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Global Grandiosity: America’s 21st Century World Architecture

by Rick Rozoff

To understand individual psychopathology magnified to the level of world affairs, imagine that in any other context a person described his own role and the qualities of his employer as unique in the world as well as history and as alone beneficial to humanity; that others are good or bad, benign or malignant, useful or dangerous in proportion as they share the person in question’s estimate of himself; that the use of force, including deadly force, is the sole prerogative of that person and his friends and allies, that “If I have to use force, it is because I am me; I am the indispensable person. I stand tall and I see further than other people into the future, and I see the danger here to all of us.”

The quote is an adaptation of one by then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 1998. The first person singular has been substituted for the plural and personal references for those of the nation she represented as its chief voice in international relations.

Whether or not it is accurate to anthropomorphize and psychoanalyze government, it is instructive and emphatic.

Well worth the read.

[I know I shouldn’t write this article.  I have some things on my mind and an irresistible urge to blurt them out but I just know it’s all going to be misinterpreted and that will surely cause a lot of needless fun.

A few of you are going to think, “hey, that’s just a bunch of dots…”  And quite so, too.  Just dots.

But my many alert readers are going to venture further, take out their pencils, join up the dots and exclaim, “say, that’s a picture of a zebra crossing a road!!”  And, yes, it is true that there is only one meaningful way to join up the dots I am going to present and, yes, it is also true that the only possible result is a picture of a zebra crossing a road.*

So I want to be very clear about this point.  I am not saying a zebra is going to cross a road, OK?  Nor disclosing whether there even is a zebra.

So if you comment on this post and say, “what, you think a zebra is going to cross a road!?  Or a zebra is even thinking about crossing a road!!?  Are you nuts!!!??”, I will just smile sardonically, OK, because that will be exactly the kind of needless fun I am anticipating.

After all, nobody can predict the future.  How do we know who is telling the truth about anything?  You could always turn your pencil around and just erase those dots; who cares?

All I am saying is, if a zebra does cross a road sometime, somewhere, don’t act all hurt and surprised about it because you should just recall that you read this carefully-researched and presented article, “Connecting the dots…”.  That’s all.  :)

Very good.

Please do read on…]

 

Sometime last year, koan911 went on “ops” in the Indian Ocean.  I am not at liberty to reveal any other details of what he was doing there except to say that, as a result, I did learn from him the existence, nature and location of a place I will refer to only as “Diego Garcia”.      7 18 51.45S 72 25 03.96E.  ;)

Then, last month on March 14th, my attention was captured by a FLASH message crossing my desk about “bunker buster” bombs being shipped to Diego Garcia.  (Vide first the 3/14 entry below.)


07/20    ISRAEL: Nuclear attack submarines through the Suez Canal with Egypt’s OK

            In the last 15 years, the Germans have built 5 Dolphin-class submarines for Israel, donating them or selling them at a deep discount.

09/15    USA Prepares to Attack Russia in 3 or 4 Years?

            Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, said in an interview with Pravda.ru, “the US Military Academy at West Point has recently launched extensive courses to study the Russian culture and language. They started teaching the Iraqi culture and the Arab language three years before invading Iraq.”

                            

02/17    Rick Rozoff: US-NATO Military Strike against Iran?

            Rick Rozoff [expert observer of NATO] says that the US and NATO are tightening the military noose around Iran.

                                                     

02/19    Will US-NATO start world war III by attacking Iran?

            Michel Chossudovsky, who's from an independent Canadian policy research group (Global Research), believes that what Iran says hardly matters, because the U.S. is planning for war.

                                                 

02/28    Russia Lashes Out at NATO for Protecting Afghan Drug Production

            Narcotics smuggled into Russia has doubled since the anti-terrorist operation began in Afghanistan says Viktor Ivanov, Russian Federal Drug Control Service chief.

03/12    Israeli Historian: Israel Could Find Itself Forced to Wipe Out Europe

            Reported by a Palestinian site, so take this one with a grain of salt, but it indicates two points of interest: a) Israel has the weapons, and b) feels so isolated as to be dangerous if backed into a corner.  (The historian exists.)

                                   

03/14    War Preparations: Final Destination Iran?

            Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

 

03/14    The War in Afghanistan and the Central Asia Pipeline Plan

            “The whole reason the U.S. is in Afghanistan and Pakistan today is to deny those pipelines from being routed through Russia, China, or Iran.”

                                   

03/17    Why Punish Iran for What Israel Has Already Done?

            Israel has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and it has never declared its nuclear weapons program publicly.  It is estimated to have between 200 and 300 nuclear weapons.  BBC: Israel's Secret Weapon.

                                 

03/18    American Naifs Bringing Ruin to Other Lands

            The U.S. military is shipping “bunker-buster” bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.   “They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran.”

            "Former CIA official Philip Giraldi in his article, 'The Rogue Nation',  makes it clear that the U.S. government has a hegemonic agenda that it is pursuing without congressional or public awareness. The agenda unfolds piecemeal as a response to 'terrorism,' and the big picture is not understood by the public or by most in Congress. Giraldi protests that the agenda is illegal under both U.S. and international law, but that the illegality of the agenda does not serve as a barrier. Only a naif could believe that such a government would not employ 'false flag' operations that advance the agenda.

            "The U.S. population, it seems, is comprised of naifs whose lack of comprehension is bringing ruin to other lands."

                                                            

03/19    Obama blocks delivery of bunker-busters to Israel

            The United States has diverted a shipment of 387 bunker-busters designated for Israel.  This “political decision” was taken a few days after VP Joe Biden (and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton?) visited Tel Aviv and were blind-sided by a unilateral decision on 3/15 by Israel to build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem.  As Israel’s liberal newspaper, Ha’aretz, put it, “Biden had to wipe spit off his face and say it was only rain”.  (Israel and a Red-faced Obama.) 

            "With friends like these..."  :(


03/20    Opinion Polls and Obama's Politics of Violence

            “Mr. Obama’s options are limited and nothing is left for him to do but to open a fourth war front in Iran.”  Tail wagging the dog?

                                                                       

03/20    Preparations for a Hit against Iran: Stopping Israel’s Next War

            “A new war in the region is inevitable.”

                                          

03/29    War Games: Israel gets ready to Strike at Iran's Nuclear Sites

            Israeli air force have practiced simulated strikes at Iran's nuclear facilities using airspace of at least two unidentified Arab countries.

                                           

04/02    Former Israeli Defense Minister: Israel Will Attack Iran by November

            Israel will be compelled to attack Iran's nuclear weapons facilities by this November unless the U.S. and its allies enact "crippling sanctions that will undermine the regime in Tehran," former deputy defense minister Brig. Gen. Ephraim Sneh said on Wednesday in Tel Aviv.

            November?  What’s happening in November?  Oh yeah, OK, more AIPAC manipulation of the US “democratic” process…
                                  

04/11    Iran to Take US to UN Over Obama's Threat to Use Nuclear Weapons against Iran

            Iran has said it will file a formal complaint with the UN against the US, citing what it calls President Barack Obama's threat to use "nuclear attack" against it.

                       

04/11    Iran's first domestically built anti-aircraft missile system is operational

            Said to be more powerful than the US-made Hawk missile, ready to become operational.

                       

04/11    Israel ranks 6th with up to 300 nukes, comparable to the United Kingdom

            British Jane's Defense Weekly has revealed that Tel Aviv is currently in possession of between 100 and 300 nuclear warheads.

                                   

04/11    Washington Threatens Iran: US to Retain 90 Nukes on Iran Border

            The US has positioned a total of 200 B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs in Turkey, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany since the Cold War. Turkey is believed to be hosting 90 bombs at Incirlik Air Base.

                                               

04/12    Israeli Attack on Iran Might Lead to Nuclear Conflict – Medvedev

            Russians don’t like developments one little bit: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned Israel against a military attack on Iran, saying it might lead to nuclear war and global disaster.

                                   

04/15    Obama Threatens Iran with Nuclear War

            In his latest statements, President Obama has expressively warned Iran against an imminent nuclear strike. The surprising remarks by the politician who snatched the Nobel Peace Prize for his conciliatory stance in recent years, violated the UN Charter and astounded public opinion.

                                               

04/15    Obama Threatens Iran with Nuclear Weapons: Tehran's Response

            A letter from Iran’s UN ambassador Mohammad Khazaee.

04/18    Iran rightfully calls for US to be suspended from IAEA

            The leader of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rightfully called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to suspend America for constantly threatening to use nuclear weapons against his country and other states; and his bold stance could be a significant opportunity for the non-European world to stand up to western terrorism.

 

            [The first I ever knew of His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was when I read his open letter to The War Criminal Bush 43, published in the Washington Post on May 9th, 2006.  Tears welled in my eyes and I thought, “why is it that I too cannot have a leader who can display this level of eloquence, this intelligence, this compassion?  Why do I have to suffer under this mangy, rabid dog, Bush?  I fling my shoe at Bush!”  And on that day, I resolved to memorize the spelling of Ahmadinejad’s name.  (Which admittedly is not as difficult as committing the Koran to memory, say, or spelling Schwarzenegger, something for which sadly I still have to rely upon the internet.)

 

            Incidentally, the New York Times, as I recall, mistranslated Ahmadinejad’s statement about seeing the Israeli regime wiped off the map.  This error has been exploited ever since to claim that Iran has hostile intentions toward Israel.]

* I was wrong about this.  As you will read in the comments, one of my less alert readers [name suppressed] joined the dots and thought he observed a gay, socialist camel.

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(The shocking details of the USS Liberty infamy; including a first-hand account.)

And the McNamara quote is an outtake from a movie I strongly recommend:

Makes you wonder where the Vietnam-era protests are today, but, apart from Cindy Sheehan's fine efforts opposing the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, there seems to be relatively little outrage?

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The Bankruptcy of the United States is Now Certain
by Porter Stansberry

It's one of those numbers that's so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while… Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that's not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion. Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That's an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we're the world's biggest economy. Where will the money come from?

According to the U.S. Treasury, $2 trillion worth of debt will mature in the next 12 months. So looking only at short-term debt, we know the Treasury will have to finance at least $2 trillion worth of maturing debt in the next 12 months. That might not cause a crisis if we were still funding our national debt internally. But since 1985, we've been a net debtor to the world. Today, foreigners own 44% of all our debts, which means we owe foreign creditors at least $880 billion in the next 12 months – an amount far larger than our reserves.

Keep in mind, this only covers our existing debts. The Office of Management and Budget is predicting a $1.5 trillion budget deficit over the next year. That puts our total funding requirements on the order of $3.5 trillion over the next 12 months.

Read it and weep

© Copyright Porter Stansberry, S&A Digest, 2009

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From an article by Bob Chapman:

An interesting observation appeared in the Australian Shooter Magazine this week: If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington, DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period. That means you are about 25 percent more likely to be shot and killed in the US capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: "The US should pull out of Washington."

;)

Gee.  I think I'd prefer the US to pull out of everywhere other than D.C.!

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Honestly, I was quite chagrined by koan911's last post (imaginatively entitled Saving the Union), which was about the Federal Reserve and its penchant for secrecy, (what a travesty?!).  It wasn't his histrionic tone that disturbed me: I've gotten used to that from koan911.  :)   (A number of times in the past years, I have tried to shut out the voices in my head (I blocked koan911), but have sadly learned it cannot be done.)

No, what bothered me was his request to patriotic Americans to do something (write to their senators and request they support S.604 to require the Federal Reserve to submit to audit by the US govt) that he was apparently unable or unwilling to do himself.  Poor form, if you ask me!  :)

So, today, I put together six packets to send to six friends in six different states of the US.  Each packet contains 4 envelopes addressed, two each, to the two senators of each respective state.  Also, four copies of a letter requesting the addressee senator simply to support S.604 and resist any and all attempts to water down its import.

Two of those letters, one for each senator, have been signed by koan911, (above my recipient friend's US address).  The other two are unsigned.  Finally, a breezy letter from me, "Dear Fred, how are the kids?  By the way, would you mind stuffing these envelopes with my letters, affixing a stamp (I seem to be short on US stamps right at the moment, (down here out of harm's way)) and dropping them into the mail?  Oh and incidentally, if you also should feel that it is a travesty that… and want to get in on the gag… go ahead and sign the extra copies of the letter and, you know… drop them, too, into the mail."  :)

I feel a lot better now.  Two letters each to 12% of the population of the US Senate.

Democracy in action.

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