Thursday, February 14, 2013

Bahrain's Pro-Reform Pro-Democracy Protests 2nd Anniversary Ignored By White House and Mainstream Media & Bill Moyers' On The Immorality Of Drone Attacks


Given the Obama approved brutal crack down on the Occupy movement why would President Obama show any concern for the brutal crack down on pro-reform protesters in Bahrain. The only time the Obama White House has been vocal about violence used by a state to silence protesters is when it occurs in Iran or other nations it sees as America's enemies.

But unfortunately its not just the militarized Police and Obama and Fox News that defends police brutality but in fact many Americans also defend the police unconditionally. What is interesting was the lack of a massive police presence at the Tea Party Protests even when some carried rifles and used Hate Speech against President Obama claiming Obama was not a real American in his attitudes   and a secret Muslim, and his policies were akin to Hitler and the NAZI Party and that Obama was part of a plot  by Muslim leaders or Communists or as one of the Reptillian infiltrators and what have you going back even before his birth to have him eventually become President of the USA. Even though they called for Obama's death few police were used to control those demonstrators.

Meanwhile at the Occupy demonstrations early on there was a massive police presence and the police treated protesters as if they had no right to protest or to march down streets even when they had permits to do so.


Occupy Police Brutality Compilation


We could offer various explanations for Obam's indifference to the plight of the Bahrainian people at this time. For instance his reluctance to act maybe tied to his plans to attack, bomb or even invade Iran and to do so he needs the fifth fleet present in its location at Bahrain.

If Obama had some empathy for these people which he hasn't he could have had personnel from the fifth fleet stationed in Bahrain to act as observers of what is actually going on as opposed to what the al-Khalifa rulers are telling the Americans. Obama , Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden vouch for the rulers in Bahrain and claim them as personal friends as they do the leaders in Saudi Arabia, the former leaders who have now been ousted in Pakistan, Egypt , Tunisia, Morocco  and so on.

BAHRAIN; PROTESTS, TORTURE, AND DEATHS; US support for Al Khalifa brutal Crack Down
Feb 13, 2013



Bahrainis will resist against Al Khalifa regime until victory: Franklin Lamb

Published on 13 Feb 2013 Press TV

A political analyst tells Press TV that resistance through persistence is a credit to the Bahraini demonstrators and they will continue it until they achieve their goals.

The comments came after opposition groups, including al-Wefaq and the February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition, called for protests this week to mark the 2011 popular uprising against the rule of Al Khalifa dynasty. Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, demanding political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its crackdown on popular protests.

Interview with Franklin Lamb.




What moral persuasion is involved in the calculus of the Drone attacks. The numbers show fewer or no US troops killed during a Drone attck yet numerous innocent civilians are killed.
The question is if one used more conventional tactics such as boots on the ground would fewer innocent civilians be killed ? But the US government and the American people approve and can't see any downside to the policy.
Deaths of innocent civilians does not enter into the calculus and nor does a more somewhat intangible unintended consequences of blowback.

Wouldn't you be outraged if the local police hunting down a murder suspect who happens to live on your street or in your neighborhood were in their attempt to arrest or kill the alleged suspect were also to wound and or kill a dozen or more innocent civilians who are your neighbors or would you care as long as you and your house are left unscathed.

Or imagine there are alleged domestic or foreign terrorists on your street or neighborhood . The authorities know which house they are in and so use a drone strike to take out the house and its occupants. So the authorities use the same types of bombs they use in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen etc. such as a cluster bomb. The targeted house blows up as the thousands of bomblets rip into the other houses killing innocent civilians I guess if not you being ripped to shreds it doesn't matter to you.

US troops and American Drone attacks cause similar damage every day and the American people think that's a good thing.

Bill Moyers in this article on the use of Drone attacks one could surmise that he could appeal to those in favor of these attacks to see as not merely a military tactic but like torture it is just plan wrong. During Vietnam the US planes at 50,000 feet carpet bombed Vietnam, North vietnam , Laos . This was one of the strategies once it became public knowledge which helped to swell the ranks of the anti-war movement .

When you drop bombs how is an enemy soldier with his hands up and waving a white flag supposed to be taken prisoner . There are in fact a few videos on youtube in which US soldiers of soldiers killing someone trying to surrender on the side of a road after stopping and getting out of his in a helicopter shoot a hundred rounds from their 50mm gun

The Hubris of the Drones By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Moyers & Company | Op-Ed Truthout.org, Feb. 13, 2013
Our blind faith in technology combined with a false sense of infallible righteousness continues unabated. Reuters correspondent David Rohde recently wrote:

“The Obama administration’s covert drone program is on the wrong side of history. With each strike, Washington presents itself as an opponent of the rule of law, not a supporter. Not surprisingly, a foreign power killing people with no public discussion, or review of who died and why, promotes anger among Pakistanis, Yemenis and many others.”

Rohde has firsthand knowledge of what a drone strike can do. He was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008 and held for seven months. During his captivity, a drone struck nearby. “It was so close that shrapnel and mud showered down into the courtyard,” he told the BBC last year. “Just the force and size of the explosion amazed me. It comes with no warning and tremendous force… There’s a sense that your sovereignty is being violated… It’s a serious military action. It is not this light precise pinprick that many Americans believe.”
“It’s a serious military action… not this light precise pinprick that many Americans believe.”

A special report from the Council on Foreign Relations last month, “Reforming U.S. Drone Strike Policies,” quotes “a former senior military official” saying, “Drone strikes are just a signal of arrogance that will boomerang against America.”

...Such hubris brought us to grief in Vietnam and Iraq and may do so again with President Obama’s cold-blooded use of drones and his indifference to so-called “collateral damage,” grossly referred to by some in the military as “bug splat,” and otherwise known as innocent bystanders.

...According to the CFR report, “Of the estimated three thousand people killed by drones… the vast majority were neither al-Qaeda nor Taliban leaders. Instead, most were low-level, anonymous suspected militants who were predominantly engaged in insurgent or terrorist operations against their governments, rather than in active international terrorist plots.”

and so it goes,
GORD.

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