Paul Craig Roberts: Americans have lost their country

[babylonsister]

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=1091§ionid=3510303

Americans have lost their country
Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:03:57
by Paul Craig Roberts

The Bush-Cheney regime is America's first neoconservative regime. In a few short years, the regime has destroyed the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, the Geneva Conventions, and the remains of America's moral reputation along with the infrastructures of two Muslim countries and countless thousands of Islamic civilians.

Plans have been prepared, and forces moved into place, for an attack on a third Islamic country, Iran, and perhaps Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon as well.

This extraordinary aggressiveness toward the U.S. Constitution, international law, and the Islamic world is the work, not of a vast movement, but of a handful of ideologues – principally Vice President Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Lewis Libby, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad, John Bolton, Philip Zelikow, and Attorney General Gonzales. These are the main operatives who have controlled policy. They have been supported by their media shills at the Weekly Standard, National Review, Fox News, New York Times, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page and by "scholars" in assorted think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute.

The entirety of their success in miring the United States in what could become permanent conflict in the Middle East is based on the power of propaganda and the big lie.

Initially, the 9/11 attack was blamed on Osama bin Laden, but the blame for 9/11 was later shifted to Iraq's Saddam Hussein, who was said to have weapons of mass destruction that would be used against America. The regime sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to tell the lie to the UN that the Bush-Cheney regime had conclusive proof of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Having conned the UN, Congress, and the American people, the regime invaded Iraq under totally false pretenses and with totally false expectations. The regime's occupation of Iraq has failed in a military sense, but the neoconservatives are turning their failure into a strategic advantage. At the beginning of this year President Bush began blaming Iran for America's embarrassing defeat by a few thousand lightly armed insurgents in Iraq.

more...

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Really can't think of what to say except he's right.

[bonito]

2. This is a good read ,recommended.

[femrap]

3. Excellent read....

Now that the American people are going to take it hard in the pocketbook, maybe they'll WAKE UP and realize what this neocon regime has done to them and the world. Dissent is Patriotic.

[rock]

4. Yep

Sigh

[raccoon]

5. K&R. nt

[Devon77]

6. The Iranians stay informed over the internets

I wonder how many use the internet in Iran

[yurbud]

15. Good grief! What if they's put a bomb in one of them tubes that senator was talking about...

and email it to us?

[NobleCynic]

17. More than you would think

If you proxy, you can even get around China's firewall. I've lived there for a while, it wasn't too difficult. Iran doesn't have a tenth of the know-how of the Chinese, and the Chinese can't stop it.

[robinlynne]

7. great article. Now how do we get our dems to STAND UP?

[yurbud]

10. write, call, visit, get in their face when they come to town

[robinlynne]

11. I know. just feeling a little bit down. shocked at the inaction....

[yurbud]

14. I don't know if you saw my Ed Schultz thread yesterday, but he said it about as bluntly as anyone

here could.

We elected them to do some very specific things, and they aren't doing them.

[niallmac]

8. We have lost our country and our democracy. This article

summarizes a lot of my own perspective on events over that past years
and I do not pretend to be anywhere as informed as the author.

Hard not to despair and when I do, the only hope I can conjure up
is that nothing short of social upheaval can effect change.
With our luck such upheaval will result only in more militarism
and further loss of whatever freedoms we have left.

[OneBlueSky]

9. somebody send this article to Congress . . . help them to understand just what . . .

their "see no evil/speak no evil, and defend the status quo" approach to government is doing to our nation . . .

[bvar22]

12. One small issue.....

In this piece, Craig Roberts says:
"Having conned the UN, Congress, and the American people, the regime invaded Iraq under totally false pretenses and with totally false expectations. "

*The UN
The UN was NOT fooled by bush*. The US went to Iraq without a UN resolution.

*Congress
A majority of the Congress voted FOR the IWR, but over 150 Democrats voted NO. Bush didn't CON the Congress. Bush merely conned enough Democrats to pass the IWR. I believe that this is an important distinction. The American Public needs to KNOW that not ALL politicians are a part of the fascist regime. Check the votes. Many Democrats (and one Independent) have bravely stood AGAINST the the fascist takeover from the beginning.

*The American Public
Some of us were NEVER fooled by bush*/NeoCons. IIRC, before the Iraq Invasion, some polls had the country evenly split. While there were supporters of the Invasion here at DU, they were a minority, and mostly tools of the DLC.


I believe that it is important to highlight this distinction.
The NeoCons and their friendly CorpoMedia are perpetuating the meme the "everyone thought Iraq had WMD" as if this justified the Invasion.
Many, MANY doubted the WMD claims, and millions more believed that IF Iraq had some degraded stockpiles of WMD, they lack a delivery system or the will to use them against the US.

AMERICA has not been LOST.
America has been GIVEN AWAY with the help of those elected to represent us. It is important to identify those who have STOOD AGAINST the takeover, and to support them with donations and electoral support. There are several issues where our elected reps had to stand in the open and declare their true allegiances. One was the vote on the IWR!


The Democratic Party Honor Roll
These Democrats should be remembered for their principled stand against the WAR Machine.

IWR

United States Senate

In the Senate, the 21 Democrats, one Republican and one Independent courageously voted their consciences in 2002 against the War in Iraq :

Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii)
Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico)
Barbara Boxer (D-California)
Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia)
Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota)
Jon Corzine (D-New Jersey)
Mark Dayton (D-Minnesota)
Dick Durbin (D-Illinois)
Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin)
Bob Graham (D-Florida)
Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii)
Jim Jeffords (I-Vermont)
Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)
Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont)
Carl Levin (D-Michigan)
Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland)
Patty Murray (D-Washington)
Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island)
Paul Sarbanes (D-Maryland)
Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan)
The late Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota)
Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)

Lincoln Chaffee (R-Rhode Island)


United States House of Representatives

Six House Republicans and one independent joined 126 Democratic members of the House of Represenatives:

Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii)
Tom Allen (D-Maine)
Joe Baca (D-California)
Brian Baird (D-Washington DC)
John Baldacci (D-Maine, now governor of Maine)
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin)
Xavier Becerra (D-California)
Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon)
David Bonior (D-Michigan, retired from office)
Robert Brady (D-Pennsylvania)
Corinne Brown (D-Florida)
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
Lois Capps (D-California)
Michael Capuano (D-Massachusetts)
Benjamin Cardin (D-Maryland)
Julia Carson (D-Indiana)
William Clay, Jr. (D-Missouri)
Eva Clayton (D-North Carolina, retired from office)
James Clyburn (D-South Carolina)
Gary Condit (D-California, retired from office)
John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan)
Jerry Costello (D-Illinois)
William Coyne (D-Pennsylvania, retired from office)
Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland)
Susan Davis (D-California)
Danny Davis (D-Illinois)
Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon)
Diana DeGette (D-Colorado)
Bill Delahunt (D-Massachusetts)
Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut)
John Dingell (D-Michigan)
Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)
Mike Doyle (D-Pennsylvania)
Anna Eshoo (D-California)
Lane Evans (D-Illinois)
Sam Farr (D-California)
Chaka Fattah (D-Pennsylvania)
Bob Filner (D-California)
Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts)
Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas)
Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois)
Alice Hastings (D-Florida)
Earl Hilliard (D-Alabama, retired from office)
Maurice Hinchey (D-New York)
Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas)
Rush Holt (D-New Jersey)
Mike Honda (D-California)
Darlene Hooley (D-Oregon)
Inslee
Jackson (Il.)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson, E.B.
Jones (OH)
Kaptur
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kleczka
Kucinich
LaFalce
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Lofgren
Maloney (CT)
Matsui
McCarthy (MO)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McKinney
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Menendez
Millender-McDonald
Miller
Mollohan
Moran (Va)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Owens
Pallone
Pastor
Payne
Pelosi
Price (NC)
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Rivers
Rodriguez
Roybal-Allard
Rush
Sabo
Sanchez
Sanders
Sawyer
Schakowsky
Scott
Serrano
Slaughter
Snyder
Solis
Stark
Strickland
Stupak
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Towns
Udall (NM)
Udall (CO)
Velazquez
Visclosky
Waters
Watson
Watt
Woolsey
Wu

[Emillereid]

13. K & R

[flying rabbit]

16. It shows what happens

When people who have a plan and resources do what they are going to do. Do we have a plan?

[3waygeek]

18. It's not lost...

it's stolen.