We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

World Being Readied for Aggression Against Syria

Click here to access 4:19m video interview with F. William Engdahl from Global Research TV via Russia Today. 
World opinion is being orchestrated towards a military operation against the Syrian regime, researcher and author F. William Engdahl told RT. Still, any decisive action against Assad will be postponed until after the US presidential election.
While observing current news from mainstream US and Canadian media, I have been amazed at this tired, old rerun of war preparations now being used with Syria, and soon, Iran. In spite of massive propaganda efforts, I fail to see how they can put this one over on ordinary Americans who are engaged in a daily struggle to keep their homes and jobs while seeing their public services cut to the bone, and daily threats against Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The current situation in the US is aptly described by David Glenn Cox in an article entitled, "How Can We Live Without Our Lives?".

It seems to me that this current media war campaign waged by Empire's ruling classes is taking on a quality of desperation. Perhaps they think that once again they can use war to divert attention away from domestic problems. If so, I think this is a dangerous, high stakes gamble on their part.