http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17068.htm
Is the Military Our Last Hope? By Paul Craig Roberts Is the high command of the US military breaking ranks with the Bush Regime? 02/14/07 "ICH" -- -- With the "mainstream media," that is, the government's propaganda ministry, bombarding the American public with "news reports" from unidentified sources that the US government has proof that "the highest reaches of the Iranian government" is supplying weapons to the Iraqi insurgency, Marine General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, demurred. General Pace told the Voice of America on February 12 that he has no information indicating that Iran's government is supplying weapons to the Iraqi insurgency. General Pace said that "Iranians are involved," but "what I would not say is that the Iranian government, per se, knows about this . . . I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit." Unlike the New York Times, Fox "news," CNN, and the TV networks, General Pace refused to lie for the Bush Regime. Perhaps America could regain its reputation if General Pace would send a division of US Marines to arrest Bush, Cheney, the entire civilian contingent in the Pentagon, the neoconservative nazis, and the complicit members of Congress and send them off to the Hague to be tried for war crimes. But he did the best he could and refused to lie for warmongers. There is absolutely no doubt that Bush-Cheney and the neoconservative nazis are planning revenge against General Pace. We can only hope the general does not have a wife who works for the CIA. Bush's support stands at 30% or less of the American population; Cheney's at 20% or less. How can "leaders" who are not supported by public opinion or by a single fact escalate a war that is entirely based on lies while starting a new war that is entirely based on lies? Is America any longer a democracy where failed leaders are held to account? Obviously not. What has America become while it has been in the hands of the Bush Regime? How can any patriotic American support a regime that has shredded the US Constitution, ignored the separation of powers, violated the Geneva Conventions, forced through a law legalizing torture, launched a war of aggression that has produced 26,000 American military casualties in service of a lie, murdered tens or hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilians, destroyed an entire country, and planned an attack on Iran, perhaps with nuclear weapons? Patriotism is loyalty to country and to the US Constitution, not loyalty to a criminal regime. This criminal regime is in the hands of a tiny cabal of fanatical ideologues who would risk the very existence of human life for their perverted ideology that has no higher value than American and Israeli hegemony. Bush and the congressional sheep say "support the troops," by which they mean, of course, "continue the war." But Bush does not support the troops. On February 12 the Associated Press reported: "The Bush administration's budget assumes cuts to funding for veterans' health care two years from now--even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system." Bush is an ignorant warmonger. He doesn't care who pays the price as long as the American people let him sit in the Oval Office and play Napoleon. MoveOn, an organization that, unlike the Bush Regime, has redeeming virtues, is making a terrible mistake in trying to collect half a million signatures in behalf of saving federal funding for NPR and PBS. I cannot imagine a surer way of adding NPR and PBS to the Bush Regime's ministry of propaganda. NPR and PBS desperately need to be totally independent of government and dependent only on their listeners. Any organization dependent on government money belongs to the government. Such an organization has no independence. Just ask the many physicists who cannot express doubts about the 9/11 Commission Report because their careers depend entirely on federal government grants. We have witnessed a decline in the integrity of NPR reporting over the past six years. The Bush Regime put an ideological commissar in charge of NPR and the result is that NPR sounds increasingly like Fox "news." The few people with integrity that America has left in the news business desperately need their independence. On February 13, I listened for two hours to NPR and did not hear a single report of General Pace's contradiction of Bush/Cheney propaganda about Iran's leaders. But I did hear a neoconservative from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a propaganda institution in Washington D.C., push the buttons for war with Iran. The Clinton Administration permitted the destruction of independent news in the US when it allowed the extraordinary concentration of the media. The American media is no longer run by journalists with a commitment to truth but by advertising executives who seek to protect profits by avoiding "controversy" and who seek to protect the value of the conglomerates, a value that depends on government-granted broadcast licenses, by accommodating the government's line, whatever it might be. The only free and independent media in the US is online. The best thing that could possibly happen to NPR is to lose all federal funding and to become totally independent of Washington. Then we could trust it again. *** Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:45:36 -0500 (EST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [NYTr] Venez: Chavez Sets Fast Nationalization Pace [Note - Venezuela is BUYING the assets of multinationals operating in the country, not simply expropriating them - which would arguably be fair given the wealth they have taken from Latin America over the years [This article simply says that Hugo Chavez is "vehemently opposed to what he sees as US imperialism" and does not bother to mention that the US Government once tried to overthrow him in a coup and funded the political opposition. Given this, and prior US subversion of other lawfully elected Latin American progressive governments it is not paranoia that is motivating Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarist movement he is leading. -SR] Reuters via The Washington Post - Feb 13, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/13/AR2007021301000.html Venezuela's Chavez sets fast nationalization pace By Brian Ellsworth Reuters CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is setting a faster than expected pace in his nationalization drive toward self-styled socialism, striking three takeover deals that push out U.S. firms in about a month. Chavez, an ally of Cuba who is vehemently opposed to what he sees as U.S. imperialism, is boosting state involvement in Venezuela, the No. 4 supplier of oil to the United States, as he consolidates power after a landslide re-election last year. Venezuelan authorities said on Tuesday they would buy the assets of U.S. power company CMS for $106 million, a day after cutting a similar deal with telecom giant Verizon for $572 million. Last week the government signed an accord to buy the holdings of U.S.-based global power generation firm AES Corp. for $750 million despite analysts' predictions of protracted takeover battles. "The government has showed it's clearly willing to move at a particularly fast pace to deliver on promises," said Patrick Esteruelas, an analyst with the Eurasia Group. The deals came two weeks after Chavez received special powers to rule by decree and five weeks after he vowed to nationalize the telecommunications and power utilities. The announcements on January 8, which Esteruelas dubbed "Red Monday," wiped out a fifth of the Caracas stock exchange's value. Chavez quickly implemented the nationalizations by avoiding protracted legal battles and outright seizures, and, instead, striking buyout deals. The companies did not have the choice to hold on to their investments, but they and economists said the buyout terms were tough but fair given the nation's deteriorating investment climate. ACCELERATED EFFORT New Vice President Jorge Rodriguez, a central player in the nationalization effort, cited the state's purchase of Verizon's 29 percent stake in Venezuelan phone company CANTV as a sign the process was "fast and transparent." Chavez is in the vanguard of Latin America's resurgent left, which has also swept Bolivia and Ecuador with promises to roll back 1990s' free-market reforms that first brought companies like AES and Verizon to Venezuela. The nationalization push follows Venezuela's campaign over the previous two years to regain control of its oilfields and boost taxes on industry operations. But Chavez, a former army officer, may face a tougher fight to take control by May 1 of four oil projects in the Orinoco basin worth $30 billion. Rex Tillerson, chief of Texas-based Exxon Mobil, expressed doubt that change of control of the Orinoco projects could meet Chavez' ambitious deadline. The aggressive nationalization efforts have sparked investor concerns about working in Venezuela, already a tough environment due to double-digit inflation and heavy government regulations. Chavez's heavy social spending has built up political support but has sparked inflation, and government price controls at times restrict the supply of basic consumer goods. Annual inflation reached 18.4 percent in January and grocery stores last week ran out of beef, a problem the government blamed on hoarding by suppliers. Luis Zambrano, an economist with Venezuela's Banco Mercantil, said Chavez's nationalization announcements had led to panic that fueled economic problems, convincing authorities they needed to finish the takeovers quickly. "The deterioration of the economic environment produced by the president's initial announcements has pushed the government to negotiate quickly," he said. [Additional reporting by Enrique Andres Pretel.] *** Tonight is the final Los Angeles appearance by the legendary poet, playwright, activist & revolutionary Amiri Baraka. His new book is "Tales of the Out and the Gone" Amiri Baraka is the last poet laureate of the state of New Jersey. He is the author of numerous books of essays, poems, drama, music history and criticism, and has founded and co-founded a number of organizations, including Yugen magazine, Totem Press, the Black Arts Reportory Theatre, and the Congress of African People AMIRI BARAKA at Skylight Books (free event) Thursday, Feb 15 at 7:30pm Skylight Books 1818 N Vermont Ave (between Hollywood Blvd & Franklin) Los Angeles, CA 90027 323 660-1175 www.skylightbooks.com Skylight Books is an independent bookstore in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles (open 10am-10pm daily), at the site of the former Chatterton's. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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