“Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand,
workin’ in the dark against your fellow man.
But as sure as God made black and white
what’s down in the dark will be brought to the light.”
~ Johnny Cash/traditional, ‘God’s Gonna Cut You Down’
The Grayzone has an excellent new article out titled “US troops are staying in Syria to ‘keep the oil’ – and have already killed hundreds over it” detailing the many ways the Trump administration has openly admitted that it is keeping US troops in Syria to control the nation’s oil fields so that the Syrian government can’t use it to fund reconstruction efforts.
“We’ve secured the oil, and therefore a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil,” Trump said in a recent press conference. “And we’re going to be protecting it. And we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.”
“We want to keep the oil,” Trump said in a cabinet meeting a few days earlier. “Maybe we’ll have one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly.”
“A purpose of those [US] forces, working with the SDF, is to deny access to those oil fields by ISIS and others who may benefit from revenues that could be earned,” said Defense Secretary Mark Esper. As Grayzone‘s Ben Norton accurately explains, “and others” necessarily means the Syrian government; preventing Assad from accessing Syrian oil is standing US military policy.
And that of course is the real reason US armed forces constantly remain in Syria despite all the empty babble about ending wars and bringing home the troops: it’s about control over a nation in a key geostrategic location which refuses to be absorbed into the blob of the US-centralized empire. Controlling its material wealth is an ideal way to do this.
Whenever I write about oil as a primary motive for US imperialism, I always get a bunch of right-wingers objecting that that makes no sense because the US has plenty of oil, and that it’s really about freedom and democracy or communism or Zionism or pedovore cults or Illuminati or whatever. What they miss, in their squirming attempts to avoid cognitive dissonance, is that it’s not about having and consuming oil, it’s about controlling oil. Control what governments can and cannot access crucial resources, and you can control which governments thrive and which ones don’t.
As Trump said, “We’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.” In no other international power dynamic would this be considered a rational thing for anyone to say. The idea of another nation invading Texas and seizing control of its oil fields and then Xi Jinping or whomever saying “We’re controlling their oil and we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future” is unthinkable, but a US president can just come right out and say this about a weaker nation and it won’t even be front-page news.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Donald Trump is the most honest US president of all time. By that I don’t mean that he’s an honest person; he of course lies constantly. I simply mean that while his predecessors have always made sure to dress their imperialist military campaigns up as benevolent humanitarian intercessions, Trump just stands there out in the open like “Yeah we grabbed their oil and it’s ours now, blow me.” There was once a time when claiming a war was really about oil got you branded a conspiracy theorist. Now the US president just outright says it.
And this is really the only reason establishment power structures dislike Trump. They don’t feel directly threatened by him, they just dislike the way he’s always saying the quiet part out loud. Status quo power has a vested interest in keeping a smiling mask on things and preventing people from thinking too hard about what’s really going on in the world, and Trump keeps ripping off that mask by telling everyone what he’s doing in plain English.
Revolution (the real kind, the kind that actually changes things) is ultimately a fight against psychological compartmentalization on a mass scale. Compartmentalization is a tool people use to avoid the psychological discomfort (aka cognitive dissonance) that would otherwise be experienced by trying to hold on to two conflicting positions at one time, like, for example, seeing yourself as a good person and simultaneously giving your government your tacit permission to murder strangers on the other side of the world in your name.
Establishment power works to prevent people from looking directly at the ugly aspects of the empire, like the horrific nature of what war is and how much their country spreads it, or the fact that so many have so little while a few others have so very much, or the reason their government doesn’t seem to operate the way they were taught in school. The empire has a vested interest in keeping these things in the dark, while the clear-eyed rebel is always trying to drag them kicking and screaming into the light. This is why truth-tellers and whistleblowers are always made public enemy number one by our rulers.
The true rebel fights to enlighten things, the empire fights to endarken them. This is the struggle from the largest power structures in our world, right down to our own inner lives as individual human beings. This is why I talk so much about the importance of inner work; it’s all one struggle, from the evil secrets hidden behind thick walls of government opacity all the way down to the parts of ourselves we try not to look at. Your efforts to become a more consciously integral and less compartmentalized human being are just as important as your efforts to expose the puppet strings to the audience.
As November 2020 draws nearer the screams to shut up and stop pointing at the truth are going to get louder and louder for political dissidents in America, even louder than the “shut up and fall in line” admonishments that Bernie-or-Busters received constantly in 2016. This will only be the voice of the empire yelling “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” It will only be those who are still plugged into the imperial narrative matrix transforming into a bunch of Agent Smiths and telling you to stop saying things which cause them cognitive dissonance.
But, for someone who has signed the truth-at-all-costs contract within themselves, this simply won’t be an option. Our desire to bring what’s dark into the light will overcome any pressure to keep things endarkened, whether it be in ourselves, in our relationships, in our society, in our government, or in our world. Followed through with in a deep and integral way, it changes the way we think, it changes the way we experience our own consciousness, it alters our behavior, it ruins our experience of news media and Hollywood blockbusters, it ends our marriages, it breaks up longstanding friendships and forges new ones, and it makes the deceptions of the powerful utterly intolerable. Truth come what may means truth come what may, and it’s a lifetime commitment.
We wouldn’t have it any other way.
__________________________
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48 responses to ““We Want To Keep The Oil””
Why did you leave so many relevant details out? Some examples being…
Prior to the Kurds successfully taking control of the oil fields who held control over them, and profited frm the sale of oil they produced? It was ISIS. When did they seize control of them? Oh, around 2014. Yeah, they’d held them for 5yrs, and for some reason Assad never had his military make a move to take them back during that time.
Did Syria (ppl, business, military, gov) need that oil for its own use? Yes. Was the regime able to get the oil it needed frm ISIS? YES. How? Assad’s friend (wealthy biz mogul & member of Parliament) Mohammad Kitarji negotiated an ongping arrangement w/ ISIS to purchase oil (& also wheat, bc they controlled the northeast, Dier al Zour, Raqqa, etc. too). So Kitarji had his ppl take trucks into ISIS controlled territory, they’d buy the oil, Syria’s oil(!!), frm ISIS — providing the group w/ up to $3 million a day which significantly helped them funding their operations.
Assad bought his country’s oil frm a terrorist group that took over 1/4 of the country, controlling vital resources, and which SAA was supposed to be fighting & trying to take down.. But instead they were doing biz together, and Assad’s SAA was making no effort to take back Syria’s oil or wheat fields frm them. (Kitarji Group was one of the go-betweens in these deals — a primary player. There were others too though. Jst look it up 4 names/details.)
So now its 2019, and unlike the SAA, the Kurds confronted the situation, fought ISIS, won, pushed them back so they lost their territorial holdings, & they took control of those oil fields — taking them frm ISIS. And now every “anti-ImPeRiAlIsT” who holds water 4 Assad, that writes LW blog posts & think that makes them a “journalist”, thinks that Syria’s oil dealings is a newsworthy subject to write about again, & of course its the Kurds & US (their allies) who are the greedy mean imperialist baddies because NOW that the regime feels they should have control of that area & its oil fields again we aint jst saying “ok, sure” after we (Kurds w/ a little help) took the risk, & actually fought for all that, & paid for it w/ Kurdish lives lost in that fight.
Now that the real baddies, who the regime had been helping fund w/ $$$ frm oil sales, have been defeated, and the area is in an allies control, the regime wants to jst take it..??
Sorry, no. They f-d up by doing biz w/ terrorists. They f-d up by choosing to fund ISIS rather than fight them. They f-d up by not making a move to take it back when they could have. They violated international law, they were sanctioned for doing those things, they cannot be trusted, & they in no way deserve to be given a damn thing. If they need oil they’re welcome to purchase it frm the Kurds, who ultimately control what happens to it (production, refining, sales, shipping), & who now get to reep the rewards of their efforts too (making money frm sales). If the regime was down to pay ISIS millions of dollars a day to buy that oil frm them, then give me one good reason why they can’t buy it frm the Kurds now? They will happily sell the regime all it needs. (And other buyers too, of course. Turkey being another primary customer — & surprisingly, though they loathe the Kurds, they’ll still buy the oil frm them. Biz is biz I guess.)
So there are some pretty darn relevant, not to mention important, details which you dont mention at all. Why is that?
Want more examples, or is that enough for you to chew on for a bit..??
What would happen if the United States government believed in anthropomorphic climate warming? Perhaps it already does. Be very afraid if it does.
What would the USG do if it believed in AGW? Probably not the UN, hug-a-bunny solutions to AGW. The US has a preponderance of the world’s climate scientists. If the USG decides that AGW is likely to continue, it will ask what the carbon budget is that the Earth can sustainably happen. If it’s twice the current production rate, then it will be reduced by 50%. But not by the large wealthy countries paying the poor countries to develop sustainable stuff. Those places which do not have enough military oomph to get oil, won’t get oil.
It’s easy to prevent oil from going somewhere. It goes through pipelines or tankers, both of which are very vulnerable to military interdiction.
Dearest Australia and the ALP and the dear wallabies and ScoMo – they have coal and natural gas. What they don’t have, is the military capability of preventing their collapse. Let’s say that Australia gets an allowance of 100 tons a month of CO2, just enough to warm the Government buildings in Canberra. You want to use your coal, Aussies? No, sorry. It’s over budget.
South America – gets a CO2 budget of zero. That’s zero. Build the Wall in Panama and let people settle their affairs.
Who gets to assign the CO2 budgets? Whoever has the military muscle to do so. That’s the US, China, and secondarily India and Russia. Not a lot of other countries. The UK? So sorry, Brexiteers.
Better hope the USG doesn’t become True Believers in AGW. Or maybe behind the curtains, it has.
Winter is coming.
Yep, we get it, you want to keep the oil.
But the excruciatingly embarrassing question remains:
Whose freakin’ oil is it?
Maybe Norway will just invade California, because it like the weather there, and wants unhindered access to it?
It remains to be seen whether future books and articles on the first two decades of the 21st Century actually have the courage to refer to current US foreign policy as “The Age of the Bloody Fools”, because that’s what it is.
I want to amend my comment above. I agreed with Caitlin that the US wants to control Syrian oil but not steal it directly. Hours later we find out from the Russian Defense Ministry (through satellite photos) that the US is, in fact, directly stealing Syrian oil for itself: https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/10/russian-military-releases-satellite-photos-proving-u-s-is-stealing-syrian-oil/ The only time someone is ever wrong about the US empire is when they’ve underestimated its greed and evil.
Interesting that you leave out who has the most motivation, no mention of the House of Saud? That’s quite puzzling to me.
Every day I visit the Strategic Culture website because the writers there lay out the truth as they know it. This article today gets five stars from me:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/10/26/the-real-reason-why-the-west-is-upset-over-the-syria-turkey-debacle/
I like what I have read from that site but seriously, how do you give credibility to a site with a meaningless name – just how is “strategic culture” defined? What is strategic about culture? Were the Beatles put upon culture in a strategic way to bend us to imperial rule or something?
It makes no sense to me and I have to wonder about the viewpoint which produced such a title.
I was thinking of someone today. It doesn’t matter who or why. But it led to the thought that went “Its a part of his psychological makeup. Its not unchangeable. But first he’d have to want to change.”
That’s true of the effects of mass propaganda as well. The propaganda becomes deeply a part of the person. It is not unchangeable. But first, the person must want to change.
Well, maybe not first. First is getting even a glimmer of a notion that there needs to be a change. Actually deciding to want to change is a few steps further down the line.
But it is not unchangeable. If a person gets even that glimmer of an idea that maybe they should be looking for red or blue pills, and then especially if they are around or meet other people who have already changed or even a single person who also wants to change, it can happen and it can happen quite quickly.
Look for the people who want to change, then offer them a hand.
For advanced players, try to get others around you to think thoughts that can lead to them having even a glimmer of an idea that there needs to be changes. Given how absurd the Borg are becoming with their arrogance and lies (supporting “freedom of the press” while imprisoning and torturing journalists is just one example), there should be more opportunities every day. And such a process can accelerate quickly, as its the sort of sequence that goes 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 to 32 to … 536,870,912 to 1,073,741,824 to …
Local music and art are very nice ways to meet people. Maybe its time to put on a show?
“Washington loots the Syrian oil and transport it to outside Syrian territories under American military men guard,” the Ministry said, adding that the revenues of the US government from that burglary reach more than 30 million USD per month. “What Washington is doing now is capturing and holding oil fields under its control in the eastern part of Syria. This is a clear international state-sponsored gangsterism,” Mr. Konashenkov pointed out.
So 30 million a month for how many years now? Yes sir that is ” royal gangsterism ” Al Capone style.
We saw during the Reagan Iran-Contra affair that the deep state has its own ways of making money. Everything between convincing right-wing billionaires to donate to the cause to selling weapons to the Ayatollah to running cocaine into America. Ollie North ran the enterprise from inside the White House, and then got pardoned for the crimes he’d committed and eventually ran the National Rifle Association, which I recently heard described as a “Russian asset”
And, they also of course can make profitable investments with their money. Between ties with the bankers (who can usually make their associates rich), to very profitable activities like drug running under government protection, they can make their dollars grow.
We saw in the 1980’s that they could basically run an entire war off the books after Congress (in one of its last acts of independence) forbade the spending of government money supporting terrorists in Nicaragua. And since then, the pile of dark money is slush fund accounts has only grown. Add now the money from stolen oil and sold on the black market to the total.
Which only means we’ll need to use people power to overcome, as trying to outspend them isn’t likely to work.
US military protecting “US interests” in Syria, all spelled out, so that even an idiot can understand:
https://tass.com/defense/1085449
That report is worth reading, for those that haven’t.
I was curious if they would say the ‘neighboring country’ through which the stolen oil is being transported, but they didn’t say.
I presume it is Iraq, most likely into Kurdistan which is where the troops pulling out of Syria were heading. Kurdistan has an oil industry of it own, so its also a cover for what’s going on. Change the paperwork and one barrel of oil looks like any other. But not good enough cover that the Russians haven’t seen it.
This replaces the earlier route for that oil which was from Daesh to Turkey, which was also detailed by the Russians back when they were bombing those tankers to western outrage for their interfering in Syria.
TASS.. not that is one undisputed source of objective truth and facts. Maybe the closest next one is DPRK Central News Agency.
My old thoughts have me thinking that ” The Evil Empire ” is not going to know how to deal with all of the knives now taking aim at its back. When a bully shows weakness all of the hidden animosity starts to come out from everywhere. Even the Republicans could turn on Donald Trump and claim that his mind is gone and just remove him and go with President Pence. No one has your back Mr. President; you had better look out for yourself!
I’ve said for awhile that when Trump seems to be a downward drag on other Republicans that they would quickly turn on him. That appears to be occurring. Trump’s approval rating stays stuck in the low 40’s, and to a professional politician Trump looks incompetent at campaigning. Trump plays to his base which already supports him, and seems to work hard at making everyone else angry with him. That is a losing proposition, and probably worried to others who are tied to a sinking stone.
Trump also has not inspired any loyalty.
A lot of Republicans will have their knives out for him pretty soon, and at least some will be plotting of how to take control of what is now considered Trump’s base.
Mr. John Bolton wants to testify to the impeachment hearings; that can not be something that Donald Trump wants to see happen. President Trump figures if he stops the ” forever wars ” he will get re-elected. However the neo-cons and the deep state want to go to war; the sooner the better. Impeachment is probably too long a wait for them; so they will have Donald Trump declared medically unfit to serve and they will go to war with President Pence!
True, the US wants to control the oil, not steal it for itself. But the important question is why? Because they want to make Israel more comfy. Trump wants to get all Iranian militias out of Syria for Israel. (Sans Israel, why would the US care if there are some Iranian militias in Syria?) Trump wants Syria to forget about the Golan so Israel can drill there for gas and oil. None of what’s going on in Syria means a damned thing to non-Zionist Americans. (except for Lockheed and Raytheon, etc.) It’s in Americans’ interest to have great relations with every nation, including Syria. It’s in Israel’s interest to keep the Middle East on fire and in chaos and that’s just what the US is helping them do. US politics, media, police forces and “entertainment” need de-Zionized. Read former congressman Paul Findlay’s They Dare to Speak Out (written several decades ago) for how pernicious, well known and longstanding the Zionist abomination is. If Israel, for some reason, had said back in 2011, “Hey, Assad is alright with us” most of this shit would never have happened. There would have been no Timber Sycamore, no injured al-Qaeda fighters treated by Israel, nor hundreds of Israeli air strikes on Syria. People need to stop being afraid of being called an “antisemite” for telling simple truths about a goddamned land and water-stealing racist genocider state. Israel is the enemy of the world’s working class and always has been.
You’re right Street Worm. Nobody should comment on this Syrian disaster without having read, ‘A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm’ and the Yinon Plan. PNAC is also worth a read. And, to get down to a bit more detail on the Israeli occupation of the Golan (now ownership according to Trump), the Board of Directors includes Jacob Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch.
During the period ISIS controlled those particular oil fields, ISIS regularly bootlegged those oil sales at a highly discounted price right through TURKEY! Massive profits were being made by someone in Turkey who had control of those obviously illegal but also quite obvious border crossings by (who knows how many?) oil tankers being driven into Turkey by ISIS operatives. Can we suppose US and Western Intelligence in general didn’t know this was happening on a regular basis? Can anyone not suspect this theft of Syrian oil which could have easily been stopped at any time was purposely ignored for quite some time as as an indirect way of continuing to fund ISIS, AKA the true vanguard of the U.S conceived, equipped and backed regime change “rebels”? There are reports that both Russia and the US were at one time BOTH bombing ISIS oil tankers in Syria by the hundreds… does that mean we were fighting together on the same side in this case? The timing of these attacks relative to each other and when the news of each was made public might speak volumes. Politics does indeed make for strange bedfellows. So, has US policy changed to allow the Kurds who occupy that area to ultimately control the oil even after the Kurds have (by Trump’s solution) realigned themselves with Assad in Damascus?
Don’t you hate it when the media leaves out both context as well as complete statements in order to make what someone says fit their own agenda driven, pre-defined narrative even if the end product bears little or no truth regarding comprehension of what’s really going on? Does anyone really think a handful of troops could possibly support any actual “we’re taking it for ourselves” program or wish to suggest that is what Trump said here? No, this is only a short term protection of the oil (and not a very good one) until it is decided what’s going to happen with same… and that will not involve “we’re taking it for ourselves” without incurring yet another major bloodbath. Besides, this is a very tiny bit of oil we’re talking about on the scale of such things. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I also missed the bit where the US Imperialists took over all that oil we “stole” from Iraq which apparently everyone but the US is now buying directly from Iraq with no US involvement at all.
Thanks for your wise words Caitlin. You nailed it about the difficult and often lonely road we take as seekers of the truth. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. In spite of all the hassles it gets us in. What is life about if not finding the truth and living according to it’s wisdom?
From your article, “oil as a primary motive for US imperialism,”
This isn’t exactly true, it’s the fact that almost all exported oil is sold exclusively in US D0llars. This being the US Petrol D0llar system and what is really behind all these imperial wars going on.
Syria’s problem being not actually their oil and natural gas, but the fact they were going to run a pipeline from Iraq through Syria to the Mediterranean. This would have competed with Turkey’s natural gas pipeline and competed with the Saudi’s by offering Iraqi crude a much quicker route to the European market. This also presented a huge danger to the Petrol D0llar since Syria is under no obligation to sell this in d0llars.
The US is still trying to distract from what’s really going on, meaning the Petrol D0llar by directly stating it’s about the oil, when Syria’s current exports don’t amount to anything. The oil people understand, the Petrol D0llar nobody does. US troops are there to be in the way of any pipeline that would be constructed if they weren’t there.
so far so good. why Syria, though? why this particular pipeline? the answer is in whose interests are involved in this geopolitical area and in petro dollar scheme?. Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, China, Europe etc but most of all Israel and the zionist neoliberals in DC and the zionist neoconservatives on wall street including the silicon valley. the imperialist NWO is trying to contain a rising alternative (non-imperialist) system.
Interesting that you leave out who has the most motivation, no mention of the House of Saud? That’s quite puzzling to me.
During the W. Bush administration, I sympathetically chuckled when good people complained about their relatives who uncritically followed FOXNews and ruined Thanksgenocide dinners.
The worm has turned.
I stopped trying to redeem my mother after this gut-punching 2016 exchange between us:
“Anyone who wants to be president should be disqualified from running.”
“I agree… except for Hillary. She’s doing it for the right reasons.”
“What reasons are those, Mom?”
“She was class president at Wellesley, for heaven’s sake!”
Argument won, as CAP, NPR, NYT, PBS, and TDS prematurely age her into the grave. When my insufferable Barnard alum sister authoritatively told her young child that Russia was spreading disinformation about Joe Biden, I bit my tongue instead of upending a rare family meal. I take no pleasure in Aaron Mate’s thoroughly-founded criticisms of once-great institutions like DemocracyNow!, TheRealNews, emptywheel.net, and TheIntercept. Thank you, Caitlin and Tim, for everything you do, especially providing this space for me to vent (since Twitter won’t have me, Consortium News censors my comments, and thinking people abhor Facebook).
Interesting, George Carver. I was amazed to have a rather innocuous comment deleted from Consortium News, I genuinely had no idea why so wrote it off to a one-off by an over-cautious mod. I see now I’m not the only one, disappointing.
Over the years I’ve suggested to friends and family that they try various alternative media and stop relying on the MSM – I can’t think of a single person I’ve shifted. It’s tough going.
I would imagine your experience at Consortium was just a fluke. I have had a comment or two not get posted that was not in violation of their policy at all. But 95% of the time at least, they post. I think Consortium News is the absolute best news site on the internet. Founder Robert Parry’s great tradition of unbiased news reporting continues. Both Dems and Republicans are in their crosshairs. And that’s the way it should be.
“Full Spectrum Dominance”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagons-strategy-for-world-domination-full-spectrum-dominance-from-asia-to-africa/5397514
Good morning,
I see only one way out of this, and it’s not going to be fun. The only way to dispose of “Establishment Power” is to dispose of power. The only way that’s going to happen is a collapse of the current power structures, which are essentially a sociopathic team sport. That collapse is going to kill a lot of people, maybe all of them, and make life hell for the rest. After that collapse, if there are still people, perhaps we can restrain ourselves from allowing sociopaths to rebuild their sports league. If we had far smaller political structures, we could vote with our feet, something not possible today, since the sociopaths have poisoned the entire planet.
Mr. Donald Trump’s mind, mouth, heart, and soul are all being controlled by the many hands of Israel up his ass making him do their evil bidding! Those United States troops in Syria will eventually be attacked and killed and Israel will get to watch the United States vs Russia nuclear war that will be over in less than a day. The end of days awaits our doomed planet.
International Court Of Law, ???? What is that ???????? Moreover, from where are you going to obtain firstly, the offcials to run such a group, and secondly, how are you going to ENFORCE the Laws of such a group ??
From where are you going to source the people needed to make such a body work ???????????????
The United Nations was SUPPOSED to be such a body, but we can see how COMPROMISED it is, and has been ensuring it’s total uselessness in being unable to ensure it’s own Charter is adhered to by it’s own members, thus in effect, neutralisng the body from any official capacity. Worse still, it’s very own members stand by SILENTLY, whilst it’s criminal members breach one article after another without even offering a token whimper of objection. Recently we saw at first hand how this works, when Bolton THREATENED the boss and his family of O.P.C.W. if their report into the use of alleged chemical weapons by Syria did not reflect the U.S. narrative. How many members of the U.N. jumped up and objected to this, and demanded action against Bolton ???????? NONE, not a one. How many countries OBJECTED to such threats made openly by a U.S. Congress person against an official of the U.N. ??????? Again, not a one. This is the environment we live in today, there’s so much corruption and disregard for the rule of law, it’s simply a joke. Recently we heard cries of condemnation alleging war crimes committed by the Turks in Syria, and all sorts of threats were made calling for immediate punative action against the perpetrators. Yet the very same people making all this noise, are also war criminals of the highest order, illegally invading a foreign country and murdering thousands of it’s people, maiming many more and making homeless even more. When the FACTS were reported World wide by Assange, playing live video feeds and sound recordings for the whole World to see, add Abu Grahbi prisoner of war camp and the crimes committed therein, how many of the perpetrators in those criminal acts of which ABUNDANT evidence exists to PROVE BEYOND A SHADOW OF DOUBT the crimes were committed, not one person has ever been held accountable. Now the very same people who committed those crimes are standing up and pointing the finger at others, accusing them of doing the same thing, and demanding justice ??????????????????? You gotta be kidding us surely? Assange is being held in solitary confinement, even his own country has not got the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the criminals persecuting him, because that country too, has committed war crimes in conjunction with the U.S. thus it’s own Government and military officials would need to be held accountable for the part they played in committing those crimes. So from where they stand, it’s better for them, Assange be silenced/sacrificed and the lid kept on their crimes. In such a world environment, from where would you draw the people from, to enforce International Laws ?????????????????
Dear Caitlin,
Why hasn’t the U.N. become involved–as more than an observor, something it’s become all too good at, that and constructing refugee camps for the conflicts it is too inept to stop–in the slow, torturous murder of Julian Assange that is being played out for all the world to see? Has the U.S. bullied this largely passive body as well?
The U.S., UK, Ecuador and–through its sheer, shameful negligence in failing to protect one of its own citizens from this gross miscarriage of justice–Australia all need to be tried for war crimes in an international court of law NOW, if only to slow down this murderous juggernaut and put IT on the defensive for a change!
Maybe you could get something started on this front?
Best,
Sean Hogan
Make no mistake.
Donald Trump IS America … with its sanctimonious mask of Freedom and Democracy® ripped off for all the world to see.
That is real reason why people hate the Donald.
“This is not who we are,” they will squeal.
Yes, it is.
“If you want to end wars and stuff, you got to learn to sing loud all the time, so people can hear you.”
— Arlo Guthrie, during “Alice’s Resteraunt”, Farm Aid, 2005.
Sorry but you are all off base with your quote. THERE ARE NO GODS there is lust for power.
The Western Christian god is a pathological configuration of god by pathological people. Every single word of the “sacred texts” was written to control people and have power over them, again…there are no gods, there is lust for power.
Think I’m wrong, a nut case – read the first four commandments the lord, we are told, wrote with his own hand – nothing sweet and brotherly in it just obey authority or burn in hell.
Excellent comment!
There is nothing wrong with obeying authority, your parents, your government and most of all your God. The bible also says to live a simple, quiet and holy life. To treat this life as a journey and not a destination. Here are Mother Theresa fifteen steps to humility.
1. Speak as little as possible about yourself.
2. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others.
3. Avoid curiosity of others
4. Do not interfere in the affairs of others.
5. Accept small irritations with good humor.
6. Do not dwell on the faults of others.
7. Accept censures even if unmerited.
8. Give in to the will of others.
9. Accept insults and injuries.
10. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded.
11. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone.
12. Do not seek to be admired and loved.
13. Do not protect yourself behind your own dignity.
14. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right.
15. Choose always the more difficult task.
Here is a link to the writings of “the lord your god” telling you above all else obedience is demanded on the threat of eternal damnation. Further there is no real guidance here, not a mention of morality or of concern for fellow men demands loyalty and subjugation to “the lord” without exception.
There no holy men there are men who seek power. And make no mistake no supernatural “lord” wrote this stuff it is the work of pathological men who will do anything to expand and consolidate their power above all else. THERE ARE NO GODS THERE IS LUST FOR POWER
Discovery of oil in the Alaskan arctic and the North Sea in 1969, could not be exploited with oil at $3 per barrel, so Tricky Dick sent evil Kissinger to the Mideast to create OPEC and the 1973 embargo, raising prices to $12 per barrel. As easy reserves played out, big oil demanded another price hike. CIA brought Khomeini from their safe house in Paris, overthrew their puppet Shah. The Iran embargo raised oil from $15.85 per barrel to $39 per barrel in 1979. Keeping Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria oil off market makes US shale oil possible.
“Fossil Fuel is Nuclear Waste” > CanadaFreePress(.)com > Hydrocarbons are renewable
Dear Caitlin
You write: ‘Compartmentalization is a tool people use to avoid the psychological discomfort (aka cognitive dissonance) that would otherwise be experienced by trying to hold on to two conflicting positions at one time…’
It is good to be able to put names to the enemy. You can begin to see its shape and colour and purpose when it has a name. It was, in some considerable measure, comforting to me, this year, to find a word which describes what you are defining, too: anomie. This was invented by a man called Emile Durkheim in 1893, and it means: ‘”the condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals”. This evolves from conflict of belief systems and causes breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community (both economic and primary socialization). In a person this can progress into a dysfunctional ability to integrate within normative situations of their social world e.g., an unruly personal scenario that results in fragmentation of social identity and rejection of values.’ (Wilipedia)
Later writers have called it ‘normlessness’ but that is a bit too close to gormlessness for me. Though there may be crossovers!
Interesting. But I will have to say that the best thing that happened to me in my life was the breaking of the social bonds between myself and my community. My community was a town in the Tennessee mountains where the KKK still held cross-burnings as an example of the local Christian values.
I got the heck out of town on a motorcycle when I was 17 and by taking that path less traveled, it made all the difference.
I think of where I’d be now if I hadn’t done that. I’d be an ignorant redneck hick cheering on American bombs. But instead, I’ve traveled the world (but sadly never Australia or that area), met all sort of interesting people. I underwent a metamorphoses where I shed the bigotry and hatred that was the local community values where I once peddled my bike with training wheels. Today, now closer to the end of the long strange trip than the beginning, I can smile with fond memories while reading Caitlin’s words “in a deep and integral way, it changes the way we think, it changes the way we experience our own consciousness, it alters our behavior, it ruins our experience of news media and Hollywood blockbusters, it ends our marriages, it breaks up longstanding friendships and forges new ones, and it makes the deceptions of the powerful utterly intolerable. Truth come what may means truth come what may, and it’s a lifetime commitment.”
I thank my lucky stars that I broke those community bonds and took the path less traveled. And it truly warms my heart that now that I need to sit down and rest a lot more frequently, that I find other wonderful people taking a similar path.
Dear Dolores
You were amazing indeed, to recognise that dichotomy, that dissonance, at such an early age, and to get the heck out of it. Well done, well done!
William Knox D’Arcy . Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar .. Burmah Oil Company … Anglo-Persian Oil Company …. Masjed Soleimani Iran …. Anglo-Iranian Oil company ….. Reza Shah Pahlavi …….Brittish Petroleum ……… Mohammed Mosaddegh ………. National Iranian Oil Company ……… Operation Ajax USA ………… Operation Boot UK ………….. . Texas Tea ……………. Y’all come back now
It is just a way of saying that there is law which dictates that we eventually get cut down by the shit we hold onto.
Thank you for the Johnny Cash. 🙂
One of the great things about having fled Tennessee is that I can still enjoy Johnny Cash no matter how far I’ve rambled. 🙂
And, since nobody can listen to just one Johnny Cash song, here’s another…
Johnny Cash, Man In Black
Thanks for thid. I had to share my favorite. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ulZP8RUqpF4
I haven’t seen the anthropomorphic god
cut down very much during my lifetime.
(just saying)
Elko,
He/she… shoulda been *fired* (literally) on day one. That’d a’teached ’em.