Foreign Policy

[I'm going to break my rule and give a ton of links. Sorry if it's too much info at once] This video clip is from the BBC documentary The Century of the Self, and it explains how the media allows itself to be manipulated and used to further the ends of those in power. They did it 50 years ago. They did it to sell the war in Iraq. And they're doing it today. The lobbyists are people they tell us are people we have to trust. For instance, former DHS Sec. Michael Chertoff who's going to get his very own post in this series or former DNI Mike McConnell, who happens to have made a bundle out of security contracts at Booz Allen

Ten years after leaving the government, McConnell was finally making real money -- two million dollars a year at Booz-Allen.

video link

Over the last few weeks there have been a series of posts at different websites that have documented the latest variations of the conjunction of the military and anti-terror industrial complex with our government. I'm going to call it the Fear Industrial Complex because to be boxed in into the Military Industrial Complex would be inaccurate and wouldn't even come close to defining the collusion of 1) the military wing, with 2) the security wing, with 3) the Congressional wing, with 4) the Presidential wing and lastly 5) the media wing of the complex . There are so many links that if I tried to put them all in one post it would take several hours to put together and would shortshrift them all and be a disservice to the thought-provoking information.

With that, here's the first post by Frida Berrigan, with an intro by Tom Engelhardt in the link. I'm posting the entire thing because things like this have a way of disappearing

America’s Global Weapons Monopoly

End the Afghan War

Last night, March 2, Rep. Kucinich recorded a special message for PDA members. Click here to listen to the Message from Dennis Kucinich. (Select the second recording.)

The Destabilization of Haiti

"Washington seeks to reinstate Haiti as a full-fledged US colony, with all the appearances of a functioning democracy. The objective is to impose a puppet regime in Port-au-Prince and establish a permanent US military presence in Haiti. 

Edit: On second thought, the song I embedded, No Woman No Cry is too upbeat for the tone of the post. It's a great song with a positive message, but that kind of gives an excuse to the immoral and gluttonous elites who've ravaged these people for centuries. At the same time, I think this section of the song is a subtle political statement against the colonialist economic overlords. I think at the time, Bob Marley knew he couldn't be overt in this message, but the people who knew -- knew what he was saying

Youtube - No Woman No cry

Said, said, said, I remember when we used to sit
In a government yard in Trenchtown,
Oba - obaserving the hypocrites as they would
Mingle with the good people we meet,
Good friends we have, oh, good friends we've lost
Along the way, In this bright future called life,
you can't forget your past

Below, is a devastating indictment by Chris Floyd on the economic elite's colonialist policies on the People of Haiti

Help Haiti: The Unforgiven Country Cries Out

(UPDATED BELOW)

There were a lot of warnings that were overlooked and a lot of strange things had to line up in order for the attempted bombing to take place and left a lot of questions begging to be answered ... for instance these ten. Then there was the unrelated (?) strange story that Police ‘forgot’ to take explosives off a flight to Dublin

More to come ...

The Yemen Hidden Agenda: Behind the Al-Qaeda Scenarios, A Strategic Oil Transit Chokepoint

On December 25 US authorities arrested a Nigerian named Abdulmutallab aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on charges of having tried to blow up the plane with smuggled explosives. Since then reports have been broadcast from CNN, the New York Times and other sources that he was “suspected” of having been trained in Yemen for his terror mission. What the world has been subjected to since is the emergence of a new target for the US ‘War on Terror,’ namely a desolate state on the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen. A closer look at the background suggests the Pentagon and US intelligence have a hidden agenda in Yemen.

2009—The PDA Year in Review

Everyone has their favorite reason for the continue occupation of Afghanistan. I also have my explanation.

Since WWII, United States has attempted to control other country’s policies with the use of diplomacy and threats, violence, or war. Every President since FDR has threatened to use nuclear weapons at least once. United States has become more than the world’s policeman. The current phrase is “all options are on the table”. How that came about is another matter.

Of course, threats can not be used without violence or war, else the threats would not be taken seriously by the country being threatened. If the United States is defeated in a war then the threats also lack creditability.

This is such a good blog, I posted the entire thing. But please click on the header to read the original. What we are being sold about Afghanistan is a reprise of The Simla Manifesto

Remnants of an Army by Elizabeth Butler depicting William Brydon who was the sole British survivor after Britain's catastrophic retreat from Kabul.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

What Empires Have Said Throughout History: "One More Surge"

A leading advisor to the U.S. military, the Rand Corporation, released a study in 2008 called "How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida". The report confirms what experts have been saying for years: the war on terror is actually weakening national security.

As a press release about the study states:

"Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests that there is no battlefield solution to terrorism."

Obama's War
by Jim Hightower - Creators Syndicate
Published on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 by Creators Syndicate

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to war we go! Pound the drums loudly, stand with your country proudly!

Wait, wait, wait — hold it right there. Cut the music, slow the rush, and let's all ponder what Barack Obama, Roberts Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Co. are getting us into ... and whether we really want to go there. After all, just because the White House and the Pentagon brass are waving the flag and insisting that a major escalation of America's military mission in Afghanistan is a "necessity" doesn't mean it is ... or that We the People must accept it.

Remember the wisdom of Mark Twain about war-whooping generals and politicians: "Loyalty to the country, always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it."

How many more dead and mangled American soldiers does the government's "new" Afghan policy deserve? How many more tens of billions of dollars should we let them siphon from our public treasury to fuel their war policy? How much more of our country's good name will they squander on what is essentially a civil war?