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US Takes the Lead on Behalf of Cluster Bombs
Slightly more than two months after he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama secretly ordered a cruise missile attack on Yemen, using cluster bombs, which killed 44 innocent civilians, including 14 women and 21 children, as well as 14 people alleged to be “militants.” It goes without saying that — unless you want Rick Perry to win in 2012 — this act should in no way be seen as marring Obama’s presidency or his character: what’s a couple dozen children blown up as a part of a covert, undeclared air war? If anything, as numerous Democrats have ecstatically celebrated, such acts show how Tough and Strong the Democrats are: after all, ponder the massive amounts of nobility and courage it takes to sit in the Oval Office and order this type of aggression on defenseless tribal regions in Yemen. As R.W. Appel put it on the front page of The New York Times back in 1989 when glorifying George H.W. Bush’s equally courageous invasion of Panama: “most American leaders since World War II have felt a need to demonstrate their willingness to shed blood” and doing so has become “a Presidential initiation rite.”
read the full article at Salon...
32 Comments so far
Show AllA pox on these greedy animals, that is what they are, dog eat dog and to hell with the rest. What will be the outcome, the end? Will it be nature (my prediction) or history that will end what has become a plague to any humanity? A concerted effort by these animals throughout the world, led by, what is called, most ironically, "western civilization" should lead any alien to boycott. Tony
Our world - from the politicians to the business leaders to even the damn football coaches are SOCIOPATHS!
Zero empathy coupled with enormous amounts of egotism.
We need a 1000 person perp walk in front of the cameras.
"Let's go kill some brown people!"
Peace requires creativity and a willingness to break with establish hierarchies and power structures. Obama clearly has no notion of this and lacks the heart and courage required to break with this convention. If he did, he would treat all people with respect, not use indiscrimimate warfare and make diplomacy and fairness the pillar of his foreign policy. Instead we have selfish interests competing for power and domination and seeking to defeat, rather than understand their opposition. Further, as Greenwald has so eloquently and consistently pointed out, this power elite works without respect for the law- whether federal or international.
Until the system is undermined enough and people are radicalized enough to take action, little will change.
Another Obama apologist.
Not sure how LJG100's comment makes him/her an Obama apologist . . . could you elaborate?
Beats me too :-)
Like anything but...
The idea that Obama even WANTS to break with this seems like an apology. That being said, I apologize if I tread too heavily.
But let there be no doubt - Obama has no intention of making peace or doing anything but promoting the entrenched hierarchy. Thanks for your post.
From the article:
"“most American leaders since World War II have felt a need to demonstrate their willingness to shed blood” and doing so has become “a Presidential initiation rite.”
This is precisely what I mean by the terminology, "Mars rules." For all the talk about Christian values, the key characteristic worshipped in our bankrupt nation is that of the warrior. Leadership willing to KILL is mistaken for sound leadership. This is modeled after the archetype of Mars, the god of war, and it's been substituted for a God of fairness, justice, or anything vaguely departing from the ethos of barbarism. And it was not always so. While the CD forum's astute history buffs remind that much of the nation's past was founded on acts of aggression, at least in politics AND Hollywood, a very different kind of leadership was the rule until the MIC was put in place to cannibalize the endless rites of raw power.
Remember when heroism was depicted by doing the right thing? Characters like that of Gregory Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird," or James Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life" demonstrated a very different form of courage than the gun-wielding styling of a Clint Eastwood, or Bruce Willis, et al.
I will continue to post this message as I think it's important to expose the hidden mythology that provides the collective psychic fuel to continue in this barbarian behavior taken on a national/collective scale.
Although some like to say that the elites reflect sociopathic behavior, which is true, it's equally important to deconstruct the underlying mythology that raises such behavior to the nation's "expected standards" from leaders!
Leon Uris wrote the book, "Armageddon" where he related how much the Nazi leadership identified with the image and likeness of the super-male hero. His novel explains how this mythology factored into the rise and popularity of the Nazi party. A similar mythology is at work in the U.S. It's propagated through martial media talking heads, Hollywood films that celebrate violence, video games that reduce life to blips on a screen, football games that exalt brute force, and pornography which cheapens life and the birth canal, particularly.
Mars rules by any other name would smell (and act) as deadly.
That brainwashed mentality is reflected in people suggesting that what happened to a Scott Olsen is somehow more tragic because he an ex veteran.
What happened to Mr Olsen was wrong because he was a person and people should not be subjected to the Violence of the State anywhere including places like Yemen just because a Sociopath decides it displays his manhood. A cop shooting a peaceful protester is no more honorable or dishonorable then dropping cluster munitions on people in Yemen. They are both unjustified acts of violence.
People that stand up and cheer when a Veteran walks into the room so as to "honor his/her service" are part of the problem and reflect that brainwashing.
The world is out of balance in so very many ways and so immersed in that Militarism and worship of War, they can not even imagine another way. They think and insist it the way it MUST be.
I applaud your efforts at trying to make this clear. People have to be able to see the links between Militarism and wars abroad and the nascent Police State that has formed inside the United States of America. They are not separate unrelated events.
GW: I appreciate you and if you're interested, please google my name. It'll pull up contact info. I'd like to send you a copy of my new book as it goes into this in a way that I think is inspired. And I say that due to the assistance received; for truly I work collaboratively at times with something that's not OF this plane... especially when I let the writing come through me. (Dolphinity: The Twin Essence.)
We also must mention patriarchy. There is a significant difference between the male and female brain. We process information and think differently. Our brain has two hemispheres. The male brain is more active on one side than the other, while the female brain has many more connection between the two lobes. This results in the male being more linear in outlook and the female more holistic. The male brain focuses on the details, while the female brain sees the bigger picture. The male brain wants solutions now, while the female looks more to the future and the long term. The male brain sees force and power as a means of solving problems while the female seeks consensus and cooperation.
The human race needs the wisdom of both genders -- but that is not the case now. The male view of reality is predominate in our culture and this is a problem for our civilization.
I suggest that all elected bodies that represent the people be gender balanced. The school board, the city council, the state assembly, the United States Senate and the House of Representatives should be half women and half men. Is this way the wisdom of both genders would be used.
Hierarchy which only came into being a half dozen to a dozen millinnia out of the 100 to 200 millennia of modern human existence created all forms of oppression. Patriarchy only came into being along wtih Matriarchy. Neither are anything but hierarchy. A woman with power can just as easily be corrupted as any man. All oppression goes back hierarchy-- it's that simple. When no hierarchy existed all treated each other as equals, not maybe perhaps. That's proven fact. Do read some solid anthropolgy, history that's really history including that based oral history such as that of indigenous people in this hemisphere and the Paacific. They didn't have any hierarchy overwhelmingly before Europeans showed up and did just fine.
Even Europeans had no heirarchies a dozen millennia ago. Thus it isn't natural in the least. It has to be drummed into people.Monarchies had both women and men. Both abused their power.
Today hiierarchies have brain washed men into being megalomania. Women have been brain washed in too many cases into being subservient to men. Neither is any good. An egalitarian world is what we need for all.
We still have people today who have no hierarchy, and they have no or virtually no difference between what women and men can do-- talent and ability is all that counts-- Western societies refer to these as "primitive" or traditional societies. How nice that the West should talk about primitive-- just think two wrold wars.
Greenwald's Sunday essay is perhaps more important than this as it outs a supposedly progressive group for being nothing of the sort as it advocates War and anti-people policies that are highlited in this essay: thinkprogress.org
Clearly, there are a lot of foxes out masquarading as hens: Moveon, DailyKos, Huffpost, Juan Cole, Progressive Democrats for America, and now thinkprogress.org to name just a few. Even "The Progressive" newsmagazine isn't consistently Progressive. And Abby's editorializing also proves CD isn't as Progressive as it touts itself. There are a great number of institutions with lots of money who require the continuation of the status quo willing to establish falsefront groups to sap the efforts of those opposing the status quo and outing such groups when they reveal their true selves is of great service. Greenwald also provides a message to all you Ron Paul haters that I'm sure you won''t be able to handle. Will Common Dreams republish Greenwald's essay outing thinkprogress.org as a Democrat Party Shill Machine? I doubt it, just as I doubt Corvo and others will change their tune.
Perhaps in the manner by which schools and teachers are being tasked with testing, some entity should establish a national data base wherein citizens are asked to tag their position on the 35 most significant issues of our times. Based on the quotient (calculated from the composite nature of their responses) they "win" the label of liberal, conservative, progressive, radical, etc. In other words, the survey goes beyond how people self-identify to their ACTUAL positions. Nor would such a Litmus Test be a bad idea for political candidates or publications.
It's difficult to know if groups that lean Left take more centrist positions because:
1. Their funding depends upon it
2. They are afraid to scare off potential advocates
3. The entire national dialog has moved so far to the right that Hitler & Pinochet would have been heartened by the "law" of the land
4. Words get in the way (and no longer mean what most intend them to mean)
5. Other
Of all the Ron Paul advocates on C.D, I think you make the most grounded and viable arguments, and I respect you. However, I could never consider voting for the man and it's not about hate... it's about his policies, stated and otherwise.
I remember doing a survey prior to the 2010 election that allowed for identifying with a preset position and then being able to expand on it if desired, but I can't recall the organization. As Chomsky and others note, polling constantly reveals the fact that the US populace as a whole is well left of politicos ensconced in DC, and that fact is certainly known to the groups you refer to. So, knowing what their target audience's political leaning is, such groups still persist in trying to get the populace to adopt positions it's already said NO to through polling--Just as national politicos IGNORE the US populace's well founded sentiments, so do such groups.
As for Paul, he reflects the degree to which political discourse is poisoned: Here's a candidate who proposes to end the wars, rollback the overseas empire and exert some accountibility on the Money Power--Every One a Progressive Dream--yet he's not perfect and MUST be opposed. Such sentiment is absolutely loved by Obama and Democrats as it practically ensures them of retaining the Imperial Presidency and gives them "legitimacy" for 4 more years of War--both at home and overseas. I'm beginning to think revolution outside the political system is the only viable road regardless of the human cost, since the cost of doing nothing seems even higher.
Mister, we could use a man like Jimmy Carter again.
would that be the Jimmy Carter who thought it such a good Idea to stir up Muslim Fanaticism to lure the Soviets into Afghanistan?
The only sentient Pres we've had in my lifetime. And he lost re-election because some moron in the military didn't put sand filters on the air intakes of the helicopters sent to rescue the Iran hostages, and they crashed, with Carter being blamed. Bizarro USA, eh?
"we could use a man like Jimmy Carter again"
I agree.
Carter is the ONLY President we have had since I became old enough to vote who actually has a conscience and follows a moral code.
Obama certainly has no conscience and does not follow a moral code (he has none of his own and does not even follow anyone else's).
He follows orders (like a good little boy) from folks like General Petraeus and Lloyd Blankfein and Larry Summers -- who have no moral code.
This sounds like the makings of a good demand for the global Occupy movement: a global ban on cluster bombs (and land mines) -- including, of course, the United States of America!
I think we're far from Cluster's Last Stand.
These things will be around for a very long time.
South East Asians are still finding them from the sixties.
An initiation rite. Sitting in an office telling people to go kill people. My, that's manly!
And so beloved by the Amerikan people, who imagine our presidents through their only source of imagination--the prepackaged Hollywood kind--and see that president brooding over his tough decision and thinking vigilantly about our safety.
So you on the left, you progressives, Obama Khan is a murderous baby killer. How much more proof do you need? But you will turn a blind eye, and vote to reelect, because you feel it's in your own self interest. So you are just like him. Why because you love your Lexus, and your nice lifestyle. Wake up you murderous hypocrites. When I see a million of you march on DC and demand an end to this slaughter, maybe than I'll start to believe your rhetoric.
It doesn't matter who you vote for. The Government gets in.
nice one.
Good article, but it seems this story is over a year old. The Telegraph article and the Christian Science Monitor article are dated June 2010.
It's just incredible that 5 years ago, even in the middle of the Iraq insanity, you could look around the world and think, with Bush's departure in 2008, there was some possibility of turning things around. To have Obama be not just as bad, but to actually be WORSE precisely when the world needed something better was a terrible, terrible blow.
I'd go mad if it wasn't for people like Greenwald and sites like this.
Do we have an Oily Cluster Bomber now? What happened to that peacenick?
Do we have an Oily Cluster Bomber now? What happened to that peacenick?
And some wonder what the Occupy movement is about? In part it is about a system that considers these weapons morally defensible.
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/
After all, Israel sowed Lebanon with cluster bombs before it retreated. Can't get in the way of them doing it again.