Americans Abused at Gitmo

Tales of the American Empire | October 26, 2023

In 2003, the United States built a military prison at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, known as Gitmo. Prisoners captured from the American invasion of Afghanistan and the Middle East were flown there. American President George W. Bush deemed these men terrorists not protected by international law. He authorized a secret torture program to extract information. Some American soldiers objected, so were abused too.

Americans Abused at Gitmo

Chas Freeman: The Many Lessons of the Ukraine War

I want to speak to you tonight about Ukraine – what has happened to it and why, how it is likely to emerge from the ordeal to which great power rivalry has subjected it; and what we can learn from this. I do so with some trepidation and a warning to this audience. My talk, like the conflict in Ukraine, is a long and complicated one. It contradicts propaganda that has been very convincing. My talk will offend anyone committed to the official narrative. The way the American media have dealt with the Ukraine war brings to mind a comment by Mark Twain: “The researches of many commentators have already thrown much darkness on this subject, and it is probable that, if they continue, we shall soon know nothing at all about it.”

Chas Freeman: The Many Lessons of the Ukraine War

Why the U.S. Government Cares About the Coup in Niger + More

Let us travel back in time to April 9, 1999. It was the middle of hot season in the West African country of Niger and 120 degrees in the shade. Jocelyn, one of the authors, was a newly minted Peace Corps volunteer and had recently arrived in a rural community 60 miles south of Niamey, the capital, where she would spend the next two years. That day, President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara and five other people were shot dead at the airport, a mutiny by his presidential guard. But there was no international outcry, no evacuation of Americans and Europeans. Jocelyn was told to stay put in the small community where she was living. Life went on as usual.

Why the U.S. Government Cares About the Coup in Niger | Opinion

Related:

“Divide and Rule”: Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni Is Biden’s “Political Asset”. U.S. Behind Niger Coup d’Etat. America’s Hegemonic Wars Against Europe and Africa

US Ambassador To China: “We’re The Leader” Of The Indo-Pacific

A recent US Chamber of Commerce InSTEP program hosted three empire managers to talk about Washington’s top three enemies, with the US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns discussing the PRC, the odious Victoria Nuland discussing Russia, and the US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides talking about Iran.

US Ambassador To China: “We’re The Leader” Of The Indo-Pacific

Related:

The Nazi roots of the ‘Indo-Pacific strategy’

Macron rejects ‘confrontation’ as he relaunches Asia strategy

Macron rejects ‘confrontation’ as he relaunches Asia strategy

“We don’t believe in hegemony, we don’t believe in confrontation, we believe in stability,” Macron said.

Macron said a coordinated response was needed to tackle the overlapping crises facing the international community — from climate change to economic turmoil triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Our Indo-Pacific strategy is how to provide dynamic balance in this environment,” he said.

“How to provide precisely a sort of stability and equilibrium which could not be the hegemony of one of those, could not be the confrontation of the two major powers.”

The Indo-Pacific Strategy doesn’t sound as innocent as Macron makes it out to be:

The new US Indo-Pacific Strategy document released in February has two interesting components, one overt and one covert. The document overtly declares the US is an “Indo-Pacific power.” Covertly, its aim is to “tighten the noose around China.” Arguably, minus the military might, China’s nearly a decade-long “Belt and Road Initiative” cannot be perceived as a grand national strategy aimed at controlling Eurasia or the Asia Pacific or any region for that matter. Yet the BRI is mythologized into such a geostrategic game-changer that it has rattled the US and its allies in the Asia Pacific. The BRI, at best, is nothing more than a mere geopolitical overland and maritime “chessboard” based on trade and investment.

BRI and the ‘Indo-Pacific’ Strategy: Geopolitical vs. Geostrategic

NATO in the Amazon: Petro Plays with Fire

By Roger D. Harris on October 26, 2022

NATO recently expanded to Sweden and Finland, has been de facto incorporated in Ukraine, and may extend to Georgia. Now, NATO’s entry into the Amazon is in the works under the aegis of newly elected President Gustavo Petro of Colombia.

NATO in the Amazon: Petro Plays with Fire

Related:

The US warns Petro of the danger of falling into the hands of China:

The Government of Colombia replies to Washington that if it wants to prevail over Beijing, it must finance the purchase of land from ranchers to distribute among the peasants

Quid pro quo?!

The War and the Intellectuals: Randolph Bourne Vents His Animus Against War

[World War I] Pro-war statements and speeches—as well as more coercive measures—gradually captured American public discourse in 1917. Fairly quickly, those who rejected the rationales for United States participation in the war found themselves increasingly isolated. Liberals, intellectuals, and even many socialists soon supported American intervention. A youthful critic in his twenties, Randolph Bourne wrote a bitter essay in the intellectual magazine Seven Arts, lambasting his fellow intellectuals for lining up so readily behind the war effort.

The War and the Intellectuals