Why was it so easy to accept what this gentleman says as true? It is easily seen that you had this desire to believe the worst and nothing else. There are thousands of troops which come from Iraq. If there was this war on civilians they would have spread the word from their families, friends and loved ones all over this United States. The fact that they re-enlist in large percentages, the fact that they see that they are 1) Completing their mission, 2) Making a difference for average everyday Iraqiis and 3) Are protecting american lives by taking the battle to the enemy instead of having the ground battle on our shores, should tell anyone they believe in what they are doing.

 

The problem is not the soldier, nor is it the decision to go to war. Could the problem be that you don't have any character or respect for human life. They are called baby killers, as in Vietnam. Yet liberals kill millions of unborn, and some born, babies every year under the guise of womans right. Yes, there are some that say they are conservative who also do this. Yet most of our soldiers will risk their lives to protect a school full of children from these most ungodly murderers. Yours is the racism, you would turn your back on their suffering and killings under the cope out, it's a political solution. Politics does not cause blood to run, the actions of those that purposely murder the innocent do. How many millions died when the democrats had our troops run from Vietnam? How many will die if we do so now?

is this available for 64 bit windows too ?

I just read Olson's "Execution Class" piece in this month's Z and I'm left feeling pessimistic about whether or not these American students really experienced an epiphany from the exercise, despite its hopeful ending. US students these days have known nothing but conformity to narrow ideas of conspicuous consumption all their lives, and Olson's class, admirable though it is, will likely do little to change their callous, materialistic worldview. My encounters with young Americans have made me aware that they also value cynicism highly as something humorous. I'm reminded of John Bolton's experience at Oxford last year as he tried to defend his destructive tenure at the UN. From Michael Carmichael's summary of the event: "Bolton threw out a question of his own. He called for a show of hands of those in the audience who were British. Bolton then asked how many of them wanted the British Ambassador at the UN to represent the interests of Britain. Only one or two hands were raised. Then he asked to see a show of hands of those British subjects who wanted the British Ambassador at the UN to represent not only the interests of Britain but also the collective interests of the other members as well. At least a dozen hands went up into the air. Stunned, Bolton was dumbfounded and said rather witlessly, 'I would have gotten a different result in America.' " He doubtless would have, if my experiences with young Americans are any indication. I hope Olson's class exercise did change a few minds, but I think one evening back with their American TVs, computers, and BMW-coveting friends and they'll again choose their cruel, narrow worldview out of sheer conformity.

Kelvin Y, I agree I watched too. Enjoyed your comments on Chomsky's recent blog too.

 Just felt in part a small bit let down by your assumption that students in general wouldn't read Chomsky/Herman/Zinn/Street (the list rightly goes on). But you're correct about questioning the tutors reaction - which I think we'll all agree is part of the real problem.

The best example I can give, was the time I was asked to prepare a 'reflective learning journal' as part of a somewhat 'holistic' 'adaptive manager' module. The idea was that one was given an 'open ticket' to express some of their own idiosynchratic reflections on some of the topics that had been covered. The exercise actually took a large proportion of the overall grade. Anyway to the point, I put forward some of my critiques of the system from a 'chomsky' esqu orientation and I was completely failed - zero - basically they could handle fresh observations as long as they didn't question the estabilishment / authority in anyway whatsoever. So it was an exercise in critiquing anything as long as it was somewhat meaningless and you showed 'due process'.

Sorry for going off the topic Paul, however I know this something you've covered as well.

I will try and watch the DVD.

I figured out the why it was not playing at first. Anyone having problems should follow the directions below.

RealPlayer 10
PC Users
  1.  Click on the Start menu button on the Windows' Taskbar.
  2.  Go to Programs, then Real, followed by RealPlayer.
  3.  Once the player launches, click on Tools.
  4.  Select Preferences.
  5.  Select the Content category.
  6.  Under Media Types, click the Advanced button on the right.
  7.  Scroll down on the list of media types, to the listing: Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP).
  8.  Click on the check box to enable the RTSP media type for your video player.

Nemo I'll try to check all that out. Mariam I will go to the Palast site; he's quite good, I think.

Following up on the latest comments of Victor and MR, here (pasted in below)  is an interesting  e-mail response (I keep it anonymous) I got to a recent ZNet piece I did that touched upon the related issues of oil and permanent U.S. bases in Iraq and whether or not the American Empire is actually "losing" its imperial oil war in (on) Iraq:

"It is a major mistake of the 'left' in America such as it is, to think that the Iraq attack was (is) a failure. Like with Vietnam which you correctly pointed out [was significantly a U.S. victory], it [Operation Iraqi Freedom] is mostly a victory: Cheney planned in good old British colonial fashion a full destruction of the state of iraq by fostering a civil war (unacknowledged of course) to pave the way for domination of the center of the islamic world.Now that is achieved, the obfuscation goes further by calming iraq down (Baker/Hamilton report) for the purpose of exploitation of the oil resources by an international (mainly american)oil cartel. It is pure modern business tactics and not ideological like this idea that the 'left' keeps falling into."  

As I told this correspondent, while he (or she)  and I are among the seeming relative few who share Chomsky's notion that Uncle Sam actually won the Vietnam War (see the piece I linked above and numerous others I've written), I don't know yet completely on Iraq  --- iots a fundamentally diferetn fiasco ---- but suspect she could be proven right in some key essentials (and it is worth recalling deliberate U.S. role in creating civil war/ethnic conflict). BTW, people often forget that Iraq was planning to price its oil in Euros before the invasion.  That would have been a blow to U.S. global economic power and was averted by the invasion.

 

here's the updated link. It is not working for some reason; hopefully it will start working soon.

http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Current_Event&Code=Iraq&ShowVidNum=24&Rot_Cat_CD=US_Iraq&Rot_HT=&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=365&ShowVidDesc=&ArchiveDays=30

Hey Paul and all other posters,

this congressional testimony on Iraq war deaths is a must watch

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

I think it will be linked in Juan Cole's website at some point (www.juancole.com)

Go to his website and read his piece about the Baker/Hamilton Report.

If you do not know him, Victor, he is worth knowing.

I actually agreed with every point 1m1017 made except the underestimation of the abilities of our fellow Americans....intellectually, that is.

Again I point out the success in Venezuela. People have little trouble understanding when they are better off.

I have ranted on about the harm done our children by the training that I called MONSTER 101 AND ADVANCED MONSTER, only to be accused of blaming the soldier for the horrors. While I know better than that, we would be less than intelligent not to realize that it is impossible to train youngsters to kill and disregard all rules of civilization without paying a high price.

That our corpgov chooses to not only ignore the harm but to cut the benefits that veterans are due is one of the worst scandals created by this bunch of thugs we are not pleased to call a government.

The sports reference is one I had made to my sister in one of our rare discussions of the intellectual abilities of our fellow man. Later I read it in one of Professor Chomsky´s books or essays. so I am not imagining things. 

My son reminds me often that I am cynical. HE HAS NOT SAID JADED YET, SO DO NOT SUGGEST IT.

BTW, glad to be talking to two surviving pawns.

POWER TO THE PAWNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Something going on behind the scenes since the Americans illegally invaded Iraq has been the quiet negotiations with the puppet Iraqi regime over oil rights. It all revolves around a certain type of contract called a production sharing agreement, a form of oil privatisation that gives the oil industry more power than the government over oil matters. The key thing about PSAs, as they are called, is that it locks the government into a contract it cannot get out of, even if the government changes radically. For example, under the terms of a PSA, should the Iraqi government fail via revolution and be replaced by one or more governments (perhaps Shia, Sunni and Kurd), then the agreement reached by via a PSAS would demand that the replacement government must honour the original agreement or face international consequences. In other words, once the agreement is signed, the US can walk away from Iraq without fear of the consequences. Market freedom is guaranteed and the US would be assured of oil from Iraq no matter if bin Laden himself were to take over. Needless to say, other oil rich countries have rejected any sort of similar contract with the US, for good reasons. The Iraq Study Group in its report recognised right away the importance of this agreement to "US" interests and is pressuring the Iraqi government to change their Constitution to allow for such an agreement. That's what all this is about. That's why the US will never leave Iraq until such an agreement is struck. It has nothing whatever to do with freedom, democracy, or Iraqi independence. It has nothing to do with "cut and run" or "stay the course". The ONLY reason the US is still in Iraq and will continue to be into the indefinite future is because of OIL.

Mariam, Paul's original post (referring to the video, The Ground Truth) stated in part: "The military is horrible when it comes to seriously acknowledging and tackling the severe mental health issues experienced by returning GIs."

The poster before you (lm1017) also posted earlier in this same string. He said: "Our ability to wage war is even more horrific than one could possibly imagine. Few ever forget and many have difficulty leading "normal" lives after the experience. Iraq is Viet Nam 35 years later, only without the draft. Same lame excuse by our Military leaders to go do what we as a nation trained them to do - KILL. Nothing can ever be done to give the dead and mutilated their lives back. Soldiers all are simply pawns of the rich and powerful who don't care who dies just as long as its not them or their loved ones."

The "Sunday Game" (as I misunderstood your sports reference) is, to me, the in depth discussions of participatory economics as well as discussions about GIs caught up in these horrible situations. In attempts to understand the why of it all, I hunger for it and feed ravenously.

I expressed my feelings of 'jaded and cynical' in a relative manner to what Paul and the previous poster said. I, too, was in Vietnam in 1968-69 and felt some commonality in their respective comments.

Thank you and..

Regards

Not sure what your point was, Ron, but it seems you mis-understood my comment or I was not clear.

The Sunday game is or was the Sport of the week, football, baseball, basketball, racing, or whatever. 

My point was that I have heard very long and in-depth discussions, very knowledgable, well thought out.....as good as some term papers.....on football or baseball.......from these people assumed by the poster before me be not intellectual enough to understand paticipatory economics.

I might point out that the people in Venezuela do not seem to have much trouble picking up the idea, and while Pres Chavez put in the new constitution in 1999 that higher education is a civil right, it was not before then and the rate of illiteracy was very high.  

Mariam,

as Paul mentioned earlier, "one of the prices you pay for getting older is that you get jaded."

This is so true. Jaded, cynical, and generally pissed off.

The Sunday Game is very interesting and the discussion(s) are never ending (which keeps me going), but there are times when the proverbial towel is ready to be thrown in.

These are the times that tax our "souls" and our conscience.

I still come back for more.

I am not, however, reluctant to express my emotions and concerns afterwards. So, much for being jaded and cynical.

Thanks for your comments and...

Regards!

Victor, I received this in a newsletter from Greg Palast who is reliable and accurate....

Baker is more than aware that, two weeks ago, Dick Cheney dropped his Thanksgiving turkey to fly to Riyadh at the demand of the Saudis for a dressing down by King Abdullah. The Saudis have made it clear that they will crank up their payments to warriors in Iraq to protect their Sunni brothers if America pulls out our troops.

King Abdullah's wish is Cheney's command -- and Baker's too. The Saudis want 70,000 US troops baby-sitting the Shia killers in Iraq's Army -- and so we will stay.

What gives King Abdullah the power to ghost-write the Iraq Study Group recommendations? It's not because the Saudis sell us broccoli.

And therein lies the danger. Behind the fratricidal fracas in Iraq is something even more dangerous than bullets in Baghdad: a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia to control Iraq's place in OPEC, the oil cartel. What is painted by Baker's Iraq Study Group as an ancient local clash between Shia and Sunni over the Kingdom of God, is, in fact, a remote control proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia over the Kingdom of Oil.

The title is THE BAKER BOYS, STAY HALF THE COURSE AND CAN BE FOUND ON HIS WEBSITE.

JOE SIXPACK IS NOT CAPABLE OF REASONING AND ABSTRACT THINKING?

YOU HAVE NOT LISTENED TO A DISCUSSION OF THE SUNDAY GAME, HAVE YOU?

An extremely wealthy and now deceased mentor and best friend on his death bed turned to me and said "my kingdom for a horse". I will never forget him, nor his vitality and lust for life. "Fast nickles beat slow dimes" was his mantra. He knew money floats to those of wealth and power. He had way more than he needed and he knew it, but was humble in having attained his wealth and knew full well that in the end no one really owns anything including your body. 

Parecon is way to intellectual to ever get any kind of social traction and you guys are dreamers. 

The widespread distribution of the basic needs of human survival can only exist if governments are committed to economic justice.  No government has ever been committed to the needs of the people.

Greed cannot be stopped. The masses are all too human and ill informed to deal with reality. 

Consequently the "Manipulation of the Masses"  occurs and Taxes for the unconscionably wealthy are cut, as their wealth is used by criminals like Jack Abramoff to corrupt wannabe Rich ex coaches who rise to power.  Government is about who gets the money that is the beginning middle and end of the story. Show me the Money, that is unless you are wealthy and if you are how about sending me some so I can get elected and protect your money from the lazy ignorant beer swilling slobs who can't hold a J O B..

U.S. Tax Policy in all reality is the social distribution of wealth from the "have nothings"  to the "have everythings". Our extremely regressive tax system is the cause. That unfair Tax Policy is the kind of "Social Justice" of an America run by wealthy capitalist who have manipulated the masses into believing that one day they too will be wealthy. It happens, but rarely and when it does the rich spend all their time defending their wealth and preventing others from stealing what they all claim to have worked so "hard" to attain. Neither Gates or Buffet could dig a fox hole in Iraq if their lives depended on it. 

Tax all income over $200,000 per year at 100% and see how things change. "We the people" could vote out the corruption that runs our institutions and take back the social experiment started for "We the People". 

 

Just read that piece.

Tell me this.....I read about the ¨international communist conspiracy¨, see it in movies, it was every where, but no one wrote about the ¨international capitalist conspiracy¨as embodied by the Trilateral Commision and other ¨secret white mens organizations¨whose mission was/is to control the wealth of the world/the governments of the world/the lives of all the people of the world.

WHY?

Is someone working on the series?

If not. Why? It is a good idea.....maybe in comic book form.

Parekennel....Good one Paul...

Here is a link to order The Ground Truth.  That  is an eloquent anthropomporhic (see my own contributions in that venue -- not unrelated to the critique of capitalism linked in my last comment) rant.  If we must experience what Mariam calls imposed doghood then let us at least begin to organize a Parekennel. 

I´m sick of it, too, Paul. And sick and tired of being sick and tired. I also do not look for any of the needed changes to come about.

Did you read the article here on ZNet by Lendeman? Bush Dynasty....Does that make you want to just toss your cookies?

But you are correct.....we did it. We either fix it or stfu and live with it.

Where can I get a copy of the film?

Hi, Victor, Paul, here´s a little piece I did in answer to some comments on Alternet, Josh Holland piece about the populist power now in congress.

 

Great points. And so true. But what can we expect? It's a cultural thing. The general population has become numbed through TV/Movies/Sports/Video Games/Personal Computers. Whilst these pastimes are certainly entertaining, the fact is, in my opinion, they have produced a generation of lonely, isolated, apathetic, neutralised, dumbed down, sedentary citizens who would otherwise form the central potential for revolution, driving intellect and political power in the Developed countries, the USA especially. This was not an accident. It happened with purpose. And while the richest (and getting richer) are producing this army of zombies and accumulating ever more capital to themselves, it is no wonder that the developing countries and the Muslim cultures are proving themselves to be an unbeatable force in the world today. It's the classic disintegration of Empire and civilisation we are talking about here. Only this time it is like no other age of the world - ever. The three sisters - overpopulation, limited energy sources and climate change - are well-placed to drive the human race into the past - forever - if something is not done by........someone?

    Day-to-day pressures make it easy for students to disappear into what many called "a bubble of insulation." Political decisions that shape their lives--such as congressional votes to cut financial aid --seem so inaccessible to their influence that most don't feel it worth even following these issues. They respond to political information, as a Dartmouth student put it, as if "it just has no bearing."

    They also face the distraction of a more sophisticated and more pervasive media culture than that which existed even in the late sixties. Significant discussions of America's [the World's] critical issues are carried on, for the most part, in the medium of print. You don't get them in what Bill Moyers calls "the tabloid journalism" of a TV news industry dominated by one-minute sound bites. You don't get them from playing Nintendo. You don't get them from a general cultural context that, as critic Neil Postman warns, all too often leaves us "Amusing Ourselves to Death." If you're going to get beyond the ever-escalating skepticism of the Perfect Standard**, you need to ferret out facts and arguments on issues you care about, which usually means finding books and articles that do them justice.

    Among students for whom the soaps [youtube.com], MTV [the internet], Cheers [Grey's Anatomy] are a staple diet--the 30 percent of students who spend six hours or more hours a week in front of the TV [surfing the web]--I've seen none involved in political causes. I almost don't expect it, although MTV has undertaken some useful recent forays into public affairs coverage. While CNN devotees seem more thoughtful and ready for serious talk than the norm, they tend to be no more directly involved. Partly, this is a question of time. Politically involved students give broadcast media a low priority. They may take iconoclastic humor from The Simpsons [The Daily Show with Jon Stewart], or may occasionally check out CNN or C-SPAN, but to get the political context they need, they read. They find information on issues they care about from mostly alternative sources of books, magazines, newsletters, and the occasional radio show [and TV program, like Democracy Now!]--or the back pages of the New York Times or Time magazine. They don't rely on major national media to sustain their engagement and vision.

    These more active students don't just happen on those alternative sources of information; they actively seek them out. What they learn feeds further inquires. But involvement requires more than having information, as important as that is. It has to do with how these students learn to view their lives and their society. And whether they believe their actions can matter.

Execution Class      In an article in Z Magazine, Moravian College political science professor Gary Olson describes his attempt to critique U.S. Third-World policies in an introductory class on international politics. Through books, films and discussions, Olson documented U.S. support for ruthless dictators and for economic arrangements that promoted malnutrition, poor life expectancy, and high infant mortality. He explored case after case where American helped overthrow democratically elected governments and crush popular movements. In assigned classroom papers, most students lambasted these interventions.

    One of the few who did not, however, wrote "an 'Ode to Greed' worthy of William Safire or Gordon Gekko's speech in the film Wall Street," and Olson read aloud from it. When he asked the class to submit anonymous reactions, three quarters agreed with its sentiment. They'd written their earlier papers just to please him, they said, although course evaluations suggested that students felt free to challenge Olson's opinions. The class had no problem with the core of his critique--both his facts and judgment that America's actions helped devastate countries and communities. But as one top student explained, "I know what is going on is really bad. But I want a Mercedes 450SL someday and all the designer clothes I can afford. I have the uneasy feeling that if there is too much justice and equality in the world, the good life won't be there for me in the future." "I came to college so I could be rich in the future, " said another excellent student. "If our government didn't do those horrible things it might not work out for me. I know it sounds awful, but that's the way it is." "This discussion is irrelevant," added a third. "we can't afford to think about morality and things like that. And if the students in this were honest they'd admit it."

    Olson was dismayed. He'd offered every example he could of who won and who lost by America's national choices. The student's themselves had recited damning facts and figures in their papers and classroom discussions. But their disengagement remained unshaken.

    Feeling desperate, Olson decided the next week to simulate the execution of a visiting African student, for the crime of opposing apartheid. He insisted his students explain, in terms consistent with their previous judgments, why this man must die. Initially hesitant, they soon enthusiastically took on the role, telling him, "You should have known the consequences of opposing the system. Now you pay the price." But when Olson produced a mock pistol for them to carry out the sentence, they balked, fell silent, and looked away. Olson finally fired the shots himself, then dismissed the class, which slowly departed.

    In the following week the students began to talk with each another, with Olson, and with the African student whose "death" they had abetted. They discussed why Olson had selected the material he did, what their backgrounds taught them about power and privilege, and why they'd come to college to begin with. Olson didn't plan to repeat the specific "execution class" experiment: it was so rooted in his own shock at the responses to the callous "Ode to Greed" that replication would have seemed manipulative. But the students said this lesson had touched them more than anything in their college experience. Olson concluded that moral empathy requires more than alternative information.

    Before the class, Olson's students had a vague sense of national and global events, but they had abstracted the human costs. The consequences didn't seem real. They didn't believe their actions could change things. It felt easier to stay detached. A woman in a Mankato State course on nuclear issues described a similar combination of knowledge and resignation that left her feeling "not at all more powerful, just more overwhelmed." Others explained repeatedly, "it's all just a joke," and returned their attention to private concerns. Only when students saw themselves personally connected to historical events, as occurred in Olson's experiment, did they begin to feel a need to act.

Models For Change     If knowledge of institutional abuses can lead as much to cynicism as engagement, students also need to learn how ordinary citizens have been able to change their societies...

** Perfect Standard     Apolitical students alternate between feeling they have no right to challenge "the men who know best," and a forgiveness so all-encompassing they find it impossible to hold institutions accountable. They respond to their activist peers, in contrast, with unforgiving judgments, holding up a Perfect Standard that the activists must meet before they will tender their support. They require politically involved peers to know every fact, reference every figure, be eloquent enough to debate Henry Kissinger on Nightline, yet remain constantly humble and self-effacing ["non-patronizing"]. Maybe then, they suggest, they'll take their arguments seriously... (pg. 35, Paul Loeb)

from pg. 70-73, Generation at the Crossroads | Apathy and Action on the American Campus by Paul Rogat Loeb; Also Execution Class, Z Magazine, July/Aug. 1988, Gary Olson.

[Paul Loeb, I feel, is a progressive aka a social democrat. The book, published in 1996, is still worth reading but I was disappointed that the only anarchist he mentioned was a sellout.]

Well, I'm still trying to finish Suyi E.'s comment, which I think is worth reflection. Victor I followed up on the Washington Post article you linked before and on the earlier comments of Mariam R. with a ZNet piece basically saying "what took you guys so long to start so openly blaming the Iraqis?"  An historian did a somewhat similar piece at Dissident Voice it turns out..  On these new wealth inequity statistics, I guess two of my points are that this is what global capitalism does/is and that democracy is impossible under such circumstances.  Nothing original there. It is true that many people just tend to get paralyzed and overwhelmed by all this and we can end up (as I thnk Suyi E. is getting at) just reinforcing fatalism, passivity, and cynicism when we don't accompany our terrible facts and truths - which must be told (ala Chomsky et al, including yours truly) with inspiring and serious visions of an alternative/participatory/egalitarian/classless/democratic social/economic/political order (ala Albert et al.).  

SOMEONE (Paul?) PLEASE blog about one of these issues: 1) The United Nations released today its report on world wealth - Result - 1% of the population owns 40% of the wealth of the world. The richest 10% own a staggering 85%. The bottom 50% own barely 1% of the total wealth. 2) Sylvestre Reyes comes down on the side of those who think it unwise to pull our troops from Iraq now - another staggering (but understandable) political event....

Let me say that your recent work on the subject and the comments made by others on this blog has been some of the best work I have ever read. It is must reading. Paul Street for President, your a good man with an intact conscience, qualities few in politics are able to claim.

I went to Infantry Officer Training at Fort Benning Georgia in June of 71, 95% of my class went straight to Nam afterwards. Our ability to wage war is even more horrific than one could possibly imagine. Few ever forget and many have difficulty leading "normal" lives after the experience. Iraq is Viet Nam 35 years later, only without the draft. Same lame excuse by our Military leaders to go do what we as a nation trained them to do - KILL.  Nothing can ever be done to give the dead and mutilated their lives back. Soldiers all are simply pawns of the rich and powerful who don't care who dies just as long as its not them or their loved ones.

All wars would be stopped before they ever begin if "We the People" would only pass a law requiring that the spouse and children and siblings and cousins -all living relatives - of elected public officials - federal state local -, be required to undergo military training and in the event of war they must serve in a combat role on the front lines.

Furthermore, mandatory service is a must for all able bodied citizens between the ages of 18 and 35 in the United States. Everyone - male or female - should be trained for combat in the event of war. The armed forces training gives one a whole new perspective on Common Good and who should die so some one else can live, and requires one to take ownership of the actions of "We the People".  

Bush should be Impeached because he grossly exceeded his power  and broke the law because of the perceived political capital he had as the head of the ruling party. Shame on everyone who voted for the war and him back into office. Our nation is paying the price for his arrogant disregard for the laws of man and nature that are supposed to govern any society that claims to be "Good". Fact is that "Rule of Law" only applies to those subject to its arbitrary enforcement by those in power. 

College Education should be free for all who are willing and able. Simple economics proves that the biggest winner is in fact Government - when it can Tax the higher earnings of the graduates. The reason why it is not free has to do with class warfare. One need only look at our unfair tax code to see that those in power are all about the gold and who gets to keep it.

 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/04in11si.xls

History repeatedly proves that many die so a few can be unconscionably wealthy. As an Example of that wealth in 2004 - 9677 individuals citizen families made on average $26,550,887 and paid just $5,604,070 in Federal Income Tax leaving them with just $19,946,817 on which to survive.  Liberty and justice for 9677 of my fellow Americans at its finest.

I appreciate Julia's comments about starting where you are and building on what progress is being made. That's good news at University of Iowa and it was the really cool antiwar group there that showed the Ground Truth movie (to a packed room) that I saw.  It was a great service to show it and lead discussion.

One of the prices of getting older is you get jaded. 

Kevin I'd also be interested to hear the counsel of the tutors and faculty on Chomsky-Herman.  My mother used to tell liberal academic friends that I had published things in Z Magazine and a book with a dust-jacket blurb from NC and I'd say "oh, that's nice but you are not going to get a favorable response from that."  I was right.  I am amused by most academics' response to Chomsky in the U.S., which is exactly what you would expect: "he should keep his comments to linguistics" because "international relations is the sub-field of foreign policy specialists" and "social stratification" is the terriritory of "sociologists" and the workings of capitalism are the province of "economists" and so on.  How profoundly anti-intellectual!  

Several years ago, a previous antiwar group on the Iowa campus sponsored a debate about the imminent war.  The pro-war debater was a student government type who pretty clearly saw defending the indefensible as good preparation for his future as a blowhard politician or Faux News talking head.  I happened to be near him when he sat down after his speech, so I asked him brightly, "So, when are you enlisting?  Or have you already signed up to go?"  He said, with a sheepish smile, "Actually, I have some family members who were in the military and they ask me the same thing.  But I'm not going to go into the military.  I have other plans for my life."  I asked him whether the kids in the military might not have plans for their futures too, for which he didn't have an answer.

I've sometimes gotten angry at the misinformed knee-jerk patriotism or, at best, the apathetic response of some of the UI students I encounter as an antiwar activist.  I've heard a lot of explanations for the fact that most of the current antiwar group and its audience at different events have been in their 30s or older.  I've seen a lot of handwringing and self-doubt among older members, wondering "what we're doing wrong" to cause students not to be involved and cautioning each other not to...what?  Be old?  Look old?  Early on, I once had to remind my fellow activists that we could speak freely about our failure to attract students, given that there were no students in the room.

This year, however, we are starting to see students getting (and staying) involved and taking on responsibilities in the UI Antiwar Committee.  There are still too few, of course, but those who are coming around are serious, disciplined, and reliable.  Unlike some students I've met in the past, they are not playing at being activists.  They are not doing it as a fashion statement or to be cool.  They are doing the footwork, attending university funding meetings, filling out forms, making fliers, making copies, handing out leaflets, staffing literature tables, sitting through UIAC meetings that are sometimes too long, taking minutes, moderating discussions, and coming up with creative, realistic ideas of how to spread our message.  Of course there are too few of them.  How could a group ever have too *many* of such people? 

In short, I think it's possible that we're seeing the very beginning of a turnaround and growing interest in peace activism among students.  I was once in a group that spoke about recruiting "the ones and twos" who were willing to listen to new ideas.  That's where we are, I think, and thank god it's not still the zeroes! 

Of course, you'd probably have an uneven draft. But it's better than a "mercenary army of the poor."

The personal reponsbility thing is a dialectical conundrum.  Take a look at a campus paper story (trying to compare the hot activism of late 1960s/early 70s with the shocking indifference of 2006) from Northern Illinois University, where I taught as a visiting professor in 2005-2006. I am quoted at some length (though some of my more substantive points got deleted and diluted) making standard reality-based excuses and externally imposed reasons for students' lack of participation in activism against horrible war crimes. This was sort of the politically correct line but even as I said it I knew privately and in the back of my mind that a large number of the predominantly white kids I was teaching just didn't remotely care about anything outside their own personal lives. They were actively choosing to be ignorant of harsh and critical realities regarding the policies of their own government and the fate of humanity and the earth. It was quite chilling to confront that mass narcissism and indifference for an entire year.  There were exceptions, to be sure, mainly among nonwhite students I might add. One professor there related an interesting experiment she conducted in a U.S. History survey in early March of 2003.  She asked a classroom of 100 how many supported the by then imminent invasion of Iraq.  Ninety hands went up.  Then she asked them how many would ever consider signing up to actually fight in the war.  One (1) hand went up --- a kid in ROTC. That's what happen when there's no draft: "Hey, we're patriotic, we support the war...uh, now you poor working-class shlubs go get your asses blow off for us, Ok? We have 'other priorities' (as Dick Cheney put it in regard to Vietnam)."  

But the faculty bears no small reponsibility: their moral cowardice and lack of leadership is truly soul-crushing and receives little notice in an enviroment where the hard right makes people think academia is run by a bunch of leftist activist radicals. That's just a total joke. for some related reflections on the myth of radcial academia and my year-long stay in a school where I had once (in the middle and late 1970s) been radicalized in part by in fact radical faculty, see this and this.

That's the million dollar question.

Recruitment rates are down but they could be down farther. Recently they boosted cash incentives to pump up their recruitment rates - it's now a signing bonus of $10,000 and a college scholarship of $70,000.

That's essentially a ticket into the middle class. If you're already in the middle class, it looks like a raw deal. But if you're not, and it doesn't look likely that you're ever going to get there, you might consider selling your body and your soul to the military for a few years. A college education, though no longer a guarantee of gainful, interesting employment, nevertheless decreases your chances of being unemployed and increases your chances of making a decent salary.

If the army (and just the army) is trying to pull in 60,000 new recruits a year, at $80,000 per recruit, it is prepared to commit almost five billion dollars a year to America's poor - most of it in the form of scholarships to college. That's only about 5% or 6% of the US budget for student aid, but it's no drop in the ocean, and if someone wants it, all they have to do is sign.

If you don't participate in anti-war conversations and don't encounter uncomfortable information, you can dupe yourself into thinking it's not that bad. Recruiters are very aggressive, and target those who are vulnerable.

Combine that with the general war hysteria the U.S. government is capable of stirring, and the national trauma of 9/11, and you've got an endless supply of young kill-bots ready for the battlefield.

So far.

It seems there is a real catch 22 in the privileged societies of the developed world.  People can only take personal responsibility for things they are aware of as problems.  I know you wrote that it isn't that hard (and it isn't - I've read Zinn's and Loewen's books and lots of Chomsky) but the reality is also as you pointed it out to be.  People are overworked, have a crappy educational system, an even worse corporate media system and it just isn't that easy to find out what is going on (as evidenced by the number of people that just go along trying to make a living, as I do).  I believe more and more these days that until the really hard times affect the comfortable majority (people like me and most of the people I know) things aren't going to change for the better.  I know we have to rid this planet of the scourge of capitalist market economic thinking but until the shit really hits the fan, not much is going to be done to effect that change.

 

Edson

So this is what we have come to. What you have described is everything America has always accused the worst of the worst of doing - Hitler, Stalin, Hirohito, et al. Just look at what we have become in the name of "protecting freedom throughout the world". The killings. The arrogance. The racism. The inhuman treatment of prisoners. The lengthy imprisonments without charges and subject to torture. All in the name of freedom. These are our sons and daughters who are returned to us damged, often beyond repair of body, mind and spirit. These are our sons and daughters from whom we have removed humanity and mercy and honor. God help us.