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Wednesday, September 24, 2008 |
IrishTimes: "The US military sees the next 30 to 40 years as involving a state of continuous war against ideologically-motivated terrorists and competing with Russia and China for natural resources and markets, writes Tom Clonan.
Further evidence of America's future military intentions is contained in recently published strategy documents issued by the US military.
Under the auspices of the US department of defence and department of the army, the US military have just published a document entitled 2008 Army Modernization Strategy which makes for interesting reading against the current backdrop of deteriorating international fiscal, environmental, energy resource and security crises.
The 2008 modernisation strategy, written by Lieut Gen Stephen Speakes, deputy chief of staff of the US army, contains the first explicit and official acknowledgement that the US military is dangerously overstretched internationally. It states simply: 'The army is engaged in the third-longest war in our nation's history and ... the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) has caused the army to become out of balance with the demand for forces exceeding the sustainable supply.'
The document reveals a number of profoundly significant - and worrying - strategic positions that have been adopted as official doctrine by the US military. In its preamble, it predicts a post cold war future of 'perpetual warfare'.
According to its authors: 'We have entered an era of persistent conflict ... a security environment much more ambiguous and unpredictable than that faced during the cold war.'
'We face a potential return to traditional security threats posed by emerging near-peers as we compete globally for depleting natural resources and overseas markets.'
This thinly-veiled reference to Russia and China will, perhaps, come as little surprise given recent events in Ossetia and Abkhazia. The explicit reference in this context to future resource wars, however, will probably raise eyebrows among the international diplomatic community, who prefer to couch such conflicts as human rights-based or rooted in notions around freedom and democracy.
The document, however, contains no such lofty pretences. It goes on to list as a pre-eminent threat to the security of the US and its allies 'population growth - especially in less-developed countries - [which] will expose a resulting 'youth bulge'.'
This youth bulge, the document goes on to state, will present the US with further 'resource competition' in that these expanding populations in the developing world 'will consume ever increasing amounts of food, water and energy'.
It states explicitly that the US military is preparing to fight continuous resource wars 'for the long haul'."
The above army document admits that our world resources are becoming scarce and it is based on the premiss that it is right to rob other nations of their resources. In short, the above document is based on a fascist ideology.
Gordon Brown yesterday in one sentence of his speech confirmed his resolve to continue supporting the US and the imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Never before have so few in such a criminal way decided on the fate of so many.
John le Carré: "Britons have been stripped of civil liberties.
We have been taken to war under false pretences, and stripped of our civil rights in an atmosphere of panic. Our lawyers don't take to the streets as they have done in Pakistan.
Our MPs allow themselves to be deluded by their own spin doctors, and end up believing their own propaganda."
ACLU: "A federal court today ordered the Department of Defense to release photographs depicting the abuse of detainees by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'This is a resounding victory for the public's right to hold the government accountable,' said ACLU staff attorney Amrit Singh, who argued before the court. 'These photographs demonstrate that the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational and not confined to Abu Ghraib, but the result of policies adopted by high-ranking officials. Their release is critical for bringing an end to the administration's torture policies and for deterring further prisoner abuse.'
The government claimed that the public disclosure of such evidence would generate outrage and would violate U.S. obligations towards detainees under the Geneva Conventions."
How cynical can they get? Citing the Geneva Conventions to prevent the publication! When they have breached all national and international laws, including the Geneva Conventions all those years!
11:38:39 AM 
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"Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We can not directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may speedily transfer your commision for this transaction. After I receive that information I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson
Seriously though,
This week the White House is trying to push through the biggest financial theft in world history with nary a stitch of debate. They're asking for a blank check for over 1 trillion dollars to bail out George Bush's Wall Street cronies who created this economic crisis in the first place.
If this passes, we can forget about any money for environmental protection, to counter global warming, for education, for national healthcare, to rebuild our decaying infrastructure, for alternative energy.
This is a historic moment. We need to act now while we can influence the debate.
Let's rally against the bailout in the heart of the financial district!
Gather at 4pm, this Thursday, Sept. 25 in the plaza at the southern end of Bowling Green Park in New York City, which is the small triangular park that has the Wall Street bull at the northern tip.
(Not in New York City? Organize a rally in your neck of the woods.)
What: Say NO to the Wall Street bailout
When: Thursday, September 25: 4pm
Where: Southern end of Bowling Green Park, in the plaza area
What to bring: Banners, noisemakers, signs, leaflets, etc.
Do whatever you can for this historic event and contact all your groups and friends. This proposed financial bailout is without precedence and we have to stop it!
We have everything we need to create a large, peaceful, loud demonstration.
Together, let's get started.
Seriously yours,
Billionaires For Bush"
Stop foreclosures and evictions!
What they got away with.
Bloomberg: "Germany won't join the U.S. bank-rescue program, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said, after Chancellor Angela Merkel noted that German proposals to bolster market transparency might have mitigated the need for such measures.
The U.S. program is 'very important to regain the stability and above all trust in financial markets', Steinbrueck told reporters in Berlin today. 'Yet the U.S. situation is not comparable to Germany's. Germany won't adopt a comparable program. Germany's banking system, based on the three-pillar model, is stable. None of the other six G-7 members will adopt a similar program to the U.S.'
Steinbrueck's comments came as government ministers from all three coalition parties stressed the differences between Germany and the U.S. in the wake of market turmoil that prompted Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion rescue package."
Naomi Klein: "The best summary of how the right plans to use the economic crisis to push through their policy wish list comes from Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Sunday, Gingrich laid out 18 policy prescriptions for Congress to take in order to 'return to a Reagan-Thatcher policy of economic growth through fundamental reforms'. In the midst of this economic crisis, he is actually demanding the repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would lead to further deregulation of the financial industry. Gingrich is also calling for reforming the education system to allow 'competition' (a.k.a. vouchers), strengthening border enforcement, cutting corporate taxes and his signature move: allowing offshore drilling.
So let's be absolutely clear: there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). The only hope of preventing another dose of shock politics is loud, organized grassroots pressure on all political parties: they have to know right now that after seven years of Bush, Americans are becoming shock resistant."
Craig Murray: "To state the obvious, the problem with the US government's bailout of the US financial system is that the US government doesn't have $700 billion. It doesn't in fact have any money at all, being substantially in debt. The idea that this creation of yet more funny money in some way heals the system is patently absurd. It merely postpones, very temporarily, some impoverishment and ensures the pain will be borne for a generation or three."
This is the Indian solution (when so many civilians are killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, who is going to bother about a few white-collar criminals?):
TimesOnline: "Corporate India is in shock after a mob of workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who sacked them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi."
In the meantime Boris Johnson, mayor of London, Wodehouse twit par excellence, enters 'a note on defending the banks':
"Before you attack the bankers of London, remember that this is one of the few global industries in which we truly excel; the City contributes about 9 per cent of Britain's GDP - think of all the professions and trades that feast, directly or indirectly, on the nourishment provided: the lawyers, accountants, PR firms, architects, interior designers, builders, taxi drivers and just about everyone else."
May I remind Mr Johnson that some time ago the British empire also fought the most brutal wars for the right to inundate China with opium. That brought immense wealth to Britain. You think that was a jewel in the crown of capitalism as well, Mr Johnson? Much of the profits of your City were made by robbing other nations, your wealth is gained with the help of the British army which secures the oil fields for the British corporations. Mr Johson, your City is built on blood. You truly excel in the new world imperialism.
The criminal underworld also provides employment and makes profit. So, Boris, you are a staunch supporter of the financial underworld now?
11:08:50 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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