Will the U.S. accept responsibility for the humanitarian consequences of Washington-manufactured wars?…
Significantly, the countries that have generated most of the refugees are all places where the United States has invaded, overthrown governments, supported insurgencies, or intervened in a civil war.…
Though I recognize that the refugee problem cannot be completely blamed on only one party, many of those millions would be alive and the refugees would for the most part be in their homes if it had not been for the catastrophic interventionist policies pursued by both Democratic and Republican administrations in the United States.
It is perhaps past time for Washington to begin to become accountable for what it does…Poignant, especially considering it was written by a former official of the US deep state.
We Americans are in something approaching complete denial about how truly horrible our nation’s recent impact on the rest of the world has been. We are universally hated, even by those who have their hands out to receive their Danegeld, and the world is undoubtedly shaking its head as it listens to the bile coming out of the mouths of our presidential candidates. Shakespeare observed that the “evil that men do lives after them,” but he had no experience of the United States. We choose to dissimulate regarding the bad choices we make followed up with lies to justify and mitigate our crimes. And still later the evil we do disappears down the memory hole. Literally.
In writing this piece I looked up Ali Hussein, the little Iraqi boy who was killed by the American bomb. He has been “disappeared” from Google, as well has the photo, presumably because his death did not meet community standards. He has likewise been eliminated from the Washington Post archive. The experience of Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984 immediately came to mind.The American Conservative
A Refugee Crisis Made in America
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest
America doesn't want to help Mexico, which is right next door and is in crisis. You think they give a flying toss about refugees who are thousands of miles away?
ReplyDeletePoignant indeed. Now pass the popcorn.
The idea that it's all (or even mainly) America's fault is PC nonsense.
ReplyDeleteOf course the West's interventions in the Middle East over recent decades have been utterly ham fisted, on the other hand what's the connection between Iraq and Syria? Not much.
Sunnis and Shias were quarreling with each other a thousand years before the Pilgrim Fathers set sail.
As for the Iran Iraq war which killed about a million, that was a quarrel over a small bit of territory at the Southern tip of Iraq. Again: nothing to do with the West.
Plus Russia and Iran are intervening big time in Syria.
Of course there are a lot of factors operative that go back thousands of years. But when a country acts in such as to destabilize an unstable region and now an unstable world, don't be surprised at the unintended consequences. But that doesn't absolve of responsibility for deliberate choices either. A lot of that responsibility falls on US choices.
ReplyDeleteRalph, what on earth are you talking about?
ReplyDeleteSunni and Shia have never killed each other on anything like this scale. It's like looking at the Holocaust and saying that there's always been violence between Christians and Jews. Historical and political context is everything.
Read any book on Arab history and you'll see that Sunni and Shia violence has been relatively minor. The current bloodletting has been a consequence of Saudi and other Gulf states policy of flooding Iraq with anti-Shia jihadis after the disbanding of the Iraqi military by Paul Bremer. The US invaded Iraq, disbanded its security and then let it fall prey to Saudi religious fanatics. And that has nothing to do with the US? Come off it.
And how about US and UK support for Saudi Arabia's mad jihad in Yemen and Syria? If Assad falls, ISIS takes over Syria. The US and UK know the consequences of their actions, and are doing everything possible to do ensure Assad's toppling.
The invasion of Iran by Iraq was funded and armed by the US and the Gulf Arab states. Iraq was in no position to invade without the help of the Western and Gulf powers. The US and UK supplied chemical and biological weapons to Iraq. The US even entered the war on Iraq's side when Iran had turned the tide. Yet according to you, the US and the wider West weren't involved!
I take no great joy in admitting that the UK is a leading contributor to the violence in the Middle East, but it is nevertheless true. The US and Saudi Arabia take top billing, though, for state terrorism on an epic scale. The invasion of Iraq was one of the most despicable crimes in world history and it was from the very start based on lies. If there were any justice in the world, Blair and Bush would be indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity and serve the rest of their lives behind bars. Cameron, Obama and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE would also be indicted for the destruction of Libya, Yemen and Syria and join Bush and Blair in cells for the rest of their lives.
This is like the battered woman who thinks "its my fault..."
ReplyDeleteWas drought a factor?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html?_r=0
"Russia and Iran are intervening big time in Syria."
ReplyDeleteRight Ralph you could have Russia thinking Assad is their puppet and then Iran thinks no Assad is their puppet...uh oh!
US is out of it as Barry plays golf...
Neo-cons are going to be nervous of course with all of this going on just north of Israel...
I've been wondering how long it'll take Europe to wake up to this reality.
ReplyDeleteOur bombs, their refugees.
It would be better if the progressives could figure out less destructive ways for the warriors to wage battle and compete. Elected leaders are not omniscient and can only use their best judgement. As long as the US, UK, Russia and Europe have extraordinary military power, they will always be blamed for using it and for not using it depending on the circumstance. The criticism misses the point and only contributes to the sense of injustice that leads to more strife and warfare.
ReplyDeleteThis may be overly cynical but Barry likes Win-Win solutions that avoid tough decisions. Perfect example in Syria, Europe gets a much needed economic boost from immigration. Russia gets to hold onto their ally and install a new leader. The US simply needs a place for fundamentalist conservatives to fulfill their religious obligation to wage their jihad that ISN'T the US and other Christian targets for conversion. Even within the US, it gives the US conservative warrior class, I think the progressives pejorative terminology is to call them the "neo-cons" or "military industrial complex," a place to wage battle and earn their stars and stripes. Warriors, whether from Islamic, Christians, "Western" or Asian or African will always be a part of human society, crying about it won't change their need to kill, conquer, and counting coup. The challenge is to make it less destructive and create rules to make it civilized and use it to reduce injustice.
Short term thinkers employ divide & conquer (to loot, rather than build).
ReplyDeleteSurviving long term thinkers eventually reap return on coordination.
Protests in support of the refugees:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/14/prot-s14.html
"Surviving long term thinkers eventually reap return on coordination."
ReplyDeleteSurvivors being the operative term.