Where would you place the the Irish Catholic - British Protestant 17th century through 21st century conflicts, in regards to the issues you cover in your article ?
How much fighting for how many centuries - or even millennium, over what was once called Mesopotamia ("land of rivers"), has happened throughout known history ?
The U.S. government-ordered military (both directly and via mercenaries, and via proxies) invasions, and earlier C.I.A.-directed coups from 1953 (as Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. went public about in 1979...) onward in the region, certainly seem to have both reignited and then "poured gasoline" onto some of these ancient conflicts.
Both the recent neo-conservatives' (who go around the U.S. getting paid millions of dollars for giving speeches - now that they are out of office…) arrogance, and some of the neo-liberals' arrogance - including in regards to both types of "group-thinkers" believing that U.S. government-ordered military force could do any long-term "control" the region, plus past conservative arrogance and actions (including the two C.I.A.-directed military coups used to topple Iran's democracy in 1953…), have all born bitter fruit in the long run *, with no real lessons learned.
(* except for profiteering benefiting a rather small group of people: the heads of certain oil companies, the heads of the corporations who make weapons, and the heads of the corporations providing private mercenaries...)
That can't be said of the U.S. Senate - in terms of the Iraq war vote.
I was however speaking of the invasions and occupations of more than one nation, and look at the years of "yes" votes for continuing occupations by politicians of both "parties".
I'm not saying that this "excuses" George W. Bush, Richard "Dick" Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Condoleezza "Condi" Rice, and Colin L. Powell * in terms of the 2003 U.S. government-ordered invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
I'm pointing out that politicians and policy-makers of both "parties" bear a great deal of blame (with 90% of the U.S. corporate media being an "echo chamber" before and after the fact, for justifying what has been done - as Amy Goodman and others have pointed out), and that our U.S. politicians and policy-makers do not bear the consequences of what they have done.
(* Powell being the only one who appears to after-the-fact have expressed some real regret, has acknowledged that the claims regarding Iraq he stated in his February 5, 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council were false, and that is a 'blot' on his record for all time...)
The "blowback" of U.S. government policies (remember that the majority of the politicians of both major "parties" voted to authorize and fund the invasions and occupations) is always paid for:
a) by the civilian populations of nations harmed;
b) by the mis-used U.S. military personnel and their families.
c) by the U.S. public (financially, morally and spiritually, and possibly targeted for revenge by the loved ones of those harmed - both here at home by U.S. military personnel who are traumatized, and from individuals from the harmed civilian populations abroad);
Our U.S. politicians and policy-makers - past and present, only suffer some "political embarrassment", as the ongoing U.S. government policy of: "We can't look back into the past and we won't hold anyone in past and/or present government accountable" flushes the Nuremberg principles right down the toilet.
Since any violence - including forms of Terrorism, coming from anyone who is either Muslim (including by conversion) or was raised Muslim, is currently then blamed on/attached to the 1/5 of the World's population who are Muslim (including by the corporate media, and by a number of government officials), the points raised in Professor Cole's article are valid.
If individuals were being judged for their actions - sans blaming any and all from any religious and ethnic background considered "Islamic", there wouldn't be such a great need for this article.
Consider, for example, if any and all who were "Christian" (i.e. all "Catholics" and "Protestants" and Caucasian (aka "White") in the entire World were blamed for the actions of Timothy McVeigh in regards to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995?
Rational minds would have then also tried to point out that "Catholic" and "Protestant" doesn't even begin to cover have many variations - via many different sects and denominations there are, besides that any and all of any "religion", ethnic background, and/or skin color should not be mass condemned and/or mass punished on that basis, and that individuals should being judged as individuals for their actions.
The movements and trends of "Shia" and "Shiite" appears to be just as complex, as the movements and trends within "Jewish", as the sects and denominations of "Christian", and also within religions that are other than what are called "The Children of Abraham" religions.
Then add in the geo-political and historical factors - by nations and by region, and add in the economic factors - including where indigenous people are oppressed and/or dispossessed. and it's even more complex.
I see Professor Cole taking the two-dimensional "either-or" mentality we are being force-fed by the corporate media, and by many of those in government supporting the so-called "war on terror" (which also involves stripping everyone of their human rights in stages), and turning it on it's head as a lesson; Thus "holding up a mirror" in which we might see what is reflected back at us, regarding the demonization of 1/5 of the World's population that we are be taught and conditioned to "think" in.
When we object to that "reflection", perhaps we really should pause for a moment to realize what the "undeclared" multiple (overt and covert) wars "unending for all time" and the forms of occupations being done "in our name" have been like and are like for the mass of humanity on the receiving end of those horrors, in the very recent and present time.
Add to that, bothering to remember (or perhaps learn, in some cases) the history that Professor Cole is pointing out, do we not then want a different path to be followed?
Do we not understand the reasons that Professor Cole is trying to get us all, to look at all of this - uncomfortable as it may be to face?
We've had the Pentagon and many in government doing this propagandizing "unofficially" for quite some time - including in the lead-up to the U.S. government ordered invasions and occupations of the past 11 years - quite often with the help of the ownership, upper management, and some of the "commentators" of the corporate media.
Plus, we already have use of the U.S. military (to spy upon, and possibly later to act as agent provocateurs) to infiltrate anti-war groups and pro-peace groups, as Amy Goodman and Democracy NOW covered starting in late July of 2009.
It was pointed out that this was a possible violation of the (restored to it's original wording by Congress in the two years of the George W. Bush administration) Posse Comitatus Act - that is going on also under the Obama administration just the same or even more so, in some cases, than under the George W. Bush administration (which has been quite dismaying to many Americans who worked hard to get Obama into office in 2008).
It was pointed out back in 2004, in 2008, in 2009, and in 2011 - 2012 - especially towards the "Occupy" protesters, and all along towards actual reporters, investigative journalists and their sources, that the so-called "fusion centers" and "fusion cells", set up between the U.S. military, FBI, local and state police departments, local governments, the federal government and it's other agencies (including the C.I.A.), and private corporations that the so-called Homeland Security Department has sub-contracted, collectively all represent mechanisms to circumvent laws, regulations, and court rulings, that are supposed to prevent severe abuses of power.
The fact that the vast majority of what has been done and is being done, is directly aimed at the U.S. public - while dismaying, is not surprising, given how much those in the government i.e. many of the politicians of BOTH major parties, the military "leadership", the big financial institutions, the corporate media (which doesn't deserve to be called "mainstream" at this point), and some of the more extremist religious groups, have been part of the same large "complex" and it's harmful "group-think" - a complex which meets the modern and past definitions of forms of "fascism" as well as "totalitarianism"...
In the long run, only a massive change in awareness, a willingness to care about each other, a willingness to be involved long-term, and to force change (including if that means voting the majority of the politicians of BOTH major parties out of office all at the same time - over and over again, and other such things that the aforementioned "complex" collectively wishes to convince us all is impossible to even attempt) by a majority of the population, can alter the self-destructive course our nation is on - at home and abroad.
Those lost in the two-dimensional "group-think" of the "complex", don't believe that "We The People" - in our nation, or in any other nation, have the determinination, self-disipline, caring, and sheer gumption, to cause real change, nor do they really understand the depths of the harm they have caused - including to themselves.
So let's all wake up another human being - who is not awake, to real awareness, and re-create and reshape things - not just for our nation, but for the vast humanity that we are all a part of.
Cleric Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr also only has the level of power and influence he has at this point, because of the 2003 U.S. invasion/occupation of Iraq - which was not justified. As Robert "Bob" Baer put it in 2003:
"The current Iraq war/occupation is based on lies... When you invade a nation without cause, that's not a 'war on terrorism'..., that's colonialism, that's imperialism... Look, while you guys were doing the Nasdaqs and the dot-coms, I was over in Iraq trying to get rid of Saddam Hussein... For that, I almost got killed... besides, I almost went to jail... So it didn't take a whole lot of courage for me to come out against this Iraq war, which I did right from the beginning, and I was studiously ignored...". - Robert "Bob" Baer (C.I.A. "black-ops"; officially: field officer in the C.I.A. Directorate of Operations), who was previously stationed in the 1990s in the middle-east trying to capture Hussein as an individual, with the intention of having him tried in international court...). Note: Bob Baer even went public trying to stop the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was reported, including on BBC (see the December 28, 2002 report at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/2549937.stm)
Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr is not Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq - who runs a prison in Iraq where people are abused and tortured even worse than under Hussein in many instances (as Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have been documenting and reporting on), and whose party lost the last limited election (confirmed by international observers), but has remained in power propped up by the U.S. occupation.
On top of everything else, the Theocracy put in power by the 2003 U.S. invasion/occupation, put in place a Constitution, that under Article number 41, has canceled the rights which Iraqi women had since 1958, including under what was known as the "personal status law", under the previous secular Constitution.
Iraqi security? It's the same kind of crap as going all the way back to the 1955 - 1975 U.S. war on Vietnam, where the excuse of "Vietnam security" lead to what?
Remember that the vast majority of identifiable Iraqi victims of U.S. bombings (from planes, helicopters, and automated drone bombers) during and since the 2003 invasion, have been Iraqi women and children - this includes recent bombings, like the Pentagon was forced via legal actions here in the U.S. to admit about this past summer, i.e. that they are still bombing Iraq (a far cry from what I remember from the also not justified Vietnam War, but when at least the U.S. government openly gave the figures of the tonnage of bombs dropped each week, on Vietnam, Laos and/or Cambodia - which I would see listed on the evening news broadcasts each Friday).
Of course, there are more like Raymond Allen Davis-types in the military and C.I.A. and among the U.S. government-funded mercenaries (who are not being withdrawn, according to many reports), and remember it was the U.S. government that ordered the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, and that ordered that none of the Geneva Conventions were to be followed, so there was and is as bad or worse than Raymond Allen Davis at the very top of the Pentagon, C.I.A., State Department, and White House staff - With zero accountability and atrocities ordered from the top as policy currently and in the past, it's no surprise what has happened.
Our U.S. government's sad and tragic policies in the middle-east for decades have been failed policies, that the policy makers mostly refuse to look at, and they continue the same or similar policies, and they mostly don't give a darn about the harm their policies cause.
To give just one of many examples regarding Iraq:
Imagine if Saddam Hussein the Iraqi history student, had not been recruited by the U.S. government, trained by the C.I.A., and then sent as part of a C.I.A. sponsored 6-man squad to assassinate Abd al-Karim Qasim in 1959 (while they killed his driver, they only wounded Qasim on that occasion, who escaped being murdered that particular time) - which a number of C.I.A. personnel from that era have gone public about in the past decade? Our government is still going around recruiting, training and arming people to do such things, on top of everything else - which Seymour "Sy" Hersh and others have been documenting and reporting on for years.
The historical lessons, and even famous historical warning about not doing such things - some of which date all the way back to George Washington, are deliberately ignored by the U.S. government (both parties), including the White House, Congress, the Pentagon brass, the C.I.A., etc.
For years I've heard statements out of the Pentagon "If we could get things in Iraq back to how they were under Hussein, we'd consider that success"... (Indicating that cruel as Hussein’s secular government was, the Theocracy installed and propped up by the U.S. invasioin and occupation is even worse).
With the western oil companies - including Exxon Mobil, Shell, and BP, have their contracts and privatization control (instead of the previous situation of Iraq's oil being nationalized), and Iraq no longer has control of the the levels or the limits of extractions and production (including as Professor Fouad Al-Ameer revealed);
With the U.S. government having converted the trading of Iraq’s oil export transactions from the Euro to the U.S. dollar immediately after the 2003 invasion and occupation;
With hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians being maimed or dead by the 2003 U.S. war on Iraq, plus the civil war the invasion triggered (with some evidence indicating at least part of that was deliberated caused), causing hundreds of thousands of more deaths;
On top of the 500,000 plus Iraqi children dead from the George H. W. Bush/James "Dan" Quayle administration’s and then the Bill Clinton/Al Gore administration’s sanctions before that (and people in the U.S., like Bert Sacks in Seattle still fighting legal battles to this day, over being fined by the U.S. government for helping provide a small amount of medical supplies and bandages for Iraqi children);
With 5 to 6 million Iraqi civilians driven out of their own country as refugees, according to U.N. reports;
With at least 400,000 + U.S. military personnel suffering from severe Post Traumatic Stress, with another 350,000+ suffering from traumatic brain injuries (2008 figures from RAND - the numbers may be higher now), and thousands dead, and tens of thousands wounded, and U.S. military veterans now being 55% of the U.S. homeless population;
With the grotesque Iraq war and occupation profiteering by Halliburton, K.B.R., CACI, Bechtel, Titan and others, and the additional war crimes by U.S. government-funded private mercenaries like Blackwater (aka Xe) and it’s official and unofficial subsidiaries;
With the kidnapping and torture practices - including at the 7 U.S. military prisons in Iraq, that Major General Antonio Taguba investigated and verified of “torture, abuse, rape, and every indecency...”;
With the war criminals from the U.S. government - including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza "Condi" Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld - going around giving speeches for which they are paid millions of dollars, while both Obama and his administration and many of those in Congress (both parties) insist “we can’t look back into the past” *, and that no one from high levels who ordered high crimes will be held legally accountable;
In conclusion, the "Blood For Oil" crap, and the massive U.S. corporate robbing of both Iraqi monies and U.S. tax monies, the war crimes, and the war and occupation profiteering, the not caring for the mis-used U.S. military personnel, etc., are all indeed a very large and real part of this sickening U.S. government’s war of choice.
- Martin A. Totusek
* 1) Ask any honest police officer how they solve crimes and often prevent them from being committed again (including by the same people), and the first thing they will tell you is “We look back into the past...”.
2) How can a nation avoid having the same kinds of crimes happen again? Precisely by looking back at what has happened, and holding all and anyone involved, including heads of State, to at least some standards of legal accountability and penalties.
The fallacy of "either-or" two-dimensional thinking, in what is actually a multi-dimensional World, particularly combined with ethnic, religious and/or skin color bigotries *, is always a tragic and horrible combination.
The fact that it's amplified, fueled, and incited in many parts of the World:
by massively well-funded extremist right-wing individuals and groups (including the Murdoch family and the Koch family);
by leaders of organized religions in some cases;
by neo-liberals (who are not to be mistaken for actual moderates, progressives, liberals, or the Left);
by governments;
by the corporate and governmental medias;
by those who profiteer from it and/or seek to gain power from exploiting it;
and by militaries and mercenaries;
whether it's in European nations, in the U.S., in Israel or in other nations in the Middle-East, or in Eurasia, Africa, and Asia, etc.;
makes it even more dangerous.
(* not unlike the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney administration's "you're with us or you're against us" propaganda - which has been continued by the Obama administration and by many Republicans and "Democrats" in Congress, as well as by most of the corporate-controlled media in our nation,,,)
Juan,
Where would you place the the Irish Catholic - British Protestant 17th century through 21st century conflicts, in regards to the issues you cover in your article ?
How much fighting for how many centuries - or even millennium, over what was once called Mesopotamia ("land of rivers"), has happened throughout known history ?
The U.S. government-ordered military (both directly and via mercenaries, and via proxies) invasions, and earlier C.I.A.-directed coups from 1953 (as Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. went public about in 1979...) onward in the region, certainly seem to have both reignited and then "poured gasoline" onto some of these ancient conflicts.
Both the recent neo-conservatives' (who go around the U.S. getting paid millions of dollars for giving speeches - now that they are out of office…) arrogance, and some of the neo-liberals' arrogance - including in regards to both types of "group-thinkers" believing that U.S. government-ordered military force could do any long-term "control" the region, plus past conservative arrogance and actions (including the two C.I.A.-directed military coups used to topple Iran's democracy in 1953…), have all born bitter fruit in the long run *, with no real lessons learned.
(* except for profiteering benefiting a rather small group of people: the heads of certain oil companies, the heads of the corporations who make weapons, and the heads of the corporations providing private mercenaries...)
That can't be said of the U.S. Senate - in terms of the Iraq war vote.
I was however speaking of the invasions and occupations of more than one nation, and look at the years of "yes" votes for continuing occupations by politicians of both "parties".
I'm not saying that this "excuses" George W. Bush, Richard "Dick" Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Condoleezza "Condi" Rice, and Colin L. Powell * in terms of the 2003 U.S. government-ordered invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
I'm pointing out that politicians and policy-makers of both "parties" bear a great deal of blame (with 90% of the U.S. corporate media being an "echo chamber" before and after the fact, for justifying what has been done - as Amy Goodman and others have pointed out), and that our U.S. politicians and policy-makers do not bear the consequences of what they have done.
(* Powell being the only one who appears to after-the-fact have expressed some real regret, has acknowledged that the claims regarding Iraq he stated in his February 5, 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council were false, and that is a 'blot' on his record for all time...)
The "blowback" of U.S. government policies (remember that the majority of the politicians of both major "parties" voted to authorize and fund the invasions and occupations) is always paid for:
a) by the civilian populations of nations harmed;
b) by the mis-used U.S. military personnel and their families.
c) by the U.S. public (financially, morally and spiritually, and possibly targeted for revenge by the loved ones of those harmed - both here at home by U.S. military personnel who are traumatized, and from individuals from the harmed civilian populations abroad);
Our U.S. politicians and policy-makers - past and present, only suffer some "political embarrassment", as the ongoing U.S. government policy of: "We can't look back into the past and we won't hold anyone in past and/or present government accountable" flushes the Nuremberg principles right down the toilet.
Since any violence - including forms of Terrorism, coming from anyone who is either Muslim (including by conversion) or was raised Muslim, is currently then blamed on/attached to the 1/5 of the World's population who are Muslim (including by the corporate media, and by a number of government officials), the points raised in Professor Cole's article are valid.
If individuals were being judged for their actions - sans blaming any and all from any religious and ethnic background considered "Islamic", there wouldn't be such a great need for this article.
Consider, for example, if any and all who were "Christian" (i.e. all "Catholics" and "Protestants" and Caucasian (aka "White") in the entire World were blamed for the actions of Timothy McVeigh in regards to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995?
Rational minds would have then also tried to point out that "Catholic" and "Protestant" doesn't even begin to cover have many variations - via many different sects and denominations there are, besides that any and all of any "religion", ethnic background, and/or skin color should not be mass condemned and/or mass punished on that basis, and that individuals should being judged as individuals for their actions.
The movements and trends of "Shia" and "Shiite" appears to be just as complex, as the movements and trends within "Jewish", as the sects and denominations of "Christian", and also within religions that are other than what are called "The Children of Abraham" religions.
Then add in the geo-political and historical factors - by nations and by region, and add in the economic factors - including where indigenous people are oppressed and/or dispossessed. and it's even more complex.
I see Professor Cole taking the two-dimensional "either-or" mentality we are being force-fed by the corporate media, and by many of those in government supporting the so-called "war on terror" (which also involves stripping everyone of their human rights in stages), and turning it on it's head as a lesson; Thus "holding up a mirror" in which we might see what is reflected back at us, regarding the demonization of 1/5 of the World's population that we are be taught and conditioned to "think" in.
When we object to that "reflection", perhaps we really should pause for a moment to realize what the "undeclared" multiple (overt and covert) wars "unending for all time" and the forms of occupations being done "in our name" have been like and are like for the mass of humanity on the receiving end of those horrors, in the very recent and present time.
Add to that, bothering to remember (or perhaps learn, in some cases) the history that Professor Cole is pointing out, do we not then want a different path to be followed?
Do we not understand the reasons that Professor Cole is trying to get us all, to look at all of this - uncomfortable as it may be to face?
Is this actually at all surprising?
We've had the Pentagon and many in government doing this propagandizing "unofficially" for quite some time - including in the lead-up to the U.S. government ordered invasions and occupations of the past 11 years - quite often with the help of the ownership, upper management, and some of the "commentators" of the corporate media.
Plus, we already have use of the U.S. military (to spy upon, and possibly later to act as agent provocateurs) to infiltrate anti-war groups and pro-peace groups, as Amy Goodman and Democracy NOW covered starting in late July of 2009.
It was pointed out that this was a possible violation of the (restored to it's original wording by Congress in the two years of the George W. Bush administration) Posse Comitatus Act - that is going on also under the Obama administration just the same or even more so, in some cases, than under the George W. Bush administration (which has been quite dismaying to many Americans who worked hard to get Obama into office in 2008).
It was pointed out back in 2004, in 2008, in 2009, and in 2011 - 2012 - especially towards the "Occupy" protesters, and all along towards actual reporters, investigative journalists and their sources, that the so-called "fusion centers" and "fusion cells", set up between the U.S. military, FBI, local and state police departments, local governments, the federal government and it's other agencies (including the C.I.A.), and private corporations that the so-called Homeland Security Department has sub-contracted, collectively all represent mechanisms to circumvent laws, regulations, and court rulings, that are supposed to prevent severe abuses of power.
The fact that the vast majority of what has been done and is being done, is directly aimed at the U.S. public - while dismaying, is not surprising, given how much those in the government i.e. many of the politicians of BOTH major parties, the military "leadership", the big financial institutions, the corporate media (which doesn't deserve to be called "mainstream" at this point), and some of the more extremist religious groups, have been part of the same large "complex" and it's harmful "group-think" - a complex which meets the modern and past definitions of forms of "fascism" as well as "totalitarianism"...
In the long run, only a massive change in awareness, a willingness to care about each other, a willingness to be involved long-term, and to force change (including if that means voting the majority of the politicians of BOTH major parties out of office all at the same time - over and over again, and other such things that the aforementioned "complex" collectively wishes to convince us all is impossible to even attempt) by a majority of the population, can alter the self-destructive course our nation is on - at home and abroad.
Those lost in the two-dimensional "group-think" of the "complex", don't believe that "We The People" - in our nation, or in any other nation, have the determinination, self-disipline, caring, and sheer gumption, to cause real change, nor do they really understand the depths of the harm they have caused - including to themselves.
So let's all wake up another human being - who is not awake, to real awareness, and re-create and reshape things - not just for our nation, but for the vast humanity that we are all a part of.
Cleric Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr also only has the level of power and influence he has at this point, because of the 2003 U.S. invasion/occupation of Iraq - which was not justified. As Robert "Bob" Baer put it in 2003:
"The current Iraq war/occupation is based on lies... When you invade a nation without cause, that's not a 'war on terrorism'..., that's colonialism, that's imperialism... Look, while you guys were doing the Nasdaqs and the dot-coms, I was over in Iraq trying to get rid of Saddam Hussein... For that, I almost got killed... besides, I almost went to jail... So it didn't take a whole lot of courage for me to come out against this Iraq war, which I did right from the beginning, and I was studiously ignored...". - Robert "Bob" Baer (C.I.A. "black-ops"; officially: field officer in the C.I.A. Directorate of Operations), who was previously stationed in the 1990s in the middle-east trying to capture Hussein as an individual, with the intention of having him tried in international court...). Note: Bob Baer even went public trying to stop the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was reported, including on BBC (see the December 28, 2002 report at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/2549937.stm)
Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr is not Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq - who runs a prison in Iraq where people are abused and tortured even worse than under Hussein in many instances (as Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have been documenting and reporting on), and whose party lost the last limited election (confirmed by international observers), but has remained in power propped up by the U.S. occupation.
On top of everything else, the Theocracy put in power by the 2003 U.S. invasion/occupation, put in place a Constitution, that under Article number 41, has canceled the rights which Iraqi women had since 1958, including under what was known as the "personal status law", under the previous secular Constitution.
Iraqi security? It's the same kind of crap as going all the way back to the 1955 - 1975 U.S. war on Vietnam, where the excuse of "Vietnam security" lead to what?
Remember that the vast majority of identifiable Iraqi victims of U.S. bombings (from planes, helicopters, and automated drone bombers) during and since the 2003 invasion, have been Iraqi women and children - this includes recent bombings, like the Pentagon was forced via legal actions here in the U.S. to admit about this past summer, i.e. that they are still bombing Iraq (a far cry from what I remember from the also not justified Vietnam War, but when at least the U.S. government openly gave the figures of the tonnage of bombs dropped each week, on Vietnam, Laos and/or Cambodia - which I would see listed on the evening news broadcasts each Friday).
Of course, there are more like Raymond Allen Davis-types in the military and C.I.A. and among the U.S. government-funded mercenaries (who are not being withdrawn, according to many reports), and remember it was the U.S. government that ordered the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, and that ordered that none of the Geneva Conventions were to be followed, so there was and is as bad or worse than Raymond Allen Davis at the very top of the Pentagon, C.I.A., State Department, and White House staff - With zero accountability and atrocities ordered from the top as policy currently and in the past, it's no surprise what has happened.
Our U.S. government's sad and tragic policies in the middle-east for decades have been failed policies, that the policy makers mostly refuse to look at, and they continue the same or similar policies, and they mostly don't give a darn about the harm their policies cause.
To give just one of many examples regarding Iraq:
Imagine if Saddam Hussein the Iraqi history student, had not been recruited by the U.S. government, trained by the C.I.A., and then sent as part of a C.I.A. sponsored 6-man squad to assassinate Abd al-Karim Qasim in 1959 (while they killed his driver, they only wounded Qasim on that occasion, who escaped being murdered that particular time) - which a number of C.I.A. personnel from that era have gone public about in the past decade? Our government is still going around recruiting, training and arming people to do such things, on top of everything else - which Seymour "Sy" Hersh and others have been documenting and reporting on for years.
The historical lessons, and even famous historical warning about not doing such things - some of which date all the way back to George Washington, are deliberately ignored by the U.S. government (both parties), including the White House, Congress, the Pentagon brass, the C.I.A., etc.
For years I've heard statements out of the Pentagon "If we could get things in Iraq back to how they were under Hussein, we'd consider that success"... (Indicating that cruel as Hussein’s secular government was, the Theocracy installed and propped up by the U.S. invasioin and occupation is even worse).
With the western oil companies - including Exxon Mobil, Shell, and BP, have their contracts and privatization control (instead of the previous situation of Iraq's oil being nationalized), and Iraq no longer has control of the the levels or the limits of extractions and production (including as Professor Fouad Al-Ameer revealed);
With the U.S. government having converted the trading of Iraq’s oil export transactions from the Euro to the U.S. dollar immediately after the 2003 invasion and occupation;
With hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians being maimed or dead by the 2003 U.S. war on Iraq, plus the civil war the invasion triggered (with some evidence indicating at least part of that was deliberated caused), causing hundreds of thousands of more deaths;
On top of the 500,000 plus Iraqi children dead from the George H. W. Bush/James "Dan" Quayle administration’s and then the Bill Clinton/Al Gore administration’s sanctions before that (and people in the U.S., like Bert Sacks in Seattle still fighting legal battles to this day, over being fined by the U.S. government for helping provide a small amount of medical supplies and bandages for Iraqi children);
With 5 to 6 million Iraqi civilians driven out of their own country as refugees, according to U.N. reports;
With at least 400,000 + U.S. military personnel suffering from severe Post Traumatic Stress, with another 350,000+ suffering from traumatic brain injuries (2008 figures from RAND - the numbers may be higher now), and thousands dead, and tens of thousands wounded, and U.S. military veterans now being 55% of the U.S. homeless population;
With the grotesque Iraq war and occupation profiteering by Halliburton, K.B.R., CACI, Bechtel, Titan and others, and the additional war crimes by U.S. government-funded private mercenaries like Blackwater (aka Xe) and it’s official and unofficial subsidiaries;
With the kidnapping and torture practices - including at the 7 U.S. military prisons in Iraq, that Major General Antonio Taguba investigated and verified of “torture, abuse, rape, and every indecency...”;
With the war criminals from the U.S. government - including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza "Condi" Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld - going around giving speeches for which they are paid millions of dollars, while both Obama and his administration and many of those in Congress (both parties) insist “we can’t look back into the past” *, and that no one from high levels who ordered high crimes will be held legally accountable;
In conclusion, the "Blood For Oil" crap, and the massive U.S. corporate robbing of both Iraqi monies and U.S. tax monies, the war crimes, and the war and occupation profiteering, the not caring for the mis-used U.S. military personnel, etc., are all indeed a very large and real part of this sickening U.S. government’s war of choice.
- Martin A. Totusek
* 1) Ask any honest police officer how they solve crimes and often prevent them from being committed again (including by the same people), and the first thing they will tell you is “We look back into the past...”.
2) How can a nation avoid having the same kinds of crimes happen again? Precisely by looking back at what has happened, and holding all and anyone involved, including heads of State, to at least some standards of legal accountability and penalties.
The fallacy of "either-or" two-dimensional thinking, in what is actually a multi-dimensional World, particularly combined with ethnic, religious and/or skin color bigotries *, is always a tragic and horrible combination.
The fact that it's amplified, fueled, and incited in many parts of the World:
by massively well-funded extremist right-wing individuals and groups (including the Murdoch family and the Koch family);
by leaders of organized religions in some cases;
by neo-liberals (who are not to be mistaken for actual moderates, progressives, liberals, or the Left);
by governments;
by the corporate and governmental medias;
by those who profiteer from it and/or seek to gain power from exploiting it;
and by militaries and mercenaries;
whether it's in European nations, in the U.S., in Israel or in other nations in the Middle-East, or in Eurasia, Africa, and Asia, etc.;
makes it even more dangerous.
(* not unlike the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney administration's "you're with us or you're against us" propaganda - which has been continued by the Obama administration and by many Republicans and "Democrats" in Congress, as well as by most of the corporate-controlled media in our nation,,,)