So many people are impressed and thankful that Germany has agreed to provide a sanctuary for 800,000 refugees, primarily Syrians, fleeing the death and destruction that is occurring in the Middle East.
Although this is a nice, humanitarian gesture by Germany, it is one which is taken out of context. Before we go overboard in our thanks to Germany, let us review how this crisis began.
On September 11, 2001, the U.S. is attacked. The U.S. assures us that those guilty are 19 Middle Eastern Muslim extremists led by Osama bin Laden.
The U.S. attacks Afghanistan which is accused of harboring Osama and, therefore, complicit in the attack. But Osama was seriously ill and receiving dialysis treatment. Yet, we are asked to believe that this very ill man, living in a cave in Afghanistan, orchestrated this very complicated attack on the U.S.
Within months, the Bush administration turned its attention to Iraq, claiming that Saddam Hussein had a close relationship with Osama and was complicit in the 9-11 attack. It was necessary for it to point out that Iraq had developed nuclear weapons and an attack on it was necessarily imminent to “prevent a mushroom cloud over the U.S.” This despite UN weapons inspectors insisting that Iraq had been free of a nuclear program for many years and there were no weapons found in that country.
Not to be denied, the U.S. began its attack on Iraq, bombing it into submission. Not only were there many lives lost or destroyed, but the economy and infrastructure collapsed. Thus there was now a humanitarian crisis in Iraq. The crisis continues to this day.
Why Iraq? The U.S. imperialist program relies upon control of foreign governments and although Hussein was once an asset, he could no longer be trusted. And so, the U.S. “bulls**t” machine went to work and painted Hussein as the evil empire. He and his army were accused of purposefully killing babies, gassing his own people (gas supplied by the U.S. when he was a friend), and building nuclear weapons which he might use on the U.S.
What happened to the search for bin Laden, the accused orchestrator in chief of the attack on the U.S.? Osama bin Laden eluded capture. It is claimed that for almost ten years, he remained in hiding, issuing fatwas and taunts over radio and television, recruiting enthusiastic young jihadis to his cause and plotting new attacks. Meanwhile, the CIA and other intelligence officials searched in vain for his hiding place. What is not included in the tale of bin Laden is his need for frequent dialysis treatment and his being seen by a CIA agent in a hospital in Pakistan shortly after 9-11. Why was there no arrest?
In August, 2010, they found bin Laden in a compound in Pakistan. Rather than capture him, they chose to kill him and then drop his body into the sea. One would naturally ask, why kill him when the opportunity was there to capture and interrogate him? This could have helped answer many questions about 9-11 that still remain unanswered.
But maybe that’s the point . . . they did not want bin Laden to testify because he might reveal information that would compromise the official government fantasy narrative.
It was never about Osama. He was the vehicle used to mobilize support for an invasion and putting U.S. troops in the Middle East. We must remember that Osama bin Laden was a CIA asset when the U.S. wanted to get the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan in 1989. What we are not told is that the Afghan government had requested help from the Soviet Union in 1979 to quell an uprising which attempted to overthrow the sitting socialist government in Afghanistan. Of course, the U.S. supported the rebellion . . .”we” cannot tolerate a socialist government which may not look kindly upon the U.S.
President Bush also made it clear what his priorities were regarding Iraq’s “nuclear arsenal” which was used to justify the invasion of Iraq. in an attempted humorous bit during 2004 annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner, he jokingly looked under a table after being asked about WMD and quipped, “I can’t find any WMD . . . where are they?” and everyone laughed. One has to admit how funny that was. After all the lies about WMD led to tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths, tens of thousands of Iraqis maimed, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis left homeless, over five thousand U.S. military personnel killed and tens of thousands left physically and emotionally damaged for life, Bush and his friends were able to find the humor in it all.
In 2011, with an orchestrated civil uprising in Libya, the U.S. began to bomb in order to protect the “revolutionaries” from the “tyrant” Gaddafi. Gaddafi was never a favorite of the U.S., embracing Arab nationalism and Arab socialism. He implemented measures to remove imperialist influence (the U.S.) from Libya.
So, upon further inspection, we find that the underlying rationale for the bombing of Libya, was not to protect anyone, but rather to enable the overthrow of Gaddafi’s government. The result of the bombing was to not only kill thousands of people, but to destroy the infrastructure and economy of that country. Thus, another humanitarian crisis.
And now, we come to the humanitarian crisis in Syria. What began as a civil war and uprising in 2011 (sponsored by the U.S.) has turned into utter chaos with different groups seeking different agendas. The U.S., of course, is deeply involved because “we” would like nothing better than to see a regime change and the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. It is impossible to know who is an ally of the U.S. and who the enemy.
The U.S. has thrown its support to those they call the “moderate rebels.” Unfortunately, these “moderates” have participated in cruel and deadly actions against civilians. What makes them our friend is nothing more than their desire to overthrow Assad.
Then we have the creation of ISIS, a group of “terrorists” that seemed to come from nowhere, fully armed with sophisticated weapons (most of them U.S. weapons) and well financed (supposedly with income from the oil reserves they control).
Despite U.S. claims of many bombings of ISIS locations, ISIS continues to march undisturbed through Iraq and Syria. I recently viewed several photographs of ISIS troops riding through an open field in Humvees and Toyota trucks, laughing and triumphantly waving their weapons and I wondered why, with all the sophisticated intelligence equipment, some of which they claim can identify a “terrorist” sitting on the toilet in his home, the U.S. was not able to identify these ISIS troops and attack them? This was not an isolated incident, ISIS troops move freely and openly without a response from the U.S. and the “willing.”
And, then I realized the answer. The existence of ISIS provides the U.S. with a justification for being in Syria, bombing the country and preparing for a U.S. invasion that includes “boots on the ground.” One way or another Assad will be gone. In other words, the U.S. does not want, at this time, to eliminate ISIS.
Last summer, the U.S. supported Israel’s attack on Gaza in which 2,200 Palestinians were killed, sending money and arms to Israel and creating another humanitarian crisis.
Last, but not least, we have the bombing of Yemen, a country also in the throes of civil unrest. Here, the U.S. favors the sitting regime and is supporting the bombing of Yemen by Saudi Arabia, with U.S. financial and weapons resources. The Saudis are bombing indiscriminately, creating a new humanitarian crisis.
It might have become evident that when the U.S. seeks regime change, it has little to do with freedom and democracy but more to do with imposing a regime that would welcome U.S. investment and control of that country’s resources. Assad is not open to that type of arrangement, so he has to go.
The human toll in Syria is extremely significant. By March 2015, 220,000 people had been killed; 80% of Syrians now live in poverty, and, as expected, the infrastructure of the country has been destroyed. There are an estimated 3.9 million Syrian refugees seeking safety with more to follow as long as the wars continue.
So, it seems clear that the U.S. and its allies, the “willing” (NATO), have created the crisis. For Germany to accept 800,000 refugees is a nice but disguised gesture, because no one seems to be addressing the cause of the crisis, a crisis in which Germany has participated.
As long as Germany and the other NATO countries continue their support of U.S. imperialism and continue to wage war throughout the world, this is a meaningless gesture. There will continue to be hundreds of thousands of refugees seeking safety.
No one seems ready to hold the U.S. and its NATO allies accountable for this massive humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been made homeless and all we hear is how humanitarian Germany is by accepting 800,000 of the millions of refugees they helped create.
GOD BLESS AMERIKA AND THE “WILLING”!!
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.
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A humanitarian crisis
Posted on September 7, 2015 by Dave Alpert
So many people are impressed and thankful that Germany has agreed to provide a sanctuary for 800,000 refugees, primarily Syrians, fleeing the death and destruction that is occurring in the Middle East.
Although this is a nice, humanitarian gesture by Germany, it is one which is taken out of context. Before we go overboard in our thanks to Germany, let us review how this crisis began.
On September 11, 2001, the U.S. is attacked. The U.S. assures us that those guilty are 19 Middle Eastern Muslim extremists led by Osama bin Laden.
The U.S. attacks Afghanistan which is accused of harboring Osama and, therefore, complicit in the attack. But Osama was seriously ill and receiving dialysis treatment. Yet, we are asked to believe that this very ill man, living in a cave in Afghanistan, orchestrated this very complicated attack on the U.S.
Within months, the Bush administration turned its attention to Iraq, claiming that Saddam Hussein had a close relationship with Osama and was complicit in the 9-11 attack. It was necessary for it to point out that Iraq had developed nuclear weapons and an attack on it was necessarily imminent to “prevent a mushroom cloud over the U.S.” This despite UN weapons inspectors insisting that Iraq had been free of a nuclear program for many years and there were no weapons found in that country.
Not to be denied, the U.S. began its attack on Iraq, bombing it into submission. Not only were there many lives lost or destroyed, but the economy and infrastructure collapsed. Thus there was now a humanitarian crisis in Iraq. The crisis continues to this day.
Why Iraq? The U.S. imperialist program relies upon control of foreign governments and although Hussein was once an asset, he could no longer be trusted. And so, the U.S. “bulls**t” machine went to work and painted Hussein as the evil empire. He and his army were accused of purposefully killing babies, gassing his own people (gas supplied by the U.S. when he was a friend), and building nuclear weapons which he might use on the U.S.
What happened to the search for bin Laden, the accused orchestrator in chief of the attack on the U.S.? Osama bin Laden eluded capture. It is claimed that for almost ten years, he remained in hiding, issuing fatwas and taunts over radio and television, recruiting enthusiastic young jihadis to his cause and plotting new attacks. Meanwhile, the CIA and other intelligence officials searched in vain for his hiding place. What is not included in the tale of bin Laden is his need for frequent dialysis treatment and his being seen by a CIA agent in a hospital in Pakistan shortly after 9-11. Why was there no arrest?
In August, 2010, they found bin Laden in a compound in Pakistan. Rather than capture him, they chose to kill him and then drop his body into the sea. One would naturally ask, why kill him when the opportunity was there to capture and interrogate him? This could have helped answer many questions about 9-11 that still remain unanswered.
But maybe that’s the point . . . they did not want bin Laden to testify because he might reveal information that would compromise the official government fantasy narrative.
It was never about Osama. He was the vehicle used to mobilize support for an invasion and putting U.S. troops in the Middle East. We must remember that Osama bin Laden was a CIA asset when the U.S. wanted to get the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan in 1989. What we are not told is that the Afghan government had requested help from the Soviet Union in 1979 to quell an uprising which attempted to overthrow the sitting socialist government in Afghanistan. Of course, the U.S. supported the rebellion . . .”we” cannot tolerate a socialist government which may not look kindly upon the U.S.
President Bush also made it clear what his priorities were regarding Iraq’s “nuclear arsenal” which was used to justify the invasion of Iraq. in an attempted humorous bit during 2004 annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner, he jokingly looked under a table after being asked about WMD and quipped, “I can’t find any WMD . . . where are they?” and everyone laughed. One has to admit how funny that was. After all the lies about WMD led to tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths, tens of thousands of Iraqis maimed, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis left homeless, over five thousand U.S. military personnel killed and tens of thousands left physically and emotionally damaged for life, Bush and his friends were able to find the humor in it all.
In 2011, with an orchestrated civil uprising in Libya, the U.S. began to bomb in order to protect the “revolutionaries” from the “tyrant” Gaddafi. Gaddafi was never a favorite of the U.S., embracing Arab nationalism and Arab socialism. He implemented measures to remove imperialist influence (the U.S.) from Libya.
So, upon further inspection, we find that the underlying rationale for the bombing of Libya, was not to protect anyone, but rather to enable the overthrow of Gaddafi’s government. The result of the bombing was to not only kill thousands of people, but to destroy the infrastructure and economy of that country. Thus, another humanitarian crisis.
And now, we come to the humanitarian crisis in Syria. What began as a civil war and uprising in 2011 (sponsored by the U.S.) has turned into utter chaos with different groups seeking different agendas. The U.S., of course, is deeply involved because “we” would like nothing better than to see a regime change and the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. It is impossible to know who is an ally of the U.S. and who the enemy.
The U.S. has thrown its support to those they call the “moderate rebels.” Unfortunately, these “moderates” have participated in cruel and deadly actions against civilians. What makes them our friend is nothing more than their desire to overthrow Assad.
Then we have the creation of ISIS, a group of “terrorists” that seemed to come from nowhere, fully armed with sophisticated weapons (most of them U.S. weapons) and well financed (supposedly with income from the oil reserves they control).
Despite U.S. claims of many bombings of ISIS locations, ISIS continues to march undisturbed through Iraq and Syria. I recently viewed several photographs of ISIS troops riding through an open field in Humvees and Toyota trucks, laughing and triumphantly waving their weapons and I wondered why, with all the sophisticated intelligence equipment, some of which they claim can identify a “terrorist” sitting on the toilet in his home, the U.S. was not able to identify these ISIS troops and attack them? This was not an isolated incident, ISIS troops move freely and openly without a response from the U.S. and the “willing.”
And, then I realized the answer. The existence of ISIS provides the U.S. with a justification for being in Syria, bombing the country and preparing for a U.S. invasion that includes “boots on the ground.” One way or another Assad will be gone. In other words, the U.S. does not want, at this time, to eliminate ISIS.
Last summer, the U.S. supported Israel’s attack on Gaza in which 2,200 Palestinians were killed, sending money and arms to Israel and creating another humanitarian crisis.
Last, but not least, we have the bombing of Yemen, a country also in the throes of civil unrest. Here, the U.S. favors the sitting regime and is supporting the bombing of Yemen by Saudi Arabia, with U.S. financial and weapons resources. The Saudis are bombing indiscriminately, creating a new humanitarian crisis.
It might have become evident that when the U.S. seeks regime change, it has little to do with freedom and democracy but more to do with imposing a regime that would welcome U.S. investment and control of that country’s resources. Assad is not open to that type of arrangement, so he has to go.
The human toll in Syria is extremely significant. By March 2015, 220,000 people had been killed; 80% of Syrians now live in poverty, and, as expected, the infrastructure of the country has been destroyed. There are an estimated 3.9 million Syrian refugees seeking safety with more to follow as long as the wars continue.
So, it seems clear that the U.S. and its allies, the “willing” (NATO), have created the crisis. For Germany to accept 800,000 refugees is a nice but disguised gesture, because no one seems to be addressing the cause of the crisis, a crisis in which Germany has participated.
As long as Germany and the other NATO countries continue their support of U.S. imperialism and continue to wage war throughout the world, this is a meaningless gesture. There will continue to be hundreds of thousands of refugees seeking safety.
No one seems ready to hold the U.S. and its NATO allies accountable for this massive humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been made homeless and all we hear is how humanitarian Germany is by accepting 800,000 of the millions of refugees they helped create.
GOD BLESS AMERIKA AND THE “WILLING”!!
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.