Exclusive: Selective outrage over civilian suffering in Syria – hyping Syrian government abuses while downplaying the effects of U.S.-led Coalition air strikes – undermines the legitimacy of human rights advocacy, argues Jonathan Marshall.
By Jonathan Marshall
Few things threaten the legitimacy of human rights advocacy more than partisans invoking it selectively to promote one side in a violent conflict. That’s why people with genuine concern over the plight of war victims should be disturbed by the latest pumped-up campaign of selective outrage over the Syrian government’s bombing of Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus.
The U.S.-led coalition backed Kurdish fighters in driving IS out of Raqqa [Getty]
News stories are full of quotes painting the situation as nearly unprecedented in its horror: “hell on earth,” “never seen anything like this,” “one of the worst attacks in Syrian history,” and “flagrant war crime” on an “epic scale.” A New York Times editorial, calling the battle “one of the most violent episodes of the seven-year war,” demands that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian leaders be tried for war crimes. And a columnist for The Guardian says “Eastern Ghouta is turning into Syria’s Srebrenica,” the Bosnian enclave where thousands of Muslims were killed by Serbian forces in 1995.
Anyone who tries to correct the record risks being misinterpreted as trying to minimize the real suffering or defend the government. I wish to do neither. I harbor no illusions about the regime’s motives, and I can only imagine the anguish of those living under daily bombardment, trying to care for the wounded while wondering if and when they will join the many who have already died.
But the recent situation in Eastern Ghouta is unfortunately not as unique as recent media accounts suggest. Just last month, the respected, independent monitoring group Airwars reminded us that U.S.-led Coalition air strikes on the Syrian city of Raqqa created many more victims with the same destructive tactics of “siege, bomb and evacuate.”
In just one incident in March 2017, Coalition bombers killed as many as 400 civilians at a school near Raqqa, where hundreds of women and children were taking shelter from the war.
“By the time Raqqa was liberated on October 20th,” Airwars estimated, “more than 1,450 civilians had likely been killed by the Coalition since the start of June. Other monitors said that at least 1,800 civilians died in the fighting. Defeat of [the] so-called Islamic State had come at an extraordinary cost, with the UN reporting that 80% of the city was left uninhabitable – despite the Coalition’s continued insistence that is had been ‘waging the most precise war in history.’”
UN and human rights workers, to their credit, decried the civilian casualties, but U.S. military commanders systematically downplayed them as exaggerated or “hyperbolic.” The Coalition bombing generated only limited concern in the West because of its worthy goal: liberating Raqqa from the grip of ISIS. (In the end, the BBC reported, hundreds of ISIS members were allowed to quietly escape the city unscathed as part of a secret deal with the Coalition.)
Yet when it comes to evaluating the morality (or lack thereof) of the Syrian government’s bombing of Eastern Ghouta, precious few news stories remind readers that most of the generically described “rebels” in that suburb are members of Islamist extremist groups, including at least one al-Qaeda affiliate. No reasonable government in Damascus would want them on its doorstep.
The regional director of the International Red Cross observed further that rebel forces were blasting Damascus with mortar shells, noting that “maybe this is a reality that is not really reported.”
Comparing the killing in Eastern Ghouta to such notorious events as the Srebrenica massacre is a not-so-subtle way of calling for further foreign military intervention against the Syrian regime in the name of humanitarian principles – precisely what has helped cause such prolonged war and devastation in the first place.
Anyone genuinely concerned with saving lives should, instead, urge rebel groups to join in United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, rather than boycotting them. Above all, they should ponder the words of Washington Post columnist David Ignatius following his recent return from viewing the unimaginable devastation in Raqqa:
“Raqqa is a warning to be careful about destroying the ruling order, anywhere, without knowing what will come next. Russian President Vladimir Putin keeps making this point – the United States was reckless to encourage the overthrow of authority in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya without better planning for the “day after” – and he’s probably right. Too often, the vacuums have been filled by warlords, foreign mercenaries and death cults.”
“The United States and its allies nearly destroyed Raqqa to rescue it from a caliphate that governed by torture,” he concluded. “It was a just war, but we should try hard to avoid having to fight one like it again.”
Jonathan Marshall is the author or co-author of five books on U.S. foreign relations and international affairs. His many articles on Syria include “Hidden Origins of Syria’s Civil War,” “Death of the Syrian ‘Moderate’ Fantasy,” and “How The New Yorker Mis-Reports Syria.”
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/23/us-aggression-in-syria-imperialist-blueprint.html
this post must be reiterated… .
Listen and Learn
from the lyrics of
American refugees
Trapped in systemic
Allotment of “rights”
Under Presumption
of Guilt by Authority
instilled by Supremacy
Doctrines framed by
the Mutuality of Skin
and of Culture and
Enviro-Education
Bonding of Mind thru
agreement of thought,
and Philosophy of Life
and the continuum of
a human species which
develops according to
Science, even as War
Devours the Innocent
with ever increasing
Ravenous gulps of
Grief and Flesh of
Humans Drowning
and Bombings
and Gassing or
Severed Heads
as Definition of
Provoked Intent as
if suicide bombers
weren’t evidential
proof of the
derangement of
society provoked
by the American
Military upon a
stable society
under the guise of
a fictional account
and the ongoing
tale/ Arab Militants
flew planes into
WTC skyscrapers
And you all,
in faithful USA
gullibility, swiftly
swallowed that
straight story, as
depicted on the
National Media
in it’s (optimally)
Best Demonstrative
Public Accusing,
fell for the Media’s
Opaque Saga of
‘Usama bin Ladin’
who’s story was
promised in a
“White Paper”
from Colin Powell
&Never Appeared
as if words from
a puff of smoke
never intended
but illusions leading
to an acceptance/
a national agreement/
an acceptance of the
annihilation of a whole
society of people
who’ve lived/thrived
together as One for
Mammouth centuries
are now decimated,and,
displaced civilizations,
wandering/lost/hollow
holy barbarians in search
of food,shelter and peace
from American made Bombs
that’ve shattered the life
they’ve known under
a Stable Government
before the Western Powers’
Imperious offensive
imperious offensive
Imperious offensive
imperious offensive
thrust / rape /onslaught
of “The Arab Spring”
that “awakened” the gentle
Arabs of Kahlil Gibran
into A sudden Western
economic model of
a deluded modernity
devoid of the sincerity
that Truth requires???
How have we gotten
to /
where we are now?
In multiple Trillion dollar
sales of Weapons and
Ongoing wars and
human beings Murdered
by BOMBS/ Blown Up
as if newspaper dolls filled
with candies as
puffs of smoke?
disintegrated in
collateral damage
to the delight of
Corporate Bomb Makers
who’s delight is in Profits
and The Bottom Line and
Mr. Trump will
Make
America
Great
Again…
… .
Wait a sec. I know this is way late to comment but since I could see no one else saying anything, WTF is that last sentence quoting Ignatius about “just war” supposed to mean? C’mon, Jonathan, you owe some kind of explanation for how belligerent forces, stepping into a conflict, uninvited, against an elected government in a sovereign country and dropping bombs that murder innocent civilians can be construed as “just”. WTF? Also, thanks a ton to Abe for shredding unreliable sources. Maybe you ought to hire him to do some of your research, Jonathan.
“American Exceptionalism” is the Pompous Preconception that underscores our World Wide Enterprise of Militarism.
( Trump revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, EGO, Money and Power)
http://www.mintpressnews.com/un-feigns-outrage-over-ghouta-white-terrorist-rockets-rain-down-on-damascus/238148/
Americans are so viciously -Easily- brainwashed/hoodwinked into false conceptions of “reality” ..!
As in, Jihadist Arabs Bombed the WTC. — Bin Laden was the (designated) Culprit
And He was hiding out in Afghanistan after ordering this highly sophisticated Attack
Upon The Heart of the American Infrastructure of International Commerce (Wall Street) !!!
Media coverage was non-stop Extensive!!!! Possibly Eclipsing news STORIES of the
ASSASSINATION OF THE ( then) UNITED STATES President,the beloved & revered John F.Kennedy.. !
The gravitational pull of the JFK / RFK EXTERMINATIONS from inside United States blackball politics
Exposes the deep depths of conspiratorial roots/correlative rot that is bound into U S National Policy
By means of ‘States Rights’ perverseness of petulant, persevering, vapid faith in a superiority of races.
?
My challenge to the Nationalist Trump supporters is to find and view the Jennifer Lawrence Movie, “Winters Bone”
— a biographically/territorially Classic film depicting the brutally deep struggles of families living in Kentucky, Missouri , South Ohio and Indiana, Arkansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas, for example, — all connected by rural poverty and the plague of opioid escapism into an addition Officially Approved as a “safe” & effective pain relief product/ as per the United States FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION /// which allowed Purdue Pharmaceuticals to Produce hundreds of millions of these ADDICTIVE DRUGS and vivaciously propagate this ADDITIVE drug as a safely prescribed (intermediate) pain killer.
PURDUE PHARMACEUTICAL IS A CRIMINALALY ENRICHED AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORTED ADDICTIVE DRUG-DEALER
If Dumb Azz Trump wants to criminally prosecute friggin “drug dealers”
LET HIM START WITH PURDUE PHARMACY’S CRIMINAL ENTERPRIZE.
And let us stop hiding our dumb-ass
(white) eyes from who the REAL Criminals are…
Unto whom does the Actual money & Protection flow ???
Let’s get real and stop this charade
about Trump and his PERSONAL AGENDA
If we don’t wake up and stop him ,
Please fill in the blanks… .
60 Minutes kept calling him “Dictator Assad”. Pure propaganda. A leader who bows to the US, or isn’t on its hit list, is never called a dictator in the US news, but is praised, no matter how evil he is.
All the rest killed in Syria, and all those killed in the same way by the US and allies in Iraq and Afghanistan and Yemen and Libya and Somalia, all are dishonored by this.
However, most of all we are trying to protect al Qaeda from being eliminated by Russians in the same way we eliminated it so many other places. Al Qaeda is our greatest enemy, except when we can use it as a proxy against someone else. This is sick.
The Russians made clear that this Security Council action was amended to allow them to destroy these terrorists, and they are going to do it, even though US stooges at the UN protest just this killing and no other, despite the actual words of the Resolution.
“Anyone who tries to correct the record risks being misinterpreted as trying to minimize the real suffering or defend the government. I wish to do neither. I harbor no illusions about the regime’s motives, ..”
What Syria Government.motives is Mr. Marshall referring to about which he harbors “no illusions?” Could it be on behalf of the Syrian people to take back their country. The use of militants to try to overthrow the Syrian Government is not a new thing and the response has been to attack and root them out. What should be questioned is the motives of those who have supported these extremists which is far more to the point.
Then Mr. Ignatius: “the United States was reckless to encourage the overthrow of authority in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya without better planning for the “day after” – and he’s probably right”
Reckless, yes, but more than that it is immoral and illegal, and Mr. Ignatius’s point that Putin is probably right is an understatement and suggests if we had succeeded it was OK.
America has really lost its way.
The Syrian spokesman at the UN said he would call the British Government a government and not a regime as he was respectful. British regime sounds about right to me.
Snipers and sabotage…fighters and funds….arms and advisors…logistical support and border crossings..prior planning and propaganda.
You cover it well Joe.
They propaganda was in full swing by 2012:
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/06/22/syria-the-first-casualty/
check this out from CBS…it is so badly done, sadly amateurish…it would be hilarious if they werent serious…how blind do they think we are?
they are going to try and repackage Khan Sheikuhn and sell it again…shameless propaganda spectacle for sunday crowd
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rare-footage-shows-chemical-attack-in-syria/
regards
D
U.S. President Donald Trump said recently, “I will say … what Russia, what Iran, and what Syria have done recently is a humanitarian disgrace. I will tell you that we’re there (in Syria) for one reason. We’re there to get ISIS, and get rid of ISIS, and go home. We’re not there for any other reason, and we’ve largely accomplished our goal.”
Besides the pathetic, obvious display of hypocrisy and double standards of Trump, who as Commander-in-Chief oversaw the horrific military destruction of Mosul and Raqqa, perhaps he could answer honestly (if that’s possible, which seems not the case) how he would respond if terrorists were launching missiles and bombs from an eastern suburb of Washington, D.C. onto residents of the city. Would Mr. Trump call for a 30-day ceasefire, therefore signifying his trust in the terrorists’ abiding by the truce?
Of course not. Donald Trump is clearly a deceiver. He is arguably the most dangerous man on this Earth.
This needs to mention also the propaganda such as the White Hats and others which have generated phony stories of faked atrocities.
In Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick’s book titled “The Untold History of the United States,” second chapter titled The New Deal, it is recounted that there was a big discussion after WWI carried on in the major newspapers about whether or not money making was the incentive for war. There was certainly a lot of awareness then in this country, and a conscience. A by-partisan committee was formed in Congress led by Gerald Nye, hearings were held, and it looked as though progress were made when, the evening before the vote a couple of committee member saboteurs gathered the press together and spun the argument away from the ways the committee had devised to deal with this problem. The public seemed to be in favor for nationalizing all weapons production, and/or limiting the profits, and/or taxing the profits at high rates even up to 100%. There were, of course, many other concerns. Another topic of public discussion was fascism. There was a lot of orchestration in effort to establish our government as fascist.
Here’s an antibusiness quote by Roosevelt: “We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob … They are unanimous in their hate for me — and i welcome their hatred.”
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/15/dutch-lies-over-putin-aggression-expose-nato-war-agenda.html
Halbe Zilstra: Wie is de klootzak? Where are our good Dutch hypocrites when you need them. Mr. Rutte and Mr. Zilstra, was your fiction worth a passenger flight of innocent people? yep!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/24/western-lies-about-lies-over-syria-east-ghouta.html
Macron,.. quel con! Hypocrite francais. Ou sont les droits de l’homme dans votre “agenda”?!
Lies and deceit for a pipeline.
The girl in the BBC news article “At least in heaven there’s food” looks up and to the left. Why? Because those of the left eye (the eye of Ra) are responsible for her suffering. I started writing this post yesterday but I got interrupted – for a reason – to prove my point there is an article on the “The strange power of the evil eye” on the BBC today – but not yesterday – because God wanted me to wait until today to post this. I don’t know why but that is how this works – God is pointing to the British – and those in UK will know why. The truth comes in waves because the human mind is limited.
“Get ISIS and go home’: Trump bucks Pentagon & State Dept. on ultimate US goal in Syria” – article from Infowars
Deep State what I can tell you is this – you must stop supporting this war in Syria for the Saudi oil pipeline. And you and every government on this planet must cease and desist from all wars from this point forward.
Every child that dies is on you and your afterlife. Many of you are already coming back as flies. God will give the Lord your family members too if you are not careful. I wish this was a joke but it is not. I come from a long line of messengers and my family and I are now supposed to speak and we will live and be able to speak or all will perish. God is reaching the limit with humans. The evil that exists on this planet will not be allowed to expand into the universe – I don’t know what scientific advancement is coming but something is – and God will arrest the entangled timeline if necessary.
The death cult that many of you in the Deep State and in religions and organizations and governments around the world are involved in is going to cease. If not God (the aliens controlling the experiment on the human race) is going to destroy this planet – lock, stock, and barrel. There will be no world government, no war, no homelessness, and no starvation. This is the only path forward. Many of you have lack of empathy for your fellow humans and the species on this planet and this is not allowed on levels of higher existence.
For the sake of the children and the future of the species on this planet, my kind and I are not going to let that happen.
Take this warning and use it. Otherwise the Lord will come to you individually and take vengeance – and believe me that is worse than what occurs in the Old Testament.
Threats of Cosmic Retribution will unfortunately fall on deaf ears, here below. If people would heed such warnings, I personally wouldn’t give a damn if they were founded on some sort of real basis, or not. But the real doom bearing down on us does not need far out metaphysical theories to explain it. Our stupidity approaches that of someone deliberately shooting themselves in the foot, and the solution is correspondingly simple: STOP DOING THAT!
Unfortunately, the people I am speaking to believe in bloodlines and they incorrectly believe some humans are better than others due to divine law – which is why they seek to enslave, starve, and torture populations. This belief system is the basis for their evil economic systems that have impoverished billions, their wars (like the war in Syria), their world government agenda, and their occult practices.
I speak to them – and the bloodlines are speaking to them – and they know it. At this point their is no other way – this has gone on long enough.
Interesting how there was hardly anything about Mosul other than how successful it was while they are still finding (civilian) corpses and the US never bothered much about finding ways out (corridors that Syria and Russia provided for in Aleppo).
This time it is like in Aleppo “news”: show horrible scenes and never talk about how the people were held hostage by the terrorist who held them to ransom; no scenes of celebrations once the occupiers (for years with Western support) terrorized the citizens; no talk about why people did not get enough food (because the terrorists used it for themselves and/or asked exorbitant prices);no interviews with the people of how they experienced it all (horrific).
On the Syria Solidarity Movement website one can see how all gets turned around: the Caesar Torture Photos (investigated by Rick Sterling, a Consortiumnews contributor), which showed how the opposition uses the results of their own terror deeds as if they were done by the Syrian Army.
The Western media have been complicit in this “hell on earth” for many years and cry when there are only a few terrorists in their own country committing horrible deeds, but are full of blame whenever the black propaganda machine is on about Syria. Already in 2006 there was open evidence about how to destabilize the “regime” (i.e. the elected government) and the US Ambassador Roebuck did his best to spread the propaganda.
Prof. Andersen (Sydney University) talks in his book The Dirty War on Syria about the 2013 so-called chemical attack by Assad, which was clearly a false flag operation in which kidnapped children disappeared without the West being interested in the slightest.
We are as dumb as always whenever it concerns black propaganda (except here on this site).
Is it seriously not time to declare, well let’s call it then WAR ON PROPAGANDA?
Perhaps yes, before all truth is lost now that media cooperate with those who steer all this to a New World Order or whatever but certain to destroy truth altogether to suit their agenda?
The Syrian government is rolling back the siege of Eastern Ghouta, Idlib, and other regions of Syria by Al Qaeda and ISIS mercenary terrorist forces deployed by the Israeli-Saudi-US Axis.
The US-led “coalition” assault on Raqqa was an effort to rescue and re-deploy terrorist assets, implement a scorched earth strategy in the region, and establish a de facto no-fly zone for Russian aircraft. Despite the “deconfliction buffer”, the dangerous potential for direct confrontation between US and Russian forces in Syria remains.
On 10 February 2018, an Israeli F-16 was shot down by the Syrian Air Defense Force. On 14 February, Haaretz reported that retaliatory Israeli strikes only ended after a phone call between Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu.
The situation in Syria can be accurately summarized in a couple of paragraphs once all the “regime change” subterfuges are discarded, which Western mainstream media and most so-called “alternative” media steadfastly refuse to do.
Thanks for defending the truth.
After reading this article, I believe that the answer lies in the doctrinal US system of propaganda; In the book “Manufacturing Consent” by Chomsky and German, they explained that ” A PROPAGANDA SYSTEM WILL CONSISTENTLY PORTRAY PEOPLE ABUSED IN ENEMY STATES AS WORTHY VICTIMS, WHEREAS THOSE TREATED WITH EQUAL OR GREATER SEVERITY BY ITS OWN GOVERNMENT OR CLIENTS WILL BE UNWORTHY” For instance, THE NEW YORK TIMES index between 1975-1979 dedicated only 70 column inches on the genocide on East Timor. On Cambodia , it printed a grand total of 1,175 INCHES. It happens that Indonesia, a close ally of the US, invaded illegally East Timor: The brutally was such that about 200.000 East Timorese were slaughter with weapons supplied by the Carter Administration. Simultaneously, Cambodia was busy murdering its own people but it was considered a US official enemy. This explains why the bombardment of Eastern Ghouta perpetrated by the Syrian government gets more worldwide dissemination than the one being committed by the US-led coalition on Raqqa.I rest my case.
Day by day this Australian becomes less trusting of mainstream media. They are syndicating (parroting) each other. Spokespersons for government propagander.
More info on the complicity of the corporate “media” can be seen at link below.
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/10/are-corporate-media-propaganda-pushers.html
The propaganda emanating from the TV “news” and “newspapers” is a sight to behold. This so-called “media” is complicit in all these wars by covering the backsides of the war criminals. They are the reason these war criminals are getting a free ride.
You are correct. If the people knew what these war criminals are perpetrating in other countries such as Syrian could be a revolt. Hence, a propaganda system was put into place to deceive the people and deflect vital attention elsewhere. good post Stephen.
Excellent discussion on Syria and the region with CN contributor Alastair Crooke on RT’s Cross Talk program today. Try to catch it when it gets posted to RT.com.
Information on Syrian casualties sourced from Airwars and other UK-based propaganda organizations should be approached with extreme caution.
Airwars “understanding” of events in Syria is based on reports collated from “regionally-focused monitoring groups” that include three notorious UK-based propaganda launderers: Rami Abdul Rahman’s Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Fadel Abdul Ghani’s Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), and Eliot Higgins’ Bellingcat.
Airwars reports on bombing on bombing in Syria fabricate a “tale” about “alleged Coalition and Russian civilian casualty incidents”
Airwars is determined to convince its readers that U.S.-led Coalition airpower is less lethal than its Russian counterpart. For example, nowhere does Airwars acknowledge that civilian casualty figures for Aleppo were grossly inflated by Al Qaeda media and their White Helmets propaganda allies.
Unsurprisingly, Airwars receives funding from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
Airwars receives “geolocation” services from Bellingcat “journalist” Christiaan Triebert. Triebert receives “journalism” training at the War Studies Department of King’s College London where Eliot Higgins is a “Research Fellow”. Bellingcat “open-source investigation” scams get fronted by Triebert when the propaganda too obvious even for the likes of Higgins.
Airwars has provided primary “analysis” and “narrative” for visual representations produced by Forensic Architecture, a media agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Forensic Architecture produces high-tech graphic presentations of alleged “evidence” on behalf of human rights NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, political groups like the Atlantic Council, and other organizations. The agency purportedly specializes in “modelling dynamic events” and “creating navigable 3D models of environments”, aiming to “present information in a convincing, precise, and accessible manner”.
Forensic Architecture “modelling” of Airwars and Bellingcat “investigations” provide conspicuous cases of garbage in, garbage out (GIGO). Apparently it’s highly profitable garbage. Capitalizing on its network of propaganda relationships, Forensic Architecture even got the gig of designing a cool new look for the Airwars website.
Forensic Architecture has collaborated with Airwars “journalists”, the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat, and Human Rights Watch in previous dramatic presentations of later debunked claims about bombing in Aleppo.
Forensic Architecture also provided “modelling” services for the Human Rights Watch report on the 4 April 2017 chemical incident at Khan Sheikhoun.
The HRW report debuted at a 1 May 2017 press conference at the United Nations. Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, repeatedly referred to the new HRW report as “our own investigation”. Responding to questions, Roth stated, “Yeah, I mean, um, we’ve used open source material, we’ve checked this with experts, we’re… we’re quite confident”
However, it is clear from the report that HRW activities were limited to laundering a list of names supplied by “opposition” forces in Al-Qaeda controlled Idlib, and conducting telephone interviews with the “opposition” vetted alleged “witnesses”.
Following its well-established pattern of “investigation”, HRW performed no independent verification of any of the “opposition” claims presented in its report. HRW relied on information supplied by “opposition” forces and laundered by the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat group. The HRW report makes no mention of Bellingcat’s close cooperation with the Atlantic Council “regime change” agenda in Syria.
Airwars has provided primary “analysis” and “narrative” for visual representations produced by Forensic Architecture, a media agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Forensic Architecture produces high-tech graphic presentations of alleged “evidence” on behalf of “human rights” NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, “regime change” groups like the Atlantic Council, Elliot Higgins and Bellingcat “online investigation” scams.
The agency purportedly specializes in “modelling dynamic events” and “creating navigable 3D models of environments”, aiming to “present information in a convincing, precise, and accessible manner”.
Forensic Architecture “modelling” of Airwars “narratives” and Bellingcat “investigations” provide conspicuous cases of garbage in, garbage out (GIGO).
Apparently it’s highly profitable garbage. Capitalizing on this circle jerk network of propaganda relationships, Forensic Architecture even got the gig of designing a cool new look for the Airwars website.
Abe I don’t know what we would do without you. You always bring the most informative warnings of ‘limited hang outs’ and tell us of who is carrying water with their parading of warmongering propaganda, that I just had to take this time to tell you of how important your comments have been to this site, and how you should never forget that. So carry on my friend. Joe
Airwars, Forensic Architecture, and Human Rights Watch collaborated in previous dramatic presentations of later debunked claims about bombing in Aleppo.
Forensic Architecture also provided “modelling” services for the Human Rights Watch report on the 4 April 2017 chemical incident at Khan Sheikhoun
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/syria0517_web_2.pdf
The HRW report debuted at a 1 May 2017 press conference at the United Nations. Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, repeatedly referred to the new HRW report as “our own investigation”. Responding to questions, Roth stated, “Yeah, I mean, um, we’ve used open source material, we’ve checked this with experts, we’re… we’re quite confident”
However, it is clear from the report that HRW activities were limited to laundering a list of names supplied by “opposition” forces in Al-Qaeda controlled Idlib, and conducting telephone interviews with the “opposition” vetted alleged “witnesses”.
Following its well-established pattern of “investigation”, HRW performed no independent verification of any of the “opposition” claims presented in its report.
HRW relied on information supplied by “opposition” forces and laundered by the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat group. No mention is made of Bellingcat’s close cooperation with the Atlantic Council “regime change” agenda in Syria.
The HRW watch report mentions “modelling” of the crater provided by Forensic Architecture: “Based on photos and videos, Forensic Architecture, an organization specializing in spatial analysis, created a three-dimensional model of the crater.” (HRW report page 30)
Airwars, Forensic Architecture, and Human Rights Watch collaborated in previous dramatic presentations of later debunked claims about bombing in Aleppo.
Forensic Architecture also provided “modelling” services for the Human Rights Watch report on the 4 April 2017 chemical incident at Khan Sheikhoun
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/syria0517_web_2.pdf
The HRW report debuted at a 1 May 2017 press conference at the United Nations. Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, repeatedly referred to the new HRW report as “our own investigation”. Responding to questions, Roth stated, “Yeah, I mean, um, we’ve used open source material, we’ve checked this with experts, we’re… we’re quite confident”
However, it is clear from the report that HRW activities were limited to laundering a list of names supplied by “opposition” forces in Al-Qaeda controlled Idlib, and conducting telephone interviews with the “opposition” vetted alleged “witnesses”.
Following its well-established pattern of “investigation”, HRW performed no independent verification of any of the “opposition” claims presented in its report.
The HRW report relies heavily on Bellingcat laundering of Al Qaeda videos and “modelling” of a crater provided by Forensic Architecture: “Based on photos and videos, Forensic Architecture, an organization specializing in spatial analysis, created a three-dimensional model of the crater.” (HRW report page 30)
Article of interest at link below.
———————————————————————————-
EDITORIAL | 23.02.2018 |
US Aggression in Syria – an Imperialist Blueprint
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/23/us-aggression-in-syria-imperialist-blueprint.html
Excellent article.
Yep…Sorry MAD DOG and company…our memories are not that short …where was all the crying for Mosul? or Raqqa? our own eyes watched you rubbleize those cities…civilians and at all…Iraq may have been worse, we will probably never know…
The US MIC must really be getting desperate for excuses….
Ive lived in the US all of my life…never been out of the country …day tripping to canada and mexico dont really count.:>) and ive never wanted to not live here…until the last few years…
the US really does not represent me at all anymore…and im worried that it will get much WORSE in the US shortly, and the citizens here are going to feel some real pain…maybe for years.
Ive researched leaving for a different country …and may do just that…
Is anyone else starting(or has been) feeling this way?
regards
D
I’ve feel the same way, but it’s really not an option for me, but I certainly can understand your desire to live elsewhere.
Annie isn’t Brooklyn another country? Joe
I don’t live in Brooklyn, that’s past history. Now it’s Queens.
You are not alone derek. Hang in there with us. Joe
i can be with you folks from anywhere in the world…i intend to continue my small part in the fight…i also intend to come back anytime it looks like we could win this…outside of the citizens themselves, there is no support for the interests of the nation, only the 1%…i dont see any viable candidate stepping forward…most of the talented people who could be viable, dont want the job…in the meantime, i dont want a pack of jackbooted mercenaries to load me out of my home and disappear me for…ever? because i publicly state that their agenda is treasonous to the country…make no mistake, the deeply evil and intelligent globalists are positive that their plans are on schedule…when they have stolen and the remaining funds from this country…they will bankrupt it…as it no longer is needed for the centralization of WORLD CENTRAL POWER…
why do you suppose their propaganda is so blatant and obvious? they no longer care what we think or care what we might try to do,,,look at what is becoming commonplace reaction by our police state to protests against our governments behavior,,,peaceful protests at that
This will get alot worse before it gets better
peace to all of you
D
Please know that our finding common ground on certain matters doesn’t depend on our geographical locations in as much as we are united in thought. In fact I feel very strongly that until the people of each sovereign nation’s commons can freely and openly speak with each other internationally that we as a Species will always find it difficult to survive and with the lack of that communication we will always be at war. That when we finally someday get to reach across the globe to meet someone just like ourselves who is in a nation said to be bad, you will at least be able to hear from your friend. Silly? Maybe. Simple? By perfection.
Right, Joe — united in thought!
My husband and I have discussed leaving many times. If I could persuade my adult offspring to join us, we would be making preparations, but that becomes complicated when their friends and relations are taken into account. Life is short and relationships matter.
I foresee the same hard times as you in our not too distant future should there even be one. One thing is for sure, psychopaths are in control.
We prefer to see only those things that we wish to see, but the things we choose not to see may be crucial to our very existence. The truth can often be very ugly and disturbing, but it is necessary to look into it to recover our sanity.
Information on Syrian casualties sourced from Airwars and other UK-based propaganda organizations should be approached with extreme caution.
Airwars “understanding” of events in Syria is based on reports collated from “regionally-focused monitoring groups” that include three notorious UK-based propaganda launderers: Rami Abdul Rahman’s Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Fadel Abdul Ghani’s Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), and Eliot Higgins’ Bellingcat.
Airwars reports on bombing on bombing in Syria fabricate a “tale” about “alleged Coalition and Russian civilian casualty incidents”
Airwars is determined to convince its readers that U.S.-led Coalition airpower is less lethal than its Russian counterpart. For example, nowhere does Airwars acknowledge that civilian casualty figures for Aleppo were grossly inflated by Al Qaeda media and their White Helmets propaganda allies.
Unsurprisingly, Airwars receives funding from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
Airwars receives “geolocation” services from Bellingcat “journalist” Christiaan Triebert. Triebert receives “journalism” training at the War Studies Department of King’s College London where Eliot Higgins is a “Research Fellow”. Bellingcat “open-source investigation” scams get fronted by Triebert when the propaganda is, well, it’s a little too obvious even for the likes of Higgins.
Airwars “Syria researcher” is Kinda Haddad, a media consultant and former BBC reporter. In addition to her work for Airwars, Haddad is the founder of Bubula, a website that purportedly aims to “expand the scope of the debate by introducing the most exciting, diverse and powerful female voices” on the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region.
Haddad’s site featuring “Eastern Women in Western Media” is named after a type of song bird known for its beautiful voice. The label “bulbul” is given to people who are “eloquent”. Haddad gave the name “a feminine spin by adding a letter A at the end of it”, claiming the site will “carry the voices of a group of women from that part of the world”.
Haddad apparently does not believe that any “eloquent” women live in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Bubula “experts” on Syria are exclusively aligned with “opposition” groups, media and NGOs.
For example, Bubula “expert” on Syria Alia Ibrahim is a Senior Correspondent with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya News Channel, based in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates. Another Bubula “expert” on Syria, Kholoud Mansour based in Sweden, is a former Senior Fellow at Chatham House, a British think tank devoted to “regime change” in Eurasia.
Airwars has provided primary “analysis” and “narrative” for visual representations produced by Forensic Architecture, a media agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Forensic Architecture purportedly specializes in “modelling dynamic events” and “creating navigable 3D models of environments”, aiming to “present information in a convincing, precise, and accessible manner”.
The media agency produces high-tech graphic presentations of alleged “evidence” on behalf of human rights NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, political groups like the Atlantic Council, and other organizations.
Forensic Architecture has collaborated with Airwars “journalists”, the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat, and Human Rights Watch in previous dramatic presentations of later debunked claims about bombing in Aleppo.
Forensic Architecture provided “modelling” services for the recent Human Rights Watch report on the 4 April 2017 chemical incident at Khan Sheikhoun
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/syria0517_web_2.pdf
The report states that Human Rights Watch “obtained photos and videos of remnants of the munitions used in the attacks. Specialists in weapons identification and chemical weapons inside and outside the organization analyzed the remnants. Forensic Architecture, a group specializing in spatial analysis, created a model of a crater related to the Khan Sheikhoun attack from videos and photos, allowing for exact measurement of its size.” (HRW report page 10)
The Human Rights Watch report debuted at a 1 May 2017 press conference at the United Nations. Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, repeatedly referred to the new HRW report as “our own investigation”. Responding to questions, Roth stated, “Yeah, I mean, um, we’ve used open source material, we’ve checked this with experts, we’re… we’re quite confident”
However, it is clear from the report that HRW activities were limited to laundering a list of names supplied by “opposition” forces in Al-Qaeda controlled Idlib, and conducting telephone interviews with the “opposition” vetted alleged “witnesses”.
Following its well-established pattern of “investigation”, HRW performed no independent verification of any of the “opposition” claims presented in its report.
The HRW report relied most heavily on information supplied by “opposition” forces and laundered by the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat group. HRW makes no mention of Bellingcat’s close cooperation with the Atlantic Council “regime change” agenda in Syria.
Bellingcat is repeatedly cited in the HRW report’s footnotes. A photograph in the HRW report refers to “Bellingcat, a group specializing in analyzing information posted online, including videos and photographs” (page 24). HRW makes no mention of the fact that claims by Dan Kaszeta and Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat about previous alleged “chemical attacks” have been repeatedly debunked.
Human Rights Watch relied on Bellingcat to “geolocate” Al Qaeda and White Helmets video and photos of the Khan Shaykhun incident. The report specifically states that “Based on landmarks visible in the photos and videos, Bellingcat geolocated the crater” (HRW report page 28) in the middle of the road in Khan Shaykhun.
Human Rights Watch’s “specialist” on “chemical weapons”: Eliot Higgins’ collaborator Dan Kaszeta of Bellingcat (HRW report pages 29-30)
Human Rights Watch’s “specialist” on “weapons identification”: Hadi Al Khatib of Bellingcat (HRW report page 41).
In addition to posing as a “journalist” at Bellingcat. Al Khatib runs an organization called the “Syrian Archive”, a large database of Al Qaeda and White Helmets videos, allegedly “verified” as “documenting” human rights violations in Syria.
Immediately after citing Kaszeta’s description of a sarin bomb explosion, the Human Rights watch report mentions “modelling” of the crater provided by Forensic Architecture: “Based on photos and videos, Forensic Architecture, an organization specializing in spatial analysis, created a three-dimensional model of the crater.” (HRW report page 30)
Forensic Architecture “modelling” of Airwars and Bellingcat “investigations” provide conspicuous cases of garbage in, garbage out (GIGO).
Apparently it’s highly profitable garbage. Capitalizing on its network of propaganda relationships, Forensic Architecture even got the gig of designing a cool new look for the Airwars website.
In short, Airwars is a “regime change” propaganda project designed to inspire “humanitarian” outrage.
Man, that whole, “Yeah, I mean, um, we’ve used open source material, we’ve checked this with experts, we’re… we’re quite confident” is always a dead giveaway that you will not be getting the straight dope on the given subject.
Outstanding research as always, Abe. Many thanks for sharing.
David Ignatius said Putin may have been right in warning against overthrowing established order with no follow up plans? I knew he was a Putin bot…
That’s your comment?..So if you mention Putin in a positive way that makes you a Putin bot? ….Hmmm.ok then
Of course mention Vladimir Putin in any way that might even be remotely construed as positive brands you a Putin bot; just ask the “most qualified candidate ever,” Hillary Clinton; she’ll set ya straight!
Hey robjira blaming Putin in America for everything and anything has become a fruitful topic, not to mention a wild and growing business. If you want to blame Putin then we should join the Congressional Representative Adam Schiff’s fan club, because Adam is really going to town with his informing us of all of the Putin’s instigated happenings, and to how Putin is sabotaging everything in sight. Putin here, Putin there, why it’s Putin, Putin, and more Putin everywhere… we in the U.S. are being Putinized to insanity, and then some. Gotta go I think it’s Vladimir at my door right now…see ya later. Joe
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/12/congressman-accused-tucker-carlson-of-working-for-putin.html
The video has been taken down, no doubt by You Tube. The controllers are sh*tting bricks over challenges to their lies.
Why that two-timing piece of…he told me he’d be coming over to my place for beers. Obviously you rate higher with Vlad than I do, Joe.
Honestly, the way in which Putin has been built up to Ernst Stavro Blofeld proportions is nothing short of ridiculous. In fact, it’s almost as ridiculous as the DNC et al. pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war just so they don’t have to admit to lack of ethics, and fielding one of the worst possible candidates in modern history.
Yeah but when we do it, whatever it was you said it is we do, it makes it right. Hoorah!
Selective reporting as well as selective outrage.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
The author’s states that the “bombing has unquestionably been savage,and arguably even criminal. It should be condemned in no uncertain terms.” How does that belong, when the rest of the report, as well as what we know about similar coverage of Syria, tells us just the opposite? Has not a legally recognized government the right to defeat a treasonous for and assert control over its own territory? Our own great President Lincoln was widely condemned and ,vilified as a tyrant and despot at home and abroad.Britain’s Guardian of that day, which supported secession, went so far as to call Lincoln’s election “the most evil day in American history,” And his generals, especially Grant, Sheridan and Sherman were similarly accused of war crimes for their role in putting down, sometimes brutally, a rebellion which threatened the nation’s existence.
The power to “suppress insurrections” is certainly within the federal powers and accepted among nations. But it is not a right without justification, and neither the federal government nor any international law can be assumed to identify the good guys without independent analysis of the issues.
A right of secession is reasonable, generations after any vote forming a federation. Of course it is preferable that a federation recognize, respect, and protect factional interests, to avoid this. But that did not happen in the US 1815-1850: Congress had descended to the level of self-righteous factional demagogues and never debated the underlying issues. Apparently things were not much better in 2013-2014 Ukraine.
In such a complex situation as Syria, external powers should limit themselves to moderation, protection, and assistance. Of course the US zionist/MIC oligarchy exploited the situation for profit and bribes, and did the opposite.
Let’s unravel the “complexity”. Syria is a sovereign nation comprised of people entitled to their land, their home, their own sense of nationhood, way of life, and political evolution. Syria is entitled to protection from other state actors directly or indirectly intervening their territory with unlawful acts of aggression. The U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, Quatar, Turkey, and Britain all played roles in prosecuting a dirty war of terrorism upon the Syrian people.
It has been widely mythologized that Assad brutally suppressed some widespread citizen uprising and that the conflict in Syria is a civil war of citizen “rebels” versus the “regime”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Syrian society was generally one of peaceable coexistence in terms of religious affiliation and government support with an overriding sense of national identity. The population is generally educated, aware, and socialistic. Certainly, as is the case in the U.S., issues of “reform” are part of the political dialogue (and Assad himself played an encouraging role in such discussion). That political reforms would have to take place within the context of a national security state necessitated by historical and ongoing threatening realities of the Muslim Brotherhood (or radical anti-secularism) and Israeli subterfuge should be obvious.
The so-called “uprising” was an armed and violent attempt by previously mentioned actors using the infiltration of vile terrorist mercenaries into Syria for the purpose of destroying the Syrian government. The “complex situation” of Syria (violent conflict) was not exploited after the fact. It was instigated and provoked. “Protection and assistance” did indeed occur-strictly for terrorists until Russia turned the tide and the U.S. then attempted to make it appear otherwise.
What is the government of Syria to do? Accept perpetual death by mortar attacks in Damascus by continuing a policy of restraint that the Syrians have grown weary of? An old woman who was freed from the terrorist siege in Homs said if over-destruction was what it took to rid the country of such evil terrorists, then so be it. “We will rebuild”. Desperate dilemmas. Desperate choices.
Yes, I agree; very difficult choices. I am not advocating secession in general, but non-interference by external powers. Where the insurgents are fanatics whose proper rights have been respected, who seek only to dominate other groups, then to “suppress insurrection” is justifiable.
Very good comment, Gregory. The “fog of war” in regard to Syria expanded faster than the debris cloud from a BGM 109 explosion. Robert Fisk, Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, among other extremely brave reporters, have provided probably the most consistent and accurate information on what could very well turn out to be the tipping point for the USA’s grab at “global full spectrum dominance.”
Apparently, there were “genuine” protests in Syria’s rural Northeast (conveniently located on the border of destroyed Iraq) over the perceived lack of meaningful government response to a long running drought (a drought aggravated by the great “Chinese hoax” lefty alarmists refer to as “climate change”). The protests weren’t very large, but they were vocal and featured many recently arrived emigrees. In an article, Fisk quotes a Syrian minister (I can’t recall if it was the Foreign or Interior minister) as saying that “mistakes were made” in the local government’s response to the protests (it’s widely acknowledged that the Mukhabarat can be very a nasty outfit, much like our own CIA or FBI). But this reaction from the Syrian minister should be looked at in the same way that say, one might look at the Attorney General saying that “mistakes were made” in Ferguson, MO (not that we’d ever get a US AG to be so honest about police brutality).
But the heavy handed response by a localized branch of the Syrian state police was all the US and its vassals needed to put into action basically the same scheme that’s been used since ’79, when Brzezinski contracted the Saudis and the Pakistanis to recruit “mujahedin” to destabilize Afghanistan. In fact, there’s ample evidence that the USA had everything ready to go, with various “NGOs” providing logistical and material support for “democracy” movements inside Syria (never mind that the US had been “extraordinarily rendering” people to Syria for tortu-sorry-enhanced interrogation at the hands of the very same Mukhabarat for some time prior to Syria’s destabilization). And then there’s the famous “rat line” described by Seymour Hersh, that was funneling weapons from the US embassy compound in Benghazi, Libya into Syria. Did I mention that Iraq, which shares a long border with Syria, had already been destroyed by the USA…?
I remember at the time, much was being made in the western press of Syrian army officers defecting to the “rebels (that term has such a romantic, kinda Star Wars-y feel feel to it).” Robert Fisk has also reported (by way of a Syrian colonel) that many of those defectors have since returned to the ranks of the SAA. Coupled with the emergence of evidence that the opposition to the Syrian government is largely comprised of foreign (and foreign sponsored) militants, and one is left with a less than rosy picture of the so-called “rebels.”
As you ask; what is the government of Syria to do? I myself take a small measure of comfort that the recent moves by the Koreas to take their own initiative toward rapprochement despite the actions and rhetoric from the US, may indicate a new willingness on the part of other countries acting in concert to put the brakes on the USA’s brutally arrogant attempt at empire. Again, as you say Gregory; “desperate dilemmas, desperate choices.” Thanks again for sharing a great comment.
Peace.
February 22, 2018
It is almost impossible…
It is almost impossible to put into words the atrocities and criminal actions of the war criminals in our midst. They are responsible for millions of deaths, countries destroyed and contaminated, and millions of refugees living in camps or wandering the earth. All these people dead or alive once had homes, some had businesses. Their children went to schools, life might not have been perfect, but at least they all were alive, no matter who ruled their countries.
Then the war criminals arrived and reduced their cities and countries to rubble. Now the well dressed villains (past and present) that caused all this misery and mayhem are free and living in luxury, some are still in positions of power.
Hypocrisy drips from their lips as they mouth the words, “rule of law” and “responsibility to protect” and “bringing democracy.” To see this posturing of evil is to see corruption clothed in cant.
Watching these evil personages appear on the world stage, makes one believe that, “never have so many villains been elected to public office and given the title honourable.”
Seeing them shaking hands or dancing with dictators and despots and selling them weapons is to see the dregs of humanity and its depravity, masquerading as “leaders.” A more appropriate title for them would be, Monstrous Murderers of the Human Race” and a compliant corporate media assists them in their atrocities by suppressing and censoring their crimes against humanity.
Present day Nuremberg trials are needed, but when the system is controlled by war criminals, will this ever happen?…
[more info at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2018/02/it-is-almost-impossible.html
Good to hear from you Stephen, I have been missing your posts. You have a clear perception of the massive atrocities the US government is constantly perpetrating. Thanks so much for sharing the truth in it’s naked reality.
Thanks mike k. I believe total evil is in control, and could lead to nuclear war.
Cheers, Stephen J.
Here is Edward Curtin’s take on the plans of the criminal cabal in control.
http://edwardcurtin.com/the-coming-wars-to-end-all-wars/
“Human rights” concerns have been central to the propaganda defending the fundamentalist barbarian hordes brought in by the yanks and their acolytes to bring down Syria. As is suggested, what this does is put totally into disrepute the organisations captured by the deep state interests to put forward this propaganda.
Selective outrage over civilian suffering in Syria – hyping U.S.-led Coalition air strikes while downplaying the effects of Syrian government abuses – undermines the legitimacy of the pro-Putin propaganda which Mr Marshall advocates, It’s the same silly argument Putin’s American supporters use in regard to Ukraine: because A violated B’s rights, C is entitled to “punish” A by also violating B’s rights!
There is an excellent article on Syria at Off Guardian today as a letter to Syria especially the commentary but the imagery is brutal…
https://off-guardian.org/2018/02/23/a-letter-from-slovenia-to-syria/
Evidently the same outrage doesn’t apply to the Turkish bombing and invasion of Afrin where there will be no videos of “heroic white helmets” pulling abandoned Kurdish allies out of the wreckage.
As shown in this article, actions taken by Washington in Syria have broken an international agreement from 2003:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2018/02/syria-united-states-and-exportation-of.html
The breaking of this agreement has led to much greater risks for the flying public.
Sally Snyder, I read the link you provided. More evidence that our battle with ISIS was a diversion in Syria, that what we are really after is the overthrow of the Syrian government. Part of the strategy to destroy viable states who are on our target list, often at the behest of Israel. An acceptable fall back in our strategy to Balkanize Syria, already suffering from the occupation of the Golan Heights.
If we are concerned with the proliferation of manpads, perhaps the defense budget should have provided money to “vetted” enemies of the Syrian Government to already manufactured ones.
Something really should be done with the moderation on our site. For those in charge of this feature to be unresponsive to requests for information about why a particular post is being held for moderation, is not helpful. Even some general statement of principles and procedures would be helpful to those of us who have labored to make some statement, and then seen it go into the limbo of moderation for no discernible reason.
In regard to the article: Lying and cheating are forms of violence. They hurt other’s ability to trust and ascertain truth. Thus they are very serious and deeply wounding behaviors. To distort and misrepresent the truth is a very serious crime against an essential component of our possible salvation. Verbal abuse can be just as traumatic and damaging as physical or sexual abuse. Right speech is essential to the spiritual life, to violate it is to go off the path. Mindfulness of our speech is very important. Is what I speak truthful and loving? This is a crucial practice.
The Loving care a child receives from his parents needs to be as consistent and powerful as possible. The parents need to give their whole attention to Loving their child; they need to surrender their desires to serve their infant wholeheartedly. The most devastating trauma is to be deprived of the Love one desperately needs. A culture which puts any value ahead of nurturing the infant child, will be perpetuating a sick, dysfunctional culture. Caring for others is the foundation of a healthy culture. “The end is in the beginning.”
The goal of society should be to provide the foundation of a Loving life to each person born into it.
Meanwhile, keeping the natives docile at home:
“Mental health watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights is drawing attention to the concerning fact that more than a million kids younger than six in our nation are currently taking these psychiatric drugs.
According to Natural News, around half of these children are four to five years old and an incredible 274,804 of them are younger than a year old. That’s right: babies are being given psychiatric drugs. The number rises for toddlers aged two to three, with 370,778 kids in this category taking psychiatric drugs overall. If this isn’t horrifying to you, congratulations on your brainwashing. […]
The biggest category of psychotic drugs given to children appears to be anti-anxiety drugs. Just over 227,132 babies under one-year-old and nearly 248,000 of those aged four to five take these medications. Again, babies are being given mind-altering drugs before their first birthday.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-22/big-pharmas-war-our-children-1-million-kids-under-age-6-psychiatric-drugs
The increased use of suppressive psychiatric drugs in populations suffering from authoritarian rule was predicted by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World. For those suffering from our loveless society, dope them up, imprison them, or let them rot sleeping in the streets. Above all, do not fix the conditions that have led to their unhappiness. I know what it feels like to be treated this way.
It’s like the continuity of drugs supports the continuity of guns which is the continuity of violence as in the continuity of war to be found in the continuity of a society which has truly loss it’s way, and on and on this series of sad consequences goes onto many more continual repetitive occurrences that we always find ourselves dumbfounded by there sameness and similar results. Although to our utter amazement would it be a surprise to anyone to have ever heard of Cheney and Rumsfeld’s plan ‘the Continuity of Government? No. With this should we ask where has our MSM been to report on such a plan being devised? Heck no, because that would ruin the part where we citizens continually are blinded by the world at large, as it may also stop the madness that our society has created by our continuity of ignorance.
Excellent comment backwardsevolution, and I suspect that early intervention with those very dangerous drugs causes a permanent change of personality…
Here is that report. And thank you.
http://www.cchr.org/sites/default/files/downloads/drug_regulatory_warnings.pdf
Bob Van Noy – thanks for the link. Two elderly people I know have trouble swallowing, which is one of the symptoms listed. One fellow hasn’t eaten solid food for several years now, but dearly wishes he could. This got me wondering whether the medication these two people are taking is causing the problem. I mean, when you’re in your 90’s and you can just taste (in your mind) how wonderful it would be to have pizza again, I say strip off the drugs and give me pizza! Thanks, Bob.
Thanks backwardsevolution, this is a significant topic and I look forward to interacting along these lines.
Not only is big pharma pushing these drugs, but the mental health community as well. I saw an interview with two psychiatrists who ran a clinic for children suffering from anxiety disorders, and their main thesis was that anxiety disorders in children were biologically based. They never referenced, or gave any recognition to the role of parenting skills, or lack their of, or the environmental conditions the children were growing up in, which in my opinion is totally bogus. It reminded me of a meeting I attended at Long Island Jewish where a psychiatrist stood up and quite dramatically held up a bottle of pills and yelled out, “Who needs Freud, we have the pill!”, which to a great extent is what psychiatrists do, push pills. In referencing this article it’s quite similar in that we never view things with a holistic perspective, and one’s take on issues depends on what side of the fence you’re on.
Taking a child to the park or a walk in the country…spending time and just talking. Being a friend and showing interest and engaging as non-judgemental equals on simple human terms can do wonders for anxiety in anyone, including children. I just detest the idea of looking first to biological causes for such commonalities like anxiety or or being “hyper” when we know there are feedback loops and particularly when therapies of human interaction aren’t used as a first resort.
I had a cousin whose daughter died from opioids, and prescribed by a physician. She cousin tried to intervene, but her daughter was over 21. Instead of dealing with the fact she had an addictive personality disorder the doctor just fed her addiction. It’s become a national disgrace. Doctors have become pill pushers, and I can’t watch TV without multiple commercials by big Pharma pushing one pill, or another.
Talk about a “death cult”! The pharmaceutical and weapons industries are in direct competition!
What was Jonathan Marshall referring to in this article when he used that term death cult? Would he, or any of you, please elaborate?
Thanks for the good comments, everyone.
This is off topic, but your comment about Big Pharma made me recall an article I read not long ago about an incidence where pharmaceutical companies have a great deal of influence in protecting their industry and their obscene profits. It is really tragic that a potential cure is being sabotaged. One can only hope that if this research has merit that it is being pursued where advances in medicine are truly valued and have a hope of benefitting mankind.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/cancer-and-autism-mysterious-deaths-of-alternative-health-doctors-who-have-real-cures-not-approved-by-the-fda/5465809
Talk about a “death cult”! The pharmaceutical and weapons industries are in direct competition!
What was Jonathan Marshall referring to in this article when he used that term death cult? Would he, or any of you, please elaborate?
Thanks for the good comments, everyone.
Good comments, all. What in the heck are we doing? Babies, toddlers? What? I kept looking around for the Zero Hedge article to be from The Onion or something, but it wasn’t. This is beyond pathetic.
I always said my son was at least ten times the work my daughter was. I could leave the room for two minutes, and in that time my kitchen table would have been moved into the family room, turned upside down, the four chairs balanced perfectly on top of the table legs, and my daughter would be wrapped up like a hot dog in the carpet that used to be under the table. All within two minutes! OMG, at the time it was all I could do to keep my sanity.
When I was a kid, I lived outside. We were little savages, out in the bush until we were called home. We lived on our bikes. That’s what we’ve lost. Kids are full of energy and they need an outlet for that energy. They need to be playing with other kids. We keep them locked indoors, latch-key/daycare kids, and then wonder why they are anxious. We don’t listen to them, being too busy with our own “careers” and lives.
Babies on drugs? We have completely lost it.
It’s come to a point where not much shocks me anymore. This shocks me.
The way MSM and the Washington set describe Assad’s so called barrel bombs amuses me. Over here in the UK our politicians and news commentators talk about Assad’s barrel bombs as though they were in some wickedly more cruel than any other bomb. When its pointed out to them that a barrel bomb is an explosive device EXACTLY the same that an American bomb is, but with nothing like the destructive force, they don’t like it. They way MSM hypes fantasy chemical attacks is similar, but they never want to address the chemical attacks perpetrated on men women and children by the Americans using white phosphorus to burn them alive. White phosphorus is every bit as much a chemical as say, Sarin, with equally horrible effects.
Sir, as a True American Citizen I must protest your slander of our fine Military Industrial Complex. Barrel Bombs are homemade in a backwoods place called Syria. Compare them to the precision craftsmanship of the 500 pound Mark 82 made in Garland, Texas.
h**ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_82_bomb
Unlike the crude look of the third-world barrel bomb, this is a streamlined beauty made in America by Americans. General Dynamic is a great American Corporate person, and cannot be compared with a bunch of towelheads jamming a lot of junk into rusty 55 gallon barrels. Syrian barrel bombs are indiscriminate killers – innocent civilians get blown to bits by them. Our fine Air Force is always going to drop the Mark 82s only on bad people. Just ask them! In the highly unlikely event a few Mark 82s fall onto a school or wedding party, the survivors can sometimes expect cash payments amounting to hundreds of dollars each! Are those towelheads so generous? Of course not.
Regarding your claim that white phosphorus is a “chemical”, I fear I must once again get on my All-American Exceptional High Horse and disagree. White Phosphorus is an element, and that makes it much different from the crude “chemicals” of the camel drivers.
The old Greeks named “earth”, “water”, “air”, and “fire” as their Elements, and the Great US Military Industrial Complex uses White Phosphorus in that hallowed tradition. Our modern WP turns evildoers in Muslim areas into “air” (CO2) and “earth” (ash) by means of “fire”. Our White Phosphorus weapons are Made in America by America for profit by Great American Corporations. As always, only evildoers have any reason to complain about being sent to their religion’s Hell a bit prematurely. As before, any sad accidents will sometimes be compensated if the event becomes too widely known.
Finally, WP is used by God’s Favorite People in Gaza, among other local places to, incinerate stubborn trespassers on coveted land. Is your next complaint going to be against God?
Zachary, if ever I’m in the market for a bomb I’m going to call on you to help me purchase one or maybe a couple. Think of the strangeness of what we are talking about, that Assad uses barbaric barrel bombs, but the ever exceptional U.S. bombs a wedding party with very costly ultra sleek shiny missile looking bombs. Have we all loss our minds? We are talking about a device that when dropped from on high explodes and fragments into a gazillion sharp little deadly piercing pieces. Death is death, and a device that causes death is deadly no matter how pretty or crude that explosive device may have been…it’s a bomb. Next maybe we could talk about which bullet to the head a person might prefer.
I would also love to have Senator John McCain get in on this conversation, because I recall during a Senate Committee hearing on Syria, McCain made a big deal about Assad using barrel bombs, and oh how the Senate Hearing Room participants were shocked I tell you at the awfulness of this Middle East country’s leader. Yeah, McCain is taken back at Assad’s cruelness, but the good once POW never elaborated on to how devastating our military hardware is…. or should we remind the honorable Senator?
So Zachary I’m not ripping into you, because you and John Wilson are on to the right conversation, it’s just that the irony of this subject may make me sound critical when at my best I’m actually in agreement with you both. Joe
Witty and clever!
Thank You Jonathan Marshall for your sensitive and balanced essay.
What we see on the MSM ‘news’ is designed to trigger us, usually
when we are trying to wind down after the day and sit down to eat.
I think that’s been by design ever since the Vietnam War. We are
put in a situation where it’s impossible to act and equally impossible
to ignore what is happening. The result ? Cognitive dissonance. Why ?
One doesn’t sit down to relax and watch MSM news garbage, one sits down to watch this excruciating meal of lies and absurdity as a form of self torture. Its like the police having to watch a film of some serial killer at work. They have to watch it to get clues etc, but it is agony for them. If you want to see real news told calmly and without hype, I suggest to watch RT.
Right. I force myself to tune in occasionally, to see the latest BS they are imposing on the masses. This latest propaganda about Syria is so blatantly slanted that anyone with the slightest bit of critical thinking skills should see it for what it is. Unfortunately, as has been noted elsewhere, our population is pretty well brainwashed, probably with the help of the pharmaceutical industry.
It’s criminal that there are so many innocent victims of this cruel game.
John Wilson,
Thank you. You have described in very concise and heartfelt words which one goes through everyday but cannot find the right words to describe it.
Though I do not watch TV but can hear it in the Study – all these lackeys hired by the Financial, Media, and Entertainment Moguls spurting out this garbage, the lies fed to them by their Masters, everyday. They have just about extinguished all the progress what the human thought and imagination had created in the form of literature, history, philosophy, advances in political thought . . . during the last three millenniums or so.
It seems like that wherever you go, all we are going to be left with is the zombie population with smart phones, iphones . . . in their hands constantly looking at whatever our Ruling Masters choose to feed us. It has not fully happened yet; but we are not very far from it.
Even Soviet Union, so called Totalitarian State produced writers like Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Sholokhov, Pasternak, and others. There are no real writers left in U.S. except the ones who sit at the podium in front of Judy Woodruff, and other propagandists of the Empire, self promoting them, posing as poets, writers.
This is the Future coming in U.S. , and the Ruling Establishment is determined to impose it on the whole World. The Entire West is complicit in this project. It is hard for us, who idealized and admired Western Civilization – to comprehend this complete moral collapse of The West in such a short time.
Dave always good to read your comments.
You know Dave the way I look at our media is this way; Imagine you are a very wealthy narcissus who owned all of the media, paper, television & radio, and a bunch of influential websites. Imagine that every day your folks who work for you want to please you the best way they know how, and that is they will write every news story with your (the bosses) slants, and preferences written to your beliefs, and always to your liking. Why Dave, if either of us ever happened to wake up to our being a boss with this much influence, and persuasion, that seriously Dave we would not know how to react to this much blinded dedication.
Knowing you and I Dave we would probably order our staff writers to write the news in the most unbiased way, so as to present our news junkies with the most truthful rendition of what happened, and be done with it. Only Dave as you know the narcissus are busy at their work peeling bigger potatoes than just their delivering the news, it’s war Dave, and in their world war makes money. If it isn’t war then it is something else of great importance, and important things must always have the bosses particular slanted spin applied to their sage, or it simply just doesn’t get any air time or go into print. With MIC contractors buying up expensive TV commercial time, and pharmaceutical corporations committing even more money to commercials, is it any wonder Dave to what all is a wrong in America today? Joe
You all really need to read this….
https://russia-insider.com/en/robert-parry-when-independent-journalism-meant-something/ri22564
Joe –
The article about Robert Parry was excellent. Thanks for the post.
I have read enough since young age about Imperial Colonizing Powers, the atrocities committed by them on the natives in all continents, and the plunder of the colonized lands. And I disagree with a lot what they have done. But one judges civilizations by looking at both the good and the bad. At least there was a march forward towards a system based on laws and regard for the value of the Individual; And the great advancement in science and technology leading to a better life for humans.
Even during 1960’s when the Vietnam War was going on, there was opposition in the media as well in public to the unjust war, and there was some kind of accountability however small it was. But the things started completely going downhill for the last three decades or so. But it does become almost unbearable – go through torture as John W. said above – listening to the likes of Rachel Maddow, Wolf Blitzer, and others in Media, and those in the Ruling Establishment to utter these filthy lies about this Russia Gate Nonsense every day for almost two years now. So, I write a few comments to soothe that anguish.
Wherever you look at the Corporate Media in the West, all you see is propaganda and lies. In U.K. as you may have read they are calling Jeremy Corbyn to be a Putin man, a KGB agent. They are accusing Ken Livingston, the popular ex-mayor of London being a KGB agent during his early days. Ken Livingston has been voicing his opinions on RT. I watched him some time ago on RT. He said, The real target of the West is China. They want Russia to go along with them – like a Vassal State. So, Livingstone has become a thorn in the side of the Ruling Establishment there.
There are writers, not widely seen due to suppression of dissent by mass media, including publishers, Google, copyright pirates, and secret agencies. They feed the dissent market with content-free fluff.
Sam F – I believe there are good writers some where in the land as you said – something like the underground literature in Soviet Union, the writers who were not published by the authorities. I wish that their writings can be brought into wide circulation.
Yes, John Wilson. RT to find out what is happening over there, and see and hear the truth. I have watched it as often as I can for years now. Good programming all the day and night long, twenty-four seven.
That is the same conclusion I reached After watching lie after liesd for a number of years .
Yes, it is very difficult indeed to separate right from wrong in the Mideast, with so many warring groups motivated by anger and confused by ideologies, that any source employing “selective outrage” is worthless propaganda. Of course the US mass media are controlled by zionists, who care not for the killing of all others to support the fascist land thefts of Israel. They have destroyed US democracy by controlling elections. All hail zionism!