Justice with a little “j” and morality with a little “m”

[Originally written in January 2004]

I have been thinking about the Iraqi regime (Saddam) vs. what is going on in this country.

#1
Baathist regime had people tied up and thrown off of buildings (per video, reportedly from Iraq).  Brooklyn Detention Center had people tied up and slammed into walls (per video).
Both cases were videotaped, the first one used to scare people (I presume) and in the second case, they wanted to hide it.  Who knows if the people in Iraq were really guilty, but in the second case, the people slammed into walls were “guilty until proven innocent”.  No one was charged with anything in the USA case, beyond visa violations.
Iraq cases surely resulted in more serious injuries.  American cases only resulted in busted teeth and cracked ribs, I guess.

#2
Saddam invaded Kuwait to neutralize a serious military threat to Iraq and to free the Kuwaiti people from their evil dictator (per Iraqi bloggers – that’s what they were told).
Bush invaded Iraq because Iraq was a serious threat to the USA, might sell WMDs to terrorists, and to free the Iraqis from their brutal dictator.  After no WMDs were found, Bush then said we were bringing them freedom and democracy (which I don’t believe any more than the threat to the USA part).

(Has Bush even thought of the fact that most Arabs hate the USA, and if given the choice, they will choose to boot the USA out of there?)

#3
USA secured the oil fields in Iraq, along with the oil ministry buildings, before anything else.  Most of everything else, including nuclear materials, was looted.  Iraq secured Kuwaiti palaces and the Bank of Kuwait (thinking there was gold there).  I got this information from the book “The Threatening Storm” which was kinds hard to read since so much of it was wrong).

#4
Iraq tortured it’s citizens and captives.
USA shipped a Canadian to Syria to be tortured for them.  No crime, no charges.
Were the Iraqis guilty of a crime?  Who knows…. No open courts there.  No open courts for POWs down at Guantanamo Bay, either.

[Update, October 2010:  We now know that the US tortured at home, overseas, in secret prisons and black sites, and anywhere they could.  Only low-level military were held accountable.  The ones who make the tortures legal, the ones who ordered it, the ones who overlooked it or covered it up, were never charged with a crime for the torture they
caused.]

#5
Keeping political power
Saddam went into his political gathering (in 1979?) and had people pulled out and shot.  He cried real tears while doing this, and again, it was video taped.  Guess he was not afraid of the law catching up with him.
Bush administration did not like Wilson criticizing Bush, so they leaked the identity of a CIA agent to the press and slime ball Novak ran with it.  That ended her career, and maybe compromised national security.  Well, I guess Saddam wins this one… he ruined careers by ending lives.  Don’t know if he compromised national security or not.  But then, he did compromise the well-being of his people by taking them into unnecessary wars – and so did Bush!

Well, now, the real question is:  are we better people by nature or genetics, or is our country set up so that really bad abusers will be identified and punished?  Hard to say, considering our history over the last 200 years.

Here’s a quote from “The Threatening Storm”:

“Washington had worked so hard to ignore Saddam’s obvious flaws that it had essentially convinced itself that Saddam was little different from other brutal dictators with whom the United States had developed long and profitable relationships.”

Well, actually, I doubt Saddam is much different from other brutal dictators, but that is really not the point here… it is those “long and profitable relationships” that is the point.  So, I guess 9/11 was a small payback for those “long and profitable relationships” with
other dictators?  How hard do you think those folks in Washington have to work to ignore their own VERY obvious flaws?  How long can we keep up this kind of policy?  And what further paybacks will we see?  And how long can the American public stay ignorant of this behavior?  If they depend on TV news, my guess is forever.

Another quote from “The Threatening Storm”:

“The American military presence in the Persian Gulf is under pressure.  The people of the region are generally unhappy with the presence of the US military forces in their countries.  Some see it as a necessary evil; other condemns it as a form of imperialist occupation.”

Golly, I wonder what they think now that we are occupying Iraq?  It is hard to read this book, it is so wrong.  Next I am going to read “All the Shah’s Men” – which I hope is more accurate.  It is about the US take over of Iran in 1953.

[Update, October 2010 – “All the Shah’s Men” was very accurate and worthwhile reading.]

IVAW Statement on the Iraq War Logs - A Call for Accountability

Written by Iraq Veterans Against the War


The recent Wikileaks release--The Iraq War Logs--has shed important light on the high rate of civilian death and widespread atrocities, including torture, that are endemic to the war in Iraq. As veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are outraged that the U.S. government sought to hide this information from the U.S. public, instead presenting a sanitized and deceptive version of war, and we think it is vital for this and further information to get out. Members of IVAW have experienced firsthand the realities of war on the ground, and since our inception we have spoken out about similar atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are asking the U.S. public to join us in calling on our government to end the occupations and bring our brothers and sisters home.

The U.S. government has been claiming for years that they do not keep count of civilian death tolls, yet the recent releases show that they do, in fact, keep count. Between 2004 and 2009, according to these newly disclosed records, at least 109,032 Iraqis died, 66,081 of whom were civilians. The Guardian reports that the Iraq War Logs show that the U.S. military and government gave de facto approval for hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape, and murder by Iraqi soldiers and police officers. These recent revelations, along with the Afghan War Diaries and Collateral Murder footage, weave a picture of wars in which the rules of engagement allow for excessive violence, woven into the fabric of daily life with the U.S. military presence acting as a destabilizing and brutalizing force. The Iraq War Logs, while crucial, are reports produced in real time and themselves may be slanted to minimize the culpability of U.S. forces. Still, they represent an important part of evidence in assessing the reality of the Iraq war, evidence that can only be improved by the further release of documents and information and corroboration by individuals involved. To this end, our members are reviewing both Wikileaks' Afghanistan War Diaries and the Iraq War Logs to identify incidents we were part of and to shed more light on what really happened.

IVAW has been speaking out about these atrocities and abuses since our inception. Our organization is comprised of over 2,000 veterans and active duty troops who have served since September 11, 2001. We demand immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, reparations for the people of those countries, and full benefits for returning veterans, including mental healthcare. At our March 2008 Winter Soldier hearings in Maryland, more than fifty veterans and active-duty service members publicly testified about the orders they were told to carry out in these countries, sharing stories of excessive violence, trauma, and abuse.
Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord, two IVAW members who were in the unit captured in the Wikileaks "Collateral Murder" video, have spoken out about how the incidents caught on film are not isolated cases of 'a few bad soldiers' but rather, part of the nature of these wars. "There has been little accountability in the wars that my friends and I once thought represented everything that was noble about our country," wrote Stieber in anticipation of the Iraq War Logs. In an open letter, Stieber calls for policy makers to "take accountability for these wars and the full truth about them."

As veterans, we know that the violence documented in the Iraq War Logs traumatizes the people living under occupation. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also have been marked by staggering rates of military trauma and suicide among the troops tasked with carrying out these orders. Last year, 239 soldiers killed themselves and 1,713 soldiers survived suicide attempts; 146 soldiers died from high-risk activities, including 74 drug overdoses. A third of returning troops report mental health problems, and 18.5 percent of all returning service members are battling either Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression, according to a study by the Rand Corporation. Our Operation Recovery campaign, launched on October 7, seeks to end the cruel and inhumane practice of redeploying troops suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Military Sexual Trauma, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other mental and physical wounds--a practice that underlies the continued occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Critics attacking Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's character are attempting to use ad hominem arguments to detract from the real issues and divert public attention from the content of the Iraq War Logs. We urge honest and thorough discussion of the content of these documents, and we think this discussion must not be sidelined. Furthermore, with past Wikileaks revelations, U.S. administration and military authorities were quick to vilify Army Specialist Bradley Manning who is being accused of leaking these documents to the public. Yet we insist that it is the right of the U.S. public to have accurate information about wars that are being fought in our name and funded by our tax dollars, and we support the public sharing of this information. Exposing war crimes is not a crime.

Government deception is inexcusable. Authorities have kept this information secret in the name of 'national security,' but what they really are afraid of is public opinion, which they know will turn against them if the truth about these wars gets out in the mainstream. An accurate count of Iraqi dead, acknowledgment of torture, and full disclosure of the role of private contractors are facts that should be made public in a democracy. We believe that real national security is created where government transparency and accountability, free press, and an end to spending on illegal wars and occupations are the norm. Continued silence and secrecy is a grave threat to the security of the Iraqi and Afghan people, and we demand openness, accountability, and real discussion of these revelations.

We grieve for the Iraqi and Afghan lives that were lost and destroyed in these wars. We also grieve for our brothers and sisters in arms, who have been lost to battle or suicide. The Iraq War Logs bring home part of the harsh reality of these wars, a reality that we--as veterans--live with everyday. We demand a real end to both wars, including immediate withdrawal of the 50,000 "non-combat" troops who remain in the Iraq. The Iraq War Logs underscore the urgent need for peace, healing, and reparations for all who have been harmed by these wars. The first step is to bring our brothers and sisters home.

In Solidarity,
Iraq Veterans Against the War

Why not listen? -- from Afghan youth for peace

Obama Nation or Abomination?

This track is not an attack upon the American people
It is an attack upon the system within which they live
Since 1945 the united states has attempted to
Overthrow more than 50 foreign governments
In the process the us has caused the end of life
For several million people, and condemned many millions
More to a live of agony and despair


The strength of your dreamin
Prevents you from reason
The American dream
Only makes sense if youre sleepin

Its just a cruel fantasy
Their politics took my voice away
But their music gave it back to me

The land where their lumpkin are consumed by consumption
Killing themselves to shovel down food and abundance
I guess a rapper from Britain is a rare voice
America is capitalism on steroids

Natives kept in casinos and reservations
Displaced slaves never given reparations
Take everything from Native Americans
And wonder why I call it the racist experiment

Afraid of your melanin
The same as its ever been
That aint gonna change
With the race of the president

I see imperialism under your skin tone
You could call it Christopher Columbus syndrome


Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Doesn't make any difference when they bomb your nation

O! Say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming


The worlds entertainer
The worlds devastator
From Venezuela
To Mesopotamia

Your cameras lie
Cause they have to hide the savage crimes
Committed on leaders that happen
To try and nationalize

Eating competitions while the worlds been starvin
Beat up communism with the help of bin-laden
Where would your war of terror be without that man
Every day you create more Nidal Hassans

Kill a man from the military, youre a weirdo
But kill a wog from the Middle East youre a hero
Your country is causing screams that are never reaching ear holes
America inflicted a million ground zeros

Follow the dollar and swallow your humanity
Soldiers committing savagery you never even have to see
Those mad at me, writing in emails angrily
Im not anti-America, America is anti-me


Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Doesn't make any difference when they bomb your nation

And the rocket's red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there,

O! Does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er land of the free and the home of the brave


I don't care if him and Cheney are long lost relations
What matters more is the policies I lost my patience
Stop debating bringing race into conversation
Occupation and cooperation equals profit makin

Its over - people wake up from the dream now
Nobel peace prize, jay z on speed dial
Its the substance within, not the colour of your skin
Are you the puppeteer or the puppet on the string

So many believe that they was instantly gonna change
There was still Dennis Ross, Brzezinski And Robert Gates
What happened to Chas freeman (AIPAC),
What happened to Tristan Anderson its a machine that keeps that man breathing

I have the heart to say what all the other rappers arent
Words like Iraq, Palestine - Afghanistan
The wars on, and you morons were all wrong
I call Obama a bomber Cause those are your bombs

Obama promises to end the war back in 2007

Obama talking about the war in Iraq - three years ago.

“I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank.” ~ Candidate Barack Obama, October 27, 2007.

Quote: "When I am commander in chief, I will set a new goal on Day One: I will end this war. - I will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. We can responsibly remove one to two combat brigades each month." - Fayetteville, N.C., March 19, 2008
Pledge tracker: Has Obama delivered on campaign promises? - USATODAY.com

What would be your top three national security priorities if you were elected?
My first priority would be to end the war in Iraq. It has cost America dearly in terms of blood and treasure, been a diversion from the fight against al Qaeda, stretched our military, and undermined the view of the United States the world wide. Ending the war in Iraq will permit us to develop a comprehensive strategy against terrorism, which will be another chief national security priority of my administration.

Barack Obama on the Issues | Campaign 2008 | washingtonpost.com

Obama campaigned on a promise to bring a swift end to a war that has claimed the lives of more than 4,300 U.S. soldiers and drained the U.S. Treasury of hundreds of billions of dollars. With an economy only starting to recover from recession and a deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the Iraq war has not been a top priority for Obama, although he has appointed his vice president, Joe Biden, to manage it.
Reuters AlertNet - RPT-ANALYSIS-Obama faces moment of truth with Iraq election

Hero

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange defends the unauthorized release of 400,000 classified US military documents on the war in Iraq, saying they revealed the "truth" about the conflict.  (AFPTV/POOL)

I am glad this information is now available.  I will be posting some more on what was revealed.  I have found many new photos for the Faces of Grief blog from this exposure.  I am finding these photos and reports in the European press, while the American press seems to be ignoring this story.  I am boiling mad over what was done to Iraq by the US government and US military.  I have always been opposed to this war (and all other wars, too) and I have been solidly against this massively evil war of aggression.  I am like a rock - solidly opposed.  I find it maddening that there are so few Americans who stand with me.

I stand with Julian Assange too.  He is a hero in my eyes.

Evil

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton answer reporters' questions during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, DC. Clinton condemned "in the most clear terms" the leaks of any documents putting Americans at risk, while the Pentagon warned that releasing secret military documents could endanger US troops and Iraqi civilians.  (AFP/Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)

This women makes me sick. She has no morals, like nearly all US politicians. 

Just how dumb????

Just how dumb do you have to be to do this?  This photo was taken in October 2010 on Merrimon Avenue in Asheville.

Great commercial for Pantene

Email from my US Representative

Rep Shuler had this to say in an email on 10-15-10:

“Chile did not successfully complete this rescue operation on its own.  Other countries, private businesses and non-profit groups contributed aid, manpower, technology and know-how to make sure those miners survived.  The chances of those miners getting out alive would have been much slimmer without the all of those parties working together to reach a common goal.

All too often, we fail to work together to accomplish the things that would in fact benefit us all.  How often do we see good legislation fail in Congress and never see the light of day because it is stopped by either the far right or the far left?  However, when we work in a bipartisan way, we often come up with better solutions to the problems facing our country.”

My response:

Our economy is in terrible shape, with no end in sight.  This mess started with the Reagan administration undermining unions and giving excessive tax breaks to the rich.  It continued under Clinton with NAFTA, and his repeal of Glass-Steagall Act.  It really took off under Bush, with rampant fraud.  Those policies continued under Obama.

Our government is occupying two countries, and bombing several more.  This is immoral - very immoral.  It is also counter-productive, if the goal is to stop terrorism from coming to our shores.  Bush started these wars and occupations and drone bombings, and Obama is escalating them.

The US government tortures, imprisons people without any regard to rule of law, allows rape by contractors and the US military, kidnaps people and transports them to black sites not under the review of the ICRC, and holds them without charges.  This is immoral too - we are engaging in horrendous human rights abuses.  This really got started under Bush, and Obama continues it and also does not call for any arrests of the torture enablers.

I think I have had about all the bipartisanship I can stand.

I guess I failed to point out that it was the socialist government of Chile who made sure those miners were rescued.   

Yeah, working together is good - as long as you are working for something good.

Videos from Winter Soldier 2008

Kids with US drone bombing parts

North Waziristan
CIVIC

Children in North Waziristan with debris from drone missile

"I wonder, why was I victimized?"

Pakistani victims of U.S. drone strikes speak out in a new report on increasing civilian casualties in the region

By Justin Elliott

A new report from the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) concludes that innocent civilians in northwest Pakistan are getting hammered by all sides -- the U.S. (drone strikes), the Pakistan military (ground and aerial bombardment) and local militants (terrorist attacks).

Christopher Rogers, the Harvard-trained lawyer who authored the report, did some great reporting. He interviewed many family members of slain Pakistani civilians -- voices that are virtually never heard in the U.S. media. Here, for example, is his summary of the first drone strike on President Obama's watch, way back in January 2009:

    The Obama Administration carried out its first drone strike in Pakistan on January 23, 2009, three days after the President’s inauguration. However, instead of striking a Taliban hideout, the missiles struck the house of Malik Gulistan Khan, a tribal elder and member of a local pro-government peace committee. Five members of his family were killed. “I lost my father, three brothers and my cousin in this attack,” said Adnan, his 18 year-old son. Adnan’s uncle claimed, “We did nothing, have no connection to militants at all. Our family supported the government and in fact … was a member of a local peace committee.”

    The family provided CIVIC with detailed documentation of the deaths of the five family members, including a report from the Assistant Political Agent of South Waziristan and a local jirga requesting the government to pay compensation. The documentation confirms the family was innocent.

Reliable numbers of how many civilians have been killed by U.S. drones are impossible to come by.

More on drone bombings in Pakistan

Report criticizes civilian casualties in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — Islamabad and Washington must publicly track civilian deaths from military operations and drone strikes in Pakistan and compensate the families of those killed, a U.S. advocacy group said in a new report.

The study by the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict warned that unless the Pakistani government and military take action, they risk undermining public support for the war against Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

It also cautioned the U.S. that failure to provide greater transparency about who is targeted and killed in the growing number of drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt could drive more people to join the extremists.

"Despite the severity and consequences of these losses, civilian casualties receive too little attention from U.S., Pakistani, and donor-nation policymakers, as well as military officials," said the report, written by Christopher Rogers and released Wednesday.

The group, founded in 2003, urges warring parties to help civilians harmed in armed conflict.

Why not listen to the Bamiyan Diaries

Review of "The American Way of War"

The American Way of War

This is a book by Tom Engelhardt (of www.TomDispatch.com) and was published in 2010.  It is a collection of his essays over the years.  He starts with this sentence:

“War is Peace” was one of the memorable slogans on the façade of the Ministry of Truth.”

He then goes on to describe how the USA is constantly in a state of war since the attacks on 9/11, yet it is quite peaceful here.  Our wars are in other countries, far, far away.  He describes the hypocrisy evident in American beliefs and behaviors.  An example is how we routinely bomb and destroy innocent civilians, without notice or care (well, not true for me, but true for the vast majority of Americans).  And then we turn around and call cutting off someone’s head as “barbaric”.   We have killed many innocents in our “war on terror” resulting in hundreds of dead innocents for every person killed in the 9/11 attacks.  We engage in torture, rendition, rape, and every evil acts known to human kind, in a rather large scale.  And no one is held accountable except some occasional low-level person in the US military, who was doing what was expected of him or her.

And he described how our air bombings are handled.  First, the military claims only combatants were killed, while local officials claim that there are children and women killed and injured, and that the men killed were not combatants at all.  (Kind of hard to claim a newborn baby is a combatant, but the US does it.)  Then an investigation is done, and after several months, the US military says “opps” and admits that some of the dead, like the babies, might not have been combatants after all.  Then they say sorry for the mistake, and then they turn around AND DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN.  They follow the same pattern with the night raids that end up with dead native people.

This book also points out how bombing people from the air never breaks their spirit or will to fight.  In fact, it has the opposite effect – it cause more of the local population to join in the resistance.  This book does not mention any cases were this was not true, and lists scores of cases were it is true.  The only exception to this truth was the extensive bombing, including nuclear bombing of Japan in World War Two.  And the population of Japan knew that they started the violence!  This reality was very evident after the bombings on 9/11.  Americans everywhere rallied together to go and attack the offenders.  That day’s bombing with civilian airplanes did not tempt us into doing nothing, or even to reflect on WHY they might be doing this.  It was just explained by ‘they hate us for our freedom’ nonsense.  It seems that most of the US population, the US politicians, and the US military, have NO ability to image how the people being bombed and occupied might actually feel.  The end result is that the native populations in these far off lands keep on fighting, dying and killing any way they can.  I suppose that this end result is really intended by the Masters of War.  They want the wars and occupations to continue, for fun, profit and/or job security. 

Engelhardt goes on to describe other aspects of war making by the USA.  One aspect is that the military, the veterans, and the continuing occupations, take up over half the US budget.  And no one talks about cutting off all this money.  I guess we are going to keep on doing this – while our bridges fall down, mines and wells blow up, and 26% of American kids never graduate high school – until we go broke.

Meanwhile, the war planning goes merrily along.

Engleheadt covers how the occupations and bombings of various countries have now become Obama’s Wars.  And he points out how it is getting worse.

Meanwhile, the innocent children of other lands are hurt and killed and generally destroyed by the never-ending US war machine.  The genetic future of these children has been destroyed also.

The great EAT DOWN

I am currently in an "eat down" mod.


My reason - my neighbor died, and I volunteered to take all her remaining food to the local food bank (except for the opened stuff, and the beer and wine - which I kept). I noticed that she had a LOT of stuff by the "best by" date - sometimes the best by date was 1999 or 1998!!

And then I decided to go through every cabinet that I have - and I found stuff that was past the "best by" date (but only a year or less). I separated out the food into PAST best by date and NOT PAST the best by date.  The later group I donated to the food bank.  I would eat the rest of it before restocking.

That was a over month ago. I can see now that I am going to end up with pasta and cereal..... and nothing else.

I am purchasing fresh items needed to complete the food I have - like milk for cereal and eggs for the cake mixes.  I kinda doubt I will get it all eaten by Thanksgiving, and I really don't have all that much.  My deceased neighbor, on the other hand, had a lot.

I will post when I reach the end of the "eat down".

"Protest FBI Raids and Harassment of Antiwar Activists!"

United for Peace and Justice stands in solidarity with the anti-war and international solidarity activists whose homes were raided by the FBI on Friday, September 24.  Homes in Chicago and Mineapolis were raide.  Doors were kicked in during the early morning raids and personal belongings including childrens' artwork, posters of Martin Luther King, Jr, were taken, as well as cell phones, computers and boxes of paper records.  About a dozen activists from Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury.

The FBI emphasized that no arrests were made, but that evidence was being collected regarding the possible 'material support' of terrorism.  The 'material support' statute is so broadly written that it can, and does, criminalize international peace-building activities whose only connection to terrorism is to reduce it.

Only one week ago, the Justice Department's own Inspector General released a report documenting political surveillance by the FBI.  Friday's raids are the latest violations by a recidivist agency whose abuses have unfortunately recurred throughout its history.

The FBI's raids threaten the First Amendment, our Peace Movement, and reflect the dangerous expansion of guilt by association pervading the Justice Department's "counter-terror" prosecutions.  They cannot stand, and the FBI should be held accountable for any abuses.  Activists are encouraged to join demonstrations at FBI and/or Federal buildings in cities around the country."

A Working Class Hero – song by John Lenno

We don't need..... no more trouble!

The cost of war and homelessness in America