That all-too-familiar, giddy, bipartisan climate: Can you feel it?

[Truth2Tell]

Glenn Greenwald has a paragraph in his latest piece that nails what I've been feeling about Yemen:

In the wake of the latest failed terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines, one can smell the excitement in the air -- that all-too-familiar, giddy, bipartisan climate that emerges in American media discourse whenever there's a new country we get to learn about so that we can explain why we're morally and strategically justified in bombing it some more. "Yemen" is suddenly on every Serious Person's lips. We spent the last month centrally involved to some secret degree in waging air attacks on that country -- including some that resulted in numerous civilian deaths -- but everyone now knows that this isn't enough and it's time to Get Really Serious and Do More.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/12/29/terrorism/index.html">the whole thing is worth reading here...

The manufacture of consent has become so predictable. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. They don't even change it up much anymore. America has become so easy to sell that they can practically phone it in.

[babylonsister]

1. Funny, but it's not that new. From March:

Stir 'em up, Glenn!

snip//

Although detainees from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia far outnumbered Yemeni detainees in the Guantanamo Bay prison’s early years, about 90 percent of detainees from those two countries have been sent home. Yemenis are now the largest single group at Guantanamo, making up about forty percent of the prison population.

The reason is not that the Yemeni prisoners are any more dangerous, say human rights advocates and lawyers. In fact, about a dozen prisoners from Yemen have been cleared for release since 2005. Yet the United States has been unable to reach an agreement with Yemen on how to repatriate these prisoners and ensure they don’t join Al Qaeda or otherwise pose a threat to the United States in the future.

more...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x102373

[Truth2Tell]

7. What's new is that the MSM has

"discovered" Yemen and Americans will now now get to hear all about it and the threat it poses for as long as it's the flavor of the week. Or the decade. Usually once the threat has been established and the name of the new threat nation de jour is on the lips of every American, it doesn't bode well for them or us. (How else do Americans learn of the existence of places like Iraq or Afghanistan, but for our TV wars and the threat-establishing runups?)

[babylonsister]

8. True that. It's their shiny new bone to gnaw on. But the worry about

Yemen is not new; the media is dumb, shallow, and not newsworthy when it counts.

[Truth2Tell]

10. I would suggest that's more than just a shiny bone,

but that "discovering" Yemen is part of a loosely choreographed process involving our political and media elite that plays out over and over. We are witnessing a "phase" in the preparation for military action, i.e. the psychological preparation of the American populace. This phase takes place before every significant military action by the US. I wish it wasn't so predictable.

[babylonsister]

11. OK, the politicians ignore Yemen and the Taliban there. Who

exactly will be blamed when the next attempt is successful and 300+ die? Sounds like a no-win situation.

And I surely don't have an answer.

[Truth2Tell]

12. The choice isn't necessarily between

war/bomb/violence and ignore. There are other ways to engage in the the world and address the real (but vastly distorted and hyped) threat of militant Islamic radicalism, IMO.

[babylonsister]

15. Do tell. How do you engage with people who want to destroy you?

I'm very curious what the solution to that would be.

I hate to invoke 9/11, but our presence wasn't anywhere as intense prior to that tragedy, yet those radicals had their agenda they carried out.

How do you make it stop?

[babylonsister]

16. You got quiet. No ideas? I have none either. nt

[bertman]

18. Here's an idea: pull the Crusaders out of the Middle East. Israel doesn't need our ground

troops to defend itself.

Time after time we hear these jihadists referring to our occupation of their holy lands. Hell, I'm a non-believer and it pisses me off that the Christians are still trying to conquer the "Holy Lands".

I'm not a world traveler so I can't vouch for this, but let me say second-hand that my friends who travel all over the world tell me that even Iranians and iraqis and Afghanis love Americans. They just hate our war-mongering on their soil.

Here's another idea: Put the squeeze on Israel to do something constructive with the Palestinians. That's another festering sore that pisses off the religious nuts. There are moderates on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who could make progress if the U.S. would exert some pressure.

Sorry, but that's all I have for now. Tired brain.

[babylonsister]

19. I agree with you about Israel. But are you suggesting

no reaction to 9/11 would have been preferable to doing something? Yea, idiot son bloached even that, and started another occupation, but what do you think the reaction should have been, or should be now?

I don't know. Can we afford to just ignore all this?

[bertman]

21. At the time, I thought the reaction to 911 by invading Afghanistan was the right thing to do.

It soon became apparent that there was no intent to to capture or kill bin Laden when Rumsfeld refused to send enough troops to do the job and then gave up at Tora Bora. Then we drove the Taliban AND al Qaeda into Pakistan and the border regions but that still wasn't good enough.

So now we have the inevitable "mission creep". We are no longer there to destroy al Qaeda in Afghanistan (mission accomplished), but to bring democracy or a stable government or some such crap to Afghanistan. It's the same deal as Iraq in my eyes. Except in Afghanistan it's about the pipeline, not the oil fields.

Since the major planning element of the 911 attacks took place in Germany, I'm waiting for us to invade them next. Followed by Saudi Arabia, the nation that supplied us with 15 of the 19 al Qaeda hijackers and that bankrolled the operation. When you consider the transparency of all this and the way we have ignored the nation that had more to do with 911 than any other, it becomes obvious that there is another reason for our intense interest in having large numbers of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq (remember that one big reason we were getting rid of Saddam was the lie that Bush promulgated that Saddam was behind the 911 attacks--which, by the way, many Americans STILL believe despite Bush even admitting that it was wrong).

Ignore all of this? If you mean ignore al Qaeda, then I say NO. Don't ignore them. Use the best method of neutralizing them--intense police and intelligence work coupled with special ops wherever they are. Use surgical strikes to take out their leaders. We would have the cooperation of most international police agencies and national police forces in doing this. It does not require a massive invasion of ANY nation to accomplish that. In fact, the invasions just harden the opposition of people who would otherwise likely support our efforts. But when they are seeing their fellow countrymen and women and children murdered by the "saviour" Americans it is more of an incentive to fight us than to help us.

Combine the intelligence/police/special ops approach with pulling out of the Middle Eastern nations we now have troops in, and we might see a different attitude from the Islamic world.

Just my thoughts. Yours?

[PufPuf23]

29. There are still large open ended questions about 9-11.

There are plenty of ham handed dots to connect since then.

Neo-liberals differ little from Neo-cons and both are Machivellian.

Vote and donate and volunteer local; if yoiu have the opportunity, demonstrate massive nationally.

[Behind the Aegis]

20. It isn't about Israel.

Sadly, too many are ignorant of that fact because it is easier to blame Israel for all the woes of the Middle East as opposed to assigning blame to the numerous parties. If you (general) think the wars occurring in the ME (Afghanistan, Iraq, and attacks in Yemen) then you (general) are a fucking moron and know little about the actual situations occurring in the Middle East and beyond. Often, Israel is nothing more than a red herring when it comes to Middle East issues, the real issue is oil; y'know..the root of all evil..MONEY!

Here's an idea: Have the US stop capitulating to dictators of ME countries (especially SA) in regards to Israel and tell them to get the fuck out of the equation, unless they are really interested in some sort of peace which doesn't involve the destruction of Israel.

[Truth2Tell]

25. BTA, I've often heard defenders of American ME policy

cite our need to defend the "only democracy" in the area, and the "top American ally" in the region, when it comes to our military presence there. Many even argue that our alliance with Israel, and the ways it affects our ME decision making, are "crucial" to our national security. I think there is some truth to that but that it's been way overplayed. And yes, our alliances with dictators have been the root of our failures. But remember, there would have been no Camp David and likely no detente with Egypt or Jordan for Israel, if it weren't for leaders in those countries bought and paid for by the USA.

[Behind the Aegis]

27. I hear it too. Doesn't change the fact Israel is a red herring most of the time.

IMO, the "defense of Israel" argument is often used to cast blame on Israel and deflect from the target of the real blame. The US, like much of the rest of the world, doesn't give two shits about Israel, and she knows it. I am certain to more than a few lawmakers feel actions in the ME are beneficial to Israel, but most know it is clearly not the case. The only way the US 'protects' Israel is by its loans and, as you said, buying off Egypt and Jordan. The whole "it's to protect Israel, the only ME democracy" is as much a red herring as the Arab/Muslims nations "we hate the US because of their ties to the Zionist entity and the repression of the Palestinian people." While I believe they do hate the US alliance with Israel, a nation of Jews, the idea it is because of the struggle of the Palestinian people would be laughable were it not so sad.

The "its for Israel" mantra is nothing more than an excuse and is not only used as a weapon against Israel by the Arab/Muslim world, but by those in this country, on both sides of the political spectrum. Americans are no more dying for Israel than they are dying for democracy in Iraq!

[bertman]

28. I'm with you all the way on that, Behind the Aegis. Well stated.

[Truth2Tell]

23. Had to sleep.

:)

Yes, I do have ideas. They start with the basic premise that most people in the Muslim world don't want to destroy us - quite yet, so waging wars that alienate and outrage those people seems about the most counterproductive thing we could be doing.

I think we need to be very very targeted in what we do. If we want to attack some alleged Al Qaeda somewhere in Yemen, dropping bombs from the air is probably a bad idea. I would suggest maybe US special forces working with Yemeni special forces and intelligence could go in on the ground and try to arrest people if they had real evidence of crimes. Those people would then either be killed resisting arrest, or brought before a court if they have committed crimes. And if we don't have evidence they have committed crimes then trying to kill them is maybe not a very good idea.

And of course, invading and occupying whole countries, or engaging in extended aerial bombing campaigns, or extra judicial assassinations, all are insane. All those things create ten more enemies for every one they eliminate. At this point one has to wonder if maybe that isn't the goal here, because the counterproductive nature of our actions would be inexplicably irrational otherwise.

[MisterP]

22. that's very keen: there always is a media-mediated "discovery" of some new country

we should be worried about--and it's often disconnected from reality on the ground: before December only Yemen's decayed government was calling the Zaidi Houthis "al Qaeda"; now it's a given fact, and thousands of retractions won't shake most people's subconscious conviction that it's "Sana'a vs. al Qaeda"

the 80s had a similar framing to El Salvador, with the moderate, democratic Duarte threatened by "totalitarian" Reds, or by "extremists on both sides"; sure, Duarte played footsie with ARENA, and bombed and phosphorused his own people...

they love to recycle the trope of youths deluded by lecherous old mullahs into fighting US allies: Chris Hitchens kept pretending that Iran is "Footloose," with the rock-listening, ecstasy-dropping Raver Youth ready to goose-step Iran "into the 21st century" (as though the Muslim world is floating off the Earth's surface in some temporal void) and fulfil every country's destiny to become a capitalist, secularist democracy

[Truth2Tell]

26. Exactly, our cultural knowledge

consists of these disconnected and distorted snippets delivered with zero context as part of ham-handed propaganda efforts.

[white_wolf]

9. Lol

When you said Glenn I automatically thought of Glen Beck. You had me scared there for a minute until I saw i was wrong.

[baldguy]

2. I'm up to me knees in mud & a rat is knawing on my big toe.

Is that it?

[varelse]

4. That's not mud

(sorry - I had to do it).

[mmonk]

3. Recommended. It has become too easy for them to keep it going.

Critical thinking and analysis went out the door a long time ago.

[asdjrocky]

5. "The only thing worse than Democrats and Republicans working alone-

is when they work together." -Lewis Black

[leftstreet]

6. War - the only way Americans learn geography

[Individualist]

13. K&R

[EmeraldCityGrl]

14. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Yemen...

They better be prepared to draft a few hundred thousand troops to fight these filthy wars.
Let's see how Americans feel about it then. One teenager with fire in his pants just isn't
going to drum up the kind of "enthusiasm" they'll need.

[TheWatcher]

17. And the Dumbed Down, American Idol, Playoff Obsessed, Hypnotized, Glazed Over Public

Has Once Again Bought it Hook, Line, and Sinker.

And now we're all supposed to "unite" like good little citizens to get behind the invasion another country, and sacrifice another generation of sons and daughters and treasure, because we're supposed to be "afraid" of them, and they're trying to "kill us" from their "caves."

What a tired, weak, soft, pathetic joke this country has become.

We not only enable the Criminals to keep their phantom Bullshit going, we CHEER THEM ON while they do it.

And they don't even bother to be creative or inconspicuous about it anymore, because we are so easily sold, and for the most part, question nothing beyond the initial soundbyte.

Well, it's been awhile since people have been able to load up the cooler with cheap beer and "Watch The War" on CNN.

I guess it's about time for another round.

AT LONG LAST, WHAT IN THE HELL DOES IT TAKE TO GET THIS COUNTRY TO WAKE UP TO WHAT IS HAPPENING TO IT?

Oh but I KNOW, it's all real, they really ARE trying to kill us this time, and our Football Team will clean it up real good and show that other Football team how to Fight a REAL Phantom War on a Phony Premise.

:banghead:

[Echo In Light]

24. G.Carlin's take on it: "Bipartisan = a larger than usual deception is being carried out."

[Odin2005]

30. Ah shit. We have enough on our hands right now. Idiots.

We should be focusing on getting Afghanistan stable you bunch of warmongering morons.