Although President Joe Biden is credited with ending the US war on Afghanistan, he didn't end the war at all. In fact, he escalated it by imposing such cruel economic sanctions on the Afghan people that tens of millions of them faced death by starvation in the winter of 2021-22.
His freeze of billions of dollars in Afghanistan Central Bank assets when the Afghan government collapsed, the US-installed puppet president absconded with bags full of loot, and the Taliban took over was , according to one anonymous White House polcy aide quoted by The Intercept, "tantamount to mass murder."
Poor Biden just never gets the credit he deserves. People are way late figuring out he's been Genocide Joe for longer than many of them have even been alive. His 90s crime bills alone, incarcerating more Black men than were enslaved before the Civil War, were tantamount to a slow genocide.
The famine in Afghanistan began within months of Biden ordering the funds frozen. The number of civilians at risk of death that winter far exceeded the total all those who were killed in the entire 20 years of U.S. occupation, according to the New York Times.
While Afghanistan has suffered from malnutrition for decades, the country’s hunger crisis has drastically worsened in recent months. This winter, an estimated 22.8 million people — more than half the population — are expected to face potentially life-threatening levels of food insecurity, according to an analysis by the United Nations World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization. Of those, 8.7 million people are nearing famine — the worst stage of a food crisis....
Across the country, millions of Afghans — from day laborers to doctors and teachers — have gone months without steady or any incomes. The prices of food and other basic goods have soared beyond the reach of many families. Emaciated children and anemic mothers have flooded into the malnutrition wards of hospitals, many of those facilities bereft of medical supplies that donor aid once provided.
Although the Times allowed that Biden officials showed "some flexibility" in allowing the UN and other agencies to deliver a bit of humanitarian aid, other countries were hesitant to help the Afghan people. They feared that the US would impose sanctions on them, too, for aiding the Taliban "terrorists."
In the wake of the usual feeble criticism and the rescinding of strongly worded letters from Democrats professing to be upset that Biden was "flirting with genocide," in his enforced starvation of Afghan war victims, Biden decided in February 2022 to split the $7 billion assets between relief agencies and the families of 9/ll victims This cavalier order was greeted with outrage and derision from both the Afghan citizenry and even from some of the 9/11 families themselves.
It's all part of a sick pattern. Biden and Bibi share the same mindset - that it's OK to kill innocents as long as the innocents committed the crime of living in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong leaders.
A lot of Americans are now shocked, shocked that Biden -- good old kindly Uncle Joe who they voted for as a humane alternative to Donald Trump -- is now aiding and abetting the genocide of Palestinians.
Nobody was out protesting in the streets for starving Afghan people two years ago. So maybe Biden thought he could get away with his war crimes again.
If the propagandizing mainstream press has its way, maybe he can get away with it and maybe even win another term. But maybe not. The people are finally out in the streets and they're showing no sign of relenting. Biden flirted with genocide before, but he may be breaking up with it this time. If justice prevails, the outrage on the streets will spread to all the other perma-wars, that are being fought both with bombs and with economic sanctions. Maybe we'll perk up permanently and take notice of all the other invisible victims of US hegemony, wherever on this boiling planet that they may live.
15 comments:
Economic diplomacy is war by other means. In antiquity, it was called "siege", and it has always been brutally directed against civilians. As such we should recognize it as the most heinous of war crimes. It is even more heinous than drone bombing. There civilian deaths can perhaps be forgiven as accidental. Under siege, civilian deaths are always premeditated.
Thanks for reminding us, Karen. We should never forget.
"Genocide Joe" has a hideously true ring to it. That telling moniker needs public traction ASAP to free us from more of the same, which to the rest of the world is the face of Amerika (spelled intentionally so). That "K" evokes now dead Henry Kissinger, personally responsible for more than three million deaths around the globe.
There is a consistency to U.S. official policies as administrations come and go. That means we don't care about Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Afghans, Iraqis, Kurds, or Palestinians. And eventually the Ukrainians will learn that as well!
I was just watching a series of old television news clips and there is Joe Biden ridiculing Scott Ritter when he was a Weapons Inspector for the U.N and testifying before Congress. The was Genocide Joe scornfully telling Ritter it was "above his pay grade" to say Iraq didn't have any WMD's.
The Fourth Estate should be holding these politicians accountable for their mistakes and their lies - at least, making this information available to the public. Oh, wait! That is what Independent Media IS doing and what the government is trying to shut down!
And I am one of those people who wasn't protesting in the streets for the poor Afghan people starving after the U.S. left Afghanistan. I think I was just so glad we were getting out of the Forever Wars in the Middle East (assuming we would be getting out of Syria and Iraq next) that I didn't realise we were putting sanctions on the Afghan government - and what they would do to the poor Afghan people. I feel like I have been asleep at the wheel - and I regret that.
It seems like all the U.S. does is break things. I know these are the hallmarks of an empire on the decline - but it is heartbreaking and horrifying to see the destruction we leave in our wake and the innocent people who suffer as a result of our country's selfish and careless actions.
And I have grown to hate Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden as much as I hate Trump.
More on Genocide Joe from the Intercept
The White House has requested the removal of restrictions on all categories of weapons and ammunition Israel is allowed to access from U.S. weapons stockpiles stored in Israel itself.
The move to lift restrictions was included in the White House’s supplemental budget request, sent to the Senate on October 20. “This request would,” the proposed budget says, “allow for the transfer of all categories of defense articles.”
The request pertains to little-known weapons stockpiles in Israel that the Pentagon established for use in regional conflicts, but which Israel has been permitted to access in limited circumstances — the very limits President Joe Biden is seeking to remove.
The US-backed Israeli militia is again bombing Palestinian children while world leaders are in a state of 'Uvalde', waiting for the last of the children's cries to whimper out so they know when it's safe to go in without risking their own security. BTW, Pope Francis recently said that this isn't a war, it's terrorism. I agree.
Since these terrorist mass murderers deserve special recognition, here are my awards.
Honorable Mention for 'Best/Worst Terrorist Mass Murderers' goes to Hamas. They've got a lot to learn from the masters who have far more experience and expertise, not to mention limitless weaponry, yet they really traumatized Israelis. This is despite evidence coming out that Israeli intelligence had firsthand knowledge of the Hamas plan a full YEAR in advance. That figures, since Hamas has maintained an official office in Qatar arranged by the US and is definitely not bugged!
Runner Up for 'Best/Worst Terrorist Mass Murderers' prize goes to Israel. They regularly 'mow the grass' every few years but now they're ripping it out by the roots so that it grows no more forever. It's a scorched-earth, pre-emptive campaign against pre-terrorists - children. We all knew it wasn't a 'war' nor against 'Hamas'. There's no doubt now that children aren't collateral damage.
Watching videos yesterday (during the 'humanitarian pause') of children being shot dead in the West Bank where there are no Hamas, I'm seeing what looks a lot like baiting. The kids run into the street to pick up something left there and when they're examining the small object, they're shot dead. It's a known fact that some hunters target game 'animals' in the same way and it's called bear- or deer-baiting.
Whether they're doing that or not, we've all heard the shameless justification ad nauseam that "there are no innocents" and "they're all guilty" and "babies are taught to hate as soon as they're born" to justify killing children. Their 'original sin' is being born a Palestinian so they all deserve to be killed.
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time", especially when they also tell you who they are, rationalize it, then they go ahead and prove it over and over again.
Grand Prize for 'Worst/Best Terrorist Mass Murderer' goes to Genocide Joe Demento. He's now promoting BOMBENOMICS. (See linked article) boasting that the GDP and American jobs benefit from every bomb, missile, bullet, weapon and explosive made in the USA for use in Ukraine (the fig leaf), Israel and Taiwan. As Valerie referred to, Biden is trying to hide the the type of US weapons he's allowing Israel to use, which IMHO, points directly to his consciousness of guilt and suggests that the weapons are hideously evil.
Genocide Joe has distributed a Bombenomics map of all the states who will benefit from their $election to manufacture weapons for 'Ukraine' to win their votes and pass his latest Christmas gift to the MIC. It's the same strategy the MIC has used for decades to ensure every Congress-clown is in their pocket and protect against any future cuts because jobs would be lost. It also ensures a steady stream of state-sponsored mass-murders for profit. Evil is as evil does.
'Bombenomics: Biden admin circulates map showing states that benefit from Ukraine aid'
'The White House has adjusted its sales pitch to skeptical Republicans, highlighting how continued funding benefits the U.S.'
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/29/biden-admin-map-states-benefit-ukraine-aid-00129068 Bombenomics: Biden admin circulates map showing states that benefit from Ukraine aid
I am a huge fan of Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. This is an excellent discussion with Glenn Diesen and Alexander Mercurous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcm1oWMnpS4
Not sure if I accidentally deleted this. If it is a duplicate - please ignore.
I am a huge fan of Col Lawrence Wilkerson. This is an excellent and informative discussion with Glenn Diesen, Alexander Mercurous and Larry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcm1oWMnpS4
Designing weapons must be great fun. It begins with little boys' fascination with toy weapons. As a child I had a pair of plastic revolvers called cap guns. A cap was a drop of explosive on a paper tape in the toy that made bang and smoke for verisimilitude. Along with the toy came the imaginary staging of violent confrontations in my child's mind. The feeling amid all this was of prevailing power over an imagined adversary. I can still feel the addiction settling into my nerves. My early reading experiences included the comics "Sgt York" and "G I Joe" and such. Violence and valor became intertwined. As we're led to believe that wealth signals virtue, so does the vanquishing of foes by violent retribution.
There's a rumor now of a posthumous trial of Henry Kissinger. If there is, can the ensuing moralistic grandstanding ever efface the power wielded by the glibly murderous Kissinger, who once said, "There's no aphrodisiac like power." It's obvious to me that the inveighing against violent state power has always been weak in comparison to the passion for violent retribution. At Mrs Carter's funeral, Hillary Clinton had to politely listen to Lennon's "Imagine". This aspirational moment occurred as Israel re-grouped to resume the bombing of the Palestinians. That story has now dropped to the bottom of the NYT web page. We do have to concede, in the wider public mind this episode is all about the hostages. The slowly titrated release is a boon to the storytellers as it just might continue to the celebratory conclusion as the rest of Gaza is obliterated. The U S set the accepted precedent: Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima, etc. Gaza will be reduced from end to end to a landscape of rubble and bones. Who will take an interest in the long developing intentionality of all this other than a small echo chamber of us dissenters? Who is there to rebuild it and resettle it but Israel? Any memorial there will be for perished Israelis only.
@Mario
Maybe if little Joe played with a cap gun, big Joe wouldn't need to keep playing war every chance he gets.
@Mario
I really get where you are coming from. I heard an Israeli interviewed and he said this hatred for the Palestinians - and all Arabs - is constantly taught in the schools and reinforced and normalised in Israeli society. I suppose any Israelis really hating it - aside from the Hassidic Jews who feel a genuine tie to the land and who want to live in peace with their Arab neighbours - will have moved away from Israel. I certainly wouldn't want to live or raise my children in such a racist environment.
I am sure you have read Chris Hedges who speaks of the normalisation of violence in American society. It sounds even worse in Israeli society - something I naively didn't realise until this latest slaughter.
I think Jimmy Carter was the last president who actually understood the horror of war and worked for peace. Every other president seems to be an armchair general - egged on, I am sure by the MIC and our military leaders who advise the POTUS.
We live in this childish world of good guys and bad guys - bad guys being whoever the Western Alliance has determined are the Evil Ones. Saudi Arabia in Yemen (OK), Zelinsky and the Ukrainian Nazis (OK), Israelis committing a genocide of thousands (OK), Putin (not OK), Palestinians - who the western apologists are trying desperately to equate with Hamas (not OK), Saddam Hussein (OK but when he didn't do what we wanted, not OK). If there is something in it for the U.S., we willingly turn a blind eye to pure evil and if a leader of a country doesn't do what we want, we demonise him. What is worse, is the rest of the West just blindly follows along with us instead of holding the U.S. accountable. I feel like this has gotten worse in my lifetime.
Time to revisit the book 'Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid' by Jimmy Carter, 2006.
I understand Carter was severely criticized at the time by the usual cast of characters. 'How dare that anti-semite blame Israel!' Surely he deserved to win the Profile in Courage Award just for daring to write that book. I haven't read it but plan to when/if I find the mental fortitude.
Carter is actually one of the few Nobel Peace Prize winners who was actually deserving. At least he tried to give peace a chance, unlike Obomber.
Sad to say that today some of the last surviving Palestinian journalists in Gaza have started saying their goodbyes and posting their eulogies on X. No hope left for help. No hope left to survive. They expect to be killed within days or a week. Peace be upon them.
It's all but over except for the ZioNazi street dancing.
The US "left" the Vietnam War in the same way. The US isolated Vietnam diplomatically and politically as much as it could, and did everything it then knew to do to harm it. If the idea of sanctions war had been more developed back then, no doubt that would have been done too, as it now is to so many like Venezuela out of the same political spite that now is enough to motive that behavior.
This lasted for decades with Vietnam, until the US found a way to use Vietnam against China. Then, and only then, did the US relent in favor of hostility to another enemy.
Perhaps Afghanistan could get free of the US attack if it found a way to be useful to the US against China. But that would be dangerous due to proximity, and would cut Afghanistan off from much economic development that China and Russia can offer better than can the US. So Afghanistan might do better to be useful to China and Russia against the US.
This would be yet another "strategic defeat" as SecDef Austin just called it in relation to Israel.
@Mark
Political spite - that is exactly what the U.S. is like. The way we treated the USSR after Gorbachev reached out the hand of peace and was willing to take the first step. And I cannot get over how horrible we continue to be to poor Cuba - and for what? Surviving the U.S.? We have a despicable foreign policy.
@Annenigma
Yes, I will also dig out Peace Not Apartheid. I remember the criticism Carter got for calling Israel an Apartheid state - now it is common place to acknowledge it (I guess because it is SO obvious.) I notice stars in Hollywood are pretty silent on the subject - except to back Israel. The hypocrisy is revolting. It is the McCarthy Era all over again.
I just heard something on one of the many podcasts I listen to - The West is saying it is a battle between Autocracy and Democracy and the person interviewed said, "more like Autocracy and Hypocrisy." True that!
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