Thursday, May 31, 2012

In June: REMEMBER #BAGRAM!

June is Torture Awareness Month. People everywhere are organizing events for June 26 -- International Day in Support of Victims of Torture -- as well as the days leading up to it. A list of events planned in Chicago is shown below.

I will be recognizing Torture Awareness Month by continuing to work to force transparency and accountability with respect to the thousands of detainees who have been left in prisons throughout Afghanistan as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation.


For those who think President Obama has put the Afghanistan "episode" behind us, it is essential to recognize that the United States has created a massive human rights disaster through its detention regime in Afghanistan -- one that dwarfs Guantanamo in comparison -- and we cannot turn our back on it.

Despite efforts by the U.S. to wash its hands of the detention mess in Afghanistan, as the latest post by Jason Ditz at Antiwar.com attests, "US Still Runs Afghan Torture Prison: Officials Retain Effective Control Over Detainees in 'Afghan Custody'."

As Tina Foster, founder and Executive Director of the International Justice Network said in today's New York Times article ("Detainees Are Handed Over to Afghans, but Not Out of Americans’ Reach"), “The worst thing is the administrative detention regime the Afghans are adopting is exactly the same as what the U.S. government has been doing for the last 10 years .... The legacy left here by the U.S. is people disappeared into legal black holes.”

In June, make a special effort to #stopTorture ... close #Bagram ... #DEMILITARIZEafghanistan!
* * * * *
CHICAGO EVENTS DURING NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTION AGAINST TORTURE

SATURDAY JUNE 23
Vigil: Water Tower (Michigan and Chicago) - 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Please JOIN the Facebook event page and invite friends!

Film screening: "Beneath the Blindfold" 5:00 p.m. at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, 25 East Pearson
Beneath the Blindfold interweaves the personal stories of four torture survivors who now reside in the U.S., but originally hail from different parts of the globe: South and Central America, Africa, and the U.S.
Please JOIN the Facebook event page and invite friends!
(Read my review of "Beneath the Blindfold"!)

TUESDAY JUNE 26
Morning rush hour vigils at various locations:
(a) 8th Day Center for Justice - weekly Peace Vigil
Where: (note revised location) Jackson & LaSalle
When: 8:00am - 9:00am
Bring a sign or we will bring some as well" (Note: this is a weekly vigil.)
(b) White Rose Catholic Worker
Where: Corner of Hollywood Rd. & Sheridan
When: 8:00am - 9:00am
(c) Su Casa Catholic Worker
57th St. and Lakeshore Drive (east side, bike path)
When: 8:00am - 9:00am
(d) Others - details TBA


PRESS CONFERENCE: Restore Torture Commission Funding! - Join us as we (a) call for the restoration of funding for the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission, to assure that its important work can continue; and (b) applaud plans by Governor Quinn to close the Tamms Supermax facility.
Where: State of Illinois Bldg - James R. Thompson Center (Randolph & Clark)
When: 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm
JOIN the Facebook event page and invite friends!

GATHERING in Support of Survivors of Torture - organized by representatives of a wide range of local and national organizations
Where: (note revised location) State of Illinois Bldg - James R. Thompson Center (Randolph & Clark)
When: (note revised time) 12:30pm - 1:30pm (immediately following press conference)
JOIN the Facebook event page and invite friends!

EVENING PROGRAM Heartland Alliance Marjorie Kovler Center presents:
United Nations Day in Support of Survivors of Torture
Dinner and program 6pm-9pm
Keynote address by Jobi Petersen Cates, Director of the Midwest Region, Human Rights Watch.
McCormick Lounge in Coffey Hall, Loyola University 1032 W. Sheridan Road, Chicago
For more information contact Caroyln Morales, 773-751-4035.

FRIDAY JUNE 29
Outing to see My Kind of Town - play about Chicago police torture scandal - details TBA
* * * * *
Image of Parwan Detention Facility (Bagram, Afghanistan) from Wikipedia.

Related posts

The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo holds weekly vigils at Dearborn and Jackson in Chicago every Friday at 4:30 p.m. to support the Guantanamo Hunger Strikers and to demand that Guantanamo be shut down. (Learn more about weekly vigils by the Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo.)




It's not enough to just pull U.S. combat troops out of Afghanistan - we need to ground the drones, clear the prisons we've filled with detainees, remove the bases, get rid of the contractors, stop the training activities -- DEMILITARIZE Afghanistan!

(See DEMILITARIZE Afghanistan)







My most prominent memory of my first viewing of the Guantanamo film, The Response, is of one of the stars of the film -- Kate Mulgrew of Star Trek fame -- participating in a panel after the screening. I was blown away when she said, "I did this because our civil liberties in our country have been gravely damaged and we all need to contribute to repairing them."

(See Understanding What Guantanamo Means)
 

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

What Shall We Tell Obama, Chicago?

Barack Obama will be back in Chicago on Friday to raise money for his re-election campaign.

Apparently, yesterday's article in the New York Times about how Obama makes decisions to kill people in other countries with drones has done nothing to hinder his re-election aspirations.


Barack Obama (l) and child drone victim (r)


However, many people are outraged -- and at least some of them have a new image seared in their minds: the image of Obama side by side with one of the children he has killed using drones.

What do people in Afghanistan expect people in Chicago to tell Obama?


"Is it only terrorism if it's against U.S. or its allies?
What would u call U.S. drones strikes if you lived in Pakistan?"


What do people in Pakistan expect people in Chicago to tell Obama?


"#Chicago should tell #Obama that we want #NoDrones in #Yemen.
Enough is enough. Stop killing civilians."


What do people in Yemen expect people in Chicago to tell Obama?

What do people in Somalia expect people in Chicago to tell Obama?


Related posts

There was a lot of noise in Chicago during the NATO Summit. But one message we managed to get through -- at least to some people -- was that people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many other places are being injured and killed in their names ... and that if that bothers their consciences they can get active and do something about it.

(See Making Drone Killing 100% VISIBLE in Chicago!)



By now, everyone knows about the New York Times article describing Barack Obama's personal administration of drone killing around the world. What few people are willing to face up to is that Obama 2012 partisans actually see this as a way to get a lot of Americans to like Obama: "This is the candidate; you MUST support him!"

(See Being a Team Player for "Mr. Forceful": Obama and the Dems )


A major focus of the demonstration was an undeclared U.S. war: the killing of hundreds of Pakistanis in secret attacks, principally using drones. Yesterday, people from throughout Chicago -- and especially from the Pakistani-American community -- stood up to say the drone attacks must end, and we must hold those who are responsible accountable.

(See Making the Chicago-Pakistan Connection )

Being a Team Player for "Mr. Forceful": Obama and the Dems

Some people have the wrong idea about the article published yesterday in the New York Times, describing Barack Obama's personal administration of drone killing around the world. They think the article "exposes" the wrongful conduct of Obama and his administration, that it will spark outrage, and that it will bring about change.

The article is a team memo from the Obama 2012 campaign.


What people need to understand is that the average reader skips right through the fog of legal and moral concepts and sees only the parts that reassure his/her reptilian brain.

The article is laced with sentences such as . . .
“He is determined that he will make these decisions about how far and wide these operations will go."

"He's a president who is quite comfortable with the use of force on behalf of the United States."

[T]he control he exercises also appears to reflect Mr. Obama's striking self-confidence: he believes, according to several people who have worked closely with him, that his own judgment should be brought to bear on strikes.

"After that, as president, it seemed like he felt in his gut the threat to the United States."
People read these sentences and they say, "Gee, I guess this guy Obama will protect me from harm. We sure are lucky to have such a strong man at the helm of our ship of state."

As such, the article accomplished precisely what it set out to do: put a stake in the ground for Obama 2012 partisans: "This is the candidate; you MUST support him!" For those who doubt this interpretation, this statement from the article about the involvement of Obama's chief re-election strategist should suffice: "David Axelrod, the president’s closest political adviser, began showing up at the 'Terror Tuesday' meetings, his unspeaking presence a visible reminder of what everyone understood: a successful attack [against the United States] would overwhelm the president’s other aspirations and achievements."

It's hard to fault people for absorbing these rapid-fire suggestions and internalizing them. I just have one request: every time people think of "Mr. Forceful," they imagine his image side-by-side with that of one of his victims.


Obama image source: ABC News
Image of child drone victim in Pakistan from Examiner.com


Related posts

Look for signs of administration operatives -- kill list apparatchiks -- telegraphing their twinges of conscience to the rest of the world . . . as if that somehow makes the drone killing alright.

(See Drone Apparatchik Crocodile Tears)












Why is the U.S. in a permanent state of war? More than anyone else, the beneficiaries of permawar are the politicians who thrive on the power to make and control wars.

(See J'ACCUSE: The Beneficiaries of Permawar)










In the "Turing test," a person interacts with a counterpart and tries to tell whether it is a computer or a person. Hmmm . . . and in the case of Barack Obama, the answer would be . . . ?

(See The Obamoid and the Eva Test )















Who are we? The United States, personified by its "great man" President Obama, is a kind nation that is riven by a belief that it should have the ultimate power over life and death, that every being on earth is somehow of lesser importance.

(See Reflecting on America's Split Personality (Moscow Airport Summer Reads) )





Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Make Obama's Drone Killing 100% VISIBLE in Minneapolis

Barack Obama goes to Minnesota to campaign on Friday, June 1.

I hope people in Minneapolis will make Obama's drone killing 100% VISIBLE.

I hope people there will tell him that they will NOT be voting for him in November.

I hope they will tell him that they will instead be making sure that only ANTIWAR members from Minnesota return to Congress in 2013.


Election 2012 is here. Let's stop the killing and stop the wars.

* * * * *

Obama will be speaking at Honeywell, a major military contractor. Honeywell is a supplier of next-generation drones technology, including the lightweight Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) RQ-16A T-Hawk.

* * * * *

Image source: Protest against war funding at the office of Representative McCollum, St. Paul, Minnesota, May 18, 2010. "Multiple peace organizations held an anti-war protest at Representative McCollum’s office in St. Paul, MN to protest spending and escalation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. United States Representative Betty McCollum is planning on voting for the $33 billion supplemental funding bill for the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Participants included: Anti-War Committee, Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace, Twin Cities Peace Campaign, Women Against Military Madness."

Monday, May 28, 2012

Win/Win? More on the Problem of Permawar and "Good Jobs" in California


Memorial Day
Yesterday I wrote about the drone industry in California, and the difficulty of putting a stop to a military technology that holds the allure of "good jobs."

The drone industry in the U.S. is currently centered in the San Diego area, home of General Atomics. But the area just north of Los Angeles is an equally important source of "good" military aerospace jobs.

See for instance the video that is being used as part of the #SaveDefense campaign on Twitter. A leading proponent of #SaveDefense -- i.e. "save defense spending" -- is Buck McKeon, representative from California's 25th congressional district. McKeon also happens to be co-chair of the 50-plus-member Unmanned Systems Caucus in Congress.


I was particularly struck by the statement in the video that military aerospace jobs offer a "nice American win/win type of situation." I wonder if the person speaking considered -- for even a moment! -- the victims of U.S. military action.

I suspect he didn't, so I offer here some images and text about civilian victims of a recent U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan:
Both President Hamid Karzai and NATO commanders ordered an investigation on Sunday into reports that a family of eight had been killed in a coalition airstrike in eastern Afghanistan. NATO and Afghan provincial government officials gave somewhat divergent accounts of the episodes. The casualties took place in eastern Paktia Province on Saturday night when the family’s home was hit by a bomb, said Rohullah Samoon, a spokesman for the governor of Paktia. Six children were killed, four boys and two girls, as well as their mother and father, whose name was Safiullah.
(More at Inquiry Ordered Into Deaths of Afghan Family.)


My prediction? When we ultimately stop thinking like "Americans" and instead recognize that we must think as fellow human beings, the "win" and "good" in those military aerospace jobs is going evaporate before our eyes.

More at: Can we stop the DRONES?

* * * * *
Images from Naharnet (victims) and Times Live (rubble)


Related posts

It is time now to turn to the dirty secret of American life and the primary dilemma of the antiwar movement: the military money that flows to EVERY Congressional district, and in particular the "good jobs" that members of Congress think they are protecting when they vote for ever-higher levels of military spending.

(See Drones, Permawar, and the Problem of "Good Jobs")









In my opinion, the reason to focus on drones is this: when we focus on drones, the general public is able to "get," to an unusual extent, the degree to which popular consent has been banished from the process of carrying out state violence. (Sure, it was banished long ago, but the absence of a human in the cockpit of a drone suddenly makes a light bulb go off in people's heads.) It takes some prodding, but people can sense that drone use somehow crosses a line. And that opens up the discussion about how our consent has been eliminated from the vast range of US militarism.

(See "Why focus on drone attacks?")


Isn't the real problem that fully half of Boeing's business consists of making and selling war materiel? Is it really necessary to identify the one, or two, or three most egregious weapons that Boeing makes? Do we need to pick and choose?  Isn't the real issue that nice, all-American, fly-the-friendly-skies Boeing is one of the core purveyors of war and misery in the world today, by virtue of its Military Aircraft division? I mean, look at their own sanitized version of what they do -- "Strike, Mobility, Surveillance & Engagement, Unmanned and Missile Systems, Global Support" -- even in their own words its readily apparent that they're peddling poison.

(See The Wrong Labor Struggle at Boeing )

Sunday, May 27, 2012

THIS Memorial Day, Honor the Fallen: STOP Drone Killing!


This Memorial Day, commit yourself to something that America's fallen servicemen and women would want: an end to killing with drones.
One week ago in Chicago, we saw U.S. veterans give voice to the anguish of so many who have been caught up in U.S. war-making. They are tormented about the violence, injury, and pain to which they have contributed. They seek everyone's help in putting a stop to it.


Just 5 days ago, we saw the passing of Paul Fussell, a scholar who gave voice to the disgust with war felt by generations of veterans. Fussell built on his first-hand experience of war in Europe in 1943: "During his tour of duty he won the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts — he was wounded in the back and legs — and he emerged with a disdain for those who would justify wars, especially those who never fought. He hammered the point in The Great War and Modern Memory and other books, including Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War (1989), a relentless chronicle of everything that was dreadful or repugnant about the soldiering experience in World War II, and a memoir, Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic (1996)."


Today, ALL Americans have been made part of the "kill chain" by high-tech, hyper-modern killing with drones. It's time for us to see that this new type of killing has put ALL of us behind the trigger.

The bad news is drones have made all of us more implicated and culpable than ever. But the good news is that the drones also offer up clear pathway to putting a stop to the immoral, dishonorable, unlawful killing.

This Memorial Day, commit yourself to something that America's fallen servicemen and women -- and Iraq Veterans Against the War ... and veterans of all conflicts -- would want: an end to killing with drones.
* * * * *
Painting: We Honor the Fallen by Ret. Sgt. Peter Damon from the Wounded in Action art exhibition.

Read about the May 17 Chicago protest against drone killings.
Get involved with the movement to end drone killings.


Related posts

In my opinion, the reason to focus on drones is this: when we focus on drones, the general public is able to "get," to an unusual extent, the degree to which popular consent has been banished from the process of carrying out state violence. (Sure, it was banished long ago, but the absence of a human in the cockpit of a drone suddenly makes a light bulb go off in people's heads.) It takes some prodding, but people can sense that drone use somehow crosses a line. And that opens up the discussion about how our consent has been eliminated from the vast range of US militarism.

(See "Why focus on drone attacks?")


Consider the moment in the film All Quiet On the Western Front when the young soldier returns to visit his old high school. The soldier visits the class of the teacher who had goaded him and many of his classmates to enlist in the first place. Encouraged by his teacher to tell about the "glories" of being a soldier, he delivers a damning verdict . . . .

(See Back to School (All Quiet On the Western Front))



It's time for us to get honest about the true costs of war, including the long term health consequences for people who serve in the military, and the corresponding long-term costs that our society must commit to bear.

(See How to REALLY Honor Veterans)

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Drones, Permawar, and the Problem of "Good Jobs"


I've previously pointed to Executive Branch power holders and the financial trading elites as the primary beneficiaries of, and the primary stakeholders in, permawar.

But it is time now to turn to the dirty secret of American life and the primary dilemma of the antiwar movement: the military money that flows to EVERY Congressional district, and in particular the "good jobs" that members of Congress think they are protecting when they vote for ever-higher levels of military spending.

A case in point is the drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) industry. A high-tech company in the San Diego area called General Atomics is having a field day with these new darlings of the military-industrial complex.


Drones are a rapidly expanding part of the way America wages war everywhere -- a "breakthrough" in warfare that poses enormous moral hazard, and one that needs to be stopped dead in its tracks.
Yet with General Atomics creating thousands of jobs -- including many, many very good jobs in engineering -- in Southern California and elsewhere ... what are the chances of getting members of the California congressional delegation to reduce military spending in general and drone appropriations in particular?
I was recently involved in some Twitter exchanges with Dana Rohrabacher, the congressman whose district abuts General Atomics' area, and who is one of the 50+ members of the Unmanned Systems Caucus in Congress.

Rohrabacher is a big fan of drones.


It should be noted that a lot of people thing that drones are just wonderful: they are high-tech and they keep our military personnel out of harm's way.

And many people also have a very cloudy notion of the rights and wrongs of "going after" individuals (and their associated communities) when they are perceived to "threaten" the United States.


Rohrabacher is particularly cavalier, if not obtuse. But it is very difficult to imagine any congressman from California having a terribly insightful relationship to the truth about drones and drone killing, when the "well-being" of so much of his/her district is tied to the drone industry.

My initial impulse was to try to focus entirely on Congressman Rohrabacher and his lack of empathy for the victims of drone killing. Certainly "Fighting for Freedom and Having Fun" would take on a new meaning if Dana Rohrabacher's photograph was paired everywhere it appeared with images of drone victims.

But perhaps it is going to require a much more broad-based discussion -- including a more carefully considered definition of "well-being" (one that embraces moral well-being), and the involvement of the entire community in every congressional district.


More at: Can we stop the DRONES?


Related posts

"Because of the intensified division of labor," the narrator explains, "many technicians and scientists can no longer recognize the contribution the have made to weapons of destruction." "Our department extracts lareic, oleic, and naptha acids . . . . "  "I'm a chemist. What should I do? If I develop a substance, it can be good for humanity . . . ."  "Besides napalm, Dow Chemical produces 800 other products . . . ." Does this familiar to you?


(See American Fire: Still Spreading, Still Inextinguishable)


I was particularly struck by the statement in the video that military aerospace jobs offer a "nice American win/win type of situation." I wonder if the person speaking considered -- for even a moment! -- the victims of U.S. military action.

(See Win/Win? More on the Problem of Permawar and "Good Jobs" in California )




In my opinion, the reason to focus on drones is this: when we focus on drones, the general public is able to "get," to an unusual extent, the degree to which popular consent has been banished from the process of carrying out state violence. (Sure, it was banished long ago, but the absence of a human in the cockpit of a drone suddenly makes a light bulb go off in people's heads.) It takes some prodding, but people can sense that drone use somehow crosses a line. And that opens up the discussion about how our consent has been eliminated from the vast range of US militarism.

(See "Why focus on drone attacks?")


Isn't the real problem that fully half of Boeing's business consists of making and selling war materiel? Is it really necessary to identify the one, or two, or three most egregious weapons that Boeing makes? Do we need to pick and choose?  Isn't the real issue that nice, all-American, fly-the-friendly-skies Boeing is one of the core purveyors of war and misery in the world today, by virtue of its Military Aircraft division? I mean, look at their own sanitized version of what they do -- "Strike, Mobility, Surveillance & Engagement, Unmanned and Missile Systems, Global Support" -- even in their own words its readily apparent that they're peddling poison.

(See The Wrong Labor Struggle at Boeing )

Friday, May 25, 2012

Making Drone Killing 100% VISIBLE in Chicago!


On Thursday, May 17, we made the drone killing 100% VISIBLE in Chicago.

People from World Can't Wait, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and other groups went out onto the streets and showed the faces of the victims to anyone willing to look.


May 17, 2012 - Michigan Avenue in Chicago: Medea Benjamin from
CODEPINK (center) and  her pink cardboard cutout "NO NATO"
machine gun. Joe Scarry (l) carries an oversize poster of a child
victim of a U.S. drone strike. (Photo courtesy FJJ)


There was a lot of noise in Chicago last week. But one message we managed to get through -- at least to some people -- was that people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many other places are being injured and killed in their names ... and that if that bothers their consciences they can get active and do something about it.

As one report stated:
Some in the lunchtime crowd were listening. “Let’s just say, this morning I wasn’t thinking about drones, and children dying. So it definitely opened my eyes,” one young woman said as she sat in a plaza along Michigan Avenue.



"STOP THE WARS"
(Photo courtesy FJJ)


I'm grateful to Kevin Gosztola for these videos of the reading of drone victims names and display of victim images at the protest:
And on Monday, May 21, we commemorated all the victims of NATO violence.

What will YOU do to make the victims 100% VISIBLE where YOU live?


"STOP THE WARS -- STOP THE DRONES"
Speak-out at the entrance to the Tribune Building, Michigan Avenue, Chicago.
(Photo courtesy FJJ)


More at: Can we stop the DRONES?



Related posts


At the end of the first day of the 2012 CODEPINK drone conference, I came to a realization: the fundamental problem that we had all gathered to address is that drones render killing 100% invisible. And as long as the killing is invisible, we lose the most powerful tool we have for fighting the killing: the disgust and outrage of the general public.

(See Make Drone Killing 100% VISIBLE!)

 

July 2014 - Many organizations from across the city joined the call by Anti-War Committee – Chicago, Jews for Justice in Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and 8th Day Center for Justice: Protest Boeing Death Machines in Gaza: Demand Chicago Drop Boeing from Air and Water Show!

(See No Drones Illinois Endorses Call to Drop Boeing from Chicago Air and Water Show)









Year after year, hundreds of thousands of people from Chicago and the surrounding area gather on the lakeshore to watch aerial displays by an array of planes. Most don't suspect that they are being subjected to an intense propaganda effort by multiple branches of the U.S. military.  The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo views this as a perfect opportunity to engage with the public and enlist them in the growing movement against U.S. war, torture, surveillance, and other crimes.  We will join activists from many other peace and justice groups who have had a growing presence at this event in recent years.

(See August 16-17: Protest U.S. Kidnapping, Torture, and Drone Assassinations at the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show Protest )

Thursday, May 24, 2012

#NATOvictims - Drone Strikes in Pakistan

The juxtaposition of the vainglorious NATO Summit in Chicago and today's latest set of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan is just too much to take.
Much of the world press regurgitates the standard United States government narrative of these drone strikes -- see for instance the New York Times account: Pakistan Says U.S. Drone Strike Kills Suspected Militants. In contrast, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) compiles as many accounts as possible, which gives a far more truthful account of the facts -- especially those related to injury and death inflicted on innocent people. According to BIJ, in the latest attack:
The CIA’s drones returned to the attack for the second time in 24 hours, killing ‘suspected militants’ in an attack on a house. But a nearby mosque was also hit as villagers attended morning prayers. At least three civilians died. ‘The drone fired two missiles at the compound. We believe it was being used by militants,’ one official told Reuters. Associated Press’s sources said that ‘most of those killed were Uzbek insurgents,’ although KUNA reported tribal elders as saying that all of those killed were ‘innocent local tribesmen.’ At least three civilians were reportedly killed when a nearby mosque was also struck during the attack, according to AFP. A security official told the news agency that the three worshippers, believed to be Central Asians, ‘were seriously wounded and died later in the hospital.’ Channel 4 News said that most of the dead were local villagers, with four being ‘foreign fighters, believed to be Turkmen.’
Would someone please look at the list of drone strikes in Pakistan -- week after week after week -- compiled by BIJ and figure out a way to convey to Americans what this would feel like if it the UNITED STATES were on the receiving end of this terror?
There can be no question but that Americans and the rest of the world will eventually wake up to the terror being inflicted in their name on Pakistanis and others. The only question that will then remain will be whether Obama, Panetta, and the whole drone "kill chain" will be prosecuted as war criminals or as ordinary criminals. (And God help them if they are condemned to the limbo of "unlawful enemy combatant" - entitled to neither civil nor military justice.)

Obama's Plan for Afghanistan NOT "Good Enough"

Part of the campaign among U.S. elites to soft-peddle the failure of U.S. warmaking in Afghanistan in general and the latest Obama/NATO "solution" for Afghanistan in particular -- which I've been discussing for weeks -- is a paper from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) called Time to Focus on "Afghan Good Enough".


Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama meet at the NATO Summit, Chicago
"After a hundred visions and revisions, have there finally been decisions
on Afghanistan? And is there time for more before the Presidential election
in November? And, depending on whether Obama wins or loses, how
reversible might those be?" (from The New Yorker,
"Is Obama Really Done with Afghanistan?" by Amy Davidson)


The whole "Afghan good enough" concept was discussed in the New York Times on Friday, May 18: U.S. Redefines Afghan Success Before Conference. The basic idea seems to be, "We've failed miserably at forcing Afghanistan do what we want it to do. It can't possibly be that we and our methods are flawed. It must be because Afghanistan is a fundamentally f*cked up place, and so let's not get down on ourselves as we walk out on the mess we've made."

The CSIS paper is carefully couched in technocrat-speak, in order, I suppose, to cushion the blow that it delivers at the end: "Pursuing today’s 'strategy' and illusions offers almost no hope at all." Admonitions such as "Local Forces and 'Warlords' Are Better Than Nothing" and "Rely on Direct Support of the Competent and Effective Elements of Afghan Governance in the Field" are just another way of saying the U.S./NATO had no business expecting that it could make things run in a particular way in Afghanistan through use of force.

The problem with "Afghan good enough" is that it doesn't recognize that "a militarized Afghanistan is NOT good enough." The gaping hole in the CSIS paper is that it doesn't address the legacy of militarization that the U.S./NATO have put in place in Afghanistan, and that must be reversed. When it says,
Creating an Affordable Afghan Army Beginning Now: One key will be to give real meaning to the effort to reshape Afghan forces as a much smaller and more affordable force, and to do so as soon as possible, rather than building up to a 352,000-man hollow force and rushing down to 230,000. This means a force that can credibly be funded with the money that could actually come rather than relying on promises. It means focusing on the army, knowing that much of the police will remain ineffective or corrupt. It means securing the Afghan government where it is now effective, rather than trying to expand it into vulnerable ink spots than can easily be overrun once U.S. and ISAF forces leave. It also means creating plans for the size of Afghan forces that trainers and partners can credibly sustain, providing more than mere pledges and hopes.
... it leaves the way wide open for the usual set of solutions that have been set in train in Afghanistan: drones killings, thousands of detainees, School of the Americas-style training regime, contractors, and more.


It's time to DEMILITARIZE Afghanistan. Only that will be "good enough."




Related posts

You don't need to be in Chicago to protest NATO. I'm asking everybody -- and especially everyone who has ever participated in #AfghanistanTuesday -- to help protest NATO from wherever they are. We want to build a crescendo of opposition that culminates in a clear message to NATO on May 20/21 when they meet in Chicago: #DEMILITARIZEafghanistan!

(See #DEMILITARIZEafghanistan )


Wait a minute: so the problem is that it is the Afghans who are "dangerous"? And "unreliable"? What has the US and NATO submitted Afghanistan to for the last DECADE?

(See "Dangerously Unreliable" in Afghanistan









A number of Nobel Peace Prize laureates and laureate organizations have agreed to come to Chicago April 23-25 for the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. Some people believe that the Nobel Peace Prize laureates should decline the invitation to come to Chicago, to prevent the leaders of the City of Chicago from using them to legitimize the NATO summit.

(See A Nobel Laureate Message for Chicago? )

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

NATO in Chicago 2012: What Was the Protest Really About?

WHAT IF ....

What if the protest during the NATO summit had turned out to be about something other than the protesters and/or the police? What would the message have been?

Of course, there were many messages. But the message (or messages) that matter is/are the one(s) the public is actually able to hear. (Yes, and what we, ourselves, hear ... but at the end of the day are we talking to ourselves or to the public?)

And usually multiple messages mean no message at all.

So: so what is The Message? Did anyone hear it?


Crown Fountain in Millennium Park, Chicago,
(Image: UGardener)

Related posts


The People's Summit was held in Chicago this past weekend, and the message seems to be pretty clear: it's time to dissolve NATO.

(See #dissolveNATO )









People around the world are using the Twitter hashtag #NATOvictims to bring forward the names of the victims who are left invisible to us. People everywhere have already started to contribute to the commemoration.


(See It Will Be Remembered as the #NATOvictims Summit )



People tweeted their summaries of NATO in just 5 words (hashtag: #NATOin5). It all started with an interview between Eric Zorn and Andy Thayer about NATO ....

(See #NATOin5