Tag: afghanistan

Irked by Hollywood's portrayals of the Iraq and Afghan conflicts -- don't get them started on 'The Hurt Locker' -- five veterans will offer their cinematic perspectives.

IS AMERICA THE VICTIM OF A WAR FROM WITHIN? By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor One day you read about a break-in at a Senator's office,...

Some American doctors are pleading U.S. officials to keep the Navy hospital ship Comfort in Haiti, the Baltimore Sun reports. University of Southern California surgeon Randy Sherman, medical director for the aid organization Operation Smile, said "there is no doubt" there are enough earthquake victims to keep the Comfort busy. He thinks it could operate at high volume for at least three more months. US doctors say Haiti is replete with patients whose orthopedic injuries have healed improperly and require complex surgeries that only the Comfort can provide.

GORDON DUFF:  Special Forces Trained "Col. Imam" Outspoken Critic of US Policy Wrongly Accused by Time Times Reporter Victimized by "Spoof" By Gordon Duff / STAFF WRITER...

FORMER CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, PAKISTAN, WRITES HIS FRIEND AND COUNTERPART, GENERAL COLIN POWELL By Admiral Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey (Retd) Former Chairman Joint Chiefs...

Are international robber barons like Goldman Sachs ripping off the poorest and most desperate nations with the aid of the very institutions created to help them? William Pfaff examines at Truthdig. You remember KBR the former Halliburton subsidiary alleged to have overcharged, and defrauded the US government was accused of the electrocution of soldiers who thought they were turning on the shower, not the voltage? They've been awarded another giant contract in appreciation of their efforts; from Raw Story. Those and other stories in today's picks.

An official at the United States Embassy in Iraq has told federal prosecutors that he believes that State Department officials sought to block any serious investigation of the 2007 shooting episode in which Blackwater Worldwide security guards were accused of murdering 17 Iraqi civilians, according to court testimony made public on Tuesday.

"We polled many Whispers associates and sources, and they were quick to size up the top five Obama cabinet members." Fifth on the list, according to Bedard, "is Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who has turned an agency that is at the bottom of lists in past administrations into an example of how to bring federal services to the troops, injured veterans, and even homeless vets. He's showing that the VA has a heart."

"CONSPIRACY THEORY" BECOMES REALITY IN THE NEW CIA/BLACKWATER PARTNERSHIP By Ahmed Quereshi "When these CIA agents killed a couple of Chinese engineers back in 2004,...

This summary briefing comes to us through the courtesy of Just Foreign Policy. Summary: U.S./Top News 1) Japan's Social Democratic Party, a junior partner in the ...

The battle for the Afghan town of Marja is being hyped as if it were the battle of Stalingrad. There was never doubt that NATO would force the Taliban out. A contemporary British account of frontier in the last century said of the Pashtun-fighting man: “When he stayed and defended something, whether a gun or a village, we trapped him and pulverized him. When he flitted and sniped, rushed and ran away, we felt we were using a crowbar to swat wasps.’’

CORRUPTION AND MILITARY GAME PLAYING CLOUD WAR OBJECTIVES By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor www.veteranstoday.com March 3, 2010 Sandwiched in a region of gas, oil, copper and coal...

Now it's 10 months later and 2,500 soldiers are about to come home. At least 800 of them, likely more, don't have jobs. Many will face the grim necessity of losing their federal pay and needing to find work at a time when Oregon is afflicted with double-digit unemployment. Their incomes will fall off a cliff when they leave the federal pay system this spring.

Shinseki, Akaka Agree On Need To Reform VA Disability Claims System. In continuing coverage, the AP (3/2) reports Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and US Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) "have agreed that reforming the VA disability claims system must be a top priority." On Friday, Akaka "said...in a Washington news release that he's encouraged by the administration's commitment to add thousands of staff to process veterans' disability claims."

  By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor Traveling around Pakistan is a challenge for an American nowadays.  It’s not the highways.  It isn’t even that...

The Afghan human rights commission reported that 28 civilians had been killed so far in NATO's offensive on Marja, AP reports. The commission based its numbers on witness reports. NATO has confirmed at least 16 civilian deaths.

Douglas Valentine at Consortium News draws some parallels between our current wars and William the Conqueror, they're not pretty. The bumpkin senator from Oklahoma has started an inquisition of climate scientists; their crimes? Being climate scientists, of course. The Taliban strike in downtown Kabul in a story from Juan Cole at Informed Comment and according to McClatchy News their goal is driving America out. Those stories and more in today's picks.

Find out What's Inside Today's Local News for Veterans Shinseki To Attend Senate Budget Hearing Today. VA Preparing To Re-Examine Gulf War Vets' Disability...

By: Khalil Nouri STAFF WRITER FOR VETERANS TODAY AN INEVITABLE KARZAI DYNASTY RULING ...

Rep. Kucinich wrote to Defense Secretary Gates, demanding that the U.S. comply with its obligation to protect Afghan civilians under international law, following a US attack on a civilian convoy reported to have killed 27 civilians. Kucinich demanded information on the decisions that led to the strike within two weeks, threatening to force a House vote demanding release of documents on the strike.

Damn Europeans blowing off NATO refuse the truth that any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless. Headline above...

No doubt after chewing our troops up, the DVA will rush in to facilitate expedited delivery of benefits. Right. For those stuck on history...

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart in a very funny take on CPAC's "Festival of Whites" at TPM. Death panels and Marxist demons aside, Sarah Palin's Grandson gets Socialist medical care, Stephen C. Webster tells it at Raw Story. McCarthyism is back, ugly as ever and even more dangerous this time around by Aemilia Scott at AlterNet. Those stories and more in today's picks.

Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende said he expected Dutch troops to come home from Afghanistan before the end of the year, after efforts to keep them there longer caused the government to collapse, the New York Times reports. The war in Afghanistan has been increasingly unpopular among voters in in many parts of Europe, creating strains between governments trying to please the US and their own people.

A power plant for the home smaller than a breadbox; does it work? Ask Google or FedEx. Video from 60 Minutes. If students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo can create a vehicle that gets 2752 MPG using existing technologies, is it too much to expect something more than 30 MPG from the big guys? That one from Jerry James Stone at Treehugger. Raw story tells the story of Colin Powell kicking Cheney to the curb and supporting the President on National Security issues. Those stories and more in today's picks.

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT TO YIELD BETTER BENEFITS FOR THOUSANDS OF VETERANS SUFFERING FROM PTSD AND THEIR FAMILIES - Lawyers Serving Warriors Veterans must opt-in by...

The bin Laden narrative aptly illustrates the extent to which our government institutions have used the big media and polluted the information environment. Rumor begets hearsay. Hearsay begets opinion. Opinion begets unconfirmed facts, unconfirmed facts beget disinformation begets propaganda begets intelligence, and intelligence begets nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

Nearly 70% of the military weaponry sold on this war ridden planet is sold by its most warlike nation, that's right...us, A report on the pimping of the weapons of war from TomGram. We have the right but do we also have a duty to stand and criticize government when we know it to be commiting wrongful acts? Gary Kohls provides insight at Consortium News. Harry Shearer at Huffington Post tells us: "...the US Justice Department does not dispute that prisoners in American custody have been tortured. Case closed. Literally." These are a few of the stories in today's picks.

JUNAID: Well, it has been a week that, you know, something has started in Marja, in Helmand, which is very close to Kandahar. The NATO forces are going there in numbers, and they're drumming it up as a big battle of this war. Some points are encouraging. There are good things happening, because they are saying that will build it positively. Some of the points look like a lot of media hype, which has been created to drum up support in the Western countries, surely. For example, there is not supposed to be any battle there, because it is a guerrilla war. This is mountainous area. And there will be a guerrilla war, and in guerrilla war, it has to be hand-to-hand combat. So expecting a big battle in this place is a bit of a media thing.

Shinseki: Workers Being Moved Back To New GI Bill Helpline.The AP (2/18, Hefling) reports, "Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with questions about the new Post-9/11 GI Bill will again be able to get help by phone five days a week starting Thursday." Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who "made the announcement in an interview while traveling to a meeting with veterans" in West Virginia, "says that GI Bill helpline employees have been tapped since December to help process a backlog in education claims. With claims being processed more efficiently now, Shinseki says those workers are being moved back to the helpline."

"The military needs to step up and address this problem," said John Wilson of the advocacy group Disabled American Veterans, which maintains a registry of more than 500 veterans with disorders they blame on burn pits. The fumes emanating from the pits, he warned, could become the Agent Orange of the current war zone.

At least nineteen civilians have been killed so far in the US/NATO offensive in Marjah, Democracy Now reports. DN interviewed Wall Street Journal reporter Anand Gopal, who says the assault in Marjah is perceived as a "show of force" by coalition forces that will change little. Gopal says it's very difficult for reporters to get to Marjah; almost all the reporters who are there are embedded reporters, so they're only seeing one side of the story; and we won't know for some time if there are many more cases of civilian deaths.

AFGHANISTAN:  The Flawed Operation “Mushtarak” BY KHALIL NOURI STAFF WRITER FOR VETERANS TODAY “If “Success” is the word labeled for Operation “Mushtarak” when that outcome means...

Human influenced climate change is fact, get over it and begin to deal with it seriously is the message from Kerry Emanuel in today's Boston Globe. Following sound science now can lead us out of danger, stumbling along behind hired quacks and "ditto heads" is a sure path over the cliff. When the "Rapture" comes who's going to take care of Fido? Larisa Alexandrovna knows, at Largely.

For the Marines of Charlie Company's 3rd Platoon, Sunday's mission was simple enough: Head west for a little more than a mile to link up with Alpha Company in preparation for a mission to secure the few ramshackle government buildings in this farming community. It would take nine hours to walk that distance, a journey that would reveal the danger and complexity of the Marines' effort to wrest control of Marja from the Taliban.

"We have millions of young men coming of age, America doesn't realize this. Each one will become a fighter with one purpose in life, to free their country and drive out foreign invaders. Each child you see will be a trained soldier with a Kalashnikov. We will fight for a century if we have to. Ask Britain, ask Russia, they know. Why did America have to come here, join with criminal elements, brutal drug lords, mass murderers, people whose only history is brutality toward their own, why was America so stupid as to think we would respect them when they and their stooges rain bombs down on our children?"

It’s becoming apparent to the foreign policy wonks in the Obama administration that the goose in Afghanistan is cooked. Now it’s only a matter of talking themselves into sticking a fork in it. The “great dilemma of this war,” as the New York Times calls it, is “whether to reconcile with the men who sheltered Osama bin Laden and who still have close ties to al-Qaeda.” That option is considered to be “rife with political risk at home” which means the neocons and their pals in the right-wing hate chorus will flay Obama alive if he takes it.

Dick Cheney and Joe Biden square off on the various Sunday talk shows, a preview from Raw Story. The mere fact that one is accused by the government is not reason to "believe" or have "faith" in the guilt of people held without benefit of evidence, an essay by Glen Greenwald at Salon. The Utah House of Reps decides to stand firmly behind junk science and flat Earth theory at Firedog Lake and some great cartoons from McClatchy in today's picks.

Happy birthday Charles Darwin, Steven Newton at Huff Post offers some reasons for the importance of Darwin's work. It's also Valentine's Day and AlterNet's Daniela Perdomo suggests that the way to celebrate it this year is to break up with your bank. The hired "experts" so often seen in the media are very often serving their own bank balances as a story from The Nation tells us and those stories and more in today's picks.

Vietnam Veterans Moving Wall Headed To Batavia VA This Summer. The Batavia (NY) Daily News (2/10, Baker, 13K) reports, "Those who served and are serving the nation will be honored in a special way this summer" at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Batavia. Plans are "'under way for bringing the Vietnam Veterans Moving Wall to the Batavia VA grounds June 24-28,' said Royce Calhoun, assistant medical center director, VA Western New York Healthcare System." The wall is a "half-sized replica of the actual Vietnam War Memorial Wall" in Washington, DC.

Pakistan has told the US it wants a central role in resolving the Afghan war and has offered to mediate with Taliban factions, the New York Times reports. So far, the US has been more eager to push Pakistan to fight Taliban than to negotiate with them, and has not endorsed Pakistan's new approach. One strand of thinking within the Obama administration calls for allowing the Pakistanis to keep the Haqqanis as part of Pakistan's sphere of influence in southern Afghanistan, but only if Pakistan forces the Haqqanis to break with Al Qaeda and to push militants out of its areas, a US official said.

Time to tax financial speculation? Way past time according to Institute for Policy Study's Sarah Anderson writing in Yes Magazine. Privatized health care? Ask rural Chinese how the switch from public to private is working for them, from the LA Times. Sarah Palin is smacking her jaws together over climate change using disinformation that she gets directly from big oil, from Think Progress and more in today's picks.