Thursday, July 24, 2014

how america changed the meaning of war


tomdispatch |  Then came the attack of September 11th. Like the starting gun of a race that no one knew he was to run, this explosion set the pack of nations off in a single direction -- toward the trenches. Although the attack was unaccompanied by any claim of authorship or statement of political goals, the evidence almost immediately pointed to al-Qaeda, the radical Islamist, terrorist network, which, though stateless, was headquartered in Afghanistan and enjoyed the protection of its fundamentalist Islamic government. In a tape that was soon shown around the world, the group’s leader, Osama bin Laden, was seen at dinner with his confederates in Afghanistan, rejoicing in the slaughter.

Historically, nations have responded to terrorist threats and attacks with a combination of police action and political negotiation, while military action has played only a minor role. Voices were raised in the United States calling for a global cooperative effort of this kind to combat al-Qaeda. President Bush opted instead for a policy that the United States alone among nations could have conceivably undertaken: global military action not only against al-Qaeda but against any regime in the world that supported international terrorism.

The president announced to Congress that he would "make no distinction between the terrorists who commit these acts and those who harbor them." By calling the campaign a "war," the administration summoned into action the immense, technically revolutionized, post-Cold War American military machine, which had lacked any clear enemy for over a decade. And by identifying the target as generic "terrorism," rather than as al-Qaeda or any other group or list of groups, the administration licensed military operations anywhere in the world.

In the ensuing months, the Bush administration continued to expand the aims and means of the war. The overthrow of governments -- "regime change" -- was established as a means for advancing the new policies. The president divided regimes into two categories -- those "with us" and those "against us." Vice President Cheney estimated that al-Qaeda was active in 60 countries. The first regime to be targeted was of course al-Qaeda’s host, the government of Afghanistan, which was overthrown in a remarkably swift military operation conducted almost entirely from the air and without American casualties.

Next, the administration proclaimed an additional war goal -- preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In his State of the Union speech in January 2002, the president announced that "the United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons." He went on to name as an "axis of evil" Iraq, Iran, and North Korea -- three regimes seeking to build or already possessing weapons of mass destruction. To stop them, he stated, the Cold War policy of deterrence would not be enough -- "preemptive" military action would be required, and preemption, the administration soon specified, could include the use of nuclear weapons.

Beginning in the summer of 2002, the government intensified its preparations for a war to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and in the fall, the president demanded and received a resolution from the Security Council of the United Nations requiring Iraq to accept the return of U.N. inspectors to search for weapons of mass destruction or facilities for building them. Lists of other candidates for "regime change" began to surface in the press.

24 comments:

BigDonOne said...

The solution is simple. When the government recharges their eLECTRONIC bENEFIT tRANSFER cards every month, just deduct in advance the estimated charge for the coming month's water (no different than the IRS withholding tax on paychecks because the recipients can't be trusted to pay taxes owed when those taxes come due). And resolve any difference from the actual water charge in the succeeding month.

Constructive_Feedback said...

Brother CNu:


An article written in 2014.


YET - The ONLY reference to "President Obama" occurred on the side "click through ad" from "The Nation Books"
8 References to George W Bush in the article.


It is YOUR opinion that Obama changed War with the use of Drones OR AT LEAST that he was successful at changing Black American's pattern of Anti-War protests?

BigDonOne said...

FWIW -- http://www.infowars.com/picture-of-the-day-la-street-artist-calls-out-obama-for-being-an-asshole/

Dale Asberry said...

Is absurdity anywhere in the subrealist oeuvre? I mean, this back and forth between these two poster children has me scratching my head and laughing out loud for real!

CNu said...

Now, now..., it's by careful and deliberate examination of liminal perspectives that we're treated to the occasional epiphany like the one I had about Bro. Feed's energetic critique this morning.

umbrarchist said...

The war over defective physics. Even more absurd than Vietnam.

Constructive_Feedback said...

BIGot Dono Ne:


In short - you have no concept of JUSTICE or PROPORTIONALITY.


IF a "Nation Of Color" bombs a US Asset - YOU support bombing and killing multiple targets on their land, killing innocent people - whose only "SIN" was to be born in a nation that is NOT AMERICA OR anywhere else in the Anglosphere then they are FAIR GAME in your effort to teach their government a less?


Thus MASS TERRORISM Is Only Applicable To Those Who Don't Have The POWER To Operate Under The Aegis Of "Global Authority" - as you reserve for yourself.


I have little doubt that when the descendants from these lands settle here in America, having theoretical cover of the United States protectorate - YOU have no problem applying your "foreign policy" theories to your application of 'Domestic Justice'.


The more accurate title of this article when applied to you is:
"BIGot Dono Ne Advocates For No Change To 'The Meaning Of War' For America. Let Her Continue To Express Her Hegemonic Interest Against Any Nation Who Doesn't Have A Sufficient Number Of Caucasoids To Raise Fears About My Own Genetic Annihilation"

Constructive_Feedback said...

Brother CNu:


I hope and pray that you posted this article as a "conversation starter".


IT IS CLEAR that the "City Of Detroit" is a perfect model for my observation that a certain ideological "ethic" is forced to eschew the traditional meaning of "Municipal Incorporation" (the theory that as a formerly unincorporated parcel of land and the people who live upon it is given a local franchise by the state then they can produce a HIGHER QUALITY OF LIFE for their citizens than what the COUNTY or STATE can afford for them. Thus they are allowed to collect local taxes in support of this cause).


The back story is that the DETROIT WATER DEPARTMENT (I do not know if this is the official name) IS BROKE. It must balance its healthy "Accounts Receivable" balance with the need to make CAPITAL INVESTMENTS in order to perpetuate its operations.


As it stands - its PRESENCE as a fiscally viable entity IS, IN FACT, what is affording the residents of Detroit their HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER.


By comparison - a poor person in arid lands in the desert region of Africa HAS THE SAME "HUMAN RIGHTS" that Detroit activist claim...........................they merely don't have the PHYSICAL WATER RECLAIMATION AND TREATMENT FACILITIES to manifest this HUMAN RIGHT.


Thus this type of human right is a "Service Level OBJECTIVE" in the context of a civilized society AND NOT, some mandate that you can take a "Magic Water Stick" - tap it upon the ground and thus a stream of water comes gushing out of barren ground.


THE REAL STORY HERE is that after a 50 year RUN UP TO POWER in Detroit.............


* The forces that attempted to TELL THE TRUTH about the dysfunctional finances are getting skewered


* The ESTABLISHMENT POWER who ran the ship upon the rocks - have indeed lost their power to the Emergency Manager BUT NOT A DAMNED ONE OF THEM have lost the "Twinkle In The Eye" of the ACTIVISTS who originally promoted them into power because THEY LIKED WHAT THEY HAD HEARD in regards to how bright the future is.

CNu said...

From where I sit Bro. Feed, the REAL STORY here - sitting on the shore of the largest fresh water sea in North America - is whether or not the forces of public sector incorporation and services provision is clever enough and adaptable enough to maintain and serve "the least of these" citizens of Detroit, or, whether they will seek to maintain status quo operations and impose resource austerity and see who blinks first.

In parallel, there is the story of "the least of these" and what adaptations they're capable of in response to being cut off and left high and dry. Detroit is literally at this moment in time an experiment in the out reaches of status quo governance in America. I have little doubt that - as with that sub-human cannibal Covington who was dispatched to prey on the children of "the least of these" on behalf of incompetent education software profiteers - that there is an underlying water privatization scheme aborning.

i.e., if the public utility can't cover its costs and get the job done, why then it's high-time we bring in some private for-profit operators who know how to get things done.

After I got out of college, one of my little side-hustles involved restoring po folks utilities after they'd been cut off, and, removing the notorious denver boot from po folks automobiles when they got booted. There are adaptations, and there are adaptations. Under no conceivable circumstance would I ever consider accepting exclusion from ANY resource critical to comfort and well-being of me and mine. Best believe I would obtain that resource by any means necessary....,

CNu said...

lol, Big Don understands and fully appreciates the signification of the U.S.S. Kentucky and his palms literally itch for the day in which all Cathedralesque frauds and deceits end, and in their stead, a clear and indisputable message/lesson is sent/taught about who is running things http://youtu.be/vmZJPGlWoRQ

You and he are actually not that far removed from one another when it gets right down to the nitty gritty of putting up with polite frauds and deceits. You imagine that it's the incompetent preachers/lawyers/politicians/academics who're responsible for Americanized Negroe epic fail, but neglect to consider the fact that the proprietor class who sponsors/patronizes these empty suits have the decisive hand in determining the role they play. Don for his part has lots and lots of issues, chief among these being paranoia about his own questionable economic value and who the proprietor class will decide is expendable in the ongoing clampdown.

One of these days, if both of you lads continue to diligently apply yourselves here in school, and make no mistake, this is school for both of you - you'll come to the unvarnished, genetic omni-deterministic scientifically moral truth (GOD) of precisely what's around that signpost up ahead.

Instead of squawking at one another like chickenheads about race nonsense in the theatre of superficial political distraction, you should attend MUCH more carefully to the material like what DD called out as the most interesting a few days ago, but which material elicits scant little comment or consideration. http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2014/07/why-not-try-and-breed-kwisatz-haderach.html#comment-1497023318

Constructive_Feedback said...

[quote] maintain and serve "the least of these" citizens of Detroit,[/quote]


I have a feeling that YOU don't believe that the #1 goal of the "VOTE FOR YOUR SALVATION" scheme that marked the 'Bayard Rustin Children Of A Virgin Homosexual Birth' Era (Today's Black leaders) had anything to do with BLACK COMMUNITY COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT - with the EVIDENCE of its effectiveness being the development of a large "UN-LEAST OF THESE" congregation?


Where is the RESERVE FUND that was amassed to affirm that WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT?


Notice the absence of the usual rhetoric of "Every Drone Obama Flies To Carry Out 'Big Don One's Foreign Policy Strategy" is the paid water bill of 3,000 Detroit residents for 3 years.


You keep looking at the PULL OUT of corporations from Detroit as the death knell.


I look at the fact that Detroit was a wilderness land BEFORE "Consumers Of Labor" began taking in labor raw materials in support of their WORK FLOW PROCESS. And that the people who focused on POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM in the take over of the CITY INSTITUTIONS - ultimately proved to be incompetent at developing a viable ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC ENGINE that would have allowed the city to STAY STRONG AND VIABLE.


THE CLEAR distinction between Big Don One and I is that MY INDICTMENT IS NEVER "Genetically / Racially Laced".
Mine is pure ECONOMICS and GROUP PSYCHOLOGY and SOUND GOVERNANCE PRACTICES.

Ed Dunn said...

These are not sovereign attacks on Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Pakistan - they are co-operating with the US and allowing drones in their airspace. These countries basically outsource the US to take care of terrorist radicals...I think you are applying a late 20th century warfare of taking over (Iraq/Panama) a country to fighting terrorist cells and factions with precision.

CNu said...

rotflmbao..., better tap your brakes Tony Dungy'Bayard Rustin Children Of A Virgin Homosexual Birth' Era (Today's Black leaders)

Mine is pure ECONOMICS and GROUP PSYCHOLOGY and SOUND GOVERNANCE PRACTICES.With the utmost sincerity, Big Don would argue to you that the cultural complex which gave rise to the above three collective characteristics IS genetically determined and that left to your own genetic devices, the community consciousness nucleus for which you speak is incapable of developing beyond stone tools and bones in the nose....,

Dale Asberry said...

Just, damn, Feed... I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt from CNu's exhortations. But do you understand the meaning of "succinct"? Just get to the point. Using excessive quantities of obscure and polysyllabic words doesn't make you seem smarter to your betters -- only pretentious and tedious. Write as if every word counts not as if you have a case of verbal diarrhea.

Constructive_Feedback said...

Dale Asberry:


(From the vantage point of my present coastal vacation):


A seafaring captain who now runs an "All You Can Eat Seafood Buffet" once said:


* The Wise Man Looks Beyond The Length Of The Line that he has to wait in and instead considers the "good eats" that awaits him inside.


* A restaurateur who is mindful of all of the criticism of his offerings to the public and ponders the value of those who COMPLAIN ABOUT THE LONG LENGTH OF HIS LINES - but who did not choose to go to the MCDONALDS that is right next door to his restaurant - with a super-sized parking lot - that was EMPTY despite the expedited service that they POTENTIALLY offered him - had they gotten out of line.


I accept your "English Lessons",sir, but in as much as I am not a professional writer AND I did not ask for any exchange of values from which I would receive a "R-1099" form from you as I pay my taxes - the only request that I have of you is that you apply SPEED READING techniques - in which you look past the qualifying words - for the SUBSTANCE.

Constructive_Feedback said...

Brother Ed - DO NOT GO OUT LIKE THAT Bro.


If the sovereign government of Chicago ordered AGGRESSIVE POLICING with surveillance drones and also peeled off 5 Black alderman from Englewood, Lawndale, Hyde Park, Pulman and Roseland to GO ALONG WITH THE SCHEME as a means of "Saving Black Lives In Chicago".....................the CO-OPERATION of the government WOULD NOT be sufficient in suppressing a National backlash coordinated by the National Action Network and Dream Defenders.


Please note - Just as the "African slave trade" had "Corrupt Tribal Leaders" taking cash AND the post-colonial period had many sovereign African leaders on the payroll of "The West" - their PERMISSION was not sufficient for the "Africa-ology" academic discipline to SEE RIGHT THROUGH to WHO was behind this scheme and THAT their ultimate agenda was the same, they merely evolved to address the current realities.


Mobutu Sese Seko
I HAVE NO COMMENT AS TO THE SLANDEROUS CHARGE THAT THE AMERICAN CIA PAID FOR MY HAT


http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/900000/images/_903324_leopardallover300.jpg



http://in2eastafrica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Mobutu-Sese-Seko.jpg

CNu said...

You you worry more about what BIGot DonO Ne" THINKS or how he might MOLEST my DIAGNOSISrotflmbao...., the visuals though, priceless.comedy.gold....,

CNu said...

Based on this morning's commentary, I'd like to amend yesterday's response to include the observation that reading one'of'em is the equivalent of being witness to and unwitting participant in a frantic multi-party fantasy role-playing game played out primarily in that same individual's own imagination.

Dale Asberry said...

Lol, I ain't going through the diarrhea looking for chunks.

CNu said...

WRONG!!! http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/mclaughlinfrown-screen.jpgIf the sovereign government of Chicago ordered AGGRESSIVE POLICING with
surveillance drones and also peeled off 5 Black alderman from Englewood,
Lawndale, Hyde Park, Pulman and Roseland to GO ALONG WITH THE SCHEME as
a means of "Saving Black Lives In Chicago".....................the
CO-OPERATION of the government WOULD NOT be sufficient in suppressing a
National backlash coordinated by the National Action Network and Dream
Defenders.Domestic puppet government and domestic puppet PR wouldn't say jack isht about the Hon.Bro.Preznit.Double-0 turning some of Chiraq's southside savages into a fine red mist. Cliven Bundy, Alex Jones, and the afro-trekkie "movement" would be the only ones to make a peep about serving these economically destructive targets with extreme prejudice.

makheru bradley said...

“These countries basically outsource the US to take care of terrorist radicals…” That’s basic historical dyslexia--reading history backwards--and from the neo-conservative/neo-liberal interventionist perspective at that.

http://www.trinicenter.com/articles/2007/130607.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtGYTb41TZg

OBTW, America really took care of those “terrorist radicals” in Libya, empowering them to even kill its own ambassador, and now being forced to shutter its embassy.

http://abc7chicago.com/news/us-embassy-in-libya-evacuated-amid-clashes/222202/

Utterly brilliant, and absolutely predicable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pE8s9A8w_o

Ed Dunn said...

Well you and your ilk are clearly idiots when it comes to Libya and we all know that. You guys appeared to disappeared when I discussed how Libya supported every African dictator and African rebel group and there is more than enough testimony by Africans who trained in Libya camps on how to terrorize and kill Africans and furthermore, I had both Africans and Libyans in the conversation telling truth on the group while you fake-Afrikan or whatever you call yourself ran high-tail, making up ish about Ghadaffi from rose-colored glasses. One of you idiots got called out about how Nation of Islam was a bitch-boy of Ghadaffi and yall didn't say anything.


Dude you fake as f*ck about your diatribe and adoration of Ghadaffi..take that crap somewhere because you will be crushed not only by me but by other Africans and Libyans in any public forum and that shows how pathetic and disillusioned you are claiming to love Africa but supporting a dictator that the rest of free Africa know was financing the tearing apart of African nations.... stop wasting my time trying to outdo me, you are too damn simple for me and just a gadfly who days of mythical afrikan folklore has long ran out of juice..

makheru bradley said...

What type of thought process is it that causes a person to avoid responding to a direct challenge of his statements by launching rants that are irrelevant to the challenge?

“These countries basically outsource the US to take care of terrorist radicals…” -- Dunn

In 2006 Somalia had no functioning government to outsource anything to anybody. It did have numerous factions opposed to one another. The US and Ethiopia invaded Somalia to overthrow one of those factions--the Islamic Courts Union. The country has been in perpetual turmoil ever since.

In 2011 the government of Libya did not outsource anything to the US. The US/NATO used the cover of a UN resolution to wage a war of aggression and overthrow the government of Libya. The country has been in perpetual turmoil ever since.

The real “idiot when it comes to Libya” is President Obama, but it is the people of Libya and other destabilized areas of Afrika who are suffering from his idiocy.

Your views of Muammar Qaddafi are just that. Many Afrikans disagree with you including the late Nelson Mandela.

[“My delegation and I are overjoyed with the invitation from the Brother Guide [Muammar Gaddafi], to visit the Great Popular and Socialist Arab Libyan Jamahiriya. I have been waiting impatiently ever since we received the invitation. I would like to remind you that the first time I came here, in 1962, the country was in a very different state of affairs. One could not but be struck by the sights of poverty from the moment of arrival, with all of its usual corollaries: hunger, illness, lack of housing and of health-care facilities, etc. Anger and revolt could be read in those days on the faces of everyone. Since then, things have changed considerably. During our stay in prison, we read and heard a great deal about the changes which have come about in this country and about blossoming of the economy which has been experienced here. There is prosperity and progress everywhere here today which we were able to see even before the airplane touched ground. It is thus with great pleasure that we have come on a visit in the Jamahiriya, impatient to meet our brother, the Guide Gaddafi.”

When Mandela was taken to the ruins of Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli, which was bombed by the Reagan administration in 1986 in an attempt to murder the entire Gaddafi family, he said: “No country can claim to be the policeman of the world and no state can dictate to another what it should do. Those that yesterday were friends of our enemies have the gall today to tell me not to visit my brother Gaddafi. They are advising us to be ungrateful and forget our friends of the past.”

Eight years later, when then U.S. president Bill Clinton visited Mandela in March 1998, Clinton criticized the South African president’s meeting with Muammar Gaddafi. In reaction to that criticism, Mandela straightforwardly replied:

“I have also invited Brother Leader Gaddafi to this country. And I do that because our moral authority dictates that we should not abandon those who helped us in the darkest hour in the history of this country. Not only did the Libyans support us in return, they gave us the resources for us to conduct our struggle, and to win. And those South Africans who have berated me for being loyal to our friends, can literally go and jump into a pool.”]

Why don’t you ask your friends how are they enjoying the new Libya?

http://bit.ly/1xhtqrk

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