Hail All the Grandmasters of Bee-Essing!

Courtesy www.sunipix.com

‘We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions,’ US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters during the Thursday afternoon briefing last week.

That’s a serious claim.  A very serious claim.  A claim so serious that claimant has to substantiate it.  Marie Harf failed there.  She was questioned by an AFP reporter, Matthew Lee about the basis for the claim she simply said ‘based on some intelligence information.’

All this comes in the aftermath of Washington first claiming that it is impossible to rule out Russia providing technical assistance with regard to the surface-to-air missiles blamed for taking down MH17 which was quickly morphed into ‘proof positive’.  That ‘proof’ which included images allegedly showing Russian military fighting alongside anti-Kiev militiamen was later admitted to be ‘inaccurate’.

The key word however is ‘intelligence’.  It is impossible to assess Harf’s claims without alluding to another intelligence-moment.  That was when US ‘intelligence’ provided ‘proof positive’ about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction.  The US and its allies went to war on the basis of this ‘evidence’.  Today, the world knows, that it was a trumped up charge.  Iraq became a US-EU plaything.  Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis perished. Iraq remains a cemetery.  Courtesy, we must add, ‘US intelligence’. 

Since all this umbrage emanating from Washington has to do with the downing of a plane it is relevant to refer to another plane-downing.    On July 3, 1988 Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai was shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes.  It happened in Iranian airspace, over Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gult and on the flight’s normal flight path.  A total of 290 people including 66 children died.  President George W Bush, referring to that wanton crime against humanity infamously said, ‘I will never apologize for the United States. I don’t care what the facts are.  I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.’

The contradictions, sleight-of-hand, downright lying and utter contempt for all norms of civility in conduct by the United States of America have become, sadly, ‘just another one of those things’.  It’s so common, in other words.  US double-speak is now daily news and the tragedy is that the US doesn’t seem to give a damn over tongue-tripping and half-truths. 

So it is ok for the USA to shoot down a plane carrying passengers and then say, ‘we will not even apologize’.  The world has to swallow it all. It is ok also for the USA to preface claim with ‘we have evidence’ even when there’s no shred of proof, to point fingers at the particular enemy of the moment, demand action and sanction and even declare war, tossing missiles, launching drone attacks and running torture chambers.  It’s easy because of the Bushism ‘We don’t care about facts’.  It’s easy because it goes with a corollary: ‘We will conjure facts and force you to care about them!’ 

That, ladies and gentlemen is the world we live in. 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the same-same that’s happening with respect to Gaza.   There was spoof of a BBC stroller posted on Facebook which referred to an Israeli soldier suffering an ankle injury.  BBC is not that bad, but it’s bad enough.  And that goes for all Western media reporting on ‘Gaza’, falling over one another to play down the carnage to something akin to someone bruising his knee when tripped by someone else. 

Here’s another FB comment which puts things in perspective:

‘Over 800 human beings murdered in Gaza as of today (and some in the West Bank as well). 190 of them i.e. approximately 25% of them were children. Yet the only picture the NYT can find to run is one of the bodies of "a Jihadist leader" and his two sons. Who out there still believes you get the real news from American newspapers? Do you have children aged 11 and 13? Dozens of those are dead in the prison that is Gaza. Anyone with a newborn, or infants? Those too. Can you shut your eyes for one minute and imagine holding the dead body of your 11 year old or your 13 year old or your newborn or infant in your arms? How about trying to find their bodies underneath the rubble of your entire neighborhood while the shelling continues? Half of the $37 billion that the U.S. gives in foreign aid goes to Israel for arms/military. We are complicit, people. And until we say something - until you go to your local demonstrations, until you place your voice and your body not against bombs, but simply on any one of our well-managed, quiet American city streets, this will not stop. Is that really too much to ask of ourselves?’

The above was written by a citizen of the USA.  Those facts, Harf and other spokespersons of the Obama administration, would not even bother to comment on because slaughter has been sanctioned by Washington in the name of ‘defence’.  The ‘just war’ principle, however, is not applied across the board.  In short, the USA has treated ‘lie’ and ‘truth’ in such deft and interchangeable ways that foreign policy has become a piece of cake for that country. 

Does the media pick it up? Well, it took Russia Today to elaborate on the politics of misrepresentation so effectively obtained by the AFP correspondent.  BBC didn’t ‘see’ it.  None of the US networks bothered to take Harf to task.  No one asked the most important question, ‘Hey! Wait a minute Ma’am, isn’t that the line Dubya Bush used to launch a campaign that resulted in half a million Iraqi children dying, not to mention produced a nation that doesn’t seem to be able to stop the blood-letting?’ 

In this scenario it is futile to debate Washington because that kind of exercise presumes some minimal degree of integrity.  Washington can’t spell the word.  Perhaps it is better to call Washington’s bluff and ask some unanswerable questions and make some indisputable points. 

‘We have conclusive proof that the sewerage system in Washington DC has collapsed, that people can’t flush their poo-poo down the toilet bowl and that the s*** has literally hit the fan.  Proof of that is the stink that quite asphyxiates correspondents when US spokespersons deign to speak.’

‘Ban Ki-moon does not have a back bone; he has an artificial contraption which can help him sit or stand straight for the few minutes he shows up in public.  The US representative in Geneva just before he faces the camera dabs his cheeks, forehead and chin with a special powder that allows Ki-moon to keep a straight face.’

‘The earth is flat.’

‘The Oxford Dictionary has changed the definition of terrorist: ‘an individual so named by the USA”.’

‘The Oxford Dictionary has changed the definition of fact: “that which the USA has determined to be true”.’

‘Truth is dead.  Lie is dead.  They fornicate in the afterlife of global political economy and that love-making yields death, destruction, dismemberment, displacement and tears that the Western media does not find newsworthy.’

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