Concerned Families of Westchester
December 15, 2019
Hello All – This week The Washington Post published the results of its investigation into how, over the last decade, the Pentagon understood the war in Afghanistan: Were we winning or losing? How can we measure progress? What should we keep doing and what should we change? The takeaway from The Post's publication of 600+ documents and some cogent analysis is that the war in Afghanistan has had no coherent strategy, has achieved none of its self-described "metrics," and that the Pentagon has hidden their failure from the public (and the Congress?) with an avalanche of lies. Many have compared The Post's reporting to the "Pentagon Papers" of the Vietnam War, which also reflected the military's conclusion that it was not winning that war and did not see any way that it could do so.
A good introduction to the "Afghanistan Papers" – how they originated and how the Post got them – can be seen in this video. Several good analyses of the Papers can be read in the articles linked below. I think the immediate question is whether the Papers will have any effect on public opinion, media coverage and analysis going forward, debate in Congress, and of course the war itself. New York's Senator Kirsten Sen. Gillibrand, a member of the Armed Services Committee, has called for the Committee to hold hearings on the disaster portrayed in the Afghanistan Papers. Rep. Eliot Engel could/should do the same thing at the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and if you are in CD16, please give him a call - (202) 225-2464.
One difference between the Pentagon Papers (1971) and the Afghanistan Papers is that the former were published during a time when the antiwar movement was strong and many members of Congress were calling for the war to end. And with no draft today, few beyond military families care about the wars and are aware of what's happening. Perhaps another difference is that the Pentagon Papers detailed the assessments and decisions made about the war primarily during the presidencies of JFK and LBJ; and in that innocent time a great many people were dismayed that they had been lied to about the war by the liberals who they had worked so hard to elect. And, of course, another main difference between then and now is that today's media environment, though in many ways far more capable of gathering facts and reporting them in real time, is completely bogged down with their 24/7 addiction to the antics of President Trump. I believe it will take a mighty effort from an aroused public to get even a few minutes of Congress' attention for the stupid and horrible bloodbath in Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, I encourage everyone to pay attention to the Papers, to what they show us about how the Pentagon and the White House run a needless war, and how little we can count on our mainstream media to give us an honest picture of how we are spending a trillion dollars and killing tens of thousands of people, including 2,400 of our own soldiers. Though History doesn't "repeat" itself, between the Pentagon Papers and the Afghanistan Papers, I think we have more than enough evidence to say No to War when the next one comes over the horizon.
Some useful/illuminating reading about the Afghanistan Papers
We Have Just Been Handed the Pentagon Papers of Our Generation
By Danny Sjursen, The Nation [December 13, 2019]
---- Earlier this week, we learned that our leaders also knew the war was a fiasco, doomed to fail. But, unlike many of us, they chose not to speak out. Instead, as The Washington Post revealed in a series of stunning articles based on what it has labeled the Afghanistan Papers—a trove of previously classified documents that it is calling a "secret history of the war"—dozens of consecutive generals and senior US officials had repeatedly lied about, omitted, and obfuscated the facts to give an illusion of progress in that war. … The Afghanistan Papers don't try to answer these bigger questions, and perhaps they can't, but their significance is nonetheless profound. At 2,000 pages, they are nothing less than the Pentagon Papers of my generation. … In a real republic, these papers would be explosive, triggering investigations, denunciations, and serious policy conversations. The Senate would hold a lengthy inquest, such as the Fulbright hearings on Vietnam or the Church Committee on CIA abuses, in addition to producing substantive reports similar to the 9/11 commission or the McCain/Feinstein CIA torture report. But I'm skeptical. If this Afghan disclosure doesn't generate thorough investigation and accountability, can the concerned citizenry ever again count on Congress? Probably not. [Read More]
Also useful on the Afghanistan Papers – "We didn't need the documents: America's Trillion $ Failure in the Afghanistan war has been obvious all along," by Juan Cole, Informed Comment [December 12, 2019] [Link]; "Where Is the Outrage Over the War in Afghanistan?" by Jeet Heer, The Nation [December 13, 2019] [Link]; and "The Perils of Embedded Journalism: 'Afghan Papers' Wouldn't Be Needed If We Had a Real Independent News Media," by Dave Lindorff, Counterpunch [December 13, 2019] [Link]. To learn how civilians in Afghanistan are faring during this war, go here.
News Notes
Moments after Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was named Time magazine's Person of the Year, she give this speech deploring the missing sense of urgency in the UN/COP25's climate summit in Madrid. And with UK climate activist George Monbiot, she made an excellent short video (please share) about some of the natural solutions to our climate crisis.
As was expected, the COP25 in Madrid achieved little. The progressive news program Democracy Now! broadcast from Madrid all last week; and perhaps the best summary of what happened at COP25 can be found in the programs that bookended the climate debates: (Video) "The U.S. Has Almost No Official Presence at COP25 But Is Still 'Obstructing Any Progress'" [Link] from Tuesday and (Video) "COP25: Developing Countries Charge Ahead with Bold Climate Plans as Rich Countries Drag Their Feet" [Link] from Friday.
Finally, Israel will now head for a third election, following the failure of either of the two leading candidates to find enough allies to form a cabinet. It is hard to see how Prime Minister Netanyahu can emerge from the third election with sufficient support to form a new government; and failing that, it is hard to see how he can avoid conviction in some/all of the criminal cases now pending against him. Thinking towards the day when Netanyahu, after so many years, will no longer be Israel's prime minister, Haaretz correspondent Gideon Levy dares to imagine "Life After Netanyahu."
After the Brexit election, what's next for the UK?
Last week's disastrous election in the UK – a win for Brexit and Tory PM Boris Johnson – puts a question mark next to all future efforts to elect a socialist agenda in the "advanced" countries of the northern hemisphere. To start our mental gears going, let's begin with two hopeful assessments: "What do we do now?" from the excellent UK publication Red Pepper; and – from representatives of many migrant communities in the UK (before the election) – "We stand with Jeremy Corbyn - just as he always stood with us." The Nation's UK correspondent D.D. Guttenplan has a more downbeat assessment, which you can read here. Labour Party alleged antisemitism – a fabricated issue that was featured prominently in the UK and USA media – is discussed in a useful article by a writer for the (US) Electronic Intifada, "Don't let the smears that sank Corbyn tank Bernie Sanders." Finally, you can read an interesting assessment of how the economic changes sweeping Europe and the USA worked to detach traditional working-class Labour supporters from the Party and its election pledges and socialist manifesto/platform.
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 the climate crisis, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. Also, we (usually) have a general meeting on the first Saturday afternoon of each month. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. And if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
Pianist Yuja Wang returns to the Newsletter with a great performance of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 ("Stalingrad"), which was composed during the winter of 1942/43, when the great battle took place. Wang plays only the third/final movement of this piece. Curious, I looked for the whole of "Stalingrad," and found this terrific video production using German and Soviet footage from back in the day. (In general, the Germans wear the helmets and the Soviets wear the fur hats.) I think the final scene may be/represents the encirclement of the Germans by a Soviet offensive that ended the battle and – many believe – defeated the Nazis in World War II.
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
SOME INTERESTING/INFORMATIVE READING
The Inspector General's Report on 2016 FBI Spying Reveals a Scandal of Historic Magnitude: Not Only for the FBI but Also the U.S. Media
By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept [December 12, 2019]
---- Just as was true when the Mueller investigation closed without a single American being charged with criminally conspiring with Russia over the 2016 election, Wednesday's issuance of the long-waited report from the Department of Justice's Inspector General reveals that years of major claims and narratives from the U.S. media were utter frauds. Before evaluating the media component of this scandal, the FBI's gross abuse of its power – its serial deceit – is so grave and manifest that it requires little effort to demonstrate it. In sum, the IG Report documents multiple instances in which the FBI – in order to convince a FISA court to allow it spy on former Trump campaign operative Carter Page during the 2016 election – manipulated documents, concealed crucial exonerating evidence, and touted what it knew were unreliable if not outright false claims. … But the revelations of the IG Report are not merely a massive FBI scandal. They are also a massive media scandal, because they reveal that so much of what the U.S. media has authoritatively claimed about all of these matters for more than two years is completely false. [Read More] For another look at this debacle, read "We Just Got a Rare Look at National Security Surveillance. It Was Ugly," by Charlie Savage, New York Times [December 11, 2019]
Beyond Changing Light Bulbs: 21 Ways You Can Stop the Climate Crisis
By Rivera Sun, Counterpunch [December 13, 2019]
---- We can all pitch in to help save humanity and the planet. And I don't mean just by planting trees or changing light bulbs. Climate action movements are exploding in numbers, actions, and impact. Groups like Youth Climate Strikes, Extinction Rebellion, #ShutDownDC, the Sunrise Movement, and more are changing the game. Join in if you haven't already. As Extinction Rebellion reminds us: there's room for everybody in an effort this enormous. We all make change in different ways, and we're all needed to make all the changes we need. Resistance is not futile. As the editor of Nonviolence News, I collect stories of climate action and climate wins. In the past month alone, the millions of people worldwide rising up in nonviolent action have propelled a number of major victories. … Is it any wonder Collins Dictionary made "climate strike" the Word of the Year? Beyond planting trees and changing light bulbs, here's a list of things you can do about the climate crisis: [Read More]
The Popular Assemblies at the Heart of the Chilean Uprising
By Bree Busk, Roar [December 11, 2019]
[FB – With the end of the Soviet-oriented communist parties in the 1990s, the modes of peoples' uprising/protests today are often largely "leaderless," that is, without a unified structure or Central Committee. In the case of Chile, it is the rising up of hundreds of community or workplace organizations that are leading the charge. Is the absence of a centralized structure or leadership a benefit to the uprising or a drawback? Here is another case that demands our attention and thinking, imo.]
---- More than fifty days have passed since the Chilean uprising burst into existence. For those living it on the ground, it feels like much longer. The movement has already gone through several upheavals, alternately evolving and disintegrating in response to the changing terrain of struggle. The Piñera administration and its sympathizers have called — without success — for a return to normality. In response, the people have unequivocally stated that "normality" was the problem. Throughout the capital city of Santiago, graffiti reads: "I prefer the chaos." In a time when even the most peaceful of marches are broken up with tear gas and water cannons, protesters have learned to take care of each other, forming a rough new community in the face of repression. This recently discovered practice of solidarity has taken many forms, from volunteer medical brigades to people's kitchens to better-coordinated acts of property destruction. …In the intimacy of the capital's many residential neighborhoods, the people who first left their homes to join in the cacerolazos (public noise demonstrations) have since found other reasons to gather: raising their own popular assemblies and town halls as a first step towards imagining a new Chile, one built around the well-being of its people rather than the profits of a few. The Chilean uprising, still proudly leaderless, has provided a path to social activism for those who had previously stood on the sidelines. [Read More]
Those Torture Drawings in the New York Times
By John Kiriakou, Consortium News [December 12, 2019]
[FB – John Kiriaku, a former CIA counterterrorism officer, was jailed by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act (World War I) and spent 23 months in prison for his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program. He was also the person who captured the Guantanamo prisoner whose drawings about torture were recently published by the New York Times.]
---- The New York Times last week published shocking drawings by Guantanamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah showing in graphic detail the types of tortures he endured at the hands of CIA officers and contractors at secret prisons around the world. The drawings were sickening. With a child's simplicity, they showed the irrational cruelty of the CIA's torture program, which weakened our country, violated domestic and international law and ended up saying so much more about us, as Americans, than it did about the terrorists who wished us harm. The Times did its duty of reminding us what monsters the CIA produced in the early years of its so-called war on terror, people introduced to most Americans in the Senate's torture report. … And in the photos of Abu Zubaydah's drawing that the Times ran, the CIA dutifully blacked out even the stick-figure sketches of the actual torturers, those CIA officers who sold their souls to break the law, all in honor of that false god called "national security." With that said, the Times article, although revelatory in terms of Abu Zubaydah's personal story, was woefully inadequate. It never mentioned, for example, how the Obama administration did literally nothing to make any of this right. Remember former President Barack Obama's decision to hold no one accountable for the torture program and instead "look forward, not backward?" That didn't serve justice. It just protected the torturers and the criminals who supported them. Remember the promise to close Guantanamo? It never happened. [Read More]
---- The New York Times last week published shocking drawings by Guantanamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah showing in graphic detail the types of tortures he endured at the hands of CIA officers and contractors at secret prisons around the world. The drawings were sickening. With a child's simplicity, they showed the irrational cruelty of the CIA's torture program, which weakened our country, violated domestic and international law and ended up saying so much more about us, as Americans, than it did about the terrorists who wished us harm. The Times did its duty of reminding us what monsters the CIA produced in the early years of its so-called war on terror, people introduced to most Americans in the Senate's torture report. … And in the photos of Abu Zubaydah's drawing that the Times ran, the CIA dutifully blacked out even the stick-figure sketches of the actual torturers, those CIA officers who sold their souls to break the law, all in honor of that false god called "national security." With that said, the Times article, although revelatory in terms of Abu Zubaydah's personal story, was woefully inadequate. It never mentioned, for example, how the Obama administration did literally nothing to make any of this right. Remember former President Barack Obama's decision to hold no one accountable for the torture program and instead "look forward, not backward?" That didn't serve justice. It just protected the torturers and the criminals who supported them. Remember the promise to close Guantanamo? It never happened. [Read More]
