tagged w/ hegemony
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As the country’s big wars on the Eurasian continent wind down, American war-making and war preparations fly ever more regularly under the radar. There has, for instance, been much discussion about the Obama administration’s policy “pivot” to Asia -- the only warlike act in the region so far has, however, been a little noted drone strike in the Philippines. At the same time, remarkably little attention has been paid to a massive build-up of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, and -- though both seem to be underway (and connected) -- who talks about the “pivot” to the Western Indian Ocean or the “pivot” to Africa?
For those keeping a careful eye out, U.S. drone (and air) bases in the region have been proliferating -- in the Seychelles Islands, in Ethiopia, and at an unidentified site on the Arabian peninsula, among other places. Recently, however, Wired’s Danger Room website reported that an Italian blogger had put the pieces together and offered impressive evidence of a larger war-making effort in the region, involving not only drones but F-15E fighter jets, possibly being used to bomb Yemen. Meanwhile, there are U.S. drone strikes in Yemen almost daily and at least 20 special forces operatives are reportedly now on the ground there, helping direct some of the fighting and even taking casualties.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Africa Command (Africom), set up in 2007, has been gaining clout. In 2011, 100 special operations troops, mainly Green Berets, were moved into Central Africa, officially to aid in the hunting down of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Recently, it was reported that a brigade of regular U.S. combat troops will soon be assigned to the command and given training duties throughout the region. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been organizing a proxy war, supported by drone attacks, against al-Shabab rebels in Somalia, using Ugandan, Kenyan, and other African troops as those proxies. And more’s afoot. It’s just that, if you weren’t an obsessive news watcher, you would have next to no way of knowing that any of this was taking place.
War American-style, already long detached from the lives of most Americans, is growing more so: ever more secret, presidential, and beyond the control of, or accountability to, citizens or Congress. In only one way is this not true: we taxpayers still fork over the massive sums that make our perpetual state of war and war state possible. As Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer of the invaluable National Priorities Project report, the expense of all this is blowing a hole in your wallet and our treasury. To offer but one small example, if someday soon the Pakistani/Afghan border is reopened to U.S. war supplies, you will be paying the Pakistanis $1,500-$1,800 for every truck that crosses it, at an estimated cost of at least $1 million a day (with other "fees" likely). And yet, it’s remarkable how little Americans know about what’s coming out of their pockets when the subject is “national security,” or where exactly it’s all going. Which is why we need Hellman and Kramer (and their new book, A People’s Guide to the Federal Budget) to keep us in the loop. Tom
War Pay
The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget
By Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer
Recent months have seen a flurry of headlines about cuts (often called “threats”) to the U.S. defense budget. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives even passed a bill that was meant to spare national security spending from future cuts by reducing school-lunch funding and other social programs.
Here, then, is a simple question that, for some curious reason, no one bothers to ask, no less answer: How much are we spending on national security these days? With major wars winding down, has Washington already cut such spending so close to the bone that further reductions would be perilous to our safety?
In fact, with projected cuts added in, the national security budget in fiscal 2013 will be nearly $1 trillion -- a staggering enough sum that it’s worth taking a walk through the maze of the national security budget to see just where that money’s lodged.
If you’ve heard a number for how much the U.S. spends on the military, it’s probably in the neighborhood of $530 billion. That’s the Pentagon’s base budget for fiscal 2013, and represents a 2.5% cut from 2012. But that $530 billion is merely the beginning of what the U.S. spends on national security. Let’s dig a little deeper.
The Pentagon’s base budget doesn’t include war funding, which in recent years has been well over $100 billion. With U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq and troop levels falling in Afghanistan, you might think that war funding would be plummeting as well. In fact, it will drop to a mere $88 billion in fiscal 2013. By way of comparison, the federal government will spend around $64 billion on education that same year.
Add in war funding, and our national security total jumps to $618 billion. And we’re still just getting started.
More at the linkAs the country’s big wars on the Eurasian continent wind down, American... more
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From 2011: KABUL: Afghan lawmakers on Saturday approved the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas agreement, Afghan television ToloNews reported.
The Afghan parliament’s International Liaison Commission said the agreement will act as a boost for the Afghan economy and the gas flow would help to strengthen relations between the countries involved in the project.
About 7,000 personnel will be assigned to ensure security to the project in Afghanistan, said Muhammad Anwar Akbari, a member of the commission.
Afghanistan will receive 1.2 billion cubic metres of natural gas once the project is completed.
Akbari said that this would rise to over five billion cubic metres within five years.
The cost of the project is estimated at around $7.8 billion, said Akbari. Construction work, with the help of an American firm, will begin by 2012 and is expected to be completed by 2014, he added.
More at the linkFrom 2011: KABUL: Afghan lawmakers on Saturday approved the... more
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Iraqis burned American flags, brandished banners and thronged the streets of the western city of Falluja to celebrate the withdrawal of US troops.
Some 3,000 people flooded the mainly Sunni city carrying Iraqi flags, banners with "Falluja:
The City of Resistance" printed on them, and photos of Falluja residents killed by US forces after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Part of the crowd burned several US flags in their celebrations over the American withdrawal.
"Celebrations mark a historical day for the city of Falluja and we should remember in pride the martyrs who sacrificed their blood for the sake of this city," Dhabi al-Arsan, deputy governor of Anbar province, told the crowd.
Falluja, a main city in the western desert province of Anbar, served as a base for Iraqi fighters after the invasion, and witnessed two major conflicts in 2004. US troops used overwhelming force, tanks, fighter jets and helicopter gunships to crush insurgents there.
Hundreds of Iraqis were killed in the fighting and thousands were forced to flee their homes.
"I'm glad to see the Americans are leaving Iraq. It's only now we truly feel the taste of freedom and independence," said Ahmed Jassim, 30, a taxi driver as he waved the Iraqi flag.
"We will not see American forces anymore. They remind us of strife and destruction."
Nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Washington plans to end its military presence and pull out the remaining 5,500 U.S. troops before Dec. 31.
Only a small contingent of civilian trainers and fewer than 200 US military personnel will remain in Iraq.
Many Iraqis await the US withdrawal with relief and hopes for a better future, despite fears that sectarian tensions bubbling beneath the surface will return just as Iraq struggles to end years of war and violence.
Overall violence in Iraq has dropped sharply since the dark days of sectarian slaughter in 2006-07, but bombings and killings remain common.
"After the Americans leave we want to see a united Iraq, we do not want disputes," Hameed Jadou, a Sunni cleric, told the crowds. "Whoever says this is an Iraqi Sunni, Shi'ite, Kurdish, or Turkman, is using the terms brought by the occupier."
More at the linkIraqis burned American flags, brandished banners and thronged the streets of the... more
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Don't let that title make you think this is something good- it isn't. PNAC, or the Project For A New American Century was a policy paper written by a neo conservative think tank of the same name (with illustrious criminals like Dick Cheney and Richard Perle) and released only two months prior in 2000 to the presidential s-election. It lays out a precise plan for American domination around the world starting with the attack on Iraq following the 9.11 attack on the WTC (which would coincidentally certainly qualify as the "New Pearl Harbor" laid out in the paper needed to facilitate this plan.) And it is still being facilitated today as recently as in Libya. So for those who think this is some "conspiracy theory" I would say you are wrong.
Also don't wonder why Al Gore, the duly elected president of this country in 2000 was not allowed to serve his term. He would not have engaged this agenda, so he too had to be kept from serving the people. Wonder why as well there was such a concerted media attack on him and still is? This had all been planned and it appears the current administration is following through with it. And that goes all the way in my view to the OWS protests which are being silenced now. It is the OILIGARCHY which has such a chokehold on this world that is also behind this. You know, the BP that has just been given permission to once again drill and despoil the Gulf, as well as Shell which is going to be allowed to now despoil the Arctic. Why do you think these companies are never truly held responsible for their crimes and are just allowed to keep going no matter what? In my view nothing will truly change in this world or country until the OILIGARCHY is brought down and we won't do that by continuing to drive our cars everywhere we go and continuing to vote for propped up candidates who approve drilling and pipelines on any side.
This is also why you see no real movement regarding climate change in the U.S. government nor any aggressive move to renewable energy (also mentioned in the video) that could have been accomplished already if this system wasn't rotten to its core. So for those as well who think climate change is some hoax while decrying PNAC, you actually help them in their work. It is not renewable energy and holding these corporations part of this plan accountable that will break this economy, it is the WARS already being fought to accomodate THEIR GREED that have already brought down the world economies.
So listen to this video as it lays out some truth about more than likely why our entire voting system in America was subverted in 2000 as the first step to this takeover and domination of the world oil markets and other resources at any cost and then go from there connecting the dots. You may well be totally surprised at the fact that those you think are on your side don't really care about you in comparison to the true prize they think they are getting at the expense of our planet.
The Bush clan and those who enable them are evil personified and may I say traitors to this country and they still walk free while we were denied a truly good president. Ask how that can happen in a country that is a "democratic republic" and supposedly on the side of truth, justice and the law. And don't wonder why some of us have lost complete faith in both parties. One party that subverts and the other that enables it. Both the same in my book.
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From the video:
Established in the spring of 1997 and funded largely by the energy and arms industries, the Project for the New American Century was founded as the neoconservative think tank whose stated goal was to usher in a "new American century".
Having won the cold war and no military threat to speak of, this group of ideologues created a blueprint for the future whose agenda was to capitalize upon our surplus of military forces and funds and forcing American hegemony and corporate privatization throughout the world.
Their goals:
1) Increase an already enormous military budget at the expense of domestic social programs
2) Toppling of regimes resistant to our corporate interests
3) Forcing democracy at the barrel of a gun in regions that have no history of the democratic process
4) Replacing the UN's role of preserving and extending international order
http://www.newamericancentury.org/Don't let that title make you think this is something good- it isn't. PNAC,... more
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011-02-20 12:40:00
Double murder-accused US official Raymond Davis has been found in possession of top-secret CIA documents, which point to him or the feared American Task Force 373 (TF373) operating in the region, providing Al-Qaeda terrorists with "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents," according to a report.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned "grave" as it appears that open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States, The European Union Times reports.
The SVR warned in its report that the apprehension of 36-year-old Davis, who shot dead two Pakistani men in Lahore last month, had fuelled this crisis.
According to the report, the combat skills exhibited by Davis, along with documentation taken from him after his arrest, prove that he is a member of US' TF373 black operations unit currently operating in the Afghan War Theatre and Pakistan's tribal areas, the paper said.
While the US insists that Davis is one of their diplomats, and the two men he killed were robbers, Pakistan says that the duo were ISI agents sent to follow him after it was discovered that he had been making contact with al Qaeda, after his cell phone was tracked to the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the paper said.
The US has not commented on the latest claims, but US sources closely following the case said Davis, who is being held in a Lahore jail amid a tense diplomatic dispute, was working as a "protective officer".
Davis's duties as a protective officer - essentially a bodyguard - were to provide physical security to US embassy and consular officers, as well as visiting American dignitaries, US officials who declined to be identified told Reuters.
The officials strongly denied news reports alleging Davis was part of a covert CIA-led team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups in Pakistan.
The officials insisted Davis was not part of any undercover operations team.
Two US sources familiar with the matter confirmed Davis, a former member of the US Special Forces, had previously worked on contract as a security officer for Xe Services, a controversial private contractor formerly known as Blackwater.
The most ominous point in this SVR report is "Pakistan's ISI stating that top-secret CIA documents found in Davis's possession point to his, and/or TF373, providing to al Qaeda terrorists "nuclear fissile material" and "biological agents", which they claim are to be used against the United States itself in order to ignite an all-out war in order to re-establish the West's hegemony over a Global economy that is warned is just months away from collapse," the paper added. (ANI)
GO TO STORY:
http://www.sify.com/news/cia-spy-davis-was-giving-nuclear-bomb-material-to-al-qaeda-says-report-news-international-lcumEfbecfi.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/22/3145034.htm?section=world011-02-20 12:40:00
Double murder-accused US official Raymond Davis has been found... more
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Another 14 US troops have been killed in Afghanistan since Saturday, with the death toll so far this year already rising to the level reached for all of 2010.
A pair of roadside bombings took the lives of seven soldiers on Monday, five of them dying in a blast that tore apart a Humvee in which they were riding. Bomb blasts took the lives of four others in southern Afghanistan over the weekend, while three were killed in clashes with armed groups resisting the US-led occupation.
These latest deaths bring US fatalities for the month to nearly 50, after the record 65 killed in July.
NATO has announced that it is investigating yet another report of civilians killed in a US bombing. The air strike last Thursday hit children who were collecting scrap metal on a mountain in the province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan. A local police commander said that the six children killed by the US bombs were aged six to 12. Another child was seriously wounded.
After a much-reported decline in US air strikes, attributed to orders from sacked US senior commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal that were designed to reduce civilian casualties, such strikes are back up again. According to figures released by the Air Force, US warplanes flew 5,500 "close air support" missions in June and July of 2010, compared to 4,600 in the same months last year.
With the Obama administration's Afghanistan surge having brought US troops up to the full strength of nearly 100,000, together with another 40,000 troops from NATO and other allied countries, fighting has intensified and casualties among both US troops and Afghan civilians are up sharply. New revelations of rampant corruption and CIA payoffs to the US-backed Kabul government raise the inescapable question: What are they dying for?
Among the bodies shipped back to the US through Dover Air Base in flag-draped coffins this past week was that of a 20-year-old from Elizabeth, New Jersey, Army Specialist Pedro Millet, who was killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan.
"I feel like someone ripped my heart out. I have no heart. My baby is gone," the soldier's mother, Denise Meletiche, told reporters outside her home after making the painful journey from the base in Delaware. She said that her son had joined the Army without telling her, explaining only afterwards that he did it to get money to go to college. "I was against the Army," she said. "I'm against war."
The soldier's stepfather said that Army recruiters had been allowed into Pedro's high school and enticed him into joining the military. "We're losing kids in a war, and what are they doing about it?" he said. "This is ridiculous."
What can justify such human sacrifices? Obama, like Bush before him, has tried to frighten the American people into supporting this brutal war by claiming it is necessary to defeat terrorism. This is just as much a lie coming out of the Democratic president's mouth as it was when uttered by his Republican predecessor.
US military and intelligence officials have repeatedly acknowledged that there are less than 100 Al Qaeda members in all of Afghanistan--compared to 100,000 US troops. Moreover, the 91,000 classified documents released by WikiLeaks, most of them battlefield reports, make virtually no mention of American troops pursuing terrorists. On the contrary, they are fighting to suppress resistance to foreign occupation, a resistance that enjoys broad support from the Afghan people.
A recent poll taken in Helmand and Kandahar provinces by the International Council on Security and Development, a London-based think tank, bears this out. It found that three quarters of the male population believed it was wrong to collaborate with the US-led occupation forces. Roughly the same share said that the Afghan government officials in the area were connected either to drug traffickers or to the armed groups opposing the occupation.
These figures are essentially in sync with those reported by the Pentagon itself in the spring, indicating that less than a quarter of the people in the areas where US forces are battling to suppress Afghan resistance support the government of President Hamid Karzai.
Another study released by the United Nations last January provided a vivid illustration of why Karzai and his cronies are so hated. It found that 52 percent of Afghan adults had been forced to pay at least one bribe to a public official in the previous 12 months, and that, collectively, Afghans had paid out $2.49 billion in bribes in 2009, an amount equal to nearly one-quarter of the country's gross domestic product.
In a television interview broadcast at the beginning of this month, Obama admitted to the American people that "Nobody thinks that Afghanistan is going to be a model Jeffersonian democracy."
cont.Another 14 US troops have been killed in Afghanistan since Saturday, with the death... more
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US News and World Report ranked the top 100 high schools in the United States.
The highest rated school in the nation, was Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. The school offers courses in DNA science, neurology, and quantum physics.
That's pretty impressive. I'm sure all of these students will attend incredible universities. And for this, I feel so sorry for all of the graduate student instructors, who will teach their freshman sections.
Students who come from great high schools, end up being the cockiest. I know from personal experience. I went to an excellent humanities magnet school (though not good enough for this list.) We studied and embraced socialism, postmodernity, and the philosophy of aesthetics. We were thus, very well prepared to bullshit the hell out of first-year TAs.
I 'd throw around words like hegemony and poststucturalism, even though I didn't actually understand them. I'd talk about Foucault and Sartre, despite only reading several paragraphs of their writing. I was very good at convincing these instructors that I understood what I was talking about.
Since TAs don't expect much from freshmen, they reward them heavily for throwing around buzzwords.
As I learned more my head grew. I became overly confident with my intellect. I attribute my high school experience to my current levels of pretension, elitism, and narcissism.
So before you consider sending your kids to an excellent school like the International Academy of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan or KIPP Houston High School, think the about the effects this might have on your kids later in life.
Because as the bard once wrote:
"Nobody likes it when homeboys be gloating 'bout their high schools."US News and World Report ranked the top 100 high schools in the United States.
The... more
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suzane
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added this
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2 years ago
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What to watch for in 2010 from the country that spends more on war than the next 25 combined.What to watch for in 2010 from the country that spends more on war than the next 25... more
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