[Peace-discuss] USG propaganda

Mon Dec 14 14:22:07 CST 2009

[Any serious definition of democracy shows the US form to be quite deficient, 
and much of America's 20th-century war-making was against such formal 
democracies.  --CGE]

	Obama lies: "America has never fought a war against a democracy."
	Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Vietnam...
	December 13, 7:00 PM
	LA County Nonpartisan Examiner
	Carl Herman

A lie of omission is a lie; it intentionally leaves out crucial information to 
create a false representation of reality. Obama lied in omission in his 
Orwellian Peace Prize acceptance speech by claiming, “America has never fought a 
war against a democracy.” Technically, a war is reciprocated armed conflict. 
However, the etymology of the word, “war” is “confusion,” which is part of the 
CIA role in wars against democracy in Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, and 
Vietnam beginning with US support of French colonialism against Vietnamese 
independence and extending beyond US approval of election cancellation that 
began the Vietnam War.

I could go on with a history of US intervention in other countries’ governments, 
but that would be a book, not an article. Three examples that Obama lied is 
enough for clear and convincing evidence to consider my analysis and policy 
request that follow.

	Iran 1953
	The following is edited from my brief:
	War with Iraq and Afghanistan, rhetoric for war with Iran.

In 1953, the United States CIA led by one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s 
grandsons, initiated a coup in Iran (Operation Ajax [8]) to remove the 
democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. The Iranian government 
was understandably dissatisfied with the terms of its contract with the 
Anglo-Persian Oil Company that allowed British interests to claim 85% of the oil 
profit from Iran.[9] Iran voted to nationalize the oil industry in 1951 after 
the British declined to renegotiate the terms. The US-led coup was successful, 
and the royal monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,[10] became virtual dictator. 
Fearing popular reprisal, Pahlavi’s government was supported by the CIA in 
creating the Iranian SAVAK, a vicious secret police for the Shah’s dictatorial 
government.[11] We can only assume that the oil revenue sharing agreement with 
the Shah was acceptable to the US and UK.

Under the Eisenhower administration, the US cooperated with the Shah’s 
government for the development of Iranian nuclear energy through the “Atoms for 
Peace” program.[12] President Ford agreed to US full cooperation to help Iran 
build about two dozen nuclear energy plants. When the Iranian people overthrew 
the Shah’s government in 1979, the US stopped cooperating. The US backed Iraq in 
their invasion of Iran in 1980 and throughout the war until 1988, seeking a more 
US-friendly Iranian government. The US provided Saddam Hussein with the chemical 
and biological weapons the W. Bush administration later used as justification 
for invading Iraq.[13] Since 1979, the US has worked to prevent Iran having a 
nuclear energy program, even under the legal provisions of the NPT, and reneged 
on a multi-billion dollar contract to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran without 
refunding Iran’s money.[14]

	Vietnam

The following is conservatively accepted history of the Vietnam War; that is, 
information in agreement with admissions from our own government reports and 
unchallenged (as far as I know) by any professional historian. The understanding 
of this history by those of us who study it does not guarantee that many 
Americans will recognize the poignant facts. Please feel free to verify these 
high/low lights. In one paragraph:

After the “War to make the World Safe for Democracy,” Ho Chi Minh’s petition for 
a democratic Vietnam was denied by the victors of WW1. Vietnam remained under 
France’s dictatorship for economic and political colonial domination. The US 
supported Ho during WW2 in his guerrilla warfare against Japan, only to deny his 
petition for Vietnam’s independence at the end of the war. The US paid for up to 
80% of France’s military costs to keep Vietnam enslaved by the French. The US 
supported the cancellation of an ELECTION in Vietnam when it became clear that 
Ho’s socialistic economic plan was more popular than a Western-friendly leader. 
The Vietnam War exploded with McNamara’s contrived reporting of the Gulf of 
Tonkin incident; manipulated intelligence at best, and an outright false-flag 
attack at worst. The war escalated with invasions and attacks into Laos and 
Cambodia, dropping more bombs than from all sides of WW2 combined on a country 
smaller than California that killed perhaps 10% of their civilian population – 
3.5 million. The irrational goal was to “defeat terrorism”, excuse me, “defeat 
communism” by winning the hearts and minds of civilians while we killed over 
1,000 civilian children, women and the elderly daily through high-altitude 
bombing. The war only ended through massive US demonstrations.

	Guatemala 1954

I’ll let John Perkins, bestselling author of Economic Hitman, tell the story of 
this coup in the video after he discusses the US coup of Iran in 1953. He also 
discusses US intervention in Ecuador in 1981, Panama in 1981, Venezuela in 2002 
and Iraq in 2003.You can verify Perkins’ testimony from your own research. CIA 
coups in Iran and Guatemala are now unchallenged conservative history (here’s 
encyclopedic info on Guatemala to get you started). The 10-minute clip comes 
from the excellent video, Zeitgeist Addendum...

Policy response:Gandhi and Martin Luther King advocated public understanding of 
the facts and non-cooperation with evil. I’m among hundreds who advocate:

    1. Understand the laws of war. These were legislated after WW2 and are 
crystal-clear that only self-defense, in a narrow legal meaning, can justify 
war. This investment of your time takes less than an hour and empowers you to 
legally stand for ending these Wars of Aggression.

    2. Refuse and end all orders and acts associated with these unlawful wars 
and constant violation of treaties. Those involved with US military, government, 
and law enforcement have an oath to protect and defend the US Constitution. 
Unlawful acts only move forward with sufficient cooperation and public 
tolerance. Stop cooperating with the most vicious crime a nation can commit: 
war. Stop tolerating it.

    3. Prosecute the war leaders for obvious violation of the letter and spirit 
of US war laws. You can only understand how these wars are specifically unlawful 
by investing the time to do so. Because the crimes are so broad and deep, I 
recommend Truth and Reconciliation (T&R) to exchange full truth and return of 
stolen US assets for non-prosecution. This is the most expeditious way to 
understand and end all unlawful and harmful acts. Those who reject T&R either by 
volunteering their name and/or responding when named are subject to prosecution 
after the window of T&R closes...

[8] Future of Freedom. Hornberger, J.G. An Anti-democracy Foreign Policy: Iran. 
Jan. 31, 2005: http://www.fff.org/comment/com0501i.asp , Wikipedia: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax .
[9] Democracy Now: 
http://www.democracynow.org/2003/8/25/50_years_after_the_cias_first , Wikipedia: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Iranian_Oil_Company .
[10] New York Times. Risen, J. April 16, 2000. The CIA in Iran: 
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html , 
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi .
[11] Federation of American Scientists. Pike J. Ministry of Security: SAVAK. 
Jan. 16, 2000: http://www.fas.org/irp/world/iran/savak/index.html ,Wikipedia: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAVAK .
[12] World Nuclear University. President Eisenhower’s speech to the UN General 
Assembly. Dec. 8, 1953: 
http://world-nuclear-university.org/html/atoms_for_peace/ , Wikipedia: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran .
[13] Iran Chamber Society. King, J. Arming Iraq: A Chronology of US Involvement. 
March, 2003: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php , 
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_iraq_war .
[14] Antiwar. Prather, G. ElBaradei Isn’t Perfect. Dec. 27, 2005: 
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=8308 , and background: Wikipedia: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran#After_the_1979_Revolution .

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