The Rag Blog

The menace of global terrorism has been labeled the greatest threat to western civilization since communism and yet swimming pools, peanuts and lost deer kill more Americans every single year. Why are our governments facilitating the terrorist’s agenda by hyping a peril that simply doesn’t exist?

The number of Americans killed as a result of international terrorism since the 1960’s gives us a benchmark from which we can correctly identify and target other dire dangers to our very way of life.

– Allergic reactions to peanuts

– Accident causing deer

– Lightning strikes

That’s correct – all of the above have killed an equal number of Americans since 1960 as terrorism. One could even categorize M&M’s, lost deer and the weather as an “axis of evil arming to threaten the peace of the world,” as George Bush famously once said.

As Ohio State University’s John Mueller concludes in a report entitled A False Sense Of Insecurity, “For all the attention it evokes, terrorism actually causes rather little damage and the likelihood that any individual will become a victim in most places is microscopic.”

Last summer’s much vaunted transatlantic terror plot, a facade that has since collapsed under the weight of its own absurdity, led to ridiculous measures in airports banning any form of liquids in carry on luggage and mother’s were forced to drink their own breast milk. Yet there has not been a bomb planted in a piece of checked luggage on an American carrier since the 1988 Lockerbie disaster, itself a false flag inside job. Since that time hundreds of billions of Americans have been routinely interrogated about the contents of their luggage while cargo remains completely unchecked.

To equal the danger that Americans place themselves in every day by driving their car down the highway, there would have to be a September 11 every month. To reach the same level of risk that one undertakes in boarding an airline, you only have to travel eleven miles in a car.

The principle goal of terrorists is to terrify populations and governments into acquiescing to their political demands. The only way they can achieve this is by generating a substantial amount of fear and making people believe the lie that their life is significantly threatened by potential terrorism, when in reality the swimming pool in their backyard poses more of a danger.

As soon as we lose the fear, the terrorists lose their power over us to control our behavior. If western governments were really trying to win a war on terror as they claim then they would downplay and sideline acts of terror, pointing out that an individual has more chance of being struck by lightning than being killed in a terror attack.

I am an American, and as an American, I often find it very difficult to take responsibility for my actions. This letter is my effort to take responsibility for some of the things I have done to harm you. I speak for no other American but myself.

I am responsible for the many decades of suffering and hardship you have faced (and may well likely continue to face). I helped bring Saddam Hussein to power in order to control your natural resources and to use you as a state agent against Iran. I furnished Saddam with political support, money and deadly weaponry, much of which was used against you with my silent blessings. I protected him and allowed him create a world of misery for you in return for his loyalty to me.

Eventually, for political reasons, I found it useful to make him a bogey man. To his credit, this was a roll he played very well.

However, when I punished him with sanctions, you were the ones who starved. When I punished him with bombs, you were the ones who died. When I removed him from power without a workable transition strategy, you were the ones who were thrust into lawless chaos.

When Saddam was of no more use to me, I had him killed.

I know this letter means next to nothing to you, as you struggle to survive day to day, but I think it is important for at least one single American to acknowledge his silent responsibility in your suffering.

Call me Ishmael. Inspired by a fellow Montanan’s recent diary, “It’s the Contractors, Stupid- A Plan to Get Out of Iraq,” I went rooting for truffles on the internet today and discovered that Iraq is nearing a critical point for a process many of us and almost all ordinary Iraqis know almost nothing about: The Bearing Point plan for Iraq is predicated on WTO membership. Despite Iraq’s not meeting the basic requirements for WTO membership, the application has been fast-tracked since Paul Bremer first put his boots on Saddam’s old desk. Although Iran has applied for and been denied observer status 15 times, Iraq, occupied and already in the throes of civil war, was granted observer status right on Bremer’s schedule, in February of 2004 and is now in the final stage of securing full WTO membership.

Is the WTO accession process is part of a duplicitous, Machiavellian plan by the occupying powers and their globalist corporate backers? Can it be stopped before the Iraqis surrender economic sovereignty in perpetuity? Find out more and what you can do after the jump.

Iraqanomics 101: The WTO Commuter Lane

How to become a member of the WTO: Article XII of the WTO Agreement states that accession to the WTO will be “on terms to be agreed” between the acceding government and the WTO. Accession to the WTO is essentially a process of negotiation — quite different from the process of accession to other international entities, like the IMF, which is largely an automatic process..

Who can apply: *”Any state or customs territory having full autonomy in the conduct of its trade policies is eligible to accede to the WTO on terms agreed between it and WTO Members”*. (Article XII of the WTO Agreement).

http://www.wto.org/…

BAGHDAD, 4 Jan 2007 (IRIN) – Like other minority members in Iraq, Mardon Matrood, a 44-year-old Assyrian shopkeeper in Baghdad, has had enough of the country’s sectarian violence.

“Minorities in Iraq are targeted by insurgents and militias, who want us out of the country as they promote what they call the ‘cleansing of Iraq, of non-Muslim communities’,” said Matrood who is living with his family of six in an abandoned government building.

Four months ago Matrood’s family failed to pay a ransom of US $50,000 to kidnappers who had abducted his nephew. The nephew was later found dead.

BAGHDAD — The flowers appear overnight, and in the unlikeliest of places: carnations near a checkpoint, roses behind razor wire, and gardenias in a square known for suicide bombings.

Sometimes, U.S. armored vehicles hop a median and mow down the myrtle, leaving Baghdad parks workers to fume and reach for their trowels. When insurgents poured kerosene over freshly planted seedlings, landscapers swore a revenge of ficus trees and olive groves.

It’s all part of a stealthy campaign to turn the entire capital into a green zone.

Jaafar Hamid al Ali, the Baghdad parks supervisor, leads the offensive. He’s got a multi-million-dollar budget, along with 1,500 intrepid employees and a host of formidable enemies. There’s the fussy climate, salty soil, and nonstop violence that killed 30 of his workers in 2006. Every fallen gardener, Ali said, is a martyr in the struggle to beautify Baghdad.

BAGHDAD — Noor Ibrahim lay shivering underneath two blankets on a bed at al-Jarrah Hospital. Steps away was a red plastic bassinet. It was empty.

A few doors down, her recently born son lay wrapped in a pink blanket. He was a chubby boy of nearly nine pounds with a big patch of black hair. His eyes were closed, his head cocked to the left, his mouth slightly open, his skin soft and pale.

The boy was not in a bassinet. He was in a cardboard box. He was not heading to his mother’s room. He was heading to the morgue.

“Fresh death,” Ibrahim’s obstetrician said as she reached into the box and lifted the boy’s limp right arm, still covered in blood and amniotic fluid.

Giving birth is painful enough as it is. In war-torn Iraq, it’s also becoming more dangerous.

Spontaneous road closures, curfews and gun battles make even getting to the hospital a challenge for expectant mothers. Once they arrive, the women have no guarantee that they will receive adequate health care from a qualified physician.

“It’s spiraling downward. It’s getting worse each day,” said Annees Sadik, an anesthesiologist at al-Jarrah.

But the new congress has its work cut out for it with domestic policy: minimum wage, cut interest on student loans, tax breaks for small business, and a couple of things I can’t remember. Get something done first before all Hell breaks loose. The Progressive Populist says everything W has done since the Baker group report started leaking, and after it was released, has been preparation to reject the report. They called it attacking the Rescue Squad. He thinks he can say now that he tried negotiation and it didn’t work. (sacrifice of Condi). His idea of negotiatiing is to say, “Give me everything I want first, nothing for you, and then we’ll talk.” So what’s to talk about? Also that he is appointing other study groups so that the Baker report will be only one of many. Same issue accused W administration of venality, meaning thinking only of their own (short-term) political interests, never of the good of the country.

America has never learned to be an ally of the Third World, only a colonial master. No reciprocity. My observation. Never learned from Chairman Mao, though he explained it thoroughly and wrote it out. First win the hearts and minds of the local people. But no, we bring in multinational corporations, which hurt them.

Also, the military intelligence people in Iraq are rotated so often that they are always in a state of training, never anyone knowledgeable to work. This from PP.

The Iraqi army we have built consists of Shia death squads. Our disbanding of the Iraqi army and civil service played a big role in causing the Sunni insurgency. And we hanged Sadam for killing the Shia we stirred up to rebel against him with the weapons we saw to it that he got, which have been against International law since WWI.

Please find below links to the Diary of Dr Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive. Dr Eskander’s journal, which appears with his kind permission, starts in November 2006 and describes the perilous and tragic situation that the Iraq National Library and Archive is operating under and which led to the institution’s temporary closure at the end of that month.

I left Rome to Amman, and the next day, I arrived to the Baghdad International Airport. It is well known that the highway, which links the Airport to the Baghdad City, is the most dangerous road in the world.

For a security reason, I asked the taxi driver to drop me at the first military checkpoint, which is by car 3 minutes away from the Airport. One must not trust anybody, especially the Airport taxi drivers. At the checkpoint, my driver was waiting for me with his car. The security police asked us to leave the area immediately, as they were suspicious of abandoned car at the checkpoint. The highway was in a chaotic state, as everyone tried to leave the Airport area, including the policemen and the soldiers, who did not hesitate to point their guns at us, when our car slowed its speed in order to allow their cars to pass!!

I asked the driver to take me to my office straightaway. Minutes after we left the highway, two terrorists bombed a police checkpoint in the Al-Yarmook district, killing 60 people and injuring 90 others. My driver and I decided to take another route via the Al-Karradah district. Once again, just as we entered the Al-Karradah district, two car-bombs exploded killing and injuring a lot of civilians. I decided not to go to my office, as the other main routes were extremely dangerous. Indeed, on the same day and in the very busy Al-Sa’adun area, two more car-bombs exploded, killing and injuring many people. It was a very nice welcome and back to reality.

13 November, 2006

I received bad news, as soon as I arrived to my office. In my absent, INLA was bombed twice and snipers’ bullets broke several windows. Fortunately, no body was hurt. My staff withheld these information from me, when I contacted them. They claimed that they did not want me to be worried and to spoil my visit.

This week, Lt. Ehren Watada faces a court martial for his refusal to serve in Iraq. But the trial of Lt. Watada is one in which We The People will be judged.

Following World War Two the Neuremberg trials established the principle that following orders was NOT an excuse for war crimes. The correlary is that soldiers not only have a right, but a duty to refuse to obey orders they consider to be illegal or immoral. This right is a foundation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice under which Amerecan military troops operate.

And, given that officers issuing illegal or immoral orders are not likely to announce them as such, implicit in the right to refuse such orders is the right and obligation of the soldier receiving those orders to make a determination if the orders are legal.

This is the principle the US Government is trying to bury as it prepares for Lt. Watada’s Court Martial. The last thing the government wants is for the legality of the war in Iraq to be put on trial.

But there is another principle the US Government hope is also pretending does not exist. And that is that the military of the United States is subordinate to the civilian control of the nation. That is why the Commander in Chief is a civilian position. That is why Congress must vote on the top military honors and promotions. Congress is, in theory, subordinate to the will of the people. That is why it is called a representative government.

It therefore follows that the civilians of the United States, i.e. WE THE PEOPLE have an authority in principle to tell the military court martial of Ehren Watada that this case is indeed about the legality of the Iraq war.

With that right, comes responsibility. And the world will judge not Lt. Watada, not the court martial, not the White House, but WE THE PEOPLE based on what we do to avert what appears to be a serious abuse of military authority.

If we accept that a soldier has a right and a duty to refuse to obey an illegal order, it follows that We The Poeple have a similar right and duty to stand by that soldier. WE have to make noise. We have to call attention to the injustice. We must hold that injustice up to the world’s criticism.

If, on the other hand, we sit still and allow our government to establish a precedent that soldiers CAN be ordered to commit illegal acts, we are no better than those Germans who remained quiet while Hitler ordered their soldiers to commit war crimes.

So, how do you want history to remember you?

And what are you prepared to do about it.