[mpen-dayton4] FW: "The Kochs' agenda" & "What You Need to Know about Syrian Refugees in the U.S." & "This is how we SAVE Social Security benefits" and more
FYI. Best, Munsup
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P.P.S. "He who dares not offend cannot be honest" - Thomas Paine
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· FW: Will you accept Syrian refugees in your city?
· FW: The Kochs' agenda:
· FW: "We created Islamic extremism: Those blaming Islam for ISIS would have supported Osama bin Laden in the ’80s"
· FW: By the Numbers: What You Need to Know about Syrian Refugees in the U.S.
· FW: GOP Politicians Rejecting Refugees Sound Like Racist Internet Trolls
· FW: This is how we SAVE Social Security benefits
· FW: Politics, Great Entertainment
· FW: Ben Norton: "This is why they hate us: The real American history neither Ted Cruz nor the New York Times will tell you"
· FW: paris and terrorism
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From: tbacane
Subject: Fw: Will you accept Syrian refugees in your city?
We bomb the hell out of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria killing, maiming and creating refugees and then some of us want to prevent these poor souls from entering our country. They are not terrorists we are and we continue to affirm it by our racism, bigotry and hate. I say it's time to "WAKE UP AMERICA"!!! - tbacane
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Fear, bigotry, and hatred have taken over the republican party and media. Politicians are stoking xenophobia, racism, and religious fear. As compassionate humans, we need to stand together and show the world these are not commonplace values in America.
Sign if you agree: We must welcome Syrian refugees to rise above the hatred and bigotry being spewed by the Republican party.
When the most vulnerable populations flee war, dictators, tyrants, and terrorists, it is our American duty to accept those people. The legal clarity is here—President Obama has full authority to accept refugees according to the Refugee Act of 1980, Hines v. Davidowitz, and Arizona v. United States.
Speaker Paul Ryan is considering Congressional action to stop President Obama’s authority to accept refugees. Donald Trump says we should only accept Christian refugees. Chris Christie wouldn’t admit a Syrian orphan under 5—this is getting out of control and fueling the vitriol of the worst among us.
Please, show the President, Congress, and the world, we live up to our American values—Sign if you agree: We must welcome Syrian refugees to rise above the hatred and bigotry being spewed by the Republican party.
Keep fighting,
Rachel Colyer, Daily Kos
From: Andrew Tierman
Subject: FW: The Kochs' agenda:
Billionaires "expect something in return" for their financing of politicians. –AT
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Actually hearing the words out loud was jarring. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Charles Koch was asked about his political contributions, and he said, “I expect something in return.”
There’s no denying it. Under Citizens United, our current political climate is a billionaire’s fantasy.
Citizens United allows ultra-rich tycoons like the Koch brothers to buy influence with the lawmakers they help elect. In return, they expect progress on issues they care about -- issues that build up their fortunes at the expense of the middle class and those scraping by.
Billionaires shouldn’t have more influence than ordinary Americans. If you agree, sign this petition for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
We’ve known for a long time that Citizens United has been chipping away at the bedrock of our democracy, but Wisconsin has experienced the awful consequences firsthand.
Recently, the Kochs’ network waged a campaign to fight reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. Predictably, Republicans in Congress let the bank’s charter expire. As a direct result, General Electric has made the decision to close its Waukesha plant and move its operation to Canada, resulting in 350 Wisconsinites losing their jobs.
Not only will these hardworking Wisconsinites be out of a job, the ripple effect will financially hobble the companies across Wisconsin that supplied the factory.
The Kochs’ work isn’t done. They want to prevent raising the minimum wage, repeal Obamacare, cut taxes for the wealthy, and derail renewable fuel standards and wind energy tax credits. Obviously, all these things are great for the special interests, but not for the hardworking Wisconsinites and middle class Americans I’ve talked to.
Let’s make our system work for everyone. Sign my petition in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
Thank you,
Paid for by Tammy Baldwin for Senate
From: Judy Burnnette
Subject: "We created Islamic extremism: Those blaming Islam for ISIS would have supported Osama bin Laden in the ’80s" | Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/17/we_created_islamic_extremism_those_blaming_islam_for_isis_would_have_supported_osama_bin_laden_in_the_80s/?source=newsletter
From: Ahmad, Khurshid
Subject: Fwd: By the Numbers: What You Need to Know about Syrian Refugees in the U.S.
* * * * The White House * * * *
By the Numbers: What You Need to Know
about Syrian Refugees in the U.S.
The refugees that have captivated so much attention in the wake of Friday's attack are fleeing precisely the type of senseless slaughter that happened in Paris. To slam the door in their faces -- to decide not to help when we know that we can help -- would be a betrayal of our deepest values as Americans.
That's why we're going to do the right thing in the right way: protecting the American people even as we provide refuge to some of the world's most vulnerable people.
Here's what you need to know:
23,092
The number of Syrian refugees UNHCR has referred to the U.S. Refugees Admission Program.
7,014
The number of Syrians the Department of Homeland Security has interviewed since FY 2011.
2,034
The number of Syrian refugees who have been admitted since FY 2011.
0
The number of Syrian refugees resettled in the U.S. that have been arrested or removed on terrorism charges.
#RefugeesWelcome
Learn more about how America can ensure its own security while protecting refugees.
From: khalfani718
Subject: GOP Politicians Rejecting Refugees Sound Like Racist Internet Trolls
GOP Politicians Rejecting Refugees Sound Like Racist Internet Trolls
When our elected officials start spouting rhetoric like that found in the ugliest corners of the Internet, watch out
November 16, 2015
Some Twitter users over the weekend spoke out against allowing Syrian refugees into Europe and the United States. Joe Raedle/Getty
White supremacists didn't like my suggestion that we open our borders to Syrian refugees. After that piece ran on RollingStone.com Saturday, I was flooded with messages on Twitter calling me a "retard," "moron" and "faggot." When they found out I was Jewish, I was a "lying kike motherfucker."
After Paris Attacks, Don't Close Doors to Refugees »
Those were the open extremists, of course, the ones who put hashtags like #WhiteGenocide in their Twitter bios; I saw at least one Hitler photo as an avatar. But whether they were open with their Nazi sympathies or more subtle, one thing was clear: The white-rights crowd does not want Syrian refugees – refugees who are fleeing the very kind of terrorism we saw in Paris last week – to be allowed into the United States. They expressed, in no uncertain terms, that they oppose allowing foreign – and brown! – refugees to come to Europe and America, and they're using the fear of terrorism in the wake of the Paris attacks to spread their racist message.
Nothing they said was surprising. This was the worst the Internet has to offer, after all.
What may be more surprising is how many U.S. politicians are now saying things that sound frighteningly close to that ugly rhetoric.
It is now the mainstream position of the Republican Party that we should immediately stop accepting refugees because of the dangers of terrorism. Former Arkansas governor and B-team presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has even suggested we "close the borders," as though ISIS is sneaking over the Detroit River from Canada.
Republican governors all over the country are announcing they won't allow refugees to be resettled in their states – a power they don't actually have. Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, which has the largest Muslim population in the country, said "our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents." Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley tweeted, "We refuse Syrian refugees" because he "will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm's way." (Because I'm sure ISIS had imminent plans to attack Birmingham.)
Snyder and Bentley were joined in their sentiment by the Republican governors of Texas, Arkansas, Indiana and Louisiana, where presidential candidate Bobby Jindal bragged he "signed an Executive Order instructing state agencies to take all available steps to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees" to his state.
Republicans in D.C. are joining the fray as well. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions wants to put anti-Syrian refugee language into a critical spending bill that needs to pass in less than a month to avert a government shutdown. The entire operations of the United States government could grind to a halt, so Sessions – who was once denied a federal judgeship based on his discomfiting record on race – can make the point that he doesn't think we should resettle Syrian refugees.
When rhetoric not unlike that found in the ugliest corners of the Internet starts to emerge from the mouths of our elected officials, watch out. It's one thing for the fringes to make blanket statements about an entire nationality; it's another thing when our leaders do so.
Donald Trump is currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president; a new Reuters/Ipsos poll out Friday puts him back into a comfortable lead over Ben Carson. Trump's campaign relies on appealing to the worst instincts of the GOP primary electorate. His campaign took off thanks to – not despite – his comments about undocumented Mexican immigrants being "rapists."
Trump doesn't just want to close off our borders to refugees. On Morning Joe Monday, he suggested we might have to. Trump may be a joke, but that language isn't. It is a deliberate attempt to pit the mostly white, Christian voters who support his campaign against Muslims. It's ugly, it's un-American and it should terrify anyone who loves this country that these ideas are becoming mainstream.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gop-politicians-rejecting-refugees-sound-like-racist-internet-trolls-20151116#ixzz3ri4NXnVZ
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
From: Michael Phelan; Social Security Works
Subject: This is how we SAVE Social Security benefits
Together, Social Security Works members are leading the fight to protect and expand Social Security. And with no Cost of Living Adjustment next year, 70 million seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and surviving spouses desperately need a raise.
That’s why we’re working hard to pass Senator Elizabeth Warren’s new bill, the SAVE Benefits Act, which will send those who won't get a COLA a one-time $580 check in 2016. We are rallying support for Senator Warren’s bill both inside and outside of Washington, letting our elected officials know that with rising food, drug, and living costs, we need an emergency payment to make up for no COLA increase.
As Senator Warren says, "CEO pay continues to skyrocket. The average CEO at one of the top 350 American companies made $16.3 million in 2014. The 100 largest CEO retirement accounts are worth a combined $4.9 billion – equal to the entire retirement savings of over 116 million Americans." Yet two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for the majority of their income.
Help Social Security Works rally support for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s SAVE Benefits Act as a lifeline for millions of Americans. Please contribute today!
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately:
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The one-time payment of $580 for 70 million Americans is fully paid for by closing a loophole that subsidizes runaway executive compensation packages, the idea of closing this loophole has consistent bipartisan support. But, don't get us wrong, this is going to be an uphill battle, passing anything through this Congress will be extremely difficult. With your help we can make it happen by raising our voices together, during an election year, and demanding that Congress listen to the American people and pass the SAVE Benefits Act.
Please, contribute today to stand with Social Security Works and rally support for Elizabeth Warren’s SAVE Benefits Act.
P.S., if you'd prefer to donate by check, please click here for instructions.
From: albert baca
Subject: FW: Politics, Great Entertainment
http://www.people-press.org/2015/07/23/gops-favorability-rating-takes-a-negative-turn/
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/260442-dems-warn-gop-on-poison-pills-in-spending-bill
And the beat goes on. La di da di da.
You need to read this one if you are Hispanic like I am. My Baca family has been in New Mexico for over four centuries and I can prove it genealogically:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/18/most-hispanics-vote-democrat-but-most-hispanic-politicians-are-republican-marco-rubio-ted-cruz?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Version+A&utm_term=138156&subid=12501188&CMP=ema_565a#top
For those that don’t know, Susana Barracuda, Gov. of NM is Republican. So is Brian Sandoval, Gov. of NV.
Havana BC (Before Castro) was like Havana in the 1955 movie, Guys and Dolls.
The 26 of July movement was led by Fidel Castro against the US backed authoritarian government of Fulgencio Batista. When Castro succeeded in kicking Batista out of Cuba, Batista fled to Spain. He had pissed off the US because of his ineptness so the US didn’t let him go to his digs in Florida.
All the wealthy Cubans fled to Florida where Ike let them in, no questions asked. That is how Marco Rubio’s parents and Ted Cruz’s father got here. The Cuban “refugees” enjoyed especial privileges. They still do when compared to all other Latin American immigrants.
Castro wanted to establish a “socialist” state. I can’t remember how many times Castro asked Ike for assistance but Ike always said no. Why? The rich Cubans would raise all kinds of hell accompanied by many rich people in the GOP base who had had so much fun partying in Havana. Politically, Ike couldn’t do it even if he had wanted to; which he didn’t.
People in power like to remain in power so Castro turned to Khrushchev. So Cuba became a communist state. Soon you had JFK and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis. After JFK was assassinated, LBJ made the fatal mistake of keeping JFK’s war hawks which soon escalated the goings on in French Indochina into the Viet Nam war. But that is another story. (Hint: How and why did Tiger Woods get the nickname “Tiger”?)
http://www.historytoday.com/melanie-yun/ike-and-vietnam
It is beyond me why Ike was anti-communist to a fault. I really and truly doubt that the west would have been able to beat Hitler without what the Russians were doing from their end. Hitler had one hell of a fight with the Russians. Otherwise, Hitler could have thrown those resources against the west.
Back to Cuba, during the Carter presidency, there was the Mariel boat thing when Castro said anyone who wants to leave Cuba to go to Florida can go and released a bunch of prisoners and mental cases to do so. That drove Carter bananas.
Can anyone remember Cruz or Rubio ever talking about the Mariel boat thing?
Don’t you just love politics?
Talk about great entertainment.
I wonder who will be the next clown to exit the GOP clown car. Collectively, they are making it so easy to elect a democrat in 2016. It will probably be Hill but I feel the Bern.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/2016-election/384828/
From: Judy Burnette
Subject: Ben Norton: "This is why they hate us: The real American history neither Ted Cruz nor the New York Times will tell you"
This is why they hate us: The real American history neither Ted Cruz nor the New York Times will tell you
[...And which too many jingoist "true Americans" don't want to know 'cuz they'd rather keep their heads blissfully up their butts! - Judy B.]
Ben Norton
(Credit: AP/Reuters/Jason Reed/Photo montage by Salon)
The soi-disant Land of the Free and Home of the Brave has a long and iniquitous history of overthrowing democratically elected leftist governments and propping up right-wing dictators in their place.
U.S. politicians rarely acknowledge this odious past — let alone acknowledge that such policies continue well into the present day.
In the second Democratic presidential debate, however, candidate Bernie Sanders condemned a long-standing government policy his peers rarely admit exists.
“I think we have a disagreement,” Sanders said of fellow presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. “And the disagreement is that not only did I vote against the war in Iraq. If you look at history, you will find that regime change — whether it was in the early ’50s in Iran, whether it was toppling Salvador Allende in Chile, or whether it was overthrowing the government of Guatemala way back when — these invasions, these toppling of governments, regime changes have unintended consequences. I would say that on this issue I’m a little bit more conservative than the secretary.”
“I am not a great fan of regime changes,” Sanders added.
“Regime change” is not a phrase you hear discussed honestly much in Washington, yet it is a common practice in and defining feature of U.S. foreign policy for well over a century. For many decades, leaders from both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, have pursued a bipartisan strategy of violently overthrowing democratically elected foreign governments that do not kowtow to U.S. orders.
In the debate, Sanders addressed three examples of U.S. regime change. There are scores of examples of American regime change, yet these are perhaps the most infamous instances.
Iran, 1953
A tank in the streets of Tehran during the 1953 CIA-backed coup
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public domain)
Iran was once a secular democracy. You would not know this from contemporary discussions of the much demonized country in U.S. politics and media.
What happen to Iran’s democracy? The U.S. overthrew it in 1953, with the help of the U.K. Why? For oil.
Mohammad Mosaddegh may be the most popular leader in Iran’s long history. He was also Iran’s only democratically elected head of state.
In 1951, Mosaddegh was elected prime minister of Iran. He was not a socialist, and certainly not a communist — on the contrary, he repressed Iranian communists — but he pursued many progressive, social democratic policies. Mosaddegh pushed for land reform, established rent control, and created a social security system, while working to separate powers in the democratic government.
In the Cold War, however, a leader who deviated in any way from free-market orthodoxy and the Washington Consensus was deemed a threat. When Mossaddegh nationalized Iran’s large oil reserves, he crossed a line that Western capitalist nations would not tolerate.
The New York Times ran an article in 1951 titled “British Warn Iran of Serious Result if She Seizes Oil.” The piece, which is full of orientalist language, refers to Iranian oil as “British oil properties,” failing to acknowledge that Britain, which had previously occupied Iran, had seized that oil and claimed it as its own, administering it under the auspices of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which later became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and eventually British Petroleum and modern BP.
The Times article noted that the U.S. “shares with Britain the gravest concern about the possibility that Iranian oil, the biggest supply now available in the Near East, might be lost to the Western powers.” The British government is quoted making a thinly veiled threat.
This threat came into fruition in August 1953. In Operation Ajax, the CIA, working with its British equivalent MI6, carried out a coup, overthrowing the elected government of Iran and reinstalling the monarchy. The shah would remain a faithful Western ally until 1979, when the monarchy was abolished in the Iranian Revolution.
Guatemala, 1954
A CIA cable documenting Guatemalan dictator Castillo Armas’ plan to overthrow the elected government (Credit: CIA FOIA)
Less than a year after overthrowing Iran’s first democratically elected prime minister, the U.S. pursued a similar regime change policy in Guatemala, toppling the elected leader Jacobo Árbenz.
In 1944, Guatemalans waged a revolution, toppling the U.S.-backed right-wing dictator Jorge Ubico, who had ruled the country with an iron fist since 1931. Ubico, who fancied himself the 20th-century Napoleon, gave rich landowners and the U.S. corporation the United Fruit Company (which would later become Chiquita) free reign over Guatemala’s natural resources, and used the military to violently crush labor organizers.
Juan José Arévalo was elected into office in 1944. A liberal, he pursued very moderate policies, but the U.S. wanted a right-wing puppet regime that would allow U.S. corporations the same privileges granted to them by Ubico. In 1949, the U.S. backed an attempted coup, yet it failed.
In 1951, Árbenz was elected into office. Slightly to the left of Arévalo, Árbenz was still decidedly moderate. The U.S. claimed Árbenz was close to Guatemala’s communists, and warned he could ally with the Soviet Union. In reality, the opposite was true; Árbenz actually persecuted Guatemalan communists. At most, Árbenz was a social democrat, not even a socialist.
Yet Árbenz, like Mosaddegh, firmly believed that Guatemalans themselves, and not multinational corporations, should benefit from their country’s resources. He pursued land reform policies that would break up the control rich families and the United Fruit Company exercised over the country — and, for that reason, he was overthrown.
President Truman originally authorized a first coup attempt, Operation PBFORTUNE, in 1952. Yet details about the operation were leaked to the public, and the plan was abandoned. In 1954, in Operation PBSUCCESS, the CIA and U.S. State Department, under the Dulles Brothers, bombed Guatemala City and carried out a coup that violently toppled Guatemala’s democratic government.
The U.S. put into power right-wing tyrant Carlos Castillo Armas. For the next more than 50 years, until the end of the Guatemalan Civil War in 1996, Guatemala was ruled by a serious of authoritarian right-wing leaders who brutally repressed left-wing dissidents and carried out a campaign of genocide against the indigenous people of the country.
Chile, 1973
Pinochet’s soldiers burning left-wing books after the 1973 U.S.-backed coup in Chile (Credit: CIA FOIA/Weekly Review)
September 11 has permanently seared itself into the memory of Americans. The date has also been indelibly imprinted in the public consciousness of Chileans, because it was on this same day in 1973 that the U.S. backed a coup that violently overthrew Chile’s democracy.
In 1970, Marxist leader Salvador Allende was democratically elected president of Chile. Immediately after he was elected, the U.S. government poured resources into right-wing opposition groups and gave millions of dollars to Chile’s conservative media outlets.
The CIA deputy director of plans wrote in a 1970 memo, “It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup… It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG [U.S. government] and American hand be well hidden.” President Nixon subsequently ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream” in Chile, to “prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him.”
Allende’s democratic government was violently overthrown on September 11, 1973. He died in the coup, just after making an emotional speech, in which he declared he would give his life to defend Chilean democracy and sovereignty.
Far-right dictator Augusto Pinochet, who combined fascistic police state repression with hyper-capitalist free-market economic policies, was put into power. Under Pinochet’s far-right dictatorship, tens of thousands of Chilean leftists, labor organizers, and journalists were killed, disappeared, and tortured. Hundreds of thousands more people were forced into exile.
One of the most prevailing myths of the Cold War is that socialism was an unpopular system imposed on populations with brute force. Chile serves as a prime historical example of how the exact opposite was true. The masses of impoverished and oppressed people elected many socialist governments, yet these governments were often violently overthrown by the U.S. and other Western allies.
The overthrow of Allende was a turning point for many socialists in the Global South. Before he was overthrown, some leftists thought popular Marxist movements could gain state power through democratic elections, as was the case in Chile. Yet when they saw how the U.S. violently toppled Allende’s elected government, they became suspicious of the prospects of electoral politics and turned to guerrilla warfare and other tactics.
Modern example: Egypt, 2013
Protesters in the August 2013 Raba’a massacre, carried out by Sisi’s U.S.-backed coup government (Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Flickr/Mosa’ab Elshamy)
These are just a small sample of the great many regime changes the U.S. government has been involved in. More recent examples, which were supported by Hillary Clinton, as Sanders implied, include the U.S. government’s overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Qadhafi in Libya. In these cases, the U.S. was overthrowing dictators, not democratically elected leaders — but, as Sanders pointed out, the results of these regime changes have been nothing short of catastrophic.
The U.S. is also still engaging in regime change when it comes to democratically elected governments.
In the January 2011 revolution, Egyptians toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak, a close U.S. ally who ruled Egypt with an iron fist for almost 30 years.
In July 2013, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, was overthrown in a military coup. We now know that the U.S. supported and bankrolled the opposition forces that overthrew the democratically elected president.
Today, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a brutal despot who is widely recognized as even worse than Mubarak, reigns over Egypt. In August 2013, Sisi oversaw a slaughter of more than 800 peaceful Egyptian activists at Raba’a Square. His regime continues to shoot peaceful protesters in the street. An estimated 40,000 political prisoners languish in Sisi’s jails, including journalists.
In spite of his obscene human rights abuses, Sisi remains a close ally of the U.S. and Israel — much, much closer than was the democratically elected President Morsi.
In the second Democratic presidential debate, when Sanders called Clinton out on her hawkish, pro-regime change policies, she tried to blame the disasters in the aftermath in countries like Iraq and Libya on the “complexity” of the Middle East. As an example of this putative complexity, Clinton cited Egypt. “We saw a dictator overthrown, we saw Muslim Brotherhood president installed, and then we saw him ousted and the army back,” she said.
Clinton failed to mention two crucial factors: One, that the U.S. backed Mubarak until the last moment; and two, that the U.S. also supported the coup that overthrew Egypt’s first and only democratically elected head of state.
Other examples
The political cartoon “Ten Thousand Miles from Tip to Tip,” published in the Philadelphia Press in 1898 (Credit: Public domain)
There are scores of other examples of U.S.-led regime change.
In 1964 the U.S. backed a coup in Brazil, toppling left-wing President João Goulart.
In 1976, the U.S. supported a military coup in Argentina that replaced President Isabel Perón with General Jorge Rafael Videla.
In 2002, the U.S. backed a coup that overthrew democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Chávez was so popular, however, that Venezuelans filled the street and demanded him back.
In 2004, the U.S. overthrew Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
In 2009, U.S.-trained far-right forces overthrew the democratically elected government of Honduras, with tacit support from Washington.
The list goes on.
Latin America, given its proximity to the U.S. and the strength of left-wing movements in the region, tends to endure the largest number of U.S. regime changes, yet the Middle East and many parts of Africa have seen their democratic governments overthrown as well.
From 1898 to 1994, Harvard University historian John Coatsworth documented at least 41 U.S. interventions in Latin America — an an average of one every 28 months for an entire century.
Numerous Latin American military dictators were trained at the School of the Americas, a U.S. Department of Defense Institute in Fort Benning, Georgia. The School of the Americas Watch, an activist organization that pushes for the closing of the SOA, has documented many of these regime changes, which have been carried out by both Republicans and Democrats.
Diplomatic cables released by whistleblowing journalism outlet WikiLeaks show the U.S. still maintains a systematic campaign of trying to overthrow Latin America’s left-wing governments.
By not just acknowledging the bloody and ignominious history of U.S. regime change, but also condemning it, Sen. Sanders was intrepidly trekking into controversial political territory into which few of his peers would dare to tread. Others would do well to learn from Bernie’s example.
From: James Lucas
Subject: paris and terrorism
http://www.countercurrents.org/print.html
Appalling Paris Atrocity – Non-State Terrorist Blowback For US Alliance And French State Terrorism Atrocities
By Dr Gideon Polya on 16 November, 2015; Countercurrents.org
The appalling Paris atrocity – about 130 innocent civilians killed and 300 wounded - must be unequivocally condemned as utterly barbaric by all decent people throughout the world but also demands honest appraisal as evident “blowback” for the role of France under serial war criminal President Francois Hollande in the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) –promoted US War on Muslims (13 million Muslim deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation since 1990). In the 21st century a US lackey, nuclear terrorist, New Vichy France has attacked or otherwise sent military forces to 13 substantially Muslim countries and is major backer of nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel.
The reality of France's role in the ongoing, post-1990 US War on Muslims was incisively exposed at the time of the French invasion of Mali in 2013 when outstanding anti-racist Jewish American human rights activist, lawyer, author, investigative journalist and critic of western imperialism, Apartheid Israel and the US surveillance state, Glenn Greenwald, writing in the UK Guardian, stated: “As French war planes bomb Mali, there is one simple statistic that provides the key context: this west African nation of 15 million people is the eighth country in which western powers - over the last four years alone - have bombed and killed Muslims - after Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and the Philippines (that does not count the numerous lethal tyrannies propped up by the west in that region). For obvious reasons, the rhetoric that the west is not at war with the Islamic world grows increasingly hollow with each new expansion of this militarism. But within this new massive bombing campaign, one finds most of the vital lessons about western intervention that, typically, are steadfastly ignored” [1].
In January 2014 it was estimated that France had invaded about 80 countries since the time of Charlemagne, but that listing (now 82) requires an updating to more precisely include war criminal French military activities in 14 countries (13 substantially Muslim) in the 21st century under President Francois Hollande and his predecessor President Nicolas Sarkozy.
These 21st century 14 national victims of French state terrorism are highlighted in bold below in the list of 82 countries invaded by France together with the approximate dates for the entry of French forces [2]:
Western Europe – Austria (1805, 1809, 1945), Belgium (9th- 12th century, 15th -18th century, 1797), France (Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade, 1209-1229; Huguenot Massacres, 1572; French Revolution Reign of Terror, 1793-1794; Vichy French Jewish Genocide, 1941-1945), Germany (6th century, 800-814, 1812, 1919, 1945), Italy (800-814, 16th – 18th century, 1796-1815), Luxembourg (1797, 1866), Malta (1798), Netherlands (9th century, 14th – 15th century, 17th -18th century, 1672, 1794), Portugal (17th -18th century, 1807), Spain (18th century, 1808), Switzerland (9th-16th century, 1515), Britain (UK) (1066; Hundred Years War, 1337-1437).
Eastern Europe – Belarus (1812), Hungary (1919), Lithuania (1812), Poland (1807, 1812), Russia (1812, 1918-1920).
Non-Arab Africa – Benin (17th - 19th century slavery , 1863, 1891-1894, 1904, 1977), Burkina Faso (1805-1894, 2013), Cameroon (1916, 1919, 1946), Central African Republic (1897, 1979, 1997, 2013), Chad (1890, 1894, 1960, 1972, 1975, 2013), Comoros (1843, 1978), Congo (Brazzaville) (16th – 19th century slavery, 1880, 1880s-1930s, genocide by French), Congo (Zaire) (1960s -21st century, French peace keepers), Côte D'Ivoire (15th – 19th century slavery, 1842; 2002), Djibouti (1862, 1975 onwards), Equatorial Guinea (15th – 19th century slavery, 1900), Gabon (15th – 19th century slavery, 1885, 1964), Gambia (15th – 19th century slavery, 1867, 1981), Guinea (15th – 19th century slavery, 1849, 1886), Liberia ( 15th – 19th century slavery), Madagascar (1642, 1883, Mali (19th century, 1850, 2013), Mauritania (1858, 1903, 1920, 2013), Mauritius (1715-1810), Niger (1885, 1890s, 1922, 1946, 2013), Réunion (1638), Sao Tomé and Principe (15th – 19th century slavery), Senegal (1638, 1639, 1677, 1775-1783, 1854-1885) , Seychelles (1756), Sierra Leone (15th – 19th century slavery), Somalia (1862, 2009, 2013), Togo (16th – 19th century slavery, 1897, 1912-1918, 1992, 1946), Western Sahara (20th century, 1904).
North America – Canada (1534), United States (17th century).
Latin America - Dominica (16th century), Dominican Republic (1697, 1795), French Guiana (1604), Grenada (1674), Guadeloupe (16th century), Haiti (1697, 1801, 2004), Martinique (1635), Mexico (1861), Monserrat (16th century), Puerto Rico (16th century), Saint Lucia (1660), Turks and Caicos (17th century, 1764).
North Africa and Middle East - Algeria (1820s), Egypt (1798, 1956), Iraq (1991, 2014), Lebanon (11th – 13th century Crusades, 1861, 1916, 1919), Libya (1815, 1940 with UK , 2011), Morocco (1854), Palestine (11th – 13th century Crusades), Syria (11th – 13th century Crusades, 1916, 1920, 1941, 1945, 2014), Tunisia (1881, 1945).
Turkey , Central Asia - Afghanistan (2001), Turkey (1915).
South Asia - Bangladesh (16th -18th century), India (16th -18th century).
South East Asia – Cambodia (1854, 1863, 1945), Laos (1893, 1945), Vietnam (1860, 1945).
East Asia – China (1856), Korea (1950).
Pacific - French Polynesia (1840), New Caledonia (1853), New Zealand (Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior bombing, 1985), Vanuatu (19th century).
To reiterate, France in the 21st century has invaded or otherwise had military forces in 14 countries of which all but Haiti had substantial Muslim populations. Under serial war criminal President Francois Hollande, France is currently involved militarily in 11 substantially Muslim countries (and one supposes also reserves a France-UK-US (FUKUS) Alliance “right” to continue to bomb targets in Libya, a “right” currently being exercised by the US). This list does not include an uncertain number of countries in which France is involved in clandestinely, in military training or in arms dealing.
Military invasion, bombing, and military-backed neo-colonial hegemony will result in not only deaths from violence but also in avoidable deaths from war- or hegemony-imposed deprivation as analyzed in my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” [3]. Avoidable death, avoidable mortality, excess death, excess mortality, premature death, untimely death, death that should not have happened) is the difference between the observed deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently governed country with the same demographics (i.e. the same birth rate and age distribution) [3]. Thus 1.3 billion people have died avoidably in the period 1950-2005, 1.2 million in the Developing World and 0.6 million in the Muslim World, a Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide 100 times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed) or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust in which the British with Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death for strategic reasons (genocidally racist White Australia was complicit by withholding food from starving Indian from its huge wartime grain stores) [4-7].
As summarized below, over 142 million people have died avoidably from deprivation since 1950 in countries occupied by France in the post-WW2 era. The most justifiably much-admired beauty and elegance of Paris, France, French high culture and French haute couture have come at an enormous price for Developing countries and Muslim countries in particular.
The following summary data is of post-1950 avoidable mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) for France, for each country occupied by France in the post-1945 era, and as a total for all the countries subject to French occupation in that period. The asterisk (*) indicates a major occupation by more than one country in the post-WW2 era: France [3.275m/60.711m = 5.4%] - Algeria [7.167m/32.877m =21.8%], Benin [3.267m/7.103m = 46.0%], Burkina Faso [6.810m/13.798m = 49.4%], Cambodia* [5.852m/14.825m = 39.5%], Cameroon* [6.669m/16.564m = 40.3%], Central African Republic [2.274m/3.962m =57.4%], Chad [5.085m/9.117m = 55.8%], Comoros [0.204m/0.812m =25.1%], Congo (Brazzaville) [1.085m/3.921m = 27.7%], Côte d'Ivoire [6.953m/17.165m = 40.5%], Djibouti [0.265m/0.721m = 36.8%], Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], French Guiana [0.010m/0.187m = 5.3%], French Polynesia [0.018m/0.252m = 7.1%], Gabon [0.504m/1.375m = 36.7%], Guadeloupe [0.025m/0.446m = 5.6%], Guinea [5.185m/8.788m = 59.0%], Haiti* [4.089m/8.549m = 47.9%], Laos* [2.653m/5.918m = 44.8%], Madagascar [7.098m/18.409m = 38.6%], Mali [6.808m/13.829m = 49.2%], Martinique [0.022m/0.397m = 5.5%], Mauritania [1.294m/3.069m = 42.2%], Mauritius [0.064m/1.244m = 5.18], Morocco* [8.202m/31.564m = 26.0%], New Caledonia [0.017m/0.237m = 7.2%], Niger [6.558m/12.873m = 50.9%], Réunion [0.047m/0.777m = 6.0%], Senegal [4.457m/9.393m = 47.5%], Syria* [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], Togo [1.950m/5.129m = 38.0%], Tunisia [1.582m/10.042m =15.8%], Vanuatu* [0.037m/0.222m = 16.7%], Vietnam* [24.015m/83.585m = 28.7%], Total = 142.291m/430.678m = 33.0% [3].
The 21st century French military involvements from Haiti to Afghanistan are summarized below with countries in alphabetical order together with data on (a) current population, (b) 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation [3], (c) current annual avoidable deaths in 2015 from deprivation, and (d) annual per capita GDP (noting that the annual per capita GDP for rich, peaceful and independent France is $41,000):
Afghanistan [32.5 million; (b) 16.6 million; (c) 149,000; (d) $1,900]. Remote Afghanistan has been repeatedly invaded by the British (19th century), the Russians (1979) and thence by the US Alliance including France (2001). 2,000 French combat troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2012 leaving 1,400 for training and logistics. The continuing US Alliance Afghan War (6 million Afghan deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation) [8, 9] was ostensibly about the presence in Afghanistan of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and their supposed responsibility for 9-11, an atrocity that numerous science, engineering, architecture, aviation, military and intelligence experts say was a US Government false flag operation, with some asserting Israeli involvement [10]. However Al Jazeera reported a recent interview with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai thus (2015): "On the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Afghan President Hamid Karzai joins Mehdi Hasan in UpFront's Headliner segment. In this online preview, Karzai dismisses al-Qaeda's presence in the country, calling it a "myth". “[Al-Qaeda] is for me a myth … For us, they don't exist.” “I don't know if al-Qaeda existed and I don't know if they exist," said Karzai. "I have not seen them and I've not had any report about them, any report that would indicate that al-Qaeda is operating in Afghanistan." Asked whether he believed Osama bin Laden carried out the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington DC and plotted them from Afghanistan, he responded: "That is what I have heard from our Western friends. That's what the Western media says. There is no doubt that an operation, a terrorist operation was conducted in New York and in Washington." Asked again by Hasan if he believed the 9/11 attacks were the responsibility of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the former president responded: "I neither believe nor disbelieve something that I don't know about. I can tell you that Afghanistan was as much a victim of terrorism as was America, as were the people who were killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks" [11]. The horrendous death toll in Afghanistan (6 million Afghan deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation since 2001) indicate the appropriateness of the terms Afghan Holocaust and Afghan Genocide to describe the France-complicit US Afghan War [8, 9]. However one cannot ignore collateral damage from French-complicit Afghan genocide – 1 million people have died from opiate related causes globally due to the US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 6% of world market share in 2001 to 93% in 2007, the breakdown (as of 2015) including 280,000 Americans, 256,000 Indonesians, 68,000 Iranians, 25,000 British, 14,000 Canadians, 10,000 Germans, 5,000 Australians and 500 French [8].
Burkina Faso [(a) 18.1 million; (b) 6.8 million; (c) 109,000; (d) $1,700]. Burkina Faso was brutally colonized by the French in the period 1805-1894 [3, 12] and gained nominal independence in 1960 from France, which nevertheless retained neocolonial hegemony. French forces returned in 2013 as part of Operation Burkhane directed against Muslim rebels in the Sahel [13].
Central African Republic [(a) 4.9 million; (b) 2.3 million; (c) 55,000; (d) $600]. The Central African Republic was colonized brutally by France in the late 19th century and gained nominal independence in 1960 from France, which nevertheless retained neocolonial hegemony [3]. In the post-2013 Central African Republic (CAR) civil war after Seleka rebels led by Djotodia (a Muslim) seized the capital, Bangui, Christian and animist anti-balaka forces have targeted Muslims. 6,000 people have been killed, nearly all of the 436 mosques in the country have been destroyed, and Muslims are being targeted for forced conversion or expulsion. The UN reports that that 2.7 million people are in need of aid, and 1.5 million people were affected by food insecurity. The UNHCR reports that 0.5 million people out of a population of about 5 million have been displaced and 0.4 million have fled to neighbouring states [14, 15]. According to the Guardian: “France ordered the deployment of 1,200 additional soldiers, following a call for help from the interim government and a UN security council resolution. They joined 3,500 soldiers from a central African support mission. At the start of 2014, a quarter of the country's entire population was internally displaced. International pressure forced [Muslim Seleka leader] Djotodia to step down, and soon the Séléka were retreating north, where they continued to target Christians. But as the anti-balaka made inroads elsewhere, villages emptied of their Muslim populations, with homes looted and mosques torched. In the capital, Bangui, the Muslim population dropped from up to 145,000 to just 900. Amnesty International called it ethnic cleansing and warned of a Muslim exodus of historic proportions. Many Muslims were left feeling resentful towards French peacekeepers and the new president, Catherine Samba-Panza, a Christian who studied in France and has two of her three children living there” [16].
Chad [(a) 14.0 million; (b) 5.1 million; (c) 147,000; (d) $2,600]. Chad was brutally colonized by France in the 1890s and gained nominal independence in 1960 from France, which nevertheless retained neocolonial hegemony [3] . French forces repeatedly intervened from the 1980s onwards against northern Muslim rebels. French forces returned in force in 2013 as part of Operation Burkhane directed against Muslim rebels in the Sahel [13].
Côte D'Ivoire [(a) 20.1 million; (b) 7.0 million; (c) 199,000; (d) $3,100]. Côte D'Ivoire was ravaged by French, British and Portuguese slave traders in the 15th – 19th centuries, was brutally colonized by the French in the period 1842-1944, and finally regained independence in 1960 but with brutal French repression of the socialist independence movement. The French re-invaded in 2002 and French forces have remained ever since [3], with the French now reinforcing their base at the capital, Abidjan, as a key part of their military and economic control over the region [13].
Djibouti [(a) 0.9 million; (b) 141,000; (c) 8,000; (d) $3,100]. Djibouti was seized by France in the 1860s but gained nominal independence in 1977 with a major, continuing French , US and British presence. Djibouti was the base for French participation in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. The French were involved in suppressing Affar rebellion in the period 1977-2002. In 2003 the French lackey government sought the expulsion of 0.1 million Ethiopians and Somalis [3]. France gave the former French Foreign Legion Camp Lemonnier to the government of Djibouti, which then leased it to the US in 2001. France maintains over 1,500 troops in Djibouti and French forces in Djibouti have taken part in operations in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Côte D'Ivoire [13].
Haiti [(a) 10.7 million; (b) 4.1 million; (c) 52,000, (d) $1,800]. Haiti was acquired by France in 1697 and was used for a slave-based plantation economy. A slave rebellion in 1789 led to British invasion in 1793. In 1804 an independent Haiti was declared but the new state was subject to repeated US intervention and invasion, culminating in decades of brutal rule in the 20th century by “Papa Doc” Duvalier. A democratically-elected Haitian Government under President Aristide was terminated in 2004 and Aristide was kidnapped and removed to Africa by the US. US lackey French forces were brought in as “peace keepers” but were later replaced by US lackey Latin American forces.
Iraq [(a) 36.4 million; (b) 5.3 million; (c) 47,000; (d) $15,300]. Iraq was invaded by the UK in 2014. The UK continued to repress Iraqi rebellion in Iraq up to and including WW2, notwithstanding ostensible Iraqi independence in 1932. France was involved in the Gulf War (1990-1991) in which 0.2 million Iraqis were killed and in the war criminal 1990-2003 Sanctions in which Iraqi deaths from imposed deprivation totalled 1.7 million. France was not directly involved in the 2003-2011 US Alliance Iraq War in which 2.7 million Iraqis died from violence (1.5 million) or from war-imposed deprivation (1.2 million). France became involved in US Alliance bombing of Iraq in 2014, intervention that may prolong war and civil war in Iraq for decades more. The Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide has, so far, been associated with 1.7 million violent deaths, 2.9 million avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation, 5-6 million refugees and 2 million under-5 infant deaths (90% avoidable and due to horrendous US Alliance war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention) [9, 17].
Libya [(a) 6.3 million; (b) 0.8 million; (c) 8,000; (d) $15,900]. France was involved with the UK in attacking Libya in 1815. Libya was brutally occupied by Italy in the period 1911-1943 but was “liberated” and ruled by the UK and France until UN administration in 1949 and independence in 1951. Under Muammar Gaddafi (1969-2011) Libya became the most prosperous country in all of Africa. The 2011 France-UK-US (FUKUS) Alliance bombing campaign removed Gaddafi, splintered the country, killed 100,000 people and generated 1 million refugees. From zero annual avoidable deaths under Gaddafi, UN demographic data now indicate 8,000 avoidable deaths annually in a devastated Libya. The US continues to bomb Libya.
Mali [(a) 20.1 million; (b) 7.0 million; (c) 199,000; (d) $1,700]. Mali was brutally subdued by the French in the 19th century but secured independence in 1960. In 2013, France launched airstrikes against Tuareg rebels who had conquered the northern half of the country and finally defeated them in a so-called Operation Serval. France followed up Operation Serval with Operation Barkhane dedicated to killing Muslim rebels in the Sahel countries of Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
Mauritania [(a) 17.6 million; (b) 1.3 million; (c) 123,000; (d) $4,300]. In the 14th and 15th centuries Mauritania was part of the Mali Empire but was increasingly subject to European (Portuguese, English, Dutch and French) incursion, In the 19th century the French invaded to consolidate French territory from Senegal to the Sudan. Mauritanian resistance was only finally overcome in the 1930s. Mauritania became formally independent in 1960 but was subject to French hegemony and interference. France's Operation Barkhane involves thousands of air-supported French troops dedicated to killing Muslim rebels in the Sahel countries of Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
Niger [(a) 19.9 million; (b) 6.6 million; (c) 111,000. (d) $1,100]. In the 17th century Niger was part of the Songhai Empire based on the River Niger. Niger was conquered by France in the late 19th century but became ostensibly independent in 1960 but under French hegemony. The French Operation Barkhane involves thousand of air-supported French troops dedicated to killing Muslim rebels in the Sahel countries of Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
Somalia [(a) 10,8 million; (b) 5.6 million; (c) 91,000. (d) $600]. Somalia was repeatedly invaded by Italy in the 19th century and the 20th century. The British took over Somalia in WW2. Independence in 1960 was followed by war against Ethiopia and civil war, the effects of which were exacerbated by drought and famine. The US invaded in 1992 and after extensive civil war an Islamic administration assumed power in 2005. However the US backed an Ethiopian invasion in 2007 and thence a Kenyan invasion. In 2009 France and Germany invaded Somali waters to retake a French yacht which had been captured by Somali pirates. In 2013 French special forces from Djibouti failed in an operation to rescue French intelligence agent from Indigenous Somali al-Shabaab forces in the town of Buulo Mareer.
Syria [18.5 million; (b) 2.2 million; (c) 30,000; (d) $5,100]. French crusaders invaded Syria in the 11th and 12th centuries. Notwithstanding Arab participation in the British defeat of the Turks in WW2, secret deception by the Allies via the 1916 Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement divided the Middle East between Britain and France. In 1920 Syria was put under a League of Nations mandate to France. In 1925 there was a Druze rebellion and the French bombarded Damascus. In 1926 Lebanon was separated from Syria by France and in 1936 Syria was granted autonomy. In 1941 British and Free French forces invaded to defeat pro-Nazi Vichy French forces. In 1944 Syria became independent and in 1945 Syria became a founding member of the UN. The last French forces left Syria in 1946. However French diplomatic, military, financial and nuclear assistance to Apartheid Israel ultimately enabled Apartheid Israel to occupy and largely ethnically cleanse the Golan Heights part of Syria in 1967 and to regularly bomb Syria with impunity since then. France (together with Turkey, the US, UK, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) has materially and diplomatically backed anti-Assad rebels in Syria since about 2011 and only a Russia/China veto at the UN Security Council prevented a France-UK-US (FUKUS) Alliance repeat in Syria of what FUKUS did to Libya. Assad's Syria barely survives as a rare secular state in the Muslim world with Russian and Iranian support whereas US policy has destroyed secular regimes elsewhere in the Muslim world, notably in Afghanistan (1978), Iran ( 1953), Iraq (2003) and Libya (2011)[18]. Assad commenting after the Paris atrocity: “[France's] mistaken policies... have contributed to the spread of terrorism… France has got to know what we live with in Syria…[ President Francois Hollande] should change his policy…The question that is being asked throughout France today is, was France's policy over the past five years the right one? The answer is no" [19]. Indeed on 12 November 2012, precisely 3 years before the Paris attack, France became the first Western power to officially recognise Syria's opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people [20]. The Syrian Civil War has so far killed about 0.3 million people violently, possibly killed about 0.3 million people through war-imposed deprivation, and generated about 12 million refugees. Syria was once a haven of religious toleration [21] and a world leader per capita in providing haven for refugees, but has now been devastated in a France-, UK-, US- and Apartheid Israel-backed sectarian civil war and half of its population are now refugees themselves.
France has invaded about 82 countries (as compared to the UK 193, Australia 95, the US 70, the US 70, Germany 38, Japan 30, Russia 24, Canada 24, Apartheid Israel 12 and China 2) [2, 22-24 ], testament to an entrenched culture of French hubris, French imperialism, French racism and French state terrorism. Many throughout the world are quite rightly appalled by the Paris atrocity but ignore or excuse the continuing, horrendous record of French invasions of other countries, French state terrorism and war crimes such as those for which Nazi German generals were hanged after 1945.
Indeed the ongoing war criminal French invasion of other countries in the 21st century is regarded by many in the Orwellian, Zionist-perverted US Alliance Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies as “peace keeping” or “responsibility to protect” (”R2P”) i.e. these egregious war crimes are not considered to be crimes at all but are regarded as noble humanitarian endeavours. This Mainstream media whitewashing of French war crimes reminds one of the words of great French playwright Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) in “Tartuffe ou L'Imposteur” (“Tartuffe or the Hypocrite”): “Le scandale du monde est ce que fait l'offence, Et ce n'est pas pécher que pécher en silence (It is public scandal that constitutes offence, and to sin in secret is not to sin at all)” [3].
People are rightly appalled by the Paris atrocities perpetrated against hundreds of unarmed and innocent civilians but ignore the Elephant in the Room reality that since the defeat of Napoleon by the Russians and thence by the British and Germans at Waterloo, the French have mostly directed their military prowess against effectively unarmed and impoverished people in the Americas (Mexico, Guiana and Haiti) , the northern half of Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, East Asia (China) and the Pacific. Almost none of these victim countries have ever invaded other countries and then only with contiguous, neighbouring countries [3]. Indeed of the 14 countries bombed or occupied by France in the 21st century, only Iraq and Libya had invaded a neighbour (UK-created Kuwait and Chad, respectively). The annual per capita GDP of France's 14 impoverished 21st century victims range from $600 (Central African Republic and Somalia) to $15,300 and $15,900 for oil-rich Iraq and Libya, respectively, as compared to $41,000 for serial-invader and Syrian terrorism-supporting France, $54,000 for serial invader and Syrian terrorism-supporting US, $137,000 for Syrian terrorism–supporting and Yemen-invading Qatar and $52,000 for Syrian terrorism-supporting and Yemen-invading Saudi Arabia [25].
Conclusions.
Decent people around the world will unreservedly condemn the appalling Paris atrocity involving about 130 innocent and unarmed civilians killed and 300 wounded. However this atrocity is evident “blowback” for the role of France under serial war criminal Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande in the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)–promoted US War on Muslims that amounts to a Muslim Holocaust and a Muslim Genocide (13 million Muslim deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation since 1990). Indeed ISIS has claimed responsibility for this atrocity, citing the French military involvement in Syria.
In the 21st century a US lackey, nuclear terrorist, New Vichy France has attacked or otherwise sent military forces to 13 substantially Muslim countries and is major backer of nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel that is responsible for an ongoing Palestinian Genocide ( 2 million Palestinian deaths since 1936 from violence, 0.1 million, or from violently-imposed deprivation, 1.9 million [26]).
Decent people must wonder what they can do in the face of appalling non-state terrorism as exhibited by ISIS in this latest Paris atrocity and the vastly worse carnage wrought by French state terrorism, US state terrorism, UK state terrorism and Apartheid Israeli state terrorism in the Muslim world. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people who are utterly opposed to both non-state terrorism and state terrorism must (a) inform everyone they can, (b) urge and support urgent cease-fire, dialogue and compromise between all parties to prevent a worsening catastrophe in both Iraq and Syria, and (c) urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all people, parties, politicians, companies, corporations and countries disproportionately involved in militarism, violence, war, non-state terrorism and state terrorism.
Unfortunately in New Vichy France under serial war criminal Hollande, (a) there is a massive media ignoring, as in the rest of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)–dominated West, of the horrendous realities of US Alliance state terrorism, (b) the rational course of urgent cease-fire, dialogue and compromise is dismissed in favour of endless high technology extermination, and (c) a recent French court ruling makes it now effectively illegal in France for pro-peace and pro-human rights activists to advocate Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against neo-Nazi apartheid states like Apartheid Israel and their racist supporters [27]. Decent French people must respond to the appalling Paris atrocity by recognizing the racist and murderous evil of state terrorism and its propensity to excite murderous non-state terrorism – they must get rid of Hollande and his ilk at the ballot box.
References.
[1]. Glenn Greenwald, “The bombing of Mali highlights all the lessons of western intervention”, Guardian, 15 January 2013: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/14/mali-france-bombing-intervention-libya .
[2]. Gideon Polya, “President Hollande And French Invasion Of Privacy Versus French Invasion Of 80 Countries Since 800 AD”, Countercurrents, 15 January, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150114.htm .
[3]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes an avoidable mortality-related history of every country since Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on he web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html .
[4]. “Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Bengal Famine) writings of Gideon Polya”, Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/bengali-holocaust .
[5]. Gideon Polya (1998), “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”, 2008 edition that is now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ .
[6]. Gideon Polya (1995) " The Forgotten Holocaust - The 1943/44 Bengal Famine": http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com.au/2005/07/forgotten-holocaust-194344-bengal.html .
[7]. Gideon Polya (2011), “Australia And Britain Killed 6-7 Million Indians In WW2 Bengal Famine”, Countercurrents, 29 September, 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya290911.htm .
[8]. “Afghan Holocaust Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .
[9]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[10]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
[11]. “Preview: Hamid Karzai says al-Qaeda is a “myth'”, Al Jazeera, 10 September 2015: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2015/09/preview-hamid-karzai-al-qaeda-myth-150910101842572.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=*AfPak%20Daily%20Brief ).
[12]. Sven Lindqvist, “Exterminate All The Brutes”.
[13]. Jeremy Bender, “France's military is all over Africa”, Business Insider Australia, 23 January 2015: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/frances-military-is-all-over-africa-2015-1 .
[14]. Azzad Essa, “Muslims being “erased” from Central African Republic”, Al Jazeera, 31 July 2015: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/amnesty-muslims-erased-central-african-republic-150731083248166.html
[15]. UNHCR, “Central African Republic”: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e45c156.html .
[16]. David Smith, “France's poisoned legacy in the Central African Republic”, Guardian, 29 April 2015: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/29/france-poisoned-legacy-central-african-republic .
[17]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[18]. Gideon Polya, “Fundamentalist America Has Trashed Secular Governance, Modernity, Democracy, Women's Rights And Children's Rights In The Muslim World”, Countercurrents, 21 May, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210515.htm
[19]. Imed Lamloun, “Syria's Assad blames France as Arab world condemns Paris attacks”, Yahoo News, 14 November 2015: http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-assad-blames-france-arab-world-condemns-paris-193922961.html .
[20]. “Syria: France backs anti-Assad coalition”, BBC News, 13 November 2012: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-20319787 .
[21]. William Dalrymple, “From the Holy Mountain”.
[22]. Gideon Polya, “As UK Lackeys Or US Lackeys Australians Have Invaded 85 Countries (British 193, French 80, US 70)”, Countercurrents, 9 February, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya090215.htm .
[23]. Gideon Polya, “The US Has Invaded 70 Nations Since 1776 – Make 4 July Independence From America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm .
[24]. Gideon Polya, “British Have Invaded 193 Countries: Make 26 January ( Australia Day, Invasion Day) British Invasion Day”, Countercurrents, 23 January, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya230115.htm .
[25]. “List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita .
[26]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[27]. Ali Abunimah, “France now more repressive of boycott calls than Israel”, Electronic Intifada, 4 November 2015: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-now-more-repressive-boycott-calls-israel .
Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
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