The Sins of Sleeping

As the president laments on television about his last desperate plan for victory in Iraq, my words not his, I can’t help but sit and wonder about the section of the population that willing buys this plea of foolishness. The key component of the plan is that the Iraq government will somehow work hard with us to fight and disarm everyone who stands in the way of making Bagdad and related areas safe for the population and others. Something the Iraq government didn’t take seriously before. Now, with the addition of some 20,000 troops, the ante has been upped and therefore the Iraq government will respond in the appropriate fashion.
I can see two problems with this line of reasoning, one even if the original battles are successful how long will it be before the insurgents regroup and start battling again and, two if the society is actually in a civil war why would they care about the additional troop presence. It seems that all sides would regard it as more potential targets to shoot and blow up. This plan really does not lead to any sort of conclusion. The truth is that the only way to resolve this mess is through diplomacy.
There is the rub, the old diplomacy bug a boo. The Bush White House is not a diplomatic type of white house. In this way it is completely different from all of the past presidents in the modern era. Hell even Nixon went to China, during a time when all of the western world thought of Communists as the scourge of humanity and the world.
The fact is that the UN weapons inspectors told Bush and his people that in six more months they would be able to state with complete certainly that Iraq did not currently posses any weapons of mass destruction. At that particular junction they stated that they were 75% certain that there were no weapons. Yet our president would not give the inspectors six more months. Itchy trigger fingers. No one brought into the theory that somehow Saddam and Iraq were a danger to the west. In the end the defense of the invasion was that Hussain was a bad man who killed his own people and there for had to be removed. That in the global war against terrorism Iraq was the first domino that had to be toppled. We would find and take care of Bin Laden a little later, I mean after all first things first. So now years later we’re stuck in this big mess. Imposing democracy from above hasn’t worked out. Well what a surprise. Establishing a permanent military presence in the middle east doesn’t seem to be going too well either. Yet our president is sticking to his story that with a lot more troops and greater cooperation from the Iraq government and military this can still work itself out. If we leave now we leave Iraq to be a breeding ground for terrorists. The trouble is that we, the United States of America, have turned Iraq into a terrorist training camp. All of the intelligence agencies have maintained, since before the invasion that Saddam and Iraq had no ties to Osama Ben Laden or to Al-Qaeda. In point of fact they were enemies. Now Al-Qaeda is in Iraq training and killing. And with the ongoing occupation they seem to have little trouble getting recruits. And this goes on in the midst of the civil war playing itself out through out the country. So even if we send in the additional troops and actually clean up the designated areas to keep them that way our troops will have to stay there for quite some time possibly several years if not a decade. That is not acceptable. To paraphrase a song in this case war is not the answer. Whether the politicians like it or not the future of Iraq must be decided by the people of Iraq. The violence goes on today because the people of Iraq had no say as to what is going on. Yes Saddam was a dictator who ruled with a Iron fist. But it should have been up to the people of Iraq to deal with him. Which they would have done in time if not to him then to whoever his successor would be. As we can plainly see now we really didn’t liberate anyone. We just gave others the freedom to fight and kill for power. And non of the forces currently fighting are friends of the United States.
It is a little too easy for our leaders to decide and wage war in the name of freedom, peace and democracy. It was easy in Viet Nam and it was easy in Iraq. The only people who suffer are the regular folks, both in America and in Iraq.
So with all that why do people, admittedly a ever shrinking percentage of people, still support Mr. Bush and his policies? What exactly is going on here? There is one answer, 9/11. What happened is 9/11 did more than capture the American Public’s attention it scared them. It pointed out to all of us that we were more than capable of being targeted by our enemies. That there truly are people in the world who hate us with such a passion that they would willingly give their on lives to harm us. Before, as far as the world community was concerned, there was a difference between American Foreign Policy and the American Public. Many people hated American foreign Policy and American Military might but they viewed the American people as somehow not really involved or knowing about those issues. Now that naive belief is being swept away. When people view American Military and Foreign policy adventures and missteps they see the American public as being one hundred percent behind these actions. They view Americans as being fully behind the foreign policy adventures of our leaders, particular the leaders in the White House. Due to blunders and cover ups by the mainstream America media people around the world believe that there is little or no dissent against American Foreign Policy in this country.
Due to media consolidation, major corporate players buying more and more media outlets, and increasing media reliance on official government and business press releases and briefings, the American media enterprise is becoming more and more the pr machine for the government and corporate American. From journalists embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to the reliance of current and past military and intelligent officials from the pentagon and NSA, CIA etc. In most major news media, in this country, there is very little in the way of dissenting view points. To give an alternative view or analysis one must go to the few remaining radical newspapers or journals or dig through morass of information on the world wide web. You will not here dissenting points of view on the major networks of CNN and Fox News. So much for fair and balanced.
Yet despite this handicap, and believe me it is a huge handicap in what is suppose to be a democracy, eventually the American body politic begins to detect foolishness when it’s fed to much of it for to long. The past mid term elections were wildly seen as a referendum on the administration’s actions in and about the Iraq war. In most mainstream polling the results were that the majority of Americans wanted an in to the Iraq occupation. More and more Americans were beginning to see that this conflict had nothing to do with fighting terrorism and/or protecting Americans. Many conservatives who supported the invasion seemed to have now reached a point where they to begin to wonder what is the point of continuing on with this foolishness. Some political pundits maintain that if American troops are still involved in Iraq by the time of the next presidential election that it will be almost impossible for a Republicans to keep the white house. Of course this assumes that the Democratic Party will not labor mightily to shoot itself in the foot which it has done many times in the past.
Now the question that lingers in the air is what do we do now? If you or I became King of America overnight what moves would we make? What is the best possible outcome that we could hope to happen? Despite all the people comparing this conflict to America’s involvement in Viet Nam there are some major differences that make this situation unique. One, in Viet Nam there was no strategic resource that the American Political Machine, as well as the American public, considers to be so vital to the nation’s well being. The policy makers during the Viet Nam era truly believed that if North Viet Nam won then Communist would spread willy nilly through out all of the pacific region. Silly to think that was the big fear but there you have it, we were committed to stop the spread of communism in Asia. In Iraq, and in most to the middle east, the fear of the military planners and politicians is the control of the precious oil reserves in the hands of anti-American fundamentalists. Which is why we hear plenty of talk about the need of stable governments in the middle east to ensure the flow of oil to the industrial democracies of the world, particularly in the west. This was a push to place a pro American government or pro American political officials in Iraq. A move to blunt the presence of Iran and Syria. 9/11 was used as the pretext to attempt to establish a permanent military presence in that region of the world. This is why President Bush was so adamant about “regime change”. It seemed that nothing else seemed to matter. It was never really about weapons of mass destruction or any of the other stated reasons. Regime change, to a more pro American body, was the entire plan. The planning did not take into account the results of the rising tide of Islamic Fundamentalism and how the leaders of these movements would use the invasion and subsequent occupation as the perfect recruiting tool for terrorists troops and “freedom fighters”. The White House also did not have a firm understanding of the level of hatred between the Sunni and the Shiites. With the Saddam ruling apparatus out of the way it has become a bloody free for all as to who will eventually come out on top. It is a civil war but with plenty of Al-Qaeda, foreign mercenaries and suicidal hot shots thrown into the mix.
At this current junction there is no way that President Bush’s tweaking of the war is going to succeed. You pour in 100,000 thousand troops and have an open ended commitment of maybe 10 to 20 years then yeah maybe you can pull it off. So a year from now we will be in the same mess, debating the same points. But the bigger problem is going to be I don’t see how pulling out is going to make the situation any better. The nature of this conflict is that the “insurgents will declare a great victory if the US leaves, which will further their recruiting drives for future terrorists and if we stay they declare victory which each death, each and every killing. Of course the majority of the Iraq population, who did not love Saddam in the least, suffer the most as they are now literally in the close fire between a civil conflict and a terrorist war. Maybe there is a diplomatic solution to this mess. I would really like to think that there is but to be perfectly honest right now I’m having a difficult time seeing what that solution might be.
Long term America must make a total and complete break with using oil as the primary means of energy. The country must cease it’s dependence on foreign oil. And know this does not mean increase production of oil from Alaska or off the Gulf Coast or off the West Coast. What has to be done is to move away from the combustion engine as the means of power and motion in the Western World. It is long past time to fully fund research and investment into alternative means of energy production. The internal combustion energy needs to go the way of the dinosaur.
The question before us now is what can we, the American Public, the rank and file every day average person do to deal with this madness? What are our responsibilities to address this situation which is already spiraling out of control and costing the lives of so many people?
Step 1: Become informed about what is going on. Don’t depend on the mainstream media to give you all the information that you need to know. In particularly the news on television and radio is so lacking of any type of intelligent debate as to be particularly worthless. If you have internet access it is usually just a matter of typing into any of the search engines to get truly diverse view points and analysis of what is going on with American Foreign Policy. Some sites you can check out our Z-Magazine’s web site, Common Dreams, Alternet and Daily News Standards just to name a few. In terms of print media magazines you can look for in your local bookstore, or even subscribe to if you’re feeling really daring, Z-Magazine, Utne Reader, The Nation and Counter Punch newsletter. You may be able to find back issues in your local library and if they don’t have them ask them to get a subscription. Next check with your local colleges and universities to see if they have any speaker bureaus going on and attempt to get a list of upcoming speakers and topics. At most schools these events are open to the public and are either free or they charge a small nominal fee. Allow me to borrow a quote from the television show “The X-Files”, it is a fact that the “Truth Is Out There!” It is just a question of expending some energy to find said truth.
Step 2:Get involved. Local marches and meetings, writing letters to your local leaders and politicians, sending email to national politicians and the White House. Having lively discussion groups with your church or civic organizations can generate a great deal of action and support. If nothing else it lets you know that you are not along. If you have family members or friends stationed in Iraq, please write them often. Let them know that you care and listen to their observations as to what is going on. Regardless of what position you take in terms of American Policy in Iraq let the troops know that you care and are in their corner 100%. Of course the ultimate way of letting them know that you care is to do all you can to get them out of Iraq and on a transport plane back home.
Finally as Americans we may have a tendency to take Democracy for granted. We sometimes behave that we will always have our freedoms therefore we don’t have to pay to close attention as to what is going on in our country and in the world. Somehow we think that freedom will always exist and we don’t have to actively do anything to protect and preserve freedom. Nothing could be farther from the truth. An informed active citizenry is the only guarantee that freedom will survive. And as citizens it is our duty to make certain that we keep our operations of the government out of the shadows and force the political and corporate forces to operate above board and honestly for the benefits of our Americans and for the benefit of the larger world. As Americans we do not have the right to fall asleep at the wheel and let the forces of history pass us by. The responsibility of living in a Democracy is that we must stay awake and observe and learn. We must apply the knowledge that we have acquired to make a better world for today and tomorrow. We cannot allow ourselves to sleep at the wheel. Not if we call ourselves a free people.

-Michael E. Johnson-
January 28, 2007

Actually Old News or Old Observations

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My Nightmare

The possibility of American society falling under the ideological control of right wing politicians and thinkers, entrenched in a pseudo fascist political nightmare in our life time is a frightening concept that keeps me awake at night. What concerns me most is that the middle class black community is not only following along in this insane madness but in many instances, seems to be leading the charge head long into this reactionary nightmare. The lack of any meaningful effective progressive black leadership really does not bother me as much as the lack of any sort of progressive black institutions in America. It i’s not a failure of leadership per say as it is more a failure or a lack or nation building. The lack of any type of institutional base of support is so damaging to the black community. The lack of effective and timely analysis of current situations and/or trends in Black American Society, as well as the larger American Society, leads too confused and ineffectual action by different black groups and organizations. This is a waste of valuable resources and time by groups and organizations that can ill afford to engage in such strategic blunders. It also leaves the black community vulnerable to a strong element of anti intellectual thought and analysis.
Some people make the point that the black churches were more progressive and activistic in the fifties and sixties than today. I don't know if that is true, remember King'’s "A“ Letter from a Birmingham Jail"” was actually his critique against black ministers trying to discourage their members from participating in the civil rights struggles going on in Alabama at the time.
What black folks were questioning about black churches in the sixties, why can't black church'’s build and maintain daycare centers, why want they build and or support black credit unions and other financial institutions, why not gather more support for black colleges and universities, etc. are the same issues and questions that black people ask about their churches today and will, more than likely, be the same questions being asked twenty to thirty years from now. Although to be sure there are some black churchs engage in these activities but not enough churchs and by extension not enough church members.
In terms of what is going on for many of Americans, including Black Americans, what has happened is that 9/11 scared the hell out of everyone. This attack generated a level of fear that was so great that for many Americans, both black and white, the choice between greater security at the cost of a loss of personal freedoms is not really a choice.
The problem is that these new security measures really have not made us any safer and the true breakdowns that got in the way to the detection of the 9/11 plot have never been addressed in any meaningful or systematic way. For further research on this topic, if you donÂ’t really feel like going through the entire 9/11 report just insert "“Colleen Rowley" or “Agent Colleen Rowley" into any search engine. She was the Minnesota FBI agent who wrote a 13-page memo to the head of the FBI that showed how the bureaucracy of the FBI stopped or hindered investigations into the terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui which could have led to direct links to the 9/11 hijackers. Reading her memo is interesting reading and is also a little scary. The steps taken since the commission'’s conclusion, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, have accomplished little except to make a confusing situation even more chaotic and unwieldily. Witness the federal response to the flooding in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina.
Let me digress unto a side issue just for a moment. Listening to black talk radio and engaging in conversations with my black brothers and sisters, I am amazed at the level of conspiracy theory that seems to be festering throughout the black middle class community. From Bush knew that the attack was going to happen to the government blew up the levees in New Orleans to Masons/Illuminate/Trilateral commission run/control everything and other such nonsense is such a gross misreading or understanding of reality or life as to be almost psychotic. Black people in this country, I believe, are most in contact and most understanding about the realities of the world and understanding how society operates on an almost unconscious level. We are victims of institutionalized racism and oppression but at least we were able to perceive and, to a degree, understand how it operated but now it’s like all that knowledge has been replaced by sheer and utter madness. The trouble with a belief in conspiracy theories about problems and issues in society is that it always leads to the conclusion that there is no possible course of action to take to improve situations. Secret organizations control everything so then the only thing left to do is to run and hide. Maybe go underground, like the protagonist in Ellison’s “The Invisible Man,” just live secretly off the grid and somehow think you are getting over on the man. But you know what maybe that's be the point. When you don’t want to do anything, when you’re not about social or political change or action you need to have justification for your lack of movement. Conspiracy theories are just the thing. Hell you can pretend that you’re smarter than anyone else while burying your head in the sand. After all nothing can be done, right?
Oh wait a minute now I understand. Black talk radio makes perfect sense. It’s for those people who didn't plan to do anything in the first place. Nothing can be done because we can’t fight the all-encompassing conspiracy. So these listeners don’t have to waste time trying to change things, because they know the secrets and since they know they’re not going to waste their time attempting to change things for the better. Now I understand.

Michael's Ramblings

Night Thoughts

A person asked me once “how do you honor God?” I assume that I had a puzzled look on my face because he went on to clarify.
“If you believe in God or a higher level of being or beings that created and have command of everything and yet has allowed people to have free will or choice what do you do to honor him/her/it/whatever? Assuming you don’t possess all of the answers yourself or not certain of all the operating instructions what do you do to indicate that you are appreciative of the existence that has been provided for you. Say you haven’t been raised to believe in any particular religion or better yet there is no church or temple in the town in which you live. Yet you believe in something, something that you believe you should praise. Something that you feel wants you to live or conduct yourself in a particular way. On a basic almost instinctual way what do you do to honor or to live in accordance with your belief in this entity?”
That was the question he posed to me. At the time I did not have a particular answer. Later that night I though long and hard about the question. I realized that what was asked was really two questions. What did I believe in and how did that make me act or how did my belief guide my actions? I smiled because it reminded me of the old Steve Martin routine, “What I Believe.”
So what do I believe? In no particular order here are some of the things I believe.
Belief in God. That the entity exists is real and all that stuff.
People are basically good. I know, I know that really puts me at odds with many of the organized religions in the world. Believe me I have been lectured to a great extent about the illogic of that belief. If I truly believed I would understand that humanity is fundamentally flawed and that the only salvation, redemption is to except the one true, savior, Lord, prophet, messenger etc. into your heart mind soul and through your new found faith only then will you become the truly good person that you wish to be. I heard it before, and truth be told emotionally as well as intellectually I just can’t buy it. I end up feeling bad for those who are trying to lead me to faith because I hate for them to feel as if they have failed with me. Usually I end of telling them that it’s not them or any lack of their discussion its just more along the lines of I’m not capable of letting the truth into my heart as of yet. One day, hopefully, I will be able to give me will, heart, emotions, love whatever to the deity. Then and only then will I be able to accept the truth into my entire being.
I will continue this discussion a little later as something has come up that I think may have quite a bit more relevance at this particular place and time.
The Center for Constitutional Rights has published a book entitled
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT
AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH
ISBN 1-933633-08-5
$9.95 paperback original (144 pages)
The authors of this book have investigated and gather evidence to present four articles of impeachment against the current President George W. Bush. The case is presented so well the charges and claims are so clearly defined and presented that on one hand you would think that no rational person could argue against what is being proposed. Yet I get the feeling that many people on the left don’t understand that many people who support Bush and his actions don’t really care that he’s broken the law or that he has violated the Constitution of the United States. As far as they are concerned the only thing that matters is that he, Bush, is a strong decisive president and that he is protecting us from the international terrorist conspiracy. Despite the fact that the Bush policies are bankrupting the economy and actually endangering the lives of millions of Americans many people support him on, pretty much, whatever he decides to do. So if the researchers and writers of the book are waiting for Congress to take the bait and step up and be adults, well don’t hold your breath waiting.
And for God’s sake don’t wait on the mainstream media to take the lead on much of anything.
I’m sleepy now. Let’s continue this later on this weekend.

Michael's Ramblings

Michael's Ramblings

Last night I learned of the passing of Octavia Butler this past weekend. My breath was taken away as I have been a fan of hers for many years. As fate would have it I was at a little coffee shop writing when I took a break and logged unto the internet to check out one or two of my favorite web sites.
Ms. Butler’s works speak for themselves and anything I might add will just be stating the obvious in that she was a brilliant writer. Being a black female science fiction was a rarity in and of itself. Yet she was such a brilliant observer of society and could weave her observations into wonderful, moving thrilling slices of literary greatness. I dare anyone to read her, to me, her two best novels, “Parable of the Sower” and “The Kindred” and not be moved both emotionally and intellectually. Read her short story “Speech Sounds” and fight to keep the tears inside.
She had been ill for the past few years which cut down on her writing productivity yet the work that she left us is, upon several rereading, still fresh and exciting as ever.
When current and future generations speak of her, and they will, what they will say is
“Octavia Butler was a great writer, and we are all the better for her talent blessing us.”
Peace and eternal joy to you dear lady.

Michael's Ramblings

Michael's Ramblings

Perhaps someone can explain to me? On some silly radio talk show a host was trying to explain that the reason for the invasion of Iraq was to be proactive in the war against terrorism. After 9/11 America had to track down the enemy and destroy them. The problem with that reasoning is that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda had no relationship with Saddam Hussein and had no training camps or bases in Iraq. This was confirmed by the 9/11 Commission, which also stated that based on the intel that was available to them the administration had to know that this was true.
When a caller made this point on the air the host lit into his ass. The caller was a liberal unpatriotic crack pot. That by disagreeing with the administration you were given aid and support to the terrorists. We all know how Bin Laden is in to American politics and the public opinion of Americans.
What struck me was how I have heard and participated in similar discussions a good deal of the time. What happens is that they may start out as discussions but in of as shouting matches by the pro administration side about my lack of patriotism. It’s not an exchange of ideas as it becomes a series of attacks and accusations upon my character as the “liberal unpatriotic hater of America.” Since when is disagreeing with the official White House position the mark of being evil? When did we become so extreme and inflexible in this country?

First Post

Hello,

I'm brand new at this blogging thing. So forgive me if I slip up somewhere along the way. Truth is like so many people, I think that I have so many things to say. And of course I'm interested in what other people have to say about my thoughts. I also think it is good excercise to be forced to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboards as much as possible. Since I have a blog, hopefully, I will be forced to write material to post. So this is it. My first post.