Tag: U.S. military

Despite the fact that people have been signing Petitions left and right, calling their Representatives all day long and days prior, sending e-mails, doing everything possible to avert an intervention in Syria, and despite the fact that the percentages against any intervention, ranging between 83% against and 17% for and, some at 74% against and 24% for, I fear it’s probably a done deal.  And, once again, the American peoples’ responses have been/are being ignored . . . . .!

As you know, TMC has informed you that Senate Committee passed an authorization to strike Syria.

Here is an article you may want to keep (contains a graph showing how members have voted so far — we need to remember these people).  Will Congress Support Military Action In Syria?

A ThinkProgress Whip Count [UPDATED]

By Igor Volsky, Judd Legum and Rebecca Leber on September 2, 2013 at 7:07 pm

As you will note within the article, Think Progress is keeping an Excel accounting of each Congressperson and his or her vote.

But, next, you will understand my REAL reasons for believing it’s a done deal!  It’s all about what we don’t know and, essentially, the only way you can learn or find out about what’s REALLY GOING ON is to go outside the country for information.

While the first article I’m showing is alarming, to say the least, it is probably not that surprising to so many of us.

First Syria rebels armed and trained by CIA ‘on way to battlefield’

The first cell of Syrian rebels trained and armed by the CIA is making its way to the battlefield, President Barack Obama has reportedly told senators.

by:  Raf Sanchez in Washington

3:15PM BST 03 Sep 2013

During a meeting at the White House, the president assured Senator John McCain that after months of delay the US was meeting its commitment to back moderate elements of the opposition.

Mr Obama said that a 50-man cell, believed to have been trained by US special forces in Jordan, was making its way across the border into Syria, according to the New York Times.

The deployment of the rebel unit seems to be the first tangible measure of support since Mr Obama announced in June that the US would begin providing the opposition with small arms. . . . …  

Strange, I’ve read a number of articles saying that there was absolutely no proof that Assad was gassing his own people and most speculated it was the “rebels” that were doing the gassing.  But, as you know, we are not supposed to know who’s doing what to who . . . . only to blindly accept whatever is being “force-fed” us to believe!

Please follow . . . ..

Obama sure looked good last night.

He was poised, articulate, even more forceful than aloof at various times.  He sure seemed like he really cared. I certaintly wouldn’t mind getting the chance to talk with him. He seems like such a well intentioned guy.

The only problem is Obama outright lied in several places, and his wonderful rhetoric is in great conflict with his actual governing decisions and priorities. For example:

1. Obama assured us again that he was “Ending the Iraq War”.  First he said that he would have all our “combat” troops out by August.  Then a few sentences later he claimed that “all our troops” (unqualified) would be out of Iraq. But the reality is that this is the man who brought back George W. Bush’s outgoing War Secretary, Robert Gates (CIA-IRAN-CONTRA crook) to run his War Policies. Gates and Obama and Hillary Clinton (also a WarHawk) are all in agreement that at least 50,000 troops will remain permanently in Iraq, and of course, the 17 unwelcome U.S. Military Bases will also be there permanently.  The private contractors Halliburton and Blackwater (which operates under another name now), will all continue to remain as well.  Obama’s claim to end the Iraq War in August 2010 has about as much validity as his claim to end Guantanimo within 1 year. The crooked Oil Contracts, the Corporations, the Military Bases, the huge multi-hundred million dollar U.S. Embassy, and at least 50,000 troops to protect all of that — ain’t going nowhere.  

Whether the people that are stuck there are classified as being “combat” troops or not, is hardly relevant. The War and the Foreign Occupation has not ended, is not ending, and will not end. The vow to end the Iraq War is another empty promise from President Obama, and until and unless he stops listening and empowering the likes of Robert Gates – no meaningful change to this corrupt War policy will truthfully occur.  We have over 1.5 million dead Iraqis, over 2 million Iraqi refugees, over 5,500 dead Americans, over 75,000 wounded or disabled Americans, and have wasted of some 3-Trillion of the taxpayers dollars.  Clearly our Foreign Policy does far more damage to our own Country (as well as to the World) then anything any terrorist could ever dream up.  Obama’s patty-cake policy on confronting the tragedy of the U.S. Iraq intervention is sadly insufficient.  

Moreover, he is expanding our excessive American Militarism and violence to the far corners of the Earth even more by tripling the troop exposure in Afghanistan, starting War with Pakistan, killing civilians with cowardly CIA-run, unmanned Drones equiped with Hellfire bombs, threatening Iran, Yemen, and Venezuela (via Columbia). He has embraced the illegitmate Bush-era policies of detaining people with no charges, and no rights. And he has kept torture sites such as Bagram, Gitmo, and Abu Grahib open for business, while additionally directly outsourcing human torture through the disgraceful secret program of CIA renditions to Foreign prisons.  And let us never forget that the Obama Military budget far exceeds any of the Miltary budgets submitted under Bush & Cheney.  While the words sounded good, the governing remains a shameful tragedy, and a bankrupt wasteland of corruption and unnecessary human carnage, and bloodshed.

2. Obama also spoke about the plight of the middle-class and winning their trust.  He said: “To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.”  It is hard to take him seriously however when his administration has empowered and promoted the very special interests that were responsible for the Financial meltdown, such as Timothy Giethner, Lawerence Summers, Ben Bernanke, and unabashed GOP-Lite Corporatists like Rahm Emanuel. If Obama wants to help the middle-class, why are the crooked Banking/WallStreet elites hand chosen by him to run his policies? Why does he want to give the Federal Reserve even more power, instead of audit them?

We have now reached a point where there is beginning to boil over a lot of open criticism and disappointment finally from the “mainstream”  left over the performance of Barack Obama, and his leadership skills.

Instead of just a few grumblings, made over hushed tones, immediately followed by pronouncements about how it’s only been just 3 months…5 months…8 months… etc., people are now coming to the full realization, even on DailyKos now, that Obama is not going to govern in a manner that brings about any substantial change whatsoever.

Yet many commentators from Ed Schultz, to Michael Moore, to Arianna Huffington, to Markos, to Keith Olbermann etc. generally see the problem as one of being — that Obama is just too unengaged, or not forceful enough, or not providing strong enough leadership. The idea put forth here is that Obama really wants to do the right thing, but he is just a poor negotiator, or isn’t standing up enough, or too happy to compromise away his real “dearly held” beliefs.

But I disagree with this second part of the analysis. I have seen enough now to come to the conclusion that Obama is really executing the agenda that he wants, and advancing the agenda that he and his friends want. He just fooled a whole lot of people during the Primaries with his (deceptive) lofty rhetoric, deliberately left unspecific, and charming speeches and charisma.  

The problem with Obama, however, is not one of ommission, but one of commission. Recall that just as George W. Bush ran in 1999-2000 as a “compassionate” conservative with no critera at all about what that really meant for the middle-class ( a Dick Cheney Presidency-??). Well, Barack Obama ran his campaign very similarily as “Martin Luther Obama” come to save the little people – with no policy program ever put forward for doing any such thing – and an ever accumlating track record for totally backtracking on the few progressive ideas casually tossed about (then later retracted) throughout his campaign. Things like….suddenly being anti-NAFTA during the critical Wisconsin Primary (which he won), only to immediately reverse himself (and align himself with the pro-NAFTA agenda) once that State had voted for him.

But what we continually see is that Obama has no problem whatsoever with twisting arms, pressuring the Senate, asserting his own will, etc. when he wants them to vote against the reimportation of cheaper, generic Drugs (to prevent seniors from saving enormous amounts of money). He has no problem with villifying Howard Dean right out in the open, or outright intimidating progressive Congressman like Pete DeFazio with the open threat “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother“, when he disagreed with Obama’s new Military escalations.  And he has no problem with protecting, and even praising the agenda of Joe Lieberman.

There is a lot of blame to go around over the Health Care debacle. A lot of people (DailyKos) are focusing their anger on just Joe Lieberman or Harry Reid.

Harry Reid tried at least to put in some token amount of reform, but then he knuckled under the pressure — not so much from Joe Lieberman — but from Rahm Emaneul and Obama.

You see, Leiberman knows that he can just walk the thing backwards all day long, because Obama and Rahm Emanuel will never arm twist or pressure him — just as they never pressured the Drug and Insurance Companies themselves.  They will always gut the reform part out of the bill, and instead conspire to please whatever corrupt demands that Lieberman and the GOP make of them.

It is time to understand that Obama is just a theater President.  He likes to create the illusion that he is on the side of the people, but he has really done nothing but place pro-WallStreet, pro-Bankster, pro-Corporatist, pro-NAFTA, pro-War, Pro-Drone, and pro-Bush-NEOCON apologists into the key positions of real control and power to ensure that their crooked agenda always carries the day.

Obama thinks nothing of going to the progressive wing and telling them all “you have to get in line now” and making that demand on them (and the House will now cave-in and vote for this charade just for Obama’s sake).  But would Obama ever in a million years ever go to Joe Lieberman and tell him “Joe, you have to get in line“?

Of course not.

This tells you everything you need to know about Obama, and the Obama Presidency.

A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: “This way of settling differences is not just.”

This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.

  –Dr. Martin L. King, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Last week over 1.6 Million viewers tuned-in to former Minnesota Governor Jessie Ventura’s program “Conspiracy Theory“, on the Cable TV Station TruTV (10:00pm), where he covered the secret Military program known as H.A.A.R.P.

HAARP is a phased-array Ionospheric heater that is capable of focusing large quantities of Electromagnetic energy into very localized regions that are very far away from the source. Ionospheric heaters can use the Ionosphere to reflect their energy at distances several thousand miles away by using the Ionosphere as a ‘mirror’ much the same way as AM radio signals travel over vast distances. Unlike an AM radio, HAARP can use phase interference to focus it’s energy on a localized area (such as the weak point on the power grid).

Simply put, HAARP is an Ionospheric Warfare device that can be used to manipulate and sabatoge Satellites, Electric grids, Computer Networks, and even cause substantial and severe Weather Manipulation.

During the age of perpetual United States Warfare (and perpetual United States propaganda), along with the U.S. Patriot Act Police-State trend this Country has taken, there is justified concern here that not only would this “Dr. Evil” type of weapon be used in Military situations abroad (why else would they have developed it?), but also employed domestically here as well, for whatever pretext du jour our Orwellian government insiders feel is “justified”.  

Thus, it is possible, for example, that weather events as serious as Katrina could be manipulated to occur on cue, and directed at specific areas.

_______

And now: Tonight on TruTV (10:00PM, but check your local listings), Jessie Ventura will have the floor once again to raise America’s most controversial conspiracy by challenging the 9/11 Commission Report and searching for evidence that the September 11th attacks may have been an inside job.

At the urging of victims’ families, he finds witnesses who claim the towers were brought down by explosives, the missing black box flight recorders were actually recovered and ground control knew the hijackers were in the cockpits before the jets took off.

Okay folks, here’s the money quote that says it all:

Republicans generally gave Obama high marks for deciding to send 30,000 more troops.

“If you would have told me a year into the president’s administration (that) he would have doubled our presence in Afghanistan … plus not reduce our troops meaningfully in Iraq … I would have a hard time believing it,” Dan Senor, who was a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq under former President George W. Bush, said in a conference call arranged by the Republican National Committee.
“So I’m pleasantly surprised!”

              –Dan Senor, former Bush Administration Official, CFR-Neocon

Link: Congress Reacts

When Neocons are “pleasantly surprised“, the whole World has a problem here.

But that is Obama’s true governing constituency (regardless of his totally disingenuous campaign theatrics). And to think they gave this guy a Nobel Peace Prize….for what???…..buying a dog?

“Look at me George, I’m the WAR President too!”

Some things just totally defy any possible logic, rhymn, or reason.  

More than 150 Countries, all around the globe, have agreed to the Treaty to end the production, stockpiling, trade, and usage of civilian-killing Land Mines. Under the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld administration, The United States had been a hold out.

According to the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ICBL), efforts undertaken in 1999 to recover mines “have saved millions of lives through the removal of more than 2.2 million emplaced antipersonnel mines, 250,000 antivehicle mines, and 17 million” explosive remnants of war.

According to the Associated Press, last year land mines killed at least 1,266 people and wounded 3,891.

But hey, we have a new President with that hope-y, change-y thing going on…right?

Statement from Obama Adminstration:

“This administration undertook a policy review and we decided that our landmine policy remains in effect. We made our policy review and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs [ -?- ], nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we sign this convention.”

In contravention of the treaty, the United States stockpiles some 10 million antipersonnel mines and retains the option to use them.

             –Rueters

Two peas in a pod

And we’re supposed to be inspired by this shallow little puppet of a man…..

Links:

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/ob…

http://www.reuters.com/article…

This reported today by the A.P.

“Obama said the war would not be reduced to a narrowly defined counterterrorism effort, with the withdrawal of many U.S. forces and an emphasis on special operations forces that target terrorists in the dangerous border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Two senior administration officials say such a scenario has been inaccurately characterized and linked to Vice President Joe Biden, and that Obama wanted to make clear he is considering no such plan.”

–WASHINGTON (AP)

Think about that.

Translation: There is no change in U.S. Foreign Policy.

The illegal and corrupt Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Gates global Warfare will just continue on and on and on for 8 more terrible years.

The whole 2008 Presidential Election was just a theatrical bit of stage acting by Obama designed to fool liberals, progressives, libertarians, moderates, and conservatives of good conscience, that have been horrified at all the reckless human carnage, War atrocities, and collosal waste of tax payers money, into voting for promise of a change in direction (that was never to even be considered).

Probably the single biggest mistake that President Obama made, was losing a great deal of control over the direction of the ongoing (corrupt) U.S. Foreign Wars, Occupations, and general Policy, by bringing back the outgoing (Bush-Cheney appointee) Robert Gates — whose policies the public clearly rejected in the 2006 and 2008 Elections.

An article has been reported today that goes into more details about the internal struggle going on now within the Administration, and the tragic consequences for having left things in the hands of Robert Gates.

Obama In Secret Russia Visit Warns Putin, “I May Not Make It“

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers

Reports circulating in the Kremlin today are detailing an extraordinary ‘secret’ meeting held between Prime Minister Putin and President Obama at the request of the American leader that took place on Air Force One upon its landing at the Russian military airstrip at Pulkovo I in Saint Petersburg during a stopover while in route to Copenhagen, Denmark.

According to these reports, Obama stated to Putin that the US Government was in “total disarray” after what the American President called a “putsch” made against him by high-ranking members of the US Military during a ‘fractious‘ meeting in the White House of the United States top Military, Intelligence and National Security officers over the future course of the war in Afghanistan.

Most distressing to Obama was his chief and longest serving, National Security Advisor, US Naval Intelligence Officer Mark Lippert, being forced out of the White House by the Bush appointed US Defense Secretary, and former CIA Director, Robert Gates who ‘ordered’ Lippert out of the White House and back to active duty.

Obama further reported to Putin that Gates told him, “in no uncertain terms” that the President had “no power whatsoever” over US Military decisions regarding Afghanistan whereupon Gates then ‘leaked’ to the US propaganda media his intention to massively increase America’s troop levels in the Afghan war zone.

Even worse for Obama, who is already struggling with a collapsing economy, Gates further undermined the President by ordering 6,600 armored war trucks at a cost estimated to be in excess of $8 billion the US Military intends to pour into Afghanistan during the coming year at the expense of his Nations people already struggling under their Nations massive war debts.

When queried by Putin as to his ability to regain control of those factions opposing him Obama in these reports is quoted as saying, “I may not make it“.

Further troubling evidence of the disarray the US Government now finds itself in as Obama wages this titanic battle against the right-wing fascist forces seeking to destroy him can be seen in the actions of the powerful US Senator Jim DeMint who is openly defying the White House by traveling to the Central American Nation of Honduras to give his support to the CIA backed coup leader, Roberto Micheletti, who recently overthrew that countries legitimate President Manuel Zelaya and put his Nation under martial law.

link

Where are we getting our real news from in these past times, especially about the two long running occupation theaters we have our soldiers engaged in? I would suggest we’re getting a better look on these conflicts, and other real news, from local outlets and not the so called National Media Cable Outlets, which seem to give more talk, from so called experts and analyst, singular opinion, than real news reporting, with the occasional mini doc thrown in.

I did a post yesterday on Veterans and the problem of Homelessness within our community of brothers and sisters, all the video’s and links were from local outlets, or individuals.

Same a few days prior to that after the tragic incident at the stress clinic In-Country in Baghdad. These were also local outlet reports and investigations on the stress of War and Occupation and PTSD possibly playing a major roll in what happened.