Shit-howdy, it’s been a funtastic week for The Empire, ain’t it?
For peeling back the curtain and exposing (if only for a brief, stealing glimpse) to the teeve-viewing public what most of the Third World has at some time or other experienced first-hand — the barbaric workings of the American War Machine — Bradley Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years in the slammer. Yay, team!
Now, you remember The Evil Ones, don’t you? Bush, Cheney, Condi, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and cetera. To hear Obama supporters tell it, they were the most despicably horrid gang o’ thugs to ever fill out a Presidential War-Crimes Bureau. Uh, well, hold the phone; ’cause on the very same day that the Manning sentencing came down, we learnt that they’re not so evil any more; the Obama Administration having
filed a petition with a San Francisco federal court arguing that former president George W. Bush and his advisors enjoy “absolute immunity” against any possible civil or criminal charges from the Iraq War.
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. But of course, for the mainstream media, the only item worth discussing here is Manning’s name/sex change. (Though, given that any American journalists raising uncomfortable questions regarding the Obama Regime’s motives and methods apparently now risk facing the same fate as Michael Hastings, kinda tough to blame them for steering clear.)
By the way, if you’re scoring at home, there have now been, since 1917, ten whistle-blowers prosecuted under the auspices of the Espionage Act — seven of them by the Obama Administration.
Meanwhile, in Syria, everything old is new again.
Al-Qaeda, once dubbed by President Reakan “the moral equivalent of America’s founding fathers”, we’ll recall, had been, more recently, demoted to scum-o’-the-Earth status. But they’re back in our good graces again. Not only are we arming up the Foreign Fighters Syrian Rebels with planeloads of weapons; but here we go, ready to launch “Missiles From The Mediterranean” on their behalf.
Before we do, though, maybe we should ask some questions about the Ghouta Massacre.
For one, was this a Chemical Weapons attack? Lots of experts in the field, having seen the footage of the victims, are of the opinion that it was not, but rather that either the event was staged, or that the attack was conducted using “industrial toxicants”.
If the latter sounds like a distinction without much of a difference, it still leaves open the question of which entity is guilty of having carried out the attack. The two sides blame each other; but the recent past suggests that it was likely to have been the U.S.-backed Jihadists. Logic, too, would appear to implicate the latter:
Any person using the slightest bit of common sense would not assume the Syrian Government is responsible for the recent chemical weapons attack. For example, the UN is currently in Syria — invited by Assad — investigating a previous chemical weapons attack, since Assad blamed the previous attacks on the U.S. backed rebels. It’s possible that the most recent chemical weapons attack also serves to distract from the ongoing UN investigation that would have proved Assad right.
Of course Assad would have no motive to launch a massive chemical weapons attack just miles from where the UN is currently investigating the previous attack, especially when Assad is handily defeating Obama’s rebels using conventional weaponry. Obama’s rebels are the only ones who would benefit from such an attack.
If it was the U.S.-backed Jihadists, where’d they get the weapons? Well, that’s probably the least perplexing question of them all, sorry to say. The United States’ long and sordid history — Depleted Uranium, Napalm, White Phosphorous, Cluster Bombs, Agent Orange for starters — with banned and experimental weaponry answers that question almost before it’s even asked. It’s all good, though: the next President will surely endeavour to secure for Obama “absolute immunity” from facing the music for his crimes, too.
So many questions, and the UN Inspectors say they need only a week or so to get to the bottom of it. But the Obama Administration does not want to allow the Inspectors to do their jobs. Now, where have we heard that one before?
Incidentally, Michel Chossudovsky predicted an Iraq replay in a now-prescient piece he penned back in June:
A WMD saga modeled on Iraq based on fabricated evidence is unfolding. The Western media in chorus relentlessly accuse the Syrian government of premeditated mass-murder, calling upon the “international community” to come to the rescue of the Syrian people.
Finally, just a few more questions.
Supposing it were a Chemical Weapons attack, and the Syrian state were responsible? Why does this constitute the crossing of a “Red Line” necessitating a military response? What good can possibly come from us again dropping loads and loads of bombs on top of people’s heads? On whose authority does the Obama Administration deem itself worthy to conduct such activities? Weren’t these supposed to be the grownups? Weren’t we supposed to have left all the chicanery back with Baby Bush and his marauding fuck-ups?
And why does only 9% of the American population (and presumably an even smaller proportion of the World’s people) support such an action? Are we fucking idiots?
Everything old is new again. Including the predictably mute response the Administration’s rush to war has elicited from his voters. You know, the same ones who sent him into office specifically to discontinue U.S. military adventures in the Middle East. The ones who filled up our newsfeeds, last year at this time, with urgent pleas to return him to office (lest the Republicans come in and start another fucking war) — and promises to hold his feet to the fire during his second term.
If you’re still out there, Dems, now might be a good time to speak up.
Otherwise, one supposes we’re left to amusing ourselves trying to guess the name of the pending “operation”. Here are a few…
- “Operation Hopey-Changey”
- “Operation This Time We’re Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Telling The Truth — Cross Our Hearts And Everything“
- “Operation Don’t Mind Us, We’re Only Just Bombing A-Rabs Again”
- “Operation Questions? Sure, Ask All The Questions You Like Cough Where’d We Park The Presidential Drone? Cough”