Medea Benjamin

The 38 dead in Saturday’s helicopter crash in Afghanistan include 31 Americans, making this the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the war began. The tragic loss of American lives might be worth the sacrifice if it were making America safer, or if our presence were significantly improving the well-being of the Afghan people. But neither of these is true.

Our presence in Afghanistan is not making us safer because Afghanistan is not a threat to us. This was clearly acknowledged by a senior Obama administration official in a background briefing to reporters on June 21.“United States hasn’t seen a terrorist threat from Afghanistan, for the past seven or eight years,” he said. He noted that al-Qaeda had moved on to Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.

Meanwhile, thanks to President Obama’s surge, over 100,000 U.S. troops are bogged down chasing an indigenous Afghan ragtag army, the Taliban, who have no interest in attacking anyone inside the United States. The only reason they are attacking U.S. soldiers is that U.S. soldiers are occupying their country.

Even if there were a reason for U.S. forces to fight the Taliban, our presence only strengthens them. The Obama administration has been trying to convince the American people that the surge in U.S. troops has been successful in weakening the Taliban. But a recent string of high-profile attacks that the Taliban have taken credit for belie that rosy assessment. The killing of Kandahar’s police chief, Kandahar’s mayor, President Karzai’s brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, a top presidential aide, and the deadly attack on the seemingly secure Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul — and now this helicopter downing — show that the Taliban are far from defeated.

The truth is that the presence of foreign forces gives the Taliban their raison d'être. Every time NATO forces kill Afghan citizens, the Taliban benefit. And that happens all the time. In fact, the very day the helicopter was shot down, Aug. 2, NATO troops attacked a house in southern Helmand province and “inadvertently killed eight members of a family, including women and children.” You can bet that some of their relatives will soon be placing IEDs along the road to blow up U.S. tanks.

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Stephen Lendman

What began in January escalated to an uprising in March. Ever since, it's been violent, disruptive and widespread, killing hundreds, and injuring many more.

The stakes are high. The entire region is affected. It's very similar to what began in Libya, pitting imperial powers against ruling governments for destabilization and control.

In Libya, it's by war for regime change, colonization and plunder. In Syria, it's to establish another client state, no matter who heads it. More on that below.

On August 3, Joshua Landis' Syria Comment site (joshualandis.com) headlined, "The Armed Gangs Controversy," saying:

Some analysts say "Syrian soldiers are killing fellow soldiers (for disobeying orders), not opposition elements." In fact, nothing proves it. "Most evidence supports government statements that armed opposition elements (are) shooting security personnel."

In April in Banyas, the controversy first surfaced when nine soldiers were killed outside the city. Western media reports about fellow soldiers shooting them were false. Col. Uday Ahmad, brother-in-law of one of the dead, there at the time, said:

"(T)wo military trucks were ambushed as they crossed a highway bridge by well armed men," hiding on the ground and on rooftops. "They raked the two trucks with automatic fire, killing nine. The incident had nothing to do with soldiers refusing orders."

Other shooting reports were similar, involving armed militants, non-Syrian insurgents, responsible for much killing, Western media falsely blaming Syria's military and police. At the same time, most opposition forces are nonviolent, caught between hostile sides.

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Reham Alhelsi

Yesterday, 03.07.2011, around 7000 Palestinian prisoners held captives in Israeli dungeons went on a one-day hunger strike to protest the repressive measures of the Israeli prison administration. According to the Palestinian ministry of prisoners’ spokesperson: “Palestinian prisoners in all Israeli jails were the target of an unprecedented terrorizing campaign of repression, isolation, and transfer from one prison to another over the past few weeks. He said that the campaign peaked with the beating of the oldest serving prisoner Nael al-Barghouthi, which prisoners condemned as a violation of all red lines, along with the isolation of many prisoners serving high sentences.”[1] The spokesman added that the strike was a warning action that might lead to further forms of protest. Some weeks ago, I came across a letter written by Palestinian political prisoner Hasan Salameh and published on various Palestinian sites. Salameh is locked up in Israeli dungeons since 1996 and is in solitary confinement since 7 years. In this letter, Salameh says: If I could buy your support for me and for the other prisoners with all that I possess, I swear I would not fall short. With these harsh words, Slameh addressed us. He addresses us from the isolation cell that separates him from his loved ones, that separates him from his friends and comrades, from the rest of the world. He addresses us from the grave in which he is buried alive. With these harsh words, he addresses us; we who go to work every day, who go to school and universities, who go to the market, who visit friends and family. He addresses us while he and thousands others are locked up inside Zionist dungeons. He addresses us while his life and that of thousands others are withering in the darkness, while they suffer in silence. Hasan Salameh, addresses us from his isolation cell and asks of us only one thing: that we remember him and the thousands of Palestinians held captives in Israeli prisons. He asks of us only one thing: not to forget those buried alive in Israeli dungeons. Hassan Salameh, from Khan Younis, is one among 50 Palestinian political prisoners locked up in isolation cells by the Zionist entity. Latest prisoner to be isolated is 54 years old Na’il Al-Barghouthi, who has been locked up in Israeli dungeons since 34 years, making him the oldest serving prisoner in the world. On 27.06.2011, Israeli prison jailors raided Section 5 of the Remon prison, caused havoc and destroyed the prisoners’ possessions. When Na’il refused to be strip searched, he was sent to an isolation cell. He had initially agreed to be strip-searched, but only in the WC. He was handcuffed and asked to take off his shirt, which he was unable to do because of being handcuffed, so the jailors beat brutally him. Upon hearing his screams, fellow detainee Hilal Jradat started shouting from his nearby cell. The jailors then locked up Na’il and Hilal in one cell and beat them brutally. In addition to being isolated as a punishment, Na’il was fined 500 NIS.

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Gilad Atzmon

It is almost amusing to find out that some of the most clichéd Marxists around are so taken by the current Israeli popular protest, which they foolishly interpret as a manifestation of the ‘Israeli revolutionary spirit’. They are convinced that now that the Israeli ‘working class’ are rising, peace will necessarily prevail.

Yet in fact, what we are really seeing unfold in Israel (at least for the time being) is the total opposite of a ‘working class’ re-awakening. Indeed, some in Israel are calling it the ‘Real Estate Protest,’ because basically, those protesting want assets: they all wish to have property, a house of their own. They want to be landlords. They want the key, and they want it now. What we see in Tel Aviv has no similarity whatsoever to the struggles taking place in al-Tahrir or in Athens. At the most, the Israeli demonstrations mimic some manifestations of a struggle for justice or Socialist protest.

But that is where the similarities end.

Motti Ashkenazi (a legendary Israeli anti establishment figure) wrote in Ynet yesterday that “another Left is needed (in Israel), a Left that is primarily concerned with the poor of its country rather than with the plight of our neighbours.” In clear terms that cannot be interpreted otherwise: Motti Ashkenazi is exploring what he considers to be a necessary shift in Israeli ‘progressive’ thought, and what he appears to conclude is, forget about Palestine; let’s once and for all concentrate on ‘us,’ the Jews. Ashkenazi continues, “we need another Left, a modest one. Instead of a vision for the entire Middle East, it had better present a vision of the State of Israel.”

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Stephen Lendman

Slow-motion fiscal collapse perhaps explains its current state after decades of mismanagement, accelerated under Bush and Obama. The chickens are now coming home to roost big time, hitting ordinary people hardest, suffering under a protracted Main Street Depression.

Last April 18, Standard & Poor (S & P) downgraded its rating on America to negative, saying:

S & P "affirmed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term sovereign credit ratings on the US. (It also) revised its outlook on the long-term rating of the US sovereign to negative from stable....(W)e now believe (US strengths may) not fully offset the credit risks over the next two years at the 'AAA' level...."

"More than two years after the beginning of the recent crisis, US policymakers have still not agreed on how to reverse recent fiscal deterioration or address longer-term fiscal pressures."

S & P analyst Nikola Swann added that from 2003 - 2008, US debt ranged from 2 - 5% of GDP. However, it ballooned to over 11% in 2009 "and has yet to recover."

Swann also warned of "a one in three chance that the US could lose its AAA rating in two years because of its mounting debt."

S & P's entire statement can be accessed through this link.

Note: S & P and other major credit agencies partnered with Wall Street speculation and grand theft because they're paid by the companies they rate. In fact, Washington, too-big-to-fail banks, other FIRE industry (finance, insurance and real estate) giants, and major rating agencies were complicit in fueling the bubble economy and crash by design, not chance.

They're in league again now, targeting entitlements for privatization, so Wall Street can rip off recipients for big profits, leaving millions unable to comply with their rules high and dry, and those who do will be defrauded.

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