Tag: American Empire

How Often Do You Hear a News Report on Yemen?

Yes, there have been a few pinpricks of light recently in the corporate media’s blackout on coverage of the war in Yemen.  The monolithic wall of silence was breached by Chris Hayes on MSNBC after a year of silence.  Several days ago Ali Soufan visited MSNBC to participate  in another report. Although the moderator provides a rather skewed overview of the conflict’s history, the segment does present a survey of Yemen’s ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, America’s war crimes there and US responsibility for perpetuating the conflict.

Yemeni school bus hit by Saudi Arabia with laser-guided bomb made by Lockheed Martin

Our corporate media’s grotesque negligence in failing to report on the American fueled war in Yemen is more evidence of how deeply rooted and all pervasive the “military-industrial complex” (to quote president

Eisenhower again) remains in this country.  Media corporations are always hesitant to tell stories that may directly or indirectly hurt them on Wall Street.

How many average Americans have heard about the recent bombing of a school bus that killed 40 Yemen children?  Not many.  Bomb fragments, which you can see in a video here, show the bomb to have been “a 500-pound (227 kilogram) laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed-

A handout video grab photo made available by the Houthi Movement showing wounded Yemeni children lying on beds receiving treatment at a hospital after being injured in an alleged Saudi-led airstrike in the northern province of Saada, Yemen, 09 August 2018. According to reports, an alleged Saudi-led airstrike hit a bus carrying children in a market in the northern Yemeni province of Saada, killing at least 43 people, including children, and wounding 63 others.

Martin.”  But this is only one tragedy among many others that have never been reported in the US.  In fact, Human Rights Watch reports that this was only 1 0f 50 strikes on civilian vehicles this year alone.

According to USAToday, Lockheed Martin is one of the top ten companies profiting most richly from American war-making and arms sales, enjoying “$36.3 billion in sales in 2011, slightly higher than the $35.7 billion the company sold in 2010.”

Thankfully, Senator Chris Murphy continues the fight in Congress to end this senseless slaughter of innocent people in Yemen.  Below I have copied

Yemenis dig graves for children, who where killed when their bus was hit during a Saudi-led coalition air strike, that targeted the Dahyan market the previous day in the Huthi rebels’ stronghold province of Saada on August 10, 2018.

the latest notice from Just Foreign Policy explaining Murphy’s recent amendment to the Pentagon’s appropriations that would enforce a ceasefire and terminate US funding and military support for Saudi Arabia.

Please take a moment to help.  Call your senators and sign the petition.

 

“On August 9, an airstrike by the Saudi-UAE-U.S. coalition bombing Yemen struck a bus packed with children in the northern village of Dahyan, killing at least 51 people, including 40 children, according to the Red Cross. Saudi regime spokesmen have defended this horrific massacre, calling the bus a “legitimate military target.”

“When journalists asked a senior U.S. official if the U.S. supplied the bomb the Saudis used to blow up the bus full of kids and refueled the Saudi warplane that dropped the bomb on the bus full of kids, he responded: “Well, what difference does that make? We are providing the refueling and support to Saudi aircraft. We are also selling them munitions that are being used … We are not denying that.”

“CNN has established that the bomb that the Saudi regime used to blow up the bus full of kids was made by Pentagon contractor Lockheed Martin; transfer of the bomb to the Saudi regime was approved by the U.S. State Department.

“The Washington Post editorial board says: “It is long past time to end U.S. support for this misbegotten and unwinnable war. There is a clear path out: A U.N. mediator has called the various parties to Geneva early next month to discuss a peace process. Among the first steps would be a cease-fire… U.N. sources say the Houthis…are ready to strike these accords, but the Saudi and UAE regimes have been resistant…[the Saudi and UAE regimes] will accept a peace process only if it is clear that they will not have Washington’s support for more war.”

“Senator Chris Murphy has introduced an amendment to the Pentagon appropriation that would cut off U.S. tax dollars for this unconstitutional war – the war was never authorized by Congress, every day the war continues it violates Article I of the Constitution – unless Secretary of Defense Mattis certifies that the U.S.-enabled Saudi airstrike on the bus full of kids complied with international law and U.S. policy, something Mattis could never do unless he wants to be known as a shameless liar.

“52 Senators have voted against the war in a floor vote, either in June 2017 or in March 2018 on the Sanders-Lee-Murphy bill invoking the War Powers Resolution. Among Senate Democrats, only Joe Donnelly, Joe Manchin, and Bill Nelson have never voted against the war in a floor vote.

Urge Senators to speak out for and vote for the Murphy amendment to cut off U.S. tax dollars for the kid-killing Saudi war in Yemen by signing our petition.

https://www.change.org/p/support-chris-murphy-s-amendment-no-u-s-tax-dollars-for-killing-kids-in-yemen

Call Congress in Support of the Yemen War Powers Bill

The organization Just Foreign Policy has been advocating for the Yemeni War Powers bill to be passed by Congress in order to stop the genocide now occurring in that country.

Yemen has become the scene of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

Leaked! Despite War Crimes in Yemen US Trains Saudi Pilots

See my previous posts here, here, here, here .  We have soldiers and intelligence assets on the ground.  The US also the largest arms supplier to Saudi Arabia, the principle antagonist in Yemen’s civil war.

American money, arms, and soldiers, directed by our president and an acquiescent, do-nothing

congress, have helped Saudi Arabia to turn Yemen into a slaughter house where innocent men, women and children are butchered every day.

Please read the latest call for action from Just Foreign Policy reproduced below and make those three phone calls.  Thank you.

“The House goes out on recess this week. If a Yemen war powers bill is going to be introduced in the House before recess, that decision will be made today. If no bill is introduced, we’ll have no Congressional vehicle in August to respond to the threatened Saudi-UAE escalation of the war. The UN has warned that ten million more Yemenis will be pushed to the brink of starvation if the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen does not end this year. 

“The actions today of three Representatives will be key:

Ro Khanna: (202) 225-2631

Adam Smith: (202) 225-8901

Ted Lieu: (202) 225-3976

“Please call their offices now, in that order. When you reach a staffer or leave a message, you can say something like: 

“’I urge you to move forward with the introduction of a Yemen war powers bill in the House before recess. This will deter Saudi-UAE from escalating and pressure them to agree to the UN peace deal. If Saudi-UAE escalate, the bill will give grassroots activists a vehicle for response.’

“When you’ve made your call[s], please report so here. 

“The UN and aid groups have warned that if the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen is not ended this year, another ten million Yemenis will be pushed to the edge of starvation. The UN envoy has said he is close to a deal that would stop the Saudi-UAE assault on Hodeida and return the parties to peace talks. Thus, if the UN envoy is successful in his efforts, it could spare millions of Yemenis from being pushed to the edge of starvation. The crucial thing needed to end the war is more U.S. pressure on Saudi-UAE.

“That is why the question of what Members of Congress do now is so urgent. What Members of Congress do now to increase pressure on the Trump Administration and Saudi-UAE to end the war is the only variable apparent on the scene that appears to have any chance of sparing millions of lives in Yemen. 

“In particular, the introduction of a House war powers bill before the recess would give us a vehicle around which to organize public opinion to pressure Congress. Without such a vehicle and without such organizing, past experience indicates that the worsening of the U.S.-Saudi imposed humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a tree that falls in the forest without making an effective sound in the U.S. The worst developments are occasionally reported in mainstream U.S. press. But the attention is not sustained. The last time the issue received sustained attention in the U.S. was in March, when Senators Sanders, Lee, and Murphy introduced a war powers bill in the Senate and pushed for a vote. That is the kind of attention that we need in the U.S. on Yemen now. 

“Urge Khanna, Smith, and Lieu to act:

Ro Khanna: (202) 225-2631

Adam Smith: (202) 225-8901

Ted Lieu: (202) 225-3976″

Please make the calls.

I Thought We Hated Other Nations “Meddling” in Our Politics?

“The Trump administration has launched an offensive of speeches and online communications meant to foment unrest and help pressure Iran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups, U.S. officials familiar with the matter said.”

Hassan Rouhani of Iran and President Trump

That is the lead paragraph of a recent story in Reuters.  The headline says, “U.S. launches campaign to erode support for Iran’s leaders.”

Read the entire story here.

I haven’t written anything about the asinine ‘Russia-meddling’ brouhaha, or Trump’s dangerous withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, because both topics are such a stew of lies, misinformation, partisan back-stabbing and political/media hypocrisy that I get a headache whenever I considered writing a post.

Maybe I will try something in the future, before Trump starts a war with Iran in an attempt to distract from his overtures to Russia, which are important, valuable, necessary and worthy of praise!

No, I have not become a Trump fan.  Not even close.  But the hyper-partisanship that blinds people to the truth and turns them into knuckle-headed contrarians objecting to worthwhile diplomacy is going to lead us into another insane war if we are not careful.

Anyway, I saw this headline on Twitter and read the article.  It is important to be aware of what the US is doing in Iran, not because it is unprecedented but because it is common practice, and we do it constantly in many different places.

To just scratch the surface of the many abominable things wrong with the mainstream discussion of ‘Russia-meddling,’ the Reuters article provides a perfect window into both the hypocrisy and the supreme irony of current US domestic politics and the corporate media’s manipulation of a sheepish American public.

Trump REALLY Wants to Invade Venezuela

Numerous outlets have picked up on the AP story this past week telling us that Trump was serious about wanting to invade Venezuela last year (here, here, here, here).  Below I have posted an excerpt from a decent article at The Greanville Post discussing the geopolitics of the US relationship with Venezuela.  You can read the entire Greanville article here.

The military threat from the White House had previously provoked a regional outcry, particularly from Venezuela’s Maduro, who called on his military to be “prepared.” (AP)

“Even as Washington attempts to tighten the noose around the Venezuelan economy, China has provided somewhat of a lifeline to the Maduro government. Venezuela’s Finance Minister Simon Zerpa issued a statement after meetings in Beijing this week that the China Development Bank and China National Petroleum Corporation have agreed to invest $250 million in Venezuela’s beleaguered state-run oil corporation, PDVSA, which has seen production levels drop to an all-time low this year. In addition, he reported that China was prepared to extend a “special loan” of $5 billion “for direct investment in production.”

“While Venezuela has in the past exported 40 percent of its oil to the US market, it has increasingly shifted toward China, paying off loans with crude oil. The Venezuelan oil sector, however, still remains dependent upon the US for the import of technology, light crude and other products needed to blend with Venezuelan heavy oil for export.

“With Venezuela boasting the world’s largest proven oil reserves, China’s role in propping up the Maduro government provides an additional motivation, beyond the profit interests of the US energy conglomerates, for Washington to intervene.

“These motives have been spelled out in the recent national strategy and defense documents issued by the Trump administration and the Pentagon, defining both Russia and China as “revisionist powers” seeking to challenge US global hegemony and charting a course of preparation for “great power” conflicts.

“Venezuela and Latin America as a whole will be an arena for these conflicts. Trump’s demands to know why the US cannot simply invade Venezuela are not merely the ravings of the right-wing demagogue in the White House, but a warning of what is to come.”

I have written a number of posts about US interference (yes, coercive interference, not aid, assistance or diplomacy) in South America, particularly in Venezuela (here, here, here).  It is naive to assume that the president will not happily revisit his original, military instincts should future developments in Venezuela unfold (as they are) in ways that US corporate interests don’t appreciate.

God’s people need to keep their ears and eyes open.

We especially need to keep our hearts open to the Holy Spirit and the Prince of Peace, while pursuing the mind of Christ our suffering Savior.

We must continue to speak out against any and all moves to expand the daily, global bloodletting performed by our drones and other military forces.

Don’t forget.  We already have some 800 military bases in 170 countries across the globe.  Though we have had secret operations, such as the CIA and special forces personnel, in Venezuela for some time, the church cannot stand by and remain silent in the face of another US “dirty war.”

Pay attention. Be informed. Pray for peace.  Pray for our leaders to resist the temptations of power, violence and corporate profit over human lives.  Use the tools of your citizenship to pressure your elected representatives towards righteousness rather than wickedness, justice rather than exploitation, and mercy rather than America-first-callousness.

Israel, the Great Western Narrative and the Kingdom of God #zionism #jonathancook

Jonathan Cook, a British journalist living and working in Nazareth, Israel.

Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist living and working in Nazareth, Israel, since 2001.  You can find his biography and CV, including his many books, here.

I read Mr. Cook’s blog regularly. I also check out any of his articles or books whenever I come across them.

Yesterday, The Greenville Post (another excellent website I read regularly) published a Cook article entitled “How the Corporate Media Enslave Us to a World of Illusions.” Cook describes the slow evolution of his own social, political and historical consciousness as his work in journalism taught him to recognize something he calls the “Great Western Narrative.”

I hope you will take the time to read Cook’s article.  He is extremely insightful.  I have posted an excerpt below with a link to the entire article.

Cook’s analysis can be particularly challenging for Christians. He not only diagnoses the ways in which western Christians succumb to establishment propaganda, just like everyone else — no, brothers and sisters, we are not immune to the dangers of brainwashing —

But Cook’s advice for breaking free of the “Great Western Narrative” and learning to understand and engage in this world from a more humane perspective, is very similar to the argument I tried to make for Christian readers in my book I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America.

Christian disciples can only perceive this world aright, that is, from a New Testament, heavenly perspective, when we learn to replace the Great Western Narrative with Jesus’ own Narrative of the Kingdom of God.

That should be a lifetime goal for every follower of Jesus.  Yet, it is so much easier to live as loyal Americans than it is to be faithful citizens of God’s kingdom on earth.

This, in a nutshell, is the goal of my blog. Everything I write at HumanityRenewed, is something (I hope) that will help us to peel off the worldly consciousness — the Great Western Narrative — that works overtime to hold us captive and cripple our ability to live out God’s Kingdom citizenship in the here and now.

Nowhere is the evangelical church’s idolatry of the Great Western Narrative, coupled with its abandonment of Jesus’ Narrative of the Kingdom of God, more evident than in its blind devotion to Christian Zionism and the state of Israel, whatever its crimes.

Here is the excerpt:

“Israel is enthusiastically embraced by the Great Western Narrative: it is supposedly a liberal democracy, many of its inhabitants dress and sound like us, its cities look rather like our cities, its TV shows are given a makeover and become hits on our TV screens. If you don’t stand too close, Israel could be Britain or the US.

“But there are clues galore, for those who bother to look a little beyond superficialities, that there is something profoundly amiss about Israel. A few miles from their homes, the sons of those western-looking families regularly train their gun sights on unarmed demonstrators, on children, on women, on journalists, on medics, and pull the trigger with barely any compunction.

“They do so not because they are monsters, but because they are exactly like us, exactly like our sons. That is the true horror of Israel. We have a chance to see ourselves in Israel – because it is not exactly us, because most of us have some physical and emotional distance from it, because it still looks a little strange despite the best efforts of the western media, and because its own local narrative – justifying its actions – is even more extreme, even more entitled, even more racist towards the Other than the Great Western Narrative.

“It is that shocking realisation – that we could be Israelis, that we could be those snipers – that both opens the door and prevents many from stepping through to see what is on the other side. Or, more troubling still, halting at the threshhold of the doorway, glimpsing a partial truth without understanding its full ramifications.”

You can read Cook’s entire article here.

The Catastrophe in Yemen Continues to Worsen Because of US #yemen

The folks at Just Foreign Policy are sending a petition to Congress and attempting to rally popular support in order to end American support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

Yemeni children are dying of malnutrition and cholera.

Please take the time to read the excerpt posted below from their appeal.  Check out the embedded sources.  Reread my past blog posts about the tragedy unfolding in Yemen (here, here and here).

And remember…this is not a natural catastrophe.  It is an entirely man-made disaster.  

Recalling the Old Testament story of Nathan the prophet confronting King David:  The prophet today points his finger in the face of America and Saudi Arabia saying, “You are the nation.”  WE are the culprits condemning innocent Yemeni people to starvation and disease.

The guilt and responsibility is ours, America.  And we have the power to end it whenever we choose.  Here is the excerpt:

“The long-feared U.S.-backed Saudi-UAE assault on Hodeida, where four-fifths of Yemen’s food imports enter, has begun. ABC News reports: “Assault on Yemen’s largest port threatens to increase mass starvation.” Aid experts warned that an assault on the city could immediately threaten the lives of 250,000 people and put millions more at risk of starving to death. The U.S.-backed Saudi-UAE war against Yemen’s indigenous Houthi rebels has already created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, leaving 60% of the population – 17.8 million Yemenis – food insecure, and 8.4 million a step away from famine.
 
“ABC noted that the U.S. is providing “vital guidance and supplies” for the Saudi-UAE attack on Hodeida. The Wall Street Journal was more explicit: “The U.S. military is providing its Gulf allies with intelligence to fine-tune their list of airstrike targets in Yemen’s most important port, one sign of the Trump administration’s deepening role in a looming assault that the United Nations says could trigger a massive humanitarian crisis.”
 
“33 Representatives tried to stop the attack by threatening the Trump Administration with a vote invoking the War Powers Resolution to force an end to U.S. participation in the war. They were: Mark Pocan, Justin Amash, Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie, Barbara Lee, Walter Jones, Ted Lieu, James McGovern, Tulsi Gabbard, Yvette Clarke, Pramila Jayapal, Peter DeFazio, Debbie Dingell, Earl Blumenauer, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Gwen Moore, Adriano Espaillat, Judy Chu, Bobby Rush, Keith Ellison, Jan Schakowsky, Raúl Grijalva, Jamie Raskin, Donald Beyer, Karen Bass, Frank Pallone, Beto O’Rourke, Alan Lowenthal, Betty McCollum, Zoe Lofgren, Jared Huffman, Eddie Bernice Johnson, and Hank Johnson.
 
“The Members wrote: “We urge you to use all available means to avert a catastrophic military assault on Yemen’s major port city of Hodeida by the Saudi-led coalition…We remind you that three years into the conflict, active U.S. participation in Saudi-led hostilities against Yemen’s Houthis has never been authorized by Congress, in violation of the Constitution…In light of a possibly disastrous offensive on Hodeida, we remind you that under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress alone has the power to declare and authorize war, and the War Powers Resolution allows any individual member of Congress to force a debate and floor vote to remove U.S. forces from unauthorized hostilities.”
 
“Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the Trump Administration have ignored these warnings. They don’t believe that Members of Congress have the courage to follow through on their threat.

“Help us prove Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the Trump Administration wrong. Press Members of Congress to invoke war powers to force a vote to end unconstitutional U.S. participation in the catastrophic Saudi-UAE assault on Hodeida by signing our petition.”

Venezuela is on the American Empire’s Chopping Block

Yesterday’s post addressed the wholesale propaganda war being waged against consumers of US news.  The purpose of this particular campaign is several fold:

First, the ultimate political goal is to force Venezuela back into the international fold of global capitalism (sometimes called neoliberalism), thereby reopening its doors to American corporate interests (especially our oil companies);

Second, to persuade the American people that economic sanctions and even military action against Venezuela is entirely justified, should we decide to act in those ways. (Note – the US has already imposed severe economic sanctions against Venezuela which are helping to cripple the nation’s economy and its supply of consumer goods).

Third, propaganda – which is the standard diet dished out to every American who depends on the major corporate news outlets – serves as the information artillery barrage used to soften up the American battlefield of public opinion long before our government unleashes the military on “the enemy.”

Making the general public believe that, once again, the US has been “forced” into using our military as “the last resort” in “fighting for democracy, freedom and human rights” in another part of the world, keeps the public subdued, pliable and supportive of The Empire’s latest acts of international barbarism.

In addition to yesterday’s information, here are several more video reports from journalists working in Venezuela that help to fill out this picture.

First, reports from Abby Martin’s The Empire Files: She walks the streets of Venezuela, goes shopping in the stores, reads the newspapers, attends demonstrations, interviews people on both sides of the confrontations, including average people and their political leaders.

I think Martin is one of the most important journalists working today.  Granted, her personal interviews can be needlessly profane, but from all I have seen, her journalism is excellent.  Check out:

Why Socialism Keeps Winning in Venezuela (24 minutes)

Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly: Dictatorship or Democracy? (26 minutes)

Abby Martin Fact-Checks “No Free Press in Venezuela” Claim (3:39 minutes)

Inside Venezuela’s Markets: Propaganda vs. Reality (22 minutes)

Abby Martin Meets the Venezuelan Opposition (26 minutes)

For another thorough analysis of the Venezuela issues, here is Michael Prysner’s excellent response to John Oliver’s recent segment on Venezuela during his HBO comedy show. Granted, it is 45 minutes long, but you don’t have to watch it all at once.  Prysner takes the time to debunk, point by point, all of Oliver’s thoughtless repetitions of the mainstream media’s statements on Venezuela.  You can easily follow up on Prysner’s work online.

You can also find similar analysis from others by searching sites like the Real News Network, teleSUR English, RT News, and RT America.

Here are some of my thoughts on becoming a well-informed, thoughtful news consumer.

In order to find this type of journalism – that is, REAL journalism, something that the corporate media abandoned many years ago because their top executives decided that it did not make enough money – we must turn to independent, genuinely investigative journalism.  Most of these folks nowadays work for online publications and video outlets (check out youtube).

I give greater attention to journalists who report from the ground inside the relevant country, especially those who speak the language (for instance, Abby Martin’s reports from Venezuela; she is fluent in Spanish) and interview their subjects on their own or at least use a translator by their side.

The kinds of journalists I am talking about are people like Max Blumenthal, Dan Cohen, Glenn Greenwald, Abby Martin, Michael Prysner, Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill, Iona Craig, Eva Bartlett and others too numerous to list.  You can find them if you begin to look.

Another good source for alternative perspectives appears in outlets backed by foreign governments.  I watch and read them as much as I do US news.

Places like RT (Russia Television), Al Jazeera (coming from Qatar) and teleSUR (financed by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Bolivia).  Yes, these broadcasts will certainly have their own biases, but all US media are biased, as well. They certainly are no more biased, and in many, many instances they are much less biased, than any of our American news corporations.

Furthermore, foreign news stations typically offer a different perspective on the world’s problems.  It is good and necessary to break out of the American bubble.  We need to stop looking at ourselves in the mirror and learn how other people from around the world view us.

For instance, did you know that when the people of the world are asked which nation poses the greatest threat to world peace, the United States (not Iran, Russia, China or North Korea) tops the list (here and here)?

Finally, no one can say that they are well-informed until they look at all sides of an issue.

If I don’t know what the other side is saying or thinking – not from my perspective but from their perspective – if I haven’t engaged the evidence used in their arguments; if I don’t understand how they are refuting my arguments, then I simply don’t know what I am talking about.

We need to listen to alternative voices, perspectives and analyses.  Things that not nearly enough Americans do.  And, I am afraid, that American Christians tend to be among the worst at gathering a diversity of perspectives from which to learn.  (OK, I have to say this:  Please, TURN OFF THE CHRISTIAN RADIO AND TV NEWS BROADCASTS.  MOST OF IT IS PURE PROPAGANDA AND LIES.  SUCH BLINDNESS ONLY SERVES TO KEEP THE CHURCH IGNORANT, OFFENSIVE AND PLIABLE TO AMERICAN CORPORATE & IMPERIAL INTERESTS).

Our Creator gave us minds for thinking not strings for pulling.

Hands Off Venezuela, America! You’re a Big, Fat, Bully Nation!

I have been meaning to write about Venezuela and the distorted coverage of its internal affairs that we have been receiving in this country for some time now.  Well, I better do it now, before the US sends our troops to help complete the overthrow of another democratically elected, South American government, and the US press extolls the virtues of yet another one of our “humanitarian interventions.”  (That was sarcasm, in case you missed it).

Crowds of voters during the 2012 elections

Western news coverage of Venezuelan politics, whether by print, radio or television, not only in the US but in Britain and Western Europe, offers a perfect example of how corporate media dishes out pure propaganda to its consumers.

This includes everyone.  I have yet to find a single exception to this rule in the case of Venezuela, whether it’s Fox, ABC, NCB, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, you name it.  They are all the same.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro

Everyone is touting the same line: Nicolas Maduro is a dictator.  He has killed Venezuelan democracy.  The people are oppressed. There is no freedom of speech or of the press. The entire nation is starving due to government mismanagement. And on and on…

Sound familiar?

For a legible version see http://lati-negros.tumblr.com/post/31490408699/56-us-military-interventions-in-latin-america

Anyone who knows anything about the long, bloody history of American intervention in South American, however, will already be suspicious of such uniform, lock-step reporting.  Especially when few if any of this “reports” are coming from (a) journalists who speak Spanish (b) doing investigative journalism (c) on the ground in Venezuela (d) by speaking to a broad spectrum of actual Venezuelans still living in Venezuela.  (For information on US-sponsored coups in South America see this, this, this, this and this).

From what I can discover, the reality in Venezuela today is exactly the opposite of what our news media is telling us.  They have democratic elections. In fact, Jimmy Carter’s election monitoring organization observed Venezuela’s national elections in 2012 and concluded that “The election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”  (For further discussion, see this article on “Why the US Demonizes Venezuela’s Elections” by Mark Weisbrot, another guy I pay attention to.  Another great source of information is Venezuelanalysis.com, where you can find “Facts About Venezuela’s Presidential Elections and the Voting Process”).

WW 2 propaganda poster

I mention all of this, not only to highlight another clear example of the way our government and corporate controlled media try to propagandize us all, but also because propaganda often paves the way for military intervention and war.

Remember that President Trump has already threatened using “the military option” on Venezuela if Maduro won reelection (also here).

So, why does the US government hate the Maduro government in Venezuela?

First, Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves in the world and is a significant source for US imports.

Second, the Venezuelan people have chosen to elect a socialist government, which is a convenient way for the US to resurrect the Cold War bogie man of creeping communism sucking at American’s underbelly.  There are several problems however:

  • If America is the great defender of democracy around the world, what business is it of ours to interfere in country’s that democratically choose a socialist government?
  • Venezuela has not threatened to invade any neighboring countries. The US is the only nation threatening to invade another in order to overthrow its (democratically elected) government.

Third, beginning with Hugo Chavez and continuing with Maduro (but not as aggressively) the Venezuelan government has worked at nationalizing its industries, including its oil production.  This has been good news for the general population, but not such welcome news for the CEOs of the major oil companies operating in Venezuela.

Whenever more money flows into the pockets of the local people, ensuring that less money will flow out of the country and into the pockets of foreign oil conglomerates, the corporate executives always call Washington, D.C. and demand some of that ole’ time “regime change.”

Mohammed Mosaddegh, Prime Minister of Iran

Don’t forget that in 1953 the CIA and the British overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mosaddegh in Iran (and had him executed) after he decided to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, depriving British Petroleum of its windfall profits at Iranian expense.  There IS a clear precedent for all this.

So, in preparation, the government propaganda machine has been rolling for some time now, preparing us for the possibility of another illegal military/CIA intervention overseas.  If/when it happens it will be described as another chapter in the noble saga of America’s sacrificial “defense of freedom around the world.”  (Wave flags and play patriotic music, with predictably mind-numbing effects, here).

US orchestrated coup in Chile, 1973

In fact, it will be one more bloody intervention in another nation’s affairs where innocent human beings will be murdered by the thousands simply because US business interests are lusting after more and more money.

This government overthrow will then be followed by the imposition of a conservative, right-wing government, perhaps even a military dictatorship, as has happened so many times before.  The multinational corporations with return. The resource extraction will be denationalized and reprivatized so that the majority of the benefits will go back overseas to Western companies, and the local people are once again deprived of what is rightfully theirs.

THIS IS WHY CHRISTIANS, and by this, I mean the entire Christian church in this country, NEED TO CARE ABOUT THE NEWS AND POLITICS!

Because we want to obey Jesus’ teaching that “we do to others as we would want them to do to us.”

Because we want to “love our neighbors as ourselves.”

The US military kills people all around the world in our name, using weapons created with our tax dollars, pursuing policies supposedly for our benefit, sacrificing the lives of our children and the children of many others, all in the name of “American values.”

I am firmly convinced that nobody who genuinely knows and loves Jesus Christ; no one who understands Jesus’ values and the manner of living he taught and modeled for his disciples, can possibly be at peace with our country’s interventionist policies around the world.

We must object, speak up, write letters, call our representatives and insist that we stop meddling in Venezuelan internal affairs.

No US military or CIA in Venezuela!

(This post originally included a section on finding reliable news sources for this type of information and discussion.  I have decided to make that a separate post to follow shortly.)

American Empire Never Quits

Corporate efforts at killing Brazilian democracy, backed by the U.S. government and American oil companies, continues unabated.

For now, let’s skip over the first U.S. backed military coup in 1964 and jump into the present-day.

Rousseff

More recently, the corporate-controlled right wing senate illegally impeached President Dilma Rousseff without any evidence of wrong-doing.  Her defenders have called it a “political coup,” fueled by a pact between the government, military leaders and the oil companies.  She was not as friendly to big business as the conservatives in  her government would have liked.  And, of course, they are all very chummy with the U.S.

Temer

The current president, Michel Temer who was a leader in the group that ousted Rousseff, is now the most unpopular leader in Brazilian history, crippled by his own well-publicized corruption scandals.

Enter Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (known simply as Lula among the people), a former president seeking another term in that office now that his protege, Rousseff, has been ousted.  He is extraordinarily popular, and seemed to be headed towards an easy upset at the polls.

Lula

But corporate powers have intervened yet again. Lula has just been “convicted” on corruption charges and sentenced to prison, despite the fact that no one has ever been able to offer any evidence of his guilt. (Read this amazing story at The Intercept).

The Supreme Court that just convicted Lula has more suspicious financial connections to the corporate oligarchs that funded Rousseff’s impeachment than you can shake a stick at.

If you don’t believe that the U.S. government and the American oil industry is not helping to finance all of this turmoil, well then, I have some swamp land I’d like to sell to you in Florida.

  • Update:  check out this informative analysis by Mark Weisbrot, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research,  from Democracy Now.

A Spider’s Web of Corruption

For more on Yemen, here is an excellent summary (from Democracy Now!) on the political machinations and disturbing developments coming out of Washington D.C. over the past few days.

It offers fine interviews from knowledgeable people, a C-SPAN clip of Sen. Sanders on the Senate floor, more about the Saudi crown prince, Trump’s weapons deal, and Yemeni suffering.  It is about 15 minutes long.

I hope you will set aside a few minutes to keep yourself apprised of the many nasty strands that make up the spider’s web of US foreign policy.

Thanks.