News, Analysis and Action on the Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and yemen

News

In-Depth Analysis

• The 2011 budget of $3.8 trillion is extremely vulnerable due to: high, untouchable spending on defense and militarized national security (23%); low domestic spending (11%) on education, environment, science research, housing, transportation, and so on. which is subject to future cuts; and overly optimistic projections about unemployment rates. See: Jo Comerford: A Titanic Budget in an Ocean of Icebergs: Will the USS Budget Go Down?


• Twenty percent of the war budget in Afghanistan goes to aid (training police and army, agriculture, schools), distributed by 3 government agencies: DOD, State, and USAID. No one agency has a central list of war aid contractors and aid projects; nor is there central oversight of the contracts - easily leading to waste, duplication of effort and fraud on the part of the private war aid contractors. See: As Afghanistan Contracting Surges, Who's Following the Money?


• The U.S. military is drawing up a contingency plan to delay the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, because of political instability and increased violence there. This contradicts President Obama's public statement that the combat mission in Iraq will end by August 31, 2010. Iraqi sovereignty not U.S. military security should be the governing principle for the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. See: Iraqi Withdrawal in Danger


• The Pentagon is re-branding the US role in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan as something other than war in an attempt to create the illusion that we are not engaged in war. Yet, the largest defense budget in history, which is making its way through Congress, suggests otherwise. See: Obama's Pentagon Rebrands Iraq War, Rolls out PR Offensive in Afghanistan


• We are more likely to die by driving to the store or being struck by lightning than by a terrorist attack. Yet the carefully constructed "fear of terrorism" has resulted in excessive presidential power, a media addicted to the bizarre and sensational, and the Democratic Party defending its reputation by asserting that it handles terrorist threats as effectively as Republicans. See: Cars, Riptides, Lightning -- All More Likely to Kill You Than Terrorists.


• A recent Weapons of Mass Destruction commission report drew wrongful and misleading conclusions, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The commission exaggerated the likelihood of and capacity for a bioterrorist attack. The solutions proposed by the commission are to invest greater resources in research on bioterrorism agents, whereas the primary public health security needs --including infectious disease, animal diseases, national disasters and the capacity to handle them - are left to trickle down benefits. See: Biological Threats: A Matter of Balance.


• The authoritarian structure of the US military trumps the democratic civil system of justice when it comes to trying soldiers for illegal killing or torturing of civilians or detainees of war. Senior officers or high-level civilians in government give the illegal orders to kill/torture, yet the "little people" are prosecuted (in trials shrouded in secrecy) while the high-ranking are protected. Moreover, soldiers are selected "at random" for prosecution in order to manage the image of the US military as "better than the enemy"; often the worse crimes and atrocities never see the light of day in court records. See: The US Military: A Mindset of Barbarism Part 1 and Part 2


• In 1990, the U.S. accounted for 37% of the global arms trade By 2008 the U.S. had a "global monopoly on exporting tools of force and destruction" - accounting for nearly 70% of the market in weapons. The DOD and weapons lobbyists are seeking to revise the minimal bans on weapons export to gain even more market share in arming the world. See: America's Global Weapons Monopoly: Don't Call It "the Global Arms Trade"


• President Obama's 2010 defense budget is good news for the military industrial complex. Further, the president has called for a 3-year freeze on domestic program spending, but the Pentagon is "exempt from the proposal." See: Obama's Budget Calls for Billions in New Spending for Drones


• Peace talks between the Karzai administration and ex-Taliban increasingly reveal that ex-Taliban want a government based on Islamic Sharia law in which religious scholars exercise ultimate power. (See: Peace Talks May Follow Ex-Taliban Mediators' Plan ) Afghani women, however, state forcefully (and with endangerment) that women are being abandoned and "sacrificed" at the altar of "national reconciliation." See: Complicities


• The Obama administration has adopted the Bush/Cheney policy with respect to suspected terrorists: They can be targeted for assassination, and the whole world is our battlefield. The U.S. is involved in joint military operations with Yemeni troops and has killed dozens of people, with 1.) no declaration of war; 2.) no public debate; and 3.) arguably no Congressional authorization. See: Presidential Assassinations of US Citizens 1/27/2010


• The new defense strategy on which the White House's new defense budget ($708 billion) is based includes increased numbers of special operatives, drones, and helicopters for future multiple and diffuse threats - suggesting unlimited possibilities for military engagement. Pentagon spending has grown by 70% since 2001. See: New Defense Strategy Envisions Multiple Conflicts


• In a study entitled "Quick Impact, Quick Collapse: The Dangers of Militarized Aid in Afghanistan" published by Oxfam and 7 other aid agencies, the NGOs describe western military development aid in Afghanistan as often producing shoddy, "feel good" projects which have no community input. The report also heavily critiqued the use of military aid to offer food and other resources in exchange for information from hungry and impoverished Afghani civilians.


• This article traces the U.S. pre-war schemes to control Iraqi oil, the resistance on the part of the Iraqi government, the recent Iraqi oil development contracts with many other countries, and the hostility to U.S. presence which resulting in many insurgent attacks on pipelines: In other words the complex web of events in Iraq generated by the U.S.-led war and continued military presence. See: Whatever Happened to the Neocons' Grand Schemes to Control Iraq's Oil?


• The White House has submitted a defense budget request for $708 billion for fiscal year 2011. It is the highest defense budget in history and represents an increase of 3.4% in the Pentagon's 2010 base budget. See: 'Peace Prize' President Submits Largest War Budget Ever.


• The same military who lobby US lawmakers also escort and help fund Congressional trips abroad. This positions the military to influence the Congressionals on defense appropriations and appointments. See: Military Helps Fund Congressional Trips 1/19/2010
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  Over the past 5 years, the US Air Force and CIA have dramatically increased the number of drone flights and attacks. A 40-year Pentagon plan forsees a surge in increasingly armed, autonomous, supersonic drones that will rule the skies. See: Robots Will Soon Do All Our Killing for Us 1/25/2010
  
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  Thousands of Iraqi children are being born with deformities and cancer in cities which were heavily-bombed with DU-contaminated British and American weapons. See: Cancer -- the Deadly Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq 1/6/2010
  
  
• Defense spending for weapons, supplies and military results in job loss over time, an issue ignored by the media.  The current rate of defense spending is estimated to result in a 1.8 percentage point reduction in GDP spending over 20 years, costing 2 million jobs.  See: Massive Defense Spending Leads to Job Loss
  
  
• "What happens to women is not merely 'a women's issue,' it is the central issue of stability, development and durable peace" in Afghanistan, writes activist journalist Ann Jones.  The condition and rights of Afghani women have worsened due to the public violence of the war and worsened domestic oppression, condoned by the Marital Rape Law recently signed by President Karzai.  Military aid for development is "delivered from men to men"; and "to send more troops is to send more violence."  Back home, as the Obama administration debates the request for more troops and extending the war, the worsened plight of women is off the table. See: There's No Hope for Afghanistan If Women Aren't Involved


• This condensed history of insurgencies and political conflicts in Vietnam, Pakistan, and Kashmir concludes that what brings insurgencies "to a halt [is] the withdrawal of the foreigners."  History's lesson for the United States, the author argues, is to: 1.) get the boots on the ground out of Afghanistan; 2.) support Pakistan in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table; and 3.) demonstrate by our actions that the US is willing to live with Muslims in a multicultural world.  See: Obama, If You Get Afghanistan Wrong, It Could Derail Your Presidency -- Here's How to Get It Right  
• The "unintended consequences" of focusing the war against terrorism in Pakistan are potentially lethal: nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists, surge in terrorist organizations, new "9/11s", weakening of Pakistani government, and heightened tension between Pakistan and India.  See: Why Obama Has No Business Trying War in the Nuclear-Armed Powder Keg of Pakistan 
• New signs emerge of a growing U.S. presence -- some say "occupation" -- and expansion of the counterinsurgency war in Pakistan.  The evidence includes more aid to Pakistan; a huge new U.S. embassy being planned; and growing numbers of private military contractors, including DynCorp, hired to set up a security network that parallels Pakistan's intelligence agency.  See: US Push to Expand in Pakistan Meets Resistance.

• Co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Jodie Evans, recently interviewed Afghani women members of Parliament and activists.  This article conveys their passionate conviction that Afghanistan needs women's education and economic development not more US soldiers and not more protracted war. See: Afghanistan: Will Obama Listen to the Women

• The debate in Washington over increasing US troops in Afghanistan vs. increasing the number of trained Afghan soldiers and police misses the point.  The Afghan people want peace, and foreign troops "bring death and destruction wherever they go." See: There's Virtually Zero Percent Chance of There Ever Being a Real Afghan Army -- So What's the Pentagon Talking About? 

• The Monsanto Company, which manufactured Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War and which sells the herbicide Roundup for spraying in Colombia, is war profiteering in Iraq and Afghanistan, this time with GMO seeds. See: Monsanto in Iraq and Afghanistan 9/4/09

• Why would senators and congressionals continue to support an unpopular in Afghanistan?  About 80% of their campaign funds come from outside their districts, from industries such as defense.  See: Why the Wars Roll On: Ban Campaign Money from the Outside District  
  
  Despite lower arms sales worldwide due to the global recession, the United States has increased its sales and market share of weapons and dominates, by far, the global market with 68.4% of all arms sales.  See: Despite Slump, U.S. Role of Top Arms Supplier Grows 
  
  The War in Afghanistan suffers the same problems as the failed war in Vietnam and then some: local corruption, unpopularity (there and here), elusive enemy, and approximately 1/6 the number of military personnel needed. See:   Afghanistan: What Are These People Thinking? 09/10/2009
  
  The projected costs of ongoing military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan could pay for the estimated costs of health care reform.  This article describes the nonviolent campaigns being planned to pressure the government to choose the Common Good over Common Destruction.  See: Health Care vs. Warfare: The Future Costs of the Afghanistan War

• There is no plan in place, nor exit strategy for the US war in Afghanistan.  Nor is our purpose in being there clear, given the mission creep from neutralizing al Queda to nation-building. See: Holbrooke Projects Long Occupation of Afghanistan, Pakistan

• Suicide bombers are not unique to the East. The West has its own tradition, with "suicide missions" throughout the history of warfare.  Only our acts are called "heroic" and theirs "barbarous"; Hiroshima was a " legitimate military traget" for the US atomic bomb whereas September 11th was a horrific "crime against humanity"'; a vest of explosives is heinous while Predator missiles are clean, accurate and focused.  See: Western Jihad: Yes, We Have Suicide Bombers, Too, We Just Call Them Heroes

• Rethink Afghanistan is an incisive 5-part documentary released in 2009 by Brave New Foundation on the key issues involved in this war.  The series addresses: the folly of US military escalation; the war's risk of de-stabilizing Pakistan, a country with nuclear weapons; the staggering costs of the war; the faulty assumption that the war can liberate Afghani women. 

• The vaunted U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, also named "National Sovereignty Day," is far from the end of U.S. military and economic presence in that country.  Up to 50,000 U.S. troops and thousands of military contractors remain in Iraq; and Iraqi oil and gas fields are opened to foreign firms. See articles: A Withdrawal in Name Only, and Iraq's 'National Sovereignty Day' is U.S.-Style Hallmark Hype

• Rules of Disengagement: What You Can Do to End Illegal Wars.   June 13, 2009. The new book, Rules of Disengagement, examines the reasons military men and women have resisted the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a scale of resistance within the military not seen since the Vietnam War.  It analyzes legal and constitutional rights issues of dissent against war for civilians and military and also exposes the ways in which military training is dehumanizing and promotes racial and sexual violence.

• Ann Jones, the Afghan Reconstruction Boondoogle  01/112009. In the long run Afghanistan needs services not soldiers. During the past 7 years, the US has built a network of military bases and prisons in Afghanistan while the reconstruction aid system is corrupted with virtually no economic and social development results.
  
  The Cost of the War in Afghanistan An overview of the human and economic costs of the war in Afghanistan, with a table displaying the tradeoff of war in Afghanistan for social and environmental services in the US.
  
  
• "My Son Is a Murderer" -- The Gut-Wrenching Realities Facing Military Moms    Military mother and author Susan Galleymore interviewed mothers in Iraq and the Middle East as well as U.S. military mothers to reveal the devastation and despair of war from the perspective of mothers. 5/20/2009
  
  
• The Disease of Permanent War The decline into "permanent war" degrades democracy; fills the coffers of military industries; and drains the domestic economy of investment in health, education, infrastructure, and environment. 5/18/09
  
  
• The articles by Tom Hayden (Understanding the Long War) and Howard Zinn ( Changing Obama’s Military Mindset) provide critical historical and political analysis of the Obama administration’s involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

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