THE LILY-PAD STRATEGY

How the Pentagon Is Quietly Transforming Its Overseas Base Empire and Creating a Dangerous New Way of War

 By David Vine

The first thing I saw last month when I walked into the belly of the dark grey C-17 Air Force cargo plane was a void -- something missing. A missing left arm, to be exact, severed at the shoulder, temporarily patched and held together.  Thick, pale flesh, flecked with bright red at the edges. It looked like meat sliced open. The face and what remained of the rest of the man were obscured by blankets, an American flag quilt, and a jumble of tubes and tape, wires, drip bags, and medical monitors.

That man and two other critically wounded soldiers -- one with two stumps where legs had been, the other missing a leg below the thigh -- were intubated, unconscious, and lying on stretchers hooked to the walls of the plane that had just landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. A tattoo on the soldier’s remaining arm read, “DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR.”

I asked a member of the Air Force medical team about the casualties they see like these. Many, as with this flight, were coming from Afghanistan, he told me. “A lot from the Horn of Africa,” he added. “You don’t really hear about that in the media.”

“Where in Africa?” I asked.  He said he didn’t know exactly, but generally from the Horn, often with critical injuries. “A lot out of Djibouti,” he added, referring to Camp Lemonnier, the main U.S. military base in Africa, but from “elsewhere” in the region, too.

Since the “Black Hawk Down” deaths in Somalia almost 20 years ago, we’ve heard little, if anything, about American military casualties in Africa (other than a strange report last week about three special operations commandos killed, along with three women identified by U.S. military sources as “Moroccan prostitutes,” in a mysterious car accident in Mali). The growing number of patients arriving at Ramstein from Africa pulls back a curtain on a significant transformation in twenty-first-century U.S. military strategy.

These casualties are likely to be the vanguard of growing numbers of wounded troops coming from places far removed from Afghanistan or Iraq. They reflect the increased use of relatively small bases like Camp Lemonnier, which military planners see as a model for future U.S. bases “scattered,” as one academic explains, “across regions in which the United States has previously not maintained a military presence.”

Disappearing are the days when Ramstein was the signature U.S. base, an American-town-sized behemoth filled with thousands or tens of thousands of Americans, PXs, Pizza Huts, and other amenities of home. But don’t for a second think that the Pentagon is packing up, downsizing its global mission, and heading home. In fact, based on developments in recent years, the opposite may be true. While the collection of Cold War-era giant bases around the world is shrinking, the global infrastructure of bases overseas has exploded in size and scope.
Unknown to most Americans, Washington’s garrisoning of the planet is on the rise, thanks to a new generation of bases the military calls “lily pads” (as in a frog jumping across a pond toward its prey). These are small, secretive, inaccessible facilities with limited numbers of troops, spartan amenities, and prepositioned weaponry and supplies.

Around the world, from Djibouti to the jungles of Honduras, the deserts of Mauritania to Australia’s tiny Cocos Islands, the Pentagon has been pursuing as many lily pads as it can, in as many countries as it can, as fast as it can. Although statistics are hard to assemble, given the often-secretive nature of such bases, the Pentagon has probably built upwards of 50 lily pads and other small bases since around 2000, while exploring the construction of dozens more.
As Mark Gillem, author of America Town: Building the Outposts of Empire, explains, “avoidance” of local populations, publicity, and potential opposition is the new aim. “To project its power,” he says, the United States wants “secluded and self-contained outposts strategically located” around the world. According to some of the strategy’s strongest proponents at the American Enterprise Institute, the goal should be “to create a worldwide network of frontier forts,” with the U.S. military “the ‘global cavalry’ of the twenty-first century.”

Such lily-pad bases have become a critical part of an evolving Washington military strategy aimed at maintaining U.S. global dominance by doing far more with less in an increasingly competitive, ever more multi-polar world. Central as it’s becoming to the long-term U.S. stance, this global-basing reset policy has, remarkably enough, received almost no public attention, nor significant Congressional oversight. Meanwhile, as the arrival of the first casualties from Africa shows, the U.S. military is getting involved in new areas of the world and new conflicts, with potentially disastrous consequences.

Transforming the Base Empire

You might think that the U.S. military is in the process of shrinking, rather than expanding, its little noticed but enormous collection of bases abroad. After all, it was forced to close the full panoply of 505 bases, mega to micro, that it built in Iraq, and it's now beginning the process of drawing down forces in Afghanistan. In Europe, the Pentagon is continuing to close its massive bases in Germany and will soon remove two combat brigades from that country. Global troop numbers are set to shrink by around 100,000.

Yet Washington still easily maintains the largest collection of foreign bases in world history: more than 1,000 military installations outside the 50 states and Washington, DC. They include everything from decades-old bases in Germany and Japan to brand-new drone bases in Ethiopia and the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean and even resorts for military vacationers in Italy and South Korea.

In Afghanistan, the U.S.-led international force still occupies more than 450 bases. In total, the U.S. military has some form of troop presence in approximately 150 foreign countries, not to mention 11 aircraft carrier task forces -- essentially floating bases -- and a significant, and growing, military presence in space. The United States currently spends an estimated $250 billion annually maintaining bases and troops overseas.

Some bases, like Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, date to the late nineteenth century. Most were built or occupied during or just after World War II on every continent, including Antarctica. Although the U.S. military vacated around 60% of its foreign bases following the Soviet Union’s collapse, the Cold War base infrastructure remained relatively intact, with 60,000 American troops remaining in Germany alone, despite the absence of a superpower adversary.

However, in the early months of 2001, even before the attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration launched a major global realignment of bases and troops that’s continuing today with Obama’s “Asia pivot.” Bush’s original plan was to close more than one-third of the nation’s overseas bases and shift troops east and south, closer to predicted conflict zones in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The Pentagon began to focus on creating smaller and more flexible “forward operating bases” and even smaller “cooperative security locations” or “lily pads.” Major troop concentrations were to be restricted to a reduced number of “main operating bases” (MOBs) -- like Ramstein, Guam in the Pacific, and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean -- which were to be expanded.

Despite the rhetoric of consolidation and closure that went with this plan, in the post-9/11 era the Pentagon has actually been expanding its base infrastructure dramatically, including dozens of major bases in every Persian Gulf country save Iran, and in several Central Asian countries critical to the war in Afghanistan. 

Hitting the Base Reset Button

Obama’s recently announced “Asia pivot” signals that East Asia will be at the center of the explosion of lily-pad bases and related developments. Already in Australia, U.S. marines are settling into a shared base in Darwin. Elsewhere, the Pentagon is pursuing plans for a drone and surveillance base in Australia’s Cocos Islands and deployments to Brisbane and Perth. In Thailand, the Pentagon has negotiated rights for new Navy port visits and a “disaster-relief hub” at U-Tapao.

In the Philippines, whose government evicted the U.S. from the massive Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base in the early 1990s, as many as 600 special forces troops have quietly been operating in the country’s south since January 2002. Last month, the two governments reached an agreement on the future U.S. use of Clark and Subic, as well as other repair and supply hubs from the Vietnam War era. In a sign of changing times, U.S. officials even signed a 2011 defense agreement with former enemy Vietnam and have begun negotiations over the Navy’s increased use of Vietnamese ports.

Elsewhere in Asia, the Pentagon has rebuilt a runway on tiny Tinian island near Guam, and it’s considering future bases in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, while pushing stronger military ties with India. Every year in the region, the military conducts around 170 military exercises and 250 port visits. On South Korea’s Jeju island, the Korean military is building a base that will be part of the U.S. missile defense system and to which U.S. forces will have regular access.
“We just can’t be in one place to do what we’ve got to do,” Pacific Command commander Admiral Samuel Locklear III has said. For military planners, “what we’ve got to do” is clearly defined as isolating and (in the terminology of the Cold War) “containing” the new power in the region, China. This evidently means “peppering” new bases throughout the region, adding to the more than 200 U.S. bases that have encircled China for decades in Japan, South Korea, Guam, and Hawaii.

And Asia is just the beginning. In Africa, the Pentagon has quietly created “about a dozen air bases” for drones and surveillance since 2007. In addition to Camp Lemonnier, we know that the military has created or will soon create installations in Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, South Sudan, and Uganda. The Pentagon has also investigated building bases in Algeria, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria, among other places.

Next year, a brigade-sized force of 3,000 troops, and “likely more,” will arrive for exercises and training missions across the continent. In the nearby Persian Gulf, the Navy is developing an “afloat forward-staging base,” or “mothership,” to serve as a sea-borne “lily pad” for helicopters and patrol craft, and has been involved in a massive build-up of forces in the region.
In Latin America, following the military's eviction from Panama in 1999 and Ecuador in 2009, the Pentagon has created or upgraded new bases in Aruba and Curaçao, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, and Peru.  Elsewhere, the Pentagon has funded the creation of military and police bases capable of hosting U.S. forces in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, and even Ecuador. In 2008, the Navy reactivated its Fourth Fleet, inactive since 1950, to patrol the region. The military may want a base in Brazil and unsuccessfully tried to create bases, ostensibly for humanitarian and emergency relief, in Paraguay and Argentina.

Finally, in Europe, after arriving in the Balkans during 1990’s interventions, U.S. bases have moved eastward into some of the former Eastern Bloc states of the Soviet empire. The Pentagon is now developing installations capable of supporting rotating, brigade-sized deployments in Romania and Bulgaria, and a missile defense base and aviation facilities in Poland. Previously, the Bush administration maintained two CIA black sites (secret prisons) in Lithuania and another in Poland. Citizens of the Czech Republic rejected a planned radar base for the Pentagon’s still unproven missile defense system, and now Romania will host ground-based missiles.

A New American Way of War

A lily pad on one of the Gulf of Guinea islands of S­ão Tomé and Príncipe, off the oil-rich west coast of Africa, helps explain what’s going on. A U.S. official has described the base as “another Diego Garcia,” referring to the Indian Ocean base that’s helped ensure decades of U.S. domination over Middle Eastern energy supplies. Without the freedom to create new large bases in Africa, the Pentagon is using S­ão Tomé and a growing collection of other lily pads on the continent in an attempt to control another crucial oil-rich region.

Far beyond West Africa, the nineteenth century “Great Game” competition for Central Asia has returned with a passion -- and this time gone global.  It’s spreading to resource-rich lands in Africa, Asia, and South America, as the United States, China, Russia, and members of the European Union find themselves locked in an increasingly intense competition for economic and geopolitical supremacy.

While Beijing, in particular, has pursued this competition in a largely economic fashion, dotting the globe with strategic investments, Washington has focused relentlessly on military might as its global trump card, dotting the planet with new bases and other forms of military power. “Forget full-scale invasions and large-footprint occupations on the Eurasian mainland,” Nick Turse has written of this new twenty-first century military strategy. “Instead, think: special operations forces... proxy armies... the militarization of spying and intelligence... drone aircraft... cyber-attacks, and joint Pentagon operations with increasingly militarized ‘civilian’ government agencies.”

Add to this unparalleled long-range air and naval power; arms sales besting any nation on Earth; humanitarian and disaster relief missions that clearly serve military intelligence, patrol, and “hearts and minds” functions; the rotational deployment of regular U.S. forces globally; port visits and an expanding array of joint military exercises and training missions that give the U.S. military de facto “presence” worldwide and help turn foreign militaries into proxy forces.
And lots and lots of lily-pad bases.

Military planners see a future of endless small-scale interventions in which a large, geographically dispersed collection of bases will always be primed for instant operational access. With bases in as many places as possible, military planners want to be able to turn to another conveniently close country if the United States is ever prevented from using a base, as it was by Turkey prior to the invasion of Iraq. In other words, Pentagon officials dream of nearly limitless flexibility, the ability to react with remarkable rapidity to developments anywhere on Earth, and thus, something approaching total military control over the planet.

Beyond their military utility, the lily pads and other forms of power projection are also political and economic tools used to build and maintain alliances and provide privileged U.S. access to overseas markets, resources, and investment opportunities. Washington is planning to use lily-pad bases and other military projects to bind countries in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America as closely as possible to the U.S. military -- and so to continued U.S. political-economic hegemony. In short, American officials are hoping military might will entrench their influence and keep as many countries as possible within an American orbit at a time when some are asserting their independence ever more forcefully or gravitating toward China and other rising powers.

Those Dangerous Lily Pads

While relying on smaller bases may sound smarter and more cost effective than maintaining huge bases that have often caused anger in places like Okinawa and South Korea, lily pads threaten U.S. and global security in several ways:

First, the “lily pad” language can be misleading, since by design or otherwise, such installations are capable of quickly growing into bloated behemoths.
Second, despite the rhetoric about spreading democracy that still lingers in Washington, building more lily pads actually guarantees collaboration with an increasing number of despotic, corrupt, and murderous regimes.

Third, there is a well-documented pattern of damage that military facilities of various sizes inflict on local communities. Although lily pads seem to promise insulation from local opposition, over time even small bases have often led to anger and protest movements.

Finally, a proliferation of lily pads means the creeping militarization of large swaths of the globe. Like real lily pads -- which are actually aquatic weeds -- bases have a way of growing and reproducing uncontrollably. Indeed, bases tend to beget bases, creating “base races” with other nations, heightening military tensions, and discouraging diplomatic solutions to conflicts. After all, how would the United States respond if China, Russia, or Iran were to build even a single lily-pad base of its own in Mexico or the Caribbean?

For China and Russia in particular, ever more U.S. bases near their borders threaten to set off new cold wars. Most troublingly, the creation of new bases to protect against an alleged future Chinese military threat may prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy: such bases in Asia are likely to create the threat they are supposedly designed to protect against, making a catastrophic war with China more, not less, likely.

Encouragingly, however, overseas bases have recently begun to generate critical scrutiny across the political spectrum from Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul to Democratic Senator Jon Tester and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. With everyone looking for ways to trim the deficit, closing overseas bases offers easy savings. Indeed, increasingly influential types are recognizing that the country simply can’t afford more than 1,000 bases abroad.

Great Britain, like empires before it, had to close most of its remaining foreign bases in the midst of an economic crisis in the 1960s and 1970s. The United States is undoubtedly headed in that direction sooner or later. The only question is whether the country will give up its bases and downsize its global mission by choice, or if it will follow Britain’s path as a fading power forced to give up its bases from a position of weakness.

Of course, the consequences of not choosing another path extend beyond economics. If the proliferation of lily pads, special operations forces, and drone wars continues, the United States is likely to be drawn into new conflicts and new wars, generating unknown forms of blowback, and untold death and destruction. In that case, we’d better prepare for a lot more incoming flights -- from the Horn of Africa to Honduras -- carrying not just amputees but caskets.

- David Vine is assistant professor of anthropology at American University, in Washington, DC. He is the author of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia (Princeton University Press, 2009). He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and Mother Jones, among other places. He is currently completing a book about the more than 1,000 U.S. military bases located outside the United States. To listen to Timothy MacBain's latest Tomcast audio interview in which Vine discusses his experiences with the Pentagon’s empire of bases, click here or download it to your iPod here.

CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE

We've not had rain here in Maine in about two weeks which is very unusual.  The temperatures have been very high and the ground is becoming hard and dusty.  I'd call it a drought.  In the next 10 days the weather forecasts predict one day of rain if we are lucky.

When we moved to Maine in 2003 I remember with great pleasure that we only had to use a fan one time our entire first summer.  Since then each summer we've had to use fans more and more often.  Now we are using fans every day and often at night.  Sometimes in the past we had to wear long pants and sweaters after sundown but not these days.

I've already written that we had virtually no snow here in Maine last winter.  Most lakes and ponds never froze enough for ice fishing.  The ski industry was hit hard.

Our right-wing Tea Party Gov. LePage (always in the news for saying stupid and cruel things) is a climate change denier.  He has yet to stick his toe into the topic of Maine setting record high temperatures this spring.  It's amazing that so many people don't want to talk about the obvious.

While walking the dog today I mentioned the heat to one neighbor.  He said he didn't care about global warming because he was going to die soon anyway.  I asked about the future generations.  He replied, "That's their problem."

It reminded me of many years ago speaking to a group of senior citizens in Florida about nuclear weapons.  Many of them had the same response - I am going to die soon so what does it matter.  People are losing their sense of responsibility to the coming generations.  The "me-me-me" centered culture in this country has broken that link between the old and the young.  Very sad indeed.

Update:  We got some much needed rain in the middle of the night.  I could hear our garden plants cheering.

SUNDAY SONG

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOODY

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967)

CORPORATE MAFIA UPDATE

• U.S. weapons makers sold $60 billion worth of arms on the international market this past year, compared to just $12 billion in 2005.  So global instability pays off for the corporate mafia.  The Obama administration has made no secret of its plan to more actively promote sales of U.S. weapons internationally.  Weapons exports are encouraged both as a national security tool "to help build alliances" and as employment generators.  Obama in 2009 announced the start of a comprehensive review of the U.S. export control system, which American corporations contend is "too cumbersome and out of touch with today's globalized market."
• Greenpeace is planning to send boats into Arctic waters off the coast of Alaska this month in order to dramatize Shell Oil's plan to drill exploratory offshore wells.  Due to global warming the Arctic ice is melting at a faster rate than expected thus making it possible for oil and natural gas extraction.  The Coast Guard has warned Greenpeace to stay away from Shell's drilling and has announced a "500-meter safety zone" around the planned operations.  Kumi Naidoo from Greenpeace has responded to threats by the Coast Guard by saying, "We have been warned there will be severe penalties but I now serve notice on Shell that we are at the point where, if needs be, we will break the injunctions and pay the price of that...We have to intensify civil disobedience."
• While recently in Philadelphia for the national Occupy gathering I picked up a leaflet called "Reclaim the Money Power with Publicly Owned Banks."  During my April speaking tour along the west coast, in Oregon, a woman came to a couple of my talks and during the question period spoke quite eloquently about the need to take power away from Wall Street by creating state owned banks.  The Occupy Banks flyer quotes Prof. Carroll Quigley, Georgetown University, and author of Hope and Tragedy: "The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole."  
• As the states’ credit crisis deepens, four states have initiated bills for state-owned banks, and candidates in seven states have now included that solution in their platforms. The Bank of North Dakota, currently the nation’s only state-owned bank, is the model (with variations) for all the other proposals on the table. The Bank of North Dakota acts as a “bankers’ bank,” including doing “participation loans” with other banks, allowing them to compete with larger banks. In a participation loan, the community bank originates the loan and takes responsibility for it, while the participating bank contributes funds and shares in the risk and profits. The Bank of North Dakota also makes low-interest loans to students, farmers and businesses; underwrites municipal bonds; and serves as the state’s “Mini Fed,” providing liquidity and clearing checks for more than 100 banks around the state.

FORCED OUT IN PARAGUAY FOR TRYING TO DO GOOD

In his first major interview since he was ousted, Paraguay's former president Fernando Lugo has told RT he was forced out - after the opposition threatened widespread violence if he didn't go. Full interview at http://on.rt.com/nbym4a

Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar talks to RT. He believes impeachment was orchestrated from outside Paraguay for economic interests.

APPEAL TO INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Dredging barge now operating just off sacred rocky coastline of Gangjeong village.  Endangered soft coral reefs are just below the surface and will surely be destroyed

We appeal to you to

Join an International Action Week For No Naval Base

2-9 September 2012

We appeal to the people of the world who are opposing warfare and are concerned with making the world peaceful and sustainable community.

Please take part in an International Solidarity Action (2-9 September 2012) during the World Conservation Congress 2012 which will be held in Jeju Island.

The 2012 World Conservation Congress, which is an environmental conference held every 4 years by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is to take place from 6-15 September in Seogwipo city, Jeju Island. Jeju Island is located in the southern part of South Korea, adjacent to China, Taiwan, and Japan.

However, in Gangjeong village, which is only 7 km far from the congress site, construction to build a massive naval base is being enforced. The total size of the naval base is 490,000 square meters and it will not only harm the environment but also ignite military tensions despite the opposition of a great number of villagers.

Gangjeong village in Jeju blessed with a natural environment should be preserved for the future of mankind.

Gangjeong village is a coastal town with a sacred environment and high value preservation not only in Jeju Island, but also in the world.

The Sea of Gangjeong village is designated as a national cultural treasure (natural memorial No. 442) by the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea and is adjacent to Beom Island, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Gangjeong village is God’s blessing natural heritage. The sea of Gangjeong is one of the major habitats of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, one of the species listed by the IUCN. It is estimated that there are only 114 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Korea.

Gangjeong village is located between the two biggest creeks in Jeju Island and has the biggest freshwater fish habitat on the island. It provides 70–80% of drinking water to southern residents in the island. As Jeju Island lacks water due to its porous basaltic land, this uncommon village is nicknamed as ‘Il-Gangjeong’ which means the best Gangjeong village. Due to this character, it has been the ‘heartland of agriculture’ from ancient times. Artifacts from prehistoric times showing the transformation of housing culture have been also discovered in Gangjeong. For such reasons, Gangjeong was appointed as a limited development district until the Jeju naval base construction plan was drafted.

Gureombi rock, located at the Jeju naval base construction site, is a broad flat rock with 1.2 km in length and 250m in width and it forms a greatly peculiar bedrock wetland where spring water comes upward. As Gureombi rock is a part of absolute preservation area by Jeju local government, it is home to the Government designated endangered species such as sesarma intermedium, small round frogs, Jeju saebaengi (native freshwater shrimp of Jeju Island), and clithon retropietus v. martens.

However, the Government is unilaterally enforcing the construction of the naval base without appropriate eval!!uation and even by easing regulations expediently or ignoring them illegally. It is clear that the naval base will not only destroy the environment of the sea of Gangjeong village, but also cause the serious destruction of the environment of UNESCO Biosphere Reserve located just 2 km away from the construction site.

There is no doubt that this construction is entirely contrary to the principals of the World Conservation Congress. The efforts of the South Korean government and Jeju local government to promote Jeju island as a world environmental city, while unilaterally enforcing the construction of the naval base, is deceiving global citizens.

Actions Suggested

1. Please choose at least one day during the International Action Week (2-9 September 2012) and organize any individual or collective actions to oppose the Jeju naval base.

1. Please inform the world that the construction of the naval base in Jeju is fully contrary to the principal of 2012 World Conservation Congress. Please make calls to the World Conservation Congress member organizations and member states to express concerns about the Jeju naval base construction.

1. Please ask the South Korean government and Jeju local government to stop building the military base, revoke the naval base project, and make Jeju Island develop intact as an island of world peace.

1. It is hypocritical for Samsung, the main contractor of the naval base project, to support financially the largest environmental event in the world. Please urge Samsung C&T and Daerim, two main contractors, to stop constructing naval base in Jeju.

1. To spread this amazing event widely, please send your endorsement (with your organization’s name) and your action plans to the Gangjeong international team (gangjeongintl@gmail.com) in advance. After your actions, please kindly send your photos and videos with a simple explanation to the team as well.

1. There are many events being planned in Jeju Gangjeong village during the international action week (2-9 September 2012). If possible, please come to the village and be part of our nonviolent struggle which has continued over the last 6 years.

 

We greatly appreciate for your solidarity. 

The following South Korean national groups endorse the action:

• Gangjeong Village Association
• Jeju Pan-Island Committee for Stop of Military Base and for Realization of Peace Island (26 organizations)
• Korea Environment NGO Network (36 Korean environmental NGOs) 
• National Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing to the Naval Base in Jeju Island (125 Korean civil society organizations)

OKLAHOMA CITY TAKES ANTI-WAR MESSAGE TO PUBLIC

BUSY DAY

• I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off today.  Our newsletter was ready to be picked up from the printer and I had to arrange a ride to go get it in nearby Brunswick.  Now that we are down to one car in the house some things become more difficult.  Our friend Ian bailed me out and took me to the printer. I am real pleased with the way it turned out.  You can see the online version of the newsletter here
• Our Keep Space for Peace Week poster and flyer arrived yesterday from a different printer so I spent last evening preparing envelopes to mail the poster, flyer, and newsletter to our key contacts in the U.S. and overseas.  Our current house guest Phui Yi Kong, a Bowdoin College student from Malaysia, helped me do the final envelope stuffing today.  The rest of the newsletters will be mailed to our subscribers by the mailing house connected to the printer.  It should be in the mail tomorrow.
• I am organizing a speaking engagement tonight of well-known peace activist Medea Benjamin (CodePink) who is doing a tour through Maine this week promoting her book called Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.  We are having a potluck supper for her at the home of one of our supporters so I also had to cook something to bring.  The talk is at 7:00 pm tonight at the public library in Brunswick.
• Hopefully things slow down a bit tomorrow.

THOSE POOR WEAPONS MAKERS

 

Farnborough Airshow kicked off with the usual impressive aerial acrobatics in the southern town of England, but national budgets are a cause of concern for the exhibitors. While defence companies can recreate realistic flying situations, they cannot simulate good business conditions, and these are worrying times for some of the world's biggest weapons makers. Sikorsky make the famous Black Hawk helicopters relied on by the US military. Yet the company executives are trying no to rely on them too much in return. 

 

Russia is facing even greater challenges. The state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, has a big presence in Farborough. It's presence is considered vital for its business, as recent geopolitical events have closed off some of its most reliable markets. Rich Middle Eastern and Asian countries are taking up some of the slack left by dwindling US and European defence budgets, but the fight for international business will only intensify over the coming years. Al Jazeera's Rory Challands reports from Farnborough, southern England.

RUSSIAN VIEW OF SYRIA SITUATION

It’s puzzling how the US can treat radical Islamists in Syria as allies while fighting against them as enemies in Afghanistan, says the chair of the Russian parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.
­
Washington’s double standard approach is evident in the Syrian crisis. It supports the armed opposition, which wants to turn the country into a dictatorship, claiming that their war against the Assad government has democracy as the goal, Aleksey Pushkov told Russia Today.

This civil war now underway in Syria is fast becoming a proxy war between the U.S./NATO and Russia.  It could be a sign of things to come as the U.S./NATO surround Russia and continue to try to destabilize countries that are allied with Moscow. Watch closely what is going on in Georgia, on Russia's southern border, as the U.S. puppet government there is inching its way into NATO.

The Obama administration should be made to answer this charge that they on the one hand support radical Islamists in Syria while fighting them in Afghanistan.  It's a common U.S. tactic and few in the U.S. are making this important distinction.

ARE WE REALLY THE GREATEST?

Beginning scene of the new HBO series The Newsroom explaining why America's not the greatest country any longer....the first part was quite good but the drama with the music at the end was a bit much.

Still an interesting clue as to what is showing on mainstream TV these days.

STOP TRIDENT REPLACEMENT IN UK

Scotland votes on independence in 2014 and may tell UK to remove Trident nuclear missiles.  The majority of Scots oppose the existence of nuclear weapons in their country.  But decisions on "defense" remain with London.  The UK government has made clear their plan to renew the Trident program.

Peace groups throughout the UK are now organizing to block the Trident replacement program that would cost $157 billion over the next 30 years.  Better those funds be used for health care, education, and dealing with climate change.

GOT A NEW DOGGIE

We got a new dog today.  His name is Homer.  He is a two-year old Treeing Walker Coonhound and looks very much like the dog in this photo.

We had two dogs who both died at the age of 14 during the past year or so.  We took a break from getting another one for awhile but lately I've been missing having a dog.  I dreamed about my old dog Red last night and figured it was time.

So today housemate Karen and I went to the local humane society to meet Homer who I had seen on their web site when I checked it out last night.  They only had about six dogs there.  I quickly passed up the mean looking one and the screaming barking, jumping one.  Homer was just laying in his cage playing hard to get.  I bent down and called him over.  He thought about it for a bit and then came over and seemed very friendly.  We took him for a walk in the nice pine tree wooded area surrounding the dog pound and he responded well to us.  Since he is a hunting dog his nose was to the ground the whole time.  We took him home.

We learned that he came from a dog pound in Jacksonville, Florida where he was on the death list.  Much to my surprise they told us that they have to import dogs from the south because New England has very few dogs available for adoption.  In Homer's case he went from Florida to Alabama and then Tennessee before coming to Maine.  He's not seen snow yet.  He speaks with a southern accent.

We've already taken him for three walks since he got here and after being in captivity for awhile he was pretty worn out by night fall.  We bought him a new dog bed and he took to it pretty quick.  I've been reading about his breed and the story is that they are smart and loving dogs but need alot of exercise in order to keep from going crazy.  They must be kept on a leash or in a fenced yard because once they get on a scent they take off.

The walking will help keep us all in shape.  His gentle spirit has already captured our hearts.  I am happy with my new doggie.

100 DAYS FOR LOVING NATURE & THE PEOPLE

Dr. Song Kang Ho's 100th day in prison. People all over Jeju Island and Seoul are holding posters remembering him.  He has been relentless in his non-violent opposition to the Navy base destruction in Gangjeong village.

Dr. Song was featured in a documentary video done by Al Jazeera that can be seen here

The South Korean government, pressured by the U.S. to build this Navy base, is afraid of non-violent resisters like Dr. Song.  The government lies when it says the villagers support the base.  The government lies when it says the base will not harm nature.  The government lies when it says the base is not intended to help the U.S. "control" China.  The government lies when it says that Dr. Song is a criminal.

You too can show solidarity with Dr. Song by sharing his story with others.   

DEMANDING ELECTORAL REFORM

A week after Mexico's presidential election, thousands are still protesting against the result.

PRI-party candidate Enrique Pena Nieto won by a margin of nearly seven points.

Many accuse the old-guard PRI party of vote-buying: giving out gift cards in exchange for support.

SULLY ON TV

SUNDAY SONG

MORE OCCUPY COVERAGE

Details the visioning process at Philly national Occupy gathering.

UNDERSTANDING FRACKING

An original investigative report by Earth Focus and UK's Ecologist Film Unit looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to unregulated interstate dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts fear can contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains?

Marcellus Shale contains enough natural gas to supply all US gas needs for 14 years. But as gas drilling takes place, using a process called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," toxic chemicals and methane gas seep into drinking water. Now experts fear that unacceptable levels of radioactive Radium 226 in gas development waste.

Fracking chemicals are linked to bone, liver and breast cancers, gastrointestinal, circulatory, respiratory, developmental as well as brain and nervous system disorders. Such chemicals are present in frack waste and may find their way into drinking water and air.

Waste from Pennsylvania gas wells -- waste that may also contain unacceptable levels of radium -- is routinely dumped across state lines into landfills in New York, Ohio and West Virginia. New York does not require testing waste for radioactivity prior to dumping or treatment. So drill cuttings from Pennsylvania have been dumped in New York's Chemung and other counties and liquid waste is shipped to treatment plants in Auburn and Watertown New York. How radioactive is this waste? Experts are calling are for testing to find out.

New York State may have been the first state in the nation to put a temporary hold on fracking pending a safety review, but it allows other states to dump toxic frack waste within its boundaries.

With a gas production boom underway in the Marcellus Shale and plans for some 400,000 wells in the coming decades, the cumulative impact of dumping potential lethal waste without adequate oversight is a catastrophe waiting to happen. And now U.S. companies are exporting fracking to Europe.

CRITICAL LOOK AT OCCUPY

Wednesday marked America's Independence Day and the Occupy Wall Street movement took to the streets of Philadelphia, PA. The day known as "The National Gathering" drew occupiers from all over the country to plan the future of the movement, but critics believe the numbers that showed up were less than satisfactory, so is the Occupy Wall Street movement fading away? Arun Gupta, founding editor for The Indypendent, joins RT with what he saw in Philly.

My View:   I share many of Gupta's concerns about Occupy needing to mature.  I would venture that about 1,000 people at the most passed through Philadelphia while I was there. (The local media called it a bust because Occupy had predicted 10,000 would be there.  Shows the dangers of making crowd predictions to the media.)  Many of them came to play and socialize with their Occupy peers.  There were also many serious activists there who spent a good amount of time in circles discussing strategy and the like.  But things were not well organized.  Several times I went to the "information" table inside Franklin Park to ask when the next demonstration was going to take off and no one seemed to know.  One day I was able to eventually march (but it began an hour late missing the early rush hour traffic) and on the second day I was there I missed the demo altogether while I was sitting in the park waiting for it to start.  No announcement was made.  It just seemed to slide off onto the street and it was not announced within the park.  Confusing to say the least.

I saw the emails and Facebook reports about the "harsh police" who arrested 26 people when they late at night took over a street and refused to move.  But my experience was that the Philly police were quite calm and appeared to be trying to work with Occupy at every turn.  They did not armor up like I have seen done in so many other cities.  Instead most Philly cops were dressed in shorts and on their bicycles and were more concerned about dealing with traffic.  The heads of the police department were dressed in civilian clothes and were constantly talking with anyone who wished to speak with them - negotiating.  When the Veterans for Peace tent had to be moved off the Independence Mall on July 4 the police even brought a truck around to help VFP move all their stuff to another nearby location.  There were federal cops and Homeland Security there but the local Philly cops seemed to have kept them in their place and were calling the shots.  In one instance my friend Bob Smith (longtime local Philly peace organizer) said a federal cop got in his face and the Philly police told the fed to back off.  I don't think it does our movement any good to trash cops when they had in fact mostly been acting like we'd hope they would.

The essence of Occupy though is what happens locally all over the country.  I know that in some communities Occupy has basically died.  In others there is still good local activity going on.  Here in Brunswick Occupy still protests on the street each week and meets afterward.  They just had a big presence in the Bath July 4 parade.  (I hope to have some video of that on here soon.)  So I don't see Occupy being able to come up with some "big national plan".  Instead for Occupy to continue to be relevant it must continue to be active in local communities working on issues of importance in those towns and cities.  No one expects that they should retake the parks again.  That strategy has passed.  What matters now is can people move on to something more than playing grab-ass with the police?  The cat-and-mouse game with the cops is not a political strategy.  It is a sign of political immaturity.

The idea is to organize the increasingly frustrated and abandoned bunch of folks across the nation who have been cast to the side by the oligarchy.  Time will tell if Occupy can find good ways to keep reaching out.

Another Opinion:  Here is what Rob Kall, who lives in Philly area and runs Op-Ed News, has to say about Occupy.  

People wonder what the future of the Occupy movement is. I left the gathering very optimistic and hopeful. The energy, creativity, dedication and passion manifested by all ages is extraordinary. The encampments are gone. So be it. The future of occupy is in the people already in it and those who discover it and who the current people awaken, who will act as catalysts, moving the people of the world from a top down culture of dinosaurs to a bottom up, horizontal, direct democracy world of little mammals. That's how evolution happened. That's how the  metamorphosis of Occupy will shake the world and, from the bottom up, make the biggest changes seen since civilization began.

UNHAPPY AT MDA

Missile Defense Chief Accused of Being a Toxic Boss 

By Spencer Ackerman 

A Defense Department investigation has recommended disciplinary action against the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for verbally harassing his subordinates.

The Pentagon’s inspector general has found that Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly’s behavior as the military’s missile defense chief was “inconsistent with standards expected of senior army leaders,” according to Danger Room pal Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy.

O’Reilly would unleash a hailstorm of expletives on his staff for even minor infractions. When an unnamed staffer booked the general’s retinue in a hotel with “resort” in its title, O’Reilly profanely yelled in the lobby for at least 10 minutes, demanding the staffer admit s/he “fucked up.” The general was concerned that the media would portray the Missile Defense Agency as profligate.

He might have been more concerned about hemorrhaging staff. In his nearly four years as director, numerous staff members quit the agency because of his management style, a fact O’Reilly did not dispute to investigators even as he defended himself. O’Reilly would “berate you, make you feel like you’re the dirt beneath his feet,” a witness told the inspector general. Another said O’Reilly once threatened to “fucking choke me” in frustration.


Choking seems to be a particular preoccupation of O’Reilly’s. In June 2009, he allegedly said he would “gladly choke” a witness during a staff meeting. On another occasion, O’Reilly allegedly told a participant in a teleconference, “If I could get my hands through the phone right now I’d choke your fucking throat.”

According to the investigation, staffers would say “pass, sir” during meetings instead of risking an O’Reilly eruption. “You don’t tell the boss the truth if it’s bad,” one witness told the investigators.

O’Reilly defended himself by saying that he was trying to introduce accountability into an agency that had “a very negative command climate,” the investigation stated. He shut down many large projects, which O’Reilly claims his staff personalized. It’s worth noting that inspector general doesn’t accuse O’Reilly of mismanaging the Missile Defense Agency, which is one of the most lavish-spending commands in the military.

But it most certainly says that O’Reilly created a command climate of fear, in violation of military regulations demanding officers treat their subordinates with dignity. O’Reilly is on his way out of the agency as it is. But “We recommend to the Secretary of the Army consider appropriate corrective action with regard to LTG O’Reilly,” the inspector general’s report states.

TANK-LESS IN COLORADO

Lone protester, local  hairdresser Sid Lewis in Paonia, Colorado, stopped the July 4th parade led by tank owned by Bill Koch (Koch brothers fame) who owns area coal mines and is at root of fracking efforts in this peaceful valley. Fighting fires isn't enough. Paonia residents have to fight Koch billions too. Holding a sign reading 'Democracy Bought & Sold' and 'Trying to buy the planet, or just take it?', Sid stood in front of the approaching tank which led the parade and forced it to stop. He was finally shoved out of the way, but next he stood in front of Bill Koch's Hummer and that didn't stop... tried to run him down. He stood his ground until he couldn't any longer.

Following the parade, a man rushed him and said, "You're gonna get a bullet right between the eyes." But, later, as Sid stood over the 'recycling' 'compost' and 'landfill' bins educating people about trash, he received many comments of gratitude and praise.  It won't make national news, and maybe not even the Paonia paper... but, it should.

Update:   The Denver Post did end up covering this story.  See it here

PUSHING DRONES

I sat under the Veterans for Peace canopy this morning and talked to many of the young Occupy folks who passed by our spot on their way to the primary gathering place in Franklin Park.  I was there about three hours before a young woman approached us carrying a large painting.  Turns out she spent the entire night painting this scene of a night sky with 50 stars, fields with amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, and a masked woman holding a banner that said that the blood we shed is for each other and not our nation.

She told us that she had a vision of the painting last night and wanted to paint it for us veterans.  All of us were very moved by her incredible artwork but even more so we were impressed with her loving spirit.  She asked us all to sign her diary.  The picture will be delivered to the next VFP convention in Miami in August.

Around 11am the huge July 4 parade began down Market St. and ended just after 1:00 pm.  As the parade was ending about 30 of us got behind a replica of a Predator drone (1/5 the actual size) that was mounted on a wheeled display.  We pushed the drone up and down the street and it was followed by people with signs, banners, and a bunch of white VFP flags.  Once the streets were reopened we crossed onto Independence Mall and circled around the area that was packed with tourists.  Pushing a drone, with replicas of Hellfire missiles mounted on it, gets the public's attention.

After wheeling the drone around for a good while in the blazing sun we returned to a still busy street corner and held a short rally with music and speakers.  I said a few words but cut them short because the temperature felt like it was about 120 degrees on the hot sidewalk.

I head back home in the morning on the train.  I was sorry I missed the parade in my own community today.  I heard that more than 30 people turned out for the joint PeaceWorks-Occupy contingent with an anti-corporate message in the Bath parade.  Thousands attend that parade and its a tough audience since so many of them work at the shipyard building destroyers. 

NO MOO NUKES

A giant cow and lots of people go after Vermont's aging, leaking, nuclear power plant. Who will speak for the cows?  They can't eat radioactive grass.  Ask the Fukushima cows........

Go solar not radioactive.

IMAGES OF A DAY

• During one circle under the shade of trees in Franklin Square Park a group called Guitarmy sat with guitars and banjos and talked about how to make meaningful music during a time when the music scene is controlled by a profit driven industry that is only interested in song lyrics like "bitches, blondes and big screen TV's."  You can learn more about them at www.occupymusicians.com
• Free vegan pizza was served at the Occupy gathering in the park and alongside the street a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream truck was giving away free cups of the good stuff - three flavors to pick from.
• At the Friends Meeting House in center city the bulk of Occupy folks are sleeping in the parking lot and in the ditches by the Quaker compound wall.  The ground is rough dirt.  Just feet away is a nice green lawn in front of the Quaker Meeting House but the campers don't appear to be welcome on the soft and clean grass.
• A free Mumia Abu-Jamal tent was set up today right next to the veterans tent on the Independence Mall.  From 1:00-6:00 pm legendary Pam Africa from Philadelphia's Move organization led a rally.  By 6:00 pm a large group had gathered to hear rap, drumming, and speeches.  One African-American activist from Occupy Hood said, "No more sitting around waiting for the black messiah.  We got to decolonize the hood."  She said July 4 was not about "celebrating Independence day but the power of the people."
• Just across the street from Independence Mall is a big building with a food court and tourist shops inside.  I went in there at one point today to get out of the heat.  I noticed one older woman with her family.  Later on while back outside at the veterans tent on the mall I saw the woman and her family walk by.  When she saw the protesters she gave a very disapproving shake of her head at us.  All around us is a plastic tourist version of revolution and celebration of the rich elite rebelling against the British.  We've been trained to glorify the rich "founding fathers" and most citizens know virtually nothing about the real origins of our "democracy".  The woman showing her disapproval of a living revolution happening in her midst as she consumes the plastic interpretation is the real story of this experience in Philly.

BLOCKING DRONE BASE

This video captures the essence of a civil resistance action against drone warfare at Hancock Air Field, Syracuse, NY.  The organizers hope it will be viewed as a "how to" film and inspire others to take action and resist the criminality of drone warfare.

In drone related news:

Researchers at the University of Texas have hijacked a civilian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) by spoofing its GPS signals, warning that UAVs could potentially be turned into missiles.

Professor Todd Humphreys and his team were able to take control of a mini helicopter UAV by sending out a GPS signal more powerful than the ones coming down from satellites. They hijacked the drone on June 25, at the request of the US Department of Homeland Security.

MARCHING IN PHILLY

At Franklin Square Park today several hundred people gathered to hear speeches and hold workshops in the hot Philly weather.  Water was kindly shared by everyone all day long.

One African-American woman, Gina McGill from Madison, Alabama, gave a moving talk where she called the 1% who control the nation and the world sadistic and evil.  "It's time for us to deal with the whole octupus instead of just it tentacles," she said.  McGill called for a real democracy that truly included and belonged to the 99%.  I couldn't help but see the irony as she spoke just blocks away from Constitution Hall where the rich white oligarcy once framed a new nation that excluded blacks, women, and the landless peasants who really built this nation.

One activist who spoke said, "Occupy is becoming a giant think tank" for the people where education and movement happens out in the open.

An artist sat in a cardboard box all day long painting Occupy art and his box was labeled "Get outside of your box."

I was impressed with a retired communication union member from New York who was part of Occupy there.  He held a large union flag and talked to anyone who would listen about the corporate consolidation of the tele-communications industry.

At 5:00 pm about 300 people began a two-hour march through the rush hour streets of center city.  Traffic was stopped and large throngs of people watched us march by as they waited for their city buses which were also blocked by the march.  Many of them took photos on their cells phones - a good number waved or smiled but many were not happy that we had delayed their trip home after a long day of work.

Mid-way through the march about 50 Communication Workers of America (CWA) joined us and we marched to the office buildings of Comcast and then Verizon.

The march was led mostly by a young and ethnically diverse crowd.  I was impressed by their skill in leading the group through the city and they showed great strength and determination.  They appear to be in this for the long haul.

Our Veterans Peace Team had a good contingent in the march and it felt good to be with them.

I must acknowledge that the police really played it right today, concentrating on traffic control and not giving us a hard time at all.  They were mostly dressed in shorts and on bicycles and kept a low profile.  Very unusual these days.  

HEADING TO PHILLY

I am on the train from Boston to Philadelphia where I will join the expected 10,000 people who will gather to breathe life back into the Occupy movement.

The photo above comes from Philly where last night this image was put onto the front wall of Independence Hall where things took shape during the first American revolution.  The second American revolution has come here to reclaim democracy which has now been drowned by the corporations that rule the roost these days.

According to an Occupy news release issued today:

The Occupy National Gathering kicked off on June 30^th, 2012 with a myriad of workshops, speakers, and a peaceful march against corporate personhood, making stops at Wells Fargo [Bank] to protest racist predatory lending, Fox News to confront corporate profit at the expense of the peoples' airwaves, and ended with an attempt to set up a space away from Independence Mall - in a park behind the Second Bank of the United States, located at 4^th and Chestnut. This was promptly -- and brutally -- followed by a National Park Service raid, which included the assistance of the Philadelphia police department, on approximately 150--200 people peacefully assembled for a redress of political grievances. The raid resulted in one arrest.

I will be staying at the home of a Global Network friend who lives near the center of the city.  Early in the morning the Veterans for Peace Team will meet and from there it should be a busy and exciting time.  One reporter wrote that "I don't know that I've ever seen so many different varieties of police at an action-- local park police, USA Park Rangers, US Marshals, Philly Police-- even someone wearing a Department of Justice cap."

It was the same story in Chicago - they brought in tons of federal, state, and local police.  That appears to be the strategy every time we gather to protest these days.  Massive police presence and early assaults on protesters that gets big media coverage all intended to frighten the public and keep them away from the "rabble".

TURN SILENT WEEPING INTO PUBLIC OUTCRY

 Dongwon spent seven hours on the dredging barge and now is in jail

 Father Moon - defiant always

 Returning home after a long day protecting nature

How long can the soft coral reefs survive the unforgiving dredging barge?

How long can the aquatic life survive the pollution that comes from building this insane Navy base?

How can people justify destroying nature just to get a pay check?

Has our addiction to materialism become so strong that our hearts no longer feel our connection to nature?

Why are so many so silent as we witness, day-by-day this ecocide?

Who will let their silent weeping turn to public outcry?

SUNDAY SONG