Glen Greenwald in the Guardian wonders Why is Boston ‘terrorism’ but not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine
Tag: US
Afghan villagers flee their homes, blame US drones [Article]
Kathy Gannon discovers Afghan villagers flee their homes, and blame US drones.
“These foreigners started the problem,” Rasool said of international troops. “They have their own country. They should leave.”
These incessant drone attacks don’t impact those living thousands of miles away. All we see is text or an occasional graphic about the tragedy that’s unfolding there (as well in other places around the world). Will we ever care?
The after effects of US in Iraq [Article, Video]
Around the 10th anniversary of the Iraq invasion by the US, investigative reporter from Al Jazeera discusses how the US has left behind a legacy and cancer:
Dr. Samira Alani actually visited with doctors in Japan, comparing statistics, and found that the amount of congenital malformations in Fallujah is 14 times greater than the same rate measured in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in the aftermath of the nuclear bombings. These types of birth defects, she said—there are types of congenital malformations that she said they don’t even have medical terms for, that some of the things they’re seeing, they’ve never seen before. They’re not in any of the books or any of the scientific literature that they have access to. She said it’s common now in Fallujah for newborns to come out with massive multiple systemic defects, immune problems, massive central nervous system problems, massive heart problems, skeletal disorders, baby’s being born with two heads, babies being born with half of their internal organs outside of their bodies, cyclops babies literally with one eye—really, really, really horrific nightmarish types of birth defects. And it is ongoing.
See for yourself the horrifying impacts, nearly a decade later mind you, that the stuff they use in the bombs has on the human body. And the powers that be continue to want to “shock & awe” the “enemy”
A chicken processing factory in Iraq [Article]
The Potemkin Chicken Factory was a huge “success” of the US in Iraq. Or was it?
Drones, Dalai Lama, & the US Never-ending war [Article
Tom Gallagher asks a very pertinent question on the current push by the US towards drones as the preferred mode of military engagement: “What if China used a drone to kill the Dalai Lama?” how would the world feel about it?
Bradley Manning’s 1000 days in prison [Article]
A commentor on the Guardian site says it well: “Considering all the lies and deceit that led to the Iraq War, Abu Gharaib, Guantanamo, rendition, torture, the propping up of brutal dictators, the war crimes and indiscriminate drone killings, the propaganda on our “news” channels, the trillions of dollars lost, stolen, or tossed dow a hole in the desert, we are prosecuting the wrong guy.”. Bradley Manning, 25, has spent 1000 days in military prison, most of it in solitary confinement, for “the largest leak of US state secrets” to wikileaks.
Remembering the anit-war Martin Luther King [Article]
Glenn Greenwald expresses dismay, on the occasion of Martin Luther King’s birthday commemoration, that MLK’s anti-war advocacy (as well as his economic views) are entirely ignored – while he is remembered only for his civil rights achievements. King, during an anti-Vietnam war speech on 4 April 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York City, called the US government the “largest purveyor of violence in the world” – a tag that is even more applicable today than ever before. Greenwald also contrasts that while Obama has been an inspiring by-product of King’s civil rights work, Obama’s policies are a manifestation of exactly the militaristic mindset which King denounced.
Don’t go Baghdad on Tehran
Rolf-Ekeus & Malfrid Braut Hegghammer explain why the West should avoid doing the same mistakes with Iran as it did with Iraq. As they say, “The West’s approach to Iran today mirrors the way it handled Iraq. Then, as now, the emphasis is on force, pressure, and uncovering evidence of an ongoing weapons program.”
China & US Jobs
During the 2nd US Presidential Debate, Mitt Romney said that China’s currency currency manipulation and intellectual property theft has allowed it to become the largest manufacturer in the world, causing the loss of 500,000 American manufacturing jobs in the last four years. Anthony Tao defends China: Even now, when China’s per [capita] GDP is still nearly six times less than the US’s, China is just artificially keeping its currency down cause it really wants to stick it to Americans, right? Because there are just so many Americans who dream about working in an iPhone-assembling factory.
Protectionism
The US industry loves to dictate terms to the rest of the world, through its ‘legal’ department, also known as the US Congress. Now that overseas manufacturing (a beast of the US industry’s own making) has beaten them at their own game, they want to change the rules. A recent example: US has slapped higher tariffs on Chinese manufacturers of solar cells (250%). Another example: US agriculture is one of the most subsidized in the world (the recipients of these subsidies being large companies that operate farms, yet they want ‘developing’ countries to stop protecting their food industry.