tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post5929775760428921320..comments2024-02-15T21:24:23.524-08:00Comments on Today in The Endless War: War News for Saturday, May 08, 2010Cervanteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11302076828795198187noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-5025243616558963722010-05-09T06:05:28.555-07:002010-05-09T06:05:28.555-07:00"Though the danger to De Mello and the U.N. w...<i>"Though the danger to De Mello and the U.N. was clear from the get-go, there had been no preparation,"</i><br /><br />The danger was very clear. And there was preparation. It says in the very same post that De Mello removed the tanks and soldiers from the "<i> logistically vulnerable gate</i> in spite of warnings from all. If he had listened to reason, perhaps he would still be alive and there would be no "reverberation" from that bomb attack.<br /><br />And that is a great analogy for the war as a whole. His attempt to take the soft path to peace failed. This example shows that the enemy is ruthless and the soft path does not work. The only way to deal with these extremists is through a combination of strength towards the enemy and cooperation to the moderates.thewiznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-31816466425279965082010-05-08T19:54:20.250-07:002010-05-08T19:54:20.250-07:00This is a theme, a reality, that is emerging more ...This is a theme, a reality, that is emerging more clearly as the years of the never-ending Terror War drag on: by and large, the American people do not care about the innocent people being killed, in their names, all over the world. They don't care about "the children’s limbs hanging in trees," as war's eyewitness John Pilger puts it.<br /><br />They don't care -- even as the inevitable, predictable blowback from these murderous polices comes home to roost on their own streets, the icy voice of revenge that says: "You come to our countries and kill our people; we will come to your country and kill yours." The former is considered a high and noble calling; the latter an act of unspeakable evil. That violence is not the answer -- that it only perpetuates the endless cycle of murder and vengeance that has marked our humankind since our mutation out of apehood -- is of no moment to those who see their loved ones shredded to death unjustly before their eyes. <br /><br />http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/1965-cold-irons-bound-all-together-on-the-road-to-ruin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+empire_burlesque+%28Empire+Burlesque+-+Chris+Floyd%29Dancewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733269960341895623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-43779977691007311662010-05-08T19:49:41.985-07:002010-05-08T19:49:41.985-07:00'Sergio' makes clear how much was lost in ...'Sergio' makes clear how much was lost in Iraq<br /><br /><br />Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello died on Aug. 19, 2003, after a truck bomb exploded just outside his office at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, leaving him to spend his last hours buried headfirst in a pile of rubble and bitter irony. De Mello, a high-ranking U.N. diplomat and internationally known "fixer," had not wanted to be in Baghdad. He took the job as U.N. Secretary General to Iraq at the behest of world leaders including then- President George W. Bush with an eye to overseeing a speedy end to the U.S. occupation. He did not support the war and was planning to issue a statement condemning the coalition for use of excessive force. He had already removed the tank and soldiers from the gate of the logistically vulnerable headquarters at the Canal Hotel because he felt their presence seemed to signal American control of the United Nations, something he most vociferously protested. <br /><br />..... But the prolonged narrative of the rescue is not just dramatic, it's weighted with meaning. Had Von Zehle and Valentine been given the necessary resources, De Mello might well have been saved and, it is surmised, the course of the war in Iraq altered. Instead, De Mello became a victim of the very problem he was sent to resolve — a lack of communication, cultural understanding and resources. Though the danger to De Mello and the U.N. was clear from the get-go, there had been no preparation, and when the explosion occurred, chaos reigned for hours.<br /><br />Chaos that still clearly reverberates almost seven years later.<br /><br />http://freedomsyndicate.com/fair0000/latimes00186.htmlDancewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733269960341895623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-59140509006987336862010-05-08T19:28:05.547-07:002010-05-08T19:28:05.547-07:00.
If one were to read the writings by bin Laden ....<br /><br /><br />If one were to read the writings by bin Laden and Zawahiri, one would see that they have a 25 year plan to re-establish a caliphate in the Mid-East. That is to be followed by reclaiming "all lands that were once Muslim" Those lands include most of the countries of Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, all of north Africa and more.<br /><br />Then the plan continues on toward the goal of establishing a "world wide caliphate." Thus they want Islam to rule the world.<br /><br />They do hate us for our freedoms. They do not want freedom of religious choice. The do not want the freedoms that accompany democracy. They do not want free women. They do not want freedom for gays, atheists, women, nor even moderate Muslims.<br /><br />I saw an interview by Amanpour on CNN years ago in which a Saudi said "Islam is a religion of peace." When she asked him what he meant by that he smiled and said "When all the world is Islam, there will be peace."<br /><br />Try reading Zawahiri's writings like I have and then you just might understand that they hate us for our freedoms.<br /><br />.thewiznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-43407121449561366872010-05-08T18:19:11.779-07:002010-05-08T18:19:11.779-07:00Iraqis Torturing Iraqis
Baghdad - The man looked...Iraqis Torturing Iraqis <br /><br />Baghdad - The man looked much older than his 24 years, in part because his front teeth had been smashed, he told us, during one of his interrogation sessions in the secret prison here. His emaciated body and trembling arms were those of a fragile hospital patient rather than the fearsome terrorist the security forces had accused him of being. His psychological wounds matched his physical state: He confided that after repeatedly being sodomized with a stick and a pistol, he frequently wets his bed and has trouble sleeping.<br /><br />Despite overwhelming evidence that torture was routine and systematic at a secret prison in the old Muthanna airport in West Baghdad where the young man had been held, Iraqi officials at the highest level appear to be in denial, claiming the accounts by the men who were held there are fictitious. Instead of ordering an independent inquiry, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has dismissed the torture accounts as "lies" and "a smear campaign." He told the state-run Iraqiya television that the detainees inflicted the scars on themselves "by rubbing matches on some of their body parts."<br /><br />But the wounds that my colleague and I witnessed on April 26, when we interviewed 42 of the men who had been held in that place, could not have been self-inflicted. Huge scabs on their legs matched detainees' descriptions of being suspended upside down with their lower legs trapped between bars. Deep welts on their backs were consistent with cable whipping. These scars were just the beginning of the horror the men, and the evidence on their bodies, revealed. <br /><br /><br />http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/05/04/iraqis-torturing-iraqisDancewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733269960341895623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-30941444648206721562010-05-08T18:14:00.580-07:002010-05-08T18:14:00.580-07:00Christian ‘doctrine’ fueled dehumanization: UNPFII...Christian ‘doctrine’ fueled dehumanization: UNPFII report<br /><br />“The first thing indigenous peoples share is the experience of having been invaded by those who treated us without compassion because they considered us to be less than human,” said Frichner, a citizen of the Onondaga Nation serving her first term on the 16-member UNPFII.<br /><br />“Dehumanization leads to the second thing indigenous peoples share in common: Being treated on the basis of the belief that those who invaded our territories have a right of lordship or dominance over our existence and, therefore, have the right to take, grant, and dispose of our lands, territories, and resources without our permission or consent.”<br /><br />http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/92454329.html<br /><br />+++++++++<br /><br />and now those 'Christians' are doing the same to Iraqi and Afghans and Pakistanis and who-knows-where-else.Dancewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733269960341895623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-41020727565559929462010-05-08T18:10:43.180-07:002010-05-08T18:10:43.180-07:00How the US Helps al-Qaida
Ever since 9/11, Americ...How the US Helps al-Qaida<br /><br />Ever since 9/11, American society has had the self-destructive tendency of primarily seeing jihadist terrorists as monsters intent on devouring our social experiment in human liberty and popular rule. Rather than listen to what motivates the individual terrorists that have attacked the United States here and abroad, Americans only hear a convenient narrative left over from the Bush years: "They hate our freedoms." This belief, however, is nothing more than a collective delusion that continually feeds a foreign policy destructive of our homeland security. Nothing proves this more than examining the motivations of three men who have punctured Americans' sense of security over the past year. <br /><br /><br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/01/us-foreign-policy-terrorism<br /><br />++++++<br /><br />article does not mention the Times Square failed car bomber, who did it because of US drone bombings in PakistanDancewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733269960341895623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-31497158510339488282010-05-08T17:58:13.530-07:002010-05-08T17:58:13.530-07:00Talabani Calls Iran "Iraq's Real Friend&q...Talabani Calls Iran "Iraq's Real Friend"<br /><br />TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in a meeting with Iranian Presidential Advisor Mehdi Mostafavi reiterated that his country views Iran as its real friend. <br /><br /><br />http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8902141061Dancewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733269960341895623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-7306171277863252082010-05-08T17:54:16.627-07:002010-05-08T17:54:16.627-07:00Did You Hear the Joke About the Predator Drone Tha...Did You Hear the Joke About the Predator Drone That Bombed?<br /><br />http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146739<br /><br />At the 2004 Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner, President Bush joked about searching for WMDs under Oval Office furniture. The joke backfired when parents who had lost their children fighting in Iraq said they found the joke offensive and tasteless. Senator John Kerry said Bush displayed a "stunningly cavalier" attitude toward the war and those serving in Iraq. (Video at the bottom of the article)<br /><br />So it's odd that President Obama would make a crude joke about deaths that he is responsible for. But that's just what he did at the May 1 White House Correspondents Dinner. "Jonas Brothers are here, they're out there somewhere," President Obama quipped as he looked out at the packed room. Then he furrowed his brow, pretending to send a stern message to the pop band. "Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You'll never see it coming."<br /><br />For people in Pakistan, where most of the drones are being used, the joke lost something in translation. According to Pakistani journalist Khawar Rizvi, few Pakistanis have ever heard of the Jonas Brothers or understood the reference to the President's daughters. "But one thing we do know: There's nothing funny about predator drones," said Rizvi. "They've killed hundreds of civilians and caused so much suffering in Pakistan. And that's no laughing matter."Dancewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733269960341895623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8812043282272915800.post-78631061202958519692010-05-08T17:53:32.466-07:002010-05-08T17:53:32.466-07:00Iraq in Pieces
http://www.newint.org/features/201...Iraq in Pieces<br /><br />http://www.newint.org/features/2010/05/01/keynote-iraq-in-pieces/<br /><br />Since 2003, a million people have died in Iraq in the wake of post-invasion violence.1 Sectarian wars have torn the country apart, foreign troops have established huge military bases, and politicians who have sworn to crack down on militias have their own private armies. This once secular nation has been scarred by extremism, with terrible consequences for women, gay people and religious minorities. As Government ministries remain feeding troughs for cronyism and sectarian patronage, national reconciliation remains elusive.<br /><br />With $53 billion in ‘aid’ seemingly evaporated into bloated projects that only served to line the pockets of foreign contractors and local officials, 70 per cent of Iraqis lack potable water, and unemployment hovers near 50 per cent, officially, and much more, unofficially.2,3 Today Iraq is ranked the fifth most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International. And while security has improved somewhat in the last few years, it has come at a huge cost. Sectarian cleansing has changed the character of individual neighbourhoods – divided by the now ubiquitous concrete barriers known as ‘t-walls’ – and the face of the nation. Over two million Iraqis are refugees, and almost three million internally displaced – roughly a fifth of the population. Many are simply too frightened to return, or too heartbroken by what they have survived to believe the posters that now, from every corner, promise security, electricity, jobs and even national unity.Dancewaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16733269960341895623noreply@blogger.com