Posted on 03/13/2023 2:36:21 PM PDT by Vlad0
As we witness the collapse of various mainstream narratives, especially those surrounding the U.S./NATO war with Russia in Ukraine, Americans should begin to reassess their understanding of U.S. national leadership. Most American citizens have no notion of the great disparity between what their government does overseas and the stories they hear from its mouthpieces. As a result, Americans unwittingly support all sorts of foreign operations with little or no understanding of what is actually going on. For years, they have been misled by a non-stop propaganda campaign that is only now beginning to crumble.
We are experiencing the death throes of the United States’ unipolar hegemony over large parts of world. Until citizens begin to realize the magnitude of their government’s policy deceptions, it will become increasingly difficult to understand the United States’ changing global position and adjust to the effects of the growing negative perception of our country held by many people around the world.
Since World War II, and particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was the dominant and unrivaled world power. Instead of being a peacekeeper and honest “world's policeman,” the U.S. has increasingly been a destabilizing bully. Many leaders worldwide have been reluctant to speak up about the increasingly destructive nature of U.S. foreign policy for fear of being punished. But as U.S. stature and power declines, large parts of the world have been seeking arrangements to protect themselves from U.S. predation.
(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...
It's remained largely true to it's roots: founded in opposition to the Weekly Standard and National Review and opposing, in particular, the foregin policy of the NeoCons. (Thus the description of TAC and it's writers as "Paleoconservatives", or "Paleocons".
At this point this article almost reads as an "We told you so", regarding the long-term fallout of the reckless foreign policy of America over the last 40 years, much of it directed by "the usual suspects".
The article is destined to be hated by Ukraine war fan-bois (and girls) here on Free Republic, sadly.
It reads as anti American propaganda.
After the end of World War I, German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg was asked why Europe had descended into the catastrophe of the Great War. He responded:
“Ah, if we only knew.”
In the 1970’s traveling around the world with the USN it became clear that most nations hate, yes, hate the ugly americans.
I use to sub to this magazine in the early 2000’s. At the time I agreed with it’s domestic polocies but not so much its foreign policy views. Now I am much more in line with its foreign policy views as well.
Good ole Pitchfork Pat has hung the pen up in retirement.
It reads like someone lamenting the fact that most Americans, including a majority of FReepers, refuse to get their snouts out of the government/media feeding trough when it comes to Uke corruption and other US foreign intrigues.
” Instead of being a peacekeeper and honest “world’s policeman,” the U.S. has increasingly been a destabilizing bully”
Do you kneel when the national anthem comes on? Are you one of those who refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance?
It’s not propaganda. He definitely makes a valid point. Much, if not most, of the world has developed a negative view of the US for a variety of reasons. We are no longer the light of a hill shining for those who love liberty and justice for all.
George Washington warned us against foreign entanglements and alliances, and Dwight Eisenhower pointed out the evils of the military-industrial complex. We should have listened to both of them.
Look at our defense budget, almost a trillion dollars! And how many trillions did W’s Iraq misadventure cost us?
I fear the neocons will get us into a shooting (nuclear) war with the Russians. Where are the adults? Lindsey Graham, Karl Rove, and the rest of the children are champing at the bit to put it to Putin and his country. Insane.
Liar
Neocon
“the U.S. has increasingly been a destabilizing bully”
How so? An opinion is not an explanation.
A true American “bully” would have bombed Iran for its role in contributing to the loss of Amerian lives in the post-Saddam civil war in Iraq. After all that “bully” was removing the possibility of a WMD armed Saddam, which would have been a bullying threat to Iran and others in the Middle East. Instead of seeing an opportunity for rapproachment with others in Iran, once Saddam was gone, Iran used it as an opportunity to continually destabilize as well as overtly and covertly spread its influence internally in Iraq, and commit itself to a new proxy war in Yemen.
I think the new so-called “paleocons” do not know the definition of “bully”.
America, not being a real bully, left Iraq once it set up its own democratically elected government and was on its way to securing its peace internally; in spite of its continuing internal sectarian divisions and weaknesses fueled by political and religious corruption. I true bully would have claimed Iraqi territory for itself and never left.
Are you proud of your country? Or are you a Michelle Obama type who hates the nation that raised you?
It reads as anti American propaganda.
Lamentably, it reads as truth, in contradistinction to the propaganda of the MSM, in particular the propaganda surrounding the Ukraine conflict, and American foreign adventures in general.
“Say that to my face and you will be spitting teeth for a week boy”
So you also punch as hard as Michelle Obama?
“And how many trillions did W’s Iraq misadventure cost us?”
I thought the intent of this thread was to warn people not to believe what they are told by the media. Here’s a hint:
The media doing the most lying in early 2000 was the one that says it didn’t happen, liberal. Did it? If it means anything I can promise you it did. According to Saddam in 1996. “We have nothing.”
Finds since 2000:
In April 2003, US Marines stumbled across a number of buildings which emitted unusual levels of radiation. Upon close inspection the troops uncovered “many, many drums” containing low-grade uranium, also known as yellowcake. The material was transported out of Iraq in July 2008 and sold to Canadian uranium producer Cameco Corp., in a transaction described as worth “tens of millions of dollars.” US ships moved it.
In May 2, 2004, a shell containing mustard gas was found in the middle of a street west of Baghdad. They weren’t supposed to have it and said they didn’t. Maybe more?
On May 16, 2004, a 152 mm artillery shell was used as an improvised bomb. The shell exploded and two U.S. soldiers were treated for minor exposure to a nerve agent (nausea and dilated pupils).
On May 18 it was reported by U.S. Department of Defense intelligence officials that tests showed the two-chambered shell contained the chemical agent sarin, the shell being “likely” to have contained three to four liters of the substance (in the form of its two unmixed precursor chemicals prior to the aforementioned explosion that had not effectively mixed them).
In 2004, hundreds of chemical warheads were recovered from the desert close to the Iran–Iraq border. According to The Washington Post, the munitions “had been buried near the Iranian border.
Here’s an article that might help:
It was all over and even reported to have been fired into Israel during the gulf war. And many finds were passed on the the soldiers that found them that it wasn’t there and they should just forget what they saw and shut up.
W’s folly? There was a lot more but it is still sensitive on the story behind it. The world will never know what happened.
wy69
“It reads as anti American propaganda.”
Yes. You are right.
One statement: “We are experiencing the death throes of the United States’ unipolar hegemony over large parts of world.”
That sentence is as far as I got.
“...Americans should begin to reassess their understanding of U.S. national leadership...”
Too dreadful...no thanks.
Ukraine is a Russian foreign adventure.
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