So Long Fucktard.

Even though Bush and his cronies are finally leaving (I still am having trouble believing that they’re actually leaving…), their recent attempts at revisionism show that we have to be vigilant about not letting these people rehabilitate their reputation.

These people are (among other things) torturers and war criminals.

Here’s a little video I plan on keeping on hand over the years and months ahead…

John F. Kennedy: Conspiracy Theorist.

A New World Order?

Nah, that’s crazy talk.

Sort of interesting though, if you think a bit about what has happened since then and is still happening up to today.

Why ‘They’ Hate Us…

As you read the following post, before you conditionally react and disagree with my heretical views, please follow the links to the various articles here and read/view them. Once you’ve fully examined them and the events and arguments therein, fair enough if you still disagree.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the frequent chyron you heard on the news and political talk is “why do they hate us?”. Since then, given our conduct in Afghanistan (repeated deaths of civilians as “Collateral Damage’) and Iraq (Abu Ghraib particularly), our wholesale and repeated use of extraordinary rendition, and the torture of  ‘enemy combatants’ in Guantanamo, who have been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment and held for over 6 years without knowing the charges against them, we’ve multiplied the reasons ‘they hate us’ exponentially.

Having said that, let’s look at one of the central issues mentioned over and over, which is America’s seemingly blind support of Israel. Let’s discuss the current Israeli incursion against the people of Gaza, for instance.

While Israel is being condemned internationally by organizations like the Red Cross for the brutality of it’s current military actions against the people (not soldiers, or even ‘terrorists’, the civilians – including women and children) of Gaza,  both houses of the United States Congress just passed resolutions supporting Israel’s actions. In the U.N., the United States Government is actively blocking a cease-fire resolution.

The bombs that Israel is dropping have been supplied by the United States, special order and rush delivery, in time to be dropped on Gaza right now.

Why do they hate us? It’s the hypocrisy stupid.

I would never say that our support of Israel justifies terrorist attacks against the United States and it’s citizens, but do you think our active support of Israel’s undeniably brutal actions helps or hurts us in the region? When exactly do we get around to ‘winning hearts and minds‘?

As Glenn Greenwald has repeatedly pointed out, how does our unbridled support, regardless of the circumstances, help us as a nation?

If you don’t see the problem with mindlessly supporting Israel while they actively prevent reporters from getting into the area to report on what is going on, on who is doing what, as to why Israel has bombed 2 U.N. protected schools with children inside (the schools were being used as shelters for those who had been displaced by the attacks), I’m not sure I can do anything to overcome your moral ambivalence.

Perhaps Cenk Uyger’s framing can get through to you. Please watch this (about 6 minutes):

So, I ask you, if the friend of your enemy supplied your enemy with weapons, which were then used to  blow up the school where your wife and your child were seeking refuge, what would you do?

What if you were living at below poverty level, in an area that you couldn’t leave, and your enemy took actions to essentially begin “shooting fish in a barrel” and at least seemed to be indifferent to civilian casualties (if not outright targeting them), what would you do?

And what if the friend of your enemy had a 40 year history of siding with and supplying your enemy, helping to create the conditions which leave you trapped and impoverished, all the while proclaiming to be the worlds “shining city on a hill” in terms of freedom, equality, and respect for human rights?

What would YOU do if you lost your family under these circumstances?

Does this help remove the causes of terrorism, or does this create new recruits that may someday come looking to attack us as allies of their enemy? Do desperate people do desperate things?

I’m not saying we should be siding with Hamas and Gaza necessarily, I’m saying that given this set of circumstances we shouldn’t be siding with Israel, and we shouldn’t be putting Israels support and safety above that of our own. Human rights are human rights. You can’t pick and choose the humans you apply them to.

It reminds me of that good-old saying: Who Would Jesus Bomb?