BELLING THE CAT

 

There has been this reluctance on my part to once again bring up a very sore subject with many people but I feel that the subject matter is very important for everyone who values what it is to be an American. It is difficult to talk about such matters because there is always a group of people who miss the point of what a conspiracy against the American people is about. People still remain holding on to American Exceptionalism and it is with that blind faith that many people will wind up homeless, hungry and – in the most extreme situations – dead.

When Americans elect leaders, they do so based upon the issues that they understand or at least think they know about. They want to see taxes lowered, they want jobs filled and they now want to see something done to guarantee them healthcare. Then there are the so called “pet” issues that always seem to be talked about ad nauseum. These are the issues of gay marriage, abortion and immigration.

Now it seems that the other pet issue that is not going away is the issue of what happened in Benghazi. This issue has been carried on now since before the election of President Obama until now. Here we are seeing several distractions and spins that are once again becoming partisan bickering which will eventually be the nail in the coffin of this story. If it gets suspended in several arguments it eventually dies and resentment sets in and soon there are people plotting their various conspiracies and soon we will see the fruits of what conspirators plot.

All the while we have been hearing of succession of the union and other plots against the government and yet there is absolutely no one who wishes to put the bell on the cat.

“Belling the cat” is a euphemism that goes back to Aesop’s Fables and was also the subject of a Warner Brothers cartoon featuring Sniffles the Mouse.

In the story, the mice had a general council to consider what measures they could take to outwit their common enemy, the cat. Some said this and some said that; but at last a young mouse got up and said he had a proposal to make, which he thought would meet the case. “You will all agree,” said he, “that our chief danger consists in the sly and treacherous manner in which the enemy approaches us. Now, if we could receive some signal of her approach, we could easily escape from her. I venture, therefore, to propose that a small bell be procured, and attached by a ribbon round the neck of the cat. By this means we should always know when she was about, and could easily retire while she was in the neighborhood.”

This proposal met with general applause, until an old mouse got up and said: “That is all very well, but who is to bell the Cat?” The mice looked at one another and nobody spoke. Then the old mouse said: “It is easy to propose impossible remedies.”

I hear from people all the time that say that they think someone should do something about the way things are going and I agree; however, I am concerned that every one of us is waiting for the cue to do something revolutionary and the biggest fear of all is that there are people out there that would rather speak with their guns rather than think with the brains.

I have been contemplating for sometime how we as Americans can change the course of history and if we can’t “bell the cat” we can most certainly find a way to set aside our anger and cynicism and apply something known as reform. Reform is a start and having the will and open mindedness to educate ourselves on what is really going on is a must. It is vital to our sustainability as a country.

The new issues that should be brought to the table have to be brought up by all of us. We must understand that it is up to us to discuss reformation and a change in thought that may be frightening at first but the alternative would be “belling the cat” and I do not think that the majority of people understand the way in which this can be accomplished.

The first thing on the list of reform is to understand that regardless of what propaganda you may hear from politicians or even the military industrial complex we must demand and make it loud and clear that we need to unilaterally suspend the use of drones.

I find it hypocritical that people love to criticize the Pentagon and the CIA when in their little conspiracy theory sessions or writing in their various blogs. But when it comes to drones, they support these organizations. It is a confusing stance that really has me wondering just what people stand for anymore. The Pentagon and CIA assert that drones are necessary. So I guess with that ringing endorsement we are to say that they are safe and important?

Their use has been universally condemned by many governments and human rights organizations. Yet many Americans see them as “needed” except when they are proposed to fly over American cities, and then there is a change of heart. Once again showing the hypocrisy of the ugly American who believes it is okay to kill people they don’t even know. This is because many people are so certain that they will never be the target of a drone.

Their effectiveness as a counter-terrorism tool should be challenged at every step because now it seems that they are moving forward with the mass production and the President wants a handbook of guidelines on which Americans should be killed by these drones and what justifies a kill.

President Barack Obama’s administration is in the process of drawing up a formal rulebook that will set out the circumstances in which targeted assassination by unmanned drones is justified, according to reports. The New York Times, citing two unnamed sources, said explicit guidelines were being drawn up amid disagreement between the CIA and the departments of defense, justice and state over when lethal action is acceptable.

Human-rights groups and peace groups opposed to the CIA-operated targeted-killing program, which remains officially classified, said the administration had already rejected international law in pursuing its drone operations. This shows us just how this administration views human life.

The constitutionality of killing American citizens without a trial and without a chance to offer a defense should be challenged as a primary issue at all costs, but the killing of anyone without transparent judicial process and the justification of imminent threat should be determined to be unacceptable.

Yet we now need a guidebook that gives us official precedent? I can’t believe this is not a main issue being discussed and challenged. Do we really have that much hatred and fear that we no wish to completely disregard the constitution and morality for the ability to kill indiscriminately with a machine that does not have any moral compass?

The President of the United States has somehow convinced the American people that it is okay to tamper with the rights provided by the 14th Amendment:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.“

Can the people of America understand that the assassinations and “kill lists policies” under President Obama will not work any better than preemptive attacks under President George W. Bush?

Can truth prevail over partisan nonsense and bickering? I contend that America is going to fail unless it finally admits to itself that the war on terror is purely fiction and it has been utilized effectively to justify a mega-expansion of the Military industrial complex and has forced the conversation into accepting a state socialist solution that will be enforced by killing machines that will patrol our skies shooting people or even bombing neighborhoods that are suspected of plotting against a tyrannical government.

This war now has little to do with terror and the issue is no longer connected to the attacks of September 11th, 2001. We are now warring with a tactic; we are warring with a method of attack that is being carried out by small groups that can be compared to organized crime.

We have allowed for too long the lie that all of Islam is radical. We have also believed the lie that all radical Muslims are terrorists that threaten the security of the United States.

I can already hear the responses to what I have just written I can tell you that even though I believe that all of Islam is not radical I fully believe that the United States Government has a right and duty to respond with lethal force to anyone who wishes to harm The United States.

However, the future is right before us and that is we have to live with the reality that there will be a political arm of Islam that will have to be considered in the future and if that political arm wishes not to participate in the New World order then it is their right to abstain.

It is their right to retain what they believe is their way of life, despite what we think that way of life should be. We need desperately to change our perception of what the enemy is because it is this perception based in a xenophobic culture that is allowing the justification for American assassinations without due process.

I am wondering if I am alone is saying that reform is the answer? I am wondering if we have reached the point of no return. This administration as the administration before it has based all of their moves on potentiality and not on reality. That is why America has found it within their capacity to be presumptive and preemptive.

Yet, with all of the potentiality and presumption, we have not seen anything like the September 11th, 2001 attacks in the United States. But if the terrorists are as vicious as we make them, then we should have seen more horrifying attacks on our soil. The irony is that many of the small attacks in America have been carried out by our own intelligence agencies. We can once again go full circle with what happened in Benghazi and point out that once again, that blame can be thrown at an intelligence failure that has lead to nothing more than an excuse to see how badly Hillary Clinton has aged and how the President has an agenda to get Susan Rice on the nightly news.

Once again no one wants to “bell the cat” or bring up the uncomfortable issues of how we have allowed our misconceptions rule our actions.

All of the machines that they want to use on us, the presumed enemy has all been part of a potentiality ploy and in my opinion has failed to make America any safer. I would also contend that the plans of expanding the military industrial complex have bankrupted the United States.

While Obama and administration officials have commented publicly on the legal basis fortargeted killings, the program is officially secret.

So who wants to “bell the cat?” As the old mouse said in the old fable: “It is easy to propose impossible remedies.”

The remedy is education and the willingness to let go of our prejudices and fear.

http://www.groundzeromedia.org/belling-the-cat/