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Most of the political discourse on military matters comes from civilians, who are more vocal about “supporting our troops” than the troops themselves. It doesn’t help that there are fewer veterans in Congress today than at any previous point since World War II. Those who have served are less likely to offer unvarnished praise for the military, for it, like all institutions, has its own frustrations and failings. But for non-veterans — including about four-fifths of all members of Congress — there is only unequivocal, unhesitating adulation. Lesson No. 6.When a major authority figure, even in secret, denounces calls to crush a resistance movement the ruling elites are thrown into panic. Maj. Gen. Xu Qinxian, leader of the 38th Group Army, refused to authorize an attack on the unarmed protesters in the square, saying, “I’d rather be beheaded than be a criminal in the eyes of history,” according to the historian Yang Jisheng.
This just reinforces our sense of Putin’s delusions and paranoia, without mentioning that small matter of Nato building military bases right up to Russia’s borders. But now he brings in “Michael McFaul, who was US ambassador to Russia until last month” – that is, a paid propagandist for the US state department. What the world heard from Putin last week was not new in its thrust, but never has he spoken at such length and with such open contempt for the current international order. “I talked with his speechwriters and they said that he himself dictated the main points of the speech; it’s his own deeply held position,” says Yevgeny Minchenko, a political analyst close to the Kremlin.
- Terry Karl is a Stanford professor who has published widely on political economy of development, oil politics, Latin America and Africa, and human rights.
- Maj. Gen. Xu Qinxian, leader of the 38th Group Army, refused to authorize an attack on the unarmed protesters in the square, saying, “I’d rather be beheaded than be a criminal in the eyes of history,” according to the historian Yang Jisheng.
- It now has continued that pressure by trying to destabilize China internally through various mechanisms of infiltration of “human rights” groups into Chinese society and within China’s military and administrative mechanisms and a constant propaganda campaign to defame China and its people around the world.
- The report assessed U.S. compliance with a key human rights treaty and found it lacking in more than two dozen areas.
Formally, the cultural and political elites that dominate Western society adhere to the ideals of representative democracy. They describe representative democracy as the prerequisite for an open society. Unfortunately, however, this current cohort of Western leaders has actually adopted a highly selective and dishonest attitude towards democracy. They believe that elections are wonderfulifthey lead to victory for a party of which they approve. If a party that is not liked by enlightened Western diplomats gets elected, then as far as they’re concerned the democratic process has failed and a change of regime through a coup becomes a legitimate solution.
Since 1999, the typical middle-class family has seen its income go down by more than $5,000 after adjusting for inflation. The typical middle-class American family earned less income last year than it did 25 years ago, back in 1989. The Presiding Officer is probably the last person in the world I have to explain this to, having written several books on this subject. The ultimate winner will be the United States which will have the dubious distinction of dispatching yet another competitor for influence in the world. It also has the distinction of bringing the world to the brink of catastrophic violence. Even in the cold war era the Soviet Union’s prerogatives were accepted as pragmatic realpolitik.
The billionaire party, which is obviously aligned with the Republicans, is now, in fact, the major political force in this country. It is the billionaire party led by people like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson. They are the dominant political force in this country because they can spend unbelievable sums of money on elections.
NATO Transparency and public Accountability
Franklin told the reunion about myths the US government has promulgated since the Vietnam War. «One widespread cultural fantasy about the Vietnam War blames the antiwar movement for losing the war, forcing the military to ‘fight with one arm tied behind its back,'» Franklin said. Franklin cited the American people’s considerable opposition to the war. H. Bruce Franklin was the first tenured professor to be fired by Stanford University, and the first to be fired by a major university since the 1950s. Franklin, who was a Marxist and an active member of the A3M, was terminated because of things he said at an antiwar rally, statements that, according to the ACLU, amounted to protected First Amendment speech. A renowned expert on Herman Melville, history and culture, Franklin has taught at Rutgers University since 1975.
The top 1 percent owns 38 percent of the financial wealth, and the bottom 60 percent owns 2.3 percent. One family in this country—the Walton family, the owners of Walmart—are now worth as a family $148 billion. Today the richest 400 Americans own more wealth than the bottom half of America, 150 million people. Unfortunately, the United States is the most powerful country in the world and it uses its power to crush anyone who dares to stand in its way and Vladimir Putin is the demon du jour. His government gave temporary asylum to another wanted man, Edward Snowden, who committed the crime of revealing the extent of the American security state.
American Democracy?
It has struggled to keep a grip in the Caucasus and faces a radicalised Islamic movement that is far more formidable than any of the forces that directly challenge Western societies. And on its Western front, Russia feels threatened by political and cultural pressure from Europe. In such circumstances, it is understandable that many in the Russian elite feel as though the very fabric of their nation is fraying. It is always difficult, if not dangerous, to speculate about the thought processes that drive powerful diplomats and political leaders to say and do certain things.
Twenty-six years later, Kim Roosevelt took the unusual step of writing a book about how he and the CIA carried out the operation. He called his book Countercoup to press home the idea that the CIA coup was staged only to prevent a takeover of power by theIranianCommunist Party closely backed by theSoviet Union. He also may have meant to imply that the exile of the Shah constituted the initial coup, and that he was merely restoring the rightful leader to power. France and Bulgaria currently ban the controversial drilling practice, which has been known to contaminate ground water supplies and pollute the air, while countries such as Britain and Poland have faced protests against ongoing fracking exploration, asReutersreports. The US is urged to «ensure that all cases of unlawful killing, torture or other ill-treatment, unlawful detention, or enforced disappearance are effectively, independently and impartially investigated, that perpetrators, including, in particular, persons in command positions, are prosecuted and sanctioned». In its 11-page report, the committee also criticised the US for failing to prosecute senior members of its armed forces and private contractors involved in torture and targeted killings.
Mankind rests on the brink of annihilation for no other reason than the American pursuit of unlimited profit. But, as in case of the Philippines, the creeping Western propaganda erased many of the horrors from people’s minds. Grotesquely, the President of the most aggressive country on Earth, the United States, Barrack Obama, was promising to ‘curb the aggression’ of Russia and China, two countries that have not invaded anywhere in the last few decades. “Stephen Harper attacks Vladimir Putin and ‘evil’ communism”, reported the Canadian news outlet,CBC Newson 31 May 2014, in reference to the “lengthy keynote speech” at a fundraising event that the right-wing Canadian PM gave in Toronto.
U.S. lawmakers in both the House and Senate have voted nearly unanimously to pass a $1 billion aid package forUkraine. Senator Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Congress could take further steps if needed. President Obama was in Italy Thursday where he met with Pope Francis for the first time. That was a source of serious concern to the US and the UK, which saw Iranian oil as key to its post-war economic rebuilding. The documents were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institution based at George Washington University. This is believed to be the first time the CIA has itself admitted the part it played in concert with the British intelligence agency, MI6.
In his book Persecution and the Art of Writing, Strauss outlines why secrecy is necessary. He argues that the wise must conceal their views for two reasons — to spare the people’s feelings and to protect the elite from possible reprisals. The people will not be happy to learn that there is only one natural right — the right of the superior to rule over the inferior, the master over the slave and the wise few over the vulgar many. In her book, Leo Strauss and the American Right, Shadia Drury, professor of political theory at the University of Calgary, Canada, names current politicians, political advisers, administration and Supreme Court officials, who were followers of the teachings of… Leo Strauss. It is happening across Australia in a scandalous and largely unrecognized abuse of human rights that evokes the infamous Stolen Generation of the last century.
WPR: WHAT IS THE CURRENT SIZE AND SCOPE OF NATO’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
Initially, Washington will be able to force its vassals to support the dollar, but eventually this will become impossible. Notice how narrowly Washington defines “the world community.” The “world community” consists of the Group of 7. Seven countries make up the “world community.” The “world community” consists of six white countries and Washington’s puppet state of Japan. The “world community” is the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan.
«The military coup… was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy,» says one excerpt. Those false narratives — and their cumulative effect on policy-making — now represent a clear and present danger to the Republic and, indeed, to the world. The United States, after all, is the preeminent superpower with unprecedented means for delivering death and destruction.
Harvard University professor and Cuban Missile Crisis scholar Graham Allison writes in theChristian Science Monitorthat an American strike would have been an almost certain precursor to World War III, which would have cost hundreds of millions of lives — at least. Chicago routinely trained me and numerous other students to become ruthless and unprincipled Machiavellians. That is precisely why so many neophyte neo-con students gravitated towards the University of Chicago. Attorney General John Ashcroft received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1967.
Daniel Ellsberg: United States Nearly Used Nukes During Vietnam War
It is only through an accurate understanding of our history that we can struggle against our government’s use of military force as the first, instead of the last, line of defense. Karl also observed that we have not «won» all of those unpaid wars — if measured against their original objectives. The United States fought in Vietnam to prevent communist reunification of the country, yet that is exactly what happened. The Reagan administration decided to «draw the line» in El Salvador to prevent FLMN rebels from coming to power, yet the FMLN is the government today. And the Reagan administration supported the contras in Nicaragua to prevent the Sandinistas from governing that country; the Sandinistas are now in control. She predicted we would see similar «victories» in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is a place that is familiar to Israeli and American soldiers, but until now largely unknown outside Israel. Chicago stands in the middle of the Negev desert, a ghost town whose history directly mirrors the story of the conflict with Palestine. During the first Gulf War, American Special Forces had their first taste of the Middle East here. ‘Rehearsals’ included a failed attempt to assassinate Saddam Hussein, the Battle of Fallujah and, most recently, the evacuation of the Gaza settlements.
I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ [participants’] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ [participants’] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso reportedly pressed Obama during Wednesday’s meeting to ease current restrictions on U.S. gas exports, claiming fears over the future of Russian gas imports, which make up a quarter of EU gas supplies. It noted that only a «meagre number» of criminal charges had been brought against low-level operatives. It also expressed concern that all investigations into enforced disappearances and torture conducted under the CIA’s rendition programme were closed in 2012, and that the details of the programme remained secret, creating barriers to accountability and redress for victims.
US human rights record chastised in UN report
The engineering of consent the very essence of the democratic proces,’is oftewel’the freedom to persuade and suggest… The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Many social scientists would argue that things like poverty, the war on drugs, high unemployment and racism are the things that cause young men to end up at Rikers Island. Perhaps cognitive behavioral therapy for individuals while they are incarcerated will be beneficial in terms of recidivism, but if we really want to address a problem as big as young men in prison, we need to focus on underlying structural issues. And that requires large-scale government investment and a tax code in which everybody, including Goldman Sachs, pays their share.
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