Day: January 9, 2024

Boots on the ground in the Middle East make Americans less safe, not more

Ms. Cat

Boots on the ground in the Middle East make Americans less safe, not more

This sound logic has been ignored in Iraq and Syria, where small numbers of American troops stationed on remote and exposed bases are under fire from Iranian-backed militias. As of this writing, at least 60 American service members have sustained injuries in more than 73 attacks over the past few weeks.

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All of this brings to mind a solemn and recently observed milestone. On Oct. 23, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut marked the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks bombing, when a suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb killing 241 U.S. service members. Their mission was never clearly defined, they were bound by peacetime rules of engagement to maintain “neutral status,” and they took sniper and mortar fire from the moment their boots touched ground.

Daniel Davis said, in his interview with Jason Beardsley (author), that the attacks are up to 118. Beardsley is with Koch-funded Concerned Veterans for America.

U.S. Defense Official Visits Guyana Over Threat To Oil-Rich Essequibo

Ms. Cat
Full video

As tensions with Venezuela continue to simmer over President Nicolas Maduro’s attempt to annex oil-rich Essequibo from Guyana, the U.S. is sending a top defense official to Guyana to discuss the situation.

U.S. Defense Official Visits Guyana Over Threat To Oil-Rich Essequibo

Guyana is currently a non-permanent member (2024-2025), of the UNSC, and chair of CARICOM until June 30th.

Related:

In 1974 the PNC aimed to use CARICOM as leverage against Venezuela. Guyanese foreign minister Sonny Ramphal sought to “sound out other governments” in the Caribbean, “promote further the concept of ‘Caribbean identity,’” and “by this means engage Venezuela in constructive Caribbean role which will act to inhibit GOV from pursuing its Essequibo territorial claim.”

Jonestown: An International Story of Diplomacy, Détente, and Neglect, 1973–1978

All posts related to Essequibo

Deep Dive into the 2020 Guyanese Election & Venezuela-Guyana Border Dispute

Why Are CNN, ABC, and NBC Reporters Embedding With the Israeli Military?

Ms. Cat

Why Are CNN, ABC, and NBC Reporters Embedding With the Israeli Military?

Helen Benedict, author of The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq and a professor at the Columbia Journalism School, noted in an interview that “the original purpose of embedding was to control journalists.” She and Christenson both referenced Phillip Knightley’s classic 1975 book The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker From the Crimea to Vietnam, which describes how the government invented embedded journalism in response to critical coverage of the Vietnam War. In a chapter added in 2004, Knightley wrote that as civilian casualties in Afghanistan passed 5,000, “the Pentagon sought a media strategy that would turn attention back to the military’s role in the war, especially the part played by ordinary American service men and women. This would require getting war correspondents ‘on side.’”

H/T: Council Estate Media

Previously:

Doubt that it’s just CNN: All CNN Gaza Coverage Seen by Bureau Monitored by IDF Before Publication