| Every once in a while, one of our readers comments on an article we've published in a way that really makes us sit up and take notice. The article we posted on June 4 entitled 'Terror in Britain: What did the PM know?' [see here] drew an extraordinary comment from one of our friends who goes by the handle 'thnkfryrslf' (hence, the title of this piece). She is Canadian and brings a Canadian perspective to her views. She also has keen insight and an abiding sense of what is right and what is wrong with our world. We're very proud to count her among our friends. So what follows is her comment on the story posted (edited a wee bit for spelling and such - can't help it, I was an English major ...) Thank you to thnkfryrslf for your constant feedback, your kindness, and your unwavering ability to dig up some of the best music videos. - prh, ed. Comment on Terror in Britain: What did the PM know? One of the first countries May visited after she became prime minister was Saudi Arabia. Why? So she could sell them much needed weapons so they could continue their slaughter of the Yemeni people, including their literal targeting of hospitals and schools. As the citizens of Britain suffer from the destruction of their economy, by their government's implementation of neoliberal policies, so they suffer by losing their lives, because their government is engaging in military training, usually of terrorist groups, military invasions of countries like Libya, or selling weapons to others, or arming terrorist groups to do the killing for them. How much longer are people going to remain ignorant to what their governments' foreign policy is really about? Do people think that the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Palestine and Yemen don't have families that they love, professions that they work at, children they want the best for or daily routines that take them to their cafe's and clubs where they enjoy the company of friends - some living in ancient cities like Mosul with thousands of years of culture? Instead, they watch while their countries are totally destroyed by either proxy terrorist groups backed by mainly the US, Britain, and France or direct military violence by these same 3. They watch their families and friends horribly killed, lying under piles of rock caused by another bomb dropped by another airstrike. They watch their homes and towns and the lives that they once lived completely destroyed. And now in Yemen they are watching men, women and children dying from curable diseases, or literally starving to death. What are people, particularly in the West, doing? NOTHING!! The MSM, showing minimal coverage of the ongoing nightmare taking place in these countries - a nightmare caused by our governments and military - is accompanied by propaganda and lies. Yet 7 people killed and 49 injured in an alleged terrorist attack in London is shown continuously throughout the day. This was a horrific attack aimed at killing innocent people who were just going about their day, who did not deserve to die. My point is that this happens almost daily to citizens, mainly of the countries the West is interfering in, and the MSM and Western governments are for the most part silent. The scale of the deception that Western governments are perpetuating on their own people, under the disguise of fighting terrorism, is on a scale not matched in history. Every war and political interference after the 2nd world war in the 20th century, like Vietnam, Korea, the Congo, Ghana, Brazil, Haiti, etc. pretty well started with a lie. For the most part people did not have the access to information that they have today. This made it harder for them to know the truth about their governments' and intelligence agencies' role in conquering these sovereign countries. That is not the case today. Never before have we had access to technology that will pretty well answer any question we ask, explain any concept we do not understand, and provide lectures by noted speakers who have in depth understanding of their subjects. Who has not listened to and/or read John Pilger and not walked away with new knowledge not previously held? So why is sustained ignorance held fast by many people of Western countries, particularly the US? I don't know! I do know though that ignorance breeds indifference. How can you care about the injustice and military violence caused by your own government, happening to millions of people, when you remain ignorant about anything to do with their lives. Stereotypes issued by your government and MSM are what you ultimately come to accept about people who you choose to know nothing about. At what point are we in the West to blame for allowing our governments to dominate, plunder and destroy many sovereign nations and, more importantly take, in horrific fashion, the lives of the citizens living in these countries. If we in the West, particularly in the US, allow our governments to continue with this wholesale slaughter of innocent human beings throughout the world, then we are doomed. No person or country with blood on their hands can continue to live their lives in peace and safety. Sooner or later the chickens will come home to roost. That hatred, military power and wealth plundering of other sovereign nations that your government calls foreign policy will become domestic policy. Those guns that your government points at strangers in far off lands will be pointed at you. The violence and control so freely exercised on these strangers again from other lands will be exercised on you. Don't believe me? Let's just take Canada as an example. A fairly innocuous country that most people, including many Canadians, think of as being democratic, peaceful and a country that respects human rights. Let's see if our government's policies, domestic and foreign, support that claim. [Prime Minister] Trudeau's policies, economic and political, are a full carry-over of [Prime Minister] Harper's policies. This is that Trudeau is a neoliberalist and actively promotes his neoliberal agenda. Given the nature of neoliberalism, Trudeau's implementation of his neoliberal policies, domestic and global, are meant to rid Canada of being an independent nation state as is the ultimate goal stated explicitly in any study of neoliberalism. Canada will then be governed by a global corporate and military elite, who will also control Canada's wealth, including its resources. Neoliberalists call it becoming a "Post Nation State." Trudeau bragged in an interview in the Guardian, that Canada will become the first "Post Nation State." So much for Canada being a democratic country. Our government is busy dismantling that democracy to make way for the Neoliberal Market State. Let's look at Trudeau's foreign policy. Almost every decision that is and will continue to be made, particularly militarily, including the build up of the Canadian military and the purchase of the F-35's will be dictated by the US. Where the Canadian military should go and who they should kill will also be dictated by the US. If you are involved in other countries to if necessary do battle at the express orders of the US, you cannot consider yourself a country of peace. Let's look at our government's respect of Canadian human rights. Trudeau supported the anti-BDS motion put forth by the Conservatives, which essentially is a violation of Canadians' rights of free speech. The Canadian intelligence agency is attempting to get access to Canadian privacy through controlling the internet and cell phones without warrants. The Canadian government is passing on Canadians' financial and other private information without Canadians' knowledge to the Americans. All of this is taking place even before they make a decision about bill C-51, a bill that, if not repealed, violates almost all rights that support Canadians' privacy, property and judicial rights. My guess is Trudeau and his party will do some cosmetic changes but will keep bill C-51 intact. It will come in handy if they have to deal with the large protests that Canadians will engage in once they realize they've been had. It will also help them secure the control over Canadians they so desperately want. So much for the government's respect of Canadians' human rights - and if they don't support their own country's rights, they won't support anyone else's. We have a government who for the most part operates in secrecy, controls its people by threat of imprisonment or violence, who creates laws that give their governments more power, and when it deigns to talk to the people, simply spews propaganda and lies. Maybe then we might have even a minute understanding of what the people from other countries our government has already conquered and oppressed have endured. |