Pentagon Official: King Would Support Iraq, Afghan Wars

"I believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and that our nation's military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the American people vulnerable to terrorist attack," Johnson said. "Every day, our servicemen and women practice the dangerousness -- the dangerous unselfishness Dr. King preached on April 3, 1968."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/14/pentagon-official-mlk-support-wars-iraq-afghanistan_n_809031.html

OH MY GOD THIS MAKES ME WANT TO PULL MY HAIR OUT.

If America wanted to make its people less vulnerable to terrorist attacks, it would take some time to examine a foreign policy which freely engages in torture, disappearances, unwanted and sometimes illegal occupations via both war AND military installation, unwavering support for Palestinian apartheid (if this issue alone were addressed appropriately, terrorism originating from the middle-east would be drastically reduced..), civilian-killing drone strikes (read: extrajudicial killings), direct and tacit support for the overthrow by military coup of democratically elected leaders, etc etc etc etc etc ad nauseum suicidium.  Our servicemen and women are doing their brave-best to survive in a situation which compromises them functionally and morally.  The very bravest desert, and some of them undoubtedly end up in prison.  None of this is inevitable.  None of this is "just the way the world is".  MLK would stridently oppose the official wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the secret wars in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.  

He would also oppose giving the largest percentage tax cuts to the richest Americans, the bailouts and subsequent skyrocketing profits of the American financial industry (read: socialized risk & privatized benefit), the looming absolute refusal to extend any sort of similar bailout structure to state and local governments to be able to maintain public services, and probably most of the modern state of metastasized acceptance of advanced capitalism which is the norm in American consciousness.  He would also oppose the recent spate of targeted coercive choose-your-own-adventure-style FBI entrapment schemes aimed at young Americans of Muslim faith (many of whom are from countries in which we are currently mowing down civilians by the thousands).  He would probably support Wikileaks, though.

God, that made me fucking mad.  MLK was a great advocate of actual progressive change and nonviolent ideals, not the kind of revisionist bullshit Jeh Johnson is hawking.  Remember MLK.  Oppose the wars.

http://brinesalt.posterous.com/pentagon-official-king-would-support-iraq-afg