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By RALPH NADER-An Open Letter to W.
MrBrian
Posts: 2,673
(Was this already posted? If so then sorry for the re-post)
An Open Letter to George W. Bush on Lebanon
Telling the Israelis to "Take Your Time"
By RALPH NADER
The widespread destruction of a defenseless Lebanon-its civilians, its life-sustaining public services, its environment-is a grim and indelible testament to your consummate cruelty and ignorance. Nearly two weeks ago when your tardy Secretary of State met with the Israeli Prime Minister, the message she carried was summarized in a large headline across page one of an Israeli newspaper, "TAKE YOUR TIME."
Yes, take your time, says George W. Bush, pulverizing fleeing refugees in cars full of families, bombing apartment buildings, hospitals and the poor huddled in large south Beirut slums.
Take your time, says George W. Bush, in destroying bridges, roads, gasoline stations, airports, seaports, wheat silos, vehicles with medical supplies, clearly marked ambulances taking the wounded to clinics, even a milk factory .
Take your time, says George W. Bush, while shelters are demolished with bodies of little children together with their mothers and fathers buried in the rubble.
Take your time, says George W. Bush, while the number of fleeing refugees nears one million Lebanese, many exposed to hunger, disease, lack of potable water and medicines. All this in a country friendly to the United States, which played by your rules, protested the Syrian army back into Syria and was trying democratically to put itself together.
Take your time, says George W. Bush, while he speeds more supplies of precision missiles containing deadly anti-personnel cluster bombs which will claim the lives of innocent children for years into the future. The phosphorous bombs laying waste to fields growing crops and horribly burning innocents come from the U.S.A. under your direction.
Do you think the taxpayers of America would approve of such shipped weapons were they ever asked?
Are there words in the English language suitable for the impeachable serial war crimes you are intimately involved in committing not only in Iraq but also now through your encouragement and supplying of the once again invading Israeli government?
Are there words to describe your strategic stupidity which will further increase opposition and peril to the United States around the world and especially in the Middle East? Your own Generals and former CIA Director, Porter Goss, among others in your Administration, have declared that your occupation of Iraq is a magnet attracting the recruiting and training of more and more "terrorists" from Iraq and other countries. And so now this will be the case in Lebanon. All this is a growing "blowback," to use the CIA word for a boomeranging foreign policy, that is endangering the security of the United States.
The calibrated Israeli terror bombing of Lebanon comes in three stages. With its electronic pinpoint precision bombing and artillery, the Israeli government goes after civilians, their homes, cities, towns and villages. Then after telling some to abandon their neighborhoods, it cuts population centers off from each other by destroying transportation facilities into and inside Lebanon, making both refugee flight and delivery of emergency relief efforts either impossible or very difficult. Then its planes, tanks and artillery endanger or destroy what food, water and relief efforts manage to get through to the injured and dying. Warehouse food supplies are incinerated. About four hundred small fishing boats north of Beirut on the oil-polluted coastline were demolished as well.
All the above mayhem and much more have been reported in the U.S., European, Lebanese and Israeli media. The bulk of the fatalities in Lebanon have been civilians. The bulk of the fatalities on the Israeli side have been soldiers. Very fortunately for the Israelis, the Hezbollah rockets are very inaccurate, the vast majority falling harmlessly. Unfortunately for the Lebanese, the precision American armaments of the Israelis are very accurate, which serves to account for why the total casualties and physical destruction are 100 times greater in Lebanon than in Israel.
Most of these accurate munitions come from your decision to send them. Knowing they will be used for offensive purposes, including the lethal demolition of a long-established UN compound, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act which you have sworn to uphold, places the responsibility of being a domestic law breaker squarely on your shoulders.
There is another law that is not being enforced-the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act of 1996 sponsored by then Republican Senator Robert Dole. Foreign aid is supposed to be cut off to any nation that obstructs the provision of humanitarian aid to another country. As one example, press reports that two tankers, each with 30,000 tons of diesel fuel critical for operating Lebanese hospitals and water pumping stations, are idling in Cyprus from fear of the totally dominant Israeli navy and air force.
There are only a few days left of fuel in Lebanon, which is heading for a larger wave of secondary casualties. They and other critical suppliers need safe passage which the U.S. Navy in the area can readily provide, should it receive orders from the Commander in Chief.
You heard high Israeli officials accurately say on the day the massive bombing of Lebanon began, followed not preceded by Hezbollah rockets, that "nothing in Lebanon is safe." That huge over-reaction to the recent Hezbollah border raid, in addition to many more previous air, sea and land border violations by the Israeli government, certainly put you on public notice.
Since you view yourself as a reborn Christian, and since you have the power to stop the Israeli state terror assaults on Lebanon, you may wish to reflect on Leviticus 19:16 "Neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor."
Lebanon was a friendly country to you and you have stood by not just idly, but willfully aiding and abetting its devastation.
An Open Letter to George W. Bush on Lebanon
Telling the Israelis to "Take Your Time"
By RALPH NADER
The widespread destruction of a defenseless Lebanon-its civilians, its life-sustaining public services, its environment-is a grim and indelible testament to your consummate cruelty and ignorance. Nearly two weeks ago when your tardy Secretary of State met with the Israeli Prime Minister, the message she carried was summarized in a large headline across page one of an Israeli newspaper, "TAKE YOUR TIME."
Yes, take your time, says George W. Bush, pulverizing fleeing refugees in cars full of families, bombing apartment buildings, hospitals and the poor huddled in large south Beirut slums.
Take your time, says George W. Bush, in destroying bridges, roads, gasoline stations, airports, seaports, wheat silos, vehicles with medical supplies, clearly marked ambulances taking the wounded to clinics, even a milk factory .
Take your time, says George W. Bush, while shelters are demolished with bodies of little children together with their mothers and fathers buried in the rubble.
Take your time, says George W. Bush, while the number of fleeing refugees nears one million Lebanese, many exposed to hunger, disease, lack of potable water and medicines. All this in a country friendly to the United States, which played by your rules, protested the Syrian army back into Syria and was trying democratically to put itself together.
Take your time, says George W. Bush, while he speeds more supplies of precision missiles containing deadly anti-personnel cluster bombs which will claim the lives of innocent children for years into the future. The phosphorous bombs laying waste to fields growing crops and horribly burning innocents come from the U.S.A. under your direction.
Do you think the taxpayers of America would approve of such shipped weapons were they ever asked?
Are there words in the English language suitable for the impeachable serial war crimes you are intimately involved in committing not only in Iraq but also now through your encouragement and supplying of the once again invading Israeli government?
Are there words to describe your strategic stupidity which will further increase opposition and peril to the United States around the world and especially in the Middle East? Your own Generals and former CIA Director, Porter Goss, among others in your Administration, have declared that your occupation of Iraq is a magnet attracting the recruiting and training of more and more "terrorists" from Iraq and other countries. And so now this will be the case in Lebanon. All this is a growing "blowback," to use the CIA word for a boomeranging foreign policy, that is endangering the security of the United States.
The calibrated Israeli terror bombing of Lebanon comes in three stages. With its electronic pinpoint precision bombing and artillery, the Israeli government goes after civilians, their homes, cities, towns and villages. Then after telling some to abandon their neighborhoods, it cuts population centers off from each other by destroying transportation facilities into and inside Lebanon, making both refugee flight and delivery of emergency relief efforts either impossible or very difficult. Then its planes, tanks and artillery endanger or destroy what food, water and relief efforts manage to get through to the injured and dying. Warehouse food supplies are incinerated. About four hundred small fishing boats north of Beirut on the oil-polluted coastline were demolished as well.
All the above mayhem and much more have been reported in the U.S., European, Lebanese and Israeli media. The bulk of the fatalities in Lebanon have been civilians. The bulk of the fatalities on the Israeli side have been soldiers. Very fortunately for the Israelis, the Hezbollah rockets are very inaccurate, the vast majority falling harmlessly. Unfortunately for the Lebanese, the precision American armaments of the Israelis are very accurate, which serves to account for why the total casualties and physical destruction are 100 times greater in Lebanon than in Israel.
Most of these accurate munitions come from your decision to send them. Knowing they will be used for offensive purposes, including the lethal demolition of a long-established UN compound, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act which you have sworn to uphold, places the responsibility of being a domestic law breaker squarely on your shoulders.
There is another law that is not being enforced-the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act of 1996 sponsored by then Republican Senator Robert Dole. Foreign aid is supposed to be cut off to any nation that obstructs the provision of humanitarian aid to another country. As one example, press reports that two tankers, each with 30,000 tons of diesel fuel critical for operating Lebanese hospitals and water pumping stations, are idling in Cyprus from fear of the totally dominant Israeli navy and air force.
There are only a few days left of fuel in Lebanon, which is heading for a larger wave of secondary casualties. They and other critical suppliers need safe passage which the U.S. Navy in the area can readily provide, should it receive orders from the Commander in Chief.
You heard high Israeli officials accurately say on the day the massive bombing of Lebanon began, followed not preceded by Hezbollah rockets, that "nothing in Lebanon is safe." That huge over-reaction to the recent Hezbollah border raid, in addition to many more previous air, sea and land border violations by the Israeli government, certainly put you on public notice.
Since you view yourself as a reborn Christian, and since you have the power to stop the Israeli state terror assaults on Lebanon, you may wish to reflect on Leviticus 19:16 "Neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor."
Lebanon was a friendly country to you and you have stood by not just idly, but willfully aiding and abetting its devastation.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
http://www.myspace.com/brain_of_c
Maybe next time you'll be able to make it all the way past 10 words. Give it some time,
"defenseless Lebanon-its civilians, its life-sustaining public services, its environment"
Unless Mr Nader missed the part of the war where the lebanese children and mothers started to use american made laser guided weapons?
???
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because he is addressing the problem at it's source. working backwards never does much.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
If he thought they could throw him a few votes, he probably would.
www.myspace.com/jensvad
If he only wanted more votes and would do anything for them, then he would sell out to corporate America like all the other braindead politicians 'playing pretend' for your votes so he could afford tons brainwashing commercials telling you how to think. He wants to make you think and question, imo....not just tell you what you should think.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
He's a politician.
End
of
story.
www.myspace.com/jensvad
but he is one that hasn't sold out his ideals for corporate $$$$$. he exposes these greedy fucks instead of using them for his advantage....surely you can see the difference even if you don't agree with his stances.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
I cant simply trust the man's convicitons, nor yours.
found this thus far.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/07/09/MNGQQ7J31K1.DTL
"Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader -- still not on the ballot in a single state -- has received a recent windfall of contributions from deep-pocketed Republicans with a history of big contributions to the party, an analysis of federal records show.
Nearly one in 10 of Nader's major donors -- those writing checks of $1, 000 or more -- have given in recent months to the Bush-Cheney campaign, the latest documents show. GOP fund-raisers also have "bundled" contributions -- gathering hefty donations for maximum effect to help Nader, who has criticized the practice in the past. "
www.myspace.com/jensvad
I think for the most part his supporters have always been the people that share his vision and ideology. I'll look into it more and get back with you on more specifics.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
About the Repub $$. He wasn't trying to do them any favors, he was hoping their plan would backfire on them. I do believe there is a big difference there, no shady backroom deals and promises.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
How'd you get into the backroom? Since surely you wouldnt state that, unless you were there and know it as fact.
www.myspace.com/jensvad
So you are saying that Nader is actually working with repubs to get their money, even when he fights against everything they stand for? I think they donated to him to take votes away from Kerry. That seems obvious to me. I suppose I could be wrong...but that just doesn't make sense to me.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
So, did he or did he not take the money?
www.myspace.com/jensvad
did he makes promises or deals with them? Or was it more of a strategy for the repubs?
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
So Hezzbollah isn't also a source of this problem? Regardless of what you think about Bush, you can't sit here and NOT admit that a terrorist organization occupying the southern half of Lebanon isn't AT LEAST PART OF the "source" of the problem.
I think, like Paper Plates said, Nader is nothing more than a politician. Just another person in a long line who makes their views known by continually bashing Bush instead of addressing the issue head on.
Nader bitching to Bush in an open letter IS working backwards. If he wanted to work at the beginning of the problem, he would work to get Hezzbollah out of Lebanon.
That isn't the sexy, political solution though, is it?!?! It's much easier to bash Bush with a letter, and keep all of your cronies at home happy. What exactly is this letter going to do, other than reinforce to your base that you hate Bush?
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Hezbollah exists only because the lebanese army is unable to defend it's people, that's why the hez has majority support of the people of lebanon, when israeli aggression stops, at that time if hezbollah's still around and cause any trouble, then i'll consider them a real problem. So the source of the issue/problem remains Israel and that's why it's imperative to go after them.
Israeli aggresssion? Hezbollah occupies southern Lebanon because the Lebanese army is too weak to stop them, and Hezzbollah knows this. Hezzbollah is the one who continually acts out in aggression from behind the border of Lebanon. You can't blame Israel for going into Lebanon to stop them.
Why is that so hard to understand?!?!
If your neighbor continually harassed you and your family from behind someone else's fence (not even his own), wouldn't you go into that backyard and finally take care of the situation so you could live in peace?
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Yet you don't support the palestinian struggle,
No, Hezbollah isn't a source of the problem. It is an effect of the problem. You have to eliminate cause to change the effect. If we rid the world of Hezbollah, another group will form to take their place because the problem is still there creating this effect.
Nader knows this and chooses to work at the problem from it's source because that is the only means of actually changing the outcomes we are currently experiencing. You have to end the sickness it's self not just fight off the symptoms.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
He's not. (he's an activist who uses political landscape to make his points)
Do
your
research.
It's so sad to see his words, his views so easily dismissed by so many americans, but he'd still fight to save your lives.
Sigh.
What is Ralph Nader's? strategy? NOBODY on the international scene, INCLUDING Lebonan, will not do anything about the Hezbos. People like Nader, Anan, they don't have ANY ideas. Please someone articulate their 'final solution' to Israel!!!
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Not meant to be sarcastic, antagonistic, or any of that. But is the fact that Israel exists the source of the problem?
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
I think encouraging diplomacy is a better solution than promoting death and destruction.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
In an ideal world, I think we all would argee with that. But I don't see any Hezzbo diplomats. They aren't a state. There are state actors (Iran, Syria, and apparently Lebonan) that obviously support this group.
To me diplomacy can only work if both sides want peace. I honeslty do not believe that the Hezbos want peace.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Well, you will never find out if diplomacy can work or not if your refuse to talk and to try to reason with the other side.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
True...but again, are there any Hezbo diplomats? Are there any Al-Quida representatives? Iran engages in diplomacy but are obviously not serious.
I really do think diplomacy is the ideal way to go, and we should exhaust all possibilities.
I also think we need to be serious. It's a joke to wave your finger at Iran for it's nuclear program without any enforcement. That's my problem with the UN. How many of their resolutions have been broken (even by Israel) but how many of them have been enforced? What is the point of these resolutions if there are no incentives or enforcement mechanisms?
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days