Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Scott Ritter on Israel's nuclear policy, nuclear disarmament, Iraq and citizenship
I just finished listening to and interview with Scott Ritter. Scott was a weapons inspector for the United Nations in Iraq for seven years. He was on the ground, inspecting and destroying Iraqi weapons systems and weapons manufacturing facilites, and has been outspoken in explaining that disarmament was difficult and tedious, but was working until inspectors were ordered out of Iraq by the U.S. This is a must read!
Israel's nuclear policy: "First of all, we need to understand that, as long as Israel has nuclear weapons,
it has chosen to take a path that is inherently confrontational, and that's a very dangerous path."
Iraq: "We have lost this war. We have not only lost the war in Iraq but we're in danger of losing the war on terror,
and we're really in danger of losing our status around the world."
US politicians: “So we have politicians allowing the brave men and women in the United States armed services to make sacrifice after sacrifice in Iraq to preserve their political reputation. Not to preserve the security of the United States."
Scott said some things that should make us all step back, confront our ignorance, and do some serious soul searching…..
… I'd say that the solution's actually pretty simple. Be good citizens. That identifies it right there. A good citizen empowers him/herself with the knowledge to comment on a situation. How many people know exactly what's going on in Iraq right now? Not too many. We're at war. We have Americans dying. But can people identify all of the major players, all of the major groups? Until you have that foundation of knowledge, you really can't make good judgment calls, and so you're left prisoner to those who claim to have that foundation of knowledge: the decision-makers, the elected officials who are carrying out policy in your name. You can't begin to be a good, democratic citizen of a representative democracy if you can't hold your elected representatives accountable for what they do in your name, [my emphasis] (and how can you hold them accountable for what they do if you don't understand what they do to begin with?) . . . You've got to learn. You've got to study. You've got to empower yourself with knowledge, and then you've got to start holding people accountable, . . . You still have a congress which abrogated its basic constitutional responsibilities in the lead-up to this war by voting for war powers authority without just cause for war, . . . We're going to have to hold every member of Congress who voted in favor of this war and voted in favor of keeping the payments supporting this war going, hold them accountable. Force them to come to grips with their vote and explain why they voted the way they did. And, if we're not happy with their answers, we vote them out of power. That is citizenship. That is the power of citizenship, and that is what is needed, and, right now, sadly, not too many Americans are good citizens. Even those who vote aren't good citizens, because if all you're doing is going into a polling booth and pulling a lever without really having the foundation of knowledge to understand and comprehend why you're pulling that lever, you're not doing anybody any favors.
It's, I think, illegal from an international law standpoint and illegal from a constitutional law standpoint, and it's bad for America. There are those who say they don't care if we violate the law, etc. Remember what we are. We're a nation of laws. We believe in due process, and once you cave in to the notion that we can do business . .????. as being in the best interest of our country even if it requires us to violate legal undertakings, we're no longer America. We're no longer the country worthy of the title of the United States of America.
Read the entire interview here.
From the same website, another must read…
"The Doctors, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children"
German television production (available here as VHS video), shows the US has used radioactive bombs in the current war against Iraq.
Tedd Weyman led the investigation team for the Uranium Medical Research Centre. See his exclusive commentary on the film.
We had better pull our collective heads out of the sand and get a grip on reality, because reality is about to deal with us; and at this point, it is a HARSH reality!
Ron Robinson
A Majority of One
I just finished listening to and interview with Scott Ritter. Scott was a weapons inspector for the United Nations in Iraq for seven years. He was on the ground, inspecting and destroying Iraqi weapons systems and weapons manufacturing facilites, and has been outspoken in explaining that disarmament was difficult and tedious, but was working until inspectors were ordered out of Iraq by the U.S. This is a must read!
Israel's nuclear policy: "First of all, we need to understand that, as long as Israel has nuclear weapons,
it has chosen to take a path that is inherently confrontational, and that's a very dangerous path."
Iraq: "We have lost this war. We have not only lost the war in Iraq but we're in danger of losing the war on terror,
and we're really in danger of losing our status around the world."
US politicians: “So we have politicians allowing the brave men and women in the United States armed services to make sacrifice after sacrifice in Iraq to preserve their political reputation. Not to preserve the security of the United States."
Scott said some things that should make us all step back, confront our ignorance, and do some serious soul searching…..
… I'd say that the solution's actually pretty simple. Be good citizens. That identifies it right there. A good citizen empowers him/herself with the knowledge to comment on a situation. How many people know exactly what's going on in Iraq right now? Not too many. We're at war. We have Americans dying. But can people identify all of the major players, all of the major groups? Until you have that foundation of knowledge, you really can't make good judgment calls, and so you're left prisoner to those who claim to have that foundation of knowledge: the decision-makers, the elected officials who are carrying out policy in your name. You can't begin to be a good, democratic citizen of a representative democracy if you can't hold your elected representatives accountable for what they do in your name, [my emphasis] (and how can you hold them accountable for what they do if you don't understand what they do to begin with?) . . . You've got to learn. You've got to study. You've got to empower yourself with knowledge, and then you've got to start holding people accountable, . . . You still have a congress which abrogated its basic constitutional responsibilities in the lead-up to this war by voting for war powers authority without just cause for war, . . . We're going to have to hold every member of Congress who voted in favor of this war and voted in favor of keeping the payments supporting this war going, hold them accountable. Force them to come to grips with their vote and explain why they voted the way they did. And, if we're not happy with their answers, we vote them out of power. That is citizenship. That is the power of citizenship, and that is what is needed, and, right now, sadly, not too many Americans are good citizens. Even those who vote aren't good citizens, because if all you're doing is going into a polling booth and pulling a lever without really having the foundation of knowledge to understand and comprehend why you're pulling that lever, you're not doing anybody any favors.
It's, I think, illegal from an international law standpoint and illegal from a constitutional law standpoint, and it's bad for America. There are those who say they don't care if we violate the law, etc. Remember what we are. We're a nation of laws. We believe in due process, and once you cave in to the notion that we can do business . .????. as being in the best interest of our country even if it requires us to violate legal undertakings, we're no longer America. We're no longer the country worthy of the title of the United States of America.
Read the entire interview here.
From the same website, another must read…
"The Doctors, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children"
German television production (available here as VHS video), shows the US has used radioactive bombs in the current war against Iraq.
Tedd Weyman led the investigation team for the Uranium Medical Research Centre. See his exclusive commentary on the film.
We had better pull our collective heads out of the sand and get a grip on reality, because reality is about to deal with us; and at this point, it is a HARSH reality!
Ron Robinson
A Majority of One
Comments:
Post a Comment
