Brad Miller

Operation Ajax and a Nuclear Iran

In True nature of the State on March 15, 2013 at 12:41 am

Nuclear Explosion

War Drums…

The headline appears on the Drudge Report tonight. The United States Federal Government is pushing closer to waging war against the Nation of Iran. President Obama spoke yesterday in Israel concerning Iran’s nuclear program.

The President explained:

“Iran is about a year away from developing a nuclear weapon and the United States remains committed to doing everything in its power to prevent that from happening.”

Now the question should be asked why is the United States so interested in a nation of 75 million people 6000 miles away its shores? I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Iran is sitting on the 2nd largest natural gas reserves and fourth largest petroleum reserves in the world?

The United States has been interested in Iran for a long time and it has always been about the oil reserves. During WWII the U.S., Brittain and Russia were very much involved in keeping Iran out of the Nazi fold because of their oil reserves.

The British in particular were deeply involved in oil production in Iran during and after WWII. This was very profitable for the British exporting the oil out of Iran but left the Iranian’s mostly impoverished. The Iranians were not happy with the British contracts and were seeking in the early 1950′s to Nationalize the Petroleum Industry in Iran. This would have left the British Oil companies in a bad spot. What did the British do? Did they negotiate with the Iranians or cut their loses and move on? No. They called the White House.

Eisenhower approved helping the British overthrow the government of Iran and “Operation Ajax” was born. Winston Churchill had reminded the U.S. that the British were helping the U.S. “combat communism” around the world and for their continued cooperation all the U.S. had to do was to stage a little coup in Iran. The U.S. CIA and British MI6 did just that. They launched Operation Ajax to overthrow the rightfully elected Prime Minister, Mossaddeq.

In Mosaddeq’s place the U.S. backed “Shah” was installed and reigned for 25 years. His unpopular rule ended in 1979 when the people of Iran performed their own “coup” and created the “Islamic Republic”. The seeds planted in 1953 by the CIA and MI6′s murder, deception and subterfuge in overthrow of Iran’s government led directly to the 1979 revolution.

Ever since the 1979 revolution, the United States has had economic sanctions against Iran. In fact over the last decade they have become more and more severe. It must be remembered that sanctions are never against governments. They are always against individuals. They always lower the standard of living for individuals living in both countries involved. If the sanctions were lifted on Iran today gas prices would fall about 10% in the U.S. and much-needed cancer medicine would be readily available in Iran. The question we must ask is: Who benefits from these higher gas prices? I know it is not you and me or the people of Iran.

Today the sanctions against Iran are meant to encourage a regime change from within by causing massive pain to its citizens. The sanctions coupled with a contentious election in 2009 almost accomplished this. There were massive protests but the brutal regime suppressed them. More individuals didn’t join the protests because they blame the U.S. for the sanctions they continue to suffer under and look to their government to provide relief from them. If the U.S. stopped the sanctions the regime in power wouldn’t have any excuse for the lack of freedom and prosperity in the country. There have been some protests in 2011 and 2012 but not on the scale of those that took place in 2009. The sanctions remain in place, the Iranian Regime remains in power, and the gas prices in the U.S. are still 10% higher than they should be and people in Iran are dying because of lack of medicine.

This is the legacy of government intervention around the world. The majority of individuals in both countries involved suffer for generations.

I’m not a fan of the Iranian government. The guys in charge are horrible people who have done horrible things. If they weren’t in power that would be a good thing. But it isn’t the business of the United States government to decide what type of government another country has or who is involved in it or if they should have nuclear weapons or not.

If Iran used a nuclear weapon against the United States what would really happen? All 75 million people in Iran would die in a retaliatory strike, that’s what would happen.That’s why mutually assured destruction worked during the Cold War (even though at the time we thought the Soviet leaders were insane), it worked. Those in power in Iran know this as well.

The Iranian people after WWII were on the path to prosperity with a secular democratic government. This ended when the joint CIA/MI6 “Operation Ajax” overthrew the elected government in 1953. Just think what life would be like if Iran was a peaceful trading partner with the U.S. The individuals who live in both of the countries would be more prosperous today. Government intervention always leads to more problems and more government intervention. It is an endless cycle of misery, murder and war. Operation Ajax is the perfect historical example of the dangers of government intervention abroad and should inform the decisions of those advocating regime change in Iran and other countries around the world.

Brad Miller
AdvocateofLiberty and Peace

Ronda Rousey, Freedom and the UFC

In True nature of the State on February 24, 2013 at 10:59 pm

On Saturday Feb 23rd Ronda Rousey defeated Liz Cormouche to retain the UFC women’s bantam weight title. It was an awesome fight. Ronda and Liz went at it. Rousey was in trouble in the middle of the first round when Liz almost submitted her with a standing rear naked face crank.

But Rousey toughed it out, slid Liz off her back and gained top position on the ground. From there Rousey battled Liz on the ground and submitted her with a vicious arm bar, with only twenty seconds left in the first round. A great performance by both fighters who happen to be women. This was the first women’s mma fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

What I love about MMA and in particular the UFC is that it is a total meritocracy which celebrates excellence. If you love freedom than you should love the UFC and in particular Ronda Rousey. She is the reason why women are now fighting in the UFC. Dana White, the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, said in the past that he was dead set against women in his organization. But that all changed when he saw Rousey.

She has submitted all her opponents by arm bar in the first round. She is legit and that is why she made it to the UFC. No government intervention was needed for women to make it to the top promotion in MMA. What was needed was a woman of excellence, an individual who was a great fighter. No title nine intervention, no quotas or any other rules imposed on the UFC were needed for Dana White to make the call for Rousey and Liz to fight.

All that was needed for Dana to change his mind was Rousey’s ability to draw pay-per-view buys. And in order to do that she had to be first and foremost a talented fighter. It also doesn’t hurt that she is beautiful. The free Market and the profit motive brought women to the UFC. Excellence coupled with the profit motive are the best defense against discrimination.

Rousey is going to be a huge star. She is very marketable and she did what very few people do in this world and that is deliver. But she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to showcase her talent in front of millions of people if it weren’t for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The UFC has propelled Mixed Martial Arts into the main stream. It is a success story of the free market. The Ferttia brothers who own many different businesses, including a gaming company, bought the struggling UFC promotion at the prompting of their friend Dana White in 2000. Over the years Dana White the president and face of the organization along with, Bruce Buffer the ring announcer, Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg the long time ring side commentators, and Joe Silva the fight maker have grown the UFC into the top MMA promotion in the world. It attracts the top MMA fighters and because of that the organization is estimated to be worth well over a billion dollars.

No government intervention was needed for this to occur. The UFC is watched voluntarily by millions of fans every month on pay-per-view and last year they inked a deal with FOX Sports to expand its audience even more. It is a non-union and a non-collective bargaining organization unlike MLB and the NFL. The UFC doesn’t use taxpayer money to help build stadiums. They have had fights all over the world including events in England, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, China and Japan. It is an organization without borders just like a True Free Market is meant to be.

Freedom brings the best out of people. It allows individuals to be the best they are capable of being through competion against others. Through competition everyone gets better. I don’t understand the collectivists and statists disdain for competion. It is only through competion that growth occurs.

Even though the UFC is the top dog in MMA there are tons of smaller promotions across the country. If they UFC didn’t sign Ronda Rousey, one of the other promotions would have. That competion played a big role in Dana White’s decision to sign Rousey.

Ronda Rousey’s rise to super stardom occurred because of her freedom to pursue the life she desires. For someone to say she shouldn’t be fighting is ridiculous. (I used to be one of them but now see the error of my ways.) Freedom is necessary for this type of individuation to occur. With Freedom everyone can pursue their definition of happiness. And I’m glad that Rousey’s idea of happiness is getting into the Octagon and putting on one hell of a show.

Brad Miller
AdvocateofLiberty

Useful Idiots, Drones and Empire

In True nature of the State on February 18, 2013 at 6:34 pm

Are the Useful Idiots in America waking up? Has the expansion of the Drone Killings by the Obama administration finally revealed to his acolytes the true nature of what ruling an Empire entails?

It appears so with the outrage by folks like John Stewart ripping the Obama administration for the lying and deception concerned about the Kill list and drone program.

There have been over 350 drone strikes since Obama took office. Thousands of people have been killed throughout the world, including U.S. citizens has the left finally realized that War is the Health of the State?

I think his faithful followers will drop their faux outrage and continue return to signing his praises soon. In fact just the other day an NPR commentator praised Obama for pursuing the “light footprint” approach to war. So the short-lived outrage maybe already waning.

I believe there are Useful Idiots on both sides of the aisle. That is because there is really only one party in Washington and that is the Government Pearty. So there are those in the Media and the entertainment world who support the State without a second thought. Those who love war on the Right are in fact doing this today by actually praising Obama for the secret kill list and the expanded drone war.

A piece in the Weekly Standard by Gary Schmidt tilted “Drone On” demonstrates this. He is a neo-con who is praising the current Democratic Administration escalation of the Drone War. He loves the fact that more and more people are being killed across the world with the unmanned aerial vehicles, and believes that American Citizens are no different from any other suspected terrorist.

“Today, we apparently need pages on pages of Justice Department legalese (“Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa’ida or an Associated Force”) to justify killing Americans who have become senior jihad terrorists and who are trying to kill as many innocent Americans as possible”

And he applauds the fact that the Justice Department has now redefined the word “imminent”.

(Justice Department)…it so broadens the concept that it concludes that the government need not have “clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. person and interests will take place in the immediate future”—only a pattern of plotting such attacks. Given the spotty past record of the intelligence community in actually knowing when a specific terrorist plot is underway, this redefining of “imminent” is reasonable enough..”

So in one sentence he tells us that the Government now has carte blanche to kill anyone in the world because of secret intel gathered by those same inept spy agencies who have a history of falling to protect Americans from specific terrorist plots. In other words we can’t know specifically what they are up to specifically, so it’s just safer if we kill them all.

He then goes on to criticize libertarians for being outraged and uniformed about what this all really means. Drones he argues is just a tool of war against people overseas but he tries to strengthen his argument by equating that drone strikes overseas are no different from a police officer killing an armed subject on U.S. streets.

“As for the Fifth Amendment, due process has never been understood as an absolute right without commonsense exceptions or, for that matter, always and everywhere requiring judicial involvement. To take an obvious example, police officers are not thought to have violated anyone’s rights when they shoot and kill a suspect who is armed and posing a danger either to them or to other citizens”

The author of the article makes it sound like the Machinery of the State that is used overseas will never be used at home. But he fails to mention quotes by politicians back in 2011 concerning NDAA.

“In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield”

When will the first U.S. Citizen be killed by a drone on U.S. soil?

It’s interesting that the Weekly Standard article started off with talking about how some German Americans fought on the Nazis side during WWII and how it was a no-brainer for U.S. GI’s to kill these traitors. And that the killing of U.S. citizens around the world who are suspected terrorists was no different. Then he closes his article with telling us that the political system we live under produced this Drone Killing policy and that it is perfectly legal because of that.

We must never forget that everything Hitler did was within the “legal” framework of the German political system at the time. If the Nazis had won and the historians were pouring over the documents of the atrocities committed during WWII could they use the defense “it was all done with the approval of the people and of the other branches of the same government”.

He also cites that most Americans are on board with the drone killing initiative. Most Americans were for the Income Tax back in 1913, that was sold to them as something only the rick would pay. Now in 2013 I don’t know if you’ve done your taxes or not, but I’m paying more in income tax then I ever have before. And I am in no way part of the 1%. The income tax affects us all. And so will the use of Drones in the coming years.

The machinery of war can be used against the citizens who paid for it just as easily against so-called foreign enemies. It is a capital investment by the State to secure its power. When it kills enough of its enemies around the world it will deal with the one’s at home.

The drone war is not occurring in a vacuum. Think about the talk of gun control now and imagine a not too distant future where every citizen has to register his firearm What if someone refuses to do so? And what if that someone has said derogatory comments about the Federal Government? What if this individual refuses to register or give up his firearms? Isn’t it much safer to fire a missile into his house with a drone instead of risking a police officer’s life to arrest him?

Remember drones were built to save airman and soldiers lives, in other words to protect the lives of the agents of the state. What is the difference between a policemen and a soldier? The way the drug war is prosecuted, the way DUI check points are staged and the way they are armed I would say they are one in the same. So if Drones are used to kill dangerous people to protect innocent lives and to save the lives of government employees why will the state not use drones to kill suspected dangerous U.S. citizens on American soil?

Look at how the LAPD went after Christopher Donner. They shot up two trucks that looked like his. Now if they had drones don’t you think they would have blown those suspected trucks up like they do the terrorists overseas? If they had the lady shot in one of those trucks, who amazingly survived, would have been vaporized by a drone strike.

Now if a police officer who is only fifty feet away from a suspected vehicle can’t identify a target properly how can someone 5000 or 10,000 miles away looking through a camera lens 10,000 ft in the air? How many trucks that looked like a terrorist’s truck have been blow up overseas which we never hear about?

All that needs for U.S. citizens to be killed by drones on U.S. soil is for a secret Justice Department memo to appear. Once it does the Useful Idiots will get what they want and the hellfire missiles will start raining down into the suburbs of America.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/drone_700511.html?page=2

http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senators-demand-military-lock-american-citizens-battlefield-they-define-being

Brad Miller
AdvocateofLiberty and not being droned

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