War Is a Government Program

War always has a domestic side. Ruling classes hold power so that they may live off the toil of the domestic population. And because the ruled far outnumber the rulers, ideology and propaganda are necessary to maintain the allegiance of the subject population. War is useful in keeping the population in a state of fear and therefore trustful of their rulers. H.L. Mencken said it well: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

War Is a Government Program

by Sheldon Richman

What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies

Now the choice is for US military personnel and their families to decide whether they want their loved ones to be physically and emotionally injured to protect not our national security, but the financial security of the biggest corporate barons left in our country - the oil companies.

Since the "Surge" began in January, over 500 Americans and 15,000 Iraqis have been killed. By the time September 2007 rolls around for the administration's review of the "surge" plan, another 400 Americans will be dead, as well as another 12,000 Iraqis.

How much more can our military and their families take?

What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies

Truthout.org

The New World Order is the Global Satanic Kingdom of Revelation 13!

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
(Revelation 13:16-18)

Amid a retinue of internet exposes, the North American Union (NAU) is forging ahead, the amnesty bill is about to be codified, and Bush II has signed a Presidential Directive that grants him dictatorial powers in the event of an emergency.

Ultimately, it appears, the NAU will succeed in dragging the world’s most powerful nation down into an amalgam that will live under the new world mantra “be peaceful or we will kill you”. Individual freedom will be submerged into a cauldron of writhing humanity to be covered and homogenized over low heat.

This is all scheduled to take place under a nascent regime that Hitler himself would have envied. Local Ninja police forces equipped with heavy weaponry will ensure no citizen or group of citizens has the right to resist. Computerized databases will allow the government to examine every move of every citizen. Leaders of a rebellion may expect to disappear into a pit of torture and oblivion where hidden courts will execute secret sentences and no appeals will be allowed.

The United States deserves what is about to come upon it. Most of our citizens and our churches have ignored the murder of nearly 50 million babies created in the image of God but torn asunder while still in their mother’s womb, never being allowed to view God’s creation. They have supported the War in Iraq and the needless slaughter of millions of innocent civilians (Think about it, ARABS ARE CREATED IN GOD’S IMAGE!). We and those who lead our churches have been docile observers of the steady deterioration of our culture and consistent disobedience to God‘s Laws. In direct opposition to the claims of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, we have supported the pagan nation of Israel; a nation that God destroyed and men have re-created in defiance of His perfect intentions.

Readers often ask what we can do to reverse the disastrous course our leaders have charted. Here is what we must do: We must repent of the above abominations, demand changes in leadership, seek Righteousness, Justice, and Mercy in our own lives and in the lives of our leaders. Righteousness, Justice, and Mercy are by-products of obedience to God’s Laws and without obedience, a peaceful and prosperous social order cannot be restored.

Will the nation repent? I see no sign that it will.

Halting World Government - Can it be Stopped?

EtherZone

Remember the USS Liberty!

It was 40 years ago this June 8 that the USS Liberty – a large, armorless, refitted freighter that was gathering intelligence in the Mediterranean at the outset of the Six Day War – was attacked by Israeli fighter jets and torpedoes. Thirty-four U.S. sailors were killed, and 172 were wounded. The Liberty limped back to Malta. A U.S. Navy court of inquiry was on board investigating the damage, but – for some reason – the investigators were not allowed to proceed to Israel to find out what really went on. Orders from the top echelons of the Pentagon nixed the inquiry, and today, the families of the fallen still haven't gotten any answers as to why Israel was allowed to get away with it without even so much as a slap on the wrist – nor even any public acknowledgment that it was a deliberate attack.

"The evidence was clear. Both Admiral [Isaac C.] Kidd and I believed with certainty that this attack … was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew. It was our shared belief, based on the documentary evidence and testimony we received firsthand, that the Israeli attack was planned and deliberate."

Remember the USS Liberty!

More on the Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty

Why Are We in Iraq?

As Ayn Rand once put it, don't bother to examine a folly – ask yourself only what it accomplishes. If we look at the public reasons for the Iraq war, it is clear that none of these have been accomplished, nor are they likely to be achieved in the near or even distant future. Iraqi "democracy" is a bizarre mutation of clerical domination, unimaginable corruption, and rule by death squads, and those "weapons of mass destruction" have returned to the netherworld of the neoconservative imagination from whence they emerged onto the front page of the New York Times.

If, on the other hand, we look at what is actually happening in Iraq, and throughout the region, we can discern the real goals of the invasion, and they are two: a civil war in the Muslim world (check!) and the positioning of U.S. military forces for a confrontation with the next victim of the regime-change game: Iran (check!).

This Memorial Day, then, while you're contemplating the 3,500 American dead, the tens of thousands of wounded (many of them horribly), not to mention the 650,000 Iraqi victims of U.S. state terrorism, you might wonder if Bush and his neocon advisors lose any sleep at night over what everyone else has deemed their huge "failure" in Iraq. The answer is: certainly not. They sleep deeply, and with a satisfied smile on their faces, because, as far as they're concerned, their mission has been accomplished.

Don't bother examining a folly, advised Ayn Rand – ask yourself only what it accomplishes…

Antiwar.com

The Voice of the White House - 5/30/2007

To date, Bush and Cheney’s idiotic games have virtually destroyed our Army and Marines as an effective ground fighting force. Now Bush is looking at the unscathed Navy as another piece on his manic chessboard. Given all this militant flummery, is it any wonder that Russia’s Putin is becoming increasingly hostile? Cheney desperately wants to return to a Cold War with the evil Russians as our primary enemy when in fact, at the present time, the world’s primary enemies sit in the White House in Washington.”

The Voice of the White House - 5/30/2007

When A Marine Speaks Truth to Power

Many of the episodes—the experiences that turned Massey not only against the war, but against the misogynist and racist culture of Marine life—are now recounted in full in his forthcoming book, "Cowboys From Hell." It’s an autobiography the Marine Corps does not want published.

Cowboys From Hell is a kind of Pentagon Papers of the Marines. In his confessions we see Massey’s platoon gun down a man with his hands up. Demonstrators are shot. An unarmed driver in a Mercedes is shot dead at a checkpoint. Two occupants of a Toyota are wrongly killed. Wounded by American bombing, a small child dies in the arms of one of Massey’s buddies. When Marines fire 50-caliber rounds into a tractor, a sixty-year-old man loses his livelihood. In one definitive episode,when three occupants of a car are massacred at a checkpoint, a survivor on the ground looks up at Massey and says: "Why did you kill my brother? He did nothing wrong."

When I asked Massey a year ago why he gave up the rewards of silence, he gave a simple answer: Only the truth can heal. And he later wrote:

“When I am on my death bed and I have to face God with all the sins I committed throughout my life, when I come to the sin of killing innocent people in Iraq, I know I will only be able to meet my Maker if I tell the truth now.”

Why I Stand By My Interview With Sgt. Jimmy Massey
by Paul Rockwell

Last Trumpet Newsletter - June 2007

In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will look intently at our erstwhile great nation of the United States of America from a scriptural and spiritual perspective. As we do this, we will especially focus on this awesome question: What happens to a nation that has forsaken God for so long that finally God forsakes that nation? What would become of such a nation as that? What would be the characteristics of a nation that has damned itself to the extent that Almighty God would withdraw His restraining power and allow the critical mass of sin and iniquity to increase to a point of total meltdown? This is what happened to Israel long ago, and now it is happening to America.

Last Trumpet Newsletter - June 2007

Democrat, Republican .. it Doesn't Matter - They're all Traitors and Murderers!

Ron Paul on Patriotism

True patriotism today has gotten a bad name, at least from the government and the press. Those who now challenge the unconstitutional methods of imposing an income tax on us, or force us to use a monetary system designed to serve the rich at the expense of the poor are routinely condemned. These American patriots are sadly looked down upon by many. They are never praised as champions of liberty as Gandhi and Martin Luther King have been.

Liberals, who withhold their taxes as a protest against war, are vilified as well, especially by conservatives. Unquestioned loyalty to the state is especially demanded in times of war. Lack of support for a war policy is said to be unpatriotic. Arguments against a particular policy that endorses a war, once it is started, are always said to be endangering the troops in the field. This, they blatantly claim, is unpatriotic, and all dissent must stop. Yet, it is dissent from government policies that defines the true patriot and champion of liberty.

Rep Ron Paul on True Patriotism (with video)

Antiwar.com

What Makes Black Ops Legal?

“Hello police? I want to report a possible crime in the White House. Oh, it’s out of your jurisdiction? Whom can I call to report this? Nobody? Oh, this is America and there is no place to report crimes committed by the President.”

What Makes Black Ops Legal?
TVNewsLies

BYU Physicist Confirms Demolition Cutter Charges At World Trade Center

Your countrymen have been murdered and the more you delve into it the more it looks as though they were murdered by our government, who used it as an excuse to murder other people thousands of miles away.

If you ridicule others who have sincere doubts and who know factual information that directly contradicts the official report and who want explanations from those who hold the keys to our government, and have motive, means, and opportunity to pull off a 9/11, but you are too lazy or fearful, or ... to check into the facts yourself, what does that make you?

Full Statement of Lt. Col. Shelton F. Lankford, US Marine Corps (ret)
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Fighter Pilot
February 20, 2007

BYU Physicist Steven Jones in a May 2007 report confirms that explosives and incendiaries demolished the World Trade Center on 9/11:

Army Recruiters Caught Advising Mentally Unstable Recruits to Lie to get Into the Military

The United States Army insists that it's not so desperate that it would recruit the mentally ill to serve on the front lines.

But now an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation has the Army investigating three Middle Tennessee recruiters, along with their Dishonorable Deceptions.

It's all part of a hidden-camera investigation led by our chief investigative reporter Phil Williams.

Army Recruiters Caught on Hidden Camera

Ron Paul Responds to Questions in Austin

Darwinists Squirm Under Spotlight

Why should Christians be concerned about a scientific theory? Why does it matter?

Well, not only Christians should care about it. Everyone should. It is religion in the name of science, and that means that it is misleading people about both religion and science.

Full Article Here

** Five new Gospel Messages Added **

The following Gospel sermons from Pastor David Meyer were added today:

Seven Churches and Seven Devils - 3/25/2007
One Thing That is Impossible - 3/31/2007
The Great Amplifier - 4/1/2007
The Waiting is Nearly Over - 4/8/2007
Out of the Closet Saints - 4/15/2007

These and other sermons can be accessed at www.ltm-messages.com

Ron Paul on Blowback

What Ron Paul is promoting is essentially the biblical concept that Jesus defined in His sermon on the mount, sometimes referred to as "the golden rule". Why is that so offensive to Rudy Guliani and the GOP?

Luke 6:31

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

==============================================

Now, I know this is a lot for the tender ears of Americans to take, who like to think that their government reflects their own values of faith, freedom, and friendliness. But here is the point that libertarians have been trying to hammer home for many years: the US government is the enemy of the American people and their values. It is not peaceful, it is not friendly, it is not motivated by the Christian faith but rather power and imperial lust.

Ron is such a wonderful person that I'm sorry that he had to be the one to tell the truth. One could sense in the debate that he was making an enormous sacrifice here. After Guiliani spoke, the red-state fascists in the audience all started whooping up the bloodlust that the politicians have been encouraging for the last six years –a mindless display of Nazi-like nationalism that would cause the founding fathers to shudder with fear of what we've become. These people are frantic about terrorism and extremism abroad, but they need to take a good hard look in the mirror.

Ron Paul on Blowback

Voice Your Opposition to Mr Anuzis' Proposal to Ban Ron Paul From GOP Debates

Saul Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party says wants to to bar Texas congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) from future GOP presidential debates. Anuzis intends to circulate a petition among Republican National Committee members, debate sponsors and broadcasters to keep Paul out of debates. Anuzis' email is:

Anuzis @ saul@anuzisforchair.com

Sign the Petition to Keep Ron Paul in the GOP Debates

BE IT DECLARED, that the undersigned request the Republican National Committee to support fair election procedures, as well as the views and desires of its members and American citizens, by allowing Congressman Ron Paul full participation in all future debates and election events as a Republican National Committee candidate

Sign the petition

Ron Paul Responds to Guliani's Ridiculous Comments

Fox News Rigs Entire Debate To Savagely Attack Ron Paul

In a sickening display of cronyism and as a consequence of the sheer terror elicited amongst the establishment after his previous success, Fox News rigged last night's entire presidential debate in a crass effort to smear Ron Paul - yet the Texas Congressman still beat Rudy Giuliani in Fox's own poll.

If you thought the MSNBC debate was somewhat unfair towards Ron Paul, then this was an absolute debacle.

Texas Congressman targeted by Giuliani, Hannity & Colmes as pre-screened audience applause torture and warmongering, Fox limits post-election polls to three hours and no Internet voting yet Paul still successful
InfoWars.com

Ron Paul Blows Away the Field of neo-cons!

19,000 Iraqis Disappear Into U.S.-Run Prisons

Today I saw a news headline on MSNBC about how the anguish of the families of the three military personnel missing in Iraq. While I sympathize with them and certainly understand their anguish, there is more to this story than meets the eye.

First of all, we must ask why in the world is our military in Iraq to begin with. What is the noble cause that justifies putting our troops in harms way and causing this kind of agony for their families back home? Is securing (stealing) the middle east oil fields and furthering the interests of the NWO agenda worth the cost?

Second of all, we must put this in perspective. While we focus on three missing soldiers and the agony caused to their families, thousands of Iraqi families are going through the same anguish and agony. As outlined in the article linked below, 19,000 Iraqis have disappeared into US-run prisons in Iraq. Add to that the thousands upon thousands that have been tortured, raped, murdered, or are missing and you begin to get a sense for what the Iraqi people are experiencing.

Now ask yourself this question, and answer honestly. If there were an occupying force in America, and your family members were treated in this manner, would you resist the occupation? Would you resent the presence of the occupying forces? Think about it before you put that "support our troops" sticker on the back of your car. - Le Patriote
===================================
Last summer, the Associated Press and New York Times each did stories on the detention facilities operated by the United States inside of Iraq. The conclusions of each investigation were roughly the same. At the time, they noted roughly 14,000 Iraqis were being held in a “legal vacuum.” The detention facilities were chaotic, a large portion of the persons held were taken in on sweeps through their neighborhoods and were suspected and charged with nothing. No trials occur, but the detainees languish often for many months – in some cases for more than a year. “They may not be enemies when they enter these prisons,” one Army officer told me, “but you can count on it that they are insurgent sympathizers by the time they leave.” He was alluding not just to the treatment standards, which he called “nothing I would be proud of as an American,” but the fact that the facilities are allowed to function as recruitment and training centers for the insurgents. Politically uninvolved Iraqis enter. But to find a way of surviving in the brutal gang reality of the prisons, they cast their lot with insurgent groups.

You were wondering perhaps, how do you completely alienate and infuriate a population under military occupation? Well, this is how.

19,000 Iraqis Disappear Into U.S.-Run Prisons
Harpers

US Government Fans Homeland Terrorism Fear

The US government and Washington elites are aggressively ramping up their "war on terrorism" rhetoric and propaganda, stoking fear and paranoia in order to bolster its war agenda, and reinvigorate the mass public perception of new and growing "homegrown terrorism" threats to the US homeland.

The next phase of America’s war abroad (under the management of a post-Bush neocon/neoliberal consensus), and the deepening militarization of the US homeland towards a full police state, are well underway.

What the world must continue to take seriously is not a threatened strike by "terrorists", but the violent desperation of a stumbling New World Order that 1) compounds its criminal desperation by continuing to commit terrorism and "run" terror groups to achieve its political purposes (the foremost being energy and resource conquest), 2) engage in terroristic provocations (foment backlash, or "blowback"), 3) wittingly and unwittingly creates new insurgencies and opposition from victimized populaces and occupied nations.

As it was on the morning of 9/11, all eyes must remain locked on the guilty parties in Washington---the political criminals who are "above the law", armed with the power to manipulate, control and exterminate broad sections of humanity, within the US homeland and abroad.

Washington consensus plans for martial law, nuclear terror holocaust, behind closed doors
by Larry Chin

The CIA -- a Terrorist Organization

05/14/07 "ICH" -- -- The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) can be considered a terrorist organization according to both international and American definitions of terrorism.

It seems to me you cannot claim to fight terrorism or claim to be the beacon of democracy with an organization like the CIA in your ranks.

Americans can no longer claim ignorance of the horrors committed by the CIA. They can not allow this guise of “The War on Terror" to continue, since it was started by the CIA a terrorist organization which engages in unconstitutional and illegal behavior.

The United States Congress has the authority to dismantle the CIA just like it has the authority -- and more than enough evidence -- to impeach the Bush administration on war crimes, illegal wire tapping, and misappropriation of funds. But does it have the backbone or interest to do so?

The CIA -- a Terrorist Organization
Information Clearinghouse

The Perfect Terrorist Plan To Level The Twin Towers Created In 1976

Our own U.S. Army devised a plan commissioned by Congress to bring down the WTC using commercial airliners and box cutters as weapons.

The laundry list of terrorist warnings handed to the Bush administration prior to 9/11 makes the President and others look like "bumbling idiots or a bunch of conniving criminals" responsible for the mass murders at the Twin Towers and in Afghanistan and Iraq.

These are the harsh words of Timothy McNiven, an outspoken critic of the President's handling of 9/11 and a 29-year U.S. Defense Department operative still under contract with the government.

He says not only did the Bush administration purposely ignore Al Q'aida in the months preceding the WTC attacks, but the situation is even more disturbing, considering his military unit way back in 1976 devised a mock terrorist attack of the Twin Towers exactly like what occurred on 9/11.

The Perfect Terrorist Plan To Level The Twin Towers Created In 1976
Greg Szymanski

BOA Issues Credit Cards for Illegal Aliens

The video clip below illustrates my point about how it is not only easy for illegal aliens to enter the country due to our totally unsecured border with Mexico, it is easy for them to obtain funding and other means to do pretty much anything they want. They are often considered above the law and police are actually told to release people involved in crimes if they are found to be illegal aliens. Connect this with the alleged attack planned on Fort Dix 4 articles down from this one and ask yourself why our government would allow this. - Le Patriote

Ron Paul: Total Victory, Yet Censorship Continues

Ron Paul emerged from last week's GOP debate as completely victorious according to every available benchmark and yet there is still a deliberate ploy to push the Texas Congressman to the sidelines on behalf of a terrified corporate media.

Every single major online poll shows conclusively that Ron Paul won the debate by a mammoth margin, trouncing the bought and paid-for shill Neo-Con candidates that the establishment press are sworn to uphold.

Texas Congressman trounces rivals in all polls but is deliberately pushed to margins by terrified corporate media
Propoganda Matrix

We soldiers once assumed our political bosses would not lie to us. That is over

Four years ago, I watched, with other young officers, the invasion of Iraq on TV in the mess. We were sick with envy. Our brother officers were having the most exciting time of their lives, at the centre of history, while we, on ceremonial duties in London, marched about in red tunics and bearskin hats.

Late last year, the head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannat, publicly called for our withdrawal from Iraq. Other senior officers voiced concern. Such public statements, unthinkable before Blair, are a glimpse of the military's anger and frustration.

Of those officers I sat with in the mess four years ago, many, like me, have left the Army. Those who remain have no trust in the Government. One told me: "We won't be fooled again."

We realised the actual issue was about long-term access to oil

We soldiers once assumed our political bosses would not lie to us. That is over

Pentagon Tells 35,000: Prepare to Deploy

Can you say massive escalation? The bought and paid for politicians in Washington could care less what we the people want or what is good for the United States. They do what they have been paid by controlling entities such as AIPAC to do.

Folks, all governments are inherently evil and the United States and Israeli governments are no different. - Le Patriote

The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings. Psalm 9:9-11
======================================
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has notified more than 35,000 Army soldiers to be prepared to deploy to Iraq beginning this fall, a move that would allow commanders to maintain the ongoing buildup of troops through the end of the year if needed.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday the deployment orders, which have been signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, do not mean that the military has made a decision to keep the increased level of 20 brigades in Iraq through December. A brigade is roughly 3,500 soldiers.

Pentagon Tells 35,000: Prepare to Deploy
The Huffington Post

'Islamic radicals' arrested in plot to kill Fort Dix soldiers

The statement below from a CNN news article reveals the true nature of the "war on terror" being waged by the United States government. Some of the alleged "terrorists" were apparently "living illegally in the United States." My question then is this: why are we not addressing THE BIGGEST security compromise that exists, that is our totally open and exposed border with Mexico? The threat to our national security is not in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Iran .. it is that unsecured border. Folks, this is not merely gross incompetence, this is deliberate sabotage of the country for the purposes of the New World Order globalist agenda. In the United States, we should have learned by now that if you want more of something, just have the government wage war against it. - Le Patriote
=====================================================
One of the suspects was born in Jordan, another in Turkey, the U.S. attorney's office said. The rest are believed to be from the former Yugoslavia, "either U.S. citizens or living illegally in the United States," the office said in a statement.
'Islamic radicals' arrested in plot to kill Fort Dix soldiers
CNN

Bruce Willis Says JFK Killers Still In Power

In a new magazine interview, Bruce Willis spills the beans on his skepticism that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of JFK, and suggests that the some of the same criminals who killed Kennedy are still in power today.

"They still haven't caught the guy that killed [President] Kennedy," Willis told Vanity Fair's June issue, according to the New York Post.

Bruce Willis Says JFK Killers Still In Power
PrisonPlanet.com

*** New Gospel Messages Posted ***

Today, I posted the following three new Gospel Messages from Pastor David J. Meyer of Last Trumpet Ministries:

Such a Time as This - 3/4/2007
Spiritual Grand Theft - 3/11/2007
The Strangest Curse - 3/18/2007

They can all be accessed here:

Resistance is NOT futile - audio sermons of Pastor David J. Meyer

*Note that the URL for the audio sermons has changed and I have added significantly more disk space, which will allow storage for more messages without the need to rotate them so often - praise God!

Son Of JFK Conspirator Drops New Bombshell Revelations

As the explosive revelation of E. Howard Hunt's deathbed confession, in which the former CIA agent and Watergate conspirator admits that he was part of a CIA conspiracy to assassinate JFK, continues to rage across the Internet, the establishment media remains almost mute on what is undoubtedly one of the biggest stories of the decade.

Hunt was first made aware of what his father knew about the events of November 22nd 1963 when he came into receipt of hand-written memos that outlined the birth of the plot to kill JFK in Miami where it was discussed that a coup needed to take place in order to topple Kennedy and save the CIA from being splintered into a thousand pieces, as JFK had promised.

Son Of JFK Conspirator Drops New Bombshell Revelations

PrisonPlanet.com

Canada: You Can Come Any Time You Want

I was in Canada from about 3:30 p.m. to about 5:15 p.m. this afternoon. I was trying to get into Canada to go to my book reading in Winnipeg tonight at Mondragon Books. They asked me at the window who I was, what I was doing, where I was going, what kind of books did I write, what I was thinking.

Umm, political fiction.

Why?

Then they sent me inside. Park under the ramp.

I really thought Canada would be different.

You know, like another country.

Canada: You Can Come Any Time You Want

by Mike Palecek

Why is the Bush Administration so Opposed to an Exit Plan?

For all the talk about timetables and benchmarks, one might think that the United States will end the military occupation of Iraq within the lifetimes of the readers of this opinion editorial. Think again.

There is to be no withdrawal from Iraq, just as there has been no withdrawal from hundreds of places around the world that are outposts of the American empire. As UC San Diego professor emeritus Chalmers Johnson put it, "One of the reasons we had no exit plan from Iraq is that we didn't intend to leave."

The U.S. military budget, larger than the military budgets of the rest of the world's nations combined, continues skyward, even without all the "supplementals" passed regularly by Congress to fight the "war on terror."

The question we must ask as citizens is this: Is the United States a democratic republic or an empire? History demonstrates that it's not possible to be both.

Why there was no exit plan
Information ClearingHouse

War Is A Racket

WAR is a racket. It always has been

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

A speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.

Venezuela Pulls Control From Big Oil

Hugo Chavez has broken all connections with the World Bank and the IMF and has now taken state control over the last oil fields in Venezuela. How long do you suppose it will be until we begin to hear about the threat that Chavez poses to the United States? I would not be surprised to hear of accusations of supporting terrorists or some other accusation in order to begin building the case for taking military action, either covertly or overtly, in Venezuela. There have already been alleged assassination attempts on Chavez. - Le Patriote

PUERTO PIRITU, Venezuela (Reuters) -- President Hugo Chavez's government took over Venezuela's last remaining privately run oil fields Tuesday, intensifying a decisive struggle with Big Oil over one of the world's most lucrative deposits.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez declared that the oil fields had reverted to state control just after midnight. Television footage showed workers in hard hats raising the flags of Venezuela and the national oil company at a refinery and four drilling fields in the oil-rich Orinoco River basin. Chavez planned a more elaborate celebration Tuesday afternoon with red-clad oil workers, soldiers and a fly over by Russian-made fighter jets.

President Hugo Chavez makes an attempt to reclaim resources by taking operational control of the Orinoco Belt.

CNN

Venezuela Pulling Out of IMF, World Bank

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would formally pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions.

"We will no longer have to go to Washington nor to the IMF nor to the World Bank, not to anyone," said the leftist leader, who has long railed against the Washington-based lending institutions.

Venezuela Pulling Out of IMF, World Bank

Breitbart.com