The world has watched historic events unfold recently in the Middle East, with dramatic effects on the future of the world. Muammar Gaddafi was hunted down and killed by his surging opponents.
Surely his fellow dictators, who are still hanging on in Syria and Yemen, are reading the writing on the wall. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is contemplating his inevitable fate.
The other immense development is the vow of President Barack Obama to pull all American troops from Iraq by the end of the year. Of course, former President George W. Bush should never have sent troops there to begin with. Too many Americans and Iraqis have been killed. Can we say in vain? Now let’s hear from the highest in that White House hierarchy to finally tell us truthfully why we invaded Iraq.
Too many lies were told and sold to the American people. There were no weapons of mass destruction – no ties between killed Iraqui dictator Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda network. When will Americans get mad?
The allegations against Iraq came from the devious U.S. neo-conservatives who gave Bush a flimsy excuse to invade Iraq. The aim was to attack Israel’s designated enemy at the time. Israel’s target now has moved to Iran. Some of Iran’s nuclear scientists have been assassinated in the past couple of years.
In the meantime, no nuclear weapons have been found in Iraq, but hundreds of thousands are dead, and the wars continue to drain the American economy.
Now is the time for White House officials to tell us why we targeted Iraq. We already know the answer: It is because of falsehoods peddled shamelessly to the American people.
Have the neo-cons no decency? To quote Joseph Welch, the Boston attorney who famously delivered these words to the Wisconsin Republican Senator Joe McCarthy, “Have you no shame?!”
The neo-cons led Bush down the garden path to what was going to be a cake walk. Make no mistake, Bush wanted to be remembered as a “War President” – and apparently did not mind using fear to rally the American people in favor of war.
Most of the neo-cons are long gone, living off of monies earned from memoirs, nesting in universities as scholars at large and in our think tanks. A few remain as advisers to Obama. None, however, have paid a price as high as the victims of the “no-win” war.
Both historic events, the death of Gaddafi and the liberation of Iraq, bode well for the world.
The Arab awakening really began around 1920 when Great Britain and France instituted colonial rule in the Middle East. After World War II, fears emerged among the Arab states, that Israel would begin their land grab with the help of the Zionist movement in Britain and America. The Arab awakening was quelled by the Israeli military, who massacred one village after another as the British army packed up, and put up little resistance. Their government had already caved to the Zionists.
The horrible atrocities of Hitler toward innocent Jewish victims won the world’s sympathy. Arabs had no way to contend with the Pro-Israeli movement already beginning to form. Arab rulers were called fascists – many Americans and British funded the Pro-Israel campaign, seeking what first female Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir falsely called Palestine, “A land without people, a people for a land.”
The Pro-Israeli lobby, using the horrors of Hitler in Europe to justify their treatment of Palestinians, has had a major impact on American sentiment. The Palestinians had no voice to explain their side – no American sympathy – that two wrongs do not make a right.
The U.S. had publicly urged Gaddafi, al-Assad, and Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. Why do these dictators believe they can survive? The Arab Awakening brought home the idea that the dictators’ day is done in the Middle East, they are ready for democracy to rule.
The Syrian and Yemeni rulers can run, but they cannot hide.
Dictator Day of Reckoning
Helen Thomas
The world has watched historic events unfold recently in the Middle East, with dramatic effects on the future of the world. Muammar Gaddafi was hunted down and killed by his surging opponents.
Surely his fellow dictators, who are still hanging on in Syria and Yemen, are reading the writing on the wall. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is contemplating his inevitable fate.
The other immense development is the vow of President Barack Obama to pull all American troops from Iraq by the end of the year. Of course, former President George W. Bush should never have sent troops there to begin with. Too many Americans and Iraqis have been killed. Can we say in vain? Now let’s hear from the highest in that White House hierarchy to finally tell us truthfully why we invaded Iraq.
Too many lies were told and sold to the American people. There were no weapons of mass destruction – no ties between killed Iraqui dictator Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda network. When will Americans get mad?
The allegations against Iraq came from the devious U.S. neo-conservatives who gave Bush a flimsy excuse to invade Iraq. The aim was to attack Israel’s designated enemy at the time. Israel’s target now has moved to Iran. Some of Iran’s nuclear scientists have been assassinated in the past couple of years.
In the meantime, no nuclear weapons have been found in Iraq, but hundreds of thousands are dead, and the wars continue to drain the American economy.
Now is the time for White House officials to tell us why we targeted Iraq. We already know the answer: It is because of falsehoods peddled shamelessly to the American people.
Have the neo-cons no decency? To quote Joseph Welch, the Boston attorney who famously delivered these words to the Wisconsin Republican Senator Joe McCarthy, “Have you no shame?!”
The neo-cons led Bush down the garden path to what was going to be a cake walk. Make no mistake, Bush wanted to be remembered as a “War President” – and apparently did not mind using fear to rally the American people in favor of war.
Most of the neo-cons are long gone, living off of monies earned from memoirs, nesting in universities as scholars at large and in our think tanks. A few remain as advisers to Obama. None, however, have paid a price as high as the victims of the “no-win” war.
Both historic events, the death of Gaddafi and the liberation of Iraq, bode well for the world.
The Arab awakening really began around 1920 when Great Britain and France instituted colonial rule in the Middle East. After World War II, fears emerged among the Arab states, that Israel would begin their land grab with the help of the Zionist movement in Britain and America. The Arab awakening was quelled by the Israeli military, who massacred one village after another as the British army packed up, and put up little resistance. Their government had already caved to the Zionists.
The horrible atrocities of Hitler toward innocent Jewish victims won the world’s sympathy. Arabs had no way to contend with the Pro-Israeli movement already beginning to form. Arab rulers were called fascists – many Americans and British funded the Pro-Israel campaign, seeking what first female Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir falsely called Palestine, “A land without people, a people for a land.”
The Pro-Israeli lobby, using the horrors of Hitler in Europe to justify their treatment of Palestinians, has had a major impact on American sentiment. The Palestinians had no voice to explain their side – no American sympathy – that two wrongs do not make a right.
The U.S. had publicly urged Gaddafi, al-Assad, and Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. Why do these dictators believe they can survive? The Arab Awakening brought home the idea that the dictators’ day is done in the Middle East, they are ready for democracy to rule.
The Syrian and Yemeni rulers can run, but they cannot hide.
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