Monday, September 11, 2006

Indictment




Five years after the fateful day and where are we? If one were to believe the reports on the American news channels this morning it would seem that the world was in the midst of a crisis larger than the First and Second World Wars … combined. We can be attacked at any moment, anyone of us, anywhere … oh, really?

But wait … just last week an announcement was made that throws the entire “Post 9/11 Way of Life” into question (announced at a very strategic time, late on a Friday afternoon, the time that the press likes to call the “who gives a damn” time: the markets are closed, business hours are over, and everyone [with money] is on their way away from their sphere of influence): we now know that the intelligence that directly led to the President’s decision to make war on Iraq was FALSE.

To put it another way, the President of the United States knowingly acted upon false, erroneous, incorrect and (quite possibly) falsified information to put him in the position to endanger the lives of thousands of American and coalition troops, and lead directly to the deaths of thousands of American troops. More Americans have now died SINCE 9/11 in a contrived, false war than were killed in the initial attack.

For this reason, it is my solemn duty as a Citizen of the World to bring charges against the following individuals for crimes against humanity and for knowingly prosecuting a war against a nation under false pretences:

George W. Bush, President of the United States
Dick Cheney, Vice President
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defence
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
Colin Powell, Secretary of State (2000-2004)
Michael Chertoff, Department of Homeland Security
et al.

Please note that this list is far from conclusive: it does not include the Joint Chiefs of Staff, nor the countless other advisors and counsel that the President relies upon for day-to-day activities, and the Chief of Staff. These are also included in the indictment under the heading “et al”.

The World Court must bring charges against the administration of this war-mongering president who has, from the beginning insisted that Iraq was supporting Al-Qaeda. This 2004 Washington Post report (from the 9/11 Commission) dismisses that claim. The report came out in June and ran on the front page … and the public still re-elected Bush in November, which only demonstrates that the majority of the public is either illiterate, unable to read at the level of a newspaper, or merely oblivious to things going on around them.

Either option is rather scary.

As a final note, you can call it … This Day in History:

September 11th is another important date to commemorate: This was the day, back in 1973, that the United States decided that a democratically elected leader in Chile shouldn’t have the opportunity to rule in his own country. This was the day that Salvador Allende was assassinated by an American-backed coup that installed one of the most brutal dictators of the 20th century, Pinochet.

America asks the question, over and over again, “why does everyone hate us?” with the naiveté of a child looking for an apple in bowl of waxed fruit. It’s not that the world hates America, it’s that the world remembers what America has done, and then pretended was all just an innocent misunderstanding. America doesn’t always play nicely with its toys, or with its neighbours. She can be a bully, and that is not necessarily an endearing characteristic.

The victims of September 11th are far more than the “official” lists compiled by CNN and other organizations. They must include the thousands more that have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. They must include the civilians killed in a war that the United States now declares had NOTHING to do with the attack that happened five years ago today.

When do we stop believing the words coming out of these people’s mouths and automatically assume that if they are talking they are lying? When do we learn? No WMDs. The intel on Iraq was right, then wrong, then questionable, well, actually it was always questionable, then it was wrong … which is when we went to war … then it was … no, then it stayed wrong.

Please.

33 Years ago today the United States MURDERED the President of Chile. The United States committed an act of International Terrorism against the democratically elected government of a sovereign nation. State Sponsored Terrorism. Wow … who would have imagined such a thing … oh, … they did.

Do we know who invented terrorism? This is not a question that can be answered at this point, but don’t be deceived by the fancy rhetoric, or the simple “plain talk” of the self-deprecating idiots. The “war on terrorism” is not as “simple” as it seems. Crimes are being committed, and we must not let the criminals get away without paying for what they have done.


Wednesday, September 06, 2006

[Truth]Free Press

With images of the daily news
carefully spliced together for
audience approval –
the voices of the talking heads
guide us through the emotional tumult
the traumas of the day

they take our hands (our trustworthy
talking heads)
helping us to navigate
the landmines of horror
don’t watch too much of this story
(all knowing editors decree)
benevolence their guiding motives
of that we are sure
lest the news shock us with its
extreme nature

the guiding voices guide us through to
yet another story – cautioned so we
only see
mere seconds of a war that doesn’t seem to be
as under control
as some would
want us to believe

Yet we see the images
seemingly recycled on an endless loop
of smiling soccer-moms
waving flags and
the cheering
all the smiling “yes men” and women
falling over themselves to touch the shadow
of their messiah ….

… and the talking heads continue with their
obfuscations and cerebral dilations –
flushing every original idea – every
logical thought
from the mind

it is the abdicating of the power of reason
in favour of a short “one-on-one”
with the President himself

with dreams of Pulitzers and
future books
reporters sell their souls
becoming the mouthpieces of the government

feel no pity for these misguided
these miscreants who abandoned the
path of journalism
a noble craft with responsibilities to
the public
in favour of their god

these willing participants
the acolytes of Murdoch and his cronies
are always ready to spin their stories
just the way they should be spun
veering away from
anything resembling the truth
right off the edge of the table
… until the story collapses
before the day is done – but they have
planted their seeds

the truth
after all,
in the world of the Murdoch’s
has nothing to do with reality

the truth is what
spews out of the mouths
of the talking heads
as personable as they may be
with their practiced emotions (bottled and measured)
for every situation
they are our guides
… they wouldn’t lie to us …

would they?

It is not what these babbling heads
are spewing forth that is the problem
or the endless columns in the
printed realm of the other side of the
media machine
news papers around the world
taking dictation from
the Murdoch’s and his ilk

Once there was a paper
bold enough to proclaim
written on their pages one would find
“all the news that’s fit to print”

Today we find the opposite is true –
how hard to find a single piece worthy
of being read
to find true journalism–untainted by the
slant of Murdoch and his cronies
guiding our opinions before the news has
even been reported

We are given the entire story –
“Fair and balanced reporting” we are told
all the ‘truth’ we need …
all the ‘truth’ we deserve …
… can handle?
to form our opinions …
so long as those opinions are in line
with their opinions

so long as we share the same opinions and beliefs that
ooze out of
Foggy Bottom
infecting the entire hemisphere
stealing the lives of innocent Americans
dying “for their country”

… putting their lives on the line for a
Commander in Chief and his personal war –
the war he planned long before
Osama bin Laden received his
CIA training

Long after the favourite friends of the Bush family
were allowed to fly home
even though every plane around the nation was grounded
(it’s wasn’t as though people had been
flying them into buildings …
oh … that’s right … they had)
we still have no answers as to why –
why the family of an accused
mass murderer
could be allowed to leave
without even being questioned …

of course the Murdochites are hot on the story …

adhering to the precept that no stone shall be left unturned
no stone is touched
you wouldn’t want to start asking questions if
you were afraid of the answers …

Answers that might lead one to conclude
a war against Iraq had nothing to do
with the 9/11 attacks –
answers that might make one
question more things …
things that might not bear the
test of exposure to daylight

By hiding in the shadows
lurking in the dark places
the Murdoch’s of this world
work
hand in hand with the
ever-virtuous governments
they decide to support
… in the process
providing us
all the news we need to know –
with the caveat that
“everything you are about to hear is as
trustworthy as
Uncle Charlie’s Shark Repellent …”

Honestly, the stuff really works,
Charlie screams from his wheelchair as people pass him by
on their way to the beach
he lost his legs when the sharks
mistook his cologne and aftershave as a pheromone …
once they noticed the repellent in the water
the sharks stopped eating Uncle Charlie …

Thus the acolytes of the manipulators can barely
control their own spins anymore
their own extremists now attack one another
the scent of blood triggering the feeding frenzy
while we watch in shock and awe

Ann Coulter–the darling of the Right–was crucified
for work she didn’t do …
the writing she borrowed in her plagiarized drivel
isn’t accepted in the neo-Con community as the
art of rephrasing …
(in music it’s called a “remix”, or sometimes even
an “arrangement”)

Just as the real sharks
once these creatures sense weakness amongst their own
death is quick in coming …
after all …
nothing must distract from
the true agenda

The campaign never ends
so the lies can never stop
as the war remains their rallying cry

We must stop their madness
before more innocent lives
are lost.














Monday, September 04, 2006

Iraq v. Vietnam

Some have said Iraq has become America’s new Vietnam.
I disagree, if only for the simple fact
that swamps and forests do not compare to the
sand and stone
the caves
the heat
the dust that permeates
everything

the open air oven that is the
cradle of civilization:
this is not a “new” Vietnam

No

Never forget

This is a war that deserves its own name

Just as we remember the innocent civilians slaughtered in Vietnam,
the images are seared into our collective consciousness
a man grimacing
knowing his life has ended
as he is about to be executed by a single shot

we are desensitised to the images of death
as the video games and movies we consume like crack
leads us through unspeakable horrors
at the speed of the “sound byte”

leading us on a progression of death and dismemberment
accompanied by the latest dance mix
all downloadable
to be enjoyed at your leisure
at the click of your mouse

the slaughter of a village
or the burning of a monk
are mere statistics today
nameless nobody’s
remembered by who?
mourned by … the world

Can we ever forget the viciousness of these crimes?

The moment they are forgotten
the lessons,
the atrocities,
the crimes against humanity,
are lost …

the instant we allow our memories to fail
we loose the ability to rise above our past behaviours

As much as we would like to think
these things are all behind us
one look at the work done in Abu Ghraib and …
the truth is obvious:
nothing has changed


The times are different
weapons are more advanced
but the methods have only been refined

This is the nation that needs democracy …
this is the nation that needs rescuing from America
America: the land of opportunity
America: the home of the brave
the free, the proud,
the blissfully ignorant
… it’s easy to be brave when your victims are tied up
when they can’t fight back

it’s easy to be the bully
when you carry the big stick
an M16A4 makes you
king of the hill in most sandboxes
when everyone knows you have
friends with more bombs to drop on their heads
only a phone call away
you seem to have more of everything …


except, it would seem, the sense to stop
to stop the killing when it isn’t accomplishing
when it isn’t fulfilling your goals …

goals that have now been abandoned
or ignored
by visionless individuals
trying to lead their blind leader
out of the desert

Vietnam was a walk in the park
(these blind prophets might find)
an enemy that was motivated by ideology

but what motivates those who oppose America today?
why do they hate us? the question is asked … could it have
anything to do with the
killing of children?
of those with nothing to do
with war, oil, or WMD’s?

a question with a thousand answers,
none of which would be wrong
… but none are really things to go to war over

That is the real lesson
one that America never seems to learn

every year when they say
“never again” on Memorial Day
remembering the battles past
honouring the heroes of the glorious wars,
the brave souls who died
preserving the freedoms we all enjoy today

they always say, “never again”
never again should we take up
arms against another …

it is said every year,
even as the bombs are falling

let the lessons be learned