Last week's riots in Kyrgyzstan's capital, following the earlier riots in the capital Bishkek, allow us to understand the fragile nature of our American Afghan army's supply line vulnerability. It was the US that was there in 2005 that Bakiyev, tried to have the best of both "big power worlds", brashly threatening to close the US airbase in his country, after signing a cushy aid deal with Russia, though he reversed himself when the US agreed to more than triple the rent to $60 million a year, and "kick in" another $100m in aid - it's just our taxes at work, and Obama knows we will always pay up - or else! Nevertheless, as Eric McGlinchey in the New York Times points out, Kyrgyzstan is in Russia's backyard, and the fact that we depend on our airbase there for OUR Afghan war does not change that!
2010/04/15
2010/04/13
The Jews Control what is left of America
Please check JeffRense.com to find out the sordid truth about who controls America. When I served as Intelligence Operations Officer of our 4th US Armored Division in Goeppingen, Germany, I found out much of what serves as the truth about our relationship with the rogue "state" of Israel, but now I, and my fellow veterans, who fought in Vietnam, will know "the rest of the story". When our soldiers fight any war in our troubled world, they are not fighting for America, but for the rogue "state" of Israel. As that country's rabid leaders like to boast: "I want to tell you something very clear. Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the "Americans" know it. (Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister, October 3, 2001.) Was that rude comment timed to coincide with the Israeli destruction of our world trade center in New York?
2010/04/12
100,000 Soldiers Used as Chips in a Bet We Can't Win
So far, our war in Afghanistan has claimed more than one thousand American lives, and recently the lives of more than four thousand Afghan civilians. It is also costing the American taxpayer over three-and-a-half BILLION dollars every month, a total of $264 billion so far, without positive results. Meanwhile, Hamid Karzai, our American potentate "de jour" is becoming more and more unstable behind the wheel of his ship. Now, he is even making THREATS against the western coalition which is shedding its sons' blood and treasure on his behalf. The pro-American "Economist" magazine sees things much more clearly, questioning whether our entire effort in Afghanistan has been nothing than a meaningless exercise of misguided violence. Andrew Bacevich, who served 23 years in our army, some of them in Vietnam, and who is now professor of history and international relations at Boston University, questions whether we have strayed much to far from the path we might successfully have followed in Afghanistan: One of the core principles in our adventure would have required that we behave in ways which would demonstrate our benign intentions - that we were there to protect the country's population.
Please click on the headline to read the rest of this story
Please click on the headline to read the rest of this story
2010/04/11
Will our response to an attack against Iran start a new nuclear war?
"The aftermath of a strike against Iran will be terrible not only for Asia, but for us and the whole global community", said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Michael Mullen recently, but the Russian General Makarov doubted that even the Israelis would carry out this foolish scenario until the military conquests of Iraq and Afghanistan had been completed. "They first soften up a country with economic sanctions, which don't undermine the government, before they launch a military intervention. There is the possibility for military action on the part of both Israel and the United States together or separately."
Please click on the headline to read THE REST OF THE STORY.
Please click on the headline to read THE REST OF THE STORY.
2010/04/09
George W. Bush knew Guantanamo prisoners were innocent
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantanamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times. The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantanamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration. Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell's chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defense Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantanamo in 2002 were innocent, but believed that it was 'politically impossible to release them'. General Powell, who left the Bush Administration in 2005, angry about the misinformation that he unwittingly gave the world when he made the case for the invasion of Iraq at the UN, is understood to have backed Colonel Wilkerson's declaration. (Please read the REST of the story by clicking on the title of this entry)
2010/04/08
Nuclear Peace in our Time
Many years ago, Albert Einstein commented about our "human" worship of war:
"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, and for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable an ignorable war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
In the spirit of that great and immortal genius, let us think carefully about Iran's call for a nuclear free Middle East, and an end to nuclear proliferation globally.
Instead of singling out Iran, the world should rally behind this effort and give Iran the benefit of the doubt. I find it ironic that the only nation that has ever used its nuclear weapons on an enemy, the US, in tandem with Israel, which refuses to disclose its own lethal 'world-ending' weapons, is leading the charge against Iran's probably tiny and inconsequential effort to protect itself against Israel's preparation to plunge our world into a, as George W. would call a NU-Qular disaster.
Please click on the heading to read the rest of Linda Heard's thoughtful article!
"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, and for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable an ignorable war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
In the spirit of that great and immortal genius, let us think carefully about Iran's call for a nuclear free Middle East, and an end to nuclear proliferation globally.
Instead of singling out Iran, the world should rally behind this effort and give Iran the benefit of the doubt. I find it ironic that the only nation that has ever used its nuclear weapons on an enemy, the US, in tandem with Israel, which refuses to disclose its own lethal 'world-ending' weapons, is leading the charge against Iran's probably tiny and inconsequential effort to protect itself against Israel's preparation to plunge our world into a, as George W. would call a NU-Qular disaster.
Please click on the heading to read the rest of Linda Heard's thoughtful article!
2010/04/07
Afghan president Hamid Karzai's 'mental stability' in doubt!
In an interview with a US cable television network, Peter Galbraith, the former UN deputy head of mission in Afghanistan described Mr. Karzai as "emotional" and "off balance", and called for President Obama to vastly limit his power until he proved himself a reliable partner to the US. "He's prone to tirades, and could act impulsively, Mr. Galbraith told MSNBC.
In a related story, Alfred W. McCoy reported that, in ways that have escaped most observers, the Obama administration is now trapped in an endless cycle of drugs and death in Afghanistan, from which there is neither an easy end nor an obvious exit. After a year of cautious debate and costly deployments, President Obama finally launched his new Afghan war strategy at 2:40 AM on February 13, 2010, in a remote village called Marja in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
As a wave of helicopters descended on Marja's outskirts, spitting up clouds of dust, hundreds of US Marines dashed through fields sprouting opium poppies.
Throughout all the shooting and shouting, American commanders seemed strangely unaware that Marja might qualify as our world's heroin capital, with hundreds of laboratories, regularly processing the local poppy crop into high-grade heroin. After all, the surrounding fields produce at least 40% of the world's illicit opium supply, and much of this harvest is traded in Marja.
For the rest of this important story, please click on
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146270
In a related story, Alfred W. McCoy reported that, in ways that have escaped most observers, the Obama administration is now trapped in an endless cycle of drugs and death in Afghanistan, from which there is neither an easy end nor an obvious exit. After a year of cautious debate and costly deployments, President Obama finally launched his new Afghan war strategy at 2:40 AM on February 13, 2010, in a remote village called Marja in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
As a wave of helicopters descended on Marja's outskirts, spitting up clouds of dust, hundreds of US Marines dashed through fields sprouting opium poppies.
Throughout all the shooting and shouting, American commanders seemed strangely unaware that Marja might qualify as our world's heroin capital, with hundreds of laboratories, regularly processing the local poppy crop into high-grade heroin. After all, the surrounding fields produce at least 40% of the world's illicit opium supply, and much of this harvest is traded in Marja.
For the rest of this important story, please click on
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146270
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