's Robin
  Hood . . . but in reverse.
  

• Did my congressman or senator vote for a defense budget which included the infamous F-35 advanced fighter jet, arguably the biggest boondoggle in the history of the nation?
  A whopping 75% of American voters want serious cuts in the defense
  budget. Voting for any of the bloated defense appropriations budgets
  means throwing away money on worthless defense projects while schools,
  streets, bridges are crumbling. It's putting bombs and bullets above
  quality of life.
  

• Did my congressman or senator vote for continuing oil subsidies for the oil industry? Alright, profits were a little off last year. So the Big 5 __ BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell __ only made $177,000 per minute.  Cry me a river! That
  added up to $93 billion in total profits. 74% of Americans want the
  government to stop throwing money at the these behemoth corporations and
  insist they start paying their fair share in taxes.
  

• Did my congressman or senator vote for funding attacks on Libya, Syria, Iran,
  the Ukraine or extending the waste of American tax dollars in
  Afghanistan, which 69% of Americans now oppose? Americans are sick of war.
  Fed up! Every dollar spent on these misadventures is one less dollar
  for critical needs here at home. Estimates for the wars in Afghanistan
  and Iraq are in the upwards of $6 trillion __ that's trillion with a 't'. That adds up to 12,000,000 good paying jobs here in America. Think about it!
  

• Did my congressman or senator vote for any legislation which cut benefits,
  raised the eligibility age, or tampered with the rate of increase of
  Social Security payments, for example, the "chained CPI" skullduggery?
  Such a vote, or even thinking about such a vote, is in direct
  opposition to the clear voice of the American people, 79% of which want
  no changes to the most popular and successful federal program in
  history. Putting the squeeze on our elderly, who have worked hard all
  their lives and can barely survive on the pittance that the program now
  provides, may be the most heartless, sinister, pathological proposal to come down the long pike of heartless, sinister,
  pathological proposals. The money to pay benefits would be there if the
  Social Security trust fund had not been raided to pay for unfunded wars
  and tax breaks for the rich, and having everyone's savings replaced by a
  bunch of government security IOUs. More to the point, those responsible
  for this theft should not only not be in public office. They should be
  in prison.
  
• Did my congressman or senator vote against labeling foods that contain GMOs? If he or she did, then this elected official is at odds with 93% of the voting public. Yes . . . I said 93%!
  And keeping people ignorant of what they're eating and exposing them
  to potential health hazards as dictated by the giant food and
  agrochemical conglomerates like Monsanto is the choice your legislator
  is consciously and unconscionably making.

As far as I'm concerned, a 'yes' on any single one of the above questions is a knock out.

Zero tolerance. Time to look elsewhere. Time to stop voting for the same ol' same ol'.

My reasoning is this. If your senator or congressman accepted what is
effectively a bribe __ lobbyist favors, campaign donations, expensive lunches or junkets 
or whatever __ on one critical issue where there exists a major consensus among the 
American voting public and in your voting district, it means that at some time in the 
future, if enough pressure is applied by powerful corporations and their cutthroat lobbyists 
 on other critical matters, your same representative will ignore you, his or her constituents, 
and vote lockstep with moneyed interests. If it happened once, it'll happen again. Politicians 
must be put on notice: We're watching and there is no margin for error. Or chicanery. Or excuses.

Of course, they'll him-and-haw, create a tsunami of obfuscation and evasion to
justify that one "compromise" or trade-off. I say we take the higher
ground and leave the guy to drown in his own bullshit. Then suggest to
Mr. Got-Lotsa-Excuses Legislator we've heard enough, point to the
parking lot and tell him, "Don't let the screen door hit you on the way out."

Remember, elected officials want your vote. They will tell you what you want to
hear to get you to check the box. Too often, once they are in office,
they conveniently forget that the promises they made were in effect a contract
with their constituents. A verbal contract. Based on what they said
they would do, we voted for them. There's a bond of trust and
responsibility operating. And if they can't honor any single one of
those commitments, then why should we trust them to honor any of them __
past, present of future __ after they disappear inside the Washington
bubble?

We have to keep focused . . .

It doesn't matter whether your current congressman or senator has a pleasant
smile, looks dashing when going to church on Sundays, has enchanting TV
ads showing him or her at the local Kiwanis Club annual bake-off
fundraiser, is a model family man or woman, and gosh-by-golly is again this year 
the Grand Marshall for the Independence Day parade down main street of your 
home town.

What does matter is whether he or she is listening to you,
or taking marching orders from the deep-pocketed campaign donors who
pay for those TV ads full of patriotic slogans and empty campaign
promises, those slick video bites and photo ops designed to fool you
once again into voting against your own interests and needs.

Is it extreme to expect honest representation?

Is it radical to want a functioning democracy?

Or is it just realistic to expect our system of government to work for all of us, 
not just the privileged and powerful?

______________________________________________________________


I am doing what I can to address the destruction of our democratic system.

Without taking back our government, nothing will change.

In my new book, An Unlikely Truth,　I offer an electoral strategy which I 
believe can effectively remove the crooks and liars from office, and begin to 
restore representative democracy to America.

An Unlikely Truth (Literary Vagabond Books) is now available worldwide in 
 every popular ebook format and as a deluxe edition paperback.

We know how this will end . . .

 

What if the citizens of Germany during the 1930s somehow could have known in advance how World War II was going to end. Would they have bought into the lies of Hitler and the Third Reich? Would they have gone along with the wanton aggression knowing it was a suicide mission and would turn their beloved homeland into a pile of rubble and put nearly 9,000,000 of them in early graves?

What about Japan? Before World War II, Japan was securely locked down. No dissent from the imperialistic designs of the emperor and his military class was permitted. Even so, if the vast majority had known that like Germany, their nation would be almost completely destroyed and they'd lose over 3,000,000 people for nothing, would they have so willingly and enthusiastically rushed to the battlefield to invite annihilation and defeat?

Our leaders __ our cowardly, divisive, destructive, unimaginative, delusional American leaders __ from Barack Obama to John Kerry to John McCain, are taking America into another war. Sure, the attack on Syria has been shelved for now. But only for now. Only because we have been humiliated and humbled by such sterling examples of brotherhood and compassion as Vladimir Putin, and reduced to looking like the big, dumb bully on the block by no less than Hassan Rouhani, the new President of Iran.

But make no mistake about it. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen. It's all part of the same flawed over-reaching strategy that predates even Clinton. That pathological plan for achieving unnecessary and ill-conceived hegemony over the Middle East may be on hold, but it has not gone away, and it won't unless we make it go away.

As uninformed and misinformed as we Americans generally are, we know how this is going to end. It doesn't take a genius to see that despite our incredible military prowess and huge advantage in the quantity and sophistication of weaponry in our arsenal, we are really bad at war. Maybe it feels good to thump our chests and yell "mission accomplished" with a big shit-eating smirk on our faces, but our self-congratulations bear no relation to reality. We lost horribly in Vietnam. We are losing in Afghanistan. We made a mess out of Iraq and now have little control over the developments in that country. Libya is in chaos. We had our finger on the launch button in Syria and instead of gaining credibility in the world, have become the object of derision, upstaged and shamed into backing down by taunts from overseas and a surprising and encouraging swell of antipathy at home.

The truth is, we have a terrible track record over the last sixty years of muscle flexing military escapades, and haven't even had to face what might be regarded as a formidable world-class enemy. God help us if we do go toe-to-toe with Russia or China.

Actually, god help the entire human race!

As we swagger into the OK corral twirling our guns and acting all cocky and cool, because after all we are so exceptional and so entitled and so self-righteous and so powerful and of course always have God on our side, what are the options? Apparently the only way we will actually "win" a real war against a serious enemy is if we go nuclear. And if we go nuclear, they will to.

And we all know how that will turn out.

So if we know in advance how World War III will end, why would anyone except the demented neocon imperialist cotorie of hell bent fanatics __ who can plead the insanity defense __ push for war? Which is the same as saying, why would anyone in their right mind go along with this madness?

Because we __ you and I __ do know how it will end.

Either we're going to get our asses kicked or we're going to destroy all civilization and risk the extinction of the human race.

Ask the Germans how things worked out for them when they tried to conquer the world.

Ask the Japanese.

I live in Japan. I already know how the Japanese feel about war. I know the shame they feel about their dark and vile history of aggression in pursuit of all manner of illusory glory and mountains of booty.

No, I don't live in America any more. But I'm still a loyal American. I deeply care for my country. And I know this.

We can't count on the lying liars who claim to have our interests at heart, the play-for-pay politicians who are the lapdogs for the military-industrial complex and the bankers who build their staggering fortunes on the corpses of our soldiers and the tens of thousands of civilians who are collateral damage for our drones, carpet bombings and ordinance.

We cannot look to the barbaric megalomaniacs in positions of power who claim to share our values, and have the unmitigated audacity to talk about humanitarian bombing and merciful intervention, to claim we are protecting innocent people against ruthless dictators __ killing thousands of innocent victims in the process __ all in the name of promoting democracy and human rights, when every one of these wars is about gas and oil interests for their corporate butt buddies. To add even more hypocrisy to the insults and injuries, it is our military which possesses and employs more weapons of mass destruction than any other country in the world and it is our nation which counts among its friends and allies some of the most ruthless tyrants on the planet.

We sure can't look to the leadership of the most sociopathic president in our history, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who just said in his U.N. speech, "The United States of America is prepared to use all elements of our power, including military force, to secure our core interests in the region. We will confront external aggression against our allies and partners, as we did in the Gulf War."

That means it's up to us.

It's up to each and every American to say 'NO' to the madness.

It's up to us to stop all the talk about war.

It's up to us to demand a true and honest commitment to peace, not the simpleminded, hollow, meaningless blather that we're being fed as the trigger-fingers of our war mongers tingle and twitch, just waiting for the right moment to churn up more carnage, destruction and hatred in the rest of the world.

Yes . . . we do know how this story ends.

It's time for a new story.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]