Shameful US Sunday Talks Shows

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

The entire US major media establishment is a national disgrace, operating as a collective lying machine. 

Their daily propagandacasts and Sunday talk shows are exercises in mass deception and suppression of truth-telling on major issues.

The so-called big 5 Sunday talk shows, names altered to reflect reality, include NBC's Meet the (Lying Machine) Press, CBS' Face the (Deplorable) Nation, ABC's This (Imperial) Week, Fox News' (Propaganda) Sunday, and CNN's (Dreadful) State of the Nation.

A strong dose of antacid is advised before viewing them. Best to avoid them altogether, along with all else these lying machines air.

Fox News' (Propaganda) Sunday featured merchant of death and destruction/weapons maker Raytheon VP/currently Trump regime war secretary Mark Esper — misinforming viewers about US aggression in Syria never explained by establishment media, their commentators or guests.

Trump betrayed Kurdish YPG fighters by OK'ing Turkish aggression, failing to denounce it straightaway, withdrawing US forces from areas under attack to facilitate it, and having his UN envoy veto a Security Council resolution and oppose a separate statement, condemning Ankara's cross-border invasion of Syrian territory.

Esper falsely claimed otherwise, a Big Lie, saying: "We have not abandoned them (sic). Nobody green lighted this operation by Turkey, just the opposite (sic). We pushed back very hard at all levels (sic)."

Fact: Trump, House and Senate members threatened US sanctions on Turkey, none imposed so far. Rhetoric isn't policy.

Esper expressed outrage over reports of Turkish forces killing civilians — a longstanding US/NATO/Israeli/Saudi specialty, he was silent about.

Asked what the Pentagon intends doing about Turkish aggression, he ducked the question, saying "this is part of the terrible situation that Turkey has put us in."

Fact: Syria is Obama's war, launched in early 2011. Trump escalated what his predecessor began.

US aggression is responsible for hundreds of thousands of Syrian casualties, millions displaced, and the severest refugee crisis in multiple US war theaters since WW II.

Establishment media and war criminals like Esper ignore the above-explained Nuremberg-level high crimes.

Pretending US betrayal of Syrian Kurds didn't happen, he's indignant over their allying with Syrian forces against Turkish aggression, their only sensible option.

US forces illegally occupying northern Syria are being redeployed elsewhere in the country or cross-border in Iraq, some possibly in Jordan — besides thousands more deployed to Saudi Arabia.

Asked how many are involved in northern Syria, Esper said "less than a thousand." Numbers of US forces in country illegally are unreported, perhaps many thousands in 30% of Syria the Pentagon controls.

Esper distorted reality, claiming the US is unable "to stop the invasion of Turkey," adding: "(W)e didn't sign up to fight Turkey, a longstanding NATO ally."

The vaunted US military excels at mass slaughter of civilians, vast destruction of infrastructure in targeted countries, use of chemical, biological, radiological, and other banned weapons — along with betraying allies for other priorities.

Esper stressed that the US has no intention of acting against Turkish aggression — only against self-defense by government forces in nations the US attacks preemptively and their civilian populations.

He lied claiming "number one, China and, number two, Russia (are) the real strategic challenges we face" — both nations at peace with their neighbors and elsewhere, threatening no one.

He lied about nonbelligerent Iran, falsely accusing its ruling authorities of "malign behavior over the last 40 years (that) continues to create instability throughout the entire Middle East, to include Northern Syria."

All of the above apply to the US, NATO, Israel, and their imperial partners, not about the Islamic Republic, a nation that never attacked another country preemptively throughout its 40-year history, threatening none now. 

Esper: "(W)e want to make sure that we have sufficient forces on the ground, first to help defend our partners, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and, secondly, to deter further Iranian provocative behavior that could lead to a conflict."

Fact: The only foreign threats faced by Riyadh and the UAE are invented. No real ones exist — no "Iranian provocative behavior" anywhere.

Separately on Meet the (Lying Machine) Press, former Trump regime war secretary James Mattis pretended that Pentagon terror-bombing and US allies fought ISIS in Syria — the scourge Washington supports.

Compounding his Big Lie, he said "(w)e have got to keep the pressure on ISIS so they don't recover." Polar opposite is going on.

ISIS and likeminded jihadists are trained on Pentagon bases in Syria and elsewhere. They're funded and supplied with US, other Western, Turkish, and Israeli weapons.

Mattis falsely claimed Ankara has cross-border security concerns in Syria. Asked what he'd do if still Trump regime war secretary, he ducked the question.

He lied claiming he "obeyed the law (his) entire life." He committed war crimes as CENTCOM commander, head of US Joint Forces Command, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, Marine Expeditionary Force commander, Marine Combat Development head, Marine Expeditionary Brigade commander, and head of the 7th Marine Regiment — notably during Bush/Cheney's Iraq aggression.

He lied calling Iran the greatest threat to Middle East peace — the US, NATO, and Israel responsible for endless regional wars and chaos, not Tehran.

Mattis, Esper, and countless other former and current US officials are unaccountable for their high crimes of war and against humanity — falsely blamed on their victims.

VISIT MY NEW WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html