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militarism

NATO: Time To Re-Examine An Alliance

August 3, 2018 Staff, Dispatchesfromtheedgeblog.wordpress.com ,
One such detail is NATO’s “Readiness Initiative” that will beef up naval, air and ground forces in “the eastern portion of the Alliance.” NATO is moving to base troops in Latvia, Estonia Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Poland. Since Georgia and Ukraine have been invited to join the Alliance, some of those forces could end up deployed on Moscow’s western and southern borders. And that should give us pause. A recent European Leadership’s Network’s (ELN) study titled “Envisioning a Russia-NATO Conflict” concludes, “The current Russia-NATO deterrence relationship is unstable and dangerously so.” The ELN is an independent think tank of military, diplomatic and political leaders that fosters “collaborative” solutions to defense and security issues. High on the study’s list of dangers is “inadvertent conflict,” which ELN concludes “may be the most likely scenario for a breakout” of hostilities.

It’s Time For NATO To Go The Way Of The Warsaw Pact

July 28, 2018 By Conn Hallinan, Fpif.org , , , ,
The outcome of the July 11-12 NATO meeting in Brussels got lost amid the media’s obsession with President Donald Trump’s bombast, but the “Summit Declaration” makes for sober reading. The media reported that the 28-page document “upgraded military readiness,” and was “harshly critical of Russia,” but there wasn’t much detail beyond that. But details matter, because that’s where the devil hides. One such detail is NATO’s “Readiness Initiative” that will beef up naval, air, and ground forces in “the eastern portion of the Alliance.” NATO is moving to base troops in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Since Georgia and Ukraine have been invited to join the Alliance, some of those forces could end up deployed on Moscow’s western and southern borders.

Military-Intelligence Candidates Win Four Democratic Congressional Nominations

May 27, 2018 Patrick Martin, WSWS , ,
On Tuesday, candidates with links to the military or intelligence services won all four of the Democratic primary contests in which they were running. These results mark a significant advance in what amounts to the takeover of the Democratic Party by the national security apparatus. In the Sixth District of Kentucky and in three Texas runoff contests, in the 21st, 23rd and 31st Congressional Districts, candidates running on their records in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan defeated more traditional Democratic candidates, one backed by the party establishment and three linked to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. These results underscore the bankruptcy of the perspective advanced by various pro-Sanders pseudo-left organizations of turning the Democratic Party into a progressive party of “the people.”

Victory Over Military Cop Convention

April 7, 2018 Ann Garrison, Blackagendareport.com ,
Militarization of the police intensified after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was folded into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1, 2003, just a year and a half after 09/11. FEMA had operated as an independent federal agency from 1979 to 2003, with an independent cabinet seat from 1993 to 2000, but the Homeland Security Act of 2002 turned it into a DHS sub-agency, despite the strong objections of its director, Michael Brown, who stated that the change would “fundamentally sever FEMA from its core functions, shatter agency morale, and break longstanding, effective, and tested relationships with states and first responder stakeholders.” Three years later, in 2005, DHS/FEMA’s overly militarized and inefficient response to Hurricane Katrina proved Brown to be prescient.

The Army Of The EU

February 16, 2018 By Will Podmore, Counterpunch.org , ,
The current president of the European Commission wants it. So did his predecessors. And now the whole EU is taking steps towards the creation of a unified European military, along with unified defence research. Since our vote to Leave, the EU establishment has moved rapidly towards setting up an EU army with a single central command, without any national, democratic controls. Given the EU’s aggression in the past – look at Kosovo, Ukraine, and the bellicose stance against Russia – this is a dangerous development. It would give the EU, acting as a bloc, a free hand to beat the drums of war where it chooses in the world. Our governments act aggressively too, of course. But they are subject to control by the people, when we choose to exercise it. Brexit should bring increasing awareness and exercise of our power to do so.

Manufacturing Consent for War as a Public-Private Partnership

January 23, 2018 Nina Illingworth for NiniaIllingworth.com , ,
The terrifying truth in all of this is that western military, government, media and economic establishments have spent the better part of the past fifty years creating a self-perpetuating political environment that can only and inevitably lead to endless imperial war. After all, if the entire ruling class always supports the business of military conflict, nobody ever suffers any consequences for advocating on behalf of war and public opinion can easily be swayed in favor of US intervention by sympathetic private interests, it would be objectively naive to assume America’s current state of “forever war” is some sort of unlucky accident – this is a feature of neoliberal imperialism, not a bug. Armed with the light of knowledge, is it really all that absurd to question if the elite American establishment is actively trying to manufacture consent for a large-scale conflict that would effectively eliminate Vladimir Putin’s influence in the Middle East by attacking Russian-allied Syria and Iran?

The United States: Addicted to Special Forces

January 23, 2018 Belen Fernandez, Al Jazeera ,
The Special Operations forces of the United States - currently 70,000-strong and thus larger than the regular militaries of many sizable countries - occupy a very special place in US national mythology.  According to TIME Magazine, Special Ops "heroes" are the "planet's most skillful soldiers" and "toughest warriors" - operating in their very own "secret world".  Newsweek hails them as "dead accurate, lethal and all-but-silent. They are the military's elite - highly trained badasses armed with bullets and brains in equal measure". The obsequious glorification of "badass" warriors is of course hardly surprising, given that US society has been inculcated to view international relations as a sort of video game in which the US gets points for blowing things up.

US AFRICOM Blacklists Reporter Nick Turse As “Not A Legitimate Journalist”

January 17, 2018 Eddie Haywood, Wsws.org , , , , ,
Journalist Nick Turse, who has reported extensively on US military operations in Africa, was recently told that he has been deemed “not a legitimate journalist” by AFRICOM, the US military command which oversees operations across the continent. The move is of a piece with the US government’s drive to silence critical reporting by alternative news outlets and comes amid the global effort to censor oppositional and alternative viewpoints on the Internet. Turse explained in an article published by the Intercept on Saturday that AFRICOM officials began stonewalling his queries after he authored an article in July which documented torture by US-trained Cameroonian forces at a US base in Salak, Cameroon. For several years, the Pentagon has been perturbed by Turse’s reporting, which has exposed the vast spectrum of United States military operations across Africa, most of which it wishes to keep shrouded in secrecy.

The Polluter Is Not Paying

January 11, 2018 H. Patricia Hynes, Portside.org , ,
Wars may end, bases may close, but our toxic military footprint remains as a poisonous legacy for future generations. My nephew, an Army veteran who spent most of his 20 plus years military service as an officer in South Korea, is now a civilian military contractor living on a base in Afghanistan.  Our only conversation about US military pollution in South Korea was something of a non-starter. These two Asian countries, so disparate in development, economy and stability, have something in common – severely polluted US military bases, for which our country takes little to no financial responsibility.  The polluter pays (aka “you break it, you fix it”) does not apply to the United States military abroad.  Nor do civilian workers and most US soldiers stationed at these bases have a chance of winning medical compensation for their military pollution-related illness.

Trump Calling Pentagon, Diplomats To Play Bigger Arms Sales Role

January 11, 2018 Mike Stone and Matt Spetalnick, Reuters.com , , ,
President Donald Trump is expected to announce a “whole of government” approach that will also ease export rules on U.S. military exports and give greater weight to the economic benefits for American manufacturers in a decision-making process that has long focused heavily on human rights considerations, according to people familiar with the plan. The initiative, which will encompass everything from fighter jets and drones to warships and artillery, is expected to be launched as early as February, senior officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A key policy change would call for embassy staffers around the world to act essentially as a sales force for defense contractors, actively advocating on their behalf. It was unclear, however, what specific guidelines would be established.

West Papuan Civilians In Danger Amid Indonesian Military Attacks

November 24, 2017 Staff, freewestpapua.org , , ,
By Staff of Free West Papua Campaign - The names of those injured were: Aser Magai (male) Guwanus Tabuni (male) Deka Anow (male) Dominus Dogomo (male), Melianus Kobogau (male). Unverified footage appearing to show Indonesian soldiers firing shells in the Tembagapura area on 13th November has also been released.[12] Following this, the Indonesian military admitted firing mortars on West Papuans and admitted that Merina and Ilawe people had been killed but said this was “unexpected”. A West Papuan man claims that they were in fact civilians.[13] Speaking on 17th, the Nobel Peace Prize nominated West Papuan Independence Leader Benny Wenda who is the Spokesperson for the peaceful umbrella movement, The United Liberation Movement for West Papua, stated: “I am deeply concerned about the ongoing reports from the Tembagapura area of West Papua, especially the unconfirmed reports of West Papuan people being killed and wounded by ballistic missiles. I call upon all sides to show restraint and consider and fully respect human rights and especially the rights and needs of civilians. We don’t want any more bloodshed in West Papua. There must be a peaceful solution, both to the situation in Tembagapura and the wider situation in occupied West Papua.”

America’s Renegade Warfare Killing Civilians, Violating Law

November 19, 2017 Nicolas J S Davies, www.consortiumnews.com , , , , , ,
By Nicolas J S Davies for Consortium News. Despite the U.N. Charter and international efforts to prevent war, people in countries afflicted by war today still face the kind of total war that horrified world leaders in 1945. The main victims of total war in our “modern” world have been civilians in countries far removed from the safe havens of power and privilege where their fates are debated and decided: Yugoslavia; Afghanistan; Iraq; Somalia; Pakistan; Yemen; Libya; Syria; Ukraine. There has been no legal or political accountability for the mass destruction of their cities, their homes or their lives. Total war has not been prevented, or even punished, just externalized. But thanks to billions of dollars invested in military propaganda and public relations and the corrupt nature of for-profit media systems, citizens of the countries responsible for the killing of millions of their fellow human beings live in near-total ignorance of the mass killing carried out in their name.

Fetishizing Violence: Mass Shootings To Violent Uprisings

November 11, 2017 Eleanor Goldfield, www.occupy.com ,
By Eleanor Goldfield for Occupy.com. This week on Act Out! you may not want to politicize mass shootings but they – like everything else in this life – is already political. Adding on to last week's show on white male dethronement, Marine veteran and community organizer Vince Emanuele joins us to take a look at the issue of America's violent culture and how it affects the ENTIRE political spectrum – and indeed, what that means for the left as we battle the empire.

A Chapter In A Declining Empire

October 7, 2017 Greg Godels (Zoltan Zigedy), ,
BY Greg Godels (Zoltan Zigedy) for ZZs Blog. Those familiar with the history of Cold War US repression are not surprised by liberal complicity in the anti-Russia madness today. It should be no surprise that the liberals and the petty-bourgeois left betray the truth, make common cause with the forces of hate, distrust, and prejudice. In times of crisis, that’s what they too often do. Outside of a few notable voices, liberal/left intellectuals are buying the anti-Russia frenzy. Despite the fact that US security services have an unbroken record of lies and manipulations, they are today manufactured to be the saviors of US “democracy.” The entertainment industry has cast “deep throat” Mark Felt-- a crazed, disgruntled FBI official, bitter because he didn’t inherit the directorship from J. Edgar Hoover-- as the hero of the Watergate debacle. Industry moguls stretch credulity to portray him as the courageous forerunner of the sleazy James Comey. How quickly the liberals have forgotten the shame of 2003, when a ruling class-induced frenzy of lies and distortions prompted an unprovoked US invasion of a sovereign country.

US Topping Polls Of ‘Greatest Threat To World Peace’

October 7, 2017 Shane Quinn, www.theduran.com ,
By Shane Quinn for the Duran. Last week Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described the United States as, “the most criminal empire in the history of mankind”. Whether such a statement is true, one cannot deny the US has repeatedly topped polls of international opinion on the subject: Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today? Time and again the global community have overwhelmingly voted the US as “the greatest threat” to their existence. In one such WIN/Gallup poll from less than four years ago, the US garnered three times the votes of second-place Pakistan. Such decisive results are hardly reported in the Western mainstream, it would be ill-advised to inform unsuspecting Westerners of useless facts – instead they are disappeared down George Orwell’s memory hole. As a consequence of the predictable survey results, perhaps the question should be framed rather differently – “How can nations be secured in the face of the US threat?”
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