“Where were we when our election was stolen from us in 2000 by Republican operatives and a Supreme Court that overturned all legal precedent to anoint George W. Bush president? Did tens of thousands of us fill the squares of our major cities and denounce the fraud? Did we mobilize day after day to restore transparency and accountability to our election process? Did we fight back with the same courage and tenacity as the citizens of Iran? Did Al Gore defy the power elite and, as opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has done, demand a recount at the risk of being killed?”
*********************************************

Oops! Guess Chris Hedges is next for “The Contingent’s” meat grinder… Am I the only one besides Idarad who noticed the Hedges, too, thinks the election was stolen and the rising tide of outrage is the LEGITIMATE expression of the will of the Iranian people?

For all his attacks, some valid, some severely exaggerated, Hedges is NOT succumbing to the EH/FT mania that because the US leaders applaud the bravery of Mousavvi and his followers, it’s all a phony and black-op put together by the CIA and Mossad.  And it is a mania that fact by fact is being shown to be absurd.

Hedges clearly doesn’t buy it, and for that I applaud him.

RE:

richfam wrote , June 22 at 7:53 pm #
wow, its all our fault? gimme a break…but…oil sucks

No its not ALL OUR FAULT, but it is not our place to meddle, and that is what keeps coming back to bite us in the butt.  And we act surprised when people take up measures to strike back.  No not all our fault, but we certainly don’t have clean hands in Iran, or Iraq, or Guatemala, or Columbia, or Nicaragua, or El Salvador, or Honduras, or Panama, or Brazil, or Peru, or Bolivia, or Venezuela, or Paraguay, or Chile, or Cambodia, or Burma, or Korea, or Thailand, Bikini Islanders, or…..

Imagine that! We actually screwed up some one elses democracy?
And some of you insist that we are the good guys!

wow, its all our fault? gimme a break…but…oil sucks

“When are we going to stop playing World Police?! We cant even run our own country! Gawd, are we going to let them do this to us again??!!”

you got that right, KDelphi!

NO we are not going to let them do this to us again!

“But Iranians, as these street protests illustrate, have proved in recent years far more courageous in the defense of democracy than most Americans. “

Chris asks - “Where were we when our election was stolen from us in 2000 by Republican operatives and a Supreme Court that overturned all legal precedent to anoint George W. Bush president?” 
A - Home watching the corporate press spin the message or out playing with our many plastic things we bought at WallyWorld.
 
Chris asks - “Did tens of thousands of us fill the squares of our major cities and denounce the fraud?”
A - No, to busy to be dealing with that stuff, besides, the courts and lawyers will take care of that, its not our responsibility, I voted what more can I do.

Chris asks - “Did we mobilize day after day to restore transparency and accountability to our election process?”
A. We got in our hummers and went to Starbucks for a latte grande hold the milk or something like that.

Chris asks -“Did we fight back with the same courage and tenacity as the citizens of Iran? “
A - Like I said, I was busy, haven’t got time for this stuff.

Chris asks - “Did Al Gore defy the power elite and, as opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has done, demand a recount at the risk of being killed?”

A - He got the best lawyer he could afford to help him give in - besides, Congress and the Courts will be there to make sure and protect our rights.

Chris is right - when you don’t fight for democracy you get what they give you.  Iran, no matter the outcome will still be a theocracy.
Sad news, so will we.

Here’s some US “freedom”:

Associated Press

BAGHDAD — Bombings and shootings killed at least 33 people in Baghdad and surrounding areas today, including a group of high school students on a bus headed for final exams, as violence intensified before a planned withdrawal next week of U.S. troops from urban areas.

Should we expand the franchise?

Folktruther—Absolutely.

Spiritgirl—I do join you.

Our “‘Merkin exceptionialsim” has led to the largest military corporate complex in the world (by such huge amounts it would be laughable if not so tragic)and Capitalist Dictatorship (you know what that is, but to say it would invite craziness)

It has led to all matters of life and death being simply a matter for the “market” and profit. It has led to a Social Darwinist society that places almost no value on any human life, except maybe zygotes

There is no sense of community in the uS and many states (not just neo-cons!) are ready to secede. If it is a state like Vermont, they may be able to get away with it, unlike Texas (or any of the South) which is essential to corporate masters pursuit of resources, like oil and soldiers.

Rape of resources and war ‘R’ Us.

How much did Khamenei and Ahmadinejad pay Carl Rove for his expertise?

It is just one more of many popular misCONceptions that insanity is merely a statistical notion…..ie; if most people behave in ways that are pathologically stupid, that behavior simply becomes ‘the new normal.’  If observed in an “individual” (or any small group of such rogue false-IDentities)the behavior here described by Chris Hedges would be widely perceived as….well, not to put too fine a point on it, stark raving mad.  Since, however, it is rampant throughout the “global” feedlot operation called “civilization,” well meaning commenters here twist their own ‘selfs’ and each other’s into gordian knots trying to “rationalize” what is patently insane.

Hedges’ latest installment in his ongoing pre-post-mortem of the allamerican empire also, as usual, points-up why there will be no “popular” resistance to the machinations of the plutoligarchy here.  A people as CONfused and compromised as americans are cannot muster the will or the courage to throw-off the smothering shroud of false comfort and self-righteous self-promotion to which they are so terminally addicted.

Stop trying to make sense of your captivity, tame Sisters and Brothers.  It is what it is, and even your beer baron drug dealers warned you years ago, “It just doesn’t get any batter than this.”  That IS the plain truth, too, for a bunch of self-medicated loudmouths disturbing the peace at the bottom of The Grand Canyon…..because for them, it only gets worse.

HokaHey!

The US had claimed it would be neutral in the war it encouraged between Saddam Hussein and Iran: it did this by arming both sides. The arms industry grew rich as it watched these two nations kill over a million of their citizens in a senseless war. The war produced an oil crisis in reverse. Iraq and Iran were forced to pump more oil to pay for the war. This brought the cost of oil down and boosted the dollar economy. Israel also armed Iran. Ari Ben-Menasche, an Israeli military intelligence officer was involved in some of the secret deals and gave details in his book, ‘Profits of War’. In 1983 Ben-Menasche negotiated the sale of 4,000 TOW anti tank missiles to Tehran. The first supply came from NATO stock in Europe, the second came from the US and was shipped via Guatamala and Australia. 12,000 TOWs went to Iran between 1983 and 1987. Ben-Menasche believes these weapons changed the course of the war. According to Ben-Menasche Israel used a slush fund supplied by weapons profits to buy the silence of politicians in the US, Britain and Australia. Democrats on the Iran contra panel also received payments, some of them through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. I don’t think you need the names. Use your imagination.

Mr. Hedges, I applaud you for speaking a truth that desperately needs to be told!  Far too many Americans don’t know or care about what was done yesterday let alone recent history (the past 30+ years)!  As the MSM no longer provide real journalism, just the “talking points” they too are complicit in dumbing down of America!

“What would we do if the situation was reversed? How would we react if Iran carried out these policies against us?”

I’ve asked that same question, yet have never received a real response!  And yet I do believe that the great lie of “American exceptionalism” is a myth that “we the people” have bought into, and should confront - and bury!  Indeed, I’m starting the line, anyone care to join me!

This “Stolen Iranian Election” can serve the American people as a clear example of a Big Lie operation coducted by the American media.  As Paul Craig Roberts, Sephen Lenderman, and others report on COUNTERCURRENTS.ORG, the untruth of the operation was planned ahead of time, placed in media like the Wall Street Jounal, Newsweek, etc and repeated by pseudo-Progressives, especially American Zionists.

What is so good about this Big Lie operation for the American people is that it is transparently and obviously deceptive, with evidence and implications emerging that are only refutable by Inherit type deception or delusion.  Big Lie operations are an inherent part of false flag operations, which the US and Israel conduct routinely, and apparently with less and less regard for their obvious duplicity.

Big Lie operations occur because the US appears to be at the end of its life cycle, and its economic, political and truth systems are increasingly obsolete.  The American truth system in particular is grossly undemocratic, the mainstream truth consensus being increasingly to the right of the population truth consensus.  When books are published about this Big Lie operation, it will help restore the distrust of the American people in their religious, political and intellectual leaders.

Thanks, Ed.

I know, for those that protest, that they mean that those hurt are “afraid of the govt”, but they are so busy touting the corporate agenda, every chance they get, they cant resist “fighting big govt” while they “promote new markets”—I mean “freedoms”.

20,000 people here each year wish to hell they had a govt run program to go to. That’s why I just cant watch MSM—the innuendos are endless…

KDelphi writes”

...now, cnn is saying, “When theyre hurt, theyre afraid to go to hospitals, because they are govt-run…”. Just couldnt resist a swipe at “socialized medicine” could you!! LOL! JEEZ!!!”

Oh Good lord, KDelphi, you’re absolutely right. That will certainly be part of the new AMA TV ads!

cnn ( i hear it in the background) is saying, “..at what point do we just have to step in there and say, ‘we’re with you’...”

Dont be too certain that the uS will not end up in Iran militarily…the MSM, that accuses of not caring, is fomenting this nonsense, like they did in Iraq in 1991, when Bush Sr. told Kurds to “rise up:” and then abandoned them!

When are we going to stop playing World Police?! We cant even run our own country! Gawd, are we going to let them do this to us again??!!

now, cnn is saying, “When theyre hurt, theyre afraid to go to hospitals, because they are govt-run…”. Just couldnt resist a swipe at “socialized medicine” could you!! LOL! JEEZ!!!

By Blackspeare, June 22 at 11:57 am #

AWM…you forgot Chile!
======================================================
forgetting Chile was a major omission given the seriousness of what happened there. One could mention every country in S America and the ME when discussing the horrible effects of Americas Foreign(Corporate) Policy but one would be remiss in not pointing out that every western nation is complicit in this.The Corporatocracy operates without regards to national boundaries and currently controls almost every government in the world.The ones they don’t are considered enemies.ie:Cuba Iran and Venezuela

Folktruther is bang on

If you own the government then there isn’t any need to send in the troops. The only reason troops were necessary in Iraq and Afghanistan was that they couldn’t find a puppet capable of overthrowing their governments.So they again sacrificed millions of lives in order to install their puppets.

The msm and western govs are merely doing their jobs as dictated to them by their corporate masters and the ruling elite

I can’t remember a bigger Big Lie than this “Iran Stolen Election” narrative by the US media, including the pseudo-progressive media.  As the facts become known, like a photograph being developed, it is increasingly apparent that this whole thing was a US ‘false truth’ operation to discredit a landslide electoral victory.

The US appaarently toted Mousavi out of his twenty year political retirement, used the corrupt billiinaire Ranjanvani family to support him, trained demonstrators accrss the bay, and coordinated an absurd story that he won the election. I assume they didn’t excpect to be so absurd because they expected a closer election.

But that is their story and they are sticking to it.  Why, I wonder?

Re: By Blackspeare, June 22 at 11:57 am:

Right you are, Blackspeare, and the US-supported coup that murdered democracy in Chile happened to be on a September 11th.

Good piece, Hedges.

There is still Crown Prince Pahlavi, for those who want a return of the Peacock Regime.

He called for us to intervene in a press conference today, and recieved wide applause.

“Prince Reza believes thatthe painful lessons of history show that true democracy is the only basis for any lasting political solution.” By spreading democracy and ending social, political, and economic injustice, by encouraging religious tolerance, social justice and fighting poverty in our Muslim countries, we can secure our societies and protect them against the tied of fundamentalism and terrorism recruitment movements,” he explained, while listing the ingredients of his long term recipe for eradicating terrorism from the Islamic world….”

It goes on and on, you really have to read the article. And I suppose he has no political ambitions, ala curve ball. What an opportunist!!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1456297/posts

AWM…you forgot Chile!

The question to be asked is why did the USA foment the overthrow of the Mossadegh regime in 1952?  And the answer is the USA’s neurotic/paranoidal fear of communism vis-a-vis the USSR.  The Shah was a perfect patsy!  And the ploy worked for a relatively long time.  Though, under the Shah, Iran endue tough economic times, but was able to float with US sudsidies.  If Carter had a little more backbone and had better advisors, the Peacock throne would have survived.

This is Mr. Chris Hedges at his very best,that is superb!!! It was a pleasure to read Mr. Fisk and Mr. Hedges on the same website. Both,in this instance, indispensable reading.

Iran Iraq Nicaragua El Salvador Panama Guatemala have all experienced the joy of US style democracy.Yet they remain ever ungrateful.

Just because millions of them have been murdered imprisoned and tortured is no excuse.Don’t they understand that you can’t have true democracy unless US corps are free to rape and pillage their resourses

We cannot deny our involvement in the ME, and I’m glad that President Obama at least mentioned the overthrow of Iran’s government in 1953.  As the NY Times reported:  “Britain, fearful of Iran’s plans to nationalize its oil industry, came up with the idea for the coup in 1952 and pressed the United States to mount a joint operation to remove the prime minister.”  And away we went.  Later in the 80’s we saw pictures of Don Rumsfeld shaking the hand of Saddam as he negotiated giving Iraq weapons for the war with Iran.  We as Americans have been caught up in the web woven by the CIA, our State Department, and we have been taught that America is a bright shining light for democracy, when in fact it was hardly true.  My advice to the young ‘America or die’ people today who rah rah about our power is to ‘enlist, show you mean what you say.’

Re: Jason, it is not a case of ‘Stockholm Syndrome,’ that we are experiencing in America. If that were the case we would be siding with the ‘terrorists’ and dictators of the Middle East right now.
Rather, we are experiencing the ‘failing empire syndrome,’ such as happened to all the imperial countries that have come and gone over the last few centuries.
The problem as Mr. Hedges sees it, is this, America has for too long, claimed the right and privilege to ‘spread democracy,’ in the Middle East under the cloak of taking the natural resources that are in that part of the world.
Surely you do know the history of the ‘Shah’ of Iran?
He was placed on the Peacock Throne by the CIA and he
used his power to emasculate any chance of a true democracy that the Iranians had. Under the Mossadegh government the Iranians much like the Turks were a progressive and forward looking people. Without the power of the clerics and Sharia law, the Iranians started to progress further in democratic policies than most countries of the time. Yet, through our meddling and interference, the only chance of true democracy was taken, because the Mossadegh premiership wanted control of the natural resources and more of the money in the hands of the Iranians than American companies would give.
I see an America that is corrupt and failing in its commission to be the ‘city set on the hill,’ we have and are failing in our responsibility to the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. No one more than I is sorry for the failure of Americans to stand up to the powerful elite, corporatocracy and governmental lackeys, that have slowly taken control and distorted the American way of life.
Should we one day wake up and smell the shit storm that we the people have swallowed and allowed, we will overthrow this horrible and corrupt system and become once again, or maybe for the first time, become the ‘light in the world of darkness.’

I wrote a ‘reverse timeline’ a while ago to help American understand how Iranians might view the American government.  Might be relevant again now. You can read it: “If Iran Were America: And We Were Iran” (http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/bryan2.html)

“We are the biggest problem in the Middle East. We have through our cruelty and violence created and legitimized the Mahmoud Ahmadinejads and the Osama bin Ladens.”

btw, sounds like you suffer deeply from Stockholm Syndrome.

Crazy ppl happen. Its part of life and no matter what your handlers say, you can not blame America for this you.

Please seek psychological help!

sigh… More Hedges propoganda.

He/ they sure are working hard lately to blame the U.S. for their woes. Check out their internal propoganda:

Iranian Intelligence Ministry Broadcast Encouraging People to Snitch on Spies Features “George Soros” Masterminding a Velvet Revolution in Iran from the White House.

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2147.htm