Bilmish Yabanjee

@Shrr200 @Fansen @BabaRancho20 @POTUS Gazza: where no shame meets no compassion

I don't have "deep insights" about Americans as a species. I have memory. And I have pattern recognition sharpened by what it means to live under the consequences of decisions Americans call "foreign policy." You grow up Vietnamese, you learn early that there are two parallel realities: The one you live through. And the one narrated about you on American television, in speeches, in films, in history books. My family lived through the moment when American abstractions like "credibility" and "containing communism" stopped sounding strategic and became physical: Bomb craters. Refugee boats. Bodies. You watch villages renamed "collateral." You watch coups renamed "restoring democracy." You watch blockades renamed "pressure for reform." You watch your dead filed away as "tragedy" so that no one has to call them what they were: crimes. After a while, you stop getting angry at every sentence. You start studying the grammar. Who gets to remain human in the story. Who gets turned into an adjective. Whose violence is "regrettable," and whose resistance is "terrorism." Which lives are allowed complexity, and which lives are flattened into body counts, talking points, and background noise. Then you hear Americans speak about entirely different places, entirely different wars, entirely different enemies, and the same grammar is still there: "Intervention" instead of invasion. "Stability" instead of control. "Responsibility" instead of domination. "Sanctions" instead of siege. If you grow up with that long enough, you learn that what empire calls "responsibility" usually means someone far away is about to bleed. That's where my "insight" comes from. From watching the same software run on different hardware. From listening closely to the metaphors they don't even notice they're using anymore. From realizing that, for a lot of good, ordinary people, this isn't malice. It's the water they were raised in. The story is always written from the cockpit, never from the crater. So when I write about American exceptionalism, I'm not claiming mystical access to "your people." I am describing the hallucination I've been forced to survive under since I was born. And once you see the pattern from outside the blast radius, it becomes almost impossible not to see it everywhere.

Nobody wants to believe they're the villain in the story. Nobody wants to believe their government is run by psychopaths who are inflicting unfathomable evils upon populations around the globe in order to rule the world. It's much nicer to believe you're the Good Guys. Much easier to sit with the idea that your government might make an innocent mistake here and there, but overall is a driving force for the good of humankind, and is certainly superior to the villains it makes war with. That's a fiction, though. It's a comfortable lie. A fairy tale that westerners tell themselves to avoid a profoundly uncomfortable truth. The truth is that we are the villains. We are the terrorists. We are the tyrants. We are the evil regime. Our soldiers aren't out there defending our country, they're out there murdering people for defending their country. They're not fighting for freedom and democracy, they're fighting for money and power. Daniel Crimmins from the US Army 3rd Infantry Division wrote the following about the Iraq War in 2015: "Then you realize you haven’t seen anything to support the idea that these poor fuckers are a threat to your home. You look around and you see all the contractors making six figure salaries to fix your shit, train Iraqis, maintain the ridiculous SUVs the KBR dicks ride around in. You consider the fact that every 25mm shell costs about forty bucks, and your company has been handing those fuckers out like shrapnel flavored parade candies. You think about all the fuel you’re going through, all the ammo and missiles and grenades. You think about every time you lose a vehicle, the Army buys a new one. Maybe you start to see a lot of people making a lot of money on huge amounts of human suffering. "Then you go on leave, and realize that Ayn Rand has no idea what the fuck she’s talking about. You realize that Fox News and Limbaugh and John McCain don’t respect you or your buddies. They don’t give a fuck if you get a parade or a box when you get home, you’re nothing to them but a prop. "Then you get out, and you hate the news. You hate the apathy, and you hate the murder being carried out in your name. You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper, a faceless, nameless rifleman, carrying a spear for empire, and you start to accept the startlingly obvious truth that these are people like you." That's the reality right there, folks. We can wake up and start living in reality, or we can remain asleep in the fiction. It's time to wake up to the reality that western civilization is a depraved dystopia where most people are sleepwalking in a propaganda-addled stupor under an empire that is fueled by human blood. And it's time to awaken to the fact that as westerners it is our duty to tear that empire down brick by brick, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and for the sake of our fellow man.

@andyblueskyz @MiddleEastEye There's nothing 'humane' about broad sanctions as imposed by US. The effect they have on civilians is often indistinguishable from collective punishment - penalizing a group for acts they didn't personally commit. The Geneva Conventions and IHL prohibit collective punishment

@MiddleEastEye Sanctions are the most humane way to fight against apalling tyrannies like Hamas and the IRGC.

“American sanctions from 1971 to 2021…murdered 38 million people.” Political scientist John Mearsheimer criticised US foreign policy and cited a report by The Lancet that says US sanctions have killed 38 million people worldwide

@Bristol_Matt05 @CogitoEdu @Ace_Archist Talking about criminal actions.... The effect on civilians of broad sanctions by the ”executioner ", is often indistinguishable from collective punishment. The Geneva Conventions and IHL prohibit collective punishment ie penalizing a group for acts they didn't personally commit

@CogitoEdu @Ace_Archist They are not equivalent on the face, but there is a reason for sanctions. You’re blaming the executioner (sanctioning USA) for the actions of the criminal (Cuban government).

1 in 4 humans live under US sanctions. Resulting in about 500,000 unnecessary deaths per year. Every US president is a mass murderer.

@elonmusk Fairness!? Let's talk about fairness once 'those peoples' fairly compensate those who literally built Western Europe through their blood, sweat and tears.

If one is to use the term “First Nations” or “Indigenous Peoples” or “Native Americans” in the Americas and Antipodes, then, in fairness, it should also apply to English, French, Spanish and other such peoples in Europe

These takes about China not intervening in Iran are, quite literally, obscene. I mean, the sheer insanity of a former U.S. ambassador to China publicly taunting China and Russia for not intervening against them - and thereby triggering full-fledged WW3 - is genuinely unhinged. And completely stupid, I might add: these people are so high on their own propaganda that they're mocking nuclear-armed powers for exercising the very restraint that's keeping them alive. Because it IS propaganda: the notion that there exists a so-called "alliance of authoritarianism" has absolutely zero basis in reality. Heck, "authoritarianism" itself has zero basis in reality: it's a purely propaganda term designed to flatten the enormous diversity of non-Western political systems into a single derogatory category. It's the geopolitical equivalent of calling everyone you don't like the same insult - it says nothing about them and everything about your inability, or unwillingness, to understand them. That's often the thing about U.S. propaganda: they invent completely artificial and self-serving concepts like lumping every country they dislike together as an "axis of authoritarians" and then, when said axis doesn't materialize in practice - simply because it actually doesn't exist - they mock these countries for not living up to a fiction they made up. It's true that China is friendly to Iran and that they do not follow Washington's unilateral sanctions against it - because why would they? These are American sanctions, not international law. The actual offense here is independence, the refusal to go along with U.S. aggression. But not being a US vassal is not the same thing as being in a military alliance. The distance between "we trade with whoever we want" and "we'll go to war with the U.S. for you" is absolutely enormous. Confusing the two is the product of a worldview so distorted by U.S. imperialism that any act of independence registers as an act of war. Lastly, let's not forget what's actually happening: the U.S. is bombing a country of 90 million people, killing religious leaders (Ayatollah Khamenei), public servants and diplomats, massacring schoolgirls, etc. And the discourse in Washington - even by the opposition (Burns was in the Biden administration) - isn't about the chaos, death and destruction their country is once more unleashing on a region that they've been destroying for decades (for what result?), coming right on the back of a genocide they sponsored, but it's about point scoring against China, as if not waging war was a character flaw... All in all, this tweet 👇 is actually a perfect encapsulation of how profoundly sociopathic U.S. elites have become: mid-massacre they're taunting others for their lack of bloodlust - against them (!). Which is, when you think about it, an inadvertent confession: you don't expect retaliation for something you truly believe is justified.

@alioh_ali @natalimorris How about support for Afghan women? Guess where millions of them fled to after the US abandoned them...

@natalimorris Oh dear love. I lived through all of it, fell for Blair and the the weapons. I want the Islamic regime gone. I want a life for women. If you can't support that then you are not worthy of independence. Islamic rule has no place on this planet.

They told us Iraq had WMDs and we needed to liberate them from Saddam, a former CIA asset. That was a lie. Result: Millions of Iraqis dead and suffering. They told us that Assad was gassing his own people in Syria and we needed to liberate them too but that was also a lie. Result: Isis now in charge in Syria. They told us that Gadaffi was torturing his people and we needed to liberate them as well. Also a lie. Result: Libya left in ruins. They told us that Noriega, a former CIA asset, was a drug trafficker and we were going to liberate the people of Panama. Result: Unprovoked bombing of innocent civilians. I could go on but you get the point. But now... Now some of you believe the U.S. government is right this time? Now you buy the nuclear weapons bit? Now you believe the Iranians want the U.S. and Israel to be their savior after this trail of lies and destruction? Fine, believe that. I hope you get some fun toys from the Easter Bunny.

@Refugees @UNRefugeeAgency How many more people will be displaced because of yet another warmongering @POTUS with dropping approval ratings? And how many of these people does the US commit to take in?

UNHCR is deeply concerned by the escalation of violence in the Middle East and its impact on civilians and further displacement in the region. Our full statement on the ongoing situation.

How many more people will be displaced because of yet another warmongering @POTUS with dropping approval ratings? And how many of these people does the US commit to take in ?

@cathiedunn @alemannoEU @FTM_eu Nothing can wake up the EU. Even if the #peaceboard meeting would start with Tony Blair asking for a minute's silence for Jeffrey Epstein, the EU would still do what it does best: 🙈🙉🙊

@alemannoEU @FTM_eu What? Why do they listen to lobbyist Bliar?? 🤷‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ The EU needs a wake up call, fast. #NotInMyName

Wow. On the same day ⁦@FTM_eu⁩ reveals Tony Blair lobbied the EU to join Trump’s “Board of Peace,” EU Commissioner Šuica — lobbied by Blair himself — heads to Washington to represent the EU at its meeting. euronews.com/my-europe/2026…

@capitolhunters @Furbeti Yeah right, and the timing of these two emails was probably just a coincidence as he needed a flat for a hair appointment.

@Furbeti "Fekkai appointment" is probably just a haircut, btw. viemagazine.com/article/a-woma…

A redacted victim wrote an email to Epstein's accountant in 2017 regarding tuition payments, and to schedule a 'Fekkai appointment' for Friday.

@CleveSchmalz @dimitrilascaris The mission statement of the Department of State under Rubio is quite clear on what motivates their actions

@dimitrilascaris Substantiate your claim

Trump & Netanyahu are committing genocide against Palestinians right now. They're also murdering innocents in Lebanon & Syria. Yet, we're to believe that they care about the lives of Iranian protesters? You'd have to be an intellectual toddler to believe this bullshit. #Iran

@YesYes15230365 @Ana_Bello @LReeshus @RnaudBertrand @krystalball Too busy being alive... x.com/i/status/15977…

@HildeVKB @Ana_Bello @LReeshus @RnaudBertrand @krystalball 1/I totally acknowledge there's gross hypocrisy in American foreign policy- the Mid East is an obvious example. Unfortunately, most Americans have more than enough problems of their own right here to get too caught up in foreign policy

Venezuela killed the US. Or rather, it revealed it was already dead. In the history of the US’s relation with Latin America, what just happened in Venezuela is hardly unique: the U.S. government has intervened to change governments in Latin America a total of 41 times (revista.drclas.harvard.edu/united-states-…). What is unprecedented however is the brazenness, the unabashedly predatory nature of the intervention. Trump is not pretending this is about anything else than resource extraction. He explicitly stated "we're going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground" and that this wealth would “go to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country." (npr.org/2026/01/03/g-s…). Stunningly, the US isn’t even insisting on regime change. They’re quite happy for the Chavista government to stay in place under acting president Delcy Rodríguez as long as she “does what we want,” (said Trump: edition.cnn.com/2026/01/04/pol…), vowing to bomb the country again if she didn’t. In other words, there is absolutely zero pretense there: submission to the U.S.’s will is the only variable that matters. Never before in its entire history has the U.S. been so nakedly… bad. This might sound almost trivial. “So what if they admit they’re bad, at least they’re not hypocritical about it anymore,” you might tell yourself. Some might even find that refreshing in its honesty. Quite the contrary. The story a nation tells itself is not trivial - it is everything. We, human beings, for better or worse, are structured by mythology and self-deception. Think about yourself, what drives your own behavior? You have, doubtlessly, ideals you want to live up to. If you have kids you have ideals of what a good parent ought to be. If you have a spouse you have ideals of what fidelity and partnership mean. If you have a job you have some conception of integrity. You probably fall short - we all do - but the ideals still structure your behavior. They give you something to reach for, they provide the terms in which you can be criticized - including by your own internal dialogue. They make it possible for you to do better tomorrow. The hypocrisy - the gap between ideal and reality - is not the problem. It's the proof that the ideal still has a hold on you, that you can still be called back to it. As the saying goes, hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. Now imagine you renounce all this. Imagine you stop being a hypocrite in the sense that you abandon your ideals entirely, that you start owning up to your worst self and become comfortable with your vices. You cheat on your spouse and stop pretending it bothers you. You neglect your children and make peace with it. Have you thus become “refreshingly honest”? Maybe. But you’ve also died inside. You’ve become something deeply broken - beyond shame, beyond appeal. You’ve lost the internal architecture that makes moral life possible. The little light that said “this is not who I want to be” is extinguished. That is what the United States just did. The consequences of this are, frankly, terrifying. What happens when a nation stops telling itself it should be good? This is precisely what I try to answer in my latest article: open.substack.com/pub/arnaudbert…

@YesYes15230365 @Ana_Bello @LReeshus @RnaudBertrand @krystalball A perfect example of the selective, collective memory that Americans have developed so that they never have to hold their elected leaders accountable for non-american lives destroyed because of US foreign hypocrisy

@Ana_Bello @LReeshus @RnaudBertrand @krystalball Japan? Germany & most of Western Europe? South Korea? Bosnia? Kosovo?

España no reconoció al régimen de Maduro. Pero tampoco reconocerá una intervención que viola el derecho internacional y empuja a la región a un horizonte de incertidumbre y belicismo. Pedimos a todos los actores que piensen en la población civil, que respeten la Carta de Naciones Unidas y que articulen una transición justa y dialogada.

#USInvasion of #Venezuela

Şefim, harikasın! Bırak boş ver, eleştirenleri… Sanki eleştirenler Manchester’da doğdular. Türk aksanı budur! Türkler ingilizceyi böyle konuşur. Harikasınız! Ayakta alkışlıyorum! @yusufdikec

@solcugazete60 Parlamenter demokraside hiçbir mesele seçimin üstünde değildir.

Tülay Hatimoğulları: "AKP ve MHP hükümetin icra makamında oldukları için kendileriyle görüşme var. Bundan bir seçim ittifakı çıkarmaya çalışanlar bir sonuç elde edemez. Bizim meselemiz seçimin çok üstündedir."

@cuneytozdemir Stop projecting

Çok iyi bir oyuncu ve çok vasat bir düşünür! Ünlü, zengin ve tanınır olunca anında her şeyin en iyisini bilen, ahkam kesen, dangalakça sözler söylerken her türlü cürete sahip bireyler olma hakkına sahip olamıyorsunuz ne yazık ki! Bu bir hastalık... Şöhret pandemisi gibi bir şey...

Legitimising violence through direct political negotiations does not shatter taboos, it violates fundamental democratic principles !