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Latest Articles: War, War, War
Here's The Pentagon's Plan For Afghanistan
Post Date: 2009-12-10 16:59:28 by tom007
6 Comments
Night be funny if it weren't for real.
General: Blame Taliban, Media for Afghan Civilian Deaths
Post Date: 2009-12-10 16:52:59 by tom007
4 Comments
General: Blame Taliban, Media for Afghan Civilian Deaths * By Noah Shachtman Email Author * December 10, 2009 | * 3:04 pm | * Categories: Air Force * 091022-F-2522C-Top commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal has issued strict new guidelines on air strikes, to keep civilians from getting killed. “It is literally how we lose the war or in many ways how we win it,” he recently said. But many in the Air Force see the civilian casualty problem may be more a product of media hype and Taliban human shielding than of errant U.S. bombs. “There appears to be an almost complete lack of indication to support the conventional wisdom… that air attacks have been ...
Obama Far Outdoes Bush in Escalating War
Post Date: 2009-12-09 12:05:30 by Horse
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As Obama announced plans for escalating the war effort, it has become clear that the Obama Illusion has taken yet another horrifying turn. Before explaining how the Af-Pak surge is a direct attack on the US public, let’s peer through the illusion and look at the reality of the situation. Now that the much despised George W. Bush is out of the way and a more popular figurehead is doing PR for Dick Cheney’s right-hand military leader Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who is leading his second AF-Pak surge now, and with long time Bush family confidant Robert Gates still running the Defense Department, the masters of war have never had it so good. Barack Obama, the anti-war candidate, has ...
Afghan President Hamid Karzai Says Army Will Need Help Until 2024
Post Date: 2009-12-09 11:51:26 by Horse
4 Comments
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that Afghanistan would not be able to pay for its own security until at least 2024, underscoring his government’s long-term financial dependence on the United States and NATO even as President Obama has pledged to begin withdrawing American troops in 2011. Mr. Karzai spoke at a news conference here with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, who did not put a timetable on the American and allied financial commitment but acknowledged that there was a “realism on our part that it will be some time before Afghanistan is able to sustain its security forces entirely on its own.” The news conference came just hours ...
Take A Look At What We Are In The Middle Of.
Post Date: 2009-12-08 14:40:50 by tom007
2 Comments
UK spy chief denies Iraq war deceit - Got His WMD "Intel" from A Taxi Driver!!!
Post Date: 2009-12-08 14:28:08 by tom007
3 Comments
UK spy chief denies Iraq war deceit John Scarlett was in charge of a dossier that said Iraq could deploy WMDs within 45 minutes [GALLO/GETTY] A former British spy chief has denied he was pressured by the government to spice up an intelligence report to help justify the UK's involvement in the Iraq invasion. John Scarlett, who headed the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) in the years leading up to the war, made his comments during a British public inquiry into the Iraq war in London on Tuesday . Scarlett was in charge of a September 2002 dossier which claimed Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes- a claim that later led it to be rebranded as the "dodgy ...
Surging into disaster
Post Date: 2009-12-08 06:59:11 by Ada
5 Comments
President Barack Obama has missed two sterling opportunities to wind down the ugly Afghan morass he inherited from George W. Bush. First, Obama could have hit the pause button on the war when he first took office. A thorough evaluation should have been done at that time. Second, during all the heavy-duty strategy meetings over Afghanistan this November. The new president could have announced a cease-fire in the war or sharp reduction of military operations, then called for genuine peace talks under Saudi aegis with Taliban and its nationalist allies. Instead of a sensible pause, Obama’s made the tragic decision last week to enlarge and prolong the eight-year war in Afghanistan. The ...
THE BUSH-OBAMA WAR
Post Date: 2009-12-07 20:59:32 by christine
1 Comments
Now it's Barack Obama's war. After campaigning against "George Bush's War" in the Middle East, Obama has escalated that war. By transferring thousands of America's forces from Iraq to Afghanistan, and by sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, the liberal Democrat has demonstrated that his administration is not so different from that of his "conservative" Republican predecessor. While I was crisscrossing America during the campaign season last year, I repeatedly predicted that no matter who won the White House, John McCain or Barack Obama, neither would end the war in the Middle East. Many Democrats tried to argue with me, saying they knew ...
Mullen Stresses Urgent Need for Troops in Afghanistan
Post Date: 2009-12-07 20:55:21 by christine
12 Comments
The nation's highest-ranking military officer told soldiers and Marines that the insurgency in Afghanistan has grown in the last three years and he expects casualties to rise next year as additional U.S. troops pour into the war. CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – The nation's highest-ranking military officer told soldiers and Marines Monday that the insurgency in Afghanistan has grown in the last three years and he expects casualties to rise next year as additional U.S. troops pour into the war. "This is the most dangerous time I've seen growing up the last four decades in uniform," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told about 1,000 Marines at Camp ...
$10 million is smuggled out of Afghanistan daily, official says (Now Get Back to Work and Pay Taxes)
Post Date: 2009-12-07 19:01:47 by tom007
2 Comments
$10 million is smuggled out of Afghanistan daily, official says The culprits are drug cartels and corrupt officials and businesses, Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal says. U.S. and Afghan officials believe much of the cash is going to the Taliban. * Related * Robert Gates says Afghanistan withdrawal will be gradual Robert Gates says Afghanistan withdrawal will be gradual * Marines give Afghan police the drill Marines give Afghan police the drill * Obama homed in on an Afghanistan pullout date Obama homed in on an Afghanistan pullout date * Stories * NATO members to add 7,000 troops in Afghanistan NATO members to add 7,000 troops in Afghanistan * Marines, Afghan soldiers attack Taliban ...
Robert Fisk: This strategy has been tried before – without success
Post Date: 2009-12-07 13:55:46 by tom007
1 Comments
Robert Fisk: This strategy has been tried before – without success "They shoot Russians," the young paratrooper told me. It was cold. We had come across his unit, the Soviet 105th Airborne Division, near Charikar, north of Kabul, and he was holding out a bandaged hand. Blood seeped through, staining the sleeve of his battledress. He was just a teenager with fair hair and blue eyes. Beside us a Soviet transport lorry, its rear section blown to pieces by a mine – yes, an "improvised explosive device", though we didn't call it that yet – lay upended in a ditch. In pain, the young man raised his hand to the mountain-tops where a Soviet helicopter was ...
A Message From The Taliban: Who Is Responsible for the Anarchy in Afghanistan?
Post Date: 2009-12-07 00:32:19 by abraxas
13 Comments
A Message From The Taliban Who Is Responsible for the Anarchy in Afghanistan? By Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan December 06, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Dec, 04, 2009 -- Obama’s new strategy which is the result of the same mentality that wants to continue the occupation of Afghanistan by military means, will add to the anarchy prevailing in the country. In fact, Americans are responsible for the chaotic situation. They handed over power to notorious warlords, venal officials and mafia-linked governors; But still, they claim that they want a clean government in Kabul while their convoys of logistics are escorted by some murderous militias involved in kidnapping and ...
The US War against Iraq: The Destruction of a Civilization
Post Date: 2009-12-06 22:05:23 by RickyJ
3 Comments
Introduction The US seven-year war and occupation of Iraq is driven by several major political forces and informed by a variety of imperial interests. However these interests do not in themselves explain the depth and scope of the sustained, massive and continuing destruction of an entire society and its reduction to a permanent state of war. The range of political forces contributing to the making of the war and the subsequent US occupation include the following (in order of importance): The most important political force was also the least openly discussed. The Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC), which includes the prominent role of long-time, hard-line unconditional supporters of the ...
Great Cartoon
Post Date: 2009-12-05 14:06:56 by christine
5 Comments
Torture continues at US prisons in Afghanistan
Post Date: 2009-12-04 23:10:12 by Horse
1 Comments
Recent media reports reveal that the US military continues to carry on torture and illegal detention in Afghanistan at a dungeon known to inmates as "the black prison." The jail, located on the Bagram Air Base next to the notorious Bagram prison north of Kabul, operates under the executive order of President Obama. After entering office, Obama ordered the closure of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prison "black sites"-which were in fact no longer active-but exempted those prisons run by the military's Special Operations, which was headed from 2003 until 2008 by General Stanley McChrystal, now US commander of the Af-Pak theater. US military officials recently ...
Pretense of an Afghanistan Exit Plan (Hillary: “I do not believe we have locked ourselves into leaving"
Post Date: 2009-12-04 19:10:29 by Jethro Tull
13 Comments
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 12/3/09:Pretense of an Afghanistan Exit Plan For OpEdNews: Ron Fullwood - Writer At a Senate armed services committee hearing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked whether the exit date was locked in. “I do not believe we have locked ourselves into leaving. It is intended to send a message about resolve and urgency,” she explained.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/obama-criticism-focuses-on-exit-date/article1386369 /This is what I feared when I allowed myself to be optimistic about an 'exit' date or a 'timeline' promised to be included in the president's Afghan strategy. The mention of 2011 in the president's ...
Machiavelli on Blackwater Chapter XII of Machiavelli's The Prince is titled: How many different Kinds of Soldiers there are, and of Mercenaries.
Post Date: 2009-12-04 15:25:52 by Horse
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One would think America's military leaders would take into account the lessons of history. I am not saying that Machiavelli is necessarily right about everything he says - but this book hasn't been around since forever for nothing. As I read this chapter I think much of America's recent military misadventures (wars based on lies based on torture) in AFPAKistan and Iraq. In both cases massive numbers of Blackwater and other mercenaries are employed to prosecute these unpopular and foolish occupations. How many mercenaries are presently deployed and on the payroll of the American taxpayer-funded military-industrial complex? This recent article from TPMMuckraker is enlightening: ...
Karl Rove: Obama Finally Did Something Right!
Post Date: 2009-12-04 14:53:50 by Jethro Tull
5 Comments
President Obama's party may not be wild about his Afghanistan strategy but he has won high praise from Karl Rove. Obama "deserves to be cheered" for sending more troops to Afghanistan over the objections of his vice-president, Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal, predicting that the president will see his poll numbers rise now that the "dithering" is finished. The president will now have to overcome the Democrats' antiwar faction, Rove writes, but they will have little power to stop him. Any battle over war funding can be won if the president forms a coalition with "victory-centered" Republicans, Rove argues. Victory in Afghanistan can be achieved ...
Video: Non-battle scars: US military 'rape victim' shares her pain
Post Date: 2009-12-03 15:09:18 by Horse
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Female sexual assault: Military 1 in 3 – Civilian 1 in 6
Post Date: 2009-12-03 14:58:07 by Horse
9 Comments
Yep, that’s right. Women in the military are more likely to be raped in the military than on the street and they are more likely to be raped than killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read that again. And then realize that the Pentagon admits that 80% of rapes in the military are not reported. Forget the don’t ask, don’t tell hoopla – their choice to engage in sodomy is voluntary - address the women who are being forcibly sodomized against their will while voluntarily risking their lives for our freedom. Imagine what could happen/is happening/has happened to a lesbian service member when her military brothers decide that all she needs is a good f*ck. Veterans ...
How Many Private Contractors Are There In Afghanistan? Military Gives Us A Number
Post Date: 2009-12-03 12:32:43 by Horse
1 Comments
Private contractors employed by the Defense Department in Afghanistan will continue to outnumber the size of the American troop presence, even after President Obama sends 30,000 more soldiers to fight in the war, according to the military's most recent contractor count. The latest figure on DOD contractors in the country is a whopping 104,100, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command tells TPM. That number, which is expected to grow, is already greater than the 98,000 U.S. troops that will be in the country after the new deployments. We told you yesterday about the little-noticed but giant shadow army of contractors that allows the United States to prosecute the war by providing food, ...
Fool Me Twice
Post Date: 2009-12-03 11:14:00 by christine
4 Comments
Remember the old line, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," the point being that after you are conned once you should never again be so gullible as to be taken in a second time? Well, by that standard the American public and media should be ashamed of themselves as they are about to be fooled again. It is hard to ignore the fact that Washington is marching towards a confrontation with Iran that will surely lead to war that is being orchestrated by the same players that brought about Iraq. Consider for a moment how the argument to use military force against Iran is being shaped in a way that is very similar to the arguments that were used to prepare for war ...
Obama's War
Post Date: 2009-12-03 11:11:42 by abraxas
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Obama's War By Jim Hightower December 02, 2009 "Creators.com" -- Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to war we go! Pound the drums loudly, stand with your country proudly! Wait, wait, wait — hold it right there. Cut the music, slow the rush, and let's all ponder what Barack Obama, Roberts Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Co. are getting us into ... and whether we really want to go there. After all, just because the White House and the Pentagon brass are waving the flag and insisting that a major escalation of America's military mission in Afghanistan is a "necessity" doesn't mean it is ... or that We the People must accept it. Remember the wisdom of Mark ...
What is Obama Thinking?
Post Date: 2009-12-03 11:11:12 by ghostdogtxn
2 Comments
Obamathink on Afghanistan: Escalate to Exit
Post Date: 2009-12-03 05:59:37 by Stephen Lendman
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Obamathink on Afghanistan: Escalate to Exit - by Stephen Lendman Ahead of his address to the nation on December 1, The New York Times broke the news in an Eric Schmitt article titled, "Obama Issues Order for More Troops in Afghanistan," saying: During a late November 29 Oval Office meeting with top Pentagon brass, "Obama issued orders to send about 30,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan (over the next six months in) what may be one of the most defining decisions of his presidency." Compounding months of public betrayal, it's perhaps another outrage that will make him a one-term president, the way Vietnam ended Lyndon Johnson's hope for a second term. ...
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