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OBAMA MOVES TO DARK SIDE WITH CHOICE OF GEN McCHRYSTAL
Seymour Hersh recently described the JSOC as an "executive assassination wing" controlled for many years by the office of former Vice President Dick Cheney. From Sept 2003 to August 2008 ~ Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal headed that command and now President Obama moves to the dark side by giving him command of US forces in Afghanistan: Allen L Roland
Make no mistake about it, President Obama's selection of Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal as commander of US forces in Afghanistan is a blatant move to the dark side of our current Middle East adventure.
McChrystal is director of the Joint Chiefs staff, but from September 2003 to August 2008, he headed the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees such elite units as the Army's Delta Force and the Navy SEALs.
Muriel Kane, ICH, writes ~ Famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh recently described the JSOC as an "executive assassination wing" controlled for many years by the office of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Speaking to a University of Minnesota audience in March, Hersh called JSOC "a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. ... They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office.... Congress has no oversight of it. ... It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on." http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22606.htm
Newsweek did run a brief article on McChrystal in June 2006 and gave evidence of America's gradual move toward the dark side ~ " Rumsfeld is especially enamored of McChrystal's "direct action" forces or so-called SMUs ~ Special Mission Units ~ whose job is to kill or capture bad guys, say Pentagon sources who would speak about Special Ops only if they were not identified. But critics say the Pentagon is short-shrifting the "hearts and minds" side of Special Operations that is critical to counterinsurgency ~ like training foreign armies and engaging with locals." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13392189/site/newsweek/print/1/displaymode/1098/
And don't forget that in April 2004, General McChrystal ( who reported directly to Dick Cheney ) approved paperwork awarding Pat Tillman a Silver Star after he was killed by enemy fire ~ even though he suspected the Ranger had died by fratricide, according to Pentagon testimony later obtained by AP. The testimony showed that McChrystal sent a memo to top generals imploring “our nation’s leaders,” specifically the president, to avoid removing the “devastating enemy fire” explanation from the award citation for their speeches. In 2007, the Army overruled a Pentagon recommendation that McChrystal be held accountable for his “misleading” actions.
In a book published last year, Mary Tillman accused McChrystal of helping create the false story line that she said “diminished Pat’s true actions.” Follow this link for information about Mary Tillman's book, Boots on the Ground by Dusk.
Juan Cole, Salon, sums up my real concerns on Obama's slide to the dark side ~ " Obama is preserving policies to which Cheney is deeply committed. In configuring Pushtun fundamentalists in southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan as a mortal threat to the U.S. and potentially even a nuclear power, the Obama administration is picking up themes from Cheney's old speeches and running with them. Cheney may or may not win his struggle for the soul of the Republican Party but if we are not careful ~ he will win the struggle for the soul of the country as a whole."
General McCrystal, who is fully endorsed by Dick Cheney, bears very close scrutiny by Congress but his very troubling appointment by Obama strongly indicates that we are already committed to the dark side.
Allen L Roland
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
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