161 Comments

US troops should get the hell out of the middle east, and everywhere else.

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Yes, they absolutely should! It will take some big doing and the greater world saying Enough! What we are seeing is brutal insanity - but all empires finally overreach like hungry ghosts and then fall. Yet in the meantime, so much heartbreaking suffering, death and destruction!!!

Truth: The reason the US government still has troops (who are lied to) in Iraq is to protect its oil fields, the 5th largest in the world, that the US, GB and Italian corporate governments among others stole with the Iraq war, destroying that Country and giving those oil fields to Mobil Exxon, BP, Shell, Halliburton (Halliburton's "sweetheart deal" with the U.S. Military), under the doublespeak cover of "Iraqi Ministry of Oil" owning it's own oil. The corporate US has been doing this, or in some places like Venezuela attempting to, all over the world for resources (aka "national interests"). The US also owns Ukraine's oil/gas since the first year of that proxy war. And then there's Yemen and the oil field off Gaza.

Truth: The corporate/U.S.military industrial complex has very likely been escalating towards war with Iran from day one salivating for Iran's vast oil fields, the 3rd largest in the world after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, from it's solid base in Israel/US, but blind in its arrogance to the danger for all, and for the whole world.

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The gas of the coast of Gaza is a non-issue, Israeli petroleum companies have already slant-drilled into the deposit from existing platforms and are extracting it as we speak. There will be none left for the Palestinians to ever sell, even if they get their territory back.

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But that's exactly the issue. During the last 6 months Israel/US has granted licenses to 12 major oil companies for more gas exploration off the Gaza coast including BP, Eni and any number of hard to track "subsidiaries" that could not have happened without seizing Gaza, and is fully illegal "pillaging" under international law, for what that's worth. Israel doesn't have the needed equipment - its natural gas, including Gaza's Leviathan field, is operated and mostly owned by Chevron (US). There is also continual buying and selling and swapping among the oil mega corporations to make it hard to track (as well as forming subsidiaries for tax evasion). There are many sites. FYI Chevron is active in 180 Countries around the world. You can imagine the obscene profits.

https://www.newarab.com/analysis/israel-sets-its-sights-gazas-offshore-gas

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/6/israel-is-pillaging-not-just-gazas-cities-but-also-its-waters

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The "exploration" that they've been doing is the slant-drilling that I mentioned. If you don't know what slant-drilling is (most people don't) keep in mind that deposits are generally thousands of feet below the surface. Petroleum companies figured out decades ago that if you incline your drill rig just a couple of degrees off vertical everything still works fine but now you're tapping an entirely different area quite a ways off to the side. It saves a lot of money, even for land-based drilling, and allows them to extract resources without the actual owner even knowing.

I learned about this back in the '70s when one of my dad's coworkers called Shell to offer to let them sink wells on his property, seeing how much money his neighbors were making. He apparently got a new person who really shouldn't have been answering phones, because after looking up the property they told him, "Oh, we've been pumping from that area for the last 4 years, they slant-drilled from the platform on the property next to yours." Oops.

Dad's coworker got to retire a lot earlier than he expected.

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Isn't there some kind of legal recourse for this kind of theft, or would the legal fight be just too prohibitively expensive?

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Well, since it's considered Israeli territorial waters it would be heard by a court in Israel. Not much likelihood of a positive outcome from that.

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Aug 7·edited Aug 7

Those are not US bases in Iraq. They are actually NATO-staffed bases inside what the media claim are US bases. There are personnel there from NATO countries:

https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/rakettangrep-mot-militaerbase-i-irak__-norske-soldater-uskadd--1.16991278

https://www.tv2.no/nyheter/raketter-skutt-mot-flybase-i-irak-med-norske-soldater/16893607/

https://www.inherentresolve.mil

Operation Inherent Resolve: "One Mission, Many Nations"

And they are active NATO operations in both Iraq and Syria,

https://www.inherentresolve.mil/NEWSROOM/News-Articles/Stories-Display/Article/3857483/live-fire-exercises-in-syria-for-august/

That's nowhere near the headlines of the minstrel media though.

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Nice, well informed post. Thank you so much !!!👍👍

Do we all realize that the current West's desperate craving for control of the world's largest oilfields is a clear sign that the whole net-zero-, decarb-, end-of-oil-, etc.-, etc.-trope is just a GIANT SCAM to corral the plebes into serfdom ??? ... 🤔🤔🤔

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They joined voluntarily. There's no draft. So they get what they're paid for.

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Yes, you play, you pay.

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Somehow the press corpse (spelling deliberate) miss mentioning that attacks on US bases in Iraq had stopped, and only restarted THE DAY AFTER that country asked them to leave, *again*, and were told that they were not going to leave, *again*.

People seem to have the idea that all these things just happen in a vacuum, that none of it is connected.

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Iraq told them to go but they are still there.....bully's don't like having to back away!

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Lol…and Blinken had the Gaul to say that once Russia invades a country they never leave. Meanwhile America is still in Germany and Japan.

If Harris wins I hope she replaces Biden’s national security idiots. Especially Blinken, Kirby and the Smirkula.

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You forgot Iraq and the Phillippines.

NOTHING is going to change....getting the British out of India and Sri Lanka took years. The only difference then was that there was dialogue which the US Govt. it seems is incapable of.

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A friend’s husband is mad at me because I said “America doesn’t own the world.” You’d think this would be self evident but this belief that we have some kind of “right” to impose our will, occupy other countries, assassinate their officials, confiscate their resources and be offended and justified in seeking revenge if they resist is wrong and must stop. No wonder Israel and US are allies as both have this inexplicable sense of entitlement.

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founding

I was going to suggest they are not friends, however, you might have a greater tolerance for shitty people than I do. Something like that, I cut them loose to avoid the contamination.

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Same here Landru. I’ve cut a longtime friend out of my life (don’t miss her a bit) and the majority of my husband’s large family off as well. Don’t miss them either, and it saves me from attending their boring family functions 😉

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Life has become very peaceful here without various family and friends. Animals and more animals please. I mean the furry kind.

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Yes… or as I call them, four-legged family members.

Still searching for the right horse, Jenny.

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This beautiful horse will emerge from the next thunderstorm with a bunch of wildflowers in his/her mouth. I just know it.

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Waiting for the next thunderstorm Jenny!

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Less is MORE !!! 👍👍🌹❤

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There are days when one can question their own judgment in choosing "friends". It can be difficult to accept that a person you previously saw as caring is not. We are all brainwashed to see our government as a democracy.

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The US might not own the world (yet) but they sure want to!

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE OIL, and I don't just mean Gaza.

Armageddon my ass.

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If it was your own precious baby with two excellent sniper shots drilled into her head, would you still vote for the party calling for more of your tax dollars to go that sniper? How is voting for the Fraternity’s pick for you to rubber stamp not an act of destruction on democracy itself? Did you participate -as in an open convention - in discerning which candidate spoke most directly to your concerns? No. You were supplied with one chosen by a corporatized Democratic Establishment whose wake of candidacies have fitted most closely their fraternity’s protocol of acceptable ones. And how well has that energized your civic engagement or estrangement? Isn’t it time the dominance, control and exclusivity of the corporatized Democratic Establishment be broken? Remember. Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries helped invite the war criminal thug to speak before Congress. Do we really want Israel determining the quality of our civic life and choices? Are we that far gone in materialism?

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Thank you for speaking truth!

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As usual, very well said. But I’ll dare say I must look at myself. Nothing short of a general strike and mass riot is warranted, given the genocide. But then again, the US already invaded Iraq on false pretense and did unimaginable damage. This isn’t remotely new. If they could fund and arm a genocide and basically give Hitler 50 standing ovations, being on the inside in 9-11 for imperial aims is not hard to believe for more people than ever.

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wwwIII has been going on for a long time now...

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It's the same war; the Cold War that was luke warm at best, was just an intermission in a Play.

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It's a weird thing but shitlibs really don't like it when I refer to them as such... which is strange cause they are so proud of being shitlibs most of the time.... go and figure

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"Vote Blue no matter who!" is an proclamation that one is a zombie or a sheep.

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Or just a wanker, Feral 😁

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Keep shouting out your truth, the lunatic asylum of Israel is dragging the whole world into the darkest abyss. Iran is not our enemy because they had the temerity to overthrow the dictator Shah imposed upon them in 1979. America's hegemony and obsessive desire for other people's oil reserves has cost millions of lives. Israel's murderous capacity for endless escalation, and psychotic desire for other people's land is going to derail the world. Iran isn't the problem, they've shown astounding restraint despite their sovereignty being violated. Israel has no interest in peace, why else would they murder Hamas's chief negotiator? The Terrorist State of Israel is the problem, and the US not only gives them diplomatic cover, but nuclear bombs. On the 79th anniversary of Hiroshima, the world must take a stand and prevent an eternal nuclear winter engulfing the Middle East, and potentially the human race. Netanyahu will murder all of us to stay in power and out of prison. Sanity must prevail, or we're all lost.

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Thank you.

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These pinprick attacks on Israel and the United States only encourage further aggression.

The decision makers need to get real, hard, personal consequences. Or they only will continue.

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founding

I just had this discussion with people I thought were thoughtful : ( They claim they resistance is playing the long game. I laughed, YOU are out of YOUR FUCKING MIND I said with the certainty I wrote this. I said, long game, you mean after all the Palestinians are dead long game? I said you do know, dirty small amounts of water and 1k calorie diets are a death sentence long game. Looks of questioning, I said many of the Palestinian are already the walking dead. You never recover from those conditions.

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It is abundantly obvious that a lot of consumers of alt-media are engaged in wishful thinking.

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My answer to all this is.

Put an international peacekeeping force into Palestine....preferably not westerners then disallow any weapons from other governments and allow Israel to implode which it looks like it is doing.

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Like a fist fight? A smell each other's ass wrestling match? Arm wrestling?

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they are watching everything we say.

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I hope so Pretzel. I want “them” to know who I am.

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Yeah, and they can't stop laughing.

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"Vote however you want to vote, but stop lying about it. " - what? You suggesting shitlibs stop being shitlibs?

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I don’t think this about politcal party. This is about Humanity. And what I see, hear, and know intuitively is pure evil. I want no part of this evil insanity.

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You're in the minority. Majority will be voting for the lesser or greater evil. They will all, however, claim they voted for the lesser one even when they know better.

People deserve their governments - there's just no way around it.

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I know. I will not vote. I’m the man who just wants to be left alone.

I cannot vote for evil, even at my own detriment. I have God. That’s all I want or need.

People are overrated 🤣😉.

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founding

I suggest you do as I will do, I will write in people I care about. The write in vote IS seen by both parties. Your vote which might shock you is not private. Both parties know who voted and who they voted for by purchasing the voter rolls. I had many lists of voters during my door knocking/sig. work for Bernie. When you have no choice that is not evil, vote your heart.

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Vote for whatever you believe in. It isn't that hard to do.

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The K'mala worshippers simply don't mention Gaza anymore. And that's the truth.

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Aug 7·edited Aug 7

Good to see the Democratic party pick someone as youthful and full of vigor as Tim Walz. Almost as inspiring as JFK once was. Would be awful if he was some over-weight, balding guy with thick glasses - Daddy in his expensive suit, here to save us!

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Sorry to say this, but Daddy Tim Walz is a staunch supporter of helping "Israel defend itself," just as Kamala Harris is, unless she does a remarkable about face. She has already accepted over five million $$$ from AIPAC. AIPAC, the oil companies and the military industrial complex are choosing our political leaders - they just successfully spent millions of dollars taking down Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush in the primaries.

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Daddy's been a bad boy!

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Oh shiiiit… CORI LOST????

🤬🤬🤬

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Thankfully Rashiba Tlaib and Pramila Jayapal won theirs!

And Cori may have lost but the work she's done and the causes and people she's fought for will not stop there! She said in her concession speech: "All they did was take the strings off." "All they did was radicalize me, so now they need to be afraid!"

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Yes..........idiot people.

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Why did they take out Bowman and Bush (a Marxist)?

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cmon Bush isn't a marxist. i figure Israel is just fine tuning its control.

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Even if she was does it matter?

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They were both against sending US weapons to Israel because of the genocide in Gaza.

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Aug 7·edited Aug 7

People need to understand how close to WW III we are because of the stupidity and deliberate risk escalation of the US. The media are either sloppy or deliberately hiding the truth.

That base that was attacked in Iraq is NOT a "US base" - it's a NATO base!

The news reports are not comprehensive in actually detailing what happened and who was injured. In fact that base is a NATO base, and it contains military personnel from NATO countries. These countries are all actively conducting military operations in both Iraq and Syria

https://www.inherentresolve.mil/NEWSROOM/News-Articles/Stories-Display/Article/3857483/live-fire-exercises-in-syria-for-august/

In this particular incident there were other people injured, including reports of at least two Norwegian military personnel. There will be other NATOcountries in that base, all of which of course the US use this incident to tell them they need to join an attack on Iran.......instead of taking those troops and going to Palestine and stop the genocide there.

The zionists in the US are extremely determined not only to complete the genocide of the Palestinians but to draw the entire world into a conficlt.

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There’s a war going on between the few winners of the money-oriented order (the Pips; People in power) ) and the great majority of the people. The semiprogs (semi-progressives) spend their energies discussing the antics of the officers of the Pips’ army instead of fighting the war.

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Thankfully, we'll probably all be dead before election day

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We must vote early, then :-)

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😂😂😂😂😂😂👏🏿👏🏿

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"... coming Iranian retaliatory strikes on Israel as a completely unprovoked attack ..." - good moment to ponder for those who are pro-Palestine and pro-Ukraine at the same time. Remember, Russia attacked Ukraine in a completely unprovoked fashion. Out of the blue. Just because. 🤷‍♂️😳

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It wasn’t unprovoked, Putin warned Ukraine if they persisted in joining NATO st behest of the US and NATO he would go to war to protect Russian borders. The Ukrainian war is a US and NATO proxy war, Ukrainians are canon fodder for Western agendas. Jeffrey Sachs and John Mearsheimer have both exposed the motives of the war mongers and stated Ukraine can’t possibly win it. Yet all peace negotiations early were deliberately scuttled by the US.

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Please note that there have been no riots in Scotland, and hopefully there won’t be. Unfortunately we are still part of the UK but not part of England. We have been subjugated for over 300 years. We were cheated during our independence referendum because England cannot afford to let Scotland go. We need help from the international community. How do we get information out when all our media are controlled from outwith our country.

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US troops get hurt in the Middle East because they're the assholes who signed up to kill people there. Zero fucks given. It's a professional, volunteer force. Nobody is making these people join.

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I doubt more than 10% of US boys that sign up have Any clue what is really going on, at least before they deploy. 😕

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I find that hard to believe. What, they've never seen a teevee? Never listened to the radio? Read a book? Seen a movie? Talked to a battle addled veteran? Been on the internet?

There's PLENTY of information out there to let these kids--yea, we send kids to die so old men can feel like patriots--know EXACTLY what they're getting into. This ain't the Vietnam draft. So the people who are VOLUNTEERING have all the information they need to make that decision. The problem is, a lot of those same people are signing up specifically because they wish to go kill people. You don't join a professional killing force and hope you end up being a baker at Ft. Meade. Utter nonsense.

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What’s utter nonsense is you talking and not understanding that the U.S. has a poor school system for the poor, brainwashes them, and that military recruiters actually use predatory tactics to groom their kids - minors - before finally signing them to basically near slave contracts for no money really.

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I know very well the predatory nature of recruiters. I helped my sons navigate their lies and I'm pleased to report that none have signed up to murder brown people for corporate bottom lines. But that does not obviate the plethora of available information available with which to disabuse these children of their ridiculously cartoonish notion of the MIC. So no. I don't "support the troops." I undermine the very structure that supports them with hard truths like: you're joining a professional killing force. Whatever else they promise, you cannot outrun that truth.

If they're being tricked, then let me hear you argue for mass desertion from the corporate warrior cult. Let's normalise rejection of militarism. Let's normalise desertion. Let's normalise moments of clarity and let these kids leave the world's deadliest gang. The ones who stay deserve no sympathy.

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Words such as obviate and plethora are not luxuries available to the kids where military recruiters find they prey.

What next? You gonna call them deplorables or misogynists?

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No. I'm going to call them horrifically misguided children who need the strong support of adults in helping them to either avoid participation in the MIC altogether or who support their exit post haste there from.

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But 100% know the perks given, they just hope they won't have to work for them (ie, be deployed and risk being killed).

And it's not just US boys. US girls too. And lately US "ze/zir" types.

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That's why the suicide rate is so high.

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Sure they are killing people, those pawns in the military. But their deaths or injuries are used as pretexts for escalation. Standard tactic from colonial overlords’ manual….

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No doubt.

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