I'm a video game geek, so as I sat through movie previews a few weeks ago, I was sure I was watching Nintendo ads.
There on the cinema's screen was a supersleek plane flying over a moonscape while communicating with an orbiting satellite. In the next moment, a multicolored topographical map, orders being barked - and in my own mind, memories of Call of Duty graphics. And then, finally, two guys in front of a computer console, and the jarring punch line: "It's not science fiction; it's what we do every day," said the bold type, followed by a U.S. Air Force symbol.
The news media has
reported that in 1971 the Nixon administration discussed with Brazilian
military ruler, General Emilio Garrastazu Médici, a cooperative effort
to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende
in Chile.
The secret talks made public this week reveal another
dark side of the Nixon-Kissinger contribution to the bloody overthrow
of the Allende government on Sept. 11, 1973, and to the emergence of
the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.
For years the United States has used military force as a Band-Aid for a wide-range of global problems ranging from the removal of dictators to ensuring access to global trade partners. Yet it's clear that this has not been successful. For all of the money, time, and lives we have spent to maintain a colossal international force, we are no safer. It's time to reexamine our military involvements and change our force distributions to reflect our goal: true security.
The Bush administration invaded Iraq in March 2003 with a force of approximately 130,000 troops. Top White House and Pentagon officials like Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz were convinced that, by August, those troops, welcomed with open arms by the oppressed Iraqis, would be drawn down to
30,000-40,000 and housed in newly built,
permanent military bases largely away from the country's urban areas.
Why is Afghanistan so important?
A glance at a map and a little knowledge of the region suggest that the real reasons for Western military involvement may be largely hidden.
Afghanistan is adjacent to Middle Eastern countries that are rich in oil and natural gas. And though Afghanistan may have little petroleum itself, it borders both Iran and Turkmenistan, countries with the second and third largest natural gas reserves in the world. (Russia is first.)
In a recent edition of the
Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O'Grady laments an apparent shift left in the Obama
administration's Latin America policy. Clearly, O'Grady hasn't
been keeping up to date with current events. If she had been, she would
have heard about negotiations underway between the U.S. and Colombia
to establish at least seven U.S. military bases in Colombia.
By threatening to veto the defense appropriations bill if it included money for more F-22 stealth fighter planes, President Obama signaled that he was going to put an end to the way business has been done in Washington. We applaud the president's announcement, but so far it is more symbolic than real.
An awareness of how a range of global
developments is threatening the livelihoods of many millions of the world's
citizens in the early 21st century is sharpening. The realities of climate
change and environmental destruction, widening socio-economic inequality, wars and conflicts, and unsustainable
transport and business models are among these developments.
A FORMER U.S. diplomat turned peace activist advised Guam residents to be wary of the American government's military buildup plan for the island.
"We need to be looking very carefully at what our federal government does to us," said Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel who spoke to a small crowd on the implications of the relocation of 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam during a presentation held Monday night at the University of Guam.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates is weighing a possible temporary expansion of the US army to ease the strain from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, his press secretary said on Wednesday.
Gates was discussing the idea, backed by Senator Joseph Lieberman, with senior officers to add 30,000 troops to the active-duty army, press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.
