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It’s not often that US Government officials are honest when they talk about our foreign policy. The unprovoked 2003 attack on Iraq was called a “liberation.” The 2011 US-led destruction of Libya was a “humanitarian intervention.” And so on.
So, in a way, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was refreshingly honest last week when, speaking about newly-imposed US sanctions, he told the BBC that the Iranian leadership “has to make a decision that they want their people to eat.” It was an honest admission that new US sanctions are designed to starve Iranians unless the Iranian leadership accepts US demands.
His statement also reveals the lengths to which the neocons are willing to go to get their “regime change” in Iran. Just like then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said it was “worth it” that half a million Iraqi children died because of our sanctions on that country, Pompeo is letting us know that a few million dead Iranians is also “worth it” if the government in Tehran can be overthrown.
The US Secretary of State has demanded that Iran “act like a normal country” or the US would continue its pressure until Iran’s economy crumbles. How twisted is US foreign policy that Washington considers it “normal” to impose sanctions specifically designed to make life miserable – or worse – for civilians!
Is it normal to threaten millions of people with starvation if their leaders refuse to bow down to US demands? Is the neoconservative obsession with regime change “normal” behavior? Is training and arming al-Qaeda in Syria to overthrow Assad “normal” behavior? If so, then perhaps Washington’s neocons have a point. As Iran is not imposing sanctions, is not invading its neighbors, is not threatening to starve millions of Americans unless Washington is “regime-changed,” perhaps Iran is not acting “normal.”
So what is normal?
The continued Saudi genocide in Yemen does not bother Washington a bit. In fact, Saudi aggression in Yemen is viewed as just another opportunity to strike out at Iran. By making phony claims that Yemen’s Houthis are “Iran-backed,” the US government justifies literally handing the Saudis the bombs to drop on Yemeni school busses while claiming it is fighting Iranian-backed terrorism! Is that “normal”?
Millions of Yemenis face starvation after three years of Saudi attacks have destroyed the economy and a Saudi blockade prohibits aid from reaching the suffering victims, but Secretary Pompeo recently blamed Yemeni starvation on, you guessed it: Iran!
And in a shocking display of cynicism, the US government is reportedly considering listing Yemen’s Houthis as a “terrorist” organization for the “crime” of fighting back against Saudi (and US) aggression. Labeling the Yemeni resistance a “terrorist” organization would effectively “legalize” the ongoing Saudi destruction of Yemen, as it could be justified as just another battle in the “war on terror.” It would also falsely identify the real culprits in the Yemen tragedy as Iran, which is repeatedly and falsely called the “number one sponsor of terrorism” by Pompeo and the rest of the Trump Administration neocons.
So yes, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told one wicked truth last week. But before he demands that countries like Iran start acting “normal” or face starvation, perhaps he should look in the mirror. Are Pompeo and the neocons “normal”? I don’t think so.
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What is “normal”, Dr. Paul, is demanding accountability, ASAP, for all the wars we have been lied into, over the past 18 years,…. not to start a “new” one.
What the United States needs, Dr, Paul, is a government that is capable of prosecuting our “elites” for all the “fraud” they have committed in driving us into these horrific , belligerent, cruel and criminal wars.
This is what the United States needs,…..this is what all of humanity needs ,….Real , true “accountability” to get us ALL back on course.
” War of aggression” is the supreme crime any nation can commit.
The entire world knows that .
Defrauding the American People into committing “war of aggression” is a supreme crime of treason, as well as a crime against humanity.
Compounding this crime, is the monstrous, “heinous” nearly UNBELIEVABLE cost to every future american tax payer these wars have created.
Show me one American citizen, anywhere, who thinks its okay to be on the hook for 176 k, because we were LIED INTO WAR ,
Demanding that our “elites” pay up, every penny, for the cost of the wars they LIED us into, is a great first step in righting the ship of state and restoring the United States (and its credit worthiness) to its preeminent status on the world stage.
What is “normal”, Dr. Paul, is demanding accountability, ASAP, for all the wars we have been lied into, over the past 18 years,…. not to start a “new” one.
What the United States needs, Dr. Paul, is a government that is capable of prosecuting our “elites” for all the “fraud” they have committed in driving us into these horrific , belligerent, cruel and criminal wars.
This is what the United States needs,…..this is what all of humanity needs ,….Real , true “accountability” to get us ALL back on course.
” War of aggression” is the supreme crime any nation can commit.
The entire world knows that .
Defrauding the American People into committing “war of aggression” is a supreme crime of treason, as well as a crime against humanity.
Compounding this crime, is the monstrous, “heinous” nearly UNBELIEVABLE cost to every future american tax payer these wars have created.
Show me one American citizen, anywhere, who thinks its okay to be on the hook for 176 k, because we were LIED INTO WAR ,
Demanding that our “elites” pay up, every penny, for the cost of the wars they LIED us into, is a great first step in righting the ship of state and restoring the United States (and its credit worthiness) to its preeminent status on the world stage.
What is “normal”, Dr. Paul, is demanding accountability, ASAP, for all the wars we have been lied into, over the past 18 years,…. not to start a “new” one.
What the United States needs, Dr. Paul, is a government that is capable of prosecuting our “elites” for all the “fraud” they have committed in driving us into these horrific , belligerent, cruel and criminal wars.
This is what the United States needs,…..this is what all of humanity needs ,….Real , true “accountability” to get us ALL back on course.
” War of aggression” is the supreme crime any nation can commit.
The entire world knows that .
Defrauding the American People into committing “war of aggression” is a supreme crime of treason, as well as a crime against humanity.
Compounding this crime, is the monstrous, “heinous” nearly UNBELIEVABLE cost to every future american tax payer these wars have created.
Show me one American citizen, anywhere, who thinks its okay to be on the hook for 176 k, because we were LIED INTO WAR .
Why should the United States be twenty two trillion dollars in debt because we were defrauded into war ?
Who is teaching us that is A-okay ?
Demanding that our “elites” pay up, every penny, for the cost of the wars they LIED us into, is a great first step in righting the ship of state and restoring the United States (and its credit worthiness) to its preeminent status on the world stage.
I am sorry for the repeat of my comment, Dr. Paul.
There was a problem in the connection with Unz. Review.
But now that I think about it, If the message is repeated a “thousand” more times, I cannot say I would complain.
We need ” accountability”…..Every American citizen, and every citizen of the world, needs “accountability”.
If it came tomorrow , it could not come too soon.
It’s the U.S. that’s not acting like a normal country because we’re controlled by an abnormal, mentally ill country called Israel and their powerful domestic lobby. But Ron Paul just doesn’t have the courage to call attention to the domestic Jewish lobby. He might lose his paypal account and get harassed when going out to dinner if he did.
If the psychopath and Israeli whore Pompeo enacts policy that leads to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranian citizens (or more) then I won’t be getting angry if Iran retaliates by launching terrorist attacks within the United States with their rumored terrorist cells. We will have brought it entirely upon ourselves.
And of course the malevolent Israelis will be laughing since their U.S. goyim are supposed to suffer all of the blowback.
“I won’t be getting angry if Iran retaliates by launching terrorist attacks within the United States”
You need help, seriously, you need to get your mind right.
It might come as a shock to you that killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians of a foreign nation when they’ve never attacked us would be considered an act of war by any rational person and especially the government on the receiving end of whatever policy is killing their citizens.
Sounds like you might have wrapped yourself too tightly in the American flag and need to get your head right.
We are living under a sick and deranged government for many years.
Trump’s Achilles heel is his uncritical support for Zionism.
It is quite clear to anyone with even a modest knowledge of history and geopolitics that our establishment’s current animus towards the Iranian regime is driven primarily (perhaps not solely) by the fact that Iran is the only regional player that represents an obstacle to complete Israeli hegemony in the greater Middle East.
Unfortunately, the Zombified megachurch “Christian” Zionists form an indispensable part of the GOP majority.
It started with Woodrow Wilson, but more and more court historians are forced to admit that FDR LIED and acted contrary to his oath to uphold the US Constitution in order to involve USA in war against Germany.
FDR LIED to the American people;
FDR concealed from US State Department his administration’s early and persistent collaboration with Stalin’s Bolshevik Communist government;
FDR concealed from US Congress his actions colluding with the British and with Communist Russia to draw USA into war.
As you said, Alexander, there is no greater treason a US president (or his administration) can commit than to involve the American people in a war that they expressly DO NOT WANT, and to do so by lying to them.
No, Mr. Paul, those things are not normal in the normal sense (versus the zionist value set), but neither are they new:
Hurting, Hanging, Suffocating & Starving:
The Inhumanity of Iran Threat Rhetoric
by Nima Shirazi
March 2012
http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com/2012/03/inhumanity-of-iran-threat-rhetoric.html
which references Israel’s 2006 plan to starve the people of Gaza:
Since 2006, the situation in Gaza has gotten not just worse but incapable of sustaining life:
UN Says Gaza Could Become Uninhabitable by 2020
https://www.voanews.com/a/un-says-gaza-could-become-uninhabitable-by-2020/4569898.html
and
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/05/17/norman_finkelstein_palestinians_have_the_right_to_break_free_of_unlivable_cage_that_is_gaza.html
Heckuva job, Izzies.
Brilliant piece.