 home
archives
last week
feedback
Rolla Peace News February 10, 2015 |
|
Dear Friends: In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Behold, I will Make Thee a Terror to Thyself b) Artist Beaten for Promoting Coexistence c) US Military Budget: Higher Than Ever
==================
We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015, (and all subsequent Thursdays until peace is established) from Noon to 1:00 PM. Please try to join us. The temperature is predicted to be in the 20s. If you do not feel comfortable standing with us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign. 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Behold, I will Make Thee a Terror to Thyself b) Artist Beaten for Promoting Coexistence c) US Military Budget: Higher Than Ever BEHOLD, I WILL MAKE THEE A TERROR TO THYSELF In the establishment Western media, DAESH (aka IS, ISIS, ISIL) which burned Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kaseasbeh, alive is the most brutal and degenerate of the brutal and degenerate. But hold a minute. Let's see what the alternative press has to say. Glenn Greenwald points out the hellfire missiles used in drone strikes will typically burn victims and bystanders to the point that the body is often unrecognizable. In its 2004 attack on Fallujah, The US used white phosphorus and napalm-like substances which burned many Iraqis to death. But hey, we don't publicize videos of all the children we burn to death. Israel has also used white phosphorus bombs made in the USA in populated areas of Gaza. To Greenwald's compendium, I would add the 1991 attack on the Amiriya bomb shelter during Gulf War I which incinerated some 400 civilians who had taken refuge from US bombing in the bomb shelter . And let's not forget our good neo-Nazi friends in the Ukraine who have twice cornered ethnic Russians in buildings and then set the buildings on fire burning to death those inside. Nor should we forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki where hundreds of thousands were burned to death in nuclear holocaust. Juan Cole discusses DAESH's crazy card. We're so crazy that we will do anything including burning you alive in an iron cage, so better not cross us. Cole points out that that is exactly the crazy card US forces played in the 2003 “Shock and Awe” invasion of Iraq which used 15,000 lb BLU-82B bombs with a 5000 ft blast radius that burned alive soldiers and civilians alike. Cole notes that the Iraqis were not too shocked or awed to learn the terror tactics of their invaders, turn guerilla and later form DAESH. Speaking of crazy cards, let's not forget Richard Nixon who upon realizing that the Vietnam War was irretrievably lost, threatened to nuke Vietnam if it didn't surrender. We owe a great debt to the Vietnamese who kept on fighting in spite of this ultimate terror threat. Bill Moyers compares the burning alive of Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kaseasbeh, to the lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas in 1916, noting of course that burning black people alive on the slightest pretext, or just for sport, was quite common during the Jim Crow era. Hold on you say. That was long ago. Lynchings in the US ended almost 50 years ago. Not so. Take the case of Darren Rainey who in June 2012 was placed in a locked shower stall in the Dade Correctional Institute and left there in scalding 180 degree water for over an hour while prison guards mocked him. No one has been indicted for the lynching of Darren Rainey. In The Terror We Give is the Terror We Get Chris Hedges does not mince words: “We produce high-budget films such as ‘American Sniper’ to glorify our war crimes. They produce inspirational videos to glorify their twisted version of jihad. The barbarism we condemn is the barbarism we commit. The line that separates us from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is technological, not moral. We are those we fight.” And finally: “Terror is the engine of war. And terror is what all sides in this conflict produce in overabundance.” The title of this snippet is from the prophet Jeremiah. Adding a little context: “For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it:” —Jeremiah 20:4 (KJV) Terror is thousands of years old. The knowledge that those who give terror, will receive it in kind is also thousands of years old. The only difference is that our modern technology allows us to give and receive far greater terror than ever before. ARTIST BEATEN FOR PROMOTING COEXISTENCE Art can be dangerous. French street artist, Combo, was beaten for his art promoting coexistence and suffered a dislocated shoulder. Combo refuses to talk about his assailants simply saying “To me, it doesn't matter where they come from, what colour their skin is, what their religion or their political ideas are. In this context, all they represent is stupidity and ignorance.” US MILITARY BUDGET: HIGHER THAN EVER! Obama has requested a base military budget of $534 Billion for FY 2016. This does not include spending for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria . For a more honest view of US military spending look at this pie-chart courtesy of the War Resisters League which places US military spending for FY 2015 at $1.3 Trillion. Budget and spending can be quite different. ================== Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesday evenings (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Grassroots Rolla: top of rightmost column).If you don't wish to get notices of peace events in the Rolla area, let me know and I'll take you off this list. If you want to be added to this list, let me know. Wage peace, Helen helenm (at) fidnet.com ### |