From the January 2005 Idaho Observer:

The Other Tsunami

by Hari Heath

The word tsunami has been burned on our TV-watching and radio listening brains. The way that wave came and swept everyting in its path away and changed entire landscapes and millions of lives within minutes is a suitable metaphor for our quickly-changing times.

Consider the following statement:

It has taken an act of nature, with a magnitude 9.0 underwater earthquake, creating a tsunami that hit the beaches of half a dozen major countries, in one of the most populated areas of the world, devastating the coastal areas without warning, to finally exceed the civilian death toll in Iraq since the Bush Administration began its "Shock and Awe" preemptive strike in March, 2003.

Read previous paragraph again.

In October of 2004 the Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, reported that, from extrapolated data, an estimated 100,000 civilians have died in the current Iraqi conflict. The study, from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was based on a sample of 1000 homes in 33 clusters of 30 households across Iraq and collected birth and death data since January of 2002.

The study’s results include: the risk of death was estimated at 2.5 times higher after the invasion, when compared with the pre-invasion period; violent deaths were widespread, reported in 15 of the 33 clusters, and were mainly attributed to coalition forces; most individuals reported killed by coalition forces were women and children; the risk of death from violence in the period after the invasion was 58 times higher than in the period before the war; violence as a cause of death among the population went from 2 per cent before the war to 51 per cent in the post invasion period; making a conservative assumption, about 100,000 or more excess deaths have occurred after the invasion when compared to the pre-invasion mortality rate; violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most of the violent deaths.

Can we even fathom such civilian destruction? And for what? Is there any truth to the administration’s alleged reasons for initiating the conflict? Has our government become the weapon of mass destruction it allegedly went looking for?

Consider also the contrast between how Americans are responding to these two devastations of humanity. A global relief effort is underway to provide aid and comfort to the people who have been devastated by the tsunami. People from around the world are contributing individually; various charitable aid organizations are going into overdrive with their relief efforts and many governments are pledging millions, which collectively, will result in billions of dollars of aid. This is a natural outpouring of support after such a tragedy.

But in just one country, Iraq, over 100,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed since the current Bush Administration’s preemptive strike began. The relief effort for the Iraqi people is nearly nonexistent, save for Halliburton’s relief-for-profit reconstruction contracts.

This is also a demonstration of the power of media, or lack thereof. Graphic images of the tsunami’s devastation, including corpses and mass burials, commonly display the human costs of this tragedy on all channels of the evening news. But where are the images of those Iraqi civilian casualties? Why is the U.S. media mute on this subject? Why are we being compelled to have great empathy for one disaster while being denied the opportunity to experience the other?

The other tsunami

This other tsunami could easily be called the Cheney-Rumsfeld tsunami. Many of the current and past horrors against humanity have been instituted by these two men. For decades, they have been power players in the revolving door of the military-industrial complex. Or should we say "swivel chair," since the line between agent of government and corporate employee is blurred beyond recognition?

Donald Rumsfeld was Defense Secretary under Nixon and later, as a civilian during the Reagan administration, he provided chemical weapons of mass destruction to Iraq, and our then ally and CIA asset, Saddam Hussein. Saddam’s lethal gassing of thousands of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s was made possible by Rumsfeld.

Dick Cheney was a key player in the Bush I administration as Defense Secretary during the first Gulf War. Most recently he "retired" as the CEO of Halliburton and turned his swivel chair around to play on the government side of the corporate/government interface.

They could easily fit the description of fascists, except that fascism is usually defined as merger of corporate and governmental interests behind a single charismatic dictatorial leader. Cheney and Rumsfeld have been getting the job done under whatever presidential figurehead the shadow governors have served up on America’s political plate.

The chosen ones

Our current script-reader-in-chief George W. continues a long succession of chosen ones who have lead our nation from one international disaster to another. Given the makeup of George W.’s inner sanctum, isn’t his cabinet and advisors just a continuation of his father’s administration? And wasn’t that administration just a continuation of the Reagan era and its similar incursions like the Iran-Contra affair and genocide in Central America? We might like to think that the Clinton administration was a welcome change from those evil-doer Republicans, but we have to remember the nuclear war in Kosovo under Clinton’s watch. We eliminated some of our nuclear waste by dumping tons of it, in the form of depleted uranium munitions, on this small, war-torn country.

An unlikely mating

As the death toll from the recent tsunami approaches 250,000, let us not forget the approximately 500,000 Iraqi children who died from UN-imposed sanctions after the first Gulf War. These deaths were caused by lack of medicine and food from the sanctions that severely limited their country’s ability to market its primary commercial export—oil. The sanctions were brokered by George Bush Sr. and enforced under eight years of Bill Clinton.

And now, from an unlikely mating, George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton have paired up to encourage Americans to make private donations to the tsunami relief effort. Were they always on the same team? And what is the real message here?

Is this benevolent appearance preparing the way for Clinton to become the new UN Secretary General, as some have rumored? Or might there be an unseen purpose for this plea to send U.S. cash out of the country?

Bleeder valve for the economy

As astute students of the fiat economy would know, from time to time, the bankers who create money by loaning it into existence need a bleeder valve to get rid of their excesses. If they don’t, their hidden tax called inflation, caused by an influx of circulating cash, becomes too obvious. Wars and the space program have been popular ways to blow off their excess cash problems, but now we have a real disaster.

Bush Sr. and Clinton have stepped up to the plate together, to encourage us to send our excess cash overseas where it won’t add too much heat to our already incendiary economy. This reduces the Federal Reserve’s need to excessively raise the interest rates in yet another spin/counter spin correction.

A compassionate conservative?

As a clear indicator of George W.’s innate compassionate nature, his administration’s first offer of support for the tsunami victims was $35 million. To paraphrase one critical congressman’s comment, that’s less than we spend in Baghdad before breakfast.

Such criticism, and possibly embarrassment by commitments like Canada’s $500 million pledge of support, have caused the Bush administration to increase its initial offer ten-fold. But what are the numbers in "the other tsunami"—Iraq?

Costofwar.com reports that we will have spent $152 billion on the Iraqi invasion, by the end of January, 2005. A USA Today reported on a billboard counter in NYC that counted a total of $134.5 billion spent by September, 2004 ,and The Washington Times placed the total at $151 billion by June of 2004.

Using the costofwar.com figure of $152 billion and a 22-month invasion period, the Iraq war is costing $6.9 billion a month; $230 million per day and $9.6 million per hour.

With these figures, the congressman was right: The president’s initial $35 million offer of aid to the tsunami relief effort is equal to what is spent on the Iraq War by 3:39 a.m. His expanded offer of $350 Million is equivalent to the war costs by about lunchtime the following day.

And while we’re crunching the numbers, 100,000 dead civilians stacks up at 4,545 per month and 151 per day.

It’s a good thing we have such a compassionate conservative leader keeping our financial affairs in order and spreading American goodwill throughout the free world.

Global strategery

William Engdahl advanced another scenario regarding the use of this natural disaster for the benefit of the western globalists’ agenda. With the emergence of a middle class in China, resulting from that country’s commercial success and industrialization, the Chinese people will quickly become large consumers of oil. There is the potential for conflict between China and the western imperial powers as the oil supply becomes scarce.

The tsunami relief effort is being aided by U. S. military assets and there is some indication that the relief and rebuilding effort will be a long-term project, requiring the establishment of bases of operation throughout the region. If you look at a map, you will see that this strategically places the U.S. and other imperial powers in a position to dominate the oil supply and shield China’s access to Middle East oil. Strategery?

Indonesian response

The Indonesian government has apparently realized both the possibility of this scenario and the ample history of the U.S. imperial occupation policy. They have ordered the U.S. military now assisting in the relief effort to leave Indonesia by March 30.

A human tsunami solution

The political realities of our current world reveal governance that has, and continues to institute policies and actions that are not in the best interest of humanity. Many people have been investigating the crimes and corruption of those in positions of power. Among the results of such investigations are papers such as this one and other forms of media that generally have the mission to "wake people up" to the realities of the powers that surround us. If humanity continues in its controlled-media induced slumber then we will find ourselves victim to the globalists’ agenda. Not the least of which is the reduction of Earth’s human population to a more manageable level by various forms of engineered genocide and a reduction to effectual slavery under the watchful eye of a technologically- enhanced police state.

So if the human spirit is to prevail, we need to turn the tides. Imagine the possibility of a groundswell of resistance, resulting from an "awakening" to the facts that are obvious to those of "us" who have taken the time to independently investigate what is really happening in our world. Consider the forces of human oppression—past, present and future—as pressure upon the tectonic plates of humanity. And imagine the hundredth money syndrome creating a quake in the collective consciousness; a shift in the way we perceive the forces of government; an end to our collective willingness to tolerate and submit to unconscionable and unconstituted rulers.

Can you envision a human tsunami sweeping the halls of government clean of the corruptive, power-brokering oppression that has filled the pages of human history?

Imagine this human tsunami swelling to an unstoppable force before the global governors can implement their genocidal, totalitarian plans of absolute dominion. .

How many of "us" have been awakened but, as individuals, feel powerless to act effectively and terminate our allegiance to the treasonous usurpers who evince a design to reduce us under absolute despotism? When will "we" declare again that it is our right and duty to throw off such government, and provide new guards for our future security?

I am certain that there are more of "us" than "them," but "we" have yet to find our collective voice and enforce our terms upon the usurpers of our liberty and dignity.

It’s time for a human tsunami to alter or abolish the regime of global terrorists currently occupying the halls of government and institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to "us" shall seem most likely to effect our safety and happiness.