McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure'

Talk about shaping the debate. There should be no debate. The Afghan war should be over. But, just like the surge in Iraq seemed ridiculous when it was first suggested, another surge, even more ridiculous, is now being suggested.

Of course with the appointment of General McChrystal, this recommendation became inevitable. McChrystal is an "expert" in counterinsurgency, a buddy of General Petraeus, and was involved in the Pat Tillman cover up. What else would you expect of him.

So now the media and neo cons will be debating more troops for Afghanistan. The debate will evolve into "how many more". The legitimacy of the war will be pushed into the background. Yes the U.S. has perfected the formula for never ending war. What will Canada do? Peacenik hopes Canada will say "enough is enough", and bring the troops home now.

Top U.S. Commander For Afghan War Calls Next 12 Months Decisive

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 21, 2009

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says emphatically: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible."

Read on...

Swine flu 'could kill millions unless rich nations give £900m'

Anarchy? For some weird reason this word jumps out at Peacenik. Peacenik can't ignore a story that includes anarchy. Peacenik thinks there is lots of anarchy on the way. A perfect storm of anarchy. The projections for the swine flu pandemic are getting scarier and scarier.

This story talks about supplying antiviral drugs, vaccines, etc. to poor countries. Peacenik is not even sure there is going to be enough vaccine even for a supposedly rich country like Canada. When Peacenik reads stories about actual survivors of swine flu, Peacenik is more and more inclined to line up for the vaccine when and if it becomes available. Will the line ups be orderly. Will there be anarchy. Will Don Cherry push his way in front of Peacenik? Peacenik will see.

A woman wears a mask as preventive measure against swine flu, at Sassoon hospital in Pune, India, Aug 11, 2009. Photograph: Dhiraj Singh/AP

UN report says pandemic may result in anarchy unless western world pays for antiviral drugs and vaccines

Rajeev Syal

The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world's poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer.

The disclosure will provoke concerns that health officials will not be able to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries. If the virus takes hold in the poorest nations, millions could die and the economies of fragile countries could be destroyed.

Health ministers around the globe were sent the warning on Thursday in a report on the costs of averting a humanitarian disaster in the next few months. It comes as officials inside the World Health Organisation, the UN's public health body, said they feared they would not be able to raise half that amount because of the global downturn.

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Activists Protest War Simulator

Peacenik thinks this is sick. Just another way to brutalize society. War is fun. Violence is fun. Killing is fun. No doubt the Canadian military is viewing the war simulator with envy. How long before one comes to a mall near you.

Society already is too violent. Too well armed. To prone to rage. Society doesn't need war simulators recruiting kids into the army. Stop the war. Stop Don Cherry promoting war on Hockey Night in Canada. Stop glorifying death and destruction. Bring the troops home now.

by Jen DiMascio

Teens "killing" at the Army Experience Center (photo: Counter-Recruitment.org)

PHILADELPHIA - Located across from an indoor skateboarding park in a Northeast Philadelphia outlet mall, the Army Experience Center includes a computer lab that showcases careers as well as the kind of interactive simulators that are irresistible to its target market: the teenage boys recruiters hope will fuel the Army of the future.

One simulator is a model Humvee in which a handful of people can pick up model M-16 rifles and play an interactive video game that simulates a real battle in Iraq or rounding up illegal immigrants who have just crossed the border from Mexico. There's also a model Apache helicopter.

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Punditman and Bunnie go to U2

A little while ago, Punditman grabbed a book that had been sitting mostly unread on his shelf for 20 years, Unforgettable Fire: The Story of U2. Punditman has been pleasantly surprised at what an enjoyable and informative read it is.

Punditman always really liked U2, so there must be some cosmic reason why, through a stroke of karmic luck, Punditman was given two free tickets to last night's Toronto concert. The actual cost of the seats could provide five tons of food for hungry North Americans, or save the lives of five children from malnutrition in the Third World, or provide medical supplies and treatment to a village of 100 for one year. Punditman wondered what kind of rich nutter would pay the actual cost of these seats; the P-man loves U2 but not that much.

In order to cut down on our carbon footprint, we drove part way and then took the subway. It took 3.5 traffic-jammed, subway-scrunched hours to make what once was an hour-and-change trek to the Big Smoke, reminding Punditman of why he doesn't go into the City as often as he once did and why he would never move back to from whence Punditman once dwelled, albeit in the burbs. Punditman had never lined up at a subway stop for half an hour and he never plans to again. A free Leaf game and the TIFF didn't help with crowd numbers.

Admittedly, for a progressively minded bunch, U2's carbon footprint is a little higher than Punditman and Bunnie and Peacenik and Johnny Anon combined. But hey, bringing music to the people on a revolving stage with a wall of sound while shouting out the message of unity and making people aware of Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, all the while rocking out, is probably hard to do on the cheap—if you want to have a big impact.

The concert was presented under a four-legged, 164 foot-tall canopy that resembled a Klingon Vor'cha-class attack cruiser already filed somewhere in Punditman's subconscious, under Scary Sci-Fi. Well, sorta. But more playful and majestic:



The giant beehive inside of "The Claw" projected all sorts of protechnics and images, duly impressing Bunnie and Punditman.

Punditman was reminded of his age and that the 70's are truly gone forever, when, instead of everyone turning on their lighters near the end, Bono requested that each take out their phone and let their light shine in a spacey future kind of way. Everywhere you looked, where once upon a time in a universe far away, there were bics, there were now blackberrys dotting the night time air. Welcome to the machine, the RIM machine, the tour's corporate sponsor. Punditman thought it was a bit weird, in a geeky corporate governance, future shock kind of way. (Note: on the way to the show, a dude from the 20th century mocked all the concert goers in the subway car who were texting on their cellphones. Said he, "Whatever happened to writing a letter"? Cell phones are fucking gay.") Punditman thought that was a bit weird too, in red neck, Luddite kind of way.

Even with free tix, Punditman still dropped a ton of coin. Let's see: gas, subway, $10.50 per beer, concert t-shirt for Bunnie, cheap knock-off t-shirt from a vender 3 streets away for Punditman, money to the homeless, Apache burgers after the show.

Who the heck can afford tickets? Punditman and Bunnie went to U2 last night.

Here's the setlist:

1. Breathe
2. No Line On The Horizon
3. Get On Your Boots
4. Magnificent
5. Beautiful Day / Alison (snippet)
6. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
7. Elevation
8. Your Blue Room
9. Unknown Caller
10. Until The End Of The World
11. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
12. The Unforgettable Fire
13. City Of Blinding Lights
14. Vertigo / Pump It Up (snippet)
15. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
16. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Oliver's Army (snippet)
17. MLK
18. Walk On
19. One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
20. Where The Streets Have No Name

encore(s):

21. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
22. With Or Without You
23. Moment of Surrender

Jimmy Carter: ‘Hamid Karzai Has Stolen the Election’

Eight years later and 130 dead Canadian servicemen later and the election in Afghanistan is a fraud. As predicted. Why is Canada fighting a war in Afghanistan and supporting a fraudulent government? What does Don Cherry think about Canadians dying in support of a fraudulent Afghanistan government? Nothing is being achieved in Afghanistan except death and destruction. Peacenik says bring the troops home now.

by Aaron Glantz

Former US president Jimmy Carter pictured during a press conferance following his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on June. (AFP/File/Louai Beshara)

ATLANTA -- Former President Jimmy Carter, who has monitored elections in countries across the globe, called the elections in Afghanistan "despicable" Tuesday.

"Hamid Karzai has stolen the election," the former president told a small group of donors to his Carter Center in Atlanta. "Now the question is whether he gets away with it."

Official counts have given the Afghan president, who was installed after a U.S.-lead coalition toppled the Taliban in 2001, 54 percent of the vote. His main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, alleged fraud and a recount is currently underway.

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Barack Obama Abandons Missile Defense Shield in Europe

Watch the neo cons go nuts. This move by Obama could be simple economics. Or it could recognize the reality that missile shields don't work, have never worked, and never will work. This article mentions the slow development of Iran's long range missile program as a possible reason. Why would Iran want to shoot a missile at Poland? Even when the U.S. makes the right decision the tortured logic illustrates how difficult it is for the U.S. to make any decisions that don't kowtow to the neo cons.

Peacenik awaits a Frank Gaffney article calling Obama a traitor. Peacenik awaits a Limbaugh report calling Obama an appeaser. Peacenik awaits a Glenn Beck editorial calling Obama a commie. Oh wait. Beck has already done that. Wonder what Henry, the war criminal, Kissinger will have to say.

Decision likely to delight Moscow, which saw itself as the target, but is met with dismay by Poland and Czech Republic

by Luke Harding in Moscow and Ian Traynor in Brussels

A demonstrator puts on a hat with a picture of a missile during a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in central Warsaw, March 24, 2007. (REUTERS/Katarina Stoltz)

Barack Obama has abandoned the controversial Pentagon plan to build a missile defence system in Europe. The move has prompted angry accusations of betrayal from Washington's eastern European allies but delighted the Kremlin.

In one of the sharpest breaks yet with the policies of the Bush administration, Obama phoned the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic last night to tell them that he had dropped plans to site missile interceptors and a radar station in their respective countries. Russia had furiously opposed the project, claiming it targeted Moscow's nuclear arsenal.

Obama is to announce the reversal officially at a news conference today. This morning the Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, revealed that Obama phoned him about it last night.

Read on...

Americans Have Been Taken Hostage

It looks like the "official" stats will show the recession in the U.S. is over. Peacenik doesn't believe it. The publicly funded stimulus has artificially inflated a few stats so that the pump and dump artists on Wall St. and Bay St. can keep the party going for a bit longer. The ghost fleet of tankers off of Malaysia and the Baltic Dry Index tell another story.

The economy will never recover. There will be no growth. Until the black hole of debt is filled in or defaulted on, the global economy will be a phony economy. And getting rid of that black hole of debt is going to change the global economy in ways not yet imaginable. Dylan Ratigan's article is a nice simple summary of some of the problems....that are unsolvable.

Dylan Ratigan

The American people have been taken hostage to a broken system.

It is a system that remains in place to this day.

A system where bank lobbyists have been spending in record numbers to make sure it stays that way.

A system that corrupts the most basic principles of competition and fair play, principles upon which this country was built.

It is a system that so far has forced the taxpayer to provide the banks with the use of $14 trillion from the Federal Reserve, much of the $7 trillion outstanding at the US Treasury and $2.3 trillion at the FDIC.

Read on...

A Recipe for Disaster: School Cops Are Being Armed with 50,000-Volt Tasers

Peacenik wonders what schools in Guelph have Tasers if any. Peacenik hopes it is none. The police and Taser International have been successful in persuading the authorities that tasers are needed in policing. Peacenik doesn't agree. Are they needed in schools? Are they in your kids school?

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted September 16, 2009.

Tasers aren't 'non-lethal'; they've killed hundreds. With younger people being especially vulnerable to the taser's shock, the risks could be very deadly.

One spring day this April, at the Franklin Correctional Institution on Florida's Highway 67, Sgt. Walter Schmidt pulled out his Electronic Immobilization Device -- EID in officer parlance -- and zapped two people, who immediately "yelped in pain, fell to the ground and grabbed red burn marks on their arms," according to the St. Petersburg Times.

The two were not inmates at the prison, however. They were students visiting the facility as part of "Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day."

The move cost Sgt. Schmidt his job, despite his claim that he merely intended to demonstrate how the devices worked. He even asked the children's parents (who were also employees at the prison) permission first. "When they said 'sure,' I went ahead and did it," he told the Times.

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Ronald Reagan's Torture

punditman says...The question that should be asked is: When has the US not been in the torture business? One could easily cite examples throughout American history. Yet there is an almost complete lack of historic memory in this regard.

The Reagan administration's dirty wars in Central America should be relatively fresh in people's minds, with the atrocities committed by the US/CIA-backed Contras and the Salvadorean and Guatemalan military/security forces as part and parcel of a record of brutality. But apparently not. It just didn't happen. Instead, Reagan is portrayed in popular culture as a kind of doddling old grandfatherly type, sort of a Dubya-lite without the evil sneer who valiantly defeated commies and leftists.

In fact, the story was quite different, especially for those struggling for basic human dignity but who happened to be on the receiving end of The Gipper's policies. But instead of facing up to the truth, Obama and the Democrats have signed a resolution to create a commission that will plan a centennial celebration in 2011 of Ronald Reagan’s birth. In other words, none of the facts matter. Can you think of another "open society" so thoroughly hypnotized by a hogwash history? Punditman can't.


By Robert Parry

Lost amid the attention given George W. Bush’s “war on terror” torture policies was the CIA’s cryptic admission that it also engaged in interrogation abuses during Ronald Reagan’s anti-leftist wars in Central America, another era of torture and extra-judicial killings.

The 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report, released last month, referenced as “background” to the Bush-era abuses the spy agency’s “intermittent involvement in the interrogation of individuals whose interests are opposed to those of the United States.” The report noted “a resurgence in interest” in teaching those techniques in the early 1980s “to foster foreign liaison relationships.”

The report said, “because of political sensitivities,” the CIA’s top brass in the 1980s “forbade Agency officers from using the word ‘interrogation” and substituted the phrase “human resources exploitation” [HRE] in training programs for allied intelligence agencies.

The euphemism aside, the reality of these interrogation techniques remained brutal, with the CIA Inspector General conducting a 1984 investigation of alleged “misconduct on the part of two Agency officers who were involved in interrogations and the death of one individual,” the report said (although the details were redacted in the version released last month).

In 1984, the CIA also was hit with a scandal over what became known as an “assassination manual” prepared by agency personnel for the Nicaraguan contras, a rebel group sponsored by the Reagan administration with the goal of ousting Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government.

Despite those two problems, the questionable training programs apparently continued for another two years. The 2004 IG report states that “in 1986, the Agency ended the HRE training program because of allegations of human rights abuses in Latin America.”

While the report’s references to this earlier era of torture are brief – and the abuses are little-remembered features of Ronald Reagan’s glorified presidency – there have been other glimpses into how Reagan unleashed this earlier “dark side” on the peasants, workers and students of Central America.

Project X

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Hospitals ready for swine flu wave

As Peacenik sat on the inter-city bus on Peacenik's way to work this morning, cringingly listening to the quiet coughing of Peacenik's fellow passengers, Peacenik wondered about Peacenik's chances of catching the swine flu. Peacenik tried to only exhale for the hour long trip. Peacenik heard that a public service city employee in Guelph has the swine flu. Peacenik works in public service in Toronto. Why are Peacenik's eyelids so heavy? Does Peacenik have myasthenia gravis? Peacenik thinks that's the problem in a flu pandemic. Everyone begins to panic. Every ache and pain and heavy eyelid is a symptom.

It is the earliest days of the new flu season. The authorities have installed a Purell dispenser outside Peacenik's office. Instructions have been given. Plans have been made. Peacenik slathered Purell all over Peacenik's hands, right up to the elbow, when Peacenik got to work. Is it time to don the latex gloves and face masks? Is it time for social distancing? Is it possible to hide from a flu bug? Why are Peacenik's eyelids so heavy?

Last Updated: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 | 4:39 AM ET

At CHEO, volunteers have been screening visitors and directing them to a handwashing station. (CBC)

To keep swine flu from spreading through Ottawa hospitals, medical staff are screening patients at hospital entrances and providing separate waiting rooms for those with flu symptoms.

The measures are part of plans to prepare for the next wave of swine flu or H1N1 virus this fall.

"Definitely anyone that comes to CHEO with even a thought that they might have swine flu or H1N1 will be cared for separately," said Dr. Lindy Sampson, chief of infectious diseases and head of pandemic planning at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

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