tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post8787656123129300849..comments2022-08-31T13:21:11.928+02:00Comments on webdiary_<i>libre</i>: American Exceptionalism - to the rules.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-56419381829647570162009-12-16T23:49:32.584+01:002009-12-16T23:49:32.584+01:00Final words - and Chris Floyd has the honour. Firs...Final words - and <a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1886-miraculous-organ-blair-obama-and-the-narcissists-defense.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd has the honour</a>. First he takes aim at VBlair and then Obama.<br /><br /><i>"A narcissist's defense." As a description of Obama's Peace Prize speech, Macdonald's phrase could hardly be bettered. But the intense, near-pathological self-regard in the speech was not Obama's alone, of course; we must do him the credit of acknowledging that in this regard, at least, he was what we so often proclaim our leaders to be: the embodiment of the nation. His soaring proclamation of American exceptionalism, in a setting supposedly devoted to universal principles of peace, was breathtaking in its chutzpah – but entirely in keeping with the feelings of the vast majority of his countrymen, and the ruling elite above all.<br /><br />Many have already remarked on Obama's adoption in the speech of Bush's principle of unilateral, "pre-emptive" military action, anytime, anywhere, whenever a leader declares his nation is under threat. This approach -- which Bush called "the path of action" -- was roundly scorned by critics of the former regime, many of whom now scramble to praise Obama's "nuanced" embrace of aggression. But again, let us give credit where it is due; in this aspect of the speech, Obama did in fact go beyond Bush's more narrowly nationalist conception, saying: "I — like any head of state — reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation."<br /><br />Thus Obama would, apparently, extend the right of unilateral military action to "any head of state" that feels the necessity of defending his or her nation. But of course this is just empty verbiage, a pointless, bald-faced lie that not even Bush would have tried to get away with. Would Obama accept a unilateral, pre-emptive strike by Tehran against Israel, where legislators and government officials routinely talk of attacking Iran? Would Obama cheer the "right" of Russia to strike unilaterally at Poland if the U.S. "missile shield" deal, now on hold, was suddenly consummated? Would Obama support a unilateral strike by India at Pakistan -- or vice versa -- in the still-seething cauldron of tensions on the subcontinent, where both nations legitimately feel threatened by the other? Would he support the right of Kim Jong-il to "defend his nation" by attacking South Korea the next time there is a threatening border incident there?<br /><br />No, it is clear that only the United States -- and its allies, like Israel -- are to be allowed the supreme privilege of unilateral war. The line was inserted in the speech simply because it would sound good in the moment, and create a temporary emotional reaction that might carry listeners past the macabre incongruity underlying the entire event: giving a peace award to the bloodstained leader of a military machine hip-deep in the coagulate gore of two, vast, civilian-slaughtering wars</i>.<br /><br />Just a (bad) taste.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-25194227296010953282009-12-04T09:45:45.383+01:002009-12-04T09:45:45.383+01:00Correction: GG link is.Correction: <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/12/03/torture/index.html" rel="nofollow">GG link is</a>.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-23736564030178399272009-12-03T22:07:19.493+01:002009-12-03T22:07:19.493+01:00"How does it become a man to behave toward th...<i>"How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it." -- Henry David Thoreau<br /><br />To me, this quote from Thoreau expresses the only rational, moral and humane stance that a citizen can take toward the vast and brutal machinery of the American imperial state in our time. The crimes of this state are monstrous, and mounting. But what is worse is that these crimes are not aberrations; they are the very essence of the system -- they are its goal, its product, its lifeblood.<br /><br />And what is this crimeful essence? Matt Taibbi described it well in a recent article:<br /><br /> Our Western society quite openly embraces war as a means of solving problems, and for quite some time now has fashioned its entire social and economic structure around the preparation for war.</i> <br /> <a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1883-savvy-to-a-fault-coming-to-terms-with-imperial-power.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1883-savvy-to-a-fault-coming-to-terms-with-imperial-power.html" rel="nofollow">Glenn Greenwald</a>.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-65123264735780988412009-11-26T18:17:31.982+01:002009-11-26T18:17:31.982+01:00What makes America great is that there are people ...What makes America great is that there are people who are gre ... oh, sorry, I meant to write "What makes America grate is that there are people who grate". <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/25/bolton/index.html" rel="nofollow">Glenn Greenwald on the rare courage of the armchair warriors</a> - or "Bonkers" ducks and covers.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-69503334128922589292009-11-25T13:09:43.510+01:002009-11-25T13:09:43.510+01:00Sometimes, ID, you just gotta laugh ... so here...Sometimes, ID, you just gotta laugh ... so here's a <a href="http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2009/11/24/dumb-and-dumber-wars/" rel="nofollow">Jeff Huber piece where "dumb" is the operative word</a>.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-76838881037563773852009-11-25T10:37:15.052+01:002009-11-25T10:37:15.052+01:00let me put that ...
.. another way ...
.. it&#...let me put that ...<br /><br />.. another way ...<br /><br /> .. it's 101% perfectly pointless ...<br /><br /> .. 'debating' inside the pushed propaganda paradigm<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />Precisely because the pushed propaganda paradigm is composed of lies; not 'little whites' by any means but <i>real whoppers</i> ("All politicians lie!" - thanks, but "No, thanks!" to Howard), one simply cannot debate in the normal sense, because merely by entering the faux-frame, one accepts the unreal basis - so one immediately loses.<br /><br />Others have seen this, i.e. <a href="http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2008/04/dreaming-of-stateless-world.html" rel="nofollow">Arthur Silber</a>[1] enjoins us "Don't argue the intel; go after the policy!" - which is another way of saying don't listen to what they *say*, scrutinise what they *do*.<br /><br />Only makes sense, actually.<br /><br />It's a truly massive scam; get the pundits and sheople both discussing some conjured fantasy, all the while the villains (US+Zs) get on with their criminality.<br /><br />And the world goes down the tubes (dragged down by the crims) while all those idiots distract themselves.<br /><br />-=*end*=-<br /><br />Ref(s):<br /><br />[1] One needn't 'go' there, this might 'do' it:<br /><br /> <i>«Eminently understandable, though. What are they going to say? "Oh, he's just saying that because he has to, to get elected! He doesn't actually mean it." So he's a big, fat, typical politician? The Lying Messiah? Or perhaps, just perhaps, he does mean it? But ... but ... but ... what would that mean? Obama the Magnificent will be fully committed to continuing the decades-long, bipartisan foreign policy of aggressive interventionism by any and all necessary means, so as to guarantee the consolidation and continuation of American global hegemony?»</i> <br /> IDHolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01952349876651823852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-15872375291129506092009-11-25T09:55:38.382+01:002009-11-25T09:55:38.382+01:00arthur vs. martha
.. left hand doesn't know ...arthur vs. martha<br /> <br />.. left hand doesn't know ...<br /><br /> .. right hand doesn't know ...<br /><br /> .. because the playing field is not<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />Q: OK; the playing field is not what?<br /><br />A1: Not what they say it is (it's drowning in lies.)<br /><br />A2: The declared policies have almost nothing to do with the reality.<br /><br />A3: The playing field is actually the pushed propaganda paradigm; a vast deception brought to us by the (puppet?) politicians on the one hand, and the corrupt and venal MSM on the other (including, of course, big bits of the AusBC); the actors (politicians, pundits) have to work in an utterly unreal stage.<br /><br />The declared policies of the US (similarly Zs) can sound quite fantastic; defending democracy, world policemen, freedom, justice etc. - all, basically (sick) lies.<br /><br />The actual policies of the US (similarly Zs) can quickly be summarised as <i>murder for spoil</i>. <br /><br />Since the declared is as good as 180° to the actual (my 'arthur vs. martha'), they (the US & Zs) have to deal with massive <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance" rel="nofollow">cognitive dissonance</a></i> whilst saying one thing; doing another (aka <i><b>hypocrisy, writ huge</b></i>.)<br /><br />G'day Bob; thanks for the link.<br /><br />Does this little comment of mine go anywhere towards explaining your <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/24/civil_liberties/index.html" rel="nofollow">Greenwald citation</a>?<br /><br />I mean, Ramb-O-bama (peace prize, war cabinet) could hardly be more conflicted; "Change we can believe in" vs. continuing "4th Reich criminality?"<br /> IDHolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01952349876651823852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-77979071732285974812009-11-24T22:47:40.166+01:002009-11-24T22:47:40.166+01:00Glenn Greenwald on how reform was stymied ...<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/24/civil_liberties/index.html" rel="nofollow">Glenn Greenwald on how reform was stymied</a> ...Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-52878298570129749532009-11-22T06:50:08.929+01:002009-11-22T06:50:08.929+01:00G'day ID, from Arthur Silber more on the theme...G'day ID, from Arthur Silber more on the theme of truth, justice and ... <a href="http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/11/hey-i-know-lets-put-on-show-trial.html" rel="nofollow">a show trial</a>.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-24213151200539249212009-11-04T05:09:27.081+01:002009-11-04T05:09:27.081+01:00no sense ...
.. no feeling ...
.. no truth, ...no sense ...<br /><br /> .. no feeling ...<br /><br /> .. no truth, no justice ...<br /><br /> .. no democracy; only criminal *kleptocracy*<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />G'day Bob,<br /><br />a 'snip' from your Greenwald:<br /><br />A court decision that reflects what type of country the U.S. is<br />Even when government officials purposely subject an innocent person to brutal torture, they enjoy full immunity.<br />Nov. 03, 2009<br /> <i>« ... It held that even if the government violated Arar's Constitutional rights as well as statutes banning participation in torture, he still has no right to sue for what was done to him. Why? Because "providing a damages remedy against senior officials who implement an extraordinary rendition policy would enmesh the courts ineluctably in an assessment of the validity of the rationale of that policy and its implementation in this particular case, matters that directly affect significant diplomatic and national security concerns" (p. 39). In other words, government officials are free to do anything they want in the national security context -- even violate the law and purposely cause someone to be tortured -- and courts should honor and defer to their actions by refusing to scrutinize them.»</i> <br />[<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/03/arar/print.html" rel="nofollow">BobW/salon/greenwald</a>]<br /><br />[As usual, one should read the lot.]<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />My comment: IF what the kleptocracy was doing was right (in the sense of being *correct*) THEN some of what they do *might* be OK. As we've seen, however, when 'all else' (i.e. the US crooked business model) fails, the US resorts without further ado to outright and blatant criminal methods, i.e. invades to force it's 'geopolitical objectives,' detested Ameri-speak (spit, spit!) for murder-for-spoil (Afghanistan = pipelines, Iraq = oil, Palestine = <i>Lebensraum</i> for Zionists); see Perkins' "Economic Hit Man."<br /><br />This vicious wickedness occurs behind the lying propaganda smoke-screen pushed by the MSM (main-stream media; venal and corrupt, *including* big bits of the AusBC - boo! Hiss!) - or that may have been, until the internet came along. Now we (all those who wish to look) may see almost all - and it's none too pretty.<br /><br />Anyone who gets in the vicious, criminal murdering-to-steal US' (and/or Z's) way - even by unfortunate 'accident,' like the perfectly innocent Arar above - has *NO* chance. Rule of law? Forget it; truth and/or justice, even proper democracy - all simply beyond their ken.<br /><br />A quote from <a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1863-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-an-emotional-response.html" rel="nofollow">a different c-f article you cited</a>: <i>"I write about these things for one reason only: to bear witness, to put down for the record that I saw the evil being committed in my name, and that I spoke out against it, as fully and honestly as I knew how."</i><br /> IDHolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01952349876651823852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-89656307745398616222009-11-04T03:48:37.188+01:002009-11-04T03:48:37.188+01:00Of course the courts are there to protect the inno...Of course the courts are there to protect the innocent ... well, maybe not.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/03/arar/index.html" rel="nofollow">Glenn Greenwald</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1869-the-inhuman-stain-saying-yes-to-state-terror.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd</a>.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-53696903138670869682009-09-25T00:03:42.175+02:002009-09-25T00:03:42.175+02:00Corrupt, all is corrupt!" Chris Floyd on Sibe...Corrupt, all is corrupt!" <a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1845-curtain-call-grim-glimpses-of-the-worlds-true-workings.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd on Sibel Edmonds and what she has to say</a>. Not that the FCM want to know.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-66700402815537991692009-09-23T14:16:21.718+02:002009-09-23T14:16:21.718+02:00It's worth quoting two more from William Wells...It's worth quoting two more from William Wells Brown:<br /> <br />“The duty I owe to the slave, to truth, and to God, demands that I should use my pen and tongue so long as life and health are vouchsafed to me to employ them, or until the last chain shall fall from the limbs of the last slave in America and the world”<br /> <br />Me: I'd leave out any g*d, of course, and 'slaves' have been superceeded (not by much) by 'sheople' - but deploying our pens (now keyboards) for justice via truth is precisely <i>what we do</i>.<br /> <br />“The last struggle for our rights, the battle for our civilization, is entirely with ourselves.”<br /> <br />IF we don't do what we do, and morally just people everywhere don't get effective - THEN: <i>We're gunna lose it,</i> and by 'it' I mean our once jewel-like planet's ecosphere, and our life-support mechanism with it...<br /> IDHolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01952349876651823852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-84537586525875704642009-09-23T13:35:45.707+02:002009-09-23T13:35:45.707+02:00the 'big lie'
.. the bigger the 'bett...the 'big lie'<br /><br />.. the bigger the 'better' ...<br /><br /> .. in the land of the free, home of the brave ...<br /><br /> .. tell it to me once again - about the "<a href="http://thinkexist.com/quotation/this_is_called-the_land_of_the_free_and_the_home/329919.html" rel="nofollow">asylum of the oppressed</a>?"<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />G'day Bob, and thanks for your 'war is what they do' citations. It's a lot, and the news is not good; hardly ever is under the rubric of 'murder for spoil.'<br /><br />Here's another quote: "War is a racket;" it looks like Al Capone was prototype well-worth emulating. ("Al Capone is America's best known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s ...")<br /><br />The US-<i>sheople</i> (much as most Aussies) think they live in the best place in the world, despite lots of the sheople being viciously oppressed - the US has, in round terms, about 50mio poverty-struck, same with no 'sickness' insurance - and with the 'ruling élites' ripping them, as sheople just about everywhere - right off.<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />You talk about not listening to their Founding Fathers; here's the whole of my 1st quote:<br /> <i>«“This is called "the land of the free and the home of the brave"; it is called the "asylum of the oppressed," and some have been foolish enough to call it the "Cradle of Liberty." If it is the "Cradle of Liberty," they have rocked the child to death.”»</i> <br />[<a href="http://thinkexist.com/quotation/this_is_called-the_land_of_the_free_and_the_home/329919.html" rel="nofollow">William Wells Brown</a>]<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />It is high time that moral people everywhere notice (if they haven't already), that the US is running this criminal murder for spoil scam - and then having noticed, acting <i>effectively</i> to stop the filthy lies and criminally wicked injustices. Psychopaths will not, cannot cure themselves.<br /> IDHolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01952349876651823852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-55424272381104930602009-09-21T22:50:55.647+02:002009-09-21T22:50:55.647+02:00Murder for spoil ... and war is what they do, ever...Murder for spoil ... and war is what they do, every president must have one. As <a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/21/iran/index.html" rel="nofollow">Glenn Greenwald puts i</a>t:<br /><br /><i>Indeed, the factions that exert the most dominant influence on our foreign policy have only one principle: ongoing wars are good (the public and private military industry embraces that because wars are what bestow purpose, power and profits, and the Foreign Policy Community does so because -- as Gelb says -- it bestows "political and professional credibility").</i> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175115/war_is_peace" rel="nofollow">Tom Engelhardt</a>:<br /><br /><i>But achieving victory no longer seems to matter. War American-style is now conceptually unending, as are preparations for it. When George W. Bush proclaimed a Global War on Terror (aka World War IV), conceived as a "generational struggle" like the Cold War, he caught a certain American reality. In a sense, the ongoing war system can't absorb victory. Any such endpoint might indeed prove to be a kind of defeat.<br /><br />No longer has war anything to do with the taking of territory either, or even with direct conquest. War is increasingly a state of being, not a process with a beginning, an end, and an actual geography.</i> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1843-bad-medicine-the-terror-wars-qpublic-optionq.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd and how they go about it</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090916_all_us_presidents_need_a_war_to_call_their_own_--_and_obama_has_hi/" rel="nofollow">William Pfaff</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175116/ann_jones_us_or_them_in_afghanistan_" rel="nofollow">Ann Jones</a>, courtesy of Tom, on how they get it wrong.<br /><br />Americans revere their Founding Fathers. It is a pity they ignore what they said.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-76478681123162931762009-09-18T10:41:46.675+02:002009-09-18T10:41:46.675+02:00extra-judicial killings (US, Israel)
.. are murde...extra-judicial killings (US, Israel)<br /><br />.. are murders re-named ...<br /><br /> .. or are they 'legitimate' acts ...<br /><br /> .. depending 'merely' on one's POV?<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />G'day Bob, and thanks for another couple of great citations. Concentrating on the <a href="http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1841-blood-on-the-tracks-the-continuing-lessons-of-terror-and-tyranny.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd</a>, some of the commenters queried one basis for Floyd's article, saying a single 'faux news' item was a poor choice as being possibly too 'thin.' But (and there's almost always a but) that's really neither here nor there. Floyd goes on to quote the NYT describing one possible end result of Obama's command(s), and that (i.e. the NYT) is totally = 101% authoritative for the US 'establishment' (never mind the Judith Miller lies, say; such filthy & premeditated lies are also part of the US 'establishment.') The NYT article contains 2 * Islam, 4 * militant and 8 * Qaeda = just the 'right' mix - for their wicked purposes. But that too, is not Floyd's main thesis, which is that Obama = GWBush to as many significant decimal places you care to call for. Just as in Aus, Rudd = Howard in things geo-strategic. (However, I note with some relief that Obama has scrapped Bush's approach to a missile shield actually 'aimed' at Russia but using Iran's nonexistent threat as 'justification.' My 'but' here is that the US threat has most likely forced Russia into some concession; the rottenness just goes on and on ...)<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />The point of saying that Obama = GWBush and Rudd = Howard is to illustrate that we, the sheople, have as good as *NO* choice; no matter who we vote for, the extra-judicial killing goes on.<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />The extra-judicial killing itself has vastly accelerated post-9/11; both the US & Israeli regimes seized the moment to 'take the gloves off.' The sheople acquiesced; I predicted it, calling the revenge-attacks on Afghanistan "enraged re-arrangements of Aghani-sand." (Rumsfeld was heard to object; said something very much like: "<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rumsfeld-wanted-to-bomb-iraq-after-911-567104.html" rel="nofollow">But there are no good targets in Afghanistan!</a>")<br /><br />-=*=-<br /><br />We, the sheople - or at least, those of us who look - can see that we are being lied to. Lies are deployed to deceive; the question then becomes "What are they trying to hide?" IF the GWoT ("Global War on Terror") really was legitimate, THEN no lies would be needed. Sooo - it isn't.<br /><br />The propagandistic lies are catapulted at us, but as no lie can be 'perfect,' so they (always the wicked 'they') have a fall-back option; IF the US (and Israel) didn't murder for spoil THEN the Islamic (= Al Qaeda) militants might do something nasty to us (like another 9/11, say.) OR, IF the US (and Israel) didn't murder for spoil THEN the Islamic (= Al Qaeda) militants might not sell us their oil... (or allow pipelines, or resist the illegal Israeli occupiers stealing ever more Palestinian land.)<br /><br />That, in a nutshell, is the story of our times; murder for spoil.<br /><br />-=*end*=-<br /><br />PS We now know, that the CIA 'invented' Al Qaeda, partly as a 'tool' to aggravate Russia. IF Al Qaeda really was behind 9/11 - a so-called 'big ask' given the way *three* (not 'just' the two hit by planes), but *three* gi- normous skyscrapers fell *precisely* into their own footprints (considered by many sufficiently qualified people to be 'naturally' impossible) - THEN 9/11 was a form of blow-back. Of course, IF 9/11 was all or even partly an 'inside' job, THEN (as at any crime scene) Q: who profited most? A: The US/UK/Israeli arms industries, and/or the US/UK/Israeli thieving murderers. Same (psychopathic) people, really.<br /><br />One way or another, it always comes back to murder for spoil.<br /> IDHolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01952349876651823852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-34686531975966270122009-09-17T22:44:16.299+02:002009-09-17T22:44:16.299+02:00G'day ID, Chris Floyd with a piece we can call...G'day ID, <a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1841-blood-on-the-tracks-the-continuing-lessons-of-terror-and-tyranny.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd with a piece we can call "Murder by (presidential) decree"</a>. Good comments as well, and as usual with CF pieces.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-46018344263392142622009-09-16T13:13:32.506+02:002009-09-16T13:13:32.506+02:00Comments to Conn Hallinan's fpif article (g...Comments to Conn Hallinan's <a href="http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6407" rel="nofollow">fpif article</a> (g'day Bob).<br /> <br />1. Language: "insurgency" is the wrong word (insurgent —adj. in active revolt. —n. rebel. insurgence n. [Latin surgo surrect- rise] [POD]), since it could only be termed a revolt if the government/authorities being resisted were *legal* - the current regime in Afghanistan is a product of US invasion/occupation, itself considered illegal by many (no UN 'permission' was obtained, only an 'acknowledgment' some 2yrs after the fact). The correct term is an invasion/occupation being resisted by legal residents; i.e. a war of liberation.<br /> <br />The point here is not merely terminology; alleging "anti-insurgency" carries propaganda baggage implying some sort of legitimate aim, the real aims are all totally illegitimate.<br /> <br />2. The stated aim ("GWoT") is bogus; recall the 'carpet of gold or bombs,' the US wants a pipeline (mentioned later in the article, and to rip off any other available resources, as is the US(UK) S.O.P.) The correct term is murder for spoil.<br /> <br />3. "Hearts and minds" is never possible when the aims are crooked. Freeing Iraq of a tyrant might have been one thing the US could have claimed credit for - if they'd done that and then immediately left. The aim was *always* the oil (not even just 'control'); the US tries to insist on ripping-off all except the tiniest pittance for the sovereign owners. Same for Afghanistan, the US aims to subjugate, and almost all native resistance is directed at opposing that. What the US did in Iraq was to install/recruit corrupt criminals at all levels, eliminating - or bribing and/or corrupting - or just killing - remaining resistance. Intellectuals, for instance, are not too amenable to corruption, so those who didn't flee were targeted for slaughter. Ditto for Afghanistan; it is McChrystal's "claim to fame," the El Salvador death-squad style operation.<br /> <br />4. Home resistance doesn't count in the US (and Aus), hardly counts in the UK but the German situation is a bit different, since the people were earlier convinced that the German army was not going there to fight. This has changed recently with the tanker-slaughter imbroglio; popular sentiment has awoken to the lies. In other words, in the US, UK & Aus, propaganda *PLUS* the fact that the electorates and democracies are buggered means that the so-called L/R or Prog/Cons duopoly may do almost anything they want, essentially unhampered by popular sentiment (another way to say this is that the US, UK & Aus antiwar movements gave up after B, B & H ignored them.)<br /> <br />5. Troup number calculations will be made for Afghanistan so that the in-country resistance will be neutralised, as it has largely been done in Iraq. The US knows that it must maintain the occupying jackboot on the neck, hence the expression "long war." It's all part of the *further*, *continual* descent into crime. Brave but reduced resistance will continue. What would you do, say "OK, take it all?"<br /> <br />6. Other than these remarks, I have no *serious* disagreement with the article, since its 'heart' is in the right place - except for this final quibble: The theme "What are these people thinking?" implies that "these people" are capable of 'normal' thought. IMHO, the 'business model' demonstrated by the US & UK (with IL as the illegitimate tail of the rabid US dog, and Aus as the dag on the Imperial arse) - is psychopathic (psychopath n. 1 mentally deranged person, esp. showing abnormal or violent social behaviour. 2 mentally or emotionally unstable person. psychopathic adj. [ibid.]).<br /> IDHolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01952349876651823852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-38769324407446346282009-09-12T02:42:24.761+02:002009-09-12T02:42:24.761+02:00G'day Id, I'm sure there will be more mate...G'day Id, I'm sure there will be more material to fire you up in the following in the following pieces.<br /><br />First, <a href="http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2009/09/11/an-interview-with-col-lawrence-wilkerson-part-two/" rel="nofollow">Part Two of the Wilkerson interview</a>. Read more about the "worst of the worst"! But surely that's Dick.<br /><br />As there has just been an anniversary, <a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1835-for-later.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd revisits past articles</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6407" rel="nofollow">Afghanistan and delusions</a>.<br /><br />How to end civilisation as we know it. The first installment of <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090910_a_hundred_holocausts_an_insiders_window_into_us_nuclear_policy/" rel="nofollow">Daniel Ellsberg on US plans for nuclear war</a>.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-83858493100471968512009-09-08T08:41:46.474+02:002009-09-08T08:41:46.474+02:00They (the smart arses everywhere - also in the Aus...They (the smart arses everywhere - also in the AusBC) - call it "war" - but it's not a war, it's armed theft including murder. They (the same smart arses) call it "energy security" - but of course it's not; the true owners of any resource (oil, gas, iron ore, all the etceteras) pretty-well have to sell, because to leave it in the ground would bring them nothing. In a free and fair market, the true owners would get a fair return, "they" (the wicked war criminals) wish to steal the resource, rather that pay anything approaching a fair price - like we the sheople hope and work for, when we go shopping - say. They (you get the picture) call it all sorts of 'clever' things, like "strategy" - but all it is psychopathic criminality. One can't have a properly functioning democracy without an actively interested and fully informed electorate - yet even 'our' AusBC passes on (and often contributes to) the flood of lying propaganda. The 'democratic covenant' is that we, the sheople delegate to our elected representatives, who are to govern with the guidance of the majority, whilst protecting the interests of any minority. The process is termed 'leadership,' but what we get is sycophantic 'representatives' aiding the true crooks, the criminal war profiteers. Once more, we can't function in a fug of lies; it is incumbent on us all to 'bring them to justice' by demanding an end to the lies - on the way to restoring justice to our poor abused once jewel-like world.<br /> IDHolmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01952349876651823852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-36056574178916043192009-09-08T01:36:04.641+02:002009-09-08T01:36:04.641+02:00PCR on American hypocrisy.
From Tomdispatch Willi...<a href="http://original.antiwar.com/roberts/2009/09/06/us-hypocrisy-astonishes/" rel="nofollow">PCR on American hypocrisy</a>.<br /><br />From <i>Tomdispatch</i> <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175110/william_astore_american_militarism_on_steroids" rel="nofollow">William Astore on winding back US militarism</a>.<br /><br />But <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23443.htm" rel="nofollow">there's money to be made</a> ...Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-82840569508192925382009-09-03T10:04:20.296+02:002009-09-03T10:04:20.296+02:00The more things change ... from Tom Engelhardt a p...The more things change ... from Tom Engelhardt a piece by <a rel="nofollow">David Swanson on continuity</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1831-the-16th-term-obamas-new-betrayals-are-old-old-hat.html" rel="nofollow">Chris Floyd follows up</a>.<br /><br />... the more they stay the same.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/02/bush/index.html" rel="nofollow">Glenn Greenwald on personality cults</a> from those notorious for their lack of a sense of irony. And extremely short memories.<br /><br />Swearing allegiance to The Leader - not a new idea.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-80855854703125003612009-08-31T21:50:01.035+02:002009-08-31T21:50:01.035+02:00Stephen Lendman - "America's Tortured Pas...<a href="javascript:void(0);" rel="nofollow">Stephen Lendman - "America's Tortured Past"</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/08/31/big_liar/" rel="nofollow">"Like father, like daughter"</a>. Or "Just the (made up) facts, ma'am".<br /><br /><a href="javascript:void(0);" rel="nofollow">Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater</a>.Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-39156597250860144192009-08-31T08:15:57.717+02:002009-08-31T08:15:57.717+02:00Never mind, the media is on the job. Well, perhaps...Never mind, the media is on the job. Well, perhaps not. Two pieces about the <i>Washington Post</i> going to bat for the torturers - Ray <a href="http://www.opednews.com/articles/Media-Ape-Goebbels-in-Defe-by-Ray-McGovern-090830-59.html" rel="nofollow">McGovern</a> and <a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/29/post/index.html" rel="nofollow">Glenn Greenwald</a>.<br /><br />Will things improve? GG again with a piece about a <a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/30/royalty/index.html" rel="nofollow">new appointment to the NBC "Today" show</a>.<br /><br />It has been called the "Fawning Corporate Media". I wonder why?Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723595150423976130.post-4358575290261797022009-08-31T04:32:51.257+02:002009-08-31T04:32:51.257+02:00Taking exception to the release of one man but ......Taking exception to the release of one man but ...<br /><br /><i>A week ago, two convicted mass murderers leaped back into public consciousness as news coverage of their stories briefly intersected. One was freed from prison, continuing to proclaim his innocence, and his release was vehemently denounced in the United States as were the well-wishers who welcomed him home. The other expressed his contrition, after almost 35 years living in his country in a state of freedom, and few commented.</i> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175108/nick_turse_from_my_lai_to_lockerbie" rel="nofollow">Tomdisdpatch/Nick Turse.</a> <br /><br />The two men:<br /><br /><i>When Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Libyan sentenced in 2001 to 27 years in prison for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was released from incarceration by the Scottish government on "compassionate grounds," a furor erupted. On August 22nd, ABC World News with Charles Gibson featured a segment on outrage over the Libyan's release. It was aired shortly before a report on an apology offered by William Calley, who, in 1971 as a young lieutenant, was sentenced to life in prison for the massacre of civilians in the Vietnamese village of My Lai.<br /><br />After al-Megrahi, who served eight years in prison, arrived home to a hero's welcome in Libya, officials in Washington expressed their dismay. To White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, it was "outrageous and disgusting"; to President Barack Obama, "highly objectionable." Calley, who admitted at trial to killing Vietnamese civilians personally, but served only three years of house arrest following an intervention by President Richard Nixon, received a standing ovation from the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, Georgia, the city where he lived for years following the war. (He now resides in Atlanta.) For him, there was no such uproar, and no one, apparently, thought to ask either Gibbs or the president for comment, despite the eerie confluence of the two men and their fates.</i> <br /><br />So why should there be an uproar:\<br /><br /><i>If you recall what actually happened at My Lai, Calley's more-than-40-years-late apology cannot help but ring hollow. Not only were more than 500 defenseless civilians slaughtered by Calley and some of the 100 troops who stormed the village on March 16, 1968, but women and girls were brutally raped, bodies were horrifically mutilated, homes set aflame, animals tortured and killed, the local water supply fouled, and the village razed to the ground. Some of the civilians were killed in their bomb shelters, others when they tried to leave them. Women holding infants were gunned down. Others, gathered together, threw themselves on top of their children as they were sprayed with automatic rifle fire. Children, even babies, were executed at close range. Many were slaughtered in an irrigation ditch.</i> Bob Wallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05144225841541320292noreply@blogger.com