Sickening

Robert Gates and Stanley McChrystal
(AFP/Jim Watson)

the spectacle of one of the super-rich elites' puppet masters heaping praise on the poor bastards who are giving their lives so that the super-rich can become even richer while those whose lives are on the line will very likely remain trapped forever in the poor underclass makes me want to run to the toilet and regurgitate my bran cereal and fruit breakfast...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FRONTENAC, Afghanistan – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a hard-hit battle unit Tuesday that its heavy losses have helped the U.S. begin to push back against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Gates visited a small, remote outpost 30 miles north of Kandahar, where the Fort Lewis, Washington-based Stryker unit has lost 22 men and suffered an additional 62 wounded since arriving here last summer.

The latest injuries came Monday night, and the latest death three days ago.

Gates praised the 800-soldier unit and told the troops that as the fight shifts toward securing Kandahar itself later this year, they will again be "at the top of the spear."

so there gates sits, telling these guys that their nation is ever so grateful that they're dying, all the while knowing that, among those he's talking to, several more will undoubtedly die, some within days... how can a deceitful bastard like that look himself in the mirror in the morning...?

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Emotional kids when daddy comes home

despite being a vietnam veteran, despite having worked in the war zone of afghanistan off and on for the past 18 months, and despite typing this as i'm working here in post-war kosovo, i am very far from a flag-waving, mindless supporter of our "troops"...

i think our militarized society has gone way overboard in practically canonizing those who do our country's dirty work, work done at the behest of those with the money and power to take them away from their families to suffer psychological trauma, possibly grave injury, disability and even death...

however, we should never, ever forget that those who serve in our military, even though they are often pawns in a larger game, are nonetheless fellow human beings who love their families as much or maybe even more than the rest of us do...

and, yes, i get this treatment from my grandsons when i arrive back home after a long time away...



thanks to alternet...

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More troops to Afghanistan...? Nonsense...!

i'm about ready to make a fourth extended visit to afghanistan as part of my work as an organization development consultant working with business and professional organizations in that country... i just concluded a very successful intervention here in jordan where my colleagues and i assisted the leading members of the community and the local government in establishing the foundation for productive and on-going dialogue...

here's my point...

going in with a mindset that categorizes one set of people as "the enemy," an "enemy" that must be destroyed, is bound to fail... that very mindset contains the seeds of its own defeat... why...? because when one group is treated as a dangerous "enemy," it is only natural that they will rise to that expectation...

if you go in with the mindset that all stakeholders are human beings who only want what we all want - safety, security, a roof over their heads, food on the table, and the opportunity to live dignified lives together with their families in peace, it's absolutely amazing what can be accomplished...

the taliban may have, to our way of thinking, a too-rigid interpretation of their religious beliefs, but that doesn't mean they should be treated as some kind of diabolical force... i've had dealings with mujahedin and taliban commanders and they feel just as trapped as we do... they're sick and tired of the never-ending killing and destruction and they're just as much at a loss about how to break the cycle as we are... relying on military force as a solution will definitely NOT break the cycle...

i can guarantee you this... if the u.s. announced that it was committing to talking, to engaging in a serious dialogue to explore ways to bring all the parties together to bring peace in afghanistan, and that the afghans would be the ones who would take the lead in that process, there would be celebrations on the streets of kabul...

i'm glad to see that i'm not the only one thinking this way...

The administration won't be able to give a negotiated reconciliation real credence until it gets away from the perverse foreign policy thinking that couples diplomacy with military escalation. Stop listening to the same military experts who have cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives, and stop giving them promotion after promotion. Tom Engelhardt gets to the heart of this today in his discussion about the pervasive hawkishness in Washington. As it becomes clearer the crisis in Afghanistan cannot be solved militarily, then for God's sake, quit trying to solve it militarily! No one wants to eat a carrot after they've been beaten and bloodied by a big stick.

agreed...

here's a video clip that essentially makes the same points...

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The REAL skinny on Afghanistan

a good chunk of the two and a half months i spent in kabul from march to early june was devoted to trying to figure out what the hell i was seeing and trying to make sense out of it all... i came to the conclusion that, despite the billions of dollars that has been pumped into the country since my country kicked the taliban out in late 2001/early 2002, things are still basically shit... the infrastructure - electricity, water, sanitation, health care, roads, food, jobs, and education - is in a godawful state, and abject poverty, massive corruption and spreading random violence are destroying what little was left of the afghan peoples' morale... i'm not a military strategist nor am i a specialist in the economies of war-ravaged countries, but the conviction i developed while i was there was that, if even the infrastructure problems were to be resolved, the violence would practically disappear overnight... this article goes a long way to confirming that perspective...

The bearded, turbaned men gather beneath a large, leafy tree in rural eastern Nangarhar province. When Malik Mohammed speaks on their behalf, his voice is soft but his words are harsh. Mohammed makes it clear that the tribal chiefs have lost all faith in both their own government and the foreign soldiers in their country.

Such disillusionment is widespread in Afghanistan, feeding an insurgency that has killed 195 foreign soldiers so far this year, 105 of them Americans.

"This is our land. We are afraid to send our sons out the door for fear the American troops will pick them up," says Mohammed, who was chosen by the others to represent them. "Daily we have headaches from the troops. We are fed up. Our government is weak and corrupt and the American soldiers have learned nothing."

A strong sense of frustration echoed through dozens of interviews by The Associated Press with Afghan villagers, police, government officials, tribal elders and Taliban who left and rejoined the religious movement. The interviews ranged from the capital, Kabul, to the rural regions near the border with Pakistan.

The overwhelming result: Ordinary Afghans are deeply bitter about American and NATO forces because of errant bombs, heavy-handed searches and seizures and a sense that the foreigners do not understand their culture. They are equally fed up with what they see as seven years of corruption and incompetence in a U.S.-backed government that has largely failed to deliver on development.

Even with more foreign troops, Afghanistan is now less secure.

"It certainly is a mess. Security is the worst that it has been for years. Corruption is out of control. It impacts every single Afghan," says Doug Wankel, a burly 62-year-old American who coordinated Washington's anti-drug policy in Afghanistan from 2004 until 2007 and is now back as a security consultant. "What people have to understand is that what ordinary Afghans think really does matter."

An Afghan woman and her child beg on
a roadside in Kabul September 4, 2008.
REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

the photo above shows what i saw many times as i cris-crossed the streets of kabul on my way to and from meetings - a woman and a small child lying in the middle of a street, literally in the direct path of traffic, begging for a few afghanis just to get something to eat...

these last few paragraphs sum up the sentiments i frequently heard from my afghan friends...

Moiabullah, a black-bearded Taliban from the troubled province of Ghazni, fled to Iran after the Taliban collapsed in 2001 but returned several months ago.

"People are fed up with this government," he says. "No one is working honestly. If you provide a good life, factory or jobs, of course no one will follow Mullah Omar (the Taliban leader)."

Out at the heavily fortified, sprawling U.S. military base at Bagram, north of Kabul, Brig. Gen. Mark Milley says the Taliban and al-Qaida are enemy number one, and corruption is enemy number two. But he claims the troops are inching forward in bringing security to the country.

"The western forces, international forces, Americans in particular are the most disciplined in our use of deadly force," says Milley, the deputy commanding general of operations. "We think we are succeeding."

Back at the tribal council, or shura, in Nangarhar, the eldest of the elders disagrees.

"It is a shame for them," says Abdul Samad, a tall, lanky man in his seventies with a silver beard on his gaunt face. "It was a good opportunity after the Taliban. But it is gone."

so very, very sad, and i may be heading back there toward the end of october...

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Our troops: stealing to survive

i just got back from the va hospital where i had an appointment this morning to have blood drawn in preparation for a regular check-up next week... the lab there manages to do a pretty damn good job processing what i imagine must be at least a hundred or more folks a day... i had brought along a book and, even though i wasn't anticipating a long wait, i figured i could move ahead a bit in my latest cyber-punk novel... i couldn't concentrate on the reading, however, because these two guys across from me were having a conversation that could easily be heard well into the next room... it's when the conversation took this turn that i started to unobtrusively pay attention...

both guys, as it so happened, had served in different parts of alaska, and both had assignments that required them to visit remote areas to inspect and service radar and other electronic surveillance stations... the interesting part, for me, was that both of them were taking turns topping each other's stories about how much government stuff, mostly gas and oil, they were able to steal without getting caught... one guy talked about driving his official car by his house near elemendorf afb and stopping to siphon gas into his private vehicle... the other bragged about stopping by a storage depot late at night and filling 50-gallon drums with motor oil and then selling it to friends and acquaintances... "everybody did it, nobody gave a shit," one of them said... "how else are you gonna make it on what they pay you..."

i drove home and it just now hit me... those guys have the very same mindset that those running kbr, halliburton, blackwater, and lockheed martin have... yeah, and probably cheney and gates too... the big difference...? they saw themselves as stealing to survive... but if they were suddenly plopped down in senior exec positions in one of those companies, would they behave any differently...?

This is my country! Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance,
America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

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The militarization of Paraguay by the U.S. - not a pretty picture

besides bush buying a large swath of paraguayan land* and establishing an airbase, a development i've posted on previously**, the u.s. is also slowly militarizing paraguay...

In May of 2005, the Paraguayan Senate voted to allow US troops to operate in Paraguay with total immunity. Washington threatened to cut off millions in aid to the country if Paraguay did not grant the US troops entry. In July of 2005 hundreds of US soldiers arrived in the country and Washington's funding for counterterrorism efforts in Paraguay doubled. The US troops conducted various operations and joint training exercises with Paraguayan forces, including the Medical Readiness Training Exercises (MEDRETEs). Orlando Castillo, a military policy expert at the human rights rights organization Servicio, Paz y Justicia in Asunción, Paraguay, says the MEDRETEs were "observation operatives" aimed at developing a "a type of map that identifies not just the natural resources in the area, but also the social organizations and leaders of different communities."

[...]

A group of representatives from human rights organizations and universities from all over the world, including the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo in Argentina and a group from the University of Tolouse, France, traveled to Paraguay in July, 2006 as part of the Campaign for the Demilitarization of the Americas (CADA) to observe and report on the repression going on in the country linked to the presence of US troops. Interviewed local citizens said they were not told what medications they were given during the US MEDRETEs. Patients said they were often given the same treatments regardless of their illness. In some cases, the medicine produced hemorrhages and abortions. When the medical treatment took place, patients reported that they were asked if they belonged to any kind of labor or social organization.

then there's bush's purchase of a huge tract of land in paraguay...

* The land grab project of U.S. President George W. Bush in Chaco, Paraguay, has generated considerable discomfort both politically and environmentally.

The news circulating the continent about plans to buy 98,840 acres of land in Chaco, Paraguay, near the Triple Frontier (Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay) is the talk of the town in these countries.

Although official sources have not confirmed the information that is already public, the land is reportedly located in Paso de Patria, near Bolivian gas reserves and the Guarani indigenous water region, within the Triple Border.

i posted this back in december 2005...


Estigarribia Airbase,
Paraguay

i've been posting for some time now on the u.s. moves to reestablish influence and control in latin america... i talked about how paraguay was being groomed as a new location for u.s. military bases... now, rummy visits asuncion... and, of course, paraguay, with its stunted economy would like u.s. bases... what an economic boost...! but, awwwww, shit...

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, arriving in this South American capital Tuesday, said countries in the region should help strengthen democracy in Bolivia and suggested that governments in Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in Bolivia in "unhelpful ways."

Rumsfeld's brief trip is aimed at reinforcing ties with regional democracies as they fight political instability, terrorism and drug trafficking, defense officials said. Rumsfeld will also visit Peru.

Increasing political problems in Bolivia, which borders Paraguay to the northwest, have been fostered by Cuban and Venezuelan authorities, U.S. officials contend.

is this stage-setting or what...?

looks like things are moving right along...

Controversy is raging in Paraguay, where the US military is conducting secretive operations. 500 US troops arrived in the country on July 1st with planes, weapons and ammunition. Eyewitness reports prove that an airbase exists in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, which is 200 kilometers from the border with Bolivia and may be utilized by the US military. Officials in Paraguay claim the military operations are routine humanitarian efforts and deny that any plans are underway for a US base. Yet human rights groups in the area are deeply worried.

White House officials are using rhetoric about terrorist threats in the tri-border region (where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet) in order to build their case for military operations, in many ways reminiscent to the build up to the invasion of Iraq.

The tri-border area is home to the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world's largest reserves of water. Near the Estigarribia airbase are Bolivia's natural gas reserves, the second largest in Latin America. Political analysts believe US operations in Paraguay are part of a preventative war to control these natural resources and suppress social uprisings in Bolivia.

it's too bad latin america is so far off the radar for u.s. media... chalk it up, i guess, to the vast list of things that aren't on the u.s. media radar...

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