The blatancy is shocking and the overt outrageousness makes one genuinely fear the covert (what are they doing behind our backs?) and thus they are successful at being more terrifying than the terrorists. We let these politicians get in the driver’s seat. Now they are threatening nuclear war (with all of them in their undisclosed bunkers, of course).

Shame on us!

We let these corporate aristocrats threaten the future of our children and the children of our friends around the world.

Shame on us!

We are a nation of laws, but we claim exemption from examination by international courts.

Shame on us!

We will not sign the Kyoto agreement as our pollution creating industries provide needed jobs and money for our ultra-wealthy.

Shame on us!

“We will strike preemptively wherever we feel we need to.” But the only wars worth fighting are those against poverty and ignorance (and the latter we need to fight most vigorously at home).

Terrorism can only be stopped by fighting those good wars. Star Wars defense systems and many new tanks will just create huge profits for those who make them, but they will do nothing to stop terrorism. One or two men with a rifle can take a major city to a standstill. Men with box-cutters can take down the World Trade Center buildings. Cheney should tell the truth - what he wants is to declare war on the poor and kill them.

The rest is rhetoric.

Do we know we destroyed clean water supplies in Iraq?

Do we know that our government supplied Iraq with the materials for making WMD and that we encouraged them to use them?

If we don’t change our regime at home they will lead us into World War III and we will deserve the chaos that it will bring.

Shame on us!

1.5 million are dead now as a result of the sanctions in Iraq. Will this new war in Iraq justify the genocide or complete the job?

Bush II declared that “The United States is the greatest country on the earth.” Indeed.

We do have more money, more guns and more weapons of mass destruction. We do create more pollution and consume more food and natural resources. We have more prisoners than any other country. We are more selfish and more indifferent to the suffering of others. By those criteria I guess the president is correct – we are the greatest country on earth.

Shame on us!

Capitalism + democracy + time = government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. The figures reported in the media don’t make sense to me – 70% approval rating for Bush II? If this is true then the American model has failed and many of us find ourselves in this predicament which, quite embarrassingly, adversely affects our good neighbors around the world. The desire to apologize is constant and overwhelming and the fact that this desire is labeled as cowardly and treasonous is supremely frustrating for many Americans now.

Where do we go from here, oligarchical empire building?

If we can make pre-emptive strikes – if that is the new rule of war – then our enemies can do the same. So we need a strong military while education, foreign aid and the environment remain overlooked until this endless war ends.

Our leaders are not readers. No intellectuals involved – no philosophers – and they make up the most powerful regime the world has known.

Has my country irretrievably lost the battle between good and evil? Is world domination a good idea for America? For the rest of the world? Does America care about the rest of the world?

My grandfather came to America for the freedom and the opportunity because Norway was not a good place to live. Two generations later I am looking longingly at Norway. They say I can visit, but they won’t let me stay. I will have to go back to America – a place I am growing to fear, much as my grandfather did Norway.

Our mainstream media has become an increasingly unsubtle disseminator of propaganda. The big questions are off limits. Nobody questions the obliteration of a carload of human beings in Yemen, by an aptly named “hellfire” missile, launched from a drone plane, by a CIA employee in Virginia USA. The guys in the car were suspected to be bad guys. No need for proof or trials in this case. The Empire has changed the rules and if you think that is wrong, “Hey,” says the schoolyard bully, “are you with us or against us?”

Sanctions against the Iraqi people don’t seem to be bothering Hussein, but they kill 9,000 poor civilians a month. I guess you can stop a kidnapper by killing his hostages, but that doesn’t seem to be the best way – unless you do not value the hostages.

Everything did change on 9/11 and the world will never be the same again. We now have a country that thoroughly dominates the world – headed by right-wing extremists who pray and hear their God telling them to go and get that oil so Americans can drive increasingly large automobiles on their Sunday drives. They make their own rules – like Dirty Harry and all the other loveably uncontrollable Hollywood action heroes.

Shame on all of us for letting this happen.

Yet there is a positive side. The blatancy of the anti-environment war-mongering policies (tax breaks for the rich, cutting programs for the poor and anti-environmental legislation) from Washington is waking people in America and around the world in unprecedented numbers. Peace and non-violent movements, along with environmental and sane religious organizations, are coming together – in an international effort that grows stronger daily. A different kind of outburst is on the horizon.

Koffi Annan said once “…free to speak your mind, raise your children and pursue your dreams…”

Suddenly in America, we are losing the freedom to speak our minds. We are looking to raise our children elsewhere, and if we dream we dream of leaving.

We are not allowed to draw parallels between this Washington regime and Nazi Germany, so I won’t.

If you visit Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan, you will walk away ashamed to be a human being. You experience nuclear war there and you lose your nationality. As a justification for atrocities, patriotism is exposed. A few hours later you get your anger back and you rejoin your factions – but you never forget the shame.