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About The North Coast times-eagle. (Wheeler, Oregon) 1971-2007 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2002)
PAGE 16 NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , AUGTEMBER 2002 9/11 NOW FROM PAGE ONE policies have made entire populations desperate and have consequently ravaged our own security Terrorism has risen from our military arms and financial support of repressive and compliant militarist regimes in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East The Bush administration has used the exigency of war to intimidate criticism of its rape of the environment and disinte gration of the always tenuous social fabric to reestablish the old federalist plutocracy of Alexander Hamilton Hamilton was truly fanatical in his belief that only the privileged are fit to rule, men of wealth and property. The rest are to be in their shadows, act out their orders — legally obligated to be useful to their betters. Since 9/11 the War on Terrorism has been used to persuade Americans that it is unpatriotic to defend their political and civil liberties. Attorney General Ashcroft says anybody complaining about loss of civil liberties and use of military tribunals is only aiding and abetting terrorists. “Your tactics only encourage terrorists,” Ashcroft said of people questioning the loss of civil liberties, claiming such criticism vitiates the commitment of “peace loving peoples" against terrorism. (The Bushies sound like old communists in their persistent use of terms like “peace loving peoples" and “the freedom loving peoples of the world ") The USA Patriot Act, which was introduced to Congress a week after 9/11 and made into law October 26 — so quickly a suspicion is that it was drawn up before 9/11 — expands eaves dropping by police as well as expanded wire tapping and e-mail intercepts. Public records are to be sealed and anti-terrorism proceedings are secret. Antiterrorism laws are tightened and states would have stiffer penalties, longer prison terms and looser death penalty restrictions. The Homeland Security Department that has been accorded cabinet status plans to set up a regional ‘homeland’ military command, which would subdivide the nation into much tighter military districts with troops such as national guardsmen at all airports and borders and more or less policing society — perhaps more like oversighting domestic police even though the military is not allowed to directly participate in civil law enforcement. But the Homeland Security Department is looking for ways to subvert that prohibition which is trivialized as super fluous yet is a fundamental taproot of our creed. Huey Long said that when fascism comes to the USA it will be wrapped in the American flag On June 1, George Bush told the 2002 West Point graduating class that the U.S. cannot wait for terrorists to attack the homeland again; we must take the war to the “enemy,” he told the young new officers who most likely would be among the troops sent to the current hot button “Axis of Evil,” Iraq Bush said the U.S. needs a “muscular foreign policy” and announced a new' policy of preemption — precipatory response to envisioned danger. “Be ready for preemptive attacks to preserve our freedoms and our lives,” Bush said, pushing his 'Strike First’ policy. However, if the U.S. puts a preemption policy into effect (after abandoning such a policy), it might stimulate the same behavior by members of the ‘Axis of Evil’ as well as between nuclear powers India and Pakistan. The USA is engaged in two wars simultaneously, the War on Terrorism and the War on Drugs — although they might also be regarded as a two-front war in two hemispheres with guaranteed high budgets for perhaps perpetuity. The Military/lndustrial Mafia has a dual purpose for its addiction to our tax money. And people like Senator Trent Lott who are always looking for ways to restrain the rights of the common folk to enhance the authority and privilege of their elite patrons have a causa bella to reinstitute the national security state that lang uished the past decade of relative peace and prosperity. It just might end up being the old Cold War all over again. We have committed ourselves to war when it has been unnecessary. A grievous crime was committed against the USA, but not one that was undeserved or should have been so unexpected We have lived a long time in a false bubble that whatever we do elsewhere in the world will not in similar measure reach us Now, at a moment we should seek justice we instead make our response to a crime into a war, and HAXE8 ROGER HA YES in a year we have already murdered at least as many innocents without trial and certainly without justice as died on 9/11. We claim these deaths are by accident and not intent, which our apologists (who are also the perpetuators) assure us is much different than the planned murders of 9/11 — but war is murder on a mass scale and we have willingly allowed ourselves to be led to war with hardly any resistance: so these murders are at our door, we are as guilty as terrorists. This is the responsibility of free citizens in a democracy. If we are at war to defend democracy we had better ensure the responsibilities of a democracy in its conduct, in other words we must firmly declare individually and collectively the war’s limits as well as its targets It is ironic the USA refused to fully support the world court, our leaders contradicting themselves that so-called peacekeepers’ cannot be prosecuted for war crimes: they manipulate the situation in Yugoslavia as a cover for actions in the equally so-called war on terrorism’ — and in the soon to be assault on Iraq that very few voices in America have been raised to argue about or discuss: we seem to passively stand aside as the war machine gears up almost autonomously to invade Baghdad War demands action as well as spectacle to maintain its momentum on the field and support at home. War also limits the prerogatives available to attain the real justice an armed crusade seldom provides. Our Achilles tendon has been exposed by the attack upon it on 9/11. And like Achilles we will never eliminate its vulnerability to attack and harm. Only if we actually accept citizenship of the world and use our extraordinary power as it was intended to be used will we protect our vulnerability that is exacerbated by the way we presently treat the rest of the world as either friend or foe. We act on prerogatives of power every would-be world conqueror has eventually been doomed for having utilized — generally leaving a legacy of waste and ruin as a monument SHALLON NUCLEAR DISCONNECT ‘Prevention of nuclear war is a concern that embraces all people of all beliefs, political persuasions, colors, creeds and races.. It is time for people to rise to their full moral and spiritual height, to take the world on their shoulders and to say ‘I will save the earth'. Each person can be as powerful as the most powerful person who ever lived." ~DR. HELEN CALDICOTT I am just reading that many of our United States Senators are aggressively promoting the development of nuclear weapons to use on earth and in space, and that our President — with the Senators from where the 'Crusader’ weapon is being made — is threatening to override any veto about the continued production of the Crusader, which even the Pentagon says is a waste of money But remember, weapons of mass destruction create family wage jobs! The Senators are hacking away at the remnants of protection for birds and plants and other living things against the destruction caused by war games and weapons testing. Meanwhile another chunk of an iceberg three times the size of Manhattan has broken off and is floating away in the ever-warmer sea, just like the one the size of Rhode Island did last month Is there a disconnect here? Do the actions of our elected representatives mean the American people want a nuclear war? Do the people think nuclear war would be good for business? How do the people think it might be profitable for their children and grandchildren? Does anyone wonder what the world will look like after nuclear war? Does anyone care - or are we all too busy watching television, getting fatter and fatter and more depressed eating processed junk purchased with hard-earned dollars from corrupt multinational tycoons, frittering our lives away driving to the shiny store, stocking up on real cheap stuff made by people who make a dollar a day and live in cardboard boxes? What is the legacy we are leaving for the next generation, not to mention the 7th? -SUSAN SKINNER Columbian Cafe 1114 Marine Drive Astoria, OR 97103 503-325-CAFE (2233) ‘JOURNEYS...’ JACKIE BUSH-TURNER © STEVE McLEOD EVELYN TOWNSEND ® JEFF WHYMAN THROUGH AUGUST 21. 2202 RIVERSEA GALLERY, ASTORIA WINERY^ Hoort; Mon ■ Fri tom • 2pm Sat 10am • 2pm Dinnori: W*d * Sat Opan 5pm 1698 DtJANE ST. ASTORIA, ORE 97103 URIAH HULSEY I
