Military
With U.S. military spending at historic high, Obama slams ‘cuts’ as going too far
New report shows how flood of munitions from across the globe, including the United States, are making peace impossible in Middle East
Led by Lockheed Martin, the biggest US defence companies are trading at record prices as shareholders reap rewards from escalating military conflicts around the world.
He says the reality on the ground is far different from the propaganda coming out of Washington.Islamic State presents an immediate threat to the people of the U.S. In justifying air attacks on Syria on Sept. 23, President Barack Obama said, “We will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people.”
As gruesome as the Islamic Front’s videotaped beheadings are, there is ambiguity over whether the U.S. government’s death-by-drone is any less horrific, with some victims crawling about with severed limbs and others just collateral damage, a moral dilemma addressed by ex-FBI official Coleen Rowley.
As the US begins token airstrikes on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border , the fighting capacity of the “Islamic State” or “ISIS,” has seen no visible setbacks. This is because ISIS is in fact the very proxy mercenaries intentionally created to fight the West’s proxy war against Iran and its arc of influence stretching from neighboring Iraq, through Syria, and into Lebanon.
On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin speaks with former Congressman and three time presidential candidate, Ron Paul, discussing his views on the ramifications of expanding the war against ISIS into Syria, how US foreign policy has exacerbated the growth of Islamic extremism, the hypocritical partnership with Saudi Arabia, and the marginalization of alternative views outside of the two party system.
A summary of the chilling new anti-terrorism/freedom of speech laws introduced by the Abbott Government in Australia this week. George Orwell must be rolling in his grave… again. “Under the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014, anyone including, “journalists, whistle-blowers and bloggers” – who “recklessly” disclose “information” … [that] relates to a special intelligence operation” will now face up to 10 years in jail for doing so.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday, and used his speech to accuse the West of inciting extremism and unjustly interfering in other nations’ affairs.
Nothing better illustrates the bankruptcy of the Obama administration’s foreign policy than funding groups that turn on the U.S. again and again, a neo-con fueled cycle of profits for war makers and destruction of ever-shifting “enemies.”
New York Times reported that “senior Obama administration officials said on Tuesday that the airstrikes against the Islamic State – carried out in Syria without seeking the permission of the Syrian government or the United Nations Security Council – were legal because they were done in defense of Iraq.”
President Obama’s decision to bomb Syria stands in stark violation of international law, the UN Charter, and the requirements of the U.S. Constitution. It contradicts his own commitment, stated a year ago in the UN General Assembly, to reverse Washington’s “perpetual war footing.”
3D printing offers a range of potential benefits and open-source solutions to free humanity from centralized corporate and police state shackles. Naturally, the good elements are being fought tooth-and-nail, while the aberrant forms are brought to us by the military-industrial complex as an essential security solution.
Today’s question is what is the difference between what the United States may or may not do in Syria and what Russia may or may not have done in the Ukraine. The main difference is that according to Vladimir Putin what happened in Crimea and eastern Ukraine has nothing to do with anything Mr. Putin or Russia did whereas what’s about to happen in Syria has a great deal to do with what the United States plans to do. If Mr. Putin were not credible, the differences between what’s happening would be less pronounced.
Barack Obama’s central dilemma last week, when he tried to sell a new war to the American public on the eve of the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11, was to speak convincingly about the wisdom and effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy over the last decade-plus while at the same time, alas, dropping the bad news that it didn’t work.
