Terrorism - Ignored in America

My current complaint rests with the fact that not enough Americans dig beyond the mainstream newspaper headlines to discover the political and military truths about their government; the truth won't be found in the general media, including what could arguably be called America's most astute newspaper, The New York Times.

The few journalists who do dare to write honestly and in depth about American foreign policy are marginalized, and in some cases, ridiculed.

Imagine a foreign army marching into Washington, D.C. and overthrowing the government saying 'we need to get rid of Obama because he's a drug dealer, or he's a terrorist, or he's a Communist dictator.' Yet these are the same reasons the American government has given for years for sending in its powerful military forces (or hiring proxy armies) into numerous countries around the world - financing coups, ignoring murder, creating famine and leaving behind devastation, poverty and despair.  In other words - sponsoring state terrorism.

Anti-Americanism growing

When America illegally invades other countries and destroys them, they package it up and market it to the American people as an unfortunate part of the peace process and/or just a necessary evil towards creating a democratic populace free to elect their own leaders. However, if another foreign country threatens or illegally invades their neighbor this is colored as a threat to democracy or an expansion of communism and terrorism, yet what we really know is that, bottom line, it's a threat to American imperialism.

How can we label the drone strikes that have been carried out by the American military in Pakistan and Afghanistan as anything other than terrorism? The illegal entry of a foreign military into sovereign territory for the sole purpose of creating terror is terrorism. The latest drone attack in Yemen shows that numerous innocent victims were killed while attending a wedding party.  It's a reminder of the people in the wedding party that were tragically and deliberately murdered by American soldiers in Iraq in 2004, leaving 42 revelers dead and many more wounded, including the musicians and children. Imagine the media coverage this kind of event would get if it happened to Americans in the States by a foreign entity?  It would be first-up news for days, including weeks of analysis on television.

The U.N. is ineffective and in tandem with that, so is the World Court. This latest drone attack in Yemen should be condemned, yet nothing is done towards creating a peace process, to say nothing of clawing back America's continued terrorism around the world. But then, the news in America being what it is, nobody knows. 

Affluenza - A New Defense for the Wealthy

Ethan Couch

A sixteen-year old youth from Texas, Ethan Couch, has been set free because the judge decided that he was the 'victim' of wealth. The teenager killed four people and seriously injured two others while driving with an alcohol count of .24, a level three times over the legal limit. Evidently, he lost control of his vehicle and smashed into some pedestrians, which also threw two kids in the back of his truck out on to the street, leaving them with serious injuries. The judge sentenced him to a $450,000 private counseling center that will be paid for by his wealthy father. Ethan had been in trouble before when police found him in a car passed out alongside a naked 14-year-old girl, but he was never punished for this offense, either.

The reasoning behind this sentencing is that Ethan didn't know any better because he was, according to his psychologist G. Dick Miller, the victim of 'affluenza,' an anti-social disease created by parents who believe that their 'wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences.' What is ironic here is that he is still not being held responsible for his behavior by a court which should be punishing him. Instead, he's being sent to a country club where he'll be able to wank off in the privacy of his own luxury suite.

Martin Erzinger

In a similar case Martin Joel Erzinger, a hedge fund manager, went to prison for just 90 days after seriously injuring a cyclist and fleeing the scene of the accident. The reasoning behind the sentence? A longer sentence would have negatively impacted his career, which would have been serious for someone in his profession.

O.J. Simpson

It appears that if you have money you can buy your way out of anything, including murder. We all witnessed how O.J. Simpson's 'dream team' (which was actually mediocre) helped him get back to the golf course to practice his golf swing. He had threatened to kill Nicole Simpson and he had already been charged with domestic abuse for a previous assault. Combined with his DNA, his monstrous footprints left all over the murder site, the bloody gloves and cap and his confusion as to where he was at the time of the murders, it looked obvious where he was at the time of the murders. It didn't help that the prosecution were totally inept in their handling of the case; however, what was clear in this case was that O.J.'s money was one of the reasons he regained his freedom.

Currently, Ethan is facing numerous lawsuits as a result of the wrongful deaths of four people and well he should. I wonder if a victim of poverty could get a similar exemption from punishment. What are the chances?