*There Is No One Left to Stop Them*

[Guest guest]

Paul Craig Roberts, the author of this piece, was an official in the Reagan

administration. He has been speaking out against this illegal, genocidal

regime for some time now. (Which nevertheless hasn't made him like " liberals "

any better than he used to, as you'll see if you read his other writings). When

Reagan administration officials liken Bush's administration to the

brownshirts of Nazi Germany, you'd think a few more people would sit up and pay

attention.

 

 

http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=4007

 

*There Is No One Left to Stop Them*

 

by Paul Craig Roberts

Antiwar.com

November 19, 2004

 

<<The United States is in dire straits. Its government is in the hands

of people who connect to events neither rationally nor morally.

 

If President Bush's neoconservative administration were rational, the

U.S. would never have invaded Iraq. If Bush's government were moral, it

would be ashamed of the carnage and horror it has unleashed in Iraq.

 

The Bush administration has no doubts. It knows that it is right and

virtuous. Bush and the neocons dismiss factual criticisms as evidence

that the critics are " against us. "

 

People who know that they are right cannot avoid sinking deeper into

mistakes. The Bush administration led the U.S. into a war on the basis

of claims that are now known to be untrue. Yet, President Bush and Vice

President Cheney consistently refuse to admit that any mistake has been

made. The chances are high, therefore, that the second Bush

administration will be more disastrous than the first.

 

The first Bush administration has cost America 10,000 casualties (dead

and wounded). Eight of 10 U.S. divisions are tied down in Iraq by a few

thousand lightly armed insurgents. Polls reveal that most Iraqis regard

Americans as invaders and occupiers, not as liberators. U.S. prestige in

the Muslim world has evaporated. The majority of Muslims who were with

us, are now against us. Sooner or later, this change of mind will

endanger our puppet regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and Saudi

Arabia.

 

In a futile effort to assert hegemony in Iraq, the U.S. has largely

destroyed Fallujah, once a city of 300,000. Hundreds, if not thousands,

of civilians have been killed by the indiscriminate use of high

explosives.

 

To cover up the extensive civilian deaths, U.S. authorities count all

Iraqi dead as insurgents, delivering a high body count as claim of

success for a bloody-minded operation. The human cost for American

families is 51 dead and 450 wounded U.S. troops, casualties on par with

the worst days of the Vietnam War.

 

The film of a U.S. Marine shooting a captured, wounded, and unarmed

Iraqi prisoner in the head at close range has been shown all over the

world. Coming on top of proven acts of torture at U.S. military prisons,

this war crime has destroyed what remained of America's image and moral

authority.

 

On Nov. 17, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for

investigation of American war crimes in Fallujah. This is a remarkable

turn of events, showing how far U.S. prestige and the morale of our

armed forces have fallen.

 

However, for Bush administration partisans, war crimes are no longer

something of which to be ashamed. Reflecting the neoconservative mindset

that America's monopoly on virtue justifies any and all U.S. actions,

Fox " News " talking heads and their Republican Party and retired military

guests have arrogantly defended the Marine who murdered the wounded

Iraqi prisoner.

 

Iraqi insurgents are condemned for deaths they inflict on civilians. But

when American troops fire indiscriminately upon civilians and U.S.

missile and bombing attacks kill Iraqis in their homes, the deaths are

dismissed as " collateral damage. " This double standard is a further

indication that Americans have come to the belief that U.S. ends justify

any means.

 

A number of former top U.S. military leaders and heads of the CIA and

National Security Agency have condemned Bush's invasion of Iraq as a

" strategic blunder. " These are people who gave their lives to the

service of our country and can in no way be said to be " against us. "

 

However, the Bush administration and its apologists regard critics as

enemies. To accept criticism means to be held accountable, something the

Bush administration is determined to avoid. Condoleezza Rice, who failed

as National Security Adviser to prevent the Pentagon from using

fabricated information to start a Middle East war, is being elevated to

secretary of state in Bush's second term.

 

Indeed, the entire panoply of neoconservatives, who intentionally

fabricated the " intelligence " used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq,

are being rewarded by promotion to higher offices. Stephen Hadley is

moving up to National Security Adviser. Hadley is the person who

advocates " usable " mini-nukes for the U.S. conquest of the Middle East.

 

John Bolton is to be Deputy Secretary of State. Bolton is the person who

wants the U.S. to invade Iran. The few officials who are not warmongers,

such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of State

Richard Armitage, are leaving the Bush administration. Right before our

eyes, the CIA is being turned into a neoconservative propaganda organ as

numerous senior officials resign and are replaced with yes-men.

 

With its current troop strength, the Bush administration cannot achieve

the Middle East goals it shares with the Israeli government. Either the

draft will have to be restored or mini-nukes developed and deployed. As

insurgents do not mass in military formations, the mini-nukes would be

used as a genocidal weapon to wipe out entire cities that show any

resistance to neocon dictates.

 

Many Bush partisans send me e-mails fiercely advocating " virtuous

violence. " They do not flinch at the use of nuclear weapons against

Muslims who refuse to do as we tell them. These partisans do not doubt

for a second that Bush has the right to dictate to Muslims and everyone

else (especially the French). Many also express their conviction that

all of Bush's critics should be rounded up and sent to the Middle East

in time for the first nuke.

 

These attitudes represent a sharp break from American values and foreign

policy. The new conservatives have more in common with the Brownshirt

movement that silenced German opposition to Hitler than with America's

Founding Fathers.

 

Bush's reelection, if won fair and square, was won because 20 million

Christian evangelicals voted against abortion and homosexuals. However,

Bush's neoconservative masters will use his reelection as a mandate for

further violence in the Middle East. They intend to set the U.S. on a

course of long and debilitating war.

 

There is no one left in the Bush administration, the CIA, or the

military to stop them.>>

 

 

 

 

 

http://pets.care2.com/

 

" The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. " --

Plato

" Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing

health care to all Americans is socialism. " -- anon