Plan on voting in the General Election?

Dereliction of Duty Mar 26, 2016, at 10:r Worth reading if you plan on voting in the General Election. Colonel Phil "Hands" Handley is credited with the highest speed air-to-air gun kill in the history of aerial combat. He flew operationally for all but 11 months of a 26-year career, in aircraft such as the F-86 Sabre, F-15 Eagle, and the C-130A Hercules. Additionally, he flew 275 combat missions during two tours in Southeast Asia in the F- 4D and F-4E. His awards include 21 Air Medals, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Silver Star. Here is what Col. Handley wrote in response to Panetta and Dempsey's claims there was no time to send help to Benghazi . ------------------------------ Betrayal in Benghazi     Phil "Hands" Handley Colonel, USAF (Ret.) The combat code of the US Military is that we don't abandon our dead or wounded on the battlefield. In US Air Force lingo, fighter pilots don't run off and leave their wingmen. If one of our own is shot down, still alive and not yet in enemy captivity, we will either come to get him or die trying. Among America’s fighting forces, the calm, sure knowledge that such an irrevocable bond exists is priceless. Along with individual faith and personal grit, it is a sacred trust that has often sustained hope in the face of terribly long odds. The disgraceful abandonment of our Ambassador and those brave ex-SEALs who fought to their deaths to save others in that compound is nothing short of dereliction-of-duty. Additionally, the patently absurd cover-up scenario that was fabricated in the aftermath was an outright lie in an attempt to shield the President and the Secretary of State from responsibility. It has been over three years since the attack on our compound in  Benghazi. The White House strategy, with the aid of a "lap dog" press has been to run out the clock before the truth is forthcoming. The testimonies of the three "whistle blowers" have reopened the subject and hopefully will lead to exposure and disgrace of those responsible for this embarrassing debacle. It would appear that the most recent firewall which the Administration is counting on is the contention "that there were simply no military assets that could be  brought to bear in time to make a difference" mainly due to the unavailability of tanker support for fighter aircraft. This is simply BS, regardless how many supposed "experts" the Administration trot out to make such an assertion. The bottom line is that even if the closest asset capable of response was half-way around the world, you don't just sit on your penguin ass and do nothing. The fact is that the closest asset was not half-way around the world, but as near as Aviano Air Base , Italy where two squadrons of F-16Cs are based. Consider the following scenario (all times Benghazi local): When Hicks in Tripoli receives a call at 9:40 PM from Ambassador Stevens informing him “Greg, we are under attack!" (his last words), Hicks immediately notifies all agencies and prepares for the immediate initiation of an existing Emergency Response Plan." At AFRICON, General Carter Ham attempts to mount a rescue effort, but is told to"stand down". By 10:30 PM an unarmed drone is overhead the compound and streaming live feed to various "Command and Control Agencies" so everyone watching that feed knew damn well what was going on. At 11:30 PM Doherty and five others leave Tripoli, arriving in Benghazi at 1:30 AM on Wednesday morning, where they hold off the attacking mob from the roof of the compound until they are killed by a direct mortar hit at 4:00 AM. So nothing could have been done, eh? Nonsense. If one assumes that tanker support really "was not available" what about this: When at 10:00 PMAFRICON alerts the 31st TFW Command Post in Aviano Air Base, Italy of the attack, the Wing Commander orders preparation for the launch of two F-16s and advises the Command Post at NAS Sigonella to prepare for hot pit refueling and quick turn of the jets. By 11:30 PM, two F-16Cs with drop tanks and each armed with five hundred 20 MM rounds are airborne. Flying at 0.92 Mach they will cover the 522 nautical miles directly to NAS Sigonella in 1.08 hours. While in-route, the flight lead is informed of the tactical situation, rules of engagement, and radio frequencies to use. The jets depart Sigonella at 1:10 AM with full fuel load and cover the 377 nautical miles directly to Benghazi in 0.8 hours, arriving at1:50 AM which would be 20 minutes after the arrival of Woods, Doherty and their team. Providing that the two F-16s initial pass over the mob, in full afterburner at 200 feet and 550 knots did not stop the attack in its tracks, a few well- placed strafing runs on targets of opportunity would assuredly do the trick. Were the F-16s fuel state insufficient to return to Sigonelli after jettisoning their external drop tanks, they could easily do so at Tripoli International Airport, only one-half hour away. As for those hand- wringing naysayers who would worry about IFR clearances, border crossing authority, collateral damage, landing rights, political correctness and dozens of other reasons not to act -- screw them. It is time our "leadership" get its priorities straight and put America's interests first. The end result would be that Woods and Doherty would be alive. Dozens in the attacking rabble would be rendezvousing with "72 virgins" and a clear message would have been sent to the next worthless POS terrorist contemplating an attack on Americans that it is not really a good idea to "tug" on Superman's cape. Of course, all this depends upon a Commander In Chief more concerned with saving the lives of those he put in harm's way than getting his crew rested for a campaign fund raising event in Las Vegas the next day. It also depends upon a Secretary of State who actually understood "What difference did it make?", and a Secretary of Defense who was watching the feed from the drone and understood what the attack consisted of instead of making an immediate response that "One of the military tenants is that you don't commit assets until you fully understand the tactical situation." Ultimately it comes down to the question of who gave that order to stand down? Whoever that coward turns out to be should be exposed, removed from office, and face criminal charges for dereliction of duty. The combat forces of the United States of America deserve leadership that really does "have their back" when the chips are down. FOR THOSE OF YOU HAVE ACTUALLY TAKEN THE TIME TO READ THIS, DO ONE THING FOR ME AND FORWARD IT!! TO AVOID THIS HAPPENING AGAIN, WHOEVER GAVE THE "STAND DOWN" ORDER NEEDS TO BE EXPOSED!

HOPE FOR THE BEST...

Date: October 12, 2015, 8:44:09 PM PDT
Subject: Fwd: Fulford  -- Mob on the run 10/13

The Khazarian mob is on the run as US military takes over Federal Reserve Board.

Posted by benjamin

October 13, 2015

The US military, under the new leadership of Marine General Joseph Dunford, has come out with guns blazing to free the people of the United States and the world. Under his command, the US military has taken over the Khazarian mob’s main source of power, the Federal Reserve Board. To confirm this, go visit the home page of the Federal Reserve board, it is no longer

http://www.federalreserve.org

but is now http://www.federalreserve.gov/

The Chinese coordinated with this move by announcing their China International Payments System alternative to the Khazarian controlled SWIFT system meaning their take-over of the US dollar system outside of the United States was proceeding as planned. The implosion of the big Khazarian mafia banks is now just a matter of time.

Furthermore, there have been huge ongoing military moves in the Middle East aimed at removing the fascist Khazarian Nazionist government of Benyamin Netanyahu in Israel, according to Pentagon and Russia sources. To facilitate the Russian purge of Satan worshipping Nazionists from the Middle East, the Pentagon has withdrawn all its aircraft carriers from the Persian Gulf.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/10/10/432800/US-warship-Persian-Gulf

The rogue Netanyahu regime only added gasoline to the fire last week by faking a US air force air raid against Syrian government forces in Aleppo, according to other Pentagon sources. The Russians were not fooled by this maneuver and responded by sending missiles and fighter jets over Iranian airspace (with Iran’s permission of course) to attack multiple targets in the Middle East, killing hundreds of Israeli, Saudi and Turkish troops operating against international law in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon sources say. The real message of course is that the US military was ready to step aside and allow the Russians to clean up the mess in the Middle East.

Fearing for his life and that of his regime, King Salman of Saudi Arabia checked into a hospital claiming severe Alzheimer’s disease while his son, the real power, Defense Minister and Crown Prince Salman flew to Russia where, according to Pentagon and Russian sources he

offered the surrender of his regime. As the rather crude Arab saying goes “one day the stick is in your hand, the next day it is in your ass.” In effect, the Saudi prince bent over and offered Russia control of the oil market in exchange for his regime’s survival. To sweeten the pot, Salman offered to pay for the two French made Mistral helicopter carriers that Egypt is buying after France was forced to cancel the sale to Russia.

The Russians agreed with the Saudis that some sort of “political settlement,” including the end of the fake terrorist ISIS caliphate, was needed. However, with the Chinese, Russians and Iranians supporting Yemeni forces seizing key Saudi oil fields it looks increasingly likely the “political settlement” will be the abdication of that odious Satan worshipping pseudo-Muslim family and their ceding of control of the Muslim holy lands in exchange for their lives. Perhaps a comfortable retirement in the French Riviera could be arranged. That would no doubt be preferable to the beheading many of them deserve and some of them may get.

The other Middle Eastern autocrat who is in a deep state of funk is Turkey’s President Erdogan. The Pentagon is withdrawing all its forces and anti-missile defenses from Turkey as part of its general disengagement from the region. The only thing they insist on, and will continue to get, is regular gasoline supplies for their fuel guzzling military engine.
Erdogan has been caught bombing Kurds in his own country, stealing industrial infrastructure from Syria, working with Israel and generally being an anti-social trouble maker. As payback, the Rothschild pipelines carrying Syrian and Iraqi stolen oil through Turkey are being cut off by the Russians and Kurds.

The cut off of Middle Eastern oil money is going to be the last nail in the coffin for many of the criminal mega-banks that have survived thanks to petrodollars. That is one of the main reasons why the IMF, the UN, the BIS, Citibank, the Bank of England and others have been warning of an impending financial crisis. The financial head of the Nazionist octopus is being cut off and soon the various arms will stop their doomed struggles.

With the imminent removal from power of its European and American sponsors the fate of the Nazionist Netanyahu regime in Israel has also now been pretty much sealed. Netanyahu was forced to cancel his planned visit to Germany because German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German regime told him he was not going to get any more German submarines.
The blackmail against German auto-makers like Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz etc. using a fake “emissions scandal” has only served to strengthen the German’s resolve to work with the Russians against their Khazarian tormentors. The flood of millions of “Syrian refugees,” many of them trained sabotage agents who were never Syrian, has also alarmed many sensible Germans. The Germans are getting ready to re-issue Deutschemarks if necessary and improve their relations with the Christian Putin regime in Russia.

The French have also thrown in the towel and are no longer working for the Khazarian mob, according to British MI5 intelligence. The French have told the British they will be integrating the EU with Russia and that if the British were against that, they should leave the EU project, the sources said.

In the Far East, meanwhile, some big changes are also starting to be seen. The Chinese communists and the North Korean regime have patched over their differences. The announcement by the North Koreans that they had nuclear inter-continental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States and Europe was a sign that Japan and the Korean peninsula were no longer open to nuclear blackmail by the Khazarians and their dwindling collection of slave regimes, North Korean and Chinese sources said.

The CIA sent a warning to the White Dragon Society that the Khazarians were going to try to force a German style emissions scandal and other scandals on Japanese corporations like Mitsubishi, Honda, Toyota, Mazda etc. in order to try to force Japanese industrialists to continue their submission. Any such attempt will fail because the Abe slave regime is losing its support after forcing the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement on its people and industry.

Although the TPP is mostly the result of complex technocratic horse trading and will have only minimal effect on the real economy, the fact that it was negotiated in secret and gives secretly selected corporate courts power over the Japanese government has angered nationalists here.

In any case, even as the Abe slave regime clings to power, an offensive against their remaining masters in the US is well under way. Even as this issue went to press, Abe’s masters have contacted the WDS to negotiate a peace deal.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis is expected to show up in Mexico where he is considering announcing a holy war against the Khazarian mob still clinging to power in the United States and some Latin American countries, according to P2 freemason sources.

Former US President, and long term Nazionist Fuhrer, George Bush Sr. showed his fear recently when he was asked by a truth seeker about secret US government projects. Bush answered “Americans can’t handle the truth,” before being shut up by his handlers.

http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/george-bush-senior-on-ufos-americans-cant-handle-the-truth/

What truth can’t they handle Bush? The fact that you and your cabal assassinated President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and thousands of others? The fact that you took over funds meant for the people of the world and used them to advance your genocidal fascist New World Order? The fact that you and your fellow Nazionists manufactured and spread deadly diseases like HIV, Ebola, Bird Flu, SARS etc? The fact you sold US military secrets to the Chinese and North Koreans? The fact your gang murdered close to 3000 people on 911 to stage a fascist coup? What about the chemtrails, the plan to microchip the people etc? The list goes on but, let us face it, you know that, as you told Journalist Sarah Mclendon in 1992, “if the American people ever find out what we have done, they would chase us down the street and lynch us.”

The US military under General Dunford has taken an important first step in nationalizing the Federal Reserve Board but a lot more needs to be done. Why is Obama still publicly telling lies about Syria, 911, the Ukraine, 311 etc? Why hasn’t the military started the mass arrests of the known criminals behind 911, Wall Street fraud, massive political bribery etc.?

As many informed US citizens and many inside the Pentagon and the agencies have pointed out, this is high treason and it needs to be dealt with by men with guns because nobody else has the power to enforce the US constitution and the laws of the land. Come on General Dunford and the patriots in the US military, the history books await your decision. Will you be a hero of humanity or will you go into the garbage can of history as a failure? The people of the world are waiting and hoping for the best.

A GERMAN'S VIEW ON ISLAM...

Hard to argue with this:

A German's View on Islam - worth reading.
This is one of the best explanations of the Muslim terrorist situation I have ever read. His references to past history are accurate and clear. Not long, easy to understand, and well worth the read.

The author of this email is Dr. Emanuel Tanya, a well-known and well-respected psychiatrist.

A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come.’ ‘My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

‘We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is a religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff meant to make us feel better, and meant somehow to diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.’

‘The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.’

‘The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous. Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China 's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.’

‘The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery? Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

‘History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.’

‘Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.’

‘Now Islamic prayers have been introduced in Toronto and other public schools in Ontario , and, yes, in Ottawa , too, while the Lord's Prayer was removed (due to being so offensive?). The Islamic way may be peaceful for the time being in our country until the fanatics move in.’

‘In Australia , and indeed in many countries around the world, many of the most commonly consumed food items have the halal emblem on them. Just look at the back of some of the most popular chocolate bars, and at other food items in your local supermarket. Food on aircraft have the halal emblem just to appease the privileged minority who are now rapidly expanding within the nation's shores.’

‘In the U.K, the Muslim communities refuse to integrate and there are now dozens of "no-go" zones within major cities across the country that the police force dare not intrude upon. Sharia law prevails there, because the Muslim community in those areas refuse to acknowledge British law.’ ‘As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts - the fanatics who threaten our way of life.’

Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.

Extend yourself a bit and send this on. Let us hope that thousands world-wide read this, think about it, and send it on before it's too late, and we are silenced because we were silent!!!

Could this be true?? Have a nice day!

Oh Wait.......Could this be True!

Kim Jung Un Kim Jung Un had NO military experience whatsoever before Daddy made him a four-star general. This snot-nosed twerp had never accomplished anything in his life that would even come close to military leadership. He hadn't even so much as led a Cub Scout troop, coached a sports team, or commanded a military platoon. So he is made the "Beloved Leader" Of North Korea . Terrific! - - - Oh WAIT. . ..crap! Sorry, just remembered that we did the same thing. We took an arrogant bastard community organizer, who had never worn a uniform, and made him Commander-in-Chief. A guy, who had never had a real job, worked on a budget, or led anything more than an ACORN demonstration, and we made him "Beloved Leader" of the United States TWICE !!! I'm sorry I brought this up. Never mind. I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When theywake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. ~ Frank Sinatra

Mainstream press will never print this!

Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 10:49:02 -0700
Subject: [Fwd: Fw: Welfare Map ( Be sure to read this from top to bottom )]

READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Fw: Welfare Map  ( Be sure to read this from top to bottom )
 
 
 
*Please forward to all likeminded people that want to know what’s really
going on *
 
    THE NEW WELFARE MAP

    Make sure you read to the bottom...
 
    Quite an eye opener…
  
    These 11 States now have More People on Welfare than they do Employed!
 
    Last month, the Senate Budget Committee reports that in fiscal year
2012, between food stamps, housing support, child care, Medicaid and
other benefits, the average U.S. Household below the poverty line
received $168.00 a day in government support. What's the problem with
that much support? Well, the median household income in America is
just over $50,000,which averages out to $137.13 a day. To put it
another way, being on welfare now pays the equivalent of $30.00 an
hour for a 40-hour week, while the average job pays $20.00 an hour.
 
                    Furthermore:
 
    There are actually two messages here.  The first is very
 
    interesting, but the second is absolutely astounding - and explains a
lot.
               A recent "Investor's Business Daily" article provided very
 
    interesting statistics from a survey by the United Nations International
 
    Health Organization.
Percentage of men and women who surviv a cancer five years after diagnosis: 
 
                U.S.                  65%
 
                England               46%
 
                Canada                42%
 
 
  Percentage of patients diagnosed with  diabetes who received treatment within six months:
 
                U.S.                 93%
  
               England               15%
  
               Canada                43%
 
  Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:
 
                U.S.                  90%
 
                England               15%
 
                Canada                43%
 
 
  Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:
 
                U.S.                  77%
 
                England               40%
 
                Canada                43%
 
 Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people:
 
                U.S.                 71
 
                England              14
 
                Canada               18

 
Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are in "excellent health":
 
                U.S.                  12%
 
                England                2%
 
                Canada                6%
 
 
And now for the last statistic:
  
               National Health Insurance?
 
                U.S.                 NO
 
                England             YES
 
                Canada              YES

 
               Check this last set of statistics!!
  

  The percentage of each past president's cabinet who had worked in the private business sector prior to their appointment to the cabinet.
 
    You know what the private business sector is; a real-life business, not a government job.  Here are the percentages.
 
               T. Roosevelt.................... 38%
 
               Taft............................ 40%
 
               Wilson ......................... 52%
 
               Harding......................... 49%
 
               Coolidge........................ 48%
 
               Hoover ......................... 42%
 
               F. Roosevelt.................... 50%
 
               Truman.......................... 50%
 
               Eisenhower................. .... 57%
 
               Kennedy......................... 30%
 
               Johnson......................... 47%
 
               Nixon........................... 53%
 
               Ford............................ 42%
 
               Carter.......................... 32%
 
               Reagan.......................... 56%
 
               GH Bush......................... 51%
 
               Clinton ........................ 39%
 
               GW Bush......................... 55%
 
               Obama............................ 8%
 
 
       This helps to explain the incompetence of this administration:
 
Only 8% of them have ever worked in private business!
 
That's right!  Only eight percent---the least, by far of the last 19 presidents!  And these people are      trying to tell our big corporations how to run their  business?
 
 How can the president of a major nation and society, the one with the most successful economic system in 

world history, stand and talk about business when he'snever worked for one?  Or about jobs when he has neverreally had one?  And when it's the same for 92% of hissenior staff and closest advisers?  They've spent mostof their time in academia, government and/or non-profit jobs or as "community organizers."
 
    They should have been in an employment line.
 
  Pass this on because we'll NEVER see these facts in the main stream media!

Extremely important...must watch

Just hard to believe that a Human Being would do this,

Animals...

We have absolutely no reason to be involved there .

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 5:12 PM, Marilyn Barnewall <marilynwrites@bresnan.net> wrote:

Did you see this, Don? My God!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4CnR8WTzEo 3:43 minutes

Support Morsi and give Al Qaeda weapons-- good plan...

FLIES DON'T CARE WHO WINS ON THE BATTLEFIELD...

The Rumor Mill News Reading Room

 America’s Secret History: 5 Important Facts You Were Never Taught In School

Date: Friday, 5-Jul-2013 12:40:13

America’s Secret History: 5 Important Facts You Were Never Taught In School 4th July 2013 By Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri Guest Writer for Wake Up World “We are either going to have a future where women lead the way to make peace with the Earth, or we are not going to have a human future at all.” ~ Dr. Vandana Shiva History, as the saying goes, “belongs to the victor.” Oftentimes, this unfortunately, results in biased and totally distorted history. In my own American archival research, I have discovered that the American history we continue to learn in both public and private schools and universities has been drastically manipulated. “Lies” might be the more accurate word. Today, we do not have any real accounting, or public discussion, or textbooks – and very few other books – about what really happened in our past, since the signing of our Declaration of Independence in 1776. These lies actually go back further than the founding of this country. What we have might accurately call his-story. Even with all the distortions and deceit, it is certainly not even a “collective” narrative; and despite 40 years of feminist scholarship, it still does not include much about women – the other half of our population – or people of color. There is an enormous amount of research on these marginalized and forgotten people. The problem is that most of the research stays in obscure journals, and doesn’t get into mainstream texts – that are already biased. The corporate-controlled media is also part of this massive deception. They do not report the truth, but are part of a vast and corrupt cover-up. It is all about “Orwellian” news. This includes the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, even the PBS News Hour… the list goes on and on. Mainstream News is a wasteland – here and all over the globe. This article is a short accounting of some major historical issues/events that we never learned in school. However, they are vital to our understanding of the corruption, coverup, and depth of lies and deceit that continues to be perpetrated on all Americans – all with the collusion of public officials from one century to another. This remains an invisible but, nonetheless, criminal compact of enormous proportions. It affects all Americans and everyone else on the planet. I urge everyone to read this, share it with everyone you know, and do your homework over the 4th of July Nationwide General Strike for which United We Strike and I are calling. The New World dis-Order plan of lies and deceit is over. We will no longer buy into their “USA Inc.” This was a corporate-planned nightmare that has deliberately destroyed our country and Gaia’s ecosystem for the benefit of banksters and other elites – all at the expense of the 99% rest of us. Unknown American History 1: Incorporated “Government” Entities We are no longer under our original 1789 “Constitution for the united states of America.” It was destroyed by stealth when the Act of 1871 was treasonously passed by a criminal Congress. This made Washington, D.C., a corporation beholden to England’s bankers. The District of Columbia is a separate city state, just as are Vatican City and the inner part of London. All three geographic areas are key centers of interlocking financial power for this planet. After the Civil War, America was in deep financial trouble – essentially, it was bankrupt. So, on February 21, 1871, the 41st Congress [with NO AUTHORITY to do this!] “creates a separate form of government for the District of Columbia” [Washington, D.C.] for this area’s 10-square miles. This “was a strategic move by foreign interests (international bankers) who were intent upon gaining a stranglehold on the coffers and neck of America. Congress cut a deal with the international bankers (specifically the Rothschilds of London) to incur a debt to said bankers. Because the bankers were not about to lend money to a floundering nation without serious stipulations, they devised a way to get their foot in the door of the United States.” See: www.byronwine.com/files/1871.pdf By this act, Washington, D.C., and then eventually all the other states became a corporation that was “owned by foreign interests” and beholden to the banksters. It then began operating via Private International Law. America, then had a new and illegal constitution, called: “THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”. (Note all capital letters, and “OF” was substituted for the original “for.” Our original Constitution was spelled this way: “The Constitution for the united states of America”). The District of Columbia then became an INCORPORATED government – no longer a republic. This new “CONSTITUTION” is a separate and illegal document that benefits the corporations – not us! Over the ensuing decades – and again by stealth and with the complicity of Congress (could this have even been done without Congress?) – this became the illegal corporate takeover of all the other states. This form of corporate law is based on Roman Civil Law and Admiralty or Maritime Law – not Common Law. None of this is taught to us in any school! The complexity and deceit are ENORMOUS. For 142 years, this façade has been ILLEGALLY in place with the help of public officials, the media, and the three branches of “US Inc.” government and their corrupt corporate agencies. To add to this criminality, in 1892, the Bankers’ Manifesto was adopted, stating: “We [the bankers] must proceed with caution and guard every move made, for the lower order of people are already showing signs of restless commotion. Prudence will therefore show a policy of apparently yielding to the popular will until our plans are so far consummated that we can declare our designs without fear of any organized resistance. The Farmers Alliance and Knights of Labor organizations in the United States should be carefully watched by our trusted men, and we must take immediate steps to control these organizations in our interest or disrupt them…. “The courts must be called to our aid, debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. “When through the process of the law, the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of the government applied to a central power of imperial wealth under the control of the leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders.” Remember this was written in 1892. More than a decade later, and while in office (from 1907-1917) Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr., revealed the Bankers’ Manifesto to Congress – and thus to the American people. See p. 2-3 at: http://2012thebigpicture.wordpress.com/tag/organic-act.of-1871 Then, in 1913, The fraudulent Federal Reserve Act was passed, again putting our finances into the hands of private banksters. All present and succeeding debts of the U.S. Treasury were assumed by the Federal Reserve (a municipal corporation). Remember, the Federal Reserve is a private banking consortium. It has been in business for 100 years, and this whole time has been stealing from us. Here is more information. See p. 6: http://2012thebigpicture.wordpress.com/tag/organic-act-of-1871 By 1933, the “Federal Reserve Notes” (basically paper money with no intrinsic worth) were no longer backed by gold, just “backed by the credit of the nation”. What happens when the “nation” is bankrupt, as it is now? Essentially, this means that Congress does not work for us. So-called “public” officials are working for US Inc. “WE THE PEOPLE” HAVE BEEN DUPED! 2: Unlawful Constitutional Amendments a) There are two original Amendments that must get widespread coverage. Firstly, the original 13th Amendment was deleted (sometime before the civil War) without any public discussion. This is not in any of the current “CONSTITUTION” printings or online. This is the original: “No title of Nobility can be granted by the United States [NOTE: not all capital letters] and no person holding any office under them can, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever from any King, Prince or Foreign State. “Any Citizen of the United States accepting, claiming, receiving, or retaining,any title of nobility or honour, or, without the consent of Congress, accepting and retaining any present, pension, office, or emolument, of any kind whatever, from any Emperor, King, Prince or Foreign Power, such person ceases to be a citizen of the United States, and is incapable of holding any office under them or either of them.” Without any public discussion, this amendment was deleted. In its place is now the Abolishing of Slavery. b) The 16th Amendment was only ratified by four states. This is the original text: AMENDMENT XVI Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913. “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever sources derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” Therefore, without proper ratification, this amendment is actually null and void. Yet, it is included in current printings of the now corporate and illegal CONSTITUTION. See: www.givemeliberty.org/features/taxes/notratified.htm We do not now, nor ever, have had to pay federal taxes! More information is available through the courageous work of former IRS Agent, Joe Banister who became a whistle-blower. Here is his 2-part interview: Part 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKePl2gW_3M Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Qv_j-Y0nE To support this even further, former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller (who was “asked to resign”) has recently admitted on May 17, 2013, that paying taxes “are voluntary”. See: Former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller says income tax is voluntary In addition, film director, the late Aaron Russo has done an investigative documentary about the IRS cover-up that is essential for everyone to see. This is an eye-opener for those who are unfamiliar with this massive government deception. PLEASE SHARE THIS WIDELY! View: America: Freedom To Fascism (Directors Cut) on YouTube 3: The U.S. is under Martial Law We have been under Martial Law, since the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln instituted Martial Law during the Civil War. However, after he was assassinated, it was never rescinded. This is in part, why we have a centuries-long scenario of “perpetual” wars – one war after another to feed the out-of-control greed of the banksters, while millions of people lost their lives in wars deliberately created for corporate and elite profits on “both” sides. Any current “threats” of instituting Martial Law are spurious, because it is already there. 4: Your Social Security Number (SSN) This 9-digit number was created in 1936, supposedly to track your earnings and benefits. It does far more than that. It is “another excise tax imposed on income, in addition to other taxes” and according to the Internal Revenue Code, has nothing to do with “insurance.” The Code reads: IRC (Internal Revenue Code) 3101. Rate of tax. (a) Old-age, survivors, and disability insurance [my bold italics]. In addition to other taxes, there is hereby imposed on the income of every individual a tax equal to the following percentages of the wages (as defined in section 3121(a)) received by him with respect to employment (as defined in section 3121(b) [See: www.usa-the-republic.com/revenue/true_history/Chap7.html] As noted in this chapter just cited above, “social” means “public” and “security” is corporation stock. This means: “When you get a social security number, you are activating or creating the public stock (security) of the corporation known as the United States, stock created for you to use, which adds to their collateral. By getting a social security number you declare yourself to be public stock of the U.S. government. You ARE a social (public) security, with a security number, you do not GET social security insurance!” [See above-cited link.] This Social Security number belongs to the US Inc. government and, your name, in ALL CAPS, is included. This makes you a U.S. Corporate [US Inc.] “citizen.” This number means you declare yourself to be a public “stock” of the US Inc. government. We became collateral for US Inc. to acquire debt. Did we ever learn this in any classroom? 5. Your Birth Certificate Number Remember, now we are under Admiralty Law, the law of the seas. The UCC (Universal Commercial Code, the bible of business all over the earth) coordinates and harmonizes all 50 states’ sales. This code is based on ancient Vatican Canon Law. Going back to the days of the Caesars in Rome (and Roman Canon Law), the Roman Empire established that all nations worked on a “level” playing field. These regulations STILL exist “under the Roman Catholic Church” and the UCC. Birth registration or “certificates” started in 1921, under the federal Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act. This was another bill of goods “sold” to a duped and un-informed public who were then told it would “reduce maternal and infant mortality, protect the health of mothers and infants, and for ‘other purposes’.” One of those ‘other purposes’ provided for the establishment of a federal bureau designed to cooperate with state agencies in the overseeing of its operations and expenditures. What it really did was create a federal birth registry which exists today, creating ‘federal children.’ This government, under the doctrine of “Parens Patriae,” [Latin: one’s country’s parent, ie. government] now legislates for American children as if they are owned by the federal government. Through the public school enrollment process and continuing license requirements for most aspects of daily life, these children grow up to be adults indoctrinated into the process of asking for “permission” from the government… to do all those things necessary to carry out daily activities that exist in what is called a ‘free country.’” [See: http://macquirelatory.com/Birth%20Certificate%20Truth.htm] At birth, the parents do not get an original birth certificate. They get a copy which is written on Exchequecher bank note paper that is owned by the [British] Crown – “even for Americans. The corporation of the U.S. is registered at the Inner City of London and a Roman enclave of the Vatican.” See: network54.com/Forum/Why is my name printed in all capital letters on my bank card+driver’s licence Basically, your birth certificate is the way your parents register you with the government as a corporation. Further, since 1933, when the U.S. went bankrupt, our birth and marriage certificates “pledge the people as collateral against those loans and municipal bonds taken out with the Federal Reserve’s banks.” [See: macquirelatory, just cited above.] Our birth certificates are a security; and they are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. We are owned by the international bankers; and we work as perpetual debt slaves. Watch: “Your Birth Certificate is a Stock on the NYSE” on YouTube. See also, Ellen Brown and her website (essential reading): www.webofdebt.com So, these numbers, “our” numbers, are traded regularly on the Stock Market. Why do you think when you call to see if a company is hiring, you have to go through a division known as Human Resource? The people are resources to the government, their birth certificates are a security on the New York Stock Exchange, which is why if you look at all birth certificates in America, it will say at the bottom this is printed on security paper, do not accept if not on full color security paper. At the bottom, you will always have a series of numbers, red numbers printed on the birth certificate, in which those numbers are a security stock exchange number on the World Stock Exchange, in which the American people are worth money to the International Bank that bought the government in the 1930′s. [See: macquirelatory, cited above] This is Just the Tip of the Proverbial Iceberg To take this idea a bit further, the depths of the deceit go down miles and miles into the “ocean.” The educational system (along with most other institutions and agencies) is so riddled with corruption, we never have known either our real collective stories or what is really happening today. Everything is an Orwellian façade of massive proportions – all deliberately created. We are already a society that is dumbed-down and heavily poisoned through the water, food supply, dangerous vaccines, and air and soil rife with lethal aerosol Chemtrails and other immune-supressing hazards. We have been set up to be automatons. Robots are glorified in the movies. This global societal paradigm is based on harm and fear. That is in the movies, on TV, and in war stories that are all glorified. So, children learn hate and fear at an early age. It is passed on from generation to generation. The lyrics in Rogers and Hammerstein’s 1949 musical “South Pacific” say it all: “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear, You’ve got to be taught from year to year, It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade, You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You’ve got to be carefully taught!” Watch: “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” from South Pacific (1949) on YouTube. This is a society gone amok for centuries! It is truly a wrong and destructive timeline. Glorifiying harm and fear never works. It perpetuates a scenario that was deliberately created by those in charge. That is over, as attested to by all the on-going global-wide demonstrations. Music, Healing for the Soul: New Creative Priorities We are not taught to think critically, analytically, or creatively. We do not usually think ouside the proverbial box. Chronic EMF poisoning doesn’t help us to think clearly either. What is the first thing that gets cut in any fiscal state budget crisis? The “ARTS.” Music. Dance. Painting. Sculpture. Poetry. Writing. The Needle arts. First the programs are cut. Then the schools close. This is not imaginary! I know countless school arts programs that have been cut – even decades ago. Now the schools are closing. (Is the out-of-control war budget being cut?) The list of our creativity is HUGE! This is our souls on fire! Oh, the joys of playing the piano, or knitting a sweater, or writing, or embroidering something ravishing! We are culturally bankrupt. If children do not learn the magical and rewarding aspects of creativity – what then do we have? Music reaches us at our soul’s depths. It connects us to a higher state of consciousness. Just last week PBS-TV did a news feature on the skyrocketing costs of studying at Julliard and the fact that more and more concerts and musical events have fewer and fewer young people. If budgets are being slashed for the arts, it is no wonder! See: www.pbs.org/newshour/artists_06-27.html Instead, we need the inspiration of musicians such as the dynamic Gustavo Dudamel, principal conductor of the LA Philharmonic. Before he was appointed its conductor in 2009 – at age 28! – he taught music to thousands of children in Venezuela with an incredible program called “La Sistema” – teaching clasical music to impoverished children. This is an artistically inspirational program that is “based on the principle that music can be a force of social good that has transformed the lives of more than 400,000 poor Venezuelan children.” See: www.guardian.co.uk/music/gustavo-dudamel-el-sistema-us Or, the remarkable Monica Huggett, artistic director of Portland Baroque Orchestra [www.pbo.org] and also artistic advisor, baroque violin at Julliard. With impressive credentials and inspiring concerts, she developed PBO’s marvelous children’s concerts that have inspired countless children in the greater Portland, OR – Seattle, WA, area. See: Baroque Incorporated/Monica Huggett on YouTube These are the kinds of creative people we need to inspire us! To expose our children and grandchildren to these musicians is the real direction we can go culturally and spiritually, too. This will help heal our psyches. I have been very fortunate to have been exposed to classical music from the time I was very young. Music is key in my life. I am now sharing this passion with my grandchildren. When my granddaughter was 3 ½, I took her to her first ballet performance. After the performance she was dancing and laughing for the next three hours. It was transformative for her! Since my other granddaughter was 5, I have taken her to several classical children’s concerts with the Portland Baroque Orchestra. It is very special time we share together; and I am passing on to her my passion for music. This is Monica Huggett’s tremendous musical gift for all children! Our New Society Around our global, we need a completely new societal paradigm! We need to teach our children the vital importance of LOVE! This is something I did with my own children decades ago. With each step, and with millions of people around the world already living their lives based in love, caring, compassion, sharing, ethical values, and a higher spiritual good, some of this New Society is already in the works. Millions of people around the globe are already joining together to create this marvelous New Society! We must also take very good care of Gaia, our Mother Earth! I believe very deeply that this is a scared responsibility for us. She has been suffering for not just decades, but centuries. The harm that people have done is enormous. The trees are dying. The animals are being wiped out. The web of life has been under deliberate cabal attack. They orchestrated this. Now, we are taking back our sovereignty. With that, we have to assume a primary responsibility as Gaia’s sacred caretakers. Instead of harm, we can join together in a task of love to repair her oceans and help all the wondrous cetaceans and other sea creatures who call this home. We can plant trees and bring back Gaia’s “lungs” – without which we cannot breathe! We can clean the soil and rid it of Chemtrails, GMOs, and pesticides. We can join in tasks of healing that will go to the core of who we truly are. We have that Divine Courage. No matter where we live, this old, worn-out system is beyond any repair. It is unfixable. So, I am urging everyone to take time over the 4th of July and do your homework and become informed sovereign citizens. There is no 237th anniversary year since 1776 to celebrate, because of all of the above deception. The 4th of July is a complete corporate-government fiction. Let us join together in Peace and Love, Harmony and Compassion, Kindness and Joy. Let us set an example to others by being heart-centered while working from the highest ethical spaces of an elevated consciousness. Let us reach for the stars! Remember: the harmony of the spheres truly is the harmony in our hearts. We can use these four days to create a transformative national scenario that can go global. We begin with heart-centered steps of Love. We come from meditative spaces deep in our hearts to create these new bonds. They are based upon a completely different direction from what we see. We now see that we can not only do this, but we can heal our hearts, heal our relationships, and heal Gaia. It is all inter-related. It is the path that has the highest good for all of us. It is the path that brings us tremendous healing through the extraordinary power of Love. A Note to Readers Outside the United States: Although this article is geared to Americans, I would urge anyone reading this to do the necessary research in your country that is available via the Internet. This cabal deception is a global one, perpetrated on all of us! It is a vast theme and variations. We are now in the process of changing that. I also want to thank political writer Jim Kirwan for all his courage in writing about US Inc. many years ago. See: www.kirwanesque.net http://wakeup-world.com/2013/07/04/5-facts-you-were-never-taught-in-school/

THE REAL NEWS WHY SNOWDEN IS IN CHINA

Why is Edward Snowden in Hong Kong?

by DAVE LINDORFF

A lot of people in the US media are asking why America’s most famous whistleblower, 29-year old Edward Snowden, hied himself off to the city state of Hong Kong, a wholly owned subsidiary of the People’s Republic of China, to seek at least temporary refuge.
Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the US, they say. And as for China, which controls the international affairs of its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, while granting it local autonomy to govern its domestic affairs, its leaders “may not want to irritate the US” at a time when the Chinese economy is stumbling.
These people don’t have much understanding of either Hong Kong or of China.
As someone who has spent almost seven years in China and Hong Kong, let me offer my thoughts about why Snowden, obviously a very savvy guy despite his lack of a college education, went where he did.
First of all, forget about Hong Kong’s extradition treaty. When it comes to deciding whether someone will be extradited, particularly for a political crime, as opposed to a simple murder or bank heist, the decision will be made in Beijing, not in a Hong Kong courtroom. Second, Hong Kong has a long history of providing a haven to dissidents — even to dissidents wanted by the Chinese government. Consider, for example, the Chinese labor movement activist Han Dongfang, who was the subject of a massive dragnet after the Tiananmen protests, but who successfully fled to Hong Kong before the handover of the place from Britain to China, and is continuing to monitor Chinese labor strife and protest from his home on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island. Hong Kong also has a public that is very supportive of democratic values — certainly more so than the majority of American citizens. Hong Kong people may not be paying too much attention to Snowden’s situation right now, but if the US were to actively seek to extradite him, I am confident that the place would erupt in support for him, including the local media.
As for China, while the issue that has Snowden on the run — exposing an Orwellian spying program targeting the American people and run by the super-secret National Security Agency — is certainly not one that the Chinese government likes to discuss in terms of their own locked-down society, you can bet that the folks in the Propaganda Bureau in Beijing, and in the inner circle of the government, are rubbing their hands with glee both at the incredible embarrassment their harboring of Snowden causes the hypocritical US, and at the trove of intelligence information he has, which they may be able ultimately to lure him into disclosing if they treat him well.
Then too, there is the matter of the Confucian concept of gift-giving and mutual obligations. It was, I am sure, no accident that Snowden chose the weekend that President Obama was hosting a summit in California with China’s new president Xi Jinping to disclose his identity as the NSA whistleblower who exposed the national spying program to the Guardian and the Washington Post. In doing that, he gave President Xi an incredible gift — the chance to hold the upper hand in his negotiations with a hugely embarrassed and compromised Obama over issues like Chinese computer hacking of US corporate and government secrets, and theft of intellectual property. For of course it is clear that the NSA is at least as active in hacking Chinese computers and spying on Chinese communications.
Such a gift as that is not easily ignored or forgotten in Chinese culture. President Xi owes Snowden a lot, and I believe he will honor that debt by seeing that Snowden is protected from any threat that might be posed to him by a vindictive or frightened US government.
But Snowden isn’t relying solely on Chinese cultural values to protect himself.
He was also careful to send a powerful message of warning to the US officials in the videoed public interview he gave [1] outing himself. As he told interviewer Glenn Greenwald, “I had access to the full rosters of everyone working at the NSA, the entire intelligence community, and undercover assets all over the world. The locations of every station, we have what their missions are and so forth. If I had just wanted to harm the US? You could shut down the surveillance system in an afternoon.”
That one line at the end had to make the folks in Langley and at NSA headquarters sit up straight or to head to the bar for a stiff one! And indeed he could. And I will guarantee you, Snowden being as smart as he is, that he has already taken that information and dispersed it to a number of trusted people, perhaps including Greenwald, with instructions that they should put it all out on the Web if anything happens to him, such as his being kidnapped or disappeared or terminated. It’s a wonderful insurance policy and one that would not have escaped him. Nor would he have bothered to discover that he had all that information available to him if he hadn’t thought that he might need it.
It would be a relatively easy matter for the high-tech spooks at the NSA to retrace Snowden’s electronic trail to see if he really did download all that super-secret information and really could blow up the entire US spy machine. If they find out that he really has that information, he’s basically untouchable.
The real question is not what they are going to do to Snowden. It’s what we Americans are going to do now that we know how truly insane and totalitarian our government has become.
Will we go back to watching our sports teams and our reality TV programming, and forget about the fact that we no longer have any privacy in our lives, that our elected leaders and our judges are operating on the assumption that if they get out of line the fascist machine at the NSA that works in service of the corporate elite will blackmail or destroy them with its access to all their communications. Or will we rise up and demand an end to this high-tech tyranny in the name of a fraudulent “War” on Terror?
Snowden exiled himself and gave up a great job in Hawaii in the hope that we would rise up when we learned that our democracy has been hijacked.
Let’s hope he’s right

America: Its Own Worst Enemy

by ARNO J. MAYER

America is at war. To be sure, the global and perpetual war on terror has not been declared—by Congress. The enemy the U.S. is fighting is neither a nation-state nor an empire but a largely spectral hydra-headed nebula without nerve center. Washington and its allies claim to be defending themselves against this anomalous non-state transnational actor which has neither sovereignty nor a government, nor an army. In Orwellian speak, the Defense Departments—not War Departments—of the First World, attuned to the Pentagon, are nonplussed in the face of an enemy beyond the reach of the full panoply of their modern and post-modern weapons of individual and mass destruction.
Henceforth the battle against the nebulous and elusive enemy, who is being relentlessly diabolized, is guided and fought by a seamless network of “intelligence” and counter-terrorist CIA-FBI-FSA work and listening stations and operatives in countless countries around the globe. The latest weapon of choice of the vastly overstretched American empire of military, “intelligence,” security, cyber and corporate bases: the remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle, insidiously dubbed drone, presumably to evoke the stingless male honeybee.
The Brothers Tsaraev, who perpetrated the horrendous Boston Marathon Massacre, succeeded beyond their wildest, not to say quixotic, dreams, which were fired by crosswired social, political, religious, and psychological pulsations. The detonation of their artisanal bombs packed with low-grade explosives and ball-bearings killed three people and wounded 260. Sixteen of the injured had limbs blown off by the blast or had to endure amputations. Although small beer in the annals of recent terrorist attacks, the unconscionably willful and indiscriminate Boston carnage resonated far and wide, in large measure thanks to its instrumentalization and exploitation by America’s political class and the mainline media, especially cable television. Indeed, they presented Greater Boston’s vast manhunt and mandatory lockdown by thousands of policemen and National Guardsmen reinforced by SWAT teams, SWAT tanks, and helicopters as a reality show, interspersed with advertisements for palliatives for erectile dysfunctions and facial wrinkles, for cut-rate vacations in the sun, and for the timely investment in gold and silver. The highlight of the Hollywoodian psychodrama came with the invasive and persecutorial interrogation of the sister, parents, and friends and acquaintances of—in Vice President Joe Biden’s carefully crafted words—“the two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knock-off jihadists.”
Presently President Obama set the tone for America’s deep-felt aggrievement and patriotic outrage. The opening sentence in his homily at the Interfaith Service in Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross: “Scripture tells us to ‘run with endurance the race that is set before us’.” He led the congregation in prayer for the victims and for the recovery of the injured. The President commended Greater Boston, by then out from under martial law, for showing “us . . . that in the face of evil, Americans will lift up what’s good” and that “in the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion.” This was in keeping with “Scripture [that] teaches us, ‘God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
But the President also spoke in another key. Addressing “those who carried this out and anyone who would do harm to our people: yes, we will find you. And you will face justice. (Applause) We will hold you accountable.” Indeed, the President asserted that if they knew “who we are . . . the perpetrators of such senseless violence—these small, stunted individuals” would know that “a bomb can’t beat us.”
Even or especially in moments like these “we come together to celebrate life, and to walk our cities, and to cheer for our teams.” In the spirit of late Republican and early Imperial Rome’s panem et circenses, or bread and circuses, President Obama averred that “when the Sox and Celtics and Patriots and Bruins are champions again . . . the crowds will gather and watch a parade go down Boylston Street.” (Applause) He concluded his homily with the same Biblical citation with which he had opened it, followed by the invocation “may God hold close those who’ve been taken from us too soon. May He comfort their families. And may He continue to watch over these United States of America.” (Applause) Following Cardinal O’Malley’s closing benediction the congregation rose to intone America the Beautiful, the national hymn on a par with The Star-Spangled Banner, America’s national anthem. This hymn invokes God in four out of seven verses, concordant with the tenor of the President’s address.
The unwritten text of the media frenzy and the hortatory Presidential address is that America is not only uniquely innocent and beautiful but, above all, virtuous, righteous, and powerful. The American peuple noble mourns and shows compassion for the victims of the heinous terrorist attack and mourns and iconizes the American servicemen and servicewomen who make the supreme sacrifice fighting the nebula in distant lands as well as from the high seas and the open skies. But Americans, writ large, are conditioned to be relatively blind and deaf—insensitive—to the innocent victims of the fallout and collateral damage of America’s direct or indirect anti-jihadist war, nay counter-crusade, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lybia, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Yemen, Kenya, Syria—and counting.
To be sure, from 2003 to 2012 on the Iraqi battlefield close to 4,500 U. S. soldiers were killed; and from 2001 to 2013 in the Afghan theater of war over 2,200 U. S. soldiers sacrificed their lives. But whereas the number of American military casualties in these two theaters of the war without borders against terror is beyond dispute, there is not even remotely the same precision about the number of Iraqi and
Afghan casualties, both military and civilian. For Iraq, estimates range between 110,000 and 600,000, and though the estimates of civilian deaths among them vary widely, they most likely run into the tens of thousands. In Afghanistan, while a total of some 14,000 anti- and pro-government military combatants are estimated to have lost their lives, there are not even any ballpark body counts of civilian casualties. The media make little, if any, effort to inform and enlighten the American peuple about the incidence, nature, scale, and aftereffects of civilian casualties. This may be congruent with the near total neglect by American historians of civilian casualties and afflictions–including those of widows, orphans, and the elderly—in America’s own Civil War in which some 750,000 men died, out of a population of 30 million.
Presently the 11-page Federal complaint accuses Dzhokbar Tsarnaev, the younger and surviving terrorist, with having “used a weapon of mass destruction . . . against persons and property.” This (mis)use of the toxic term “weapon of mass destruction” for a ball-bearing-packed pressure-cooker bomb staggers belief. The U. S. holds the palm in the development, production, stockpiling, and deployment of weapons of mass destruction: nuclear, chemical, and biological. It also leads the world in delivery systems. To boot, America is the only country ever to have used a weapon of mass destruction: on August 6-9, 1945, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took a toll of an estimated 200,000 lives. That was five months after the “conventional” firebombing of Tokyo in which some 100,000 people are estimated to have died. To be sure, this air strike on the Japanese capital was one of the deadliest and most destructive of World War II. But it was the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including the post-attack blight of sickness and death due to radiation-induced leukemia and other cancers that marked a radical qualitative “game-change” in military and diplomatic statecraft.
Of course, the pressure-cooker bombs and the jihadis are all the more terrifying because of that ominous Chechen connection. Just as in its anti-Soviet obsession Washington not so long ago partnered with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan, so until only yesterday it extolled the Sunni Islamists—jihadis—of the Caucasus as valiant freedom fighters against an oppressive and repressive post-Soviet Russia. It is nothing short of reassuring that President Vladimir Putin, a tried and true ex-KGB operative, execrated and distrusted by America’s foreign-policy wonks, is now praised for ordering his anti-terrorist and security apparatus to lock arms with President Obama’s CIA and FBI—“intelligence” and security “community”—in tracking down that ominous Al-Qaeda trail that purportedly led to the Boston Marathon Massacre.
This is only the beginning of the reinflammation of the Sunni-Shiite fratricide reminiscent of the fratricide between Protestants and Catholics, and the attendant religious wars, in 16^th-17^th -century Europe. Judging by developments in the Greater Middle East, notably what the West hastened to label the “Arab Spring,” grosso modo, the United States and its allies tend to support the Sunnis, including the Sunni states, while the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are inclined to support the Shiites, including the Shiite states. Needless to say, the interventions of both coalitions of powers are driven primarily by geopolitical and mercantile interests shrouded in ideological mist. In today’s non-Western precincts, Sunnis and Shiites, and their external backers, are equally close to or distant from Allah, just as the Protestants and Catholics in 16^th-17^th-century Europe were equally close to or distant from God.
Meanwhile the analogue of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), might serve as a guide in thinking about the incipient general crisis and thirty years war in today’s Greater Middle East—and beyond. To be sure, the negotiations between May and October 1648 in Münster and Osnabrück resulted in peace treaties between and among the major belligerents which included territorial adjustments. But above all, in addition to ringing down the curtain on the Holy Roman Empire, Westphalia marked the triumph of national sovereignty and rule over the principle and practice of imperial ascendancy. Indeed, Westphalia articulated and warranted the emergent principle of the sovereignty of the state along with the equality of sovereign states in an embryonic European state system. Though implicit and unwrought, the Westphalian settlement also spawned not only the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of other states but also that of self-determination.
In its post-colonial and waning imperial era the Western World, not to say the First World, continues to approach the problems facing so many of the non-Western, not to say Third World political and civil societies in the spirit of Westphalia, leavened or exploded by a latter-day “orientalist” mission civilisatrice. To be sure, the states of the Greater Islamic Middle East, notably the Arab states, are sovereign, have frontiers, and have autonomous political regimes. But most of the borders were drawn and most of the regimes were invested by the colonial-imperial powers with little or no concern for the principle of cuius region (whose realm), cuius religio (whose religion), except perhaps with a view to play on religious divisions to better divide ut regnes (divide in order to rule).
Today especially the Western powers artlessly intervene, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of sovereign states to foster, weigh in the balance, or prevent regime change. Targeted drone and cyber strikes merely symbolize and facilitate such interventions, most of them in countries caught up in religiously, ethnically, tribally, and socially charged civil wars whose outcome will affect the ongoing regional geopolitical refiguration, including frontier revisions.
Of course, whereas the interventions by the West and its regional allies are cried up for legitimately and overtly promoting the cause of democratic governance, secularization, women’s emancipation, antiseptic free-market capitalism, those by the non-Western countries—most notably Iran and Russia—are decried for illegally and covertly encouraging and supporting the antithesis, or polar opposite.
The so-called Arab and kindred springs in the West’s far-flung bygone colonial-imperial realms are neither mere rebellions, nor popular uprisings, nor full-blown revolutions. Indeed, as yet there is no heuristic term or concept with which to characterize and capture their essence and thrust. Meanwhile it seems evident, however, that their course will be all but determined by the headlong global geopolitical realignment along with the major powers, trapped in globalizing corporate and finance capitalism, bent on pursuing neo-mercantilist policies in an emergent cut-throat competition for critical energy resources, rare metals, and commodities.
One can only hope—against hope?—that the current great transformation of the political and civil societies of the nation-states of the West’s ex-imperial realms will be less turbulent, violent, and interminable than the great transformation in early modern Europe. Specifically, that their civil and sectarian wars as well as foreign wars and internal political skullduggery will be less ferocious and bloody than in England in the time of Oliver Cromwell, in France in the time of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre, and in Greater Europe during the General Crisis and Thirty Years War of the Twentieth Century.
In the Greater Middle East, given its tried statehood, governance, moderness, and national identity Israel may be said to be best steeled to weather the high winds of change were it not for its indeterminate and unrecognized borders, which make for a crying deficit of sovereignty compounded by a boundless expansion into Palestinian land. This will continue to feed a deep-felt hostility throughout the turbulent region and sap Israel’s ethnic coherence and nationhood. Indeed, governed by a hubristic and parochial political class Israel is a formidable wild card in a neighborhood of seething geopolitical and international power plays fraught with potentially grave, nay existential self-endangerment for a country which has been its own worst enemy all these years and can no longer claim to be “a light unto the nations.”
Arno J. Mayer is emeritus professor of history at Princeton University. He is the author of The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions.and Plowshares Into Swords: From Zionism to Israel (Verso).