October 18, 2010

U.S. and British Leaders: War Criminals? The Question of Criminality

When we come face to face with the facts, as many of us have done in different periods over the last seven to nine years, there is no question that American, British, and Israeli leaders must be brought to justice. Nuremberg Redux. The victims of the Iraq War and the War on Terror, on both sides, deserve more than a lousy truth and reconciliation commission. There needs to be long prison terms for the entourage of war criminals who banged the hollow drum for the Iraq war, and a few public hangings of the most responsible actors. We can't settle for anything less than strict, clear-eyed justice. Forget "turning the page" and "moving forward." At no point should war crimes be put into context, and the atrocities by war criminals and state terrorists be forgiven. And, make no mistake, the men in charge of the war establishment in America, England, and Israel are state terrorists. They lied deliberately, repeatedly, and unashamedly. And their trail of lies led to mass murder.

As stated in Chile's Rettig Report, the crime of state terrorism is beyond measure. The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was an attack on all of us, everywhere in the world. The murderers who took 3,000 lives on that day care even less about you and me nine years later. They will attack again if they have to, if they feel their political agenda is not being followed, or obeyed.

From the Rettig Report:

"such a practice [terrorism] is incompatible with the value of human life as embodied in the modern conception of human life."

It is an incredibly sad and terrifying fact that the U.S. government exposes its own people, especially its most loyal citizens who serve in the military, to violence and suffering on a recurrent basis without justification or reason, but it is true, and this state of affairs can only be changed by the American people once the full truth is admitted by the entire country.

As of now, America is a democracy in name only, as is much of the Western world. But this can change. In the months and years ahead we must work even harder to expose the truth, and establish a complete picture about America's human rights violations, and breaches against the rule of law, which goes back many decades.

It is a positive sign that General Hugh Shelton calls out the Bush administration in his new memoirs over the false beginnings of the Iraq War, and basically says that Donald Rumsfeld is one of the demons in America's secret closet. That kind of truth is hard to go down, but if more respectable people like Gen. Shelton talk frankly, America might actually be saved, and freedom can be won again.

It is also encouraging to read Mark Thompson writing in Time Magazine:

Less than three months after 9/11, the Bush Administration was planning for war with Iraq. These talking points prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's meeting on November 27, 2001, with Army General Tommy Franks, the U.S. Central Command chief, make clear the justification for the coming war: "Focus on WMD." Much of the three-page memo, recently released by the National Security Archive at the George Washington University following an FOIA request, has been redacted. But they still left plenty of good stuff in. It's pretty chilling to read an original source document -- basically the starting gun for the war with Iraq -- begin with a false premise. (Thompson, Time Mag, "Weapons of Mass Dismay, October 18, 2010).

Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists makes the same point in his article "Revisiting the Decision to Go to War in Iraq" that's published on Secrecy News:

It is to be expected that national intelligence services will sometimes fail to identify and discover a threat to the nation in a timely fashion. But when intelligence warns of a threat that isn’t really there, and then nations go to war to meet the phantom threat — that is a serious, confounding and deeply disturbing problem.

But in a nutshell, that is the story of the war in Iraq, in which the U.S. and its allies attacked Saddam Hussein’s Iraq because of the supposedly imminent threat posed by Saddam’s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction — a threat that proved illusory.

Hopefully, more journalists, scientists, and citizens from all fields will revisit the not too distant past and reflect on the corrupt origins of the Iraq War, and the War on Terror. Maybe, just maybe, they will also take an honest look at the evidence surrounding 9/11 that point to U.S. government involvement. If any journalists see this article, which I highly doubt, please read this: Memo to Journalists: Stop Mocking The Campaign For 9/11 Truth And Accountability. You shouldn't quit your jobs, as you have kids to raise and families to look after, you don't have to speak up and risk being fired, but, you can quietly become a rebel in sheep's clothing. Don't follow the party line. Don't fall for the trap. Don't buy the government propaganda. Be on the good side. Be on the side of truth, freedom, and justice. We will win with or without you, so join the awakening, and be part of the resistance of the mind, and soul. Humanity is calling out for you. The rest of us are waiting for you. Take that leap. Leave the land of lies. You're not safe there. None of us are. Only the war criminals and state terrorists can call that land their home. We must make a new home, built on the rule of law, and grounded in the principles of liberty and human empowerment.