Showing posts with label Warmongering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warmongering. Show all posts

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Yes, I DO Take It Personally! What Martin Luther King Jr. Meant When He Said: "...the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- My country"

Reference ~~ Martin Luther King Jr., "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence" (Speech delivered 4 April 1967 at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned, Riverside Church, New York City)

Also see: Martin Luther King Jr., Domestic Terrorist


Not Absolutely Nothing

Special Delivery For Ossetia via Georgian RocketsIn 2008, according to an authoritative report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), $55.2 billion in weapons deals were concluded worldwide. Of that total, the United States was responsible for $37.8 billion in weapons sales agreements, or 68.4% of the total “trade.” Some of these agreements were long-term ones and did not result in 2008 deliveries of weapons systems, but these latest figures are a good gauge of the global appetite for weapons.


It doesn’t take a PhD in economics to recognize that, when one nation accounts for nearly 70% of weapons sales, the term “global arms trade” doesn’t quite cut it.


Georgian Civilian Collateral Damage - Georgia/S. Ossetia "War" 2008Consider the “competition” and reality comes into focus. Take a guess on which country is the number two weapons exporter on the planet: China? Russia?

No, Italy, with a relatively paltry $3.7 billion in agreements with other countries or just 9% of the U.S. market share.


Russia, that former Cold War superpower in the “trade,” was close behind Italy, with only $3.5 billion in arms agreements.

More from ProfMarcus: "The U.S. - making sure that purveyors of death and destruction have the latest and best tools for the job" @ "And Yes I DO Take It Personally"

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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Master Plan or Screw Up? Georgia and U.S. Strategy - Counterpunch, And A Statement From The Georgia Peace Committee

A quick overview (6 minute +-) from Pepe Escobar of AsiaTime Courtesy of The Real News Network

H/t to OpEdNews Ossetia - The Politics of Naming and Blaming
The conflict in South Ossetia may be in standoff mode, but it certainly isn't over. It has been said repeatedly in reports that the conflict is deep rooted and complex.

Isn't everything?

The entire responsibility for this fratricidal war, for thousands of children, women and elderly dead people, for the inhabitants of South Ossetia and of Georgia falls exclusively on the current President, on the Parliament and on the Government of Georgia. The irresponsibility and the adventurism of the Saakashvili regime have no limits. The President of Georgia and his team, undoubtedly, are criminals and must be held responsible. --Georgia Peace Committee, Official Statement
Image Courtesy Of Telegraph.co.uk


Master Plan or Screw Up?
Georgia and U.S. Strategy


August 14, 2008

By MIKE WHITNEY
The American-armed and trained Georgian army swarmed into South Ossetia last Thursday, killing an estimated 2,000 civilians, sending 40,000 South Ossetians fleeing over the Russian border, and destroying much of the capital, Tskhinvali.

The attack was unprovoked and took place a full 24 hours before even ONE Russian soldier set foot in South Ossetia. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans still believe that the Russian army invaded Georgian territory first.

The BBC, AP, NPR, the New York Times and the rest of the establishment media have consistently and deliberately misled their readers into believing that the violence in South Ossetia was initiated by the Kremlin.

Let's be clear, it wasn't. In truth, there is NO dispute about the facts except among the people who rely the western press for their information.

Despite its steady loss of credibility, the corporate media continues to operate as the propaganda-arm of the Pentagon.
In Full @ Counterpunch Magazine


PEACE COMMITTEE OF GEORGIA
0182. Apt. 2, quarter 8, house 10, massif 3, Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel:++ 995 93 761363 Fax/Tel:++ 995 32 731516
E-mail:[EMAIL REDACTED]

Declaration of the Georgian Peace Committee

Once more Georgia was launched into a situation of chaos and bloodshed. A new fratricidal war exploded with renewed strength on Georgian soil.

To our great disappointment, the alerts of the Georgian Peace Committee and of progressive personalities of Georgia on the pernicious character of the militarization of the country and on the danger of a pro-fascist and nationalist policy had no effect.

The authorities of Georgia once again organized a bloody war, feeling the support of some western countries and of regional and international organizations. It will take decades to cleanse the shame poured by the current holders of the power over the Georgian people.

The Georgian army--armed and trained by U.S. instructors and using also U.S. armaments--subjected the city of Tskhinvali to a barbaric destruction. The bombings killed Ossetian civilians, our brothers and sisters, children, women and elderly people. Over 2,000 inhabitants of Tskhinvali and of its surroundings died.

Hundreds of civilians of Georgian nationality also died, both in the conflict zone as well as on the entire territory of Georgia.

The Georgian Peace Committee expresses its deep condolences to the relatives and friends of those who have perished.

The entire responsibility for this fratricidal war, for thousands of children, women and elderly dead people, for the inhabitants of South Ossetia and of Georgia falls exclusively on the current President, on the Parliament and on the Government of Georgia. The irresponsibility and the adventurism of the Saakashvili regime have no limits. The President of Georgia and his team, undoubtedly, are criminals and must be held responsible.

The Georgian Peace Committee, together with all the progressive parties and social movements of Georgia, will struggle to assure that the organizers of this monstrous genocide have a severe and legitimate punishment.

The Georgian Peace Committee declares and asks broad public opinion not to identify the current Georgian leadership with the people of Georgia, with the Georgian nation, and appeals to all to support the Georgian people in the struggle against the criminal regime of Saakashvili.

We appeal to all the political forces of Georgia, the social movements and the people of Georgia to unite in order to free the country from the Russian-phobic and pro-fascist anti popular regime of Saakashvili!

The Georgian Peace Committee Tbilisi, Aug. 11, 2008

Related @ Technorati: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Class War... Because Two Wars Are Not Enough - US escalating covert operations against Iran - Seymour Hersh/New Yorker

Want to stop 'em?

Don't bother voting...

Barack Obama supports war with Iran too!

Here's The Buffalo's suggestion...




Go after their friends...


But note:
"...since Barack Obama has no qualms about “unilaterally” militarily attacking other nations, there is absolutely no reason to believe that he would be self-constrained from ordering that Black, Brown, and Red peoples right here inside of the US be viciously attacked via “police actions;” and quite frankly, lots of white Americans themselves might not be that far behind from being sacrificed, especially if they dare to try and get in the way of Mr. Corporate - “unilaterally” attack them - Barack Obama." Source, Black Commentator

"Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed.

But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials.

Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.

Under federal law, a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees, the so-called Gang of Eight.Money for the operation can then be reprogrammed from previous appropriations, as needed, by the relevant congressional committees, which also can be briefed.“

The Finding was focussed on undermining Iran’s nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change,” a person familiar with its contents said, and involved “working with opposition groups and passing money.”

The Finding provided for a whole new range of activities in southern Iran and in the areas, in the east, where Baluchi political opposition is strong, he said."

In Full @ The New Yorker


There Have Been


Thanks For Stopping By


Sunday, May 18, 2008

Un-Holy War Chronicles - US sniper in Iraq used Koran for larget practice, writes offensive graffiti

First, a word from the sponsor:













From BBC
:
"An American sniper has been sent home from Iraq for using a copy of the Koran for target practice at a shooting range near Baghdad, the US military says."
.
.
.


He was unnamed, but was reportedly a staff sergeant in a sniper section.

US military spokesman Colonel Bill Buckner said the incident was "both serious and deeply troubling", but stressed it was an "isolated incident and a result of one soldier's actions".


[And then there's this 'isolated incident']

[And this soldier... also 'isolated']




...and a group of soldiers did this "isolated act":

Talafar Girl

The US army's commander in Baghdad, Major-General Jeffery Hammond, made a personal apology to local Sunni Arab leaders in Radwaniya, CNN reported.

On arrival, he was met by hundreds of protesting tribesmen.
.
.
.


The military presented the elders with a new copy of the Koran.

(Wasn't that... special...)


There Have Been

Thanks For Stopping By


Thursday, May 8, 2008

Today's US Election News - Zawahiri endorses McCain Plan For Iran; McCain seeks Endorsement of Catholic-Haters; 8% Percent of Pakistanis Back McCain

Hmmm.. I appear to have a 'problem' getting a comment posted to Juan Cole's Informed Comment. It's not the first time...
Does America believes in justice for the people of Iraq? An Open Response To Matthew Walleser’s Informed Comment Guest Editorial on Imperilled US Allies (Iraqi Collaborators)
Nevertheless, this is too funny to let slide out of a false sense of Buffalo pride.

My perhaps unpublished 2nd try at commenting on Genocide follows.

Zawahiri endorses McCain Plan to Bomb Iran; McCain seeks Endorsement of Catholic-Haters; 8 Percent of Pakistanis Back McCain

Senator John McCain, who seeks endorsements from haters of Roman Catholics, is alleging that Hamas has "endorsed" Barack Obama. He darkly suggests that this means something.

It is a despicable, dirty campaign trick. Who do you think the Ku Klux Klan will be endorsing? And if the Grand Dragons plump for McCain, does that tell us anything about McCain except that he is pasty faced? You can't logically read off anything at all from an unsolicited endorsement.

Actually it occurred to me to ask who is endorsing McCain in the Muslim world.

Well, it turns out that al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri has declared that he is actually on McCain's side in wanting to destroy Iran. Al-Zawahiri is hurt that McCain keeps confusing hyper-Sunni al-Qaeda with radical Shiism: "Ayman al-Zawahiri said al-Qaeda wants to see the destruction of Iran - a Shiite nation battling the terrorists . . . "The dispute between America and Iran is a genuine struggle, and the possibility of the US striking Iran is real," al-Zawahiri said. . ." Al-Zawahiri hopes that the US struggle with Iran will destroy the latter and weaken the former, putting al-Qaeda in a position to administer the coup de grace.

In essence, al-Zawahiri is endorsing McCain's plan to "bomb, bomb, bomb/ bomb, bomb Iran."

Then, it turns out that 8 percent of Pakistanis support McCain. 30 percent support Hillary Clinton, and she leads in this Muslim country over Obama (13%). But surely it is Pakistani liberals who are favoring Hillary, the sort people who supported Benazir Bhutto.

So which Pakistanis are supporting McCain?

Presumably the conservative Muslims who can't accept the leadership of a woman....

Then, Professor Cole goes on to cover the background of some of John McCain's more 'ardent' U.S. supporters:
But lets consider the people from whom McCain has actively sought an endorsement. Many of them seem to engage in a lot of hate speech against Catholics, Muslims and others.

John McCain's spiritual guides:

John Hagee, whose endorsement John McCain actively sought, compares the Roman Catholic Church to Hitler and depicts it as drinking the blood of the Jews through history:

[Video]

John McCain praised Rod Parsely as a spiritual guide; he is caught on camera below:

[Video]

Parseley accuses the federal government of enabling a genocide against African-Americans.

That's where I attempted to comment, on the casual dismissal of the charge of genocide against African Americans, no matter WHAT the accuser's political background.

I second anonymous' comment in regard to Parsley's statement about Planned Parenthood & Margaret Sanger AND I also am here to say the genocide continues, with more than 40% of male African Americans having been incarcerated in their lives (over 90% of California's prison population is African American and Latino), chemical warfare on their communities in the form of Heroin and Crack Cocaine, much of it imported into the US over the years with the witting or unwitting (I'd be glad to state which I think, but one post on this has already been 'moderated') assistance of the US military and CIA... cf. "The French Connection" Heroin pipeline from the "Golden Triangle" of SE Asia to Marseilles France with the PUBLICLY KNOWN assistance of US Special Forces and the CIA, to the US communities of color in the sixties.

Who would believe that it ever even slowed down since then... and now, the dismemberment of their communities en masse... cf. New Orleans Katrina "reconstruction" (gentrification) and the mass forced relocation of the people who live on 'Hurricane Alley" along the Mississippi coast.

Pardon my analysis...



...but sometime I think we're all actors in an American B Movie



...and we would have much rather had John Wayne...

Y' All know darn well we would have rather had John Wayne than any of the cast of blindly US policy supporting characters currently feeling 'presidential'.

In Full, with videos, at Informed Comment

There Have Been

Thanks For Stopping By


Tuesday, April 8, 2008

...And In Our OTHER Dirty Little War - Mogadishu Somalia, "...the really frightening part of it was the lack of people."

BBC as reported by GarroweOnline

Eerie silence in empty Mogadishu
By Mark Doyle BBC News world affairs correspondent, Mogadishu

7 Apr 7, 2008 - 9:45:10 AM

The streets north of the ruins of the Old Parliament in Mogadishu stretch out like alleyways bulldozed through a rubble dump.

Parts of some of the buildings are still standing - a wall here, a section of collapsed roof there.

But the overall impression in this part of the Somali capital is one of massive destruction. I did not see a single house there without shell damage or bullet holes.

However, the really frightening part of it was the lack of people.

After covering several wars, I have come to be wary of empty places.

If, in a war zone, you turn a corner and see no shops open and no people going about their business - beware.

It usually means that some military activity has recently taken place there - so the people have fled - or that the people fear an imminent attack.

And the local people almost always know best.

As I drove through parts of Mogadishu on a patrol with Ugandan soldiers of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, there was an eerie lack of human beings.
Blasted buildings aside, this ghostly absence of people was a sure sign that this place is going through a period of terrible violence.

The United Nations estimates that in the past year at least half of the population of Mogadishu - or over half a million people - have fled the fighting between the Ethiopian-backed transitional government and its Islamist and clan-based opponents.... In Full


It's obvious to even the uninterested observer that Ethiopian and AU troops are in country, but the main players in this bush war (double entendre absolutely intended) are the Islamic Court Union, the people who tried to put the Somali warlords out of the western extractive industries protection business...

A family photo the CIA's Somali warlord mercenary army leadership.
They were "extracted" by US SEALS the first time their "government" collapsed.



...with air support and advisory services courtesy of DynCorp
Click the image for specifications and history (GlobalSecurity.org)

...and in the near future AFRICOM, the US military command in Africa will be directly involved, upping the US military casualty ante considerably.

Where the same terror and intimidation tactics will be used, as seen by the civilian population of Iraq...

Click for a description via the 361st PsyOps Co. Iraq

Speaking of terror...

This on the latest fashionable mayhem creations specifically designed for the AC130, and (if it DOES work) undoubtedly intended for Horn of Africa deployment... Because if we CALL THEM al Qaeda (and we DO call the ICU that), they are no better than animals in our government's view, subject to torture, EMF radiation strong enough to cook flesh... whatever.

From DefenseTech's archive


Pimp My Gunship 2: Directed Energy

The AC-130U Spectre is a byword for high-precision fire support. But equipping it with directed energy weapons (DE) will take close air support to an entirely new level. The technological breakthrough needed to get there is a radical $22m superconducting generator which the Air Force will demonstrate by 2009 and which is specifically indended to fit on a C-130.
[In Full]



There Have Been


Thanks For Stopping By