Every American needs to face the facts of who we really are. I've believed that ever since reading Dee Brown's excellent Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West in 1970 at the age of 18. That important book opened my eyes to the extent to which our history has been distorted. It made me realize that truth is often intentionally hidden and that we are often blatantly lied to. I felt it was important for people to understand the truth. Everything I've learned since has reinforced that belief.
I derive no pleasure from telling unpleasant or ugly truths, but if we never face the facts, we'll never change. I know way too much about who we really are to ever be okay with it. Six years, four months and eleven days in an American prison taught me nearly everything I needed to know about who we really are. A cursory study of history taught me the rest.
Admittedly, my knowledge, like anyone's, is imperfect and inadequate, but as a young man I was driven to understand why we can't reform our godawful prisons, make ourselves over into a humane society or stop the mass murder of our 'enemies.'
The truth ain't pretty. That's not my fault.
A very large percentage, I'm tempted to say a majority, of the people in this country either know virtually nothing, or very little, or know a lot of stuff that just isn't true. It's very common for people to possess a silo of knowledge that makes them competent in their profession, while possessing little in the way of a gestalt or broader, more all-encompassing understanding of our culture, government or national character.
Clueless Americans are a huge demographic.
There is, in particular, a notable lack of understanding among the American population of history, both ancient and recent. It's hard to understand much of anything without grokking the historical context. Much of the effort in our culture is invested in keeping that from us.
That's why so many Americans were so profoundly shocked by the 9/11 attacks. Who could hate us that much and why on earth would they? We’re such nice people.
History didn't start on September 11, 2001. These things don't happen in a vacuum. They happen in a particular historical context about which too many Americans haven't a clue. So we get dumb shit like, 'they hate us for our freedoms.' You know, not because we've been seriously fucking with the people of their region for decades, and if you include the Crusades, centuries.
Does the name Mosaddeq ring a bell?
CIA admits role in 1953 Iranian coup
Declassified documents describe in detail how US – with British help – engineered coup against Mohammad Mosaddeq
"The military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government," reads a previously excised section of an internal CIA history titled The Battle for Iran.
The Guardian
It would be nice if that were an isolated case, but instead it is perfectly characteristic of our hideous militaristic and anti-human foreign policy.
Why doesn't everyone understand this? It's not a fuckin' theory.
The only explanation is that we are a heavily brainwashed nation - the most heavily brainwashed nation in all of history by a very large measure. Goebbles had nothing on us. That's our reality and our history. It's undeniably true. Google the history of American propaganda if you don't understand this reality. Here, let me google that for you. If the truth hurts, it's a truth you have not fully accepted, not fully understood or both. That's all. A truth you are unaware of or just can't swallow is a truth nonetheless.
“Facts are stubborn things.” ~ John Adams
It's gone right over the tops of many of our heads but the sad fact is that we've become a nation of warmongers and torturers. That's not entirely true of all of us of course, not even most of us, but it is true of our ruling class and they are the ones who make America what it is to the rest of the world, they're the ones steering the ship of state, they are the ones inventing the lies to drag us into more wars for profit. So far they have prevented any of us from stopping them, though many have tried, but for the most part, the American people have slept or turned a blind eye. We have let them get away with it. That's on us.
The Military Industrial Complex has done exactly what Eisenhower said it would – destroy our democracy. Don't let anybody bullshit you, the MIC today is large and in charge. The establishment is not even trying to stand up to them. The establishment has become them.
The disastrous rise of misplaced power... One of the most profound statements by an American president, EVER.
As it turns out, it was incredibly stupid not to heed Eisenhower’s warning. Just amazingly, unbelievably, enormously stupid. He was right, not a little but a lot. He was absolutely right. He was, in fact, eerily (however ironically or hypocritically) prescient.
There will be people commenting in this diary who don't believe any of it. They either honestly cannot see it or they can't bear to admit it. All the links to all the evidence in the world won't sway them. I know, I've tried, again and again. Some people, for whatever reason, are determined to remain willfully blind.
Truth is truth and facing facts is an essential prerequisite for change to ever occur. And if we can't be bothered to change, we deserve what we bring upon ourselves.
Wounded Knee, My Lai, Abu Ghraib - if you don't know these names and understand their significance, you are falling down on your job as a citizen.
“Those who study history are doomed to watch helplessly while those who don't repeat it.” ~ Anon
If you ignore or dismiss Smedley Butler, you are doing your country and your fellow human beings a disservice. Every American should read his never more relevant book, War is a Racket, just as every American should read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States in order to understand all that we've been lied to about. I can provide the links, but no one can make you read the material being offered to you for free. It's your responsibility to become aware and to understand.
We can't afford to fix our infrastructure, solve our problems, address climate change or do anything at all for the American people because these monstrous assholes are stealing all the money.
If we don't manage to bring the warmongers and torturers to heel, they will destroy us all. These are not sane people. They cannot be trusted with the future of humanity.
Driven by unbridled greed and an utter lack of ethics or morals, they have dragged us all through the mud by being merchants of death, making massive international arms deals, toppling nations, assassinating democratically elected leaders, organizing and running death squads, installing and propping up dictators, plotting with Saudis and Jihadis, scheming and dealing and war profiteering.
I'm not making any of this up. This is our history. These are the facts.
They have committed grave war crimes in your name and mine, crimes against humanity. They are responsible for untold deaths and unimaginable human suffering, all so they can pamper themselves with the wealth and luxury of the gods. They have sold their souls for gold-plated yachts, private jets and diamond crusted bidets. They have robbed us all and disgraced our nation. And if you think it's over, you're not paying attention.
"If the American people knew what we have done, they would string us up from the lamp posts."
George HW Bush to journalist Sarah McLendon
I know it hurts to hear these truths but that changes nothing.
They are dragging us into WWIII. If you don't see it, you're blind.
Predictably, there will be people commenting in this diary that none of this is true. But that’s all you’ll hear from them: obfuscation, bullshit and denial. They won’t refute a word of it, because they can’t.
The war criminals dominating our nation laugh all the way to the bank, celebrating and congratulating each other on a job well done. Cheney's Halliburton made $39 Billion on the disastrous invasion of Iraq. Dick Cheney and George Bush knowingly lied the country into a bogus war, aided and abetted by damn near the entire establishment including some very prominent democrats. They killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people who had done us no harm. None whatsoever. To the everlasting shame of the United States of America, they implemented a formal U.S. government program of torture, betraying our values, defiling our reputation and making Americans the targets of terrorists across the world.
There is no rationalizing or excusing this outright evil.
Some of our 'leaders' are so devoid of human decency that they love war because it's so exciting. Poor papa Bush was so bored by peace he wanted to quit being president.
Bush, according to the account in the New York Times, “suffered from a post-victory despondency after the Persian Gulf war of 1991 — a ‘letdown’ over no longer being involved in such a huge endeavor.”
“On March 13, 1991, just two weeks after Iraq capitulated in the gulf war, Mr. Bush fantasized in his diary about calling it quits after a single term,” theTimes reported.
Quoting from Bush’s diary: “Maybe it’s the letdown after the day-to-day” 5 a.m. calls “to the Situation Room; conferences every single day with Defense and State; moving things, nudging things, worrying about things, phone calls to foreign leaders, trying to keep things moving forward, managing a massive project. Now it’s different, sniping, carping, bitching, predictable editorial complaints.”
That’s right: Bush was so bored without a war to fight that he considered retiring rather than slog through another dreary day of being President of the United States.
George H.W. Bush Was So Bored by Peace He Wanted to Quit
How fucking horrible are these people? And don't say it's only the republicans. That might make you feel better, but it's not true.
The neocons are still in charge. They were never punished or sanctioned in any way. They were never brought to justice. And now we must watch helplessly as they are celebrated as heroes. Why doesn't this make everyone as sick and furious as it makes me?
U.S. First Shields Its Torturers and War Criminals From Prosecution, Now Officially Honors Them
As vice president, Dick Cheney was a prime architect of the worldwide torture regime implemented by the U.S. government (which extended far beyond waterboarding), as well as the invasion and destruction of Iraq, which caused the deaths of at least 500,000 people and more likely over a million. As such, he is one of the planet’s most notorious war criminals.
President Obama made the decision in early 2009 to block the Justice Department from criminally investigating and prosecuting Cheney and his fellow torturers, as well as to protect them from foreign investigations andeven civil liability sought by torture victims. Obama did that notwithstanding a campaign decree that even top Bush officials are subject to the rule of law and, more importantly, notwithstanding a treaty signed in 1984 by Ronald Reagan requiring that all signatory states criminally prosecute their own torturers. Obama’s immunizing Bush-era torturers converted torture from a global taboo and decades-old crime into a reasonable, debatable policy question, which is why so many GOP candidates are now openly suggesting its use.
But now, the Obama administration has moved from legally protecting Bush-era war criminals to honoring and gushing over them in public. Yesterday, the House of Representatives unveiled a marble bust of former Vice President Cheney, which — until a person of conscience vandalizes or destroys it — will reside in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol.
At the unveiling ceremony, Cheney was, in the playful words of NPR, “lightly roasted” — as though he’s some sort of grumpy though beloved avuncular stand-up comic. Along with George W. Bush, one of the speakers in attendance was Vice President Joe Biden, who spoke movingly of Cheney’s kind and generous soul:
“As I look around this room and up on the platform, I want to say thank you for letting me crash your family reunion. I’m afraid I’ve blown his cover. I actually like Dick Cheney. … I can say without fear of contradiction, there’s never one single time been a harsh word, not one single time in our entire relationship.” The Intercept
I repeat, why doesn't this make everyone as sick and furious as it makes me?
If this doesn't trouble you, why not? If you can't see or understand these revelations, why not?
What should be clear to everyone is that the establishment is rotten to the core. That's why we didn't punish the torturers, the Wall Street thieves who stole so much money they crashed the entire global economy or the assholes who lied us into invading Iraq. They're all in it up to their eyeballs.
They've turned our nation into monsters. When you routinely kill innocent people for oil, or money, or for no good reason at all, when you torture helpless prisoners to death while patting yourselves on the back and counting the money, there's no better word. Monsters.
So of course the capitol needed a bust to honor and celebrate the biggest monster of all.
You know, Joe Biden's pal.
Believe it or not, like it or not, see it or not, this is what our political establishment has become. This is the depravity they are comfortable with.
The neocons are still in charge.
Update from JekylInHyde from the comments:
Hillary Clinton Praises a Guy With Lots of Blood on His Hands
Hillary Clinton often plays the hawk card: She voted for the Iraq war, dissedPresident Barack Obama for not being tough enough on Syria, and comparedVladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler. This is to be expected from a politician who has angled for a certain title: the first female president of the United States…
Democrats uneasy with Clinton as their party's standard-bearer have often wondered if there is a limit to what she might say or do to win the White House. Embracing Kissinger in this manner shows how low she can go. It likely will cause cringing among not-there-yet Democrats who can only fear that, with plenty of time before the campaign truly starts, Hillary Clinton is not yet done disappointing them.
THE NEOCONS ARE STILL IN CHARGE!
NOTE: For dessert, I offer you this from Yves Smith at naked capitalism by way of Bob Swern in the comments:
SNIP
Sanders Acknowledges Error of CIA-Sponsored Coups
Sanders’ [socialism] speech also surprised many viewers with exhaustive foreign policy proposals aimed at reaching peace in the Middle East, while letting Muslim countries lead the fight against ISIS. the Vermont senator cautioned against using the military to force regime change, citing past CIA-sponsored coups in Latin America and the Middle East as examples of forced regime change gone wrong.
Read more at Bob Swern's comment or visit naked capitalism for more.
Thanks, Bob