The Constant Re-Invention of "Moral Authority" to kill brown skinned people everywhere
I first noticed this way back in 1960, when Life Magazine started running photos of monks in Vietnam turning themselves into human torches, as a way to seriously protest the manner in which they were treated by officials of the South Vietnamese government.
Not the Communists, the South Vietnamese. These monks wanted the attention of the South Vietnamese government officials. Yet somehow the headlines continued to trumpet that these monks were burning up and incinerated due to "the Commies and Ho Chi Minh."
Soon after that, we were heavily investing our money, and time and service people in Vietnam. More than a decade later, we finally pulled out, leaving behind the colleagues to our government officials behind, so that these colleagues did time in Vietnamese prisons, and with our government pretending that we didn't care that we had lost to the Communists.
And lost we had. Far from succeeding in a humanitarian venture, when we left in March of 1975, over six million people in Vietnam had been killed, wounded or left homeless by our military's actions. Our own service people had lost over 50,000 people directly, and within a decade, another 7,500 due to suicide.
Not only that, but the de-stabilization of the region meant that an individual named Pol Pot gained power in Cambodia, and then could go on his seriously crazy cannibalistic orgy, that left another two to three million people dead. Oh, have I mentioned to you yet that Pol Pot was an ally of ours at the time? About the only person in print who seemed to care about that fact was one Garry Trudeau, who did some great cartoonist work on the subject. Washington DC remained curiously mute about the problem.
So I have been doing some serious head scratching in the past few days. Obama apparently, for all the books he has read on Lincoln, doesn't seem to understand much about our "good works" in terms of ensuring that the world receives the lesson that certain actions will not be acceptable to Washington DC... What actions actually are not acceptable, Mr President? Our buddy over in the Congo, one Joseph Kabila, is responsible for the deaths of over six million people.
So am a bit confused to find out that we are not hammering Mr Kabila with some type of sanctioning, for this loss of life there in the Congo. In fact, considering that the Congo partners with the American military, there most certainly seems to be a serious disconnect, as usual, between the words that come out of Pres Obama's mouth and the literal reality that exists in today world.
We have the "story" brought to us by the all so trusted stepchild of the Bush Crime Family, that is, the Carlyle Group, that is telling us, via the leaks of Israeli intel, that Assad and his people did indeed kill and maim over a thousand people.
But I look at the number 1,000 -- it is a one followed by three zeroes. Then I look at the number SIX MILLION which is the more serious number connected with Kabila and our military
and that is
[h2][font color=red] SIX MILLION [/h2][/font color=red]
and I notice that this figure is a six followed by six zeroes. That means that even should i inflate the number of dead under Assad to two thousand, then Kabila has
[h2][font color=red] with our help [/h2][/font color=red] murdered three thousand times as many people as Assad's group allegedly has.
Three thousand times as many people.
But the difference is not reflected only in these numbers. The real difference is that Congolese President Kabila is fulfilling America's game plan for that area of Africa. Whereas Assad is definitely defying the game plan for our interests.
In Syria today, the International Monetary Fund has no ability to call any shots. Ditto the World Bank. It has also been pointed out that Western Interests are determined to run an oil pipeline through Syria, much as Western Interests had needed an oil pipeline through Afghanistan, shortly before the Nine Eleven Event erupted.
So on the one hand, we will ignore Kabila and his regime of terror, and focus instead on Syria. Bad Assad, and too bad if it is not true that the attacks with chemicals happened the way we are being told.
But let's say, for the sake of the argument, that these chemical attacks had happened: how do we as a nation possess the moral authority to now attack Syria? Is our nation not the same nation that utilized Agent Orange against Vietnam, in violation of the Geneva Convention? Is our nation not the nation that went on to destroy the dikes utilized by the Vietnamese peasants to keep their rural areas from flooding and loss of life? (A fact first brought to light by the publishing of the Pentagon Papers.) And in that war the atrocity known as My Lai made headlines...
Of course, that war against the people of Vietnam was decades ago, so maybe we should simply move forward and shut up about it. SO let's look at more recent history instead: an article over in TruthOut today details more recent deadly calamities inflicted on people in other nations by our military's murderous policies: (From the TruthOut article) "Recently declassified CIA documents reveal U.S. complicity in Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war, according to Foreign Policy: 'In contrast to today's wrenching debate over whether the United States should intervene to stop alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government, the United States applied a cold calculus three decades ago to Hussein's widespread use of chemical weapons against his enemies and his own people. The Reagan administration decided that it was better to let the attacks continue if they might turn the tide of the war. And even if they were discovered, the CIA wagered that international outrage and condemnation would be muted.'
"In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States used cluster bombs, depleted uranium, and white phosphorous gas. Cluster bomb cannisters contain tiny bomblets, which can spread over a vast area. Unexploded cluster bombs are frequently picked up by children and explode, resulting in serious injury or death. Depleted uranium (DU) weapons spread high levels of radiation over vast areas of land. In Iraq, there has been a sharp increase in Leukemia and birth defects, probably due to DU. White phosphorous gas melts the skin and burns to the bone. The Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time of War (Geneva IV) classifies "willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health" as a grave breach, which constitutes a war crime.
"The use of chemical weapons, regardless of the purpose, is atrocious, no matter the feigned justification. A government’s use of such weapons against its own people is particularly reprehensible. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the purported attack by Assad’s forces “defies any code of morality” and should 'shock the conscience of the world.' He went on to say that 'there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people.' "
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One of the major complaints I have against my government's officials involves my disdain for hypocrisy. Combine hypocrisy with this insistent need to expand American military "adventures' yet again against a third world nation, one that does not pose any harm to our people, and I am again sick to my stomach.
This is apparently who the real Barack Obama happens to be. He did not possess the vision to bring about a true economic recovery for the middle class. Instead he brought about a recovery that has occurred mainly among Wall Street interests. He did not possess the vision to stand against Monsanto, but instead he has furthered their interests again and again. He is out there secretly campaigning for the Koch Bros Trans Pacific Plan. He is not the man I voted for in 2008. Rather than being someone who wanted to end wars, he wants to expand wars.
What frightens me the most as we head into what could be another perilous "Cuban Missile Crisis" except this one will be labelled "US Faces Down Russia over Chemical Gas Attacks" is how little, in terms of his character, that he resembles a John F Kennedy. Should the Russians indicate war is the only way out, Obama will bend to his military advisers, unlike the fearless manner in which Kennedy made up his own mind. Rather than backing down, Obama will do as the military dictates to him to do. I clearly remember how the Four and Five Star Generals urged JFK to push the doomsday machinery button first, before the Russians pushed their doomsday machinery button. The fact that both Mr Kennedy and Mr Khrushchev were able to free themselves from listening and caving to the demands of their "Puppet Handlers" is one of the reasons that I am here today. (A fact that any of the rest of you who lived in large American cities in the 1960's might be aware of as well.)
I use in closing a term that was used often during the thirteen days of that Cuban Missile Crisis: "God Help Us All."
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an ally of ours, left two to three million dead, and our buddy in the Congo, Joseph Kabila, has left six million dead. Add complicity in Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War. Throw in the use of Agent Orange, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, and white phosphorous and what picture is painted of what we've done and who we have supported as compared to what Assad allegedly has done, even if true? My eldest 1st cousin was killed in Vietnam in 1965. Until about 1968, I had thought he had died while protecting his country, but then began to realize he had died in vain. His widow still grieves him and I still miss my cousin. But an end to the killing is not in sight. 
maybe we, as a people, would begin to wake up as to what our government has been doing in our name. Thanks for posting. 
