Monday, February 22, 2016

A View From The Left-WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

 

The U.S. Military Suffers from “Affluenza”

The word “affluenza” is much in vogue. Lately, it’s been linked to a Texas teenager, Ethan Couch, who in 2013 killed four people in a car accident while driving drunk… Is there one that suffers from the institutional version of affluenza (however fuzzy or imprecise that word may be) so much that it has had immense difficulty shouldering the blame for its failures and wrongdoing?  The answer is hidden in plain sight: the U.S. military. Unlike Couch, however, that military has never faced trial or probation; it hasn’t felt the need to abscond to Mexico or been forcibly returned to the homeland to face the music… To cite a point of comparison, in 2015, federal funding for the departments of education, interior, and transportation maxed out at $95 billion -- combined! Not only is the military our favored son by a country mile: it’s our Prodigal Son, and nothing satisfies “him.” He’s still asking for more (and his Republican uncles are clearly ready to turn over to him whatever’s left of the family savings, lock, stock, and barrel)… An institutional report card with so many deficits and failures, a record of deportment that has led to death and mayhem, should not be ignored. The military must be called to account.  How? By cutting its allowance.   More

 

Matt WuerkerWelcome to the United States of Flint

“I know if I was a parent up there, I would be beside myself if my kids’ health could be at risk,” said President Obama on a recent trip to Michigan.  “Up there” was Flint, a rusting industrial city in the grip of a “water crisis” brought on by a government austerity scheme…  President Obama would have good reason to worry if his kids lived in Flint.  But the city’s children are hardly the only ones threatened by this public health crisis.  There’s a lead crisis for children in Baltimore, Maryland, Herculaneum, Missouri, Sebring, Ohio, and even the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., and that’s just to begin a list.  State reports suggest, for instance, that "18 cities in Pennsylvania and 11 in New Jersey may have an even higher share of children with dangerously elevated levels of lead than does Flint." Today, scientists agree that there is no safe level of lead for children and at least half of American children have some of this neurotoxin in their blood.  The CDC is especially concerned about the more than 500,000 American children who have substantial amounts of lead in their bodies. Over the past century, an untold number have had their IQs reduced, their school performances limited, their behaviors altered, and their neurological development undermined.     More

 

GOP Candidates Compete Over Who Will Commit Most War Crimes Once Elected

At a rally in New Hampshire on Monday night, Donald Trump was criticizing Ted Cruz for having insufficiently endorsed torture – Cruz had said two nights earlier that he would bring back waterboarding, but not “in any sort of widespread use” – when someone in the audience yelled out that Cruz was a “pussy”. Trump, in faux outrage, reprimanded the supporter, repeating the allegation for the assembled crowd: “She said he’s a pussy. That’s terrible. Terrible.”    The spectacle of one Republican presidential candidate being identified by another as a “pussy” for failing to sufficiently endorse an archetypal form of torture exemplifies the moral state of the current race for the GOP nomination.   More

 

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NEW WARS / OLD WARS What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

 

U.S. and Russia Announce Plan for Humanitarian Aid and a Cease-Fire in Syria

Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, announced that they had agreed on the delivery over the next few days of desperately needed aid to besieged Syrian cities, to be followed by a “cessation of hostilities” within a week on the way to a more formal cease-fire. “We have agreed to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities in one week’s time,” Mr. Kerry said early Friday morning, after all-day meetings. “That is ambitious.” … If executed, the agreement, forged by the International Syria Support Group, would mark the first sustained and formally declared halt to fighting in Syria since the civil war began in 2011, early in the Arab uprisings. But even a formal cease-fire would be partial — it excludes the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and the Nusra Front, both designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations — and highly fragile.   More

 

Syria Peace Talks, Arend Van Dam,politicalcartoons.com,Syria Peace Talks, Geneva, Geneva II, Assad, civil war, peace talksWill US, Russia be able to turn 'words on paper' into action in Syria?

With attention in Munich focused on rapidly producing concrete humanitarian deliverables and a reduction in violence in Syria, ambitions receded for a near-term resumption of the intra-Syrian political talks in Geneva . For now, that might suit both the Syrian opposition, currently pushed back on its heels, and the Damascus government, emboldened by its recent military gains, backed by Russian airstrikes. A permanent end to hostilities, however, would not come without an eventual political resolution, Kerry asserted… The next days will be a “good testing time,” de Mistura said. “Are the Syrian people going to see these outcomes? Then they will believe in future conferences, and they believe in their own future. And the ISSG has shown that they are ready to commit themselves.” There were signs, however, that the Syrian opposition, as well as some of its regional backers, were prepared to improve its position should the attempt at a truce break down, an event that is not difficult to imagine.   More

 

In snub to Turkey, US says Syria’s PYD is not a terror group

"We do not recognize the [Democratic Union Party] PYD as a terrorist organization. We recognize Turks do," US State Department spokesman John Kirby told a daily press briefing this week. The remarks are expected to come as a surprise to Ankara, who asked Washington to choose sides: either Turkey or the PYD.  The PYD is the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). US officials say its armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), is the most effective partner on the ground in the fight against ISIL in northern Syria. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union.  Kirby said Turkey's concerns over the Syrian Kurdish militants are not new and that both allies continue to hold consultations on the matter. The public split between Washington and Ankara on the status of the PYD was so serious that Kirby went to great lengths to reiterate that Turkey and the US are good friends.   More

 

Senator Wonders How Much Longer U.S. Will Blindly Support Saudi Arabia

On Capitol Hill, where a majority of lawmakers voted to scupper the deal, there is a push to reassert the U.S.’s unwavering commitment to Saudi security -- even in instances where it isn’t necessarily in the best interests of the U.S.  "In the wake of the Iran nuclear agreement, there are many in Congress who would have the United States double down in our support for the Saudi side of this fight in places like Yemen and Syria, simply because Saudi Arabia is our named friend, and Iran is our named enemy,” Murphy said Friday.   The view Murphy described has a host of supporters in Washington, from scholars at Saudi-funded research institutions like the Arab Gulf States Institute to some of Obama's top aides and Murphy's colleagues.  Obama's State Department has approved billions in various military sales to Saudi Arabia since the Iran deal wrapped up, including $11 billion in warships and over $1 billion in new bombs. Though it is not explicitly stated, observers see the Obama administration’s efforts to shore up the Saudi military and continued support for the disastrous war in Yemen as a tacit trade-off for the kingdom's accepting the nuclear deal.   More

 

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https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5f/3f/ec/5f3fec49ddbb529dd63765457bd47135.jpgThere is so much propagandistic coverage of Syria that it is hard for even well-meaning peace activists to sort things out.  Here are two articles from a point of view rarely encountered in the mainstream press.  The first is from a British correspondent – with impeccable mainstream credentials –reporting from Aleppo. 

 

A Syrian acquaintance from Aleppo, now living in Boston,  wrote: “If you want to know what is really happening in Aleppo and was barely reported on any media, I would say please take the time & read this long yet important article. This is the story I know & I keep telling everyone. The two men whose names were mentioned  in the article are people I know & I can say they are telling the truth (though they have different political views, but the reality is something they can disagree on).

 

“Same stories I keep hearing from all my friends & family back in Aleppo. Even from those people who fled the Rebel-held areas as they refused to join them. They are now staying in Government areas... not only because they support the government (they might not but of course they also don't support those other people who they can't tell from where they came & what they want), but because these are the areas where they can live a "normal life" without being forced to carry a weapon against the other side.  I just wanted to confirm that what I & everyone else read in this article is true. As I have experienced it before I came here, & my family has & still experiencing it everyday for the last almost four years.”

 

The second article is from a Syrian government (i.e. Assad regime) spokeswoman.  One should treat it with caution, obviously. But why are Syrian “rebels” quoted endlessly in the MSM news but we are never invited to hear what the Syrian government has to say?

 

JOURNEY TO ALEPPO: How the war ripped Syria's biggest city apart

At the start of 2012, by which time much of Damascus was at war, the Aleppan business community says it was targeted in a series of assassinations and killings. Political and religious leaders say they were threatened with death or torture unless they went across to the rebels.  “We knew we were being targeted,” says Fares Shehabi, head of Aleppo’s chamber of industry. “We knew what was coming. We sent a message for the army to be sent to Aleppo.” The request was ignored.  On 5 July of that year an armed convoy - the Brigade of Tawheed, an Islamist group that has previously praised Nusra - rolled into ancient Aleppo. It dispersed, burnt down police stations, set up road blocks.  Within a few weeks, the rebel brigades had taken over most of the city. “At first we thought they were Syrians,” said Shehabi. “But after a few weeks we got reports about foreigners. Fighters from Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Saudi, Iraq, Eqypt.”  “This was not regime change, it was invasion. And why was it taking a religious theme? Why does it have a beard? We are not ready to replace a secular society with a religious one.”    More

 

The Rise of ISIS and Other Extremist Groups: the role of the West and Regional Powers

The Syrian government’s immediate response to the protests, despite the violent incidents at the very onset of events, was reconciliatory, as some of the demonstrators had genuine demands. On 24 March 2011, the Syrian leadership convened a long and important meeting in an effort to contain what seemed to be a looming crisis. I was asked to hold a press conference in order to acknowledge, in the name of the leadership, the people’s legitimate demands and to announce decisions and measures that addressed most of these demands.  On that day, I announced to the Syrian people the lifting of emergency laws, in place since 1963, and a comprehensive reform package that would lead to further political freedoms, a multi-party law, and the drafting of a new constitution for Syria. Next day, people told me that they out to have dinner celebrating Syria averting a looming crisis. A feeling of relief prevailed all over the country due to the leadership’s quick response to the demands… This conciliatory approach, however, was met with much worse intransigence by those who claimed to represent the Syrian people and was by then occupying much of the airtime on Al-Jazeera and al-Arabyia. These two channels played an inciting role, encouraging people to protest and rebel against the Syrian government, and they constituted the primary source for news about Syria to all Western media outlets.   More

 

The U.S. Military Bombs in the Twenty-First Century

It’s probably accurate to say that in the course of one disappointment or disaster after another from Afghanistan to Libya, Somalia to Iraq, Yemen to Pakistan, the U.S. military never actually lost an encounter on the battlefield.  But nowhere was it truly triumphant on the battlefield either, not in a way that turned out to mean anything.  Nowhere, in fact, did a military move of any sort truly pay off in the long run… what politician in present-day Washington would have the nerve to suggest the obvious?  Isn’t it finally time to pull the U.S. military back from the Greater Middle East and put an end to our disastrous temptation to intervene ever more destructively in ever more repetitious ways in that region?  That would, of course, mean, among other things, dismantling the vast structure of military bases Washington has built up across the Persian Gulf and the rest of the Greater Middle East.  Maybe it’s time to adopt some version of Senator Aiken’s mythical strategy. Maybe Washington should bluntly declare not victory, but defeat, and bring the U.S. military home.    More

 

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