Afghanistan 2-25-2010

25, February 2010

                       

Dear Editor,            Afghanistan

The number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan continues to mount shattering any real hope of winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of the local people. There is little doubt that the raw emotions of the local people has intensified against the occupation of their country. Last year this ill-defined mission has claimed the lives of a record number of Afghani civilians and US soldiers. The conflict is fast becoming the longest war in US history.

President Obama has twice enhanced troop levels making it more and more difficult to extricate ourselves from this sinking morass. There are currently 100,000 US and allied troops occupying Afghanistan. These have been augmented by 104,000 US ‘hired guns’ or mercenaries.


The war has not enhanced democracy and security and is fraught with poor intelligence gathering. The Taliban are not foreign imports – they are a militant group of fighters drawn together by a common purpose, namely to expel all foreign troops from their country. Our continued presence is propping up President Hamid Karzai who was ushered in on charges of massive fraud. He has recently issued a decree granting him oversight of a key election body, Afghanistan Electoral Complaints Commission, which will grant him dictatorial powers. Why are we supporting this man who has repeatedly demonstrated his utter disdain for democracy and the rule of law?

US Supreme Court 2-15-2010

15, February 2010                 US Supreme Court

The recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, gave the green light to corporations and other special interests groups to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence election outcomes eviscerating longstanding rules limiting such contributions. In an unprecedented ruling, the Court equated money with free speech. The ‘free speech’ Amendment, a bastion of democracy, was carefully crafted to protect the rights of ordinary Americans. It is incomprehensible that the Supreme Court equated the right of corporate spending with ordinary Americans right to free speech. Corporations are state-created entities whose specific purpose is to turn a profit.

We hardly need to be reminded of the already corrosive impact of money in politics.

This decision will open the floodgates of money. Large corporate giants will continue to drown out dissenting voices and pass on their expenditures to consumers. Unprecedented amounts of money will be funneled through the large network of lobbyists to the eager outstretched hands of politicians who traditionally rubber stamp legislation favorable to their wealthy benefactors. This will heighten the cycle of corruption, trample our democracy and discourage the few ‘Mr. (and Mrs.) Smith’s’ ‘shallow pocketed’ candidates to go to Washington. It is unlikely that principled candidates can effectively challenge parochial deep pocketed corporate interests.

Obama, a Big Disappointment 2-6-2010

6, February 2010                  Obama, a Big Disappointment

It is extremely disappointing that presidential-candidate Obama, who galvanized the nation with his promises and soaring rhetoric, has been swallowed up by the beltway beast of special interests. Consider the following:

His 3.8 trillion budget boosts war spending while drastically cutting domestic programs.  The Pentagon budget would grow over three percent in addition to funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for a total of over $741 billion. This dwarfs all other spending programs.

By seeking an increase of $7 billion in nuclear spending he has reneged on his earlier pledge to cut the US nuclear arsenal and seek a nuclear weapons-free world.

Politico, a news website, has recently revealed that CIA operatives are now permitted to “moonlight”, sharing their privileged information with private for-profit companies having the dangerous potential for compromising national security.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair confirmed that government agencies may kill U.S. citizens abroad without formally charging them of a crime – a clear violation of  the Fifth Amendment's explicit guarantee—that no-one shall be deprived of life without due process.

Contrary to Obama’s ‘State of the Union’ address that ‘we don’t torture’, US special forces continues to torture and ‘rendition’ people to secret ‘black’ prisons (see Anand Gopal report, “Obama’s secret prisons, . . featured in the “huffingtonpost.com”).

Warrantless wiretaps are still permitted - - unchallenged by a comatose Congress.

Pat Robertson and Haiti 1-25-10

25, January 2010                   Pat Robertson and Haiti

It is a pity that Pat Robertson has chosen to sign a pact with the devil by continuing his diatribe on gays, women’s rights, the separation of church and state – and more recently  Haiti’s earthquake victims on its ‘un-Christian’ past. Even New York Times conservative columnist, David Brooks blamed Haitians for being “progress resistant.”

Brooks and Robertson would do well to reflect on France and the US’s sordid historical roles in Haiti. First the French ran Haiti as a slave colony robbing the land of its rich sources of coffee, sugar and tobacco. In an incredible cruel twist of colonial exploitation, the French demanded reparations from an impoverished ‘free’Haiti after its forces were expelled in 1804.

The US invaded Haiti in 1916 and continued the legacy of ‘colonial exploitation’ by appointing unpopular proxy dictators ‘president for life’ François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, followed by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier. Both rulers acquiesced to US demands to privatize its state run industries and establish sweat shops to provide US corporations with cheap imports.

It is puzzling why Obama appointed former President Clinton and President Bush to undertake the earthquake relief efforts when both were instrumental in undermining Haiti’s democracy. 

It now behooves us help Haitians rebuild their devastated nation. As a start, let us demand that the democratically elected exiled leader, President Aristide, be allowed to return to his country. Finally, Haiti’s long term debt of $880 million should be forgiven.

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.