This is the kind of article that originally led me to become Nonzero reader/supporter. (I really miss the old daily news feed) I am not very knowledgeable with respect to politics and world affairs, so I love pieces that define a situation or position, clearly explain BOTH sides, and then give me facts to back up the conclusion. This one is perfect.
Thanks for this. I am pretty sure I would not only not have read anything about this I might never even have learned this guy's name. Now I know something about him and I too can feel a little better that there are some competent people around. Score one for the non-doomsayers. Yay!
Not that it doesn't need to be continually attempted but sadly this kind of intelligent delineation of who said what and why has been as unloved as it is unwanted by warmongers across the spectrum - including far too many so-called 'Friends of Israel'.
"We’re going to have to be allowed to try to understand why people do the things they do—including non-wonderful people like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and Bashar al-Assad—without being stigmatized by neocons and other hawks as “apologists.”
A really good place to start is with the US's own atrocities, and there are plenty to choose from. Take Venezuela. I mean, it's just a 'fact' that this is a demonic dictatorship, right? That its media are stymied from telling the truth. And so on. Never has there been a more bogus narrative than what has come to be the received view. Repeat lies often enough... Virtually none of what is said about Ven. is true. E.g. the media are 70% privately owned and broadcast/print round-the-clock anti government schlock, unhindered. The government has been repeatedly, democratically elected with landslide majorities - in internationally observed elections. The US-assisted, attempted coups have failed because the people see what is going on, they are not fooled by the propaganda. US interference there is on a criminal scale. The real problem? Venezuela nationalised their oil industry and booted the oil monoliths out of their monopoly. Iran did the same. Iraq did the same. Libya did the same. Funny how these all turn out to be the 'axis of evil' countries, isn't it? A similarly, horrifically dishonest narrative has been contrived in each case to justify invasion and confiscation - sorry, theft - of resources. Can we look too at how US imposed sanctions destroy economies and also at how that destruction is then frequently, unconscionably cited as evidence of a 'failed state' neglecting its people and in urgent need of bombing and invasion? At how western media repeatedly, disgracefully runs with this pattern of non-investigation of unfounded government claims? Our government tell lies? Never! Unthinkable! As for Palestine-Israel - the failures of investigation and truth-telling are so vast and so vile, it is hard to know where to begin. But begin we must if an apocalypse is to stand any chance of being avoided. The world cannot sustain this level of mendacity from it's self-proclaimed 'policeman'. All those young men and women giving their lives in good faith defence of 'the free world' when in reality it is in defense of Haliburton's bottom line.
This is the kind of article that originally led me to become Nonzero reader/supporter. (I really miss the old daily news feed) I am not very knowledgeable with respect to politics and world affairs, so I love pieces that define a situation or position, clearly explain BOTH sides, and then give me facts to back up the conclusion. This one is perfect.
Thanks for this. I am pretty sure I would not only not have read anything about this I might never even have learned this guy's name. Now I know something about him and I too can feel a little better that there are some competent people around. Score one for the non-doomsayers. Yay!
Not that it doesn't need to be continually attempted but sadly this kind of intelligent delineation of who said what and why has been as unloved as it is unwanted by warmongers across the spectrum - including far too many so-called 'Friends of Israel'.
"We’re going to have to be allowed to try to understand why people do the things they do—including non-wonderful people like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and Bashar al-Assad—without being stigmatized by neocons and other hawks as “apologists.”
A really good place to start is with the US's own atrocities, and there are plenty to choose from. Take Venezuela. I mean, it's just a 'fact' that this is a demonic dictatorship, right? That its media are stymied from telling the truth. And so on. Never has there been a more bogus narrative than what has come to be the received view. Repeat lies often enough... Virtually none of what is said about Ven. is true. E.g. the media are 70% privately owned and broadcast/print round-the-clock anti government schlock, unhindered. The government has been repeatedly, democratically elected with landslide majorities - in internationally observed elections. The US-assisted, attempted coups have failed because the people see what is going on, they are not fooled by the propaganda. US interference there is on a criminal scale. The real problem? Venezuela nationalised their oil industry and booted the oil monoliths out of their monopoly. Iran did the same. Iraq did the same. Libya did the same. Funny how these all turn out to be the 'axis of evil' countries, isn't it? A similarly, horrifically dishonest narrative has been contrived in each case to justify invasion and confiscation - sorry, theft - of resources. Can we look too at how US imposed sanctions destroy economies and also at how that destruction is then frequently, unconscionably cited as evidence of a 'failed state' neglecting its people and in urgent need of bombing and invasion? At how western media repeatedly, disgracefully runs with this pattern of non-investigation of unfounded government claims? Our government tell lies? Never! Unthinkable! As for Palestine-Israel - the failures of investigation and truth-telling are so vast and so vile, it is hard to know where to begin. But begin we must if an apocalypse is to stand any chance of being avoided. The world cannot sustain this level of mendacity from it's self-proclaimed 'policeman'. All those young men and women giving their lives in good faith defence of 'the free world' when in reality it is in defense of Haliburton's bottom line.
so much to learn so little time