Iraq

David Swanson ~ The New War, The Forever War, And A World Beyond War

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“Our message to the President is: now would be a good time to end the mind-set that gets us into wars, as you said you wanted to do. Is this really what you want to be remembered for?” – L Bolger

WorldBeyondWar-GivePeaceAChance

October 3, 2014 — A statement on the current and enduring crisis, by the coordinating committee of WorldBeyondWar.org This statement as PDF.

Summary

The following is an assessment of the current ISIS crisis. The statement examines: (1) the social context of the destructive violence in Syria and Iraq — where we are; (2) viable nonviolent alternatives — what should be done; and (3) opportunities for civil society to advocate and push for those alternatives — how we can make it happen. The alternatives and pathways toward achieving those are not only preferable from a perspective of humanity, but proven to be more effective.

Graphic beheadings and other quite real stories of horrors committed by a new enemy — ISIS — have led to increased support for U.S. involvement. But a war on ISIS will make things worse for all concerned, following, as it does, a pattern of counterproductive action. Through the course of the so-called global war on terrorism, terrorism has been on the rise.

Nonviolent alternatives to war are abundant, morally superior, and strategically more effective. Some but not all are: apologies for past actions; arms embargoes; a Marshall Plan of restitution for the Middle East; meaningful diplomacy; appropriate conflict resolution responses to terrorism; addressing the immediate crisis with humanitarian intervention; redirecting our energies at home; supporting peace journalism; working through the United Nations; and de-authorizing the war on terror.

No solution by itself will bring peace to the region. Many solutions together can create a strong web of peace-building fabric superior to continued war. We cannot expect to make all of the above happen immediately. But by working toward those ends we can achieve the best results as quickly and as lastingly as possible.

We need teach-ins, communications, and education of all sorts. People should know enough facts to give their positions context. We need demonstrations, rallies, sit-ins, town forums, disruptions, and media productions. And if we make this a part of ending the whole institution of war, rather than just a particular war, we may move closer to not having to keep opposing new wars all the time.

Where We Are

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Ray McGovern ~ Forgetting Cheney’s Legacy Of Lies

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“One can only hope that President Obama, in current circumstances, will keep listening to military advisers who know something about war — and why it should never be casually commenced.” R McGovern

As the world marks the centennial of World War I, the guns of August are again being oiled by comfortable politicians and the fawning corporate media, both bereft of any sense of history. And that includes much more recent history, namely the deceitful campaign that ended up bringing destruction to Iraq and widened conflict throughout the Middle East. That campaign went into high gear 12 years ago with a preview in late August before the full-scale rollout in September.

Vice President Dick Cheney speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Aug. 26, 2002. [Source: White House]
Vice President Dick Cheney speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Aug. 26, 2002. [Source: White House]
On Aug. 26, 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney – who remains something of a folk hero on Fox News – formally launched the lies leading to the U.S.-UK attack on Iraq seven months later. And on Aug. 30, 2013, another late-summer pitch was made for war on Syria, which came within 20 hours of a major U.S. aerial assault after Secretary of State John Kerry claimed falsely – no fewer than 35 times – to “know” that the Syrian government was responsible for using sarin nerve gas in an attack outside Damascus on Aug. 21, 2013.

Unlike 12 years ago, however, when the Pentagon was run by Field Marshal Donald Rumsfeld and the military martinets who called themselves generals but danced to his tune, war with Syria was averted last year when Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey talked sense into President Barack Obama who was on the verge of bending to the Cheney-esque hawks still perched atop the U.S. State Department.

Now, in late August 2014, as if to mark Cheney’s day of deceit a dozen Augusts ago, the Washington Post editorialized: “Stepping back into the fray: Stopping the Islamic State will require ‘boots on the ground.’” As is its custom, the Post offered no enlightenment on what motivates jihadists to do unspeakably evil things – in other words, “why they hate us” – or why Gulf allies of the U.S. fund them with such largesse.

Sadly, the thinking of Establishment Washington is no more refined today that it was on Jan. 8, 2010, when the late Helen Thomas asked then-White House counter-terrorism czar and now CIA Director John Brennan why the “underwear bomber,” who on Dec. 25, 2009, tried to down a U.S. passenger plane, did what he did. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Answering Helen Thomas on Why”.]

Hardwired to Hate

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X22 Report ~ Episode 440 – August 13 2014 [Audio]

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Are The Riots In Ferguson Part Of The U.S. Agenda For Martial Law ?

[youtube=http://youtu.be/8wJx7wRwgJs]

  • Greek economy continues to contract while piling on more debt.
  • Japanese GDP plunges most on record.
  • Retail sales are imploding, department stores drop the most.
  • Mortgage apps once again decline, real estate is imploding.
  • Russia making deals with BRICs nations to expand technology.
  • Riots in Ferguson are getting worse and the police look more like military than police.
  • The US Government now has the FBI involved and this could be fanning the flame for martial law.
  • US is now hiding military assets in caves across Europe.
  • Libya is continuing asking for international help and they are now going to the UN.
  • More troops are flowing into Iraq event though President Obama promised no boots on the ground.
  • Islamic State is pushing the agenda of attacking the US. Be prepared for a false flag.

All source links to the report can be found on the x22report.com site.

SF Source X22Report

RT News ~ World News Links (August 13 2014)

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No longer a man’s world: Iranian woman becomes 1st female winner of ‘math Nobel’

Maryam Mirzakhani (Image from theiranproject.com)
Maryam Mirzakhani (Image from theiranproject.com)

Iranian scientist Maryam Mirzakhani has become the first-ever woman to receive the prestigious Fields Medal, often described as the “Nobel Prize in Mathematics.”

Mirzakhani, 37, a professor at Stanford University in California, is among the four 2014 awardees of the world’s top math prize. She is the first female winner of the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, also known as the Fields Medal, which has been awarded every four years since 1936.

Mirzakhani received her medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul, South Korea, from the country’s first-ever female president, Park Geun-hye.

“This is a great honor,” Mirzakhani said, according to Stanford University’s website. “I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians. I am sure there will be many more women winning this kind of award in the coming years.”

Mirzakhani was born and grew up in Tehran, Iran. As a child she was more fascinated by the world of literature than by numbers and geometry, dreaming of becoming a writer. In her later years at school, however, she discovered a particular pleasure and exceptional skill in solving math problems.

“It is fun – it’s like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case,” she said. “I felt that this was something I could do, and I wanted to pursue this path.”  Continue reading . . .

Selected RT_News LInks

Ron Paul on Iraq: ‘The sooner we get out of there the better’

​​‘Western media neglect of Moscow’s MH17 evidence is shameful’

‘Ebola was declared dangerous just when it started to apply to white people’

2 passenger train wagons derail in the Alps after landslide

Bioengineers build 3D tissue mimicking brain structure

Putin’s electoral rating doubles in 2014

Iraq – a crisis for the Western elites? Or is it all going to plan?

Jewish group demands renaming French village called ‘Death to Jews’

Ecuador: We don’t need permission to trade with Russia

Canada will donate up to 1,000 experimental Ebola vaccine doses to WHO

US jobs that returned after 2008 recession pay 23 percent less

Two dead, several trapped following double earthquake in Ecuador

Russia, Egypt looking to create a free trade zone – Putin

Google, Asian companies to build $300 mn super-high-speed Trans-Pacific underwater cable system

Hillary Clinton says she didn’t attack Obama after calling his foreign policy a ‘failure’

SF Source RTNews

John Pilger ~ The Return Of George Orwell And Big Brother’s War On Palestine, Ukraine And Truth

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“In the 1970s, I met Leni Riefenstahl and asked her about her films that glorified the Nazis. Using revolutionary camera and lighting techniques, she produced a documentary form that mesmerised Germans; it was her ‘Triumph of the Will’ that reputedly cast Hitler’s spell. I asked her about propaganda in societies that imagined themselves superior. She replied that the “messages” in her films were dependent not on “orders from above” but on a “submissive void” in the German population. “Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie?” I asked. “Everyone,” she replied, “and of course the intelligentsia.”” J Pilger

George Orwell
George Orwell

The other night, I saw George Orwells’s ‘1984’ performed on the London stage. Although crying out for a contemporary interpretation, Orwell’s warning about the future was presented as a period piece: remote, unthreatening, almost reassuring. It was as if Edward Snowden had revealed nothing, Big Brother was not now a digital eavesdropper and Orwell himself had never said, “To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country.”

Acclaimed by critics, the skilful production was a measure of our cultural and political times. When the lights came up, people were already on their way out. They seemed unmoved, or perhaps other distractions beckoned. “What a mindfuck,” said the young woman, lighting up her phone.

As advanced societies are de-politicised, the changes are both subtle and spectacular. In everyday discourse, political language is turned on its head, as Orwell prophesised in ‘1984’. “Democracy” is now a rhetorical device. Peace is “perpetual war”. “Global” is imperial. The once hopeful concept of “reform” now means regression, even destruction. “Austerity” is the imposition of extreme capitalism on the poor and the gift of socialism for the rich: an ingenious system under which the majority service the debts of the few. Continue reading →