U.S. planes dropping bombs
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The last year of the presidency of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama was marked by heavy bombing throughout the Middle East and South Asia. The United States dropped at least 26,171 bombs in seven Muslim-majority countries in 2016. And, given limitations on available government data, this estimate is “undoubtedly low,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations‘ Micah Zenko and Jennifer Wilson, who conducted the research.
Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan were the countries targeted by U.S. airstrikes. 2016 saw an increase in bombing since 2015, when the U.S. dropped at least 23,144 bombs on six Muslim-majority countries (Libya was the seventh country bombed in 2016).
Most of the bombs, 24,287, used in 2016 were dropped in Iraq and Syria, where the U.S. is leading a coalition to fight the self-declared Islamic State. Afghanistan was hit with at least 1,337 bombs. The war in Afghanistan entered its 15th year in 2016, one of the longest standing wars in U.S. history. President Obama was reelected in […]
As much as people are afraid of Trump destroying the world, I was afraid of Clinton winning and continuing the illegal wars that have been building over the past 16 years. I was one of the many who answered the call after 9-11, and through my service became disillusioned and ultimately sided with an Obama administration that swore it would end the wars. Here we are 8 years later, and the only place I can regularly find criticism of the current adminstration’s war mongering is at the Intercept… I won’t even get into how awful the current administration has treated whistle blowers, or the level of deceipt around mass surveillance… Everyone is so critical of Trump’s hard stance on Muslims (which has not yet proven to be anything more than grandstanding to get votes), and I guess I find it rather disgusting that the current president gets almost no criticism for actively propagating a genocide on all types of brown and black people all around the world. Trump gets treated like he’s in the KKK, and Obama gets a Peace Prize.
Thank you Charles for stating what the left cannot bring itself to do. And thank you Stephan for posting something I have been telling people for years about how the bombs rain down from Obama and yet hardly anyone notices in this country. The left think they are somehow morally & intellectually superior and yet they elected a president who has consistently lied and reneged; murdered people with drones, dropped bombs, wrecked countries like Syria & Libya with help of Hillary implemented foreign policy. Not to mention ruined people financially with Obamacare and endless regulatation, lied over and over, and eroded a multitude of constitutional rights using regulatory, prosecutory, extra-judicial and executive means. My goal is not to fuel dis-unity but the left is as dirty as the right maybe more so because they pretend to be angels and act like their poop doesn’t stink when their “leaders” are corrupt and hypocritical as can be. This left-right paradigm needs to go out the door and sheeple need to wake up. Maybe Trump is a wake up, good or bad. We shall see.
Mark R: Thinking in dichotomies is hardly thinking at all. Those usually associated with “The Left” had been the loudest critic of Obama’s militaristic foreign policy. A few libertarians have as well. The corporatist Democrats as well as virtually all Republicans have not done squat to criticize Obama’s bellicosity. In fact among the Republicans the corporatists, theocrats, and nihilistic right wingers have not only supported our foreign policy , they want even more torture, more bombing, etc. But grasping those nuances requires at a minimum the ability to think in at least three groups- “left’,”right,” and “corporatist.” And that is just the first step.
i’ll let the rest of the bloviating pass because this is hardly the place to teach someone how to think coherently.
Well said, Gus, well said.
How anyone that (hopefully) reads a variety of news sources can think the Left has given Obama a pass on his drone program is misinformed, at best. Has there been ENOUGH coverage? hell no, but of the coverage out there, it has been almost exclusively from Progressives. I was sitting here trying to unpack the inconsistencies and bloated misdirections of Mark’s post and then read you response. You summed it up quite well.
Kudos.