Placating Saudi Arabia over the Iran nuclear deal, President Obama authorized U.S. military support for the Saudi air assault on Yemen, a policy now facing congressional challenge, as Gareth Porter explained at The American Conservative.
By Gareth Porter
The bill introduced by a bipartisan group of House members last week to end the direct U.S. military role in the Saudi coalition war in Yemen guarantees that the House of Representatives will vote for the first time on the single most important element of U.S. involvement in the war — the refueling of Saudi coalition planes systematically bombing Yemeni civilian targets.
In doing so, moreover, the bipartisan bill, H. Con. Res. 81, will provide a major test of Congressional will to uphold the War Powers Act of 1973, which reasserted a Congressional role in restraining presidential power to enter into wars without its approval in the wake of the Vietnam War debacle.
Since the Obama administration gave the green light to the Saudi war of destruction in Yemen in March 2015, it has been widely recognized by both Congress and the news media that U.S. military personnel have been supplying the bombs used by Saudi coalition planes. But what has seldom been openly discussed is that the U.S. Air Force has been providing the mid-air refueling for every Saudi coalition bombing sortie in Yemen, without which the war would quickly grind to a halt.
The Obama administration, and especially the Pentagon and the U.S. military, became nervous about public statements about that direct U.S. military role in the Saudi war after some legal experts began to raise the issue internally of potential U.S. legal responsibility for apparent war crimes in Yemen.
Refueling Saudi coalition bombing missions “not only makes the U.S. a party to the Yemen conflict, but could also lead to U.S. personnel being found complicit in coalition war crimes,” Kristine Beckerle, Yemen and UAE researcher at Human Rights Watch, has observed.
The political sensitivity of that direct and vital U.S. military role in the Saudi coalition airstrikes was so great in the last year of the Obama administration that U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, in an interview with a New Zealand journalist twice declared, deceptively, “We are not involved in carrying out airstrikes in Yemen.”
Bipartisan Bill
The bill introduced by Democratic Representatives Ro Khanna of California and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, and Republican Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Walter Jones of North Carolina, calls for Congress to “direct” the President to “remove” U.S. military personnel from their role in the Saudi air war against the forces of the Houthi-Saleh alliance in Yemen. It would give the President 30 days in which to end the U.S. military role in support of the Saudi-led war in Yemen unless and until Congress has enacted either a declaration of war or an authorization of those activities.
A neighborhood in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa after an airstrike, October 9, 2015. (Wikipedia)
The co-sponsors believe members will support it because U.S. direct involvement in the Saudi war of destruction in Yemen has enmeshed the United States in the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis in many years. Some 542,000 Yemenis, already weakened by starvation, have now succumbed to a cholera epidemic that is far worse than any in the world for the past 50 years, as the New York Times reported in August.
The starvation and cholera epidemic are the consequences of a multi-faceted strategy aimed at creating such civilian suffering as to finally break the resistance of the Houthi-Saleh forces. The Saudi strategy has included:
–Targeting of hospitals, markets and agricultural infrastructure.
–Destruction of cranes necessary to offload any large-scale humanitarian assistance at the main port of Hodeida and refusal to replace them with new cranes.
–A naval blockade that has strictly limited shipping of food, fuel and other necessities to Hodeida port.
–Closing down the civilian airport to prevent delivery of humanitarian aid.
–Destruction of roads and bridges necessary for delivery of humanitarian aid.
–Closing down the Central Bank of Yemen – the only institution in Yemen that was providing liquidity to millions of Yemenis.
Another selling point for H. Con Res. 81 is that it is based explicitly on the language of the War Powers Act of 1973, passed by a two-thirds majority in the House overriding a veto by President Richard M. Nixon. The War Powers Act includes a provision that, “[A]t any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution.”
Congressional Authority
The proposed bill argues that the direct U.S. military involvement in the Saudi Yemen war has never been authorized by Congress, and that the provision in the wars powers act is therefore applicable. It specifically exempts U.S. forces operating in Yemen against Al Qaeda, which were authorized under the 2001 Authorization for Military Force (AUMF) and which have not generated critical public and Congressional reactions.
Saudi King Salman bids farewell to President Barack Obama at Erga Palace after a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 27, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Con. Res. 81 applies a provision of the War Powers Act to ensure that opponents in the Foreign Affairs Committee or the majority leadership won’t be able to keep it bottled up without a vote. The War Powers Act puts any proposed Congressional resolution for action regarding an unauthorized use of force on a fast track for an early floor vote, making it a “priority resolution.” Once the measure is referred to the House or Senate foreign affairs committee, the War Powers Act requires that the committee report out a resolution within 15 days, and that the resolution must then come to a vote within three days.
Aides say the co-sponsors will present the measure as a response to a policy initiated and carried out for nearly two years by the Obama administration. They say a number of Republican offices are now seriously considering co-sponsorship of H. Con. Res. 81.
In addition to the humanitarian disaster and war powers issues linked to the direct U.S. military role in Saudi airstrikes, the co-sponsors will be pointing to multiple ways the U.S. role in the war makes the American people less secure, according to Congressional aides. One of the effects of the war has been to enormously strengthen the position of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), considered the biggest single foreign threat to carry out terrorist actions against the United States after two failed efforts in recent years. Saudi-backed Yemeni forces have been fighting alongside AQAP against the Houthis-Saleh forces. And the war has given AQAP much greater territorial control, political legitimacy and access to money and arms than it ever had before.
Yet another argument is the longer-term hatred of the United States that the U.S. direct involvement in the Saudi bombing campaign and starvation strategy is creating.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told CNN’s Jake Tapper in June 2016, “If you talk to Yemenis, they will tell you, this is not perceived to be a Saudi bombing campaign. This is perceived to be a U.S. bombing campaign. What’s happening is that we are helping to radicalize the Yemeni population against the United States.”
Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, has been meeting with Republican House members to urge them to support the bill. “The war being waged in Saudi Arabia with U.S. assistance is brutal and vicious, and it is a losing one for both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia but a boon for AQAP,” Wilkerson said in an interview with TAC. “It should cease immediately.”
But sponsors and advocates of H. Con. Res. 81 may have to refute arguments about Iran that the Saudis and the Obama administration have used to justify the Saudi war in Yemen. Wilkerson noted Republican members who cited Iran’s alleged role in the Houthi war effort and the common U.S.-Saudi opposition to it.
“They argue that the Saudis are doing our work for us, so we’ve got to hold our nose and support them,” said Wilkerson.
But that argument reflects a false narrative created by the Obama administration that Iran has been arming the Houthis for years. Administration officials used a U.N. panel obviously set up at Washington’s behest to recycle old and demonstrably fabricated claims of Iranian arms shipments to the Houthis. The Houthis have undoubtedly obtained missiles and other weapons from Iran, but the U.N. panel of experts on Yemen reported in January 2017 that it did not have sufficient evidence to “confirm any direct large-scale supply of arms” from Iran to the Houthis.
More importantly, the modest military assistance from Iran came in response to the Saudi coalition air assault on Yemen — not the other way around. And contrary to the official Pentagon myth of a “proxy war” against Iran in Yemen, the Houthis are fighting the Saudis for Yemeni interests — not to serve Iranian interests.
Gareth Porter is an independent journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of numerous books, including Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare (Just World Books, 2014). Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter. [This article first appeared at
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/when-did-congress-vote-to-aid-saudis-yemen-war/]
and how many us soldiers are in africa? or anywhere else for that matter?
there seems nothing we, as citizens can do to stop these foreign entanglements….
https://nypost.com/2017/10/04/us-forces-killed-during-ambush-in-niger/
Supporting what could now become the greatest human disaster we have seen for decades, the US in its support of the military strikes on Yemen for years supported by all the countries that gain substantially from the sale of weapons and military hardware, like the UK, Israel, France and the US itself, should be ashamed. The targeting of hospitals, schools and civilians by the thousands will produce starvation and disease like cholera, already in place .
Let us see if that same mercenary military providers to the dictators of the Middle East, Saudi and Israel, provide anything in the way of financial support when aid is so badly required, like it is right NOW.
They will go through the motions like all other lapdog US-sycophantic countries, independence from the terrorism of the USA long since gone.
Unquestionably, the world’s #1 terrorist is the hegemonic USA. Now well on the downhill run to the end of empire.
Obomba’s collaboration with the most corrupt of neocon operations was a grave stain on his presidency and leaves a legacy of trouble and hypocrisy that successors beyond Trump will struggle to unravel.
Following on the heels of the Bush crimes it could not have been a worse time for a supine, ethically challenged rotter like Obomba.
Two words: Petro Dollar
Saddam was a threat to the petro-dollar. Same with Qaddafi: gold-backed Dinar. And then there’s Iran, Venezuela and, um…. RUSSIA. U.S. cannot allow any of these countries to gain any traction for fear of it kicking out the weak legs of the petro-dollar. The strategy, voiced by the neocons pushing the Iraq war, was that it would be better to create chaos than to allow Saddam to continue to rule: it’s the same for all the others (and it’s how it’s gone down in Libya and is going down in other places). Syria played into all this because of its close ties to Russia and Iran.
Slapping down Saudi Arabia here could be the start of the end of its over-reach and the mark of the decline of the powers of the petro-dollar.
To say nothing of the direct Saudi role of Saudi royals in running the 911 atrocity, documented and conclusively proven by Sen, Bob Graham’s (D-L) Joint Congressional Inquiry, despite the outrageous obstruction of one Robert Swan Mueller lll, then the director of the FBI.
I believe Yemen is a War Crime by war criminals. We need present day Nuremberg Trials, to stop this Genocide.
September 9, 2017
The Genocide in Yemen by a Coalition of War Criminals
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/09/the-genocide-in-yemen-by-coalition-of.html
Here is an article that looks at the level of Saudi Arabia’s military spending and compares it to that of other nations:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2017/05/military-spending-global-picture.html
A substantial portion of the Saudi economy is based on defense spending, much of which goes directly to the American military-industrial complex.
Correct that why congress won’t allow the bill to pass. To $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to be made in Death.
“The Saudi strategy has included”
The saudi strategy is the Amerikan way of war.
Though completely ignored by Western media, reports from Iran indicating direct Israeli air attacks in Yemen cannot be readily dismissed.
American support in purported “Saudi” aircraft aerial refueling operations may be provide cover for Israeli preparations to execute air attacks against targets in Iran.
The announcement in September of a new US Air Force base located inside the Israeli Air Force’s Mashabim Air Base, west of the towns of Dimona and Yerucham, is further evidence of US-Israeli strategic cooperation.
The air base is close to the Israeli nuclear installation, The Negev Nuclear Research Center, located about thirteen kilometers south-east of the city of Dimona.
Add to the numerous military attacks and infringements on the sovereignty of neighboring Arab states the destabilizing fact that Israel secretly and illegitimately acquired and has continued to develop an arsenal of an estimated 300 nuclear warheads, the only state in the Middle East that has a nuclear arsenal, and the only country in the world that refuses to acknowledge its possession of nuclear weapons.
Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The purpose of the reactor includes the production of nuclear materials for use in Israel’s nuclear weapons. Information about the facility remains highly classified. Israel maintains a policy known as “nuclear ambiguity” by officially refusing either to confirm or deny their possession.
Israel had produced its first nuclear weapons by 1967 and it has been estimated to possess up to 400 nuclear weapons. In addition to its nuclear arsenal, Israel has a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.
Israel nuclear weapons delivery mechanisms include Jericho 3 missiles, with a range of 4,800 km to 6,500 km (though a 2004 source estimated its range at up to 11,500 km), as well as regional coverage from road mobile Jericho 2 IRBMs.
Additionally, Israel is believed to have an offshore nuclear capability using submarine-launched nuclear-capable cruise missiles, which can be launched from the Israeli Navy’s Dolphin-class submarines.
The Israeli Air Force has F-15I and F-16I Sufa fighter aircraft are capable of delivering tactical and strategic nuclear weapons at long distances using conformal fuel tanks and supported by their aerial refueling fleet of modified Boeing 707’s.
In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, fled to the United Kingdom and revealed to the media some evidence of Israel’s nuclear program and explained the purposes of each building, also revealing a top-secret underground facility directly below the installation.
The Mossad, Israel’s secret service, sent a female agent who lured Vanunu to Italy, where he was kidnapped by Mossad agents and smuggled to Israel aboard a freighter. An Israeli court then tried him in secret on charges of treason and espionage, and sentenced him to eighteen years imprisonment.
At the time of Vanunu’s kidnapping, The Times reported that Israel had material for approximately 20 hydrogen bombs and 200 fission bombs by 1986. In the spring of 2004, Vanunu was released from prison, and placed under several strict restrictions, such as the denial of a passport, freedom of movement limitations and restrictions on communications with the press. Since his release, he has been rearrested and charged multiple times for violations of the terms of his release.
Safety concerns about this 40-year-old reactor have been reported. In 2004, as a preventive measure, Israeli authorities distributed potassium iodide anti-radiation tablets to thousands of residents living nearby. Local residents have raised concerns regarding serious threats to health from living near the reactor.
According to a lawsuit filed in Be’er Sheva Labor Tribunal, workers at the center were subjected to human experimentation in 1998. According to Julius Malick, the worker who submitted the lawsuit, they were given drinks containing uranium without medical supervision and without obtaining written consent or warning them about risks of side effects.
In April 2016 the U.S. National Security Archive declassified dozens of documents from 1960 to 1970, which detail what American intelligence viewed as Israel’s attempts to obfuscate the purpose and details of its nuclear program. The Americans involved in discussions with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and other Israelis believed the country was providing “untruthful cover” about intentions to build nuclear weapons.
Saudi Arabia is obligingly quiet about Israel’s WMD arsenal.
And at least in public, Israel is cautious not to appear too eager to aid its dear frenemy in aiding Israel.
After Donald Trump’s state visit to Saudi Arabia (20–22 May) and Israel (22-23 May), chatter in mainstream media op-eds celebrated the new “special relationship”:
“President Trump’s trip couldn’t have been more of a public endorsement of the growing cooperation between the Saudis and the Israelis too. Note that Saudi Arabia and Israel were his only two stops on his Middle East trip, even though Egypt remains the largest Arab recipient of U.S. aid and its population positively dwarfs Saudi Arabia’s. President Trump believes, along with many others, that Saudi Arabia is calling the shots in the Sunni Arab world now and he wants its work with Israel to continue.
“And thus, Saudi Arabia’s decision to pressure Qatar on its support for Hamas coming so soon after the Trump visit doesn’t seem like a coincidence. Hamas has one real enemy, and that’s Israel. So Saudi efforts to freeze Qatari terror funding for Hamas has only one real beneficiary — Israel. […]
“the Saudi decision to cut off Qatar does seem like the most solid evidence yet that its decision to create a real and more comprehensive relationship with Israel is real”
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/06/why-the-saudi-arabia-qatar-rift-could-be-about-israel-commentary.html
The Saudi coalition against Yemen and Qatar includes and very much benefits its not-so-silent partner: Israel.
Israel remains the only State in the Middle East that has not yet become a party to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament.
In December 2014 the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution that called on Israel to “accede to that treaty without further delay, not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons, to renounce possession of nuclear weapons”.
The resolution also called on Israel to place its nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) comprehensive safeguards.
The United States and Canada were among four countries that joined Israel in opposing the measure.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Saudi Arabia ranked first and Israel ranked 3rd (ahead of the United States) in military expenditure per capita in 2015.
1 Saudi Arabia $6,909 USD
3 Israel $1,882 USD
4 United States $1,859 USD
In April 2015 it was confirmed that of all the world’s countries, Saudi Arabia’s military spending was the highest “by far” as percent of GDP as well as highest in per capita military spending.
US AID HELPED CREATE ISRAEL’S WMD ARSENAL
According to 1946-2012 data compiled by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the US gave Israel the greatest total foreign assistance over the 66-year period, at $199 billion.
A majority of Israel’s $65bn economic assistance was given to its Economic Support Fund and Security Support Assistance, with $56.5bn alone attributed to these programmes.
Israel also is the largest cumulative recipient of military assistance from the United States since World War II.
Israel used that money to build a nuclear arsenal.
US CENTRAL COMMAND IGNORES DUTY TO COUNTER ISRAELI WMD
The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM) is a theater-level Unified Combatant Command of the U.S. Department of Defense.
The USCENTCOM Area of Responsibility (AOR) includes countries in the Middle East, parts of northern Africa, and Central Asia, most notably Afghanistan and Iraq.
USCENTCOM has been the main American presence in many military operations, including the Persian Gulf War (“Operation Desert Storm” 1991), the War in Afghanistan (“Operation Enduring Freedom” 2001–2014), and the Iraq War (“Operation Iraqi Freedom” 2003–2011).
As of 2015, CENTCOM forces are deployed primarily in Afghanistan (“Operation Resolute Support” 2015–present), Iraq and Syria (“Operation Inherent Resolve” 2014–present) in “supporting and advise-and-assist roles”.
As of March 8, 2016, USCENTCOM priorities included “preventing and, if required, countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and disrupt their development and prevent their use”.
https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Austin_03-08-16.pdf
However, USCENTCOM has completely ignored Israel’s nuclear arsenal, as well as Israel’s stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.
USCENTCOM documents make no mention of Israel’s WMD arsenal or efforts to “disrupt their development and prevent their use”.
In fact, USCENTCOM has stationed a US Air Force base right next to the nuclear facility that Israel uses to manufacture plutonium for its nuclear weapons arsenal.
This hypocrisy of US non-proliferation policy is stunning.
CORRECTION: The US Air force “base within a base” next to Israel’s nuclear facility is operated by the United States European Command (USEUCOM or EUCOM).
The Commander of EUCOM simultaneously serves as the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR) within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance.
Brigadier General Tzvika Haimovitch, head of the Israeli Air Force’s Aerial Defense Command, claimed that the establishment of the new American base on Israeli soil sends a “message to the region and our surroundings that our partnership with our friend the United States is important.”
There are longstanding claims that the positioning of Israel within the United States’ military command authority has more to do with politics than geography.
However, keeping Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, under USEUCOM command has been one of the ways the US has chosen to maintain its hypocrisy regarding Israel’s WMD arsenal.
Having Israel fall under USCENTCOM authority would make that hypocrisy even more stunningly obvious.
FORMER USEUCOM COMMANDER WORKS FOR ISRAEL LOBBY
Israel has been progressively integrated into US and NATO military exercises and operational planning, despite the fact that Israel’s actions frequently conflict with American and European interests.
James G. Stavridis was the Commander of USEUCOM and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 2009 to 2013. The first US Navy officer to have held these positions, Stavridis remains a vocal advocate of Israeli participation in NATO.
While serving USEUCOM Commander, Stavridis received a 2011 award from the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a pro-Israel think-tank based in Washington, D.C., “in recognition of his service to the defense of the United States and our European allies, and for strengthening security cooperation with Israel”.
JINSA is a prominent component of the Israel Lobby network in the United States. JINSA’s advisory board includes former military officials and United States Senators like Joe Lieberman and Rudy Boschwitz.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Representative to the United Nations John Bolton, and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith were all on JINSA’s Board of Advisors before they entered the Bush administration.
In September 2015, writing in Foreign Policy, Stavridis argued that America should have a formal treaty pledging collective defense of Israel
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/25/its-time-for-a-formal-u-s-alliance-with-israel-collective-defense-treaty/
In 2016, Stavridis was discussed as a possible Secretary of State for President-elect Donald Trump and a potential running mate for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Apparently all parties recognized that would be a bit too obvious.
Stavridis’ enthusiastic Israel Lobby efforts continue. In January 2017, he wrote an essay for Time urging closer military cooperation with Israel, and praising Israeli intelligence as “superb”.
In fact, on multiple occasions, Israel has deliberately provided false intelligence reports to the United States concerning Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Thanks for the info on Israel/USA Abe. I don’t know which nation is the most disgusting and immoral. Ugly, ugly, ugly……
Don’t let Abe fool you with his excessive finger pointing (and 5 posts in a row (never mind the word-count) qualifies as excessive). There’s lots of ugly, ugly, ugly to go around with everyone. I’ve accused him before about being big on blame but short of any solutions that do not fall into the realm of La La Land idealism. He’s functioning from what he believes to be a morally superior position of how the world should work as opposed to the way the world really works.
Don’t let “WC” fool you with the Hasbara propaganda rhetoric about “solutions”.
Conventional Hasbara (pro-Israel, pro-Zionist) propaganda troll “WC” checked in about a week ago when Israel’s land grab “solution” was under scrutiny.
“WC” tried to quietly slither into the CN comments here:
Israel’s Stall-Forever ‘Peace’ Plan (September 23, 2017)
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/09/23/israels-stall-forever-peace-plan/
“WC” put forward three key Israeli Hasbara propaganda talking points here:
How Syria’s Victory Reshapes Mideast (September 30, 2017)
Then “WC” started raving about “totalitarian states” here:
How 2nd Amendment Distortions Kill (October 3, 2017)
Conventional Hasbara (pro-Israel, pro-Zionist) propagandists constantly attempt to portray Israeli military threats against its neighbors, Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, Zionist claims of an “unconditional land grant covenant” for Israel, or the manipulations of the Israel Lobby, as somehow all based on “the way the world really works”.
“WC” has repeatedly attempted to advance this sort of loony “realism” in the CN comments, claiming for example that “The Jews aren’t doing anything different than the rest have done since the beginning of time.”
That’s why Israel regards international law as “excessive”.
“WC” and others are not Hasbara trolls because we somehow “disagree”. They are Hasbara trolls because they promote propaganda for Israel.
One theme I’ve been seeing from bitter commentators – both left and right – is that the shock and horror of the Las Vegas murders is multiplied a thousand-fold overseas. That kind of sudden-death-from-the-skies has been a regular gift of the US and its “allies” like the horrible Saudi state for years, and continues to this day.
It’s difficult to compose any kind of answer to those people. And recall how the great and noble Obama reacted to Las Vegas:
One wonders how much praying he did for victims of his own senseless drone attacks around the world. Obama destroyed at least two nations – Libya and Syria. The man is a first rank hypocrite and has a dead body count far higher than the Las Vegas shooter.
Something I’ll have to personally live with is that I voted for the ******* in 2008. Voting for the geezer and the airhead wasn’t an option, of course, but I’ll aways regret I didn’t have the sense to stay home and keep my own fingerprints from the election of that *****.
Well put. I voted for the genocidal liar and world class coward Obama twice. I wrote the DNC I’d never again vote Democrat, considering they put the war criminal Obama in office, and then blocked the only decent candidate Bernie from being president. I don’t think voting has any impact or use anymore, at least not for me. I detest this government and 98% of those in congress and the administration, and those working for them. They are all earning their livings from sucking the blood from millions of innocent lives, human and otherwise.
I was a proud non voter for Obama. I will no longer be a victim of the crooked rigged “elections” that have become a part of the massive propaganda operations of the deep state. The myth that we can change our government in meaningful ways by voting has been disproved again and again.
“…SOMETHING TO LIVE WITH…” TO ZACHARY SMITH
As we age we supposedly get “wiser”. Not very much, Zachary..
In his book “PROPHETS OF WAR..” William D. Hartung describes
the lobbying for Lockheed’s F-22 in Chapter 1. To defeat Lockheed;s
claim of more jobs, Obama, Emmanuel and Gates offered a deal
whereby the F-22 was beaten in exhange for increased arms
(which also kill) such as dronesw and other fighters(pp. 12-13):
“…critical support for the [Obama] administration’s came from
a network of good government organizations that included
Women’s Action for New Directions, Business Leaders for
Sensible Priorities,Taxpayers for Common Sense, Common
Cause, Peace Action, The Institutes for Policy Studies and
the Project for Government Oversight. Members of these
groups generated emails and letters while
simultaneously working the Halls of Congress in support of
the Levin-McCain AMENDMENT to kill the F-22…”
Indeed, “democracy” is a thing of beauty!
While singing “I ain’t going to study war no more”, Barack
Obama’s face is idolized everywhere. Our savior!!
As for why we consider it fine to kill others, read with
care the words of Francis Jennings in Chapter l of his
1975 book “THE INVASION OF AMERICA”. Jennings’
profound reflections are as relevant today.
(And neither Barack Obama nor Donald Trump are
mentioned.)
Yes, what fools we mortals be!
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, Mass, USA
With friends like Saudi Arabia who needs enemies? Our cat’s paw instruments in Saudi Arabia are so blatantly evil, it is a really difficult job for American propagandists to cover up their crimes.
Yes Mike…and Saudi Arabia is one of the major sponsors of American “think tanks”, those glorified institutions from which we get our foreign policy “experts’.
https://crivellistreetchronicle.blogspot.com/2016/08/think-tanks-where-ideas-are-controlled.html
https://crivellistreetchronicle.blogspot.com/2016/10/allied-with-al-qaeda-in-yemen.html