Here Comes the Draft: Across the Rubicon
Here Comes The Draft
Across the Rubicon
By Michael Ruppert
fromthewilderness.com
[©Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications, www.copvcia.com. All
Rights Reserved. May be distributed, reposted on the internet or
distributed for non-profit purposes only]
There is not much joy this month in seeing that events over the last
year have unfolded exactly the way I said they would. Having just
returned from my 25th and 26th lectures since last November in New
Haven, Conn. and at nearby Wesleyan University, I look back and see that
for seven months I have been publicly stating that we would be invading
Iraq by fall 2002.
I see that since last December, and in every lecture since my first at
Portland State University, I have said clearly and unequivocally that we
are witnessing a sequential war to control the largest reserves on a
planet that is running out of oil.
I look back at our economic analyses and the two warnings we published
on Sept. 9, 2001 and July 8, 2002 and see that the U.S economy is
behaving exactly the way we predicted it would behave. And from our
stories last month on Iraq and Saudi Arabia I see politics being played
as a kind of theater of the absurd, as all of the pieces fall into place
for a swift invasion of Iraq and a likely simultaneous occupation of
Saudi Arabia's oil fields.
And there is no glee at all in the fact that, as we had clearly stated
as early as mid-September of last year, that Afghanistan, which had
virtually no opium growing on Sept. 11, is once again the world's
leading producer. The great heroin epidemic we predicted is now flooding
across Russia and Western Europe.
I note with little satisfaction that plans for mass vaccinations are
moving ahead even as the federal government announces on the one hand a
plan for "voluntary" immunization of the population within days of an
alert, while at the same time pushing MEHPA (The Model Emergency Health
Powers Act) through state legislatures. MEHPA would make it a crime --
possibly a felony -- to refuse those same "voluntary" vaccinations. And
the punishment would be carried out by the states.
And a recent AP story headlined "Evidence Contradicts Bush 9-11 Denial,"
following on the heels of dramatic testimony by the charismatic and
eloquent 9-11 widow Kristen Breitweiser, along with ever more damning
revelations in the joint House Senate 9-11 intelligence committee have
proved that FTW's allegations a year ago of foreknowledge were more than
justified. Strange, isn't it, that it has now been classified as to what
the president was told before the attacks? If he knew what we now know
the intelligence agencies knew, he is at the very least a proven and
untrustworthy liar. Bush's known actions before, during and since the
attacks are impeachable offenses. Perhaps some brave member of Congress
will ultimately take to the floor and say so.
Anything is possible as the economy approaches a near-certain meltdown
this October, which may well see the Dow below 6000 after devastating
third quarter earnings reports become official and the explosion of a
$50 trillion derivatives bubble occurs. I can see no better combination
of factors than a bloody war, threats of or actual terrorist attacks,
and draconian health legislation that will allow for the immediate
confiscation of property and the uncontested quarantine of anyone as
convenient methods to control an angry population that may soon be going
hungry and cold. President Bush has made it clear that he wants the
Homeland Security Act -- with all of its suppressive powers -- signed
before the Iraqi invasion and, as of Oct. 1, we will have the Northern
Command in place that will place both Mexican and Canadian troops under
U.S. command.
There has been some hope that dramatic last ditch efforts in the U.N.
and elsewhere, together with an increasing number of significant
protests both in the U.S. and Europe might derail the plans for war.
They may actually delay the invasion for a short while, but that's all.
A wise analyst will follow the troops rather than the rhetoric. The
massive buildup for the invasion has continued unabated. These troops
cannot remain so heavily forward-deployed for long without being used.
Recent convenient deployments to Yemen and Djibouti only confirm my
previously-stated suspicions that Saudi Arabia is just as much a target
as Iraq.
The Asia Times, in a story published Sept. 30, also confirms the
position taken by FTW about eight weeks ago that the move against Iraq
and Saudi Arabia is a move to break the back of OPEC and drastically
reduce prices by increasing production from the only two countries in
the world that can open oil taps wider. This position was also noted on
a Sept. 28 Fox News show by former CIA Director James Woolsey, who has
had a habit of addressing FTW themes in interviews. Woolsey noted that
Iraq is currently exporting only 1 million barrels of oil a day and that
this could be increased by 3- to 4 million barrels per day as a price
"control" measure. When asked if Saddam might scorch the earth and
attempt to destroy his oilfields Woolsey replied, "Saddam is capable of
anything." He then implied that the U.S. was prepared for that
contingency by recalling that Saddam had tried that tactic in 1991, and
the U.S. had quickly restored production. "But we could do the same
thing again," said Woolsey and "get the fields online quicker than
anyone thought."
As the invasion plans appear more and more unstoppable, the heavy
shuttle diplomacy taking place in the Arab world between Egypt, Syria,
Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states indicates that the OPEC/Muslim
world sees the plan also. They want to slow the U.S. down and prevent
the invasion. While staving off an inevitable collapse of the U.S.
economy by drastically reducing oil prices (including heating oil and
fuel for power generation) just before winter, the Bush Administration
would also gut the national incomes of most countries in the region. Our
immediate economic instability would be immediately transferred to the
Middle East. The Saudi monarchy, awaiting the imminent passing of King
Fahd, must see this clearly. The civil war between Princes Abdullah and
Sultan that looms from that event alone might turn into anarchy if the
Saudi government is suddenly unable to meet the domestic financial
obligations that keep it in place.
What seems clear to me now is that the administration has thought
through all of these contingencies and has prepared for them. The
administration's arrogance is as frightening as its power. I have
recently learned from trusted sources on Capitol Hill that the Armed
Services committees have quietly begun planning for a reinstitution of
the draft. That harkens back to my June 2000 essay, "When the Children
of the Bull Market Begin to Die." The eventual drafting of our youth is
to me as much a certainty as anything else I have written about thus
far. Reserve units, now having been called up for more than a year, are
nearing the breaking point. A bloody and protracted war -- something the
rest of the world may now be hoping for -- will overextend our military,
and the draft will be essential as the criminals occupying the Executive
Branch desperately attempt to make their grasp meet their reach. I think
that there is better than a 50-50 chance that nuclear weapons will be
used on the battlefield by either the U.S. or Israel within the next six
months.
Russia and China wait as close to the sidelines as possible. China will
be the ultimate endgame as it competes with growing demand for dwindling
supplies of energy. And should the U.S. stumble, China will exert
herself even more on the world scene.
I am reminded of where this country was in 1967-68 as the U.S.
government, faced with massive domestic riots over civil rights and
anti-war protests, found that it had 550,000 troops overseas and not
enough at home to keep the peace. It was then that the assassinations of
MLK and RFK became both inevitable and necessary. As yet, no leader of
such stature had emerged, and I don't know if one will. Rep. Cynthia
McKinney of Georgia, ousted by a clever and well executed plan, was one
hope. But the ruling elite's science of population and political control
has come a long way since the 1960s.
Most of our critics, notably David Corn of The Nation and self-anointed
media critic Norman Solomon, have gone silent as both our reporting and
predictions have been completely validated by events. And both Corn and
Solomon have also revealed themselves to be agents of the U.S. State
Department run by Colin Powell and career covert operative and criminal
Richard Armitage. Last November in a story published on Alternet Corn
wrote, "I had been dispatched to Trinidad by the U.S. State Department
to conduct a two-day seminar on investigative reporting for local
journalists (your tax dollars at work!)..." And just recently Norman
Solomon of the Institute for Public Accuracy traveled with sitting
congressman Nick Rahall and others on what CNN described as an official
delegation to meet with officials of the Iraqi government.
I make these points because it seems to me that the learning curve of
activism has not matched that of the oppressor. It is true that the
Internet may prove itself to be the saving grace of mankind. But I look
back at all the dedicated activists of the last 30 years and ask what
have they accomplished? Human rights are worse. The environment is
worse. Globalization is batting near 1000. Military spending has
skyrocketed. And there seems to be nothing that can stop the empire's
progression. (That is what I labeled it in January 2001).
Visionaries like Catherine Austin Fitts (www.solari.com) continue to
demonstrate how our government is not a government but a criminal
enterprise run for the benefit of corporations and syndicates. Her
writing about alternative economic models that succeed without killing
attracts far too little attention. And while FTW is growing, we are
constantly short of funds as we continue to provide the most accurate
reporting, analysis and predictions in the marketplace of ideas.
This is all because most of the people in this country still avoid the
hard realities and try to cure symptoms rather than the causes of this
great illness that envelops our country. Just recently I was in
Washington, D.C. and attended several seminars at the Congressional
Black Caucus. One seminar, on COINTELPRO, the FBI's domestic suppression
operation of the '60s and '70s, featured Martin Luther King III who
said, "We are a sick nation. Every day we are getting sicker."
I could not agree more.
But Julius Caesar has crossed the little river called the Rubicon with
his legions and is heading toward Rome. The Republic is dead. And
throughout human history it was at these times, when answers were hard
to find and darkness seemed unstoppable, that a part of the human spirit
persisted -- "I will not give up. I will not go quietly. I will not
surrender." It was at these moments that faith demonstrated its true
power, that courage found itself in the heart, and that the human race
justified its existence in the universe.
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