Tag Archives: Moab

US, not Assad, drops MOAB Weapon of Mass Destruction on Afghans, same MO used against Philly’s MOVE insurgents.

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The US is bragging right now that it’s dropped a GBU-43/B MOAB, aka Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, know in the Chairforce as a “Mother Of All Bombs” bomb, apparently the larger of non-nuclear bombs in its arsenal, on a suspected tunnel in Afghanistan, presumably full of Afghans. Will the UN condemn the US act and support coalition retaliatory airstrikes on the rogue regime which did it? No need for an investigation, we’re on TV admitting to the deed. Note the US war media are adding “in combat” and “on the battlefield” to their headlines although the command and control center allegedly targeted would be Islamic State’s DC.

If the US is going to insist that the MOAB bombing was legal under US rules of engagement, it would be hard to argue that Islamic State Terrorism (see what I did there) could not enjoy a comparable broad latitude.

Normally of course, US spokespeople would deny responsibility, but this bomb was too big. Too big not to break windows five miles away, and too big to smuggle into the hands of covert operatives so that we can say they did it.

The guard towers of Camp Amache, CO, Japanese-American internment camp

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Visitors to what remains of the WWII-era Granada Relocation Center located on Highway 50 past Lamar, are tempted to conclude that the remote location was isolation enough to restrict the movement of its 7,000 Japanese-American internees. Gone are all 560 buildings except their concrete foundations; the few remaining photographs depict a vast layout of spartan barracks, playing host to ordinary civilian lives, minus the atmosphere of incarceration. Were there cyclone fences and watch towers? The answer should not surprise you. Of course. Camp Amache was ringed by the usual multiple perimeters of prison fences, including six watch towers manned by military police, who were there, it was explained, for the internees’ protection. I think plans to further restore Amache need to begin with the security fortifications. If such blights on American history as these race-based detention centers are memorialized in the hope that our nation not do it again, it dishonors our victims, and blunts the lesson, not to illustrate our heavy hand.

I attended a recent screening of a documentary made of Camp Amache, attended by its producers, who expressed the usual motivation: in remembrance, never again. Special emphasis was placed on the contributions made by Japanese-Americans during the war, and on the magnanimity with which the internees accepted their lot. Survivors were not to receive an official apology until 45 years later, given $20,000 restitution for their livelihoods and families destroyed. It would be safe to say the audience felt well beyond the prejudice that had motivated their parents. Against Japanese-Americans.

Unfortunately both the documentary and the filmmakers’ commentary left the impression that “never again” describes a successful holding pattern. Of course, America has been at it again and as usual, its citizens have been obliviously complicit.

Look at the War on Islam, which has necessitated the internment of Muslim-Americans and Muslims worldwide. Guantanamo is not much different from the Wartime Relocation Authority (WRA) special Isolation Centers such as Dalton Wells, near Moab, where the WRA sent internees profiled as potential insurgency threats.

America has been building a network of fresh detention facilities to house Hispanic-Americans who run afoul of the country’s illegal labor market. Most of the detainees are promptly deported, but many languish while immigration issues and family ties are sorted out. While ICE pretends to protect the American people from the security-threatening unlawfulness of illegal aliens, in reality its detention centers enforce the successful abuse of a Hispanic-American slave labor pool.

You need only visit a traditional prison or jail to see that an overwhelming disproportion of its inmates are African-American and Hispanic-American, far exceeding what can be excused as representative of America’s poor. The American judicial system is still stacked against non-whites, and motivated by the same racist premise of protecting the security of white Americans.

And of course there are the open air prisons which still incarcerate the Native-Americans, the internment camps we call reservations, the original Wartime Relocation Centers.

Israel, Judah, Moab, Edom, Samaria, Palestine…

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And why it all counts.

Since the whole Israel Right-Of-Return is a huge part of any Any ANY issue involving the modern state of Israel.

It’s not just Religious Talk, so if you’re offended by Biblical references then toughie-poo.
The Bible just happens to be one of the premier sources for Israeli history.

AND.. Arab History

AND Palestinian history.

This is really oversimplifying things, but to most Americans Judah and Israel are equivalent and Palestinian and Arab are interchangeable terms.

To those no-doubt Highly Paid Lobbyists For the Israeli “DEFENSE” Force who insist on calling us liars or ignorant or hate-mongers or whatever, this will be Kindergarten stuff, …

ASSUMING OF COURSE THAT THEY ACTUALLY ARE JEWISH and/or BIBLICAL SCHOLARS or SERIOUSLY AS EXPERT ON THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE REGION THEY CLAIM THEMSELVES TO BE (and of course, as they claim we cannot possibly be…)

After the reign of Solomon, just to start, in the middle where a beginning properly belongs, Just Ask Steven Spielberg…

After the Reign of Solomon Israel and Judah were two separate Kingdoms.

Israel, and Judah.

Remember that because it is important and there will be a quiz later, which will count for 57.3% of your total grade.

After the kingdom of Israel got their collective head knuckled by Assyria (Remember Jonah?) but not Judah, and then a short while (historically speaking) later Nebuchadnezzar conquered BOTH and carried away into captivity… NOT EVEN MOST of Israel or Judah, Because They Left The Poor People Behind… (Remember Jeremiah? Of course you do…)

At this point the remnants of the Philistines aka Phoenicia aka Lebanon… a Greek culture…
And the remnants of Moab, descendants of one of the sons/slash/Grandsons of Lot (by his two daughters,)

( you know, Moses wasn’t very Kind or Gentle when he described the doings of his relatives, but he cut Lot a “lot” of slack, claiming he was too drunk to recognize his own daughters)

And the remnants of Edom, descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob aka Israel…

and various tribes of actual Arabs, descendants of Abraham’s first son Ishmael

And even the descendants of the recently (relatively) Dismantled Hittite and Assyrian Empires…

And throw in Ethiopians, Egyptians and Nubians who were stranded in the back and forth conquests over several centuries.

THESE were the people who lived in Israel and Judah at the time.

When people babble much about the Lost Tribes of Israel they’re refering to the Kingdom of Israel which consisted of the vast majority of the tribes of Israel save for Judah and Levi.

And They’re Not “lost” in the sense that they up and disappeared either, it’s “lost” like in the RELIGIOUS context.

More on that…

Remember how I said that Moses was NOT overly kind to the memory of his ancestors and relatives?

Of course you do.

Some of the highest ranking members of the Knesset and Mossad were quoted/slash/interviewed by a Religious Scholar from Colorado Springs and it gets routinely broadcast on TBS.

Who popped off with the Really Racist viewpoint, seconded and aided by the Israelis, that since many (but not all) of the Palestinians are descended from Esau, aka Edom, and their country called Idumea by the Romans, and they considered Esau to be a vagabond and lazy, shiftless and ignorant….

They consider ALL Palestinians to be Lazy Shiftless and Ignorant Vagabonds.

The term “morally dissolute” was thrown in as well, and the notion that ALL the descendants were morally dissolute Because Of Their Ancestry.

Not Racist? I can easily see that it IS… Extremely Racist.

Moses said that Jacob, ISRAEL, cheated Esau out of his birthright, his possessions and even the blessings of their father Isaac.

Stole, and Lied to do it.

That’s two of G_d’s Top Ten on His personal Hit Parade.

When Joseph, 11th son of Israel and first son of his favorite wife Rachel, was sold into slavery by his 10 elder brothers, according to Moses and generally recognized by both Muslim and Jew (the religious groupings) as being accurate, JUDAH wanted to have Joseph killed.

Here Moses plea bargains for his own ancestor Levi, (he wasn’t Ethnically a Jew, although he was Israelite, and Hebrew, but… the Edomites are ALSO Hebrew…

According to Moses, Levi prevented his brothers and especially JUDAH from Killing Their Brother, and was allegedly somehow not aware that a Passing Band of Arabs (Ishmaelites) was so close to their camp, as in “right in the middle of their encampment” that they managed to buy Joseph without Levi knowing about it until much later.

Moses was a Prophet but he was first a Man, and people don’t go out of their way to disrespect Grampa.

Judah also married his own daughter-in-law, OK so she was actually the widow of two of her sons, but here Moses tries not to be nasty about his kinfolk… Judah thought she was a prostitute, “went in unto her” and knocked her up, before marrying her… and without of course consulting his wife.

But, hey, it’s the EDOMITES who are “morally dissolute” right?

Racist? Hell yeah that’s racist.

Let’s flash forward again, this time to Right After The Babylonian Captivity.

The King of Persia (Iran) allowed the priesthood and as many of the Judean (Jews) Captives to return to Israel and Judah.

There they found that the poor who were left to tend the lands in Israel and Judah and Edom and Moab and Lebanon had intermarried.

Oh, NO!

Say it ain’t so, Jonah!

Jewish people intermingling with the Goyim? Gasp! Oh the Horrors!

Ezra and Nehemiah, the two Levite Priests who led the Return to the Land… Thanked the Israelite and Moabite and JEWISH peasants for keeping the land as well as could be expected, then condemned them for Not Maintaining Racial Purity.

And kicked them off the Rich Folks’ lands which they had been tending for more than 70 years.

“Thank you for all your time and labor, now Get Off My Property You Smelly Racially Impure Peasants YOU!”

These then are the “Lost Tribes” of Israel.

Where did they go? They didn’t. They’re still there.

In the New Testament they’re called “Samaritans”.

The parable of the “Good Samaritan” must have raised quite a few Elitist Pharisaic Eyebrows because the Pharisees and Sadducees considered anybody not Wealthy and Elite like themselves to be Ignorant Peasant Scum…

Plus they weren’t Racially Pure.

The Romans didn’t carry off ALL of the people in the region as slaves, not even all of the Jews.

Same way the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites and Alexander the Great didn’t.

Evidence, you say?

I mean, evidence aside from that already accepted by “Israel” and their FAMILY who are also Children of Israel the Palestinians?

Boy, you sure drive a hard bargain, but OK, here’s Evidence.

Olive Groves and Vineyards.

Sure Olive trees and grape vines grow wild in the region, but we’re talking Massive Cultivation of them.

Olive Groves and Vineyards that are older than the Roman Empire.

On land where if they were to survive at all they had to be Irrigated.

Anybody who has ever done Farming (And here I’ll excuse the Intellectual Elites like Don and Grace and Mary and David Haddad, who might all be the Same Person with different names)

I’ll excuse you because I don’t believe you’ve ever put hand to shovel or hoe or axe.

BUT I HAVE.

Maintaining an agricultural enterprise of any sort requires Hard Work.

In modern times there are machines which take up most of the Hard Work but they’ve only existed about a century and a half.

For 20 times as long these Groves and Vineyards have been tended by hand.

Irrigation ditches mean Water… and Dirt… Combined.

You have to clear the weeds out of the irrigation ditches at least 5 times a year just to keep the water running.

And if you’re using shovel, axe and hoe to do it it’s one hell of a lot of hard work.

If you’re doing it in Palestine Israel it’s one Hell of a lot of Hard Work under a Relentless Merciless Blazing Sun.

Olive Trees that were planted 60 years ago wouldn’t be producing yet.

They DO take that long.

You plant an Olive Grove not in the hopes that YOU, yourself, will ever eat the fruit thereof, because you most likely WON’T, but instead for your grandchildren.

A Vineyard will start producing within a decade, but it takes centuries to get one going full blast.

“Israeli” Wine and Olives? And in only 60 years?

Sir No Sir!

Those vineyards and groves were tended, by hand, for centuries and even millenia by those “Lazy Shiftless Morally Dissolute” Arabs, Edomites, Moabites and ISRAELITES who make up the Palestinian Nation.

Right to Return? What about the Right To Remain?

Those ARE Israel and have been for thousands of years.

Acknowledged as such by the scriptures that you as Jews and I as a Christian and the Muslims to be the Truth.

If you want to pop off with the “Right Of Return” and quote Scripture to justify your actions you have to Be Judged By Scripture as well.

That’s the Essence of the Law of Moses.

“Behold, I set a stumbling block in Zion”.

Oh, and speaking of Moses, that bit about “Thou Shalt Not Kill”?

#6 on G-d’s Top Ten List… yeah, THAT one…

You know, G_D meant what He said.

That’s why they’re called the Ten Commandments and not “a bunch of Meaningless Suggestions”.

In order to judge someone to Death you have to be Pure yourself.

That means, (and of course, as David Haddad said in his many personalities, I’m “ignorant” and don’t know a Damned thing)

That means You Must Have NEVER committed any of the sins punished by Death according to the Law of Moses.

Even if you were redeemed of the penalty of your sins, “Redeemed” simply means that the debt was paid, not that it never existed.

Doomed to repeat internment camps

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Several miles north of Moab, Utah, on Highway 191, there’s an Historical Interest marker to commemorate the Civilian Conservation Corps work camp at Dalton Wells. According to the plaque on the site, Camp DG-32 was used for public works through the Great Depression, and converted in 1943 into a concentration camp for Japanese Americans accused of being troublemakers at the civilian internment camps. The plaque offered an apology for the “total violation their civil rights,” and this admonition:
Civilian Conservation Corps DG-32 Dalton Wells
After which someone added in parentheses: “(Patriot Act, 2001)” and then as if to make the point, a next somebody scratched it out.

Full text of the marker:

Civilian Conservation Corps Camp DG-32 (Co. 234)
1935-1942

During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, CCC Camps were scattered all over the USA. They provided gainful employment to youth of the nation with work on public service projects. Between 1933 and 1942, four camps were located near Moab. Each camp worked on various natural resource project for the Soil Conservation Service, the National Park Service, and the forerunner of the Bureau of Land Management.

DG-32 was a long-lasting camp and typical of most with wooden, tar-paper covered barracks and buildings housing some 200 young men between the ages of 18 and 25. Enrollees came from the eastern states, and leadership was provided by the Army, Grazing Service, and local men experienced in construction and stock grazing needs.

Under spartan conditions, clothing, food, and housing were provided in the primitive camp. Pay was $30 per month with $25 sent home.

DG-32 projects included many range improvements: stock trails down the precipitous sandstone cliffs, spring developments, wells and stock ponds, eradication of rodents that competed with stock for feed, fences for corrals and pastures, reservoir dams, roads and bridges. These projects provided on the job training for the enrollees, besides the benefits they brought to the local economy. Many of these works are still in use today. The value of the camp and its works to Grand County is beyond estimation. It was a significant milestone that greatly influenced the economic history of the county.

All that remains of the camp today are the cottonwood trees planted by the enrollees that you see fronting this site, concrete slabs for buildings, graveled roads and rock-outlined walkways, the remains of an old windmill and a rock masonry water storage tank. These remnants signify the moving history of a time when America valiantly struggled to restore its economic stability and provide its young people with meaningful employment.

Japanese-American World War II Concentration Camp
1943

On January 11, 1943, a train pulled into Thompson Station north of here with armed Military Police guarding sixteen male American citizens of Japanese ancestry. While the locals of the town waited to cross the tracks, the entourage was loaded and transferred to the old abandoned “CCC” camp located here at Dalton Wells.

Their crime? They were classified as “troublemakers” in the Manzanar, California Relocation Center where they and their families had been forcibly located at the start of World War II. Removed from their homes and lands in California under a Presidential Executive Order, they were subject to the whim and mercy of poorly-trained bureaucrats and military personnel in the center. This Executive Presidential Order was the result of wartime hysteria, racial bigotry, and greed.

The original sixteen men were removed from Manzanar and brought here without the benefit of council. They did not have a formal hearing or proper arrest proceedings, and the action was in total violation of their civil rights. It was a process more compatible with fascism than democracy.

The inmates troubles worsened when and informer and confidant of the administration was beaten. An organizer of the mess hall workers was thrown into jail as a suspect. A meeting was held in the camp to protest the jailing and a riot resulted. Two inmates were killed by trigger-happy soldiers.

Other Japanese-American men were soon brought to the camp. Thirteen came from Gila River, Arizona, having been charged as being members of an organization which was fully sanctioned by camp officials. Ten more came from Manzanar as “suspected troublemakers.” Fifteen came from the Tule Lake, California, charged with refusing to register their availability for the draft and their loyalty to the U.S. under a set of confusing, denigrating requirements.

All these men were U.S. citizens; some were veterans of Work War I, others were family men, college graduates, and responsible U.S. citizens. Their incarceration here is a vivid example of how our Japanese-American citizens were treated during World War II. May this sad, low point in the history of our democracy never be forgotten, in the hope that it will never happen again.

The group was transferred by truck to an abandoned Indian school at Leupp, Arizona, on April 27, 1943. As those involved began to realize the inequality of the situation, the inmates were released back to relocation centers later that year. Thus, a black mark in the history of liberty and justice in the United States was ended.

Edward Abbey quotes Louisa May Alcott

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According to his FOIA files which Edward Abbey requested from the FBI, and which the Moab Canyon County Zephyr is releasing serially, Abbey first came to the agency’s attention as editor of the University of New Mexico’s campus literary magazine The Thunderbird, when fellow students could not dissuade him from printing on its March 1951 cover:
 
        “Man Will Never Be Free Until the Last King Is Strangled
        With the Entrails of the Last Priest.     –LOUISA MAY ALCOTT”

Wrote friend and colleague Jack Loeffler in Adventures with ED: “The campus went wild. Ed wouldn’t rescind the issue or apologize, and his tenure as editor was terminated.” According to an unnamed informant at UNM, Abbey showed “less sense than his fellow students.”

Actually, Abbey’s FBI file opens with his 1947 public letter calling for students to burn their draft cards. Most of the rest of his fed investigation attempts to separate fact from his fictional MONKEYWRENCH GANG, which inspired Earth First! When Edward Abbey died in 1989, there followed a rapid disintegration of Earth First, and the attempted car-bomb assassination and frame-up of organizer Judi Bari.