"The next target of the sledgehammer was Iraq. The U.S.-UK invasion,
utterly without credible pretext, is the major crime of the twenty-first
century. The invasion led to the death of hundreds of thousands of
people in a country where the civilian society had already been
devastated by American and British sanctions that were regarded as
“genocidal” by the two distinguished international diplomats who
administered them, and resigned in
protest for this reason. The invasion also generated millions of
refugees, largely destroyed the country, and instigated a sectarian
conflict that is now tearing apart Iraq and the entire region. It is an
astonishing fact about our intellectual and moral culture that in
informed and enlightened circles it can be called, blandly, “the
liberation of Iraq.”
Pentagon and British Ministry of Defense
polls found that only 3% of Iraqis regarded the U.S. security role in
their neighborhood as legitimate, less than 1% believed that “coalition”
(U.S.-UK) forces were good for their security, 80% opposed the presence
of coalition forces in the country, and a majority supported attacks on
coalition troops. Afghanistan has been destroyed beyond the possibility
of reliable polling, but there are indications that something similar
may be true there as well. Particularly in Iraq the United States
suffered a severe defeat, abandoning its official war aims, and leaving
the country under the influence of the sole victor, Iran."
"The
sledgehammer was also wielded elsewhere, notably in Libya, where the
three traditional imperial powers (Britain, France, and the United
States) procured Security Council resolution 1973 and instantly violated
it, becoming the air force of the rebels. The effect was to undercut
the possibility of a peaceful, negotiated settlement; sharply increase
casualties (by at least a factor of 10, according to political scientist
Alan Kuperman); leave Libya in ruins, in the hands of warring militias;
and, more recently, to provide the Islamic State with a base that it
can use to spread terror beyond. Quite sensible diplomatic proposals by
the African Union, accepted in principle by Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi,
were ignored by the imperial triumvirate, as Africa specialist Alex de
Waal reviews. A huge flow of weapons and jihadis has spread terror and
violence from West Africa (now the champion for terrorist murders) to
the Levant, while the NATO attack also sent a flood of refugees from
Africa to Europe."
"Yet another
triumph of “humanitarian intervention,” and, as the long and often
ghastly record reveals, not an unusual one, going back to its modern
origins four centuries ago."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/noam-chomsky/american-power-under-challenge-who-rules-the-world_b_9866204.html?utm_hp_ref=yahoo&ir=Yahoo
NO NEED TO SAY WHAT A DONALD TRUMP WOULD DO IF GIVEN THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM. MAKE SURE HE DOES NOT GET THEM!