Peace and War

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives backed eternal worldwide war and imprisonment powers for all future presidents, but blocked any ground troops in Libya (except for the ones already there, since the measure included no consequences for its violation).  The House also unanimously created a new national holiday to celebrate the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.  It defunded the US Institute for Peace (saving the cost of 5 hours in Afghanistan).  And it required that all suspected read more

The White House has put out a statement expressing its disapproval of various bits of H.R.1540, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Here’s the most interesting, if not the most adamant, objection:

“Detainee Matters: The Administration strongly objects to section 1034 which, in purporting to affirm the conflict, would effectively recharacterize its scope and would risk creating confusion regarding applicable standards. At a minimum, this is an issue that read more

“Ban the bombers are afraid of a fight
“Peace hurts business and that ain’t right
“How do I know? I read it in the Daily News”
–Tom Paxton

PBS (the P stands for “Pure” I think) is concerned that if the U.S. government stops funding the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. economy will crash:

“An executive at a small defense contractor recently joked to me, ‘Afghanistan is our business plan.’ I asked him what he would do if the war ended. read more

The industry we used to have in the United States:

What a job fair looks like now in Charlottesville:

Discussing the situation:

While the Complex likes to threaten job loss and no doubt eliminates jobs in some places but not others, the overall military budget is bigger this year than last year, as has been true for many years, and it has nearly doubled in the past decade.

A conference on the topic is planned for Charlottesville:
http://micat50cville.org

From Iran Voice of Justice

Now we know why Obama has gone to such outrageous lengths to keep Bush’s lawyers out of prison, claiming powers of secrecy and immunity beyond Cheney’s wildest dreams and pressuring foreign nations to clamp down on any outbreaks of law enforcement.

If the Bush lawyers who “legalized” aggressive war, lawless imprisonment, and torture were not consulted on how to keep the war in Libya going in perpetuity, they were certainly the inspiration for the latest White House brainstorming read more

The Guardian

Obama promised no open-ended occupation – and to draw down forces from July. A 2.5% cut is hardly an encouraging start

• • David Swanson
    
  • guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 May 2011 19.31 BST
  General David Petraeus, commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, greets US defence secretary Robert Gates upon his arrival in Kabul, March 2011. Photograph: Pool/Reuters

  Afghanistan was supposed to be the campaign promise that President Barack Obama actually kept. He said he would escalate that war, and sure enough he did. Is he now going back on promises he’s made as president, by proposing to withdraw 2.5% of US forces in July?

  Here are the relevant promises:

  “After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home … [O]ur read more

I’ve been asking for a congress member to do this for years. This is the first time one has said they would.

http://twitter.com/#!/RepMcGovern/status/68772828631146496

I tweeted this: Will you form a public whip list of members who will vote against any more war $? If not, why not?

@RepMcGovern tweeted: @davidcnswanson We’re working on putting a list together now.

Good news indeed.

When a United Airlines pilot of a flight I was on celebrated the killing of Osama bin Laden, and I blogged about it, my friend Emily Levy urged me to complain to the airline. So I did. Here’s their response, followed by what I had sent them.

Dear Mr. Swanson:

Thank you for contacting us. We are currently experiencing a high volume of emails, and I offer my apology for the delayed response to your message.

I am very sorry to hear that our pilot vocalized his personal opinion with the passenger’s read more

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From Samaa Elibyari, Host / Producer
Caravan, CKUT 90.3 Fm (Montreal)
Community /McGill campus radio
http://www.ckut.ca

LISTEN HERE.