IF RUMSFELD PERSONIFIES OUR SOCIETY WE ARE NOT ONLY WARMONGER N.1, WE ARE CRIMINALS

IF RUMSFELD PERSONIFIES OUR SOCIETY WE ARE NOT ONLY WARMONGER N.1, WE ARE CRIMINALS

1- President Carter: America is The No. 1 Warmonger

President Carter: “The Rest of the World, Almost Unanimously, Looks At America As The No. 1 Warmonger. That We Revert To Armed Conflict Almost At The Drop Of A Hat — And Quite Often It’s Not Only Desired By The Leaders Of Our Country, But It’s Also Supported By The People Of America”

Posted on April 12, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog

America the Bellicose

In a sad commentary on America’s war-like nature, President Carter points out:

The rest of the world, almost unanimously, looks at America as the No. 1 warmonger. That we revert to armed conflict almost at the drop of a hat — and quite often it’s not only desired by the leaders of our country, but it’s also supported by the people of America.

Indeed, continuous war is a feature – not a bug – of U.S. policy.

Other hard-hitting Carter quotes from the last year:

• “America has no functioning democracy” in the wake of mass surveillance by the NSA

• Snowden’s revelations do not harm our national security, but are “useful”

• Bush didn’t win in 2000

It’s not just Carter. Conservative Justices Souter and O’Connor, intelligence agency heads and congressmen all warn that America is in real trouble.

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Rumsfeld Personifies Our Society

Posted on April 11, 2014 by DavidSwanson   [Here only extracts]

When Donald Rumsfeld used to hold press conferences about the Iraq war, the press corps would giggle at the clever ways in which he refused to actually say anything or answer any questions. And to the only question that was asked, Rumsfeld is allowed to get away with replying “I guess time will tell.”

Then Rumsfeld effectively suggests that time has already told.  He says that candidate Barack Obama opposed Bush-era tactics and yet has kept them in place, including the PATRIOT Act, lawless imprisonment, etc.  He might have added that President Obama has maintained the right to torture and rendition even while largely replacing torture with murder via drone.  Most crucially for himself, he might have noted that Obama has violated the Convention Against Torture by barring the prosecution of those responsible for recent violations.  But Rumsfeld’s point is clear when he notes that Obama’s conduct “has to validate” everything the previous gang did wrong.

Rumsfeld does shamelessly defend abusing and torturing prisoners, and maintains that torturing people protects “the American people,” but he passes the buck to the Department of Justice and the CIA and is never asked about the White House meetings described above.  When it comes to Abu Ghraib he says he’d had nothing to do with it..  (He also claims nobody was killed and there was just a bit of nudity and sadism, despite the fact that photos of guards smiling with corpses have been made public).  Asked about abuses migrating from Guantanamo to Iraq, Rumsfeld cites a report to claim they didn’t.  The director then shows Rumsfeld that the report he cited says that in fact torture techniques migrated from Guantanamo to Iraq.  Rumsfeld says he thinks that’s accurate, as if he’d never said anything else.  Rumsfeld also says that in the future he believes public officials won’t write so many memos.

Bizarrely, Errol Morris asks Rumsfeld why they didn’t just assassinate Saddam Hussein instead of attacking the nation of Iraq.  He does not ask why the U.S. didn’t obey the law.  He does not ask about Hussein’s willingness to just leave if he could keep $1 billion, as Bush told Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar that Hussein had offered.  And even the question asked, Rumsfeld refuses to answer until he makes Morris complicit.  Morris had used the word “they,” as in “why didn’t they just assassinate him?” whereas he clearly should have used the word “you,” but Rumsfeld makes him repeat the question using the word “we” before providing an answer.  We?  We were lied to by a criminal government.  We don’t take the blame as servants to a flag.  Are you kidding?  But Morris dutifully asks “Why didn’t we just assassinate … ?”

Rumsfeld replies that “We don’t assassinate” and tries hard not to grin.  Morris says “but you tried” referring to an attempt to bomb Hussein’s location.  Rumsfeld excuses that by saying it was “an act of war.”  This is the same line that human rights groups take on drone murders.  (We can’t be sure if they’re illegal, because President Obama may have written a note and hid it in his shoe that says it’s all a part of a war, and war makes murder OK.)

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