WAKE UP AND THINK, AMERICA

Tony recently sent out the following email message to me and to other mutual friends:

howdy --

i'd love for y'all to check this out, then let's talk about...

my uncle sent me this link, and i checked it out as i do most things he sends me...

http://usawakeup.org/

i must say i'm intrigued, but please know this is good 'ole fear-based tactics -- regardless of the tactic, however, it makes me think, and i'd love y'all's feedback.

Here's the MISSION STATEMENT found on the website http://usawakeup.org:

“To bring enhanced visibility to this new, violent cultural cancer [Terrorism] facing humanity. One way is to describe how war throughout recorded history has been won or lost. The main dominant strategy being used by Radical Islamic Terrorists is to slowly degrade America's Four Instruments of National Power: Political, Economic, Psycho-Social, and Military. They want to create havoc in our vulnerable democratic system until it collapses. __Under our constitution, universal goals for America are to maintain strong secular and religious values supporting FREEDOM.  Consequently we should step back and start thinking 'Out of the Historic Box.' All our resources should be toward strengthening the 4 Instruments of our National Power.__The people, the Fourth Estate, and the Federal Government must form the teamwork to guide our nation in the resolution of this cultural cancer.

"Man's destiny continues to be, freedom from all forms of bondage."__Author Unknown

Stewart R. Gable _Colonel, USAF [Ret'd]”

COMMENTARY:

“To bring enhanced visibility to this new, violent cultural cancer [Terrorism] facing humanity.”

Comment:
Rather than seek to understand the complex cultural origins of terrorism, and the their historical roots, the “other” is dehumanized and defined in terms of a malignant and alien/external threat. Any relationship of the activities and interventions of the United States in the world to current problems is ignored.

“One way is to describe how war throughout recorded history has been won or lost.”

Comment:
Using the language of “war” – despite advocating a more complex approach, militarizes the terms of the conflict, and promotes a “black” vs. “white” approach”. This makes it hard to argue for diplomacy, compromise, mutual understanding, or, paradoxically, a multifaceted approach to the problem. As we have already seen, a state of “war” makes it easier for political and military leaders to claim more power over our rights and civil liberties, decreasing the rights and freedoms of the citizenry. Furthermore, the militaristic approach has NOT been working in the Middle East, not in Israel and Palestine, not in Iraq, not in Iran. The historical precedents for this situation are numerous, including the Roman Empire, and, many would argue, Nazi Germany (see below).

“The main dominant strategy being used by Radical Islamic Terrorists is to slowly degrade America's Four Instruments of National Power: Political, Economic, Psycho-Social, and Military.“

Comment:
It’s important to rank the sources of American power a little more accurately. Our military is far and away the biggest in the world and is the principal source of our influence. We are the big bully on the block. Insurgent campaigns and acts of terrorism are tactics used against all powers in history with an overbearing influence in the world and overwhelming conventional military might. We might as well get used to the idea that terrorism will be a natural byproduct of our heavy reliance on military domination on the world stage.

Consider the following statistics: The military expenditure of the United States Department of Defense for fiscal year 2006 was $470.2 billion.

The 2005 United States military budget was  larger than the military budgets of the next fourteen biggest spenders combined, and nearly seven times larger than the official budget of China.
The United States and its close allies are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all military spending on Earth (of which, in turn, the US is responsible for the majority), and spend 57 times more than the six front-defying nations combined (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria).
Military spending accounts for more than half of the United States' federal discretionary spending, which is all of the U.S. government's money not spoken for by pre-existing obligations.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2003 the United States spent approximately 47% of the world's total military spending of US$956 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

“They want to create havoc in our vulnerable democratic system until it collapses.”

The “havoc” created by terrorists resulted in two military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq (the latter under demonstrably false pretenses, faulty intelligence, and outright lies), the Patriot Act - which curtails Amercan civil liberties, warrantless wiretapping by the government, the suspension of the writ of habeus corpus for “enemy combatants” (including US citizens) and other basic guarantees of due process contained in the US Constitution and the Geneva Conventions as well as other international treaties. The Bush Administration has also abandoned international standards of human rights in its embrace of extraordinary rendition of prisoners, torture, indefinite detention without charge or trial, and mitary tribunals.

Is this the “havoc” the terrorists have created in our “vulnerable democratic system”? If so then the Bush Administration and a cowed Republican-dominated Congress have been the willing instruments of the terrorists. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

“Under our constitution, universal goals for America are to maintain strong secular and religious values supporting FREEDOM.”

Comment:
How do we define “freedom” and “religious values”,  and whose "religious values” are we talking about?

President Bush and his supporters throw out words like “freedom” and “liberty” as if their meanings were a given. These words have come to mean far less in a nation governed by an increasingly powerful executive branch of government which seeks to limit civil liberties, conduct more of the people’s business in secret, and shield itself from any kind of public accountability. Consider the “theory of the unitary executive” and Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent comments about Congessional resistance to Bush Administration policy in Iraq.

And what exactly are the “religious values” that support “FREEDOM” – I have heard it argued that families and “the institution of marriage” need to be protected from the threat of “the gay agenda” with government legislation, including amendments to the Constitution – invoking “religious values”. Such government intervention is being construed as protecting the “freedom” and “liberty” of American families. Similar arguments are made to legislate against reproductive choice, war protesters, geovernment watchdogs,  environmental activists, and advocates of greater regulation of corporations.

"Consequently we should step back and start thinking 'Out of the Historic Box.' All our resources should be toward strengthening the 4 Instruments of our National Power."

Comment:
Speaking of “the historical box,” it is precisely our refusal to learn lessons from history that gets us into more of the same trouble (i.e. we “… are doomed to repeat it.”) The arguments found in this website have been made, in one form or another, throughout history, by political and military leaders seeking to increase their power. One particularly interesting example is from the ancient Rome, detailed in an article which appeared in The New York Times last year, “Pirates of the Mediterranean” by Robert Harris (September 30, 2006).Download pirates_nyt.doc

“The people, the Fourth Estate, and the Federal Government must form the teamwork to guide our nation in the resolution of this cultural cancer.”

Comment:
“The Fourth Estate” – the media. One of the most original ideas of America's founding fathers was a rigorously independent press which would check the power of government through direct scrutiny and indirectly through the education and information of the citizenry. What we have now is corporate media promoting spin and ideological agendas and outright disinformation (propaganda). This is facilitated by the idea that the media must become an ally or tool of government to combat an external threat or foe in uniquely dangerous times, the tems of which are, of course, defined by the government in power. Throughout the contemporary world, government control of the media is a hallmark of tyrannical and undemocratic governments. These governments always claim to be acting in the best interests of the people. Russia, Myanmar, Cuba, China … the list goes on and cuts across all ideologies. And historical precedents abound, Nazi Germany and the USSR being exceptional examples.

"Man's destiny continues to be, freedom from all forms of bondage."__Author Unknown

Comment:
“All governments lie. “ I.F. Stone, journalist

www.simonsays.com

Conclusion:
An informed and activist citizenry is the greatest defense against tyranny and those  who would sap our material resources and deny us justice, human rights, and real liberty in exchange for promises of “security”.

Don’t take my word for it –observe, listen, read, interact with people who think differently from you,  - think! - and make up your own mind.

Image at top of post: fatally wounded horse, Iraq
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

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