Declaring Demilitarized Islands of Peace

Peace for the Sea Korean Committee news conference on Jeju Island

We Need to Change

Peter Woodruff and Regis Tremblay went down to NYC on Sunday, September 21st for the People's Climate March. This is a 52:33 minute video/commentary on this historic march.

Remember Odessa

This video seems to very convincingly positively identify a man brutally beating people who were lying prostrate who had just fallen 3 stories out of a burning building during the Odessa massacre.  It has English subtitles.

Its important because this massacre was a major flash point and became a catalyst for the entire Ukraine conflict, galvanizing public opinion in East Ukraine and Russia, horrified by what had happened.

On May 2 there was a grisly massacre in Odessa when more than 40 pro-Russian demonstrators were burned alive in a building after being set upon by pro-Ukrainian activists. 

The pro-Russian side says that they were unarmed, were viciously attacked by heavily armed pro-Kiev, neo-nazi activists, from which they fled, seeking refuge in a trade union building.  They claim the activists then set fire to the building, where many of the pro-Russians died in the flames, and that even when trying to escape the building, they were shot at and physically attacked.

The pro-Kiev side says that after street fighting with the pro-Russians, they barricaded themselves into the building, and that the fire started accidentally, and denies continuing to attack the victims in the building.

There is abundant video evidence to show that the pro-Kiev nationalists in fact did attack the trades hall and kill the defenseless people inside the building.  No one has ever been brought to justice for these crimes.

The Bad Seeds

The Monsanto Company has been active for over 100 years in the United States, and yet the St. Louis based genetically modified seed and chemical giant’s long legacy of nefarious actions has only recently come into public view.

The mainstream in America is just now waking up to the destruction caused to humans, animals and the environment by Monsanto after all these years, but for the people living in communities that have been damaged and even destroyed by the corporation’s unscrupulous practices, the harsh truth has been ever-present.

The Monsanto Company has been active for over 100 years in the United States, and yet the St. Louis based genetically modified seed and chemical giant’s long legacy of nefarious actions has only recently come into public view. 
The mainstream in America is just now waking up to the destruction caused to humans, animals and the environment by Monsanto after all these years, but for the people living in communities that have been damaged and even destroyed by the corporation’s unscrupulous practices, the harsh truth has been ever-present (see this ‘Timeline of Crime’ for more on the dark history of Monsanto from the Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance’s page).
- See more at: http://althealthworks.com/3951/man-travels-across-u-s-documents-destruction-for-monsanto-a-photographic-investigation/#sthash.Uhjo8HtL.u3eDF0rw.dpuf

The Monsanto Company has been active for over 100 years in the United States, and yet the St. Louis based genetically modified seed and chemical giant’s long legacy of nefarious actions has only recently come into public view. 
The mainstream in America is just now waking up to the destruction caused to humans, animals and the environment by Monsanto after all these years, but for the people living in communities that have been damaged and even destroyed by the corporation’s unscrupulous practices, the harsh truth has been ever-present (see this ‘Timeline of Crime’ for more on the dark history of Monsanto from the Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance’s page).
- See more at: http://althealthworks.com/3951/man-travels-across-u-s-documents-destruction-for-monsanto-a-photographic-investigation/#sthash.Uhjo8HtL.u3eDF0rw.dpuf

The Monsanto Company has been active for over 100 years in the United States, and yet the St. Louis based genetically modified seed and chemical giant’s long legacy of nefarious actions has only recently come into public view. 
The mainstream in America is just now waking up to the destruction caused to humans, animals and the environment by Monsanto after all these years, but for the people living in communities that have been damaged and even destroyed by the corporation’s unscrupulous practices, the harsh truth has been ever-present (see this ‘Timeline of Crime’ for more on the dark history of Monsanto from the Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance’s page).
- See more at: http://althealthworks.com/3951/man-travels-across-u-s-documents-destruction-for-monsanto-a-photographic-investigation/#sthash.Uhjo8HtL.u3eDF0rw.dpuf

Troops Not Buying It

Seven out of 10 of the more than 2,200 active-duty respondents to this year's Military Times Poll oppose the idea of sending substantial U.S. ground forces back into Iraq to battle the Islamic State militants and their allies. In addition, over the past four years of the annual poll, the percentage of active-duty troops who believe the first U.S. war in Iraq was a success has declined significantly.

See more here

Making It Up As We Go Along

How the U.S. Concocted a Terror Threat to Justify Syria Strikes, and the Corporate Media Went Along

As the U.S. expands military operations in Syria, Democracy Now looks at the Khorasan group, the shadowy militant organization the Obama administration has invoked to help justify the strikes. One month ago, no one had heard of Khorasan, but now U.S. officials say it poses an imminent threat to the United States. As the strikes on Syria began, U.S. officials said Khorasan was "nearing the execution phase" of an attack on the United States or Europe, most likely an attempt to blow up a commercial plane in flight. We are joined by Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept, whose new article with Glenn Greenwald is "The Khorasan Group: Anatomy of a Fake Terror Threat to Justify Bombing Syria."

Sunday Song

I'll Make You Pancakes Obama....

A Russian babushka (grandma), gives Obama advice, in rhyme!, in the best Russian tradition.

She calls him Obamashka, an affectionate rendering of his name in Russian.

She offers to pray for him, to cook him blinis (pancakes), to take him to church to meet her priest so that they can all pray for America together, and advises against cozying up to Nazis, explaining that this always ends up badly.

Kiev Regime Violating Ceasefire

The US-NATO backed regime in Kiev is violating the cease fire in eastern Ukraine by shelling civilian homes.  It is clear that Kiev (and their western backers) are out to sabotage the ceasefire in order to keep the war going on Russia's border.  Just as the US-NATO are creating chaos and endless war in Syria and Iraq the plan calls for more of the same in Ukraine.

New Wars Mean New Profits

Defense Contractors Are Making a Killing

By Dan Froomkin

Stock prices for Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman set all-time record highs last week as it became increasingly clear that President Obama was committed to a massive, sustained air war in Iraq and Syria.

It’s nothing short of a windfall for these and other huge defense contractors, who’ve been getting itchy about federal budget pressures that threatened to slow the rate of increase in military spending.
Now, with U.S. forces literally blowing through tens of millions of dollars of munitions a day, the industry is not just counting on vast spending to replenish inventory, but hoping for a new era of reliance on supremely expensive military hardware.

“To the extent we can shift away from relying on troops and rely more heavily on equipment — that could present an opportunity,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, whose $66 billion portfolio includes Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co. shares, told Bloomberg.

Defense contractor stocks have far exceeded the performance of the broader market. A Bloomberg index of four of the largest Pentagon contractors rose 19 percent this year, compared to 2.2 percent for the S&P 500.

It’s the munition makers who “stand to reap the biggest windfall, especially in the short term,” says Fortune magazine, citing Raytheon’s long-range Tomahawk missiles, and Lockheed Martin’s Hellfires, among others. “Small diameter bombs could be a huge winner, since aircraft can carry more of them in a single sortie,” one analyst tells the magazine.

U.S. forces used 47 Tomahawk missiles on Monday alone, at $1.5 million apiece.

Smart “small-diameter bombs” cost about $250,000 each.

Richard Clough writes for Bloomberg:

For defense companies, the offensive against Islamic State and al-Qaeda extremists is more than a showcase for big-ticket weapons such as Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor fighter, the stealth jet that debuted in combat this week.

In its first night of airstrikes into Syria, the U.S. dropped about 200 munitions and launched 47 Raytheon-made Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to U.S. Central Command. The military also deployed Boeing’s GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Hellfire missiles from Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, creating an opening for restocking U.S. arsenals.

Tory Newmyer’s article in Fortune does a great job of depicting the new giddiness in the defense industry:

New fights mean new stuff, after all. And following the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan—and the belt-tightening at the Pentagon imposed by steep budget cuts—military suppliers are lining up to meet a suddenly restored need for their wares….

[D]efense analysts are pointing to a pair of sure-bet paydays from the new campaign: for those making and maintaining the aircraft, manned and unmanned, that will swarm the skies over the region, and for those producing the missiles and munitions that will arm them.

“The drone builders are going to have a field day,” says Dov Zakheim, who served as Pentagon Comptroller during the George W. Bush administration….

Indeed, the widening conflict could even reverse the trend of tapering investments in the technology, says Mark Gunzinger, a retired Air Force colonel and former deputy assistant secretary of defense now at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “One of the things that can help a new capability break through is an operational stressor, like a major air campaign,” he says….

In the longer run, one defense appropriations lobbyist predicts—a hopeful note in his voice: “we’re going to have to bust through the budget caps” imposed on the military by the sequester cuts. “We can’t fight this on the cheap,” he says.

Zacks Investment Research urges investors to buy Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman:

It is likely that the conflict with ISIS will continue for a while. Such a campaign is likely to provide impetus for defense stocks in the days and weeks ahead. These stocks would make excellent additions to your portfolio.

The Pentagon recently estimated that military operations in Iraq were costing an average of $7.5 million a day between June and last week — an annual rate of about $2.7 billion. But even if costs ballooned to, say, $15 billion a year, the figure would still be dwarfed by the approximately $1.3 billion a week we’re still spending in Afghanistan.

And for now, there’s no cash flow problem: Obama can just dip into the “Overseas Contingency Operations” budget, the $85 billion ”all-purpose war funding credit card” Congress just gave him – $26 billion more than he had even asked for.

Inside Ukraine

A frank discussion with pensioners in Pervomaisk, Lugansk area of eastern Ukraine.

Global Cop Complex

As Congress skipped town and avoided a vote on war, President Obama announced this week that the US was taking the lead in bombing jihadists in Iraq and Syria, opening what is being widely interpreted as another long and costly American military campaign in the Middle East.

This week, Bill Moyers discusses the latest on the conflict with Jonathan Landay, a veteran national security reporter for McClatchy Newspapers and Matthew Hoh, a former Marine and foreign service officer in Afghanistan.

“As much as President Obama wishes we weren’t the world’s policemen, perhaps we are,” Landay tells Moyers. “And there’s no escaping that curse.”

Hoh, who resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan over US strategic policy there, adds: “Is this really our model for the Middle East that we are going to bomb countries, continuously, take part in civil wars, sometimes supporting one side, maybe supporting the other, with no means or no real desire or effort to achieve a peace?”

The Nobel Peace Prize

• I'm deeply struck by the suicide of Jacob David George (see below his video and moving story).  He was a brilliant kid.  I'd heard about his recent death but it was not until last night at our Maine Veterans For Peace meeting in Augusta that I really felt it.  Richard Clement, who chairs the group, asked that our chapter send $250 to a fund being raised to honor the life and work of Jacob.  I saw how deeply Richard was impacted by his death... his own son was in the Iraq war and he understands the anguish of a parent.  He took Jacob's passing hard.  It made me want to know more about Jacob... so I thank Richard for the chance to feel Jacob's soldiers heart.  I fucking hate war. And greed.  And bullshit.

• It's sick to have to watch the war mongering run-a-way freight train blast through Washington and London (and Brussels & Riyadh) on its way to more war in Syria.  I saw yesterday that polls are showing high percentages of 'liberal Democrats' are supporting Obama's latest bombing campaign and his drone policy.  If the party says 'Seig' the grassroots Democrats say 'Heil'!  

• Then I saw Jeb Bush (former governor of Florida) wants to run for president so we'll likely get the line-up of Clinton-Bush for the White House.  The CIA-backed dynasty. People love sequels... and hey, this is all a movie anyway.  Total theatrical production.  Just no popcorn for this showing.  I was still living in Florida when Jeb first became governor and I'll always remember what he said during his inauguration speech in Tallahassee as he stood between the various tall state capital buildings.  Bush pointed to the government offices and said, "My dream is that some day these buildings will all be gone."  Lots of cheers.  There are many oligarchs, feudal masters, pirates, and other such corporate criminals living in the sunshine state.

• So on a global scale we are now heavy into the war for final control of what is left.  The US-NATO killing machine is cranking full speed ahead for resource and population control.  Who will stand against this criminal syndicate?  BRICS (Brasil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) seem ready to take it on.  I think Ukraine is the counter-move by US-UK chess players.  (One amongst many simultaneously being made.)  I read this morning at The Vineyard of the Saker this piece and wanted to share a bit of it.  Sergey Glazyev [Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences] writes for Russia in Global Affairs :

Summary: The world needs a coalition of sound forces advocating stability – a global anti-war coalition with a positive plan for rearranging the international financial and economic architecture on the principles of mutual benefit, fairness, and respect for national sovereignty.

U.S. actions in Ukraine should be classified not only as hostile with regard to Russia, but also as targeting global destabilization. The U.S. is essentially provoking an international conflict to salvage its geopolitical, financial, and economic authority. The response must be systemic and comprehensive, aimed at exposing and ending U.S. political domination, and, most importantly, at undermining U.S. military-political power based on the printing of dollars as a global currency.

The world needs a coalition of sound forces advocating stability —in essence, a global anti-war coalition with a positive plan for rearranging the international financial and economic architecture on the principles of mutual benefit, fairness, and respect for national sovereignty. 

• In the end neither the Russians nor the Chinese will be able to save our necks.  Only we can do that by organizing locally, nationally and globally.  It's that moment in planetary history that each of us have been prepared for by our ancestors - the fight for human dignity and environmental justice is full on.  We can't miss the train.

Jacob David George: Another Victim of Moral Injury

Last week “bicycle ridin, banjo pickin, peace rambling hillbilly from Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas” Jacob David George died as a result of moral injuries sustained in Afghanistan. Jacob joined the US Army before the attacks of 9/11. He served three tours of Afghanistan (2001, 2002, 2003/4) and came back a changed man. He said that after witnessing wholesale slaughter and picking through body parts he was affected by Post Traumatic Stress. He understood that to be profoundly affected by war was not a disorder. Jacob often talked about the moral component of PTS, the trauma caused by taking part in or witnessing events that are contrary to your very being. This is different to the PTSD of the military psychiatrist who is interested in events that put the individuals own life in danger. This is the opposite, it is trauma caused by harming others. Jacob advocated for healing rituals and ceremonies to come to terms with the trauma of war. He talked about the need to heal the soul as well as the brain. He described throwing his medals back to the US Government during the 2012 NATO protests in Chicago as the most therapeutic thing he had done. The following is a poem written by Jacob that he later turned into a song.

Support the Troops

“We just Need to support the troops” is what they tell me well,
This is from a troop so listen carefully,
What we Need are teachers who understand the history of this country,
What we Need is a decent living wage, so people ain’t cold and hungry,
What we Need is bicycle infrastructure spanning this beauteous nation.

What we Need are more trees and less play stations,
What we Need is a justice system that seeks the truth,
What we Need are more books and less boots,
What we Need is love for every woman and man,
From southern Louisiana to the mountains of Afghanistan.

Now, it’s true the troops need support,
The support to come home,
They need treatment and jobs and love for the soul,
See, war ain’t no good for the human condition,
I lost a piece of who I was on every single mission,
And I’m tellin’ you, don’t thank me for what I’ve done,
Give me a big hug and let me know we’re not gonna let this happen again,
Because we support the troops and we’re gonna bring these wars to an end.

In the USA 22 veterans kill themselves every day. In 2012 more UK soldiers and veterans killed themselves than were killed in Afghanistan. In the USA 30% of veterans have considered suicide. More veterans of the Falklands War have committed suicide than were killed in action. The suicide rate among veterans in the USA is double that of the civilian rate. These statements are controversial not because they overestimate the problem but because these figures do not include the veterans who drink themselves to death. The veterans who no longer care for their own well being and drive cars into trees or the veterans who die homeless on the streets. To admit the scale of the problem would be an admission that war is harmful to those who take part in it long after returning home.

In memory of Jacob David George and in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the USA please consider donating to the Jacob George Celebration of Life Fund which will help pay for a celebration/memorial event on Sunday 5 October in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

RIP Brother.

The Bitte Truth

"The information war for Ukraine" - Satirical German program "Die Anstalt" (Eng Subs)

Oil in the Amazon

This video comes from the folks at Amazon Watch. If you feel passionately about the Amazon and health of our climate, please take 30 seconds and sign this petition.

The Capitalism Machine is Killing Us

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,The Colbert Report on Facebook,Video Archive

Get Down on Your Knees

Written by: Ray Davies (The Kinks)

Lyrics:

You look like a real human being
But you don't have a mind of your own
Yeah, you can talk, you can breathe
You can work, you can stitch, you can sew
But you're brainwashed
Yes you are, yes you are
Get down on your knees

You've got a job and a house
And a wife, and your kids and a car
Yeah, you're conditioned to be
What they want you to be
And be happy to be where you are
Yes you are
Get down on your knees
Get down on your knees

The aristocrats and bureaucrats
Are dirty rats
For making you what you are
They're up there and you're down here
You're on the ground and they're up with the stars
All your life they've kicked you around and pushed you around
Till you can't take any more
To them you're just a speck of dirt
But you don't want to get up off the floor
Mister you're just brainwashed

They give you social security
Tax saving benefits that grow at maturity
Yeah, you're contented to be
What they want you to be
And to do what they want you to
Yes you are, yes you are
Get down on your knees

Your $$$$$ Pissed Away on More War

War by Way of Deception.....the 1967 Connection

I'm reading a fascinating and timely book called Guilt by Association: How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War by Jeff Gates.  Noam Chomsky said about the book, "Breathless just reading it."

I want to share a bit from the book because of its direct relevance to the current US-Israel attack on Syria.  Gates writes:

[President] Lyndon Johnson was lobbied in 1967 by Arthur Goldberg [US Ambassador to UN] to protect the Jewish state in the lead-up to the Six-Day War.  When Goldberg deployed heart-rending rhetoric to portray Israeli vulnerability and the pending victimization of Jews at the hostile hands of an Arab "ring of steal," Johnson waved a Central Intelligence Agency report predicting Israel could win any war in the region in two weeks.  When Goldberg persisted, Johnson ordered the CIA to revisit their analysis.  The agency returned with a revised report concluding that Israel could win any war in the region in one week.

On June 4, as the Abe Fortas [appointed to replace Arthur Goldberg on US Supreme Court] dinner was winding down, Fortas cautioned Johnson that war might soon erupt in the Middle East.  When LBJ turned to Defense Secretary McNamara for his opinion, the Pentagon chief said there would be no war.  Johnson confirmed that US intelligence agencies agreed with McNamara's assessment.  Johnson left for the White House at 10:58 pm.

At 4:30 am on June 5, Walt Rostow [Special Assistant for National Security Affairs] called LBJ to inform him that Israel had attacked Egypt.  Mathilde Krim, the former Irgun [Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Palestine between 1931 and 1948] operative, was Johnson's guest at the White House that night.  Before informing anyone else, LBJ stopped by the blond beauty's bedroom to tell her, "The war has started."  Not until more than three hours later, at 7:45 am, did Johnson speak with Soviet Premier Kosygin who expressed his hope and expectation that the US, as Israel's closely ally, would restrain Tel Aviv.

In the war's first few hours, the "victimized" Israelis destroyed the Egyptian Air Force while its aircraft were still on the ground.  By evening, the Jordanian Air Force was also largely destroyed.  Walt Rostow sent Johnson a memo describing Tel Aviv's military success as "the first day's turkey shoot."  LBJ also received a memo that day from Arthur Krim that read, "Many arms shipments are packed and ready to go to Israel, but are being held up.  It would be helpful if these could be released."  Johnson ordered the arms shipped.  By the evening of the second day, two-thirds of Syria's air force had been destroyed.

According to Grace Halsell [speechwriter for LBJ] the glee in the State Department Operations Room was palpable, leading Eugene Rostow [Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs] to caution, "Gentlemen, gentlemen, do not forget that we are neutral in word, thought and deed."  At the State Department's mid-day press briefing, spokesman Robert McCloskey repeated Rostow's official "neutrality" lie.

White House counsel Harry McPherson arrived in Tel Aviv enroute to the US from Vietnam the night before the war broke out.  In 'A Political Education', he describes arriving at the foreign ministry for a brief meeting with Abba Eban [Israel's foreign minister] the first day of the war before conferring with Israel's chief of military intelligence.  In response to the repeated question: "Did the Egyptians attack?" McPherson and US Ambassador Walworth Barbour received only evasive answers.  As air raid sirens wiled, McPherson recalls:

"Barbour suggested that we might continue the discussion in the underground bunker.  The general studied his watch.  'No, that won't be necessary.  We can stay here.' Barbour and I looked at each other.  If it wasn't necessary, the Egyptian air force had been destroyed.  That could only have happened so quickly if it had been surprised on the ground.  We did not need to ask for confirmation, but left at once to cable the news to Washington."

Israel was neither under attack nor under threat of attack as Israeli commanders later conceded.  The air raid sirens were props in the stagecraft of waging war by way of deception. The circumstances were stage-managed to make both Israelis and foreign observers believe the Jewish state was endangered while Tel Aviv annexed land belonging to its neighbors that it still occupies four decades later.

Update: My friend Herschel Sternlieb from Brunswick, Maine sent me the following about this period in history.

Dear Bruce -  In keeping with your references today to the 6-day war between Israel and the Arabs I would like to add to your assessment:

A few weeks before the 6-day war, I was on a business trip to New York and spending the night with my In-Laws.  Living with them at the time, was Selma’s Israeli Uncle Aaron.  After supper Aaron retired to a comfortable chair in the living  room and was calmly reading a newspaper when, my father-in-law started on him.

“The Arabs  are going to destroy your family, your wife and children, and you just sit there calmly. What sort of a man are you?” And so it went until Aaron put down his paper and replied.

“I am not concerned because I know we will be victorious. I know that we have plans to defeat the Arabs, all of them... the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Jordanians, all of them in a total of 8 days.  Now leave me in peace to read my paper.”