I have, even through this ordeal, come to realize that the perpetrators of this crime are victims (as much as we are) of the game the elites play with people.
They were driven insane by those that would first hail freedom fighting as a cause to die for... and then cast them aside as they'd outlived their usefulness.
To not even speak of the previous regime.
Does the government even know they're being used?
Need to know basis.
The higher up the more you know.
The psychology of it all is intensely interesting.

For the 1st time in a long time I'm feeling a bit depressed.
Sure we've been through a lot.

Francois was murdered.
My good friend Tim's house was under attack today. Fortunately he had a panic button and the perps fled. To break and enter another day.

I want to emigrate to New Zealand.
But when I look what's afoot in the world I'm not sure if there's a country I can go to...

I wait with bated breath for the march tomorrow. I will think of America's brave marchers constantly tomorrow.

How does one cope with all this pressure. It's no wonder that it's easier to be unconscious and ignore all but your immediate surroundings.
Eckhardt Tolle would say: "Be with the present moment, whatever it is."

I'm contemplating buying a pistol.
I reason that in the days of old the men and women had to defend themselves against wild animals... the wild animals of today shoot as well.
I'm not sleeping well and have constant violent fantasies playing off in my head.

This is not how I wish to feel.

On the way back from the gym there was the usual tell tale shattered glass on the tarmac at the intersection close to home. Another smash and grab. Must be hundreds per day. Another person scared witless and robbed of their possessions.

And the government does what all governments do.
Nothing.
Oh they do have their little petty in-fights and power struggles and are hopefully sober when they make "decisions"... but that's a lot to ask...
Useless bunch.

What is the point of living in a country like this...
I ask you...

There is no way the U.S. could hope to conquer Iran.

Nor would the Iranian people rise up and overthrow their theocratic leaders--the same neoconservative fantasy that Bush war-mongers promised ahead of the Iraq invasion, and which they are re-cycling now to justify an attack on Iran. In fact, an attack on Iran, far from sparking a rebellion against the government there, would crush the new wave of reform that was evidenced in last week's local elections in Iran, which dealt a blow to the country's hardliners. Iran is a proud nation with a history reaching back thousands of years. If attacked, its people can be counted on to rally around their current rulers, and its war-hardened soldiers can be counted on to fight to the death to defend their country.

Moreover, while its military may be no match for America's, Iran has many asymmetrical options for retaliation. As the key player in Iraq, with close links to Iraq's Shia factions, Iran's military has trained and armed the Badr Brigades--the largest and best-armed faction in Iraq, and one which to date has stayed out of the fighting against US forces. Iran is also close to the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al Sadr, and could unleash his fanatical troops too, against US forces in Iraq. If this happens, count on American casualty rates leaping to or even surpassing Korea or Vietnam-era levels overnight.

Additionally, Iraq's intelligence services have connections with Shia groups in Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries, and can be expected to quickly organize cells to strike at economic and US military targets there.

More seriously, of course, an attack on Iran will jack the price of oil to levels never seen before. Even if the US managed to militarily control the Straits of Hormuz, Iran's hundreds of stockpiled anti-ship missiles, which are buried in bunkers all along the Persian Gulf, would cause insurance rates to soar so high that no tanker could afford to sail that route, effectively cutting off over one quarter of the world's oil supply. Virtually all of the oil produced in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the Arab Emirates would be trapped in the ground. As well, the network of pipelines that bring oil from wellheads to refineries and to storage and pier facilities would be virtually indefensible against Iran-inspired sapper attacks.

Oil industry analysts have talked of oil leaping in price to $200 a barrel or more in the event of a US war with Iran, and given how panicked this country got when oil reached $80 a barrel recently, there's no need to go into detail explaining what $200/barrel oil would do to the U.S. economy--or to the global economy.

Of course, the biggest issue is that attacking Iran would be yet another war crime by this craven administration. No one can argue that Iran poses an imminent threat to anyone, least of all to the U.S.--the only legitimate grounds under the U.N. Charter and the Nuremburg Charter, to which the U.S. is a signatory, for initiating a war. Attacking a country that poses no such threat is defined as the most heinous of war crimes: a Crime Against Peace.

If Bush and Cheney perpetrate this crime, the Congress should initiate immediate impeachment proceedings and should simultaneously pass legislation terminating funding for the war. The important thing now is for the American people to register their opposition to this war before it happens. Call your senators and your representative and let them know you don't want it to happen, and you want impeachment if it does. And add your name to the petition against war. Also mark down January 27 in your calendar, for the big march and rally against war and for impeachment in Washington, D.C. (to be followed by two days of lobbying Congress on Jan. 28-29.

Finally, send this story to everyone you know, and urge them to do the same. At this point, with Democrats still cowering in their offices, only the American people can stop this madness.
Socialism of the XXI Century | Homepage | 09.14.07 - 6:53 pm | #