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Wars and Militarism

Dissecting The Afghan Military’s Total Collapse

March 28, 2023 Kit Klarenberg, Mintpress News. , , ,
In February, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) published an extensive investigation into the spectacular collapse of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces’ (ANDSF), which the U.S. spent two decades and $90 billion building. In common with previous SIGAR reports, it offers a remarkably uncompromising, no-punches-pulled assessment, exposing corruption, incompetence, lies, and delusion every step of the way. At the report’s core is a highly detailed timeline of the ANDSF’s – and, therefore, the Afghan government’s – disintegration. That SIGAR was able to construct such a painstaking obituary is nothing short of miraculous, for the Special Inspector General was stonewalled and obstructed at every turn by the agencies it is officially charged with scrutinizing.

Yemenis Mark Eight Years Of Disastrous War Amid Hopes Of Peace

March 28, 2023 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Thousands took to the streets across major Yemeni cities including Sanaa, Sa’ada, and Taiz on Sunday, March 26, to mark the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the Saudi-led aggression in the country. The protesters reiterated their demand for an end to the aggression and the lifting of the blockade on the country. The leaders of the Houthi movement have called these essential conditions for peace. The National Day of Resilience and Steadfastness, as March 26 is celebrated by the Yemenis, symbolizes their resolve amid the large-scale destruction caused by the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes and blockade.

US Is Stirring Up Syrian Cauldron

March 27, 2023 M.K. Bhadrakumar, People's Dispatch. , , ,
The circumstances surrounding the flare-up in Syria between the US occupation forces and pro-Iranian militia groups remain murky. President Biden claims that the US is reacting, but there are signs that it is likely being proactive to create new facts on the ground. The US Central Command claims that following a drone attack on March 23 afternoon on an American base near Hasakah, at the direction of President Biden, retaliatory air strikes were undertaken later that night against “facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.”

New OPCW Report Covers Up Douma’s Unsolved Deaths

March 27, 2023 Aaron Maté, The Grayzone. , , , ,
On April 7th 2018, gruesome images of an alleged chemical attack emerged from the Syrian town of Douma. Dozens of dead bodies, including children and infants, appeared heaped in piles inside of an apartment building. Others lay on the street in front as if trying to escape deadly gas. Strikingly, many of the victims displayed copious foam oozing from the mouth and nose. Along with their proximity to a clear escape route, these visible symptoms suggested that something extraordinarily poisonous had killed them instantly. US officials immediately promoted the allegations of insurgent-tied groups that the Syrian army had killed the victims with chlorine gas or the nerve agent sarin, or even a combination of both.

Protestors Gather At Truax Field Against Arrival Of F-35 Fighter Jets

March 27, 2023 WKOW. , , ,
Madison, Wisconsin - People gathered at Truax Field in Madison early Monday morning to oppose the F-35 fighter jets that are scheduled to arrive this spring. Madison Veterans for Peace, Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin and Madison for a World BEYOND War hosted the demonstration. They are calling on Gov. Evers to change the mission of Truax Air National Guard to a peaceful one. And the group plans to go to the Wisconsin Capitol building at 8:45 a.m. Monday to continue its demonstration. The fighter jets have been a point of contention for years.

The US/EU/NATO Axis Of Domination Remains Greatest Threat To Peace

March 25, 2023 ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. , , , , , ,
This commentary really should be part two from the piece I wrote last week in the run-up to the anti-war mobilization that took place March 18th which commemorated the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. In that article I made a similar argument about why the U.S. should be seen as the greatest threat to the survival of collective humanity on our planet. That point, however, needs to be reinforced because in typical arrogance, on the eve of that mobilization and the official March 20th date of the U.S. invasion, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Russia President Vladimir Putin while Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Barack Obama, responsible for horrific crimes against humanity and literally millions of deaths combined in Serbia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria, walk around as free individuals.

Multipolarity Was Triggered By The 2003 US Invasion Of Iraq

March 25, 2023 Karin Kneissl, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , ,
On the night of 19-20 March, 2003, the US air force began bombing the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The EU and NATO were deeply divided on whether to join the aggression: While newer NATO members from Central and Eastern Europe were in favor of the war, European heavyweights Paris and Berlin opposed it. The Iraq war also marked the onset of diplomatic coordination between Moscow and Beijing at the UN Security Council (UNSC). The two countries began in 2003 to apply similar voting patterns in the Council, first on Iraq, then on Libya in 2011, and over Syria in several key votes. That early Russia-China UN coordination has, 20 years later, transformed into a determined joint policy toward “guarding a new world order based on international law.”

US Forces Carry Out Airstrikes In Eastern Syria

March 25, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , ,
US forces carried out a number of airstrikes inside Syria on Thursday, March 23, after accusing Iran-backed groups of carrying out a drone attack at a US base in Hasakah in north-eastern Syria on the same day. Though there are some reports of deaths caused by the US airstrikes, there are no confirmed reports and numbers yet. A Rudaw report quoted a UK-based war monitor that claimed at least eight “[militia members] affiliated with Iran” were killed. Al-Mayadeen has reported civilian deaths without specifying any numbers. The US had claimed that at least one of their contractors was killed and six others injured in the drone strike at 1:38 am on Thursday at a base in Hasakah. Five of the six injured were reportedly US soldiers.

Aaron Mate At UN: OPCW Cover-Up Denies Justice To Syria Victims

March 25, 2023 Aaron Maté, The Grayzone. , , ,
At the United Nations, Aaron Maté debunks the OPCW’s latest attempts to whitewash the cover-up of its investigation into the alleged April 2018 chemical attack in Douma, Syria. Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Aaron Maté of The Grayzone calls out the OPCW’s ongoing cover-up of its investigation into the alleged April 2018 chemical attack in Douma, Syria. Aaron also debunks the latest efforts by the OPCW, in a new report put out by the watchdog’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), to whitewash the scandal.

20 Years After Iraq, Corporate Media Defends US War Crimes

March 24, 2023 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
United States troops began the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003 under the direction of president George W. Bush. The death toll estimates for Iraqi civilians vary between 275,000 and 654,000 as a direct result of warfare, with one study estimating as many as 1 million deaths . If even the lowest figure is correct, the U.S. committed a horrific war crime, a deliberate attack on a civilian population. In 2003 thousands of people massed in protest across the country. On February 15, 2003 , millions gathered around the world in the largest protests since the Vietnam war. While public opinion was divided, the corporate media firmly sided with the Bush administration.

Russian Jet Intercepts Two US B-52 Bombers Moving Towards Its Borders

March 24, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
A Russian Sukhoi Su-35 intercepted two US B-52H bombers that were allegedly moving towards its border over the Baltic Sea, TASS reported on Monday, March 20 citing Russia’s Defense Ministry. The Ministry claimed that the Russian jet had to scramble to intercept the two bombers and only returned “after foreign military planes move[ed] away from the state border of the Russian Federation.” It added that the two US bombers were not allowed to violate Russian state borders and the sortie of the Russian jet fighter was performed in strict compliance with international law. This was the third such air incident between the forces of Russia and the NATO countries in the last week.

Iraq Invasion, AUKUS Blasted In Rousing Sydney Rally

March 22, 2023 Consortium News. , , , ,
A week after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese agreed in a meeting in San Diego with President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to spend A$368 billion to buy nuclear submarines from the two countries, anti-war activists met in a sweltering Sydney town hall on Sunday on the 20th anniversary of the start of the war against Iraq to hear why the submarine deal is a disaster for Australia that must be stopped.  Greens Party Senator David Shoebridge, former foreign minister Bob Carr, retired diplomat Alison Broinowski and Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkinson (via video hook-up from Virginia), told the rally that an aggressive United States was dragging Australia into an unnecessary conflict with its main trading partner, China, a country which posed no threat. 

Iraq 20 Years: Disarmament, The Fundamental Lie

March 20, 2023 Scott Ritter, Consortium News. , , , ,
The Establishment has still not reckoned with the essential lie behind the invasion of Iraq that began 20 years ago today, March 19, 2003. As an example, a New York Times Magazine’s puff piece in July 2020, purportedly to come clean on Iraq, instead soft-peddles former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s role in selling a war on Iraq to the U.N. Security Council using what turned out to be bad intelligence. “Colin Powell Still Wants Answers” is the title of the article, written by Robert Draper. “The analysts who provided the intelligence,” a sub-header to the article declares, “now say it was doubted inside the C.I.A. at the time.”

20 Years After Start Of The Iraq War, Peace Movement Protests Another War

March 19, 2023 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , ,
Today, some organizers are too young to remember the outbreak of the Iraq War, representing an entirely new generation of the anti-war movement. Delaney Leonard, a 19-year-old in her first year of college and a member of the Howard University Dissenters, an anti-war group at a historically Black university, cannot recall a time in her life when the US wasn’t at war. She will be part of the demonstration Saturday because “the effects of billions of dollars being taken away from crucial sectors of our country such as education, healthcare, or housing has been intrinsic to my youth.”

Iraq 20 Years: The Uses And Abuses Of National Intelligence Estimates

March 19, 2023 Ray McGovern, Consortium News. , , ,
A New York Times Magazine article in July 2020 focused on then Secretary of State Powell and his U.N. speech of Feb. 5, 2003 and the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) upon which it is largely based. A lot of the detail in the article may have been new to many readers, but not to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which had been established a month before. VIPS watched the speech, dissected it, and sent their verdict to President George W. Bush before close of business that same afternoon We gave Powell a charitable grade of “C”, faulting him for, inter alia, not providing needed context and perspective. We should have flunked him outright.
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