RE-POST from correntewire 5/25/10
If you think the new world order Obama alluded to in his 5-22-10 9th-crop-of-cadets-as-MidEast-cannon fodder-for-the-new-world-order-(hegemony)-killing-fields speechat West Point this past Saturday has any remote benefits for those of us not in the top 1% of global income holders, there is an oil well in the Gulf I’d like to sell you.
By the way, there was a group of about 100 protesters up at West Point organized by Debra Sweet's The World Can't Wait organization. A respectable number, and I am grateful for their commitment. But a very tiny number when you consider that most of the 80 million Americans who voted in Barack Obama made it abundantly clear their number one priority was for him to end the illegal and ferocious wars in the Middle East. Within his first year he has earnestly escalated the troop numbers, the scope of the wars, the use of ultra-violent weaponry, the casualty counts and the Pentagon's mind-numbing budgets in this time of economic crisis. There is something seriously -- terrifyingly -- wrong with our profound passivity as citizens. The passivity of all but a relatively small handful of continually committed resisters. We are, like it or not, the proverbial "good Germans." I always wondered how the Holocaust could have occurred. I have my answer in these United States.
As for Obama's speech, in literary terms it seemed of very poor quality. Maybe Barack's selling his soul for career, power, control, approval of those corporate and military daddies, etc. is drying up his creativity. On the other hand, maybe the speech's shallow, cliché-ridden rhetoric was deliberate and manipulative. Maybe sending those trustingly naive and/or desperate for money and/or an education kids -- young officers -- into certain, unfathomable hell to become definitely psychologically -- maybe physically -- maimed or even killed while at the same time using them to definitely psychologically – maybe physically – maim or even kill fellow human beings -- deserves a really “drone-numbing” (pun intended) level cadence for the jingoistic hypocrisy of evil. Leave it to Obama to find the perfect, tone deaf notes. (I guess that isn’t really fair of me. I didn’t listen to him give the speech. I read the transcript. I find I am just as repelled now watching Obama lie to America with his faux-amiability and stylish rhetoric as I was watching Bush’s smirky, I’m-every-bit-the-idiot-most-of-you-are crony routine.)
Maybe in delivering a global “new world order” message, it is best to keep it vague so those in desperate denial on behalf of this new president will do serious positive spinning for him, lay out justifications or noble intentions, or at least abort any dialogues with his non-believers to the left with the ever popular “at least he is not as bad as Bush” declaration. (When we all know you can clear that bar without moving.)
One of the few statements that I did find metaphorically and conceptually compelling in the speech was: “Al Qaeda and its affiliates are small men on the wrong side of history.” I cite this only because it inspired me to remark to myself how amazing is the compulsion of many people, and in this case Appearance-Is-Everything Obama, to project his own position of pathos and condition of dysfunction onto others, even others most worthy of the charge. With every passing day I am convinced Obama has chosen to be spiritually small on the wrong side of history.
Forgive my bitterness. The gloves are off. I figure I – we -- don’t have much time and bluntness is called for. If you’ve been reading Glenn Greenwald at Salon among others our constitutional rights are circling the bowl and disappearing VERY fast. The acreage of killing fields is spreading exponentially. International law, habeas corpus, the Geneva convention, Miranda rights seem to be as quaint and outmoded to Obama’s crew as they were to Bush’s. Obama's cherry-picking relativism regarding the law -- sometimes he respects it, other times not so much – is stunning. Executive hubris gone amok. Obama's astonishing assumption of the right to assassinate an American citizen without due process. Again, the profound lack of outrage and attention among Congress, the media and the citizenry over this. And of course, the continuation of the military killing machine. As Chris Hedges has said, our main way of communication as a nation is through violence, though our leaders give occasional lip service only to winning “hearts and minds.”
The Wikileaks’ video of the Iraq 'copter troops in 2007 cavalierly “shooting fish [Iraqi civilians] in a video-screen barrel” showed the degree of how morally and psychologically broken some of our soldiers are as well as a military system that tolerates, ignores and/or even encourages such war crimes. This is one more reason why there is such intense revenge radicalization among the citizenry of the countries we have illegally invaded. Debra Sweet declares that one can access hundreds of such recorded atrocities on the internet, proving it is not a case of a "few bad apples." There seems no longer any serious rules of engagement. Ray McGovern recently pointed out a desensitizing training mantra used at boot camps is "Shoot 'em all, let God sort 'em out!"
The desensitizing indoctrination training, hyper-macho military group think, cult-like demands for obedience, trauma of eye-witness violence and devastation, sustained survival paranoia, along with multiple deployments are all contributing factors to a massive number of war atrocities perpetrated by many of the troops on civilians.
Another disturbing revelation from Frontline in its recent documentary, The Wounded Platoon, was the large scale, clearly inappropriate "official" use in combat of anti-PTSD medication. These along with the troops resorting to self-medications -- illegal drugs or alcohol -- were contributing to further violent amoral behaviors against civilians as well as suicides and extreme mental stress and breakdowns among the troops. Feeding soldiers all sorts of psychotropic drugs and sleeping pills to keep them even more dysfunctional “functional” war machines seems a war crime in itself.
Frontline also reveals that the trigger-happy, video gaming atrocities perpetrated by some, apparently many, of our troops in the victim states of Iraq and Afghanistan mean and will mean more crime and violence when these troops return home permanently or temporarily. Frontline focused on the horrifying crime wave and addiction statistics from Colorado Springs near Ft. Carson. This tragic phenomenon is predictable, that some troops would behave with the same reckless, life-is-cheap, killer abandon state side. In fact, in the documentary some troops discovered that their homecoming repetitions of crazed amorality -- excused and minimized amidst their heralded bold “battlefield” behaviors -- had them facing down decades’ long prison sentences. WTF
??? They had just so recently “enjoyed” a free range, license to kill (especially “rag heads”, “sand n*ggers", "hodgies", so nick-named by many in the military) back in the Middle East. Clearly from Frontline's attempts at interviews with the brass, the army pretty much disavows responsibility for this post-combat phenomenon. What a surprise. What bullshit.
??? They had just so recently “enjoyed” a free range, license to kill (especially “rag heads”, “sand n*ggers", "hodgies", so nick-named by many in the military) back in the Middle East. Clearly from Frontline's attempts at interviews with the brass, the army pretty much disavows responsibility for this post-combat phenomenon. What a surprise. What bullshit.
Frontline also reveals cases when PTSD releases from combat were denied, when recruits with criminal backgrounds and/or pending charges were allowed to join up because the military was so desperate to add boots on the ground.
Ends justifies the means. America’s terrifying and terrorizing Bushco, now Obamaco, mantra.
As for Obama’s new world order, the imperialism that I found so strongly resonating as I read the speech, and that unmistakable, bullying warning at one point to countries that don’t abide the "currents of progress" as judged by Obama and the U.S. power elite, Israel, and other crony nations. I have finally figured out why the neocons of the US and the neocons who demonize the Palestinians in Israel are so chillingly palsy-walsy. The political and militaristic leadership of both these countries are questing after a global apartheid domination of ALL countries with them, this "might makes right" elite, as the ruling minority class. They are pretty far along, too. Look at the massive number of bases sucking profound amounts of taxpayer money and alienating the you-can-bet-unhappy host countries who must endure US military presence, especially in this age of extrajudicial non-accountability. Also, in terms of the propaganda unleashed by the cabal of main stream media corporatists, the drum beat for war and the manufacturing of its justification has proven heartbreakingly easy. Again, just look at the national passivity regarding the war-mongering of this President and our terrified of being found soft on terror, massively lobby-bribed Congress.
I have been bewildered quite often as to why we as a faux-strong and faux-righteous nation have allowed, as one example, mass numbers of women to be brutally raped in Africa. That kind of military or even diplomatic intervention seen as apparently unwarranted by the power patriarchies in this and other "civilized" countries? Such little attention by the mainstream media as well. Human rights so not a priority in this “pragmatically” amoral dark age. I wonder, too, about Mexico and the insane number of violent deaths there since the War on Drugs was ramped up by Calderon, with the questionable "assistance" of the United. States. I wonder about our involvement with Afghanistan in terms of many things, but particularly the opium trade. So little information about that impoverished nation, thanks to us, that nevertheless supplies 90% of the global market. Corruption and incompetence abound. Evil prevails.
US military and corporate imperialism have destroyed massive numbers of human lives along with the quality of massive numbers of lives. They are devastating the planet, itself. Making it uninhabitable. We all watch and wait over the massive hemorrhaging of oil currently in the Gulf of Mexico. What more evidence do we need that the "world order" and definitely its ramping up by Obama's administration into a "new world order" would be an insane path to follow.
And yet, there is Obama enabling the ferocious inertia of the corporate-agenda, killing machine military to stay in motion. And we oblige, with our ferocious inertia to stay at rest. Our inertia from what? Are we so traumatized, we the incrementally boiled frog citizenry? So many fresh hells daily it makes us stay politically inert? Are we so narcissistic? Amoral? Where is our G-D will to resist? Fascism rising!!!
In one article on information clearing house a commentator speculated that the neocons in Israel and the US are girding up for an Iran war maybe as soon as late summer. This year!!! Dear God. A recent CNN survey revealed that 59% of America believed military action against Iran would be justified due to its nuclear weapons program. Meet the Press, and such programs, and the warmongering political and military guests have outdone themselves.
Net neutrality, internet access? How soon will “they” – the oligarchs -- figure out how to legally and technically yank that cord to our access to truth and to each other? There are now supposedly 5 corporation-persons controlling all global mainstream media. Doesn’t that make you stop and take a deep gulp? And we wonder why we get crap shallowness, drum-beat militarist talking points, a blackout of liberal activists, and schadenfreude titillation on the tube? Maybe Barack and the covert, ever-militarizing police state that used to be America have only “two words” or something equally nefariously silencing for the likes of people like me, too. And you, if you have found and are reading this.
I am bitter about Barack. I am bitter about Congress. I am bitter about our impotent and ostrich and/or morally imbecilic and/or ideologically moronic citizenry. Only 29% I read a while back are TOTALLY against torture. (God, “24” must be one helluva tv show! Keep me from ever watching it.)
I am most bitter about myself. About my own slowness to fully acknowledge , experientially, what a war criminal nation I am a citizen of. Yes, I may be politically disenfranchised, but nevertheless, I am one of the 80 million who turned to Obama to, among other humane things, end these illegal atrocity-ridden wars. Who hoped Obama could help America find “redemption.” Lead her back to some semblance of a values-possessing, humanitarian, freedom-respecting society. We got punked, royally. But I watch so many of my progressive brothers and sisters opt to plunge their heads back into the sand, with feeble “Obama as the lesser of two evils” or "he's got a lot on his plate" apologies.
--------------
I hear you and I understand. I also had high hopes for Obama when he was elected, and was afraid the presidency would be taken away from him when I awoke on Nov. 9, thinking they would figure out a way to steal it from him. I too am disappointed to learn that he is another yes-man to the corporate interests. I don't know what the answer is. The Occupy Movement was a good start, but where do we go from there?
Another one of these, huh, Libby.
I am reminded of a quote from the late Justice Robert H. Jackson:
In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic, and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds—that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.
I am reminded of a quote from the late Justice Robert H. Jackson:
In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic, and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds—that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.
Thanks, Erica K!
Frank, more and more evidence coming out that the CIA has been re-droning Pakistani targets right after the first dronings, which means that rescuers of the original victims are also sociopathically killed as in annihilated into red mist.
Obama has been minimizing (LYING) the number of civilian casualties from drones and insisting on the strategic targeting of true "terrorists" but it turns out there is ferocious insensitivity to whoever the targets are. Shock and awe for domination seems to be the main motivation. Details like respecting the sanctity of innocent human lives, so not a priority.
Glenn Greenwald is all over this story lately. So many of us have been reading about the civilian casualties of drones for a long, long time but finally there is serious abundant hard evidence. It is even getting attention from the NYT (monday latest story broke there).
Of course, it remains to be seen if this is one of those stories boiled frog America will ignore. (one of those sure thing bets) Ignore the blood mist of drone residue and continue on as an American citizen accessory to mass murder as directed or enabled by the "lesser of two evils" Prez, a war criminal.
Keep battering me as a messenger, Frank. It keeps you occupied from acknowledging the evil you are enabling. I am considered a zealot for believing innocent people shouldn't be zapped into red mist for the sake of power and money for the 1 percent elite? No wonder they have us so hog-tied. Well, no, they don't have to literally hog-tie us. Too many Americans obligingly enjoy Obama's pr amiability and assume the ostrich stance!
libby
Frank, more and more evidence coming out that the CIA has been re-droning Pakistani targets right after the first dronings, which means that rescuers of the original victims are also sociopathically killed as in annihilated into red mist.
Obama has been minimizing (LYING) the number of civilian casualties from drones and insisting on the strategic targeting of true "terrorists" but it turns out there is ferocious insensitivity to whoever the targets are. Shock and awe for domination seems to be the main motivation. Details like respecting the sanctity of innocent human lives, so not a priority.
Glenn Greenwald is all over this story lately. So many of us have been reading about the civilian casualties of drones for a long, long time but finally there is serious abundant hard evidence. It is even getting attention from the NYT (monday latest story broke there).
Of course, it remains to be seen if this is one of those stories boiled frog America will ignore. (one of those sure thing bets) Ignore the blood mist of drone residue and continue on as an American citizen accessory to mass murder as directed or enabled by the "lesser of two evils" Prez, a war criminal.
Keep battering me as a messenger, Frank. It keeps you occupied from acknowledging the evil you are enabling. I am considered a zealot for believing innocent people shouldn't be zapped into red mist for the sake of power and money for the 1 percent elite? No wonder they have us so hog-tied. Well, no, they don't have to literally hog-tie us. Too many Americans obligingly enjoy Obama's pr amiability and assume the ostrich stance!
libby
This from Glenn Greenwald:
http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/
"In a just-released, richly documented report, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, on behalf of the Sunday Times, documents that this is exactly what the U.S. is doing — and worse:
"The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.
The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a “targeted, focused effort” that “has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties”. . . .
"A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.
"Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.
"There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.
"As I indicated, there have been scattered, mostly buried indications in the American media that drones have been targeting and killing rescuers. As the Bureau put it: “Between May 2009 and June 2011, at least fifteen attacks on rescuers were reported by credible news media, including the New York Times, CNN,Associated Press, ABC News and Al Jazeera.” Killing civilians attending the funerals of drone victims is also well-documented by the Bureau’s new report:
"Other tactics are also raising concerns. On June 23 2009 the CIA killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud, a mid-ranking Pakistan Taliban commander. They planned to use his body as bait to hook a larger fish – Baitullah Mehsud, then the notorious leader of the Pakistan Taliban
.
“A plan was quickly hatched to strike Baitullah Mehsud when he attended the man’s funeral,” according to Washington Post national security correspondent Joby Warrick, in his recent book The Triple Agent. “True, the commander… happened to be very much alive as the plan took shape. But he would not be for long.”
"The CIA duly killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud in a drone strike that killed at least five others. . . .
"Up to 5,000 people attended Khwaz Wali Mehsud’s funeral that afternoon, including not only Taliban fighters but many civilians. US drones struck again, killing up to 83 people. As many as 45 were civilians, among them reportedly ten children and four tribal leaders.
"The Bureau quotes several experts stating the obvious: that targeting rescuers and funeral attendees is patently illegal and almost certainly constitutes war crimes:..."
http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/
"In a just-released, richly documented report, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, on behalf of the Sunday Times, documents that this is exactly what the U.S. is doing — and worse:
"The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.
The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a “targeted, focused effort” that “has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties”. . . .
"A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.
"Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.
"There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.
"As I indicated, there have been scattered, mostly buried indications in the American media that drones have been targeting and killing rescuers. As the Bureau put it: “Between May 2009 and June 2011, at least fifteen attacks on rescuers were reported by credible news media, including the New York Times, CNN,Associated Press, ABC News and Al Jazeera.” Killing civilians attending the funerals of drone victims is also well-documented by the Bureau’s new report:
"Other tactics are also raising concerns. On June 23 2009 the CIA killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud, a mid-ranking Pakistan Taliban commander. They planned to use his body as bait to hook a larger fish – Baitullah Mehsud, then the notorious leader of the Pakistan Taliban
.
“A plan was quickly hatched to strike Baitullah Mehsud when he attended the man’s funeral,” according to Washington Post national security correspondent Joby Warrick, in his recent book The Triple Agent. “True, the commander… happened to be very much alive as the plan took shape. But he would not be for long.”
"The CIA duly killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud in a drone strike that killed at least five others. . . .
"Up to 5,000 people attended Khwaz Wali Mehsud’s funeral that afternoon, including not only Taliban fighters but many civilians. US drones struck again, killing up to 83 people. As many as 45 were civilians, among them reportedly ten children and four tribal leaders.
"The Bureau quotes several experts stating the obvious: that targeting rescuers and funeral attendees is patently illegal and almost certainly constitutes war crimes:..."
Thanks for the response, Libby. I understand your concerns, but more than likely there are other factors at play. I do not have the information necessary to judge what those factors are…I cannot say with any kind of authority that the damage done is more or less than the damage being prevented…and I seriously doubt you do either. That is where we differ...I am willing to consider that these other factors are present and may be significant. You are not.
Of course, it remains to be seen if this is one of those stories boiled frog America will ignore. (one of those sure thing bets) Ignore the blood mist of drone residue and continue on as an American citizen accessory to mass murder as directed or enabled by the "lesser of two evils" Prez, a war criminal.
As I said, “…fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds—that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.”
Of course, it remains to be seen if this is one of those stories boiled frog America will ignore. (one of those sure thing bets) Ignore the blood mist of drone residue and continue on as an American citizen accessory to mass murder as directed or enabled by the "lesser of two evils" Prez, a war criminal.
As I said, “…fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds—that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.”
Libby, I have also been a reader of Glenn's stories about this and have read similar stories elsewhere, as well. It is an understatement to say this is disturbing and the general population needs to wake up to what's happening and create the type of "change" that brings back civil liberties that have been thrown out the window!
Designator, thanks for your response!!!! Yes, somehow a critical mass of citizens has got to BEGIN TO CARE AND PROTEST the horrors of our illegitimate warring!
Erica, forgive me for not responding to your final comment question. I think we have to speak up, go to demonstrations, write blogs about our outrage at the amorality of the USWarMachine. Write Congress and the President and seek more moral representatives for us. Monitor the corporate media and pushback. Join a non-legacy party like the Greens, since sadly the Dem Party has joined the money/war dark side. They say in the 12-step rooms the first step is admitted we are powerless over our "disease" and that our "government" in this case has become unmanageable. THAT IS THE FIRST STEP and the vast majority of America, whether out of collective ego or toxic propagandized cronyism, can't even do the first step, facing down the horror, the heart of darkness. I give lip service to the Greens more than industrial strength service these days, IRL circumstances have me stressed now, and I need to get back to working for them and their candidates. So many fresh hells, so many fronts. But Pete Seeger said, "Think globally, act locally."
Best, libby
Erica, forgive me for not responding to your final comment question. I think we have to speak up, go to demonstrations, write blogs about our outrage at the amorality of the USWarMachine. Write Congress and the President and seek more moral representatives for us. Monitor the corporate media and pushback. Join a non-legacy party like the Greens, since sadly the Dem Party has joined the money/war dark side. They say in the 12-step rooms the first step is admitted we are powerless over our "disease" and that our "government" in this case has become unmanageable. THAT IS THE FIRST STEP and the vast majority of America, whether out of collective ego or toxic propagandized cronyism, can't even do the first step, facing down the horror, the heart of darkness. I give lip service to the Greens more than industrial strength service these days, IRL circumstances have me stressed now, and I need to get back to working for them and their candidates. So many fresh hells, so many fronts. But Pete Seeger said, "Think globally, act locally."
Best, libby
Apparently the troops are putting they money on Ron Paul, owing to opposition to the continuing occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. There will be a troops/veterans rally supporting Ron Paul Feb 20th in DC. No matter how people feel about Paul, this is a very intriguing, anticorporate, antiwar video: http://www.rys2sense.com/anti-neocons/viewtopic.php?f=110&t=28280
good enough to be on the front page of Salon, Slate, anywhere. r
We need to be shamed and shamed and shamed again til we can no longer tell ourselves apart from the worms that we are, for aiding, abetting and financing this behavior.
Who among us will sleep more peacefully tonight knowing we have slaughtered another child, another mother or grandmother, just to get the bad guy. Good work. We are a nation of eyes wide open, knowing assassins now, all who pledge allegiance and spit out their own tongues with the words. True colors no? There's no lower to go, there's no belly left to crawl on, no stomach left to nourish with pus and worms for men without dignity, without morals, without legs, eyes or hearts. Men. American men.
Men who would kill people on a daily basis from a computer keyboard half a world away and spend their weekends in Vegas. Men, who would kiss their wives and go play golf after killing people at a funeral, sight unseen, half a world away. Eat ice cream. Say Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, kiss the grandchild to sleep, put on a DVD, watch a Hollywood movie, then go and kill people half a world away, all in a days work.
Sweet dreams Johnboy.
Who among us will sleep more peacefully tonight knowing we have slaughtered another child, another mother or grandmother, just to get the bad guy. Good work. We are a nation of eyes wide open, knowing assassins now, all who pledge allegiance and spit out their own tongues with the words. True colors no? There's no lower to go, there's no belly left to crawl on, no stomach left to nourish with pus and worms for men without dignity, without morals, without legs, eyes or hearts. Men. American men.
Men who would kill people on a daily basis from a computer keyboard half a world away and spend their weekends in Vegas. Men, who would kiss their wives and go play golf after killing people at a funeral, sight unseen, half a world away. Eat ice cream. Say Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, kiss the grandchild to sleep, put on a DVD, watch a Hollywood movie, then go and kill people half a world away, all in a days work.
Sweet dreams Johnboy.
Stuart, thanks for info re Paul and the veterans' support of him. I hope they are heard more and more. But how much are cannon fodder survivors listened to and taken seriously by the corporate run govt and media and lemming Americans. I was just watching an MSNBC show analyzing election returns and there is a total blackout of ANY MENTION of Ron Paul. There he is with his strong second place on this occasion and it was SKIPPED OVER and there is NOT A WORD ABOUT HIM. It is bizarre as well as shameful. Opposing the wars is a massively important part of a candidate's platform!
ONL, what a classy and generous thing to say! I thank you! I was going to write about the new CIA civilian casualty drone revelations but did not have time to get to it and remembered the above blog two years ago with my outrage over Obama's obscene militarism and included some facts and angles that still stand all the more strongly now.
II, wow. Yes, Yes, Yes. Thank you for expressing your views so passionately and angrily and eloquently. There is such a profound moral autism in this country. Based on ignorance of and/or indifference to the reality of what the USWarMachine is doing, in our name, with our tax dollars, and our collective consent. There is a collective moral autism. A collective pathological narcissism that is off the charts. It is like the old movie with Kevin McCarthy, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" where real people are replaced with pod people. If you let yourself fall asleep you, too, would turn into a pod person and you had to fight to stay awake. Now there is a powerful metaphor.
The "game" of politics, us vs. them -- so the faux-enlightened progressive hipsters focus on it and fight fight fight for a candidate that commits the same criminal war and constitution raping sins. Again, it is like living in an alternate and insane and amoral universe. I was watching one of the farther faux left progressives that has a voice on tv, which of course means he cherry-picks some real stuff and stays away from true humanitarian issues for the sake of corporate sponsorship or political legacy party gamesmanship, and he began to spout how Obama sure wasn't soft when it came to the military as opposed to what the meanie Republicans were saying about him. There was a slick macho bravado and it was chilling. This was during an analysis of the Syrian crisis. All I could think of was when Norman Mailer baited daddy Bush into the first Gulf War by calling him a WIMP.
This guy on the tube was also making the case that Obama was the cautious one, again comparing him to the deranged Republicans (and of course ignoring Ron Paul's stance).
II, your take on the new "drone" world order made me gulp. Chillingly put. How cheap life has come. Our upcoming keyboard soldiers have been practicing on their video games during their pre-adult decades and without moral consciousness, genocide "game on". Not much values education in any national conversation that contributes to our grave moral dysfunction as a nation.
Last night ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI was on the NewsHour and I appreciated especially his final words about the deplorable lack of awareness -- horrifying cluelessness -- of the American citizenry. He uses the word ABYSMAL!!! Here is an excerpt from the end of the interview:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june12/brzezinski_02-08.html
JEFFREY BROWN: Do you think the American people, the American political system is prepared to respond to this crisis you're talking about? You're talking about when you use words like diminishing power or a partner, rather than leader, balancer, these are sort of new terms that I wonder if people are prepared for or are able to respond to.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I think you're really raising the fundamental question, because the part that's dealing with America focuses not only on our economic social problems, but very much on what you have just right now said.
"We are a democracy. We can only have as good a foreign policy as the public's understanding of world affairs. And the tragedy is that the public's understanding of world affairs in America today is abysmal."
JEFFREY BROWN: Abysmal.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: It is ignorant. It is probably the least-informed public about the world among the developed countries in the world.
JEFFREY BROWN: What are the consequences -- you spend a fair amount of time in the book on this -- the consequences of not adjusting to the global shift, to the global crisis, as you describe it?
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I think the consequences are likely to involve more turmoil, in the sense that certain problems which could be avoided might the get out of hand. First on the list, obviously, is Iran, and the likely consequences, destructive consequences of military violence there.
"The consequences are likely to be more regional crises. The consequences are likely to be the absence of collective responses to the new global problems that affect all of humanity."
best, libby
ONL, what a classy and generous thing to say! I thank you! I was going to write about the new CIA civilian casualty drone revelations but did not have time to get to it and remembered the above blog two years ago with my outrage over Obama's obscene militarism and included some facts and angles that still stand all the more strongly now.
II, wow. Yes, Yes, Yes. Thank you for expressing your views so passionately and angrily and eloquently. There is such a profound moral autism in this country. Based on ignorance of and/or indifference to the reality of what the USWarMachine is doing, in our name, with our tax dollars, and our collective consent. There is a collective moral autism. A collective pathological narcissism that is off the charts. It is like the old movie with Kevin McCarthy, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" where real people are replaced with pod people. If you let yourself fall asleep you, too, would turn into a pod person and you had to fight to stay awake. Now there is a powerful metaphor.
The "game" of politics, us vs. them -- so the faux-enlightened progressive hipsters focus on it and fight fight fight for a candidate that commits the same criminal war and constitution raping sins. Again, it is like living in an alternate and insane and amoral universe. I was watching one of the farther faux left progressives that has a voice on tv, which of course means he cherry-picks some real stuff and stays away from true humanitarian issues for the sake of corporate sponsorship or political legacy party gamesmanship, and he began to spout how Obama sure wasn't soft when it came to the military as opposed to what the meanie Republicans were saying about him. There was a slick macho bravado and it was chilling. This was during an analysis of the Syrian crisis. All I could think of was when Norman Mailer baited daddy Bush into the first Gulf War by calling him a WIMP.
This guy on the tube was also making the case that Obama was the cautious one, again comparing him to the deranged Republicans (and of course ignoring Ron Paul's stance).
II, your take on the new "drone" world order made me gulp. Chillingly put. How cheap life has come. Our upcoming keyboard soldiers have been practicing on their video games during their pre-adult decades and without moral consciousness, genocide "game on". Not much values education in any national conversation that contributes to our grave moral dysfunction as a nation.
Last night ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI was on the NewsHour and I appreciated especially his final words about the deplorable lack of awareness -- horrifying cluelessness -- of the American citizenry. He uses the word ABYSMAL!!! Here is an excerpt from the end of the interview:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june12/brzezinski_02-08.html
JEFFREY BROWN: Do you think the American people, the American political system is prepared to respond to this crisis you're talking about? You're talking about when you use words like diminishing power or a partner, rather than leader, balancer, these are sort of new terms that I wonder if people are prepared for or are able to respond to.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I think you're really raising the fundamental question, because the part that's dealing with America focuses not only on our economic social problems, but very much on what you have just right now said.
"We are a democracy. We can only have as good a foreign policy as the public's understanding of world affairs. And the tragedy is that the public's understanding of world affairs in America today is abysmal."
JEFFREY BROWN: Abysmal.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: It is ignorant. It is probably the least-informed public about the world among the developed countries in the world.
JEFFREY BROWN: What are the consequences -- you spend a fair amount of time in the book on this -- the consequences of not adjusting to the global shift, to the global crisis, as you describe it?
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I think the consequences are likely to involve more turmoil, in the sense that certain problems which could be avoided might the get out of hand. First on the list, obviously, is Iran, and the likely consequences, destructive consequences of military violence there.
"The consequences are likely to be more regional crises. The consequences are likely to be the absence of collective responses to the new global problems that affect all of humanity."
best, libby
Truly horrifying. This time, though, no one in America can say they weren't warned. This news is humming in the air for anyone to bend their ear to listen. But scarcely anyone WANTS to listen, none of this fits into their belief system and so they reject it before they even catch a whiff of the stench. What did Burke say about all it takes for evil to prevail? Something about "good" people doing nothing? Isn't it always that way? (r)
nice rant. a bugle horn for the narcotized. unfortunately they need even more than that.
the warma$hine vs Iran aggression is just insanity. which is exactly why it just might happen.
the warma$hine vs Iran aggression is just insanity. which is exactly why it just might happen.
Well said, as always, vzn! Thanks! libby
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