January 16, 2004
Necessary Reading
They ain't pretty. They'll make you sick to your stomach. They'll make you wish you could go live on another planet. But you gotta read 'em -- it's a necessary requirement if we wish to retain our status as an "informed democracy". Think of 'em as "cough syrup for the soul", or something like that.
Chalmers Johnson, "America's Empire Of Bases". Select disturbing passage:
One reason why the Pentagon is considering moving out of rich democracies like Germany and South Korea and looks covetously at military dictatorships and poverty-stricken dependencies is to take advantage of what the Pentagon calls their "more permissive environmental regulations." The Pentagon always imposes on countries in which it deploys our forces so-called Status of Forces Agreements, which usually exempt the United States from cleaning up or paying for the environmental damage it causes. This is a standing grievance in Okinawa, where the American environmental record has been nothing short of abominable. Part of this attitude is simply the desire of the Pentagon to put itself beyond any of the restraints that govern civilian life, an attitude increasingly at play in the "homeland" as well. For example, the 2004 defense authorization bill of $401.3 billion that President Bush signed into law in November 2003 exempts the military from abiding by the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Istvan Meszaros, "Cuba: The Next Forty-Five Years?". Select disturbing passage:
Yesterday’s "Star Wars Project" could still pretend to be a "defensive shield", even if in reality it was nothing of the kind. However, its heavily updated successor, codenamed "Falcon" (Force Application and Launch from the Continental U.S.), by no stretch of the imagination could be considered anything other than a blatantly offensive system of weaponry, to be deployed against the entire world. The first operational phase of this system will be completed by mid-2006, and the initial tests will take place already in 2004. The fully developed unmanned delivery vehicles will be able to "strike targets 9,000 nautical miles distant in less than two hours." Moreover, they will "carry a payload of up to 12,000 pounds and could ultimately fly at speeds of up to 10 times the speed of sound." ... As John Pike, head of the Washington think tank, GlobalSecurity.org, commented on the new weapons system: "It is about blowing people up on the other side of the planet even if no country on earth will allow us to use their territory."
So, to it then: go take your medicine, then plan your activism accordingly.
Posted by Eddie Tews at January 16, 2004 12:05 AM
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