THE GENERALS' REVOLT
AGAINST THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY
"A good [military] ... commander ... needs the absence of the highest and best human attributes ... God forbid that he should be humane, should love, or pity, or consider what is just and unjust."
- Leo Tolstoy
By: S.R. Shearer
August 10, 2009
The original Joint Chiefs of Staff - an institution that today has become a nightmare for civilian authority over the military.
INTRODUCTION
Earlier this year (2009) Gareth Porter, an investigative journalist and an analyst on U.S. foreign and military policy worried out loud that Obama was facing a "General's Revolt" insofar as his military policy in the Middle East and Central Asia was concerned.
General Petraeus (left); General Odierno (right).
According to Porter, the revolt was being led, at least on the surface, by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus - who is in charge of all U.S. military activities in the Middle East and Central Asia - and Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq.
Petraeus and Odierno were being supported (most say "guided") in their insubordination by retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, one of the authors of the Bush troop surge policy and a close political ally and MENTOR of Gen. Petraeus.
General Jack Keane
A VIDEO ON GENERAL JACK
KEANE BY GARETH PORTERPORTER SEES KEANE AS THE REAL "PUPPET MASTER" - A KIND OF MAFIA DON - BEHIND THE "GENERAL'S REVOLT," WITH PETRAEUS AND ODIERNO PLAYING SUBSERVIANT ROLES. PORTER ALSO SEES KEANE AS A CENTRAL FIGURE TYING THE MILITARY AND THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY TOGETHER IN OPPOSITION TO THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY.
Porter writes:
"The opening ... [shot] by the Petraeus-Odierno faction against Obama ... was revealed the evening of the Jan. 21 [2009] meeting [between Petraeus and Obama] when retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, one of the authors of the Bush troop surge policy and a close political ally and mentor of Gen. Petraeus, appeared on the Lehrer News Hour to comment on Obama's pledge on Iraq combat troop withdrawal.
"Keane, who had certainly been briefed by Petraeus on ... [Obama's insistence during the meeting] to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, argued that implementing such a [quick] withdrawal of combat troops would 'increase the risk rather dramatically ...' He asserted that it would jeopardize the 'stable political situation in Iraq' and called that risk 'not acceptable'."
NOTE: As active-duty generals, both Petraeus and Odierno are precluded from OPENLY opposing the military policies of the United States; specifically, those of Obama as Commander-in-Chief; it's precisely because of this that Keane retired from the army: so that he could lead a generals' rebellion against Obama in the OPEN by -
- Organizing the rebellion without being charged CRIMINALLY for insubordination.
- Acting as a conduit between the nation's officer corps and the public insofar as the military's dissatisfaction with Obama's leadership is concerned.
- Drawing into the rebellion the defense and oil industries, and prevailing upon them to financially support the rebellion through their considerable largesse and their contacts in Congress - both Republicans and "blue-dog" Democrats.
[Keane sits on the board of General Dynamics, one of the nation's biggest defense contractors; he also is closely connected to the Carlyle Group (Please see our article, "The Fourth Horsemen of the Apocalypse" for information on the Carlyle Group).]
- Establishing contacts between the Religious Right and the officer corps.
- Establishing contacts between the officer corps and right-wing political elements throughout the country.
THE IMMEDIATE AIM
"Liberals" - ostensibly destroying the American army with their pencils and pens, and doing to the army what the enemy could not do on the battlefield.
OF THE REBELLIONThe immediate aim of the generals' revolt is to crush Obama's attempt to curtail U.S. combat operations in the Middle East and Central Asia. Porter says:
"The assertion that Obama's withdrawal policy threatens the gains allegedly won by the Bush surge and Petraeus's strategy in Iraq will apparently be the theme of the campaign that military opponents are now planning [against their commander-in-chief]."
And there should be little doubt as to what Obama wants to do; Fred Kaplan, a journalist and a correspondent for the Boston Globe, writing in Slate, describes Obama's "vision" for the Middle East; he begins by acknowledging that, at least publicly -
"... the president's vision of post-withdrawal Iraq is ... a little hazy. In his speech [of January, 2009] he talked about continuing to assist Iraq economically, coordinating regional diplomatic efforts to sustain its stability, and serving as an 'honest broker' to help settle internal disputes."
However, Kaplan goes on to say that "if all hell breaks loose" OBAMA IS WILLING TO LET THE MILITARY GAINS THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WON IN IRAQ GO BY THE WAYSIDE; this is also what Obama wants to do in Afghanistan: After a short "surge" to prove that he is "tough," he wants to "cut a deal" and run. Kaplan writes:
"The bottom line is ... this: President Obama simply wants to get out of Iraq [and Afghanistan] ... His [domestic] budget plans depend on a drastic winding down of this war. So does his broader legislative agenda."
Plainly put, Obama wants to divert the money he believes is being wasted on military adventures in the Middle East and Central Asia to repair the economy, revamp the health care system, and address the long-term problems of energy and climate.
THE GENERALS ARE FURIOUS: THEY
DO NOT WANT A REPEAT OF VIETNAM
However, if bringing the troops home before "victory is secured" in the Middle East and Central Asia is what Obama wants to do, it would mean that the Democrats are set on a course of action THAT CANNOT HELP BUT LEAD TO A REPEAT OF THE DISASTER (AND EVEN DISGRACE) THE DEMOCRATS INFLICTED ON THE ARMY THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO WHEN - AFTER THE ARMY HAD FINALLY PACIFIED THE COUNTRYSIDE IN SOUTH VIETNAM AT A COST OF 57,000 LIVES - IT SAW ALL ITS GAINS THROWN AWAY BY DEMOCRATIC PARTY "PEACENIKS" WHO - FUELED BY THE WATERGATE FIASCO - WERE EMBOLDENED TO VOTE AGAINST ANY FURTHER AID TO THE SOUTH.
The U.S. military: "Stabbed in the back by Democrats in Congress." The Generals want no more of this!! - and here they would probably even have the support of General Colin Powell who himself saw the army disgraced in this fashion in Vietnam.
Since then, the army has borne an undying HATRED towards the Democratic Party - a hatred that burns in the heart of just about every member of the officer corps, the exceptions of generals such as John Shalikashvili, John Adams, John Castellaw and others of their "ilk" notwithstanding.
Porter underlines the strong support that Keane has from a network of active and retired four-star Army generals; he says that these generals are prepared to "go to the mat" in a revolt against Obama. Porter goes on to say that the generals are preparing the ground for their rebellion by attempting to reach out to the American public for support:
"The ... network [of generals], which includes senior active duty officers in the Pentagon, are already beginning to make the argument to journalists covering the Pentagon that Obama's withdrawal policy risks an eventual collapse in Iraq ..."
LIBERALS SEE WHAT THE GENERALS
ARE DOING AS TREASONOUSDave Lindorff, a well-respected journalist connected to the Columbia School of Journalism, remarks that what the generals (and specifically, Petraeus and Odierno) are doing borders on being treasonous. He writes:
"If the article by Gareth Porter is correct that CentCom Commander Gen. David Petraeus and Iraq Commander Gen. Ray Odierno, backed by a group of [other] ... ranking generals, are planning to mount a ... campaign to try and undermine President Obama ... Obama needs to act fast and nip this dangerous act of insubordination in the bud."
Lindorff goes on to say that if Obama fails to meet the challenge these generals are posing insofar as his command of the nation's armed forces are concerned, he will find that - like Clinton before him - he will be permanently crippled. Lindorff explains:
A CLASH OF CULTURES: Gays holding hands in front of soldiers in prayer - soldiers who see themselves as representatives of an Old Testament God.
"It was a similar act of insubordination on the part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that effectively destroyed the Clinton administration almost from day one. Recall that one of President Clinton's first acts following his inauguration was to make good on a campaign promise to end discrimination against gays and lesbians in the military. His initial order was to simply end the ban on homosexuality in the military. But the Joint Chiefs publicly rebelled, and Clinton caved, coming up with the ridiculous and unworkable "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, under which gays and lesbians could serve in the military, but had to hide their sexual orientation or face ouster."
The problem in what Lindorff is saying here - according to Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University - is that he fails to recognize the seriousness of the fact that many of the junior officers at the time warned the Joint Chiefs of Staff that if they allowed Clinton's policy concerning gays in the military to be implemented -
"... they were likely to lose the loyalty of the junior officers."
That's serious "stuff," to say the least - THE KIND OF "STUFF" THAT MAKES SENIOR OFFICERS IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES TREMBLE; the fact is, most Coup d'Etats in Third World countries are engineered by junior officers as were the cases with Manuel Noriega in Panama and Robert Taylor in Liberia; the senior officers go along or are swept aside, and America may be closer to this reality than many realize.
THE ARMY FIGHTS ON
THE REPUBLICAN SIDEIn their struggle with Obama, however, the generals do not need to be pushed into a revolt by their junior officers; the generals seem to be as committed to such a revolt as the junior officers are; it is precisely here - in the clash between the military and Obama - that one can best see the outline of the larger struggle between the Left and the Right in this country that we discussed in our previous article, "The Left: Seeking to Destroy the Right - Root and Branch."
And there should be no doubt about it; as Bill Wasik - a senior editor at Harper's Magazine - says, in this struggle -
"... EVERYONE SEEMS TO AGREE THAT THE ARMED FORCES FIGHT ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE." [Please see our article, "An American Coup d'Etat."]
Richard Kohn, the chairman of the curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense at the University of North Carolina, agrees with Wasik; he writes:
"It has become part of the informal culture of the military to be Republican."
TRACING THE ORIGINS OF THE ALLIANCE
Brig. Gen. Charles J. Dunlap Jr., a staff judge advocate at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, traces the origins of this alliance back to the creation of the "all-volunteer army." He writes:
"The military is an inherently conservative organization, and this is true of all militaries around the world ... But since 1980, our military has become conservative in a more explicitly ideological sense. And that allegiance has been returned in spades by the conservative side in the culture war, which sees soldiers as virtuous representatives of how the country ought to be."
Bacevich agrees with Dunlap - and he goes on to say that "if truth be known," the liberals who worked so hard after the Vietnam War to end the draft and go to an "ALL VOLUNTEER ARMY" have only themselves to blame for the army's transformation into a bulwark of conservatism. He writes:
"Where do you think the recruiting command is focused on now? It's focused on evangelicals ... The recruiters go for the rich turf, which is the evangelical segment of society ... [or does one think that army recruits can be enlisted from liberal college campuses, and from Bel Air and the Hamptons]."
As a result, Kohn says:
"For the first time in our history, we now have an officer corps that identifies overwhelmingly with one political party: the Republican Party."
The result in all this is that the army - in drawing most of its recruits from the ranks of blue-collar evangelicals and Catholics - has created an organization that mirrors a belief systems that is the antithesis of the values of liberal Americans.
American soldiers on a crusade from God.
THIS IS THE "STUFF" FROM WHICH THE
NIGHTMARES OF THE LEFT ARE MADEChris Hedges, writing for Salon Magazine, SEES WHAT IS HAPPENING AS AN OMINOUS THREAT TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY; he is very much frightened that someday the military could turn on liberals in the United States. To Hedges, there is nothing ethereal about this possibility; it is real - AND IT IS MANIFESTING ITSELF NOW IN THE GENERALS' REVOLT AGAINST OBAMA; and he knows who is behind it: The Religious Right. He cites the extraordinary relationship the so-called "Christian Embassy" in Washington D.C. enjoys with the military:
"The politicization of the military, the fostering of the belief that violence can be used to further a peculiar ideology [meaning Christianity] rather than to defend democracy, was on display recently when Air Force and Army generals and colonels, filmed in uniform at the Pentagon, appeared in a promotional video distributed by the Christian Embassy, a radical Washington-based organization dedicated to building a 'Christian America'."
PLEASE SEE VIDEO BELOW
Hedges continues in his tirade against the Christian Embassy:
"Gen. Jack Catton says that his being an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff is a 'wonderful opportunity' to evangelize men and women setting defense policy. 'My first priority is my faith', he says. 'I think it's a huge impact ... You have many men and women who are seeking God's counsel and wisdom as they advise the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs] and the secretary of defense.
"Col. Ralph Benson, a Pentagon chaplain, says in the video: 'The Christian Embassy is a blessing to the Washington area, a blessing to our capital; it's a blessing to our country. They are interceding on behalf of people all over the United States, talking to ambassadors, talking to people in the Congress, in the Senate, talking to people in the Pentagon, and being able to share the message of Jesus Christ in a very, very important time when we are engaged in a worldwide war on terrorism. What more do we need than Christian people leading us and guiding us; so, they're needed in this hour'."
BURROWING DEEP INTO THE ARMY
Hedges goes on to say:
"This group [i.e., the 'Christian Embassy'] has burrowed deep inside the Pentagon. It hosts weekly Bible sessions with senior officers, by its own count some 40 generals, and weekly prayer breakfasts each Wednesday from 7 to 7:50 a.m. in the executive dining room, as well as numerous outreach events to, in the words of the organization, 'share and sharpen one another in their quest to bridge the gap between faith and work'."
Part of what Hedges calls the "burrowing process" is -
"... the drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, as part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America's open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy."
And make no mistake about it; if the Christian Right had its way, such a theocratic state would already be a reality; and the present loathing by the military for the Democratic Party (and liberals in general) indicates that the withdrawal strategy the Obama Administration is pushing (which, again, cannot help but in the end DISGRACE the army) could very well be the "straw that breaks the camel's back," as it were.
HOW THE MILITARY FEELS ABOUT DEMOCRATIC "PEACENIK"
PRESIDENTS SUCH AS CARTER, CLINTON AND OBAMA
ABOVE: The navy honors Republican presidents such as George H.W. Bush by naming super-carriers after them. Picture of carrier to the right; Bush at "christening" ceremony for the ship (left). [Reagan and Eisenhower were also honored in this fashion.]
On the other hand, the navy "spoofs" Democratic presidents such as Carter, Clinton and Obama. Picture above shows Clinton reviewing the troops; and the navy reciprocating by naming a BARGE after him. This is an actual spoof that was circulated widely in the U.S. military when Clinton was president.
THE "SPOOF" READS:
The US Navy welcomed the latest member of its fleet today. Pictured above: USS William Jefferson Clinton. CVS-1 set sail today from its home port of Vancouver, BC. [NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The Canadians are considered to be "pansies" and "wimps" by the American military - which, of course, is a patently unfair characterization!!]
The ship [a barge propelled by an ocean-going tug] is the first of its kind in the Navy and is a standing legacy to President Clinton. The ship is constructed entirely from recycled aluminum and is completely solar powered with a top speed of .5 knots. It boasts an arsenal comprised of one F18 Hornet aircraft which, although it cannot be launched from the 40 foot flight deck, forms a very menacing presence.
Bacevich, Kohn and Wasik all believe that Obama is putting the survival of his presidency at risk in challenging the generals insofar as getting out of the Middle East and Central Asia is concerned, and doing it regardless of whether or not that means DISGRACING the army again with another Vietnam-like defeat. All three men believe that could ultimately lead to a military coup d'etat.
LINDORFF: LIBERALS MUST
STAND UP TO THE GENERALS
Lindorff, however, is not swayed by this argument; he writes in a rage:
The general as a god and a savior: a reoccurring theme in American history as well as the history of many other nations.
"When Clinton, as commander in chief of the armed forces, allowed his generals to defy his orders, and, instead of sacking them all for insubordination and stripping off their stars, left them in their offices and surrendered to their objections, he didn't just cave in to the military. He also alerted the Republican opposition that he was a political pushover.
"IF COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OBAMA ALLOWS THIS INSUBORDINATION [REGARDING HIS PLANS FOR PULLING OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA] ... TO CONTINUE AMONG HIS SENIOR OFFICERS, HIS PRESIDENCY IS TOAST. He will be a prisoner to a militarist policy in Iraq and Afghanistan that will drag down his presidency ... Furthermore, just as Republicans in Congress saw Clinton's weakness in his dealings with the Joint Chiefs and began dogging his every more, they, and Obama's opponents among the Blue Dog Democrats in Congress, will see weakness and move against him.
"There is only one answer to this challenge to presidential authority: President Obama must sack both Petraeus and Odierno, and any other general who tries-openly or behind the scenes--to move politically against his military strategy and orders ...
"This is not just a matter of salvaging an Obama presidency. It is also a profound constitutional issue. There is no greater threat to democratic freedom than a military that refuses to accept, or that actively works to undermine civilian authority ..."
Lindorff concludes ominously:
"THE DANGER HERE IS THAT THE NATION'S TOP GENERALS ARE TRYING TO ELIMINATE OR EMASCULATE THE PRESIDENT'S ROLE AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, MAKING THE GENERALS THE REAL LEADERS OF THE NATION ..."
ARGUMENTS MADE IN THE ABSTRACT
The rantings of Lindorff and other liberals as to what Obama should do regarding the generals' revolt he is facing are, however, being made in the abstract. AND IT IS EXACTLY FOR THIS REASON THAT OBAMA IS MOVING VERY CAUTIOUSLY AGAINST THE GENERALS. Thus, while Obama is essentially sticking to his withdrawal timetable, he has steadfastly refused to dismiss the Generals. Again, Obama remembers what happened to Clinton - and there can be little doubt that he his haunted by what happened to JFK. [Please see our articles, "MK-ULTRA: The Search for the Manchurian Candidate," MK-ULTRA: & the Assassination of JFK - More Evidence, and "The Men Who Gathered Themselves together at the Home of Clint Murchison Forty Years Ago."]
After all, the "rogue elements" that assassinated JFK when he defied the advice of the CIA regarding Cuba, and then added insult to injury by moving to bring the troops home from Vietnam, are still in place - only more so! And this time, the CIA has the backing of the army.
NOTE: One should take little comfort from the fact that Leon Panetta, a Democratic Party HACK, has been placed in charge of the CIA; there is a "culture" in place in the CIA that no "political appointee" can ever adulterate - and that's exactly what Panetta is: a Democratic Party HACK. In like manner, it didn't do any good for Carter to put Stansfield Turner in charge of the CIA, nor did it do any good for Clinton to repeat the process with John Deutch, etc; Clinton's appointees failed as miserably as Carter's to change the "culture" at the agency.
OBAMA CAVES INTO THE GENERALS AND APPOINTS
GENERAL McCHRYSTAL AS COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTANMoreover, not only has Obama not sacked the generals that are moving against him - as Lindorff insists he must - he has caved into the Generals' demands that he place General Stanley McChrystal in command of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
McChrystal is EVERYTHING that liberals HATE. He is a former commander of the super-secret DELTA FORCE - which is a force made up of people that James Petras, a retired Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, SUNY (State University of New York), has said -
"... ARE PSYCHOS ... You have to be a certified psychopath to join the Delta Force ..." [a comment that he says a number of senior officers at Fort Bragg once told him].
=
PSYCHOS WITH GUNS
Speaking concerning McChrystal, Petras goes on to say:
"President Obama has now elevated the most notorious of these psychopaths, General Stanley McChrystal, to head the US and NATO military command in Afghanistan. McChrystal's rise to leadership is marked by his central role in directing special operations teams engaged in extrajudicial assassinations, systematic torture, bombing of civilian communities and search and destroy missions. He is the very embodiment of the brutality and gore that accompanies military-driven empire building. Between September 2003 and August 2008, McChrystal directed the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations (JSO) Command which operates special teams in overseas assassinations."
NOTE: McChrystal is a close associate of General William Boykin. THESE MEN SEE THEMSELVES AS "CHRISTIAN WARRIORS" in the style depicted by both the book and the movie Gods and Generals starring Jeff Daniels and Robert Duvall. The movie was a blockbuster that appeared during the opening phase of Bush's War in Iraq. [Please see more information on Boykin in our articles, "The God-Men of America's New World Order System" and "The Evil in Our Midst."]
Interestingly, the movie bathed the soldiers on both sides of the CIVIL WAR in an aura of Christian holiness - a kind of holiness that lends to American soldiers a connection with God that other mortals do not possess.
MEASURING THE BLOOD ON McCHRYSTAL'S HANDS: IT'S
SOMETHING THAT SHOULD MAKE OBAMA TREMBLEThe blood on McChrystal's hands is something that should make Obama and liberals in general consider seriously whether or not they want to provoke the generals any more than they already have; THESE ARE MEN WHO BELIEVE IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THEIR CAUSE AND WILL NOT BLINK AT KILLING THEIR ADVERSARIES. Take, for example McChrystal's history with Task Force 626 (aka, Task Force 145 and 121). [See our article: "The Cedars - The House on 24th St."]
McChrystal and Boykin, both of whom consider themselves to be "born-again" Christians, (see note above) are intimately involved in a hyper-secret organization known as Task Force 626. The New York Times reports that Task Force 626 was a creation of the Pentagon's post-Sept. 11 campaign against terrorism, and it quickly became the model for how the military would ... battle insurgents in the future. The unit was originally called Task Force 121. It's now referred to as Task Force 145. [For further information on the Christian mindset that permeates Task Force 121, please see our articles, "The Evil in our Midst" and "The Power of Self-Sacrifice: Taking up Your Cross and Following Him."]
Journalist Seymour Hersh, echoing Professor Petras, says the "killers" of Task Force 121 (aka 145 and 626) "... are the people most responsible for the savage brutality that is currently being carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. military." Like Petras, Hersh labels the unit as a rapid-deployment ASSASSINATION team built out of elite Special Operations forces from the Army, Navy and Air Force. He says that the individual death squads that comprise Task Force 121 have CIA officers officially "attached," and come with a large accompanying "conventional force" to seal off areas while the killing and "disappearing" take place. These are "Phoenix"-like operations and are similar to the kind of death squad campaigns that have been carried out for years and years by the American military and the CIA in Central and South America, Africa and elsewhere. [Please see our article, "The Death Squads: Bringing In The Kingdom Of God Through Terror, Torture And Death;" please also see "The Horror of John Dimitri Negroponte and Everything He Represents."]
As an example of the kind of activity that Task Force 121 (now Task Force 145), consider what happened several years ago in the Iraqi village of Abu Higham; U.S. occupation authorities believed that someone there was resisting the occupation, so occupation authorities responded with massive "collective punishment" - the kind of "collective punishment" that German (Nazi) authorities meted out to the inhabitants of occupied Europe during the Second World War.
The so-called Lidice Massacre is probably the best-known Nazi retaliation measure against a non-Jewish wartime population. It was carried out in connection with Reinhard Heydrich's assassination. The inhabitants of the village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia were falsely accused of having harbored Heydrich's attackers. During the night of June 10, 1942, German police and SS units surrounded the village. All men over age 15 were shot, and the women and children were sent to concentration camps. Then Lidice was burned to the ground. THIS IS THE KIND OF REPRISAL TASK FORCE 121 ADMINISTERED AGAINST THE CIVILIANS OF ABU HIGHAM.
The massacre at Abu Higham unfolded in this manner: First, the Americans sent a "message" to the inhabitants of the village by dropping an enormous 500-pound bomb on the village. The whole landscape quaked as several homes - evidently chosen at random - instantly became one huge crater.
Then five miles of razor wire were strung around the village, and a large "conventional force" from the 4th ID took up positions to prevent anyone from exiting or entering the town. After the perimeter was established, a group of heavily armed soldiers from Task Force 121 entered the village and rounded up the village elders - taking the mayor, the police chief, and most of the town council into custody and subjecting them to what has euphemistically become known as "intense interrogation" (i.e., torture). Shortly thereafter, a second team from Task Force 121 - armed with information gleaned from the "interrogations" of the village mayor, police chief, and members of the town council - re-entered the village and shots were heard that continued on intermittently throughout the night. Shortly before dawn, the second team from Task Force 121 exited the village with a large number of body bags and additional prisoners, all of whom were "disappeared."
This was an OLD TESTAMENT MILITARY OPERATION; the kind that God commanded Saul to carry out against the Amaleks:
"Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." (1 Samuel 15: 2-3)
The problem is, McChrystal is NOT Saul, nor David, nor any other Old Testament general, and the God he purports to serve has said:
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
"But I say unto you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." (Matthew 5: 43-44)
U.S. General Stanley McChrystal speaks during the change of command ceremony in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. McChrystal is Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin rolled up into one - AND HE IS FOR REAL! Sadly, however, that's not a good thing, that's a bad thing!
Still, that's EXACTLY how McChrystal, Boykin and all the rest of the generals who oppose Obama conceive of themselves - as servants of an Old Testament God. Petras continues:
"The point of the 'Special Operations' teams (SOTs) [which McChrystal commanded as head of DELTA FORCE] is that they do not distinguish between civilian and military oppositions, between activists and their sympathizers and the armed resistance. The SOTs specialize in establishing death squads and recruiting and training paramilitary forces to terrorize communities, neighborhoods and social movements opposing US client regimes. The SOTs' 'counter-terrorism' is terrorism in reverse, focusing on socio-political groups between US proxies and the armed resistance. McChrystal's SOTs targeted local and national insurgent leaders in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan through commando raids and air strikes. During the last 5 years of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld period, the SOTs were deeply implicated in the torture of political prisoners and suspects. McChrystal was a special favorite of Rumsfeld and Cheney because he was in charge of the 'direct action' forces of the 'Special Missions Units'. 'Direct Action' operatives are the death-squads and torturers and their only engagement with the local population is to terrorize, and not to propagandize. They engage in 'propaganda of the dead', assassinating local leaders to 'teach' the locals to obey and submit to the occupation."
OBVIOUSLY, PETRAS - A SECULARIST - HAS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE GOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT THAN DO MOST AMERICAN CHRISTIANS. MOREOVER, HE CONCURS IN OUR BELIEF THAT OBAMA'S APPOINTMENT OF McCHRYSTAL TO HEAD UP THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN IS INDICATIVE OF HOW MUCH OBAMA HAS "CAVED INTO" THE DEMANDS OF THE MILITARY; Hedges goes on to say:
"The new strategy practiced by McChrystal [in Afghanistan] involves large scale, long term 'special operations' to devastate and kill the local social networks and community leaders, which provide the support system for the armed resistance ... Putting McChrystal in charge of the expanded Afghanistan-Pakistan military operations means putting a notorious practitioner of military terrorism - the torture and assassination of opponents to US policy - at the center of US foreign policy."
THERE CAN BE NO QUESTION ABOUT McCHRYSTAL:
HE IS THE GENERAL FROM THE "DARK SIDE"Tom Engelhardt reiterates what Petras says:
"Stanley McChrystal is the general from the dark side (and proud of it) ... He comes from a world where killing by any means is the norm and a blanket of secrecy provides the necessary protection."
These are the people Dick Cheney once called -
"America's Jedi Knights" - those who fight in the shadows for justice and peace."
Of course, this is exactly the attitude the German people had for the Wehrmacht.
"GOTT MIT UNS" - This is the slogan worn on all the belt buckles of Germany's soldiers during World War II. The slogan means,
"God is on our Side."
And this is the result of what these soldiers did: The barracks of those unfortunates consigned to Germany's death camps; bodies of the killed; the crematoria.
Finally, these are the German soldiers who carried out the gruesome work at the death camps - while all the time wearing the slogan "God is on our Side" on their belt buckles.
LIBERALS EVERYWHERE ARE AGHAST
Liberals everywhere are aghast at McChrystal's appointment as commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. They are more than aware of McChrystal's bloody history. Sherwood Ross writes in the LA Progressive,
"AMERICA'S LIBERALS STAND BETRAYED."
He goes on to report on McChrystal's activities at Nama:
"McChrystal oversaw torture at Camp Nama near Baghdad which was 'notorious' for its 'beatings, degradation of prisoners and outright, cold-blooded murder'. As this painful recognition [of what Obama has done by appointing McChrystal to head up the U.S. command in Afghanistan] sinks in like iodine burning into a raw wound, America's humanist Left may yet muster its forces for a last-ditch fight to preserve a bit of sanity."
McChrystal's handiwork at Camp Nama: blood in one of the cells, naked prisoners being tortured and humiliated, prisoner who has been "bloodied," and finally, a prisoner who has been killed. (Pictures smuggled out of Camp Nama by American soldiers.)
Phyllis Bennis (CommonDreams.org), like Petras and Hedges, opines that liberals must force Obama's feet to the fire insofar as the generals are concerned; she says:
"After eight years of reckless slaughter proudly justified in the name of a 'global war on terror', it was stunning to hear the president of the United States announce what he called 'a new strategy to end the war in Iraq'. That moment was something we should celebrate. It was ours. The statement was a recognition of the powerful antiwar consensus in this country, a consensus that helped define the powerful constituency so key to Obama's election. Obama may not acknowledge, even to himself, that it was the organized antiwar movement that helped create and build and strengthen that consensus - but still his speech reflected the new political reality that requires him to speak to the demands of that antiwar community."
She goes on, however, to make plain her disappointment with Obama:
"From the vantage point of the peace movement, the speech was and remains insufficient, and shot through with wiggle room and loopholes. We know that President Obama's definition of 'ending the war' is not ours. Our definition has not changed:
- Withdraw all the troops and bring them home (don't redeploy them to another illegal and unwinnable war in Afghanistan).
- Pull out all the U.S.-paid foreign mercenaries and contractors, and cancel the remaining contracts.
- Close all U.S. military bases and turn them over to Iraq.
- Give up all efforts to control Iraq's oil.
Now stop and think about what she is demanding: that Obama close down America's private armies permanently, withdraw COMPLETELY from the Middle East and Central Asia (and in doing so, emasculate America's armed forces), and get America's oil companies out of the region: THOSE ARE FIGHTING WORDS INSOFAR AS AMERICA'S OIL ELITES AND THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY ARE CONCERNED, to say nothing of the military. Those are exactly the sentiments that will lead to a coup d'etat against Obama - and Obama is probably more than aware of this fact.
She goes on to say:
"While he laid out partial versions of some of these issues (withdrawal and oil), others (mercenaries and bases) were left out entirely. And at the end of the day, President Obama did not make a single real commitment to meeting our definition of ending the war. As New York Times columnist Bob Herbert described Obama's plan for Iraq and Afghanistan, 'we're committed to these two conflicts for a good while yet, and there is nothing like an etched-in-stone plan for concluding them'."
PLAINLY, OBAMA IS AFRAID OF THE MILITARY
It seems, however, that Obama has come to see the truth that Clinton, and, for that matter, JFK, failed to see early on in their presidencies: that one doesn't "mess with" the military and those forces allied with the military (i.e., the CIA); that - according to Bill Wasik,
"THESE FORCES FIGHT ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE."
And, again, if that's the case, than it is not inconceivable that - if Obama persists in the policies that the Left is pressing on him - the armed forces and their allies could turn on him when the opportunity presents itself. Once again, this is what worries Chris Hedges:
"If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown or a series of environmental disasters ... [AMERICA'S NEW CHRISTIAN ARMY] ... COULD SWIFTLY ABOLISH WHAT IS LEFT OF OUR ERODING DEMOCRACY. War, with the huge profits it hands to businesses and right-wing interests that often help bankroll the Christian right, could become a permanent condition."
Still, as we have previously indicated, Obama is no dummy; it seems that he has realized early on the danger he faces with regard to the military. He seems more than cognizant that the generals are not on his side, as it were; and that's true not only insofar as the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are concerned, but in the nation's larger "CULTURE WAR" - AND IN THIS WAR, IT'S THE ARMED FORCES THAT HAVE THE GUNS, NOT THE LIBERALS WHO SUPPORT OBAMA.
In this world, guns rule!
THE NEW "CHRISTIANIZED" ARMY POSES A SEVERE THREAT TO OBAMA & HIS SECULAR FOLLOWERS
And there can be no doubt as to the Christian underpinnings of America's "new army" - underpinnings that stand in stark contrast to the "universalist," "multi-cultural," multi-religious" and / or non-religious ethos of those who support Obama.
In his book, The Faith of the American Soldier, Stephen Mansfield describes the attributes of America's new "Christian Soldier;" he sees the "call to arms" as a holy calling similar to the call that was made on Christian knights of the 11th and 12th centuries who fought the Muslims in a "holy war" in the Middle East and Central Asia; he writes:
"He [the Christian knight] was intended to be the perfect merging of holy passion and military might, of spiritual devotion and martial skill. His calling was the defense of Christendom, a task he could only expect to fulfill with a pure heart and a holy life. His war, then, was as much to master himself as it was with the enemies of the realm. In fact, he believed he would never succeed in serving his king until he first succeeded in serving God."
Christian knights - then and now!
And one should make no mistake about it - this concept of a "holy warrior" has spread like wildfire among America's soldiers today. Mansfield continues:
"The first hint on the battlefield that a new brand of warrior was seeking a vital faith in the field was during the [first] Gulf War. The elder brothers and sisters of those fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan today began to seek God and a spiritual understanding of their task in ways and in numbers that were astonishing less than two decades after the aching irreligion of the Vietnam era. During Operation Desert Shield, for example, some 18,474 soldiers from the XVIII Airborne Corps attended religious services. The U.S. Army Central Command (ARCENT) sponsored 7,946 religious meetings with an attendance of 341,344 soldiers. This evidence of a new religious fervor moved Major General Barry McCaffrey to remark, "... we had the most religious army since the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War."
CHRIS HEDGES GRASPS
THE DANGER OF WHAT'S HAPPENING
Chris Hedges, again, a secularist like Petras, grasps the danger of what's happening - confirming Christ's words:
"... the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." (Luke 16:8)
Hedges writes:
"During the past two years I traveled across the country to research and write the book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.
"I repeatedly listened to radical preachers attack as corrupt and godless most American institutions, from federal agencies that provide housing and social welfare to public schools and the media. But there were two institutions that never came under attack-the military and law enforcement.
"While these preachers had no interest in communicating with local leaders of other faiths, or those in the community who did not subscribe to their call for a radical Christian state, they assiduously courted and flattered the military and police. They held special services and appreciation days for all four branches of the armed services and for various law enforcement agencies. They encouraged their young men and women to enlist or to join the police or state troopers.
"They sought out sympathetic military and police officials to attend church events where these officials were lauded and feted for their Christian probity and patriotism. "They painted the war in Iraq not as an occupation but as an apocalyptic battle by Christians against Islam, a religion they regularly branded as 'satanic'. All this befits a movement whose final aesthetic is violence. IT ALSO BEFITS A MOVEMENT THAT, IN THE END, WOULD NEED THE MILITARY AND POLICE FORCES TO SEIZE POWER IN AMERICAN SOCIETY."
THE FORMATION OF A CHRISTIAN PRAETORIAN GUARD:
SOMETHING MORE FOR OBAMA TO WORRY ABOUT
Soldiers capable of acting outside the Law: in Rome,
the Praetorian Guard; In Nazi Germany, the SS.Hedges writes:
"One of the arguments used to assuage our fears that the mass movement being built by the Christian right is fascist at its core is that it has not yet created a Praetorian Guard, referring to the PARAMILITARY force that defied legal constraints, made violence part of the political discourse and eventually plunged ancient Rome into tyranny and despotism. A paramilitary force that operates outside the law, one that sows fear among potential opponents and is capable of physically silencing those branded by their leaders as traitors, is a vital instrument in the hands of despotic movements. Communist and fascist movements during the last century each built paramilitary forces that operated beyond the reach of the law." [Please see our article, "What Is Fascism?" Please also see our article, "When Fascism Comes to America."]
Hedges sees the development of a Christian Praetorian Guard capable of acting outside the law in the new privatized armies that have grown up in recent years. The most notorious of these is BLACKWATER (now called "Xe"). BLACKWATER is permeated with the same "Christian warrior ethos" that has now come to characterize the armed forces of the United States.
BLACKWATER: BACKING THE GENERALS'
REVOLT FROM OUTSIDE THE LAW
A recent book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, by Jeremy Scahill, says that Prince, a conservative Christian, has infused Blackwater with a "neo-crusader," "Theocon," "Christian-supremacist" spirit.
Erik Prince
Prince grew up in Holland, Mich., where his father, Edgar Prince, built Prince Corporation, an auto-parts company that based its success on novel products, such as the lighted vanity mirror for car window visors. The elder Prince was a close friend and supporter of Christian evangelists such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family, as well as a contributor to the Republican Party. He was an early benefactor of the Family Research Council.
The conservative Dutch Reform Church that provided members of the Prince family with their beliefs based their theology on the teachings of John Calvin - a theology stained with a "dominionist" mindset that teaches that Christians must seize control of the Earth before Christ can return. [Please see our article, "Dominionism: The Theology of Today's Anti-Government Movement" and "The Christian Right: Creating a New and Ominous Strategy against the Left."]
Hard work, family and God were the elder Prince's core beliefs. Old friends whom Newsweek interviewed described Erik as dutiful and intense. He went from Holland Christian High School to the U.S. Naval Academy, but later transferred to Hillsdale College, an institution with an almost Ayn Rand-like faith in free markets. Prince said he found the Naval Academy to be insufficiently tough and conservative.
In 1990 Prince got a six-month internship in George H.W. Bush's White House. Prince says the experience was an "eye opener," but declined to elaborate. At the time, he told the Grand Rapids Press, "I saw a lot of things I didn't agree with- homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement [which raised taxes], the Clean Air Act (which was expensive for business) ..." Generally speaking, Prince was disappointed with the presidency of the first Bush - it simply failed to deliver on core Christian values. [Please see our article on the visit of homosexuals (really, not necessarily homosexuals, but pedophiles) to the White House, "As in the Days of Noah."]
In 1992, he joined the Navy SEALs. Prince apparently thrived. Jack Lynch, president of a national SEALs association, says, "He was a good operator. Guys liked going in the water with him." Prince left the SEALs in 1996 after his father died. With a portion of his inherited wealth, Prince bought some 6,000 acres of land in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina to create a state-of-the-art private training ground for a "Christian Army" dedicated to the cause of Christ AND ABLE TO GO PLACES AND DO THINGS THAT AMERICA'S "REAL ARMY" IS PROHIBITED FROM DOING - in other words, an army that can operate OUTSIDE the law. Indeed, Newsweek Magazine says that Prince was once quoted as saying that -
"... his private ... [army] could provide better-more effective, more efficient-'relief with teeth' in a dangerous environment than international aid organizations or even the U.S. military: 'Everybody carries guns, just like Jeremiah rebuilding the Temple in Israel, a sword in one hand, a trowel in the other'. Prince ... has seen the promised land, and it is righteous and well armed." [Prince got it wrong: It wasn't Jeremiah but Zerubbabel who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem - editor]
Evan Thomas and Mark Hosenball of Newsweek say that what Prince was aiming at with his creation of Blackwater was an army imbued with -
"... a kind of martial and religious purity that is not sullied or bogged down by bureaucrats and nosy reporters."
IN OTHER WORDS, A PRIVATE CHRISTIAN ARMY THAT COULD ACT AS THE TIP OF THE SPEAR FOR THE REGULAR ARMY TO TAKE OVER THE COUNTRY "FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH."
But what Prince ultimately got was this: A "private army" similar to Ernst Rhoem's Nazi SA units capable of acting OUTSIDE the law.
Thugs willing to go anywhere and kill anyone!
BUILDING THE CHRISTIAN MATRIX RESPONSIBLE FOR BLACK-
WATER & THAT STANDS BEHIND THE GENERALS' REVOLTIn the 1980s, the Prince family merged with one of the most conservative Christian families in the United States when Erik Prince's sister Betsy married Dick DeVos, whose father, Richard, founded the multilevel marketing firm Amway (also called Quixtar) together with Jay VanAndel. Forbes Magazine once labeled the elder DeVos as the 7th richest man in the world. Amway relies heavily on the nearly fanatical - some say cult-like - devotion of its more than 500,000 U.S. "independent distributors." According to Mother Jones Magazine, the company -
"... tells you to always vote conservative no matter what. They say liberals support the homosexuals and let women get our of their place."
LOOKING "GOOD" AND "PROSPEROUS." THAT'S THE TESTIMONY OF THESE PEOPLE; that's what they think it's all about! - and forget the words of Paul when he admonished his disciples, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base [poor] things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen …" (1 Cor. 1:26-28)
And then there are the words of the Apostle James: "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?" (James 2:5-6)
Jeremy Scahill writes:
"Betsy and Dick's union was the kind of alliance common among families of monarchs in Europe. The DeVos family ... has been one of the greatest bankrollers of far-right causes in U.S. history, and their money has propelled ... Christian politicians and activists to positions of prominence."
Scahill goes on to report that in 1988, Gary Bauer and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson began building what would become the Family Research Council (FRC) -the crusading, influential, and staunchly conservative evangelical organization that has since taken the lead on issues ranging from banning gay marriage to promoting school vouchers for Christian schools to outlawing abortion and stem-cell research.
Bauer writes:
"When Jim Dobson and I decided that the financial resources weren't available to launch FRC, Ed [i.e., Edgar] and his family stepped into the breach."
From left to right: Gary Bauer, Edgar Prince and James Dobson.
It was one of the many right-wing causes that the Princes would join the DeVoses in bankrolling, leading to what would be known as the Republican Revolution of 1994, which brought Newt Gingrich and a radical right-wing agenda known as the Contract with America to power in Congress, and wresting control from the Democrats for the first time in forty years.
POLITICAL CLOUT
Speaking concerning the political clout that Amway possesses, Molly Ivins wrote in 1997 that the company has -
"... its own caucus in Congress ..."
Elaborating on what Ivins said, Bill Berkowitz writes:
"He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone."
(John 8:7)."Five Republican House members are also Amway distributors: Reps. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, Jon Christensen of Nebraska, Dick Chrysler of Michigan, Richard Rombo of California and John Ensign of Nevada. Their informal caucus meets several times a year with Amway bigwigs to discuss policy matters affecting the company, including China's trade status. Some Republicans received as much as $100,000 for appearing at an Amway event. After accepting speaking fees, then-House Speaker Gingrich arranged a reported last-minute modification in a comprehensive tax bill that allegedly provided a $283 million tax break to just one company -- Amway. One reporter, Evelyn J. Pringle, called the tax break a $283 million payoff."
NOTE: Senator Ensign, who once called then-Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) "an embarrassment to the country" after Craig was arrested in a sting operation in an airport men's restroom soliciting sex, was at the same time carrying on an extramarital affair with a former campaign staffer who was married to one of the lawmaker's former legislative aides; and then there is Newt Gingrich who dumped his wife while she lay in a hospital bed with cancer, saying that she was too "frumpy" to be a future president's wife - AND THESE ARE THE "CHRISTIAN LEGISLATORS" THAT AMWAY ASSOCIATES WITH IN ORDER TO "TAKE THE COUNTRY BACK FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH?" God help us all! [And be clear here, what is so offensive about this is that both Ensign and Gingrich felt free to throw stones at "liberal sinners," but they sure squealed when those stones were thrown back at them. Somewhere along the line, they forgot Christ's adage, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." (John 8:7).]
THE "UNCHRISTIAN" ETHOS THAT LIES BEHIND THOSE
WHO SUPPORT THE REVOLT OF THE GENERALSSo here we have an incredibly successful money-making machine - Amway - and two armies (one "public" and the other "private") - the American army and Blackwater - all claiming to serve Christ; AND THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIANS WHO BELIEVE THESE CLAIMS. And why not? After all, those who claim otherwise are "unbelievers," agnostics and atheists, gays and lesbians, militant feminists, those who constitute the "Hollywood crowd," liberals of every color, etc; in other words, the "enemies of Christ," aren't they?
PICTURE OF CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS (right) PRAYING AGAINST LIBERALS SUCH AS OBAMA, CLINTON, AYERS, ETC. (left) COMES WITH THE CAPTION:
I get tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. Now in October of 2012, after seeing what has happened in the last four years. America is no longer "the land of the free and the home of the brave." Many of our freedoms have been taken away by a liberal Supreme Court and a majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, and hardly any brave citizen dares to resist the new government policies any more.
The agenda of the ACLU, the agenda of liberal activist judges in their dissenting opinions, the agenda of the homosexual activists, the agenda of the environmental activists, the agenda of the National Education Association, the agenda of the global warming activists, the agenda of the abortion rights activists, the agenda of the gun control activists, the agenda of the euthanasia supporters, the agenda of the one-world government pacifists, the agenda of far-left groups in Canada and Europe - all of these agendas were there in plain sight, and all of these groups provided huge support for Senator Obama. The liberal agenda was all there, but we weren't listening.
However, if you believe that you are "on the side of Christ" by taking the side of those "saintly Christians" (above right) who are striving with all of their might to bring the nation "back to Christ" YOU WOULD BE VERY, VERY WRONG!
Jesus said:
"MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight ... but my kingdom [is] not from hence. (John 18:36)
And insofar as taking up arms in order to advance the cause of God, He went on to say:
"Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
"but I say unto you, resist not him that is evil: but WHOSOEVER SHALL SMITE THEE ON THY RIGHT CHEEK, TURN TO HIM THE OTHER ALSO.
"And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
"And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two.
"Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
"Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy:
"but I say unto you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, and pray for them that persecute you;
"that ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.
"For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
"And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same?" (Matthew 5:38-47)
Finally, insofar as the LIE that prevails in Christendom today - i.e., that the accumulation of wealth is a sure sign of God's blessing on one's life - the Bible says:
"... THEY THAT WILL BE RICH FALL INTO A TEMPTATION AND A SNARE, AND INTO MANY FOOLISH AND HURTFUL LUSTS, WHICH DROWN MEN IN DESTRUCTION AND PERDITION." (1 Timothy 6:9)
And it goes on to say:
"THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
"But thou, O man of God, FLEE THESE THINGS (MEANING MONEY); and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." (1 Timothy 6:10-11)
Now, that's what the Bible says - and all the twisting and turning of Scripture to make the Bible say otherwise is a FRAUD - and this reality is borne out in the REAL character of the American army and Blackwater - which are nothing more than killing machines dedicated to the enrichment of the American elites - and Amway.
THEOLOGY COFIRMED BY REALITY:
THE DARK SIDE OF AMWAYEric Scheibeler, a former federal auditor for the US Department of Energy, says in his book, Merchants of Deception, that Amway is nothing more than a vast worldwide PONZI SCHEME that is aimed principally at a Christian audience.
Scheibeler says that Amway has been supported in its fraud by such conservative "biggies" as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Iran/Contra figure, Oliver North, Wendy's owner, the late Dave Thomas, Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) and many others. In addition, religious leaders such as Charles Stanley, Dr. Robert Schuller and the late Dr. D James Kennedy have lent the company and its founder a credibility that seems to be beyond reproach. Former US Presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush also spoke to Amway distributors.
Charles Ponzi
Nonetheless, Amway is nothing more than a PONZI scheme -- a PONZI scheme dedicated to making those who sit on the top tiers of the Ponzi pyramid rich, while defrauding those on the bottom tiers. [We URGE you to please see our articles on Ponzi schemes, "The Crash of Today's Real Estate and Stock Markets and What It Will Inevitably Mean Politically," "Ponzi Schemes, the Investment Craze and the End of Days" and "The New World Economic Order: A Closer Look at Today's Ponzi Pyramid."]
THEOLOGY COFIRMED BY REALITY:
THE DARK SIDE OF BLACKWATERBlackwater too has a very dark side; it's an organization that Chris Hedges has rightfully called -
"... thugs with automatic weapons, black uniforms and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on street corners in Baghdad and [mysteriously] in New Orleans [during Katrina] - thugs that, if the nation is not careful - could someday appear on streets across America."
Hedges went on to say:
"Such a presence could [someday] paralyze us with fear, leaving us unable to question or protest the closed system and secrecy of an emergent totalitarian state and unable to voice dissent."
Left: Blackwater on the streets of New Orleans during Katrina. Right: pictures showing the results of the activity of American-trained death squads in Baghdad - death squads trained by Blackwater.
PLEASE SEE THE FOLLOWING FIVE-PART VIDEO ON BLACKWATER (aka, "Xe") BY JEREMY SCAHILL.
All this to say nothing about the GLOOMY reputation of the U.S. Army itself in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, the Philippians, Indonesia, Iraq, the Congo, and on and on and on. [Please see our articles, "A Dreadful Nation; an Overflowing Scourge: The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Supremacy" and "Base World: The Need for Perspective."]
THE DARK, MENACING OPPOSITION OBAMA FACES: AN
OPPOSITION THAT CLOTHES ITSELF IN RIGHTEOUSNESSThis, then, is the kind of DARK opposition that Obama is facing - the kind of opposition that clothes itself in the robes of righteousness and thinks nothing of wielding the sword in pursuit of its own ends; the kind of opposition that can agree with what evangelist Cubie Ward said concerning the bloody way the Americans dealt with their enemies in El Salvador during the 1980s:
"Killing for the joy of it is wrong, but killing because it is necessary to fight against an anti-Christ system ... is not only right, but the duty of every Christian."
OR the way that one protestant pastor justified the involvement of his parishioners in death squad activity in Honduras:
"... they don't massacre people ... They massacre demons, and these people are demon possessed: they're communists ..." [Please see our articles, "Death Squads: Bringing in the Kingdom of God through Terror, Torture and Death" and "Evangelicals and the Death Squads: Oh What a Tangled Web We're Weaving."]
It is precisely this kind of thinking that makes Obama wary of moving too rashly against the generals.
NONETHELESS, THE LEFT IS DEMANDING
THAT OBAMA MOVE AGAINST THE GENERALS
Nonetheless, the left-wing constituencies responsible for putting Obama into power continue to screech hysterically at him to put the generals' revolt down; like Dave Lindorff, they are clamoring for Obama to sack them all for insubordination. Lindorff writes:
"The model for this action is President Harry Truman-widely viewed, whatever his faults, as a forceful leader-who fired the popular Gen. Douglas McArthur when McArthur went behind his back to Republicans in Congress to push for a wider war in Korea."
Furthermore, Obama's left-wing constituencies are demanding that he put a PERMANENT end to what they call the "WAR PARTY" by emasculating the nation's armed forces, and putting as many of its members in jail as he can by moving CRIMINALLY against them along the lines suggested by Professor David Cohen of the National Lawyers Guild:
"They [the members of the former Bush Administration] are all liable under the War Crimes Act and the Torture Statute ... Under the doctrine of command responsibility, commanders, all the way up the chain of command to the commander-in-chief, are liable for war crimes if they knew or should have known their subordinates would commit them, and they did nothing to stop or prevent it. The Bush officials ordered the torture after seeking legal cover from their lawyers." [We URGE you to see our article, "The Left: Seeking to Destroy the Right - Root and Branch."]
What Cohen is suggesting here is that the Obama government use the nation's RICO laws where participants in a "conspiracy" need only be shown to be peripherally "associated" (whatever that means) with those who were directly involved in the crime to be jailed - and that would include Keane, Petraeus, Odierno and all the rest of them, to say nothing about Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.
One is being very naïve in thinking the generals and their supporters in the CIA and elsewhere in the population will ever allow themselves to be caged up like animals in federal prison.
And in all of this, let's not forget the CIA which Nancy Pelosi, and not without reason, has declared to be a criminal conspiracy and the enemy of right-thinking Americans everywhere. [The very real fact of the matter is, she's right about the CIA: They lie to Congress all the time; they lie to the American people; they lie to the nation's courts, and the fact that she is a "bleeding-heart liberal" doesn't change the truth of her assertions.]
JAIL! JAIL! JAIL! JAIL! - that's where liberals want to hole the generals and their allies up in, and make no mistake about it, that's precisely where Holder, Pelosi, Reid, Leahy, Schumer, and all the rest of them want these "war criminals!"
ONE IS LEFT BREATHLESS ...
In all of this, however, one is left breathless at the naiveté of the liberals pushing Obama in this direction. Do they think - even for a minute - that men with the amount of blood on their hands that these generals have will blink an eye at taking any action they deem necessary to prevent such an outcome? And what about the CIA, to say nothing of the "neo-cons" the "lefties" want to throw into prison. Do they think that these people will sit silently waiting for the Left to cage them up like animals?
These are not a bunch of "college frats" the Left is moving against! These are professional killers with more blood on their hands than any member of the Gambino or Genovese crime families has. They will do EXACTLY what liberal Chris Hedges predicts they will do: Taking advantage of some kind of "catastrophic event" (whether "manufactured" or not) they will seize power - and in doing so, they will think to "... CHANGE TIMES AND LAWS ..." (Daniel 7:25) - i.e., the Constitution.
Moreover, in doing this they will be able to count on a very SUBSTANTIAL portion of the American people - as much as ONE-THIRD of the entire population; specifically, those who today comprise the hard-core of the Religious Right. [Please see our articles, "The Coming Bubba Revolution" and "The Left Is in Danger of Creating a Monster."]
That's all that Hitler needed - i.e., one-third of Germany's population - to take control of Germany in 1933; and from there - through control of the press, intimidation and a series of military victories (i.e., the Rhineland, Austria, the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia - he was able to expand his base to include just about the entire population when he finally launched his greater war in 1939.
There is, after all, no greater hero than a military commander who brings glory to his homeland; a Caesar who can - as Cassius said about Caesar in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - "... BESTRIDE THE NARROW WORLD LIKE A COLOSSUS while the rest of mankind peeps around his feet;" someone about whom - one could say:
When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walls encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.A NEW CAESAR
Soon, very soon now, such a Caesar will appear in America, and when he does so -
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Hate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'HAVOC,' and let slip the dogs of war ...- Anthony in Julius Caesar
This, no doubt, will be the man about whom the Scriptures say:
"Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations." (Isaiah 14:9)
I urge you all to take advantage of the time you have left! [Please see our article, "He Is Near, at the Door: Here Comes Antichrist."]
God bless you all,
S.R. Shearer,
Antipas Ministries
--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited.blogspot.com/
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