Iraq
Where Were the Anti-War Demonstrators?
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2009-11-03 01:10.By Tom Gallagher, CommonDreams.org
A couple of weekends ago, there was a demonstration against the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle put the crowd at 1,000. I might have said something more - not over 2,000, though - and certainly wouldn't argue with the paper's headline: "S.F. anti-war march smaller than some hoped for."
It reported that "by 2 p.m., the crowd had dwindled to just a few dozen ... when peace activist Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War, took his turn at the microphone" (a claim whose veracity I cannot judge as, I too had left for another commitment by that point.) Since more people had turned out to hear Noam Chomsky at a couple of Bay Area appearances the prior weekend than came to the demonstration, the problem obviously wasn't lack of interest in the issues it raised. But as a quoted demonstrator said, "It should be 10-fold" and that probably was about the size it would have had to be to make people feel really good about it.
I decided I'd ask - mostly via email - a group of people, whose likelihood of attending the average antiwar march seemed to range from possible to probable, to "give me some idea of what your reasons were for not coming." The responses will not be confused with a scientific sampling, to be sure, but I was struck by the breadth of the reasons cited as well as by a certain eagerness in putting them forward. People seemed to want to talk about why they weren't there. This appeared to be a question they were asking themselves.
There were, of course, the routine everyday reasons: People didn't hear about it, or at least not soon enough. Some had to be at the kid's soccer game or they were in Portland, Oregon, and the like. Certainly the lack of reach of the publicity on this one did seem particularly pronounced. San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who came to the rally and ultimately spoke at it, told me he'd only heard about it two days earlier through an email reminder I'd sent out. One organizer of the event noted that the two public radio stations most likely to give it advance notice didn't and/or couldn't. (Pacifica station KPFA had been in the midst of an extended on-air fund-raising drive - times are tough there too.)
Congress Affirms Iraq Withdrawal Date of December 31, 2011
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2009-10-29 02:03.By David Swanson
Here's an important release from AFSC:
"With final action in the Senate today, Congress has approved legislation that formally recognizes the U.S. obligation to withdraw from Iraq and requires the Pentagon to provide quarterly reports on the progress of that withdrawal. This is the first time since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that Congress has passed legislation that affirms that the United States is committed to leaving Iraq by a specific date, two national Quaker organizations, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) said today. . . . "
Of course, this is not perfect. First, it "affirms" a treaty the Senate never ratified. Second, it can be signing-statemented, and the Senate has never objected to such alteration of laws. Third, if it is simply not complied with, the only penalty from a Congress that refuses to subpoena or impeach anyone will be some moderately annoyed words from some weak old men in a dying institution. Nonetheless, this is an excellent development in this initial moment in which we can almost imagine the reporting requirements and the actual withdrawal being complied with.
Ehren Watada: Free at Last
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2009-10-28 23:31.By Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith, The Nation
On June 7, 2006, a 28-year-old Army lieutenant named Ehren Watada released a video press statement announcing that he was refusing to deploy to Iraq because the Iraq War was illegal and his "participation would make me party to war crimes." After three years of trying to convict him by court martial, the Army has finally given up and allowed Lt. Watada to resign. Despite his direct refusal of an order to deploy, Watada did not spend a single day in jail.
Watada's Story
The War Condolences Obama Hasn't Sent
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2009-10-28 21:03. |
| U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol |
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A scene from Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
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U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Chancellor Keesling died in Iraq on June 19, 2009, from “a non-combat related incident,” according to the Pentagon. Keesling had killed himself. He was just one in what is turning out to be a record year for suicides in the U.S. military.
In August, President Barack Obama addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, saying, “[T]here is nothing more sobering than signing a letter of condolence to the family of [a] serviceman or -woman who has given their life for our country.” To their surprise, Jannett and Gregg Keesling, Chance’s parents, won’t be getting such a letter. Obama does not write condolence letters to loved ones of those who commit suicide in the theater of combat. [After making inquiries, the Keeslings discovered that this was not because of an oversight. Instead, it’s because of a longstanding U.S. policy to deny presidential condolence letters to the families of soldiers who take their own lives.]
Jannett told me: “Chancellor was recruited right out of high school, and this was something he was passionate about, joining the military. I wanted him to go to college, but he said that he wanted to be a soldier.” Gregg added: “We had doubts about him joining. ... When the war broke out in 2003, when many of us were trying to retreat, Chancy decided, ‘This is my duty.’ ... But once he did his first tour ... his marriage broke up during that deployment.”
Chance was very troubled during his first tour of duty in Iraq, although he performed admirably by all accounts. At one point he was put on a suicide watch and had his ammunition taken away for a week. After Iraq, Chance declined a $27,000 reenlistment bonus and transitioned to the U.S. Army Reserves, hoping to avoid another deployment. He sought and was receiving treatment at a Veterans Affairs facility. Gregg said, “We sat down as a family, and we said, ‘President Obama is going to be elected, and President Obama will end this war, and you won’t have to go.’ ” But then his son’s orders to deploy came again.
VETERANS' GROUP TO MEMBERS: MULTIPLY RESISTANCE BY ANY PEACEFUL MEANS AVAILABLE
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2009-10-27 17:23.By Mike Ferner, After Downing Street
In a statement today directed to the U.S. House of Representatives, President Obama and its membership, Veterans For Peace urged its chapters to demonstrate opposition to the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan by doing two things:
1) Take the actions listed below within the next several days, before President Obama decides to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and
2) Plan acts of even greater resistance during the two days following any such decision.
· Continue writing and calling our representatives and demanding peace.
· If we’ve done that: take to the streets
· If we’ve done that: sit down in the streets
· If we’ve done that: sit down in Congressional offices
· If we’ve done that: sit down, clog up, incapacitate, call in sick, withdraw consent and generally bring the nation’s business to a halt, wherever and whenever we can, with any peaceful means available.
Iraqi Refugees Forgotten, Like the War that Displaced Them
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2009-10-27 02:18.By Meteor Blades
No embedded U.S. reporters ply their trade among the millions of Iraqis who are refugees in foreign countries or displaced inside their own. But nowadays the occupation of Iraq itself is mostly forgotten as Americans who actually care about U.S. actions abroad focus on what is happening and will happen in what was previously the forgotten occupation – Afghanistan. This rises to the highest levels. When Sen. John Kerry convened the Senate Foreign Relations Committee September 10 to hear U.S. Ambassador Christopher Day Hill discuss his status report for Iraq, only five of the 19 committee members showed up.
Baghdad bombs kill 132, government slams neighbors
Submitted by davidswanson on Sun, 2009-10-25 20:13.By Saad Shalash and Waleed Ibrahim
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two suicide bombs tore through Baghdad on Sunday, killing 132 people, wounding more than 500 and leaving mangled bodies and cars on the streets in one of Iraq's deadliest days this year.
The two blasts shredded buildings and smoke billowed from the area near the Tigris River. The first bomb targeted the Justice Ministry and the second, minutes later, was aimed at the nearby provincial government building, police said.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said that the bombs were meant to sow chaos in Iraq similar to attacks on August 19 against the finance and foreign ministries, and were aimed at stopping an election in January.
"It is the same black hands who are covered in the blood of the Iraqi people," a statement from Maliki's office said. "They want to cause chaos in the nation, hinder the political process and prevent the parliamentary election."
Soldier's mother wants Tony Blair to answer for Iraq war
Submitted by davidswanson on Sat, 2009-10-24 23:49.
Anne Donnachie, whose son was killed in Iraq, told the inquiry that she wanted Tony Blair to be held to account for the 'illegal war'. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA
The mother of a teenage soldier killed in Iraq broke down today as she told an inquiry she wanted Tony Blair to be held to account for the "illegal war".
T. Boone Pickens says US Firms 'Entitled' to Iraqi Oil
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2009-10-23 05:02.By Tom Doggett, Reuters
WASHINGTON - Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are "entitled" to some of Iraq's crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.
[Financier T. Boone Pickens speaks during the World Business Forum in New York October 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)]Financier T. Boone Pickens speaks during the World Business Forum in New York October 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq's vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.
Public Opposes Wars, Will Our Representatives?
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2009-10-23 04:10.Background. Here are the 32 who voted No on funding in June 2009. Here's a way to reward them. Here's a flyer on ending the war in Vietghanistan: PDF. Here's how to step up your activism. Here's what's needed instead of bombs and guns.
Please phone your Representative and post below what they tell you. Thanks!
Iraq War Resister Rodney Watson Takes Refuge in Canada
Submitted by Chip on Thu, 2009-10-22 18:31.Coverage of Watson taking refuge in a Vancouver Church: War resister takes refuge in Vancouver church CBC.ca News
Iraq war deserter takes sanctuary in Vancouver church Vancouver Province
Iraq war deserter takes sanctuary in downtown church Vancouver Sun
How you can help:
1.) Write a letter in support of Rodney to your local paper. Use this handy tool, care of the Council of Canadians.
Keep letters under 200 words and include name, address and daytime phone number for confirming authorship.
2.) Support the legal fundraising effort in defence of war resisters facing deportation by the Harper government. Give online. Send a cheque to the campaign.
3.) Join the War Resisters Support Campaign - we need your support! Updates and info on how to contact your Member of Parliament, Minister Kenney and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Blocking Escalation Not Good Enough
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2009-10-22 17:40.By David Swanson
Why is it that every time we elect "peace" candidates we defund the peace movement, stop calling for an end to wars, and limit our demands exclusively to opposing war escalations?
In 2006 we voted into Congress the candidates who looked most likely to end the war in Iraq. We congratulated ourselves on a job well done. Then we mildly urged them not to escalate the war they'd been elected to end, and they escalated it anyway.
In 2008 we voted into Congress and the White House the candidates who looked most likely to end the war in Iraq. Candidate Obama promised to pull out two brigades per month for sixteen months. Here we are in month 10 and that withdrawal has yet to begin. And what in the name of all that is true, good, and free-of-hope are we doing about it? Not a god damned thing.
Big Companies Getting Closer To Big Iraq Oil Fields
Submitted by Chip on Thu, 2009-10-22 16:11.Big companies getting closer to big Iraq oil fields
By Ben Lando | Uruknet
A half dozen major international oil companies are close to deals with Iraq, on the heels of BP and the Chinese National Petroleum Corp., which are one step away from receiving the first new oil contract issued by Baghdad – for the largest oil field in the country.
The deals are part of the Iraqi Oil Ministry effort to bring foreign capital, expertise and technology to dramatically boost production in the underachieving yet third largest oil reserves in the world. Iraq holds 115 billion barrels of proven reserves but produces just around 2.4 million barrels per day (bpd).
Iraq’s prime minister and oil minister are in Washington, D.C., right now courting investment at an investment conference organized by Iraq’s National Investment Commission, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The 17 billion barrel Rumaila field was awarded to BP/CNPC during a June 30 auction. After months of negotiations, the ministry and companies reached an agreement, which was approved last week by the Iraqi Council of Ministers. Read more.
Hey NYC! SVA Presents "Visions of War: The Arts Represent Conflict" 8 Free Events Put The Wars In Context
Submitted by Chip on Thu, 2009-10-22 06:30."I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell." --William Tecumseh Sherman
What: SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS PRESENTS VISIONS OF WAR: THE ARTS REPRESENT CONFLICT EIGHT FREE EVENTS PLACE THE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS IN CONTEXT
When: October 22 -- 24, 2009
Where: SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street, New York City
NEW YORK, October 9, 2009*---School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents Visions of
War: The Arts Represent Conflict , three days of performance, films and discussions that examine representations of conflict and war in art. Themes explored include post-traumatic stress disorder, the power of political art, and the therapeutic role the arts can play in healing the wounds of war. All eight events are FREE, open to the public and take place in the SVA Theater, 333 West 23 Street, New York City. No reservations are required. For more information, please visit www.sva.edu/events or call 212.592.2010.
Visions of War: The Arts Represent Conflict is co-presented by the following departments at SVA: Humanities and Sciences; BFA Photography, BFA Film, Video and Animation; and MFA Photography, Video and Related Media. The series is presented in conjunction with the Twenty-Third Annual National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists.
US Commander in Iraq Warns of Threat to Pull Out... of Withdrawal
Submitted by Chip on Thu, 2009-10-22 05:09.US Commander in Iraq Warns of Threat to Pull Out... of Withdrawal
General Ray Odierno, the US commander in Iraq, has warned that a delay to the country's elections in January could derail President Barack Obama's withdrawal timetable for troops.
by Oliver August | Common Dreams
President Obama's pledge to withdraw US troops from Iraq and end combat operations there by September 2010 is under threat because of increased levels of violence and bickering within the Iraqi parliament, the top US general in the country has told The Times.
General Ray Odierno said that militant groups were likely to conduct a bloody campaign in the months ahead, as Iraqis prepare for national elections at the beginning of next year.
"It's clear that al-Qaeda and other groups do not want the elections to occur," he said in an interview. "What I think they will try to do is discourage people from voting by undermining the authority of the Government of Iraq with attacks, so that people lose faith in the democratic process." Read more.
Outrageous Thought of the Day: Nuclear Hypocrisy
Submitted by dlindorff on Tue, 2009-10-20 19:45.By Dave Lindorff
How absurd is it that we have the government on the one hand pulling back from using a hollowed out mountain in Nevada to store nuclear waste because of a fear (legitimate I grant) that hundreds or thousands of years hence, some earthquake or other catastrophe could cause the stored waste to leak into the water table, while on the other hand we have this same government deliberately taking some of the most dangerous waste--the actual uranium from the used fuel rods--and putting it into bombs, shells and bullets to be splattered and burned all across the landscape?
And I should note that it's not just remote places like Iraq and Kuwait and Afghanistan that are being covered in super toxic and radioactive uranium dust--and I'm not just talking about the stuff that gets picked up in the wind and carried around the globe, or the stuff that gets inhaled by our troops and carried home internally, bad enough as that is.
IPS Analysis Of 'Galbraith-Gate'
Submitted by Chip on Mon, 2009-10-19 21:55.IPS analysis of 'Galbraith-gate'
Posted by Helena Cobban | Just World News
It's here, and also archived here.
Y'all know the story here already. (Renewed kudos to Reidar Visser for breaking it for all those of us who don't read Norwegian... Reidar, I know I should have slotted in a quotoid from you there... Sorry that I didn't.)
My conclusion in the IPS piece is, Read more.
Depleted Uranium Weapons: The Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No Joke
Submitted by dlindorff on Mon, 2009-10-19 20:04.By Dave Lindorff
The horrors of the US Agent Orange defoliation campaign in Vietnam, about which I wrote on Oct. 15, could ultimately be dwarfed by the horrors caused by the depleted uranium weapons which the US began using in the 1991 Gulf War (300 tons), and which it has used much more extensively--and in more urban, populated areas--in the Iraq War and the now intensifying Afghanistan War.
Tomgram: Will Today's U.S.-Armed Ally Be Tomorrow's Enemy?
Submitted by Chip on Mon, 2009-10-19 18:26.Tomgram: Will Today's U.S.-Armed Ally Be Tomorrow's Enemy? | TomDispatch.com
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: In the past weeks, you could catch original pieces by Barbara Ehrenreich, Arundhati Roy, Pepe Escobar, Michael Klare, Ann Jones, and Rebecca Solnit, among others, at this website. It's the sort of line-up you might otherwise find at a top-notch magazine. Every piece posted here is -- we hope -- original, well written, well edited, thoughtful, informative, and provocative.
Those of you who get email notices whenever a new piece is posted, as well as the tens of thousands who bookmark TomDispatch or read its pieces reposted elsewhere, can help get word out about the work we do by encouraging new readers to sign on. TD spreads mainly by word of mouth, a formidable force in the on-line world. For those of you already hooked, I want to suggest, as I do every few months, that you lend the site just a few minutes of your time and a little more of that word-of-mouth power. I hope you'll consider putting together a modest list of friends, colleagues, relatives, or, for that matter, people you like to argue with who might benefit from getting TomDispatch regularly. You should urge them to go to the "sign up" window at the upper right of the main screen, put in an e-mail address, answer the confirmation letter that will quickly arrive in their email boxes (or, fair warning, spam folders), and join the TD crew. --Tom
Who's Next?
Lessons from the Long War and a Blowback World
By Tom Engelhardt
Is it too early -- or already too late -- to begin drawing lessons from "the Long War"? That phrase, coined in 2002 and, by 2005, being championed by Centcom Commander General John Abizaid, was meant to be a catchier name for George W. Bush's "Global War on Terror." That was back in the days when inside-the-Beltway types were still dreaming about a global Pax Americana and its domestic partner, a Pax Republicana, and imagining that both, once firmly established, might last forever.
"The Long War" merely exchanged the shock-'n'-awe geographical breadth of the President Bush's chosen moniker ("global") for a shock-'n'-awe time span. Our all-out, no-holds-barred struggle against evil-doers would be nothing short of generational as well as planetary. From Abizaid's point of view, perhaps a little in-office surgical operation on the nomenclature of Bush's war was, in any case, in order at a time when the Iraq War was going disastrously badly and the Afghan one was starting to look more than a little peaked as well. It was like saying: Forget that "mission accomplished" sprint to victory in 2003 and keep your eyes on the prize. We're in it for the long slog.
When Bush officials and Pentagon brass used "the long war" -- a phrase that never gained much traction outside administration circles and admiring think tanks -- they were (being Americans) predicting the future, not commenting on the past. In their view, the fight against the Islamist terrorists and assorted bad guys who wanted to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction and truly bloody the American nose would be decades long.
And of that past? In the American tradition, they were Fordian (as in Henry) in their contempt for most history. If it didn't involve Winston Churchill, or the U.S. occupying Germany or Japan successfully after World War II, or thrashing the Soviet Union in the Cold War, it was largely discardable bunk. And who cared, since we had arrived at a moment of destiny when the greatest country in the world had at its beck and call the greatest, most technologically advanced military of all time. That was what mattered, and the future -- momentary pratfalls aside -- would surely be ours, as long as we Americans were willing to buckle down and fund an eternal fight for it. Read more.
Hey DC! Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam: Exposing Official Lies, This Wednesday Evening, 10/21, American U.
Submitted by Chip on Mon, 2009-10-19 17:22.
AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, IRAN, IRAQ, VIETNAM: EXPOSING OFFICIAL LIES
Where: Ward Circle Building, Room 2, American University
When: Wednesday, October 21 at 8:10 pm
Who: Keynote Speaker:
Col. Larry Wilkerson (USA, ret.) Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the critical period from August 2002 until January 2005; Served as Army officer for 31 years;
Recipient of 2009 Award from Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence
Additional Speakers:
Daniel Ellsberg, Former Defense and State Department official who released the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971, for which he was put on trial facing a possible sentence of 115 years; Author, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers; Subject of newly released documentary “The Most Dangerous Man in America,” which he was called at the time by Henry Kissinger
Coleen Rowley, Former Special agent and legal counselor, Minneapolis FBI, who called the FBI director's attention to serious flaws that might have prevented 9/11; Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2002; Sam Adams Award Recipient, 2002
Craig Murray, Former U.K. Ambassador to Uzbekistan, who exposed the use of torture, declaring, "I would rather die than have someone tortured in attempt to give me more security." Sam Adams Award Recipient, 2005
Ray McGovern, Veteran CIA analyst, whose duties included preparing and briefing the President's Daily Brief under Nixon, Ford, and Reagan; Co-founder Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS); Colleague of Sam Adams
Peter Kuznick, Professor of History; Director, American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute; Co-writer (with Oliver Stone) “Secret History of the United States” (forthcoming on Showtime)
www.VelvetRevolution.us
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