President Obama with Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal

President Barack Obama meets with Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the new U.S. Commander for Afghanistan, in the Oval Office Tuesday, May 19, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
This official White House photograph is being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way or used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

My comment:

The best way to counter terrorism is by confronting the cause. I believe the root cause of terrorism are the fundamentally exploitative and abusive international policies of the USA. Namely - the policy of Global Dominance.

I wish for the USA to do away with this policy of economic dominance. Do away with the mentality of dominance at all levels.

I wish for people to live with each other harmoniously. I wish for people to live cooperatively and consensually with each other.

I believe that terrorism largely amounts to blowback from unjust economic policies and practices.

True security can be found through policies of cooperation and generosity, and mutual respect for the dignity and well-being of others - respect for the dignity of all people.

Crusading for a Christian Military

Democracy Now!

Matthis Chiroux Speaks about War Resistance on FOX News

Dear President Obama: Please Stop Bombing Pakistan

Stop Bombing! Stop Imperialism! Put an end to policies of global hegemony!

Obama, you say you are a friend to the American People. Prove it. Kick the corporations out of Washington D.C..

You have the power to say "no." Please. Please, it's your duty.

If government doesn't protect people and planet against the harms and abuses of powerful businesses, industries and corporations, then what or whom will? The planet and humanity must be protected.

Currently, the government of the USA is not protecting people. Currently, the government is more or less corporatist, and enabling and facilitating a system of corporate theft from the commons. The government of the USA is accomplice to social and environmental degradation.

The people and planet are not served by a government that is insufficient to the task of proper regulation against harmful economic activities. The people and planet certainly don't need a government that enables and works with corporations to promote these iniquitous controlling and imperial doctrines of hegemony.

Stop bombing Pakistan. Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan!

Stop the global resource war! The problem are policies and practices of taking by force, of taking without asking -this is imperialism.

There are answers, which include (among many other concepts, ideas and specifics) curtailment, efficient use and finding alternatives.

But please: Stop Imperialism!

Support for the Troops

I support the Troops. I support the Truth. Bush Lied. The war is illegal...

I support the soldiers of the US Military. The truth is that President Bush lied when he drove America to war based on falsely manufactured (so-called) evidence of imminent threat of attack from Iraq. Iraq did not threaten the USA (nor any other country.) The war was a pre-meditated offensive attack. A war of choice, and thusly it is illegal.

I support the action of Port Militarization Resistance. PMR seeks to oppose the militarization of our public ports, and the militarization of society as our ports are used - as the ports enable - an aggressive foreign policy of global dominance, and acts of aggression.

www.olypmr.org

Let's not put the military personnel, soldiers and troops in harm's way without justifiable cause of self-defense.

Marine in Afghanistan to US Civilians: Do what you can to get us out of here

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91881419

Here's a great segment, I was impressed by a statement from a Marine at about 4 minutes and 22 seconds into the program. The Marine says (I'm paraphrasing): My question is for the civilians. What are you doing? What are you doing to get us out of here?

Check it out for yourself.

Blowback...

Chalmers Johnson writes about Charlie Wilson's war in Afghanistan as portrayed in George Crile's book, and Tom Hanks's new movie:

go to original
...
...he never once mentions that the 'tens of thousands of fanatical Muslim fundamentalists' the CIA armed are the same people who in 1996 killed nineteen American airmen at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, bombed our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, blew a hole in the side of the U.S.S. Cole in Aden Harbor in 2000, and on September 11, 2001, flew hijacked airliners into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon."
...

[edit: here's more from Kenneth Turan of the LA Times:]

go to original
By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 21, 2007
"CHARLIE Wilson's War" is an anachronism, the wrong movie at the wrong time. Not only does it tell its tale in a style that feels dated and artificial, the story itself focuses on events that history has overtaken. The moving finger has written and moved on, and not even the combined star power of Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, writer Aaron Sorkin and director Mike Nichols can do anything about it.

Based on the bestselling book by George Crile, "Charlie Wilson's War" does tell a most unusual 1980s true story. It relates how Wilson, a pleasure-loving congressman from Texas (Hanks), joined forces with a wealthy and reactionary socialite (Roberts) and a grumpy CIA operative (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to use billions of dollars in U.S. and Saudi aid to arm Afghan mujahedin, or "freedom fighters," and oust the invading Soviet Union.

[edit]...


Though "Charlie Wilson's War" makes a few attempts near the conclusion to reference the chaos that is to come, they are too little and too late. Harder to deal with is the fact that, because Muslims around the world, as Crile notes, thought the victory in Afghanistan was the work of Allah, "we set in motion the spirit of jihad and the belief in our surrogate soldiers that, having brought down one superpower, they could just as easily take on another." The rest, as they say, is history.

The Death of Pat Tillman

Alan Bock has an interesting article about an ongoing investigation into the unusual circumstances surrounding ex-NFL star Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan.

Reports have it that Tillman had become disillusioned about the reality of the war - that the US military was unwelcome and far from pursuing the altruistic goal of bringing democracy and a better way of life. He had allegedly talked about his plans to go public upon his return from deployment.

The circumstances of his death are suspicious. Was there enemy fire in the vicinity at the time? Some say yes, some no.

But it is certainly worthy of investigation, if someone in the Army decided that it would be better not to have a high-profile and highly credible witness testify to the reality of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan.

To learn more about Tillman's death, here is a good place to start: http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=11401

NATO Kills More Civilians than Taliban

From DemocracyNow!:

UN: NATO Strikes Kill More Civilians Than Taliban
Independent tallies have confirmed the claim of an Afghan human rights group that the U.S.-led NATO force has killed more civilians than the Taliban in the first half of this year. UN figures show at least three hundred fourteen civilians died in NATO bombings this year. Two-hundred seventy-nine were killed by the Taliban. The NATO figure does not include anywhere from forty-five to eighty-civilians reportedly killed in a NATO bombing in Helman province last week. The Los Angeles Times reports Afghan police recently barred journalists from the scene of a suicide attack on a US military convoy. The police officers explained: “Don’t go close. The Americans might shoot you.”

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