Tag: US Foreign Policy

The 75th Anniversary of Nuclear War

Today is the 75th anniversary of the American nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States remains the only nation to have used

Hiroshima after the bomb

nuclear weapons in warfare.

Brett Wilkins, an independent journalist who often writes for Common Dreams, has a good article at Antiwar.com which tells the story, I suspect, from a new perspective for many readers. It is entitled “Nuclear War or Invasion: The False Dichotomy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Every American should also know and remember that we used nuclear weapons offensively when it was unnecessary.

With the passage of time comes more and more evidence about the past.

Over the years, a great deal of evidence has come to light underscoring the

Nagasaki, September, 1945.

fact that almost everything Americans have always been told about America’s justification for wiping Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the face of the earth in two nuclear conflagrations are lies.

In fact, not only has the story always been false, it was known to be false at the time but was perpetuated as a part of a US domestic propaganda campaign.

Below is an excerpt of Wilkins’ excellent article:

Seven of the eight five-star US generals and admirals in 1945 opposed using the atomic bomb against Japan. One of them, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, later said that “the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.”

“Japan was already defeated and dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary,” President Eisenhower wrote in 1954. “I thought our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was no longer mandatory to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of face.”

Despite so much high-level misgiving, the US did “hit them with that awful thing.” The idea of giving Japanese officials a live demonstration of an atomic bomb on a remote island, proposed by Strategic Bombing Survey Vice Chairman Paul Nitze and supported by Navy Secretary James Forrestal, was rejected. The US was already destroying multiple Japanese cities every week; it was believed that such a demonstration would likely not have moved the Japanese any more than the ongoing destruction of their actual cities.

Throughout the spring and summer of 1945, Japanese officials increasingly sought an honorable end to the war. Although they had no way of knowing that the US was planning to wage nuclear war against them, they knew that the defeat of Nazi Germany meant that a Soviet invasion, first of Manchuria and Korea and then of Japan itself, was now imminent.

“The Japanese could not fight a two-front war, and were more anti-communist than the Americans were,” Martin Sherwin, an historian awarded the Pulitzer Prize for co-authoring a biography of Manhattan Project leader Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, said a recent webinar sponsored by over two dozen international peace organizations. “The idea of a Soviet occupation of Japan was their worst nightmare.”

Read the entire article here.

Why is Israel’s Occupation and Annexation of Palestinian Land Illegal?

I won’t go into the various ways in which Israel has taken over (“expropriated”) privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank (and even within Israel itself). But they do it on a regular basis.

In this post I will focus on the provisions of International Law being violated by Israel’s steady encroachment into the Occupied Territory/West

Israel’s Annexation/ Separation Barrier separating Palestinians from Israel. Observe that it’s not hard to climb. It was not built to stop terrorism, but to steal more land.

Bank.

The Geneva Convention declares that land conquered through war (1) cannot be kept by the conquering power. (2) Neither can it be incorporation as a part of the victorious country. (3) Nor can the conquering country move its own citizens into the occupied region for colonization.

Israel is violating all of these legal requirements.

Here is what International Law says:

Article 49, paragraph 6 of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV says, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

Article 85(4)(a) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I adds that “the transfer by

Palestinians live under military occupation. Trump’s plan will expand and deepen its oppression

the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” is a serious breach of the protocol.

Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court states that “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” is a war crime.

Why were these restrictions on the ancient attitude of “to the victor goes the spoils” put in place?

The answer is simple. And you’d think Israel might be especially sensitive to this part of the story.

Adolf Hitler.

As I will explain in my next book, during the Second World War, Adolf Hitler

Hitler’s plans for population transfers throughout Eastern Europe — remove the natives and replace them with ethnic Germans

undertook ethnic cleansing in parts of eastern Europe.  He then resettled these areas with ethnic Germans, planning to incorporate the newly settled territories into an expanded German state.

For only one example, the Nazis expelled nearly 122,000 Poles from German occupied Pomerania in 1939-40. They were replaced by 130,000 ethnic Germans who were resettled in place of the former Pomerania population.

German settlement expansion in eastern Europe was a part of Hitler’s “Germanization” program, referred to as Generalplan Ost (the GPO).

The Geneva Convention, at the instigation of the United States, hoped to prevent (or, at least, to outlaw) similar population transfers via warfare in the future.

Israel first violated this part of international law in 1948-49 when it conquered 50% of the territory allotted by the United Nations for a Palestinian state.

Israel continues its violation of international law in the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan during the 1967 war.  The West Bank has remained under military occupation ever since, hence its identification as Occupied Territory.

Now it becomes United States policy to endorse the violation of international law. Only a few weeks ago Trump announced that the US considers all Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “legal.”

This week’s Apartheid Plan endorses the illegal annexation and Jewish settlement of the entire Jordan Valley, displacing the many Palestinians farmers from their own property.

All of the Palestinian lands stolen by Israeli fiat, and built up by illegal

Illegal Jewish settlers in the Jordan Valley. They have been breaking the law for a long time. Trump now says it’s OK

Israeli settlers, throughout the West Bank will be officially annexed as a part of Israel.

I know this will offend some and appear an exaggeration by many, but facts are facts. They don’t change because some folks are offended.

  1. Israel is a rogue nation. The international community must condemn its avaricious, illegal, inhumane behavior now.
  2. The United States is the world’s most far-reaching enabler of such rogue behavior, not just in the Middle East, but around the globe.
  3. Sadly, nobly intentioned international law has failed to stop the ghost of racist, ethnic nationalism from stealing from and oppressing other human beings.
  4. The ghost of Hitler hangs heavy over the United States, Israel, Donald Trump, and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Professor Erakat Talks About Trump’s Middle East Plan for Israeli Apartheid

Noura Erakat is assistant professor of criminal law at Rutgers University, specializing in international and humanitarian law. You can check out her faculty page here.

Her most recent book, which I read not long ago and highly recommend, is entitled Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford, 2019). In this book, she examines the modern history of Palestine through the lens of international law. (I’ll give you a head’s up: Israel has regularly violated, and continues its violations, of international law flagrantly and persistently.)

Recently, Ms. Erakat was interviewed by Aaron Mate, one of my favorite journalists for his independence and investigative abilities, on the Grayzone program, Push Back.

Their conversation concerns the practical effects of President Trump’s recently announced Apartheid Plan for Israeli/Palestinian relations.

Please take the time to watch the complete interview here. It is approximately 15 minutes long.

Her summary: “This plan is much more dangerous than I originally thought.”

Kairos Palestine Responds to Trump’s Middle East “Peace” Plan

Kairos Palestine is an organization made up of Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank who advocate for peace and justice on behalf of all the Palestinian people.

Some years ago I had the opportunity of visiting their offices and speaking with several of their volunteers. Our time together was delightful as we discussed the ethics of Israel’s military occupation and its consequences.

Today Kairos Palestine released a press statement in response to Trump’s unveiling of his administration’s obscene pretense of a “peace plan.” (You can read a few of my thoughts about Trump’s plan  here.)

Below is an excerpt of Kairos Palestine’s press release. You can read the entire statement here:

“Peace, peace, they say when there is no peace”

(Jeremiah: 6:14)

The position announced by the U.S. administration regarding what they termed as the ‘deal of the century’ was in fact an insult to history, humanity, the Palestinian people, and the American dignity itself.

The American-Israeli proposal is premised on consolidating Israeli control over all of Palestine’s land, making sure that the Palestinian people are subjected to this control, in return for economic promises that are closer to a deal for buying the people and their spirit with money.

This proposal seeks to legitimize the Israeli occupation and revoke the history of the Palestinian people and their legitimate inalienable rights, particularly the right of return for the Palestinian refugees and the right to self-determination in an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian question completely and definitively…

…Through this declaration, the U.S. has proclaimed itself clearly as a party to the conflict rather than a peace broker, as it considered this deal, that has no reference to the international law or the UN resolutions, as the final offer to the Palestinians holding them fully responsible, should they reject it, for all the ensuing repercussions.

Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to the voice of God commanding them, here in the Holy Land and in the world as a whole: do not steal, do not kill, in order to stop killing the Palestinian people and stealing away their lands.

Israel and the U.S. are yet to listen to God’s voice, to the voice of conscience, and realize the truth that cannot be subdued: the Palestinian people are alive, consistently demanding their rights over the past hundred years till this date. The Palestinian people will continue to demand their rights until they obtain them. The only path to peace is that of full equality between the two peoples. Israel peace is preconditioned by Palestinian peace, in fact, Israeli mere survival is based on the just peace for Palestinians. Otherwise, Israel, despite all its power, will live in fear and anticipation of an unknown future. As we already stated in the Kairos document ‘Moment of Truth’ , “our and their future are but one. Either a cycle of violence whereby we all perish, or peace whereby we all thrive.” 

Observations on the Trump/Netanyahu Apartheid Plan for the Middle East

Trump and Netanyahu unveil the “plan of the century” — remembering, of course, that the century is merely 10 years old.

The Impeached and the Indicted are on the campaign trail together with a shamelessly ridiculous plan for permanent apartheid in Palestine, all under the guise of an Israel-Palestine peace plan producing a viable two-state solution.

Well, attention Mr. Impeached President and Mr. Indicted Israeli Prime Minister — a two-state solution died long, long ago.

Israel’s continuous multiplication of illegal Jewish-only settlements throughout the occupied West Bank put a stake through that two-state dream like a knife cutting through butter.

And the US stood on the sidelines and watched.

Take a look at the map provided with the plan (which you can read for yourself here). By the way, the extremely right-wing Jerusalem Post is thrilled that Trump’s plan comes with a map. They absolutely gush, It is the first plan to come with a map!

Oh joy, I guess the editors at JP like their books to come with big two-tone pictures.

But the map does illustrate one thing clearly. There ain’t no Palestinian state with contiguous borders (as Jared Kushner, the plans’ main presenter, insists there is).

Perhaps someone in the White House needs to explain the meaning of “contiguous” to Mr. Kushner.

The dark blue areas are the holes in the tiny piece of Swiss-cheese that Israel has left for the Palestinians to nibble on. These very non-contiguous dots are what is being called “a Palestinian state.”

They are like tiny Indian reservations linked together by underground tunnels and elevated bridges, all of which will be heavily monitored by the Israel military. So much for freedom of travel and assembly in the new Palestine.

Trump also made it very clear that those ungrateful Palestinian mice ought to be darn thankful for the meager crumbs of cheese left to them by their oh-so generous benefactors, Israel and America.

Take a moment to scan this map tracking the loss of Palestinian land ownership throughout the years of Israel’s settlement expansion and illegal occupation.

A few other details to remember include:

  • The new state of Palestine is prohibited from having any treaties or diplomatic connections with other countries. This is Israel’s idea of Palestinian national sovereignty.
  • Palestine is prohibited from having its own, independent security forces. Whatever forces they have must always support Israeli security interests.
  • None of the Palestinian refugees inhabiting the camps of neighboring nations since their displacement in the wars of 1948 and 1967 may return to Palestine. The Israelis insist, No more of your refugees jumping on the bed!
  • There is a strong likelihood that many Israeli-Palestinians, possessing Israeli passports and citizenship, will be stripped of those possessions and forcibly transported to the new “state.” (Which, by the way, is a violation of International law. But Israel excels at such illegal dealings.)
  • Along with all the other stolen land, Israel has also decided to annex the entire Jordan Valley, displacing all the Palestinian farmers who have owned and cultivated that land for as long as anyone can remember.

And the list could go on.

President Carter called for Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid in his 2006 book by the same name. But I am afraid that forcing brutal apartheid onto the Palestinian people has been the name of the game in Israeli and American politics for decades.

For the one-two punch of ethnic cleansing and apartheid are Israel’s favorite original sin. They just can’t break their national addiction to war crimes, racism and oppression.

And there is no sign of national repentance anytime soon.

Palestinian outrage over the Trump plan is already evident throughout the region, and justly so.  I expect that we may see a Third Intifada on the horizon sometime soon. Frankly, I’d love to be there to join them.

Heck, if I weren’t a Christian and a pacifist, I would be stockpiling rocks and organizing revolutionary resistance right now.

Liars Beat the Drums of War. Part 3 — US Lies About Iran

Dan Kovalik is another person to whom I always pay attention.  He is a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, as well as an active labor and human rights attorney.

A peace activist and prolific author, his most recent book is The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran. I have read many of his articles and just ordered the book for myself.

The independent, investigative journalist, Abby Martin, recently interviewed Kovalik to get his perspective on the recent US assassination of Qassam Soleimani.

I strongly encourage you to watch this YouTube video of their conversation.

It is must see viewing for Americans who are in desperate need of a strong antidote to the barrage of Establishment propaganda shoveled out by every corporate news company in the USA.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Kovalik and Martin expose the long history of unprovoked American aggression against the Iranian people.

Beginning with the CIA coup that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected president in 1953, Kovalik shows how the US is continuing to lie about (1) Iran’s “quest” for nuclear weapons, (2) Iran’s fictional role as “the world’s largest exporter of state-sponsored terrorism”, and (3) Iran’s “continued attacks” against “innocent” Americans.

In 2013, the CIA publicly confessed its responsibility for the 1953 overthrow of the Iranian government, which we toppled in order to regain control (together with Great Britain) over Iran’s oil resources.

You can read the CIA confession and all the details  here in the National Security Archives.

Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

America continues its efforts to lie, cheat, and steal its way into controlling Iranian resources again.

And our  government, together with all its mindless, media minions, will continue to lie, lie, lie and then lie some more in its efforts to brainwash the public, bedazzling us into stupefied silence — or better yet, heart-felt. patriotic approval — when our bloodthirsty government finally unleashes the savage dogs of war.

DON’T FALL FOR IT!

Christians, you are citizens of the kingdom of God, first! Your membership in the American body politic is nothing compared with this spiritual truth. Your #1 loyalty is to the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth.

He is the Redeemer who calls us to embrace truth not lies, and peace,not war.

If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, then understand that in this moment  every Christian’s motto must be:

No War With Iran!

Liars Beat the Drums of War. Part 2 — The News Media and Establishment Propaganda

A key to successful propaganda is having the appearance of knowledge and authority while disseminating falsehoods and misrepresentations.

A key ingredient to the success of US corporate news broadcasts in their spreading of government-backed lies is their use of “expert” commentators. These talking-heads, periodically trotted out for their supposed expertise on a subject, are typically former members of the US military, the intelligence community, and political leaders waiting for their next government gig.

Invariably these professional commentators provide off-the-cuff “analysis” which, in one way or another, endorses the worldview necessary  for the expansion of American empire.

Whether that requires more bombing, another invasion, a tighter security apparatus, a larger military budget, you name it, these folks make a living by persuading the public that more American aggression is essential to peace and prosperity around the world.

We recently heard Donald Trump say that he bombed Qassam Soleimani, not to start a war, but to prevent a war.

Right.

Just as George W. Bush was forced to start a war in order to prevent the mythical mushroom cloud.

I am old enough to remember the Army’s justification of free-fire zones in the Vietnam war, where soldiers were free to kill anything on sight and destroy entire villages, by saying that “we had to destroy the village in order to save the village.”

Give me a break.

I wasn’t stupid enough to believe the propaganda then. And I’m not stupid enough to swallow it now.

What our TV news networks never disclose to us is that virtually ALL of these so-called expert commentators maintain profession relationships with the military-security-intelligence-industrial complex while working for the corporate news media.

After all, they have invested their entire professional lives into climbing the ladders of power inside the war rooms of the American empire. They are not about to give that up now.

Very few leopards ever change their spots, folks.

Lawrence Wilkerson is a rare breed.

So, it is not surprising that this class of propagandist is invariably are on the payroll of weapons manufacturers, military consulting firms, and surveillance companies, etc. Just as the execution of Gen. Soleimani sent the stock prices of Raytheon and other weapons manufacturers through the roof, so these talking-heads work to further enhance the financial and ideological investments that they have spent their entire lives helping to construct.

Below is a video report by The Intercept explaining only a few of these corrupt financial connections. Of course, none of the networks ever mention these connections to their viewers.

For instance, Fox News hired a retired general who naturally justifies US military strikes, but never mentions that he is a partner at SCP Partners, a venture capital fund that invests in defense contractors.

Similarly CBS hired another retired general who now works for Kohlberg Kravis Robers & Co., an investment firm with major holdings in  some of the largest US defense contractors.

These men and women do offer expert analysis. They are trying to sell us more snake oil at the very high cost of human lives around the globe.

“America Exists to Make War”

My regular readers will remember that I always value the insights of retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. Col. Wilkerson was the Chief of Staff for Colin Powell when Powell was the Secretary of State under President George

Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

W. Bush.

Col. Wilkerson is also the only official from the Bush administration who has come clean about the consistent stream of lies we were fed by the Bush administration about the non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The CIA lied to him and General Powell.

Why in the world should anyone believe what US intelligence spokespeople are telling us today about Iranian General Qassem Soleimani or the Iranian

Soleimani’s burning body lies next to his car

government?

Since the catastrophic war in Iraq, which continues to this day, Col. Wilkerson has devoted himself to speaking out, working to ensure that there won’t be any more US wars based on lies.

Here he explains how the government lie-factory is again working overtime as it promotes war with Iran. As he says, “[American leaders] will lie, cheat, and steal to promote American empire.”

Watch the interview by journalist Amy Goodman discussing the current state of US/Iran relations with Col Wilkerson on the program Democracy Now.  It is 17 minutes long and well worth your time.

 

Liars Beat the Drums of War. Part 1

All governments lie.

That fact is a given and must be accepted by any adult who wants to understand politics and foreign relations in this world of ours.

For Christians who understand that their primary allegiance is to Jesus Christ, and that they are first and foremost citizens of the kingdom of God NOT their temporal country, embracing this truth need not be difficult.

Not only is the government of the United States not an exception to this rule, we in many ways we have perfected the practice of lying, deception and misinformation to a fine art — perhaps a crude, vulgar and vile norm would be a more accurate way to describe it.

The recent release of the Afghanistan Papers by the Washington Post is only one recent demonstration of this age-old truism about government lies. US military leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, our intelligence services, and the vast majority of our elected politicians have all been lying to the American public about the 18 year long war in Afghanistan for….wait for it…the entire 18 years.

When interviewed behind closed doors, over 400 American leaders, both military and civilian, in nearly 700 separate interviews, confessed that the military has never had a coherent strategy for pursuing this wasteful war.  Nor did they have the slightest hope that the US could accomplish anything resembling “victory,” whatever that might look like.

In short, everyone admitted that no one in the US government had any idea what we were doing in Afghanistan.

Yet, when speaking in public we heard lie after lie after lie — “we are moving toward victory,” “our new strategy is working,” “we see light at the end of the tunnel.”

All the lies have been revealed in black and white.

Yet, not long after the publication of these Afghanistan Papers, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a press conference where he deliberately mischaracterized the information contained in these interviews and then glibly dismissed their significance out of hand.

Watch the oh-so noble general continue spinning more public lies in the video below:

The US corporate media perpetuates US government lies by repeating them mindlessly, without challenge or correction. Major developments that indict our government by uncovering the truth are conveniently ignored by the corporate press.

Truth remains unreported because real journalism is dead in this country. The American people may well be the most ideologically narrow, as well as the most thoroughly propagandized population in the “civilized” world.

Of course, the truth is also ignored by the bought-and-paid-for money grubbers in Washington DC whose silence indicts them, too, as co-conspirators in the deception of the American people.

How many major, investigative reports have you seen about the Afghanistan Papers on corporate news programs?

I have not seen any.

Has anyone heard even a hint about a possible Congressional investigation into the negligence, gross malfeasance and moral decay festering at the heart of our military-industrial-security complex laid bare for all to see by the Afghanistan Papers?

I haven’t.

We, the American public, including the Christian church, must share in this  corporate guilt.

We are a major portion of the gullible and/or disinterested public that conveniently believes the government lies, ignores contrary evidence, and cheers patriotically for the endless bloodshed unleashed by America’s selfish addiction to imperial power around the world.

More Wise Analysis from Caitlin Johnstone

For my money, Caitlin Johnstone is one of the sharpest political bloggers working today. Below is an excerpt from her most recent post, “Full Scale War is Avoided and Trump Goes Right Back to Warmongering.”

The United States and Iran entered into a direct military exchange for the first time ever with the drone assassination of General Qassem Soleimani last week

President Trump makes statement on Iran reprisals

and a retaliatory strike from Iran via surface-to-surface missiles upon two US military bases on Wednesday.

As usual it was the less powerful nation who exercised restraint, with Iran skillfully targeting the bases’ military capabilities but taking measures to successfully avoid any casualties. The two nations de-escalated back down to their previous high level of dangerous hostilities with an understanding between them that neither side wants a full-scale war. Both sides played “chicken” and both sides swerved, and they know that about each other now.

So that was a relief. We were all forced to hold our breath and hope against hope that cooler heads would prevail after the senseless assassination of a sovereign nation’s top military official, and they did. A full-scale war that would have dwarfed Iraq and Vietnam in terms of death, destruction and destabilization was averted.

And then Trump immediately went right back to warmongering…

The entire piece is well worth reading. Just click on the title above.