An enemy of " Liberalism " & Democracy & Pluralism .
Henri Ford's Newspaper The Dearborn Independent published a series of some 91 anti-Semitic articles in the 1920s. The Jews Ford believed were responsible for all that was in his view wrong with society. Like other anti-Semites he believed the Jews were working behind the scenes supporting Marxism , socialism , liberalism , labor unions and all those agitating for equal rights and justice for all etc. Anti-Semitism was at that time as American as apple pie. But of course so was racism in general at that time and continued, at least, legally as such up to the mid 1960s. And even today in America racism continues in various ways as in police harassment of Blacks, Hispanics and other visible minorities . Racism continues to play a part in the courts and the Justice system , in employment and the schools and universities and in immigration policies . So Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and John McCain may act as if there is no racism in America but they are either deluded , ill-informed or are indifferent since they are more interested in the American white middle class and the Professional class . If in doubt just take note of the attacks on Barack Obama by the other presidential hopefuls and the media and the Fascist Neocons and the Christian Religious Right in America .
Henri Ford Receiving the German/Nazi Golden Eagle of the Iron Cross for his anti-Semitic writings & for his financial contributions to Hitler and the Nazi party.
" WAR " BY Henri RousseauNote : update 3:23 pm.
Anyway the Iraq War those in power tell us must continue for years if not decades to come. There is a greater chance as time goes by that America will next attack Iran. Since now we are told the reason America is in Iraq is to fight Iranian forces that have infiltrated Iraq. So next stop Iran.
And once again General Petraeus Betrays the American people and sentences thousands of innocent Iraqis to be slaughtered in their HOMELAND. Americans seem to forget that the Iraqi people consider their country as their Homeland . The Iraqis like any people are willing to fight anyone who invades and occupies their country and who refuses to allow them to govern themselves. The Iraqis are also willing to fight to regain their individual and collective rights such as the Right to free speech, the right of a free-press , the right to free association, the right to peaceful assembly or to peacefully demonstrate in the streets of the cities of " their country" as well as their right to Justice and fair trials and freedom from arbitrary search and seizure and/or detention. According to the Bush Regime and many Americans only Americans are to be guarnteed these rights.
So for example from Huffington Post we get this article by Robert Scheer
Petraeus' Testimony: Everything His President Wants to Hear /April 9, 2008
General Betray Us? Of course he has. MoveOn.org can hardly be expected to recycle its slogan from last September, when Gen. David Petraeus testified in support of escalating the U.S. war in Iraq, given the hysterical denunciations that worthy group received at the time. But it was right then -- as it would be to repeat the charge now.
By undercutting the widespread support for getting out of Iraq, Petraeus did indeed betray the American public, siding with an enormously unpopular president who wants to stay the course in Iraq for personal and political reasons that run contrary to genuine national security interests. Once again, the president is passing the buck to the uniformed military to justify continuing a ludicrous imperial adventure, and the good general has dutifully performed.
...We have had many other examples of retired military officers asserting the need for informed and rational public decision making as to matters of war and peace. Republican presidential candidate John McCain was one of those voices when, as a senator, he led the fight, along with fellow Vietnam War veteran John Kerry, to normalize relations with the same Communist leadership in Hanoi that had once been our enemy. Does anyone, McCain included, now think we were wrong to bring the troops home from Vietnam -- and just why are the dire consequences that McCain now predicts for a withdrawal from Iraq any more plausible?
McCain says we have to back the president and his generals, even though he concedes that "four years of mismanaged war had brought us almost to the point of no return." Who mismanaged that war if not Bush and the generals he picked for the task? But don't blame the generals, for as long as a president demands victory, they will pretend to deliver it. If they demur, they will be replaced, as recently occurred with the sudden retirement of Petraeus' boss, Admiral William Fallon, for his suggestion in Esquire magazine that he might favor a more restrained approach in a conflict with Iran.
No such dissension from Petraeus -- his faithful testimony, at least to the president if not the truth, on Tuesday was a particularly painful performance. Civilian deaths in March were 50 percent higher than in February, and there were a score of recent American deaths, and there is no evidence of political progress to support Petraeus' stab at optimism over the "fragile" situation in Iraq. Most absurd was the suggestion that the problem would all go away if Iran would only behave, when in fact American troops are being sacrificed on the pro-Iranian side of an internal Shiite power dispute. The Shiites in charge of "our" government in Iraq are exiles trained for decades in Iran.
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And again we get reports of women working with contracors in Iraq being sexually assaulted and then told not to talk about it or make waves. It is argued by the companies involved that according to the contacts these women signed such matters as sexual assault are to be handled by the company and not the Criminal courts . As Karen Houppert points out in a recent article in The Nation Another Brutal Rape Cover-Up at KBR Karen Houppert, The Nation. April 4, 2008.
Another female KBR employee has come forward with allegations of sexual assault in Iraq
Most of these complaints never see the light of day, thanks to the fine print in employee contracts that compels employees into binding arbitration instead of allowing their complaints to be tried in a public courtroom. Criminal prosecutions are practically nonexistent, as the U.S. Justice Department has turned a blind eye to these cases.
...Even more appalling, the Justice Department, which can and should prosecute most of these cases, has declined to do so. "There is no rational explanation for this," says Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School who specializes in the law of armed conflict. Prosecutorial jurisdiction for crimes like Jones' alleged rape is easily established under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and the Patriot Act's special maritime and territorial jurisdiction provisions. But somebody has to want to prosecute the cases.
Horton wonders what the 200 Justice Department employees and contractors stationed in Iraq do all day, noting that there has not been a single completed criminal conviction against a U.S. contractor implicated in a violent crime anywhere in Iraq since the invasion.
"We have a complete process in place for solving military criminal violations when soldiers commit crimes, but for the 180,000 employees of private contractors over there, there is nothing," says Horton. "It's like Texas west of the Pecos in 1890 over there!" It's just common sense that you're going to have some violent crimes when you throw this many people together, he says. "Think about it. You have 180,000 people over there, you're going to have a few crimes. I don't know how anybody could fairly view this as a partisan issue. Crimes happen when you bring people together anywhere, and in a war setting, without adult supervision, crimes are going to increase. That is just a fact. And if you eliminate law enforcement, the crimes are going to get worse because people will quickly learn they can get away with it."
And from Truthout we get this story from ABC NEWS:Military Mom Says She Was Brutally Raped in Iraq
By Maddy Sauer ABC News
Wednesday 09 April 2008
Dawn Leamon, who alleges she was raped by two men, will tell her story on Capitol Hill.
Yet another woman has come forward saying she was brutally raped in Iraq while working for the U.S. contractor Kellogg Brown Root (KBR).
Dawn Leamon, who has two sons on active duty, says she was raped earlier this year by a U.S. soldier and a KBR colleague.
She will tell her horrific story to members of Congress today at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Leamon says that following her rape, she spoke with a woman at the KBR Employee Assistance Program. "She discouraged me from reporting, saying, 'You know what will happen if you do,'" Leamon said.
Leamon says KBR then assigned full-time security guards to her which gave her no privacy to talk about the incident, and her movements around camp were restricted, yet her attackers' movements were unrestricted.
"KBR did little or nothing to restore my sense of safety after I reported being raped," said Leamon.
KBR released the following statement to ABC News this morning. "First and foremost, KBR in no way condones or tolerates sexual harassment. Each employee is expected to adhere to the Company's Code of Business Conduct, and when violations occur, appropriate action is taken. Any reported allegation of sexual harassment or sexual assault is taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. KBR's top priority is the safety and security of all employees, and our commitment in that regard is unwavering."
Also at today's hearing, for the first time the Department of Justice is slated to answer questions on the investigation and prosecution of alleged sex crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. No one has yet been charged in Leamon's case.
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Is this a case of another one of those great values cherished by Americans that of ' Boys will be Boys ' and women who want to work with men have to accept the risks of being sexually harrased or even assaulted and raped. Maybe the idea is that when women realize that when it comes to working in Iraq they will not be protected by the American Military or by American Contractors in Iraq or by the American Justice system and therefore they should not apply for such jobs. Given the dangers of being a woman in the military not from the enemy so much but from their male counterparts it would be best for women not to insist on working alongside their male counterparts doing similar jobs. The military as Ann Coulter and other Neocons point out is not a proper place for women to be. So maybe when enough women are abused women will give up any such notions as being in the military as equals to the men in the military or to work for private contracors doing what are essentilly and traditionaly men's jobs.. So the role of women in a Theatre of War should be that of nurses , doctors, and secretaries or if necessary working in armament factories in the Homeland as they did in past conflicts.
Is this all just part of America's militaristic Macho Society . Women accordingly should be at home having more babies who can become future soldiers or the soldiers wives . In their attitudes regarding the role and rights of women more and more the American Military and The Bush Regime and their Neoconservative supporters seem to have more in common with The Taliban and other Islamic extremists . They see such notions as equality between men and women as just another wrong-headed belief of the evil 'liberals ' or Secular -Humanists. Women in their view are just fundamentally different from men and have a different contribution to make to society.
Or is the message simply that the role ogf government should be limited and that whatever happens on the job should be dealt with by the employer in whatever way they see fit. This is just typical " Laissez-Faire " capitalism. And as I have argued before those who favor this form of capitalism resent all the government regulations which they believe are an unnecessary burden on corporations . So I guess if an employer wants to hire six year old then he should be allowed to. Though it is from their point of view wrong to put the matter as if the government needs to give permission to an employer. It is they believe the God- Given right of an employer to do as he pleases. Whatever will increase his profits is therefore permissible. The Neocons see all these rules about occupational safety or the rights of the worker and regulations dealing with environmental concerns or product safety etc. as a load of crap. They see these regulations as just part of an " anti-capitalist mind-set ". Or as part of a Pinko Commie Liberal plot as Archie Bunker might put it. The only God Given Right Neocons believe in is the Rights of Property and the Right to make Profits. And if an employer doesn't want to hire women or gays or Hispanics or Blacks or anyone else that's their right. Just like the good old days.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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