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 10 Aug 2003 @ 19:22
Dear American's
I am writing to give you my support and encouragement in the build up to your 2004 elections. Even though this will be your elections and your opportunity to stand together and create regime change in your own land, realize that millions upon millions of us are praying for you to succeed.
We hear you are facing difficult times we are hearing that tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy and the astronomical costs associated with the war machine, that vast insatiable military complex, are robbing you of much needed welfare, health care, and education. Not to mention the jobs that are need in order to survive. Your once proud nation has fallen from grace, and it is only you who can reclaim it from within.
I and many others pray for you to be successful. You need to realize that many millions of us who inhabit the globe in places you may never have heard of, would love to vote in your elections, would love to see a regime change in your country, for your country holds the fate of the worlds future in its hands. Now I hate to say it, but unfortunately your nation has become known as the most arrogant super power the world has ever known. It has the dubious distinction of being voted, the biggest threat to world peace according to global opinion. By dropping more bombs, and by consequence creating more acts of terrorism, what ever laws are created in your absence usually find their way down here. I have never really figured out why that should be, unless we are an unofficial state without voting rights, but then again that's another story…
Our world leaders are much to nice to be honest, in fact for the most part, our various governing leaders, are very much the same, they lie with a smile, kill with impunity and hide their accountability behind titles of office that it seems no one can touch them, they have become impervious to the laws that you and I are forced to be accountable to. I hear however that you now house 2 million people in your jails, so the legal system is working somewhere along the line, could it be the bottom line ?
The choices your government has made in your name affect us all. Most of you know this I am sure, some of you may not want to admit it, and a lot of you are sticking firmly to your guns, in support of Bush….but the facts are screaming at us to take a good look around our world, our lives and our lifestyles. Because to me, to have done what we have done does not bode well for a race that calls itself humane. Something is terribly out of balance here.
Its not just the wars, it's the environmental degradation of our world, our food source, our water, deforestation. It's the way we consume non renewable resources, with an infantile belief in sustainability. It's the rise in pathological disease, which now claims our children at alarming rates, not to mention the rise in live birth deformities, still birth and miscarriages. This will increase with the influx of returning servicemen and women, contaminated by DU. Hell this war is all over a non renewable, unsustainable resource that is running out.
A race that considers itself humane, that talks of love and peace, yet continues to allow WMD and biological agents to be created, which enviably becomes part of the GDP; A race that incarcerates millions of its populations while itself commits acts of terror and treasonable violence and murder whilst violating the rights of its own citizens, well there is no word for it really, it just has to be stopped. All I can say is that actions speak louder than words ever can.
The notion of weapons of mass destruction. Why are we creating such weapons ? Do we hate and fear each other that much?
Your America is reactivating its nuclear weapons program, now what message is that sending to the rest of the world?
When actions speak louder than words, I have to ask myself, is a race that talks of love, yet allows WMD to be created a race that comes from love? Or even a race that comes from its heart? Or even a race that has any idea of what its doing. Have you gone mad over there or what ? WAKE UP !
You and I are responsible for the world we create, and we do create it, as surely as we allow the creation of WMD, the virus's of biological terror, and the means in which to use them. We are responsible even if we deny that its going on, we are responsible even if we are not aware of what is going on, and we are responsible even more so, knowing what is going on ..becasue this is OUR world…..yours and mine...its not just theirs
If a country like yours, America, decides to re active its nuclear weapons program, what can I take from that, what can the rest of the world make of that? Is it an unrealistic mind jump given your administrations preponderance with pre emptive strikes to see a nuclear war over the horizon? They have already doomed many generations of children to come with deformities from DU dust and for many serving in both Afghanistan and Iraq to a lingering 'mystery' illness. Just because its not you dosnt negate the pain and sorrow others will feel.
John Lennon and many others like him sung about the power of the people uniting together in peace and love. I believe that you as a citizen of a country you love are just as concerned as the rest of us, more so as it is in your name and your reputation that is being trashed around the globe. I want you to know that I, and many millions like me stand steadfastly in support of any changes that you make towards ending this abuse by those currently occuping postions of power and inlfuence in your white house.
Anger is a powerful motivator for change, and our world has been angry, powerfully angry enough to gather together globally no less, and march in our millions in an un precedented pre war NO war protest !
I ask you, did we have a collective gut feeling that this war was just an excuse to grab a sovereign nations OIL ?
Did we have a collective hunch that both the UK and the USA leaders LIED to us about WMD. That this lie, was a fabricated burecratic choice to conceal the oily rich and strategic land of Iraq. And that they have done nothing BUT lie to us and continue the lies even now?
Incidentally the initials UK - USA were said to be United to Kill Us All …by a 60 year old Iraqi man interviewed on Demorcracynow.org in the first days of what was legally an illegal invasion. Basically what this thread poses, is did we intuitively know all along they were lying, and do we inherently know now, in our deepest gut, our heart of hearts that if these PANAC visionists remain in power, they may just take our entire world into a nuclear Armageddon?
You have an incredible responsibility to the rest of the world to right the wrongs done in your names and we for our part, we will continue to stand with you in our perspective countries and do the same as we all did together on Feb 15th when we stood united in our millions, united in our vision for peace. Many more of us, will endeavor to stand up to our governments and get more involved with the day to day running of our country. Never again will we allow such abuse of power to erode, our power and voice as a people.
Our leaders, especially Bush Sharon and Blair, are showing us something. They are showing us a world that could be our future. This isn't the future I want for my yet to be born grandchild, or any child for that matter
I also know that before any change can occur one must first see the need for that change. I believe I am not alone in feeling that that time is now and there has been such a prolonged and consistent abuse of power in your country that a powerful force has taken over, that we will need the energy and support of everyone of you to stand against them and say no more.
Healing doesn't happen in isolation, it occurs when we heal the things that affect our health and the way the world is at the moment just about everything we take for granted in order to live our lifestyles is becoming a threat to our health
It is not my intention to list every thing that makes me angry about what your government is doing in your name, but I cannot conclude this letter if I did not mention the event that polarized and in many cases united us all.
September 11th was a moment in time that changed our world, it was for you a wake up call to what your government has been doing in your name, and the consequence of those actions. Was it really a terrorist action or was it a government plot, which would validate a long standing conspiracy theory? Since the white house has consistently blocked any type of open public enquiry, the answer will probably be left to our gut feelings. Languishing, still under debate at the turn of the next century, if we are lucky enough to have one.
Whatever it was, it shocked the world, the scope and magnitude of it witnessed ad nausem on TV screens around the world. I have to confess, that I and many who may not like to be so open, initially thought, yes, payback time. I mention initially, because when I witnessed people jumping out of windows my heart cried. This act of terrorism either state sponsored or otherwise, changed our world. And in the way that only human suffering and tragedy can do, it bought us together, it briefly united us.
Many of you asked why do they hate us, you honestly had no idea, what was being done around the world in your name, in other countries, to other peoples lives. Some of you knew that your government has been terrorizing many poorer nations, in your name, and have been diligently trying to bring these facts to your consciousness so that you also may know and help end them. Yet for the most part these people have been labeled conspiracy theorists…..however over the past 20 years most of the conspiracy theories I have heard have today become fact. Fact, according to my mini Collins dictionary, means undeniable yet, often unpleasant TRUTH. !
Thus September 11th set the stage for what has since played out. But most importantly what it has done has enabled billions of us to see the need for change. It has enabled us in our anger, shock and horror, to connect with isolated groups around the entire world to link up with a united cause in a united voice. Out of this has come movements for social change, a unity of people from all faiths, all races. A global movement that shows only signs of expanding.
Our worlds future is in our hands, if we leave it and do nothing, then we are basically not taking responsibility for our world. I am tired of watching small groups of people struggling to make the rest of us aware of what is happening to our food; GE, to our children; Cancers, to our education; (induction) our water; Polluted, and our earth;(degraded) and our military complex; (out of control) These people are dotted around the world in small groups all working towards making changes that would benefit all of us. They are often un supported, definitely under reported, trivialized, terrorized and imprisoned, with reputations and credibility defamed. All while warning of us of what lies ahead if we don't make some changes…..red pill anyone? I often marvel at the fact that football stadiums, or in your case basketball statdiums can be full with as much as 35, 000 people who often come from all over the country, and spend vast amounts to get there. Imagine if these same people cared enough about the things that truly affect our world and by consequence our lives, imagine if they came and stood up for GE, for clean water, imgine if they all voted for regime change.
Every event has a choice attached to it, and 9/11 was no different. The US government could have taken the opportunity to make amends for its murderous foreign polices. It could have been 'man' enough to stand up and say that certain actions in the past, have resulted in this tragedy. They could have began dialogue to ensure that this could never happen again. For all their intelligence and past covert history, should have told them that terrorism does not arise in isolation.
The entire world will await your 2004 elections with bated breath, we will all be rooting for you to create regime change in your own land, for until these men are removed from power and true justice is restored in your courts and senates, there will not be peace, rather there will be as your president has already said, endless war. And who I ask you wants to live in a world in perpetual war ? except those who stand to make a profit out of it….and we are all beginning to discover who these men are. Personally we deserve better than this. Our children who we claim to love so much deserve a world that has freedom and the right of expression, a world with clean food, and natural medicine. Our children deserve to have a world of peace not endless war. So in gods name, for gods sake VOTE if not for yourself, then for your children. And if not for them, then could you please caste a vote for me in your name?
Actually we should be able to vote in your elections since most of my country is owned by American corporate interests anyway, not to mention all the American shoot em up and kill em cop shows, along with all the video stores filled to the brim with movies of the bloodywood genre….our culture has become Americanized…but then that's another story.
Best of luck
Jenese@xtra.co.nz
New Zealand
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alley, heard in the very halls of government itself.
For the traitor appears no traitor he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims and he wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city. He infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist."
(Marcus Tullius Cicero) 7, 43 BC More >
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 19 Apr 2003 @ 01:45
well my dear and loving friends....here is my interpretaion of what peace means to me
peace is standing strong in my truth
peace is spending my hard earned dollar in supporting ethical and environmentally sustainablity consumering
Peace is for me...finding out who owns what so that i am not indirectly supporting war or toxic chemicals with my hard earned $
peace is no longer indulging anyone in their support for what is unsustainable and un ethical bussniess practises or consuming
Peace is trusting that the common demoninator within all of us, ...our hearts will overcome ignorance...
peace is not indulging ignorance....we have a 2000yr old history to draw past experiences on ...so now there is no excuse for ignorance....
peace is being true to myself...in that way i can serve others authentically
peace is not driving to the dairy in my car...if i had one :)
peace is standing up for justice for everybody not just the few...in fact peace to me now means taking the blindfold off goddess justice so she can truly see
peace means standing strong and standing firm within integrity and compassion
peace means no longer indulging others in their victimhood
peace means to me self love......when i can love myself authentically then i will experience authentic love
peace means exposing lies and deciet when i come across it
peace means turning my back on corruption lies and decit knowing full well that they exist and turning my attention to those things that are ethical, life supporting and life nurtering...
peace means loving my friends as myself
peace means sharing knowledge and ideas of alternatives to the status quo
well thats a start.... More >
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13 Apr 2003 @ 04:14
what is peace ?
what are all the people asking for when they march for peace... it didn't stop the US going to war and making a killing in more ways than one literally...so what does peace mean then ?
if life is lived in a similtaneous moment then right now, the amazon is burning, a mother is giving birth to a child in ethopia who will in some future time be one of those starving kids that we are asked to donate money to..the taliban will beat up another woman, Mugabe will kill some white farmer. right now there are milita in indonesia, fighting in the jungle, drug runners fighting with the cops in some far off place.....well i guess by now you get the picture....
while all eyes are on Iraq and the illegal and higly visible lies the UK USA devised as a pretense in invading...while millions scream peace.....I ask what the hell is going on
some people hide behind the cross of god, you know the one they hung that dying murdered brutally tortuerd man on... the one they seem to think is a symbol of life....some people hide behind the justifications of their book of god ...others think their spirituality will somehow sheild them from the horrors of everyday life...yet others will spend till they drop in some kind of massive retail therapy...in any case each and every one will have some kind of monstrous justification for doing the action they have chosen...and sometimes i think i want to throw up .....yeah just puke on the entire world
is this a nightmare i am waking into or what....
it has occured to me that we selectively pick and choose our 'peace' topic.....and in a way that is wise cos living in a similtaneious world ....theres many to choose from ...which one will it be next week........as long as it dosn't distrub my lie to much...i mean hey....
as if the war is not enough ........now there is SARS....Sickening And Repulsive Scam to bring the fear of death or the fear of god or the fear of life to a tv or news outlet near you.......bring on the virus the planet needs a cleanse
UK USA now means United to Kill US All according to a 60 yr old Iraq engineer...is he right....if not with a war then with a virus conjured up in some USA lab or in some other country with some USA ingridents....sooner or later...hell everything you buy has some connection to the US...look at that it spells us....us and them....us against them...us against the world....hmmm how symbolically correct
there is nothing left to do now...the global scale is visible its ingrained and its everywhere....its been growing like a cancer for over 100 years and we cannot stop it although once apon a time i naievly beleived that together we could.....but now i see that it is to entrenched....they have the weapons of Mass Deception and Dectruction at their finger tips, they have the police as their thugs and they have the might of a grand army of willing but stupid marines, soilders trained to kill.......how insane is that....if any one of us should step out of line, well....if any of them should step out of line we would never hear about it....lady justice has been blindfolded....kept in the dark by a race of men for a long time now...if she where to take off her rag she would be shocked at what blind justice has created....who blinded goddess justice orginally ?
I look around me and I see ego centric spirituality, massive consumerism to fill the void that arises within ....that sense of hopeless ness that one wishes to conceal by any means ...drugs sex, crime, violence, videos, shopping, food, ..yes it is a hopeless case...this earth...so just pick a peace cause to scream justice about .hell you might even be able to make some money out of others suffering or the environmental degradation of our planet....worth a go aye...
does this mean that ive given up....nope...it just means that ive woken up and had a good look around..... hell im gonna get a car and drive aimlessly around and use up as much oil as i can whilst similtaneously polluting the atmostphere we all breath...and pretend i live in a different world than this....finally ive gone insane
that world is a world of fear, and all of fear dervitives....love cannot live in that world....although the seeds are there in embryo...nothing will come of them in such a barren landscape....the seeds of love can no longer grow in such a delisiounal world...
my insainty says i must move away turn my back in full consciousness and mover towards another world.. to stop giving my energy to this one...in full consciousness....to deprive it of my oxygen my energy and my life force which it is sapping... More >
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 12 Apr 2003 @ 16:25
just found this last night....check out the picture site can be found at [link]
April 6th: Iraqi National Congress founder, Ahmed Chalabi is flown into the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah by the Pentagon. Chalabi, along with 700 fighters of his "Free Iraqi Forces" are airlifted aboard four massive C17 military transport planes. Chalabi and the INC are Washington favorites to head the new Iraqi government. A photograph is taken of Chalabi and members of his Free Iraqi Forces militia as they arrive in Nasiriyah.
April 9th: One of the "most memorable images of the war" is created when U.S. troops pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Fardus Square. Oddly enough... a photograph is taken of a man who bears an uncanny resemblance to one of Chalabi's militia members... he is near Fardus Square to greet the Marines. How many members of the pro-American Free Iraqi Forces were in and around Fardus Square as the statue of Saddam came tumbling down?
The up close action video of the statue being destroyed is broadcast around the world as proof of a massive uprising. Still photos grabbed off of Reuters show a long-shot view of Fardus Square... it's empty save for the U.S. Marines, the International Press, and a small handful of Iraqis. There are no more than 200 people in the square at best. The Marines have the square sealed off and guarded by tanks. A U.S. mechanized vehicle is used to pull the statue of Saddam from it's base. The entire event is being hailed as an equivalent of the Berlin Wall falling... but even a quick glance of the long-shot photo shows something more akin to a carefully constructed media event tailored for the television cameras.
Source: NYC IndyMedia More >
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 20 Mar 2003 @ 22:55
Message from the heart PART IV - (PIC IS WAVE FORM OF FEAR)
Gregg Braden
Walking Between the Worlds – the Science of compassion
Denial
If you view 10,000 Iraqi’s (I am taking the liberty and changing the name from Rwandans which was the original example given in this sentence given the history we are now living) laying along the roadside and feel nothing, there is a good possibility that you may be emotionally numb or in denial. This has been a common defense mechanism to survive something that is so painful in its horror, that you remove yourself from the reality through justifications and reasons. You are speaking ‘about’ the event rather than addressing the event itself. Any emotion, if present, may be displaced as anger in defense of your logic or justification. In the loss of life, any life, you will feel something. Whatever has died is a part of you that you will no longer know or experience.
Polarity
If you view the images of Iraqi’s choosing feelings of anger, outrage and thoughts of revenge, retaliation and getting even, there is a good possibility that you are living the polarity of un-tempered logic. Expressed as thoughts of right, wrong, good, bad, light, dark, it is polarity that will assure that you remain in separation. While anger may be a socially acceptable way of responding to an event of horror, ask yourself, “Does my anger serve me in this moment”? Does the situation warrant your response of emotional contraction, physiological depression and the compromise of your immune system, each and expression of anger?
Compassion
If you are able to view the Iraq scene and feel for the people that have had the experience and their survivors, without anger, revenge and the need to ‘get even’ with those responsible for the pain, you have made the choice from a higher form of emotion. To the degree that you are able to view the events with thoughts such as the following, you are viewing life in feeling, removed from the polarity of the rightness or wrongness of that which has transpired.
Í grieve for their suffering and pain, I will miss those people, their customs, the uniqueness that each had to offer our world…it didn’t have to happen.
These are powerful choices of feeling that place you in a powerful position in your life. Your choices allow you the opportunity to experience in your power rather than allowing the experience to make you feel. You are remembering the science of compassion, without anger, fear, rage or revenge. This level of mastery is one example of transcending polarity while still living in polarity
Our heart has been romantized as a symbol of love, it is continued to be believed that it is nothing but a mere yet critical pump in our bodies and our brains are given the supremacy in all that we do…it is the driver of everything. In this reasoning intellect is given more credence or validity than feelings or emotions. Yet we have discovered that the brain gets its signals from the heart, we have discovered that our heart has a brain and a nervous system. We have also discovered that the vibration of what we call love and all its Dervidities, compassion, joy, happiness, etc creates a wave form that can be measured and that wave form encodes our DNA. In other words that wave from of love touches our DNA strand in turn, turning on amino acids that send chemical, hormonal and electrical messengers throughout our body in a regenerative way…..these turn on the brains higher centers for feelings of clarity and well being.
However we have also learned that the emotion of fear, can also be measured and this wave form does not touch our DNA in quite as many places nor in the same way as the wave form of love. However the wave form of fear and all its derivatives, hate greed, anger, etc turn on our chemical, hormonal and electrical messengers throughout our body in a degenerative way….these do not turn on the brains higher centers.
This summation albeit, a very simplified account does not lessen the implications of what our heart does in our bodies, and how it affects us, neither does it denigrate the brain from its illusionary placement as the superior organ. What it does however is open the door of possibilities in our own understanding of ourselves and our world.
We have also discovered our thought, feeling and emotion, which is simply energy in motion, affect our bodies, thoughts of anger, hate, greed, deception, war, degenerate us, whilst thoughts of love, appreciation, joy peace regenerate our bodies….however it is now time to introduce you to another part of our brain, the Amygadala. Remember it is only by seeing the body as a mechanical machine like apparatus that any kind of separation occurs. The body is a whole organism, which works as a loving team.
From the Heartmath researchers…….
Our perception and emotions were once believed to be dictated entirely by the brains responses to stimuli arising in our external environment. The heart plays a key role in contributing to mental, emotional coherence since we now know that it possess a far more developed communication system with the brain than do most of the body’s major organs. Numerous experiments have now demonstrated that the messages the heart sends to the brain affect our perceptions, mental processes, feeling states and performance in profound ways. Our research suggests that the heart transmits information relative to one’s emotional state to the cardiac center of the brain stem which in turn feeds into the thalamus and the amygdala.
These areas are directly connected to the base of the frontal lobes which are critical for decision making and the integration of reason and feeling….meaning that once an emotion is experienced, it becomes a powerful motivator of future behaviors, affecting our moment to moment actions, attitudes and long-term achievements.
The Amygdala is the key brain center that coordinates behavioral immunolgical and neuro endocrine responses to environmental threats. It also serves as the store-house of emotional memory within the brain. In assessing our environment, the amygdala compares incoming emotional signals with stored emotional memories in this way the amygdala makes insanities decisions about the threat level of incoming sensory information, and due to it’s extensive connections to the hypothalamus and other autonomic nervous system (ANS) center, it is able to ‘hijack’ the neural pathways activating the ANS and emotional response before the higher brain centers receive the sensory information.
(Curial point)The amygdala also receives input from the heart. One of its many functions is to organize what becomes ‘familiar’ if the rhythm patterns generated by the heart are disordered and incoherent, especially as a young child, the amygdale learns to expect disharmony as familiar. Thus we feel ‘at home’ with incoherence which can affect learning, creativity and emotional balance. In other words we feel ‘comfortable’ only with internal incoherence which really is discomfort.
On the basis of what has become familiar to the amygdala, the frontal cortex mediates decisions as to what is appropriate or not in any given situation. Thus, subconscious emotional memories underlie and affect our perceptions, emotional reactions and thought processes.
From our current understanding of the elaborate feedback networks between the brain, the heart, our mental and emotional system, it becomes clear that the age old struggle between intellect and emotion will not be resolved by the mind gaining dominance over our feeling/emotions, but by increasing the harmonious balance between the two systems providing greater access to our full range of intelligence. Research results suggest however, that memory patterns can be reprogrammed so that coherence becomes the normal comfortable state.
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The ramification of this are profound. Could this indicate our habits and patterns of years of fearing to feel, years of suppressing or denying our emotions ? Raine Eisler in her book Sacred Pleasure points out that as children we are taught to negate our own human rights violation as part and parcel of growing up. As little children we know when something is not fair, not right, and it hurts. Eisler suggests that, given this situation, it is only natural that as adults, we tend to gloss over or ignore human rights abuses out in the world. We are desensitized from an early age…we have become ‘comfortable’ with internal incoherence which is really discomfort !
Is fear our underlying motivating emotional state ?
Is our collective amygdala programmed for incoherence, a ‘familiar’ uncomfortable ness in the sense we become conditioned to feeling ‘comfortable’ with internal incoherence, which is really discomfort ? Revealing that the vibrational wave form of fear is more an underlying factor in our lives than we may have realized ?
Can the state of the world today and the decreasing health and freedoms of its citizens be directly related to the wave form of fear and its derivatives, frustration, anger, greed worry and war ? with the sheer overwhelming ness leading to denial and apathy ? My dictionary defines Apathy as “lack of enthusiasm” or ‘Lack of interest”. Yet author Joanna Macy writing in ‘Despair and personal power ( new society publishers) the word apathy takes on quite revealing meaning. At its root apathy comes from a Greek work Apatheia, literally meaning ‘non suffering’. Given its etymology, Joanna says, apathy is the inability or the refusal to experience pain. We fear the feelings, and fear as we have discovered, with all its derivatives, produces an incoherence in the body, setting off a chemical/hormonal and electrical response that does not bode well for mental emotional nor physical health and well-being.
In our world to day much is happening that appears over whelming, to much to handle, freedoms we fought wars to protect are being eroded for profit and gain motivated by greed and fear. We have made industry the focus of our world at the price of everything. An ignorance and arrogance distorts the heart of humanity…. It is important however to understand that seeing all this is not necessarily a bad thing. The truth is that before change of any type can occur anywhere one first must see or experience the need for that change. Even if that means seeing how toxic our world has become or seeing how politically corrupt things are for the first time. In other words change can not come about if we do not see, nor realize the need for it. Admittedly, change seems like an overwhelming challenge, yet change is the only way forward, if we want the type of peaceful loving society/relationship/world we seem to say we do.
With the knowledge of our heart wave being the master wave within which all other waves exist allows us to se a way of moving ourselves through what needs to be changed. Simultaneously, the wave of love and fear, appear for us to understand and comprehend how our feelings, our emotions (energy in motion) set up a vibrational frequency, (wave) that determines our state of mind, our state of body and our state of action or response. It is the body mind connection that healers and mystics of all cultures have been trying to bring to our attention. Our hearts speak to us in the language of feeling, sending that feeling throughout our bodies, and depending upon how the brain responds, will determine our actions. Surprising one’s feelings, ones emotions, also sets up an incoherence or said another way, a discordant vibration and if maintained over time, i.e. becomes a habitual response, a pattern that does have, as we have seen a measurable affect upon us.
Yet if the heart feels love, not fear, than the body/mind acts in positive ways, setting up a vibrational wave that enhances our overall system which must have an affect on how we interact with others, and our world. Wouldn’t this mean that if love rather than fear harmonizes our bodies/mind to its optimum potential, then this would be the harmonic or pattern that our bodies/mind respond to best. Meaning that love would be the core of who we are, since that is what turns us on and isn’t this what the worlds greatest teachers have been trying to tell us for eons? More >
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 16 Mar 2003 @ 19:55
The Heartmath solution first published in the UK in 1999
Doc Childre
Howard Martin
With Donna Beech
Of the Internationally renowned Institute of Heartmath
Message from the heart – PART III (pic is DNA with wave form of fear)
In the 17th century, a European inventor by the name of Christian Huygens took great pride in his invention of the pendulum clock. He maintained a fine collection of such clocks in his studio. One day when he was in bed, he noticed a peculiar thing; all the pendulums were swinging in unison though he knew they hadn’t started out that way. Christiaan got out of bed and started all the pendulums swinging differently, breaking the synchronized rhythm. To his amazement, all the pendulums soon fell back into synchronization again. Every time he misaligned their swing, the pendulums found their way back into sync. Although Christiaan couldn’t completely solve the mystery, later scientists did; the larges pendulum the one with the stronger rhythm was pulling the other pendulums into sync with it. This phenomenon termed, entrainment, has been found to be prevalent throughout nature.
When your body is in entrainment, its major systems work in harmony, you biological systems operate at higher efficiency because of that harmony and as a result you think and feel better. Because the heart is the strongest biological oscillator in the human system, the equivalent of the strongest pendulum in a collection of clocks, the rest of the body’s systems can be pulled into entrainment with the hearts rhythms.
Walking between the worlds
Gregg Braden
OUR FORGOTTEN CODES
In the mid 1950’s James D Watson identified the sequences of molecular codes that allow carbon based life to exist as it does in our world. We reference Watson’s matrix of possibilities as the GENETIC CODE. Almost immediately, researchers identified a mystery regarding the code. This mystery has become the foundation of nearly 40 years of research and investigation. Of the 64 possible combination allowed for in our genetic code, why aren’t each of the combinations enabled? Why do some codes appear to be ON while others are OFF?
Within each cell of the human body are found what may be thought of a ‘micro antenna’. These may be thought of as tiny molecular receptors tuned to varying qualities of vibration by their very nature. Structurally these antenna appear as relatively long and intertwined forms of a double helix known as deoxyribose nucleic acids our familiar DNA. Physical properties of the antenna, such as the length of each molecular bond, even the bond angle itself, determine the ability of that particular antenna to tune, or find resonance, with the reference signal of the brain.
In the terminology of molecular biologists, these receptors are expressed as sugars bonding to one of four possible structures designated by unique symbols as A. C. G. or U. The sequence of these bases along each strand of the DNA molecule determines the makeup of the familiar amino acids that are essential to carbon based life as we know it.
Within this matrix we find the mystery and possibly the answer to the relationship between human emotion and DNA. Of the sixty four combinations possible in our genetic code, why does it appear that only twenty of these combinations are ON at present? If each of the codes represents a unique antenna, allowing us to tune into and receive a unique quality of vibration, why have we had only 20 of those combinations enabled in the past? Why do 6 of the 64 different combinations code for precisely the same amino acid? Why is it that each code does not produce a unique amino acid (antenna)?
For clarity, 3 of the codes have no amino antenna, associated with them. They are key sequences that tell the genetic processors when to start and stop reading the coded sequences. Taking these three codes into account with the 20 known antenna, 41 codes remain unaccounted for in our model of the human genetic map. Some researchers say that the codes have become generalized. For some unknown reason somewhere in our ancient past, these codes have lost their ability to express uniquely.
What are these codes saying to us and how do we apply their meaning in our lives? What would our lives be like if we had access to the information enabled by these remaining codes? To answer these questions is to open the door to one of the greatest mysteries of our role, purpose and function in this life.
THOUGHT
Thought provides the guidance system, the direction, for where the energy of your attention may be directed. In its purest form, thought may be considered as potential with no energy driving it to fruition. Scientists call this potential a scalar quantity. IN the absence of the power of emotion, your thought may be considered as a model or simulation an experience that has yet to occur. The idea of thought is closely associated with ‘imagination’.
EMOTION
Emotion is the power that you pump into your thoughts to make them real. In and of itself, emotion may be considered as potential, a scalar quantity, with no energy driving it to fruition. It is not until the power of emotion is untied with the direction of thought that a real of vector form of energy appears. You experience emotion as sensation flowing, directed, or lodged within the liquid crystalline form of your body. Emotion may be experienced spontaneously or as the result of a choice to ‘be’. Closely aligned with desire, emotion provides the ‘will’ to allow something to become so.
FEELING
As you experience love, hate or compassion you are experiencing feeling. Feeling may be considered as the union of thought and emotion, a vector quantity of something ‘real’ resulting from the union of ‘scalar’ quantities of potential. Feeling is the sensation of emotion, coupled with the direction of though regarding your experience in the moment. The liquid crystal resonator of the heart muscle is the focal point of feeling.
From these possibly oversimplified definition, tit becomes apparent why it is impossible to ‘think away’ fear and pain. Thought provides the direction for your attention; emotion provides the fuel for your attention. Again, we are reminded of the ancient axiom stating that energy follows attention.
As you are thinking away that which you do not want in your life, in reality, the quality of your though has placed a tremendous amount of attention on the very experience that you are choosing to avoid. In the not wanting you create a charge. Your charge promises you the opportunity to experience the same charge at some point in your life, to find its balance. Rather than place your attention on the negative of what you believe you do not want, a higher choice is found in identifying that which you do choose to have in your life
Recent research indicates the possibility of a direct relationship between emotion, the location of an antenna and whether or not the antenna is turned ON or OFF.. In a paper published in 1994 researchers describe the possibility that the long wave of emotion programs the short wave of DNA. Suggesting that it is the resonant location of emotions wave upon the double helix that determines the structural site of active or inactive genetic codes.
Could it be that emotions ‘touch’ upon our DNA is what tells our bodies where to place the building blocks of life?
Our extremes of emotion, love as well as fear, may be viewed from the perspective of an electrical and magnetic field expressed as a wave. From this vantage point fear is seen as a long and slow wave, due to its length, relatively few complete waves are expressed per unit of DNA measured.
Love on the other hand, may be viewed as a field of higher frequency. It appears as a shorter and faster wave with a greater number of complete waves expressed per unit of DNA measurement.
Superimposing the field of fear upon our double helix structure, we see that the length of the low frequency waves allow few opportunities for the helix and wave to touch. The very nature of the wave discourages access to the biological structure allowing its expression. This perspective illustrates the limiting and contracted nature of fear.
Similarly, superimposing the field of love upon the double helix, we see that the shorter length of high frequency waves allows more opportunities for the helix and wave to intersect. In this instance the nature of the wave encourages access to the helix. From this perspective the emotion of love is sees as expansive.
FEAR lOVE
opps the pics didn't happen
There is a circuit, a resonating tuning between the human heart and the cells of our body.
All our teachers/masters have urged us to love one another ourselves, and our earth….Why ?
Because the vibration of love is the core harmonic/pattern of our bodies it turn us ON in regenerative ways, where as fear turns us OFF in degenerative ways…..
Most everyone agrees or at least suspects that our planet is important to us, that it somehow plays a role in how we live our lives. In the past that role has often been unclear, for reasons ranging form ignorance to total disregard there has been a lack of respect for the role that our planet plays in our lives and very survival. This lack of respect is not noted here for purposes of judging the acts right or wrong. The indiscriminate dumping of our past has been our path, our FIRST PATH and the path has served us well. With each path there is a consequence. It is the consequence of recursive garbage, our trash ‘resurrecting ‘upon us that has led us to a place where we have learned another way. We have chosen a higher option of honoring our home, replacing the indiscriminate dumping. As a species we are remembering once again a lesson that the ancient and forgotten peoples of the earth have offered for hundreds of years. Time after time they have admonished us to love our home, love our earth and our earth will provide for us. Why now ? Why is it that we now feel the sense of caring , nurturing, stewardship and guardianship for the earth ? What is the mysterious connection that we have experienced since antiquity as honoring of our home ?
Looking to the teachings of our planetary elders, we find a subtle yet powerful clue. For uncounted generations we have been asked to love our world. ….looking to nature for the clue, researchers recognized a similarity between the low frequency ranges that the heart appears to respond to and their similarity to a well known series of frequencies that were first measured less than 100 yrs ago, the harmonic frequencies of earth resonance. Historically hovering around 7.83 cycles per second or 7.83 hertz there appeared to be a least the possibility of a connection a ‘resonate’ link between the base pulse of the earth, earths magnetic fields and the signals of optimum function for the human heart.
Our date shows that where the earth grid phase locks the human heart is particularly at the very lowest frequency longest wave end of biology’s most intense resonator . As a resonance, the two way exchange of electrical information was established between earth and the subjects heart, each began to entrain the other. This entrainment reflected the degree of harmony between the participants and the earth.
These results, while not surprising in light of the ancient texts, are an astounding validation of the message in many of those texts, reminding us of our relationship with our world. Now possible for the first time our sacred circuit was identified, as well as digitally measured. The studies demonstrated that not only is the human heart ‘tuned’ to this signal from the earth, additionally the earth appears to respond to changes in the human heart
Viewing our hearts as layered liquid crystal resonators, the heart becomes our master organ shifting its resonance to match that offered by the earth. Our brain as a secondary resonator lives in harmonic resonance with the reference signal that the heart has to offer, regardless of the signals quality or completeness. ……by shifting the way that we feel, we not only affect we determine, our turning to the resonant circuit of creation. This circuit determines the vitality and well being of each cell, and the organs that the cells create.
The times that allowed the greatest harmony between earth and the participants occurred at moments of sympathetic vibratory resonance, a feeling that we call ‘love’….creating a negative or inharmonious feeling, such as hate or fear, moved the participants ‘out of phase’ becoming less optimally tuned to the earth….why ? The answer is that during expressions of fear and any of fear’s derivatives, our sacred circuit is incomplete.
We are therefore out of resonance not only with ourselves, but our earth as well
coming soon Part IV More >
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 15 Mar 2003 @ 23:11
Message from the Heat Part Two
It was little over 5 years ago, whilst doing a magazine called Street Talk, that I came across Gregg Bradon’s book Walking between the worlds this promented me to learn about the work of the Heartmath Insititue and consequently do a article on their work and the implications. Meanwhile reading Greggs book, walking between the worlds - the science of compassion. In his introduction this sentence jumped out at me
"Researchers have recently demonstrated to the western world a phenomenon that has been taught through the mystery schools for thousands of years. New data now supports the idea that human emotion determines the actual patterning of DNA within the body. Furthermore, laboratory demonstrations have shown that DNA determines how patterns of light, expressed as matter surround the human body”. Imagine, he asks us…the implications ?"
Gregg expands….”Stated another way, researchers have discovered that the arrangements of matter (atoms, bacteria, viruses, climate, even other people) surrounding your body is directly linked to the feeling and emotion from within your body.”
Here are some Quotes and passages from his book, Walking Between The Worlds, that I include to lay the foundation for message from the heart
“You are not your success, your failures, your careers or your poverty. You are not your joy, ecstasy, fear or pain. These are the elements of your experiences that allow you the opportunity to know yourself in all ways, so that those ways may be mastered. You are in this world and not of this world.”
“I sense that this time in our lives represents a crossroads in conscious memory. We are being asked by virtue of our very experience to choose between one of two paths. Each path is valid in its own right neither necessarily right nor wrong. Each path is complete with its unique choices and consequences, each leading to the same destination within different time frames. The FIRST PATH; may be viewed as the dominant paradigm that has been, a path of external technology engineered outside of our bodies as extensions of ourselves interacting with the world around us. This path represents our cultural response to the challenges of life. Causes of life events are found ‘out there’ in a world that is perceived as separate and distinct from our bodies. Therefore solutions are engineered ‘out there’, discounting the interplay between us and our world. Illness, disease, deficiencies and conditions are viewed as originating and cured through things that ‘we do’ . Examples are vaccines, dietary supplements, antibiotics and gadgets that make ‘out there’ better. Clearly these are powerful and beneficial technologies. I bless these technologies and give thanks for their offering, for this has been our path”.
“External technology is us, remembering through our machines, the same principles that we demonstrate as life in our bodies. These principals include capacitance, resistance, transmission, receiving and storage of scalar and vector quantities of energy. External technology is us remembering ourselves by building models of ourselves outside of ourselves and applying the models back to ourselves”.
“The first path has brought you and me to the point where we are today, keeping us alive and strong, prolonging our opportunity to choose another way. The scientific method has been the way that we have chosen to demonstrate these ‘truths’ to ourselves”.
“THE SECOND PATH; is the path of internal technology. Remembered, rather than engineered, internal technology is expressed within you and me simply through the way we live life. This path remembers the human body as the sacred union between the atomic expression of ‘mother earth’ and the electrical and magnetic expression of ‘father heaven’. The ancient Essence sciences emphasize this idea as the basis of their earliest teachings
“For the spirit of the Son of Man was created from the spirit of the Heavenly Father, and his body from the body of the Earthly Mother”( from the essence gospel of peace)
“The path of internal technology remembers that each cell of our bodies is approximately 1.17 volts of electrical potential. Statistics indicate that the average body is composed of approximately 1 quadrillion cells. One quadrillion volts of bio electrical potential per person. Look at the potential that you live as your body ! do you know, do you remember what you may do with your potential ?”
“Is it possible that viruses, bacteria, immune breakdowns, social and political upheaval and other conditions viewed as ‘horrors’ are actually powerful agents of change ? Is it possible that these experiences are catalysts that you and I have consented to in an effort to propel us collectively into a higher choice of being ?”
“I have often heard individuals respond to this question by answering that they do not know what to ‘do’. The ancients say to us that compassion is not something that is done or accomplished. Rather, compassion is that which you allow yourself to become. Doing is a hallmark of the paradigm that has been. You have grown beyond the doing. This unique time in earth, as well as human history, is the time of becoming. Put simply to become is the very essence of the powerful and ancient message that was left to you and me through many texts and traditions of those who have come before us.”
The message is this
“Those conditions that you most choose to have in your life you must first become as your life”
“Deceptively simple, this eloquent phrase is a summation of all the work performed by all the masters, all the saints, scientists, technicians and families, each of your spiritual forbearers, preparing you for this very time in earth and human history. “
“Those who claim to choose peace in their world must first become peace in themselves. Those that claim to choose prosperity, health and vitality for their loved ones must first become those very attributes themselves. Those that choose compassion for their loved ones and for those who look upon others with judgment and hate, must become that very compassion. The message of ‘becoming’ is the essence of the most sacred of the ancient text”.
“From this perspective the time of our outer technology is obsolete. You and I have grown beyond the time of being served by the first path. We have outgrown the requirement to build our selves outside of ourselves. Within this moment lives the opportunity to choose the memory of ourselves in our truest nature. Today you have the opportunity to bless the technology of the first path for all that it has offered. Bless the technology and move forward in the SECOND PATH. Far more sophisticated than any machines ever built by the most brilliant of our kind the second path represents a tremendous upgrade of conduct and our very standard of living. We now have the opportunity to become the healing medicines to become permanent and eternal health, to become the peace of the peacemakers, to become the compassion of the religious and vibrant companions of life and to do so gracefully”
“I invite you to reconsider the teachings that speak of a potent force of life that courses ‘through’ your body. Therein lives the separation. Beyond moving through you, that potent force is you
There is no separation between you and that force. It is you who determines your response to the bacteria, viruses and ultraviolet rays from a depleting ozone, even the flu bug that circulates through your office. It is you that determines your threshold of anger, hate, and rage at events that you have masterfully created in your life”.
“We are determining our outcome at this time in history by determining our response to this time in history. In our totality, we have something far greater to offer to ourselves and those we hold most dear, than we will ever find in a machine that is designed and implemented ‘out there”’.
“The time of our outer temples, outer networks, outer grids, and external guidance is nearing completion. For many, what has come as an inner knowing was stated clearly through the language of the time two thousand years ago, and even before. Our knowing reminds us that we live as an expression of a highly sophisticated union, a sacred marriage, between the elements of this earth and a directive non-physical force. We call that force ‘spirit’. Perhaps the most astounding of the ancient references restating its validity today is the link between feeling, though and their relationship to human physiology”.
“There are the dwellings of the son of man, and no one may come before the face of the (One) who knows not the angel of peace in each of the three. These are body, thoughts, and feelings”. (essence gospel of peace)
“To the degree that you embrace compassion in your life, change passes gracefully with ease. For those who require proof, that proof is now available. For others, simply knowing that there is a direct relationship between emotion and DNA comes a welcome validation for an inner knowing that has driven the course of their lives for years”
“Most everyone agrees, or at least suspects that our planet is important to us, that it somehow plays a role in how we live our lives. In the past, that role has often been unclear, nebulous at best. Precisely what is the role that earth plays in our lives ? To understand that role is to understand one of the most ancient of mysteries. That mystery allows you not only to be part of your world, but to intercede on your own behalf toward the desired outcome of the quality of your world. The memory of your relationship with earth is your memory of one of the great mysteries of the ancients. This is the mystery of the sacred circuit.
Modern studies of the life sciences have taught us that the brain is our master organ, regulating the function and performance of each cell of our bodies. Directing minute electrical pulses along biological circuits of nerve fiber, our brain conveys vital information to our muscles and glands. Each serves as an electrical substation within our body. Additionally, this line of reasoning has demonstrated that the brain actually controls each function, within every cell, of the human body. Each cell’s ability to regenerate, the processes of ageing and deterioration, triggers of chemical and hormonal secretion, even the immune system itself is directed by signals from the brain.
This concept is the primary reasoning behind many of our models of physical, as well as mental, health today.
While these functions of our brain have certainly been demonstrated, ancient texts remind us, and modern scientists suspect, that the model may be incomplete. Until very recently, a mystery surrounding our brains function has puzzled life scientists.
The mystery is this. Acknowledging that rhythmic impulses from the brain regulate the systems of the human body, where does the brain received the information necessary to perform these functions ?
Where do the brains signals come from ?
Data form western researchers has digitally proven a connection that the ancient texts have offered through tradition and lore for so long. Our brain is directly linked to another vital organ in our body
OUR BRAIN IS TUNED TO OUR HEART
Generating signals of reference, it is our heart that provides the opportunity for our brain to function optimally. The term used to describe this relationship is that of ‘entrainment’ As we build our concept of the sacred circuit it may be said that our heart entrains the brain, and our brain in turn entrains each cell of our body.
I emphasize that the reference signals of entrainment represent an opportunity of entrainment only. Choices in lifestyle and belief systems play an important role in our earth heart circuit.
Almost immediately, researchers asked the next question, “if our heart entrains our brain, and our brain entrains each cell of our body, then where does our heart receive its signals from, what precisely is our heart tuned to ? ( we will come back to this in part 3)
A few facts from HearthMath
The heart’s electromagnetic field is by far the most powerful produced by the body; it’s approximately five thousand times greater in strength than the field produced by the brain for example. The heart’s field not only permeates every cell in the body but also radiates outside of us. It can be measured up to eight to ten feet away with sensitive detectors called magnetometers.
Scientists at the Institute’s laboratory and elsewhere have found that the electrical information patters generated by the heart are detectable in our brain waves via a test known as a electroencephalogram EEG A series of experiments by Gary Schwartz and his colleagues at the University of Arizona found that the complex patterns of cardiac activity in our brain waves could not be fully explained by neurological or other established communication pathways. Their data provides evidence that there’s a direct energetic interaction between the electromagnetic field produced by the heart and that produced by the brain.
Furthermore, research evidence indicates that energetic information contained in the hearts field isn’t detected only by our own brains and bodies, but can also be registered by the people around score heart feelings affect both branches of the autonomic nervous system. They reduce the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, that branch of the system that speeds heart rate, constricts blood vessels, and stimulates the release of stress hormones, and increase the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system ( that branch of the system that slows heart rate and relaxes the body’s inner systems ) thereby increasing its effectiveness. In addition, the balance between these two branches of the nervous system is enhanced so that they work together with increased efficiency.
This collaboration results in diminished friction and wear and tear on the nerves and internal organs.
Stress is the enemy. It creates an incoherent internal state, pitting our biological systems against each other, which in turn affects how we think and feel. In the incoherence created by stress , our nervous system and heart rhythms become desynchronized and our hormonal balance is compromised.
Each core heart feeling has a powerful beneficial effect on how you relate to life. Unfortunately the experience of core heart feelings and attitudes is usually random rather than conscious.
With every beat, the heart generates a powerful blood pressure wave that travels rapidly throughout the arteries, much faster than the actual flow of blood. Its these waves of pressure that create what we feel as our pulse. Important rhythms exist in the oscillations of blood pressure waves. In healthy individuals a complex resonance occurs between blood pressure waves, respiration, and rhythms in the autonomic nervous system. Because pressure-wave patterns vary with the rhythmic activity of the heart, they represent yet another language through which the heart communicates with the rest of the body. At the receiving end of the arteries are all the body’s glands and organs. In essence, all of our cells ‘feel’ the waves of pressure generated by the heart and are dependent on them in more than one way.
Emotions act as amplifiers of our thoughts, perceptions and attitudes. Positive emotional states are rewarding and regenerative to the heart, immune system and hormonal system, while negative emotions drain these same systems
Positive emotions such as happiness appreciation compassion care, and love, not only change patterns of activity in the nervous system; they also reduce the production of the stress hormone cortisol.
Since the act of evoking heart intelligence has been shown to facilitate brain function, adjust balance in the autonomic nervous system, lower blood pressure, increase stress-relieving hormones, and increase immune responses, it shouldn’t surprise us that our bodies experience a sensation of well-being clear down to the cellular level – a sensation that we ourselves can induce. We feel better mentally and emotionally as a result of heart intelligence. And in the long run, that sensation translates into physical health More >
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 13 Mar 2003 @ 01:55
Today like yesterday the world stands on the brink of a war. what is decided over the coming days will sow the seeds for a future that will either contain enduring terror or enduring freedom.
However the events of yesterday and the day before, have galvinished a world...has bought together people of different faiths/beleifs and cultures to stand unitied for a world of peace not death, not war....
Whatever befalls our word in the tommorrows to come, either war or peace... I feel our biggest challenge will be to come from our hearts.
Not many of us have no idea of what our heart actually is let alone what coming from it would mean nor entails. So for this reason I am starting a series of posts that will enlighten us all as to what our heart is, why we need to understand what coming from our hearts means and in a sense...endeavour to explore the ramifications of why all our greatest teachers have urged us to come from our hearts.
It is my personal belief, that we are not here to be more spiritual, to learn our spirituality is but one small part of a process that is endeavouring to comprehend that we are here inherent in our infinite spirt to become fully human....
That we hardly know what being fully human is, hence the state of the world today....my spirituality like yours is a given, I always will be spirit, but right now I am experiencing a physical form...my spirit has been made manifest in the world of form, and in this sense I hardly know what the potential of this form is, or how to live fully in this form....my sprituality remember is a given, I know this on deep inner levels, I did not come here to be spritual, I am already by virtue of being infinte spirit always was always will be, what I have come here for is to discover the potential of being fully human.
I consider the biggest evolutionary jump we will make as a species, in order to guide our future off spring will be to come into our human potential...to know of ourselves, not our merely our spirit selves we already know that on other deeper levels, ....but to know our human physical selves in order for our spirit that which we truly are..to be fully present in this world.
At present I consider most of us to dense in matter that our full spirit self, cannot function in these physical forms, unless we turn it on and in order to do that we must know that which we are, the physical human form ... our spirits are constricted by our own ignorance of our physical forms potentials...thus we are left with only concepts of and imaginings of what we are capable of as spiritual beings, forgetting that we are spirt made manifest in human form physical sprit beings...
yet I beleive that in order for this to happen...to change, that we must grow in order to create a world that no longer sees war as a means to peace, and no longer perpetrates hatred fear, and violence...these are not the actions of a fully humanized sprit being made physical these are the actions of a spirit made manifest that knows not itself nor its physical form, thereby unknowingly feels traped, frustrated, and without a clue
If we were all 8 cyclinder cars, I beleive we would only be running on 2 cyclinders Max ! a 2 cylinder being would of course be ignorant , create fear, war, and use violence, they would also deginerate the feminine which of course is exactly what exists in this world as a rule...love to a 2 cylinder being is the expception...all be it a much misunderstood concept.. this analogy is based on the idea given us by many researches that we are only using 10% of our brains potential...
Imagine a world where we were runing on 4 cycliners, 40% potential, would there be war, ?
Imagine a world where we were runing on 6 cyclinders 60% would we need mental health, jails, hospitals ?
Imagine a world where we were running on the full 8 cyclinders 100% of our brain power, would we need oil to drive everywhere ? would we need our outter communication system ?
What turns on our brains capacity to run on more than the current 10% 2 cylinders ?
our heart
here is part I of message from the heart More >
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28 Feb 2003 @ 01:07
I tend to agree with Noam Chomsky when he says..."Demorcacy... according to the common sense meaning, a society is democratic to the extent that people can participate in a meanigful way in managing their affairs. But the doctrinal meaning of democracy is different. It referes to a systm in which decision are made by secotrs of the busniness community and related elites. The public are to be only spectators of action not participants. they are permitted to ratify the decisions or their betters and to lend their support to one or other of them, but not to interfere with matters like public policy, that are none of their business.
If segments of the public depart from their apathy and begin to organise and enter the public arena, thats not democracy, rather it is a CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY in proper technical usage, a threat that has to be overcome in one way or another"
so under this understanding of democracy I don't beleive we actually have one.
I am posting this here in full, and hope that this will be shared around as much as possible.....
COALITION OF THE WILLING
OR
COALITION OF THE COERCED?
How the Bush Administration
Influences Allies in its War on Iraq
By Sarah Anderson, Phyllis Bennis, and John Cavanagh
Release date: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003
Institute for Policy Studies
733 15th St. NW #1020, Washington, DC 20005
Tel: 202/234-9382, Fax: 202/387-7915
www.ips-dc.org
About the authors:
Sarah Anderson is Director of the Institute for Policy Studies’ Global Economy Project
and co-author of Field Guide to the Global Economy (New Press, 2000). Phyllis Bennis
is a Fellow at IPS and author of Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the
September 11th Crisis (Interlink Publishing, 2003). John Cavanagh is Director of IPS and
co-author of Alternatives to Economic Globalization (Berrett Koehler, 2003).
The authors would also like to thank the following colleagues who provided research
assistance on this report: Miriam Pemberton, Glenn Osowski, Erik Leaver, Daphne
Wysham, Steve Kretzmann, and Sara Johnson.
1
I. INTRODUCTION
A large majority of Americans are opposed to the United States going to war alone. Thus far, the
U.S. government has failed to convince the United Nations Security Council to back a war with
Iraq. And some in the White House would even prefer to not deal with the United Nations at all.
Hence, the Bush Administration has shifted to a strategy of attempting to impose a resolution
authorizing war on the Security Council, while simultaneously assembling what it calls a
“Coalition of the Willing,” a large number of nations supporting the war. If Bush fails to get
approval from the United Nations for war, he will claim the right to move ahead with a military
attack with this informal and unauthorized coalition. Although the Bush Administration has not
yet released a list of the coalition members, officials have claimed in press interviews that they
number more than 40.1
The Institute for Policy Studies has analyzed the relationship between the United States and the
nations in the Security Council and those in Bush’s non-UN coalition. Are these allies supporting
the United States on the merits of the case, or is their support of the U.S. war effort more a result
of coercion, bribes, and bullying?
Although Administration officials have said publicly that they will not attempt to bully nations
into supporting their Iraq policy, there is ample precedent for the United States using coercion to
garner support for its military actions overseas. In 1990, for example, the U.S. government
bribed China with post-Tienanmen Square diplomatic rehabilitation and renewal of long-term
development aid to prevent a veto of the UN resolution authorizing the 1991 Gulf War. The
votes of several poor countries on the Council were purchased with cheap Saudi oil, new military
aid, and economic assistance. And when Yemen, the sole Arab country on the Council, voted
against the resolution authorizing war, a U.S. diplomat told the Yemeni ambassador, "that will be
the most expensive 'no' vote you ever cast." Three days later the U.S. cut its entire aid budget to
Yemen.2
Hence, the U.S. public should carefully scrutinize any claim by the Bush Administration that they
have assembled a “coalition of the willing.” Almost all, by our count, join only through coercion,
bullying, bribery, or the implied threat of U.S. action that would directly damage the interests of
the country. This “coalition of the coerced” stands in direct conflict with democracy. In most
nations, including those most closely allied to the United States, over 70 percent of the public
opposes U.S. military action against Iraq.
One important caveat: Not all support of the U.S. position has required explicit coercion and
bribes. Some governments, including Spain, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Portugal, and Japan, have
accepted the U.S. position as their own, despite the massive opposition of their publics. Those
governments, several now facing significant loss of political support, appear to place their
standing vis-à-vis Washington ahead of political legitimacy at home. Other governments simply
1 For example, a Jan. 31, 2003, story by Radio Free Europe (“Iraq: European Letter Brings 'Coalition Of
The Willing' Into Focus”) quotes U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as stating that the
United States will have access to 21 countries should Washington go to war in Iraq and that 20 other
countries have said they will allow U.S. warplanes to fly through their airspace. Armitage declined to
release the list of 41 countries.
2 Phyllis Bennis, “Understanding the U.S.-Iraq Crisis: The World's Response, the UN & International
Law,” a pamphlet of the Institute for Policy Studies, January 2003.
2
fear repercussions from the world’s sole superpower, whose President has openly threatened that
after September 11, every country is either “with us or with the terrorists.”
In this report, we do three things:
° We offer an overview of the various forms of military and economic leverage that the
U.S. government wields.
° We look at the specific ways in which this leverage applies to each current member of the
UN Security Council.
° We examine the leverage that the U.S. government exerts over other countries that are
backing war. Since the U.S. government has yet to release its complete list of the
“Coalition of the Willing,” we may have omitted countries which make up what we more
accurately call the “Coalition of the Coerced.”
II. LEVERS OF U.S. POWER
The United States maintains powerful levers to use against other nations as it broadens its
coalition. Some are military; others are economic; still others are political or diplomatic.
Military Leverage: On the military side, the United States maintains what is effectively a veto
on nations joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and several nations that have
signed letters of support for U.S. military action in Iraq include NATO “wannabes.” Officials of
these governments have stated that they believe that NATO membership will boost their chances
of getting aid and private investment. The United States also gives a large number of countries
military aid and military training; both could be cut to nations that oppose the United States. New
military bribes include the building of new permanent military bases for the Pentagon’s
European-based troops – especially if the United States acts on its threat to remove some of those
troops from Germany, as punishment for Berlin’s opposition to war in Iraq.
Economic Leverage: With an economy that accounts for a quarter of economic activity on earth,
the United States has ample economic levers to pressure poorer countries. These fall into several
categories, the most important being in the realms of trade and investment. The United States is
negotiating new “free” trade agreements with several nations; failure to support the United States
could jeopardize these negotiations. The United States has been involved in serious tariff
negotiations with several nations, including Mexico, and the United States could threaten to
withdraw concessions from countries opposing war. Finally, the United States has a long history
of using trade sanctions against nations that have invoked its ire. In addition to trade, aid is a
powerful lever. Although U.S. economic and development aid has been falling in recent years, it
remains very important in particular to the poorest nations. The U.S. has long used its aid
program as a political instrument to reward allies and punish countries that stray from the path.
Political Leverage: As the most powerful nation in the world, the United States plays a key
role in the diplomatic relationships and political positioning of and between virtually all
countries. In the Iraq crisis, this leverage is playing out particularly in Europe, with the
emergence of France and Germany at the center of an anti-war bloc, and key Mediterranean states
(Italy and Spain) and many of the central and eastern European countries supporting the U.S.
position. Many of Washington’s backers in “new Europe” are former Warsaw Pact nations, who
have long viewed the United States as their key post-Cold War international protector. They may
see the European Union primarily as a source of needed cash, rather than viewing the EU as an
emerging counterweight to U.S. global dominance. And they may plan to continue placing their
key strategic reliance on the United States even after joining the EU. In this context,
3
Washington’s promises to sponsor favored allies in the arduous EU accession process become a
powerful enticement to toe the U.S. line.
III. UN SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
The Security Council is made up of 15 nations – five “permanent” members who hold veto power
and 10 “non-permanent” members, who are elected by the General Assembly to serve two-year
terms. A Council resolution requires nine positive votes, and no veto, to pass. At this moment,
the U.S. government can rely on strong support of its position from only three other Council
members: the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, and Spain. Assuming none of the permanent members
uses its veto power, the U.S. government could gain passage of a resolution only by winning over
five additional members. The most likely converts are among those countries that are currently
calling for additional time for inspections but which are particularly vulnerable to U.S. influence.
These include the African nations of Guinea, Cameroon and Angola; Mexico and Chile in Latin
America; and Pakistan. The following section examines the levers of U.S. power over members
of the Security Council across the spectrum.
Spectrum of Positions on Military Action in Iraq
STRONG
SUPPORTERS
United States
United Kingdom
Bulgaria
Spain
FENCE-SITTERS
Guinea
Cameroon
Angola
Mexico, Chile
Pakistan
LIKELY
ABSTAINERS
China
Russia
STRONG
OPPONENTS
Germany
France
Syria
STRONG SUPPORTERS
Of the Strong Supporters, Bulgaria is the country most vulnerable to U.S. influence. After
pushing through numerous reforms, Bulgaria has managed to satisfy NATO officials that it is
ready to become a member of the military alliance. Support for NATO membership is high
among the Bulgarian population, with some 70 percent in favor.3 Bulgarian officials have stated
that they believe NATO accession will not only strengthen national security but also give the
country a stamp of Western approval that will encourage increased foreign investment and trade.
However, the U.S. government could decide to stand in the way of the country’s efforts to attain
this goal. Beginning March 26, individual NATO members must ratify the accession agreement
according to their national procedures. In the United States, the President must sign a letter of
transmittal and send the measure to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is necessary for
passage. NATO must have unanimous consent for a new member to join.
The U.S. government is not only the key to Bulgaria’s NATO accession; it is also a significant
source of development aid, both through its bilateral aid programs and as the sole country with
veto power in the World Bank and IMF. USAID has contributed more than $420 million to
Bulgaria over the past decade.
To help persuade the U.S. government that it is worthy of NATO membership, the Bulgarian
parliament voted unanimously on February 7 to grant a U.S. request for military assistance
3 Marian Chiriac, “Bulgaria and Romania Set to Support Iraq War,” InterPress Service, Jan. 29, 2003.
4
against Iraq. Specifically, the body approved use of its military bases on the Black Sea, cleared
American planes to use its airspace and dispatched 150 troops trained in biological and chemical
warfare.4
FENCE-SITTERS
Although Guinea, Cameroon, and Angola indicated their support for France’s position on the war
in a Paris summit of African leaders on February 21, all three African nations remain vulnerable
to U.S. pressure.5
Guinea and Cameroon
Guinea and Cameroon are both eligible for preferential access to U.S. markets through the Africa
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
However, these benefits are both dependent on the countries’ support for U.S. security interests.
In August 2002, Congress passed a post-9-11 amendment to the GSP, a program which offers
preferential access to U.S. markets to exporters from the poorest nations. The amendment allows
the U.S. government to strip a country of its GSP eligibility if it “has not taken steps to support
the efforts of the United States to combat terrorism.” This amendment has not yet been applied,
but U.S. officials recently took advantage of a similar provision in AGOA. Enacted in 2000,
AGOA grants preferential access to U.S. markets to sub-Saharan African countries that meet a list
of eligibility criteria. One demand is that countries “not engage in activities that undermine
United States national security or foreign policy interests.” This received little notice until the
fall 2002 negotiations in the United Nations Security Council over the last U.S.-sponsored
resolution on Iraq. When the UN Ambassador from Mauritius, which held a temporary seat on
the Council in 2001-2002, appeared insufficiently enthusiastic about an early version of the
resolution, the foreign minister recalled the ambassador for a tongue-lashing and orders for full
support of the U.S. position. Perhaps remembering the Yemen precedent from the 1990 Gulf
crisis, the government was worried that even hesitation, let alone opposition, to the U.S. war
could result in the loss of AGOA preferences. Guinea and Cameroon no doubt took notice.
Throughout February, France, with long-standing ties to both Cameroon and Guinea, appeared to
attempt to beat Washington’s offers of new economic and military aid. But the overarching reach
of U.S. influence, in the diplomatic, military, and economic areas, make Paris unlikely to be able
to out-bid the United States.
Angola
The U.S. government has denied Angola trade preferences through AGOA because of concerns
over corruption, labor standards and human rights. However, the United States remains critical to
Angola’s economy, devastated by the 27-year civil war that ended last year. USAID is the largest
bilateral donor to Angola ($14 million in 2002), followed by Spain and Italy, both of which also
support military action in Iraq. The U.S. is also by far the country’s biggest source of foreign
direct investment. According to the U.S. Trade Representative, Angola ranks second after South
Africa in sub-Saharan Africa in the value of U.S. investment in the country ($1.32 billion at yearend
2000).6 Much of this is thanks to backing by U.S. government agencies. Since the late
4 Deseret News, Feb. 13, 2003.
5 Glenn Frankel, “Chirac Fortifies Antiwar Caucus,” Washington Post, Feb. 22, 2003.
6 U.S. Trade Representative, “2002 Comprehensive Report on U.S. trade and Investment Policy Toward
Sub-Saharan Africa and Implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act,” May 2002.
5
1990s, the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation have
financed hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for U.S. oil companies, including a $200
million contract for Halliburton to provide oil field services and a $146 million oil pump contract
for a Chevron subsidiary.7 In 2001, almost half of Angola’s total exports, dominated by
petroleum, went to the United States.
Mexico
The United States, the destination of more than 80 percent of Mexico’s exports, wields
tremendous influence over its southern neighbor. To frighten President Vicente Fox into
supporting their position, Administration officials have warned that a failure to do so would likely
spark an anti-Mexico backlash in the U.S. Congress. According to the Washington Post, U.S.
Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza warned that U.S. legislators might block any legislation
related to Mexico as revenge for a “no” vote in the Security Council.8
At the moment, Fox is in a particularly vulnerable position, as he is relying on the Bush
Administration to continue to allow Mexico to delay the lifting of tariffs on sensitive farm
products. In January, tens of thousands of Mexican peasants threatened to close key border
points if tariffs were reduced on chicken and a number of other products, as required under the
North American Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. government agreed to the delay, but could
change its position at any time if Mexico doesn’t back a war in Iraq. President Fox has also
worked to develop strong relations with the United States in order to curry support for
immigration policy reform that would include amnesty for undocumented Mexican workers in the
United States. Granted, the plan did not garner much support north of the border even before the
Iraq debate, but a Mexican vote against the United States could deal the final deathblow.
Typical of public opinion around the world, the percentage of the Mexican population opposed to
military action stands at 80 percent.9 That public pressure has significantly strengthened Fox’s
willingness to remain firmly in the “Inspections Not War” camp despite his country’s intense
vulnerability to U.S. economic pressure.
Chile
In 1994, leaders of the United States, Mexico, Canada and Chile announced a plan to become the
“four amigos” through a quick expansion of NAFTA to Chile. Although Canada and Mexico
negotiated bilateral deals with Chile, the country is still waiting for the promised free trade
agreement with the United States. In late 2002, the two nations finally completed negotiations, an
accomplishment received with much fanfare in the Chilean business community. One would
expect the Administration to move quickly to enact such a long-awaited deal. However, officials
appear to be dragging their feet in seeking Congressional approval. In mid-December the U.S.
Trade Representative announced that he expected to give Congress the required 90-day
notification of the Administration’s intent to sign the agreement “early next year.”10 Although
Congress is virtually sure to pass the deal, Chile must depend on the Bush Administration taking
the initiative to submit the implementing language for approval. Thus far, with Chile on the fence
in the Iraq debate, there have been no signs of White House movement on the trade deal.
7 Web site of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, www.seen.org.
8 Colum Lynch, “Costa Rica Reprimands U.N. Envoy Over Iraq,” Washington Post, Feb. 21, 2003.
9 EFE News Services, Feb. 14, 2003.
10 Press release, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Dec. 11, 2002.
6
The percentage of the Chilean population opposed to military action is 76 percent.11 The
Associated Press reported that Chile and Mexico agreed both would abstain if the U.S.-UK and
France-Russia-China blocs failed to reach a compromise in the Security Council. “We're just not
going to be used or bought off by either side,” a Chilean diplomat said.12
Pakistan
In the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy, General Pervez Musharraf’s swift support for the
U.S. "war on terrorism" reaped considerable benefits for the debt-strapped nation. In exchange
for Pakistan’s support in the offensive against the Taliban, Bush dropped economic sanctions
related to Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear tests and 1999 military coup. The Administration also
committed more than a billion dollars in U.S. assistance and several billion dollars from
international organizations.13 Bush also promised to lift quotas on textile imports from
Pakistan.14
However, in recent months, Pakistan’s image in the United States has taken a turn. Reports that
Musharraf had manipulated the fall 2002 elections lead some members of the U.S. Congress to
begin efforts to renew aid restrictions against the country.15 Then, in January 2003, a press report
charged that Pakistan had recently provided North Korea’s covert nuclear weapons program with
uranium enrichment centrifuges and data on building uranium-triggered nuclear weapons. If this
is confirmed, all non-humanitarian aid to Pakistan may be suspended, unless President Bush
waives the sanctions on the basis of U.S. national security interests.
Musharraf is no doubt weighing how a UN vote against the United States might affect his
prospects of overcoming these concerns and gaining continued economic assistance. On the other
hand, a vote in favor of the U.S. position may add fuel to the growing anti-American hostilities he
faces in his country that could threaten his hold on power.
LIKELY ABSTAINERS
China and Russia, large countries with long histories of acting independently, are considered
unlikely converts for the United States. Russia is far more dependent on European than U.S.
markets for its exports, mostly natural gas and oil products. China demonstrated through its
victory in gaining U.S. approval of its membership in the World Trade Organization that it holds
substantial power over the United States due to the coveted investment opportunities within its
borders. On the other hand, both countries have obvious reasons for desiring good relations with
the United States. China is the United States’ 4th largest trading partner, with $125 billion in
exports to the U.S. in 2002, about 40 percent of the country’s total exports.16 For Russia, a major
concern is the $8 billion Iraqi debt, as well as the multi-billion dollar contracts held by Russian
companies to develop Iraqi oil wells. Although President Bush has said that he would honor
them after a U.S.-led military victory, Russian officials likely assume the chances of Bush
11 El Mercurio, Feb. 25, 2003.
12 Dafna Linzer, “U.S. officials in Security Council capitals in diplomatic drive for Iraq support,”
Associated Press, Feb. 23, 2003.
13 K. Alan Kronstadt, “Pakistan-U.S. Relations,” Congressional Research Service, Jan. 23, 2003.
14 Note: Congress has not yet brought this bill up for a vote, most likely due to resistance from textile state
lawmakers.
15 K. Alan Kronstadt, “Pakistan-U.S. Anti-Terrorism Cooperation,” Congressional Research Service, Dec.
31, 2002.
16 U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Statistics.
7
keeping his word on this matter would be stronger if they support the U.S. in the Security
Council.
While either China or Russia could veto any U.S. resolution authorizing war in Iraq (or even
hinting at such authoriziation) in the Council, neither is likely to do so. Both are almost certain to
abstain, thus making it possible (though difficult) for the U.S. government to get the resolution
passed if it can collect the necessary nine positive votes.
STRONG OPPONENTS
Although U.S. arm-twisters have largely written off Iraq’s neighbor Syria as hopeless in their
search for Security Council support, it was almost certainly fear of greater U.S. reprisals (and
perhaps hope for a quick removal of Syria from the U.S. list of states allegedly sponsoring
terrorism) that led Damascus to vote with the unanimous majority in support of Resolution 1441.
While existing sanctions and its presence on the list mean that there are few U.S.-Syrian ties, no
country, especially one close to both conflict zones of the Middle East, can afford to antagonize
the United States. It was Syria’s same Ba’athist government, after all, that agreed to join the first
George Bush’s war against Iraq in 1991, lending crucial Arab legitimacy to the U.S. war. Syria
will almost certainly vote no, but it will likely be quite subdued in its approach to the vote.
Washington has worked very hard to shake the resolve of Germany and France, albeit with no
apparent success. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the two countries as “Old
Europe,” which he compared unfavorably with the ostensibly “New Europe” of former Warsaw
Pact and NATO aspirants in Central and Eastern Europe.
France, which holds veto power on the Security Council, has been the target of the most virulent
pressure. Some U.S. lawmakers, including House Leader Dennis Hastert, have vowed to propose
trade sanctions on French wine and water. France is by far the largest source of U.S. wine
imports, with nearly $830 million worth in 2001.17 Other lawmakers have resorted to crude
insults. Rep. John McCain, for example, likened France to an aging starlet from the 1940s who is
“still trying to dine out on her looks, but doesn’t have the face for it anymore.”18
With regard to Germany, the Bush Administration has threatened to withdraw its military bases,
prompting Republicans in Congress to announce plans for hearings on the issue. The United
States currently maintains about 71,000 U.S. troops in Germany. Although their presence has
become increasingly controversial, the bases nevertheless contribute to the economies of local
communities. The Pentagon estimates that the U.S. bases contribute as much as $4.5 billion per
year through purchases of goods and services, direct and indirect hires of foreign nationals, and
other expenditures.19 Both Germany and France may also face repercussions in the form of lost
U.S. contracts for defense-related goods and services. According to Defense News, German and
French defense manufacturers’ recent efforts to obtain more lucrative Pentagon contracts may be
for naught. One indication is a bill in the U.S. Congress that would ban U.S. firms from attending
the Paris air show in June.20
In both France and Germany, the political stance of the governments is bolstered by sky-high
public opposition to U.S. war in Iraq. In Germany, Schroeder’s coalition was voted in last fall
after a campaign focused on one issue: that Schroeder was stronger against war in Iraq than his
17 U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Statistics.
18 New York Daily News, Feb. 17, 2003.
19 William Matthews, “U.S. Eyes Cutbacks in Europe,” Defense News, Feb. 24, 2003.
20 Martin Aguera, “Collateral Damage?” Defense News, Feb. 17, 2003.
8
opponent. In France, massive public opposition has transformed Chirac’s likely tactical
opposition to a U.S. war into a staunchly defiant stance from which it would be virtually
impossible to climb down.
IV. MEMBERS OF THE “COALITION OF THE WILLING”
So far, as mentioned above, the United States can count only three other nations from the UN
Security Council as members of its “Coalition of the Willing” to support its war. Without
substantiation, it claims another 40-odd nations from a variety of regions that are prepared to go
to war in support of the United States even without the benefit of further UN endorsement.
According to Marc Grossman, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, “Twenty-six countries are
providing us with access, basing or overflight rights, or some combination of the three. Another
18 countries have granted us access, basing or overflight rights based on our contingency request
for those rights, or have come forward voluntarily to offer such rights to us, should we wish to
make use of them. Nineteen countries have offered us military assets or other resources. This
number includes many countries that have granted us access, basing and overflight rights, but also
a number of additional countries.”21
WHO IS IN?
Although the Administration refuses to issue an official list of its coalition partners, we have
identified 34 that have been cited in press reports as supportive of the U.S. position (see
appendix). Bush officials have claimed that this represents strong multilateral support, but it is
worth pointing out that these 34 nations represent only about 10 percent of the population of the
world’s 197 countries.22 Subtracting the estimated 75 percent of their populations that opinion
polls show are not in favor of war, the war supporters in the “Coalition of the Willing” countries
make up only about three percent of the world’s population. It is also telling that only Britain has
committed a significant number of troops to the military action.
A closer look at the list reveals that many members of this so-called “Coalition of the Willing”
are extremely vulnerable to U.S. pressure, and have likely succumbed because of either military
or economic interests.
A. Those with Military Interests
The most visible and vocal members of the coalition are from the region that U.S. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has dubbed “the new Europe.” Most are lured by their desire to enter
NATO and to maintain a strategic relationship with the United States after joining the EU. On
February 5, 10 European nations issued a statement expressing support for U.S. policy on Iraq,
stating “we are prepared to contribute to an international coalition to enforce its [UN Resolution
1441’s] provisions and the disarmament of Iraq."23 The signatories included Albania, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. All except
Croatia are in line for NATO membership. However, as with Bulgaria, they must gain approval
from all current NATO members, which means that President Bush could block or delay approval
21Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 11, 2003.
22 Calculated by the authors based on data in the World Bank’s World Development Report 2003.
23 U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria web site, “Statement of the Vilnius Group Countries in Response To The
Presentation by the United States Secretary Of State to State to the United Nations
Security Council,” February 5, 2003.
9
by not requesting ratification by the U.S. Senate. In addition to Bulgaria, Romania has also given
the U.S. government authority to use its military bases for any operations against Iraq.24 Albania,
Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, and Slovakia have granted requests for U.S. military use of their
airspace.25
MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES (Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United
Arab Emirates): The absolute monarchies of these countries are all dependent on the United
States for help to keep them in power. All these countries – mostly tiny and all oil-rich – are
militarily dependent on the United States through arms purchases, training, and the presence of
U.S. bases. They are the closest to Iraq and govern populations strongly opposed to U.S. war
plans. Reflecting that public anger, all of them voted in the mid-February unanimous decision of
the Arab League to oppose any Arab country providing military assistance to any war on Iraq.
But their reliance on the United States was strong enough that they cast that vote while already
providing bases, overflight rights, and direct staging areas for the Pentagon’s Gulf build-up. For
example, according to a forthcoming article in The Nation, Jordan is hosting U.S. special forces
and collaborating with U.S. intelligence agents. In exchange, they hope to seal a deal for an
additional $1 billion in U.S. aid.26
B. Those with Economic Interests
TURKEY: With some 95 percent of the country opposed to war, the Turkish government has
played hardball with U.S. officials determined to use the country’s bases in the assault on Iraq.27
As of February 24, the U.S. government had reportedly offered Turkey a package of $5 billion in
grants and $10 billion in loans to soften the arrangement. Although the deal must be approved by
the Turkish parliament, it is likely to pass, as the ruling party holds a significant majority.
COSTA RICA: After Costa Rica’s UN ambassador gave a statement in favor of continued
inspections, the country’s foreign minister ordered him to resign, stating that he had not received
authorization for the speech and that his remarks conflicted with Costa Rica’s official position.
Within a day, the foreign minister abruptly reversed his position and reinstated the ambassador
after receiving what he described as an appropriate apology and the assurance that future
statements would be authorized. The Costa Rican government is no doubt jittery about straining
relations with the United States, since it is in the middle of negotiating a free trade agreement
between Central America and the United States. Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco is one of
the most fervent supporters of the negotiations, which began in January 2003.
PHILIPPINES: The Philippines is dependent on the U.S. government for both economic and
military assistance. The country received $71 million in USAID money in 2002. Perhaps even
more significant for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the U.S. assistance in fighting Abu
Sayyaf, an armed Muslim criminal gang operating in the southern part of the country that
Washington claims has had relations with al Qaeda. On February 21, 2003, the U.S. government
announced that it would boost its support by sending another 1,700 U.S. troops in to help with
direct combat.
24 Marian Chiriac, “Bulgaria and Romania Set to Support Iraq War,” InterPress Service, Jan. 29, 2003.
25 Snjezana Vukic, “U.S. Seeks Use of European Air Space,” Associated Press, Feb. 21, 2003.
26 William D. Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca, “Buying a Coalition,” The Nation, March 17, 2003.
27 Keith Richburg, “Turks Remember Losses from Last War on Iraq: Opposition Rooted in Economic
Devastation,” Washington Post, Feb. 23, 2003.
WHO IS NOT IN?
In addition to the previously discussed “Strong Opponents” and “Likely Abstainers” on the
Security Council, the non-members of the “Coalition of the Willing” include an impressive array
of the world’s nations.
AFRICA: Leaders of 52 African nations gathered in Paris for a summit on February 20 and
issued a statement opposing war except as a last resort. French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
welcomed the statement as a strong sign of support for the French position against the United
States.
NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT: On February 25, leaders of the 116 nations that make up the
Non-Aligned Movement, a network of developing countries, passed a statement opposing war at
their summit in Kuala Lumpur. These nations represent two-thirds of the members of the United
Nations.
CANADA: The United States’ No. 1 trading partner and neighbor, Canada has nevertheless
declined to support the Bush Administration on Iraq. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told
Parliament on February 18 that he would not contribute forces to an attack that was not
authorized by the UN Security Council.28
LEADING ECONOMIES ON FOUR CONTINENTS: The countries with the largest GDP’s in
Europe, South America, Africa and Asia are opposed to the U.S. position on Iraq. These include:
Germany, Brazil, South Africa, and China.
VI. CONCLUSION
The claim by the Bush Administration that it has assembled a “Coalition of the Willing” is central
to its battle for public opinion to back the war. Yet, as the world’s superpower with enormous
military and economic resources at its disposal, the United Sates has not assembled “the willing.”
We find evidence of coercion, of bullying and acts tantamount to bribery as the United States
assembles its coalition. And even with this power at its disposal, the Administration cannot even
reveal the identities of the members of this alliance.
In the end, almost all of the assembled governments stand in direct opposition to the will of their
people. In the end, these nations “represent” barely a tenth of the world’s population. Far more
impressive is the list of nations that have stood up to U.S. bully tactics and stand opposed to both
this war at this time and to the larger arrogant U.S. doctrine of pre-emptive war. More >
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"Someday, after we have mastered the waves, the tides and gravity, we will activate the energies of LOVE, and for the second time in history we will have discovered fire"
Piere Teilohard de Chardin
"The world is a dangerous place to live - Not because of the people who are evil - but the people who don't do anything about it "
ALBERT EINSTIEN |
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