HELA DETTA MAIL FÅR SPRIDAS FRITT. /Leif Erlingsson, 22 jan 2005
Några artiklar om sammanjämkningen mellan Zionism, Kristen
Fundamentalism, storfinans utom demokratisk kontroll, det
militär-industriella komplexet och regeringar:
http://uscrisis.lege.net/perfectstorm/
http://members.chello.se/humanistgruppen/ .
Klicka på "Leif Erlingsson".
Den pinsamma tystnaden --> http://lege.com/ .
Mvh
Leif Erlingsson
Tullinge, Sweden
= Den pinsamma tystnaden = SPRID DENNA LÄNK = http://lege.com/ =
THIS WHOLE TEXT MAY BE FREELY DISTRIBUTED. ALL THE BELOW IS IN
ENGLISH. IT WAS COMPOSED DECEMBER 16, 2004, BY LEIF ERLINGSSON
BUT ALL LINKS AND TEXTS RE: THE 2004 U.S. ELECTION FRAUD WAS ON
JANUARY 22, 2005 REPLACED BY THREE SHORT LINKS TO COMPREHENSIVE
DOCUMENTS ON THE SAME SUBJECT.
Here are some books and links that help explain the current
US political situation (of the last 50 years):
The second book may surprise, but fear has a lot to do with it.
The last couple may also surprise, but Armageddon has everything
to do with it. Or rather, belief in the necessity to start one.
Robert Kagan's "Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the
New World Order" (Vintage Books 27 January, 2004)
Barry Glassner's "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid
of the Wrong Things"
Lewis H. Lapham's "Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and
Stifling of Democracy" (NY: The Penguin Press, 2004)
Gore Vidal's "Imperial America: Reflections on the United States
of Amnesia" (NY: Nation Books, 2004)
The books by Noam Chomsky, see links to on-line versions from
this link-page: http://propaganda.lege.net/resources/
Examples: Deterring Democracy: http://zmag.org/chomsky/dd/
Necessary Illusions: http://zmag.org/chomsky/ni/
Year 501: http://zmag.org/chomsky/year/
Also see: Propaganda model: http://propaganda.lege.net/model/
The Religious Right, Rev. Rich Lang:
'George Bush and the rise of Christian Fascism'
Posted on Monday, March 08 @ 10:10:27 EST
http://smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=15261
Grace Halsell's "Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on
the Road to Nuclear War" from 1986
Grace Halsell's "Forcing God's Hand: Why Millions Pray for a
Quick Rapture ... and Destruction of Planet Earth"
END BOOKS & LINKS to help explain the current US situation.
But some quotes from the abovementioned books will follow:
The `gist' of Robert Kagan's "Of Paradise and Power" might be
described as follows, with the words of Leif Erlingsson:
For weak countries, like the US was in the 1800's compared to
the then militarily strong European countries, and like nowadays
European countries compared to todays militarily strong US, the
protection of the Law is very important. That is why it's such
a big issue in the US constitution and also in current European
thinking.
For strong countries, like European countries in the 1800's
compared to the then militarily weak US and like nowadays US
compared to todays militarily weak Europe, it's real politics
that matter. Law is for weaklings. He who has the power rules.
Europe got burnt on this in the world wars, and is now shunning
this kind of power. The US has still not learnt the lesson, and
it will hurt. And all of us will be affected.
That is, the rule of law is important outside the US. Elections
are counted exactly and with no uncertainty whatsoever. Outside
the US. And the laws of war are important. Outside the US.
This explains why it's perfectly sensible for Europeans to go
after US war criminals, but considered "frivolous" in the US:
Abu Ghraib torture scandal aftermath:
Lawsuit against Rumsfeld Threatens U.S.-German Relations
http://truthout.org/docs_04/121504Y.shtml
http://truthout.org/docs_04/printer_121504Y.shtml
In Lewis H. Lapham's "Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent
and the Stifling of Democracy" (NY: The Penguin Press, 2004)
pages 163 - 165, Milton Mayer's "They Thought They Were Free:
The Germans 1933-1945" is quoted. This quote is so profound for
our understanding of current events, that I'd like to share it
with you. Mayer published the book ten years after the collapse
of Hitler's Third Reich, assigning its most acute observations
to "a colleague of mine, a philologist," who describes the loss
of freedom as so slow a descent into the maelstrom that it is
almost imperceptible:
What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people,
little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving
decisions deliberated in secret, to believing that the
situation was so complicated that the government had to act
on information which the people could not understand, or so
dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it
could not be released because of national security. . . .
I do not speak of your "little men," your baker and so on;
I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you.
Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things
and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some
dreadful, fundamental things to think about -- we were decent
people -- and kept us so busy with continuous changes and
"crises" and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the
machinations of the "national enemies," without and within,
that we had no time to think about those dreadful things that
were growing, little by little, all around us.
Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to
think?
Lewis H. Lapham here comments that ``Mayer's book deserves
quotation at more length, if for no other reason than to disturb
the complacence of people who say, smilingly, and as if from a
great height, "Yes, but that was then, and this is now, and
besides, it can't happen here." It happened in Greece, it
happened in Rome; it can happen aboard the starship Enterprise.
At the risk of trying the reader's patience, again Mayer:''
To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to
notice it -- please try to believe me -- unless one has a
much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most
of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so
small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion,
"regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole
process from the beginning, unless one understood what the
whole thing was in principle, what all these "little
measures", that no "patriotic German" could resent must some
day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day
than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it
is over his head.
My own perspective is that of someone who doesn't live in this
process, who can therefore see it from the outside, and actually
see what is going on. / Leif Erlingsson, Wed, 17 Nov 2004.
On page 63 of Gore Vidal's "Imperial America", he warmly
recommends Texas-born author Grace Halsell's "Prophecy and
Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War."
Grace Halsell comes from a fundamentalist Christian family.
She has been for many years a working journalist, the author of
about 11 books, a speechwriter for Lyndon Johnson, and a
longtime student of twice-born Christians and their current
president. Using Halsell as his source, Vidal on page 62 of
"Imperial America", begins to explain the perfect indifference
to the disintegration of American economy, educational system,
industrial infrastructure, etc, and the all-out one-time-only
investment in a nuclear war to end all wars and Evil itself. As
he writes, "the world is simply a used-up Kleenex", quoting
Reagan's secretary of the interior, James Watt to have said
scorning environmentalists with a first hint of what was in the
works: "I do not know," he said to Congress in 1981, "how many
future generations we can count on before the Lord returns." So
why conserve anything, if Judgment Day is at hand?
Apparently, according to a Yankelovich poll (1984), 39 percent
of the American people believe in the death of the earth by
nuclear fire; and Rapture.
This means, to 39 percent of Americans, civil rights and all the
rest of the liberal agenda is totally irrelevant, and probably
of the Devil.
A lot of Americans feel that preparations for Armageddon and the
Second Coming of Christ is a lot more important than human and
civil rights, the environment, the education system, the infra-
structure, etc. To fight Evil is more important than anything
else, and definitely more important than democracy and "silly
demonstrations".
Gore Vidal places the time and place of the fall of America to
the White House in 1950. ``Harry Truman and his advisers
decided that it would be a good idea to keep the United States
on a full wartime basis even though there was no enemy on earth
who could challenge us military or economically. Therefore an
enemy had to be invented. The dictator Stalin fit the bill.
So did atheistic and godless communism as a rival religion.
But, said a Republican senator to Truman, if you really want to
waste all that money on the military, you're going to have to
scare the hell out of the American people. With a lot of help
from Congress and the likes of Henry Luce, Truman did just
that.'' (Quote from pp. 82-83 of Gore Vidal's "Imperial America:
Reflections on the United States of Amnesia" (NY: Nation Books,
2004).) The quoted text was originally part of a piece
published in The Nation August 27 / September 3, 1990.
Quote from Grace Halsell's "Prophecy and Politics: Militant
Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War" (from 1986), page 127:
``Finally, a militant, nationalist version of Christianity, if
not challenged, will replace the primary Christian values of
compassion, love and understanding. Then, he warns, Christians
will have only a God of war.'' (Grace Halsell's "Prophecy and
Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War",
page 127.)
TV evangelist Jim Robinson, who was invited by President Reagan
to deliver the opening prayer at the 1984 Republican National
Convention, has said that ``There'll be no pace until Jesus
comes. Any preaching of peace prior to this return is heresy;
it's against the word of God; it's Anti-christ.'' (Grace
Halsell's "Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the
Road to Nuclear War", page 16.)
One TV Evangelist (dispensionalist Jimmy Swaggard in a sermon
broadcast on TV from Baton Rouge on September 22, 1985, is
quoted by Grace Halsell to have said: ``I don't care who it
(Armageddon) bothers. I don't care who it troubles. It thrills
my soul!'' (Grace Halsell's "Prophecy and Politics: Militant
Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War", page 17.)
Quote from Grace Halsell's "Prophecy and Politics: Militant
Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War" (from 1986), page 47:
``Reporter Robert Scheer in a March 1981 interview with Jerry
Falwell revealed President Reagan had said the destruction of
our world could indeed happen "very fast." "History is reaching
a climax," Falwell told Scheer, adding he did not think we had
50 years left. Asked if Reagan agreed with him, Falwell said,
"Yes, he does." Falwell added that Reagan had told him, "Jerry,
I sometimes believe we're heading very fast for Armageddon right
now." Two years later, Reagan arranged for Falwell to attend
National Security Council briefings and discuss with America's
top officials plans for nuclear war with Russia. Also,
according to Hal Lindsey, Reagan also approved of "The Late
Great Planet Earth" dispensionalist author giving a talk on a
nuclear war with Russia to Pentagon strategists.'' (Grace
Halsell's "Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the
Road to Nuclear War", page 47.)
Jonathan Kuttab, an American Christian lawyer who returned to
his native Palestine: ``For the evangelical-fundamentalists
such as Falwell, the cult of Israel is higher than the teachings
of Christ. The Christian Zionists such as Falwell perverted the
teachings of Christ. Falwell's Zionism is about politics. It
has nothing to do with morality, ethics of wrestling with real,
serious problems. He tells followers to support Israel. And he
tells the American taxpayers to give five billion dollars a year
to Israel. He assures his followers that as supporters of
Zionism they are on the right side, the 'good' side, the
successful, winning side. And he says that they do not ever
need to see or hear about any other side. Because Falwell has
influenced his followers to put the cult of Israel above
humanity, few Christian groups come here and seek out Christian
organizations. The Christians on such tours practice a folk
religion, with a mythology of Israel and prophesy. It negates
biblical Christianity. The average American finds this
mythology very appealing. It is not demanding, nor is it a
moral or highly ethical religion. It is a macho religion of the
small, ultrapowerful Israel, which is not a sissy. Their God is
a cross between Superman and Star Wars, a God who zaps here and
there with a fiery, swift sword and destroys all enemies. He is
proof for those of weak faith that the Bible is still true and
alive. For them, it's almost as if Joshua were in the daily
newspaper.'' (Jonathan Kuttab in late November or early December
1983 quoted by Grace Halsell in "Prophecy and Politics: Militant
Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War", page 66.)
Dr. James Prince, ordained Presbyterian minister and college
professor, and co-author of "Jerry Falwell: An Unauthorized
Profile, who with Dr. William Goodman, also Presbyterian
minister and college professor, for 15 years had studied Jerry
Falwell's sermons and other remarks for the last 25 years:
``As the 1980 elections approached and his Moral Majority began
to get national press attention, Falwell emerged as a prime time
media personality, with reporters giving wide coverage to his
views on Israel. Falwell found many opportunities to tell
Americans the fate of the nation stood or fell according to the
attitude they took toward Israel. If Americans did not show an
unflinching willingness to provide Israel with arms and dollars,
Falwell said, America would loose all.'' (Dr. James Prince to
Grace Halsell around 1984, as quoted by Grace Halsell in her
"Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to
Nuclear War", page 74.)
``[Jerry Falwell and Menachem Begin] have the same goals, they
admire power and they advocate ruthlessness in achieving it.''
(Ibid. (Also Dr. James Prince.))
Professor Gordon Welty of Wright State University in Ohio, a
sociologist and anthropologist who has traveled throughout the
Middle East and written and lectured extensively on the subject
of the Christian right-wing support for Israel, interviewed by
Grace Halsell around 1985:
Halsell: ``How can Christians consider it moral to negate the
existence of about a billion Muslims and praiseworthy to donate
millions of dollars for the destruction of their holy shrine?''
Welty: ``The evangelical-fundamentalists who raise money to
destroy the mosque practice the same type of muscular theology
that many of our forefathers did. They thought it brave, moral
and right `to win the west,' to slaughter Indians and march
forward with white civilization. Since the `frontier' of
America is gone, they seek to recreate it elsewhere. The `New
Zion' of settler's dreams has become the plain old Zion of
Palestine.
``Just as some Christian settlers found it moral to kill
Indians, some Christians now find it moral to give money to
Zionists who kill Palestinians. With a disdain of history and
sociological laws, they make invisible those who stand in the
path of their manifest destiny. Now that the West is won, the
Reisenhoovers must fly over to Israel.
``One of the best descriptions I've seen of this type of
power-makes-right is given by John Hobson in his book,
"Imperialism". He calls it `muscular Christianity.' It trans-
lates into a rough-and-ready, take-what-you-can brand of action.
The `muscular Christians' supporting Zionism settle for short-
term goals and deal in strange inconsistencies. They
compartmentalize [Ed. comment: Compare cognitive dissonance]:
they hold in one section of their brains the conviction that the
Jews are God's Chosen People, and in another compartment they
believe God does not hear the prayers of the Jew. They have, to
a marked degree, this ability to hold incompatible and often
self-contradictory ideas and motives.
``Thus, they do not `see' Palestinians, they do not `see'
the mosque -- they only say `they must go.' ''
< ... snip ... >
Halsell: ``The main reason, I recalled to Professor Welty, that
Pastor DeLoach gave for favoring the removal of a Muslim shrine
for the building of a Jewish temple was that, as he put it,
Christians must have "freedom" to worship on that particular
holy site in Jerusalem.''
Welty: ``Yes, freedom is one of the `masked words' that
muscular Christians like most to use. Yet, does Pastor DeLoach
think for a moment he would have the `freedom' to preach a
sermon anywhere in the Jewish state? Does he think he would
have the `freedom' as a Christian to immigrate to the Jewish
state? Since citizenship is reserved only for Jews, he would
not have that freedom.''
Halsell: ``Since Pastor DeLoach had said he was concerned only
about a Christian's freedom to pray at Haram al-Sharif, was the
pastor being hypocritical?''
Welty: ``No, not in the least. If the minister is typical
of the muscular Christians I have studied, he is incapable of
being hypocritical. Their power is to keep inconsistencies in
airtight compartments, so that they themselves never recognize
these inconsistencies. As far as the muscular Christians know
(or accept) they act with high minded, upright,
self-sacrificing, generous, moral rectitude.
. . . if the money a muscular Christian donates to the Jewish
terrorists buys the dynamite that destroys the mosque, the
muscular Christian will say, simply:
``It was an act of God.''
(Grace Halsell around 1985 interviewing Professor Gordon Welty
of Wright State University in Ohio, a sociologist and
anthropologist who has traveled throughout the Middle East and
written and lectured extensively on the subject of the Christian
right-wing support for Israel, from Grace Halsell's "Prophecy
and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War",
pages 114-115.))
On that same page and the following page, Grace Halsell show
from the Nazi example that just 5% of a group supporting
terrorism can make the Holocaust a reality. In 1984, an Israeli
public opinion poll showed 18.7 of the Israeli public in support
of terrorist activities by extremist Jewish groups. All that is
required is the majority's apathy... (Grace Halsell's "Prophecy
and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War",
pages 115-116.)
Leif Erlingsson: The current US leadership "creates their own
reality", rather than take in advice. They are guided more by
internal "knowledge" than by external events. That is very
attractive, at last a leaders who KNOWS. Who is sure of
himself. History has shown many times before what happens when
we follow that kind of leader. Yet, it is attractive enough for
many, many, especially as "God wills it", that countless upright
citizens are prepared to break any human law necessary in order
to put their leader at the helm. This explains why G W Bush
"won" the 2004 and the 2000 elections. (Inofficial continued
re-counts in Florida after the 2000 election showed Al Gore the
winner of that state. That much was actually stated during the
Conyers Hearing in the US Congress on Ohio Vote Fraud.)
The 2004 vote fraud is well documented on these links:
http://truthout.org/docs_05/010605Y.shtml
http://truthout.org/Conyersreport.pdf
http://truthout.org/docs_04/121604Z.shtml
This message was composed by Leif Erlingsson, Tullinge, Sweden.
Leif can be contacted by email at leif@lege.com or by phone at
+46 (0)8-778 50 38 (home) and at +46 (0)709-140 631 (work).
Feel free to forward the message as-is, in it's entirety.
ALSO feel free to contact Leif Erlingsson -- leif@lege.com --
for more information and analysis of the situation and why we
are where we are.
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