Evening Jukebox… Give Peace A Chance

by- Suzie-Q @ 5:12 PM MST 

90’s Various Artists- Give Peace A Chance

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Leading Americans Ask Military to Refuse to Attack Iran and Start a Global Catastrophe

anthony @ 13:40 BST

Global Research, October 5, 2007

AfterDowningStreet.org – 2006-10-02

Country music legend Willie Nelson, literary icon Gore Vidal, Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, author and radio host Thom Hartmann, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rabbi Steven Jacobs, and dozens of other prominent Americans have signed a letter asking the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. military personnel to refuse orders to launch an aggressive war on Iran.

The letter has been posted as a petition for others to sign at

http://www.dontattackiran.org

TEXT OF PETITION:

ATTENTION: Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. Military Personnel:

Do not attack Iran.
Any preemptive U.S. attack on Iran would be illegal.
Any preemptive U.S. attack on Iran would be criminal.

We, the citizens of the United States, respectfully urge you, courageous men and women of our military, to refuse any order to preemptively attack Iran, a nation that represents no serious or immediate threat to the United States. To attack Iran, a sovereign nation of 70-million people, would be a crime of the highest magnitude.

Legal basis for our Request – Do not attack Iran:

The Nuremberg Principles, which are part of US law, provide that all military personnel have the obligation not to obey illegal orders. The Army Field Manual 27-10, sec. 609 and UCMJ, art. 92, incorporate this principle. Article 92 says: “A general order or regulation is lawful unless it is contrary to the Constitution, the law of the United States …”

Any provision of an international treaty ratified by the United States becomes the law of the United States. The United States is a party and signatory to the United Nations Charter, of which Article II, Section 4 states, “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state…” As Iran has not attacked the United States, and as the U.S. is a party and signatory to the Charter, any attack on Iran by the U.S. would be illegal under not only international law but under the U.S. Constitution which recognizes our treaties as the Supreme Law of the Land. When you joined the military, you took an oath to defend our Constitution.

Following the orders of your government or superior does not relieve you from responsibility under international law. Under the Principles of International Law recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, complicity in the commission of war crime is a crime under international law.

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Are American Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?

Sudhan@12:40 CET

“When the President Does It

That Means It’s Not Illegal”

 

By JAMES BOVARD

What is the common term for ordering soldiers to kill vast numbers of innocent people?

A war crime.

But not when it is done on the command of the U.S. president.

Killing innocent foreigners seems to be a perk of the modern presidency–akin to the band’s playing “Hail to the Chief” when he enters the room.

Bush is revving up the war threats against Iran. Seymour Hersh reported in the current issue of the New Yorker that the administration is advancing plans to bomb many targets in Iran. British newspapers have confirmed that the Pentagon has a list of thousands of bombing targets. Hardly anyone claims that Iran poses a threat to the United States.

Yet few people in Washington seem to dispute the president’s right to attack Iran. It is as if the presidential whim is sufficient to justify blasting any foreign nation that does not kowtow to the commands of the U.S. government.

Keep reading . . .

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The Iraq Occupation and the Coming War Against Iran: Political Wickedness and Moral Bankruptcy

anthony @ 09:45

by Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay | Global Research | October 5, 2007

“Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

[Iran will react to a bombing attack by the Bush-Cheney administration] “by intensifying the conflict in Iraq and also in Afghanistan, their neighbors, and that could draw in Pakistan. We will be stuck in a regional war for twenty years.”

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national-security adviser to President Jimmy Carter

“Israel made a large contribution to the decision to embark on this war. I know that on the eve of the war, [Ariel] Sharon said, in a closed conversation with senators, that if they could succeed in getting rid of Saddam Hussein, it would solve Israel’s security problems.”

Robert (Bob) Novak, veteran American reporter

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Alan Greenspan, former Fed Chairman 1987-2006

“There are people in Washington … who never intend to withdraw military forces from Iraq and they’re looking for ten, 20, 50 years into the future … the reason that we went into Iraq was to establish a permanent military base in the Gulf region, and I have never heard any of our leaders say that they would commit themselves to the Iraqi people that ten years from now there will be no military bases of the United States in Iraq.”

Jimmy Carter, former American President (February 3, 2006)

How do you get out of a hole?

First of all, you stop digging. —This is the simple lesson that the Bush-Cheney White House has so much trouble understanding. For Bush and his neocon crowd, they are militarily occupying Iraq and they intend to remain there, no matter what. It doesn’t matter that this immoral and illegal occupation has caused the death of more than one million Iraqis and killed more than 3000 American soldiers. And now, they want to escalate the Iraq war into a wider Middle East conflict involving Iran, thus making sure the United States will be involved militarily in that region of the globe for the next twenty years.

[Original Article]

Related Articles:

Imperial Playground: The Story of Iran in Recent History

by Andrew G. Marshall | Global Research | October 4, 2007

Quote:

As the United States is the sole superpower and empire in the world today, most commentators focus primarily just on relations between America and Iran to explain the current situation developing between the two countries, usually not going further back than just a few years, and as far back as the mainstream media will tell the story is to 1979, when Iran had a revolution, in which they threw out the Shah of Iran, who was backed by the Americans and British, and replaced that form of secular government with a religious one. However, as important as this event was between Iranian and American relations, it is important to go further back to truly understand the dynamic relations that the United Kingdom, and later, the United States (the Anglo-American alliance) have had with Iran.

[Original Story]

PETRODOLLAR & IRAN & IRAQ

by Jim Willie CB | 321energy | Sunday, October 7, 2007

Quote:

Iran has begun to sell its oil in euro currency transactions, already to China, and next to Japan. The gold market should rejoice, when they are actually not paying attention to this grand development. Petro sales outside the US$ realm represent the first of several tectonic shifts in global banking. Direct impact is assured to gold, once the certain changes are realized to bank systems. Imagine Japan changing the emphasis of their entire FOREX reserves management because they purchase a large block of crude oil from Iran, and pay in euros. How much more Persian Gulf oil will China purchase? How much will their future bills be due in euro terms? This article contains a capsule summary taken from the energy section of the April Hat Trick Letter, with a finale based in dark humor.

[Original Article]

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