NewsTrust - War - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Active-Duty Army Whistleblower Lt. Col. Daniel Davis: U.S. Deceiving Public on Afghan War

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 11 (Interview) - In an extended interview, we speak with Lt. Col. Danny Davis, the most prominent active duty serviceperson to question the U.S. war in Afghanistan. In his damning report following his return from his second year-long deployment in Afghanistan, Davis draws on about 250 interviews with U.S. soldiers as well as Afghans across the country to conclude: "Senior ranking U.S. military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the U.S. Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable." Davis asks how many more must die in support of a mission that's not succeeding. "When you're given a mission that cannot succeed militarily, then what is the purpose of the mission?" [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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"Mind Zone": New Film Tracks Therapists Guiding Soldiers Through Traumas of Afghan War

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez - Mar. 16 (Review) - Haaken’s forthcoming documentary, "Mind Zone: Therapists Behind the Front Lines," shows the ethical dilemmas faced by therapists in Afghanistan who guide soldiers through the trauma of war. "The military has relied quite extensively on therapists to kind of help hold people together psychologically in war zones,"

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The Tragic Story of Christianity: How a Pacifist Religion Was Hijacked by Rabid Warmongering Elites | | AlterNet

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Gary G. Kohls - Feb. 05 (Opinion) - Altogether too many religions sects of both major and minor religions, despite verbally professing a desire for peace and justice in the world, are actually pro-war, pro-homicide and pro-violence in practice (or they may be silent on the subject, which is, according to moral theology, the same as being pro-violence).

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Neocons Dream Up Scary Iran Scenarios

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Paul R. Pillar - Jan. 11 (Opinion) - As American neocons continue to walk the United States toward another war in the Middle East, this time with Iran, they have been laboring to come up with rationales, including alarmist scenarios of what a nuclear-armed Iran might do geopolitically, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains.

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Christmas is No Time to Talk About War and Peace

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - By Jim Rigby - Dec. 19 (Opinion) - When I heard the President speak to returning troops last week, my mind flashed back to an article I once wrote for our local newspaper. Each week a different member of the local clergy would write a column, and I had been asked to write the piece for Christmas. That year all I could hear was the drumbeat leading toward a war with Iraq. I racked my brain trying to think of a way to put faces on the people we were about to bomb.read more

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Prepping Americans for an Iran War

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By William Blum - Dec. 03 (Opinion) - There’s no letup, is there? The preparation of the American mind, the world mind, for the next gala performance of D&D — Death and Destruction. The Bunker Buster bombs are now 30,000 pounds each one, six times as heavy as the previous delightful model.. But the Masters of War still want to be loved; they need for you to believe them when they say they have no choice, that Iran is the latest threat to life as we know it, no time to waste.

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When the World Outlawed War: An Interview with David Swanson

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Bruce Levine - Nov. 27 (Interview) - For those who know war only through television, criminalizing it sounds like proposing to criminalize government. But there was a time when the masses made war illegal.

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Paramilitary Policing of Occupy Wall Street: Excessive Use of Force Amidst the New Military Urbanism

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (Interview) - We host a discussion on policing and the Occupy Wall Street movement with Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which helped organize calls among police chiefs on how to respond to the Occupy protests, and with Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle, who recently wrote an article for The Nation magazine titled "Paramilitary Policing from Seattle to Occupy Wall Street." "Trust me, the police do not want to be put in this position. And cities really need to ask themselves, is there another way to handle this kind of conflict?"

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U.S. Pulls All Funding for UNESCO After Sweeping Vote to Support Palestinian Membership

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 01 (Interview) - In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO's annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn't worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. [includes rush transcript]

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Hail to the True Victors of Rupert's Revolution

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By John Pilger - Sep. 10 (Opinion) - On 13 September, one of the world's biggest arms fairs opens in London, backed by the British government. On 8 September, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a preview entitled "Middle East: A vast market for UK defence and security companies." The host was the Royal Bank of Scotland, a major investor in cluster bombs. According to Amnesty International, the victims of cluster bombs are 98 percent civilians and 30 percent children.

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Ex-Bush Official Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: "I am Willing to Testify" If Dick Cheney is Put on Trial

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 30 (Interview) - s former Vice President Dick Cheney publishes his long-awaited memoir, we speak to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. "This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will 'Pinochet' Dick Cheney," says Wilkerson, alluding to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested for war crimes. Wilkerson also calls for George W. Bush and Cheney to be held accountable for their crimes in office. "I’d be willing to testify, and I’d be willing to take any punishment I’m due," Wilkerson said.

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Army Ranger Widow Confronts Rumsfeld Over His Lies That Convinced Her Husband to Join the Military

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 30 (Interview) - We speak with the widow of a U.S. Army Ranger who confronted former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about her husband’s suicide on Saturday. Ashley Joppa-Hagemann introduced herself to Rumsfeld during a book signing by handing him a copy of her husband’s funeral program at a base south of Tacoma, Washington. She says Rumsfeld inspired her husband to join the Army after 9/11, but he later became disillusioned with the reasons for the war. Her husband, 25-year-old Staff Sergeant Jared Hagemann, killed himself ahead of what his wife says was his eighth deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. His body was found on June 28, 2011, at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State.

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Playing Ball With the Pentagon

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Tomdispatch.com - By Andrew Bacevich, - Jul. 30 (Comment) - In this theatrical production, the Red Sox provide the stage, and the Pentagon the props. In military parlance, it is a joint operation. In front of a gigantic American flag draped over the left-field wall, an Air Force contingent, clad in blue, stands at attention. To carry a smaller version of the Stars and Stripes onto the playing field, the Navy provides a color guard in crisp summer whites. The United States Marine Corps kicks in with a choral ensemble that leads the singing of the national anthem. As the anthem’s final notes sound, four U. S. Air Force F-15C Eagles scream overhead. The sellout crowd roars its approval.

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I Counseled All My Clients To Plead Insanity

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Christopher Cooper - Jul. 29 (Opinion) - if Breivik is crazy, a great many Americans and most of the big boys in D.C. Are crazy. But if the Norwegian shooter-bomber is sane, and culpable and should be tried and sentenced (and most would suggest executed, I imagine), then we had better get started drafting juries and hiring judges because our list of mass-murderers is a long and bipartisan one.

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The Truth About My Trip To Hanoi

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Jane Fonda: - Jul. 24 (Statement) - For the first 8 years of the Vietnam War I lived in France. I was married to the French film director, Roger Vadim and had my first child. The French had been defeated in their own war against Vietnam a decade before our country went to war there, so when I heard, over and over, French people criticizing our country for our Vietnam War I hated it. I viewed it as sour grapes. I refused to believe we could be doing anything wrong there.

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Americans' Wealth Is Stolen

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Rep. Dennis Kucinich - Jul. 16 (Opinion) - 'The rancorous debate over the debt belies a fundamental truth of our economy - that it is run for the few at the expense of the many, that our entire government has been turned into a machine which takes the wealth of a mass of Americans and accelerates it into the hands of the few.'

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How Fundamentalist Religion Is Destroying the World

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Frank Schaeffer - Jul. 07 (Opinion) - The earth bursts with life. Far right exclusionary religion bursts with death. If there is a creator of life He/She/It must hate fundamentalist religion. The countries in the world that are the most fundamentalist and religious, and/or those whose identity is most religion-based, are the world's greatest troublemakers. Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Vatican City and the state of Israel come to mind.

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Exclusive: Julian Assange of WikiLeaks & Philosopher Slavoj Žižek In Conversation With Amy Goodman

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Julian Assange, Slavoj Zizek - Jul. 05 (Interview) - They discuss the impact of WikiLeaks on world politics, the release of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and Cablegate — the largest trove of classified U.S. government records in history. “From being inside the center of the storm, I have learned not just about the structure of government, not just about how power flows in many governments around the world that we’ve dealt with, but rather how history is shaped and distorted by the media,” Assange said.

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Climate Change: Crisis and Challenge

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

resistinc.org - By Orin Langelle, Anne Petermann - Jul. 01 (Opinion) - There is no better example of the interconnection of the root causes of social injustice, ecological destruction and economic domination than climate change. Climate change may well be humanity’s greatest challenge. It is a crisis that must be rapidly addressed if catastrophe is to be averted.

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Climate Chaos: Christian Parenti's New Book Exposes How Global Warming Could Lead to Global Warfare

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 30 (Interview) - Extreme weather from Texas to Somalia may indicate that a new era of climate war is upon us. Just this month, massive floods have shut down two nuclear power facilities in Nebraska. In New Mexico, the nation's top nuclear weapons lab in Los Alamos is being threatened by an uncontrolled wildfire. Meanwhile, the United Nations warns the Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in 60 years, affecting more than 10 million in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. We speak with award-winning journalist Christian Parenti who argues in his new book that global warming is leading to social and environmental catastrophe. "The weather associated with climate change, extreme weather such as the drought, punctuated by flooding in East Africa, punctuated by flooding in East Africa, is adding to this.Climate change very often doesn't just look bad weather, it looks like ethnic violence or religious violence or banditry or civil war,” says Parenti.

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The Lie Behind the Afghan War

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - Jun. 24 (Opinion) - A recurring refrain about the Afghan War is that the United States must stay for the long haul now to avoid repeating the “mistake” made in 1989 when Soviet forces left and Americans supposedly disappeared, too. But this conventional wisdom, spread by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others, is a lie

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Epidemic: Over 400,000 Traumatic Brain Injuries for Vets Coming from Iraq and Afghanistan

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Jun. 21 (Opinion) - "We are facing a massive mental health problem as a result of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a country we have not responded adequately to the problem. Unless we act urgently and wisely, we will be dealing with an epidemic of service related psychological wounds for years to come."

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Object Lesson 9,568 on the Corrupting Effects of Power

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

sensen-no-sen.blogspot.com - By Pbi - Jun. 19 (Opinion) - By continuing to maintain American military involvement in Libya without the approval of Congress, President Obama is arrogating powers to himself that the foundational laws of this country do not grant him and violating his oath of office.

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In a pure coincidence, Gaddafi impeded U.S. oil interests before the war

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Jun. 11 (Opinion) - When the war in Libya began, the U.S. government convinced a large number of war supporters that we were there to achieve the very limited goal of creating a no-fly zone in Benghazi to protect civilians from air attacks, while President Obama specificall

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Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 Strategy Explained

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Gareth Porter - Jun. 10 (Opinion) - Before his murder last month, Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad detailed how al-Qaeda leaders used the 9/11 attacks to induce “cowboy” President George W. Bush to blunder foolishly into the invasions of two Muslim countries, thus advancing an al-Qaeda strategy to discredit the region’s U.S.-connected leaders

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