The incident of Osama bin Laden’s execution by Navy Seals is one more litmus test for morality. It shows a disrespect for the sanctity of human life and the foundational principle of due process. Yes, even the sanctity of the human life of an Osama bin Laden. Obama counted on “vengeance” being accepted by us citizens, rather than real justice through the law.
As Chris Floyd has written:
... the question of whether the president could order an assassination was settled some time ago. They assert the right to keep prisoners in jail forever and kill American citizens, and nobody cares, so why in the world would there be any domestic blowback for ordering the death of the world's most wanted man?
The pack of lies that flooded forth upon the announcement of Bin Laden’s demise should also give us pause. They show a disrespect for us as citizens and for the truth.
How telling and depressing that the mendacious psy-ops framing of the raid and execution-style killing of Osama bin Laden seem so effectively eclipsed by the “historical accomplishment” of apprehending the mastermind of 9/11.
The end-justifies-the-means mentality is a seductive one, especially in this case.
What actually happened in the raid on the Bin Laden compound? There were so many glamorized versions of the story early on. John Brennan asserted at first that Osama bin Laden had engaged in a firefight with the Navy Seals and used one of his wives as a human shield. Then Jay Carney asserted that Bin Laden had not been armed but had resisted and been shot and that his wife had been wounded in the leg. Leon Panetta in an interview on PBS said that there had been a firefight going on as the Seals fought their way up the staircase.
There was no firefight. Actually, no shots fired at the Seals according to the latest reports.
The Jessica Lynchville story versions probably would have been allowed to ripple outward via a titillated and colluding media except for some considerations that David Lindorff offers.
My guess is that the White House had no choice but to come clean. Photos of the bedroom airing on Pakistani television on Monday showed that it had been barely disturbed by the confrontation. There were no bullet holes in walls. The clear glass windows were unbroken. The arch-villain's waterbed had suffered no leaks. There wasn't even much blood to be seen on the floor. The scene certainly was not what you'd have seen had there been a "firefight" in the enclosed space. I mean, if bullets had been fired at the American room invaders, there would either have been wounded men or damaged walls or windows. There was neither.
It wasn’t the “fog of war” that caused the lies. It was sacrificing truth for impression management. It was irrefutable physical evidence that squelched them. The fact that psy-ops mythologizing was so readily unleashed onto the public is the tip of a patriarchal iceberg of dangerous, hubristic willfulness.
Funny, I still wonder who they murder in that room. Fox News reported in Dec 2001 that he had died of end stage renal failure (based on the report of Taliban leaders who attended the funeral). Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright also confirmed that he had died. The Archbishop of Canterbury and other high level Brits have condemned the cold blooded murder of an unarmed man in front of his family. From what I've heard on the BBC, they may renew calls for an international criminal court.
Stuart, it absolutely seems to be now MIGHT MAKES RIGHT, not "might for right" as King Arthur's Camelot period. US has thrown out its international moral authority. Granted it has always been compromised by horrors in our history, but you would think there was a moral maturation we would be capable of, not the regression happening more and more with the overmilitarized patriarchy bent on power and control, not partnership and cooperation in the world.
The 9/11 attack seems to have been an act of VENGEANCE for US and Israel imperial violence and the violence perpetrated by corporatism, my take, yes dispicable in its scope and its vast cruelty, but the motivation for it was never fully explored by the press except for Helen Thomas pressing for it from Obama. It was about bloodlust vengeance.
So, with the execution of unarmed Osama bin Laden, if indeed it was bin Laden, that, too, is an act of VENGEANCE not justice through the law (as the Nazis had been prosecuted, etc.), also defiant of international, US military rules of engagement and MORAL law.
So, the US should rise above "vengeance" otherwise we are just mirroring back more bloodlust vengeance. And opening up the whole world to gangsterism with the latest in modern technological armaments. I call it institutionalized and normalized evil.
Of course, both Bush and now Obama's administration are willing to ignore the esscence of the law and twist it beyond recognition and humanity like John Yoo and those bastards with the Patriot Act loopholes for sadism and inhumanity. Obama declares he can assassinate US citizens. He can zap people across international boundaries with drones that leave little evidence of the beings they just incinerated, though not without a horrifying death experienced.
Eric Holder declaring shooting the unarmed bin Laden was out of "national self-defense" and the fact that there was no firefight is irrelevant as far as he is concerned. I read there were 79 US commandos in the compound for the raid. Their mission sure sounded like an execution.
But throw out some elaborate rhetoric and toss out the Geneva Conventions because ... because .... empathy and morality is not valued and cherished. Human rights not a priority. Life is cheap for the top 1 percenters!. Not theirs, everybody else's.
All I could think of was the bullets to the temple of one of the young flotilla passengers, his being executed by the Israeli commandos and then that being declared justified. What rules of engagement were they? The Gazan slaughter itself horrifies. And all that the military industrial security complex has been doing along with the US CIA for decades. Now we have special ops forces (death squads and destabilizers) in 74 countries thanks to Obama.
With all the technology we have, deadly force is not necessary. And due process and habeas corpus, etc., are vital to a healthy government.
The 9/11 attack seems to have been an act of VENGEANCE for US and Israel imperial violence and the violence perpetrated by corporatism, my take, yes dispicable in its scope and its vast cruelty, but the motivation for it was never fully explored by the press except for Helen Thomas pressing for it from Obama. It was about bloodlust vengeance.
So, with the execution of unarmed Osama bin Laden, if indeed it was bin Laden, that, too, is an act of VENGEANCE not justice through the law (as the Nazis had been prosecuted, etc.), also defiant of international, US military rules of engagement and MORAL law.
So, the US should rise above "vengeance" otherwise we are just mirroring back more bloodlust vengeance. And opening up the whole world to gangsterism with the latest in modern technological armaments. I call it institutionalized and normalized evil.
Of course, both Bush and now Obama's administration are willing to ignore the esscence of the law and twist it beyond recognition and humanity like John Yoo and those bastards with the Patriot Act loopholes for sadism and inhumanity. Obama declares he can assassinate US citizens. He can zap people across international boundaries with drones that leave little evidence of the beings they just incinerated, though not without a horrifying death experienced.
Eric Holder declaring shooting the unarmed bin Laden was out of "national self-defense" and the fact that there was no firefight is irrelevant as far as he is concerned. I read there were 79 US commandos in the compound for the raid. Their mission sure sounded like an execution.
But throw out some elaborate rhetoric and toss out the Geneva Conventions because ... because .... empathy and morality is not valued and cherished. Human rights not a priority. Life is cheap for the top 1 percenters!. Not theirs, everybody else's.
All I could think of was the bullets to the temple of one of the young flotilla passengers, his being executed by the Israeli commandos and then that being declared justified. What rules of engagement were they? The Gazan slaughter itself horrifies. And all that the military industrial security complex has been doing along with the US CIA for decades. Now we have special ops forces (death squads and destabilizers) in 74 countries thanks to Obama.
With all the technology we have, deadly force is not necessary. And due process and habeas corpus, etc., are vital to a healthy government.
so did you hear there was no gunfire resistance? last I heard "someone shot at the SEALs from an adjacent property"
No comments:
Post a Comment