The Great French Philosopher Voltaire once observed “ It is dangerous to be right when your Government is wrong”. I am afraid that observation comes very close to the political climate of the United States in this day and time.
Voltaire made that observation after he had been exiled to a penal colony Island by the King of France who didn’t take more harsh action because Voltaire was loved by the public who agreed with his writings that the King was a despot.
When we consider our Government, it follows that we need an accurate explanation of what is meant by “ when the Government is wrong”. And that explanation might be best described by using illustrations or examples.
Of course the most disruptive and harmful conflict is one of immoral or unnecessary conflicts of choice – armies conducting invasions, killing and destroying – for profits to war Industries or for Empire building. However there are many kinds of war – war between nations, religious wars, class wars, wars against drugs, wars against terrorism, even wars between political Parties. And certainly we shouldn’t forget Husband/Wife or Parent/Child conflicts.
But the sobering realization should be that all wars could be avoided. And as you raise your voice to condemn such an absurd statement, all I ask is that you hear me out since it has been proven that the human brain does not work well when it is inundated with facts that it does not want to hear. So lets see if we can agree on something:
War must have something to initiate it. And that thing must emanate from one or both of the potential combatants. Are you with me so far? When conflict arises there is always the opportunity for one or both sides to seek common ground. If either side fails to seek that common ground, physical conflict is likely to arise. The only scenario where armed aggression arises, when one side is seeking peace, is when the other side doesn’t want peace.
The question then becomes, does one side or either side really want peace? If one side doesn’t want peace, then there will be none. But even with this scenario, there doesn’t have to be war – it starts simply because one side chooses to start one. The other side then is forced to defend itself.
Has our Government sought peace in any one of the more than fifty incursions that we have been involved in since World War II? Or were we that side that refused a chance at peace simply because we had the might to assert our will? If you think we started wars only for peace, could you give a good reason why we didn’t invade Russia in the last half of the last century? Why didn’t we invade China? Why did we invade Iraq? Why does our Government want to invade Iran? Could it be that our Government has become a warrior Nation bent on building Empire? Can an honest American claim that all these fifty plus conflicts we have entered into since WWII have been “Wars for Peace”?
Would our Government be wrong if it is correct, that we have not sought peace? Would it be dangerous to oppose such a Government? Even for the citizen of the Government? How badly things can go wrong in a war is best illustrated by the Iraqi War. Remember, the Iraqis were predicted to greet us with flowers as our invading army marched in.
Our Government un-leased a war on Iraq for no reason other than to provide a profit stream for the War Industry and to provide fertile grounds for immoral Corporations to rape the Iraqi resources. While achieving this they used Depleted Uranium (DU) tipped munitions, a volatile radioactive weapon that is spread by wind currents and causes cancers, leukemia, and grotesque birth defects, and will continue to do so for up to 4.5 Billion years. Iraq today is staggered by the high rate of simply hideous birth defects that is causing Iraqi potential mothers to have to make a choice about chance.
Historians could very likely judge this atrocity to be the most heinous crime ever committed against human beings in the history of mankind. Dave Lindorff just recently wrote about this tragedy done to mankind. I hope you read it. What are we going to do about the criminals who are even today enjoying their Blood Profits? Smart money says we will never even scold them.
And to think, this war was wanted by no one except the War Industry, the Neo-Cons of the Republican Party, and the Energy Corporations. Could this historic massacre have been avoided? Absolutely! Should we let it go unpunished? Absolutely not! If we do, what does it say about us as a people? For thousands of years after History no longer remembers George Bush and Dick Cheney, the people of a land that was once Iraq, the cradle of civilization, will still be dying and grotesque births will still be occurring because of what we allowed to transpire in Iraq in the early twenty-First Century. And it may even spread far and wide, even to the United States, a once Great Nation, now just dust in History’s past, once hailed as the Ideal of moral and ethical people, who could even then lie in still radioactive graves, the detritus of an un-necessary war.
In the past year there was serious consideration given to enacting legislation that would approve the prosecution of “Thought Crimes”, with penalties including every thing from torture to imprisonment without trial and all the atrocities done in the name of this War on Terror, but this time the legislation was for prosecution of American Citizens as well as “Terrorists” – can you think “ For Thought Crimes against the State”?
And in spite of all the evidence of the evils of DU, the United States military still uses DU all over the World, and even in the United States.
Think long and hard before you answer those questions I have posed.
5 comments ↓
Once war starts, the initiator can lose control. And the end of that war can be the using of Nuclear Weapons. How would that end. Would one single innocent person die?
What if one single innocent person dies because of the whims of a madman? Should that madman suffer the ultimate penalty?
Even that wouldn't restore one lost life. But it might prevent one in the future. Certain and swift punishment for crimes really is a deterrent.
It's always a slippery slope, Cliff – we're certainly living in dangerous times…
As I have posted elsewhere, The Constitution has been shredded and only a handful of legislators even give it lip service. Now, the mis-named "Patriot Act" has been strengthened and the sunset clause revoked. More restrictive legislation is being created and signed into law. The concentration camps are built, NorthCom is training returning combat brigades in "suppressing civil dissent," The government is approving ever more money to our "Wehrmacht" in the Pentagon, while allowing the banksters to now pick up whatever is left. Millions are homeless, banks are tearing down foreclosed homes so no one can live in them as winter approaches.
I think about the only thing left is a national strike. Shut the country down. Nothing moves, nothing bought and sold, Cars left in the garage, no oil profits. It has worked in other countries. Eventually, the government has to recognize the people, or fall from its own weight and the dry rot within.
Gandhi brought the British Raj to its knees because millions believed in him and his gentle message. They peacefully took to the streets. Of course one of the reasons they succeeded was that the British didn't consider it sporting to hose down peaceful crowds with machine gun fire. That might not be the case here, but it is still worth the effort.
Steve
I saw something alarming a day or two ago. After researching it I find it happened last March. How could something like this have been kept so quite? What was it you ask?
Well in a courtroom during a trial as the Defense Attorney was making statements to the Judge with the defendant beside her, one of the courtroom police came up behind the attorney, went thru her papers on her desk behind her, took a couple of documents out of her folder and left the courtroom with those documents. The defendant just happened to see the officer and he notified the attorney. She asked the Judge what the policeman was doing. The Judge asked the Prosecuting Attorney what the Defense Attorney was talking about. He said he didn't know.
The kicker is that the Judge was looking straight at the policeman as he was riffling thru the defense attorneys papers. It just so happened that that courtroom uses a camera to record court proceedings. That film is what I saw.
After my research I found that the trial where this happened was about police malfeasance. And when the incident in the courtroom was heard by another Judge that new Judge ruled that if the Defense Attorney wanted to find out what papers the policeman took and why he took them, the defendant would have to give up all communication he had ever had with his attorney.
I say things are way out of control already.
Only one news service has mentioned this incident to date. Steve what do you think might be going on.
What was the defendant bringing charges against the Police Department about?
He was a blogger who had written articles about how corrupt the Police department was. Ten police raided his home a took his computer and all his records, etc. So he was raided for his articles about the Police corruption in Phoenix.
The truth might not set you free, it might land you in jail. Be careful what you blog.
The Fascist moves very carefully in a constitutional republic. He tries one small trial balloon after another, waiting for one that clicks. Then he presses on, a little more boldly, but still with caution. When he finally is able to press the most abominable concepts without major censure, then he can move in the open, unleashing his venom to poison all the surviving shreds of democracy.
We are very close to that point, but I'm not sure which side of the point we are on. The blatancy of the judiciary in twisting the rule of law makes me think we've perhaps gone a bridge too far already. When the three "checks and balances" that were written into the Constitution to protect us from a dictatorship are all bought and paid for by a small, elite, group, then I fear we have what our founders were concerned about.
Unfortunately, it is our own damned fault! Jefferson and Franklin amongst others warned us that the price of our liberty was unceasing vigilance. We the People have been too concerned with sitcoms and ballgames on our wall sized TV screens to bother. We "let George do it," and unfortunately, he did. The many who have been trying to awaken the American Sheeple are, for the most part, either ignored or vilified. As I've said before, the American Sheeple are sleepily following the nice goat with the bell right up the ramp and through the door.
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