America's War Based Economy Hidden In Plain Sight

Medea Benjamin of the left and Ron Paul of the right agree that President Obama’s legacy was as a war hawk who kept our military/industrial complex active and profitable. But, what about the innocent people that are dying because of the U.S.’s war based economy and serial wars? Where are the Peacemakers? [Ed.-TEC]

President Obama dramatically expanded the use of drones for targeted, remote control killing during his presidency.

..

America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016. What a bloody end to Obama’s reign | Medea Benjamin

theguardian.com – 9 January, 2017

Most Americans would probably be astounded to realize that the president who has been painted by Washington pundits as a reluctant warrior has actually been a hawk. The Iran nuclear deal, a herculean achievement, and the opening of diplomatic relations with Cuba unfortunately stand alone as President Obama’s successful uses of diplomacy over hostility.
While candidate Obama came to office pledging to end George W Bush’s wars, he leaves office having been at war longer than any president in US history. He is also the only president to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.
President Obama did reduce the number of US soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he dramatically expanded the air wars and the use of special operations forces around the globe. In 2016, US special operators could be found in 70% of the world’s nations, 138 countries – a staggering jump of 130% since the days of the Bush administration.

Looking back at President Obama’s legacy, the Council on Foreign Relation’s Micah Zenko added up the defense department’s data on airstrikes and made a startling revelation: in 2016 alone, the Obama administration dropped at least 26,171 bombs. This means that every day last year, the US military blasted combatants or civilians overseas with 72 bombs; that’s three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.
While most of these air attacks were in Syria and Iraq, US bombs also rained down on people in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. That’s seven majority-Muslim countries.
One bombing technique that President Obama championed is drone strikes. As drone-warrior-in-chief, he spread the use of drones outside the declared battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, mainly to Pakistan and Yemen. Obama authorized over 10 times more drone strikes than George W Bush, and automatically painted all males of military age in these regions as combatants, making them fair game for remote controlled killing.
President Obama has claimed that his overseas military adventures are legal under the 2001 and 2003 authorizations for the use of military force passed by Congress to go after al-Qaida. But today’s wars have little or nothing to do with those who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.

The twisted legal architecture the Obama administration has constructed to justify its interventions, especially extrajudicial drone killings with no geographic restrictions, will now be transferred into the erratic hands of Donald Trump.
What does the administration have to show for eight years of fighting on so many fronts? Terrorism has spread, no wars have been “won” and the Middle East is consumed by more chaos and divisions than when candidate Barack Obama declared his opposition to the invasion of Iraq.
While the switch from US troops on the ground to airstrikes and special forces has saved US lives, untold numbers of foreign lives have been snuffed out. We have no idea how many civilians have been killed in the massive bombings in Iraq and Syria, where the US military is often pursuing Isis in the middle of urban neighborhoods. We only sporadically hear about civilian killings in Afghanistan, such as the tragic bombing of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz that left 42 dead and 37 wounded.
Pushed to release information about civilian deaths in drone strikes, in July 2016 the US government made the absurd claim it had killed, at most, 116 civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya between 2009 and 2015. Journalists and human rights advocates said the numbers were ridiculously low and unverifiable, given that no names, dates, locations or others details were released. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has tracked drone strikes for years, said the true figure was six times higher.
Given that drones account for only a small portion of the munitions dropped in the past eight years, the numbers of civilians killed by Obama’s bombs could be in the thousands. But we can’t know for sure as the administration, and the mainstream media, has been virtually silent about the civilian toll of the administration’s failed interventions.

In May 2013, I interrupted President Obama during his foreign policy address at the National Defense University. I had just returned from visiting the families of innocent people killed by US drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan, including the Rehman children who saw their grandmother blown to bits while in the field picking okra.
Speaking out on behalf of grieving families whose losses have never been acknowledged by the US government, I asked President Obama to apologize to them. As I was being dragged out, President Obama said: “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to.”
Too bad he never did.

 
 
 


Comments

2 responses to “America's War Based Economy Hidden In Plain Sight”

  1. Paul Hoskins Avatar
    Paul Hoskins

    These hostilities and hegemony in mid east or Europe can not be justifiable since there is no declaration of war nor casus belli. The sources of this information about bombs and executive responsibility does not inspire credibility. They are exploiting the president’s last term for cowardly disavowal of what they promoted all along in his administration and their own absolution for which congress is notoriously skilled preeminently interested.
    Why has not the Council On Foreign Relations , which is Jew devised mutual admirations society for Pentagon staff officers ,Taugenichts, congressman and retired presidents made their soul stirring remonstrations sooner? Are they serious?
    War with Russia is another monopolizing tyranny to obsess mind with media. They always have to keep us anxious and intimidated with cold wars, arms races , and now this invisible incubus, the sinister industrial – military complex contributed by General Eisenhower before he retired to the golf course.
    I am very weary of this extortion racket and slap stick Jew comedy with its invisible murder routine. And this made in Israel imposture illegally betrothed to the churches , who share in this Old Testament killing – for- God religion. I am not amused with these cravenly obscene remote drones that strike without warning . All their damnable murder , rapine and predacious conspiracies ultimately are entered to my account and other stupid Americans.
    If we think we no longer have a role in this war between Israel and King Jesus or darkness and light it is we, who are the ultimate victims. By law all responsibility for these mindless , cruel , arbitrary wars are ours. Autocrats and emperors are not reelected. And the Last Judgment can only be deferred by mercy . And that has to be reaching its end.

  2. Obma deliberate cultural destruction of archaeological sites in east Asia he funded through the mosulim brother hood of 1.5 tri.
    As Obma created ISISL to do the dirty work . He said ” I’m not the one” He is a Lier! Obma is the Globlest Souris Hit man !