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Related: About this forumJeremy Scahill, May, 2016: The Assassination Complex
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 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 were a part of this problem.
If we dont start paying attention to whats being done in our name around the world; if we dont take real interest in it, if we dont defend the people that blow the whistle on it, if we dont 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 were 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 were protecting the Shia and the Kurds and ended up killing more of both than Saddams people
Then he says Hillary loves regime change. Okay, Bernie, I agree with you... But whats 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 thats not the same as voting for the invasion of Iraq, but the invasion of Iraq couldnt 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. Hillarys 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 youve done some vile act by pointing out facts.
Journalists are supposed to present information with no regard to who the politician is. Were supposed to hold the politician accountable whether theyre Bernie Sanders, George W. Bush or Dick Cheney. Our job isnt to be partisan warriors for any particular cause. And if were 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 dont 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 dont say anything about it. We veg out. Rachel Maddow makes us all feel good. Bernie Sanders says were part of the revolution. That stuff is plastic. Whats real is actually assessing who you are in the country you live in and what youre doing to change it or alter that path
Well worth your time from one of the best journalists we have.
tonyt53
(5,737 posts)ancianita
(36,238 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)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
(5,737 posts)ancianita
(36,238 posts)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
(68,868 posts)how, in your opinion, is this not ad hominem?:
The US kills its enemies. Jeremy Scahill acts like this is a new development.
ancianita
(36,238 posts)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
(4,112 posts)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
(68,868 posts)Iraqi civilians obviously a much different story
ancianita
(36,238 posts)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
(68,868 posts)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
(36,238 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)ancianita
(36,238 posts)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
(4,112 posts)killing Yemeni and Afghani civilians?
ancianita
(36,238 posts)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
(6,834 posts)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
(36,238 posts)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
(1,539 posts)He doesn't seem to be drinking enough Kool-Aid.
ancianita
(36,238 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)maybe someone named Schmillary, there shouldn't be a ban. But I'm not really sure.
valerief
(53,235 posts)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
(36,238 posts)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
(53,235 posts)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
(36,238 posts)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
(53,235 posts)Same tax money, same people, different roles.
ancianita
(36,238 posts)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
(53,235 posts)ancianita
(36,238 posts)nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Indeed.
Truth cuts like a knife
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/