Gaza War
Obamas covert wars
By Peter Symonds
(source: World Socialist WebSite)
Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)
A lengthy article in the New York Times on Sunday entitled “A Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents” has provided a glimpse into the extent of the Obama administration’s covert wars. Obama has not only continued, he has expanded the murderous operations that were waged under the banner of the “war on terror” by the CIA and Pentagon during the Bush administration.
As the authors explain: “In roughly a dozen countries—from the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics [in Central Asia] crippled by ethnic and religious strife—the United States has significantly increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and training local operatives to chase terrorists.”
Obama has dramatically intensified the CIA’s drone missile attacks against alleged insurgents inside areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. The White House has “approved raids inside Somalia,” it has “carried out clandestine operations from Kenya,” and it has collaborated with European allies in covert operations in North Africa, including a recent French strike in Algeria.
Our defenseĀ industry the great untouchable
By Eric Peters
(source: EricPetersAutos.com)
The (not “our”) government says it is broke; that it must cut back on essential services to citizens, including police and fire protection – and raise taxes. It is threatening/hinting that it will require average people to “sacrifice” in the form of decreased Social Security benefits (or higher retirement ages) and even that private pensions and 401ks will be subsumed into some form of “government annuity” – meaning, they take your property and in return you get a “chit” that entitles you (for as long as the government wishes to allow you to be entitled) to a fixed dole payment at some indeterminate point in the future…
Meanwhile, there is apparently plenty of money available to rebuild mosques in Egypt, to finance the Israeli military, to prop up our puppets in various countries… and of course, to fund a massive “defense” industry that consumes more resources than the entire GDPs of many Western European countries and is by itself – and by far – the single greatest consumer of U.S. GDP.
If it were “our” government, not one thin dime would be going to anything extraneous – that wasn’t a legitimate crucial element of our national defense, say. And all we need for that is our nuclear deterrent. We don’t need a single aircraft carrier; no million-man army, no fleet of billion-dollar-a-piece “stealth” aircraft. Just one nuclear submarine loaded with 20 ICBMs is sufficient, all by itself, to lay waste to most of the world and to utterly destroy any single country that attacked us.