Jeremy Scahill, May, 2016: The Assassination Complex

[ancianita]

Last edited Wed Jun 15, 2016, 12:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Scahill's Seattle speech from last month, a video paraphrasing of this latest book of the same name. Click into the 10 minute point if your time is tight.

He reviews Vietnam protest history, pre-digital age, of the Berrigan brothers, their fight against the "good order" of militarism which has been the preview of our current global police state. Scahill mentions the
weak arguments against the acceptable militarist "enemy" philosophical framework of invasion and killing policies or debates.

Good ideas: " ... If we are just tethered to our electronic devices...then how are we actually going to confront any of the ills facing our society...Obama being surrounded by white guy frat boys like Ben Rhoades who have his ear on American foreign policy...all our candidates are in favor of a kill list..."

About halfway:

“…We are doing today what the Israelis have long done … run an international assassination program…

We have the burden of living in The Empire…in the most powerful nation on Earth… For us to decide that we just want to sort of veg out, and let it be on cruise control, or check our conscience at the door of every four years’ election -- it means that we’re a part of this problem.

If we don’t start paying attention to what’s being done in our name around the world; if we don’t take real interest in it, if we don’t defend the people that blow the whistle on it, if we don’t have the time of day to get away from our machines and our computers and our daily grind life to do a little something to try to raise these questions in society, then we’re a major part of the problem.

The moment you cede any portion of your conscience to a politician is the moment you stop participating in the struggle for any kind of democratic values…

Bernie Sanders supported regime change in Iraq…voted for the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998, authored by the neocons…supported the sanctions on Iraq…supported the longest sustained bombing campaign since Vietnam under Bill Clinton, bombing Iraq every three days, saying ‘we’re protecting the Shia and the Kurds and ended up killing more of both than Saddam’s people…

Then he says Hillary loves regime change. Okay, Bernie, I agree with you... But what’s your answer about your record in supporting regime change in Iraq before it became cool among the Republicans. You were there vocally supporting that. Now that’s not the same as voting for the invasion of Iraq, but the invasion of Iraq couldn’t have happened on a legislative level had they not passed that bill in 1998 that codified regime change as the law of the land.

Now some people blast anyone who criticizes their particular messiah. Hillary’s people are very vicious on social media and come after you, nd; anyone who criticizes Hillary becomes a sexist immediately, like BernieBros… but then when you criticize Bernie Sanders…you’ve done some vile act by pointing out facts.

Journalists are supposed to present information with no regard to who the politician is. We’re supposed to hold the politician accountable whether they’re Bernie Sanders, George W. Bush or Dick Cheney. Our job isn’t to be partisan warriors for any particular cause. And if we’re not a grown up enough society to deal with the facts and realize that our messiahs are actually not messiahs, what business do we have calling ourself a democracy or a democratic Republic. We don’t have any business doing that…

We all have to take a humility pill about where we are in this country, the state of empire, our impact in the world, the perception of our country, because of all of these wars, because the Nobel Prize winner and … Dick Cheney … ended up on the same page when it came to the legitimizing and normalizing assassination as a central component of our national identity.

Not just our national security policy, but our national identity, we have become a nation of assassins because we don’t say anything about it. We veg out. Rachel Maddow makes us all feel good. Bernie Sanders says we’re part of the revolution. That stuff is plastic. What’s real is actually assessing who you are in the country you live in and what you’re doing to change it or alter that path…”

Well worth your time from one of the best journalists we have.

[tonyt53]

1. it is easy to write about foreign policy - coulda shoulda. But decision-making isn't a novel.

[ancianita]

4. Scahill's book is not a novel. It's a report on leaked docs about the 19 agency watch list program.

[geek tragedy]

2. lol at the dudebros at The Intercept talking about Obama's team

not being diverse enough.

His National Security Advisor is Susan Rice, who of course is invisible to the white dudebros at The Intercept like Jeremy Cahill.

And, Obama's two Attorneys General have been African-Americans.

[tonyt53]

3. But, but , but

[ancianita]

5. None of this discredits the leaked documents of his book. Ad hominem is a cheap dodge to take

notice of the watch lists' existence and do something about what the kill chain of these lists means for the role of America in the world.

[geek tragedy]

6. "ad hominem is a cheap dodge"

how, in your opinion, is this not ad hominem?:

Obama being surrounded by white guy frat boys like Ben Rhoades who have his ear on American foreign policy...all our candidates are in favor of a kill list

The US kills its enemies. Jeremy Scahill acts like this is a new development.

[ancianita]

7. My paraphrase. Obviously, you really don't want to watch this speech, do you. Then don't.

Killing 9 out of 10 that are not known as enemies is what a recent DoD study showed.

Killing both enemies and non-enemies is not new, but public awareness of non-enemy kills is -- the Collateral Murder video is only one example of the several that his book reveals.

Read "Shadow Government" by Tom Engelhardt of Tom's Dispatch, to get even more info on our careless drone program killings.

[choie]

27. The U.S kills innocent civilians.

It is truly incredible that so- called progressives criticize a true journalist like Jeremy Scahill because he reports on the misdeeds of a Democratic administration. I've no doubt that you"d be singing his praises if Bush was president.

[geek tragedy]

28. I had zero problem with Bush killing terrorists.

Iraqi civilians obviously a much different story

[ancianita]

8. It's age diversity that's at issue, not gender/race."Ben" Rhodes is the Deputy National Security

Advisor for Strategic Communications for U.S. President Barack Obama and is an Advisor on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. This guy who has Obama's ear.

[geek tragedy]

9. the comment was "white guy frat boys" which if you read very carefully

makes an issue of race and gender.

FWIW, Rhodes is 39 and wasn't controversial until people tried to smear him for pushing the Iran nuclear deal successfully.

[ancianita]

10. Still haven't watched the video, have you. Yours is a pre-empt trolling strategy here.

[geek tragedy]

11. by discussing the content of the actual words written in the post? nt

[ancianita]

12. Watch the vid and you'll understand the spirit of the words, you'd rather dis the OP with niggling.

You think a 39 year-old security advisor can't be a frat boy?

Is Trifling the strategy of argument we have on DU these days?

[choie]

29. But not with the Obama administration

killing Yemeni and Afghani civilians?

[ancianita]

30. Different operations. Maybe Brennan's in on those, since they're primarily drone strikes.

300 wedding party deaths, but drones have also hit funerals and baby naming ceremonies.

The old "shit happens" argument.

No one in America talks about these or gives them one iota of attention.

Probably because it's better for the military and CiC to keep the peeps back home in the dark.

[90-percent]

13. Jeremy Scahill is a national treasure

I feel my critical thinking skills are adequate to detect BS coming from anybody, even Scahill, one of the last few actual JOURNALISTS we have left in our former Democratic Republic.

Speaks truth to power and gives us a fighting chance to know about what our government does on our behalf on continents thousands of miles away. Most Americans are clueless about how we use our 600 to 800? military bases worldwide, myself included.

-90% Jimmy

[ancianita]

14. 29:39 to get a review of the watch lists

All TIDE lists are over 1 million -- all assigned a TIDE Personnel Number, TPN -- maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center:

Surveillance list
KST -- Known or Suspected Terrorist list
Kill/capture list
Threaten/monitor list
No-fly list

[Geronimoe]

15. Will Scahill be banned 6/16?

He doesn't seem to be drinking enough Kool-Aid.

[ancianita]

16. Good question after 6/20. Do negative conclusions based on facts about Hillary merit a ban? Dunno.

[valerief]

17. I think if you talk about Hillary, there'll be a ban. However, if you talk about someone else, say

maybe someone named Schmillary, there shouldn't be a ban. But I'm not really sure.

[valerief]

18. We're always being told the U.S. is the most powerful nation on earth. What does that mean?

What constitutes being the most powerful? Able to kill the most people? Most resources? Control the economies of other developed countries? What does "most powerful" mean?

[ancianita]

19. Usually control. And we were once a good powerful. Now we're a feared powerful. And not just

by bad guys.

Our 700+ bases are not just military, but bring some small economic benefit to wherever they are. So our tax money goes for that. But lately we're becoming a privatized power, as well.

Our drone bases are moving off land and being operated off naval carrier ships which serve as military bases on the oceans. That puts our military under admiralty law and the law of the seas, which holds land based laws null and void.

We should allow our power to be subject to international laws governing war, which we don't.

If our power should mean anything, it should mean the power to promote the greatest good for the greatest number. Its force or presence should not be used lightly or carelessly.

[valerief]

20. So do you think our power is more physical than economic? I do realize

a negative economic impact trickles down to physical damage, but I'm talking about initial impact. Does the U.S. have more Physical (kill) power or Economic (resource-depletion) power? Thanks.

[ancianita]

21. We seldom build where we're not invited to. Other countries prefer our presence to nothing

when it comes to initial impact. We have historically rebuilt what we've destroyed, but since Vietnam, no.

Our military has funneled much money through its intel programs to Afghanistan, and Turkey, and we usually lease lands, so there is that economic gain for foreign countries.

I've traveled abroad and met employees of our contractors in many places. And they do spend money as they live and work in those countries. I'm sure we have more physical power than economic power, but our military economic power is felt nowhere else like it is here. The DoD employs at least 3.3 million Americans and lots of families are attached to them. That's why there's so much in-house American voter support for the military.

[valerief]

24. And that employment could be re-routed to non-killing endeavors.

Same tax money, same people, different roles.

[ancianita]

25. The non-killing endeavors being the creating of regional stability for trade, free or otherwise.

Stability allows for infrastructure building and other changes. I'm not saying that we are right to impose changes where people don't want them, though. We're not. We're not welcome in many places.

To change out most of Afghanistan's previous national farm crop for poppies was evil. To go in and mine their lithium and other silicon valley precious minerals was, too.

[valerief]

26. We need to do it the U.S.!!!!! nt

[ancianita]

31. I don't understand what you mean.

[nationalize the fed]

22. k&r excellent thanks for posting

one of the best journalists we have.

Indeed.

Truth cuts like a knife

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."-Karl Rove (Source)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

"Further, the process of transformation (of the military), even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor." PNAC policy report, "Rebuilding America's Defenses", entitled "Creating Tomorrow's Dominant Force" September 2000.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century

http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

[ancianita]

23. Thank you back!