Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
September 24, 2018
Hello All – The civil war in faraway Yemen is now the site of the world's greatest humanitarian disaster. Millions of lives are at risk due to bombing and famine, and a cholera epidemic has infected a million people. The United States can stop this carnage simply by pulling the plug on military support to Saudi Arabia, whose bombing campaign is killing so many people. A key to stopping US support is our congressman Eliot Engel (202-225-2464), one of the most important Democrats for foreign and military policy. Engel has been a cautious supporter of Saudi Arabia. The House of Representatives will soon vote on a Resolution that could end US support for the war, and thus stop it. We need to let Congressman Engel know that the people he represents want him to vote against war.
Three years ago Saudi Arabia, Yemen's neighbor to the north, intervened in Yemen's civil war. With its ally the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia's bombing of Yemen has caused thousands of casualties. Schools and hospitals are routinely bombed. Last month a school bus full of children was deliberately bombed, killing 50 and injuring 77. The path to peace in Yemen begins with stopping the bombing, and then a ceasefire and negotiations. The United States – starting with President Obama and continuing under President Trump – plays a key role in enabling Saudi Arabia's war machine. The missiles that rain down on Yemen are made by Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin. Mid-air refueling of Saudi bombers is provided by US tanker planes. And bombing "intelligence" is provided the Saudis by the US military.
The House of Representatives will soon be voting on a Resolution that says that, under the War Powers Act (1973), the President must get the support of Congress to continue supporting Saudi Arabia in Yemen. A similar Resolution was narrowly defeated in the Senate last spring. Now the House will have its turn. If the Resolution passes in the House, it is believed that the Senate will vote again and pass it. Our congressman, Eliot Engel, has so far refused to announce his support for the Yemen resolution; and in the past he has not supported calls to stop the bombing or end US support for the war. Yet in July he and other leading House Democrats called on Saudi Arabia to try to avoid civilian casualties while bombing Yemen. There is a good chance that – given pressure from his voters – he would support a War Powers Resolution on Yemen. Please call him (202) 225-2464. Thanks!
War with Iran?
Please pay close attention to whatever factoids about Iran make it into the mainstream news. Things are not going well. On November 5th the United States will reimpose economic sanctions that were lifted by President Obama upon completion of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement, which was subsequently ratified by the UN Security Council. Trump came into office vowing to "tear up" the deal, and after several false starts he has done so. European and other countries are frantically trying to figure out how to make end runs around the US sanctions so that Iran's economy does not suffer (any more than it is now), and so Iran continues to freeze its nuclear programs. Iran's government has said it will consider its options if/when economic sanctions are reimposed. A statement by 50 former senior military and diplomatic people was released over the week arguing against new sanctions, stating that "the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement does not advance the achievement of any of the U.S.'s objectives" [Link].
And on Saturday, at least 29 Iranians were killed and dozens wounded in a terrorist attack in the oil-rich region of southwestern Iran. The occasion was a parade commemorating the start of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, in which a million Iranians were killed. The terrorist attack is believed to have been by a regional separatist group; and Iran's president has blamed "US-backed regimes in the region," presumably Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As Trita Parsi, past president of the National Iranian American Council, notes in some reading linked below ("War & Peace"), there is a significant danger that this conflict, if escalated, could drag the United States into a regional war. And if all this were not enough, lunatic Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's "lawyer," spoke Saturday at the "Iranian Uprising Summit," a product of a front group for the Iranian exile terrorist organization known as MEK. "I don't know when we're going to overthrow them," he said. "It could be in a few days, months, a couple of years. But it's going to happen." So let's be alert.
Last (?) Thoughts on "Justice" Kavanaugh
By now, there can be few Americans who are not supersaturated by the drama of Judge Kavanaugh, the Trump nominee for Supreme Court Justice who is accused by Prof. Christine Blasey Ford of attempted rape more than 30 years ago. As of this morning, it looks like the next hearing and Major Event will be held on Thursday; though this is the USA, and things can turn on a dime between now and then. Yesterday, for example, the New Yorker published a story about a second accuser of sexual harassment by Kavanaugh; and today at 1 p.m. there will be a nationwide walkout in support of the two women accusers. I'm linking here several articles from the dissenting media that shed some light on what's going on, not only in terms of congressional maneuvering and factoids about the Young Kavanaugh, but also about what's at stake for the rule of law if Kavanaugh is finally confirmed and joins the Supreme Court.
(Video) "Intercept Report Reveals Senate Ignored Federal Court Employees Willing to Testify Against Kavanaugh," from Democracy Now! [September 18, 2018] [See the Program]
"What Did Brett Kavanaugh Know About His Mentor Alex Kozinski's Sexual Harassment? A Timeline Suggests an Awful Lot." by Akela Lacy, The Intercept [ [Read More]
"Grassley Knows Exactly What He Was Doing 35 Years Ago—Scheming to Ban Abortion," by John Nichols, The Nation [September 22, 2018] [Read More]
"For Red-State Democrats, There Is Only One Choice: Vote 'No' on Kavanaugh," by Sean McElwee, The Nation [September 21, 2018] [Read More]
News Notes
Friday, September 21st, was the International Day of Peace or World Peace Day. This is a United Nations holiday observed around the world. To mark the occasion, here is an interesting essay that raises important and difficult questions about peace and nonviolence: "What Does it Mean to Celebrate International Peace Day?" [Link].
The New York Times, the "newspaper of record," just published a 10,000 word wrap-up on what we have learned about Russian interference in the 2016 US election. However, critics note that it is not until you get to paragraph 178 of this 199 paragraph essay do you learn that "no public evidence has emerged showing that [Trump's] campaign conspired with Russia in the election interference or accepted Russian money." Another interesting factoid is that Bob Woodward, author of the current bestseller about the Trump White House, Fear, told an interviewer that he found no evidence of any Trump-Russia collusion: "I searched hard for two years," he said. [Link].
Some 8,000 people, mostly black or Latino, are in New York City's jails. Most of them are on Rikers Island, and most of them are awaiting trial. Most of them will eventually be released without going to prison. And most of them will be in jail for a long time for the "crime" of not being able to afford bail. Now an organization called the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group has raised enough money to bail out 500 women and teenagers. As the City is under court order to reduce the number of people in its jails, and as it costs almost $300,000 per year to keep an inmate in jail, you would think the City would be rejoicing. But this weekend the City started to raise objections, claiming "the mass bailout at Rikers could endanger crime victims." Needless to say, white inmates with enough money to bail out pose no such danger.
The imaginations of many of us are working overtime to frame/conceive how regime change can be achieved in Washington without having to wait to 2020. The recent story in The New York Times that the Justice Department's Rod Rosenstein was talking about invoking the 25th Amendment (President "impaired") as early as the spring of 2017 has raised the profile of this way of getting Trump out of office. Veteran reporter James Risen has a useful article on the difficulties involved in using the 25th Amendment. And what could go wrong, as Trump is backed into a corner? Professor Juan Cole puts his thinking cap on to imagine "how Rosenstein's firing could lead to Trumpian martial law and blood in the streets." We have been warned.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – CFOW holds a vigil/rally each Saturday at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring) from 12 to 1 p.m. Everyone invited; please join us!
Thursday, September 27 – Westchester for Change, the Greenburgh Human Rights Advisory Council, and many other groups invite you to attend a two-part voter turnout/civic engagement workshop. The workshop will take place at the Theodore Young Community Center, 32 Manhattan Ave. in White Plains, from 7 to 9 p.m. To learn more, go to the event's Facebook page. If you plan to attend, please RSVP.
Sunday, September 30th – Countering the Muslim Travel Ban and Deportations will be the subject of a forum sponsored by the Westchester Coalition Against Islamphobia, at the Ethical Cultural Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Wood Rd. in White Plains, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. They write: "Religious discrimination, xenophobia, and racism are being channeled to close our borders to immigrants and asylum-seekers. This panel discussion will describe what is happening and how we can overcome it. Q&A will follow." Speaking will be Debbie Almontaser President, Board of Directors, Muslim Community Network; CEO/Founder of Bridging Cultures Group Inc. ; Albert Fox Cahn Legal Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, New York (CAIR-NY); member, Immigrant Leaders Council of the New York Immigration Coalition; and Karina Davila Co-founder of the Yonkers Sanctuary Movement; Current DACA recipient and President, John Jay DREAMers. This event is free and open to the public. Donations gratefully accepted. Parking available on site.
Sunday, October 7th – CFOW's monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review our work over the past months and make plans for what's coming next. Everyone is welcome at these meetings!
Tuesday, October 23rd – What will probably be the final court case in the Stop the Algonquin Pipeline campaign will be heard at the Cortlandt town court, 1 Heady St. in Cortland, starting at 9 a.m. This case involves defendants who crawled into a pipeline to halt construction. They defendants face serious charges, but the case is also important because the judge has stated she will allow the "necessity defense," allowing the defendants to argue that what they did was not illegal, because they were attempting to stop a greater harm. I'll post more about this as details emerge.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. We meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page.
Please Support CFOW
CFOW runs on a shoestring; but with the price of shoestrings these days, we're asking for your support. If you can make a financial contribution to our work, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. In addition to the excellent "Featured Essays" (and NB the film reviews!) I especially recommend the set of articles on the Yemen war; an excellent survey of the recent (Obama/Trump) history of the use of drones to assassinate "bad guys" (and anyone near them); a critical assessment of the US war in Afghanistan; two articles on the disasters of the US programs re: immigrants and refugees; and in "Our History," an insightful article on how the historical inaccuracies, and the public campaign around this, in the Ken Burns film about the Vietnam War prevented it from winning an Oscar. Read on!
Rewards!
This week's rewards for stalwart readers are an eclectic mix. First up is a great number from CFOW favorites Hudson Valley Sally, extolling the virtues of music you can find at the bottom of the FM band. And next up is an article from The New Yorker 20 years ago that recounts the story of Larry Walters, who, in 1982, attached 42 weather balloons to a lawn chair and ascended to 16,000 feet over Los Angeles. Who was Larry Walters, and was the Federal Aviation Administration justified in fining him $1,500 for flying "an unairworthy machine"? We report, you decide.
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
We Are Not the Resistance
By Michelle Alexander, New York Times [September 21, 2018]
[FB - Michelle is a civil rights lawyer and advocate, legal scholar and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. This is her first essay as a New York Times columnist.]
---- One might argue that the big tent of "the resistance" is its greatest strength: A massive united front becomes possible when the barrier to entry is so low. If you're revolted by Trump's tweets and feel terrified by his access to the nuclear codes, you too can join the resistance. There is power in numbers, to be sure, but I've begun to wonder whether the downsides to "the resistance" frame outweigh the benefits. At first, I thought the question wasn't worth entertaining because #Resist is a hashtag, nothing more. To the extent "the resistance" is an organized political force, it's doing quite well. The rising number of progressive candidates and the promising midterm election map are testament to the power of the resistance, however it's defined. But the time may have come to take the downsides more seriously. Resistance is a reactive state of mind. While it can be necessary for survival and to prevent catastrophic harm, it can also tempt us to set our sights too low and to restrict our field of vision to the next election cycle, leading us to forget our ultimate purpose and place in history. [Read More]
There's Nothing Natural About Puerto Rico's Disaster
By Naomi Klein, The Intercept [September 21, 2018]
---- I've been digging into disaster capitalism for a couple of decades now. For those of you who are new to the term, disaster capitalism is about how the already rich and powerful systematically exploit the pain and the trauma of collective shocks — like superstorms or economic crisis — in order to build an even more unequal and undemocratic society. Long before Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico was a textbook example. Before those fierce winds came, the debt — illegitimate and much of it illegal — was the excuse used to ram through a brutal program of economic suffering, what the great Argentine author Rodolfo Walsh, writing about four decades earlier, famously called miseria planificada, planned misery. This program systematically attacked the very glue that holds a society together: all levels of education, health care, the electricity and water systems, transit systems, communication networks, and more. It was a plan so widely rejected that no elected representatives could be trusted to carry it out. Which is why in 2016 the U.S. Congress passed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, known as PROMESA. [Read More] Also timely/important is "When Disaster Capitalism Comes for the University of Puerto Rico," by Rima Brusi, et al., The Nation [September 20, 2018] [Link]; and
"Puerto Rico has not recovered from Hurricane Maria," by Lauren Lluveras, The Conversation [September 21, 2018] [Link].
"Puerto Rico has not recovered from Hurricane Maria," by Lauren Lluveras, The Conversation [September 21, 2018] [Link].
(Video) Between Fire & Sea: The Man Behind Gaza's Great March of Return
From Aljazeera [September 24, 2018]
[This 25-minute documentary follows the poet and nonviolent resistance activist Ahmed Abu Artema, who initiated the movement that became Gaza's "Great March of Return," beginning last spring and still going. Nearly 200 Gazans have been killed by Israeli soldiers during these weekly marches, and some18,000 have been wounded. The film asks Artema how this carnage squares with his belief in nonviolent action.] [See the Program]
How Grassroots Activists Made Peace with North Korea Possible
By Sarah Freeman-Woolpert, Waging Nonviolence [September 23, 2018]
---- The leaders of North and South Korea are meeting in Pyongyang this week to discuss the possibility of a peace treaty to end the decades-long conflict dividing the Korean Peninsula. This marks the third meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in since April, when the leaders famously shook hands across the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, separating the two countries. After a swell of global optimism at warming relations between Kim and Moon, attention shifted to Donald Trump's June meeting with Kim in Singapore. Despite the peace community's hope for increased diplomacy following the summit's vague yet optimistic outcome, many voices on both sides of the aisle in Congress, as well as within Trump's own administration, have since disparaged the possibility for peace. … Amid the clamor and saber-rattling, however, a steady, persistent grassroots peace movement is working hard to counter the negativity. By influencing stakeholders behind the scenes, building new coalitions and reframing the narrative to promote negotiation as a difficult but worthwhile process, this movement has risen above "fire and fury" to chart the way toward lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. [Read More]
---- The leaders of North and South Korea are meeting in Pyongyang this week to discuss the possibility of a peace treaty to end the decades-long conflict dividing the Korean Peninsula. This marks the third meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in since April, when the leaders famously shook hands across the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, separating the two countries. After a swell of global optimism at warming relations between Kim and Moon, attention shifted to Donald Trump's June meeting with Kim in Singapore. Despite the peace community's hope for increased diplomacy following the summit's vague yet optimistic outcome, many voices on both sides of the aisle in Congress, as well as within Trump's own administration, have since disparaged the possibility for peace. … Amid the clamor and saber-rattling, however, a steady, persistent grassroots peace movement is working hard to counter the negativity. By influencing stakeholders behind the scenes, building new coalitions and reframing the narrative to promote negotiation as a difficult but worthwhile process, this movement has risen above "fire and fury" to chart the way toward lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. [Read More]
The CFOW Newsletter At The Movies!
Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9" Aims Not at Trump But at Those Who Created the Conditions That Led to His Rise
By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept [
---- "Fahrenheit 11/9," the title of Michael Moore's new film that opens today in theaters, is an obvious play on the title of his wildly profitable Bush-era "Fahrenheit 9/11," but also a reference to the date of Donald J. Trump's 2016 election victory. Despite that, Trump himself is a secondary figure in Moore's film, which is far more focused on the far more relevant and interesting questions of what – and, critically, who – created the climate in which someone like Trump could occupy the Oval Office. For that reason alone, Moore's film is highly worthwhile regardless of where one falls on the political spectrum. The single most significant defect in U.S. political discourse is the monomaniacal focus on Trump himself, as though he is the cause – rather than the by-product and symptom – of decades-old systemic American pathologies. Personalizing and isolating Trump as the principal, even singular, source of political evil is obfuscating and thus deceitful. By effect, if not design, it distracts the population's attention away from the actual architects of their plight. … The overriding value of "Fahrenheit 11/9″ is that it avoids – in fact, aggressively rejects – this ahistorical manipulation. Moore dutifully devotes a few minutes at the start of his film to Trump's rise, and then asks the question that dominates the rest of it, the one the political and media establishment has steadfastly avoided examining except in the most superficial and self-protective ways: "how the fuck did this happen"? [Read More] Also interesting/useful is "Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9": Entertaining Film, Crappy Politics," b [Link]. The Nation's Jon Wiener has an interview with Michael Moore ("Michael Moore: How Democrats Paved the Way to Trump") here.
Sorry, Not Sorry [A Review of the film "Sorry to Bother You"]
By Robin D. G. Kelley, Boston Review [September 21, 2018]
---- Raymond "Boots" Riley, director of the new film Sorry to Bother You, sported a big Afro after it went out of style and before it came back. He called himself a revolutionary when it was politically incorrect. For three decades he has read, written, spoken, worked, organized, studied, taught, directed, acted, organized, partied, parented, made music—and organized some more. One cannot understand the film without appreciating his background. … It is all of this—three decades of making art, revolution, and surplus value in various low-wage jobs—that prepared Riley to write and direct Sorry to Bother You, his debut film. He describes it as "an absurdist dark comedy with magical realism and science fiction, inspired by the world of telemarketing." Set in present-day Oakland, it tells the story of a struggling young black man named Cassius "Cash" Green (Lakeith Stanfield) who lives with his free-spirited artist girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson), in his uncle Sergio's (Terry Crews) garage. (Names in the film wear allegory on their sleeves.) Poverty and joblessness are rampant, but ubiquitous ads promise a way out of financial precarity: the Worry Free corporation offers "free" room and board in exchange for a lifelong commitment to unwaged labor. They are in the slavery business, in other words, but it is marketed as a kind of working person's gated community. [Read More]
THE WAR IN YEMEN
Yemen's Descent into Hell: A Saudi-American War of Terror
By Rajan Menon, Tom Dispatch [September 2018]
By Rajan Menon, Tom Dispatch [September 2018]
---- It's the war from hell, the savage one that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with seven other Middle Eastern and North African states, have been waging in Yemen since March 2015, with fulsome support from the Pentagon and American weapons galore. It's got everything. Dead children in the dozens, a never-ending air campaign that pays scant heed to civilians, famine, cholera, you name it. No wonder it's facing mounting criticism in Congress and from human rights groups. Still, ever since President Donald Trump (like Barack Obama before him) embraced the Saudi-led coalition as this country's righteous knight errant in the Middle East, the fight against impoverished Yemen's Houthi rebels -- who have, in turn, been typecast as Iran's cats-paw -- has only grown fiercer. Meanwhile, the al-Qaeda affiliate there continues to expand. [Read More]
Top Dems Claim Concern Over Yemen War—Why Aren't They Backing a Measure To End It?
BY Shireen Al-Adeimi and Sarah Lazare, In These Times [September 17, 2018]
---- Despite claiming concern over U.S.-backed atrocities in Yemen, some of the most influential Democrats in the U.S. House are refusing to publicly endorse the latest political effort to end the U.S. role in the Saudi-led war.. … The office of Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is declining to formally endorse the effort at this time, a move that would signal to Democrats that supporting the effort is backed by Democratic leadership, which would signal to Democrats to support it. "The resolution hasn't been introduced yet, so Mr. Engel will need to review the final text once that takes place," Tim Mulvey, the Democratic Communications Director for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told In These Times over email…. While both Engel and Hoyer indicate they are open to backing the legislation, they are withholding their endorsements. [Read More]
Also interesting/useful on the Yemen War – "State Department Team Led by Former Raytheon Lobbyist Pushed Mike Pompeo to Support Yemen War Because of Arms Sales," by Lee Fang and Alex Emmons, The Intercept [September 21, 2018] [Link]; "Trump's Dirty War in Yemen," By Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic [September 21, 2018] [Link]; "Congress Can Help End the Suffering in Yemen," by William D. Hartung, LobeLog [September 19, 2018] [Link]; "The School Bus Massacre and Pompeo's Bogus Certification," by [Llink]; and "Five Million Children Risk Famine in Saudi-led War on Yemen," f[Link].
MORE WAR & PEACE
Trump is unshackling America's drones thanks to Obama's weakness
, American Civil Liberties Union [September 17, 2018]
---- For more than a decade, the worst-kept secret in the world has been the fact that the Central Intelligence Agency owns and operates lethal drones outside of recognized battlefields abroad. Newspapers blare it from their headlines. Legislators discuss it on television. Foreign governments protest it through press releases. And, of course, human beings witness it through the death and destruction foisted upon their communities. Still, according to the US government and the federal courts, the CIA's operation of drones to hunt and kill terrorism suspects – a campaign that has killed thousands of people, including hundreds of children, in places like Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia – remains an official secret. Toward the end of the Obama administration, the president moderately circumscribed the agency's role in executing lethal strikes abroad, in part to increase public transparency. Compared to the US military (which also uses lethal force abroad), the CIA is relatively less accountable to policy makers, members of Congress, and the American public. With a diminished role in targeted killings, it appeared then that the CIA's official secrecy was becoming less important to the overall drone program. But as critics warned could happen, President Trump quickly lifted many of the late-Obama-era limits while ramping up the government's use of lethal drones abroad and reportedly putting the CIA back in the drone business. [Read More]
The War in Syria
Syrian Extremist Militias Reject Turkey-Russia Agreement, Will Attack Syrian Troops
---- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that Syrian armed factions have rejected an agreement reached by Turkey and Russia on setting up a demilitarised zone between the armed opposition and Syrian government troops in Idlib as of 15 October. The Observatory said in a statement that the factions of Religious Guards Ansar Al-Tawheed, Ansar Al-Din, Ansar Allah, Al-Furqan and the Soldiers of the Caucasus Army as well as other jihadi factions operating within the Al-Sham Liberation Army have refused to withdraw from contact lines with the regime forces in Idlib. According to the statement the factions announced that they will confront any party that seeks to withdraw their weapons or force them to leave and that they will continue to fight the Syrian regime army and the Russians. [Read More]
U.S. Weighs Next Steps as Syria's Civil War Enters Climactic Phase
By Edward Wong, et al., New York Times [September 21, 2018]
---- As Syria's seven-year civil war enters a climactic phase, the Trump administration is grappling with how to address the emerging political dynamics. President Bashar al-Assad has retaken control of most of Syrian territory, and experts said there is almost no chance that rebel groups will topple him or change the course of the war. But this week, Russia and Turkey proposed a demilitarized zone to stop a military offensive that Mr. Assad had planned against Idlib Province, the last major rebel enclave in Syria. Even a delay in the rampage would buy time for the United States to help draw up new strategies for dealing with Syria if it definitively falls under Mr. Assad's rule. [Read More] Ten days ago, Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard made a powerful dissent re: US Syria policy: read more here. For a good map of who is where in Syria, go here.
The War in Afghanistan
The Death Toll for Afghan Forces Is Secret. Here's Why.
By Rod Nordland, New York Times [September 21, 2018]
---- Taliban insurgents killed so many Afghan security forces in 2016, an average of 22 a day, that by the following year the Afghan and American governments decided to keep battlefield death tolls secret. It's much worse now. The daily fatalities among Afghan soldiers and policemen were more than double that last week: roughly 57 a day.. … This is not just a matter of lives lost, which reverberate through families already traumatized by decades of war. It is also a sign that the stalemate between the Taliban and government forces is tipping in the insurgents' favor. Throughout this year, the Taliban have owned the initiative against government forces who have been spread thin and rooted to the defensive. The security forces have repeatedly had to call on the small American contingent here — and its considerable air power — to rescue them from trouble. In a war of attrition, the momentum is all with the Taliban, who seem to have no trouble replenishing their forces. As government forces fall, the Taliban's battlefield victories have lowered morale and faith in the government, and made prospects of a peace deal even more remote. [Read More]
War With Iran?
The Ahvaz Terror Attack in Iran May Drag the US Into a Larger War
By
---- Iran has been hit by yet another terrorist attack. At least 29 people were killed in the southwestern city of Ahvaz when gunmen opened fire on a crowd watching a military parade on Iran's equivalent of Memorial Day. But unlike previous terror attacks, this one may spark a much larger regional conflagration - involving not just regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, but also the United States. In fact, it may have been designed to trigger just that. The terrorist attack, which was first claimed by an Arab separatist group with alleged connections to Saudi Arabia, the Ahvaz National Resistance, did not occur in a vacuum. Iran's regional rivals, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have increasingly taken their decades-long behind-the-scenes pressure on the US to bomb Iran into the open. What used to be said in private is now increasingly declared in public. Moreover, these monarchies are no longer limiting themselves to pushing the US to take military action, but are announcing their own readiness to attack Iran. [Read More]
Major Powers, except U.S., Try to Keep Iran Nuclear Deal Alive
By Arshad Mohammed and John Irish, Reuters [September 2018]
---- Nations that struck the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, except for the United States, meet on Monday in what many diplomats fear may prove a quixotic effort to keep the agreement alive after U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports resume in November. Ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran will gather in New York at 8 p.m. EDT on Monday (0000 GMT Tuesday) to grapple with U.S. President Donald Trump's May 8 decision to withdraw from the deal and restore the full force of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Their delicate, and perhaps unrealistic, task is to build a case for Tehran to respect the deal's limits on its nuclear program even though Washington has pulled out, depriving Iran of many of the economic benefits it was promised. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani "needs arguments to defend the deal in the face of the radicals. He needs us to give him ammunition," said a senior European diplomat, referring to Iranian hard-liners who oppose the agreement. "We are trying to give him ammunition, but what we can do, to be honest, is limited," the diplomat added. The crux of the deal, negotiated over almost two years by the Obama administration, was that Iran would restrain its nuclear program in return for the relaxation of sanctions that had crippled its economy. Trump considered it flawed because it did not include curbs on ballistic missiles or regional activity. The United States began reimposing economic sanctions this summer and the most draconian measures, which seek to force Iran's major customers to stop buying its oil, resume Nov. 5. [Read More]
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
Too Hot for Work? Climate change is already worsening working conditions across the country.
By Michelle Chen, The Nation [September 20, 2018]
---- With temperatures breaking records every summer, we're already living through climate change's fallout. But some communities are experiencing more effects than others, especially when it comes to working conditions: Dirty air strafes our lungs on our daily commutes, power plants pump smog into downwind neighborhoods, and farm laborers are getting roasted alive. In the United States, heat-related death and illness poses one of the most immediate and widespread risks linked to global-warming trends. In July alone last year, according to Public Citizen, "An average of 1.1 million agriculture and construction workers labored in extreme conditions each day." … For many Americans, deliriously hot workdays will soon be the new normal for a large portion, perhaps a majority of the year. Public Citizen warns in a recent report, "The number of dangerous heat days that the 133 cities will experience, on average, will increase from 20 a year in 2000 to 58 in 2050." Employers, meanwhile, often may be well aware of growing need for increased heat protection for their workers, but "often fail to furnish these protections—whether due to ignorance or wanton recklessness." [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Trump Is Strangling the U.S. Refugee Program to Death
By
---- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced that the U.S. would reduce the cap on its refugee program to a new low of 30,000 people in 2019. This is the second such reduction by the administration. In 2017, this year's limit was reduced from 110,000 to 45,000, and only about 20,000 people have so far actually been admitted. By comparison, in the last year of President Barack Obama's tenure, the U.S. admitted more than 80,000 refugees. … Whether or not Trump obtains congressional permission to reset refugee limits, he is doing so by fiat, and quietly through internal changes. Melissa Keaney, a staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, explained to me in an interview that the discretionary destruction of the refugee program is essentially a backdoor implementation of Trump's "Muslim ban." … A recent Reuters investigation found that the government has slowly whittled away the program "through procedural changes made largely out of public view" and that "the administration has reshaped the U.S. refugee program, slashing overall admissions and all but halting entry for some of the world's most persecuted people, including Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians and Somalis." [Read More]
Immigrants Who Accepted Food Stamps to be Denied Permanent Residency (Green Cards)
---- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Saturday that under the proposed rule change, being a current or previous recipient of certain public aid would be seen as a "heavily weighed negative factor" in considering an application for lawful permanent residency. "This proposed rule will implement a law passed by Congress intended to promote immigrant self-sufficiency and protect finite resources by ensuring that they are not likely to become burdens on American taxpayers," Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said. Immigrants applying for green cards are already required to prove they will not become a so-called "public charge," with receipt of cash benefits considered. But the latest rules set out a wide range of non-cash public benefits that could be disqualifying, including food stamps, housing vouchers and the Medicare Part D Low Income Subsidy which helps with prescription costs.
DHS estimated the rule would affect just over 382,200 immigrants applying to adjust their status to lawful permanent residents each year. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
A Direct US War on Palestinians
By Kamal Balhadi, Middle East Monitor [September 20, 2018]
---- The US decided to shut down the PLO office in Washington as a punitive measure for the PA's refusal to go along with the "deal of the century". It is also the US' response to the PA's measures of resorting to the ICC to prosecute the occupation for the war crimes it committed against the Palestinians. The US leaves no opportunity for the so-called "peace" talks when it puts some Arabs in awkward positions after announcing regular decisions and measures against the oppression Palestinian people. After deciding to move the embassy to Jerusalem and to recognise a unified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and after the decision to cut financial aid to UNRWA, the decision to close the PLO office comes as a hostile measure that classifies the PA as an anti-Washington government. … Since Trump's presidency, the White House administration has openly declared its extreme hostility towards the Palestinian cause. We should perhaps give credit to this administration for removing all of the masks previous administrations hid behind, and which they used to promote the illusion of peace and peaceful co-existence with the occupation that seized the land and displaced millions. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
A Victory for Historical Accuracy and the Peace Movement: Not One Emmy for Ken Burns and "The Vietnam War"
---- Ken Burns, branded as "America's Storyteller," was shut out at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony on Sunday, September 9. (The "primetime," higher-profile Emmys were awarded later, on September 17.) Burns's latest project, the mammoth PBS series, "The Vietnam War," was nominated for Emmys in four categories. One by one, through the evening, all four prizes were awarded to other nominees. … But, along with the critical acclaim and hefty audience numbers, there was some negative response around the margins of the mainline mass culture. Online historical journals published essays which questioned the historical accuracy of Burns's version of Vietnam era events. Some commentators objected to Burns's refusal to assess moral responsibility for the millions of Vietnamese casualties and the massive physical destruction caused by the American military. The organization Veterans for Peace (VFP) published personal responses to Burns's series by a few of its members, some of them Vietnam veterans. Unlike most of the U.S. veterans interviewed by Burns and Novick, these Vietnam veterans were highly critical of what their military had done to the people of Vietnam. And they were highly critical of the historical inaccuracies and the lack of moral clarity they perceived in Burns's filmmaking. [Read More]
