don’t ask, don’t tell

Failure to publish the full truth regarding the release of the Afghan prisoners is a strong indication that the New York Times and corporate media groups in general are unable and unwilling to fully address human right violations by our own government. The broad publication of stories about the breach of human rights by our national security forces is inconsistent with corporate media’s continuing desire to have 24 hour access to sources of news inside the White House, Pentagon and State Department. This failure of nerve to support the public’s right to know and insure a transparent governmental process is undoubtedly giving America a black eye in the world community. Increasingly America is seen as an uncontrolled empire of power and abuse. For many in the world we are the Darth Vaders of the planet - pure evil incorporated.

Peter Phillips, CommonDreams ( more. . .)

April 25th, 2005 || PermaLink

Iraqi dead still go uncounted

It was obvious to many American officers from an early stage in the conflict that the Pentagon’s claim that it did not count civilian casualties was seen by many Iraqis as proof that the US did not care about how many of them were killed. The failure to take Iraqi civilian dead into account was particularly foolish in a culture where relatives of the slain are obligated by custom to seek revenge.

The secrecy surrounding the numbers of civilians killed reveals another important facet of the war. The White House was always more interested in the impact of events in Iraq on the American voter than it was in the effect on Iraqis. From the beginning of the conflict the US and British armies had difficulty in working out who in Iraq really was a civilian.

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent ( more. . .)

April 24th, 2005 || PermaLink

the New American Militarism

In public life today, paying homage to those in uniform has become obligatory and the one unforgivable sin is to be found guilty of failing to “support the troops.” In the realm of partisan politics, the political Right has shown considerable skill in exploiting this dynamic, shamelessly pandering to the military itself and by extension to those members of the public laboring under the misconception, a residue from Vietnam, that the armed services are under siege from a rabidly anti-military Left.

In fact, the Democratic mainstream — if only to save itself from extinction — has long since purged itself of any dovish inclinations. “What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about,” Madeleine Albright demanded of General Colin Powell, “if we can’t use it?” As Albright’s Question famously attests, when it comes to advocating the use of force, Democrats can be positively gung ho. Moreover, in comparison to their Republican counterparts, they are at least as deferential to military leaders and probably more reluctant to question claims of military expertise.

Andrew J. Bacevich, TomDispatch ( more. . .)

April 23rd, 2005 || PermaLink

This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!

Let’s be clear: The obliteration of the National Counterterrorism Center report merely goes to prove what so many of us already know — that BushCo’s brutish and borderline traitorous actions since they leveraged 9/11 to blatantly screw the nation have done exactly nothing to stem the tide of terrorism — and, in fact, have, by most every measure, apparently increased the threat of terrorism. In other words, the world is a more dangerous place because of George W. Bush. Is that clear enough?

Let’s put it another way: Under Bush, in the past five years, the U.S. has made zero new friends. But we have made a huge number of new and increasingly venomous enemies. And no, they don’t hate us because of our malls, Dubya. They don’t hate us because of our freedoms. They don’t hate us because of our low-cut jeans and our moronic 8 mpg Ford Expeditions or our corrupt Diebold voting system that snuck you into office.

They hate us, George, because of our policies. Anti-Muslim. Pro-Israel. Oil-uber-alles. Anti-U.N. Anti-Kyoto. Anti-planet. Pro-war. Pro-insularity. Pseudo-swagger. Bogus staged “town hall” meetings stocked with prescreened monosyllabic Bush sycophants. Ego. Empire.

Mark Morford, SF Gate ( more. . .)

April 22nd, 2005 || PermaLink

Revolution of Heart

So, much of this was on my mind as Rosie and I looked at one of the widely circulated photos of Marla Ruzicka with a young Iraqi girl. As is typical, Rosie wanted to know all about each of the people in the picture, and so I used my best make-it-comprehensible-to-a-three-year-old language to try and explain. I told her that Marla was somebody who tried to make the world a better place, and that she had helped the little girl in the picture, whose family had died in the war.

I then told her that Marla herself had died in the war, and Rosie grew still as she carefully studied the picture. She asked me if helping the girl is how Marla did good things for the world. Yes, I said, but also because Marla helped many other people as well. Silence again.

“But now, who will help the little girl?” she asked.

I replied that hopefully we will all work together to help that little girl, and many others like her. Rosie may not understand this now, but I am confident that someday, she will.

Elisa Salasin, CommonDreams ( more. . .)

April 21st, 2005 || PermaLink

counting the innocent victims of war

A peer-reviewed report published last year in The Lancet and based on an extrapolation of data suggested that 100,000 civilians may have been killed during the invasion and its aftermath. One of the report’s author, Dr Richard Garfield, professor of nursing at Columbia University, said: “Of course they keep records and of course they pretend they don’t. Why is it important to keep the numbers of those killed? Well, why was it important to record the names of those people killed in the World Trade Centre? It would have been inconceivable not to. These people have lives of value.

“We are still fighting [to record] the Armenian genocide. Until people have names and are counted they don’t exist in a policy sense.”

Andrew Buncombe, The Independent ( more. . .)

April 20th, 2005 || PermaLink

Marla Ruzicka, hero

This is a eulogy of a thousand words that should really be a poem. It’s one I never thought I would write. In Iraq on Saturday afternoon, around 3 p.m., a suicide bomber entered Baghdad Airport road, heading east. On the same stretch was a U.S. military convoy, an Australian security detachment, and a car that carried U.S. aid worker Marla Ruzicka and her colleague Faiz Ali Salim. When the bomber detonated his explosives, Marla and Faiz were among those killed, and with that terrible act, the bomber cut short the life of a tireless champion of the victims of the war.

Marla Ruzicka founded the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) in 2003, an NGO that began as a one-woman operation and grew to include dedicated Iraqis who compiled statistics of Iraqi civilian casualties. It was a difficult, heart-wrenching job. Marla pursued the casualty figures by going door to door in a country that sent so many other aid agencies over the brink. Human Rights Watch works in some of the most dangerous countries in the world. But it does not have field offices in Iraq.

Phillip Robertson, Salon ( more. . .)

April 19th, 2005 || PermaLink

don’t ask, don’t tell

Failure to publish the full truth regarding the release of the Afghan prisoners is a strong indication that the New York Times and corporate media groups in general are unable and unwilling to fully address human right violations by our own government. The broad publication of stories about the breach of human rights by our national security forces is inconsistent with corporate media’s continuing desire to have 24 hour access to sources of news inside the White House, Pentagon and State Department. This failure of nerve to support the public’s right to know and insure a transparent governmental process is undoubtedly giving America a black eye in the world community. Increasingly America is seen as an uncontrolled empire of power and abuse. For many in the world we are the Darth Vaders of the planet - pure evil incorporated.

Peter Phillips, CommonDreams ( more. . .)

April 25th, 2005 || PermaLink

Iraqi dead still go uncounted

It was obvious to many American officers from an early stage in the conflict that the Pentagon’s claim that it did not count civilian casualties was seen by many Iraqis as proof that the US did not care about how many of them were killed. The failure to take Iraqi civilian dead into account was particularly foolish in a culture where relatives of the slain are obligated by custom to seek revenge.

The secrecy surrounding the numbers of civilians killed reveals another important facet of the war. The White House was always more interested in the impact of events in Iraq on the American voter than it was in the effect on Iraqis. From the beginning of the conflict the US and British armies had difficulty in working out who in Iraq really was a civilian.

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent ( more. . .)

April 24th, 2005 || PermaLink

the New American Militarism

In public life today, paying homage to those in uniform has become obligatory and the one unforgivable sin is to be found guilty of failing to “support the troops.” In the realm of partisan politics, the political Right has shown considerable skill in exploiting this dynamic, shamelessly pandering to the military itself and by extension to those members of the public laboring under the misconception, a residue from Vietnam, that the armed services are under siege from a rabidly anti-military Left.

In fact, the Democratic mainstream — if only to save itself from extinction — has long since purged itself of any dovish inclinations. “What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about,” Madeleine Albright demanded of General Colin Powell, “if we can’t use it?” As Albright’s Question famously attests, when it comes to advocating the use of force, Democrats can be positively gung ho. Moreover, in comparison to their Republican counterparts, they are at least as deferential to military leaders and probably more reluctant to question claims of military expertise.

Andrew J. Bacevich, TomDispatch ( more. . .)

April 23rd, 2005 || PermaLink

This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!

Let’s be clear: The obliteration of the National Counterterrorism Center report merely goes to prove what so many of us already know — that BushCo’s brutish and borderline traitorous actions since they leveraged 9/11 to blatantly screw the nation have done exactly nothing to stem the tide of terrorism — and, in fact, have, by most every measure, apparently increased the threat of terrorism. In other words, the world is a more dangerous place because of George W. Bush. Is that clear enough?

Let’s put it another way: Under Bush, in the past five years, the U.S. has made zero new friends. But we have made a huge number of new and increasingly venomous enemies. And no, they don’t hate us because of our malls, Dubya. They don’t hate us because of our freedoms. They don’t hate us because of our low-cut jeans and our moronic 8 mpg Ford Expeditions or our corrupt Diebold voting system that snuck you into office.

They hate us, George, because of our policies. Anti-Muslim. Pro-Israel. Oil-uber-alles. Anti-U.N. Anti-Kyoto. Anti-planet. Pro-war. Pro-insularity. Pseudo-swagger. Bogus staged “town hall” meetings stocked with prescreened monosyllabic Bush sycophants. Ego. Empire.

Mark Morford, SF Gate ( more. . .)

April 22nd, 2005 || PermaLink

Revolution of Heart

So, much of this was on my mind as Rosie and I looked at one of the widely circulated photos of Marla Ruzicka with a young Iraqi girl. As is typical, Rosie wanted to know all about each of the people in the picture, and so I used my best make-it-comprehensible-to-a-three-year-old language to try and explain. I told her that Marla was somebody who tried to make the world a better place, and that she had helped the little girl in the picture, whose family had died in the war.

I then told her that Marla herself had died in the war, and Rosie grew still as she carefully studied the picture. She asked me if helping the girl is how Marla did good things for the world. Yes, I said, but also because Marla helped many other people as well. Silence again.

“But now, who will help the little girl?” she asked.

I replied that hopefully we will all work together to help that little girl, and many others like her. Rosie may not understand this now, but I am confident that someday, she will.

Elisa Salasin, CommonDreams ( more. . .)

April 21st, 2005 || PermaLink

counting the innocent victims of war

A peer-reviewed report published last year in The Lancet and based on an extrapolation of data suggested that 100,000 civilians may have been killed during the invasion and its aftermath. One of the report’s author, Dr Richard Garfield, professor of nursing at Columbia University, said: “Of course they keep records and of course they pretend they don’t. Why is it important to keep the numbers of those killed? Well, why was it important to record the names of those people killed in the World Trade Centre? It would have been inconceivable not to. These people have lives of value.

“We are still fighting [to record] the Armenian genocide. Until people have names and are counted they don’t exist in a policy sense.”

Andrew Buncombe, The Independent ( more. . .)

April 20th, 2005 || PermaLink

Marla Ruzicka, hero

This is a eulogy of a thousand words that should really be a poem. It’s one I never thought I would write. In Iraq on Saturday afternoon, around 3 p.m., a suicide bomber entered Baghdad Airport road, heading east. On the same stretch was a U.S. military convoy, an Australian security detachment, and a car that carried U.S. aid worker Marla Ruzicka and her colleague Faiz Ali Salim. When the bomber detonated his explosives, Marla and Faiz were among those killed, and with that terrible act, the bomber cut short the life of a tireless champion of the victims of the war.

Marla Ruzicka founded the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) in 2003, an NGO that began as a one-woman operation and grew to include dedicated Iraqis who compiled statistics of Iraqi civilian casualties. It was a difficult, heart-wrenching job. Marla pursued the casualty figures by going door to door in a country that sent so many other aid agencies over the brink. Human Rights Watch works in some of the most dangerous countries in the world. But it does not have field offices in Iraq.

Phillip Robertson, Salon ( more. . .)

April 19th, 2005 || PermaLink