Archive for Dick Cheney

Pre 9/11 War Plans

Posted in Atheist, culture, Government, history, humanity, life, politics, random, thoughts with tags , , , , , , on November 17, 2009 by chouck017894

In these days, in the US, as men with real conscience are trying to clean up the war mess left by the previous administration, the nation is faced with having to consider some unsavory implications about a group of schemers that brainstormed plans on how to mismanage government. 

In 1998, when Bill Clinton was President, a group calling themselves the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) sent the President a communiqué signed by forty persons urging a comprehensive political and military strategy for bringing down Saddam Hussein and his Iraq regime.  The PNAC was founded as an alleged non-profit educational organization by so-called “conservatives” William Kristol and Robert Kagan.  The position expressed by the group was that the United States was the only superpower left and the only wise thing to do was to use the nation’s overwhelming military might to “take control of the Middle East and its oil.” 

At least ten of the forty who signed that Project for a New American Century advice letter would later take up administrative positions when G. W. Bush attained the Presidency under some strangely clouded circumstances and unprecedented Supreme Court meddling.  Signatures on the open-letter to Clinton had included: 1) Richard Cheney, 2) Scooter Libby (who became V.P. Cheney’s assistant). 3) Donald Rumsfeld (who became Secretary of Defense), 4) Paul Wolfowitz (who was made Deputy Defense Secretary), 5) Richard Perle (who became Pentagon policy adviser), 6) Elliott Abrams (numersous hats within the National Security Council,) 7) Eliot A. Cohen (member of Defense Policy Advisory Board), 8) Richard Armitage (four years as Deputy Secretary of State), 9) Peter W. Rodham (six years as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security), 10) Robert B. Zoellick (US Trade Representative, Deputy Secretary of Stated, and now the 11th President of the World Bank).  We should not forget there were many others in the loop such as John Bolton and GW’s brother, Jeb.

Well, the catastrophic happening that the PNAC had considered as probably necessary for flexing military might conveniently came to pass  after a minimally discrete amount of time under the newly installed born-again president.  The entire world remembers the date of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, and remember as well the peculiar collapse, story by story, of the towers.  With that, of course, the nation had to take up arms and bring down the villains—who were declared to be in Afghanistan.  The best way to accomplish the capture of the terrorists, it was counseled, was to cut through Iraq and “free” the people.  It had a cockeyed biblical ring to it.  With that advice the neo-cons set about to propagandize and  idealize for the US citizens the concept of war on terrorism—and in doing so failed to assess the shortcomings of their assumed world-control strategy.

The biggest enthusiasts for the war on terrorists happened to by what Tam Dalyell, British Labor politician and member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, referred to as chicken hawks—most of them men like Dick Cheney who were draft-dodgers in the Vietnamn war, but who were/are obsessed with the idea of war and world control. 

By the close of 2006 the glory days of the PNAC faded into nothingness, but its passing left behind the stench of terrorism, the Iraqi War and Afghanistan instability as legacy.  And it should have taught a lesson:  that the most important thing to remember about “conservatives” is that the serve in the word refers to helping themselves, and what everyone else should guard against is the con part.

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Any Torture is Un-American

Posted in Atheist, culture, history, humanity, politics, random, religion, thoughts with tags , , , , , , , , , on September 5, 2009 by chouck017894

In the harsh winter of 1776, a time of crisis for the American colonies, General George Washington sent written orders to officers in charge of overseeing captured enemy soldiers.  One four-line sentence stands out clearly expressing the belief shared by all the founding fathers, which was that each human being retains dignity before the Creator.  That one short sentence was, “Treat them with humanity.”

The authors and signers of the Constitution were men committed to enlightenment principles, and when they had met in 1776 to declare independence from the imposed injustice of a despotic king, their desire was to establish a new nation devoted to those enlightenment principles.  Disrespect for any human life could have no place in such a noble land.  Consequently, the founding fathers emphatically forbade any use of “cruel and unusual punishment” which had for centuries been the mode of conduct throughout church-dominated Europe.

The “uncouth men” of a “course country” dared to defy the traditions of the self-defined “civilized” motherland, and the American yeoman soldiers were expected to treat even enemy soldiers with respect.  And here was set down a purely American tradition; the enlightened principle that declares the equality of all persons before the powers of Creation.  Such a truly noble perception of each person’s inherent worth in the universe astonished the Bible inspired enemy troopers who were taught to believe that physical domination reflected heaven’s favor.  But the colonies clung to enlightenment and endured—and the enlightenment principles they had used as their standard were raised in triumph and held high for the world to reach out for in wonder, hope and inspiration.

Today, nearly two hundred and thirty years after the nation dedicated to enlightenment and equality was founded, we have witnessed the blatant betrayal of those high principles by those who gained political power in a decidedly undemocratic manner.  Authorization of “enhanced” torture methods were actually set in motion.  The founding fathers must have been pacing the floor in agitation in which Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, George Trent and Condoleezza Rice unashamedly conspired and approved the application of specific torture methods (“enhanced”) for enemy prisoners.  John Ashcroft, an oh-so-devout Christian, perhaps felt some psychic presence, for he is said to have wondered aloud, “Why are we talking about this in the White House?  History will not judge this kindly.”

As a side note let us note here—again—that the War of Independence between the American colonies and Britain was not over officially until 1797: only in that year was the final treaty signed at Tripoli recognizing the American colonies as an independent nation.  Within that document was expressed still another bold declaration, i.e. Article 11 which proclaimed in clear and unmistakable words a major principle of the United States Government.  Here are the powerful and precise words of the nation’s dedication to genuine enlightenment.  “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian  religion.”   The history of Europe was known to all the founding fathers, and the bloody record clearly disclosed that mixing church and state was unacceptable if genuine freedom was to flourish.

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GOP = Greedy Outlaw Politicians

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, culture, history, life, thoughts, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 1, 2009 by chouck017894

A Demand for Accountability

With the help of the radical (self-serving) religious right, the radical (self-serving) political right managed in the year 2000 to pervert the democratic principles upon which the United States had become a world power.  It was a frightening demonstration of why church and state must always-and-ever be kept separate.  With George W. Bush as their front man installed as president through interference of a largely Republican appointed Supreme Court that did not listen to popular choice, a gang of outlaw political conspirators was jimmied into the seats of national command. 

The administration of government that was thus set in place thrust itself into activity that was much more than simple dedication to committing mafia-style crimes: it launched a war against democracy.  The radical religious right dreamed of imposing a theocracy: their political partners, however, schemed to bankrupt the nation and thereby open the means to seize permanent control of the nation’s wealth and power.

Immediately all surplus monies held for public benefit got reshuffled and miraculously disappeared into the coffers of the already obscenely rich.  The Justice Department was soon made a malformed instrument used for voter suppression, and legal balance was perverted by the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys that sought to investigate the administration’s illegal transgressions.

War with Iraq had already been in discussion among the political plotters even before their grab for political power had been blessed through use of subterfuge.  Strangely convenient, terrorists decided in this period to drive airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City and into the financial records department of the Pentagon.  Blamed for the murderous attacks was Osama bin Laden, then said to have been operating out of Afghanistan.  But the “official” propaganda that was dispersed in bulk upon the U.S. citizens was that Iraq had been the base that had harbored the instigators of the attacks.

An illegal and disastrous war was launched through falsely representing to the U.S. Congress and to the stunned American public a wholly perverted tangle of “intelligence reports” on Iraq’s alleged relationship with the terrorists.  A department of Homeland Security was contrived through which was set in place the most dangerous attack upon citizen freedoms ever imposed on U.S. citizens.  With the illegal war, wartime contracts to substandard vendors with inside connections were issued, and the people’s legal representatives were suddenly defunded, which made it virtually impossible to police those activities.  There was some justifiable humor to the situation, however, for Security not only spied upon any political protesters, but upon church groups as well.

Probably the ultimate shame of all the Bush administration’s transgression against democratic principles was the denial of human dignity by authorizing the use of torture upon defenseless prisoners that were being held illegally under international laws and U.S. laws.  Never had any previous administration ever dared to act so thoroughly and openly lawless.  And through it all, the power honchos such as Dick Cheney declared himself to be above the law.  He is still pretending his lawlessness was noble and patriotic!

There is no precedent for prosecution of such betrayals of democracy by a president, vice president or senior officers—a fact that the instigators of these crimes hide behind.  But for democracy to allow such flagrant lawlessness to sit in high offices and simply allow them to walk away thumbing their noses at the nation they disgraced is to desecrate the memories of those who fought and died through the centuries to preserve a “land of freedom and justice.”

The breadth, scope, enormity and audacity of the Bush administration’s activities must be placed upon the scales of genuine justice.  The United States of America must again reinstate the principles of freedom, justice and opportunity for all mankind that once inspired admiration and respect from the world.

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