Another day of infamy in the US of A

::Three Soldiers' Tales::
1997 I'm sitting in an Arab language class in Lower Hutt and the soldier sitting next to me, part of a peace monitoring force in Gaza, is describing how--for no reason other than to amuse themselves--Israeli soldiers will shoot at Arab herders tending goats and sheep on their own land in the Gaza strip.

2000 A former Iranian soldier--conscripted to fight in his county's war of defence against Iraq--tells me he doesn't doubt that Iran gives support to the Hamas fighters in the territories occupied by Israel. He's seen it happen.

2007 The special forces veteran of Gulf Wars 1 and 2 on the Greyhound bus I'm riding back from DC makes it plain he thinks there's no way the US can do anything positive in the Middle East. Those people have fighting in their DNA, he says.

::June 18, 2007::
On the way home from work this evening in the bus, a Mobius-strip moment had me listening on a little radio to the US Secretary of State spouting the most god-awful nonsense since the last time I was listening on a little radio on my way TO work when the US Secretary of State was spouting the most god-awful nonsense about weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations Security Council back in 2003.

How can any nation in the world take the US seriously? It purports to be all for democracy, yet when a democratically elected government contains people that it doesn't like it works to undermine that government's ability to function by cutting off money. Then the impossibly please-eager Secretary of State Rice has the nerve to pontificate today about how "responsible Palestinians are making their choice and it is the duty of the international community to support those Palestinians who wish to build a better life and future of peace."

Hamas, she says, "has made its choice. It has sought to attempt to extinguish democratic debate with violence and to impose its extremist agenda on the Palestinian people in Gaza." I'm sorry, Ms. Rice, but it's just as extremist an agenda to deliberately starve people by cutting off their aid because your dodgily elected President's administration didn't like the results of the democratic election that was held in Gaza and the West Bank 18 months ago.

Heck! It's not like anyone in the US is going to get inspired by Hamas and take to the streets to get their own government back! They're all too busy trying to figure out how to get out of debt. And I think you've made a serious, serious miscalculation making speeches like that while the Prime Minister of Israel is here.

There's not a Republican from here to breakfast (except Rudy "only been out of the country three times and that was to Israel" Elect-me-please) who thinks that the US can continue for one minute longer to humiliate itself sucking up to Olmert. The guy's a joke even in his own country, where Infrastructure Minister Ben-Eliezer was recently reported in Haaretz as saying that Olmert "woke up one morning and became prime minister".

::Patriots Needed to Spruce up the National Essential Functions::
A Presidential Directive promulgated by GWB on May 9 lists eight National Essential Functions (NEFs). It is the duty of every US citizen to read them, ponder if there is something amiss with any in a time of peace, and then work vigorously to correct those which have somehow veered off course:

(a) Ensuring the continued functioning of our form of government under the Constitution, including the functioning of the three separate branches of government;

(b) Providing leadership visible to the Nation and the world and maintaining the trust and confidence of the American people;

(c) Defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and preventing or interdicting attacks against the United States or its people, property, or interests;

(d) Maintaining and fostering effective relationships with foreign nations;

(e) Protecting against threats to the homeland and bringing to justice perpetrators of crimes or attacks against the United States or its people, property, or interests;

(f) Providing rapid and effective response to and recovery from the domestic consequences of an attack or other incident;

(g) Protecting and stabilizing the Nation's economy and ensuring public confidence in its financial systems; and

(h) Providing for critical Federal Government services that address the national health, safety, and welfare needs of the United States.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html

rosalea.barker@gmail.com

--PEACE and an ordinary lifespan, lived in relative comfort and joy--

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