ain't "river" anymore in Egypt baby!

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From day one, Iraq has been a politicians'/corporate war and occupation. Life is just too precious to use it in the way this president has. He invaded a country after promising repeatedly that war would only be fought as a 'last resort', one of his most blatant lies, and all the while other options were available. After all, we did stand down bigger menaces during the cold war. Not having completed the task in Afghanistan, we had plenty of time to formulate a coherent strategy in Iraq. It was a war of choice, not of necessity; a war of convenience and timetable, not one of urgency. None of Bush's ever-shifting rationales and retroactive pretexts justifies the lives lost, people displaced, soldiers and civilians maimed, and the destruction of a country completely unrelated to 9/11. What for? To impose democracy at the point of a gun in a region where the popular vote could well yield fundamentalist Islamism? It would be the height of irony and folly to 'liberate' a country, only for them to elect an Osama BinLaden type. I heard Bush say he would rather fight the enemy in Iraq rather than in the streets of America, then told them to 'bring 'em on', which sounds like he's using our soldiers as magnets and bait. That is unforgivable, given that he avoided combat by hiding out in the champagne division of the Alabama Air National Guard, and it's questionable that he even fulfilled that commitment. Other than Powell, did any one of the war planners ever face combat? To them, war is an academic exercise; more akin to a video game than flesh and blood carnage they created.
I'd bet that if there were a Constitutional rule that before our soldiers can be sent into combat, a commensurate percentage of the adult children of the Congress and ruling administration would be subject to a random lottery draft, we would use more discretion in wielding American force. Wars would certainly be fought only when absolutely necessary. I don't trust anything this president or administration says anymore.

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pay for an ad on the comment page of The Guardian two months before the invasion. Under the heading of "misuse of public office" it stated:

Dear Tony Blair,
You said "Labour will change what is wrong" before you became prime minister in May 1997. In July, the Committee on Standards in Public Life called for a statutory criminal offence of misuse of public office to apply to everyone, including ministers and judges. You haven't implemented this (or answered letters about it). You've been more interested in supporting a "president" who was not properly elected. Bush's administration is little more than a consortium of oil company executives pursuing a suspect agenda. Their stated reasons for war don't stand up to scrutiny. We haven't been crying out for this war. There is a sensible and pervasive fear that terrorism may escalate out of all control if we back the use of violence in an already inflamed part of the world. We know for certain that international law will be flouted and human suffering will be multiplied. It's not as though you have grasped the nettle at home. There is still inequality in education, an impoverished health service, unsafe trains, unfair tax havens, a degraded environment, intimidating libel laws and treacherous courts. Are there really brighter prospects for the overworked and underpaid, the unemployed and homeless, students and pensioners? Why must we have fewer jury trials and more prisons and airport runways? Saddam is a bad guy, but he can also serve as a distraction from the public's disappointment. Look at two questions. How moral is it to kill perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent people in an attempt to "take out" one very well protected individual? And how legitimate is it for you to spend our money on an enterprise for which there is no consensus when there is so much that is compassionate, constructive, worthwhile and rewarding that needs to be done here at home?

I didn't forsee the UK being implicated in torture and "renditions". But bad behaviour has been obvious from the beginning.

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Having demonstrated against this war before it even began, I am in despair for our nation. We had a chance to change course in 2004, but John Kerry could never find it in himself to oppose this war. When in 2006, the Democrats won the Congress by a bare majority, I had hope that it would be ended. But Nancy Pelosi gave away the most important weapon that she held, and the only one that I think had hope for ending the vast corruption of the national interest that the Bush/Cheney administration has become: impeachment.

There are hundreds of thousands of people who know this war is wrong, wrong, wrong, but the three major Democratic candidates still refuse to say it's time to go, and that's who the media watches. Lord knows,it won't be ended by Rudy Guiliani (another hawk who never served in combat) or by Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson.

I say a prayer every night that we won't wake up to the news that we've attacked Iran and set off what will be an endless conflict that will no doubt provoke more terrorist attacks on Western nations. But as long as this administration is in office, it's probably not if but when we will attack, and there will be no going back.

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I am proud to say that I never believed in this war, I never believed in Bush, and I never believed any of his lies and propaganda. I have never hated a person more than I hate this president and all of his cronies and all that they stand for. I want this president and all of his cronies impeached and tried as the war criminals they are. They should also be tried and impeached for their corruption. I hate this presidency for all it represents and what it has brought out about the citizens of this country. That said, what concerns me more than Bush - Cheney and their house of corruption is that we all sit back and just let it happen. Our country has become so complacent that we don't even demand an accounting of the various forms of corruption we hear about on a daily basis. Corruption that destroys our country, our constitution, and our reputation. We have allowed this presidency to squander away our financial security for the benefit of big business and a war that is a blackhole. We are hated throughout this world for our hyprocrisy and our "better than thou attitude." While this is happening, while the infrastructure of our country is crumbling and we move into a dark age, as we ignore the need for environmental change, as our country tortures prisoners, as we disallow advancements in stem cell research that could potentially save us from future suffering, as our children are uneducated and uninsured, as medical insurance, medical care and medications become available only for the wealthy, as big business is allowed to run rampant, as checks and balances are wiped out, as our young sons and daughters are slaughtered for a worthless war, and as what we have left of democrcy slowly dissolves into a dictatorship, we just sit back and pretend we don't see it or that someone will come along and fix it for us. We sit back, sigh and let Bush and his accomplices go on about their business of destroying our country in every way imaginable and lying through their teeth about it. Bush and his cronies aren't to blame as much as we are. If we didn't allow this to happen, it wouldn't, it's as simple as that. We yawn when we find out that we're being fed nothing more than propaganda, that we aren't getting true journalism anymore, and that we hear only what we are supposed to hear. We look away when one more scandal or one more corrupt venture is uncovered. Why don't we care? That's what amazes me, we know all these things and yet do nothing to stop it. So who is to blame for the mess we're in now, Bush? Bush is a whimp, he is a failed and miserable human being who is trying to make himself look big by thinking he is the president, "the decider." Bush can't even talk without reading his speaches and chances are he doesn't even know what he's saying. Bush is only the puppet for the real Bush presidency that occurs behind closed doors in seclusion and secrecy. Bush may not even be smart enough to know what's going on, or he is so deluded with the idea of being the president and finally in charge of something that his ego won't allow him to believe that he is still nothing. The Bush administration, with all it's evil, corruption, deceipt, and unimaginable incompetence only exists because we allow it to.

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The American public has become dispondent and disillusioned with its government and can find no answer to this problem.

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2/3/4 years ago. Suddenly he's seen the light. If the US had not ended up in this quagmire, 70% not 30%, would be still be gung ho in support of the warmonger Bush. Probably including most of the posters on this site. I am sorry to say that Americans in general have no respect or value for the lives of people other than themselves. 9/11 - what a tragedy!! What about the millions of Iraqis, most of them innocent bystanders, who have been killed, maimed or displaced IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY??!! I can never forget the image of the Iraqi boy who as a result of an American missile lost his entire family and lost both legs & both arms. When that happened, in the "good old days", did the USA open it's heart & offer to help the child. NO!!!! It was the Brits who did.
Americans, & I don't mean Bush & his fellow criminals, have a lot to answer for & the rest of the world will not forget easily.

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As long as citizens are convinced that their thugs are the worlds toughest thugs in a world of gangs run by thugs, then people will give lip service to moral issues, but that's about it. Unfortunately, you and other great journalists who emphasize only the moral issues and ignore the "practical" issue that casts a giant shadow over all discourse, aren't really helping matters much.

The question never asked or debated is whether our thugs really can accomplish their ends, keeping us safe and un-impoverished in the process? They certanly claim they can do so. Everytime they thumb their nose at the constitution, "get caught" torturing and respond defiantly, they enhance their gang-leader creds.

But evidence abounds that their claim to gang-lord supremacy in a world of gangs is extremely questionable. They are unlikely any longer to wind up "king of the hill" in a "clash of civilizations." This nation is incredibly vulnerable to attacks not upon our military, but upon our citizenry.

Whenever these kinds of issues are raised they are labeled conspiracy theory. Well, isn't Bushco brazenly conspiratorial in the way it operates? Secret meetings, plans designed without regard for legal precedent? In fact, highly devious machinations to subvert our legal system in service of the power of the few?

In other words, isn't it time to start talking what is the dominant issue for most people: Can these bastards really accomplish their thuggish goals?

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We should be wary of any form of exceptionalist thinking. America is a nation populated with humans, and humans have unpleasant weaknesses that lead to torture, pograms, and other cruel and totalitarian projects. The German people have been butts for this since WW2, as if only they could have done the things they did during that war. But other nations around the globe have committed comparable crimes. Go ask folks on the reservation what they have to say, or maybe remember slavery, or Civil Rights-era lynchings. Comparing our government officials to Nazis is sloppy thinking and avoids our own part in this. One poster above asked what this "we" stuff is all about. Well, we are U.S. citizens, so we shoulder this blame much more than any "Good German." The problem is quite simply that some of this crap is what some of us think means "Good American," and we should be dealing with that first and foremost. I'm not sure what name to call it, nor do I think calling names and applying labels is useful. It's better, albeit more stressful, to challenge it on a day-to-day basis as you find it.

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But how do you propose we 'wake up' our sleeping Congress?

Not a week goes by when I don't send two or three letters or emails to my Congress Critters. Or call them about some latest excess by the Bush administration.

I'm a voter. I pay my taxes. But I am ignored. How do you propose to fix this problem? The Congress no longer works for us. In fact, Congress works for itself.

Face it, America is dead. It died on 9/11 and everything that had meaning about the nation died along with it. All that shit that our grandparents fought for is gone. If it ever existed in the first place. Freedom? Democracy? Since when? How free am I when I can be rounded up and put in a hole to be tortured for the amusement of some sick fucker in my government? What sort of Democracy do we have when greater than 70% of our nation is against this war and actively opposes Bush, yet we're still there stuck and nobody is doing anything.

The Democrats could be shooting down and filibustering every bill that comes through Congress but they don't. They could make the Republicans work for every filibuster they want to do, but they don't. They could be impeaching Gonzales, Cheney and Bush for violating the Constitution and federal Law but they don't. They could pass a law in no uncertain terms refusing funding for the war and bring it back again and again and again changing one word each revision and effectively shut down Congress until the Will of the People is finally done. But they don't. Even though it is their duty.

Why? Politics. They know if they remove Bush they have to come up with someone who can fix the shit Bush has done wrong. But if they wait, they won't be running against Mitt Romney or John McCain or Rudy Giuliani they'll be running against George W. Bush's record and anybody can win against that.

So in the mean time they sit on their thumbs pretending to give a rats ass what you think. So you'll sit quietly and wait. Meanwhile the ideal of America is already gone and the only thing left is the gutted carcass that's left as Haliburton and other companies decide to leave the nation after they've picked it clean. Awful nice in Dubai these days.

We're Rome now. We're Nazi Germany. We've bankrupted ourselves because of our own arrogance and the only thing left is war. Funny thing is is only took 225 years to destroy America and it wasn't the Limeys or the Commies or the Gooks or Jerry or even Al Quaeda. It was one of our own that destroyed us.

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And it can be found right here. And if you don't think the vast majority of the people in this country would not act exactly like the Germans under Hitler, think again.

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.
For some, stomping around the world crushing other countries willy-nilly is a reasonable response to 9/11.

When you consider the crimes this Republican administration and congress has inflicted on America and the world, you have to hope they are long on their own invincibility and short on survival instinct. Even the possibility of being investigated for war crimes is likely to focus their minds exclusively on self survival. What won’t they do to save themselves?

Let’s hope they are confident of their ability to control events and avoid prosecution. Given the Democrats’ complicity every insane step of the way, that’s a certainty. Reagan got away with his crimes against humanity, and so will Cheney-bush. Unfortunately, most of our elected representatives become leaders twenty minutes after taking office. Leaders seize the reins of power eagerly but often ignore the part about representing the people.

Anyone who thinks they can dominate the world with nuclear weapons, becomes a target for others with nuclear weapons. Republicans twisted the horrors of 9/11 to their advantage and use it to escalate their Global Religious War to the limit. For what purpose?

Or is it a simple war of conquest, manifest destiny, survival of the fittest and all that Conservative Ideology stuff. Preaching and teaching self-esteem with Aryan Racism. Law & Order is whatever they say it is from moment to moment, which leaves us worried about slippery slopes and human frailty.

Are you religiously inclined to kill for the love of God?

Pray no one is.

.

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I'm 69. For the greater part of my life I wondered how the 'decent' Germans allowed Hitler and his mob to carry on as they did.
After the invasion of Iraq i wonder no more. A New Zealander, living in Australia
I watched aghast as the American, Brits and Australians did nothing, and then reelected their respective governments. Going from countries with rogue governments, to rogue countries in the process.
I heard people say: I don't care what happens to the Iraqis, just so as my interest rates do not go up.
I see the failure of the Democrats to act to stop the US's involvement in the war. I see both Democrats and Republicans blaming the Puppet government the coalition installed for the failures in Iraq.
What is wrong with everybody? Where are the demonstrations, the sit ins, the active opposition to this occupation?
The Americans, the Brits and the Australian people are in it up to their neck. They have been ever since they reelected the governments that joined the invasion.
I can only assume that they have no mirrors in their houses!

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What will happen when these mercenaries come home to America after the war? Are they going to disarm? Or are they going to advance their own political agenda here with the barrels of their guns? Blackwater employs over 40,000 "security specialists". And they are just one company. A shit storm is coming and we better be prepared to face it.

Good night and good luck...

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I've been saying this for quite some time.....

when America FINALLY (if ever) wakes up, we will have a lot to answer for.

When the majority of americans fall for the line, "only about 30,000 Iraqis have been killed and they've all been killing themselves, It's not OUR fault."

there's no real difference between that denial and the "gee, we didn't know there were concentration camps killing people." the Germans claimed after WW2.

So what's our excuse? Fox News made us do it?

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You know, it's all well and fine to bring in these members of America's "greatest generation," to comment on the wars today, but let's face it- the US didn't officially torture Germans or nuke them b/c Germans, during WWII, looked a lot like Americans. Lots of Americans still had ancestral ties to Germany.

Take the Japanese instead, and it's perfectly all right not to drop 1 but 2 A-bombs on them. A question: were torture tactics ever used on Japanese POWs?

Contrary to what these venerated veterans say, not much has changed today. Dark skinned, non-christian folks are the enemy in the GWOT. When they're just a little less human (ie, less white, less christian), it's quite a bit easier to treat them so.

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It shames me to say that Canada has blood on its hands too. We have an active combat mission in Afghanistan, which I believe to be doomed to failure. That, however, is not the worst of it. Canada is providing, directly and indirectly, material aid to the war in Iraq. Although our previous Prime Minister, Cretien, was able to say no to a combat mission, there is the still the fact that industry in Canada is benefiting from the War. An illegal war of aggression. What does that make us?

A lot of Canadians are pretty smug about the fact that we aren't fighting in Iraq. Not like those nasty American war-mongers. Yet, not many Canadians are aware of the fact that we are profiting from the death and misery.

I am glad to say that our media still has some plurality of viewpoints, and that we aren't easily swept up into patriotic fervor. Yet we still have the 'Support Our Troops' yellow ribbon industry thriving and the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan have a positive media presence. Enough of one that we now have a portion of one of Canada's main highways, hwy. 401, renamed the 'Highway Of Heroes' complete with a new sign sporting a poppy of remembrance. I have to drive on it everyday to work, and it makes me sick. Yet another rosy memorial to the righteous crusade, the poor killing and dying for the rich. Another legend to add to Canada's self-delusion as the world's peacemaker.

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Sent letters to the editors? Tried harder to reason with Hitler?
Said it was Ok to kill Jews but not torture them first?

We have already voted for Kerry-(rigged election) voted in a Democrat Senate (who voted to continue to fund the war) wrote and wrote protest letters to our leaders---now what?

Those of us who were kids in the 60's took to the streets when they started the draft-but there is no draft now. The government has got smarter. Milk is over $4 dollars a gallon now. Force poor families into total poverty so the kids JOIN the Army.


I don't see what is left ---outside of armed Revolution. Maybe this is why our government has been rounding up all the old 60's Weathermen lately-after being on the run for all these years. Maybe it is not so much payback-as to stop any REAL activist groups from organizing!

How much did the Weathermen contribute to ending the Vietman war? Quite a bit I would say. There were never many of them-but their actions did have the sympathy of lots of young people. Which is what really scared our government.

You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.....after all Thomas Jefferson was a terrorist against his own established government-England.

I mean-just what are you suggesting here Alternet?

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Enough said.

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We have been lead down a road to this point, slowly seduced to accept the horrific as just another news story. Americans need to be taking to the streets demanding accountability. We should be foaming at the mouth angry at what is being done in OUR NAME. THis is our government. We the People...are condoning these acts because we have the mechanisms in place to rid ourselves of these fascists, yet we sit back and wait, therefore we are complicit in these crimes against humanity. People are being killed and tortured, and we are guilty.

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