TRUTH IS THE FIRST CASUALTY OF WAR

I admire Chris Hedges. I see him as being like an Old Testament Prophet, pointing out the warning signs to a society going down the wrong path, to a people who do not listen or consider.

By his notable accomplishments, he speaks from a platform most of us will never reach in our lifetimes. This prominence among the people gives him some protection from arbitrary government actions to silence him – so far.

His latest warnings and admonitions about what the POWER is doing in our Democracy, that will last only as long as there is a vigilant, aware citizenry, should be heeded by all concerned about our common Future and well being.

His latest article is named ‘THE DEATH OF TRUTH.’ As I read it, even though it is 5 pages long, I see it as modern day version reflecting  the words of the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah recorded 2600 years ago, and posted at the bottom of this article. Not much has changed in all that time gone by.

In my view, these are key perceptions from Chris Hedge’s report:

“Assange, Manning and WikiLeaks, by making public in 2010 half a million internal documents from the Pentagon and the State Department, along with the 2007 video of U.S. helicopter pilots nonchalantly gunning down Iraqi civilians, including children, and two Reuters journalists, effectively exposed the empire’s hypocrisy, indiscriminate violence and its use of torture, lies, bribery and crude tactics of intimidation. WikiLeaks shone a spotlight into the inner workings of empire—the most important role of a press—and for this it has become empire’s prey. Those around the globe with the computer skills to search out the secrets of empire are now those whom empire fears most. If we lose this battle, if these rebels are defeated, it means the dark night of corporate totalitarianism. If we win, if the corporate state is unmasked, it can be destroyed.”

With all the violent War movies and all the blood and gore in the crime shows on TV, and all the porn the underage can see on the Internet, YouTube wants to protect me from seeing the horrors of War as it actually happened! It defies Common Sense.

Everything is being recorded these days, and it is this video hidden from the American Public clearly demonstrating the horrors of War the American people pay for without question, that made Wikileaks a “Terrorist” to those Authorities who want to keep their own evil deeds under wraps and out of the Public Eye.

As bad as the Boston Marathon murders were in the loss of innocent lives, and the 24/7 patriotic pap fed to Americans by the media, what about this loss of innocent life at the hands of Americans? Does the Biblical injunction ‘what you sow, so shall you reap’ not apply to Americans and other Nations?

“At least a dozen American governmental agencies, including the Pentagon, the FBI, the Army’s Criminal Investigative Department, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Diplomatic Security Service, are assigned to the WikiLeaks case, while the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are assigned to track down WikiLeaks’ supposed breaches of security. The global assault—which saw Australia threaten to revoke Assange’s passport—is part of the terrifying metamorphosis of the “war on terror” into a wider war on civil liberties. It has become a hunt not for actual terrorists but a hunt for all those with the ability to expose the mounting crimes of the power elite.”

LEAKED US MILITARY MANUAL FOR POLICING HOMELAND INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR POLITICAL DISSIDENTS

See how terrified the Public Administrators are the People will wake up to their crimes done out of the Public Eye?

“And there is a well-orchestrated campaign of character assassination against Assange, including mischaracterizations of the sexual misconduct case brought against him by Swedish police. Assange has not formally been charged with a crime. The two women involved have not accused him of rape.

Bradley Manning’s heroism extends to his steadfast refusal, despite what appears to be tremendous pressure, to implicate Assange in espionage. If Manning alleges that Assange had instructed him on how to ferret out classified documents, the U.S. might try to charge Assange with espionage.

Statement of Bradley Manning to the Courts Martial

Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy after exhausting his fight to avoid extradition from the United Kingdom to Sweden. He and his lawyers say that an extradition to Sweden would mean an extradition to the U.S. If Sweden refused to comply with U.S demands for Assange, kidnapping, or “extraordinary rendition,” would remain an option for Washington.

Kidnapping was given legal cover by a 1989 memorandum issued by the Justice Department stating that “the FBI may use its statutory authority to investigate and arrest individuals for violating United States law, even if the FBI’s actions contravene customary international law” and that an “arrest that is inconsistent with international or foreign law does not violate the Fourth Amendment.” This is a stunning example of the security and surveillance state’s Orwellian doublespeak. The persecution of Assange and WikiLeaks and the practice of extraordinary rendition embody the shredding of the Fourth Amendment, which was designed to protect us from unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.”

Do you remember the US going to the United Nations Security Council with all that false and misleading information asking for “permission” to invade Iraq?  The UN is the repository of Internationl Law, governing the rules of behaviour among Nations. Each Member State is Sovereign in writing and applying their own National Laws.

The UN is only as good as it’s Member States. The US claims to always hold the highest moral and legal ground among all Nations of this earth. What example did the US set for others when it defied the UN in refusing to sanction the invasion of Iraq, but did it anyway? This was contrary to the UN and International Law? Who but God can bring the US to Court?

When the most powerful Nation can violate International Law with impunity, logically thinking people will know, under the thin veneer we call Civilization, lurks the Law of the Jungle. It is assuredly breaking through with that kind of behaviour by the ruling elite! They don’t want to be exposed. Kill the messenger is the US response to Julian Assuage.

In a Democracy, the people generally get the government they deserve. CPAC does not reveal to the People what their government is doing behind the scenes. The POWER does not want their People to know how double dealing they can be in the power centres of this world they want to control. This is an example from Chris’s report on the value of Wikileaks contribution to transparency;

“In 1975 Kissinger during a conversation with the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and two Turkish and Cypriot diplomats assured his hosts that he could work around an official arms embargo then in effect. He is quoted in the documents as saying: “Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, ‘The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.’ [laughter] But since the Freedom of Information Act, I’m afraid to say things like that.”

The documents, along with detailing collaborations with the military dictatorships in Spain and Greece, show that Washington created a torture exemption to allow the military government in Brazil to receive U.S. aid.”

When the peaceful ’79 Iranian Revolution replaced the American imposed proxy Dictatorship of the Shah, the lessor thrones the British created in the Middle East thought they might be next. Even though the American/Shah’s regime was a Dictatorship as brutal as any the Americans say they are against, he followed US Dictates so he was a good for the Americans Dictator. His throne did have some historical legitimacy, going all the way back to the Persian Empire as compared to those Royal Oil Sheikdoms the British created after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, to serve as proxies for British interests.

The problem for the Americans was how to nip that Peaceful Iranian Revolution in the bud? Peaceful Revolutions would put the International Arms dealers out of business. They could not tolerate Peaceful Revolutions. The Truth is the US is the biggest arms dealer the world has ever produced. There is a great conflict of interest in maintaining that position. Conflicts must be created overtly or covertly.

When he was useful to British/American interests, Saddam was the only one in the position to put the boots on the ground as the West’s proxy army in starting the brutal 8 year war to distract the Iranians from exporting their Peaceful Revolution.  The US and the West financed Iraq in waging that war ending in a stalemate after 1,000,000 deaths on both sides.

While I have no proof, my gut tells me the West promised Saddam the return of Kuwait, the 13th Province the British carved out of Iraq and renamed Kuwait, for putting Iraqi lives in harms way for the American interest. I think Saddam was double-crossed and went into Kuwait anyway like the US invaded Iraq without UN sanction. The rest is history.

“Assange said he sees WikiLeaks’ primary role as giving a voice to the victims of U.S. wars and proxy wars by using leaked documents to tell their stories. The release of the Afghan and Iraq War Logs, he said, disclosed the extent of civilian death and suffering, and the plethora of lies told by the Pentagon and the state to conceal the human toll. The logs, Assange said, also unmasked the bankruptcy of the traditional press and its obsequious service as war propagandists.”

Please go here to read the rest of “The Death of Truth” as Chris Hedges wrote it, and give it your thoughtful consideration.

In the final analysis, as Chris says, if the mainstream media do not stand up for Julian Assuange and Bradley Manning, there will no Democratic Freedom of the Press remaining in the Fascist Dictatorship surreptitiously usurping Democracy as we have known it.

You can lead a horse to water,
but you can’t make it drink!

You can lead a person to knowledge,
but you can’t make them think!

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness.

None calls for Justice, nor any pleads for Truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and they make hast to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

The way of Peace they know not; and there is no Judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goes in there shall not know Peace.

Therefore is Judgment far from us, neither does Justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for Judgment, but there is none; for Salvation, but it is far off from us.

For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

And Judgment is turned away backward, and Justice stands afar off: for TRUTH is fallen in the street, and EQUITY cannot enter.
Yea, Truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no Judgment.
Isaiah 59

The Foundation of the United Nations Building in New York