Droning On 285


It turns out that the CIA has realised for years that drone attacks are of very limited utility. Like so many of the injustices of the “War on Terror”, they are in fact a driver for armed hatred of the West, not least because they kill more civilians than targets.

But of course, the “war on terror” is very much about boosting the standing of politicians who are “fighting terror” on behalf of their citizens, and about boosting the ever-inflating powers – and budgets – of the security services. SO counterproductive measures are, paradoxically, the most attractive to those whose aim is not to obtain peace, but rather to maintain the concentration of power and finance consequent upon an eternal state of phoney war.


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285 thoughts on “Droning On

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  • ------------·´`·.¸¸.¸¸.··.¸¸Node

    Mary : “and I hate heights a Node!”

    …. but you bounce back from all hardships :

  • Iain Orr

    I was struck by the good political judgement shown in the Queen’s Christmas Message. Notably, the corgis did not bark… not one use of the word “terrorism”. By contrast, we had this clunking sentiment in David Cameron’s “message to the world”:

    …”On Christmas Day thousands of men and women in our armed forces will be far from home protecting people and entire communities from the threat of terrorism and disease;”

    If terms like threat and warfare are to yoke together illness and terrorism, the lesson that the securitat needs to learn from the medical world is that prevention – tackling the causes of illness, such as poverty and poor housing – is a far less expensive and disruptive method than any number of invasive procedures and overseas operations.

  • Mark Golding

    Illness and terrorism are synonymous I agree Iain – synthetic terror and military grade anthrax register in my mind. David Kelly would have exposed the bio-warfare horse trading had his heart and manuscript not been bagged.

    Craig sums it up concisely: the “war on terror” is very much about boosting the standing of politicians..

    Examples of this push by empty suits are plentiful. The shooting down of MH17, saw our political leaders jump prematurely in apportioning the blame on Russia!

    On record is Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop attempting to threaten Russia with further non-specific sanctions if it fails to accept responsibility for the MH17 disaster. Paraphrasing British ‘zombies’ this says everything about Australia’s eagerness to play cats-paw in America’s geo-political games, designed to enhance the west’s strategy of encirclement and isolation of Russia.

    Never mind the fact that no-one, including America, has tabled a smidgen of evidence in support of these hysterical accusations made against Russia; never mind credible reports suggesting that Ukrainian air force jets may have shot down the hapless airliner. Never mind the hollow pretensions of the Cameron and Abbott government in claiming that they would pursue ‘truth and justice’ before pointing the finger.

    And in mindlessly supporting Washington’s criticism of Russia for responding in-kind to Kiev’s’s reckless and provocative behaviour, agent Cameron simply confirms how all sides of politics in this country are beholden to American interests and just how weak is our real capability to forge an independent foreign policy geared to support our own national interests.

    In my mind that means people of dignity, eminence and virtue like CM’S stature here need to govern our country and replace ‘Uncle Napoleon’ the continuum of spymaster Colonel Monty Woodhouse or the modern day Mossad troll Adam Werritty (who will not escape my memory); most committed to the sinister zio-American current black ops that is assassination attempts, sabotaging and staging coup d’état.

    I have the future covered.

    http://rt.com/news/217823-putin-russian-military-doctrine/

  • nevermind

    what cheer for all the canary friends, its 5:0 now, an official route.

    Thanks for the new doctrine Mark G. The first reaction is already up obn der Spiegel, in German under the heading
    ‘NATO and Ukraine are now Putin’s greatest enemies’

    And Russia new space policy is headed under the line
    ‘Russia and China against the rest of the world’

    which shows der Spiegel’s editorial balance and choice of words up for what it is, a very long tongue up someone else backside. der Spiegel also announced it as a new defence policy, which is not true, it has been slightly changed to reflect the aggressive nature of NATO and Ukraine who has just decided that it does not want peace with its eastern autonomous region.

    Still no sign of a condemnation of the Russian evidence to MH17, the western story, not even believed by the families of the victims of this attack, is disintegrating in silence.

    When will we hear voices call for NATO to be abandoned, many can’t afford its warmongering, it makes for long term bad relations in the world, for all of us.

  • Ishmael

    “. By contrast, we had this clunking sentiment in David Cameron’s “message to the world”:”

    …”On Christmas Day thousands of men and women in our armed forces will be far from home protecting people and entire communities from the threat of terrorism and disease;”
    ……

    “War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. ”

    V For Vendetta.

    The truth is most will be far from home making us less safe. Conspiring to control other countries, casing death and destruction, increasing threats, used by the very same people to make us less free. Has there ever been such duplicitous scum in goverment I wonder.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    Mark Golding

    “Illness and terrorism are synonymous I agree Iain”
    _______________

    That’s exactly what Iain wasn’t implying, Mr Golding.

  • BrianFujisan

    What Day izit… Friday i you all Cry.. So why the fk is ‘ Ice Road Truckers ‘ not on Channel Five at 8pm it’s the only thing i watch.

    Node cheers for reminder of that Video, i had seen it before but well worth seeing again, amazing talent,

    and i had a chuckle at your repeating of Tony M’s thoughtful piece.

    Nevermind

    some more Re Russia –

    ” No matter how strange it may seem, but right now, Putin is selling Russian oil and gas only for physical gold.

    Putin is not shouting about it all over the world. And of course, he still accepts US dollars as an intermediate means of payment. But he immediately exchanges all these dollars obtained from the sale of oil and gas for physical gold!

    … ” As for the second traditional Western way of direct military aggression, Russia is certainly not Yugoslavia, not Iraq or Libya. In any non-nuclear military operation against Russia, on the territory of Russia, the West led by the US is doomed to defeat. And the generals in the Pentagon exercising real leadership of NATO forces are aware of this. Similarly hopeless is a nuclear war against Russia, including the concept of so-called “preventive disarming nuclear strike”. NATO is simply not technically able to strike a blow that would completely disarm the nuclear potential of Russia in all its many manifestations. A massive nuclear retaliatory strike on the enemy or a pool of enemies would be inevitable. And its total capacity will be enough for survivors to envy the dead. That is, an exchange of nuclear strikes with a country like Russia is not a solution to the looming problem of the collapse of a petrodollar world. It is in the best case, a final chord and the last point in the history of its existence. In the worst case – a nuclear winter and the demise of all life on the planet, except for the bacteria mutated from radiation.”

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/grandmaster-putins-trap-russia-is-selling-oil-and-gas-in-exchange-for-physical-gold/5421567

    Also this – By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

    ” A multi-spectrum war is being waged against Moscow by Washington. If there are any doubts about this, they should be put to rest. Geopolitics, science and technology, speculation, financial markets, information streams, large business conglomerates, intelligentsia, mass communication, social media, the internet, popular culture, news networks, international institutions, sanctions, audiences, public opinion, nationalism, different governmental bodies and agencies, identity politics, proxy wars, diplomacy, countervailing international alliances, major business agreements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights, prestige, military personnel, capital, and psychological tactics are all involved in this multi-spectrum war. On a daily basis this struggle can be seen playing out on the airwaves, in the war theaters in Ukraine and the Middle East, through the statements and accusations of diplomats, and in the economic sphere.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/from-energy-war-to-currency-war-americas-attack-on-the-russian-ruble/5421554

    Hope Craig has been ok, and Peace to all here

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    ..particular field of endeavour – in Chomsky’s case, linguistics – are rarely better qualified than anyone else to opine about other matters.

    You should all watch that video; of you do so honestly, you will have to agree that Chomsky is talking facile, tendentious rubbish.

  • Mary

    Thank goodness I did not hear or read Agent Cameron’s Christmas homily.

    I did read mention of Her Maj talking about the ceramic poppy display at the Tower. She was thus reinforcing the meme of ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’.

  • Tony M

    The lungs are rather good at encapsulating in mucus smaller (but not larger) particles, including radioactive ones, and expelling them. Secondary cancers in stomach and guts result from swallowing this matter. There is a clear case for the widest possible re-introduction of the the spitoon in public places.

  • Mary

    Moulton’s Better Capital portfolio.

    http://www.bettercapital.london/fund-portfolio.cfm

    Better for whom not sure.

    His background

    ‘City Financier and prominent UKIP supporter Jon Moulton sacked 2,727 of his staff on Christmas Day after deciding to put City Link into administration.

    Moulton didn’t even bother to tell his employees – most of them found out via the press that they will be receiving no more pay after the 31st of December.

    But no-one should be surprised by Moulton’s Scrooge-like, heartless behaviour.

    Moulton is a former Conservative Party donor, who decided to transfer his allegiance to UKIP after criticising Tory chancellor George Osborne for not cutting hard enough and for being too soft on austerity.

    And you can expect much more of this kind of fat city cat behaviour across the country should UKIP ever manage to get its hands on the reins of power (God help us).’

    http://tompride.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/ukip-supporter-and-fat-city-cat-jon-moulton-sacks-2727-of-his-staff-on-xmas-day/

  • Fedup

    Well, Well, Well, I never!

    The North Koreans hacking the Sony sites, and issuing all manner of threats and reprisals, were all in the way of Sony trying to salvage a bomber of a movie that has flop written all over it!

    The notion of threats have moved movie up in the snakes an ladder “patriotic shenanigans”. The corporate “news” is showing voxpops of the queuing “audiences” whom are ready to lend “freedom” a hand and sit through two hours of torturous pile of kaka splattered/smeared/streaked over the celluloid/videotape/flashmemory!

    The queuing punters (so we are lead to believe) answer the “stenographer”‘s questions “why are you here”; “I am here to keep our freedoms”, ” I am here, to show that threats and threat are not going to deter me!”, “I am here cuz they paid me fifty box, so came to see why?” …………. etc.

    Going to the movies is no longer a leisure activity, evidently it is now equated to making a political statement! Fact that critics have been slating the bomber of the movie and are not very complimentary about it all, is of no consequence because movies are now a patriotic imperative and a fight against tyranny, dictatorship, terror, and terrorists, and terror threats, and………..

    Corporations are now riding the wave of terror, and threats thereof too, after all if the governments can get away with it, why shouldn’t the corporates?

    In the other news;

    If I recollect one of the conservative ex minsters, who was in charge of the railways and their maintenance (the privatised rail company), blamed the Alqaeda for the train crash that destroyed a train station as well as killing many people in the process too.

    However all this capitalist speak has now percolated to terror speak; “mergers and acquisitions” in the world of terror!

    Rebels in Syria’s Aleppo Announce ‘Total Merger’

    ===

    Finally my sympathies to all those whom have lost their livelihood in Citylink and other firms whose bosses find the returns not worth the hassle. To be unemployed at this time of the year, is the most rotten trick that anyone can turn.

    I wish those losing their jobs for no faults of their own, fortitude and patience, and would like to remind them that life is precious, and they should not be downhearted, they are alive and healthy which is a lot more than their soul dead, sick bosses/owners whom have turned them out of their livelihoods. Further I should like to remind them; learn to consume less, and provide for yourself more, it is a start of your journey to independence, turn this disaster into an opportunity, you can all do it. Peace and good will to all (other than the psychos, shills, and the people sellers)

  • giyane

    You would think Muslims wouldn’t like panto, cross-dressing, music, drunken clowns, and other tomfoolery, but yo! the brothers have been putting on a little panto of their own in my front garden.

    For the last three months whenever either my wife or myself opens the front door at night they have been opening their front door, looking studiously up and down the street as if they were expecting someone else to be calling.

    This elaborate farce I now realise was to put it in our minds that strangers have been seen calling at night in order to awaken suspicions. Bollywood stars to a man.

    They won’t see santa claus coming down the chimney because yesterday I knocked it down, just to spite him.

  • giyane

    Mark : “Illness and terrorism are synonymous I agree Iain”

    Fedup: “Rebels in Syria’s Aleppo Announce ‘Total Merger’”

    The world’s psychotic politicians are also in total merger. Turkish President Erdogan encarcerating a 16 year old who spoke about the scandal of Erdogan’s political buddies making a killing through selling arms to the now totally merged rebels. The Turkish still think it was a scandal about property deals.

    Well you totally merged pscycho paymasters and your totally merged psycho-ed slaves be totally aware that the people of truth and common sense who see through your nasty little lies and games are also totally merged and we account for the totally merged total rest of all total human beings.

  • Mary

    All of what you say Fedup I second.

    Sorry for duplicating Dreoilin’s link to mouldy Moulton. Does anyone remember him on the box some years ago putting himself out as some whiz kid business guru? His outfit bought City Link for £1 but lost £40m according to this,

    Rentokil sells City Link for £1 to Better Capital
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22335092

    City Link: RMT demands government talks over collapse
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30604431

    I can’t see Vince doing any bailing out.

    ~~~~~

    We must thank Habbabkuk for his Christmas greeting. Is he perchance what is described as a Christian Zionist?

  • Ishmael

    “facile, tendentious rubbish.”

    Said the expert on the subject. I bow to superior judgment.

  • Scouse Billy

    For Brian Fujisan – in case you were unaware:

    What frightened the USS Donald Cook so much in the Black Sea?

    http://www.voltairenet.org/article185860.html

    “The Russian Su-24 then simulated a missile attack against the USS Donald Cook, which was left literally deaf and blind. As if carrying out a training exercise, the Russian aircraft – unarmed – repeated the same maneuver 12 times before flying away.

    After that, the 4th generation destroyer immediately set sail towards a port in Romania.

    Since that incident, which the Atlanticist media have carefully covered up despite the widespread reactions sparked among defense industry experts, no US ship has ever approached Russian territorial waters again.

    According to some specialized media, 27 sailors from the USS Donald Cook requested to be relieved from active service.”

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    “We must thank Habbabkuk for his Christmas greeting. Is he perchance what is described as a Christian Zionist?”
    ________________

    No thanks required, Mary.

    But if you feel obliged to thank me for some reason, then you could try to do so gracefully.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    Ishmael

    ““facile, tendentious rubbish.”

    Said the expert on the subject. I bow to superior judgment.”
    _________________

    Yes, I am quite an expert on sniffing out facile, tendentious rubbish and over-frequentation of this blog has obviously honed my skills.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    But seriously, Ishmael, have you actually listened to your Youtube link?

    A challenge : if you have, tell us in two sentences max what is the thrust of Chomsky’s explanantion for why politicians lie?

    He says they lie but if he does not tell us why then his piece is just puff.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  • Mark Golding

    Interesting Scouse Billy – USS Donald Duck…

    http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/11/13/aegis-fail-in-black-sea-ruskies-burn-down-uss-donald-duck/

    Electronic warfare (EW) was my naval speciality and I have run with the advancing technology for years. Simple air-wave jamming, detection and signal spoofing is a viable method of paralyzing communications while aluminium foil and other types (chaff/flares/lazer) work effectively to confuse missiles at close range. All warships have a small EW/Counter-measures room and the key components are the aerial systems that can receive the entire electromagnetic spectrum and/or actively transmit white noise/control/or lazer signals on high priority frequencies. x-band radar, EM fields, neutron beam and visible light are noted.

    The AEGIS phased array radar target tracking is easily jammed with little incentive to upgrade the components as a result of Obama’s blunt “sequestration.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/20/the-sequester-absolutely-everything-you-could-possibly-need-to-know-in-one-faq/

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