***qt."Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
Hermann Wilheim Goring...
***qt."The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson." - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a letter written Nov.. 21, 1933 to Colonel E. Man dell House
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." - FDR
"Presidents are selected, not elected" - FDR
***1933 - Wall Street Banking Fascists attempt to take over US government
The same year Hitler came into power Wall Street banking Fascists JP Morgan, Rockefeller and Prescott Bush (Skull and Bones) (the father of George H.W. Bush), organized a US government coup to create a Fascist government along with death camps in the US to rid of undesirables using USMC Major General Smedley D. Butler and 500,000 veterans under him to do it.
Whistle-blower Hero Infiltrates Plot and Saves America from Fascist Regime Coup
If it wasnt for whistle-blowing hero General Butler we would have lost our constitution and bill of rights and been under a complete Fascist dictatorship in 1933. John J. Raskob (Knight of Malta) was the SMOM treasurer who was the principal financier in the plot to organize a fascist coup in the United States. General Butler instead of going along with the plan infiltrated and blew the whistle. This hero of America later published a book in 1935 titled "War is a Racket" where he wrote...
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
***USMC Major General Smedley D. Butler (a true American hero)
It is important to note that the German and American factions of this empire of money such as Schröder in Germany and Rockefellers and JP Morgans in America existed before the war. What was new during and after the war, was the injection of Nazism as yet another contending faction within it, with all its ideological and covert operations commitments. It is therefore crucial to ones understanding of this breakaway civilization to have an understanding of the pre-war structure of these arrangements.
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
I fear that Democrats have backed themselves so far against the wall that their only way out will be to start a major world war, then use war powers to crush their opponents... only they know that once they pull that pin, it cannot be put back in!
It's a sad state of affairs when a Democrat state like New York thinks it can decide for the rest of the nation who can and cannot be on the 2024 ballot... what is worse is that they are trying to jail an ex-President for 130+ years for paying hush money to a prostitute! All the while using a lying POS like Michael Cohen -- who by the way is a convicted LIAR, and admitted thief with an axe to grind as their star witness. Never mind that Bill Clinton got a blowjob while in office, or the fact that he paid hush-money to the tune of $800,000 himself. Of course, Democrats will say it was an NDA, but let's be honest -- they only use the term "hush-money" for Trump.
More or less, there can be no good that comes from this! I have said it all along! It is the result of an out of control Democrat party who's left hand does not know or care what the right hand is doing.
If this precedence of prosecuting political rivals at the state level is accepted we could see Obama, Clinton and Biden being charged at the state level in deep red states with similar or worse outcomes...
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
The 130+ years would only happen if the judge decides to give the maximum sentence for each count, AND run the sentences consecutively, assuming he even goes for prison time.
I think prison is likely, but probably less than 10 years for this trial since it's a first time conviction. By the way. Paying hush money to a porn star is perfectly legal, and falsifying business records about such a payment is only a misdemeanor in New York if there is no criminal motive behind it. The reason these 34 misdemeanors were elevated to felonies, is because these things were done to influence an election. A jury of 12 peers unanimously agreed with this conclusion, and convicted Trump for 34 counts of FELONY ELECTION FRAUD. Let's be clear about that, and not minimize it by saying he's just guilty of falsifying business records or paying hush money. Those activities were just a means to an end.
You're not a fan of election fraud are you?
Michael Cohen was also convicted by a jury of his peers for his part in the exact crimes that benefited Trump for the purpose of election fraud. No way should the pawn serve more time than the guy who ordered and benefited from it.
-- Edited by PowerStroker on Monday 3rd of June 2024 04:30:30 PM
I'm going to start a new thread tonight if someone doesn't beat me to it... have to finish brakes on a Trailhawk.
Something this important needs it own thread... I been meaning to make one for the past few days but I just wasn't sure how I wanted the thread title to read.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
I'll post this one in here, even though the election looms closer, & the report seems to want to lift the title of Genocide-Joe, into idiot-Joe via his admin team. I guess its trying to make excuses for the inexcusable, & it still doesn't change the fact that billions of dollars of bombs were sold & dropped, & that the US-of-I elite worship an old Babylonian Owl at the Bo-Grove sausage festival...
Biden Team Ignores Israels History of Deceit and Deception
by Melvin Goodman
Photograph Source: The White House Public Domain
Question: How do you know when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lying?
Answer: He moves his lips.
Israels history over the past 76 years is replete with examples of deceit. This was true from the start, when the Israelis denied their role in expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes during Israels War of Independence. The Arab world refers to the expulsion as the nakba (the catastrophe), which is largely denied in Israel. The Israeli legacy of denying the nakba is no different from those who deny the Holocaust.
The mainstream media bends over backwards to defend Israels case, and over the years it has said very little about the history of Israels deceit and deception. As recently as last week, for example, the Washington Post carried a bizarre headline that read Israel is on its honor to comply with U.S. intelligence limits. The accompanying story was a significant one, detailing the importance of the U.S. intelligence provided to Israel to conduct the rescue of four Israeli hostages, an operation that took the lives of nearly three hundred Palestinians, mostly women and children. By any definition of the requirement for proportionality in wartime, this was indeed a war crime.
The Post article went on to cite National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, an apologist for Israel since the start of the war on October 7th, who explained that the United States has provided an intense range of assets and capabilities and expertise to Israel, and that the provision of intelligence is not tied or conditioned on anything else. It is not limited. We are not holding anything back. We are providing every asset, every tool, every capability. These remarks are dispositive of our complicity in Israels brutal and unconscionable assault against Palestinian civilians.
At the same time, U.S. officials disingenuously claim that Israeli is prohibited from using U.S. intelligence for targeting in Gaza in any military operations, including airstrikes. They argue that there are long-standing formal arrangements that are scrutinized by lawyers in the U.S. intelligence community, as well as directives from the White House following the October 7th attacks. This is particularly disingenuous because of the long record of deceit and deception from both the U.S. intelligence community regarding U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and the Israeli lies over the years regarding their wars in 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982. Ive written extensively about U.S. and Israeli lies in my articles for CounterPunch and my various books and articles. And I will return to this deceit in future articles.
The idea that Israel is on its honor not to use U.S. intelligence for proscribed purposes, which is described by current U.S. intelligence officers, is laughable. The Israelis have regularly broken agreements with the United States regarding the use of certain weaponry as well as the supply of U.S. weapons technology to third countries. There is legislation on the books that requires the Director of National Intelligence to notify Congress if U.S. intelligence to any third country leads to civilian casualties, but this law is observed only in the breach. U.S. oversight regarding Israel is virtually nonexistent.
The Israeli pattern of deceit is particularly important because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently engaged in a new round of false accusations in order to embarrass the Biden administration and divide the American public on the Gaza war as well as the U.S. election. At least, the Biden administration has responded to Netanyahus outrageous charge by canceling an important meeting of the U.S.-Israeli Strategic Consultative Group regarding policy toward Iran in return for Netanyahus stunt.
Nevertheless, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan did not cancel or postpone his meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, went overboard in stressing to Netanyahu there there havent been any delays in providing weaponry. Also, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in Israel early in the war and announced that Im come before you not only as the U.S. secretary of state, but as a Jew, assured Netanyahu that U.S. weapons were moving as it normally would move. The only exception has been the hold on 2,000-pound bombs, which have killed thousands of women and children and should never have been provided to Israel in the first place.
These mixed signals over Netanyahus remarks were reminiscent of the so-called red line that Biden proclaimed to lighten an Israeli assault in Rafah, where more than a million refugees were threatened. Israeli Defense Forces stormed Rafah on May 6, and Biden threatened to withhold weapons on May 8. But there was no interruption of U.S. weapons deliveries, and the consequences in Rafah over the past six weeks have been devastating. The assault is still ongoing, but national security adviser Sullivan announced that the red line had not been broken.
The fact that the U.S. Congress is rolling out the red carpet for Netanyahu in July is particularly ludicrous in view of his history of manipulating American public and congressional opinion. Have we forgotten his address to the Congress in 2015, designed to embarrass the Obama administration and stop the completion of the Iran nuclear accord? On this occasion, the congressional invitation is shameful because Netanyahu is a war criminal whose policies are killing and starving innocent civilians.
Netanyahu has spoken privately about his ability to manipulate Democratic administrations because he has the power of the Jewish lobby behind him, and Democratic presidents are fearful of antagonizing the Jewish vote and Jewish fund raising on behalf of Democrats. He has insulted American presidents, vice presidents, and secretaries of state over the years, and has never missed an opportunity to demonstrate that he has the upper hand in negotiations with the United States. Netanyahu has always played hard ball with the United States. Now, its time for the United States to do the same.
Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent books are American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump (Opus Publishing, 2019) and Containing the National Security State (Opus Publishing, 2021). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
It appears that the results of war have allowed the illegal spreading of new Israeli housing developments to continue...Yes, you did read that correctly...And here's the back-up-story cut & paste...
It appears that this war will be going-on for a long while...Would you really want to move there ??? Crazy man...
Israel turbocharges West Bank settlement expansion with largest land grab in decades By JULIA FRANKEL Updated 4:16 AM GMT+10, July 4, 2024
JERUSALEM (AP) Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades, a settlement tracking group said Wednesday, a move that is likely to worsen already soaring tensions linked to the war in Gaza.
Israels aggressive expansion in the West Bank reflects the settler communitys strong influence in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most religious and nationalist in the countrys history. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, has turbocharged the policy of expansion, seizing new authorities over settlement development and saying he aims to solidify Israels hold on the territory and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
Authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, according to a copy of the order obtained by The Associated Press. Data from Peace Now, the tracking group, indicate it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process.
Settlement monitors said the land grab connects Israeli settlements along a key corridor bordering Jordan, a move they said undermines the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state. RELATED COVERAGE Image The Latest | Hamas says positive response from mediators to its cease-fire amendments Image 7 Palestinians killed in West Bank by an Israeli raid and airstrike in the Jenin area Image Iran holds runoff presidential vote pitting hard-liner against reformist after record low turnout
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called it a step in the wrong direction, adding that the direction we want to be heading is to find a negotiated two-state solution.
The newly seized land is in an area of the West Bank where, even before the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, settler violence was displacing communities of Palestinians. That violence has only surged since Hamas Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza. Settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians since October in the West Bank, causing deaths and damaging property, according to the U.N.
The land seizure, which was approved late last month but only publicized on Wednesday, comes after the seizure of 8 square kilometers (roughly 3 square miles) of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in February.
That makes 2024 by far the peak year for Israeli land seizure in the West Bank, Peace Now said.
By declaring them state lands, the government opens them up to being leased to Israelis and prohibits private Palestinian ownership. This years land seizures are contiguous, linking two already existing settlements to create a solid block near the border with Jordan. The lands were declared to be closed Israeli military zones before they were declared state land.
The Palestinians view the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank as the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement, preventing any possibility of a cohesive state. Most of the international community considers settlements illegal or illegitimate.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state. Israels current government considers the West Bank to be the historical and religious heartland of the Jewish people and opposes Palestinian statehood.
Israel has built well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, some of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns. They are home to over 500,000 Jewish settlers who have Israeli citizenship.
The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule. The Palestinian Authority administers enclaves scattered across the territory, but is barred from operating in 60% of the West Bank, which includes the settlements as well as areas with a population of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Yoni Mizrachi, the head of settlement tracking at Peace Now, described the land grab announced Wednesday as part of a strategy to establish a buffer zone between Jordan and Palestinian lands and choke off the practical possibility of a Palestinian state. The aim, he believes, is to push Palestinians into isolated islands surrounded by Israeli land.
They definitely see this area as a strategic area, as the first and one of the easiest ways to begin annexation, he said.
Prominent human rights organizations have pointed to Israels rule over the West Bank in accusing it of the international crime of apartheid, allegations Israel rejects as an attack on its legitimacy.
Smotrich was granted expanded powers over Israels administration of the occupied territory under Netanyahus governing coalition. Smotrich laid out his plans for the West Bank at a conference for his ultranationalist Religious Zionism Party last month, a recording of which was obtained by Peace Now. He said he intended to appropriate up to 15 square kilometers (nearly 6 square miles) of land in the West Bank this year.
We came to settle the land, to build it, and to prevent its division and the establishment of a Palestinian state, God forbid, he said during the conference. He vowed to change the map dramatically by claiming more West Bank land than ever before as state land.
He also promised to expand the establishment of farming outposts, which hard-line settlers have used to extend their control of rural areas, and to crack down on Palestinian construction.
The proliferation of outposts has driven up settler violence in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, rights groups say, leading several Palestinian villages to pick up and leave their land.
Palestinians say the violence is geared toward putting wide swaths of land under Israeli control and pushing the prospect of a Palestinian state further from reach.
The U.S., E.U., UK and Canada have imposed high-level sanctions against violent settlers and settler organizations, but some of those targeted have told The AP that the measures have had little effect.
The declaration published Wednesday was signed under the authority of Hillel Roth, a deputy Smotrich appointed earlier this year to boost settlement expansion and state land declarations in the West Bank, Peace Now said.
The declaration came a day after Peace Now said Israeli authorities were scheduled to approve or advance construction of over 6,000 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank in the coming days.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, was not immediately available for comment.
Hamas cited the expansion of West Bank settlements as one of its justifications for the Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostage. Israel has launched a massive offensive in response that has killed over 37,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were fighters.
The war has caused massive devastation across Gaza and displaced most of its 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Israeli restrictions, the ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order have curtailed humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.
This is bullshyte, everyone deserves better than this, the year is 2024...
Let's go Brandon !
-- Edited by Rastus on Friday 5th of July 2024 06:08:09 PM
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
A plea to the US-of-UK-(I) Corporation, & its slaves / people...Read on !
July 26, 2024
"The US Must Stop Arming Israel"
by Farrah Hassen
In a shameful moment for U.S. history, an accused war criminal addressed Congress on July 24.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to plead for more arms for his war on Gaza, where the International Court of Justice has found it plausible that Israel is committing genocide. Give us the tools faster and well finish the job faster, Netanyahu said.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking a warrant for Netanyahus arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity. But instead of arresting him, Congress gave him multiple standing ovations.
Beyond applause, the U.S. government is also Israels chief supplier of arms. Every year, Congress sends billions in military aid including thousands of high powered explosives and other weapons since October.
To avoid complicity in war crimes and genocide, these shipments must end.
There is overwhelming evidence that Israeli forces under Netanyahus leadership have committed massive human rights atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza. And thats against the backdrop of an illegal military occupation of Palestinian territory and apartheid, as another ICJ ruling confirmed recently.
Nonetheless, Congress invited Netanyahu to speak. He used this platform to deny any responsibility for the slaughter, famine, and catastrophic destruction in Gaza and to denigrate Americans who are rightly horrified by their governments support for his genocidal campaign.
As Netanyahu spoke, thousands of people took to the streets near the Capitol. Braving tear gas and arrest, they gave voice to the majority of Americans who demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an embargo on arms to Israel.
Most Americans are disgusted that U.S-made bombs keep turning up at massacre after massacre. Over the past few weeks alone, Israel has repeatedly bombed so-called safe zones and at least eight schools in Gaza where thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians were sheltering.
On July 9, the Israeli military murdered at least 30 Palestinians who were playing soccer at the Al-Awda school using GBU-39 bombs made by Boeing. Israel also dropped GBU-39s on another UN school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp on July 6, killing at least 40, and before that on Palestinian families sheltering in plastic tents during the May 26 Rafah massacre.
On July 13, Israeli forces killed 90 people and injured hundreds more at the Al-Mawasi refugee camp that Israel had designated a safe zone. Children were reportedly found in pieces. Eight 2,000-pound bombs turned the civilian area into a smoldering crater. At least one of the munitions was a Boeing-made JDAM.
Despite these atrocities, the weapons continue to flow.
In May, President Biden announced that he would pause the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs ahead of Israels invasion of Rafah, which Biden had called a red line. However, Israel has still received destructive 500-pound bomb shipments despite invading Rafah, and the killing in Gaza continues.
These weapons shipments violate both international and U.S. law. The United States is legally obligated to withhold military assistance when U.S. weapons are used to violate human rights.
The UN Human Rights Council and various experts have called on all countries to end the sale and transfer of military equipment to Israel or else risk complicity in crimes, including genocide. They called on arms manufacturers supplying Israel to do the same, including Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.
Polls show that a majority of Americans support closing the arms pipeline to Israel. In advance of Netanyahus speech, seven major labor unions representing nearly 6 million workers called on President Biden to immediately halt all military aid to Israel.
The voices of the American people deserve more respect in Congress than Netanyahus lies and demands. An immediate end to all U.S. weapons transfers to Israel is long overdue, alongside a permanent ceasefire and larger pursuit of freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.
We must not allow ourselves to become a nation that applauds mass murder.
-- Edited by Rastus on Saturday 27th of July 2024 08:54:44 PM
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
This idea that we should allow Palestine, Syria, Lebonon and other Arab nations (Iran) to attack Israel and then ask they don't defend themselves is somewhat crazy!
Are you suggesting that Israel should just be the middle East's punching bag?
How would that work exactly? Splain it to me!
Because it would seem that this war should have only been between Israel and Palestine -- or should I say Gaza... If someone jumps into a fight and gets their ass kicked, who's fault is that?
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
1.This idea that we should allow Palestine, Syria, Lebonon and other Arab nations (Iran) to attack Israel and then ask they don't defend themselves is somewhat crazy!
2.Are you suggesting that Israel should just be the middle East's punching bag?
3.How would that work exactly? Splain it to me!
4.Because it would seem that this war should have only been between Israel and Palestine -- or should I say Gaza... If someone jumps into a fight and gets their ass kicked, who's fault is that?
R1. Israel is a post WW-II Rockefeller initiated / aided / created entity, along with the RKM.
R2. I'm suggesting that Israel shouldn't even exist.
R3. *1871, POTUS Ulysses sell the US-of-A back to England, & becomes a Corporation...
*On the French & UK battlefield, a Rothchild operative espies the war, & reports back to the UK that they lost the war, & stocks plummet over 99%...The Rothschilds then buy the UK for "pennies on the pound"...
*Therefore, we're all Rothschild bitches buy default, & the RKM ensures that everything swings their way...( Until recent times ).
R4. Stellar, sadly, you fail to understand many things, & I'm yired of typing...It's all in here however... Perhaps you should spend more time in here...For sure you don't want to here the truth from myself, an Aussie, but Shawnee brings all that you need to the table, but still you fail to lift your game...
Seek help my friend, plenty will come to your aid...Look at PowerStroker's consistent, & tireless efforts on your behalf...Even the dearly missed Stoma tried to help...
I guess some people are here to be made examples of, & become sign-posts for others.
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
If that were true it would be pence on the pound... not pennies.
Israel shouldn't exist... LOL, well we got enough money tied up there -- and it does contain a Holy site from biblical times!
You got a bloody beef with Jesus, Rastus?
All you have to do Stellar, to understand everything going on, is apply the most appropriate directive down below, & then reshuffle the order to suit...
1. The United States Corporation is about profit.
2. Create a problem and already have a solution to that problem.
3. Build, Destroy, Rebuild. Repeat.
4. Chaos is good for business and power acquisition.
5. Every single War and Conflict from 1871 to 2024 was centred around power acquisition, profit, and elite mafias around the globe, not just the US Corporation.
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
So this is a great update on the ongoing slaughter in the Middle East, a direct cut & paste from my mailbox yo...
September 24, 2024
No End to Israels Killing Machine and U.S. Complicity
Melvin Goodman
A car fire allegedly caused by an exploding pager. Photograph Source: Mehr News Agency CC BY 4.0
"We still believe that there is time and space for a diplomatic solution. War is not inevitable. And were going to continue to do everything we can to try to prevent it".
John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, September 20, 2024
"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology exceeded our humanity".
Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist, 1879-1955
"How many times can a man turn his head/and pretend that he just doesn't see".
Bob Dylan, Blowin' in the Wind, 1962
No Democratic administration has been willing to challenge the excesses of Israeli policy, and the Biden administration is no exception. President Joe Bidens bear hug of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several days after the Hamas attack on October 7th indicated that U.S. policy would be one-sided. Even worse, Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on October 12th, and said that he was there not only as secretary of state but as a Jew. Accordingly, the United States has been complicit in virtually every aspect of Israels genocidal campaign in Gaza as well as negligent in accepting Israels brutal policies against innocent Palestinians on the West Bank.
U.S. silence in the wake of the deadly explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon is one more indication of U.S. unwillingness to condemn heinous Israeli acts of terrorism. U.S. diplomats and National Security Council spokesman Kirby continue to claim that their efforts have prevented a full-blown war between Israel and Lebanon, but this simply has not been the case. The fact that hundreds of innocent Lebanese have been killed and injured, including children and health-care workers, doesnt appear to count as acts of war. Meanwhile, Blinken is in Egypt urging all parties to avoid steps that could further escalate the conflict that were trying to resolve. Obviously, Blinken seems to have no idea that he is being ignored by the Israelis, and that his feckless statements have only embarrassed the United States in the Middle East as well as the larger global stage.
Meanwhile, government watchdogs in the Departments of State and Defense are about to issue statements that will document the export of billions of dollars of U.S. weapons that are in violation of laws that prohibit the transfer of military assistance to countries that commit violations of human rights and block the movement of humanitarian assistance. The statements of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court document these violations, and as a result there are countries (e.g., Belgium, Britain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and Spain) that have begun to restrict the weapons flow to Israel. Aside from the pause in one shipment of highly devastating MK-84 2,000-pound bombs in June, which never should have been provided to Israel in the first place, the Biden administration has taken no action to restrict the surge of U.S. weaponry to Israel. Approximately 70 percent of the weapons used against Gaza and Lebanon are from U.S. inventories.
Five months ago, a report from the Department of State faulted Israel for its failure to protect civilians in Gaza, but the report avoided the conclusion that Israel violated any laws, thus putting no pressure on the Biden administration to restrict arms to Israel. A former State Department lawyer, Brian Finucane, called the report watered down and heavily lawyered.
An independent task force called the report intentionally misleading in defense of acts and behaviors that likely violate international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes. The report was delivered to Congress late on a Friday afternoon, a device government agencies typically use to minimize an announcements public impact. NSC spokesman Kirby, who consistently kowtows to Israel, predictably denied that the delay in the timing had any nefarious motive. The report failed to note that the pattern of Israeli attacks on humanitarian aid convoys was either intentional or indicative of reckless incompetence. The Israelis are not incompetent, so you can draw your own conclusions.
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D/MD) is one of the few senators emphasizing the need to hold Israel accountable. If Israeli conduct complies with international standards, Van Hollen said, then God help us all. The Foreign Assistance Act clearly prohibits military assistance to any country that restricts humanitarian assistance, which has been sufficiently documented.
The continuity of Israeli persecution of the Palestinian and Arab communities has been clear from the start. The displacement of the Palestinian community was planned even before the declaration of Israeli statehood. Israels secret involvement in the Suez War in 1956 demonstrated to the Arab states that Israel was a part of the British and French colonial experience in the Middle East. There were no Israeli efforts to signal an interest in making Israel a legitimate neighbour to the Arab community. The 1967 Six-Day War was never the pre-emptive attack that is part of the conventional wisdom among pundits and politicians.
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 produced a strategic nightmare for Israel for nearly two decades. In an effort to pull Israeli chestnuts out of the fire they had set, the United States suffered the loss of several hundred American soldiers and diplomats. President Ronald Reagan put the troops in harms way without adequate protection and then failed to retaliate against the terrorist act despite sensitive intelligence that identified the perpetrators. Reagans deputy national security adviser, Colonel Robert McFarlane, publicly accepted the blame for the lack of protective measures.
The current hostilities in Gaza and the West Bank have their own predicates. The Israelis have always maintained that Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land, which made it inevitable that brutal ethnic conflict would take place. Israeli writer David Shulman, writing in the New York Review of Books, noted that Israelis have denied the very existence of a Palestinian people who share the land with the Jews but who are disenfranchised, without legal recourse, indeed without any basic human rights, which inevitably generates violence and aggression. Israeli denial is an illness for which there seems to be no cure.
It is abundantly clear that Netanyahus strategy is to annihilate both Hamas and Hezbollah regardless of the cost to Israeli hostages or Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. The mainstream media continues to insist that the United States has little sway over Iran and Hezbollah but wields significant leverage over Israel. The use of such leverage would involve limiting the scope and pace of U.S. arms shipments as soon as possible, but there is no sign that the Biden administration will take such a step.
-- Edited by Rastus on Tuesday 24th of September 2024 06:46:50 PM
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
It's difficult and hypocritical to hold Israel to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. Israel was attacked, many innocent people were slaughtered, and many hostages are still being held. If Hamas wanted to end the suffering of the Palestinian people, the return of the remaining hostages would be a really good first step. Unless and until that happens, we can't honestly expect Israel to comport themselves any better than we comport ourselves.
The United States endured a similar thing in 2001 when an attack on the World Trade Center left a few thousand of our people dead. Was our response measured and aimed at the actual perpetrators? Hell no, we went in to Iraq and slaughtered hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, and toppled the Saddam Hussein government, when neither Saddam, nor the citizens of Iraq had anything to do with 911. That didn't stop us, because nothing could stop us, certainly not things like logic or truth.
Did anyone call him "Genocide George W" ? Of course not, because he was enabled by a bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress. Our representatives enabled the blood lust, because that's what the American people wanted. That's what happens in a democracy, and the Israeli people are no different.
During the time of ancient Rome, a citizen of Rome could walk around the entire world unarmed, without any fear whatsoever of being harmed. So certain, and so severe was the wraith of Rome that nobody dared assault a Roman citizen, lest a company of Roman soldiers show up at your door anywhere in the world to draw and quarter you and your entire family, publicly. Nobody dared trying to stop them from doing it either. Nothing gets in the way of Roman justice.
Moral of the story, don't poke the bear. And don't be surprised if the bear overreacts to being poked. I'm not saying it's right, it's just the way it is. Perhaps Israel thinks that by following the "Roman" precedent of massive disproportional retribution, they too can bring security to their people as the Romans and Americans did. If we don't like it, we shouldn't set such an example.
It's all the Democrats fault... from Obama sending them planes full of cash, to Biden giving them shit-tons of money! All that you are seeing is the money Democrats gave Iran! PERIOD.
And don't listen to PowerStroker trying to distract from his parties complicity! When Bush invaded Iraq they were loading up planes full of riches and sending them back to the USA, not like how Democrats load planes full of cash and send them to Iran.
If you ask me, them killing themselves is better than America having to get involved! That is just less people we have to kill when we get sucked in -- which is going to be soon.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
That was actually Iranian money that had been frozen here. The return of those Iranian funds was ordered by an international court that Reagan helped to set up. We've been through this.
Iran paid us for a bunch of military equipment that we ended up not delivering. For some reason we didn't refund their money until long after ordered to by an international court.
qt."The United States endured a similar thing in 2001 when an attack on the World Trade Center left a few thousand of our people dead. Was our response measured and aimed at the actual perpetrators? Hell no, we went in to Iraq and slaughtered hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, and toppled the Saddam Hussein government, when neither Saddam, nor the citizens of Iraq had anything to do with 911. That didn't stop us, because nothing could stop us, certainly not things like logic or truth".
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Well said.
I admit that it's likely still difficult to digest that the whole mess was a "false flag" event, set up by the likes of Cheney, Bush & Rumsfeld...But you'll get around to it...
The next few years are going to be crazy, so buckle-up...
Logic & truth will prevail...There's even a glimmer-of-hope that our host will be able to see beyond simply picking a side.
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
Iran paid us for a bunch of military equipment that we ended up not delivering. For some reason we didn't refund their money until long after ordered to by an international court.
Thank you for admitting that Iran used deception to purchase a bunch of deadly military equipment and was thwarted by the USA holding both the weapons and the money they used to purchase them.
Thank you for also admitting that Obama's illegal release of said money (on his own accord) is why there is serious instability in the Middle East right now. Had Obama not taken it upon himself to load planes full of cash and fly it to Iran, then it's very likely that Iran would not have had the means to support terror groups. I might also add that the Biden administration also gave them a lot of money, although they didn't send planes loaded with pallets of cash like Obama.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
qt."The United States endured a similar thing in 2001 when an attack on the World Trade Center left a few thousand of our people dead. Was our response measured and aimed at the actual perpetrators? Hell no, we went in to Iraq and slaughtered hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, and toppled the Saddam Hussein government, when neither Saddam, nor the citizens of Iraq had anything to do with 911. That didn't stop us, because nothing could stop us, certainly not things like logic or truth". _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Well said.
I admit that it's likely still difficult to digest that the whole mess was a "false flag" event, set up by the likes of Cheney, Bush & Rumsfeld...But you'll get around to it...
The next few years are going to be crazy, so buckle-up...
Logic & truth will prevail...There's even a glimmer-of-hope that our host will be able to see beyond simply picking a side.
There was no false flag events. Saddam was dirty and PowerStroker knows it! He don't want to admit that his Clinton pals were behind 9/11 when Bush realized that one of the biggest "threats" to the Nation were the self-destructive Democrat party willing to lie and kill it's own people to stay in power. You don't have to pick a side Rastus, you can remain the useful idiot up until the time you get caught in the middle and crack your nuts on the fence you keep hopping over as you try and switch sides constantly.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Thank you for admitting that Iran used deception to purchase a bunch of deadly military equipment and was thwarted by the USA holding both the weapons and the money they used to purchase them.
Thank you for also admitting that Obama's illegal release of said money (on his own accord) is why there is serious instability in the Middle East right now. Had Obama not taken it upon himself to load planes full of cash and fly it to Iran, then it's very likely that Iran would not have had the means to support terror groups. I might also add that the Biden administration also gave them a lot of money, although they didn't send planes loaded with pallets of cash like Obama.
What deception did Iran use? We've sold them lots of stuff before our relationship soured. They are currently using our F14 Tomcats.
Generally if you don't deliver something you were paid for, you should give a refund.
Obama's release of said money wasn't illegal, it would be illegal not to.
The middle East was already unstable, long before Obama came along. The pallets of cash was the court ordered return of Iranian funds. It's nice when a president follows the law and the court's orders isn't it?
-- Edited by PowerStroker on Wednesday 25th of September 2024 02:54:16 PM