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Picture Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
Col. Paul. W. Tibbets, Jr., pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, waves from his cockpit before takeoff. 66,000 people were killed at Hiroshima out of a population of 255,000. Of that number, 45,000 died on the first day and 19,000 during the next four months. In addition, “several hundred” survivors were expected to die from radiation-induced cancers and lukemia over the next 30 years and Col Tibbets is smiling?
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Cross Post from IfLizWereQueen
“BOMB, BOMB IRAN.” With Senators who sing songs like this, why is anyone surprised? The big surprise is why American are stupid enough to keep sending the same war mongers back to Washington DC year after year
“Outrageously yet routinely, America is preparing for yet another war. Though warned by Iran not to bring an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf, the US now has an unprecedented three. (Gee, I wonder why they call it the Persian Gulf, but don’t be surprised if, say, 200% of our high school seniors don’t even realize that Persia is Iran.) Forget the nuclear weapon babble, America is harassing Iran because it ranks in the top five in both oil and natural gas preserves. Further, it has the chutzpah to wrest itself away from the dollar hegemony by selling oil to Russia and China for rubles and yuans. For five years, Iran also tried to operate an oil bourse where customers were asked to pay in currencies other than the greenback. This, America clearly saw as a grave threat and provocation, for if the petro dollar expires, this empire will sink with it. For showing similar insolence, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were barbarically and publically killed, with their final moments broadcast to the world as a warning. See, when there’s a body to be shown, America does not hesitate to display her trophy.
On land, America has surrounded Iran by having troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. At sea, she has dozens of ships, with a permanent naval base in Bahrain. Assassinations linked to Israel and America have happened inside Iran, and American drones have flown over the country, with one shot down. . .”
Read the rest of Linh Dinh’s article at The Dissident Voice.
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ILWQ COMMENTS
But do we really have a choice? Is there any way to stop the corrupt leaders in Washington DC from declaring war on Iran?
No, not as long as we the people continue to send the same corrupt crooks back to Congress every 2 and 4 years. Over half of Congress make money from war. Why the hell do Americans expect them to vote against war?
You want real change?
THEN THEY ALL MUST GO.
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ADDENDUM
The average length of service for Representatives at the beginning of the 111th Congress was 10.3 years (5.15 terms); for Senators 13.4 years ( 2.2 terms).
Source: http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid=%260BL)PL%3B%3D%0A
Harry Reid has been there for 25 years.Mitch McConnell has been in the senate for 27 years. Carl Levin has been in office for 33 years.
Another tidbit: Col. Tibbets named the plane that dropped the bomb after his mother, Enola Gay.
As a nation, I think we may be certifiably criminally insane. Total wackos
ONE LAST ADDENDUM ON THIS POST
The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has calculated that more than 151 members of Congress have up to $195 million invested in major defense contractors that are earning profits from the US military occupations.
In 2006 Lawmakers with the most money invested in companies with DoD contracts include Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), with up to $38,209,020; Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), with $49,140,000; Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC), with $37,105,000; Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis), with $7,612,653; Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif), with $6,260,000; Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich), with $8,360,000; Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa), with $2,000,002; Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis), with $5,800,000; Rep. Kenny Ewell Marchant (R-Texas), with $1,163,231; and Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), with up to $5,000,000.
Forty-seven members of Congress (or 9 percent of all members of the House and Senate) in 2006 were invested in companies that are primarily in the defense sector. Source: Project Censored
Lots of people pretend to be anti-war. But they won’t support anti-war candidates. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul come to mind. Us vets are about the only people in this “Christian” Nation who have seen war. The rest think it’s a TV show.
NO Pearl Hormuz, TOJObama!
Iran is a poor country that is rich in resources. They were meant to be exploited, like Africa and South America. I still smell a corporate interest driving us towards war. It looks like in WW3, it will be America’s turn to be Germany. The conservative comparison of Obama to Hitler will not be as crazy as we first thought.
Funny how easy it becomes to ignore the wars when a Democratic President wages them. Funny how easy it has become to find fault with anti-war candidates when Democrats give a green light to war. Nothing–not Wall Street and the economy, not the rape of the planet, not the loss of our civil liberties–will be fixed in this country until we stop blowing up children in faraway lands in the name of the “War on Terror.”
Re-instituting the draft is perhaps the only way war will become a reality. People would forget about twenty-year-old newsletters quick enough if that happened.