Comments for Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock: Countdown to Midnight in Persia at http://www.chris-floyd.com , comment 1 to 20 out of 20 comments http://www.chris-floyd.com Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:52:06 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-5098 And another thing to realize is that the WH has shown that it does not consider a major insurgency, even to the point of civil war, to be a problem. Like Hitler in Germany, they don't care that the people don't want this war. And if 30 - 40% acceptance is all they need, they already have it. Bush has a solid 30 % minimum on his side, no matter what he does. He could sodomize Blair on national tv and still count on his 30%. If Iran can hold out, then I think things REALLY get complicated, because I think alliances with Central and East Asian powers come into play - Russia, Uzbeckistan, China. I doubt that happens though, as it appears that the US and Israel plan to pour unprecedented firepower into Iran. - epppie Sat, 29 Sep 2007 09:32:58 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4845 "Bob Macvie: The sadest thing is the British in all of this: they egged the Americans on to do it with their 'pieces in flux, re-order the world' speech from Blair" Sorry Bob that's not true. That speech was in 2001, post Sep 11, and adressed Afghanistan and the issue of bin Laden and also the Palestinian issue. The idea of the invasion of Iraq by Bush and friends was done all by themselves. - fred bloggs Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:53:01 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4801 Nobody mentioned “PEAK OIL” As of this year, world oil demand surpasses world oil production and this equation will get worse in the next decade[s]. This means that oil prices will keep rising and our oil-driven “exponential growth” economy will collapse. Everything in our economy is oil/energy based... think of food & agriculture, transportation, cars & freeways, electricity, the military machine [the greatest consumer of oil], heating/cooling, computers & information processing, chemicals & pharmaceuticals, etc... With higher oil prices and lower oil production, we'll have to get by with less in all these categories and the economy will be affected negatively... The world population follows the same curve as oil production i.e. went from 2B to 6B in the last century and as oil production declines, the population will follow... “PEAK OIL” has already happened and is irreversible... The decline in oil production means the decline in our way of life even if Bush takes control of all the oil in the world... Bush and the neo-cons want to control as much of the oil in the world as they can because they're afraid of the increasing competition from China & India and they want to hoard as much wealth as possible before the collapse of the world [western] economy... If you look at a world map, you will see that the US military is positioned everywhere in the world where there is oil and/or drugs [coca & opium]. Bush has [illegally] invaded Iraq, is planning to [illegally] invade Iran shortly and has encircled Russia & China with bases to eventually attack Russia. In all cases the motive is oil. But somebody somewhere is bound to retaliate [sooner than later I hope] and then we would have WW3 or the rapture. I'm NOT in any justifying what Bush & the neo-cons are doing, as a matter of fact I think it is utterly criminal. I'm just giving you a different POV... - Jack99 Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:06:41 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4747 Thought provoking post and comments. I have said this before(at other places) but I will say it again. There will be a massacre in Iraq, of all the troops, US and coalition (600 Aussies I think)after Iran is attacked. They really don't care do they(being Bush/Cheney). Do you think GWB will be coming to Aus next week for APEC, or will he be too busy? - Debbie(aussie) Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:18:43 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4746 Only I'd say that they're not angry at "rag-heads." They're angry at something else. In the case of Dubya Bush it would be his tyrannical mother and, due to Dubya's repeated failures, the disappointment of his father, combined with the knowledge of the repeated failures. Even when one is in a position of power, such as where Dubya now finds himself, he is not free of memory. This is why Dubya is a drunk, a cokehead, a loser. He is haunted. So when he finally issues an order to do something military, he is attacking his ghosts. Not al Qaeda, not bin Laden, not a bunch of random Middle Easterners, not a bunch of "liberals". Nope. He's attacking those ghosts. And you have to wonder what Dick Cheney was required to do on that dirt-eating ranch where he grew up in Wyoming. Maybe do some "favors" for his father's friends, who were called "Uncle ____", or something like that. Sinister acts such as theirs do not arise from whole clean cloth. - liquified viscera Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:35:30 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4745 My jaw was very tight this morning. I was rather more matter-of-fact with my customer's this morning. No easy smiles this morning. And I was definitely on alert for any Likudnik assholes this morning. I deal with them all the time... I know exactly how anti-Semitic that sounds. You will just have to trust that I am not a racist. But you perhaps have no idea of the virulent triumphalism of this class of person. I deal with them all the time. They are the worst scum: far worse than the redneck American element. They know exactly what they are doing, and they think it is all quite amusing. They view a garage attendant, which is all that I am, as the most tempting of targets. As soon as I speak, they recognize that I am educated enough to understand their insults. And then the insults begin. Believe it. And I spoke rather too earnestly with the average couple at the desk, this morning. Gasoline prices? Utterly artificial. That is a consensus opinion and, no, it is not a substitute for discussing the weather. There is a deep anger amongst the average-income populace. They know they have been manipulated. The current war is unpopular in the extreme. The president is viewed as a spoiled brat, wanna-be dictator. The working class folks I spend my day around are not up on politics. And almost all of them are immigrants. Mostly, they are here on tourist Visas and working on an independent contractor basis. They will never deliver the taxes they are scheduled to pay. But, even those working legally have never stopped to consider where their taxes will go and what they empower by enthusiastically grappling for the 'dream'. But you know what they do tell me? They say that this country is hollow. That there is no human space here. You see them come down on one side of it or the other: some like the cheap techno gadgets; and the idea of bullying and exploiting other immigrants, in their turn, in order to make their way. But many, many others just shake their heads and buy a ticket back to Lima, or Caracas, or Sao Paulo and wash their hands of it all... I deal with well-dressed, blow-dried, Colorado and Ohio white folk - born-again freakazoids, here to do business of some sort with the elements in the county that run the KKK mega churches. Sometimes, seeing that I am white and male and presentable, they mistake me for their own, and make coded statements to me that sound like subtle cheers urging solidarity for race war... "I kid you not," as my old Mom used to say. What is it you are trying to tell us, Scott? you ask. Just this: This is not a polity. This is not a nation. This is nothing but an Abomination. This is a huge labour camp of fractured interests presided over by a ravenous oligarchical class using every trick in the book to divide and conquer it's hapless, greedy, corrupt victim-subjects. And there is NO recourse, NO judge, NO people and NO power other than that of this hellish bourgeois- elite run-amok that orders our every day, and week, and lunar month. Now they have it in mind to destroy, without provocation, another people. And, by god, they have the power to do it. In a matter of hours, perhaps. Some of their minions are subconsciously salivating at the prospect - yes, revenge for the resistance of all those damned rag heads who decided to stand up and fight like patriots against the invader in Iraq. I have a terrible feeling that we, here, paying homage to the truth, are also fascinated - we know what is happening and we are horny: to see the spectacle of Imperial punishment played out - YES! in our own time! Can you believe it, brother?! Goodness, they are wicked, huh? My friends, we are on the brink of a disaster such as the Anglo-American world has never seen. Hitler? Ho, Ho, Ho. Hitler will be viewed as a flea-bite of a threat - against our 800 years of the rule of law and of parliamentary government - after the consequences of this supreme error play out. Make no mistake. Iran is a nation, real. And an overt ACT of war against Iran will engender - yes, a WAR. God help us... He will not be upon our side; I can tell you that. Love, Scott - scott douglas Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:30:58 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4744 Where is the evidence that impeachment would be pursued seriously by anyone in the US Congress? Why would they need or want to wait for the invasion of Iran? Are you aware that as a practical matter, we already invaded Iran, quite a long time ago? And that what Mr Bush is trying to get is public support for the more overt war, the flat-out murder part, the twin to the current mass-murder in Iraq? - liquified viscera Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:26:10 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4743 Thanks for the "amen", lv. And for all your other excellent comments and insights. - 1MaNLan Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:14:54 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4742 I agree that the situation is dire, and all the signs are there for a reprise of September, 2002, with a concentrated White House propaganda offensive to demonize Iran once Congress reconvenes. As Andy Card so famously put it, you don't launch the advertising campaign for the new product line in summer, you wait until fall. There will be hell to pay, allright, but personally I think it's premature for the Blackwater boys to start warming up the buses to shuttle all the demonstrators off to the Halliburton holding pens. Lay in those tools and groceries, but store them alongside your old duct tape and Ciprol tablets left over from the Tom Ridge era. What's different is that not even this Congress is crazy enough to get stampeded a second time by the same old bullshit. If Little George pulls the trigger on Iran, impeachment will move right to the center of the table. Bill from Saginaw - Bill from Saginaw Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:40:30 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4739 I saw this coming. I see it as necessary -- given what and who we are dealing with -- things must get worse before they get better. I've been laying in tools and groceries for almost two years, now. I hope you've been doing the same. - Jimmy Montague Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:25:12 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4734 Amen to the whole post -- the bleak part and the ending positively part. Most Americans are afraid to question the reality of their debt-financed pseudo-success, their own piece of the "American Dream." They don't get to that point of saying, [i]Hey, I have a professional lifestyle, I live in a McMansion, I drive a Porsche Cayenne, my wife has had 35k worth of plastic surgery in order to keep me from divorcing her marrying a younger woman, I've got a younger woman on the side anyway, I belong to the country club, my kids go to private pre-school. Why would I give that up?[/i] But they don't realize they'e not going to be wilfully giving it up. It's going to be taken from them. Like everything else of any type of value -- monetary, material, social/cultural status -- the pirates will take it, drunk on their power. Americans are fools. - liquified viscera Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:08:20 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4733 Significant parts of our society are opposed to further war--perhaps that will make no difference. If it doesn't then that spells a major shift in political power from the corporate globalists of Wall Street and the City of London to the fascists. The former group was for the Iraq War but against an a war with Iran. It should be interesting to see. - Chris Stahnke Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:25:54 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4732 It does seem that the snowball has gotten too big and is moving down hill far too forcefully for anything to stop it, now. I think that we can count on a lot of nations, like a lot of citizens, simply ignoring, actively supporting or otherwise casually absolving themselves from responsibility for the coming nightmare....and the spin-off nightmares that it will certainly lead to. It is not hard to foresee, a few years down the line, an American populace so "groundless", so cowed, fragmented and isolated (You know, like now, but a few years deeper into the void), that even scattered resistance to a draft will not materialize as a major threat to the unitary will. I suspect that even economic shocks will not breathe life back into Democracy (which, when the real history is examined, never lived up to its ideals anway). Quiet desperation is already the name of the game for vast numbers that have lost jobs, houses and and whole communities (New Orleans). What makes anyone think that some galvanizing event like a draft will suddenly turn the masses into heroes? In the end, Americans (and Brits) will be told that they are happy, that they love our system (whatever, in reality, it may devolve to), and are willing to sacrifice all that is dear in order to protect all that is dear. Only the informed and caring people that come to sites like this for some validation, truth and sanity will ever see the beast clearly....which is why sites like this (although the last several years have revealed that they aren't much of a serious threat) will not be allowed to flourish much longer. Information Dominance. Wouldn't be prudent. Just business. I want to end with something positive cuz these are bleak times....May the informed and caring people keep talking to anyone that listens to the degree that anyone listens and for as long as possible. At least you will be proud of yourselves and your humanity. And that means something. And, who knows, you may create enough drops in the ocean to eventually turn the tide. Best of luck to us all. - 1MaNLan Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:34:17 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4731 Dear Sir: I have been following this topic for quite some time. I do not know for sure what will happen, my inclination is to believe that an attack will happen, however I do not know it all of this including this article is not just more pr. Coincidentally, Fred Thompson (member of AEI) will announce in about 1 hour. To show the history of our involvement I offer this web link, if you have the persistence to read all 12 pages, you will see that the government or the "powers that be" intended to go into Iraq for a very long time. http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq All I can seem to conclude is that Christ said "I tell you resist not evil" and we do not seem to be following his commands. Of course Mr. Bush doesn't seem to even attend church so what can we expect ? http://atheism.about.com/b/a/119939.htm I think our nation has gone so far down the road of EMPIRE that there is probably no turning back. Sincerely, helpfuled (PLEASE CONTINUE ON PRAYING) - helpfuled Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:34:52 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4729 The assessment that they will avoid nukes is a relief. I thought that after 62 years it might be time to show the filthy wogs that the Great Leader will not flinch in using all means to defend Liberty. So far as reaction from the public goes, I think this would be a watershed event, the division between those trying to maintain a civil society and those driven by a standard of barbarism will be stark, and it may be time for the State to start rounding up the usual suspects in order to protect decent Americans from agents of the "enemy". - Donald L. Smith Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:52:39 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4727 [i]The majority of Americans will grudgingly accept the war -- if they do not openly support it -- as long as it does not directly and immediately affect them.[/i] That's why I keep pushing my employers, who are active in anti-war activities) to stay on the message that the war is costing us (working America, middle class) at home economically. It's not hard to prove but to be effective, the campaign would require consistent work from a team of high-profile well-financed organizations willing to stay on a simple message. - eRobin Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:21:43 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4726 with big oil has nothing. I suspect they scored some nukes and will use them. Surprise, surprise George......... - kim Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:21:02 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4725 This post is terrifying. It should be widely published and read, but probably won't be (of course). Is there [i]nothing[/i] we can do to stop this horrifying and deeply immoral act? - apocalypta Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:44:45 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4723 Yesterday I was waiting at the cashier's counter to pick up my car after servicing, and a white male, 60ish, wearing a civilian shirt w/ US Army embroidered on it came in. I asked if he was active duty or retired. Retired, he said. "My dad's retired - he was in World War II and Korea." "I was in Korea after the fighting, and Vietnam twice." "You know all about what it's like, then." "Been there, done that." "Too bad we didn't learn to STOP doing that." He said nothing in reply, but just looked grim. Then the clerk (who'd heard this) came up to me, and I paid for my car and left. - mistah charley, ph.d. Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:18:33 +0100 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1270/135/#comment-4722 The sadest thing is the British in all of this: they egged the Americans on to do it with their 'pieces in flux, re-order the world' speech from Blair. The British in fact have been the most dishonest player in this whole affair: privately bloodthirsty and seeding the ideological underpinnings for this, while publicly being the usual moaning minies. - Bob Macvie Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:16:41 +0100