 |
|
David R. Hoffman - While there may be several reason’s why Germany in the 1930’s, one of Europe’s leading cultural and economic nations, managed to succumb so readily to the machinations of a madman like Adolf Hitler, one reality is clear: Hitler’s Germany arose when the perfect combination of anger, bellicosity, fear and hatred coalesced to make the masses receptive to the “allure of fascism.” Flash forward to the year 2004, and the machinations of George W. Bush, and it is not difficult to perceive how this same allure is now engulfing America. Two fundamental tactics of fascism - scapegoating and the repetition of “great lies” - have been openly utilized by both Bush and the deceitful, venal, hypocritical war criminals that personify his corruptly appointed dictatorship.
"I believe as greater men before me have, that only with this mantra: “Be a friend to the oppressed and an enemy to the oppressor”, of this - the inner and outer chant, can we Born an overstanding with the Knowledge made manifest from Saddiq to Shariati to Sadr to Khomanie & Khamanie, peace to our bruthas, Farrakhan to Nasrallah and Sistani. It is with this do I hope to add on to the strength of the house, and cipher the third degree of reality, that revolution is bloody so everyday is ashura. What else can an island boy do to destroy amerikkka....” Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite, aka Lord Patch, of New Palestine/The Hood, gives a powerful and strikingly original portrayal of life at the frontline between global imperialism and some of North America’s poorest communities.
For those who believe AIPAC and Israel are at the root of propelling the United States into the misguided Iraq War and subsequent occupation, the Israel spy case involving classified information on Iran is serving as the proverbial string entwining the various conflicts in the Middle East. Once pulled, the garment comes unraveled providing a revealing glimpse into Zionist/Israeli espionage and influence in America and far beyond US borders. AIPAC has its hands in many lands, or so it seems. If the results elsewhere are as catastrophic as they have been to the American political life, its economy and world standing, (as we preemptively strike our way into a moral abyss) God help us all.
Bush?s testimony as a born-again Christian appears to the sincere evangelical to be genuine; his heart was changed through a personal encounter with Christ, leading to repentance, reconciliation with God, and a conviction of God’s plan and purpose for his life. Desperate for a breath of moral fresh air after the putrid impropriety that disgraced the Clinton White House, honest Christians were swayed by Bush’s invocation of the name of “Christ”. He was, by his own admission, “one of them”. In those exuberant days that brought the warm glow of Christian fellowship right to the heart of the election campaign, who could have foreseen that in pursuing their quest for a leader of integrity and compassion in action, the Christian churches, armed with the Bible in one hand and the flag in the other, were just about to exchange one liar in the White House for a better one.
During his farewell address in the year 1961 outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned that “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” Eisenhower’s fears have now become America’s reality, as the military-industrial complex has become America’s shadow government, covertly manipulating elections and governmental policies, only revealing itself when its machinations fail to produce the desired results. Although Americans are given the illusion they are “voting” for candidates, rarely does a candidate arise to the position of being on the ballot without paying homage and alms to the military-industrial complex.
I don’t know how Jeanne felt when she was sitting in Yarl’s Wood detention centre for three weeks without her son, or when she was deported to Ivory Coast without him 10 days ago. How would you feel? It seems almost cheap to try to give words to experiences like this. Pain, sorrow, anger, fear; nothing seems quite big enough. The experiences of refugees in detention centres flare briefly into the public consciousness only occasionally, but it is necessary to try to keep a light shining on these experiences - because individuals working in this field say there is an increase in allegations of serious ill-treatment of refugees in detention centres or during deportation attempts.
Another two bite the dust. Following the earlier deaths of detained migrants in Britain, last Friday a 23-year-old Vietnamese asylum-seeker killed himself in the Dungavel immigration detention centre in Lanarkshire. And a week ago in Harmondsworth, west London, a 31-year-old eastern European was found hanging in his cell. New Labour is not moved by such stories. This government will not waver. Stuff the causes of asylum - girlie, bleeding-heart talk. “We are resolute,” says the abrasive Blunkett, and his mates in the Cabinet cheer. They know millions of voters will thank them for the stand they take.
Media images of Islam are omnipresent, and are part of Western culture of racism and imperial design. Islam has always been seen in the West as violent, barbaric, anti-democratic, anti-human, anti-rational, etc. The aim is to turn Muslims into an enemy people, to be regarded collectively with contempt and scorn. In Australia, Muslim refugees and asylum seekers fleeing war torn countries are completely removed from humanity. They are detained in remote centres and stripped of their human rights and dignity. They are portrayed as “illegal” immigrants and “potential terrorists”. The fact that thousands of illegal immigrants are white Anglo-Saxons living and working illegally in Sydney and Melbourne shows how tolerant Australia is. Illegal immigrant it seems, if you’re not white.
Anybody who has had dealings with the state’s wrath knows the feeling of utter impotence in the face of the overwhelming power that extends from the petty, day-to-day insults and indifference, through to the total force that can be brought to bear on an individual. Most of us, when confronted with such power, cave in. A very few of us refuse, and when we do, the state will do everything in its power to crush and obliterate such people. For at stake is the state’s right to rule, which we the people extend to the state via the electoral system. At one end is the man wrongfully convicted for murder, and at the other end is Tony Blair ignoring the people’s opposition to the invasion of Iraq. In between are the immense and immovable structures of the state in all its manifestations that imposes its ideology on us all.
 |
 |
Get free membership of the World Crisis Web, entitling you to post your own views on the articles published here, and to receive email summaries of the best articles on the site, as well as analysis and comment from other key sites.
Your privacy will always be fully respected. No-one's details will ever be given, sold, or otherwise traded to anyone else.
The World Crisis Web gives you automatically updated RSS news feeds for desktop newsreaders, or to add to your web site.
Amnesty International - Global Justice Gap Condemns Millions to Abuse
The PA's Disingenuous Boycott Campaign
A Shameful War: Israel in the Dock
Somalia: Bad Policies of Strange Bedfellows
The End of Hypocrisy: Crime's Gleeful Abandon in Gaza
Contact the editor without having to bother with e-mail.