Category: War and Peace

Editor: Last Sunday outside the NATO conference, dozens of American Iraqi and Afghan veterans threw their medals away in protest of the wars. A very similar protest by veterans was held during the anti-Vietnam war days in 1971. .

By Dave Lindorff / Nation of Change and This Can’t Be Happening / May 22, 2012

Once again American troops are being asked to keep fighting for a mistake — this time the 2001 fantasy of the Bush/Cheney administration that it could make a client state out of Afghanistan.

John Kerry, back before he was a pompous windsurfing Senate apologist for American empire, back when he wore his hair long and was part of a movement of returned US military veterans speaking out against the continuation of the Vietnam War, famously asked the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing, “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”

House Republicans say they’re going to fix controversial provisions in Obama’s defense spending bill. Don’t believe it.

By Adam Serwer / Mother Jones / May 4, 2012

Facing a serious civil liberties backlash, Congress is considering changing a controversial counterterrorism law it passed last year. Yet the leading fix, backed by House Republicans, may not be a fix at all.

Last year, during consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act, Congress came close to authorizing the indefinite detention of American citizens captured on US soil who were suspected of terrorism. Ultimately, the House, the Senate, and the White House agreed on a compromise that would let federal courts decide whether such detentions were constitutional. That is, when confronted with the knotty question of whether the US government can detain its own citizens within the nation’s borders without charging them with a crime, Congress decided not to decide.

Bob Woodward’s “Obama’s Wars” Gives Us Ringside Seats in How Pentagon “Rolled” the President

It’s amazing, isn’t it, how quickly Afghanistan can fall off the front page or off the news cycle. And then something horrible will bring it back. But only briefly.

Like in this news, an Afghan guy dressed in a soldier’s uniform drove into a crowd that had gathered to see what US and NATO troops were up to in their neighborhood park. The guy donated a bomb – and people were killed – including 3 American soldiers.

Vietnam Has Left Town, Say Hello to the New Syndrome on the Block

By Tom Engelhardt / TomDispatch.com / April 10, 2012

Take off your hat. Taps is playing. Almost four decades late, the Vietnam War and its post-war spawn, the Vietnam Syndrome, are finally heading for their American grave. It may qualify as the longest attempted burial in history. Last words — both eulogies and curses — have been offered too many times to mention, and yet no American administration found the silver bullet that would put that war away for keeps.

(OB Rag Editor: please go to the original post for all the many links – TomDispatch.com )

Yes, we need to get the hell out of Afghanistan. Here’s why:

Almost to the day of the 44th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly left his outpost and embarked on a solitary nighttime hike to two nearby Afghan villages where he then methodically massacred 16 mostly women and children sleeping in their beds. This occurred on March 11th.

My Lai occurred on March 16th, 1968, and was the most massive civilian massacre of civilians by American ground soldiers in Vietnam. Its scale of death clearly outmatched this current horrific and monstrous act by Sgt Bales. Between 350 and 500 Vietnamese were killed – mostly women, children – even babies – , and elderly villagers.

By Michael McAuliff / Huggington Post / March 8, 2012

WASHINGTON — A pair of lawmakers on Thursday offered a bill that would repeal laws that allow the indefinite detention of Americans and others by the military without trial.

The power of military authorities to arrest and jail people …

Editor: The following is the text that was handed out by the Save the Bill of Rights coalition on February 11th at their rally in front of the State Democrats’ Convention at the Convention Center in downtown San Diego.

REPEAL THE NDAA – The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012

During last December, both the US Senate and the House of Representatives passed this Act and President Obama signed it into law on December 31, 2011. It is now the law of the land.

The Act includes provisions that would allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens without any recourse to legal interventions or civil rights if accused of a “belligerent act” or any terror-related offense.

These provisions mean that anyone of us – or any group of us – could be imprisoned without arraignment, without access to a lawyer, without access to habeas corpus, without a jury trial, without due process – without the protection of the Bill of Rights, our basic, fundamental rights as citizens.

Hormuz-Mania

By Michael T. Klare / TomDispatch.com / January 31, 2012

Ever since December 27th, war clouds have been gathering over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow body of water connecting the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean and the seas beyond. On that day, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi warned that Tehran would block the strait and create havoc in international oil markets if the West placed new economic sanctions on his country.

“If they impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports,” Rahimi declared, “then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz.” Claiming that such a move would constitute an assault on America’s vital interests, President Obama reportedly informed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Washington would use force to keep the strait open. To back up their threats, both sides have been bolstering their forces in the area and each has conducted a series of provocative military exercises.

By Marjorie Cohn / ZNet / Januay 16, 2012

Travelers to Cuba and music lovers are familiar with the song “Guantanamera”— literally, the girl from Guantánamo. With lyrics by José Martí, the father of Cuban independence, Guantanamera is probably the most widely known Cuban song.

But Guantánamo is even more famous now for its U.S. military prison. Where “Guantanamera” is a powerful expression of the beauty of Cuba, “Gitmo” has become a powerful symbol of human rights violations—so much so that Amnesty International described it as “the gulag of our times.”

That description can be traced to January 2002, when the base received its first 20 prisoners in shackles. General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned they were “very dangerous people who would gnaw hydraulic lines in the back of a C-17 to bring it down.” We now know that a large portion of the 750 plus men and boys held there posed no threat to the United States. In fact, only five percent were captured by the United States; most were picked up by the Northern Alliance, Pakistani intelligence officers, or tribal warlords, and many were sold for cash bounties.

By Nadin Abbott / East County Magazine / Jan. 12, 2012

January 12, 2012 (San Diego)—U.S. Army Master Sergeant Jay Polk has reportedly been killed overseas while on active duty with U.S. special forces, according to friends and family in San Diego, where he had been living recently.

During a candlelight memorial service held this evening at the Civic Center Plaza, one mourner observed, “Jay was a Cavalryman, he was a Master Sergeant, and he knew how to take care of people.” The service was attended by local veterans, occupy members, and friends of the fallen soldier.

Word of Polk’s death came as a shock to local members of Occupy San Diego, where Polk was known as “Chef” from the early days, helping to prepare and serve 500 to 1,000 meals a day for homeless people and Occupy members—anyone who needed a meal.

A Video of US Marines Urinating on Corpses Sparks Outrage

By Chris McGreal / RSN – Guardian UK / January 12, 2012

Afghan president Hamid Karzai and US defence secretary Leon Panetta have led a chorus of condemnation of American soldiers filmed urinating on the bodies of dead Afghans as “inhumane” and “utterly deplorable”.

The Pentagon said it is attempting to identify the soldiers responsible for the latest in a series of abuses by US forces which is likely to further inflame hostility to Nato troops in Afghanistan and reinforce the perception that there is an institutional problem in the American military.

Editor: Yes, President Obama signed the notorious National Defense Authorization Act on New Year’s Eve day. Happy New Year everyone! And as promised, the White House released his “Signing Statement” on the bill, which we repost in its entirety (see especially the sections in bold with our emphasis):

From the White House

Statement by the President on H.R. 1540

Today I have signed into law H.R. 1540, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.” I have signed the Act chiefly because it authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, crucial services for service members and their families, …