The following correspondence originally took place upon my Facebook wall, after I posted artwork being shared by the page, “Lets Find 1 Million People Who Know the IRAQ War is ILLEGAL!“…
Rayn:
War on of Terror
Brian J.: War is terror!
Rayn: Exactly!
Daniel Sv.: Peace is good, but always keep your powder dry.
I originally posted the following information and commentary onto my Facebook wall…
Eight Afghan Civilians Said Killed in NATO Airstrike:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-civilians-idUSBRE84Q01J20120527
Eight members of an Afghan family, including six children and two women, were killed in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities said on Sunday, although the NATO-led coalition said there was no evidence of any civilian casualties.
The strike took place in the Gerda Serai district of Paktia late on Saturday, the provincial governor’s spokesman, Rohullah Samon, said as foreign and Afghan security forces try to quell Taliban and Haqqani network insurgents active in the area.
“The strike by ISAF killed four teenage boys, two teenage girls, and two women, and wounded two others,” Samon said.
My Commentary: “Killed’? No.
MURDERED? Yes.
I originally posted the following information and commentary onto my Facebook wall…
Afghani funeral
U.S. Confirms Afghan Airstrike Mistake:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/world/asia/united-states-confirms-airstrike-wrongly-killed-afghan-family-members.html
The American military claimed responsibility and expressed regret for an airstrike that mistakenly killed six members of a family in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan and American military officials confirmed Monday.
The attack, which took place Friday night, was first revealed by the governor of Helmand Province, Muhammad Gulab Mangal, on Monday. His spokesman, Dawoud Ahmadi, said that after an investigation they had determined that a family home in the Sangin district had been attacked by mistake in the American airstrike, which was called in to respond to a Taliban attack.
Mr. Mangal summoned the American regional commander, Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus of the Marines, to complain, and General Gurganus apologized, Mr. Ahmadi said.
My Commentary: Just another day of business for the Empire…
Questioning the Motives Behind the American Invasion of Afghanistan:
http://acidrayn.com/2009/12/18/questioning-the-motives-behind-the-american-invasion-of-afghanistan/
Under Obama, America’s Military Empire Continues to Expand:
http://acidrayn.com/2009/12/18/under-obama-americas-military-empire-continues-to-expand/
The following correspondence originally took place on my Facebook wall, upon my post, “Stirring Speech by Iraqi War Veteran Mike Prysner“…
Rayn: Stirring Speech by Iraqi War Veteran, Mike Prysner:
The above clip is an excerpt of speech that was delivered by Mike Prysner at the Winter Soldier event, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War. It was held in Washington, D.C. from March 13 through March 16, 2008.
Mike is a veteran from the Iraq War, and an outspoken opponent of what he sees as the military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. He is very convicted in his beliefs, and has written many scathing articles, deconstructing the myths associated with our military’s current war efforts, and revealing the true reality of our government’s involvement in the Middle-East.
Ready to effect real changes in policy and government, he even ran for Congress in 2008 as a third-party candidate in Florida’s 22nd congressional district election (though he did not win)!
Mike’s perspective is important, and should not dismissed!
“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy… The loss of Liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad…” – James Madison
(For a transcript of the entire speech, along with accompanying video, go here: A Soldier’s Story: http://www.bethink.org/diary/876/)
Sara: Wow this is very stirring and moved me. I believe that racism has been prevalant in every war but it’s always been one of those things that nobody wanted to talk about, well I’m glad that Mike Prysner was a whistle-blower here, it took a lot of bravery, and he makes me very proud. Thank you for posting this.
I originally posted the following information and commentary onto my Facebook wall…
American Troops in Afghanistan
The Nine Surges of Obama’s War:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/10/opinion/main5962574.shtml
(Tom Engelhardt, CBS) In his Afghan “surge”speech at West Point last week, President Obama offered Americans some specifics to back up his new “way forward in Afghanistan.” He spoke of the “additional 30,000 U.S. troops”he was sending into that country over the next six months. He brought up the “roughly $30 billion”it would cost us to get them there and support them for a year. And finally, he spoke of beginning to bring them home by July 2011. Those were striking enough numbers, even if larger and, in terms of time, longer than many in the Democratic Party would have cared for. Nonetheless, they don’t faintly cover just how fully the president has committed us to an expanding war and just how wide it is likely to become.
Despite the seeming specificity of the speech, it gave little sense of just how big and how expensive this surge will be. In fact, what is being portrayed in the media as the surge of November 2009 is but a modest part of an ongoing expansion of the U.S. war effort in many areas. Looked at another way, the media’s focus on the president’s speech as the crucial moment of decision, and on those 30,000 new troops as the crucial piece of information, has distorted what’s actually underway.
My Commentary: “The truth is that every morning war is declared afresh. And the men who wish to continue it are as guilty as the men who began it, more guilty perhaps, for the latter perhaps did not foresee all its horrors.”
– Marcel Proust
Who else has been keeping track of the continuous troop surges that Obama has been authorizing in the Middle-East since taking office in January? Who else noticed the fact that, as of October, Obama officially escalated the amount of American troops actively operating in the Middle-East to 189,000? Who else is aware that this numer is slightly higher than even the largest amount of troops Bush had actively operating in the Middle-East during his presidency (the exact amount was 186,000, during the height of the 2007 “surge” in Iraq)!?
October 2009 – Obama Tops Bush in Troop Buildup:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/pers-o14.shtml
And, with our number of active troops not decreasing whatsoever since then, Obama’s recent announcement that he will commit another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan only serves to inflate America’s wars in the Middle-East well beyond anything the BLOOD-THIRSTY BUSH ADMINISTRATION could have ever “HOPED” for!
Is this what Obama meant by “CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN”? A simple “CHANGE” in war tactics, with an absolute continuation & escalation of Bush’s illegal wars of aggression?
As I said before, OBAMA IS JUST ANOTHER BUSH!!! Whether it be his troop build-ups, his bankster bailouts, his signing statements, his funding of the wars in the Middle-East, his huge budget increases for the Department of Defense and the Pentagon, his prolonged detention of “enemy combatants” without due process, his allowance of torture and use of “extraordinary rendition” with claims of “state secrets” to obstruct justice afterwards, his renewal of the freedom-stripping P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, his war efforts in Pakistan, etc., Obama has committed himself, piece-by-piece, to just about every flawed policy that was initiated by Bush!
