the burbank digest

"War is a continuation of politics by other means."
von Clausewitz

"When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you begin to die... I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about justice."
Mumia Abu Jamal

"The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions.”
Karl Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law.

DISPELLING ILLUSIONS of 'CHANGE' THE WORLD CANNOT AFFORD
A Cast of 300 Leading Imperialist Terrorists Advises Obama on Foreign Policy
Barack Obama's huge foreign policy team, organized like a mini State Department, is on the spot as the senator plans his overseas trip.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/us/politics/18advisers.html?th&emc=th

1,236,604 Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html

"We will welcome the Americans to Iraq. Unfortunately, we ran out of candy so we will have to substitute bullets."
Tariq Aziz

FALLUJA RESISTANCE RISES AGAIN DESPITE U.S. PAID DEATH SQUAD "AWAKENING GROUPS"
The city of Falluja has been placed under tight curfew as U.S. and Iraqi troops are said to be gearing for a new offensive.

Digest overview:
From many angles we hear the U.S. war described as a "war for oil". Left variations of this slimey obfuscation blame 'the war on Iraq' on: the current administration, emphasis on Bush/Cheney connections to 'big oil'; domestic consumption; "peak oil", diminishing production levels and resources; 'supply and demand' problem caused by OPEC, Nigeria, China and 'population growth' in 'third world'. Pretending Bush is the root of the crisis, a fascist rabble-rousing figurehead selected by the ruling class, not the capitalist-imperialist system.

Why scrupulously bury the truth?
Blaming Bush for birthing 'failed' wars, collapsing economy, 'violating traditional american principles' with a militaristic "manifest destiny" agenda is not just a sick joke it is calculated ahistorical political sleight of hand, easy-sell psywar. U.S. 'left' means neoliberal democrats and all who oppose Bush. The fact that millions of left-liberals buy this "opposition" garbage is testament to the depths of white supremacist class privilege, and profoundly narcissistic ignorance. The disingenuous and deadly obfuscation is necessary to maintain even a threadbare illusion of democracy and ward off a serious 'crisis of confidence' in the whole system. If people understand that the ruling class is bipartisan, its electoral agents job is enforcing everything rotten, electoral garnish change pacification won't work. So behind the scenes, throngs of foundations, think-tanks and NGOs, neoliberal and neocon, supported by the state, strategize, analyze, produce policy for politicians to implement, fund 'foreign aid 'orgs. and initiatives, mobilize activists to implement imperialist plans and create 'news' that wins public opinion to support this brutal system in humanitarian drag. [Digest readers know how this vicious deception works and can see earlier issues for reminders.]

Where does oil fit into the big picture?

‘I Am Proud Of The Decision’ To Invade Iraq
"We tend to forget very quickly what Saddam Hussein meant. … In the post 9/11 environment, you couldn’t let a threat to international peace and stability like that remain." She added: Yes, it’s been very, very tough. But I know that great historical events go through difficult phases and often emerge with the world left for the bet ter. And I am proud of the decision of this administration to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
I am proud of the liberation of 25 million Iraqis....
Condoleeza Rice

"I Freed Millions From Barbarism"
GWB

1,236,604 Iraqis Slaughtered Since U.S. Invaded Iraq
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html

"The Negro youth and moderate[s] must be made to understand that if they succumb to revolutionary teachings, they will be dead revolutionaries."
J. Edgar Hoover,FBI Chief, re: COINTELPRO against the Black Panther Party

Hideous faces of U.S. genocide
Woodfox was serving 50 years for armed robbery when the 1972 killing occurred
"...convicted on false evidence, he's been held in solitary for almost 40 years..."

U.S. WHIPS UP POSITIVE PATRIOTIC JULY 4 PRIDE WITH ANOTHER PSYOPS HOAX
u.s./ Mc Cain try to distance from "Columbia's heroic rescue", Mc Cain may have been phony rescue bag-boy

Betancourt: In Benazir Bhutto u.s. agent tradition
SMOKING GUNS READILY TRACEABLE..just google
... while she was still in the air, the Swiss radio station RSR broadcast a report questioning the official version of the operation to free Ms Betancourt and 14 other hostages – saying that money, not cunning, had clinched their freedom....RSR said that the 15 hostages “were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up". Citing a source "close to the events, reliable and tested many times in recent years", it said that the United States – which had three citizens among those freed – was behind the deal and put the price at $20 million.... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4270844.ece

Radio Suisse Romande
http://info.rsr.ch/fr/news/Ingrid_Betancourt_une_liberation_achetee.html...

"I continue to aspire to serve Colombia as president."
According to RSR the United States "was behind" the ransom payment. Three American contractors were released with Betancourt and 11 Colombian soldiers and police officers, some of whom had been kidnapped more than 10 years ago.... The three American hostages, Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves, flew directly to a military base in San Antonio, Texas and have not yet spoken publicly. The US government acknowledges helping the Colombians with intelligence but it has not responded to the most recent news reports.
Betancourt was abducted in 2002 while she was campaigning for president and running against Uribe, the current Colombian president.
http://www.genevalunch.com/genevalunchrethink/2008/07/swiss-radio-far.ht...

CELEBRATE AND SUPPORT ANTI-IMPERIALIST-ZIONIST RESISTANCE EVERYWHERE!

The Hypocrisy of America: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.
Frederick Douglass: July 4, 1852, invited to give a speech in Rochester, Douglass delivered the following indictment of a a nation celebrating freedom and independence, while keeping slaves.

Fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."

A LONG DEADLY HISTORY OF LIES AND UNPRECEDENTED CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
U.S. IMPERIALIST WARS HAVE ALL BEEN STARTED UNDER FALSE PRETEXTS TOWARDS ITS HISTORICAL GOAL OF 'MANIFEST DESTINY'
June 27, 1950, President Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean War following a call from the United Nations Security Council for member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20080627.html

from a libertarian position: The Long History of Lies for War
Daily Article by David Gordon | Posted on 7/20/2007
[The Ruses for War: American Interventionism Since World War II. By John B. Quigley. Prometheus Books, 2007. 433 pgs.]
The purpose of his book, Quigley tells us, is to explore "U.S. military actions abroad over the past half-century. We look in each instance at what the president and his aides said, and what reasons they gave. Then we examine the situation in light of what is known today to determine whether the administration was truthful" (pp. 14–15).
Quigley, an authority on international law, examines around thirty cases, beginning with the Korean War and ending with Iraq, where the United States has used force. In each instance, he shows, the administration's account has been blatantly false...

Arthur Sylvester, Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy Administration, in 1962 said "that in crisis situations, he believed in 'the inherent right of the Government to lie.' He spoke of lying euphemistically as 'generation' of news, and said that 'news management' was 'part of the arsenal of weaponry' of government" (p. 380).

I Freed Millions From Barbarism, Says President Bush
Bush defends his legacy, issues a stern warning to Iran ... and reveals his plans for a freedom institute devoted to 'universal values'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/15/georgebush.usa

ONE EXAMPLE OF U.S. GENOCIDE
1,225,898 Iraqis Slaughtered In US State Terrorist War And Occupation

ANOTHER: Over half the UN estimated 10,000,000 refugees in the world are children. What the UN does not say is that u.s. imperialist aggression, war and domination is the primary cause of unprecedented genocidal crimes against humanity.
...Iraq was the biggest source of the world's newest refugees for the third year in a row, according to the latest annual report of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) released here Thursday. Last year's exodus was absorbed mostly by Syria, which took in some 500,000 Iraqis during the year -- or nearly half of the more than a million people who sought refuge by crossing an international border during 2007. Tens of thousands more Iraqis also found th eir way to Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, and even Sweden and Germany, which took in, respectively, 10,000 and 6,700 Iraqis during the year. The report, "World Refugee Survey 2008", said more than two million Iraqis are currently living outside their homeland, the vast majority in Syria and Jordan. Somalia -- also caught up in Washington's "global war on terror" -- ranked second as a source of new refugees during the year... http://www.uruknet.de/?p=45038

U.S. still #1 war-monger, #1 in military expenses last year: United States ($547 billion), United Kingdom ($59.7 billion), China ($58.3 billion).

"War is nothing but a continuation of politics by other means."
von Clausewitz

Dear readers: this is the last digest issue until late June. I will be away from computer so do not send emails until you hear from me again please. Meanwhile, hope you find plenty of ongoing importance in previous digest issues. Thank you and best wishes,
liz burbank
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"The principal beneficiary of America's foreign assistance programs has always been the United States."
US Agency for International Development Source: "Direct Economic Benefits of U.S. Assistance Programs," 1999

5 years ago U.S. renamed the prevailing Iraqi national resistance...
War declared on resistance
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/06/1068013331454.html
The Los Angeles Times has ordered its journalists to stop describing anti-American forces in Iraq as resistance fighters, saying the term romanticises them and evokes World War II-era heroism. An email circulated this week asked staff to instead use the terms insurgents or guerillas.

Now 5 years later, after destroying the country and slaughtering over a million Iraqis, u.s.blames undefeatable anti-imperialist resistance on 'terrorists', usually...
U.S. UNCOVERS THE RIDDLE: ALL RESISTANCE IS 'AL-QAEDA'
The Mosul riddle
Pepe Escobar
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE24Ak01.html

SOME PAST & PRESENT HISTORY OF AMERIKAN EGALITARIAN HUMANITARIANISM

"...depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy towards the Third World."
Henry Kissinger, National Security Memo 200, April 24, 1974

Note: U.S. calls fighting off U.S. history of imperialist subversion "xenophobia"
Myanmar appears to nix US Navy help, saying "strings attached"
N http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/22/asia/AS-GEN-Myanmar-US-Militar...
BANGKOK, Thailand: With their history of xenophobia, no one expected Myanmar's generals to welcome with open arms an uninvited flotilla of U.S. warships trying to help bring relief to millions severely affected by Cyclone Nargis...
Instead, Myanmar gave a go-ahead for a far smaller operation of 10 helicopters from the U.N.'s World Food Program — which must be chartered, flown in on cargo planes and reassembled in Bangkok. "The strings attached to the relief supplies carried by warships and military helicopters are not acceptable to the Myanmar people," said the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the ruling junta.
"This is purely a humanitarian mission," said Lt. Col. Douglas Powell, a spokesman for the stalled Operation Caring Response.
The media report hinted that Myanmar's real fear is that the U.S. would use the disaster as a pretext to invade and take control of Myanmar's oil reserves.
So instead of utilizing the U.S. military's assets, Myanmar has agreed to allow a relief operation focused more on the use of the helicopters operated by the World Food Program. It has also been more open to aid from neighboring countries such as Thailand and India.

" U.S. military presence in the region is indispensable to hedging against a burgeoning Chinese military capability...."
Guidelines for U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia
by Walter Lohman,
Senior Research Fellow for Southeast Asia and Acting Director of the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation.
March 20, 2007
http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/bg2017.cfm

ASEAN can be much greater than the sum of its parts. It can grow strong and remain independent, and it can be a reliable U.S. partner far into the future. It is this long-term vision that should be the basis of U.S. foreign policy aspirations. The purpose of this paper is to lay out the stakes involved, guidelines for securing them, and specific policy recommendations.

Southeast Asia's half-billion people reside in the most dynamic area of the world. China, a rising economic and military power with an economy of more than $2 trillion and a population of over 1 billion, sits on their northern doorstep. India, another billion-per­son nation, is outside their western door. Japan, which has the world's second largest economy, and South Korea, a country with such energy that it maintains an economy the size of India's with only 5 percent of India's population, are each a short flight away.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—composed of Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—faces the challenge of safeguarding its interests and prospering in this hyper­competitive neighborhood. The United States has an overarching interest in seeing that it succeeds while also remaining independent and outward-looking.Securing this strategic imperative relies on two mutually reinforcing approaches to the region: bilateral and U.S.–ASEAN.