POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
How many reporters has the United States killed in its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan?
We know to a certainty that there were cases which closely resemble deliberate murder, as of certain Al Jazeerah reporters and cameramen.
The United States deliberately bombed Al Jazeerah offices in Baghdad, killing three journalists.
One might also ask how many - and there were many - journalists were murdered by juntas like that in Chile or Argentina, regimes the U. S. tolerated, supplied, and supported for years?
How many - and there have been a great many - people have been murdered by Israeli agents on the pretense that they were "militants," nothing but a fig-leaf term for those who disagree with Israel. Has the U.S. ever called into question this savage way of treating people?
Mullen is a ridiculous hypocrite. He could care less about journalism or free speech or murder of opposition.
His shooting his mouth off in public is nothing but a way to try to put Pakistan's government on the defensive at a time when it is finally reacting to America's savage assassinations by means of CIA murder-squads and America's constant bombing by the drones, a bombing which has killed literally hundreds of innocent civilians.
The United States has become little better than the world's most heavily armed bully.
We know to a certainty that there were cases which closely resemble deliberate murder, as of certain Al Jazeerah reporters and cameramen.
The United States deliberately bombed Al Jazeerah offices in Baghdad, killing three journalists.
One might also ask how many - and there were many - journalists were murdered by juntas like that in Chile or Argentina, regimes the U. S. tolerated, supplied, and supported for years?
How many - and there have been a great many - people have been murdered by Israeli agents on the pretense that they were "militants," nothing but a fig-leaf term for those who disagree with Israel. Has the U.S. ever called into question this savage way of treating people?
Mullen is a ridiculous hypocrite. He could care less about journalism or free speech or murder of opposition.
His shooting his mouth off in public is nothing but a way to try to put Pakistan's government on the defensive at a time when it is finally reacting to America's savage assassinations by means of CIA murder-squads and America's constant bombing by the drones, a bombing which has killed literally hundreds of innocent civilians.
The United States has become little better than the world's most heavily armed bully.
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"A country cannot stand on the fence, or take positions of both extremism and counter extremism, and expect to be respected and supported."
Truly an uninformed comment.
Pakistan is not "stand[ing] on a fence" (you do mean sitting, don't you - standing on a fence is pretty much an impossibility) it is reflecting its own national interests.
The United States cares about no one's interests but its own. Full stop.
Its interests are not the world's at large, and it is a rather foolish thing to imply they are.
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"And name one country that does not promote self interest?"
I do believe that is clearly implied in my remarks.
If every country reflects its own interests, there is nothing to condemn or disparage in Pakistan, yet we have endless accusations about this or that in Pakistan, mostly the result of the CIA playing what a former senior agent once called his mighty Wurlitzer organ - that is, a set of willing or duped news outlets skillfully manipulated to create a desired impression on the public awareness.
The American view is that its own interests are the world's interests.
Your comments tacitly assume that falsehood as truth.
The issue at hand, as you oddly put it, is an American military man making a charge about another government - something which in the first place is inappropriate under the supposed American system of the military being the servant of government and not making statements about policies or political matters.
And the military man is a gross hypocrite because he and his government have busied themselves with the murder of many, including journalists - not an unimportant consideration.
Any threat of Pakistan's sinking into chaos - a much exaggerated notion if you understand the history of Pakistan's military – is owing entirely to American interference.
Bush virtually threatened Musharraf into cooperation, then followed that up with pets on the head by forgiving debts and letting go of America's firm policy opposing Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
Musharraf was a genuine Pakistani patriot, but Bush’s people turned him into a reluctant servant of American interests.
Ever since, and to a growing extent, America has interfered in Pakistan's affairs, leaving its government looking weak in the face of bullying and violent attacks.
That is what happened in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. A neutral government, not aligned with America’s self-interested policies, was thrown into instability by massive secret bombings and incursions by American troops.
When the Prince fell, the Khmer Rouge took over. America then washed her hands of all responsibility for the horror which followed, and somewhere between 800,000 and 1.5 million souls perished
When the victorious government of Vietnam – victorious against America’s long intervention in which it killed perhaps 3 million people - interceded to stop the horror (and people today often forget or do not know this) America just idiotically sat back, saying, “See, we told you, the domino theory is true.”.
It is repeating the same stupidity in Pakistan.
Anywhere on the globe, a government seen by its people as allowing another government decide whether hundreds of its own citizens should die in assassinations would be viewed with contempt.
