The New York Times hails him as a 'pathbreaker': the United States’ first Black national security adviser, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, and secretary of state. The rest of the US mainstream media have taken a similar line, erupting in characteristic American self-adulation at the idea that a once-discriminated-against Black man was able to make it so far in life. ...
[But] In 1989, Powell presided over all manner of bomb-based devastation in the Central American nation of Panama, where an untold number of mainly impoverished Panamanian civilians were slaughtered by the US military as it carried out 'Operation Just Cause' against longtime US ally and CIA asset Manuel Noriega."
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/10/20/stop-being-polite-colin-powell-was-a-killer
-->And then there was the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, something that Aljazeera did not cover in its article. Powell was the young major who was assigned to investigate the mass murder of hundreds of civilians. According to his conclusion, the eyewitness accounts of the slaughter were "unsubstantiated," and relations between the Vietnamese people and the US military were "excellent." Powell was a Black man who used the color of his skin to sell US war crimes. That's what you won't read in the media of the empire.
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Common Dreams:
"Do we really want a future of fear? Do we want the United States and its supposed enemy [China] to once again squander untold trillions of dollars on military expenditures while neglecting basic human needs, including universal health care, education, food, and housing, not to mention failing to deal adequately with that other looming existential threat, climate change? ...
Chinese leaders have even more reason to doubt the declared peaceful intent of AUKUS [security pact between Australia, the UK and the US] given that the U.S. military already has seven military bases in Australia and nearly 300 more spread across East Asia. By contrast, China doesn’t have a single base in the Western Hemisphere or anywhere near the borders of the United States. Add in one more factor: in the last 20 years, the AUKUS allies have a track record of launching aggressive wars and participating in other conflicts from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya to Yemen, Somalia, and the Philippines, among other places. China’s last war beyond its borders was with Vietnam for one month in 1979.
Some will claim that the United States must counter China’s growing military power, frequently trumpeted by U.S. media outlets. ... Disturbingly, according to a recent Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey, a majority in the U.S. now appear to believe — however incorrectly — that Chinese military power is equal to or greater than that of the United States. In fact, our military power vastly exceeds China’s, which simply doesn’t compare to the old Soviet Union."
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/10/22/raise-your-hand-if-you-want-new-cold-war-china
-->Oh, the new Cold War with China! The NYT has unfortunately "learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." Our newspaper of record never challenges the underlying insanity of this new cold war fever. Go watch "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) if you want to know what the empire is really cooking up for us.
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Common Dreams:
"A coalition of more than two dozen press freedom groups on Monday intensified an earlier call demanding the U.S. Department of Justice drop its charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying the demand is now even more urgent due to recent reports that the CIA plotted to kidnap—and possibly kill—the journalist.
In a letter sent Friday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, groups including the Knight First Amendment Institute, Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and Reporters Without Borders said the prosecution of Assange by the U.S. government is 'a threat to press freedom around the globe.' ...
As former intelligence consultant and press freedom advocate Edward Snowden tweeted Monday, the case against Assange 'criminalizes the sort of journalism you read every week in the newspaper.' "
-->The NYT is missing in action when it comes to Julian Assange and freedom of the press. Perhaps that's because the NYT has given up on a free press, and resigned itself to being a mouthpiece of the Pentagon and the US war machine.
