We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The war in Iraq was not a blunder or a mistake. It was a crime

Click here to access article by Owen Jones from The Guardian

The British have been engaging in numerous discussions about the Chilcott Inquiry that was an official investigation into the Iraq War that started on November 24, 2009 and concluded on February 2, 2011, but the results were kept under wraps until just recently when they were published on July 6th. There has been much consternation expressed over the widespread lying that occurred both during the run-up to the war and its aftermath. But it appears that there is an attempt by the British ruling class to lay the blame entirely on the useful idiot Tony Blair who was (Labor Party!) prime minister during this time. There are plenty of war criminals on both sides of the Atlantic that need to be brought to trial, but won't be. At least the British are recognizing that they were lied to, something that many Americans will probably not experience publicly for many years.