No one has destroyed our Nation more than Bush-Cheney combine.
Both of them itch for warring and destruction, they just can't sit quite nor can they listen to the world.
On the top of that, our republican senators and congressmen are playing dumb, can't they see the mistakes they are making?
They have ruined the party I belonged to. I am not deserting them. I know God will make a special appearance in Bush's dream to stop this massacre and crankiness. That is the only way out for him. Or just fake another terror scenario and say I told you so.
Mike
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed
(Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 3,382
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War in Iraq Costs $424,486,503,387
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
===
Marine Says Urinated on Dead Iraqi at Haditha
By Marty Graham
Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who has immunity from prosecution after murder charges against him were dismissed, also said he watched his squad leader shoot down five Iraqi civilians who were trying to surrender.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17674.htm
===
We're All Responsible for Iraq
By James Reston
the hypocrisy toward our troops is another instance of moral and political guilt. When a person flaunts his patriotism and then tolerates the exploitation of soldiers, then that citizen is morally culpable for that outrage and a participant in it.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17678.htm
===
Afghan Parliment Warns U.S. Calls For Troops Withdrawl
By JASON STRAZIUSO
The proposal from the upper house of parliament, which also calls for a date to be set for the withdrawal of foreign troops, suggests that Afghan support for the five-and-a-half-year-old international military mission is crumbling amid a spate of civilian deaths.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17673.htm
===
Bush's Zombie Shuffles Off
Adieu, Blair, Adieu
By TARIQ ALI
Blair makes his unwilling exit against a backdrop of car-bombs and mass carnage in Iraq, with hundreds of thousands left dead or maimed from his policies, and London a prime target for terrorist attack.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17676.htm
===
Mandela Was Once a Terrorist
By Lamis Andoni
Leaders of Israel, responsible for the occupation of lands, destruction of people's lives and violations of the Geneva Conventions, are welcomed and even celebrated as international dignitaries. Neither Israeli-perpetrated violence nor its dispossession of indigenous people from their own land is cause for questioning Israel's leadership. But for South Africa to receive a leading member of Hamas, a violent resistance movement, is a cause for shock if not condemnation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17675.htm
===
The War on Free Expression
By Stephen Lenderman
A play on Thomas Jefferson's words might be that "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience" to be denied their First Amendment rights to speak, write and otherwise communicate freely and openly without fear of recrimination in a state they want to remain democratic but won't without that right. Today our freedoms are jeopardized in an atmosphere of heightened fear with too few people aware how threatened their most important one of all is at a time there's risk they all may be lost without a concerted effort to save them.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17677.htm
===
Iraq: At least 45 killed as U.S. occupation grinds on:
Police said they found the bodies of 21 people shot dead in various districts of Baghdad on Wednesday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO057943.htm
===
Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation:
On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51624/
===
Surge could last through '08:
U.S. commanders in Iraq are increasingly convinced that heightened troop levels, announced by President Bush in January, must last into the spring of 2008. The military has said it would assess in September how well its counterinsurgency strategy is working.
http://www.thestate.com/166/story/58824.html
===
Mr. President, You did not listen: 30 Second Video:
Retired Major General John Batiste takes President Bush on, directly, when Bush says that he's just "listening to commanders on the ground" in Iraq.
http://snipurl.com/1k3u8
===
Why Cheney Failed In Iraq:
The failure of the usually forceful Cheney to impose a clear timetable for passing revenue-sharing measures on Maliki reflects not just Maliki's general political weakness, but also his continued dependence on partisan and divisive Shiite factions in the Iraqi Parliament for support.
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/security/article_21279810.shtml
===
Gates Contradicts Bush, Says 'I Don't Know' If 2002 War Authorization Is Still Valid:
During his questioning of Gates, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) noted that the authorization listed two purposes for the use of force: 1) to defend the United States against Saddam Hussein and 2) enforce U.N. resolutions against Hussein's government. Byrd asked Gates, since Hussein's government no longer exists
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/09/gates-authorization/
===
'Pentagon Moved to Fix Iraqi Media Before Invasion':
In the run-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon planned to create a 'Rapid Reaction Media Team' (RRMT) designed to ensure control over major Iraqi media while providing an Iraqi 'face' for its efforts, according to a 'White Paper' obtained by the independent National Security Archive (NSA) which released it Tuesday.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37665
===
U.S.-led raid kills another 40 civilians in occupied Afghanistan:
The deaths on Tuesday in the southern province of Helmand, if confirmed, would raise the civilian toll at the hands of foreign troops to 110 in the past two weeks.
http://snipurl.com/1k3uf
===
Suicide bombing kills 3 civilians in occupied Afghanistan :
The explosion occurred in Barmal district bordering Pakistan on Wednesday, Outlook quoted district chief Azizullah Hayayee as saying.
http://snipurl.com/1k3uk
===
Local villagers kill three Taliban in southern Afghanistan:
Local villagers fought a group of Taliban militants who were trying to attack a governmental police post in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three, including a local commander, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
http://snipurl.com/1k3uo
===
'As Bad As Haditha' :
The U.S. military took the extraordinary step of apologizing for the deadly shooting in Afghanistan earlier this year by Marines that left 19 civilians dead and another 50 wounded.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/as_bad_as_hadit.html
===
Gen. Petraeus and the $2000 Payoff :
On Tuesday, the U.S. military apologized for an atrocity near Jalalabad back in March and agreed to make the usual maximum payment -- don't laugh -- of about $2000 to survivors for each of the 19 Afghan lives lost.
http://snipurl.com/1k3uv
===
Afghanistan: U.S. troops stay until '08:
The Pentagon said Wednesday that it will maintain a heightened level of U.S. troops in Afghanistan well into 2008 by sending elements of the 101st Airborne Division as a replacement force.
http://snipurl.com/1k3v1
===
Afghanistan could be "endless mission" :
Former defence minister Joris Voorhoeve warns that the Dutch peacekeeping role in Afghanistan will be an `endless mission` unless the government sets clear limits on the availability of its troops in the region.
http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?177711
===
Al-Jazeera News For May 9, 2007: :
News from Al-Jazeera English, recorded at 16:00 hrs UTC on May 9, 2007.
http://snipurl.com/1k3v2
===
Putin Is Said to Compare U.S. Policies to Third Reich :
President Vladimir V. Putin seemed to obliquely compare the foreign policy of the United States to the Third Reich in a speech on Wednesday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/world/europe/10russia.html?hp
===
War criminal to retire:
Blair to stand down on June 27:
Tony Blair today announced he was stepping down after 10 years as prime minister and 13 as Labour leader.
http://snipurl.com/1k3v7
===
Somali forces ban women's veils :
Somali security forces have begun seizing and even burning Muslim women's face veils in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, official sources and witnesses say.
http://snipurl.com/1k3vb
===
Venezuela Condemns Terrorist Release:
Venezuela joins with a strong voice cries against the US release of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who walks free the streets of Miami
http://snipurl.com/1k3vd
===
Luis Posada Highlighted Targets For Terrorism:
Posada faced charges in Venezuela for the airplane bombing, but escaped from prison there in 1985, participated in the White House- and CIA-sponsored Iran-contra covert operations in Central America in the 1980s, and illegally entered the U.S. in March 2005.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB218/index.htm
===
Adios, World Bank!:
In Latin America, countries are paying off their World Bank loans early, cutting off ties with the Bank, and creating their own financing instruments to replace the world's oldest multilateral lending agency.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/09/adios_world_bank.php
===
How much is your Congress person worth?:
By May 15 of each year, Congress members and top officials in the executive branch must file forms covering the preceding calendar year that list their assets and liabilities, their income (excluding their government salaries, oddly), asset transactions, gifts they received and more
http://snipurl.com/1k3vi
===
Gonzales testimony contradicts White House:
Revealing Bush 'conversation' over US attorney firings
http://snipurl.com/1k3vn
===
Muslim American Grilled at Border Over Religion:
Zakariya Muhammad Reed spent 20 years serving in the National Guard. For the last eleven years, he's been a firefighter in Toledo. But this hasn't kept him from being viewed with suspicion by his own government.
http://progressive.org/mag_mc050907
===
Shock jock unrepentant over derogatory Obama song:
The leading US shock jock Rush Limbaugh is taunting the liberal media by repeatedly airing a derogatory and racially charged song about the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/story/0,,2076265,00.html
===
Video: Barack the Magic Negro:
On his show Limbaugh says he is an entertainer and the song is a parody. He justifies it by saying the first linkage of the term "magic negro" to Mr Obama was by a black commentator, David Ehrenstein, in the liberal Los Angeles Times.
http://snipurl.com/1k3vu
===
Verizon says phone record disclosure is protected free speech:
Verizon is one of the phone companies currently being sued over its alleged disclosure of customer phone records to the NSA. In a response to the court last week, the company asked for the entire consolidated case against it to be thrown out-on free speech grounds
http://snipurl.com/1k3vv
===
Spying on the Home Front:
The program shows how the FBI vacuumed up records on 250,000 ordinary Americans who chose Las Vegas as the destination for their Christmas-New Year's holiday, and the subsequent revelation that the FBI has misused National Security Letters to gather information.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/
===
Armored vehicles' rising use by police:
After six people were shot in the city's Homewood neighborhood in less than 24 hours, Pittsburgh police rolled in with a 20-ton armored truck with a blast-resistant body, armored rotating roof hatch and gunports.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003699268_police09.html
===
Apocalypse Of The Honeybees:
How poetically appropriate that the End of Humanity should come from such a tiny, sweet source
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2007/05/09/notes050907.DTL&nl=fix
The Good American
By Scott Ritter
That we have collectively failed to halt and repudiate the war in Iraq makes us even worse than the Germans.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17683.htm
===
Impeach Bush or Get Rid of the Impeachment Clause
By Dave Lindorff
What is it about impeachment that has the Democratic Party leadership so frightened?http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17684.htm
===
The Kennedy Myth Rises Again
By John Pilger
John Pilger recalls the night Robert Kennedy was shot in his presence and the myths that followed his untimely death. Having elevated Kennedy to be one of his heroes, Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown describes him as the pinnacle of "morality" - when this myth really tells us about Brown himself and his political twin, Tony Blair. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17679.htm
===
One War Criminal Down, A Fistful to Go
Paul Craig Roberts
Many wonder why Blair destroyed his reputation and that of his country, put himself at risk of being hauled before the International Criminal Court, and squandered his time as prime minister providing cover for George Bush's war of aggression. The answer must be money. We will see which US corporate boards take Blair as a director and which groups pay him six-figure honorariums for speeches. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17681.htm
===
This Perfect Storm Will Finally Destroy the Neocon Project
By Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Americans are sick of the unrepentant arrogance of this elite. But the realisation has come at a very heavy costhttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17692.htm
===
Giuliani Would Make a Worst President than Bush
By Paul Craig Roberts
Giuliana's career never served justice; it served his personal ambition, his ego. That a person so short on integrity could become a candidate for president is a damning indictment of the US political system. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17682.htm
===
Hidden History
The Other Side Of Suez
Documentary Film
Fear of dwindling oil supplies, a strategy of regime change, by-passing the U.N, and war based on suspect intelligence. Iraq 2003? No, Egypt 1956. Britain invades an Arab nation to overthrow a dangerous dictator. The Prime Minister predicts that a grateful population will welcome British troops with open arms. But he is wrong.
Click to viewhttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17680.htm
===
Iraq: At least 53 killed in another bloody day of U.S. occupation:
Two car bombs on two bridges south of Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded 25 others in an apparent coordinated attack, police saidhttp://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO143985.htm
===
Iraqi Lawmakers Back Bill on U.S. Withdrawal:
A majority of members of Iraq's parliament have signed a draft bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels.http://snipurl.com/1k96r
===
U.S. House defeats Iraq war withdrawal bill:
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday easily defeated a bill pushed by anti-war Democrats to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by early next year.http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WBT006955.htm
===
Pepe Escobar : 'The cultivation of life': -
Popular wisdom in Iraq rules that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, with a simple fatwa, or even a single word, could bring the US occupation to an abrupt end. So why doesn't he? http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IE12Ak01.html
===
10 Taliban killed in new Afghan fighting; villagers say 40 civilians killed earlier :
New airstrikes in a volatile southern Afghan region killed up to 10 Taliban fighters near where villagers say about 40 civilians died in a battle earlier this week, and the U.S.-led coalition said Friday that local Afghans feared more militant attacks.http://snipurl.com/1k96u
===
U.S. Occupation Forces Confirms They Killed Afghan Civilians :
The governor of Helmand province has said 21 civilians were killed in airstrikes Tuesday in the Sangin area of Helmand province, though residents of the area said the civilian death toll was higher. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6625896,00.html
===
Fighting the Taliban : Video :
The story of a six day battle the ministary of defense did not want you to seehttp://snipurl.com/1k96w
===
Jeremy Scahill Testifies in Landmark House Hearing on "Defense" Contracting:
There are over 120,000 private contractors currently deployed in Iraq and yesterday, a House panel put some of the harshest criticisms of this privatization of war into the congressional record for the first time. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/11/1531232
===
Mother's Day for Peace : 4 Minute Video:
Through the power of compassion and womanhood, we hope to work towards peace. http://snipurl.com/1k970
===
Neo-Cons Driving Iran Divestment Campaign:
Neo-conservative hawks who championed the invasion of Iraq are leading a new campaign to persuade state and local governments, as well as other institutional investors, to "divest" their holdings in foreign companies and U.S. overseas subsidiaries doing business in Iran. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37687
===
Cheney warns Iran U.S. will keep sea lanes open : -
From an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, Vice President Dick Cheney warned Iran on Friday the U.S. and its allies will keep it from restricting sea traffic as well as from developing nuclear weapons.http://snipurl.com/1k972
===
Former Powell aide says Bush, Cheney guilty of 'high crimes' :
Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, said on the public radio program On Point Thursday that "Bill Clinton's peccadilloes ... pale in significance" when compared to the "high crimes and misdemeanors" of Bush and Cheney. http://snipurl.com/1k97e
===
Putin likens U.S. foreign policy to that of Third Reich :
President Vladimir Putin obliquely compared the foreign policy of the United States to the Third Reich in a speech Wednesday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germanyhttp://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=5642323
===
Israeli Occupation Forces Shot Palestinian woman 'loses baby' :
A pregnant Palestinian woman lost her baby after being shot by Israeli occupation troops during an attack in the West Bank city of Nablushttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6644079.stm
===
The Death of Samir Dari: In Israel, Not All Blood is the Same:
The killing of an Arab is, after all, not the kind of event that makes headlines in Israel.http://www.counterpunch.org/gordon05102007.html
===
Israeli policy 'worse' than apartheid:
South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils on Thursday accused Israel of conducting a policy against the Palestinians that was "worse" than apartheid. http://iafrica.com/news/sa/725486.htm
===
Carter Challenging Baptists On Conversions, Says Rabbi :
Wading into the delicate fray over the alliance between Jews and pro-Israel Evangelicals, former President Jimmy Carter last week reportedly said it was a mistake for Jews to accept such ties, and that he was working to convince Southern Baptists to change the way they look at Judaism and the Middle East.http://snipurl.com/1k97j
===
Rival groups clash in Gaza:
Hamas said the fighting began before dawn when members of the national security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the president, detained a member of Hamas's armed wing.http://snipurl.com/1k97k
===
Tariq Ali on the Resignation of Tony Blair:
"The Fact That He's Leaving is Because He's So Hated"http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/11/1531215
===
Desperate days at Guantanamo as force feeding continues: :
Force-feeding is actually done by "strapping prisoners into restraining chairs while they are fed by plastic tubes inserted through their nostrils."http://snipurl.com/1k97m
===
Congress Not Told of Covert Action, Committee Complains:
U.S. intelligence recently undertook a "significant" covert action without notifying Congress, as required by law, the House Intelligence Committee disclosed in a new report on the 2008 intelligence authorization bill.http://snipurl.com/1k4qy
===
U.S., Germans Fear Imminent Terror Attack:
U.S. air marshals have been diverted to provide expanded protection of flights between Germany and the United States.http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/us_germans_fear.html
Friday, May 11, 2007
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Today's Journal - May 8, 2007
Today's Journal - May 8, 2007
- World Publics Reject US Role as the World Leader
- 6 men charged with plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix
- Darfur Revisited By Ramzy Baroud
- Bush Sabotaged Reconstruction In Iraq By Thomas Riggins
- Rebuilding Resistance in Beirut By Dahr Jamail
- Doctors Fail To Recognize By Evelyn Pringle
- The Hate Equation: Targeting Migrant Children
- Books: Jerusalem 1913
- September could be a deadly war in Iraq
- A Few Reminders - By Charley Reese
- AIPAC on Trial - By Justin Raimondo
- Iraq child mortality rate soars
- Condi Snoozed While Chevron Paid Off Saddam:
- Saudis, US sponsoring covert action against Iran
- War is Peace
- Civilian deaths 'deeply shame' US
World Publics Reject US Role as the World Leader:
Most publics say the United States plays the role of world policeman more than it should, fails to take their country's interests into account and cannot be trusted to act responsibly
http://snipurl.com/1jue3
6 men charged with plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix :
"What concerns us is, obviously, they began conducting surveillance and weapons training in the woods and were discussing killing large numbers of soldiers," said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd. http://snipurl.com/1juea
Darfur Revisited By Ramzy Baroud
http://www.countercurrents.org/baroud080507.htm
The Darfur crisis in Sudan is perhaps the most politically convoluted conflict in the world today. Its underpinnings involve local, regional and international players, all selfishly vying for power and economic interests
How Bush Sabotaged Reconstruction In Iraq By Thomas Riggins
http://www.countercurrents.org/riggins080507.htm
Bush still thinks he can impose his “mindset” on Iraq and the world. It is a narrow, fundamentalist, ignorant mindset. It is not the mindset of the majority of the American people. The Congress has the opportunity to send it packing. It should do so
Rebuilding Resistance By Dahr Jamail
http://www.countercurrents.org/jamail080507.htm
As reconstruction resumes in the heavily bombed southern Beirut district Dahiyeh, the signs are evident of a rebuilding of resistance against Israel and the U.S.-backed government, largely by way of increased support for Hezbollah
Doctors Fail To Recognize By Evelyn Pringle
http://www.countercurrents.org/pringle080507.htm
In addition to recent reports that the drugs work no better than sugar pills, the latest warnings added to the long list of adverse events linked to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants have focused on birth defects, suicide risks and violence
The Hate Equation: Targeting Migrant Children By Juan Santos
http://www.countercurrents.org/santos080507.htm
Brown children are expendable in Los Angeles, and migrants are the new scapegoats for a nation steeped in a deep tradition of white racism
Books: Jerusalem 1913
By News Service(News Service) Undertstanding how it got to at the center of the Israeli Palestinian conflict - from being a backwater in a Muslim empire - is crucial to understanding the controversy and the motivations for Palestinian claims. Jerusalem Before Israel ...Zionism & Israel News -
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/
September Could Be Key Deadline in WarWashington Post - Washington,DC,USAAnother major test will come in the form of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which under Islam's lunar calendar will begin this year around Sept. 12. ...
A Few Reminders - By Charley Reese
A few reminders: Iraq is not our country. Our invasion and occupation are illegal, being in violation of both international law and our own traditions. We were lied into war. We are still being lied to. Both the Bush administration and the Democrats intend to maintain American troops in Iraq indefinitely. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17662.htm
AIPAC on Trial - By Justin Raimondo
The lobby argues that good Americans spy for Israel. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17660.htm
Iraq child mortality rate soars :
One in eight Iraqi children died of disease or violence before reaching their fifth birthday in 2005, according to the report by Save the Children, which said Iraq ranked last because it had made the least progress toward improving child survival rates.
http://snipurl.com/1jud2
Condi Snoozed While Chevron Paid Off Saddam:
Because she's a Russia scholar, Secretary Rice will be quite familiar with Lenin's term, "useful idiot." http://snipurl.com/1jtff
Saudis, US sponsoring covert action against Iran :
The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United States are working with other states in the Middle East to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in this month's edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks may occur against Iran's oil sector.http://snipurl.com/1judc
'War is peace':
It is one thing to read George Orwell and Franz Kafka, it is quite another to live their texts. For us - Palestinians - Orwell and Kafka are not works of fiction but concrete reality.
http://snipurl.com/1judq
Civilian deaths 'deeply shame' US :
An American commander in Afghanistan has said that he is "deeply ashamed" by the killings of 19 Afghan civilians by US Marines in early March. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6636343.stm
Today's Journal - May 9, 2007
Today's Journal - Wedneday, May 9, 2007
Feingold Rejects Compromise, Pushes Exit Strategy:
Fifty-seven percent of Americans say that Congress should not compromise with President Bush in the Iraq War funding fight. That's the number that, according to a new CNN poll, wants Congress to give Bush another bill with a withdrawal timetable.
http://tinyurl.com/235e4w
Pelosi threat to sue Bush over Iraq bill :
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is threatening to take President Bush to court if he issues a signing statement as a way of sidestepping a carefully crafted compromise Iraq war spending bill. http://tinyurl.com/2qkoaa
The human cost of war in Afghanistan:
The killing of large numbers of civilians by American forces, through indisciplined firing or as a result of their heavy reliance on air-strikes, has been a bitter feature of the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq-just as it was in Vietnam. http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9141410&fsrc=RSS
Most US.adults back Iraq pullout timetable -poll:
Six out of 10 U.S. adults support setting a timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, even though a clear majority predict civil war there if U.S. forces withdraw next year, according to a poll published http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09214897.htm
Bush to veto new Iraq Bill:
THE White House has warned Democrats that President George W. Bush would veto an Iraq funding Bill that would bankroll the war in Iraq for just three months.http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21704627-5001028,00.html
World Bank criticises Israel:
In a harsh report (pdf), the bank criticised Israel for extending legitimate security measures to expand and protect settlement activity and the relatively unhindered movement of settlers and other Israelis in and out of the West Bank.http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2075622,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704
Doha Debates: Video:
'This House believes the pro-Israeli lobby has successfully stifled Western debate about Israel's actions.'http://tinyurl.com/yu6fnh
"It Takes an Enormous Amount of Courage to Speak the Truth":
World-Renowned Holocaust, Israel Scholars Defend DePaul Professor Norman Finkelstein as He Fights for Tenurehttp://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/09/1514221
US drops charges against suspected terrorist:
A U.S. judge threw out all charges against suspected terrorist and former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles on Tuesday, allowing him to go free days before he was set to be tried for immigration fraud.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/89d4dbe6-fe30-11db-bdc7-000b5df10621.html
Infant Mortality Soars In Iraq By Andrew Buncombe
http://www.countercurrents.org/buncombe090507.htm
Two wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan Africa
Anti-Capitalism In Five Minutes Or Less By Robert Jensen
http://www.countercurrents.org/jensen090507.htm
One of the common responses I hear when I critique capitalism is, “Well, that may all be true, but we have to be realistic and do what’s possible.” By that logic, to be realistic is to accept a system that is inhuman, anti-democratic, and unsustainable. To be realistic we are told we must capitulate to a system that steals our souls, enslaves us to concentrated power, and will someday destroy the planet
Early CIA Involvement In Darfur Has Gone Unreported By Jay Janson
http://www.countercurrents.org/janson090507.htm
There has been a glaring omission in the U.S. media presentation of the Darfur tragedy. The compassion demonstrated, mostly in words, until recently, has not been accompanied by a recognition of U.S. complicity, or at least involvement, in the war which has led to the enormous suffering and loss of life that has been taking place in Darfur for many years
When We Forget To Remember By Sheila Samples
http://www.countercurrents.org/samples090507.htm
Surely Americans must know that a crisis without precedent is underway in this country. The first target in the Straussian neocon's war of terror was the Constitution and, by extension, the American people. We are hurtling headlong into tyranny and, as Harold Pinter so aptly put it -- those whom we elected to protect both us and the Constitution have either lost their voices or seem to have forgotten the tune
Feingold Rejects Compromise, Pushes Exit Strategy:
Fifty-seven percent of Americans say that Congress should not compromise with President Bush in the Iraq War funding fight. That's the number that, according to a new CNN poll, wants Congress to give Bush another bill with a withdrawal timetable.
http://tinyurl.com/235e4w
Pelosi threat to sue Bush over Iraq bill :
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is threatening to take President Bush to court if he issues a signing statement as a way of sidestepping a carefully crafted compromise Iraq war spending bill. http://tinyurl.com/2qkoaa
The human cost of war in Afghanistan:
The killing of large numbers of civilians by American forces, through indisciplined firing or as a result of their heavy reliance on air-strikes, has been a bitter feature of the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq-just as it was in Vietnam. http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=9141410&fsrc=RSS
Most US.adults back Iraq pullout timetable -poll:
Six out of 10 U.S. adults support setting a timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, even though a clear majority predict civil war there if U.S. forces withdraw next year, according to a poll published http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09214897.htm
Bush to veto new Iraq Bill:
THE White House has warned Democrats that President George W. Bush would veto an Iraq funding Bill that would bankroll the war in Iraq for just three months.http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21704627-5001028,00.html
World Bank criticises Israel:
In a harsh report (pdf), the bank criticised Israel for extending legitimate security measures to expand and protect settlement activity and the relatively unhindered movement of settlers and other Israelis in and out of the West Bank.http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2075622,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704
Doha Debates: Video:
'This House believes the pro-Israeli lobby has successfully stifled Western debate about Israel's actions.'http://tinyurl.com/yu6fnh
"It Takes an Enormous Amount of Courage to Speak the Truth":
World-Renowned Holocaust, Israel Scholars Defend DePaul Professor Norman Finkelstein as He Fights for Tenurehttp://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/09/1514221
US drops charges against suspected terrorist:
A U.S. judge threw out all charges against suspected terrorist and former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles on Tuesday, allowing him to go free days before he was set to be tried for immigration fraud.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/89d4dbe6-fe30-11db-bdc7-000b5df10621.html
Infant Mortality Soars In Iraq By Andrew Buncombe
http://www.countercurrents.org/buncombe090507.htm
Two wars and a decade of sanctions have led to a huge rise in the mortality rate among young children in Iraq, leaving statistics that were once the envy of the Arab world now comparable with those of sub-Saharan Africa
Anti-Capitalism In Five Minutes Or Less By Robert Jensen
http://www.countercurrents.org/jensen090507.htm
One of the common responses I hear when I critique capitalism is, “Well, that may all be true, but we have to be realistic and do what’s possible.” By that logic, to be realistic is to accept a system that is inhuman, anti-democratic, and unsustainable. To be realistic we are told we must capitulate to a system that steals our souls, enslaves us to concentrated power, and will someday destroy the planet
Early CIA Involvement In Darfur Has Gone Unreported By Jay Janson
http://www.countercurrents.org/janson090507.htm
There has been a glaring omission in the U.S. media presentation of the Darfur tragedy. The compassion demonstrated, mostly in words, until recently, has not been accompanied by a recognition of U.S. complicity, or at least involvement, in the war which has led to the enormous suffering and loss of life that has been taking place in Darfur for many years
When We Forget To Remember By Sheila Samples
http://www.countercurrents.org/samples090507.htm
Surely Americans must know that a crisis without precedent is underway in this country. The first target in the Straussian neocon's war of terror was the Constitution and, by extension, the American people. We are hurtling headlong into tyranny and, as Harold Pinter so aptly put it -- those whom we elected to protect both us and the Constitution have either lost their voices or seem to have forgotten the tune
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Paradox of the Indian Cow
Paradox of the Indian Cow:
Attitudes to Beef Eating in Early India
http://mikeghouse.blogspot.com/2007/05/paradox-of-indian-cow.html
Attitudes to Beef Eating in Early India
http://mikeghouse.blogspot.com/2007/05/paradox-of-indian-cow.html
Faith matters, facts don't.
Humans are driven by faith, the belief that there is going to be justice, if not in this world at least it will be meted out in next birth or next life. When we watch our movies, we expect the bad guy to be caught in the tail end, or the hero to give them beating. If the movie were to end in the villain going Scot free, we do not feel right about it, as we did not see Justice in action.
It is not just Hindus, but people of all faiths believe in miracles, believe in an eternal God, believe that the clothing color they choose makes them feel better, believe that certain food tastes good for them, believe that either Laddu or Jamoon is the best tasting dessert for them... so far so good.
It is not just Hindus, but people of all faiths believe in miracles, believe in an eternal God, believe that the clothing color they choose makes them feel better, believe that certain food tastes good for them, believe that either Laddu or Jamoon is the best tasting dessert for them... so far so good.
The problem begins when you believe that every one should eat Laddu, or no one should eat Jamoon, as it is not palatable to you. The danger is when you transform your belief into a law to prevent others from eating what they like.
Either you don't fully respect your own belief causing you not to respect others, if you have firm faith in what you believe; you extend the same respect to others in what they believe.
Please read how attitudes can change any given situation at: http://mikeghouse.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/06/religion-and-office.htm
Let our Hindu brothers enjoy their Laddu, and Christians their Mysore Pak and Muslims their Jamoon and Sikhs their Soni papdi or Jains their Julebi... As a human I should be happy that you are getting what you want and I am getting what I want.
Life would be easier and happier for every one accepts and respects other’s point of view. If we want true happiness, we have to learn to live and let live.
Mike Ghouse
Paradox of the Indian Cow:
Attitudes to Beef Eating in Early India
By DN Jha
http://www.indowindow.net/sad/article.php?child=17&article=11
Renowned historian writes on beef eating in ancient India and associated issues
An average Indian of today rooted in what appears to him as his traditional Hindu religious heritage carries the load of the misconception that his ancestors, especially the Vedic Aryans, attached great importance to the cow on account of its inherent sacredness. The 'sacred' cow has come to be considered a symbol of community identity of the Hindus whose cultural tradition is often imagined as threatened by the Muslims who are thought of as beefeaters. The sanctity of the cow has, therefore, been announced with the flourish of trumpets and has been wrongly traced back to the Vedas, which are supposedly of divine origin and fountainhead of all knowledge and wisdom. In other words, some sections of Indian society have traced back the concept of sacred cow to the very period when it was sacrificed and its flesh was eaten.
More importantly, the cow has tended to become a political instrument at the hand of rulers over time. The Mughal emperors ( e.g. Babar, Akbar, Jahangir and Aurangzeb etc) are said to have imposed a restricted ban on cow slaughter to accommodate the Jaina or Brahmanical feeling of respect and veneration of the cow[1]. Similarly Shivaji, sometimes viewed as an incarnation of God who descended on earth for the deliverance of the cow and brahmin, is described as proclaiming: "We are Hindus and the rightful lords of the realm. It is not proper for us to witness cow slaughter and the oppression of brahmanas" [2].
But the cow became a tool of mass political mobilization when the organized Hindu cow protection movement, beginning with the Sikh Kuka (or Namdhari) sect in the Punjab around 1870 and later strengthened by the foundation of the first Gorakshini Sabha in 1882 by Dayanananda Saraswati, made this animal a symbol to unite a wide ranging people, challenged the Muslim practice of its slaughter and provoked a series of serious communal riots in the 1880s and 1890s. Although attitudes to cow killing had been hardening even earlier, there was undoubtedly a 'dramatic intensification' of the cow protection movement when in 1888 the North-Western Provinces High Court decreed that a cow was not a sacred object. [3] Not surprisingly cow slaughter very often became the pretext of many Hindu-Muslim riots, especially those in Azamgarh district in the year 1893 when more than one hundred people were killed in different parts of the country. Similarly in 1912-1913 violence rocked Ayodhya and a few years later, in 1917, Shahabad witnessed a disastrous communal conflagration. [4]
The killing of the kine seems to have emerged again and again as a troublesome issue on the Indian political scene even in independent India despite legislation by several state legislatures prohibiting cow slaughter and the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution which directs the Indian state to "…to take steps for… prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle". For instance, in 1966, nearly two decades after Indian independence, almost all the Indian communal political parties and organizations joined hands in masterminding a massive demonstration by several hundred thousand people in favour of a national ban on cow slaughter which culminated in a violent rioting in front of the Indian Parliament resulting in the death of at least eight persons and injury to many more. In April 1979, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, often supposed to be a spiritual heir to Mahatma Gandhi, went on a hunger strike to pressurize the central government to prohibit cow slaughter throughout the country and ended it after five days when he succeeded in getting the Prime Minister Morarji Desai's vague assurance that his government would expedite anti-slaughter legislation. Since then the cow ceased to remain much of an issue in the Indian political arena for many years, though the management of cattle resources has been a matter of academic debate among sociologists, anthropologists, economists and different categories of policy framers.
The veneration of cow has been, however, converted into a symbol of communal identity of the Hindus and the obscurantist and fundamentalist forces obdurately refuse to appreciate that the 'sacred' cow was not always all that sacred in the Vedic and subsequent Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical traditions and that its flesh, along with other varieties of meat, was quite often a part of the hautecuisine in early India. Although the Shin, Muslims of Dardistan in Pakistan, look on the cow as other Muslims do the pig, avoid direct contact with cows, refuse to drink cow's milk or use cow dung as fuel and reject beef as food, [5] the self-styled custodians of non-existent 'monolithic' Hinduism assert that the practice of beef eating was first introduced in India by the followers of Islam who came from outside and are foreigners in this country, little realising that their Vedic ancestors were also foreigners who ate the flesh of the cow and various other animals. Fanaticism getting precedence over fact, it is not surprising that the Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangha (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and their numerous outfits have a national ban on cow slaughter on their agenda and the Chief Minister of Gujarat (Keshubhai Patel) announced some time ago, as a pre-election gimmick, the setting up of a separate department to preserve cow breeds and manage Hindu temples. [6] More recently, a Bajrang Dal leader has threatened to enroll 30 lakh volunteers to agitate against cow slaughter during the month of Bakrid in 2002. [7] So high-geared has been the propaganda about abstention from beef eating as a characteristic trait of 'Hinduism' that when the RSS tried to claim Sikhs as Hindus, it led to vehement opposition from them and one of the Sikh youth leaders proposed, "Why not slaughter a cow and serve beef in a gurudwara langar?"[8]
The communalists who have been raising a hullabaloo over the cow in the political arena do not realise that beef eating remained a fairly common practice for a long time in India and that the arguments for its prevalence are based on the evidence drawn from our own scriptures and religious texts. The response of historical scholarship to the communal perception of Indian food culture, however, has been sober and scholars have drawn attention to the textual evidence of beef eating which, in fact, begins to be available from the oldest Indian religious text Rgveda, supposedly of divine origin. H.H. Wilson, writing in the first half of the nineteenth century, had asserted: "the sacrifice of the horse or of the cow, the gomedha or asvamedha, appears to have been common in the earliest periods of the Hindu ritual". The view that the practice of killing of cattle at sacrifices and eating their flesh prevailed among the Indo-Aryans was put forth most convincingly by Rajendra Lal Mitra in an article which first appeared in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and subsequently formed a chapter of his book The Indo-Aryans published in 1891. In 1894 William Crooke, a British civil servant, collected an impressive amount of ethnographic data on popular religious beliefs and practices in his two-volume book and devoted one whole chapter to the respect shown to animals including the cow [9]. Later in 1912, he published an informative piece on the sanctity of cow in India. But he also drew attention to the old practice of eating beef and its survival in his own times. [10] In 1927, L. L. Sundara Ram made a strong case for cow protection for which he sought justification from the scriptures of different religions including Hinduism. However he did not deny that the Vedic people ate beef, [11] though he blamed the Muslims for cow slaughter. Later in the early forties P. V. Kane in his monumental work History of Dharmasastra referred to some Vedic and early Dharmasastric passages which speak of cow killing and beef eating. H.D. Sankalia drew attention to literary as well as archaeological evidence of eating cattle flesh in ancient India. [12] Similarly, Laxman Shastri Joshi, a Sanskritist of unquestionable scholarship, drew attention to the Dharmasastra works, which unequivocally support the prevalence of the practice of flesh eating including beef eating in early India. [13]
Needless to say that the scholarship of all of the scholars mentioned above was unimpeachable, and that none of them seems to have anything to do with any anti- Hindu ideology. H.H. Wilson, for example, was the first occupant of the Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1832 and was not as avowedly anti-Indian as many other imperialist scholars. Rajendra Lal Mitra, a product of the Bengal renaissance and a close associate of Rabindranath's elder brother Jyotindranath Tagore, made significant contribution to India's intellectual life, and was described by Max Mueller as the 'best living Indologist' of his time and by Rabindranath Tagore as "the most beloved child of the muse". [14] William Crooke was a well-known colonial ethnograher who wrote extensively on peasant life and popular religion without any marked prejudice against Hinduism. [15] L. L. Sundara Ram, despite his somewhat anti-Muslim feeling, was inspired by humanitarianconsiderations. Mahamahopadhyaya P.V. Kane was a conservative Marathi brahmin and the only Sanskritist to be honoured with the title of Bharatratna. H.D. Sankalia combined his unrivalled archaeological activity with a profound knowledge of Sanskrit. Besides these scholars several other Indian Sanskritists and Indologists, not to mention a number of western scholars, have repeatedly drawn our attention to the textual evidence of eating beef and other types of animal flesh in early India. Curious though it may seem, the Sangh Parivar, which carries a heavy burden of "civilisational illiteracy", has never turned its guns towards them but against historians who have mostly relied on the researches of the above-mentioned distinguished scholars.
While the contribution of the scholars mentioned above cannot be minimised, the limitation of their work lies in the fact that they have referred to isolated bits of information on beef eating concentrating mainly on the Vedic texts without treating it as part of the flesh eating tradition prevalent in India. Unlike their works, therefore, the present paper seeks to draw attention to the Indian textual evidence of cattle killing and beef eating widely dispersed over time so as to indicate its continuity for a long time in the Brahmanical society and to suggest that the idea of cow's supposed holiness does not tie up with practices current in Indian society.
II
The early Aryans, who migrated to India from outside, brought along with them their earlier cultural traits. Therefore, even after their migration into the Indian subcontinent, for several centuries, pastoralism, nomadism and animal sacrifice remained characteristic features of their life till sedentary field agriculture became the mainstay of their livelihood. Animal sacrifices were very common, and in the agnadheya, which was a preparatory rite preceding all public sacrifices, a cow was required to be killed.[16] In the asvamedha, the most important of public sacrifices, first mentioned in the Rgveda and discussed in the Brahmanas, more than 600 animals (including wild ones like boars) and birds were killed and its finale was marked by the sacrifice of 21 cows, which, according to the dominant opinion were sterile ones. [17] In the gosava, an important component of the public sacrifices like the rajasuya and vajapeya, a sterile spotted cow was offered to Maruts and seventeen 'dwarf heifers under three' were done to death in the pancasaradiyasava.[18] The killing of animals including the cattle figures in several other yajnas including caturmasya, sautramani and independent animal sacrifice called pasubandha or nirudhapasubandha .[19] These and several other major sacrifices involved killing of animals including the cattle, which constituted the chief form of the wealth of the early Aryans. They, not surprisingly, prayed for cattle and sacrificed them to propitiate their gods.
The Vedic gods, for whom the various sacrifices were performed, had no fixed menu of food. Milk, butter, barley, oxen, goats and sheep were offered to them and these were their usual food, though some of them seem to have had their special preferences. Indra had a special liking for bulls ( RV, V.29.7ab; VI.17.11b; VIII.12.8ab X.27.2c; X. 28. 3c;X.86.14ab). Agni was not a tippler like Indra, but was fond of animal food including the flesh of horses, bulls and cows (RV, VIII. 43.11; X. 91.14ab). The toothless Pusan, the guardian of the roads, ate mush as a Hobson's choice. Soma was the name of a heady drink but, equally importantly, of a god and killing of animals including cattle for him ( RV, X.91.14ab) was basic to most of the Rgvedic yajnas. The Maruts and the Asvins were also offered cows. The Vedas mention about 250 animals out of which at least 50 were deemed fit for sacrifice and by implication for divine as well as human consumption. The animal food occupied a place of importance in the Vedic sacrifices and dietetics and the general preference for the flesh of the cow is undeniable. The Taittiriya Brahmana (III.9.8) categorically tells us: "Verily the cow is food" (atho annam vai gauh) and the Satapatha Brahmana (III.1.2.21) refers to Yajnavalkya's stubborn insistence on eating the tender ( amsala) flesh of the cow.
According to the subsequent Brahmanical texts (e.g. Grhyasutras and Dharmasutras) the killing of animals and eating of beef was very much de rigeur. The ceremony of guest-reception (known as arghya in the Rgveda but generally as madhuparka in subsequent texts) consisted not only of a meal of a mixture of curds and honey but also of the flesh of a cow or bull. Early lawgivers go to the extent of making flesh food mandatory in madhuparka --- an injunction more or less dittoed by several later legal texts (AsGS, I.24.33; KathaGS, 24,20; SankhGS, II.15.2; ParGS, I.3.29). A guest therefore came to be described by Panini as a goghna (one for whom the cow is slain). The sacred thread ceremony was not all that sacred; for it was necessary for a snataka to wear an upper garment of the cowhide (ParGS, II.5.17-20).
The slaughter of animals formed an important component of the cult of the dead in the Vedic texts as well as in later Dharmasastra works. The thick fat of the cow was used to cover the dead body ( RV, X.14-18) and a bull was burnt along with the corpse to enable the departed to ride with in the nether world. The funerary rites included feeding of the brahmins after the prescribed period and quite often the flesh of the cow/ ox was offered to the dead ( AV, XII.2, 48). The textual prescriptions indicate the degree of satisfaction obtained by the Manes depending upon the animal offered---- the cow's flesh could keep them contented for at least a year! The Vedic and the post-Vedic texts also often mention the killing of animals including the kine in several other ritual contexts. The gavamayana, a sessional sacrifice performed by the brahmins was, for example, marked by animal slaughter culminating in an extravagant bacchanalian communal festival (mahavrata) in which cattle were slaughtered. There was, therefore, a relationship between the sacrifice and sustenance. But this need not necessarily mean that different meat types were eaten only if offered in a sacrifice. Thus in the grhamedha, which has been discussed in several Srautasutras, an unspecified number of cows were slain not in the strict ritual manner but in the crude and profane manner.[20] Archaeological evidence also suggests non-ritual killing of cattle. This is indicative of the fact that beef and other animal flesh formed part of the dietary habits of the people and that the edible flesh was not always ritually consecrated, though some scholars have argued to the contrary. [21] Despite the overwhelming evidence of cattle killing, several scholars have obdurately held that the Vedic cow was sacred and inviolable on the basis of the occurrence of the word aghnya/aghnya in the Atharvaveda and the use of words for cow as epithet or in simile and metaphor with reference to entities of highest religious significance. But it has been convincingly proved that if the Vedic cow was at all inviolable, it was so only when it belonged to a brahmin who received cows as sacrificial fee ( daksina).[22] But this cannot be taken to be an index of the animal's inherent sanctity and inviolability in the Vedic period or even later.
Nor can one make too much of the doctrine of non-killing ( ahimsa) in relation to the cow. Gautama Buddha and Mahavira emphasized the idea of non-violence, which seems to have made its first appearance in the Upanisadic thought and literature. But despite their vehement opposition of the Vedic animal sacrifice, neither they nor their followers were averse to eating of meat. The Buddha is known to have eaten beef and pork and the texts amply indicate that flesh meat very well suited the Buddhist palate. Asoka, whose compassion for animals is undeniable, allowed certain specified animals to be killed for his kitchen. In fact, neither Asoka's list of animals exempted from slaughter nor the Arthasastra of Kautilya specifically mentions cow as unslayable. The cattle were killed for food throughout the Mauryan period.
Like Buddhism, Jainism also enthusiastically took up cudgels for non-violence. But meat eating was so common in Vedic and post-Vedic times that even Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is said to have eaten the meat of a cockerel. Perhaps the early Jainas were not strict vegetarians. A great Jaina logician of the eighth century, Haribhadrasuri, tells us that the monks did not have objection to eating flesh and fish, which were given to them by householders, though there is irrefutable textual evidence to show that meat eating became a strong taboo among the followers of Jainism. The inflexibility of the Jaina attitude to meat eating is deeply rooted in the basic tenets of Jaina philosophy, which, at least in theory, is impartial in its respect for all forms of life without according any special status to the cow. Thus, although both Buddhism, and, to a greater extent, Jainism contributed to the growth of ahimsa doctrine, neither seems to have developed the sacred cow concept independently.
III
Despite the Upanisadic, Buddhist and Jaina advocacy of ahimsa, the practice of ritual and random of killing animals including the cattle continued in the post-Mauryan centuries. The law book of Manu (200 BC-AD 200), which is the most representative of the legal texts and has much to say on the lawful and forbidden food, contains several passages on flesh eating, which have much in common with earlier and later Brahmanical juridical works. Like the earlier law books, it mentions the animals whose flesh could be eaten. Manu's list includes the porcupine, hedgehog, iguana, rhinoceros, tortoise and the hare and all those domestic animals having teeth in one jaw only, the only exception being the camel ( V.18); and, it is significant that the cow is not excluded from the list of edible animals. Eating meat on sacrificial occasions, Manu tells us, is a divine rule (daivo vidhih smrtah), but doing so on other occasions is a demoniac practice ( V.31).
Accordingly one does not do any wrong by eating meat while honouring the gods, the Manes and guests (madhuparka ca yajne ca pitrdaivatakarmani), irrespective of the way in which the meat was procured (V.32, 41). Manu asserts that animals were created for the sake of sacrifice, that killing on ritual occasions is non-killing ( V.39) and injury (himsa) as enjoined by the Veda (vedavihitahimsa) is known to be non-injury (V.44). In the section dealing with rules for times of distress, Manu recalls the legendary examples of the most virtuous brahmins of the days of yore who ate ox-meat and dog-meat to escape death from starvation ( X.105-9).Manu's latitudinarian attitude is clear from his recognition of the natural human tendency of eating meat, drinking spirituous liquor and indulging in sexual intercourse, even if abstention brings great rewards ( V.56). He further breaks loose the constraints when he says: "the Lord of creatures (Prajapati) created this whole world to be the sustenance of the vital spirit; both the immovable and the movable (creation is) the food of the vital spirit. What is destitute of motion is the food of those endowed with locomotion; (animals) without fangs (are the food) of those with fangs, those without hands of those who possess hands, and the timid of the bold. The eater who daily even devours those destined to be his food, commits no sin; for the creator himself created both the eaters and those who are to be eaten" ( V.28-30). This injunction removes all restrictions on flesh eating and gives an unlimited freedom to all desiring to eat animal flesh and since Manu does not mention beef eating as taboo one can infer that he did not treat cow as sacrosanct. Manu contradicts his own statements by extolling ahimsa (X.63), but there is no doubt that he permitted meat eating at least on ritual occasions (madhuparka, sraddha etc) when the killing of the cow and other cattle, according to his commentator Medhatithi (9 th century), was in keeping with the Vedic and post- Vedic practice (govyajamamsamaproksitambhaksyed… madhuparkovyakhyatah tatra govadhovihitah).[23]
Yajnavalkya (AD 100-300), like Manu, discusses the rules regarding lawful and forbidden food. Although his treatment of the subject is less detailed, he does not differ radically from him. Yajnavalkya mentions the specific animals (deer, sheep, goat, boar, rhinoceros etc) and birds ( e.g. partridge) whose flesh could satisfy the Manes (I.258-61). According to him a student, teacher, king, close friend and son-in-law should be offered arghya every year and a priest should be offered madhuparka on all ritual occasions (I.110). He further enjoins that a learned brahmin (srotriya) should be welcomed with a big ox or goat (mahoksam va mahajam va srotriyayopakalpayet) delicious food and sweet words. This indicates his endorsement of the earlier practice of killing cattle at the reception of illustrious guests. Yajnavalkya, like Manu, permits eating of meat when life is in danger, or when it is offered in sacrifices and funerary rites ( i.179). But unconsecrated meat (vrthamamsam, anupakrtamamsani), according to him, is a taboo (I.167, 171) and any one killing animals solely for his own food and not in accordance with the Vedic practice is doomed to go to hell for as many days as the number of hair on the body of the victim ( I.180). Similarly Brhaspati (AD 300-500), like Manu, recommends abstention from liquor (madya), flesh (mamsa) and sexual intercourse only if they are not lawfully ordained[24] which implies that whatever was lawful was permitted. The lawgivers generally accept as lawful all those sacrifices, which, according to them, have Vedic sanction.
The sacrificial slaughter of animals and domesticated bovines, as we have seen, was a Vedic practice and therefore may have been fairly common among the Brahmanical circles during the early Christian centuries and even well into the later half of the first millennium AD. It would be, however, unrealistic to assume that the dharmic precept of restricting animal slaughter to ritual occasions was always taken seriously either by brahmins for whom the legal injunctions were meant or by other sections of society.[25] It is not surprising, therefore, that Brhaspati, while discussing the importance of local customs, says that in Madhyadesa the artisans eat cows (madhyadese karmakarah silpinasca gavasinah).[26]
The evidence from the epics is quite eloquent. Most of the characters in the Mahabharata are meat eaters and it makes a laudatory reference to the king Rantideva in whose kitchen two thousand cows were butchered everyday, their flesh, along with grains, being distributed among the brahmins ( III.208.8-9)[27]. Similarly the Ramayana of Valmiki makes frequent reference to the killing of animals including the cow for sacrifice as well as food. Rama was born after his father Dasaratha performed a big sacrifice involving the slaughter of a large number of animals declared edible by the Dharmasastras, which, as we have seen, sanction ritual killing of the kine. Sita, while crossing the Yamuna, assures her that she would worship her with thousand cows and a hundred jars of wine when Rama accomplishes his vow. Her fondness for deer meat drives her husband crazy enough to kill Marici, a deer in disguise. Bharadvaja welcomes Rama by slaughtering a fatted calf in his honour. [28]
The non-vegetarian dietary practices find an important place in the early Indian medical treatises, whose chronology broadly coincides with that of the law books of Manu and Yajnavalkya, and the two epics. Caraka (1 st-2nd century), Susruta (3rd –4th century) and Vagbhata (7th century) provide an impressive list of the variety of fish and flesh and all three of them speak of the therapeutic uses of beef [29]. The continuity of the tradition of eating flesh including that of the cattle is also echoed in early Indian secular literature till late times. In the Gupta period, Kalidasa alludes to the story of Rantideva who killed numerous cows every day in his kitchen. [30] More than two centuries later, Bhavabhuti (AD 700) refers to two instances of guest reception, which included the killing of a heifer [31]. In the 10th century Rajasekhara mentions the practice of killing an ox or a goat in honour of a guest [32]. In the 12th century Sriharsa mentions a variety of non-vegetarian delicacies served at a dazzling marriage feast and refers to two interesting instances of cow killing [33], though, in the same century Somesvara shows clear preference for pig flesh over other meat types and does not mention beef at all.
IV
While the above references, albeit limited in number, indicate that the ancient practice of killing the kine for food continued till about the 12 th century, there is considerable evidence in the commentaries on the kavya literature and the earlier Dharmasastra texts to show that the Brahmanical writers retained its memory till very late times. Among the commentators on the secular literature, Candupandita (late 13 th century) from Gujarat, Narahari[34] (14th century) from Telengana in Andhra Pradesh, and Mallinatha [35] (14th-15th century), who is associated with the king Devaraya II of Vidyanagara (Vijayanagara), clearly indicate that, in earlier times, the cow was done to death for rituals and hence for food. As late as the 18 th century Ghanasyama, a minister of a Tanjore ruler, states that the killing of cow in honour of a guest was the ancient rule.[36]
Similarly the authors of Dharmasastra commentaries and religious digests from the 9th century onwards keep alive the memory of the archaic practice of beef eating and some of them even go so far as to permit eating beef in specific circumstances. For example, Medhatithi (9th century), probably a Kashmirian brahmin, says that a bull or ox was killed in honour of a ruler or any one deserving to be honoured and unambiguously allows eating the flesh of cow ( govyajamamsam) on ritual occasions[37]. Several other writers of exegetical works seem to lend support to this view, though some times indirectly. Visvarupa [38] (9th century), a brahmin from Malwa and probably a pupil of Sankara, Vijnanesvara [39] (11th century), who may have lived not far from Kalyana in modern Karnataka, Haradatta [40] (12th century), also a southerner (daksinatya), Laksmidhara[41] (12th century), a minister of the Gahadwala king, Hemadri[42] (late 13 th century), a minister of the Yadavas of Devagiri, Narasimha/ Nrsimha[43] (14th century), possibly from southern India, and Mitra Misra[44] (17th century) from Gopacala (Gwalior) support the practice of killing a cow on occasions like guest-reception and sraddha in ancient times. As recently as the early 20th century, Madana Upadhyaya from Mithila refers to the ritual slaughter of milch cattle in the days of yore.[45] Thus even when the Dharmasastra commentators view cow killing with disfavour, they generally admit that it was an ancient practice and that it was to be avoided in the kali age.
V
While the above evidence is indicative of the continuity of the practice of beef eating, the lawgivers had already begun to discourage it around the middle of the first millennium when the Indian society began to be gradually feudalized leading to major socio-cultural transformation. This phase of transition, first described in the epic and Puranic passages as kaliyuga, saw many changes and modification in social norms and customs. The Brahmanical religious texts now begin to speak of many earlier practices as forbidden in the kaliyuga – practices which came to be known as kalivarjyas. While the number of kalivarjyas swelled up over time, most of the relevant texts mention cow killing as forbidden in the kali. According to some early medieval lawgivers a cow killer was an untouchable and one incurred sin even by talking to him. They increasingly associated cow slaughter and beef eating with the proliferating number of untouchable castes. It is, however, interesting that some of them consider these acts as no more than minor behavioural aberrations like cleaning one's teeth with one's fingers and eating only salt or soil. [46]
Equally interesting is the fact that almost all the prescriptive texts enumerate cow killing as a minor sin ( upapataka) and none of them describe it as a major offence (mahapataka). Moreover the Smrti texts provide easy escape routes by laying down expiatory procedures for intentional as well as inadvertent killing of the cow. This may imply that that cattle killing may not have been uncommon in society and the atonements were prescribed merely to discourage eating of cattle flesh. To what extent the Dharmasastric injunctions were effective, however, remains a matter of speculation; for the possibility of at least some members eating beef on the sly cannot be ruled out. As recently as the late 19 th century Swami Vivekananda was alleged to have eaten beef during his stay in America, though he vehemently defended his action.[47] Similarly in early twentieth century Mahatma Gandhi spoke of the hypocrisy of the orthodox Hindus who "do not so much as hesitate or inquire when during illness the doctor … prescribes them beef tea." [48] Even today 72 communities in Kerala-- not all of them untouchable perhaps--- prefer beef to the expensive mutton and the Hindutva forces are persuading them to go easy on it. [49]
VI
Although cow killing and beef eating gradually came to be viewed as a sin and a source of pollution from the early medieval period, the cow and its products (milk, curds, clarified butter, dung and urine) or their mixture called pancagavya had been assuming a purificatory role from much earlier times. The Vedic texts attest to the ritual use of cow's milk and milk products, but the term pancagavya occurs for the first time in the Baudhayana Dharmasutra. The law books of Manu, Visnu, Vasistha, Yajnavalkya and those of several later lawgivers like Atri, Devala and Parasara mention the use of the mixture of the five products of the cow for both purification and expiation. The commentaries and religious digests, most of which belong to the medieval period, abound in references to the purificatory role of the pancagavya. The underlying assumption in all these cases is that the pancagavya is pure. But several Dharmasastra texts forbid its use by women and the lower castes. If a sudra drinks pancagavya, we are told, he goes to hell. [50]
It is curious that the prescriptive texts, which repeatedly refer to the purificatory role of the cow, also provide much evidence of the notion of pollution and impurity associated with this animal. According to Manu ( V.125) the food smelt by the cow has to be purified. Other early lawgivers like Visnu (XXIII.38) and Yajnavalkya (I.189) also express similar views. The latter in fact says that while the mouth of the goat and horse is pure that of the cow is not. Among the later juridical texts, those of Angirasa, Parasara, Vyasa and so on, support the idea of the cow's mouth being impure. The lawgiver Sankha categorically states that all limbs of the cow are pure except her mouth. The commentaries on different Dharmasastra texts reinforce the notion of impurity of the cow's mouth. All this runs counter to the ideas about the purificatory role of the cow.
Needless to say, then, that the image of the cow projected by Indian textual traditions, especially the Brahmanical- Dharmasastric works, over the centuries is polymorphic. Its story through the millennia is full of inconsistencies and has not always been in conformity with dietary practices prevalent in society. It was killed and yet the killing was not killing. When it was not slain, mere remembering the old practice of butchery satisfied the brahmins. Its five products including faeces and urine have been pure but its mouth has not been so. Yet through these incongruous attitudes and puzzling paradoxes the Indian cow has struggled its way to sanctity. But its holiness is elusive. For, there is no cow- goddess, nor any temple in her honour. [51] Nevertheless the veneration of this animal has come to be viewed as a characteristic trait of modern day non-existent monolithic 'Hinduism' bandied about by the Hindutva forces.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] L.L. Sundara Ram, Cow Protection in India, The South Indian Humanitarian League, George Town, Madras, 1027, pp.122-123, 179-190.
[2] Siva Digvijaya quoted in Sundara Ram, op. cit. p.191.
[3] Sandria B. Freitag, "Contesting in Public: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Communalism", in David Ludden, ed., Making India Hindu, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996, p.217.
[4] Idem, Collective Action and Community: Public Arena and the Emergence of Communalism in North India , Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990, Chapter 6; Gyan Pandey, 'Rallying round the Cow', in Subaltern Studies, Vol.. II, Ranajit Guha, (ed.), Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983, pp. 60- 129.
[5] Frederick J. Simoons, "Questions in the Sacred-Cow Controversy", Current Anthropology, 20(3), September 1979, p.468.
[6] The Times of India, 28 May 1999, p.12.
[7] Frontline, 13 April 2001.
[8] Rajesh Ramachandran, "A Crisis of Identity", The Hindustan Times, 7 May 2000.
[9] W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, 2 Vols, Delhi: 4th reprint, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1978.
[10] W. Crooke, 'The Veneration of the Cow in India', Folklore, 13 (1912), pp.275-306.
[11] Sundara Ram, Cow Protection in India, Madras: The South Indian Humanitarian League, 1927, p.8, passim.
[12] H.D. Sankalia, " (The Cow) In History", Seminar No. 93, May 1967.
[13] "Was the Cow Killed in Ancient India?" Quest, (75), March- April 1972, pp. 83-87.
[16] J.C. Heesterman translates a passage of the Kathaka Samhita (8.7:90.10) relating to the agnadheya as: 'they kill a cow, they play a dice for [shares in] her, they serve her up to those seated in the assembly hall': Broken World of Sacrifice, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993, p.283, note 33.
[17] Louis Renou, Vedic India, Varanasi, reprint, Indological Book House, 1971 p.109.
[18] R.L. Mitra, Indo-Aryans: Contributions to the Elucidation of Ancient and Medieval History, 2 Vols, Varanasi: reprint, Indological Book House, 1969, p.363.
[19] A.B. Keith, Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanisads, Delhi: Indian reprint, Motilal Banarsidass, 1970, p.324; P.V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, II, pt.2, Chapter XXXII.
[20] J. C. Heesterman, op.cit., pp. 190-93, 200-02.
[21] For different views see Hanns-Peter Schmidt, 'Ahimsa and Rebirth' in Inside The Texts Beyond The Texts: New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas , M. Witzel (ed.), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997, pp. 209-10; Cf. J.C. Heesterman, 'Vratya and Sacrifice', Indo-Iranian Journal, 6 (1962), pp. 1-37.
[22] William Norman Brown, 'The Sanctity of Cow in Hinduism', Madras University Journal, 27.2 (1957), pp. 29-49.
[23] Medhatithi on Manu, V.27, 41 see Manava-Dharma-Sastra, ed., V.N. Mandalik, Bombay, 1886, pp.604, 613.
[24] Brhaspatismrti cited in Krtyakalpataru of Laksmidhara, trtiyabhaga, ed., K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar, Baroda Oriental Institute, Baroda,1950, p.326
[25] Contra Francis Zimmermann (The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987, p.180ff) asserts that only consecrated meat was eaten and Hanns Peter Schmidt seems to be in agreement with him
('Ahimsa and Rebirth', op.cit., p.209). But the evidence from the Buddhist Jatakas, Kautilya's Arthasastra, and Asokan inscriptions etc does not support this view.
[26] Brhaspatismrti, 128b, Gaekwad Oriental Series, Baroda, 1941.
[27] For further references see S. Sorensen, An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1963, pp.593-94.
[28] R. L. Mitra, op.cit., vol.I, p. 396.
[29] Caraka Samhita: Sutrasthanam, II.31, XXVII.79: Susruta Samhita: Sarirasthanam , III.25; Astanga Hrdayam: Sutrasthanam, VI.65.
[30] Meghaduta, with the commentary of Mallinatha, ed. and tr., M. R. Kale (ed. & tr.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1979, I.48.
[31] Mahaviracarita, Rampratap Tripathi Shastri (ed. with Hindi tr.), Allahabad: Lok Bharati Prakashan, 1973. III.2. Uttararamacarita, with notes and the commentary of Ghanasyama, P.V. Kane and C. N. Joshi (ed. and tr.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1962, Act IV.
[32] Balaramayana, of Rajasekhara, Ganagasagar Rai (ed.) Varanasi: Chowkhamba, 1984. I.38a
[33] Naisadhamahakavyam, with the commentary of Mallinatha, Haragovind Shastri (ed.) Varanasi, Chowkhamba, 1981 XVII.173, 197.
[34] Naisadhacarita of Sri Harsa, K.K. Handiqui (tr. with commentaries), Poona, Deccan College, 1965, p.472.
[35] Naisadhamahakavyam, p. 1137.
[36] Meghaduta, Kale's edn, p.83.
[37] Medhatithi on Manu, V.26-7,41. See Manava-Dharma-Sastra (with the commentaries of Medhatithi, Sarvajnanarayana, Kulluka, Nandana and Ramacandra), V. N. Mandalika (ed.), Bombay: Ganpat Krishnaji's Press, 1886, pp.604, 613.
[38] Visvarupa on Yajnavalkya, I. 108. See Yajnavalkyasmrti (with the commentary Balakrida of Visvarupacarya), Mahamahopadhyaya T. Ganapati Sastri (ed.), Delhi: 2 nd edn, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982, p.97.
[39] Mitaksara on Yajnavalkya, I. 108. See Yajnavalkyasmrti with Vijnanesvara's Mitaksara, Gangasagar Rai (ed.), Delhi; Chowkhamba Sanskrit Pratisthan, 1998, p.54.
[40] Haradatta on Gautama, XVII.30.
[41] Krtyakalpataru, Niyatakalakandam, trtiyabhagam, K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar (ed.), Baroda: Oriental Research Institute, 1950, p.190
[42] P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, III, Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1973, p.929.
[43] R. L. Mitra, op.cit., p.384.
[44] Mitra Misra on Yajnavalkya, I. 108.
[45] Palapiyusalata Gourisayantralaya, Darbhanga, Samvat 1951.
[46] Atrismrti, verse 314 in Astadasasmrtyah (with Hindi tr by Sundarlal Tripathi, Khemraj Shrikrishnadas, Venkateshwar Steam Press, Bombay, Saka 1846.
[47] Romain Rolland, The Life of Vivekanada and the Universal Gospel, Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, Eleventh Impression, August 1988, p.44 fn. 3.
[48] M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Navajivan Trust, Ahmedabad, 1927, reprint 2000, p.324. Gandhi saw a five-footed "miraculous" cow at the Kumbha Mela at Allahabad in 1915, the fifth foot being nothing but "a foot cut off from a live calf and grafted upon the shoulder of the cow" which attracted the lavish charity of the ignorant Hindu (ibid., p.325).
[49] India Today, 15 April 1993, p.72.
[50] Visnusmrti, LIV.7; Atrismriti, verse 297, etc.
[51] A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, Delhi, Rupa & Co., 27th Impression, 1996, p.319.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Musharraf on Kashmir settlement
Musharraf sees early Kashmir settlementMay God help the dream of a peaceful subcontinent come to fruition.
It can happen with one stroke of a pen. It is incredible how relations can normalize with one bold move.
People are fickle, China was a hated nation once, until Nixon signed the pact; Russia was an evil empire once, until the Berlin wall came down; Germany and France fought a 1000 years war until they realized the futility; Ireland and England hated each other until the pact was signed... It is time for India and Pakistan to do it; it is time for Israel and Palestine to do it.
Leadership in both India and Pakistan had been spineless, neither of them had the vision to put things behind and move on.
We cannot pass the buck to the next generation, we have done that for 3 generations, and we cannot dump our problems to the next generation any more. Leaders (were they really?) of both the nations were afraid to make the bold decision, as they were not sincere about peace.
The people of India and Pakistan want peace and they will accept a bold decision if the leaders have the guts, vision and capability to spell it out to the people.
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy... Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.… Whatever you can do or dream that you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -- Goethe
"There is a clear distinction between doubts and problems. Doubts provoke obstruction, frustration and discouragement, where as problems inspire motivation, action and diligence. " -- Dr. Abdul Hamid Abusulayman
I do hope our nations come to terms, and get it over with.
Musharraf sees early Kashmir settlement
http://www.dawn.com/2007/04/26/top2.htm
MADRID, April 25: President Pervez Musharraf has said that the world may see the resolution of Kashmir dispute earlier than expected.
“A reasonable progress on this account has already been achieved,” President Musharraf said while addressing the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Spanish Congress on Wednesday.
He said military option was not the answer to the problem. The option of using force to settle bilateral disputes between Pakistan and India had never worked, he said.
He said people of both the countries wanted peace and harmony so that their resources and energies could be utilised in the socio-economic sector.
He said the two countries had taken several confidence-building measures, but the CBMs alone would not be enough to achieve the objective of peace and normalisation of their relations.
The two countries must move towards conflict resolution, the president emphasised.
He termed Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a credible leader and a man of peace who supported Pakistan’s strong desire for the settlement of the Kashmir issue considering it a main cause of tension.
He emphasised the need for the world to deal with crucial issues like terrorism.
President Musharraf said elections would be held in the country this year on time.
He also spoke about Pakistan’s efforts towards peace in Afghanistan and acceptance of the offer by the Turkish prime minister to host talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Ankara later this week.
About Iran’s nuclear programme, the president said Pakistan was looking forward to a peaceful solution to the problem.
Addressing a gathering of overseas Pakistanis, the president said Pakistan had to eliminate extremism and terrorism, which were eating into the foundation of the society. He said the nation had to create harmony and balance in the society to ensure progress and prosperity of the people.
The president said the government was negotiating with Spain for opening a consulate in Barcelona and to starting direct flights between the two countries.
President Musharraf awarded state medals to six Spanish military personnel and eight civilians in recognition of their aid work after the October 20005 earthquake.—Agencies
President Bush, please resign
Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Dr. Rice, Please resign in good faith, before you have to.Mike Ghouse, April 25, 2007
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/24636.html
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2007/04/mr-bush-please-resign.html
Bill Moyer's documentary was perhaps shocking to the nation, but to many it wasn't. Most People knew the truth or suspected the deliberate wrongdoings of our Administration. I am ashamed of our journalists who had acted as though they were working for a tin pot dictator and reported what was dished out to them. I am ashamed of our President and his gang for betraying us. What is that they wanted to accomplish for the Americans, in the name of Americans? Can we trust them?
Is Mr. Bush is going to Veto the funding bill today? He should consider gracefully resigning and protecting the honor of presidency and bringing our boys and girls back home. We need to trust the Iraqi people to manage their own affairs, they will not beat the record of our President, killing a Million of them and 3000 of our sons and daughters.
It was good to see the honest remorse by the biggest in the industry. I may have missed Ted Koppel, but it was good to see Tim Russet, Phil Donahue and all those journalists from Knight -Ridder. I really wish they had resecued our nations four years ago, knowing what they knew.
On the SAJA forum, several times, I have charged American Journalists as gutless and shameless sycophants, who have no loyalty to the truth or no desire to find the truth but work for the masters. Phil Donahue was fired for being truthful and years ago, Ted Koppel had talked on C-Span that he could not report the truth from Jerusalem during Intifada; his bosses told him what to put out.Dallas Morning News published my letter about Representative Murtha; I will dig in and search for my notes since 2001. Thanks God, I have started blogging and most of my comments are preserved now.
Should we put responsibility of 3300 American deaths and 1 Million Iraqi deaths and 3 Million dislocations on Mr. Bush? Let’s get the hell out of Iraq; they will not kill as many people as our leadership had them killed.
We need to let the world and the Iraqi people know that the only individuals to blame the mess in there is our President, vice President, Secretaries of Defense and State departments, and not the Americans. Just like the people in Iraq and other nations, we the Americans did not have a voice, those few who did, got muffled and were called unpatriotic. Our media ganged up with our administration to keep our voices subdued and we understand and empathise with you, when you say you do not have a voice. We owe an apology to you.
We got our freedom back after three years of suppression and fear, Tuesday, November 7, 2006. It was the day of true freedom for America and Americans. We got rid of the sycophants on that day and brought in people who would speak up for America. Every one got their voice back.
Mike Ghouse for America
Here are the four pieces preserved on the net;
Freedom at Midnight
November 7, 2006
http://mikeghouse.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/12/freedom-at-midnight.htm
On the night of Tuesday, November 7, upon the news that Democrats won the house, I took a deep breath and said to myself "Thank you God, freedom at last". The emotion I felt was very similar to the one when Nelson Mandela was released and given his God given freedom.
Our forefathers had designed one of the best systems of Governance in the world. With pure checks and balances to prevent individuals becoming fierce and frightening to the general public.
One may not agree with it, but I do know most of the free spirited Americans were choked. Hell, the 435 congress persons and 100 Senators dare not come of out the rat holes. They were as scared to speak out against that fiery man should they be labeled un-patriotic. Our man got every one by their balls, that's how scared America was.
Unilateralism is the stepping stone to Fascism. Our man Bush was about to step up from the first step to the next. I believe in God and I have full faith in the free spirited America, thanks to them and thank God, our nation was saved on the night of November 7, 2006. A historic re-start for America.
The essence of freedom is the ability to question every thing . American Media has never questioned our President's statements for the last several years, it is always like Government run or Business run press. No one dared asked him the questions. With the exception of Public Radio and Television, we do not have a free press when it comes to the international issues, we have businesses's that run news and are funded and influenced by advertisers. We have to accept that.
November 7th has changed it all. All those scared rats are out of the hole and are speaking up now. The Americans brought the freedom back to the defenders of the freedom, the Media. You can see the difference in what and how they talk on the television prior to November 7th and now.
The Free press Icon, Ted Koppel spoke up on Fox or CNN recently and I sighed deeply with gratitude, thanks to my fellow Americans, we are getting to the era of free press now. Now, I do not agree with David Duke, he is an opportunist and racist, but he was "allowed" to speak on CNN, that is the good thing, let us Americans get different points of view and then decide what is right or wrong. Let them boys be news disseminators and not tell us what to believe.
David is a hated guy and although he is wrong, he has brought freedom back to our Media.
The Exec, the Judiciary and the legislature should not be run by the same gang of rules. Let it be run by different parties so we do not make unilateral decisions and regret. The supreme court judges should be free from any party affiliations, and our media should be relabeled into Free Press and Paid for Press.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=808f230b49
http://www.corvuswire.com/wolf-duke.htm
CNN's Wolf Blitzer versus David Duke - video on YouTube.Com:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v2f-WC4cjo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WPYpbVzVoQ
http://www.rense.com/general74/comabt.htm
ttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15896.htm
Freedom at last
Message #3385 - Thu Nov 9, 20068:22 am :
WorldMuslimCongress@yahoogroups.com
Thanks God, we can speak now and you can read now.
Freedom at last! Thanks God, democracy is re-stored in America today. The unilateralism and fascism was frightening. People were scared to talk. Even the Senators and Congressman from both Isles were scared to speak up. The Fascism was flushing the democratic values of our nation, and with the same mouth in our behalf we were hypocritically talking about imposing democracy else where. The Journalist rats did not have the guts to even ask a question.... shame on them. Except Keith Doberman, no journalist dare pursue the question, where are the facts? No, the world did not hate us for our freedom, they hate us for our unilateral impositions, they hated for our hawkish arrogance.
Representative Murtha was the only one who had the balls to speak up and ask questions. He must be honored for persevering to preserve the democracy in our nation. It takes guts, the 334 other congressmen and 100 Senators did not have that... they were scared of being labeled un-patriotic.
A few of us spoke, against the advise that I may be thrown in the jail, I was willing to go there and write a book, my mentors had done the same - Gandhi, Mandela, Nehru, MLK.
I have always trusted Americans to do the right thing.
God Bless America, Now we speak freely again.
Thank you God.
Mike Ghouse
Let's Get the Hell out of Iraq
Mike Ghouse - January 11, 2007
http://mikeghouse.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/01/let-s-get-the-hell-out-of-iraq.htm
Our People have given a mandate to the Democrats, and certainly have given a clear message to get the hell out of Iraq . Our President has been shielded from the Public far too long now; he just does not see the ratings, the votes and the survey. If he wants to go down in the history as a President who had his own mind, he needs to dump the yes men and women around him.
We have to honor the Iraqi people's right to self determination. Let them figure it out what needs to be done.
It is arrogance on our part to believe that they cannot handle their affairs. I am certain, they can't beat death records in excess of 3000 of our own sons and daughters and 600,000 Iraqis. We should not be responsible for any more deaths, let's get out of there.
Our absence will de-escalate the killings and much of the bloodshed will stop.
The Iraqi's are a very capable people, it is their nation, their society and their lives at stake, and they will take care of it themselves. We need to stop pretending to be the protectors, God is, not us.
ADDED: 1/12/07
Reaction to Presiden't Bush's speech -
Check out the YES MEN below, Cain, Juliani & Ramni, it is because of these men, we are accelrating our mistakes. I hope, our President dumps all the yes men's advice, and find men and women who have the guts to stand up to you to say "Sir, I am afraid, we are wrong". When will they learn to speak up? By the way, I am a Republican and will remain one. Our party is screwed up, but it will get fixed and I hope it would be before 2008. We just need more people to speak up without fear. - Mike Ghouse
Bush's Iraq Plan Meets Skepticism On Capitol Hill
Opposition to Troop Increase Is Bipartisan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011100437.html?referrer=email
By Michael Abramowitz and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff WritersFriday, January 12, 2007; Page A01
President Bush's proposal to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq encountered strong bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill yesterday, and his top national security advisers, dispatched to defend the strategy, were greeted with a skepticism not seen from Congress over the past six years.
Lawmakers said they have little confidencethat the Iraqi government has the capacity to deliver on promises to take the lead in cracking down on violent militias and providing security in Baghdad, as the president's plan contemplates. Democrats and Republicans alike said they are concerned that Bush's plan, announced Wednesday night in a nationally televised prime-time address, is too little and too late and does not appear very different from previous efforts to secure the capital.
Buy This Photo
President Bush is facing opposition from lawmakers of both parties and from the public over his plan. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
Transcripts
Rice Delivers Remarks Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Rice Delivers Remarks Before House Armed Services Committee
Briefing on President's Iraq Strategy With Pace, Gates, Rice
The Reaction
Statements on President Bush's Iraq speech from potential 2008 presidential candidates:
"As our commanders have said repeatedly, Iraq requires a political solution, not a purely military one, and we did not hear such a proposed solution tonight."-- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)
"I have no doubt that the president is sincere in believing that his strategy is the right one. But escalation has already been tried and it has already failed, because no amount of American forces can solve the political differences that lie at the heart of somebody else's civil war."-- Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
"The new Congress must intercede to stop Bush from stubbornly sticking to the same failed course in Iraq and refuse to authorize funding for an escalation of troops."-- Former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.
"I've been calling for the increases, but I believe that this can succeed.I really do. I believe that it's not just an increase in troops; it's a change in strategy."-- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Fox News
"I support the president's increase in troops. Even more importantly, I support the change in strategy - the focus on security and the emphasis on a political and economic solution as being even more important than a military solution."-- Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R)
"I agree with the president: Our strategy in Iraq must change. Our military mission, for the first time, must include securing the civilian population from violence and terror."-- Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R)
The Washington Post
U.S. Congress
Browse every vote in the U.S. Congress since 1991.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates sought to assure lawmakers that the plan can work if given time. Gates said he detected a much greater determination from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to go after "all lawbreakers" with "no exceptions." He suggested that the prime minister will confront the militias fueling sectarian violence, including insurgents controlled by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Still, the ferocity of the congressional condemnation dismayed the White House, which had hoped to rebuild an element of bipartisan consensus around Bush's plan. It was further indication that the new Democratic Congress is headed toward a series of potentially epic clashes and floor votes over the conduct and funding of the nearly four-year-old war.
Congressional skepticism is being fueled by the public: A majority of Americans oppose Bush's decision to send more troops, and only one in three said the plan will probably make victory in Iraq more likely, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Rice appeared to be on the receiving end of the toughest grilling yesterday, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Not a single senator from either party expressed support for the president's plan, many posed hostile questions, and others expressed deep doubt about the Bush administration's premise of creating a viable democracy in the heart of the Middle East.
"I've gone along with the president on this, and I bought into his dream," Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) told Rice bluntly. "And at this stage of the game, I don't think it's going to happen."
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) offered a similar assessment. "I have supported you and the administration on the war, and I cannot continue to support the administration's position," he said. "I have not been told the truth over and over again by administration witnesses, and the American people have not been told the truth."
Rice maintained her composure throughout the hearing, which lasted more than three hours, conceding that doubts are warranted but pleading for patience. "I want you to understand that I, personally, too, understand and know the skepticism that is felt about Iraq and indeed the pessimism that some feel," Rice said.
Asked if she has confidence in the Maliki government, Rice said she did, adding: "I think he knows that his government is on borrowed time."
Appearing at Fort Benning, Ga., Bush told soldiers that daily life in Iraq will eventually improve but that his new strategy will not yield immediate results. "The American people have got to understand that suicide bombings won't stop immediately," Bush said. "The IED attacks won't stop immediately."
Administration officials said nothing to suggest that the troops will be coming home any time soon. At a morning news conference, Gates said the increase in troops is being viewed as a "temporary surge" but added: "No one has a really clear idea of how long that might be."
Mike Ghouse
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