Traitors in the Mist

As American as . . .

1.  Well, I am pissed off at Mark Dankof. He  ruined my whole weekend last weekend. I mean, finally, after dealing with the struggles of the daily grind from Monday through Friday, I get home and have time to catch up on reading all the really cool blogs out there. I checked in with his site and I am sorry I did. Damn it Mark, can’t you just write about sports or something?  I hear the Houston Texans might not actually suck this year?  Plus the Cowboys had a big game against the Redskins – a team owned by Islamofacist Dan “Thanks for the money, Mort” Snyder.   Plus there’s all that college football in Texas. Also, the last I  heard, Alex Jones is still broadcasting Zionist Bullshit down there, isn’t he? Why don’t you write about him – you know, do a humor column or something?

But no. Mark’s had to post about a relatively new Jewish paramilitary organization coming soon to a neighborhood near you called Kitat Konenut which either means “rapid response units” or “paranoids with guns” or something like that.  This led me to do more research, and then more research, and before I knew it the weekend was almost over and I hadn’t even had a chance to watch one single football game!  Damn it Mark.

Also, my original intention was to do a post based on the question, “How is Hesham Tillawi different from Mark Glenn and Michael Collins Piper.” And instead, I’m now writing about another Zionist espionage group that pervades these United States. As you know, we’ve covered these groups here at Mantiq al-Tayr in the past. Well, guess what, there’s another one. I’m sure you are stunned. And guess what? It isn’t even Kitat Konenutcases or whatever these potentially quite dangerous morons are called. No, it is called Bnei Akiva – another Israeli operation aimed at recruiting traitors. And it sure does seem to love the Israeli military too.

What’s the connection between Kitat Konenutty and Bnei Akiva?  (Red highlighting is mine.)

“”Kitat Konenut New York is a Religious-Zionist organization and we hold the ideology of the Bnei Akiva movement which is Torah Veavoda. Members of the Kita are well trained and well armed with the best gear and weapons available. All guns are 100% legal and in compliance with all federal, state and local laws.”

Hmm, so Kitat’s founders, Yonatan Stern and Scott Brown claim on the one hand that their Kitat thingy is not political, but their ideology is that of the Bnei Akiva?  The Bnei Akiva folks specialize in getting Jews from literally dozens of countries around the world to be loyal to Israel.  That’s what they do, and they are very active in these increasingly less United States.

Founded in Palestine in 1929, Bnei Akiva is “the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world.”

“Bnei Akiva’s twin ideals of Torah and Avodah loosely translate to religious commitment/study and work on the land of Israel. The movement has an anthem called Yad Ahim.^[4] As a pioneering Zionist youth movement, Bnei Akiva believes that it is a central commandment of Judaism to emigrate to the land of Israel–”make Aliya“– and maintains that the future of the Jewish people is tied to the state of Israel.^[5] Bnei Akiva feels that Jewish youth in the Diaspora should be educated to realize that the State of Israel needs them, and that they, in turn, need it.

In other words, be a traitor to the land of your birth and we’ll help you do it. And boy do they help.  And with your money since their operations, like those of so many Zionist recruitment operations, are tax deductable.

Bnei Akiva is the youth movement of the Mizrachi movement, which in the United States is embodied by the Religious Zionists of America organization – basically a bunch of very powerful Jewish fundamentalists whose very own website informs us that they are loyal to Israel first and foremost.  Their motto is:  “The land of Israel for the people of Israel according to the Torah of Israel.”

Now in case there is any doubt as to their real loyalties, their mission statement removes it completely.

“In a world of shifting commitments to Zionism, the RZA is the sole organization whose singular mission is to be an engine of pro-Israel advocacy, educational programming, and the driving force behind the organized leadership of the Orthodox community in its quest for activities on behalf of the State of Israel.”

The youth movement is designed to make sure that Jewish kids maintain that very same loyalty. It’s all about creating religious fundamentalists committed to a foreign country.

You know, it just occurred to me that with all the bitching and moaning about Islam going on in this country and the great “concern” of so many so called intellectuals over the “radicalization” of Muslim youth in America, that the real concern here needs to be the radicalization of Jewish youth in America – a process that is so widespread, well-coordinated, well-funded and easy to document that the FBI should have no trouble arresting shitloads of traitors.  But I digress.

Anyway, I’m sure you all are just dying to know what great opportunities Bnei Akiva provides for young traitors at your expense.

Sit tight, get a barf bag, your favorite beverage, and read on.

First of all, this outfit is basically a cradle to college 24/7 operation.  “Bnei Akiva educational programming spans the year and the full range of ages, with members continuing from childhood through the college years, during the school year and during the summer.”

But let’s skip to high-school shenanigans for the sake of brevity.

“In 9 th grade, members of Bnei Akiva all over the world receive their Shevet name, the special name decided by Bnei Akiva in Israel that is assigned to their age-group. From then on, the Shevet becomes the center of a child’s Bnei Akiva chevra (social group), and after participating in our national summer programs after 10th and 11th grades, the Shevet gets to reunite at shabbatonim during the year.

“The final shabbaton of the year brings together Bnei Akivaniks from all over the country, from 9th-12th grade, for a shabbaton held at Moshava on the weekend of the Israel Day Parade in Manhattan. The shabbaton culminates with lively, enthusiastic participation in the Parade.”

We’ll get to the Moshava business in a second. I like how the shevet names come right from Israel. Also, isn’t it nice that there is an Israel Day Parade in New York? How fitting.

And when you are in twelfth grade you get to go to Israel and help the Israeli army.

“Bnei Akiva’s 12th grade winter Solidarity Mission to Israel was initiated two years ago by 3 Bnei Akiva members who were seniors in High School. Infused with the message of Bnei Akiva, these high school students decided it was time that they and their peers did something to show how much they care about Israel. The result was a 10 day mission that was filled not with sight seeing and tourism, but with packing sandbags for the Israeli Army in Sarel, making food packages for poor families in Yerushalayim, and more. Participants left not only with a tremendous sense of accomplishment, but with a renewed commitment to Am Yisrael [the nation of Israel-  and Eretz Yisrael [the land of Israel].”

And how cool is that?

Oh, they also note that the Solidarity Mission dudes recently spent “10 packed days volunteering at army bases, visiting hospitals, packaging food for the poor, interacting with victims of terror, and more.”

And if you go here, you can read all about how effective this brainwashing effort is.

And they have this Moshava thing – it’s four camps that they these kids go to every year. Nice camps too.

“The climax of the Bnei Akiva experiences of the year comes during the summer. 4 sleep-away camps in the US and Canada provide exciting, experiential Bnei Akiva education for 4-8 weeks. For children and teens up until 10 th grade, there’s nothing like a summer at Camp Moshava in Indian Orchard, PA , in Ennismore, Ontario , in Wild Rose, WI , and in Camp Stone in Sugar Grove, PA.

It’s only fitting that two of the four camps are in Pennsylvania – the land of nukes for Israel and where the state government has hired an Israeli company to spy on non-Jews living in the so-called Quaker state. They ought to call it the Spy State. And that worthless Zionist governor,  Ed Rendell, ought to be deported.  (Note: once the contract with the Israeli company was exposed, Rendell did cancel it.)

Then there is also the Mach Hach program which is six weeks for 10^th graders in Israel. Guess what? You can sign up for the year 5771 trip today! Yes, and you can go to Israel for six weeks of complete indoctrination.

This video should inspire you:

No Zionist recruitment program could be without it’s holocaust section, and here you can read about how the holocaust is used to tie these kids even more directly to Israel.

They even time this trip so that the kids end up in Israel on Israel’s independence day clearly in order to have as huge a psychological impact as possible.

“From the intense emotion of Poland and Yom HaShoah [Holocaust Day], participants travel to Israel, learning about and experiencing the Jewish people’s triumphant, miraculous rebirth in Medinat Yisrael, culminating with a Yom Ha’Atzmaut [Israel’s independence day] celebration that won’t be soon forgotten.”

And there is just so much more. Go here and browse around.

One last thing on this subject: Remember those summer camps mentioned above? Well, here are some “innovative” things being done at the one that is in eastern Pennsylvania.

“Some of our most innovative ideas include:

• Reliving the vote in the U.N. and the establishment of the State of Israel.
• Building a ‘Time Machine” to bring luminaries from the time of the Rishonim.
• Crossing the “Jordan” in the time of Joshua.
• Re-enacting the siege of Jerusalem in 1948.
• Creating and celebrating the diversity of peoples that live in Israel.
• Treasure hunt using the Rashi from sections of the Torah read during the summer.
• “Flying” the whole camp to the modern State of Israel. [Note to Shas Party members, they don't actually fly there.]
  
• Baking cookies in the shape of Medinat Yisrael.”

Hey readers, hope you get to enjoy those cookies. You’re paying for them.

2. So, I can  here you all asking, just what is it about Hesham Tillawi that makes him different from Michael Collins Piper, Mark Glenn, and Haifa Wehbe? (Hey, I didn’t mention Haifa Wehbe above, get her off your minds readers. Good grief.) You may be asking, is Hesham (pronounced Hgmbzqt) better looking? Taller? Funnier? Is it because he’s a Palestinian? (you are getting closer). Is it because he has a TV show?

No. Folks. Though no doubt the TV show does help.

Here’s the deal. Although Mark Glenn and Michael Collins Piper can be found via searches on the ADL’s website, Hesham Tillawi actually has his own dedicated ADL web page. Mark Glenn’s main page on the ADL site is just a sub-page on Hesham’s listed under Hesham’s connections with short-dark-skinned guys with nerdy glasses. Just kidding, it’s under Hesham’s “Extremist Affiliations” page.  Not even the throaty-voiced RBN nightime host and American Free Press writer Michael Collins Piper has his very own ADL-endorsed and sponsored page. No, to find the Piper, you have to search ADL’s site. But Hesham has his very own page. Click on the picture below and you’ll see how nicely that photo is framed on his ADL webpage.

Hesham (prounced Htfbvq) Tillawi

3. You know, it occurs to me that if Hesham were to shave his head, he’d look an awful lot like Stavros Flately.

Note: If this video does not make you laugh, you must be an Israeli settler. Also, to Shas Party members: the video is just a few minutes long, so it shouldn’t outlast your attention span. Also, it would help if you knew something about Riverdance first.

4. Okay all you students and lovers of Arabic, you will like this. There’s a new invention that makes learning the language so much easier and all the tuyuur here at Mantiq al-Tayr are profoundly disappointed that they did not think of it first.  It’s chewing gum. And below is proof positive that it works.

Clevon America is great. His vids are here. I’ll post more in the future.

Oh hell, I’ll do one more now. It’s a great game all you parents can play with your kids. Maybe they play it at the brainwashing camps run by Bnei Akiva. It’s called Gazapoly and it is not only great fun, it’s very educational.

5.  Now that’s enough fun and frolic.

“In five minutes flat we were all blown to hell.”

You know, it really sucks when you get forced to fight in somebody else’s wars. The Australians sure found this out during World War I at Gallipoli.  (This did not stop them from getting involved in Vietnam, but I digress).

“Australians and New Zealanders recognise 25 April as a ceremonial occasion to reflect on the futility of war and to remember those who fought and lost their lives for their country. Commemorative services are held at dawn, the time of the original landing, mainly at war memorials in cities and towns across both nations. One of the traditions of Anzac Day is the ‘gunfire breakfast’ (coffee with rum added) which occurs shortly after many dawn ceremonies, and recalls the ‘breakfast’ taken by many soldiers before facing battle. Later in the day, ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen meet and join in marches through the major cities and many smaller centres.”

If this video does not affect you, then you must be a neo-con trying to get us into more wars.

Come on Terry Light My Fire

Below is an open letter to Dr. Terry Jones

Hey there Reverend Doctor Man of G-d and War Terry Jones, it’s almost September 11, 2010 and I really wanted to dash off this open letter to you so you can make the most of your Qur’an burning day on Saturday. I have a question or two for you and some suggestions and I think combined they’ll make for one hot day down there in Florida.  BTW,  has the BP oil spill stuff gotten into the water supply down there yet? Just curious, but I digress.

Anyway, first of all, I have a couple of questions for you.  Which riwayah of the Qur’an will you be burning?  Will it be Hafs ‘an ‘Asim? That’s the most common one found today and you could get it at just about any mosque. Get a bunch of’em. Also, make sure to then to get a Warsh ‘an Nafi’ recension , it’s not quite as available, but there’s still quite a few around. Make sure you get your Warsh Qur’an in both the Uthmani script – again pretty common, but if you really want to piss of the people of North Africa, especially in Morocco, be sure to get a Warsh Qur’an that is in the Magrebi script. These are much harder to get and the copy I own personally I really treasure, so if you can burn some of those it will just hurt so, so much.

There’s lots of other recensions you can get as well.  If you are really lucky you might find the Riwayah of Ruways and Rawh from Yacub al-Hadrami – very rare. Might even be worth some real money and then you could just drop it into the fire. How cool is that?

Oh, in case you didn’t know, the Qur’an only exists in Arabic, so if you just get some English, Spanish, or Redneck translation – that won’t be burning the Qur’an at all and you won’t be sending a message to the Mooselims who are hiding under your bed. In fact, even if your translation of the Qur’an contains the entire Arabic text, if there’s more English or Redneck in the volume itself due to comments and footnotes and the like, then some Muslims won’t be as offended since the book is not mainly the Qur’an itself. So please go to your local mosques and buy those Arabic only Qurans just to be on the safe side. I’m sure your tax-paying Muslim neighbors will be happy to oblige.

Oh, another question. Did you know that the Quran was meant to be recited? (That’s what the word Qur’an means – not that I would expect you to know that.) So you should buy a bunch of CD’s of Quran recitation, get a big shredder, put the CD’s in and shred them to bits and then toss them into the fire too. There’s lots of places to get Quran cd’s. Also, if you go here, you can download all the Sura’s in the Quran you want from all of the Riwayahs for free, burn your own cd’s (pun intended) and then shred them and toss them into the fire.  I bet that’ll get you excited.  Oh, I almost forgot, at the mp3 site I just linked to, you can get the entire Quran in mp3 format in the Ruways and Rawh riwayah.  It differs from most of the others in a way that involves including some of the case endings in the recitation, not that you would know what those are, and it does so in a way that I find artistically effective. Oh, my Elohim, it would just so piss me off if you did burn that one.

Oh, and there are also DVD’s, lots of them, showing men reciting the Qur’an. Go here to Amazon.com. Oh, wait, none are left. Everyone must have bought them so they can burn them. But be sure to buy those too – this is sort of like killing two birds with one stone – like the Israelis do when they shoot pregnant women – they even sell t-shirts advocating the practice.  Anyway, you can be just like the Israelis and burn not only the Quran, but the images of the dude who is reciting it too.  Man that will just piss so many people off – and probably get you and your followers off too.

Oh, you are going to burn copies of the Talmud too right? You told Mark Glenn in your interview with him that you would.  I am linking to it so everyone can hear. I’m sure that Zionist Jews who hate Islam would be glad to give you copies of the Talmud for free – and remember it’ll need to be in the original language(s) – mainly Hebrew, I think some Aramaic too. Aramaic – that’s the language Jesus spoke.  That’s the language he was speaking up on the cross when the Muslims, oh wait, I mean the Jews – err the Italians – crucified him because the Muslims, oh wait, the Jews – err – the masses (of no particular persuasion) – preferred a common criminal be freed instead.

Since you don’t want those evil Mooselims to build  the falsely-named ground zero mosque in New York, I strongly suggest you burn the Constitution of These United States. I  have a copy of THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION here for  you to print out and burn. Readers of my blog should also print it out and fax it to you at 352-371-6511.

Since you do not care about anything except yourself, and I agree you have the right to burn whatever you want as long as it doesn’t make the waters of the Gulf any more polluted than they now are, you should go whole-hog and burn the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Oslo Accords principles of whatever. We’d appreciate it at Mantiq al-Tayr, since you are burning all this stuff you don’t care about, if you’d toss in anything written by Pam Geller and/or Robert Spencer that you might come across.

Oh, and it would also be good, since you don’t like the devil very much, if you’d burn a witch or two. We’re not that good at Mantiq al-Tayr at determing who is a witch, so we don’t get into that sort of thing. But why let all the people up in Salem have all the fun. I’m sure there are plenty of witches down there in Florida.

Wish I could be there in Gainesville for this great event which will go down in history as one of the great achievements of Christianity. I mean, it won’t match the Inquisition in Spain where Muslims were forced at the sword to convert to your religion and the Jews were driven out and sought refuge in Muslim lands because Christians were behaving, well they were behaving like Christians I guess, based on what you are doing.

As the time draws near, all of us here at Mantiq al-Tayr wish you and those who worship with you a happy holiday on September 11, 2010 as you burn copies of a book held sacred by more than one fifth of mankind, preserved in its riwayat lovingly and handed down generation after generation for all mankind to read, study and reflect upon.

And all the tuyuur here at Mantiq al-Tayr forgive you,  for you know not what ye do.

War Forevermore

1. In the beautiful state of West Virginia, situated on the Potomac River just a few miles from the point at which the Potomac and the Shenandoah rivers meet at Harpers Ferry, lies  Shepherdstown,  a lovely small town rich in history as so many towns in that area are. In Shepherdstown lies Elmwood Cemetery where 114 Confederate soldiers who died as a result of the battle of Antietam are buried in straight rows which set them apart from the rest of the burial ground.  Within that cemetery are the remains of Henry Kyd Douglas, a member of the staff of General Stonewall Jackson during the American Civil War, who was born in that little town in 1838, though he spent his days growing up just over the river on the Maryland side at Ferry Hill. He spent much time on both sides of the river, but when Virginia succeeded from the Union in April of 1861 (West Virginia was actually part of Virginia in those days), he had “no doubt” about what was the right thing to do. Though he reports that he once could not conceive of the Union ever being divided, when it was, Henry Kyd Douglas returned from St. Louis where he had just begun to practice law, crossed the river to Harpers Ferry, and was a private in the Second Virginia Infantry.

Douglas kept a diary during the war but did not put that material, combined with other material he had gathered or researched after the war, into book form until 1899. The book was not published until 1940 and some of Douglas’ accounts of what took place during the war have become a cause for controversy. But his book, I Rode With Stonewall, has many things in it that ring true and which are expressed with a pen in ways rarely found today.

I will be posting short excerpts from the book here and in upcoming posts, for Henry Kyd Douglas knew how to write about war. And since war is our major export here in the USA, perhaps Douglas’ words will give at least some readers a chance to pause and reflect on not only what it is like to live where a war is being waged, but as well as upon how things may be once war is exported to us, as it will be. Sooner than many realize.

On the eve of war:

From his chapter “War Makes a Beginning”.

“General Johnston was opposed to remaining at Harper’s Ferry, knowing it was really indefensible and might prove a trap, as it afterwords did to General Julius White. He took all possible care to guard the crossings of the Potomac, east and west. When General Robert Patterson began to demonstrate from Hagerstown to cross the Potomac at Williamsport, General Johnston determined to evacuate Harper’s Ferry. I was with the regiment that marched to Shepherdstown to destroy the bridge over the Potomac at that point. I was with the company that set fire to it, and when, in the glare of the burning timbers, I saw the glowing windows in my home on the hill beyond the river and  knew my father was a stockholder in the property I was helping to destroy, I realized that war had begun. I knew that I was severing all connection between me and my family and understood the sensation of one, who, sitting aloft on the limb of a tree, cuts it off between himself and the trunk, and awaits results. Not long after, when I saw the heavens lighted up over in Maryland one dark night and knew that the gorgeous bonfire was made from the material and contents of my father’s barn, I saw that I was advancing rapidly in a knowledge of the meaning of war; and my soul was filled with revengeful bitterness.”

2. Not far from Shepherdstown is the town of Martinsburg, West Virginia. Martinsburg is no doubt famous for many things, but we here at Mantiq al-Tayr just wanted to remind you that it was in August of 1991 that Danny Casolaro’s body was discovered in room 517 of the Martinsburg Sheraton Inn. He had been investigating the Inslaw case and, surprise surprise, he committed suicide as all investigative reporters do when they are on the verge of their biggest break ever.  That the case involved Israel, (did I mention that Israel was involved?), not doubt has had nothing to do with why the event may as well  have happened during the American Civil War.

Oh, I almost forgot, Israel just might have been involved in this. Can you imagine, Israel, our ally, friend, protector and just plain asshole buddy being involved in something like that?

3.  As you all know, we were compelled to drop Devvy Kidd from her perch atop the list of Mantiqiyyan babes.  We hated to do it, but when you talk like a combination of  living mummy Pam Geller, Frosty Droolbridge, and the imbecilic Dr. Terry Jones you just can’t represent the tuyuur here at Mantiq al-Tayr. Now after much discussion, we have decided upon yet another radio host to replace Ms. You’ve Got to be Kidding me with all that insane anti-Islamic Bullshit, because we really do support internet radio hosts. This host is the  major feature of Anti-War radio and has a down-to-earth, youthful, yet intellectual style, that has some of the female tuyuur here getting their feathers all into a ruffle. Yes indeed, our latest Mantiqiyyan babe, getting the number up to three again, is none other than Scott Horton whose podcasts should be required listening for all neo-con war-mongering assholes when they are eventually sent to prison.

You can see why we chose him just from looking at this clip.

It takes a good man to replace Ms. Kidd, and we think we’ve found the right one.

And I am serious when I say his podcast interviews are excellent and his interview style is quite refreshing. We do not necessarily agree with Scott on everything, but we sure as hell could use more like him.

4. No doubt you are all jumping for joy now that Israeli Vice-President for American Affairs, Barrack Obama, has brought peace to Iraq.  Now I know a bunch of whiners like Patrick Cockburn, Juan Cole, and even that newly crowned Mantiqiyyan babe, Scott Horton, are all bitching and moaning about the fact that probably over 1 million Iraqis were killed for no reason whatsoever and on the basis of lies, that over 4,400 Americans were killed (by official counting), that Iraq was turned from a secular pro-western dictatorship into a religious pro-Iranian dicktatorship, that our intervention caused a civil war within the country, that basic services such as education and electricity are harder to come by for many Iraqis than ever before, that we still have 50 thousand troops in Iraq and lots of contractors too, and that I did not select Brett Favre as the newest Mantiqiyyan babe. But the fact is that the mission really was accomplished.

That mission was in large part to create an environment of perpetual war that will last until the American people put an end to it.  But since the average American is a complete Zionist-bullshit-fed dumb ass, when I say state of perpetual war, I mean perpetual.  The occupation of Iraq will continue and no doubt much great use will be made of the all the military bases we built there and of course of the new US embassy in Baghdad which is the size of Vatican city.  Expect years and years of civil unrest in Iraq and US involvement there while at the same time our using Iraq as a staging ground for increasing US war exports throughout the region.  We have become the country of permanent war. It’s what we do. It’s all we can do, anymore.

This fits in real nice with the Israeli desire that we have long-term hostilities with Iran. Prospects for that are looking pretty good.  The really cool thing about our modern day war policies, unlike say WWII which we were supposed to win and apparently “we” did, though Joseph Kennedy had a slightly different opinion on who won that war, is that in today’s wars winning, as understood by old school folks like Stonewall Jackson or Ulysses S. Grant, has nothing to do with it. “Winning” today is to just keep on making war in any shape or form so the rich get richer while the masses are just tools – now on the battlefield – as they were in the worst of factories in the West during the Industrial Revolution – and sitting on their fat asses at home mesmerized by pieces of shit like Glenn Beck.  And since the media, owned of course by members of the Taliban, HAMAS, and Hizballah, have turned the American public into retards; most Americans don’t seem to notice that all we ever fucking do anymore is fight wars. Also, the really neat idea that Congress got – wherein it completely disregards the US Constitution – of never declaring war since 1941, helps stupid lazy Zionist-Bullshit-fed Americans not realize how many wars we have been in since 1945 and that we’ve been in a constant state of war this entire century.  No end is in sight. None. Nada.

5. Now I can hear you all thinking, “Mantiq, you are at number five and you haven’t even started to make fun of bogus peace talks in Washington between Israel and the US on the one side, and Israel on the other.” (No that was not a typo.)

6. Can I go back to the Iraq thingy for a second?  As I mentioned, Scott “Mantiqyyan Babe” Horton has one hell of a good radio show on Anti-war.com and does a number of very informative interviews. He recently did one with Robert Naiman – it’s a very good piece and I hope you will listen to it. But I do want to take issue with one thing that Mr. Naiman said, and I realize here he was trying to make it clear that Iraq has really suffered. But he fell into the sort of trap that used to happen all the time in the Vietnam war when anti-war people would talk about 40 or 50 thousand people dying there (those were the American figures at the time and often the Vietnamese ones weren’t mentioned at all, later they were.) It also reminds me of all the stupid bullshit on the Israeli Palestinian issue when people like Obama – and he is hardly alone in this – talk about how hard the Israeli occupation of Palestine is on the Isfuckingraelis. Oh my Elohim. What bullshit. But I digress.

Back to Naiman.

“This war has been a total catastrophe  for the United States, it’s been a total catastrophe for the people of Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s have been killed, there’s more than a million refugees,  there’s been, a tremendous human suffering has been unleashed on Americans and Iraqis as a result of the illegal decision by the Bush administration to invade Iraq. . .”

Bullshit. The war was not a catastrophe for the US the way it was for Iraq. There is no comparison whatsoever that can be made. We lost a few thousand people, they lost a million. No American refugees were created by the Iraqi’s who fought us. We still have electricity – well most of us anyway. For these things to be comparable, we’d have to have had about 15 million Americans die, several million refugees flooding into countries such as Mexico and Haiti, have a continued Iraqi military presence in our country of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, have a bunch of religious fanatics vying for power (okay, we do have that), and poverty and unemployment widespread to a degree that even Lynn Cheney would notice it.  We did not suffer the way they have. And we are the ones who caused their suffering and we are the ones who caused our own.

7. The US, like many countries, has its own civil religion and its own civil religious mythology. This mythology is shared by a surprising number of the descendants of the original European immigrants to this country but it is also shared by a surprising number of newer immigrants. And this mythology seems especially strong among members of what is called, for lack of a better phrase, the “patriot movement.” A pivotal feature of this mythology is that at some point or points in  our history, the US really lived up to the ideals expressed in parts of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, that there really was a time or times that we can point back to and say that this time or that time is what we need to return to. The fact is, the US, like any other country, has never come close to fulfilling its ideals – despite its formerly high reputation around the world.  Americans need not look to the past to find that ideal time to restore. No, that ideal time, if it is ever to come, is in the future.  Until we do something to turn this country around those ideals and our idealistic visions will continue to remain as a siren calling us, falsely, to a safe shore.

8.