Tomgram: William Astore, Taking Selfies in Iraq and Afghanistan. American troops are never seen as conquerors or oppressors, always as liberators and freedom-bringers, or at least helpers and trainers. There’s just enough substance to this myth (World War II and the Marshall Plan, for example) to hide uglier imperial realities...
Flawed intelligence and the limits of drone technology The Obama administration has portrayed drones as an effective and efficient weapon in the ongoing war with al Qaeda and other radical groups. Yet classified Pentagon documents obtained by The Intercept reveal that the U.S. military has faced “critical shortfalls” in the technology and intelligence it uses More
Turse: In 2013, the combined total of all U.S. activities on the continent reached 546, an average of more than one mission per day. Last year, that number leapt to 674. In other words, U.S. troops were carrying out almost two operations, exercises, or activities -- from drone strikes to counterinsurgency instruction, intelligence gathering to marksmanship training -- somewhere in Africa every day.
Since September 11, 2001, U.S. Special Operations forces have grown in every conceivable way, including their numbers, their budget, their clout in Washington, and their place in the country’s popular imagination. The command has, for example, more than doubled its personnel from about 33,000 in 2001 to nearly 70,000 today
“We must use all of the tools at our disposal, from dialogue and mediation to preventive diplomacy, to keep the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources from fueling and financing armed conflict and destabilizing the fragile foundations of peace.” —UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon U. S. MILITARY: A DANGEROUS SOURCE OF GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE Intense More
"Here's somebody that's spent a lot of years of her life in the military and the diplomatic corps and is now willing to speak about peace and challenge the rationale that America needs to have war in order to be the dominant power in the world." By Ann Wright (about the author) opednews.com June 5, 2014 In late More
Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn't) by Heather Linebaugh Published on Sunday, December 29, 2013 by the Guardian/UK The Elbit Systems Hermes 450 is an Israeli medium size multi-payload unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for tactical long endurance missions. Whenever I read More
James Steele: America's mystery man in Iraq [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ca1HsC6MH0#.UU5PQhQMqyo] A 15-month investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic reveals how retired US colonel James Steele, a veteran of American proxy wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, played a key role in training and overseeing US-funded special police commandos who ran a network of torture centres in More
James Steele: America's mystery man in Iraq [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ca1HsC6MH0#.UU5PQhQMqyo] A 15-month investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic reveals how retired US colonel James Steele, a veteran of American proxy wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, played a key role in training and overseeing US-funded special police commandos who ran a network of torture centres in More
International Peace Movement “No matter what White House lawyers claim, the potential legal justifications for drone strikes do not hold water.” By Robin Henzel/Coleen Rowley Nov. 17. 2012 brainerddispatch.com New information about drone operations contradicts the Sept. 23 op-ed piece by Col. Scott A. St. Sauver, commander of Camp Ripley. In his essay, written to More
International Peace Movement “No matter what White House lawyers claim, the potential legal justifications for drone strikes do not hold water.” By Robin Henzel/Coleen Rowley Nov. 17. 2012 brainerddispatch.com New information about drone operations contradicts the Sept. 23 op-ed piece by Col. Scott A. St. Sauver, commander of Camp Ripley. In his essay, written to More
Empire and Its Consequences Criticism of such policy is generally couched in terms that remove the alleged naïveté of the criticism, but I’m wondering if it isn’t time to stare directly at the fundamental wrongness of war. by Robert C. Koehler Published on Thursday, October 11, 2012 by Common Dreams (Image: VeteransToday.com) Ever notice the way certain More
