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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNobody Knows the ID of the 150 People Killed by U.S. in Somalia,but Most Are Certain They deserve it
The U.S. used drones and manned aircraft yesterday to drop bombs and missiles on Somalia, ending the lives of at least 150 people. As it virtually always does, the Obama administration instantly claimed that the people killed were terrorists and militants members of the Somali group al Shabaab but provided no evidence to support that assertion.
Nonetheless, most U.S. media reports contained nothing more than quotes from U.S. officials about what happened, conveyed uncritically and with no skepticism of their accuracy: The dead fighters
were assembled for what American officials believe was a graduation ceremony and prelude to an imminent attack against American troops, pronounced the New York Times. So, the official story goes, The Terrorists were that very moment graduating receiving their Terrorist degrees and about to attack U.S. troops when the U.S. killed them.
With that boilerplate set of claims in place, huge numbers of people today who have absolutely no idea who was killed are certain that they all deserved it. As my colleague Murtaza Hussain said of the 150 dead people: We dont know who they are, but luckily they were all bad. For mindless authoritarians, the words terrorist and militant have no meaning other than: anyone who dies when my government drops bombs, or, at best, a terrorist is anyone my government tells me is a terrorist. Watch how many people today are defending this strike by claiming terrorists and militants were killed using those definitions even though they have literally no idea who was killed.
Other than the higher-than-normal death toll, this mass killing is an incredibly common event under the presidency of the 2009 Nobel Peace laureate, who has so far bombed seven predominantly Muslim countries. As Nick Turse has reported in The Intercept, Obama has aggressively expanded the stealth drone program and secret war in Africa.
more
https://theintercept.com/2016/03/08/nobody-knows-the-identity-of-the-150-people-killed-by-u-s-in-somalia-but-most-are-certain-they-deserved-it/
We learned nothing from Vietnam
daleanime
(17,796 posts)how to keep ourselves distracted.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)We learned some things which are important, but bad.
As long as we're not sending ground troops to die and we can kill from relative safety by remote means, the American public won't give a fuck.
Don't let the media show battlefield footage we are not unambiguously winning.
Dead children on the evening news makes for an unhappy public. Keep the dead babies out of view.
Americans like footage of big explosions as long as they can't see the related carnage.
raccoon
(31,119 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)illustrated the day W took us into Iraq. Remember all the fires in the night? I sat watching that day with younger people who had grown up after the pictures of real war were no longer shown by media. They thought they were seeing a real war. I sat there thinking about the pictures I had see of Vietnam. They were furious with me when I told them I was against the Iraq war.
malaise
(269,157 posts)judge, jury and executioner - don't you love our freedom TO KILL
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)so they are rendered meaningless.
TeddyR
(2,493 posts)Were terrorists until someone proves otherwise. I actually trust President Obama on foreign policy, as strange as that may seem.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)One of the reasons to be wary when Washington uses secret intelligence as a basis for war.
Tonkin Gulf Intelligence "Skewed"
According to Official History and Intercepts
Newly Declassified National Security Agency Documents Show Analysts Made "SIGINT fit the claim" of North Vietnamese Attack
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 132 - Update
John Prados
National Security Archive
EXCERPT...
New York Times reporter Scott Shane wrote that higher-level officials at the NSA were "fearful that (declassification) might prompt uncomfortable comparisons with the flawed intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq."
CONTINUED...
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/press20051201.htm
Anyone ever hear OPLAN 34-A mentioned on tee vee or in history class?
Caros Flawed Tale of LBJs Rise
Exclusive: Author Robert Caro has labored through decades of his multi-volume study of Lyndon Johnsons life, only now reaching LBJs presidency in The Passage of Power. But the much-praised book misses or misrepresents many of the key events, writes Jim DiEugenio.
By Jim DiEugenio
ConsortiumNews July 28, 2012
EXCERPT...
Caro mentions OPLAN 34A, the plan for covert operations against North Vietnam. The seed for this plan was approved by Johnson as part of NSAM 273 in late November of 1963. Caro actually calls it a reaffirmation. (Caro, p. 403) If what he means is a reaffirmation of Kennedys policies, then this is just wrong.
CONTINUED...
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/07/28/caros-flawed-tale-of-lbjs-rise/
Like you, n2doc, I'm for war if it's to defend the United States and the Constitution from any and all enemies, foreign and domestic. Other than that, I'll try peace first. When administration after administration want to go for war first, there's a reason -- an evil reason.
AgadorSparticus
(7,963 posts)bighart
(1,565 posts)how would you feel about it?" That is what I ask myself about these drone kills all the time.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)indisputably successful operation... After shitting on Obama for eight years, he just can't ever bring himself to compliment him on motherfucking anything and there's always a "yeah, but..." with him when he's not sympathizing with Al-Qaeda, ISIS and Al-Shahaab...
Of course when IS kills 130 in Paris, or Al-Shahaab kills 63 in a shopping mall, Glenn and his emoprog cronies are the first to make excuses for it because deep down they believe we deserve it, and attacks against the west must arouse them sexually or something, the sick fuckers that they are.
As I've repeatedly said, there comes a point where you're so over-the-top and extreme in anti-interventionist beliefs that without even noticing it you're making heroes out of enemies of the West... This is the pure essence of what I call dudebroism, and I will continue to call out these useful idiots wherever I see them on the left...
I know you folks have long since given up on trying to out-debate me on this, so just shower me with the usual insults and personal attacks, since that's how it works on DU these days...
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)However, I will simply put forth the proposition that there is a bright line connecting the deaths of 130 in Paris and the deaths of 150 in Somalia. And that same bright line will continue on out of Somalia to another place to be determined.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)so noted.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"so just shower me with the usual insults and personal attacks..."
Much as your opening two paragraphs did and seemed uniquely dedicated to doing. I guess two standards for the precise same thing is "how it works on DU these days..."
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)but now all of a sudden I can't?
GOLGO 13
(1,681 posts)Thank you Mr. President for protecting us...again.
nilesobek
(1,423 posts)They don't like us? They don't like Israel?
In the spirit of Muhammed Ali: "These people have done nothing to me."
Good luck getting people to ever fight a patriotic war again. This is to my leaders: Don't ask us for help. You have your paid, mercenary Army and their contractor cohorts. Just never ask for a draft again.