Democrats were Charged to End a War, Not Start One
Various | 30.09.2007 14:32 | Anti-militarism | World
I'm beginning to understand the role of electronic vote (rigging) machines used in the last election. A Republican win would have been unbelievable, so these machines were used to install "friendly" Democrats (members of the RepubliCrat Party) to the halls of power, ensuring nothing would change, and that this Madness could expand.
The day before the election, CNN ran a priceless report, saying that E-Voting was provably 'unreliable', but that 76% of Districts were using the machines anyway. Then they cut back to the anchors, who paused for a moment, looking defeated, then basically said, "Oh, well" ...
The day before the election, CNN ran a priceless report, saying that E-Voting was provably 'unreliable', but that 76% of Districts were using the machines anyway. Then they cut back to the anchors, who paused for a moment, looking defeated, then basically said, "Oh, well" ...
September 29, 2007 at 00:02:14
Democrats were Charged to End a War, Not Start One
by Mike Gravel
09/28/07 "ICH" -- - -Hillary Clinton was either misinformed or economical with the truth in Wednesday night’s debate when she responded to my challenge to her by saying the Senate’s resolution earlier in the day on Iran was designed to permit economic sanctions against individual members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
She and her staff should know the United Nations Security Council on March 24 already slapped economic sanctions on individual Guard Members. Like the Red Army in China, Iran allows Guard commanders to own and run private companies. Security Council Resolution 1747, which the United States voted for, froze financial assets held outside Iran on the seven military commanders, including General Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr and six other admirals and generals.
I know of no law dictating the State Department must first designate individuals or groups as terrorists before sanctions can be imposed on them. Dozens of countries have been under U.S. unilateral sanctions that are not designated as terrorist. The U.S. first imposed sanctions on Iran in 1979 over the hostages, not terrorism. The only possible purpose of the Senate resolution asking the State Department to designate the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization is to set it up for military attack in George Bush’s war on terror.
As Virginia senator Jim Webb valiantly said in the Senate, the United States has never before designated the military services of a sovereign state a terrorist group. Indeed, though there is international dispute over the definition of terrorism, there is little disagreement on the legal point that terrorists are non-state actors who target civilians, i.e., never members of a government. Governments can be guilty of war crimes, but not terrorism. And the resolution talks about attacks on American troops, not civilians.
The hypocrisy of Hillary and the 75 other senators who called for more unilateral sanctions on Iran, was exposed Monday by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who said, according to Spiegel Magazine, that American companies are violating existing U.S. sanctions by surreptitiously doing business with Iran through front companies in Dubai.
Joe Lieberman wrote the resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq that was passed with Democratic support on October 11, 2002. Lieberman’s new resolution setting up a Bush-Cheney invasion of Iran passed by 76 to 22 with Democratic backing on September 26, 2007. These are two dates that will live in infamy in the 21st century. Led by Senator Clinton, it was another sad day for the Senate and for Senate Democrats, who were elected to the majority in November in order to end a war, not start a new one.
Mike Gravel is a former US Senator from Alaska and is currently running for the Democratic Nomination for President.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_mike_gra_070929_democrats_were_charg.htm
WHO IS THE US CONGRESS LISTENING TO?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/whoiscongresslisteningto.html
Senate Urges Bush To Attack Iran
Yesterday, Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton (NY), Chuck Schumer (NY), Bob Menendez (NJ), Barbara Mikulski (MD), and Ben Cardin (MD) all voted in favor of the "Kyl-Lieberman Iran Amendment." This piece of legislation actually encourages the practitioner of cowboy diplomacy, George W. Bush, to be even more belligerent in his foreign policy. The Kyl-Lieberman Amendment passed by a vote of 76 to 22. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden voted against it, and Barack Obama missed the vote.
The amendment states: "The United State should designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization . . . and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists."
Kyl-Lieberman is the first step in providing Congressional legitimacy for military action against Iran. The 76 to 22 vote, which also had the support of Majority Leader Harry Reid, codifies U.S. Iran policy and comes very close to sounding like a declaration of war. Designating a four decades old military branch of a sovereign state a "foreign terrorist organization" is an extreme step that is only necessary or useful if there are plans "on the table" to do something about it.
The U.S. troops in Iraq are not considered "foreign." The U.S. calls those Iraqis who are resisting occupation "terrorists." Now a segment of the Iranian armed forces is being labeled a terrorist organization. Such a step is tantamount to a foreign government designating the U.S. Marines a "foreign terrorist organization."
The Democratic Senate is playing right into the hands of those neo-cons and crazies who think a military strike against Iran will improve the situation in the Middle East. On the contrary, it will magnify the current disaster in Iraq tenfold.
If the Senate and the Neo-Cons convince Bush to strike Iran they will be sparking a real war with a nation that can fight back. With its 70 million people, high literacy rate, key geographic location, level of economic development, and its control of a significant share of the world's oil production, Iran is a nation that could cause quite a stir if Bush is dim-witted enough to go down that terrible road.
Email
Print
Comment
I can envision a scenario where the United States launches a sustained set of air raids against most of the infrastructure of Iran, specifically targeting the "nuclear facilities" that are widely dispersed throughout the country. The Democrats in Congress will be jumping through hoops like well-trained circus dogs as they vote for resolutions and give speeches validating the aggression. And then we're off to the races in another illegal war against a nation that has not attacked us.
Iran accounts for about 4 percent of the world's daily oil production, and will surely shut off the spigots if it is attacked sending the price of oil skyward. (Iran's ally Venezuela might follow suit.) Petroleum analysts estimate that the world runs only about a 2 percent excess capacity of oil production, which could mean an instant drop to a negative world supply if Iran chooses to stop pumping. This reduction in output alone could wreak havoc with global energy markets.
Iran might also take the step of disrupting the oil production of neighboring Gulf States through missile attacks on their oil infrastructure and sabotage. The world production of oil could then drop to a negative 10 percent or more, and the price could shoot up even higher. The American people, who consume more oil per capita than any people on earth, will be waiting in long lines to fill up our tanks as we did during the Iranian revolution in 1978-79. Ordinary Americans don't only get the privilege of paying for the costs of the missiles and ordnance Bush will throw at Iran, but we also get the honor of paying triple the amount for a gallon of gas while we are queued up at the pump.
The Iranian silkworm missiles, supplied by China, (which recently signed a $100 billion oil and gas deal with Iran), will rip through the shipping of the Persian Gulf. Explosions of undetermined origin will rake through the oil platforms and infrastructure of the Gulf States. Iraq's civil war will reach a new intensity. And bombs will go off throughout the region wreaking havoc with the smooth transport of oil.
The Iranians and their allies in the Gulf will cause trouble in the Straights of Hormuz where 40 percent of the world's oil passes. They will turn the Gulf into a garbage dump of damaged ships and flaming oil dereks. Russia and China will supply arms to Iran and the conflict will continue, like Iraq, for as long as the United States tries to impose its will on the region through brute force.
They will also probably have agents blow up U.S. embassies and other targets all over the world. The war will be the most destabilizing the Persian Gulf has ever seen.
Compounded with the financial strains of the $600 billion Iraq occupation, the new war with Iran will run the risk of bankrupting the United States. China might cash in some of its $1 trillion in U.S. treasury bonds and exchange them for Euros. The value of the dollar could then be suddenly devalued. The life savings of millions of Americans could be threatened as the dollar tanks, and interest rates shoot up when the central banks try to entice foreigners' to hang on to their dollars to stop the hemorrhaging. And this devaluing of the dollar could occur in an environment of hyperinflation because the high price of oil will drive up the costs of everything.
So let's not let those narrow interests who seek another wider war in the Middle East prevail. They don't really know what they're getting themselves into.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/senate-urges-bush-to-atta_b_66223.html
The Self-Indulgent Fantasies of Warmongers
2007-09-29 | The warmongers – who never personally experience battle – are attempting to prepare us for another extension of the Middle East Wars, this time, into Iran.
Their pornographic self-indulgent fantasies lead them to believe that such a war is “winnable”. This time, even the mental masturbators who send the young to die will not remain untouched, for in their wild fantasies, they dream of using nuclear weapons.
(Please see: Bush Administration War Plans directed against Iran http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6792 )
Fortunately, there are still those in the United States Military who are Real Men and Real Women and not merely programmed killers who mindlessly obey commands.
(Please see: Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theatre
B-52 Nukes Headed for Iran: Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theater http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6909 )
IF – as some pundits claim – an attack on Iran would be for the benefit of Israel, then the use of nuclear weapons in such a crime would send radiation throughout the region, even into Israel - and beyond. They are no friends of Israel !
(Please see: Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/rapture-ready-the-unauth_b_57826.html
Of course, everyone in Iran and Iraq will be the first victims, including the invading troops, but when did the warmongers ever care about casualties ?
IF – as some pundits claim – Iran is “a threat to the world”, can someone, somewhere, please explain HOW ?
Iran has exhibited no imperialistic ambitions and has been merely attempting to preserve its own territorial integrity, ever since the Ayatollah Khomenei assumed power, after a popular revolt which overthrew the Shah, in 1979 and Saddam Hussein’s forces – backed, encouraged and supplied by the USA – attempted to overthrow the new Government. Both Iran and Iraq are still recovering from that ill-fated and ill-conceived war.
Is the current Bush Regime fantasising about “completing the job” ?
Anyone who has ever experienced combat KNOWS that there are never any real victors. There are only degrees of loss. Those with fewer losses are considered “winners”.
One wishes the civilian warmongers could learn the basic facts of Life and find fulfilment in a lover - if they have the capacity – and if anyone wants them.
Perhaps, it is time for the Military leaders of the USA to assert the Authority of Experience and refuse to follow the orders of the insane and amoral.
Paul V. Rafferty
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=3895&blz=1
Democrats were Charged to End a War, Not Start One
by Mike Gravel
09/28/07 "ICH" -- - -Hillary Clinton was either misinformed or economical with the truth in Wednesday night’s debate when she responded to my challenge to her by saying the Senate’s resolution earlier in the day on Iran was designed to permit economic sanctions against individual members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
She and her staff should know the United Nations Security Council on March 24 already slapped economic sanctions on individual Guard Members. Like the Red Army in China, Iran allows Guard commanders to own and run private companies. Security Council Resolution 1747, which the United States voted for, froze financial assets held outside Iran on the seven military commanders, including General Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr and six other admirals and generals.
I know of no law dictating the State Department must first designate individuals or groups as terrorists before sanctions can be imposed on them. Dozens of countries have been under U.S. unilateral sanctions that are not designated as terrorist. The U.S. first imposed sanctions on Iran in 1979 over the hostages, not terrorism. The only possible purpose of the Senate resolution asking the State Department to designate the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization is to set it up for military attack in George Bush’s war on terror.
As Virginia senator Jim Webb valiantly said in the Senate, the United States has never before designated the military services of a sovereign state a terrorist group. Indeed, though there is international dispute over the definition of terrorism, there is little disagreement on the legal point that terrorists are non-state actors who target civilians, i.e., never members of a government. Governments can be guilty of war crimes, but not terrorism. And the resolution talks about attacks on American troops, not civilians.
The hypocrisy of Hillary and the 75 other senators who called for more unilateral sanctions on Iran, was exposed Monday by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who said, according to Spiegel Magazine, that American companies are violating existing U.S. sanctions by surreptitiously doing business with Iran through front companies in Dubai.
Joe Lieberman wrote the resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq that was passed with Democratic support on October 11, 2002. Lieberman’s new resolution setting up a Bush-Cheney invasion of Iran passed by 76 to 22 with Democratic backing on September 26, 2007. These are two dates that will live in infamy in the 21st century. Led by Senator Clinton, it was another sad day for the Senate and for Senate Democrats, who were elected to the majority in November in order to end a war, not start a new one.
Mike Gravel is a former US Senator from Alaska and is currently running for the Democratic Nomination for President.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_mike_gra_070929_democrats_were_charg.htm WHO IS THE US CONGRESS LISTENING TO?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/whoiscongresslisteningto.html Senate Urges Bush To Attack Iran
Yesterday, Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton (NY), Chuck Schumer (NY), Bob Menendez (NJ), Barbara Mikulski (MD), and Ben Cardin (MD) all voted in favor of the "Kyl-Lieberman Iran Amendment." This piece of legislation actually encourages the practitioner of cowboy diplomacy, George W. Bush, to be even more belligerent in his foreign policy. The Kyl-Lieberman Amendment passed by a vote of 76 to 22. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden voted against it, and Barack Obama missed the vote.
The amendment states: "The United State should designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization . . . and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists."
Kyl-Lieberman is the first step in providing Congressional legitimacy for military action against Iran. The 76 to 22 vote, which also had the support of Majority Leader Harry Reid, codifies U.S. Iran policy and comes very close to sounding like a declaration of war. Designating a four decades old military branch of a sovereign state a "foreign terrorist organization" is an extreme step that is only necessary or useful if there are plans "on the table" to do something about it.
The U.S. troops in Iraq are not considered "foreign." The U.S. calls those Iraqis who are resisting occupation "terrorists." Now a segment of the Iranian armed forces is being labeled a terrorist organization. Such a step is tantamount to a foreign government designating the U.S. Marines a "foreign terrorist organization."
The Democratic Senate is playing right into the hands of those neo-cons and crazies who think a military strike against Iran will improve the situation in the Middle East. On the contrary, it will magnify the current disaster in Iraq tenfold.
If the Senate and the Neo-Cons convince Bush to strike Iran they will be sparking a real war with a nation that can fight back. With its 70 million people, high literacy rate, key geographic location, level of economic development, and its control of a significant share of the world's oil production, Iran is a nation that could cause quite a stir if Bush is dim-witted enough to go down that terrible road.
Comment
I can envision a scenario where the United States launches a sustained set of air raids against most of the infrastructure of Iran, specifically targeting the "nuclear facilities" that are widely dispersed throughout the country. The Democrats in Congress will be jumping through hoops like well-trained circus dogs as they vote for resolutions and give speeches validating the aggression. And then we're off to the races in another illegal war against a nation that has not attacked us.
Iran accounts for about 4 percent of the world's daily oil production, and will surely shut off the spigots if it is attacked sending the price of oil skyward. (Iran's ally Venezuela might follow suit.) Petroleum analysts estimate that the world runs only about a 2 percent excess capacity of oil production, which could mean an instant drop to a negative world supply if Iran chooses to stop pumping. This reduction in output alone could wreak havoc with global energy markets.
Iran might also take the step of disrupting the oil production of neighboring Gulf States through missile attacks on their oil infrastructure and sabotage. The world production of oil could then drop to a negative 10 percent or more, and the price could shoot up even higher. The American people, who consume more oil per capita than any people on earth, will be waiting in long lines to fill up our tanks as we did during the Iranian revolution in 1978-79. Ordinary Americans don't only get the privilege of paying for the costs of the missiles and ordnance Bush will throw at Iran, but we also get the honor of paying triple the amount for a gallon of gas while we are queued up at the pump.
The Iranian silkworm missiles, supplied by China, (which recently signed a $100 billion oil and gas deal with Iran), will rip through the shipping of the Persian Gulf. Explosions of undetermined origin will rake through the oil platforms and infrastructure of the Gulf States. Iraq's civil war will reach a new intensity. And bombs will go off throughout the region wreaking havoc with the smooth transport of oil.
The Iranians and their allies in the Gulf will cause trouble in the Straights of Hormuz where 40 percent of the world's oil passes. They will turn the Gulf into a garbage dump of damaged ships and flaming oil dereks. Russia and China will supply arms to Iran and the conflict will continue, like Iraq, for as long as the United States tries to impose its will on the region through brute force.
They will also probably have agents blow up U.S. embassies and other targets all over the world. The war will be the most destabilizing the Persian Gulf has ever seen.
Compounded with the financial strains of the $600 billion Iraq occupation, the new war with Iran will run the risk of bankrupting the United States. China might cash in some of its $1 trillion in U.S. treasury bonds and exchange them for Euros. The value of the dollar could then be suddenly devalued. The life savings of millions of Americans could be threatened as the dollar tanks, and interest rates shoot up when the central banks try to entice foreigners' to hang on to their dollars to stop the hemorrhaging. And this devaluing of the dollar could occur in an environment of hyperinflation because the high price of oil will drive up the costs of everything.
So let's not let those narrow interests who seek another wider war in the Middle East prevail. They don't really know what they're getting themselves into.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/senate-urges-bush-to-atta_b_66223.html The Self-Indulgent Fantasies of Warmongers
2007-09-29 | The warmongers – who never personally experience battle – are attempting to prepare us for another extension of the Middle East Wars, this time, into Iran.
Their pornographic self-indulgent fantasies lead them to believe that such a war is “winnable”. This time, even the mental masturbators who send the young to die will not remain untouched, for in their wild fantasies, they dream of using nuclear weapons.
(Please see: Bush Administration War Plans directed against Iran
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6792 ) Fortunately, there are still those in the United States Military who are Real Men and Real Women and not merely programmed killers who mindlessly obey commands.
(Please see: Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theatre
B-52 Nukes Headed for Iran: Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theater
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6909 ) IF – as some pundits claim – an attack on Iran would be for the benefit of Israel, then the use of nuclear weapons in such a crime would send radiation throughout the region, even into Israel - and beyond. They are no friends of Israel !
(Please see: Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/rapture-ready-the-unauth_b_57826.html Of course, everyone in Iran and Iraq will be the first victims, including the invading troops, but when did the warmongers ever care about casualties ?
IF – as some pundits claim – Iran is “a threat to the world”, can someone, somewhere, please explain HOW ?
Iran has exhibited no imperialistic ambitions and has been merely attempting to preserve its own territorial integrity, ever since the Ayatollah Khomenei assumed power, after a popular revolt which overthrew the Shah, in 1979 and Saddam Hussein’s forces – backed, encouraged and supplied by the USA – attempted to overthrow the new Government. Both Iran and Iraq are still recovering from that ill-fated and ill-conceived war.
Is the current Bush Regime fantasising about “completing the job” ?
Anyone who has ever experienced combat KNOWS that there are never any real victors. There are only degrees of loss. Those with fewer losses are considered “winners”.
One wishes the civilian warmongers could learn the basic facts of Life and find fulfilment in a lover - if they have the capacity – and if anyone wants them.
Perhaps, it is time for the Military leaders of the USA to assert the Authority of Experience and refuse to follow the orders of the insane and amoral.
Paul V. Rafferty
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=3895&blz=1
Various