It is probably a cop out to say that they have not been committed in my name and in that of many friends but that is the truth. We feel that there is a change taking place as more and more people get to know the truth. The internet is largely responsible for this. Sisters and brothers are waking up from their anaesthetics and the lies that the mainsteam press and the box in the corner of every living room have been administering for too long.

Russia is subject to a human rights court? So what? Russia also agreed to a number of treaties and agreements banning ocean dumping, but continued to dump high level nuclear waste, including nuclear reactor cores, in the Arctic Ocean. Russia’s outright lies about it were ignored by European governments until the problem became so obvious and so environmentally destructive that not even the Russians could hide it anymore and not even the previously and conveniently blind Europeans could deny seeing it. Membership in any organization or agreement to any treaty is no guarantee of human rights. And abuses of human rights are not brought to light in any court unless those who see the crimes are outraged and courageous enough to challenge the abusers.

America, for instance, with all its high-toned rhetoric about freedom and human rights, is credibly believed to have tortured minors in secret prisons in the Middle East and at Gitmo, and now has in the White House an apologist for the thugs who committed these reprehensible crimes and refuses to prosecute them. Commenters such as Mr. Kenny would apparently have us temper our outrage about, for example, Abu Ghraib until evil achieves the level of the Holocaust. Mr. Kenny, I would suggest, would do well to contemplate whether the Holocaust would have happened at all if the Nazi’s lesser evils had been challenged and exposed rather than tolerated by a complacent citizenry.

My father was a B-17 pilot in WWII. He saw first-hand the horrors the Nazis inflicted on millions of people. To his dying day (in 2007), he never forgave the Germans for their willful blindness, and he spoke to me often and passionately about the responsibility we all bear to stop outrages before they become national evils. Many outrages have arisen from the misnamed War on Terror, and I often think of my father’s warnings when I hear of them.

I was involved in the anti-war movement of the late 60′s and early 70′s. I was not what many would call a radical, but I had the passion and convictions of youth, and I believed deeply that the Vietnam War was immoral and unnecessary. I realized in later years that my generation unknowingly taught the warmongers and politicians two valuable lessons: Don’t let the citizens see the war (and the war dead) on TV and keep to a minimum the number of citizens who feel even indirectly affected by it.

Any discontent about America’s current wars is based solely on feelings and beliefs, not a sense of threat or self-preservation. As a result, if you want to see a popular uprising against the Af-Pak nonsense, reinstate the draft. Put America’s white, middle and upper class kids in line to go to war, and support for the warmongers will crumble. Allow no exceptions like those that kept Bush and Cheney comfortably away from danger and the support will vanish even more quickly. Best of all, pass a law that automatically drafts the relatives of members of Congress into front-line battle and the war will end overnight.

I’ve heard several pundits say that Afghanistan is Obama’s Vietnam. No it isn’t. It will become Obama’s Vietnam only when Americans peek inside the body bags and then turn to wave goodbye to their children shipping out to face a determined and brutal foreign force–a force made angry by America’s arrogant and ignorant meddling in that region and its unflinching support of some of the most brutal and corrupt governments the world has seen.

Our allergic reaction to “ideology” masks a lack of inner seriousness about the issues as a whole. If we are really progressive, then we should be sponsoring and supporting those who are willing to do the serious work of social analysis which can result in a fact-based strategic vision. To some extent this is taking place and one can point to centers of radical thought such as Monthly Review and many others. Comments on the many engaging articles in Dissident Voice could act as starting points for drawing out the finer points of views such as your own and start the process of creating a unified radical vision for social change.

here is an article I wrote on the topic:

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/7606

PS Branding people you disagree with as “loonies” is unlikely to aid you in being seen as one of “the reasonable people”…

Our ancestors have accepted these ‘teachings’ just as we do now. Present-day kings, high and low priests, princes, lords, earls, amirs, boyars, sultans, other nobles teach us what the ancient nobles taught us some 10k yrs ago.

That’s why we have ‘schooling’ today and that’s why ‘schooling’ is mandatory.
Private ‘schooling’ ‘teaches’ us that there are indeed several classes of people: low, middle, high and topmost.
Nature cld care less ab classes. It does not recognize classes of people. It does not create classes.
Only the ruling class creates divisions among us so that they can rule over us in perpetuity! tnx