You can Stop War

Obama Honors Fallen Soldiers

Obama visits Dover Air Force Base to honor fallen soldiers.

For more news video by Current TV visit http://current.com/

• added by: VSiskos
• 68 comments

AWOL Soldier Leads Thousands on UK Anti-War March

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton of the British Army told protesters at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park that he found it distressing to disobey orders but felt that he had been left with no choice.

• added by: knews121
• 0 comments

Rape in the Ranks Film: Effectively Banned in the US

A French filmmaker made a documentary on women in the military routinely raped. The film cannot get distribution in the US but will be screened in New York this week (note the news video above is not related to the film). More from http://IVAW.org/membersspeak/rape-ranks below:
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French filmmaker Pascale Bourgaux spent one month travelling in the U.S. in 2007 interviewing women raped in the U.S. military. Her documentary "Rape in the Ranks" has been shown on European TV but not in the U.S.

The documentary was selected for the New York Independent Film Festival and will be shown Monday evening, October 26 at 5:45pm at the City Cinema East, 181 2d Ave, NYC.
Following the showing of "Rape in the Ranks", we will have a panel to discuss rape in the US military at the Telephone Bar and Grill, 149 2nd Ave (212-529-5000).
See http://nyfilmvideo.info/2009-new-york-october-film-schedule-tickets/monday-octob...

Filmmaker Pascale Bourgaux is available for interviews. Her telephone is 212-982-0684 and 646-2638402
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It is hard to find anything about this film on the net. Not even on IMDB. Is that because it's French? Is it because perhaps military operatives have made sure nothing gets publicized? I'm just asking.

Here is a synopsis a reader located (http://current.com/1fv8i4c):

Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within, 28 Minutes

They enlisted in the army, ready to lay down their lives for their country. They were trained to fight off with the enemy without... but not the enemy within. They weren’t raped by Iraqis or Afghanis, but by fellow American soldiers! Tina, Jessica, Suzanne and Stephanie are dual victims. After being raped by a fellow unit member they have been ignored by U.S. military officials. The Pentagon has acknowleged receiving 3,000 reports of sexual assault in 2006 alone. To counter the escalating problem, the Pentagon launched a rape prevention program in 2004. The number of reported sexual assaults has since skyrocketed, but not the number of convictions. Only 2% of accused rapists are ever brought before a court-martial. Very few women have been willing to speak out, but Tina, Jessica, Suzanne and Stephanie decided to stand up and openly talk about their ordeals. Unable to stand the nightmarish daily rapes by her commander in Iraq, 21-year-old Suzanne refused to report back for mission. She was brought before a court-martial. 25-year-old Jessica was raped in the U.S. and Korea, yet still dreams of going back to active service and seeing her attackers brought to justice. Stephanie has come to regret never reporting her own rape and perpetuating the law of silence. 20-year-old Tina, who was raped in Iraq, is no longer around to recount her nightmare. She supposedly “killed herself.” Her mother claims she was murdered. This report tells the story of their pain, revolt, and uphill battle for justice.
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Visit the Stop War Project: http://stopwar.lafilmonline.com

• added by: JonRaymond
• 24 comments

GDP is a False Indicator

One of the major economic indicators that the government and Wall Street depend on, especially to tell us whether the country is in a recession or not, is the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). However, there are many who feel this indicator is inaccurate in reporting the real effect of the economy on people, especially people's happiness. The GPI (Genuine progress Indicator) was developed as one better and more accurate alternative, among others.

If you look at these two indicators as of late 2008, assuming that a steady decrease in the GDP for two consecutive quarters indicated a recession as Bush defined it, you'll find that even then, despite the terrible state of the economy with it's massive foreclosures and record unemployment, the GDP did not yet indicate we were in a recession, or even a downturn. Looking at the GDP, we were steadily growing our economy at a healthy clip. Two things stand out for me in this distinction.

The GDP includes Crime as a indicator of economic growth (as explained in World Changing online magazine - http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007993.html).
The GDP includes war and defense spending and it's industries. The GPI includes neither of these. Without defense spending, along with a few much lesser expenses like crime, we see the real picture of the downturn our economy is taking while boosting the military laden GDP, shown in this chart from Redefining Progress a public think tank.

Crime is a growth industry as is war. But growth of who and what? Are these something we want to measure as indicators of growth in our country?

Redefining Progress (http://www.rprogress.org/sustainability_indicators/genuine_progress_indicator.ht...) notes that the GPI has been flat since the 70s. Some charts, like The Progress Report, show a downturn in the GDI.

So what does defense have to do with it?

Defense spending goes into weapons that are expendable. When we go to war we take massive stocks of equipment and basically throw them away, or blow them up. What production or constructive result comes out of war that benefits U.S. citizens? Nothing. Any of this equipment recovered after the war is pretty much beyond it's useful life. Time to order the new models. In fact, the defense industry is notorious for, not only overspending with inflated budgets, but also for having state of the art equipment. All of this expense is more or less for stuff we trash.

Read "The Three Trillion Dollar War" http://threetrilliondollarwar.com
Do something: http://stopwar.lafilmonline.com//?p=39

• added by: JonRaymond
• 8 comments

Gen. McChrystal Now Seeking 80,000 Additional Troops for Afghanistan

When General McChrystal was first reported as requesting 40,000 additional troops for Afghanistan, many people balked at the massive number. Not long after, the number was quietly revised to 45,000. Last Friday it became clear that the general had actually requested over 60,000

Now McClatchy Newspapers is citing officials in the Obama Administration and military as saying that the General’s “low-risk” option was actually even higher, asking for 80,000 additional troops for the war in Afghanistan.

All the while, the 40,000 number has remained out there as a “medium-risk” option. The once massive escalation, suddenly reimagined as a “compromise” position in the face of outrageously large demands that have since been made. McChrystal reportedly isn’t thrilled with 40,000, which he has described as the absolute minimum needed.

The rub, however, is that with 68,000 US troops already in Afghanistan and 120,000+ still in Iraq, in addition to all of America’s assorted other imperial requirements around the world, the US military simply doesn’t have anywhere near the number of additional troops just lying around that the general wants to throw at the eight year long conflict. Officials are now saying that, even with the disastrous economy making wartime recruiting remarkably easy, they can only send about 30,000 more troops without putting undue strain on the Army and Marine Corps.

• added by: Ihatethemall
• 1 comment

Obama approves 13,000 more troops to Afghanistan

In an unannounced move, President Barack Obama is dispatching an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 he announced publicly in March, The Washington Post reported.

The additional forces are primarily support forces -- such as engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police -- the Post said, bringing the total buildup Obama has approved for the war-torn nation to 34,000.

• added by: bansheewail
• 150 comments

Remembering 9/12 and Every Day Thereafter

Millions of innocent Iraqi and Afghan civilians and have died at the hands of the United States in it's preemptive illegal racist genocidal wars. The U.S does not protect our freedom. It endangers our freedom with these wars that proliferate terrorism by motivating more to become terrorists bend on a rightful retaliation against the U.S., just as our own citizens would avenge the deaths of our families at the hands of a racist military occupation that continues to this day at a cost of $750,000 per troop per year in Afghanistan alone.

Some may have served with honor, or at least had that intent. Most did not and do not. They are part of a racist warmongering military with the sole purpose of making profit for the military industrial complex including the oil industry that values ownership of Afghanistan and Iraq.

http://stopwar.lafilmonline.com
http://stopwarproject.ning.com
http://threetrilliondollarwar.com
http://ivaw.org
http://rethinkafghanistan.com

• added by: JonRaymond
• 1 comment

$300 billion on New Fighter Jets

U.S. taxpayers will pay nearly $200 billion this year for the Afghanistan war and much of it goes directly into corporate coffers. On Monday, as McChrystal’s report outlining an expansion of the war was revealed, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was at a Lockheed Martin facility pledging to spend $300 billion on new fighter jets like the ones that have been killing scores of Afghan civilians on a daily basis.

October 7, 2009 marks the start of the ninth year of the invasion of Afghanistan. On that day, there will be anti-war actions in cities and towns throughout the country. There will also be anti-war actions on Monday, October 5, and Saturday, October 17.

• added by: JonRaymond
• 0 comments

Gates says AP decision to print photo of dying marine 'appalling'

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”

The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.

The AP reported in a story that it decided to make the image public anyway because it “conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.”

The photo shows Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard of New Portland, Maine, who was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, according to The AP.

Gates wrote to Thomas Curley, AP’s president and chief executive officer. “Out of respect for his family’s wishes, I ask you in the strongest of terms to reconsider your decision. I do not make this request lightly. In one of my first public statements as Secretary of Defense, I stated that the media should not be treated as the enemy, and made it a point to thank journalists for revealing problems that need to be fixed – as was the case with Walter Reed."

“I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family. Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency.”

The four-paragraph letter concluded, “Sincerely,” then had Gates’ signature.

The photo, first transmitted Thursday morning and repeated Friday morning, carries the warning, “EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT.”

The caption says: “In this photo taken Friday, Aug. 14, 2009, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard is tended to by fellow U.S. Marines after being hit by a rocket propelled grenade during a firefight against the Taliban in the village of Dahaneh in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Bernard was transported by helicopter to Camp Leatherneck where he later died of his wounds.”

Gates’ letter was sent Thursday, after he talked to Curley by phone at about 3:30 p.m. Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Gates told Curley: “I am asking you to reconsider your decision to publish this graphic photograph of Lance Corporal Bernard. I am begging you to defer to the wishes of the family. This will cause them great pain.”

Curley was “very polite and willing to listen,” and send he would reconvene his editorial team and reconsider, Morrell said. Within the hour, Curley called Morrell and said the editors had reconvened but had ultimately come to the same conclusion.

Gates “was greatly disappointed they had not done the right thing,” Morrell said.

The Buffalo News ran the photo on page 4, and the The (Wheeling, W.Va.) Intelligencer ran an editorial defending its decision to run the photo. Some newspapers – including the Arizona Republic, The Washington Times and the Orlando Sentinel – ran other photos from the series. Several newspaper websites – including the Akron Beacon-Journal and the St. Petersburg Times – used the photo online.

Morrell said Gates wanted the information about his conversations released “so everyone would know how strongly he felt about the issue.”

The Associated Press reported in a story about deliberations about that photo that “after a period of reflection,” the news service decided “to make public an image that conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.

end of excerpt
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So what do you think? Did AP go over the line?

• added by: JanforGore
• 132 comments

Shock and awe: About 90 killed as NATO hits Afghan fuel trucks

About 90 killed as NATO hits Afghan fuel trucks
AFP
Published: Friday September 4, 2009

A NATO air strike on Friday destroyed two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in Afghanistan, igniting a fireball that an Afghan official said killed about 90 people -- mostly insurgents.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties but a German army statement, putting the death toll at 56, insisted that no non-combatants were killed.

"Some 90 people were killed in this incident and most of them are Taliban. It was an ISAF force air strike," Mahbubullah Sayedi, a spokesman for the Kunduz provincial government, told AFP.

"A small number of the casualties are local civilians, including a few children who had come to take free fuel," he added, declining to give any further details.

More...

• added by: RFIDemocracy
• 18 comments

Profit 'Not Satanic,' Barclays Says, After Goldman Invokes Jesus

Weiner: Giving Up Single-Payer Was 'Real Politics'

Pelosi: No House vote on 'single-payer' plan

In fight over credit rules, she wields a plan

Report: 237 millionaires in Congress

Death toll rises to 13 in Ft. Hood shootings

Web post by Fort Hood gunman Major Nidal Malik Hasan could shed light on motives

Internet Comments Posted By Hasan Raised Concerns

Cousin Says Suspected Fort Hood Gunman Feared Impending War Deployment

Gunman in Fort Hood shooting, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, shouted 'Allahu Akbar' before deadly attack

How Do You Put the Dump Into Dump Truck? Push It Off the Fourth Floor

Fannie Mae to rent out homes instead foreclosing

Texan police officer Kim Munley who shot Fort Hood gunman hailed as a heroine

Nidal Malik Hasan, Suspected Fort Hood Shooter, Was Called "Camel Jockey"

Fort Hood shooter may have been Army psychiatrist