(WMR) -- As the neocons, the
corporate news media, and the international banking class push the world
towards more military showdowns in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and wherever else they
can provoke a crisis, along with their ultimate goal -- a "Clash of
Civilizations" -- there are some important crosswinds blowing around the
world that may stop them dead in their tracks.
First, the
pro-democracy military coup in Thailand should be examined outside the spin and
puffery emanating from the editorial and production desks in New York and
Washington, DC.
Yesterday, while
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a Rupert Murdoch- and Silvio
Berlusconi-like corporate media and telecommunications baron, was preparing to
rub shoulders with his fellow "coalition of the willing" war criminal
George W. Bush at the UN General Assembly summit in New York, he was deposed in
a pro-democracy and bloodless military coup at home. Although the neocon media
tried to paint the coup as having some nefarious purposes (pointing out that
the coup leader, Army Commander Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, is a Muslim), the
coup's aim was to wrench Thailand's government away from the corruption,
nepotism, and anti-constitutional government of Thaksin, his family, and his
cronies. As far as the backing for the coup, it is well known that Gen. Sondhi
maintains a close relationship with the King -- and the King is the supreme
Buddhist leader of the nation. So much for the neocons trying to link the coup
to Al Qaeda and their other bogeymen like Jemaah Islamiya, the group's
Southeast Asian branch. But the neocon media are now painting the coup as a
"dangerous" precedent -- because the generals did not accede to the
"civil society" efforts to depose Thaksin. That is, of course,
Council on Foreign Relations/global governance claptrap that often emanates from
the "enlightened" limousine liberals -- the same bunch who have
decided to support Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election in California.
As with all deposed
dictators, Thaksin was forced to retreat into exile in gilded splendor, in his
case in a suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan and then to fashionable
quarters in London. The Thai military, which was supported in their move by the
Thai opposition, placed Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister
under arrest. Thailand cleaned house in one of those rare moments when the
military steps in to restore or bring about democracy. It has happened in
Portugal, Spain, the former Soviet Union, Romania, Venezuela, Philippines, Sao
Tome and Principe, and other nations. Nazi Germany serves as an example of the
military attempting twice, but failing, to return the nation to sane leadership
by ousting Hitler in 1942 and 1944. Marshal Pietro Badoglio's 1943 coup against
Benito Mussolini serves as another example of the military ousting a tyrant.
Rioting broke out
in Budapest after the transcript of comments, made by millionaire
"Socialist" Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcasny after winning re-election
in April, were leaked to the public. Candidly, Gyurcsany admitted that he and
his government had been lying to the Hungarian people for the previous four
years in order to ensure their re-election. Gyurcsany's comments could have
been made in the Cabinet rooms of Bangkok, London, and Washington, DC by
similarly corrupt and dishonest government officials. But these leaked out and gave
the Hungarian people a rare dose of who and what is running their country, in
fact, who and what are running much of the world. Gyurcsany's comments included
the following:
" . . . we
have screwed up. Not a little but a lot. No country in Europe has screwed up as
much as we have. We have obviously lied throughout the past 18 to 24 months. It
was perfectly clear that what we were saying was not true . . . in the meantime
we did not actually do anything for four years. Nothing . . . we lied morning,
noon and night. I do not want to carry on with this. . . . the faith comes from
the fact that I am creating history. Not for the history books, I do not give a
shit about them. I do not at all care whether we or I personally will be in
them. I do not at all care . . . the government's work is not constructed
nicely, calmly or scrupulously. No. No. It is being prepared at a mad breakneck
speed because we could not do it for a while in case it came to light, and now
we have to do it so desperately that we are almost at the breaking point."
While it doubtful
the Hungarian military will have to step in to oust Gyurcsany and his
government of liars, the riots involving tens of thousands of people throughout
the country threaten to topple his shameless lying regime, a government that
puts the interests of the World Bank, European Central Bank, NATO, and the
dictates from Washington before the interests of its people. And the Hungarian
police are being criticized for not coming down harder on the rioters when they
first hit the streets.
Then there is the
declaration by millions of Mexicans that their candidate, former Mexico City
Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, robbed of his election by a combination of
U.S. and international banking class corruption and vote fraud, is the
legitimate President of Mexico. Lopez Obrador's populist movement and rival
presidency is buttressed by popular rebellions in Chiapas and Oaxaca states.
The Washington right-wing candidate, Felipe Calderon, and his conservative
forerunner Vicente Fox, are besieged in their own capital. The people of Mexico
and Lopez Obrador are saying no to fraudulent elections and continued control
by the international banks and neocon interests. Populist governments in
Venezuela and Bolivia are saying no to the international bankers and
multinational corporate leeches. But America does not have to look to Bangkok,
Budapest, or Caracas to see a rising tide of progressive populism. It is
occurring right to our south.
Which brings us to
our current dilemma. George W. Bush has trampled on our Constitution, has been
found to have authorized illegal surveillance of Americans in violation of the
U.S. Constitution, and tortured those protected under U.S. law and the Geneva
Conventions. Senators of Bush's own party now realize that Bush and his cronies
may have committed war crimes and they are not eager for Bush to have the U.S.
back out of its Geneva Convention treaty commitments. And then there is Iran.
From all indications, Bush and his neocon war council are determined to go to
war with Iran sooner rather than later. Current and retired senior military
officers have reached their breaking points with the Bush administration over
torture and another bloody war. They are also well aware that Iraq Coalition
Provisional Authority war criminal Jerry Bremer presided over a cabal of
Republican loyalists who enriched themselves and their families with lucrative
salaries and contracts -- at the cost of the lives of hundreds of American
servicemen and women and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
That Bush has
violated the Constitution is not debatable. He has. But the GOP Congress has
abdicated its responsibilities to hold Bush and his administration accountable
for their illegal behavior. Level-headed Federal and state judges have tried to
put the breaks on the Bush excesses, but the effects have been piecemeal. There
is now fear that the Bush administration and its allies in state and local
governments will manipulate the November 7 elections with their "election
engineering" accomplished by Diebold and other corrupted electronic voting
machines.
Bush's impaired
mental state was painfully apparent to reporters who covered his press
conference last Friday, an event in which Bush through a virtual tempter
tantrum to defend his torture policies and effort to disengage America from its
legal commitments to upholding the Geneva Conventions. With all the evidence
that Bush's mental state calls for the implementation of the 25th Amendment
which calls for his replacement due to physical or mental inability to carry
out his duties, the rubber stamp Congress refuses to act.
The response by
loyal Americans to either a Bush war with Iran or another rigged election, or
both, is clear. Every U.S. military officer swore an oath to uphold and defend
the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including enemies
occupying the Oval Office. And it may take temporarily suspending a very small
part of the Constitution in order to save our Constitutional Republic from
neocon tyranny and dictatorship.
The Thai military
decided to suspend the entire Thai Constitution an an interim measure before a
return to democratic rule. The U.S. military, in response to Bush's numerous
violations of the U.S. Constitution and orders to engage in a potentially
disastrous war with Iran, could merely step in and suspend Article I, Section
9; Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution to pave the way for a return to democratic
rule. That Clause is the Bill of Attainder clause, which states, "No Bill
of Attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed." A Bill (or
Writ) of Attainder is when a legislature (or another governing tribunal such as
the Joint Chiefs of Staff) declares a person or group of persons guilty of a
crime or crimes, and nullifies their constitutional rights, without benefit of
a trial." In this case, the U.S. military could, under international law
(and pursuant to a suspension of the Bill of Attainder clause in the U.S.
Constitution), declare that Bush, Cheney, and other high level administration
perpetrators have violated the Geneva Conventions and other U.S. treaties
having the effect of law, and, without the benefit of a U.S. trial, hand them
over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face justice. In other
words, the Joint Chiefs of Staff could issue a Writ of Attainder against the
guilty parties in the Bush administration. Afterwards, the Writ of Attainder
clause of the U.S. Constitution could be restored to force. Extraordinary times
demand extraordinary measures -- and the founders of the United States wanted
it that way. We owe it to them and their great sacrifices to carry on the
revolutionary spirit they bequeathed to us.
� 2006
WayneMadsenReport.com. All Rights Reserved.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based
investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is author of the forthcoming book, �Jaded
Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops & Brass Plates.� He is the editor and
publisher of the Wayne Madsen
Report.