Did He Really Say That? by Cindy Sheehan

Did He Really Say That?

“We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger.”

Barack Obama in Obama’s Wars by Bob Woodward

Again, the arrogance of U.S. Robber Class politicians is astonishing!

I know I just have a modest internet talk show and a blog that only reaches thousands, but I am going to put in a request to interview Barack Obama, because I doubt, with the resignation of the only tough-ish person in the White House Press Corps, Helen Thomas, that any other so-called journalist has the guts to go against the Emperor and ask just one simple question—“Mr. President, who or what do you mean by ‘us’?” Is it another case of: “It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.” (Bill Clinton).

Maybe Obama was suffering from the delusion of, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” but looking from the perspective of someone who was greatly weakened in so many ways by the attacks of 9/11, and from all of my other experiences since then, I can say what and who has not been made “stronger.”

Many families here in the US have had members killed, maimed or emotionally wounded starting on 9/11 and continuing every day since then. By this past week, 2010 was the deadliest year for our military in Afghanistan, already. It is just September, and 2010 has been only surpassed in carnage by the other year in the Obama regime—2009. And the other “crazy” thing is, troops keep dying in Iraq, even though that “war” is “over.”

I can also say that the millions of people who have been killed, maimed or displaced in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan (which Obama thinks is the “real threat”) have not been strengthened in the short-term or long-term—but, hey—they don’t really count, now, do they?

Since 9/11, I have been arrested many times for just exercising my civil rights to free speech and freedom of expression, and I am just one of thousands—I don’t think our civil liberties are “stronger” since 9/11. In fact, just today, antiwar and social justice activists had their homes raided in all parts of this country by the FBI. I resent having to, for all intents and purposes, walk nude throughout airport security and I resent the entire police state mentality of airport personnel who, but for the “grace” of 9/11 could just as likely be saying: “would you like that super-sized,” as “I’m going to have to search you.” Even their lives aren’t better being wage slaves for the Police State.

Speaking of that, everyone I know in my wide circle of concern is either unemployed or underemployed. For example, my son, a new father, is working three jobs just to provide for his small family and hasn’t worked in his trade as a land surveyor for a year and a half. Andy’s story is not an unusual or special one. The job market has certainly not been made "stronger." The housing market has not been made "stronger" and OUR economy is as weak as my newborn grandson. It has no muscle tone or control and can only whine and scream because that’s the only way it can express itself now. At least my grandbaby is adorable.

I can name a few institutions that have been made “stronger” since 9/11: The Police State and all its apparatus; the Military Industrial Complex and its tentacles: the Pentagon, the State Department, war profiteers, corporate media; Wall Street; the surviving banks; and especially the government. The rich are literally getting richer, and the poor are growing poorer. The income gap is wider than it ever has been since 1929!

Tragically—the numbers of people falling into poverty and into homelessness have been strengthened, as have the numbers of people who are losing their health insurance.

Whether Osama bin Laden perpetrated 9/11 from a cave in northern Afghanistan--or Dick Cheney planned it from his cave in Mordor--OBL’s stated goal of total destruction of the U.S. Empire is proceeding apace and I can’t fully comprehend what another “terrorist” attack would do to this nation—the institutions, people, and societal norms that were weakened by 9/11 will be furthered weakened and the ones that were made “stronger” will be further strengthened. I can foresee only a bleak future under Obama’s Absorption Theory—complete tyranny in the U.S because of complete economic breakdown that will probably lead to isolated incidences of internal rebellion that will be violently suppressed in the name of “National Security and Stability.”

I have read some Obamapologists saying that he was “correct;” that our nation was made “stronger.” This line of thinking goes: We were afraid at first, but eventually when WE were not attacked (by the terr’ists) again—we went about our daily lives as if nothing ever happened. Well, I say: that’s exactly what is wrong with this nation. Three-thousand Americans were killed that day, which wasn’t bad enough—but almost 6000 (official count) Americans have been killed in the Middle East/Asia since then. And as the mother of one of those, I can attest to the fact that not many people feel as connected to this tragic figure as they are to the ones murdered on 9/11. Our soldiers have been misused in this phony war of terror began by Bush and perpetuated by Obama.

After 9/11, instead of becoming self-reflective, we mostly allowed our government to steal our flesh and blood, kill and torture millions of others and descend into this Police State that is protected from accountability, because we the people are still afraid of our own shadows. We (as a whole) haven’t “absorbed” crap—we have deflected it as far away from us as possible. Most of us are still afraid, but most of those that are still afraid are fearful of the wrong things. The real terrorists reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and other posh residences in the beltway.

We are speedily careening to November 2nd, when many of us will be going to the polls to vote for the “Party of No.” Do you think I mean the Republicans? No, I mean the other “Party of No,” the Democrats.

One thing the Obama regime has shown me is that the Democrats are also the Party of No: NO peace, No justice, NO relevant healthcare reform, NO improvement in education, NO civil liberties, NO economic justice, NO environmental sustainability, NO jobs, NO anything that is positive for we that were made weaker after 9/11.

Yes, it’s been a feast for the vampires of economic disaster and the pigs of war since 9/11 and I don’t foresee any change coming at the ballot box. The ravenous feasters want your food, too—and they want you to believe that voting will hamper, or at least slow, their access to your measly crumbs. It obviously won’t.

Go ahead and go vote for the Party of No (D or R) on November 2nd—but know that’s what you are getting. Your vote for the Party of No (D or R) only strengthens the apparatus of control and oppression (I am going to go vote in California: Yes on 19!) and you get nothing in return.

Solution? Intentional grass roots communities that break away from the Robber Class institutions to make our families and communities stronger and to weaken the Police State—you can read more about those in my Internet booklet, Myth America.

Relentless Propaganda by Cindy Sheehan

Relentless Propaganda

“(Propaganda) proceeds by psychological manipulations, character modifications, by creation of stereotypes useful when the time comes - The two great routes that this sub-propaganda takes are the conditioned reflex and the myth”
Jacques Ellul

I can’t tell this story enough—and it fits into this piece:

On July 4th 2006, I, and dozens of other antiwar activists began what we called: “Troops Home Fast.” It was supposed to be a fast until the troops were coming home from Iraq (Note: After 39 days, I ended up in the hospital with another condition and I had to have two emergency surgeries and 2 blood transfusions, so I had to stop). So a few days after the fast began, I was invited to go on MSNBCs Hardball, and I was told I was invited so I could talk about our fast.

Well, instead of appearing with the juicy Chris Matthews, the guest host that day was neocon, Norah O’Donnell. She introduced me as the “woman who met with ‘communist dictator,’ Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.” We went to a phony break (because the show is taped) and I said: “You know, Norah, Chavez is neither a communist—he’s a socialist, nor a dictator. He’s been democratically elected several times and survived a coup attempt orchestrated and paid for by our own government.”

I will never, ever forget her answer: “We know, but we had a meeting and we decided to call him a ‘communist dictator’ anyway.” This is on MSNBC, the supposedly “liberal” cable news network.
Recently, on MSNBC, we saw establishment critic (oops, only when a Republican is in office), Keith Olbermann call Karl Marx a “lousy thinker,” when even the most anti-Marxist in the world would have to concede that Marx was one of the most brilliant thinkers and political/social philosophers in modern history—anyway, that’s a little off the subject.

Currently, I am making a documentary film about Venezuela and President Chavez and the people’s revolution there called, the Bolivarian Revolution—and what happened on September 17th, is one of the reasons I am doing so. Of course, in making this film, I am obsessed with all things Venezuelan and all the news from and about the country and its charismatic president and that’s how this “news” item crossed my path—the headline:

US couple accused of trying to sell nuclear secrets to Venezuela.

(Extra, extra, read all about it!)

Well, we know in the past decade, that if the U.S. Military junta wants to invade a country, they start a demonization campaign that should have the requisite “nuclear component” in it—Iraq (WMD, “mushroom cloud”) and Iran are perfect current examples of nuclear-fear bullcrap.

Now look at that bold headline that appeared on CNN online on September 17th via the U.K. Guardian—if you were the average, casual consumer of the “news” and you had already had the stuffing propagandized out of you that Chavez is a “communist dictator” that "supports terrorism," what would you automatically think? You would think exactly what the headline wants you to think—that Venezuela is in the market to make nuclear weapons by purchasing secrets from the undisputed champion of the manufacture and usage of nuclear weaponry: the USA. (We're number one!)

If you had the perseverance and time, you would have to go to the final paragraph of the “news” piece to read this little tidbit: “The justice department statement was at pains to spell out that Venezuela was not involved: "The indictment does not allege that the government of Venezuela or anyone acting on its behalf sought or was passed any classified information, nor does it charge any Venezuelan government officials or anyone acting on their behalf with wrongdoing."

Jacques Ellul (French sociologist and philosopher in the 20th C) also said: “The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion, but to arouse an active and mythical belief.”

Not only is the global media junta having a great success in demonizing all things Venezuelan, this targeted propaganda campaign is being partnered with an active “Plan Venezuela” to not just isolate Venezuela in public opinion, but to isolate it militarily from its allies and neighbors.
Being extremely frightened by what Noam Chomsky calls: “The threat of a good example,” the U.S. has staffed seven military bases in Colombia while spreading the lie that Chavez supports the FARC there. While rejoicing in the propaganda that Chavez is a “drug dealer,” the U.S. has placed 7,000 Marines in Costa Rica to ostensibly fight the phony War on Drugs—and only the U.S. Military junta knows why it reactivated the 4th Naval Fleet in the Bush years to send to the Caribbean.

The ultimate goal of our documentary about Venezuela called, Revolution, A Love Story is to show people in my own country of birth that a grassroots revolution to overthrow the entrenched, diseased U.S. system is possible because illiterate peasants in Venezuela were empowered by education and the “threat of a good example” to overthrow the U.S. corporate neo-liberalism that kept them impoverished and uneducated under colonialism (even if it eventually was “liberated,” either the Spanish or U.S. controlled it) for centuries.
Reject the relentless propaganda—my story illustrates how the media not only lies to us, but also holds meetings to figure out the best ways to propagandize us.

This was exposing just one small piece of the demonization of Vz, for a more extensive analysis, read:

US Media Intensifies Campaign Against Chavez

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How our lives have changed since 9/11 by Cindy Sheehan

(REMARKS FOR L.A. AND NYC 9/11 EVENTS)

Many people here today just woke up (whether abruptly or gradually) to the fact that the US Empire is a criminal construct capable of murdering, oppressing, impoverishing, and enslaving its own citizenry for the sake of power and profit.

Just because we awoke that day, doesn’t mean that the Bush regime was the first to perpetrate these crimes.

Speaking of awakenings, on the morning of 9/11/2001, right before I awakened from my sleep on the West Coast—I had a dream. I dreamt that I was putting a large, delicate crystal vase on the back of my toilet and it slipped out of my hands and crashed into the bowl and broke into a million pieces, some of them getting into my eyes and imbedding them into my face—my thought in my dream was: “Great, now I have to go to the ER and wait to have these splinters removed from my eyes.” The very next scene in my dream, a fire fighter was escorting me out of my office and we were both covered in soot and grime. When I awoke from this nightmare, my daughter told me of the real life horror that was unfolding at the World Trade Center.

My dream was precognitive about what was in the planning to ruin my life and this world for the neocon agenda. My life has been profoundly changed since 9/11 with the loss of my son and with personal and public struggles to make meaning of these losses and sense out of what is so senseless.

However, as tragic and awful as 9/11 was and still is, we can’t ignore the fact that this nation was never “noble” and the founders were just men, slaveholding men, that excluded women from participating in civil society—they were not gods to be idolized or paragons of virtue to want to “return to.” Our Constitution may as well have been written in the blood of our native population and nailed to every slave-whipping post in the South.

The model of a representative republic was probably not the worst model for a fledgling government, but we the people have never been represented and the plutocracy has always ruled this country. We the people have only gained mild concessions from the plutocracy and only out of decades of struggle and sacrifice.

Slaves should never have been kidnapped from their homes and brought here to suffer for the profit of the Southern Aristocracy.

Women should not have been imprisoned and beaten because they claimed the right to vote with men.

Black people should never have had to be lynched, or had dogs and fire hoses set on them so they could have equal rights with whites.

Children should never have been chained to machines and made to be virtual slaves for Northern industrialists.

Many people had to give their lives to claim rights inherent for all humanity at birth—not just rich, white, Christian Americans. And that’s just not right.

Some of you who recognize that the rulers of the US didn’t just wake up on 9/11/2001 and have an “origins of evil” moment, want to say that 1963 (assassination of Kennedy) or 1913 (creation of the Federal Reserve) were the turning points to steer this nation down the wrong path—I just want to call “bullshit” and say that those events were evil, but Andrew Jackson fought bankers and if this nation didn’t become an Empire in 1492, it did in 1823 when the Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed making the US a written in stone, dyed in the wool, no holds barred, hemispheric Empire.

We stole Mexico because of a false-flag op.

We stole Cuba and the Philippines because of a false-flag op and we said we were “liberating” the peoples from colonial Spanish oppression, to put in place an even harsher rule.

Hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens were murdered by firebombing, or nuclear bombing during WWII; millions of Vietnamese were murdered and we want to “get back to our roots?” Well, I say our roots are diseased and we need to create something new from the ashes of this Evil Empire.

This 9/11, all I can say is, they will keep coming as long as we fail to recognize that 9/11/2001 was not an isolated event and that for centuries the US has murdered people and stolen their lands and maybe, just maybe, nine years ago, the chickens did come home to roost—with the help and encouragement of the foxes.

I submit that nothing structurally changed about US Imperialism on that day, except the crimes and police state oppression of the Empire became more overt—and we the people have mostly stood down for this, because of fear.

Three thousand people were murdered on 9/11 by either the Empire or in response to the crimes of the Empire, but probably it was a combination of both. And the only thing some people find shocking is that they were Americans this time.

Page Turning, etc

Cindy Sheehan

“As we do, (turn the “page” in Iraq) I am mindful that the Iraq War has been a contentious issue at home. Here, too, it is time to turn the page. This afternoon, I spoke to former President George W. Bush. It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security. As I have said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hope for Iraq’s future.”

Barack Obama, Speech August 31, 2010

I feel like I have written this article about 10 times now since I became an antiwar activist. Please believe me—I don’t like being “negative.” I am inherently a very optimistic and cheerful person, but in this Empire that is heading Back to the Future of Orwell’s 1984, there is little to cheer or be hopeful about.

The above quote is, of course, from Barack Obama’s August 31^st speech declaring an “end to combat operations” in Iraq.

What, no ticker-tape parades? No iconic images of recently liberated troops kissing innocent passersby in Times Square? Nope, it’s almost as if even the most ardent war propagandist knows this incoherent and poorly delivered speech is merely a monumental hoax.

Even though there is much to comment about in the entire speech—like when Obama said that the US commitment (numbers still hovering over 150,000) in Iraq is to help the Iraqis build a government that is “accountable to the people of Iraq,” my first thought was that it would be great if we had a government that was accountable to USAians.

The president was also schizophrenic over just who are our “enemies” in Afghanistan: al Qaeda (less than 100 there), or the Taliban.

In his little chat, Obama clearly said that our military was being used to expand “new markets for our goods” (Imperialism) and that we should “honor” this Imperial Guard by “coming together” and “turning a page” on the war in Iraq. If we do all these wonderful and hopeful things, then we will stay the “Leader of the Free World.” A Shining City on a Hill where “Americans ‘give’ (have stolen) their lives for the ‘values’ (conquest for profit and murder for murder’s sake) ‘we’ (the elite oligarchy) have believed in for two centuries.” I never thought I could watch a speech that would make me more physically ill than a Bush speech, but Obama succeeded where a lesser person may have failed.

With an Imperial Outpost in Baghdad the size of 80 football fields and with a mega-oil reserve, the US is planning a permanent presence in Iraq—that is clear to anyone who has eyes, ears and a brain. The Iraqi people get the full picture and they know that the speech on Tuesday was simply a crass display of lies for political manipulation.

The section that bowled me over, and not in a good way, was the part where Obama said that George Bush “loves” America and he was “concerned” for our security. The one passage that I quote above clearly demonstrates that Obama is just another member of the elite class that has existed in and pummeled our nation since, well, forever.

In the horrific Oval Office speech, (frankly, I was more interested in analyzing the homey family pictures sitting on the credenza behind him) Obama continued his policy of exonerating and ignoring the crimes of the Bush regime so his regime can commit the same crimes with impunity.

“Turning the Page” to Obama means: “let’s forget what has happened before so I can go forward and destroy any country that gets in the way of the profits and power of the elite class.”

Our lives and our way of life mean less to them than which fork to use or what gown to wear at their fancy and exclusive functions.

This country was erected on an extremely shaky foundation, but the pace of decay seems to have accelerated since WE dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan after “softening” the population up with a campaign of intense firebombing.

Arguably every U.S. president has been a war criminal, but definitely the ones of the 20^th-21^st centuries and the Dalai Bama is no exception.

Was Bush the main criminal from the 2001-2008 years? No, he was only the figurehead criminal just as Obama is, but I will NEVER give up my quest to hold BushCo responsible for the deaths of over one million people—for the torture of thousands—for the destruction of infrastructure (at home and abroad)—for the abuse of power—for lying—and for committing “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Justice has to begin somewhere, and it might as well begin with George Bush.

I will NEVER stop trying to hold ObamaCo accountable for its crimes, either—nor the next U.S. administration.

There cannot be healing without justice—there is only this stubborn amnesia that We the American people impose on ourselves that allows the Mis-Rulers to keep committing their unrepentant and unpunished crimes.

It doesn’t matter if I turn the page—all the pages in the future have my dead son written all over them—I can skip to the last page, and if I can’t read anything else, Casey’s needless and untimely death will always be carved into the millions of pieces of my broken heart.

And Casey and I are just two of millions.

And by the way, Barack—I am not “turning the page” on my opposition to the continued occupation of Iraq, nor the escalating violence in Afghanistan until every last one of our troops/contractors/war profiteers are back on U.S. soil.

Write that in your book!