10.18.13
Gemini version available ♊︎The Loss of Moral High Ground
Summary: Warmongering and insistence that peace is “terrorism” or that war is “for peace” discredit the promises made by the West
THE moral high ground of NATO-affiliated nations was almost obliterated by violent intervention inside nations that did not ask for it. One recent example of this was the invasion into Iraq — an unnecessary and unpopular invasion which is now claimed to have killed half a million people [1,2]. Leaks from Assange and his colleagues contributed to estimates, so no wonder he is besieged by the British government [3]. The UK Ministry of Defence now views “anti-war” as some kind of terrorism [4] and the BBC lobbies hard for us to support invasion into Syria, Iraq’s neighbour [5,6]. Even a former UK ambassador is fuming about this propaganda.
Some sites, like Truth Out, now openly accuse Obama of terrorism [7] and a new interview with Noam Chomsky goes further [8]. Congressional approval under Obama’s reign has dropped below 10% [9], which really says a lot about whose side actual US citizens take. Has Nobel peace prize winner Obama got the moral high ground? Not in anyone’s mind. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Iraq war claimed half a million lives, study finds
Some critics of previously controversial survey methods praise new approach, while others remain skeptical
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So Half a Million Iraqis Did Die, After All
Remember, a few years back, when a couple of studies (including one published by prestigious Lancet) that found hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died in the years after the U.S. invasion were derided, even mocked, by most media and many expert commentators? They pointed to reputable counts of those killed in the conflict, placing the number at “only” about 100,000. When WikiLeaks released its Iraq War Logs, documented deaths shot up another 10,000 or so.
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Julian Assange: my life in the embassy
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UK Ministry of Defence seeks to counter growing opposition to war
A document obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act exposes the preoccupation of Britain’s ruling elite with how to prosecute future wars in the face of growing anti-war sentiment.
The study was written in November 2012 by a Ministry of Defence (MoD) think tank, the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) and entitled Risk: The Implications of Current Attitudes to Risk for the Joint Operational Concept .
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Fake BBC Video
But once you realise the indisputable fact of the fake interview the BBC has put out, some of the images in this video begin to be less than convincing on close inspection too.
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The Theatre of War
My last post on the BBC footage of Syrian casualties – and the different versions of what the doctor said – has brought me a deluge of emails, not least from the Guardian who have been in touch with the BBC and, if the Guardian can get over its phobia at ever mentioning me at all, will doubtless produce a “Craig Murray is a Conspiracy Theorist” piece. It would be unethical for me to reveal what the BBC said ahead of the Guardian, but I might point out that in a large amount of verbiage they completely failed to address or admit the point that they showed two different versions of what the doctor said.
Close inspection of the two different versions, by numerous commenters and for which I am grateful, reveals that there were actually two or more takes of this scene. The easiest tell is the arm position of the man in the fluorescent jacket next to the doctor.
Actually, that is much worse than if it were overdubbing. What this means is, that what is portrayed as a live action piece with casualties being rushed in, was actually a rehearsed piece of which several takes were done. Rehearsed because, with the exception of the words napalm and chemical weapons, the words are precisely the same, which is not easy spontaneously especially under that kind of stress.
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Empire Under Obama: Barack Obama’s Global Terror Campaign
Under the administration of Barack Obama, America is waging a global terror campaign through the use of drones, killing thousands of people, committing endless war crimes, creating fear and terror in a program expected to last several more decades. Welcome to Obama’s War OF Terror.
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Noam Chomsky | On Shutdown, Waning US Influence, Syrian Showdown
Harrison Samphir: Thank you for speaking with me today, Mr. Chomsky. I would like to begin with the recent federal government shutdown in the United States. Acknowledging that it has happened once before, how is this instance different, if at all? How does it speak to the unwillingness from above to institute meaningful reform – healthcare or otherwise – and respond to the desires of the majority of the population?
Noam Chomsky: Well, actually, there was pretty good commentary on it this morning [October 4] in The New York Times by Paul Krugman who basically makes the point, it’s a narrow point, that the Republican Party among the public is a minority party. So for example, they do run the House of Representatives, they’re a majority there, and it’s the House that is essentially sending the government into shutdown and maybe default. But they won the majority of seats there because of various kinds of chicanery. They got a minority of the votes, but a majority of the seats, and they’re using them to press forward an agenda which is extremely harmful to the public. The particular thing that they’re focusing on is defunding the health-care system.
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Less Popular Than Zombies: Congressional Approval Rating Drops to Single Digits
He told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs the short-term effects include disability claims production slowing by an average of about 1,400 per day since the shutdown began Oct. 1, and that has stalled the department’s efforts to reduce the backlog of disability claims pending for longer than 125 days. Over 190,000 accumulated cases had been resolved in recent months.
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