see also FIVE EXPERTS WARN ABOUT THE INCREASING NUCLEAR THREAT

So many factors threaten human existence. .... One would think that such warnings from top people, who know from the inside, would result in remedial behaviour from rational human beings who wish to live and want their children and other human beings to continue to live on our planet. But it is not so.

According to a new report from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, some 100,000 asteroids and comets routinely pass between the Sun and the Earth's orbit. About 20,000 of these orbit close enough to us that they could one day hit the Earth and destroy a major city.
But the really worrying news from NASA is that over a thousand of these things are large enough (almost a mile wide in diameter) and their orbits close enough to us as to pose a real potential hazard of crashing into the Earth with enough force to end most life on this planet. Scientists think this is what killed off the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

Bush, Blair, Howard and other leaders, boosted by US-dictated anti-Iran Security Council resolutions, are bursting with desire to bomb Iran as Pinter says... very few seem to care or think about the probable number of dire consequences and results of such barbarity. It is a few very perceptive writers on internet who care. Certainly not our crop of current world leaders. Like Tony Blair, who lies so well and convincingly for Bush, as he moves his eyebrows up and down to get our agreement.  Bush's tamed world leaders talk languidly about diplomacy as Bush and his 'coalition-of-the-willing' deploy their military forces for the long-planned assault on Iran.

Why George Bush is Insane

.... The US is at this moment developing advanced systems of "weapons of mass destruction" and it prepared to use them where it sees fit. It has more of them than the rest of the world put together. It has walked away from international agreements on biological and chemical weapons, refusing to allow inspection of its own factories. The hypocrisy behind its public declarations and its own actions is almost a joke.
The United States believes that the three thousand deaths in New York are the only deaths that count, the only deaths that matter. They are American deaths. Other deaths are unreal, abstract, of no consequence.

Tony Blair set up the situation for confrontation with Iran. He positioned the UK navy close to Iran, then provoked a military policing reaction from Iran in disputed waters. Iran was defending it's territorial waters. Blair, having succeeded with this provocation, is expanding the dispute with Iran rather than look for a peaceful resolution of what should be regarded as a trivial incident.

There is real danger that this incident, and the way it plays out, may turn out to be outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's last gesture of fealty to President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and “neo-conservative” advisers who, this time, are looking for a casus belli to “justify” air strikes on Iran.

If "the US can own the weather" as stated in the US Air Force report, it could presumably generate destructive weather events.
These might be used on nations chosen as enemies, or nations the US might wish to punish in order to bring them into line and to see things the way the US wants them to. Will such events be obviously HAARP generated? Or will they appear to be one of the consequences of global warming? If the latter, then the US could inflict severe deprivation and disaster on a nation without being known to be the aggressor. It remains to be seen whether this new evidence of human evil will ever be developed and used.

It may sound like something out of a James Bond movie, but a weapon capable of triggering climate change is in the works - and may already be fully operational.

Heather Wokusch, M.A. in Clinical Psychology, is an educator, journalist and writes extensively on US political developments, wars and nuclear issues.
Her following article has similar conclusions to mine and other writers on the preliminary strategies the US is likely to use to justify its War On Iran.
All the indications are that the US will soon massively strike Iran, including the probable use of nuclear weapons.

The Bush administration continues moving closer to a nuclear attack on Iran, and we ignore the obvious buildup at our peril.
Russian media is sounding alarms. In February, ultra-nationalist leader Vladimir Shirinovsky warned that the US would launch a strike against Tehran at the end of this month. Then last week, the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti (RIA-Novosti) quoted military experts predicting the US will attack Iran on April 6th, Good Friday.

Professor Griffin's new book "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" meticulously dissects the flaws in Bush's official story about the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Paul Craig Roberts gives a splendid review of it below and agrees with its findings. But the implications that the Official Story of the 9/11 attacks was basically a collection of lies and myths is not examined in detail in this article. However the appalling conclusions and implications must be made.

The 9/11 attack has been used to start wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to plan an attack on Iran, to curtail constitutional protections and civil liberties in the US, to radically expand US military budgets and the power of the executive, and to enrich entrenched vested interests.
Professor David Ray Griffin is the nemesis of the official 9/11 conspiracy theory.  In his latest book, Debunking 9/11 Debunking, Griffin destroys the credibility of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Popular Mechanics reports, annihilates his critics, and proves himself to be a better scientist and engineer than the defenders of the official story.

As one who foresaw, and lectured against the Vietnam War before it started in the early 60's, and more or less continuously ever since about the nuclear arms race, wars and lately the Iraq War and the US planned War against Iran, I have been concerned about the peace movement. Where are the thousands that demonstrated in 2003 before Bush launched his illegal war on Iraq ? Now the Iraq body count is 655,000, the same people don't bother to demonstrate or make any noticeable gesture against this war now. Why? Tom Englehart gives some of the answers below.

Excuse me if, at 62, and well into my second era of protest against yet another distant, disastrous, and disabling American war, I express a little confusion.

If the mass media informed the public about Bush's lies to fool the people and Congress into supporting his war on Iraq, and how it violates the US Constitution and international law, and his preparations to use nuclear weapons on Iran, based on the same type of lies, the Polls would be much higher against Bush and his illegal wars. However telling the truth about the Bush Administration and its phony war on terrorism, is not something the media would do. Their role has been to act as cheerleaders for Bush and his wars, repeating his every lie, and preventing the truth from being known.

More Than Half Favor a Deadline for Withdrawal, Bush Suffers Longest Streak Without Majority Support Since Truman
A record number of Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq , and a clear majority now favors the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces, even if civil order has not been restored there — potentially a tipping point in public attitudes on the war.

This article presents the realities of Bush's intentions and plans to attack Iran. As in the Iraq War. Bush's UK  poodle has staged a provocation in violation of Iranian waters. This will appear to be more authentic, than if the US did it. It also provides the UK with an excuse to satisfy Parliament and the Public, for its participation with the US in a war on Iran.

The timing of the recent incident in which 15 British sailors were arrested by Iran at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway for purportedly entering Iranian waters couldn't have been more provocative if it had been planned that way. And perhaps it was. The question is, however, who did the planning?

The new Democratically-controlled Congress has totally capitulated to Bush's power, even signalling that he can proceed with his plans for a war on Iran.
The power of the Bush criminal conspiracy is virtually unlimited and is backed by at least 25% of the richest, most powerful people and institutions in America, including many who are afraid not to appear to support the many manifestations of Bushism.

The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.

Alan Bock must have known all this about the new 'nuclear to use permissiveness' of the Bush Administration.
There has been a nuclear transformation - only to be used as a last resort in response to an attack on the US - to - nuclear weapons to be used when desired in pursuit of military objectives. Where was Alan Bock when this was unfolding before his eyes?

Earlier this week another of the Bush administration hawks fairly quietly left the State Department, apparently upset at the deal the administration struck with North Korea. Robert Joseph occupied a "special perch" in the administration, according to David Sanger in the New York Times. And now – like Paul Wolfowitz (the architect pushed upstairs to the World Bank – shades of Vietnam), Stephen Cambone, Douglas Feith, Scooter Libby, John Bolton, and Donald Rumsfeld – he is gone.

Have you ever wondered why people were so worried about nuclear dangers in past decades, yet so unconcerned now?
One reason is that in spite of many nuclear crisis - (remember how people evacuated US cities during the Cuban missile crisis)   - nothing ever happened. So people are used to the dire predictions never eventuating. Also, with the end of the cold war, they have been taught to believe that the nuclear risks have decreased, and some undoubtedly have. But some, and new risks, have got much worse. The media deliberately avoids informing the public about the increasing nuclear risks; that the US Defence budget is the highest in history; and that the Bush Administration is making new nuclear weapons to go with the new nuclear doctrines.

Karen Kwiatkowski is an ex-US Air Force Lieut. Colonel and a very perceptive well informed writer on real US military objectives and policies.
Her warnings of a US attack on Iran soon, after staging some kind of provocation that can be blamed on Iran as an excuse, must be taken seriously.
My own view, as readers know from my previous articles, is that the US will stage a 'false flag' allegedly terrorist attack on the US like 9/11, for which Iran will be blamed, to provide Bush with the kind of serious excuse he needs to get public and Congressional support for a nuclear attack on Iran. 

The Cheney speech to AIPAC – reassuring militant rightwingers in Israel and the US that America is leaning forward on Iran, and that we are never leaving Iraq – was filled with honesty and conviction, and gives us a clear window into the administration's thinking.
Cheney's description of terrorists is somewhat emotional and overblown. Calling them "freedom's enemies," he comes dangerously close to describing this administration's id. His emphasis on one-side's victims in last summer's war with Lebanon, and his proud silence on the thousands killed, injured, made homeless and jobless by American weaponry is also understandable as he speaks to the AIPAC audience.

The following article gives yet more proof that the US is preparing for nuclear war. Whether a nuclear attack on Iran will rapidly escalate to a general nuclear war is unknown. But it seems a likely result for a variety of reasons.  What is stupefying is the casualness with which people regard the obvious and growing nuclear threat - the lack of media coverage - Bush's "all options are on the table" threats - the many preparations. - the sheer irrationality of the Bush regime and its statements - the colossal costs of its illegal wars. It is difficult to figure out why people are not more worried and active to prevent this threat to themselves, families and world.

The Trident submarine base at Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, has become home to the largest single stockpile of nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal. In November 2006, the Natural Resources Defense Council declared that the 2,364 nuclear warheads at Bangor are about 24 percent of the entire U.S. arsenal.
Most of the warheads are deployed on "launch-ready" or hair-trigger alert status.
The Trident submarine system at Bangor has long been a leading indicator of U.S. military intentions. During the Cold War, the Trident system represented a major shift in nuclear war fighting strategy -- from mutually assured destruction to a pre-emptive first strike.

This article based on opinions of a Spanish judge that Bush should face charges as a war criminal for his illegal war on Iraq based on lies, is vitally important. It should be read by everyone who accepts Bush lies as truth, and by those who deny, justify, minimize or accept the continuing situation today. Its findings are similar to our own at the PANNZ mock war crimes trial of Bush, Blair and Howard that we held in August 2004 in Christchurch New Zealand. Every MP, government servant, and member of the legal profession, and other interested person should read this and consider their own and their nation's policies.

[JURIST] Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive ], an investigating judge for Spain's National Court [official website, in Spanish], said Tuesday that President George W. Bush and his allies eventually should face war crimes charges for their actions in Iraq. In an opinion piece [text, in Spanish] for El Pais , Garzon called the war in Iraq "one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history." Garzon also criticized those who joined the US president in the war against Iraq as having equally responsible for joining the war effort despite their doubts. In 1999, Garzon tried to extradite former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive] from Britain and try him for crimes against humanity. Reuters has more .

The Bush regime would not have built such a huge embassy (see below) if it had not planned to occupy Iraq indefinitely. It is a demonstration that that the talk of withdrawing US troops at some point has always been a diversion and never a serious intention of the Bush regime.
This Imperial complex of 21 buildings on 104 acres in the heart of Baghdad , with 5,000 employees, must be intended to be much more than just an embassy to Iraq . It looks like some kind of permanent headquarters for the US in the Middle East - perhaps a centre for directing most regional  US operations in the area.

The headline reads: "Thousands of angry Iraqis pillage billion-dollar U.S. Embassy in Baghdad." The article details the ransacking of the grandiose American Embassy by Iraqi mobs.
This is the story I expect to read one day within the next decade.
In the 1950s, when I was in high school in Baghdad, my friends and I admired the technological advances of America and the West. But we resented the colonial tendencies of the West (especially, at the time, those of the British). Many demonstrations were held in front of the British and American embassies. The Iraqis are a proud people, and they resented foreigners meddling in their affairs. And the British were, in reality, running the country through a puppet regime.

How do you deal with a power-mad and delusional President pursuing  a plan of endless wars for Empire, who has already killed at least 655,000 people and plans to soon begin a new war on Iran using nuclear weapons? I think Dennis Kucinich is right, that Bush must be impeached, urgently, if this disaster is to be stopped before Bush's military activities trigger a world war III.

This past week in the Congress of the United States, I noted that the administration has threatened aggressive war against Iran. This is a violation of the UN charter. Charters are treaties. Article 6 of the Constitution of the United States says that treaties are the law of our land, the supreme law of our land. It's illegal to threaten aggressive war against another nation.
My fellow Americans. We are in an interesting condition in this country, where we are told to take impeachment off the table and keep on the table a U.S. military attack against Iran.     See also: Impeach him or hang him?

.... This reaction either shows total and profound ignorance of the situation, or corrupt duplicity in enabling Bush to make war without hindrance or seeking permission from a Democratic Congress recently elected to stop Bush's wars. ...
It could become millions of deaths, and horrific long-term consequences for everyone, including the US public.
That is the spineless Pelosi and Democratic Party gift to the American public for their support in the last election.

The AIPAC Girl

If George W. Bush launches a pre-emptive war on Iran, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will bear full moral responsibility for that war.
For it was Pelosi who quietly agreed to strip out of the $100 billion funding bill for Iraq a provision that would have required President Bush to seek congressional approval before launching any new war on Iran. Pelosi's capitulation came in the Appropriations Committee.
What went down, and why?

Greg Palast spell's out the real motives of the Bush regime. It's Iaq's oil and a secret plan of the Houston oil moguls. From the oil moguls standpoint the Iraq war is going very well and according to plan  - to limit production in order to keep the price of oil as high as possible. Exxon-Mobil reported the highest profit of any corporation in history  a record $10 billion in profit last quarter. As Bush said: "Mission Accomplished".

It's STILL The Oil: Secret Condi Meeting on Oil Before Invasion

Four years ago this week, the tanks rolled for what President Bush originally called, “ Operation Iraqi Liberation ” — O.I.L. - I kid you not.
And it was four years ago that, from the White House, George Bush, declaring war, said, "I want to talk to the Iraqi people." That Dick Cheney didn't tell Bush that Iraqis speak Arabic … well, never mind. I expected the President to say something like, "Our troops are coming to liberate you, so don't shoot them."
Instead, Mr. Bush told, the Iraqis,"Do not destroy oil wells." Nevertheless, the Bush Administration said the war had nothing to do with Iraq's oil.

The slow genocide of US and UK involvement in Iraq even before they backed Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran, ending in one million killed, was followed by the lst Gulf war, then the starvation sanctions against Iraq which killed millions, and the lie-based US-UK invasion and bombing and occupation of Iraq since 2003. It is a shocking record of Western duplicity, barbarism and deception. Most people in the US-UK had no idea of the murderous extremes their leaders had implemented on the Iraqis. Barry Lando's article is an eye-opener - an astonishing record of mass murder by a series of US-UK leaders mouthing platitudes about 'freedom, liberty and democracy' as they implemented policies which would kill and starve millions of Iraqis and their children. It will ruin the future of millions of the next generation. Their use of DU munitions alone will poison the land, kill and infect the people for endless generations to come.

4 years later: Let's leave the Iraqis alone, shall we?

It's time for the Iraqis to cease their bloody sectarian rivalries, disband their ruthless militias and death squads and take responsibility for their country's fate. Why should American boys continue dying to save Iraqis from their own perverse selves?
It's a view expressed by all sides in the U.S. four years after the 2003 invasion. The problem is it shows no understanding of Iraq's nightmarish past and calamitous psychological present. l

This paper has some valuable insights into the character and relatively unknown mental illness affecting our society. It is particularly incarnate in George Bush. Paul Levy has called it "malignant egophrenic" illness or malignant egophrenia. In fact the illness could be named other known psychiatric names but "ME disorder" is the term used here.
As he says "George Bush does not exist in isolation. We can view his entire Administration (Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, et all) as well as the corporate, military industrial complex that they are co-dependently enmeshed with, the media they control, and the voters that support them, as interconnected parts of the whole system, or a "field".

The following essay offers a penetrating look at the psychopathology of George W. Bush and the collective psychosis that is gripping America, from a Jungian perspective. (This should be read as part of a series, beginning with my previous post, Parading Jesus , in which I'm exploring the idea of approaching the problem in terms of the interconnection of a "many headed hydra," or what this author terms as an "interrelated field." I think if you read this piece in its entirety you'll appreciate why it is important to look at the problem as a symbiosis rather than isolated parts.

From London to New York and Washington to Los Angeles in fact all over the world thousands of people were rallying and marching in protest on the 4th anniversary, March 17, of Bush's illegal Iraq war based on his lies. Freezing weather deterred thousands more.
In Christchurch New Zealand about 100 rallied in Cathedral Square. An Iraqi speaker told of the horrible conditions and 600,000 deaths in Iraq and the deprivation, squalor and incredible misery his relatives were suffering in Iraq, as a result of the Bush Administration.

Thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets of New York Sunday to demand the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq , in a second day of national rallies to mark the fourth anniversary of the war.
Organizers from the group United for Peace and Justice said between 25,000 and 30,000 people marched in the rally, which came a day after similar mass protests in Washington and Los Angeles . Police did not estimate the turnout.
A colorful mixture of students, cyclists, Vietnam war veterans and musicians marched through Midtown Manhattan, drumming and chanting slogans such as "Troops out now" and calling for President George W. Bush to be impeached.

This paper is an excellent guide to how propaganda permeates and influences our opinions and guides our reactions. It is one of the best I have seen. Given the power of the Bush Administration over the media, it is unlikely that the mass media will report the facts about Bush's deceits to initiate wars of aggression. 

United State of Minds

America's methods of mind control or better put, manufacturing consent through efficient and careful use of media, must be the envy of every tyrannical dictator ruling the most oppressive regimes in the world. . . .
. . . Shaping of one's attitude, beliefs, and personality without that person's knowledge or consent works by gradually exerting increasing control through a variety of techniques which includes repetition and herding.

This article shows how the nuclear power industry is spending millions on public relations to revise the image of nuclear power from something dangerous, not to be touched,  to something clean, green and desirable. The way the PR companies, and the media, use the industry's ex-Greenpeace spokesman - and will not reveal what they pay him - is most instructive. The comments following the original version are excellent and contain many provoking pros and cons of the debate. Serious nuclear power researchers should read these, and develop counter arguments, if they wish to be able to answer the pro-nuclear lobbyists.

"We just find it maddening that Hill & Knowlton , which has an $8 million account with the nuclear industry, should have such an easy time working the press," concluded the Columbia Journalism Review in an editorial in its July / August 2006 issue.
The magazine was rightly bemoaning the tendency of news outlets to present former Greenpeace activist Patrick Moore and former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman as environmentalists who support nuclear power, without noting that both are paid spokespeople for a group bankrolled by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). NEI represents nuclear power plant operators, plant designers, fuel suppliers and other sectors of the nuclear power industry. Hill & Knowlton is NEI's public relations firm, though it's not the only firm working to build support for nuclear power.

Short talks, Songs, Petition to Stop a New War On Iran. Bring banners and placards if you wish.
Show solidarity with patriotic American friends, who are encamping in Washington to stop Bush's lie-based assault on Iraq. This criminal genocide (over 600,00 Iraqis murdered) must be stopped. We must also stop the Bush-Chaney 'surge' on Iraq before they create a 'surprise provocation' blamed on Iran, to use as justification for their pre-planned assault on a possible 10,000 targets in Iran. See you there, Larry Ross

For daily updates

The Shocking Truth – Nuclear War With Iran The Talk in Cathedral Square, Christchurch
...People with impeccable credentials have written that the so-called terrorist attack on New York and the Pentagon on Sept 9, 2001 was an inside job. Also, that the so-called al-Qaeda terrorists were really pawns in a much bigger conspiracy, organised by the Bush Administration to create a new enemy and justify their global crusade and wars against terrorism.

Bush has established a record as spinning a litany of lies to fool the American people and Congress into supporting an illegal assault, bombing, invasion and occupation of Iraq . He is also spinning similar lies about Iran as an excuse to make war on Iran . He has destroyed Iraq and killed some 655,000 Iraqis. Thus he is a war criminal who has violated the US Constitution and should be impeached. There is suspicion that his crimes may be far greater, regarding the 9/11 issue. So is it any wonder that he wants to be able to suppress if not destroy any evidence of these crimes? The fact that he has taken steps to prevent some of his papers from being seen indicates this.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush was inside Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., to promote his education reform when he learned that America was under attack.
This was a day that changed the Bush presidency and the nation's history.
Scholars and archivists will one day travel to the Bush presidential library on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas to learn more about the nation's leaders and the decisions they made on that day.
The history textbooks and papers that they will write after visiting the Bush library might very well be incomplete.
"On November 1, 2001, less than two months after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bush issued an executive order that allows former presidents to keep some of their papers secret indefinitely. This executive order violates the Presidential Records Act of 1978, legislation that guarantees public access to papers 12 years after a president has left office.... This order should be overturned so that historians and scholars will get an honest portrait of the Bush administration and future administrations," writes the Republican.

Students everywhere will be interested in this article and video about US students becoming more active against the Iraq war and Bush's plans for a new major war against Iran. Because the US mass media acts as the war propaganda department of the Bush Administration there is a virtual media blackout on news about Campus protest activities and teach-ins in the USA. 'Embedded' reporters usually only report war news, and war-related news, the way the Pentagon wants.
The following gives students the facts. It would be a great help if readers would forward this article to students, student organizations and their media.
If Bush is not stopped, he will try and target today's students, and make them tomorrow's cannon fodder. They have a right to be informed and warned.

On Saturday, March 17, anti-war activists from around the country will gather near the Vietnam Memorial and march to the Pentagon. This event comes 40 years after the historic march on the Pentagon which many observers saw as a turning point in the movement against the Vietnam War. Student organizers are also planning events on campuses around the country between March 15 and 20.

This paper by Tom Engelhardt shows that dramatic and questionable developments under the Bush Administration have not been reported, commented upon, or questioned by the US mass media. For example Seymour Hersh reported in The New Yorker that:
 "a special planning group has been established in the offices of the Join Chiefs of Staff charged with creating a contingency bombing plan for Iran that can be implemented, upon orders of the President within 24 hours and that it's new assignment was to identify not just nuclear facilities and possible regime change targets, but targets in Iran that may be involved in supplying or aiding militants in Iraq." 
What this means is that just about anything and anyone in Iran may be considered a target.

... and no one notices....
In my childhood, one of the Philadelphia papers regularly ran cartoon ads for itself in which some poor soul in a perilous situation - say, clinging to the ledge of a tall building - would be screaming for help, while passersby were so engrossed in the paper that they didn't even look up. Now, we have the opposite situation. A journalist essentially writing bloody murder in a giant media and governmental crowd. In this case, no one in the mainstream evidently cares -– not yet anyway - to pay the slightest attention. It seems that there's a crime going on and no one gives a damn. Think Kitty Genovese on a giant scale.

I wonder why top politicians in the US and other countries, top military people, government executives and ordinary informed citizens, don't speak out and take action before it's too late, to Impeach Bush before he starts a new war that could easily escalate and destroy our world. The only chance to do something constructive to prevent this disaster is before Bush starts it. That's now.
Once started, it's too late. No turning the clock back. The war momentum will take over then and a series of devastating disasters will rapidly follow.

Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush's authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the Iraq war.
Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending bill a requirement for Bush to gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran.
Conservative Democrats as well as lawmakers concerned about the possible impact on Israel had argued for the change in strategy.

Paul Craig Roberts has that rare ability to sum up in one page what's happened to our world. The U.S. has been taken over by a criminal conspiracy, using the wars they started and phoney threats to establish a dictatorship in America . They use the familiar words of 'freedom, democracy and liberty' as a cover and justification. Most people are either not aware, deny, or justify this process. They don't know, or feel, the effects of what's happened to their culture. They seldom used their freedoms and rights before. Indeed, they were hardly aware of them or their origin, or their establishment in law. So they don't really miss them - at least, not yet.

Alas, Franz Kafka's novel, The Trial, published in 1925 and George Orwell's novel, 1984, published in 1949, also have been turned into period pieces by the practices of the Bush Regime.
In Kafka's novel, Josef K. is arrested for reasons never given, tried for an unspecified crime, and executed.
The Trial is the model for the Bush Regime's Military Tribunals, which permit execution on the basis of hearsay, secret evidence unknown to the defendant, or confession extracted by torture.

A domestic war casualty, Stacy Bannerman, shows below some of the high social costs to America of casualties that are fooled into giving their services, futures and even lives to kill for the Bush regime in their illegal war on Iraq. Her figures are startling and don't cover some of the long-term costs of broken marriages, psychologically damaged children and adults, and veterans who may have become unemployable. Also, what about the social effect of damaged human beings feeling embittered and cheated 'by the system'. When some of the vets realise that the Bush regime is essentially a criminal group who are waging a series of wars based on lies and deceptions, that they have been conned and sucked into and used by this group as trained killers, and may now suffer long term physical and psychological effects, there's no doubt that there will be costs to society. Some may become very high in the long term. Stacy reveals the obvious, immediate costs.

"They volunteered, didn't they?"
As the war in Iraq has gone from wrong to worse, that question, often delivered as a statement, has become the fallback stance of folks who are attempting to silence the voices of those of us who actually have loved ones in uniform, or who died while wearing it. I love my country dearly, but sometimes it's difficult to retain a feeling of love for my countrymen who have said, "They volunteered, didn't they?" in an effort to shut up the growing numbers of military and Gold Star families who are speaking out against this war.

The Democrats are not intending to use their power to cut off funding and end the Iraq  war. Basically they are continuing to give Bush a carte blanche to do as he pleases, when he pleases, to whomever he pleases.
The US has become a de-facto dictatorship, and the Democrats have already signalled that they are ready to approve a war with Iran.

I have always admired George Monbiot's articles about the Iraq war and the Bush Administration. That makes it very hard to understand why Monbiot rubbished those very eminent well-known writers and scholars who questioned the official 9/11 story. Below, David Ray Griffin, one of the best authorities on 9/11, answers Monbiot. His forthcoming book in April will give a far more thorough answer to Monbiot and others like him.

In “ Bayoneting a Scarecrow The 9/11 conspiracy theories are a coward's cult.” (Guardian, February 20), George Monbiot accuses members of the 9/11 truth movement of being “morons” and “idiots” who believe in “magic.” Having in his previous attack---“ A 9/11 conspiracy virus is sweeping the world, ” Guardian, February 6---called me this movement's “high priest,” he now describes my 9/11 writing as a “concatenation of ill-attested nonsense.”

Cindy Sheehan, Dan DeWalt and Ellen McKay have pointed out below, one of the best ways to stop the Iraq war. The group lecture tour of Vermont with town meetings to vote on impeaching Bush was an outstanding success. What a great way to allow the people to vote on the future of their country! Many Americans, even a majority, are frustrated at the apparent hesitation and helplessness of the US Senate and Congress to stop Bush. Could something like this be done in other countries? It would encourage US citizens.

Don't forget 4th Anniversary  Iraq war Rally, Songs and Talks at 12 midday, Saturday March 17 at Cathedral Square. Banners and posters welcome. Petitions to stop investing in US war corporations like Halliburton and Prevent/Stop the War on Iran.

The Nation - When Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican with reasonably close ties to President Bush, asked if there was any additional business to be considered at the town meeting he was running in Middlebury, Ellen McKay popped up and proposed the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The governor was not amused. As moderator of the annual meeting, he tried to suggest that the proposal to impeach - along with another proposal to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq - could not be voted on.
But McKay, a program coordinator at Middlebury College, pressed her case. And it soon became evident that the crowd at the annual meeting shared her desire to hold the president to account. So Douglas backed down.

My recent trip to Turkey opened my eyes further to anti-American hatred. .....
I want to live in a country that gives hope to the world. I want to live in a country that decreases world instability instead of fomenting and celebrating it.

Although this article was published in 2003, it illustrates how pervasive pro-war propaganda has become. Also, how slavishly the editors of 175 Murdoch papers have followed Murdoch's pro-Bush-war line. The other corporate-owned media are similar. For instance Fairfax-owned papers in New Zealand follow a similar policy. The editors' views, reflecting those of their employer, seem to be totally arrogant.

Rupert Murdoch argued strongly for a war with Iraq in an interview this week. Which might explain why his 175 editors around the world are backing it too.

A new US hydrogen bomb will add momentum to the new nuclear arms race. The US disregard of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty - making more bombs rather than nuclear disarmament as promised, and Bush's threat to bomb a non-nuclear nation - Iran - will convince other nations that their security lies with adding to and modernising their own nuclear arsenals.

A U.S. plan to develop a new hydrogen bomb could spark production of new nuclear weapons by other countries, including several foes of the Bush administration, warn some of the nation's leading arms control and disarmament advocacy groups.

An historian of the future commenting on this period in US history will marvel at how a supposedly free people had been so easily tricked into giving up their wealth, freedoms and civil liberties and embracing a George Bush version of fascism to supposedly give them security and protect their freedom and democracy. The American people's response tends to prove Hitler's theorem in his book Mien Kemp: "The bigger the lie the more people will believe it." Although public doubt and rejection of Bush militarism and war is growing, people still accept the bigger lies of the Bush regime:

You have to read the New York Times editorial for Sunday, March 5th.  It's a list  of measures the Bush administration has put in place over the past five years that taken together add up to an astonishing attack against what we used to consider America's most basic constitutional principles.
The Times calls for Congress to take immediate action to reverse the situation.  The editorial, however, should be calling for Congress—and the media– to do much, nuch more.

. . . But will it be enough, will it reach enough people? Will it actually motivate them to do enough to stop the Bush regime? Bear in mind the colossal forces, power, money and millions of skilled personnel of the military-industrial-congressional-media complex. Most are dedicated servants of the Bush neocon regime. Opposing that are some dedicated US citizens. But is there enough to make a dent in the plans, plots and covert deceptions of the trillion dollar Bush regime?

In his new book, CIA analyst, distinguished scholar, and best-selling author Chalmers Johnson argues that US military and economic overreach may actually lead to the nation's collapse as a constitutional republic. It's the last volume in his Blowback trilogy, following the best-selling "Blowback" and "The Sorrows of Empire." In those two, Johnson argued American clandestine and military activity has led to un-intended, but direct disaster here in the United States. [includes rush transcript]

Professor Griffin's paper on "Neocon Imperialism, 9/11 and the Attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq " is the most comprehensive, informative, and scholarly essay I have seen on this subject. ...
Bush and the hand-picked collection of neo-conservatives in his administration control the most powerful forces in human history - enough to kill the world's population many times over. Add to that the other 8 nuclear weapon states that might be triggered into action by Bush's pre-emptive wars as described in Griffin 's paper. The world and humanity face extreme threats from a criminal regime operating on lies, delusions and grandiose ambitions.  

My purpose in publishing this essay is to introduce a perspective, relevant to the debates about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, that thus far has not been part of the public discussion.

Professor Griffin covers topics he says have been inadequately answered by the commission. These include questions surrounding the attack on the Pentagon, the way in which the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and the behavior of President Bush and his Secret Service detail following notification that a second plane had hit the WTC. The talk was hosted by the Muslim- Jewish- Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth (www.mujca.com) and took place at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Includes Q&A.

Press Release March 6, 2007: To Honour and Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of New Zealand 's 1987 Nuclear Free Legislation
David Lange promised in 1984, "Elect Labour and we'll make all of New Zealand Nuclear Free" In spite of overseas allies and National Party opposition, Parliament legislated to make New Zealand nuclear free on August 6, 1987.

Seymour Hersh again warns about the new Middle East strategy of the Bush Administration which has brought it "closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims".
He doesn't mention past colonial efforts of the UK and US to dominate Iran and its oil by using the CIA to depose the democratically elected leader of Iran Mossedagh, and replace him with a US puppet the Shah with his dreaded Savak secret police and its torture and assassinations. Finally the 1979 Iranian revolution kicked the Shah and the US out and the new religious government came to power. The Iranians gained control of their own oil resources and their own government.

Is the Administration's new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
A Strategic Shift
In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The "redirection," as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Richard Mynick shows how America, as people knew it, is disappearing and being transformed into a de-facto dictatorship - a perpetual war machine serving the military-industrial-governmental complex. There is little or no resistance. People are behaving like lambs. It is an indictment of what America is becoming under a blanket of well-designed false propaganda, ladled out to a confused public by a corrupted media.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" painted the United States in 1814 as "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." These words, though still mumbled by apathetic consumers at sporting events, amount to a cruel satire of the American people in 2007.

This is a fascinating study by a US historian on violence and war in America since its inception.
It is very much a part of the culture. Violence, crime and war are also very popular as entertainment in movies, TV shows, war games and videos. Children grow up playing war games such as "Cowboys and Indians" or between gangsters and police. One of the most popular TV serials was about a Mafia Don, his family and his rackets and crimes. In this social climate it is perhaps natural for people not to seriously question the reasons and motives of their leaders taking them into war. It's as natural as apple pie.
Americans have been repeatedly fooled into supporting questionable wars, as they were in the continuing 2003 illegal war on Iraq.

" Increasingly, Americans are a people without history, with only memory, which means a people poorly prepared for what is inevitable about life -- tragedy, sadness, moral ambiguity -- and therefore a people reluctant to engage difficult ethical issues. "
    Elliot Gorn, "Professing History: Distinguishing Between Memory and Past," Chronicle of Higher Education (April 28, 2000).
In August 2002, President George Bush began to drum up a war fever in America with a view to toppling Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein, alleged to be the possessor of weapons of mass destruction. Bush did so without providing the evidence, the costs, the "why now" explanation, or long-term implications of such a war.

This article presents a complete picture of how Bush is converting democratic America to Fascist America.
All the steps and legislative acts empowering Bush are shown. All he needs is an event that produces shock, horror, and fear in Americans such as that produced by the 9/11 attack. After that Bush was the hero saving America from terrorism. His popularity soared and he could do anything he wanted and he was given unprecedented power to wage war, even nuclear war, arrest, imprison and torture anyone, and without trial or even accusation.

. . . The Bush administration has carried out three massive sweeps in the last two years, rolling up more than 30,000 minor crooks and criminals, without as much as a whimper of protest from the public.

Some articles say the US will stage an attack on Iran, others say Israel will attack Iran. Some say it will be a joint operation. In the following article the decision to strike is Israel 's but with US permission. I doubt whether Israel would attack Iran on its own, even though Israeli hawks may reason that Israel's nuclear arsenal will protect it against any retaliation. Other nations would fear that Israel may then retaliate with nuclear weapons and wipe them out. Israel and the US are playing on this fear. Israel has the full support of the Bush regime, which has been planning to attack Iran for years.

"The Telegraph" -- -- Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon.

The amount of power Bush has accumulated and the ease with which he even exceeds that is very disturbing.  The testimony of Washington insiders and important Republicans on Bush's abuse of power is another indicator that Bush is out of control. I think people who look forward to the end of Bush's term in office could be too optimistic. I don't think that Bush is the kind of person who will give up power willingly. By declaring a major war, using nuclear weapons as he is allowed to do by law, declaring an emergency and martial law, legislation extending his term, postponing elections because of the crisis, Bush and his associates may try and extend their control of power indefinitely. I hope I'm wrong. Remember that they all have committed grave crimes against international law and the US Constitution. They are have strong motives to continue to hang on to power. Anything can  happen if Bush launches his long-planned war on Iran.

Can it happen here? Is it happening here already? That depends, as a recent president might have said, on what the meaning of "it" is.

Many Americans who look into 9/11 questions may be terrified at the thought that a criminal conspiracy has taken over control of America, that the US military has been part of the conspiracy and cover up, and that it controls the worlds biggest nuclear arsenal - enough weapons to kill all life on earth many times over. It is not surprising that many will choose to disbelieve the story, regardless of proofs, or place it in the 'too hard' basket.

. . . Side by side, the two documents are almost identical. But there is one difference. The new order includes an extra passage in the policy section that mentions two new kinds of airborne vehicles, “unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)” and “remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).” The order states that these are to be regarded as “a potential threat to public safety.” But why did two new categories of aerial vehicles require the drafting of a new order, especially since the basic policy did not change? I puzzled over this for some time, until I stumbled upon a news story about the Global Hawk, prompting further investigations. These have convinced me that the June 1, 2001 pentagon order could be one of the keys to what happened on 9/11.

It's good to see these photos of Australians protesting the Iraq war and the Cheney visit. Many people.are waking up to the facts that Australia is helping the Bush regime fight a totally illegal war based on lies. The war has no purpose or meaning, except to dominate middle east oil and to be a base to launch a lie-based war on Iran.

Sydney anti-war marchers defy police ban and reclaim the streets
This evening 1500 anti-war demonstrators overcame a strong police presence and, after a half-hour confrontation with the NSW riot squad and mounted police marched to the US Consulate to protest against US Vice-President Dick Cheney's visit to Australia and the five-year imprisonment of David Hicks in Guantanamo Bay.
An unexpected last-minute ban by NSW Police (no doubt at the instigation of the NSW Labor Government) turned what would have been a routine demonstration into a major test of the right to march.

Is it the beginning of the end of the Iraq war as Paul Rogers suggests? The US is on the verge of starting a major war on Iran (not mentioned by Rogers) that will dwarf the destruction and casualties suffered by Iraq. Perhaps the neoconservatives and Pentagon see the Iraq war, and the surge, simply as diversions from their real aim - Iran. After all they have managed to get Iraqis murdering Iraqis by using covert action to start a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites and directing activities of the different militias. They have built major US military bases and managed to pilfer billions of US taxpayer dollars rewarding favoured contractors with no-bid contracts.

The proposed British evacuation of Iraq prefigures the failure of the United States-led project in the country.

Dan Plesh is an author, anti-war researcher and journalist. He establishes that the US is planning sudden attacks on some 10,000 Iranian targets with conventional or nuclear weapons. It is not just the Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities that will be targeted, but the entire society of some 50 million people and the nations infrastructure. The Bush regime is an extreme, fanatical rogue group, that may far exceed the human butchery of all previous tyrants in history. Casualties could be in the millions, with escalation to a widening series of wars against Islamic states.

American military operations for a major conventional war with Iran could be implemented any day. They extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD facilities and will enable President Bush to destroy Iran's military, political and economic infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons.
British military sources told the New Statesman , on condition of anonymity, that "the US military switched its whole focus to Iran" as soon as Saddam Hussein was kicked out of Baghdad. It continued this strategy, even though it had American infantry bogged down in fighting the insurgency in Iraq.

... "Anything less than an all out assault on carbon in our economy will be rendered meaningless by the increasing momentum of global warming." We are going to have to work very hard "to have even a chance at limiting the damage" the IPCC report indicates.

The world is, it seems, melting like an ice cream cone in the sun. Let me leave it at that.

When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its latest report in early February, it was greeted with shock: "World Wakes to Climate Catastrophe," reported an Australian paper.

Bush is already one of history's most monstrous war criminals having lied to gain support for his illegal invasion and bombing of Iraq and killing some 500,000 Iraqis as well as provoking a civil war there. Now he is close to committing a far greater genocide crime with his 'Operation Iranian Freedom' involving the US bombing of some 10,000 targets in Iran. He may use nuclear weapons, as suggested by other articles, or conventional weapons as suggested here. Either way there will be thousands of Iranians murdered, perhaps millions, by Bush's assault in cold blood for no legitimate reason. With the crazy logic of Bush's tiny group of neocon madmen, anything goes.

The Bush administration's preparation to strike Iran is complete with the top commander of the US Central Command having received computerised plans for ‘Operation Iranian Freedom', a report has said.
"American military operations for a major conventional war with Iran extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD (weapons of mass destruction) facilities and will enable President George Bush to destroy Iran's military, political and economic infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons," the journal New Statesman has claimed.

Monbiot is doing his best to outlaw 9/11 doubts, and foster belief in Bush's official explanations.
But Bush and his neocon regime are war criminals who lied to the public to get their support for his illegal war against Iraq and are now doing the same to get their support for a war on Iran . His lies and his killing of 250,000+ Iraqis for no legitimate reason other than they oppose the invader, not only makes him a war criminal but also a criminal against the US Constitution. It is one of the biggest frauds of all time.

There is a virus sweeping the world. It infects opponents of the Bush government, sucks their brains out through their eyes and turns them into gibbering idiots.

Born in Yonkers N.Y. in 1927, I've been campaigning against war since Hiroshima in 1945. I moved to New Zealand and founded the New Zealand Nuclear Free Peacemaking Association which helped make New Zealand nuclear free in 1987. The Pentagon was very angry about losing one of their nuclear base countries.

Join us this weekend and all next week for outreach - National No More $$$ for War Day.
Activists across the country are planning pickets, rallies, sit-ins, and other forms of creative resistance and direct action.

You were willing to take the risk of going against traditional and emotional impulses to follow the US-UK-Australia direction without serious question.You went beyond US propaganda handouts, false or doctored US 'intelligence' so-called "secret reports' and the other nonsense of imperial manipulation of allied governments.
I don't think people understand the great internal and external pressures you must have been under to join the Western war alliance against Iraq.

Here is the best article so far, that spells out the probability that the US will stage a 'False Flag' operation, in which Iran is blamed for an attack on US territory or military forces, in order to supply the Bush regime with a pretext for attacking Iran. The larger the Bush-staged attack and the more casualties, the more people will be outraged and believe Bush and his war propaganda that Iran is guilty of this crime, and that Bush could never do such a murderous act on his own people. If the mass media in the US and in US-owned or influenced media in other countries, repeats without question this gigantic lie, as they have similar lies about the so-called Iraq threat since 2001, then it is likely that most of the population will believe the lie.

. . . When asked why the Bush Administration was seeking to do this, she responded that it is a part of Bush's broader agenda for the Middle East to bring about a "democratization... peace and stability", to the region.      
Of course, one only has to look back to history to see the Bush Administration's real agenda behind confronting Iran. Iran is only one piece of the puzzle in a broader, century long struggle by the US, Britain, and its Western allies to secure the Middle East's oil reserves.

The war plans against Iran are based on a series of lies, false accusations and false and/or doctored intelligence. It is similar to the US basis for making illegal war on Iraq in 2003. The same techniques of war propaganda and tricks to deceive the public and mass media manipulation are being used.
The consequences of the war are likely to be far more disastrous than with the calamitous Iraq war and the public are now far more suspicious of the Bush Administration. It has now rejected his Iraq war and wants the troops brought home. So to get a measure of public support for a new major war, Bush is likely to stage a major act of provocation, such as a phoney terrorist attack on the US , then blame Iran and use it as a justification for war.

George Bush is going to war again. We see it in the Bush administration's rhetoric about Iran's nuclear program. We see it in the Bush administration's commentary on Iran's reported role in training and equipping Iraqis who are fighting US forces that have invaded and occupied that country. We see it in the Bush administration's criticism of Iran's role in funding and equipping Hezbollah in Lebanon. We see it in the Bush administration's direction to the US military to detain Iranian diplomats in Iraq, breach diplomatic facilities, and capture or kill Iranian operatives in Iraq. We see it in the deployment of the third US Naval carrier group (twenty more ships) to the Gulf.

Paul Craig Roberts writes: if Bush nuclear attacks Iran "the populations of many countries would suffer for generations from radio-active particles in the air, water, and food chains. Deaths would number in the many millions" ..."far surpassing the atrocities of the Nazi and Communist regimes." I completely agree with Dr Helen Caldicott who expressed "bewilderment why the rest of the world does not stand up to the US and force a halt to its crimes against humanity." He quoted Vladimir Putin as saying that the US was trying to establish a "uni-polar world" which he defined as "one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master....a formula for disaster" Roberts pointed out that it was foreign loans that were financing Bush's wars of aggression. If Japan and China would stop loaning billions to the US, it could lead to the collapse of the dollar and stop Bush's wars.

What would be the consequences of a US or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear energy sites?
. . .catastrophic deaths that would result from a conventional attack on nuclear facilities and the long-term increase in cancer deaths from the radiation release.  
Should the attack be made with nuclear weapons--as some of Bush's criminally insane neoconservative advisers advocate--the populations of many countries would suffer for generations from radioactive particles in air, water, and food chains.  Deaths would number in the many millions.

Professor Waddell gives a perspective on US policy toward smaller states since 1945. It is a matter of invoking the US war cry 'freedom and democracy' as a cover for invasion, regime change and setting up puppet regimes. The US "regularly brandishes the threat of recourse to "nuclear weapons" and Bush has been allowed to adjust US nuclear doctrines so that he can wage pre-emptive nuclear war, as well as introduce nuclear weapons into conventional conflicts.

. . . The aim of the United States is to protect and reinforce national interests rather than to create a better world for all humankind. It is an "imperial grand strategy" of global dimensions designed to ensure unlimited and uninhibited access, notably to strategic resources, notably energy, and to markets. Rather than to establish a direct colonial presence, the preferred strategy is to create satellite states, and this requires constant, and often repeated, military interventions in countries around the world, irrespective of their political regime. 

Brezinski analyses the war in Iraq, why it happened, what will happen, and how Bush may blame Iran as justification for war, and what should be done to end the quagmire - all in half a page. Brilliant. He also says "the administration is developing a mythical, historical narrative to justify the case for a protracted  and potential expanding war...with much of the world of Islam at large" The big question is: will the US Senate allow him to do it? Or get serious about stopping him in time. Impeachment may be the only way.

Washington - Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. national security adviser, told Congress the war in Iraq is a calamity and likely to lead to "a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large."
Testifying before the Senate foreign relations committee Thursday, Brzezinski skewered U.S. administration policy as driven by "imperial hubris" and a disaster on historic, strategic and moral grounds.
While other former U.S. officials and ex-generals have criticized administration policy in committee hearings, none savaged it to the degree Brzezinski did.

The US and Israel are planning a nuclear war on Iran. Other nations know of this insanity yet do nothing.  
Many supposedly sane Americans either know of, or are participating like cogs in a huge wheel of war. It is remarkable to witness so many people being involved in a process that can result in "an epoch of nuclear wars" even taking "the whole of mankind a step closer to total catastrophe.", as warned by Dmitriy Sedov in his essay below.

In my paper entitled “2007: Opening a New Page in the World's History” , published in September, 2006, I examined the possibility that a US strike on Iran using small-scale nuclear munitions [mini-nukes] would be launched, and that the strike would become the beginning of an epoch of nuclear wars. There were various responses to the paper. Some authors, including recognized experts, doubted the possibility of such a development. At present, few people doubt that there will be a strike on Iran. Rather, the question is whether nuclear or conventional weapons will be used in the offensive.

The US dropped thousands of tons of Agent Orange on Vietnam during the war in the 1960's, contaminating the land and people - killing and deforming some 4 million of the Vietnamese population that continues today - some 40 years later. Thousands of US and allied veterans were also contaminated with exposure to agent orange sprays, causing disease, disabilities and early deaths for many vets, genetic mutation that goes into their children and generations to come.

The US has agreed for the first time to help towards cleaning up a site in Vietnam which stored Agent Orange and other chemicals during the Vietnam war.
Washington has pledged $400,000 (£205,000) towards a $1m study into the removal of the highly toxic chemical dioxin at a former US base at Da Nang.

Tom Engelhardt has written a superb essay describing the insanity of the White House race to war with Iran and the expected appalling and catastrophic results. It is very convincing, and very well documented by a very talented insightful commentator.     
He is scared as any normal and informed person would be.  I hope influential Americans, including awakened politicians, are finally scared enough to depart from their comfort zones and actually take effective action to stop this madness. There are many things concerned people could do - if there is the will. The future of humanity on this planet is at stake.

Thelma and Louise Imperialism - Let me make an argument about Bush administration Iran policy -- about the possibility that a regime-change-style, shock-and-awe air assault might someday be launched on Iranian nuclear facilities and associated targets -- based on no insider knowledge, just the logic of George-and-Dick's Thelma-and-Louise-style imperialism.
Of course, we all know at least half the story by now. Is there anybody in official Washington -- other than our President, Vice President, the Vice President's secretive imperial staff, assorted backs-against-the-wall neocon supporters lodged in the federal bureaucracy, and associated right-wing think tanks -- who isn't sweating blood, popping pills, and wondering what in the world to do about our delusional leaders?

The US war with Iran is on schedule according to this impressive collection of articles by Evan Peterson, and will be arranged before the end of April 2007. In spite of millions of articles on Google about it and increasing US news coverage, the New Zealand media has managed to keep Kiwis in the dark about these extraordinary and dangerous developments, while repeating Bush's litany of lies about Iran.. New Zealanders and their politicians are living in a bubble of ignorance and one wonders if that is deliberate. Or is it just a lazy, arrogant, smug "ignorance-is-king" attitude on the part of the press?

(I) The Progress Report provides an insightful analysis of the U.S.-generated crisis with Iran ;
(II) Marjorie Cohn cogently explains why a U.S. military attack on Iran would be illegal and disastrous
(III) 57 excellent related articles are briefly summarized; (IV) 9 quotes worth considering.

"What's going on in Washington is unbelievable" says Larry Derfner. How true. "Bush is getting away with it. He's escalating the war in Iraq.
He's sending 21.500 more soldiers over there. Nobody's stopping him, nobody's going to, either - not the Democrats, not the Republicans and not American public opinion." Derfner wrote.
What Derfner did not say, is that US escalation in Iraq is part of the preparation for a sudden US attack on Iran, which in turn is part of the neocon plan for US domination of middle east oil resources.
The current increase of US demonization of Iran and increase in Bush lies as justification for military action is influencing US public opinion to hate and fear Iran as the number one enemy of the US. Only a small handful of US politicians challenge Bush's lies, and they don't get reported.

You watch these clowns in Congress, these eunuchs who don't have the balls to even pass what a Bush ally laughed off as a "confetti resolution" - a symbolic statement that wouldn't force Bush to withdraw but would at least officially express Congress's opinion in favor of withdrawal.

It is a great idea from a great US historian, that the people should hold Bush impeachment hearings all across America. Will it happen? The Democrats are too deeply involved in echoing Bush's lies, and with the Israeli and arms trade lobbies to offer much more than platitudes of token opposition. I think people should try but I doubt if there would be sufficient support in time to stop Bush's war on Iran. There could be as little as two months left.
It would take a massive campaign and I know various organisations are working for this now. So any help people can offer, now is the time to exert effort to prevent a doomsday war. If Bush begins his war, I think it may be too late to impeach him. So now is the time for any effective action.

Sweet vindication. Who wouldn't want it? To be right. To be free of criticism and upheld by evidence, by actual proof, that one's predictions about a controversial war were correct.
It is the culture of this town -- trafficking in rightness. People clamor day in and day out, in that polished and politic way of the Washingtonian, to be proved right.
But on Iraq, the vindicated are pained. There is no gloating -- not with thousands of people dead, Americans and Iraqis; not with the Iraq war precipitating an ongoing foreign policy crisis that has left the United States' global image in tatters.

Just as he documented the lies Bush used in 2003 before he launched his illegal war on Iraq , so John Pilger now documents Bush's lies to prepare the public for a war on Iran . It could be nuclear - thus breaking a 60 year US policy only to use nuclear weapons as a last resort in self-defence.
Pilger has quoted from many of the articles reprinted in full under " US War on Iran " on our website.
So far, all the evidence is that the Bush regime will proceed with its war plan sometime before the end of April 2007.
There are many things on this website: nuclearfree.org.nz  that concerned people can do to help prevent what could become a global catastrophe.

It is a great idea from a great US historian, that the people should hold Bush impeachment hearings all across America. Will it happen? The Democrats are too deeply involved in echoing Bush's lies, and with the Israeli and arms trade lobbies to offer much more than platitudes of token opposition. I think people should try but I doubt if there would be sufficient support in time to stop Bush's war on Iran. There could be as little as two months left.
 It would take a massive campaign and I know various organisations are working for this now. So any help people can offer, now is the time to exert effort to prevent a doomsday war. If Bush begins his war, I think it may be too late to impeach him. So now is the time for any effective action.

Courage is in short supply in Washington, D.C. The realities of the Iraq War cry out for the overthrow of a government that is criminally responsible for death, mutilation, torture, humiliation, chaos.
But all we hear in the nation's capital, which is the source of those catastrophes, is a whimper from the Democratic Party, muttering and nattering about "unity" and "bipartisanship," in a situation that calls for bold action to immediately reverse the present course.

Robert Parry, a long-time Washington insider and commentator, presents a very informed, powerful and convincing article that the Bush Administration is on course to start a war with Iran , beginning with a massive bombing campaign.
. . . . Parry illuminates many previously little known facts - such as that various leading Democrats such as Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator John Edwards and others have expressed strong support for a US attack on Iran, and no opinions or questions as to the advisability or potential disastrous consequences of such action or the false accusations of the Bush regime. Many democrats are helping build a false case against Iran.

Much as he did before the Iraq invasion, George W. Bush is limiting the debate about war with Iran, offering assurances that he considers war "a last resort" even as he moves his military forces into place.

Paul Craig Roberts is one of the best political commentators today and most qualified to give us the truth of what is going on in Washington and what is likely to happen.
What impressed me was the large amount of advice Bush was given by highly qualified Americans that invading Iraq was a mistake. An even greater amount of advice said making war on Iran would be a bigger mistake, very much against US interests, and threatening to the world. However, no amount of wise advice has any effect on Bush, who is following an insane, Israeli-inspired, neoconservative agenda.

Bush's State of the Union Address did not describe the deplorable state of the union. The speech's importance consists of Bush's plea to Congress to please let him fool them one more time in order that he can attack Iran and start a bigger war that Congress will have to support in order to support Israel.   That is all the president had to say. . . .
. . . "The president took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable, and predicted, disarray that has followed."   - Sen. Jim Webb

Will a similar incident like the Gulf of Tonkin attack during the Vietnam War in 1964 be used by Bush as a pretext for war with Iran?
Will it fool congress and the people as it did in 1964?  That a big war may soon erupt is no secret as there are over 21 million articles on "Nuclear War With Iran" from a Google search.
That does not mean people know about it. They don't.
Congressman Ron Paul is warning about it, but Bush's obedient mass media either do not report it, or slant it to disparage Paul.

Developments converge to signify inevitable conflict despite ongoing chaos in Iraq
Republican Congressman and 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul fears a staged Gulf of Tonkin style incident may be used to provoke air strikes on Iran as numerous factors collide to heighten expectations that America may soon be embroiled in its third war in six years.
Writing in his syndicated weekly column, the representative of Texas' 14th district warns of “a contrived Gulf of Tonkin-type incident (that) may occur to gain popular support for an attack on Iran.”

Will Protest Help?

It's good to see this protest and typical of the New York Times to downgrade it by underestimating the numbers.
Will it move Bush.? Very unlikely.
. . . Nevertheless this popular protest is good because it may encourage others and embolden the very weak and vacillating Congress.
Bush is defiant and says he'll continue to make war based on lies, while he is making up new lies to justify his next war. The formula seems to work well for the Bush Administration who are determined to carry on their plan even if it means world war III.
Until Congress faces up to Bush's many lies, instead of going along with them, and acts to impeach Bush, his neocon regime will carry on their war-making agenda.

Washington - Tens of thousands of protesters converged on the National Mall on Saturday to oppose President Bush's plan for a troop increase in Iraq in what organizers hoped would be one of the largest shows of antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital since the war began.
The event drew demonstrators from across the country, and many said that in addition to taking their discontent to the streets they planned to press members of Congress to oppose the war.

Here is another warning about Bush's intention to make an attack on Iran, using the same kind of lies and accusations he used before he made war on Iraq. Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the latest in a long line of journalists, politicians, academics and geo-political analysts who have made such warnings.
A Washington Post article quoted a senior US intelligence officer"...that the United States is escalating toward an unnecessary conflict to shift attention away from Iraq and to blame Iran for the United States increasing inability to staunch the violence there."

The White House Is Up To Its Old Tricks; Is Preparing the United States for an Attack on Iran
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) accused the White House of mounting a media blitz to prepare the U.S. public for an eventual attack on Iran. Today The Washington Post reported the Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East.

The Washington Post article shows that Bush has started his war on Iran by kidnapping, imprisoning and threatening to kill Iranians who are openly and legally in Iraq. He is doing everything he can to provoke some kind of reactions by Iran, so that he can blame "Iranian terrorism" and opposition to his war as an excuse for the quagmire he has created. Bush and US media are stepping up their campaign to demonise Iran to Americans in order to gain their support for any future big incidents blamed on Iran, as a justification for his planned attack. 

Policy on operatives stirs concern among some U.S. officials
The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran 's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.

Russian Ex-Chief of Defence, General Ivashov's analysis is very similar to many articles on our website and in my comments. I think it is one of the most informed professional analysis so far of US intentions to nuclear bomb Iran. He even refers to a pretext or what many have referred to as a "False Flag" incident to get the Senate and Congress to give their approval for a nuclear attack on Iran. The article should convince people that now is the time to take action if they wish to prevent a US nuclear attack on Iran and all the disastrous consequences that can follow. I can't see any effective action or purpose in protest after such an attack when casualties are already in the millions with perhaps many more to come.

In the overall flow of information coming from the Middle East, there are increasingly frequent reports indicating that within several months from now the US will deliver nuclear strikes on Iran. For example, citing well-informed but undisclosed sources, the Kuwaiti Arab Times wrote that the US plans to launch a missile and bomb attack on the territory of Iran before the end of April, 2007. The campaign will start from the sea and will be supported by the Patriot missile defense systems in order to let the US forces avoid a ground operation and to reduce the efficiency of the return strike by “any Persian Gulf country”. Strategic Cultural Foundation (Russia)

This Los Angeles Times article shows how US is setting the stage for attacking Iran by making accusations against Iran for aiding the Iraqi opposition.
The US is acting as if it had a divine right to illegally bomb and invade Iraq, justifying it with lies and false accusations. Then the US  blames Iraq's neighbours Iran and Syria, for interfering with their illegal conquest and slaughter of over 650,000 Iraqis and supplying arms to the Iraqi opposition. This is in spite of good relations between Iran and the US-appointed Iraqi government. It is outrageous and delusional for the US, who has created a large war quagmire in Iraq, to portray itself as having the right to dictate Iraq's affairs, it's relations with other states and actually threaten these states for opposing its conquest and killing. The Bush regime has been creating many false reasons for attacking Iran, and preparing the military for an attack for some months. As they get closer the anti-Iran propaganda increases.

US warnings of advanced weaponry crossing the border are overstated, critics say.

At last a courageous US politician, Congressman Ron Paul, has warned fellow Americans that the Bush Administration may stage a false flag operation to incriminate Iran.
Bush can then blame Iran and justify his decision to attack Iran. Many of the comments that follow this short news item suggest that the US will stage some kind of nuclear attack on its own citizens to justify Bush's planned nuclear attack on Iran. Because of the enormous casualties and very long term disastrous consequences, it seems logical for the Bush regime to stage a very big false flag attack on the US - an attack so big, that few would believe that Bush would have or could have committed such a mass killing of Americans. If that's the way it happens, Bush should get all the support he wants, for whatever wars he wants against anyone he names. As Hitler wrote: "The bigger the lie the more people will believe it" 

Ron Paul stood on the floor of the House of Representatives and, in an open session, on the record, said, “A contrived Gulf of Tonkin-type incident may well occur to gain popular support for an attack on Iran.”
This is incredible, even by my standards. I watched this clip a few times, and I still don't believe it.
That's the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives! Where's the media coverage of this? * sigh * Listen to the video and read the responses.....

The twilight period of American democracy is now, when various steps, such as impeachment proceedings could still be successful.
There really is precious little time left for people to still exercise their freedoms and preferences.
I hope the dead hand of apathy ends soon, before our children's future is destroyed.

The World is at the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US has embarked on a military adventure, "a long war", which threatens the future of humanity.
At no point since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to the unthinkable, a nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread, in terms of radioactive fallout, over a large part of the Middle East.
There is mounting evidence that the Bush Administration in liaison with Israel and NATO is planning the launching of a nuclear war against Iran, ironically, in retaliation for its nonexistent nuclear weapons program. The US-Israeli military operation is said to be in "an advanced state of readiness".

A number of articles on our site under "Dangers of Fundamentalism" and many others available in various Google searches show the strong influence of "End Times" and other Fundamentalist beliefs on George Bush's policies toward the middle east, and Iran in particular. We know from many other sources that Bush is planning a nuclear war against Iran by April 2007, and that this may well escalate into a nuclear Armageddon, as prophesied in the Bible and desperately wanted by the Christian Zionists below. More rational people who do not want an Armageddon, only have a very limited time to use their freedoms to try and stop Bush.

Christian Zionists are dancing the hora in San Antonio . Armageddon appears to be at hand.
As George W. Bush sets his sights on Iran, even Republicans are wondering how to constitutionally contain the trigger-happy king. But for an influential group of Christian fundamentalists -- White House allies that garner not only feel-good meetings with the President's liaisons to the "faith-based" community but also serious discussions with Bush's national security staff -- an attack on Iran is just what God ordered.

If Jones' bill is passed without change, the stage will be set for President Bush to arrange an incident where Iran can be blamed for an attack. Even if Bush then takes the matter to Congress, there is little doubt that Congress can be fooled again, this time to approve an attack on Iran.

A resolution introduced in the US House of Representatives calls on President George W. Bush to obtain approval from Congress before using military force against Iran.

Bill Moyers is well-placed to tell us about the power of ever-growing media empires in the US. With his direct experience in both politics and the media, Moyers tells us of the techniques the media use to fool and befuddle the public, and why. He explains why it is a battle for fundamental freedoms.

Address to the National Conference for Media, Memphis, Tennessee - as prepared for delivery.

There are about 25,000 nuclear weapons, many on hair-trigger 'launch-on-warning' alert status.
Humanity could become virtually extinct in an afternoon "by accident, miscalculation or act of madness" as President Kennedy warned at the UN in 1962 and many other statesmen and experts have warned since.

The Nazi death camps and the mushroom cloud of nuclear explosion are the two most potent images of the mass killings of the twentieth century. As World War II ended and the cold war began, the fear of nuclear annihilation hung like a cloud over the otherwise complacent consumerism of the Eisenhower era. The new technologies of mass death exacted incalculable costs, draining the treasuries of the United States and the Soviet Union and engendering widespread apocalyptic fatalism, distrust of government, and environmental degradation.

The BAS said that the world faced its most critical choices since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.
"We stand at the brink of a Second Nuclear Age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices," it said.

Bush's purpose in sending 21,000 or more US troops to Iraq is to create even more chaos and violence. He also wants to create incidents he can blame on Iran, so as to justify a US attack on Iran. The more violence and killing the US can create, the more their puppet Iraqi government will believe they need US troops. Bush names any opponents of the US illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, such as Muqtada al-Sadr, as linked to 'terrorism'.

He is a strange figure to be targeted as the number one enemy of the US in Iraq. Four years ago, few had heard of the Shia nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr inside or outside Iraq. Even somebody as suspicious as Saddam Hussain did not think he would play any role in the coming crisis.
Now he holds the future of Iraq in his hands. He has far more popularity and legitimacy than many of the pro-American Iraqi leaders cowering in the Green Zone. He is seen by millions of Shia in Baghdad and across southern Iraq as their spiritual and national leader.
Rightly or wrongly, he is feared by most Sunnis as their nemesis, a physical symbol that they are battling for their existence in Iraq.

Paul Craig Roberts is one of our best commentators on what Bush and his neocons are really doing. The following is another top article, and well-documented as usual. Once again war with Iran is predicted with the US using nuclear weapons. I urge you to read this article and consider the consequences, which can have a devastating effect on the world.

Most Americans believe that Bush's Iraqi misadventure is over. The occupation has lost the support of the electorate, the Congress, the generals and the troops. The Democrats are sitting back waiting for Bush to come to terms with reality. They don't want to be accused of losing the war by forcing Bush out of Iraq. There are no more troops to commit, and when the "surge" fails, Bush will have no recourse but to withdraw. A little longer, everyone figures, and the senseless killing will be over.

This report is the first I've seen giving an actual date for the US attack as being before April 2007.
Our web site has many authoritative articles spelling out in detail the plans the US has made to attack Iran with nuclear weapons, and the horrendous, long term consequences of such an insanity. But Bush and Chaney are desperate men who rejected all counsel for moderation and negotiation. They know they could be indicted for multiple war crimes, such as lying to the American people in order to fool them into giving support for a war with Iraq.

....Claiming the attack will be launched from the sea and not from any country in the region, he said “the US and its allies will target the oil installations and nuclear facilities of Iran ensuring there is no environmental catastrophe or after effects.” “Already the US has started sending its warships to the Gulf and the build-up will continue until Washington has the required number by the end of this month,” the source said. “US forces in Iraq and other countries in the region will be protected against any Iranian missile attack by an advanced Patriot missile system.”

Does anybody believe there is a crime the Bush regime would not commit? After all those lies to get the US public to support the illegal war against Iraq, and murdering 655,000 people, setting up false imprisonment and torture prisons in many different countries, spying on Americans, and others,  I don't believe there is any crime the Bush regime would not commit. They have sneered at the soul of America, stole it, and jumped on it, as the following article illustrates.

Sometimes you look around and wonder how things could have gone so wrong so quickly. America has become the antithesis of everything she purports to be. We are the greatest purveyors of violence the world has ever known; the largest weapons dealers on earth; and death and misery are our principal exports. Everything is for sale here, even men's tormented souls—at least, those who still possess them.

This paper provides new insights into why the US will not withdraw troops from Iraq. It is the new imperialism and colonialism and exploiting Iraqi oil that provides enormous profits to the 100,000 private military contractors in Baghdad , and provides billions in profits for the military-industrial complex in the US . Money is the great motivator, with no-bid contracts for chosen Pentagon suppliers. Greater war risks, the slaughter or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, morality and ethics don't matter to people participating in a gigantic profits feeding frenzy in Baghdad and Washington.

Neither the Iraq Study Group nor other establishment critics of the Iraq war are calling for the withdrawal of US troops from that country. To the extent that the Study Group or the new Congress purport to inject some "realism" into the Iraq policy, such projected modifications do not seem to amount to more than changing the drivers of the US war machine without changing its destination, or objectives: control of Iraq's political and economic policies.
In light of the fact that by now almost all of the factions of the ruling circles, including the White House and the neoconservative war-mongerers, acknowledge the failure of the Iraq war, why, then, do they balk at the idea of pulling the troops out of that country?

Paul Craig Roberts has written extensively on the Bush Administration especially it's present wars and future war plans.
I've been studying US affairs, wars and nuclear issues for over 50 years and would rate Roberts as among the top US political analysts I have read during this time. His credentials are at the end of the following paper.

Most Americans believe that Bush's Iraqi misadventure is over. The occupation has lost the support of the electorate, the Congress, the generals and the troops. The Democrats are sitting back waiting for Bush to come to terms with reality. They don't want to be accused of losing the war by forcing Bush out of Iraq. There are no more troops to commit, and when the “surge” fails, Bush will have no recourse but to withdraw. A little longer, everyone figures, and the senseless killing will be over.
Recent news reports indicate that this conclusion could be an even bigger miscalculation than the original invasion.

It will be a huge mess spiralling upward and out of control. A general nuclear war that destroys all life cannot be ruled out....
...The American people and Democrats have not been forewarned about 'False Flags' and how Bush may use one to deceive them. Many believe he has already successfully used this technique, been believed, and then gone on to squander billions on illegal wars.
They are apt to believe the deception, and back Bushes action to use nuclear weapons to attack Iran , or at least quietly accept it, as they have accepted his previous lies and crimes. As with leading Democrats like Hillary Clinton, many accept and still repeat his Iraq war lies.

The new year began on the hopeful note that Bush's illegal war in Iraq would soon be ended. The repudiation of Bush and the Republicans in the November congressional election, the Iraq Study Group's unanimous conclusion that the US needs to remove its troops from the sectarian strife Bush set in motion by invading Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld's removal as defense secretary and his replacement by Iraqi Study Group member Robert Gates, the thumbs down given by America's top military commanders to the neoconservatives' plan to send more US troops to Iraq, and new polls of the US military that reveal that only a minority supports Bush's Iraq policy, thus giving new meaning to “support the troops,” are all indications that Americans have shed the stupor that has given carte blanche to George W. Bush.

The New York Times article below gives a good account of how alleged US strategy in Iraq during 2006 has zigzagged and failed.
The NYT and US Govt want to give the impression that it is a series of blunders and mistakes in Iraq that has resulted in the situation going from bad to worse, to full-blown civil war.
What they do not discuss is (1) They had no right or real reason to invade and occupy in the first place (2) That the whole effort is based on a collection of lies by the Bush regime. (3) With the lies they used to justify their attacks now thoroughly exposed, the Bush regime carries on anyway, intensifying their war, killing 655,000 Iraqis and stoking the civil war.

President Bush began 2006 assuring the country that he had a “strategy for victory in Iraq.” He ended the year closeted with his war cabinet on his ranch trying to devise a new strategy, because the existing one had collapsed.
The original plan, championed by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top commander in Baghdad, and backed by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, called for turning over responsibility for security to the Iraqis, shrinking the number of American bases and beginning the gradual withdrawal of American troops. But the plan collided with Iraq's ferocious unraveling, which took most of Mr. Bush's war council by surprise.

Professor Lustick's article below, illustrates the amazing growth in the 'War on Terror' industry throughout various sectors of American society. From Congressional estimates of 160 potential terrorist targets in 2003 to 300,000 potential fund-generating targets in 2006. From zero dollars to 650 billion dollars for anti-terrorist expenditures. It's now a huge 'pork barrel' with "thousands of interest groups crowding toward the anti-terrorism trough" according to Lustick. It's like the Tulip craze in the Netherlands in the 1600s. Anti-terrorism has now become a huge industry of vested interests depending on the continuing phoney wars on terror created by the Bush regime and its neoconservatives to justify real invasions, wars and generally enlarging real wars. As with the intended US-planned nuclear war on Iran, proof of any accusations is not required. The accusation is enough backed up by an eager mass media repeating and embellishing every lie.

The official mantra is that we fight in Iraq because it is the "central front in the War on Terror." The exact opposite is the case.
We are trapped in fighting an unwinnable - even nonsensical - "war on terror" because its invention was required in order to fight in Iraq. After years of slaughter in Iraq, the neoconservative fantasy of a series of cheap, fast, neo-imperial victories is dead. But the war on terror lives on, stronger than ever.

A dedicated sometimes fanatical minority which has many wealthy and powerful adherents can dominate the more rational, but less focused majority. Fundamentalists often tithe and give large sums to further their fanatical beliefs This is demonstrated in the following article describing the rise of right-wing religionists in the military. Their major asset is George Bush who relies on their support and votes. Its a powerful combination and threat to American society. It is a cause of some of the irrational foreign policy decisions.  

The former New York Times Mideast Bureau chief warns that the radical Christian right is coming dangerously close to its goal of co-opting the country's military and law enforcement.
The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America's open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy.

.... Parry's article below reports that the Bush regime is planning to go ahead with its expansion of the Iraq  war, and by nuclear bombing Iran. This parallels many other articles on this site which say the same thing. All predict very, very serious consequences in many areas.
Parry also predicts there will be "some provocation that can be blamed on Syria and Iran , thus justifying the expanded war."
My own prediction is that the "provocation" referred to by Parry, will be a vitally important False Flag operation. It would be very carefully planned by the Bush Administration to stage some kind of an attack, perhaps a terrorist attack on the US, like 9/11, for which the Bush Regime has planned to blame Iran. ...

Intelligence sources say President Bush -- along with Israel's Ehud Olmert and the UK's Tony Blair -- are weighing the possibility of Israeli-led attacks on Syria and Iran in early 2007, with the United States providing logistical back-up.

From Larry Ross

WHY KEEP NEW ZEALAND NUCLEAR-FREE?
WAR AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS
THE DANGERS OF FUNDAMENTALIST BELIEFS ON GEORGE BUSH AND ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
RACING TOWARD EXTINCTION
ARE WE HEADED FOR EARLY EXTINCTION
US INTELLIGENCE ON WMD IN IRAQ
FIVE EXPERTS WARN ABOUT THE INCREASING NUCLEAR THREAT
DEFEND NEW ZEALAND'S NUCLEAR-FREE POLICY
DEFENCE POLICY IN THE NUCLEAR AGE
Comment on Bush's 'Speech to the Nation'
NUCLEAR DANGERS TO THE WORLD FROM THE WAR ON IRAQ
Sleepwalking To Extinction
America is a Religion Comment by Larry Ross
Armageddon Comment by Larry Ross
US Launching New-Look Military Strike Force Comment by Larry Ross