[Vision2020] RE: A Reagan supporter tells it like it is

[James Reynolds]

I cut a little from this article to show there is Republican agreement with 
Gore's stance. To be intelligent is not treasonous anywhere but in the Bush 
administration Pat.


Roberts’ article appears under the headline: “Who Will Save America?” Who 
indeed! The full text of his remarks can be read at www.counterpunch.org.

Paul Craig Roberts was former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the 
Reagan administration. He also served as Associate editor of the Wall Street 
Journal and was a contributing editor of National Review. He is greatly 
concerned about the direction this country is taking.
Roberts says he abandoned right-wing Republicanism when he saw the 
neoconservative element in the party respond to 9/11 by turning a war 
against terrorism into attacks on Muslim nations. He said: “I realized that 
the Bush administration was committing a strategic blunder with open-ended 
disastrous consequences for the U.S. that, in the end, would destroy Bush, 
the Republican Party and the conservative movement.”
He believes the Bush administration has arrived at a point where it intends 
to make the American people irrelevant, totally

Roberts sees that as symptomatic of what is taking place in the U.S. today. 
“The United States is undergoing a coup against the Constitution, the Bill 
of Rights, civil liberties, and democracy itself,” he said. “The ‘liberal 
press’ has been co-opted. As everyone must know by now, The New York Times 
has totally failed its First Amendment obligations, allowing Judith Miller 
to make war propaganda for the Bush administration, suppressing for an 
entire year the news that the Bush administration was illegally spying on 
American citizens, and denying coverage to Al Gore’s speech that challenged 
the criminal deeds of the Bush administration.” (See article about the 
wiretap scandal.)

He rightly notes that Homeland Security and the Patriot Act do nothing to 
protect us. Instead, they undercut our safeguards by shredding the 
Constitution and our civil liberties. Roberts commented: “Those with a 
tyrannical turn of mind have always used fear and hysteria to overcome 
obstacles to their power and to gain new means of silencing opposition.”

“Hamas’ victory in the recent Palestinian elections indicates that Muslim 
outrage over further U.S. aggression in the Middle East has the potential to 
produce uprisings in Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Not even 
Karl Rove and Fox ‘News’ could spin Bush out of the catastrophe,” Roberts 
said.
The perpetual “war on terror” serves many interests, last of all, that of 
the American people’s welfare. Roberts points out that the Federalist 
Society, from whence came Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, is using 
the “war” to stack the high court and concentrate power in the executive 
branch; the neocons are using it to gain their objective of Israeli hegemony 
in the Middle East; police agencies are using it to remove restraints on 
their powers and make themselves less accountable; Republicans are using it 
to achieve one-party rule—their own; the Bush administration is using the 
war to avoid accountability and limits on executive powers. The arms 
industries are using it to fatten their bottom lines; terrorism experts use 
it to get more visibility; and security companies use it to gain customers. 
The list goes on and on. The lack of debate removes the limits.

Roberts concludes: “One certainty prevails. Bush is committing America to a 
path of violence and coercion, and he is getting away with it.”

James Reynolds


>From: "James Reynolds" <chapandmaize at hotmail.com>
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] Gore's Foreign Policy
>Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 08:56:24 -0800
>
>Al Gore was following the only path toward resolution of the long-term 
>miss-steps that our Government has employed in the Mideast. His talk in 
>Saudi Arabia should not (as it is by some) be looked at as anti-America but 
>instead is a first step in reconciling the relationship problems between 
>the Mideast and the USA, American foreign policy has contributed to. We 
>must return to the premise that diplomacy and honest open discourse are the 
>tools needed to rectify our political problems abroad. Our government’s 
>reliance on direct military force against foreign governments and military 
>assistance to dissidents against those same governments has contributed 
>manifestly to the problems that are now threatening the security of the 
>Mideast and the American people’s own freedom. Our government needs to 
>change its emphasis from the current militaristic attitude to one of 
>diplomacy before it is too late.
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee® 
>Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
>
>_____________________________________________________
>List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the 
>communities of the Palouse since 1994.                 http://www.fsr.net   
>                              mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

_________________________________________________________________
On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to 
get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement