“Outrage” by Noam Chomsky August 14, 2014

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FACT: USA’s was devoted to Saddam under Reagan even removed him from the terrorist list so USA could provide him with weapons for his assault on Iran.

FACT: Reagan even denied his murderous crimes against the Kurds, blocking congressional condemnations.

FACT: Reagan gave Saddam privileges only granted to Israel = USA NO response to Iraq attacking USS Stark with missiles, killing 37 USA crewmen = USA NO response to Israel attacking USS Liberty repeatedly by Israeli jets and torpedo ships (1967) that killing 34 USA crewmen.

FACT: Bush I provided further aid to Saddam after the war with Iran that Saddam launched. Bush I invited Iraqi nuclear engineers to come to the US for advanced training in weapons production.

FACT: Bush I in April 1990 dispatched Bob Dole to lead a high-level Senate delegation to convey his warm regards to his friend Saddam and to tell him to disregard irresponsible USA criticism from the “pampered press” — Miscreants removed from the Voice of America.

FACT: Bush I fawned over Saddam until he turned a few months later Saddam disobeying or misunderstanding orders to invade Kuwait = The Bush I bombed Saddam’s army into dust in the desert.

FACT: July 17 Malaysian Airlines MH17 was shot down in Eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people.

USA denounced it as an “outrage of unspeakable proportions,” which happened “because of Russian support” + “we must stop at nothing to determine who is responsible and to bring them to justice.” + Called on Putin to end his shameful efforts. Yet the plane had hundreds of bullet holes in its fuselage caused by a blasts from a close by airplane – LIKELY Ukrainian flight tracked in the area. We know that Kiev Ukrainians and Russian Ukrainians are fighting a war in their own county. New York Times reported UN ambassador Samantha Power “choked up as she spoke of infants who perished in the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine [and] The Dutch foreign minister, Frans Timmermans, could barely contain his anger as he recalled seeing pictures of ‘thugs’ snatching wedding bands off the fingers of the victims.” At same UN meeting there was “a long recitation of names and ages — all belonging to children killed in the latest Israeli offensive in Gaza.” USA MSM ignored completely.

FACT:  Under Reagan another plane was shot down with comparable loss of life: Iran Air 655 with 290 killed, including 66 children, shot down in Iranian airspace in a clearly identified commercial air route. The crime was carried out by a guided-missile cruiser USS Vincennes, operating in Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf. The commander of a nearby U.S. vessel, David Carlson, wrote that he “wondered aloud in disbelief” as “’The Vincennes announced her intentions” to attack what was clearly a civilian aircraft. He speculated that “Robo Cruiser,” as the Vincennes was called because of its aggressive behavior, “felt a need to prove the viability of Aegis (the sophisticated anti-aircraft system on the cruiser), and that they hankered for the opportunity to show their stuff.”

Why exactly was the Vincennes in Iranian waters. The answer is simple. USA was defending USA’s great friend Saddam Hussein in his murderous aggression against Iran. For the victims, the shoot-down was no small matter. It was a major factor in Iran’s recognition that it could not fight on any longer, according to historian Dilip Hiro.

OUTRAGEOUSLY – 2 years later, the commander of the Vincennes and an officer were given the Legion of Merit award for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service” and for the “calm and professional atmosphere” during the period of the destruction of the Iranian Airbus. The incident was not mentioned in the award. President Reagan blamed the Iranian pilot and defended the actions of the warship, which “followed standing orders and widely publicized procedures, firing to protect itself against possible attack.” Bush I, proclaimed that “I will never apologize for the United States — I don’t care what the facts are…”

USA showed almost NO reaction or NO outrage or NO desire to desperately search for victims or NO passionate denunciations of those responsible or NO eloquent laments by the US Ambassador to the UN. Iranian condemnations were dismissed as “boilerplate attacks on the United States.” MSM virtually ignores the massive deaths.

Falsely in the London Daily Mail, Dominick Lawson wrote that “Putin’s apologists” bring up the Iran Air attack, the comparison actually demonstrates our high moral values as contrasted with the miserable Russians, who try to evade their responsibility for MH 17 with lies while Washington at once announced that the US warship had shot down the Iranian aircraft — righteously.

There were other similar Airline Disasters

FACT: Another Airline disaster dismissed to the memory hole was 110 deaths on a Libyan civilian airliner lost in a sandstorm in 1973 shot down by US-supplied Israeli jets, two minutes flight time from Cairo where it was landing. Israel blamed the French pilot, with the endorsement of the New York Times, saying the Israeli act was “at worst … an act of callousness that not even the savagery of previous Arab actions can excuse.” USA ignored the incident, with little criticism and Israeli Prime Minister four days later in USA faced few questions and returned home with new gifts of military aircraft.

USA MSM reaction was MUTED when USA’s favored Angolan terrorist organization UNITA claimed to have shot down two civilian airliners at the same time.