The United Nations COP15 Climate Conference is taking place in Copenhagen (from December 7-18, 2009). In Pittsburgh, individuals from a variety of local networks organized multiple actions with a diversity of tactics to stand in solidarity with the protesters in COP15 and to demand solutions to the suffering of our planet and inhabitants.
On December 9th, a Consol Energy (largest BTU Coal producer in the United States) sign was partially covered with a poster that said "CLEAN" COAL = DIRTY TRICK. The poster was not removed for the remaining time that the ad was up.
On December 10th local environmental group PECAN held a vigil in the freezing weather to demand real action against climate change. A huge banner was displayed by environmentalists that read "Climate Action Now". Approximately 45 children, students, and adults alike came to speak out, despite the wind chill dropping the weather below 5 degrees. Audio/Images/Video from this event can be heard here:
December 12 was called as a global day of action in resistance to the COP15 summit and in solidarity with that days mass protests. Whether these solidarity protests were large or small, militant or passive, they are an important expression of our solidarity. It is a solidarity which recognizes the interdependence of people across the planet.
In the day on December 12th, a student group and avaaz held their own vigils to bring attention to these issues once again.
On the evening of December 12th, people from multiple networks convened in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh for an unpermitted march in solidarity with those marching in Copenhagen. A banner was dropped on the side of Forbes Ave- a main road- that read "CAPITALISM ISN'T GREEN (A) (E)". The group of activists including environmentalists, anarchists, and others then marched on the streets carrying black flags and banners reading "Our Climate is not for Sale" and "Govt is War, Anarchy=Peace". Those who marched shouted chants like "System Change not Climate Change!" and "Who's streets? Our streets!".
The response from the public was extremely positive. Protesters where met with honks and cheers from the passing cars and a maintenance worker from a local university aided in blocking the street for the protesters. Eventually, the march was met by police forces who showed a display of lights and noise and eventually forced the protesters onto the sidewalk with their cars. No arrests or detentions occurred. We were more fortunate in this way than so many suffering police and state brutality and repression right now in Copenhagen.
There were also reports of damage later in the evening of December 12th to an establishment of Kentucky Fried Chicken- notorious factory farmers, environmental polluters, and animal abusers.
December 18th will be the final Pittsburgh action where members from various groups and backgrounds will meet in front of PNC Bank downtown to educate people about climate change and how to do their part. Protesters will stand with signs alongside "Billionaires for Climate Change" who will also hold signs showing their true colors.For more info on this bank's green-washing ideas: http://greenapple.ca/blog/2009/10/29/green-wall-or-green-wash/
Around the world we see people's desire to dramatically reduce emissions in the face of government and corporate opposition to real change. The continued roadblocks created by corporations who worry about reduced profits and offer false solutions that will do little but increase the flow of wealth of public money to private interests....
Full article, all images, and links at original link above.The United Nations COP15 Climate Conference is taking place in Copenhagen (from... more
You have the right as an individual to own a gun and defend yourself.
Prohibition didn't stop liquor use; the drug laws can't stop drug use. Making gun ownership illegal will not stop gun ownership.
The primary victim of these misguided efforts is the honest citizen whose civil rights are trampled as frustrated legislators and police tighten the screws.
Banning guns will make guns more expensive and give organized crime a great opportunity to make profits in a new black market for weapons. Street violence will increase in new turf wars. Criminals will not give up their guns. But, many law abiding citizens will, leaving them defenseless against armed bandits.
Rather than banning guns, the politicians and the police should encourage gun ownership, as well as education and training programs. A responsible, well-armed and trained citizenry is the best protection against domestic crime and the threat of foreign invasion. America's founders knew that. It is still true today.You have the right as an individual to own a gun and defend yourself.
Prohibition... more
Major Nidal Hasan, accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood Army base, has been described by former colleagues as "psychotic." As more details emerge about Hasan's troubled state, gun safety advocates are launching fresh attacks on a Senate bill they say would make it easier for mentally unstable veterans to buy firearms.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) says his "Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act" will protect veterans' gun rights. But the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence calls it a "dangerous" proposal that could allow "over 100,000 mentally incapacitated or incompetent persons" to buy guns—people who would previously have been barred from doing so by the Veterans Administration (VA).
(click on the link for the full story and for the in-text links)Major Nidal Hasan, accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood Army base, has been... more
Avatar earned $1 billion in two weeks, already making it the fourth-biggest-grossing movie to date. James Cameron said early on it would cost, and make, ridiculous amounts of money. He also said it has been a dream of his for more than a decade. According to industry groups and right wing pundits, though, the film really has a more sinister motive: recruiting “eco-terrorists.”
Avatar has a similar archetypal narrative to countless other sci-fi films. The Na’vi are an indigenous race on a far-off planet, Pandora. Humans want to mine Pandora. The Na’vi fight back. Give ‘em some fur, and it sounds a little Return of the Jedi-ish.
But the usual corporate cheerleaders have been warning audiences that Avatar is actually pushing a radical environmentalist message, because the Na’vi are, um, defending their utopian planet against complete annihilation.
Richard Swier’s column at Red County is a good example. He compares the Na’vi to the Earth Liberation Front, the FBI’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” He warns:
"This movie justifies the use of force against companies dedicated to finding, mining and processing natural resources… AVATAR is the celebration of and a recruiting tool for ELF, ALF, Greenpeace and the Sierra Clubs around the world."
It would be kind of hilarious if I still had a sense of humor for all of this stuff. Unfortunately, this has happened many times before. One of my favorite examples is when a children’s movie, Hoot, was labeled “soft core eco-terrorism for kids.” The same thing happened with Charlotte’s Web.
It’s easy to dismiss these kinds of columns, but the underlying values that prompt them should not be ignored. A Hollywood sci-fi mega-blockbuster like Avatar can be viewed by some people as “eco-terrorism” because the core values held by the protagonists parallel the core values held by an increasing number of real people.
Over at Mother Nature Network, Avatar was described as “transforming the shrill cries of a tired activist movement into pure, gravity-defying magic.” Mainstream activists and publications can revel in the film, cheering on natives killing invaders, because it all safely takes place in a movie theatre. None of this has happened in real life; the ALF and ELF have never harmed a human being. If they did, these same green groups would undoubtedly be condemning them.
That’s really the take away-message of all of this. The radical environmental movement is a threat not because of its tactics, but because of its beliefs.
Swier makes that very clear:
"This is the final goal of eco-terrorists. Deny humans access to the natural resources on earth in order to save the planet. You see environmentalists truly believe that humans are an infestation upon the earth."Avatar earned $1 billion in two weeks, already making it the fourth-biggest-grossing... more
Get what you want, when you want it. That's the phrase that has dominated the entertainment industry over the past decade. New technologies have given us access to countless channels for music, television and film — and we can sample them whenever we find it convenient. But as the options multiply, are we losing our sense of a common culture?
Take "The Outing," the Seinfeld episode in which a reporter thought Jerry and George were lovers. Even if you didn't see it — not that there's anything wrong with that — you heard about it: at work, at school, in the checkout line at the grocery store. And suddenly the show about nothing, says Stanford University communications professor Clifford Nass, meant something even to people who didn't watch it.
"That's really what marks cultural touchstones," says Nass. "Things that people are aware of; that they can share; that they can make reference to — that they don't actually have to consume themselves."
More than 40 percent of American households saw the final episode of Seinfeld in the spring of 1998, according to the Nielsen ratings company. Fast-forward about 11 years: American Idol may be the most popular program on television today, but only about 16 percent of American households saw this year's finale.
Thomas Paine’s Corner (TPC), founded on March 10, 2005 by Jason Miller, is dedicated to ending the unnecessary suffering of oppressed and exploited sentient beings and to the total liberation of human animals, nonhuman animals, and the Earth.
While TPC is eclectic, holistic, and open to different perspectives, it approaches anti-capitalism and total liberation from an essentially anarcho-veganist position, as portrayed in the graphic above by the juxtaposition of the Boy Scout--a victim of one of the indoctrinating mechanisms for our imperialist, patriarchal, faux Christian, corporatist, statist, speciesist society--against the anarchist symbol, which represents democracy, decentralization, mutually respectful individual sovereignty, egalitarianism, direct action, and mutual aid.Thomas Paine’s Corner (TPC), founded on March 10, 2005 by Jason Miller, is... more
Version 1 of a documentary about the recent Pittsburgh G20 Protests, and the Police Occupation of the University of Pittsburgh. This film is a collaboration between Pittsburgh Indymedia, Chicago Indymedia, Twin Cities Indymedia, and the Glass Bead Collective. Expect a future version with even more footage, and more analysis about the G20 and the Occupation of Pitt.Version 1 of a documentary about the recent Pittsburgh G20 Protests, and the Police... more
Police fired teargas at rioters who threw rocks and firecrackers in central Athens as thousands gathered to mark the first anniversary of the police shooting of a teenager.
Clashes broke out as about 3,000 people, mostly students, anarchists and leftists, began a march to parliament. More protests were expected tomorrow. An evening memorial service was planned in the Exarchia district, where 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead.
Violence also broke out in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, where demonstrators threw petrol bombs at police and smashed the front of a Starbucks cafe.
More than 6,000 police were deployed across greater Athens amid fears that the demonstrations under way in the capital and other Greek cities would turn increasingly violent. Concern was heightened by reports that far-left groups and anarchists from other European countries have travelled to Greece for the protests.
Grigoropoulos was shot by a policeman on the evening of 6 December 2008, in Exarchia, a central Athens neighbourhood of bars and cafes popular with anarchist groups. Within a few hours of his death, riots spread from the capital to several cities, taking the government by surprise. An embattled police force took a passive approach as rioters looted and burned shops in violence that lasted two weeks.
The new socialist government, which has faced a spate of attacks by far-left and anarchist groups, since coming to power in October, has vowed not to tolerate any violence during today's anniversary.
Police yesterday detained about 160 youths and raided what they described as a firebomb-making hideout in the district of Keratsini, near the port of Piraeus. A memorial gathering last night at the spot where Grigoropoulos was killed began peacefully, although clashes broke out in the area later between rock-throwers and riot police. Police arrested 14 people, including five Italians and three Albanians.
Dozens of police, some in riot gear and others on motorbikes, stood guard throughout the district on Saturday night. Apart from the brief clash, the area was quiet, with heavy rain helping keep people off the streets.
Greece's civil protection minister, Michalis Chrisochoidis, who is also in charge of the police, said earlier this week that people had been right to demonstrate against the teenager's death, but further riots would not be tolerated.
"Without doubt (Grigoropoulos's death) was an act of extreme police violence and misconduct that has scarred our collective memory," Chrisochoidis said. "Young people were right to take to the streets to express their outrage. But we will not tolerate a repeat of the violence and terror in the centre of Athens and other cities. We will not surrender Athens to vandals."
__________________
Go Greece!Police fired teargas at rioters who threw rocks and firecrackers in central Athens as... more
Matthew Lynas reiterated a familiar demand to listeners at the G-20 Summit speak-out on the William Pitt Union patio last night.
“I declare this to be an unlawful assembly. You must leave,” he said.
He said that police had no more authority to disperse people than he did. But he didn’t blame the police.
“Fundamentally the blame lies with us,” he said. “At what points did governments think they could get away with what they did?”
Lynas, a Carnegie Mellon University junior from Glasgow, Scotland, joined the Pitt students, representatives of the anti-war group Thomas Merton Center, and other members of the community at a rally sponsored by Pitt’s American Civil Liberties Union student group yesterday evening.
About 150 people gathered to listen to testimonies about the demonstrations in Oakland last Thursday and Friday night. Many of them wore black, blue and gold ribbons around their arms, symbolizing the bruises people received from the police, as well as Pitt pride.
Nathan Lanzendorfeor, 23, from Mt. Lebanon, didn’t wear the ribbons. He wore black and blue on the back of his legs and on his upper arm.
Lanzendorfeor said police shot rubber bullets on Friday night while he was running away down Fifth Avenue. He said four bullets struck him, leaving a palm-sized bruise on the back of his left leg.
Genevieve Redd, president of Pitt’s ACLU student group, said she was pleased with the peaceful event, though some people made the event partisan by calling for Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s impeachment. The group plans to table in Towers lobby to get more people to sign petitions.
There were two petitions with identical wording, but one was on behalf of Pitt students and the other on behalf of the Pittsburgh community. The petitions call for Student Government Board, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and the city to conduct a public investigation of the police officers’ behavior last week. It also asks Pitt’s Judicial Board to consider the “situations that were rendered by police action and ended in student arrests.”
The petition also requests an apology from city officials, the mayor and the Secret Service “for the indiscriminate and unconstitutional violation of our community’s First Amendment rights, as well as for the physical harm inflicted upon members of our community.”
Adrienne Mellori, who is a member the G-20 Resistance Project, said that the “police intimidation ” started before there was any rioting.
“Police and authorities are given much more worth than the average civilian,” she said. “The real heroes were the protesters, including the anarchists, and the students who stood their ground when police occupied their campus.”
SGB member Nila Devanath said the last SGB meeting was one of the most highly attended meetings and thanked students for voicing concerns.
“If you keep coming and voicing your concerns, we’ll keep fighting for you,” she said.
Simone Cheatham contributed reporting to this article.By Estelle Tran / Assistant News Editor
published: Thu, 1 Oct, 2009
Matthew Lynas... more
The local corporate media, as part of their role as hand-puppets and mouthpieces for law enforcement, have been making a point of finding and interviewing the local residents who somehow identify with the armed thugs and the Wall Street interests they protect. Whether it is out of fear, or some naive, misguided hope that kissing up to their oppressors will result in better treatment from them or make them eligible for some kind of discount from the corporate stores they somehow mistake for friends. Ambitious and cowardly people will always side with bullies. It is the submissive, cheer-leading behavior of these people who allow the Hitlers and Saddam Husseins of the world to seize and hold power.
While covering the protests against the G-20 summit, most of the Pittsburghers who I encountered were not shy about expressing their support and admiration for those participating in the demonstrations and were disappointed, but not surprised by the violent behavior of the law enforcement thugs whose day to-day mission is to terrorize and control low-income communities. The partnership between the local, centralized, corporate media and the local and global elites, intended to silence the opposition to the policies and presence of the G-20, was successful in discouraging out-of-town participation, but at the expense of their "outside agitator" theme. The protests against the G-20 were predominantly a local affair, while the heavily armed, violent, goon squads which were protecting the elites and advancing their agenda with violence were mostly from outside of the region, if not from outside of Pennsylvania.
Despite the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh's reputation for racism and vigilantism, the curious, picture taking residents whom I spoke with were overwhelmingly sympathetic to the People's Uprising and were distressed by the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons in their neighborhood. The local media also neglected to interview the young woman employed by one of the businesses whose dumpster was briefly rolled away, who at first could not understand why. She was under the mistaken impression that police were escorting the march, rather than attacking it. When the situation was clarified and it was suggested that the marchers were using dumpsters for self-defense, she sympathized with them
I was also unprepared for the number of University of Pittsburgh students who decided to participate in the September 25th march, after they had been gassed and beaten the night before. The University's insistence on remaining open for the duration of the summit and their decision to lock students out of their dormitories while police and military personnel attacked them will likely prove to be costly mistakes.The local corporate media, as part of their role as hand-puppets and mouthpieces for... more
"It was all students and no protesters -- it looked like any Friday night in Oakland but with more people," said Nathan Lanzendorfer, 23, of Mount Lebanon. He went to Oakland out of curiosity to see the protests and shortly before midnight was caught on Forbes Avenue, with police deploying OC gas from two directions, trapping him on the street.
He was then hit with a rubber bullet in his right leg and his left, started to run, and was then hit in an arm and his lower back. "I never heard any warning to leave the area -- all four [rubber bullet] shots were within five seconds," he said. "All the wounds are on my back. If I was opposing [the police] at all you'd think I I'd have a front wound."
Mr. Lanzendorfer, an independent computer network technician, went to UPMC Presbyterian for treatment of his contusions, two of which are shown below.
Turkish police used water cannons and pepper spray on Tuesday to disperse protesters demonstrating at the annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Istanbul.
Riot police clashed with protesters in a square close to where thousands of finance ministers, central bankers, and economists from around the world are meeting to discuss the global economy. Police followed some protesters as they fled onto nearby streets.
The demonstrators were seen breaking the windows of some banks and shops. Some were seen throwing Molotov cocktails.
Dozens of people were detained during the protests, which were organized by several Turkish unions.
Last week, a student was detained after throwing a shoe at International Monetary Fund Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn during an appearance at an Istanbul university. The shoe missed the IMF leader.Turkish police used water cannons and pepper spray on Tuesday to disperse protesters... more
This Week With Jasiri X- Season 3 Premiere-Pittsburgh hosted the G-20 Summit and Jasiri X and Paradise The Arkitech were on the scene. Paradise directed this episode and King Sym provided the powerful production. All footage showing the Police attacking citizens happened in Pittsburgh, not a dictatorship but the United States of America during the G-20.
LYRICS
Verse 1
Lyrical Molotov cocktails the Holocaust plot swells
humanities almost lost try telling me that it's not hell
they crucified MJ somebody's watching me like Rockwell
so many death threats I feel like I'm getting Barack's mail
cops tail my paparazzi is the FBI
no threat was I when I was stressed and high I was left to die
now I testify right hand over the bible
left hand around the mic this is hip-hop for survival
we were lied to when they said this was a democracy
hypocrisy walk with me here's something you gotta see
the foreign policy's supposed to save the economy
but everybody that died for came from poverty
slain constantly so the richest 1%
get trillions and we don't even have enough for rent
what the f*#$ is this?
billions up and spit and not one busted prick got cuffs on his wrist
and I'm not just pissed I'm mad as hell
cause we sip cups of Cris and take drags from Ls
And we got bags to sell of the crack and cane
feeling OT pain for a big ass chain
insane
Chorus
Reality is free but the TV will sell you a dream
cause the only color that matters is green
where the richest families and countries meet in secret to scheme
cause the only color that matters is green
they will make you a prisoner a slave prostitute or a fiend
cause the only color that matters is green
whether your black, brown, red, yellow, white you just a way to a means
cause the only color that matters is green
Verse 2
How wicked is Satan you crippin and bangin
on the strip that your claimin he'll take ya whole hood with gentrification
in the richest of nations the here sickness is basic
where the biggest of racist transmit it on stations
or put the fifth in the faces tell em strip and get naked
with a quickness and take it cause they pigment they hatin
no witness no statement no media coverage
salute the American flag believe in it and love it
in the place where a black face ain't seeing no budget
they having meetings discussing how they deceiving the public
what deficit see the President speak at a luncheon
go less than a mile you'll see a child eating nothin
mom spent the food money cause she be need a substance
daddy's doing 20 in SCI Greene for hustlin
and his breathing encumbered but he's receiving no comfort
he don't have health insurance cause all they seeing is numbers
and the schools are flat broke so they can't teach him to function
so he ain't reading he duckin cause all he's seeing is bustin
and the 20 wealthiest counties ain't feeding his stomach
cause it poor people like him that be keeping em running
and that's
Chorus
Reality is free but the TV will sell you a dream
cause the only color that matters is green
where the richest families and countries meet in secret to scheme
cause the only color that matters is green
they will make you a prisoner a slave prostitute or a fiend
cause the only color that matters is green
whether your black, brown, red, yellow, white you just a way to a means
cause the only color that matters is greenThis Week With Jasiri X- Season 3 Premiere-Pittsburgh hosted the G-20 Summit and... more
Turkish police have fired tear gas to break up hundreds of protesters outside a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Istanbul.Turkish police have fired tear gas to break up hundreds of protesters outside a... more
The large G-20 police presence has brought a number of complaints, including those by women who say they were sexually harassed.
"Let's get the hot ones out."
That's what Casey Li Brander recalls hearing a male police officer say as she sat handcuffed inside a bus, along with 20 other women arrested during the G-20 summit.
Brander, like most of those arrested in Oakland during the September summit, faced only minor charges after being caught in a police dragnet. But she and other women say the aftershocks have been far more serious -- because of how law enforcement treated them.
Brander, a Carnegie Mellon University student, was among those arrested on the Cathedral of Learning lawn on Sept. 25. Like many others, she faced charges of failure to disperse and disorderly conduct. The charges were later dismissed because, just before being arrested, Brander called 911 to report herself surrounded by police and unable to find an escape route. Despite that call, however, she was taken by bus to State Correctional Institution-Pittsburgh, where she sat for roughly six hours outside, and another six hours in a holding area.
"When I arrived at SCI, I was frisked really intrusively with five guys watching," Brander recalls. The female guard performing the search "really lifted me up by the crotch one time, while I was trying not to cry," as male officers laughed. "It's totally not cool for five guys to be standing around, dissecting me with their eyes while I'm being felt up by the female guard."
Asked for policies concerning searches of female detainees, Assistant Chief Maurita Bryant of the Pittsburgh Police offered only what were described as "general procedures" in such situations, such as using same-sex searches whenever possible. The presence of more than one officer during a search is "preferred," she says, "so that at least one officer provides protective cover."
Neither police nor Associate City Solicitor John Doherty answered further questions about alleged police behavior. Both were e-mailed a list of questions detailing the allegations in this story, 11 days before this issue went to press. Pittsburgh Police spokesperson Diane Richard referred all questions to Doherty, who did not respond to the list, or to follow-up phone inquiries.
Stuti Pandey, another CMU student whose charges were also dismissed thanks to a 911 call, says she's taken a leave of absence from college and returned home to California -- all due to trauma stemming from Sept. 25.
She recalls her own frisking on the Cathedral lawn by a female officer. "The officer literally thrust her hands between my butt cheeks, between my labia, and was groping between my breasts from outside of the clothes I was wearing," Pandey writes in a statement sent to CP. "It felt like an intense sexual assault."
After four hours on the bus, Pandey says, "There was more than one woman starting to cry ... because they had to use the bathroom with such desperation." Others were having their periods. "Finally, I started shouting at the officer, 'Have you ever heard of toxic-shock syndrome?'" -- a potentially fatal condition that may be caused by having a tampon in place for an excessively long time. "The officer just laughed."
The female detainees were then allowed to use a porta-potty, but only while handcuffed, and only with the door ajar while male officers supervised.
The general police procedure, says Assistant Chief Bryant, is that "arrestees are permitted to use the bathroom if one is readily available," unless they are in mid-transport.
Officers' attempts to adhere to such local policies -- or to identify any officers who ran afoul of them -- may be complicated by the fact that... full article at link.BY MARTY LEVINE
The large G-20 police presence has brought a number of complaints,... more
This vid is really upsetting and I don't recommend it for those who were there or who are easily triggered by police violence but pass it around so the world sees it.
If the bullet were an inch higher, he likely would have died.
The expansion of the US attack on Afghanistan and Pakistan is not due to the personal qualities of Obama but to the social system he serves: the national state and the capitalist economy. The nature of the situation guarantees that the system will act irrationally. Anarchists should participate in building a broad movement against the war, while raising our political program.
In discussing President Obama’s expansion of the US attack on Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is important not to focus on Obama as a personality but on the social system to which he is commited, specifically to the war-waging capitalist national state. “War is the health of the state,” as Randolph Bourne declared during World War I. It is what the national state is for, what it does, and why it still exists, despite the real trends toward international unity and worldwide coordination. In an age of nuclear bombs, the human race will not be safe until we abolish these states (especially the big, imperial, ones such as those of North America, Western Europe, and Japan) and replace them with a federation of self-managing associations of working people.
After 3 months of consulations and deliberation, President Obama has announced that he is going to do what he had promised to do during his campaign for president—namely to expand the US attack on Afghanistan and Pakistan. This may not have been inevitable (since he broke many of his campaign promises already, such as ending overseas prisons, openness in government, ending “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a health care plan which covers everyone, an economic plan for working people, etc.). But it was probable.
As has been pointed out, his stated reasons for the war do not make much sense: in order to get out of Afghanistan, the US will send more troops into Afghanistan. The US needs to fight Al Queda, even though there are now only about 100 Queda militants left in Afghanistan; the Queda base is mostly in Pakistan (which Obama slurred over by speaking of “the border”) but the US will not be sending troops there (just secret attacks by drone missiles and CIA operatives). More generally, the US supposedly has to strengthen the resolve of the government of Pakistan…by sending more troops to Afghanistan. The US hopes to win over the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan by sending more non-Muslim, only-English-speaking, troops, which is sure to antagonize the people of the region. In 18 months, the US forces are supposed to transform the Karzai regime from one of the most corrupt, incompetent, and illegitimate states on earth, to a stable government (never mind a democracy). The effects of the mistaken US policies of 8 years can be reversed in 18 months (on the assumption that US forces will really “start” to withdraw in 18 months; promises are cheap; the US is still in Iraq). All of this is simply unbelievable and it is hard to think that an intelligent man such as Obama believes any of it.
Why then, really, is the US sending more troops into the region? Closer to Obama’s thinking are the expressions in his December 1, West Point, address, when he announced his program, where he spoke about the US as a global power with an economy which competes on the world market. Thus he remarked that “competition within the global economy has grown more fierce….Our prosperity…will allow us to compete in this century as successfully as we did in the past.” Implicit in these statements is an awareness that the US is no longer the economic power it was “in the past.” While still having the largest national economy, the US is now a de-industrializing debtor nation, losing out in world competition to Europe and Asia. This has been made worse by the global Great Recession, which has exposed the decay of the whole international capitalist system. The US ruling class, its layer of rich people, is not happy about this...
Full article at link.The expansion of the US attack on Afghanistan and Pakistan is not due to the personal... more
