Timothy Gatto

It seems like this well-thought out plan that the people behind the curtain had devised to implement the Americanization of this planet has suddenly blown up in their faces. One does not need to be an economist or work for a think-tank to realize the fact that Washington's schemes and machinations have definitely gone awry... big time. Please try to bear with me as I go through the litany of failed policies that have come so precariously close to setting the World alight.

I'll begin with the Vietnam War which was a horrible military and political mistake. To most Americans we lost lives and trillions from our treasury. We tarnished our image in the eyes of the World and divided the country into a left-right dog and pony show that continues to this day. In the eyes of the average American the Vietnam experience was a bad time for many Americans (and Vietnamese) and it was a losing proposition.

In reality however, it was a resounding success for the backroom people that control this "free and democratic" nation. Trillions of dollars from the US Treasury, and, I might add, from the pockets of American taxpayers, went right to the people that lobbied for and supported this "intervention". The war that started in earnest on the back of a false-flag incident in the Bay of Tonkin, made some people and industries fantastically wealthy. This was what this war (and almost all wars), was all about. Defeating Communism was not really the goal, supporting the Military Industrial Complex was always the driving force that got 56,000 young Americans killed and so many more wounded, both physically and emotionally. Some will never recover, but it's OK for the people behind the screen, not many of their family members or loved ones were sent to fight.

Vietnam is crucial if one wants to understand what is going on in the World today. Understand that a few years into the conflict, the military and most political types knew that the war was unwinnable. America lacked the logistics, money and most importantly, the will to do what it would take to win. These people, that were entrusted by the American people to conduct that war and to supply the military with the tools to achieve victory in the conflict, were not exactly truthful and forthcoming when they briefed the government or the American people. In fact, as history has revealed, they lied to us on a consistent basis.

President Johnson complained that he was lied to. His Generals, principally among them General Westmoreland, presented a much different picture of the military situation while Henry Kissinger worked his Machiavellian schemes on US politicians, the Press, protesters' and the World. Just as an aside, Kissinger is still behind the curtain driving his vision of an American Empire along with Madeline Albright, the Clintons', members past and present of the Council on Foreign relations, the Carnegie institute, and members of the World Bank, the International Monetary fund and those that walk in the shadows.

The people we elect are not the people that make policy. They do not truly inform America and the World on events that may or may not have happened. They release their views as news and information. Today, we have gone well past the Orwellian descriptions of the Ministry of Truth written about in the novel "1984". Today we have a much more sophisticated way to disseminate information that will enable the rulers and ruled alike, to come to the conclusions that the people who wield the real power, want them to come around to.

{At this point, I would like to inform the reader, before I get a truckload of comments asking questions on where to go to get the real truth, that the unfortunate reality is that there is no place to go to get an unbiased, uncensored, fact-checked source of information. Governments offer censored, biased views. The media is beholden to the corporate sector to finance their existence. Alternative media, while maybe the best place to obtain facts that the corporations and the government would rather not have you know, is plagued by bias and the reporting is biased also, but as a rule, it is still better than the corporate or government sanctioned versions of "reality")

Truth is hard to come by in the 21st Century. Those that ask for "transparency" are not going to get it. The truth comes to us in drips and drabs. People must watch and listen. They must follow up on things they hear before the 24 hour news cycle wipes that information away .

This is the way the "news" works. When an event comes along that can't be reconciled to the approved reality that the corporate media and the government want you "tuned into", another event of a greater magnitude suddenly breaks. The greater the impact of the story that can't be woven into their particular World view, the bigger the news event used to turn your attention away will become. An example of this is the killing of a young boy in Ferguson, Missouri. I'm not saying that this event shouldn't be newsworthy, indeed, it should been covered, but 60% of all news reporting? Think of what they are diverting attention from.

While watching the major networks as well as cable networks like CNN and the BBC, it would be safe to say that in the last week more than half their coverage has been about Ferguson. Every hour the US News has panels of people talking incessantly about known facts and stating the obvious.. Opinions abound and fill up hours and hours of airtime. The same thing can be said about the Malaysian Flight that went missing, the one that was shot down, and the death of Robin Williams. Meanwhile the War in Gaza is reduced to a few sound bites. The indiscriminate killing and shelling in Eastern Ukraine by the government in Kiev (a government installed after a CIA inspired coup, and has many avowed fascists) goes on with barely any coverage. The near downing (supposedly) of a US Fighter jet by a Chinese jet over the South China Sea and coverage of an aid convoy sent by Russia into Eastern Ukraine. The corporate media barely describes the aid being delivered. Instead of telling people about what was in the convoy, we hear this theory about the convoy being a "Trojan Horse, really containing weapons for the "Russian-backed militants". With no evidence of this, that particular line is used over and over, even after the Russians invited the journalists covering the story to inspect any truck of their choice.

Stories that have been buried by the "news-cycle" are numerous. Hardly any mention of the African governments fencing in ghetto's to restrict movement of the poor because of the Ebola epidemic. A virtual news blackout on the situation in Libya where the country has been divided into over 15 fiefdoms by fundamentalist Sunni militias'.

How did we get into a situation where an American journalist is beheaded by a group calling itself "The Islamic State"? Here is where the analogy about what happened in Vietnam kicks in:

The facts are, according to the government and the corporate media, this group is a spin-off of al Qaeda. This is a group so evil that al Qaeda itself has denounced them for their violent tactics. ISIS, or ISIL or the Islamic State came out of Syria like a bull on steroids. According to the Government and the corporate media, one man, Baghdadi, a former cleric for al Qaeda, magically appeared, well equipped and well-funded, and started to take huge swaths of land and then killing anyone that would not convert to their particular branch of Islam (although they don't tell us which branch that is).

It is probably the Whahabbi brand of Islam. This is the predominant sect that is holding court in Libya. This is what we did for Libya under NAT'O's "Responsibly to Protect" (R2P), after bombing the nation back to the stone age, and sanctioning the removal of Mohamar Ghadaffi by having a machete placed into his anus.

Our Allies, Qatar and Saudi Arabia funded the same sect by supporting the "Freedom Fighters" that were fighting to remove Bashar al Assad, the "Evil Dictator" (A term used by propagandist Scott Pelley on the CBS Evening News). The United States also sent money and arms through its allies Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (six States in the Persian Gulf including Qatar). Why then is it a surprise when these "Freedom Fighters" of yesterday have morphed into the terrifying "Islamic State"? If the group was willing to overthrow the most modern secular government in the Levant, why then is it a surprise when they wage war against the Shia controlled Iraqi government?

The corporate press and the government is loath to tell you about the origins of the Islamic State. The situation in Eastern Ukraine, and the bombing and shelling of the civilians there, isn't just too graphic to show. What is hard to show, is the hand-print of American and EU provocateurs. That turned an expression for closer ties with Europe by Western Ukrainians peacefully demonstrating into something very different. While the Demonstrators marched peacefully, the EU and American provocateurs funded cells of fascists that have turned those demonstrations into a full-blown Civil War.

Are all of these so-called "crisis's" the result of blunders due to failed US foreign policy? Think back on what I wrote about Vietnam in the beginning of this article. Today we have The Crisis in Syria, The crisis in Iraq and the crisis in Ukraine and the crisis in Gaza. All of these things require weapons, and weapons require money. These uprisings destabilize our enemies or those we perceive as threats and more importantly, turn a profit.

Like the War in Vietnam, winning or losing is not the goal. The goal is to Keep the military industrial complex humming like a well oiled machine. War is big business. It doesn't matter who is doing the fighting as long as the fighting is producing a need for weapons procurement. Having the US involved means sophisticated weapons like smart bombs, jet fighters and drones. While most Americans are worried about "mission creep", those that walk in the shadows of power are ecstatic. Just like during Vietnam, these people, the ones behind the curtain, never lose as long as they are making money. Sadly, business is good.

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Tim Gatto's new book "Contempt to Outrage" available from Oliver Arts and Open Press.

By Timothy V. Gatto, a retired Army Sergeant and former Chairman of The Liberal Party of America. He can be reached at: timgatto@hotmail.com Read Tim's Book "Complicity to Contempt" and his Novel "Kimchee Days or Stoned Cold Warriors From Oliver Arts and Open Press and available on Amazon and all other online bookstores.