{"article":{"id":273296,"heading":"America: The World's Greatest Threat","author":"Stephen Lendman","created":"2015-09-23 11:21:49","modified":"2015-09-23 11:21:49","last_modified":"Wed, 23 Sep 2015 18:21:49","article":"<p>America: The World&rsquo;s Greatest Threat <br><br> by Stephen Lendman <br><br> All US presidents at least since WW II were unindicted war criminals, Obama the latest in a long line of rogue leaders, reflecting America&rsquo;s odious history, systematically pursuing empire, ravaging and destroying one country after another, remaining unaccountable for his high crimes. <br><br> Whoever succeeds him in 2017 will continue the same reckless policies, maybe overstepping enough to launch WW III, potential armageddon if occurs. <br><br> All presidential aspirants from both parties favor endless wars of conquest. Peace is anathema. Maintaining America&rsquo;s menacing military global footprint is prioritized, its empire of bases, its alliances with other rogue states, its rage to dominate unchallenged - the greatest threat to world security and stability. <br><br> No nation threatens them more than America, none more likely to start global war, none more greatly endangering humanity&rsquo;s survival. <br><br> Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick co-authored &ldquo;The Untold History of the United States&rdquo; - now made into a 10-part Showtime documentary, covering US history since the FDR era.  <br><br> In discussing the series, Stone said when he studied untold US <br>  <br> history, &ldquo;one thing that really hit (him) hard was (America&rsquo;s) nefarious involvement in the Middle East&rdquo; - beginning before WW II, exploding with GHW Bush&rsquo;s 1991 Iraq invasion and subsequent endless wars. <br><br> &ldquo;We never got out of there,&rdquo; said Stone. &ldquo;Once we were in, we&rsquo;re in forever.&rdquo; The curse of oil cost millions of lives. America &ldquo;destabilized the entire region, created chaos. And then we blame ISIS for the (horrors) we created.&rdquo; <br><br> &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all about the oil,&rdquo; Kuznick explained. &ldquo;You remember the bumper sticker: &lsquo;What is our oil doing under their sand?&rsquo; &ldquo; <br><br> &ldquo;We created&rdquo; violence and chaos throughout the region - &ldquo;then have a grand military plan&hellip;(M)ilitary solutions just don&rsquo;t work.&rdquo; <br><br> Americans don&rsquo;t get it, Stone explained. They live in a bubble - spoon-fed what government, academia and supportive media want them to know. Reagan touted a &ldquo;shining city on a hill.&rdquo; <br><br> &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very comforting to be an American,&rdquo; Stone said. &ldquo;You get the sense that you are safe and have prosperity of material goods, and that you have enemies everywhere - Russia, China, Iran, North Korea.&rdquo; <br><br> &ldquo;You get into this cocoon where you have a big country, two (protective) oceans, but you&rsquo;re always under threat.&rdquo; Stone served in Vietnam, returned home &ldquo;puzzled, completely confused about what was going on there. But I did get a heavy dose of the doublespeak, the militarese talk,&rdquo; he said. <br><br> He began asking questions, read &ldquo;progressive history&rdquo; when studying filmmaking. New ideas influenced his work since the 1980s. His films include Salvador, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Nixon and Wall Street among others - challenging the official narrative. <br><br> His film about Edward Snowden was delayed until 2016. His &ldquo;Untold History of the United States&rdquo; collaboratively with Peter Kuznick presents an alternative perspective from the FDR era to today - far different from mainstream propaganda. <br><br> The documentary&rsquo;s last episode is called &ldquo;Bush &amp; Obama: Age of Terror,&rdquo; covering the following topics: <br><br> &mdash; The Project For A New American Century, the neocon think tank calling for a new Pearl Harbor to enlist popular sentiment for endless wars, notably in the Middle East; <br><br> &mdash; The tyranny of neocons responsible for pushing America to war with Iraq, using fabricated intelligence; <br><br> &mdash; The repressive Patriot Act, the first of a series of post-9\/11 police state laws heading America toward full-blown tyranny; <br>  <br>   <br>  <br> &mdash; The destructive War on Terror at home and abroad; <br>  <br><br> \t <br>  <br> &mdash; Using 9\/11 as a pretext to invade and destroy Afghanistan; <br><br> &mdash; Unconstitutional torture and other forms of abuse at Guantanamo and other US black sites; <br><br> &mdash; Mainstream media&rsquo;s support for US wars of aggression; <br><br> &mdash; Obama selling out to Wall Street, Big Oil, Big Pharma and other corporate interests; <br><br> &mdash; Bailing out bankers responsible for causing financial and economic crisis conditions; <br><br> &mdash; The rise of unprecedented CEO compensation at the expense of a disappearing middle class; <br><br> &mdash; Obama&rsquo;s betrayal - his failure to deliver hope, change, or transparency, his prosecution of government whistleblowers, his continuation of Bush&rsquo;s national security state; and <br><br> &mdash; His drone wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia - including his appalling Big Lie claiming &ldquo;(u)nlike the old empires, we don&rsquo;t make these sacrifices for territory or for resources&hellip;We do it because it&rsquo;s right.&rdquo; <br><br> Stone calls his book and documentary an antidote to &ldquo;educational crime. American exceptionalism has to be driven out of our curriculums,&rdquo; he said. We&rsquo;re not under threat. We are the threat&rdquo; - to world peace, stability and security. <br><br> Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net\" rel=\"nofollow\">lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net<\/a>.  <br><br> His new book as editor and contributor is titled \"Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.\" <br><br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/a> <br><br> Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.  <br><br> Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. <br><br> It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. <\/p>\n","contact":"lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net","link":"sjlendman.blogspot.com","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"America","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2015\/09\/273296.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}