American air war in Iraq becoming a reign of terror.

Chris Floyd has an excellent and hard-hitting column on the rapidly increasing air war the US is carrying out in Iraq, which is mostly being directed at civilian populations. The number of air strikes is up 4 times since the beginning of the year. Several cases have been reported in recent weeks about civilian casulties, including many young children, but there have been many, many more that haven't been reported. Check out the complete article over at Glenn Greenwald's Salon blog, or more articles over at Chris' own site, Empire Burlesque.


The American air war against the Iraqis has been going on continuously, 24/7 since the war began back in 2003, over 4 years of constant bombardment. It's the most violent and least reported part of this war, and represents the worst of all the many war crimes being perpetuated there.






The US has at least 737 foreign bases, probably more.

Over at AlterNet there's a lengthy selection from Chalmers Johnson's new book "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic", which outlines in detail the extent of the U.S.'s enormous overseas military. Not only does it provide updated details on the bases that we know about, it discusses the "hidden" ones as well, the ones that the US and other governments like to keep under cover. There are quite a few of those, but no one ever talks about them.


This is just a selection, it's a long article, well worth reading if you really want to know where all of those American tax dollars are going. On top of the money, think about just how much oil and other fuels all of this takes.



Putin's speech at kremlin.ru, and some other Russia links.

The complete text of Putin's recent remarkable speech in Munich is up at the Kremlin's site, kremlin.ru, including all of the answers to the many questions he was asked after the speech. I posted on it before, and I still think it was quite an extraordinary and important speech. The discussion after it is noteworthy as well.

First time I ever stumbled on the Kremlin's site, very interesting. More like a presidential site, but that's about the same as the White House site in the US. Here or there, it's always about the politicians, and the cult of personality. There's a lot of material there though, and quite a bit of it in English.

Add: nice article on Putin and Russia in the Guardian, suggesting that the Europeans and Americans may regret their continuous bullying of Russia.


If you want more, the Asia Times has some good recent articles on Russia. One by M. K. Bhadrakumar entitled Russia straddles Sunni-Shi'ite divide, discusses how Russia has been having more success with its diplomacy in the Middle East than the US has had using force. Another one by Nicolai Petro entitled Russia as friend, not foe, is a very good article which details the many ways Russia has made progress since the end of the Cold War, and why the Euro-Americans can't seem to stop insisting that it's the same old Russia. And there's one by Spengler, who is a bit dogmatic and right-wing for my taste, entitled Russia's hudna with the Muslim world, which discusses relations, both now and historically, between Russia and the Islamic world.

Petro's article is particularly good. He gives numerous examples of how what is reported about Russia by the Euro-American press is not matched by the reality inside Russia itself. In a number of areas: democracy, the media, Chechnya, the economy and so on. Sometimes what he reports is quite surprising.


One good thing about the Asia Times is that they publish relatively long and detailed articles, more than the quick soundbites you get from the western media, and ones that offer up some informed and educated historical perspective, something sadly lacking in the Euro-American media.






Murder, Inc.

People are finally starting to confront the and discuss the extent of American evil. Justin Raimondo has written an excellent essay, Murder, Inc., expressing the view that America's so-called wars are nothing more than an excuse for psychopaths and sociopaths to run amuck. I'm quoting the whole thing, because it's important and to include the many links to video clips and other evidence he's collected.

He's so right though, especially in stating that American soldiers aren't "heroes" by any stretch of the imagination, but ruthless, cruel, sadistic killers and predators. Americans never accept any responsibility for anything they do. Left, right or middle they always look for someone else to blame, and the so-called soldiers are the worst of the lot.

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." Ameicans need to wake up to the monster they've created and destroy it, or the world will do it for them. What goes around comes around, and what's coming to the US in the next few years will not be pretty.

To put it in blunter terms: American soldiers aren't "defending" you; they're "endangering" you.






US donates paltry sum to "study" Agent Orange use in Vietnam.

Guardian article, "US to help fund Agent Orange clean-up". After decades of refusing to acknowledge the long-term effects of the massive use of Agent Orange by Americans during the Vietnam war, the US has finally agreed to donate an incredibly paltry $400,000 to help research ways to remove soil still highly toxic after nearly 40 years. Note that while the article title says the US will help "fund" the clean-up, in actuality it is only helping fund research, not any actual clean-up. And $400,000, in an age where millions and billions are routinely squandered, is less than nothing. It'll probably end up going to some contractors too.

It is beyond scandalous that the US has been refusing for so many decades to acknowledge the long-term effects of its indiscriminate use of Agent Orange (and other chemicals), or to help clean up the toxic soil or help those with birth defects caused by it. The Vietnamese have continue to try to obtain legal redress for this war crime, but have had no luck so far, since the legal systems are controlled by the Americans. They continue to try however. Note that new victims are being born all of the time, this is not ancient history, but an on-going problem.




Two of the approximately four million Vietnamese people
with birth defects caused by American use of Agent Orange.
(Photograph: Richard Vogel/AP)

If the Vietnamese ever do win any court cases and obtain damages, the payments could be enormous. The wheels of justice grind slowly, but sooner or later the American people will have to pay reparations to the many peoples they've illegally attacked, and they could be in the trillions. Iraq alone will be in the trillions.



An American appeals to people around the world.

Stan Goff has recently published this article, An Appeal to People Outside the United States to Break US Imperial Power, delineating the ways that people outside the US can use to limit and reduce the expansion of American power. It's very well thought out, and realistic. It's been published around the web a bit, but I thought I'd reproduce it here as a reminder that people around the world can learn what they can do. Americans in particular, politically aware or not, should be aware that global boycotts of American goods and services are being organized, and that soon they will be widespread and very effective.








US veteran points out the idiocies of the surge.

Although I don't usually like linking to Counterpunch because of their blatant anti-semitism, they occasionally publish some useful articles, as this one by an American Vietnam vet, "An Open Letter to America's Soldiers from the Ranks: The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg". He makes a number of good points, about the idiocies of trying to win a counter-insurgency in a country where you don't speak the language and everyone hates you, and others, which are excellent but which have been made before. But I was particularly intrigued by his point that the so-called "surge" is in actuality a plan to reinforce the protection around the Green Zone before an attack on Iran. Interesting idea.


It's a powerful, emotional article, well worth reading. But note the little bit in the second paragraph of the quote he gives at the beginning, about "Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Fallujah, the rape of Lebanon, the concentration camps in the West Bank and Gaza." Even though Israel and the US are separate countries, involved in separate actions (no Israelis are serving in Iraq, no Americans are in the West Bank and Gaza), the anti-Semites try to distort the facts to tie them together. Observe the way the propaganda works. And note the use of the term "concentration camps" to refer to prisons in Israel, but not to Abu Ghraib and others run by the Americans, although its known throughout the world how much worse conditions are in Iraqi prisons these days.

It's part of the ongoing attempt by some Aemricans to blame Israel and the Jews for the major war crimes Americans are committing. You'll nearly always find nasty little bits of anti-Semitism in Counterppunch articles about the mideast, always, always, always. They're simply incapable of objectivity about the Jews. Part of it of course is just that the folks at Counterpunch are Americans, and like virtually all Americans these days, left and right it makes no difference, they are desperately trying to cover up the extent of the war crimes that all Americans are responsible for. But they're liberals, and liberals never accept responsibility for anything since it's always somebody else's fault, and so they need to find someone such as the Jews to blame.



Putin takes off the gloves.

Finally. A major world leader stands up in public and openly accuses the US of beginninig a new arms race, undermining global stability, and a number of other things. Russian President Putin made an important speech at a major security conference in Munich.


Slowly but surely the world is preparing to confront America's never-ending war crimes and attempts to dominate the world. It's a problem that simply will continue to get worse until it's dealt with. Putin's speech is an important landmark. I wonder what moves he has planned for his last year or so in office.

But you wouldn't know it from the NY Times or the rest of the so-called media, who remain as trapped in their American bubble as ever. Why don't we ever see the terms "cadre" or "cartel" used to refer to the cadres of American and European officials who have "consolidated their hold" on their own governments. Blair and Brown and the corrupt Labor party leadership aren't a cadre? Not to mention the leadership of the Democratic and Republican parties.

More: Another article on this from the Guardian. They say "He did not have a good word to say about Washington's policies." Some rough talk.


"Why is it necessary to bomb and to shoot at every opportunity?" Good question, and one not just Russians are asking. I like the fact the Russians are developing their own policies to deal with security problems, any alternatives to American unilitateralism are welcome.


There's no way that Russia and China can accept having American bases and forces right on their borders. Their politicians may have different opinions, but their military people will all agree about this, it's simply unacceptable from a rational security standpoint. And since the US doesn't seem capable of backing down and, in fact, seems intent on further expansion (into Iran), it's inevitable that these countries will come into conflict.

More: LA Times article. Adding this extra articles because this is a big story. Note the attitude of the Euro-American elite, blithely dismissing any of Putin's concerns, and simply stating that the Russians (and the rest of the world) have nothing to worry about. Note this comment in response to Putin's quite legitimate complaints that NATO is expanding right up to Russia's borders.


If by "democracy" he means the US and the EU, then anyone with any sense should be worried. And to simply ignore the massive violations of "law" that the US, the UK and their corporate buddies have been perpetuating throughout the world at this point is so dishonest and hypocritical those words are simply inadequate.

Note that NATO stands for "NORTH ATLANTIC Treaty Organization." Afghanistan and Bulgaria sure are a long, long way from the Atlantic. Exactly what is NATO for now, who runs it, what is its purposes, and why is it attempting to encircle Russia? Putin's asking some good questions, and rather than simply dismissing them out of hand, Euro-American leaders would be well to consider them, and come up with some answers that are somethingm more than platitudes.






Good analysis of the utterly ridiculous new US war budget.

There's a good roundup of the proposed new American military budget in Asia Times. Lots of detail.


In case you're keeping track, this is now more than double the war budget when Bush got into office. And this is just the official, unclassified section, there's more we aren't allowed to know about.






Watching America.

If you want a good sample of what the world's press is saying about America, try Watching America. It gathers together articles from around the world and translates them for you. Stuff you probably won't read anywhere else. Very convenient. They're not saying very nice things about America these days, and there are a lot of opinions Americans need to hear. Another good site for different viewpoints is Asia Times.






Bush plans on requesting hundreds of billions more for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reuters reports that Bush is planning to ask for $100 billion more to fund the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan for this year (on top of $70 billion already recently requested), and hundreds of billions more to take it through 2008.


These are just "emergency" additions, not included in the regular budget. They are not included in the "regular" military budget of $500 billion or so, plus lots of "special ops", "intelligence", and other "classified" operations they're not telling us about. While the focus is on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US is also involved in wars in Columbia, Somalia and god knows where else. Endless war, endless war, endless money, endless money ...

Naturally the Democrats will go along with it all. They're owned lock, stock and barrel by the military-industrial-financial-legal-corporate complex, and in their 200 year history have never met a war they didn't like. See these articles "Democrats Sidestep Defunding Demands" and Hillary Clinton calls Iran a threat to U.S., Israel" if you still have any doubts on that. All in all my estimate of America's total war budget is approaching a trillion dollars a year. And for wars that they are losing.

Remember Newton's laws of energy? "An object in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an OUTSIDE FORCE. An object at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by an OUTSIDE FORCE."

And this doesn't include the costs of caring for the vets injured in these wars, of which there are at least 150,000 so far. At least 100,000 so far have been approved for disability claims. Those costs will continue for the life of the vets, decades at least. And it does not include the reparations that the US will be forced to pay sooner or later, since the entire thing is blatantly illegal. And if that isn't enough, it doesn't include the interest payments required to finance all of it, since all of this money is being borrowed, not paid through taxes. The total of these extra costs alone will be trillions over coming decades.






Bush the empire slayer.

Excellent article by Bernard Chazelle entitled Bush The Empire Slayer, which does a great job of summarizing all of the damage that these people have done to the world. This is from the ending.


This is all very true and all, and people should understand what Bush and company have done. But I stil think it misses the main point. In the larger sense it is the American military-industrial-legal-financial-corporate complex that has done all of this. And, by extension, all those in the US and throughout the world who, for many decades now, have been gleefully trying to profit from it, directly or indirectly. The complex has been building up for decades, and everyone in the world has watched it grow and done nothing. Absolutely nothing. The root cause of it all is GREED. And until people change their ideas about money, and stop thinking so damn much about their own lifestyles and comforts, and until the ENTIRE military-industrial-legal-financial-corporate complex is dismantled, the wars and the bombings and the suffering will go on. Eliminate the Republicans, eliminate the neo-cons, eliminate Israel, it will make no difference. Sure it will slow it down for a while. But the root cause will remain, and sooner or later, it will come back, like a multi-headed hydra, meaner and nastier than ever. The Democrats too, in their entire 200 year long history, have never met a war they didn't like. It's time that people looked deeper, and, above all, deeper into themselves, and stopped blaming everyone else. And the one and only way to make sure that America does not nuke the world is to take their nukes away. Once and for all. Nothing short of that will do.

And this also has to be said and repeated over and over: It is not Bush and Blair who have waged this war. It is the American and British people. All of them. With the complicity of the entire so-called western world. Period.



Soldiers gang-raped teenage girls at Abu Ghraib.

See this video over at IraqSlogger for the confession of an American soldier of crimes committed by Americans at Abu Ghraib that were far worse than anything reported so far. These included systematic gang-raping of girls and women. In one case he says they raped this girl, pimped her out for $50 a shot, until "she hung herself." It's clear that these war crimes were not committed by just a few individuals, but by virtually all of the so-called soldiers there, dozens and dozens of them. And he says that it was the CIA who encouraged them and pushed them on. And it is impossible to believe that all of this could go on for so long without officers knowing about it. Simply impossible.


The article mentions that this may be a hoax, but I tend to doubt it. The attitudes of the soldier talking about certainly reflects those of the other people in the U.S. military, who are quite violent and racist and have repeatedly shown a total contempt for the Iraqis.

Of course, the worst crime is being committed by those who know just how bad Americans have become, and continue to do business with them, and continue to turn their heads. There will always be evil people like those in the U.S. military or the Nazis, but they wouldn't be able to get away with anything if decent people didn't allow them to.






Endless American harassment of Iraqi civilians.

This account by a woman in Baghdad illustrates what living hell life is becoming over there for the Iraqi people. And not because of what the mythical "terrorists" are doing either, but mostly because of the damage the American so-called soldiers are doing. It seems pretty clear that the Americans are not really fighting a war, just harassing civilians because they are losers with nothing better to do. (Exactly what is the point of smashing her dishes?) They killed her husband because he happened to be driving in the wrong spot, and tortured her son for no real reason at all. They certainly are doing a great job in alienating the Iraqis and making more enemies for real Americans. From the Irin News organization.








The sad, quiet death of Malachi Ritscher.

On November 3, 2006 an artist and activist named Malachi Ritscher set himself on fire at a public intersection in the city of Chicago in protest of the war in Iraq and America's imperialism and warmongering in general. It is the ultimate act of self-sacrifice. Curiously (or maybe not so curiously) hardly a word about this has been reported. He did this during rush hour in a prominent location in a big city, and yet no one notices. How weird, how sad. Anyway, the good folks at Wood s Lot compiled this set of links about him. This is quite a story, hard to believe.








Beginning to grasp extent of the Iraq mess.

Some columns in the Guardian recently seem to indicate that at least some people are beginning to wake up and confront the scale and implications of the disaster, and the fact that there simply isn't anything the US and the UK can do but accept the loss and its inevitable consequences. Simon Jenkins does a good job of describing exactly what a mess Iraq is in "Why stop the Great Satan? He's driving himself to hell".


He really gets it. This is a major disaster. It's not going to be fixed, or probably even affected, by any political changes in the US. This is way out of the Americans' hands now. He suggests they go back to "diplomatic ground zero" and start over, but pride will keep that from ever happening. The first step to dealing with the problem is to admit the extent of it and to take responsibility, but western leaders won't do it.






Hatred of America growing rapidly.

Found this great news site, Watching America, which gathers together articles about the US from other countries. A good source for the views that aren't being represented in the American media. For instance, I found this article from Al-Ray Al-Aam in Kuwait 'The Iraqi Razor in America's Throat, apparently from a Kuwaiti woman, who notes the growing hatred of America in the region.


All points of views are represented there, not just anti-American ones. Although most of them are anti-American these days, even from those who love the US. And not just from Muslim countries either. It's noteworthy that she mentions that America's very "existence" is at stake; the very fact that she can conceive of a world without America is rather disconcerting, to say the least.






George Galloway's testimony to Congress.

George Galloway, the British MP who strongly and publicly opposed the invasion of Iraq two years ago, and was thrown out of the British Labor party for his troubles, testified before the US Senate committee investigating the so-called UN food scandal. He is trying to clear his name from the slanderous remarks and lies that have been told about him by the warmongers and others still trying to justify their illegal and ridiciulous stupid war.

His testimony shows remarkable courage. Great that someone finally has the guts to stand up to the American Congress and tell them that _they_ are the problem, not everybody else. Kudos to him. See the full transcript of his testimony over at Common Dreams.


The cowardice and corruption of the American body politic is getting more than a little embarrassing and disgusting. And he is perfectly correct: they should be investigating the scandalous theft of countless billions of dollars in money, and god knows how much "unmetered" oil from the Iraqis. But they won't, and the Democrats won't do anything about it either, because the Democrats are in it as deep as anyone else.



Seymour Hersh reviews Abu Ghraib investigations.

In a Guardian article, Seymour Hersh, who first broke the story of the abuses and torture at Abu Ghraib and other prisons in the American gulag, reviews the so-called investigations that the US has held about the problems.


Of special note are the increasing claims that thousands of children are being held prisoner. And there have been at least some verified reports of rape and other abuse involving children. I guess Michael Jackson hugging someone is more important.


This story is just beginning. The American gulag is now the largest and most violent in world history, the lion's share of it inside the US, where nobody ever mentions it. Over two million people and counting (according to the reports the government issues, although there's no way of really knowing), in prisons condemned many times by the Red Cross, Amnesty International and other groups.

Conditions are much, much worse than in Abu Ghraib, torture, formalized sex slavery, rape and beatings pretty much becoming standard policies. A real scandal, and an even worse scandal in the fact that there's virtually no mention of it in the American media, hardly even in the so-called "leftist" or "alternative media."

Does anyone remember when Bush promised to tear down Abu Ghraib?

Seems to me that there's only two ways to cut this: either officers knew about and condoned what was going on; or they didn't, in which case they are guilty of dereliction of duty in not properly supervising troops under their command and for failing to properly maintain discipline and order. Are we really supposed to believe that officers in the US military have no idea what their soldiers are doing?






Afghanistan becoming one huge American prison camp.

The Guardian has published a long article, 'One huge US jail', describing conditions in Afghanistan over three years after the American invasion and conquest, how it is gradually descending into chaos, and becoming the hub of an enormous global gulag of American detention centers. It provides a good overview of current American practices and an outline of its future plans.


It can't be stressed enough: American forces are operating in complete secrecy, entirely outside the law, and without any sort of civilian or international oversight or control. Nobody has any idea of what is really going on since the Americans won't report on anything or cooperate with any investigations. They are deliberately and violently suppressing attempts to find out how many camps there are, whose being held there, what is happening there, the conditions of the prisoners, or any other information. What hints do emerge indicate widespread abuse, torture, beatings and such, often resulting in death. And, worst of all, the American people clearly couldn't care less.

What's worse, the Guardian states that what is going on is nothing short than a deliberate policy to attempt to make all of Afghanistan into the center of a global prison network that would replace Guantanamo Bay, and which could operate entirely in secret, and outside of American, European, or global law.


I'm quoting too much. But it's a very long and detailed article. Well worth reading, especially for Americans who want to know where their tax dollars are going. A frightening, nightmare vision of the future for us all if this madness isn't stopped soon. (Which I think it will.)






Iraqi accounts of American war crimes at Falluja.

Americans seem to be very rapidly losing touch with reality. At least in the public sphere. Two recent columns by American women, Bush Is a Loser at Logic but a Winner in D.C. by Arianna Huffington in the LA Times, and Americans just ignore the devil in the details by Marilou Johanek in the Toledo Blade, discuss the degree to which the American people, or at least those in charge, have retreated into a fantasyland, a bubble into which no bad news or reality may penetrate, and which simply no longer has any connection to the real world.

And nothing illustrates the degree of the illusion than the complete absence of any coverage of the horrors Americans have perpetuated in Falluja over the past few months. This is a very major story, about as big as they get, which has been completely ignored. (Among other things, it was just about the biggest US armored operation since WWII, which alone should have made it important.)

Chris Floyd's latest Global Eye column in the Moscow Times gives a good overview of the major war crimes committed there, which include the cold-blooded murder of civilians including children, women, doctors and journalists, the delliberate bombing of hospitals and other civilian centers, and, especially, the apparently widespread use of chemical weapons, cluster bombs and other banned weapons, banned even against military forces much less civilian populations.

Floyd also notes what is perhaps the greatest horror of them all, which is the degradation of American society into something ugly, twisted and evil. This is the real story, and the one that the American media, and to an extent the global media as well, are not paying any attention to.

Here's the entire story, reprinted because articles in the Moscow Times go behind a paywall after a while, and it's too important to be forgotten. Very major crimes were committed here, and a level of savagery reached and hatred expressed that the world hasn't seen in quite a while. Also note the excellent list of links to documentation provided.


Americans should inform themselves about what happened in Falluja not because it's the decent thing to do, although that wouldn't hurt, but rather because there will be very major repercussions to come from this and other actions. Military repercussions, financial repercussions, trials and suits of all sorts, economic sanctions, and more. It engendered a vicious hatred of Americans that will continue for decades. And not just by Iraqis, but by people all over the world. Because this has been reported elsewhere, just not in the US. America went way too far this time and it will come to back to haunt her. In the world's view it wasn't Bush or the Republicans who did this. It was all of America, and it's all Americans who are legally and morally responsible.






American efforts to suppress the truth about Iraq.

Truthout has a multi-part series by Steve Weissman on American attempts to target journalists in Iraq and elsewhere. It's in four parts:


Obviously you don't go so far as to deliberately murder reporters, including women, unless you really, really have something that you need to hide. The most frightening part is that they appear to have been relatively successful at hiding the truth so far. And the global media is certainly letting them get away with it. It's almost as if the world just doesn't want to know what kind of horrors are occurring under the banners of "freedom and democracy."

Reporters Without Borders has a lot more information on this.






Gomer Says Hey.

James Wolcott hits the nail on the head with this post about Bush's hypocrisy in criticizing other nations' human rights violations while presiding over what is arguably the least free, more repressive and violent human rights abuser in the world. And maybe in history.


Bush embarrasses every human being by his actions. And, frankly, Europe and Russia contribute to it by refusing to publicly address and acknowledge America's own extensive human rights violation.

Having said that, I think it's also time to stop blaming Bush for things that Americans have done, and time for Americans to take responsibility for their own actions. If you work for or invest in an American corporation (as Mr. Wolcott does) then you are just as responsible, if not more so. Words aren't going to make any difference. What will is standing up for what is right, and refusing to support or finance these horrors any longer.






Canadians won't participate in US missile plan.

Globe and Mail article. At the recent NATO meeting in Brussels, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin informed the US that Canada will definitely not be participating in the American missile defense program. That is, it will not allow the missiles to be places on Canadian territory, which is a very important part of the plan, almost essential in fact. American officials have been really pushing for this, but the growing anti-Americanism in Canada as elsewhere makes it politically impossible.


This is rather ominous. It's not just the missile system itself. It indicates that the Canadians no longer see their security as tied to that of the US, and that they are no longer willing to go along with whatever their (formerly) more powerful southern neighbor wants. Or, in this case, virtually demanded.






Report on US abuse in Afghanistan.

Mother Jones has a lengthy report by Emily Bazelon on the extensive prisoner abuse and torture in Afghanistan over the last three years, From Bagham to Abu Ghraib. More horrific details of cruelty and sadism, which apparently continues and is getting worse. Even more fightening is the idea that the failure to deal with it in Afghanistan led to even worse in Iraq, where it also continues and is getting worse.


I do find the question as to why these reports have received so little attenti