Michael Moore: ‘Mr. Obama, you do not know war’

Raw Story
November 30, 2009

Read Full Article Here

The Official White House Christmas Tree will be on display in the Blue Room. Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia got their first look at the 18-1/2-foot Douglas fir arrived on the traditional horse drawn carriage to the North Portico. From the Shepherdstown, West Virginia, farm of Eric and Gloria Sundback, the tree is 13 years old.

Click On Links:
Michelle Obama Chimp Image On Google
Michelle Obama Hula Hoop
Michelle Obama Called Ghetto Girl
Michelle Obamas Weight Problem
Michelle Obamas Pot Belly
Michelle Obama State Dinner Dress
Obama, Looking at woman in Italy
Michelle Obama’s Arms
Michelle Obama’s Short-Shorts
Michelle Obama’s New Hair Style
Michelle Obama Touches Queen Elizabeth

A Kenyan aunt of Obama who has lived illegally in the U.S. for years. Onyango is the half sister of the Obama’s late father. Obama calls her “Auntie Zeituni.” In 2002, Onyango applied for public housing in Boston and also requested political asylum from violence in Kenya. She was ordered deported in 2004, the year a federal judge denied her asylum application, but remained in the country. Americans for Legal Immigration posted its “public demand” on its Web site, basically telling Obama he’s a hypocrite if he won’t have his aunt arrested and removed to her native Kenya. Onyanga was found living in an impoverished Boston neighborhood by the news media in October 2008. Then, on the first of November, an Associated Press story appeared that detailed how Onyango now in Cleveland had actually been an illegal immigrant living under a deportation order for four years. Obama claimed he had been unaware Onyango was living in the country illegally. Onyango’s next immigration hearing is slated for February 2010.

Under Title 8 Section 1325 of the U.S. Code, “Improper Entry by Alien,” any citizen of any country other than the United States who:

• Enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers; or
• Eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers; or
• Attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact;

has committed a federal crime.

Violations are punishable by criminal fines and imprisonment for up to six months. Repeat offenses can bring up to two years in prison. Additional civil fines may be imposed at the discretion of immigration judges, but civil fines do not negate the criminal sanctions or nature of the offense.

Federal Immigration and Nationality Act Section 8 USC 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)(b)(iii)

“Any person who . . . encourages or induces an alien to . . . reside . . . knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such . . . residence is . . . in violation of law, shall be punished as provided . . . for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs . . . fined under title 18 . . . imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.”

Section 274 felonies under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A):

A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:

* assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or

* encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or

* knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.

Penalties upon conviction include criminal fines, imprisonment, and forfeiture of vehicles and real property used to commit the crime. Anyone employing or contracting with an illegal alien without verifying his or her work authorization status is guilty of a misdemeanor. Aliens and employers violating immigration laws are subject to arrest, detention, and seizure of their vehicles or property. In addition, individuals or entities who engage in racketeering enterprises that commit (or conspire to commit) immigration-related felonies are subject to private civil suits for treble damages and injunctive relief. I guess the Laws are DIFFERENT since it’s Obama’s Illegal Aunt! What Do You Think?

Click On Links
The World’s Most Powerful People
Michelle Obama Chimp Image On Google
Obama The Devil
Obama’s Approval Rating
The Race Card
Rev. Jeremiah Wright “Home Of The Slave”
Child Dies In House Fire, Aunt Concerned About Her Food Stamps

STOP THE WAR COALITION
> NEWSLETTER
> No. 1128 30 November 2009
> Email office@stopwar.org.uk
> Tel: 020 7801 2768
> Web: http://stopwar.org.uk
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/STWuk
>
> **********************************
> IN THIS NEWSLETTER
> 1) THE ONLY SERIOUS EXIT STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN
> 2) THE IRAQ INQUIRY CATCH PHRASE: “NOT ME, GUV’”
> 3) VIVA PALESTINA CONVOY TO GAZA: 5 DECEMBER
> 4) SUPPORT GROWING FOR MILITARY FAMILIES PROTEST
> 5) DON’T FORGET JOE GLENTON

> 1) THE ONLY SERIOUS EXIT STRATEGY FOR AFGHANISTAN
> Inevitably the news of yet another British soldier dying in
> Afghanistan coincided with Gordon Brown’s announcement that he
> is sending 500 more British troops to fight in a war which in
> the latest poll 71 per cent of the British public opposes.
>
> We are witnessing a very dangerous escalation of the war. With
> Barack Obama likely to announce a surge of around 30,000
> troops, and other Nato allies adding a further five thousand,
> the total number of foreign troops occupying Afghanistan will
> equal that deployed by the Soviet Union in the 1979-89 Afghan
> war, which ended in its catastrophic defeat.
>
> Gordon Brown’s troop surge is a response to failure after
> eight years of war. All the various war aims have been shown
> to be false. The war has not made Britain safer from
> terrorism, but has made it more dangerous. The war is not
> being fought for democracy, but to protect one of the most
> corrupt governments in the world. The troops are not engaged
> in a humanitarian mission, but in a war of occupation opposed
> by the majority of Afghans.
>
> Brown and Obama both claim that this dramatic increase in the
> number of troops is the  beginning of an exit strategy. It is
> nothing of the sort. It is the signal that the major powers
> are planning to continue a war — which after Vietnam is the
> second longest in American history — for years to come.
>
> Just as in Vietnam the US claimed that sending more troops was
> the key to bringing peace, Obama and Brown are proposing more
> war as necessary for their “exit strategy”.
>
> There is only one serious exit strategy: that is to recognise
> that Britain and the other Nato powers have no right to be in
> Afghanistan, and — far from escalating the numbers — Gordon
> Brown should be withdrawing all British troops now.
>
> **********************************
> 2) THE IRAQ INQUIRY CATCH PHRASE: “NOT ME, GUV’”
> The evidence given to the Iraq Inquiry in its first week saw a
> series of establishment figures trying to absolve themselves
> of any blame for their part in the build up to war, implying
> all responsibility lay with Tony Blair.

> It appears that Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General who
> notoriously changed his advice about the legality of the war
> just days before the invasion, is getting his “not me, guv’”
> in early — even before he appears at the inquiry. The details
> of a letter he wrote to Blair eight months before the
> invasion, in which he stated categorically that the war was
> illegal, were revealed over the weekend. You can read the
> details here: http://bit.ly/6Tk6w7
>
> Apparently Gordon Brown is worried that in the run up to the
> general election all these revelations about Iraq will remind
> people of why they opposed  the war in the first place.
>
> Stop the War is taking every opportunity to ensure that the
> issues remain in the public eye — not least the key question
> of holding the war criminals to account.
>
> Stop the War held a protest on the first day of the Chilcot
> inquiry, which received worldwide media coverage. (See
> http://bit.ly/5IYYCK). We will announce soon a major public
> meeting on the issue.
>
> And we await with much anticipation the appearance of Tony
> Blair before the Iraq Inquiry — likely to be in January or
> February — when we will organise a large scale protest to
> ensure he is warmly welcomed.
>
> **********************************
> 3) VIVA PALESTINA THIS WEEKEND
> On 27 December, the anniversary of Israel’s barbaric invasion
> at the turn of 2009, convoys from Britain, the United States
> and Turkey, packed with aid donated by the people of those
> countries, will converge on Gaza to break the inhuman siege
> which prevents essential resources reaching Palestinians in
> the world’s most densely populated area.
>
> The British convoy leaves London this weekend. Details of the
> departure place and time will be available shortly on the Viva
> Palestina website: http://www.vivapalestina.org/
>
> **********************************
> 4) SUPPORT GROWING FOR MILITARY FAMILIES PROTEST
> Support is continuing to build for the Military Families
> Against the War protest at Downing Street at 5pm on Monday 21
> December.
>
> As well as many families who have lost loved ones in Iraq and
> Afghanistan, or have relatives serving in the Afghan war,
> there will be a number of former soldiers joining the protest,
> when the Bring the Troops Home petition will be handed in to
> Downing Street.
>
> The military families also plan to demand to see Gordon Brown.
>
> All the local Stop the War groups across the country have been
> asked to sponsor military families in their area to come down
> to the Downing Street protest and to send delegations in
> support.
>
> The families are asking for the widest support possible.
> Please help publicise the event as widely as you can.
> FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: http://bit.ly/4Z3eCR
>
> **********************************
> 5) THURSDAY 28 JANUARY: DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
>
> Gordon Brown has announced that he is organising an
> international conference on Afghanistan in London on Thursday
> 28 January 2010.
> As well as organising a protest at Brown’s conference, Stop
> the War will in response hold its own alternative meetings and
> conference. Please note the date now. We will publicise
> further details soon.
>
> **********************************
> 6) DON’T FORGET JOE GLENTON
> Send messages of support to Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, in
> prison for speaking out against the Afghan war and facing
> court martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan.
>
> * Email messages of support to: defendjoeglenton@gmail.com
>
> * Write letters, cards to:
> Lance Corporal Joe Glenton
> Military Corrective Training Centre
> Berechurch Hall Camp
> Colchester CO2 9NU
>
> **********************************
> 7) XMAS PARTY: FROM BLIAR TO STOP BUSH
> If you live in London, Stop the War’s Xmas party on Friday 11
> December is not to be missed. As well as food, drinks and
> music, the party takes place surrounded by a showcase of Stop
> the War’s history, drawn from our archive which is now housed
> at the Bishopsgate Institute.
>
> The displays will include many of the posters and placards
> going back to our earliest demonstrations, including the now
> iconic designs by artist David Gentleman, leaflets, pamphlets,
> press cutting, photographs etc.
>
> Admission is free.
>
> STOP THE WAR’S XMAS PARTY
> FRIDAY 11 DECEMBER 7-10 PM
> BISHOPSGATE INSTITUTE
> 230 BISHOPSGATE LONDON EC2M 4QH
> (Opposite Liverpool Street Station)

By: PakistanPal

Eric S. Margolis

Congressman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has come up with a novel idea: American should pay for the wars they are waging.

Obey’s proposal, which is backed by ten other congressmen, sounds startling – until one realises that both the Bush and Obama administrations have never properly financed their foreign wars by forcing Americans to pay for them through higher taxes.

Instead, Washington has deferred the $1 trillion to date costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars by simply adding them to the national debt, and paying interest on the balance owing.

So very few Americans feel the real financial costs of these wars. Future generations will get stuck with the bill.

But this kind of deceptive national accounting is becoming increasingly difficult in the face of President Barack Obama’s $1.4 trillion deficit this year, and his impending decision to send 30,000 to 40,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. Each American soldier in Afghanistan costs $1 million per annum, according to the US Congress Research Service. Thirty or forty thousand more US troops will thus cost $30 to $40 billion in additional war costs on top of the $200 billion annual cost of garrisoning Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of this money will have to be borrowed from China and Japan.

Obey and his allies want to impose a graduated surtax on Americans of 1-5 per cent, depending on their income level, to fund the actual costs of what are now Obama’s wars. Otherwise, warns Obey, the huge cost of keeping up to 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan will ‘destroy the other things we are trying to do in our economy.’ Chief among which is health care.

In a clear choice between guns or butter, Obey estimates ten years of war in Afghanistan will cost the same $900 million as providing a comprehensive health plan for all Americans. Unfortunately, chances of a war surtax passing Congress are nil. While the Afghan and Iraq wars are increasingly unpopular among Americans, a tax increase at a time of over 10 per cent unemployment will ignite the same kind of furious reaction that met President Obama’s proposed national health plan, and endanger Democrats facing 
 midterm elections. As the Obama administration appears set to plunge deeper into the Afghan morass, the real costs of Afghanistan and Iraq are still being concealed from the public and Congress. The $200 billion annual cost for both wars is only a part of the growing expenses faced by Washington.

The annual bill for US intelligence, which employs over 200,000 people, has doubled to $75 billion, in large part to support foreign wars and operations against anti-US Muslim groups. Costs of occupying Afghanistan rose to $300 billion this year, and will increase sharply next year. Operations in Iraq will cost $684 billion in 2009.

Washington spends $25 billion funding foreign armies, the bulk of which goes to the Mideast, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. Aid to Islamabad will rise to $15 billion over the next five years, including secret ‘black’ payments.

The US supports 168,000 ‘contractors’ in Iraq, many of them gunmen. CIA runs 74,000 mercenaries in Afghanistan. The new fortified, 50 hectare US Embassy in Baghdad will cost $700 million; the new embassy in Islamabad, $800 billion. Islamic militants call them ‘crusader castles.’

Add to these costs the expense of maintaining fleets in the Gulf and Indian Ocean, and military bases in the Gulf and Diego Garcia to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; hugely expensive military airlift; $100 per liter fuel delivered to US forces in Afghanistan; and, of course, financial inducements to many smaller nations to send handfuls of troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Thus the real cost of Afghanistan and Iraq is much higher than $200 billion annually. Yet President Obama, heedless of such costs, appears determined to expand the Afghan War. It seems clear that ‘peace candidate’ Obama has fallen increasingly under the influence of America’s powerful military-industrial-financial complex and neoconservative ideologues. In short, the same calculus of forces that guided the Bush administration!

Even America’s mighty economy cannot for long support waging wars across the Muslim world. Unaffordable wars have been the ruin of many an empire, and the American Raj seems headed in the same direction.

Eric Margolis is a veteran US journalist who reported from the Middle East and Asia for nearly two decades

If you’ve wondered how President Obama’s foreign policy and bashing of America and the Bush Administration is seen in the Middle East, read Fouad Ajami’s editorial in the Nov. 30th Wall Street Journal. The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama.

And if, like us, you’ve wondered about the Arab world’s reaction to the way the president ignored  protesters in Iran on the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4th, Ajami’s editorial has the answer. Take a look at this quote from the article:

On Nov. 4, on the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran, the embattled reformers, again in the streets, posed an embarrassing dilemma for American diplomacy: “Obama, Obama, you are either with us or with them,” they chanted. By not responding to these cries and continuing to “engage” Tehran’s murderous regime, his choice was made clear. It wasn’t one of American diplomacy’s finest moments.

In a particularly interesting new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, Eli Berman, Joseph Felter and Jacob N. Shapiro examine whether employment reduces rates of political violence.

They find that contrary to the common belief that there is positive correlation between unemployment and violence, there is a “robust negative correlation between unemployment and attacks against government and allied forces and no significant relationship between unemployment and the rate of insurgent attacks that kill civilians.”

The figure below shows that in Baghdad’s largest districts, violence fell as unemployment increased but subsequently rose while unemployment fell.

Of important note, these results do not suggest that policies that increase employment cause violence. Instead,

they must lead us to doubt whether those policies actually decrease violence. What they certainly suggest is that the relationship between employment and violence is perhaps more complex than has been commonly assumed. To probe possible explanations for this pattern we now turn to a closer examination of the Iraqi insurgency where the negative correlation between unemployment and violence is strongest.

01.12.2009. seating as allways at the childs playground where they have a web cams and hearing as in the super Mossad government, at the savaging installation inside me , putting in my own body by adopting family and there’s freaks robbers from Russian special prostitute service , I hear:” Took the mirror, look at you face, you have no your black eyebrowes now. And you now will be weep, looking how you look”. And I saw that my own black eyebrowers at half dissappeared – some tatarian maid , prostitute and stinker, skunt, skunk parched, scorched my own black eyebrowers at all. Slop pail dolly decided that she can go to me and distroy my own face, my own life, appropriated my own inheritance financie’s and profits and nobody did not do for her nothing. Who must find and kill all that slop pail clan?

Making in Kazachstan and Chehoslovakia poppy plantations, they falsificated all that years with the help of there’s freak Nursultan Nazarbayev that in Baikonur was the cosmodrome. What all the years secured Soviet and Russian special army in Baikonur ( translated as – fairy tales from Nursultan) ?(Look the beginning ” Raving Fuhrer. Russian Village and collective farmers – Russian Mossad, Alfa Group, Haim Saban- genocide in Greece)

I’m going to leave this short but this is what I will expect President Obama will say during his press conference tomorrow evening.

1) He will affirm his decision to release more than 35,000 more troops to Afghanistan all while reaffirming that he never wanted this decision to take course.

2) He will announce global support of this decision as 500 troops from Britain will be sent to help the United States. Also, he will probably speak of more support from Russia, Italy and France.

3) He will speak of what this means to America and apologize for backing out from his promises to end both wars (he did this repeatedly on the ‘08 campaign trail….set himself apart from Bush).

What I wish President Obama will do.

1) Announce the deployment of troops BUT specify a legitimate timeline of how long troops will be in Afghanistan. America wants to end the war and we want to know when it will end.

2) I want to know how much this will cost us as a nation and how much more debt will will generate by sending this amount. As a country, we already owe the world banks over 20 trillion dollars…we can’t keep taking out loans.

3) I want to know when troops will be moved from Iraq.

4) A specific number has to be generated of how many foreign soldiers we will see help us. This shouldn’t be just The United States VS Taliban.

5) I expect an apology from Obama after this move. Though I do understand the situation, this tough decision could cause a divide in the democratic party.

My thoughts on his speech will be up after the press conference.

After about 3 years and some change I have completed my Masters of Arts in Military History with a concentration in World War II at American Military University.  Today I learned the results of my comprehensive exams which I took last Tuesday.  I “Passed with Distinction.”  That was very satisfying because I did work hard all the way through the program which I began about a year after I finished the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and my Doctor of Ministry in 2005.  I finished with a 4.0 GPA and will officially graduate in Washington D.C. on February 15^th. 

The program was pretty grueling and to refresh my brain I began to take and re-write various research papers or essays that I had written during the program and posted them on this site.  I found that in doing so I improved what I had written and was able to really refresh my knowledge even as I added more information to the posts or otherwise reworked them. Doing this has given me inspiration to begin writing on new topics in history dealing with military history and theory, church history and religious liberty, including the freedom of conscience, historical theology as well as baseball and my own story of my tour in Iraq and subsequent struggle with PTSD.  Some of these articles and essays are posted throughout this site. I hope to turn at least some of this into books at a later date.  If you happen to be a publisher, literary agent or know one please let me know.   

One thing that I have enjoyed is having others comment on my work, some even to criticize it.  I found that the criticism was sometimes not just of the work but of me for enunciating opinions that are contrary to theirs.  Terms like “traitor” “unbeliever” and “heretic” have been used to describe me by some.  I have found that if you don’t want criticism of your work don’t write.  If doesn’t matter what the subject is, whether you are liberal or conservative, Christian or something else that there will be someone who will take issue with either your work or you.  I have learned that depending on the type of criticism I can take it seriously, lightly or blow it off, but I am learning not to take it personally.  Heck, most critics don’t know me from Adam so what do they know.  People who know me on the other hand I do try to listen to and if I am wrong, misinterpreted or wrote something that I really didn’t want to come out the way that it did to be generally civil to my critics and treat them with respect.  I think only once or twice I replied to people in a snarky way.  I am not afraid to mix it up with someone, see the comments ton my post on A Christian Defense of the Rights of Moslems in a Democracy but try never to demean the person by name calling, stereotyping or vilifying their position but sticking to the facts and hoping to build a bridge of reconciliation even if we cannot come to agreement.  On the other hand there are a few individuals and groups that I have been somewhat sarcastic or hard in dealing with, but only because they open themselves up to it by, to use a baseball metaphor, throwing at the other teams’ batters.  I figure if they want to throw at people then I can throw at them.  Since fair is fair I would imagine that some of these kind folks are praying for me using “impreccatory prayers.”  Oh well. 

Anyway, a couple of other things.  Today we hosted LTC Dave Grossman a leading expert on the effects of combat and killing on the human body, mind and spirit.  Dave has written the books On Killing and On Combat. He is highly sought after works heavily with military, police and emergency services personnel as well as those in the psychiatric, psychological and chaplain/clergy fields.  The seminar was well attended by a diverse audience of physicians, nurses, psychologists, chaplains, social workers, counselors, corpsmen and others.  I met him late last night when his plane came in, picked him up this morning and took him back to the airport before coming back to the medical center for the rest of my on-call shift. 

The first time that I met Dave was a EOD Group Two where we hosted him about a year and a half ago.  At the time I was in the middle of my post deployment PTSD crack up.  Everything was setting me off, the Great Dismal Swamp was burning, visibilities were down to half a mile, the sky was “Iraqi Sandstorm Brown” and smelled like the burn pits that litter that country.  Every sound, loud noise, jet aircraft, especially F-18s, helicopters and sudden move was sending me back to Iraq.  We hosted Dave as I said and he was most gracious during his presentation then, but his subject matter send me down hard back then.  It was after that seminar that our Diving Medical Officer looked at me and asked “Chaplain are you okay?”  To which I had to say no, I was crashing and it was really difficult.  I’m doing better now and while some of Dave’s presentation did affect me, it was not to the extent of last year.  I held together and realized that I will get through this, that I will be stronger for what I have gone through and hopefully be able to help others who have suffered the same or worse.  While I was in Iraq I was “in the zone” and it was coming home to a world that didn’t seem to understand what I had experienced, what I had learned and at least initially didn’t seem to care for me or value what I did that sent me down. 

Today made me realize that I am doing better.  I’m not where I want to be.  I still have great problems with sleep and some issues with anxiety as well as some flashbacks, dreams and nightmares, but not like they were even a year to 9 months ago. 

So, not much else for the night.  I’m praying that I don’t get a 0230 or 0300 page and that I get 4-5 hours of sleep. 

Thank you for your prayers, support and encouraging and even non-encouraging words since I started this site back in February.  So many people have been so kind to me, in person and in their responses to what I write here and on the link in my Facebook page to my articles that I am blown away. What really matters is when I get a comment from someone with PTSD or a family member of someone who let me know that something that I wrote touched them. I think that matters more than anything that something that was so difficult and even devastating to me is now helping others who thought that they were alone.  It also feels really good to have completed the work for the Masters Degree and to realize that I am getting better.

I think tomorrow after work I shall take a breather at the Church of Baseball, Harbor Park Parish as well as take the Abbess over to Gordon Biersch for the Stein Club appreciation night. Take care and blessings,

Peace, Padre Steve+

“We are supporting the troops and we want them back home safely,” said Meg Green.

The activists also sounded off against the use of drones, which are unmanned aircraft controlled and launched by soldiers at bases around the world. Cindy Sheehan, the California mother, whose son was killed while serving in Iraq in 2004 has been traveling with the peace caravan. But Sheehan and the group were confronted by a military sergeant at Travis AFB where the protest turned heated and was anything but peaceful.

“He got very aggressive with us. He pushed and shoved us. That’s not right,” said Sheehan.The anti war protesters say all troops should be pulled out of the region. And with banners that read “resist,” “refuse,” “don’t go,” we asked them about the message they are sending out to the soldiers.

“We’re telling them to use their conscience before they decide to go to war,” Sheehan added.

http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11589037

Ms.Sheehan,I very much doubt you are reading any of these posts,but I must commend you on your fight to end this war;however,I am appaled about how you talk and display your displeasure directly towards our servicemen and women.I am deeply offended by how you reacted toward the older war veteran and doubt very highly that even know you’re son died on the field of battle that he would not want his own Mother doing such things to his “War Brother”.Please,you need to be standing at the Pentagon….

Comment at end

1st December, 2009

SO WHAT ARE THE PRESS GOING TO YELL ABOUT AFTER MANNING?

(Nice banner, John.  Mind if I borrow it?)

Banner above is from John Rentoul's blog - http://johnrentoul.independentminds.livejournal.com/101428.html

The habitually courteous and fair John Rentoul casts a gentle swipe at the usually reasonable Andrew Sparrow for his “Minute-by-minute coverage of what could be the most interesting hearing yet”.

I share with Rentoul a genuine admiration for Tony Blair. Yes, yes, I know, I know, what am I on? I actually believe EVERYONE is innocent until proven guilty – even Blair.

We few, we happy few need to stick together. But I quite enjoy Sparrow’s running commentaries.  He seems almost “one of us”.

He’s not a Daily Mail hack, John! Then again, I haven’t had time to read the whole three hours worth. Perhaps Sparrow really IS a little CIFer in disguise, like half of the infiltrators there.

(Sign the Ban Blair-Baiting petition if you’re not, Andrew! That’ll make it FOUR honest, justice-loving journos. )

Btw, dear reader, I’ll update you later via the good offices of Julie, as for last week’s reports from the Inquiry. I’ll bet you can hardly wait!!!

A reasonable headline on BBC Radio 4 at 10:00pm:  Manning, former policy adviser to Tony Blair, said, “It would be wrong to assume that Mr Blair took the eventual decision to invade Iraq,  because Bush told him to.”

Some highlights from today at the Trial of Tony B… Iraq Inquiry:

• Security arrangements should have been handled differently after invasion.
• America at fault for any failure here and not Blair.
• The ‘withchhunt’ against Ba’athists (Sunni) party was not right.
• De-Ba’athification – he said he does not know who took the decision, he thought Ambassador Bremer, but not sure if it was his decision alone. It took Britain and Rice completely by surprise. There is a shared view in Britain that this was a mistake.
• Problems with troop numbers – inadequate – to seal border with Syria and Iran – which left sources for insurgencies wide open.
• Americans seemed to lose focus in immediate aftermath of invasion, which they have admitted.
• Co-opting the Iraqi military – some Americans wanted it – he spoke to Rice on this – and Rice accepted that. Divided views in Washington as to how to handle this.
• Panel member  said, “evidently Britain did not have much leverage. Did we have any options?” Manning: “we had the option of not going.  But Blair thought he had to take military action, so he went to parliament for endorsement of the decision. Blair keen to keep UN option open. But by 2nd week of March he had concluded that the UN route was not going to work.”
• Manning said he had been telling the US that a 2nd resolution was essential, (because it would have kept international community together.)
• US military were pressing on Bush “to get on with it”.
• Manning was asked,”Was it a factor for UK as well?”
• Reply, “Only because it was a factor for US.”
• 27 January report by Blix saying UN inspections were not working. Saddam was not cooperating.
• Manning says he wanted the inspections to run longer.
• Also said the French wouldn’t approve of a 2nd resolution anyway, and the Americans had had enough.

Asked what did we expect from the invasion internationally?

Positives

• Iraq would be rid of WMDs.
• Stability/co-operation in The Gulf. (Clearly they believed theat WMD existed)
• Also the liberation of a lot of people in Iraq.

Negatives

• West seen to be picking on an Arab nation.
• War in Iraq Vs peace in Middle East.

We Were The Watchmen On The Wall (working title)

This is a trailer for a video I have been working on for the last week. Although I intended to keep it under 10 minutes, it has now reached over 15 minutes with more to come. I hope to end it on about 30 minutes. Thefore it will not make YouTube as I do not want to split it up. Keep in mind that this trailer is an early work in progress, and some changes have been made even in this segment. that is why there have been no new blog posts in the last week. Thanks for dropping by. Stay tuned for the full video.

American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2009 – Iraqi police and U.S. advisors apprehended 15 suspects with alleged ties to al Qaida in Iraq during operations in there in the past few days, military officials said.

Iraqi police arrested four suspected members of al Qaida cells today in two joint security operations near Baghdad and Kirkuk, military officials said.

In a joint security operation in Karmah, west of Baghdad, police apprehended an alleged associate of a car-bomb cell believed responsible for attacks targeting government buildings and civilians in the Iraqi capital. Police also arrested a suspected accomplice.

During a separate operation in a rural area southwest of Kirkuk, the 3rd Emergency Services Unit and U.S. advisors arrested a suspected al Qaida in Iraq leader and a suspected criminal accomplice.

The suspected terrorist leader is believed to be responsible for emplacing improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, throughout the region, moving foreign fighters into Iraq to carry out attacks, and transporting and storing weapons.

In earlier operations, Iraqi security forces arrested four suspected members of al Qaida in Iraq during joint security operations in northern Iraq.

During a security operation yesterday in Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi police and U.S. advisors apprehended a man with alleged ties to the terrorist network.

On Nov. 28, Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors in southwestern Mosul arrested three suspected associates of an alleged al Qaida member.

In other Nov. 28 operations, Iraqi police in Mosul arrested an alleged al Qaida in Iraq associate, and police in Hawija arrested an alleged associate of the network and a suspected accomplice.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)

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The nice people in G7 loaned me a copy of David Kilcullen’s Accidental Guerrilla to read on the promise that I would give them a book review in return – fair trade, I think, and one which provides me an opportunity to assess the actual time required to review and read a book for future jobs. I missed David Kilcullen’s briefs when he visited in October, having been required to save the free world at the CLAW in the UK that week. While I enjoyed that professionally and personally, I would much rather have had the afternoon listening to him talk…

First impressions of Accidental Guerrilla are that the author has not been well served by his editor…the sections where he talks about his own experiences flow very well; where he launches into more academic discourse, he becomes verbose and complex – if in doubt, use short sentences and don’t be shy to bullet lists – some parts so far (have just finished Chapter 1) are like playing literary Where’s Wally? when trying to filter out key points and themes. I’ve noticed the same in the other book I am struggling with at the moment, Brain Taafe’s The Gatekeepers of Galatas, a great story that deserves to be told – but told better than Taafe does…I track a number of writing blogs and I think it was John Birmingham who couldn’t emphasise enough not only the importance of a top editor but also the need for writers to retract their egos and take aboard the value an editor provides to a successful product…

I have no problem with the concept of the accidental guerrilla but do debate that it is anything new – almost by definition most guerrillas are accidental, born when the outside world, usually brutally, intrudes into their lives….the little people = the little war…Nor is the concept of global terrorist/guerrilla networks that new either…as far back as the American Revolution, global communications have been adequate to support international networks and the Great Game of international espionage and intelligence has been played across the known globe since that time. I agree with Rupert Smith that there are those who might be best described as the ‘franchisers of terrorism’ who target the disaffected and essentially sell their brand of terrorism, with commensurate training, networks and support. These are the people who need to be tracked and targeted a la Michael Scheiern’s ‘individual-based tracking’ concept – manage them and you open up a range of alternate approaches to mitigate potentially accidental guerrillas.

One of the problems I have with The Accidental Guerrilla to date is that it describes Al-Qaeda as an aberration, an exception, to the rules of guerrillas and terrorism, but keeps drawing upon AQ-based examples to support arguments in the book. While it is true that Islamic terrorism has a firm base in the tribes of Afghanistan and Pakistan that includes strong family links as well and that this extends back over a number of generations, I think it is a big leap to state this as standard practice for these type of organisations. This weakens the Infection, Contagion, Intervention, Rejection cycle that Kilcullen proposes, again relying on an AQ example. I agree with the takfiri model and think this would be a better one to promote over specific groups  like Al-Qaeda – more so since his definition of takfir lends itself to causes beyond those based upon an interpretation of Islam…takfir holds that those whose beliefs differ from the takfiri’s are infidels who must be killed. Takfir might apply to ANY hate-based xenophobic cause around the planet and if The Accidental Guerrilla achieves nothing else beyond bringing this phrase into more common usage, it will have achieved something.

In all fairness, I am only at the end of Chapter 1 and should suppress of any feelings of ‘old brass for new‘ and ‘publish or perish‘ til I get into the meat of it…onwards into Chapter Two…

Demjanjuk has been tried before for his role as a concentration camp guard. Quite apart from the precise sequence of events leading up to Demjanjuk’s present trial, the revocation of his US citizenship despite no conviction, and the questions about his guilt or innocence, oughtn’t one take a step back and ask about how it is an 89-year old accused of war crimes that took place 60 years ago finds his way to trial greater ease than do the present and more recent warmongers (the Bushes, Blairs… and the Kissingers)? Blair, as a result of whose orders many more than 27,900 people died in the four wars he started during premiership, was recently widely tipped as the future president of the EU. Demjanjuk’s lawyer, Ulrik Busch, pertinently asked:

“How can you say that those who gave the orders were innocent… and the one who received the orders is guilty?” Mr Busch told the court. “There is a moral and legal double standard being applied today.”(BBC)

The burden to justify the morality of prioritising Demjanjuk’s extradition to face any law court over the extraditions of so many other far more prolific and recent war criminals ought to be all the more heavy in countries claiming to uphold democratic principles.

It is also important to ask what good can come of this trial to begin with. In the first instance, it is manifestly obvious that an 89-year old retired car mechanic who is wheeled or carried into his trial isn’t presently, nor is he likely to become again, any kind of menace to society. The notion of justice alluded to by those claiming Demjanjuk’s punishment will have any cleansing or restorative effect, is the simple barbarism of cleansing by retribution (at least in this case); supposing Demjanjuk did terrible things, then doing nasty things to him now (extradition, trial, removal of citizenship, focusing the world’s media on his life – all at once for a frail near-nonagenarian) is judged of some benefit. On the question of whether trying an 89-year old for 60-year old crimes is moral, there is plentiful debate.

My instinctual reaction isn’t to focus on this at all. Demjanjuk will be found guilty or he won’t. His conviction will do nothing whatsoever to abate any kind of conflict in the world. How likely is it that those presently contemplating war crimes will be disuaded on the basis of Demjanjuk’s (maximum possible) 15-year prison term? I would suggest that those insufficiently hardened to push for their wars on this basis will soon be replaced by people who are. Furthermore, in placing the entire burden of guilt on an individual seems to be a way the reasons for which Nazism’s toxicity is ignored. Psychologist Philip Zimbardo has provided a map of this territory: why do people do bad things? According to Zimbardo’s conclusions, it takes a concerted collective effort to bring this about: peer-pressure, twisted ideology, false promises, the breaking of moral taboos, systematized dehumanization of the victim… This is all acknowledged, but, as is the case with most war trials, will be ignored and the sole defendant will be the focus of most commentary.

Far more urgent is to answer why it is that the serious business of western warmongering continues. The top military man in Germany, where Demjanjuk is being tried, recently resigned over the cover-up of facts relating to a Nato strike by the Germans which killed dozens of innocent people. (He didn’t actually resign because dozens of innocent people died.) Beyond the questions of legality and morality concerning the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars, there is, I think, a wider set of insecurities. In particular, Europe’s political unconscious appears confused: how to reconcile the incongruence of its continued involvement in illegal and immoral campaigns with the desire to oppose injustice?

Hitler’s image is widely used to evoke the archetypal tyrant. The strength of his symbolising “evil” is so enduring — despite the innumerable and utterly deplorable things the human race has managed to do since WWII — that it is taken as read for the most part that even the most amoral of people would reject and oppose what Hitler was responsible for. The evil of Hitler is so powerful that it polarises even the least ethical of people against him (and it). This was exploited to drum up support for the 2003 Iraq invasion. Despite what the facts concerning WMD really were, it was always easier to allude to Hitler’s militarization and immanent threat by ascribing to Saddam Hussein the same attributes, those of the warlord racing to derail world peace. The efficacy of hyping up WMD relies on its associations in the unconcious minds of Europe’s inhabitants with the Holocaust’s gas chambers, Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the fragile “balance” between two Cold War superpowers threatening each other with nuclear annihilation. WMD is a link between WWII and WWIII; Saddam is the requisite Hitler. Ergo, he must be removed.

Moreover, those whose sacrifices afforded victory over Nazism are recognised –rightly or wrongly — as history’s most revered heroes. We often unconsciously accept their superhuman efforts as having been necessary to overwhelm Hitler. The impression is, then, that Hitler’s regime represents the greatest evil imaginable, and those instrumental in its defeat are the greatest heroes. And here we have the role of the Demjanjuk trial: in prosecuting Demjanjuk the authorities who made his trial possible allign themselves with the greatest of history’s heroes against history’s greatest evil. Doing this despite the absence of any obvious benefits at least has the effect of bolstering confidence in the present system’s moral supremacy, despite the fact it is actively engaged in the slaughter of innocents in locations to which crowds of photographers are less easily sent.

How can we be good if we continue to slaughter innocent people? The answer we are offered by the Demjanjuk trial is: “We must be good; we fight the greatest evil of all: Nazism. Nothing compares in scale to that; questions about the other stuff can take a back seat whilst we congratulate ourselves.”