This week Secretary of State John Kerry became the Sham-Wow man for the latest war by the United States. Here is how a Sham-War pitch works. Kerry announced that the Arab countries will pay for our entire war if we invade Syria. That’s right, we can simply rent out U.S. personnel like mercenaries for Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations. First we have Nancy Pelosi explaining the war literally in five-year-old terms and now John Kerry doing his imitation of Offer “Vince” Shlomi.
Kerry told Congress that “With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is profoundly yes. . . . They have. That offer is on the table.” When Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) pressed on how much we could get from the countries, Kerry said it was an absolute bargain: “In fact, some of them have said that if the United States is prepared to go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost . . . That’s how dedicated they are at this. That’s not in the cards, and nobody’s talking about it, but they’re talking in serious ways about getting this done.”
Note the reference to “go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places.” That is the new way to refer to an invasion as in Iraq and Afghanistan. The clear suggestion is that we might be able to go to war on a Saudi credit card . . . if we act now. Indeed, as Congress contemplates whether it would buy a war for zero down, Kerry could offer to get a second war at the same cost.
What is astonishing is that the offer of a free war was viewed as Kerry as a positive contribution to the pitch for war. Many people have already criticized the United States for engaging in such operations at the behest of either the Saudis or the Israelis at the cost of U.S. lives and treasure. Even Offer “Vince” Shlomi would blush at the pitch of a war that is too good a deal to pass up.
Source: Washington Post
Yes OS,
I understand what you’re saying.
My main point was so many times in the past, very recent past, disruptive techs are lost to the public because of people in positions of power block the release of the tech.
I understand inventors wishing to profit from the patients, but in important cases, I believe, they now have no choice but to release it into the public commons.
That’s one of the real reasons for all the govt/Corp spying, to keep an eye on who’s working on what new disruptive tech.
IE: Aaron Swartz, suspicion was of him having been murdered because he was very sharp, disruptive…
I’m not sure what was in the files from MIT he had.
Note Mr Kanzius tech, without knowing any details, sounds related to 60-100 year old secret energy tech by Tesla.
And we have no idea how much more of Tesla’s work/ideas are being withheld by the govt/corps.
Just using simple tech, publicly available now & for decades past, verified by scientist, full size cars/pickups could be getting 75-100 mpg.
But look what would have happened to the now $3.50-$4.00 gasoline price.
And ME wars.
Oky1,
I will repeat myself as you might have missed it in my comment, I am not in favor of the US going it alone in Syria. However, if it is a true international action in order to end the bloodshed and the killing of innocents with chemical weapons and any other weapons, then I would be in favor of it. I do not believe the instability that you warn of is a legitimate concern. The bigger concern is who would replace Assad and is Al-Qaeda involved to any degree with the rebels. That concern my actually prevent any action being taken.
As a point of interest to me is how many of those who are opposed to US bombing Syria were in favor of bombing Serbia under Clinton? My suspicion is that a lot of you were in favor of that bombing campaign that violated the US Constitution, the UN Charter, NATO charter, and Helsinki Treaty on Europe to name a few. Not only that but the US willfully attacked a non-combatant target, the Serbian radio and TV headquarters. Even in WWII, war correspondents were considered to be non-combatants on both sides. But it was the US which decided that was no longer the rule.
Also, it turns out that the so called genocide was not being done as Clinton alleged. In FACT, it was the Kosovars who were doing the ethnic cleansing and were outright NAZIS. The Serbs were the victims in that war,not the aggressors.
Oky1, it has been known for a long time how to extract hydrogen from water. That is simple chemistry. The problem is 1) making enough of it to be useful. 2) breaking the molecular bond between hydrogen and oxygen in a way that does not violate the First Law of Thermodynamics. Virgina Tech researchers are working on biotechnology, but have some way to go before it is useful as an energy source. This report is from Virgina Tech University last May.
http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2013/04/040413-cals-hydrogen.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Emerson
rafflaw,
You may be interested in this book:
The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection
http://books.google.com/books?id=yH95QgAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:steven+inauthor:emerson&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=100&as_brr=0&ei=BoVhS8aPAZXuzATT1vUm&cd=5
rafflaw,
Why?
What business is of of the US?
Do you even have an ph’kin clue as to the instability removing Syria current leadership will bring upon the world?
(ie: phk’in is slang for ” I feel strongly about…” , sorry but I use it like salt & pepper)
Remember that song: Mind our own biz & I’ll be minding mine?
If you wish to do something constructive for humanity Email/call people like Mr Kanzius & ask them to give up all the patient rights to the people of the world & release all such tech immediately to the public, youtube, etc…
To do otherwise & it’s just more energy tech that gets bought by the likes of GE, XOM, BP… & locked away forever in their vaults.
** Hydrogen from Salt Water?
ISKDude
Planet Infowars
Sept. 3, 2013
** http://www.google.com/search?q=John+Kanzius **
http://www.infowars.com/hydrogen-from-salt-water/ **
IBS,
They aren’t leading Obama into war, Obama is doing that himself. They are helping him to have a “mission accomplished” moment but it’s a moment he wants and wants very badly.
It is necessary to be clear because many Obama believers think Obama isn’t a war monger. Even though Obama has been running around the world threatening other nations if they don’t back us, they will still believe it is not the “real” Obama. After six wars, hundreds of drone strikes, several cluster bombs later, he is still considered a man of peace.
While I agree that we should not attack Syria, at the very least it should be an international force and they should get rid of Assad. It has been a long time since I agreed with any Pope. Well said Pope Francis.
Yes Sir. It takes a war veteran like John Kerry or John McCain to lead us into another Vietnam.
Vlad meets with Obonzo the Rodeo Clown Prez want a bee.
Vlad: Greetings comrade, how are the kids?
Obonzo: “Assalamu ‘Alaikum”, Oh the kids, they blow up so quickly now days.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-05/leningrad-liaisons-caption-contest
Nope. It was Churchill.
Churchill: “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?”
Socialite: “My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course… ”
Churchill: “Would you sleep with me for five pounds?”
Socialite: “Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!”
Churchill: “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price”
Gene H. 1, September 5, 2013 at 10:04 am
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “We’ve established what you are, V.P. Kerry. Now we are just haggling over the price.”
=========================
I believe, Gene, that it was G.B. Shaw.
//////////////////////// ///////////////////////////////
Kerry – The man who would be President…
sic transit gloria mundi ….
Have we no shame! Are we now going to be the mercenary servants of the Saudis? They have armies, they have weapons and they have MONEY. Let them fight their own wars! John Kerry should be ashamed of himself and so should President Obama. The Saudis must really be laughing their a…… Off at the mercenary Americans and nodding their heads about what a silly little money grubbing people we are as they get into their RRs and motor off to go Solomon fishing. This is their war let them fight it!
Syria will be another success, just like Libya: “As world attention focused on the coup in Egypt and the poison gas attack in Syria over the past two months, Libya has plunged unnoticed into its worst political and economic crisis since the defeat of Gaddafi two years ago. Government authority is disintegrating in all parts of the country putting in doubt claims by American, British and French politicians that Nato’s military action in Libya in 2011 was an outstanding example of a successful foreign military intervention which should be repeated in Syria.
In an escalating crisis little regarded hitherto outside the oil markets, output of Libya’s prized high-quality crude oil has plunged from 1.4 million barrels a day earlier this year to just 160,000 barrels a day now. Despite threats to use military force to retake the oil ports, the government in Tripoli has been unable to move effectively against striking guards and mutinous military units that are linked to secessionist forces in the east of the country.
Libyans are increasingly at the mercy of militias which act outside the law. Popular protests against militiamen have been met with gunfire; 31 demonstrators were shot dead and many others wounded as they protested outside the barracks of “the Libyan Shield Brigade” in the eastern capital Benghazi in June.
Though the Nato intervention against Gaddafi was labeled as a humanitarian response to the threat that Gaddafi’s tanks would slaughter dissidents in Benghazi, the international community has ignored the escalating violence. The foreign media, which once filled the hotels of Benghazi and Tripoli, have likewise paid little attention to the near collapse of the central government.
The strikers in the eastern region Cyrenaica, which contains most of Libya’s oil, are part of a broader movement seeking more autonomy and blaming the government for spending oil revenues in the west of the country. Foreigners have mostly fled Benghazi since the American ambassador, Chris Stevens, was murdered in the US consulate by jihadi militiamen last September. Violence has worsened since then with Libya’s military prosecutor Colonel Yussef Ali al-Asseifar, in charge of investigating assassinations of politicians, soldiers and journalists, himself assassinated by a bomb in his car on 29 August.
Rule by local militias is also spreading chaos around the capital. Ethnic Berbers, whose militia led the assault on Tripoli in 2011, temporarily took over the parliament building in Tripoli. The New York-based Human Rights Watch has called for an independent investigation into the violent crushing of a prison mutiny in Tripoli on 26 August in which 500 prisoners had been on hunger strike. The hunger strikers were demanding that they be taken before a prosecutor or formally charged since many had been held without charge for two years.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/05/lawlessness-and-ruin-in-libya/
Jill, you miss the main point that US air attacks does NOT mean a wider war. Now if you think that Gadhafi was preferable to what is going on now, then you should say so. Now the Libyans can deal with each other to solve their own problems. So please come out and SAY that Assad is better than the alternative and support his use of poison gas. At least have the courage of your convictions and say them outright.
May we please now begin to discuss Revolution in earnest
Join the Tea Party they are serious about a revolution and will act on their beliefs. I hope you like the current Congress since they are the ones who hold the whip hand there now.
Thank you Elaine…. I kinda like this pope…. He’s true to his word… A man of virtues and principles….
Ahh, the coalition of the willing to be funded by Saudi Arabia? Shocking, just shocking! Next we’ll hear that Israel is involved and the end game will be played in Iran.
The pope is against taking military action to prevent or act against war crimes? It seems like nothing has changed in the Vatican since Pius XII who ordered the Center Party to support Hitler in Germany, failed to speak out against the Final Solution when he learned of it, urged Mussolini to order Italian troops to turn over Serbs to the Ustashi for execution, and then after the war set up the Rat line with the CIA to get Nazis out of Europe to avoid war crimes trials. Talk about a corrupt and vicious bunch that makes the US look good.
Thanks Elaine and L.K. You have just laid it out, a much needed action.
lotta,
It’s a sad day when comedians give us a better perspective on major issues like war with Syria than the MSM.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “We’ve established what you are, Sec. Kerry. Now we are just haggling over the price.”