Archive for the ‘imperialism’ Category
August 4, 2009
LC Glenton says the Afghan war is unjust
Christopher King, Redress Information & Analysis, 3 August 2009
Christopher King explains why it is the legal obligation of soldiers and officers who have been ordered to carry out illegal orders to disobey them, in accordance with the Nuremburg Principles, and why everyone, from army commanders to rank-and file soldiers, are personally responsible for the orders they carry out.
Lance-Corporal Joe Glenton, facing court-martial for refusing to be redeployed to Afghanistan, has written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, saying in part:
The war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country. Britain has no business there. I do not believe that our cause in Afghanistan is just or right. I implore you, sir, to bring our soldiers home.
Having served in Afghanistan, unlike Gordon Brown who has no services experience, Lance-Corporal (LC) Glenton knows what he is talking about. Further, he says:
It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign policy.
LC Glenton is clearly a young man of intelligence and thoughtfulness. Unlike Gordon Brown who stands to be paid off in cash by the Americans and Israelis like his friend Anthony Blair, LC Glenton has earned the right to form, hold and express his views on this war. And to act on them.
Continues >>
Tags:American foreign policy, Anthony Blair’s lies, Barack Obama and cover-up of torture, Binyam Mohammed, Christopher King, Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, Gordon Brown, illegal war, Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, Nuremburg Principles, Pashtun population, war crimes, war in Afghanistan
Posted in Commentary, crime, Human rights, imperialism, Iraq, President Barack Obama, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
August 4, 2009
Mr. Lears’s latest book is: Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 (Harper, June 2009).
One of the peculiarities of modern war is the fascination it holds for intellectuals. Since the 1890s, in the United States as in Europe, the loudest yelps for blood have been heard some distance from the battlefield. Professors, journalists, ministers, and other moralists have all sung the praises of war from the safety of their studies. This is an occupational hazard, the sort of thing that happens to men (nearly always men) who live in their heads, for whom moral crusades and civilizing missions have a more palpable reality than sliced skin or burned flesh. Of course ordinary citizens are susceptible to vicarious thrills, too: as J.A. Hobson observed in his classic Imperialism (1900), “the lust of the spectator” could mobilize an entire population in the service of the modern imperial state. But people who are paid to write and think for a living are more likely to inflate the invigoration of national purpose induced by war into a justification of war itself.
Continues >>
Tags:“Vietnam Syndrome”, Christopher Hitchens, imperial regeneration, intellectuals, Jackson Lears, militarists, modern war, Norman Podhoretz, policy intellectuals, U.S. military power, United States
Posted in Commentary, imperialism, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
August 3, 2009
Suppressing evidence of torture, as the US is asking Britain to do in the Binyam Mohamed case, is a criminal offence
Over the weekend, the government has identified another way to embarrass itself.
Karen Steyn is the barrister representing David Miliband, who has been arguing that we must suppress evidence of torture in the case of Binyam Mohamed. On Saturday, the high court judges sent the foreign secretary a transcript of their interrogation of Steyn for him to confirm in writing whether he really means what she says.
The issue at stake is whether the government really wants to suppress seven paragraphs that apparently include American admissions that they tortured Mohamed. First, Steyn confirmed that the material that she wanted suppressed had no intelligence value – it did not “conceivably identify anything that is of a national security interest”, it simply identified criminal acts of torture.
Continues >>
Tags:Binyam Mohamed, British government, CIA, Clive Stafford Smith, David Miliband, Mrs Clinton, suppressing the evidence, torture, United States
Posted in crime, Human rights, imperialism, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA | Leave a Comment »
August 3, 2009
Searching For Enemies
By Gabriel Kolko, Counterpunch, July 31 – August 2, 2009
War, from preparation for it through to its aftermath, has defined both the essential nature of the major capitalist nations and their relative power since at least 1914. War became the major catalyst of change for revolutionary movements in Russia, China, and Vietnam. While wars also created reactionary and fascistic parties, particularly in the case of Italy and Germany, in the longer run they brought about domestic social changes of far-reaching magnitude. The Bolshevik Revolution was the preeminent example of this ironic symbiosis of war and revolution.
Continues >>
Tags:foreign policies, Gabriel Kolko, Osama bin Laden, revolutions, Russia, United States, US military, war and capitalist nations, wars, Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Posted in Commentary, imperialism, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
August 1, 2009
Editor’s Note: Dr George Barnsby is a well-known British radical writer, an educationist, a historian and an anti-war campaigner. He has consistently upheld the banner of democratic rights, transparency in public affairs and has indefatigably defended multiculturalism. He continues to struggle against racial discrimination and the violations of human rights both in the United Kingdom and other countries. He has used The Barnsby Blog to oppose the criminal war in Iraq unleashed by two conspirators, Bush and Blair, that has resulted in the deaths of over one million Iraqis and the destruction of Iraq. Now the U.S.-led forces under the Obama administration are escalating war in Afghanistan and wreaking havoc there.
Dr Barnsby stands for justice and adherence to international law in the conduct of international relations. In his criticism of Anglo-American imperial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he exposes the war crimes committed by the British government headed previously by Tony Blair and at present by George Brown. Dr Barnsby’s perspective represents the fundamental values of Humanism and Socialism and his spirit that of a true Communist.
It is clear that no policy change is possible as long as a war criminal like Brown continues to head the British government. The alternative is to replace him with someone who is ready to put an end to the bloodshed of Iraqi and Afghan people and work for a multicultural Britain. One such candidate is a black British politician Diane Abbott (For her life and work, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Abbott )
Dr Barnsby has been campaigning for Abbott’s nomination so that she may take over the premiership replacing the war criminal Brown. This will also break the monopoly of power wielded by warmongers and right-wingers in the Labour Party.
I fully support Comrade Barnsby’s advocacy of Diane Abbott for the office of prime minister.
George Barnsby, The Barnsby Blog, August 1, 2009
I’ve reached the end of the line for my unilateral advocacy of Diane
black and female as Prime Minister. So I’ve emailed Diane and asked her if she would accept the position if sufficient support were forthcoming.
But I now want to put this matter to a world audience on this BLOG and COPAM the largest organisation in the world convened electronically of people who oppose the war in Iraq.
My friends in Britain, those who have always opposed the war in Iraq, I have emailed today asking why, if they oppose the war they will not support Diane for Prime Minister. The friends in question include Hugh Muir, Simon Jenkins, Nils Pratley, Martin Kettle, Michael Meacham Gisela Stuart and others I shall add from time to time.
But I am now going to pull rank as the originator of COPAM and ask my international friends such as Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Evo Mores and other Socialist figures to support Diane as our Prime Minister or perhaps support her as head of the United Nations even!
Tags:Afghan war, Anti-war, COPAM, George Barnsby, George Brown, Human rights, multiculturalism, Tony Blair, war in Iraq
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, crime, Human rights, imperialism, Iraq, war, war crimes, War Criminals, warmongers | Leave a Comment »
August 1, 2009
Glenn Greenwald | Salon.com, July 31, 2009
I’ve written several times before about the amazing quest of Binyam Mohamed — a British resident released from Guantanamo in February, 2009 after seven years in captivity — to compel public disclosure of information in the possession of the British Government proving he was tortured while in U.S. custody. At the center of Mohamed’s efforts lie the claims of high British government officials that the Obama administration has repeatedly threatened to cut off intelligence-sharing programs with the U.K. if the British High Court discloses information which British intelligence officials learned from the CIA about how Mohamed was tortured. New statements from the British Foreign Secretary yesterday — claiming that Hillary Clinton personally re-iterated those threats in a May meeting — highlight how extreme is this joint American/British effort to cover-up proof of Mohamed’s torture.
Continues >>
Tags:Binyam Mohamed, British government, David Miliband, Guantanamo, Hillary Clinton, torture, United States
Posted in Commentary, Human rights, imperialism, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA | Leave a Comment »
August 1, 2009
AFP/File – Afghan villagers stand near the graves of air-strike victims in western Farah province in May 2009. Afghanistan’s …
by Bronwen Roberts
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan‘s intensifying conflict killed more than 1,000 civilians in the first six months of 2009, an increase of nearly a quarter over the same period last year, the United Nations said Friday.
This year has been the bloodiest in a Taliban-led insurgency that has drawn thousands of international military reinforcements, most of them deploying into areas where a strong militant presence could prevent August 20 elections.
The boost in troop numbers — now roughly 90,000 — was one reason for the higher toll of 1,013 dead civilians, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Human Rights Unit.
Continues >>
Tags:Afghanistan, air strikes, civilians killed, Taliban-led insurgency, UNAMA, United Nations statement, United States
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, Human rights, imperialism, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
August 1, 2009
GENEVA – The Afghan battlefield is spreading into residential areas where more people are being killed by air strikes, car bombs and suicide attacks, according to a U.N. report published on Friday.
![[File photo shows a British soldier talking with Afghan children during a patrol on the outskirts of Kabul. (AFP/File/Shah Marai)]](https://i0.wp.com/www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/risingciviliancasualties_afghan.jpg "risingciviliancasualties_afghan.jpg")
File photo shows a British soldier talking with Afghan children during a patrol on the outskirts of Kabul. (AFP/File/Shah Marai)
The U.N. Assistance Mission to Afghanistan said that 1,013 civilians were killed on the sidelines of their country’s armed conflict from January to the end of June, compared to 818 in the first half of 2008 and 684 in the same period in 2007.
Commenting on the report, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said it was critical that steps be taken to shield Afghan communities from fighting.
“All parties involved in this conflict should take all measures to protect civilians, and to ensure the independent investigation of all civilian casualties, as well as justice and remedies for the victims,” the South African said.
Continues >>
Tags:Afghanistan, civilians killed, Laura MacInnis, Navi Pillay, residential areas, U.S.-led forces, UN report, war
Posted in Afghanistan, imperialism, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
July 31, 2009
A Utopia or a Vision for Peace
By Ilan Pappe | ZNet, July 28, 2009
Ilan Pappe’s ZSpace Page
[Contribution to the Reimagining Society Project hosted by ZCommunications]
Whenever the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state is mentioned by Israeli politicians, they take for granted that their interlocutors understand that the future state would have to be demilitarized and disarmed, if an Israeli consent for its existence is to be gained. Recently, this precondition was mentioned by the current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to President Barrack Obama’s two states vision, presented to the world at large in his Cairo Speech this June. Netanyahu made this precondition first and foremost for domestic consumption: whoever has referred in the past to the creation of an independent state alongside Israel, and whoever does so today in Israel envisages a fully armed Israel next to a totally disarmed Palestine. But there was another reason why Netanyahu stressed the demilitarization of Palestine as a sine qua non: he knew perfectly well that there was no danger that even the most moderate Palestinian leader would accept such a caveat from the strongest military power in the Middle East.
Continued >>
Tags:a demilitarized Palestine, anti-Semitism, ethnic cleansing, Ilan Pappe, Israel, Palestine, two states vision, Zionist ideology
Posted in Commentary, imperialism, Palestine, Peace Movement, Uncategorized, Zionist Israel | Leave a Comment »
July 31, 2009
Keeping Troops in Iraq Not Worth the Effort, Memo Advises
Colonel Timothy Reese, a senior US military adviser in Iraq, has issued a memo urging the US to dramatically speed up its pullout from Iraq, saying it should be announced that all troops will be out of the nation by August 2010.
Col. Timothy Reese
In the blunt memo, Col. Reese says keeping 132,000 US troops in Iraq “isn’t yielding benefits commensurate with the effort and is now generating its own opposition,” he also noted that “guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days,” while reminding the reader that US troops have now been in Iraq for over six years. He also mocked the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for “childish chest pounding.”
During the campaign the Obama Administration had originally had a similar pullout strategy, saying they would have all troops out by May 2010. This was quickly revised after taking office, however, to removing all combat troops from the nation. This was further revised to note that the troops remaining would still be conducting combat missions, but wouldn’t be officially called combat troops.
Though his administration has hardly removed any troops at all since taking office, President Obama maintains that the pullout remains “on schedule.” The Reese memo will almost certainly raise further questions of whether that schedule needs dramatic revision, particularly at a time when Maliki is openly talking about keeping the troops in Iraq past 2011.
Tags:army pullout from Iraq, Colonel Timothy Reese, Iraq, memo, United States, US troops
Posted in Commentary, imperialism, Iraq, President Barack Obama, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
Peace and Justice Post 
British Lance-Corporal Joe Glenton refuses to go to Afghanistan
August 4, 2009LC Glenton says the Afghan war is unjust
Christopher King, Redress Information & Analysis, 3 August 2009
Christopher King explains why it is the legal obligation of soldiers and officers who have been ordered to carry out illegal orders to disobey them, in accordance with the Nuremburg Principles, and why everyone, from army commanders to rank-and file soldiers, are personally responsible for the orders they carry out.
Lance-Corporal Joe Glenton, facing court-martial for refusing to be redeployed to Afghanistan, has written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, saying in part:
The war in Afghanistan is not reducing the terrorist risk, far from improving Afghan lives it is bringing death and devastation to their country. Britain has no business there. I do not believe that our cause in Afghanistan is just or right. I implore you, sir, to bring our soldiers home.
Having served in Afghanistan, unlike Gordon Brown who has no services experience, Lance-Corporal (LC) Glenton knows what he is talking about. Further, he says:
It is my primary concern that the courage and tenacity of my fellow soldiers has become a tool of American foreign policy.
LC Glenton is clearly a young man of intelligence and thoughtfulness. Unlike Gordon Brown who stands to be paid off in cash by the Americans and Israelis like his friend Anthony Blair, LC Glenton has earned the right to form, hold and express his views on this war. And to act on them.
Continues >>
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Tags:American foreign policy, Anthony Blair’s lies, Barack Obama and cover-up of torture, Binyam Mohammed, Christopher King, Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, Gordon Brown, illegal war, Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, Nuremburg Principles, Pashtun population, war crimes, war in Afghanistan
Posted in Commentary, crime, Human rights, imperialism, Iraq, President Barack Obama, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »