A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

"DESPITE BUSH DOGMA, MIDEAST DEMOCRACY MEANS MORE ISLAMISM" BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

January 24, 2007
Despite Bush Dogma, MidEast Democracy Means More Islamism
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Churchillian it was not. Yet the State of the Union seemed a success if Bush's purpose was to buy time from Congress to wait and see if his surge of U.S. forces into Iraq might yet succeed.
But when Bush started to describe the ideological war we are in, one began to understand why we are in the mess we are in.
"This war," said Bush, "is an ideological struggle. ... To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and to come to kill us." [Text of SOTU]
But the "conditions" that drove those 19 men "to come to kill us" is our dominance of their world, our authoritarian allies and Israel.
They were over here because we are over there.
If Bush is going to remove those "conditions," he is going to have to get us out of the Middle East. Is he prepared to do that?
Of course not. Because Bush, believing the problem is not our pervasive presence but the lack of freedom in the Middle East, is waging his own ideological war to bring freedom in by force of arms, if necessary.
"What every terrorist fears most is human freedom—societies where men and women make their own choices."
Very American. But the truth is terrorists do not fear free societies, they flourish in them. The suicide bombers of 9-11, Madrid and London all plotted their atrocities in free societies. From the Red Brigades, who murdered Italy's Aldo Mori, to the Baader-Meinhof Gang, who tried to kill Al Haig, to the Basque ETA, the IRA and the Puerto Rican terrorists who tried to assassinate Harry Truman, free societies are where they do their most effective work.
Stalin's Russia and Nazi Germany had no trouble with terrorists.
"Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies," declared Bush. Oh? Explain, then, why 70 million Germans, under the most democratic government in their history, gave more than half their votes to Nazis and Communists in 1933? In every plebiscite he held, Hitler won a landslide. In the year of Anschluss and Munich, 1938, Hitler was Time's Man of the Year and far more popular than FDR, who lost 71 seats in the House.
During 2006, free Latin peoples brought to power anti-American Leftists Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and came close to electing their comrades Ollanta Humala in Peru and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico.
In the free elections Bush demanded in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, the winners were the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Hamas and Shia militants with ties to Iran.
If a referendum were held in the Middle East on the proposition of the U.S. military out and Israel gone, how does Bush think it would come out?
"So we advance our security interests by helping moderates, reformers and brave voices for democracy," said Bush. But how many of those "moderates"—Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait, the Gulf States—are ruled "by brave voices for democracy"?
Our Islamist enemies would likely endorse unanimously a Bush call for free elections in all those countries, as elections could not but help advance to greater power, at the expense of our friends, those same Islamist enemies.
What is Bush doing? The America that won the Cold War said ideology be damned, we stand by our friends.
"The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies," said Bush.
But if we bleed our country to give the men and women of the Middle East the freedom to choose the society they wish to live in, are we sure they will not choose a society where Sharia is law?
In liberated Afghanistan, popular sentiment was behind beheading that Muslim who converted to Christianity.
What leads Bush to believe everyone wants to be like us? Is it not ideology?
To characterize "the totalitarian ideology" we confront, Bush quoted Osama bin Laden: "Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us."
This is the true mark of the true believer. But did not the Spain of Isabella want the "unbelievers" removed from "among us"? Did not Elizabeth I feel the same about Catholics?
"Give me liberty or give me death!" said Patrick Henry of the Brits remaining in this country that Brits had founded. "Live free or die!" is the motto of the great state of New Hampshire.
This is the heart of the war we are in. Americans believe in freedom first. Millions of Muslims believe in Islam first—submission to Allah. We decide for us. Do we also decide for them?
Perhaps the best advice we can give our Muslim friends in the Middle East is the hard advice Lord Byron gave the Greeks under the Islamic rule of Ottoman Turks:
Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not,
Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow?
Patrick J. Buchanan needs no introduction to VDARE.COM readers; his book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, can be ordered from Amazon.com.

"NEW U.S. CONGRESS SHAPING UP TO PROMOTE ISRAEL OVER ALL" BY ROBERT L. JOHNSON

New U.S. Congress Shaping Up to Promote Israel Over All
By Robert L. JohnsonJanuary 19th, 2007
With Bush announcing he is escalating the war in Iraq, a war he and his neocon warmonger buddies started in order to promote the neocon dream of Israel over all and to promote Bush’s political career, it appears the government is going to take Americans further down the dark and deadly road required to build and guarantee a Greater Israel of Biblical proportions.
Many people thought that by playing the government shell game of voting in the Democrats, they were doing something good. Realistic people, however, realize the Democrats and Republicans are just two different masks for the same monstrosity–kosher government.
To quote the global news service of the Jewish People, JTA:
“No one denies that the Republican-led US House of Representatives, in power from 1995 until 2006, was overwhelmingly pro-Israel. But with Democratic wins in both houses, the 110th Congress removes from power several maverick Republicans who wanted the United States to be more critical of Israel, and boosts to leadership lawmakers who are not just Israel-friendly but intimately acquainted with the US Jewish community.”
Can you imagine the nerve of “maverick” US Congressmen daring to be critical of Israel?! Don’t they know that according to the book the ancient Jews wrote, the Bible, we, the Gentiles, are here on earth to serve the Jews, who are “above all people that are upon the face of the earth”?
The JTA article goes on to mention the many ways the 110th Congress is putting Israel’s interests above all other interests. It mentions Democratic Representative from Maryland, Steny Hoyer, who was chosen to be the majority leader. Hoyer, the article boasts, “is on a first-name basis with much of the board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and has been to Israel multiple times, exhibiting broad knowledge of its political workings.” (more…)

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HOLY?

“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16)

This scripture was today's scripture from Bible Gateway, and it has had me asking myself today, what does it mean to be holy? When I think of holiness, I think of God's perfection and think of Job where God is so powerful that he can not be looked upon without a light that blinds the eyes and causes one to look away. I don't believe that means that God is a force that will zap a person like a laser beam, but that God is so perfect that looking at him would cause one to humbly look away from his all seeing eyes in shame. This shame would come from a realization that we are all guilty of watering down his truth, watering down his word as spoken in the Holy Bible that puts forth what is demanded of his children. There are no caveats in the Holy Bible other than we shall be forgiven for our sins if we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, but and this is a big but that does not give us a blank check to violate as many of God's laws with full knowledge that we are sinning and doing wrong. If one takes Noah's tribute to the Lord seriously and realizes that only eight people from his family survived the rains that flooded the earth for forty days and wiped out all those living in those days. The Lord was not happy with the sinners of the day, and he was not happy with the sexual fornication taking place that involved homosexual behavior. So why do people think that the Lord has changed his mind about such sexual perversions that are not at all holy? There are actually people that believe that man has evolved to a more perfect and intellectual being, and that laws that are holy in the bible are too archaic to follow in this new age generation. So, I suppose my conclusion at the end of this day concerning holiness is that holy can be defined as the opposite of the society that we have today. We have became everything that holy is not. God bless this nation, and God bless those fighting to keep our United States safe.

PROLIFERATION MAP-CLICK ON TO ENLARGE

"ISRAEL'S BAD INFLUENCE" BY CHARLEY REESE

Israel’s Bad Influence
By Charley ReeseJanuary 6, 2007
Scott Ritter, a former U.N. arms inspector in Iraq, has written a book, [1] Target Iran, in which he accuses the Israeli government and its American lobby of pushing the U.S. into attacking Iran.
Ritter writes, “Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel.” He accuses some members of the lobby of dual loyalty and urges that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee be required to register as a foreign agent.
He also blasts the Israeli lobby for its use of the Holocaust and for crying anti-Semite every time Israel is criticized. “This is a sickening trend that must be ended,” he writes.
By coincidence, an Israeli general has verified everything Ritter says. According to [2] an article published in Today.az on Jan. 2, Israeli Brig. Gen. Oded Tira published a statement urging an all-out effort by Israel and its lobby to push a U.S. attack on Iran.
“President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran,” the general is quoted as saying. “As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and U.S. newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iran issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure.” [3] (….Full Article Here)

GM AND FORD UPDATE

January 5, 2007
Saying the No. 1 Ranking Is Worth Keeping, G.M.’s Chief Vows to Fight Toyota
By NICK BUNKLEY
DETROIT, Jan. 4 — General Motors is not ready to concede its position as the world’s largest automaker, the chief executive, Rick Wagoner, said Thursday, but he offered scant evidence that the company could fend off a challenge from Toyota, its Japanese rival.
“I like being No. 1,” Mr. Wagoner said, “and I think our people take pride in that, so it’s not something that we’re going to sit back and let somebody else pass us by.” But in an hourlong discussion with reporters, Mr. Wagoner said G.M. was not ready to project how many vehicles it would sell this year. Two weeks ago, Toyota set a global sales goal of 9.34 million for 2007, about 3 percent more than the 9.1 million vehicles that G.M. sold worldwide in 2006.
Mr. Wagoner noted that G.M.’s plants were capable of building more vehicles than Toyota intended to sell, but he added that output was going to depend on whether sales were strong in geographic regions where G.M. had available capacity.
He said G.M., which has been the largest carmaker since 1931, expects to increase sales this year in several regions outside the United States, particularly China, Russia and South America.
Mr. Wagoner spoke on the same day that the chief executive of another Detroit automaker, Thomas W. LaSorda of the Chrysler Group, announced a goal of doubling sales outside North America within five years.
Mr. Wagoner did not offer any such predictions, and he gave no indication that G.M. would fare significantly better in the United States in 2007 than in 2006, when its market share fell to 24.3 percent from 26 percent. In that period, Toyota’s share climbed to 15.4 percent, from 13.3 percent, according to the Autodata Corporation, the industry statistics company in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.
In December, G.M.’s sales in the United States fell nearly 10 percent, worse than analysts had anticipated, while Toyota’s rose about 17 percent. American dealerships accounted for about 45 percent of G.M.’s global sales in 2006.
If anything, analysts expect G.M. to sell fewer vehicles in much of the world this year, as it reduces production capacity by closing plants. Mr. Wagoner said the closings were meant to ensure G.M.’s long-term success.
“If, as a result of that, we get passed, well it won’t be a happy day for me, but I’ve lost basketball games before in my life,” said Mr. Wagoner, who played basketball for Duke University. “You get ready, you learn and you go back and play the next day.”
He went on, “We’re going to fight to keep the position and if one day we lose it, we’ll fight to get it back.”
Jeff Manning, president of the United Automobile Workers local union in Kansas City, Kan., where 3,000 G.M. workers build the Saturn Aura and Chevrolet Malibu, said falling behind Toyota would be a disappointment, though palatable if necessary for G.M. to stop losing money.
“Being No. 1 is a top priority, but is it the No. 1 priority? Probably not,” Mr. Manning said. “If it makes them profitable then that would probably be O.K. The No. 1 goal is to be profitable.”
Ford’s Plans in Brazil
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Jan. 4 ( Reuters) — Ford Motor said on Thursday it would invest $1.02 billion in Brazil through 2011, including the amount it would pay for the off-road vehicle maker Troller.
Ford, which has been suffering financial problems, did not say how much it would pay for Troller.
Based in the northeastern state of Ceara, Troller produces about 100 vehicles each month in two off-road models: the T4 jeep and a pickup called the Pantanal. The company said in November that it was in talks to sell to Ford.
Ford said the investments would be in addition to about $139 million it planned to spend on product development and capacity expansion at a plant in São Paulo State.
Back to Top Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

"CAKEWALK CROWD ABANDONS BUSH" BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

Cakewalk crowd abandons Bush
Posted: January 5, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
By Patrick J. Buchanan
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com-->© 2007
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan, said a rueful John F. Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs. George W. Bush knows today whereof his predecessor spoke.
For as he prepares to "surge" 20,000 more U.S. troops into a war even he concedes we "are not winning," his erstwhile acolytes have begun to abandon him to salvage their own tattered reputations.
Case in point, the neoconservatives. As the Iraq war heads into its fifth year, more than half a dozen have confessed to Vanity Fair's David Rose their abject despair over how the Bushites mismanaged the war that they, the "Vulcans," so brilliantly conceived.
(Column continues below)
Surveying what appears an impending disaster for Iraq and U.S. foreign policy, the neocons have advanced a new theme. The idea of launching an unprovoked war of liberation, for which they had beaten the drums for half a decade before 9-11, remains a lovely concept. It was Bushite incompetence that fouled it up.
"The policy can be absolutely right, and noble, beneficial, but if you can't execute it, it's useless, just useless," wails Ken Adelman, who had famously predicted in the Washington Post that "liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk."
Bush's team of Powell, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice, says Adelman, "turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the postwar era. Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional." Their incompetence, he adds, "means that most everything we ever stood for ... lies in ruins."
Professor Eliot Cohen of Johns Hopkins, whose book on war leaders Bush used to carry about, says his mistake was in not knowing "how incredibly incompetent" the Bush team would be.
Richard Perle is sickened by the consequences of the war he and his comrades so ardently championed. "The levels of brutality ... are truly horrifying, and, I have to say, I underestimated the depravity."
Calling the Bush policy process a "disaster," Perle blames Bush himself: "At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible. ... I don't think he realizes the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."
This is the second fallback position of the War Party. Not only incompetence, but treachery made a nightmare of their vision.
Uber-hawk Frank Gaffney also hits hard the theme of sabotage and disloyalty: "This president has tolerated, and the people around him have tolerated, active, ongoing, palpable insubordination and skullduggery that translates into subversion of his policies. ... He doesn't in fact seem to be a man of principle who's steadfastly pursuing what he thinks is the right course."
David Frum, the cashiered White House speechwriter who co-authored the "axis-of-evil" phrase, faults the president. While he provided the words, says Frum, Bush "just did not absorb the ideas. And that is the root of maybe everything."
Where Frum, four years ago, accused anti-war conservatives of being "unpatriotic" haters of America and President Bush, he is now saying that that same president either lacked the I.Q. to realize what he was saying or lacked a belief and commitment to follow through.
As Rose writes, this is "the most damning assessment of all." Moreover, it is an indictment of Bush's judgment that he could clasp so many such vipers to his bosom.
Rose describes James Woolsey, the ex-CIA director who was ubiquitous on the op-ed pages and national TV making the case for war, as "aghast at what he sees as profound American errors that have ignored the lessons learned so painfully, 40 years ago" in Vietnam.
Conspicuous by its absence from disparagements of the president by these deserters from his camp and cause is any sense that they were themselves wrong. That they, who accuse everyone else of cutting and running, are themselves cutting and running. That they are themselves but a typical cluster of think-tank incompetents.
No neocon concedes that the very idea itself of launching an unprovoked war against a country in the heart of the Arab world – one that had not attacked us, did not threaten us and did not want war with us – might not be wildly welcomed by the "liberated." No neocon has yet conceded that Bismarck may have been right when he warned, "Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death."
"Huge mistakes were made," says Perle, "and I want to be very clear on this: They were not made by neoconservatives. ... I'm getting damn tired of being described as an architect of the war."
Almost all the neoconservatives have now departed the seats of power in the Bush administration and retreated to their sinecures at Washington think tanks, to plot the next war – on Iran.
Meanwhile, brave young Americans, the true idealists and the casualties of the neocons' war, come home in caskets, 20 a week, to Dover and, at Walter Reed, learn to walk again on steel legs.
Special offers:
Pat Buchanan's newest book, "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America," is now available.
Pat's "Death of the West" warns of cataclysmic shifts in world power.
Pat Buchanan was twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and the Reform Party’s candidate in 2000. He is also a founder and editor of The American Conservative. Now a political analyst for MSNBC and a syndicated columnist, he served three presidents in the White House, was a founding panelist of three national TV shows, and is the author of seven books.

WHY THE BURIAL FLAG IS FOLDED THRITEEN TIMES IN MILITARY FUNERALS (BORROWED FROM GUNBROKER.COM)

Meaning of Flag Draped Coffin.I hope you take the time to read this..... To understand what the flag draped coffin really means...... Here is how to understand the flag that laid upon it and is surrendered to so many widows and widowers.Do you know that at military funerals, the 21-gun salute stands for the sum of the numbers in the year 1776?Have you ever noticed the honor guard pays meticulous attention to correctly folding the United States of America Flag 13 times? You probably thought it was to symbolize the original 13 colonies, but we learn something new every day!The 1st fold of the flag is a symbol of life.The 2nd fold is a symbol of the belief in eternal life.The 3rd fold is made in honor and remembrance of the veterans departing the ranks who gave a portion of their lives for the defense of the country to attain peace throughout the world.The 4th fold represents the weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting in God, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in time of war for His divine guidance.The 5th fold is a tribute to the country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, "Our Country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong."The 6th fold is for where people's hearts lie. It is with their heart that They pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States Of America, and the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.The 7th fold is a tribute to its Armed Forces, for it is through the Armed Forces that they protect their country and their flag against all her enemies, whether they be found within or without the boundaries of their republic.The 8th fold is a tribute to the one who entered into the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day.The 9th fold is a tribute to womanhood, and Mothers. For it has been through their faith, their love, loyalty and devotion that the character of the men and women who have made this country great has been molded.The 10th fold is a tribute to the father, for he, too, has given his sons and daughters for the defense of their country since they were first born.The 11th fold represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon and glorifies in the Hebrews eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.The 12th fold represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in the Christians eyes, God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.The 13th fold, or when the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost reminding them of their nations motto, "In God We Trust."After the flag is completely folded and tucked in, it takes on the appearance of a cocked hat, ever reminding us of the soldiers who served under General George Washington, and the Sailors and Marines who served under Captain John Paul Jones, who were followed by their comrades and shipmates in the Armed Forces of the United States, preserving for them the rights, privileges and freedoms they enjoy today.There are some traditions and ways of doing things that have deep meaning. In the future, you'll see flags folded and now you will know why.Share this with the children you love and all others who love what is referred to, the symbol of "Liberty and Freedom."MAYBE THE SUPREME COURT SHOULD READ THIS EXPLANATION BEFORE THEY RENDER THEIR DECISION ON THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE.

AMEN TO COLORADO'S WEATHER BULLETIN!

Saluting the People of the Colorado Republic! Report; Posted on: 2007-01-02 15:38:36 Some Acts of God are politically correct Denver Post: This text is from a county emergency manager out in the central part of Colorado after todays snowstorm. WEATHER BULLETIN Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event -- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" -- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands. FYI: George Bush did not come. FEMA did nothing. No one howled for the government. No one blamed the government. No one even uttered an expletive on TV. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit. Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else. Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit -- or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards. No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House. No one looted. Nobody -- I mean nobody -- demanded the government do something. Nobody expected the government to do anything, either. No Larry King, No Bill O'Reilly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera. No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found. Nope, we just melted the snow for water. Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families. Families took in the stranded people -- total strangers. We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns. We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die". We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks. Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves. "In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate." It does seem that way, at least to me. I hope this gets passed on. Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living. Full article

ORSON WELLES "CITIZEN KANE" SOME SAY THE BEST PICTURE EVER MADE

I have seen this movie long ago, but it is my goal to watch it again in 2007. A movie about wealth and abuse of power, and how an outspoken person is destroyed in the media. There is much more to the movie, but I will have to view it to get the full meaning.

SAVE FREE SPEECH: LEGISLATION COULD MOVE THROUGH DEMOCRATIC CONTROLLED CONGRESS-VISIT REV PIKE'S SITE TO CONTACT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO OPPOSE!

http://www.truthtellers.org/index.html

"AMERICA ENTERS NEW DARK AGE OF DOGMA" BY PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS (ASST SEC OF TREASURY UNDER REAGAN)

VDARE.COM - http://vdare.com/roberts/061228_tey.htm
December 28, 2006
America Enters New Dark Age Of Dogma
By Paul Craig Roberts
In her historical mystery, The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey (a pen name of Elizabeth MacKintosh) has Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant, while confined to his hospital bed, solve the 15th century murder of the two York princes in the Tower of London. The princes were murdered by Henry VII, and the crime was blamed on Richard III in order to justify the upstart Tudor's violent seizure of the English throne.
Tey makes the point that if a 20th century mystery writer can detect the truth about a 15th century murder, historians have no excuse to persist in writing in school textbooks that Richard murdered his nephews. British historians remained loyal to the Tudor propaganda long after the Tudors were no longer around to be feared or served.
At the beginning of the scientific era, men had the hope that the ability to discover truth would free mankind from superstition, dogma and the service of power. The belief in truth was powerful. Truth would deliver justice and bring an end to status-based privileges and the falsehoods propagated by privilege.
The faith in truth was short-lived. Today, propaganda is everywhere ascendant.
In the panoply of left-wing propaganda about Augusto Pinochet, it is nowhere mentioned that Salvador Allende was appointed president of Chile by the Chilean congress, which three years later called on Chile's military to oust Allende for his totalitarian ways. Instead, Allende is portrayed as a "popularly elected president who was overthrown by a tyrant."
Every week, another apologist for President Bush compares "Bush's fight for Iraqi freedom" to Abraham Lincoln's "fight to free the slaves." The American Civil War was not fought to "free the slaves," as Thomas DiLorenzo and other scholars have thoroughly documented, any more than the purpose of Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq was to "bring freedom to Iraqis." The freedom excuse was invented after it became impossible to maintain the fictions about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein's connections to Osama bin Laden.
Bush has yet to tell the real reason he invaded Iraq.
In the United States today, demonization and propaganda substitute for facts and analysis. Professors and journalists are quick to lend their names and voices to the untruths that rule our lives. Just as Hitler's foreign policy was based in propaganda, so is Bush's and Blair's.
The success of propaganda enhances government's illusion that it has a monopoly on truth. It is the monopoly on truth that gives the Bush regime the right to define the "Iran problem," the "Syria problem," the "Lebanon problem" and the "Korea problem," and to apply coercion in place of understanding and negotiation.
Secure in its possession of truth, the Bush administration refuses to talk to the enemies it has manufactured. It will only fight them.
When scholars, such as Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, or President Jimmy Carter, who has tried harder than anyone else to achieve Arab-Israeli peace, point out that Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians is a cause of Middle East turmoil, they are immediately denounced as anti-Semites. Columnists and academics who know nothing about the Middle East or its troubles nevertheless understand what they are supposed to say whenever anyone mentions Israel in any critical context. And they have no compunction about saying it, the truth be damned.
Without commitment to truth, science, justice and debate falter and disappear.
The belief in truth is fading from our society. It is unclear whether scientists themselves any longer believe in truth or the ability to discover it.
The discovery of truth is no longer the purpose of our criminal justice system. Once, prosecutors believed that it was better for 10 guilty men to go free than for one innocent person to be wrongfully convicted. Today, prosecutors believe in high conviction rates to justify their budgets and re-election.
In the past, police solved crimes. Today, they round up suspects and pressure them.
There was no debate in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, and none today in the United States. Many Americans, who imagine themselves to be conservatives even though they have never read, nor could they identify, a conservative writer, equate truth-telling with hatred of America. They are of Bush's mindset: "You are with us or against us." Bush supporters respond to factual articles about Iraq and the rending of the U.S. Constitution by suggesting that, as the writer hates America so much, he should move to Cuba or China.
In America today, each faction's "truths" are defined by the faction's dogma or ideology. Each faction bans factual analysis that it doesn't want to hear. This is as true within the universities as it is at political rallies. The old liberal notion that "we shall follow the truth wherever it may lead" has long departed from America. Think tanks reflect the views of the donors. Studies are no longer independent of their financing. In America, truth has become partisan.
All societies have elements of myth, untruths that nevertheless serve to unite a people. But many myths serve as camouflage for evil. One of the greatest myths is that "GIs have died for our freedom." GIs have died for American empire, for the American elite's commitment to England and for the military-industrial complex's profits. Some may have died in Korea for the freedom of South Koreans, and some may have died trying to save South Vietnamese from the North Vietnamese communists. But it is hogwash that GIs died for our freedom.
There was no prospect of North Korea attacking America in the 1950s or Vietnam attacking America in the 1960s, and none today. The Nazis were defeated by Russia before U.S. troops landed in Europe. The United States never faced any threat of invasion from Germany, Italy or Japan.
America's wars have created hysteria that endanger our freedom. Abraham Lincoln shut down the freedom of the press and arrested editors and state legislators. Woodrow Wilson arrested war critics. Franklin Roosevelt interned American citizens of Japanese descent. George W. Bush has destroyed most of the Bill of Rights. In 2006, Congress appropriated funds for building concentration camps in the United States.
Recently, Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, said that freedom of speech is inconsistent with "the war on terror." If it takes a police state to fight terror, the country is lost even if Muslim terrorists are defeated. Americans have far more to fear from a homeland police state than from terrorists.
The vast majority of the world's terrorists are the recent creations of Bush's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and of Israel's invasion of Lebanon and brutality toward the Palestinians. Bush is simultaneously creating terrorists and a police state. It serves no one but the police to make their power unaccountable.
On December 26, Jeff Cohen explained on Truthout how war propaganda took over TV news and demonized everyone who spoke the truth about Iraq, while pushing war fever to a frenzy. Fox "News" was the worst, with its ranks of generals and colonels who sold their integrity for dollars and TV exposure. One of Fox's loudest voices for war was a retired general who sat on the board of a military contractor.
When the Clinton administration allowed the media concentration in the 1990s, the independence of the American media was destroyed. Today, there are a few large conglomerates whose values depend on broadcast licenses from the government. The conglomerates are run by corporate executives who are not journalists and whose eyes are on advertising revenues. They publish and broadcast what is safe. These conglomerates will take no risks in behalf of free speech or truth.
The challenges that America faces are not terrorism and oil supply. The challenges that we face are the police state that Bush has created and the disrespect for truth that is endemic in government, the universities and the media.
The United States has entered a dark age of dogmas and unaccountable power.
COPYRIGHT CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider's Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the recent epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct.

NATIONAL CATHEDRAL IN WASHINGTON D.C.-NATIONAL FUNERAL SERVICES FOR PRESIDENT FORD ON JANUARY 2, 2007

Mystery Worshipper: M. Luther.The church: Washington National Cathedral (Cathedral Church of St Peter & St Paul), USA.Denomination: Episcopal Church in the USA.The building: Washington Cathedral is probably the last pure gothic, stone-on-stone construction in the world. It is the seat of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and that of the Bishop of Washington. The building has many unusual features, not least of which is a stained glass window with a Moon rock in it. Many of the carved stone details show people and events in American history, including a stone boss which depicts the ride of Paul Revere. Various bishops and one president (Wilson) are buried in the cathedral, as well as Helen Keller.The neighbourhood: The cathedral is surrounded by large grounds, which include a contempletive garden. The larger neighborhood is residential, apparently middle to upper-middle class. The residence of the Vice President of the United States is just down the street.The cast: Quite a parade: Rev Canon Frank M. Harron, II, Celebrant; Rev Canon Barbara T. Duncan, Gospeller; Rev Canon Erica B. Wood, Assistant; Rev Canon Patricia M. Thomas, Preacher.

COMMENTS BY BEEBEE:

The funeral of our 38th President, Gerald Ford, is historic and has so many meanings to me and many other patriotic Christians in the United States. When news that President Ford had passed first hit the air waves, the liberal press was quick to point out that this was our first unelectied President that had just passed away, as if somehow that should make all of us go about our business as usual without paying respects to this wonderful man.

There is no more beautiful a church that I have seen than the National Cathedral, and my viewings have been from television only. This historcic Episcopalian Church is most certainly on my list of a place that I want to visit oneday. When listening to the service today, I cried when I heard the eulogies and thanked the Lord that Jesus was not left out of this service. Yes, Jesus Christ is important to our history, and the leaders that our nation has had that came from what is called the greatest generation embrace the truth that all of our nation's blessings are from the Lord Jesus Christ. It was most special today that President Bush escorted Betty Ford into the services, and put to rest the hateful remarks that the media had made concerning Bob Woodward's interview of President Ford with remarks from Ford that criticized the war in Iraq. Clearly, the Ford family has much respect for President Bush, and showed the world that there exist a common bond between the Ford family and the Bush family.

Another defining moment will take place tomorrow when former President Carter will deliver a eulogy at the service in Michigan, as will Donald Rumsfield. With all of the hateful remarks toward both of these fine servants of our government, it is important for the world to see that there is peace among these political figures. President Carter has taken so much public criticism over his controversial book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" released late in 2006, and what a healing moment for such a religious man who held the highest office in the United States, regarded by many to be much too liberal of a President to give a eulogy at a conservatives funeral (Carter will give the eulogy in Michigan on January, 3, 2007). God bless the Christians that can come together and attempt to heal our nation in these trying times. How fitting that this take place, as a rememberance of President Ford who brought us all together in 1974 after the wounds of the Vietnam War and Watergate. I pray that my son, Mark, now sees the importance of the larger than life man who held the Presidency when we needed someone like President Ford. Mark was not born until 1979, and took the lead from the media and did not understand why we should honor President Ford. I did not understand partisan politics when I was nineteen, and with many years added to my wisdom, I give thanks to the Lord for having the opportunity to see this spiritual moment taking place in the United States. God bless the USA. The following scriptures were read at the National Cathedral on January 2, 2007, and are the words of the most wise King Solomon:

Ecclesiastes 3
1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

PAT BUCHANAN "AMERICA DOESN'T HAVE TO RUN THE WORLD"

America doesn't have to run the world
Posted: January 1, 20074:07 p.m. Eastern
By Patrick J. Buchanan
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com-->© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
If there was a defining moment in 2006, it was the public firing of Donald Rumsfeld, just hours after the Republican rout of Nov. 7.
George Bush was bowing to public repudiation of his war policy, his war minister and, indeed, his war presidency.
Yet one senses voters were doing more than rejecting Bush's leadership on Iraq. They were rejecting the very idea of spilling blood and treasure in crusades for "global democracy," "ending tyranny on earth" or a "New World Order."
By saying, as most of us are saying now, "In the end, it's the Iraqis' problem," Americans seem to be bidding goodbye to all that. And as we turn our backs upon the world, that world – from Europe to the Mideast, to Russia, China and Latin America – seems to be turning its back on the United States.
The disposition to sacrifice for altruistic ends is waning. Like the Brits before us, the Yanks are coming home.
The 21st century was to be the Second American Century. But after we won the Cold War, freed the captive nations, and brought Russia and China into the international community, our victories turn to ashes in our mouths. The world America built now rejects the master builder.
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson just led a delegation, including the chairman of the Federal Reserve and half a dozen Cabinet officers, to Beijing to convince the Chinese to help us reduce the $230 billion trade deficit we ran this year with the Mainland. Beijing sent the Americans home with a bag of stale fortune cookies.
China will continue to siphon off our technology, jobs and plants to make the Middle Kingdom the factory of the world and the first power in Asia, eventually on earth. They seek to displace us.
Why should they not? Why should China abandon a trade policy that has given her 9 percent growth for 20 years for a U.S. policy that has given us the largest trade deficits in history? Why should nations that are succeeding adopt the policies of nations that are failing, and wailing?
Japan, the European Union, Canada and Mexico are also piling up mammoth trade surpluses at our expense, by manipulating currencies and tax codes to subsidize exports and repel imports from the United States.
And we take it. What the election of 2006 demonstrated, in Ohio and Michigan and among the Reagan Democrats, is that Americans are fed up with being played for free-trade fools by the rest of the world.
Moscow is creating an OPEC-like natural gas cartel to squeeze the ex-Soviet republics and as a reminder to a gas-dependent Europe that Mother Russia is watching you. Partly because we planted NATO on her front porch and sought to subvert her in her "near abroad," Russia is reverting to an autarkic and authoritarian nationalism.
Which seems to sit well with the Russian people, as 81 percent support President Putin, more than twice the support President Bush enjoys.
In the Middle East, anti-Americanism is pandemic. So successful were Islamists in exploiting the elections Bush promoted in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, Bush has ceased to beat the democracy drum.
Latin America has turned sharply left, with Brazil, Argentina and Chile gone socialist, and Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua joining Hugo Chavez and Fidel in the radical-populist camp. Peru and Mexico barely escaped being converted to "Bolivarism."
South Korea, fearful of offending the North, has vetoed any tough U.S. policy. Anti-American demonstrations are common there. But why are the North's nukes our problem, 7,000 miles away? Why are U.S. soldiers still on the DMZ, 53 years after the Korean War?
Andrew Roberts, the pro-American Tory historian, says he has never seen such anti-Americanism as in Britain today. Old Europe is reveling in our misfortunes. The French are pulling out of Afghanistan. The Germans want their troops kept out of the fighting. Yet, U.S. elites are pushing to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, which would require us to send our 82nd Airborne to defend Tiblisi. Though the U.S. Army, warns Colin Powell, is "almost broken," we are adding to our commitments to go to war against a nuclear-armed Russia.
We are living in a dream world. America may yet be the world's strongest nation, but our dominance is detested, our leadership is no longer wanted and our people are weary of playing Atlas.
Events abroad and disillusionment at home are causing more and more to ask whether what we call the American Empire or Pax Americana is really worth the aggravation, the cost and the ingratitude.
Interventionism has failed us. Americans are groping toward a new foreign policy that puts America first and a trade policy that puts Americans first.
When we began as a nation, the republic was feared and loathed by many of the monarchs of Europe. Yet, under Washington, Adams and Jefferson, we went our separate way, and prospered as no other republic. We don't have to run the world. Divestiture is an option.