With a war seemingly imminent it seems an appropriate time to remind everybody of just what war is all about; it's about death and destruction. But don't forget it's also about the people who get rich while others die, the ones who encourage it all in the first place and sell both sides the weapons.
Food for thought...
In 1924, the German anarchist and pacifist Ernst Friedrich published one of the great anti-war classics, War Against War!. Outraged by the slaughter of the Great War (now known as World War I), Friedrich gathered pictures of battlefield butchery and mutilated soldiers. Juxtaposed with propagandistic pictures of military "glory" and labeled with ironic, sarcastic captions, these photographs showed, and continue to show, the reality of war in all its sickening horror.
What's really amazing is the fact that this book was published around 80 years ago. These images are enough to shake even us jaded moderns, so imagine what it was like for people in the 1920s, decades before slasher flicks, Faces of Death videos, realistic war movies, and Websites like Rotten. The public had never seen photos like these. The emotional effect must've been overwhelming.
To Human Beings in all lands!
I, who am falsely called "German" instead of just simply "man". I call out to the icy regions of the North, I call out to Africa and to America, to Asia and to Europe.
To all regions that have ears to hear I call out but two words and these are
Man and Love
And even as the Australian weeps when he encounters pain, and laughs and makes merry when joy and happiness are granted him, even so dost thou weep, my brother Eskimo, and so, O African and O Chinese, weepest thou too and so weep I.
And as we all, all human beings, equally feel joy and pain, let us fight unitedly against the common monstrous enemy, War.
We shall unite in protesting against, in weeping over the accursed mass murders for which we all bear equal guilt. But let us also raise our eyes cheerfully to the red dawn of freedom and peace.
Note: These images are extremely graphic
"Papa" before and after war (2-page spread)
Young men before and after war (2-page spread)
After war: The Crown Prince and the injured soldier (2-page spread)
Dead soldier
Injured soldier (1)
Injured soldier (2)
Injured soldier (3)
Injured soldier (4)
Excerpts From "War Against War!"
"Both the Israeli Defence Force and Palestinian armed groups show an utter disregard for the lives of children and other civilians," it adds.
“The situation in Zimbabwe hit you guys hard, I suppose” said my neighbor to the young woman who had just sauntered out of the customs area at the airport. She was from Malawi, he was trying to make small talk about the famine ravaging her country. She was resignedly nodding till he mentioned Zimbabwe.
She probably didn’t know that a good chunk of the media coverage in the United States regarding the famine that threatens six Southern African states and 12 million people concentrated on the fact that Zimbabwe’s government is trying to oust couple thousand white farmers from the most of the productive lands, most of which they control as a legacy of the white supremacist colonial rule. The truth is that this is but a side issue; the evictions haven’t helped the harvest; however, the hard reality is that rainfalls are down 75 percent in Zimbabwe. And Zimbabwe is but one country threatened by the famine.
Recently, those who have criticised the actions of the US government (myself included) have been called "anti-American". Anti-Americanism is in the process of being consecrated into an ideology. The term is usually used by the American establishment to discredit and, not falsely - but shall we say inaccurately - define its critics. Once someone is branded anti-American, the chances are that he or she will be judged before they're heard and the argument will be lost in the welter of bruised national pride.
Leaving aside the conspiracies for a moment, what exactly does the Carlyle Group do? Start with the basics: It's one of the world's largest and most powerful private-equity investment firms, meaning it buys and sells privately held companies and divisions of large public companies for big profits. Founded in 1987 (and named after the favorite New York hotel of the firm's first investors, the Mellon family), Carlyle has raised a total of $14 billion from investors in just the past five years--more than any other private-equity firm has attracted in the same period, except the Blackstone Group and CSFB Private Equity. Profits, too, have been pretty terrific. Not counting the standard 20% cut that goes to Carlyle's partners and managing directors, the firm's average annual rate of return has been 36%.
A great many people believe that democracy has been lost in this country. Today, true democracy will demonstrate its resilience on the streets of London.
In case some of you haven't come across the name "Bilderberg" yet then let me point you in the direction of 
"My grandmother lives in Palestine, and told me an incredible story. The other day a bride and groom were on their way from Ramallah to their wedding reception in al Quds (another town), when they came across an Israeli checkpoint. The soldiers would not let them pass, the bride was begging the soldiers to let them through to meet their guests in al Quds, but the soldiers refused to budge. She began to break down and cry, seeing this, the hundreds of Palestinians waiting to get through [the] checkpoint, got out of their cars. The Palestinians, most of whom were complete strangers, gave her a make shift reception complete with music playing from their car stereos. For two hours, they danced, sang and wished the couple good luck on their new marriage, while Israeli soldiers stood by amazed at what had transpired. This is a 100% true story, and even aired on Al Jazeera. This proves that no matter how many weapons and how powerful the! Israeli army is, they cannot break the Palestinians' will."
Tony Blair was greeted with near-silence from his own MPs yesterday as he set out his case for a possible war with Iraq - but got a glowing tribute from President Bush.
For over twenty years the powerful New York based Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai Brith (ADL), an organisation that is responsible to nobody but itself, has policed the media in North America (and much of the rest of the world), monitoring even the smallest provincial newspapers for advertisements or reader's letters and for evidence of activities by individuals whom they will list on their database as their enemies.
AUSTIN -- No. This is not acceptable. This is not the country we want to be. This is not the world we want to make.
'Our purpose is No one wants military conflict'
British officials have approved the export of key components needed to make nuclear weapons to Iran and other countries known to be developing such weapons.
Early Tuesday morning, the Security Council demanded that Israel immediately cease measures in and around Ramallah, “including the destruction of Palestinian civilian and security infrastructure”, following all-day sessions on Monday which heard 45 speakers on the situation in the Middle East in light of the recent upsurge of violence.
France and Russia have oil companies and interests in Iraq. They should be told that if they are of assistance in moving Iraq towards decent government, we'll do the best we can to ensure that the new government and American companies will work with them. If they throw their lot with Saddam, it will be difficult to the point of impossible to persuade the new Iraq government to work with them. Former CIA director James Woolsey, quoted in The Washington Post, September 15, 2002. So there you have it. The Bush administration may be telling the world that the reason the UN Security Council has to approve an allied attack on Iraq is because of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability, but the real reason France and Russia are being told to get on board the US military bandwagon is Iraq's oil reserves.
In March of this year I published a long report which used scientific proof to destroy the evolving American media myth that “phone calls” were made by Barbara Olson from American Airlines Flight 77, the Boeing 757 flown by remote control into the Pentagon with devastating effect on 11 September 2001. The blatant media lies about Olson were so outrageous, I was moved to write:
