Blackwater (Soldiers for Hire) 1-16-10

16, January 2010                      Blackwater (Soldiers for Hire)

The ‘soldiers for hire’, military contractor, Blackwater is back in the news. Recently, two of  Blackwater’s former employees were arrested on murder charges involving the death of two Afghan civilians. In an earlier incident, dozens of eyewitnesses witnessed the brutal slaying of seventeen Iraqi civilians in the Nisoor massacre by five Blackwater employees. To compound the outrage, the company paid a miniscule compensation of $100,000 for each death and $20,000 to $30,000 to each Iraqi wounded. It is unconscionable that our tax money should be used to retain the services of Blackwater who is a repeat offender of the slaying and injury of innocent civilians. What is especially astounding and disturbing is the casual and nonchalant way our government is contracting out its mafia style assassination attempts. Blackwater’s ‘007’ antics have tarnished the image of the US and invoked seething anger in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany (where one their citizens was ‘renditioned’ and tortured). It is encouraging that REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (leading member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations) is introducing legislation to stop outsourcing security by companies like Blackwater. She deserves our full support. The Pentagon should follow CIA’s decision by canceling their contract with Blackwater. 

Wall Street 1-7-10

 7, January 2010                     Wall Street

Last Christmas Eve, the Obama administration inexplicably removed the $400 billion cap on Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac allowing them to continue to gamble with the people’s money with complete abandon. The CEO’s were rewarded with bonuses of $6 million. Meanwhile real employment is approaching 18-20% and foreclosures are at a staggering 200,000 a month. The banks are making no effort to restructure mortgage loans because they receive 85% against foreclosure from private insurance companies.

In a further effort to prop up government-subsidized banks and allow them to jettison their toxic assets, the Treasury Department has granted massive tax exemptions amounting to billions of dollars. Coincidently, Citigroup announced $20 billion repayment of its toxic assets.

There has been no effort to resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act which separated high risk investment banking from consumer oriented commercial banking. Bernanke lauded as ‘Man of the year’ by TIME, former Treasury Hank Paulson and Geithner pillaged the Federal Reserve and converted it into a national hedge fund using shrinking tax dollars to back toxic assets.

Contrary to Obama’s repeated promises to hold the ‘fat cats’ of Wall Street accountable, the ‘cats’ are very much in control many choosing to ignore the White House summons for “very serious discussions” on December 13, 2009. Among the “no shows” were Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.

Thus, its business as usual on Wall Street. Sadly, there is not much hope of any meaningful changes that would ease the burden for ‘real Americans.’ 

Afghanistan 12- 5-2009

5, December 2009                  Afghanistan

Obama’s speech calling for an upsurge in troop levels in Afghanistan was both unconvincing and profoundly disappointing. The war infested culture of the Pentagon out-snookered Obama by leaking General McChrystal’s request for more troops and effectively boxed him in to adhere to the status quo. McChrystal’s “request” for more troops was eerily similar to General Westmoreland’s ongoing requests for more troops in Vietnam. I urge readers to Google ‘Bill Moyers Journal’ last month in which he featured recorded conversations between President Johnson and Robert McNamara just prior to President Johnson’s announcement of an increase in troop levels in Vietnam.

The ill-fated Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has also been largely ignored or forgotten. This turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

Like many of his presidential predecessors, Obama shamelessly used the West Point graduates as convenient props to deliver his war message. Obama grossly exaggerated the alleged threat from Al Qaeda. The insurgency is not comprised of Al Qaeda renegades but of disparate groups of Taliban fighters. It makes little sense to augment troop levels to support the thoroughly disgraced and corrupt Karzai government, and his oppressive and corrupt Afghan police and army.

Our continued occupation is fueling the insurgency and killing more insurgents and civilians will only intensify the rage and embolden the Taliban. It is time to exit this un-winnable quagmire and negotiate a power sharing settlement with the Taliban. 

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.