Things to consider—

Since early 2011, Obama's been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme's familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism's dark side. In the 1980s, CIA-recruited mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers." He characterized Contra killers the same way. —Stephen LendmanFor over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.•••••"The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life...." —Randy Shields
May 282012
 

By Jay Janson, Contributing to OpedNews
Editor’s Note: We should all salute the courage of Leah Bolger and her kind. See below.

“On this Memorial Day, Veterans For Peace asks you to mourn not only for Americans killed in battle, but also for those killed by Americans in battle, to accept that these war deaths did not have to happen–that they are actually in vain. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died in American wars of aggression. That is a tragedy and is a truth that must be accepted and for which we must take responsibility.” VFP Pres. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 4:50 pm
May 282012
 

An editorial installation by Patrice Greanville
Dedicated to Cindy Sheehan, in appreciation of her brave and desperately needed work.

Mike Taibbi / NBC News

The mawkish, strident adulation for fallen American soldiers—mostly sons and daughters of the underclass—reaches a crescendo during perverted “holidays’ like memorial Day, as  the propaganda mills of the Empire work double time to reinforce the prevailing chauvinist myths that imprison the American consciousness from cradle to grave. It’s all part of the cynical propaganda playbook used by the elites to keep the “great unwashed” doing their bidding.  I say cynical because the upper tiers, while seeming to partake of the reverence,  cold-bloodedly manipulate people’s most fundamental emotions to serve their ends: thus bonds of love and gratitude for the fallen; the deeply ingrained, tribal love and respect of country; and hatred and fear toward “the other”— our designated enemies du jour—all are marshaled to keep the population well within the approved catechism. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 1:56 pm