The following is a statement given by Inder Comar at a side event of the 37th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 15, 2018.
By Inder Comar
Democracy is dying. As we convene to remember the 15th year anniversary of the Iraq War, the fundamental lesson of that war is that our democratic norms are at grave risk when judges and courts fail to hold government leaders accountable for a patently illegal war.
Inder Comar delivers the statement at a side event of the 37th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 15, 2018.
It is impossible to understand the lack of accountability over the Iraq War without understanding the defining crisis of our time. And that is the crisis of Empire; of a disintegrating global order where the rule of law is now being replaced with the rule of might.
Aggression: the supreme international crime.
A crime that was banned at Nuremberg.
A crime which sent Nazi leaders to the gallows.
The prohibition against aggression is a jus cogens norm of international law, meaning a norm from which no derogation is permitted, and which states are obligated to uphold.
There is overwhelming legal consensus that the United States and the United Kingdom committed the crime of aggression when they launched their invasion in 2003. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan concluded that the US-led war was “illegal” in 2004 and in contravention of the UN Charter.
The Charter only allows acts of violence against another State under two circumstances. The first is in times of self-defense. The second is with explicit approval from the Security Council. Neither circumstance applied to the Iraq War.
There was no Security Council resolution that authorized the war. Language in Resolution 1441, passed in November 2002, threatening Iraq with “serious consequences” for failure to disarm was not enough.
The U.S. and the U.K. knew they needed a specific Security Council resolution to authorize an invasion. This is plainly evidenced by their frantic attempts to obtain a second resolution immediately prior to the war. That effort was abandoned when it became clear that a second resolution would be vetoed. The U.S. and the U.K. invaded Iraq anyway.
Where would we be if all States acted like this? What would be the purpose of the resolution process? What would be the purpose of the U.N.?
It is also clear the war was not conducted in self-defense. Self-defense is generally an immediate action against an imminent aggression. Iraq, which had been subject to more than a decade of crippling international sanctions, was not in any position to invade the strongest country on Earth. Iraq had no connection to al Qaeda, and had disarmed its weapons program—two truths the Bush Administration did not want to believe, and which they tried to cover up as they pushed for war.
In the 15 years since the U.S.-led invasion, there has been only one serious attempt to hold the responsible leaders accountable for this “supreme international crime.” Private Iraqi civilians who were affected by the war tried to hold Bush-era officials accountable in U.S. courts under a theory of aggression.
However, in 2017 a court of appeals ruled in the case Saleh v. Bush that former President Bush and other high officials were immune from civil investigation. The appellate court relied upon a domestic law that grants U.S. officials immunity for alleged crimes, including heinous international crimes.
This shows that, in the United States today, international legal obligations are inferior to the protection of government leaders, even when those leaders have committed grave offenses against others.
The Coalition also committed numerous other war crimes during the Iraq War that I would like to address:
o First, the Member States of the Coalition directed attacks against civilians who were not taking part in hostilities—a direct breach of the Geneva Conventions.
o Second, human rights organizations, news agencies, and official military inquiries found that U.S.-operated detention facilities used various forms of torture during the occupation.
§ For instance, the torture at Abu Ghraib prison included common physical abuse like punching, slapping, and kicking detainees, as well as arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them.
§ There is a documented history of sexual abuse and rape at the prison.
These acts of torture are grave breaches under the Geneva Conventions. They are war crimes and should be addressed as such.
The U.S. has never prosecuted any high-ranking government employee for these war crimes, including for torture. And in light of that 2017 judgment in Saleh v. Bush there is virtually no chance that a civil inquiry will produce restitution for victims, or change anyone’s behavior in high office. In fact, just this week, the woman who helped oversee the Bush-era torture program has been rewarded for her complicity and is now the nominee to run the Central Intelligence Agency.
A world in which government officials are immune from judicial scrutiny is a world of despotism and tyranny. The essence of the rule of law is that no one is above the law; and that the actions of all people, including chief executives, can be scrutinized by a judge.
Today the rule of law, everywhere, is in grave danger. And we are dangerously close to living in a world where imperial norms are ascendant—even in Western countries.
Fifteen years after the U.S. invasion, what chills me the most has been the rapid acceptance and glorification of Empire in the United States.
In matters of foreign policy, and increasingly, in matters of domestic policy, the American president is totally unaccountable, immune from inquiry, and hostile to inalienable freedoms.
Today, President Trump claims the authority and the power:
- To invade any country at will, or destroy it completely with nuclear weapons;
- To assassinate any person with a robotic drone;
- To gather and collect any and all electronic communications;
- To hold any suspected terrorist indefinitely, without charge, in Guantanamo Bay;
- And to disregard preexisting laws, constitutional rights or judicial review.
The powers of the American president today are greater than that of any English king, or any Roman emperor.
Like the ancient Romans, who were fed a steady diet of bread and circus, modern Americans are subject to some of the most pernicious forms of propaganda ever developed. Concentrated media power has resulted in corporate news programming which demonizes Muslims, foreigners, and people of color.
Meanwhile, concentrated economic power has resulted in the greatest systemic inequality of wealth in American history.
And concentrated political power has resulted in a neo-fascist and openly racist Republican Party, and a neo-liberal and systemically racist Democratic Party.
More than ever, Americans accept the slaughter of people in the Middle East in the name of their security. In Bagram, Guantanamo, and elsewhere people are indefinitely detained, without trial, and are subjected to torture.
Imperial garrisons encircle our planet with more than 800 American military bases in 80 countries on every major continent, from Diego Garcia to Okinawa to Rammstein to Samoa to the Azores. Just in the last month, the American Government announced its plans to develop a new class of nuclear weapons, furthering an arms race with the Russians, the Chinese and the North Koreans. It also seeks a 13% increase in its arms budget from 2017.
Not since Rome has the world borne witness to so few controlling so many.
But, “these violent delights have violent ends.” American society—my society—is ever more crippled by moral, ethical and humanitarian crises that routinely shock visitors from other countries.
Students are drowning in student debt, unable to start their careers or build families.
Lack of affordable health care and an addiction crisis is dragging American life expectancy downward. America’s obsession with war has now turned inward, as a gun violence crisis results in the weekly sacrifice of children, to the cult of the Second Amendment.
De facto apartheid keeps power in the hands of a privileged white elite, who have destroyed labor unions, created enemies out of Muslims and blacks, have crippled millions of people into lives of debt servitude and destitution, and who buy and sell their favored elected officials by caprice and whim.
The country that produced the Iraq War 15 years ago is in far worse shape today.
There are three important reasons we need to urgently create accountability for the Iraq War.
First, we must restore an international order based on the rule of law.
Second, we must confront the bias of international law—holding only poor and non-Western countries liable for international crimes, while ignoring the crimes of Western powers. This bias is underscored and exacerbated if the international community declines to investigate and prosecute the Coalition’s crimes in Iraq.
Third, we must provide justice to the victims of the Iraq War.
These three reasons are of course related.
The United Nations was manipulated as a tool to acquire wider support for the invasion—most prominently, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s 2003 speech falsely claimed facts about the Iraqi weapons program. In so doing, the United States abused the United Nations, turning these halls into a house of lies — lies spread to support the annihilation of another member state.
This abuse of the United Nations to further a perverse agenda—an agenda that stands in direct contradiction to the purpose of the United Nations—makes it essential to restore accountability.
Without accountability, we invite future abuse of this precious international system. And we exacerbate the divisions in our world where non-Western crimes are treated with far more scrutiny than those committed by Western Powers. A just world order depends on consistent accountability, for all nations, for war crimes and the crime of aggression. International law needs to be applied equally to all nations.
Without accountability, we leave Iraqi victims to fend for themselves. We fail them—as lawyers, as diplomats, and as ethical beings.
There is a choice facing our species at this very moment. Humor me when I tell you that I have glimpsed our future. And it is a future that is dark.
I foresee a world beset by environmental problems, with numerous species going extinct, with plastic choking our waterways and forests, and with climate change creating global chaos for which our world is simply not prepared.
I foresee displacement and refugee crises, as people flee their homes in the wake of rising seas, more powerful storms, and historic heat waves and droughts—people movements that will make the Syrian crisis seem like a child’s game.
I foresee a world where people, devastated by economic despair, turn to demagogues and authoritarians—as they are already doing—as ways of dealing with the desiccation of their ways of life.
I foresee a world where our democratic freedoms, already withering, are replaced with stark imperial values.
But this does not have to be our future.
There is another way.
And that way begins here, today, with each of us. It begins with imagining a world where the rule of law and democracy are the fundamental building blocks of our shared human rights, our shared freedoms, and our shared civilization.
It begins with us realizing that we deserve to live in a better world than one in which leaders who commit grave international crimes can walk free, while the victims of those outrageous acts are forced to recover in the solitude and pain of trauma.
There is a choice we face—a choice between civilization and chaos.
The Iraq War was the gravest international crime since the Second World War. It was a malicious act committed by leaders of the most powerful country in history, with the full resources of a multi-trillion dollar economy.
We cannot build a civilized future for ourselves and for our descendants unless we build a robust international legal order.
The people who commandeered my country and my government must be held to account before a judge—so that they know, and others may know, that the supreme crime cannot go unpunished.
Help me build that future. Help me in our shared quest for a civilized Earth.
I call today for the creation of an independent international tribunal, with jurisdiction to investigate and indict the British and American leaders who led the invasion, for the crime of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
I call for this tribunal to analyze, impartially, once and for all, the issue of immunity as it relates to grave international crimes.
I call for due process for the accused, that they be advised of the charges against them and be given access to counsel so that they may mount a defense. If convicted, I call for them to serve out their sentences in humane conditions, where they can reflect on what they have done. I call on the tribunal to order restitution to the millions of victims who suffered on account of their conduct.
I call for every nation concerned with justice to open their courts to claims of aggression on the basis of universal jurisdiction. Those who commit aggression, like those who commit torture, slavery, and piracy, are hostis humani generis – enemies of humanity, who may be prosecuted and held to account in the court of any civilized country.
The hope of our shared civilization rests on a renewed commitment to the United Nations and its vision of collective security. World leaders must settle their disputes through dialogue.
Thus, I urge the Human Rights Council to appoint a Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in Iraq. I urge the United Nations to condemn illegal acts of aggression, torture and mass killings, including those committed by powerful countries like the United States.
And I ask my countrymen and women, in America, to walk back from the abyss of Empire. We have a special duty to hold our leaders responsible, to make redress to the Iraqi people, and to promote and sustain the global peace.
This is the way back to civilization itself, towards a deep and fulfilling justice that enables all of us to live out our lives in dignity and in peace. This is a future worth imagining and a future worth creating. It starts with justice for Iraq.
Thank you.
[Originally published at InderComar.com. Republished with permission.]
This was a very good post. Thank you for that. I have a comment about one thing you wrote in regards to the second amendment.
I can think of three leaders who were successful in disarming their citizens; Mao, Stalin and Hitler. This is the reason why the second amendment exists. Its not so we can all be macho killers, its because a government that has a monopoly on violence often abuses that power. We can see that the current government already abuses their power. For example, over 1200 people a year are killed by cops each year. About half were unarmed. Are we really supposed to believe that they would stop abusing us if we were disarmed? Criminals would still have guns and the cops never know who is an isn’t a criminal so they would still shoot first and call the ambulance after they were sure you bled out.
I have heard the argument that ‘whats the point of allowing the public to own rifles and hand guns because they could never win a war against the modern war machine.’ Well, tell that to the Vietnamese, or the Cubans, or more recently the Afghans. They were all successful at fighting organized well trained and equipped military. The reason is because a war of occupation is always a war of attrition. I’m really surprised our leaders have not figured that out yet.
Consider this: Lets say that in a distopian future the government decides to collect the debt slaves to be sold to corporations who want basically free labor. How many debt slaves would the government be able to collect if they had to fight a battle at every house? I bet they would be able to collect a lot more if no one had the means to fight back.
I find it interesting that you openly admit our US government is not operating under the rule of law and is by definition criminal, so why would anyone want to give a regime like this more power? Disarming the populace would do that in a big way. The founding fathers whether you like them or not, understood this. This is why they enshrined the right to bear arms in the second amendment. Please consider what I am saying here. I think its important for us as Americans to consider this.
As Americans we must realize that we are in the same position that Germans were in when Hitler invaded Poland to start the Second World War. We have abdicated our responsibilities to humanity and the world. We’ve been America’s willing executioners since its founding in 1776. History will judge us for what we failed to do and for being so dimwitted that we allowed these heinous crimes against humanity to go unpunished.God have mercy on us all!
Reply to William F Soto; Our so called leaders can’t “duck and cover” from the hand of God but why should they care? The godless do not fear God himself, let alone another world war. These days old adage is oft repeated- the lunatics are now in charge of the psych ward ! The tools of impeachment, no taxation without representation and various forms of BDS have not been applied with force or enthusiasm from the citizenry at large. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?! (quotation from Macbeth)
I agree with almost everything in this article. But, shockingly perhaps to the younger generation, the Iraq war is only the 2nd gravest international crime since the Second World War.
The U.S. aggression against the small, agrarian country of Viet Nam remains the worst international crime since Hitler and the Second World War.
Yes, I have to agree with this. The amount of ordnance dropped on Southeast Asia (and unexploded ordnance that is still killing people), acreage poisoned by agent orange, and civilian death toll was worse than the carnage of the Iraq war. But all war is hell, and this article is spot-on in all other aspects.
This comment is, in part, a reprint for my earlier commentaries to CONSORTIUMNEWS readers.
International corporate entities who buy congressional seats in Washington DC are at the very foundation of this endless war mongering, not sovereign government bodies so please ! Stop confusing and muddying the waters as to who the real culprits responsible for endless war actually are. Corporate weapons manufacturing facilities may own real estate within the western Occident countries however neither the common citizenry at large or associated religious institutions, want corporate welfare to continue and to manufacture finished products of death (small arms export tax subsidies for example) .
Voting corruption(s) such as financing the entire electioneering process, with dark money, rigged (well in advance) candidates running for high office, elections with fraudulent electronic voting methods, dangling chads and above all, using the illegitimate force of Washington lobbyists to garner support for their various causes, by any and all means (intimidation, pledges to foreign governments and the like)…Most of these lobbied causes are not based on democratic principles, justice, morality or ethical standards-they’re all simply united under a single umbrella of a fascist corporate take over of the West, and not witnessed since the rise of the corporatists in pre-world war two Italy (many shocking parallels to today’s political environs!! Another example; economic rivalries such as the Iran, Iraq and Syria pipeline deal (singed in 2010) that will bring a 3,480-mile natural gas pipeline connecting from Iran’s South Pars field to the EU via a northern Syrian port, thus the precipitating cause behind the new Syrian conflict. A conflict artificially created for the purposes of controlling or shelving that 2010 deal. Along similar (pipe) lines,The Iraq War, where a planned construction of the Haifa Pipeline by Bechtel or was it Halliburton? cost the lives of some five hundred thousand Iraqis, most of them children (Saddam opposed the pipeline). The minerals of Afghanistan, estimated to be at least a trillion dollars worth, with, no doubt, Kellogg, Brown and Root waiting quietly on the sidelines to begin building roads to mining operations and runways to, once again, extract, pilfer, slave labor as much as they can (don’t ever forget their Vietnam projects during that war) ..As always, to begin their long term projects, with divide and conquer, mini insurrections, and much bloodletting. WHENEVER WILL WE ALL WAKE UP?! Remember the old adage fellow citizens, No taxation without representation!
What about the Libyan and Syrian wars? Or the use of drones in countries that we weren’t at war with? This is why Obama didn’t prosecute Bush and company for war crimes. He knew that he was going to be committing his own war crimes.
No we are no longer a democracy because there is no rule of law anymore here.
I sure would not want to live in a police state without guns, ya fookin tard.
The only thing you could accomplish by resisting the police state with your guns is having heavy military weapons called in to exterminate you.
Fook you.
The american empire is based on the petrodollar system. Iraq threatened that system by selling its oil in euros, instead of us dollars as it had done previously. That is why the US invaded. Russia is currently also threatening the petrodollar system, hence its demonization in the msm.
You have good comments you are adding to this site. Keep on keeping on.
Great address by Inder Comar, should have been to the entire UN body not just a side meeting. Democracy is not just dying, though, as he begins the address, it is dead. Many good comments here, too. The US is analogous to Rome and now is ready for collapse with its humungous debt and deficit. That’s most likely why these guys want to stir up another war, to fool the sheeple. Piling on more money for military is insanity and all of these glorious reports of improvement in US economy are pure b.s.
Homelessness is being criminalized in LA while rents are so high that homelessness is at all time high. That’s only ome example of how the US is rotting from within.
Mike k, you have one of the best Senators in the entire body, Rand Paul. (The author of “Clinton Cash” has a new book coming out on corruption in Congress.)
Rand definitely has some good ideas, and some that are not. But he is not afraid to stand alone, and I respect that a lot. The level of cowardly conformity in congress is truly disgusting.
Whew! Smoke ’em city, dude. The bad news? You’re absolutely correct. Further bad news – the US and Britain (as well as the other members of “The Coalition of the Willing” who are equally guilty by virtue of complicity) will ignore any rulings from any such tribunal. Further further bad news. The UN has no method to impose a penalty on these evil doers who violate every norm of international society. And the worst news of all, the UN is an abject failure for exactly the same reason the League of Nations failed – the inability of international organizations to impose penalties on powerful member states.
AND, if you want to prevent the war that is headed our way, you also need to already have been taking steps to stop the illegal economic warfare being conducted by the US and our lapdogs, the old colonial powers in the form of unilateral economic sanctions.
If I were to choose a single sentence that encompasses the quintessential of this speech, I would pick this one “
the rule of law is now being replaced with the rule of might.” Even though it is a sad thing to admit but it encapsulates what has been taking place worldwide. God helps us all.
“If you’re not willing to kill everybody who has a different idea than yourself, you cannot have Frederick Hayek’s free market. You cannot have Alan Greenspan or the Chicago School, you cannot have the economic freedom that is freedom for the rentiers and the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) sector to reduce the rest of the economy to serfdom.” ~ Michael Hudson
The teaching of neoliberalism in most mainstream universities must end. There is a growing global movement among economics students who are demanding to be taught economic history and pluralism. MMT (modern monetary theory) has garnered millions of advocates and the time is ripe for the transition to a new economic era, one that does not require military coercion to implement.
“Economics students are forced to spend so much time with this complex calculus so that they can go to work on Wall St. that there’s no room in the course curriculum for the history of economic thought.
So all they know about Adam Smith is what they hear on CNN news or other mass media that are a travesty of what these people really said and if you don’t read the history of economic thought, you’d think there’s only one way of looking at the world and that’s the way the mass media promote things and it’s a propagandistic, Orwellian way.
The whole economic vocabulary is to cover up what’s really happening and to make people think that the economy is getting richer while the reality is they’re getting poorer and only the top is getting richer and they can only get rich as long as the middle class and the working class don’t realize the scam that’s being pulled off on them.” ~ Michael Hudson
How could anyone in his right mind dare to disagree with Mr. Hudson truthfulness regarding Education. His lucid insights are perfect.
The dream of all countries complying with international law is an old one but unlikely to happen anytime soon. Mr Comar states that “The U.S. and the U.K. knew they needed a specific Security Council resolution to authorize an invasion … The U.S. and the U.K. invaded Iraq anyway … Where would we be if all States acted like this? Unfortunately, most powerful states do act like that. No Security Council resolution authorized Russia to invade Ukraine, for example. Russia invaded Ukraine anyway. Russia’s breaches of international law don’t justify present or future American breaches of international law, but the same applies in reverse. Putin cannot rely on real or alleged breaches of international on the part of the US or any other country to justify his actions in Ukraine. Putin’s American supporters could well take a leaf from Mr Comar’s book.
By the way, I’d love to know what “side event” means. And why we’re not told precisely what the event was. The other man in the photo is Salah Al-Mukhtar, described by Wikipedia as “the foremost resisting Ba’athist leader of Iraq. He was Deputy General secretary of the Arab League and Saddam Hussein’s ambassador to many countries”.
Russia did not invade Ukraine. Russia’s army could march across Ukraine in a matter of days if they so desired. Crimea has been part of Russia since the armies of Catherine the Great defeated the Ottoman Empire in 1783.
Here is a link to Oliver Stone’s film regarding Ukraine, “Ukraine On Fire.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6kw0hwZknc&list=PLcRjJbYC-3HC6gjey2ui3Lb0gilX3PpTE
Paul-
Just to let you know, Michael Kenny is one of our resident trolls, and his favorite topic is Ukraine. He is a hit and run troll, and never responds to any rebuttal. He has been absent for a couple months, but he’s probably back from vacation, and here to spew his usual MSM BS once again.
The Nuremberg trials were based on the state mock-trials of Germans held in Soviet zones. The main Judge was Nikitchenko, who had presided over Stalin’s show trials of 1936 to 1938 in the Soviet Union. The Court’s Constitution included such outrageous rules as “The Tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence” (Article 19); “The Tribunal may require to be informed of the nature of any evidence before it is entered so that it may rule upon the relevance thereof” (Article 20;)”The Tribunal shall not require proof of facts of common knowledge” (Article 21).
The Tribunals rejected the age-old tradition of immunity from criminal prosecution of sovereign nations. The Allies discarded the basic principle of Western jurisprudence that in the absence of a law there can be neither crime nor punishment. Instead, the Tribunal established new laws for the occasion, which were applied not only retroactively, but uniquely and exclusively to the German defendants.
The Chief Justice of the United States Harlan Fiske Stone called the Nuremberg trials a fraud. He said “Chief US prosecutor Jackson is away conducting his high-grade lynching party in Nuremberg . . . I don’t mind what he does to the Nazis, but I hate to see the pretense that he is running a Court and proceeding according to common law. This is a little too sanctimonious a fraud to meet my old-fashioned ideas.”
That same Robert Jackson was the U.S. Attorney General who ruled that FDR could supply warships to Churchill in 1940, in violation of four U.S. laws, including the 1907 Hague Convention, Title 18 of the U.S. Law, Section 3, tTtle 5 of the 1917 Espionage Act, and the 1937 Neutrality Act. But Jackson delivered the opinion in the summer of 1940 that the President could not only supply warships to Britain in violation of these laws but he could do so without the necessity of securing Congressional approval for what amounted to a de facto declaration of war against Germany.
World War Two was not “the Good War”: it was the model of lawlessness and disregard for the democratic process that all of America’s foreign “wars of avarice and ambition”, to use John Quincy Adams’ memorable phrase, have followed, covertly or overtly, since that fateful year of 1940, when FDR’s America ceased being a nation of laws.
For interested readers, you can read Supreme Court Justice Jackson’s reasoning on the appropriateness of the Nuremberg trials here.
“Opening Address of Robert Jackson at Nuremberg Trials”
http://wwwthesixthestate.blogspot.com/2007/10/opening-address-of-robert-jackson-at.html
Hey Joe486 thanks for that. I always enjoy when someone brings history to comment board. So today I learned two new things, either that or I forgot to take my memory pills. Joe
Harlan Fiske Stone served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1925 to 1941 and as the 12th Chief Justice of the United States from 1941 to 1946.
Stone was the Chief Justice in Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), the landmark ruling that the exclusion of Japanese Americans into internment camps was constitutional. It was the first and most notable case in which the Supreme Court applied the strict scrutiny standard and found the government’s actions valid.
As Chief Justice, Stone did describe the Nuremberg court as “a fraud” to Germans, even though his colleague and successor as Associate Justice, Robert H. Jackson, served as the chief U.S. prosecutor.
Each of the four major Allied military forces, the Americans, Soviets, British and French, provided one judge and an alternative, as well as a prosecutor at the Nuremburg Trials. Iona Nikitchenko served as the main Soviet judge.
Jackson, in a letter discussing the weaknesses of the trial, in October 1945 told U.S. President Harry S. Truman that the Allies themselves “have done or are doing some of the very things we are prosecuting the Germans for. The French are so violating the Geneva Convention in the treatment of prisoners of war that our command is taking back prisoners sent to them. We are prosecuting plunder and our Allies are practising it. We say aggressive war is a crime and one of our allies asserts sovereignty over the Baltic States based on no title except conquest.”
Associate Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas charged that the Allies were guilty of “substituting power for principle” at Nuremberg. “I thought at the time and still think that the Nuremberg trials were unprincipled,” he wrote. “Law was created ex post facto to suit the passion and clamor of the time.”
Having said that, the post by “Joe486” is a sourced from an online rant about “International Jewry”, largely cribbed from a pro-Nazi author (see follow-up comment below)
What we have here is an Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” and fake “anti-Jewish”) propaganda troll ploy, not a post from “someone who brings history”.
“Joe486” is an Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” and fake “anti-Jewish”) propaganda troll.
The comment by “Joe486” is mostly text copied from
https://pastebin.com/pPbr2LcQ
The text source that “Joe486” copied from claims “The Allied powers of WWII (led by Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, et. al.) were tools of International Jewry and thus de facto fighting for the Jewish globalist worldview.”
A popular Inverted Hasbara propaganda tactic is to masquerade as an Alt-Right or neo-Nazi loon.
Part of the Pastebin text copied by “Joe486” was itself copied from 2033-The Century After: How the World Would Look/Be If Nazi Germany & Empire Japan Had Won World War II (2017) by a “Georg Woodman Dr Msc & Phd”, apparently an author of books glorifying Hitler’s Third Reich.
Harlan Fiske Stone was hardly a paragon of virtue himself. He voted in favor of the military tribunal in Ex parte Quirin for the eight German saboteurs. Needless to say, this has led to Bush and Obama and Trump’s illegal confinements and tortures since then.
Stone also voted for the internment of the Japanese in WW2. So the man was hardly a great fan of “justice”.
The fellow he attacked, Robert H. Jackson, was a fellow Supreme Court Justice. A man who had the guts to vote against the Japanese Internment.
This remark tells me the poster is a Libertarian Nut, a neo-Nazi, or maybe both. No war is a “good war”, but some are necessary. World War Two most certainly was.
EDIT: I suppose I ought to have checked for other rebuttals before charging in with my own post.
This is a GREAT statement by Inder Comar. The comparison to the Roman Empire is appropriate. The Roman Republic was also riddled with corruption, rendering it similarly incapable of dealing with its most pressing problems. Injustice was rampant at home and abroad. It was an unsustainable situation.
America is in dire need of Revolution 2.0, this time against King Israel. Key facts about Israel’s crimes and its control over America are presented plainly and simply, thoroughly documented, and suitable for sharing with skeptical friends and family in
“War Profiteer Story”
http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com
Now with Bolton, Pompeo, and Haley on board Trump’s ship of death, how can we fail to go on the rocks of nuclear war? Our boy genius President is steering by dead reckoning straight for Armageddon………
I do not believe that Trump selected those people for top positions, just as it was crazy to think Obama had selected the Wall Street fraudsters that precipitated the crash of ’08 for his cabinet. Presidents don’t have that power any more; they are mere figureheads that must carry out orders from the elites that own all the branches of our government as well as the corporate media, cyber and security services. Above them, a criminal international banking cartel calls the shots to all the other major Western powers. The US pursues perpetual war because it is highly profitable. Michael Ruppert said: “Until you change the way money works, you change nothing.”
Unfortunately, I think that’s the truth. Don’t ever expect national policy to change regardless of what any of ’em say in the campaigns, because guiding national policy is no longer within the purview of what has become a merely ceremonial office. Presidents get their marching orders from the Deep State. If they don’t like it, they will suffer the consequences. Heck, they get pilloried even when they dance like a puppet on a string. It’s all part of the staged drama.
By all means, the worst homicidal maniacs one could install to power. Is this the price paid by Trump to remain alive? Or was he replaced by a pod person, or maybe have a brain transplant? Such a disconnect with the policies he campaigned on. Rather than ameliorating the horrible path taken by his warmongering predecessors, his every move makes disaster more likely and peace & prosperity more remote. To quote the man himself: “Sad.”
Question:
There have been a lot of articles and radio programs commemorating the Iraq Wars. One name I have not heard mentioned is April Glaspie. Do you remember who she was and the role she played in the first Gulf War?
Answer:
—In a now famous interview with the Iraqi leader, U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie told Saddam, ‘[W]e have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait.’ The U.S. State Department had earlier told Saddam that Washington had ‘no special defense or security commitments to Kuwait.’ The United States may not have intended to give Iraq a green light, but that is effectively what it did.”
http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/09/wikileaks-april-glaspie-and-saddam-hussein/
Opinion time, but mine is that giving Saddam the “green light” was exactly what Bush Daddy had in mind. Saddam was getting a little too big for his britches, and needed to be encouraged to do something the US could pretend to be outraged about.
I don’t doubt for a second that Bushdaddy thought he could coast to re-election as a victorious “war president,” the same ploy later used by his idiot son Bushbaby. Panama was his practice game for taking down a dictator that we helped create and install into office. Saddam, like Noriega, thought we were his best buds. We coaxed him into seizing the Shat al-Arab waterway from Iran, sparking that whole fiasco in which we provided Saddam with intelligence and weapons whilst furtively concomitantly selling weapons, counter to federal statute, to Iran. Saddam was already ticked at the Kuwaiti Emir for stealing Iraqi oil via slant drilling, and basically took Glaspie’s non-committal remarks as a sly go-ahead. We always say we want peace five seconds before we launch a war. Deception is coin of the realm in diplomacy.
To: Independent Comment
I do not prescribe to “global governance”, a term that smacks of “universal empire”, but I do care about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. During the 19th(Civil War) and 20th century(all military conflicts), income tax dollars have fueled the war machine, dramatically increased profits for stock markets, banks, corporations and other incidental or intentional war profiteers. It makes one wonder whether it is governments or international vested interests who are the real instigators of war. Surely, monetary incentives, in the form of stock market profits, lucrative revolving door jobs, campaign contributions, outright bribes and blackmail, are incentives for politicians to vote for war.
The public does not profit from war, but a wealthy few gain more concentrated economic power. I would recommend reducing this profit motive by replacing the income tax, sales tax, excise tax and tariffs with a decentralized form of Edgar Feige’s APT tax with limits on extreme inheritance. All other things remaining the same, this would improve the productive economy and reduce market speculation. There would be a widespread net increase for average real wages, dividends, savings, consumption, production and exports. Any attempts to hyper-inflate the economy, by overly printing currency and reducing purchasing power, would be more obvious to the public.
Besides, tax shelters and tax havens have made the income tax regressive and obsolete with the current technologies now available to implement a better tax system. One can choose to treat the current and future symptoms of military conflicts or work on the cause of the problem, AKA the war tax. I would suggest the same for all civlilized nations since the Peace of Westphalia.
I’m no prophet godenich, but what I see coming down the road for the U.S. (if we don’t blow everything up first) is a nationalization program bigger than the world has ever seen. This 19 trillion edging onto 20 isn’t going to be able to be driven down while at the same time the American economy, which is supported in a computer model of flourishing phony assets, isn’t going to last forever, and still be able to place humongous purchase orders for defense weapons, as to also bail out fixed fraudulent banking schemes, and still be able to pay down the National debt. Unless there is a jubilee moment of some sort, then something will need to collapse only to be lifted up by a public takeover of the Federal Reseve, and the Defense Industry, and still take over the biggest Wall Street Banks…if this occurs, because what do I know, then if this happens the U.S. will have become a Socialist Nation. One last thing, if this is the future let’s all hope America jettisons it’s Israeli trained police state, and we don’t become fascist on top of whatever it is we will call this new nationalist government which I see as a possibility. Joe
To: Joe Tedesky
I hear you, Joe. The lunatics have been running the asylum for quite some time. What’s happening to the Muslims in Palestine reminds me of what happened to the Jews in Germany. I really don’t begrudge the Jews for wanting a stable Israel with defendable borders or that they want it to be a Jewish State. Religious-based regimes in the Middle East seem to be the norm rather than the exception. I respect that. I blame the duplicity of the British, then the USA and the UN, for creating an intolerable situation in Palestine. Israel has long been a political tool of the Great Powers even before it’s founding. Saudi Arabia is another protection racket, as were Iran and other territories around the world. What happened to the native Arab Muslims in western Palestine is reminiscent of what happened to the native tribes of America at the hands of European colonists, being robbed and pushed off their land. You would think that Jordan, part of the original Palestine, going as far back as Roman times, would make accommodation for fellow Arab Muslims, perhaps with compensation from the international community, Britain, the USA and Israel. Maybe it’s a Sunni-Shiite or nomad Bedouin issue, but I haven’t read up on the subject.
If the above compromise did occur, it may be likely that more issues arise with other societies like the Armenians, Kurds, Zoroastrian Persians, etc. My current pet theory is that the public perspective of Jews, as a political force, arose from their financial history with Venice, the Medici’s in Florence and the Fuggers in the German Free States due primarily to the Christian church ban on usury. Up until Martin Luther’s Reformation, Jews in the ghettos and highly placed ‘Court Jews’ were tagged and forced into close-knit communities and limited to professions like finance for many generations. I think Israel may have been a dream for Jews to break out of their confined roles, confined domiciles and status as secondary citizens in many countries. I can only imagine how I might have felt, but I’m not Jewish so I really don’t know and this is just speculation on my part.
The power elite(aristocrats, landed gentry, guild masters, merchant bankers) muddy the waters, in the public eye(newspapers, radio, TV, Internet), with religious, cultural and political propaganda agitating to disguise more simple-to-understand economic forces that influence the governments of nation states. The Persian kings got their take from the governors of Satraps, Spartans taxed the Helots at about 50% of their productive labor, the Romans relied heavily on slave labor(100% of labor plus Roman army pillaging), the Church imposed 10% tithing on it’s serf flocks(plus 6/7 of labor to lords of the manor). We eventually arrive with the British inventing the modern form of the ‘Income Tax’ to fund the ‘welfare-warfare’ state and ‘free trade’ between 1798 and 1842(along with an equivalent form of war pillaging euphemistically called war reparations). Jumping forward, It wasn’t until around the 1970’s that Tobin proposed the financial transaction tax(around the start of the petro-dollar) and Edgar Feige refined the concept into a general form of taxation to replace the current tax regime called the APT tax in 1989. Decentralizing the APT tax would distribute politico-economic power, in the form of tax dollars, more evenly spread across communities in the nation state and encourage grassroots bottom-up civic participation in government, as well as in democratic elections of their representatives for the allocation of tax dollars to benefit local communities and bubble up funding to higher levels of government at the state and federal level.
The great equalizer in society (besides the peacemaker) seems to have been the rising literacy rate and exchange of ideas in the population over the ages powered by new technologies, like the Guternberg printing press and hence, the dispelling of old myths. The internet seems to be the latest wave, heralding in a new age of rapid propagation of mass literacy and social interaction. I like to moan a lot, but I do see great possibilities, ahead. I really do hope wiser heads will prevail in the near future.
You might be amused by this old British political comedy about the trials of a newly minted minister…, love those British accents, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdVFD1MuPrU
But eliminating federal income tax is like stopping blood flow to the brain to solve an emotional problem. It will work, but there is much more to be lost, for which we depend upon the brain. If we renounce or renegotiate NATO and pass an amendment prohibiting military treaties that are not purely defensive, we have eliminated the disease without killing the organism. Of course there are other amendments needed, to restrict funding of mass media and elections to limited individual contributions, to provide checks and balances within each federal branch, to sharply limit executive branch power, etc.
NATO was created as a defense-only treaty and I agree with your sentiments on reinforcing that, however that does not ensure the economic viability of our own armed forces or the loyalty of our own citizenry under an increasingly oppressive tax & regulation regime that is destroying our economic base, destroying our competitiveness in foreign markets, destroying decent-paying jobs and degrading our standard of living through increasing monetary inflation. A decentralized form of Edgar Feige’s APT tax[1-3] with limits on extreme inheritance does not stop the flow of blood to the brain, but it may help to regulate it through the legislative process up to the brain. It reduces taxes for ordinary businesses and citizens by broadening the tax base without sacrificing tax revenues. It helps to solidify the economic pillar upon which our welfare-warfare state stands upon and strengthens the checks and balances of our government at every level. This is just one of many reforms needed, but this one is essential to a cure, in my opinion. When I discovered the correlation of income tax to the perpetuation of war, corruption and economic decline, it made my stomach turn.
[1] Alternative Proposals Reform, May 11 2005 | Video | C-SPAN (second 5-minute speaker)
https://www.c-span.org/video/?186687-5/alternative-proposals-reform
[2] Taxation for the 21ST Century: The Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax | SSRN
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2486665
[3] APT Tax | Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG8jngOwbpE
While I avoid videos, a quick scan of paper [2] suggests:
1. An APT flat tax on transactions seems less progressive (higher rate at higher income levels) than what we have, and does not permit defining income caps. Income tax was originally intended to be more progressive than flat taxes.
2. Not sure that such a tax would simplify taxation much because one still must handle corporate accounting, foreign transactions, gifts/exchanges, unreported transactions, tax havens, exemptions for the poor, etc.
3. Not sure how this would improve democratic control of funding.
To: Sam F
The video presentation graphically explains the progressive nature of the tax and Adjusted Gross Income(AGI). Here’s a graphic[1] that shows the AGI slice for the ‘income tax base’ compared to the whole pie for the ‘apt tax base’. The ‘income tax base’ or AGI is very roughly $10 Trillion per year [2]. Edgar Feige estimated (back in 2000) that the ‘apt tax base’ would be 100 X AGI(‘income tax base’) at $1 Quadrillion. I think he underestimated the ‘apt tax base'(the whole pie) given that grossly over $4 Quadrillion per year moves through US markets[3,4].
The apt tax rate is 0.3% when you receive it and 0.3% when you dispense it, net 0.6%. Currently, we pay an average sales tax of 6% plus capital gains tax of 15% plus a corporate tax rate of now 20% and an income tax ranging from 10-37%[5]. Significant tax shelters, tax havens, taxpayer bailouts, government subsidies for wealthy individuals, multi-national corporations and foreign nations make the income tax regressive, reduce tax revenues and increase the need for monetary inflation, tariffs, more taxes, government borrowing and higher interest payments on the national debt (at similar interest rates) to meet current levels of government expenditures. Edgar Feige explained to the Congressional committee on the C-SPAN video that around $800 billion a year would be saved by reducing bureaucracy and paper shuffling(tax preparation, compliance costs…).
Lower taxes translate into a higher percentage of take-home pay and more competitively priced goods & services for the domestic market and export to foreign markets. That may stimulate our economy with new business creation and increase decent-paying jobs. It sounds a lot better than what we have now[6,7]. A decentralized form of this tax with limits on extreme inheritance may benefit our grassroots legislative process, civic participation and political accountability in our democratic electoral process. It may also foster a more effective and conservative view on funding the national welfare-warfare state, especially when unique local issues arise in the local community for mutual aid and local business concerns,… and may help to diffuse the lobbying process for our tax dollars.
[1] Graphic: Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax – Phi Beta Iota
[2] Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2015 Update | Tax Foundation | 2015
[3] Payments Risk Committee final Intraday Liquidity Flows report | FRBNY | 2016
[4] Worldwide Currency Usage & Trends | SWIFT
[5] New: IRS Announces 2018 Tax Rates, Standard Deductions, Exemption Amounts And More | Forbes | 2018
[6] ON THE CONTRARY; Dreaming Out Loud: One Tiny Little Tax| New York Times | 2003
[7] A Very Broad Transaction Tax Might Have Merit | Forbes | 2016
I really liked reading this article, not only informative, but Mr. Comar would make an excellent teacher, everything was so clearly presented, and sequenced. Not that I didn’t realize we were on a downward spiral in terms of international law, but this article really brought that home. Made me remember the argument with a cousin who is an international lawyer who proclaimed Russia’s annexation of Crimea as a breech of international law, but our wars in the ME were okay, or nothing to be upset about. Might makes right in plane sight. I guess the whole idea of these double standards must be quite pervasive. To be honest I haven’t much hope for change, especially when you consider that Bush’s popularity is on an upward spiral, which doesn’t say much for the American mindset, not to mention our continued aggressiveness in the world.
Annie I had a friend who was in our 3 State area the best defense lawyer ever, and while not knowing your cousins age he sounds like a over anxious prosecutor, and my old defense attorney friend loved going head to head with those young types, and the older sluggers as well, because over anxious loses. Just ask the mafia lawyers for example they capitalize on this all the time. Dewey was the best amongst them, and the best he got was to have Lucky protect America’s harbors, and oh yeah help landing troops in Italy… who works for who? So, imagine a great defense attorney representing Russia on Crimea. Only in America this common worldly knowledge is twisted so bad that even good thinking people get sucked in. If truth means anything then a bad ass whooping is coming to a lot of prestigious American law firms, and the State Department. Don’t sell the world short yet.
In the end international lawyers will have to at least sit back for a moment, and rethink the consequences. I mean do you want to draw down on Russia’s and China’s weapons advancements as a bluff? When Curtis LeMay was pushing for an invasion of Cuba, our American Intelligence believed Cuba had 10K Russian troops, when in reality we now know Russia had 40K stationed there. Do you want to lawyer against that? Ask your cousin (who by the way I do have respect for) that.
I’ll mind my own business by staying out of your family affairs, and share this with you in exchange for my forward remarks, my one daughter who is richer than my whole family combined, who doesn’t talk to any of us no longer cause she forgot where she came from…. well I’m a hold out as I still love my little princess, who once worked with Turd Blossom in spite of that is still a fantastic person, she really his she works with schools for free, seriously helps with the homeless, and oh yeah takes in abused animals, and she argues with her fellow country club Republicans that my granddaughter’s can and will grow up to be independent professionals…my daughter can’t hide her Pittsburgh Democrats heritage, just don’t tell her that … well at least Turd Blosdom wasn’t Charlie Manson, but on the other hand …. I digress. This is why we in America celebrate Thanksgiving, as it has nothing to do with Native Americans, as much as it is making peace with our crazy family’s. Joe
Hi, Joe, I don’t care whether you comment on this cousin, everyone one has one problem, or another with family. I just was stunned by his comments, and he was so self righteous about it, and my position according to him reflected ignorance and lack of a patriotic spirit. To be truthful I never was that patriotic, even as a child. Doesn’t mean I don’t care about my country, or it’s people, but it’s not the world, and I care more about the world. It’s interesting that his father was abusive, and maybe that’s where he learned might makes right.
Joe, you are much more optimistic then I am, or have ever been. I will be very surprised if anyone comes to their senses.On another note,when you say your daughter worked for Turd Blosoom, you mean Karl Rove? Well, for your sake I hope your princess reaches some middle ground and revisits her roots, and her Daddy.
We disarmed her after that, and she and at the time our one year granddaughter who lived across the street from the WTC got out in the nick of time on 911, now that will make you thankful to be a live. My daughter happens to be a great writer, and she sincerely has donated a lot of time to projects that benefit communities…. although she is from my first marriage and a product of a bad divorce….but she loves me, and when we talk I can bring out the real her. I will say this, she learned a lot from her days as a young careerist in DC. She moved.
One day if it seems fit I’ll tell you about the liberal kids which we have plenty more of than the couple who either don’t know what they are…like all the son in laws except one are Independents and even the Republican agrees with me, and then the two kids that grew up just wanting to have 3 to 5 kids and get to church on time to pray for their lazyass dad, and I hide and don’t want to go anywhere but still they put up with me. I’m hoping that my musing aboutmy family may help others to relate and see through this sometimes and more often phenomena of interactions… that’s my word for the day phenomenia.
Okay Annie. Joe
Joe, when my cousin said I should be very afraid of Russia, I said I would be if… Well Bacevich basically said what I told him. Good point.
Andrew Bacevich: A Memo to the Publisher of the New York Times
When Russia moved into the Ukraine and seized Crimea in 2014, it got more than its share of (bad) media coverage in the United States, as it did when it intervened in Syria the next year. So just imagine what kind of coverage Vladimir Putin’s favorite nation would be getting if, almost 17 years after it had launched a “Global War on Terrorism,” Russian troops, special operations forces, airplanes, and drones were still in action in at least eight countries across the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Niger, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen (and, if you felt in the mood, you could even throw in the Philippines in Asia for good measure).
Imagine the outraged front-page and top-of-the-news overviews we would be getting more than a decade and a half later when it came to that never-ending Russian global war and the rubble, the chaos, the dead and displaced it continued to create. There would be critical discussions aplenty of what it meant for one of the planet’s great powers to pursue such wars without end. In official Washington, the protests would be savage, the language harsh beyond imagining, the critiques unyielding and fierce. There would be blistering assessments of that nation as it continued to pursue such disintegrative wars across vast stretches of the planet without the slightest indication that their end was anywhere in sight.
Joe, when my cousin said I should be very afraid of Russia, I said I would be if … Well Bacevich basically said what I told him, but he addresses what the NY Times would have to say if Russia were conducting itself in this world the way we are.
Andrew Bacevich: A Memo to the Publisher of the New York Times
When Russia moved into the Ukraine and seized Crimea in 2014, it got more than its share of (bad) media coverage in the United States, as it did when it intervened in Syria the next year. So just imagine what kind of coverage Vladimir Putin’s favorite nation would be getting if, almost 17 years after it had launched a “Global War on Terrorism,” Russian troops, special operations forces, airplanes, and drones were still in action in at least eight countries across the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Niger, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen (and, if you felt in the mood, you could even throw in the Philippines in Asia for good measure).
Imagine the outraged front-page and top-of-the-news overviews we would be getting more than a decade and a half later when it came to that never-ending Russian global war and the rubble, the chaos, the dead and displaced it continued to create. There would be critical discussions aplenty of what it meant for one of the planet’s great powers to pursue such wars without end. In official Washington, the protests would be savage, the language harsh beyond imagining, the critiques unyielding and fierce. There would be blistering assessments of that nation as it continued to pursue such disintegrative wars across vast stretches of the planet without the slightest indication that their end was anywhere in sight.
Annie if you recall Putin caught hell from the Western Media for holding defense drills along his Russian borders this past year. Think about that for a moment, a country being heavily damned for holding domestic defensive drills. Why, that flys in the face of all that should be respected towards a country’s sovereignty. Although when you are an international law war criminal I guess it just doesn’t matter anyway… and why should it, if your operating outside the rule of law?
With Haspel, Pompeo, and now Bolton, it isn’t a matter of if no longer, but when. One day we will all look back and come to realize that the 2016 Presidential election gave us citizens all but no choices to assure us we were getting a levelheaded leadership.
I’ll still somewhere inside me hold out that Trump could do the unexpected and eventually come around to do the right thing, but then that’s me being the hopeless dreamer that I am … let’s think the worst and maybe the best will happen. Joe
Bill Clinton, of all people, explained and, for practical purposes, excused the principle behind the recent amoral bellicosity of our leaders when he said, “When people are insecure, they’d rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who’s weak and right.” Those holding the power have made sure that Americans remain fearful and insecure quite deliberately so they can literally get away with wholesale murder. Moreover, we have moved on to the stage wherein no evidence whatsoever is required to justify the most outrageous allegations and actions. To doubt the official narratives and request more logical and fact-based analyses is to be a traitor convicted reflexively by group think. Such a handy tool for a not-so-hypothetical dictator, if I may be so bold.
Really? Only one comment? That was one of the most powerful speeches I have read, and badly needed too. We have commenters at Consortium who will comment endlessly on everything put forward – yet only one person has anything to say?
Perhaps you are all dumbfounded. I know I am – because once again someone has said what needs to be said and said it profoundly and perfectly and accurately. How can we as humans not be moved by the horror and the crimes he recounts? Will we start to formulate groups to insist that people who have committed the ultimate crime in human history – murder, genocide, torture and ecocide – be finally put on trial, and that other nations join together to stop the rampant imperical narcissism (visible long before Trump appeared) of the entire United States government?
Agreed!
Your not alone ranney. Joe
There is nothing to disagree with in this courageous statement which lays out the truth of our situation plainly for all to see. The US is clearly guilty as charged, but refuses to obey any law but it’s own greed and murderous violence. The trick of pervasive propaganda that makes large numbers of Americans believe that we are the blameless hope of mankind is an essential tool of the evil men who are responsible for our descent as a nation into unspeakable EVIL.
Those who refuse to acknowledge this apparent EVIL of the US, are tools of it’s continuance. I despise them in their self-satisfied smugness and false sense of superiority. They accuse those of us trying to expose the crimes of our nation as “conspiracy theorists.” But our criticisms are solidly founded on indisputable facts; so their defensive remarks are simply cowardly ways of avoiding unpleasant truths.
Please do not misunderstand my use of the term evil. It has nothing to do with biblical or mythological nonsense. It simply refers to the very bad and hurtful things humans can choose to do to others. If you think there is no such thing as evil, then you think anything goes and there are no moral or ethical values. This unfortunately is a common attitude of evil people.
I’m glad you define the kind of ‘evil’ you are referring too mike, because there is always in a society a thread of those within a population who automatically go towards the most brutal and abrupt method there is to negotiating a truce with an adversary, but it seems that in the U.S. there is an over abundance of this ilk that this usually found thin thread is but a heavy thick moring line of itching rope.
Now I don’t know if this American trait is a remnant of America’s pioneering past or what, but I’m waiting for when the world puts together a coalition that will beat the sense into this young nation that you just don’t boss this world around no more and continue to get away with it. I mean the weapons gap is closing, and the U.S. dollar is being questioned for it’s real asset worth… while China who is the U.S.’s biggest lender, will do the next best thing and become America’s biggest employer. Average Americans will eagerly learn Mandarin. And if this pisses off any Americans well then blame Corporate run American government… Zio influenced 1,000%.
I agree mike the soulless spirit that has taken over the wills of this American nation must be changed over to a smarter, and kinder, nation if the U.S. wishes to reign fairly well into the continuance of this 21st Century. Bring back a CIA-less Marshall Plan, and transition weapons into plough shares, and stay alive to enjoy this green earth… or make it green again, rather.
Peace, old dude. Joe
The people of the US cannot themselves “walk back from the abyss of Empire” they no longer control. Not enough are suffering to motivate rebellion, and there is not enough honest news or secure communication to facilitate restoration of democracy. The brave and just few of the world and of the US are waiting for each other to end US tyranny, and must act together.
The US is so corrupt that it can now only increase its debt to bribe other tyrannies, and the world must now turn against it in an international embargo. The article seeks a “robust international legal order” asking UN members to “open their courts to claims” of international aggression, to prosecute for reparations to the victims of US wars. But few nations have both the independence and honor to resist those who commandeered US government. The brave and just few around the world must act to stop US tyranny.
The people of the US will have the means to restore democracy only when they infiltrate the national guard and the military to deny oligarchy the power to suppress strikes and demonstrations. They will have motives for rebellion only when the US economy collapses under oligarchy financial thefts and world embargo.
Educated US citizens know that the “concentrated economic power” of oligarchy controls the politicians and judges of the Dem-Rep duopoly, who ignore the Constitution, laws, and international law to criminally spy, assassinate opponents, and destroy countries. The US oligarchy is truly a tyranny “greater than that of any English king” with far worse propaganda than the “bread and circus” of Rome.
Democracy in the US was overthrown by tyrants and cannot be restored without force, the only language that tyrants hear. New progressive political parties are needed, but these are only the public front supporting the forces needed to restore democracy.
If you doubt this, look around you at those friendly folks who smile and say that “all is fair in love and war” (and business and politics) which is the rationale of tyranny that power=money=virtue and “all spoils belong to the victor.” Thieves are very friendly and sincerely believe in the tyranny they support. They truly believe in the unregulated “competition” that brings oligarchy. God bless the gangsters; we owe everything to the gangsters; liberty and justice for gangsters. They have learned the front of tyranny and will attack rather than reason with all opponents, for their very survival.
You may persuade and announce principles to the brave and just few, but not to the tyrants: you must organize and destroy tyrants or they will destroy you every time. There is no peaceful revolution. Demand international embargo of the US, but infiltrate the national guard and military to support the strikes that will destroy tyranny.
Inder Comar accurately describes America where “concentrated political power” has resulted in “neo-fascist and openly racist” politics and “De facto apartheid keeps power in the hands of a privileged […] elite”.
The description of America at the “the abyss of Empire” is in no small part the result of meddling by a foreign power, Israel, an apartheid state where political power is concentrated in the hands of a privileged elite that openly engages in neo-fascist and openly racist politics.
Thanks to treasonous Democratic and Republican Party collusion with the pro-Israel Lobby, the bought-and-paid-for (with American taxpayer dollar “aid” to Israel) “special relationship” has increasingly deformed American democracy to conform to the Israeli apartheid model.
Abe in your opinion do you think that in America this is a fight between Adelson vs Soros? Are we witnessing a ‘In’ fight inside the AIPAC mafia? Although we shouldn’t underestimate the CIA or MI6, do you see Mossad’s hand in the Novichok (Novice) Salisbury poisoning’s? Why Russia?
I’m hoping the MSM is getting into a transition away from Mueller and aiming their destructive methods against Melania and Ivanka (nothing against the women here, this is news) to boost ratings with the first White House divorce, and distract us citizens even more with dumb stuff Trump’s babygirl says, but I see Russia getting way more rough treatment except from our President Trump, and that’s what weary citizens have to look forward to…. I’m so screwed up that after hearing Bolton replaced McMasters I am starting to believe that’s a great idea…. the next chamber has the bullet in it, so let’s just get it over with. Boy, I sure hope there’s a Back Channel going on somewhere between Moscow and Washington.
Could a U.S. President save the world with a Tweet? Now that’s a story. Joe
Bob Van Noy recently posted (to the article on Brennen) a link to an excellent Craig Murray article in which Murray makes a compelling case that the Israelis were behind the Salisbury poisoning. The Russians had no motive, while the Israelis did (and the Israelis are false-flag specialists.)
http://www.unz.com/article/russian-to-judgement/
Before I forget JWalters a longtime ago I read that link you sometimes leave a link to about war profiteering, and I recommend it to others to read when you continue to post it…it’s an eye opener.
Here we have another probable false flag, and yet here we are again finding ourselves within that small minority who seem to be on to this line of thinking. I mean why always us? When will the media allow objectivity to become part of our building blocks towards us becoming a society of sound mind? I know the answer, and so do you. The answer is never.
I meet people who hardly know the name Mossad. I’ll bet you do to. The question is, is how do we change this phenomenon? JWalters how often do you run into fairly intelligent so called well informed Americans who know what BDS stands for? Am I missing something? Is it my little world only? You tell me, because I do believe we are living inside the Matrix. Even if the rest of the world were to see this English Novichok (Novice) fraud for what it is, I question to whether we Americans would receive this news.
Thanks for sharing the Craig Murray link, because I learned something new today. Joe
We should thank Bob Van Noy. Joe
Just to add to the intrigue of this incident, I was reading an article on 21st Century Wire by Dmitry Orlov (link below). He mentioned that there is an American British television series called “Strike Back”. And what do you think some of the episodes were about?
You can watch a clip from one of the episodes in his article. If you follow the link by Moon of Alabama, it provides a summary of three of the episodes. These episodes ran in the UK fairly recently (Nov. 2017 – Jan. 2018). Coincidence or not?
http://21stcenturywire.com/2018/03/19/theresa-may-and-boris-johnson-are-killing-diplomacy/
Abe, spot on about Israel. For new CN readers, a useful introduction to Israel’s extreme influence is in “War Profiteer Story” at
http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com
Inder Comar wrongly describes America. He has mistaken America for the USA.
The USA constitution takes 100% of the political power from the American people. Americans experience no non-manipulated political power. Un-elected Americans have no political power: when was the first time or the last you voted for/against a law or voted for/against a political decision or were allowed in on the secrets of government. Americans, just like the governed in many nations, can not hold a person elected to election campaign promises.
The slave-driver elected middle men operate under color of the USA; they make the laws and they enforce the laws to the satisfaction of the Pharaohs-Aristocrats-Capitalist [Deep state some call them]. Remember Capitalism-Pharaohism is like the game of Monopoly, everyone is a loser except one person. Monopoly is a game that only Aristocrats can afford to play! Capitalism leads to economic slavery and to mass poverty unless sufficiently regulated to distribute the political power and the wealth that capitalism generates to the ordinary masses; competing against that need to distribute is Pharaoh greed, the Pharaoh seeks to own it all, to keep it all, and to control it all.
Accountability for crimes is not likely when middle men perform in accord to the will of the Pharaoh. The world has never held the Pharaoh accountable, it has always been the middle men and those in the trenches that get blamed; the very definition of war is that all rules are off, ruthless lawlessness and necessity dictates on the battle field. The world has never held Pharaoh Monopoly players accountable; until it does human rights will never amount to more than “more red dripping and dried” blood.
Impossible it is for the Democratic or Republican party to be treasonous toward the American people, the two parties are polarized elements supported and used as weapons by Pharaohs to separate, divide, conquer and weaken into liquid putty, the America people’s ability to act in concert to promote a need or to correct a wrong.
Top down control came to America, 11 years after the AOC government successfully stopped the Pharaoh owned British Banking and Merchant Corporate empires from pillaging the American colonist.
A constitution, 1788-89, was installed to protect the wealth and Aristocratic power that survived the war. Constitutional USA practices democracy of sorts, but Americans cannot participate; occasionally, Americans are asked to select from two Pharaoh selected candidates; one, for each of up to five of the 527 salaried, privileged, democracy-practicing, slave-driver positions allowed under the USA constitution.
The government that defeated the British was the Articles of Confederation[AOC] government. Only a very few persons in the 1776 Articles of Declaration of Independence British defeating government were included in or active in the U. S. Constitutional government. George Washington, was hired because of his wealth, both to head the AOC Army that was to defeat the British and to occupy the USA constitution government that was to control the Americans.
Meddling is easy when 527 salaried, privileged few control 340,000,000. Buy the few: to own it all; it is sometimes said. But I don’t think a purchase is necessary, the control does not lie with the middle men, it lies with global beings called Pharaohs. Because Pharaoh control is global; many of the national governments within the global nation state and uniform banking system are controlled by the same Pharaohs. Thought of this way, it is easy to understand why governments that serve at the pleasure of Pharaohs are composed of the worst, most ruthless, yet most talented humans among us, after all Pharaohs expect their middle men (slave drivers) to keep us slaves in line.
I like the articles on this site a lot, but why is the comments section degraded by the comments of anti-Semites? Is this an attempt by altright-wing trolls to discredit Consortium News? I think these racist comments should be opposed by many more people.
Who mentioned jews? Why do you conflate anything critical of Israels unpunished crimes to antisemitism?
Alan Ross, again we have the necessity of separating Zionism and their behavior with the behavior of all Jews, many who do not support what Israel is doing or the power of Zionism in America and Europe. Surely, some Jews must recognize Zionist behavior as arrogant and reckless, a danger to everyone. When someone criticizes Israel or the Israeli lobby, it is not necessarily anti-Semitic, most often not. What is needed that organizations like JVP be given more visibility so that Americans can understand what I have described.
Racist comments are opposed by the Consortium News community.
Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel) propaganda trolls automatically labels all fact-based critical analysis of Israeli government actions and investigation the pro-Israel Lobby as “racist” and “anti-Semitic”.
To reinforce this Hasbara propaganda illusion of a “new anti-Semitism”, Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / “anti-Zionist” and fake “anti-Jewish” / “anti-Semitic”) propaganda trolls will post racist comments and references to hate literature.
Consortium News readers are alert to both forms of Hasbara propaganda deception.
Racial or religious slurs (including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia), and allegations that are unsupported by facts, are violations of Consortium News comment policy.
If readers spot such violations, they can bring them to the attention of the CN site moderator at [email protected]. Repeat offenders will be placed on a watch list requiring case-by-case approval of their comments.
Abe, sadly I think you are right. As bizarre and convoluted as it may seem, our behavior uses Israeli”s as a template and justifies Israel’s and our disdain for international forums and norms for justice. It is no accident that the people who cheer the loudest when we attack or facilitate illegal attacks in the Middle East are the neocons in America. We must always remember, too, that all Jews are not unquestioning Zionists and it is probable that whatever reforms in our behavior occur will be strongly influenced by them. .
The United States is not the empire. The US is the home of the institutions of the empire, the HQ but not the board of directors. The empire has a name: AngloZionist/Wahhabi Empire. Israel and the Saud family are not allies or partners they are two heads of the three headed monster empire. This empire has one goal “Global full spectrum domination.” It makes no pretense it is anything other than an empire can’t and doesn’t need to hide its Imperial actions any more.
The table is now set for BIG war against all the world the Imperial Trinity does not control, Iran Russia China and North Korea. They are all surrounded by thousands of nuclear weapons.
The “chemical attack” in the UK the claims of “chemical programs” of “stockpiling poisons” so so reminiscent of Iraq are accepted by the majority as real threats – WMD all over again, it works as we see it working now.
I wonder what specifically Mr. Comar was thinking of when he said “the gravest international crime since the Second World War”. A couple of choices come to mind. I agree with his statements, although his skipping over the administration in the middle of the unelected “President” to President Trump without mentioning that part of the crime is in the cover-up, committed under the tutelage of the last President and his minions, is pretty common. The W regime held in solitary confinement sounds deliciously satisfying. Send the UN peacekeepers to his properties in Paraguay, Martha’s Vineyard, Houston, or just outside of town and knock on their door. They can’t hide in a great many other countries. Many have a warrant out for their arrest. Hell, it’s a two for one! Poppy and W.! How can they refuse to go with UN peacekeepers?