What Constitutional right does President Obama have to keep us spending astounding amounts of money till beyond 2014 to wage war in Afghanistan when we are not even at war with Afghanistan? President Obama is taking America to perpetual war and there is virtually never a complaint from Congressional Democrats. What is the point of supporting a Democratic President who has decided on his own to wage war indefinitely?
U.S. Introduces Tanks Into Afghan War
By Amy Goodman
President Obama has arrived in Portugal for a two-day NATO summit focused on the Afghanistan war. The Obama administration hopes to drum up support for its military strategy in Afghanistan and its new plan to delay a non-binding withdrawal deadline to at least 2014. The summit comes as the United States is escalating military operations to the highest level of the nine-year war. The Washington Post reports the U.S. military is deploying battle tanks in Afghanistan for the first time. * U.S. military commanders had long resisted introducing tanks in part due to fears they’d remind Afghans of the tank-heavy Soviet occupation. But top U.S. commander General David Petraeus ordered at least 16 M1 Abrams tanks into Helmand province last month, with more likely to follow. The deployments follow the most intense month of NATO bombardments so far, with more than 1,000 bombs and missiles fired in October. A senior U.S. military official told the Washington Post: "We’ve taken the gloves off, and it has had a huge impact." Another official said he thinks the increased damage to Afghan property from the bombings has had a beneficial effect: by forcing Afghans to travel to their local governors’ offices to submit damage claims, the official said: "in effect, you’re connecting the [Afghan] government to the people."
U.S. to Help Bail Out Afghan Bank to Avert a Crisis
By ADAM B. ELLICK 35 minutes ago
As thousands of nervous depositors stampeded the central branch of the beleaguered Kabul Bank, the Afghan and United States governments tentatively agreed to bail out the bank.
As Pakistan Floods Continue Moving South, Calls for Debt Cancellation Grow
In Pakistan, torrential rains a month ago that triggered unprecedented floods have moved steadily from north to south, engulfing a fifth of the country. Seventeen million people have been affected, and some five million have lost their homes. Meanwhile, a movement to cancel Pakistan’s external debt is now underway as campaigners plan a protest in front of Pakistan’s parliament house today to call on international institutions like the IMF to cancel the country’s debt....
JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to also ask Qalandar Memon about this. It’s been reported in the past few days about the diversion of waters from the floods to save a US military base that was in the path of the floodwaters. Could you talk about that?
QALANDAR MEMON: Yes. I just want to continue what Madiha was saying, as well. I think the war is continuing on both sides. It’s not just the US, but also the Pakistani military, and they really are partners. And a good example of this would be, like, what you just ask me about. The air base is called Shahbaz Air Base, and this is in Jacobabad district. And the water could have been diverted. The water was increasing in pressure and volume, and it could have been diverted in two directions. One was toward the city where—Jacobabad city, where 900,000 people would have been affected. On the other side, it could have been diverted, and far less people, less than 100,000, would have been affected, but an air base would certainly have been sacrificed. And the military, in the dead of night, breached the canal so that the water goes towards the 900,000 people, as opposed to the air base. And, you know, it’s said that the air base is in the control of US military and that this is where the drones are flown from. And the secretary of—health secretary, in fact, in the Senate committee said that relief efforts cannot take place in Jacobabad, because the US government would not allow flights from Shahbaz Air Base to take off for relief work. And yesterday, there was an air strike by the Pakistan military—pardon me—in the northern area, which killed around forty people. Now, the headlines always say "militants," but we do not know how many were militants and how many were innocent. So—and, of course, there was also three bomb blasts in Lahore. So it seems that war continues while 17 million people are homeless and suffering.
We have to leave Afghanistan immediately and completely, but President Obama is determined to continue warring in Afghanistan and has sent out General Petraeus to make sure we will not be leaving Afghanistan. Also, we have been shamelessly driving Pakistan to war at the expense of the Pakistani people as the neglect of Pakistanis by the military during this crisis shows clearly. We need to stop warring in Pakistan, but Obama is determined to war there and to keep Pakistanis at war.
What Constitutional right does President Obama have to keep us spending astounding amounts of money till beyond 2014 to wage war in Afghanistan when we are not even at war with Afghanistan? President Obama is taking America to perpetual war and there is virtually never a complaint from Congressional Democrats. What is the point of supporting a Democratic President who has decided on his own to wage war indefinitely?
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/19/headlines#1
November 19, 2010
U.S. Introduces Tanks Into Afghan War
By Amy Goodman
President Obama has arrived in Portugal for a two-day NATO summit focused on the Afghanistan war. The Obama administration hopes to drum up support for its military strategy in Afghanistan and its new plan to delay a non-binding withdrawal deadline to at least 2014. The summit comes as the United States is escalating military operations to the highest level of the nine-year war. The Washington Post reports the U.S. military is deploying battle tanks in Afghanistan for the first time. * U.S. military commanders had long resisted introducing tanks in part due to fears they’d remind Afghans of the tank-heavy Soviet occupation. But top U.S. commander General David Petraeus ordered at least 16 M1 Abrams tanks into Helmand province last month, with more likely to follow. The deployments follow the most intense month of NATO bombardments so far, with more than 1,000 bombs and missiles fired in October. A senior U.S. military official told the Washington Post: "We’ve taken the gloves off, and it has had a huge impact." Another official said he thinks the increased damage to Afghan property from the bombings has had a beneficial effect: by forcing Afghans to travel to their local governors’ offices to submit damage claims, the official said: "in effect, you’re connecting the [Afghan] government to the people."
* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/18/AR2010111806393.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/world/asia/05kabul.html
September 4, 2010
U.S. to Help Bail Out Afghan Bank to Avert a Crisis
By ADAM B. ELLICK 35 minutes ago
As thousands of nervous depositors stampeded the central branch of the beleaguered Kabul Bank, the Afghan and United States governments tentatively agreed to bail out the bank.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/2/as_pakistan_floods_continue_moving_south
September 2, 2010
As Pakistan Floods Continue Moving South, Calls for Debt Cancellation Grow
In Pakistan, torrential rains a month ago that triggered unprecedented floods have moved steadily from north to south, engulfing a fifth of the country. Seventeen million people have been affected, and some five million have lost their homes. Meanwhile, a movement to cancel Pakistan’s external debt is now underway as campaigners plan a protest in front of Pakistan’s parliament house today to call on international institutions like the IMF to cancel the country’s debt....
JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to also ask Qalandar Memon about this. It’s been reported in the past few days about the diversion of waters from the floods to save a US military base that was in the path of the floodwaters. Could you talk about that?
QALANDAR MEMON: Yes. I just want to continue what Madiha was saying, as well. I think the war is continuing on both sides. It’s not just the US, but also the Pakistani military, and they really are partners. And a good example of this would be, like, what you just ask me about. The air base is called Shahbaz Air Base, and this is in Jacobabad district. And the water could have been diverted. The water was increasing in pressure and volume, and it could have been diverted in two directions. One was toward the city where—Jacobabad city, where 900,000 people would have been affected. On the other side, it could have been diverted, and far less people, less than 100,000, would have been affected, but an air base would certainly have been sacrificed. And the military, in the dead of night, breached the canal so that the water goes towards the 900,000 people, as opposed to the air base. And, you know, it’s said that the air base is in the control of US military and that this is where the drones are flown from. And the secretary of—health secretary, in fact, in the Senate committee said that relief efforts cannot take place in Jacobabad, because the US government would not allow flights from Shahbaz Air Base to take off for relief work. And yesterday, there was an air strike by the Pakistan military—pardon me—in the northern area, which killed around forty people. Now, the headlines always say "militants," but we do not know how many were militants and how many were innocent. So—and, of course, there was also three bomb blasts in Lahore. So it seems that war continues while 17 million people are homeless and suffering.
60% of Americans Oppose Afghan War
We have to leave Afghanistan immediately and completely, but President Obama is determined to continue warring in Afghanistan and has sent out General Petraeus to make sure we will not be leaving Afghanistan. Also, we have been shamelessly driving Pakistan to war at the expense of the Pakistani people as the neglect of Pakistanis by the military during this crisis shows clearly. We need to stop warring in Pakistan, but Obama is determined to war there and to keep Pakistanis at war.