By Lee Camp, the creator, host, and head writer of the comedy news show “Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp” that airs every Friday on RT America and at YouTube.com/RedactedTonight. He’s a former comedy writer for the Onion and the Huffington Post and has been a touring stand-up comedian for 18 years
If you’re worried that Trump is taking this country down some horrible uncharted path – leading us into the great unknown of orange demise – you can worry no longer! In some ways Trump is boldly and predictably behaving exactly like many, if not most, former presidents. I’m speaking specifically about lying us into war.
So I’m saying – Have no fear that Trump is unpredictable; his reasons for shooting explosive devices into foreign lands are AS false as those of so many American leaders before him. He is following a grand tradition of lying to the American citizenry in order to gain their ill-informed yet blisteringly enthusiastic support for blowing up other nations (or rather bits of other nations – but usually the important bits). So if you’re looking for the comfort and security of routine, you have found it.
This week famed Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that the motivations (and facts) given by Trump for bombing Syria were about as truthful as an OJ Simpson testimony (unless that testimony is about Hertz Rent-A-Car, which I still believe Simpson legitimately loves).
To simplify the story, Hersh reported that the Syrian military did NOT use chemical weapons, that the US military knew exactly what Assad’s military was doing at the time, that the bombing was meant to hit “a high-level meeting of jihadist leaders” – and did just that. The resulting deaths caused by any form of chemicals were due to stores of chlorine, bleach, and fertilizer in the building that was struck – the literal fog of war. Here’s what Hersh’s source said:
This was not a chemical weapons strike. That’s a fairy tale. If so, everyone involved in transferring, loading and arming the weapon – you’ve got to make it appear like a regular 500-pound conventional bomb – would be wearing Hazmat protective clothing in case of a leak. There would be very little chance of survival without such gear. [Military grade sarin] is odorless and invisible and death can come within a minute. No cloud. Why produce a weapon that people can run away from?
But instead there was a slow-moving cloud of chemicals:
A Bomb Damage Assessment (BDA) by the U.S. military later determined that the heat and force of the 500-pound Syrian bomb triggered a series of secondary explosions that could have generated a huge toxic cloud that began to spread over the town, formed by the release of the fertilizers, disinfectants and other goods stored in the basement…
Patients on the scene “smelled of bleach, suggesting that they had been exposed to chlorine.” (Remember Sarin gas has no smell.)
Hersh states that although senior members of Trump’s national security team knew the truth and tried to impress it upon the president, Trump could not be talked out of viewing this as chemical warfare. Hersh said:
In a series of interviews, I learned of the total disconnect between the president and many of his military advisers and intelligence officials, as well as officers on the ground in the region who had an entirely different understanding of the nature of Syria’s attack on Khan Sheikhoun.
All this time I was under the impression Trump was just dumb and misinformed. What a relief to learn he is informed correctly but actively chooses to ignore the truth.
Keep in mind that it’s not only The Don who is involved in this crime; our corporate media apparently ONLY buys Trump’s snake oil by the gallon when it involves ONE solitary topic: The reasons for blowing up pieces of other countries. And not just do they believe him, but they’re downright giddy about it!
When Trump decided to actively bomb Syria (as opposed to our standard operating procedure of dumping money and guns into the hands of rebels we don’t understand nor have control over), he was lauded by nearly every mainstream outlet. Even his nemesis-du-jour Joe Scarborough celebrated Donald’s brilliant decision made over “the best” chocolate cake. Brian Williams’ crew had to wipe off the camera lens following his reporting on the glowing missiles fired into the night sky. Essentially no serious discussion was given to questions about the “chemical attack” Assad has perpetrated.
With every other lie Trump tells – and we all know he makes Lance Armstrong look like a lightweight – our mainstream media calls him out for being chock full of shit. The ONLY thing they celebrate the veracity of is war propaganda. It’s the equivalent of being upset with your friend for his endless manipulation and selfishness in regard to everything from foosball scoring to who bought the last round of drinks – EXCEPT when it comes to the Tinder dates he’s been murdering and storing under his bed. For THOSE, you are not upset and in fact congratulate him on a job well done.
And this is not the first time a U.S. president has led us into bombing a sovereign nation with the willful (and some might say gleeful) assistance of the mainstream media. Here are just three examples of many:
1) Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: I’m not sure if you’re familiar with this minor moment in America’s distant past. The year was 2003 and a young man named Saddam Hussein had really gotten our goat. Following the traumatic events of 9/11, Hussein was discovered committing the unforgivable crime of ruling a country in the general vicinity of the country that actually birthed the hijackers who attacked us.
On top of that, he sat atop a lot of oil that he stubbornly refused to give us free of charge – even though we asked nicely (not nicely). Luckily, his aggressive weapons of mass destruction program gave us an ironclad reason to invade. He was preparing to kill a million innocent people!
Later –after he had been toppled, arrested, hanged, and we had killed roughly a million innocent people – we found his weapons program consisted of four guys with a sling shot (but the sling shot could be retrofitted to launch stones as large as a papaya).
In our defense, after the million people were killed, the New York Times DID issue a correction on the whole “weapons of mass destruction” thing. It read: “Correction: Over the past four years we reported that Saddam Hussein had a fully-realized program to produce weapons of mass destruction, and therefore the U.S. needed to invade Iraq, destroy their society, topple their government, and kill a lot of people….Please ignore that reporting.” (It did not actually read as such, but you get the idea.)
2) The Gulf of Tonkin Incident: This “incident” which got us into a protracted and altogether unpleasant war in Vietnam was a lie from the beginning. Even the name is a lie. “The Gulf of Tonkin Incident” is actually two incidents that are actually only one incident, which is actually only a half an incident.
The incidents took place on August 2nd and 4th of 1964. One of them didn’t happen and the other kind of happened. On Aug 2nd, the USS Maddox exchanged gun fire with three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats. The US claimed the North Vietnamese fired first, but in fact the USS Maddox fired the first shots.
Then, fresh off the heels of THAT horrible battle, on Aug 4th, two US ships spent four hours firing on various radar targets that were attacking them. They sunk two torpedo boats – which may sound like a win, but once you take into account that those torpedo boats did not adhere to the traditional definition of “existence,” it’s surprising the US navy didn’t sink far MORE than just two imaginary boats. Yes, that’s right. The US military spent four hours shooting at rain clouds in the Gulf of Tonkin. Considering the awesome power of our weaponry, it’s surprising we weren’t able to win that battle in no more than two hours.
Following that confrontation Defense Secretary McNamara advised President Johnson to retaliate and the president agreed. So our justification for getting involved in Vietnam was two incidents which were actually one incident which was actually our fault. Over the next several years 58,000 US service members and as many as 3.8 million Vietnamese would die in the fighting….But those rain clouds knew not to mess with us from then on.
3) Afghanistan – Almost all of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and Osama Bin Laden was ultimately found hiding in Pakistan. But MAN did we fuck up Afghanistan!
So ask yourself: How much mainstream media reporting have you heard of the fact that Trump bombed Syria for completely false reasons? Our media has a seemingly limitless amount of time and energy to get the story wrong but just can’t seem to find enough free hours to get it right.
Also ask yourself WHY while Assad is winning the war against the rebels he would choose to do that one thing that would get the Americans directly involved. Strategically it would be about the dumbest thing he could possibly do. It would be like if the Golden State Warriors were up by 20 in the last sixty seconds of the NBA finals and suddenly Steph Curry stabs Lebron James in the thigh with a knife. Sure, it might take James out of the game, but it would also land Curry in jail following a game the Warriors were about to win.
If there is anything our nation’s fourth estate should take seriously, it’s war (especially considering the fact our presidents clearly don’t take it seriously). So corporate media – please drop your pom-poms and do your damn job before you allow our ruling elite to lie the American people into massacring another million human beings half a world away.
…That was my less cynical pretend-the-media-wants-what’s-best-for-America ending. …Here’s my ACTUAL ending:
The corporate media serves no purpose if not to buttress aggressive nationalism and unquestioned jingoism. They perpetrate a fraud on the American people in order to make sure we support the seemingly endless bombing of other countries. If they do not bolster blind American hegemony, then they will be stripped of their cushy positions, gold-plated healthcare, and sparkly cocktail parties.
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I’m glad to see Lee Camp becoming a regular feature of NC. Articulate, to the point and on the money.
+1
Lee is excellent, I adore his show, and I saw him perform live once. His stand-up act was just as good as his tv show and he was a class act when I met him after the show.
After I tuned in, turned on, and started reading Naked Capitalism daily I always wondered if anyone around here dug Lee Camp. I’m relieved that not only are there plenty of fans here, but that Lee’s written peices are now being published here too.
What I love about Lee is his ability to tell you how things are in a humorous fashion without getting super wonky. His comedy, TV, and written peices are great for forwarding to friends and family who whose eyes would glaze over if I sent them academic papers or wonky articles.
On the money? That is absurd to describe this. Trump has been the only reason that McMasters hasn’t deployed over 100,000 troops to the middle east yet to be divided between Syria and Afghanistan. Also, accusing Trump of lying more than Lance Armstrong is absurd. The liars are the MSM.
CNN producers don’t even believe the Russia narrative as they continue to push it for ratings. By the way, purposely pushing a narrative that is fiction because it gets you ratings changes CNN’s status form news channel to entertainment channel.
AP, New York Times, Washington Post and many other MSM outlets have retracted hundreds of articles over the past year for falsely claiming that all 17 intelligence agencies agreed that Russia hacked the election.
CNN has basically had to retract every story they have ever published linking Trump campaign to Russia. Three of their so called journalist were fired when they were threatened with a $100 million lawsuit recently. Their white house correspondent lied and said Trump never visited Scalise in the Hospital after the shooting. CNN also was wrong when they said that Comey was going to testify that Trump himself was under investigation for Russian ties.
Rachel Maddow has become the new Alex Jones when it comes to floating conspiracy theories.
Now that the Russian narrative has failed, the MSM is piling up on the 25th amendment to try to get Trump out of office. The MSM was exposed as being a puppet of the establishment (both republican and democrat establishments) in the wikileaks. The establishment hates Trump and desperately want him out. Don’t expect to get good reporting from them during his entire presidency.
I agree with Hersh about the supposed Syrian Chemical weapons attack not being what the MSM reported it as. It is obvious it was not a sarin gas attack for multiple reason that were stated in the article. But to say that Donald Trump knew it was not a chemical weapons attack launched by Syria, I do not agree with. His immediate intelligence was given to him by McMasters and the NSC. He made a rushed judgment and launched the Cruise missiles almost within a day of the supposed sarin gas attack. I would not doubt that later on, some intelligence people came to him and said that the intelligence provided to him was inaccurate at the time he did the cruise missile strike, but I highly doubt that those intelligence sources were able to get him that information before the cruise missile strike happened.
It also seems the plan for Trump now that ISIS is almost fully destroyed is to let Russia decide what Happens with Assad. This does not seem like a president purposely lying to us to get into war. He seems like a president trying to fight off the lies from the military industrial complex to get us into war.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/340500-tillerson-wants-russia-to-decide-fate-of-syrias-assad-report
I can assure you of this. If Hillary Clinton was elected, we would already be moving troops into Syria to try to make sure Regime change happens, and she would have been pushing war with Russia. Give Trump a break.
“But to say that Donald Trump knew it was not a chemical weapons attack launched by Syria, I do not agree with. His immediate intelligence was given to him by McMasters and the NSC. He made a rushed judgment and launched the Cruise missiles almost within a day of the supposed sarin gas attack.”
Whether or not Trump “knew” it wasn’t Assad behind the “chemical” attack us largely irrelevant. The absolute BEST that can be said of Trump is that he acted with GROSS RECKLESSNESS.
Elementary common sense would have suggested (as Mr Camp notes) that Assad had NO reason to so attack & EVERY reason not to so attack.
So stating to the public that Assad did it, in the circumstances WAS a lie, whatever Trump knew or not.
Let’s face it: Trump exploited an opportunity to demonstrate his anti-Putin/Assad pretensions — consequences be damned. So, it was a war crime ?
MSm: “whatever”.
As for Clinton– odds on you are correct. However, how long can the “Clinton would’ve been worse” excuse go on ?
You can “assure” us of nothing in that “if” is not to be taken seriously.
If ifs and ands et cetera; let’s not make fools of ourselves to defend knaves and fools.
How many breaks does President Trump need? As many as non-President Clinton?
The one example that Mr. Camp dares not mention is the attack upon the Triple Towers and Pentagon on 911. We have been so thoroughly brainwashed that to do so would destroy all his credibility and negate all his other criticisms.
Until Lee Camp and all the rest of us Americans understand and face the Naked Reality of the 911 false flag attack we will continue to be surprised by each “new” deception. Kermit Roosevelt’s overthrow of democracy in Iraq in 1953, weapons of mass destruction lies by Colin Powell, “Shock & Awe” made-for-TV bombing of Iraq, false flag chemical attacks in Syria, the sodomization of Gadaffi turning Lybia into a breeding ground for terrorist foot soldiers and American/Saudi funding of Muslim fundamentalist terrorism all are part of a policy continuum. That policy hasn’t changed since our “intelligence agencies” were busy flying drugs into Homestead AFB to finance and train death squads in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina & Chile.
Delusion is the Opium of the People
Quite agree Horse. It really is shocking that Building 7 fell down without cause and no-one seems willing to doubt the official narrative. Its a measure of the power of media indoctrination, the suspension of disbelief until the newsman tell us differently.
That is the reason why a high test of veracity is required of people assuming the onerous duty of disseminating news. Do we have that? Are there stringent qualifications?
“no one” is straw man. There are many who question the official version, though of course the MSM remains in lock-step support.
Oh, and while WTC7 is the most obvious problem with the official narrative, the flight path of the plane that hit the Pentagon, if it was in fact a plane, supposedly piloted by a man who struggled with small twin-engine aircraft, is also glaringly obvious.
Lee Camp, you are hereby invited to perform in Tucson!
It would be great if the Left in this country would suddenly discover that it is antiwar due to Trump but that doesn’t seem to be happening. Camp himself has been attacked for being off message and the Russia sanctions discussed elsewhere in NC–Senate approved 98 to 2–show that the impulse to meddle in other countries is evergreen. Let’s never forget that Big Liberal Lyndon Johnson dragged the country through years of hell in Vietnam.
Trump did fire those missiles–after being convinced to warn the Russians–but what he has mostly shot off is his mouth and actions in Syria and Yemen are continuations of Obama. The jury is still out on whether he is as war mongering as the Democrats.
So much easier for the Senate to talk war, where other people might get killed, than to talk about something like Medicare For All, where their own insurance/phrma campaign contributions might get killed.
Makes me wonder how much the NK missile launch, the Chinese claim to the entire South China Sea (through which half the world’s commercial shipping moves), and the US hysteria about Russia are all aimed at domestic audiences. China’s econ isn’t as robust as it was. NK economy has always been 1 inch away from famine. The US econ isn’t as robust as formerly. Getting everyone thinking about “the enemy abroad” instead of fixing problems at home is an old trick.
There are only a limited number of spoils/assets to be claimed and/or protected in the insurance-pharma war.
Limited benefit to the oligarchy. Besides, it keeps alive a bunch of people who drag down the productivity and profit margin. It’s a business decision.
I’ve often argued that it is more accurate to consider the Democons and Repugnants not as two political parties, but as different factions within the Property Party. However on some issues there is a difference.
For instance, the question of what should be the purpose of the American Medical Extortion System?
The Democons adapted RomneyCare and made it their own. In the spirit of legislation drafted by lawyers, they devised the most complex and bureaucratic system possible. This structure serves two functions: 1- Increase the overhead cost and thus employ more bureaucrats who will see their livelihoods tied to mana flowing from their Democon benefactors. 2- Funnel increasing amounts of the spoils to the insurance companies who wrote the legislation and bought the Congreswhores who supported it. (Didn’t work out exactly as planned, but nobody ever claimed that Democons understood economics.)
The Repugnants see things more clearly. It is apparent that the policy of Globalization has been largely successful in exporting almost all jobs that have to do with actually producing anything. The policy of replacing actual production by the commoners with endless increases in credit and debt can only go so far before the value of the Federal Reserve Notes falls below the replacement cost of the paper. So there is really nothing to be done but start culling the excess population of Worthless Eaters. A proper health care system in an Oligarchy should be designed to wean the commoners away from any heath care access, while increasing the technology for Eternal Life available to the Important People.
What Left?
We’ve self-corralled on the internets — where there’s plenty of air conditioning, free delivery, and free flowing ideas.
I’m about fed up with “what works?” as a question to guide policy. “Where is the need?” is more direct, less philosophical. Jesus’ instructions are as good as anyone’s for this atheist. Give it away. If you’re going to bother empowering a state, make it a welfare state.
Who needs medicine?
Who needs water?
Who needs food?
Who needs shelter?
Okay let’s take care of these.
That dropping bombs is even on the table, ever, is flabbergasting.
You’d think the constitution said “…establish justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, enforce contracts, protect property, and project power, do ordain and establish…”
You’d think the Bible said “hate your brother.”
The people in power who call themselves Left and the actual Left that gives Sanders a pass on things like “Assad must go” and his support for military spending. After 16 years of this crap antiwar should be upfront and center as an issue for any group that claims to be for economic justice and human rights. Indeed the new report that was in Links today and that is talked about below suggests anti-intervention was a key reason for Hillary’s loss.
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2017/07/04/anti-interventionist-voters-elected-trump/
Trump likes to bluster but it’s still not clear that he is a true believer and fanatic like HRC and that he is willing to see American soldiers die to support his boasts. The fact that he has offloaded military decisions to his miltary advisers suggests that he may be squeamish about doing so.
Or that could be completely wrong. But as always with Trump we will know what he’s going to do when he finally does it.
People are still clinging to Sanders to help restore equality in this country. That will never happen. Even if he’s somehow elected, he’ll be captured by the two parties (two wings of the ame elitist crowd). His not challenging HRC and the Dims in 2016 told me a lot. His F-35 support told me a lot. His non support to the Palestinian cause told me a lot. His cratering for Obamacare told me a lot. His current weak support for Medicare-for-all tells me more.
Let’s not expect one person to change this wretched system. We need to fight it.
Yes LBJ was lied to about Nam and in the end tried to end it the war and got very close if it wasn’t for tricky dick pulling the levers behind his back. I do wish LBJ would had the balls to have td tried for Treason.
Robert Parry covered this from the beginning to the end in what strangely enough LBJ called the x-file.
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/04/grim-lessons-from-a-faraway-war/
When I saw the headline, I assumed it was about North Korea. Too many looming wars and lies to keep track of.
Roger that. I also wondered which action in which of the 9 global Imperial “commands” the writer was talking about. And then there’s all this noise about “Trump lying,” when the lying and manipulating and maneuvering is carried out much more consistently and effectively by the Grand Combined Massed Mighty Wurlitzers of the fully-owned media, the “think tanks” and journals, the massive Bernays operations of the Pentagram and the other “security bureaucracy” Blobettes, and the constant force-feed from the scum corporations that live to create chaos and war toys and profit off all of it.
And “we mopes” on the, I guess, “Left” are so very happy to personify that massive Racket effort into the singular “Mule” individual, Donald Trump. As if somehow getting rid of him, via impeachment or “recall” or popular clamor will do a dam thing to change the incentives and vectors that have all of us riding a well greased conveyor belt into Hades…
I’m just not sure Trump is actually in charge of military policy anymore, as he has deliberately abdicated it. So who is actually running it all isn’t specified here at all, but by any honest analysis it seems it isn’t Trump and so even making it about Trump seems like very lazy analysis to me (yes the MIC, but that’s a bureaucracy, I meant who is actually calling shots).
It’s not the “left” usually but liberals obsessed with Trump the person. Now of course any actual left analysis worth it’s salt would point that Trump is also bad in plenty of ways, bad appointments including those who actually do call shots, bad abdication of responsibility, etc.. But that’s different than personifying everything into Trump the person alone.
Painfully true.
You’ve heard it before: uttered with appropriate shock,’Assad kills his own people.’ From that you might even infer, if you thought about it: then, ‘It’s better for the US instead to kill his people, someone else’s people, that is, not our own people. See how much better we are than Assad.’ I’m 71 years old. I’d estimate that in (almost) every one of those years the US has been involved in one war or another killing someone else’s people. Evidently the US is the world leader in war. It is so obviously the exceptional country, for no other can possibly approximate its war record. But then don’t forget the country’s invariable ‘good intentions’ which have inexplicably led to hell. Only the righteous know how full the world is of evil people outside the US.
Agree completely. And of course, in the very exceptional US of A, the government does not kill their own people.
Well, except for capital punishment, restricted medical care, rampant opioid abuse and the largely economic reasons therefore, police killings, sending US volunteer soldiers to ill-advised, ill-thought-out and often illegal (by international law) foreign wars, reduction of school breakfast and lunch programs and SNAP, droning of US citizens abroad (well, at least so far they have been abroad, but including 16 and 8 year olds), campaigns against agencies that feed the hungry, ‘removal’ of unsightly homeless people from ‘nice’ neighborhoods, genocide and (minimally) banishment of native peoples to barren lands. To name just a few instances.
The regime here, it could stand to be changed. I think a lot of people voted Trump hoping for just that outcome. Sad to see how quickly he has been co-opted, but hey, narcissists are super-easy to manipulate. For my money, HRC is singularly responsible for Trump. She and the Dem super-delegates. Hey, super delegates, why didn’t we get Bernie? And how is that working out for you?
Sociopaths ignore arguments based in reason, logic, ethics or morality.
Sociopaths learn only from reward and punishment, but they do learn.
Want to end the wars? Reward and punishment for those in charge. Very nasty, very public punishment for wrongdoers. To start, place Bush and Cheney in irons and then deliver them over to Iraq for whatever kind of summary proceedings the people there wish for them before they meet their fates. Put the whole thing up on YouTube. Then keep moving on.
Folks will get the message.
I don’t know about that; Nuremburg happened yet our leaders still insist on starting wars everywhere. I don’t see them getting the message until there’s roving bands of citizens with torches and pitchforks bound for the Hamptons or Park Ave.
The U.S. establishment is deeply racist. Yes, its morphed to more of a melting pot and not the classic racism we are used to in recent years, but “American exceptionalism” as voiced by Obama was an announcement the U.S. is a special case full of special people who have a divine right to act around the world.
Its like Rummy’s Old Europe. Those Nazis belong to Old Europe and were bad. They fundamentally represent a different ethnicity to “American Exceptionalism.”
At Nuremberg they hung the losers. Like Patton said, “Americans love a war”. When we grow up and stop electing or punish the medieval conquistadories maybe we can move on
So, the question now is: Will Trump be as good at lying the U.S. into war as Bush/Cheney?
I don’t he’s a particularly good liar, but with the help & encouragement of the U.S. MSM, he might be able to pull it off.
Obama set the bar as Liar-in Chief impossibly high.
Must – read article on the THAAD controversy in ROK – it is clearly aimed at China, not DPRK(that’s just the cover story) :
http://www.4thmedia.org/2017/06/under-dharma-peak-south-korean-villagers-blockade-a-us-missile-defense-base/
The article notes that the radar used is so powerful, it is can shut down systems 1000km away.
The recent collision between the SS Fitzgerald and a Phillipine vessel was caused by the US PAR system.
Sorry, but that article is a little too hyperbolic and doesn’t really understand radar technology. The X in X-band does not mean “top secret”. It designates what frequencies the radar operates at. And the wavelength of 3 cm indicates a wave length, not height. Height would indicate the amplitude or power of the signal. The politics of THAAD deployment are of course a separate issue, but it’s hard to take the piece seriously when it can’t get basic technical points correct.
Fair enough.
Since the bar for accurate science in media is so low, I am less than bothered by its techie limitations than you.
The description of what is being done to the environment and quality of life to that area of South Korea is pretty vivid, and horrifying.
Also corroborated by other writers who’ve been there – none of them in the MSM.
Nor do these quibbles in any way detract from the deceit that the system is ‘necessary’ – as the writer points out, such long range systems are already deployed in Japan.
The target is clearly China, and the system implementation a function of the corrupt previous Park administration.
Yeah, don’t think there are any THAAD systems in Japan. X-Band radars, sure.
Given the article’s point about “kinetic” interception test being all rigged, why does anyone have a problem with the THAAD system? Sounds like the US can junk the missiles and just use the passive-array radar to knock things out of the sky.
So why not move there and experience the wonders of being right in the path of such systems yourself?
That way, you might learn just why the locals are objecting.
The US hasn’t been a free country since …
1787 or
1861 or
1913 or
1941 or
1963 or
Money talks
Man, the clusterfuck that we are about to get into/unleash is seriously depressing. I have been following the conflict in Syria closely since 2015 and the way we and our allies and lapdogs have prolonged the war by arming and training extremely sketchy and brutal fighting groups, among them adherents to the ideology that brought us 911 and countless attacks and suicide bombings on civilians, is truly disgusting.
If, say, Russia and China teamed up (or a militarily powerful alien civilization paid us a visit) and treated the United States and its NATO allies the way we regularly treat countries that we consider “evil” (i.e. they have something we want but don’t want to pay a fair price for or they simply stand in the way of our very reasonable goal of world domination) all our protestations would sound utterly pathetic and hypocritical.
How did it get to the point where our military completely destroys entire nations and murders millions (or we hire others to do the job for us, as in Syria) and we just let it happen? Would Americans accept being treated the way we treat people in other countries? Not a chance. I mean 911 was nothing compared to our brand of state terrorism and we still whine about it with an inflated sense of victimhood. There is no escaping the uncomfortable fact that as countries and cities are bombed to rubble and countless lives are terminated and destroyed in our names, at the end of the day we are, for the most part, safe in our homes with our families and the hell we bring to others has no real consequences for us.
If there were consequences we might think twice before casually supporting, or voicing token opposition before passively accepting, our government sending our military to slaughter and destroy people like us trying to make the best of their short time on this planter. It is simply indefensible.
(Lee Camp is a great addition to the crew of NC regulars. Humor is an excellent tool for exposing the absurdities and contradictions of life in a diseased society.)
/applaud… every word, spot on.
I hear ya. And I’m glad to see Camp, too. I’ve been dying for a comedian fit for the times.
Gotta quibble with this though:
How did it get to the point? What century are you from? Been that way since Christopher Columbus, “Admiral of the Ocean Sea,” said of the Arawak, “With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” Been the same thing, only different, ever since.
A good place to stand against empire is with your local tribes, on whose stolen land you’re probably standing right now.
As for not standing for it, we’re just fine with it, as long as it’s always “those bad thinking/doing people over there.”
By the time you hear the sirens
It’s already too late — Offspring
One theory is that we are paid by Saudi Arabia to do these things. They are swimming in Petro-dollars and never seem to be held responsible for anything.
I’ve believed in your last statement since a very young age. Humor has been hugely influential on my own politics and thought patterns. Recently, however, I read ‘Dead Funny: Telling Jokes in Hitler’s Germany’ by Rudolph Herzog. He makes a pretty strong case that the humor employed against the Nazis during the years leading up to WWII did almost nothing to change the course of history. I really haven’t been able to enjoy humor nearly as much since reading that historical account.
Maybe our modern day humor is more effective than that of 100 years ago, but somehow I doubt it.
A good bumper sticker I saw:
“I’m already against the next war”
“I’m already against the next war”
As am I…
Bumper stickers and petitions and marches, full of the sentiments that you two, and I myself, and lots of others might, in one carefully stated (after earnest debate and mic checks) way agree more or less with: just exactly what have they done and are they going to do, to deflect, let alone halt, the unaccountable power of trillions upon trillions in military hardware and deployments, managed by millions of people whose paychecks and careers all come from more of the same?
I’ve heard from those people their response to all that background noise of earnest half-hearted “protest action.” It’s “Go Fokk yourselves, hippies!”
I would love it not to be the case, but there it is. And enough of the Mopery still buy into the neo-neo Exceptional mind set that it’s hard to even get a few dozen to spend the bits of time that it takes to hold up a placard or one end of a banner, and just what are the grand countervailing forces that will unmilitarize and de-colonize the planet?
Maybe some good counter-words might be useful.
American okayness. American Ordinaryism. Or “ordinarianism”for extra-syllable snobs.
American Okayness Ordinarianism. American Okayness Ordinarian.
Maybe someone might want to try weaponising those words and preparing them for dissemination and viralization.
Onward American Imperialism!
Years from now history books will say, “The Great World War III was triggered by a tweet rant sent from on a golden Туалеты.”
Years from now, when people wearing clothing made from coarse home-spun fabric are sitting around a fire that’s burning broken particleboard scavenged from the shells of burnt-out buildings, they won’t have any memory of what a Tweet is unless it’s coming from a bird.
Or that the Nuclear Launch Codes were less than 140 characters? Think I’ll have a bumper sticker made about that, please, I hope they’re not!
> The corporate media serves no purpose if not to buttress aggressive nationalism and unquestioned jingoism.
That’s hardly fair. They also serve the purpose of keeping real wages as flat as possible and glorifying rent-extracting corporations and squillionaires at every possible opportunity. #JustSaying
An excellent and very pointed summary of the Hersh story. The last time Hersh wrote for the LRB, the usual suspects, among them many liberals, tried to smear him. This time, they’re ignoring him. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not…
And don’t forget how they are doing their part to help us forget about retirement, and make us expect to work long past 65!
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-are-living-longer-and-working-longer/
Keep in mind, hersh is touching a much less controversial subject, — that of trump’s poor judgement.
When he wrote about the osama raid and the previous false flag, hersh was 1) ripping a hole in obama’s credibility and 2) ruining a well-defined media message designed to lay the groundwork to manufacture consent for a war they were sure they were going to get.
This was jaw-dropping stuff in 2013. I really struggled with the idea that the usg would be so awful as to help al nusra. Then, i thought more about our govts actions in decades past and realized it fit rather seamlessly.
Remember also; Hersh couldn’t get this published in the U.S. or England; but got it published in Germany.
How ’bout them apples?
And the WSJ’s editorial is really amping us up for war with Iran:
a) last Saturday John Bolton basically called for us to form a Sunni Caliphate in eastern Syria,
b) today Marc Dubowitz from some official sounding think tank was itching for a war with Iran. The latter’s issue was Hezbollah having rockets to threaten Israel, but I do not recall him mentioning any Iranian threat to the US or US citizens., and
c) about a month ago they had an editorial that I believe was from Israel’s ambassador to the US saying we need to Iran because they are honoring the nuclear agreement, which apparently makes them that much more threatening.
This is why countries like Iran and NK pursue a aggressive nuclear program. It is inevitable America will start the next global war.
The lone voice in congress is the congresswoman from Cali who is curtailing the war powers awarded to US presidents after 9/11.
America needs a anti war movement for the sake of humanity. I doubt it will happen with the press toeing the line of Nationalism and false patriotism.
Exactly.
Look what happened to Ghadaffi and Libya when he reduced armaments.
Proposed Constitutional Amendment – what do you think?
1) For each war authorized by Congress, each member of Congress must draft their nearest military-age relative to serve in a combat role within a front-line unit of the armed forces in that specific war.
2) Congress’ power to declare war applies to anyone ordered or funded by U.S. government, agencies, contractors etc. who attacks anyone outside of U.S. borders;
3) In case of any such attack without prior Congressional authorization, automatic presidential impeachment.
For each war authorized by Congress, each member of Congress must
draft their nearest military-age relative to serve in a combat role within a front-line unit of the armed forces in that specific war.lead an infantry platoon.Noting like being between the enlisted and the enemy….
I agree to the front and first with their children also and not in charge but grunts.
I wonder how much of this is true and in comments that is brought but I feel the numbers should be higher in congresscritters.
https://jhaines6a.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/list-israeli-dual-citizens-in-the-us-114th-congress-and-bernie-sanders-is-on-it-j/
Maybe under Who’s Our Daddy;-)
Nice to see Lee Camp back but I don’t think the narrative is this simple. It actually shows that there is still a deep divide within the Pentagon and probably within Langley. This is very reminiscent of the New Yorker story Hersh was leaked (I think it was 2006) that we were on the verge of dropping a tactical nuke (so-called mini-nuke) on Iranian installations, or supporting Israel in doing this. This got a lot of people in the know in a tis and probably averted the imminent event. The confusion of the recent mysterious conflicting White House statements within hours of each other, speaks to another false flag being abandoned in haste. I think with this recent article Hersh very probably averted another potentially cataclysmic intervention, at least temporarily. The difference is the New Yorker is now too chicken-shit to print it. Fuck them. But it’s good to know Hersh’s contacts are still very much active and engaged, even if he’s forced to publish the leaks in Germany.
Yep, crazy as it seems, there are at least a few decent people close to the seat of power. I worry about who will possibly fill this role when hersh can’t do it anymore.
Lee Camp’s latest would be sickeningly funny except for the fact that it probably truthfully presages the slaughter of thousands of humans. Is there an extension for that saying about “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”? Maybe “Fool me three times, shame on media”? Is there a time limit on the fooling? After 10 years, does the clock reset to “Fool me once”? So the gullible warbelievers don’t seem so foolish? Does the MerkinMassMeeja have the memory of a goldfish? I suppose its members know about the past; their paymasters just decline to remind the sheepopulace of it. Which puts the onus of “fool-mes” back on the mookherd.
This is what keeps me worried and amazed, in a sickened way. Modern propaganda is so insidiously persuasive and pervasive it has become the air we breathe. Only an (un)lucky few seem to manage the oddly unrewarding escape from the matrix. And does that escape really matter? The mass media just grind on and on in a world gone mad on horrific farce and vanity.
That less cynical paragraph was pointless. CNN has sunk low enough to persecute “sh*tposters” from Reddit. Even Vox called them out, since doxxing is bad, m’kay?
This is way beyond shooting themselves in the foot, and if things carry on like this (they probably will), old media is going to die in a couple years. Right now they have two things on agenda: bash Trump and go after YouTube personalities. I can’t even recall any big hits from the “great old ones” since the Snowden leaks.
Love you Lee Camp, but you omitted a humdinger — the lies about impending genocide in Libya by Obama, Clinton and the rest of the Most Transparent Administration of All Time. Let’s not think that mass killing and the displacement and immiseration of millions of people in the name of democracyhumanrightswhateverthefuck took a respite after W, to be reignited by Trump. Cuz it didn’t.
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/07/hiding-us-lies-about-libyan-invasion/