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If you think the United States is just wonderful, always well-meaning, and the paragon of righteousness, read some of the material below to get another perspective...
TORTURE, U.S. Abu Ghraib et al. Iraq & Empire, Why? full explanation of why the U.S. is willing to go to war over oil U.S. War Crimes ""The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not an isolated episode," writees Kinzer. "It was the culmination of a 110-year period during which Americans overthrew fourteen governments that displeased them for various ideological, political, and economic reasons" (Amitabh Pal. "From the Halls of Montezuma..." The Progressive, Sep 2006: 41-44).
".. more than 50 of [Mexico's] nationals [are] on U.S. death rows.. Late last month, the World Court in the Hague found that the United States violated the rights of these nationals and ordered American authorities to provide meaningful review of the sentences" (Patrick Timmons. "The Politics of Death." Texas Observer, 4/9/04, 18)
"Washington has resorted to two shameful initiatives [in Iraq]: First it reactivated a U.S. Army reconnaissance unit accued of war crimes during the Vietnam War to hunt down and kill suspected saboteurs; second, it hired a South African security firm with ties to apartheid-era death squads to manage a pipeline-protection service. "Both of these efforts are part of a campaign known as Task Force Shield, intended to stop sabotage of the 300-mile pipeline carrying crude oil from fields near Kirkuk in norther Iraq to the Turkish border... "...the Tiger Force.. snipers flew over the pipelines in.. Black Hawk helicopters and fired at suspected saboteurs from distances of more than 1.5 miles... questionalbe practice of shooting people before they can be identified" (Michael T. Klare. "Fighting for Oil--Still." The Nation, Apr. 19, 2004, 23).
"On February 29 [2004], Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected president of Haiti, was deposed... by a U.S.-backed military force... "The interim national government in Port-au-Prince has been handpicked by the U.S. government... including Colonel Henry Robert Marc-Charles, who was indicted for mass murder..." (Alan Pogue. "Haiti After the Coup." Texas Observer, 7/30/04: 16).
"...the "embedded" journalists joy-riding across the Kuwaiti border... their adrenaline-heavy, totally irrelevant reportage... the wowie-zowie enthusiasm of the "embeds"... "...Al Jazeera has simply come much closer to doing its job as a news organizations than have CNN and all the rest... the American response to Al Jazeera... our military's killing of journalists from Al Jazeera and Dubai, and ..its attack on the hotel which was widely known to house journalists..." (David Theis. "The View From Doha." Texas Observer, 7/30/04: 24-25).
"American dereliction of duty in Iraq [has given] world terrorists recruiting posters... numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses that were part of systemic and illegal abuse inflicted on the detainees by American troops... "...military commanders took months to begin their own investigation and then did little to end the abuses... "...Rumsfeld's strategy... encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners... "Neither Amnesty International nor Human Rights Watch has been allowed to enter and inspect Iraqi prisons under American control... "...the Bush administration's excuse that the torturing of Iraqi prisoners by enlisted troops was the sin of "a few bad apples" reflected the "low regard for the law" that has marked every chapter of its war on terror" ("American Dereliction of Duty in Iraq Gives World Terrorists Recruiting Posters." Washington Spectator, June 1, 2004: 1-3).
"American Indians and Alaska Natives have higher mortality rates than the white population... have a higher death rate than the general population from alcoholism (770%), diabetes (420%), and suicide (190%)... the IHS [Indian Health Service] spends $1,600 per person per year for comprehensive health services... roughly 50 percent below per person expenditures by public and private health insurance plans (2003). The federal government spends more than $5,200 on each veteran... $3,803 for federal prisoners..." ("Health Status Should Lead to Hill Action." FCNL Indian Report, Spring, 2004: 1).
7 deadly spins:Spin #1: The Sleeping Giant: The U.S. minds its own business, but the sleeping giant is eventually provoked. Spin #2: Good Wars: Once forced into war, the U.S. only does so in the name of Democracy and justice. Spin #3: U.S. vs. Them: Terrorists, evildoers and more-the U.S. has faced off against the worst humanity has to offer. Spin #4: Support the Troops: No matter what we think, we all unite behind our troops once the fighting starts. Spin #5: The Devil Made U.S. Do It: During war, even the U.S. has to play a little rough. Spin #6: Surgical Strikes: Those billion-dollar weapons can differentiate between the guilty and the innocent. Spin #7: Only Losers Commit War Crimes: Enemies of the U.S. must be brought to justice. (from the book The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda, By Mickey Z).
"How, they ask, can human rights violations in Kosovo justify the bombing of civilian targets while the trampling of those same rights in China, Russia or Palestine is deemed unworthy even of trade sanctions? It's a good question" (Paul Hockenos. "German Greens and Pax Europa." The Nation, July 19, 2004: 26).
"...The pattern of corruption is a very old one, well-known to the Founders of this nation, who had carefully studied the example of Rome: A powerful republic gives birth to an empire, which in turn destroys the republic. The emperor who rules by force abroad develops a taste for ruling his own people in the same manner. "The [Bush] Administration's across-the-board hostility to the constraints of law, domestic and international, is not accidental. The constitutional structure that is the backbone of the republic is a stumbling block to the empire. The republic requires a single standard, to which all are subject -- the law. But the empire requires a double standard -- one set of regulations for others, and another set, or none, for the imperial ruler. In the imperial conception, "law" is a set of rules dictated by the ruler for everyone else to obey. In this conception, other countries are not permitted weapons of mass destruction, but the United States may have them (and use them to stop the others from getting them). Other countries' troops must obey the Geneva Conventions, but the United States is exempt. Other countries must wage war only defensively; the United States may do so pre-emptively" (Jonathan Schell. "Empire Without Law." The Nation, May 31, 2004: 7).
"...(Kerry did engage in some historical distortion, however, when he said the United States has a "time-honored tradition" of fighting wars of necessity. How about the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, Korea, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War, just to name a few?)" (Matthew Rothschild. "Kerry's Mistake." The Progressive, Sep. 2004: 4).
"The problem has its roots in a long-term American forgetfulness, going back to the acid fog in which the United States ended World War II. There was never a complete moral reckoning with the harsh momentum of that conflict's denouement -- how American leaders embraced a strategy of terror bombing, slaughtering whole urban populations, and how, finally, they ushered in the atomic age with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Scholars have debated those questions, but politicians have avoided them, and most citizens have pretended they aren't really question at all. America's enduring assumptions about its own moral supremacy, its own altruism, its own exceptionalism, have hardly been punctured by consideration of the possibility that we, too, are capable of grave mistakes, terrible crimes... ""The past is never dead," William Faulkner said. "It isn't even past." How Americans remember their country's use of terror bombing affects how they think of terrorism" (James Carroll. "The Bush Crusade." The Nation, Sep. 20, 2004: 14-22).
"...US occupation powers have been unabashed in their efforts to steal money that is supposed to aid a war-ravaged people. The State Department has taken $184 million earmarked for drinking water projects and moved it to the budget for the lavish new US Embassy in Saddam's former palace... he is robbing Iraq's people, who, according to a recent study by Public Citizen, are facing "massive outbreaks of cholera, diarrhea, nausea and kidney stones" from drinking contaminated water... "...if financial scandals made you blush, the entire reconstruction of Iraq would be pretty mortifying. From the start... it was treated as an ideological experiment in privatization... "As a result, the reconstruction was seen not as a recovery from war but as an extension of the occupation, a foreign invasion of a different sort... "...quoted on NPR's Marketplace, "At least 20 percent of US spending in Iraq is lost to corruption"... "Rather than models of speed and efficiency, the contractors look more like overbilling, underperforming, lumbering beasts, barely able to move for fear of the hatred they have helped generate. The problems goes well beyond the latest reports of Halliburton drivers abandoning $85,000 trucks on the road because they don't carry spare tires. Private contractors are also accused of playing leadership roles in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib... "...Senate Republicans just defeated an attempt to bar private contractors from interrogating prisoners and also voted down a proposal to impose stiffer penalties on contractors who overbill. Meanwhile, the White House is also trying to get immunity from prosecution for US contractors in Iraq..." (Naomi Klein. "Shameless in Iraq." The Nation, July 12, 2004: 14).
George W. Bush's September 21 speech to the United Nations, marked by an air of unreality and hypocrisy, was insulting to many other nations. Bush presented the United States as the world's premier social worker, leading the fight against AIDS, poverty, child trafficking, human cloning and genocide in Darfur. At best, the Administration has a mixed record in these areas, while the United States continues to give less overseas aid as a percentage of gross national income than any other industrialized country. Moreover, the Administration has focused virtually nonstop on terrorism and Iraq, even when other countries have wanted to talk about trade, economic development and other issues... "The President's speech, with its grandiose claims of bringing liberty and democracy to the world, contrasted sharply with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's emphasis on the rule of law. "Those who seek to bestow legitimacy must themselves embody it, and those who invoke international law must themselves submit to it," Annan said in remarks before Bush's speech, an implicit criticism of US actions. Annan's approach is far more likely to create the foundations for an international order that makes possible the spread of democracy than is a self-determined and selective American crusade" ("Bush Spins at the UN." The Nation, Oct. 11, 2004: 3).
"Imagine the scandal if a foreign government had for years funneled millions of dollars to political groups in the United States in an attempt to affect the outcome of a U.S. election. Even worse, what if some of the groups that received money had been involved in a failed coup attempt against a democratically elected U.S. president? Would the U.S. public not have a right to be outraged at the attempt to manipulate our political process? "Of course we would -- which is why the people of Venezuela have a right to be outraged at the U.S. government's ongoing attempts to meddle in the electoral process in Venezuela" (Robert Jensen. "U.S. Supports Anti-democratic Forces in Venezuela Recall." http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0811-01.htm. 8-12-04). "Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's jealousy: Unlike Mr. Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of the vote. "Or maybe it's the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling Iraq's. And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies that pump the crude ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn't even acceptable as a tip at a New York diner. "Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR president has to go... "Justice offered up to $67 million, of our taxpayer money, to ChoicePoint in a no-bid deal, for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of half a dozen nations. The choice of which nation's citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September 11th highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines... "What do these nations have in common besides a lack of involvement in the September 11th attacks? Coincidentally, each is in the throes of major electoral contests in which the leading candidates -- presidents Lula Ignacio da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico City mayor Andres Lopez Obrador and Venezuela's Chavez -- have the nerve to challenge the globalization demands of George W. Bush... "Here's what it comes down to: The Justice Department averts it's gaze from Saudi Arabia but shoplifts voter records in Venezuela. So it's only fair to ask: Is Mr. Bush fighting a war on terror -- or a war on democracy?" (Greg Palast. "Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday?" http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0811-02.htm. 8-12-04).
"The most deadly weapons in the world today are legal, accessible and dirt cheap. And the United States is spreading them around the world"... "The AK-47, the M-16 and other so-called "small arms" are responsible for the deaths of half a million people each year. About 300,000 people – mostly civilians – are killed in wars, coups d'etat and other armed conflicts each year by small arms. Another 200,000 people are killed each year in homicides, suicides, unintentional shootings and shootings by law enforcement officers using these weapons. In addition to those killed, an estimated 1.5 million people are wounded by small arms annually. If we take into account their cumulative impact, small arms are truly weapons of mass destruction. "These lethal weapons are cheap, portable and easily concealed, making them ideal weapons for terrorists. They are hard to destroy and so simple to operate that even an eight-year old can carry and use them. "The United States has the dubious honor of being the largest exporter, with $741.4 million in sales in 2003, which accounts for 18 percent of the market. The U.S. also purchased $602.5 million in small arms and munitions in 2003, making it the largest importer of small arms, as well. "The failure of nations like the United States to curb the manufacture of these deadly weapons has a devastating impact on human rights, development and the war against terrorism." (Mass Destruction in Small Packages, by Frida Berrigan, World Policy Institute)
"Deep in the psyche of the American mind is the myth of exceptionalism: that we are the greatest country on earth, a shining beacon on a hill, placed here by God himself. This is the American superiority complex, a profound affliction that distorts our perceptions and enables manipulative Presidents to give the marching orders" ("The Meaning of Defeat." The Progressive, Dec. 2004: 8-10).
"Imagine the scandal if a foreign government had for years funneled millions of dollars to political groups in the United States in an attempt to affect the outcome of a U.S. election. Even worse, what if some of the groups that received money had been involved in a failed coup attempt against a democratically elected U.S. president? Would the U.S. public not have a right to be outraged at the attempt to manipulate our political process? "Of course we would -- which is why the people of Venezuela have a right to be outraged at the U.S. government's ongoing attempts to meddle in the electoral process in Venezuela" (Robert Jensen. "U.S. Supports Anti-democratic Forces in Venezuela Recall." http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0811-01.htm. 8-12-04). "Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's jealousy: Unlike Mr. Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of the vote. "Or maybe it's the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling Iraq's. And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies that pump the crude ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn't even acceptable as a tip at a New York diner. "Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR president has to go... "Justice offered up to $67 million, of our taxpayer money, to ChoicePoint in a no-bid deal, for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of half a dozen nations. The choice of which nation's citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September 11th highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines... "What do these nations have in common besides a lack of involvement in the September 11th attacks? Coincidentally, each is in the throes of major electoral contests in which the leading candidates -- presidents Lula Ignacio da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico City mayor Andres Lopez Obrador and Venezuela's Chavez -- have the nerve to challenge the globalization demands of George W. Bush... "Here's what it comes down to: The Justice Department averts it's gaze from Saudi Arabia but shoplifts voter records in Venezuela. So it's only fair to ask: Is Mr. Bush fighting a war on terror -- or a war on democracy?" (Greg Palast. "Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday?" http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0811-02.htm. 8-12-04).
WMD, Nuclear Weapons, Shameful U.S. Acts, Veterans"U.S./British Forces Continue Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Despite Massive Evidence of Negative Health Effects" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 57)."British and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq.. flouting a U.N. resolution that classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction... "Our own soldiers in the first Gulf War were often required to enter radioactive battlefields unprotected and were never warned of the dangers.. In effect, George Bush Sr. used weapons of mass destruction on his own soldiers" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 58).
Africa, Shameful U.S. Acts"During the Cold War years (1950-1989), the U.S. sent $1.5 billion in arms and training to Africa thus setting the stage for the current round of conflicts.. These U.S.-funded wars have been responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans and the subsequent displacement, disease, and starvation of many millions more" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 64)."The U.S... the IMF, World Bank, and G8.. Structural Adjustment programs (SAPs).. require that governments reduce public spending (especially on health, education, and food/storage).. creating a domino effect of disasters (prolonged famine, conflict, abject poverty, and environmental exploitation) linked to an estimated 21 million deaths and, in the process, transferring hundreds of billions of dollars to the West" (65). "The U.S. has created a holocaust in Africa by backing wars and imposing structural adjustment programs.." (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 66). see..
Asad Ismi "The United States government is the greatest purveyer of violence in the world" -Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The April, 2002, military coup in Venezuela was supported by the United States government.. the CIA actively organized the coup.. Venezuela is the fourth largest oil-producing nation" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 71). See..
Venezuela's Electronic News
"The world's largest polluter, the U.S. military, generates 750,000 tons of toxic waste material annually, more than the five largest chemical companies in the U.S. combined. This pollution occurs globally, as the U.S. maintains bases in dozens of countries.. it's poisoning the land.. resulting in increased rates of cancer, kidney disease, birth defects, low birth weight, and miscarriage" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 79).
"During the first Gulf War, the United States deliberately bombed Iraq's water system... a direct violation of the Geneva Convention" (139). "[If this action were taken against the] U.S. civilian population. It would be called terrorism, or worse, genocide... International law on this matter is unambiguous -- depriving people of life-sustaining resources is a war crime" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 140).
"Bush Appoints Former Criminals to Key Government Roles: "John Poindexter [head of the Information Awareness Office].. found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and the destruction of evidence... "Elliot Abrams [National Security Council (NSC)] plead guilty to withholding evidence from Congress... active in covering up some of the worst [war] atrocities... "John Negroponte [Ambassador to the U.N.].. is known for his role in the cover-up of human rights abuses by CIA trained paramilitaries... "Otto Reich [assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs].. was instrumental in the failed Venezuelan coup.. censured by Congress for "prohibited covert propaganda activities".." (147). "John Poindexter is barred from Costa Rica for drug trafficking... convicted of five felony counts of lying to Congress" (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 149).
"[The] CIA kidnaps suspects for overseas torture and execution.. suspects are denied legal counsel and detained without specific charges" (154). "Amnesty International.. makes clear that the U.S. is in violation of numerous human rights and war laws..." (Phillips, Peter, and Project Censored. Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 2003: 156).
"The controversy ought to be over the unconscionable silence in the United States about the military's repeated killing of journalists in Iraq... "...Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayyoub... a US warplane swooped in and fired a rocket at Al Jazeera's office... "At noon on April 8, a US Abrams tank fired at the Palestine Hotel, home and office to more than 100 unembedded international journalists operating in Baghdaad at the time. The shell smashed into the fifteenth-floor Reuters office, killing two cameramen, Reuters's Taras Protsyum and Jose Couso of Spain's Telecinco... "Pentagon officials, as well as commanders on the ground in Baghdad, knew that the Palestine Hotel was full of international journalists"... "..."...the American... military--do not want us there. And they make it very uncomfortable for us to work... this is leading to security forces in some instances feeling it is legitimate to target us with deadly force and with impunity." "The US military has yet to discipline a single soldier for the killing of a journalist in Iraq... the killing of Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, shot near Abu Ghraib prison... the killing of Al Arabiya TV's Mazen al-Tumeizi, blown apart by a US missile... on Baghdad's Haifa Street... "...at US military checkpoints... March 2004 shooting deaths of Ali Abdel-Aziz and Ali al-Khatib of Al Arabiya.... Reuters freelancer Dhia Najim was killed by US fire... "...tortured by the US military... Salah Hassan and Suheib Badr Darwish of Al Jazeera... and three Reuters staffers... "... journalists were reporting on places or incidents that the military may not have wanted the world to see" (Jeremy Scahill. "Shooting the Messenger." The Nation, March 7, 2005: 4-6).
"To a growing number of Europeans, however, it is America that is in trouble and the "American way of life" that cannot be sustained. The American pursuit of wealth, size, and abundance - as material surrogates for happiness - is aesthetically unpleasing and ecologically catastrophic. The American economy is built on sand (or, more precisely, other people's money). For many Americans the promise of a better future is a fading hope. Contemporary mass culture in the US is squalid and meretricious... "America's cultural peculiarities (as seen from Europe) are well documented: the nation's marked religiosity, its selective prurience,[1] its affection for guns and prisons (the EU has 87 prisoners per 100,000 people; America has 685), and its embrace of the death penalty... "(of the world's developed countries only the US and South Africa offer no universal medical coverage). According to the World Health Organization the United States is number one in health spending per capita - and thirty-seventh in the quality of its service. "As a consequence, Americans live shorter lives than West Europeans. Their children are more likely to die in infancy: the US ranks twenty-sixth among industrial nations in infant mortality, with a rate double that of Sweden, higher than Slovenia's, and only just ahead of Lithuania's... "...a recent study suggests that for every dollar the US spends on education it gets worse results than any other industrial nation. American children consistently under-perform their European peers in both literacy and numeracy... "The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights promises the "right to parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child" and every West European country provides salary support during that leave. In Sweden women get sixty-four weeks off and two thirds of their wages. Even Portugal guarantees maternity leave for three months on 100 percent salary. The US federal government guarantees nothing. In the words of Valgard Haugland, Norway's Christian Democratic minister for children and family: "Americans like to talk about family values. We have decided to do more than talk; we use our tax revenues to pay for family values."... Foreign aid... "The US is the meanest of all the rich countries on the OECD's Development Assistance Committee. The Europeans are by far the most generous... "There is more. The US contains just 5 percent of the world's population (and falling), but it is responsible for 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gas output per annum. Each year our atmosphere has to absorb twenty metric tons of carbon dioxide for every American man, woman, and child; but just nine tons for every European. And the American share continues to grow, even as the Bush administration blocks any international action on pollution or global warming... "Abolition of the death penalty is a condition for EU membership, whereas the US currently executes prisoners on a scale matched only in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Congo. American opposition to an International Criminal Court has been supported in the UN and elsewhere by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, Israel, and Egypt. The American doctrine of "preventive war" now finds its fraternal counterpart in Muscovite talk of "preventive counterrevolution."... "As things now stand, boundary-breaking and community-making is something that Europeans are doing better than anyone else. The United States, trapped once again in what Tocqueville called its "perpetual utterance of self-applause," isn't even trying" (Tony Judt. "Europe vs. America." The New York Review of Books, 10 February 2005 Issue; http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012305L.shtml, accessed June 7, 2005).
"...called "global strike"... In a shocking innovation in American nuclear policy, recently discolsed in the Washington Post by military analyst William Arkin, the Administration has created and placed on continuous high alert a force where by the President can launch a pinpoint strike, including a nuclear strike, anywhere on earth with a few hours' notice... "These actions make operational a revolution in US nuclear policy... targeting of, among others, China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libra... grew out of Bush's broader new military strategy of pre-emptive war... "The incorporation of nuclear weapons into the global strike option, casting a new shadow of nuclear danger over the entire planet, raises fundamental questions. Perhaps the most important is why the United States, which now possesses the strongest conventional military forces in the world, feels the need to add to them a new global nuclear threat. The mystery deepens when you reflect that nothing could be more calculated to goad other nations into nuclear proliferation" (Jonathan Schell. "A Revolution in American Nuclear Policy." The Nation, Mar. 14, 2005: 12).
"...what they don't like about the United States... summarized... "The US is a selfish, individualistic society devoted to commerce, profit, and the despoliation of the planet. It is uncaring of the poor and sick and it is indifferent to the rest of humankind. The US rides roughshod over international laws and treaties and threatens the moral, environmental, and physical future of humanity. It is inconsistent and hypocritical in its foreign dealings, and it wields unparalleled military clout. It is, in short, a bull in a global china shop"... "...most Europeans are appalled by the death penalty..." (Reid, T.R. The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy: p. 14)
Maureen Dowd. New York Times: "America is once more plunged into a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping, marauding thugs, suffering innocents, a shattered intrastructure, a gutte police force, insufficient troop levels and criminally negligent government planning. But this time it's happening in America... "It is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode... Who are we if we can't take care of our own?" Independent: "Hurricane Katrina has revealed some uncomfortable truths about the world's richest and most powerful nation. The catastrophe in New Orleans exposed shocking inequalities--both of wealth and race--and also the relative impotence of the federal authorities when faced with a large-scale disaster. Many Americans are beginnint to ask just what sort of country they are living in... The more information emerges, the more irresponsible the federal authorities appear" ("The Week." Guardian Weekly, Sep. 9, 2005: 2).
"Now the debacle in New Orleans has underlined again the competence deficit inside the Bush administration. "The stories about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would be comical if their results had not been so tragic. Shipment of supplies were held up, sometimes only a few miles from their destination, because FEMA officials insisted that the donors had not filled in the right forms. "FEMA ordered the Red Cross not to enter New Orleans, lest it provide a reason for residents to remain, even though thousands of people were by then trapped in the city's Superdome and convention centre. FEMA officials claimed not to have been aware, more than four days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast, that the convention centre had become a humanitarian nightmare for 20,000 people--suggesting they had neither been watching television nor talking to the local police" (Julian Borger. "Bush's competence deficit." Guardian Weekly, Sep. 16, 2005: 7).
"...leaving the US for Canada is done with no enormous regret. Behind you lies the weight of American touchiness and hysteria, the radio shock jocks, the twerpish, bow-tied TV pundits, the religious nuts who deny evolution with the phrase "intelligent design." and the madness that descants on the ills of passive smoking, yet allows a tax break on SUVs. This is to say little of a president who seems only confident when he is standing at a podium as commander-in-chief with bristling military types behind him talking about "Amraaaka". "But one must not exaggerate. America is not in some proto-fascist statte and, actually, there is much I still love about the place, but the country is in a very weird mood. So much of its decency, cordiality, wit and thoughfulness is drowned out by strident chaps wearing flags in their lapels and the babbling hatred that pours from the Fox Network. When you get to Canada, the clamour stops. Suddenly you find yourself in the place that America should be and once was, though it would offend every American to think that Canada has anything the US should want. "Canada is the lame, slow-talking cousin up north where people say "golly", "cripes" and "geeezzz". The origin of the name is held to be significant: it is commonly thought to derive from a Spanish cartographer who wrote on an early map "Aca-Nada", or "nothing here". "If only on the grounds of Canada's economic success, Americans should take more notice. Last month the Liberal government announced that it would cut C$30bn ($26bn) out of the budget because of the enormous fiscal surplus, running at about C$13.4bn a year. Just over C$5bn is to be given back to Canadians on taxes collected this year. And in future some of the surplus will be spent on training the settling of immigrants and student grants... "The main point, which you never hear in Britain or the US, is that Canada alone among G7 countries is balancing its budget. When you compare its performance with the Bush Administration's (the US trade deficit is $706bn), it's a wonder Canadians aren't a bit more cocky" (Henry Porter. "It's Great Up North." Guardian Weekly, Jan 13, 2006: 22).
"...the scorched earth policy in Fallujah removed any doubt that this was not a benign occupation. ON Bush's orders, the US military went into Fallujah to avenge the killing of four US mercenaries working for Blackwater Security. A friend of Glantz's, a British filmmaker, returns from Fallujah with video and indignation: "Unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable. Your people are butchers. I have to find the technical definition of genocide because your government may be committing one." US snipers were shooting innocent women and children in the neck and firing on ambulances, she reported" (Matthew Rosthchild. "The Iraq Debacle." The Progressive, Nov. 2005: 48-52).
"Chavez has sold the discounted oil in two US markets, New York and Massachusetts... bought 12m gallons at a steep discount after US oil companies ignored its plea for help. Similar oil deals are in the works elsewhere. "On the second scow day in the Bronx, it did not escape the notice of tenants that a foreign government stepped in after Congress did not... "Last week Citgo bought full-pagge ads in the Washington Post and the New York Times, lauding Venezuela's role in heating the homes of the nation's poor" (Michelle Garcia. "Bronx warmly receives Venezuelan oil." Guardian Weekly, Dec. 16, 2005: 7).
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