[Peace-discuss] We can't say we didn't know

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From <http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer111.html>]

...The three greatest problems facing the beleaguered, fragile inhabitants of this lonely planet are climate change, economic crisis, and the violence of war. It is my sad duty to report that the United States of America is the main culprit in each case. Is that not remarkable?

Why does Barack Obama not pursue the battle against climate change with the same intensity he pursues war? Why does he not seek to punish the American bankers and stockbrokers responsible for the financial calamity as much as he seeks to punish Julian Assange and Bradley Manning?

In both cases he's putting the interests of the corporate world before anything else. No amount of fines or penalties will induce corporate leaders to modify their behavior. Only spending some hard time in a prison cellblock might cause the growth in them of their missing part, the part that's shaped like a social conscience.

Only prosecuting George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their partners in bombing and torture will discourage future American war lovers from following in their bloody footsteps.

The recent election result can only embolden Obama. He likely took it as an affirmation of his policies, although only 29.3% of those eligible to vote actually voted for him. And an unknown, but certainly significant, number of those who did so held their nose while voting for the supposed lesser of two evils. Hardly indicative of impassioned support for his policies...


On Dec 12, 2012, at 7:13 PM, "C. G. Estabrook" <carl at newsfromneptune.com> wrote:

> "...It was the American people who supported the warfare/welfare state because they, the American people, received direct and indirect benefit from American Imperialism..."
> 
> Those benefits are so skewed, so concentrated in a fraction of 1% of the population, that I think it's more accurate to concentrate on the "manufacture of consent" for US imperialism. The American people have been massively hoodwinked.
> 
> If the US instead had produced a just economic order in the 20th century - one not based on imperialism - the American people would have profited, literally and figuratively, much more. 
> 
> --CGE
> 
> On Dec 12, 2012, at 6:55 PM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" <ewj at pigsqq.org> wrote:
> 
>> Oppan Chomsky Style.
>> 
>> Finally the responsibility for the mess gets laid at the feet of the American people,
>> and rightly so, for they are the ones who ignored the voices of the prophets and
>> sought to silence them.  It was the American people who supported the warfare/welfare
>> state because they, the American people, received direct and indirect benefit from
>> American Imperialism.
>> 
>> You can't really blame Clinton, Bush, or Obama.  They have all done basically
>> the same thing.  They were all able to stay in office and in power despite their
>> criminal activities, so it is obvious that what they did was what the people wanted.
>> How can you fault leaders who do what the people want?
>> 
>> The Magna Carta was forced on the government by the people.  Government would have
>> never out of the goodness of its heart have enacted it, because it creates too
>> much of an impediment to government.  Now it is trashed because the American people
>> dont want these controls on their government.
>> 
>> On 12/13/12 6:02, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>> Obama, Torture,&  Intervention
>>> November 2012
>>> 
>>> http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/12/an-interview-with-noam-chomsky-on-obamas-human-rights-record/
>>> 
>>> ...Obama’s policies have been approximately the same as Bush’s, though there have been some slight differences, but that’s not a great surprise. The Democrats supported Bush’s policies. There were some objections on mostly partisan grounds, but for the most part, they supported his policies and it’s not surprising that they have continued to do so...
>>> 
>>> In some respects Obama has gone even beyond Bush...
>>> ...The rot is much deeper than that...
> 
> 
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