It's Started

This was an ominous Sunday morning (4/18/10) with a sinister echo of the events which led to the horrific Iraq War. On the front page of The New York Times was a misleading warmongering article conveniently coordinated with Sunday morning talk shows.

Bill Moyers' excellent PBS DVD "Buying the War" documents over and over the way false front-page New York Times articles were planted by neocon warmongers and then further publicized on Sunday TV talk shows in the push to war.

Anonymous sources continue to predominate. Today's article quotes a "senior official" describing a January memo by Defense Secretary Gates as a "wake-up call" regarding the administration's need for planning a war with Iran. Later today, Secretary Gates called this article a mischaracterization of the memo which was in no way such a "wake-up call."

The Israel Lobby neocons' main message is that "diplomacy has failed," so we must precede to crippling sanctions and/or war. The truth is, however, that diplomacy has barely been given a chance.

For instance, as reported by Iranian expert Hooman Majd on Politico 4/13/10, there has been little notice of Iran's many diplomatic offers "including the most recent, last week, from Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Mottaki said Iran would put most of its enriched uranium stockpile under 24-hour IAEA supervision until it was removed from the country simultaneously with the West's delivery of fuel rods with higher-enriched uranium."

Unfortunately, we won't be seeing articles about these Iranian offers on the front pages of our major newspapers, just as we never saw the important pre-Iraq War articles by Knight Ridder reporters Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay. Their work refuted the neocons' pro-war propaganda and should have served to save us from the unnecessary Iraq War.

How To Spot An Israel-Firster

Israel-firsters are Americans who put the interests of Israel ahead of the interests of America. Here's how to spot them:

1. Their conditioned response to any criticism of Israeli policies is to cry out "anti-Semite!" or "self-hating Jew!"
2. They have an abject hatred for the United Nations because of such resolutions as UN Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
3. They hate the "O" word altogether, instead offering up such euphemistic pleasantries as "disputed" territories or even "war-won" territories.
4. They particularly avoid mentioning the Occupation when decrying actions by resistance groups such as Hamas, thus obscuring exactly what it is Hamas is resisting.
5. They shun international law, preferring Biblical law, as in "this land is our land because the Bible says so."
6. They allege we were hit on 9/11 because "Islamists want to spread their religion," hiding the fact that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said he hates us because of our foreign policy bias towards Israel. (See The 9/11 Commission Report page 147).
7. They insist Middle East peace is impossible, so don't bother trying. They enjoy the status quo.
8. But if we do try to make peace, we must not be even-handed, because that would be "anti-Israel."
9. They specialize in re-writing history. (See previous blog "The Israel Lobby's Devious Myths" 1/17/10).
10. When confronted by proof of Israeli atrocities and war crimes, such as ethnic cleansing, apartheid conditions, collective punishment with white phosphorous, etc, they reflexively bellow "Remember the Holocaust!"
11. They are horrified at the concept of diplomacy and thus parrot their assertion that Muslims only respond to "shock and awe."
12. They are pushing America to go to war with the 57 nations that do not recognize Israel (because of Israel's illegal occupations). We are already fighting in five of them: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen. Iran is next on their wish list. They have no interest in preserving American blood or treasure: all must be sacrificed for Greater Israel (ie settlement expansion).

Because of our Invasion: An Opium Plague

The US has long stressed to President Karzai the importance of combating corruption in Afghanistan, but of course corruption is inevitable in a narcostate. Although the Taliban had successfully banned opium production in 2000, our invasion, aided by Northern Alliance drug lords, brought it back with a vengeance. Afghanistan now supplies most of the world's opium. (See previous blog "Out of Afghanistan" September 10, 2009.)

Along with opium production comes opium and heroin addiction, not only in Afghanistan, but also in its neighbors and in the West. Due to its proximity to Afghanistan, heroin addiction is rampant in Russia, for instance. The BBC World News April 1, 2010 reported that 30,000 heroin addicts die in Russia each year. The New York Times (10/23/09) noted that the annual toll in NATO countries is estimated to be greater than 10,000. An AP report by Rukmini Callimachi (8/9/09) describes the consequences of opium in rural Afghanistan. In the town of Sarab, population 1850, half the town are now opium addicts, up from just one family years ago. A once well-to-do farmer becomes penniless, selling everything he has to buy opium, even sacrificing the children's food money and blowing opium smoke in the children's mouths instead.

In our recent Afghanistan "surge," we have "turned a blind eye" to opium cultivation. (The New York Times 3/21/10). In fact, a recent report by the State Department inspector general is highly critical of our anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan (The New York Times 12/24/09).

It is often observed that there is no military solution in Afghanistan, and President Karzai recently complained that left alone he could strike a peace deal with the Taliban, but the United States refuses to allow him. (The New York Times 3/30/10) Obviously the best thing for Afghanistan and the world is peace leading to a re-banning of the opium crop.