Is America Really the Most Powerful Nation on Earth?

Is America really the most powerful nation on earth?

That seems to be the motto we are living under, that America is the most powerful nation on earth.

We have more aircraft carriers than anyone else…..except
aircraft carriers can't go into the desert.

Sure, F-16s can cover desert ground pretty fast. But any
military expert at West Point will tell you that air power alone
can't do the job, which is why we have ground forces in Iraq (who
are being killed one at a time at the terrorist's self-proscribed
pace). In Vietnam we had exceedingly massive air superiority over
the Vietnamese (who had no air force to speak of at all), and the
United States lost the war in Vietnam (and the Vietnamese peasants managed to shoot down with SAM missiles a shit load of American fighter planes).

We have more nuclear warheads than anyone else….except we can't use any of them because even a nation with fewer nuclear warheads can send American into a tailspin with one or two well placed hits in the Northeast corridor between New York and Washington, D.C.

We are spending billions on a missile defense shield
that is better than anyone else….except having more nuclear warheads isn't that much of an advantage anymore when terrorists can bring a suitcase dirty bomb into a major city, such as New York, bring it in the trunk of a car. A one kiloton, hundred pound dirty bomb in the trunk of a car can put Manhattan Island out of business for the next thousand years, thanks to radiation.

We have multi-warhead Hydrogen bomb missiles, except we don't have targets for them. We can't fire them at cities. Even if we fired a few hydrogen bombs into the desert of Iraq, the resultant nuclear winter that begins in the Iraq desert would eventually drift over into America to kill millions of citizens via cancer and what not.
Besides, a hydrogen bomb in the oil filled desert would shut off oil
supplies, and many American would rather have cancer than do without their SUVs. Hydrogen bomb nuclear warheads are becoming obsolete as efficient weapon's systems (biochemical warfare is more efficient, and costs less to maintain and to use…and anyone can get hold ofbiochemical weapons).

Having more hydrogen bombs isn't so much of an advantage anymore, and we don't know how many hydrogen bombs Russia has pointed at us…cause the Cold War mentality ain't over yet, not by a long shot.

Both India and Pakistan have missile systems that are better at
delivery of nuclear payloads than anyone wants to discuss in the
newspapers. Israel and South Africa are loaded to the gills with
nuclear deterrents. Hydrogen bombs are those things that really give no one on the planet a distinct advantage. Everyone dies eventually when hydrogen bombs start going off here and there. Look at how much trouble Chernobyl caused to surrounding nations when that atomic power plant went critical.

It would take merely a matter of weeks after the first hydrogen bomb laden missile is launched before the citizens of planet earth no longer had to worry about either global warming or an impending ice age. The Nuclear Winter will do to us what the comets did to the dinosaurs.

So, where does America have this supposed superiority over the rest of the world?

Or is the credo that we are the most powerful nation on earth a
piece of Madison Avenue propaganda to make Americans feel good about themselves?

Essentially, our war in Iraq is full of logos and advertising copy
and slogans designed to create illusions about who is really the
toughest dog on the planet.

Corporate war comes down to everyone agreeing that nobody blows up and completely shuts down the flow of oil to the world. Yeah, a few pipelines can be blown up to drive the price of oil up, but nobody wants to shut the flow down completely. If the flow is shut down completely, then there are no more bargaining chips for any side involved in the worldwide corporate wars.

Shutting down the oil flow completely is akin to dropping hydrogen
bombs on each other.
Everyone is ruined in the end, and no one is the most powerful in
the world anymore….bigbro

A New Lie

U.S. Says New Images Show Iran Plans Nuclear Bomb

A senior U.S. official said on Thursday that satellite photographs of a suspected nuclear industrial site in Iran demonstrated its intention to develop atomic weapons, an allegation Tehran dismissed as "a new lie."

A prominent international expert said on Wednesday that new satellite images showed the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran may be a site for research, testing and production of nuclear weapons. Iran denies having an atomic bomb program.

"This clearly shows the intention to develop weapons," a senior U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

He also accused the U.N. nuclear watchdog of suppressing information on Parchin in its latest report on Iran -- a charge denied by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But another senior U.S. official, reflecting the differing views within Washington, was more guarded when asked if Parchin provided definitive information about Iran's intentions, saying: "It's something worth keeping under observation. There are things there that people need to keep their eyes on."

A top Iranian official said the accusation that Tehran was hiding an atomic site from U.N. inspectors was a carefully-timed lie intended to influence a resolution on its nuclear program being discussed this week in Vienna by the IAEA governors.

"This is a new lie, like the last 13 lies based on news reports that have been proved to be lies," Hossein Mousavian, Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA board meeting told Reuters.

Washington and Tehran have been at daggers drawn since the 1979 Islamic revolution and the present U.S. government says Iran's leadership is "evil" and set on developing nuclear arms.

David Albright, an American former weapons inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security think tank, made the allegation about Parchin on Wednesday, though he disagreed that it clearly showed weapons intent. He also said the IAEA had asked to inspect Parchin but had been ignored.

Mousavian said: "They have not asked to see the site, but were are ready to cooperate with the IAEA" if they want to go.

Asked if there had been a request on Parchin, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky would say only that it was "discussing with the Iranian authorities ... dual-use equipment and materials."


However, diplomats in Vienna confirmed that the agency had requested to go to the site but had received no answer.
Gwozdecky dismissed as "baseless" the suggestion by the U.S. officials that the IAEA had concealed information on Parchin.

EVIDENCE DEBATE

The agency's chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, said this week he was not convinced Iran's activities were entirely peaceful but that there was no hard evidence to prove the U.S. belief Tehran was using its nuclear power program as a front to build weapons.

Western intelligence agencies have recognized Parchin as a potential chemical, explosives and munitions production site since the 1990s. In November 2003, a Tehran parliamentarian complained publicly about spending on atomic technology and identified Parchin as a site for such activity.

"Ascertaining what the connection is between (Iran's atomic energy authority) and Parchin is very important," said another senior U.S. official. "There's no legitimate role for this kind of high explosive technology in a civil nuclear program."

Mousavian said the latest accusation was aimed at influencing talks on a draft resolution that could set the stage for a November showdown at the IAEA, which could in turn lead to Iran's case going to the sanctions-wielding U.N. Security Council, as Washington has demanded for more than a year.

France, Britain and Germany are in a sixth round of talks with IAEA board hard-liners -- the United States, Australia and Canada -- to find a compromise on the wording of a text on Iran. The Europeans favor more negotiations with Tehran.

Negotiators from the six states still had no agreement on a text but continued to talk, informed Western diplomats said.

The most contentious of the U.S.-backed proposals is for an "automatic trigger" leading to Iran being reported to the Security Council for possible economic sanctions if it does not stop its uranium enrichment program by Oct. 31. The EU trio has rejected this, favoring something more vague. (Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran, Francois Murphy in Vienna and Arshad Mohammed in Washington)


Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters)

The Opening Moves To A Greater, Expanded Israel

Why is Israel so interested in building an oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Haifa? The whole idea sounds preposterous, given the likely reaction from the whole Arab world. The not unreasonable perception would be that the attack on Iraq was just to let Israelis steal Iraqi oil. But the idea just won't go away (see here, and note the last paragraph). As I have already written, it appears likely that Chalabi's fall from grace is because he reneged on his agreement with the neocons to give favorable treatment to Israel in its raping of the resources of Iraq. Chalabi reneged on his agreement presumably because the people of Iraq simply wouldn't stand for the idea of a pipeline to Israel. An oil pipeline would be an obvious target of fundamentalist terrorists, both while it was being built and during the entire time it was operational. It is difficult to see how it could ever be economically viable, given the costs of protecting it and the inevitable sabotage attacks. What could Israel be thinking?



And then it struck me. Israel dosn't want either the pipeline or the oil it would carry. Israel wants to build a pipeline that it knows will be attacked as it is being built. The attacks will thus require the presence of Israeli troops to protect the contractors building the pipeline. The Israeli troops will require a system of roads to move along the pipeline and to communicate with Israel. Small outposts to provide services for the contractors and the troops will have to be built. The outposts themselves will have to be fortified, surrounded by walls, and protected by more troops. Once the pipeline is built, it will require even more protection to prevent sabotage. With each attack, Israel will scream that it is being attacked by 'terrorists'. It will insist on more American military aid, and probably American troops, to help it protect the ever expanding network of pipeline, outposts, and roads. The American Congress will approve this as quickly as it possibly can. The zone around the pipeline will have to be expanded to protect it from 'terrorism', and fortifications will have to be created to protect the zone. Anyone who complains about this will be branded a sympathizer of those who threaten Israel's deepest security interests and thus its very existence. Anyone who even whispers a concern about the pipeline and its zone will be branded an anti-Semite.



Suddenly, there is an armored corridor protected by Israeli and American troops, and inhabited by Israeli 'settlers', stretching from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. This is the backbone of Greater Israel. All that will be needed to finish the dream is to continue to widen the zone. The genius of the plan is how it follows the Israeli strategy in the Occupied Territories. Theft of the land of the Palestinians and brutality against them creates a reaction which is labeled 'terrorism'. Camps of Israelis are introduced onto Palestinian lands in order to promote Israeli 'security'. The settlers provoke more of a reaction, so Israeli troops are required to protect the settlers. The troops require a system of roads, and more settlers are introduced to increase 'security'. This system of violence and lies has worked so well on the West Bank that the 'facts on the ground' - settlements, outposts of troops, and roads - mean that it will be impossible to separate the land of the West Bank to create any kind of viable Palestinian state (the joke, of course, will be on the Zionists, when the world eventually insists on the majority Palestinian population having a vote). The attempt at creating Greater Israel based on the pipeline will be based on exactly the same strategy of troops, settlers, roads, and American aid, spiced with allegations of 'terrorism' threatening Israel's very existence. They won't get away with it, but how much harm will they do as they try?

9/11 (Whitewash) Commission Recommendations Carry Hidden Threat to Privacy, Freedom

Intelligence Reform May Be "Trojan Horse" for National ID
System

There's a full head of political steam behind the 9/11
Commission's recommendations, and the press is focusing
primarily on the effort to reform the intelligence
community. Unfortunately, a closer look at the
recommendations, and proposed legislation like the
9/11 Commission Report Implementation Act, reveals that
they would do much more than implement intelligence
reforms. The recommendations would also set in motion
a dangerous and fundamentally flawed "security" plan:
creating a system to tag and track US citizens using
"standardized" identification. In other words, it paves
the way for a national ID card system - something we
at EFF strongly oppose.

National ID cards will not solve the problem of terrorism,
just as they would not have prevented the 9/11 attacks.
Many of the 9/11 hijackers had proper identification and
were in the country legally.

Further, identification is not intelligence. Three of
the 19 hijackers - Hani Hanjour, Saeed al Ghamdi, and
Khalid al Mihdhar - made false statements on their visa
applications that could have been proven to be false
when they applied. A new national ID card would not fill
these kinds of gaps in intelligence.

But the bad news doesn't stop there. The 9/11
Commission Report Implementation Act suggests that a
national ID system would be part of an "integrated
screening system" that would include "a range of security
check points throughout the Nation's screening system,"
with access to centralized "government databases," and
"biometric identifiers" (Section 602). Travel surveillance
is also part of the plan, with the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) requiring commercial air carriers to
provide the private passenger information to make it
work (Section 703). It's not clear how the government
would use the biometrics and travel patterns of nearly
300 million Americans to catch the small number of
individuals worldwide who are planning terrorist attacks.
What is clear is that the system would create fertile
ground for constitutional violations and the abuse of
private information.

"Congress rushed through the PATRIOT Act under enormous
political pressure, and the public is paying for it
with unnecessary damage to our privacy and
constitutional freedoms. We can't afford to make the
same mistake again," said Lee Tien, EFF Senior Staff
Attorney. "The desire to improve the coordination of
the intelligence systems should not be a Trojan horse
for more incursions on civil liberties."

It's important that we speak out now against the stealth
introduction of a national ID system. Follow the link
below to let Congress know you support effective
intelligence reform, not a system that would bring us
even further toward a surevillance society for only the
illusion of security.

Make your voice heard with the EFF Action Center:


9/11 Commission Report Implementation Act of 2004:


Travel/ID recommendations in the 9/11 Commission Report:


Crypto-Gram: National IDs:


For more about national IDs:

Battle for Liberty is Being Won

The erosion of individual liberty since Sept. 11, 2001 is nothing more than a continued history of the battle between the forces of liberty and the forces of control. The good news is that in the long run scheme of things the liberty forces are winning since more individuals today live in freedom as opposed to millennia ago. However, this does not mean we can just ignore the forces of control. We must be forever vigilant and guard against those who would take or convince us to give up our inalienable rights.

In establishing the Bill of Rights, our founders acknowledged two very important truths. One, that government does not grant rights, it acknowledges them, and two, that government officials are the servants to whom people delegate powers, not the masters who dispense privileges.

The inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence exist independently and lie outside the power of government. They are sacrosanct. All individuals are born with them and therefore make up the individual himself. As noted in the great Declaration, the only legitimate function of government is to secure and protect the inalienable rights of all individuals.

The Constitution carefully enumerates the powers the American people delegate to the federal government and it specifically denies the federal government any powers not so delegated. Any government that infringes upon an individual’s inalienable rights is engaged in an intolerable usurpation.

The history of the United States is the story of a government constantly attempting to outgrow the constitutional box it was put in and of a people constantly struggling to stuff it back into that box. Unfortunately, government has grown so far beyond its constitutional bounds that the box can barely be seen anymore.

With the war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on terrorism, the war on guns, and all of the other wars the federal government is currently fighting, there are many who would have us trade a little liberty for a little security each time our government has to fight one of these wars until we have a USA Patriot Act allowing the FBI to spy on library patrons, and hundreds, possibly even thousands of individuals, held in prison without charge, counsel or even public acknowledgement that they have been “detained.”

A free people must be as uncompromising in the defense of liberty as individuals are in their attacks on it. Barry Goldwater once said, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Our founders believed in this philosophy. They established a new government based on individual liberty for themselves and us, their posterity. Eternal vigilance truly is the price of liberty, and the most important duty of any free people is to control its government, else it will control them.

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The Freedom Library scholarship class is now into its eighth year. Stop by The Freedom Library every Tuesday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. to learn and understand the meaning of the U.S. Constitution and the founders’ ideas on liberty.

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Howard J. Blitz is a local libertarian and president of The Freedom Library Inc., 2435 S. 8th Ave. He is also on KJOK Radio AM 1400 at 7:50 every Tuesday morning with “On The Edge With Howie Blitz” and “A Liberty Moment." His e-mail address is info@freedomlibrary.org