The Peace Press — Saturday, August 14, 2021 edition
“Imagine a country where there’s no separation between the government, the military, and the media. A lot of Americans would think of China, Russia or North Korea, but it’s a perfect description of the United States today. Located in Washington, the Center For A New American Security (CNAS) is the clearest example of the unholy merger.
CNAS is the premier foreign policy think tank of the Democratic Party. It is funded by the State Department and Pentagon and has taken more money from weapons companies over the last several years than any other think tank in Washington. It’s also funded by oil companies, big banks, and right wing governments — basically the most destructive forces on the planet.
For President Joe Biden, CNAS serves as a farm at which key positions in his administration are cultivated. At least 16 CNAS alumni are now in key positions in the Biden Pentagon and State Department.
But what’s most shocking is that several national security and foreign policy reporters from elite U.S. media outlets are affiliated with CNAS — and therefore indirectly affiliated with, and likely paid by, the U.S. government and corporations — the very forces that they should be holding accountable.”
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/08/09/ny-times-wapo-national-security-reporters-serve-at-pro-war-pentagon-funded-think-tank/
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“Excerpt from “Citing Corrupt Think Tanks For News Reports Is Blatant Propaganda”:
One of the weirdest things about the mass media propaganda which manipulates the way people think, act and vote to maintain the status quo is the fact that mainstream news outlets routinely cite the employees of think tanks that are sponsored by war profiteers and government powers as expert sources for their reports. And they just get away with it.”
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“So in summary, government agencies and war profiteers paid for a report which manufactures consent for their agendas among policymakers and the public, and mass media institutions passed this off as “news”.
And this is exactly what these think tanks exist to do: cook up narratives which benefit their immensely powerful and unfathomably psychopathic sponsors, and insert those narratives at key points of influence.
“Think tank” is a good and accurate label, not because a great deal of thought happens in them, but because they’re dedicated to controlling what people think, and because they are artificial enclosures for slimy creatures. Their job, generally speaking, is to concoct and market reasons why it would be good and smart to do something evil and stupid.”
https://www.facebook.com/CaitlinAJohnstone/posts/379724633522787?comment_id=379767320185185¬if_id=1628823592208502¬if_t=public_figure_l0_comment&ref=notif
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“Last week, a bipartisan group of senators, Chris Murphy, Mike Lee, and Bernie Sanders, introduced the National Security Powers Act, legislation that would change Congress’ traditional role in this process. In addition to its wider scope of strengthening congressional authorities to reverse the Executive Branch on key foreign policy decisions, including war authorizations, the bill would also require Congress to take a limited number of affirmative votes before certain kinds of higher-risk arms sales could proceed.”
https://thebaraza.org/foreign-policy/the-biggest-reason-u-s-arms-sales-continue-to-go-unchecked-and-what-could-change-that/
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“Following Clinton came George W. Bush, who ran for office urging a different, “humble” foreign policy but as president implemented an arrogant and extraordinarily misguided strategy. Of course, it was 9/11, killing some 3000 Americans, that turned Bush into a wannabe master of the universe. Alas, he lacked the knowledge, humility, vision, and competence to succeed, leaving the Middle East and Central Asia aflame.
Two decades and three presidents later, American troops only now are leaving Afghanistan, likely to be again ruled by the Taliban, which was in charge when “Dubya” Bush first intervened. The Iraq invasion was worse, a true humanitarian catastrophe — killing thousands of Americans, injuring tens of thousands more, killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, displacing millions more, and ravaging both Iraq and the entire region. That conflict’s consequences live on with a greatly destabilized Mideast and strengthened Iran.
Failure has not, alas, tempered the ambitions of American policymakers who spend much of their free time creating more enemies while building castles in the sky. Many Washington geopolitical projects are now national wrecks, such as Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen, in which the US uses sanctions and proxies to impoverish and kill the most vulnerable peoples in the name of a greater good. Current policymakers, like Albright & Co. before, have decided that the price paid by others “is worth it.” It always seems to be “worth it,” no matter how disastrous the consequences.”
https://original.antiwar.com/doug-bandow/2021/08/10/how-many-enemies-does-america-want/
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The war on Afghanistan will not be over until the U.S. stops bombing Afghanistan and withdraws all troops and contractors. So keep protesting the war on Afghanistan!!!!
“The deployment of B-52 bombers, Reaper drones and AC-130 gunships are a brutal response by a failing, flailing imperial power to a historic, humiliating defeat.”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/11/biden-must-call-b-52s-bombing-afghan-cities
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“No one will look back through history with anything but shame and sorrow for the human suffering wrought and the repeated failures of the U.S. war machine.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/13/flawed-start-critics-say-afghan-wars-bitter-end-us-was-inevitable
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“In many cases, following a murky encounter at sea, people are eager to jump to conclusions about the evil intentions of local powers.”
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/how-not-react-incidents-gulf-oman-191632
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Does this look like a withdrawal to you? It does not look like a withdrawal to me. If the Taliban takes Afghanistan, that is an Afghan issue, not a U.S. issue.
If the Taliban take back Afghanistan completely, that is their affair. It is none of our business.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2021/08/12/us-sending-3000-troops-to-evacuate-embassy-staff-in-kabul/
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“George W. Bush, the architect of our 9/11 wars, is trying to tell us how to think and feel about the Afghanistan withdrawal.”
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/08/10/dont-throw-the-baby-out-with-the-orange-tinted-bathwater/
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“You can’t win a war if you don’t have a clear objective. The war is lost before it begins.”
“The vast majority of the money the US spent on that country in the subsequent 20 years was to pay for the bombs they dropped on it.”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/13/us-empires-afghan-ponzi-scheme-comes-ignoble-end
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“You’re going to read a lot of Afghan War postmortems in the coming days. Some have already been published.
Don’t listen to anyone who was ever in favor of occupying Afghanistan. They were wrong for thinking that the United States could have won. They were stupid to think that invading Afghanistan would prevent another 9/11, a horror for which the Taliban had zero responsibility. Afghan War supporters were immoral for supporting the bombing of civilians that were so routine that blowing up wedding parties became a joke, for backing the invasion of a sovereign state that never posed a threat to us, and for justifying the violent imposition of a corrupt puppet regime. Anyone who ever believed that going into Afghanistan was a good idea is too stupid to deserve a job in journalism, academia or military command.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/08/13/stop-listening-to-the-pro-war-idiots-who-got-afghanistan-wrong/
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“And by lying about how close the insurgents had come to harming Cheney, the U.S. military sank deeper into a pattern of deceiving the public about many facets of the war, from discrete events to the big picture. What began as selective, self-serving disclosures after the 2001 invasion gradually hardened into willful distortions and, eventually, flat-out fabrications.”
https://archive.is/bAJBM
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“The complete, utter failure of the Afghan national army, absent our hand-holding, to defend their country is a blistering indictment of a failed 20-year strategy predicated on the belief that billions of US taxpayer dollars could create an effective democratic central government in a nation that has never had one.”
~Dem. Sen. Chris Murphy
https://original.antiwar.com/buchanan/2021/08/12/who-lost-americas-longest-war/
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“Since the July 20 strike, AFRICOM has reported two more sets of strikes — one on July 23 and one on August 1. With the United States seemingly returning to waging an active air war in Somalia, AFRICOM’s recent press releases should raise concern that it may be backtracking on providing transparent reporting of the impact of its strikes. Notably none of these press releases provide details on the assessed number of casualties or other damage except to note that AFRICOM assesses no civilians were killed or injured in the strikes.”
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/08/11/is-the-us-military-backtracking-on-airstrikes-transparency/
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“The official reason provided by the Pentagon was that the Somali National Army needed air support in its operations to counter al-Shabaab. But the actual reason was that Somalia is geo-strategically important to US empire.”
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/08/13/in-somalia-the-us-is-bombing-the-very-terrorists-it-created/
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What if China, Russia and North Korea held military-naval exercises off the coasts of England, France and Germany or off the coast of San Diego? Why, we would never hear the end of the claims about their provocation and military aggression, yet it seems go without notice that we do that to them. Why isn’t our policy framed as provocative and aggressive? You have corporate media to thank for that — — — — that is the role of mass propaganda often by omission alone. Telling only one side of the story gives a false impression of what is actually happening in the world today — — — — you can thank corporate media for that style of propaganda.
This iteration of the annual SEACAT drills is the largest to date as the US is increasing focus on the region to counter China
https://news.antiwar.com/2021/08/11/navies-of-21-countries-begin-us-led-exercises-in-southeast-asia/
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“It would seem the American people aren’t ready for a conflict with China over Taiwan. But are both sides ready to compromise?”
“The Biden administration has proposed a $750 million weapons sale to Taiwan, predictably earning China’s ire. The Economist previously tagged Taiwan as “the most dangerous place on earth.” It is the most likely trigger to great power conflict, the first war between nuclear powers.
That doesn’t mean the People’s Republic of China wants war. Predictions of an imminent Chinese attack on the island overstate Beijing’s intentions and abilities. However, the regime is becoming more impatient and aggressive. “
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/08/11/deterring-a-new-us-war-in-the-most-dangerous-place-on-earth/
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“What gives political leaders the wherewithal to violate basic human values — established moral standards — and perpetrate the inhumanity of war?”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/12/war-herbicides-and-moral-disengagement
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“This courageous whistleblower feared the temptation not to question U.S. drone policy. Complicity was the opposite burden he feared, the sacrifice of his moral autonomy and dignity.”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/10/painting-daniel-hale-his-exquisite-burden
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“Imperialism is the central characteristic of U.S. foreign policy, but is neither mentioned nor admitted by the establishment… The military-industrial complex, about which Dwight Eisenhower of all people warned in his valedictory speech, became a central feature of U.S. society. This complex encompasses not merely the military and armaments manufacturers, but also the security and intelligence communities, and all those in politics, media, think tanks, academia, and so on, who make a living out of war and the fear of it. The military-industrial complex complements imperialism in informing and driving U.S. foreign policy, and much of U.S. society. “
“Adding fuel to the fire are the impending annual ROK-U.S. joint military exercises planned for August 16th, a frequent flashpoint with the North.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/08/12/time-to-suspend-the-us-rok-joint-military-exercises/
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“Corporate media outlets largely sided with the NSA, mocking Carlson for being conspiratorial and even accusing him of fabricating a story. One might think that journalists would have more interest in finding out whether the NSA was abusing their powers to discredit a journalist than cheering the security state for partisan reasons, but one would be wrong. Disdain for Carlson’s claims were widespread in media circles.
But Carlson’s concerns appeared to be at least partially corroborated when Axios’ Jonathan Swan reported that “U.S. government officials learned about Carlson’s efforts to secure the Putin interview.” Though Swan emphasized that none of this meant that the NSA was targeting Carlson for surveillance or even that his communications had been “incidentally” collected — meaning that the NSA read his emails or heard his conversations because he was communicating with one of their targets — their knowledge of Carlson’s activities raised the question of whether Carlson’s identity had been “unmasked” by the agency.”
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-nsas-inspector-general-opens
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“Much of the discussion in the US surrounding North Korea remains stuck in an earlier era, so that fairly serious proposals for a diplomatic settlement with Pyongyang rely on the fantastical notion that North Korea would agree to the dismantling and destruction of its nuclear arsenal. Vincent Brooks and Ho Young Leem, two former military commanders from the US and South Korea, have drawn up a proposal for how to re-engage North Korea diplomatically with the goal being full normalization of relations and an end to North Korea’s isolation. Some of their suggestions are reasonable enough, but the assumption that an agreement would require “the verified destruction of nuclear weapons” renders their proposal dead on arrival.”
https://original.antiwar.com/Daniel_Larison/2021/08/10/time-is-running-out-on-north-korea-diplomacy/
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“Can we avoid that danger? Sure, but only if instead of itching for a new Cold War, our two global superpowers start itching for greater economic equality — on both sides of the Pacific. Narrowing our great divides — between the rich and everyone else — will be the key to reducing our new Cold War tensions.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/08/11/forget-a-new-cold-war-the-us-and-china-need-to-fight-against-inequality/
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“A new GAO report finds gaping holes in oversight in the military’s unwieldy private security contractor biz.”
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/08/06/after-20-years-pentagon-still-lacks-control-over-hired-guns/
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“External pressure hurts ordinary people and doesn’t budge incalcitrant regimes. But tough-guy posturing pays off for American presidents.”
“ Only 20 countries signed Blinken’s anti-Cuba statement. Even more embarrassing, the Organization of American States, which Washington has long dominated, refused his request for a session to discuss Cuba. “Any discussion could only satisfy political hawks with an eye on US mid-term elections, where winning South Florida with the backing of Cuban exiles would be a prize,” one ambassador wrote. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said the episode had led him to conclude that the OAS should be replaced by “a body that is truly autonomous, not anybody’s lackey.” Instead of endorsing the US condemnation of Cuba, López Obrador sent Cuba a food shipment. So did Bolivia.”
https://archive.is/fKtH6
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“Cuba’s anti-imperial foreign policy helped end apartheid in South Africa and sustain liberation movements worldwide. Historian Piero Gleijeses says that’s one of the main reasons why the US has terrorized the island nation through today.”
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/08/02/us-suffocates-cuba-for-unwavering-victorious-anti-imperialism-at-great-cost/
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“In the second of a two-part series, PATRIK PAULOV examines how two court cases highlight the role of Sweden and Britain in supporting extremist groups in Syria”
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/complicity-terror#.YQ_MboEvUxI.twitter
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“Raytheon profits from the killing of civilians, families, and children in Palestine, Yemen, and elsewhere. We can’t sit idly by while Raytheon engineers new and more destructive ways of killing innocent people.”
“A group of anti-war activists blockaded the entrances to a Raytheon facility in Portsmouth, Rhode Island on Thursday morning to protest the role the weapons-maker plays in the killing of civilians in Yemen, the occupied Palestinian territories, and elsewhere around the world.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/12/anti-war-group-blocks-entrance-raytheon-facility-protest-us-killing-civilians
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“Two judges at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Wednesday sided with the United States to allow it to appeal the judgement by District Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January that Julian Assange was at too high a risk of suicide to be extradited to the United States.
The U.S. on July 5 was granted the right to appeal the decision not to extradite but not on the grounds of Assange’s health. That was reversed on Wednesday.
The U.S. now has the right to argue that the testimony of the defense’s key expert witness on suicide, Prof. Michael Kopelman, should be deemed inadmissible or granted little weight because Kopelman concealed from the court that he knew Assange had had two children with his partner, the lawyer Stella Moris.
Clair Dobbin, an attorney for the U.S., told the court that concealing that information undermined Kopelman’s credibility and Baraitser’s judgement. “The overall impression is that judge thought this was a reltively minor matter. It is duty of expert witnesses that it does not mislead,” Dobbin said.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/08/11/us-wins-right-to-appeal-health-grounds-on-assange-extradition/
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“The U.S. victory in court on Wednesday makes the prospects for Julian Assange at October’s appeal hearing murky at best, writes Alexander Mercouris.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/08/12/letter-from-london-worrying-turn-in-assange-case/
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“The reputation of British justice now rests on the shoulders of the High Court in the life or death case of Julian Assange.”
“For those who may have forgotten, WikiLeaks, of which Assange is founder and publisher, exposed the secrets and lies that led to the invasion of Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the murderous role of the Pentagon in dozens of countries, the blueprint for the 20-year catastrophe in Afghanistan, the attempts by Washington to overthrow elected governments, such as Venezuela’s, the collusion between nominal political opponents (Bush and Obama) to stifle a torture investigation and the CIA’s Vault 7 campaign that turned your mobile phone, even your TV set, into a spy in your midst.
WikiLeaks released almost a million documents from Russia which allowed Russian citizens to stand up for their rights. It revealed the Australian government had colluded with the U.S. against its own citizen, Assange. It named those Australian politicians who have “informed” for the U.S. It made the connection between the Clinton Foundation and the rise of jihadism in American-armed states in the Gulf.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/08/12/john-pilger-a-day-in-the-death-of-british-justice/
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Would you expect anything less from Israeli proto-Fascists?
“Israel’s push to punish the ice cream company is part of a larger offensive against Palestine activists — one that mirrors the broader right-wing assault on social justice movements.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/ben-and-jerrys-israel/
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“There is an ongoing, but hidden, Israeli war on the Palestinians which is rarely highlighted or even known. It is a water war, which has been in the making for decades.”
https://original.antiwar.com/ramzy-baroud/2021/08/11/the-murder-of-the-menacing-water-technician-on-the-shadow-wars-in-the-west-bank/
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“Israel works actively, day and night, to quash all forms of resistance and bury the dream of a Palestinian state.”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-EU-shameless-complicity-crimes
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Once again, AIPAC cries wolf and pretends to be the victim while also channeling racism and bigotry too. Like many Israel-first organizations who castigate any legitimate criticism of Israeli oppressive, racist, apartheid Israeli policy, they resort to making false, ridiculous and comical claims of anti-Semitism, and in doing so, attempt to falsely shift the role of victim from those being colonized and oppressed to themselves and their Israeli friends — — — — — -this is yet another way that AIPAC and Israel-first organization cry wolf, pretend to be victims and in so doing, cheapen genuine anti-Semitism. Moreover, by echoing anti-Islamic sentiments, they reveal themselves not as victims but as genuine racists and hatemongers. So if you want to know what a star of David looks like when it sown upon a brown shirt, well, just ask AIPAC.
“”The language AIPAC uses in paid ads to smear and vilify Ilhan Omar is virtually identical to the language used in death threats she gets,” said a spokesperson for the Minnesota Democrat.”
