Tag: Afghanistan

Ex-detainees allege Bagram abuse

Remember on this day, We as a Nation are Directly Responsible for the plight of millions of recent refugee’s through our failed foreign policies of Wars/Occupations of Choice in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and now in Pakistan.

We have many, supporters of our occupations mostly, who rail against any illegal immigrants crossing our borders for the jobs companies will give them, while at the same time forcing millions to flee to their neighbors countries, leaving those countries to absorb and support them.

We Are Directly Responsible!

The question above is asked on the site of the Commission on Wartime Contracting as to their recently released report.

Remember the meme at the beginning of the War Drum Beating and the easy certain Corporate “No Bid Contracts” in support of the Wars and Occupations: “They’re the only ones in the World who can do the organizing and work needed in support of our Military and the Coalition of Willing!”

Never mind they were connected by the hips to those beating the drums, never mind they were only paper pushers tens of thousands of miles away and sub-contracting out all the work, never mind the many issues of lost billions, shoddy work, bonuses, waste and corruption that almost instantly started coming to light and even with that they were given more, not even handshakes, just here ya go Pallets with Shrink wrapped Blocks of Cash, Millions and Billions, freshly printed and minted!!

Or were we, Shhhhhhhhhhh…………!!

On thursday, 6.11.09, I caught a short report about one of the legacies, more like the left over WMD’s, of our Wars and Occupations and their destructive power years later, and how we just walk away unconcerned and certainly uncaring, it’s now their problem, move onto the next War of Choice by the few, seeking their wants of power, wealth and glory in their sorry lives.

This report was on the NPR show, out of Boston, from WBUR’s Here and Now: Feeling the Pain in Laos, and was about a BBC journalist Jill McGivering reporting from Laos.

Back on the 25th, of last month, for Memorial Day I put up a post to cover an interview about a new book release I caught on NPR’s WBUR Here and Now, out of Boston.

While waiting for them to put up the stream link after the show I did some searching, for information on the book as well as some back information on what’s covered in same.

Below you will find that post but UpDated, with a few more links and audio discussion, I’ve found since the posting.

Today is the Celebration for Europe and the United States of D-Day President will address veterans at American cemetery on Omaha Beach, this is not to celebrate but to Remind, and in many cases Instill in everyones minds, there’s other sides, long living results, of All Wars Waged and not only for those who serve in them!

On Bill Moyers Journal tonight, Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater, will be interviewed.

Link http://www.pbs.org/moyers/jour…

Scahill wants the United States to back up and examine its entire approach to foreign policy and, rather than analyze the number of troops to send to Afghanistan or replace the commander, ask whether the U.S. should have any troops there at all.

After serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, three veterans discover the value of their service as they search for employment in the midst of a troubled economy.

In Their Boots Website for the two previous of this year and links to last years online productions, as well as the other important site links.

One of those being Their Resources Page for Military/Veterans and Their Families.

This is my first essay here at Docudharma, and it’s a crosspost of a diary I did at DKos a few weeks ago.  I’m quite interested in furthering discussion on this topic, and though I won’t trash the other place, I’ll just say I feel confident that Dd folks are truly interested in constructive dialogue. ; – )

It seems that much of the American populace just doesn’t even question the premises for staying in Afghanistan and for ramping it up there.

Some say that our occupation of Afghanistan is “the good war”.  Dammitall, but I just don’t know what they mean, when they say this.  It’s a head scratcher. It seems as if a gazillion people heard the words “the good war” said somewhere, and then they assigned a few neurons to that, but haven’t checked back to see if the concept actually means something or if it is in working order.

Some say Obama has to keep us in Afghanistan until we get OBL.  ‘Course the search for OBL was abandoned under Unitary Executive Humpty Dumpty the First, and Obama hasn’t made getting OBL part of the plan. If getting OBL is supposed to be part of Bama’s plan, then would someone explain that to Bama, please?

Some say we have to stay there until we dismantle AQ.  But Gen. Petraeus seems to think that AQ has been pretty well run out of Afghanistan, no?

‘Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism’

The flag is not powerful in spite of its ambiguity; it is powerful because of its ambiguity. It has stood, at different times, for radical democracy, opposition to immigration, the abolition of slavery, unregulated capitalism, segregation, integration, and a hawkish war policy, among many other things.

I had a first hand view, though very young than, and like the rest of the extended family didn’t realize it, of what War does to those that serve in them, and you then have to extend that to those that live in where they occur.

I won’t go into the details but to say it was an Uncle who was one of my favorites, he was a gifted craftsman but a troubled soul. He was full of life trying to live it that way, than he suddenly snapped! He died alone in the little home he built, more the size of a shed it was supposedly to become, by the lake, shortly before I left Panama and went to ‘Nam. There were a couple of other uncles who showed the results of serving in WWII in other ways as well, and like the book and articles, it was just said “They cam back different then how they left.”. While in ‘Nam I started to understand what he might possibly had been going through, understanding what the rest of the extended family, and his friends, didn’t. And probably still do, as I’m the only one of the recent branch of the family, especially my large immediate family, till a couple of younger distant cousins kids served in Gulf War I, that has served in a combat/occupation theater.

Crossposted from Antemedius

Yesterday we saw investigative historian and journalist Gareth Porter  talk with Paul Jay of the Real News Network about the war in Afghanistan and Obama’s recent appointment of Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to replace General McKiernan as the US commander in Afghanistan.

Porter says the McChrystal appointment won’t fulfill Obama’s supposed intention of investing in a civilian surge that will “win over the population,” through “services and political programs” because during his five year service in the Joint Special Operations Command and recently as the Director of the Joint Staff, McChrystal “has only been involved in targeted killings.”

We also learned that Obama’s surge may be only a prelude to a ground invasion of Pakistan as part of ongoing imperial resource wars.

Today in part two of the interview we learn that Porter has also interviewed Graham Fuller, the CIA Station Chief in Kabul during US support for the Afghan Jihadi movement against the Soviet Union, and says that Fuller “now believes very strongly the United States has to get out. That there is no way the United States is going to be able to win, [because the US] has no understanding of the forces it has unleashed in Afghanistan.”

I think that Porter is right as far as the majority of people in the US and the world not understanding the forces unleashed in Afghanistan by the US invasion and occupation, but I also feel Porter hasn’t gone far enough in explaining the context of what is happening in Afghanistan and with Obama’s surge, and I want to highly recommend to readers a thorough reading of another recent and very detailed in depth piece from Tom Englehart and from Pepe Escobar that places the AfPak situation in the much wider geopolitical context of a desperate US attempt at world energy and resource domination: Tomgram: Pepe Escobar, Pipelineistan Goes Af-Pak.