Martin Luther King Gets Angry About Media Hypocrisy

"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war." 

- Martin Luther King Jr.

One year before his death Martin Luther King Jr. began speaking out against the U.S. attack on Vietnam.  Not only did he defend the rights of brown people in Southeast Asia but he also grasped the economic devastation that militarism brings to residents of both sides of the war.  

"And you may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor.  

 So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such." 

In addition to his grievances with racism, militarism and economic exploitation King also criticizes the press.

Battle of Fallujah, Ten Years On

"The hypocrisy is absolutely stinking."

-Alice Mahon, British Labour Party on U.S. actions in Iraq


Six days after Mr. Bush was re-elected in 2004 the U.S. & Britain began their attack on Fallujah.

For a few weeks in November the United States used white phosphorus as a weapon against human beings in the "Battle of Fallujah".  A few politicians spoke out against the attack including Alice Mahon...

Supporting evidence on the use of white phosphorus can be found at Democracy Now! here ...the BBC here ... GlobalSecurity.org here

  

Bombs Away U.S. of A.

How many countries has 'the United States of America' attacked this month?

Why Many Americans Were Not Surprised by 9/11

C-SPAN's Washington Journal, July 3, 2000

Caller: "How will we protect our borders against terrorist attacks if we decrease the armed forces?"

Harry Browne: "The problem today is...we have a giant national offense....  We have been bombing countries around the world.... Terrorists don't like our foreign policy.  They don't like the idea that we are running their countries."

Take a listen to the full 90-second clip below...

Schizophrenia as Explanation for U.S. Policy Toward Syria

7,500 miles separate the cities of Damascus and Los Angeles.  Despite the vast geographical divide the people of each region are tied together via their central state.

To summarize Washington, D.C.'s policy toward Syria:

1. A decade long regime of sanctions prohibiting the people of Syria trading for American made goods.  
2. Two years of supplying automatic weapons to Syria's "moderate Islamic militants" in order to topple the Assad-led state of Syria. 
3. Two week long bombing campaigns in Iraq in order to kill "extremist Islamic militants" (members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).
4. Newly announced drone surveillance flights over Syria in order to spy on ISIS.   

The Destruction of Nagasaki, For What?

The ruins of Nagasaki Medical College, Japan, 1945
Credit: National Library of Medicine

Sixty-Nine years ago this week a 9,000 pound atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan.  The resulting explosion killed 74,000 people.

The death and destruction caused by the bomb is roughly equal to one 9/11 style attack...occurring every day for 25 days.

Destruction of Shiroyama elementary school,
Nagasaki

Photograph by Eiichi Matsumoto

There are a handful of theories as to why the U.S. dropped the atom bomb on Nagasaki.  I can't say which is most valid or who exactly had the final say in launching this second nuke over Japan.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay was commanding bombing raids in the Pacific late in World War II.  Five months before the dropping of the atomic weapons LeMay ordered the firebombing of Tokyo.  This brief campaign resulted in the killing of 100,000 human beings.

Adding to the confusion surrounding the reasons behind the dropping of the nuclear bombs is this passage from LeMay's New York Times obituary:

Years after relaying the orders from President Harry S. Truman to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General LeMay said the actions were not necessary.

'Truman Told Me to Do It'

''We felt that our incendiary bombings had been so successful that Japan would collapse before we invaded,'' he said in a 1985 interview with the Omaha World Herald. 

Sanctions Backfire On Those Imposing Them

File under: oops.

Western sanctions against Iran have had a dramatic negative effect on the U.S. economy.  In addition to restricting the Iranian people's access to trade, the two-decade long policy by the West has hurt people in the West.
 
According to the National Iranian-American Council the U.S. has lost one million new job opportunities thanks to the inability of the North American people to engage in trade with the Iranian people.

Is it worth putting up with twenty years of economic chaos because a few dozen politicians in the U.S., U.K., Israel and Iran are upset with each other?  

Find the full report at the NIAC.