The Arrogance and Hypocrisy of the United States
By Robert Fantina | Aletho News | June 19, 2015
From its earliest days, the United States has been an imperial power, taking what it wants from whoever has it, killing those who get in its way. Even prior to its establishment as a nation, it abused the welcoming friendship of the natives, seeing them as less than human and, therefore, expendable.
Once it threw off the yoke of Great Britain, who saw the colonies as sources of revenue, the new nation saw the Native Americans as impediments to its growth. The ugly concept of Manifest Destiny was introduced early by journalist John O’Sullivan, and embraced by an ambitious and blood-thirsty nation. Mr. O’Sullivan said that the mission of the United States was “to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” Further, he claimed that ‘Until every acre of the North American continent is occupied by citizens of the United States, the foundation of the future empire will not have been laid.” By the time this was written, that goal had been thwarted by Canada, but Mexico was not to be so fortunate. Shortly thereafter, the Mexican territory of Texas was annexed by the U.S.
The Monroe Doctrine, introduced in the same generation as Manifest Destiny, warned European countries not to interfere in North America, at the risk of U.S. intervention. The U.S., of course, saw all of North American as England previously saw its North American colonies, simply as a source of revenue, which included cheap labor. Such lucrative opportunities must not be taken by Europe.
With increasing wealth and power came increasing lust for more of the same. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, an unabashed imperialist, was desperate to make the U.S. a world power. Once the battleship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, Mr. Roosevelt rushed to silence the legitimate theory that this had been due to spontaneous combustion resulting from the positioning of the magazine by the coal bunkers. No, for Mr. Roosevelt, this was an opportunity to show Spain that the U.S. will not be trifled with, proof positive of Spain’s brutal actions, and sufficient reason to declare war; thus, the Spanish-American War began. This resulted in the annexation of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines by the U.S. This spawned the Philippine-American War; the Filipino people, for some reason that escaped anyone in U.S. governance, were not willing to surrender their country to the U.S. So, with the unspeakable violence and inhumane actions with which it came to be identified, the U.S. crushed the Filipino people.
When the U.S. entered World War I, it was its first foray into a European conflict. In 1917, at least six ships either owned by the U.S., or carrying U.S. citizens, were sunk. While this caused outrage in the U.S., it was the business community that was most concerned. By 1917, U.S. financiers had lent the Allies at least $2.3 billion. U.S. economic expansion depended on an Allied victory, so war was inevitable to ensure it. Towards the end of the war, even President Woodrow Wilson, who led the U.S. into the war, and thus presided over the deaths of 117,000 Americans, admitted that the war was waged for commercial purposes, and not for some lofty ideals of freedom. Said he: “Why, my fellow-citizens, is there any man here, or any woman – let me say, is there any child here – who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry? This war, in its inception, was a commercial and industrial war.”
Under President Lyndon B. Johnson, the U.S. found beneficial the model it had previously successfully used to enter or start wars, to escalate hostilities with Vietnam. The U.S. had long ago decreed Communism as the great threat to civilization, and with the Communist North of Vietnam attempting to reunite with the U.S.-puppet-run South, the U.S. needed to act. In order to increase the number of U.S. soldiers sent to that beleaguered nation, an excuse had to be found. The so-called Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was really a non-incident, was the excuse this time.
The staging area for the U.S. Seventh Fleet was the Gulf of Tonkin. On August 2, 1964, the U.S. destroyer Maddox was on an espionage mission when it was fired on by North Vietnamese torpedo patrol boats. The Maddox, with supporting air power, fired back, sinking one North Vietnamese boat.
Two evenings later, the Maddox and another destroyer, the C. Turner Joy, were again in the gulf. The Maddox’s instruments indicated that the ship was under attack, or had been attacked. The captain began an immediate retaliatory strike. Both ships began firing in to the night. However, officials on the ships later determined that they were shooting at ‘ghost images’ on their radar. The evidence indicated that they had not, in fact, been attacked.
Regardless of this, the incident was presented to the world, and more importantly, to the U.S. Congress, as an act of aggression against the United States. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, empowering the president to take any and all means necessary to repel this ‘aggression,’ quickly passed Congress.
Eleven years later, with over 55,000 U.S. soldiers and at least 2,000,000 Vietnamese men, women and children dead, the last U.S. soldiers and administrators fled Saigon as the Vietcong swept through. U.S. hubris has been defeated.
The U.S. public relations organization works overtime to foster the myth of the country as a beacon of peace and freedom. Yet its demands that other nations adhere to some lofty standard of respect for human rights cannot withstand any close scrutiny. The U.S. has used its veto power at the United Nations at least 40 times to protect Israel, a nation that can only be described as apartheid, from any consequences of its barbaric practices. Its own cities are not safe for young, unarmed African-American men, who are shot and killed by white police officers in epidemic proportions. It is rare for any of the officers pulling the trigger to be indicted, let alone convicted of these racist crimes.
The U.S. condemned Syria for allegedly using chemical weapons, but finances all of Israel’s weaponry, including its chemical weapons, used routinely against the Palestinians. ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) has been condemned, legitimately, for beheading its prisoners, but the U.S. has full diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, which uses public beheading as a means of execution, and has used that method over 80 times this year alone. Should ISIL ever establish a relatively stable government on oil-rich lands, its barbaric practices will also be overlooked.
Over half of U.S. senators are millionaires, and they increase taxes on the middle class and poor as they reduce taxes for the rich. The government condemns the deaths of innocent people in war-torn countries, as it sends drones around the world that kill thousands of innocent people. The government demands a military ‘defense’ budget larger than that of the eight next largest international military budgets combined, depriving schools of much-needed revenue as it strengthens its deadly war machine, yet those other countries are not plagued with constant attacks and invasions, despite their much-smaller military budgets.
In the U.S., there is a separate justice system for the wealthy, with bankers confessing to felonies paying small fines, while poverty-stricken people caught with small amounts of marijuana spend years in prison. Wealthy pedophiles are sentenced to small fines and a few months in prison.
Poor and middle-class students who want to attend U.S. colleges and universities can borrow money from the government at an interest rate of 4.66%. Banks borrow money from the government at an interest rate of 0.75%. And if the bank fails, the U.S. government will rescue it. If a former student declares bankruptcy, his/her student loan is not absolved.
When in desperation a young person enlists in the military, he/she may find themselves killing men, woman and children that pose no threat to them. Then, on returning home, not only is the tuition program offered to veterans minimal, good luck to them in trying to get assistance for post-traumatic stress disorder. Over 50% of veterans will experience homelessness at some point after their time in the military, and they have higher-than-average rates of suicide, substance abuse, divorce and domestic violence. The U.S. government is happy to send them off to war, but is not interested in them when they return, broken and bruised. They have served their corporate purpose, and can now be discarded.
This is life in the much-touted ‘land of opportunity’, the ‘home of the free and the brave’. Yes, opportunity abounds for the rich, but for the poor and those who are struggling to maintain a middle-class standard, things are not so rosy. But ask the common man or woman on any U.S. street what they believe to be the greatest country in the world, and their hearts will swell pride and their eyes become moist as they proclaim it to be the U.S.A. And the U.S. public relations effort scores another victory, while the blind lemmings fall off the cliff.
Bolivia’s New Oil Discovery Triples Reserves
teleSUR | June 19, 2015
Bolivia has tripled its oil reserves, President Evo Morales announced Thursday, after state-owned energy company YPFB made a significant oil discovery in the eastern department of Santa Cruz.
“This oil reserve marks the first new discovery in 23 years. This is an example of the positive outcomes from nationalization. With this reserve we now have 44 million barrels of oil reserves,” announced Morales.
During his speech, the Bolivian leader went on to criticize foreign nongovernmental organizations that aim to obstruct natural resource exploration projects. “It is unacceptable to me that there are NGOs and foundations operating under the pretext of defending the indigenous movement. I want to make it clear that NGOs and foundations that obstruct natural resource exploration must leave Bolivia,” Morales stated.
According to company officials, YPFB is planning to invest a total of US$3 billion in Bolivia from 2015-2019 towards oil exploration projects.
Due to increased revenues from gas and oil exports, the Bolivian government has since 2006 dramatically increased social spending in the area of health, education, pensions, and poverty alleviation programs by 45 percent.
JVP, Alison Weir And the Hatred of the White
By Gilad Atzmon | June 18, 2015
A month ago, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) issued a call for a Herem (excommunication, Hebrew) against the remarkable activist and writer Alison Weir. The call was distributed internally amongst JVP’s chapter leaders and was leaked to me by a few JVP dissenters. The publication of the call led to a massive surge of resentment towards JVP within the dissident movement. JVP was compelled to explain their move.
The call for Herem is deeply rooted in Jewish culture. Throughout their history, Jews have called for the expulsion of some of their most articulate and sophisticated minds. Spinoza, and Uriel Da Costa are famous examples. Christ, another dissent voice, found himself nailed to the cross for advising his people to love their neighbours. Though Rabbinical Jews rarely call for a herem, contemporary so-called ‘liberal’ Jews are obsessed with that ugly, primitive medieval ritual. Since I immersed myself in solidarity matters two decades ago, I have been witness to the relentless chasing, harassing and slandering of every Jew who crossed the 100 IQ barrier. First it was Israel Shamir, then Paul Eisen, and then Norman Finkelstein who dared speak the truth about the Jewish Left and BDS operating as a secret society (cult). Consistent with their Jewish heritage, ‘progressive’ Jews like to employ a ‘Sabbos Goy’, a gentile who is willing to surrender to their whims. The liberal Jews at JVP have used Ali Abunimah as their favourite ‘partner’. He has apparently been happy to provide his Palestinian voice to issue the Palestinian stamp. Although rabbinical Jews employ the Herem solely against Jews, liberal Jews, fuelled by peculiar sense of righteousness, extended the Herem to include some ‘Goyim’. For years they have attempted to excommunicate me (an ex-Jew). They chased Free Gaza Founder Greta Berlin. Currently their target is Alison Weir and, in a surprising move, the American people whom JVP has outrageously dubbed a racist collective.
A rapidly growing number of activists and commentators see JVP and the Jewish liberal attitude as a corrosive, yet dominant, element within the solidarity movement. The publication of the leaked JVP’s call for herem against Alison Weir drew a lot of negative attention. JVP and its Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson could have easily saved what was left of their reputations by issuing an apology and perhaps vowing not to engage in herem tactics. But such a humane and reconciliatory approach would be totally foreign to the culture JVP succumbs to. For JVP to word such a statement would mean an engagement in genuine self-reflection, pretty much thinking the unthinkable. It just wasn’t going to happen. Instead JVP offered another clumsy and lousy attempt to ‘justify’ its primitive call for a herem. Lacking elementary imagination, this progressive synagogue re-cycled its banal Judeo-centric diatribe. JVP’s new statement achieved little except to offer another view into tribal morbidity. Their statement has nothing to do with peace or the Palestinians but is, instead, an embarrassing manifestation of goy hatred and anti white inclinations. They reveal, yet again that liberal Jews are not the solution. They are, actually, the core of the problem.
In their new diatribe against Weir, JVP’s board informs us that they have chosen not to work with her because their central tenet is “opposition to racism and oppression in all its forms, and she (Weir) has consistently chosen to stay silent when given the opportunity to challenge bigotry,” which they find “repugnant.”
It is amusing to find out that the people who are operating within a racially Jewish exclusive club are preaching against ‘racism.’ Yet, what was Weir’s crime exactly? Apparently, Weir has been ‘a friendly guest’ of ‘white supremacist’ Clay Douglas on his hate radio show, “the Free American.”
Without even addressing the horrid labels that JVP and liberal Jews often attribute to others (gentiles), I wonder whether JVP would have the same reaction if Weir appeared on Israeli TV. Israeli TV is suffocated with Jewish supremacy and racism. Of course, the answer is NO – JVP has yet to call for a Herem against a single activist for appearing on Israeli TV or any other Jewish supremacist outlet. I guess that in the eyes of ‘liberal’ Jews at JVP & Co., Jewish racism is somehow kosherish.
“Clay Douglas,” according to JVP, “is concerned primarily with the survival of the White race and sees malign Jewish influence everywhere.” To start with, ‘seeing Jewish influence everywhere’ has now become mainstream news and for good reason. Furthermore, if it is bad for a white person to be primarily concerned with the survival of his ‘race,’ should we apply the same ethical standard to all identities and sectarian activism? Would JVP also denounce a lesbian activist for caring primarily for her sisters and their libidinal and cultural survival? Would JVP denounce Jews who primarily care about the survival of their ‘race’? I guess that within their liberal tribal mindset, universal ethics evaporate wherever the ‘White’ appears. I admit that I am puzzled by this brutal tribal animosity towards Whiteness, particularly the vile language that some Jewish progressive ‘peace’ activists use. If JVP truly believes in diversity, shouldn’t it include Clay Douglas in its phantasmic multi layered society? Seemingly ‘White’ people are unwelcome within the imaginary Jewish liberal ‘diverse’ universe. What a shame, some of my best friends are white. In the mirror I look pretty white, almost as white as Rebecca Vilkomerson and her junta of progressive Rabbis.
Apparently the JVP are really upset with Weir because back in “August 25, 2010”, Weir “was silent when Douglas invoked the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. Now the real picture begins to emerge. In the eyes of JVP’s rabbinical board, unlike Ali Abunimah, Weir has refused to operate as a Sabbos Goy. Her sin is venal: rather than fighting for Judea, Weir is an American patriot devoted to the education of the American people.
While reading the JVP pamphlet I asked myself what is the principle that makes one call for equality ‘kosher’ and another call for equality a ‘racist’ and ‘chauvinist’ crime? JVP fails to provide any guidance. Perhaps this bunch of progressive Jews believes that their hatred of Whites will make them into a popular movement. Possibly, they believe that anti White politics is good for Palestine. I wonder whether the JVP grasps that such a belligerent approach may backfire? Following the mass outrage over JVP’s conduct, some people have already completely disassociated from cliques that are formed by or connected with any Jewish organisation or politics.
Complete disregard for logic is by now entrenched in JVP thinking. Towards the end of the statement, JVP comments “Weir and IAK have a fundamental political framing that the U.S. is not implicated in the same racist and white supremacist structures as Israel.” One would assume that, if true, this view attributed to Weir and IAK should be discussed and examined in scholarly manner. Apparently not in the JVP’s synagogue -“this ‘tail wags the dog’ theory is a form of chauvinistic nationalism that absolves American interest in perpetuating injustice–not just in Israel but in other regions around the world.” It would take a lot of imagination to grasp why the JVP regards arguing that the U.S. is ‘not implicated in the same racist and white supremacist structures as Israel’ is ‘chauvinistic’ and ‘nationalist.’
Surprising argument given that JVP attempts to define the discussion of Jewish racism and the Jewishness of Israel provide proof that JVP is itself a Jewish chauvinist, supremacist apparatus dedicated to the concealment of the roots of the conflict in Palestine. In fact, the JVP is far worse than Israel and ultra Zionists – while Zionists manifest their Jewish symptom proudly, the ‘liberal’ Jewish ‘allies’ at JVP invest all their time and energy in suppressing discussion of that very dangerous symptom.
JVP is clearly desperate to prove that that IAK and Weir are immersed in supremacy. They quote the IAK webpage: “[Alison Weir] founded an organization to be directed by Americans without personal or family ties to the region who would research and actively disseminate accurate information to the American public.”
JVP deduces from this innocuous statement that “according to Weir and If Americans Knew, only non-Arab, non-Muslim, non-Palestinian, and non-Jewish voices can be trusted to speak the truth, based solely on their ethnic or religious identity.” In psychoanalytical terms this is called projection. JVP attribute their own exclusivist, chauvinist and racist symptoms to Weir and IAK. It is the board of JVP that is made up of Jews only. No Arabs, No Palestinians, No Muslims, let alone White Goyim are racially qualified to be part of the leadership of this disgusting collective. Even the Israeli Knesset has as its 3rd biggest party an Arab party and is more diverse and pluralist than JVP’s Knesset.
Apparently their mental segregation causes these ‘liberal’ Jews to fail to recognise that Weir and IAK are driven by a true inclination towards justice. In order to produce an impartial reading of the conflict, Weir formed an organisation of people less inclined to prejudge the situation because they are not somehow tied to the region, spiritually or physically. This is what people out of the Jewish ghetto do sometimes when they are interested in forming a genuine and truthful judgment. They require that the parties not have a stake in the conflict. JVP interpreted IAK statements as racist only because JVP itself is bounded to Jewish racist thinking.
It is sad that JVP missed a great opportunity to amend its ways. Instead of presenting an exemplary case of humanist universal virtues devoted to pluralism and diversity, they responded with a spectacularly gruesome manifestation of Jewish bad behaviour. “Despite her support for Palestinian rights, Weir ultimately does a disservice to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.” Jews are claiming the exclusive right to tell others what is good for those who are oppressed by their own Jewish State.
MoD confirms Britain is arming Saudi Arabia in Yemen conflict
RT | June 19, 2015
Britain’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is providing technical support and arming Saudi Arabia in its ongoing war against Yemen, RT has learned.
An MoD spokesperson said the UK’s assistance to Saudi Arabia includes providing “precision guided weapons,” but added the British government had been assured they will be used in compliance with international law.
Anti-arms trade campaigners condemned Britain’s support for the Gulf monarchy, claiming the UK cares more about arms sales than human rights and democracy.
RT contacted the MoD to ask if British weapons are being used in Saudi airstrikes on Yemen and if the UK is providing assistance to the Saudi-led coalition.
An MoD spokesperson replied: “The UK is not participating directly in Saudi military operations. We are providing support to the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces and as part of pre-existing arrangements are providing precision guided weapons to assist the Saudi Air Force.
“The use of these weapons is a matter for the Saudis but we are assured that they will be used in compliance with international law.”
The MoD’s response confirms suspicions held by anti-arms trade campaigners that Britain is providing support for a war that top Yemeni academics based in the West have branded “illegal.”
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) said: “The Saudi bombing has created a humanitarian catastrophe and now we know the UK weapons have contributed to it.”
“These weapons have not just given military support to the bombardment, they have also provided a strong political support and underlined the closeness between the UK and Saudi governments.”
“With the destruction of Yemen and the intensifying crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia, the UK government is sending the message that human rights and democracy are less important than arms sales,” he added.
CAAT said the “precision guided weapons” used by the Saudi Air Force are likely to be Eurofighter Typhoons or Tornado jets.
Saudi Arabia has spent an estimated £2.5 billion upgrading its fleet of 73 Tornados as part of a deal negotiated with UK-based arms manufacturers BAE Systems.
Saudi Arabia and the UK have long had close dealings in the arms trade. Saudi Arabia is Britain’s largest customer for weapons and the UK is the Gulf nation’s single biggest supplier, according to CAAT. … Full article
Why are journalists surprised that Israel kills children?
By Amena Saleem | Palestine Journal | June 17, 2015
There was nothing surprising about Israel finding itself not culpable for the killing of four boys on a Gaza beach in July last year, as it did in a military judgment released a few days ago. Israel’s investigations into its own crimes aren’t known for delivering guilty verdicts.
What was interesting, however, was the reaction of some mainstream journalists — journalists who felt they had a vested interest in this case because they had witnessed the strikes which killed the four boys from the Baker family as they played football one afternoon during Israel’s 51-day assault on Gaza.
Articles by Peter Beaumont in The Guardian and Robert Tait in The Daily Telegraph give off a sense of disbelief and indignation that the investigation by the Israeli army into the attack cleared all personnel involved and declared the incident “a tragic accident.”
Both these journalists, and Paul Mason in his blog for Channel 4 News, describe how their own observations, both during and after the attack, refute Israel’s allegations that it was targeting Palestinian fighters.
But the sense that there has been a miscarriage of justice by a reputable organization, rather than an outright cover-up by a rogue army, remains.
Struck in error?
This journalistic respect for Israel’s army is highlighted in Tait’s article, as he writes that the slaughter of the boys was “surely an indication that something had gone badly wrong in Israel’s military procedures for such a deadly strike to have been aimed at what were clearly children.”
By which he indicates his belief, shared by many mainstream journalists, that, unlike the killing of the Baker boys, the rest of Israel’s military procedures in Gaza last summer were not acts of indiscriminate slaughter.
Bombardments which leveled homes, mosques and entire neighborhoods, massacring whoever was in the vicinity, babies and children included, weren’t, according to Tait’s reasoning, deliberate acts of terror, but acceptable military activity.
The BBC, true to form, goes one step further in the esteem in which it holds the Israeli army. Its online article into Israel’s findings does nothing but quote chunks from the Israeli army report and is headlined “Gaza beach attack: Israel ‘struck boys in error.’”
There is no attempt to critically analyze the report’s conclusions, as Tait, Beaumont and Mason all did for their respective news organizations, and no Palestinian comment.
Instead, the BBC simply provides a platform for Israel’s self-exonerating report to be aired, free from the inconvenience of journalistic scrutiny.
And it ends, of course, in typical BBC fashion, by giving Israel’s excuse for attacking Gaza last July and August — “to put an end to rocket-fire and remove the threat of attacks by militants tunneling under the border” — with no mention of the Palestinian reality of occupation, siege and resistance.
Damage limitation
It is this high regard in which many mainstream journalists hold the Israeli army which explains, perhaps, their shock that its soldiers could deliberately target children and then their disbelief that its commanders could dub that deliberate targeting an accident.
The question then is, why are mainstream journalists so easily taken in by Israeli propaganda, appearing to believe Israel’s refrain that it has “the most moral army in the world?”
The truth they ignore, and consequently fail to convey to their audiences, is that Israel kills Palestinians at will and with impunity.
Its army only announces investigations into a killing or killings on the rare occasion that Western journalists or politicians become agitated about Palestinian life being taken — usually because the killing has been caught on camera and can’t be hidden.
Those same journalists seem unware of the reality that an Israeli announcement of an “independent investigation” is nothing more than a damage limitation exercise, an exercise in “public relations” to quieten the critics, and that the word “independent” is meaningless in these cases.
It is meaningless because the outcome of an Israeli investigation into Israeli crimes will almost exclusively be a finding of Israeli innocence. There is nothing independent about the process, and it shouldn’t be reported as such.
Wake up to reality
The military’s absolution of blame for the slaughter of the Baker boys wasn’t a one-off, as the resultant mainstream reporting seemed to suggest. It was part of a pattern which will be repeated over and over until the occupation ends.
Israel is a colonial power. It will kill whoever it has to (Palestinians, >US activists, British media workers, Turkish humanitarians, UN staff) to make its colonial goals a reality. And it will lie, cover up and propagandize in exactly the same way that all colonial powers did in centuries past to get away with its crimes.
Mainstream media journalists need to wake up to these facts. They need to be sharper, more intelligent and more astute in the way they cover Israel and the occupation. They need to read and understand history, especially European colonial history, and they need to embrace, rather than dismiss, context in their reporting.
Israel didn’t just kill those four young boys last summer. Its warplanes, warships and tanks wiped out 89 entire Palestinian families, wiped out 504 Palestinian children at an average rate of 10 a day, wiped out a total of more than 2,200 Palestinians.
Its politicians and military should be tried for all these crimes. And they should be tried in a properly independent manner — or as independently as the world allows — at the International Criminal Court. This is what the mainstream media should be clamoring for. Not expressing polite surprise that an “independent” Israeli inquiry acquitted Israel of deliberately slaying four little Palestinian boys who dared to play football in Gaza.