James Morris Discusses Planned U.S. - Israeli War Games

Playing war games with war criminals... a step in the wrong direction for U.S. troops.

Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 2006 at left; photo by Dexter Phoenix, and U.S. soldiers in Iraq, 2008; photo by Tim King.

(SALEM) - We've discussed many times before the real and true definition of the word 'terrorist'; how this terminology is applied for political purposes that favor the western interests and those of Israel, and that when taken for its literal definition and meaning, it is not just diametrically, but perversely applied in use around the world today.

In the video below, Political Analyst and Correspondent James Morris in Los Angeles; an expert in Middle east political affairs, talks to Press TV in Tehran about scheduled U.S.-Israeli war games that will take place in 2012.

The 'war games' with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are obviously a move designed to raise tension with Iran and prove to the world that the U.S. not only participates in terrible war crimes in Baghdad and parts of Afghanistan; but that the Obama Administration specifically and openly condones Israel's apartheid government, where people are governed and judged according to their political and religious background; where war crimes against innocent civilians are routine, and accountability for those crimes is less than zero.

There is no benefit in training U.S. troops with Israelis.

All to set U.S. troops up for a War on Iran

It is ironic that for all of the bad press it receives in western media, Iran has almost no measurable history of military aggression toward its neighbors.

By the same token, the U.S. Navy blasted an Iranian airliner out of the sky one day claiming almost 300 souls, and the U.S. funded the Iraq/Iran war that left hundreds of thousands dead. It happened because Saddam Hussein was a friend and puppet of the U.S., and as retribution for the kidnapping of U.S. hostages in 1979, all of whom were released.

By all accounts Iran's nuclear ambitions are only related to the generation of power, and all the while Israel is in possession of hundreds of undeclared, illegal nuclear warheads that were supplied by the U.S. in the earlier years.

As James Morris points out, the Israeli military attacked the U.S.S. Liberty, a Navy ship, leaving dozens dead and scores of men gravely injured. This happened in 1967 and due to the Vietnam War and the decisions of President Lyndon Johnson, no response was taken, and the story is far worse than any summary can possibly explain.

Nukes and Stones

Iran's problem isn't that it is a budding nuclear war hazard, it is that the country's leadership has never relented from objecting to Israel's creation of the Palestinian exile and resulting Diaspora with refugees crowded into places where they are not accepted or wanted. All are people who Israel stole land from, stole homes and entire cities from...

And if any Palestinian resists or so much as throws a stone in revolt, they are almost at least treated like a terrorist. Conversely, Israeli Jews regularly pelt Palestinians with stones and this is a real problem in some settlements, with offenses against little Palestinian kids so bad, that Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) have set up operations to protect those kids from settlers.

Jewish media even carries stories about aggressive settlers throwing stones at Arabs; in one recent account they were young female teens and they were deemed as heroic for throwing rocks at Palestinians, (I'm not making this up) and they completely fail to either realize how foolish and wrong they are for failing to distinguish how something may not be perfectly right simply because an Israeli Jew does it.

No Jews are ever arrested for tossing rocks, only Palestinian kids are arrested and jailed over this, it is vastly unfair and the Israeli youth prisons are full of sexual, physical and mental abuse, it is terrible what Israeli does to the children of Palestinians.

Terrorist in the Mirror

Governments and dictators that the United States has supported in the past, and today, are terrorist to the bone, as was the U.S. government, particularly in Central and South America during the 70's and 80's. It takes hypocrite to all new levels when one truthfully evaluates the U.S. role in this practice.

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain both called the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa 'terrorist' in spite of its horrific racist crimes against humanity, and they called Nelson Mandela a terrorist specifically.

South Africa's behavior was on a level with the treatment of African-Americans in the post-Civil War years at minimum. Black students, political leaders and school children were murdered in droves and just as is the case in Israel, they were denied the right to publicly assemble and protest policy.

Attending a demonstration against Israel's politics can result in a death sentence, and recently did for a Palestinian man who was shot in the face by an Israeli soldier with a tear gas canister. The Israeli soldier's reaction to the man's fatal injury when confronted was... "so?"

What is clear is that the United States lost its way in a BIG way, and stopped being the 'good guy' country, but instead a land of marauding military invaders who will destroy and occupy nations over bad information and the literal ambitions of 'war presidents' who want to see military action, that will never involve them personally, and they want the profits for their family business interests and those of their good friends.

James Morris has frequently discussed the fact that Israel is the biggest user of the term 'terrorist' outside of the U.S.A. and when an Israeli uses the word, they are simply replacing the word 'enemy'; the same goes here in the U.S. It is inconvenient to use this word enemy because it states that there are two sides, rather than only one.

By using the word 'terrorist' to designate and classify, there is an attempt to imply that the individual in question is not worthy of civil or humane treatment. As the U.S. continues to suffer from Wikileaks revelations and extended military obligations, the last thing its already battle hardened troops need, is to hear from a military that commits war crimes by policy- that is Israel's story. And even worse, the military discipline of Israel is super lax and there is no pride in service, uniforms are in tatters and they are allowed to, for example, wear sandals and shower shoes in uniform. This is unheard of in the U.S. military across the board. The photos below give you an idea of how IDF soldiers pay little heed to military discipline.

Photo at left by Dexter Phoenix, shows how IDF soldiers conduct themselves when they aren't killing Palestinians or Lebanese. Photo on right by Tim King, shows the way U.S. soldiers maintain military bearing; their appearance reflects strong discipline that bars sloppy behavior.

One Example of Israeli terrorism Ken O'Keefe in Palestine Our Reporter Ken O'Keefe, also a former U.S. Marine, is the noted peace activist who battled Israeli 'commandos' in May 2010, the night they raided the Gaza Flotilla ship Mavi Marmara and others, as they ran a parallel course more than sixty miles from the Gaza coast. Because of this historic, deadly night, Ken can talk at length about Israeli terrorism; how they were shooting photographers in the head from their U.S. made and supplied helicopters before landing on the ship. He can talk about how they denied medical care to the wounded, the dying; yeah, Ken can talk about Israeli terrorism. Not one person aboard the Mavi Marmara was armed, (Israel called their mission 'terrorist' when they were simply trying to deliver much-needed food and supplies to Gaza which Israel maintains a stranglehold over most of) and Israel maintained that the crew "wanted to kill them" even though the Israelis were the attackers; nine activists were shot to death, dozens of others were shot and injured; one was a U.S. citizen, and O'Keefe disarmed two of the Israelis and took their guns, a pistol and an fully automatic rifle, and gave the Israeli soldiers medical treatment and released them. For this they were called terrorist... for this they were accused of wanting to kill Israelis. Ken had the chance, believe me, and he never even considered shooting those Israeli thugs in the head as they probably easily deserved in the opinion of many. He was not a terrorist, however those who attacked his ship were.

U.S. Needs No Help with War Crimes

The U.S. was locking people up left and right in the two current Middle east wars and this continued for years. Anyone basically pointed to and called a terrorist was hauled off to Abu Ghraib and other locations, like Guantanamo, where they were held without charges and tortured, but all in the name of fighting terrorism.

I personally saw U.S. contractors abuse a number of bound and hooded Iraqi men aboard an Army helicopter that I caught a very long ride on, from Fallujah to Balad one night, via Baghdad and other stops, where these so-called terrorist suspects were hauled away.

I learned from this experience a term spreading in Iraq at the time, "Did you create a terrorist today?" and it reflected the fact that many in the U.S. military are strictly there to serve according to the rules; they never abuse or tolerate abuse, but this is not universal. The Israeli military also has ethical members, particularly because all Israelis are forced to serve, yet the most honorable members of that society resist and fail to take part in the only war that they fight, and that is the one against the native Palestinian population which political lump Newt Gingrich recently deemed "invented".

The idea of Israel existing as it does, where it is, fulfills the vision of a German newspaper writer and activist named Theodore Herzl, who spent all of his early years distancing himself from his Jewish identity, then embraced it suddenly and ended up leading the drive to take Jewish people back to Palestine, to a place they would call 'Israel'. Everything would have gone smoothly, presumably, if Hitler hadn't swept Europe with death, eliminating millions and millions of Jewish people and many others including Roma, homosexuals, academics, activists, clergy, and anyone who harbored or aided the various targeted groups.

In the photo on the left by Dexter Phoenix, you see the Israeli military dude in huaraches; American soldiers, shown on the right in a photo by Tim King, show again how U.S. forces have full uniforms and are not slovenly, or rag tag like the Israeli soldiers.

Map shows Israel's absorption of land, all at the cost of violence and tragic homelessness for the families who had lived there in some cases, for hundreds of years. Israel uses victim status as a reason to kill its neighbors.

There is much more to it; Jews and Christians and Muslims lived in harmony for centuries, even during the early Zionist migrations, but the good relations failed in Palestine with the massive influx of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and their militias began murdering Palestinians from almost the moment they arrived.

Palestine was under the British Mandate at that point, and Israel was provided a large amount of land, however their political agenda has been to expand and expand, to the point that only West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza are in the hands of the splintered and divided Palestinians. In Gaza Israeli planes regularly bomb and attack and frequently kill civilians, it is so frequent that it is sickening.

Americans would not support Israel's aggression if they really understood it, neither would most Israelis for that matter, who are shielded from what really takes place and supplied with news by media that mostly stays loyal to Israeli policy. The U.S. networks and major papers really do favor Israel in every report, regardless of the death count or anything else. The people Israelis kill are almost always called terrorists. Israeli media and U.S. parrots always discuss the 'thousands of rockets from Gaza' and in fact, these have killed a total of 29 Israeli people in all of history, since they first began in 1991. The rockets are a feeble attempt to fight back against Israel for its daily illegal attacks. Bus bombings are also very few and far and between today, unlike earlier years, however Israel attacks Palestinian cars and buildings regularly, almost always claiming multiple victims.

In Israel's 'Operation Cast Lead', more than 1400 in Gaza were slaughtered, just killed like animals. Israel targeted schools, and hospitals, and family homes. As the Sri Lanka government did to the Tamils in 2009, they told people where 'safe zones' existed and then dropped incendiary bombs like white phosphorus, which is a serious war crime violation, on their heads.

This is who the U.S. military is training with? We as Americans should be ashamed and take every step and action to communicate to our elected officials and military commanders, that we are unhappy to see the U.S. working with an apartheid regime that has different roads for Jews and non-Jews, and a different set of laws for Jews and non-Jews.

We who criticize these practices do not select them, we react to them. We don't go down a list of countries receiving large amounts of U.S. taxpayer aid and ask, "which one is Jewish?" because there is only one, and because none of us care about that.

What Israel gets away with is reprehensible to say the very least, and this is not a matter of religious preference, it isn't antisemitism, in fact that very notion is an insult to the mind of any logical person. It is akin to the Nazi's saying "you just don't like us because we're Germanic".

It is just plain wrong to hold cross training with governments whose political ideologies dictate unequal privileges for people.

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim is a former U.S. Marine, he served in the 3rd Marine Air Wing at El Toro.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Silver Spoke Award by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (2011), Excellence in Journalism Award by the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (2010), Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), First-place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Tim was a member of the National Press Photographer's Association for several years and is a current member of the Orange County Press Club.

Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 101 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can write to Tim at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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xexon December 14, 2011 6:09 pm (Pacific time)

How many times do we hear history likes to repeat itself?

If there was a first, a second, and a third reich, what's to stop a fourth reich? Certainly not the United States.

As much as I like heaping scorn upon zionist Israel, I know that Israel is being used by the same people that are using us. It's not nazis this time. It's not zionists either. It's who is behind both. All world war II did was cut off their appendages which have since grown back.

Somewhere in Europe is a group of people who live lives that belong in an action/adventure movie. They're wealthy and powerful. They can raise armies with a signature or a nod. They can crush countries that they don't like. They're families. And they function just as mafia families function. They're Jewish, but Jewish in name only. These people are spiritually dormant. And cold.

You already use their monetary system. All your wealth is stored in their banks. But that's not enough for them. Imagine being so wealthy and powerful that you've literally done it all and been everywhere. What's left?

They ALWAYS try to take over the world.

This drama that involves the United States and Israel has a dual purpose. First, it provides you with a distraction so you don't notice this "New World Order" they're slipping in beneath your feet.

The second is we're being used as their enforcer. Or at least our military is. Going after their enemies as they attempt to mold the Middle East to their liking. Because Islam has it's own banking system, they can't apply the same pressure to them as they do to the western world via banking. So force is required. We're the hammer.

They've convinced us that it's in the name of the "war on terrorism". Another carefully crafted illusion. We wouldn't have these enemies if we weren't doing something to these people first.

We've been doing it for decades.

The war games between the US and Israel are mostly for intimidation purposes. Israel has no ability to fight a sustained war. Guess who does? And guess who has been promised to protect this problem child of a country?


x

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Joke December 14, 2011 1:18 pm (Pacific time)

This is total propaganda. By the way the activists on the Gaza flotilla were armed and you know it. Your just as bad as the governments you hate you spew lies to influence people of your agenda.

Tim King: No they were not and you know it, everything about your cause is rooted in murder and lies, my friend Ken had your 'commandos' down on the deck and took weapons from both, and DID NOT SHOOT THEM. Geez you need a picture painted, you think repeating your lies over and over and over will make a difference but they only make your justification of murder on the high seas more ridiculous, sorry to say.  My agenda is every single country will respect human rights and be punished accordingly when they do not, my agenda is that Israel's apartheid government is terrible and fascist and their crimes against Palestine are a God awful tragedy.  Those people aboard the Mavi Marmara were brave souls; all trying to reach the poor and beleaguered people of Gaza that Israel and its friends keep an illegal stranglehold on. 

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