Friday, June 6, 2014

THE VIETNAM WAR: HOW TO EXPLAIN IT 40 YEARS ON TO A GRADUATING H.S. SENIOR?

 
News Reports From
the Fall of Saigon
in 1975
Television brought obscene
images such as these dead
bodies being loaded onto vehicles
into Americans' living rooms
for the first time,
showing just a tiny taste
of what war really means.
 
American involvement in Southeast Asia (the region where Vietnam is located) began with the introduction of non-uniformed ‘advisors’ under the John F. Kennedy Administration. After President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) became President of the U.S. Under LBJ, the United States became increasingly involved in the conflict already ongoing in Vietnam.
After World War II the United States, under President Harry Truman and the dictator of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, agreed to carve up large parts of Asia and Europe. For example Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany were conceded to belong under Soviet influence while West Germany and the remainder of Western Europe were under U.S. and our allies control. In Asia we agreed that North and South Korea would be divided and that North and South Vietnam would also be carved in the same manner. North and South Vietnam are one nationality, speak one language and we signed treaties following WW II agreeing to this division. The people of Vietnam were NOT happy with this division, which divided families, friends and neighbors. A battle ensued between South Vietnamese opponents of the government supported by the U.S. and the North Vietnamese government. In the 1950s France tried to end the rebellion by force in Vietnam, but failed.
 
Images such as this one, the instant a bullet
entered a poor unarmed and tied up
 Vietnamese man's head
went viral worldwide.
:'(

In August 1964 the USS Maddox, an American Navy Destroyer ship was conducting illegal espionage on Vietnam when it attacked three North Vietnamese ships, but the United States claimed North Vietnamese guilt, and passed through Congress what is now known as the Gulf Of Tonkin (the body of water off Vietnam to the east) Resolution. Under the U.S. Constitution a formal Declaration of War is required for us to go to war, but this resolution was easier to get through Congress because a 2/3rds vote was not required, only a majority of 50% plus one in both the Senate and House. So at the very beginning of the introduction of U.S. troops in 1965 our involvement not only violated international law (the American post-WW II treaties, and laws outlawing attacks against other sovereign nations) but it also violated our own Constitution.
A major turning point in the war happened
during what we now know as
the My Lai Massacre.
American Army soldiers committed
atocities including the murder
of 500 unarmed civilians,
torturing them and gang-raping women and
children in 1968.
THIS is what war is.
WAR IS NEVER THE ANSWER,
IT IS THE PROBLEM.
 
Gradually our involvement went to as many as 500,000 uniformed troops on the ground, and Navy and Air Force bombardments of the South and the North. The people in South Vietnam had a leader we were supporting named Nguyen Van Thieu, who was corrupt and despised by his own people. In the South a movement of native South Vietnamese sought to stop the American attempt to occupy the nation, and they were called the Viet Cong. A rag tag group, they fought a different style of warfare called ‘guerilla warfare’ which was very effective in demoralizing American troops, prolonging the war and enabling opponents of the war in America to mobilize against the war. In North Vietnam the leader there’s name was Ho Chi Minh, and he was viewed as a national leader and he had the support of China and the Soviet Union with weapons (but NO troops from either Russia or China).
In case what Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
is quoted as saying here is too small, the
Nobel Peace Prize winner,
the only American non-President
to have a national holiday named after him,
(and killed himself by a
stranger with a gun)
said:
"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world:
my own government.
I CANNOT BE SILENT."
 
During the buildup of the war under LBJ, American boys, 18 and 19 years old were being forced to fight because a draft was instituted, and virtually all young men in the 1960s were drafted. Lots of young people saw the illegality and the immorality of the U.S. war on the other side of the world which did NOT threaten the United States in ANY way, and began to refuse the draft. There were many protests against the war, and many draftees refused to go.
Here is John Lennon
singing his great anti-war tune,
Give Peace A Chance
at an event he called a
"Bed-In"
with his beloved wife, Yoko
and a bunch of friends.
Meanwhile, a secret war was being conducted by the United States against two neighboring nations-Laos and Cambodia. Congress never authorized these wars, and they were expanded under LBJ’s successor as President, Richard Nixon (who took over from LBJ after Johnson was bound to lose the 1968 election because of his Vietnam atrocities). We bombed these nations obscenely, illegally and mercilessly; dropped chemical weapons, defoliants called Agent Orange, Agent Red, and so forth designed to eliminate huge parts of the jungles in those two countries imagining this would end the shipment of weapons to South Vietnam from North Vietnam. Unfortunately this led to several horrid results. First is that huge numbers of American soldiers got sick and/or have died from these chemicals, and still suffer to this day (as do Laotians, Cambodians and Vietnamese). So it backfired. Second, our attack on Cambodia actually led to the takeover of that country by a horrible dictator named Pol Pot who killed nearly half of his own people (well over 1 million people), and is the cause for the famous movie “The Killing Fields.”
Opposition to the war, the lies and deceit of the American government became so intense, and the casualty tolls so high (over 58,000 uniformed Americans died in the war and hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asians died) that it almost seemed at times here in our country that we were on the verge of our own civil war against the war. Fortunately most opponents of the war such as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, and many others advocated a peaceful approach to protesting. Nixon resigned under disgrace in 1974 for trying to steal the 1972 election, and after 10 long years, the capitol of South Vietnam, then known as Saigon and renamed by the victors as Ho Chi Minh City, fell and Americans as well as Vietnamese workers in the U.S. Embassy had to be evacuated from the roof by helicopter in what are harrowing videos. At that time Vice President Gerald Ford had just taken over (in summer of 1974, Saigon fell a year later) from the disgraced American President Nixon.
One-time Beatle founder
John Lennon
and peace activist
was also killed
by a gun.
:'(
He (and countless others) also helped to put
an end to this unjust war, the very
first war the USA lost outright.
Followed rapidly by losses
in our illegal wars in Laos
and Cambodia,
kept a secret even from
the American people
as long as they could
get away with it.
I grew up and graduated High School the summer before the war ended in 1975. My whole time growing up I had to decide what I would do if I were drafted. My other three brothers were all drafted. One went to Vietnam, the other two did not. I would have protested, I opposed this unjust war, and continue to oppose war whenever and wherever it can be avoided. Which I believe is almost always, especially since the United States is separated from any serious potential enemy by thousands of miles--both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Thank you so much Anna, for giving me this chance to reflect on this sad and tragic chapter in American history. Peace...
 
John Lennon's widow,
Yoko Ono-Lennon
has kept John's dream of peace
alive by offering
an annual award
named after John,
called the
Lennon Peace Prize.
Check out the website:
 

Sunday, May 4, 2014

MISSILE MATTERS: JOHN LENNON DAY (Dec 8th) 2010/PEARL HARBOR DAY 2010--HISTORY OF THE WORLD 1941-MAY 4TH 2014

From time to time I like to update and re-release articles that have received wide readership or which I personally like. This one qualifies on both levels--I encourage everybody who reads anything on this site to read this particular article more than any other on the website. Peace pleeeeze...

            John Winston Ono Lennon and his writing partner Sir James Paul McCartney



Sir Elton sings about his pal, Johnny Lennon's
EMPTY GARDEN
Yup, Elton. I agree my friend,
John sure was a gardener who cared a lot.
I know few folks who planted more effective seeds
of peace and love. <3 b="b">

This anti-war anti--US Offense Department Lennon article attracted more readers than most in Unabashed history.  So here it is, just like decent soda pop, coming back atya one more time:


My childhood hero and role model John Winston Ono Lennon(born October 9th 1940) was killed 30 long years ago today with a handgun, and I'm still angry and disappointed that peacenik John's "Empty Garden"[a tribute song written by fellow British subject Elton John] is still empty. Poor Yoko. http://www.yoko-ono.com/ is where to go to read about her tribute to Johnny--the "Lennon Peace Prize."
                  Dr. Winston O'Boogie(self-proclaimed on his "Rock 'n Roll" solo album)
Mr. Lennon decided to stop being a Beatle and settle down to be a great father and house-husband for Yoko and his darling son Sean. He wrote a great song off the Double Fantasy album that was one of his posthumous hits entitled "Beautiful Boy" about Sean. At one point in their lives both Sean and John looked sorta like this beautiful boy I Imagine:
 

After founding the greatest Rock and Roll band of all time[The Beatles] and being the greatest songwriter and establishing the songwriting duo Lennon/McCartney, founding a new record label--Apple Records--helping to end war, create gender equality, and all that good stuff, John Lennon rearranged his life priorities to spend a decade or so at home to raise his kid and learned to love the children of the world even more personally--such as the beautiful children of the world depicted in this photo from Michael Jackson's project "We Are The World" at one point co-opted by the Coca-Cola Bottling Co.


Mr. Lennon despised missiles such as this vintage product taken from the McDonnell-Douglas website:


But before we get TOO serious about
missiles,
rape,
murder,
genocide,
slaughter,
dismemberment,
baby bombing 
and worse,
here is
the too young 
and far too dead
George Harrison's take
on his pal's
murder,
saying essentially that 
John Lennon
WAS the 
leader of the band by writing 
the lyric 
that
"You were the one
we looked up to
all those years ago."
Enjoy please:



*************
The United States has had 3 Generals become President so far as near as I can remember:
They used to tell me in history class as a kid that everyone wanted
to make super-popular General George Washington not only
President but King, and the humble Washington refused.
They also told us that he was so honest that he chopped down a cherry
tree as a kid, and didn't lie about it to his mom. "Sure Mom, I whacked
that tree" he allegedly said, but in class they were careful to
tell us that this was a myth, but subliminally
I suppose my history teachers tried to implant
George's sincerity, altruism and honesty
by telling us that there was this myth.
The Constitution drafted by General George, a slave-owner himself,
only allowed white-guy property owners(I'm an unabashed
white guy myself, not much of a property owner, though)
didn't let women vote and enslaved bunches of folks
until Prez Honest Abe came along. I imagine most women
and black folks, among others, weren't too keen on
the idea of making King George[Washington] the First
into the replacement King for King George
the Second we had just fought the
Revolutionary War over with
our allies, the French,
to get rid of British colonialism.
We've had 3 Generals become Prez in this nation so far,
as near as I can recollect. General George was the first.
General Grant's terms in office are described by wikipedia.org as such:
"There were 11 scandals directly associated with Grant's two terms as President." Quite a legacy presidency that particular Republican General's wuz, huh?
Then, of course there was General/Prez Ike.  His major accomplishment as
General Republican Prez was to warn us about
the "Military Industrial Complex" he played such key roles in
formulating himself as an allied commander during the "big one" WWII [it might be more appropriate to call his war Nuclear War I] , and as a pol and Prexy. 

Fortunately, despite problems with the uniformed brass throughout
our history, and the nerve of 3 of 'em to aggrandize themselves
by running for and winning the Presidency, we haven't had a bloody
coup de-tat yet.

2 recent angry Generals who have given civilian control
of the military fits are the following:



Barhopping-around-Europe when an ash cloud grounds air traffic General
Stanley "Rolling Stoner-I'll just resign in disgrace as a 4 star guy and keep
my mouth shut" McChrystal and



General David "Curveball" Petraeus whose incompetence has us still
in Iraq and Afghanistan almost a decade later.

************* 
Now click on this link please and listen to John and Yoko sing
"Give Peace A Chance"
Which They Recorded During Their Bed-In


Now a brief history of the U.S. Presidency in my lifetime since
Prez General Ike.

JFK(seen with great Atty General and bro Bobby, who was also
murdered with a gun) was assassinated by a sniper at Dealy Plaza in Dallas
11/22/63.



JFK was replaced by TX oil guy LBJ who escalated the Vietnam "undeclared by
Congress" war and wound up so unpopular that he would have
lost the New Hampshire primary and didn't run for
a second full term.



So Bobby got shot, and Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon was found
out to actually be a crook who stole his 1972 re-election landslide
victory(see Bob Woodward's "All the President's Men" or "The White House Transcripts"--expletive deleted toya boys and girls--for not-much-fun winter
reading) and resigned in disgrace, after his hand-picked
VP, Spiro resigned in disgrace for a greedy payola scandal as
MD governor.

After JFK was killed and LBJ botched some things, the constitution had
been amended in case another Prez left office in a hurry
and we needed another emergency VP. So when Nixon quit we got Jerry "I didn't make a deal to become president but pardoned Nixon" Ford, who never
received a vote for anything outside of his Grand Rapids, Michigan
congressional district as Pres now. Above, the Ford of the Jerry variety is seen with Rumsfeld during his first failed attempt as Defense Secretary on the left--the guy on the right is just another irrelevant guy I won't bother naming.
Jerry botched things pretty badly, following Nixon losing N. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, S. Vietnam and bringing us an economy
that required wage and price freezes and controls that when he ran for election
the first time as the only anointed incumbent President he was a shoe-in to lose.

So along comes from out of nowhere in a unique mostly all-primary
election for the first time nomination process Gov. Jimmy "Who" Carter
who almost blew his chances of winning by
talking about being a Christian who is so good that
he only "lusts in his heart" on the pages of a soft core porn product
called Playboy(Hef actually IS finally going to produce that braille edition
us guys have been joking about for decades). One more Unabashed note of interest about Playboy magazine. When I was a youngster and sneaking peaks at their airbrushed centerfolds, on the back of the pinup centerfold was a monthly feature entitled something similar to Unabashed Jokes (which featured juvenile sexist jokes). THAT is where I learned the word and went to the dictionary to find out what unabashed meant. Dictionary.com defines it as folows: adjective
not ashamed, disconcerted, or apologetic; boldly certain of one's position. On the title page is my mission statement for this website using that principle in our first mission: 1) Advance the principle that Pacifism, Liberalism, Environmentalism + membership in the Democratic Party are not sins nor of which one need be ashamed.  Pretty impressive cover shot on that particular Hefner hard-copy before hard-copy was a vocabulary phenom; huh guys and gals; shhh! I won't tell if you don't scroll down for a few minutes-- ;)

Jimmy Who botched things badly enough that he lost
to "Bedtime for Bonzo" B acting co-star[the other star
was a Chimpanzee] Ronald Ray-Gun. The Chimp wouldn't
have caused the "Star Wars" inspired
arms race Ray-Gun did.

George H. W. doesn't get a pic because I forgot. George H.W. botched things badly so a Democrat was elected again. So now we had the first
impeached Prez. Bill "It depends on what the definition of is is" and "I never
had sex with that woman" Clinton.



Even though the world was at peace, no one had run 767s into
high rises, the economy was humming, etc. Bubba's sexual
proclivities with young interns caused Dubya's close 2000 election
theft by brother Jeb in Florida-the "hanging chad" governor/brother.
Remember that dubya lost the election, but became
president anyway? Here dubya is seen being educated by his dreamy fantasy trusted friend, Professor and former KGB head Vladimir Putin--who has since launched his own personal wars of aggression against the once-again sovereign(following Soviet absorption for decades as the result of the Churchill/Stalin/Truman carve-up the-world-and-divvy-up-the-map post-nuclear war victory parties) nations of the Caucuses region south of Russia(Georgia
and Kyrgistan, in particular).

Dubya wound up being so bad after his illegal theft of the election,
The Great Recession, 9/11, Katrina, "Freedom Fries,"
waterboarding, torture, illegal wiretaps, two endless wars, etc., etc. that
the American voter went Democrat again and you'd have to
say that the dominance of the uniformed brass
has continued under President Barack Obama. 
It is the one aspect of his Presidency 
of which I have been particularly disappointed and especially critical.
Our departure from the Iraq invasion and occupatiion was clumsy and the brass
wanted to stay but the new government in Iraq
wanted us out, otherwise we would have been there even longer.
We are still in the absurdly longest war
in US history. We must leave Afghanistan now.
We have attacked by various means 
in countries without public knowledge
or the approvalof sovereign nations, in violation
of US and International law.
Drone strikes are being used and
civilians are dying in them.
Drone strikes must end.

And we must at some point soon declare an end to the undeclared
"War on Terror"
which is justifying our violent aggression ad infinitum.
PLEASE Mr. President, you've accomplished so much.
The first black president to win not one.
but TWO elections in the most racist
society outside of South Africa.
Your perseverance in
passing the
Affordable Care Act
was a 
"Big fucking deal"
to quote Vice President Biden.
Ending DADT in the uniformed military
was awesome.
Passing the TARP ('stimulus bill'' legislation
right out of the starting gate your first term was
simply great!
But do NOT let the uniformed brass,
the entrenched civilian elite
in the Pentagon, or
the idiotic intelligence community
hoodwink you any longer.
Violence does NOT beget peace, sir, if
you haven't learned that by now.
It only causes more slaughter, rape, and destruction
Assaults of any sort on sovereign 
nations without permission violates
international law and makes you a criminal,
and without the benefit of a Congressional
Declaration of War
violates the Constitution
so beloved by those in the
District of Columbia.
Please try Mr. Lennon's approach
and GIVE PEACE A CHANCE, SIR.

Now here for your listening pleasure
is Sir Paul McCartney's take on
Johnny Lennon's untimely demise, a particularly
selfish portrait of how he felt about John's tragic
handgun assassination.
Most of the album, if you listen carefully,
including his title track
"Tug of War" 
as well as his more familiar
"Here Today" 
are all about McCartney, not about Lennon.
Intriguing.

*************


Harry S [his whole middle name-no period, dot, nothing--I always
have wondered about that] dropped "Fat Man" - the "affectionate" name given
the nuke bomb dropped on Nagasaki on 8/9/45 because the Japanese Emperor refused to give it up after we nuked Hiroshima a couple days earlier. Over 100,000 civilians died instantly on 8/9 because of Truman.
The "affectionate" name given by the uniformed conspirators
for the USA for the Hiroshima nuke dropped on Hiroshima was "Little Boy" and killed 6 figures of civilians as well. Whew. Harry S and his uniformed brass were some pretty busy 'missile/phallic complexed' guys in the day, huh?

Take a quick gander pleeze at this map of North America. What do you see to the East and to the West of the United States of America mainland.  IC two oceans. To our west is the Pacific, and to the East is the Atlantic.
In military affairs circles everyone knows that those oceans
are our main defense. Anyone trying to occupy us has
to get here by boat or plane, except Canada or Mexico.
Simple.
So is military strategy. They just try to complicate it
those Uniforms, DOD chiefs and PhD's like Kissinger and Brzezinski and Condoleeeeeza (not exactly a San Francisco treat--that bowl of Rice) Rice. Only the USA, Russia and China have InterCONTINENTal nukes deployed(we and Russia still have land based missile ICBMs, Submarine worldwide-commuter missiles, AND aging rust-bucket B-52s and migs that can wing it to any world capital and nuke 'em 2 within minutes forya)
If Russia(or the old USSR) wants to get us, they have to send boats and
planes[or missiles--what fun] to get their conventional or nuclear weapons to us. If they want to get Europe or Asia, they can walk to those wars. Same with China. They could walk, drive or hop a train or trolley to any war with any major world power except the USA.  And WE have 2 oceans between us and any real threat to takeover militarily by anyone at all. WE have the best interCONTINENTal nukes on earth and WE don't even NEED them for DEFENSE at all, only for intimidation and offensive(attack) purposes. And we are the only nation--with an unstable Presidency like we have--OMG--lets get this START Treaty passed somehow someway, pleeeeze liberals--to have started a nuclear war-and won one.

PhD genius Henry A.(Professor Kissinger obviously being lectured--and lending global legitimacy to--by the self-proclaimed "Great Leader And Teacher" himself, atheist and Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung, with Premier Chou En-Lai looking on as a witness) snuck off to China in the 70s to talk to Mao. Now Mao has a carbon footprint to end all carbon footprints, his godless communist successors own our national debt via our own Treasury bills, and they own all of our manufacturing jobs, now. Henry decided to be Defense Sec AND State Sec in all but name and-- using conventional weapons--lost S. Vietnam(we were defending our Dictator-of-Choice Nguyen Van Thieu against Ho Chi Minh in the North), N. Vietnam AND his illegal secret wars in Laos AND Cambodia[along the way stupidly and accidentally providing the Khmer people and the world with dictator Pol "Killing Fields" Pot]. Kissinger. What an idiot. A PhD can be a dangerous thing. Ivy league credentials can be a problem for Republicans. Our earlier non-Congressionally declared war under Republican Ike in the 50s was Korea. We stalemated there, after ramming a Security Council resolution through when the Soviets stormed out during the debate and we pushed thru a vote when they were out of the room and couldn't issue their veto. So we stalemated that one with the full resources of the US DOD AND the United Nations. OMG. American Presidential leadership of the world. Nuclear war. The first one already happened and WE DID IT!!! After Nam, Carter's people botched rescuing the 52 hostages in Tehran(where our preferred dictator--the Shah of Iran-Reza Pahlavi--had to wing it out quick to asylum with oodles of cash in order to avoid being strung up by the toes and caused the Islamic revolution that wound up distorting the Koran and resulting in the Sunni Bin Laden and his Jihaddist nonsense and ultimately his "lucky day with 19 plastic box cutters" and four 767s on 9/11/01). And since 9/11 our Trillion dollar a year conventional forces haven't even come close to winning in 10 years against people who don't even have an armed boat or plane-no navy, air force, marines, nothing. Just ragtag bands with old rifles, shotguns, etc.

Former Defense Secretary(two-time failure) Rumsfeld!



Former Defense Secretary/Haliberton CEO/VP Cheney!


Current Defense Secretary Gates! 
These three are the nuts who have lost totally unnecessary illegal and undeclared wars for years since 9/11, with the biggest defense budgets in world history. All the kings horses and all the kings men have been granted them and they still lost! Trillions, thousands dead, millions wounded, homeless and scarred for life. And we're still in trouble.
WE HAVE 2 OCEANS BETWEEN US AND THE REST OF THE WORLD! WE DON'T REQUIRE MUCH TO DEFEND THE UNITED STATES FROM ANY SERIOUS THREAT TO OUR SURVIVAL! ALL WE NEED IS A BIGGER COAST GUARD AND A SMALLER EVERYTHING ELSE MILITARILY, THAT'S IT!!! THE ONLY REASON OTHER COUNTRIES WANT NUKES IS BECAUSE WE UNNECESSARILY ARE POINTING THEM AT ALL THEIR MAJOR CITIES. OUR NUKES MAKE AHMADENIJAD STRONGER AND MORE POPULAR IN TEHRAN AND KEEP THE BUM IN OFFICE. SAME WITH THE FOOL WHO CALLS HIMSELF 'DEAR LEADER' IN PYONGYANG! IT'S PRECISELY WHAT IS MOTIVATING ILLITERATE VULNERABLE PIMPLY TEENS TO SIGN UP FOR SCUMBAG-MOTIVED BIN LADEN'S JIHADDIST IDIOCY!!! GATES HAS TO GO, THE HOLDOVER FROM THE BUSH CIRCUS, AND DEFENSE SPENDING MUST BE SLASHED, AND WE NEED TO RATIFY START AND ELIMINATE OUR OWN NUKE ARSENAL. THEN OUR NATIONAL SECURITY AND THAT OF THE WORLD WILL FINALLY BE OK!

Truman was a mis-guided(misguided by his uniforms in DOD) not-so-bright badly informed VP--Roosevelt acknowledged he didn't realize how dumb he was and that he should have kept Harry updated with CIA type briefings and what-not--along the Ford lines--who flummoxed into the presidency uninformed and unexpectedly. He dropped those nukes and killed way more civilians than anyone could have legitimately justified, even if you think having Hirohito's people come to the Utah salt flats and watching a test explosion to prove the Manhattan Project had succeeded wouldn't have ultimately convinced them with proper diplomacy to even give Hirohito up[Harry in his 'unconditional' surrender AFTER slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocents allowed Hirohito to remain as emperor and die in office of old age as emperor for umpteen years--your tax dollars at work forya].

That thing you see above is a McDonnell Douglas shot of a "Tomahawk" Cruise Missile.  We don't even need the ballistic missiles anymore, what we can do with cruise missiles is scary. The illegal Drone strikes in Pakistan are basically done by  cruise missiles the uniforms are giving an affectionate pet-name-- calling them Drones, planes piloted from a couch somewhere in the USA by a uniform with a remote; kinda like you switching from Olbermann to the AC/DC 360 Circus in your living room. OMG!!!



That sure is a pretty visual above, no?  That's horrible. I think there really is something sexually perverted about all this nonsense.  The military establishments world wide, but especially here in the USA are still primarily males. Males in western civilization have dominated women and children. The constitution was written by white slave-owning "founding-fathers" who suppressed women and minorities and are still attempting to do so. Our Emancipation Proclamation was only a century and a half ago. Slavery was legal under that silly Constitution for nearly 100 years.  And for nearly 150 years the Constitution prevented half of all Americans, women, from even having the right to vote! What a lousy document it was!  Getting better at a snail's pace, from what I can see. I've studied military affairs for decades now. I AM an expert. Undergrad degrees in Economics, Pol Sci, International Relations and Psychology. Graduate work and Teacher for the Pol Sci dept at Boston University where they paid me as a Teaching Fellow to pursue my PhD in Arms Control and Disarmament.  These uniforms and social science PhD's can complicate a wet dream, I'm sorry for the analogy, but I'm angry today[upset about John Lennon, Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards' death, the lack of numbers in Congress now, etc. etc.].  Military strategy is simple.  We have two oceans protecting us. The only really major wars we've fought in our country have been the Revolutionary war[we won that one] and our own internal squabble--the Civil War. Thats it. No one can "get" us. Anything else is paranoia. It's us pointing nukes at the rest of the world that is the problem militarily for us and for the world. If we disarm nuclearly, slash the defense dept. budget to a fraction, spend a bit more on "Coast" Guard, invest the savings in infrastructure and jobs....THEN EVERYONE'S A WINNER - ESPECIALLY UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.  LEFTISTS, LIBERALS, DEMOCRATS UNITE, PLEEEEEEZE!!! THIS AND WE MATTER AND IT'S OUR JOB AS WORLD CITIZENS TO CAUSE OUR OWN GOVERNMENT'S DISARMAMENT!  I PRAY FOR PEACE AND HONOR
ALL THOSE WHO WORK FOR PEACE.
I LOVE ALL OF YOU.


********
STOP THE KILLING, STOP IT NOW.
DO IT, DO IT, DO IT NOW! 
We continue to unabashedly support
this amazing President and continue
to reserve the right to offer
suggestions as he 
welcomes.
Peace Pleeeze,
and Happy 2013 
2 1 and all.

Originally Published On December 8, 2010


Please check out John Lennon's widow's work to memorialize her husband
including the Lennon Peace Prize: