[ a partial list of U.S. military interventions from 1890 to 2011 ]
Now is the time to recall what happens when America comes to the aid of other nations with military action
[ vollständiger Artikel (gegen Bezahlung) ]
Obama has formally accused Moscow of interfering in the US elections on behalf of Donald Trump. These are serious allegations. Whereas the sanctions are directed against Russia, the ultimate intent is to undermine the legitimacy of president-elect Donald Trump and his foreign policy stance in relation to Moscow.
* Destabilizing the Trump Presidency
* Coordinated Operation to Destabilize the Trump Presidency?
* Background on The Neocons’ Foreign Policy Agenda
* "The Deep State" and The Clash of Powerful Corporate Interests
* Continuity in US Foreign Policy?
* Trump Foreign Policy Realignments
* The Timeline of the Destabilization Project
* The Catch Phrase is "Disrupt".
The Objective is "Disrupt"
* What are the Possible Outcomes?
* Impeachment is the "Talking Point"
* The American People are the Unspoken Victims:
The Need for A Real Mass Movement
* Is America gearing Towards a Deep-seated Constitutional Crisis
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The obscenity of continuing with endless wars while forcing cut backs in everything from libraries to healthcare at home is not lost on millions of people in both the US and Britain.
Iraq and the US model for conquered territories
The road to Baghdad Airport is the best illustration of what the United States build as they conquer one country after another.
[ vollständiger Artikel ]
The US State Department, via spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki, said that reports of CIA Director John Brennan telling regime changers in Kiev to "conduct tactical operations" - or an "anti-terrorist" offensive - in eastern Ukraine are "completely false". This means Brennan did issue his marching orders. And by now the "anti-terrorist" campaign - with its nice little Dubya rhetorical touch - has degenerated into farce.
Now couple that with NATO secretary general, Danish retriever Anders Fogh Rasmussen, yapping about the strengthening of military footprint along NATO's eastern border: "We will have more planes in the air, mores ships on the water and more readiness on the land."
Welcome to the Two Stooges doctrine of post-modern warfare.
The US calls on other nations to abide by the treaties it violates.
[ vollständiger Artikel ] [ bei George Monbiot ]
TEXT OF A LETTER
FROM THE PRESIDENT
TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
Political and economic changes in recent years have opened possibilities for the end of international and national conflicts. Regime changes, pragmatic leaders and the promise of serious negotiations in the Middle East, North Africa, Russia, Southwest Asia, China and elsewhere provided the Obama regime an opportunity to end long standing and costly wars, to access new markets and resources and to reduce domestic deficits and external trade imbalances.
At every opportunity, with precise consistency, the Obama regime rejected fresh overtures from adversaries, choosing instead to rely on a now discredited “double discourse”, of talking peace and engaging in war, of talking trade and increasing sanctions, of talking about greater Asian engagement and fomenting economic pacts which exclude the second biggest economy in the world.
Edward Snowden:
In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an “executive coup” against the US constitution.
[ vollständiger Artikel ] [ ... im Guardian ]
On September 30, 2011, in a northern province of Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and a senior figure in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, finished his breakfast and walked with several companions to vehicles parked nearby. Before he could drive away, a missile fired from a drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency struck the group and killed Awlaki, as well as a second American citizen, of Pakistani origin, whom the drone operators did not realize was present.
Israeli Foreign Ministry officials believe the aim of Obama administration pressure is to postpone the probe until at least after the presidential elections in November.
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday said the Obama administration has the "clear authority" to kill anyone believed to be a terrorist threat, including US citizens overseas.
2012 National Defense Authorization Act, approved by the Senate that would allow the military to detain without a trial any American citizen accused of being a terrorist, or of supporting terrorists who plot attacks against the United States. The ACLU called the proposal “an extreme position that will forever change our country.”
[ Video-Bericht (ca. 25 min.) ]
Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated -- Japan's attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example. Others are ignored, and we can often learn valuable lessons from them about what is likely to lie ahead. Right now, in fact.
On 5 January, President Barack Obama was at the Pentagon, accompanied by Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta. There, surrounded by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces, he launched a new global military strategy for the United States.
A change in the structure of the armed forces was planned, a reduction of troops on the ground, and the maintenance and expansion of air and naval forces, as well as intelligence activities.
For foreign workers on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, war can be hell.
It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial.
[ vollständiger Artikel ] [ in Deutsch ] [ bei FL ]
While revolts in Tunisia and Egypt caught the US by surprise there is speculation that they are behind revolts in Libya and Syria. Russia and China are also see observing these developments.
Press TV talks with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary to US Treasury in Panama City who concisely provides insight as to the larger scope of American hegemonic strategy that seriously risks Russian and Chinese interests.
Barack Obama is fighting wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Libya. He is spending more on the US military than any previous president.
If he serves for eight years as president, he will spend over $8 trillion on defence, including the hidden costs of the war economy.
Fifty per cent of all US tax dollars is spent on the US military. America spends more on defence than the combined total military budget of every other country in the world.
[ vollständiger Bericht (Video) ]
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Irrespective of their politics, flawed leaders share a common trait. They generally remain remarkably oblivious to the harm they do to the nation they lead. George W Bush is a salient recent example, as is former British prime minister Tony Blair. When it comes to foreign policy, we are now witnessing similar phenomenon at the Barack Obama White House.
"Contemporary society faces problems of fateful significance. There are many complexities and intricate factors, often poorly understood. If there is to be any hope for serious approaches to tasks reaching literally as far as decent survival of the species, it is crucial that democratic processes function in a constructive way. A prerequisite is that citizens have readily available to them accurate information, a rich variety of perspectives, and encouragement to think clearly and creatively. In brief, they need independent media, free from the constraints imposed by concentrations of power and rigid ideological frameworks, both stimulating activist organizations and drawing from their experiences and ideas."
Interactive video and transcript of President Obama’s speech to the Muslim world.
[ Video auf der Website der New York Times ] [ ... bei c-span ]
Stellungnahmen eines, der sich nicht fürchtet, unbequeme Wahrheiten zu sagen:
[ Iran & US Foreign Policy ] [ Ron Paul silences General Petraeus about bombing Iran ]
The success of the Bush Regime’s propaganda, lies, and deception with gullible and inattentive Americans since 9/11 has made it difficult for intelligent, aware people to be optimistic about the future of the United States. For almost 8 years the US media has served as Ministry of Propaganda for a war criminal regime. Americans incapable of thinking for themselves, reading between the lines, or accessing foreign media on the Internet have been brainwashed.
As the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, said, it is easy to deceive a people. You just tell them they have been attacked and wave the flag.
It certainly worked with Americans.
[ vollständiger Artikel von Paul Craig Roberts ]
Annals of National Security
Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
[ der vollständige Text in Englisch ]
The misnamed National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is nothing more than a costly program that takes US taxpayer funds to promote favored politicians and political parties abroad. What the NED does in foreign countries, through its recipient organizations the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), would be rightly illegal in the United States. The NED injects "soft money" into the domestic elections of foreign countries in favor of one party or the other. Imagine what a couple of hundred thousand dollars will do to assist a politician or political party in a relatively poor country abroad. It is particularly Orwellian to call US manipulation of foreign elections "promoting democracy." How would Americans feel if the Chinese arrived with millions of dollars to support certain candidates deemed friendly to China? Would this be viewed as a democratic development?
It is not easy to escape from one's skin, to see the world differently from the way it is presented to us day after day. But it is useful to try. Let's take a few examples.
The war drums are beating ever more loudly over Iran. Imagine the situation to be reversed.
The Pentagon is toying with the idea of black propaganda.
As part of George Bush's war on terrorism, the military is thinking of planting propaganda and misleading stories in the international media.
A new department has been set up inside the Pentagon with the Orwellian title of the Office of Strategic Influence.
It is well funded, is being run by a general and its aim is to influence public opinion abroad.
[ a partial list of U.S. military interventions from 1890 to 2011 ]
It was almost ten years ago when, before the House International Relations Committee, I objected to the US Government funding NGOs to meddle in the internal affairs of Ukraine. At the time the “Orange Revolution” had forced a regime change in Ukraine with the help of millions of dollars from Washington.
Double standards are on display as Western leaders attack Russia regarding Ukraine, while they themselves commit or endorse worse aggression on other countries.
The first question in last Saturday night’s Republican debate on foreign policy dealt with Iran, and a newly published report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Congress is taking up dangerous legislation which appears to be designed to pave the way for war by taking the unprecedented step of effectively preventing any kind of U.S. diplomatic contact with Iran. The Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011 (H.R. 1905), sponsored by the right-wing chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, contains a provision (Section 601, subsection (c)) which would put into law a restriction whereby
"No person employed with the United States Government may contact in an official or unofficial capacity any person that. . . is an agent, instrumentality, or official of, is affiliated with, or is serving as a representative of the Government of Iran;"
Never in the history of this country has Congress ever restricted the right of the White House or State Department to meet with representatives of a foreign state, even in wartime. If this measure passes, it will establish a dangerous precedent whereby Congress would likely follow with similar legislation effectively forbidding any contact with Palestinians, Cubans and others.
 | Annals of National Security:Preparing the BattlefieldThe Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran. Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources…[ vollständiger Artikel von Seymour M. Hersh ] [ bei Truthout ][ "Escalation" (audio) ] |
