Right after Obama began his SOTU speech with a plea asking civillians to emulate his military, the military justice system whitewashed the Haditha Massacre and its coverup. That was one of many war crimes committed by US troops that led Iraq to reject Obama’s effort to continue the military occupation by refusing to continue the exemption of US troops from Iraqi law.
Category: briefly noted
short notes from my reading
“The more we shed ourselves of national identity in this fight, the more we grasp that our true allies may not speak our language or embrace our religious and cultural traditions, the more powerful we will become.”
—Chris Hedges on Occupy
The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: ‘Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?’
Mr Bryan told security officials that ‘destroy’ is slang for party in the UK, but that was not enough to convince them.
“Unmarked NATO warplanes are arriving at Turkish military bases close to Iskenderum on the Syrian border, delivering weapons from the late Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenals as well as volunteers from the Libyan Transitional National Council who are experienced in pitting local volunteers against trained soldiers, a skill they acquired confronting Gaddafi’s army.”
-Philip Giraldi, formerly of the CIA, in the American Conservative
“The United States appears to be using a strategy in Syria that it has perfected over the years, having succeeded most recently in Libya: arming small paramilitary groups loyal to U.S. interests that claim to speak for the native population; these militants then attack the targeted government the U.S. would like to see overthrown —including terrorist bombings — and when the attacked government defends itself, the U.S. cries “genocide” or “mass murder,” while calling for foreign military intervention.
“This is the strategy that the U.S. is using to channel the Arab Spring into the bloody dead end of foreign military intervention.”
-Shamus Cooke in Truthout
The costs of a college education have continued to soar over the last twenty years, even as the average salaries for graduates stalled.
“–good luck to Obama as he tries to channel his economic populism at Bank of America Stadium.”
–Cole Stangler weighs in on the Ron Paul thing.
“We have a decision to make every day. Every hour of every day. And that is whether to represent the sword or the shield. Democracy Now!“
“From 2004 to 2010 members of Congress increased their median net worth by 15 percent while the average American saw it fall by 8 percent.”
–My Budget 360 on the “full-fledged plutocracy” that is America
“How can you pretend to vehemently oppose the slaughter of foreign civilians, the deprivation of due process, a posture of Endless War, radical secrecy, etc., when the President behind whom you’re faithfully marching is an aggressive advocate and implementer of those very policies?”
-Glenn Greenwald poses a simple question