Friday, January 16, 2009

BOYCOTT

7btc
As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det Weblog on January 15, 2009 6:10 PM

1. I would like to have the Malaysian Armed Forces attack the United States and Israel.

2. But I don't think the Government and the MAF would agree with me.

3. So what do we do?

4. We could blockade the United States and deny it food and medicine.

5. The blockade would have to go on for a hundred years. A lot of innocent people would die. But as Madeleine Albright said when asked whether killing 500,000 Iraqi babies was worth it, she said it was difficult but it was worth it. So Malaysians should not mind killing a few million Americans including babies because although it will be difficult it would be worth it.

6. But I suspect we cannot blockade either.

7. So what do we do? Let the bully do what it likes? But the bully is killing lots of innocent people together with small children and babies.

8. But on the other hand we need to drink Coca-Cola, use the Internet, fly Boeing jets, see Rambo movies etc etc. Can we sacrifice all these simply because babies are being decapitated by Israeli soldiers using highly sophisticated and costly weapons donated by the kind Americans? Of course we cannot.

9. What we can do is totally worthless. We can boycott US products.

10. But can we? Well not completely. Maybe partially. Like not drinking Coca-Cola, or not seeing the latest blockbuster.

11. It is not going to stop the United States from remaining the most powerful nation and continuing to kill people directly or indirectly.

12. But if 10 per cent of the people in the world who drink Coca-Cola stop drinking it there would be some impact. If Malaysians drink, say 50 per cent less Coca-Cola (because their lives depend on it) there would be some impact also. If nothing else it will demonstrate our displeasure with the Americans.

13. But what about the Malaysians working in factories producing coke? I don't believe they produce only Coca-Cola. They produce other drinks as well. If people switch from Coca-Cola to another drink produced by the same company, then the company will have to produce more of this alternative drink and there would be no need to close down and sack the workers.

14. The idea is to do what we can to show displeasure at what the US is doing. We will not bring the US economy crashing down. It will continue to prosper. But the US and Americans must know how much the world dislike or even hate them.

15. Presently the President of the United States claims "the world respects America for its compassion".

16. I am appending below an article by Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration.

17. Please read it carefully since you may think as a Muslim I am biased against the United States and Israel.

18. I will be putting on my blog other articles by other people and you can judge for yourselves.

The White House Moron Stumbles to the Finish

The Humiliation of America

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

"Early Friday morning the secretary of state was considering bringing the cease-fire resolution to a UNSC vote and we didn't want her to vote for it," Olmert said. "I said 'get President Bush on the phone.' They tried and told me he was in the middle of a lecture in Philadelphia. I said 'I'm not interested, I need to speak to him now.' He got down from the podium, went out and took the phone call."

"Let me see if I understand this," wrote a friend in response to news reports that Israeli Prime Minister Olmert ordered President Bush from the podium where he was giving a speech to receive Israel's instructions about how the United States had to vote on the UN resolution. "On September 11th, President Bush is interrupted while reading a story to school children and told the World Trade Center had been hit--and he went on reading. Now, Olmert calls about a UN resolution when Bush is giving a speech and Bush leaves the stage to take the call. There exists no greater example of a master-servant relationship."

Olmert gloated as he told Israelis how he had shamed US Secretary of State Condi Rice by preventing the American Secretary of State from supporting a resolution that she had helped to craft. Olmert proudly related how he had interrupted President Bush's speech in order to give Bush his marching orders on the UN vote.

Israeli politicians have been bragging for decades about the control they exercise over the US government. In his final press conference, President Bush, deluded to the very end, said that the whole world respects America. In fact, when the world looks at America, what it sees is an Israeli colony.

Responding to mounting reports from the Red Cross and human rights organizations of Israel's massive war crimes in Gaza, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted 33-1 on January 12 to condemn Israel for grave offenses against human rights.

On January 13, the London Times reported that Israelis have gathered on a hillside overlooking Gaza to enjoy the slaughter of Palestinians in what the Times calls "the ultimate spectator sport."

It is American supplied F-16 fighter jets, helicopter gunships, missiles, and bombs that are destroying the civilian infrastructure of Gaza and murdering the Palestinians who have been packed into the tiny strip of land. What is happening to the Palestinians herded into the Gaza Ghetto is happening because of American money and weapons. It is just as much an attack by the United States as an attack by Israel. The US government is complicit in the war crimes.

Yet in his farewell press conference on January 12, Bush said that the world respects America for its compassion.

The compassion of bombing a UN school for girls?

The compassion of herding 100 Palestinians into one house and then shelling it?

The compassion of bombing hospitals and mosques?

The compassion of depriving 1.5 million Palestinians of food, medicine, and energy?

The compassion of violently overthrowing the democratically elected Hamas government?

The compassion of blowing up the infrastructure of one of the poorest and most deprived people on earth?

The compassion of abstaining from a Security Council vote condemning these actions?

And this is a repeat of what the Israelis and Americans did to Lebanon in 2006, what the Americans did to Iraqis for six years and are continuing to do to Afghans after seven years. And still hope to do to the Iranians and Syrians.

In 2002 I designated George W. Bush "the White House Moron." If there ever was any doubt about this designation, Bush's final press conference dispelled it.

Bush talked about connecting the dots, but Bush has failed to connect any dots for eight solid years. "Our" president was a puppet for a cabal led by Dick Cheney and a handful of Jewish neoconservatives, who took control of the Pentagon, the State Department, the National Security Council, the CIA, and "Homeland Security." From these power positions, the neocon cabal used lies and deception to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, pointless wars that have cost Americans $3 trillion, while millions of Americans lose their jobs, their pensions, and their access to health care.

"These obviously very difficult economic times," Bush said in his press conference, "started before my presidency."

Bush has plenty of liberal company in failing to connect a $3 trillion dollar war with hard times. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities blames Bush's tax cut, not the wars, for "the fiscal deterioration."

Bush told the White House Press Corps, a useless collection of non-journalists, that the two mistakes of his invasion of Iraq were: (1) Putting up the "mission accomplished" banner on the aircraft carrier, which, he said, "sent the wrong message," and (2) the absence of the alleged weapons of mass destruction that he used to justify the invasion.

Although Bush now admits that there were not any such weapons in Iraq, Bush said that the invasion was still the right thing to do.

The deaths of 1.25 million Iraqis, the displacement of 4 million Iraqis, and the destruction of a country's infrastructure and economy are merely the collateral damage associated with "bringing freedom and democracy" to the Middle East.

Unless George W. Bush is the best actor in human history, he truly believes what he told the White House Press Corps.

What Bush did not explain is how America is respected when its people put a moron in charge for eight years.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01142009.html