Network and Security Engineer

Some thoughts on decades of settler-colonialism, imperialism, and western hypocrisy

"International humanitarian law should be the best safeguard against the normalization of the use of force that we see all over the world. To be able to rally the world around those principles, we need to show that we respect them always and everywhere. Is that what we are doing?" — Josep Borrell, EU rep for foreign affairs and security policy. ---- The US has been at war in the region for decades, for our entire lives, invading Iraq, attacking Syria, Libya, Yemen. And now they to expand their colonial footprint, its choke-hold on this region, to appropriate even more of the natural resources and produce for themselves. And for years they have fantasized over waging a broader regional war against all of the independent governments in the Middle East that so dare to oppose US control. The hegemonic empire built on, driven and sustained by war, wants more war... To wage this, and the countless previous wars, the empire has utilized it's control over the mass media to shape the narrative and "manufacture consent" of the public in agreeing to the actions taken by their governments. Actions, which seek only to perpetuate and expand the influence of the hegemon. Social media algorithms discovered over a decade ago, that to maximize engagement, people need to be angry. "Angry people click more", and hence can be displayed more ads, leading to more profits for the monopolies. This anger is weaponized at the smallest of levels, building up on people's very real socio-economic uncertainties, and sowing fear, hatred, and diverting anger towards a certain group. We're told to fear and hate the oppressed, while the oppressors play the victim at the slightest inconvenience caused to them as a result of their oppression. Even here, well meaning, well educated people, fall for this mis/disinformation, not willing to inspect the evidence pointing to the contrary. ---- While the Israeli government increasingly calls for "erasing the Gaza strip from face of the earth", occupation of West Bank and Southern Lebanon, the military is carrying out dozens of massacres, killing 50, orphaning 70, displacing 1900 children every single day. US meanwhile makes plans to attack Iran's oil and/or nuclear energy facilities. This says everything, because Iran made it very clear in its retaliatory attack under international law, that it only went after military targets in Israel, attacking military bases and Mossad. Iran intentionally did not want to hit any civilian targets. So what's the response of the US and Israel? — Let's hit civilian targets in Iran. Let's go to war we've been dreaming about since we were removed in 79. The Western narrative about Iran and its allies in the region is the polar inversion of reality. It's the US and Israel that are constantly attacking civilians, and Israel boasts of the tens of thousands of Palestinians it has killed in Gaza. But when Iran responded to Israel in self-defense, Israeli regime officials and propagandists said, look, "Iran didn't kill a single Israeli. We're amazing. Iran didn't kill any of our people." But Iran does not judge the effectiveness of its attacks based on the number of civilians it kills. Iran doesn't want to kill Israeli civilians. It wants to hit Israeli military targets. So the US and Israel are making it very clear which is the so-called civilized side. This kind of hypocritical propaganda is especially clear when you look at Western media reporting on Israel's horrific war in Gaza, in which tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by Israel in just last year alone from brutal bombing, using US bombs, US missiles, US artillery, US planes. Or if you look at the media reporting now on Israel's invasion of Lebanon and its bombing of Lebanon, you constantly read these headlines where they talk about Lebanon airstrikes, not mentioning that it's Israel launching those airstrikes on Lebanon. On Lebanon, one can clearly see that Israel is responsible for the vast majority of cross border attacks. But the Western media, echoing Western governments, claims that Israel is supposedly defending itself, and now top ministers in the Israeli regime are openly saying that they want to re-occupy and colonize southern Lebanon, which is exactly what Israel did in the 80s and 90s, which by the way, is conveniently left out of the mainstream discourse. Hezbollah defends their country by attacking the invading soldiers, their military installations, while these Israeli military uses air strikes to indiscriminately bomb schools, hospitals, orphanages, places of worship, cemeteries, kill civilians, children, medics, journalists. ---- The US government claims, "we want peace and a ceasefire", but it's big bad Netanyahu, who is just pushing for more and more war. But in reality, there are so many reports showing that the Biden administration has been encouraging and pushing Israel to expand this war. Politico revealed that Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the US would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah, even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes. Top White House officials told top Israeli officials that the US agreed with Netanyahu's broad strategy to shift Israel's military focus to the north in Lebanon. This ridiculous, cynical narrative that the Biden administration supposedly wants peace, but it's just Israel standing in the way. Israel keeps killing the top politicians and generals in the process of negotiating and even agreeing to even a temporary stop in the hostilities. If one side isn't invited, there can never be a ceasefire. ---- Scholars at Brown University, estimated that 4.5 to 4.7 million people died due to the US-led wars following the September 11 attacks. Furthermore, 38 million people were displaced in these US-led wars, and now the US and Israel are expanding those wars further. Yes, 9/11 was horrific, received so much coverage and outrage around the world, that we essentially agreed to the massacre of millions. But we forget that the attacks were a result of the atrocities committed by US and Israel in Lebanon in the 80s. CIA initially funded and trained Al-Qaeda in the 70s to destabilize Afghanistan. Because empire forbids a resource rich nation to be governed by it's own people! How many more millions of people need to die, and how many tens of millions of people need to lose their homes, so the US Empire can try to maintain its hegemon? ---- Taken from politico, theimeu, geopoliticaleconomy, the wire, and maktoob media. Comic from Latuff, 2006.

What is the rarest thing you got to experience during your travels?

Things which very few people can ever experience. Like watching the Northern Lights, seeing a polar bear in the wild, etc.

NASA Rocket Makes First Detection of Planet-Wide Electric Field

- An international team of scientists has measured a planet-wide electric field using a NASA suborbital rocket. - This electric field, known as the ambipolar electric field, was first hypothesized over 60 years ago. - The ambipolar field is believed to drive the polar wind, a steady outflow of charged particles from Earth's poles. - Glyn Collinson, principal investigator of Endurance at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, led the research. - The discovery opens new opportunities for exploring how this field has shaped Earth's atmosphere.