posted April 20, 2003 at 7:26 a.m. MDTA couple of thousand years ago the Roman Empire, responding to the demands of local oligarchs, executed a popular dissident by hanging him from a cross and publically exposing him. Interesting stuff, history.
Hawai'i and the Rosy Dawn of US Imperialism - "110 years ago, U.S. Marines, acting at the invitation of wealthy haole (white) sugar planters, invaded the Kingdom of Hawai'i and overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani, eighth monarch in the line of King Kamehameha I. A day, to coin a phrase, that lives in infamy. Five years later, Hawai'i was formally annexed by the U.S.; it became a U.S. "territory" in 1900, and the fiftieth state in 1959."
The Bush Vision and the Culture
of Power - " ... For those too young to recall or those with short memories, the four above mentioned characters conspired to circumvent congressional defunding of the Contras, the group President Reagan had chosen in the early 1980s to depose the government of Nicaragua. These four and their cohorts hatched a plot to sell weapons to Iran (also prohibited) so that they could funnel the proceeds to their beloved Contras ands then cover it up.
In his testimony to Congress, the scrappy Abrams made witness history when he declared: "I never said I had no idea about most of the things you said I had no idea about." The now 54 year old Abrams also explained in his autobiography that he had to inform his young children about the headline announcing his indictment, so he told them he had to lie to Congress to protect the national interest.
The then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State to Central America pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress and received two years probation and 100 hours community work. Now, the 54 year old Abrams as the new White House man on the Middle East, having learned that one can get away with felonious behavior if you maintain close links to the Bush family, will attempt to redraw the roadmap of the Middle East. Secretary of State Colin Powell drafted a plan for designing a peaceful solution and eventually a Palestinian state. The vision, by deduction, amounts to a rubber stamp for Israeli repression and expansion."
Another Century of War? - "A foreign policy that is both immoral and unsuccessful is not simply stupid, it is increasingly dangerous to those who practice or favor it. That is the predicament that the United States now confronts.
Communism no longer exists, American military power has never been greater, but the U.S. has never been so insecure and its people more vulnerable. After fifty years of interventions in the affairs of dozens of nations on every continent, interventions that varied from training police and armies to supplying them with lethal equipment and advisers to teach them how to use it, after two major wars involving its own manpower for years, America's sustained, intense, and costly efforts have only culminated in greater risks to itself. There is more instability and violence in the world than ever, and now it has finally reached its own shores--and its political leaders have declared it will continue. By any criterion, above all the security of its own citizens, the U.S.' international policies, whether military or political, have produced consummate failures. It is neither realistic nor ethical. It is a shambles of confusions and contradictions, pious, superficial morality combined with cynical adventurism, all of which has undermined, not strengthened, the safety of the American people and left a world more dangerous than ever."
Safer, but how safe? [economist.com] - "A lot of time and money is going into protecting New York. More is needed." [emph added hfx_ben]
"A rebel against the gods, punished by Zeus, poor Atlas had to bear the burden of carrying the heavens on his shoulders. New Yorkers will sympathise. “Operation Atlas”, the Big Apple's security plan, is a heavy load, costing the cash-strapped city $13m a week. And people are wondering whether it will be wise for the city to lower its guard as the Iraq war ends."
