13 VS. 2,000,000

Fort Hood Shootings a Shocker...Why Not U.S. War Crimes?

By Ted Rall

American lives are worth a lot. So when Americans get killed, it's a big story. There are lots of editorials. Congressmen call for investigations. We want to find out what happened, why it happened, and how to make sure it never happens again.

The lives of foreigners, on the other hand, are pretty much worthless. Even when they die because Americans killed them, news accounts marking their deaths are short, sweet, and short-lived. Congressional investigations? No way. To the contrary! If anyone is inconsiderate enough to mention the killings of people overseas in a public forum, they get shouted down or simply ignored.

The massacre of 13 soldiers at an Army post in Texas earlier this week places this dichotomy in sharp relief.

The FBI is already helping Army investigators. In addition, Senator Joe Lieberman has announced that his Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will launch a full investigation into "every angle" of the shooting, including the motives of the suspect and whether or not government eavesdroppers could have prevented it by notifying Army officials of his contacts with a radical Muslim cleric. Over in the House, Representative Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, has summoned national intelligence director Dennis Blair to answer questions about Fort Hood before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

But wait--there's more. "Other committees may also launch investigations into how the Army missed warning signs about the accused," reports The Politico.

All sorts of hands are being wrung.

Major Hasan, an army psychiatrist, ministered to victims of post-traumatic stress syndrome who told him terrible stories about combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Should someone have helped him cope too?

Ordered to deploy to the war zone, he asked not to go--and was refused. Should the Army be more flexible?

Is it reasonable to ask a religious Muslim to deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq, wars where he would be asked to kill his coreligionists?

Then there are the phone taps. "U.S. military officials said intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb," reported CNN. "Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be living in Yemen, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s, but was never charged." As jihadis do at the start of an attack, Hasan reportedly cried "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire. Shouldn't someone have noticed that the nice shrink with the dopey smile had become a radical Islamist?

The shock, grief and soul-searching are all reasonable reactions to a brutal and tragic event. But it's not hard to imagine how it looks to the outside world.

While the media and public obsess over the deaths of 13 fellow Americans, they ignore the deaths of hundreds of thousands of foreigners.

The American military has killed roughly two million people in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001.

Those attacks were illegal--no declaration of war, no UN mandate--and are largely recognized as such by the American public. Many of the victims were killed with chemical and radioactive weapons, and some while under torture.

In other words, these are crimes--some of the biggest mass murders in human history.

There are no angry editorials. The illegal wars, instead of being brought to an end, are being ramped up. The crimes--yes, including the torture--continues. But it's OK--as long as it doesn't happen here in the United States. It's OK to rain death on Pakistanis using drone planes...gotta spare those precious American lives!

Mass murder is shocking when the victims are Americans; it's doubly shocking when it happens in America.

Thirteen soldiers die in Texas and it's all we talk about. Two million die in Afghanistan and Iraq and we don't notice and we don't even want to hear about it.

Only 12 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 can find Afghanistan on a map.

The punk band T.S.O.L. wrote the soundtrack to this attitude a quarter-century ago: "We live in the American zone/Free of fear in our American home/Swimming pool and digital phone."

Still wondering why they hate us?

Ted Rall is the author, with Pablo G. Callejo, of the new graphic memoir "The Year of Loving Dangerously." He is also the author of the 2002 graphic travelogue "To Afghanistan and Back." Visit his website http://www.rall.com/

Who Will Be Next?
The Eviction Of Palestinian Families Continue

Video Report

The United Nations, the United States and the European Union have all called on Israel to stop the illegal eviction of Palestinians and the demolition of their homes. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, urged Israel to end its "provocative actions" in East Jerusalem, while calling for it to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. Despite that, the sight of Palestinians in East Jerusalem being forced out of their homes has become an all too familiar scene. Video - Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from occupied East Jerusalem. Posted November 17, 2009

The Real Story Of The Terrorist "Mad Doctor Hasan"

By Jeff Gates

When Army Major Nidal Hasan killed U.S. troops on the nation's largest military base, was this evidence of "militant Islam"? Or did this military psychiatrist snap under pressure while treating returning vets on a base averaging ten suicides a month? Is there an undisclosed agenda behind those seeking to portray this act as the work of "Islamo fascists"? Continued

Why Did Obama Win?

Stephen Sackur Interviews Noam Chomsky

When he published his first political critique 40 years ago, he was fired up by the war in Vietnam. Today he is still raging against America's malign influence and calls the war in Afghanistan 'immoral'. Continue

Bolivia Re-invents Democratic Socialism

By Judy Rebick

Bolivia is reinventing democractic socialism. They are in the process of creating a plurinational state with equal rights for all nations and people, redistributing land, providing free health and education for everyone, creating what they call a pluri-economy that includes public, private, co-operative and communitarian. Continue

Should Palestine Declare Itself a State?

By Max Fisher

"It worked in Kosovo. It worked in Georgia. And it will work in Palestine. There are 192 member states in the United Nations and as many as 150 would recognize the state of Palestine, creating a diplomatic nightmare for Israel and its lonely ally the United States." Continue

The New State Solution

By Chris Hedges

The Israelis have orchestrated acute misery and poverty in the Palestinian territories over the past two decades in an effort to subdue and ethnically cleanse the captive population. They have reduced Palestinians, many of whom now live on less than $2 a day, to a subsistence level. Continue

Erekat: It’s Time to Recognize a Palestinian State

By Ma'an News Agency

“it is time to recognize a Palestinian state on the borders of 4 June 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital.” Arguing the case, Erekat argued that the EU recognized the State of Kosovo before other official channels supported its claim for independence. Continue

The Herowin War in Afghanistan

From: Mike Hastie

To: Military Resistance

November 05, 2009

When I left Vietnam in 1971,

herowin was everywhere.

It was one of the reasons why

the U.S. was defeated in Vietnam.

We just couldn’t win that war,

because hero-win finally delivered

the truth to the American people.

The U.S. government had no mission in Vietnam,

just like we have no mission in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Except to steal natural resources to protect our interests.

That truth was brought home to me shortly before

I left Vietnam in September 1971,

when an American soldier who was a herowin addict,

blew his brains out with his M-16.

Then there was the time I unzipped a body bag and

looked at another herowin addict who shot himself

in the forehead with a pistol.

Blew his skull wide open.

You just can’t win with herowin.

I saw so many American soldiers destroy their

lives with herowin.

They went back to America with a full blown herowin addiction.

No mission.

No cause.

Nobody who gave a shit when they came home.

What the American people know about the Vietnam War,

you could stick in a thimble.

A thimble....

that was about the size of the plastic vials that herowin came in,

in Vietnam.

Some people shot it.

Some people snorted it.

Some people smoked it.

Either way,

you couldn’t win with herowin.

And, that may be the same reason America

will not win in Afghanistan.

Not to mention that the war is a lie to begin with.

In fact,

that’s why herowin was used so much in Vietnam,

because the war was a lie,

and we could have never won in Vietnam.

Won.

Win.

Herowin.

Don’t mean nothin’

Then, when you get back from Vietnam,

you realize the U.S. Government was involved in the

herowin trade all along.

The South Vietnamese military was involved in

the manufacturing of herowin.

Ever see an American soldier on herowin with an

M-16 in his hands during a mortar attack?

I have.

And, that’s one reason why we didn’t win in Vietnam.

In the end,

America got stoned in Vietnam with herowin.

Why?

Because the war was unwinnable.

Because the entire Vietnam War was a lie.

The U.S. Government was bombing Laos before

the Gulf of Tonkin Lie ever happened in 1964.

That is just one of a thousand lies that the American people

never knew about the Vietnam War.

And,

towards the end of the Vietnam War,

that is why tens of thousands of American soldiers were on

herowin.

It’s the lie that makes you want to kill yourself.

It’s the lie that makes you want to use herowin.

It’s the lie that made me want to do a swan dive over a cliff

with my automobile when I got back from Vietnam.

It’s the lie that made that American soldier in Vietnam put

an M-16 to his head.

It’s the lie that still makes me unable to wash the blood off

of my hands.

It’s the lie that is killing America everyday in Iraq,

and Afghanistan.

Not to mention the great suffering and death our government

is inflicting on hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East.

Lying is the most powerful weapon in war.

Ever have a close friend hang himself in a motel room?

I did.

He was a Vietnam veteran.

He did that,

because the lie broke his neck.

Mike Hastie

U.S. Army Medic

Vietnam 1970-71

"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

April 4, 1967

From the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie,

US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71.

For more of his outstanding work, contact Mike at: hastiemike@earthlink.net

To receive Military Resistance: thomasfbarton@earthlink.net

*

Army suicides set to hit new high in 2009: Suicides in the U.S. Army will hit a new high this year, a top general said on Tuesday in a disclosure likely to increase concerns about stress on U.S. forces ahead of an expected buildup in Afghanistan.

Lest we forget: Obama Promise To End The War, 2007: Video: Quote: "I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war...

More on the lunacy (and obscene profitability - for some!) of War! . . .

How the US Funds the Taliban

By Aram Roston

"The American soldier in me is repulsed by it," he said in an interview in his office at FOB Shank in Logar Province. "But I know that it is what it is: essentially paying the enemy, saying, 'Hey, don't hassle me.' I don't like it, but it is what it is."

Continue

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A Morally Bankrupt Military
When Soldiers and Their Families Become Expendable

By Dahr Jamail

According to military records, over 43,000 troops classified as “nondeployable for medical reasons” have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Continue

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Lack Of Health Care Killed 2,266 US Veterans last Year: Study

By AFP

The number of US veterans who died in 2008 because they lacked health insurance was 14 times higher than the US military death toll in Afghanistan that year, according to a new study. Continue

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Afghanistan: Over 2,000 civilians killed in first 10 months of 2009: Armed conflict in Afghanistan claimed the lives of over 2,000 civilians from January to October 2009, and the numbers are rising, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).


Afghanistan’s Oil Binge: 22 Gallons of Fuel Per Soldier Per Day: The U.S. military consumes 22 gallons of fuel per soldier, per day. And each gallon costs $45 or more to haul to the battlefield. Actually, $45 per gallon is a lowball estimate; according to the Navy, it’s more like $300 to $400.


KBR improperly billed for security guards, senator says: KBR, the largest contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, improperly billed the Pentagon and was paid about $103 million for armed security guard services, a U.S. senator says.

U.S. adviser to Kurds stands to reap oil profits: Galbraith, 58, son of the renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, stands to earn perhaps $100 million or more as a result of his closeness to the Kurds, his relations with a Norwegian oil company and constitutional provisions he helped the Kurds extract.

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq "1,339,771"

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Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq 4,680

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Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 1,515

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Cost of U.S. War and Occupation of Iraq

$698,983,912,492
For more details, click here.

A Nation Of Destroyers Video Narration used in the video is Dr. DAHLIA WASFI, MD - an Iraqi-American woman who speaks passionately against war. Her website is http://www.liberatethis.com/ Warning This video contains images & words that depict the reality and horror of war Posted November 11, 2009

Return to the Middle Ages


By Bouthaina Shaaban

November 03, 2009 "Counterpunch" --

When you read a news story saying that “the United Nations called on Israel to stop demolishing Palestinian homes and put an end to the policy of forced evictions in East Jerusalem, warning that there are 60,000 Palestinians threatened of becoming homeless,” you cannot but wonder about the role of the international organization today and about the goal for which it was created on the eve of the victory of the forces of freedom against Nazism and Fascism and whether it is the same organization authorized by history and the world’s peoples to guarantee the right to ‘self determination’?

Is it the same organization charged with “putting an end to colonialism”? Is it the same organization which believes in the right of all peoples to freedom without discrimination in terms of race or religion? If it is the same organization, why does it allow Palestinian civilians suffer from the brutality of armed settlers?

The evasive and shameful language of the UN’s call comes in the context of the submission of the Security Council to the Zionist will, and consequently commits a historic disgrace in the form of ignoring the legitimate political, civil and human rights of the Palestinian people including their right to life and freedom.

For the UN not to take any initiative or measure which leads to giving the Palestinian people the right to self determination will remain a disgrace in the history of the organization which will never be removed.

The Palestinians have been under a racist settler form of colonialism for over sixty years; and they are targeted with a campaign of ethnic cleansing launched by armed gangs of settlers supported by Israel’s police and army.

This is unparalleled in the 21st century in terms of the crimes which include siege, murder, food poisoning, starvation, assassination, demolishing houses, scorching crops, destroying farms, raping prisoners, trafficking in the organs of captives and preventing Palestinians from moving between their villages, farms and schools.

All this happens under the full gaze and silence of the ‘civilized’ world which fully supports the Israeli government and fully ignores the savage crimes committed each day by Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers. This silence is also a crime against the Palestinian people, because it allows Israeli politicians and generals and their allies to carry on with their crimes against civilians and violate the Geneva conventions and international humanitarian law.

The UN call on Israel to “stop removing [demolishing] Palestinian houses” comes on the backdrop of demolishing the houses of the Hanoun and Ghawi families in al-Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, and even removing the tent they built on the street near their house and confiscating its contents which consisted of covers to ward off the cold, and some utensils. The tent housed fifty persons of the two families who, up until a few months ago used to live in their home demolished by Israeli occupation soldiers in their policy of Judaizing Jerusalem.

Every now and then, the UN or the EU acknowledge that “destroying the homes of Palestinians is a violation of international law”.

But if this and the other crimes referred to above are violations of international law, why do not they move their conscience to protect the security of Palestinians? The question is: what will the United Nations or Europe do? Will they limit themselves to acknowledging that Israeli acts are in sharp contrast with the UN Charter and international humanitarian law, while armed Jewish settler gangs continue to murder, demolish and set fires in Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron and other places without any deterrent and without being brought to account?

If all these crimes committed daily against Palestinians do not amount to ethnic cleansing and genocide, what does?

In America White settlers, centuries ago, used to throw contaminated blankets on Indians to kill them. Today, Israel’s rulers deprive Palestinians of food and medicine, burn crops and poison drinking water in order to kill the Palestinians or force them to leave. The UN calls this crime “forced eviction”. So, is there voluntary eviction?

After all the crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces and armed gangs of settlers, the UN only “calls on Israel to stop demolishing houses”. Maybe, it forgot to add, “please!”

What Palestinian civilians urgently need now is an investigation into Israeli crimes to be reported to an international organization which still retains some self respect and concern for what remains of its credibility.

The crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces, the terrorization of unarmed Palestinian civilians by armed settlers have become a shame for humanity which should not be tolerated. The acts of these settlers and their supporters in the Israeli government and financiers in the Western pressure groups return the world to the law of the jungle.


Considering the shameful incapacity of the United Nations and president Obama’s reiteration of his commitment to “Israel’s security” on the 14th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish settler – while he should have expressed an equal commitment to Palestinians’ security – makes it incumbent on the free people of the world and its intellectuals, including Jewish intellectuals, to raise their voice against Israel’s war criminals so that Jews are not eternally shamed for committing war crimes and genocides.

They should not keep silence concerning these crimes and should not be satisfied with preventing Israeli criminals from travel. They should be brought to justice in the same way the world has brought to justice other criminals responsible for killing and occupation before them.

Jewish intellectuals in particular should ask themselves why should their government be built on the ruins of the lives and freedom of another people; Why their government should commit crimes of killing children, massacres, home demolition and assassination and then try to justify these crimes and blame all those who want to bring it to account? Why do not Jewish intellectuals face this historical moral dilemma in the Zionist entity?

When Nazi Germany committed massacres against the Jews and other peoples, the Germans faced this dilemma and passed laws banning anti-Semitism. When the world paid the price of Japanese wars and ambitions, Japan took a historical and final decision against war. Why would Jewish intellectuals think they should justify all the acts of Israeli politicians and generals? How can they justify the fact that Ehud Olmert is prosecuted for financial corruption and not for his and others’ crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese children and civilians?

Why do they even consider these criminals heroes who should be secured and defended?

Why do they form governments consisting of criminals competing with their records in assassination, murder and massacres against Palestinian civilians? These crimes are crimes against humanity by any standard. Why do not they criticize, in their culture, their rulers who have the blood of children on their hands? Silent Jewish intellectuals are responsible for the continuation of crimes which bring them all eternal shame as a result of their silence concerning these crimes.

The United Nations and the European Union, and all those who use evasive language in describing crimes which should prompt the world’s indignation and anger share the responsibility.

History will condemn those who remain silent towards these crimes and will remember and thank only those who defend Palestinian children and the right of the Palestinian people to live in dignity, freedom, security and safety on their national soil.


Bouthaina Shaaban is Political and Media Advisor at the Syrian Presidency, and former Minister of Expatriates. She is also a writer and professor at Damascus University since 1985. She has been the spokesperson for Syria and was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She can be reached through nizar_kabibo@yahoo.com