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   From: oO@oO.com   
      
   The Hollow Nation   
      
   Americans Don't Live Here Anymore   
      
   By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS   
      
   Imagine knocking on America's door and being told, "Americans don't live   
   here any longer. They have gone away."   
      
   But isn't that what we are hearing, that Americans have gone away? Alan   
   Shore told us so on ABC's Boston Legal on March 14:   
      
     "When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out not to be true, I   
   expected the American people to rise up. They didn't. Then, when the Abu   
   Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government   
   participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them   
   over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American   
   people would be heard from. We stood mute.   
      
     Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorist   
   suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to   
   confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.   
      
     And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting   
   massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And   
   I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will   
   have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.   
      
     In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're   
   okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal   
   wiretappings, prison without a fair trial or any trial, war on false   
   pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.   
      
     There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear   
   indication that young people even seem to notice. . . .   
      
     The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control   
   and, in effect, criminalize protest. Stop for a second and try to fathom   
   that. At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a   
   supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you're wearing or carrying   
   something in protest, you can be removed.   
      
     This! In the United States of America."   
      
   Readers tell me that Americans don't live here any more. They ask what   
   responsible American citizenry would put up with the trashing of the Bill of   
   Rights and the separation of powers, with wars based on deception, and with   
   pathological liars in control of their government? One reader recently wrote   
   that he believes that "no element of the U.S. government has been left   
   untainted" by the lies and manipulations that have driven away   
   accountability. So-called leaders, he wrote, "talk a great story of American   
   pride and patriotism," but in their hands patriotism is merely a device for   
   "cynical manipulation and fraud."   
      
   The Bush regime acknowledges that 30,000 Iraqi civilians, largely women and   
   children, have been killed as a result of Bush's invasion. Others who have   
   looked at civilian casualties with greater attention have come up with   
   numbers three to six times as large. The Johns Hopkins study accounted for   
   98,000 civilian deaths. Patrick Cockburn, using more sophisticated   
   statistical analysis, concluded that 180,000 Iraqis died as a result of   
   Bush's invasion. The former prime minister Iyad Allawi says that Iraqi   
   sectarian violence alone is claiming 50-60 deaths per day, or 18,000-22,000   
   annually, a figure that could quickly worsen.   
      
   Some Iraqis were killed by "smart bombs" that weren't very smart and dropped   
   on hospitals, schools, and weddings. Others were mistaken for resistance   
   fighters and killed. Still others were killed by spooked, trigger-happy U.S.   
   troops. And many died due to the breakdown of the Iraqi health system.   
      
   Now comes a report in the online edition of Time magazine that U.S. Marines   
   went on a rampage in the village of Haditha and deliberately slaughtered 15   
   unarmed Iraqis in their homes. The Iraqis were still in their bed clothes,   
   and 10 of the 15 were women and children.   
      
   The Marines turned in a false report that the civilians were killed by an   
   insurgent bomb. But the evidence of wanton carnage was too powerful. Pressed   
   by Time's collection of evidence, U.S. military officials in Baghdad opened   
   an investigation. Time reports that "according to military officials, the   
   inquiry acknowledged that, contrary to the military's initial report, the 15   
   civilians killed on Nov. 19 died at the hands of the Marines, not the   
   insurgents. The military announced last week that the matter has been handed   
   over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which will conduct a   
   criminal investigation."   
      
   If this story is true, under Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush's leadership,   
   proud and honorable U.S. Marines have degenerated into the Waffen SS. Those   
   of us raised on John Wayne war movies find this very hard to take.   
      
   A fish rots from the head. Clearly, deception in the Oval Office is   
   corrupting the U.S. military. One reader reported that on March 19 his local   
   PBS station aired a program which discussed the deaths of two young American   
   soldiers in friendly fire incidents similar to Pat Tillman's death. In each   
   case, he reports, "elements within the military falsified reports and   
   attempted to shift blame to either enemy combatants or allied (Polish)   
   forces."   
      
   The neocons have yet to tell us the real reason for their assault on Iraq,   
   which has so far produced 20,000 dead, maimed, and wounded U.S. soldiers,   
   between 30,000 and 180,000 (and rising) dead Iraqis, and demoralized U.S.   
   Marines to the point that they commit atrocities on women and children.   
      
   Would real Americans accept these blows for the sake of an undeclared   
   agenda? Perhaps it is true that Americans don't live here any longer.   
      
   Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan   
   administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial   
   page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The   
   Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)