[Peace-discuss] Belgium Member of Parliament exposes lies of intervention in Mali

Carl G. Estabrook galliher at illinois.edu
Wed Mar 6 15:12:26 UTC 2013


The question, "What would you have done during WWII?" seems rarely to be asked innocently: it always seem to carry the implication, "You should fight the new Hitler (Saddam, Ahmedinejad, etc.) just as you should have fought the original!"

Anyone who asks the question honestly should read Nicholson Baker, "Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization" (2008).

Younger members who want to ask the same question about Vietnam should look at Nick Turse, "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam" (2013).

We're becoming aware of the remarkable continuity of US foreign policy for more than a century - continuous because it represents the selfish interests of dominant social groups in America (what we now call the 1%) who have needed the hoodwink the vast majority, because the wars are directly counter to the interests of that majority. 

The point has been made by academic historians like William Appleman Williams and writers like Gore Vidal, but generations of professional historians  - toadies to the 1%, like Arthur Schlesinger - have labored mightily to mislead.

Chomsky says that when he writes about mathematics, mathematicians want to know if he got the right answer: when he writes about history, historians want to know where he got his history PhD...

--CGE

On Mar 6, 2013, at 8:46 AM, David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:

> I would  have volunteered to fight fascism in the Canadian army BEFORE Pearl Harbor !
>  
> You can't seem to understand or accept the fact, that the wealthy elites who control OUR government, are the greatest purveyors of violence in the world today.
> Not to defend the American people, but to invade, plunder, and control certain countries natural resources to benefit NOT the American people, but to further enrich and enpower the 1 %.
>  
> David Johnson
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Roger Helbig
> To: David Johnson
> Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 8:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Belgium Member of Parliament exposes lies of intervention in Mali
> 
> Guess he is as misguided as you are and just as cognizant of the facts... wonder what you would have been like if you were around during WW-II!
> 
> On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 6:56 PM, David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:
>  
> Belgian member of parliament Laurent Louis against the military intervention in Mali
> 
> Posted on Wednesday February 6th, 2013
> A controversial speech by Laurent Louis from January 17th. The politician here takes position against Belgiums participation in the Mali War. For his statements, skip to Minute 2:42.
> 
> http://www.menschenrechte3000.de/TuaregMali/?p=255&lang=en
> 
> 
> Quotes:
> 
> “As you can see, for months, our country is only participating to put in place, Islamic regimes in North Africa and the Middle East. So, when they come and pretend to go to war in order to fight against terrorism in Mali, well… I feel like to laugh. It’s false! Under the appearance of good actions, we only intervene to defend financial interests in a complete neo-colonist mindset.”
> 
> “It’s a real nonsense to go to help France in Mali in the name of the fight against terrorism when at the same time, we support in Syria the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad by Islamist rebels who want to impose Sharia Law, as was done in Tunisia and in Libya.”
> 
> “The western countries are taking the oppurtunity to place military bases in the newly conquered countries while favoring domestic companies.”
> 
> “To go to war, to free people from an outside aggressor, is noble. But to go to war to defend the interests of the USA, to go to war to defend the interests of big companies such as AREVA, go to war to put our hands on gold mines, has nothing noble at all and it reveals our countries to be attackers and thugs!”
> 
> For english subtitles, click on the “Captions” Button, the one with the two little C’s in our player, and select your subtitles option.
> 



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