• NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I recall a time when George Bush said “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” with no sense of irony as a democratic leader. Same shitty authoritarian mindset on display here

      • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Jr, addressing congress on September 20th, 2001.

        Here’s the exact quote:

        “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

          • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Remember freedom fries? I remember seeing a paper taped to a menu once that said “freedom fries” over what I now know we’re just regular French fries.

            Didn’t know why people were calling it that at the time, but looking back… Damn. I wonder how our high school French teacher was doing…

        • mlg@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Pakistan proceeding to hide bin laden to exploit the infinite DoD funds glitch introduced by this statement

      • dmonzel@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        W. This was just two months after 9/11, as his administration was gearing up to invade Afghanistan.

        • variaatio@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          I would also add that isn’t empty talk like “Well he said it once, non biggie”. That statement by POTUS itself drove the national policy other countries. When POTUS says “other nations you are with us or are our enemies”, that matters.

          That is a signal the reverberates around with “do we dare to anger USA on this one”. The Afghan war partisipants list is long and contains some not so obvious participants often doing rather small token participations. Which I think is exactly “Well we have to show we are with USA”.

          For example here in Finland in the after action report of Finnish participation in Afghanistan tells the reason wasn’t building peace, it wasn’t even combat experience. It was “coalition and alliance building” aka showing USA “we are with them”.

          In the after action study one of the interviewed decision makers literally directly quoted:

          Yhdysvallat sanoi 9/11 jälkeen: olette joko meidän kanssa tai meitä vastaan.”

          United States said after 9/11: You are either with us or against us.

          Right above explaining how it was 20 year long very unpopular operation caused losses and achieved nothing in Afghanistan, but hey the Finnish NATO application will go through with flying colors.

          The whole time the media blitz was about “Helping and building peace in Afghanistan”. When in reality we went in because USA publicly extorted pretty all of west to show colors.

          This isn’t only in Finland in other European after action reports have shown similar “We went in, because Bush publicly demanded show of loyalty”.

  • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Maybe just build train tracks, for efficiency? Make sure to get their gold teeth before they board.

  • BertramDitore@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Israeli police are truly awful in my experience. They are not the Army, so that’s an important distinction, but they are some of the worst people I’ve crossed paths with in Israel. They don’t need an excuse to be racist and violent, that’s pretty much what they’re there for.

    I once called the police on a group of people who were harassing a woman. When the police showed up, all they did was start cracking up, like legit rolling on the ground laughing, because the group of people doing the harassing turned out to be the latest class of police trainees who had just graduated. I guess they were celebrating by harassing a random woman? Needless to say, no one was held accountable, and I was told if I wasn’t American they would have arrested me.

    • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      but they are some of the worst people I’ve crossed paths with

      Sooo… just like pig everywhere?

    • library_napper@monyet.cc
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      1 year ago

      Unlike the Army, they’re allowed to use chemical weapons.Well, not that the Israeli military lets the Geneva Conventions get in the way of their offensives.

      • BertramDitore@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah surprisingly similar actually. Israeli police are somehow even more flagrant and overt about it though, they openly defend their use of racial profiling and are even less restrained in how they choose to dole out violence. In Israel and the occupied territories, Arab Israelis and Palestinians are targets of suspicion, by default, in a pretty similar way to how black and brown Americans are targeted by authority as a matter of daily life.

    • Fades@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Most cops are fucking awful, globally. That’s why they sought out a cop job in the first place; copping enable assholes to apply pressure and power on anyone they feel like with little to no possibile recourse

      It’s absolutely not unique to America at all

    • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I’m sure he would rather put them on trains. And still wouldn’t see the hypocrisy.

      Funny you mention that… one of the things that barely gets any mention in history books is how enthusiastically Europe’s police forces collaborated with the Holocaust - the Vichy police literally rounded up Jewish people by the thousand to send off to the death camps without the Nazis even asking them to do so.

      It’s almost like the institution of police was invented to act as a distillery for the worst right-wing goons that the people at the top can sicc on anyone that the status quo has painted as a threat and/or scapegoat.

      • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The police are an inherently fascist force, from the very moment they were created, up to this very day.

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think that’s absolutely true but also a position of power is gonna attract the power hungry. A position permitted to use violence …

        • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          It’s actually somewhat difficult to tell which aspects of US policing wasn’t born out of the slave patrol. I guess you could say that the Texas Rangers is an aspect that wasn’t born out of it… it was born out of the need to commit pogroms and generalized genocide against Native Americans.

  • be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    “Don’t protest our war efforts where we are indiscriminately killing civilians, or we’ll drop you off in the middle of that area, where you’ll likely be indiscriminately killed.”

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Why not just send them to gas chambers instead… Fucking nazi prick.

    It’s ironic how Israel has become exactly like the persecutors that lead to this state to even be created.

  • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    What’ll they do with them in Gaza? Put them in working camps?

    I wish they’d see the bitter irony of it and correct course, but at this stage, wishing for them to choke on it seems like a more feasible option.