World's Most Evil and Lawless Institution? The Executive Branch of the U.S. Government

The Thread title is the title of this lengthy article from alternet.

I have been reading Jeremy Scahill's "Dirty Wars", and have grown increasingly disgusted and enraged over what I am finding out about the war machine that is in the hands of the U.S. Executive Branch.

This article makes me literally feel sick to my stomach. I was 10 years old when the riots broke out in my college home-town over the Vietnam debacle. I was too young, and too 'sheltered' to know much about it, but I could see that something was wrong. A few years later, as I got into high school, I was part of conversations with veterans who had come back, totally messed up.

Nowadays, veterans are committing suicide by the thousands. TENS of thousands of civilians' lives have been destroyed just in Syria. But if you look at things over the last 50 years (my lifetime), and add it all up, what I'm just now "learning" has been going on ever since I was born.

Totalitarian regimes go to great lengths—strict censorship, prison for those violating it—to cover up their leaders' crimes. But in America, the information is available. All that is needed to keep America’s secret is to simply ignore it.

Americans keep this secret because facing it openly would upend our most basic understandings about our nation and its leaders. A serious public discussion of it would reveal, for example, that we cannot trust Executive Branch leaders’ human decency, words, or judgment. And more troubling, acknowledging it would mean admitting to ourselves that we have been misleading our own children, that our silence has robbed them of the truth of their history and made it more likely that future leaders will continue to commit acts that stain the very soul of America.

It is a matter of indisputable fact that the U.S. Executive Branch has over the past 50 years been responsible for bombing, shooting, burning alive with napalm, blowing up with cluster bombs, burying alive with 500-pound bombs, leveling homes and villages, torturing, assassinating and incarcerating without evidence more innocent civilians in more nations over a longer period of time than any other government on earth today.

It is also undeniable that it has committed countless acts, as no less an authority than U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry noted in regard to Vietnam, which have been "contrary to the laws of the Geneva Convention, and... ordered as established policies from the top down," and that "the men who ordered this are war criminals."

YES. They ARE CRIMINALS. And not ONE of them has lifted a finger to impart this destruction, this wholesale slaughter. No, all they do is tell their Number Two - "make it so."

And MILLIONS of lives end, or are destroyed as soldiers do their bidding. It's LONG PAST TIME for this to stop. EVERY LIVING PRESIDENT, past or current, should be held accountable for these atrocities. I do no blame the soldiers, I BLAME THE LEADERSHIP.

The rationalizations by which even decent human beings allow themselves to ignore their leaders’ mass murder, e.g. that “these things always happen in war,” or “it’s the other side’s fault,” are just that: rationalizations that allow us to avoid our secret shame. Human civilization, through its body of international law, has defined which acts are both immoral and illegal even in times of war. And a citizen’s first responsibility is to oppose his or her own government’s crimes, not those of others.

Although America's media, intellectual, political and economic elites turn their heads pretending they just don't see U.S. leaders' responsibility for mass murder, dozens of dedicated and honorable scholars and activists led by Noam Chomsky have spent years of their lives meticulously documenting it.

Read these two again:
Human civilization, through its body of international law, has defined which acts are both immoral and illegal even in times of war.

And a citizen’s first responsibility is to oppose his or her own government’s crimes, not those of others.

Well, as I've said before, they can yank my identity, obliterate my citizenship, send me into exile, put me on a list, surveil everything I say, turn me into a cripple, lobotomize me, take away my birthday, and stamp "NO DESSERT" on my forehead, BUT I WON'T SHUT UP about this.

Some members here have asserted that Snowden, Manning, Drake, and others are "traitors". They talk about 'working within the law', but our LEADERS do NOT work within the laws - not domestic or international. They are the new Mafia. Ruthless, psychopathic, murderous barbarians who should be locked away forever.

Readers wishing to flesh out the overview below are directed to five important recent books:

Kill Anything That Moves, by Nick Turse, about Vietnam;

Dirty Wars (and a film), by Jeremy Scahill, about Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia;

The Deaths of Others, by John Tirman, covering Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan ;

The Untold History of the U.S. by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick (and a 10-part Showtime documentary)
discussing U.S. policy from World War II to the present;

and Drone Warfare by Medea Benjamin.

Flyboys, by James Bradley, also offers invaluable information on U.S. aerial mass murder of civilians in World War II, as does

The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings on U.S. Executive massacres of civilians in Korea.

Such careful work has been supplemented by numerous reports from such organizations as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

So, what can we do? Shall we take to the streets like the Egyptians? Should military personnel simply STOP TAKING ORDERS, and refuse to kill people? Should drone pilots walk off the job?

Should we all stop paying taxes?

I am disgusted, embarrassed, ashamed, and LIVID about these atrocities and the 'machine' that keeps us all churning our hamster wheels while this hideous devasation of our own species continues.

I can only read Scahill's book a little at a time, it is so upsetting. I, too, was 'sheltered' by my parents - we did not discuss wars or politics openly when I was growing up. As the article states, we MUST STOP pretending this didn't happen and isn't happening.

My kids ARE aware of it, and I'm glad of that. But this opens up a whole new world of youth uprising potential. Kids nowadays know 1000% more about the world at large than my generation did - due to the internet. My generation WILL die off within a few decades, leaving this world in the hands of those to come.

Snowden for President. IMPEACH Obama, IMPRISON all of his cronies and cabinet members, shut down congress (useless bastards), Wall Street, the Fed, and BRING ALL AMERICANS BACK HOME.

I'll never be Noam Chomsky, though I admire him as another hero.

What is going on in the human world today is naked insanity and untold evil. Not from Satan, not under the banner of God, it is HUMAN INSANITY, and it MUST BE STOPPED. I'm TIRED of feeling POWERLESS.


EDIT: I got so upset I forgot the link: www.alternet.org...

How Jeremy is still alive I'll never know.
It's true even as an Obama supporter the Exec branch
is too powerful... Or so it seems.

I truly believe the real power is the Military industrial complex and Big oil.
Remember Obama wanting to close Gitmo?
How'd that dissappear?

Well as soon as he was in, I'm sure he was immediately
told by the Pentagon, there will be no such order.
You know, National Security.
Also that drones are here to stay....
etc etc.

Look for the men and women BEHIND the curtain.

reply to post by sealing


Have you read his book? Appalling.

Turns out Obama (who I STUPIDLY voted for TWICE) has ramped up W Bush's campaign of drone strikes by double-digits just in his first YEAR!!!

I'm glad you responded. I was beginning to think I should just delete the thread altogether. This makes me SO SICK.

Thanks for chiming in.

[H]ow much can you trust the decency of a US. Executive that treats these millions of human beings as mere nameless, faceless "collateral damage" at best, direct targets at worst, as human garbage barely worthy of mention, as "non-people" as Noam Chomsky has observed?

We almost never ask such questions in this country, never try to put ourselves in the shoes of the tens of millions of victims of our leaders' war-making, because doing so confronts us with a grave dilemma.
On the one hand, if we would say these acts are evil if done to ourselves they are obviously also evil when done to others. But admitting that would require most of us to challenge our most basic beliefs about this nation and its leadership. And if we are members of our political, intellectual, media, government and private sector elites, it would threaten our jobs and livelihoods.

We are divided. The honest part of ourselves knows there is only one word that can adequately describe the U.S. Executive Branch’s indifference to non-American life. It is not a word to be used lightly, for overuse robs it of its power. But when appropriate, failing to use it is an act of moral cowardice that assures its continuation. That word is evil.

The article starts with Vietnam...then goes from there to Laos, Cambodia, Central/South America, the Middle East.....and ports of call in between.

Sickening.

Yes this is all true. Shortly before I was deployed to Iraq in 2005 I was asked by a few people if I believed in the fight over there. I never had an answer because it seemed like the reason(s) we were there changed by the day or were just vague enough to gain support but not actually define any objective. Stabilizing the region? What?

I have spent many days running down the rabbit hole and the further I get the more I realize that there is literally nothing that can be done. The public is too apathetic and has the attention span of an 8 year old. All the government has to do if a scandal erupts is to wait a few months and the public will forget about it even if it isn't resolved. I try to do a bit by voting independent (or against the incumbent) and try to encourage others to do the same yet I get told time and time again that I'm throwing my vote away.

The NSA thing is a prime example of the public's apathy, If the outrage was appropriate than we would be seeing many people standing trial and the NSA being subsequently stripped of many of its powers. Instead we just talk about it angerly on an online forum while calling the guy who exposed the truth a traitor.

The author of the article writes:

I found myself particularly reflecting on the question I found most troubling of all: beyond the issue of lawless and heartless American leaders, what does it say about my species as a whole that the most powerful could so torment the weakest for so long with virtually no one else knowing or caring? I was anguished not only about this extreme form of mass murder, but what it implied about humanity.

I shuddered in 1969 as I reflected on what I was seeing with my own eyes. I shudder today as I write these words.

This was when I was 10 years old.....as I explained above.

Yeah, we were the "dirty hippies."
We wanted peace. We still DO want peace.

I make no excuses for those of my generation who participate in this outrageous system -- they are abominations.

reply to post by Krazysh0t

The NSA thing is a prime example of the public's apathy, If the outrage was appropriate than we would be seeing many people standing trial and the NSA being subsequently stripped of many of its powers. Instead we just talk about it angerly on an online forum while calling the guy who exposed the truth a traitor.

Well, SOME people say he's a traitor. I say he's a hero.
Thanks for your comments....AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. My husband is a veteran also, he suffers to this day from PTSD just from BASIC TRAINING!
He was asked to become an Army Ranger during Petraus's time in command, and turned it down, KNOWING it would RUIN his life and chances for a peaceful home life, family, and future. I'm very glad he did.
I am bewildered and despairing for the future of this species.

Originally posted by wildtimes
I do no blame the soldiers, I BLAME THE LEADERSHIP.

But without those soldiers, none of this would be possible.
I wish I could just ignore my conscience, act without questioning, follow some kind of order without having to think about it, but that's not reality.

WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OWN ACTIONS.

I can accept that there have been instances where individuals have been lied to, where they have been fed a diet of nationalist propaganda, and where the government has outright lied to the people in an effort to force their military to act, but these are still Humans with their own morals and their own responsibilities shooting, bombing and killing people they have no quarrel with.

It's not as easy as saying "I was just following orders". These men and women are supposed to be DEFENDING their country, not simply following orders and abandoning their own responsibilities.

I blame everyone. I blame the governments for lying to their people for economic or military gain, I blame the people for not standing up and questioning it or holding their supposed "leaders" to account, and I blame the "soldier" who pulls the trigger an murders someone in cold blood just because a corrupt man standing behind them tells them to.

reply to post by Rocker2013

But without those soldiers, none of this would be possible.
I wish I could just ignore my conscience, act without questioning, follow some kind of order without having to think about it, but that's not reality.

WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OWN ACTIONS.

Precisely. I can't ignore my conscience either.
That's why I ask, should military personnel, IF they are apprised of these things (which MOST are not - and also Congress is NOT) just refuse to do it?
It happens. They get thrown in prison, vilified, labelled as traitors/deserters, etc.

The military takes in youths - not ADULTS - KIDS, who are still malleable enough in their brain development to fall for the 'college tuition'! 'a few good men'! 'stand strong, Army strong'! And it's not right. These youths are the future of the human species.

Messing up their brains with 'collateral damage' and 'order following' is barbarism.
I thank GOD that my father, brothers, and son did not enter the service. My dad has now passed - my brothers are in their 50s, but I remember worrying that they might be drafted when I was a kid just finding out about 'war' from the older siblings of my 'classmates'.

I implored my now-22-year-old son not too long ago, "Honey, please....if they instill the draft again, PLEASE, run. Go to Canada. I will go with you."

So far, so good - no draft. And happily, he is not athletic or interested in violence. But it makes me ill to think of what happens to those youths who are recruited or enlist of their own accord. I SEE what happens to their minds, to their ability to live happy, peaceful lives - and it is horrendous.

Originally posted by sealing
How Jeremy is still alive I'll never know.
It's true even as an Obama supporter the Exec branch
is too powerful... Or so it seems.

I truly believe the real power is the Military industrial complex and Big oil.
Remember Obama wanting to close Gitmo?
How'd that dissappear?

Well as soon as he was in, I'm sure he was immediately
told by the Pentagon, there will be no such order.
You know, National Security.
Also that drones are here to stay....
etc etc.

Look for the men and women BEHIND the curtain.

Banks - don't forget the Banks control everything.

Thanks for posting this article. I was listening to Thom Hartman this morning, a rebroadcase on KPFK (90.7 FM in LA) Pacifica Radio and he was talking about the Iranian Hostages and how the new regime made a deal with Reagan's people to not let the hostages goes until after the Election. That was a scary time thought it was going to kick off WWIII.

Too sleepy to read all the comments but I shall tomorrow.

reply to post by FyreByrd


Exactly - privately owned world BANKS.

Don't get too enthralled with the snowdens, assanges, and such just yet.

TPTB understand their "message" is being questioned..... Throw out a few red herrings, so the lemmings will bite.

What is their ultimate goal? Depopulation and slavery - to the world bank.

You can't forget the other world menances out there - big pharma, GMO seed and feed Monsanto, expensive energy for all the slaves......

Glad you have learned to question all that is fed to you. Communism is their goal - and the youth have been fed this crap all through their public schooling.

Question all the propaganda that is being fed to everyone.

reply to post by wildtimes


So, you can see that the democrats (latent hippies) and the republicans (the supposedly rich capitalists) are both the same - with the same agenda.

Goldman Sachs was just hired to fix the Greek economy that they destroyed.

The never-ending spring of the arab demise - at least those countries that are not controlled by the world bank.

Originally posted by wildtimes
The military takes in youths - not ADULTS - KIDS, who are still malleable enough in their brain development to fall for the 'college tuition'! 'a few good men'! 'stand strong, Army strong'! And it's not right. These youths are the future of the human species.

If I had kids, I would be doing what you have done.

I despise nationalism, flag-waving stupidity and praising corrupt leaders, it all makes me very uncomfortable. So I would be raising my kids to question everything the government does. I would raise my kids to be aware of other nations, their politics, the history of war, and the motivations of people in power.

The only time I would ever even contemplate going to war myself is if my own country were physically under attack from a known enemy. The last real noble and just war was WW2, when Hitler was dropping bombs all over Europe and trying to invade as many countries as possible. There's little room for propaganda there, it's unquestionable that he was the bad guy.

That's real defense of a nation, that's what military force is supposed to be for.

reply to post by FyreByrd

I'm equally disgusted by the banks, make no mistake.

I'm on the fence about GMO and pharma - aware of the issues, but not focused on them at the moment.

Scahill is no Assange. I recommend you read his work. Snowden is an amateur compared to Scahill.
I was thinking as I drifted off to sleep last night that instead of the Stewart/Colbert 2012 sticker, next one I want is Scahill/Snowden 2016NOW.

I am also very much aware of the Bilderberg shadow government world elites - those are ALL PSYCHOPATHIC MONSTERS who allow this depravity to continue.

Originally posted by Rocker2013

The only time I would ever even contemplate going to war myself is if my own country were physically under attack from a known enemy. The last real noble and just war was WW2, when Hitler was dropping bombs all over Europe and trying to invade as many countries as possible. There's little room for propaganda there, it's unquestionable that he was the bad guy.

That's real defense of a nation, that's what military force is supposed to be for.

WW2 is not as cut-and-dried as you may suppose. Roosevelt wanted in on the war. Remember, the US economy was still badly damaged from the Wall Street/central bankster games post '29 crash.

Prewar, the US Navy was harassing German subs. Read the McCollum memo. Read the Honolulu newspaper headlines for the week before Dec 7, 1941. The Pearl Harbor massacre was no surprise.

Although the axis did strike militarily first, Roosevelt & company struck first in covert ops.

reply to post by juspassinthru


Thanks for this note. Correct, and the fact is that EVERY modern war (including the American Civil War) has had behind-the-scenes industrial and financial motivations. This article is talking about the war crimes of genocide and devastation, but there is NO QUESTION that wars 'stimulate' economies

It is a sickness - a disease of humanity. Possibly fatal. In fact, I'd say the human species is at a point that it could go either way - Wipe us all off the surface of the planet (which will NOT miss us), or bring us together as a unified global society built on cooperation with mutually important strengths, resources, technology, and quality of life for EVERYONE.

Every continent has things to offer. I don't see why we can't trade efficiently, as things used to be - spices from the East, silk from China, coffee from South America, wheat from N. America, rice from Asia, etc. etc.

Either that, or have 'continental' unions - or hemispheric entities - the Americas/Asia/Europe/Africa - and each with its own 'amalgated culture' - the people who live on continents or in cultures that do not "jive" with their values or interests could repatriate to whichever continent is most suitable, and then we all just leave each other ALONE.

Every continent has rich, fertile areas, deserts, jungles, forests, plains, mountains, etc. EACH of those areas has something to offer. This global insanity of "cheap labor" trading and corrupted corporate greed is a real problem.

We CAN just live and let live - why DON'T WE??!!!
We can ALSO make sure that every person alive has adequate shelter, food, clean water, sanitation, health care, and security.

The Apple company alone ended their fiscal year with something like 11 Billion dollars they avoided in taxes -- (if I recall correctly - I had another thread about that a while back) which money could have been put to use to feed EVERYONE and solve poverty and hunger.

Developing clean energy, and investing in alternative power sources such as hydrogen, solar, wind, water - that do not require us puncturing, fracturing, mining, drilling, deforesting or potentially POISONING everyone and everything (nuclear). When will we learn?

When we get to the corner of "NE" and "VER" ?
However we got here, whatever we're meant to be doing, it does NOT compute that we are pillaging this planet - destroying our very home - and the archaic idea that "God put us here to have Dominion" is ridiculous. We MUST conserve our environment, learn new ways to amplify the available resources, and STOP DESTROYING OURSELVES AND THIS, OUR HOME.

I served my time in the armed forces back in my hay day and i would have to say if i had a chance not to if i had a chance to go back and tell the recruiter to go to hell i would...

Just from my short time in the governmental war machine i relised how messed up the US gov really is...

there was no communication at all.. Ex.. the right hand had no idea what the left hand was doing EVER....

as i was in a few of my school freinds went in as well all of us have been changed forever some more then others...

My friend since i was 2 .. has been changed the most.. in Korea he witnessed torturer and bribes threats and secrets..

In Baghdad he was changed forever..

He once told me that the untold wanton death of just EVER one that moves was horrible..

he was driving convey for a 2nd lieutenant .. they came on to a street full of women and children and men going about there day .. and had gotten a notice that al queada was in the area and coming down on them ( which i have no idea if it was true or not) but his lieutenant told him i don't care who you hit or kill get us back to base as fast as possible ... the road was PACKED with innocent people.. he said " Hell no i am not going to run over people".. at that his lieutenant pulled his pistol out and pointed it right at my friends head and said " If you don't drive over these people i will shoot you get out and it myself and i will blame your death on Al'queada" ... so he drove people down.. it has changed him FOREVER when he got back i noticed he is not the same again and never will be...

Stuff like this happens all the time.. kill any thing that comes down that road at us.. o opps its just random inncents lets place ak's on there bodies and then say they where the bad guys its ok no one is in trouble..

kill any one who comes near us .. who cares who they are..

etc etc etc..

and they all tell us to keep are mouths shut or else..

Originally posted by wildtimes

.....

It is a sickness - a disease of humanity. Possibly fatal. In fact, I'd say the human species is at a point that it could go either way - Wipe us all off the surface of the planet (which will NOT miss us), or bring us together as a unified global society built on cooperation with mutually important strengths, resources, technology, and quality of life for EVERYONE.

Every continent has things to offer. I don't see why we can't trade efficiently, as things used to be - spices from the East, silk from China, coffee from South America, wheat from N. America, rice from Asia, etc. etc.

It is most definitely a sickness. It appears to much worse than a general problem, as the elite have used their position to catapult their technology using black ops under the guise of "National Security".

It appears that we have a two tiered civilization with the common people being victimized at every turn and the elite that are parasites to the system. If we were to cut the military industrial complex by 95% and severely cut back or eliminate the federal government, we would have a chance at raising the bar of our civilization.

Honestly, I don't know why the elite are not hanging from gallows on every street corner. Their deeds are on public display every day.

reply to post by Rocker2013


That was a beautiful post, and I agree with everything you just said. If you want to know whose responsible for what's happening in the world today look in the mirror. I get so nauseous when I see all this support the troops nonsense etc. Just following orders isn't an excuse. But there isn't any excuse for those of us who do nothing either.

Originally posted by wildtimes
I'm equally disgusted by the banks, make no mistake.

I'm on the fence about GMO and pharma - aware of the issues, but not focused on them at the moment.

You absolutely need to get educated on GMO and pharma. The experimental results, massive incompetence and sheer volume of money involved will make your head spin.

These industries are every bit as deadly to the human race as Washington/DoD is.