Daily Kos has a post about the WikiLeaks video showing U.S. soldiers murdering, in cold blood, some journalists and some children.MOMCOM covered up the murders done by her "good guy troops" as long as she could, but the jig is up, because everyone can see through the fog of war deceit now.
MOMCOM then professed outrage, sadness, and incredulity that any U.S. soldier could ever in their wildest dreams do such a thing.
"Support the troops and don't worry about a very few bad apples" she cooed, "because we are all over here bringing you your freedom you would never otherwise have".
Some of the real U.S. soldiers in the unit that contains the soldiers who did the murders wrote open letters debunking MOMCOM's propaganda:
Josh Stieber was not at the scene of the shooting but says similar incidents happened throughout his 14-month tour; "The acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war." Josh states that these casualties demonstrate the impact of U.S. military policy on both the civilians and the soldiers on the ground.(Daily Kos, emphasis added). There is accord in an open letter which says they have been taught to do this:
We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.(Letter To Iraq, emphasis added). I fear for those good and brave soldiers who leaked this for the benefit of their nation, and I hope for their safety.
Are we there yet ... the place where we have brought "democracy" to the heathen at the point of a gun with Bible verses on them?
The people of the United States are utterly unaware of the image the world has of us, and we are unaware because MOMCOM's little whores, who like to call themselves journalists, are out to make and keep you demented with their propaganda.
UPDATE: According to the military:
Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department.(Army Times). Perhaps deluding them into thinking they are going somewhere to do good things knowing they will find out otherwise is a failed policy?
I'm not sure the sheep would listen anyway. Similar stuff to this has been out there for some time, granted most of it not in the MSM by and large, but still. Abu Ghraib wasn't even enough to prevent Shrub's reelection for crying out loud.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, I think most Americans really feel that all's fair in war anyway, and that the benefit of the doubt (and there's always doubt!) goes to the US troops (who are always the good guys), although most would probably never admit it in polite company.
Hey, shit happens, right? What's a few more dead ragheads more or less? When your only goal is imperial domination/expansion, should it really surprise anyone that atrocities will certainly follow?
disaffected,
ReplyDeleteI guess those cover-ups were in vain, then, in more ways than one.
No one cares so they don't need to cover up, and the cover up failed anyway, making them out to be thinking that it should be covered up when it doesn't matter.
Either way, it comes across as disturbing behavior whether they think murdering and torturing the innocent does not matter or whether they do and try to cover it up.
That is the way McVeigh thought, so more McVeigh robots will be walking around waiting to zombie out on innocent folks because "it is really ok" anyway because Bush II got re-elected after Abu Ghraib after all, and Dick Cheney is still bragging about his torture programs in public.
But more likely to be relevant is what really matters in the long run, which is what the decent people of the world think of it, and what decent American people think of it.
At least the decent soldiers did not like their names being associated with such ghoulishness, so they spoke up to expose it.
I guess one good thing, if it does not matter, is that the leaks don't matter either.
Leak some more then ... where are the CIA torture videos they say they destroyed ... leak some more, it doesn't matter MOMCOM.
Funny you mention McVeigh. He would have been the ultimate American hero had his actions not been directed at the state. Among the anarchist/resistance crowd he's a hero anyway. Say whatever you want about him, but he damn sure wasn't an armchair anarchist.
ReplyDeleteThe decent people of the US? Evidently they're outnumbered these days, because the sins of Bush are continuing unabated under Obama, who, in spite of all his silver-tongued oratory ain't doing shit about it either, while quietly escalating both wars as well.
Change we can believe in? Yeah, more of the same at an ever faster rate.
disaffected,
ReplyDeleteI noticed that there was more dissatisfaction with Rachel Maddow's piece on McVeigh than I expected.
Some were saying that she forgot not to group everyone together into a bad guy group with some of her loose inferences.
Others complained that she did not adequately explain that being anti a certain policy is not anti government per se.
In other words she did not adequately show that people can be anti-bad-government without being anti-government or anarchist.
The catch is, at some point anti-bad government becomes simply anti-government, as the government we have becomes universally bad and a force for evil. If we're not there yet, the end of the road's certainly in sight. In spite of the fact that we're the undisputed (for a little while longer at least) global hegemon, I can't think of even one area where we're a global leader in change for the better. Not one. Not even close to one.
ReplyDeletedisaffected,
ReplyDeleteI located a paper by Professor Michael J. Sullivan, Drexel University, Philadelphia titled Rise of the Global Hegemon Fifty Years of US Foreign Policy in the Periphery which substantially agrees with your synopsis.
Yeah, the historical record of the US, especially post WWII will be pretty clear cut, and it won't be kind. Because we live in the middle of it, its easy to get caught up in all the hoopla of our times and not see clearly, but it really was fairly simple. Two competing socio-economic systems went to war, with one having the good fortune to crumble sooner, while the other held on a good deal longer, but eventually crashed with a great deal more thunder and damage to the overall world in general.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the US was simply a victim of its own hype, greed, and imperial blood lust. "Defeating" the Soviets made us think it couldn't happen to us as well. It can, it will, and in fact, it already is. This century will surely see the end of our empire, and, in fact, could very well see the end of the US itself as well. Once the slide starts in earnest it could progress very quickly.