In 1970, Nixon bombed the hell out of Cambodia. Absolutely no good came of that. In 2003, Bush bombed the hell out of Iraq. Nothing good was accomplished there either. In 2011, Obama bombed the hell out of Libya. Another disaster as well.
And now Trump and Clinton are both claiming that if we elect either one of them to the presidency and give them a chance to bomb the hell out of Syria, Russia and Dallas, everything in America will magically become totally chill. (See Silencing America as it prepares for war)
In 1970, I found a twenty-dollar-bill on the ground and was elated. “Should I take all my friends out to dinner at Sizzler or just pay half my rent? Or both?” I asked myself.
In 2003, I made twenty bucks at a garage sale, enabling me to buy a nice steak at the Berkeley Bowl and go see “Whale Rider” at the Shattuck.
In 2011, I lost twenty dollars. It must have slipped out of my back pocket when I reached for my library card. $20 gone? No big deal.
In 1970, the UN and NATO at least pretended to be working toward world peace. In 2003, the UN and NATO finally showed their true colors as pawns of the American wannabe empire. In 2011, it was crystal-clear to anyone with even toosh knowledge of American foreign policy that the UN and NATO were merely minions of Wall Street and War Street.
In 1970, 2003 and 2011, America continued to spend at least half of its national budget on the defense of corporate interests. But did that huge amount also include paying for keeping NATO and the UN running too? And for all their overt and covert military operations as well? And also for their humongous shopping list of bombs, tanks, bribes and who-the-freak knows what all else on the side? Probably not.
I think that it’s fairly safe to say that America’s “wars” of empire have pretty much gutted our economy in the past 35-odd years—but do we Americans really need to spend all that extra money on supporting the pretense that the UN and NATO are impartial peacekeepers who are benefiting mankind—and not just gross tools for corporate interests, war dogs and gun clubs?
Just think of what all else we could have been spending all those billions (or even trillions) of dollars on for all these years.
Buyer beware!
Jane Stillwater is a freelance writer who hates injustice and corruption in any form but especially injustice and corruption paid for by American taxpayers. She has recently published a book entitled, “Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips For Touring Today’s Middle East.” According to Ms. Stillwater, “It’s a fabulous and entertaining book. I loved writing it. And I hope that you will love reading it too.” It’s available at Amazon or you can order it at any independent bookstore.
CONTRIBUTION
MY SPEECH AT THE U. N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak, and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.”
John Adams
Hi Dear Leader?
Howdy Partners, (sorry if I had perhaps alerted some of you thinking I would continue ‘Partners in Crime’)
In all honesty, I must say I never wanted to be part of this gathering but, perhaps not unlike many of you, for the sake of my bread and butter to sustain my life-style, I was compelled to accept and undergo this humiliation for my country.
Firstly, I would like to ask: ‘Who is the leader here?’ ‘Whom must I congratulate?’ ‘For what?’ and finally ‘Who is the toughest guy here?’
In answer to my first cynical question, I was informed that, supposedly, the head of this organisation is none other than its Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
In my deepest apprehension, I couldn’t but recollect all my misgivings, as I’m sure all of you are well aware of, of this personality. You all know that, as the Western powers wanted someone bland and pliable, his fecklessness is precisely what got him hired in the first place, as the colourless South Korean fitted the bill to the last notch. He has been called various names, none very complimentary, such as; the world’s most dangerous Korean, invisible and worst secretary, a nowhere man, a clumsy negotiator, a powerless observer and, the highest compliment of all, America’s clown and puppet.
But the fault lies as much with those who chose him as with the man himself, for the man knows well enough that secretaries general who publicly cross their patrons don’t last long. But you wanted to stick it out, Mr. Secretary General, in spite of the many who constantly called for your resignation.
Well Mister, although, from all I heard about you, I feel no urge to congratulate you at this instant, I understand that quite recently you have asked for ‘giving peace a chance in Syria’. I must admit that at least this is a positive step, I must however ask you: ‘If this chance would not be forthcoming, would you still be hanging there, enjoying the pleasures (and benefits) of a hypocrite and corrupt organisation?’. So you can’t blame me for desisting from congratulating you until then! Any hope?
So, although critics continue to slam Ban Ki-moon for being charmless and ineffective, they had better get used to it, because they’re stuck with him.
Dear Partners?
Going back through the years and practices of this organisation, we must recall that over a decade ago, the United Nations agreed 8 ambitious goals designed to rid the world of the worst extremes of poverty, and set ourselves a deadline of 2015 to meet their targets. The Millennium Development Goals will expire on December 31, 2015, and the debate over what should come next is now in full swing. While the MDGs have helped to focus attention, their segmentation of the symptoms of poverty has taken attention away from the ultimate root causes of poverty. However, globally, economic inequality is on a longstanding upward trend. Economic inequality within countries is rising dramatically. Some countries have got immensely richer, while many others are as poor as they were hundreds of years ago.
As all are aware of, the UNO (United Nations Organisation) enjoys international immunity from suit. Functional immunity is an immunity from legal process in respect of words spoken or written and acts performed by officials of the United Nations in their official capacity, protecting these officials from lawsuits in the host nation State where they work.
And what about the UN imposition of sanctions? There is nothing that bars the random, indiscriminate and abusive implementation of sanctions by the UN and no accountability of such was ever demanded or contested. There is a long list of victim states that have undergone such harsh sacrifices imposed unjustly on them. Just to name a few; Cuba, Myanmar (Burma), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and many others. One must not forget the infamous and scandalous sanctions revolving around the ‘Oil-for-Food Programme’, with the involvement of the UN itself and which sanctions had to be discontinued in 2003. And after all, why are we forgetting that the impact of sanctions is often felt by poor, innocent civilians and not the intended government officials.
Now, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted a highly politicized, binding resolution on Syria, calling for the country’s chemical weapons stockpile to be destroyed. However, the resolution itself ignores the crimes and atrocities that are being committed by the armed terrorist groups. These terrorist groups, or mercenary corps, are backed by the USA, EU member states, the Gulf States and Turkey. To us all, this is no news! We all knew it! The question is how fair and unbalanced this is. Or should it also have called for the U.S. the U.K, Israel and others. to open their nuclear, biological and chemical weapons facilities to U.N. weapons’ inspectors too.
And now, a word on our home front! Due to this upheaval in world political, economic and military disturbances human migration is causing immense problems to both despatching and receiving countries. Hopefully, this problem will ease off once public order is established in their respective countries.
On the other hand, illegal immigrants represent an issue which will not go away and that has to be tackled more meaningfully than has happened so far.
We must not refrain from feeding them, sheltering them and in the least possible time, send them to their former colonisers who were, and probably still are, exploiting them of their resources, albeit now in a different way.
The criminal organisations that are bringing them over are reaping a hefty profit from this shady business of human trafficking and these are left to flourish and multiply.
It is unimaginable that such criminality may also extend to circles of political power, both from the despatching and the receiving ends. But, who cares, greed knows no limits!
Mr.President
All attendants at this Assembly are invited to visit the 9/11 memorial. Good!! But what about taking all participants to visit all other sites, if not monuments, where thousands and millions of innocents had been killed, maimed for life and separated from families, all caused through the fallacy and hypocrisy of this organisation. Must I name a few….. Palestine, Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Syria, etc. etc.? I suppose that’s enough… can’t keep you here all day!
On another scale, you would not miss noting that Arafat, Milosevic, Saddam, Ghaddafi and a few others couldn’t make it for this meeting. Perhaps at our next meeting there would be more. Anyhow, at least Mubarak said ‘thank you’ for keeping his hopes high and disrupting his opponents, a legally and democratically elected Egyptian government!
We must be able to extend the influence of the United Nations and its prestige to all corners of the world with each one of us becoming the symbol of the United Nations itself. It is our sacrosanct duty to stop any country from continuing to commit war crimes and to stop the massacres and the killings wherever and by whoever they are committed. Our Organisation cannot be continually accused of, instead of alerting the world of the unfolding world slaughter, allowing governments to bully it into silence.
Is it true that, as is being said, the UN is a joke and that it serves the interests of the powerful against the weak. So be it if we wish it so!
I am bound to believe that nobody wants to hear the plain truth and it seems that it never helps to tell the truth. Perhaps we prefer too much to hear lies! Let’s stop congratulating each other over drinks, shaking hands and posing for photographs and get to work to make this assemblage a respected organisation worthy of its name.
Finally, I feel I must end as I had started. Most of us deliver a joyful and perhaps hopeful paean to teamwork, thus celebrating a false motivational triumph. Yes, as I said, talk is cheap, but don’t worry, whatever we say would be clapped, if not cheered, in this hall, but, let me assure you that, not a word of what had and what would be said here would be noted or believed out there!
“….. the high praise of God in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand …..”
Psalms: 149.5
Joseph M. Cachia
MALTA SOCIALIST PARTY
Email: jmcachia@maltanet.net
ID: 698736 (M)
Tel: 21807566 – 99866151
·