Let’s get one thing straight up front. Cpl. Jeremy Morlock and Pfc. Andrew Holmes and their “Kill Squad” in Afghanistan are a bunch of murdering thugs, who have no business being in the United States Armed Forces. They should be court-martialed and I think the death penalty should be on the table. There is no excuse for this kind of crap. None. I have absolutely no problem with our soldiers, sailors and Marines shooting the bad guys. I cut them slack when they mistake unarmed combatants for bad guys. (Without uniforms, who can know for sure?) But I draw the line at behavior that takes us down to their level, especially when it can be used as propaganda to bolster the other side. Which brings us to Rolling Stone Magazine.
Rolling Stone has long been a bastion of rebellion. I don’t know that they’ve ever printed one article espousing Conservative views (other than to mock them). You can usually count on them to carry the water for the far Left. Anybody to the right of Al Gore, Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schummer and Ariana Huffington need not apply. But, damnit, they are still Americans, right? I mean, I get that they think Morlock, Holmes, et all should be strung up by their testicles for mutilating corpses, staging scenes to cover-up the murders of non-combatants and filming their own exploits. I feel the same way. But when you allow your rage against them to endanger the lives of every other serviceman and woman who fights for our country, that puts you squarely in the category of “TRAITOR” in my book.
Here’s the deal. If they want to write editorials that decry the behavior, fine. I’m with them. If they want to lobby for these idiots to get the death penalty, I’m good with that, too (although the irony would be rich enough for me to get tested for high cholesterol and diabetes). But publish the photos? Nope. That’s over the line. Waaaay over the line. Here’s why…
Members of the military are tried in a military tribunal – a court martial. They are not subject to the civilian courts in matters such as these. As such, photographs and videos cannot be of any use to either the government or the defense. There is no way to try this case in the court of public opinion, for public opinion won’t enter into it in the slightest. There’s no jury pool to pollute. No D.A. running for reelection. And no cameras in the courtroom so “dream teams” and prosecutors can audition for their own reality shows.
Even worse, showing these photos accomplishes three things: First, they give aid and comfort to the enemy, specifically regarding their propaganda and recruiting efforts. Second, they fan the flames of discord here at home, allowing the Leftist wing-nuts to rail against the military. Third, they demoralize the troops who are guilty of nothing more than trying to defend our country. I’ve seen Liberals go off the rails at men in uniform. I know soldiers and Marines that have been assaulted, physically assaulted, just for being a member of the military.
When you add up what these pictures do for the enemy and against us, you can make a clearcut case of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. We have laws on the books to prosecute people for this. (They are the statues the government SHOULD use to go after Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.) Rolling Stone should get the same treatment. Jan Werner and his merry bunch of pranksters should find themselves arrested and held until trial, and they should be convicted of treason. Our troops – the men and women who sacrifice so much to fight for our country – deserve no less.
What does this have to do with The Truth About Guns again?
The truth about guns: while there are rare crimes of passion and rare crimes of greed, most of the deaths caused by guns are caused by guns in the hands of governments.
Agree
Um, it’s Jan Wenner. Just sayin’. And what GAKoenig said. I may agree with you, but it appears we’re veering off topic here.
Actually, not according to Wikipedia.org.
I’m not with you on this one, because there’s a word for laws that say “It is forbidden to say anything that might embarrass the State.” They’re called Sedition laws, and they are the darling legislation of despots everywhere. The infant United States had its own shameful flirtation with them, in the Alien And Sedition Acts passed by President Jefferson.
When sedition laws rule the land, it doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen, a blogger, or card-carrying journalist. Protest police brutality in Apartheid South Africa? Go to jail. Protest local Communist Party corruption in China? Go to jail. Protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1982 Moscow? Go to jail. The charge? Sedition.
The rationale is always given that publication of government misdeeds gives “aid and comfort” to foreign and domestic enemies of the state, but but this idea is contrary to the four of the six express clauses of the First Amendment. It is not the job of Rolling Stone to help in the concealment of war crimes, regardless of who committed them.
There’s no question about it: these crimes, and the photos documenting them, are harmful to American strategic interests. They may result in new attacks against American servicemen in theater, and they will certainly help the recruiting efforts of those who would do us harm.
That ship, unfortunately, already sailed. It left port when these murderous thugs went on their civilian-killing spree and decided to ham it up for the cameras. Disclosure, punishment, and reform is the only way that a confident democratic society like ours can deal with them and move forward. Cover-ups, as Nixon discovered, really suck.
If you need to blame someone for the needless endangerment of American servicemen in the Middle East, blame the murderers themselves, and the incompetent/complicit commanders who failed utterly to discharge their duties or their oaths of service when these obscenities were permitted to occur on their watch.
We in the gun community often criticize the ACLU for ignoring the Second Amendment, but we must remember that the entire Bill of Rights becomes meaningless if the First Amendment is repealed.
You said it far better than I did.
As a service member, I have to say I agree with Chris Dumm. Part of defending this country is defending freedom, which is the bedrock of the Constitution. This applies equally to the first amendment, even when I don’t like how other people apply their first amendment rights. If I don’t respect someone’s expression of the first amendment, how can I ever expect ANYONE to respect my expression of the first amendment?
The only point where I draw the line is where that “expression” directly endangers our troops on the ground. For example, lets say a reporter manages to learn all the details about an an ongoing or upcoming misison and decides to publish that information, which includes force strength levels, battle plans, weaknesses, strengths, etc. That information, if published, could devestate not only the mission, but cost dozens if not hundreds of American lives. I have to ask…why? Why does the public need to know that information? They don’t. At that point, the goal isn’t to inform the public…that “journalist” is trying to sell a story, gain attention, and advance their career. If that journalist is an American citizen, they are a traitor. They have willfully, and directly aided the enemy. They can publish all the juicy details after the fact if they want, but now is not the time. I think that “journalism” has for the most part lost its noble purpose and has fallen to a level that makes them no better than the greedy politicians and wall street types that they love to rip apart. Even in the media now, it is all about the money.
While I feel that publishing those photos is in poor taste, I do not believe that it is traitorous. I also do not believe that these photos being published, as embarrasing as they are, makes my job anymore dangerous than it already was. Our enemy over there hates us regardless of what the media publishes. Accordingly, the enemy will not find the media endearing because they “Told the Truth.” They will kill American journalist just as quickly as American troops if geiven the opportunity.
These lowlife bastards should all face the firing squad.
Since we’re off topic.
I hope the pictures are published. People need to see what their future cops are doing right now. I didn’t ask any troops to “defend” me and that is not what they are doing over there besides. “Our troops” unwittingly work for the oligarchs. Welfare for the rich. Assuming Assange and Manning aren’t controlled opposition, they’re heroic. “Liberals” are unbelievable hypocrites for excoriating Bush and giving Sartoro a pass at his escalation of the Bushian conflict and starting a fresh war in Libya.
I’m certainly not giving Obama a pass, and I’d be hard pressed to find anyone among my lefty crowd who is. We’re good and pissed, I promise you.
So journalists who reveal shameful truths which may harm/embarrass the state should be prosecuted? Especially if they’re Lefty journalists?
Censoring pictures won’t change what happened. By your definition, photos of dead children and other “collateral damage” also give aid and comfort to the enemy, and should be treated as treasonous. Certainly they help to create “terrorists,” although I hardly think an illiterate peasant who picks up a Kalishnokov because his family was killed in a drone attack qualifies as a terrorist. A terrorist by definition targets civilians.
I think showing the world that we are prosecuting the cretins in question sends a positive message, but it doesn’t solve the overall problem of our insane foreign policy (which that commie Obama has whole-heartedly embraced).
Using state power to persecute those who reveal ugly images sounds like precisely the sort of thing that any freedom-loving American should be against. Those are police state tactics. No thanks.
Rolling Stone can publish anything they want to publish, and I don’t have a problem with that. Will it endanger our troops? Doubtful. Our soldiers are already getting shot at and blown up. What are the bad guys going to do, shoot more? Plant more IEDs? Be angrier? C’mon, RF. I’m sorry if you’re disillusioned by Rolling Stone, but it is what it’s always been — America’s journal of popular music and, politically, the successor to Pravda. Big deal.
That would be Brad.
Yeah, but I still don’t have that “text amended” rabbit to pull out of my hat or my . . . pocket.
I’d argue that Fox News bears a lot more resemblance to Pravda (consistently representing the view of those in power) than Rolling Stone, which is certainly a lefty publication.
Maybe you didn’t hear, but there was an election a couple of years ago. I know, I know…shouting “Bush Lied, Kids Die” and “Halliburton” is addictive. But wake up and smell the java – Obama and FoxNews hate each other. Well, at least Obama hates FoxNews. Not sure if Murdoch hates the O-Man.
By “those in power,” I did not mean Obama. I was referring to the corporate oligarchy that actually runs this country.
Murdoch is pals with Hillary Clinton.
Please take your class warfare and shove it.
Guys, I’m as big on the First Amendment as I am on the Second. And I see your (collective) point(s) regarding “embarrassing the state.” I don’t give a rat’s ass about embarrassing the government. I DO care, however, about our troops. And if one more Afghan, Iraqi or other Arab/Persian/Muslim/whatever is moved to take up jihad against us because Rolling Stone saw fit to publish them, then they have endangered our troops just as sure as if they took potshots at a brigade themselves. I’m all for airing our mistakes. I don’t want our government covering up ANYthing. However, there’s a difference here, and it’s an important one. Revealing that these murders/mutilations happened is the right thing for the media to do. Sensationalizing it by distributing these pictures is the wrong thing to do.
Frankly, I’m of two minds on any leaks. Since sunshine is the best disinfectant, I like knowing what our government is up to. However, I also realize that we’d be dreaming to think that backroom deals, quid pro quos and other less seemly things don’t regularly occur, and we wouldn’t be able to function without them. Look at the Shah of Iran and Carter. He got all “oh, no…we’ll never support a dictator” (even though Iran, at the time, was the most Westernized of Islamic nations). And we see now where enforcing some moral purity test got us. I’m NOT saying cover this up. I’m saying that publishing the pictures is going too far. And those that published them should be held accountable for their actions.
I don’t think releasing pictures of actual events is “sensationalizing.” The content is sensational (in the worst way), certainly.
Sensationalizing would be aggressively editing a video to make someone look bad, for instance.
Their action was publishing pictures of a political nature. The pictures are certainly shocking, and it might even be in poor taste to publish them when it’s not actually necessary, but you’re on a slippery slope here, Brad.
Furthermore, what happened to personal responsibility? Now you’re using anti-gunner “logic”, “It’s not the fault of the bombers who planted the IED’s, it’s the fault of the people who angered the bombers by publishing some pictures!” Do you see the parallel between that and blaming guns for murders instead of murderers?
Well said. Slippery slope all the way.
The troops are the government. They aren’t endangered by a magazine, they are endangered by agreeing to get paid to go to foreign countries and kill people and blow shit up. If somehow an American magazine makes being a Marine more dangerous well that’s just part of the job. When you enlist you sign up for being shot at, bombed, amputated, driven crazy, drug addiction, bad marriages, killed etc. It’s not a walk in the park (although once on Parris Island in order to punish us a DI on a lovely Sunday afternoon ordered us to put our hands in our pockets and put our heads down and walk as though we were strolling in the park.)
These things do happen all of the time. However, I could function quite well without paying my money, my liberty, and my security for these scams, schemes, plots, conspiracies, deals, rackets, et cetera.
You can’t tell the truth too far when it comes to the government.
You don’t need a trial of the century for that. You can do it very easily. Don’t buy Rolling Stone ever again, and tell everyone you know to not buy them, and write them to tell them that you are doing that. If you really want to go all out, get a website advocating boycotting them and lead a campaign against them.
Want to talk about the bigger shame and the greater treason? How about the fact that Rolling Stone is the one that has to do it (publish the photos)? How about the fact that a music-oriented magazine is what brings this horror to the forefront of American consciousness?
Those pictures should be splashed on every television channel and every news report countless times per day. That way, when some nationalist prick thumps his chest and loudly proclaims that, They Hate Us Because Of Our FREEDOM!, a newly informed American can reply, “You lying sack of shit! They hate us because we murder their children, rape their women, destroy their countries, and decimate their populations in the name of [INSERT CORPORATE INTEREST HERE].”
Wake up, America. This is what’s being done in your name. This is what’s being done with your money; this is what you pay for. You think this is just a few bad apples here? These are a handful of unlucky assholes that happened to get caught. I’m willing to bet this is far more widespread than anybody would care to admit.
Turn off the NASCAR. Turn off Dancing With The Stars. Shut off the ridiculous professional sports game and pull your head out of your ass. They don’t hate you because your wife doesn’t wear a burqa – they hate you because your soldier mutilated their families.
How dare you call Rolling Stone traitors, Brad Kozak. The real traitors are the people in government and the complicit media that are conspiring to hide this shameful display from the American People that paid for it.
I agree. Since we are all paying thousands of dollars per year for this sort of action allegedly to protect us we should be able to examine the goods and services we are paying for.
James, Looks like you’ve got cause and effect confused here. We haven’t been, as a matter of course bombing, shooting, mutilating muslims on the offensive. In my life time any blood we have shed has been in retaliation. And quite frankly, we’ve not shed enough of it, for the scourge of radical islam is causing trouble today and intends to cause more. They do call us the “great white satan.” Not to mention the love they give Israel every year… They’ve been flying the black flag. We should, too (and we can do this without mutilating corpses.).
I think maybe you have your history confused. We’ve never done a thing to muslims? Are you serious? We were just standing around one day trying to look inconspicuous, and a billion screaming jihadists decided to pick on us for no good reason?
1918-1945:
BREAKING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST:
THE FIGHT FOR INFLUENCE & OIL
1920-28: U.S. pressures Britain, then the dominant Middle East power, into signing a “Red Line Agreement” providing that Middle Eastern oil will not be developed by any single power without the participation of the others. Standard Oil and Mobil obtain shares of the Iraq Petroleum Company.
1932-34: Oil is discovered in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and U.S. oil companies obtain concessions.
1944: U.S. State Department memo refers to Middle Eastern oil as “a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history.” During U.S.-British negotiations over the control of Middle Eastern oil, President Roosevelt sketches out a map of the Middle East and tells the British Ambassador, “Persian oil is yours. We share the oil of Iraq and Kuwait. As for Saudi Arabian oil, it’s ours.” On August 8, 1944, the Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement is signed, splitting Middle Eastern oil between the U.S. and Britain.
Between 1948 and 1960, Western capital earns $12.8 billion in profits from the production, refining and sale of Middle Eastern oil, on fixed investments totaling $1.3 billion.
1945-1955:
REPLACING RIVALS AND WAGING WAR
ON NATIONAL LIBERATION
1946: President Harry Truman threatens to drop a “super-bomb” on the Soviet Union if it does not withdraw from Kurdestan and Azerbaijan in northern Iran.
November 1947: The U.S. helps push through a UN resolution partitioning Palestine into a Zionist state and an Arab state, giving the Zionist authorities control of 54% of the land. At that time Jewish settlers were about 1/3 of the population.
May 14, 1948: War breaks out between newly proclaimed state of Israel, and Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria, who had moved troops into Palestine to oppose the partition of Palestine. Israeli attacks force some 800,000 Palestinians–two-thirds of the population–to flee into exile in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank. Israel seizes 77 percent of historic Palestine. The U.S. quickly recognizes Israel.
March 29, 1949: CIA backs a military coup overthrowing the elected government of Syria and establishes a military dictatorship under Colonel Za’im.
1952: U.S.-led military alliance expands into the Middle East with Turkey’s admission to NATO.
1953: The CIA organizes a coup overthrowing the Mossadeq government of Iran after Mossadeq nationalizes British holdings in Iran’s huge oilfields. The Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, is put on the throne, ruling as an absolute monarch for the next 25 years–torturing, killing and imprisoning his political opponents.
1955: U.S. installs powerful radar system in Turkey to spy on the Soviet Union.
1956-1958:
UPHEAVAL AND INTRIGUE IN EGYPT,
IRAQ, JORDAN, SYRIA & LEBANON
July 1956: After Egypt’s nationalist leader, Gamal Abdul Nasser, receives arms from the Soviet Union, the U.S. withdraws promised funding for Aswan Dam, Egypt’s main development project. A week later Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal to fund the project. In October Britain, France and Israel invade Egypt to retake the Suez Canal. President Eisenhower threatens to use nuclear weapons if the Soviet Union intervenes on Egypt’s side; and at the same time, the U.S. asserts its regional dominance by forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw from Egypt.
October 1956: A planned CIA coup to overthrow a left-leaning government in Syria is aborted because it was scheduled for the same day Israel, Britain and France invade Egypt.
March 9, 1957: Congress approves Eisenhower Doctrine, stating “the United States regards as vital to the national interest and world peace the preservation of the independence and integrity of the nations of the Middle East.”
April 1957: After anti-government rioting breaks out in Jordan, U.S. rushes 6th fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and lands a battalion of Marines in Lebanon to “prepare for possible future intervention in Jordan.” Later that year, the CIA begins making secret payments of millions a year to Jordan’s King Hussein.
September 1957: In response to the Syrian government’s more nationalist and pro-Soviet policies, the U.S. sends Sixth Fleet to eastern Mediterranean and rushes arms to allies Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Saudi Arabia; meanwhile the U.S. encourages Turkey to mass 50,000 troops on Syria’s northern border.
1958: The merger of Syria and Egypt into the “United Arab Republic,” the overthrow of the pro-U.S. King Feisal II in Iraq by nationalist military officers, and the outbreak of anti-government/anti-U.S. rioting in Lebanon, where the CIA had helped install President Camille Caiman and keep him in power, leads the U.S. to dispatch 70 naval vessels, hundreds of aircraft and 14,000 Marines to Lebanon to preserve “stability.” The U.S. threatens to use nuclear weapons if the Lebanese army resists, and to prevent an Iraqi move into the oilfields of Kuwait, and draws up secret plans for a joint invasion of Iraq with Turkey. The plan is shelved after the Soviet Union threatens to intervene.
1957-58: Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA agent in charge of the 1953 coup in Iran, plots, without success, to overthrow Egypt’s Nasser. “Between July 1957 and October 1958, the Egyptian and Syrian governments and media announced the uncovering of what appear to be at least eight separate conspiracies to overthrow one or the other government, to assassinate Nasser, and/or prevent the expected merger of the two countries.” (Blum, p. 93)
1960: U.S. works to covertly undermine the new government of Iraq by supporting anti-government Kurdish rebels and by attempting, unsuccessfully, to assassinate Iraq’s leader, Abdul Karim Qassim, an army general who had restored relations with the Soviet Union and lifted the ban on Iraq’s Communist Party.
1963: U.S. supports a coup by the Ba’ath party (soon to be headed by Saddam Hussein) to overthrow the Qassim regime, including by giving the Ba’ath names of communists to murder. “Armed with the names and whereabouts of individual communists, the national guards carried out summary executions. Communists held in detention…were dragged out of prison and shot without a hearing… [B]y the end of the rule of the Ba’ath, its terror campaign had claimed the lives of an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 communists.”
1966: U.S. sells its first jet bombers to Israel, breaking with 1956 decision not to sell arms to the Zionist state.
June 1967: With U.S. weapons and support, Israeli military launches the so-called “Six Day War,” seizing the remaining 23 percent of historic Palestine–the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem–along with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights.
September 17, 1970: With U.S. and Israeli backing, Jordanian troops attack Palestinian guerrilla camps, while Jordan’s U.S.-supplied air force drops napalm from above. U.S. deploys the aircraft carrier Independence and six destroyers off the coast of Lebanon and readies troops in Turkey to support the assault. The U.S. threatens to use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union if it intervenes. 5000 Palestinians are killed and 20,000 wounded. This massacre comes to be known as “Black September.”
1973: The U.S. rushes $2.2 billion in emergency military aid to Israel after Egypt and Syria attack to regain Golan Heights and Sinai. U.S. puts forces on alert, and moves them into the region. When the Soviet Union threatens to intervene to prevent the destruction of Egypt’s 3rd Army by Israel, U.S. nuclear forces go to DEFCON III to force the Soviets to back down.
1973-1975: U.S. supports Kurdish rebels in Iraq in order to strengthen Iran and weaken the then pro-Soviet Iraqi regime. When Iran and Iraq cut a deal, the U.S. withdraws support, denies the Kurds refuge in Iran, and stands by while the Iraqi government kills many Kurdish people.
1979-84: U.S. supports paramilitary forces to undermine the government of South Yemen, which was allied with the Soviet Union.
THE FALL OF THE SHAH AND
THE SOVIET INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN
1978: As the Iranian revolution begins against the hated Shah, the U.S. continues to support him “without reservation” and urges him to act forcefully against the masses. In August 1978, some 400 Iranians are burned to death in the Rex Theater in Abadan after police chain and lock the exit doors. On September 8, 10,000 anti-Shah demonstrators are massacred at Teheran’s Jaleh Square.
1979: The U.S. tries, without success, to organize a military coup to save the Shah. In January, the Shah is forced to flee and the reactionary Shi-ite Islamists led by Ayatollah Khomeini take power in February.
Summer 1979: The U.S. publicly supports the Khomeini regime’s efforts to suppress the Kurdish liberation struggle and maintain Iranian domination of Kurdestan.
1979: U.S. President Jimmy Carter designates the Persian Gulf a vital U.S. interest and declares the U.S. will go to war to ensure the flow of oil.
1979: In response to Soviet military maneuvers on Iran’s northern border, Carter secretly puts U.S. forces on nuclear alert and warns the Soviets they will be used if the Soviets intervene.
Summer 1979: U.S. begins arming and organizing Islamic fundamentalist “Mujahideen” in Afghanistan. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski writes, “This aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention,” drawing the Soviets into an Afghan quagmire. Over the next decade the U.S. alone passed more than $3 billion in arms and aid to the Mujahideen, with another $3 billion provided by the U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.
November 4, 1979: Islamic militants, backed by the Khomeini regime, seize the U.S. embassy in Teheran and demand the U.S. return the Shah to Iran for trial. The Embassy and 52 U.S. personnel are held for 444 days; this international embarrassment prompts new U.S. actions against Iran–including an abortive rescue attempt.
December 1979: Soviet troops invade Afghanistan–which the U.S. rulers considered a “buffer state” between the Soviet Union to the north and the strategically important states of Iran and Pakistan to the south–overthrowing the Amin government and installing a more pro-Soviet regime.
1980: U.S. begins organizing a “Rapid Deployment Force,” increasing its naval presence and pre-positioning military equipment and supplies. It also steps up aid to reactionary client states such as Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. On September 12, Turkey’s military seizes power and unleashes a brutal clampdown on revolutionaries and Kurds struggling for liberation in order to “stabilize” the country as a key U.S. ally.
Summer 1980: As the Carter administration tries to bully Iran into surrendering the U.S. hostages, supporters of presidential candidate Ronald Reagan cut a secret deal with the Islamic Republic: promising that the Reagan administration will allow Israel to ship arms to Iran if Iran continues to hold the hostages during the coming presidential campaign to cripple Carter’s campaign for re-election. (Gary Sick)
September 22, 1980: Iraq invades Iran with tacit U.S. support, starting a bloody eight-year war. The U.S. supports both sides in the war providing arms to Iran and money, intelligence and political support to Iraq in order to prolong the war and weaken both sides, while trying to draw both countries into the U.S. orbit.
1981: U.S. holds military maneuvers off the coast of Libya to bully the Qaddafi government. When a Libyan plane fires a missile at U.S. planes penetrating Libyan airspace, two Libyan planes are shot down.
1981: The Reagan administration secretly encourages Israel and other allies, such as South Korea and Turkey, to ship hundreds of millions of U.S.-made arms to Iran despite a ban on the shipment of U.S.-made weapons.
From the fall of 1981 through the winter of 1982, forces led by the Union of Iranian Communists, Sarbederan, mount an historic resistance to the Islamic Republic; the uprising at Amol at the end of January 1982 is brutally crushed by the forces of the Islamic Republic.
1982: After receiving a “green light” from the U.S., Israel invades Lebanon to crush Palestinian and other anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli forces. Over 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians are killed, and Israel seizes southern Lebanon, holding it until 2000.
September 14, 1982: Lebanon’s pro-U.S. President-elect, Bashir al-Jumayyil, is assassinated. The following day, Israeli forces occupy West Beirut, and from 16 to 18 September, the Phalangist militia, with the support of Israel’s military under now-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, move into the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and barbarically massacre over 1,000 unarmed Palestinian men, women, and children.
1983: U.S. sends troops to Lebanon, supposedly as part of a multinational “peace-keeping” operation but in reality to protect U.S. interests, including Israel’s occupation forces. U.S. troops are withdrawn after a suicide bomber destroys a U.S. Marine barracks.
1983: CIA helps murder Gen. Ahmed Dlimi, a prominent Moroccan Army commander who seeks to overthrow the pro-U.S. Moroccan monarchy.
Spring 1983: The U.S. provides the Islamic Republic of Iran with a list of Soviet agents.
1984: U.S. shoots down two Iranian jets over Persian Gulf.
1985-1986: The U.S. secretly ships weapons to Iran, including 1,000 TOW anti-tank missiles, Hawk missile parts, and Hawk radars. The weapons are exchanged for U.S. hostages in Lebanon, and in hopes of increased U.S. leverage in Iran. The secret plot collapses when it is publicly revealed on November 3, 1986, by the Lebanese magazine, Al-Shiraa. (The Chronology)
1985: U.S. attempts to assassinate Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a Lebanese Shiite leader. 80 people are killed in the unsuccessful attempt. (Blum)
1986: When a bomb goes off in a Berlin nightclub and kills two Americans, the U.S. blames Libya’s Qaddafi. U.S. bombers strike Libyan military facilities, residential areas of Tripoli and Benghazi, and Qaddafi’s house, killing 101 people, including Qaddafi’s adopted daughter.
1987: The U.S. Navy is dispatched to the Persian Gulf to prevent Iran from cutting off Iraq’s oil shipments. During these patrols, a U.S. ship shoots down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 onboard.
1988: The Iraqi regime launches mass poison-gas attacks on Kurds, killing thousands and bulldozing many villages. The U.S. responds by increasing its support for the Iraqi regime.
July 1988: A cease-fire ends the Iran-Iraq war with neither side victorious. Over 1 million Iranians and Iraqis are killed during the 8-year war.
1989: The last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan. The war, fueled by U.S.-Soviet rivalry, has torn Afghanistan apart, killing more than one million Afghans and forcing one-third of the population to flee into refugee camps. More than 15,000 Soviet soldiers die in the war.
July 1990: April Glaspie, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, meets with Saddam Hussein, who threatens military action against Kuwait for overproducing its oil quota, slant drilling for oil in Iraqi territory, and encroaching on Iraqi territory–seriously harming war weakened Iraq. Glaspie replies, “We have no opinion on the Arab- Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait.”
August 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. The U.S. seizes the moment to assert its hegemony in the post-Soviet world and strengthen its grip on the Persian Gulf: the U.S. condemns Iraq, rejects a diplomatic settlement, imposes sanctions, and prepares for an all-out military assault on Iraq.
January 16, 1991: After a 6-month military buildup, the U.S.-led coalition launches “Operation Desert Storm.” For the next 42 days, U.S. and allied planes pound Iraq, dropping 88,000 tons of bombs, systematically targeting and largely destroying its electrical and water systems. On February 22, 1991, the U.S. coalition begins its 100-hour ground war. Heavily armed U.S. units drive deep into southern Iraq. Overall, 100,000 to 200,000 Iraqis are killed during the war.
Spring 1991: Shi’ites in the south and Kurds in the north rise up against Hussein’s regime in Iraq. The U.S., after encouraging these uprisings during the war, now fears turmoil and instability in the region and refuses to support the rebels. The U.S. denies the rebels access to captured Iraqi weapons and allows Iraqi helicopters to attack them.
1991: Iraq withdraws from Kuwait and agrees to a UN-brokered cease-fire, but the U.S. and Britain insist that devastating sanctions be maintained. The U.S. declares large parts of north and south Iraq “no-fly” zones for Iraqi aircraft.
1991-present: U.S. military deployments continue after the war, with 17,000 to 24,000 U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf region at any given time. (CSM)
1992: U.S. Marines land near Mogadishu, Somalia, supposedly to ensure humanitarian relief and “restore order.” But the U.S. also plans to remove the dominant warlord, Mohammed Aidid, and install a more pro-U.S. regime. In June 1983, after numerous gun battles with Aidid forces, U.S. helicopters strafe Aidid supporters, killing scores. In October, when U.S. forces attempt to kidnap two Aidid lieutenants, a fierce gunbattle breaks out. Five U.S. helicopters are shot down, 18 U.S. soldiers killed and 73 wounded, while 500 to 1000 Somalians are killed and many more injured.
March 1992: U.S. Defense Department drafts new, post-Soviet “Defense Planning Guidance” paper stating, “In the Middle East and Southwest Asia, our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region’s oil.”
1993: U.S. brokers a “peace” agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization at Oslo, Norway. The agreement strengthens Israel and U.S. domination, while leaving Palestinians a small part of their historic homeland, broken up into isolated pieces surrounded by Israel. No provisions are made for the return of the four million Palestinian refugees living outside of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
1993: U.S. launches missile attack on Iraq, claiming self-defense against an alleged assassination attempt on former president Bush two months earlier.
1995: The U.S. imposes oil and trade sanctions against Iran, reinforcing sanctions in effect since 1979, for alleged sponsorship of ‘terrorism’, seeking to acquire nuclear arms and hostility to the Middle East process. (BBC, CSM)
1995: With U.S. backing, Turkey launches a major military offensive, involving some 35,000 Turkish troops, against the Kurds in northern Iraq.
1998: Congress passes the “Iraq Liberation Act,” giving nearly $100 million to groups attempting to overthrow the Hussein regime.
August 1998: Claiming retaliation for attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, President Clinton sends 75 cruise missiles pounding into rural Afghanistan –supposedly targeting Osama Bin Laden. The U.S. also destroys a factory producing half of Sudan’s pharmaceutical supply, claiming the factory is involved in chemical warfare. The U.S. later acknowledges there is no evidence for the chemical warfare charge.
December 16-19, 1998: The U.S. and Britain launch “Operation Desert Fox,” a bombing campaign supposedly aimed at destroying Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. For most of the next year, U.S. and British planes strike Iraq every day with missiles. (BBC)
October 1999: The U.S. Department of Defense shifts command of its forces in Central Asia from the Pacific Command to the Central Command, underlining the heightened importance of the region, which includes vast oil reserves in and around the Caspian Sea.
January 2001: Tenth anniversary of the U.S. war on Iraq: sanctions are still in place and the UN estimates that 4,500 children are dying per month from disease and malnutrition as a result. The U.S. planes, which have flown over 280,000 sorties in Iraq over the past decade, continue to attack from the air. In the past two years, over 300 Iraqis have been killed in these bombings.
October 2001: U.S. begins bombing Afghanistan, as the first act of war in “Operation Enduring Freedom”–the U.S. “war against global terrorism.”
SOURCES
Many different sources were used in compiling this chronology of U.S. aggression. Here are the main ones:
Numerous issues of the Revolutionary Worker newspaper including:
“Palestine: A History of Occupation and Resistance,” November 10, 1991
“Fort Apache: The Middle East” a four-part series, January 6-27, 1984
“Israel: A State of Occupation,” November 20, 2000
William Blum, Killing Hope–U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (Common Courage Press 1995)
Berch Berberoglu, Turmoil in the Middle East–Imperialism, War, and Political Instability (State University of New York Press 1999)
Peter Mansfield, The Arabs (Pelican Books 1980)
Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (Touchstone Books 1993)
Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, eds., The Gulf War Reader (Times Books 1991)
Michio Kaku & Daniel Axelrod, To Win a Nuclear War (South End Press 1987)
Joseph Gerson, ed., The Deadly Connection: Nuclear War & U.S. Intervention (American Friends Service Committee 1983)
Thomas Naff, ed., Gulf Security and the Iran-Iraq War (National Defense University Press and Middle East Research Institute 1985)
The National Security Archive, The Chronology (Warner Books 1987)
Gary Sick, October Surprise–America’s Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan (Times Books 1991)
“50 Years of U.S. Policy in the Middle East,” Christian Science Monitor, September 27, 2001
Zoltan Grossman, “A Century of U.S. Military Interventions: From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan,” online at zmag.org
V. K. Sin, “Israel: Imperialism’s Attack Dog in the Middle East,” A World To Win, 1988/11
Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle (South End Press 1983)
Nicholas Guyatt, The Absence of Peace–Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Zed Books 1998)
Edward W. Said, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Muhammad Jallaj, Elia Zureik, “A Profile of the Palestinian People,” in Edward Said & Christopher Hitchens, eds., Blaming the Victims–Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question (Verso 1988)
Bob Woodward, VEIL: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987 (Simon & Schuster 1987)
As far as trying Julian Assange for treason is concerned, he is not a US citizen, and cannot, by definition, commit treason against a nation he has no allegiance to.
The easiest way for the state to avoid inflaming the opinion of the people of the Middle East is to stop interfering in their lives. Our troops cannot commit atrocities someplace they are not.
+1
Uh… Chris Dumm, just so you know;
“The infant United States had its own shameful flirtation with them, in the Alien And Sedition Acts passed by President Jefferson.”
The A&SA was signed into law by John Adams. You’re welcome.
Our government is controlled by the bad guys. Our troops don’t shoot their rulers.
Are they on American soil? No, then it doesn’t matter. If the Chinese invade I’m not going to wear a uniform (but I won’t be sitting on the couch either).
Really? Is that why you advocate using force to censor people who tell the truth about the criminal racket called war that you support?
No, you are the traitor. The worst enemies this country has are the people in charge and the people who support them. You fall into the latter category, the dupe. Those of us who point out the illegal, immoral, brutal nature of the actions you support aren’t traitors at all – criticism is patriotic.
Wrong. The evidence has been submitted to the jury. Rolling Stone I’m pretty sure is mostly run by Americans, this was their way of voting. We may not decide the fate of these individuals, but we can pass judgment on war and government.
If the truth aids and comforts the enemy then you are not on the right side. The “flames of discord” are the grumblings of an unhappy public master. If you have forgotten or never knew, this is a republic and we are all in charge. The troops should be demoralized, they are the pawns in a gigantic criminal enterprise that manufactures hell on earth for a mighty profit.
No, you don’t. Just because you can’t handle the truth about a minor incident doesn’t mean you get to throw journalists into prison.
We’ve heard this one before “We must destroy the freedom the troops are fighting for!” and we respond “Why would you do that?” and the jingoists reply “For the sake of the troops.” That’s why the troops are demoralized – they are serving the master that enslaves their friends and family at home as they trade life and limb to enslave others abroad.
Wow. Now I’m a traitor? Look, I’m making a very simple point. Sadly, too many of you can’t see it. I realize full well that our freedoms here at home can easily be eroded, bit by bit, by well-meaning actions or by bureaucrats who are covering their own asses. I get it. But I’ve spent a lot of time with active-duty Marines. As some of you have pointed out, we have an all-volunteer military. But the way you phrase it, you’d think they all joined up just to go shoot “Hadjis.” Believe it or not, my cynical friends, most everyone I’ve spoken to (including my stepson) joined because they felt a calling to defend our country from those who want to kill us. This is REALLY simple: they have a difficult job. Howza bout we don’t make it any MORE difficult by publishing inflammatory pictures? I’m NOT saying hide the truth from the public. But exactly what was gained by showing Americans these pictures, hmm? The people that did that are animals. But the Army seems to have figured this out and are taking the prescribed steps to thin the herd, so to speak. When we publish pictures like this, it’s vastly more dangerous than simply speaking the truth. Look at those WWII era posters that are deemed “too politically incorrect” and racist for today’s refined sensibilities. Why did they create these? To inflame the public and increase enlistment. So we should just GIVE the Taliban and Al Quieda these on a silver platter? Are you nuts?
Look, if the next Woodward and Bernstein wanna go all Washington Post on the story, I’m happy. The truth shall set us free. But pictures? Nope. There’s nothing to be gained by that, and much to be lost. And if you think that Jann Wenner & Co. are doing this out of some sense of patriotism, you’re full of it.
Patriotism can easily be a pathology rather than the virtue it is assumed to be. Blind adherence to a doctrine (my country, my faith, etc.) is insufficient justification for any position let alone act. In fact if the notion and effects of patriotism were erased I think the world would be a better place. You’d have more folks considering right vs. wrong rather than “duty.” Perhaps the reason for pictures is too many people won’t read or think and imagery is the only way to reach them.
I understand your thinking here Brad but don’t agree. US foreign policy is at odds with our constitution and “values.” Citizens and soldiers are easily confused by the contradictions we are exporting so it’s no wonder a foreign culture doesn’t understand our intentions. We best get our own house in order if we hope to be of help. This “kill squad” issue is only a graphic and sensational symptom of systemic disorder. The real disease and treatment resides within America and won’t be addressed until we quit trying to blame others.
Thanks for building a great forum. You’ve got some fine content and comments here.
There are millions of pages of documentation that the primary enemy of our country is our government. You’ve sided with the enemy, and by your own standards, given aid and comfort to it.
No, they have an impossible job. You can’t defend America and the Constitution and our liberty by defending the government and it’s interests. They are mutually exclusive.
Yes you are. Not only do you want to censor the truth, you also want to criminalize those who tell the truth.
The truth was shown.
Have they stated why they photographed the bodies?
Judging by his avatar, I’m sure 2yellowdogs can back me up on this: “The Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint”.
Also, perhaps the enemies (gross gloss) of the US would not be so incensed to see some self-criticism.
The also managed to connect morlock to Sarah Palin just because he grew up in wasila Alaska and his sister knew palin’s daughters.
So by liberal logic this is all Palin’s fault.
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