Why has this country adopted the role of world cop, embraced it, allowed it to define who and what we are as a collective?
Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya. Egypt. Syria.
We invaded Iraq under falsehoods about WMD. We invaded Afghanistan because of Al-qaeda, we struck Libya with drones, we gave arms to some rebel groups in who knows what far flung corners of the world. For decades, we have installed dictators in difficult countries – and then deposed them. And here we are, contemplating military action against Syria.
Let’s be clear. Syria allegedly has unleashed chemical weapons against its own people, a heinous, despicable act. When you see these photos of dead children, bloodless corpses, your heart breaks. But Syria has not attacked the U.S. or any other country. It has attacked its own people, the act of mad men. Why should we attack Syria in any form? News pundits who support a strike talk about how the “credibility” of the U.S. must be upheld. But what does that mean? How does that uphold our credibility? A strike against Syria in any form only hurts Syrian civilians, the poor who can’t afford to flee Damascus or the country.
Assad must be punished: that’s another popular argument. And following that line of thought, then why haven’t we bombed every other country in the Middle East that has done something heinous? Of the 19 hijackers on 9-11, 15 were supposedly Saudi nationals. But we didn’t bomb Saudi Arabia. In fact, it was never an option. The Saudis have too much oil.
According to an interview that General Wesley Clark did with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, oil is at the heart of it all. “The truth is about the Middle East,” says Westmoreland, “had there been no oil, it would be like Africa. Nobody is threatening to intervene in Africa. The problem is the opposite.”
Westmoreland claims that as far back as October 2001, when we had already invaded Afghanistan, the plan was to go to war with seven countries in five years – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.
Here’s the video link for that interview and thanks to Daz for alerting us to it.
Fortunately, the U.K. parliament voted against intervention in Syria, despite Prime Minister Cameron’s impassioned argument for doing otherwise. It’s a start in the right direction, but now the U.S. may go the route alone. Regardless of the real reason for doing this – credibility, the protection of oil interests or something else – the bottom line is that a strike to “punish” a maniac will undoubtedly backfire.
Remember how Donald Rumsfeld said we would be greeted with open arms by the Iraquis for liberating them? Remember the posed photo ops of supposed Iraquis pulling down the statue of Hussein? Remember all the embedded journalists in Iraq who supposedly brought us news from the front lines? Really?
I am still moved when I hear Obama speak – as he did during the 50th anniversary of MLK’s I have a Dream speech. But now that we’re into his second term as president, I am not so easily seduced by what he says. Words are cheap. Where’s the change? Granted, he is up against an intractable Congress. But c’mon, he’s the head honcho, the top dude, and can issue executive orders that even the Supreme Court can’t knock down.
Some progressives who voted for Obama regret that vote. Yet, in 2008, the other choice was McCain/Palin. McCain is gung-ho for a strike on Syria and would probably have invaded Libya with boots on the ground and invaded anyone else who was ripe for the taking. And if he had died in office, we would have President Palin, who can see Russia from her front porch, wink-wink.
In 2012, the other choice was Romney of the 47 percent, a man who has probably never hard boiled an egg or done his own laundry. A guy with slick gray hair and a great smile whose one great accomplishment occurred as governor of Massachusetts, when he implemented the health care model upon which ObamaCare is founded.
For me, Obama was the logical choice in both elections. And yet, he’s actually contemplating a strike on Syria. To what end? For what purpose? To punish Assad or to take him out? To protect our oil interests, to protect Israel, or to make the point that the U.S. military can take on anyone, anywhere, even maniacs with chemical weapons?
Just one surgical strike may embroil us in yet another war. Millions of Syrians will die, be maimed, and become displaced. China, who owns us, won’t be happy. Russia, who gave Snowden a haven, will be pissed. Why can’t Obama, whose idealism he sold to the American public, just say no? No to more war, no to perpetual war, no to oil interests, no to our supposed credibility, no, no, no?
NO.
Let’s turn a page here, President Obama. Become the agent of change that you ran on. Say no to more war, to the oil barons, to the special interests, to the endless stream of lobbyists, to the corporations. Become the dream that MLK dreamed, for which Nelson Mandela spent decades in prison. Fulfill the promises you made. The people who ushered you into office are tired of waiting.
a sad state of affairs…for syria…on so many levels – but for a lot of reasons, i’m guessing that obama will proceed to strike – i agree with the comment above that there are so many many thing of which we, ordinary citizens, are unaware regarding our own government as to be mind-boggling – and that the presidency is but a PR tool for the real powers of the mic/nwo – a sad state of affairs…for us…
Aleksander, I wasn’t speaking of just white American men and women. I was speaking of ALL peoples, regardless of age, color, gender, religion,or culture, who must put on a uniform and go to war…..definitely not just Americans. Every life has value, and for me war is useless loss of life and has NEVER permanenetly solved any problems. But being a pacifist, this is my personal conviction and there are hundreds of thousands of folks who would take issue with me. Be that as it may, killing begets more killing, and it has done so since humans began to inhabit this planet. We are a warring species, and that is such a shame.
I don’t wish harm to Obama. I want him to do the right thing, not follow in the footprints of former presidents who have made errors that have costs this country more than it can ever possibly retrieve, especially the lives of our men and women in uniform. If we make “airstrikes” with missiles sent from the off-shore ships, it will escalate into a ground war, and according to the latest news tonite on CNN and NBC, we already have in excess of 10,000 troops on the ground over there. They should be at home, here. The Middle East has been at war among itself since the Beginning of Time. I think we should pull out and leave them alone. We can’t save the world; we only lose more of our own whenever we try. My heart breaks for those Innocents who have been brutally poisoned and killed, but retaliation from the U.S. won’t bring them back, It will only create more killing on a larger scale. Where does it end???
Your men and women are oh so important.
Speaking of “the beginning of time”: There were a few years of history before white people knew about America. Bin Laden was a CIA agent. Violence as a way to achieve a goal was imported into Africa and the Middle East from the civilized Christians from the west/north. I am a refugee because someone was paid for a propaganda that whatever you do to a Serb (Arab, Muslim, black person…) isn’t a crime. I am surprised there isn’t a terrorist organization from Serbia.
Personally, I think the president has to do what the Military Industrial Complex is ordering him to do, or else he faces the same fate as JFK. With the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination happening this November, I do not want to see another president get the same fate. I believe that there are things about our presidency that most Americans don’t understand or even want to know about, because it would show that the position is meaningless in the face of whoever has the real power over our government. I pray for Obama’s safety and know that he has a tough choice to make. I want to see him serve his time, walk out of the White House alive and write his memoirs, establish his foundation and presidential library, walk his daughters down the aisle someday, enjoy grandkids, and hopefully have a Jimmy Carter-like post-presidency where he gets to do whatever his heart desires, free from the controls of the MIC.
You may be right, Nicholas. Probably are. I always wonder if the incoming president is shown the McGruder film from that terrible day in Dallas.
You’re right Nicholas,The USA doesn’t run the world at all,that is all an illusion for the popular media and to fool the majority of the people.
Three City/Sates pretty much run the world and Obama is nothing but a PR man for them (as is any president that doesn’t want to end up terminated early in their career) .Watch this video and prove it wrong if you can –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-su61mIIPs
And don’t confuse the ‘City of London’ (The Square Mile) as Britain.The Queen is just the same as Obama,a PR tool of the 3 Cites,or Three Pillars,you might say.-)
This is the so called New (which is really the old ) World Order.
Off to see this link, Daz.
That should be “City / States “,in the above comment.
The biggest issue I can see at this point in time is that America has enough of our own enormous problems that need to be resolved, (and aren’t being addressed, instead of sticking our military noses into the issues of other countries as we have always done in the past. Our own ordinary citizens are in desperate need of assistance in virtually every aspect of life. Our leaders need to take care of its own “family” here at home, not send off more of our troops, ships, planes, money, and other resources out of our borders, especially when our resources have suffered so many ‘cutbacks’ and losses. YES…..WHERE IS THAT PROMISED “CHANGE’???? Empty, false rhetoric. Several polls show that Obama’s rating has dropped below 15%. Shame on you, Mr. President.
If we carry out a strike solo, his ratings will really tank. But John Kerry is making a case for war.
If we were really a country devoted to justice, why was nothing done in Rwanda? Or under Pol Pot in Cambodia? Or the carnage in the Congo? Or many other places and times? Pray indeed for our country, and for the millions of innocents who will experience our bombs along with the violent tyranny of their own country, and the thousands of American youth who will not become doctors, or parents, or artists, or gardeners, or environmental activists, but who will continue to die as soldiers. And as the waste and carnage goes on, we will continue to watch, entranced, numb, bellowing about “revenge” or “jihad” or “freedom” as the future dies.
I’m completely disgusted. It’s a great irony that he should be giving speeches celebrating the non-violent actions of Martin Luthor King, the work Dr. King did that ultimately made it possible for him to be in the White House.
It’s like westmoreland says i that video. Africa doesn’t have oil. Pathetic, really.
I just read the morning news (NOT from any Fox affiliate) and Obama is going against the entire world including our own government leaders and agencies and is planning to carry out a “Commander-in-Chief” decision, on his own, in opposition to everyone else, and order the strike in Syria. To me, this erases all his pretty promises and all his lovely rhetoric and makes him no better than Bush and the rest….an egomaniac who believes he has the right to take us into another unprovoked war, just as Bush did….a pre-emptive strike…not to mention the “other” war because “they” had weapons of mass destruction. (Yeah, right.)
I agree, there was no one else running who deserved my vote. But I wish I could take it back. I don’t want to offend Obama supporters….I was one….but his power has gone straight to his head, IN MY OPINION, and he is so full of himself he can’t see beyond his mirror. Striking Syria will be a massive mistake. OK. I’m done.
I am so pleased that the UK Parliament has voted against any action against Syria and, also, that there will be none in future without Parliament’s agreement. Iraq, and the lies told, have turned the British people against such action. For once the Members of Parliament have listened, even Cameron said, “I get it.”
In Syria we still can’t be absolutely sure who released the CW. It’s a dreadful situation but it’s not the West’s business, generally we just make things worse. What ‘we’ did in Iraq should haunt us for years. It mustn’t happen again.
And where’s the proof?
Because the world is run by sociopaths and Obama has turned out to be one of them. How dare he go against his allies, his people, his Congress, and do whatever his ego, and the military industrial complex, tells him to do! It is time to vote in all new people. Not one single “royal family of America” – the Bushs, the Clintons, the Kennedys, etc. Not one single incumbent – except Elizabeth Warren. It is time for the world to take back what is theirs. We are the many and they are the few. Assad will pay for his deeds, but it doesn’t have to on the backs of the American people. His time will come. Killing more innocent people in the attempt to get one man or group of men is insane. Absolutely insane.
I would love to see warren as the next prez. She’s terrific.
I don’t believe Obama is acting from ego, but from perhaps fear. If the powers that be told you that you had to do what they wish for the sake of continuing American power, and they show you what really happened to JFK (I believe he was killed by the state when he refused to send combat troops to Vietnam), Obama has his daughters to think about, and a legacy to think about. I think the presidency is a faustian bargain. The president is allowed to do some personal goals (like Obamacare) but when it comes to foreign policy, the Military Industrial Complex will have a say. If Obama refuses, we end up with President Joe Biden, who is more than willing to go to war in Syria.
That should be “City / States “,in the above comment.