This is a betrayal by President Obama, a way of copntinuing the war in Afghanistan forever or a way of forever colonizing Afghanistan. This is completely shameful.
A truly hopeful analysis. I can only hope we will leave Iraq completely, really leave Iraq, then Afghanistan and Pakistan. American militarism to the point of continual war and occupation must come to an end.
Israel Represses Israelis and Congress Approves
By Stephen Zunes
It’s been two years since Israel initiated the “Operation Cast Lead” military assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. Since then, the right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has launched an unprecedented wave of intimidation against Israeli peace and human rights groups. These groups say they are “working in an increasingly hostile environment,” according to a New York Times report, and that Israeli government leaders are fostering “an atmosphere of harassment” by turning “human rights criticism into an existential threat.”
However, Congress has chosen to look the other way – and wants the executive branch to do the same.
A resolution -- sponsored by House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Howard Berman (D-CA), Middle East Subcommittee Chair Gary Ackerman (D-NY), and soon-to-be House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) -- condemned the findings of the UN Human Rights Council report for documenting such infringements on civil liberties and other human rights violations by the Israeli government.
Included in the resolution were the words: “even though Israel is a vibrant democracy with a vigorous and free press, the report of the ‘fact-finding mission’ erroneously asserts that ‘actions of the Israeli government . . . have contributed significantly to a political climate in which dissent with the government and its actions . . . is not tolerated.’” It passed the House by an overwhelming 344-36 vote....
The question is whether the Israeli public is becoming increasingly supportive of the harshest foreign and even domestic policies. The loudest voices from Israel just now reflect a turn to increased harshness. Possibly though the loudest voices are not indicative of the majority of Israelis.
We need to leave Afghanistan now and completely, but the
President has decided we will not be leaving for years and surely
not completely evenwhen we leave as with Iraq. President Obama is a
war President, and that is a tragedy for all.
As in Vietnam, there is no sense of who is killed and who is wounded and who not. Nor is there any sense of who is winning beyond knowing that the Pakistran government will not win without needlessly killing inordinately numbers of civilians. President Obama is forcing war on Pakistan, another tragedy.
President Obama has been waging a completely crazy and immoral war in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Yemen too), and I will never support this President again unless we leave Afghanistan completely and immediately.
"The PA, on the other hand, has every attribute of a far right-wing government, as it refuses to negotiate without preconditions and it refuses to compromise on even the most basic demands that Israel could not possibly countenance, like the illusory 'right to return.' It also refuses to allow any Jews in its nascent state and it imposes a death penalty on anyone who sells his land to Jews, making it an apartheid government as well."
This and the rest of the response is simple propaganda, designed to demean Palestinians. Simple demeaning propaganda.
U.S. and Allies Plan More Sanctions Against Iran
By DAVID E. SANGER
President Obama’s chief nuclear adviser said Friday that tougher measures would be part of an effort to force Iran into suspending production of nuclear fuel.
U.S. Ends Push to Renew Israeli Freeze on Settlements
By MARK LANDLER
The Obama administration has abandoned an effort to get Israel’s government to renew a freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements, two senior officials said.
“The troubling question is what they died fighting for. My own hypothesis is that the US is still in Afghanistan at this late date mainly to shore up the central government of President Hamid Karzai.”
G.O.P. and Tea Party Gains Are Mixed Blessing for Israel
By MARK LANDLER and JENNIFER STEINHAUER
WASHINGTON — When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel came to the United States recently for another round of tense talks with the Obama administration, he got a decidedly warmer welcome from one of the rising Republican stars on Capitol Hill, Representative Eric Cantor, the incoming majority leader of the House.
But while Mr. Cantor and other newly empowered Republicans are eager to promote themselves as Israel’s staunchest defenders in Washington, the reconfigured American political landscape is a more complex and unpredictable backdrop for Middle East peacemaking.
Scores of Tea Party-backed candidates are entering Congress, many of whom favor isolationist policies and are determined to cut American foreign aid, regardless of its destination. Rand Paul, the newly elected Tea Party-backed senator from Kentucky, bluntly told the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel lobbying group, that they were going to disagree about the need for foreign aid and suggested that they move on to other topics, according to a person briefed on the meeting.
“One of the first things Congressman Cantor can do is to make sure that his colleagues vote for aid to Israel,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who also met with Mr. Netanyahu.
Mr. Schumer and others worry that support for Israel in Congress, long a bipartisan article of faith, could become politicized in a way that will end up harming Israel’s interests. In the recent election, the administration’s Middle East policy became a partisan issue, seized on by several Republicans who pointed out that President Obama had tended to take a tougher line against Israel....
I am just sick of the war we are waging in Afghanistan (Pakistan as well). We have to leave completely and now, but President Obama wants war, war, war. I could not be more unhappy with President Obama about this war.
The disdain for Palestinians shown by the Israeli government is astounding and crippling. President Obama does nothing to lesson to overt disdain of the Israeli government to Palestinians.
An important essay, for sure. I am astonished and deeply saddened however at the anti-Arab anti-Palestinian sentiment I hear about me from ordinary people.
We have to get out of Afghanistan and stop warring in and urging war on Pakistan. We are destroying lives in some of the poorest regions on earth for no possible moral reason.
Pakistan Slow to Rebuild Swat Valley a Year After Offensive
By ADAM B. ELLICK
The lack of progress on schools and running water after the military’s campaign against the Taliban has fed frustration at the government, raising fears of renewed militancy.
Not to worry, President Obama has decided to leave American soldiers in Afghanistan till at least 2014 so we can go on destroying Afghanistan and spending untold amounts of money to destroy Afghanistan for no possible moral reason. President Bush will be pleased though.
Write what you will, but President Obama the President waging war in Afganistan and Pakistan and droning all the heck over now and he is the person responsible. Obama can stop the wars, but he shows only an inclination for more more more wars.
What I find is a President who is interested only in foreign policy in so much as it serves American war aims or the President's war aims. I am just not sympathetic. I find a President consumed willingly by military objectives.
President Obama is not President Roosevelt, not even remotely close. I could not be more disappointed with this President who seems increasingly only to really care about waging needless and immoral wars.
I am continually disappointed by President Obama. Where I find people I know continually expressing worries about the economy even when they do not have to be personally worried, I find the President either does not understand the worry or cannot speak to the worry or cares little beyond getting a few votes. Also, Obama has just turned away from many, many people who worked hard for his election because those people have criticisms now.
I do not understand. The point is to the Iraq documents as such and how destructive the war on Iraq was and how destructive the government supported by America was for Iraqis. The war on Iraq was simply horrible and that needs to be understood.
Where I thought the Israeli government was responsible for the violence toward Palestinians, I think now that the government increasingly only reflects Israeli attitudes.
The point of war is to destroy, and no matter the claims of our building in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, we have destroyed or are destroying far far far more.
There is a terribly sad irony in America finally apologizing to Pakistan so that we can continue to extend the war in Afghanistan to Pakistan, which we will do anyway because we choose to. We need to end the war in Pakistan and end the war in Afghanistan. We are 10 years in a war in which we deposed the government in a few weeks. We need to stop warring and leave Afghanistan.
That President Obama is waging war in Pakistan is continually saddening. We need to leave Pakistan and Afghanistan and I will never support this President till we stop these wars and leave.
A sad further thought about this fine essay. Since the Israeli government truly mocks such ideas, the ideas cover the mockery of the Israeli government. Watch how Israel is brutalizing the so-called Peace Process while America pretends to not understand. This Israeli government which is supported fully be most Israelis is hellish to Palestinians, and America or the Obama Presidency seem to care nothing at all about that.
This is a police matter even if the intelligence is suspect, a matter that can be easily handled through Europe and gives no reason for us to be at war in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This matter however will be used to further justify wars. I just want the wars ended and could not be more saddened with President Obama for vastly intensifying the wars of President Bush in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As Settlement Construction Begins Again in the West Bank, Israel Blocks Jewish Activists on Aid Boat Headed to Gaza
Israeli commandos have boarded and seized a Gaza-bound aid ship of Jewish activists just miles off the Gaza coast. The activists were attempting to deliver a symbolic load of medicine, a water-purifying kit and other humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The Jewish Boat to Gaza was the latest attempt to break the blockade since Israel’s deadly attack on an aid flotilla in May. In the West Bank, Jewish settlers resumed building settlements on Monday one day after Israel refused to extend its partial freeze on settlement expansion.
This is shameful for the Israeli government, but this Israeli government is always shameful and worse. Also Natanyahu apparently has the support of most Israelis so the problem is more than Netanyahu, much more.
I would like to see and accounting for Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, with no mention of "crimes." I just want to understand fully what we were and are about so terribly.
From the perspective of the American war and occupation, I do not care whether Afghanistan is stabilized or not. I just want us to leave, now and completely.
President Obama has set America in an impossible position in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We need to leave both countries immediate and complete and leave Iraq as well. America needs to stop destroying Afghanistan and Pakistan and ourselves by this crazy immoral undeclared war.
What endangers American troops is being in Afghanistan and Petraeus is calling for more troops. I want America troops out of Afghanistan, now. President Obama should be worrying about jobs in America and not about saving banks in Afghanistan when not bombing Afghans.
"Of course, US troops in Iraq will go on fighting when attacked or when their skills are called on by Iraqi officers as long as they are in that country, i.e. for 18 more months. But I think it is clear that President Obama really is committed to withdrawing militarily from Iraq. "
Think of the good we could do now for Americans if we left Iraq immediately and completely. Another 18 months is far too long, far too long.
"Of course, US troops in Iraq will go on fighting when attacked or when their skills are called on by Iraqi officers as long as they are in that country, i.e. for 18 more months. But I think it is clear that President Obama really is committed to withdrawing militarily from Iraq."
-- Juan Cole
Think what we will, but President Obama has 50,000 troops in Traq and lots lots lots more military contractors. I want these troops and contractors all gone, now! I want us out of Afghanistan, now!
A question that would be nice to have answered is, how much has America spent on military assistance to Pakistan as compared to the flood assistance now being offered? Also, where is the vaunted Pakistani military? The Chinese military is always there for civilians in a crisis. My sense is that Pakistan's President as well as the military leadership have almost no feeling of social responsibility.
Suppose that America stops, just stops forcing war on Pakistan and stops bombing Pakistan and bothers to help Pakistani civilians even a little rather than pouring money on Pakistani soldiers who have been almost nowhere in evidence in helping civilians through the floods. We need to stop warring in Pakistan at once. President Obama promised to war in Pakistan, and now must stop.
Given the state of Pakistan, you would think that the US could afford to call a Ramadan ceasefire in its constant bombing of Pakistanis. The deaths of women and children and innocent men in these raids makes for bad feeling toward the US, but especially during the fasting month of Ramadan and in the midst of a major humanitarian crisis? That’s the headline you want, ’7 innocents killed by US drone’? Me, I don’t think that policy is appropriate to the moment.
Relief Agencies Blocked from Using Pakistani Air Base Tied to US\
By Amy Goodman
There are reports that relief agencies have been blocked from using a large Pakistani air base in Sindh province that has been tied to the secret US drone program. Last week Pakistan’s health secretary said the base is essentially now run by the United States military. In 2008, the Washington Post reported the US was secretly using the Shahbaz base to house Predator hunter-killer drones used to carry out strikes inside Pakistan. * In an attempt to save the air base, flood waters were diverted from the area, but the diverted water has reportedly inundated hundreds of nearby homes and displaced as many as 800,000 people.
We have been spending billion of dollars in Pakistan, especially on the military, and Pakistan already has a large and powerful military, so why not use the military for civilian assistance rather than for needlessly warring?
Pakistan’s President Stays Away From Devastated Region
By ROBERT MACKEY
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was criticized after he visited a medical camp that was later revealed to be a fake. Gilani passed out relief checks to actors who were hired to play victims for the photo-op shown on national television.
We need to stop pushing Pakistan to war and stop making war in Pakistan and focus on assistance. Why did Europeans not send President Zardari and family home?
The Israeli government and supporters never miss a day of vilifying Arabs and Persians. The prejudice is astounding but seems to almost control American foreign policy in the Middle East.
I suppose that President Obama could invade Iceland or Sweden. Anything to mask the tragedy of Afghanistan and the needless and immoral Bush-Obama war.
“Now if only the Afghan parliament would negotiate a similar SOFA for that country, and the other war could be wound down as well.”
Forgive me, but the problem is President Obama. The war in Afghanistan is Obama's war, same for Pakistan. Obama has simply given us his war for the Bush war, and military spending is way up since Obama became President.
I wish I did not have this sense, but the harshness of the language I repeatedly hear from supporters of the Israeli government is frightening and shocking and continually saddening. The name of any person who is mentioned is only considered in relation to supposed support of Zionism, from Nelson Mandela to Barack Obama.
"Obama may end up being a Democratic president fighting a Republican war, since if the GOP does well in the mid-terms, they will be in a position to support the escalation...."
Obama is already fighting a Republican war more fiercely and needlessly than Bush ever did.
Why do the New York Times and other American institutions take Pakistan's support of the Taliban as a given? Why does President Obama or Secretary Clinton seem to allow this sense to prevail? I do not understand what all this means.
This is also reflective of the foreign policy influence of the Israeli government and supporters. This has to continue to be made clear, for the influence is highly destructive for America and others.
These awful intimidating folks who are trying to dictate American foreign relations only for the sake of a prejudiced and anti-democratic Israeli government have to be confronted.
I sent around this post and Turkey post, and every friend agreed that you were just right in the Turkey post and that this is typical of the approach of the Israeli government and supporters. The Israeli-Israel government supporter game is intimidation.
This is just an invitation for America to brutalize Iran as we have brutalized Iraq and are brutalizing Afghanistan and Pakistan. Enough of this fear-mongering and vilifying.
The point is that we need to leave Afghanistan immediately and this is Obama's war now and it is a needless and so immoral war. We must leave Afghanistan immediately, and I will never vote for any Democrat who not not support stopping this terrible war. President Obama has chosen this war and should be criticized.
No matter, we can always bomb all the corruption out of Afghanistan and any other country as well. Let us now drone all Afghans who we think are corrupt. Such is the insanity and perversity of this war. We must leave Afghanistan now, only President Obama will stay forever.
Israel Rules Out Palestinian State by 2012
By DINA KRAFT
TEL AVIV — In remarks that could further strain peace efforts, Israel’s foreign minister said on Tuesday there was no chance a Palestinian state would be established in the next two years.
“I’m an optimistic person, but there is absolutely no chance of reaching a Palestinian state by 2012,” the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said. “One can dream and imagine, but we are far from reaching understandings and an agreement.” ...
I want us out of Afghanistan and Pakistan now and completely and will vote against every Democrat who does not take that position even if that means electing Republicans. I will never ever again support President Obama for expanding the war, never!!!
We must leave Afghanistan and Pakistan immediately, and I could not be more saddened that we will not be doing so. President Obama is simply continuing Bush policy but far, far more so in Afghanistan and spreading Afghanistan to Pakistan.
We need to leave Afghanistan and Pakistan, now, right now, immediately. President Obama's wars must be ended and these are Obama's wars and not American wars since there are no declarations of war.
As for McChrystal, he should have been fired long ago for undermining the President and Vice President from England when the surge was being discussed in the White House. McChrystal must be fired at once.
Forgive me, but I am not willing to accept a Vietnam rationale for being in Afghanistan. I want us out and now. If we are worried about Karzai, then take him with us when we leave. We are not being threatened by Afghanistan, so leave and leave now.
Forgive me, but I was terribly disappointed in the President's speech. I found only emptiness, no energy policy only a declaration of war as a sort of cover for having no energy policy. I find President Obama ever more disappointing.
The Israeli government has been monstrous but the government has the backing of President Obama and Vice President Biden and Secretary Clinton and the Congress, so nothing will moderate Israel.
This is a betrayal by President Obama, a way of copntinuing the war in Afghanistan forever or a way of forever colonizing Afghanistan. This is completely shameful.
A truly hopeful analysis. I can only hope we will leave Iraq completely, really leave Iraq, then Afghanistan and Pakistan. American militarism to the point of continual war and occupation must come to an end.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/28-5
December 28, 2010
Israel Represses Israelis and Congress Approves
By Stephen Zunes
It’s been two years since Israel initiated the “Operation Cast Lead” military assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. Since then, the right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has launched an unprecedented wave of intimidation against Israeli peace and human rights groups. These groups say they are “working in an increasingly hostile environment,” according to a New York Times report, and that Israeli government leaders are fostering “an atmosphere of harassment” by turning “human rights criticism into an existential threat.”
However, Congress has chosen to look the other way – and wants the executive branch to do the same.
A resolution -- sponsored by House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Howard Berman (D-CA), Middle East Subcommittee Chair Gary Ackerman (D-NY), and soon-to-be House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) -- condemned the findings of the UN Human Rights Council report for documenting such infringements on civil liberties and other human rights violations by the Israeli government.
Included in the resolution were the words: “even though Israel is a vibrant democracy with a vigorous and free press, the report of the ‘fact-finding mission’ erroneously asserts that ‘actions of the Israeli government . . . have contributed significantly to a political climate in which dissent with the government and its actions . . . is not tolerated.’” It passed the House by an overwhelming 344-36 vote....
The question is whether the Israeli public is becoming increasingly supportive of the harshest foreign and even domestic policies. The loudest voices from Israel just now reflect a turn to increased harshness. Possibly though the loudest voices are not indicative of the majority of Israelis.
We need to leave Afghanistan now and completely, but the
President has decided we will not be leaving for years and surely
not completely evenwhen we leave as with Iraq. President Obama is a
war President, and that is a tragedy for all.
As in Vietnam, there is no sense of who is killed and who is wounded and who not. Nor is there any sense of who is winning beyond knowing that the Pakistran government will not win without needlessly killing inordinately numbers of civilians. President Obama is forcing war on Pakistan, another tragedy.
President Obama has been waging a completely crazy and immoral war in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Yemen too), and I will never support this President again unless we leave Afghanistan completely and immediately.
The attack on Wikileaks is a severe attack on press freedom.
"The PA, on the other hand, has every attribute of a far right-wing government, as it refuses to negotiate without preconditions and it refuses to compromise on even the most basic demands that Israel could not possibly countenance, like the illusory 'right to return.' It also refuses to allow any Jews in its nascent state and it imposes a death penalty on anyone who sells his land to Jews, making it an apartheid government as well."
This and the rest of the response is simple propaganda, designed to demean Palestinians. Simple demeaning propaganda.
This is the sort of imperial stuff Obama care about, we have a President who cares about war and occupation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/world/middleeast/11nuke.html
December 1, 2010
U.S. and Allies Plan More Sanctions Against Iran
By DAVID E. SANGER
President Obama’s chief nuclear adviser said Friday that tougher measures would be part of an effort to force Iran into suspending production of nuclear fuel.
I wish President Obama would be fair in dealing with Israel and the Palestinians, but there is almost no chance based on Obama's actions so far.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/middleeast/08diplo.html
December 7, 2010
U.S. Ends Push to Renew Israeli Freeze on Settlements
By MARK LANDLER
The Obama administration has abandoned an effort to get Israel’s government to renew a freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements, two senior officials said.
President Obama is destroying his Presidency by this crazy needless war, but war and more war is what he is evidently set on.
Travis --
“The troubling question is what they died fighting for. My own hypothesis is that the US is still in Afghanistan at this late date mainly to shore up the central government of President Hamid Karzai.”
How about the presidency of Barak Obama?
Mr. Abbas evidently likes being President for life and will never resign for the sake of Palestinians.
" 'Button, Button who has the bomb' is not a game that the world tolerates very well."
This is lying to justify the crazed war on Iraq and the wish by the Israeli government for a crazed war on Iran.
"The ‘sensational’ part of that statement is the fact that most Arab nations see Iran as a regional threat, much as Israel does."
No most Arab tyrants see Iran as a threat on American orders following Israeli governmental incitements.
So American foreign policy is being made where?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/world/middleeast/26diplo.html
November 25, 2010
G.O.P. and Tea Party Gains Are Mixed Blessing for Israel
By MARK LANDLER and JENNIFER STEINHAUER
WASHINGTON — When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel came to the United States recently for another round of tense talks with the Obama administration, he got a decidedly warmer welcome from one of the rising Republican stars on Capitol Hill, Representative Eric Cantor, the incoming majority leader of the House.
But while Mr. Cantor and other newly empowered Republicans are eager to promote themselves as Israel’s staunchest defenders in Washington, the reconfigured American political landscape is a more complex and unpredictable backdrop for Middle East peacemaking.
Scores of Tea Party-backed candidates are entering Congress, many of whom favor isolationist policies and are determined to cut American foreign aid, regardless of its destination. Rand Paul, the newly elected Tea Party-backed senator from Kentucky, bluntly told the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel lobbying group, that they were going to disagree about the need for foreign aid and suggested that they move on to other topics, according to a person briefed on the meeting.
“One of the first things Congressman Cantor can do is to make sure that his colleagues vote for aid to Israel,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who also met with Mr. Netanyahu.
Mr. Schumer and others worry that support for Israel in Congress, long a bipartisan article of faith, could become politicized in a way that will end up harming Israel’s interests. In the recent election, the administration’s Middle East policy became a partisan issue, seized on by several Republicans who pointed out that President Obama had tended to take a tougher line against Israel....
The problem is not a television personality but a President who has a terrible foreign policy and is as militaristic as I can imagine.
I am just sick of the war we are waging in Afghanistan (Pakistan as well). We have to leave completely and now, but President Obama wants war, war, war. I could not be more unhappy with President Obama about this war.
The disdain for Palestinians shown by the Israeli government is astounding and crippling. President Obama does nothing to lesson to overt disdain of the Israeli government to Palestinians.
(I am referring to several discussions I listened to in the last 2 weeks at a supposedly liberal church.)
An important essay, for sure. I am astonished and deeply saddened however at the anti-Arab anti-Palestinian sentiment I hear about me from ordinary people.
We have to get out of Afghanistan and stop warring in and urging war on Pakistan. We are destroying lives in some of the poorest regions on earth for no possible moral reason.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/world/asia/13swat.html
November 12, 2010
Pakistan Slow to Rebuild Swat Valley a Year After Offensive
By ADAM B. ELLICK
The lack of progress on schools and running water after the military’s campaign against the Taliban has fed frustration at the government, raising fears of renewed militancy.
Terrific essay.
Not to worry, President Obama has decided to leave American soldiers in Afghanistan till at least 2014 so we can go on destroying Afghanistan and spending untold amounts of money to destroy Afghanistan for no possible moral reason. President Bush will be pleased though.
Write what you will, but President Obama the President waging war in Afganistan and Pakistan and droning all the heck over now and he is the person responsible. Obama can stop the wars, but he shows only an inclination for more more more wars.
What I find is a President who is interested only in foreign policy in so much as it serves American war aims or the President's war aims. I am just not sympathetic. I find a President consumed willingly by military objectives.
President Obama is not President Roosevelt, not even remotely close. I could not be more disappointed with this President who seems increasingly only to really care about waging needless and immoral wars.
I am continually disappointed by President Obama. Where I find people I know continually expressing worries about the economy even when they do not have to be personally worried, I find the President either does not understand the worry or cannot speak to the worry or cares little beyond getting a few votes. Also, Obama has just turned away from many, many people who worked hard for his election because those people have criticisms now.
Fine explanation.
I do not understand. The point is to the Iraq documents as such and how destructive the war on Iraq was and how destructive the government supported by America was for Iraqis. The war on Iraq was simply horrible and that needs to be understood.
Where I thought the Israeli government was responsible for the violence toward Palestinians, I think now that the government increasingly only reflects Israeli attitudes.
The point of war is to destroy, and no matter the claims of our building in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, we have destroyed or are destroying far far far more.
There is a terribly sad irony in America finally apologizing to Pakistan so that we can continue to extend the war in Afghanistan to Pakistan, which we will do anyway because we choose to. We need to end the war in Pakistan and end the war in Afghanistan. We are 10 years in a war in which we deposed the government in a few weeks. We need to stop warring and leave Afghanistan.
President Obama war on Pakistan is beyond all strategy or conscience. I am sorry to write this, but I want the war on Pakistan stopped immediately.
The activities or sentiments of so many Israeli seem at this time to be astoundingly immoral. I just do not understand.
That President Obama is waging war in Pakistan is continually saddening. We need to leave Pakistan and Afghanistan and I will never support this President till we stop these wars and leave.
A sad further thought about this fine essay. Since the Israeli government truly mocks such ideas, the ideas cover the mockery of the Israeli government. Watch how Israel is brutalizing the so-called Peace Process while America pretends to not understand. This Israeli government which is supported fully be most Israelis is hellish to Palestinians, and America or the Obama Presidency seem to care nothing at all about that.
The essay is excellent, this Israeli government however would not even imagine such an approach.
This is a police matter even if the intelligence is suspect, a matter that can be easily handled through Europe and gives no reason for us to be at war in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This matter however will be used to further justify wars. I just want the wars ended and could not be more saddened with President Obama for vastly intensifying the wars of President Bush in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/28/as_settlement_construction_begins_in_the
September 28, 2010
As Settlement Construction Begins Again in the West Bank, Israel Blocks Jewish Activists on Aid Boat Headed to Gaza
Israeli commandos have boarded and seized a Gaza-bound aid ship of Jewish activists just miles off the Gaza coast. The activists were attempting to deliver a symbolic load of medicine, a water-purifying kit and other humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The Jewish Boat to Gaza was the latest attempt to break the blockade since Israel’s deadly attack on an aid flotilla in May. In the West Bank, Jewish settlers resumed building settlements on Monday one day after Israel refused to extend its partial freeze on settlement expansion.
This is shameful for the Israeli government, but this Israeli government is always shameful and worse. Also Natanyahu apparently has the support of most Israelis so the problem is more than Netanyahu, much more.
I would like to see and accounting for Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, with no mention of "crimes." I just want to understand fully what we were and are about so terribly.
From the perspective of the American war and occupation, I do not care whether Afghanistan is stabilized or not. I just want us to leave, now and completely.
Kabul Bank Taken over by Government
President Obama has set America in an impossible position in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We need to leave both countries immediate and complete and leave Iraq as well. America needs to stop destroying Afghanistan and Pakistan and ourselves by this crazy immoral undeclared war.
"Obama To Nominate Elizabeth Warren To Temporary Position"
This is no reason to hope, only another failure by President Obama to show that he is really a Democrat. This is typically shameful.
President Obama's ferocious bombing of flood ridden Pakistan is beyond shameful. I am appalled.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175291
September 7, 2010
Will Our Generals Ever Shut Up? The Military’s Media Megaphone and the U.S. Global Military Presence
By Tom Engelhardt
[The political roles being played by our generals is shameful and Unconstitutional.]
What endangers American troops is being in Afghanistan and Petraeus is calling for more troops. I want America troops out of Afghanistan, now. President Obama should be worrying about jobs in America and not about saving banks in Afghanistan when not bombing Afghans.
"Of course, US troops in Iraq will go on fighting when attacked or when their skills are called on by Iraqi officers as long as they are in that country, i.e. for 18 more months. But I think it is clear that President Obama really is committed to withdrawing militarily from Iraq. "
Think of the good we could do now for Americans if we left Iraq immediately and completely. Another 18 months is far too long, far too long.
"Of course, US troops in Iraq will go on fighting when attacked or when their skills are called on by Iraqi officers as long as they are in that country, i.e. for 18 more months. But I think it is clear that President Obama really is committed to withdrawing militarily from Iraq."
-- Juan Cole
Think what we will, but President Obama has 50,000 troops in Traq and lots lots lots more military contractors. I want these troops and contractors all gone, now! I want us out of Afghanistan, now!
Superb.
Taliban threaten Aid Workers;
Global Warming Implicated
A question that would be nice to have answered is, how much has America spent on military assistance to Pakistan as compared to the flood assistance now being offered? Also, where is the vaunted Pakistani military? The Chinese military is always there for civilians in a crisis. My sense is that Pakistan's President as well as the military leadership have almost no feeling of social responsibility.
Suppose that America stops, just stops forcing war on Pakistan and stops bombing Pakistan and bothers to help Pakistani civilians even a little rather than pouring money on Pakistani soldiers who have been almost nowhere in evidence in helping civilians through the floods. We need to stop warring in Pakistan at once. President Obama promised to war in Pakistan, and now must stop.
US Drone Strikes Kill 20;
As Floods Advance on Sindh
Given the state of Pakistan, you would think that the US could afford to call a Ramadan ceasefire in its constant bombing of Pakistanis. The deaths of women and children and innocent men in these raids makes for bad feeling toward the US, but especially during the fasting month of Ramadan and in the midst of a major humanitarian crisis? That’s the headline you want, ’7 innocents killed by US drone’? Me, I don’t think that policy is appropriate to the moment.
-- Juan Cole
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/24/headlines#4
August 24, 2010
Relief Agencies Blocked from Using Pakistani Air Base Tied to US\
By Amy Goodman
There are reports that relief agencies have been blocked from using a large Pakistani air base in Sindh province that has been tied to the secret US drone program. Last week Pakistan’s health secretary said the base is essentially now run by the United States military. In 2008, the Washington Post reported the US was secretly using the Shahbaz base to house Predator hunter-killer drones used to carry out strikes inside Pakistan. * In an attempt to save the air base, flood waters were diverted from the area, but the diverted water has reportedly inundated hundreds of nearby homes and displaced as many as 800,000 people.
* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032700007.html
We have been spending billion of dollars in Pakistan, especially on the military, and Pakistan already has a large and powerful military, so why not use the military for civilian assistance rather than for needlessly warring?
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/pakistans-president-stays-away-from-flood-zones-epicenter/
August 12, 2010
Pakistan’s President Stays Away From Devastated Region
By ROBERT MACKEY
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was criticized after he visited a medical camp that was later revealed to be a fake. Gilani passed out relief checks to actors who were hired to play victims for the photo-op shown on national television.
[This is the Pakistani government leadership.]
We need to stop pushing Pakistan to war and stop making war in Pakistan and focus on assistance. Why did Europeans not send President Zardari and family home?
The Israeli government and supporters never miss a day of vilifying Arabs and Persians. The prejudice is astounding but seems to almost control American foreign policy in the Middle East.
President Zardari has acted disgracefully but entirely typically.
I suppose that President Obama could invade Iceland or Sweden. Anything to mask the tragedy of Afghanistan and the needless and immoral Bush-Obama war.
A brilliant and tragic post.
“Now if only the Afghan parliament would negotiate a similar SOFA for that country, and the other war could be wound down as well.”
Forgive me, but the problem is President Obama. The war in Afghanistan is Obama's war, same for Pakistan. Obama has simply given us his war for the Bush war, and military spending is way up since Obama became President.
Professor Cole,
You handled this well, indeed.
I wish I did not have this sense, but the harshness of the language I repeatedly hear from supporters of the Israeli government is frightening and shocking and continually saddening. The name of any person who is mentioned is only considered in relation to supposed support of Zionism, from Nelson Mandela to Barack Obama.
We need to leave Afghanistan now, but President Obama is only intent on more and m ore and more war.
"Obama may end up being a Democratic president fighting a Republican war, since if the GOP does well in the mid-terms, they will be in a position to support the escalation...."
Obama is already fighting a Republican war more fiercely and needlessly than Bush ever did.
My sense is that the Administration and military command are looking to put pressure on Pakistan, and the reports are just so much propaganda.
Why do the New York Times and other American institutions take Pakistan's support of the Taliban as a given? Why does President Obama or Secretary Clinton seem to allow this sense to prevail? I do not understand what all this means.
We must leave Afghanistan and Pakistan now.
This is also reflective of the foreign policy influence of the Israeli government and supporters. This has to continue to be made clear, for the influence is highly destructive for America and others.
These awful intimidating folks who are trying to dictate American foreign relations only for the sake of a prejudiced and anti-democratic Israeli government have to be confronted.
I sent around this post and Turkey post, and every friend agreed that you were just right in the Turkey post and that this is typical of the approach of the Israeli government and supporters. The Israeli-Israel government supporter game is intimidation.
The extent of Israeli racism is beyond understanding. Israel's government has betrayed every founding principle these last years.
We must leave Afghanistan now and leave completely. We must stop our killings in Pakistan now and completely.
It’s Neither/Nor, Not Either/Or
The President is in control of strategy overall, so Obama is in charge.
This Israeli government is impossibly hostile to Palestinian and impossibly manipulative of American foreign policy.
This is just an invitation for America to brutalize Iran as we have brutalized Iraq and are brutalizing Afghanistan and Pakistan. Enough of this fear-mongering and vilifying.
This is the mark of vicious colonialism. I am sure the British danced over the imprisoned in India, many times.
The point is that we need to leave Afghanistan immediately and this is Obama's war now and it is a needless and so immoral war. We must leave Afghanistan immediately, and I will never vote for any Democrat who not not support stopping this terrible war. President Obama has chosen this war and should be criticized.
Congress cuts Civilian Aid by $4 bn.
No matter, we can always bomb all the corruption out of Afghanistan and any other country as well. Let us now drone all Afghans who we think are corrupt. Such is the insanity and perversity of this war. We must leave Afghanistan now, only President Obama will stay forever.
"I wonder if you saw this...."
The idea is for fanatical supporters of Israeli oppression to always vilify Palestinians. I saw that and I see that.
The policies of the Israeli government are horrid:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/world/middleeast/30mideast.html
June 29, 2010
Israel Rules Out Palestinian State by 2012
By DINA KRAFT
TEL AVIV — In remarks that could further strain peace efforts, Israel’s foreign minister said on Tuesday there was no chance a Palestinian state would be established in the next two years.
“I’m an optimistic person, but there is absolutely no chance of reaching a Palestinian state by 2012,” the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said. “One can dream and imagine, but we are far from reaching understandings and an agreement.” ...
I want us out of Afghanistan and Pakistan now and completely and will vote against every Democrat who does not take that position even if that means electing Republicans. I will never ever again support President Obama for expanding the war, never!!!
As British, Poles, Dutch Plan Exit
This is now Obama's war, and Obama seems to be planning for a forever war.
We must leave Afghanistan and Pakistan immediately, and I could not be more saddened that we will not be doing so. President Obama is simply continuing Bush policy but far, far more so in Afghanistan and spreading Afghanistan to Pakistan.
We need to leave Afghanistan and Pakistan, now, right now, immediately. President Obama's wars must be ended and these are Obama's wars and not American wars since there are no declarations of war.
As for McChrystal, he should have been fired long ago for undermining the President and Vice President from England when the surge was being discussed in the White House. McChrystal must be fired at once.
Forgive me, but I am not willing to accept a Vietnam rationale for being in Afghanistan. I want us out and now. If we are worried about Karzai, then take him with us when we leave. We are not being threatened by Afghanistan, so leave and leave now.
Considers breaking off Ties;
Israel Lobbies in Congress denounce Ankara
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/06/flash-israeli-lobby-discovers-armenian.html
June 18, 2010
Flash: the Israeli lobby discovers the Armenian genocide
I mean, there is no more immoral, cynical, opportunistic, hypocritical and deceptive movement like Zionism. Really.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/06/16/israel_lobby_genocide_armenia/index.html
-- As'ad AbuKhalil
Forgive me, but I was terribly disappointed in the President's speech. I found only emptiness, no energy policy only a declaration of war as a sort of cover for having no energy policy. I find President Obama ever more disappointing.
The Israeli government has been monstrous but the government has the backing of President Obama and Vice President Biden and Secretary Clinton and the Congress, so nothing will moderate Israel.
This is monstrous, simply monstrous. Beyond all conscience.
How has Israel come to be so brutal? I do not understand.
Juan --
9 people, at least, are dead, shot 30 times with real bullets. They included a photographer sitting down and shot between the eyes....
-- All that needs to be known is known. The Israelis acted beyond all words.
Beyond all words.
A completely barbaric act by Israel, completely criminal. Piracy and slaughter of innocents in international waters.