MILT THOMAS

Last Friday I gave a talk at Vista Plantation explaining the origins of ISIS and received the following email from Mrs. Richard Lavins, who attended the talk. It is clear from this and the articles just published on InsideVero, that we desperately need more information about who is causing this incessant violence and not have blame assigned for us by political parties or a sensationalist press. Here is Mrs. Lavins’ email:

Thank you for taking the time to educate more peopled about what is going on the world around them.

I have a few suggestions for you to consider when you speak out again:

1) The national media has failed in its responsibilities to the American people for not having educating them about the framework for more wars in the Middle East as was identified in the “Project for the New American Century” that was created by the neo-cons prior to the George W. Bush becoming President,  One of the signers of this documentation was Jeb Bush.

2) The weekly publication, 32963, recently did a real public service by providing the community with an excerpt from Jon Meacham’s book, “Destiny and Power.”  This communicated the long held public perception that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were the architects of the war of choice.

3) As the drumbeats of war began, the public had no reason to fear of the people who would serve in the new administration.  However, that was not the case in the administration of George W. Bush. Thus, the public had no concerns with Paul Wolfowitz.

4) I naively felt that there would be no war because President Eisenhower after WWII warned us to beware of the military industrial complex.  I attempted in my own small way to educate the public  It was this reason that a friend of mine came to Vero Beach and he addressed a small audience at the Heritage Center. My friend is Ray McGovern who had the responsibility for the Presidental Daily briefing.

Ray retired from the CIA and continued to speak out until he developed cancer. He was the impetus for the forming of VIP’s (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity” He and other retired CIA officials correctly identified that it is other people’s children who go to fight in manufactured wars.

 5) Ray McGovern was not the only one speaking out. Richard A. Clarke a few years was a speaker in the Riverside Lecture series. He stated that he gave out warnings “until his hair was on fire.”

 6) Valerie Plame and her husband Joe Wilson now live in Santa Fe and they are continuing to speak out about wars which are fought by other people’s children.

 The 2016 election should not be allowed to concentrate only on foreign policy and other wars.  This is the message of the columns published in the November 20th edition of the New York Times by David Brooks and Paul Krugman.

We in this community are well served because of the lecture series of the Emerson Center and Riverside Theater. A small town like Vero Beach usually does not have the benefit from hearing the kinds of presentations that enhance our understanding of the world around us.

It is my perspective that we have not learned the lessons of Watergate. The truth is revealed when you “follow the money.”