Iran, 2nd update
After settling in, our Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation embarked on some emotional meetings.
We visited the Society of Chemical Weapons Victims Support as one of our first excursions in Tehran. During the 1980-1988, Iraq-Iran war, where one million people died, the U.N. claims that Iraq used 19,500 chemical bombs. Many of the bombs and chemical agents were provided by western countries.
Iranians revere veterans of this war and consider many of the casualties as martyrs. With a great sense of justice, these veterans speak in solidarity with the victims of nuclear weapons. They work for peace and for ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction. In closing his emotional remarks a chemical weapons victim said, “my eyes, lungs and skin was affected, yet I work for world peace.”
The next day, we drove through Tehran’s chaotic traffic to a long-term care facility for war victims. There we heard the same message: we must abolish weapons of mass destruction and find ways of diplomacy instead of war. In my travels, I find it interesting that the majority of those affected by war, oppose war. Yet, those who send young women and men to war rarely possess this experience.
Later in the day, we navigated the small alleys of a Bazaar, where like in the U.S. you can buy a fair amount of consumer junk. Unlike home, some of the small shops overflowed with colorful produce, olives and other tasty treats. My favorite little shop blends fresh mango, strawberry, orange and other juices for a mere fifty cents a glass. I sipped on strawberry that day.
Stay tuned for an account of our visit with a Vice President and our travels to the namesake of the wine, Shiraz.
Peace,
Paul
The following statement is exactly what is wrong
with our government today.
Where will your congressman, Senator, Governor,
or any other represenative of AMERICAS government
be.
I am out of the office from March 7 through March 13th at the AIPAC Policy Conference.
Then they will swear to you . that they work for
Americans, not special interest, for foreign
agency or representatives.
We want a list of all members that attend, so we
will know who not to vote for in any and all future
elections.
We no longer will put up with, foreign policy, speeches , bills written, by and for
Israel, by AIPAC. We elected, pay and expect
moral values, ethics, integrity, and honesty
for America. We pay taxes for our interest not
the evil regime.
That has been and is the major down fall of our
government.
NATIONAL DEBT: on January 29: $8,686,542,446,617.56
ON March 6:
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007
National Debt – $9 Trillion – Quickly Approaching $50 Trillion
The official national debt figure, now approaching $9 trillion, reflects only what the federal government owes in current debts on money already borrowed. It does not reflect what the federal government has promised to pay millions of Americans in entitlement benefits down the road. Those future obligations put our real debt figure at roughly fifty trillion dollars- a staggering sum that is about as large as the total household net worth of the entire United States. Your share of this fifty trillion amounts to about $175,000.
The special-interest industry in Washington has only grown since the last election, and it will spend more money than ever this time to try to own our political process and dictate our policies in Washington.
Little federal aid for states
White House, pushing tax cuts, says red ink may shrink state government
The president made it clear last week that states will have to find their way out of their problems without much federal aid, as he pursues federal tax cuts that he said will stimulate economic growth.
“Listen, I’m sorry that states are in deficit, obviously,” Bush said, in a transcript released by the National Journal. “Some states are raising taxes, some states are cutting expenditures. They are all meeting their deficits in different ways, but nevertheless, it is incumbent on the federal government to think in terms of how to enhance revenues.”
Total federal aid to states and local govenments in fiscal year 2004 was $408.1 billion
Now aid has been drastically reduced including
Health and Welfare to all States.
U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact
Total Cost to U.S. Taxpayers
$134,791,507,200
Total Taxpayer Cost per Israeli
$23,240
Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world’s population and already has one of the world’s higher per capita incomes. No cuts have ever been discussed.
Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.
Given Israel’s relative prosperity, U.S. aid to Israel is becoming increasingly controversial. “Their economic situation is better than in many of our States, how can they go on asking for our charity?”
Besides asking our young people to die
for their benefit.
This means that U.S. government has given more federal aid to the average Israeli citizen in any given year than it has given to the average American citizen.
We are angry when we see Israeli settlers from Hebron destroy improvements made to Shuhada Street with our tax money. Also, it angers us that our government is giving over $10 billion to a country that is more prosperous than most of the other countries in the world and uses much of its money for strengthening its military and the oppression of the Palestinian people.
They have no respect for others in this world, never have had.
Most all U.S. aid to Israel took place after the June 1967 war, when Israel found itself more powerful than any combination of Arab armies…Yet it is our troops dying,
not theirs from their cooked up intelligence.
The Aerospace Industry Association which promotes these massive arms shipments…is even more influential,
or as influencial as AIPAC. Then comes
the investments into such by the Tax
free Neo-cons, and their influence.Its force on Capitol Hill, in terms of lobbying, surpasses that of AIPAC at times.
The results” of the short-term thinking behind U.S. policy “are tragic,” not just for the “immediate victims” but “eventually Israel itself” and “American interests in the region.” The U.S. is sending enormous amounts of aid to the Middle East, and yet we are less secure than ever-both in terms of U.S. interests abroad and for individual Americans. Referring to the growing and increasing hostility the average Arab now has toward the United States. In the long term, peace and stability and cooperation with the vast Arab world is far more important for U.S. interests than this alliance with Israel.
This is not only an issue for those who are working for Palestinian rights, but it also jeopardizes the entire agenda of those of us concerned about human rights, concerned about arms control, concerned about international law.
The complete total of U.S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel for a fiscal year is $5,525,800,000. Sometimes +++.
Israel, whose troubles arise solely from its unwillingness to give back land it seized in the 1967 war in return for peace with its neighbors, does not fit any criteria for such aid.
The lobby that Israel and its supporters have built in the United States to make all this aid happen, and to ban discussion of it from the national dialogue, goes far beyond AIPAC, with its $15 million budget, its 150 employees, and its five or six registered lobbyists who manage to visit every member of Congress individually once or twice a year.
AIPAC, in turn, can draw upon the resources of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a roof group set up solely to coordinate the efforts of some 52 national Jewish organizations on behalf of Israel.
ADL, it was shown, had added the illegally prepared and illegally obtained material to its own secret files, compiled by planting informants among Arab-American, African-American, anti-Apartheid and peace and justice groups.
The ADL infiltrators took notes of the names and remarks of speakers and members of audiences at programs organized by such groups. ADL agents even recorded the license plates of persons attending such programs and then suborned corrupt motor vehicles department employees or renegade police officers to identify the owners.
To date some 126 pro-Israel PACs have been registered, and no fewer than 50 have been active in every national election over the past generation.
There is something else very special about AIPAC’s network of political action committees. Nearly all have deceptive names. Who could possibly know that the Delaware Valley Good Government Association in Philadelphia, San Franciscans for Good Government in California, Cactus PAC in Arizona, Beaver PAC in Wisconsin, and even Icepac in New York are really pro-Israel PACs under deep cover?
As a result, all but a handful of the 535 members of the Senate and House vote as AIPAC instructs when it comes to aid to Israel, or other aspects of U.S. Middle East policy. Will we attack Iran, certainly,if they give the order.
There is something else very special about AIPAC’s network of political action committees. Nearly all have deceptive names. Who could possibly know that the Delaware Valley Good Government Association in Philadelphia, San Franciscans for Good Government in California, Cactus PAC in Arizona, Beaver PAC in Wisconsin, and even Icepac in New York are really pro-Israel PACs under deep cover?
According to the Population Reference Bureau of Washington, DC, the sub-Saharan countries has a combined population of 568 million. The foreign aid they have received by amounts to $42.99 per sub-Saharan African.
Similarly, with a combined population of 486 million, all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean together has received amounts to $79 per person.
A question that will never occur to the American public because, so long as America’s mainstream media, Congress and president maintain their pact of silence, few Americans will ever know the true cost of Israel to U.S. taxpayers.
There is immense political and military costs to the U.S. for its consistent support of Israel during Israel’s half-century of disputes with the Palestinians and all of its Arab neighbors.
Time to cut all Foreign Aid, until our own people are
taken care of, and our deficits & Debts are paid.
DISABLIED VETERANS:(Is Our Military supported ??)
The budget shortfalls have left the administrators shorthanded, but there’s no excuse for not having checks for the disabled veterans, and we’re going to get it corrected.
Totaling more than 400,000. In some cases, while their claims work their way through the bureaucracy, the veterans are dying.
The Army denies intentionally pushing wounded soldiers off the military rolls.
The Army is systematically and deliberately underrating injured veterans’ conditions to hold down costs
I hope America listened to Bob Woodruff Tuesday
night. A claim of 21,000 injuried, when it is known
to be over 205,000.
Civilian casualties: claims 40,000 to maybe 100,000, when in fact it is known to be over 670,000 dead..
VA estimates that there are more than 250,000 homeless veterans in the Nation, or one-third of the adult homeless population.
Instead of providing adequate funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical system, the budget proposes to shift the cost burden onto the backs of veterans, making health care more expensive and even less accessible for millions of America’s defenders.
As called for in the President’s budget, total VA funding for the next fiscal year would increase about 1 percent, from the current $67.5 billion to $68.2 billion. More than half of the budget would go for mandatory programs such as disability compensation and pensions. Medical care for veterans would rise from $27.7 billion $27.8 billion with the bulk of that so-called increase coming almost entirely out of veterans’ pockets.
The 1.2 million member disablied American Veterans across the country feel the inadequate appropriation.
Yet our foreign aid package to Israel: US congress has annually been approving a foreign aid bill totaling an average of $3 billion to Israel, $1.2 billion in economical aid, and $1.8 billion in military aid.
US has additionally been offering Israel $2 billion annually in federal loan guarantees, which brings the total US foreign aid to Israel to about $5 billion, or $13.7 million per day. This amount excludes the approximate $1.5 billion in total tax-deductible private donations from numerous Jewish charities and individual donors. All in all, this is the largest amount of foreign aid given to a country, and constitutes 30% of the total amount of US foreign aid budget.
CUT AND RUN FROM AIPAC, ISRAEL, MOSSAD
AND THEIR ORGANIZED CRIME SYNDICATE.
For Peace in the Middle East,
Stop AIPAC!
The Annexation Wall surrounds the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. The wall deprives its 12,000 residents of their basic needs to work, to receive proper medical care, and to harvest their own land. AIPAC heavily lobbied Congress to support the Wall.
AIPAC had played a key role in fomenting support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It is playing an even greater role in supporting a future military strike against the people of Iran.
AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, describes itself as the most important organization affecting the U.S. relationship with Israel. With a budget of $65 million, and membership now standing at over 100,000, it is no wonder that congressional staffers consider it one of the most powerful and effective lobbies on Capitol Hill.
Once a year, AIPAC holds its annual conference in Washington DC. This May it was attended by over 5,000 participants. Its annual policy conference is one of Washington’s largest gatherings of lawmakers, topped only by the President’s State of the Union address. Guests this year included two-thirds of the House, half the Senate, and Vice President Richard Cheney.
Only rarely is a critical word uttered among politicians regarding AIPAC and its associates that support unjust and aggressive (and disastrous) U.S. policies toward the peoples of the Middle East. We aim to change that.
For too long, policies that support Israeli militarism and occupation have gone unchallenged. Political voices raising even minor disagreements with prevailing policies are silenced or subject to campaigns of intimidation. We must open the door to full debate regarding U.S. relationship with Israel and U.S. policy with other countries in the region.
Demand a complete investigation of AIPAC, and
that they be forced to register as a foreign agent, and pay taxes as they should. +++
The following statement is exactly what is wrong
with our government today.
Where will your congressman, Senator, Governor,
or any other represenative of AMERICAS government
be.
I am out of the office from March 7 through March 13th at the AIPAC Policy Conference.
Then they will swear to you . that they work for
Americans, not special interest, for foreign
agency or representatives.
We want a list of all members that attend, so we
will know who not to vote for in any and all future
elections.
We no longer will put up with, foreign policy, speeches , bills written, by and for
Israel, by AIPAC. We elected, pay and expect
moral values, ethics, integrity, and honesty
for America. We pay taxes for our interest not
the evil regime.
That has been and is the major down fall of our
government.
The pro-Israel lobby does most of its work without publicity. But every member of Congress and every would-be candidate for Congress comes to quickly understand a basic lesson. Money needed to run for office can come with great ease from supporters of Israel, provided that the candidate makes certain promises, in writing, to vote favorably on issues considered important to Israel. What drives much of congressional support for Israel is fear – fear that the pro-Israel lobby will either withhold campaign contributions or give money to one’s opponent.
CHRISTIAN MORAL VALUES VS: RELIGIOUS ZIONIST HYPOCRISY
GOOD VS: EVIL
Hypocrisy is the act of pretending or claiming to have beliefs, feelings, morals or virtues that one does not truly possess or practice. THE REPUBLICAN ZIONIST MOVEMENT.
CAN/WILL ANY REPUBLICAN EVER WIN AGAIN ??
AIPAC, ISRAEL, & MOSSAD HAVE COMPLETELY
DESTROYED THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND
AMERICA’S STATUS IN THE WORLD !!
BE AMERICAN FIRST——FIGHT FOR AMERICA NOW:
The next few weeks are critical—Congress has the power to stop the war, but some representatives are afraid to use it. As Congress meets and debates, we need to remind them that bringing our troops home safely is what they were elected to do.
Voters elected Democrats in November to end the war. Now they have to step up and do it.