Understanding the U.S. War State

John McMurtry

The following essay was delivered at a forum entitled "The Assault on Iraq and the War Against Democracy: How Should Canadians Respond?" held on Sunday March 23, 2003 in Toronto, Ontario, under the auspices of Science for Peace.

"It is easy. All you have to do is tell the people they are being attacked, and denounce the the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." ~ Hermann Göring

Genocide used to be a crime without a name. Although the most heinous of all crimes, the concept was not introduced into international language until after World War 2. Until then, military invasion and destruction of other peoples and cultures masqueraded under such slogans as progress and spreading civilisation.

I was shocked many years ago when I heard Noam Chomsky say that genocide was America's defining political tradition. Then I realised that the United States (like Canada to a much lesser extent) was based on destroying the lives and cultures of the 25 million or so first peoples who had lived in America for millennia. In the case of the U.S., the story continued with the forcible seizure of Texas in 1845 from Mexican farmers and indigenous peoples, and Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, California and other state territories shortly afterward in 1849. U.S. troops under the slave-owning General Zachary Taylor unilaterally invaded its southern neighbour under the false pretext of avenging American blood, and General Taylor soon vaulted into the White House as a presidential war hero. Even though a young Congressman, Abraham Lincoln, exposed the pretext, and connected it to a Anglo-British business strategy to impose free trade on the regions by financing the prior president, James Polk, into the White House as General Taylor's commander.


Can We Stop This?

Kenny's Sideshow

Something needs to be done. Is it too late?

The crisis in Syria could possibly become totally out of control if the US takes direct interventionist measures. We can only imagine the chaos that could arise. What will Russia do?

The Sunday talking head warmongers have been doing their best to please their masters by interviewing every crazed psychopath they can get to come on their lie machine. My own senator, the inhuman Bob Corker, is calling for action now.

Assad is allowing UN inspectors to go to the site of the false flag chemical attack but an unnamed US official says 'it's too late baby now it's too late,' Syria's credibility is shot and there was little doubt the government was to blame. Obama and Cameron have been plotting. They want Iran too and are a danger to the world.

So is there anything we the people can do? We have not stopped the push to war at all for the last hundred years. At the best it has only been slowed down a bit. The 'seven countries in five years,' the Oded Yinon plan and 'A Clean Break' are behind schedule. The PNAC manifesto is still a work in progress.

The anti-war left is dead. There will be little protesting in the streets but for what it may be worth there needs to be although a few 'domestic terrorist' events may be necessary to to put an end to any peacenik endeavors.


President al-Assad: Syria will never become a western puppet state

Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)

President al-Assad: Syria will never become a western puppet state, we will fight terrorism and freely build relationships that best serve the interests of the Syrians.

President Bashar al-Assad stressed that Syria is a sovereign country that will fight terrorism and will freely build relationships with countries in a way that best serves the interests of the Syrian people. In an interview with the Russian newspaper of Izvestia, President al-Assad stressed that "the majority of those we are fighting are Takfiris, who adopt the al-Qaeda doctrine, in addition to a small number of outlaws." On the alleged use of chemical weapons, President al-Assad said that the statements by the US administration, the West and other countries were made with disdain and blatant disrespect of their own public opinion, adding that "there isn’t a body in the world, let alone a superpower, that makes an accusation and then goes about collecting evidence to prove its point." His Excellency stressed that these accusations are completely politicised and come on the back of the advances made by the Syrian Army against the terrorists.


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