The propaganda coming out of Washington pushing for war on Iran is laughable. Now, MSNBC is claiming that Iran is training women to become ninjas (with the insinuation they are to fight the USA and Israel).
Ninjas!? Heavens! What will we ever do? This nonsense is just too stupid to be believed. But it's true. Here's a screen capture of the Tweet from MSNBC on Twitter:
At the bottom, you can see the name Willie Geist. This clown is the host of this TV program. Once again, I am proven correct: TV is brain damage. Here is the "news" >cough< report.
Should the USA attack Iran before they are fully ninja-ized? You be the judge.
Ahem, I'm sure there was a news report on Iranian TV for a women's club that enjoys "ninja" training, but, like everywhere else, it's like boxing for women or karate... That it makes Iranian news shows its "human interest" factor and how just "unique" this is to even Iranian society.
The guy who owns the training facility is a smart businessman... Probably regular old Karate class enrollment was down.
Ron Paul came in second in the exit polls for South Carolina. Some say that projected him into a possible second place upset. Nevertheless, in spite of that, he finished fourth for the state in the Republican primary.
I think this is really damaging to the Ron Paul campaign.
As always, way before the votes are tallied, the results are projected. I wonder how, with only a percent or two counted, they can project winners? The actual projections for these primaries shouldn't be about Ron Paul or who is going to win that state. The actual projections should be for the health of the United States of America for the next 5 years. I project that within five years the US government will be bankrupt and this entire mess will come crumbling down like a house of cards. Within twenty years the entire edifice of the American Dream will have rotted from the vine and there will be tens of millions of Americans who are going to be starving and out of work.
There will be no hope for these people and the government that currently runs that country. The military industrial complex and Wall Street bankers will have sucked the last bits dry. The American worker and the American economy will be wheezing for breath like a heavy cigarette smoker after years of choking, coughing, spitting, spittle, blood marbled phlegm and emphysema.
People who read this blog know I like Ron Paul. I think the readers of this blog do too. But the media and the powers that be will never allow him to win. That today, with South Carolina's black box voting machines that leave no paper trail could still be in use in the United Sates after the fiasco of the 2000 election, shows that the people behind the curtain have no intention of allowing free elections for the American people.
That Ron Paul could be consistently polling at the top or second in all primaries until today, and consistently come in third or forth smells really bad. To think that something fishy isn't going on here is the height of naivety.
With results like this, why even vote? Someday, "they" will even make voting more automated by arranging it so that the people do not even have to vote for the results to be tabulated the way "they" want them to be and the predetermined winner to be chosen. Then they'll call that "progress."
Perhaps Ron Paul will be allowed to use his few delegates at the Republican convention to make a speech or negotiate a point. But it won't matter. It will be merely throwing a bone to the dog... The powers that be are betting that the people will not rise up and fight. Considering the recent past record, they are making a pretty safe bet.
The people after all do not bark. Even if they do, why bark if they've nothing to say?
The powers that be are happy with an Obama or a Romney or Gingrich. They are all the same. The best way to defang Ron Paul is to marginalize him and keep him in the race and pacify him at the Republican convention. After all, what difference does it make to our real masters who is president as long as they follow orders and keep the game going? That's the plan here folks.
Everyone knows that Gingrich is the same as Romney, who is the same as Santorum, who is the same as Obama, who is the same as Bush, who is the same as Clinton (Bill or Hillary). They are all the same.
Anyone who isn't asleep knows that we aren't getting actual news on the TV or from the big networks. We haven't gotten any real news from the networks since who knows when. Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, all the major newspapers, etc. etc. are all completely biased and they don't even try to hide it anymore.
Why bother hiding it? 90% of America is watching the latest reality TV show.
The major networks are part of the elite who don't care about America or you or me. They only care about profits and their bonuses. And, when they can't get those bonuses anymore from the United States, they will move somewhere else to continue the rape and pillage.
These people do not care about the country. They certainly do not care about you or me or our children.
But even with total control of the government and the economy and the police state, what is going to get better for them or us? The economy? Our lives? Food? Jobs? Hope? No. Nothing, my friends. Nothing is going to get better for them, you or me, our children or our children's children.
The way things are going now, and this includes the USA and Japan, the only thing keeping society from collapsing will be McDonald's, Citibank branches, Playstation 3, chronic food shortages, lack of jobs, alcohol, reality TV and professional sports.
And, it's not just here at home where every which way is bad. No matter what they do or which way they turn, Iran can't win. The west, with the USA in the lead, is heading us headlong into a war with that nation that will bring us into total war with China and Russia. This war has nothing to do with Iranian nuclear weapons but has everything to do with controlling the world's oil supply. We are so close to the shooting starting that it's a miracle that it hasn't started already.
What's stopped the war in Iran? Well, when the shooting starts and oil prices climb to over $250 a barrel, that would get rid of Obama's chances of re-election. It would be, once again, a Ron Paul prophesy coming true. They can't have that! Someday soon this entire facade is going to crumble. The powers that be just don't want that someday to be before election day 2012.
Murdering John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King did nothing to stop their ideas. Arresting Ghandi and putting him in prison didn't prevent his ideas from capturing the hearts of the entire world.
The plan is to cheat Ron Paul. He can win, and would, in a free election. But America doesn't have free elections anymore. Ron Paul won't be allowed to win. We will have to witness and endure the 2012 election being stolen right out from under our noses. The only way that this isn't going to happen is if the American people wake up from their slumber. Sure, many have awakened, but there are still far, far too many Americans who are deep into the depths of dreamworld.
But, never fear, Ron Paul's ideas are immortal as is the immortal spirit of men. The spirit of man will rise. The stolen elections will not put out the fire, but they will only help to make the fire started burn even brighter in the hearts of men. The dark days are coming, but after that, the dawn.
As Charlie Chaplin said in the film "the Great Dictator":
"The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up."
They can steal the election from us. They've done it before... But this cannot, it must not, be a fight between them and sunny day patriots. Like Ron Paul said, "This is the beginning of a long hard slog..."
Are you in it for the long haul? I expect that Ron Paul will keep up the fight in order to attempt to change the Republican platform.
I now hope for one of two things (or both):
1) It may sound like I am contradicting myself, but I am not. I hope Ron Paul keeps fighting for Republican nomination until the last minute then goes third party. If he does, I believe he has a chance to win outright. And why not go third party? The Republican party is dead with a Gingrich or Romney anyway. Like I said, there's no difference between either of them or Obama, so why not take them on?
2) Also, Rand Paul in 2016!
UPDATE: It seems that I am not the only one bringing this subject up. I wrote this last night and now, this morning, I see others thinking the same thing. This is a MUST READ: There’s something very odd about GOP primary pre-polling and vote: http://www.infowars.com/theres-something-very-odd-about-gop-primary-pre-polling-and-vote/
"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." - Confucious
The Chinese have some really great, ancient quotes. "May you live in interesting times" is probably my favorite. It sounds like a wish for good fortune, but it's not. It's a curse. It's a wish for terrible things. When I was young (and much stupider than I am now), when I first heard, "May you live in interesting times", I thought it meant having fun. I thought it was "interesting" as in "going to see an interesting concert" or "watching a very exciting and interesting movie." I heard this statement and thought, "Yeah! Way to go, baby! Those Chinese know how to paaaaartay! That sounds fun!"
Great Chinese philosopher dude: smart man or wise ass? (See? If you look closely, he's actually smirking!)
Parties? Drinking? Having Fun? Meeting girls? That's sounds interesting to me. It wasn't until years later that I fully understood that when these Chinese wise men say, "interesting" and I say, "interesting" we are talking about two totally different things.
"Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." - Winston Churchill
But, you know what? As you get older, you do realize how this knife cuts both ways. I'll bet that, if you were Polish in 1939, French in 1940, or Russian in 1941; or a German or Japanese citizen living in a big industrial city in 1944 or 1945 and being bombed every night, those were real interesting times.
I'm sure living in this neighborhood around the time this tank drove by was a real hootenanny! A regular Shindig!
Of course, throughout history there are millions of examples of interesting times... The black plague, the fall of Rome, the potato famine, the Great Depression, just to name a few... Heck, how about today? Today, there's more interesting things going on than you could shake a stick at: how about Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Burma... And let's not leave out the United States! How about being one of almost 46 million people on food stamps or one of the more than 25% of all American children living under the poverty line or the more than 15% of all Japanese who can say the same?
There's so many people and places that are living through such interesting times that I can't even list them up! I'll bet wondering if you'll have food or electricity or even live until tomorrow is real interesting for those folks...
"Paaaaaaar-tay!"
Yeah. Those all sound like real fun, eh? Real interesting every day and night. A real barrel of laughs.
"May you live in interesting times."
Even though this quote is customarily attributed to the Chinese, the origins of this quote seem to be in question in some quarters. Some English scholars claim that since there is no written record of the original of this quote in Chinese, then the origins of this as being Chinese are highly questionable. I think that is nonsense.
To be totally anal-retentive (like these scholars): Chinese culture is over 4,000 years old. The first records of writing in China are 1,200 years old. Some argue that most parts of the bible many use were written in the last 800 years. So to claim that the quote, "May you live in interesting times" - whose origins have been attributed to China for years (other old non-English speaking societies also attribute this to China) - is not Chinese seems silly and pointless to me.
Who cares if you are living in such interesting times that you are worried about your skin or where you will sleep that night, what you are your children will eat, or if you are even going to wake up tomorrow?
There is, though, unarguable proof of another ancient Chinese quote that I believe is the root of this saying. That quote goes like this:
"It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period."
If you can speak more than one language than I imagine that you can see how, "May you live in interesting times" and, "It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period" Could have the same roots, or even be the same statement; or even be kissing cousins.
Anyway, does it matter?
Louis Armstong seems to be a guy who had a good time and a positive attitude all the time.
As Louis Armstrong would say, "You say eether, I say eyether... Let's call the whole thing off."
Yeah. What difference does it make? May you live in interesting times is most certainly a curse. It doesn't seem like it at first, and probably wouldn't to a young person, under 30... But when you get past 40 and you have kids and a lot of bills to pay and things to worry about, you certainly don't need more "interesting things" on your plate to worry about.
Damn Chinese! How could they have been so stinking smart so many years ago?
Now, at 54, I don't want things to be too interesting anymore. A little bit is fine, but not too much. I don't want to fear or want too much. I don't want things to be too interesting.
I want to go to work everyday and do some work. I want to have everyone understand what it is that were supposed to be doing and everyone to be productive and happy people. I don't want to go to work and find out that the company is nearing bankruptcy. I don't want to go to work and hear Mr. Fujita and Mr. Morimoto fighting like squalling little children. I don't want to find out that our accountant has stolen company money and taken off to Thailand with the president's secretary (even though, with her, I'd think about doing that too!)
Writer's rendition of the perfect sexy Japanese secretary
No. I don't want these interesting things happening to me. They can happen to other people. I don't care. But not to me. I want things to be boring and the same.
After work, I want to come home and eat dinner and relax. I don't want to head home and have the trains stop because of an accident due to someone committing suicide or a train crash. I don't want to come home and find out that the roof leaks, the car needs repair, people from the government tax office are coming over tomorrow, the neighbors are getting a divorce or that there was a fire down the street.
Sometimes, after work, I want to go have drinks with my friends. I want to go to the restaurant and eat nice food and laugh. I don't want to see people fight or fall down in the road dead drunk (especially if it's me). I don't want to come home and wake up with food poisoning in the middle of the night or with a hellacious hangover the next day either.
Crisis? What crisis?
I want to spend weekends with the kids and family, if I can. It's okay to work on weekends, we all gotta work, but I don't want to work all the time. I want to wake up early on Saturday, write some boring blog posts (like this one), take out the boring trash, cook some boring breakfast and then take the family to someplace boring that they will have fun at (and I will probably think is pretty boring)... Spending time with the family is not risky, scary or dangerous. It's not supposed to be. Nope. It's boring and relaxing. I want to do that every weekend. I want things to be boring and the same.
I want to go on vacations with the wife and kids. I want the flights to be boring and safe and not to be hassled at the airport. I don't want the airport people asking me too many questions; I don't want too much turbulence on the flight; I don't want the plane to crash and I certainly don't want to be in the hotel when there is a fire. I want the swimming pool at the hotel to be clean and not too cold. I don't want anyone stealing our towels or breaking into our hotel room or my house back in Japan when I'm away.
In many ways, I want things to be boring and the same.
I want to have a good job, a roof over our heads, warmth, security and clean food and water. I want to enjoy life and maybe have some fun along the way.
I most certainly don't want anyone, smirking Chinese philosophers especially, saying to me, "May you live in interesting times." This year is shaping up to be enough "interesting" for a lifetime.
Today? Have a good day. Be kind to those along the way and smile. Hug your kids (or parents) and stay alert.
Tomorrow portends to be another interesting day. Have a great one!
If America ever passes out as a great nation, we ought to put on our tombstone: America died from a delusion she had Moral Leadership. ~ Will Rogers
I think America needs to order that tombstone to be made.
I think because I am an American, I meet and talk to a lot of Americans (of course). You know, birds of a feather and all that. I'm no Einstein, but all I can say is that there sure seem to be a lot of boneheaded Americans running around with some very twisted and weird ideas. I think that can be expected from the average Joe Blow, but you'd think that university grads might offer a bit more logical and clever insight... I am often really (unpleasantly) surprised at how dimwitted, sheltered, egoistic and naive my countrymen are.
Of course, not all American university graduates are knuckleheads. But there are far too many of them that are. Maybe it's the schooling? As one of my favorite author's, Fred Reed wrote recently about US university education:
“Look, the US is in intellectual collapse. The average American university wouldn't qualify as a high-school in Japan. It's crazy. The whole world know it's crazy. But take out the Kims, Khans, Nguyens, Wangs, and Cohens, and what's left is Albania in 1750.”
Of course, the average American will have none of this when it comes to pointing out how low the mighty have fallen. Why? Well many of them will tell you; "Well, in spite of our problems, you've got to admit it: America is still the greatest country in the world."
"Self-glorification is a powerful narcotic. Every country has a state that promotes itself shamelessly, but since WW II Americans have been on a binge thanks to non-stop propaganda about how great that made "us". Many believe that 'It's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way.' But the cognitive dissonance that is rising undermines this paradigm. It's hard to simultaneously believe that this is 'The best country in the world' and 'Everything is going in the crapper!' at the same time."
Now, hold that thought for a second... The one about cognitive dissonance. Americans are really bad when it comes to this. I think it's the schooling, or maybe it's the fluoride in the water. Or maybe it's too many fried and fatty foods (deep fried bacon covered hamburgers anyone?) I don't know. But there are A LOT of Americans who seem to have a problem in this area.
....
It's not often that I read something that really infuriates me. But usually, recently, if I do read it, it's something really cretinous written in the American media or said by some American who has a problem with cognitive dissonance. Incredibly, you see these people on American TV all the time so the general public hasn't a problem with parroting nonsense. Lately, I've been trying to ignore this trend, but last night I read something that was just simply unbelievable: It was, of course, an American guy regurgitating dim-witted detritus that he read in a newspaper.
Japanese troops celebrating the fall of Singapore
I come from the most self-centered, conceited, ethno-centric nation in the world. And, no, I'm not talking about Japan. Japan may be Xenophobic, but no nation in the world can hold a candle to modern day American chauvinism, delusion and self-righteousness. Like I said, the Japanese may be Xenophobic but they are not bombing and killing brown skinned children on the other side of the world 24/7 like the USA is now doing in six Muslim countries... (As my friend Kevin Riley says, "Japan used to do that, but we grew out of it.")
Now, onto what made me so mad about how ignorant some Americans can be! (If, someday, they find out that the cause of this malady is 85% all of Americans suffer from dyslexia, then forgive me.) One of my friends (who lives in Japan) posted this picture on Facebook yesterday:
Underneath it, my friend wrote (now remember we're talking about someone who lives in the only country that has had atomic bombs dropped on it) :
To raise awareness of the horrific effects of war, I plan to place this photo of a dead child as my profile photo for the rest of January. He, and other innocents around him, were murdered in Pakistan by one of many US drone attacks internationally. According to one statistic, in Iraq alone, over 110,000 civilians were murdered by the US. Add to that deaths of innocent civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and then add to that deaths authorized tacitly by the US through its sale of weapons, the toll of murders is mind boggling. And let's not get into the history of US aggression: Grenada and Vietnam are examples that come to mind.
Do you feel that the murder (and subsequent cover up by the US govt) of civilians is wrong and must stop now? If so, I encourage you to help raise awareness of these atrocities by making your profile picture that of this innocent child, for this month. Raising awareness can help save lives. You can help save a life.
Okay. So far, so good. Who wouldn't be against killing 2 year old kids? I mean, what's to complain about? That's what my friend posted. Pretty simple to understand. There were many comments and "likes."
Except one. One commentator was an American male who completely misses the point. I couldn't believe how illogical his comments were. It would be okay if he were just your typical stupid Beavis & Butthead type, but I checked this guy's profile and he is a university educated man and the managing director of a company!
Beavis and Butthead are not a problem. The problem is that
there are 22 million American males with the same intelligence level.
I will write this guy's two comments below and let you read how absurd they are and mirrors of US government propaganda (there are still Americans who believe that stuff!?). It is astounding that a supposedly university educated American male can be so, well, so uninformed (I'm being polite, as you know). Before I pick his comments apart, here they are for you as written:
"A depressing photo indeed, but hardly fair to label this as murder. The drone attacks have saved more lives than alternative courses of action. Muslims are not always labeled terrorist - this is the same type of misleading remark that people who are on the other side of the coin would make from their perspective. I find it more distressing that we don't make a bigger deal about the bombing that takes place in markets where innocent people are shopping and living their daily lives. There is more violence taking place between varying Muslim factions than are being killed in a military campaign. I was not in favor of going into Iraq from Day 1. But the regime in Afghanistan did protect the culprits from 9/11. Pakistan for a variety of reasons is trying to placate all sides and find it's own strategic advantages in Afghanistan. I find the photo sad but misleading as this is not a simple problem. The civilian casualties would be less if there were a more honorable government that truly cared about people more than power and money running Afghanistan..."
He adds in his immediate follow up post:
"I looked this up a few minutes ago. "The reports make it clear that most civilians, by far, were killed by other Iraqis. Two of the worst days of the war came on Aug. 31, 2005, when a stampede on a bridge in Baghdad killed more than 950 people after several earlier attacks panicked a huge crowd, and on Aug. 14, 2007, when truck bombs killed more than 500 people in a rural area near the border with Syria." Excerpt from NYT... the deaths are deplorable, but most of them do NOT come from U.S. military activities. If anything violence is likely to escalate after we leave."
This guy's comments are incredible. George Orwell, pick up the phone. America is calling you!...
His first line, "A depressing photo indeed, but hardly fair to label this as murder"? Hardly fair to label this murder!? Hardly fair to label this murder!?An innocent child is killed by a missile fired by a robot drone and this isn't 'murder'!? What is it then? Oh? I see. It's an accident? If someone (like you or me) intentionally fires some projectile into someone's house and it kills a child, it's most definitely called "murder." But if the US government does it, it's not? OK. In that case, it's called "bringing democracy to them" or "collateral damage"?
I think it's hardly fair to call this "flattening a house" or "killing family"
I'm sure this is the typical American who would say that, "World War II? Oh, dropping atomic bombs on civilian cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not murder... Because, of course, killing innocent people actually saved lives. Don't you know that?"
All Americans seem to know this. Repeat after me: Killing actually saves lives. We need war to have peace. Slavery is freedom. Ignorance is strength.
Yeah, sure. But this lady and her kid shouldn't have
bombed Pearl Harbor in the first place.
The guy then goes on to write some more cockeyed litany, let's skip those (there's so much) and go to another one that really makes me want to slap my forehead with it's inanity and that is this one:
"I was not in favor of going into Iraq from Day 1. But the regime in Afghanistan did protect the culprits from 9/11."
Am I the only one who sees this glaring logical inconsistency? Let me get this straight: He was, "...not in favor of going into Iraq from Day 1"? Okay. I'm with him so far. Got it.... "But the regime in Afghanistan did protect the culprits from 9/11."???
Wait a minute (there goes that cognitive dissonance again!) clear-thinking people might ask "What's the connection between Iraq here and Afghanistan besides the letter 'a' in both names?"
Japanese? Chinese? Korean? Asians?... Whatever! They all look the same, right?
Damn! I'm pulling my hair out with this! This should be a total embarrassment to all Americans and the entire educational system of that country! How can American people be so benighted? It embarrasses even me!
This guy is so brainwashed; so wrong on every level and so full of propaganda that I don't know whether I want to strangle him or just slap him silly. It drives me crazy that people who think this way actually exist on this planet. I could feel the fire coming out of my ears. I posted back:
"The drone attacks have saved more lives than alternative courses of action"? That's total and complete nonsense. Why are US forces bombing people in countries that haven't threatened or attacked us? Get out of this imperialist "USA is world's police force" BS. What right does the USA have to be bombing these people? Or, do I infer, that you consider US lives more important than the lives of brown skinned kids in the middle east? The best course of action would be to kill no one and that is to LEAVE THOSE PEOPLE ALONE! Japan, Sweden, etc., etc. do not have terrorist attacks against them. Can't figure out why? Because we are not killing these people in their own backyards. Americans need to wake up and get out of this stupid mindset."
My friend who made the original post wrote to me and said that "...we probably can't convince (that person), so we need to plant the seed."
My friend is a very diplomatic and nice person. I am not.
To all Americans who believe that we have a right and we are special in god's eyes; to all Americans who think that the United States has a duty to be the world's policeman, and to all other peoples who are apologists for American state-sponsored murder, I say:
"Realize this, about Americans from this American who escaped the madness; (about) my brothers and sisters back home; after 150 years of history of US imperialism, exceptionalism and indoctrination - as well as 40 ~ 50 years of conditioning in US government public schooling are not quick to change their beliefs and thinking because of a few exchanges with you or me on Facebook or other social media.
It does anger me greatly when Americans think we are "saving lives" by killing people. I know people don't read anymore but the the classic book, "1984" has a lot to say in it about that sort of Orwellian nonsense. That this gentleman fails to realize that when it comes out of his mouth is astounding... In today's America, "war is peace," etc… Americans should know all about this… Need an example? In Vietnam, an American major was famously quoted as saying, ""It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."
US troops burning down Vietnamese villagers' homes in order to save them
Americans are in serious denial. The end of the US empire is coming soon (not soon enough) and people like this American guy will be suffering greatly because, like an alcoholic, they fail to acknowledge the sickness. Tough love is all they deserve, if that.
Why Americans can actually think we have the right to be bombing people in foreign countries or have our navy buzzing the coast of nations on the other side of the world shows the madness of the typical American… I wonder how much Americans would like it if the Chinese were buzzing the Gulf of Mexico or, if Russian drones were killing American children and then Russians claimed that "the drones actually saved lives because of we didn't use them, our soldiers would die"?
Americans who claim this sort of thing are idiots, or at best, liars and it should be pointed out for what it is (for their own good, at least). I do not take kindly to this sort of justification of killing children and think that when people do try to justify it, they should be put on the spot for it.
Killing children, no matter what the reason, is not necessary, cannot be justified and is simply murder.
To think that some Americans actually believe that "killing people by using drones actually saves lives" shows the depths of deprivation and lack of humanity that far too many in today's America show. There is no hope for those people and that country.
There are many Americans who have been waking up and realizing the truth in recent years. But, they haven't a good future in that nation and the awake ones know it.
It is too late.... America is over..."
......
Later I calm down and unruffle my feathers... Now, dear reader, you know something that really infuriates me: US state sponsored murder of innocent children overseas 24/7 and American citizen's rationalization of it.
But it's hardly fair to label it as murder, isn't it? And, you've got to admit it; America is still the greatest country in the world.
Good News! Centuries of American hegemony and imperialism have just been given a black eye. Japan, following China's and South Korea's announcement, has stated that it will not abide by an oil embargo against Iran. It is the right choice.
I think that Japan would know a thing or two about how oil embargoes lead to war. The USA under Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted an oil embargo against Japan that lead to the moderate Japanese government of the time being ousted for a more hard line militarist government that soon lead Japan into total war.
We have US presidential candidate Ron Paul repeatedly stating that embargoes lead to war and we have history as proof that embargoes lead to war too. Japan was the victim of a US led embargo in July 1941 which lead to the ouster of the then moderate Japanese government of Fumimaro Konoe to the hard core right wing nationalist government of Hideki Tojo that lead Japan to war with the United States and England. The militarists insisted, with good evidence, that the Americans were unreasonable and impossible to be dealt with. They came to power and the rest is, as they say, history.
Here is what Ron Paul says about embargoes:
Embargoes and blockades are acts of war under international law. Americans should know this. That's why, in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy did not call the blockade of Cuba a "blockade" but called it a "Quarantine."
Considering embargoes, the following information came out at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials - the defense of Japan by court appointed US lawyers - and meetings with lawyers in Washington. These transcripts and points were covered up by subsequent US governments for decades.
On December 7, 1928, a group of distinguished Senators gathered in the Capital Building at Washington D.C. to discuss ratification of the Briand-Kellogg Peace Pact, an instrument whose purpose was to “abolish aggressive war”.
Among those present was the author of the Pact, Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg.
During the course of the recorded discussions, the following exchange took place:
“Q: Suppose a country is not attacked - suppose there is an economic blockade...?
A: There is no such thing as a blockade [unless] you are in war.
Q: It is an act of war?
A: An act of war absolutely... as I have stated before, nobody on earth, probably, could writean article defining 'self defense' or 'aggressor' that some country could not get around; and I made up my mind that the only safe thing for any country to do was to judge for itself within its sovereign rights whether it was unjustly attacked and had a right to defend itself and it must answer to the opinion of the world.”
The above was quoted during the Tokyo Trial by American defense council to show that Japan's War of the Pacific, according to the very terms of the Brian-Kellogg Pact itself, did not and could not constitute "aggression".
Like I mentioned Japan has seen with her own eyes (China and Korea too) what happens when a nation is backed into a corner with an embargo. That's probably the biggest reason they want no part of it.
Japan’s War of the Pacific was a war of self-defense for the following reasons:
- blockade is an act of war (p. 43,051);
- every nation is the judge of what constitutes self-defense (ibid);
- self-defense is not limited to defense of the national territory (p. 42,239);
- Japan was provoked into a war of self-defense (pp. 43,050-175);
The Americans froze Japanese assets (in violation of a treaty) and began to embargo oil. It was demanded, as a condition to restoring normal relations, that Japan sign an agreement with various other nations who had never before been party to the negotiations, including Thailand and Soviet Russia (pp. 43,678-98).
To obtain agreement with the other nations in accordance with this demand could have taken months or years; and might never have been possible. Japan had enough oil for a few months only. A conference was held at which it was decided that if there was to be war, it must come now; by spring Japan would be too weak to fight. In any case, the attack on Pearl Harbor was an act of utter desperation. The oil embargo meant the destruction of Japan’s independence and perhaps survival as a nation.(emphasis mine)
(Through an oil embargo) Japan faced immediate military defeat in China; total industrial collapse at home; and destruction through coastal shelling of all the major cities by any one of five traditional enemies (America, Britain, China, the Netherlands, and particularly the Soviets).
Oil had been supplied to Japan for two years in the teeth of hostile public opinion. It was believed essential to keep war out of the Far East;
When this did not work, Japan was forced into war, crushed with atomic bombs, and her leaders hanged for “aggression”. (Read more here).
Could anyone in the world be so naive to think that the USA isn't just itching for a war with Iran and is hoping that, with sanctions and illegal embargoes, that they can trick Iran into firing the first shot - like the USA did to Japan - even if it would be legally justified as "self-defense" under international law? Law or no law, you know the USA (a government who has ignored international law for years) would try to claim the moral high ground by saying, "But they fired first!"
One guess which is the US navy? How dare the Iranians
threaten us with their mighty dreadnoughts off the shores of their own country?
This information needs to become common knowledge for people, especially Americans (who will never be taught the truth in school or on American mass media), to realize that these sorts of actions, namely economic war in the form of things like oil embargoes, by the US government are acts of war and we the people must rise up and stop this madness. It seems that the USA is just waiting for an excuse to turn Tehran into a gravel parking lot. This must be stopped.
That China, Japan and Korea have put their collective foot down and said, "No!" is a great sign that the US empire is finally deflating; especially when you realize that, since 1945, Japan and South Korea have been the staunchest of American allies. This rejection of US will is a total embarrassment for the US government.
It couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of folks.
Japan's foreign minister said Monday that his country would not stop imports of Iranian oil, striking a rare note of divergence with the United States during a visit to Washington.
After talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (war-mongerer) that focused mostly on North Korea, Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba highlighted Japan's sanctions imposed on Iranian institutions due to concerns over its nuclear program.
But Gemba said: "I conveyed my view that there is a danger of causing damage to the entire global economy if the imports of Iranian crude oil stop."
Think about it. Of course Japan has to say "No!" Not only do embargoes start wars, Japan just suffered through the nightmare of March 11, 2011. The earthquake, tsunami and then Fukushima nuclear disasters leading to half of all of Japan's electrical needs being stopped due to nuclear power plant's termination of service. Throw on top of that reconstruction costs and you have a Japan that cannot afford to pay higher bills for oil!
Oil is already over $102 dollars a barrel today! What will happen to Japan's economy if oil hits $250 a barrel as some analysts have predicted?
This is the kind of propaganda Americans are fed. What? How dare the Iranians taunt US warships off the coast of Iran! I wonder how Americans would feel if Chinese warships were buzzing the coastline of California?
Thank god that, like I said, Japan finally has the guts to stand up the the USA. Or, as Americans would say, finally Japan has, "Grown some balls!" I wonder if Obama will make ridiculous statements like Bush did with his "Coalition of the Willing" that included about 8 minor countries that were paid off to support the invasion of Iraq?
UPDATE: What timing! Zerohedge confirms my thesis on the USA pushing Iran towards war with this report on Iran this morning in Hyperinflation Comes to Iran:
Hyperinflation has struck again, this time at ground zero of the most sensitive geopolitical conflict in ages: Iran. EA WorldView reports:
An EA source reports that a relative in Tehran ordered a washing machine for 400,000 Toman (about $240) this week. When he went to the shop the next day, he was told that --- amidst the currency crisis and rising import costs --- the price was now 800,000 Toman (about $480). Another EA source says that the price of an item of software for a laptop computer has tripled from 50,000 Toman to 150,000 Toman within days.
, and gave America the green light to enter the war.
And so the opportunity cost for the Ahmedinejad regime to preserve its status quo gradually grinds to zero, as the entire economy implodes (courtesy of a few strategic financially isolating decisions) making further escalation virtually inevitable, in a 100% replica of the US-planned Japanese escalation that led to the Pearl Harbor attack.
...Need I say more? The military industrial complex (and criminal government) of the United States must be stopped from constantly destabilizing regions and causing wars. The true terrorists of our times are easy to identify... And they don't live in caves in Afghanistan... Washington D.C. is their mailing address.
