Today, Americans walk it back, Belatedly, and too late to bring home American and Allied troops who died in battle, government officials released recordings. The media distributes and discusses these en masse. Those prominent in the Press and Public Office say "the people have the right to know," exactly what the tale that could have been told decades ago. Osama Bin Laden was never more than human, a tragic hero, a comical character, just as you or me.
On this date, May 2, 2011, my thoughts are with those who lost a loved one in war. Brutal battles cause such harm. Yet, curiously the seem never-ending. It would appear that humans forget their history. When attacked, people frequently attack back. With a loved one lost in war, or other destructive engagement, rather than relate to the pain of another who has experienced as they do or did, a pained person often seeks revenge. Combat starts a cycle; however, once commenced, it does not cease. Perchance, we might ponder the past and the people the circumstances of those who are no longer with us. Instead, today, as the headlines herald Obama Calls World 'Safer' After Pakistan Raid and Osama bin Laden Killed by U.S. Forces countless celebrate in glee.
This much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation,
and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul. ~ Robert F. Kennedy
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.
Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
The United States Military Industrial Complex has might. General and former President Eisenhower understood this. He warned Americans. Abundant might does not make right; it only advances the notion of righteousness. Patriotism is promoted through militarism. His words fell on deaf ears. The sound was hollow in contrast to the drone of drumbeats. At the time, Americans were as they are today; dedicated to the customs we think characterize democracy.
We see this in many a war and peace policy. Questions are asked of the government and the people. Testimony is taken. Think tanks assess Foreign Policy. Conclusions are drawn and decisions made. Still, in 2010, a few within the electorate wonder as General Eisenhower had.. With Al-Qaida Fading, Why Expand the Afghan War?
The damage done, affects us all economically. Years of war have done nothing to further education, enrich, or protect the environment. Indeed, endless battles have destroyed any sense of balance or betterment. Ethically, hostilities in the Middle East have helped to erode societal standards. Might we ask; what have we taught our children? How to waste money . . . that human lives are but waste . . . that their elders think funds and a focus on education are a waste, or that ethical standards are a waste of time and energy. Surely, attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed nothing to the Seventh Generation.
A recent change of the guard in the Massachusetts Senate race force the President to reveal he is working. We, the American people, are waiting, just as we have been for months and months. For a full year, countless citizens have felt as though they were patient. Yet, the President did not seem to have their interests at heart. True change has not come. Countless constituents anticipate none is forthcoming. Three hundred and sixty five plus have gone by and the American people are tired of being patient.
The circumstances in their personal lives have proven to be critical, worse now than in 2009. Oh, some remain hopeful. They continue to believe. Several are waiting for Godot, who as we all know, never comes. Millions await the Messiah. Many thought Barack Obama was the great liberator. This human was perchance, a deity, devotees continue to declare. He is a divine being, or was in the eyes of the electorate before he entered the Oval Office. Now, Americans are wasted, wanting. They trusted and waited for him to transform the nation. Today, the people wonder; is it too late.
It is said, as individuals, we can achieve all we conceive, if only we truly believe. President Barack Obama once knew this. He lived this veracity. Indeed, candidate Obama's audacity and accomplishments gave Americans hope. When Barack Obama reached for the sky he realized what no one thought he could. The electorate was energized. People came to expect the country was in for a change. Now, it seems Mister Obama is bogged down by what Eisenhower understood, concerns of the Military Industrial Complex.
The intricacy of the Armed Forces mission does not confine itself to forceful martial escalation. Nothing escapes the wide reach of combative nation building. Lives are lost. Limbs crushed. With bullets ablaze, brains are battered or blown to smithereens. Hope suffers. Hearts are hurt. The economy is also affected.
From the newsletter of March Forward! We join the military for many different reasons. Some of us want to have access to a college education. Some of us want job training and a steady paycheck. Some of us join to get U.S. citizenship. Some of us need to get out of debt or need to get off a destructive path. Some of us join out of pride, patriotism and a genuine desire to be a part of some greater, collective good. Many of us made the decision early-while still in high school, enticed by recruiters' promises of cash bonuses, adventure and opportunity-while some of us joined after years as a worker, drawn by the military's full health care and housing benefits.
Whatever the reason, we all found ourselves wearing the uniform of the U.S. military. What did we actually join? What is the role of the U.S. military in the world? What does it mean to be a soldier following the dictates of U.S. foreign policy? When we sign ourselves away to the military, what are we being used to do?
In recent years, many of us ended up in Iraq or Afghanistan. We are told that as a soldier in the U.S. military we are defending the interests of the United States. This does have an ounce of truth-but only an ounce. We are defending the interests of a particular class in the United States. It is only a wealthy minority whose interests are being defended in Iraq, Afghanistan and the more than 130 countries where U.S. troops are stationed.
Tax time is reason enough to reflect on our budgets, personal and national. How realistic are our expenditures? Do we spend more than we earn? Does our income allow for a few irrational indulgences? Do discretionary dollars exist? Might we consider our ample debt. Does this represent a temporary deficit, easily resolved, or an obligation that cannot be paid promptly. We may wish to rethink our reality. At home, families have taken scissors to credit cards. More than the minimum payment is made. The intention is to lessen liabilities and increase savings. In the month of April, after we pay Uncle Sam, most of us concluded, it is time to clean our own fiscal house. Next, we move to the nation's ledger.
Expenses The largest share of our moneys go to military operations. The terror tax has become a tremendous burden of American household and communities. Yet, few wish to rethink this "duty."
It is difficult, even impossible, to accept President Obama's "New strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan" as described by him in a formal speech on March 27. It fails by imperial and non-imperial standards.
First the imperial: Chalmers Johnson, a former CIA agent, reports in his book Nemesis: "The Carter administration deliberately provoked the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In his 1996 memoir, former CIA Director Robert Gates acknowledges that the American intelligence services began to aid the anti-Soviet mujahideen guerillas not after the Russian invasion but six months before it. President Carter's purpose was to provoke a full-scale Soviet military intervention to tie down the USSR." Will an expanded military effort in Afghanistan tie down the U.S. as it did the USSR?
On this fine day in February 2009, President Barack Obama submitted his budget blueprint. For the first time, in near a decade, transparency is built into a national financial plan. The tremendous costs to wage the two wars America is engaged in are no longer hidden. Outlays for military offenses have been written into the ledger, and not in the traditional invisible ink. While one might think fiscal and political Conservatives would be pleased, upon receipt of the document, Republicans immediately pounced. Senator Judd Greggspoke on the Grand Old Party's behalf when he asked, "Where is the restraint in spending?"
President Obama indicated through his press secretary that his administration would review its policy toward Afghanistan before making a decision about sending additional troops to fight in that country. Richard Holbrooke, his envoy, was in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region talking with leaders about how best to address the military and political situation. Obama also met with advisers at the Pentagon and the State Department.
As recently as February 15, it was reported that Obama "is refusing to be rushed into his first decision to send troops into combat . . . questioning the time table, the mission and even the composition of the new forces." However, Obama changed his mind on February 17, authorizing 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines for Afghanistan in what he described as an urgent bid to stabilize a deteriorating and neglected country, joining the 30,000 U.S. troops already there.
Obama will be sending more troops to Afghanistan before he has begun to fulfill a promised rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq. His order leaves crucial questions of strategy and tactics in Afghanistan unanswered until the strategy review is completed in April. Antiwar groups criticized Obama's decision. Tom Andrews, director of Win Without War said, "The president is committing these troops before he's determined what the mission is..... We need to avoid the slippery slope of military escalation."
Only end of occupation can restore self-determination! The author is an Iraq war veteran.
On the heels of the Status of Forces Agreement, the Iraqi flag was raised for the first time since the 2003 invasion in a symbolic handover of the Green Zone to the Iraqi government.
The Green Zone is a 5.6-square-mile community along the west side of the Tigris River in central Baghdad. It is home to roughly 30,000 residents, including 14,000 U.S. and coalition forces. For nearly six years, the Green Zone has been used to paint a picture of stability and U.S. success in Iraq. When U.S. and foreign politicians visit occupied Iraq, they stroll around the Green Zone, being shown beautiful gardens and lavish palaces that paint a picture of a safe and successful occupation.
But the Green Zone itself is nothing more than a public relations prop and a headquarters for the military brass, private military contractors, and Western corporations to conduct their affairs in luxury. It is off limits to most Iraqi citizens.
This much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation,
and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul. ~ Robert F. Kennedy
It is the seventh day of the month, a date that now lives in infamy. On this occasion, she passed. She was killed by an attack that was all too sudden. Her physical presence on Earth did not end in the month of December. The year was not 1941. The events at Pearl Harbor did cause my Mom's heart to stop. Indeed, she only ceased to exist in a form that I can see with my eyes or touch with my hand, less than a decade ago. Truly, it feels as if Mommy just took her leave.
In every moment, she is still with me. All these years later, I mourn my loss. Oh, if only I could bring her back. She enters into my dreams almost daily. Since childhood, I knew, if she were gone, I might not be able to go on. Today, on the anniversary of her bodily discorporation, I mourn, as I trust she would, the casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Israel, and anywhere that war delays, defers, or denies family time, space, and a proper setting in which to grieve.
I am uncertain when it began. Nonetheless, I know that for me, the ache I feel has been with me for what feels as an eternity. I could tell you the twinge was first experienced a moment ago, as I listened to another of President Elect Obama's press conferences. Indeed, a wave of woe that passed through me as I heard the newly selected Commander-In-Chief announce his appointment for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, General Eric Shinseki. The soon-to-be inaugurated Chief Executive stated, "He [Shinseki] has agreed that he is willing to be part of this administration because both he and I share a reverence for those who serve." A mutual admiration, while wondrous, as stated seems incomplete, and perhaps omits the American construct, "all men are created equal."
As I let the words of our next Administrator wash over me, I thought of those who do not wear a uniform; the individuals and families who endure more war than a military man or woman might. Thoughts of innocents who cannot take leave, that is unless corporeally they pass, advance my sorrow. I feel for all veterans. My concern encompasses the affairs of every being embroiled in war. I wish to venerate those who enter the fray willingly, and those who fight, only to sustain their own life.
For the past several years I have been a member of the local peace group, Pacem in Terris. One outgrowth of membership and action with the group was my recent political campaign. The driving force for political action was then and remains today my staunch opposition to the ongoing occupation of Iraq. Our nation has many issues to be resolved today. We will not be able to address many of those issues so long as we continue to borrow and spend $10 billion a month in Iraq.
Yes, I'm sorry, but I had to dig into the archive this week. As much as I hate to go with a rerun this close to the election, I'm in the middle of grad school midterms and, well, the history of the Vietnam War trumps everything for a few days. I'll return to Election 2008 soon, but, in the meantime, enjoy "All Tricks, No Treats" (color version) (Archive No. 0639b) from 2006; it's as accurate today as it was then (unless you happen to live on Wall Street).
MoveOn.org presents this production with a desire to seek donations. This self-proclaimed "Progressive" organization hopes to advance the Democratic candidate, and look for dollars to do so. In essence, MoveOn would wish the public to think that if we advocate for Barack Obama then the Party platform will be fulfilled. As one who does not necessarily see these two entities as equivalent, I offer this audio-visual presentation more as a tool to inform than a request for a contribution.
Three words inspire us all. There are "Gonna be wars," and yes, we are going to "Bomb, bomb Iran." As every inhabitant of the globe knows, "withdraw [from Iraq or Afghanistan] means chaos." If Americans and citizens around the world think things are bad now, you ain't "seen nothin' yet." "It, [this war and that one] was ugly." However, each of us can be assured the combat will continue. Engagement may be impossible to escape. The fight may flourish for "maybe a hundred" years. As Presidential hopeful so eloquent stated, that is "fine with me." However, a perpetual war is not satisfactory for those who advocate for peace.
It was summer. Temperatures were high and war was in the air. People said they were upset with politicians who refused to heed the cries for peace. Battlefields far from home became burial grounds. The public noted too many people had died, perhaps unnecessarily. Americans publicly announced, its time to bring our young home. End the combat was the common cry. Yet, it seemed the Administration did not intend to declare a cease-fire. Some feared a superpower might appear weak. A pullout would indicate that we had surrendered. As Americans safe at home pondered policy, soldiers still fell on foreign fields. Families struggled to come to terms with what it means to be a patriot. Moms and Dads of military personnel may have wrestled with the idea of what it means to win a war more so than the average American did. The year was 1969.
There is a story taking place in America that is being buried by the media, the armed forces, and the politicians. This story is so frightening that no one wants to address it or even talk about it. This story has the potential to bring more violence to the streets of America than any terrorist attack. The frightening tale that is being ignored is the fact that we have ticking time bombs within our midst. They do not belong to al Qaeda or any other shady terrorist cell, they will not be profiled because they don't have Mid-Eastern ancestry, nor are they Muslim extremists. These ticking time bombs are our own sons, daughters, fathers, and brothers. They are the returning soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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