Blase's Blog

Put Out the Fire

One dinky DC-10 is available to attempt to put out fires on the West Coast of the United States. Hundreds of manned and unmanned aircraft are ready for a mass murder of Iranian citizens.

It seems we have a problem of values here. We are completely unprepared for disasters here at home while we create endless and unnecessary disasters overseas.

Apparently we have a toxic group of individuals who are happy with the flames in Iraq and anxious to see Iran on fire. The profundity of racism we see in this group seems to prefer the destruction of the cradle of civilization over the saving of thousands of homes in the Southland. We could easily have a fleet of fire dousing DC-10s that could have saved thousands of homes in a few hours if we simply put aside our global warring.

The stench of neo-Nazi racism arrives this week at the University of Southern California. It is called Islamo-fascism Awareness Week. The program is dedicated to hate and fear as it perfectly mirrors the tone of Germany in the 30's. One of the distinguished guests at the university for Islamo-fascism awareness Week is Ann Coulter who says we should invade Muslim countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.

Indeed we are fortunate that Islamo-fascism Awareness Week came at a time when Southern California is burning. Let this remind the racist perpetrators of Islamo-fascist Week that their position as represented by our corporate designed foreign policy has made Iraq into a hell on earth as they now are drooling to do the same in Iran. The corporate mind, not being human, has no concern for any human values.

On the side of humanity, however, we congratulate Ted Glick who organized a convergence on the U.S. Capitol Building this week to protest the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The theme was, "No War, No Warming." Ted and 60 other patriots were arrested in acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

And now it is our turn to come out on this Saturday, October 27. We will meet at noon at Olympic and Broadway and March to the Federal Building. Our troops must come home from Iraq and Afghanistan now and there must be no war in Iran and then we can begin a program of disaster preparedness in the United States.

God Made Me Do It

Have you ever wondered how people can adjust to genocide? Our citizens have made such adjustments on numerous occasions. There was a spirit of Manifest Destiny as we conducted genocide against the indigenous people of this hemisphere in the 18th and 19th centuries. We declared ourselves called by God to rule from sea to sea.

Then there was the terrible swift sword of the civil war which gloried in the death of 600,000 Americans among the small population of our country in the 1860's. We never have lost so many citizens as in the Civil War.

In the Spanish American War, President McKinley informed us that we were going to Christianize the enemy. He seemed to have forgotten that the enemy was already Christian.

Oh yes, World War One was the war to end all wars. As that mindless slaughter concluded, some intelligent people formed a League of Nations. But our warfare state Senate destroyed the League by 1920 and opened the way for a Second World War, the most calamitous event in the history of the world. Had there been a functional League of Nations there would have been no World War II. The intelligent people came back again once again after World War II and established a United Nations to end the scourge of war forever. But with our power as victors in World War II we decided to use the UN as a weapon for conquest and we manipulated a war with Korea as a United Nations Action. Our citizens were carefully propagandized to translate the word communist as, "OK to Kill."

The OK to kill definition was so successful that we used it to conduct genocide in Indo China and Latin America. As the Soviet Union collapsed, a new word was coined, "terrorist." Starting with Ronald Reagan this word became the battle cry for new wars in Central America. And when we were actually struck by terrorists in 2001 we immediately attacked a nation that had never attacked us, Afghanistan. This error was compounded by an attack on Iraq which our head of state has attempted to blame for the 9/11 tragedy. In one of his recent speeches we heard the word Al Qaeda mentioned ninety-five times. Bush clearly had purposely tried to confuse our people by calling the Iraqi resistance, Al Qaeda.

And as our long standing addiction to war continues, the women and men in the armed services are discovering the criminality of this administration. Washington Post reporter Dana Priest recently said in an interview that she believed the US military would revolt and refuse to fly missions against Iran if the White House issued such orders. A score of Generals have spoken against this endless war. General William Odom former director of the NSA said, "The invasion of Iraq, I believe, will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history.

With plans for war with Iran on the table, we must organize mightily that the ancient myth of Manifest Destiny will die on the sands of Iraq.

Who Do We Call?

Would anyone have the 911 number to call? Criminality is rampant in the current administration of the United States.

The Chief Executive is lying through his teeth about no torture as we routinely practice horrendous forms of torture. It's true the Congress can and should impeach. But the Congress has passed away and is effectively not in session. The Supreme Court is on an early "long winter's nap".

Well then, do we contact the Attorney General to report such crimes? Should we call the FBI? The local police? The CIA?

Certainly many public officials have been arrested while in office; Governors, Mayors, members of Congress and state assemblies. There is no problem with such arrests.

But here we have the Chief Executive and his cronies clearly out of control. Are they to be exempt as they wantonly break national and international laws?

Millions of people are saying no, they are not exempt, as we observe thousands of daily vigils throughout the United States as well as dozens of major mass mobilizations.

But the criminality goes on as if there were some divine right of kings in our land. And now the justice and peace movement in the United States has taken a creative approach; leading Americans are asking our military to refuse orders to attack Iran.

This is an effort to create a kind of coalition that makes history.

Soldiers know the horrors of war, death, severed limbs, blindness and mental illness. They have seen the genocide in Iraq and they are not apt to romanticize about its repetition in Iran. A Pentagon consultant told Seymour Hersh, "There is a war about the war going on inside the building."

So while mindless thugs are doing everything possible to create an illegal war with Iran, elements within our military establishment are in opposition to another armed disaster.

We are not asking the Pentagon for a military coup in the United States. On the contrary, we are asking them to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. They do not need to show any loyalty to international crime.

An Appeal To Our Troops
I was very impressed with a letter sent by Jonah House which is a center of heroic resistance to war. The letter is addressed to men and women in the military. Here is the text:

Brothers and sisters in the military: "Refuse to fight! Refuse to kill!

You are being ordered to war in the footsteps of veterans, who, more than ten years ago, were sent to fight the first Gulf War. Many of those vets returned with severe and unacknowledged illnesses. Many gave birth to severely deformed children and most were abandoned by the Veterans Administration.

You are being ordered to war by the most powerful nation on earth. You are being ordered to war by a nation with the most destructive weapons ever conceived, developed, deployed or used. You are being ordered to war by a nation whose self-acknowledged posture is that of world domination, mastery, and control. This nation has no moral justification for war.

We, the undersigned, are convinced that war is the greatest evil on earth. We believe that humankind must end war, or war will end humankind, and in fact, all of creation. Our convictions have driven us time and again to the Pentagon, White House and Congress in acts of civil resistance to war.

Now, we bring our plea to you, sisters and brothers, in the armed forces.

* Refuse to kill.
* Refuse the order to go to war.
* Leave the military before it is too late.

We know your resistance to war will be difficult and require great courage. But please reflect:
* Is it more difficult than fighting in war?
* Is it more difficult than being a pawn of corporate greed?
* Is it more difficult than living with a violated conscience?
* Is it more difficult than living with the poisons of war in your body and spirit?

Do what your heart says is right.

We plead with you, as Bishop Oscar Romero pleaded with Salvadoran troops saying: "No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God.

In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people who have suffered so much and whose laments cry out to heaven, I beseech you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God, stop the repression!"

If you choose to leave the military, please know that our hearts and homes are open to you.
<www.officeoftheamericas.org>
And please listen to WORLD FOCUS this Sunday at 10:00 AM.

The Monks Did It!

The Monks of Myanmar have given a course on resistance to the rest of the world. This course must be a required one for every Bishop, Mullah, Rabbi and any other type of religious leader in the United States.

Even George Bush can hear the message for the people of Myanmar. It would be nice if he could make the transition to people in his own country.

Just as China blocks the international community regarding Myanmar so Bush blocks the international community in Iraq and Palestine. Both of these great powers must recognize their stupidity. The militarists of Myanmar also declare themselves as Buddhists and the Bushites in the United states also declare themselves as Christians.

Both attempts are oxymoronic. Bushite Christians are a contradiction in terms just as Myanmar Buddhist Militarists are a contradiction in terms. The Buddhist Monks have a simple message, "We do not worship strange gods and the state is the strangest god of all!"

And we must not forget the message of these Buddhists for the international justice and peace movement.

They project the power of presence and power of spiritual conviction. They refuse to let their lives be ruled by fear.

And as we proceed as US citizens to understand that a general strike may be required to stop the Republican and Democratic Party militarists, let us reflect on the power of not working which is called a strike, and the power of not buying which is called a boycott.

Oh yes, we know the barbaric military of Myanmar killed it own people when they marched in 1988. And perhaps that is why Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was weeping when the Monks walked by her home in Yangon. We also know that the ongoing lie which is militarism will lead the Myanmar Generals to dress up agent provocateurs as Monks and have these phonies initiate an armed attack leading to a brutal response. Well Dr. Martin Luther King solemnly reminded us that there are casualties in the peace movement but these casualties would never equal the slaughter of imperial war.

We must follow the endurance and courage of the Myanmar Buddhists. Imitation is the highest form of praise.