{"id":315695,"date":"2017-07-03T19:17:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T18:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/rockets-red-glare-and-bombs-bursting-in-air-2\/"},"modified":"2017-07-03T19:17:44","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T18:17:44","slug":"rockets-red-glare-and-bombs-bursting-in-air-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/rockets-red-glare-and-bombs-bursting-in-air-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets\u2019 Red Glare and Bombs Bursting in Air"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>A June 27 Pew Research Center poll says world opinion of the United States has plummeted since Donald Trump took office. Surveying people in 37 countries, 49 percent held a positive view of the United States, down from 65 percent at the end of 2016. Maybe we could cancel the fireworks this 4th of July considering the insensitive symbolism of vicariously enjoying war.<\/p>\n<p>With the Pentagon\u2019s rockets\u2019 red glare and bombs bursting in air smashing seven majority Muslim countries \u2013 Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen \u2013 negativity toward the United States is easy to understand. US drone attacks originating in Nevada, 7,200 miles from Iraq, and jet fighter-bomber strikes launched from supercarriers in the Persian Gulf are killing hundreds of frightened bystanders month after month. At least 25 civilians were killed in Mosul, Iraq on Sat., June 24 when US bombs destroyed four houses.<\/p>\n<p>Every child killed or maimed by US-made weapons inevitably creates enemies among survivors. President Obama (pronounced \u201cOh-Bomb-Ah\u201d) made the point himself May 23, 2013 in a speech to National Defense University. He said drone attacks \u201craise profound questions: about who is targeted, and why; about civilian casualties, and the risk of creating new enemies\u2026\u201d And Obama warned that, \u201cUS military action in foreign lands risks creating more enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether bombing civilians only \u201crisks\u201d creating enemies or can be positively guaranteed always to do so, is a matter of opinion. But one need only consider the globalized, mechanized, mass US military reaction to 9\/11 \u2013 and the country\u2019s demonization of whole groups and religions \u2013 to know that demands for revenge, retribution, and retaliation always follow the deaths of innocents.<\/p>\n<p>If your business is peddling weapons, you could be smugly satisfied about every civilian wedding party, funeral procession, hospital, or <span data-term=\"goog_1325245264\">Sunday<\/span> market hit by US drones, gunships or F-18s. One StarTribune headline on April 2, 2017 directed attention away from our arms dealers. It read, \u201cCivilian deaths a windfall for militants\u2019 propaganda.\u201d Never mind the windfall for war profiteers.<\/p>\n<p>In the world of weapons sales, nothing is better for business than TV footage of the anguished and grief-stricken after civilians are indiscriminately attacked by \u201cforeigners.\u201d In the countries being bombed, we are those foreigners, occupiers, and militarists accused of cheapening human lives. You decide: when a US gunship obliterated the hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan Oct. 3, 2016 killing 42, the Pentagon offered $6,000 for each person killed, and $3,000 for each one injured.<\/p>\n<p>The government and munitions makers say our bombs are saving people by killing terrorists, and \u2013 being a world away from the torn limbs, the burning wounds, the screaming parents \u2013 Americans want to believe it. The US dropped 26,171 bombs across the seven states during 2016, according to Jennifer Wilson and Micah Zenko writing&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/AWCBlog\/~3\/szMXYktdtzU\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A June 27 Pew Research Center poll says world opinion of the United States has plummeted since Donald Trump took office. Surveying people in 37 countries, 49 percent held a positive view of the United States, down from 65 percent at the end of 2016. Maybe we could cancel the fireworks this 4th of July [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-315695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}