Thursday 28th of March 2024

rogue state .....

rogue state .....

We have overthrown foreign governments, interfered with elections in foreign countries, invaded foreign lands on a regular basis, and supported all manner of dictators around the globe. The CIA once overthrew the first democratically elected leader of Iran and installed a brutal dictator. What other "black ops" have our spooks been up to over the years? 

We spend more than the rest of the world combined on our war machine, and we are also the world's largest supplier of arms to the third world. We intimidate or use force on any country that does not obey the orders of the masters in Washington. We also use economic warfare against countries that are out of favour. 

Economists tell us that the vast waste of our time, talent, and treasure on the war machine and foreign policy has impoverished the lower class and taken food from the mouths of the children of the poor. The economic ramifications on the American people will reverberate down through the corridors of time for generations to come.

There really is no way I could call American foreign policy moral by any measure. If one places the responsibility for our bipartisan foreign policy squarely on the American People, then it is time to recognize that we are not the people of that shining city on a hill lighting the way for humanity. In fact, we need to learn, as a people, to "live and let live" before we give advice to other nations on any subject. 

Martin Luther King said, "America is the greatest perpetrator of violence in the world today" and it has gotten only worse since he said that in the 60s. Our people have allowed our foreign policy to bankrupt our country financially and morally. What can we do? It seems only a "Revolution in Freedom" will save us now. 

War & The Morality Of Americans

without charge...

US releases al-Jazeera cameraman

An al-Jazeera cameraman detained by American forces in Afghanistan was last night released after spending nearly six years imprisoned without charge at Guantánamo Bay.

Sami al-Haj, 39, was arrested on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan on December 15 2001, while on assignment to cover the war against the Taliban. Although he had a valid visa to work in Afghanistan, US intelligence alleged that he was an al-Qaida operative, and he was transferred to Guantánamo in June 2002.

Last night, his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said Haj was en route to his home in Sudan to be reunited with his wife and son. He said: "I'm very glad Sami has finally been released, but the question is why he wasn't freed many years ago."

The US military alleged that Haj had secretly interviewed Osama bin Laden, smuggled guns for al-Qaida and worked as a financial courier for Chechen rebels. But the evidence against him was never revealed, and he was never charged.

Prior to his release, Haj had been on hunger strike since January 2007, and was forced to undergo "assisted feeding" via a tube through his nose. According to Stafford Smith, he was suicidal and had throat cancer, but camp authorities withheld medical treatment. "We are very concerned about him, because he has been under a tremendous amount of stress and has been on hunger strike for 480 days. He has asked to be taken straight to a hospital in Khartoum," Stafford Smith said.