Hedges writes: "The black-clad fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, sweeping a collapsing army and terrified Iraqis before them as they advance toward Baghdad, reflect back to us the ghoulish face of American empire. They are the specters of the hundreds of thousands of people we murdered in our deluded quest to remake the Middle East."
Anti-war protesters pose for photographers wearing masks depicting former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, George W. Bush, and Tony Blair. (photo: AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)
The Ghoulish Face of Empire
23 June 14
he black-clad fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, sweeping a collapsing army and terrified Iraqis before them as they advance toward Baghdad, reflect back to us the ghoulish face of American empire. They are the specters of the hundreds of thousands of people we murdered in our deluded quest to remake the Middle East. They are ghosts from the innumerable roadsides and villages where U.S. soldiers and Marines, jolted by explosions of improvised explosive devices, responded with indiscriminate fire. They are the risen remains of the dismembered Iraqis left behind by blasts of Hellfire and cruise missiles, howitzers, grenade launchers and drone strikes. They are the avengers of the gruesome torture and the sexual debasement that often came with being detained by American troops. They are the final answer to the collective humiliation of an occupied country, the logical outcome of Shock and Awe, the Frankenstein monster stitched together from the body parts we left scattered on the ground. They are what we get for the $4 trillion we wasted on the Iraq War.
The language of violence engenders violence. The language of hate engenders hate. �I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn,� W.H. Auden wrote. �Those to whom evil is done do evil in return.� It is as old as the Bible.
There is no fight left in us. The war is over. We destroyed Iraq as a unified country. It will never be put back together. We are reduced�in what must be an act of divine justice decreed by the gods, whom we have discovered to our dismay are Islamic�to pleading with Iran for military assistance to shield the corrupt and despised U.S. protectorate led by Nouri al-Maliki. We are not, as we thought when we entered Iraq, the omnipotent superpower able in a swift and brutal stroke to bend a people to our will. We are something else. Fools and murderers. Blinded by hubris. Faded relics of the Cold War. And now, in the final act of the play, we are crawling away. Our empire is dying.
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We are a little different in as much as we also have high personal debt to add to the high public debt obligations. Times are not good and not going to get better for a long while. And yes, Obama is a wuss at his best.
The problem with all the anger is that it really does no good. Most people are really responsible for their own contribution to this mess. Few complained while your 401k was increasing in value due to off shoring jobs or decreasing regulations. And most people spent way beyond their means and now want the government to fix in short order what took decades to accomplish.
The inverted debt pyramid is going to collapse. It is inevitable. When it does, it will take most of those with leveraged assets with it. A new order will arise. I just hope and pray that it isn't a Hitler or a Mussolini or a Stalin or Mao or Pol Pot or one of the other outrageous configurations of hate.
Pray for us all as we are going to need all the help we can get.
Time for new Democratic or Independent leadership. And not nut case tea party types. We need a real leader.
My guess is that Obama will lose against a middle of the road Republican like Romney b/c 1) the base has lost faith in the system and 2) the independent swing vote will go for a candidate like Romney.
The only chance that Obama has with the present course of action that he holds is if the Rep. party puts up an extreme right-winger, e.g., Ryan or Bachman.
It would also be smart to pay attention to the polls right before the election. If Alan ran,or another progressive, but only got 22% of Dem votes, it would mean bailing on him and backing Obama (hold your nose).
Friendly, appreciative correction: they have ZERO concern....
Declare victory in Afganistan. Bring the troops home. Take the entire cost of the war and split it down the middle. 1/2 to pay towards the imaginary deficit, 1/2 to pay for infrastructure projects in the US. Job priorities are first veterans of the Afghan fiasco and second the long term unemployed.
Can the tea baggers complain about a 1:1 new spending to deficit reduction and jobs for the soldiers and those that need it most?
You are right, I forgot about that detail.
Do you also feel like you have just been invited into the TARDIS, only to discover its just a box?
President Obama could follow the plan of former President Eisenhower who engaged the returning veterans in building a superb highway system plus rebuilding the infratructure throughout the country.
Yes, there will be, can be, if the banks are forced by the 50 state attorney's general to cut mortgage balances down to current market levels. The big banks got us into this underwater mortgage mess -- they can damn well pay to get us out of it! No taxpayer bailout needed.
He never took on the banks for more than a day, and even then it was tame.
The bailout was needed. We still have not addressed the real issue. And guess what? Its not making sure that banks are allowed to create ways to lend money in complicated schemes that give them better odds than Las Vegas could ever hope for. The real issue is that they are allowed to operate as unregulated monopolies.
p.s. Obama, the Congress is on recess! Name a head of the Consumer Protection Board, NOW!
I am a Libertarian. I am not Right Wing, I am not Conservative.
Libertarian thought has been hijacked by persons that believe Liberty is equivalent to Laissez Faire economics. I reject that notion.
I do subscribe to the basic Libertarian thinking. Which is; we create governments to protect our physical well being, promote the our economic security, and enhance the lives of all that choose to live under such a government.
A Consumer Protection agency or any other government agency that serves to protect me from the excesses of Laissez Faire economics is consistent with Libertarianism. That board protects my economic interests just as an army protects me from invasion.
This was the beginning of the end of the decline of the American working class into serf status at the hands of ruling coporate elite.
The two party system has failed the working class, yet many still put their hope into the hands of the democrats who are also guility of collaboration with the neo fascists in moving America to a have and have not economic status.
What is going to take the majority of Americans to wake up to the political reality that currently there is no political party on our side, we must fight to take back what the robber barons have stolen.
Look at the FAA situation! This new super-committee will fail (says the Turtle and Boner) -- and then the trigger kicks in which is down with the big 3 +++ education, head start, etc. and no tax reform.
Supreme Court must repeal the 2010 UNCONSTITUTIONA L decision of personhood to corporations to run negative ads and FUND their cronies in Congress. Supremes: "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?"
Register and get mail-in ballots NOW and help anyone who is not in the know - to do the same. Vote these crooks OUT in 2012.
I thought he just told us the most important thing to do was to control spending and now he is talking about increasing spending. Perhaps he ought to review his speeches before he makes a bigger ass of himself.
Do they think the poor, working class and senior citizens cannot reason, cannot hear, cannot see what everyone in Washington DC is doing to the American people?
What JOBS?? The Democrats kissed the Republicans and T Party butts just to signed off on the nation's debt and in the Midnight hour..just for a temporary deal with these parties and cuts down the road.
Frankly, I am disgusted with all the parties, mostly the ones I supported.
There are a few dedicated key legislative people, so I have not lost all my confidence just yet.
The rich invest, shelter their money, avoid taxes, accumulate wealth and hoard wealth.
This stupid exercise of the debt ceiling just witnessed is to take more money out of the hand of those who spend (middle and working class), and put the money into the hands of those who will essentially hoard it.
I worked to get Obama elected and I voted for Obama. The reason I voted for him was because Clinton and McCain I thought would be disasters and the corporate media wasn't going to let anyone else win.
This president doesn't work for the American people. He answers to Goldman Sach, big pharma, Hollywood, AIPAC, Big oil, and all the other interest groups he lied and said would have not influence on his administration. Obama should either be impeached or hung for treason.
Obama should have demanded a clean bill raising the debt ceiling and campaigned in the states of any Republican who resisted for letters demanding this. The net result would have been an increased debt ceiling without an austerity program, probably before his deadline and certainly a few days after.
Where does it say in the Constitution that our 2 Houses of Representatives can decide to make a 3rd entity, of unelected people who cannot be lobbied?
What about drafting Al Gore?
So sad about Obama.... He had everything when he started,.... He could have been another Abe Lincoln, a JFK, a Thomas Jefferson type - and instead, he looks like Herbert Hoover before the big D.