John Chuckman
COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY ANN WRIGHT IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
“America’s Bloody Ally
“The U.S. continues to support the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia—as a key ally—even after the horrific murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the horrendous five-year bombing campaign on Yemen…”
On the deaths inflicted in Yemen by Saudi Arabia, Patrick Cockburn offers a convincing argument that the number is five times larger than what we typically read:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/yemen-war-death-toll-saudi-arabia-allies-how-many-killed-responsibility-a8603326.html
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Response to a comment:
Yes, but it is all about world empire.
Nothing better illustrates the actual nature of America abroad than the friends and allies that it keeps.
Some truly disgusting people, but they are useful to Washington's power establishment.
When America goes after a "tyrant" it is only because he does not toe the policy line or he has shown some independence of mind in some matter of consequence. That isn't allowed.
In many cases, America actually effectively grants licenses to kill to favored governments. In Central America. In Syria. In Saudi Arabia. In Egypt. In Israel. And other places.
I truly think the average American still does not understand this basic truth and naively believes his country stands internationally for principles of human and democratic rights. Of course, that is the official, often-repeated State Department line and the view promoted by America’s corporate press.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s like believing some old sobby Jimmy Stewart movie reflects real life rather than melodramatic fantasy.
And as I often stress, there is absolutely no difference between Republicans and Democrats in this matter. None.
They are only separated by rhetoric about domestic social issues, and it is just rhetoric because there's no real will or resources left after imperial efforts for doing anything decent for ordinary citizens. Those with investment in empire get all the attention and resources of government. The pretense of vital differences between the two parties keeps Americans involved emotionally and blinded to reality.
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Response to a comment:
Perfect illustration of what I wrote above.
The Crown Prince is very useful to Washington, especially because of his warm relationship with Israel and his ready willingness to kill, as demonstrated in Yemen.
Putin is the opposite, he represents a barrier to American imperial interests and drives. He represents a multi-polar world loathed in Washington.
So, the two cases – Khashoggi and Skripal - get completely different treatments from governments and their faithful script-readers in the press.
The Prince gets away with grisly murder, and the proof of his guilt is there because everything we know comes from actual Turkish audio and video recordings, some of which the government of Turkey leaked to the Turkish press.
To this day, no one even knows what happened to the Skripals in Britain. No one can see or talk to either of them, and no hard evidence of anything asserted by the government has been provided to the public. We have only government innuendo and accusations, but the fact that we know nothing didn’t prevent, or even slow down, a huge diplomatic row with new sanctions against the accused.
We really do live in an upside-down world.
As I said above, America actually effectively gives some its helpers abroad a licence to kill.
For its imagined enemies, as Russia, it has only contempt and threats and belligerence.
