Why are we still missing part 2 of the prewar intelligence report? Sen. Harry Reid angrily shut down the Senate last year to protest the slow pace of obtaining the promised Phase II of this report. The Republicans derisively called it a “stunt” but Reid was eventually promised that he’d get that report very soon. Well, if you’re a woman you could have had a full-term baby by now because that was nine months ago — and we still don’t have the report! It might be time for another Senate shut down, except they are going on recess soon. Naturally, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is led by Republicans, which is why nothing is getting done and promises are not being kept. Why do Republicans have such a hard time doing what they say they’ll do? David Corn of The Nation writes that the following is a part of his personal interview with Rep. Senator Pat Roberts:

[Corn] QUESTION: Given the 800 American GIs who have lost their lives so far, thousands have had serious injuries, lost limbs, all on the basis of false [WMD] claims…[and that] American taxpayers have had to kick in almost $200 billion, doesn’t the American public and the relatives of people who lost their lives have a right to know before the next election whether this administration handled intelligence matters adequately and made statements that were justified — before the election, not after the election? [Yes!!]
ROBERTS: This is in phase two of our efforts. We simply couldn’t get that done with the work product that we put out….It is one of my top priorities….I have told everybody on the other side of the aisle, everybody on our side of the aisle, ‘We’ll proceed with phase two. It is a priority.‘ I made my commitment, and it will be done..

Except now it’s been over a year. If this is how a “priority” is handled, how do they handle non-priorities? Hidden in the party platform somewhere must be “delay, lie and make empty promises”. We need that report because, as you will recall, we were lied to and told Iraq had “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and so we went to war based on false information. How did that happen? That’s what we need to know. It is something the Republicans obviously don’t want us to know, but what they don’t realize is that the public and the Democrats and others will not give up until they find out exactly what happened.
submitted by Shelly of Citizen Against Lies

On our last show we played you the techno remix of Senator Ted Stevens’ idiot remarks about the internet. Now there’s tshirts paroding the Senator. Beautiful. Want one? Get them at Series of Fallopian Tubes website.

Twilight and Thebes Show TnT-024

Twilight talks for 9 1/2 hours
Bush “gropes” Germany’s (female) Chancellor Merkel
Song Ted Stevens techno remix by Paul from Boldheaded Broadcast
FEMA muzzling La. trailer-park residents
Jeff from GOP Exposed calls in
Latex Geezer goes to the Yooper-Land
A Conflict Viewed Through Very Different Lenses
Our friend Evil Bender’s blog
Veteran prostitute becomes local landmark
Our friends Grant spooks us on-air
Us Time
Our crazy old neighborhood
The cabin project
Twilight goes out with to dinner with a client

Listen to it Now! The Twilight and Thebes Show 024

Condoleeza Rice made a surprise visit to Lebanon to “discuss” the situation with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. You can read the New York Times article here

In that article, there is a description of an interesting encounter some irate Americans had with Karen Hughes.

During a refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland, Ms. Rice’s aides ran into a tired and angry group of Americans who had been evacuated from Lebanon and were trying to get home, but their plane, which stopped in Shannon, had broken down.

Some of the Americans recognized Karen Hughes, the assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy. Within minutes she was surrounded by the group, who said they had been traveling for five days and had been at the airport for 24 hours.

“I am so sorry,” she said, sitting at a bar drinking wine.

Wouldn’t it have been great if they had just torn her to pieces.

Brian

Wake Up AM Podcast Join us for news and commentary you won’t find on the mainstream media.

If you ask Americans about the current Middle East crisis, most of them will tell you what our useless mainstream media has spoon-fed them for decades: Israel is good and is our friend. Arabs are animals.

The media has been doing an outstanding job of presenting the current Israeli slaughter as the struggle of heroic, pioneering Israelis (who look and act so much like us!) against the crude, satanic terrorism of Hezbollah (and Arabs and Muslims in general). And why not? The right wing never ceases to remind us about how Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East (well, there’s also Lebanon, but pretty soon they won’t even have a country anyway) and how Israel is an outpost of Western enlightenment amid a blackened sea of Muslim barbarity.

Such a piece of propaganda falls apart as soon as you examine closely and independently the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. First of all, the Israelis took land that wasn’t theirs, in a place where� they were not wanted. I understand Jews want a homeland, but it makes little sense to break into someone’s house, shoot at them, kick them out and then steal their home and proclaim it your own as the Israelis did to the Palestinians. You should damn well expect them to be mad enough to want to kill you fairly frequently.

Second, Israel is not America’s friend. They have sent spies to steal our secrets and military technology (see Jonathan Pollard and the AIPAC spy scandal). In 1967,� they attacked an American navy� ship, the USS Liberty, despite being clearly identified as an American ship. Israel has nuclear weapons and won’t admit it, even to its “friend”, the United States.� Israel’s lobby in Washington, AIPAC, has helped warp and distort our foreign policy and political discourse by creating an ubiquitous pro-Israel bent. Our support for Israel has created nothing but enemies for us in the Muslim world.

The Israelis have spent decades brutalizing their Arab neighbors and their captive Palestinian population. It’s time for our government to stop egging them on and to demand they act responsibly. But don’t count on the American media to make that argument.

Yes, that is the BLACK beachfront in Beruit. Just another aspect to the Israeli invasion. You can read about it at The Lebanese Bloggers.
And I say the word INVASION because it’s looking like the next phase will be just that. Ground forces are preparing to invade supposedly to set up a “buffer zone”. more
One ray of hope in all this is that, despite the lack of diplomacy, bloggers on both sides, Israel and Lebanon, are talking and finding a lot more common ground than their governments.

Middle Eastern bloggers sprang into action within hours of the initial violence, exchanging photos via Web sites such as www.flickr.com, and long message strings on sites such as lebanesebloggers.blogspot.com. There have also been chat rooms set up by Jewish and Lebanese bloggers to allow for real-time communication between the two communities. more

Brian
Wake Up AM Podcast Join us for news and commentary you won’t find on the mainstream media.

Show Notes TnT-023

Twilight has to cut off an addicted client
Speaking of addictions
Casino Player and Strictly Slots magazines now illegal in Washington
Britons tire of cruel, vulgar US: poll
Song - There She Goes by Brother Love
Brother Love Rocks!
Okla. ex-judge convicted in penis pump case
C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden
Us Time
Amma hug
UFO Festival
Freddy Silva’s Crop Circle site
UFO Flickr pictures
Carlsbad Caverns
Starband (Sucks) grounds us because Twilight was “naughty”

Listen to it Now! The Twilight and Thebes Show 023


Visit our main page here.

Act now click here to Over ride Bushes veto! He does not have the final say.

Bush vetoes embryonic stem-cell bill

Today Bush decided to use his first veto. I am going to look at why he said he did it, make some comments, and point out some things to think about.

Bush said Wednesday afternoon.”This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others, It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect. So I vetoed it.”

SEC. 498D. HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH.

The House bill would expand the supply of embryonic stem cells by allowing federally funded research on cells derived from embryos created for fertility treatments, or donated from in vitro fertilization clinics. Those embryos would have to be in excess of the clinical needs for infertility treatments, and otherwise destined to be discarded. They would have to be obtained with written consent, and acquired without any payment to the donors. Take a look at it I put a link to it above. I would argue that letting these organizations throw away stem cells; that could be used for research to save lives crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect. It would not take innocent human life, but save innocent human lives. Remember they are going to throw away these stem cells. One way or another they are going to be destroyed just because the are to old, or we could use them to save human lives.

Bush said, “If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers would, for the first time in our history, be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos, and I’m not going to allow it.”

Again I point out these stem cells are going to be destroyed either way. So the question is; save lives or just throw them away.

Attending the White House event were a group of families with children who were born from “adopted” frozen embryos that had been left unused at fertility clinics.

“These boys and girls are not spare parts,” he said of the children in the audience. “They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells.”

O.K. lets look at this. Their are about 400,000 frozen embryos, and 70 donor couples, along with 48 other couples seeking to have children has received embryos. Sixteen babies were born. The rest of the embryos will be discarded those are the ones they want to use for research to save lives.

The problem with ‘embryo adoption’

Bush said, “If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers would, for the first time in our history, be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos, and I’m not going to allow it.”

Actually the bill would take embryos that were to be destroyed, and use them for research to save the lives of humans. By vetoing the bill Bush slowed research that has the ability to save more lives than any thing else in our history.

In August 2001, Bush announced that his administration would allow federal funding only for research on about 60 stem-cell lines that existed at the time. Researchers have since found that many of those lines are contaminated and unusable for research.

Some use this to say Bush is a proponent of stem cell research, but we know these stem cells are inadequate for research, Why would it be O.K. to use these stem cells but not others? That sounds like a flip flop to me.

Scientists say stem cells could be a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s diseases, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, strokes, burns and more. Also Lawrence T. Smith, chairman of the American Diabetes Association, called the veto “a devastating setback for the 20.8 million American children, and adults with diabetes and those who love and care for them.”

According to the wall street journal the majority of americans 3/4 of them; support stem cell research take a look.

Most Americans Back Research
Using Stem Cells, Poll Shows

A Republican has refused the majority of America stem cell research; the President used his first veto in 5 years to deny Americans, and the world possible treatments for terminal illnesses.

I am proud to say that their is someone doing something about this situation. A Mainstream Democrat, one of the members of the New Democratic movement Hillary Clinton a member of the DLC. It’s up to Congress to overturn the veto, and restore the hope Bush has taken away. Sign on today to stand with Hillary in favor of overturning Bush’s stem cell veto. Make the right choice, and click below to sign the petition.

Tell congress: Make the right choice.

Wake Up AM Podcast Join us for news and commentary you won’t find on the mainstream media.

Today, Bush vetoed something for the first time: bills passed by Congress to allow federal funding for the use of frozen, soon- to-be-discarded embryos for possible life-saving new stem cell lines. But first: Why did Bush meet with bishops yesterday? He’s not even Catholic. Why did Bush finally exercise his veto after nearly six years — on something that could save lives, as opposed to something that could harm Americans? We know of course that Bush wrote over 750 “signing statements” in order to avoid previous vetoes as his own personal method of overriding laws that Congress has passed, but now he’s really gone too far. His attempts to remake the Middle East as a welcoming reception area for his planned Rapture Party has failed, so it’s time for Bush to move on to other things that will appease his War Gods. One thing that he feels will appease his peculiar and violent gods is denying scientists the right to use frozen embryos, on their way to being discarded, of which there are thousands. The current 21 stem cell lines are tainted and showing genetic abnormalities, and are all privately owned, so they have probably passed their point of usefulness. In order to really make progress on new embryonic stem cell lines, it would be very useful to have new lines. But, Bush said no, no federal funding for this “immoral” area of science, which he imagines will lead to ‘fetus farms’ and other science-fictiony things that don’t even exist anywhere but in the twisted minds of Republicans. (They are fond of saying “slippery slope” except when it relates to things that actually exist - like the erosion of our civil rights.)

Despite their devotion to the “sanctity of life”, the Bush Morals & Values Division sees nothing wrong with collateral damage, the death penalty, preemptive wars, or letting horrible diseases that could potentially be cured by stem cell research rage on in living humans today.

You can read the account of Bush’s bizarre vetoing ceremony here, that occurred as he was surrounded by several frozen embryo children “rescued” by his Embryo Cop Brigade, yet barred from the media.

“This bill would support the taking of innocent human life of the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our society needs to respect, so I vetoed it,” Bush said at a White House event where he was surrounded by 18 families who “adopted” frozen embryos that were not used by other couples, and then used those leftover embryos to have children.”

If this weren’t reality, it would make an interesting psycho-drama movie. Does he really think that with all the orphaned children in the world and all the foster children without permanent homes that Americans and others are going to want to resurrect frozen embryos from which to create their new children? There is something horrifyingly morbid about our president’s vision of a future populated by frozen embryo children, while already-born children remain homeless and/or sick and poor, and diseases remain uncured so that Republicans can win more elections via the Religious Right’s votes.

Other countries are ahead of us on stem cell research, not surprisingly, so in yet another area of science, the United States falls behind, hindered by its leader’s insistence on ruling via his own personal set of non-mainstream “morals” and “values” that few people share. Bush has shown himself to be extremely out of touch with the average American in the last 3 years, especially, and it’s time for him to either drastically change or for impeachment proceedings to start as soon as possible. And we know he won’t be changing.

Submitted by Shelly of Citizen Against Lies

It’s interesting to see how casualty counts are treated whenever the U.S. or Israel end up fighting with Arabs. As of July 17, in the latest Israeli-Lebanese crisis, around 170 Lebanese have been killed, as opposed to 24 Israelis. I can only assume that the 2 Israeli soldiers Hezbollah kidnapped will be worth many more dead Lebanese before this is over. But of course, it will be the dead Israelis who will get any of America’s sympathy or outrage.

We all know how many U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, as well we should� (2,552 so far), but do we know how many Iraqis have died? As many as 43,575, according to www.iraqibodycount.org� (and that’s just civilians).� Everytime the Israelis killed dozens of innocent Palestinians since the beggining of the Second Intifada in 2000, it barely got any coverage in the mainstream media, much less any outrage.

Perhaps this is why Bush is so willing to kill Arabs and Muslims: their lives are just not valuable. Watch out, Syria and Iran.

This is a picture of a destroyed vehicle in Southern Lebanon. It’s not the whole picture. On the bottom of the picture, cut off, is a very small child lying dead, killed by Israeli bombs. Click here for more graphic depictions of what Israel is doing to the innocent civilians of southern Lebanon. More pictures of “precision bombing” by Israel here. The Guardian wrote about it too, as children dying in a convoy attack, but it wasn’t just children. Unfortunately Isreal, according to Juan Cole, has vowed to cause “pain to the Lebanese”. I think it has achieved this objective, and then some. If you refuse to negotiate a peace, then you are likely to have to go on fighting a war, says Juan Cole on his blog on Thursday. I think we have all noticed by now how some governments, including the current Bush regime, seem to ridicule peace and treat it like a sickness they need to wipe out. Then there is this allegation: “Lebanon charged that the US blocked a UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire.” Face it: Israel and the Bush administration want war; mainly because it’s profitable by itself, or its outcome it. Maybe someone can explain why we give Israel over $3 billion per year, much of it earmarked for weapons. American taxpayers are funding their war against Lebanon, a fellow Democratic country. So we can somehow, some day, blame this all on Iran, and then really start the next world war.

Speaking of that, the Republicans may decide to promote ‘the long war’, the GWOT (Global War on Terror), the whole violent, volatile mess in the Middle East, and everything else that the Neocons have started or encouraged, as World War Three. And WWIII will be a perpetual way of life from now until eternity — in order to win elections for the GOP from now until eternity. So says Newt Gingrich. (Remember him?) “Let’s face it, it’s WWIII, Gingrich says” yesterday on Meet the Press. Therefore, it must be so, because Big Giant Head Newt says so. That adds plausibility to what we are doing there, of course, which benefits Republicans. Here is what Newt is afraid of: as more Americans seem to accept gay marriage and abortion as things they can and will “tolerate”, those items could soon disappear as issues for elections. So instead, the GOP can use WWIII as an excuse to keep them in power and “fighting the enemy” for ever and ever. Eternal war. That must be why they are promoting it and possibly blocking ceasefires. Any other explanation would mean they are just murders. Newt said, “. . . Bush needs to deliver a speech to Congress and “connect all the dots” for Americans.” We’re way ahead of you, Newt. Consider connnecting dots a “Mission Accomplished”.

Posted by Shelly from Citizen Against Lies

A Rant

You know what really pisses me off? That these flag waving, America-first, Jesus is my co-pilot NeoCons who have their noses so far up Bush’s ass they won’t admit that Valerie Plame has a legitimate case against the Administration. She was a covert agent who was outed because her husband, a decorated Republican-appointed ambassador, had the temerity to tell the truth.

It seems NeoCons can get behind and even lionize as heroes convicted criminals like G. Gordon Liddy, Ollie North, Elliot Abrams and numerous others with no apparent irony or sense of hypocrisy; but when a person who is a legitimate hero happens to disagree with their Dear Leader, they Swift Boat them.

They are also the first to say that dissent is hazardous to our troops; unless our troops oppose the president or when our spies tell the truth.

Note to NeoCons: If you love this country (a sentiment you practically salivate over on Fox News), you have to play by the rules. You do not take up arms against a brother. You do not expose a CIA agent in the name of political gotcha. You do not attack the mother of one our fallen soldiers because you don’t like her politics. Americans should not be doing this to each other, even under the reign of the divider/decider in Chief.

I am also incensed by people who virtually worship NYC over 9/11 (which is fine), but laugh off disaster victims in New Orleans as godless or fools (how stupid of them to live in a city that is below sea level! They deserved to drown!). This is an historic American city, a crucial seaport and the home of American citizens. Stop laughing about the disaster, you assholes. If other Americans had done this kind of bullshit to Oklahoma City when the American terrorist McVeigh attacked us, I can assure you I and several of my fellow Okies would have tracked them down to kick their asses.

Down is up, up is down with NeoCons. Thank God America is waking up to just how corrupt the entire movement is. To the 33 percent or so of Americans who are too A. Stubborn B. Dumb C. Mean to admit the truth, I say: There’s always Mexico. Go south…you can still steal an election down there, ya bastards.�

Islam, as a religion, forbids the eating of pork. So with all the tension in the Middle East, could it be any accident that George Bush can’t shut up about pigs while visiting Germany on Thursday? Could his words have been purposeful - or even accidental - Anti-Muslim Code? We may never know. I never miss the opportunity to read about the fun times described on the official White House website, www.whitehouse.gov. On it, you will find these ludicrous exchanges during a Press Availability from Stralsund, Germany:

BUSH: “I’m looking forward to the feast you’re going to have tonight. I understand I may have the honor of slicing the pig.”

BUSH again: “And I guess that’s about all — we discussed a lot of things, in other words. And thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to that pig tonight.” (Laughter.)

Q: (Reporter) “A question addressed to you both. You talked about the Middle East, and what is your assessment of the military action of Israel in Lebanon? The French Foreign Minister already said it is disproportionate. Does that give you cause for Europe or the United States to intervene?

And apart from the pig, Mr. President, what sort of insights have you been able to gain as regards East Germany? — (inaudible) –”

PRESIDENT BUSH: “Follow up on?”

Q: “On both of these. Does it concern you that the Beirut airport has been bombed? And do you see a risk of triggering a wider war?

And on Iran, they’ve, so far, refused to respond. Is it now past the deadline, or do they still have more time to respond?”

PRESIDENT BUSH: “I thought you were going to ask me about the pig.”

Q: “I’m curious about that, too.” (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: The pig? I’ll tell you tomorrow after I eat it.”

Un-flippin’-believable. Is Bush a sociopath or an imbecile or both? Whitehouse.gov reports, you decide.

Humbly submitted by Shelly from Citizen Against Lies (and imbeciles)

Could It Be Any Clearer?
The United States government is now joined by the government of Israel in a campaign to control the middle east. I use the word government to distinguish between the criminals who are running the show and the people who have been deceived in going along with them. Time is running out to prevent these monsters from taking us into WW3.

Is it any coincidence that the G8 Economic summit is taking place this weekend in St. Petersburg? Remember what happened at the last summit in Scotland? The July 7 London bombings sidetracked any discussion of economic help for the world and put to the front the so-called ant- terrorist agenda of the Bush crime family. That bombing was orchestrated with U.S. and British backing. Don’t believe me? There is PLENTY of evidence out there. Look it up. There was a “drill” in the subways that morning. Rudy Giulliani was in London as a consultant for this “drill”. But that is old news.

Now, on the eve of this year’s summit, we have another “crisis”, so once again it is not business as usual. Once again the Bush agenda is on the front burner. This time it’s less transparent. The government of Israel has lashed out against Lebanon in the name of fighting Hezbollah while claiming that Syria and Iran are to blame. The PEOPLE of Israel need to oppose this charade. The government of the United States has
proclaimed it’s support of Israel’s right to “defend” itself and has indicated it holds Syria and Iran responsible. The PEOPLE of the United States need to oppose further aggression by their government.

We can no longer sit on the sidelines watching, while blatant aggresion is filtered for mass consumption on the corporate media stations. We need to rise up. We need to act.

Start talking OPENLY to people in your community. Brainstorm.Demonstrate!

We no longer have the luxury to sit back and shake our heads.

Brian

Wake Up AM Podcast Join us for news and commentary you won’t find on the mainstream media.

Are you tired of being disrespected by companies who punish you with
long waits on hold, voice jail, phone maze trees making you listen to
endless menus, and clueless rude peons who ask you 40 questions before
even offering to help you?

If so, this episode is for you!

Also, check out www.gethuman.com to find a great list of numbers and
shortcuts to press to get to a human as fast as possible for over 250
different companies.

Podcast Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NoRespect

Email me at� Consumer007@gmail.com

U.S. seeks to exhume Iraqi girl’s remains

TIKRIT, Iraq - U.S. investigators have asked Iraqi authorities to help them navigate cultural sensitivities to exhume the body of a teenager allegedly raped and murdered with her family by American soldiers, a military official said Saturday.

U.S. Maj. Mark Wright said U.S. authorities are aware that Islamic tradition has strict rules governing exhumation and could require religious leaders to become involved in the investigation.

I found this blog while I was researching for my next podcast. It gives you a look at the Iraq war from the beginning to present. Altho I thought it was missing some things like war profiteering; it is a good quick look back that makes you realize how much we were lied to. After looking at this website I was sad thinking about how we had no justification to be in this war. I started to think about how we are starting to stop looking for Osama bin Laden; which I do not understand at all. I am a realist. I believe we need hard power as well as soft power to fix issues that effect us. I am a firm believer that we needed to use our military power, or hard power find Osama bin Laden, and punish him for 9/11. But instead we out sourced this job to war lords who let him get away. Thin he spider webbed his organization, so if we caught him his terrorist cell would live on. Instead of stopping the problem at the source we take our resources and attack Iraq. This is where soft power was in place political power, and guess what it was working just fine until we decided to use hard power, and over throw their government now we are in a mess. Right wingers say we are fighting them over there so we do not have to fight them over here. When I ask them why Afghanistan was not a good enough place to fight them. You know what they say? They say there is nothing there. I understanding what they are saying. They think if there was nothing to rebuild so they could have their no bid contracts. It was not worth it so we left Afghanistan hanging; we could have built that country up, caught Osama bin Laden, and stayed the corse in Afghanistan. But it just would not have been as profitable. I want to be wrong, but I just do not see it. Look at the highlights on this page also they outline even more issues that are affecting us.
http://www.thinkprogress.org/iraq-timeline

I read two news stories today that continue to demonstrate the negative effects of the Iraq War both on individuals and on the military.

� The first story was about a soldier returning from Iraq who was undergoing psychiatric evaluation. He was on a flight back home to Tampa, when suddenly he freaked out and ran towards the cockpit, repeatedly slamming the door with his head and body, according to Agence France Presse. Other passengers subdued him and the vet was not able to burst into the cockpit. One has to wonder: did the horrors of Iraq cause this 24-year-old soldier to snap, or is the military, in its desperation to recruit, getting lax about screening recruits for mental problems, or for how well they might fit (or not) into military life?

� The other story, also from AFP, talks about the growing number of right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis being allowed into the military, sometimes with the full knowledge of the recruiters. Once again, due to the military’s desperation for cannon fodder to ship off to the Middle East, the doors are swung open so that any piece of human debris can just wander in. The real worry here is that extremist recruits will use their military training after returning home for violent purposes.

You can read the stories by following the links below:

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/07/060707174439.0zkqbh7p.html

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/07/060707175418.8xaf6jp4.html

�

Our military leaders have been systematically desensitizing combat soldiers to death and denying the humanity of “the enemy”, reported Democracy Now on Wednesday. While people are trying to understand how a young soldier with a “Personality Disorder” could end up raping and killing a 15-year old Iraqi girl and then murdering 4 members of her family, (one as young as 4 years old) it was revealed by a former soldier that the military attempts to remove all humanity from Iraqis in its training of soldiers so that they can be more easily killed, without soldiers feeling that bothersome remorse. Geoffrey Millard revealed to Democracy Now that this type of objectifying that can lead to murder goes on regularly. He said it has led to many murders at checkpoints in Iraq and some reports of families being killed were merely shrugged off by those in command. Obviously, this is what is leading to atrocities in this military exercise, as it has led to similar atrocities in previous wars. Millard said,

“. . . . in this checkpoint killing, an entire family was murdered — a mother, a father and two young children, a young boy, age of four, and a young girl, age of three, were all killed that day in a car. It was moving very quickly towards a traffic control point, at which time a private pressed the butterfly trigger of his 50-caliber machine gun and killed this whole family. And as this was briefed to the general, a full bird colonel turned around to the division staff and said — and I quote — “If this f**king haji learned to drive, this s**t wouldn’t happen.” And that really was a big turning point for me in realizing what war was truly about, and the fact that this term “haji” isn’t just a term that grunts use on the ground, it’s one that is projected down from the top, all the way up in ranks downward upon the average G.I.”

In fact, the term haji is still being used by soldiers now. There is probably no better example of how pervasive this word is, and how innocently viewed, than in this story of a Marine who wrote and sung a song about a murdered Iraqi girl, in the context of a love story. This soldier called the song, “Haji girl”. He was prevented at the last minute from professionally recording the song by officers who discovered his plans. The song was scheduled to be aired on a conservative radio show as soon as it was finished, which tells me that soldiers aren’t the only people being desensitized to killing — Republicans suffer from this too. Obviously, we’re destroying minds with this senseless occupation/war. It’s time to stop it before it’s too late for others.