Friday, August 8, 2014

Everywhere Is War: World Edition

 America is one hell of a schizophrenic bastion of phony democracy.

Depending upon geography, the ethnicity of the target populations, and the politicians being bribed, America the Exceptional either drops proxy bombs on people (Gaza), direct-drones people ("tribal" areas), or drops packages of food, water and medicine on a carefully vetted few (a remote mountaintop in Iraq) as P.R. cover for a bombing campaign that benefits multinational oil companies ("American interests.")

To be fair, if ISIS was attacking the Gaza Strip instead of Northern Iraq, I think President Obama would also be falling all over himself condemning the genocide and defending the right of Palestinian children to live and breathe.... based purely on their physical proximity to Israel. When it's Netanyahu's terror state doing the attacking, there are of course no American planeloads of sustenance arriving to help those embargoed, starved, bombed-out victims.

To the contrary. Since the U.S. Senate has, in fact, just unanimously allocated more money to Israel for its incremental extermination of the petroleum-poor inmates of the world's largest outdoor prison, I think it's obvious to anyone paying attention that the leaky wreck of state known as the USS Hypocrisy sailed a long time ago. And all the expensive propaganda pumps in the world can't keep up with the bilge.

Obama picks and chooses his lucky humanitarian recipients based solely upon their profit potential. The world is taking notice.

 Yet, in what is increasingly looking like World War Three, Obama is portrayed by the stenographic corporate media as either a hopeless wimp (right wing/neocon/Fox/CNN) or as a reluctant warrior bound by his noble moral impulses (right of center/neoliberal/r2p/ {"responsibility to protect"}New York Times/MSNBC).

Here's how the Times' White House insider Peter Baker spins it,  
In sending warplanes back into the skies over Iraq, President Obama on Thursday night found himself exactly where he did not want to be. Hoping to end the war in Iraq, Mr. Obama became the fourth president in a row to order military action in that graveyard of American ambition.
The mandate he gave to the armed forces was more limited than that of his predecessors, focused mainly on dropping food and water. But he also authorized targeted airstrikes “if necessary” against Islamic radicals advancing on the Kurdish capital of Erbil and others threatening to wipe out thousands of non-Muslims stranded on a remote mountaintop.
Notice the immediate emphasis on the rescued being non-Muslims, lest the Islamophobes fret.
As he explained himself to a national television audience, Mr. Obama made a point of reassuring a war-weary public that the president who pulled American forces out of Iraq at the end of 2011 had no intention of fighting another full-scale war there. Yet his presence in the State Dining Room testified to the bleak reality that the tide of events in that ancient land have defied his predictions and aspirations before.
The road to hell is paved with good fake intentions. Baker forgets to mention that Obama very much wanted to keep boots on the ground in Iraq before ostensibly pulling out in 2011. But the Iraqis refused to sign a Status of Forces agreement, which would have given American contractors and troops immunity from prosecution for their imperialistic crimes, misdemeanors and those unfortunate atrocities that crop in every war where testosterone runs wild. And what does Obama's telegenic presence in the State Dining Room (instead of the intimate Oval Office) signify? Baker doesn't explain. Does it mean that Obama is hungrily awaiting his dinner? Somebody please tell me!

Baker continues quoting Obama's televised speech:
“I know that many of you are rightly concerned about any American military action in Iraq, even limited strikes like these,” he said. “I understand that. I ran for this office in part to end our war in Iraq and welcome our troops home, and that’s what we’ve done. As commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq.”
Many of us are rightly concerned about military actions all over the planet. Ukraine. Libya. Yemen. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Africa. Central and South America. The thousand known military bases throughout the globe and the unknown number of CIA/Special ops black sites and outposts. A Pentagon/Surveillance State budget in the stratosphere.

 Sorry, Obama: the United States is the dragon, not the drag-ee.... and the rest of the world is its state dinner flambé.

But let the Times continue spinning its rusty wheels:
Mr. Obama has spent months resisting just that. Even after the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, seized Falluja and other territory in the western part of the country at the beginning of the year and marched through Mosul and toward Baghdad by summer, the president expressed no enthusiasm for American military action.
... in that particular locale, seeing how it evokes so many memories of the "folks" who tortured other folks and lied their way into war and essentially left Iraq in ruins. Obama is more enthusiastic about starting a new cold war against Russia, with his fascist Ukrainian neocon-installed puppets, and waging his myriad secret wars to keep up the pretense that he actually deserved his Nobel Peace Prize. He single-handedly ruined Libya, of course, and was ultimately prevented at the last minute from bombing the hell out of Syria based on what turned out to be trumped-up evidence of sarin attacks by the government.
In June, he sent in 300 special forces troops not to fight but to assess the situation, an assessment that has yet to be completed, and he increased surveillance passes over Iraq. But Mr. Obama rebuffed calls, including those from within his administration, to quickly send in air power to hit ISIS forces.
Aides said his hand was not forced until ISIS won a series of swift and stunning victories last weekend and Wednesday night against the Kurds in the north, who have been a loyal and reliable American ally, especially compared to the Baghdad government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. ISIS threats to wipe out Yazidis and other religious minorities trapped on Mount Sinjar, they said, added to the urgency.
He crept the mission and waited for the necessary crisis. Despite the best efforts of the NSA and the CIA, they never even saw ISIS (their own Frankenstein monster) coming. CNN and the Washington Post are among the bloodthirsty outlets manically reporting that this failure of intelligence is all Edward Snowden's fault. The smell of official desperation is everywhere.
“You don’t have to have a ton of insight to know he feels reluctant,” said Douglas Ollivant, a former Iraq adviser in the White House under Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush. “He wants the Iraq problem not to exist. And that’s exactly what the American people sent him to the White House to do.” But “all these factors may kind of drag him kicking and screaming into some kind of decision.”
Like I said.... the smell of official desperation is everywhere. Poor Barry just wants to go golfing, and reality will not let him. Can it get any more maudlin? I think we can count on it. Read the rest of the article, but be warned: there are gobs of viscous verbal treacle ahead. It's a veritable follow-the-money guide to the seamless transition between the brutal Bush and Obama administrations and how the various players have profited. Ollivant, for example, is a paid war-mongering network shill and venture capitalist whose tentacles extend throughout the media-military-industrial complex.

Meanwhile, ceasefire ended, the Israel-Gaza war has resumed, with another child killed in Gaza by the Netanyahu terror machine as he played near a mosque. With more than one Palestinian faction negotiating, the hellish nightmare seems bound to continue for the foreseeable future.

The fighting in Ukraine rages on.

And closer to Home Sweet Homeland, drug-addled Texas Governor Rick Perry is deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border to battle the "alien invasion." In what sounds uncomfortably close to a genocide precursor, he is even using game wardens to hunt down migrants. Animalization is tantamount to dehumanization.

And now for some perspective.

In other news, a respected climate scientist was so rattled by the recent discovery of vast plumes of methane streaming up from the Arctic sea floor that he sent out this S.O.S. tweet to the whole warring world:




“We’re on a trajectory to an unmanageable heating scenario, and we need to get off it,” he (Jason Box) said. “We’re fucked at a certain point, right? It just becomes unmanageable. The climate dragon is being poked, and eventually the dragon becomes pissed off enough to trash the place.”

25 comments:

James F Traynor said...

And more immediately immediate is this Ebola thing.WHO is right, we have to get to the scene, stat. We were 'lucky' with the AIDS virus, probably because of its fantastic ability to adapt rapidly to even an infected individual, causing it to be semi-isolated to subsets of the population, but this is a different breed of cat. And the Africans don't have a chance of limiting it. Talk about mutual self interest.

annenigma said...

Karen, I think you missed a zero in the 100 known U.S. military bases throughout the world. The number is closer to 1000 known facilities in over 100 different countries. And those are just the unclassified ones as best anyone can count.

Since we have personnel and facilities everywhere, we can conveniently claim the right to ostensibly 'protect' them by bombing anytime we claim they're threatened (to divert from the real reason). Then there's always the 'national interest' which means for the good of Wall Street Capitalism.

The Military-Industrial Complex has a similar strategy. But of course it would. They're one and the same entity - Empire. The MIC industries deliberately disperse manufacturing of its various components to nearly every Congressional district in the country. That way they protect themselves from budget cuts that might cause job losses and ensure Congressmen stay comfortably in their pockets.

In the case of host countries to our facilities, they are held hostage too economically. Some might even call them military colonies. Once we get a foothold in their country, we own them. Of course we only care about their usefulness as remote launching pads for our military. That is after all our Empire's forte - for as long as it lasts.

annenigma said...

By the way Karen, excellent writing! Hope this gets picked up by Truth-out.

Karen Garcia said...

Thanks, and thanks too for the correction on the number of military bases, Anne. Duly fixed.

Fred Drumlevitch said...

U.S. arrogance and overreach are well known, and are currently the dominant agents in many areas of foreign conflict. Beyond our moral right as citizens in a supposedly-democratic republic to say "Not in our name!" to such imperial actions, we have a further intense self-interest in opposition, based on our militarism abroad causing reduced domestic social spending and increased militarism of domestic law enforcement.

But let's not forget that the United States has no monopoly on arrogance of power, overreach, subconscious (or even overt) racism, exploitation, imperialism, and further processes. The Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese hate each other. The Hutus and Tutsis hate each other. The Ukrainians and Russians hate each other. The Sunnis and Shiites hate each other. Too many Israelis and Arabs hate each other. As do too many Canadians of English vs. French origins. The French and Germans used to hate each other --- and may well again, depending on circumstances. Likewise with regard to the attitudes and power relations of many Native American tribes. The last two examples seem to indicate that regional ethnic hatred and conflict are only tamed by the appearance of a greater, external adversary.

In that spirit, I say yes, bomb the entire Middle East --- but do it with pork rinds (a.k.a. pork scratchings, cortezas de cerdo, grattons, schweinekrusten, and many other terms)! That should get most of the inhabitants angry enough with us that they will forget about fighting with each other. Furthermore, should they taste said ordnance, perhaps they will begin to question the doctrinal pronouncements and implied superiority of their various religions/sects --- and the consequential increase in secularity and reason might initiate a genuine Middle Eastern Renaissance, by means of which the region can demonstrate its true potential.

Pearl said...

This is in response to Rosner's article, 'Fair Weather Fans' in the NYTimes 8/7/14.
Forgive my going off topic but he named me and other liberals/left wingers a fair weather friend of Israel and here is my reply:

pvolkov
Burlington, Ontario 40 minutes ago

A reader said "I do not question my Zionism". Well he well should since the word Zionism has become a rallying cry for the leaders and planners of Israel from the day they took over Palestine and threw out the Arabs living there for generations for the purposes of expansion and settlement according to their own designs. Being a Jew has nothing to do with being a Zionist which has all kinds of descriptions according to one's choice. Judaism does not include Zionism and indeed many Rabbis have joined peace groups to protest the alteration of their beliefs that a Jew does not oppress others nor treat anyone differently from what they would expect for themselves.
The wrong people hijacked the leadership of Israel in 1948, leading it in a different direction than many refugees had expected and indoctrinated coming generations born in Israel toward the military state of mind that exists today wreaking havoc all around.
I am a Jew but do not identify myself with the past and current mindset of Israel resulting in the hatred they engendered by dispossessing and oppressing Palestinians which has created the understandable backlash of anger from them.
My beliefs and those of others who oppose the current regime, have elicited comments of anti-Semitism, self-hatred and even traitorism. I hope this past evidence of brutality by the Netanyahu regime in recent weeks will clear the thinking of many Jews who rightfully question the purposes and direction of the State of Israel.

annenigma said...

Oooooh, Pearl, you hit the nail squarely on the head! That was a truly superb comment.

I'm going to go add my own 'Recommend' right now. Thanks for sharing.

Denis Neville said...

On 9/11 President Bush said America was attacked by "evil" terrorists because the USA was "a beacon for freedom."

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. What our government denounces as unprovoked terrorist attacks on innocent civilians are retaliations for America’s imperial actions. Chickens coming home to roost, the essence of “blowback,” our nation reaps what it sows. Underestimating its importance has severe consequences, as was seen on September 11, 2001.

According to a poll by WIN and Gallup International, the U.S. represents the greatest threat to world peace today.

Euphemisms away! “Humanitarian interventions,” “humanitarian bombing,” “kinetic actions,” “air campaigns” "collateral damage," “asymmetric warfare,” “extreme prejudice,” “shock and awe,” those hateful euphemisms, Orwellian surrogate words, senseless terms for terrible things, invented by our military.

"The frightening thing about the use of euphemisms is their power to efface the memory of actual cruelties. Behind the façade of a history falsified by language, the painful particulars of war are lost." - David Bromwich

The U.S. and Israel are now simultaneously bombing Arabs in different countries. What could possibly go wrong?

Our Iraq clusterfuck with modern weaponry: The U.S. is using advanced weaponry to stop ISIS forces armed with advanced U.S. weaponry, which ISIS took from the Iraqi army which the U.S. had given the U.S. advanced weaponry to. Christ! So thanks to GWB’s intervention in Iraq, the jihadis went from a marginal factor to a heavily armed force, with former Iraqi army Sunnis as allies, and now control a third of Iraq and going toe-to-toe with the Kurdish Pershmerga, once rated the best fighting force in Iraq.

Empire breeds terrorism. Yet we go along with our prevailing evils.

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul." "None but the dead are permitted to speak truth." – Mark Twain

Denis Neville said...

@ Pearl

Yes, as annenigma said, that was a truly superb comment!

I read the following about six Holocaust survivors who see oppressing Palestinians as hypocritical for a nation founded to provide people with a refuge from oppression. "Never again" should be for anyone, including Palestinians. That so many seem so oblivious to what these six individuals are expressing is what is so baffling for me.

http://www.alternet.org/world/6-holocaust-survivors-who-fight-against-israels-treatment-palestinians

It is dismaying, but not surprising, that your opposition to the Netanyahu regime has elicited such response. Gideon Levy is the most hated man in Israel.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/is-gideon-levy-the-most-hated-man-in-israel-or-just-the-most-heroic-2087909.html

Continue being a “whistle,” Pearl.

annenigma said...

@Denis

Well said! And follow the money. We really need to review history now that we have had our eyes open by Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning and know some of the extent of financial and other manipulations by the Empire's Intelligence Community.

'In March 2003, on several occasions beginning on March 18, the day before United States forces entered Baghdad, nearly US$1 billion was stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq. This is considered the largest bank heist in history. That month, a handwritten note signed by Saddam Hussein surfaced, ordering $920 million to be withdrawn and given to his son Qusay Hussein.' (Wikipedia) Or at least that's the official version. History gets written by the victors, but frankly it sounds more like a CIA story to me - handwritten note my arse.

And let's not forget the 10-20 billion (who can keep track?) dollars in cash that mysteriously disappeared after being delivered in 20 planes packed full of shrink-wrapped 100 dollar bills. After years of trying to track it down, yet not even knowing the total that went missing, the Pentagon has said that 6.6 billion of the total missing amount supposedly got deposited into the central bank of Iraq. (Who knows about the other 10 billion or so) Of that 6.6 billion, some was stored in Saddam's palaces where American forces were stationed. They used some of it to pay off Sunnis to turn against the Iraqi insurgents and support our side. I believe this was part the Great Sunni Awakening dreamed up by General David Betrayus. More like the Great Sunni Bribery.

So Sunni bankster$ and Sunni Awakened One$, not being as stupid as we think they all are, likely turned it all over to Sunni militia$ so they could regain Sunni power some day - like now, under the new name of ISIS.

Oh, I almost forgot. 'In June 2014, ISIS militants looted the Central Bank in Mosul, absconding with over $429 million USD'. (Wikipedia)

How exactly is it that our vast global Intelligence network never saw ISIS coming? Maybe they did. They probably played them all along, thinking they were an effective counter to Shia Iran. Doesn't secretly funding and training what has now become ISIS sound more like the typical double-dealing shenanigans with bad endings that our Empire is famous for?

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Jay–Ottawa said...

Great post; great comments.

Valerie Long Tweedie said...

If, as the Obama administration claims, we are out of Iraq and pulling out of Afghanistan,there should be a sharp decrease in military spending. Yet, has there been? I can't see all those profiting from war just picking up their marbles and going home.

So are we going to just have secret wars from now on? Now that a the American public is heartily sick of war and has made this clear to our politicians, are we going to just involve ourselves in "conflicts?"

I think we need to follow the money and ask why all that money we have in our military budget and the "invisible" budgets that we never hear about aren't being redistributed toward improving domestic programs. And while I am all for pulling our troops out of EVERYWHERE along with the ubiquitous CIA and Co., we have to have a plan for employing those soldiers. How about fixing our crumbling infrastructure?

Denis Neville said...

Valerie said that we need to follow the money and ask about all that money we have in our military budget ….

Lovely sight, Kurdish forces outgunned by ISIS, using hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. military equipment the Iraqi Army abandoned!

Absurdity, without limits? No Sir! Exceptionalism! Moving public money into private hands. Our military industrial complex has the market cornered with America using American military equipment to bomb other pieces of American military equipment.

Milo Minderbinder's fervent wish was to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry.

We are moving closer to Milo's brilliant idea of bombing his own air base.

“This time Milo had gone too far. Bombing his own men and planes was more than even the most phlegmatic observer could stomach, and it looked like the end for him...Milo was all washed up until he opened his books to the public and disclosed the tremendous profit he had made.” - Milo's double dealing profits from getting the Germans to bomb his own outfit, Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Jay–Ottawa said...

Here it is, people. The opening the MIC has been waiting for. Obama just announced our air power over Iraq will be bombing and droning away against ISIS indefinitely.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/world/middleeast/us-airstrikes-on-militants-in-iraq.html?emc=edit_na_20140809&nlid=48169905

Obama's planned containment of ISIS from the skies over Iraq (and soon Syria as well?) looks a whole lot like Bill Clinton's maintenance of no fly zones over Saddam Hussein's Iraq twenty years ago. Or those free fire zones in Vietnam.

So, in the end, the billions of dollars spent by Bush and Obama and the lives they threw into the effort were of no avail, in fact a total waste. We're back to square one no wiser and a whole lot poorer.

Except for the MIC. Hire a third shift so we can make more bombs and planes to continue the war over Iraq. Who needs a Status of Forces Agreement when our hobnail boots never touch the ground?

Unknown said...

This article is wonderful, and the comments are fantastic.

The aggressors in war do not declare their actions war. The US has started World War III. The US citizen will be the last citizens of the world to know that World War III has started. Our allies are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Israel, the Egyptian army, fascists in Ukraine and Greece, right wing militants in Central and south America, UK, most of the brutal dictators in Africa, Pakistan, and Colombia.

Our alliance is a rag-tag bunch, but I think our ability to violate international law with impunity will provide a distinct advantage over the more docile nations weary of human atrocity.

annenigma said...

@Isaiah

I was thinking the same thing this morning, that WWIII has already begun, but couldn't muster the energy to express it. Thank you.

Jay–Ottawa said...

Wars are definitely the best means of killing people wholesale. Very much in the spirit of Howard Zinn, a contemporary historian, Al Carroll, has come up with the novel idea of rating US Presidents according to the number of people killed (or saved) by their actions and policies.

Some predictable results, but a few surprises. I thought Lincoln would, on this basis, have gone from best to worst because of the enormous toll of the Civil War. Carroll doesn’t see it all that simply and, like Zinn, brings forward information we may not have been acquainted with. Lincoln during his tenure brought an end to the appalling genocide of Indians in California and, with the defeat of the Confederacy, he put beyond reach the South’s plans to invade Mexico and the Caribbean for the extension slavery.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25376-us-presidents-reconsidered-by-death-toll

Pearl said...

Denis: in the connection you included in your recent comment listed 6 holocaust survivors who told their stories.The name of Suzanne Weiss was one and in googling her name it was mentioned that she lived in Canada. Taking a chance I googled her name and Toronto and up came an amazing list of accomplishments and organizations she was well known in. Not being able to get an e-mail address for her I googled NIMN (Not in My Name) and sent them a request for her e-mail. I would like to find other like minded people in my vicinity if possible. So you have set the ball rolling and it is indeed a small world.
I am also encouraged to read comments to Roger Cohen's latest column which brought out numerous excellent comments condemning Israel for its oppressive history toward the Palestinians. It is an encouragement for us all to speak out - you never know who may be influenced.
Wonderful column Karen and top of the line responses in Sardonicky.
Makes one feel not alone in their gut instincts. Thank you all.

Jay–Ottawa said...

Isaiah lists who our allies are today. Quite a bunch for Uncle Sam to be hanging with.

It wasn't much different a generation ago, but I never realized how deeply the US was committed to, of all groups, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

At this site you can read in great detail how three US presidents actively supported the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. From a chapter of Al Carroll's book mentioned above.

http://www.wattpad.com/55810004-from-the-book-presidents'-body-counts-nixon-and

Frankly, I'm astounded and would appreciate anyone's telling me it ain't so and that Carroll is a nut case. "No matter how cynical you are, it's difficult to keep up."

Pearl said...

Agreeing to More Talks in Egypt, Israelis and Palestinians Begin Latest Cease-Fire
http://nyti.ms/1sMgNnU

Look at the grieving faces of these Palestinian women in this photo. They could be Jewish - similar clothes, and the same simetic features of a common root. How utterly sad.

Pearl said...

Sorry it's 'semitic'. This is my fifth hour on the computer.

Wonderful comment to Blow, Karen. Just sent mine in.

Pearl said...

Today, the word "Semite" may be used to refer to any member of any of a number of peoples of ancient Southwestern Asia descent including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews (Jews), Arabs, and their descendants.[2]

Denis Neville said...

Hillary Clinton, “leaving no daylight at all between the Israelis and herself,” offering “a vociferous defense of Israel, and of its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,” tells Jeffery Goldberg in The Atlantic interview:

“You can’t ever discount anti-Semitism, especially with what’s going on in Europe today. There are more demonstrations against Israel by an exponential amount than there are against Russia seizing part of Ukraine and shooting down a civilian airliner. So there’s something else at work here than what you see on TV.

“And what you see on TV is so effectively stage-managed by Hamas, and always has been. What you see is largely what Hamas invites and permits Western journalists to report on from Gaza. It’s the old PR problem that Israel has. Yes, there are substantive, deep levels of antagonism or anti-Semitism towards Israel, because it’s a powerful state, a really effective military. And Hamas paints itself as the defender of the rights of the Palestinians to have their own state. So the PR battle is one that is historically tilted against Israel.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/hillary-clinton-failure-to-help-syrian-rebels-led-to-the-rise-of-isis/375832/?single_page=true

“It’s not just about American power. It’s American values that also happen to be universal values.” - HRC

Osama bin Laden's "letter to the American people."

“Anyone who tries to destroy our villages and cities, then we are going to destroy their villages and cities. Anyone who steals our fortunes, then we must destroy their economy. Anyone who kills our civilians, then we are going to kill their civilians.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver

As Karen said in her comment to Blow, “ignorance naturally suits the bellicose gatekeepers and their propaganda merchants just fine.”

annenigma said...

Empire vs. Superpower

If the USA was openly referred to as an EMPIRE, the people could at least begin to understand why our priorities are askew and why there is always money for wars (empire building) while our country crumbles. Of course the Powers-That-Be don't want references to Empire since that connotes vast holdings or far flung colonies, such as the thousand military facilities. It's part of the propaganda campaign.

SUPERPOWER, on the other hand, is sexy, bold, and of course powerful - something to be proud of, boast about, and support wholeheartedly. It's Who We Are. It also sounds like it's confined to The Homeland. The Homeland is, of course, merely the seat of the Empire, which is why it had to be given its own name to distinguish it from the rest of the holdings abroad. The seat of power within The Homeland is of course the aptly nicknamed Empire State, home of Wall Street, not Washington DC.

Empire also clearly explains The National Interest, aka Wall Street. Secret trade agreements are secret because they don't want the mortal people (folks) to realize that only the immortal corporate people matter. Humanitarian missions might be seen for what they are - pretexts. Folks might even realize they are paying for Empire building with their taxes and lives.

Neither of the two political wings of the corporate Empire want us referred to as Empire, but both are more than willing to let our country crumble at home so it can eventually all be privatized by the corporate Empire. That pretty much is the evidence that proves exactly what we are and what they are. It makes no difference who the figurehead of a particular country is as long as they follow the policy of Empire building. That would certainly explain Obama. He sold his soul to be a corporate puppet, an emperor with no clothes. It's tragic what some people will do to gain and enjoy power.

It's my wish that everyone, especially the news media, would stop using the Superpower term and start using Empire. It will help Americans define the problem we all face so we can become united about 'fixing' it.

annenigma said...

Hillary Clinton gets all her news from establishment sources. She forgets there are journalists on the ground in Gaza reporting directly and immediately online, unfiltered by corporate media. They don't get their news spoon fed from Hamas as she claims. She obviously gets her news prepackaged.

Aymen Mohyeldin who works for NBC News has done a fantastic job of reporting from Gaza. He was there on the beach playing with the children just before the children were killed. He has seen firsthand what's going on.

Hillary is a dangerous old school propagandist and blowhard for the American Empire. She's also way out of touch with American citizens, aka the Folks.

You know who really speaks knows what's going on? Former President Jimmy Carter, a much maligned truth teller extraordinaire.