LEADING TO WAR

"The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, said the U.S. political transition will be "extraordinarily challenging," particularly as the military is engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan and faces interference in both countries from Iran."

-------------------

Mullen Cites U.S. 'Vulnerability'
Transition to New President in Wartime Concerns the Military

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 1, 2008; A04

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/30/AR2008043003363_pf.html

The nation's top military officer warned yesterday that the transition to a new American president will mark a "time of vulnerability" as the United States fights two wars, and he said military leaders are already actively preparing for the changing of the guard.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, said the U.S. political transition will be "extraordinarily challenging," particularly as the military is engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan and faces interference in both countries from Iran.

Senator Patty Murray questions Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon
Mansfield about emails concerning the cover-up of veteran suicide rates.

Between this story and the one I saw on MSNBC news this morning tying together N. Korea with an aerial photo of a supposed nuclear facility of some sort in Syria, well . . . seems like something's up to further along the neocons' pre-planned agenda to get into Iran & Syria by way of Iraq . . . and create all-hell in the Middle East. But maybe just another coincidence. Betsy

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_muhammad_080424_is_this_the_beginnin.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 24, 2008

US Planes and Choppers Cross Pak Border, Violating Air Space Aiding In Battle Against Rebel Forces:

By Muhammad Khurshid

US-led NATO forces, Pakistani troops and militants have started exchanging fire in Bajaur Agency, tribal areas situated on Pak-Afghan border. The clashes, which claimed the live of dozens of people, have created great terror and fear in the areas. This time the coalition against terrorism is in disarray as NATO forces and Pakistani troops also exchanged firing.

Please visit opednews.com for the live html links in the pasted article- also, the Google Alerts referred to in the below article have been pasted in the comments over there.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=7133
"Information wants to be free" vs. "Don't be evil". When you search online and use search "Alerts", do you want to get the info you want, or do you want the info you receive to be only what Google (and their partners in business and government) want you to know about? If you have concerns about Google's record on search quality/censorship, privacy, human rights, collaboration with people who may pose a serious threat to US sovereignty and security or anything else, read this article and please comment.

::::::::

This article is a continuation of the "Open Letter to the People & Google" article:

Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction

Fourteen Points: World Trade Center Destruction Media Visibility Week

Open Letter to the People & Google

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQBWGo7pef8

http://piratesandemperors.com/

Well our
Story begins, you know, with old St. Augustine.
Way back in days of old he reported on this theme:
A mighty emperor had caught himself a pirate who
Was a-terrorizin' people who were sailin' on the open seas.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: What meanest thou by keeping hostile possession of the sea?

PIRATE: What meanest thou by seizing the whole earth; because I do it with a petty ship, I'm called a robber, whilst thou who dost the same with a great fleet art styled emperor.

NARRATOR: And old St. Augustine thought that was a pretty smart answer!

'Cause there are
pirates and emperors, but they're really the same thing
When they go and try to reach the same ends
By using the same means.
Well they do it big
or they do it small
From a little tiny boat,

US: Sept. 11 not a pretext to invade

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=50882&sectionid=3510203

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:52:51

(See: Iranian President Ahmadinejad: US used September 11 as 'pretext' for invasions

http://911blogger.com/node/14860 )

"We went into Afghanistan because that's where the attack originated. We went after al-Qaeda, we went after the Taliban. Afghanistan was a failed state," Sean McCormack noted.

Commenting on the reasons for invading Iraq, McCormack dismissively remarked that the issue has been discussed at length and the reasons for invading Iraq are clearly understood.

This week was a very busy week for the 9/11 Timeline, and dozens of new entries were published. New material, and a new chapter, has been added to cover superstar arms dealer Victor Bout, who was assisted by a former US intelligence officer, was known to the CIA as supplier to the Taliban and al-Qaeda before 9/11, and is said to have transported heroin out of Afghanistan. He sold aircraft to the Taliban and the US created a team of catch him in 1999, but the Bush administration lost interest in apprehending him. Instead, he was hired to help US in Iraq, not once, but repeatedly. Whilst supporting the US in Iraq, he also supported Islamic militants in Somalia and Hezbollah, but was finally arrested last month.

Hello 9-11 Truth community, this is actually my first blog entry on this site, so please be gentle, I'm a blog virgin.

Does anyone have a compelling estimate of what the American empire would cost in human lives over the 100 year time period that Republican Senator John McCain suggests for the occupation of Iraq?

I got one. (actually, I borrowed from David Ray Griffin)

From 1945 onwards, since the US has supplanted the UK has the worlds primary economic and military leader, each decade has cost the world approximately 180 million lives - mostly by virtue of the US economic domination of the global apartheid economic model. So, the US shares the blame or the credit for developments in the world economy - as its central leader.

So…..

Lets do a little math. (Please correct me if I make a mistake, math was my weak spot in school)

180 x 6 (figuring 6 decades since the end of WW2) = 1080 million lives. Thats over a billion right?

now, assuming that McCain's vision for America - and the Neocons (of both Democrat and Republican masks) as well… we can add another 10 decades for a 100 year American Empire.

A shocking clip from Robert Greenwald's "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" -
http://www.iraqforsale.org

40 and 4

April 04, 2008

Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.
-Martin Luther King, Jr. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
April 04, 1967

Martin Luther King, Jr, delivered his brilliant speech: Beyond Vietnam at the Riverside Church in NYC exactly one year before he was killed, 40 years ago on April 4, 1968, on that infamous balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. His most famous speech is the brilliant I Have a Dream that he delivered to the mass of people who gathered in front of the Lincoln Monument in DC for a Civil Rights' gathering in 1963. Dr. King's Beyond Vietnam speech, however, clearly makes the connections between poverty, racism and militarism and was very threatening to the out of control war machine that was waging a bloody, bloody catastrophe in Vietnam. Dr. King was an effective orator and great organizer, but when he gave his Beyond Vietnam speech, (which many of his colleagues begged him not to give) he became a threat to the pigs of war.

GILLIBRAND: BUSH VETO BLOCKS TROOPS' RETURN FROM IRAQ
By Peter Duveen

PETER'S NEW YORK, March 27, 2008--Congressional initiatives to redeploy U.S. troops out of Iraq are not likely to bear fruit this year because President George W. Bush will almost certainly veto them, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) said yesterday. Although she said she supports a small but continued presence of U.S. troops, Gillibrand held out hope that Iraqis will take more responsibility for their own security. Gillibrand answered questions on policy matters during and after a panel discussion at the Brunswick Elks Lodge in Troy, New York, on how residents of her district can save on their federal, state and local taxes.

Gillibrand said she supports measures to "redeploy the vast majority of our troops over the next year."

"Troops are being pushed to the breaking point," she said.

U.S. Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes
Chilean Envoy to U.N. Recounts Threats of Retaliation in Run-Up to Invasion

Source: washingtonpost.com

3/22/2008

UNITED NATIONS -- In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat.

This was on Canadian national television last night March 19, 2008.

The Lies that Led to War
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/lies/video.html
aired on March 19, 2008

Since the US-led invasion four years ago, the fifth estate has covered Iraq and the war on terror from virtually every angle--the military, media, intellligence, politics--revealing aspects of the story that you didn't find anywhere else.

Now, as the White House warns about the latest threat in the region, this time from Iran, we go back to examine the deception, suspect intelligence, even lies that convinced the world of the rightness of targeting Saddam Hussein.

Source: heraldonline.com

Hannah Allam and Laith Hammoudi
Updated 03/18/08 - 6:56 PM

Amid tears and wails, mourners in the southern city of Najaf on Tuesday began burying victims from a suicide bombing that killed nearly 50 worshipers and injured dozens of others just before evening prayers Monday in nearby Karbala.

In Baghdad, a long-anticipated Iraqi national reconciliation conference began with great fanfare, then quickly dissolved into the usual sectarian and political stalemates that have marred several similar gatherings in recent years.

But Vice President Dick Cheney gave an upbeat view of conditions in Iraq as he concluded his unannounced trip to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. Cheney also defended the toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as part of the struggle against terrorism following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.