How Afghan children play

Quote from Howard Zinn

"The lesson of that history is that you must not despair, that if you are right, and you persist, things will change. The government will try to deceive the people, and the newspapers and television may do the same, but the truth has a way of coming out. The truth has a power greater than a hundred lies. My hope is that you will not be content to be successful in the way our society measures success; that you will not obey the rules, when the rules are unjust; that you will act out the courage that I know is in you." ~ Howard Zinn - Address to Spelman College, 2005

Heal the world, make it a better place!

Look at how we spend our money!

U.S. Budget Priorities: This pie chart does not include the bailout or the massive increase Congress voted overwhelmingly to give the Pentagon for this year.

This came from Code Pink via an email.

Here is a message from the director of Voters for Peace:

In his first year President Obama broke several war-making records of President George W. Bush. He passed the largest military budget in U.S. history, the largest one-year war supplementals and fired the most drone attacks on the most countries. He began 2010 asking for another $30 billion war supplemental and with the White House indicating that the next military budget will be $708 billion, breaking Obama’s previous record.


While some commentators on MSNBC hailed Obama as the peace candidate, he has done more for war in a shorter time than many other commanders-in-chief. U.S. attacks on other countries are not challenged in any serious way even if they result in consistent loss of innocent civilian life. It is not healthy for American democracy to allow unquestioned militarism and put war budgets on a path of automatic growth despite the U.S. spending as much as the rest of the world combined on weapons and war.

Link to the rest of the article.

I am tired.

I am tired of all the top-down rules and directives that are stupid, harmful and illogical, no matter if they come from the federal government, state government, or my supervisors at work. I am tired of not being listened to. I am tired of seeing my country make wars that destroy the lives of millions of innocents.

I am tired of the kidnappings, rapes, torture, abuse and assassinations done by my government and my fellow citizens, and I am tired of seeing so much money being spent on such evil things. I am tired of the lies and the thieving. I am tired of seeing the planet abused and destroyed. I am tired of the incompetence in this country, and I am tired of people not taking responsibility for their decisions and actions. I am tired of listening to the bullshit and the excuses.

I am tired. My soul is tired.

Photo is dusk in Asheville, taken in December 2009.

Israel's savage attack on Gaza

Help Haiti Heal Benefit

A two day concert/event at White Horse Black Mountain. This will be from 7 PM to 11:30 PM on February 6th, and from 2 PM to 6 PM on February 7th.

I think this is wonderful that they are doing this!

More info here.

Letter to Charlotte Observer 010910

We are in Afghanistan to prop up a very corrupt government. We are in Afghanistan, like in Iraq, to prop up geo-political interests and to reap big profits for the military industries. We are not there to help the people, we are not there for the safety of American citizens, and we are not there to benefit ordinary people in any country. We certainly are not there to deter terrorism, since our actions are inspiring more to become terrorists.

The point of our military is to kill our enemies and destroy their ability to hurt us. We do not have a military to chase down criminals in foreign countries, and we do not have a military to ‘build democracy’ or ‘bring peace’ to foreign nationals. We do not have a military to run elections in foreign countries, particularly elections that are corrupt. We do not have a military to assist other countries in exercising self-determination. And while it is noble to assist other countries to overcome poverty, that is not the job of our military either.

We have a military to destroy another country’s military that is intent on harming us. Because we are using our military to attack and occupy other countries that have not attacked us, we bring the innocent people of those countries the democracy of death and the freedom of the grave. We also ask our service members to risk their lives, and possibly ruin or end their lives, for the profit of corporations. It is insane, and it is obscene. This must end, and end soon.

This was never published.

Guantanemo prisoner and guard meet up

Part One




Part Two

Letter sent to Ash Citizen Times 010910

Words of wisdom from Martin Luther King, Jr: “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government.”

Here at home, we do not take care of the poor; instead we take care of the rich. We do not take care of our sick, our homeless, our educational systems. Instead, we spend trillions on making war, building thousands of military bases on foreign soil, and destroying other parts of the world for assorted made up reasons.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now.” And he is correct – continuing on this path that will one day lead to our own self-destruction. We must change course.

The above was not published.

Letter to Mtn Express 010910

I am often distressed at how our country and elected officials keep making war, war and more war. It is a failed and unproductive policy that will bankrupt us (financially and spiritually) and has destroyed the lives of millions of innocent people. And there is no end in sight.

Remember ‘shock and awe’? That bombing campaign was supposed to get Saddam and his imaginary WMDs. It only killed innocent people who lived in Iraq. That was well over six years ago, and today the Iraqi people are seeing extraordinary increases in birth defects and cancer rates. Millions of them fled the country of their birth and they are not going to return. It is a hideous, murderous crime we fostered on them.

And now it appears we will be doing the same thing to Afghanistan, under a different president. Afghanistan currently has one of the most corrupt governments in the world. President Karzai was recently “elected” for the next five years in a fraud-filled election. We are fighting over there to preserve a very corrupt government which the native population does not support.

Mr. Obama somehow managed to get a ‘peace prize’ while running two occupations and bombing a third country, Pakistan. Hundreds of civilians have been killed by drone bombings in Pakistan, and in just one year, the Obama administration killed more civilians there than the Bush administration ever did.

Those drone bombings are directed by the CIA, who had a suicide bomber (a double agent) onto their base, with the resulting death of one Jordanian intelligence official, two Blackwater mercenaries, and five CIA operatives. Reportedly this suicide bomber was a double (or triple?) agent and (according to Reuters) was connecting with the Haqqani network in Pakistan. Back in the 1980’s under the Reagan administration, the Haqqani network was still in Afghanistan, and they were our friends. The CIA armed them with stinger missiles, funded and trained them, in order to kick Russia out of Afghanistan. Today, they are in Pakistan and fighting to kick the USA out of Afghanistan.

The Haqqani network is also connected with the Pakistani ISI, and they are reluctant to take action against them – because they have not attacked in Pakistan. I really don’t think the CIA knows what they are doing. They are sure killing people though, and those deaths are inspiring protests in Pakistan, just like the Afghan deaths are inspiring protests in Afghanistan. I would bet they are inspiring more than protests.

Just last month, I heard the US was behind some bombings in Yemen which killed almost two dozen children. If this turns out to be true, we will be occupying two countries and bombing two more. Who knows? Maybe there are even more countries we are bombing.

We are spending more on our military, and our wars and bombings and occupations of foreign countries, than we are spending on infrastructure here at home. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” This is a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., and I agree with him.

This letter was never published. CORRECTION: It was published on 1-27-10.

Haiti a few weeks back, in happier times

They are certainly not lacking in art, music, or dance!

Afghan civilian deaths up 14% in 2009

Photo: Afghans look at coffins of three of four people killed in a NATO overnight raid in Qara Bagh district through the Ghazni city, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. NATO said Thursday that four insurgents were killed during a raid in the Qara Bagh district of Ghazni province the night before, but villagers insisted the dead were civilians. (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Naikzad)

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has reported that there were over 2,400 civilian deaths in 2009, with thousands more injured. This is an increase of 14% over prior years. The Taliban are responsible for killing the most civilians, mainly by IEDs and suicide attacks. There were also some targeted killings. The US Marines and pro-government Afghan forces are also doing some of the killing.

This is continuing. Here is a report from this year, 2010, where US Marines and Afghan troops fired on protesters for the second time within a week.

Troops fire on crowd in Afghanistan

At least five Afghan civilians were wounded when a combined force of Afghan troops and US Marines opened fire on a crowd at the gate to a military base in Helmand, Afghanistan's most volatile province, Nato said today. The incident, which took place on Wednesday but was not reported until Friday, was the second demonstration to turn violent in two days in Helmand's Garmsir district, suggesting mounting civil unrest in a part of the country where US Marines under Nato command made major advances last year.

This incident happened a day after US Marines fired on protesters in Helmand province. The local Afghans reported that eight people were killed and thirteen were injured in that incident.

The conflict is spreading, it is getting worse, and the civilians are the ones to pay the price - as always.

Here is a report from the UN Integrated Regional Information Network.

Afghans in the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Nimruz, Uruzgan and Zabul, where the conflict is the most intense, were the most severely affected, the report said.

The average monthly number of security incidents was 960 in 2009 - up from 741 in 2008 (a 29.6 percent rise). “The conflict has intensified: it has spread, affecting previously tranquil areas, such as in the northeast, and deepened as it has moved from rural to urban areas.”

The conflict has also destroyed infrastructures and livelihoods, displaced communities, and eroded the quality and availability of basic services in the country, it said.

This turns out to result in the killing of three children a day (on average). Children are the biggest victims in wars - as always. According to an Afghan human rights watchdog, more than 1,050 children were killed last year alone. Again, the Taliban were responsible for the majority of the deaths (around 64%) with NATO and pro-government Afghans responsible for the rest.

We certainly are not doing a very good job of protecting the children of Afghanistan. And, in some cases, it is US forces that are killing them off.

Afghan war kills three children a day

Children were also press-ganged, sexually exploited, deprived of health and education, and illegally detained by all sides in a war that is dragging into its ninth year since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. "At least three children were killed in war-related incidents every day in 2009 and many others suffered in diverse but mostly unreported ways," ARM director Ajmal Samadi said. Children died in suicide attacks and roadside bombings -- at the crux of the Taliban's arsenal against US, NATO and Afghan troops fighting the increasingly virulent insurgency as it spreads across the impoverished country.

…….. Reports that foreign forces killed eight students in Kunar province on December 26 caused widespread outrage, including US flag-burning demonstrations in two cities, though reports of what happened varied widely.

2009 has been the deadliest year for Afghans since the US-led invasion and occupation. This has been the worst year ever for the Afghan people – our troops and NATO troops are not protecting the civilians from the Taliban. And the increase in US troops there is not making the situation better.

Oftentimes, the civilians get caught in the crossfire. About a third of the time, they are directly killed by US or NATO or pro-government Afghan forces. Many more are wounded.

’09 Deadliest year for Afghans, UN says

Indeed, airstrikes are the main cause of civilian deaths by the coalition. Even with the new guidelines, which took effect in the middle of last year, 359 Afghans were killed in airstrikes in 2009, the United Nations survey found. One of the worst of these came on Sept. 4, when German troops called in an airstrike after militants hijacked a fuel convoy near the northern city of Kunduz. But the trucks had stalled in a riverbed, and local residents had gathered around them. The bombing killed at least 72 civilians, the United Nations report said.

But no one can claim that the US military is not learning from their mistakes. Why, take a look at this amazing evidence of insight to Afghan culture, from the same article as above:

“In the Afghan culture, a man’s home is more than just his residence,” a draft of the new guidance said. “It represents his family, and protecting it is closely intertwined with his honor. He has been conditioned to respond aggressively whenever he perceives his home or honor is threatened.

Of course, here in the USA, if armed foreign troops showed up in the middle of the night, the typical US male would invite them in, and then serve them tea and cookies. He would never respond aggressively!! Why, I am sure he would be the perfect example of understanding, patience, respect and good manners to the armed foreigners who disturbed his sleep. And that is because no one in the USA would think of their home as something other than a simple residence to eat and sleep in. And, here in the USA, families are easily interchangeable, as our divorce rate shows. The article goes on to state:

“We should not be surprised that night operations elicit such a response,” the guidance said, “which we then often interpret as the act of an insurgent.”

Why, yes, I can see why they might get confused, since US males would respond in a totally passive and deferential way to armed foreigners inside the typical American “residence”. No one would confuse them with “insurgents”.

Now, I wrote most of this blog post last weekend. The story just above is from January 14, 2010. But, apparently a week later, they are still learning the lesson that they claimed to have learned already. Because today, the US and NATO forces said they are going to “tighten” the rules for home invasions in Afghanistan in the middle of the night. This report (exclusive to AP!) came after four people were killed in a NATO raid just last night. The locals insist that the dead were unarmed civilians.

It’s an article from the WaPo, so of course there is no mention of the times in the recent past that the US military said the very same things. That would be way too hard for a SERIOUS newspaper in the US to handle. Here’s what they named the story:

AP Exclusive: US to tighten rules on Afghan raids

NATO forces in Afghanistan are preparing to limit night raids on private homes, even if it means losing some tactical advantage, to curb rising public anger.

Oh, it’s an exclusive all right. Exclusively stupid to repeat what the US military said last week, but didn’t mean, and then pretend the US military never said it before. Bet they have another ‘exclusive’ next week.

The US military had this to say:

The U.S. and allied nations have made protecting the population a priority over the use of massive firepower as they seek to undermine support for the Taliban.

Hey, how’s that working out? Well, another 500 Afghans came out to demonstrate against the US and current Afghan government TODAY. I think we can mark them as NON-supporters of the current US project there in Afghanistan.

Sure glad those US military guys are learning something there after 8 FUCKING YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN. (Or, are they? How often do they have to report learning this lesson?)

The anatomy of America’s defeat in Afghanistan

(h/t to Iraq today for the above link.)

Afghans protest the results of a night raid

Lead us out of Afghanistan!

I signed the petition to tell President Obama to lay out an exit strategy and timetable for the Afghanistan War in his State of the Union address.

Take action and sign the petition here.

Quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.

"This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." -- MLK

Afghans shall live in peace one day

Which human will we humans torture next?
We Afghans shall live in peace some day
We shall overcome some day
Now is the time to pause in empathy or perish in estrangement

Love and peace,
Hakim in Afg
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog



Compiled by Kate Cowley:

January 18, 2010
Dear Friends,

This morning, on Day Eight of our fast, we gathered together for a conference call with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers. They have been fasting for two days in solidarity with all of us.

It is difficult to try to encapsulate the richness of the dialogue we exchanged with this group of young people so dedicated to the struggle for peace and justice, and so entrenched in the sorrow and pain of war. The dialogue and connections across such a distance was very inspiring to all of us.

At one point in the conversation, Jerica mentioned to them that we’ve been singing a lot lately, and asked if they sing songs together. They in turn asked us to sing for them, and so Kathy led us in another round of “Hold on, keep your eyes on the prize.” They returned the favor by singing a song for us in Arabic that translates into English as: “Mountains cannot reach mountains, only men can reach men.”

Carmen brought up that it was Martin Luther King Day and asked if they were aware of the significance of this day in the history of the U.S. They responded to this by reading to us MLK quotes in Arabic that they had learned together. It was quite a fitting close to our conversation and a beautiful homage to Martin Luther King Jr. We will keep these young Afghan Peace Volunteers in our hearts and be with them in their struggle!

The Brits show us how to do it....

Title: Alistair Campbell Arrives To Give Evidence At The Iraq Inquiry.

Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 12: An anti-war protestor holds a placard outside the Iraq Inquiry on January 12, 2010 in London, England. Alistair Campbell, press secretary to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the most prominent figure thus far to face the inquiry, will give evidence relating to the build up to the Iraq war and the handling of the aftermath. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Date created: 12 Jan 2010

His sign says that Blair, Campbell, Scarlet need to go to The Hague for war crimes.

Peaceable Assembly Campaign - Jan 19 to Feb 2

A Campaign to Demand Alternatives to U.S. Militarism

"we can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb the world to peace"

Cancer rates exploding in Iraq

A very serious after-effect of the US/UK invasion and occupation of Iraq is the exploding rates of cancer. It is reported to be “spreading like wildfire” in places like Fallujah, Babil province, and Basra. All were sites of heavy bombardment with weapons coated with massive amounts of depleted uranium. These areas are also seeing a significant rise in birth defects.

Cancer- The deadly legacy of the invasion of Iraq

In Falluja, which was heavily bombarded by the US in 2004, as many as 25% of new- born infants have serious abnormalities, including congenital anomalies, brain tumors, and neural tube defects in the spinal cord.

The cancer rate in the province of Babil, south of Baghdad has risen from 500 diagnosed cases in 2004 to 9,082 in 2009 according to Al Jazeera English.

In Basra there were 1885 diagnosed cases of cancer in 2005. According to Dr. Jawad al Ali, director of the Oncology Center, the number increased to 2,302 in 2006 and 3,071 in 2007. Dr. Ali told Al Jazeera English that about 1,250-1,500 patients visit the Oncology Center every month now.

One doctor does draw a direct correlation between the depleted uranium and the cancers and birth defects.

Dr. Ahmad Hardan, who served as a special scientific adviser to the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, says that there is scientific evidence linking depleted uranium to cancer and birth defects. He told Al Jazeera English, "Children with congenital anomalies are subjected to karyotyping and chromosomal studies with complete genetic back-grounding and clinical assessment. Family and obstetrical histories are taken too. These international studies have produced ample evidence to show that depleted uranium has disastrous consequences."

The cancer rates increased after both the 1991 war and the 2003 invasion and occupation. This increase happened five to six years after the bombardment, which is why we are seeing such an increase in 2008-2009.

There is also an increase in birth defects seen in Afghan children, and in children of US military who served in the 1991 war and 2003 invasion and occupation. Below under the fist comment is a you tube report from Al Jazeera on this horrible after-effect of the US/UK invasion, occupation and destruction in Iraq. And locals in the affected area are certainly blaming depleted uranium for these cancers and birth defects.


At least someone has the backbone to call this war and occupation of Iraq what it truly is: A MONSTROUS CRIME.

The war in Iraq had "no basis in international law", a Dutch inquiry found today, in the first ever independent legal assessment of the decision to invade. In a series of damning findings, a seven-member panel in the Netherlands concluded that the war, which was supported by the Dutch government following intelligence from Britain and the US, had not been justified in law.

It was the work of evil from start to finish.

Inside Iraq from al Jazeera English

You can bet your last dollar that the rest of the world knows about this, even as Americans are ignorant.

In honor of one of my favorite Americans

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered." - Rev. Martin Luther King