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"When president Bush was asked about the terror that America brings to other countries, he told the addressing reporter "dont worry about that.". He should have said "Dont worry about PVT H., He's doing just fine.". Because after all, I am now part of the terror that America has brought to Afghanistan. Thats me, sitting behind the machine gun with the muzzle that passes by the faces of so many innocent people. Thats me smashing the windshields of "incompliant" jingle truck drivers who's only trespass is not understanding the cursing I use to direct them off the road. Thats me, with my sling shot, shooting little kids who throw rocks even though I would only do the same thing in their position. Thats me, terror. What America claims to fight, is what I do."
This is on the Bring Them Home Now blog under the topic heading "Sound Off--scroll down."
Here is what the Mom said to introduce her son's blog entry:
I've been a conservative Republican as long as I can remember and initially supported this war, standing alongside my fellow Republicans thinking I was morally superior for fighting for "freedom."
How wrong I was! I can only say: Forgive me. I need my son's forgiveness first and foremost as he is stationed in Afghanistan, serving a country that doesn't care about freedom....only dominance and oppression. If everyone in our country could see this war through the eyes of our soldiers, they would change their minds too. Here is the blog from my son that CHANGED MY MIND!
SIRATYST (Stuff I Read and Thought You Should Too) -- “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” (Calgacus, as quoted by Tacitus, Agricola 30-31)"
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Stan Goff to the Troops In Iraq
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Hold On To Your Humanity--(written in November 2003, but reprised now for obvious reasons on Stan's blog "Feral Scholar")
"So here is my message to you. You will do what you have to do to survive, however you define survival, while we do what we have to do to stop this thing. But don't surrender your humanity. Not to fit in. Not to prove yourself. Not for an adrenaline rush. Not to lash out when you are angry and frustrated. Not for some ticket-punching fucking military careerist to make his bones on. Especially not for the Bush-Cheney Gas & Oil Consortium."
"The big bosses are trying to gain control of the world's energy supplies to twist the arms of future economic competitors. That's what's going on, and you need to understand it, then do what you need to do to hold on to your humanity. The system does that; tells you you are some kind of hero action figures, but uses you as gunmen. They chump you."
"So here is my message to you. You will do what you have to do to survive, however you define survival, while we do what we have to do to stop this thing. But don't surrender your humanity. Not to fit in. Not to prove yourself. Not for an adrenaline rush. Not to lash out when you are angry and frustrated. Not for some ticket-punching fucking military careerist to make his bones on. Especially not for the Bush-Cheney Gas & Oil Consortium."
"The big bosses are trying to gain control of the world's energy supplies to twist the arms of future economic competitors. That's what's going on, and you need to understand it, then do what you need to do to hold on to your humanity. The system does that; tells you you are some kind of hero action figures, but uses you as gunmen. They chump you."
Olympia Councilman: They're Doing Everything They Can to Stop This War
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Councilman TJ Johnson about the protestors:
"They're thinking of everything they can to stop this war, and it still continues, even through our downtown," he said.
From The Olympian Newspaper
"They're thinking of everything they can to stop this war, and it still continues, even through our downtown," he said.
From The Olympian Newspaper
Haditha: It Starts at the Top
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Robert Parry, in a very clear exposition of war crimes, implicates most politicians, but mostly Commander in Thief, in the massacre:
"Pumped-up by Bush’s false claims linking Iraq to 9/11 and his later warnings about al-Qaeda's scheme for a global terrorist empire, U.S. soldiers have charged into Iraqi towns and cities with revenge on their minds.Bush thus put both American soldiers and the Iraqi people in harm’s way. In the three-plus years of war, nearly 2,500 U.S. soldiers have died along with tens of thousands of Iraqis. Thousands more have been grievously maimed. As the laws of war require the punishment of any individual soldier who murders civilians, international principles also call for holding accountable their superiors – both military and political – who contribute to the crime."
"In that sense, the atrocity at Haditha – and the tens of thousands of other unnecessary deaths in Iraq – can be laid at the door of official Washington, where some Democrats and nearly all Republicans voted to authorize the invasion and where leading news organizations uncritically transmitted administration propaganda to the American people."
"But the principal blame must rest at the feet of George W. Bush, the self-proclaimed “war president” who considers himself beyond the bounds of any law. In that larger sense, Haditha and all the other carnage in Iraq can be viewed as Bush’s My Lai."
"Pumped-up by Bush’s false claims linking Iraq to 9/11 and his later warnings about al-Qaeda's scheme for a global terrorist empire, U.S. soldiers have charged into Iraqi towns and cities with revenge on their minds.Bush thus put both American soldiers and the Iraqi people in harm’s way. In the three-plus years of war, nearly 2,500 U.S. soldiers have died along with tens of thousands of Iraqis. Thousands more have been grievously maimed. As the laws of war require the punishment of any individual soldier who murders civilians, international principles also call for holding accountable their superiors – both military and political – who contribute to the crime."
"In that sense, the atrocity at Haditha – and the tens of thousands of other unnecessary deaths in Iraq – can be laid at the door of official Washington, where some Democrats and nearly all Republicans voted to authorize the invasion and where leading news organizations uncritically transmitted administration propaganda to the American people."
"But the principal blame must rest at the feet of George W. Bush, the self-proclaimed “war president” who considers himself beyond the bounds of any law. In that larger sense, Haditha and all the other carnage in Iraq can be viewed as Bush’s My Lai."
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Was U.S. Ever "The City on the Hill?"
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Guess we know what that hill is made of...
"-- More than a half-century after hostilities ended in Korea, a document from the war's chaotic early days has come to light _ a letter from the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, informing the State Department that American soldiers would shoot refugees approaching their lines."
From the Washington Post via Antiwar.com
John Winthrop's Poem: "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. "
"-- More than a half-century after hostilities ended in Korea, a document from the war's chaotic early days has come to light _ a letter from the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, informing the State Department that American soldiers would shoot refugees approaching their lines."
From the Washington Post via Antiwar.com
John Winthrop's Poem: "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. "
Democratic Leadership Council: To the Right of the Repugs on Iraq
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"The timing of this proposal for extending the US occupation of Iraq could not be worse. Last week, Tony Blair went to Baghdad where he informed the Iraqis that he and George Bush will commence the withdrawal of 35,000 troops from Iraq by the end of this year. If the policy outlined in With All Our Might were adopted, Democrats would be far to the right of the Republicans. That is correct. Mr. From and his staff are actually advocating that the Democrats move to a more hawkish, more right-wing, more neoconservative position on Iraq than that occupied by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld or Condoleezza Rice. Is that any way to run a political opposition? Is that anyway to win an election in 2006?"
Very interesting analysis of the DLC's marriage to pro-Zionist policies. FROM COUNTERPUNCH.
Very interesting analysis of the DLC's marriage to pro-Zionist policies. FROM COUNTERPUNCH.
About Chavez: Believe the MSM or Her Lying Eyes
Monday, May 29, 2006
A Memorial Day Elegy to Those Who Ducked
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"But in my opinion, what makes this latest craven breed of prestige parasites particularly loathsome is that once off stage and out of frame, they will insidiously cut VA benefits in favor of corporate welfare and tax cuts for billionaires. The case for contempt rests on the undeniable fact that they spooked us into war against the wrong country. In plush ideological laboratories, senior slime artists will sink their fangs into the broken bodies of war dead, drain the unwitting corpses of the last drops of dignity, and then parade around glowing with the stolen glory. The final exhibit in this disgusting series is that with distended yellow-bellies now camouflaged red, white, and blue by that theft, they will commence to discredit and destroy any veteran, living or dead, who won't expedite the revolting neocon-authored actions hurting the very soldiers the Chicken-hawks honor in pretense. It's enough to make one vomit."
Found on Cursor.org
Found on Cursor.org
Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Now Number 75
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"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The number of Guantanamo Bay detainees staging a hunger strike has grown from three to 75, the U.S. military said Monday, reflecting increasing defiance among men who have been held for up to 4 1/2 years, most without charges and with little contact with the outside world."
This statement takes some damn gall:
Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand said the ballooning number of hunger strikers was an "attention-getting" move that may be related to a May 18 clash between 10 detainees and 10 U.S. military guards in which six detainees were injured. The same day, two detainees also overdosed on anti-depressant drugs they had been hoarding. They have since regained consciousness.
This statement takes some damn gall:
Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand said the ballooning number of hunger strikers was an "attention-getting" move that may be related to a May 18 clash between 10 detainees and 10 U.S. military guards in which six detainees were injured. The same day, two detainees also overdosed on anti-depressant drugs they had been hoarding. They have since regained consciousness.
MSM Promotes "Rogue-Soldier" Defense of Haditha Massacre
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From Pierre Tristam at Candide's Notebooks:
What’s almost as repulsive, though in this case only ink is being spilled, not blood, is the way the subsequent reporting about the massacre is being laid out. The New York Times the morning of May 26, with its usual, but in this case nauseating, restraint in balance’s name, pulls a classic example of mitigating atrocity with qualifiers. The lead paragraph refers to a small number of marines carrying out “extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians,” establishing right away the rogue-soldier theory that was attempted in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib. The downplaying of U.S. torture as an institutional rather than an exceptional strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan was successful, at least in the public’s mind. The evidence suggests otherwise. It does so as well when it comes to wanton killings, whether it’s the trigger-happy soldiering at Iraqi checkpoints or the killing of civilians in allegedly collateral circumstances. Yet you can see the Haditha massacre’s dowplaying game already in full swing. The Times has the story over two columns above the fold, but to the left of a four-column spread about the Enron verdict. Enron is news. It isn’t bigger news than the massacre of twenty-four Iraqis at the hands of U.S. marines. Not by any stretch of journalistic calibration. But such are the tastes for news in the United States that business porn will always outplay patriotism’s barbarity. Americans don’t want to know what their soldiers are doing in their name in Iraq. The cost to Iraqis is immense. It’s more devastating, especially in human terms, than anything Enron ever did. But it’s safer to focus on old-fashioned homegrown corruption and malfeasance. In that sense Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are doing the American public a favor, in distractions and entertainment, and the public is grateful. They may be bad guys, but they’re our bad guys, and they’re providing cover for what our supposedly good guys, our supposedly heroic soldiers, under the leadership and don’t-mess-with-Texas-encouragement of their apologist-in-chief, are doing in Iraq."
Stan Goff at Feral Scholar also indicts "bad apple" defense of atrocities.
What’s almost as repulsive, though in this case only ink is being spilled, not blood, is the way the subsequent reporting about the massacre is being laid out. The New York Times the morning of May 26, with its usual, but in this case nauseating, restraint in balance’s name, pulls a classic example of mitigating atrocity with qualifiers. The lead paragraph refers to a small number of marines carrying out “extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians,” establishing right away the rogue-soldier theory that was attempted in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib. The downplaying of U.S. torture as an institutional rather than an exceptional strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan was successful, at least in the public’s mind. The evidence suggests otherwise. It does so as well when it comes to wanton killings, whether it’s the trigger-happy soldiering at Iraqi checkpoints or the killing of civilians in allegedly collateral circumstances. Yet you can see the Haditha massacre’s dowplaying game already in full swing. The Times has the story over two columns above the fold, but to the left of a four-column spread about the Enron verdict. Enron is news. It isn’t bigger news than the massacre of twenty-four Iraqis at the hands of U.S. marines. Not by any stretch of journalistic calibration. But such are the tastes for news in the United States that business porn will always outplay patriotism’s barbarity. Americans don’t want to know what their soldiers are doing in their name in Iraq. The cost to Iraqis is immense. It’s more devastating, especially in human terms, than anything Enron ever did. But it’s safer to focus on old-fashioned homegrown corruption and malfeasance. In that sense Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are doing the American public a favor, in distractions and entertainment, and the public is grateful. They may be bad guys, but they’re our bad guys, and they’re providing cover for what our supposedly good guys, our supposedly heroic soldiers, under the leadership and don’t-mess-with-Texas-encouragement of their apologist-in-chief, are doing in Iraq."
Stan Goff at Feral Scholar also indicts "bad apple" defense of atrocities.
Haditha Massacre: Iraqis Have Seen It All Before
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"In the restive Sunni city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, lawyer Abd Mohammed Falah, 45, said: "'The U.S. forces have committed more crimes against the Iraqi people than appears in the media. The U.S. defense secretary and his generals should be sent to court instead of two or three soldiers who will be scapegoats.'"
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"'This sort of thing isn't unusual,'" he said, blaming general insecurity on the occupation. "'Look at my neighbourhood. Sunnis kill Shi'ites every day -- it's all because of the Americans.'"
Reuters via Cursor.org
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"'This sort of thing isn't unusual,'" he said, blaming general insecurity on the occupation. "'Look at my neighbourhood. Sunnis kill Shi'ites every day -- it's all because of the Americans.'"
Reuters via Cursor.org
Afghans Show Anger at U.S. Occupation
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"Afghans often complain about what they call the aggressive driving tactics of the U.S. military. Convoys often pass through crowded areas at high speed and sometimes disregard road rules. The U.S. military says such tactics are necessary to protect the troops from attack."
"'Today's demonstration is because Americans killed innocent people. We will not stop until foreigners leave the city. We are looking for foreigners to kill,'" one protester in his late 20s, Gulam Ghaus, said near where rioters burned a police post.
Why Isn't Black Resistance to the War Acknowledged by the Antiwar Movement?
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"In the face of poverty, prison, and unemployment, why is Black
communities collective NO to the military not considered an act of
bravery and resistance by much of the Left? Part of the problem is that
the white Left wants Blacks to act on its terms, in forms it deems
appropriate or recognizes as resistance. Why cant Blacks determine for
themselves what their resistance will look like?"
Found on Seattle Indymedia.
communities collective NO to the military not considered an act of
bravery and resistance by much of the Left? Part of the problem is that
the white Left wants Blacks to act on its terms, in forms it deems
appropriate or recognizes as resistance. Why cant Blacks determine for
themselves what their resistance will look like?"
Found on Seattle Indymedia.
Burn That Yellow Ribbon
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"Worst of all, there are the orders to torture and to murder. Whether it's Abu Ghraib or the emerging horror of Haditha, the chains of culpability lead up to the top. I've written before on the psychic scarring that a young person endures when they're instructed to commit torture. Without minimizing the agony of the victim, which is our primary moral responsibility, let's use this Memorial Day to remember how our young soldiers are being harmed for life when these orders are given."
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Something Else All Americans Must Witness--Haditha
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From another story about Haditha in the San Francisco Chronicle
[text omitted]
"One witness, Aws Fahmi, heard his neighbour, Yunis Salim Khafif, plead for his life in English, shouting: “'I am a friend, I am good.'”
“'But they killed him, his wife and daughters,'” Fahmi said."
From the London Times via Antiwar.com--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From another story about Haditha in the San Francisco Chronicle
[text omitted]
Reporters who embedded in Haditha several months before the alleged massacre said Marines considered the town as enemy territory, with frequent roadside bombings. During patrols inside the city, Marines treated inhabitants like terrorists, raiding their homes.
An Associated Press journalist who traveled in Haditha last June with a Marine unit not involved in the November killings saw a Marine urinate on the kitchen floor of a home and on another occasion saw insults chalked in English on the gate of an Arab home. The reporter asked a Marine commander about the incident and was told it would be investigated.
Last August, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that Haditha was under the control of religious extremists who enforced their own strict interpretation of Islamic law — including decapitations of people suspected of collaborating with the Americans.
"'This is a war in which the distinction between killing the enemy and massacring civilians is not always completely obvious,'" said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. "'Counterinsurgency operations are particularly prone to the killing of people who, in retrospect, are judged to have been innocent civilians, but who in the heat of battle seemed to be the enemy.'"Benderman Bannering on Memorial Day Weekend Covered by Olympian
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"Erin Genia of Olympia said their vigil is to show Benderman support and to let others know his story and to let other conscioustious objectors know they are not alone."
“'He’s a hero for standing up for what he believes in. It takes a lot more courage than doing what you’re told,” Genia said. “People should be free to dissent and not get put in prison.'”
There are links on the righthand side to some more pics with great captions that explain a lot of the action.
“'He’s a hero for standing up for what he believes in. It takes a lot more courage than doing what you’re told,” Genia said. “People should be free to dissent and not get put in prison.'”
There are links on the righthand side to some more pics with great captions that explain a lot of the action.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company
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| Please spend some time this Memorial Day Weekend watching a documentary that shows what real combat in Iraq is like--and what it does to the soldiers and their families. See A&E Channel's description below. It's on several times during the weekend. In my opinion, every American needs to see this documentary to know what the people we sent over to Iraq in an invasion and occupation based on lies are doing to both the people of Iraq and to themselves and their families in the process. “Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company ” Rated: TVPG L Running Time: 120 Minutes Upcoming Airings: Search for other upcoming episodes Featuring candid interviews and never-before-seen video, we tell the story |
Friday, May 26, 2006
Support Your Local Conscientious Objector on Memorial Day Weekend
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Freeway Banner at Fort Lewis on May 27th from 12pm to 2pm at the Dupont-Steilacoom Rd overpass on Interstate 5 at Exit #119 --and subsequent 4th Saturday's of each month until Kevin is released. This web page will have up to date info. about Benderman bannering: www.standupseattle.orgRemaining banner dates:Mar. 25, April 22, May 27, June 24, July 22 and August 26th unless Kevin is released sooner.
Help hold a banner, sign or distribute fliers. Park just north and west of the overpass in the gravel parking lot. For more information: _Call_ Doug or Linda @ 206.524.2207 Or _email_ ljansen12@yahoo.com or dking179@yahoo.com "Day of" Cell Phone Number: 206.850.1283 Report on our last, April 22, outing:
For the first time last month we experienced being outnumbered by the pro-War group. It resulted in us only being able to pass out only 50 fliers rather than the normal 100 or more. They outnumbered us by more than two to one and so were able to get in our way when we tried to talk to people.If you haven't come out yet, we could really use your help at this next bannering.
The banner for the May 27th will say,"FREE KEVIN BENDERMAN Conscientious Objector FROM FT. LEWIS STOCKADE"Bannering Endorsed by Olympia Amnesty International Sponsored by Stand Up! Seattle WHY KEVIN BENDERMAN IS IN THE STOCKADE: "For making a public application of Conscientious Objection, Sgt. Kevin Benderman was charged with Desertion and Missing Movement. His first court martial was thrown out when the judge ruled that an investigating officer had shown biased in stating her belief of Kevin's guilt before she had even conducted an investigation. A new hearing was ordered, the Army piled it on, and added trumped up Grand Larceny charges to the new orders, and dared Kevin to continue with his actions. Kevin did. His beliefs are firmly held. The Army manipulated evidence, lost witnesses, and gave false and contradictory testimony. In the end, the military judge ruled that Kevin was guilty of Missing Movement, basically that he did not get on a plane, and sentenced him to 15 months confinement, loss of pay and dishonorable discharge. All of this because the US Military was threatened by the public expression of free thought and humanity displayed by one Army Sergeant." from www.bendermantimeline.com
Please visit www.BendermanDefense.org and www.BendermanTimeline.com to learn more aboutKevin Benderman's case. Contribute to the BENDERMAN DEFENSE TRUST here: http://bendermandefensetrust.blog.com/
Help hold a banner, sign or distribute fliers. Park just north and west of the overpass in the gravel parking lot. For more information: _Call_ Doug or Linda @ 206.524.2207 Or _email_ ljansen12@yahoo.com or dking179@yahoo.com "Day of" Cell Phone Number: 206.850.1283 Report on our last, April 22, outing:
For the first time last month we experienced being outnumbered by the pro-War group. It resulted in us only being able to pass out only 50 fliers rather than the normal 100 or more. They outnumbered us by more than two to one and so were able to get in our way when we tried to talk to people.If you haven't come out yet, we could really use your help at this next bannering.
The banner for the May 27th will say,"FREE KEVIN BENDERMAN Conscientious Objector FROM FT. LEWIS STOCKADE"Bannering Endorsed by Olympia Amnesty International Sponsored by Stand Up! Seattle WHY KEVIN BENDERMAN IS IN THE STOCKADE: "For making a public application of Conscientious Objection, Sgt. Kevin Benderman was charged with Desertion and Missing Movement. His first court martial was thrown out when the judge ruled that an investigating officer had shown biased in stating her belief of Kevin's guilt before she had even conducted an investigation. A new hearing was ordered, the Army piled it on, and added trumped up Grand Larceny charges to the new orders, and dared Kevin to continue with his actions. Kevin did. His beliefs are firmly held. The Army manipulated evidence, lost witnesses, and gave false and contradictory testimony. In the end, the military judge ruled that Kevin was guilty of Missing Movement, basically that he did not get on a plane, and sentenced him to 15 months confinement, loss of pay and dishonorable discharge. All of this because the US Military was threatened by the public expression of free thought and humanity displayed by one Army Sergeant." from www.bendermantimeline.com
Please visit www.BendermanDefense.org and www.BendermanTimeline.com to learn more aboutKevin Benderman's case. Contribute to the BENDERMAN DEFENSE TRUST here: http://bendermandefensetrust.blog.com/
Washington ... A Club in Which Leaders of Both Parties Are [in a] Club with the MSM
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A comment from a Democrat on the Hayden vote from Democrats.org:
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Kenny Boy Headed Up the River for A Long Long Time
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"Lake set sentencing for Sept. 11. Lay's charges carry a maximum penalty in prison of 45 years for the corporate trial and 120 years in the personal banking trial. Skilling's charges carry a maximum penalty of 185 years in prison."
but at what cost:
"Enron's collapse alone took with it more than $60 billion in market value, almost $2.1 billion in pension plans and 5,600 jobs."
but at what cost:
"Enron's collapse alone took with it more than $60 billion in market value, almost $2.1 billion in pension plans and 5,600 jobs."
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