WikiLeaks' Most Terrifying Revelation: Just How Much Our Government Lies to Us

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/story/149393/wikileaks%27_most_terrifying_revelation%3A_just_how_much_our_government_lies_to_us

WikiLeaks' Most Terrifying Revelation: Just How Much Our Government Lies to Us

Wikileaks has shown that our government and military form a 'vast lying machine' that perpetrates mass murder in our name.

January 3, 2011

"Try as I may I can not escape the sound of suffering. Perhaps as an old man I will accept suffering with insouciance. But not now; men in their prime, if they have convictions are tasked to act on them."

-- Julian Assange, 2007 blog entry

- snip -

As important as is the issue of free speech, it is the question of whether the U.S. Executive is in fact protecting the American people through its mass murder abroad that really lies at the heart of the Wikileaks controversy. Executive Branch officials justify persecuting and threatening to murder Assange on the grounds that he has damaged U.S. "national security." If McChrystal is right, however, it is the past decade of U.S. Executive mass murder in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, now revealed beyond any doubt by Wikileaks, that is the real threat to U.S. national security.

- snip -

Nothing is more emblematic of the service Assange is doing Americans than the July 25 N.Y. Times headline announcing its publication of the Wikileaks "Afghan War Logs": "View Is Bleaker Than Official Portrayal Of War In Afghanistan."

- snip -

-- U.S. MURDER OF CIVILIANS: "A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents," (Guardian) "Incident by incident, the reports resemble a police blotter of the myriad ways Afghan civilians were killed -- not just in airstrikes but in ones and twos -- in shootings on the roads or in the villages, in misunderstandings or in a cross-fire, or in chaotic moments when Afghan drivers ventured too close to convoys and checkpoints". (N.Y. Times) "The Nato coalition in Afghanistan has been using an undisclosed "black" unit of special forces, Task Force 373, to hunt down targets for death or detention without trial ... The logs reveal that TF 373 has also killed civilian men, women and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path." (Guardian)

-- REGULAR COVERUPS OF U.S. CIVILIAN MURDER: "The dead, the reports repeatedly indicate, were not suicide bombers or insurgents, and many of the cases were not reported to the public at the time." (N.Y. Times) "War logs show how marines gave cleaned up accounts of an incident in which they killed 19 civilians ... There would be no punishment." (Guardian) "The logs detail how US special forces dropped six 2,000 lb bombs on a compound where they believed a `high-value individual' was hiding, after `ensuring there were no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area'. A senior US commander reported that 150 Taliban had been killed. Locals, however, reported that up to 300 civilians had died." (Guardian)

- snip -

These Wikileaks documents thus raise the most fundamental question citizens can ask themselves: to what extent to citizens of a democracy owe their allegiance to autocratic leaders who obtain the consent of their citizens through massive duplicity? And to what extent can they trust either their judgement or their decency?

Americans may find themselves increasingly pondering such questions in coming years, as economic decline and future terrorist attacks cause U.S. elites to bring home the authoritarian mindset that has caused so much damage abroad. It seems certain that American democracy will face greater challenges than at any time since the country's founding.

- snip -

Julian Assange should be applauded not persecuted for hearing the sound of their suffering.

Do we?

Fred Branfman exposed the U.S. Executive's Secret Air War in Laos, which illegally and savagely murdered tens of thousands of innocent Laotian peasants. He has written frequently on Executive war-making for Alternet in recent years. See www.trulyalive.org for more information on his activities.

MORE

[sabrina 1]

1. He cares about people. To this country, that is a crime.

Sadly, even to people who call themselves democrats.

He will be, and actually has been already, recognized among the great humanitarians of these times. There are so few willing to risk their lives, their careers etc. as he has for the past four years, even to the point of never having a home, or seeing his family, in order to defend the oppressed by exposing the oppressors and their crimes.

America is such a sad place, like all Empires throughout history even its own citizens have become numb to the horrors their government is inflicting on people in other countries in their names. We don't even try to stop them, now that the 'other party' is in control.

I am glad there are people like Assange who have not lost their humanity.

One of the British journalists who followed up on the children wounded in the Iraq Video, also showed that some people maintain their humanity even in the middle of so much horror. He cried when he watched that video. But here, people actually claim that Wikileaks has not exposed any crimes. I cannot imagine that any human being could watch that video and not be totally horrified, as that journalist was, by what they are looking at. And in a way that is the saddest thing of all, America has become to the violence, and even accepting of the removal of their own rights.

[JDPriestly]

15. It isn't that Wikileaks doesn't expose crimes. It is that we have

known about these crimes all along. The majority of the American people and the media in particular have not had the courage to admit to these crimes.

That is why we say that the Wikileaks are not saying anything new. From the moment our troops set foot in Iraq and so quickly arrived in Baghdad without meeting their deaths from WMDs, every single American should have realized that the Bush administration had lied about the threat that Iraq posed.

Americans simply ignored the truth. And in so doing we have wasted the inheritance of our children and grandchildren and the lives of our children.

Remember when Cindy Sheehan asked, "For what noble cause?"

The media ridiculed and accused her. And now, they are ridiculing and accusing Wikileaks.

[sabrina 1]

24. Well, I don't think a majority of Americans have any real grasp

of what has been done to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. When do they ever see photos, like those that Dahr Jamail has taken eg, on national TV, of little children with bullet holes in their bodies, or blown to bits by Drones?

When have they ever seen an interview with an Iraqi mother whose children were slaughtered, or with a father show pregnant wife was blown up as she went shopping for her family?

Our media has deliberately dehumanized Iraqis, we 'don't do body counts' they said when asked about the Iraqi death toll. Wikileaks has revealed that that was a lie, btw. We have discovered that they do, do body counts.

There are no photos on our TV of the two million refugees driven from Iraq and now living in squalor and not very welcome, in other countries. But the U.S. has taken no responsibility for that.

So, while some of us knew a lot because we tried to find out, for that average American, the wars are justified and they are 'protecting our freedom'.

But if our press was doing what Wikileaks is doing from the beginning, there would not be any wars to begin with. So, I hope this kind of exposure continues around the world, to every government that lies to its people.

Of course here, the MSM only talks about the Swedish allegations, and doesn't even bother to report that no case has been filed against Assange. So, again the average American won't know much about the revelations from these leaks either.

[glinda]

52. Other Countries are looking at it though. That might count for something. But the more revealed the

more concealed with our Government. They are clamping down in controlling us. We are going to either wither away or explode.

[valerief]

28. Anyone who's lived through the Vietnam War (or any war, whether it's declared war or not)

knows that this stuff happens. That's what war is. Killing, torture, destruction, poison.

[Vattel]

34. wow. so true and so eloquently stated:

"America is such a sad place, like all Empires throughout history even its own citizens have become numb to the horrors their government is inflicting on people in other countries in their names. We don't even try to stop them, now that the 'other party' is in control.

I am glad there are people like Assange who have not lost their humanity."

[polly7]

41. You rock sabrina. +10000

[gateley]

63. Well put, sabrina 1, but I'd expand this:

"...even its own citizens have become numb to the horrors their government is inflicting on people in other countries in their names." to include even its own people have become numb to the wrongs that are being inflicted on them. We don't see how much they're hurting us, much less the rest of the world. :puke:

[stray cat]

2. Who did not know that civilians died in war? People need to pay attention

To what is available

[purrFect]

5. Did you know that they are being murdered in greater percentages with each new war?

I think if we had more reporting on the horrors we are inflicting on people, Americans would demand it be stoped.

[BlueMTexpat]

33. I would like to believe that. But, so long as the "Other" is demonized ...

and right now, "Muslim" is the operative demonization term, there will always be a stridently raucous contingent that wants to "nuke 'em all" with no regard to the fact that we have no quarrel with the overwhelming majority of Muslims or that these are fellow human beings with whom we share this Earth.

What usually seizes the American people's attention is the number of reported US military casualties. This number does not reflect non-US military casualties. That is why, in one respect, getting rid of the universal draft has made it easier for the warmongers to conduct their wars for private profit in atrocious ways. Many of those who enlist in the US military do so, at least in part, because it may be the only way that they can afford to get specialized training or higher education. Since the numbers of recruits were not high enough both to conduct military operations and guarantee security to the extent required in Afghanistan and Iraq, the USG has had to pay private contractors like Blackwater - at tremendously inflated costs - to enforce security. Many of those contracted are little better than mercenaries, who have loyalty to no country or ideal and who are not even bound by the same military code of conduct.

So long as these far-away wars do not touch Americans immediately or personally, they find them fairly easy to forget. After all, most Americans are justifiably concerned about whether or not they'll be able to meet expenses from month to month, keep their jobs, or pay their health care costs. That leaves them with little time or energy left to protest.

[Lenomsky]

43. there will always be a stridently raucous contingent that wants to "nuke 'em all"

Very true I'm ashamed to say I know a few ironically they are only 2nd generation American.

Truth is nobody in the 1st world is immune ... me me me .. de-sentisized :(

The shame!

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. Hmmm yes and no

yes over the last forty years killing efficiency has increased.

No, WW II, just the bombing of dresden, makes any of this look like a walk. These are STILl low intensity conflicts.

[SlimJimmy]

66. You made the point for me. These conflicts pale to the civilian

deaths inflicted during WWII.

[Capitalocracy]

7. Plausible deniability has been shattered.

This is more than just more proof, it's a confession.

[Bragi]

22. Right on!

Sure, many of the "revelations" in the cables simply confirm what people have long suspected, but which was denied by the governments. But now, plausible deniability is not an option.

Example: Most people have long claimed that the Karzai regime is irrevocably corrupt, and that the war itself is unwinnable.

What the cables do is to confirm that the U.S government and its allies ALL KNOW THIS to be the case, despite their public statements to the contrary about "cleaning things up" and "making progress" against the Taliban.

What this means is that our leaders are knowingly sending troops into a war that they know is unwinnable so as to prop up a regime that they know is irrevocably corrupt.

That is why the release of the cables by Wikileaks is so important. "Plausible deniability" is no longer an option.

[defendandprotect]

47. +1000% --

[howmad1]

50. Yes, "our leaders are knowingly sending troops into war"......

....at the behest of the Military Industrial Complex. They will always profit from the continuous slaughter of innocents as long as this country is at war. And our leasders will share in the profits via unlimited campaign funds, keeping these accomplices to murder in office.

[Raksha]

58. Just like they did in Vietnam.

Re "What this means is that our leaders are knowingly sending troops into a war that they know is unwinnable so as to prop up a regime that they know is irrevocably corrupt."
:puke:

[defendandprotect]

11. Given the limited and unrealistic reporting on these wars -- except by Pentagon -- we have

a public which doesn't really know what's going on --

and that's intentional!

[Bragi]

23. I think you're too kind

Yes, we have a media that hides the truth and allows mendacity to go unchallenged.

But given the fact that information is available via non-MSM sources, we also have a public that is willfully blind.

[defendandprotect]

48. When you look at how poorly informed the public is on every subject ....

it's impossible to deny that includes the war --

and the public are susceptible to right wing propaganda on ALL issues --

it works -- it's effective -- that's why it has long been used.

And, there is no counter to it coming from any other source which is what makes it

so lethal.

The battlefield is fortunately foreign to most of us -- beyond our experiences --

people have to be SHOWN war -- and that's why the Pentagon keeps that from happening.

How much discussion is there of the horrific wounds being inflicted on citizens by

our latest weapons? How much truth about the killing of civilians?

How much reality re the deaths of our own soldiers and the harm done to them?

The wars aren't in the news -- remember how the Iran Hostages were played up by the rw?

War should be the daily headline every day -- the constant topic --

That isn't happening because war is profitable -- and useful for hiding other crimes.

For making the few rich. And for stealing the resources of other nations.

And that's why all of these issues are little or never discussed by our corporate-press.

And why they work to ensure that things stay that way.

[xchrom]

3. recommend

[malaise]

4. K & R

for truth

[molly77]

14. Great post

[GeorgeGist]

6. The evidence is there ...

but America's Conviction is unlikely to change.

[TBF]

8. That's true as long as the wealthy control the airwaves -

one must dig for the evidence and even that will be harder when Lieberman takes over the Internet.

[Octafish]

9. War benefits the Warmongers.

It is death for the innocent and guilty, alike. And it is hell for everyone.

Thank goodness there are still people with integrity.

[havbrush]

29. War benefits warmongers

You are so right. Wars are extremely profitable to those corporations (and the individuals that run them) that supply war materiels, and even just boots or laundry to troops, Haliburton and Dick Chaney anyone? Profit margins go up hundreds, even thousands-fold from regular piecetime operations. And it's nothing new, check this link for a book on war profits written in the 1930s by a former general, http://www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/racket1.html. And the greed has gotten so bad now that we're having permenant wars. The top 1% of the population that run these corporations and hold their stock make out like the bandits they are when war profits are rolling in constantly year after year and not just every few years like it used to be. They want wars all the time now.

[Octafish]

57. W is for Warmonger

These Satanic bastards will slip on occasion and state the truth. "Money Trumps Peace." -- George Walker Bush, Feb. 14, 2007

Thank you for the info on Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC. He also helped put down the coup against FDR.

Most importantly: A most hearty welcome to DU, havbrush.

[L. Coyote]

10. When Americans understand the recession is a result of the cost of making war

without the funds to pay for war, and when they discover that they are unable to pay the bill, then finally they will turn against the wars Bush illegally started. It will not happen just because they are killing people in other countries. The United States has been built on invasions and killing people, including genocide of yet uncounted Native Nations. The Natives in the USA have been in concentration camps for over a century, and there still is no response to that injustice. But, take away their standard of living and good welfare, and they will react in self-interest. By then, it will be too late to undo the war crimes and the harm of waging the wars, of course. And it will do little good to say we were right all along.

[defendandprotect]

12. +1000% --- We are all the Native American ....

and we are being equally controlled and dispensed with as they were --

by the violent elite among us who control our government.

[molly77]

13. Sad but true.

And that is the very thing that keeps me from going into total despair mode. Our country is based on lies. History taught in school about our courageous frontiers people etc. is a far reality from what the Native American people endured when the white man came.With movies to reinforce the lies.

The propaganda reaches so deep and is so thoroughly ingrained into the American psyche.When I was growing up in the south, it was considered bad form to talk about religion and politics. The two subjects that touch our souls and ability to make it in life. I see that same way of thinking where I live now in the far north.

[Raksha]

61. Terrifying thought! So you're saying that if we want to see our future

we should look at the reservations? I guess the only difference between a "reservation" and a "ghetto" is the one is rural and the other urban, but they are basically two manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maybe the word "gulag" is the one that encompasses both reservation and ghetto...or maybe it's "concentration camp" as you said.

[JDPriestly]

16. K&R.

[DeSwiss]

17. This.

We all knew it. Still, it's somewhat of a shock when one's suspicions are confirmed. And it's even more shocking when you realize that no one gives a damn.

- And even if they do, that any one knows what the fuck to do about it......

K&R

The information racketeers

It is the job of our combined institutions to manage cultural information so as to deny the harmful aspects of the rackets they protect through legislation and promote through institutional research. That's why research shows that cell phone microwaves cause long term memory loss in rats, but do not harm people. Evidently, we are of different, more bullet proof mammalian material.

Our hyper capitalist system, through command of our research, media and political institutions, expands upon and disseminates only that information which generates money and transactions. It avoids, neglects or spins the hell out of information that does not. And if none of those work, the info is exiled to some corner of cyberspace such as Daily Kos, where it cannot change the status quo, yet can be ballyhooed as proof of our national freedom of expression. Here come the rotten eggs from the Internet liberals.

Cyberspace by nature feels very big from the inside, and its affinity groups, seeing themselves in aggregate and in mutual self reference, imagine their role bigger and more effective than it is. From within the highly directed, technologically administrated, marketed-to and propagandized rat cage called America, this is all but impossible to comprehend. Especially when corporate owned media tells us it is.

Take the world recent shaking WikiLeak's "revelations" of Washington's petty misery and drivel, which are scarcely revelations, just more extensive details about what we all already knew. Come on now, is it a revelation that Karzai and his entire government is a nest of fraudulent double-crossing thieves? Or that the US is duplicitous? Or that Angela Merkel is dull? The main revelation in the WikiLeaks affair was the U.S. government's response -- which was to bring US freedom of speech policy firmly in line with China's. Millions of us in cyber ghettoes saw it coming, but our alarm warnings were shouted inside a cyberspace vacuum bell jar. Bear in mind that I am writing this from outside the US borders and media environment, where people watch the WikiLeaks story unfold more in amusement than anything else.

The WikiLeaks affair is surely seismic to those whose asses ride on the elite diplomatic intrigues. But in the big picture it will not change the way the top lizards in global politics, money and war have done business since the feudal age -- which is to say with arrogant disregard for the rest of us. Theirs is an ancient system of human dominance that only shifts names and methodologies over the centuries. Two years from now, little will have changed in the old, old story of the powerful few over the powerless many. In this overarching drama, Obama, Hillary and Julian Assange are passing players. Watching the sweaty, fetid machinations of our overlords with such passionate involvement only keeps us from seeing the big picture -- that they are the players and we are the pawns.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/12/america-y-ur-peeps-b-so-dum.html">~Joe Bageant, "America Y UR Peeps B So Dum?"

[jwirr]

18. And that is the point of the whole operation. Wake up America.

[glinda]

53. Yes. Wake up America. If only they could from their pharmaceuticals and drugged waters and

soma tv shows and lack of information easily accessible to their lazy brains in denial.

[pauldp]

19. K&R. Nails it.

[Uncle Joe]

20. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Hissyspit.

[FlyByNight]

21. Per William Blum...

...(paraphrasing): what the government is actually doing is worse than you think; and don't believe anything until it's been officially denied.

The empire gets angry when its crimes are exposed.

[TygrBright]

25. I think this is only "terrifying" to anyone who DOESN'T assume that if a military spokesperson's...

...or a politician's/political flack's lips are moving, they're lying.

For the rest of us, it's purely a matter of determining which lies actually conceal or reveal what. Standard operating procedure.

And nothing new.

Been that way for all of recorded history.

philosophically,
Bright

[Enthusiast]

K&R

Truth. Why can't we have truth?

[Blue Owl]

26. No shit

Lies are the new truth in Washington DC.

[WillyT]

27. Big K & R !!!

:kick:

[L0oniX]

30. I understand why they call the USA "The Great Satan". Satan is the father of the lie...

...and this government and military lies their asses off all the time. You can't trust them...not ever or ever again.

[glinda]

54. Interesting you should say that. I just thought today how all the evil people are coming to

gather and support each other in Washington right now.

[MicheleMooreHappy1]

31. Watch Biden's 180 Turn Agains Wikileaks

One day Joe Biden appears on MSNBC saying the Wikileaks
disclosures did "no substantive damage" -
http://www.michelemoore-happy1.com/2010/12/joe-biden-180-degree-turn-on-wikileaks.html
  
The next day, December 17, 2010, also on MSNBC, Biden claims
there WAS substantial damage done by these disclosures.

Which do you believe?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

32. Assange does this at great risk to himself and for no real gain

A book deal for $1 M might cover his legal fees.
The salary he is supposedly making is a joke for someone of his ability and
knowledge.

he's doing this because it is right.

[onethatcares]

35. there's a democracy now interivew with Julian Assange

I was listening the other day and I believe he quoted a number of thousands of civilians killed by our forces in Afganistan due to malfeasance. I didn't have the opportunity to listen to the entire thing but it's probably on the logs of Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. It is truly same shit different decade

but I guess most folks really do not pay that much attention.

[subterranean]

38. The Pentagon Papers revealed that 40 years ago.

Unfortunately, our government still lies to us as much as it ever did, if not more.

For those who haven't seen it, I recommend the documentary "The Most Dangerous Man in America" about Daniel Ellsberg. It's particularly interesting to watch in light of the Wikileaks issue.

[hulka38]

39. K&R

[katty]

40. this government is/has been a habitual liar-a disney confection of bullshit

has been spun for many decades.

[glinda]

55. It is frightening to know it is worse than we thought.

[Kaleko]

42. K & a huge R for the entire thread.

[lordsummerisle]

44. Great post k&r n/t

[WestSeattle2]

45. Color me cynical, but I assume anything and everything coming

out of government is spin or outright lies. The budget numbers are a joke; unemployment numbers pure fabrication; environmental protection pronouncements outright lies; reasons for war specious at best; the list goes on and on and on. I've been watching these characters for 40 years; nothing changes 'cept the names.

[subterranean]

46. Not an unwise assumption.

[russspeakeasy]

49. color me cynical too. I keep making the same wrong assumption that

most people understand that the gov is a lie machine.

[MadHound]

51. No, what's terrifying is how we, as a people and society, allow our government to lie to us

C'mon, really now, is it any news that our government lies to us every other time it opens its mouth?

Yet we the people, supposedly the driving engine behind this democracy, allow this to continue, year after year, decade after decade, without rising up and doing anything about it. Our society accepts whatever pabulum the media dishes us to assuage our collect conscience and merrily goes about our lives, blithely, deliberately turning our face from what our government does in our name.

[Raksha]

62. You're right. The real "sin" of WikiLeaks

wasn't that it ripped away the plausible deniability from the perpetrators. It ALSO ripped away the plausible deniability from the bystanders, the average citizens who could pretend--hell, who WANT to pretend!--they don't know our government lies to us every other time it opens its mouth, or more likely every two out of three times.

From the very beginning of the Iraq war Americans were split into two camps: Those who knew Saddam Hussein didn't have one goddamn thing to do with 9/11 and who knew that they knew (the minority), and those who also knew but pretended they didn't. This second group was the vast majority at the beginning of the war, and their number wasn't limited to Faux News viewers by a long way.

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dragged on and new atrocities came to light the same phenomenon continued when it came to the torture at Abu Ghraib and other black sites, the murder of innocent civilians, the "friendly fire" assassination of Pat Tillman...ALL of it!

Now thanks to WikiLeaks there is no more plausible deniability for anyone. We don't just know, we know that we know and we can no longer feign ignorance.

War is mass murder--PERIOD. And it only benefits the warmongers.

[Overseas]

56. Sad K&R. //nt

[Cherchez la Femme]

59. What really irritates me is

****Note: this is just a rant, but one with I think are good points or I wouldn't have opined regarding them. O, and my grammar tends to suck. It may be TL : DR. Sorry.)


this bullshit about "we must protect our interests" :puke:
Including but not limited to bellicose intervention into other sovereign country's government and business; to include espionage, propaganda, black ops, coups, and much, much more.

This is the 'American' *concern* (I'd put it much stronger than mere 'concern'!) which destroyed legitimate Democracies all over the world.
Many, many times.

All for our selfish, money-grubbing "concerns" politicians who had been legally elected (can't say that for this country's elections in this century) on behalf of whatever sovereign nation were by hook or crook deposed and the U.S. would pick their new fucking Dictator/puppet NOT for true Democracy (more properly: Fascism). No, the criteria was/is who would be another Pinocchio, yet another U.S. 'BFF' even if it hurt not only U.S. citizens via 'blowback' if not worse, but the devastation to the targeted country's own citizens; including but certainly not limited to abduction, rape (including bestial rape), all TYPES of torture and outright murder/mass murders/assassinations;

The U.S government would not only support but TRAIN these so-called "Freedom Fighters"
--noo, they're NEVER Terrorists!
And I got this nice new bridge, only driven on by old ladies to church on Sundays, to sell you. :eyes:

Ahhh -- the magic of spin!
Awww -- how nice! How downright neighborly! :puke:



I thought we were the fucking 'Champions of spreading the 'goodness' of Democracy'?? Seriously, WTF happened?
Was it ALL just propaganda?



As in the relatively recent Fair Trade social movement concerning foodstuffs and I believe manufacturing, why can't we purchase these 'special interest' goods at the going & reasonable rate just as the rest of the world does?
And, you know, NOT make War on them?

Why can't we NOT invade & occupy Afghanistan but instead negotiate something -- such as building the gas pipeline across Afghanistan?
And if the leaders of that country don't, for their own reasons --it IS their country after all-- want this pipeline then it's No and we deal with it from that point.
Find another way -- aren't 'Americans' supposed to be ingenious or is that just braggadocio?
If all else fails, why not ship the old fashioned way via tanker?
Mind you, I'm certainly not giving that/those countries any respect, nor am I spouting criticism against that country. I sure don't like what the Taliban did/does, but until I fully embrace the U.S. being the Righteous World's Policeman, at the cost of our blood and treasure, I'll let nature run it's course. As Desmond Tutu said 'This IS a moral universe' (paraphrased).
Why, instead of invading &/or occupying, via the many military bases we have in so very many countries, not counting, as of late, our preemptive wars/war zones: Afghanistan & Iraq, and it seems we're in a couple more at least now: Yemen & Pakistan and I do believe there are more);
why, instead of underhandedly swapping the subject country's democratically elected official(s) via coups by either underhanded characters or corporations (What am I talking about? They seem to be synonyms) with our hand-picked, most-if-not-always corrupt Dictator-lickspittles;
do we not ACT like 'businesspeople'
--doesn't the government/White House ]b] always, within the past few decades; & Repukes and Dems alike! say that 'the business of Government IS Business?
(Don't get me going on that, the business of Government is the people; sure, business is a part of that but far from the be-all & end-all) for the worse,
for the worse, and NOT invade, wage war on or send our, among other talents, kidnapping, CIA operatives and those trained by them
--such as the School of the Americas
and trained in our very own country, no less
with malice and aforethought
in pure evil?

If you can give an example of a non corrupt puppet the US of a has installed as head of another country I'd be most interested to hear who.


Torture, at least our teaching others in the 'art' of, has been going on
downright common in fact
for decades; yes, even prior to Bush II (I'm sure most if not all have are aware that the School of the America's was opened in 1046 but heck, Raygun LOVED it!)
Torture, not the SofA's is still in vogue at the White house; very sadly by his replacement, & a Democratic President no less!

Huh. Who'da thunk?


The U.S. of A.: a place where Might makes Right but only for themselves and only the Right People! Anyone else dare adopt that philosophy and they're eeeeevvvviillllll & in this century they're also on an Aaaxxxxxxiiiissss!

Ain't spin grand??

A qualifier: it's OK as long as the Mighty were Christian Fundies, Republicans and the NRA and now NOM is getting in the act too through the Afrocentric Fundies.
Their motto: Kill the Gay Away!

Heck, in general that rule applies unless it's Republicans, cause it's Right, Moral & Good when they do it!
Same goes for SOME Democratic politicians; more & more each day even though the Repukes won't really admit it to the media (like they'd report anything that doesn't suck Repuke cock) it's A-OK!
USA! USA!
GET A BRAIN MORANS!
Just as long as you think like We who are wealthy and in power do.
Of course!


The U.S. of A.: a Democracy that isn't, spreading its uh, shall we say unique brand of "Democracy" all over the world


I feel sick.


Well, I've spent a LONG time on this, splicing, chopping things up & putting them in another place whre perhaps it would make more sense
If there are typos or horrific grammar (C'est moi!) Please forgive;
If you don't understand what I'm trying to say, please drop me a DU email & I'll try to correct/clarify it. Thanks!!!


Sorry for the redundancy in places but it deserves stressing.

[cartach]

60. US is worse than Nazi Germany.

This is worse than the elimination of certain segments of the human race as carried out by the Germans, if that is possible. At least they limited their atrocities to Jews ,the mentally ill and the aged who too poor or sick to take care of themselves and maybe a couple of other categories and carried their killing out systematically trying to ensure that those not in the targeted categories were left alone. But apparently not US armed forces, they have been been running riot and wantonly killing fellow human beings without regard to how many innocents are included. And worse this seems to be condoned by and acceptable to the US military hierarchy. But hey, what else is new? The past history of US atrocities hasn't been a secret and neither has the fact that nothing has been done about,however I don't think most thought it was as bad as it actually is. Maybe it's time to admit that murder is and has been an acceptable part of the US culture, that the nation has an inordinate number of psychopaths running amok and it's doubtful that anything will be done about it.

[boppers]

64. Way to minimize the Nazi's, and demonstrate that you need to read up.

The "segments" to be eliminated were "non-germans". i.e., everybody else.

[Swamp Rat]

65. k&r

:grr:

[Mosaic]

67. Keep speaking Truth to power

O8) :hi: :thumbsup: :yourock: :patriot:

[upi402]

68. Well

I'd like to :kick: this one!
:patriot: