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AntiWar.com Cost of War a running tally of the cost, plus compare with what else we could have done with the same money MILITARY DRAFT notes and quotes No Job For a Woman the effects of war on women's lives during the 20th and 21st centuries No More Victims The mission of No More Victims, a non-profit, non-sectarian, humanitarian organization, is to restore health and well-being to victims of war and to advocate and educate for peace" One Day of War different journalists tell about the wars they are covering, all over the globe, on one day Shame on U.S. war crimes and other disgraces Sir! No Sir! The suppressed story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam U.S. War Crimes War Is A Racket from a Marine Corps general Women Say No to War Children at War"Possibly the world's most unrecognized form of child abuse, child soldiering has become a defining feature of modern warfare..."...while child soldiering is most wide-spread in Africa, the phenomenon is by no means confined to that continent... Colombia... Sri Lanka... Afghanistan... "What's more, armed groups are increasingly targeting children not only because they are cheap and effective, but also because their limited psychological development means that they can be manipulated more easily than adults... "Given that upon recruitment or abduction, many of these children are so young that they have not yet developed a clear sense of right and wrong, it is only a matter of time before they are transformed into killing machines. In fact, in many conflicts today, child soldiers are feared more than adult ones, precisely because of the horrifying cruelty of which they are capable" (Fatin Abbas. "The New Face of Warfare." The Nation, May 28, 2007: 38-41).
"From The New York Times: "An American soldier who beat, raped, and sodomized a Nigerian woman in the northern Italian town of Vicenza in 2004 was given a lighter sentence because the court ruled that his tour of duty in Iraq had made him less sensitive to the suffering of others." the court document said, "The prolonged psychological stress to which the accused was subjected and the lowered importance he ended up giving to the life and well being of those around him can only have influenced the committing of crimes"" ("No Comment." The Progressive, May, 2006: 11).
"Einstein recognized that the machinations of a small group of men partially explain a penchant for war. The men who control the industries, the press and the church gain wealth and power by war. What he could not understand was how the majority, which had so much to lose, succumbed to their ploys so easily" (Russell Jacoby. "The War That Never Was." The Nation, Dec. 20, 2004: 31).
"In her provocative essay The Iliad or the Poem of Force, Simone Weil treats Homer's epic as a tableau depicting the disasters and torments of battle. Weil argues that in passage after passage, Homer never tires of showing how the use of force reduces people to nameless things" (John Palattella. "The War of Words." The Nation, Jan. 12, 2004: 34-5).
"Albert Camus, looking back on two world wars that had slaughtered more than 70 million people: When do we have the right to kill our fellow human beings or let them be killed?... "What is overlooked by those who believe the benefits of the war outweigh the costs is that killing even one innocent person to benefit others violates the most basic human right -- the right to life... "Terrorism is simply a criminal technique for coercing a political agenda by killing innocent people"(Paul Savoy. "The Moral Case Against the Iraq War." The Nation, May 31, 2004: 16-20).
"The history of military occupations of Third World countries is that they bring neither democracy nor security" (Howard Zinn. "How to Get Out of Iraq: A Forum." The Nation, May 24, 2004: 12).
"The only way to understand war is to see it from the perspective of the victims... "Agent Orange... left in its wake thousands of deformed children. Many died shortly after birth... orphans, crippled, plagued by skin diseases, abandoned in hospitals and orphanages... "We prefer the myth of war, the myth of glory, honor, patriotism and heroism, abstract words that in the terror and brutality of combat are empty and meaningless... words that are obscene to those ravaged by war... "... our fantasy life. It permits us to destroy, not only things but other human beings... "Most war films and images meant to denounce war fail. They fail because they impart the thrill of violence and power... scenes of combat become.. war porn... "...the essence of war, which is death and suffering, is so carefully hidden from public view. We are not allowed to see dead bodies, at least of our own soldiers... the wounds that leave faces and bodies horribly disfigured by burns or shrapnel or poison. War is made palatable. It is sanitized. We are allowed to taste war's perverse thrill, but usually spared from seeing its consequences... "We see only those veterans deemed palatable... those who are willing to go along with the lies of war. They are trotted out to perpetuate the myth, held up as heroes for young boys to emulate. We do not tolerate deviations from the script... "... the seduction of the weapons and the pornography of violence... "War corrupts our souls and deforms our bodies. It destroys homes and villages. It grinds into the dirt all that is tender and beautiful and sacred. It is a scourge. It is a plague" (Chris Hedges. "Evidence of Things Not Seen." The Nation, May 24, 2004: 31-34).
"Since no one can rid the world of terrorists, a never-ending "war" on terrorism is a juvenile concept. Does anyone believe that a "war on drugs" or a "war on poverty" can be won? The vocabulary used to describe today's poor thinking is so absurd that no one should be surprised when tomorrow's adults (today's children) declare "war" on practically everything" ("Letters." The Nation, Sep. 13, 2004: 42). "In military strategy "terrorism" is simply the use of the "indirect approach." The "direct approach" uses massive numbers of troops, planes, bombs, artillery and tanks. There is no way to defeat the indirect approach unless we depopulate the Muslim world... Greider writes of "fanatical terrorists" throughout the world. What is more fanatical than the "shock and awe" of dropping thousands of tons of depleted uranium on a civilian population?" ("Letters." The Nation, Sep. 13, 2004: 42).
"...Bush's war on terrorism, and.. Sharon's, and.. Putin's. What their wars have in common is that they are based on an enormous deception: persuading the people of their countries that you can deal with terrorism by war... "Since war is itself the most extreme form of terrorism, a war on terrorism is profoundly self-contradictory... "Even within their limited definition of terrorism, they--the governments of the United States, Israel, Russia--are clearly failing... "I believe that the American people's natural compassion would come to the fore if they truly understood that we are terrorizing other people by our "war on terror"... "...as soon as you suggest that it is important, to consider something other than violent retaliation, you are accused of sympathizing with the terrorists. It is a cheap way of ending a discussion without examining intelligent alternatives to present policy... "What can account for the fact that these obviously ineffective, even counterproductive, responses have been supported by the people of Russia, Israel, the United States?... It is fear, a deep, paralyzing fear, a dread so profound that one's normal rational faculties are distorted, and so people rush to embrace policies that have only one thing in their favor: They make you feel that something is being done... "The CIA senior terrorism analyst who has written a book signed "Anonymous" has said bluntly that U.S. policies -- supporting Sharon, making war on Afghanistan and Iraq -- "are completing the radicalization of the Islamic world"" (Howard Zinn. "Our War on Terrorism." The Progressive, Nov. 2004: 12-13).
"More than half the public, in opinion polls over the past six months, had declared their opposition to the war. Neither major party candidate represented their view, so they were effectively disenfranchised... "...our soldiers going innocently into Iraq, but becoming brutalized by the war, practicing torture on helpless prisoners, shooting the wounded, bombing houses and mosques, turning cities into rubble, and driving families out of their homes into the countryside... "The Bush administration, riding high and arrogant, adhering to the rule of the fanatic, which is to double your speed when you are going in the wrong direction, will find itself oing over a cliff, too late to stop" (Howard Zinn. "Harness That Anger." Progressive, January, 2005: 20-21).
"George W. Bush's Iraq War, while duplicitous in many respects, is actually the culmination of twenty-five years of U.S. policy to ensure continued domination of the Persian Gulf and its prolific oil fields. "In fact, it was a natural expression of the Carter Doctrine. Enunciated... in January 1980, the doctrine defines Persian Gulf oil as a "vital interest" of the United States that must be defended "by any means necessary... "So the use of force to ensure U.S. access to Persian Gulf oil is not a Bush II policy or a Republican policy, but a bipartisan, American policy... "Today, the Carter Doctrine stretches far beyond the Persian Gulf... an extended Carter Doctrine now justifies similar action in the Caspain Sea region, Latin America, and the west coast of Africa. Slowly but surely, the U.S. military is being converted into a global oil-protection service... "The Carter Doctrine now covers much of the planet... Central Asia and the Caspain region... the Republic of Georgia and oil-rich waters off the coast of Africa... South China Sea... Colombia... "The Cheney Report identifies many areas as possible sources of non-Gulf oil, but focuses in particular on three key areas: the Andean region of South America (notably Colombia and Venezuela), the west coast of Africa (Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, and Nigeria), and the Caspian Sea baasin (Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan)... "...the current instability in Colombia, Venezuela, Nigeria, and other non-Gulf producing areas is one big reason behind the worldwide shortage of petroleum and the resulting high gasoline prices... "Increase U.S. reliance on oil from Africa, Latin America, and the Caspian region... That's why Bush has established U.S. bases in the Caspian region... "In announcing these moves, the White House has repeatedly stated that such action is needed to fight Al Qaeda and to support ongoing U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. But a careful reading of Pentagon and State Department documents suggests that the protection of oil is of paramount concern... "The 2003 invasion of Iraq should be viewed as not the first--and certainly not the last--of a long series of wars over the control of foreign oil. These wars are certain to claim an increasing toll in human life and will impose a severe and growing strain on the federal treasury. Members of the Armed Forces face years of dangerous and ignoble work as protectors of pipelines and refineries" (Michael T. Klare. "The Carter Doctrine Goes Global." The Progressive, Dec. 2004: 17-21).
Excerpts from book: Mickey Z. The Seven Deadly Sins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2004. "...the many distortions and misrepresentations used to justify U.S. wars... "...deconstructing our national myths... "...the mainstream glorification of all things military... "Thick Nhat Hanh: "We are taught to think that we need a foreign enemy. Governments work hard to get us to be afraid and to hate so we will rally behind them"... "The purpose of U.S. war misinformation:
"...seven techniques are regularly employed to achieve these three goals (5)... "Noam Chomsky: "To liberate yourselves from these misconceptions and perspectives is to take a long step toward overcoming oppression"... "In affluent societies, one should expect a lot of "willed ignorance" from people... If one's privelege is based on maintaining the empire, it's not surprising that some people won't want to know about what the empire really does (5)... "...public opinion can... end or prevent wars... To do so requires rebuttal, i.e., information that challenges the myopia and amnesia cultivated by State and corporate propaganda... "Making us forget is what spin is all about (6)... [/] THE SEVEN SPINS or excuses for war: Spin #1: The Sleeping Giant . "The U.S. minds its own business but the sleeping giant is endlessly awakened or has its patience tested by surprise events and unprovoked hostilities. Spin #2: Good Wars. "Once forced into war, the U.S. only does so in the name of democracy, freedom, and justice. Spin #3: U.S. vs. Them. "Godless communists, subhuman (and superhuman) Japanesse, gooks, chinks, butchers, terrorsts, evildoers, and the next Hitler--the U.S. always opposes the worst humanity has to offer. Spin #4: Support the Troops. "No matter what we think or how we feel, we all unite behind our troops once the fighting starts. Spin #5: The Devijl Made the U.S. Do It. "During war, even the U.S. has to sometimes play a little rough. Spin #6: Surgical Strikes. :We have good intentions and smart bombs; those billion-dollar weapons can differentiate between the guilty and the innocent. Spin #7: Only Losers Commit War Crimes. "For doing what we would never do, vanquished enemies of the U.S. must be brought to justice in war crime tribunals... SPIN #1: THE SLEEPING GIANT "It's an excuse we all learn in childhood: "He started it" or "She hit me first." From this rudimentary alibi grows the myth of the sleeping giant. By portraying oneself as the target of an unprovoked sneak attack all bases are covered. Not only are you claiming innocence and the role of a victim, you might even be excused for responding angrily... maybe even with a little too much force(9)... EXAMPLE: The battleship U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana bay in 1898. We blamed Spain and started the Spanish American War. The Maine's boiler simply blew up; it was an accident. The U.S. administration lied, an excuse to start a war. EXAMPLE: President James Polk sent troops into Texas, crossing the border, "creating a pretext to stir Americans into action against Mexico." When the U.S. troops were attacked by Mexican troops (who were defending their country), Polk used it as an excuse to declare war on Mexico. EXAMPLE: "The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 is the mother of all sleeping giant spins. In July, 1941... "the U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands instituted a total embargo on oil and scrap metal to Japan... tantamount to a declaration of war. This was followed soon after by the U.S. and the U.K. greezing all Japanese assets in their respective countries... The U.S. had clearly provoked the war with Japan... the embargoes [were] a clear and potent threat to Japan's very existence (17)... EXAMPLE: The 1964 Bay of Tonkin incident was concocted to start a war in Vietnam. "...there was no reason to believe the Maddox was fired upon... a navy pilot flying over the Gulf of Tonkin that night [said] "our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets -- there were no PT boats there... There was not a single intruder" (19)... The book gives more than a dozen more examples, most in Central and South America... SPIN #2: GOOD WARS Justification #2: "We can't sit back and allow bad guys to thrive. Sometimes we must commit violent acts to stop other, more violent acts from taking place (31)... ""While we claim to be a generous, humane society, I see us as a cold-blooded, selfish, increasingly narcissistic and out of touch with a broader reality," Atwood declares (32)... EXAMPLE: WWII -- U.S. "investment [in Germany] increased by some 48.5 percent between 1929 and 1940... Western collaboration with both Germany and Italy in the years leading up to WWII abound but remain obscured through the magic of spin. This allows the Good War afterglow to shine six decades later (34)... EXAMPLE: U.S. "humanitarian" intervention in Somalia in 1992-3. "Sold to the public as an act of U.S. philanthropy with images of malnourished African children and stories of evil Somali warlords, little of the nation's history was allowed to get in the way... "From the late 1970s until just before Siad Barre's overthrow in early 1991, the U.S. sent hundreds of millions of dollars of arms to Somalia... Of course, chaos and famine ensued... creating ideal conditions for U.S. exploitation and whitewashing (36)... "President Clinton... ordered the bombing of civilian targets (37)... EXAMPLE: Yugoslavia in later 1990s. "...since an actual Somalia-like crisis did not exist, [the U.S.] simply fabricated one (38)... "...a 78-day, U.S.-led NATO air assault was initiated in the name of humanitarianism. "The humanitarian justifications are ludicrous," says Robert Hayden, director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. "The casualties among Serb civilians in the first three weeks of this war [were] higher than all of the sacualties on both sides in Kosovo in the three months that led up to this war (39)... "NATO killed more civilians than soldiers, accelerated the displacement of hundreds of thousands of refugees, destroyed the infrastructure and poisoned the environment of southeastern Europe (40)... EXAMPLE: Does the U.S. ever intervene with legitimate humanitarian purposes?... the U.S. failed the ultimate litmus test: intervening in the Nazi Holocaust. Besides collaborating with Germany before, during, and after the war, U.S. leaders demonstrated indifference to the looming genocide... "When a resolution was introduced in January, 1934 asking [FDR] (and the Senate) to express "surprise and pain" at the German treatment of the Jews, that resolution never got out of committee (41)... EXAMPLE: Rwanda -- "Nearly a million Tutsis were massacred in Rwanda in 1994... one-seventh of the population became corpses. The U.S. response: "...we don't care... U.S. national interest is not involved... we can't put all these silly humanitarian interests on lists"... Clinton ordered that America do nothing to stop the killing (43).... More examples are given in the book. "The United States, like all nations, operates out of self-interest but paints its behavior in broad strokes of selflessness as no other country does (44)... SPIN #3: U.S. vs. THEM "...it is easier to kill a subhuman thing than it is to kill a mirror image of yourself... [so we call our enemies] savages, gooks, chinks, butchers, terrorists, evildoers... Spin #3 plays into our worst fears--the bogeyman... EXAMPLE: We killed off almost the entire population of native Americans... "people like George Washington... describing Indians as "wild beasts of the forest" and "savage as the wolf" (50)... EXAMPLE: "...a similar strategy was employed to justify the African slave trade (50)... EXAMPLE: WWI and the Creel Commission which spread rumors that "double rewards were paid to German submarine crews for sinking ships carrying women and children... inducing a fever pitch of so-called patriotism (51)... EXAMPLE: "...the all-purpose Red Menace... the United States convinced much of the world that there was an international conspiracy out there... ""...the cry of national security stills criticism, rationality, and decency," says author Edward S. Herman (52)... "More than a decade after the fall of the Iron Curtain, U.S. propagandists continue to rely on red-baiting as a method of silencing dissent... "The entire "red scare" was blatant hypocrisy...Corporate America was... deeply involved in the soviet economy (55)... Many other examples are given in the book. SPIN #4: SUPPORT THE TROOPS "No matter what we think or how we feel, once the actual fighting begins, all Americans must unite behind our troops to insure their safety through victory... [This amounts to] squashing dissent through the cultivation of patriotic fervor (73)...
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders... All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country" (Hermann Goering, Hitler's Deputy, at his 1946 Nuremberg War Crimes trial). EXAMPLE: WWI -- "Woodrow Wilson announced, "conformity will be the only virtue and any man who refuses to conform will have to pay the penalty" (75)... "The Creel Committee published 75 million books and pamphlets, had 250 paid employees, and mobilized 75,000 volunteer speakers known as "four minute men," who delivered their pro-war messages in churches, theaters, and other places of civic gatherings. "Hitler was very impressed by the successes of Anglo-American propaganda during World War I (74)... EXAMPLE: WWII -- "...posters demonized the enemy, canonized "our boys," and helped restore the tattered image of corporate America... putting a positive spin on the war... "Battlefield casualty images were banned and any labor-management tensions were glossed over... consciously fabricated... patriotism (76)... EXAMPLE: Gulf War I -- "The media are completely unabashed in allying themselves with the administration, being a mouthpiece for the war machine... "What the media do nationally is to imperceptibly create an amnesia-like feeling... There's no context for actions, there's no background; there's no history. Things just happen (78)... "One would never be able to guess from public discourse that for every American veteran of combat in Vietnam, there must be twenty veterans of the antiwar movement. One reason for this is the media distortion of who opposes war... "Schechter says, "Hawks rule the TV studios even as doves line the streets"... It's difficult to discover much of anything about the peace movement from a corporate media that relies almost entirely on retired military men as wartime commentators (81)... "The "support the troops" mantra specifically ignores any real examination of who those troops are, what those troops are doing, and why someone might not want them waging war... "Putting the troops in a position where they must commit atrocities and where they could get killed or injured is not "supporting" them (89)... SPIN #5: THE DEVIL MADE U.S. DO IT "During the war, even the U.S. has to sometimes play a little rough and sometimes the good guys get their hands a little dirty... in the name of freedom... "Still, no matter how hard it tries, the Fifth Deadly Spin cannot explain away America's long criminal legacy... EXAMPLE: "The first "devil" to drive god's country to commit atrocities was, of course, the indigenous population... broken treaties... innumerable massacres... forced marches... federally sanctioned dehumanization... "...Adolf Hitler "used the [American] treatment of the native people... as a model... displacing, relocating, dramatically shifting or liquidating a population to clear the land and replace it with what he called superior breeding stock" (94-5)... EXAMPLE: "...it was "necessary" to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki... Americans conditioned to perceive the Japanese as inhuman found it easy to hate. As a December 1945 Fortune poll revealed, twenty-three percent of those questioned wished the U.S. could have dropped "many more [atomic bombs] before the Japanese had a chance to surrender." Such fervor for slaughter was dultivated through a massive public relations effort to demonize the Japanese, e.g., the New York Times ran a photo showing a flamethrower being used to kill Japanese with the headline: "Clearing Out A Rat's Nest." (95)... The U.S. history of "international terrorism... has no counterpart... attacking civilian installations, bombing hotels, sinking fishing vessels... poisoning crops and livestock (100)... "Immediately upon the defeat of Germany, the United States went about recruiting Nazis to help with the next good war (103)... "The impact of former Nazis ratcheting up the Cold War rhetoric can be measured in number of humans who suffered and died as pawns in the game... Millions were killed... thanks to Hollywood hagiography and useless history text[books], World War II remains as the example of U.S. high-mindedness (105)... SPIN #6: SURGICAL STRIKES "We have good intentions and smart bombs. Those billion-dollar weapons can differentiate between the guilty and the innocent... "...an estimated 90 million civilians lost their lives during war in the twentieth century. Today, nine out of ten wartime deaths are civilians...half of those are children... "The United States spends more than one million dollars per minute on war (119)... EXAMPLE: "...the General Accounting Office released a study that found the claims made by the Pentagon and its principal weapons contractors concerning the pinpoint precision of the Stealth fighter jet, the Tomahawk land-attack missile, and laser-guided smart bombs "were overstated, misleading, inconsistent with the best available data, or unverifiable" (120)... "The stealth systems didn't work in cold weather or heavy winds... the smart bombs hit their targets only about 30 percent of the time (122)... "Even [the] Secretary of Defense... eventually admitted, "The Patriot [missile] didn't work." (124)... "...military policies... often involve massive civilian casualties (126)... SPIN #7: ONLY LOSERS COMMIT WAR CRIMES "Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in the newspapers" (George Orwell) (118). "Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit atrocities" (Voltaire) (128). "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal. Fortunately, we were on the winning side" (U.S. General Curtis LeMay [after WWII], p. 128).... "...the issue of U.S. war crimes is rarely if ever broached (129).... "The U.S. has almost always ended up on the winning side... and therefore hasn't had to accept responsibility for more than two centuries of its own atrocities (130).. "...the U.S. commits war crimes with alarming frequency (131)... "The International Criminal Court (ICC)... is the "first ever permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to promote the rule of law and ensure that the gravest international crimes do not go unpunished." The United States is not happy about the ICC and Human Rights Watch explains why:
"The Bush Administration is attempting to negotiate bilateral impunity agreements with numerous countries around the globe. The goal of these agreements is to exempt U.S. military and civilian personnel from jurisdiction of the ICC" (139). Cost of war today $145,178,460,483 Or $114,000 per minute Or $500.00 per family per month Or The Government borrows one BILLION dollars per day
40% of the Military budget is secret
Number of U.S.soldiers returned from Iraq in the last
year who have been diagnosed with mental-health problems: Johns Hopkins University indicates that 100,000 civilians, most of them women and children, have died as a result of the Iraq war "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." (President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16, 1953) The human and financial costs of the Iraq War continue to climb. Since the beginning of the war in March 2003, more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers have died, three times the number that died in the first Persian Gulf War. More than 85% of those soldiers died since the President declared an end to major combat. More than 7,000 soldiers have been wounded, 15 times the number wounded in the first Gulf War.1 Many of these soldiers have suffered permanent, disabling injuries. Nearly 170,000 reservists and National Guard troops are currently on active duty compared to 50,000 prior to the Iraq War. These part-time soldiers are taken away from their families and jobs for long periods of time. The American taxpayer pays the financial costs of this war Congress has already allocated $150 billion for the war. More will be needed as instability grows and hostilities escalate: Attacks on U.S. and other troops in August averaged 90 per day, five times the level of last winter. • Every day two U.S. soldiers are killed and 30 are wounded. • The number of insurgents in Iraq may have quadrupled since last year. • Crude oil production in Iraq is only two-thirds of what it was pre-war. • The Administration requested Congress in September to shift money allocated for Iraqi reconstruction to security, a move indicating trouble, according to some Congressional leaders. • A U.S.intelligence report provided to the Bush Administration in July concluded a gloomy outlook for stability in Iraq, including the possible outbreak of a civil war. Beyond 2004, the financial needs of this war may consume another $4 billion per month. "Every gun that ismade, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those whohunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." (PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower April 16,1953). "Beware of foreign entanglements" (Washington). "We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security" (Eisenhower). "If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy" (Madison). "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety" (B. Franklin). "There is nothing good in war except its ending" (Lincoln).
"...called "global strike"... In a shocking innovation in American nuclear policy, recently discolsed in the Washington Post by military analyst William Arkin, the Administration has created and placed on continuous high alert a force where by the President can launch a pinpoint strike, including a nuclear strike, anywhere on earth with a few hours' notice... "These actions make operational a revolution in US nuclear policy... targeting of, among others, China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libra... grew out of Bush's broader new military strategy of pre-emptive war... "The incorporation of nuclear weapons into the global strike option, casting a new shadow of nuclear danger over the entire planet, raises fundamental questions. Perhaps the most important is why the United States, which now possesses the strongest conventional military forces in the world, feels the need to add to them a new global nuclear threat. The mystery deepens when you reflect that nothing could be more calculated to goad other nations into nuclear proliferation" (Jonathan Schell. "A Revolution in American Nuclear Policy." The Nation, Mar. 14, 2005: 12).
"Iraq war increased starvation. Acute malnutrition among Iraqi children aged under five almost doubled last year because of chaos caused by the US-led occupation, according to the UN Human Rights Commission"("Roundup." Guardian Weekly, April 8, 2005: 2).
"The third world war has already started. It is not George Bush's rhetorical "war on terror", but terrorism itself. In other words, terrorism is the new war. A recent analysis of the casualty statistics of global terrorism shows that they follow the pattern previously observed for conventional conflicts ranging from small local skirmishes to the second world war... "But how can a single simple statistic such as the number of people killed in attacks tell us anything meaningful about events and conflicts conducted in completely different places for what seem to be totally different reasons? Isn't this like expecting to understand a country's culture by counting its population? "That depends on what you are looking for. When he first studied the statistics of "deadly quarrels" 80 years ago, the British physicist Lewis Fry Richardson wanted to understand why wars happen. Richardson, a Quaker who served as an ambulance driver in the first world war, hoped that such insight could promote world peace. He decided first to find out how wars were distributed according to their size. "In the 1920s he plotted the fatality statistics for 82 wars fought since 1820 on a graph showing the size of the conflicts on one axis and the number of conflicts of that size on the other. He found that the data fitted onto a smooth curve which, when the numbers were plotted as logarithms, became a straight line. This sort of mathematical relationship is known as a power law. The line slopes "downwards" because there are progressively fewer conflicts of ever greater size: little wars are common, big ones are rare. "The power law continued to hold as the data embraced conflicts such as the second world war and Vietnam. Richardson's discovery of power-law statistics of conflicts has been followed by the recognition that power laws govern all sorts of "social" statistics, from the sizes of towns to the fluctuations of economic markets and the structure of the world wide web. "Power-law statistics of event sizes are also found for natural phenomena that occur close to points of instability, such as earthquakes... "There are two different power laws--one that fits the figures for terrorist attacks in industrialised (G8) nations, and another for attacks in the rest of the world. The slope of the straight-line plot was steeper in the latter case, indicating that attacks in industrialized nations are more rare but more severe when they do occur. The attacks of September 11, 2001, indicate that, as do the London bombings... "Johnson argues that while the conventional approach of political analysts is to look for micro-explanations of the course of a conflict in terms of the motivations of the groups concerned, that statistical analysis suggests that the outcomes are much more to do with "the mechanics of how people now do war"... "The team's conclusion supports the assertion of Mary Kaldor, a political scientist at the London School of Economics, that "the ongoing war in Iraq is a new type of war." She says US military action in Iraq has been predicated on the assumption that they are fighting an "old war."... ""This is immensely dangerous," Kaldor says. That, it seems, must also be the message for any global "war on terror"--it is not one that can be won by military might, but by new strategies. In "new wars", she says, military forces should be deployed for law enforcement, and "forces are needed that combine soldiers, police and civilians with the capacity to undertake humanitarian and legal activities" "But if, as Johnson's work suggests, these conflicts have indeed turned into a form of terrorism, they will not be over soon. According to Clauset, the power-law statistics of terrorism show that it "is an endemic feature of the modern world and is likely not something that can be completely eradicated. Instead it should be considered in a similar way to other endemic problems, such as crime and natural disasters"" (Philip Ball. "Statistically, this means war." Guardian Weekly, Aug. 12, 2005: 19).
"...the Pentagon has requested a total of $1.3 billion for a new type of land mine... "Since the early 1990s, when the movement to ban land mines became widespread, forty mine-producing countries stopped producing, and millions of land mines have been destroyed, the result being that the casualty rate dropped from 26,000 people a year to between 15,000 and 20,000. But fifteen countries still insist on producing land mines [including the US]... "...in the Second World War more than half of those who died were civilians... "Strada rejects the idea of "humanitarian wars," as I do. I can accept that there may be rare situations where a small act of force might be used to halt a genocidal situation (Rwanda is an example). But war, defined as the massive and indiscriminate use of force (and technology dictates that any large-scale use of force cannot be focused on a particular evil-doer) cannot be accepted, once you understand its human consequences... "Albert Enstein, horrified by the First World War, said: "War cannot be humanized. It can only be abolished"" (Howard Zinn. "A Surgeon's Touch." The Progressive, Sep. 2005: 14-15).
"Don't be fooled a second time. They told you Britain must invade Iraq because of its weapons of mass destruction. They were wrong. Now they say British troops must stay in Iraq because otherwise it will collapse into chaos. "This second lie is infecting everyone. It is spouted by Labour and Tory opponents of the war. Its axiom is that western soldiers are so competent that, wherever they go, only good can result. It is their duty not to leave Iraq until order is established, infrastructure rebuilt and democracy entrenched. Note the word "until. It hides a bloodstained half-century of western self-delusion and arrogance. The white man's burden is still alive and well in the skies over Baghdad (the streets are now too dangerous). Soldiers and civilians may die by the hundred. Money may be squandered by the million. But Tony Blair tells us that only western values enforced by the barrel of a gun can save the hapless Mussulman from his own worst enemy, himself" (Sam Jenkins. "The lies and folly march on." Guardian Weekly, Sep. 30: 3). "It is organized violence on the top which creates individual violence at the bottom" --Emma Goldman "... the 19th century's anarchist Emma Goldman's warning about the consequences of the use of unlawful physical force to resolve conflict... "... nary a word has been mentioned about the influence of violence upon a society that has become not only fascinated by, but has come to deify, it. "Particularly when it comes to youth we see this idolatry manifest itself today, fueled by graphic international conflicts, movies, television, computer games and, to some degree, music... "Kids' TV often has a particularly bad kind of violence--the humorous kind... "Added to this mix is the ever-present influence of a corporatist culture willing to use exploited violence and unfettered competitiveness as a means to satisfy its own insatiable greed while a supportive government cheers it on under the guise of a free-market economy... "...we have not made peace and non-violence attractive. Perhaps, this is because we ourselves have never really understood what they mean. Our concept of peace has always been framed in terms of the final and stabilized goals of a given conflict. "True peace, as the famed child educator Dr. Maria Montessori reminds us, "suggests the triumph of justice and love among men; it reveals the existence of a better world wherein harmony reigns"... [from her pamphlet Peace and Education]... [More from the pamphlet] ""The obedience which is expected of the child both in home and in the school--an obedience admitting neither of reason nor of justice--prepares [them] to be docile to blind forces. ""The punishment, so frequent in schools, which consists in subjecting the culprit to public reprimand and is almost tantamount to the torture of the pillory, fills the soul with a crazy, unreasoning fear of public opinion, manifestly unjust and false," the noted educator adds. "The perfect and infallible discipline therefore becomes synonymous with slavery for the child... "[From Montessori again] "The virtue worthy above all others of public encouragement and of reward has always been triumphing over one's school fellows in competitions, and the gaining in examinations of the decisive victory allowing one to pass from one year to another of a monotonous existence of perpetual servitude. ""[Children] brought up in this way have been prepared neither to fight and be victorious, not to conquer truth and possess it, nor to love others and join with them in striving for a better life. ""Their education has prepared them rather for an incident, a mere episode of real community life: war. For in reality, the cause of war does not lie in armaments, but in the [individuals] who make use of them"" (A.V. Krebs. "Sacrificing Childhood to Idolatry of Violence." Progressive Populist, May 1, 2005: 7).
"Without question, if we all used the same vocabulary, the neoconservative movement would collapse. That's why the government has to pay columnists, favricate its own news and invent its own language to win the war of public opinion... "... Bush-speak... touts a culture of lise, this while promoting permanent worldwide war... "And so rather than rebuking the illegal war culprits, the neocons simply change the meaning of words and reward each other with new appointments... "Nowadays, military death squad killings in Afghanistan and Iraq have become "targeted assassinations." And the president is completely against torture, as long as he defines its meaning, this while ensuring that US troops act with impunity and are exempt from the International War Crime tribunal. "At home, politics trumps science and delusion is now the national pastime. There is no global warming. Propaganda promotes freedom. Corruption occurs abroad and pollution-friendly rules are now "clear-air" initiatives. Universal health care is satanic, and bankruptcy is now only an option for big business. And his deficit-inducing tax cuts that favor the rich are propelling the economy... "...the deceptive use of language by the US government... we are supposed to perceive ourselves not as "savages," but as under siege from savages" (Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez. "The culture of life." Progressive Populist, May 1, 2005: 18).
"It is orgnaized violence on the top which creates individual violence at the bottom" -Emma Goldman "...the 19th century's anarchist Emma Goldman's warning about the consequences of the use of unlawful physical force to resolve conflict... "[We are] a society that has become not only fascinated by, but has come to deify [violence] "Particularly when it comes to youth we see this idolatry manifest itself today, fueled by graphic international conflicts, movies, television, computer games and, to some degree, music... "Kids' TV often has a particularly bad kind of violence--the humorous kind... "Added to this mix is the ever-present influence of a corporatist culture willing to use exploited violence and unfettered competitiveness as a means to satisfy its own insatiable greed while a supportive government cheers it on under the guise of a free-market economy... "We can argue that we have not made peace and non-violence attractive. Perhaps, this is because we ourselves have never really understood what they mean. Our concept of peace has always been framed in terms of the final and stabilized goals of a given conflict. "True peace, as the famed child educator Dr. Maria Montessori reminds us, "suggests the triumph of justice and love among men; it reveals the existence of a better world werein harmony reigns"... [her] pamphlet Peace and Education... ""The obedience which is expected of the child both in home and in the school--an obedience admitting neither of reason nore of justice--prepares [them] to be docile to blind forces. ""The punishment, so frequent in schools, which consists in subjecting the culprit to public reprimand and is almost tantamount to the torture of the pillory, fills the soul with a crazy, unreasoning fear of public opinion, manifestly unjust and false" the noted educator adds. "The perfect and infallible discipline therefore becomes synonymous with slavery for the child... ""The virue worthy above all others of public encouragement and of reward has always been triumphing over one's school fellows in competitions, and the gaining in examinations of the decisive victory allowing one to pass from one year to another of a monotonous existence of perpetual servitude. ""[Children] brought up in this way have been prepared neither to fight and be victorious, not to conquer truth and possess it, nor to love others and join with them in striving for a better life. ""Their education has prepared them rather for an incident, a mere episode of real community life: war. For in reality, the cause of war does not lie in armaments, but in the [individuals] who make use of them"" (A.V. Krebs. "Sacrificing Childhood to Idolatry of Violence." Populist Progressive, May 1, 2005: 7).
"Israel's invasion of Gaza and Lebanon illustrates the futility of war. It is a blunt instrument that exacts an unbearable price on civilians, and it aggravates prolems rather than resolving them" (Matthew Rothschild. "The Israeli-American Invasion." The Progressive, Sep. 2006: 8-10).
"... massive military attacks are not only morally reprehensible but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out. "In the three years of the Iraq War, which began with shock-and-awe bombardment and goes on with day-to-day violence and chaos, the United States has failed utterly in its claimed objective of bringing democracy and stability to Iraq... The Israeli invasion and bombing of Lebanon has not brought security to Israel. Indeed, it has increased the number of its enemies... "The history of wars fought since the end of World War II reveals the futility of large-scale violence. The United States and the Soviet Union, despite their enormous firepower, were unable to defeat resistance movements in small, weak nations. Even though the United States dropped more bombs in the Vietnam War than in all of World War II, it was still forced to withdraw. The Soviet Union, trying for a decade to conquir Afghanistan, in a war that caused a million deaths, became bogged down and also finally withdrew... "The United States, which had its way in Latin America for a hundred years, has been unable, despite a long history of military interventions, to control events in Cuba, or Venezuela, or Brazil, or Bolivia. "Overwhelming Israeli military power, while occupying the West Bank and Gaza, has not been able to stop the resistance movement of Palestinians. Israel has not made itself more secure by its continued use of massive force. The United States, despite two successive wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, is not more secure. "More important than the futility of armed force, and ultimately more important, is the fact that war in our time always results in the indiscriminate killing of large numbers of people. To put it more bluntly, war is terrorism. That is why a "war on terrorism" is a contradiction in terms... More than a million civilians in Vietnam were killed by US bombs, presumably by "accident." Add up all the terrorist attacks throughout the world in the twentieth century and they do not equal that awful toll. "If reacting to terrorism attacks by war is inevitably immoral, then we must look for ways other than war to end terrorism" (Howard Zinn. "Why War Fails." The Progressive, Nov. 2006: 14-15).
"The high yields Naylor gets from his monoculture fields couldn't happen without added nitrates. The chemical fertilizer industry was born from left-over ammonium nitrate, used in making explosives, the government had after World War II... "Modern warfare and industrial agriculature are entwined... ""Today, it takes between seven and ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate." We've traded free energy from the sun for pricey petroleum. "Big Ag thrives precisely because so many of these costs are hidden, especially environmental ones. Chemical runoff from farms contaminates our water tables. Excess nitrogen in our watersheds has created huge dead zones in the Northwest and the Gulf of Mexico. Our public health system faces epidemics of diabetes, childhood obesity, and heart disease, all related to our diet" (Elizabeth DiNovella. "Think Globally, Eat Locally." The Progressive, Nov. 2006: 41-44).
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