Winter Patriot Community Blog

Pure, vintage WP! Great work, Winter, distilling it down and presenting it all so clearly. I couldn't agree with you more, and, by the by, I'm really glad not to live in that country or contribute to it in any way. I can't believe I was naive enough to allow myself to hope...

Perfect.

I have just stumbled across this excellent and pertinent article by Marlena called "Liberation Theology and the Prosperity Gospel".

In it she quotes Ron Jacobs in a Counterpunch article as saying,
"On a basic political level, this phenomenon is the belief that, for some reason (America’s system of democracy, or maybe its economic superiority), the United States system is not subject to the same contradictions and influences as those of the rest of the world. This belief in American superiority finds its foundation in some of our culture’s basic religious and cultural constructs. It’s there in the first settlers’ belief that they were conducting a special errand into the wilderness to construct a city on a hill in the name of their heavenly father and every single president and wannabe always implores this same heavenly father to “bless America” at the end of every one of his speeches.

America is not a better country than any other. Its citizens and residents are as venal and as great as any others in any other part of the world. The only thing that sets us apart is our wealth. The only reason we have that wealth is because we stole it. God didn’t give it to us, nor did any greater American intelligence or know-how. Robbery is what our foreign policy is based on, just like our racial policies. It’s not the policies that need to change, but the foundation upon which those policies flourish. Until US activists accept this and give up their conscious and unconscious acceptance of the myth of American exceptionalism, any movement against war, racism, and other ills of our world is bound to fail. Not because it doesn’t have the right motivation, but because it doesn’t have a radical enough conception of itself and the world it exists in. "

Further on, Marlena says this, "Today our culture paradoxically revolves around God and money. The Bible says: pick one". Actually, as she points out in the article, Jesus in the New Testament says pick one but the Old Testament says you can have them both.

Well worth a read.

and DICK Cheney's BIG speech battle with Obamarama...

...IS there a bigger asshole in the universe? And could we be led astray any better than with this bullshit?

How absurd.

I loved the point about the stolen credit card. It would be applicable to many other countries including my own, Australia.

I intend to quote this a lot from now on.

However, I have one minor concern.

I can't bring myself to condemn Obama unreservedly for maintaining the US's military support for Israel.

Obviously the establishment of Israel was an injustice committed against local Arabs and should have been prevented at the outset and its attack upon Gaza last year was an inexcusable crime.

However, I can easily envision the whole situation being reversed and Israel itself becoming merely a larger version of the Gaza enclave should US military aid be withheld.

If we agree that the only way to rectify the injustices of 1948, 1967 and since, is to drive Israel back into the sea, then that's fine, but I don't think I agree.

If, instead, we are to strive for some kind of middle path two state solution, then Israel will still, in the interim at least, need armed forces that are capable of defending itself from all its potential enemies, which would entail some considerable amount of military aid from countries like the US.

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Let's suppose, just hypothetically and for the sake of discussion, that Israel was

-- interested in living in peace with the rest of the world,
-- not the only nuclear-armed power in its region, and
-- actually under threat from military forces as powerful as (or more powerful than) its own.

None of these hypotheticals is true, or even close, but let's just pretend for a moment that they were. Even if all they were all true, it would still be extremely inappropriate, in my view, for any American politician, let alone the president, to rank the defense of Israel as more important than the defense of the United States.

And by "extremely inappropriate" I mean it is an obvious act of treason.

I'm not saying this just because it's Israel we're talking about. I would say the same if we were talking about a country that had never attacked any of our ships, had never been caught spying against us, and had nothing at all to do with the attacks of 9/11.

If Barack Obama said his first priority was the defense of Bolivia, or Botswana, or Belgium, I would say the same thing: Why not the USA? Why can't we have a president whose first priority is the defense of our own country? Isn't that what his job description calls for?

It may seem to you that it's reasonable for Obama (or any other president) to make the defense of Israel his top priority, even though it would be inappropriate for him to do the same for any other country, because (for one reason or another, or for many of them) Israel is a special case. I would argue just the opposite.

There will never be peace in the Middle East as long as the USA commits itself to Israel above all else. Instead we will get more of the same sorts of things that we've been seeing lately -- more "inexcusable crimes", if you will.

Au contraire, mon ami: if you want to see a two-state solution and lasting peace in the Middle East then you should be hoping for a president whose first priority is the defense of otherwise defenseless civilians who are currently threatened by Israel: in Gaza, the West Bank, Iran, and elsewhere.

If the Israelis thought that bombing Gaza, for example, would incur the wrath of the world's only superpower, they might think twice about doing it. But instead they know they can commit outrageous atrocities and nobody will raise a hand against them.

When they can fly one of the world's most sophisticated air forces against defenseless civilians, enrage the whole world and still get billions of dollars every year from Uncle Sam, along with a "confirmation" that "Israel has the right to defend itself", what is their incentive to negotiate?

Hi Winter,

Brilliant article. Factual and articulate. I write from New Zealand where things aren't that different; our system is well and truly broken also, with no shortage of collusion and corruption (though as far as I know, no false flag terrorism or clandestine empire building). I write not only to commend you on your article but to bring to your attention a clear solution to pretty much all present day problems. An ambitious undertaking; nevertheless one that has been particularly well constructed and upon in-depth study appears to be, in my humble opinion, very solid. I wish to recommend to you and your readers The Zeitgeist Movement, to be found at www.thezeitgeistmovement.com. It is not a political movement, and does not recognize nations, governments, races, religions, creeds or class. This movement is about awareness. For my mind, it is a true unflickering flame lighting the way through what is, to the observant eye, a dark period. Thank you again for your brilliant work.