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The Obscenity of War
President Barack Obama has just returned from his first trip as commander in chief to Afghanistan. The U.S.-led invasion and occupation of that country are now in their ninth year, amid increasing comparisons to Vietnam.
Daniel Ellsberg, whom Henry Kissinger once called "the most dangerous man in America," leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Ellsberg, who was a top Pentagon analyst, photocopied this secret, 7,000-page history of the U.S. role in Vietnam and released it to the press, helping to end the Vietnam War.
"President Obama is taking every symbolic step he can to nominate this as Obama's war," Ellsberg told me recently. He cites the "Eikenberry memos," written by U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, which were leaked, then printed last January by The New York Times.
Ellsberg said: "Eikenberry's cables read like a summary of the Pentagon Papers of Afghanistan. ... Just change the place names from ‘Saigon' to ‘Kabul' ... and they read almost exactly the same."
The Eikenberry memos recommend policies opposite those of Gens. David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, who advocated for the surge and a counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan. Eikenberry wrote that President Hamid Karzai is "not an adequate strategic partner," and that "sending additional forces will delay the day when Afghans will take over, and make it difficult, if not impossible, to bring our people home on a reasonable timetable." Petraeus and McChrystal prevailed. The military will launch a major campaign in June in Afghanistan's second-largest city, Kandahar. Meanwhile, with shocking candor, McChrystal said in a video conference this week, regarding the number of civilians killed by the U.S. military, "We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat." U.S. troop fatalities, meanwhile, are occurring now at twice the rate of one year ago.
Tavis Smiley has a PBS special this week on one of the most powerful, and overlooked, speeches given by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The address was made on April 4, 1967, exactly one year to the day before King was assassinated. The civil rights leader titled his speech "Beyond Vietnam," and controversially called the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."
The press vilified King. Time magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi." Smiley told me: "Most Americans, I think, know the ‘I Have a Dream' speech. Some Americans know the ‘Mountaintop' speech given the night before he was assassinated in Memphis. But most Americans do not know this ‘Beyond Vietnam' speech." Smiley added, "If you replace the words Iraq for Vietnam, Afghanistan for Vietnam, Pakistan for Vietnam, this speech is so relevant today."
Like King, Obama is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. In his acceptance speech, Obama mentioned King six times, yet defended his war in Afghanistan. Princeton University professor Cornel West, interviewed by Smiley, said of Obama's Nobel speech, "It upset me when I heard my dear brother Barack Obama criticize Martin on the global stage, saying that Martin Luther King Jr.‘s insights were not useful for a commander in chief, because evil exists, as if Martin Luther King Jr. didn't know about evil."
In early March, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, offered a resolution to end the war in Afghanistan, saying: "We now have about 1,000 U.S. troops who have perished in the conflict. We have many innocent civilians who have lost their lives. We have a corrupt central government in Afghanistan that is basically stealing U.S. tax dollars." The resolution was defeated by a vote of 356-65. A Washington Post poll of 1,000 people released this week found that President Obama enjoys a 53 percent approval rating on his handling of the war in Afghanistan.
The public is unlikely to oppose something that gets less and less coverage. While the press is focused on the salacious details of Republican National Committee spending on lavish trips, especially one outing to a Los Angeles strip club, the cost to the U.S. taxpayer for the war in Afghanistan is estimated now to be more than $260 billion. The cost in lives lost, in people maimed, is incalculable. The real obscenity is war. Ellsberg hopes that the Eikenberry memos will be just the first of many leaks, and that a new wave of Pentagon Papers will educate the public about the urgent need to end Obama's war.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
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Show AllSomehow, once a politician makes it to Washington, DC their morals and common sense of right and wrong seem to disappear.
yes, it makes you wonder what Washington DC really is ... who are all those people swarming around the elected politicians, our "representatives"?
Wormtongue has become a hydra ... where is Gandalf?
I think you have it backwards. A politician makes it to Washington because their morals and common sense of right and wrong have *already* disappeared.
The cream doesn't rise to the top in a capitalistic system. The good and moral don't seek the position. Only scum can handle the foul environment.
The scum don't just handle DC (and other foul environments), they seek those environments.
Disappeared? Nothing can "disappear" - that's like dividing by zero.
Their morals and decency were bought and promptly discarded.
In order to have a chance to make it to D.C. as a politician, you need the following qualifications: 1. Lots and lots of $$$$$$$$. 2. In order to get those $$$$ it is best to be a Corporate, Attorney who can sell out to the highest bidder and know how to use the law to your best advantage. 3. You have to know how to use obfuscation, casuistry, and quiddity so you can lie with impunity and not get caught. 4. You need to be sure that you support the Military-Industrial-Complex; otherwise, you have no chance. 6. It does not matter which party you are affiliated with as they are both corrupt, but make sure you do not join a third party! 7. If you have morals,integrity or conscience you have no chance at all.
We elect the people to represent us. If we don't vote we allow those who do vote to control the outcome. It's not the amount of money in the pipeline although it helps for name recognition. But using the VOTE to get true representation is primary to a good society.
We seem to forget that whether we like it or not we are our brother's keeper. As taxpayers we pay for all the abuse/neglect suffered by those less fortunate--mentally--physically.
""We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat."
Isn't he admitting to war crimes here?
YES!
Sioux Rose
KENT: Many crimes have been admitted to. Think Cheney. The problem lies in enforcing international law. If the Spanish Judge, or Bugliosi, or the International Criminal Court actually sought to take steps against US military "leadership" or its civilian counterpart, you can be sure who would emerge as a new listing on the enemies of state list. On the other hand, world opinion is not so managed as it is inside the Homeland Security state. And with that being said, measures to form trade pacts that isolate the U.S. and bring it to its knees economically are probably the most strategic way to go.
Since I believe in the law of karma, and also study the long cycles of time, it seems obvious to me that the day of reckoning is not far into the future. The fact that the stock market is once again doing its bubble thing reminds me of an inflated pinata about to burst... I truly hope that persons who never held war or hatred in their hearts, and did their best to act with decency towards fellow citizens will not have to bear the brunt of the inevitable karmic blowback soon to come.
SR; I understand your thoughts, but, I think waiting any longer is just going to kill more people and escalate the problems. I respectfully ask you to tuck that shoe box of crystals, beads, incense, roots, herbs and chicken bones back on the closet shelf. The gods aren't going to do this for us.
Now, don't hex me.
Sioux Rose
MOON PIE/GW NORTH: I see the teaching of the law of karma as a pre-emptive strategy. I know it makes ME a more honest person. The realization that whatever I do will come back to me makes me very conscious of what I do, and why. Of course, human error still comes into the equation. In a time of so much lawlessness, so much might makes right, so many "getting over," I wonder if an understanding of the law of karma might not work as an internal mechanism for improving behavior across the board?
As for the gods not doing "this" for us: I have had the privilege of meeting two authentic mediums in my lifetime (and a number of fakes). In the most memorable trans-dimensional session, the "entity" that spoke through the trance medium asked me to call upon him. He made it clear that he could not do for me what I was intended to do for myself, but that he could do "much." At times I feel this specific presence when I am writing... I can almost recognize where an idea is NOT my own, but rather a "gift" from this being.
Prayer has been known to help the healing process. Science cannot explain this. I realize that the typical tools of science (which is based on an entirely materialistic framework, apart from the novel work being done by the particle physicists) do not lend credence to the idea that there is anyone down here (on earth) but us mortals. I don't see it that way. I think other dimensions superimpose over our own.
In first grade the teacher asked what was behind the light switch, and I went into quite a colorful explanation of another world. I take this to indicate my heritage as a shaman in earlier incarnations. I used to take playmates to a little forest and tell them I could speak with great, great, great grandfather tree.
The premise of karma can generate some rather callous knee-jerk perceptions. I remember discussing some Bush policies with a woman friend who'd traveled all over the world, and happens to have a "thing" for Arab men. I was taken aback at her absolutely cavalier disregard. She said, "Oh, it's JUST some karma playing out." I mean the woman could not be bothered one iota with the massive suffering in a part of the world she loved to spend time in. She reminded me of Barbara Bush as per that comment about the homeless people shipped to Texas after Katrina.
The Buddhists monks I encountered in Nepal emphasized the point that those of us, Caucasian Westerners there studying meditation techniques at the monastery, were quite fortunate indeed. They see human life as a privilege in and of itself. (I do not subscribe to that theory of reincarnation that sees the human soul returning as an animal or vice versa. Yet in truth, who really knows? I mean if it was up to me, I'd consign the likes of Cheney to the class of scorpion that he seems to be, anyway.)
The point is that human life is precious. And karma can be seen in the Judeo-Christian premise, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." MOST citizens of most lands, across recorded time, have understood the basic law of karma, albeit described in their own religious terminology.
I remember seeing members of the Kennedy family interviewed on Oprah, or some talk show and the question was put to them why they devoted themselves to public life. One answered that their family was raised to honor the St. Thomas Admonition, that: "to the one much is given, much is expected." That is how I view wealth, not just in tangible economic terms, but in the currency of personal assets. The pianist who doesn't play piano, the writer who doesn't write, the artist who doesn't paint, the healer who doesn't heal, the natural teacher who doesn't teach... the WASTE of such legacies count against the persons who withheld the bounty that constitutes the present lifetime's inheritance.
I am not writing in this forum to convince anyone of anything. I have my beliefs, and they have been earned through much life experience, reading, traveling, and seeing the evidence first hand. I present my views as often they work in contrast to what many have been taught; and it is my hope that my ideas can operate like a catalyst to spur others' cognitive equations to open to new possibilities.
As for hexes, I would not do such a thing as I believe "it" would come back at me. We're not supposed to mess with others' free will. When I lived in London at age 20 I had 2 adorable British roommates. I bought a book of spells, and enticed the pair to do one with me outside. So there we were in VERY suburban Wembly Park, and every time I tried to read an incantation, I began to crack up laughing at the incongruity of trying to do something ritualistic in that modern neighborhood. The roommates got irritated with me. Needless to say, no spell got successfully executed, and I never tried one again... although I saw plenty of evidence of plenty of persons doing their own version (Santeria) when I lived in Puerto Rico, sidestepping dead chickens sacrificed to the ocean...
As the lawyer I once dated used to say, "You must get used to living with mystery. It's ALL a mystery." Indeed.
cool... thx for that.
>>MOON PIE/GW NORTH: I see the teaching of the law of karma as a pre-emptive strategy. I know it makes ME a more honest person. The realization that whatever I do will come back to me makes me very conscious of what I do, and why. Of course, human error still comes into the equation
Trust me when I say that while I may not agree with all your beliefs, I have the utmost repsepct for you as a person. People can have the same goals and visions and take a different path towards the same.
A fish looks at water very differently then a bird, but this does not mean either the fishes or birds perspective on water is wrong. Both are equally valid. A fish may never be able to explain "water" to a bird nor nor a bird to the fish even though they are talking about the same thing.
Our belief systems, yours and mine both can help give us guidance in life and towards evolving a higher conciousness but they also act as chains that can prevent us from further "growth". Whenever I examine my own belief systems, I try and ask myself "Are these acting as a brake on true "spiritual growth" ? (Or if one does not like that term substitute "Evolving Conciousness".
My problem with the concept of Karma, is the suggestion of a judgement system exercised due to a "souls actions" in some previous life wherein an individual can conclude that to be rewarded by being born to a higher "Caste" in India rather then the "Untouchable Class" just as example , is due to one having a more evolved conciousness (The Higher caste) and the other paying for some past lifes sins.
This "belief" IMHO can not help but retard that same evolving Conciousness because it implies one "life force" or "soul" is superior to anothers. When the Bible condemns the Judging of others it because we too have been judged and since none of our "Souls our Conciousness" have evolved to the highest of levels we in fact lack the "right" to judge.
I am not speaking here of judging "actions" of another or finding right or wrong with them. We must condemn the actiosn that lead to anothers suffering, or that allows one to profit off the same. It the concept that there a reborn "soul" that is being judged and that any of us of a role in that.
It one of the main reasons I have such a problem with the organized religions.
I guess what I am saying in FAR to many words is that "Even Dick Cheney has a soul and all souls are sacred".
Cheney just lets the "Man" that he is , and all the Negative aspects of the same that are embodied in his "beliefs" silence his soul to the point it appears he does not have one.
Sioux Rose
GW NORTH: Every manifest thing has positive and negative uses and applications. Recall that it is not money per se, but the LOVE of money that purportedly constitutes the root of all evil. So, too, the understanding of karma and its links with reincarnation may serve devious as well as inspired ends.
Some in this forum have made the fine case that being a good person does not require any religious teachings. Often religion leads the cause to war and the destruction of basic civil liberties.
When you ask me whether or not the person born into a suffering nation "deserves" that karma, the question goes beyond my authority to answer. I do believe that there is a plan for humanity, and that each of us articulates that plan in a manner where we inherit the fruit of our own previous actions. My work reading/interpreting astrological charts for nearly 40 years lends much evidence in support of that conjecture.
Once again, I am not here to prove a case, or win adherents. I share what I have found to be true, and I welcome the diverse opinions--so long as they're based on mutual respect and thoughtfulness--in this lively forum. Naturally I take umbrage when someone who lacks my education in this field attacks me out of sheer ignorance. I appreciate your respect. Only a deity could answer your very viable question.
I don't feel that the beliefs I've come to hold me back. If an experience shows up that challenges my belief structure, I don't dismiss it. Often when I'm not trying to solve "the puzzle," out biking or perhaps driving along a stretch that's particularly inspiring, a new "take" comes to me which integrates the anomaly into the fabric of what I hold to be true.
We live IN mystery. Science often comes up with words or explanations which are like balm for the intellect, ideas that turn the monkey mind off; but do they really answer for (or penetrate) the great mysteries? When Toltec teacher Don Juan asked Carlos Casteneda, "What is the wind?" And Casteneda went into an elaborate response explaining pressure and temperature currents... the Indian laughed. He understood that these elemental forces are POWERS in their own right. Science says animals cannot reason, but any of us who have lived with a pet surely see how intuitive and KNOWING these creatures can be. There was a very memorable article years ago in Harper's, "Can An Ape Tell a Joke?" It was based on an act in Vegas where the mammal pre-empted the requests made by his trainer.
Lovers, mystics and poets have often known what science and its penchant for exclusive left-brain style analysis does not. I'll stop here.
Sioux Rose I wonder if it was you that did my Pre natal chart in 1970 in London. I was with a long time girl friend named Kathleen. We had both recently graduated from Ohio State University.
We where just starting our journey. The predictions where mind blowing accurate. I am a Virgo with Leo raising and 5 houses in Libre. Does this info ring a bell?
SR...I am leery of the concept of death, rebirth and Karma. Now I will admit upfront I do not know YOUR full views on the matter but that said..
A Karma/death/rebirth and you pay for your sins in another lifetime person once suggested that all of those peoples living in the Third World in utter poverty are paying for the wrongs they committed in another lifetime.
By implication this suggests that those born in the first world have been "Rewarded" for being good in a past life. Indeed the "Untoucahbles" In India as a caste are seen as havbing deserved their lot in life for past transgressions.
Suffice it to say I have a problem with this as a philosophy.
So the question I must ask. Do you believe that those born to a life of utter poverty such as those in Somalia are suffering a karmic blowback?
Yes, Barack, evil exists. Sometimes it lies in calling others "evil," and acting to destroy them. Sometimes it lies in merely accepting pre-existing evil, and in doing its bidding. This is the banality of evil, Barack. It is you.
Clovis
I agree. Your comment is reminiscent of a scene in the cult classic film The List of Adrian Messenger [1963] when one of the characters, Raoul Le Borg [played by Jacques Roux], tells the retired MI5 inspector Anthony Gethryn [played by George C. Scott], after the two have discovered the serial killer George Brougham [played by Kirk Douglas], that "evil does exist and he is evil." In this case, Barack Obama has managed to fool many liberals as well as so many of the American people into believing that the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq are necessary in order to protect the "strategic interests" of the United States. But thankfully, Obama's actions have not fooled most readers of this web site since most people who read Common Dreams recognize that Obama's orders have resulted in the slaughter of many innocent women and children which certainly should qualify as the definition of evil as well as that of being a war criminal.
clovis,
Well said.
When i was a kid going to church i often wondered whar evil was and what it would look like if one could see it. Well, my wondering has come to bear the ugly fruit of realization in the form of the US government!! It is the incarnation of evil in the world! A truly frightening sight and one that becons the viewer to pray with great ernest for the diliverance from this evil country and it's threat to the world and God's creation!!!
"When i was a kid going to church i often wondered whar evil was and what it would look like if one could see it."
Then look for Joe Ratzinger.
Washington DC is the focus of evil in the modern world. To misquote Reagan.
to: Kent Shaw
McChrystal is indeed admitting to war crimes. So What. The U.S. gets a free pass to commit war crimes whenever they want.Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan. Who paid the price? William Calley? One year of house arrest? Gimme a break.
What is there left to say about the Commander-in-Chief of the Leather Bomber Jacket, FUBARack H. Obombsaway, except this:
ABANDON THE DEMOCRATS!
FUBARack H. Obombsaway. I thought we had run out of clever ways to spell the war is peace free market kind of guy's name. This is the best one yet.
I think it should be repeated at every opportunity that the fundamental flaw in U.S. policy is the acceptance of the myth that we are in a war with terrorists. The "Great War on Terrorism" isn't a war at all. The military industrial complex and all its minions promote it as a war because that provides a raison d'etre for bloated military spending. Eisenhower presciently warned against this as he ended his presidency.
The terrorists are criminal gang members, not nation states with standing armies. Al Qaeda is analogous in many ways to the drug cartels based south of the United States. Terrorists have wrought far less damage to us than drug cartels. The mainstream media never present things in proper perspective; to them, Al Qaeda, which candidly has been described as 100 individuals living in caves in Afghanistan, is depicted as the biggest threat to U.S. security, coming directly from backwaters like Afghanistan and Yemen. The media inflame the airwaves with dire reports about terrorism. Meanwhile, we lose 15 times more men, women, and children every year from lack of medical care than the loss from 9/11 – and that ignores the great physical suffering by people who are harmed but not killed by lack of medical care, unlike 9/11, which caused relatively few non-fatal injuries. That is, 45,000 U.S. residents who died last year would still be living if they had been born in Britain, France, Germany, Japan, etc. Conservatives have been satisfied with business as usual in health care, but are ready to sacrifice civil liberties and human rights to fight terrorism.
Our current policies are not only very inefficient and inhumane, but also counterproductive. We need to forget about reforming middle eastern regimes by sending in armies. Reforming the Taliban, and now the Karzai government, has little to do with terrorism. We should cooperate with anyone we can find who will help stop the criminal acts of terrorists by using professional law enforcement with international participation, not callow American troops carrying assault rifles, not jet jockeys and computer gamers raining bombs on innocent civilians.
Dr. King's April 4, 1967 address at Riverside Church is indeed a remarkable speech laying out broad humanitarian principles that apply through all time. But the signal distinctions between Vietnam and today are obvious. The opposition in Vietnam was an organized military force. There was little threat of terrorism, suicidal or not, emanating from Hanoi and carried out in the U.S. There was no reason for Dr. King to call for law enforcement instead of military force. But that should be the call today, in my judgment.
Sioux Rose
MANNING: Excellent post.
An excellent post. The history of the world shows very few examples where people of a country enjoy being occupied by a foreign military. Resisting our occupation does not make people terrorists or the new word "insurgents", as if killing people who do not like to be occupied by our military (citizens of a country) can now be completely justified by calling them something else. This is insanity.
manning: Excellent. Well put.
Manning120
Intelligently and persuasively well stated. If only Keith Olbermann had the courage, instead of being basically an Obama apologist, to make this one of his Special Comments.
"We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat." - Gen Stanley A. McChrystal
Could someone care to explain THIS to me?
Does McChrystal mean that no insurgents have been killed?
Does McChrystal mean that all non-NATO deaths in Afghanistan have been "collateral damage"?
Is McChrystal's statement being quoted out of context?
Here is the March 26 2010 NYT article that announced these atrocities:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/world/asia/27afghan.html
I was wondering about that myself; it almost sounds as if numbers don't matter as long as we're talking about non-American fatalities. Is this the new way to win hearts and minds, by splattering them all over the place?
While speaking with Charlie Rose at the beginning of this month, General Patraeus said something to the fact that one of the top, if not number one, strategies for the various fronts in the Middle East was to "hang more civilian (murderous/torturous) deaths around the necks of the Taliban then they were hanging around US".
So the problem to me is not so much "the obscenity of war" but the obscenity of current war behavior.
During the early phase of the escalation of the oil war in Iraq(circa 2003), the politicians and generals and colonels of each side used the "coward" word, while the Infantry Warriors on both sides lamented not seeing the eyes of their foe and the lack of any type of mano a mano fighting(see the current popularity of basically bare knuckle fighting on TV).
For me a historical review of the fighting in the USA's civil war, how the industrialization went from long rifles to gatlin guns, put an end to any valor to be had from Industrial War behavior. The fire and atomic bombings of Japan in the wake of the civilian bombings starting with Guernica in Europe would have seemed to be wonderful exclamation points shouting out the need for a change in conflict resolution due to the Industrial Revolution.
But humans thrive on conflict, and habits, especially those tethered to money are hard to break. On the Seinfeld list of Best Sex: Make up sex was at least in the top three. Remember, during the USA civil war, at least in the beginning and during fair weather, civilians would take a picnic basket to the top of a hill and watch the "festivities"; I'm not sure this was still in vogue at the end while Sherman blazed his trail through the South.
But still, there is not a script writer worth their salt that will present an idea lacking conflict. And I would not want to go to court without a vigilant and tenacious Warrior Lawyer on my side. Would you? So to condemn war in general as obscene does humanity little good. It denies a vital side of human Earthly existence; it denies the Warrior impulse, thus actually dehumanizing humanity by instantly disengaging the Warrior from the conversation (listen to the conversation around the Hutaree from other Militias for a sense of the natural organic militant) thus leaving the conversation to Politicians and Generals and their fantastical thinking while leaving the human reality of current war muted.
So I do not join the commentator who asks "where is Gandalf?". No. I remember that, as helpful as he was, Gandalf was not the force that turned the tide at Minas Turath -- it was the calling out of the dead to fulfill their oaths by the returning Royal Power. So I look to apprentice any remnant of Zeus(Bly) and/or Great Goddess(Gambutis) Power that may be flowing in my blood and call to the dead and stand to fight the good fight.
For when one calls to the dead one links all of humanity to Our current behavior of Industrialized and now Techno war. On Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, near Hart Plaza, there is a statue in the median commemorating the Armenian Holocaust: it is easy to find other memorials like this commemorating the Holocausts suffered by any and all ethnic groups within the city; never minding Detroit's ode to slavery and dignified labor. So in calling out the dead, as this article does in calling out Martin Luther King, one taps into the "oaths" that all of humanity's memorials to Holocaust seek to fulfill. Calling the dead brings all humans to an online conversation as to how war is being waged in the world and how it directly effects those in the Ghetto and those on the other side of the gated communities, in addition to how the war is being fought and why the war is being fought -- thus this goes far beyond a mere condemnation of war as obscene -- good for momentary self-righteous titillation at best.
No!...no more generalized condemnations of war: touch your Royal Self, call the dead(Thich Nhat Hanh's Touching The Earth can help)organically link all humanity to it's current war behavior, bring honor and valor back to war -- and pave the way for it's the natural ebb and flow with peace.
I read the article. It did not answer your questions.
I suppose that's what happens when you put frightened, poorly trained and disoriented kids in charge of a muddy mission. The soldiers have no idea of who is who, and what is what, and why for anything. They are actors without a script in a play written by an insane author.
McChrystal talks about murder of innocent civilians in a remote and flat manner. That befits the unfeeling puppetmasters of this idiotic invasion which is based on myths and lies and robs people in both countries of life, peace and health.
Joe
MLK Jr's "Beyond Vietnam" speech is here:
http://www.commondreams.org/print/36759
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." - Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City.
Spiritual death has already occurred. The question is what comes next and is it something even worse ? Can one be reborn from a Spiritual death?
Don't forget you must have or be a strong supporter of Zionism. LOL, what happened to dignity, integrity and doing the right thing? Oh, I forgot it's not profitable. I blame the MSM for not being truthful to the Amercan population. If we had known the truth all along we would not be here. Who will take responsibility? I try not to be ashamed to be American.
right totalmente on.....
The contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King as Citizen and Public Leader is monumental. Would he have made a great President? We can wonder.
I Was Born Here empirePie March 31st, 2010
An accident of birth;
the toxic tangle of: “this is my berth”
severs the cords to be another bondage serf,
timed to turn blue in freedoms hue
to the chant of: ‘do unto others as they do you’
There is only one way to end the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and still Iraq. And that is for ungodly numbers of American soldiers and marines to die.
58,000 died in Vietnam before that war ended. If that is what it takes to end illegal invasions by the real bad guys, the US military, than I'm for it.
If we look objectively at who is doing the most global harm, it is clearly the United States military, with NATO support. If we stood above the fray and asked, "Who do we want to die?", we would have to conclude that it is the invaders who are doing the most harm. We thought so of Hitler and Hirahito, and I see no difference with the US military.
So, since the Kandahar conflict is going to happen anyway, I'm rooting for the deaths of American soldiers. I would rather see 100,000 Americans dead than one innocent Afghani lose their life.
I beg to differ with you about the only way to end these wars. It was not the number of people who died in Vietnam that brought about the end but rather the draft. You could publish daily casualty figures on the front page of every major newspaper in this country and hardly anyone would give a damn. It's "the troops" doing the dying, not the boy next door or the son of your friend or that nice young man from the store! As long as the dead remain some anonymous "them", it doesn't matter. That is one of the most putrid aspects of this whole obscene "war on terror"--its anonymity and the fact the average white Americans have not had to sacrifice one damn thing, certainly not their own children. Disgusting.
Mookie March 31st, 2010 5:46 pm -- You do realize, don't you, that in the U.S., saying such things will persuade or win applause from only the very few who want the country and all its institutions to be destroyed, and who stand to lose nothing if that happens? Those of us with family, friends, and livelihoods here could not subscribe to such an opinion.
You remind me of an idea Michael Sandel broached in one of his recent televised lectures. There was a philosopher, and I confess I didn't catch the name, who discussed the ethical or moral theory that one has a duty to value all human life, everywhere, equally. Under this view, if a stranger was dying of hunger, and also your own wife or child, you would not choose to save your own family member over the stranger. The philosopher noted that this theory seems to make sense, until you realize that under it, one could have no friends, because that would involve favoring some people over others. This is where you are, Mookie (if you really mean what you say, and are not just trying to discredit this forum by raising a totally unacceptable flag and hoping that someone will salute it).
But you see manning, it is the fact that so many people in the US live such comfortable lives that nothing ever gets done. Do you think I should care more about your family, friends and children than those who get killed in Iraq and Afganistan? No, I don't.
And nothing worth saying ever wins applause. Not in an empire built on lies and mass murder.
Lessthanlickable March 31st, 2010 10:28 pm -- I notice you didn't say you would care no more about your own family and friends than you would about Iraqis or Afghans if faced with the choice of saving one or the other.
You might want to check out Sandel's lecture. The site is at http://www.justiceharvard.org/; but I can't tell you which lecture -- I think it was the one that was shown here in South Texas on Sunday, March 21.
Confronted with the choice of saving his own child or someone else's, but not both, the moral person chooses to save his own. I would question the moral integrity of anyone who wouldn't subscribe to that.
I maintain that friendship, and by extension, patriotism, is morally commendable. This is what keeps a community, and a nation, cohesive, and fosters cooperation among its members or citizens. However, a person may have a duty to subject his kin to the penalty of law, as did Ted Kaczynski's brother, David, when he realized his brother was the Unibomber. By extension, a patriot may have a duty to oppose the prevailing policies of his country. I think, however, Mookie goes much too far.
Do you all remember those long ago MINSTREL Shows popular in the USA in the 1920's thereabouts?
where White folks would paint themselves black and perform using the stereotypes about blacks to entertain themselves?.
welll --- -the white ordered society of the USA now has a Giant Minstrel SHOW -- with a GENUINE "black" doing the Puppet Dances....for their entertainment once more -- with wars, Nobel Speeches...Flight Jackets.........and boooooy....does Obama LOVE his job....
"Do not judge a book by its cover." --old probverb
Amy, thanks for your continuing and excellent work for anti-war, ANTI-EMPIRE.
Your Ellsberg interview is fantastic.
From "Democracy Now" via "AntiWar.com" comes this excoriation of Obama's multi-criminal-war policy of lying to all Americans and soldiers in Afghanistan while wearing his Bush-like 'bomber jacket'.
Pentagon Paper's hero of the criminal multi-million killing in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, Daniel Ellsberg exposes Obama for the serial war criminal that he is.
Although Obama is certainly under intense pressure --- if you can call being threatened with death by the "Secret Team", CIA, shadow government, MIC, and Global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE intense --- Obama is certainly not showing the courage that JFK and MLK did under the exact same EMPIRE that ultimately eliminated them.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/30/our_president_is_deceiving_the_american
Only by a massive majority and multitude of honest, average, working-class, and 'democracy-thinking' Americans and global citizens joining the consolidated Global 'Anti-EMPIRE' Peoples' Movement (started by Kevin Zeese, David Beito, and Ralph Nader to confront and fight for 'democracy-thinking' over 'empire-thinking' is it going to be possible to have the solidarity, strength, and focused commitment to excise this cancerous tumor of disguised ruling-elite Globe corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE --- which now controls 'our' country by hiding behind the facade of its modern, sophisticated, and guileful TWO-PARTY 'Vichy' sham of faux democratic government.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine