Clipmarks | papananook's clips

The privatized war in Afghanistan

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 07:11:05 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Your tax $$ being squandered on Obama's foolishness...not to mention the blood and destruction.

Clip Source: www.southernstudies.org

Additional number of American troops President Obama plans to deploy to Afghanistan: 30,000

Total number of U.S. troops that will be there after the deployment: 98,000

Number of private contractors working for the U.S. in Afghanistan as of September 2009: 104,101

Percent by which that number grew between June and September: 40

Percent of the Defense Department's workforce in Afghanistan accounted for by contractors: 57

Number of conflicts in U.S. history involving a higher percentage of contractors: 0

Percent of the U.S. presence on the ground during the Vietnam War accounted for by contractors: 13

Percent of the Defense Department's 2008 budget devoted to contracts and grants: 82

Estimated value of Defense Department contracts in Afghanistan awarded to Texas-based Fluor and Virginia's DynCorp: $7.5 billion

Amount Fluor's PAC contributed to federal candidates in 2008: $305,499

Obama's War Whoop: "Let the bloodbath begin!"

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:56:38 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Obama also has a glaring truth-in-advertising problem. He's just not who he pretends to be. He was sold as an avatar of change but, as soon as he was sworn in, he proceeded to reinforce the most regressive policies of the Bush administration. With typical callousness, he has run roughshod over his liberal base who mistook his sweeping proclamations as a sincere commitment to progressive politics. Boy, were they duped. No change, no way.
So what exactly is the difference between George Bush and Barack Obama?

3 inches and maybe 20 lbs, beyond that, not a thing. They're carbon copies.

Obama will now deploy 30,000 troops to the Afghan hellhole while activating Gen Stanley "death squad" McChrystal's savage counterinsurgency operation which will integrate psyops, special forces, NGOs, psychologists, media, anthropologists, humanitarian agencies, public relations, reconstruction, robotic drones, and conventional forces to assert control over the South and the tribal areas of Pakistan

Clip Source: www.smirkingchimp.com

Barack Obama is not the type of guy who agonizes over sending soldiers into battle. This isn't Lyndon Johnson, after all, who paced the Oval Office night after night, quaffing Bushmill's and dreading the next troop deployment to Saigon. Obama is more in the George Bush "What-me-worry" mold. He has no problem clowning around with the same cadets he'll ship off to the Afghan killing fields just weeks later. No worries. Maybe, that's why this week's speech at West Point was such a bust; it lacked the empathy that one expects from a leader who's sending his fellow countrymen into war. Yes, there was plenty of the usual rhetorical fanfare, but nothing that vaguely resembled genuine concern or--dare we say--compassion. That's just not part of Obama's repertoire.

Here's Obama channeling George Bush to his captive audience, invoking the same stale imagery, the same demagoguery, the same flawed logic as his reviled predecessor.

"9-11, 9-11, 9-11." Oh, and did I mention, "9-11."

The Afghan Quagmire

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:53:28 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: So what would a rigorous public and internal administration debate have highlighted? First, the more occupation forces there are, the more they fuel the insurgency against the occupation, especially since so many more civilians than fighters lose their lives. Witness the wedding parties, villagers, and innocent bystanders blown up by the U.S. military’s superior weaponry.

Second, there was a remarkable absence in Obama’s speech about the tribal conflicts and the diversity of motivations of those he lumped under the name of “Taliban.” Some are protecting their valleys, others are in the drug trade, others want to drive out the occupiers, others are struggling for supremacy between the Pashtuns on one side and the Tajiks and Uzbeks on the other (roughly the south against the north). The latter has been the substance of a continuing civil war for many years.

Third, how can Obama’s plan begin to work, requiring a stable, functioning Afghan government—which now is largely a collection

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

by Ralph Nader

Misusing professional cadets at West Point as a political prop, President Barack Obama delivered his speech on the Afghanistan war forcefully but with fearful undertones. He chose to escalate this undeclared war with at least 30,000 more soldiers plus an even larger number of corporate contractors.

He chose the path the military-industrial complex wanted. The “military” planners, whatever their earlier doubts about the quagmire, once in, want to prevail. The “industrial” barons because their sales and profits rise with larger military budgets.

A majority of Americans are opposed or skeptical about getting deeper into a bloody, costly fight in the mountains of central Asia while facing recession, unemployment, foreclosures, debt and deficits at home. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), after hearing Mr. Obama’s speech said, “Why is it that war is a priority but the basic needs of people in this country are not?”

Anti-US Feeling Running High as CIA Drones Take a Civilian Toll

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:48:46 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Many Pakistanis see the US military presence in their region as the cause of militant extremism, not its cure. Reaction to Obama's speech was ambivalent, with rightwing commentators insisting his true aim is to invade Pakistan and capture its nuclear weapons.

The hostility means that, in Pakistan, Obama relies more heavily on spies than soldiers. Obama's favoured tactic has been the use of CIA-operated pilotless drones, which have made over 80 strikes in the tribal belt since 2006, half of them this year. Targets included the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, killed last August, and al-Qaida leaders. Today the New York Times said the CIA is pushing to extend drone strikes into Balochistan province, further west along the Afghan border.

While the drones put few American lives in danger, they still carry substantial risks. Strikes that have killed at least 750 people in the past two years have provoked public hostility. Any move into Balochistan is likely to spark a fierc

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Turbulent Pakistan presents a conundrum for Barack Obama

It is one of the ironies of America's war: while close to 100,000 troops will soon be deployed inside Afghanistan, Obama's core enemy – the men who plotted the 9/11 attacks – are located across the border in Pakistan.

A Reaper drone, as used by the CIA and American military in Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

In his West Point speech, Obama identified the tribal belt that straddles the two countries as the "epicentre of the violent extremism practised by al-Qaida". There, he said, "new attacks are being plotted as I speak".

If it is a chilling thought, few Pakistanis appreciate it. Anti-American feeling is running at fever pitch in a country with deep-rooted hostility towards Washington and an increasingly hawkish media.

"If you ask me, the surge is really meant for Pakistan," said Hamid Gul, a former chief of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Obama with Blood on His Hands

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:19:39 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: n reality, U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have operated under standing orders to "call for fire" (an air-strike) whenever resistance fighters take cover in a house or apartment building, even when large numbers of civilians may also be inside the building.

The overriding priorities have always been to avoid risking American lives in dangerous house searches and to kill "insurgents."

Human rights reports by the U.N. Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) have documented many such incidents in which civilians have been killed, as well as extensive discussions between U.N. and U.S. officials about them.

For instance, in its human rights report for the 2nd quarter of 2007, UNAMI insisted that American air strikes in densely populated civilian areas were violations of international law.

American attitudes to protecting civilians in wartime and other requirements of international humanitarian law differ sharply from those of people in other countries.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

So what will his decision to pour more troops, weapons and tons of ammunition into this already war-ravaged country really mean, for Americans and for the people of Afghanistan?

German officials knew that there was a crowd of civilians around the tankers helping themselves to a windfall of free fuel, but they called in the air strike anyway. This was a clear violation of the laws of war, which prohibit attacking civilians even when there are believed to be combatants amongst them.

In the aftermath of the attack, it was found that 142 people had been killed, and that the great majority of them were civilians.

In other ways, the stories in the press have followed the same pattern. They begin with denials and assertions that only combatants were targeted and killed. Then there are investigations, and eventually U.S. officials admit that they killed large numbers of civilians, although the figure acknowledged is always less than that cited in reports by U.N. or local officials.

starlings form a whale, etc.

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:23:54 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Behold a sight that would have had Captain Ahab rousing his crew and roaring: 'Point that harpoon at the heavens, lads!'

For up in the sky glides the shape of a gigantic whale.

This awesome airborne Moby Dick is not fictional but a work of nature - comprised of countless starlings moving in formation in the winter breeze.

Spectacular sight: In a natural display of formation flying, thousands of starlings took the shape of a whale soaring through the skies over Gretna Green

Bird watching: Starlings take the form of a penguin during a murmuration at Gretna Green in 2007

Playing with feathers: This formation over Gretna Green looks like Mick Jagger's full lips

Creech Air Force Base: A Place of Disbelief, Confusion and Sadness

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:27:13 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: There is a disturbing contrast between aggressor and victim. The aggressor zooming around Las Vegas in a posh automobile, living a luxurious life style and launching missiles onto a target that is far away and the victim located in a village or inside a building on the Afghanistan Pakistan borders. There are over 200,000 people in internally displaced camps (IDP) in Afghanistan because of US bombardment and war. The number one enemy in Afghanistan is poverty.

For many of those holding a presence outside of Creech Air Force Base, there is a look of total disbelief, confusion, and sadness. As the US troop presence in Afghanistan increases, the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) program will ramp up.

Read about the actions in the local spotlight here and in the news here.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

While many Americans spent their Thanksgiving holiday sitting around the table feasting on turkey and slumbering over the TV to watch football, members of CODEPINK Women for Peace used this Thanksgiving holiday to raise awareness about the war in Afghanistan.

Creech Air Force Base, just north of Las Vegas, is the headquarters of the Air Force's Predator and Reaper "hunter-killer" unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), commonly called drones. The base is one of the epicenters on the war in Afghanistan.

Each day they witnessed, young Air Force pilots commuting into the base to fly the UAVs to scout over the Pakistan and Afghanistan border and launch Hellfire missiles into the region often missing their intended targets, resulting in the deaths of many innocent people including children. Most problematic are attacks in regions where coalition forces don't even go and most of the dead are civilians.

Shock over Obama Decision to Reject Landmine Ban

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:09:57 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Add this to the list of "WTF, Obama?"

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration announced yesterday that it would not be joining a treaty signed by 158 other countries to ban landmines. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the decision "lacks vision, compassion, and basic common sense."

As more and more countries refuse to produce landmine weapons, the United States is currently producing the first of such weapons in over 10 years. Nicknamed "the spider," this new weapon puts the United States on the same short list of nations that includes Iran, North Korea and Burma, a list of countries producing landmine weapons banned by an international treaty. (ABC News/2006)

"The Obama administration's decision to continue the Bush administration's policy of refusing to join the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines is a reprehensible rejection of the most successful disarmament and humanitarian treaty of the past decade," HRW said.

Oceans rising faster than expected as climate change exceeds grimmest models

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:17:59 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Stupid, stupid humans...you have doomed yourselves.

Clip Source: rawstory.com

Warming exceeds grimmest climate models

Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.

And it's not just the frozen parts of the world that have felt the heat in the dozen years leading up to next month's climate summit in Copenhagen:

_ The world's oceans have risen by about an inch and a half.

_Droughts and wildfires have turned more severe worldwide, from the U.S. West to Australia to the Sahel desert of North Africa.

_Species now in trouble because of changing climate include, not just the lumbering polar bear which has become a symbol of global warming, but also fragile butterflies, colorful frogs and entire stands of North American pine forests.

Even the gloomiest climate models back in the 1990s didn't forecast results quite this bad so fast.

Arctic ocean ice doesn't raise sea levels, the melting of giant land-based ice sheets and glaciers that drain into the seas do.

Brave New Conversations: Daniel Ellsberg and Matt Hoh Pt. 1

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:49:19 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Daniel Ellsberg (the man who helped end the Vietnam War when he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times) and Matthew Hoh (the first known US official to resign in protest of the Afghan war) stopped by our studios for a special Conversation about the war in Afghanistan. As an introduction to Brave New Conversations, we are inviting you and everyone you know to view the first half of this historic conversation (30 minutes) for free! Please join the conversation at http://bravenewconversations.com

[Video]

Kucinich: Why Is It We Have Finite Resources for Health Care but Unlimited Money for War?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:03:01 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - November 6 - Following a statement on the Floor of the House of Representative, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement:

"Why is it we have finite resources for health care but unlimited money for war?

"The inequities in our economy are piling up: trillions for war, trillions for Wall Street and tens of billions for the insurance companies. Banks and other corporations are sitting on piles of cash of taxpayer's money while firing workers, cutting pay and denying small businesses money to survive.

"People are losing their homes, their jobs, their health, their investments, their retirement security; yet there is unlimited money for war, Wall Street and insurance companies, but very little money for jobs on Main Street.

"Unlimited money to blow up things in Iraq and Afghanistan, and relatively little money to build things in the US.

"The Administration may soon bring to Congress a request for an additional $50 billion for war.

Opium, Rape and the American Way

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:46:51 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Truth from the women in Afghanistan:
(read the whole article for the real story)
"In eight years less than 2,000 Talib have been killed and more than 8,000 innocent civilians has been killed," she went on. "We believe that this is not war on terror. This is war on innocent civilians. Look at the massacres carried out by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Look what they did in May in the Farah province, where more than 150 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. They used white phosphorus and cluster bombs. There were 200 civilians on 9th of September killed in the Kunduz province, again most of them women and children. You can see the Web site of professor Marc Herold, this democratic man, to know better the war crimes in Afghanistan imposed on our people. The United States and NATO eight years ago occupied my country under the banner of woman's rights and democracy. But they have only pushed us from the frying pan into the fire. They put into power men who are photocopies o

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society.

weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger.

Activist's Message at USF: End Needless Waste of Food

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:31:18 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

JOLIET -- Vandana Shiva is giving new meaning to the old metaphor, "You reap what you sow."

"We have mastered the art of wasting the planet," she said. "Land and water are being misused, polluted and disintegrated by nonsustainable agriculture. We need to reclaim the ethics of the gift of food."

Shiva, a leader in the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) along with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin, has spent more than 20 years examining agriculture and the environment and advocating on behalf farmers and the hungry around the world.

Less than 50 percent of crops harvested around the world are for human consumption, Shiva said. Of that food, 50 percent is wasted, which results in just over 12 percent of all the food produced on the planet actually being consumed.

"Couldn't we make sure that no one was hungry if that food wasn't wasted?" she asked.

"For every seed sold or planted anywhere, there's a royalty collected," she said. "If a farmer saves seeds or shares seeds, he's a thief.

Glen Greenwald interviewed by Bill Moyers

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:02:21 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Excellent job...Hat tip to Ratilfar.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Bill Moyers interviews political commentator and Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald. In part two of this three part web exclusive interview, Greenwald talks about how the Washington beltway elite see the world.

Bill Moyers Journal airs Friday nights at 9 pm. Check your local listings. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/103...

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heathr456

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Bill Moyers interviews Glenn Greenwald (3/3)