Going Totally Ballistic

Recently, a colleague and I met with Bradford Lyttle for an interview. Bradford is a long time pacifist and activist from Chicago, Illinois. He is the founder of a little known party called the United States Pacifist Party (USPP). Brad recently ran for President as a write in candidate. Since December 2000 his website has had 13,021 visits. The USPP is not what most people would consider as widely popular. His platform is fairly simple; Zero military budget, deactivation of all nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, elimination of the Strategic Defense initiative, abolition of all aspects of the Selective Service System, complete disarmament, through negotiations and unilateral actions, an end to all overt and covert military aid and "intelligence" operations, withdrawal of all military forces from Iraq, and more. In other words, the party is fairly "idealistic", but this idealism is dark and foreboding. The doom of the entire Human "race" is at its core. A simple way of putting it would be "Either change or everyone except for the cockroach dies." The USPP seal contains a mathematical equation called the Apocalypse Equation. It estimates the risk of disaster from nuclear warheads. Here is the equation and its explanation.

AP=1-(1-p)^Txn

The Apocalypse Equation, (technically called a "stochastic equation," because it describes the relationship of probability to time) shows what nuclear weapons ultimately mean for "civilization." If each of a large number (n) of nuclear missiles existing today has even a small probability (p) of being launched, over time (T) the probability of a launch (APocalypse) approaches certainty. The more missiles, the shorter the time before a launch (T₁ is less than T₂). Unless nuclear weapons are deactivated, and nonviolent means developed to take the place of military violence for achieving justice and peace, civilization is doomed.

This brings me to talk of a member of Congress, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX), and his bragging publicly about his ambition to drop nuclear weapons on Syria.

Johnson told a crowd on February 19th that he explained his theory that Syria was hiding weapons of mass destruction to President Bush and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) on the porch of the White House. A bit of Cronyism at work?

Theory? I’m curious as to what this theory is. Maybe Johnson has received covert military intelligence. We have seen how wonderful US military intelligence is of late, like the last 50 years or more.

Johnson said he told the president that night, "Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on ’em and I’ll make one pass. We won’t have to worry about Syria anymore."

"The crowd roared with applause." (Congressman Says Syria Nuke Comment a Joke)

The crowd was the congregation of Suncreek United Methodist Church in Allen, Texas. Johnson has been elected 3 times to the same office. By that account, he must be widely popular. Crowds just don’t "roar" unless they think the speaker is saying something worthwhile. (see Ward Churchill’s speech on 2/8/2005 wherein the crowd "roars", Video Link)

There are words for men like Johnson; bloodthirsty comes to mind, as well as asinine.

I called Johnson’s office. After a huff of breath from the other end of the line that clued me into the staff members’ exhaustion of having to explain this to yet another caller, I found out that Rep. Sam Johnson did indeed say those exact words. According to the staff, it was taken out of context. Out of context? I asked what context was it taken out of, and the reply was that he was with friends and vets at a church, "just talk among friends". That’s the missing context? I mentioned that the statement was still irresponsible as it was a statement calling for genocide/ecocide. I was told that it was in jest. I asked to speak to someone who could truly help me make sense of such insensitivity and idiotic mutterings. They put me through to Johnson’s chief of staff, Cody Lusk. Do yourself a favor when you call, ask for Cody right away.

I left Cody a message asking if he could clarify the context that the statement was taken out of, if Johnson had indeed flown an F-15 in the past, and if he is capable of doing so to this day. After not getting a call back I phoned again and asked if Johnson knew where the Weapons of Mass Destruction where, exactly, and where he was going to get his own Weapons of Mass Destruction for the flyby nuking operation he was proposing to take on alone. I then asked how many hours or days before Johnson would publicly apologize and resign from his office. Cody never called back.

Not finding any answers from Johnson’s War Office, I turned to the Internet. Johnson was indeed a fighter pilot.

Johnson’s chief of staff, Cody Lusk, told HOH to keep in mind that the Congressman was a fighter pilot in Korea and Vietnam. And he was a POW for seven-and-a-half years. "Once a fighter pilot, always a fighter pilot," Lusk said. (Texas Republican Congressman: "Nuke Syria")

A lot of politicians have histories of military service. Surprise!

Shirley’s Texas Tornado whips up a frenzy.

As far as I can tell from his Bio, he never flew an F-15 and he probably never will. He did fly a F-86E Sabre jet. All fighter planes seem to have names, and they are almost all female names for some reason. One of Johnson’s planes was named ’Shirley’s Texas Tornado’. He named it after his wife. He performed a combat aerial victory against a MiG-15 on May 23, 1953 with Shirley. Johnson also helped to write the first Air Force tactics manual for fighter pilots. Parts of the manual are still in use to this day.

So, he has a history of killing from the air and in the air, and has successfully passed that information on.

His statement should not be perceived as the muttering from some boy with only video game experience of combat flying. This guy knows his stuff. This guy is dangerous, if only because he has the ear of a very a dangerous president (not that all presidents aren’t extremely dangerous on some level). I doubt the US will nuke Syria anytime soon, but you never know with psychopaths like the ones currently enveloping and choking us, the US people and the people of the rest of the world. Would a majority of US citizens roar with applause if such a deed was carried out? Would thousands upon thousands of Methodists exclaim hallelujah?

Where are those pesky Weapons of Mass Destruction?

How does Johnson propose to do his task? Where is he going to get a couple of Weapons of Mass Destruction for nuking Syria? Is Johnson going to get the nukes from Iraq? Scratch that. Maybe he could borrow a couple from Israel? Maybe he could fly into Israel and pick up both the F-15 and a couple of nukes. Logistically, for the Texan, the more efficient method could be for Johnson to take a relatively short drive to the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, TX, or talk to some buddies at Halliburton in Houston, TX, or if that doesn’t work maybe he could pull some strings with the folks down the street at Kellogg, Brown & Root. Those folks should have some idea of where to find some Weapons of Mass Destruction for his task. Maybe a drive to Sandia National Laboratory for some parts and then on to Los Alamos National Laboratory for the assembly is in order.

He may also want to consider getting with the times, I mean, an F-15? I’m no combat plane specialist, but don’t they go up to F-18, F-19, or F-20 already? The F-15 must have special nuke carrying capabilities. I wouldn’t know precisely because I’ve never had the urge to incinerate an entire country of people and poison an entire planet. Why not take one of the twenty-one B-2 Stealth Bombers that are all nuclear capable from Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB) in Missouri? Maybe Johnson could just Launch two minuteman nukes from Minot AFB in Cheyenne, WY. That would leave 148 in the arsenal.

Where oh where could these Weapons of Mass Destruction be? (A Threat to Peace Poster-Map - pdf)

A Kind of Joking - Jokers Gone Wild

"I was kind of joking - you know, we were talking between veterans," he said. (Congressman Says Syria Nuke Comment a Joke) He added that President Bush knew he was joking. Yes, the president understands humor as is evident in his "find the Weapons of Mass Destruction" game he played not too long ago at a party while men, women, and children ceased to exist in Iraq, Afghanistan, and here in the US due to massive diversion of much needed money for real human needs. All this money to wage a war purely for profit.

By Kirk Anderson, www.kirktoons.com

The facts that Johnson’s statement was made in a Church, the congregation applauded, he is a member of Congress, and has the presidents ear, he is not the biggest problem. The big problems are systemic. Always have been. That doesn’t mean that everyone with the knowledge of Johnson’s recent remarks shouldn’t plague his offices with bodies, telephone calls, emails, faxes, and letters until he publicly apologizes (not that half-assed "I was kind of joking") and removes himself from his office. All the relevant information is given below. Genocide and Ecocide are not very funny. They are not a "kind of joking" that is very humorous. These facts also do mean that we as a people should plague the Air Forces Bases, the War Profiteers, the Scientists’ Homes and Universities with bodies, telephone calls, emails, faxes, and letters until they publicly apologize and remove themselves from our presence. A Golden Chain of Action is needed.

Take for instance the Plowshares actions at Shannon airport. On February 3rd 2003, "as part of ongoing resistance at Shannon Airport, the Pitstop Ploughshares disarmed a US warplane. Within the month, three of the four companies contracted to ferry US troops and weapons had left Ireland."

Ciaron O’ Reilly, of Pitstop Ploughshares, who is currently on trial in Ireland, recently stated on Democracy Now!, "We made our way into Shannon Airport, that had become increasingly militarized over the previous 12 months before February, 2003, and made our way to a hangar, where a U.S. Navy warplane, a logistical plane, was housed. We took with us simple household hammers, one of them had been used in four other Ploughshares actions and had been kindly returned by the police force after each of us was either released or acquitted. And we began to disarm the plane. Now we’re charged with $2.5 million criminal damage, without reasonable excuse. We think our action was quite reasonable. Since our action, over 100,000 Iraqi people, mostly women and children, have been killed. Over 1,500 U.S. military personnel, most who would have passed through Shannon on their way to their deaths, have been killed. Of course, over 10,000 evacuated with serious injuries. So we feel that we did an act of conscience, that that was our judgment at the time, and we’re quite prepared to come into this court to speak to that."

The Power of the Sun in OUR Backyard

There’s a very good reason why we, as a biological entity, even exist in the first place. That reason is called the Sun and we’re lucky that our Sun is 93,000,000 miles away. Many people, both religious and secular, call that a miracle. The odds that all is in perfect place is literally astronomical.

But, right here in OUR own backyards we have the power of the sun. That’s a really intelligent idea. That’s the intelligence of the US people. That’s the intelligence of the Human race. There’s an old saying I heard recently from a friend, "Don’t shit where you eat." Speaking of shit, as Olaf of e.e. cumming’s poem, i sing of Olaf glad and big, says "there is some shit I will not eat". It’s Johnson’s kind of joking I refuse to eat.

The probability of the human race doing something APocalyptic is absolute using our current intelligence. It’s just a matter of when. Let’s do something before the Sun sets on us forever.

Rep. Johnson can be reached at:

District Office- 2929 North Central Expressway
Suite 240
Richardson, TX 75080
Phone (972) 470-0892
Fax (972) 470-9937

Washington Office- 1211 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone (202) 225-4201
Fax (202) 225-1485