What If They Gave a War and Everyone Came?

 by Peter Van Buren

This post originally appeared at TomDispatch.

US Marines take cover after a mortar attack during a sandstorm on a road south of Baghdad, Iraq in March 2003. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch, File)

What if the US had not invaded Iraq in 2003? How would things be different in the Middle East today? Was Iraq, in the words of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the “worst foreign policy blunder” in American history? Let’s take a big-picture tour of the Middle East and try to answer those questions. But first, a request: After each paragraph that follows, could you make sure to add the question “What could possibly go wrong?”

Let the History Begin

In March 2003, when the Bush administration launched its invasion of Iraq, the region, though simmering as ever, looked like this: Libya was stable, ruled by the same strongman for 42 years; in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak had been in power since 1983; Syria had been run by the Assad family since 1971; Saddam Hussein had essentially been in charge of Iraq since 1969, formally becoming president in 1979; the Turks and Kurds had an uneasy but functional ceasefire; and Yemen was quiet enough, other than the terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Relations between the US and most of these nations were so warm that Washington was routinely rendering “terrorists” to their dungeons for some outsourced torture.

Soon after March 2003, when US troops invaded Iraq, neighboring Iran faced two American armies at the peak of their strength. To the east, the US military had effectively destroyed the Taliban and significantly weakened al-Qaeda, both enemies of Iran, but had replaced them as an occupying force. To the west, Iran’s decades-old enemy, Saddam, was gone, but similarly replaced by another massive occupying force. From this position of weakness, Iran’s leaders, no doubt terrified that the Americans would pour across its borders, sought real diplomatic rapprochement with Washington for the first time since 1979. The Iranian efforts were rebuffed by the Bush administration.

The Precipitating Event

Nailing down causation is a tricky thing. But like the June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that kicked off the Great War, the one to end all others, America’s 2003 invasion was what novelists refer to as “the precipitating event,” the thing that may not actively cause every plot twist to come, but that certainly sets them in motion.

Obama is now the fourth American president in a row to have ordered the bombing of Iraq and his successor will almost certainly be the fifth.

There hadn’t been such an upset in the balance of power in the Middle East since, well, World War I, when Great Britain and France secretly reached the  Sykes-Picot Agreement, which, among other things, divided up most of the Arab lands that had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Because the national boundaries created then did not respect on-the-ground tribal, political, ethnic and religious realities, they could be said to have set the stage for much that was to come.

Now, fast forward to 2003, as the Middle East we had come to know began to unravel. Those US troops had rolled into Baghdad only to find themselves standing there, slack-jawed, gazing at the chaos. Now, fast forward one more time to 2015 and let the grand tour of the unraveling begin!

Please continue this article here: http://billmoyers.com/2015/10/24/what-if-they-gave-a-war-and-everyone-came/

Joan Chittister: The Gate to Human Community

Compassion makes no distinction between friends and
enemies, neighbors and outsiders, compatriots and foreigners.
Compassion is the gate to human community.

Joan Chittister
Seeing with Our Souls

 

Ram Dass: The Basis Of All Truthful Relationship

Compassion is the basis of all truthful relationship: it means being present with love--for ourselves and for all life, including animals, fish, birds, and trees.  Compassion is bringing our deepest truth into our actions, no matter how much the world seems to resist, because that is ultimately what we have to give this world and one another.

- Ram Dass

 

Rachel Carson: The Road Less Traveled

We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road—the one "less traveled by"—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.

- Rachel Carson (1907 - 1964)

Exxon's Climate Cover-Up

This is SO HUGE!! What should the price be paid by those at the top who have intentionally subverted the very welfare of all life on Earth? This has been so evil that my vision is for there to be prolonged/lifelong incarceration right up to the very top of those who were behind the decision to promote the bottom dollar rather than the well-being of life on this beautiful planet. This may seem impossible, but this is the vision I hold none the less -- ACCOUNTABILITY that is reflective of the enormity of the crimes against Life. These missed decades of acting on the known science related to climate change has already caused profound suffering, loss, death. And the costs of humankind's inaction over these past four critical decades will no doubt impact life on our planet for thousands of years. Gratefully, if there is enormous action NOW, we still may be able to avert the worst. It is up to each and every one of us to act, including doing things such as sharing what we know and what we are learning. We are truly all in this together. And another world is possible. ~ Molly

 By The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program | Op-Ed

Exxon knows - and its known for almost 40 years - that the basis of its business model is a threat to humanity. (Photo: Texas.713/Flickr; Edited: JR/TO)Want to support Truthout's work and make double your impact? Click here to make a donation that will be matched dollar-for-dollar - for a limited time only.

Star Wars fans rejoiced last night with the debut of the final trailer for the newest Star Wars movie. It's been 38 years since George Lucas debuted the Star Warsmovies and gave birth to one of the world's most recognizable franchises.

Far less well-known is what Exxon was up to in that same year when Star Wars was released: at that time, the Exxon Corporation was poised to become a leader in climate change research.

Yes, you heard that right. According to InsideClimate News, in July of 1977, a scientist working for Exxon told powerful oil executives at Exxon's headquarters that the planet was warming - and that it was caused by burning fossil fuels. James F. Black told the audience, "In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels."

A year later, he put a fine point to his conclusions when he wrote, "Present thinking holds that man has a time window of five to ten years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical."

That was a decade before Congress heard James Hansen - as Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies - testified about man-made climate change.

See more news and opinion from Thom Hartmann at Truthout here.

Exxon knew about how its entire business model threatened humanity a full decade before Congress - and what did Exxon do about it? Well, believe it or not, the company took serious action. Exxon launched new research into carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and how it impacts the earth. It worked with university scientists and the Department of Energy, and they were early leaders in the field of climate and energy research.

Based on that, you'd think that by 1988, when James Hansen gave his congressional testimony, scientists from Exxon would be next in line to testify about the realities and dangers of global warming. But that's not what happened.

Instead, in the late 1980s, Exxon made an about-face. The company fired most of its climate scientists and started doing everything it could to cast doubt on the scientific consensus about the causes and dangers of man-made climate change. Exxon helped to organize the "Global Climate Coalition," which fights to block any efforts to address global climate change. And the company worked with groups like the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to get fossil-fuel-friendly climate deniers into every level of government.

In 1997, Exxon chairman and CEO Lee Raymond argued against the Kyoto Protocol, using the logic that we don't really know what's going to happen with the climate, so why bother? That pattern of denial and deception has continued to this day.

Even though the company claims that it accepts climate science today, it's still supporting climate denial as a member of climate denying groups like ALEC. That's because Exxon knows - and has known known for almost 40 years - that the basis of its business model is a threat to humanity. And so the company lied and blew a whole lot of smoke to make the science seem less clear than it is, in order to protect its bottom line.

Fortunately, our legal system has dealt with this sort of corporate deception and corruption before.

In 1999, the Department of Justice (DOJ) decided to investigate and prosecute Big Tobacco for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. For nearly 50 years, the tobacco industry had promoted phony science and created deceptive labels to make cigarettes attractive and to make them appear "safe" - if not outright "healthy." Twenty-one years ago, tobacco executives were still testifying that nicotine wasn't addictive.

But in 2006, when US District Judge Gladys Kessler finally ruled on the case, she wrote, "In short, defendants have marketed and sold their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted."

And that's exactly what Exxon and the other oil companies have been doing for nearly 40 years.

And that's why Sharon Eubanks, the former US Department of Justice attorney who prosecuted and won the racketeering case against Big Tobacco - is calling for the Department of Justice to look into whether Exxon violated the RICO Act.

She's not alone. Representatives Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier from California urged Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Friday to launch an investigation into Exxon.

It's definitely time for this to happen, but the investigation shouldn't stop with Exxon. We need a full investigation into every part of Big Oil's decades-long disinformation campaign, particularly the role Koch Industries may be playing in it all.

When the DOJ took down Big Tobacco, it wasn't just Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, the agency went after the lobbying groups and the research shills too.

Today's investigation of climate deniers should include the oil companies like Exxon and Koch Industries, but should also include the organizations that manufacture and push phony research, like the Heartland Institute and the Heritage Foundation.

Because at the end of the day, these companies and organizations have acted with a single-minded focus on the bottom line of their fossil-fuel donors, without regard to human tragedy, social costs or the threat to life on Earth as we know it. It's time they're all held accountable.

Please go here for the original article: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33311-exxon-s-climate-cover-up

Thích Nhất Hạnh: The Black Curious Eyes of a Child

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. 

But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, 

but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle 

which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, 

the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. 

All is a miracle.

― Thích Nhất Hạnh

 

You Ignore This War At Your Own Peril - And the Peril of Us All

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a rally, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. At the core of his campaign, Sanders said, is "bringing people together." (Photo: AP/Troy Wayrynen)


There is a secret to being a supporter of Bernie Sanders. It is something that totally escapes the thinking of most Democrats and Republicans. It is the mental understanding that Sanders is fighting a war that most people are not. It is the war between corporations and the people. Unless you are fighting this war as well, you cannot possibly understand how important it is to vote for Bernie over Hillary. This is not about Hillary or Bernie, it is about fighting your real enemies, the multi-national corporations who are trying to control this nation and the world. You ignore this war at your own peril."

 - Randolph Greer

William Stafford: Today

Today
 

The ordinary miracles begin. Somewhere
a signal arrives: “Now,” and the rays
come down. A tomorrow has come. Open
your hands, lift them: morning rings
all the doorbells; porches are cells for prayer.
Religion has touched your throat. Not the same now,
you could close your eyes and go on full of light.

And it is already begun, the chord
that will shiver glass, the song full of time
bending above us. Outside, a sign:
a bird intervenes; the wings tell the air,
“Be warm.” No one is out there, but a giant
has passed through town, widening streets, touching
the ground, shouldering away the stars.
 

- William Stafford
 

New 2015 Wealth Data: US Inequality at Its Ugliest

PAUL BUCHHEIT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Four years after the Occupy uprising, economic inequality in the United States continues to soar. (Photo: Coco Curranski) 

Bernie Sanders showed his outrage about inequality at the Democratic Debate, and more and more Americans are understanding his message. Indignation is likely to grow with new data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook, which reveals the wealthy elite's continuing disdain for the poor, for the middle class, and for people all around the world. 

Some of the most troubling disparities are hidden in the myriad tables of this remarkably comprehensive publication. The purpose here is to translate the numbers into wealth gap realities that victimize the great majority of Americans. Details can be viewed at You Deserve Facts.

1. At the Bottom: Of the Half-Billion Poorest Adults in the World, One out of Ten is an American

That seems impossible, with so many extremely poor countries, and it requires a second look at the data, and then a third look. But it's true. In the world's poorest decile (bottom 10%), one out of ten are Americans, many of whom are burdened with so much debt that any remnant of tangible wealth is negated. Other nations have high debt, most notably in Europe, but without an excessive burden on their poorest citizens.

Incredibly, then, nearly 50 million of America's 243 million adults are part of the world's poorest 10%. In contrast, over 110 million American adults are among the world's richest 10%.

2. At the Top: The Richest 1/10 of American Adults Have Averaged Over $1 Million Each in New Wealth Since the Recession

Housing rebound? Mostly for the rich, along with their taking of almost all the financial wealth. Total U.S. wealth increased by a stunning 60 percent since 2009, from $54 trillion to $86 trillion, but 3/4 of that massive increase went to the richest 10% of Americans.

The average one-percenter has accumulated $5 MILLION since the recession.

3. In the Middle: The US is the Only Region Where the Middle-Class Does Not Own Its Equivalent Share of Wealth

The North American middle class, as defined by Credit Suisse, and of which the U.S. is by far the largest part, has 39% of the people but only 21 percent of national wealth. Every other region of the world shows the reverse phenomenon, with the middle class owning an oversized portion of national wealth.

The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report states: "The average wealth of middle-class adults in North America is barely half the average for all adults. In contrast, middle-class wealth per adult in Europe is 130% of the regional average; the middle class in China is three times better off in wealth terms than the country as a whole; and the average wealth of the middle class in both India and Africa is ten times the level of those in the rest of the population."

4. In the Upper-Middle: For a Full 70% of Americans, Percentage Ownership of National Wealth is One of the Lowest in the World

That's 70%. Not just the most impoverished, or the poorest half, but a full 70% of us are near the bottom of the world in percentage of wealth ownership. Just 6.9 percent of the wealth is owned by 70% of us. All other reporting nations range between about 13 and 30 percent.

5. The Big Picture: Only Kazakhstan, Libya, Russia, and Ukraine Have Worse Wealth Inequality than the United States

That's among countries with at least a million adults (see details for a discussion of the outlier Denmark). The global Gini is also higher, at .91, reflecting the dramatically greater disparity between nations rather than within them.

Barack Obama once said, "I believe America is exceptional." The inequality data proves him right. 

For the original article, please go here: http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/new-2015-wealth-data-us-inequality-at-its-ugliest

The Dalai Lama: Compassion

Compassion reduces our fear, boosts our confidence, 

and opens us to inner strength. By reducing distrust, it opens us 

to others and brings us a sense of connections with them 

and a sense of purpose and meaning in life.

 

- The Dalai Lama 

https://www.facebook.com/DalaiLama?fref=nf