XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.british, alt.conspiracy.princess-diana   
   XPost: alt.conspiracy, alt.conspiracy.new-world-order, alt.america   
   XPost: us.politics   
   From: banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk   
      
   In article <48gje4Fjhg7qU1@individual.net>, oO  writes   
      
   >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.   
      
   Mmm...Pinochet, Suharto, the Zionists, the Fahd dictatorship, Videla,   
   Stroessner, the US gulag itself (the US has more people in prison, as a   
   proportion of population, than any other country in the world - and the   
   figure is increasing)...etc. etc. etc.   
      
   >  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.   
      
   IMO there has only been one period when exploited people in the fascist   
   US have really given a sustained fright to the US-based part of the   
   ruling class. That was between about 1965 and about 1972. Sadly the   
   struggles of those times were defeated, and 'average' living-standards   
   have been falling ever since.   
      
   This is not to say there haven't been important struggles by exploited   
   people in the US in other periods - there certainly have!   
      
   >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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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