Comments on: The Threat of Peace http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:56:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Mike McNiven http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-11184 Mike McNiven Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:17:08 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-11184 For those who understand that gender apartheid is a form of violence , a photo report about lack of peace by Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/photos/2007/iran03/photo20.html For those who understand that gender apartheid is a form of violence , a photo report about lack of peace by Human Rights Watch:

http://www.hrw.org/photos/2007/iran03/photo20.html

]]> By: Mike McNiven http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-11182 Mike McNiven Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:06:53 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-11182 Peace is not absence of war! Peace is absence of Violence! There is plenty of violence in the US and in Iran-- because they are capitalists! Two different non-capitalist approaches are clicks away: http://www.counterpunch.org/fiyouzat12012007.html http://www.hopoi.org/conference/Report.html Peace is not absence of war! Peace is absence of Violence! There is plenty of violence in the US and in Iran– because they are capitalists!

Two different non-capitalist approaches are clicks away:

http://www.counterpunch.org/fiyouzat12012007.html

http://www.hopoi.org/conference/Report.html

]]> By: Lloyd Rowsey http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10859 Lloyd Rowsey Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:38:28 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10859 Thanks for dropping in veracity. DV is looking to become (an old phrasing, not implying inordinate attention, to become) the best open posting site on the internet. Thanks for dropping in veracity. DV is looking to become (an old phrasing, not implying inordinate attention, to become) the best open posting site on the internet.

]]> By: veracity http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10822 veracity Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:09:06 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10822 Here is Michael Lind's "neo-con/neo-Confederate alliance" money quote, accidentally deleted from previous comments by HTML tags: ** As I have argued, the geopolitical project of the Southern-dominated American Right and its allies among the mostly Jewish neo-conservatives is to repudiate the post-1945 world order created by American leaders and [to] create a new world order corresponding to Southern conservative values and resembling the British-centered world system of the nineteenth century - a world with a laissez-faire economy in which a unilateral American empire, having a special relationship with Israel alone and defining itself as a champion of "Judeo-Christian" values, wages wars unrestrained by alliances, international organizations, or international law. For the sake of America as well as the world , it is important that the proponents of this bizzare strategy be quickly removed from power along with George W. Bush by America's voters. Let us hope this aberrant president - one of the worst in American history - will be followed by others more worthy of office, who will repair the damage that has already been done by the American right to the international order that mainstream Americans of both parties created after World War II, at great cost in American money and American blood. ** Michael Lind, page 167, in "Choice of Traditions" chapter, paperback copy (Basic Books/New America Books), MADE IN TEXAS: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics." (Unfortunately, the free Google-Books preview of Mr. Lind's book does not include the three most critical chapters: #1. Neo-Confederate Century; #2. Armeggedon; and #3. A Choice of Traditions, which is a summary and distillation of previous chapters.) http://books.google.com/books?id=Ig63J-SveWUC&dq=made+in+texas+michael+lind&pg=PP1&ots=nMIoVoTvOj&sig=WwShHcteHueMALbAbQ3MDJwPJXs&prev=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Made+in+Texas+-+Michael+Lind&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail Here is Michael Lind’s “neo-con/neo-Confederate alliance” money quote, accidentally deleted from previous comments by HTML tags:
** As I have argued, the geopolitical project of the Southern-dominated American Right and its allies among the mostly Jewish neo-conservatives is to repudiate the post-1945 world order created by American leaders and [to] create a new world order corresponding to Southern conservative values and resembling the British-centered world system of the nineteenth century - a world with a laissez-faire economy in which a unilateral American empire, having a special relationship with Israel alone and defining itself as a champion of “Judeo-Christian” values, wages wars unrestrained by alliances, international organizations, or international law. For the sake of America as well as the world , it is important that the proponents of this bizzare strategy be quickly removed from power along with George W. Bush by America’s voters.
Let us hope this aberrant president - one of the worst in American history - will be followed by others more worthy of office, who will repair the damage that has already been done by the American right to the international order that mainstream Americans of both parties created after World War II, at great cost in American money and American blood. **
Michael Lind, page 167, in “Choice of Traditions” chapter, paperback copy (Basic Books/New America Books), MADE IN TEXAS: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics.”
(Unfortunately, the free Google-Books preview of Mr. Lind’s book does not include the three most critical chapters: #1. Neo-Confederate Century; #2. Armeggedon; and #3. A Choice of Traditions, which is a summary and distillation of previous chapters.) http://books.google.com/books?id=Ig63J-SveWUC&dq=made+in+texas+michael+lind&pg=PP1&ots=nMIoVoTvOj&sig=WwShHcteHueMALbAbQ3MDJwPJXs&prev=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Made+in+Texas+-+Michael+Lind&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail

]]> By: veracity http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10820 veracity Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:02:49 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10820 Maureen Dowd of the New York Times (itself a relentless, neo-con pro-war institution) captures the crazed claven of neo-con War Party accolytes celebrating each other's war-time boldness at the AEI (American Enterprise Institute) on Monday, 10 Dec/2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/opinion/12dowd.html The fact that this Skull-&-Bones-esque ritual get-together didn't make the Times' front page, demonstrates exactly how the Times supports the pro-war agenda, by keeping its fans and cheerleaders off the front pages. In another indication of the surreal, "we love war" world the PNAC neo-cons and Exxon-funded AEI 'think tank' talking heads have dreamed up for us (i.e. , the War Party has the backing of BILLIONS upon BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of dollars from the oil, defense, media conglomerate, financial, and other major industry profits), Robert Parry informs us that the US military in Iraq now has SS/Gestapo powers to KILL ON THE SPOT any "insurgent" captured by US forces. http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/121307.html This news is made all the more delicious since the technology which gives spot-execution "approval " to US forces has been created by a Vietnamese (Vietnam) war refugee who came to America looking for (we presume) "freedom" and "peace." Well, as Tacitus wrote a couple thousand years ago, "The make a wasteland, and called it 'Peace.'" Tom Franks documents the manner in which Americans and especially "Heartland" voters (aka the "fly-over people" in the vastness between LA and NY) vote against their own economic self interest in his book, "What's the Matter With Kansas" (which google, for google-book highlights.) Even more compelling is Michael Lind's amazing book, "Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics" ("Southern" as in "neo-Confederate") about how those who support that agenda "would go back to pre-Great Depression segregation era, if not ante-bellum chattel slavery itself, in a New York minute if they didn't have any external forces restraining them." (Such as those hated and despised Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws and that dastardly 15th Amendment to the US Constitution ratified after the Civil War freed the slaves.) Lind documents not only the religious fervor with which the neo-Confederates seek to subjugate if not annhilate and exterminate any rival clans or tribes (see Andrew Jackson ethnically cleansing Georgia, Alabama, and Carolinas of Cherokee and Creek Indians, including those who had been allies to his armies!; see also the Texas Rangers wars against Apache and other SW Indian tribes; or how Custer, Sherman, Sheridan's (et al) led wars against Northern Plains Indians, etc.) , but , even more amazingly, Lind documents how former two former enemies, the Right-Wing Christians who dominate the formerly segregated South,and the intellectual, right-wing Jewish neo-cons, are now locked in a firm alliance to export the neo-Confederate Manifest Destiny clear to the Middle East, in cooperation with Israeli Likudnik theocratic right-wingers there! Here is Lind's money-quote, page 167 of his paperback edition in the last, summary chapter ("A Choice of Traditions"): <> Unfortunately, John Kerry was not up to the task of providing Americans with a viable alternative to the Bush neo-con war presidency - Kerry pulled his punches so much, one can only determine that he "took a fall" (in boxing parlance) to avoid humiliating a fellow Skull-&-Bonesman, and so he, Kerry, would not be forever tarred with the debacle of Bush's war in Iraq. 2004 may be histotry, but today it is absolutely essential that anyone who supports even a hint of "The Threat of Peace" understands the neo-con/neo-Confed alliance, and (that we) start to systematically confront and oppose them, instead of giving them an open microphone and unchallenged assertions. On a slightly more amusing note, the PNAC/ne0-con get-together at AEI to celebrate the Good Old Days (that Maureen Dowd commented on), echoes of the Ozzie Ozborne/Black Sabbath Vietnam war era anti-war anthew "War Pigs": "Generals gathered in their masses... evil minds that plot destruction... sorcerers of death's construction" http://www.ram.org/contrib/warpigs.html As the wise ones say, "The more things change, the more they stay the same"! Maureen Dowd of the New York Times (itself a relentless, neo-con pro-war institution) captures the crazed claven of neo-con War Party accolytes celebrating each other’s war-time boldness at the AEI (American Enterprise Institute) on Monday, 10 Dec/2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/opinion/12dowd.html
The fact that this Skull-&-Bones-esque ritual get-together didn’t make the Times’ front page, demonstrates exactly how the Times supports the pro-war agenda, by keeping its fans and cheerleaders off the front pages.
In another indication of the surreal, “we love war” world the PNAC neo-cons and Exxon-funded AEI ‘think tank’ talking heads have dreamed up for us (i.e. , the War Party has the backing of BILLIONS upon BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of dollars from the oil, defense, media conglomerate, financial, and other major industry profits), Robert Parry informs us that the US military in Iraq now has SS/Gestapo powers to KILL ON THE SPOT any “insurgent” captured by US forces.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/121307.html
This news is made all the more delicious since the technology which gives spot-execution “approval ” to US forces has been created by a Vietnamese (Vietnam) war refugee who came to America looking for (we presume) “freedom” and “peace.” Well, as Tacitus wrote a couple thousand years ago, “The make a wasteland, and called it ‘Peace.’”
Tom Franks documents the manner in which Americans and especially “Heartland” voters (aka the “fly-over people” in the vastness between LA and NY) vote against their own economic self interest in his book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas” (which google, for google-book highlights.) Even more compelling is Michael Lind’s amazing book, “Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics” (”Southern” as in “neo-Confederate”) about how those who support that agenda “would go back to pre-Great Depression segregation era, if not ante-bellum chattel slavery itself, in a New York minute if they didn’t have any external forces restraining them.” (Such as those hated and despised Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws and that dastardly 15th Amendment to the US Constitution ratified after the Civil War freed the slaves.) Lind documents not only the religious fervor with which the neo-Confederates seek to subjugate if not annhilate and exterminate any rival clans or tribes (see Andrew Jackson ethnically cleansing Georgia, Alabama, and Carolinas of Cherokee and Creek Indians, including those who had been allies to his armies!; see also the Texas Rangers wars against Apache and other SW Indian tribes; or how Custer, Sherman, Sheridan’s (et al) led wars against Northern Plains Indians, etc.) , but , even more amazingly, Lind documents how former two former enemies, the Right-Wing Christians who dominate the formerly segregated South,and the intellectual, right-wing Jewish neo-cons, are now locked in a firm alliance to export the neo-Confederate Manifest Destiny clear to the Middle East, in cooperation with Israeli Likudnik theocratic right-wingers there! Here is Lind’s money-quote, page 167 of his paperback edition in the last, summary chapter (”A Choice of Traditions”):
<>
Unfortunately, John Kerry was not up to the task of providing Americans with a viable alternative to the Bush neo-con war presidency - Kerry pulled his punches so much, one can only determine that he “took a fall” (in boxing parlance) to avoid humiliating a fellow Skull-&-Bonesman, and so he, Kerry, would not be forever tarred with the debacle of Bush’s war in Iraq.
2004 may be histotry, but today it is absolutely essential that anyone who supports even a hint of “The Threat of Peace” understands the neo-con/neo-Confed alliance, and (that we) start to systematically confront and oppose them, instead of giving them an open microphone and unchallenged assertions.
On a slightly more amusing note, the PNAC/ne0-con get-together at AEI to celebrate the Good Old Days (that Maureen Dowd commented on), echoes of the Ozzie Ozborne/Black Sabbath Vietnam war era anti-war anthew “War Pigs”:
“Generals gathered in their masses… evil minds that plot destruction… sorcerers of death’s construction”
http://www.ram.org/contrib/warpigs.html
As the wise ones say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”!

]]> By: Lloyd Rowsey http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10795 Lloyd Rowsey Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:33:57 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10795 Correction: "Assuming the four are independent events, which I think is as realistic an assumption as it's contrary - AND ASSUMING EACH OF THE FOUR HAS A FIFTY PERCENT PROBABILITY OF OCCURRING -- the odds that all four will come about is, what, one in sixteen? " Correction: “Assuming the four are independent events, which I think is as realistic an assumption as it’s contrary - AND ASSUMING EACH OF THE FOUR HAS A FIFTY PERCENT PROBABILITY OF OCCURRING — the odds that all four will come about is, what, one in sixteen? “

]]> By: Deadbeat http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10702 Deadbeat Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:18:16 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10702 <i>With this post you have my nomination for the Blather-Poster Award of the Year.</i> Yawn! Ridicule and ad hominem attacks are tactics used by opponents lacking the ability to contribute rational analysis and are unable support their positions. With this post you have my nomination for the Blather-Poster Award of the Year.

Yawn!

Ridicule and ad hominem attacks are tactics used by opponents lacking the ability to contribute rational analysis and are unable support their positions.

]]> By: hp http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10677 hp Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:28:44 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10677 Kinda like "by way of deception thou shalt do war?" Kinda like “by way of deception thou shalt do war?”

]]> By: Lloyd Rowsey http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10648 Lloyd Rowsey Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:45:28 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10648 Let’s see, deadbeat. You have concatenated one “However if” and three “perhaps.” Assuming the four are independent events, which I think is as realistic an assumption as its contrary, the odds that all four will come about is, what, one in sixteen? And you take William Blum to task for being unrealistic when he poses the logically unassailable (and empirically much more than justifiable) question of: “What possible reason would Iran have for attacking the United States or Israel other than an irresistible desire for mass national suicide?” Then you inform us that, “The purpose of clarity is to help people improve their ability to analyze the current situation so that they formulate strategies and solutions.” With this post you have my nomination for the Blather-Poster Award of the Year. Let’s see, deadbeat. You have concatenated one “However if” and three “perhaps.” Assuming the four are independent events, which I think is as realistic an assumption as its contrary, the odds that all four will come about is, what, one in sixteen? And you take William Blum to task for being unrealistic when he poses the logically unassailable (and empirically much more than justifiable) question of: “What possible reason would Iran have for attacking the United States or Israel other than an irresistible desire for mass national suicide?”

Then you inform us that, “The purpose of clarity is to help people improve their ability to analyze the current situation so that they formulate strategies and solutions.”

With this post you have my nomination for the Blather-Poster Award of the Year.

]]> By: gerald spezio http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10601 gerald spezio Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:56:29 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10601 Uri Avnery's observation that Israelis are bummed out by the revelations that Iran doesn't have a nuclear option. "Just when we hoped to get the Mericans to wipe those Iranians off the face of the earth." Bummer! Uri Avnery’s observation that Israelis are bummed out by the revelations that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear option.

“Just when we hoped to get the Mericans to wipe those Iranians off the face of the earth.”

Bummer!

]]> By: Deadbeat http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10595 Deadbeat Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:47:30 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/the-threat-of-peace/#comment-10595 <i>As I’ve asked before: What possible reason would Iran have for attacking the United States or Israel other than an irresistible desire for mass national suicide?</i> What the purpose of asking such a ridiculous rhetorical question? The effect of asking a rhetorical question like the one above SHIFTS the onus of the bellicosity onto Iran and obfuscates the influence of Zionism. However if the dialog was an analysis of Zionism then people would start to think more about U.S. foreign policy and the links that extend from such policies. Perhaps the dialog would then shift to all the foreign aid going directly to a racist state. Perhaps dialog would then shift to why the military budget remains inflated years after the end of the cold war. Even paleo-conservatives have advocated for cuts in the defense budget and closing of bases since 1989 -- the year the Berlin Wall came down. Perhaps such focus would then link reasons why U.S. domestic politics is so disrupted. The purpose of clarity is to help people improve their ability to analyze the current situation so that they formulate strategies and solutions. As I’ve asked before: What possible reason would Iran have for attacking the United States or Israel other than an irresistible desire for mass national suicide?

What the purpose of asking such a ridiculous rhetorical question? The effect of asking a rhetorical question like the one above SHIFTS the onus of the bellicosity onto Iran and obfuscates the influence of Zionism.

However if the dialog was an analysis of Zionism then people would start to think more about U.S. foreign policy and the links that extend from such policies. Perhaps the dialog would then shift to all the foreign aid going directly to a racist state. Perhaps dialog would then shift to why the military budget remains inflated years after the end of the cold war. Even paleo-conservatives have advocated for cuts in the defense budget and closing of bases since 1989 — the year the Berlin Wall came down. Perhaps such focus would then link reasons why U.S. domestic politics is so disrupted.

The purpose of clarity is to help people improve their ability to analyze the current situation so that they formulate strategies and solutions.

]]>