Israeli Forces attack US citizen 3-22-2009

22, March 2009                      Israeli Forces attack US citizen

Once again Israel has attempted to silence non-violent activists with brute force. The latest casualty is an American activist from Oakland, California, Tristan Anderson. Triston was critically injured by Israeli soldiers who fired a tear gas canister directly at his head during a weekly nonviolent protest against the wall in the West Bank village of N’alin. Rescue workers wearing highly visible neon uniforms and carrying bright yellow stretchers were are also targeted with a barrage of tear gas canisters.


Triston is the fourth member of the International Solidarity Movement to be gunned down by the Israeli military. Thus far, four unarmed resident of N’alim have been killed and 400 injured by the IDF since last April. It is extremely disquieting that the Obama administration and the majority of the members of Congress remain silent while Israel continues its brutal oppression of the Palestinians and international observers. One phone call from President Obama could end this mayhem. The time to act is now. IDF soldiers who were responsible for these unprovoked attacks must be held accountable. I urge readers to write to their lawmakers and President Obama and demand an end to Israel’s attacks on peaceful demonstrators.

AIG 3-16-2009

16, March 2009                                  AIG

The Obama administration’s claim that they are ‘powerless’ to stop rewarding AIG executives a staggering $165 million is somewhat disingenuous. If the federal government owns 85% of the company why don’t they send a swat team of lawyers and accountants to take over the company? Allowing these AIG executives to ‘stay the course’ and squander tax payer largesse to reward their incompetence is a prescription for disaster. A de facto nationalization of AIG would allow government officials to void existing contracts and issue pink slips to those executives who were responsible for driving the giant insurance company to the brink of total collapse. This bold action would send a chilling message to other tax payer bailout institutions to stop playing fast and loose with our tax money. Failure to act promptly will only encourage debt ridden institutions to focus on short term goals enriching corporate executives to the detriment of American taxpayers.  

Don’t Join The Army 3-4-2009

4, March 2009            Don’t Join The Army

Corporate immigration attorney, Indu Liladhar –Hathi (I-West, Feb 20), offers appalling advice to Indian immigrants encouraging them to join the military to expedite their citizenship. Americans are geniuses at conjuring up new acronyms to hide sinister intentions.  Desperate to make up their declining quotas, the Pentagon is now targeting immigrant communities with their latest carrot dubbed, Military Accessions Interest Pilot Recruiting Program or MANVI. It is very likely that these sacrificial lambs will serve eight long years in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the violence and U.S. fatalities have declined in Iraq, US combat forces have encountered escalating violence in Afghanistan. Both wars were launched by the thoroughly disgraced Bush administration on flimsy and often manufactured intelligence and contravene international law. There is no honor fighting these modern day colonial wars to gain citizenship, especially if your loved ones return in US flagged coffins.

 In a recent article, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported an alarming escalation of US military suicides. Last year, the Pentagon reported 143 soldiers took their own lives. The actual number may be significantly higher. According to Salon.com reporters, Mark Benjamin and Michael de Yoanna, “The soldiers seemed to be suffering classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder: explosions of anger, suicidal and homicidal ideation, flashbacks, nightmares and insomnia. Predictably, the Army was responding, for the most part, with disciplinary action rather than treatment, evincing little concern for possible underlying problems. The soldiers self-medicated further with predictable outcomes.” These soldiers have paid the ultimate price for the failed policies of Bush and Cheney who had little concern for the outcome of their failed policies. Instead of encouraging Indians to enroll in the US Army and participate in these immoral acts of warfare and conquest, we should call on the new Obama administration to halt these foreign adventures which is depleting our treasury of billions of dollars and sending our young to their early graves. Our bloated military budget only encourages us to build and use more terrifying weapons of human destruction while our nation is drowning in a sea of debt.  The planned escalation of troops in Afghanistan is a tragic mistake. Failure to act will sink us deeper into another Vietnam-type quagmire. I urge families to discourage their loved ones enrolling in the military. Google to ‘Winter Soldiers’ to hear riveting testimonies of veterans who have confessed to the most horrific war crimes while serving in the US military. We need to celebrate the gift of life our creator has endowed and not build more and more terrifying weapons to destroy God’s beautiful creation and his people. 

 

    

Obama’s wars 3-2-2009

2, March 2009 Obama’s wars

Obama’s Iraq speech was a major disappointment and was at complete odds with his hitherto opposition to the invasion. He conveniently ignored the brutal attack on Iraq’s sovereignty was a blatant act of aggression based on false WMD claims by the Bush administration. Obama’s congratulatory words to the combat troops, “getting the job done” sounded eerily similar to Bush’s “mission accomplished.” No apologies to the Iraqis were offered, as the Reverend Tutu of South Africa requested. More than a million Iraqis have died and many more have suffered debilitating injuries resulting from our “shock and awe” invasion. Millions of Iraqi’s fled the country and millions more are internally displaced. In a misguided attempt to achieve a mythical victory, Obama has requested an increase in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. The decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan is monumental mistake. Over 100 civilians have been killed by U.S., NATO or Afghan forces in the first two months of the year. 

The bloated military budget needs to be put on a crash diet. We need to celebrate the gift of life our creator has endowed and not build more and more terrifying weapons to destroy God’s beautiful creation and his people. Finally, let us make a serious gesture of contrition and offer massive reparations to Iraq and Afghanistan for violating the sanctity of their respective countries.