Hi. I send this wonderful essay in response to the horrific shootings in Tucson, but also to an email from a subscriber who despaired that: "I think that until we can, as a society, consider the well-being of each other and yet have trust in each other's native abilities to live life in peace with us, we'll continue devolving toward a scientific, technological tyranny." I wrote him that doing nothing 'until', insures the predicted result, and that organizing and educating, with a song in your heart, allows for a better result and a happier personal life. While no one can ever match Bertie Russell, his life, ideas and acts have inspired multitudes; hopefully, some who get this.
Many thanks to Robert Greenfield for the Russell precis and the exemplary essay. If there are moments to seize a time for peace, this one is critical. Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Greenfield To: Undisclosed-Recipient:; Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 12:41 AM Subject: An Essay On Bertrand Russell & U.S. Foreign Policy the greenfield code Written for my Television Program---The Greenfield Code Bertrand Russell & The Quest For A Civilized World Bertrand Arthur William Russell: 1872-1970 When he was 12 Bertrand Russell received a Bible from his grandmother upon graduation from lower school with this inscription in the flyleaf: 'Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.' The quote comes from the Book of Leviticus. Bertie's mother died when he was 2 years old. His father died 18 months later. His parents were extremely enlightened 19th century Victorians & had left his future in the hands of enlightened non-family members unaffiliated with the church. However, Russell's grandparents contested the will & eventually Bertrand was turned over to his maternal grandmother, the one remaining family guardian. This woman was a fanatical puritan who gave Bertrand a terrific dose of Biblical proverbs and other useless for the most part Puritanical doctrine. Russell says in his Autobiography that at age 5 he figured if he lived to the average 70 years of life that he still had 14 times five years yet to live and he found this prospect profoundly boring. By the time he hit 15, 16 he says that suicide was in his mind all the time but what kept him going was his love of mathematics & the desire to learn more of it. By the time he hit 40 he was, he writes, happy as one is permitted to be on earth. Mr. Russell was a conscientious objector during World War 1 when he had been a respected philosopher & lecturer & original thinker at Cambridge. He began to write articles against World War 1 & was taken into custody & incarcerated. All of his Cambridge colleagues held their tongues and refused to honor this man of probity & conscience. He stood virtually alone in the academy against the whole establishment that rushed like a mob to support war. It is true his time in jail was made simpler & easier by Russell's membership in the aristocracy. He was allowed his own private cell and also his own books. So he continued his scholarship. But his absolute integrity during these crucial years testify of his rare courage as well as his intelligence. Throughout his 97 years & 10 months on earth Bertrand Russell wrote and spoke and argued on behalf of those people and individuals who were being cheated out of a fair existence in society. He battled against war & poverty & disease & stupidity & superstition & humbug his entire time on earth. And he honored his existence by taking risks & offending popular opinion & the favorite sacred cows of the establishment while the self-righteous slept and mumbled the platitudes of the day exactly as they do today. I write these words while America sleeps & hides under a great neon sign of false propaganda & lies orchestrated by the state & Big Business that owns the State & endorsed by the bought media & pronounced hale & hearty by liberals & conservatives alike that it is ok for Israel to slaughter innocent civilians by the thousands in order possibly to kill a few Islamists who believe Israel is an illegitimate nation that has gained its power through violence & theft against Palestinians & Arabs & Muslims. The case for the Islamists is powerful. And the fact that the American public is so hoodwinked comes from the massive stupidity of the American electorate coupled with an equally massive indifference to what goes on in foreign lands as long as U.S. children don't bleed---plus of course the endemic racism of the Judaeo-Christian hegemony. It is the case that "only" a few thousand Americans have died so far---and their deaths are only the property of families & close friends ignorant of America's involvement in Iraq during the last 16 years. How many American citizens know that close to 2 million Iraqis have died through bombing & The Sanctions since 1990? How many Americans know that Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright faced Lesley Stahl on CBS's 60 Minutes on May11, 1996 and was confronted by Stahl with these charges: According to first-hand U.N. observers upwards of 500,000 (one half million) children under the age of 6 have died in Iraq from The Sanctions alone. What do you have to say to that, Madame Secretary? "We think it's worth the price," said Madeleine Albright. That terrifying answer of a cold-blooded mercenary yet remains to be measured & weighed & understood by citizens of the United States of America & the pupils in its high schools & grade schools & colleges. Such horrendous truths cannot be buried without doing permanent damage to this entire nation. We literally destroyed by bombing all the silos in Iraq holding food between 1991-1997---including their powdered milk & dates for which they are renowned. Previous to that obscene bombing Iraq produced 17 percent of the powdered milk in the region. American airplanes bombed those silos because America was attempting to destroy Iraq's food supply---& starve the Iraqis to death. And we did in fact kill thousands of Iraqis by starvation & caused millions of others to experience severe cases of malnutrition. We destroyed the water system of Baghdad. We wiped out its very public school system---an extremely efficient school system. 10,000 school teachers were required to quit--- 10,000! because there were no funds to pay teachers or buy supplies. The school grounds of Baghdad were overflowing with sewage in many instances. This was before Bush II's insane & fatal invasion by which time Iraq was already so weak from the bombings & sanctions it had almost nothing left to fight for let alone the weapons & soldiers needed to wage a war. We destroyed Baghdad's hospitals decimating their penicillin & supplies & destroying their electrical equipment preventing treatment of the sick & dying. We murdered all those helpless & utterly needy people. We murdered them rather than assist them! And reputable physicians and scientists report that 50 percent of all Iraqis are infected with cancer cells from the promiscuous bombing that had been taking place during the sanctions and which released deadly amounts of depleted uranium (Uranium 290) into the atmosphere & which latter stays in the air for 1 billion years. This clandestine nightmare bombing occurred three days a week during Clinton's 7 1/2 years in office. It was never reported by the American mainstream media. William Jefferson Clinton was the leader of this nation during that massacre of Iraq which was called Genocide by rational observers from the UN & from an experienced American government employee who had worked in Baghdad for many years in the oil for food program. Clinton---the same commercial Democrat who went back to his native Arkansas & oversaw the State execution of a convicted 16 yr old retarded black boy to prove how tough he was on crime. He wouldn't hesitate to murder a retarded person or be the lead accomplice in the malicious deaths of 500,000 civilians in Iraq who after all did not contribute to his Presidential campaign as had The Israel Lobby. All carnage occurred under Bush I & Clinton & then Bush II without any of them flinching & without their ever telling The American people of this Genocide of the Arabs. 'The Sovereignty of The American people'---it was pissed out the window & shit down the walls of Iraq by Bush Clinton & Bush II and nary a complaint from Republicans or Democrats who work for the fat cats. The United States by these systematically deadly actions against the citizens of Iraq created an entire criminal class in Iraq which, before Bush I's invasion, was a highly efficient country with low crimes rates & very high literacy rates and a highly efficient medical system---all of which sanctions and our goddamned bombs wiped out. Many previously excellent students became so depressed from the loss of the public schools & absence of jobs they were forced to turn to crime to stay alive. The USA took bread out of the mouths of these people. But we also destroyed their very hope for a future of love & well being. We The United States of America drove the people of Iraq essentially insane. By "we" I refer specifically to the government of George Walker Bush & William Jefferson Clinton & GW Bush II. And to this day these facts have not been reported on American television or radio or in the major newspapers & Time, Newsweek or US News & World Report. We destroyed the entire infrastructure of Baghdad & Iraq---schools, hospitals, city government, the utilities---gas, water & electricity, libraries---wiped out. No drinking water left untainted by the goddamned poisoning by American bombs. This was & is an attempt to exterminate Iraqis & Muslims. And the blood of every one of those dead & maimed & diseased Iraqis from those monstrous years are forever on the hands of Bush I, Clinton, Bush II & every other individual who willfully participated in this massive violation of human & international law and of democratic morality & of human decency. And where are our Bertrand Russells today? They had better be you & I. Let female and male be aligned as one in our opposition to these state serial murders of Palestinians Lebanese & Iraqis & Afghanis & of our own sons and daughters sacrificed to Moloch & the munitions industry & Halliburton hiding under the banner of The Cross of Jesus and pretending their cold-blooded murders of a whole civilization of Arabs & Muslims & Persians is "patriotic" when it is nothing but murder in cold blood & without just cause. We must rise above this absolute nadir of morality in American history. And we must point this country in the direction of democracy & the humanizing qualities of a healthy society. We have millions of miles to go to reach that state of grace & humanity. At this moment we are a sick and a deranged nation out of touch with the very malicious deeds taking place around the world of which we ourselves the USA are the author and shall be held accountable. And who will speak for these utterly crushed & forever silenced victims of the U.S.-Israel war machine---the Iraqis, The Palestinians, The Lebanese---if not you & I. Look about you. The Democratic Party mouths the same phony falsehoods as Republicans when it comes to matters pertaining to Israel. 'Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil!' says the Book of Leviticus of The Old Testament Bible---The Book of Israel. 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