Monday, February 24, 2003

Civilization / Liberation / Plunderization QUOTE OF THE DAY I accept responsibility for active intervention to secure for our capitalists opportunity for profitable investments." - - U.S. President William Howard Taft (1910) RHINO HERE: Inquiring minds want to know: What's really going on here? Is it about weapons of Mass destruction? Or Terrorism? Or Saddam? Or U.N. resolutions? Or is it just a new version of an old scam called colonialism? Like same song, next verse, a little bit louder & a little bit worse. Used to be that the PR machine for the British Empire had a key phrase when explaining why they were taking over another country. They'd say, "We're bring them civilization". But Mr. Blair's forbearers never had any intention of being civil with their new subjects. It was about plundering land & resources. Now there's a new phrase that the shrub gang PR crew is using. They say, "We're going to liberate them." They bombed hell out of Afganistan to liberate the Afgans. But it's never talked about that the shrubies didn't give a hoot about the plight of the Afgan people. They wanted an oil pipeline through that country and after they gave the Taliban 40 million dollars in April of 2001 and the Talibans still wouldn't let them build the pipeline, shrub told them they'd get theirs, and they did. Funny how the root word of liberate is the same as the root word for the dreaded L word that the right leaning warmongerers hate so much, "liberal". And now the U.S. will once again "liberate" the Philippines. U.S. Combat Force of 1,700 Is Headed to the Philippines NY Times 2/20/03 WA$HINGTON, Feb. 20 — The United States will send more than 1,700 troops to the Philippines in the next few weeks to fight Muslim extremists in the southern part of the country, opening a new front in the campaign against terrorism, Pentagon officials said today. The first troops are to be deployed within days. Unlike a six-month mission last year that involved 1,300 American troops, it will not limit United States forces to an advisory role allowing them to fire only in self-defense..." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/international/asia/21FILI.html MORE ON THIS AT: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0203/020403cdam1.htm The Real American Addiction What is the real American addiction? Shopping? Eating? Boozing? Smoking? There's an amazing book called, Addicted To War which I featured in the Rhino's Blog of July 1, 2002 http://radio.weblogs.com/0103207/2002/07/01.html Addicted To War is only 62 pages long and has lots of pictures so it's a quick read. Although in comic book format and written with young people in mind, it can educate even those adults who think they have a deep understanding of U.S. history. My president wrote of it: "Addicted To War is must reading for all Americans who are concerned with understanding the true nature of U.S. foreign policy and how it affects us here at home." - - Martin Sheen Excerpt from the text of Addicted To War: "To become a world power, the U.S. built a world class navy. A gung-ho Theodore Roosevelt was put in charge of it. He said, 'I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.' The next year, taking fancy to several Spanish colonies including Cuba and the Philippines, the U.S. declared war on Spain. Rebel armies were already fighting for independence in both countries and Spain was on the verge of defeat. Washington declared it was on the rebels side and Spain quickly capitulated. But the U.S. soon made it clear it had no intention of leaving. Senator Albert Beveridge said, 'The Philippines are ours forever... The power that rules the Pacific is the power that rules the world. That power is and will be forever the American Republic.' ... But the Filipinos didn't share the views of the Senator and his buddies. They fought the new invaders just as they had fought the Spanish. The U.S. subjugated the Philippines with brute force. U.S. soldiers were ordered to, 'Burn all and kill all' and they did. By the time the Filipinos were defeated, 600,000 had died..." Rhino highly recommends you get copies of Addicted To War & read it, & then distribute them widely. For more info go to: http://www.addictedtowar.com THE BOTTOM LINE today is an excellent piece by writer / environmentalist, Peter Matthiessen, who for more than 40 years has been dealing with human rights & environmental issues. His classic of American Indian history, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, detailed the struggle between the American Indian Movement and the FBI's cointelpro operatives. His other nonfiction books include The Tree Where Man Was Born, The Snow Leopard, Indian Country, Men's Lives, and, most recently, The Birds of Heaven. 8:29:20 AM    comment

LIGHTING THE FUSE - Freeing the Iraqi People to Death by Peter Matthiessen, OrionOnline.Org The country today is very much concerned about the young Americans in the military whose lives will be endangered in an attack upon Iraq. But in the event of that attack, who in the White House will take responsibility for the never-mentioned yet inevitable slaughter of Iraqi civilians whose sole offense was getting in the way of a regime change? In our name, a half million human beings are being threatened with death in the next few weeks -- dreadful deaths not unlike those of the victims of 9/11, except that far greater numbers will be burned and crushed and suffocated, and the horror will be painfully intensified by the shrieking of maimed and dying children. Nobody in this closed government, and almost nobody in the compliant mainstream media, is dealing squarely and honestly with this subject. One can only pray that strategic bluster is at work when a Bush Team official boasts on television of planned "shock and awe" armadas of bombs and rockets -- nearly eight hundred in the first two days -- that will effectively remove any impulse to resist, especially in those who have been killed. Bluster or not, such words can only terrify the essentially defenseless people who wait in expectant horror for the American Armageddon. And if that boast has any truth in it, the mortality in Baghdad will be many times more terrible than Bush War I's grim slaughter of hapless fugitives along the Basra Road in 1991, when at least one fighter pilot and a tank commander refused to participate further in a massacre that no longer had a point. In the military, taking such a stand requires unusual bravery, and these young men should have been decorated as true heroes whose moral code spared our country further shame... PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT: http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/Patriotism/index_Matthiessen.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 8:18:08 AM    comment

© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.