Peace and Justice Post

Shamus Cooke, opednews.com, June12, 2011

Ever since the Great Recession shook the foundations of the U.S. economy, President Obama has been promising recovery.  Evidence of this recovery, we were told, was manifested in the massive post-bailout profits corporations made. Soon enough, the President assured us, these corporations would tire of hoarding mountains of cash and start a hiring bonanza, followed by raising wages and benefits. It was either wishful thinking or conscious deception. The recent stock market meltdown has squashed any hope of a corporate-led recovery.

The Democrats fought the recession by the same methods the Republicans used to create it: allowing the super rich to recklessly dominate the economy while giving them massive handouts. This strategy, commonly referred to as Reaganomics or Trickle Down Economics, is now religion to both Democrats and Republicans; never mind the staged in-fighting for the gullible or complicit media.

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Husain: Brush with Bigotry

by Badri Raina

In honour of  the Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain who died on June 9, 2011.

First things first, O departed

emperor of zest and bare-footed laughter:

it was not the brainless bigots

who exiled you, but we

who claim patent on sanity.

Unlike your so resplendent going,

we have been dead several times over

from fear, trembling, and sensible doing.

Thus, knowing better, it was foolish

of you to be disappointed with us.

But now that we are safe from you,

‘civil society’ will surely shout

for a monument where our wares

we may profitably pursue.

O Alexander of the art world,

like him you passed in exile

with work in hand;

like him, in genius and in folly,

you were always grand.

He soaked Grecian nectars

at Aristotle’s feet;

you became the best of Hindus

from lifelong love of the street.

Those that made Socrates choose

hemlock were not Greek;

those that lost you home

were not Hindus.

Thus, on your flying horse

the Greeks called Pegasus

you soar, but with eye still

on the wicked world,

that, with brush still in hand,

you wish to paint some more.

We hear you laugh, O bearded

Betaal of wise innoncence,

and we say, do not mourn, but

paint all you can from gut to gut.

The truth of Husain’s exile

deserves nothing but.

By Stephen Lendman, opednews.com, June 10, 2011

Wikipedia says US presidential doctrines state “key goals, attitudes, or stances for United States foreign affairs.” Except for James Monroe in 1823 asserting a declaration of regional dominance, later ones reflected Cold War and imperial politics since Harry Truman.

On March 29, eight New York Times contributors asked “Is There an Obama Doctrine,” preceded by an introduction saying his previous day America’s role in Libya speech asserted unilateral authority to intervene abroad “when our interests and values are at stake,” an illegal position under international and constitutional law, unmentioned in the debate.

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Introduction

The recent rash of civilian killings by NATO forces in occupied Afghanistan raises several basic questions: Why do US – NATO air and ground forces kill so many civilians, so persistently, over such long stretches of time, in regions throughout the country? Why have the number of civilians killed, increased in the course of the conflict? Why do NATO-US airplanes continue to bomb civilian housing and village gatherings and ground troops indiscriminately assault homes and workshops? Why are the pleas of NATO collaborator President Karzai to desist in home bombings go unheeded? Finally, knowing that the killing of civilians, entire families including children, mothers and the elderly alienates the local population and breeds widespread and profound hostility, why do the NATO-US military refuse to alter their tactics and strategy?

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We are in the midst of a counterrevolution and intensifying class war. What makes its present efflorescence so striking is that it is taking place under the presidency of Barack Obama, a man elected in good measure by an aroused mass base that is now taking its lumps. The power structure no longer permits serious attention to the welfare of that mass base. The great upward redistribution of income, the increased importance of money in elections, the centralization of corporate and media control and the media’s rightward drift, globalization, outsourcing, the weakening of organized labor, and the permanent war system, have all combined to effectively eliminate a “populist” option in politics. The Democrats invariably betray their voting base, but not their investor base.

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By Francis A. Boyle, Information Clearing House, June 8, 2011

On November 15, 1988 the Palestine National Council (P.N.C.) meeting in Algiers proclaimed the Palestinian Declaration of Independence that created the independent state of Palestine. Today the State of Palestine is bilaterally recognized de jure by about 130 states. Palestine has de facto diplomatic recognition from most states of Europe. It was only massive political pressure applied by the U.S. government that prevented European states from according de jure diplomatic recognition to Palestine.

Palestine is a member state of the League of Arab States and of the Organization of Islamic Conference (O.I.C). When the International Court of Justice in The Hague—the World Court of the United Nations System—conducted its legal proceedings on Israel’s apartheid wall on the West Bank, it invited the State of Palestine to participate in the proceedings. In other words, the International Court of Justice recognized the State of Palestine.

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By Gideon Polya, MWC News, June 7, 2011

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Sharpeville & Golan Massacres Compared

In recent weeks the Israelis have been shooting and killing unarmed Arabs demonstrating for Palestinian Human Rights. In the latest incident on the illegally Israel-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Israeli soldiers killed 2 dozen demonstrators and wounded 350. Apartheid Australia (it applies race-based discriminatory laws against its Indigenous Australian, Afghan and refugee subjects) has supported US Alliance bombing of Libya but remains Israel’s best friend after the US.

A noisy debate erupted in Australia recently because Greens Senator-elect Lee Rhiannon supported Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel. Lee Rhiannon was attacked by the Australian Liberal Party-National Party Coalition Opposition and the Australian Labor Party Government (aka the Lib-Labs) which both support anti-democratic, race-based, genocidal, war criminals, Zionist- Israel.

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Exclusive: The looming U.S. defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan represent a threat to the political fortunes of America’s neocons — if they get blamed for the disasters. However, if they can hang the failures around President Obama’s neck, the two lost wars might help bring the neocons back to power as early as 2013, writes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry, Consortium News, June 8, 2011

American neocons still insist that they achieved “victory at last” in the Iraq War and can “win” in Afghanistan, although both bloody conflicts are now grinding inexorably toward grim conclusions as two of the worst strategic defeats in U.S. history.

Yet, paradoxically, the twin disasters carry possible political advantages for the neocons – if they can shift the blame for the defeats onto President Barack Obama. That prospect could even contribute to Obama’s defeat in 2012 and open the door to the neocons reclaiming control of U.S. foreign policy in 2013.

If that trick can be pulled off, the neocons could keep U.S. military in the service of Israel’s Likud hardliners as they confront new dangers from their Arab neighbors and may want help attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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US drones once again pounded the North Waziristan Agency of Pakistan today, destroying a housing complex and a car in Shawal, near the border with South Waziristan. At least 24 people were reported slain, and officials said they had no information on the identities of any.

Locals say that some of the area around this town is controlled by the Haqqani network’s Hafiz Gul Bahadur, particularly noteworthy because he’s negotiated a peace deal with the Pakistani government. They had no indication, however, that the targets of the attacks actually belonged to Bahadur or any other militant.

The attack comes just two days after a deadly series of US strikes in South Waziristan killed 21 unknown people, bringing the three day toll to 45 killed and an unknown number of others wounded.

The killings come in the wake of the high profile “killing” of Ilyas Kashmiri, who on Saturday was “confirmed” slain in a Friday strike. Yesterday, however, US officials conceded that Kashmiri was probably still alive.

There are twenty thousand nuclear weapons on the planet, a quarter of them ready for launch at a moment’s suicidal impulse, aimed at countries that stopped being enemies two decades ago. It’s six minutes to midnight. “Disarmament” has as much cachet in America’s corridors of power as “socialism.”

And the U.S. House, bless its evil heart, has just sliced the Achilles tendon of peace. It recently passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011, which has many seriously worrisome provisions, two of which stand in stark, grinning contrast to one another.

One part of the bill, which now heads to the Senate, would give the president unilateral authority to pursue the “war on terror” anywhere in the world. Anywhere evil resides, the president could go after it, no congressional approval needed. It’s kind of like that already, but this would legalize the streamlining of war and help push the United States, in its role as global superpower, completely beyond the constraints of democracy.

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