Humanity Is At A Crossroads: Destruction or Rebirth

Editor's Note: Please note that this article was revised on December 12, 2011.


Currently humanity finds itself at a crossroads in history. The current global economic, political, and social situation is under strain and a battle is taking place between the masses and the elite who control society.  Humanity now as a whole has a choice to make: We can either create a future that does away with the old order and establishes an environment in which we can survive and prosper or we can keep the status quo which will lead to our destruction.

Economically, the eurozone crisis is threatening to derail the global economic recovery. Due to the fiscal problems in Europe, the Eurozone may very well collapse or stay intact, yet result in even further economic centralization, thus bringing the world closer to a United States of Europe, that some are calling for, which threatens the economic and political sovereignty of all Eurozone nations. In addition to this there is the ongoing, yet unmentioned threat of the Western debt crisis in which the US and Europe have crushing, unpayable debts. The US is now over $15 trillion in debt and the current austerity measures that are being thrust upon the populaces of both America and Europe are only going to damage the economy in the short-term as the measures lower income, thus lowering the amount of money people can put into the economy. Austerity measures also hurt long-term economic prospects as they make long-term unemployment worse. Thus, we are only going to see the situation get worse in the Western world and due to the fact that the world's financial markets, Wall Street and London, are based in the West, any negative economic activity that effects the West will effect the world at large.

Socially, there is massive societal unrest in Europe as a new general strike occurs in Greece and Britain. In the United States, the Occupy movement took place and even though it has been broken up, it is still around and evolving as they move to aid those families who have had their homes foreclosed on them. While these movements are encouraging, they have all revealed police brutality in so-called democratic countries, where people are being sent the message that if they do not accept the destruction of their futures and decide to make an attempt to resist, they will be brutally crushed.

Politically, the situation is getting worse and worse as the US-NATO-Israeli alliance uses the recent IAEA report on Iran to beat the drums of war, even though the report leaves the world where it has been since 2002, "with lots of belligerent talk but with no definitive evidence of a nuclear-weapons program." Yet, the US and Israel are still arguing for war with Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich agreeing that military action should be taken against Iran. The President as well stated that the US was "'not taking any options off the table'" and that if Iran obtained nuclear weapons "'would pose a threat not only to the region but also the United States.'" The West seems to be determined to intervene in Iran sometime in the future which is quite dangerous as it could easily lead to a World War 3 scenario. However, things are not only occurring in Central Asia, but in the greater Asian region as the US is provoking China and Russia, potentially leading to conflict with the two powers.

All around the world the elite are having serious difficulties maintaining their control as a global rebellion takes place by the masses that argues for a new order in which human rights, national sovereignty, economic prosperity, and environmental protection are a must. To maintain their control, the elite have co-opted several mass uprisings, with such examples as during the Egyptian revolution where several Egyptian civil societies had direct connections to the US State Department and the Occupy Wall Street movement which also had ties to such elites as George Soros and the CIA-created Optor movement. The co-optation of grassroots movements such as these puts the chances of true, radical change at risk. Instead it promotes a false change that encourages participants to work within the confines of the system rather than creating a new one. This will only result in slight reforms to the current order as a way to pacify the masses and lull them into a false sense of victory.

The current order is degrading the environment, causing global economic downturns, and perpetuating a system of war, neo-colonialism, and neo-imperialism that threatens the destruction of the entire planet. At this moment people around the world now have a choice: to either fight for the new order and create a new peaceful and prosperous world or continue with the current order which may very well seal our fate and either lead to World War 3 or create a world of neofeudalism.

Let's pray we make the right choice.

The Constitution Is Dead

Many Americans still believe that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and that politicians, both Republican and Democrat alike, still hold that view and ensure that any and all legislation passed does not violate it. However, in today’s America, the Constitution is effectively a null and void document, nothing more than a symbol politicians pay lip service to.

The destruction of the Constitution began soon after 9/11 when the Patriot Act was pushed through Congress. In the heat of the moment it seemed as if the legislation was meant to protect us from terrorism, however it was later revealed that certain provisions blatantly violated the First, Fourth, and Sixth Amendments. [1] Interestingly enough, however, this didn’t stop the Senate from to extending the Patriot Act earlier this year [2]. In doing this, the government revealed just how much they respect the Constitution.

The next unconstitutional act to take place was under President Obama. Despite his “hope and change” rhetoric during the campaign, the only thing Obama changed was to further erode the Constitution and the power of checks and balances in government. Obama argued that the UN mandate gave him the right to bombard Libya, however the mandate has nothing to do with the fact that such an action was unconstitutional [3] as the power to declare war in held solely by Congress, not to mention the fact that it violated the War Powers Act. In carrying out this action, Obama did even more to expand the imperial presidency and showed his blatant hypocrisy as in 2007 he clearly stated that “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” [4] (emphasis added) However, in later months he would take this disregard of the Constitution to the extreme.

Just two months ago, Obama authorized the assassination of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. While al-Awlaki was a member of Al Qaeda, he was still a US citizen at the time of his death [5] and thus he still had rights as a citizen, specifically the right due process. This never occurred with al-Awlaki. Due to al-Awlaki’s assassination, it sets a legal precedent which allows the current and future Presidents to assassinate US citizens and withhold damning evidence- if there even is any- from the public under the guise of “national security.”

Today, we see due to the brutal crackdown of the Occupy Wall Street movement in Oakland, New York, and most recently Los Angeles, that Americans are being denied their First and Third amendment rights. Mayors are sending the message that if one decides to pose a serious challenge to the status quo, they will be violently crushed.

The Constitution is dead and with it the beliefs and ideals America was founded on have also passed away. The most terrifying occurrence, however, is that Americans who are seeing their freedoms eroded are still in denial that a police state is slowly, but surely on its way.


Endnotes

1: http://www.scn.org/ccapa/pa-vs-const.html
2: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/25/senate-moves-patriot-act-extension/
3: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/24/obama_s_unconstitutional_war?page=full
4: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/CandidateQA/ObamaQA/
5: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/09/30/was_anwar_al_awlaki_still_a_us_citizen

Thanksgiving Break

 Dear Readers,

 I would like to announce that I am taking a small break, starting today and ending on December 1st. I would once again like you thank readers for your support.  Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Sincerely,

Devon DB


I leave you with Global Research TV's latest report: War With Iran: History and Consequences

 

US and Israeli Leadership: Detached From Reality

In the wake of the recent IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program, Israel and its Western allies are once again pushing for a military confrontation with Iran. While they argue that confrontation with Iran is a rational action, in actuality the US and Israeli governments are showing just how much they are detached from reality.


Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is “trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran” [1] with only a narrow majority of the Cabinet opposing the move. Netanyahu has also stated that in regards to Iran that “all options are on the table.” This truly shows how detached from reality he is as an attack on Iran would potentially spell disaster for Israel as while there is currently no proof that Iran is attempting to gain nuclear weapons, attacking Iran would ensure that the regime would then make it a goal to have nuclear weapons to use as a deterrent from future attacks. In addition to this, an attack on Iran could potentially anger the entire region against Israel as it “would produce a nightmare far more extensive than Chernobyl” and "The immediate and long-term human toll from the nuclear fallout and radiation from so many reactors and plants [would be] inconceivable;" it would potentially "strengthen extremist forces and impeded democratic reform in Iran, and it would ignite hatred against religious minorities throughout the Middle East." [2] Thus, an attack on Iran would not be in Israel’s interest in the slightest from a purely logical standpoint when one looks at the potential repercussions.


Unfortunately, this detachment from reality also extends to the US leadership as well. There are many in the Republican Party who are “reviving many of the arguments that neoconservative proponents of armed intervention against Tehran lost in the latter years of George W. Bush's presidency.” [3] Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney stated that if Obama was re-elected Iran would attain a nuclear weapon. He also openly stated that he would attempt to destabilize the Iranian regime, saying that “the U.S. should be ‘working with the insurgents in the country to encourage regime change’” but “if ‘there's nothing else we can do besides take military action, then of course you take military action.’” [4] Another Republican Presidential hopeful, Newt Gingrich, followed in the same vein, calling “for ‘maximum covert operations to block and disrupt the Iranian program.’” [5] By openly stating that they plan to engage in covert action against Iran, the Presidential hopefuls are effectively alerting Iran of their intent and allowing Iran to be on their toes should either person become President. In addition to this, how does either candidate expect to find money or troops for this? The US military is stretched thin, the US economy is in shambles, America is nearing a GDP to debt ratio of 1 to 1, and there is currently a super-committee which is planning to impose harsh austerity measures on the country.


Both the Israeli and US leadership are further detached from reality on the issue of Iran when both state that Iran is a threat. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that “Iran poses the largest, most dangerous threat to the current world order” [6] and President Obama stated that the US was “’not taking any options off the table’” in regards to Iran’s nuclear program and that an “’Iran with nuclear weapons would pose a threat not only to the region but also to the United States.’” [7] This argument is quite ridiculous. The United States, a nation that has consistently been directly and indirectly involved in military conflicts every decade since the 1940s and Israel, the most aggressive militaristic regime in the region, are much greater threats to world peace than Iran could ever be.Iran is a threat to neither in the US or Israel. Israel is a regional superpower with a world-class army and nuclear weapons. The US is the world’s sole superpower and recently acquired 20 GPS-guided 30,000 lb bunker-busting bombs [8] and “held a successful test flight of a flying bomb that travels faster than the speed of sound and will give military planners the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world in less than a hour.” [9] (emphasis added) Thus, how would Iran pose a threat to either nation, much less the entire world?


The US and Israeli leadership are detached from reality and this could potentially prove quite dangerous and costly not only for their nations, but for the world at large. 


Endnotes


1: http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16101552
2: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/956/focus.htm
3: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/11/16/gop_hopefuls_challenge_obama_on_iran/
4: Ibid
5: Ibid
6: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/lieberman-iran-poses-most-dangerous-threat-to-world-order-1.393303
7: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/8887887/Barack-Obama-to-consider-all-options-to-stop-Iran-getting-nuclear-weapons.html
8: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bunker-buster-bomb-20111117,0,3582708.story
9: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jTJeu2vLniWcT_-Sqc5IQQUOPesQ?docId=CNG.1e15397ba6f112f35bec6eb7fd662ef1.1b1

Interview With Andrew Gavin Marshall: The People's Book Project

The following interview was done on November 10, 2011.






Interview With Andrew Gavin Marshall: The People's Book Project by Devon DB

The West's War on Iran

It was reported a week ago that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report that argued that Iran may have been attempting to build nuclear weapons based on the fact that it had computer models of a nuclear warhead, in addition with other information. On the matter, the report itself states Iran “conducted computer modeling studies of at least 14 progressive design iterations of the payload chamber and its contents to examine how they would stand up to the various stresses that would be encountered on being launched and travelling on a ballistic trajectory to a target.” [1]

This has led many to argue that Iran is in fact attempting to build a nuclear weapon. What many fail to realize is that not only does the UN report not state the Iran is attempting to build a nuclear weapon, but also the fact that the UN report may very well be biased due to the head of the IAEA's ties to the US and also that this report could be used as part of a media war for the US-NATO-Israeli alliance to wage war on Iran.

The UN may seem like a neutral organization, but in reality, it can be influenced by outside forces. An example of this is with the head of the IAEA. It was reported last month by The Guardian that a cable released by Wikileaks stated that the new head of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, "was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program." [2] In addition to this, when Amano had his first post-election meeting with the US, the Americans came away with the notion that the meeting "illustrate[d] the very high degree of convergence between his priorities and [America's] agenda at the IAEA" and that the coming transition period would "[provide] a further window for [the US] to shape Amano's thinking before his agenda collide[d] with the IAEA Secretariat bureaucracy." The fact that the US had plans to shape Amano's thinking should make one wonder how much influence the US had over him.

The US and Israel could be using this report to argue that their countries should go to war with Iran. However, the information could potentially be false as it was noted by Russia Today that the UN “has found no smoking gun, but has succeeded nonetheless in hyping up fears that Iran is continuing its research on nuclear weapons” [3] (emphasis added) and that the information could be false as

some, like former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, have grave doubts about the value of the IAEA report.

“I would be very skeptical about this report that is coming out from the International Atomic Energy Agency, because the IAEA doesn’t really have any intelligence capabilities of its own. It is relying on reports that are coming from other people. I would rather suspect these reports are coming from the US and Israel,” says Giraldi.

The precedent of US intelligence presenting false evidence to build a case for the war in Iraq raises alarm bells as to the accuracy of the atomic agency’s latest report on Iran. 

“You may have a piece of evidence of some kind, but that piece of evidence is subject to your interpretation,” Giraldi says. “When they saw aerial photographs in Iraq showing certain things, they interpreted those photographs to mean something which was not correct.” [4] (emphasis added)

The possibility that the IAEA report could be using false information is quite possible as the US-NATO-Israeli alliance has been looking to invade Iran for quite some time and has been waging a media war in support of this objective. One major example being the myth that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that Iran wanted to wipe Israel off the map. This proved to be completely false as

The Iranian president was quoting an ancient statement by Iran's first Islamist leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini that "this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" just as the Shah's regime in Iran had vanished.

He was not making a military threat. He was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future. [5] (emphasis added)

While this was proven to be false, war hawks in America and Israel still used as it an argument of Iranian aggression. However, the current situation is quite dangerous as Israel may be making moves to bomb Iran, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arguing with his Cabinet for Israel to take such an action. [6] In addition to this, the British military is currently “stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme” [7] as the British Ministry of Defense thinks that the US may go ahead and strike key Iranian facilities via missile strikes and that Britain will unconditionally support the US.

Despite their plans, however, the war mongerers may find it difficult to achieve their goals as Russia recently stated that it would “do everything possible to prevent a military strike on Iran and push forward political dialogue on Iran's nuclear issue.” [8]

The threat of a Western attack against Iran is extremely dangerous as it could potentially lead to a World War 3 scenario as “Were Iran to be the object of a ‘pre-emptive’ aerial attack by allied forces, the entire region, from the Eastern Mediterranean to China's Western frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan, would flare up.” [9] We need to be knowledgeable of the fact that an attack on Iran would consist “not only in reclaiming Anglo-American control over Iran's oil and gas economy, including pipeline routes, [but would] also [challenge] the presence and influence of China and Russia in the region.” [10]

Russia has major interests in Iran as Russia has made a large amount of money off aiding Iran in building its nuclear facilities. In addition to this, Russia wants to back Iran as a counterweight to US influence in Central Asia. China also has an interest in Iran as China can get oil and natural gas from them. Both countries have been heavily involved in Iran economically and have a strategic interest in making sure that Iran is not invaded.

If the West does invade Iran, it may lead to World War 3.

Endnotes

1: http://isis-online.org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/IAEA_Iran_8Nov2011.pdf

2: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/julian-borger-global-security-blog/2010/nov/30/iaea-wikileaks

3: http://rt.com/news/iran-nuclear-iaea-us-871/

4: Ibid

5: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/jun/02/comment.usa

6: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-trying-to-persuade-cabinet-to-support-attack-on-iran-1.393214

7: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/uk-military-iran-attack-nuclear

8: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-11/10/c_122263799.htm

9: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20403

10: Ibid

A Revolutionary Book for a Revolutionary Era by Andrew Gavin Marshall

This article was originally posted on Andrewgavinmarshall.com on October 31, 2011.

In the nearly six weeks since beginning The People’s Book Project, there has been nearly 100 pages written on top of the already pre-existing 250 pages, a massive amount of research has been undertaken (and continues to be done), and a more concrete outline of the book has been formulated. The Facebook Page for The People’s Book Project has drawn nearly 250 supporters, and donations have been generous. However, with the aim of producing something concrete by the New Year, a massive amount of work needs to be done in a relatively short period of time. This requires extensive time and effort, and with that, donations.

This book takes a highly critical and thoroughly researched examination of the ideas, institutions, and individuals of power in our modern world, and subsequently, the ideas, institutions, and individuals which can challenge those powers. Tracing the concept of the ‘institutionalization of ideas’ from the origins of the modern world in the development of the nation-state, expansion of empire, emergence of Capitalism, and conceptualization of racism, the book follows the evolution of the ideas and institutions of power to the present day, including: the emergence of the central banking system, the rise of new dynasties of banking families (such as Rothschild, Morgan, Rockefeller), the growth of Industrial Capitalism, the emergence of radical and revolutionary ideologies which sought to challenge entrenched power structure s, revolutions, resistance, rebellion, uprisings, imperial expansion and global dominance by the advanced industrial nations of the Western world, the construction of a concept of social control, the origins of mass education, the modern university system as an agent of social control, the social sciences as a means of social engineering, the emergence and influence of the major philanthropic foundations – like Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford – (which is a central feature of the entire book), the development of philosophical anarchism, Zionism, the making of the Modern Middle East and expansion of empire into Africa, the two World Wars, the Progressive Movement and the development of modern forms of propaganda, public relations, advertising, and the birth of the consumer society; the ‘making of the American Empire’, the Council on Foreign Relations, the foundations, the Bank for International Settlements, the National Security State, the IMF, World Bank, UN, CIA and Pent agon, the Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, European integration (and regional unions), origins of neoliberalism, the welfare state as a system of social control, poverty and inequality, the Great Depression, social services, development of ghettos and slums, shaping education for the oppressed, debt, democracy and cultural imperialism, proliferation of NGOs, globalization, the end of the Cold War and origins of the New World Order, global governance, anti-globalization and world government, the global economic crisis and a new great depression, the American imperial expansion around the world (war, covert operations, oppression, devastation), imperial strategems, Israel, the War on Terror, and much much more!

This book seeks to present a more comprehensive examination of the world system we live in by asking and answering some very important questions: What is the nature of our society? How did we get here? When did this begin? Who brought us here? Where are we going? Why? …. and what can we do to change it?

The aim of the book is to compile a more expansive understanding of the world system we live in within one or two volumes, to make it accessible, readable, and understandable by a wide readership around the world, to help in promoting an understanding of the true nature of our system and the power structures within it, and to inform action of those who seek to change the world for the better. It is highly critical of both the ideas and institutions of domination and those which seek to challenge it. With several hundred pages written and several thousand citations thus far included, this is a heavily researched project, grounded in methods of research that would be acceptable in an academic environment, but seeking to make the content understandable to those who need it: the people. The aim of this approach is to base the re search in accepted and respected sources (thus, removing the content of the book away from the realm of “conspiracy theory” and placing it in the realm of “fact-based historical interpretation”), and more importantly, to present the content in a form which can make it relevant and useful, for encouraging debate, discussion, understanding, the proliferation of new ideas, and urging people to discover new ways to challenge the old and move forward to the new.

For this week only (October 31 – November 6, 2011): for every $100.00 or more that is donated to The People’s Book Project, the donor will receive an entire sample chapter from the book!

So what chapter will the donors have exclusive access to?

The chapter deals with the specific concept of the “New World Order,” from the ending of the Cold War, and the roles played by Western NGOs, foundations, think tanks, and elites in “opening up” Eastern Europe to Western domination, to the political concept of a “new world order” as articulated by intellectual elites within the United States, the concept of “global governance” as a central feature of the “new world order,” the development of centers for the study of “global governance” at major universities throughout the West, and the development and content of the curriculum of “global governance” studies as a form of social engineering undertaken largely by the dominant American foundations, designed to produce elites and intellectuals for a new global system of “global governance,” the diff erences between “global governance” and “global government,” and the resurgence of the promotion for a “world government” to rule the world, and a brief historical examination of the intellectual movement in promoting the concept of “world government” in the first several decades of the 20th century, as well as the development of the anti-globalization movement, and its subsequent co-optation by the major American foundations as a means to incorporate the opposition to globalization into a direct component of the process and structure of “global governance.”

It is an important chapter in the book, covering the transition from the Cold War into the New World Order, examining the ideas, institutions and individuals who were and are central to this global transformation.

For every donation over $100.00 between October 31 and November 6, 2011, the donor will receive this chapter in full after November 6!

All financial information is made publicly available on the website for The People’s Book Project, in keeping with the project philosophy of promoting independence, accountability, democracy, and inclusion. I encourage people to make comments, suggestions and critiques and want people to be more included in the process of my writing this book. I write Project Updates to inform of my progress, ideas, research and developments, and list the time I spend on the project and how much I am compensated (via the donations) for that time.

I am a 24 year-old independent researcher and writer living in Montreal, Canada. This is my only source of income, as I seek to dedicate my time and efforts into making this book the best possible book I can possibly write, and can already say with absolute confidence that I have never put as much effort, time, or resources into anything I have ever done in my life thus far. Hence, my asking for donations in this Project is a means of dedicating myself entirely to this book, while still having the capacity to afford food and rent. Further, the method in which donations are raised from the public (via social media and the Internet) stands as an example as to how many proje cts and initiatives aimed at social innovation and new ideas can be undertaken and implemented without the interference or threat of co-optation that comes with all other sources of funding. Your donations keep this research and writing totally independent of any institutional or powerful influences. There is something to say for a book that seeks to challenge the global power structure with new ideas, if it is in fact created through a process which undermines the ability of those power structures to influence its development.

If you cannot support the project financially, there are several other ways. Please “like” the Facebook page and promote it to your friends and social groups, please spread the word and promote the website and introduce others to this new Project.

All of your support is greatly appreciated,

Thank you very much,

Andrew Gavin Marshall