Issue Position: Terrorism

Issue Position

Why are Americans the targets of terrorists? The U.S. government would have you believe it is because we are number one! Generally the terrorists themselves are more than happy to inform you of their reasons. Frankly, why would they lie? And interestingly, the U.S. government is not wanting you to get their message.

The government prefers the widely broadcast claim that we are the targets of terrorists because we are Number 1. The only remaining superpower. A bastion of capitalism. Well maybe. When you want attention, there is nothing like going after those who are in the limelight. But it is not about our strong economy, nor our way of life, values, etc. Canadians are essentially Americans from the above standpoint [Sorry Canadians, I know you hate to acknowledge it, but culturally we are pretty much identical.] Yet we do not see Canadians as targets of international terrorists. Why is that?

Maybe if you routinely, indiscriminately and randomly drop bombs on people in absolute safety from 40,000 feet, those who survive to bury their family and friends will want some revenge.

Maybe if you install puppet dictators to control populations in countries with fear, they may see past the puppet and want to attack the dictator's masters: the USA.

Maybe if you attack the civilian population of a country because you do not like what its government leadership is doing, either though bombs, missiles, or boycotts and blockades, the civilians in that country will blame the lack of prosperity, food and medicine for their families on you and want to strike back.

Our government is responsible for planting ALL of the seeds of terrorism that sprout to grow up and try to kill us. They are planting numerous seeds right now in the Middle East for their 30-year War on Terrorism. Just like the 40-year Cold War, your government needs the war on terrorism to justify huge raids on your wallet, placating the military industrial complex, who in turn fund the politicians, who replace your freedoms with tyrannies (such as drafting your children) that they claim are only temporary, and regrettably necessary to fight against terrorism and provide for your security.

Wake up America, and stop being so fearful of boogiemen wearing scarves and carrying AK47s! The real terrorists you should be afraid of are right here in America. You elect them. They appoint more. They hire others.

The good news is government OAFicials are cowards, for the most part. Witness the anthrax scare, when the U.S. House adjourned for more than a month. It actually does not take much to make them go elsewhere, because pickings are too good to risk much on a citizen who says, "No," as long as the citizen does not say it too publicly. [Then you must be made an example, lest other sheep fail to fall in line.]

As more and more information is leaked to the public by former Bush administration insiders, we are seeing that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism, and everything to do with the ambitions of a few neoconservatives, and their unseemly President, to seize control of the Middle East to control oil and natural gas, just like the British Empire at the turn of the 19th Century.

This protects the State of Israel, an agenda item for sure, and puts three quarters of the oil production under the Neocons control. All it costs is the lives of your sons and daughters, but never their children! And the lives of a few tens of thousands of Arabs, whose survivors will soon know the attentions of a new master.

We have seen, when the persons responsible for 9/11 were known, literally the day of the attack, and that the President took months to act. All this while, he kept attempting to drag an innocent (in this case) Iraq into the response. Why? Every lie that could be put forward was, until finally the Weapons of Mass Deception boogieman resonated with the fearful mob.

We have seen we were deliberately lied to by the President on Hussein's links to terrorists tied to 9/11, or terrorists in general.

We have seen we were lied to by the President on Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction. We have been in that country for over a year now, in reasonable control of the entire country. We have captured virtually all of Hussein's scientists. We have offered multimillion dollar rewards for anyone who would lead us to the hidden stashes of weapons of mass destruction: The chemical, biological and nuclear weapons factories and stockpiles. None have been produced. Just some old chemical weapons artillery shells, that were embarrassingly of U.S. manufacture, and that were apparently supplied by a U.S. "contractor" during the Iran-Iraq war.

Remember Hussein was our guy. Installed by the CIA. Isn't it funny how all of our CIA puppets seem to turn on us: Manual Noriega, Osama bin Laden, and The Shah of Iran to name a few.

We are told that the terrorists hate us because they envy our freedom, by the same people who then tells us we must give up some of our freedoms in order to fight terrorism. They assure us it is only temporary, like the excise tax on tires enacted in World War Two ... it is temporary, but it will outlive you. Or they tell us it is a different world today and we must set aside our open culture to achieve security. We seem to end up with neither freedom, nor security.

So if you want to get rid of the terrorist threat to America, you have to get rid of the causes of terrorism.

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Get the government of the USA out of other country's business. We are not the world's policemen, contrary to what many in CONgress assert, at no risk to themselves or their children. Our children who volunteer to defend this country should not be sent to foreign nations as mercenaries for a handful of corrupt men in Washington, D.C.
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Stop trying to engineer the outcomes of foreign government regimes.
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Stop interfering with the businesses in other countries, and the interactions of business in this country with the rest of the world.
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Stop messing with the currency of foreign governments, which is an act of war.
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Stop giving foreign aid to governments. When you do, you take sides against whomever opposes that government. Besides you stole that money from the American taxpayers in the first place.
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Bring ALL of our troops home from around the world. Americans should not be out defending an empire. We are Americans, not Imperialists! That is supposed to mean something.
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Implement the Constitution's provision of Marque and Reprisal to deal with terrorists, without resorting to the military destruction of villages and cities.

If you wish to greatly diminish terrorist attacks on our citizens, then you must make our government stop its attacks on other country's citizens. Wake up and smell the coffee. We are not innocent. Our government does things in our name that we would be appalled if our children did the same things.

A 10-year-old boy is sitting on a park bench smoking a big cigar, and consuming one chocolate bar after another.

A matronly lady sits down next to him, and after observing him briefly out of the corner of her eye, can no longer keep quiet.

"Little boy," her voice quavering, "it cannot be healthy for you to be smoking, and eating all that candy."

Irritated, the youth pauses for a few moments and then boasts, "My grandfather lived to be 102."

The lady now smiles staring directly at him, and smoothly responds, "And did he smoke cigars and eat so much candy?"

The kid answers, "No, he learned to mind his own damn business!"

-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, two time winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor. When he talks about capitalism, he is not referring to anything resembling laissez faire economics, more like fascism, where big business uses government to control their market, and government uses a few favored businesses to manage the economy for the government:

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

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