"At a demonstration in support of Bradley Manning this month, I was handed a postcard of a dead child with the caption 'Tell this child the Democrats are the lesser of two evils.' It behooves us not to use the dead for our own devices, but that child did die thanks to an Obama Administration policy. Others live because of the way that same administration has provided health insurance for millions of poor children or, for example, reinstated environmental regulations that save thousands of lives."
Here's Sameeda Gul, looking right at the camera, clearly not dead, but injured by a U.S. drone. We used her photo for our own "devices," namely bringing an image completely hidden to the U.S. public of a secret program killing civilians. Solnit goes on to criticize radicals who "are often obsessed with foreign policy to the exclusion of all else."
May we suggest, again, that anyone who puts a preference on lives of people from this country over the rest of the planet, and who relegates the longest occupation in U.S. history to a side issue, is complicit in its continuance?
SNIP
by Emma Kaplan, World Can't Wait Steering Committee
Many of you voted for Barack Obama because you hated the Bush program of open use of torture, evisceration of civil liberties and illegal wars of aggression. I ask you to look honestly at what the Obama administration has done in the past couple of years.
The Bush administration launched an illegal illegitimate war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama expanded those wars into Pakistan, Somalia and Libya. The Obama administration authorized the use of unmanned drones to target villages, killing more civilians than suspected terrorists, including women and children. People in Pakistani, where the use of unmanned drones is now becoming a common occurrence, are targets in a war never declared.
Are you for or against this?
The war in Afghanistan is entering its twelfth year! The region is now even less stable, as NATO coalition leaders now admit, with Special Forces, military operations, night raids that terrorize civilians and the ongoing indefinite detention of Afghan prisoners by the U.S. Afghan causalities are higher than any other time since the invasion. Obama signed an agreement keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until 2024.
Are you for this or against it?
The Obama administration has authorized targeted assassinations in regular Tuesday meetings. Without trial anyone can be put on the kill list and executed.
Are you for this or against it?
The Obama administration initially criticized, then extended the Bush program of indefinite detention, and has continued the practice of rendition to third countries where prisoners are tortured, a serious violation of international law. The Obama administration has refused to prosecute the Bush era war criminals who openly tortured people and is going to great lengths to prevent other countries from prosecuting U.S. officials who carried out these illegal and immoral acts. This has serious implications for the rule of law.
Are you for this or against it?
SNIP
Some people say they are against such war crimes but still support Democrats to be relevant in the “game” of elections. Those who claim to “progressive” but actively work to silence those who are publicly opposing and critiquing the Democrats should stop playing that game. How many lives and how much of your humanity are you going to sacrifice in order to be relevant to war criminals?
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Comments
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Conscience is in short supply on open sewer.
well expressed article for sure. The tragedy. The violence perpetrated at so many innocents, including such vulnerable children.
So many people let media and those in power define reality. Don't believe your own mind and heart and eyes and ears is the messaging. The bigger the breach between reality and what is being conveyed as reality the more enmeshed people get in believing the lie or trusting the liar, because the horror of the lie is too monstrous. The horror of the level of mendacity especially if it is backed up by a large number of colluding and/or enabling cronies makes people doubt the sirens of cognitive dissonance in their own minds!
I grew up in an alcoholic system so I know how profoundly thick denial and minimization are. They can be ferociously strong.
I have said that what has been done to the country by the Obama administration is akin to an economic date rape, so profound the victim country, so many citizens, doesn't want to admit and face so much trust was so deeply and cravenly betrayed. My take!
Nice to see you posting, my friend. Thanks!
best, libby
"I have said that what has been done to the country by the Obama administration is akin to an economic date rape, so profound the victim country, so many citizens, doesn't want to admit and face so much trust was so deeply and cravenly betrayed. My take!"
Your take is my take, Libby. I voted for obama. I believed his lies and didn't realize he was a corporatist in the throes of crony capitalism, a "rat-bast*rd" if You will.
Romney may be a job destroyer, a tax evader, a 1%er, but at this point he is NOT a war criminal. Indisputably obama IS.
In any case, Jill Stein is my choice. She's not amongst the crew who believe that principles run schools and morals are a genus of mushroom.
Thanks for coming by, Libby. Please don't forget Frank's (not the will fully ignorant moron, fRANK) suggestion of Brooklyn as an appropriate rendezvous point.
you cannot change the american polity from within, and anyone who thought obama would change anything is naive, at best.
i have never come across anyone who said: "americans must decide if they want change, and make it happen if they do." the limit of american ambition, or imagination, is voting for a 'good' politician. such a people must resign themselves to being ruled by politicians good and bad, because voting for the 'good' legitimizes the bad when they win, and they always do, for there are no good politicians.
I like reading about all of these things that don't show up on Yahoo's front page or opinion column. anna1liese is another good poster for reading about the sadness and atrocities. I'm thinking that the human race is going to have to die before these people in charge get that they are really, actually killing us all. Or, even more scary, they know and don't care because they will be dead before all of the doo doo hits the fan.
Also, as I just mentioned on Timing Logic's post, although a democrat, I would've voted for Kucinich.
I think they both have the morals to resist the craven corporatists who would try to corrupt them.
I DO agree with Your implication, however, that only revolution can result in any real change in this thoroughly bankrupt 'system," at this point.
Thanks for stopping by, Al.
He’s right but. Calling them evil implies that they have an actual intelligence. One look at Romney and the rest of the DC crew should dispel any notion of that. You are looking at the two hundred year evolutionary result of what we call America. It’s kind of like reverse Darwinism. The man metamorphoses to a chimp. Its happening to all Americans. Its just more noticeable in DC.
I'm afraid that the meet-up is destined to be just a virtual meet-up, but You, certainly, are invited to join.
I'm glad that You mentioned Anna1liese. I've always enjoyed reading her, and as soon as I finish responding to comments, I'm going straight away to favorite her, so as to keep her closer on my "radar."
Thanks for putting that thought in my mind, Phyllis.
As for "dying" and "killing us all," I'd humbly suggest You visit Dr. Bramhall's Fukushima-Daiichi post (if You haven't, already, been there) - I think the range of voices that speak in that one hour documentary are prescient in telling what the next step will be.
Thanks again for stopping by, my friend.
He loses NO sleep over the baby, pictured above, that his actions are directly responsible for, and there are hundreds, thousands like her.
Similarly bush, cheney, loo, rumsfeld, et al, et al are knowledgeably evil.
Heck, when heinous madeleine albright was asked if the death of 500,000 Iraqi babies was worth it, she replied: "We think the price is worth it."
That IS pure unadulterated evil, my friend.
And the excuse offered amongst many of those in the sewer that congress shares responsibility, is pure and outright bullsh*t - there are a whole slew of cases where obama arrogated to himself death-dealing unitary decisions.
Thanks for the visit, Jack.
I'm sure You have already been to Dr. Bramhall's site, and from my vantage point, close by, I think that video, as I mentioned to Phyllis is how it all unravels.
Economies around the world approach economic collapse. Food panic warfare spreads, and one day, the world wakes up to find the food supply is irrevocably contaminated AND there is NO money to fix or restore it.
Doomsday is approaching and I fear I will still be alive to witness it.
Thanks, as always, for taking the time to visit, Jan.
Please forgive me, my failure to recognize it in Your contribution.
I said, virtual meet-up, as in fantasy, wishful, and wouldn't it be wonderful if . . .
Actually, I'd be out in the streets with these wonderful, courageous folks from "World Can't Wait," so maybe we'd meet in jail.
The equivalent of what the Democrats and Republicans are trying to sell. And it can't be very good if those are the conditions.
Rated.
Short, succinct, elegant, and eloquent. Twenty-eight words, but they say so much.
Thanks SO much for taking the time to stop by, and if I continue posting, please come on back.
-R-
Whichever words we choose, obviously, we are both on the same side of the fence, and that pleases me GREATLY.
Thanks for stopping by (and my prayers for Mike DO continue).
I REALLY do appreciate Your encouragement, my Dear, Dear Friend.
The big money controls the Democrats too, but those religious tea party right wingers are just so scary. That's all. Excellent point, Mark. Well said. R
-Pawed-
Yes, the performance of the site is depressing and it seems that management doesn't care, but MUCH more disheartening is seeing people, whoI used to respect, being willing to accept things that are totally contrary to accepted norms of human behavior.
I'm talking about kill lists, drone strikes, rendition, torture, disregard for the constitution, and the sheer number of new overt and covert wars initiated by this administration.
When I first joined open salon, such activities were roundly criticized. Now that there is a democrat in the executive these same voices who decried bush are willing to accept worse behavior from the liar-in-chief.
VERY disheartening and discouraging!
I know Your comment mentions repugnican'ts, and I've never voted for one in my life. Certainly, they are complicit, but the buck HAS TO stop somewhere, and from my perspective, although I naively voted for him, and I see it as stopping in the oval office.
obama saw the destruction bush wreaked on my former homeland, but obama thoroughly, knowingly, and with malice completed the collapse to the extent that I think the country is forever damaged beyond repair.
The liar-in-chief is in fact, THE liar-in-chief.
Thanks, again for stopping by and giving me a chance to emote.
Given the choice between a mass murderer and a mass murderer to be, I'd have to go with mr. to be, as he like obama when I voted for him, might not turn out to be a mass murderer. Yes, I was duped, but it won't happen again, as I am firmly committed to Jill Stein.
Thanks for the visit Alaska. MUCH wisdom is contained in Your words.
Of course I won't vote to reelect him and ratify his actions. I will vote for a left-oriented third party candidate, if I vote at all. I haven't decided yet if I'll even vote.
Rated, my friend.
Exactly. Do you need to say anything more?
I'm wondering what is going to happen next. Almost the whole Middle East is in chaos; there is no end in sight with the war in Syria, they still seem to be planning for starting a war against Iran. The wars are just expanding.
Is there any way to stop it? If millions of people would come on the streets of Washington, New York, LA, Chicago, to protest, would it change anything?
What I find especially telling is the chorus of judas traitors, here in open sewer, who dislike romney and accuse him of lying. Of course, I would never vote for romney (I'm proud to cast my vote for Jill Stein), but one would think that obama has been a paragon of veracity, when the truth is that he lied his way into the white house, and has NEVER stopped lying since.
Nice to see Your face here again Peter.
There are members at the organization who got fed up with open sewer, and they, as well as the organization, advocate for exactly the same type of action, as You suggest.
In a comment above, having previously been jailed for non-violent participation in such events, I certainly would be marching with them this weekend, today, jail or not.
Thanks for visiting, as always Hannu.