Propaganda
The dark(er) side of our drone war
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Do you believe that our drone strikes are an ethical–or at least viable–way to eliminate terrorists that seek to harm by killing them faster than they can multiply?
If so, ok–I’ll respect that based upon an apparently objective process of arithmetic.
Terrorists – Dead Terrorists = Less Terrorists.
May I offer some other objective data points?
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism recently concluded that from June 2004 to September 2012, between 2562 and 3325 people were killed by drone strikes in Pakistan.
Of those, The BIJ estimates that 474-881 were civilians, and 176 were children; however given ease with which we can classify someone as a “militant” I am very skeptical of the low number of civilians in that quote.
What would you do if your friends, family members or loved ones were wrongly killed in a terrorist attack? Would you retaliate?
General David Petraeus’ former advisor describes the tendency of Muslims to do exactly that.
“Every one of these dead noncombatants represents an alienated family, a new desire for revenge, and more recruits for a militant movement…” -David Kilcullen, fomer advisor to Gen David Petreaus.
Just how insane have we become?! What kind of propaganda have we fallen for? Why have we accepted it so WILLINGLY?!
Our military is destroying lives, ruining our credibility and stoking the fires of war relentlessly around the world by killing these innocent people and all we can think to say in response is, “Well, they shouldn’t be hangin’ around with no damn terrorists then!”
The number of high-level targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low—estimated at just 2%. - Peter Bergen & Megan Braun, CNN
The below mini-documentary Living Under Drones is a superb and heart-rendering piece of journalism from Professor James Cavallaro of Stanford Law School’s International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic, and Professor Sarah Knuckey of the Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law.
Their recently released report with the same title is available for free download here; it is shocking and an absolute must-read, must-spread far and wide piece of journalism.
This disaster of humanity is ours to end.
Mitt Romney flip flop collection
4I’m getting hammered by conservative friends lately who are freaked out by ObamaCare, Obama 2.0′s Supreme Court appointments, etc. Watching this, it is just preposterous to think we can trust Romney’s current positions on anything important. Except of course, his desire for war, more bailouts, and assaults on The Constitution/civil rights.
Will we be brought to a place of suffering and humiliation so that the Kingdom of God can manifest? That may be the way of the world, time will tell.
Psalm 146:3 says all that needs to be said, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.”
Another CIA counter-terrorism expert cites “blowback” driving terrorism
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It’s a scary world and there are a lot of very angry people in it. To the people out there who want to protect America/Israel/Europe/wherever by bombing people in Iran/Afghanistan/Yemen/wherever, “I get it!” I really do. It’s scary as hell thinking about a nuke going off on a civilian population (unless it was in Japan and “it saved good Americans lives and ended WW2,” right?).
I don’t blame you for wanting to defend our country and innocent people around the world by trying to attack our enemies before they attack us, it’s fight-or-flight; human nature.
However I do passionately advocate a balanced, objective view before deciding to sign and drive the “Kill ‘em all, let God sort them out!” train.
Here is yet another foreign policy expert detailing the incredible risks that policy poses and the counter-productive reality of our foreign policy.
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. -Albert Einstein
Drone attacks create terrorist safe havens, warns former CIA official via theguardian.co.uk
A former top terrorism official at the CIA has warned that President Barack Obama’s controversial drone programme is far too indiscriminate in hitting targets and could lead to such political instability that it creates terrorist safe havens.
Obama’s increased use of drones to attack suspected Islamic militants inPakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen has become one of the most controversial aspects of his national security policy. He has launched at least 275 strikes in Pakistan alone; a rate of attack that is far higher than his predecessor George W Bush.
Defenders of the policy say it provides a way of hitting high-profile targets, such as al-Qaida number two, Abu Yahya al-Libi. But critics say the definition of militant is used far too broadly and there are too many civilian casualties. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates up to 830 civilians, including many women and children, might have been killed by drone attacks in Pakistan, 138 in Yemen and 57 in Somalia. Hundreds more have been injured.
Now Robert Grenier, who headed the CIA’s counter-terrorism center from 2004 to 2006 and was previously a CIA station chief in Pakistan, has told the Guardian that the drone programme is targeted too broadly. “It [the drone program] needs to be targeted much more finely. We have been seduced by them and the unintended consequences of our actions are going to outweigh the intended consequences,” Grenier said in an interview.
Congratulations to The European Union!!
0The Nobel Peace prize continues its comedic plummet from legitimacy to satirical gloss with it’s recent award to The European Union.
After giving Obama the award for doing absolutely nothing—and before he went on to annihilate countries all over the world—the award now is little more than a false idol and a marketing tool for the people and principalities “in the club” of the powers that be.
Rather than worshipping these fake Golden Calves, we might want to consider seeking the face of The Creator, and emulating his/her Divine Son before our Earthy crisis and calamities get any more onerous.
My BFF, Nigel Farage is as informative, insightful and indignant as ever in this great little interview.
“Innocence of Muslims” proven innocent!!
1Come on folks, are we serious?! Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are losing their minds over a ridiculously bad video?! Despite the media’s desire to make this look like a spontaneous reaction to the video, that claim is FALSE!!!
Check out the excellent, articulate, Princeton-graduate Ben Swann spilling some beans.
Scroll down for the previously posted “The Arabs are Angry” for a little more detail and or ask the Lybian President who said the video theory is ridiculous.
“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” author John Perkins speaks on our intervention’s side effects
0Assassinating world leaders, corrupting state officials, manipulating global commerce are all detailed by this fascinating, repentant man. His book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” is an absolutle must read is you want to understand why so much of the world hates us so much.
FDNY Firefighter Meets Man Who Saved His Life on 9/11
2If you respect those that have been killed, injured or sent to war since this horrible day 11 years ago honest pursuit must be engaged.
These brave men testify to hearing and seeing explosions before the planes hit. The conclusions you draw from those facts are your own to choose. In addition to conflicting testimony and requests for further investigation from 1500+ Engineers and Architects, 250 Aviation Professionals, and 300+ Family Members/Survivors Willie Rodriguez and FDNY firefighter/WTC survivor Mr. John Schroeder are very confused by the “official” explanation.
Saying that we love our countries and our fellow men/women doesn’t mean much unless we act, and do them the service of our attention.
Adding to my personal confusion is the below video with dozens of engineering, architectural and aviation professionals detailing their thoughts and problems with the “box cutter and jet fuel” theory we usually hear.
I happily admit that the “conspiracy theory of 9/11″ is ludicrous and absurd no the rational mind. However given the expert testimony available, I cannot ignore it without further investigation.
The dangerous topic of 9/11
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I do my best to remain outside of the passionate and often too-reactionary conspiracy clubs and bullhorn of Alex Jones‘ theories that—despite frequent accuracies—are often more based in yelling than evidence.
My goal in posting materials on “The New World Order,” the Illuminati, and “conspiracies” is to open the door to responsible and credible individuals to speak; and for responsible and credible people to consider their thoughts, and if possible, fight through the cognitive dissonance that may result from opposing views existing in your mind.
In the case of the video below, 9/11 – Experts Speak Out there is a collection of experts detailing their thoughts on 9/11 and why the official story is implausible. Are there informed and intelligent individuals on the “other side” of the debate that support the official story? Certainly. Do they deserve our respect and consideration? Absolutely.
BUT—9/11 has shaped our present and will shape our future more than anything since Pear Harbor. We MUST be vigilant and examine the facts to give objective evaluation of both sides instead of accepting the consistently flawed media sources that our own CIA has admitted to distorting for strategic gain. Is that too extreme? Is fighting wars in the interest of our government? And therefore, in the interest of The CIA in promoting them? I would say yes, emphatically.
Disinformation, “The New World Order,” and spiritual perfecting
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This is an interesting post from WorldTruth.TV about the potential for “disinformation” being spread by prominent figures in “alternative media” including Alex Jones, David Icke and Jordan Maxwell.
When I was in college—close to ten years ago now—I was profoundly influenced by those three. Their presentations and websites opened my eyes to an incredible and complex world that I never thought could exist, but always felt might be real. Insert goofy Matrix analogy here. Upon further review, and many years of focused reading and a more objective eye that is willing to cross-examine data points (something I have NOT been very good at in the past) there are many ways they can be proven to omit, distort or manipulate stories to suit their desires.
Certainly Jones and Icke have flourishing financial careers from their research—Maxwell doesn’t seem to do as well, but surely benefits from book sales too. A point I don’t have a problem with that on the surface; voluntary payments are all good. But, something that should be remembered as a potential motivation for bias.
I still believe they provide a lot of good information that people need to know about “the powers that be” in the world, but we should be careful with them and only trust what can be verified with the mind, and witnessed with the heart and/or Scripture.
However, there is a crime being committed by these men. A crime of spiritual misguidance. For Jones, he is—despite his alleged Christian faith—”preaching” to spirits of fear and rage. Maxwell, repeatedly shows his support for Helena Blavatsky and her Lucifer Trust Publishing company. As for Icke, he promotes Zeitgeist theories on Christ’s existence (meaning that he never existed) and many of the New Age beliefs that connect back to self-worship and/or “Luciferian” teachings. Granted, “Luciferianism” is a tricky and difficult to define word, but I’ll go out on a limb with it. More about New Age beliefs and The New World Order here and here.
Are there powerful people in the world like the Rockefellers and Rothschilds who are passionately involved in creating a one-world government? I think the evidence is incontrovertible.
But, where do we go from there?
If a perfect and inconceivably intelligent being exists, and has a perfect plan for the world, should we ponder that these terrible people and circumstances exist to bring us to a closer understanding of God and the symbolism of living our lives as a sacrifice to our Spiritual Parent?
To expound on that statement: if Christ was the pattern for our lives and we are urged to become one with his sufferings to be reborn in His Image, and become anointed Sons wielding the power that comes along with it, then can we/should we see the world through a different lens and—dare I say—embrace the wickedness in the world as a tool for our perfecting?
That, may be too much to ask. But surely, we are called to forgive these lost souls and pray for their forgiveness, unless we intend on losing our own.
Congressman Larry McDonald on Rockefellers and “The NWO”
0Who was Congressman Larry McDonald?
Here’s a very interesting video with Council on Foreign Relations member, Tom Braden and Pat Buchanan on CNN’s Crossfire.