Killing Me Softly”, a song by US Extremism

“Killing Me Softly”, a song by US Extremis

Presentation made the 7^thof December 2021 at EuroCSE’s conference under the title of  

                     “American Extremism and Extremism in America”

My thanks go first to EuroCSE and to the super-active team headed by Dr. Makram Khoury Machoul, together with noted appreciation for the esteemed panelists, and accompanied by a big welcome to the audience.

Extremism exists in all acts, deeds, thoughts, peoples, areas, states and organisations.  It is a state of Mind, a matter of Attitude and Behaviour.  It should however be ruled by Morals and Ethics.  First and Eternal Rule: No Double-Standards… whenever… whatsoever.

Of course, I shall try to limit my intervention to the first half of the seminar’s title: American Extremism.I shall not approach the subject directly from the view entitled Extremism in America since I have never visited the country whichensures you hear about it, let alone endure the consequences of its actions.  Although a clean break is difficult to make, I will try to centre my views on Extremism as applied by the US on the Rest of the World, with special attention to my region of the World, and as a person at large affected by it, trying to respect at the same time: History and Actualities.

Here again, I gather I do not have hours to go over all that shouldbe known and discussed, so I shall limit my intervention to selected aspects of US behaviour whichhascaused Extreme Damage to us, those “thriving” in The Rest of the World.  The following is presented in Crescendo mode with the effects of Extremism growing as we go.

1- Laws andActs: the forced application of US Laws and Acts of all kinds and purposes which imply, in much an Extreme trend, that these Laws, and only US Laws rule the World.  This is to be mentioned alongside the fact that other countries’ Laws do not touch US citizens, deals or dealings, especially during US invasions and occupation of other countries (Read the Special bilateral agreements excluding US citizens and especially the US Military from any accountability: the mercenary company of Blackwater in Iraq and elsewhere as aprominent example).

This, in our view, the outsiders, is Extremism.  In other words no one otherthan an “American” counts.

2- US Sanctions of all “names” (some conveniently foreign), kinds, for reasons which are ethically illegal and reflect a denial of the so-trumpeted Rule of Law Motto.

3- The Rogue behaviour for centuries since the uprooting and massacres of the original Americans on their continent, examples of which are in the thousands and having perpetrated especially with regards to Latin America.

A living example is the illegal blockade of Cuba, now in its 27^th year, despite a yearly UN vote against it and asking for an end to it (the last vote was 184 member states against 2, the USA and guess who?).  If this is not Extremism then what is?

The Blockade of Palestine, and particularly Gaza in Palestine, is now ending its second decade and there dare be no hint of it, no limit to its atrocities, no end to it, not in the UN and especially not in the Colonio-Western media.  This is Extremism par excellence.

4- Meetings of high officials between the USA and anybody else to discuss??  “Defence sales”.  This must top it all.  There is not even the least decency of ethical discussion of “Arms and the Man”.  Arms deals are made for the lucrative sake of selling Arms, nothing else counts.

And, at the Summum of sophistication: The Perfect Mix (Storm): Extreme and Violentin fusion with Moderate and Soft.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki (One “deleted” by an Atomic bomb and the other “eradicated” by a Hydrogen one), this means that EVIL was there …right at the conception of the idea to bomb people to their dramatic death with the Scenes of Horror in view.. just as Hollywood likes them, but even as Hollywood was in the first place created.  The Earth is a big Laboratory for Experiments on the “Living Dead”.

There was no Icon and signé brands at that time yet to record these “Successes”.

To call USA policies, US government and rules etc…, American policies.  This also is Extremism because it claims to represent a whole colonial continent with all its people whileneglecting their differences and denying them their mere presence.  In fact I call on EuroCSE to rename this seminar of high actuality as follows: “U.S. Extremism and Extremism in the U.S.A.” in a gesture of Respect to the people of the American Continent.

The so-called US Diplomacy is mainly based on: “Yet More Threats… Yet More Sanctions”.  It is high time to compare it to China or Russia.. the ultimate enemies of the State and Humanity, Axes of Evil, another Extremist term.

Extremism explained should have been a matter of definition: what is meant by Extremism? It has evolved into becoming a matter of “Mastering the Language”.. In fact:

I remember the days when we were taught to call a Spade a Spade.  A major change, a shift in the way of describing and reporting atrocities and therefore of thinking had to be introduced. A few examples could shed the light here:

We used to say “Killing Innocent People”.. now we say “Collateral Damage”.  How many people actually know or even care about the meaning of collateral damage: “Injury inflicted on something other than an intended target specifically casualties of a military operation”, what a dehumanising expression.

We used to say “Killing by Mistake”.. now we say “Friendly Fire”, another disingenuous expression, an oxymoron of the worst kind intended to dupe the  families with lies being told about their loved ones who have died.  Nota nonBene: Friendly Fire Deaths in WW2 was 12-14%, Vietnam: 10-14%,Extremism againthis is.

We used to say “Prison” with contempt for The Rock, Sing Sing or Alcatraz.  With “Enhanced” revulsion for the names of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Baghram to take you on a “tour” of the World.  Now we soften the term to “Containment Facility”, what a Civilised Jailer !

And the list never ends.  In 2017 therewas the news: “The US dropped (what agentle act) the largest non-nuclear bomb in History on Thursday (in Afghanistan).  And on to the whopper of a nickname, a perfect term to define Oxymoron, it reads: “The Mother of all Bombs’, as CNN reported (technically, its acronym, known as: the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast).. OOoooff ! Now we can rest assured it was technically perfect, therefore permissible.  Of course, this whole mentalityincludes: “Mother” of Battles, Wars…  Can Humanity imagine a more diabolic combination than to link Motherhood with Bombs and Wars and Killings??

In the “Our World”, which is the USA, and the “Their World”, which is the Rest of the World, the context of a crime committed by “Ours”, a white supremacist, is immediately labeled as a deranged person or a psychopath etc… Any other of colour or tone is automatically a “Terrorist”.

New Concepts include Mega mentality in Extremism too.  As per Biggest, Fastest, Strongest and etc… and most important most Violent.

Polling and Democracy and Public Opinion and Wants Management.  There is Extremism whenever an opinion poll of just above 50% of a voting base of some 18% polled in a Nation of tens of millions take the whole remainingpopulation in an extreme direction that becomes everybody’s fate for centuries,

So 9/11 took place and nothing else matteredeverafter in this World, not Hiroshima, not Nagasaki before, till this moment unapologised for, not, and definitely not Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and the list will never end…Certainly not Palestine !.

Then comes Holocaust. And??? WMD-denier.. what a sanction !  Then the non-ending Anti-Semite, -Jew, -Zionist, -“Israel”, which have become laws in the Colonial West, laws that  put protesters in Containment Facilities or make them lose their jobs in the Universities, Media corporations or especially in government administrations.

And I wonder, if I gave the “Americans” a one choice only, to be memorised and iconised, 9/11 or Holocaust, which one would you dare cancel?  A One-Only Choice.  After Reminding you that each and every person in this world has a 9/11 of his own and his holocaust to remember, most of them inflicted by the very administration under scrutiny here !  Extremism.

The Military, what a world of Boots and Bodies that uses the slogan “War on Terror” to wage “Wars of Terror”.

– The contrasting context of Extremist and Moderate and thence using the terms of Terrorist groups, individuals, organisations, regions… etc… (Example; Afghanistan during the Soviet era, Taliban and Co. and then Iraq, Syria and on to others).  Perhaps someone could explain how a military group can kill “moderately”.

– The “Freedom of Acquiring Personal Firearms” Amendment, I would call it.  But then I think this is an “internal” US matter although it influences the violent behaviour of US citizens abroad and towards the Rest of the World.

Surely to be studied and reviewed: The relation between the Rise of Crime with the Rise of Arms Sales.

5- Hollywood and Medias of all feathers: this is a never-ending“inspiring” source of material for Extremism.

I recall my early days as a student at London University when, fond of Hollywood films, I saw a movie titled “Flight of the Phoenix”.  Not history, not social or political, just adventures.  And there, right at the start, a bi-helical small commercial plane crashes with a dozen travelers into a sub-saharan desert.  Some survivors venture away in quest of help never to come back and are later found with throats cut by, guess who?, local barbarian Bedouins etc… This initial incident had no relation whatsoever with the unfolding rest of the movie.  In the early sixties?… sheer Extremism.  I could not understand the link or hint having myself lived in Morocco between 1958 and 1962 and been to the outermost desert frontier to meet the hospitable people there in the South including Les Hommes Bleus or Touaregs.  Just to use the labels of, cut-throats, terrorists, demons is anathema to me.

To mention a few others, have a look at the Arab-looking dead driver’s body used in “The Long Kiss Goodnight”, 1996, a terrorist movie attack “organised” by the CIA to convince Congress to raise the Budget of the “Intelligence”Agency..  just reminiscent of 9/11 but 5 years earlier.  Then see“Wag the Dog” then films like “Lord of the…” where a white clad warrior on a white horse warns his troops of the imminent fall of the city, looking very much like Jerusalem with a Great Wall around it being attacked by huge hordes of barbarians, dark faces riding on dark horses (not the actual meaning of the latter).  Or the other film about terrorist attacks where, all in fictional names, states and persons, but out of nowhere and for one split second, an Iranian flag can be glimpsed, upside-down, on the front of a diplomatic car standing at an army barricade.  Again no relation with the developments of the movie, but the message was communicated.

The list could surely go on for years of continuous tell-tales once we skim through the earlier films about the evil Russians, the Soviets, the Nazis, the Japanese, the Koreans and Vietnamese.

Extremism in the medias, TV and Apps. Of all sorts.

Someone should perhaps explain how or why we read and hear of the Uyghurs in China, seasonally, i.e. they have disappeared for some time just to reappear now to demonise China before the winter Olympics (How convenient).

Suddenly- TODAY- the white House (still White despite the BLM movement) the White House announces Diplomatic Boycott (whatever this may mean) of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and the cause: “Ongoing Genocide”.  How sudden.  How extremely convenient.  This, I find, a very appropriate expression to describe the Zio-Colonial activities “ongoing” in Palestine for the last century.  I shall leave this matter to be treated by our esteemed panelists.  Perhaps they would also indulge in introducing us to the Extreme Diplomacy behind the appointment of US war criminals to the topmost critical US posts of Senate, Congress, Vice-President, Secretary of State, CIA, National Security Advisor and the list is long.

 Going back to sports in China, we are reminded, every day, of a disappeared tennis player in Hong Kong while never mentioning the 5 Cuban citizens now abducted for decades. Or should we recall the Rohingyas of Myanmar, a genocide on order, without mentioning the freedom activist Aung San Suu Kyi who, alternatively, is a Nobel Laureate and an ousted ruler responsible for massacres, or behind bars.  We really do not know anymore which is the more extreme of the two

This reminds me of an article I wrote at a much earlier date to talk about one top news on CNN when a world-wide petition signed by top US officials pleaded help to get Arturo, an old despondent polar bear moved from “his” zoo in Argentina back to Canada.  This happened at the apex of the Gaza massacres of 2014 which passed inaperçus.  The Polar campaign failed, Canada did not respond to the plea and Arturo passed away (RiP).  Double-Extremism here: first, why do you move a polar bear from its natural environment to lament on the situation when it goes wrong, why not discuss this point?  And more abhorrent,second, you are trying to tell people that no other horror is happening inthe World, evenin Palestine.  This isExtremism applied throughreverse action, where medias target stories to deviate public attention from main events.

This is becoming a very dangerous “cliché” where a crusade is launched against “their loved one”.  A campaign is set up.  Donations roll in.  So “a sincere desire to spare others from the same grief” is created.  It is a deep psychic need.  Again: Extremism through reverse action.

– The War For Information is becoming Information Wars.

What we are witnessing is a monopoly of activities of the Information and Technology International Mega Corporations.  This is Extremism where No One Else is allowed to compete or even dare enter the market.  This hits all ways of life, from your privacy trends to your likes and hates to the highest strategic policies and from information it goes straight to Control… and the pandemics’ syndromes are not very far from that.  This, and the Tax Havens, have become the Extreme Weapons of Destruction of both States and People.

It is a Demonising process, not only of States, organisations and individuals, but also anything in competition from 5G to Food products (Example: the selling of Monsanto and Bayer, the Glyphosate scandal) to Drugs and not neglecting Creative Innovations.

6- And Finally: the Dollar, that global Weapon of Mass Destruction, from Bretton Woods of NewHampshire (1945), the very place of the rebirth of the US democratic process every 4 years.

With the Dollar the US acts,accountable to no one, and behaves under only the premise of its own Laws.  This is partly due to the fact that it is the only state in the world that can actually, and literally does, print dollar paper and spend it without being accounted for.  Not to forget that the US imposed an exchange rate of 35$ to the ounce of gold in the Bretton Woods agreement of after WW2. To note: the US ACTUALLY defaulted, yes defaulted, in 1971 on the Convertibility Rule, Gold for Dollar, it had imposed as a victor in 1945. And then the World wonders (and a world of wonders it is) why is the US deficit in the 10s of trillions and still unaccounted for?  To note also that the U.S.A. controls 43% of the voting rights on the board of the IMF.  Since then, the IMF became a US tool to put its hands on the failed states.  And not least, the Latest cry of the IMFreads: it calls on the Rich countries to help the Poor countries. REALLY ??

– The use of Laws to benefit.

In 1993 the US government asked Congress for more authority to use Economic Warfare for Strategic Purposes based on an earlier Congress Act directly related to US Economic Interests.

– The use of Corruption at the service of Extremism.

They fail a particular state and then they control it (and my dear Lebanon is a flagrant example of that).  The US Treasury sanctioned and closed 2 Lebanese banks on grounds of terrorism and money-laundering.  7 years later, the US Treasury declared that there was no proof or basis for its earlier sanction action, and??  And it goes unaccounted for.  Just YESTERDAY the US Treasury issued new orders to our already bankrupt banks regarding some rules and sanctions.  Most of the failed countries of the world are now in this category.

– President Biden unveiled – TODAY –  a Global anti-Corruption Strategy ahead of his “Summit for Democracy” coming up later this week.  You are invited to smile when you read the attendance list, and more, with a wider smile, the nationalities of the panelists on the subject and that of the condemned countries.  Of course, most of the Courted undemocratic Countries will draw a grim Tableau which shall directly collide with what is now called a “Democracy Agenda”.  Words… just more words.

Finally, a Lebanese Academic lecturing in California lately asked in an editorial: “Why do the People of the Developing World have to follow developments of the US Economic Policy to know whether the Roof over their House will stand safe?”

Because… It is “My Way” or the Highway.

I would like to close with a quote Pope Francismade two days ago during his visit to Greece, he said;

“Stop this Shipwreck of Civilisation”

Thank you for your attention and patience.

Hayyan Salim Haidar.                                Lebanon, 7th December 2021.