Association of 34,000 Black Churches Strongly Against Drones.

Apparently, waging the war on terror using terrorist tactics is acceptable to 62% of American citizens, if, in fact, the Pew poll (left) is accurate.

Ironically, for Americans, the very idea of living in a country occupied by another nation's troops, and/or experiencing terror from the skies by  another nation's drone strikes, is unimaginable, and that may be the problem right there,  we, the people can't imagine it. Because the closest we've come to being attacked on our own soil is 9/11, and almost 12 years later, we're far from over it.  Our attitude--at least the people who approve the drone strikes--is one of being above the rule of law.  Not surprising considering the righteous "Manifest Destiny" and "American Exceptionalism" indoctrination inflicted upon us before we could speak in full sentences.

However, the National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), which is comprised of 34,000 churches representing some 15.7 million black Americans from 15 different denominations, slammed President Obama's drone policy as "evil in the Christian tradition."  If only the rest of us felt the same way.

"I do not know what to say after the pronouncement of his evil policy. This policy has led me to a life of prayer for the soul of this administration and for this president. Anyone who has anything to do with formulating a policy like this either in the Bush or Obama administration will have to answer before God one day. May God have mercy on their souls."--NCBI President Rev. Anthony Evans

Consider this.  Supposedly, when President Obama's press secretary was asked why they had killed the 16-year old son of Anwar al-Aulaqi, he responded, because he was the son of Anwar al-Aulaqi. As if that's enough to justify murder.  Sadly, as long as the order to kill comes from the executive branch--the judge, jury and executioner--even on American soil, it's not murder.

"Brennan, currently President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, is the architect and director of the program of drone missile assassinations that is run out of the White House with the personal participation of Obama. Asked squarely, “Could the Administration carry out drone strikes inside the United States?” Brennan replied, “This Administration has not carried out drone strikes inside the United States and has no intention of doing so.”

This is what is known as a non-responsive answer. It is reasonable to assume that if the answer was “no,” Brennan would simply have written, “no.” Instead, in order to avoid a giving straightforward “yes,” he answered a different question than the one that was asked.

Brennan’s answers to the written questions make clear that there was nothing accidental about his refusal to rule out drone assassinations within the United States at his February 7 confirmation hearing before the Senate committee. It was, rather, an expression of a deliberate policy adopted by the Obama White House and the military/intelligence agencies.

When asked at the hearing whether he believed that the Obama administration could carry out drone assassinations on US soil, Brennan responded that he was determined to “optimize transparency on these issues, but at the same time, optimize secrecy and the protection of our national security.” He thus completely evaded the question, and no member of the committee, Democrat or Republican, pursued the matter further.

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Cornel West Names Obama as 'War Criminal'

Princeton professor Cornel West says President Obama is not only "no messiah," he's a "war criminal." West, the prominent black academic and activist who has consistently been a harsh Obama critic, took issue with the White House's covert drone program, saying that "the chickens are coming home to roost." Appearing on Tavis Smiley's radio program on Thursday, West said: "We’ve been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people. It’s been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.”

Expectations were very high in January 2009 when Barack Obama was inaugurated...too high. Barack Obama was/is not the world's savior. However, at the very least, the expectations were that President Obama would not carry on former President Bush's Constitution shredding and military industrial complex empowering policies. Closing Guantanamo Bay, ending the war in Afghanistan, restoring habeas corpus, reversing the power grab by the executive branch, and putting a halt to the all-encompassing "big brother" surveillance grid were just a few of his campaign promises. Yet, Guantanamo Bay remains open, habeas corpus is not even close to being restored, and the all encompassing "big brother" surveillance grid grows bigger everyday. Add to that, "kill lists", undeclared wars all over the world, an escalated drone program, his unprecedented prosecution of whistle-blowers, more Wall Street bailouts, and it's as if Bush never left office. I mean, just look as some of his cabinet choices, unaccountable/un-vetted/unconfirmed czars (often labeled as policy advisers, thus failing to fall under the Freedom of Information act, not required to testify before Congress), special advisor's, and 'officers' he has chosen to come to the White House to have direct access to him.

Just a few examples:

John Holdren, science czar, a neo-Malthusian who advocates for population control using the most extreme measures, such as mandating the number of children Americans can have. He is also a proponent of 'de-developing' the US, sending its agricultural practices and technology back to the 19th century, and suggested that infants and chronically ill elderly do not fit his definition of 'human,' and therefore can be expendable.

Timothy Geithner, and Larry Summers, both deeply involved in crafting and implementing the policies that led to the 2008 meltdown. This is when I knew we were in trouble the minute Obama appointed his economic team.

Gene Sperling, a Goldman Sachs adviser appointed head of the National Economic Council, replacing Larry Summers who made millions as the economy tanked in 2008. According to the Huffington Post, "[he] has overseen monumental deregulation of the financial sector, but has also collected hefty paychecks from its leading firms."

John Brennan to be CIA director.

"I’ve known John Brennan since 1990. I worked directly for John Brennan twice. I think that he is a terrible choice to lead the CIA. I think that it’s time for the CIA to move beyond the ugliness of the post-September 11th regime, and we need someone who is going to respect the Constitution and to not be bogged down by a legacy of torture." -- John Kiriakou

There is no doubt that the Republicans have been reprehensible from the very beginning of his presidency, but he did start out with a super majority in the Senate, not to mention, it's very clear that on many issues, such as bank bailouts, social spending austerity, war and human rights violations, Obama has been front and center, pushing the hard right agenda, which, of course, the Republicans, who love to criticize Obama, stay silent.

Is he the worst president in recent times? No, but probably the most disappointing because he seemed to embody his message of "Hope and Change." But what has really changed? The rich keep getting richer, the poor keep getting poorer, and the middle class continues to shrink. In other words, keeping the wars and the profits going.

"This White House openly brags about its “Terror Tuesday” meetings in which US special forces and drones have been dispatched to and from dozens of undisclosed countries to kidnap, torture or murder thousands of people, in the case of drone strikes mostly innocents, to the cheers and jokes of cruise missile liberals like Ed Schulz and Bill Maher, who calls Obama the “black ninja president.” The potent symbol of a black face in that high place has normalized the conduct of lawless aggressive war and secretive state murder among parts of the population which had no trouble calling a crime a crime when committed by a white Republican. In that sense, the First Black President is a little bit unlike, but mostly very much like his nefarious predecessors.

It's worth noting that in the debates between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, kill-at-will drone wars, the militarization of Africa, Wall Street's immunity from prosecution, and the push to privatize and charterize public education were points upon which both candidates were in complete agreement. But if Mitt Romney were president today wouldn't many more of us be in the street about these things? Black apologists, as Davey D notes, try to shut criticism of this president down in the misguided name of black unity, and some white activists stay home because they don't want to be seen as racist whites hating on the black president. -- Bruce A. Dixon

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Remember All The Children, Mr. President.

Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans and Associate Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights posted the following:

Remember All the Children, Mr. President
Including those whose lives were destroyed by United States policies, actions and inaction.
by Bill Quigley

"Remember the 20 children who died in Newtown Connecticut.

Remember the 35 children who died in Gaza this month from Israeli bombardments.

Remember the 168 children who have been killed by US drone attacks in Pakistan since 2006.

Remember the 231 children killed in Afghanistan in the first 6 months of this year.

Remember the 400 other children in the US under the age of 15 who die from gunshot wounds each year.

Remember the 921 children killed by US air strikes against insurgents in Iraq.

Remember the 1,770 US children who die each year from child abuse and maltreatment.

Remember the 16,000 children who die each day around the world from hunger.

These tragedies must end.

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Once Again the U.S. is Fomenting War.

The United States is sending heavy weapons--mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles -- from Libya to jihadist Syrian rebels.  Not that this should come as any surprise considering our history of covertly facilitating upheaval, unrest and destabilization of nations, from Operation Gladio, which, controlled by the CIA and Britain’s MI6, orchestrated terrorist attacks in Western Europe, which were blamed on Communist entities to Operation Cyclone, the program to arm and finance the Mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989, to Iran-Contra where the Reagan administration used proceeds from arms sale to Iran to fund the right-wing Contras in an effort to overturn Nicaragua’s democratically elected, Sandanista government. 

"The Americans have bought some of the weapons from the stockpiles of Muammar Gadaffi, the Libyan dictator killed last year. They include SA-7 missiles, which can be used to shoot down aircraft.

According to Fox News, Ambassador Chris Stevens, murdered on the anniversary of 9/11, while on a highly secretive U.S. mission in Benghazi was really there to "to negotiate a weapons transfer in an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists."

Moreover, supposedly, leaked documents from the Saudi Interior Ministry show that criminals convicted of drug trafficking, murder and rape have been given a choice to fight in Syria. Documents show that 105 Yemenis, 21 Palestinians, 212 Saudis, 96 Sudanese, 254 Syrians, 82 Jordanians, 68 Somalis, 32 Afghans, 194 Egyptians, 203 Pakistanis, 23 Iraqis, 44 Kuwaitis had taken up the offer of a death row pardon.

After arming Libyan rebels and taking out their leader, we're now arming Syrian rebels.  Why are we supporting Islamic extremists--the very people the U.S. government pegs as terrorists--to overthrow Assad? 

Again, this is nothing new. The not-so-mainstream media has been reporting this for a very long time.

Links:

'Annex' hit in Libya terror attack was CIA post, officials say

CIA Takes Heat for Role in Libya

Rep: 'Blissful silence' from Pentagon on questions over arms shipments from Libya to Syria

NATO-backed terrorists along Turkish-Syrian border establish Al Qaeda-style "Virtue, Vice Police," heralding the West's true designs for Syria.

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24/7 Terror: Living Under Drones

Living Under Drones is a new report by human rights law experts at Stanford and New York University. This report counters the narrative presented by mainstream media. The video below briefly summarizes some of their findings.

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More Soldiers Dying From Suicide than Combat.

Suicides are sky-rocketing among the 1.4 million active-duty military personnel , averaging one per day since the beginning of 2012, the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war. That's not counting all the soldiers who have come home. Once they are discharged, they immediately begin falling through the cracks, so much so that it’s doubtful there are any accurate numbers on suicide rates among veterans of recent wars. One thing we do know is that the numbers are very high.

The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan — about 50 percent more — according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press.The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of 2012 far outnumber U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan — about 50 percent more — according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press.

Kim Ruocco, widow of Marine Maj. John Ruocco, a helicopter pilot who hanged himself in 2005 between Iraq deployments, said he was unable to bring himself to go for help.

"He was so afraid of how people would view him once he went for help," she said in an interview at her home in suburban Boston. "He thought that people would think he was weak, that people would think he was just trying to get out of redeploying or trying to get out of service, or that he just couldn't hack it - when, in reality, he was sick. He had suffered injury in combat and he had also suffered from depression and let it go untreated for years. And because of that, he's dead today."

One man responded to the article:

I was very moved by this article. Being a soldier who was made a example after I reported I was having problems and suicidal. The military has not changed since my discharge 20 years ago.Recently I was forced to use the military confidential line and was first hung up on, then put on hold, and finally told to call back Monday. This was a crisis line. To my horror after obtaining a copy of my medical records for treatment and services outside the VA medical system. There was a note by my doctor saying I made a call and was "Babbleing". I have still not been seen nor helped with this problem(s).That General lied, and the VA doesnt care. Just pick up the phone and call the confidential number. I cannot explain the cost of my reporting being suicidal as a active duty soldier. But it ruined my life. If your in the service your best off doing it and dont live as I am and have been.Thank you for this article and getting the word out. I will be more than happy to share my medical records publicly for any doubters.

Is it any wonder that so many take their lives after they find out they're fighting a global war for corporate plunder by those who profit from death and destruction?

War Is A Racket - Smedley Butler, 1935

Who Pays The Bills?

[T]he soldier pays the biggest part of the bill.

If you don't believe this, visit the American cemeteries on the battlefields abroad. Or visit any of the veteran's hospitals in the United States. On a tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at the time of this writing, I have visited eighteen government hospitals for veterans. In them are a total of about 50,000 destroyed men -- men who were the pick of the nation eighteen years ago. The very able chief surgeon at the government hospital; at Milwaukee, where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me that mortality among veterans is three times as great as among those who stayed at home.

Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. There they were remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the order of the day. They were put shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. We used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed.

Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about face" ! This time they had to do their own readjustment, sans [without] mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and sans nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them any more. So we scattered them about without any "three-minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades. Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed, mentally, because they could not make that final "about face" alone.

In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana, 1,800 of these boys are in pens! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around outside the buildings and on the porches. These already have been mentally destroyed. These boys don't even look like human beings. Oh, the looks on their faces! Physically, they are in good shape; mentally, they are gone.

There are thousands and thousands of these cases, and more and more are coming in all the time. The tremendous excitement of the war, the sudden cutting off of that excitement -- the young boys couldn't stand it.

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Drone Warfare: Culture of Secrecy Intensifies

Journalists, activists, human rights advocates, etc., gathered for a major international summit on drone warfare. The summit was organized by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Reprieve (CODEPINK).

According to Jeremy Scahill, “the real death panels that we have in this country were unleashed on our own citizens. Republicans like to talk about death panels having to do with health care. President Obama is the one that is operating secret death panels...[and] "the culture of secrecy has intensified" under the Obama administration’s expansion of the covert drone wars in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

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Afghan War: Heroin Increase From 185 Tons a Year to 5,800 Tons

Two wars are being fought simultaneously in Afghanistan: the "war on drugs" and the "war on terror". Both wars, a "harvest of hypocrisy".  Not only are we losing the "war on drugs", opium - the crop used to make heroin and other drugs - production by Afghan farmers rose between 2001 and 2011 from just 185 tons to a staggering 5,800 tons. That's 3200%! The latest UN figures indicate that the output of heroin increased by 61% in Afghanistan, last year, alone, despite claims that we invaded Afghanistan to curb the production of drugs.

Ironically, the Taliban had overseen a significant fall in heroin production in the months before the invasion. Their leader Mullah Mohammed Omar - collaborating with the UN - had decreed that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns.

As a result of this ban, opium poppy cultivation was reduced by 91 per cent from the previous year's estimate of 82,172 hectares.

The ban was so effective that Helmand Province, which had accounted for more than half of this production, recorded no poppy cultivation during the 2001 season.

You see, the US wants and needs a nonstop war on drugs abroad as an excuse to invade countries they seek to control for geostrategic purposes. That is the real, but hidden agenda of the international war on drugs. In other words, failure = success.

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Point. Click. Kill. US Drone Strikes Target Civilians in Coward's War.

It's no secret that Nobel Peace laureate, President Obama has increased the frequency of drone strikes well beyond what former President Bush did, as they have been used with regularity, since he took office.  From the battlefields of Iraq, to Afghanistan, well situated for oil and gas pipelines, to tribal areas in Pakistan, from the comfort of their environmentally controlled offices, military forces, and the CIA are employing the use of drones with impunity.  According to the Brookings Institute, the US has 7,000 drones in operation and 12,000 more on the ground.

One military robotics researcher told Peter Singer, the author of Wired for War, “We modeled the controller after the PlayStation because that’s what these eighteen-, nineteen-year-old Marines have been playing with pretty much all of their lives.”

Just one week ago, January 31, President Obama (see video below) made the claim that the drone strikes, under his administration - 260 - have "not caused a huge number of of civilian casualties", and he went on to exalt the exceptional proficiency, and precision of unmanned aircraft, despite massive evidence to the contrary. Since 2009, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed including more than 175 children. Is that a huge number?  Well, imagine it's American citizens who have died as a result of another country's drone strikes.



However, the huge numbers of civilian casualties, is only part of the story.  According to a recent report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, civilian rescuers are being targeted! At least 50 civilians died as a result of follow-up strikes.

The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.

The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a “targeted, focused effort” that “has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties”. . . .

A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.

Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.

There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.

Why is it a coward's war?

Precisely because we are arbitrarily waging undeclared, trillions-of-dollars, so-called  "wars", without actually having any "skin in the game." Engaging state-of-the-art stealthy pilotless vehicles that murder people - halfway around the world - by joy-stick without any risk to ourselves is cowardly and contemptible. Point. Click. Kill. How long  before our own enemies have the same capability? How long before the decision to kill is ceded by a machine (talk about accountability issues)?

Related Links:

Afghan civilian death toll reaches record high

The civilian death toll for the war in Afghanistan reached a record high last year with 3,021 deaths, according to the United Nations.

The number killed rose by 8% last year – the fifth consecutive rise – with a further 4,507 civilians wounded, the UN report said. Many were killed by roadside bombs or in suicide attacks, with Taliban-affiliated militants responsible for three-quarters of the deaths.

Read more...

Video-Game-Style Warfare: Terror From the Skies.

How can you create a war on terror when you're the biggest terrorist of all? The U.S. military and the CIA are terrorizing the skies with more and more unmanned missile-armed drones in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. To be sure, it won't be long before America is added to that list.

America’s Secret Empire of Drone Bases: Its Full Extent Revealed for the First Time

A ground-breaking investigation examines the most secret aspect of America's shadowy drone wars and maps out a world of hidden bases dotting the globe.

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Drone Slaughter: the Video-Game Massacres

War, what is it good for? Apparently, it's good fun. That is, if you're fortunate enough to call yourself an American. Even the Department of Homeland Security is having a blast, as it tries to keep up with "Snooki", launching its  first reality TV show, "Inside DHS," that will, no doubt, present the illusion of a  "veil-lifting look at the government division that fights terrorism".  However, if you live in Pakistan ( Afghanistan, or any other targeted nation),  America's "persistent violation of Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty by the unmanned US war-planes" may be driving you into the arms of the evil Taliban.

Despite all the "fun" we're having over here, people are dying over there.  The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reported that US drones killed 957 people, injuring another 383, in Pakistan, in 2010.  (The US does not even bother keeping track of the number of civilians killed by drones. After the American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information request with the Department of Defense, the department said it does not compile statistics about the total number of civilians killed by drones, which are unmanned aircraft). So, yes, the Pakistani population is angry.  After all, they do not get a chance to participate in the fun and games.

But, based 7,000 miles away, the "safe and sound" gamers, who operate these drones,  are having a great time.   

"The US military are now so addicted to the use of these drones they call them "army crack". One hit and you are hooked they say. Ground forces now don’t want to leave their bases in Iraq and Afghanistan without those "eyes in the sky" above their heads."

Links:

High School Drop Out Turns Drone Pilot Thanks to Computer Games

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Treasonous Oil Spikes

It's hard to rile up the Snooki-obsessed American public. Three wars, the continued plundering of the US economy by the ruling class, growing unemployment, and the emerging "security-industrial complex," aren't enough to wake up the Snooki-watchers. But, do you know what will? The skyrocketing cost at the pumps. And, whether they know it or not, with good reason.

As the "humanitarian" war in Libya pushes oil - the lifeblood of the US economy - above $112 barrel, with no immediate prospect of relief, gasoline prices, will most likely hit $5 a gallon, shortly. Here is the thing. It's even worse than most Americans realize. You see, thanks to globalization, rather than those oil/gasoline profits returning to the stream of purchasing power, investment, and/or capital-building, therefore, possibly adding redemptive value to the much loathed price increase -  insofar as those profits might serve to create jobs, and increase consumption -   a good portion of those profits have left/will leave the country, thus, fleecing the US taxpayers once more.

Therefore, not only does this price surge - especially when you add in the rising costs of food, and other petroleum products - make it even tougher for average Americans to make ends meet in this "more fragile than reported" economy, the rising cost of petroleum will suck approximately $300 billion out of the US economy, according to economist Bob Chapman.

Locals gathered in front of the hotel that will host the meeting between a delegation of African leaders and Libyan rebels on today to broker a ceasefire between Qadhafi and the opposition, but rebel leadership rejected the plan because it did not stipulate the Libyan leader would step down.

The crowd in this photo looks like it could be CGI.  But, of course, it isn't. 

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Bombing Civilians to Save Them?

"Nearly 100 civilians have been killed so far in the airstrikes launched by major Western powers," Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said in the capital Tripoli on Thursday. Really? I wonder how many civilians are dead, almost three days later.

What sort of "humanitarian bombing" campaign kills or injures far more than it saves?   I mean, we're told that Qadhafi forces are bombing the country's hospitals. But, where is the supporting evidence?  Why do we accept what the mainstream media reports as if they're not controlled by the same powers bombing whoever they deem,  profitable?

"This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years. Starting with Iraq, Syria, then Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off, Iran." -- General Wesley Clark, March 2, 2007

Links:

Canadian pilots abort bombing over risk to civilians

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Evil in Our Name: Up the Ladder of Collective Responsibility

The body of Gul Mudin, the son of a farmer, killed on 1/15/10. A member of the "kill team" is posing behind him. Der SPIEGEL published 4 photos from the hundreds, possibly even thousands of images and videos it has seen. 

Try, for a moment, to forget everything the corporately owned mainstream propaganda machine spits out, and take a look at the big picture of America, right now.

Our nation's infrastructure is crumbling. Trillions of dollars has disappeared from our treasury. The poverty rate continues to escalate. Americans are losing their homes at an alarming rate due to systemic fraud, so massive, that it's virtually incomprehensible. The middle-class is gradually disappearing. Domestic unemployment remains near 10% (or triple that, if you add in all of the unemployed adults capable of work, yet not fully employed). Over 50 million Americans lack sufficient health care. Billionaire banksters and corporate elites continue to reap reward for plundering our nation's economy, growing wealthier by the minute. Meanwhile, our government, bypassing Congress, in violation of our Constitution, under the guise of saving others, continues to invade one resource-rich country after another, killing and horrifically injuring millions of innocent civilians...and sometimes, for the pure joy of it.

Consider for one moment, how we, the people would react if any other country dared to do to us what we continue to do to them. Imagine the terror of living everyday, surrounded by death squads, house raids, checkpoints, detentions, curfews, unmanned predator drones constantly flying overhead, ready to fire at anything that these soulless machines deem suspicious, and the constant flow of blood in our streets. Imagine the terror of knowing that thousands of fully armed foreign soldiers and mercenaries - trained killers - roam our soil, free to do whatever they want, with impunity. Now, who are the terrorists, again?

So, it should not come as any surprise that some of our troops are participating in monstrously evil acts for fun.  Hundreds, perhaps thousands of horrific photos of our soldiers killing unarmed civilians, otherwise known as "free kills" in soldier speak, were finally released on Der Spiegel, yesterday.   But, the Daily Censored reported on this back in September of 2010.  One has to wonder why it took so long to come to our attention. 

As one person commented, this is not a single occurrence...these atrocious acts are ongoing, as fatigued soldiers, wrapped up in layer upon layer of protective covering, no longer differentiate between civilians and combatants - who, in their indoctrinated eyes, are considered less than human, in this "kill or be killed" environment.

"It's not just a couple of soldiers, my nephew is in the army and is on his 4th time over there, he's seen too many of US soldiers making free kills just for the fun of it. There's no such just 2 individual soldiers doing this. It's happening more often than you might think. That's the reality and it's not funny anymore."

No, this type of "group evil"...this blood lust flows out, like the demons inside Pandora's box,  from maintaining a constant atmosphere drenched in the pathology of war. Moreover, these illegal wars are not fought for the "greater good", they are created to line the pockets, and to increase the power of the predators and parasites who reside at the top of the global food chain.   When profit, power and status trump  human life, exhibited in the excess of materialism that pervades American culture, barbaric acts, like the ones that these soldiers (who just happened to be caught) committed, will continue to escalate, as it is an integral part of warfare that is perpetuated only to feed the greedy beast of empire.

The bottom line is that our hands are smeared in the blood of tens of thousands of human casualties. After all, not only are we aware of all of the wars in our name, we also know that the military very often serves as a dumping ground for the most incorrigible of our nation's children. It is we, the people, in effect, who choose, employ, and pay America's soldiers to do our dirty work...our killing for us.

"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening, they want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." -- Frederick Douglass, 1857

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Unnecessary Suffering In Our Name.

In an interview with a researcher for CIVIC, a civilian victim of a drone strike in North Waziristan carried out during the Obama administration recounted how his home had been visited by Taliban troops asking for lunch. He said he had agreed out of fear of refusing them.

The very next day, he recalled, the house was destroyed by a missile from a drone, killing his only son.

The CIVIC researcher, Christopher Rogers, investigated nine of the 139 drone strikes carried out since the beginning of 2009 and found that a total of 30 civilians had been killed in those strikes, including 14 women and children.

If that average rate of 3.33 civilian casualties for each drone bombing is typical of all the strikes since the rules for the strikes were loosened in early 2008, it would suggest that roughly 460 civilians have been killed in the drone campaign during that period.

Distracted by our busy lives, sheltered by our mainstream media, and free from the brutality of war, it's so easy to forget that real "flesh and blood" innocence suffer everyday as a result of ongoing wars that our young men and women risk their own lives to fight, and, all in our name.   Moreover, indiscriminately, unmanned drone bombings kill more innocent civilians - men, women and children (3.3 for every bombing) - than leading officials in al Qaeda.

So,  are these wars, that are further bankrupting our country, even remotely necessary?

Well, no. In fact, according to national security experts, waging war in the Middle East weakens national security and creates increases in  terrorism.   Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley was quoted as saying, "government officials were trying to create an atmosphere of fear in which Americans would give them more power".  And former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski told the Senate, the war on terror is "mythical historical narrative."

But, don't take my word.  Research for yourself.

 "All this was inspired by the principle - which is quite true in itself - that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so are brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes." - Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf , 1925, Ch. 10

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Hope Knows an Injustice Visited on our Neighbor is an Injustice Visited on Us All.

In Pakistan, civilians have no choice but to cope with a drone war that has turned merciless, as  unprecedented’ drone assaults - 58 Strikes in 102 days - continues on without an official figure of how many civilians have died as a result of the unmanned missile strikes.  Strikes, which President Obama has more than doubled since the remote attacks started, despite the United Nation's urging to rein in , the "once-limited, once-covert program to off senior terrorist leaders that has morphed into a full-scale — if undeclared — war in Pakistan".

So, now, that we can do war by remote control, it's easy for us, as Americans, nestled in our mostly taken-for-granted creature comforts, to keep a positive attitude and pretend that that is enough to save our country...the world from those who want to take it over with no thought for anyone but  themselves.  It's not enough.

However, thankfully, there are brave people who realize that something must be done.  One of those people is Chris Hedges, who demonstrated the courage to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, to vindicate the rights of all who are left desolate,” and who consequently, was arrested yesterday, along with 130 other people, including Daniel Ellsberg, at the Veterans for Peace White House Civil Disobedience to End War event.

In the video below, Hedges gives a speech on how to keep hope alive, and it will not be kept alive, in his words, by "trusting in the ultimate goodness of Barack Obama".



Chis Hedges' speech:

"Hope, from now on, will look like this.

Hope is not trusting in the ultimate goodness of Barack Obama, who, like Herod of old, sold out his people. It will not be realized by chanting packaged campaign slogans or attempting to influence the democratic party.  It will not come through our bankrupt liberal institutions, from the press, nor from the withered stump that is the labor movement.

Hope will only come now when we physically defy the violence of the state.  All who resist. All who are here today keep hope alive.  All who succumb to fear, despair, and apathy become an enemy of hope.  They become in their passivity, agents of injustice. If the enemies of hope are finally victorious, the poison of violence will become not only the language of power but the language of opposition. And those who resist with nonviolence are in times like these the thin line of defense between a civil society and its disintegration.

Hope has a cost. Hope is not comfortable or easy. Hope requires personal risk. It is not about the right attitude or peace of mind. Hope is an action. Hope is doing something. The more futile, the more useless, the more irrelevant and incomprehensible an act of rebellion is, the vaster and the more potent hope becomes. Hope never makes sense. Hope is weak, unorganized and absurd. Hope, which is always nonviolent, exposes in its powerlessness the lies, fraud and coercion employed by the state. Hope knows that an injustice visited on our neighbor is an injustice visited on us all. Hope posits that people are drawn to the good by the good. This is the secret of hope’s power and it is why it can never finally be defeated. Hope demands for others what we demand for ourselves. Hope does not separate us from them. Hope sees in our enemy our own face.

Hope is not for the practical and the sophisticated, the cynics and the complacent, the defeated and the fearful. Hope is what the corporate state, which saturates our airwaves with lies, seeks to obliterate. Hope is what our corporate overlords are determined to crush. Be afraid, they tell us. Surrender your liberties to us so we can make the world safe from terror. Don’t resist. Embrace the alienation of our cheerful conformity. Buy our products. Without them you are worthless. Become our brands. Do not look up from your electronic hallucinations to think. No. Above all do not think. Obey.

The powerful do not understand hope. Hope is not part of their vocabulary. They speak in the cold, dead words of national security, global markets, electoral strategy, staying on message, image and money. The powerful protect their own. They divide the world into the damned and the blessed, the patriots and the enemy, the rich and the poor. They insist that extinguishing lives in foreign wars or in our prison complexes is a form of human progress. They cannot see that the suffering of a child in Kandahar or a child in the blighted urban pocket of our nation's capitol diminishes and impoverishes us all. They are deaf, dumb and blind to hope. Those addicted to power, enthralled by self-exaltation, cannot decipher the words of hope any more than most of us can decipher hieroglyphics. Hope to Wall Street bankers and politicians, to the masters of war and commerce, is not practical. It is gibberish. It means nothing. And this is because they kneel before the idols of greed and money.

If we resist, and carry out acts, no matter how small, of open defiance, hope will not be extinguished. If all we accomplish today is to assure a grieving mother in Baghdad or Afghanistan, a young man or woman crippled physically and emotionally by the hammer blows of war that he or she is not alone, our act will be successful, but hope cannot be sustained if it cannot be seen. Any act of rebellion, any physical defiance of those who make war, of those who perpetuate corporate greed, and are responsible for state crimes, anything that seeks to draw the good to the good, nourishes our souls and holds out the possibility that we can touch and transform the souls of others. Hope affirms that which we must affirm. And every act that imparts hope is a victory in itself.

Defenseless under the night

Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame.

Links:

Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) - Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict works on behalf of war victims by advocating that warring parties recognize and help the civilians they harm. CIVIC supports the principle that it is never acceptable for a warring party to ignore civilian suffering.

In 2005, CIVIC’s founder Marla Ruzicka was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomb while advocating for families of victims. CIVIC honors her legacy and strives to sustain her vision.

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Twin Archetype: Mythic Union of Opposites

Throughout the history of mythology, twins appear, representing polarity, duality or opposing principles, within what is essentially, a united structure: Good/evil, light/darkness, masculine/feminine, introvert/extrovert, etc. These dualities power the circulatory process so crucial to the eternal cycle of renewal and the cyclic nature of our universe, thus, always a center of spiritual force.

The 'horns' (bull) were a sacred symbol of the Minoan religion. It was this "corner of the Aegean that saw the rise, nearly 4,000 years ago, of the first high civilization of Europe, the prelude to the Homeric age and to the full noonday of classical Greece that was to follow". Like the sacred 'horns', the sacred 'towers', gave an asymmetrical appearance, as they were not actually side by side on the same axis, often portrayed as one appearing taller than the other.

Today, 4,000 years later, the bull is still sacred. He represents virile strength, massive power, stubbornness, and destruction. The ultimate "blessing" of our one true religion, capitalism, is the bull market; the twin towers (horns), emblematic of - amongst the numerous other meanings interwoven into it - our might and trade.

'Leaving the waters of the splendid East, the sun leapt up into the firmament to bring light to the immortals and to men who plough the earth and perish.' - Homer, Odyssey, Book III

He came back,
This time for me.
On the 110th floor I was so close to God
I could almost grab his beard.
Never before has heaven been this close to hell.
I can feel its fire on the floors below
Raising ash and paper and smoke
Thick as Satan’s laughter.
At the window, shattered,
I look for salvation and he tempts me,
Dares me to jump,
Whispering a psalm in my ear
He spits as he speaks:
“He will bid his angels watch over you.
With their hands they will support you.”
I mumble “Amen,”
Close my eyes and sense the rush of air.
I cannot breathe until I finally feel
Those hands of angels
Hard as cement against my face.
-- By Doug Seubert

Funeral for Staff Sgt. Marcus Golczynski. Christian, Golczynski's son receives flag from Marine Lt. Col. Ric Thompson. Photographer Aaron Thompson

8/19/09 Paul Pickett of Minden La., U.S. Army's Apache Company, 2nd Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, covers injured soldier as helicopter lands to evacuate wounded after armored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan's Wardak Province. (AP Photo/David Goldman) #

Links:

Perspective On 9/11 And The Invasions Of Iraq and Afghanistan

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What Happened to Al-Qaeda's Spreading Tentacles of Terror?

If I recall correctly, it wasn't all that long ago that the mainstream media and government officials reported Al-Qaeda as this powerful multinational terrorist organization with endless financial resources, and enough military power to threaten our very existence.

However, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict, stated at the 2010 Global Strategic Review that the Al-Qaeda threat is greatly exaggerated.   I guess so, considering there are only a few hundred Al-Qaeda left.

"I think at most, we're looking at maybe 50 to 100, maybe less. There's no question that the main location of Al Qaeda is in tribal areas of Pakistan." -- Leon Panetta telling ABC's Jake Tapper on June 27, 2010

“There are a hundred, at most, Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. There are, according to CIA, about 300 in Pakistan. They are on that border. The three hundred are around one side of the border, in the mountains, and the hundred are on the other side. What difference does it make which side of the border they are on? Should we spend $100 billion a year and all these lives to keep them from moving twenty miles over? I don’t think so.” --  Robert Blackwill, deputy US National Security Advisor in 2003-2004

Yet, just last week, according to a new report from a panel of top national security experts, Al-Qaeda poses a changing threat to America. Not diminished...changing. Supposedly, they're going to "flood us with multiple threats from a diverse array of adversaries...from shootings to car bombs to simultaneous suicide attacks to attempted in-flight bombings of passenger aircraft."

As one person asked in response to the Paranoid Parents Guide, "Will Stoned Snipers from Al-Qaeda Kidnap Your Kids?"  Apparently so, even though in addition to the 40,000 international troops in Afghanistan, we've sent 100,000 troops, outnumbering them 14,000:1.  Al-Qaeda must have super-powers.

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Wikileaks Julian Assange: Hero, Egomaniac or a Little of Both?

Daniel Ellsberg, the prime player in the release of the Pentagon Papers  in 1971, who was a true hero, not only because he exposed the truth of the Vietnam war, but because he did so with the knowledge he could face the rest of his life in prison is a fan of Wikileaks.

John Nichols of Capital Times interviewed Daniel Ellsburg last month.  He said that "Ellsburg is a fan of WikiLeaks, in particular, and whistle-blowers, in general. He argues that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “is serving our democracy and serving our rule of law precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations, which are not laws in most cases, in this country.”

“I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public.” -- Daniel Ellsberg as he surrendered to authorities in 1971

Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, like Ellsburg, exposed 92,000 documents that may call into question America’s policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan. Assange also believes he and/or Wikileaks may be in danger, as Wikileak's servers are located in different countries, and there is no headquarters. As for Assange, he never stays in one place, depending on the goodwill of people around the world to lend him a sofa to sleep.



Is Wikileaks, as it claims,  "a multi-jurisdictional organization to protect internal dissidents, whistleblowers, journalists and bloggers who face legal or other threats related to publishing" whose  primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East... assistance to people of all nations who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations?

Or as others claim, is Wikileaks  part of a U.S. cyber-warfare and computer espionage operations?  Or a CIA front?  A stalking horse for George Soros? Next to secrecy, authoritativeness is the most dangerous to an open society, and Wikileaks "sells" both.

In January 2007, John Young, who runs cryptome.org, a site that publishes a wealth of sensitive and classified information, left Wikileaks, claiming the operation was a CIA front. Young also published some 150 email messages sent by Wikileaks activists on cryptome. They include a disparaging comment about this editor by Wikileaks Dr. Julian Assange. Assange lists as one of his professions "hacker." His German co-founder of Wikileaks uses a pseudonym, "Daniel Schmitt."

"Those who get the truth to the American people show better judgment in putting it out than the people who keep it secret from the American people.” - Daniel Ellburg

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Remember the Fallen

CNN World list the names of every single casualty including a picture of the fallen, his or her name, age, unit, hometown, and the details of how he or she died. There is also a section listing all POW/MIA, with the same information as the casualty reports.

Afghanistan

There have been 1,523 coalition deaths -- 926 Americans, 11 Australians, one Belgian, 235 Britons, 133 Canadians, three Czech, 28 Danes, 21 Dutch, six Estonians, one Finn, 36 French, 31 Germans, two Hungarians, 22 Italians, three Latvian, one Lithuanian, four Norwegians, 15 Poles, two Portuguese, 11 Romanians, one South Korean, 26 Spaniards, two Swedes and two Turks -- in the war on terror as of November 30, 2009, according to a CNN count. Below are the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors whose deaths have been reported by their nation's governments. The list also includes two U.S. Defense Department civilian employees. The troops died in support of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom or the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. At least 4,565 U.S. personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.

Iraq

There have been 4,687 coalition deaths -- 4,370 Americans, two Australians, one Azerbaijani, 179 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, five Georgians, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, three Latvians, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, one South Korean, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the Iraq war as of November 30, 2009, according to a CNN count. The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country's governments. The list also includes 13 U.S. Defense Department civilian employees. At least 31,572 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.

POW/MIA:

Two U.S. soldiers are currently listed as Missing-Captured or Duty Status -- Whereabouts Unknown by the Pentagon as of December 1, 2009.

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