Military - War - Miltary Industrial War Complex

• The Crash and Burn Future of Robert Warfare Op-Ed by Nick Turse. Largely covert, yet highly touted war-fighting, assassination, and spy program involving armed robots are significantly less reliable than previously acknowledged.
• "On The Dark Side In Al Doura: A Soldier In The Shadows” A shocking 47-minute on-line film featuring Michael Needham talking about his son, U.S. Army Ranger John Needham’s experience in Iraq, where he witnessed grim atrocities by his fellow U.S. Soldiers. Atrocity photos have been released in the public interest.
• At the Speed of FootMore than simply a hiking story, At the Speed of Foot, explores the events and ideas that led Mark to the Appalachian Trail.  Along with the mountain, forests, small towns and other hikers, Mark reflects on his experience as a combat veteran of Vietnam.  Anger and guilt contrast with the often subtle, sometimes spectacular, landscape that passes under Mark’s feet. Release Flyer
• U.S. Troops' Mental Health Continues to Erode Soldiers on their third/fourth deployment report significantly more psychological problems and use of mental health medications than Soldiers on their first or second deployment.
  Read more: http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/05/19/u-s-troops-mental-health-continues-to-erode/#ixzz1d8OSbtj4
• U.S. to Finish disassembling Massive Nukes The bomb was intended for deployment on B-52 bomber aircraft and could generate an explosive yield 600 times greater than the weapon employed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, Bloomberg quoted the Federation of American Scientists as saying on its website (Ratnam, Bloomberg). The bomb dropped near the end of World War II had a 12-kiloton yield; the B-53 could generate nine megatons, or 9,000 kilotons, of explosive strength, according to Wired.
• Denied Immunity, Obama Pulling Troops From Iraq
• Soldiers May Be Leaving Iraq, But Contractors Will Remain
• As Obama Announces Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Critics Say War Provides 'Cautionary Tale' Possibly the single biggest lesson for the American public is "how relatively easily they were stampeded into a very unwise and illegal war," said Juan Cole, a Mideast expert and blogger at the University of Michigan.
• "Beyond the Battlefield" is a 10-part series exploring the challenges that severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan face after they return home, as well as what those struggles mean for those close to them.
• Base on the Brink Dennis Mills full recording of Base on the Brink event, supporting Operation Recovery campaign to care for the psychically wounded and end their redeployment back to combat: http://blip.tv/veterans-hour/base-on-the-brink-5586073 The event was at Coffee Strong in Lakewood, near Fort Lewis. Good people, good campaign. Ashley Joppa-Hagemann was speaker 2 of 4 Her husband Jared, Army Ranger, committed suicide June 28th to escape from 8th or 9th deployment to Afghanistan. Videos of Ashley Joppa-Hagemann's talks:
• - at Base on the Brink Sat. Sep 24: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9UGi2JR8bc
  - at Kings Books Aug. 23 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsuNhDeK48Y
  - got in Don Rumsfeld's face: http://www.youtube.com/toddboyle#p/u/0/fr85iXFpVvo
  - DemocracyNOW feature Aug 30: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/30/army_ranger_widow_confronts_rumsfeld_over
  - DemocracyNOW 2nd interview: http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/9/1/army_widow_calls_for_recognition_of_husbands_service_after_he_commits_suicide_ahead_of_redeployment (Thanks for Todd Boyle for his videography!)
• Veterans Benefits: Lawmakers Open To Changes In Military Benefits The government's promise of lifetime health care for the military's men and women is suddenly a little less sacrosanct as Congress looks to slash trillion-dollar-plus deficits.
• Base on the Brink pdf document Coffee Strong, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and local community members are fed up—and we’re doing something about it. We’re not going to wait for politicians and military leaders to act while our brothers and sisters in uniform fall through the cracks. We’re demanding something be done.
• U.S. Strategic Commander Eyes Nuclear "Dyad" as Future PossibilityBy Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON -- Gen. Robert Kehler, the top U.S. strategic combat commander, said on Tuesday that the nation someday might move from its longstanding triad of nuclear-armed ICBMs, submarines and bombers to a two-pronged "dyad"
• War and Sacrifice in the Post-9/11 Era | Pew Social & Demographic Trends Just half of all post-9/11 veterans say that, given the costs and benefits to the U.S., the war in Afghanistan has been worth fighting. A smaller share (44%) says the war in Iraq has been worth it. Only one-third (34%) say both wars have been worth fighting, and a nearly identical share (33%) say neither has been worth the costs.
• Anwar Awlaki: Targeted for death 
  Anwar Awlaki was targeted for killing by the U.S. government with no transparent, legal, reviewable process and no opportunity to respond to specific allegations.
  COMMENT:  "Should," O.K., but how, one wonders, did the *L.A. Times* editorialists muster the confidence for a "must"?  
  -- "The war on terror is not a free-for-all in which the United States may behave as it wishes without accountability or adherence to principle."  
  -- Ah, but it is.  
  -- In fact, the war on terror has proved to be precisely that. -- "We would have been pleased if Awlaki could have been captured and brought to this country for trial, because the promise of due process is a fundamental, bedrock American value."  
  -- Ah, but it isn't.  -- The editorialists of the *Los Angeles Times* must realize that due process is no longer a fundamental, bedrock American value.  
  -- If they really believed it, they would call for the president's impeachment.  
  -- We doubt those who wrote this editorial will ever recognize the character of the regime in which they are living.  
  -- The Roman Republic, after all, came to an end in
  the first century BCE, but the Roman Empire continued to call itself a republic until the end of its existence, more than five centuries later.  [Mark Jensen]
• I Am a History Teacher, and I Lie to My Students
  By Dr. Brian Phillips "In that [history] class, we spent a great amount of time going, nearly line by line, through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I tell them that nothing else in U.S. history matters as much as their understanding of these documents. The Constitution is what protects us, guides us, and rules us as a people. The Bill of Rights, I say, guarantees that government does not overstep the bounds laid out for it by the Founding Fathers. Those amendments help protect our dignity, our liberty, and our lives. I am lying to them…"
• Secret U.S. Memo Made Legal Case to Kill a Citizen The secret document provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war, according to people familiar with the analysis. 
• NATO WAR CRIMES The Wanton Destruction Of Sirte. Extraordinary Pictures Show Libyan City Shelled to Smithereens The following report by the Daily Mail confirms that NATO by targetting civilians is responsible for extsnsive war crimes in Libya
• US Seeks to Establish Naval Base on Jeju Island in Spite of Protests when proplr called the (South Korean) embassy to protest the naval base, they were told, ‘Don’t call us, call your own government,’” said Gagnon. “The US is forcing South Korea to build this base so to harbor Aegis destroyers. The base is a key part of Obama’s ‘Forward Base’ strategy for missile defense. This is a very provocative act.”
• Concerns Continue to Mount on U.S. Bioweapons Violations The Center for Disease Control has declined to confirm or deny allegations that the United States government is stockpiling biological and/or chemical weapons at Sierra Army Depot, a military base in Northern California.
• Dead Men Tell No Tales: The CIA, 9/11 and the Awlaki Assassination Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Veterans for Peace Issues Position Statement on US Attack in Yemen
• Secret Panel Can Put Americans on "Kill List" There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House's National Security Council, several current and former officials said. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate.
• Veterans Benefits Advocacy VideosVFP109 recorded videos to train advocates to help active duty personnel and veterans get the VA compensation they deserve.
• Beyond The Battlefield: Lack Of Long-Term Care Can Lead To Tragic Ends For Wounded Veteransis a 10-part series exploring the challenges that severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan face after they return home, as well as what those struggles mean for those close to them. Other stories in the series can be found here.
• Poll: Vets Say Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Weren't Worth It A new Pew poll shows growing opposition to the conflicts among veterans of those conflicts, with a majority now saying the wars haven’t been worth the cost.
• Malalai Joya: Message on the Tenth Anniversary of NATO’s War and the Occupation of Afghanistan
• FBI watchlist database: To catch the devil, you have to go to hell a person "may remain on the FBI watchlist even if charges are dropped or a case is dismissed." 
• Twice As Many US Troops Have Been Killed in Afghanistan Under Obama As Under Bush This weekend marked a new milestone for the war in Afghanistan: the total number of US troops killed in the war has doubled since President Obama took office, according to icasualties.org and our US Troops in Afghanistan: Obama vs Bush web counter. That means that two-thirds of the total US troop deaths have occurred in the last two years and eight months, which accounts for roughly a third of the duration of the war to date.
• The War You Don't See a film by John Pilger
• "War No More" a production of Sojourners. It is time to end the war in Afghanistan. As we observe its 10th anniversary on October 7, 2011, we must count the cost: too many people dead and wounded, Afghan communities torn apart, and a monstrous drain on our national budget. 
• Da Nang International Airport – Agent Orange and the Removal of Dioxin: Status The Agent Orange Action Group is an organization dedicated to seek medical, financial, ecological and legal assistance for the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange.  The mission of The AOAG is to work closely with Vietnamese authorities to bring together like-minded activists, researchers, philanthropies, and governments so as to benefit the victims. 
• Happy Genocide Day! by: Thom Hartmann, Truthout | Op-Ed By 1516, the indigenous population was 12,000, and according to Las Casas (who were there) by 1542 fewer than 200 natives were alive. By 1555, every single one was dead.
• What Really Happened When Columbus Discovered America By Elizabeth Zelvin It’s sometimes said that what really killed off the entire Taino people was illness: European diseases to which they were not immune. This is a copout. Within three years of Columbus’s first landing on October 12, 1492, one-third of the Taino population was already dead. Many committed suicide, using cyanide extracted from cassava, their staple food, rather than endure the penalty for failing to pay the monthly “tribute” of gold that theydid not have.
• Double Dip Nonsense: Excuses for a Pathetic Recorery Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
• Our Journey to Smile follow what these courageous Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers are doing. Watch their YouTube videos and be inspired!
• John Pilger - The Kidnapping of Haiti  John Pilger describes the "swift and crude" appropriation of earthquake-ravaged Haiti by the militarized Obama administration.
• Larry Writes Larry Kerschner is a gifted poet/writer from Centralia, WA. He recently returned from Afghanistan where he helped build biosand water filters.
• Iraq to sue US and Britain over depleted uranium bombs Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over their use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq, an Iraqi minister says.
• Avatar  A new movie out **could** be a big shot in the arm for efforts to end the wars and illegal occupations.
• "The Good Soldier" Each man, in his own time, discovers the courage to confront his past actions and begin his healing. Even though they are still haunted by their time in combat, their ability to face themselves in their waking life and achieve self- reconciliation.
• http://videos.digett.net/jacksonbrowne/lives/lives_in_the_balance.wmv  View the WMV video file (about 8 megabytes) of a powerful new anti-war music video from Jackson Browne
• Japanese Government Insiders Reveal Fukushima Secrets Global Research TV The former Prime Minister of Japan has revealed that scientific advisors to the Japanese government warned that evacuataions of as many as 30 million people up to 250 kilometers away from Fukushima would have to be evacuated in the event of a worst case scenario at the stricken nuclear plant in the country's Northeast.
• The Crime of Making Americans Aware of their own History by William Blum Is history getting too close for comfort for the fragile little American heart and mind? Their schools and their favorite media have done an excellent job of keeping them ignorant of what their favorite country has done to the rest of the world, but lately some discomforting points of view have managed to find their way into this well-defended American consciousness.
• Obama Waives Aid Curbs on Militaries Using Child Soldiers "Countries that keep using child soldiers aren't going to get serious about ending the practice until they see the U.S. is serious about withholding the money," said Jo Becker, who heads HRW's children's rights division. 
• RIGHT ON TARGET: The Military-Industrial Cannibals Who Perpetuate and Unnecessary War OPINION by Randy Alcorn
• People-Powered Testimony Against Keystone XL Tar Sands
• Military Suicides: One Third Of Personnel Told Of Plans To Die, Defense Department Report Finds
• War Voices and a Decade of War Awareness Month
• Coffee Strong a veteran-owned, veteran-operated GI coffeehouse providing a safe place for soldiers to share the effects of disastrous wars, within 300 meters of the gates at Ft Lewis.
• Peace Talks Radio a series about peacemaking and nonviolent conflict resolution
• Peace Takes Courage: What Will You Do?(video & music) Powerful, but graphic!
• What to Do When the Emperor Has No Clothes by Garrison Keillor
• We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore - In These Times  Garrison Keillor,  August 2004
• The Problem with Democracy by Robert Fisk 1/30/2006
• Indicting America By Scott Ritter
• Israel's Window to Bomb Iran Ray McGovern - In my view, an attack on Iran would have a two-fold purpose: (1) to set back Iran’s nuclear development program and infrastructure, and (2) to mousetrap Washington into an even closer military relationship with Israel.
• The Moral Imperative of 'Activism' Ray McGovern -  In the final analysis we will be confronting the “upper crust,” which my Irish grandmother described as “a bunch of crumbs held together by a lot of dough.”
• Oil Drives the Genocide in Darfur This is a resource war, fought by surrogates, involving great powers whose economies are predicated on growth, contending for a finite pool of resources.
• Wage Peace Movie 2 minutes AFSC's online movie tells the truth about the ongoing loss of life in Iraq -- and encourages viewers to sign their petition to bring the troops home.
• The Crime of Our New Century: Darfur
• Humor: Presidential Position Outsourced
• Peace Scholarship The Rotary World Peace Scholarship offers 70 individuals, committed to peace and conflict resolution, the opportunity to earn a two-year master’s level degree in international studies, peace studies and conflict resolution.
• Human Rights Day (Dec 10) Resources for CongretationsThe nations of the world and several faith groups now celebrate December 10 as Human Rights Day.
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• 10X10 + This hour's top 100 A constantly evolving distillation of news and images, this site scans international news sources through an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis to choose the top 100 words, along with 100 corresponding images, of the hour.

Drones

• UAV Predator / Reaper target destruction GCS (Ground Control Station) Operations Video at the GCS (Ground Control Station) of typical UAV military operations showing the 2 person UAV team (Pilot and Sensor Operator) executing a countdown to an enemy target kill. UAVs are launched at actual combat  
• Kucinich on the Ever-Expanding Use of Drones to Kill
• Anti-Drone Movement Grows Op-Edby Ken Butigan
• America DetachedfFrom War By Tom Englehardt Now, the U.S. and its detached populace are pioneering a new era of killing that respects no boundaries, relies on the self-definitions of whoever owns the nearest drone, and establishes planetary free-fire zones.  It’s a nasty combination, this globalization of death.
• US drone strike kills Anwar al-Awlaki's son and local Al Qaeda media chief, Yemeni officials say
• Mapping America's Shadowy Drone Wars Nick Turse, Tomgram October 16, 2011
• Multiple missteps led to drone killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan Senior officers say drone technology has vastly improved their ability to tell friend from foe in the confusion of battle. But the video can also prompt commanders to make decisions before they fully understand what they're seeing.