So much for discouraging terrorism

Not only were Saddam's two sons recently killed and buried on Aug. 2nd, but his 14 year old grandson, Mustafa, son of Qusay Hussein. I was unaware that the teenager was also killed. It seemed to me, press reports focused only on the two men.

In an earlier post here, I'd mentioned Iran and that country's state-controlled oil. In the early 1950's, the CIA and some cooperating British decided to overthrow the democratically elected Iranian government and replace it with the Shah, because the Shah was willing to do business with the West according to Western terms. It was all about the oil.

The Shah was a cruel dictator. He stole from the Iranian people, persecuted them, imprisoned them and executed many. Eventually (in the late 1970's), Iranians had had enough. They intended to execute the Shah. Well, the Shah's allies wouldn't have it, so then President Jimmy Carter launched a rescue mission to get the Shah and his family out of the country. Tensions had been brewing in Iran as it was. Iranian protestors were burning American flags and chanting, "Death to America, the Great Satan!"

Some Iranians interviewed by our media (at least, ABC News, as I recall) said, "It's not all Americans, but the government" and he'd mentioned some others.

Some Iranians decided to do a lot more than protest to make their voices heard in Washington D.C. and in places like Texas. Actually, they went to the extreme. They'd hijacked a commercial airline and took hostages. They freed hostages deemed as innocent, but kept ones tied to politics and the military, as I recall. It was an act of desperation, but here at home in America, we haven't been programmed to see things that way, except some of us that venture more deeply into the human mind. Nevertheless, the phrases, "Death to America" and the "Great Satan" burned into my teenaged mind. I wasn't, but a year older than the 14 year old killed when these events took place.

While reading a Truth Out copy of a New York Times story, I'd felt a sense of de ja vu when the headline At Funeral for Hussein Sons, a Call for 'Death to America':

"Our blood, our souls, we'll sacrifice for Saddam!" the crowd roared, repeating the line.

When friends and family lined up in a traditional prayer to mark the end of the funeral, one of the members rose from his knees and exploded in anger, jabbing his finger at a small number of Americans standing by.

"Death to America!" he shouted, with murmurs of assent behind him. "Death to America!"

And I thought I'd heard rumors of attacking the oil-rich Liberia. We've been wondering what weak country is next on the list. What American families will be seeing their soldier loved ones off to war in that ravaged country? And will it end up in total genocide, or will Liberian survivors remain? Either way, what amount of anti-Americanism will intensify, with whom and where? Who else will cry out, "Death to America," just as so many have done in the past and many do today? How many civilians in other countries and in the United States will die and how many seriously injured? How many soldiers will die and how many seriously injured?

It seems, regardless of the nation our troops are sent to invade, it's always rich with a prized and much coveted treasure. Surely, many pro-war people will say that this is merely coincidence, but is it coincidence when business men here and in "allied" countries always seem to get a handsome cut? I guess, one would need to understand the Business of War, but pro-war common Americans don't and they probably will never venture to learn, because they like what they've been programmed to support and believe, and they've been conditioned to think "war means peace and peace can't exist without war."

Meanwhile, profiteers are enjoying their blood money.