Monday, June 14, 2010

WPost, NYT Show Tough-Guy Swagger

By Robert Parry
June 14, 2010

When Americans wonder how their country has ended up in so many pointless and seemingly endless conflicts around the world, like the meandering Afghan War and the bloody mess in Iraq, a good place to start would be the “prestige” newspapers, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Read on.
Posted by at

5 comments:

rosemerry said...

Prestigeous opinion leaders? foreign policy élite? Friedman, star? As a non-american, I can hardly believe even USA readers can accept this. "Iran supporting terrorists" I suppose means resistance to occupation (Hamas) or to Israel's invasion and destruction in Lebanon (Hezbollah). Aggression against Iraq? They have good relations despite US intervention. The attack on the freedom flotilla "The Israeli operation TURNED deadly" (not "was a violent illegal attack")... No attempt at even a semblance of balance or truth.
Now we will no doubt hear about Bibi's "independent investigation" whose result is known- all was legal and moral.

Mon Jun 14, 01:31:00 PM 2010
Dean Taylor said...

there's NO war but CLASS war--'twas ever thus...


plutocracy (n):

the rule or power of wealth or of the wealthy 2. a government or state in which the wealthy class rules 3. a class or group ruling, or exercising power or influence, by virtue of its wealth


it's so simple, it's hiding in plain sight

Once again: it's never been a matter of ideologies, racism, sexism, or religious contempt--either dometically or abroad. Whether during the period of economic development of the mercantilists, the physiocrats or, and finally, the pathologically-obsessed with money, i.e., the capitalists, it has ever been about the relative few who "have"--land, capital, bullion; in the modern era, oil, etc.--making certain that their collective prerogative is safeguarded by those Statists who also "have," all considered by degrees, like the top-down pyramid scheme that it, in fact, is. Empire's Power is manifest in the accrual of wealth--now considered as a global network of elite players--beginning at the top and proceeding from there.

Empire's "liaison" in the Middle East--i.e., our partner working to ensure dominance/hegemony in that oil-rich region--is Israel. Israel is considered to be the most tractable to Empire's investor class. In that sense, then, they are, indeed, the Chosen people. Iran, by default, is deemed less tractable to Empire's global investor class, i.e., they must be brought to heel.

Similarly, the seemingly primitive (i.e., not obsessed with global economic depredation as the more "sophisticated" Empire is) --Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are hindering the development of investment in a natural gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to India. They, too, must be brought to heel. The ruse of an ideologically evil al Qaeda has utility in that the bloodspill we have exacted there can be "justified" on "moral" grounds far more readily than the true motivation--greed for investment capital gains.


"Communism was bad for Jesus"


This has its corollary in the now-obvious deception that the "evil Commies" in Southeast Asia--i.e., another charnel house we engendered in Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.--needed to be brought to heel because they were deemed "Godless," i.e., Communism was bad for Jesus [!], when the truth of the matter was that Communism was bad for Wall Street.

As the nationalists of those respective countries would not relent--i.e., would not see the wisdom in letting US corporate interests go in and "rape" them (appropriate their labor, their resources, etc.), after we "mugged" them--we "taught them a lesson" and left the countries in virtual ruin.

"regime change" to suit the investor class waging global economic warfare


When Empire--and, by extension, it's whorish media outlets--find some governance (humanist or otherwise) interfering with our "God-given right" to acquire, we enact "regime change." The rank and file go along for the ideological ride owing to the highly efficient mechanism of the "manufacturing of consent." Hence, Friedman has as much blood on his hands as the most venal, corrupt legislator waddling over to AIPAC, or the most acquisitive corporate rapist waging economic warfare both here at home and--via, electronic funds exchange-- trans-nationally.

Mon Jun 14, 02:44:00 PM 2010
Dean Taylor said...

II.


capitalism: the ur-source of evil, i.e., avarice and theft from the worker...or: on levying tribute for the use of capital


From journalist, libertarian, and the leading proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century, Benjamin Tucker (April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939):



"From Smith's principle that labor is the true measure of price--or, as Warren phrased it, that cost is the proper limit of price--these three men [i.e., Josiah Warren, Pierre Proudhon, and Karl Marx] made the following deductions: that the natural wage of labor is its product; that this wage, or product, is the only just source of income (leaving out, of course, gift, inheritance, etc.); that all who derive income from any other source abstract it directly or indirectly from the natural and just wage of labor; that this abstracting process generally takes one of three forms, – interest, rent, and profit; that these three constitute the trinity of usury, and are simply different methods of levying tribute for the use of capital; that, capital being simply stored-up labor which has already received its pay in full, its use ought to be gratuitous, on the principle that labor is the only basis of price; that the lender of capital is entitled to its return intact, and nothing more; that the only reason why the banker, the stockholder, the landlord, the manufacturer, and the merchant are able to exact usury from labor lies in the fact that they are backed by legal privilege..." [Tucker, Individual Liberty; from Wiki]

Mon Jun 14, 02:49:00 PM 2010
Anonymous said...

Unfortunately the Post and the Times are a big part of the MSM or Corporate Media. Even if they are masters of deception, delusional, misrepresent the facts, war mongers, they versions of events are widely accepted as certain, by the the public at large.

I agree , there is a class struggle going in Iran.

Mon Jun 14, 04:14:00 PM 2010
Anonymous said...

It is astonishing how many of the premier writers at the Post and the NYT are hard-line Israel-firsters. No other rationale explains their fixations, other than that they are more interested in Israel's well-being than in that of the United States.

Mon Jun 14, 04:41:00 PM 2010

Post a Comment