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Justice or Vengeance?
In the midst of the Arab Spring, which directly rejects al-Qaeda-style small-group violence in favor of mass-based, society-wide mobilization and non-violent protest to challenge dictatorship and corruption, does the killing of Osama bin Laden represent ultimate justice, or even an end to the "unfinished business" of 9/11?
AMMAN, Jordan — U.S. agents killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, apparently without cooperation from the government in Islamabad. The al-Qaeda leader was responsible for great suffering; I do not mourn his death. But every action has causes and consequences, and in the current moment all are dangerous. It's unlikely that bin Laden's killing will have much impact on the already weakened capacity of al-Qaeda, which is widely believed to be made up of only a couple hundred fighters between Afghanistan and Pakistan — though its effect on other terrorist forces is uncertain. Pakistan itself may pay a particularly high price.
As President Barack Obama described it, "After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden." Assuming that was indeed the case, this raid reflects the brutal reality of the deadly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that preceded it and that continue today, 10 years later — it wasn't about bringing anyone to justice, it was about vengeance.
And given the enormous human costs still being paid by Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, and others in the U.S. wars waged in the name of capturing bin Laden, it's particularly ironic that in the end it wasn't the shock-and-awe airstrikes or invasions of ground troops, but rather painstaking police work — careful investigation, cultivating intelligence sources — that made possible the realization of that goal.
President Obama acknowledged that the post-9/11 unity of the people of the United States "has at times frayed." But he didn't mention that that unity had actually collapsed completely within 24 hours of the horrifying attacks on the twin towers. September 11, 2001 didn't "change the world;" the world was changed on September 12, when George W. Bush announced his intention to take the world to war in response. That was the moment that the actual events of 9/11, a crime against humanity that killed nearly 3,000 people, were left behind and the "global war on terror" began. That GWOT war has brought years of war, devastation and destruction to hundreds of thousands around the world, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond.
There was an unprecedented surge of unity, of human solidarity, in response to the crime of 9/11. In the United States much of that response immediately took on a jingoistic and xenophobic frame (some of which showed up again last night in the aggressive chants of "USA, USA!!" from flag-waving, cheering crowds outside the White House following President Obama's speech). Some of it was overtly militaristic, racist and Islamophobic. But some really did reflect a level of human unity unexpected and rare in U.S. history. Even internationally, solidarity with the U.S. people for a brief moment replaced the well-deserved global anger at U.S. arrogance, wars, and drive towards empire. In France, headlines proclaimed "nous sommes tous Américaines maintenant." We are all Americans now.
But that human solidarity was short-lived. It was destroyed by the illegal wars that shaped the U.S. response to the 9/11 crime. Those wars quickly created numbers of victims far surpassing the 3,000 killed on September 11. The lives of millions more around the world were transformed in the face of U.S. aggression — in Pakistan alone, where a U.S. military team assassinated bin Laden, thousands of people have been killed and maimed by U.S. drone strikes and the suicide bombs that are part of the continuing legacy of the U.S. war.
These wars have brought too much death and destruction. Too many people have died and too many children have been orphaned for the United States to claim, as President Obama's triumphantly did, that "justice has been done" because one man, however symbolically important, has been killed. However one calculates when and how "this fight" actually began, the U.S. government chose how to respond to 9/11. And that response, from the beginning, was one of war and vengeance — not of justice.
The president's speech last night could have aimed to put an end to the triumphalism of the "global war on terror" that George W. Bush began and Barack Obama claimed as his own. It could have announced a new U.S. foreign policy based on justice, equality, and respect for other nations. But it did not. It declared instead that the U.S. war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and beyond will continue.
In that reaffirmation of war, President Obama reasserted the American exceptionalism that has been a hallmark of his recent speeches, claiming that "America can do whatever we set our mind to." He equated the U.S. ability and willingness to continue waging ferocious wars, with earlier accomplishments of the U.S. — including, without any trace of irony, the "struggle for equality for all our citizens." In President Obama's iteration, the Global War on Terror apparently equals the anti-slavery and civil rights movements.
Today, the Arab Spring is on the rise across the Middle East and North Africa. It's ineffably sad that President Obama, in his claim that bin Laden's death means justice, didn't use the opportunity to announce the end of the deadly U.S. wars that answered the attacks of 9/11. This could have been a moment to replace vengeance with cooperation, replace war with justice.
But it was not. Regardless of bin Laden's death, as long as those deadly U.S. wars continue in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and beyond, justice has not been done.
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91 Comments so far
Show AllJustice or Vengeance? Neither: shadow-play.
justice is a word that no amerikan sheeple should utter because if there were any in this world amerika would have to finally belly and pay its tab
oh yeah - we're broke - uh will you take a check?
I hate even thinking about how the president's speech was perceived in the Islamic world -- and not among just the Arabs. To me, the part where he said we weren't at war with Islam seemed very much like a rushed afterthought tacked on unconvincingly at the tail end of the speech. Will the Islamic people buy it? I doubt it.
Well-staged shadow-play...and some sunken evidence.
pavroviandog, not only a "well-staged shadow-play" but more importantly a "SET-UP for WWIII".
Boy oh boy, it didn't take long to answer the question the media has been asking since OBL was killed in Pakistan, namely; Why now and in Pakistan??
The seminal question of not the how, but the WHY of the successful USA assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan --- embarrassingly close to their West Point equivalent --- was a big part of the US corporatist media's attention, focus, and speculative excitement about the killing of OBL.
But the bigger WHY question is why the media is focusing (and shaping) the attention of average Americans on this WHY of WHY now, and more pivotally --- WHY Pakistan.
Well, it didn't take long to parse and understand this seminal question!
The WHY NOW part of the question is tied directly to Thomas Barnett's 2004 Naval War College book (and plan), "The Pentagon's New Map", which book clearly lays out the strategy for the disguised global Empire, which has taken over and is now posing as our former country, to also TAKE-OVER the "Gap" countries along a 5000 mile swath from Mauritania to the very boarders of India and China --- and for that disguised global Empire to have the cover-story of needing to use its "Leviathan" military force (with "whatever means necessary") to guilefully con the American people into accepting (and even cheering for) the next supposedly essential military intervention beyond Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and Syria --- ie. to go into PAKISTAN with both feet.
The supporting question of WHY THERE (in Pakistan) is that OBL was found and killed in PAKISTAN while being supposedly 'protected' by PAKISTAN's military and ISI forces is, of course, to engender in the ever gullible and PR-deluded USA prole-citizens, the hate and FEAR of Pakistan, and specifically its supposedly untrustworthy and DANGEROUSLY NUCLEAR ARMED military and ISI ("country within a country") forces that might at any instant attack the US "Homeland" with known nuclear capability ---- leaving the only warning as a "NUKULAR" SMOKING GUN MUSHROOM CLOUD.
In other words, our dear leader, Obama, is using Osama's death in Pakistan as the 'triggering mechanism' for precisely the level of nationalism fear and terror that Bush, Cheney, Powell and others in the cast had to work much harder to falsely produce with the non-"nukular" Iraq --- but this time with the issue of the US population already fully aware that Pakistan is a nuclear power --- and now with the easy PR jump to the conclusion that Pakistan must be eliminated as a threat.
Boy oh boy, has the science of PR trickery and false-flagging to start wars evolved a long way from the days when all Hitler had to do was have a few of his soldiers dress-up in Polish Army uniforms and make a phony attack on a German radio outpost to start WWII.
http://www.truthandliberty.com/False-Flag_Attacks.html
So, as Mae West humorously cautioned her next would-be boyfriend, "hold onto your hat, this may be a bumpy ride".
Yes, folks, we now should all understand why the killing of Osama happened HERE (Pakistan) and NOW (Mayday 2011) --- the Revolution by this disguised global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE which controls our former country by hiding behind the facade of its bought and owned TWO-Party modernized Nazi "Vichy" sham of faux-democratic government and Goebbelesque media is about to "lower the boom" --- and you can be sure that this time the "lowering of that boom" will fall not only on the heads of Pakistanis, but also on our's.
As Hannah Arendt presciently warned from her painful experiences with the last Empire that tried to take over the world and eliminate a portion of its own citizens:
"Empire abroad entails tyranny at home".
Hang-on fellows, this is going to be a bumpy ride indeed.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Liberty & democracy over violent empire -- People's Party 2012
PS. Keep an eye on the number of TV specials and "two-minute hates" the focus of which is now going to be Pakistan, and the number of supposed foreign policy experts from places like the supposed 'think-tanks' like the "Center for a New American Security" (being featured this afternoon, for god's sake, on C-Span, of all places) that will be running the "two minute hate" sessions on Pakistan.
http://www.cnas.org/
And be sure to remember that "war is peace", "freedom is slavery", and most importantly that "ignorance is strength" (at least for the Empire).
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
clovis,
Well said.
Justice or vengeance?
Neither. It's just more brutal bullshit from the Chicago boys in the White House. The message is that they a very bad, mean, cruel and pushy.
Wasn't Al Capone from Chicago?
Actually the Pentagon protection racket scheme of; fund US, the Pentagon, for protection or else....! Or else what, 9/11, is fashioned after Capone' protection racket. Unlike the Pentagon,Capone only protected those who paid for protection while the Pentagon's purpose is to protect the worldwide assets of the WEALTHY PREDATORY CAPITALIST WELFARE KINGS, many of which pay no USG taxes while being protected by OPT, OTHER PEOPLES TAXES. In this light Capone has the high moral ground over the Pentagon in that Capone didn't protect those whom didn't pay for his protection. A sad state of affairs, when the ethics and morality of gangsters like Capone are superior to that of the USG which forces contributions, withholding taxes,to pay for the protection of those which don't pay for protection, G.E. for example which actually gets paid $3.5 billion by the USG to be protected.
dead-on, bogi666!
This is a class-war, but, as you say, a "world-wide" class-war.
And the classes at war are best diagnosed not as just 'the wealthy' v. 'the poor', but as the "Empire-thinkers" vs. all we "democracy-thinkers".
The only reason I mention this, bogi, is that it's not correct (and might be dangerous) just to characterize this thing as "all who are wealthy as part of the Empire", and "all who are not rich as not part of the Empire".
There are, of course, many obscenely "wealthy predatory capitalists" as the core of the Empire. But there are also a number of not-so-wealthy Capone-like wannabes and 'on-the-make' thugs, who aspire to be in the Empire and to be obscenely wealthy predatory capitalists --- even thought they are currently relatively poor, stupid, but predatory "Empire-thinkers" merely doing the bidding, and cheering-on Empire.
Conversely, there are actually some (maybe not many, but some) wealthy who honestly are "democracy-thinkers" (like FDR, for example) who would like to, and are, 'traders to their class".
There is a concern, or there at least should be a concern, that the understanding of the class division in today's world (and maybe history) is really between those who are "Empire-thinkers" and those "democracy-thinkers", rather than the more simplistic assumption that the class divide is merely between those with money and those without.
I feel quite strongly that the class divide is based on the pathology of "Empire-thinking" tiny minority, just as sociopathy is a tiny minority (<2%), and that the vast majority of the humanistic class of "democracy-thinkers", just as the huge majority (>98%) of humans are sane, compassionate, egalitarian, empathetic, supportive, etc.
Anyway, bogi, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Best,
Alan
I did qualify my remarks.
This was a political assassination for a few more votes.
Al-Jazeera reported ObL dead of kidney failure shortly after 9-11.
Way to fall for the next distraction from the real news. I expect Lindsay Lohan to shave her head in prison if things get much worse.
CD fails as miserably as the MSM yet again, and this quote is particularly reprehensible:
"These wars have brought too much death and destruction. Too many people have died and too many children have been orphaned for the United States to claim, as President Obama's triumphantly did, that "justice has been done" because one man, however symbolically important, has been killed."
What would an acceptable number of innocent child deaths be?
Exactly: I was going to ask the same question: "What would an acceptable number of innocent child deaths be?"
Another tepid, politically correct, pseudo-leftist commentary that shows the author's intellectual inability to go beyond the the obvious and the banal. To Bennis, war, murder, and destruction are still perfectly acceptable as long as there is "not too much" of war, murder, and destruction. How much? Bennis certainly must know. Let's ask her.
Bin Laden's boys killed not quite 3,000 people and this was shocking because the Americans hold the world's record having killed millions of people while enjoying immunity from war on their soil. Since being attacked they have killed untold thousands of innocent people who had nothing to do with 9/11 terrorizing third world people with their cowardly bombings. When we see the Americans celebrating having taken 10 years to find and kill Bin Laden we should think of all the people they have slaughtered which is so many times more than they have lost.
You mis-spelled three.
Two planes, Three Buildings.
gerda... an arresting, poignantly accurate, but depressing rejoinder. as w/ 9/11, it's all game-show level theatre, histrionics, and red herrings; osama, a US artifact, was claimed by the grim reaper years ago. mossad and the CIA/pentagon [now clones of each other] murdered those 3,000; they were lambs-to-the-slaughter, the lion's share of whom were hapless victims from foreign shores labouring away on behalf of global industry.
Do research and will find 9/11 was an inside job jusr like Reichstag was in Germany. Russia refused the german leader what he wanted, Reichstag to blame Russia,- Bin Laden refused Bush to put in the Oil Pipe Line, and also told bin Laden, --we will bury you, and has since-- along with Obama. The Taliban were freedom fighters of BushSr/Reagan, on the CIA payroll, but suddenly became the terrorist when refused to assassinate Laden, so the CIA took Laden to Pakistan and done him in. The fake tapes came out when Bush #2 rateings were low, and now Obama needs a super boost. How naive are the ones who do not go back and do research.
True. Saddam suddenly declared 'only euro' for oil; dump the dolllar is danger if opec follow suit; danger return of unwanted dollar notes flooding the American economy, now worthless. And Osama stumbling block to attempts to get afghan to agree to oil pipeline (transasia)? I wrote earlier some thoughts====="unfinished business" of 9/11 may refer to the open secret amongst intelligence agencies that osama had no hand in it, mossad, enron, bush created the scenario to attack dethrone saddam who asked for 'euro only' for his oil, which if followed suit by opec would make dollar worthless- like return cheques; rid taliban for refusing pipeline and osama for not toeing the line. Truth shall prevail, osamaleaks will show the
let me get this straight thalidomide,with all facts availible on the net the last 10yrs proving the gov's lie about everything on 911,including "bin laden"s boys" pulling off 911,please tell me why you are still putting out that gov crap about "bin laren's boys doing 911!!!! also,anyone believing the latest gov. lies about killing bin larden"s are still asleep at the wheel!!!!! wake up america,you have allowed(by you all talk/no action ) a few out of control wackos turn this country into a worthless piece of soulless shit
America has started to become Germany of 1934 since the Supreme Court allowed Bush to become president, and his father picked Obama to continue until the Fascist Koch Tea Party makes it complete in 2012. The Empire of the Hitlerian Regime.
The Kochsuckers father called Eisenhower a communist dupe. It's likely that the father Kocchsucker was involved in the 1935 coup to overthrow the FDR administration. He was a founder of the John Birch Society. The only reason for calling Ike a commie must be that Ike collaborated with the USSR and others to defeat Hitler whom many American industrialist admired, among them the Bush family.
BTW, Thal, the US still uncontestedly holds the absolute world's record in PK/sec (people killed per second), based on Curtis LeMay and the USG's record set on Aug 6, 1945 at approximately 100K PK/sec --- a record that OBL couldn't put a glove on!
But then, the disguised global Empire (the ruling-elite's global corporate/financial/militarist Empire) which now controls our former country by hiding behind the Empire's bought and owned TWO-Party modernized Nazi "Vichy" sham of faux-democratic government and media, is an Empire which is much more powerful than OBL, or Hitler, or Stalin could ever imagine building or dream of hiding in plain sight.
So, as Bill Murray might say, "at least we got that going for us".
Best,
Alan MacDonald
Liberty & democracy over violent empire -- People's Party 2012
Your second paragraph,that's a mouthful. And the media wouldn't say %#it if their mouth were full of it. Love Bill Murray, he has a special form of truth-telling disease: it confers soul immunity through the laughter of recognition.
"Goldstein is dead. Long live Goldstein! George Orwell
"Ignorance is Strength! Freedom is Slavery! War is Peace!"
Summary execution without trial is justice.
Buildings pulverize into dust and fall into their own footprints. It is the will of Allah!
...and all the WTC wreckage conveniently shipped off to China to get rid of the evidence as quickly as possible. Case closed.
... With the steel beams neatly pre-sectioned in mid-air to thirty foot lengths. Exactly the size needed to fit on the flatbeds used to haul the wreckage away.
My, how very thoughtful AQ was on 9/11, to help with clean-up like that.
just like the socalled body of bon larden was dumped in the ocean hours after"killing him!!!! HORSE SHIT!!
HEAVY RUNNER: Good use of satire. I hear you.
Bin Laden's goal was simple. His attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon would present an opportunity for the U.S. government to crank up military spending, thereby accelerating the transfer of cash from the poor taxpayers to the rich. In turn the U.S. would eventually implode through revolution or bankruptcy caused by the massive wealth imbalance between the general populace and the tiny group of elites who are responsible for the rape of Middle Eastern oil. This would then effectively end corporate dominance of the Middle East which was always Bin laden's stated objective.
So far it has worked quite well. Even though Bin Laden is dead, the wars will continue, corporations will earn bigger and bigger profits and the American people will sacrifice all social programs in the name of the GWOT. Now that 85% of all manufacturing in the U.S. is defense related, 51 million Americans have no health insurance, social security and Medicare are under the knife and our penal system has 10 times the amount of people under supervision since 1975, the majority of Americans still buy into the official propaganda that all of this is done to protect us.
I think that Bin Laden found solace before his death in the fact that his plan had worked beyond his wildest expectations. Perhaps his only mistake was determining how much crap the American masses would take before rising up against their corporate masters, but this is a common error to underestimate the power of America's MSM to seduce the domestic population. Bin Laden is dead, but his legacy lives on.
Bravo! Thank you for reading between the lines...something 80% of the American populace is incapable of doing.
EXCEPT, there is a lot of evidence that 9'11 was an inside job in spite of the fact that as much of the evidence as possible was buried, literally and figuratively.
Our constitutional scholar president showed US today that he is in fact playing chess while "We" are only playing checkers. By killing Osama, Obama has avoided the whole issue of another military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay. Executive action is part of his ever evolving role as unitary executive. Anything the president does is legal. Dead me tell no tales.
"The operation that killed the founder and leader of al Qaeda was designed to do just that, not to take him alive, a U.S. government official told CNN Monday.... AFTER a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body..... A congressional source familiar with the operation said bin Laden was shot in the head."
Osama and Saddam have met with our final solution. Muammar had better sue for peace. You don't last long on our enemies list.
One question remains in my mind. Why do we, as a Christian nation, kill the children of our enemies? The Bible clearly states that we should not punish the children for the crimes of their parents. Bin Laden's adult son was killed in the raid. Saddam's sons were killed. One of Mummar's sons was killed last week and another several years ago.
'Vengeance is Mine', sayeth the Lord. It's good to be God! State sanctioned extra-judicial assassinations are an example of Imperial justice. 'Live by the sword, die by the sword'. According to Machiavelli, 16 of 26 Roman emperors from Julius Caesar to Maximinus Thrax were assassinated. Karma my friends. We reap what we sow.
That about sums it up; also known as dogs of war.
But we cannot take this literally. We are referring to sentient beings and assassination is too strong. To do so is to be a dog and worse.
The truth remains that the USA has developed into a semi-feral community like the packs of dogs in parts of Africa and Asia. In Asia the preferred method is not to impound these animals or kill them but they do neuter them.
Perhaps that is the solution.
What's this "Christian nation" stuff?
The foundation of USA Inc was SUPPOSED to be free for ALL religions.
"Separation of Church and State" --- REMEMBER???
Now it is Separation of Corporation and State that we need to focus on and forget about differences of cultures or religions.
Religion is just another "red herring" used to try to get the masses riled up about those bleepin Muslims etc. as a justification for blowing em to "Kingdom Come" --- ya know: "Divide and Conquer".
Unfortunately, the State is a mere puppet of the Corporate and Finance PTB "Citizens United" . . . a different kind of "Manufactured Consent" . . . as each trades back and forth the spoils of global plunder: bribes - er - lobby moneys in exchange for Corporate Welfare.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/21-3
Great article - 04/11/11 - CHOMSKY:
Is the World Too Big to Fail? The Contours of Global Order
". . . As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome."
What's this "Christian nation" stuff?
The vast majority of Americans are Christians. In a democracy, minorities have rights but, majority rules. It is foolish for progressives to give up the majority God vote. It is foolish to give the right the false sense of holding the moral high ground. We need to out God the right. I push biblical quotes in a lot of writing on CD for that reason.
Machiavelli wrote on the subject: (http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/machiavelli/niccolo/m149d/complete.html)
Discourses of Niccolo Machiavelli
On the First Ten [Books] of Titus Livius
to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai
11 - OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE ROMANS
12 - OF HOW MUCH IMPORTANCE SHOULD BE GIVEN RELIGION; AND HOW ITALY, BECAUSE THE MEDIUM OF THE ROMAN CHURCH WAS LACKING, WAS RUINED
13 - HOW THE ROMANS SERVED THEMSELVES OF RELIGION TO ESTABLISH THE CITY AND TO CARRY OUT THEIR ENTERPRISES AND STOP TUMULTS
14 - THE ROMANS INTERPRETED THE AUSPICES ACCORDING TO NECESSITY, AND WITH THEIR PRUDENCE MADE A SHOW OF OBSERVING RELIGION, EVEN WHEN THEY WERE FORCED NOT TO OBSERVE IT, AND IF ANYONE RECKLESSLY DISPARAGED IT THEY PUNISHED HIM
15 - HOW THE SAMNITES HAD RECOURSE TO RELIGION AS AN EXTREME REMEDY FOR THE THINGS AFFLICTING THEM
Religion is being used against the left by the right. Was GW a religious man? If you don't think so, then we on the left need to vigorously reclaim our God. Billy Graham's own son, Franklin, was going to support Trump. Billy probably rolled over in his grave. Did God tell Franklin to support the Donald? I don't think so!
Franklin is an alcoholic. Why is it that the pretend christians, Falwell, Haggard, Bush all make their drug addicts and alcoholics as their models and leaders?
In psychology, there's theories that indicate people repeat what they know. It is called "cycling". Until a consciousness gains self-insight, one cycles between acting out and acting in, from one extreme to the other. Many mainstream Christians do not examine their conscience, they go through the motions. So one moment, they're acting out: sex on the QT, binge or maintenance drinking, gambling or bilking followers of diverted funds. The next, they are acting in: flagellating themselves privately instead of shaping up or flagellating themselves publicly to evade soul debridement and social penalties. And congregants that aren't acting as far out are enjoying it vicariously because they haven't internalized the Christian virtues; they secretly wish they too could get off with confession and/or communion. So they give Elmer Gantry what amount to a free pass after a circle tear jerker. This is a Wiki-type stub post and not the full article.
Haha, I just realized your question was probably rhetorical:-)
I think that president Obama meant that justice has been done in the case of Osama Bin Laden, not the wider war on terror which is also a global police action to insure that oil continues to be produced and available through various pipelines and such.
If you really cared about all those thousands of dead around the world you would stop using imported oil today and support the development of domestic energy sources such as natural gas and other renewables as well as wind and solar. Until America is energy independent the oil wars will never end.
According to the news, Obama gloatingly called Bush to inform him of OBL's assassination. If Obama had any sense of justice, he would start prosecution of Bush for starting a war using lies and deception, and causing the mass murder of 500 times more innocent human beings than were killed on 9/11.
Well, Obama has absolutely no sense of decency or justice, so obviously that won't happen. In any case, any investigation would also have to investigate the Democrats, who strongly supported the genocide in Iraq. Obama's VP, Biden, and his SOS, Clinton, both strongly supported and voted for the war, both claiming that there was indisputable proof of WMDs and all of the other lies. As did the rest of the Democratic leadership, including Kennedy, Gore, Kerry and so on. The Democrats supported the war as much as the Republicans did, as they have each and every war the US has even gotten into.
yep --- and when I wrote my DEMOCRATIC Congressman YEARS ago to stop voting for war funding and instead vote for Bush Impeachment - he replied "It is not time yet."
"A failed economy is a failed state." . . .
USA Inc is going down.
And the whole world is going down in the wake of its "TITANIC" SUICIDE.
How different would the world be today, I wonder, if twenty-first century technology had been used to bring down those responsible for 9/11 and the other terrorist attacks before then, instead of the mind-numbing madness of the murder of millions of innocent people, the bombing destruction of infrastructure, and towns, leaving untold numbers of people homeless?
After 9/11, I was naive enough to think the old ways of war were over and that our capable twenty-first century CIA, and a specially trained unit of the military would go covertly into those foreign countries and find the terrorists, and that would be that. I couldn't believe the mindset was still the antique bomb, and destroy methods of the past, with high tech weapons of the present to cause even more damage.
It is all a statement to the rest of the world that you better play along, or we will kill you and dump you in the ocean.
Bin Laden was declared "guilty" of 9-11 very, very soon after the attack. Hmmmm, guess George needed to have a scapegoat. What scares me more than the so-called "inevitable response by the Islamists," is the mindless celebrations of Americans--as if this death (along with at least three children by the way) will in anyway change anything at all. There is and has been a building of the new scapegoat for several years now and it is any and all Muslims. Hmmmm, bet the war on terror will continue on then?
BLS
The King is dead. Long live the king!
close to clobbering the nail on the head.
Take home: U.S. of Empire out of illegal, immoral wars/occupations!
Credit for this insight goes to David Swanson in his Counterpunch article: Killing Osama, Resolving Nothing
Is it too late to go back 10 years in time in some particular ways? As we put bin Laden behind us, can we put the degredation of our civil liberties and our representative government, and our honesty, accountability, and the rule of law behind us too? Can we recover the basic moral deceny that we used to at the very least pretend and aspire to?
Not while we're dancing in the street to celebrate death.
Obomba LOL!!!!
But very sad about Bhutto.
Vengeance. And 2012.