**** You

I was wondering how long it would take the invertebrates on the political right dwelling in the deep, dank recesses of their caverns to evolve a spine. Finally, in the pages of the our local newspaper four troglodytes knuckle dragged their way out and began pounding their clubs on the ground screeching and grunting their groundless and empty headed opinions about my view of this so called war on terrorism. One would hope that these “right” thinking cavemen could do better than rehash cold war ideological nonsense. But, like a played out uranium mine where one hopes to find some high energy ideas laying about, these trogs, instead, give us densely packed lumps of lead.

Among the many lumps of lead Dan Huston serves up, Huston writes the following,” Name one country we have invaded and occupied with our military, just the US alone....” Go back and read the list again (A Hundred Years of American Interventionism 11/16/2001 ), Dan. Dan goes on to write: “The action in Russia after WW I was a League of Nations intervention to distribute food and aid.” The United States never belonged to the League of Nations. The isolationist Republicans in the Senate never ratified our participation in the League. Dan then writes, “He mentions Chili (sic). The UN stepped in and conducted free elections, put the ruthless dictator out and the World Court still has him on trial at the Hague.” The UN never supervised any Chilean elections and the ruthless general Pinochet lives in splendor in his villa in Chile. Under Chilean law Pinochet is immune from all legal prosecution. Finally Dan ends his illiteracy with the following: “I will and will (sic) be displaying My (sic) American Flag-a proud veteran.” For a hand of bananas I can teach a chimp to wave a flag. If you are willing to do it for for free, Dan, go for it.

Ed Perry, who I have no quarrel with, wants to know my background. Aside from the fact it is none of your business and the only thing that matters are the ideas written, I will tell you this: In the 1970’s, I did two stints at the NATO School (SHAPE) in Oberammergau, Germany where we taught NATO commanders the efficient use of battlefield nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons (NBC for short). I met and married my wife in Germany, resigned my job, and we honeymooned by back packing across southern Asia including 10 days in Afghanistan. There were only two things we did a lot of during those four months. They were reading history and you can guess the other. We are still happily married and hopelessly in love.

Sorry about your humbling experience in Kashmir, Marc DuQuette. Everywhere I traveled in Southern Asia I found sincere people asking the same question everywhere. Why does your government hate us so much?

Next time, David M. Evans, read my letter instead of the column heading. That way you can avoid making such a bone headed error.

Mathew Macul writes, I am...one of those conspiracy folks who believe everything they read.” Sorry, Matt, not true. For example, I don’t believe a thing you or Dan Huston, or David Evans, or Marc DuQuette write. In fact, I also don’t believe the vast majority of the American electronic press. That’s why I prefer reading the world press to get a less bias and jingoistic view of this “war.” Matt then writes, “Those (me again) without their own ideas are usurpers of reality and just the sort of individuals whom Bin Laden recruits to perform his evil acts.” Matt, not only is that sentence meaningless gibberish, but to equate me with a Bin laden stooge requires that I again express a not so original idea of my own:" **** you!"

The Taliban Visits Houston

The English foreign correspondent John Pilger in a front page editorial published on 10/29/2001 in the Daily Mirror (London) wrote the following (excerpted): “The war against terrorism is a fraud. After three weeks' bombing, not a single terrorist implicated in the attacks on America has been caught or killed in Afghanistan. Instead, one of the poorest, most stricken nations has been terrorised by the most powerful - to the point where American pilots have run out of dubious"military" targets and are now destroying mud houses, a hospital, Red Cross warehouses, lorries carrying refugees.” “None of those directly involved in the September 11 atrocity was Afghani. Most were Saudis, who apparently did their planning and training in Germany and the United States.”

“The camps which the Taliban allowed bin Laden to use were emptied weeks ago. Moreover, the Taliban itself is a creation of the Americans and the British. In the 1980s, the tribal army that produced them was funded by the CIA and trained by the SAS to fight the Russians.” “The hypocrisy does not stop there. When the Taliban took Kabul in 1996, Washington said nothing. Why? Because Taliban leaders were soon on their way to Houston, Texas, to be entertained by executives of the oil company, Unocal.” “With secret US government approval, the company offered them a generous cut of the profits of the oil and gas pumped through a pipeline that the Americans wanted to build from Soviet central Asia through Afghanistan.” “A US diplomat said: "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis did." He explained that Afghanistan would become an American oil colony, there would be huge profits for the West, no democracy and the legal persecution of women. "We can live with that," he said.” “Although the deal fell through, it remains an urgent priority of the administration of George W. Bush, which is steeped in the oil industry. Bush's concealed agenda is to exploit the oil and gas reserves in the Caspian basin, the greatest source of untapped fossil fuel on earth and enough, according to one estimate, to meet America's voracious energy needs for a generation. Only if the pipeline runs through Afghanistan can the Americans hope to control it.”

“There is no war on terrorism. If there was, the Royal Marines and the SAS would be storming the beaches of Florida, where more CIA-funded terrorists, ex-Latin American dictators and torturers, are given refuge than anywhere on earth. New excuses, new hidden agendas, new lies. Before another child dies violently, or quietly from starvation, before new fanatics are created in both the east and the west, it is time... to stop this fraudulent war and to demand the kind of bold, imaginative non- violent initiatives that require real political courage.”
“The other day, the parents of Greg Rodriguez, a young man who died in the World Trade Center, said this: "We read enough of the news to sense that our government is heading in the direction of violent revenge, with the prospect of sons, daughters, parents, friends in distant lands dying, suffering, and nursing further grievances against us.”

November 2001

A Hundred Years of American Interventionism

The following is a partial list of our government ‘s use of troops against dozens of independent nations all over the world. In the last 100 years, no other nation comes close to the interventionist record established by our government. The entire world is aware of our imperialism. The only people who are kept ignorant of our governments imperialism are the American people themselves. Do you still wonder why our government (not we, the people) are so dispised by so many?

PHILIPPINES/l898-1910(-?)/Naval, troops/Seized from Spain, killed 600,000 Filipinos.

CUBA/l898-1902(-?)/Naval, troops/Seized from Spain, still hold Navy base.

PUERTO RICO/1898(-?)/Naval, troops/Seized from Spain, occupation continues.

GUAM/l898(-?)/Naval, troops/Seized from Spain, still use as base.

NICARAGUA/l898/Troops/Marines land at port of San Juan del Sur.

SAMOA/1899(-?)/Troops/Battle over succession to throne.

NICARAGUA/l899/Troops/Marines land at port of Bluefields.

PANAMA/1901-14)/Naval, troops/ annexed Canal Zone from Columbia,1914.

HONDURAS/l903/Troops/Marines intervene in revolution.

DOMINICAN REP./1903-04/Troops/U.S. interests protected in Revolution.

CUBA/1906-09/Troops/Marines land in democratic election.

NICARAGUA/1907/Troops/"Dollar Diplomacy" protectorate set up.

PANAMA/l908/Troops/Marines intervene in election contest.

NICARAGUA/l9l0/Troops/Marines land in Bluefields and Corinto.

HONDURAS/1911/Troops/U.S. interests protected in civil war.

CUBA/1912/Troops/U.S. interests protected in Havana.

PANAMA/l9l2/Troops/Marines land during heated election.

HONDURAS/l9l2/Troops/Marines protect U.S. economic interests.

NICARAGUA/1912-33/Troops, bombing/20-year occupation, fought guerrillas.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/1914/Naval/Fight with rebels over Santo Domingo.

MEXICO/1914-18/Naval, troops/Series of interventions against nationalists.

HAITI/1914-34/Troops, bombing/19-year occupation after revolts.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/1916-24/Troops/8-year Marine occupation.

CUBA/1917-33/Troops/Military occupation, economic protectorate.

RUSSIA/1918-22/Naval, troops/Five landings to fight Bolsheviks.

PANAMA/1918-20/Troops/"Police duty" during unrest after elections.

HONDURAS/l9l9/Troops/Marines land during election campaign.

YUGOSLAVIA/1919/Troops/Marines intervene for Italy against Serbs in Dalmatia.

GUATEMALA/1920/Troops

TURKEY/1922/Troops/Fought nationalists in Smyrna (Izmir).

CHINA/1922-27/Naval, troops/Deployment during nationalist revolt.

HONDURAS/1924-25/Troops/Landed twice during election strife.

PANAMA/1925/Troops/Marines suppress general strike.

EL SALVADOR/l932/Naval/Warships sent during Faribundo Marti revolt.

URUGUAY/l947/Bombers deployed as show of strength.

GREECE/l947-49/U.S. backs facist in civil war.

PHILIPPINES/l948-54/CIA directs war against Huk Rebellion.

PUERTO RICO/1950/Independence rebellion crushed in Ponce.

IRAN/l953/CIA overthrows democracy, installs Shah.

GUATEMALA/l954/CIA directs exile invasion after new gov't nationalizes United Fruit company lands; bombers based in Nicaragua.

LEBANON/l958/Troops, naval/Marine occupation.

PANAMA/1958/Troops/Flag protests erupt into confrontation.

VIETNAM/l960-75/Troops, naval, bombing, Fought South Vietnam revolt & North Vietnam; more than a million Vietnamese killed in longest U.S. war;

CUBA/l961/CIA-directed exile invasion fails.

PANAMA/l964/Troops/Panamanians shot for urging canal's return.

INDONESIA/l965/Million killed in CIA-assisted army coup.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/1965-66/Troops, bombing/Marines land

GUATEMALA/l966-67/Green Berets intervene against rebels.

CAMBODIA/l969-75/Bombing, troops, naval/

OMAN/l970/U.S. directs Iranian marine invasion.

LAOS/l971-73/ "carpet-bombs" countryside.

CHILE/1973/CIA-backed coup ousts elected marxist president. 30,000 killed

CAMBODIA/l975/Troops, bombing/Gas captured ship, 28 die in copter crash.

ANGOLA/l976-92/CIA assists South African-backed rebels.

LIBYA/l981/Naval jets/Two Libyan jets shot down in maneuvers.

EL SALVADOR/l981-92/CIA directed troops/Advisors,

NICARAGUA/l981-90/CIA directs Contra invasions, plants harbor mines

HONDURAS/l983-89/Troops build bases near borders.

LEBANON/l982-84/Troops/Marines back Phalangists, shells Muslim positions.

GRENADA/l983-84/Troops, bombing/Invasion four years after revolution.

LIBYA/l986/Bombing, naval/Air strikes to topple nationalist gov't.

IRAN/l987-88/Naval, bombing/US intervenes on side of Iraq in war.

LIBYA/1989/Naval jets/Two Libyan jets shot down.

PANAMA/1989-?/Troops, bombing/Nationalist government ousted by 27,000 soldiers, leaders arrested, 2000+ killed.

SAUDI ARABIA/1990-91/Troops, jets/Iraq countered after invading Kuwait

KUWAIT/540,000 troops also stationed in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Israel.

IRAQ/1990-?/Bombing, troops, naval/Blockade; 200,000+ Iraqi conscripts killed

KUWAIT/1991/Naval, bombing, troops/Kuwait royal family returned to throne.

SOMALIA/1992-94/Troops, naval, bombing/

ZAIRE (CONGO)/1996-97/Troops/Marines in Rwandan Hutu refuge camps,Congo revolution begins.

SUDAN/1998/Missiles/Attack on pharmaceutical plant

IRAQ/1998-?/Bombing, Missiles/Four days of intensive air strikes

YUGOSLAVIA/1999-?/Bombing, Missiles/Heavy air strikes against Serbia

“The War Against Terrorism Is A Fraud."

The English foreign correspondent John Pilger in a front page editorial published on 10/29/2001 in the Daily Mirror (London) wrote the following (excerpted):

“The war against terrorism is a fraud. After three weeks' bombing, not a single terrorist implicated in the attacks on America has been caught or killed in Afghanistan. Instead, one of the poorest, most stricken nations has been terrorised by the most powerful - to the point where American pilots have run out of dubious"military" targets and are now destroying mud houses, a hospital, Red Cross warehouses, lorries carrying refugees.”

“None of those directly involved in the September 11 atrocity was Afghani. Most were Saudis, who apparently did their planning and training in Germany and the United States.”

“The camps which the Taliban allowed bin Laden to use were emptied weeks ago. Moreover, the Taliban itself is a creation of the Americans and the British. In the 1980s, the tribal army that produced them was funded by the CIA and trained by the SAS to fight the Russians.”

“The hypocrisy does not stop there. When the Taliban took Kabul in 1996, Washington said nothing. Why? Because Taliban leaders were soon on their way to Houston, Texas, to be entertained by executives of the oil company, Unocal.”

“With secret US government approval, the company offered them a generous cut of the profits of the oil and gas pumped through a pipeline that the Americans wanted to build from Soviet central Asia through Afghanistan.”

“A US diplomat said: "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis did." He explained that Afghanistan would become an American oil colony, there would be huge profits for the West, no democracy and the legal persecution of women. "We can live with that," he said.”

“Although the deal fell through, it remains an urgent priority of the administration of George W. Bush, which is steeped in the oil industry. Bush's concealed agenda is to exploit the oil and gas reserves in the Caspian basin, the greatest source of untapped fossil fuel on earth and enough, according to one estimate, to meet America's voracious energy needs for a generation. Only if the pipeline runs through Afghanistan can the Americans hope to control it.”

“There is no war on terrorism. If there was, the Royal Marines and the SAS would be storming the beaches of Florida, where more CIA-funded terrorists, ex-Latin American dictators and torturers, are given refuge than anywhere on earth. New excuses, new hidden agendas, new lies. Before another child dies violently, or quietly from starvation, before new fanatics are created in both the east and the west, it is time... to stop this fraudulent war and to demand the kind of bold, imaginative non-violent initiatives that require real political courage.”

“The other day, the parents of Greg Rodriguez, a young man who died in the World Trade Center, said this: "We read enough of the news to sense that our government is heading in the direction of violent revenge, with the prospect of sons, daughters, parents, friends in distant lands dying, suffering, and nursing further grievances against us.”

Stirred-up Moslems

The following is from an interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski in Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998:

Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
Brzezinski: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?

Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalist having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

One last observation: The United States Government is giving safe haven to a known terorist. His name is Luis Posada Carriles and he has admitted blowing up a Cubana passenger plane after it took off from Barbados headed for Cuba, killing all 73 people aboard, including 57 Cubans. Carriles presently lives in Miami. Carriles is a personal friend of Jeb Bush.