By PAUL J. BALLESPaul J. Balles argues that the time has come “to stop making excuses for American military barbarism abroad” and “to stop creating terrorists by US terrorism in the Middle East”.Reuters reports "Ninety-three children and 25 adult women are among a list of 140 names of Afghans who villagers say were killed in a battle and US air strikes last week, causing a crisis between Washington and its Afghan allies."
American Colonel Greg Julian disputed the numbers, saying: "Well, I could give you 140 names too. The problem is there is no evidence of that number of graves... Are those real people? Did they ever actually exist? I can give you a list of 53 girls’ names with their ages."
The politicians argue: "The air strikes are not acceptable," Afghan Presideny Hamid Karzai said. "Terrorism is not in Afghan villages, not in Afghan homes. And you cannot defeat terrorists by air strikes."
"But White House National Security Advisor James Jones said ... that US forces need air power to protect themselves: 'We can't fight with one hand tied behind our back.'"
As Dan Spielberg
points out in Lew Rockwell:
Barack Obama sold himself to the country as someone who would bring massive “change” to the policies of the US government, but of course when it comes to the favourite activity of that cancerous organism, warring against wholly innocent civilian populations in foreign countries, there will be no change.
Ron Paul makes the point: "We are inciting the very terrorism and extremism we are trying to stop." By bombing Afghans and Pakistanis, adds Paul, "We are helping the Taliban and other enemies to actually gain numbers and strength"
Meanwhile the US Congress has introduced bills to increase the aid to Pakistan from 500 million to 1.5 billion US dollars at a time when the USA is nearly bankrupt and doesn't have enough money to support Americans at home.
None of this can possibly help the USA. As Paul observes: “We are adding to the numbers of our enemies and increasing the threats to our security here at home." When will America learn that its actions are creating tomorrow's terrorists?
According to Muriel Kane, "Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal will be taking over command of US forces in Afghanistan, pending Senate approval." McChrystal headed the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that previously reported to Dick Cheney, with no congressional oversight.
Kane notes: "Famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh recently described the JSOC as an "executive assassination wing" controlled for many years by the office of former Vice-President Dick Cheney."
Jeremy Scahill says: "Pentagon officials are spinning another cover-up," following the bombing that killed up to 130 people in Afghanistan. He also reports: "...as many as 2,000 [Afghans] poured into the streets of the provincial capital, chanting ‘Death to America’.”
Disgustingly, the Pentagon attempted to blame the Taliban for the murders, saying that they had done the killing with grenades.
Neo-conservative commentator Mark Steyn writes in America Alone, "If you can't outbreed the enemy, cull `em." That's an attitude Americans have learned well. The US military in the Middle East practices it regularly.
Chris Hedges drew a shocking word picture of American involvement in Afghanistan:
The bodies of dozens, perhaps well over a hundred, women, children and men, their corpses blown into bits of human flesh by iron fragmentation bombs dropped by US warplanes in a village in the western province of Farah, illustrates the futility of the Afghan war.
Hedges conveys the lesson of his picture:
We are not delivering democracy or liberation or development. We are delivering massive, sophisticated forms of industrial slaughter. And because we have employed the blunt and horrible instrument of war in a land we know little about and are incapable of reading, we embody the barbarism we claim to be seeking to defeat.
It's time to stop making excuses for American military barbarism abroad. It's time to stop creating terrorists by US terrorism in the Middle East.
Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.
By MARGARET KIMBERLEYPresident Obama, who campaigned behind a thin veil of peace, dragged two heads of client states into the White House to demand “that both Afghanistan and Pakistan allow their citizens to be murdered and or displaced in the thousands” – or else. Obama read Presidents Zardari and Karzai “the riot act” to let them know who is boss in the military theater called “AfPak.” Obama claims to “want to respect their sovereignty, but” – there’s always the imperial ‘but’ – America has “huge national security interests” in the region. Afghanistan’s Karzai later wondered, “How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly?”
“Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis and Afghans are now refugees or living under the constant threat of American military violence.”
Two central Asian nations bordering one another, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have the grave misfortune of being American client states. They get lots of money and political support, if they’re lucky, but always with terrible strings attached. The current President of the United States, Barack Obama, is demanding that both Afghanistan and Pakistan allow their citizens to be murdered and or displaced in the thousands. In order to accept that a huge body count is necessary, we are told that the two countries, nicknamed AfPak, are on the verge of being over run by the Taliban or al-Qaeda or both.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have been rebranded with a name seemingly devised by a Madison Avenue marketer who could just as easily be referring to a health insurance company or an overnight delivery service. Americans don’t know very much about the rest of the world, but they have a vague notion that brown-skinned Muslims are a crazy bunch who must be kept under control by Washington. So AfPak it is, and the bloodshed instigated by the United States continues. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis and Afghans are now refugees or living under the constant threat of American military violence.
President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan were recently summoned to Washington for the purpose of being informed that their opinions do not count. It doesn’t matter if their countrymen and women don’t want to be chased from their homes or maimed by killer drones and bombing missions. Uncle Sam read them the riot act and dared them to complain. Obviously they didn’t, because the slaughter began anew as soon as the photo ops ended.
“Uncle Sam read Zardari and Karzai the riot act and dared them to complain.”
Obama always knows how to make the terrible sound benevolent. In this case he says that we “must defeat al-Qaeda.” Most Americans had never heard of the word al-Qaeda until September 11, 2001 and will forever connect it with the death of 3,000 people. It is useful for Obama to phrase his assault in terms that will win him popular approval.
The Obama administration has openly undermined Ali Asif Zardari, the elected Pakistani president. Zardari’s main claim to legitimacy comes via his in-laws, the Bhutto family. If he were not Benazir Bhutto’s widower, this convicted embezzler, known as Mr. 10%, would not be president. Nevertheless, he is the president of a country that is allegedly an ally, and he should be treated with the respect he is due.
Yet the New York Times reports that Zardari has been told that his opposition will be courted and if necessary put into power with him if he balks at slaughtering his people on Washington’s command. In his 100 days press conference, Obama made himself crystal clear. "We want to respect their sovereignty, but we also recognize that we have huge strategic interests, huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don't end up having a nuclear-armed militant state."
Not only are we supposed to be whipped into a frenzy at the very mention of words like al-Qaeda and Taliban, but we are now supposed to believe that Pakistan is on the verge of a mysterious “collapse” and that its nuclear weapons will fall into the hands of terrorists who will carry them around in briefcases, as in the plots of Hollywood thrillers. Zardari gets the thumb screw treatment, and we get outright lies.
“How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly?”
“
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, is equally hapless and helpless in keeping his people safe from the demands of the United States. He has long complained about civilian deaths caused by attacks on the Taliban and he repeated himself in vain on Meet the Press. “Our villages are not where the terrorists are. And that's what we kept telling the U.S. administration, that the war on terrorism is not in the Afghan villages, not in the Afghan homes. Respect that. Civilian casualties are undermining support in the Afghan people for the war on terrorism and for the, the, the relations with America. How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly?” Obviously, such a people will not remain friendly but that has never been America’s concern. National Security Adviser James Jones said as much. “We can’t fight with one hand tied behind our back.”
Once again the United State repeats its long history of killing people and claiming it is for their own good. Afghanistan and Pakistan are just the latest on that awful list. While that dynamic doesn’t change, neither will the reaction of people around the world. They do hate us, and they have good reason to do so.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com.
Source
Labels:
Barack Obama,
Obama wars
No comments:
Post a Comment