George Clooney Opposes War Profiteering While
AfricanBy David Swanson
July 25, 2015 "Information
Clearing House"
- George Clooney is being paid by the world’s
top two war profiteers, Lockheed-Martin and Boeing, to oppose war
profiteering by Africans disloyal to the U.S. government’s agenda.
Way back yonder before World War II, war
profiteering was widely frowned on in the United States. Those of us
trying to bring back that attitude, and working for barely-funded
peace organizations, ought to be thrilled when a wealthy celebrity
like George Clooney decides to take on war profiteering, and the
corporate media laps it up.
“Real leverage for peace and human rights will
come when the people who benefit from war will pay a price for the
damage they cause,” said Clooney — without encountering anything
like the blowback Donald Trump received when he criticized
John McCain.
Really, is that all it takes to give peace a
chance, a celebrity? Will the media now cover the matter of who
funds opponents of the Iran deal, and who funds supporters of the
wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, etc.?
Well, no, not really.
It turns out Clooney opposes, not war profiteering
in general, but war profiteering while African. In fact, Clooney’s
concern is limited, at least thus far, to five African nations:
Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, though these are not the only nations
in Africa or the world with serious wars underway.
Of the
top 100 weapons makers in the world, not a single one is based
in Africa. Only 1 is in South or Central America. Fifteen are in
Western allies and protectorates in Asia (and China is not included
in the list). Three are in Israel, one in Ukraine, and 13 in Russia.
Sixty-six are in the United States, Western Europe, and Canada.
Forty are in the U.S. alone. Seventeen of the top 30 are in the U.S.
Six of the top 10 mega-profiteers are in the U.S. The other four in
the top 10 are in Western Europe.
Clooney’s new organization, “The Sentry,” is part
of The Enough Project, which is part of the Center for American
Progress, which is a leading backer of “humanitarian” wars,
and various other wars
for that matter — and which is
funded by the world’s
top war profiteer, Lockheed Martin, and by number-two Boeing,
among other war profiteers.
According to the Congressional Research Service,
in the most recent edition of an annual report that it has now
discontinued,
79% of all weapons transfers to poor nations are from the United
States. That doesn’t include U.S. weapons in the hands of the U.S.
military, which has now moved into
nearly every nation
in Africa. When drugs flow north the United States focuses on the
supply end of the exchange as an excuse for wars. When weapons flow
south, George Clooney announces that we’ll stop backward violence at
the demand side by exposing African corruption.
The spreading of the U.S. empire through
militarism is most often justified by the example of Rwanda as a
place where the opportunity for a humanitarian war, to prevent the
Rwanda Genocide, was supposedly missed. But the United States backed
an invasion of Rwanda in 1990 by a Ugandan army led by U.S.-trained
killers, and supported their attacks for three-and-a-half years,
applying more pressure through the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and USAID. U.S.-backed and U.S.-trained
war-maker Paul Kagame — now president of Rwanda — is the leading
suspect behind the shooting down of a plane carrying the
then-presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on April 6, 1994. As chaos
followed, the U.N. might have sent in peacekeepers (not the same
thing, be it noted, as dropping bombs) but Washington was opposed.
President Bill Clinton wanted Kagame in power, and Kagame has now
taken the war into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with U.S.
aid and weapons, where 6 million have been killed. And yet nobody
ever says “We must prevent another Congo!”
What does George Clooney’s new organization say
about the DRC?
A very different story from that told by
Friends of the Congo.
According to Clooney’s group the killing in the Congo happens
“despite years of international attention,” not because of it.
Clooney’s organization also promotes
this argument for more U.S. warmaking in the DRC from Kathryn
Bigelow, best known for producing the CIA propaganda film
Zero Dark Thirty.
On
Sudan as
well, there’s no blame for U.S. interference; instead Clooney’s crew
has produced a brief for regime change.
On
South Sudan,
there’s no acknowledgement of U.S. warmongering in Ethiopia and
Kenya, but a
plea for more U.S. involvement.
The
Central African
Republic gets the same diagnosis as the others: local
ahistorical spontaneous corruption and backwardness leading to war.
Clooney’s co-founder of the Sentry (dictionary
definition of “Sentry” is “A guard, especially a soldier posted at a
given spot to prevent the passage of unauthorized persons”) is John
Prendergast, former Africa director for the National Security
Council. Watch Prendergast find himself awkwardly in a debate with
an informed person
here.
Clooney’s wife, incidentally, works for
U.S.-friendly dictators and brutal killers in places like Bahrain
and Libya.
More nations could soon be spotted by The Sentry.
The President of
Nigeria was at the U.S. Institute of “Peace” this week pleading
for weapons. U.S. troops are in
Cameroon this week training fighters.
If the peace
organization I work for had 0.0001% the financial support of The
Sentry, perhaps the debate would change. So, one thing you can do is
support the right antiwar
efforts.
Another is to let The Sentry know what it’s
missing. It asks for anonymous tips when you spot war profiteering.
Have you ever turned on C-Span? If you see something, say something.
Let The Sentry know
about the Pentagon.
David Swanson is an
American activist, blogger and author. David obtained a Master of
Philosophy degree from the University of Virginia in 1997.
http://warisacrime.org