WAR MACHINE GRINDS ON

• Remember that other war and occupation? The one that Obama says is over....in Iraq? There are still more than 45,000 U.S. troops there (and god knows how many "civilian" operators) but they were all supposed to be gone by the end of this year. U.S. authorities keep "hinting" to Iraq that "we'd be happy to stay if you just asked us to do so" but so far no formal request has been made. Things are heating back up in Iraq these days with more bombings and more U.S. troops being killed lately. Watch the magician's hands closely on this one.



• The latest Republican plan to deal with our fiscal problem is the so-called “cut, cap and balance” measure now under House consideration which would require annual spending caps and a supermajority to approve tax increases. This would ensure the death of any and all social spending in the U.S. and would virtually cement us into paying taxes for nothing more than wars and corporate welfare. It's not likely to go very far as it is but sadly the Republicans have learned that when they propose extreme proposals like this the Democrats end up "meeting them in the middle" and some of it becomes law. Opinion polls are showing that growing numbers of the public have lost all confidence in either party to solve this economic mess. We must keep repeating this line over and over again: Tax the rich and Bring Our War $$ Home.



• The Navy's Blue Angels will be in Brunswick, Maine to headline an airshow the weekend of August 27-28. Veterans for Peace will hold a protest at the front gate of the former Naval Air Station from 11am to 1:00 pm on that Saturday. These airshows are major recruiting events for the military as they snatch up legions of unemployed young folks and make them think that they will get to fly fast airplanes if they just sign on the dotted line. They later find themselves in a fox hole in Afghanistan or scrubbing the deck of an Aegis destroyer. Not much glamor there. The slogan for the protest will be - Real Angels Don't Drop Bombs!



• AFRICOM, the newest Pentagon regional command in charge of putting U.S. bases on the African continent, is busy these days buying hearts and minds for the war machine. They've put a black Army general in charge of AFRICOM and are working hard to ensure that the U.S. has control of the vast resource base on the African continent. Of course the U.S. is flooding the continent with weapons and "technical advisers" and will be pushing the many client states they control to make their military forces "interoperable" with the U.S. military. Who can doubt that the Pentagon is the military arm of corporate globalization?