Chest deep in Afghan quagmire

punditman says...

Punditman is not convinced there is any strategy that will "win" in Afghanistan. But we are being told by the geniuses in charge that to "win" will require much greater sacrifice on the part of Western forces. Many more troops, troops in close contact with the population, troops at greater risk, sustaining much greater casualities. Supposedly the generals and politicians have the hearts and minds thing all figured out this time around.

Meanwhile, the lack of a robust anti-Afghan War movement indicates that most people in the West seem resigned to permanent war and a permanent war economy as long as our side is doing most of the killing and other people are doing most of the dying. It ill be ironic, indeed, if the only thing that brings the Afghan debacle to some kind of half-assed negotiated conclusion is Obama's planned escalation, which finally awakens the "peaceniks" from their Obamatized slumber. Is punditman making any sense? More coffee, please.

Thomas Walkom

The Afghan war was a mistake from the beginning. Its justification was flawed, its intent confused, its implementation half-hearted.

That's why the bleak picture painted by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man in charge of NATO forces in Afghanistan should come as no surprise.

In a report made public this week, McChrystal articulated the obvious: Things are getting worse; the war is going nowhere.

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Scott Horton Interviews Eric Stoner

punditman says...The Afghan War is going badly. The peace movement is going badly too; here is some analysis on what to do.

Eric Stoner, freelance journalist based in New York, discusses the use of nonviolence to force political changes, the decline in the antiwar movement after Obama’s election, the need for more creative and assertive protests, the replacement of soldiers with remote controlled robots and why there is no such thing as a humanitarian war.

MP3 here. (30:25)

Shame: The ‘Antiwar’ Democrats Who Sold Out

punditman says...This reminds punditman of an interview he once heard with Noam Chomsky, in which he said that in the 1960's, he often voted for the local Republican candidate who was against the Vietnam War. Shocking? Not at all. The Democratic Party as a whole is just as pro war as the Republicans. The Canadian Liberals are just as pro war as their Conservative counterparts, Britain's Labour Party is just as pro war as...do you catch punditman's drift? Yes, there are differences in style, but the substance is largely the same. So for those who mistakenly thought the Democrats were antiwar and would abruptly change course from the Bush administration when it comes to foreign policy, military spending, intervention, read on.

In a vote that should go down in recent histories as a day of shame for the Democrats, on Tuesday the House voted to approve another $106 billion dollars for the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and increasingly Pakistan). To put a fine point on the interconnection of the iron fist of U.S. militarism and the hidden hand of free market neoliberal economics, the bill included a massive initiative to give the International Monetary Fund billions more in U.S. taxpayer funds.

What once Democrats could argue was "Bush’s war," they now officially own. In fact, only five Republicans voted for the supplemental (though overwhelmingly not on the issue of the war funding). Ron Paul, who made clear he was voting against the war, was a notable exception.

This vote has revealed a sobering statistic for the anti-war movement in this country and brought to the surface a broader issue that should give die-hard partisan Democrats who purport to be anti-war reason for serious pause about the actual state of their party. Only 30 Democrats voted against the war funding when it mattered. And these 30 did so in the face of significant threats to their political future from the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That means that only 30 out of 256 Democrats are willing to stand up to the war and the current president presiding over it. Their names are listed below; I would encourage people to call them and thank them for standing up and voting no when it counted.

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Opposing the Troop Surge in Afghanistan

punditman says...Highlights from the speech below include the fact that, unlike the propaganda we constantly hear, most of the Taliban are made up of unemployed young men with no ideological axe to grind; their interests are local. And yes, Western troops are committing atrocities. It's time to get with the program and wake up. Punditman is wondering where the next big antiwar demonstration will be and Peacenik is working on starting up a Pubs for Peace movement. Who is with us?

David Markland is author of a blog on Afghanistan. He spoke at a recent forum held in Vancouver on the U.S. escalation of troops in Afghanistan.|

17:49 minutes (16.32 MB)

Army deserter deported from Canada, placed in Whatcom County Jail

By Sam Taylor Bellingham Herald

Cliff Cornell fled the U.S. Army four years ago for British Columbia when his Georgia artillery unit was ordered to serve in Iraq war.

On Wednesday, Cornell was deported from Canada, arrested in the U.S. and booked into the Whatcom County jail.

Read on...

This is not what Peacenik wants to read on a nice sunny Friday, or any day. A minority, unpopular, Canadian government is deporting U.S. army deserters back to the U.S. Peacenik can only assume Ignatieff and the Liberal Party support this action, or they just can't be bothered to raise a finger or word in protest. Are Canadians and Canadian politicans so afraid to appear anti-war, for fear of being labelled anti-military, that they allow this to happen? It didn't take long to turn Canadian society from a society that was proud of its peace keeping tradition into a society that seems proud of its war making ability. A change that Peacenik thinks Canadians will soon regret.

Antiwar march planned for last day of RNC

By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer
Thu Sep 4,

ST. PAUL, Minn. - As John McCain accepts his party's presidential nomination Thursday night, protesters calling for an end to the Iraq war plan to march outside the Xcel Energy Center.

The Anti-War Committee, which is organizing Thursday's march, urged others to join in and denounced the increased presence of police in riot gear and acts of "intimidation" in the streets of St. Paul.

Read on...

Peacenik wonders how many will show up for this protest tonight given the extreme aggression shown by the police. Would you?