I’d like to live in a country that would ratify a treaty banning the sale of “tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, and small arms and light weapons” to governments that are engaged in genocide or crimes against humanity.
But, I don’t.
So when do you move?
He didn’t ….
a significant portion of the country
has ideologically moved into a illogical,
but self perpetuating idea
of “american exceptionalism”
where we pretend to be Christian
while pushing primarily death and destruction
on the poor and people of color,
at the same time
extracting all the wealth they hold
(which is why the death and destruction are needed)
all the while,
the corporate owned media,
uses the real bully pulpit
to spin the news
into USA USA USA,
whenever any ides for compassion
or helping those people better their lives
is presented.
Jebus is sooooooo proud of the teatards and their moneyed masters.
Unfortunately, it is far from only the “teatards” who are the problem. Bill “I feel your pain unless you are Iraqi” Clinton was responsible for eight years of death and misery in Iraq because he, and he alone in the UN insisted that the sanctions must continue even after the inspectors declared that the regime was effectively disarmed. He also conducted regular “minor” bombing campaigns, and several major ones, the most infamous of which was supposedly intended to “punish” Saddam for an assassination plot against George H.W. Bush – a “plot” that turned out to be bogus. And it’s hard to understand how one punishes a dictator by bombing civilian neighborhoods. That particular bomb-fest resulted in the death of one of Iraq’s most famous artists, and the partial-blinding of her daughter, an aspiring artist herself, and the deaths of many of their less-famous neighbors as well.
And what about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a passionate hawk if ever there was one.
And if we go farther back we find Lyndon Johnson of Viet Nam infamy…and so on…and so on…and so on…
Face it. What you described is hardly a Tea Party phenomenon, it is an American phenomenon.
And if you go back farther, you will find plenty of Democrats
The USA has not acted much differently than any imperialist power in history regardless of its religion, culture or language. The only difference is in the technology. Also it’s propaganda is a little less effective on its own people but it still more than does the job.
In my own little collection of personal paranoias, I have believed for many years that the “assassination attempt” against GHWB in 1993 was concocted by dark forces (CIA? the Emir?) to entrap the new president and that Clinton may even now not realize that it was a fraud. While the facts have been “out there” for years, hardly anybody seems to have heard about it even now. So I don’t like blaming Clinton, as I also don’t like blaming Obama for the dreadful sanctions visited on Iran. Just from an Ockham’s razor standpoint it works better to regard them as ignorant than as evil (remember who it is that feeds them their information), and politically it works better to believe that they are sincere in their stirring words on human rights (just as I prefer to trust Khamenei on the subject of nuclear weapons). Means one could communicate with them.
So, are younseriously saying that Clinton and Obama are just a couple of dupes who have unknowingly ordered the deaths of hundreds of thousands of wwAre you seriously holding Clinton harmless for his insistence upon maintaining horrific sanctions for eight years, constantly raising the bar as the regime complied with one requirement after the other? Are you seriously holding him harmless for ordering a major attack on civilians in Iraq to supposedly punish Saddam for an imaginary threat on the life of George H.W. Bush? Are you excusing these actions that lead to so much human suffering and death because you think he was clueless? So, cluelessness excuses someone from culpability for their actions?
And ditto for Obama? He is a clueless dupe, so he cannot be held accountable?
And these are the people you trust to lead your country? These are the people you support? Clueless dupes who kill and maim and destroy?
And will you cut the same slack for George W. Bush?
No to most of your questions, I think. Not aware of any orders by Clinton or Obama for hundreds of thousands of death wittingly or otherwise. I have always opposed sanctions on Iran and Iraq and any country unless as in Burma or South Africa people there that I respect ask for them. I do distinguish sharply between Clinton and Obama (often seriously and harmfully wrong) and Bush (actually evil and in love with his ignorance). Obama in particular is in a position similar to that of a Pakistani prime minister, unable publicly to pursue power struggle against the intelligence community.
“Not aware of any orders by Clinton or Obama for hundreds of thousands of death wittingly or otherwise.“
So, are you saying that when Clinton insisted upon continuing sanctions on Iraq for eight long years he was unaware that the result was hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year? Are you saying he was unaware that “punishing” Saddam by ordering a major bombing campaign that included civilian neighborhoods would result in death and maiming of civilians living in the neighborhoods he ordered bombed?
Are you saying that Obama is unaware that the majority of those killed in his drone attacks are civilians? Are you saying he is unaware that by ordering “surges” in Iraq and Afghanistan he was ordering escalation of U.S. military violence, and that escalating violence would harm civilians?
If you are saying they were unaware of the inevitable effects of their actions, then that is truly, truly scary.
Hell, I’d like to live in a state that doesn’t have them in the local police force.
I’d like to live in a state that didn’t think that only politicians should have pensions.
No, you don’t.
Because, if actually enforced (hahahahahahahahahahaha), in any given year it would cut our arms sales by about half. Actually, given how much we send to Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia alone, maybe more than that.
Not only that, but in the case of Israel it’s your money they are using to buy the arms from you.