written by Robert Kuttner/ Huffington Post
Once again, the job numbers are dismal. In January, the U.S. economy created just 36,000 domestic jobs, far below the roughly 145,000 that economists had forecast. The unemployment rate fell, to 9 percent, but only because more and more discouraged workers are giving up and leaving the workforce. The U.S. still has a jobs gap of about 14 million jobs, and that number is increasing as the labor force grows. Counting people who've given up, or who are working part time when they want full time jobs, the real unemployment number is around 17 percent. America now has about 25 million people either out of work or underemployed. Meanwhile, corporate profits continue to set records. Profits in the third quarter of 2010 were 1.659 trillion, about 28 percent higher than a year before, and the highest year‐to‐year increase on record. What's going on? Very simply, America's corporations no longer need America's workers. You don't get to see this kind of thing on TV very often: I am proud to be an initial signer of this document (from War is a Crime). Please join me in vowing to impede Obama's war policies. -Dennis Trainor, Jr REGISTER and then ADD YOUR NAME We the undersigned share with nearly two-thirds of our fellow Americans the conviction that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be ended and that overall military spending should be dramatically reduced. This has been our position for years and will continue to be, and we take it seriously. We vow not to support President Barack Obama for renomination for another term in office, and to actively seek to impede his war policies unless and until he reverses them. Since he became president, Obama has had three opportunities to work with Congress to reduce military spending, but instead has championed increases in that spending each time, despite the fact that this spending represents a clear threat to the economic future of our country. He has continued as well to try to hide the true costs of the wars by funding them with off-the-books supplemental spending bills, despite the fact that he campaigned against this very practice. The President has escalated a war on Afghanistan in which rising civilian deaths and atrocities have become routine. He has given the CIA even greater freedom of action to launch lethal drone strikes against civilian houses in Pakistan on mere assumption of some connection with Taliban or other organizations, despite the warning from the U.S. Ambassador in late 2009 -- revealed in a Wikileaks cable -- that such attacks could "destabilize" the Pakistani government, despite many reports that civilians, including children, are disproportionately victims, and despite the contention of the United Nations and many U.S. allies that this practice is illegal. Obama has approved an increase in covert operations by CIA-controlled Afghan troops into Pakistan, and his administration has remained silent while the U.S. command in Afghanistan leaked to the New York Times plans for new Special Operations Forces raids into Pakistan aimed at Afghan Taliban targets. The President has expanded the use of Special Operations Forces (SOF), operating in virtually total secrecy and without any accountability to Congress, in one country after another. SOF troops are presently in some 75 nations -- 15 more than when Obama took office. President Obama has, on a later schedule than he campaigned on, finally reduced U.S. troop presence in Iraq. But he has not fully withdrawn U.S. combat forces from Iraq or ended U.S. combat there, his claims to have done so notwithstanding. His vice president has suggested, without correction by the President, the possibility of a U.S. military presence in the country even after the deadline for withdrawal under the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal agreement, if only through the use of military contractors. The Obama administration has announced plans to form an army of mercenary troops from private military contractors in Iraq which is to have its own air force and its own fleet of mine-resistant military vehicles. The plan includes continued contracts with the company formerly called Blackwater, despite the knowledge that it was guilty of atrocities against civilians in that country, and despite the openly declared opposition of the Iraqi government to such a continued role. Obama has overseen increased weapons sales to foreign nations, and assisting in those sales has been a major function of his State Department. He has approved increased funding for work on nuclear weapons, even while supporting an arms control treaty. He has established a policy of potential nuclear first strike against Iran or North Korea. President Obama has argued for the justness of war-making in widely watched speeches from the Oval Office and in Oslo, Norway, where he was accepting a Nobel Peace Prize. He has, in his Oval Office speech last August, defended false statements that took our nation into the current wars and false statements that have prolonged them. The President has supported sanctions against Iran and Syria that punish the people, especially children, and not the leadership, of those countries. He has sent ships and missiles to Iran's border. He has risked hostilities with North Korea through the ongoing construction of new military bases in South Korea and provocative war games exercises. His administration has helped a military coup succeed in Honduras. President Obama has sought to allow more Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories. He has protected Israel's killing of activists on a humanitarian aid ship, not even protesting at the murder of an unarmed American youth. He issued a presidential memorandum on October 25, 2010, giving U.S. approval for the use of child soldiers by Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen. He has backed Indonesian armed forces that assassinated civilian activists in late 2009. He has expanded the U.S. military presence in Colombia, Costa Rica, Haiti, Guam, Italy, and Diego Garcia, as well as overseeing an enormous military base construction project in Afghanistan. President Obama has not closed the prison at Guantanamo Bay and continues to maintain a network of detention facilities in Afghanistan through which prisoners, according to the most recent informationavailable, are still being subjected to harsh treatment. He has claimed the right to imprison people, including American citizens, indefinitely without charge or trial, thus further cementing in place the elimination of the rights of prisoners of war and the elimination of the right of habeas corpus for anyone, as well as the rights found in the Fourth through Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The President has claimed the power of rendition. His CIA Director Leon Panetta and his senior advisor David Axelrod have asserted, without correction by the President, that the President maintains the powerto torture. In the recent case of Gulet Mohamed, the Obama administration, for a time, claimed the power to forbid an American to reenter the country, absent any conviction or even any charge of a crime, and apparently collaborated with Kuwait to torture that American. The President has also openly claimed the power to order the assassination of Americans abroad. In Iraq, the U.S. military has continued towork with and protect from accountability an Iraqi military that is known to regularly use torture. The President has expanded the use of warrantless spying. Under his leadership, the FBI has infiltrated peace groups and raided the homes of peace activists. It has set up and entrapped in terrorism charges people whose training and motivation came largely or even entirely from the FBI. He has supported the re-authorization of the PATRIOT Act, which strips away Americans' civil liberties. President Obama, in direct violation of the Nuremberg Charter, a U.S. treaty commitment, has publicly instructed his Attorney General not to prosecute individuals responsible for crimes, including torture. His administration has worked hard to provide retroactive immunity to corporations engaged in warrantless spying and individuals engaged in sanctioning torture. He has kept secret a vast trove of documents, photos, and videos pertaining to prisoner abuse. He has advanced unprecedented claims of secrecy powers in defending the crimes of his predecessor. President Obama's White House has put great pressure on European states not to investigate or prosecute U.S. war crimes. This president has restricted the release of the names of White House visitors and has pursued the prosecution and punishment of government whistleblowers more aggressively than any previous president. His administration is responsible for the cruel and unusual lengthy confinement in a 6' by 12' cell, prior to any trial, of alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning. His vice president, Joe Biden, has publicly labeled an Australian journalist, Julian Assange, a "terrorist." President Obama has used a private propaganda firm that had been exposed planting lies in Iraqi media, to screen potential embedded reporters for coverage of the U.S. military. He has used the military to restrict reporting by American journalists on an oil spill in American waters. Perhaps most perilously, President Obama has claimed the right to engage in many of these activities without the authorization of Congress. He has even claimed the power first developed by his predecessor to rewrite new laws through the extra-Constitutional use of presidential signing statements. Expanded powers that are not opposed now will be far more difficult to oppose later with another president able to claim past precedent. The President's own deficit commission recommended cuts of $100 billion to the military budget. The United States spends about $1 trillion each year on the military, through a variety of departments, and has spent over $1 trillion already on the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Over half of every U.S. dollar of income tax is going to war making. The Department of Defense budget alone is larger than the military expenditures of the next largest 16 militaries in the world combined. That budget could be cut by 85% and still be the largest in the world. In addition to the lessening of hostility toward our country that would result from a significant decrease in U.S. military presence around the world, by shifting our financial resources we could create jobs, green energy, top quality free education, public transportation and infrastructure. We could also end all talk of reducing our Social Security or health coverage. We intend to support public servants who put our money where it serves the public. We are not concerned with whether President Obama is acting enthusiastically or reluctantly in pursuing a militaristic policy abroad and more repression of dissent at home. It matters little whether he is submitting to powerful forces or freely following his preferred course. We do not elect his soldiers or spies, his advisors, his campaign funders, or the owners of our major media outlets. We elect the president. We will not support his nomination for another term, and we believe that a large proportion of Americans who voted for him in 2008 will not do so again unless he reverses the most egregious policies to which we have referred -- especially by taking decisive steps to end the war on Afghanistan and to make deep cuts in the military and war budgets. REGISTER and then ADD YOUR NAME (If already registered and logged in, just add your name. Please do not be concerned that you can't get to the Register page.) (If you can't add your name, please register and log in.) Some of those who have signed: Nic Abramson, U.S. Boat to Gaza Meredith Aby, MN Anti-War Committee Elliott Adams, president, Veterans For Peace Will Allen, author, The War on Bugs Maria Allwine, Pledge of Resistance Baltimore Vicki Andrews, Peace Circle - Grand Rapids MN Jean Athey, coordinator of Peace Action Montgomery (MD)* and national board member, Peace Action* Nellie Hester Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council & Black Agenda Report Anna Baltzer, activist Mark Bebawi, producer/host, The Monitor, KPFT Medea Benjamin, cofounder, Code Pink* Frida Berrigan, War Resisters League* Toby Blome, activist, Bay Area Code Pink William Blum, author of books on U.S. foreign policy Leah Bolger, CDR, USN (Ret), Vice-President, Veterans For Peace Linda Boyd, activist Lenni Brenner, author, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Elaine Brower, military mom, World Can't Wait Mike Byerly, Alachua County Commissioner, Gainesville, Fla. Scott Camil, President, Gainesville Florida Chapter, Veterans For Peace Patty Casazza, 9/11 widow, former 9/11 Commission Family Steering Committee Member Oskar Castro, board member, War Resisters League Zach Choate, operation recovery field organizer, Iraq Veterans Against the War David Cobb, Move To Amend coalition* Jeff Cohen, author/media critic William John Cox, Voters Evolt! Catarina Correia, video editor, coordinating committee member, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance Bud Courtney, New York Catholic Worker David Culver, publisher, Evergreene Digest Ronnie Cummins, national director, Organic Consumers Association Matthew W. Daloisio, Witness Against Torture* Nicolas J S Davies, author, Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq Elena Day, People's Alliance for Clean Energy Sibel Edmonds, founder & director, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition Cherie Eichholz, national board member, Veterans for Peace Roy Eidelson, past president, Psychologists for Social Responsibility Pat Elder, Coordinating Committee, National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth* Daniel Ellsberg, former State and Defense Dept. official, whistleblower of Pentagon Papers Samuel S. Epstein, professor Desiree Fairooz, Northern Virginians for Peace and Justice Mike Ferner, national board member, Veterans for Peace Joy First, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance Robert Fitrakis, professor, editor Lisa Fithian, convenor, United for Peace and Justice Margaret Flowers, M.D., Physicians for a National Health Program* Glen Ford, executive editor, Black Agenda Report* George Friday, Independent Progressive Politics Network Sarah Fuhro, board member, Military Families Speak Out* James Clay Fuller, retired newspaper editor Monica Gabrielle, 9/11 widow, former 9/11 Commission Family Steering Committee Member Bruce K. Gagnon, coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space* Lila Garrett, radio host Nate Goldshlag, national board member and treasurer, Veterans For Peace Michelle Gross, president, Communities United Against Police Brutality Thomas John Gumbleton, retired Roman Catholic Bishop Connie Hammond, Progressive Peace Coalition, Columbus, Ohio Kathy Hass, activist, Central Florida Code Pink Bill Habedank, Veterans for Peace Jim Haber, coordinator, Nevada Desert Experience Susan Harman, Progressive Democrats of America*, Code Pink* David Harris, Veterans for Peace David Harris, draft resister, author Leslie Harris, activist, Code Pink Greater Dallas* Bob Heberle, former national board member, Veterans for Peace Chris Hedges, author, Death of the Liberal Class Dud Hendrick, Maine chapter president, Veterans for Peace Steve Hendricks, author, A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial Martha Hennessy, Catholic Worker John Heuer, chair and national board member, NC Peace Action Herbert J. Hoffman, vice president, Maine Veterans for Peace Connie Hogarth, Cofounder WESPAC (Westchester Peoples Action Coalition)* Lydia Howell, writer and host, "Catalyst", KFAI Radio Sam Husseini, activist Hugh Iglarsh, writer/editor Rick Jahnkow, Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft* Dahr Jamail, journalist/author Mark C. Johnson, executive director, Fellowship of Reconciliation Tarak Kauff, Veterans For Peace Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence* Nada Khader, WESPAC Foundation Joey King, national board member, Veterans for Peace Howie Klein, publisher, DownWithTyranny.com Michael Knox, professor and clinical psychologist Georg Koszulinski, filmmaker Joel Kovel, author, The Enemy of Nature, Overcoming Zionism Andrew Kolin, author, State Power and Democracy: Before and During the Presidency of George W Bush Steve Lane, activist Jesse Lemisch, Historian, Emeritus Prof, John Jay Coll of Criminal Justice, CUNY Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun/Network of Spiritual Progressives Linda LeTendre, LMSW Christian Peace Witness Dave Lindorff, editor, Thiscantbehappening.net Erik Lobo, Veteran For Peace Ralph Lopez, JobsForAfghans.org David MacMichael, Ph.D., former CIA analyst Sarah Martin, subpoenaed antiwar and international solidarity activist Gene Marx, national board member, Veterans for Peace Ethan McCord, IVAW, VFP, former army specialist from "collateral murder" video Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party Nominee for U.S. President David McReynolds, Socialist Party USA* Bob Meola, War Resisters League National Committee* and Courage to Resist Organizing Collective* Michael T. McPhearson, co-convenor United For Peace and Justice, former executive director of Veterans For Peace Camilo E. Mejia, activist, resister Linda Milazzo, activist, writer Dede Miller, activist Mark Crispin Miller, author, professor Nick Mottern, Consumers for Peace Gael Murphy, co-chair, Legislative Working Group, United for Peace and Justice*, co-founder, Code Pink* Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy* Bruce Nestor, past president, National Lawyers Guild Brad Newsham, activist Georgianne Nienaber, activist and author Stirling Newberry, former military contractor Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center Jeanne Olson, veteran, activist Paul Ortiz, Veterans for Peace, author Cynthia Papermaster, director, National Accountability Action Network* Judith Mahoney Pasternak, War Resisters League* Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist Lewis Pitts, Legal Aid of NC Gareth Porter, author and journalist Bill Quigley, Center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law, Loyola University New Orleans* Jesselyn Radack, former Department of Justice legal adviser Garett Reppenhagen, chair of the board of directors, Iraq Veterans Against the War Ward Reilly, advisory committee member, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, VVAW Jill Richardson, author Katie Robbins, national organizer, Healthcare-NOW! David Rovics, singer/song writer Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent, one of TIME's 2002 Persons of the Year Richard E. Rubenstein, author, Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War Stephanie Rugoff, project coordinator, War Criminals Watch A.F. Saidy, M.D., Coalition for Peace in M.E. in L.A. Nicole Sandler, radio host Lisa Savage, Code Pink Maine* Linda Schade, WikiLeaksisDemocracy.org Bill Scheurer, PeaceMajority Report Sue Serpa, coordinator, JobsForAfghans.org Jamilla El-Shafei, Peace Action Maine, Code Pink Joanne Sheehan, coordinator, War Resisters League New England Robert Shetterly, artist, Americans Who Tell the Truth Gar Smith, Environmentalists Against War Michael Steven Smith, Law and Disorder Radio; board member, Center for Constitutional Rights* Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Democracy Unlimited Jeffrey St Clair, CounterPunch John Stauber, author, Weapons of Mass Deception Josh Stieber, conscientious objector John Stockwell, former intelligence officer, author David Swanson, WarIsACrime.org Rev. James L. Swarts, professor, Veterans For Peace, Progressives In Action Peace Committee Chair Dennis Trainor, Jr., NoCureForThat.org Diane Turco, Cape Codders for Peace and Justice Sue Udry, Defending Dissent Foundation* Elizabeth De La Vega, former assistant U.S. attorney, author Robert C. Walter, Peace Action Maine, associate member of Veterans for Peace Harvey Wasserman, author Janet Weil, military family member Alison Weir, president, Council for the National Interest Beverley Whipple, Fla. chapter leader, Military Families Speak Out Paki Wieland, activist S. Brian Willson, Viet Nam Veteran, activist Diane Wilson, shrimper, activist, author, Veterans for Peace Marcy Winograd, former Democratic congressional candidate Ann Wright, US Army Reserve Colonel and former US diplomat Dan Yaseen, Peace Fresno Charles M. Young, contributing editor, Thiscantbehappening.net Kevin Zeese, Voters For Peace Maggie Zhou, Climate SOS *for identification purposes only REGISTER and then ADD YOUR NAME Even as President Obama maintains close to 50,000 troops in Iraq and continues to escalate and expand the war in Afghanistan, the antiwar movement in America continues to shrink. So, what happened? Reason.tv visited two antiwar protests—one left-leaning, one libertarian—in an attempt to answer that question. Author and historian Thaddeus Russell and Reason Senior Editor Brian Doherty also weigh in. War, it seems, is a bipartisan venture, which is reflected by the fact that Democrats have a favorable view of Obama's foreign policy, despite its remarkable similarity to George W. Bush's foreign policy. And though there have been rumblings of antiwar sentiment from some on the Right, Republicans remain strongly in favor of an interventionist foreign policy. Although public sentiment is turning against the war in Afghanistan, the always-shifting withdrawal deadlines and the unwillingness to touch defense spending mean that this bipartisan war is likely to continue far into the future. Approximately 7 minutes. Written and Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Senior Producer: Ted Balaker. Visit Reason.tv for downloadable versions, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live. via ReasonTV By David Swanson / War is a Crime
Fifty years ago this Monday, President Dwight Eisenhower gave a farewell address in which he famously warned of the dangers of influence on our government by the "military industrial complex." Our current Secretary of War, Robert Gates, has proposed to retire this year and has recommended that his successors stop increasing the military budget. But Eisenhower didn't just bring this up on his way out the door. It was seven years earlier that he had remarked: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed 8,000 people." But pulling these quotes out of context, as we like to do, misses the reprehensible context of the speeches in which they originated. It would be a similar act of distortion to quote President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech and leave out everything but that peaceful opening line, "Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world:" Obama went on to argue the necessity of war. And that is what Eisenhower did in his farewell address. He argued against unlimited militarization while arguing for something just short of it. He proposed disarmament while suggesting that we'd really better not do it. These lines are less well remembered: "We face a hostile ideology, global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily, the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration." How does one dismantle the military industrial complex in the face of a ruthless, atheistic ideology? Of course, Eisenhower did not do so. He refrained from some of the excesses, in both war funding and war lying, of his successors. He dug our country into a pointless war on Vietnam, but not to the extent of his successors. And when his immediate successor resisted the military machine more than Eisenhower had, a single bullet struck him multiple times in Dallas. If we set aside for a moment the pressing question for all presidents of whether Eisenhower was a devil or a saint, we can appreciate the value of having a president say anything worthwhile. But a half century later, we should be able to bring ourselves to also recognize what ideally should have been said -- and was being said by others. In the same speech in which Eisenhower spoke of the theft from those who hunger, he claimed eternal innocence for the United States in foreign affairs. The United States had never been an aggressor; that was the Soviet Union's role. The United States relied on "trust and mutual aid" while the USSR relied on "force: huge armies, subversion, rule of neighbor nations." Why did we have to steal from the hungry in order to build weapons? Eisenhower had the answer: "The amassing of Soviet power alerted free nations to a new danger of aggression. It compelled them in self-defense to spend unprecedented money and energy for armaments." Eisenhower blamed the Soviet Union for "aggression in Korea and southeast Asia." We know that to have constituted a pair of super-destructive lies. The point is not that Eisenhower wasn't relatively responsible, when compared with his predecessors and successors. But he maintained the same set of lies that allowed for the military industrial complex to grow into something today that probably didn't penetrate his worst nightmares. Fifty years later it has come to look likely that militarized global empire cannot be maintained at a limited level that permits democracy at home. This is an all or nothing endeavor that requires a radical solution. We cannot both live and breathe fear of the evil now-Muslim terrorist ideology and halt nuclear proliferation. We cannot pretend our wars have been defensive and humanitarian while at the same time shutting down bases around the globe. We cannot imagine foreigners to be subhuman beasts and simultaneously pursue disarmament. In 1959, A.J. Muste said: "I am not impressed . . . with the struggle that goes on periodically between the White House and Congressional committees over whether a balanced budget or national security is of first importance. These are not struggles between pacifists and militarists, people who want or do not want 'genuine negotiation.' And however these controversies come out, the military budget will be of astronomical proportions for 'peacetime'." Muste cited C. Wright Mills and George F. Kennan in arguing for unilateral disarmament and adoption of a very different approach to the world. A half century later, that idea has less respect than ever, but the dominant idea is taking us off a cliff. The war machine is stronger than ever, the war propaganda slicker, the dangers heightened. Continuing down this course is not survivable in terms of proliferation or blowback, environmental destruction or loss of democratic representation, or in simple economic terms. This week a congress member proposed a bill to allow his colleagues to come armed to work, on the grounds that they could not safely walk home on Capitol Hill. Tinkering with a self-destructive system will not save us. We need what Martin Luther King, Jr., whose holiday is also celebrated on Monday, called a revaluation of values. We need to outgrow the idea that there can be a good or just war any more than there can be a good slavery or a just rape. We need to confront the root of the militaristic ideology that even Eisenhower pushed on us: the lies about World War II. Yes, Franklin Roosevelt campaigned for office promising to stay out of a war he was already working to maneuver the United States into, and for all the wrong reasons, and he lied about German attacks and plans for conquest, and he lied about Pearl Harbor. For a truly painful experience, read what FDR and others knew. Then read the endless saga of investigations and coverups. That FDR pursued very good policies domestically is not altered by what he did abroad. If we are looking for people to model our lives after, they should not be elected officials. They should be people like Martin Luther King, Jr. Here is someone doing that. via The Onion
In The Know panelists discuss Obama's failure to repair Americans' Bush-era reputation overseas as drunken belligerent assholes vomiting on ancient treasures. by Tom Engelhardt
via TomDispatch.com Last week, Pentagon budget “cuts” were in the headlines, often almost luridly so -- “Pentagon Faces the Knife,” “Pentagon to Cut Spending by $78 Billion, Reduce Troop Strength,” “U.S. Aims to Cut Defense Budget and Slash Troops.” Responding to the mood of the moment in Washington (“the fiscal pressures the country is facing”), Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen made those headlines by calling a news conference to explain prospective “cuts” they were proposing. Summing the situation up, Mullen seconded Gates this way: “The secretary's right, we can't hold ourselves exempt from the belt-tightening.” Gates then appeared on the PBS NewsHour to explain the nature of Pentagon “belt-tightening,” while reminding anchor Jim Lehrer that last year the Pentagon announced plans to cap or cut “programs that, had they been built to conclusion, would have cost the taxpayers about $330 billion.” The newest $78 billion in cuts over five years was to be considered but an add-on to already supposedly staggering savings, which he described as “changes in the expected dollars that we thought we were going to have when we prepared last year's budget.” According to the Secretary of Defense, this massive set of cuts would, in fact, guarantee “modest growth” in the already monstrous Pentagon budget for at least the next three years. Keeping Mullen’s “belt-tightening” image in mind, what you have here, imagistically speaking, is an especially obese man cutting down on his own future expectations for how much he’s planning to overeat, even as he continues to increase what he’s actually eating. In other words, this is actually a belt-loosening operation. (And by the way, the Secretary of Defense knows perfectly well that some of his “cuts,” announced with such flare, will never make it through a Congress where powerful Republicans, among others, prefer to exempt the national security budget from serious cuts, or any cuts at all.) Consider this indicative of the new thinking we can expect from Washington in a crisis. As new, in fact, as the announcement less than a week into 2011 -- the year President Obama once targeted for a major drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan -- that 1,400 more Marines were being sent into that country. It was a small but striking reminder that, as in 2009 and 2010, when it comes to the widening war in the region, the path of “more” (and more of the same) would invariably trump the idea of “less.” This is the war-zone version of “belt-tightening.” Similarly, when the President decided to “shake up” his administration for a new era of split-screen government in Washington, he called on a top JPMorgan Chase exec (also deeply enmeshed in the military-industrial complex and Big Pharma) and a former Goldman Sachs advisor, both Clintonistas of the 1990s, to do the shaking. This passes for “new blood” in our nation's capital. Think of it this way: if you fill the room with the same old same old, you’ll always end up with some version of the same old same old. If, on the other hand, you want to see some new thinking of a sort you won’t find in Washington, check out “Why Peace Is the Business of Men (But Shouldn’t Be)” from Ann Jones, a hands-on aid worker in Afghanistan and elsewhere and remarkable writer. Her eloquent new book, War Is Not Over When It’s Over: Women Speak Out from the Ruins of War, will undoubtedly go largely unreviewed, because when wars “end” even as the destruction of women (and children) continues, it’s no longer really news. Worse yet, she favors the “less” path in Afghanistan, where any path heading vaguely in the direction of “peace” (a word now synonymous with “utopian dolt” or “bleeding heart idiot”) will automatically be waved aside as hopeless. Since putting any money behind thinking about or testing out new pathways towards peace in our world is inconceivable, we’ll never know what might work. You can put $130 million taxpayer dollars into a new aircraft-fueling system at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or billions of taxpayer dollars into the Pakistani military (defending a country in which the rich go notoriously untaxed), but not one cent for peace. As for women, well, too bad. © 2011 TomDispatch.com Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. He is the author of The End of Victory Culture: a History of the Cold War and Beyond, as well as of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing. His most recent book is The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's (Haymarket Books). By Aaron C. Davis / Washington Post BAGHDAD - Despite Iraqi leaders' insistence that the United States meet its end-of-2011 deadline for withdrawing all troops, the contours of a large and lasting American presence here are starting to take shape. Although a troop extension could still be negotiated, the politics of Iraq's new government make that increasingly unlikely, and the Obama administration has shown little interest in pushing the point. Instead, planning is underway to turn over to the State Department some of the most prominent symbols of the U.S. role in the war - including several major bases and a significant portion of the Green Zone. [Click here to continue reading article] |
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