Recalling the Slaughter of Innocents

by Ray (updated from the original publication on Feb. 14, 2011)

The quarter-century anniversary of an early U.S. war crime in Iraq passed largely unnoticed this week, the bombing of a civilian air-raid shelter in Baghdad during President George H.W. Bush’s Persian Gulf War, an atrocity that killed more than 400 women and children, as Ray McGovern recalled in 2011.

Recalling the Slaughter of Innocents

 

(Ray suggests that those of you, who may have missed the NYT article, not to forget to click on the first link embedded in the above intro:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/world/middleeast/25th-anniversary-of-us-involvement-passes-quietly-for-iraqis-unsure-of-future.html)

As for the original article of Feb. 14, 2011, when Bob Parry emailed him this morning to let him know he was updating and reposting it, Ray added this comment at the consortiumnews.com site:

Thanks, Bob, for digging this article out of the archive. I had forgotten I wrote it, perhaps because the day after I wrote it I was moved to stand up and turn my back on then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ended up beaten, in jail, the ER, and then dealing with my wounds. I have also been a bit preoccupied dealing with my most recent arrest on Jan. 28 at Hancock Air Force Base in Syracuse, NY, giving witness with upstate Catholic Worker folks, “The Jerry Berrigan 12,” against the vaporizing of people – this time with drones.

Thanks, too, for reminding me how the White House blamed the incineration of people at Amiriyah on Saddam Hussein. A decent respect for the opinions of mankind would require that Bush and Cheney be brought to justice, rather than given a pass by their timid successors.

http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/ogc/apparatus/crafting.html

With respect to the key question regarding what the “intelligence” was/is worth – well, Gen. Glosson was, and still is, correct. Drones are now killing folks by using highly sophisticated NSA algorithms that, truth be told, are worth no more than the targeting “intelligence” of 25 years ago – their worth so aptly described by Glosson.

“Actually, Brigadier General Buster Glosson, who had overall responsibility for targeting, later commented that the ‘intelligence’ pointing to military use was not ‘worth a shit.’”

Sadly, the glib – actually, the unconscionable – attitude regarding the worth of the targeting “intelligence” also reflects the attitude of U.S. administrations (plural) re. the worth of those targeted. It is an unconscionable attitude tinged with racism and disdain for the “small people” of this world – people who can easily be dehumanized and diminished by White House “Strategic Communications” – with the full cooperation of the Fawning Corporate Media.

These are moral – one might even say theological – questions. I am indebted to the late Dean Brackley, S.J., a New Yorker who taught at Fordham and then quit to go down to San Salvador to replace one of the Jesuits slain there on Nov. 16, 1989. It was Dean who gave me concise words to my theology.

The words do not sound very profound, but they are solidly anchored not only in Hebrew and Christian scripture, but also in Islam and other faith traditions. Brackley: “It all depends on who you think God is, and how God feels when little people get pushed around.”

Brackley’s obituary can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/world/americas/rev-dean-brackley-65-dies-moved-to-el-salvador-after-massacre.html?_r=0

​RT International asked Ray late Thursday to comment on the agreement on the cessation of hostilities and humanitarian relief in Syria that was worked out early Friday morning in Munich by John Kerry, Sergey Lavrov, and others of the International Syrian Support Group (ISSG).

(The ISSG Statement can be found at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/02/252428.htm)

Ray pointed to the demonstrable benefits of Russia-U.S. cooperation in recent years, particularly with regard to Syria. He reminded the TV audience that this kind of cooperation prevented an overt U.S. attack on Syria in September 2013, when President Putin persuaded Assad to let Syria’s chemical weapons be destroyed.

Ray also noted the very large flies in the ointment –Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. He emphasized the need for Washington – with a united voice – to talk Turkey, so to speak, to the leaders of all three of countries to get them to curtail their support for the terrorists largely responsible for the continuing human catastrophe in Syria.

(six minutes)

​Sputnik International interviews Ray about NATO this week sending a “clear signal” to any would-be adversary by building up NATO’s “forward presence” in the East.

Ray explains how tension and small wars are very good for the “blood-soaked” arms trade. He adds, though, that Putin has made abundantly clear that what really worries the Kremlin is the destabilizing effect of Washington’s stepped-up efforts to surround Russia with ballistic missile defense systems.

The Russians do not want to revert to “launch on warning,” but Russian generals cannot take the chance that these incredibly expensive missile defense systems might actually work. We can expect more and more countermeasures.

Ukraine and Crimea are also discussed, as well as the White House functionaries happily bereft of any appreciation of Russia’s security interests, much less Putin’s determination to have them respected – the interests, not the functionaries. National Intelligence Director Clapper has just told Congress the Russians are “paranoid.” Really.

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160211/1034610776/loud-clear-mcgovern-nato.html

(18 minutes)

Ricky Varandas, host of “The Ripple Effect Podcast” (RvTHEORY6), conducted a long Skype interview of Ray on Jan. 21, 2016. A discursive, laid-back conversation, they covered a broad spectrum of issues, past and present.

Issues included were:

-The creation of the CIA and the role of Pearl Harbor.

-Vietnam: the Communist “domino effect” scare; LBJ lying politics, spinelessness of his courtiers; Tonkin Gulf; unacknowledged rift between Russians and Chinese.

-The misconceived conception of the CIA – the notion that covert action over-throwers of governments should be thrown in with the tell-it-like-it-is analysis group that Truman envisaged for the CIA; a structural fault from the outset (witness Nicaragua, Chile, for example).

-CIA Director William Colby fired for disobeying Kissinger’s orders to lie to Congress about earlier CIA abuses.

-How CIA analysts, with the help of innovative technical collection systems, were able to assure Nixon, Reagan, et al. that they could verify agreements on strategic arms limitations and reductions (“trust but verify”).

-Two Bushes – two attitudes toward “the crazies.”

-How and why the “mainstream” media, owned and operated by the “blood-drenched arms traders,” beat the drum (almost always successfully) for war; the powerful incentives for endless war; drone strikes = a good way to do that.

-How more sober forces overcame both media and neocons, in thwarting an overt attack on Syria in late summer 2013; how President Vladimir Putin then pulled Obama’s chestnuts out of the fire – another reason the media/neocons hate Putin.

-Ukraine – one “regime change” too many; Feb. 22, 2014 Putsch in Kiev was advertised in advance on YouTube; was later called “the most blatant coup in history” (George Friedman of STRATFOR).

-Surveillance and blackmail opportunities; is Obama afraid?

-Assassination of John Kennedy; James Douglass book: “JFK and the Unspeakable.”

-Drones: All those killed are assumed to be terrorists, unless they can later prove they were not terrorists and not dead (like Lazarus).

-Israel: The elephant in the room.

-Irish grandparents on the “Upper Crust,” and why the sun never sets on the British Empire.

 

(Intro can be skipped by starting at minute 11:00; interview was on Jan. 21, 2016; posted Feb. 5.)