Caitlin Johnstone

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US Defends Your Freedom By Using Troops As Saudi Oil Security Guards

If you’ve been lying awake at night terrified that the Pentagon might not send additional troops and armaments to defend oil corporations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, I’ve got some great news for you. In response to an attack on Saudi Aramco oil infrastructure for which Houthi rebels in Yemen have taken…

Caitlin Johnstone
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If you’ve been lying awake at night terrified that the Pentagon might not send additional troops and armaments to defend oil corporations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, I’ve got some great news for you.

In response to an attack on Saudi Aramco oil infrastructure for which Houthi rebels in Yemen have taken credit, the US government has responded in the only possible rational way: by blaming Iran and deploying troops to act as security guards for Middle Eastern oil companies.

“In response to the kingdom’s request, the president has approved the deployment of U.S. forces, which will be defensive in nature and primarily focused on air and missile defense,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper informed the press yesterday. “We will also work to accelerate the delivery of military equipment to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to enhance their ability to defend themselves.”

So you can breathe easy, my friend. Freedom and democracy are safe once more.

A lot of delusional, unpatriotic democracy haters like to argue that the US military doesn’t actually defend the freedom of the American people, and that it isn’t really used to defend freedom at all, and that it isn’t even really used to defend any rules-based international order as sometimes claimed, and that even to use the word “defend” to describe anything the US military does is inaccurate since it is consistently on the attacking and aggressing side of any given conflict, and that actually the US military functions as nothing other than a blunt object wielded by the rich and powerful for the advancement of plutocratic interests and the geostrategic dominance of opaque and unaccountable government agencies, and that it can in fact be accurately said that the only difference between the US military and any other band of armed thugs is funding…

I forget where I was going with this.

Ah, yes. Defending your freedoms. If sending a platoon of Paul Blarts to act as mall security for foreign oil corporations isn’t enough to get you saluting every American flag flying over every McDonald’s you see, then you should know that the US military’s freedom fighting doesn’t end at mere corporate asset protection.

They’re also defending your freedom by killing Afghan farmers in their sleep.

Why did the armed forces of the United States kill dozens of civilian farmers in Afghanistan while they rested in the field after a hard day’s work? That’s a good question. But an even better question is, what were those Afghan farmers doing lying on top of your freedom?

Obviously the compassionate US military would never dream of killing non-combatants under any circumstances whatsoever, but the unfortunate fact of the matter is that you can’t make an omelet without cracking a few civilians. Those dead farmers were collateral damage, caught in the crossfire of a a life-or-death struggle for freedom and democracy in a nation that surely has something to do with defending those things somehow. It is certainly a loss that civilians perish in this way on a regular basis in Afghanistan, but that’s a small price to pay for everything we’ve gained as a result of that eighteen-year occupation, such as [research what’s been gained and put here in second draft].

Yes, whether they’re defending Saudi Aramco profit margins, bombing field laborers, encircling the planet with hundreds of military bases, stockpiling nuclear weapons, funneling weapons to extremist militias, toppling governments, destabilizing large regions, inflicting siege warfare upon civilians via starvation sanctions, or just generally dominating the entire world using the carrot of military alliance and the stick of military retribution, you can rest assured that the US military is giving your freedoms the best protection that petrodollars and war profiteering can buy.

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66 responses to “US Defends Your Freedom By Using Troops As Saudi Oil Security Guards”

  1. Redscorpionsecurity.in Avatar
    Redscorpionsecurity.in

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    1. Redscorpionsecurity.in Avatar
      Redscorpionsecurity.in

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      https://redscorpionsecurity.in/service/security-guard/

  2. JohnZ Avatar
    JohnZ

    Here we go again:Americans being sent over to the middle east, this time to a country run by a murderous despotic family, who wouldn’t be in the position they are if it hadn’t been for the machinations of the British government.
    Can anyone with any decency believe sending Americans to a country that has one of the worst human rights records, besides israhell, to defend this despotic family and their oil profits so MBS can snort it up his nose?
    A family of political misfits and psychopaths who torture people, behead them and then hang the bodies for display. The Saud family are as legitimate as a whore in church.They are without a doubt, unfit to rule anything. The people of that nation will eventually have had enough and it will be their turn to do the beheading and this time it will be the entire Saud family.
    This is beyond the pale. This is utterly insane and immoral and if I were a soldier in the American army and having been given orders to go to that wretched country, I would remove the uniform, burn it and then desert off to Canada and tell those in Washington, including those in the Pentagram to go “F” themselves.
    I enjoin all those in the U.S. Military who have been given orders to go to that evil, wretched country to refuse to do so. You are not serving the American people, only the evil cabal that has taken control of America. You are serving zionist israhell, a racist state that has stabbed America in the back numerous times and continues to do so.
    Parents: do not allow or encourage your children to enlist in the military. It is controlled by evil, wicked psychopaths, many of whom are pedophiles and satanists. Keep your children away from this evil.

  3. John McDevitt Avatar
    John McDevitt

    Well being a 30 year Army veteran if it was not for the defending or attacking by our military puppets, you ultra liberals would not have the freedom too post your liberal crap.

    1. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      no real liberal asked you to kill anyone else for their “freedom”. so go stuff yourself with whatever.

    2. Jack Bunny Avatar
      Jack Bunny

      Amen, Cutthecord.
      I ain’t no “liberal”, ultra or otherwise, Mr. McDevitt. I suggest you read 2-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Marine Major General Smedley Butler’s treatise on US militarism.
      https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

    3. JohnZ Avatar
      JohnZ

      And it what little world of yours did you believe you were defending freedom and liberty while slaughtering thousands of innocent men, women and children in Panama, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Somalia? Or Two million in Viet Nam?
      Just what makes you believe that dropping bombs from a B-52 at 45,000′ onto a Pashtun village in Afghanistan defended the freedom of Americans all the while you sit there on your self righteous sofa while those in Washington have done more to destroy freedom and liberty, while Americans are sent off to fight wars for Israhell, a racist, apartheid state, devoted to the destruction and murder of the Palestinian people and all Arab people in the delusion of a greater israhell.
      You have been lied to and deceived.
      There has been no greater threat to the freedom and liberty of the American people nor any greater threat to world peace than the rogue government that occupies Washington, D.C.

      1. Random Castagna Avatar
        Random Castagna

        Cognitive dissonance. Nobody can commit such acts (except Sociopaths) and not have their conscience torture them for the rest of their lives. However, via the mechanism of Cognitive Dissonance, people learn to justify such behavior (technically called resolution of cognitive dissonance) in order to relieve their suffering when they realize what they have done. Warmongers (angry people) and war apologists (sad, depressed people), of which there are many, fall in this category because they cannot tolerate their own guilt and shame.

  4. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    German translation: https://medium.com/@frankdubian/usa-verteidigt-ihre-freiheit-indem-sie-truppen-als-saudische-%C3%B6lsicherheitswachen-einsetzen-4584074cf9e9

  5. Ron Campbell Avatar
    Ron Campbell

    Ms Johnstone tells the truth here, as she sees it; fortunately there are others on the Internet also doing that. Every now and then I go back and re-read this article by Mr. Chris Hedges. He does not call them ” the Masters and the Owners ” as I do; he calls them ” Capitalists “. Mr. Hedges opines their true nature and their objectives here: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-capitalists-are-afraid/

    1. deschutes Avatar
      deschutes

      Don’t get me wrong I like Hedges’ writing for the most part, but he just keeps repeating the same talking points over and over, while sermonizing at the podium. He can, over time become hackneyed and wearying to listen to. Or read.

      1. cutthecord Avatar
        cutthecord

        agreed. he just can’t break out of his elitest straitjacket.

        1. deschutes Avatar
          deschutes

          https://www.greanvillepost.com/2019/09/23/why-does-chris-hedges-hedge-his-bets/

          Speaking of Hedges, here is a great article about how Hedges can’t stop talking about Iraq war, Afghanistan, etc–but NEVER a word about the 9-11 attacks: he obediently stays within the official government narrative that ‘ineptitude’ in intelligence gathering let the 9-11 attacks happen. Hedges is another left wing ‘gatekeeper’, like Chomsky, Zinn, or Alexander Cockburn. From the above linked article-
          ”
          The Greanville Post
          Home AMERICAN BRAINWASH Why Does Chris Hedges Hedge His Bets?
          Why Does Chris Hedges Hedge His Bets?
          September 23, 2019
          Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.
          Edward Curtin
          Why do even fine minds like Chris Hedges’ present blind spots?
          Revelations about the machinations of the so-called “deep state’s” conspiracies often conceal deeper truths that go unmentioned. This is quite common, whether it is done intentionally or not.

          Sometimes it is intentional and is directed by the intelligence agencies themselves or their accomplices in the media, who operate a vast propaganda network. In that case, it is because the secret rulers have been caught doing some evil deed, and, not being able to fully deny it, they admit to part of it while concealing deeper secrets. This is termed “a limited hangout.” It is described by ex-CIA Deputy Director Victor Marchetti, author of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, as follows:

          Spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting—sometimes even volunteering—some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further.

          For the average person, it is very hard to read between the lines and smell a skunk. The subterfuge is often very subtle and appeals to readers’ sense of outrage at what happened in the past. After the Church Hearings in the 1970s, and then Carl Bernstein’s limited hangout article in Rolling Stone in 1977, where he named the names and “outed” many major media and individuals for having worked with the CIA, many people breathed deeply and consigned these evil and propagandistic activities to the bad old days. But these “limited hangouts” have been going on ever since, allowing people to express outrage and feel some sort of redemption is at hand in the naïve belief that the system is reformable. It is a pipe dream induced by the smallest puff on the media’s latest recreational drug, for which no prescription is needed. The media that more openly and proudly than ever reveal their jobs as stenographers for the intelligence agencies (see my US Media Propaganda. Drawing “Liberals” and “Leftists” into the CIA’s Orbit. NPR) .

          In The Iceman Cometh, the playwright Eugene O’Neill puts the delusional nature of so much public consciousness thus:

          To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything. It’s irrelevant and immaterial, as the lawyers say. The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.

          Truth may never have been popular, but if one studies the history of propaganda techniques as they have developed in tandem with technological changes, it becomes apparent that today’s incredibly sophisticated digital technology and the growth of screen culture that has resulted in what Guy Debord has called “the society of the spectacle” has made the manipulation of truth increasingly easier and far trickier. News in today’s world appears as a pointillistic canvas of thousands of disconnected dots impossible to connect unless one has the desire, time, determination, and ability to connect the points through research, which most people do not have. “As a result,” writes Jacques Ellul in his classic study, Propaganda, “he finds himself in a kind of kaleidoscope in which thousands of unconnected images follow each other rapidly” and “his attention is continually diverted to new matters, new centers of interest, and is dissipated on a thousand things, which disappear from one day to the next.” This technology is a boon to government propagandists that make sure to be on the cutting edge of new technology and the means to control the flow of its content, often finding that the medium is the message, one that is especially confounding since seemingly liberating – e.g. cell phones and their easy and instantaneous ability to access information and “breaking news.”

          Then there are writers, artists, and communicators of all types, whether consciously or not, who contribute to the obfuscating of essential truths even while informing the public of important matters. These people come from across the political spectrum. To know their intentions is impossible, unless they spell them out in public to let their audiences evaluate them, which rarely happens, otherwise one is left to guess, which is a fool’s game. One can, however, point out what they say and what they don’t and wonder why.

          A recent article, Our Invisible Government, by the well-known journalist, Chris Hedges, is a typical case in point. As is his habit, he sheds light on much that is avoided by the mainstream press. Very important matters. In this piece, he writes in his passionate style that,

          The most powerful and important organs in the invisible government are the nation’s bloated and unaccountable intelligence agencies. They are the vanguard of the invisible government. They oversee a vast “black world,” tasked with maintaining the invisible government’s lock on power.

          This, of course, is true. He then goes on to catalogue ways these intelligence agencies, led by the CIA, have overthrown foreign governments and assassinated their leaders, persecuted and besmirched the names of those – Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, et al. – who have opposed government policies, and used propaganda to conceal the real reasons for their evil deeds, such as the wars against Vietnam, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. He condemns such actions.

          He spends much of his article referencing Stephen Kinzer’s new book, Poisoner in Chief: Sydney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control and Gottlieb’s heinous exploits during his long CIA career. Known as “Dr. Death,” this Bronx born son of Jewish immigrants, ran the CIA’s mind control programs and its depraved medical experiments on unknowing victims, known as MK-ULTRA and Artichoke. He oversaw the development of various poisons and bizarre methods to kill foreign leaders such as Fidel Castro and Patrice Lumumba. He worked closely with Nazi scientists who had been brought to the United States by Allen Dulles in an operation called Operation Paperclip. Gottlieb was responsible for so many deaths and so much human anguish and suffering that it is hard to believe, but believe it we must because it is true. His work on torture and mind control led to Abu Ghraib, CIA black sites, and assorted U.S. atrocities of recent history.

          Hedges tells us all this and rightly condemns it as “the moral squalor” and “criminality” that it is. Only a sick or evil person could disagree with his account of Gottlieb via Kinzer’s book. I suspect many good people who have or will read his piece will agree with his denunciations of this evil CIA history. Additionally, he correctly adds:

          It would be naive to relegate the behavior of Gottlieb and the CIA to the past, especially since the invisible government has once again shrouded the activities of intelligence agencies from congressional oversight or public scrutiny and installed a proponent of torture, Gina Haspel, as the head of the agency.

          This also is very true. All these truths can make you forget what’s not true and what’s missing in his article.
          But something is missing, and some wording is quite odd and factually false. It is easy to miss this as one’s indignation rises as one reads Hedges’ cataloguing of Gottlieb’s and the CIA’s obscenities.

          He omits mentioning the Clinton administration’s dismantling wars against Yugoslavia, including 78 days of non-stop bombing of Serbia in 1999 that killed thousands of innocent people in the name of “humanitarian intervention,” wars he covered for the New York Times, the paper he has come to castigate and the paper that has a long history of doing the CIA’s bidding.

          He claims that Gottlieb and the CIA’s scientists failed in their “vain quest” for mind control drugs or electronic implants that might, among other things, get victims to act against their wills, such as acting as a Manchurian candidate, and as a result, “abandoned” their efforts. That they failed is not true, and that they abandoned their efforts is unknowable, unless you wish to take the CIA at its word, which is a hilarious thought. How could Hedges possibly know they abandoned such work? A logical person would assume they would say that and continue their work more secretly. On one hand, Hedges says, “It would be naive to relegate the behavior of Gottlieb and the CIA to the past,” but then he does just that. Which is it, Chris? By definition, the “invisible” government, the CIA, never reveals their operations, and lying is their modus operandi, especially with their brazen in-your-face biblical motto: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

          He says the invisible deep state “failed to foresee…the 9/11 attacks or the absence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.” This is factually wrong and quite absurd, as is well documented. They simply lied about these matters ex post facto. He suggests such failures were due to “ineptitude,” a coy word used by numerous other writers who find reasons to deny intentionality to the “deep state.”

          He therefore is implying that the attacks of September 11, 2001, a subject that he has consistently failed to address over the years even while he has written in detail about so much else, did not involve America’s “invisible government forces.” The ineptitude explanation fails elementary logical analysis. Does he think it was intelligence ineptitude that allowed operatives to wire the highly-secure Twin Towers and Building 7 for controlled demolition that brought those buildings down, as the testimony of one’s eyes and that of hundreds of NYC firefighters who reported explosions throughout the buildings affirm? Ineptitude is another word for avoidance of evidence, gathered over the years by careful scholars and researchers. Ineptitude is another word for the belief “in miracles,” as David Ray Griffin has phrased it.”
          Excellent reading and spot on!

  6. Peter in Seattle Avatar
    Peter in Seattle

    Given the US affinity for using false flags to launch wars, being a US soldier stationed in Saudi Arabia right now is like being an unnamed redshirt on Star Trek. Will it be a hull breach? A photon torpedo? Will it be an Iranian Horta? Stay tuned to find out!

    Otherwise, stationing US troops in Saudi Arabia has never caused a problem before. (What? That old guy? We killed him and made a big Hollywood movie about it. It was a one-time thing. Couldn’t happen again, now that we’ve won everyone’s hearts and minds.)

  7. Jean Cooper Avatar
    Jean Cooper

    No wonder you forgot where you were going, that was an amazingly long sentence and thought process. The clearest picture I saw recently which tries to explain why the US is still in Afghanistan after 18 years was a map of Iran, Afghanistan and China. A line was drawn between Iran and China, and guess what country sits right between them?

  8. Ron Campbell Avatar
    Ron Campbell

    Moon of Alabama throws in some facts to ponder about all of this:
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/09/us-ships-more-air-defense-systems-that-do-not-work-to-saudi-arabia.html

  9. Ozzie Maland Avatar
    Ozzie Maland

    U.S. troops have not had a warm welcome in Saudi Arabia. Wikipedia’s entry for “Motives for the September 11 Attacks” contains this paragraph: //
    In 1996, Bin Laden issued a fatwa calling for American troops to get out of Saudi Arabia. In the 1998 fatwa, Al-Qaeda wrote: “for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.”[19] In the December 1999 interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, bin Laden said he felt that Americans were “too near to Mecca” and considered this a provocation to the entire Muslim world. //

  10. Ishkabibble Avatar
    Ishkabibble

    For a bit of decent background on the period leading up to Nixon closing the gold window:
    http://www.lighthouseinvestmentmanagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Lighthouse-Currency-Crunch-2017-07.pdf
    ..
    For a preview of a likely-upcoming speech by the Golden Golem of Greatness, take a look at Nixon’s speech to the nation when he announces the “temporary” suspension of creditor nations’ ability to send US bonds back to the US and get gold in return. (The first part of the speech is IMO relevant to 2019.

    1. DK Avatar
      DK

      Another good reminder that the International Bankers rule the west and not any current leader. Since 1913 the real manipulators/controllers of the economy is the Wall Street Mega Banks (which in actuality control the FED).

  11. Khatika Avatar
    Khatika

    Those are not thugs. They are contractors with guns. The US denies any involvement with what happens. Any atrocoties committed are just contractors surpassing the authority of their contract. Nod nod, wink wink.

  12. Guillermo Calvo Mahé Avatar
    Guillermo Calvo Mahé

    Satire, … but important satire. Satire seems to be the ether on the other side of the looking glass in which we appear to live.

    1. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      the neoliberals no longer recognize the line between the Onion (satire) and the NYT (propaganda narrative). and one is conservatives because one has no intellectual ability to draw the line in the first place.

    2. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      the neoliberals/neoconservatives no longer recognize the line between the Onion (satire) and the NYT (propaganda narrative).

  13. John Day Avatar
    John Day

    You might not have heard this, either. The pressure is off. All the Saudis have to do is not kill Yemenis. Easy!
    http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/09/green-work-deal.html
    ​Yemen’s Houthis have announced at the end of a dramatic week following the early Saturday aerial attacks on two Saudi Aramco facilities which knocked out up to half of the kingdom’s daily oil production their intent to cease targeting Saudi territories.
    ​ ​Pro-Houthi Al Masirah TV announced the news Friday, citing president of the rebels’ ruling council Mahdi al-Mashat, who said the group “will halt all attacks on Saudi territories with ballistic missiles and drones,” as translated by Bloomberg.
    ​ ​However, the statement said it was conditioned on the Saudi coalition halting its own devastating airstrikes over Yemen as well, which have been a constant since Yemen’s civil war brought Saudi military intervention in 2015. Houthi forces have “the right to respond to any aggression” the statement added.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/houthis-vow-halt-attacks-saudi-soil-iran-warns-can-respond-sea-ocean

    1. Ron Campbell Avatar
      Ron Campbell

      Why would the Saudis stop? Once United States troops are in harms way; the Saudis will be even harsher toward Yemen than before.

      1. cutthecord Avatar
        cutthecord

        that’s the idea: “bomb the yanks, and see if you can get away with it.” thus, Iran is flexing its own muscle through its joint military excercise with china and russia. so, more bluster and no WWIII, and the only winner is the MIC.

    2. Lloyd Avatar
      Lloyd

      Moral of the story? People who live quite well owning and operating massive oil production and oil refineries should not throw explosives at their poverty stricken neighbors.

      1. DK Avatar
        DK

        Good conclusion LL

    3. Antipropo Avatar
      Antipropo

      Saudi and partners launched massive air attacks immeafter that statement. Make what you like of that.

  14. Ron Campbell Avatar
    Ron Campbell

    The ” Masters and the Owners ” are going to shove their war with Iran down your throat whether you like it or not. If those United States soldiers are not harmed quickly the ” Masters and the Owners ” will harm them and show their bodies to you on your TV. What we need now is for Iran to request that the Russians and the Chinese sent their troops to Iran so that World War III can get started!

    1. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      nah, too late. china abd russia are having a military exercise with iran right now.

      1. Ron Campbell Avatar
        Ron Campbell

        Those are naval exercises, not on Iranian land. The Russians have stopped ” the west in Syria “; what happens in Iran will be interesting.

  15. Mike Vasovski Avatar
    Mike Vasovski

    The stated reason Bin Laden et al reportedly attacked on 9/11 was they wanted to “get American troops out of their holy land”… So let’s send some more over, stir the pot harder and see what comes of it.

    1. John Day Avatar
      John Day

      Stated by who? Bin Laden never said he had anything to do with 9/11, never.

      1. cutthecord Avatar
        cutthecord

        how do you know that? one can only rely on one’s ability to assess the situation or the context and draw own reasonable conclusion. wouldn’t you want to bomb the country that has been occupying and looting your own country?

    2. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      indeed.

    3. DK Avatar
      DK

      Bin Laden just like the Taliban was created by the CIA and there is speculation Bin Laden he has always been a CIA asset. just like ISIS is a CIA/Gulf states creation made of Merceneries to topple the Assad regime.
      Regarding 9/11, I think you need to rethink why & how it happend

      More Americans Questioning Official 9/11 Story As New Evidence Contradicts Official Narrative
      https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/09/no_author/more-americans-questioning-official-9-11-story-as-new-evidence-contradicts-official-narrative/
      A National Disgrace: A Review of the 9/11 Commission Report
      https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-national-disgrace-a-review-of-the-9-11-commission-report/456

  16. Eddy Avatar
    Eddy

    Surely, the idea that the U.S. Military actually DEFENDS anything would be an OXYMORON ????
    How would that even be possible ? The U.S. Military has NEVER in it’s existence ever trained to DEFEND anything.
    It only trains to attack selected targets. B.T.W. what’s wrong with the Saudis, it appears they have no trouble bombing innocent people, waging war on the most poor and defenceless nation with impunity, using MERCENARIES, they can hang people enmasse and chop up folks and dispose of their remains like that individual never existed,, BUT it would appear, they are unable to defend themselves from outside attack ,despite buying the latest, (alleged) top notch American military technology, that they use to wage war on defenceless people’s. But if those people develop the capability of turning the tables on them, and striking back, they are shown up for the useless powerless posuers we’ve all known they are all along.

  17. Frank Thompson Avatar
    Frank Thompson

    Of course this sort of use of the US military has long been noted. And when General Smedley Butler came forward denouncing a plot to overthrow FDR, he suffered public character assassination as all whistleblowers are subjected to when they reveal the nefarious workings of the empire. At least he was not imprisoned like Julian Assange, nor executed after a trumped up war like Saddam Hussein.

    Free to download as a PDF: https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf

    Or to read as an html page on the internet: https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

    Highly recommended. General Butler took a look back at WWI and concluded “the war to end wars” and to “make the world safe for democracy” helped only the profiteering corporations who sold supplies to the military at highly inflated prices to multiply their profits.

    1. Frank Thompson Avatar
      Frank Thompson

      Realizing I left out a bit of context of the previous comment, a bit more from “War is a Racket”

      “Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the ‘war to end all wars.’ This was the ‘war to make the world safe for democracy.’ No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a ‘glorious adventure.’ ”

      The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery contains the remains of 14,246 American men killed during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I – the last 5 or 6 weeks of war that then ended in the armistice of November 11, 1918. As Butler put it, the racket of war “is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
      https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/europe/meuse-argonne-american-cemetery

      1. DK Avatar
        DK

        If I may add to your wonderful post above, my favorite Quote by this Honorable man Smedley Butler:

        “There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.”

        1. Frank Thompson Avatar
          Frank Thompson

          Imprisonment for political speech in the USA is not unprecedented, although as Caitlin notes, the US is more likely to outsource its imprisonment of political prisoners these days. A hundred years ago, Americans were imprisoned for speaking out against US participation in the war in Europe – in obvious violation of their First Amendment right to free speech. Do not think it could not happen again, especially with the so-called conservatives demonizing the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over the past thirty years.

          You may recall Bush I noting that his 1988 Democratic Party opponent was “a card-carrying member” of the ACLU. To me, that was a good thing, but somehow standing up for the constitution was painted as a bad thing, as “card-carrying” was an obvious conflation with the anti-communist rhetoric of the 1950’s when people were accused of being a “card-carrying member” of the Communist Party.

          1. cutthecord Avatar
            cutthecord

            well if you are opposing capitalists’ crimes, you are logically called communists. do you have problems with that name somehow?

      2. cutthecord Avatar
        cutthecord

        the loss is on the poor and the profits are for the parasitic thieves.

  18. cutthecord Avatar
    cutthecord

    Caitlin, you remind me of Mark Twain. thanks for the laugh. don’t forget to do BDS!

  19. brett Avatar
    brett

    Thank you for your service Caitlin

  20. mack Avatar
    mack

    I am daily reminded of what the composer, Charles Ives wrote years ago:

    ” If a coward flies over and drops a bomb on a sleeping childs head, the only thing for a man to do is rise up and get that dehumanized pigeon whether it brings us to war, hell or Heaven”

    Today that pigeon wears a chest full of medals…………………………………..

  21. Robyn Avatar
    Robyn

    This all rings a bell somewhere in my befuddled brain. Oh yes, a group of (mostly) Saudis bring down tall buildings in NY (at least that’s the official story), the US ignores glaring evidence of Saudi involvement and hustles Saudi royals and hangers-on from US back to Saudi, with zero evidence blames Saddam Hussein and invades Afghanistan before moving on to Iraq.

  22. Random castagna Avatar
    Random castagna

    Remember that for every bullet fired a US defense contractor makes another $ 10.00 and that is what is important.

  23. Roy Avatar
    Roy

    Even the Russians 80 years were able to defeat the 6th Army that sat just outside of Moscow by shooting down the planes that tried to resupply it. Why anyone would have thought that the Prince was over a barrel is beyond, but thank God it’s not over yet; those antique cruise missiles that could fly could just above ground level, below radar, can’t be that hard to make. Back in the day instructions were on the cover of, ‘Scientic American’. And, no, you don’t need 90% enriched uranium to build nuclear war heads; twenty times less than that in fact. So, enjoy the fireworks while you can, because there will be sure more to come.

  24. Maxim Gorki Avatar
    Maxim Gorki

    Where’s the evidence. We’re supposed to go to war because some un identified liar tells us it’s the Houthis or the Iranians or maybe Iraq. Maybe it was the US or Israel. They’ve been trying to go to war with Iran for decades. They have the strongest motive. I’m sure if there was any actual evidence we would have seen it.
    Actually, I hope the US does go to war. Maybe it will bring home the horrors of war that we’ve inflicted on millions in the middle east and elsewhere.

    1. Isak Nin Avatar
      Isak Nin

      US has constant satellite surveillance, very likely has
      recorded imagery of event.

      1. Random Castagna Avatar
        Random Castagna

        Imagery of what exactly ? Even if they have images of Iranians launching drones (doubtful), so what ? It’s the Saudis problem, not ours.

        1. DK Avatar
          DK

          By imagery he means by pure Imagination like the “Weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq that never existed or the 9/11 Towers “Perfect” collapse by airplanes, or the “Gulf of Tonkin” incident that never happened. Do I nned to go on?

          The US has lost all credibility – It has become a criminal enterprise ruled by corrupt politicians bought off by the Wall Street Banks & US multi National Corporations.

      2. HelenB Avatar
        HelenB

        Whatever. But they lie. So you wouldn’t know anyway.
        My thoughts are that the Houthis attacked them, again, OR it’s a false flag and “Israel” did it with the Saudis complicit.
        They sure got it all up and running again quickly …

    2. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      the United States of Israhell may or may not have the evidence, but who’d believe it as real anyway? anyway, US of I stopped bothering with evidence or explanation long ago. i don’t think we need wars to sort this out. we just have to keep electing Trumps as our leader. it won’t be long before US of I will implode. humanity will survive.

  25. Truth first Avatar
    Truth first

    American gets away with all the killings, overthrowing of democracies, etc. etc. because other so called democracies like Canada, and the UK, etc. etc. would rather have the money they get from doing business with the US than having the US give them a big problem like they have with, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. etc.
    If you don’t play the game the way the US wants you to play they stop the game and try to stop you from playing any game with anyone, like Russia, China, Syria, etc. etc.

  26. C3P0 Avatar
    C3P0

    Thank you for your service …. to a Saudi prince who chops off the heads of pro-democracy activists. We couldn’t defend democracy without you.

    1. cutthecord Avatar
      cutthecord

      Koshoggi was no freedom fighter. his whole family (especially his father Koshoggi) have been on the Mossad payroll. check out Whitney Webb’s Epstein story in which she names many names including Kashoggi.

      1. dk Avatar
        dk

        and the Saudi prince is no Democracy Lover either….

        1. cutthecord Avatar
          cutthecord

          how do you know that?

      2. Perry Mason Avatar
        Perry Mason

        Hey there genius. The journalist’s political views or alleged sponsors are sort of irrelevant to the point. He was executed in what is properly described as a murder. The instruction came from the prince himself. He is guilty as an accessory or aider and abettor.

        Under prevailing standards of justice, he should be condemned to life in prison. It is true, that as a head of state, dispensing justice may not be prudent or practical, but his grievous crime should influence policy and cause Americans and the West to treat him at arms-length and without subsidy. And the criticism should be fierce.

  27. dk Avatar
    dk

    Like the corleone family would say:
    It’s nothing personal is is JUST BUSSINESS (we have to protect the petrodollar)

    1. Ishkabibble Avatar
      Ishkabibble

      Bingo!
      ..
      “I don’t wnat to loose that order!” — Donito Assolini trying to support MbS’s version of how Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

  28. John Richardson Avatar
    John Richardson

    Well said Caitlin.

    And we wonder why we wake-up every day infested with fleas?

  29. Jupiter Avatar
    Jupiter

    Well Caitlin if you happened to be a Saudi citizen & you needed to update your passport and after that latest article . I’d advise you not to visit your local embassy …

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