Thu, 2005-08-04 11:12.

By Carmen Yarrusso

Basic nature

To understand the war on terror, it helps to compare it to the war on drugs. Both ?wars? use the same basic scam: implement government policies GUARANTEED to create a problem and then charge gullible taxpayers billions to fight a ?war? against the problem (which of course can?t possibly succeed because the problem is perpetually sustained by the government policies).

As long as US government prohibition policies guarantee massive drug profits to millions around the world, the war on drugs will remain an expensive, endless exercise in futility. Similarly, as long as US government foreign policies guarantee massive suffering to millions of Muslims around the world (who have little economic, military or political power) the war on terror will remain an expensive, endless exercise in futility.

Any success eliminating individual terrorists (or drug dealers) merely creates job openings for a long line of eager applicants. If the incentive remains, replacements will line up. In fact, eliminating individual terrorists (or drug dealers) is worse than ineffective. Like natural selection, it tends to weed out the weaker, less ruthless, less efficient in favor of stronger, more ruthless, more efficient replacements.

Sustained by big lies

Aside from politically weak scapegoat ?enemies?, both ?war? scams require a servile media to spread the lies that fool the gullible masses. The inherently futile war on terror is no more a war against terror than the inherently futile war on drugs is a war against drugs. In fact, both wars absolutely guarantee MORE of what each purports to fight. The real enemies in both wars are living breathing human beings who have been unjustly demonized and marginalized and thus have very little political power to fight back.

Big lies and a servile media are needed to convince the masses that certain people are ?criminals? (to be jailed like rapists and murderers) if they claim sovereignty over their own bodies and use drugs less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Similarly, big lies and a servile media are needed to convince the masses that certain people are inherently ?evil? and resort to acts of terror because they hate our freedoms or hate our lifestyles--even though they?ve made it perfectly clear (in public statements) it?s US government foreign policies they hate.

Big lies and a servile media are needed to hide the fact that the US government continues its long history of supporting ruthless regimes that oppress millions of politically weak Muslims. Big lies and a servile media are needed to convince the masses that cutting off the heads of innocents with knives and NOT hiding the horror from the public is called ?terrorism?, but cutting off the heads of innocents with smart bombs and HIDING the horror from the public is called ?spreading democracy?.

Stopping terrorism

The only way to stop terrorism is to expose the ?war on terror? as another very dangerous US government ?war? scam. The servile mainstream media must be exposed as complicit in this scam and bypassed to get the truth out to the people:

1. Terrorism is a political tactic of desperate people, not an ?evil? ideology.

2. The root cause of present day terrorism is US government foreign policies that sustain the violent occupation of Muslim land and the cruel oppression of millions of marginalized Muslims.

3. Stopping terrorism is futile until these unjust US government policies are stopped.

4. Israel is the crux of the problem. US billions and US weapons permit Israel to continue to expand its occupation of Palestinian land and to continue its violent oppression of politically powerless Palestinians.

5. The illegal US invasion of Iraq greatly exacerbates the problem by blatantly validating terrorists? claims of oppression and violent occupation of Muslim land. This bloody US occupation virtually guarantees Americans and their allies will be targets of violence.

The war on terror escalates violence against people who are already violently protesting the violence against them. This can only further validate and further solidify their cause. Violence breeds violence.

Terrorism is the product of injustice and can only be stopped by stopping the injustice.

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Submitted by Susan Carr (not verified) on Thu, 2005-08-04 14:40.

AFTER ALL IS SAID AND DONE MORE IS SAID THEN DONE!

George W. Bush has said plenty but when it comes right down to it, he has
done little. He talks of principals and ?moral values? but runs the government according to his own self interest!

Bush and his gang bold-faced deceived a nation into war under false pretenses. The War on Terror? has claimed 1826{some doubt that count} soldiers lives, injured 14000, and destroyed a country and their people, who still die every day. Terrorism is at an all time high with no signs of abatement. An .election is all but forgotten because of security issues, and living conditions are less tolerable even after years of supposed reconstruction! The next benchmark of progress is the writing of the Iraq constitution urged on by the U.S. timetable. Problems with the Constitution could mean a roll back for freedom and the rights of all Iraqis!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...pinion/columns

?Iraq's new democracy will be crippled from the outset if the drafts of the country's permanent constitution being circulated are any indication of where things are headed. In a significant rollback from language in the interim constitution, known as the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), current drafts would threaten regional stability and thwart stated U.S. goals of promoting freedom and democracy. They would establish a constitution under which dissent and debate would not be protected.

Current drafts would limit Iraq's international human rights obligations to those that do not contradict Islam or Islamic law. They assert that an undefined version of Islamic law, or sharia , is the main source of law. They make no reference to freedom of religion or belief for every Iraqi, and they provide no guarantee of individual freedom of thought and conscience.?

IS THIS WHAT OUR GREAT LOSS OF LIFE AND MONEY WENT TO???

In Afghanistan 61 soldiers have now lost their lives, the highest in 5 years. Reports on one day follows; the day before was worse!

http://icasualties.org/oef/

08/04/05 CENTCOM: 1 U.S. SERVICEMEMBER KILLED, 1 INJURED IN IED STRIKE

08/04/05 GulfTimes: Eight die in checkpoint attack

08/04/05 Reuters: Taliban kill Afghan spy official in volatile south

They had an election too! Disappearing ink and all, the trouble in Afghanistan goes on, Karzai can?t safely leave Kabul. The never really defeated Taliban have emerged as a problem again! Osama is still on the loose, but his buddy, Ayman al-Zawahri is speaking out saying the war in Iraq will incite more violence. Terrorism has turned the lives of Londoners upside down! IS THIS WHAT WE CALL?MAKING PROGRESS??

?The Guardian Unlimited? offers a ?NEW CREDO FOR THE HYPERPOWER?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/internatio...542071,00.html

Richard Haass, a leading light in the US foreign policy establishment and former senior official in the Clinton and Bush administrations. suggestions are right on the mark. In one of the best articles you should read the advice is plain.

?To improve its influence and image in the world, the US should refrain from building new nuclear weapons, scrap the Bush doctrine of preventive war and regime change, break its climate-changing oil habit, and recommit to international rule-making organisations such as the UN.? Pointing to perhaps the biggest lesson of the neo-conservative era, Mr. Haass says hyperpower has limits - and they have been reached.
"The US does not need the world's permission to act, but it does need the world's support to succeed," he writes. "No single country, no matter how powerful, can contend successfully on its own with trans-national challenges."

Of course George W. Bush does not follow advice unless it is in accord with his own self-interest!

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/1175