Afghanistan

Judges Weigh Appeal By Whistleblower Who Exposed Cover-Up Of War Crimes

March 30, 2025 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Resist! Afghanistan, Australia, David McBride, Legal System, War crimes, Whistleblowers

A three-judge panel in the Australian capital is weighing an appeal by whistleblower David McBride that could determine if a soldier’s duty is to serve the public or only his superior officers even if it means covering up evidence of his nation’s war crimes. The judges are also considering the question of whether Australian soldiers owe their allegiance to the British crown or to the people of Australia. The three Court of Appeal judges have been deliberating for four weeks to determine if the trial judge erred in not permitting McBride a public interest defense.

The Crisis In Afghanistan Is A Result Of US Recklessness

September 7, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Educate! Afghanistan, Elections, Human Rights, Troop withdrawal, United States

The third anniversary of the end of the two decades of US war and occupation in Afghanistan coincides with a particularly contentious presidential election year in the US. Both the Democrats and Republicans are busy blaming each other for the fiasco. It is clear that Afghanistan has become yet another embarrassing episode in the long history of US imperial adventures which no one wants to take responsibility for. Two of the top generals in the US army, Mark Miley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Kenneth McKenzie, former chief of US Central Command, who led the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, testified in front of Congress earlier this year.

Suicide Squad

August 1, 2024 Nick Turse, Consortium News. Educate! 9/11, Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Bin Laden, Health Care, History, Iraq, Iraq War, Saudi Arabia, Suicides, Wars and Militarism

At the end of the last century, hoping to drive the United States from Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s holiest sites, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sought to draw in the American military. He reportedly wanted to “bring the Americans into a fight on Muslim soil,” provoking savage asymmetric conflicts that would send home a stream of “wooden boxes and coffins” and weaken American resolve. As lethal as those Islamist fighters have been, however, another “enemy” has proven far more deadly for American forces: themselves. A recent Pentagon study found suicide to be the leading cause of death among active-duty U.S. Army personnel.

Donald Trump Is Not A ‘Threat To The Deep State’

July 16, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report Afghanistan, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Donald Trump, Gaza, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Joe Biden, Nicaragua, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen

An issue that I often try to avoid is domestic US partisan politics. It's very frustrating to talk about US politics because people tend to be very dogmatic and very partisan. They pick a party, the Republicans or the Democrats. They defend them no matter what. They treat the political party like a sports team or a superhero that can do no wrong. This is despite the fact that ironically the Republican and Democratic parties share a lot of their policies in common. The foreign policy that they carry out is 95% the same in this bipartisan orthodoxy. Their economic policy is the same. And yet people get angry if you criticize a Democrat, they think you are a Republican.

American Military Crisis: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson Speaks Out

July 9, 2024 Mnar Adley, MintPress News. Resistance Report Afghanistan, China, Foreign Policy, Gaza, History, Israel, NATO, Palestine, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

It is clear to at least half the world, some four billion people, that the United States is not the power that it once was… Our reputation is in tatters in the world.” That is what retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson told MintCast host Mnar Adley today. “When you talk about history and the history of empire in particular, what you find are examples of precisely what is happening to us today,” Wilkerson added, noting, in particular, the fall of the Western Roman and Persian empires and how, after they began to teeter, their leadership started to reinforce failures in military operations, in diplomacy and foreign policy in general.

IBAHRI Urges Joe Biden To Drop All Charges Against Julian Assange

June 9, 2024 International Bar Association. Resist! Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Extradition, Human Rights, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), Iraq, Iraq War, Joe Biden, Julian Assange, Wars and Militarism, Wikileaks

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) urges United States President Joe Biden, to drop all charges against Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in relation to the Wikileaks publication, in 2010, of more than 250,000 leaked classified documents – exposing alleged human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the US army during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. It was reported in April 2024 that the US President said ‘we’re considering it’ in response to a journalist’s question about a request from the Australian Government that Mr Assange be allowed to return to his native country.

The Heroism Of David McBride

May 16, 2024 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. Educate! Afghanistan, Australia, David McBride, Legal System, War crimes, Whistleblowers

Sometimes a whistleblower does everything right. He or she makes a revelation that is clearly in the public interest. The revelation is clearly a violation of the law. And then he or she is even more clearly abused by the government. It would be great if these stories always had happy endings. Unfortunately, they don’t. In this case, the whistleblower, the hero, Australian David McBride has been sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for telling the truth. He will not be eligible for parole for 27 months. David McBride is former British Army officer and a lawyer with the Australian Special Forces who blew the whistle on war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, specifically the killing of 39 unarmed Afghan prisoners, farmers, and civilians in 2012.

Whistleblower McBride Sentenced To Five Years, Eight Months

May 15, 2024 Joe Lauria and Cathy Vogan, Consortium News. Educate! Afghanistan, Australia, David McBride, War crimes, Whistleblowers

A federal judge in Canberra, the Australian capital, has sentenced military whistleblower David McBride to nearly six years in prison for leaking classified material to the media that revealed Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. Supreme Court Justice David Massop ruled on Tuesday morning local time that “only a prison sentence is appropriate,” and handed down 68 months — 5 years and 8 months. Consortium News‘ Cathy Vogan, who is inside the courtroom, reported that McBride “will go to jail until 2030. He is led out of the court by three policemen. A woman takes his dog.”

Whistleblower David McBride To Be Sentenced

May 8, 2024 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Resistance Report Afghanistan, Australia, David McBride, Legal System, War crimes, Whistleblowers

A sentencing hearing has concluded in the case of Australian whistleblower David McBride who was forced to plead guilty to leaking classified documents to the media after he was essentially denied a defense at his trial in November. The documents ultimately revealed evidence of war crimes committed by the Australian Defence Force. Justice David Mossop will pronounce the sentence next Tuesday. The government has demanded more than two years in prison, while the judge could impose as little as house arrest, monitoring , and counseling outside prison for up to four years. McBride, a former military lawyer, was charged with stealing government documents and giving them to journalists at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Teaching September 11

September 13, 2023 Jeremy Stoddard and Diana Hess, Consortium News. Educate! 9/11, Afghanistan, History, Iran, Iraq, Media, Middle East, Propaganda, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

The phrase “Never Forget” is often associated with the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But what does this phrase mean for U.S. students who are too young to remember? What are they being asked to never forget? As education researchers in curriculum and instruction, we have studied since 2002 how the events of 9/11 and the global war on terror are integrated into secondary level U.S. classrooms and curricula. What we have found is a relatively consistent narrative that focuses on 9/11 as an unprecedented and shocking attack, the heroism of the firefighters and other first responders and a global community that stood behind the U.S. in its pursuit of terrorists.

The Enduring Aftermath Of The US’ Occupation Of Afghanistan

August 29, 2023 Brian Berletic, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Afghanistan, Occupation, Sanctions, US Imperialism

The US’ invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, beginning in 2001 and enduring until 2021, left a lingering but familiar aftermath. The nationwide destruction Afghanistan suffered and the ongoing instability that persists to this day following the US’ withdrawal is reminiscent of the devastation and destitution that followed after the US’ withdrawal from Southeast Asia in the 1970s after nearly two decades of war there. Even long after the US withdrew from Afghanistan, the country continues to struggle to pick up the broken pieces left behind. This is partly due to the immense loss of life and destruction caused by the US, but also owed to very deliberate and malicious efforts by Washington who refuses to allow the Afghan people to finally move on with their lives, their nation, and their resources as they themselves determine. Even long after the US withdrew from Afghanistan, the country continues to struggle to pick up the broken pieces left behind. This is partly due to the immense loss of life and destruction caused by the US, but also owed to very deliberate and malicious efforts by Washington who refuses to allow the Afghan people to finally move on with their lives, their nation, and their resources as they themselves determine.

Taliban’s Massively Successful Opium Eradication Raises Questions

August 5, 2023 Alan MacLeod, MintPress News. Educate! Afghanistan, Narcotrafficking, Opium, Taliban, US Imperialism

The Taliban government in Afghanistan – the nation that until recently produced 90% of the world’s heroin – has drastically reduced opium cultivation across the country. Western sources estimate an up to 99% reduction in some provinces. This raises serious questions about the seriousness of U.S. drug eradication efforts in the country over the past 20 years. And, as global heroin supplies dry up, experts tell MintPress News that they fear this could spark the growing use of fentanyl – a drug dozens of times stronger than heroin that already kills more than 100,000 Americans yearly.

The Afghanistan Lithium Great Game

July 27, 2023 Binoy Kampmark, Counter Punch. Educate! Afghanistan, Lithium, Sanctions, US Imperialism

While the United States, along with its allies, left Afghanistan in August 2021 in spectacularly humiliating circumstances, the departure was never entirely complete, nor bound to be permanent. Since then, Washington has led the charge in handicapping those who, with a fraction of the resources, defeated a superpower and prevailed in two decades of conflict. In a fit of wounded pride, the United States has, in turn, sought to strangulate and asphyxiate the Taliban regime, citing human rights and security concerns. The Taliban’s Interim Foreign Minister, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, makes the not unreasonable point that “the ongoing crisis is the imposition of sanctions and banking restrictions by the United States.”

SCO Denounces Confrontation And Protectionist Policies

July 5, 2023 People's Dispatch. Create! Afghanistan, Asia, China, India, Iran, Multipolarity, Russia

The New Delhi Declaration was adopted on Tuesday, July 4, after a virtual meeting of the leaders of the nine-member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The declaration underlined the need for stronger and more effective international regimes and vowed to work for a more “just, democratic and multipolar world order.” The 23rd meeting of the Council of Head of States was hosted by India virtually. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the meeting along with leaders from Central Asian countries.

They Lied About Afghanistan And Iraq; They Are Lying About Ukraine

July 3, 2023 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Afghanistan, Iraq, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

The playbook the pimps of war use to lure us into one military fiasco after another, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, does not change. Freedom and democracy are threatened. Evil must be vanquished. Human rights must be protected. The fate of Europe and NATO, along with a “rules based international order” is at stake. Victory is assured. The results are also the same. The justifications and narratives are exposed as lies. The cheery prognosis is false. Those on whose behalf we are supposedly fighting are as venal as those we are fighting against.

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