CNN‘s Candy Crowley and John McCain
The United States is back to bombing Iraq, this time in order to halt an advance by the militant group Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) into Kurdish regions of northern Iraq. The mission also involves humanitarian aid to Iraqi Yazidis, a religious minority who are being threatened by the group.
Coverage of the White House decision to launch military strikes was bound to note the apparent irony of an anti–Iraq War president going back to war in Iraq. But more broadly, the debates over the Iraq decision have highlighted a distinctly pro-war sentiment in the corporate media, with a spectrum of discussion that was too often restricted to “Finally Obama takes military action somewhere” on one side and the more hawkish “Is that all you’ve got?” on the other.
The starting point for much of this is the deeply flawed assumption (FAIR Blog, 3/18/14) that Obama has been too reticent to use military force—what New York Times columnist David Brooks termed a “manliness problem” (FAIR Blog, 4/22/14). In reality, Obama massively escalated the Afghan War, led an invasion of Libya that has resulted in chaos and violence, and has widely expanded drone warfare in a handful of countries.
But in many media accounts, Obama has not taking enough military action. The New York Times (8/9/14) called his decision to go to Congress for support for military action in Syria “perhaps one of the most glaring foreign policy missteps of his presidency,” and elsewhere (8/10/14) declared that he “has taken great pains to pull the United States out of the world’s squabbles.”
The Washington Post (8/8/14) reported that the decision to strike Iraq
reflected an important shift for a president who had spent months making the case for how the United States could achieve its foreign policy objectives without the use of force. His conclusion: Sometimes there is no substitute for military might.
Of course, a realistic assessment of Obama’s foreign policy would conclude that using force was not a serious departure for Obama. But realistic assessments are not a prominent characteristic of punditry about Iraq. On ABC‘s This Week (8/10/14), Cokie Roberts complained:
We’re not acting like a superpower, that’s the problem. And so that, you know…. I agree with Hillary Clinton, as you quoted her earlier, saying, well, if we had gotten into Syria when the rebels were begging us to come in, and saying, here we are, trying to secure our freedom, where is America, then you wouldn’t have had this group filling the vacuum.
This is a reiteration of her earlier commentary about the problem with US foreign policy is that the United is not feared enough in the Middle East (FAIR Blog, 7/14/14). The notion that military attacks on Syria would have prevented the rise of ISIS is curious, since it assumes that the Islamic State would not have found a way to benefit from US intervention against a government they were also fighting. And it is important to note that the group’s history is intimately linked to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq (New York Times, 8/10/14).
But to pundits like Jeffrey Goldberg (Meet the Press, 8/10/14), the rise of ISIS is not linked to the Iraq War, but to Obama’s decision not to attack Syria: “It’s pretty obvious that, by staying on the sidelines, not only the US but the entire West allowed what became ISIS to fill a vacuum.”
The heavy emphasis on pundits and politicians who believe that more military violence is the proper solution for almost any foreign policy question was, as is often the case, represented by the presence of John McCain on the airwaves. The Republican senator is a relentless supporter of US military violence, and made an appearance on CNN‘s State of the Union (8/10/14) to call for strikes in Syria and Iraq, and for more US military support for Syrian rebel groups.
McCain’s take does not come as a surprise, and CNN host Candy Crowley acknowledged that McCain’s ubiquity attracts criticism:
Senator McCain, lots of people, when we have you on, often say, why do you have him on so often? And we say, because he answers our questions, because he expresses his views quite clearly.
Whether McCain supports more war clearly isn’t the issue. The problem is that McCain is given so much airtime, as if he is a particularly insightful analyst of foreign affairs. There is no evidence for this; McCain’s recommendations always amounts to more US bombing. And that’s a message corporate media are eager to amplify.
Bombs — just about the only thing (aside from Hollywood) that the U.S. exports these days.
Oh no, Eric quite wrong, the U.S. exports Death, Imperialism, Corporate Welfare, Corporate Elitism, and more Corporations. The Corporate Lords and Masters are simply trying to consolidate the world into one place, i.e ruled by them.
The Military is not here to protect you and I, or our freedoms.
The Corporate Lords and Masters learned from WWII when all the rest of the world was incapable of doing real manufacturing because all the factories had been bombed to hell. The American Corporations could sell any piece of garbage they produced and not have to worry about things like Quality, just quantity.
So now that they have to compete with the other companies manufacturing things, they can’t and won’t, and thus fight to bomb the hell out of a country in order to make it incapable of producing anything. Then they can install another Wally World, with a McD’s, and force folks to work at sub-subsistence wages, while the Corporate Lords work hard at Beatification to become Kings and Gods.
The truth of the matter is, if they could, the American Corporation would be bombing us in America, and would be bombing China, Russia, Europe, and Africa if they could. Any country that dares to pay living wages, or try to produce a product or service will (if they are tiny enough not be able to defend themselves) feel the ‘wrath of the (corporate) Gods’.
Interesting how bombing/military intervention/violence is almost always a good thing (or at least ‘unfortunately necessary’) when it’s directed against any individual/group/country who is on our ‘out-list’, even if it’s done by one of our allies who’s even worse than this current ‘enemy’. But let any of those things happen to our allies or — heaven forbid — US, then it’s instantly a moral, religious, political, international OUTRAGE, done by people who don’t respect diplomatic processes and can’t be trusted in the civilized world. It’s just disgusting how casually the hawks in this country (and others) casually toss around the idea of military intervention & bombing. Yes, it’s been done by the US NUMEROUS times, but that doesn’t excuse it. IF the bombs were ever falling HERE in the US in a sustained manner as we’ve done in other countries, I wonder if these same hawks’ messages would resonate as much as they currently do? It’s SO god-damned easy to be an armchair warrior… there’s a whole lot ‘less’ (‘none’ would be the accurate word) blood and mayhem directly experienced.
Podremellyrn: You’ve nailed, nice comment. Eric is also on target, and Eddie’s reference to armchair warriors hits the core of the problem. These days to be a foreign policy expert, all you have to do is point your finger here, and here, and over there, and recommend sending American troops to their deaths in yet another certain defeat.
There will come a day when young Americans at the low end of the income scale refuse to go to their deaths in finger-pointed wars.
I agree with Peter Hart on this one. If Obama had made the mistake of intervening against Assad, that would only have helped the jihadists – and the same pundits and politicians would now be blaming Obama for having contributed to the rise of ISIS…
Well, Padremellyrn, if I understand correctly, you say that the US bombs business competitors, then say they WISH they could bomb business competitors. Which, I think means they’re not actually bombing business competitors.
And, just as a matter of reference, US manufacturing right after the war was excellent, and only declined later, when Japan ascended as the home of quality. Note that we have not bombed Japan since the war, even as Japanese companies presented far greater challenges than they did before the war.
In fact, it would not make a lick of sense for the US to bomb a country which has competitive business, because the principal business entities are not nation-states, but corporations, which transcend borders.
The countries that the US have bombed lately (and I’m sure I don’t have a comprehensive list; it’s quite long) are not competitive with us in any significant way. The reason we bombed Iraq was to collect a twofer – control its oil production the way we used to control other Arab countries’ but don’t anymore, and drum up a martial frenzy to help the GOP. While some Democrats would make arguments on the wisdom of war (and sound weak doing so), the GOP could yell about patriotism.
Look at the Russian military, doing in Ukraine what we did a great deal of before WWII – turning neighbors into vassals.
Antiwar.com reported several days ago that this whole humanitarian aid reason for having to bomb Iraq to rescue the Yazadis is a fraud. That mountain top is the historical residence of the Yazadis. They did not need to or want to be rescued. Pls check out the antiwar.com article.
From antiwar.com
I’m dating myself, but the recent hysteria over the alleged “humanitarian catastrophe” which absolutely required quick US military intervention in Iraq – accompanied by familiar cries of “Genocide!” and numbers as high as 100,000 potential victims – brings to mind Emily Litella. Played by Gilda Radner on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1970s – I told you I was dating myself – the hearing-challenged Emily would appear on SNL’s “newscasts” giving her usually strong opinions on matters large and small, to be invariably corrected by the news anchor who would say something like: “No Emily, he didn’t say genocide – he said insecticide!” To which she would invariably turn her face to the audience and say “Never mind …”
Even as the professional sob sisters of the War Party were demanding US military action to “save” the Yazidis – an obscure Iraqi religious sect whose historic home on Mount Sinjar, in Kurdistan, was ringed with ISIS jihadis – the Pentagon was saying: “Never mind …”:
“Several thousand Yazidis remain on the mountain, a senior United States official said, but not the tens of thousands who originally were believed to be there. Some of the people who remain on Mount Sinjar indicated to American forces that they considered the mountain to be a place of refuge and a home, and did not want to leave, a second United States official said.”
According to the Times, while national security advisor Benjamin Rhodes was telling reporters ground troops may be on the way, and the neocons and their “progressive” enablers were working themselves into a fit of frothy-mouthed self-righteousness, eagerly anticipating another world-saving crusade, a “secret team of Marines and Special Operations forces were already on the ground” assessing the scope of the alleged crisis. And what did the Yazidis tell them? “We want to stay put!”
McCain was shown to be a liar, so many years ago now, with his stories about his time in the military … STOOOOPID AmeriKa … ah well…
Fact check; The US and it allies, like Turkey, the Saudis, Jordan, and some of the Gulf States, were all supporting the rebellion against Assad with arms and money. They have been doing so for a long time.
Therefore, the question posed has a faulty premise. The question should be whether there would have been a sustained Syrian rebellion at all had the US and its allies not thrown so much money and military equipment at the Syrian insurgency.
The unspoken fact is that there are many in Syria who prefer Assad to the alternatives. They don’t want a Isalmic extremists running their governments and legislating by fiat on every social and religious issue. The Syrian Army controls the great majority of Syria, with the rebels succeeding, if at all, in just a few of the provinces.
We engineered all this just to break the back of Syria, an Iranian ally, and to do our part to help the Saudis in their perpetual war against anything Shia. We ginned up lies about the Syrian army’s use of nerve gas and got caught at it, thanks to journalists such as Seymour Hersh.
But to the extent that we have greatly weakened a perceived counterweight to US hegemony, we have already won the Syrian Civil War.
But then again, look at the stupid opaquness of it all, as the Assads have for decades let Israel have its way on the Golan Heights, helped us torture after 9/11, and sent troops to fight Saddam in 1990 and 1991. Payback for friendship, I guess.
WOLFE’S ADDENDUM; Okay, “let’s be clear about this”, as Nixon was and O’Bomber is, fond of phrasing. There is no Congressional authorization at this time (has this absence even been noted in the MSM?) for the President to conduct a war against or the overthrow of the duly constituted Syrian government, the one recognized by the UN as one of its charter members. The US is certainly not attacking Syria out of self-defense, nor is it or any of its allies operating under a UN mandate. In fact, all military actions or aid, if external to Syria, are violative of the UN Charter. That’s why the aid has come en masse from other countries, though the US is starting to openly kick in some help.
Lastly, as it always has, whether in the Ukraine, Afganistan, Libya, or Syria, the US uses the most militant and ferocious to overthrow a government and then tries to disclaim them after the coup d’etat, or tries to exclude them from power. To the militant, there is no justice to that, since they were the ones who committed their blood and that of their families to overthrow a government. You’ve seen that in the Ukraine, where the Right Sector militants have 3 or 4 cabinet posts (yet, we says the neo-Nazis have no influence there), and in Libya, where militant warlords govern what they can in the wake of their overthrow of Gaddafi. It will happen in Syria if Assad falls, and is happening in Iraq, as we stand shivering in the wake of an invasion by ISIS, whose funding and military capabilities grew immensely because of the help they received from the usual suspects: the Saudis, Jordan, Turkey, and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, all US allies acting at our behest. And we didn’t like it much when the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, though they were the main force in driving out the Red Army. They weakened the USSR, a prime US objective.
It seems we’re always left trying to put Frankenstein back in the test tube.
Humanitarian supply to Gaza: BAD! ‘Murican humanitarian BOMBING of Iraq: GOOD! Russian humanitarian supplies to Donbass: BAD! Gawdam Hussein INSANE!!!
Hi peter
As an American physician of a Syrian descent, I followed the events in Syria over the past three years closely, this topic deserves more than a passing comment as it is called by the UN High Commissioner of Human rights as the worst catastrophe in the 21st century and the worst catastrophe in the whole world since the WWII , and I like to comments on the views presented on this topic :
I agree with you completely that bombing should not be the answer to the problems we face, at least not as the only option, also I agree with you that the drone attacks caused indiscriminate damage and killed many innocent bystanders, and agree that our invasion of Iraq was not justified by any measure, starting with the first gulf war, the embargo that caused the death of thousands and thousands of Iraqi children, extending to the second Gulf war, followed by our occupation of the Iraqi land, these all were inexcusable adventures that served no national interest, and caused the destruction of the attacked country for no benefit to the USA ( we can argue about who is the beneficiary later as it is a long subject as well ) .
In special circumstances and situations however, the use of power can be a lifesaving measure, and we have found that in the recent history in the cases of Bosnia and Kosovo, where our intervention helped stop the killing of innocent civilians in one instance and saved a country from destruction in the other instance respectively. Should the world stood firm and faced Hitler early to stop his aggression on the neighboring countries, the concentration camps would not have happened, and most of the millions of casualties of the WWII could have been saved .
The situation in Syria is very similar to the situation in Bosnia, where our intervention could have saved hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, and prevented an un-imaginable amount of suffering and destruction.
Syria is considered the melting pot of the old world as the US is considered the melting pot of the new world, the Kurds, Armenians, Algerians, Turks, Druze, Alawites, Ismaili’s, Christians, Jews, Muslims and many other ethnicities and religious groups came to Syria, settled and lived in peace and harmony for long times, and only after the Assad (the father) came to power did the sectarian divide start .
In the year 2011, the Assad Regime responded to the peaceful demonstrations asking for reform and more freedom by indiscriminate killing, torture and extreme violence which escalated over 6 months on a daily basis resulting in the death of thousands of innocent civilians, and abduction and torture of many more while all forms of subjugation were continued and increased including rape of innocent women as a measure of punishment for support of the opposition or to spread fear and scare the people , the torture of kids to death was unheard of in the history of mankind, and it was done by the heartless militias targeting children from 5 months, 2 years old up to 12 years old children ! Cutting the throats of whole families, including elderly, women, men and children was done in many towns, and finally these atrocities forced soldiers with conscious to defect from the army and form the Free Syrian Army(FSA). These noble soldiers wanted to avoid killing innocent civilians and protect peaceful demonstrators; once defections increased significantly the Assad regime escalated its violent actions, and started targeting more civilians at an alarming scale reaching the level of crimes against humanity as indicated by Human rights watch and other human right organizations. This extreme destruction of civilian lives increased the opposition to the ruling circle and the demonstrators now demand their removal from power. Russia, Iran and Hezbollah were fast to enter the war against the Syrian people, so instead of Moalem (the Syrian minister of foreign affairs) presenting the official position of the regime, we heard the Russian minister of foreign affairs giving announcements on behalf of the Assad’s Regime many times, the head of the revolutionary army became the second speaker for the regime. at the current time most Syrians feel that Syria is under Iranian occupation, even the decisions on what to do are not made by Assad, but rather by his Iranian supporters in Tehran, this was contrasted by the miscalculated policies of the US administration who insisted on enforcing an arms embargo on the opposition, (providing them with communication equipment and other noncombatant support was considered enough to protect them and the civilians from missile attacks, airstrikes and other attacks carried by the Regime militias supported by Hezbollah and Iraqi militias , the US administration in fact pressured local allies not to help arm the opposition in spite of the extreme atrocities committed by the regime, day after day, using the burnt land approach, and using all kinds of destructive weapons including chemical weapons to attack civilians . (Majority of the Syrians now believe it was actually an intentional miscalculation enforced on the US government and administration by the Israeli pressure groups to destruct Syria completely if they cannot save Assad’s regime)
Targeting civilians houses and property became the norm rather than the exception, siege on civilian areas, causing food, water and medicine shortages became the norm rather than the exception in many areas , no sacred place existed in the eyes of the Militias of Assad’s regime , including hospitals, ambulances, schools, bakeries, churches , mosques, malls, water and electric plants , all these became targets for destruction, not to mention the houses of innocent civilians , the terror continued un abated at a tremendous levels that even the daily death of activists under torture became non-news to the US and other western media, and world leaders .
I went into so much detail, to explain the major events that took place and show that the current events did not spring out of space or came out of nowhere, but the result of extreme torture, killing and destruction of lives, livelihood and property over a prolonged period of time. All that suffering was ignored by the world for so long which brought the complicated situation in Syria and surrounding countries that we see now. The result is a horrible situation of catastrophic dimensions, beyond description, that was declared by the UN high commissioner as the worst catastrophe in the 21st century, and the worst in the whole world since WWII.
that is why we cannot ridicule the opinion of Senator McCain, who challenged the common politics and went to evaluate the situation himself on the ground, met with the opposition and formed his opinion from the realities that he saw himself, and I would like to challenge you to do the same , go and see the situation on the ground for yourself and then decide what are the best options of action that can be undertaken in this catastrophic event .
this is not a war between two countries, but a dictator with a small circle / gang of supporters and outside support, attacking their own people, using all destructive arms including missiles, tanks, canons, and even air strikes mostly to punish civilians and destroy civilian targets, even the chemical weapons which were used more than 40 times did not bring any consequences to the status of the regime in the world (Mr. Hirsh’s article is extremely inaccurate and lacks documentation or proof)
To give you an idea about the destruction of civilian lives, numbers may be a starting point, and you can search the pictures of destruction in Syria which can speak more than the numbers or words:
*more than 170,000 lives have been lost, the vast majority are civilians, and the numbers are increasing every day.
*more than 500,00 injured, with lack of medical facilities resulting in many young disabled kids that have no available support, again the numbers are increasing every day .
* More than 250.000 forced disappearance possibly in the prisons of the regime, many dying under torture almost on a daily basis.
*more than 4.5 million refugees in neighboring countries, including more than 2.5 million children many lost one or both parents.
* more than 6 million people displaced inside the country, they lost their shelter and are in dire need of assistance , lacking shelter, medicine, food and clean water, (sometimes no water ever) .
* About 8 additional millions (most, almost all, the remaining people in the country) are under extreme hardship from a continuous war with no safety and without income for more than three years.
* unimaginable degree of destruction, of property and infrastructure: most schools are not able to function , most hospitals are destructed, most cities have a significant degree of destruction: Homs ( a city of about 900,000, more than 1/2 of the city is completely destructed , Aleppo ( a city of 4-5 million people ) more than 1/3 destructed including priceless historic sites and covered bazaars that were the longest in the whole world , Darra more than 1/2 the city destructed , Rastan more than 1/2 the city destructed and keep on counting city after city and town after town , people went to live in the caves in the mountains and historic Roman cemeteries, after they lost their houses or fearing of airstrikes .
This is an ongoing genocide that has not stopped one single day during the past three years , and I challenge you to be able to live in Aleppo for one month during the past three years , it is a miracle that these people ignored by the whole world and left alone for death and destruction are not all radicalized. it is amazing that the opposition including the FSA and many other factions are fighting against the Assad regime and its supporters ( Iran, Hezbollah, Maliki’s Iraqi Militias, and Russian experts ) and against the extremist ISIS at the same time, with extremely limited weapons and I would like to praise my these people as they proved that they are probably the most resilient and tolerant in the whole world .
I repeat my challenge to you again to visit the area and explore the situation yourself, you cannot judge such a complex issue without knowing the facts on the ground, and the sequence of events in detail .
Sincerely,
Ahmed Sakkal is right to emphasize the absolute, appalling barbarity of the Syrian regime. But John Wolfe is right to note that many in Syria still prefer Assad to the alternatives. Unfortunately, many of the leading rebel groups are no better than the regime. That is why Obama chose not to intervene decisively on either side. As a result, he catches flak from both sides, as shown by the comments here.
Ahmed Sakkal blames the administration for not doing more to help the rebels, while John Wolfe suggests the rebellion would not exist at all without US support. How about giving Obama a little credit for trying to keep America out of another country’s civil war?
Nevermind the REAL reason they have McCain on so often: because he has perfected the ability to effectively spew the necessary pro-war propaganda. Jeebus.
“”Well, Padremellyrn, if I understand correctly, you say that the US bombs business competitors, then say they WISH they could bomb business competitors. Which, I think means they’re not actually bombing business competitors.””
Your close but no Kewpie doll; They bomb other countries who have manufacturing capabilities that are not ‘compliant’ with the American Corporate viewpoint; That is, they are not paying through the nose to the Corporate lords and masters. The best example would be the medical manufacturer in the Middle East who was producing medicines that could be bought by the common people. It took a little time but ‘somehow’ their name got listed as a producer of WMD’s, just like the poor, unproven excuse that was used for Iraq, and is currently be re-touted by the Cowardice Chicken Hawks of the current Corporate media. Interesting how all the hospitals and Medical centers were bomb back to the Stone Age, just as they emerged as the “go to places” in the Middle East for the people there. At one point they were actually leading the world in some medicines.
“”And, just as a matter of reference, US manufacturing right after the war was excellent, and only declined later, when Japan ascended as the home of quality. Note that we have not bombed Japan since the war, even as Japanese companies presented far greater challenges than they did before the war.””
Don’t know which planet you’re on but you have turned reality upside down. The American Manufactures as a whole were putting out 10,000 units to get 1,000 units for sale. And since you mention Japan, I will mention:
http ://en.wikipedia.org / wiki/W._Edwards_Deming
William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used by the Department of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, championed the work of Dr. Walter Shewhart, including Statistical Process Control, Operational Definitions, and what he called The Shewhart Cycle[1] which evolved into “PDSA” (Plan-Do-Study-Act) in his book The New Economics for Industry, Government, and Education,[2] as a response to the growing popularity of PDSA, which he viewed as tampering with the meaning of Dr. Shewhart’s original work. [3] He is best known for his work in Japan after WWII, particularly his work with the leaders of Japanese industry which began in August 1950 at the Hakone Convention Center in Tokyo with a now seminal speech on what he called Statistical Product Quality Administration, which many in Japan credit with being the inspiration for what has become known as the Japanese post-war economic miracle of 1950 to 1960, rising from the ashes of war to become the second most powerful economy in the world in less than a decade, founded on the ideas first taught to them by Dr Deming:
1. That the problems facing manufacturers can be solved through cooperation, despite differences.
2. Marketing is not “sales,” but the science of knowing what people who buy your product repeatedly think of that product and whether they will buy it again, and why.
3. That In the initial stages of design, you must conduct market research, applying statistical techniques for experimental and planning and inspection of samples.
4. And you must perfect the manufacturing process.[4]
He had tried to talk to the American Manufacturing Group, but like all “Americans” of the time, they were making money hand over fist, so they gave him “the Bird”. I recall when Ford (I was working for a Subsidiary of them) insisted that all other manufactures and plants that belonged to them also adopt the Deming Method of Quality Control. Notice Point number 4, well sorry but if the “Americans” were so perfect then there would have been no room for improvement, and they wouldn’t have slid into 2nd place; sorry but the reality was that the American manufactures were still using the same lousy, crappy techniques since WWII “Because they saw no reason not too”. Per Deming, they could produce what they wanted, and people would have to buy it.
And let’s not forget the Bombing of the Chinese Embassy right after they took over the Panama Canal. Funny that; the CIA knew to an inch where every building was in Kosovo, and yet somehow the “Chinese Embassy” got put on the bomb list – right along with the News Corporation that wasn’t allowing U.S. Corporate media into Yugoslavia.
So it makes perfect sense they would bomb another countries manufacturing plants if they could.
Any way that is beside the main point of this article. I have to agree with on the Iraq Bombing about the Oil (which is the source of manufactured products), but also the American Corporations rushed in to reinstall the “American way of life” with Strip Joints, Booze houses, McD’s Burgers, and Wal-Mart T-shirts.
“”Look at the Russian military, doing in Ukraine what we did a great deal of before WWII – turning neighbors into vassals.””
Yup, have to agree with you there also; in fact after we bomb Iraq, I began to wonder if perhaps it wouldn’t be in anyone’s interest to “Our Friend” because counting all the recent countries we had just bombed, and as you say the list in comprehensive, it seemed like being the U.S.’s Friend meant we were going to bomb the crap out of you, and then install our corporations over yours. Wal_Mart, Mcdonalds, Hollywood in General, the Mitchell Brothers (a bit of hyperbole of course, but we sure make sure that any country we bomb will have those industries installed, Fast Food, Porn, and Crappy products.