NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong
I had a letter about Syria in last Sunday’s Globe:
Richard North Patterson’s July 24 column “Trump’s abandonment of Syria” (Opinion, July 24) stands reality on its head. The tragedy in Syria has come about not because Donald Trump or Barack Obama have done too little, but because they intervened too much. More
Cost of Syria war destruction at $388 billion: UN
Seven years of relentless conflict in Syria have wreaked destruction that the United Nations said Wednesday had cost the country close to a whopping $400 billion. The figure was released after a two-day meeting of more than 50 Syrian and international experts in neighbouring Lebanon, hosted by the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). ESCWA said the "volume of destruction in physical capital and its sectoral distribution" had been estimated at more than $388 billion (334 billion euros). It said the figure did not include "human losses resulting from deaths or the loss of human competences and skilled labour due to displacement, which were considered the most important enablers of the Syrian economy." More
DOZENS DEAD IN YEMEN AS BUS CARRYING CHILDREN HIT BY AIRSTRIKE
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), one of the few humanitarian institutions helping civilians in war-torn Yemen, said its team at an ICRC-supported hospital in Sa’ada had received the bodies of 29 children, all under 15 years old. It also received 48 wounded people, including 30 children, it said… The [Saudi-led] coalition has been criticised for repeatedly targeting civilian areas, including markets and hospitals, during the conflict, which has claimed more than 10,000 lives and left millions of people on the brink of starvation.
It carried out 258 airstrikes on Yemen in June alone, nearly a third of which hit residential areas, according to the Yemen Data Project, an independent group collecting statistics about the conflict. More
Pentagon “can’t say” US-made bombs used “We may never know if the munition [used] was one that the US sold to them,” Army Maj. Josh Jacques, a spokesperson for US Central Command, told me. “We don’t have a lot of people on the ground.” The military could conduct an investigation to find out if that’s the case, but it’s unclear if that probe would ever happen or how long it would take. It’s also unclear if the US was involved in refueling planes for the attack, Jacques said, because the military doesn’t track where the coalition planes go. Another Pentagon spokesperson said that “US Central Command was not involved in the airstrike in Sa’ada.” More
Today the Saudis bombed a school bus in Yemen! Dozens of young children have been killed, and many more wounded. The local health department chief in Saada province said 43 were killed and at least 61 injured. Most are children under the age of 10. The bombs that killed these children were made in the USA. For people living in the United States, the blood is on our hands!
US allies cut deals with al-Qaida in Yemen
Again and again over the past two years, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States has claimed it won decisive victories that drove al-Qaida militants from their strongholds across Yemen and shattered their ability to attack the West.
Here’s what the victors did not disclose: many of their conquests came without firing a shot. That’s because the coalition cut secret deals with al-Qaida fighters, paying some to leave key cities and towns and letting others retreat with weapons, equipment and wads of looted cash, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Hundreds more were recruited to join the coalition itself. These compromises and alliances have allowed al-Qaida militants to survive to fight another day — and risk strengthening the most dangerous branch of the terror network that carried out the 9/11 attacks. Key participants in the pacts said the U.S. was aware of the arrangements and held off on any drone strikes. More
THE LEGACY OF INFINITE WAR
While so much about the War on Terror turned Global War on Terrorism turned World War IV turned the Long War turned “generational struggle” turned “infinite war” seems repetitious, the troops most associated with this conflict -- the U.S. Special Operations forces -- have seen changes galore. As Representative Jim Saxton (R-NJ), chairman of the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, pointed out in 2006, referring to Special Operations Command by its acronym: “For almost five years now, SOCOM has been leading the way in the war on terrorism: defeating the Taliban and eliminating a terrorist safe haven in Afghanistan, removing a truly vicious Iraqi dictator, and combating the terrorists who seek to destabilize the new, democratic Iraq.” … SOCOM continues to thrive. Its budget, its personnel numbers, and just about any other measure you might choose (from missions to global reach) continue to rise. In 2006, for instance, 85% of Special Operations forces (SOF) deployed overseas -- Army Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALs, and others -- were concentrated in the Greater Middle East, with far smaller numbers spread thinly across the Pacific (7%), Europe (3%), and Latin America (3%). Only 1% of them were then conducting missions in Africa. More
Iran Hawks: Get Over Your Coup Allergy And Embrace Regime Change
[Foundation for the Defense of Democracy’s Mark] Dubowitz’s claim that he actually wanted to save the Iran deal—seemingly an attempt to absolve himself of any negative fallout from Trump’s decision to withdraw—was so egregious that even The New York Times took notice. But now that Trump this week officially reimposed the first series of sanctions that were lifted as part of the agreement, Dubowitz, his FDD colleagues, and other Iran hawks could hardly contain their glee at the renewed opportunity for regime change and/or war. FDD’s Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations climbed to the top of the heap with a 5,000+ word missive in Bill Kristol’s Weekly Standard calling for a CIA-assisted regime change effort in Iran. “Depending on what the mullahs do,” they write, “war may once more be on the horizon.” … So, they argue, Americans should just get over their “coup allergy” because “it inhibits creativity.” More
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WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME
$717 Billion Defense Bill That Just Breezed Through the Senate Should Be a National Scandal
With little debate or public attention, the Senate just followed the House in approving $717 billion for the nation’s military, meaning the bill is headed for the president’s signature. The passage is no surprise. The National Defense Authorization Act is one of the few pieces of federal budget legislation that sails through every year, without fail, on a bipartisan basis. Yet, the bill deserves fierce debate—and dissent. At $717 billion, the package provides a historically high military budget… But, while the politics may pave the way for seemingly unending military spending, one interesting pattern emerged from the votes. Among the 10 “no” votes in the Senate were four of the five most-often mentioned Democratic presidential mentions: Senator Elizabeth Warren (Mass), Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt.), Senator Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.). Senators Sanders and Gillibrand both voted no on the bill last year, but the others are new converts. More
OCASIO-CORTEZ: Why does the US can pay for 'unlimited war' but not Medicare-for-all
Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned why Republicans are happy to pay for tax cuts and "unlimited war" but the GOP, and some Democrats, don't see "Medicare-for-all" or other progressive ideas as financially feasible. "People talk about the sticker shock of Medicare-for-all, but not of our existing system," Ocasio-Cortez said during an interview on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time." "This is not a pipe dream. Every other nation does this -- why can't America?" she added. Later on the show, Ocasio-Cortez said there's a certain amount of hypocrisy coming from lawmakers who criticize her platform while ignoring a "$2 trillion check for a GOP tax cut." "When it comes to tax cuts for bills and unlimited war," she said, "we seem to invent that money very easily." More
An Army officer is publicly protesting the US government's 'war machine'
Brittany DeBarros is waging the kind of vehement public protest via Twitter against the Defense Department and US government that's commonplace in the Trump-era — except that DeBarros is a captain in the US Army Reserve assigned to the Army's Psychological Operations Command… DeBarros detailed her criticism of US foreign policy and its impact at home in a June 23 speech in Washington, DC, at a Poor People's Campaign rally… "We begrudge the poor for the pennies we give them to eat and survive but cheer for the nearly $600 billion annually we spend on defense. The military industrial complex is literally corporate greed weaponized," DeBarros added. "From the militarized equipment in which our police forces and federal agencies are clad, to the large percent of current and former soldiers conditioned for war and then hired to occupy our streets to keep peace, is it any wonder that our neighborhoods are treated like combat zones, and our neighbors treated like combatants?" More
'Glut of Overpriced Apartments' Has Made Rents Fall for Rich, Soar for Poor in Cities Nationwide
As expensive U.S. cities welcome "a boom in luxury housing construction," rents are falling for rich residents while rising for working-class people who seek affordable housing, according to the Washington Post. "Since last summer, rents have fallen for the highest earners while increasing for the poorest in San Francisco, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Washington, D.C., among other cities," Jeff Stein reports for the Post, citing Zillow data. Overall, rents for the poor have increased by 18 percent since 2011, but in some cities, it's been far higher. San Fransisco, for example, has seen rents for low-income residents spike by nearly 50 percent, while Portland rents rose by more than 40 percent during that same period. "For-profit developers have predominantly built for the luxury and higher end of the market, leaving a glut of overpriced apartments in some cities," she explained. "Some decision-makers believed this would 'filter down' to the lowest income people, but it clearly will not meet their needs." More
A HUGE WIN FOR ORGANIZED LABOR IN MISSOURI
Americans want strong unions. That’s the message from polling that shows more than 60 percent of voters nationwide approve of organized labor. And that’s certainly the message from Missouri, where voters on Tuesday overturned the state’s so-called “right-to-work” law by an overwhelming margin. The Missouri result offers a reminder of what happens when the people—as opposed to corporate-friendly Republican governors and legislators—are given a chance to decide whether they want a muscular labor movement to fight for better wages and benefits, and for fairness in the workplace and society. In a state where Republicans have won the last five presidential elections and where the GOP now controls the executive and legislative branches of state government, 65 percent of the Missourians who cast ballots on Tuesday voted to scrap the “right-to-work” measure that was enacted just months after a corporate-aligned Republican grabbed the governorship from the Democrats in 2016. More
Mystery of the Underpaid American Worker
Economists say they are stumped by a mystery: Since the US economy is doing so well, and unemployment is down to below 4%, which many argue is close to “full employment” in historic US terms, why is it that wages are not growing, and in fact, are lower in real dollars than they were in 1974, almost half a century ago… Perhaps in some magic world where workers and bosses were operating basically as equals in some mystical “free marketplace,” that might be true, but it ignores things like power relations and labor law, the pernicious role of the new digital age where a worker’s employment record is immediately available for inspection by any potential new employer, and of course the existence of an asymmetric “global” economy which allows for the virtually free flow across borders of goods and especially investment capital, but that tightly restricts the flow of labor (that is, workers cannot just up and move to another country where pay and working conditions are better).,, If economists sincerely wanted to know the answer to the “mystery” of why wages aren’t rising as companies earn record profits, they would talk to some workers, and they should look at the history of repression of the trade union movement. More
Los Angeles City Council Votes to Support U.N. Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty
On Wednesday, August 8, the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve a resolution that urges the U.S. to embrace the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and implement important protective policies such as ending the President’s sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear attack, taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert, and canceling U.S. plans to replace its entire nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons. The resolution was introduced by Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Mike Bonin. “We’ve reached a time where the nuclear threat is the greatest since the Cold War,” said Councilmember Koretz. “We need to have the United States join the 122 nations that voted to adopt the U.N. Treaty on Treaty on Nuclear Weapons, and we support a grassroots movement called ‘Back from the Brink’ which has been endorsed by cities across the country.” More
NAOMI KLEIN: Capitalism Killed Our Climate Momentum
Because what becomes clear when you look back at this juncture is that just as governments were getting together to get serious about reining in the fossil fuel sector, the global neoliberal revolution went supernova, and that project of economic and social reengineering clashed with the imperatives of both climate science and corporate regulation at every turn… The climate community in 1988, for instance, had no way of knowing that they were on the cusp of the convulsive neoliberal revolution that would remake every major economy on the planet. But we know. And one thing that becomes very clear when you look back on the late ’80s is that, far from offering “conditions for success [that] could not have been more favorable,” 1988-89 was the worst possible moment for humanity to decide that it was going to get serious about putting planetary health ahead of profits… It was this convergence of historical trends — the emergence of a global architecture that was supposed to tackle climate change and the emergence of a much more powerful global architecture to liberate capital from all constraints — that derailed the momentum. More
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