Western Democracy: A Farce And A Sham
Paul Craig Roberts
Prison Planet.com
November 3, 2011
Every day that passes adds to the fraudulent image of what is
called Western democracy.
Sarkozy and Merkel meet with Greece’s Prime Minister Papandreou
at a G20 summit in Cannes.
Consider that the entire Western world is outraged that the
Greek prime minister announced that he is going to permit the
Greek people to decide their own fate instead of having it
decided for them by a handful of banksters, politicians, and
bureaucrats living it up at taxpayer expense at “talks” in the
French resort of Cannes on the Mediterranean.
The Greek economy is facing its fourth year of decline and lacks
the revenues to service its national debt held by private
European banks. The banks don’t want to lose any money, so a
handful of power brokers reached an agreement with
representatives of the Greek government to write off some of the
debt in exchange for EU capital subsidies to be financed by
inflicting severe austerity on the Greek population. Wages,
salaries, pensions and medical care are being cut while the rate
of unemployment rises to depression levels. Government employees
are laid off. Valuable public properties are to be sold to
private parties for pennies on the dollar. In short, Greece is
to be looted.
Large numbers of Greeks have been in the streets protesting the
austerity policy and have reached the point of anger of throwing
Molotov cocktails at the police. Greece is disintegrating
politically. The Greek people sense that the EU “bailout” is not
bailing out Greece. It is bailing out the French, Dutch, and
German banks at the expense of the Greek people.
The Greek prime minister, watching his party’s support and power
crumble, announced that he would let the people decide in a
referendum. After all, allegedly that’s what democracies do. But
it turns out that “we have freedom and democracy” is not
supposed to be taken literally. It is merely a propagandistic
slogan behind which people are ruled through back-room deals
decided by powerful private interests.
The Greek prime minister’s announcement that he would put the
back-room bailout deal to a referendum shocked the EU hierarchy,
Washington, and investors. Who does this Greek guy think he is
permitting the people, who bear the cost of the deal, to have a
say in it? Who let this Greek guy out of his cage? This is not
the way democracies are ruled.
The EU power brokers are outraged over the Greek prime
minister’s departure from normal procedure. But the Greek PM is
relying on the Greek people to approve the deal, and not without
reason.
The Greek people have been brainwashed for decades as to the
importance of “being part of Europe.” That means being a member
of the European Union. When the Greeks realize that voting down
the bailout of the banksters means being thrown out of the
European Union, which is what they will learn between now and
the referendum, they will vote for the back room deal.
Polls already indicate this. A poll for a Greek newspaper
indicates that whereas 46% oppose the bailout, 70% favor staying
in the EU, which the Greeks see as a life or death issue.
If this poll is a reliable indicator, the Greek PM has made a
brilliant political decision. The Greek people will vote in
favor of what they have been protesting violently in the
streets. As the Greek people will do themselves in, the
politicians are off the hook. This is the bet that the Greek PM
has placed.
Whatever the outcome, keep in mind that the entire Western
political and investor world was shocked that a politician,
instead of simply imposing a back room deal, said he would let
the people decide. Letting the people decide is a no-no in
Western democracies.
If you need more evidence of this mythical creature called
“Western democracy,” consider that Western governments are no
longer accountable to law. Contrast, for example, the sexual
harassment charges that are plaguing US presidential candidate
Herman Cain’s campaign with the pass given to high government
officials who clearly violated statutory law.
What follows is not a defense of Cain. I take no position on the
charges. The real point is different. In America the only thing
that can ruin a politician is his interest in sex. A politician,
for example, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, B. Omama, cannot be
ruined by violating United States and international law or by
treating the US Constitution as a “mere scrap of paper.” Bush
and Cheney can take America to wars based entirely on lies and
orchestrated deceptions. They can commit war crimes, murdering
large numbers of civilians in the cause of “the war on terror,”
itself a hoax. They can violate US and international laws
against torture simply “because the president said so.” They can
throw away habeas corpus, the constitutional requirement that a
person cannot be imprisoned without evidence presented to a
court. They can deny the right to an attorney. They can violate
the law and spy on Americans without obtaining warrants. They
can send due process to hell. In fact, they can do whatever they
want just like Hitler’s Gestapo and Stalin’s secret police. But
if they show undue interest in a woman or proposition a woman,
they are dead meat.
Very few commentators have said a word about this. The House of
Representatives did not impeach President Bill Clinton for his
war crimes against Serbia. They impeached him for lying about a
sexual affair with a White House intern. The US Senate, which
had too many sexual affairs of its own to defend, didn’t bother
to try to convict.
This is Amerika today. A president without any authority
whatsoever, not in law and certainly not in the Constitution,
can assassinate US citizens based on nothing except an assertion
that they are a “threat.” No evidence is required. No
conviction. No presentation of evidence in any court. Just a
murder. That is now permissible to the Amerikan president. But
let him try to get a woman who is not his wife into bed, and he
is a cooked goose.
In Amerika there is no such thing any longer as torture; there
is only “enhanced interrogation.” A mere word change has
eliminated the crime. So torture is permissible.
In Amerika today, or in the UK and the EU, anyone who tells the
truth is a “threat.” Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who made
public information leaked to him by US government sources
horrified by the criminal actions of the United States
government, is now, as a result of Amerikan pressure on UK
courts, being turned over to Sweden, which, for favors from the
“world’s only superpower,” will turn him over to the US
regardless of law to be prosecuted on trumped-up charges.
Western “civilization” is totally corrupted by American money.
There is no integrity anywhere. For a decade Washington has been
murdering women, children, village elders, and journalists in
the name of the hoax “war on terror.”
What terror does the world actually see? The world sees the
terror that Israel, protected by Washington, inflicts on the
Palestinians. The world sees the terror that the US inflicts on
Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya,
Latin America and now Africa, with Syria, Lebanon, and Iran
waiting in the wings. The “war on terror” is nothing but an
orchestrated invented excuse for Amerika-Israel to achieve
hegemony while enriching their armaments industries.
In Greece, at least the PM committed to giving the people a say
in their fate. In America the people have no voice whatsoever.
The sheeple are content to be protected by “security,”
porno-scanners, warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention,
and sexual groping. To carry on the hoax “war on terror,” the US
government has elevated itself above the law.
The American effort to achieve accountability to law, the Occupy
Wall Street (OWS) movement, if not shut down by cold weather,
ice, and snow, is likely to be shut down by police violence. One
riot begun by provocateurs is all it takes to transform
protesters into “domestic extremists,” the number one concern of
Homeland Security. The presstitute media will make the case
against the rioters, and the sheeple will buy it.
The police have been militarized by Washington. Community police
forces no longer represent the local public that pays their
salaries. Local police represent Washington’s war against
America.
American citizens are all suspects. Anyone who goes through
airport security knows this. The only law that the US government
obeys is not even a law. It is a bureaucratic regulation that
prevents, even in dire wartime, any profiling of suspects by
ethnicity or country of origin.
Consequently, all native born, flag-waving, American
super-patriots are suspects when they board commercial
airliners. Americans who have a life time of security clearances
are subject to being porno-scanned or sexually groped. Airport
Security cannot tell a “terrorist” from a CIA analyst, a Marine
general or a US Senator.
Well-connected members of the ruling elite, such as Michael
Chertoff, can become rich from selling the porto-scanners to
taxpayers in order “to protect the public from terrorists.”
The only terrorists Americans will ever experience are those
funded by their own tax dollars within their “own” government. A
people incapable of perceiving its real peril has no chance of
surviving. America might be a military superpower, but it no
longer exists as a free country with accountable government and
a rule of law.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the
former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a
columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street
Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of
the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating. |