Not to take G's thunder, but there is this too

Why Is the U.S. Killing So Many Civilians in Syria and Iraq?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/opinion/isis-syria-iraq-civilian-casu...

Two weeks ago, the American military finally acknowledged what nongovernmental monitoring groups had claimed for months: The United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State since August 2014 has been killing Iraqi and Syrian civilians at astounding rates in the four months since President Trump assumed office. The result has been a “staggering loss of civilian life,” as the head of the United Nations’ independent Commission of Inquiry into the Syrian civil war said last week.

“At least 484 civilians have been unintentionally killed by coalition strikes,” the United States Central Command, or Centcom, the military command responsible for the Middle East, said in a June 2 statement. Four months earlier, Centcom had said at least 199 civilians had been killed up to that point in the bombing campaign. Estimates by independent monitors are much higher. Airwars, a watchdog group, says coalition airstrikes have killed nearly 4,000 civilians.

Oh well. At least Mad Dog is deploying 4K+ more IED fodder into Afghan.

I can't tell you how much I truly hate all of this.

Leave.

Leave them all to themselves.

Just leave, turn the lights out and don't look back.

When there's nothing left, we can sleep again.

Crap

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they hate us so? Let them have their country back. Yes, we should simply leave and we really could. I remember reading Englhardt for the first time and he said just that - took me a few minutes to work myself through that, the brainwashing is so, so effective over the long term. But we should get the hell out of there and let those people have their countries, period. What right we have to even be there I would love for someone to tell me that. With a straight answer and a straight face. Impossible, I know.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

@lizzyh7

because of our Middle East policies, or because we bring, um, democracy to their countries or because we kill them. They hate us for our "freedoms," remember?

Which reminds me: whatever happened to our freedoms?

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snoopydawg's picture

@HenryAWallace

IMG_0719.JPG

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

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EdMass's picture

@HenryAWallace gjohnsit

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

earthling1's picture

It's all they have of value. They have nothing else.
If the western world just left them and their oil, they would starve to death.
They have nothing else to sell, except rocks.
Eventually, they would eat each other.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

EdMass's picture

@earthling1 in mineral deposits, including rare earth metals. That is why the Chinese have been there for a decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Afghanistan

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Alligator Ed's picture

@EdMass Oh yeah, they got nukes.

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dervish's picture

@EdMass have been very active in Africa too, for the same reason, but they did it right. They've built infrastructure and cultivated relationships, and didn't go around killing people.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

CB's picture

@dervish

While the US has been filling coffins, China has been filling coffers.

China's policy has been non-interventionist with win-win economic relationships. The US has always played a zero-sum, interventionist game in its dealings with developing countries.


More Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: This Time, They’re Coming for Your Democracy

Twelve years ago, John Perkins published his book, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.” Today, he says “things have just gotten so much worse.”
...
John Perkins: Things have just gotten so much worse in the last 12 years since the first Confessions was written. Economic hit men and jackals have expanded tremendously, including the United States and Europe.

Back in my day we were pretty much limited to what we called the third world, or economically developing countries, but now it’s everywhere.

And in fact, the cancer of the corporate empire has metastasized into what I would call a failed global death economy. This is an economy that’s based on destroying the very resources upon which it depends, and upon the military. It’s become totally global, and it’s a failure.
...

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CB's picture

@earthling1
if the fucking US will just leave them alone. They had been doing this for several thousand years before the US even existed.

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CB's picture

@earthling1

Here's Brzezinski fomenting war in 1979.

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@CB thousands of years of irrigation infrastructure to grow things there were destroyed. Poppies don't take much water so now they're a narco state.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

CB's picture

@lizzyh7
Naghlu Dam, Darunta Dam, Band-e Sardeh Dam

https://history.libraries.wsu.edu/spring2015/2015/01/20/isis/

Daoud appealed to the United States at first for economic and military aid but was rejected on the terms that “global commitments, strained finances, or requisite congressional approval precluded…assistance to Afghanistan,”[2] despite the fact that America was supplying Pakistan and Iran with similar resources at the time. Consequently, Daoud negotiated with the Soviet Union terms that would supply millions of dollars’ worth of economic, military, and industrial aid. [3] What began, according to The Times, was an “elaborate development programme” that resulted in the construction of an irrigation system and an international highway.[4] So much support came from the Soviet Union that the Afghan military, and the entire country for that matter, were dependent upon the U.S.S.R. Afghanistan now held a substantial Communistic force within its borders, a particular concern of the pro-democratic United States.

In 1966, three successive Afghan officials visited the Soviet Union; Muhammad Hashim Maiwandwal, the third visitor, arranged Russia’s action of postponing Afghan loan repayment.[5] Around the same time, the U.S., after previous rejections of aid to Afghanistan, chose to offer aid in an attempt to prevent the spread of Communism within the country.[6] The U.S.S.R.’s Brezhnev Doctrine (which actively sought to convert countries to Communism and ensure they stay that way) was now up against the U.S.’s policy of containment. But something outside the norm of the Cold War occurred. Rather than butt heads, the superpowers cooperated, even collaborated, in constructing advancements within Afghanistan.[7] The ‘clash’ of superpowers, then, did not leave behind the major damage.

Many government officials and political leaders held animosities toward one another which resulted in a slew of coups and assassinations, and vicious decrees over the citizens further broke down national unity. For example, Hafizullah Amin, the main proponent of the Afghan government, “tried to carry out a revolutionary transformation of Afghan society by decree and terror.”[8] Amin attempted to rule by fear and unify his nation under a dictatorship led by himself, which served only to tear citizen relations apart. The Soviet Union disdained these actions and accordingly sent a favored political figure, Taraki (who possessed pro-Soviet ideals), to Afghanistan. But “it became increasingly obvious to the Soviets that Taraki could not prevent all-out civil war and the prospect of a hostile Islamic government taking control.”[9] As the U.S.S.R. strengthened Taraki at Amin’s expense, Amin killed Taraki, provoking violent rebellions, revolts against the government, and alienation of Soviet relations.[10] Amin then used his Soviet-trained troops to suppress opposition. Adding to the turmoil, another pro-Soviet president, Babrak Karmal, came into power via a Soviet-backed execution of the previous president (Hafizullah Amin).[11] With coups under way and civil war raging, the Soviet Invasion of 1979 soon began.[12]

The US was directly responsible for creating the conditions within Afghanistan that suckered the Russians into invading.

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@earthling1

But I really don't think that they're being invaded to force them to sell their oil rather than eat rocks?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.