US "accidentally" obliterated 85 civilians. Same number as killed in Nice but you won't see wall-to-wall coverage
US "accidentally" obliterated 85 civilians. Same number as killed in Nice but you won't see wall-to-wall coverage https://t.co/eS8wEa14pQ
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 20, 2016
Josie Ensor, Istanbul
19 July 2016 • 4:32pmA US air strike killed nearly 60 civilians, including children, in Syria on Tuesday after the coalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters.
Some eight families were hit as they tried to flee fighting in their area, in one of the single deadliest strikes on civilians by the alliance since the start of its operations in the war-torn country.
Pictures of the aftermath of the dawn strikes on the Isil-controlled village of Tokhar near Manbij in northern Syria showed the bodies of children as young as three under piles of rubble.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes appeared to have been carried out in error, with the civilians mistaken for Islamist militants.
US foreign policy desperately needs to be changed. Only Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein have policies of less intervention globally. We must end perpetual war.
Comments
We so need to get out of the war business.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
That and the medical insurance business
and the Wall Street speculation business and the propaganda business and the prison business and the fossil fuel business and a few other profit over people businesses all of whom seem to be big contributers to Hillary.
Beware the bullshit factories.
It doesn't count
if our government doesn't admit it made a mistake, and the public simply doesn't care because those brown-skinned people had the wrong colored passport.
There's a corollary with dieting, some calories don't count
...I've forgotten which ones. I think chocolate.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
<3 <3 <3
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Anything eaten standing over the sink doesn't count.
So I must have gotten calories out of thin (fat) air.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Vacation calories don't count either
At least according to my last instructor ;-P
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
"A US air strike . . in Syria."
I wonder what most people think when they read that. Do they understand what that really means, besides killing more innocent people.
If there was a Syrian air strike ...
in the US, we'd nuke them into the stone age after calling it terrorism.
And one day, perhaps not that far off,
the world will unite against us and bring an end to the violence we perpetrate around the world.
Only a matter of time.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
The US is Cersei Lannister
and the rest of the world is everyone else at the end of season six.
This shit is bananas.
You'd think by now we'd be better at this
since we seem to be warring in so many places. Gotta ask at some point if this is actually a bug or in fact a feature since we keep oopsing.
NO MORE WAR!
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
It's the difference between precision and accuracy
Thanks to GPS, aerial bombardment now is much more precise than in WW II and even Vietnam, which saw the first use of so-called "smart bombs." And small warheads on precision weapons are supposed to limit so-called collateral damage to civilians.
Unfortunately, precision just means the bomb or missile will hit very close to where you aim it. This does not guarantee accuracy, which requires knowing what the target is.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
Actually
We have returned to the policy of......... kill 'em all and let god sort'em out.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Had to kill those dangerous
Had to kill those dangerous-looking 3-year-olds and their moms? There are NO EXCUSES for this - and no pretenses of any ability even to identify anyone who might be - what - defending his country being attacked?
And what's the excuse for the attack anyway? Were they on America's freaking borders with army tanks or half-way across the world?
Going to go finish my hysterics while screaming into my pillow...
Edit: knew I shouldn't read this while so tired...
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.
You have to wonder about both our tactics and our strategy
The Clinton/Obama strategy seems to have been to bomb the hell out of (insert Muslim nation of choice here) and then to try to manage the ensuing chaos. This strategy amounts to murder and it seems terribly counterproductive from the point of view of the US as a nation state. So are they just dumb or is there something more sinister going on. One thing to remember in formulating your own answer to this question is that even though the US suffers from this policy, the military industrial complex benefits. Also we have very bad allies in the middle east-Saudi Arabia and Turkey, for example- and our relationships with them distort our policies. Finally, although people say Hillary Clinton is very smart, I don't see a lot of wisdom or strategic thinking. She is cunning and would be a good debater, probably, but not someone who can look ahead and evaluate the long-term consequences of her actions. She also looks to Henry Kissinger for inspiration and she is borderline psychopathic. Laughing at Ghaddafi's murder was clearly sick. Kerry is a bit more in touch with reality than Clinton, but has her messes to deal with. Obama always seems slightly disengaged.
With respect to tactics, we have built armed forces that are incredibly expensive and remarkably unsuited for their current missions. On top of this, the tactics are warped by political requirements. We can't sent in ground troops so we blast people from the air. Mistakes will be made. If we do send in ground troops, they are completely ignorant of the local culture and often do more harm than good.
Kerry is every bit the war criminal Clinton is, and he's
amply contributed to the "messes". There are no mistakes, it's all illegal. That's like saying premeditated murder is a mistake. The U.S. has zero authority to be flying over Syrian airspace let alone dropping bombs. The U.S. has zero authority for having "boots on the ground".
The strategy is to overthrow Assad and destroy and balkanize Syria, which is unconstitutional and against international law.
Thanks Obama. How's that Nobel Peace prize working out?
How many troops and mercenaries are you leaving in Afghanistan?
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Should just rename it Nobel War Prize
because it's been awarded to at least two war criminals.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Using my new word today: Agnotology (from ray p.)
A perfect example of spreading doubt on the incident was the NYTimes. The first line of defense was to doubt whether information is accurate.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/07/19/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria....
The title is: "Activists: Airstrikes on IS-Held Villages in Syria Kill 56."
The Times in good fashion warns that readers should suspect information about the bombings:
See, a potential back up explanation is that the victims ran into the bombs. Second, never read any account of Russian bombing from major media outlets that had any such caveats of information from war zones. Never read anywhere that victims ran into Russian bombs.
If the reader didn't get the point the first time, the article repeats the same doubts again later in the article.
There is more propaganda in the article such as its title. The Times made sure to make it known that the area was controlled by evil people. I almost never read the same about reports of Russian bombings--identify who controls the area. I have had to do my own searching to find out. It just continues the theme that Russians are not fighting ISIS, but the US is.
Well, that's fast. The totals are all over the place.
The Telegraph article mentions Russians in last paragraph, but not running into bombs.
Interesting the quote
Interesting last paragraph.
The article content before that was about Manbij. I gather the intended antecedent given the placement of the paragraph and the content before it, refers to the residents of Manbij and ISIS. As far as I know in following what is going on, the Russians are not bombing in support of the Kurds who are fighting around Manbij city. All the bombing in that area is solely by the US military. This sounds totally like a made up quote given the obvious context of the article. Also, note in the paragraph that ISIS is now referred to as "rebels". I remember very soon after the US "accidently" shot up a hospital in Afghanistan that reports were coming out of Syria that Russians were deliberating targeting innocent civilians and had a policy of deliberating targeting hospitals, children, and puppies. I guess the message is Russian bombs bad, American bombs okay.
What about the Doctors Without Borders
hospital in Afghanistan that we bombed? Even after its location being well known. And the bombing continued despite desperate calls saying they were bombing a hospital. But there were some bad guys in there. Or it was simply a "mistake."
I'm still spitting nails over that one.
Where was the outrage?!
It makes me want to cry.
why does tweet say 85, but articles say nearly 60?
I presume the total went up after more innocents were found, as is usual, but it's still odd to me.
Incidentally, the telegraph piece said this near the end:
Edit to correct number in subject
Realtime vs old data.
Tweets are generally up to the minute (not saying they're right or wrong, just more current) while articles are usually not updated at all or only updated sporadically.
15yrs
15yrs
We have been at this "war on terror" for 15yrs, some of my foreign friends think this means the US Military has grown soft and weak.
Then I explain the rationale behind the deliberate "not winning" such a war as we used to do so long ago. I tell them "Why would we as a corporate run complex want to end a war where we get to showcase and sell new weapon and surveillance technology?"
in other words folks, we are so owned and dominated not just by the Fossil Fuel peddlers, but the MIC to the extent that we have never tooled down for a peace time economy, the money we are spending on the Military Contractors was stolen from infrastructure, education, social safety net programs, etc. and the MSM helped make it acceptable to the people as they also fomented the divisions between us based on skin-tone/religions/social and financial strata.
So, no, this will not get played on air time as they still try and make the American populace believe we are the infallible "good guys with weapons" vs the "Bad guys with weapons(ISIS)"
Remember, with the dumbing down of our educational system we have fewer introspective people who would be angry with the theft of our culture/society/rights/life here at home, as well as the theft of life we commit overseas in short sighted policies meant to just help make perpetual wars so the MIC can sell their weapons.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
I think you're summed it up accurately.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
And the U.S. will do it again
tomorrow and the next day and the day after that and again after that and twice on Sunday.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
Accidentally on purpose
About Syria I was reading this article on Iraq and this stood out:
and then US bombed him to death that's the subject. Now say blow-back because exactly! Insane I think to go 'round and 'round like that. Cut it out.
Thanks for the essay vl baker.
Oppsies. Obomba just released his Drone report
which said the number of civilians killed was insignificant (except to their loved ones I presume, but hey war is an omelette, etc. etc).
Someone is gonna get fired for this one tho. I assume it will be the guy that let it leak to the press.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
The leaker ...
will probably go to prison because he doesn't have a private email server at home.
Might not have been militants there before
But now? Now the survivors have dead friends and family members. If only there were some groups out there, eager to fight the US, that those survivors could join for a chance at vengeance! Oh, wait. Pretty sure there's lots of groups out there that want to fight the US, that are full of people with similar stories to the survivors of this "accident."
The US takes money from our school children
so they can kill school children all over the world.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison