Shocking?
11.8.2012 Leave a comment
Earlier today the New York Times reported:
Iranian warplanes fired at an unmanned American military surveillance drone in international airspace over the Persian Gulf last week, Pentagon officials disclosed Thursday, saying that while the aircraft was not hit, Washington made a strong protest to Tehran.
The shooting, which the Pentagon said occurred Nov. 1 — five days before the American presidential election — was the first known instance of Iranian warplanes firing on an American surveillance drone.
The United States makes economic war on Iran while threatening to conduct direct and overt military operations in Iran, actions and threats based on dubious claims about the Iranian nuclear program, the American interest in managing a belligerent Israel and, to be sure, because of the severe narcissistic wound Uncle Sam suffered in 1979. Iran recently responded by shooting at an American drone, called a Predator and presumably an MQ-1 Predator. This weapon can fire at targets.
While one might consider the Iranian attack a misguided provocation and thus counterproductive, it cannot rationally be considered an unmotivated act of aggression committed by a rogue state. As a matter of fact, the United States and Israel are rogue states. One need not be a supporter of the Iranian regime to appreciate these characterizations. Iran now confronts an existential threat because of the United States and Israel. The same cannot be said by the latter two countries with respect to Iran.
A surprising event? No, not at all. Even the hypocrisy is typical of the two rogue powers.
A General Atomics MQ-1 Predator
Related articles
- Iranian warplanes fired on U.S. drone over Gulf: Pentagon | Reuters (reuters.com)
- Iranian jets ‘fired on US drone’ (bbc.co.uk)
- Pentagon confirms Iran fired on U.S. drone – Kate Brannen (politico.com)
- Iran warplane fired at US drone (lunaticoutpost.com)
- Pentagon: Iran warplanes fired on U.S. drone over Gulf (en.trend.az)
- Pentagon: Iranian warplanes fired on U.S. drone over Persian Gulf (haaretz.com)
- Iranian Jets Fired on US Predator Drone (news.antiwar.com)
All Tied Up and Nowhere to Go 
The Iraq genocide
1.11.2014 2 Comments
Barry Lando, at one time an investigative producer for 60 Minutes, made a succinct yet indirect case for identifying America’s efforts in Iraq as a genocide. About the United States’ post-9.11 war Lando wrote the following: “The military onslaught and the American rule that immediately followed, destroyed not just the people and infrastructure of Iraq, but the very fiber of the nation.”
Why genocide? When one couples the invasion and occupation with American long-term support for Saddam Hussein, with George H.W. Bush‘s inciting a rebellion in Iraq which he later would not support, with America’s attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure during and after the Gulf War, with the murderous sanctions regime of the 1990s, the United States has directly or indirectly killed or displaced millions of Iraqis. It has also provoked the peoples of Iraq to take up arms and use them in the struggle for power and advantage in their country. The United States destroyed a nation. This, indeed, is a genocide.
Filed under Commentary, Recommended Tagged with 2003 invasion of Iraq, Barry Lando, Bill Clinton, Empire, Genocide, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Gulf War, Imperial Aggression, Imperialism, Iraq, Iraq Occupation, Iraqi, Iraqi people, Middle East, Politics, Saddam Hussein, Sanctions Regime, United States