Hell Entrance Freezes Over in Omaha

[davidswanson]

On Friday outside the gates of Stratcom, the strategic command center outside of Omaha, Nebraska, that controls U.S. nuclear weapons and military space technology and from which the next war of aggression will be run, a group of activists gathered from all over the world. A number of people gave speeches in the freezing bone-chilling wind and snow. This was mine:

Have you ever watched a sports team on TV win a game and then shouted "We won!" as if you had anything to do with it? Twenty percent of Americans sitting home in comfort still look at the ever worsening disaster in Iraq and exclaim "We're winning!" as if they are the ones losing limbs and having their brains scrambled by IEDs.

But what those 20 percent of Americans mean (at least some of them) is not that we're pointlessly slaughtering innocent people in order to enrich Bush and Cheney cronies. They have no particular interest in that and don't believe it's going on. They believe that the "we" embodied in the US military is defending us against an attack of some sort.

If an Iranian asked one of these Americans not to attack Iran for oil and power, the American would deny that America ever does such things. Because he or she would never do such a thing, and America is "we." I think a lot of people around the world would be shocked by the good intentions of the people who live just outside of and even work inside of Stratcom. And I imagine many Nebraskans would be shocked by the fear, terror, and hatred through which so many people view the United States.

When Iran created a democracy over 50 years ago, our CIA overthrew it and installed a dictator. Iranians have feared such actions from the US government ever since. Now our government has labeled Iran evil and criminal, and invaded and occupied the nation to its east and the nation to its west. If I lived in Iran I would be worried.

The people of Iran and the government of Iran had no more to do with the crimes of September 11, 2001, than Iraq did. And Iran, like any other nation on earth, cannot possibly be a threat to the global and extraterrestrial killing machine controlled from Stratcom. There might be a handful of Iranians who would like to commit an act of terrorism, just as there are no doubt a handful of Nebraskans. But bombing, occupying, detaining, torturing, and murdering makes that handful grow, not go away. You can bomb the world to pieces, but you cannot bomb it into peace.

The people of Omaha have a duty to create alternative employment for those who work at Stratcom, and THEY have a duty to stop working there - and to tell what they know about plans for aggressive wars. And we all have one more duty: to collectively force Congress to do the only thing that can guarantee protection for Iran from the murderers running Stratcom. That thing is the immediate impeachment and removal from office of Richard B. Cheney and George W. Bush.

[JeffR]

1. Had I been there to hear the speech delivered

it would have made the wind and snow more than bearable.

Well said.

[ms liberty]

2. K&R...an excellent speech. n/t

[OwnedByFerrets]

3. K & R

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. K&R

Here's an old book:

The Warfare State
by Fred J. Cook

"The pressures of post-World War II have created in America a new phenomenon, a power complex which may be aptly called the Warfare State. It is a conjunction of military-industrial power, against which President Eisenhower warned in his Farewell Address. Fed by ever increasing bil lions of dollars, the Warfare State rests upon two assumptions: that safety can be achieved only through power, that prosperity depends upon the constant pump-priming of the domestic economy through the expenditure of military billions. Both assumptions are false. Power in the nuclear age has become self-defeating and suicidal. Full employment and prosperity can no longer be guaranteed by military expenditures, for ex perience proves that vast sums spent for military hardware act in the long run only as a drug and a drag on the over-all econ omy. But both myths, aided by the lobbying of the military- industrial complex, persist in influencing American decisions and preventing them from being based on clear conceptions of reality."

http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/351/1/102

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. K&R David

Thanks for all you do. Wish I could have come up to Omaha and joined you.

[gristy]

6. Good job.

It's one thing to post one's outrage on a blog, another to write one's congresscritters, and another altogether to hit the road and make a public statement.

:thumbsup:

[puebloknot]

7. K&R Thanks for your courage and commitment. nt

[postulater]

8. Love your viewpoint, thanks for being.

[Mrspeeker]

9. Stratcom

even if the people of stratcom did move on, there is plenty in line to take there place..a whole fucked up generation of brain washed numbers (we are numbers and not free men). The control of the world banks (illuminate) has only gotten tighter. All we can hope for is an anomalie, someone or something so strong that the system cannot hold them.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. K & R

[Nostradammit]

11. "global and extraterrestrial killing machine"

"...just as there are no doubt a handful of Nebraskans."

Perfectly framed!!!

Wow, Mr. Swanson - that is really good speechifying there.

Thanks for your efforts!