If there is any subject to unite the 1.5 billion Muslims, it’s the city of Jerusalem.
Thank you “president” Trump, poorer than a novice on your decision. Indebted to Israel’s warmonger billionaires and not president Putin of the Russian Federation.
The decision today will not as yet relocate the US Embassy, as the logistics will take time, perhaps years. But your declaration will be more than sufficient to sow dissent and discord, your prime motivation as leader of America’s white supremacist minority “America First.”
Israel only captured the old city and adjoining Palestinian suburbs such as Silwan in 1967. A hastily written law was pushed through the Knesset declaring the territory had been annexed to Israel, and the city of Jerusalem had been “reunited”.
According to the Geneva Conventions, territory acquired through war is under “hostile military occupation” in a formula that has endured since the defeat of fascism. Successive Israeli governments have argued the terms of the conventions do not apply to Jerusalem.
However, in December 2016, the UN took a vote reaffirming that the Palestinian territories were under hostile occupation. Israel’s attempt to pressure Trump’s transition team in the runup to the vote has now come within the scope of the Mueller investigation.
More below the fold …
Understanding America the Exceptional: A Guide for the World’s Perplexed
Why is everything always America’s fault? What’s with the Blame America Firsters?
Americans are getting a bit fed up with criticism of their policies, and many are truly perplexed as to why they seem to come under such fire from critics. Do they not investigate almost every report of atrocity that makes it to US corporate press? Even western press? Have they not made a very public point of very publicly jailing the individuals who were found to be engaging in unauthorized photography in Abu Ghraib?
Why aren’t people as outraged over all those IEDs the Iraqi insurgents keep deploying against coalition forces? And what about all the renewed terrorist activity in Afghanistan?
How come so much of the world seems more alarmed by the idea of US airstrikes on Tehran – even using only conventional weapons – than they are about the prospect of a nuclear Iran, as they are by the prospect of a Second Islamic Bomb?
The disconnect between mainstream America and critics abroad is unarguably a wide one, and most likely an unbridgeable one, at least in practical and reality-based terms, but it may be possible for each, if they try, to get at least some sort of understanding of the other’s position, even though it is very unlikely that anyone will change their minds.
Let’s look at the American point of view first, since so many people around the world have trouble understanding it. The first step is accepting, whether you agree with the practice or not, that Americans are taught almost from birth that not only is the United States the greatest country in the world, but it is so much greater than any other country, in every possible way, that laws and rules that may govern the way the global community of nations behaves toward each other simply do not apply to the US because of its greatness and uniqueness.
It is not that the US objects, for example, to international laws or the Geneva cnoventions. In fact, if any other nation even thought about going round to other countries and seizing people at will, and hauling them off to secret torture camps, you can bet that the US would be the first to condemn such an atrocity, and would aggressively pursue any and all strategies and methods to put a stop to the practice immediately, and bring that rogue nation to heel, quite very possibly including a very swift and most likely unceremonious regime change.
Now there might be exceptions to that. Note that word exception, because you will be hearing it a lot. An exception might be, for instance, Israel. As most people are aware, the US and Israel have a very special and unique relationship. So special and unique in fact that situations, such as that international kidnapping and torture camp thing, might not be looked at in the same way as it would if say Malaysia did it. Or France. Or Iran. Like the US itself, Israel would be considered an Exception.
[About the author: Ductape Fatwa was a blogger @BooMan through many years. Date of this diary: June 4th, 2006.]
Yep, the tolerance to express your thoughts guaranteed by the First Amendment is quite narrow in a fascist state!
Rumsfeld likens critics of White House policy as Nazi appeasers By BarbinMD @BooMan on Sept. 1, 2006
In today’s Los Angeles Times, Donald Rumsfeld has written an OpEd that seeks to “expand” and “clarify” his recent comments likening critics of this administration to Nazi appeasers. And once you read this piece you will see how misunderstood and taken out of context his remarks were.
For example, during his infamous American Legion speech, Rumsfeld said:
The struggle we are in — the consequences are too severe — the struggle too important to have the luxury of returning to that old mentality of “Blame America First.”
Today, Rumsfeld explains that what he really meant was:
We also should be aware that the struggle is too important — the consequences too severe — to allow a “blame America first” mentality to overwhelm the truth that our nation, though imperfect, is a force for good in the world.
Damn the Islamofacist-appeasing media for distorting his remarks!
Earlier this week, Rumsfeld said:
…a sentiment took root that contended that if only the growing threats that had begun to emerge in Europe and Asia could be accommodated, then the carnage and the destruction of then-recent memory of World War I could be avoided.
It was a time when a certain amount of cynicism and moral confusion set in among Western democracies. When those who warned about a coming crisis, the rise of fascism and nazism, they were ridiculed or ignored.
America First! By GussieFN @BooMan on Sept. 29, 2005
Lower taxes, smaller government, stronger military, better values. The Republican Creed. What do they all have in common, besides being diametrically opposed to the real-world effects of Republican policies?
None of these goals are finally attainable. You can always lower taxes further, shrink the government more, discover new ways to attack gays. The struggle never ends.
There are other benefits, too. You know exactly what to blame for all the evil in the world: high taxes, big government, anti-military sentiment, bad values. You force political opponents into insupportable positions: ‘They’re for high taxes! They’re for a weak military! They’re for bad values!’ Finally, this ‘creed’ appeals to ‘common sense’ and base emotions: the drive to be richer and stronger and better. What kinda freak doesn’t want that?
Not me. I wanna be better, stronger, and richer, and I want my country to be better, stronger, and richer too. This Administration, for all its incompetence, cronyism, and dangerous naivete, has done one wonderful thing for me: I’m more patriotic now than I’ve ever been.
…
This is the best country on earth, and anything less than Number One is unacceptable. Anything less than first is shameful. Anything less than the best is a crime.Right now, where do we stand?
- 22nd among developed nations on childhood poverty.
- 41st in the world in infant mortality.
- 49th in the world in literacy.
- 37th in terms of overall health performance, and 54th in fairness of health care.
- 13th in total quality of life.
- 8th on the United Nations Human Development Index–in 1990 we were ranked 1st.
- 27th in percentage of population in poverty.
- 15th in women’s reproductive health.
- 27th of 28 countries in life expectancy at birth.
- 51st of 142 nations in environmental sustainability.
- And Europe surpassed the US in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature.
Blame America First? Are you kidding? How about we make America first? We’re THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, we must be the best by every measure, because we are the best.
Number one on quality of life, women’s reproductive health, education and poverty and environmental sustainability and health care and science. Democrats shouldn’t accept one single silver medal. We want gold, down the line.
