Tag: Iraq
CONSPIRACY OR CHAOS?
“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more frightening – Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.” – Alan Moore
Alan Moore, the renowned graphic novel writer, and author of the dystopian classic V for Vendetta, politically identifies as an anarchist. His view that all political states are an outgrowth of anarchy, with the biggest gang taking control and dictating how things will be run, is manifested in V for Vendetta. As an anarchist, you can understand why he is doubtful of conspiracy theories and an all-powerful entity controlling the world. He believes in a chaotic world competing gangs position themselves to gain power and control.
“We live in a badly developed anarchist situation in which the biggest gang has taken over and have declared that it is not an anarchist situation – that it is a capitalist or a communist situation. But I tend to think that anarchy is the most natural form of politics for a human being to actually practice.”- Alan Moore
The Guy Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta has been adopted by anarchist groups around the world, including: Anonymous, WikiLeaks, and the Occupy protestors. Moore’s positive view of the Occupy movement was based on his belief ordinary people had the right to reclaim what had been taken from them by criminal bankers. The initial impetus for the Occupy protests was the destruction of Main Street USA by Wall Street sociopaths, who not only escaped prosecution for their crimes, but were bailed out by the taxpayers they had pillaged and further enriched as captured politicians enabled them to get even bigger.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Iraq invades Kuwait – 1990
At about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces invade Kuwait, Iraq’s tiny, oil-rich neighbor. Kuwait’s defense forces were rapidly overwhelmed, and those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi Arabia. The emir of Kuwait, his family, and other government leaders fled to Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City had been captured and the Iraqis had established a provincial government. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq gained control of 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf. The same day, the United Nations Security Council unanimously denounced the invasion and demanded Iraq’s immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. On August 6, the Security Council imposed a worldwide ban on trade with Iraq.
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Dogs of War: Fight to the Death
by Uncola via TheBurningPlatform.com
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;
Mark Antony, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, III.i
Last week, on April Fool’s Day, I read how the month of March 2017 was a “turning point” for Hillary Clinton as she, once again, challenged Donald Trump on Twitter and made three public speeches where she encouraged her former foot soldiers to: “Resist, persist, insist, enlist”. Upon reading those words, I was reminded of the little girl in the movie “Poltergeist” who said: “They’re baaack”.
Yes, they’re back like “Ate”, the Greek goddess of discord and vengeance. Well, actually, in truth, they never really left.
In William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, the main character isn’t Caesar. On the contrary, the story is mostly about everyone else. If prose could be equated to cuisine, then “Julius Caesar”, although the Bard’s shortest play, was, nevertheless, a veritable feast; an exotic, psychological buffet of torn loyalties, political treachery, honor, patriotism, friendship, intrigue, tragedy, and revenge.
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
Iraqi forces discover stockpile of chemical warfare agent, missiles in Mosul
An Iraqi officer said that Iraqi forces recently discovered sulfur mustard, a chemical warfare agent, in eastern Mosul alongside a cache of surface-to-surface missiles bearing Russian inscriptions. Some of the rockets shown appeared to be training models. None of the rockets in the warehouse, many of which had been taken apart for parts, were operational. Fadhil said the types of rockets found lead him to suspect the Islamic State group was experimenting with the rockets to develop a way to weaponize the chemical agent.
Kill People, No Problem… Just Don’t “Cheat” Uncle
Guest Post by Eric Peters
A VW engineer may be going to prison – and has already been professionally (and probably personally) ruined… for having “cheated” the EPA. Which is like expelling a picked-on kid who outsmarted the playground bully.
Which, of course, is what often happens now.
Whether it’s the schoolyard bully – or the EPA (or other “agencies” of Uncle) – we are supposed to take it, never resist it – and may the motor gods have mercy upon you if you ever “cheat” it.
The engineer’s name is James R. Liang. He’s worked for VW since 1983, but not anymore. Bye-bye career (and pension) and hello Federal prison. Which he’s facing on account of having been a member of the engineering team that developed “defeat” software for VW’s TDI diesel engines. The software made the engines “compliant” when emissions tested by Uncle but less-than-compliant when driven by customers.
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Worse than ISIS & nuclear bomb?
French president Francois Hollande has arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad to meet French troops helping government forces battle Islamic State. And it came just days after the resumption of a large-scale offensive on Mosul, which remains a key ISIS stronghold. However, experts fear the military operation could lead to a problem even bigger than Islamic State itself.
A BIASED 2017 FORECAST (PART TWO)
In Part One of this article I discussed the failure of our brains to think rationally due to our biases and the relentless propaganda flogged by our Deep State ruling class. Viewing the future through the looking glass of the Fourth Turning keeps you focused on the three catalysts which will drive all events in 2017 and beyond. I’ve addressed my 2017 Debt forecast in Part One. Now I will make some guesses about what might happen in 2017 related to Civic Decay and Global Disorder.
Civic Decay Forecast
“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.” – Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
The presidential election and its aftermath tell you everything you need to know about the level of civic decay overtaking this country. The country is as divided as it was after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. There is virtually no common ground between liberals and conservatives. The pure hatred and contempt between the winners and losers in the recent election does not bode well for the country over the next four to eight years.
The social fabric of the country has been torn asunder. The Clinton supporters believe anyone not on their side is deplorable, racist, misogynist, and fans of Hitler. Trump supporters believe anyone not on their side is low IQ, Muslim loving, deceitful, math challenged, and fans of a criminal. The gulf between the two sides is unbridgeable.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
That’s funny. There was virtually no terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya prior to 2002. The war on terrorism implemented by Washington DC Neo-cons has sure done wonders – for the military industrial complex’ profits.
You will find more statistics at Statista
Murders Are Spiraling Out Of Control In Chicago
You will find more statistics at Statista
500 people have been murdered in Chicago this year, more than Los Angeles and New York combined. The number of homicides has hit a 20-year high and the city hasn’t experienced a single day without someone being murdered since February of last year. A BBC report on the violence in the Windy City compared the number of deaths there with U.S. war dead in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I WONDER WHAT THESE COUNTRIES HAVE IN COMMON?
I wonder what these numbers looked like before we brought our brand of democracy to the Middle east by invading Iraq in 2003. Isn’t it funny the two countries we “liberated” have by far the most terrorist attacks today. Mission Accomplished!!!!
You will find more statistics at Statista
The Most Intriguing Spy Stories From 166 Internal NSA Reports
In the early months of 2003, the National Security Agency saw demand for its services spike as a new war in Iraq, as well as ongoing and profound changes in how people used the internet, added to a torrent of new agency work related to the war on terror, according to a review of 166 articles from a restricted agency newsletter.
The Intercept today is releasing the first three months of SIDtoday, March 31 through the end of June 2003, using files provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. In addition, we are releasing any subsequent 2003 installments of SIDtoday series that began during this period. The files are available for download here.
We combed through these files with help from other writers and editors with an eye toward finding the most interesting stories, among other concerns.
SIDtoday was launched just 11 days into the U.S. invasion of Iraq by a team within the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate. SID is arguably the NSA’s most important division, responsible for spying on the agency’s targets, and SIDtoday became, as Peter Maass documents in an accompanying article, an invaluable primer on how the NSA breaks into and monitors communications systems around the world.
At the outset, SIDtoday declared that its mission was to “bring together communications from across the SIGINT Directorate in a single webpage” and that one of its key areas of focus would be providing “information on the Iraq Campaign and Campaign Against Terrorism.” And, indeed, the first issues of SIDtoday document how the agency paved the way for the Iraq War with diplomatic intelligence, supported the targeting of specific enemies in Iraq, and continued servicing existing “customers” like the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, whose appetite for signals intelligence grew sharply after the Sept. 11 attacks.
While the agency was helping in Iraq, NSA personnel were also involved in interrogations at Guantánamo Bay, SIDtoday articles show, working alongside the military and CIA at a time when prisoners there were treated brutally. The Intercept’s Cora Currier describes the NSA’s involvement with the interrogations in a separate story, one that also documents how the agency helped with the capture and rendition to Guantánamo of a group of Algerian men in Bosnia.
Other highlights from this set of documents follow below, alongside links to the relevant originals.
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“FREEDOM” THE AMERICAN WAY
SYRIA
MOTHER, SHOULD I TRUST THE GOVERNMENT? (Oldie but Goodie)
Originally Published in June 2013
Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb?
Mother, do you think they’ll like this song?
Mother, do you think they’ll try to break my balls?
Ooh ah,
Mother, should I build the wall?
Mother, should I run for president?
Mother, should I trust the government?
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Ooh ah,
Is it just a waste of time?
The lyrics to Mother had both a literal and figurative meaning for Roger Waters. He was literally describing his overprotective single mother (his father was killed in World War II) building walls to protect him from the outside world. The figurative meaning is Big Mother sending its boys off to war and using fear to control and manipulate the masses. At the time he wrote this song in 1979, the Soviet Union was thought to be at its peak of power and the Berlin Wall represented a boundary between good and evil. Nuclear war was still a looming fear. Waters has always had a dim view of totalitarian states and institutions (English schools). Having seen his Wall Tour performance this past summer at Citizens Bank Park with a diverse crowd of 40,000, ranging in age from senior citizens to teenagers, it seems this song has gained new meaning. He sang a duet with himself from 1980 projected on the Wall and when he sang the lyric, “Mother, should I trust the government?” the entire stadium responded in unison – NO!!! This revealed a truth that is not permitted to be discussed by the corporate mainstream media acting as a mouthpiece for the ruling class. A growing legion of citizens in this country does not trust the government. This is very perceptive on their part.
In part one of this two part series – Hey You – I examined how an invisible government of wealthy, power hungry men have utilized the propaganda techniques of Edward Bernays and lured the American people into a narcissistic, techno-gadget, debt based servitude. Over the last one hundred years they have created a totalitarian state built upon egotism, material goods, and fulfilling our desires through Wall Street peddled debt and mass consumerism. It has been an incredibly effective form of control that has convinced the masses to love their servitude. The ruling oligarchs correctly chose the painless, amusement saturated, soft totalitarianism of Huxley’s Brave New World over the fearful, pain inflicting, surveillance state, house of horrors detailed in Orwell’s 1984.
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Trump Was Right About Bush, 9/11, and Iraq
Guest Post by Sheldon Richman
George W. Bush has culpability for both 9/11 and the Iraq war. Keep the pressure on, Donald.
Donald
Trump, for all his obnoxious demagoguery, is adding value to the presidential campaign by calling on former President George W. Bush to account for 9/11 and the Iraq war, which set in motion the growth and spread of al-Qaeda and the rise of the Islamic State. Former U.S. rulers rarely face consequences for the horrible things they do in office. Condemnation is considered impolite.
So good for Trump. Unfortunately, he shows no sign of having done his homework; so his charges against Bush are little more than soundbites, allowing Bush defenders to dismiss Trump as a kook. But this time he is not a kook.
Trump presumably does not mean that Bush knew where and when al-Qaeda would attack. Detailed foreknowledge is not part of the case against Bush. All we need to know is that Bush and his top people, starting with Vice President Dick Cheney, were too busy in their first eight months in office to bother about al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Too busy doing what? Among other things, they were too busy looking for an excuse to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
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