thepeoplesrecord:

Lies & Consequences in Our Past 15 Wars
May 28, 2012

Afghanistan -

Bin Laden, as a justification for the longest war in U.S. history, had always had weaknesses.  As with Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gadaffi or Manuel Noriega, past U.S. support for bin Laden had to be kept out of the discussion.  And a crime had to be transformed into an act of war.  A crime by a non-state group was used to implicate the nation of Afghanistan, even though 92% of Afghans not only didn’t support the crime of 9-11, but they have to this day never heard about it.

If bin Laden was not the reason for over a decade of war in Afghanistan, perhaps al Qaeda more generally was the cause.  When President Obama continued the war in 2009 and tripled the number of U.S. troops in it, he and his subordinates argued that if the Taliban had power it would work with al Qaeda, and that would allow al Qaeda to endanger the United States.  Some of the same officials who made this claim, including Richard Holbrooke, at other times admitted that al Qaeda had virtually no presence in Afghanistan, that the Taliban was not likely to work with al Qaeda, and that al Qaeda could easily plan attacks on the United States in a dozen nations other than Afghanistan, just as the 911 attack had been planned, in part, in Europe and the United States.

Libya -

The New York Times admitted to “scores” of dead from NATO strikes unacknowledged by NATO.  Over 600,000 civilians fled the country, including 100,000 Libyans, while another 200,000 Libyans were internally displaced.  NATO had bombed the city of Tripoli for months, occasionally apologizing for the deaths of civilians, but leaving many observers with the impression that the goal was “shock and awe” — or “terror bombing” as opposed to “precision bombing.”  Among the targets were media outlets, in which journalists were killed by NATO’s missile strikes.

Because cruise missiles and drones did the dirty work, U.S. Department of State Legal Adviser Harold Koh told Congress that the war was neither a war nor even “hostilities” (the language in the War Powers Act).  If no U.S. pilots or soldiers were at risk, then the bombs were not hostile.  They were friendly explosions. 

Drone Wars -

In February 2002, a drone pilot thought he’d killed Osama bin Laden, but it turned out to be an innocent man.  Expert observers, including Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistani lawyer representing drone victims, believe the vast majority of drone victims are not the individuals who were targeted.  Noor Behram, who photographs drone victims, says, “For every 10 to 15 people, maybe they get one militant.”  President Obama has instructed the government of Yemen to keep a reporter locked up whose crime appears to be having reported on the victims of a U.S. drone strike.  Over a million people, by Amnesty International’s estimate, have fled the areas of heavy drone bombing in Pakistan.

Drones have killed Americans in “friendly fire,” including on April 6, 2011, in Afghanistan.  Afghans have killed CIA drone pilots and other U.S. officials inside their offices.  Even drone “pilots” working in the United States can commit suicide.  They are suffering extremely high rates of stress and burnout, according to the Air Force.  A Pakistani who tried to blow up a car in Times Square in 2010 said it was revenge for drone attacks.  Eventually, blowback for drone attacks may come in the form of drone attacks.  U.S. companies sell drones to democracies and dictatorships alike.  Al Qaeda stole a crashed U.S. drone from Yemeni police in February 2011.  And in December 2011, Iran captured a U.S. drone a decade after the CIA had given Iran plans to build a nuclear bomb, any possible progress on which the drone was no doubt supposed to be spying on.

Iraq I - 

In 1995, President Clinton announced that he would “help the people of Bosnia to secure their own peace.”  Almost two decades later, U.S. and other foreign troops have never left , and the place is governed by a European-backed Office of High Representative.[xiv]  U.S. involvement in Yugoslavia gave NATO a reason to exist after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  It was also not unrelated to lead, zinc, cadmium, gold, and silver mines, cheap labor, and a deregulated market.

Iraq II -

President George W. Bush had decided on the war and sought ways to get it started for many months, while publicly pretending to be striving to avoid a war.  Vice President Cheney pressured the CIA to fudge the facts, and set up an even more compliant “intelligence” operation within the Pentagon.  Secretary of State Colin Powell made a war sales pitch to the United Nation despite his own staff having warned him that many of the claims he would be making were not backed up by the evidence.  The U.N. refused to authorize the war, but Bush launched it anyway, resulting in over a million deaths and over 4 million people displaced from their homes, along with such complete devastation of Iraqi society that commentators began popularizing the term “sociocide.”  This disaster cost the U.S. trillions of dollars in direct expense and indirect economic impact.

Bosnia -

In 1995, President Clinton announced that he would “help the people of Bosnia to secure their own peace.”  Almost two decades later, U.S. and other foreign troops have never left , and the place is governed by a European-backed Office of High Representative.[xiv]  U.S. involvement in Yugoslavia gave NATO a reason to exist after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  It was also not unrelated to lead, zinc, cadmium, gold, and silver mines, cheap labor, and a deregulated market.

Full article explaining impact of other U.S. wars

This Memorial Day, ask - Who is sending these men & women overseas to risk their lives in a destructive war? Who is calling for more soldiers to be killed?

Honor fallen veterans by fighting for an end to all wars. 

nevver:

Born to Kill

lafuguedantoine:

As Memorial Day Nears, a Single Image That Continues to Haunt - NYTimes.com  

“Remembrance, which may seem a modest contribution in the moment, is a sacred act with long-term payoff — a singularly human gift that keeps on giving, year after, year after, war-fatigued year. I don’t need to remind you that America’s sons and daughters are still dying in combat. I don’t want to browbeat you into feeling guilty for not doing more. Instead, I want to tell you that as the wife of a veteran, it is tremendously meaningful to know that on this Memorial Day, civilians will be bearing witness and remembering in their own way — that those who are gone are not forgotten. I also want to say that as you remember them, we remember you.

Thank you.”

lookhigh:

“Flags In Ceremony @Arlington National Cemetery,” May 24 (mcmccarthy91 via Instagram)

(via rubenfeld)

His shirt reads “They gave me a medal for killing two men, and a discharge for loving one.”

You are a bad-ass.

(Source: lady-aquata, via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)

(Source: genou, via venusaurphobia)

How they did it over there. [African American] troops of the 505th Engineers that returned on S.S. Roma showing how they used cold steel on the Huns. 05/26/1919 

(via todaysdocument)

thepeoplesrecord:

Bradley Manning military trial: Group petitions for a more open court

The military trial of the WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning is being conducted amid far more secrecy than even the prosecution of the alleged 9/11 plotters in Guantanamo, a coalition of lawyers and media outlets protest.

Led by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, the coalition has petitioned the Army court of criminal appeals calling for the court-martial against Manning to be opened up to the press and public. The group complains that the way the trial is being handled by the trial judge Colonel Denise Lind is a violation of the First Amendment of the constitution that requires public access unless the government can specifically demonstrate the need for secrecy.

The petition lists the many ways in which the public are being kept in the dark over the prosecution of Bradley Manning, who faces 22 charges related to the leaking of a vast trove of US state secrets to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. He was arrested in May 2010 at a military base outside Baghdad where he was working as an intelligence analyst on suspicion of passing hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables as well as warlogs from Iraq and Afghanistan to the site.

Full article