[Peace-discuss] Obama's surge in terror

[C. G. Estabrook]

"...Obama is allowing things that the previous administration did not..."


	War on the World: Obama's Surge in State Terror			
	WRITTEN BY CHRIS FLOYD	
	FRIDAY, 04 JUNE 2010 13:06

Most sentient beings have long recognized that murdering civilians in foreign 
countries -- especially through the cowardly methods of "secret war" -- is 
entirely counterproductive ... if your actual aim is to enhance America's 
national security by reducing violent extremism and hatred for the United 
States, that is. However, if your aim is to perpetuate and expand a militarist 
empire and the bloated, brutal, corrupt, war-profiteering system that supports 
it, why then, secret war and civilian slaughter are perfectly logical and 
remarkably effective methods.

And that is why our highly intelligent and cool, pragmatic president is now 
vastly expanding the use of secret war, subversion, sabotage and murder into 
even more countries around the world, and giving America's secret, unaccountable 
death squads and covert operators even more power to carry out their lawless 
operations. As one Pentagon mandarin gushed, Obama is allowing "things that the 
previous administration did not."

That quote comes from a remarkably candid story in the Washington Post on 
Obama's "surge" in America's secret war on the world, which now encompasses no 
fewer than 75 countries.

(By the way, the Post is often a very good source of information about the 
operations and machinations of the militarist empire -- not because its editors 
are seeking to expose the empire's crimes and atrocities, but because they 
approve of them. And thus they will often write about them, in detail, in the 
most straightforward manner: "Hey, look at the cool stuff our boys are doing now!")

As the story notes:


"The Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war 
against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and 
administration officials.

"Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are 
deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. 
... Plans exist for pre-emptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around 
the world ..."

What's more, Obama has brought the covert operators and death squad leaders into 
the inner circle at the White House:


"Special Operations commanders have also become a far more regular presence at 
the White House than they were under George W. Bush's administration, when most 
briefings on potential future operations were run through the Pentagon chain of 
command and were conducted by the defense secretary or the chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff.

"'We have a lot more access,' a second military official said. 'They are talking 
publicly much less but they are acting more. They are willing to get aggressive 
much more quickly.'

"The White House, he said, is 'asking for ideas and plans . . . calling us in 
and saying, "Tell me what you can do. Tell me how you do these things."'

"... Obama has made such forces a far more integrated part of his global 
security strategy [than Bush]. He has asked for a 5.7 percent increase in the 
Special Operations budget for fiscal 2011, for a total of $6.3 billion, plus an 
additional $3.5 billion in 2010 contingency funding."

The story notes that the bureaucratic turf wars between the Pentagon and State 
Department that had hindered some covert operations under the cantankerous 
Donald Rumsfeld have now disappeared with the smooth comity between Obama's team 
of Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates, the long-time Bush Family factotum who now 
mentors the eager young Democratic president in the ancient ways of oligarchy 
and militarist empire. And of course, Obama hand-picked Stanley McChrystal -- 
master of America's darkest arts in the war of aggression in Iraq -- to lead his 
"surge" in Afghanistan.

Indeed, Obama has been so lavish and relaxed in his use of death squads and 
secret war that the only complaint voiced these days by our Special Oppers -- 
who, the Post notes, "consider themselves a breed apart" -- is that they have to 
spend too much time in current war zones, and not enough plying their wares in 
new territory:


"Although pleased with their expanded numbers and funding, Special Operations 
commanders would like to devote more of their force to global missions outside 
war zones. Of about 13,000 Special Operations forces deployed overseas, about 
9,000 are evenly divided between Iraq and Afghanistan."

Yes, it's a lot more fun to skulk around in unsuspecting foreign nations, 
"taking out" a suspect here, "renditioning" another to some secret hellhole 
there, arming and funding local terrorist groups to kill, maim and destroy, or 
paying off sleazy local informants who happily sell their business rivals or 
personal enemies into captivity. It is indeed a noble calling, requiring "a 
breed apart" from the common herd.

But oddly enough, some of the Pentagon's compadres in covert war are discovering 
that the practice is not achieving its publicly stated objectives. As Gareth 
Porter at Antiwar.com reports, even the push-button killers of the CIA are 
waking up to the fact that their remote-control slaughter of Pakistanis with 
drone-fired missiles is creating more hatred and more enemies for the United States:


"Some CIA officers involved in the agency’s drone strikes program in Pakistan 
and elsewhere are privately expressing their opposition to the program within 
the agency, because it is helping al-Qaeda and its allies recruit, according to 
a retired military officer in contact with them.

"'Some of the CIA operators are concerned that, because of its blowback effect, 
it is doing more harm than good,' said Jeffrey Addicott, former legal adviser to 
U.S. Special Forces and director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St Mary’s 
University in San Antonio, Texas, in an interview with IPS.

"Addicott said the CIA operatives he knows have told him the drone strikes are 
being used effectively by al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders to recruit more 
militants. ...		

"Because the drone strikes kill innocent civilians and bystanders along with 
leaders from far away, they 'infuriate the Muslim male,' said Addicott, thus 
making them more willing to join the movement. The men in Pakistan’s tribal 
region 'view Americans as cowards and weasels,' he added."

Weasels? Well, that is a "breed apart," I guess, so perhaps the covert warriors 
should be proud of the sobriquet. (And of course it is not just the Muslim male 
who is infuriated by the civilian slaughter and turning to violent reaction, as 
evidenced by the growing number of female suicide bombers.)

But these inklings of CIA sentiency -- and perhaps the first stirrings of 
awareness that the stated objectives are not the real aim of the program -- have 
not prevented our stalwarts from continuing to push their murderous buttons (or 
is it click their murderous mouses?):


"CIA officers 'are very upset' with the drone strike policy, Addicott said. 
'They’ll do what the boss says, but they view it as a harmful exercise.' ... 
Addicott said the drone program has been driven by President Barack Obama, 
rather than by the CIA. 'Obama’s trying to show people that we’re winning,' he 
added."

Addicott then makes this telling observation:


"They have informed high-level CIA officials about their concerns that the 
program is backfiring, Addicott told IPS.

"'The people at the top are not believers,' said Addicott, referring to the CIA. 
'They know that the objective is not going to be achieved.'"

And there you have it. The "people at the top" are indeed well aware that the 
stated objectives of the ever-expanding drone program -- and the ever-expanding 
Terror War -- are not going to be achieved. They are not meant to be achieved. 
They are meant only to give the illusion "that we're winning," to keep the great 
game going, to keep the money and the power rolling in.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/1975-war-on-the-world-obamas-surge-in-state-terror.html

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.