William deB. Mills
William deB. Mills's JournalSharon and Anti-Muslim Empire-Building
It is hard to determine the degree to which the Butcher of Beirut (1982, for those who have forgotten) made U.S. foreign policy vs. Washington making Sharon, but the evolution of U.S./Israeli policies toward Islam from the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 through the U.S. invasion of Iraq and today's endless Presidential war by drone against whatever Muslim he is pleased to attack is one of mutual support, mutual inspiration, and group think in a vicious cycle of self-defeating violence.
One of many sources noting the linkages between current U.S. and Israeli tactics is the Christian Science Monitor (4-20-04 - http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0420/p05s01-woiq.html) following the U.S.attack on Fallujah: "Even if we crush the resistance, it is only temporary," warns Charles Smith, head of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona. "There are too many cases, like in Israel, of [US forces] doing target practice on anything that moves. What you are doing is creating more terrorism against yourself."
The "endless war" against radical Islam that U.S. empire-builders so much like to rave about and the trap that the U.S. has created for itself in the Muslim world (defeats or costly yet only temporary military "victories" in Somalia, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan) are very much Sharon's legacy.
Condemning Gaza
Gaza was and remains an Israeli laboratory for testing theories of repression. Sharon only pretended to leave, actually fixing the game to ensure Palestinian failure by making Gaza ungovernable. Gazans are free to starve but not to import food, fish, travel, get medicine, or in any other significant way govern themselves. And obviously, they do not control their own security or foreign affairs. Gaza is nothing more than an Indian reservation surrounded by the cavalry with orders to shoot on sight. What Sharon did was tactically cute from the expansionist perspective; nothing more.
Perjury
Lying to the Secret Court that was formally set up as NSA's overseer and that politically amounts to NSA's cover (protecting it from the prying eyes of Congress and the public) is a direct attack on our democracy and an incredibly stupid bureaucratic maneuver. The whole system in Washington is designed with multiple layers of cloaking devices behind which to maneuver in secret - the Secret Court, and behind it the Intel Committees, and behind them the very friendly White House. NSA has bitten the hand that feeds it. Lying to the court is also perjury.
The Latest Whistleblower
Jennifer Hoelzer has now become the nation's newest whistleblower and has committed the worst political sin possible in this country - she has made a fool and a liar of the President. We need to keep an eye on her. She will come under attack. Indeed, she will probably be called a "terrorist" for the Washington elitists indeed seem terrified of popular opinion. Ms Hoelzer demonstrated courage...in many quarters she will surely suffer from lifetime blacklisting for "not being a team player," i.e., for supporting the public interest instead of the interests of the elite.
Ms Hoelzer had a fascinating interview in the Washington Post two months ago. The country should have paid more attention to it. From what we now no, every word she said in that interview was important. One key statement:
"I should say that while I have concerns about this program, this isn’t, for me, about the program per se. I began at the Navy College. I’m pretty pro-national security. But this isn’t how a democracy works. The American people need to have a say in the laws that govern them. This is a debate we should be having now. If the administration thinks they need this program, they should’ve been showing us evidence and arguing that. But they’ve been substituting their judgment for this country’s judgment." [Washington Post 6/7/13.]
Vicious Cycle of Repression-Protest-Repression
The increasingly blatant cycle of government abuse of power leading to protest, which in turn provokes more abuses of power as the government tries to repress those who expose its original abuses has produced what appears to be yet another example: this time police brutality against demonstrators protesting against the anti-democratic, pro-corporate ALEC organization.
An obvious question in a democracy is why the police should be taking the side of an elitist organization in the first place.
Stop snickering. I know that is a naive question. The point is that we are beginning to think it is normal.
I suppose the next thing we will hear is that NSA data on the ALEC protesters has been illegally passed to the brutal Chicago police so they can continue to harass, torture, terrorize--as the case may be--those naive Americans who think they have the right to disagree with either government officials (e.g., in the case of North Carolina Moral Monday demonstrators) or private elitist organizations.
Government officials defending NSA spying on Americans have been tossing around an inane phrase recently - "connect the dots." The idea is that your Government has the right to steal all your private information in order to discover any linkage that may exist (relevant or not) between you and anyone that, frankly, anyone in the Government may ever, now or in the future, want to discover. (Remember the recent revelations about low-level NSA employees having the "right" to manipulate data acquired from domestic spying without even getting specific legal authorization.)
The American way of life is falling apart very, very fast. It is time to realize that terrorizing and torturing whistleblowers, abusing protesters, and exploiting fears of terrorism to expand the national security state and undermine Constitutional guarantees of civil liberties are all part of a single story: the undermining of democracy.
Congressional Whistleblowers?!?
Are you telling me that Congressmen are now blowing whistles?
This cannot happen. One of the most precious and darkest secrets of our great...ah...democracy is that Congress is clueless. Congressmen almost always vote for whatever the Imperial Presidency desires, because it is the Imperial Presidency that has the power (well, so long as Wall St. does not get hot about the issue). Congressmen obviously must convince voters they know what they are doing and the Imperial Presidency must convince Congressmen that they are part of the team. Delusion on this point is central to keeping the game going.
The instant Congressmen face up to how they are being played by the military-intelligence-Imperial Presidency gang that wants to rule the world then democracy will start to break out randomly. The amount of national security and foreign policy nonsense that will start to be questioned within the Government is beyond calculating. Think of the convenient assumptions that are treated as inherent truths in Washington in order to maintain the aggressive foreign policy pushed by the Imperial Presidency: that Islamic activism is always hostile, that US national security must be subordinated to the policy demands of right-wing Israelis, that Iran is a dire threat to world peace, that American democracy is a convenience that may be enjoyed so long and only so long as it does not interfere with making the rules that control the world and enrich the rich.
Just ask yourselves what would happen if Congressmen stopped clicking their heels and accepting every trite and superficial remark made by any military, intel, or White House figure starting with "it is essential for national security that..."
History
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It is so important to remember the pioneers, for only thus can we put current events into perspective. Suppose Obama had reacted to Manning and Snowden by saying:
"I regret that laws were broken. I regret that Manning and Snowden felt it necessary to break laws to warn their countrymen of abuses of power. I regret far more that power was abused, sometimes under my leadership. We can do better and we will, and the first step will be for me, as President, and everyone else actually to listen to the message of these and all whistleblowers."
Congressional Campaign to Punish Clapper for His Perjury
It took four whistle-blowers a decade to crack open the apparent official-media conspiracy of silence about NSA spying on Americans. But now suddenly, evidently because of the blatantly vicious official mistreatment of Manning and Snowden (talk about picking up a stone to drop it on your own foot!), it has become acceptable in US society to discuss fundamental principles of democracy - e.g., whether or not a bunch of politicians have the right to sneak into a smoke-filled room to "reinterpret" US law to their own convenience and undermine Constitutional guarantees of civil liberties.
But to get to the point - Clapper's perjury before Congress has now actually made some Congressmen angry! See Democracy Now (where one can actually find real news): http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/2/reps_conyers_massie_on_bipartisan_campaign. Congressmen are starting a campaign to punish Clapper for committing perjury.
The other side of the "make Snowden a hero" coin is to bring to fire and bring to trial officials who abused power.
I can't believe that we actually have a few representatives in Congress with sufficient integrity and self-respect to resent being lied to. My hat is off to Manning, Snowden, Drake, Weibe, Binney.
Fearing Peace, House Launches New Economic Warfare Attack on Iran
Unfortunately, the House--including the Democratic leadership--has just undercut Obama by bowing to Netanyahu (who desperately needs continued war fever to maintain his tenuous hold on power) and slapping Iran's new president-to-be in the face before he can even take office. The war party in the Congress and of course Israel seemed somewhat stunning by the rise in Iran of the "ugly" face of moderation, but the war party has now fully recovered and is working fervently to prevent any accommodation between the US and Iran. Ahmadinejad (and, from his grave, bin Laden) must both be giggling at the astonishingly incompetent foreign policy decision-making process that occurs in the highly factionalized and short-sighted circles along t Potomac.
Of course, another interpretation is at least theoretically possible: maybe Obama and Congress are playing "good cop, bad cop." Does anyone believe that???
Breaking the Law to Defend Democracy
So when is breaking the law justified to achieve justice? When is the law less important than the evil being covered up by those who wrote the law to protect themselves? Everyone who has ever served in the Federal Government knows that you destroy your career when you work within the system to correct abuses of power.
I do not know the answer to my own question, but it does seem to me that a fundamental relationship exists between the degree of transparency in government and the justifiability of breaking the law.
There is also a legal response: the ultimate law in the U.S. is the Constitution. If officials violate the Constitution and a bureaucrat or reporter discovers that fact, what is that person's legal recourse? To whom does he report the official violation?
We can slice and dice this all day, but in the end, publicly embarrassing officials who abuse power is pretty much the only hope. You will note that all the brave senators now criticizing NSA domestic spying weren't saying very much until Assange, Manning, and Snowden made all this public.
Profile Information
Name: William deB. MillsGender: Do not display
Home country: US
Member since: Wed Jun 13, 2012, 12:00 PM
Number of posts: 46
