Our Childhood is Killed in Iraq. It is Killed by Joan Chittister, OSB
04/11/06 "NCR" -- - The question to the group of women delegates from Iraq was “What would you like to see come out of this meeting?”
I was not prepared either for the answer or for its explanation: “What we need now,” one of the Iraqi woman said, “is the end of the blood-letting. Women are very necessary to this operation. Fifty-five to 60 percent of Iraqis are women. The minority is ruling ... Women must interfere in the affairs of men. We should take over.”
It was hardly a statement I expected to hear in this place from these women. But I couldn’t forget it.
“The minority is ruling.” Right. And not too well, it seems, either here or there.
When men sit down to negotiate peace treaties -- when there’s even someone to negotiate with, which, given al-Qaeda, is not a luxury we seem to have anymore -- they disband armies and guard borders and hold military tribunals and form new governments and punish old ones. But they put no faces on the victims.
When they tote up the cost of the war, they do not include the number of women raped, the number of families displaced, the number of schools bombed, or the number of babies without milk.
The victors take their spoils, monitor the guns, forget the defenseless and leave the people to clean up the rubble. War becomes the daily dirge of the anonymous victims.
But when you bring women together to discuss the effects of war, the things that need to be changed, the real problems of a war-torn society, the conversation takes a sudden turn.
At the first Iraqi-American dialogue convened by the Women’s Global Peace Initiative in New York on March 29, the differences were plain. The women’s first agenda did not concentrate on who did what or who profited or lost by the doing of it. “Take the oil. We don’t care about the oil,” one woman called across the room. “We never got any value from it anyway,” she went on. “Never mind yesterday,” another woman said in answer to the Sunni- Shi’ite tensions. “Forget who did what to whom. We must turn the page now. We must rebuild the country.”
“And what is the first thing that must be done to rebuild the country?” we asked them. I sat with my hands over the keyboard, sure that the list would be long and varied. I was wrong. To a woman, the call was clear: “Take care of our children.”
It was a sobering moment. Take care of our children. “Oh, them,” I thought. “The tiny, the forgotten, targets of this war.”
Take care of the ones who now carry within themselves the sour taste of fear that came as bombs dropped through the dark sky shaking their houses, destroying their streets. Take care of the children, the ones who went cold as stone at the loss of brothers and fathers and dead playmates.
Take care of the ones who felt the sweat of terror when the doors of the homes in which they were sure they were safe broke down in the middle of the night or the lights went out or their mothers wrapped their shawls around their heads and cried. Take care of the ones who went into psychic paralysis at the sight of blood and bodies. Take care of the ones who woke up one morning to find their lives completely disrupted for no apparent reason.
Take care of the ones to whom then Secretary of State Colin Powell was apparently referring when a reporter asked him how many Iraqis had been killed or injured at that point in the war and his answer was, “That is a number in which I have absolutely no interest whatsoever.”
But maybe he and we should all rethink that answer. Because these children do not feel “liberated” by this war; in these children the seeds of the next war have already been planted.
The Iraqi women were very clear: the most injured of all in this war are the children of Iraq. “The war has made deep wounds that have become part of our souls,” another woman said. “They can never be forgotten. The living conditions, the lack of security is affecting everything the children do. They cannot even deliver newspapers anymore.”
Their schooling has been interrupted. Even if the school buildings still stand, there are no supplies for them. And there are few people in them anyway. Teachers are dead. Classmates are gone from the area -- refugees somewhere or dead themselves. Most of all, their parents are afraid to send them out of the house even if the schools are undamaged.
“Our childhood is killed in Iraq,” a woman said. “It is killed.”
The small jobs children once held to help with family expenses are gone now. No one buys flowers on the street now. No one drives a car whose windows they can wash.
Drugs are flooding the streets now and drugs are the best and quickest way to ease the pain.
The number of street children -- children whose parents are dead, whose extended families are fractured -- have multiplied beyond anything modern Iraq has ever known.
Orphans are a commodity now in Iraq but orphanages are not. “We are taking care of the orphans, trying to give them love,” the woman said. “But they are traumatized. They don’t speak.”
Recreational programs are a thing of the past, so children are restless or rebellious or simply bored with life.
“Fifty percent of the bodies in the hospital are women and children,” the doctor said. “We are afraid that a large number of children will be affected by the depression of their mothers and the loss of their fathers and the poverty of their families.”
The future of Iraq is at stake. But it is not the banking system the women are concerned about. It is the treasure of the nation that is being squandered, they know. It is their future. It is their children.
The U.S. budget for fiscal year 2007, according to The National Priorities Project, earmarks 51 percent of all discretionary spending for military use. “Spending on the Iraq War in fiscal year 2006 alone will reach $96 billion,” the Project reports. (www.nationalpriorities.org)
The Bush budget calls for the elimination or reduction of 141 domestic programs. Among other things, we cut the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children by $200 million and the department of education by 9 percent and eliminate vocational education. “Level funding” is provided for other domestic programs.
The overall cost of the war in Iraq for the United States is already being estimated at at least a trillion dollars. But so far not a penny of it is specified for the children. Neither theirs nor ours.
“We see the prisoners’ rights,” another delegate said sadly, “but where are the rights of the children.”
From where I stand, I can’t help but wonder that if we sold some of our weapons and used the money to buy crayons, food, houses and schools for Iraqi children, we could stop worrying about being terrorized ourselves. Indeed, the minority is ruling. Maybe the Iraqi woman’s idea about what to do about it wouldn’t be a bad one after all.
Editor’s Note: From Where I Stand is normally posted to NCRonline.org Thursday afternoons, but Sr. Joan Chittister’s heavier than usual schedule of speaking engagements in April has disrupted our posting routines. We are sorry for the delays and ask you patience.
A Benedictine Sister of Erie, Joan Chittister is a best-selling author and well-known international lecturer on topics of justice, peace, human rights, women's issues, and contemporary spirituality in the Church and in society. She presently serves as the co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the United Nations, facilitating a worldwide network of women peace builders, especially in the Middle East. A speech communications theorist, Sister Joan's most recent books include The Way We Were (Orbis) and Called to Question (Sheed & Ward), a First Place CPA 2005 award winner. She is founder and executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality in Erie.
Terrorism Prevention and Treatment Starts With Accurate Diagnosis An Editorial by Award Winning Public Health Author Leonard G. Horowitz, D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H.
If you are as stunned as most Americans by the horrifying social, economic, and political realities currently unfolding in the aftermath of the "terrorist" attacks on America's icons-the World Trade Center and the Pentagon-don't be fooled. This is history repeating. These events were predictable and predicted by a careful study of history, science, and economics. Much like the ghastly attack on Pearl Harbor that initiated America's involvement in World War II, the September 11, 2001 "Attack on America," and news coverage of its aftermath, is fueling a new world war mentality, global economy, and calls for unprecedented social controls. These controls are reminiscent of the fascist controls of Nazi Germany, and consistent with a long developing globalistic agenda.
Obviously, this could not have been the intended result of suspected Islamic fundamentalists. Are we to believe that such sophisticated intelligence operators, capable of hijacking four planes within minutes of one another, from different airports, and precisely flying these airborne menaces directly into America's most populated and powerful economic and military icons, would have missed predicting what was so predictable?
That is, the outcomes of this day's catastrophes run strikingly contrary to what experts have presumed terrorists typically intend. That is, to win international political favor for their assorted causes.
Recall that in the days and weeks prior to the "Attack on America," world opinion of America and Israel had been seriously degraded. Internationally, leaders voiced outrage over Israel's position concerning the Palestinians. The fallout from the United Nations World Summit on Racism was seriously anti-American and pro-Palestinian. The global community rallied to the side of the Arab world. The American-Israeli alliance was globally condemned.
Would intelligent Islamic military leaders, cunning enough to evade all security enroute to pulling off the greatest and gravest civilian attack in world history, have jeopardized the substantial political concessions they gain during the weeks preceding the attacks? Could these attacks have been authorized simply for the Satanic satisfaction of seeing American civilians bleed, or gaining revenge in a "Holy War" as media spin directors want us to believe?
One could rationalize such an attack against the Pentagon. But against thousands of innocent civilians? Many, if not most of these victims were foreign speaking and born. Many of Islamic or Black. Have you been to New York recently? There are certainly more foreigners driving taxis, working in stores, and running concessions, than stereotypic white Americans.
This simply does not add up.
In order to effectively treat this terrorism problem, or prevent this type of devastation in the future, we need to accurately diagnose the root cause of the problem.
And if Arab world leaders are denying their involvement in these attacks, and other suspects need to be considered, who else remains suspect in this tragic conspiracy.
"The ends justify the means" This phrase is well known. So is the edict, "All is fair in love and war." Aldous Huxley broached these related topics when he wrote, "The nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end."
Ask yourself, "What social, political, and economic outcomes have resulted from this gravest tragedy?"
Officials and legislators are insisting on levying greater social controls over all people across America. The military and security industries are getting a heavy infusion of support for corporate and investor profits. Global meltdown of U.S. and allied currency markets are prompting calls for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and leading bankers to establish greater economic controls. Oil prices are soaring.
Who wins by all of this? Islamic fundamentalists? Not particularly. Especially since OPEC was established and continues to be largely controlled by the British and American petrochemical consortium. The Islamic people in general certainly don't win. But key globalists absolutely and entirely do.
In a book published a few months ago entitled, "Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare" (Tetrahedron, LLC, 2001; 1-888-508-4787) I precisely identified certain "white collar terrorists" fully capable of such attacks. I critically examined historic records linking petrochemical industrialists, leaders in the globalistic transition, to contemporary terrorist groups.
I conclude, EVEN IF radical Islamic groups orchestrated these horrific attacks, it is urgent that we, as a nation and world, consider the economic and political powers behind such groups. It is apparent and unnerving that certain petrochemical global industrialists, who manipulated the markets and politicians leading up to World War II; whose families and industries profited then from such managed chaos, are the only ones clearly profiting in the aftermath of this "Attack on America."
Who Am I To Make Such Claims?
Let me briefly summarize my training. In 1977, I received my doctorate in medical dentistry from Tufts University in Boston. I later received several advanced degrees... One in public health from Harvard University. I joined the faculties at Tufts University and Harvard. I directed an alternative health center for more than a decade. In the early 1980s, the Associated Press featured my work as a trendsetter. My clinic integrated dentistry with general medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic, nutrition, massage, homeopathy, and other "alternative" methods of healing.
In 1999, I won the prestigious "Author of the Year Award" from the World Natural Health Organization for my tenth book. This became my first best-seller, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola-Nature, Accident or Intentional? This book is said, by government health officials, to be largely responsible for America's growing anti-vaccination movement.
Suffice it to say, I have been extremely critical of petrochemical/pharmaceutical industrialists for suppressing more information than they have been telling... Including potentially lifesaving information that could stem the rising epidemics of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and much, much more.
Economic and Political Motives for "Managed Chaos"
Over the years I have gathered and published documented evidence that the military, medical, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical industries are intimately linked-economically and administratively-by a virtual cartel of special interests. These, might best be called "white collar terrorists." The threat they pose is adequately demonstrated by the recent "Attack on America." This day may seem like an extreme aberration. In fact, it is more rationally diagnosed as a symptom of global politics. Like World War II, those who funded Hilter's rise to power, those insulated corporate collaborators, simply MANAGED CHAOS.
This political diagnosis and prescription is, after all, written in Latin on the back of every U.S. dollar bill--"Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum." Literally translated this means, "Announcing the Birth of the New World Order Without God," or "Announcing the Birth of a New World Order Out of Chaos."
This seemingly outrageous explanation and conclusion in not simply a "conspiracy theory." As a journalist with dozens of scientific peer reviewed publications to my credit, my conclusions are based on meticulously documented intensive investigations. I've identified organizations, institutions, and individuals instigating, and profiting from, such globally managed chaos. I'll cite some examples.
Your Reality Check into Terrorism
Did you know that our government's and media's greatest perceived nemesis, said to be responsible for most terrorist attacks against the United States-Osama bin Laden-took his direction and money from the CIA. This implicates also the British Oligarchy's MI6. (See story at http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp#BODY)
Likewise, did you know that the George H.W. Bush administration supplied Sadam Hussein with the majority of his military armaments, chemical weapons, and biological warfare agents, just weeks prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait? Included in this war-making arsenal was the West Nile virus. This bioweapon was shipped by, the Congressional Record reported, Rockefeller University President, Dr. Joshua Lederberg. He is also the curator of the American Type Cell Culture Collection. This is among the world's leading bioweapons suppliers. Oddly, this virus too, struck New Yorkers first.
If you didn't know the above facts, you might be additionally dismayed to learn that the British Secret Service's top-secret alphanumeric (letter/number) code translates the name "New York" into the number "666!" Here's a reality check for you.... The MI6 uses the Pythagorean-based code transcribing the multiples of six (6) where A=6, B=12, C=18, and so on through Z=156. Do the math. The sum of "New York's" letters total "666." That is the Bible's prophesied "Mark of the Beast."
Knowledge is power and ignorance is no longer bliss. Today ignorance is deadly! For instance, based on the above knowledge, three years ago, I moved my family from Boston and New York where I used to work. We moved to a place I felt my children could grow in peace and safety. During the past three years, I have consistently lectured audiences nationwide during television and radio interviews, and live presentations, about the urgent need to "move away from Metropolis"-that is, the corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston. Obviously, my advice still holds.
You remain at greatest risk by remaining in denial about these facts. Elizabeth Kubler Ross's "Death and Dying" model predicts this risk in reaction to a horrific threat or loss. A normal first reaction is denial. Thus, it is natural for you to want to dismiss my writings and warnings as "foolish conspiracy theory," "religious fanaticism," or even random coincidence. But, believe me, this terrorism is no such thing.
Personal Prayers For Victims and Our Families
Our hearts and prayers go out now to the thousands of people who were sacrificed, as I insist, for economics and political advantage in this new world war against humanity. Millions of people now pray for the victims, their families, our great nation, our deceived and deceptive political leaders, and our rapidly changing world. Whether you want to admit it or not, our global family has been attacked. Other forms of "white collar terrorism" continue to threaten, maim, and kill us. The death toll resulting from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks simply pales by comparison to the historic and ongoing atrocities.
A True Story To Learn From the Past
Let me explain how my family, and likely yours as well, has been victimized by these same global conspirators. This is a true story. It should make my counsel to you very clear and urgent. . . It should also demonstrate that this message is about saving lives. . . Your loved ones included.
At Nazi gunpoint, in 1938, my mother scrubbed the streets of Vienna. She, like other holocaust victims, became slave labor. How? The petrochemical company largely directing the Third Reich had a labor shortage. This company was called I.G. Farben. To solve their problem, they simply forced white European Jews and political prisoners to labor.
Massive killings occurred in "showers" under the guise of "PUBLIC HEALTH" and "DISINFECTION."
This story reflects what is secretly happening today in our country pertaining to contemporary acts of "terrorism." Keep reading...
By sheer miracle, my mother escaped. She fled to America and settled in Boston. I was reared in America's medical Mecca.
In 1993, my mother died of cancer. Initially, she was struck down by a simple flu shot. She developed a common vaccine injury. Surprisingly, viral proteins in vaccines often cause immune cells to attack and destroy nerves. My mother became weaker. Then paralyzed. With her immune guard down, she developed cervical cancer. A few months later, after a few radiation treatments, she died.
The sad thing is, had my mother integrated this lesson, it's likely she would be alive today to watch my children play.
The critical deadly fact that my mother failed to learn, and we are all at risk for learning "the hard way" is . . .
TODAY'S BIOCHEMICAL WEAPONS, VACCINE, AND DRUG INDUSTRY IS PART OF THE SAME GLOBAL PETROCHEMICAL-PHARMACEUTICAL CARTEL THAT HAS SPONSORED NUMEROUS ACTS OF TERRORISM. THIS LIKELY INCLUDES THE MOST RECENT DEBACLES IN THE UNITED STATES. THIS CARTEL IS A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF THE ROCKEFELLER/I.G. FARBEN MONOPOLY THAT INSTIGATED THE HOLOCAUST.
Please stop what you are doing, and link to my publisher's website at http://www.tetrahedron.org/. Review the articles, news stories, and intelligence reports I have posted to share potentially lifesaving knowledge. You will see that I am not making this up.
The Vast and Silent Threat Continues
The threat my mother escaped by miracle in 1938 apparently killed her in 1993. She entrusted medical deities for their knowledge and vaccine prescriptions. She trusted mainstream media's messages. This was a great and grave mistake.
I, like other doctors, trained under certain academic standards. The question is, who set these standards? Documents prove that "scientific" organizations, individuals, and pharmaceutical interests, heavily influenced by Rockefeller relatives, set these standards. Conduct a simple library investigation. You will learn this family, and its British cohorts, largely control the news media and entertainment industry as well.
With such varied resources for committing, concealing, and profiting from "white collar terrorism," its no wonder so many are being intoxicated and killed today. With millions of people in hospitals, and thousands now in emergency rooms... Today's physicians' offices, public health units, and hospitals, are effectively like the killing camps of yesteryear. Millions of Americans will go to their early graves this year, like my mother. Members of your family could be struck down similarly. This, as the result of doing what millions of holocaust victims did during World War II. They simply followed authoritative and coercive direction. The direction was given under the guise of "PUBLIC HEALTH," "PUBLIC SAFETY," "RACIAL DISPARITY," and even "DISINFECTION!"
The AIDS and Cancer Terrorists
In case you don't know, the Rockefeller family created the cancer industry in the 1920s. Today, the world's leading AIDS research facility is the Aaron Diamond Research Center affiliated with Rockefeller University. AIDS, in fact, is a very bizarre form of cancer. The AIDS virus (HIV) is a cancer virus associated with immune suppression. It leads to three types of cancer: leukemia, lymphoma, and sarcoma. In Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola, I exposed for the first time that these types of viruses were man-made during the 1960s. That's before the modern age of gene splicing! Another Rockefeller-linked company, Litton Industries, directed this research and development through their medical subsidiary, Bionetics. Contaminated hepatitis B vaccines, given to gay men in NYC, and central African Blacks, in 1974, best explains the first AIDS cases. This vaccine was partially prepared by growing hepatitis B viruses in contaminated chimpanzees shipped by Bionetics to New York. There, the Merck Pharmaceutical Company, also financially tied to staggeringly large Rockefeller investments, produced the vaccine that apparently triggered AIDS. Today, the pandemic and profit-making continues.
The Choice to Diagnose and Treat a Horrifying Reality
We have a choice to correctly diagnose, and because of this, successfully treat, a horrifying reality, or be killed by it. Much like the undermining of American "public health," drug-based medicine, and U.S. National Security, our country is being attacked by multinational corporate profiteers. These people alone have prospered, and should be blamed, for the recent "Attack on America."
Indeed, knowledge is powerful. But ignorance, or inaccurate intelligence, is deadly. Before we blame the Arab nations and people, retaliate against perceived Islamic threats, and declare World War III, I believe we need to carefully diagnose what ails our planet. Diagnosis means to "see through." It is a requirement for correct and successful treatment of every disorder. It requires accurate intelligence.
I believe we have the intelligence to make an accurate diagnosis to guide treatment. What's missing, by political and economic design, and by effect of the media, is widespread awareness of this intelligence. Without this, the will of the people cannot be exercised to correct what ails us.
If I am right, the thorn in America's side is a symptom of what's on our dollar bill--"Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum." We are being managed through chaos to birth a New World Order. I believe that people around the world want to live in peace. Everyone wants a new world order as opposed to an old world of managed chaos.
"This aggression will not stand," President Bush and the past two American presidents have periodically warned. Proudly, our dollar bill also declairs, "In God we trust." The Bible predicts a new world order too, heralding a thousand years of world peace. I just don't think a planet being "peacefully" managed by multinational corporate fascist population controllers who earn vast revenues from humanity's suffering is what God has in mind. I believe this Father of all nations will ultimately make good on our presidents' repeated warnings. "This aggression will not stand."
About the author: Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz is an internationally recognized authority in public health education. One of healthcare's most captivating speakers, Dr. Horowitz's tenth book, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola--Nature, Accident or Intentional? became a national bestseller in 1998. His latest book, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare, released in June 2001, by the non-profit Tetrahedron, LLC, is previewed at http://www.tetrahedron.org/. More information may be obtained by calling 1-888-508-4787.
