22 Dec 2004 -- Our great nation has become polarized, too polarized.
Who on either side of the political aisle has reached out in a sincere attempt to work with the other side? Will that change?
We hope so. Consider:
"I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America--there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." -- Barrack Obama.
25 Oct 2004 -- We can never know too much, but we can know too little. The war against terror was proclaimed to be different; so why are we using conventional strategies and tactics? Since terror itself is more damaging psychologically than it is in fact, should we not pursue a psychological response instead of playing the terrorist's game? What about the Middle-East history or that of Islam proper as a starting point toward recovering our self- and global- esteem? What follies are we repeating?
We have the most innovative society on earth, except when it comes to leadership.
And perhaps most important of all, why are the three major monotheisms many multiples more violent than their Eastern counterparts? Is there something in the human genome? If so why are all nations not equally violent? Why are Wash DC, Detroit, and Baltimore multiples more violent than El Paso or Honolulu. Why is Tokyo the safest of the large metro areas? Why is the US among the most violent of nations?
These are not simple questions; there are many answers. No one answer can fix terror or war or they would have been fixed by now. From just this we can see there is more to violence than our jungle heritage. We simply must figure all this out independently of political, religious or economic influence. Then we must do something about it independently again of the vested interests.
25 Oct 2004 -- What kind of mind is it that safeguards the building housing the oil ministry while leaving wide open the door to a cache or 380 tons [760,000 lbs] of live munitions? What kind of mind then claims the theft is of no consequence because Iraq is already awash in munitions?
Take your pick
- A believer in a Manifest called Destiny in an oil baron's pocket.
- A believer in the fantasy that Iraqis enjoy being humiliated.
- A believer in the fantasy that he can do no wrong.
- All the above.
9 Sept 2004 -- How can the greatest polarizer the White House has ever seen win any type of war requiring cooperation?
It is already evident that he can't. Afghanistan and Iraq are neither passive nor pacified; neither will become a model democracy with Bush in command. And terror, yes terror, is on the increase world wide, as we slide ever deeper into deficit. Then there is Iran and North Korea with REAL real WMD programs. Is that unreal or what?
Maybe this should be expected from a Guardsman who disobeyed a routine order, left his post, and went politicking instead of protecting his country.
9 Sept 2004 -- Why is Bush so polarizing?
Take your pick; he:
- Demands total loyalty, and anyone who questions him is branded an enemy.
- Encroaches on individual freedoms.
- Makes promises he cannot keep.
- Makes promises he does not intend to keep.
- Is an obvious phony to the practiced eye.
- Built Osama into an Icon, then went to war in Iraq, something he could do and use as an illusion of strength while his declared enemies grow ever stronger.
- All the above.
6 Sept 2004 -- Reading Kevin Phillips "Wealth and Democracy" a question came to mind. What triggered the question was that the Republicans seem, historically at least, to be ever so much better organized, and of course richer, at least in recent times than their Democratic opponents. So the question is simply: Do you suppose those who lust for power and money work harder to achieve it than those of more egalitarian stripe?
Our insight is that this is the Authoritarian Personality coming through.
5 Sept 2004 -- The Bush economic medicine has not worked so far. The census bureau, for the third straight year has reported a fall in median income. Between 2000 and 2003, the median household lost $1,535. Does this offset what trickled down from the Bush tax cuts?
Of course. And since the number of non-working Americans will continue to grow; the median household income loss will continue under present polices.
Why is this trend happening?
Because Bush is paying off his pals, the plutocrats and is not paying attention to keeping America strong. He uses bluff, bluster, and promises he intends to break to divert our attention and hold onto power. But his goals seem to be more than plutocracy. It is also evangelistic and if he wins another term, the vital concept of separating Church and State will erode further as his hand-picked Supreme Court begins ruling his way. The Constitution will then be reinterpreted to mean what he wants it to mean. Women will lose their hard-won right to control their bodies and lives. Free speech will come under fire. In short, he has already lurched us toward the very ills that infect Islam so disastrously today. You can expect it to intensify in the next four years if he wins election. Meanwhile, watch your voting machine, it may have a virus that kills Democratic votes. Bin Laden must be gloating.
21 july 2004; 5 Sept 2004-- Nationally, the Wahhabi mullahs in Pakistan radicalize their youth while we pile layer upon layer of bureaucracy in Homeland Security. Where is the connection?
There isn't one.
Terror is all about psychology. Doesn't it make sense to hone our emotional tools in defending ourselves and also for going after the terrorists?
One would think so.
How might we do that?
Developing our individual selves in terms of:
- Gaining confidence -- Hone those things we are best at: Hey this is me!
- Looking for insight -- Apply our curiosity to every event; finding out about things and people is not only pleasurable but reinforcing.
- Practicing dialogue -- relate to others in a free two-way manner.
- Being effective -- improving competence in both breadth and depth.
- Self actualization -- Motivate ourselves to achieve and leave the world better than we found it.
- Cooperation -- This will come from all the above. Two heads really are better than one -- when they cooperate.
In going after the terrorists we can:
- Understand the making of the terrorists. Reading material on this site will get you started. From there, there is nothing a small group of dedicated individuals cannot accomplish.
- Remove or eliminate, as appropriate, the features that radicalize youth to become terrorists. This requires two things we now do not do with much effectiveness.
- Removing the features in world societies that humiliate and alienate second-class citizens.
- Go after any hard-core terror groups in the manner that the British ran down the Thugs of India in the 1830s. They did it with only a few officers who were able to elicit local political cooperation in arresting Thugs. Encouraging those captured to betray their pals or face the hangman's noose. [This site does not support the death penalty, but this is a most extreme case where the ultimate in persuasion may be needed to subdue fanatical holdouts. For this one effort, the Geneva Convention may need to be revised. If a more humane, but equally certain way to accomplish this can be found, we would support such an avenue. We are just not sure one exists.] India was freed of Thugs in just this way. See Ameer Ali for the details. Remember, terrorists will not hesitate to kill anyone, anyone at all. And they do.
- Bring peace to Palestine by doing whatever it takes. See Zionism for a not-so-quick read of the difficulties.
- Bring International organizations and pressure to bear on the rogue nuclear states to disarm. Having accomplished that, find ways to reduce nuclear weapon arsenals verifiabl world-wide. This one will be tough because the US may never allow that to happen, in which case, terror, including nuclear terror is part of the landscape.
- Bring third world nations still stuck in feudalism into the 21st Century in governance. A start in this direction has been made, as wrong-headed as it is by putting US interests above all else. This needs to be done in fullest international cooperation.
- Search for a world order that teaches peace. This is another tough one as the monotheisms are today the primary instigators of violence. See Religion and Violence for more on that one.
- Change the political and economic course of the USA away from subjugation of the world and confrontation with our allies.
- Employ a broad front approach -- all the above in other words.
Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Peace is similar, it can only be built brick by brick. All of the many walls and battlements can go up at the same time to extend the metaphor.
16 July 2004 -- Iraqi citizens are the issue. Are they secure?
Nope
Can a fledgling democracy, if elections are held, hold the fort against tribalism--that special interest group in Iraq?
Don't count on it.
7 Apr 2004 -- Now that Iraq is aflame with both Sunnis and Shias after us, will "spin control" from the White House save the day?
Don't bet on it!
Will it save the Administration in the next election?
Don't bet on it!
However history answers those questions, from what can be discovered of Islam from just the Internet, the present morass was entirely predictable. And many have made gloomy predictions, including this site.
Why did Mr. Bush II invade iraq? Read "Against All Enemies" by Richard Clarke. Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz always had the intent to invade Iraq. Mr. Bush II, at the least, wanted to redress the "error" his father made in not taking out Hussein when it was possible during the Gulf War. None recognized the reality of al Qa'ida and the basic monolithic features of radical Islam--even after 9/11.
War in Iraq has only enhanced radical Islam.
War in Iraq gave al Qa'ida time to regroup into a more dangerous and harder-to-root-out form. War in Iraq was counter to any American interest.
Think about it next time you pull up to a gas pump--is this the Sheik's way of getting even?
That would be a good bet!
2 Apr 2004 -- Who said?
"Richard Clarke is out of the loop."
Vice President Dick Cheney, that's who.
Who was hiding in the East Wing bomb shelter watching CNN on 9/11?
Vice President Dick Cheney, that's who.
Who coordinated response on 9/11 from the White House Situation Room, ordering 4000 commercial aircraft to land, evacuating the White House and all other Federal Buildings, activating COG (continuity of command), and diverting Air Force One?
Richard Clarke, that's who.
See Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror. It is all there in Chapter one.
Final question: Just who is out of the reality/honesty loop?
22 Feb 2004 -- We quote an excerpt from: The Nation, 8 Mar 2004.
"As Jesuit schoolboys studying world history we learned that Copernicus and Galileo self-censored for many decades their proofs that the earth revolved around the sun and that a less restrained helio-centrist, Giordano Bruno, was burned alive in 1600 for the crime of sound science. With the encouragement of our professor, Father Joyce, we marveled at the capacity of human leaders to corrupt noble institutions. Lust for power had caused the Catholic hierarchy to subvert the church's most central purpose--the search for existential truths."
"Today, flat-earthers within the Bush Administration--aided by right-wing allies who have produced assorted hired guns and conservative think tanks to further their goals--are engaged in a campaign to suppress science that is arguably unmatched in the Western world since the Inquisition. Sometimes, rather than suppress good science, they simply order up their own. Meanwhile, the Bush White House is purging, censoring and blacklisting scientists and engineers whose work threatens the profits of the Administration's corporate paymasters or challenges the ideological underpinnings of their radical anti-environmental agenda. Indeed, so extreme is this campaign that more than sixty scientists, including Nobel laureates and medical experts, released a statement on February 18 that accuses the Bush Administration of deliberately distorting scientific fact '"for partisan political ends....'"
Which is more demoralizing?
- Politicizing the scientific process or
- Deceiving the American Public.
Answer: "It is hard to decide."
Robert F Kennedy Jr.
10 Feb 2004 -- Where is bin Laden?
Answer: He has found a "safe harbor" in Pakistan! The Pakistan that has been supplying nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea for several years. Meanwhile we have taken out Iraq at huge cost, fractured alliances, and made no compensatory advance against terror.
5 Feb 2004 -- Bush said "No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more." That is true enough. But, stop and think, Pakistan had already been doing exactly what Bush feared for more than a decade. Beyond that Mr. Bush applauded when General Musharref said the leak was plugged as he pardoned the perpetrator.
What do you suppose Mr. Bush's priorities were?
Answer: Take your pick!
- Settle a family feud.
- Provide business for Halliburton.
- Start a religious war.
- Stay in office for another term.
- Present American oil companies with an ocean of oil all their own.
- Pursue the New American Empire.
- All the above.
5 Feb 2004 -- Senator Kerry served in a war he disliked, but served anyway with honor and distinction in Vietnam.
Which two recent presidents found ways to avoid active military service?
Answer: William Clinton and George W Bush.
23 Jan 2004 -- Who was it that deliberately substituted the words "Fellow-countrymen" for "Ladies and Gentlemen"? This quote from Adolf Hitler Speech of April 12, 1921." Who else has has made a similar switch? Why?
Answer: Mr. Bush. In each case it was/is to disarm a leader's people in efforts to hide his true intentions.
Posted by RoadToPeace on Wednesday, November 30, 2005.
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