War and Peace

The Neverending American War on the World

The fun never stops. The revenge for 9/11 will continue for this century. Perhaps it will be another Hundred Years War.

In a Senate hearing today, a Pentagon Special Operations Chief told Senators that the war OF terror will continue for at least 10 to 20 more years and more likely decades, it was confirmed it has no geographic limit including this country, i.e., it truly is global, the AUMF from 2001 is the authorization for all of it, it can include people not even born yet and it includes associated forces of Al Qaeda, i.e., anyone the Pentagon or CIA think is remotely affiliated with the terrorist group created by the CIA. In the hearing, John McCain was incredulous that the Pentagon took such a broad view and said “None of us” who voted for the law in 2001 “could have envisioned [granting] authority [to strike] in Yemen and Somalia.”

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Boston: The Unraveling and a Plea for the Healing of Our Society

I find it hard to write about anything after this happened. Boston is a great city I had the pleasure to visit in a field trip in 2006 while I was in school. There was so much life in that city and there still is despite this attack. It's still affected me even though I don't live there because of that fond memory. Senseless acts of violence like this shouldn't happen. It's hard enough just to get by.

I feel a sense of panic and uneasiness as if the fabric of society is breaking and it is; all the record inequality fueling human breakdown; the wars; the bombing of other countries fueling human breakdown. Human breakdown is caused by those that show indifference to their state of being thus breaking down barriers of sanity that keeps one non violent and functioning. Nothing excuses these actions whatsoever and I don't care about the reasoning of whoever did this; it’s despicable and abhorrent act of violence that killed a child and 2 other human beings and more than 170 were injured many permanently disabled.

That being said, we can try to change the society that breeds these types of people and actions instead of enabling the void. That's what protects people from terrorism and acts of violence in the aggregate. It may have been impossible to stop this incident, and not all can be prevented. However, given the overall breakdown of society and the marginal extremes that causes within the minds of the population, I have to think every one of our problems contributed to it. Every few months there is either a shooting or something like this. That's why I talk of the unraveling of society.

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Support Bradley Manning's Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize

No individual has done more to push back against what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the madness of militarism" than Bradley Manning. And right now, remaining in prison and facing relentless prosecution by the U.S. government, no one is more in need of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Alfred Nobel's will left funding for a prize to be awarded to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

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Destruction of Iraq Ranks Among Greatest Crimes in History

David Swanson has performed the dark service of writing a book detailing the extent of the damage the USG has inflicted on Iraq.  By the numbers the illegal Iraq invasion ranks as one of the great barbarisms of history; in my mind, it competes for the top spot.  Most Americans believe, however, that the so-called war hurt the US but helped Iraq.  The majority believe the Iraqis are grateful for the "liberation" we rained on them in the form of various deadly weapons.

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Gun Violence: It's the Culture, Not Merely Gun Laws

After reading this interview with Henry Girouox in the aftermath of the Sandy Hill school shooting, I feel there is nothing further to be said about gun control and gun violence in America; he pretty much covers the gamut of issues with the focus on what matters most.  If I were to take from that article something we can partially control, it would be that violence permateates politics.  I have no idea what people imagine I've been so exercised about recently, but this is it.

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Guns vs. Butter, or: The Pentagon Is Insane

Is there any U.S. governmental agency that spends money as recklessly and with as little oversight as the Department of Defense (DoD)? Considering the amount of money that is allocated to the DoD, they operate with far too little scrutiny. Military spending represents approximately 20% of the total federal budget. Only the Department of Health & Human Services and the Social Security Administration have larger budgets than the DoD. Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the ‘devastating’ budget cuts that are in store for the DoD as a result of the budget sequestration agreement. The table below shows that the ‘devastating’ cuts are so small as to be unnoticeable. The primary cost reductions in the DoD’s budget are only achieved as a result of ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The American Military Industrial Complex is not being reduced in any meaningful manner

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Obama Chooses Extreme Republican for Secretary of Defense

            President Obama’s first Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, was also the Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush.  When Obama came into office he selected a cabinet filled with appointments who could have been nominated by virtually any Republican President.  However, Obama could not even bring himself to select a Democrat to oversee the Department of Defense.  Instead, he simply retained Bush’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates.   Now, President Obama appears ready to once again select a Republican to head the Department of Defense.

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98 to Zip

While the Republican and Democratic Parties play Kabuki for the citizens with the "Fiscal Cliff", pretending division over how to recolonize the North American continent, the Senate voted 98 to Zero to pass National Defense Authorization Act 2013.  

 "The Senate’s defense bill authorized about $525 billion Pentagon spending, $88.5 billion for the war in Afghanistan and $18 billion funding in the Energy Department."

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Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus

Drones are the new big thing and right now there is a global race to manufacture, sell, buy, and fly them wherever there is air. The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is feasting on the possibilities of arming every country and law enforcement organization on earth twice over.

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