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chuckle8 ~ Dresden, Berlin, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Napalm in Vietnam, Cruise missiles in Iraq, how about Drone strikes in residential areas from Syria to Pakistan--all cases of blatant targeting and annihilating of countless innocent civilians. You forget when you kill someone without a trial they are innocent forever by our definition of law because they can no longer be proven guilty.
To answer your question, no I don't have a single example of the US targeting innocent civilians--I have a plethora of examples.
To believe the 911 attack was staged by the government is a step into a complete state of paranoia, believing the government needed an excuse to attack Afghanistan just does not make any sense. What would the government gain by attacking a country with no natural resources and a military that virtually was nonexistent? The Cold War was over and technology has made the need of being on Russia's back door an unneeded advantage. The only viable concept is that we went into Afghanistan after the terrorists who actually put together and implemented the attacks on N.Y.C., the Pentagon and the White House. The terrorists or Al Qaida were themselves unaware that they would be able to actually bring down the towers, they were hoping to knock out the commercial entities located in these two buildings and strike fear into the hearts of Americans that felt they were untouchable. They had a record of attacking smaller targets like the naval vessel that was attacked in a foreign port and several sailors were killed. The reason for going into Iraq is a different matter with several viable reasons why G. Bush and Cheney felt the invasion was needed. From finishing the job Bush senior left uncompleted in his son's mind to stealing the vast oil reserves Iraq has is why we ended up in a war that destroyed Iraq and helped to push our country deeper into debt. The trumped up charges that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction to the lies Saddam was involved with Al Qaida were all lies that led us into an illegal war with a country that had not attacked American interests at that time and was virtually crippled militarily from the Gulf War. How does one leap from Afghanistan to the conspiracy theory the Bush Whitehouse staged 911 to attack Iraq?
As far as the bombings that occurred in Boston yesterday, I believe we will discover that it was actually an American psychopath or a home grown terrorists group that attack innocent civilians made up of men, women and children. It sounds like something a group like the Weathermen from the 1960's would do to make a political point against our government. I truly believe the people who think it was another government plot to refund the military after the Sequestration cuts that he President and the Democrats pushed through Washington in 2010 just does not make any rational sense. The politicians who voted for the Austerity measures could simply vote to change the laws that required implementation of this poison pill austerity legislation. Why kill a few innocent civilians and injury hundreds to reinstate funding for the military and increase surveillance on America. They have already pushed the envelope to the limits on that issue; they do not need any additional reasons for what they are already doing! The chance of being found out is too great and the payoff is too small to implement such a hideous act on innocent people. Would this administration try to pull off something like this in the Middle East, without a doubt the answer is yes. But trying to pull off this act of terrorism against its own people on home soil is a far reach of the imagination into the realm of conspiracy theories.
I once thought ( very recently) that violence was the only means left to people to change the course of this nation. I thought the only method that would shake up the cronies in Washington and the Corporations that fund them was to bring violence into the streets to hamper profits by the destruction of their capital. I was wrong and I can see that any violence that would bring harm to innocent civilians would not be worth the gain made in that manner. It took an event like the bombing yesterday to make me realize that anything but peaceful measures by mass demonstrations that could shut down commerce and therefore hamper profit making for the Wealthy and the Corporations is the only logical way to address the issues that are facing our nation today. We need million man (women and children too) marches to get our message across that putting the burden on the backs of the middleclass and the poor will not be tolerated. Violence will only be met with more violence and the end results will be the harming of innocent people, like those who were killed and wounded by some madman or terrorist group. Those actions can no longer be seen as a viable and just means to bring about change. I truly hope those who were involved in this terrorist act will be found and prosecuted to the fullest means of the law. And, I hope we will come together as a nation to address what is happening to us at the hands of those in power and we can find means to demonstrate that we will no longer tolerate this abuse by peaceful means by the masses who would band together to make change happen by peaceful means. I truly hope those who were injured and the families of those who were killed will find comfort in knowing that we all feel their pain when we consider it could have been one of our loved ones that was struck down by this senseless violence and the capture and punishment of those responsible will bring an end to their need to vent any revenge towards the coward(s) that harmed them, with the knowledge we as a nation will not tolerate such acts by any person or group. My simple words are all I can share to state that this tragedy has affected us all even though only a few were killed and a hundred or more were injured, it would have been too many if it had only been one that had been killed or injured! K.W.
F- for Homeland Security
“This will be a worldwide investigation. We will go to the ends of the earth to find the subject or subjects responsible for this despicable crime,” said Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office."
This quote from the Globe out to tip everyone off it was an inside attack. They will point fingers in every direction and look everywhere except under our own noses.
There's no place like Home...There's no place like Home...There's no place like Home...There's no place like Home...
I agree with everything Tom writes.
However, we should all step back and think about the thousands of people in other lands who face this type of tragedy almost daily--at the hands of U.S. drones, bombs and military attacks.
People need to discuss it just to deal with it. It happened, and something similar will happen again. Everyone reacts in their own way to reports of such horrors. Some need to turn off the TV. Others can only process it by carefully watchng the coverage.
I think I agree with you on every point of this message. You did not state the underlying cause. I like to say the underlying cause is wealth and income inequality. However, the real underlying cause is what underlies that inequality. IMO, it is either Thatcher or Reagan.
Do you have a single example of the US targeting an innocent civilian?
Is it only yanks that will do anything for a buck?
Lets spend the next few days speculating about the bombing! In fact lets use every hour of progressive radio air-time speculating with no real facts:
"A Right-wingnut did it.", "A leftie did it (Dirty Commie variety)", "The 'Gubernment' done did it.", "An invisible Giant did it.", "Angry Elves did it with the help of the Lizard People"..
NOBODY knows who did it. We may NEVER know. Publicizing th hand-wringing of the public is counter-productive and boring radio. Came back to this story when something develops..
Once again, Thom Hartmann spends a gigantic amount of time playing patty-cake with another right-wing rattlesnake; getting poison spit in his face repeatedly while muttering, sputtering his tepid responses. What a waste of radio air-time. Doesn't Rush Limbaugh give these creatures enough air time? Why waste an hour responding to right-wingnut canned talking points?
I get it: The righties are selfish, self-centered, greedy, yellow-bellied ground crawling sidewinders; who want to steal our Social Security money and hand it to their rich masters. What elese do we need to know?
Ken Ware ~ I just wanted to admit that you might be correct. I was so expecting such a staged event/False Flag that it slipped my mind that you are right--this country is full of a plethora of violent wackos that are worse than the military. It's a shame though that you and I have to give each other the benefit of the doubt because of the sorry state of affairs that this investigation--and subsequent non official investigations--could go in any direction and we'd both probably accept any theory handed out.
Very strange that some group hasn't stepped forward immediately to take credit. No credit, no agenda. This leads me to suspect the act was perpetrated by an individual 'mentally disturbed' person. If so it just goes to prove what I said before. If we don't address the underlying causes of mass killings by wackos, taking their guns away is not going to make the problem go away.
President Obama ~ was quoted as saying yesterday, "This was a heinous and cowardly act, and given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism," Obama said. "Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror."
A very interesting statement don't you think? Especially the ending, "Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror." By this logic, since the United States military has targeted more innocent civilians with bombs than any other country in the history of the world, we just declared ourselves the Biggest Terrorist Nation in the history of the world.
Please correct me if my logic is in error.
Outback: But I have it on good authority that if you smother Eggplant with lots of garlic, onions, and Parmesan cheese along with Tobasco Sauce it zaps those alien critters into submission long enough to savor the flavor. Sometimes they may resurrect, however, while floating around in gastric juices. So beware! Parmesan Chicken (Chicken Parmesan) is another of my favorites. Haven't seen any alien chickens though. But Chicken Man, from Chicago just tried to call me..I know because I check out every unrecognized phone call that appears on my Caller ID...and he checks out to be from the Williamette FBI. I guess they are checking up on me for all of the dissenting attitude I've been displaying on this Blog.
One time I was doing a Google Earth and internet search for Bush's ranch in Texas and I get this really strange call, as I was looking at his ranch on Google Earth, (before I started using caller ID) and it was a weird screeching noise like you hear from a modem. It wasn't my modem for sure.
This coverage is looking like 9-11 when the images were played over and over almost non-stop, almost like a deliberate effort to burn the event into the psyche of everyone possible. Why??? From this kind of fear and shock comes the ability to manipulate us into giving up even more essential liberties, or perhaps set the stage for political maneuvering by one faction or another.
I think it will be very interesting when we find out who was REALLY behind this horrific act, and who was behind them, and for what reasons. I think the people are awake enough to demand the truth, and will not settle for fake WMD's any more. I am glad that President Obama is treating it like a crime, and not immediately blaming countries or ethnic groups before the facts are in. Even if it is part of a country or ethnic group, that still doesn't condemn the rest of that group as complicate.
Keeping the focus narrow is in the best interests of all.
One man's God is about as effective (maybe more effective) than another's man's gun in preventing these tragedies. I don't know what's worse - believing God will stop it or a moron with a gun thinking he can. What would you have done if you had been at the marathon with your gun? How would you have prevented the setting up and setting off of the bombs in this arena? Factor in the amount of security there with guns and bomb dogs that had already compassed the area before the event now, kind sir.
Most of us own guns; however, most of us are not lucky enough to one up the element of surprise of any given terror act. Be it in your home or on the street. It's just not how it works. This society has mistaken the movies for real life -- the dreaded superman complex. One could argue that the gun you and I both own to protect our families is just as much a security blanket as another man's faith. Because if someone comes after you with the intent to kill, they are expecting it -- whereas, you are not. Giving them the win almost every time. All you have to do is look at any happening to see that -- no matter how many guns are around. And we have many many guns in this country. Very very rarely are they stopping the crime, though, through a civilian's hands. One in a million. It doesn't matter how often you preach what you and your gun will do in a situation, you won't be able to talk it into reality.
Are you quite sure that it is just the "conservatives" that is behind austerity? Read my posts of the last couple of days featuring Michael Hudson, the economist, who seems to think very strongly that the Democrat party is a very big part of what is behind austerity and the so-called "chained CPI". He said that the Republicans would not have been able to get away with it...it took a smiling Democrat to hoodwink us all into these moves.
Oh, and yes, what happened at the Boston Marathon was very terrible....just a sampling of what the US has fomented in their illegal wars, based on lies, in the Middle East. How many innocent civilians died because of US hegemony? How do you like it...Amerika? It's not very much fun is it? I hope to hell that this kind of thing doesn't spread...but, hey, lots of Iraqis, Afghanistanis, Pakistanis, and others have had to live with this kind of terrorism a long time now. But, of course, we don't yet know who it was who did the BM bombings. Maybe our government will come up with a conspiracy theory, like the one they gave us on 911, that will try to pin this on the N. Koreans...or maybe they are not happy with the outcome of the elections in Venezuela and they will try to pin it on left wing Venezuelan terrorists. How about Iran?
It might be a very good idea to just stay home...and stay out of crowded places. It will serve two purposes...reducing your risk of being the poor sucker who is taking the brunt of, perhaps, Middle Eastern retribution and it will also help to boycott the criminal, capitalist, hegemonic pigs that created the tensions in the first place.
Remember? "Accept our carpet of gold or suffer a carpet of bombs!" And that was right before 911. The US already had plans to invade Afghanistan...all they needed was some big show..some big excuse. Capitalist, hegemonic pigs trying to force other countries to knuckle under to US Imperialism is no way to encourage peace in the world. You started it, capitalist pigs! And now we are all going to suffer for the greed of a few capitalist pigs!
You may very well have to kiss all of your "big events" good-bye, and stay out of shopping malls, unless you want total totalitarian police state thugs indiscriminately doing random searches on our streets...breaking into our houses without warrants and ripping apart our belongings in their paranoid search for anything that would make them look to the public like they are "protecting" us.
We'll start to look just like Iraq and Afghanistan...which will usher in our own citizens opposed to a police state running rampant over our privacy. And the government propagandists will conjure up the psychological verbiage like "Al Qaida" or "Taliban" or some other more Americanized versions of psyop fear words.
And if you still think 911 was done by a little old bearded man sitting in a cave in Afghanistan then you are pretty gullible. 911 was an inside job! And I wouldn't even be surprised that the Boston Marathon was an inside job to use a "wag the dog" terrorism to take people's thoughts off of being screwed by greedy capitalist pigs who want to steal our Social Security. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, Dorothy, he just wants to steal your Social Security!"
Remember, the Democrats are in on it as well! Listen to Michael Hudson, the economist. Although, I doubt he has my views on 911 or anything else I've said...but I think he has it very right on how Obama and the Democrats are not really on our side but on the side of those who are screwing us.
The conservatives austerity type of government, the cost is too high for this country to survive it, and they do not understand that. As is if they are wearing blinders, oblivious to the countries internal security in supporting the local run government, police and fire departments, the emergency responders to tragedies like this, they should be ashamed of their agenda
No, I was replying to Wendalore's comment that "business can make things so ridiculous". The basic reason for this, along with all the other ills we face in the world today is Eggplant, which is not a "plant' at all but an extraterrestrial embryo existing half in our space and half in the seventeenth dimension. I mean, just look at one of the damned things. Is that something that looks like it evolved on this planet? When the time comes, they'll all hatch and out will pour carnivorous mushroom based life forms. In the meantime, eggplants emit a subsonic note designed to put human nerves on edge and drive us to eat more Big Macs and fries, hence, the obesity issue here (fattening us up). I guess my initial response was a bit cryptic. I thought you guys knew all this.
In the near future we may not DNA at all to cure disease. They now have working 3D printers that can scan your jaw and make a perfect replica of it. Which can be used as an implant. Star Trek any one?
This issue -- our destructive patent system -- points to the irresponsible, unethical impact of Supreme Court decisions on our society. It also shows that corporations have been taking actions, for 30 years, to make it impossible for middle class americans to achieve justice in the courts while giving corporations everything they want. Our court system, today, is pretty much limited to corporations suing each other (elites who have access to courts suing other elites) and criminal/immigration actions which are all about filling up the private prisons to satisfy private prison industry's need for profit. Our Supreme Court justices, who were supposed to be above the fray, seem to be mostly concerned about the well-being of the elite. They don't watch films like "American Winter," or "We're not broke." They surround themselves with the wealthy elites, not the common man. And they really don't care about the common man, and it shows.
I don't believe in intellectual property at all. I ascribe to Thomas Jefferson's opinion of it and patents. It is your property until you make it public. Once you do it is open source so to speak. He believed that no one person creates anything by themselves. That any product whatever it may be was brought about because of people who came before and put those ideas into the so called creators mind i.e. Edison did not invent the light bulb he just made it possible to be used universaly. Some one named Tesla previously had the idea. And Edison screwed him out of a million dollars he promised him. Not a nice guy that Edison.
Bombs Over Boston
Chaos! Chaos!! Chaos!!!
Innocent lives snuffed out
Body parts strewn about
Shredded flesh
Blood and guts everywhere.
Screams of terror
Moans of agony
Lost and crying children
wonder amongst the dead.
No one notices
Wild flowers grow
in a near by park
gentlely swaying
in the breeze
No one notices
The bee buzzing
The butterfly fluttering
A bird snatching a worm
The rich snatching your future
No one notices.
No one notices
the folly of our ways
No one stops
to take in a moment
Until the moment stops
and takes you.
I have more than a thought- for any number of reasons, the act was orchestrated by The GHWB CIA#2, our too-overlooked in-house terrorists.
Do Not Alter (DNA)!
That's all I have to say on this .
Now onto the next "No brainer"...
Bombs in Boston!?!?
What happened to the trusty AR-15; the weapon of choice when setting out to kill a mass of people? I Guess since they did away with large capacity clips/magazines it took the fun and efficency out of mowing down large amounts of people with a gun.
Hmmm, something screwy go'en on here...I wonder who is behind the "Curtain of Terror"!?!?
They can't own our arms, legs or eyeballs. They can't own our DNA either.