Military or Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008

A pretty lenghty article but well worth the read....
Thanks

 

Awesome material and implications.

I noticed the brief mention of depleted uranium. (Sounds 'innocent' but it is lethal! ) It is 'depleted' of the uranium which is useful to fission and reactors, but it is still uranium and emits alpha, beta, and gamma particles of radioactivity: It is considered 'a waste' of nuclear industry, but very heavy and resistant to penetration by conventional arms.... useful in the amored Abrams tank, and its heaviness and ability to burn with a torch like flame, able to penetrate heavily armored bunkers, equipment, and sand banks: When burned, it forms dust of varying degrees and can enter and remain in the body through the methods of inhalation, ingestion, cuts, and embedded schrapnel. Because of the low emmission of rays, a geiger counter must be held in close proximity to the source in order to detect contamination: This, however, can be dangerously misleading, because a general sweep may not detect the presence of contaminant.... and the air borne particulates inhaled or ingested without knowledge of exposure risk. Great Britian, the United States and Israel, use du in their armour shielding and also in their explosives, i.e. anti-tank missiles.

(I did a search, recently, on depleted uranium in interest of Gulf War syndrome and recent news that over 600,000 tons of du contaminated sand is being transferred from Mississippi docks to missile silos in Idaho: It is the contamination removal from a base in Kuwait, Darhur (sp/) I believe.)

We occupy or manipulate other governments and their people. We accuse them of having WMD, which, BTW, include biological, chemical, and nuclear warfare.... and our own government furnished purchases of arms, chemicals, and even 55 gallon drums of unatenuated anthrax (not a 'laboratory' test quantity by any means), to 'set up' the enemy. The nuclear weapons we never found in Iraq: But we have bombed their villages, exposed their children, and contaminated their soil permanently with our depleted uranium....... if that isn't terrorism, what is?

How can we call this war "Iraqi Freedom" when we have permanently contaminated their soil.... and probably their water.... and doomed their people to genetic deformities, disabilities and cancers for generations to come. How can people be free in a land which we've poisoned and contaminated with our arsenals? ........ And how can we say we support our troops, and be ignorant of their own exposure and risk, and have them return and not receive the medical support and treatment which they deserve for exposures to contaminants. In the first Gulf War, we lost less than 200 men during combat: More than 200,000 are suffering illness and disabilities as the result of du, anti nerve gas drugs, systemic poisoning by dog collars, and innoculations. As many as 80,000 soldiers from the first Gulf War are already dead. For those who would like to know please google and watch, or purchase the dvd "Beyond Treason". It also has an accompanying disc that tracks and documents the official records regarding the allegations which I've made (all but the movement of contaminated soil through our ports... a recent and evidently news silenced).

 

According to UNSCOM, Iraq had produced 19,000 liters of botulinum, 8,400 litres of anthrax at the Al Hakam factory complex. They produced these agents themselves from different strains that they obtained from around the world. US samples were provided primarily by a non-profit company, the American Type Culture Collection. This company has the US's largest collection of cultured diseases, and provides them for institutions worldwide, and which are useful in public health programs. This was, and is, entirely legal.

*

As For Prof. James Petras, who wrote this article, it’s all about Zionism. Everything’s about Zionism and he thinks that the Jews rule the US. He has written countless articles and books on the subject and, surprise surprise, is often featured on David Duke’s website.

As he says, "The first Bush Presidency assumed the military road to empire building but tried to avoid the high costs of occupation and colonization. The Israeli colonial model had to await the Zionist occupation of policy-making positions in later [US] administrations."

From his other articles -
He sees CIA plots in Chavez's Venezuela.
He calls Gen Petraeus "Zionism’s military poodle".
He defends Rev Wright’s rantings as "brilliant analysis and dissection of the immoral means in pursuit of the great crimes of our epoch."

Awesome material indeed.

 

Point is that he sees the US and Israel as the evil-doers of the world. It colors everything that he writes, and so I would take his conclusions with a bucket of salt. I am sure that those who despise the 'neocons' would react in the same way to anything written by, say, Paul Wolfowitz for example. Practically any point he had to make would be disregarded as tainted.

I don't think we are an empire at all. We haven't colonized anywhere since about 1900, and we subsequently left when we were asked to leave. We have used military power sometimes for good, sometimes not.

Here is a success story, (though I hate to give Clinton the credit) -



THIS IS A KOSOVAR MUSLIM - LINK

 

I read it and decided I have neither the time nor inclination to dissect it. But in reading NiteShift's assessment, I fully agree.
Excellent points NiteShift

 

Thank you hillclimber. A man of discernment :thumbs:

 

I'm pretty much with NiteShift on this one too... it's a little far out.

 

DU would be great for sailboat keels. Much heavier than Pb. A bulb keel would displace much less water.

 

Well, of couse most of us read opposing views. I know that I do. We do it and often come to conclusions very different from your own. But as you said, you turn on your garbage filter, and that's what I do with characters like Professor Petras.

Yep I’ve considered that. We all have our bias.

I could ask you the same. How is it that when you quote articles by the paranoid set that it’s more reliable, more worthy of our attention than the less extreme sources? Because they have posted a video on YouTube?

It’s not as if being critical of the US or Israel is some sort of daring or bold stance. Everybody’s doing it. Everyone from University professors, to pastors, to Hollywood millionaires. They haven’t suffered at all for it as far as I can see.

Those are not Douglas Feith’s words. Those are the words and conclusions of the blog article that you linked to.

Oh, Neo-Colonialism. A word invented in the late 20th century to describe big bad guys like the US. Ok.

And I commend you for it.

 

Awesome material?

 

Uh huh. And that, right there, is the problem. You claimed that Douglas Feith made a statement that he did not make. The statement was only the blogger's conclusion, and as you say, your own. Nothing more.

 

Ok I appreciate that.

Well I'm not up to writing an essay on the subject, but I will say again that the US has used force sometimes wisely and sometimes not. Not so wisely, for instance in the Philippines. But as I pointed out before, we did shut down our bases there when asked to do so. Same with Panama; we didn't have to leave, but did when we were asked.

Two times in the 20th century we helped our allies to liberate Europe. Most, maybe not all, would agree this was a good thing.

We prevented the Communists from taking control of the entire Korean peninsula in the 50's. Some argue we had no business doing it, and some S. Koreans resent us. But you can't argue the fact that ROK is now one of the wealthiest, most stable nations in the world. And looking at communist N.Korea, there is just no comparison.

Earlier in this thread I provided a look at Kosovo, which is doing well after the US & NATO intervention there. And the people there are grateful.

And I would argue that Iraq is turning the corner too.

So I do not agree that America is the source of evil in the world. Results are mixed, but in general the intentions have been good. I know you have a very different view, but that is mine.