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POPSInvested In War n 2004, the first full year after the current Iraq war began, Republican and Democratic lawmakers-both hawks and doves invested between $74.9 million and 161.3 million in companies under contract with the DoD. No wonder the Democratic congress kept approving the enormous spending bills on the war, since a significant portion of it happens to end up in their deep pockets. Interestingly, the report also mentioned that members of the senate foreign relations and armed services committees which oversee the Iraq war had between $32 million and $44 million invested in companies with DoD contracts. The burning questions for many people are the following: Are there any ethics left in politics? Could the universe ever exist without wars? The answer is no, because wars have been a major part of our social make up, in addition they force geostrategic changes, make profits for the elite, and reduce population.
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POPSU.S. Official Resigns Over Afghanistan War Policy Hoh's letter caused a stir in the Obama administration, and he was hastened to meetings with senior U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington. They praised his record of service and begged him to stay, offering him new positions in both locations. Hoh initially accepted the Washington job, but changed his mind a week later. Hoh said that his act of protest and decision to speak out were painful, even "nauseating" at times, but he was strongly motivated by the friends he had lost on the battlefield and the mental anguish he has experienced since returning home. "I want people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona, to call their congressman and say, 'Listen, I don't think this is right,' " he explained, adding that he "is not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love."
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POPSMalalai Joya, Afghanistan Woman Speaks Out For expressing my views I have been expelled from my seat in parliament, and I have survived numerous assassination attempts. The fact that I was kicked out of office while brutal warlords enjoyed immunity from prosecution for their crimes should tell you all you need to know about the "democracy" backed by Nato troops. In the constitution it forbids those guilty of war crimes from running for high office. Yet Karzai has named two notorious warlords, Fahim and Khalili, as his running mates for the upcoming presidential election. Under the shadow of warlordism, corruption and occupation, this vote will have no legitimacy, and once again it seems the real choice will be made behind closed doors in the White House. As we say in Afghanistan, "the same donkey with a new saddle".
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POPSRepublican Representatives Saying Bring Troops Home Senator Warren Hatch (R) - Most of all, the administration must learn the lesson that the United States should put its troops in harm's way only if our vital and critical interests are at stake and should send enough forces so that they can achieve their mission rapidly and with the least risk to American lives. Senator Strom Thurmond (R) - Madam Speaker, the mission has steadily sucked us into a situation that now offers no good options. Americans are dying in an ill-defined mission that bears no clear relation to the national interest. I agree that this is intolerable, and must not continue. We all want to get out of this quagmire. Yet we do not know how, for no matter how ill-advised it was to get engaged in a tribal war; now that Aideed and his thugs have killed Americans, it is in our national interest to punish them. In other words, what is at stake is not just.
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POPS‘War on Words’ Conference (International Press Institute) For complete program of events, go here, http://www.freemedia.at/events/war-on-words-programme/ Session 1 “September 11, Combating Terrorism, and the Erosion of Civil Liberties” Session 2 “Tortured Logic – How Has the Media Reported on Terrorism and Torture?” Session 3 “The Watchdog Role of the Media in the Fight against Terrorism" Session 4 “Shouting Fire in a Crowded Theatre: Incitement, Freedom of Expression and Religious Tolerance” Session 5 In the final session, participants discussed the draft “Vienna Declaration on Terrorism, Media and the Law” (final document will be available soon).
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POPSPlaytime Is Over, Now Grow a Set! Increasing the size of the war in Afghanistan instead of withdrawing from that Godforsaken war, prosecution for torture, health care, and who knows how many other disasters... “Obama says in regard to torture that he wants to look forward, not look back,” Velvel continues. “He is a brilliant guy who, despite his brilliance, seems never to have learned the truth in Faulkner’s line that the past is not prologue; it is not even past.” “When those who do evil get away with it because nobody wants to think about what was done, and people instead want to focus on ‘moving forward,’ the door is open, both ideologically and practically, for recurrence of the same evil in the future,” Velvel warns.
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POPSThis Is Amazing! The Ravages of War In Sand This is an amazing political video. Sand artist Kseniya Simonova won Ukraine's Got Talent competition with her sand art interpretation of what Germany's invasion during World War II did to her people. First minute is slow, but turn on your speakers and sit back for an awesome display of story-telling. -JoeDanger (Daily Paul)
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POPSAnti-War Protests In Israel No organisation called for the demonstration – but more than a thousand men and women gathered spontaneously in order to protest in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel-Aviv, only a few hours after the murderous Air Force attack on the Gaza strip started. "I know there has been a lot of generalizations and criticizing of the Israeli people during these wars, so I figured I'd share with you another side of the story you wouldn't see on TV." (sean57, DP~Thanks)
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POPSWhose Iraq Predictions Have Come True? The American people deserve better. Being asked to endorse such a farce is beyond insulting. Clearly, the rosy predictions of the neoconservatives from before the war are not coming true. Far from it! With a straight face, one official estimated the TOTAL cost of reconstruction in Iraq would be just $1.7 billion. Turns out that we spend more than that in ONE WEEK. Our friends are not pitching in to cover the cost. Expenses are not being covered by oil from a grateful and liberated Iraqi people. Rather, big corporate interests are benefiting, the price of oil has more than quadrupled, and the American economy is on its knees and sinking fast. No one predicted the exact course of this war before it started. But to continue to listen to the foreign policy advice of those that were the MOST off-base will only lead to more foreign policy disasters.
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POPSAn Anti-Imperialist Foreign Policy
The nation is now governed by powerful interests who have purchased their position of control. It is in their interests to keep people afraid and angry at some foreign enemy. Even better for them is a worldwide, never-ending war on terror. This is the perfect war for the military-industrial -congressional complex. The people are beginning to wake up to the disastrous effects of the current policies. Ultimately, as the dollar declines in value, other countries and investors who have been buying U.S. debt instruments will discontinue their purchases. At that point, the government will not be able to keep the printing presses going to continue to finance this enormous military machine. All empires eventually collapse because of the high cost of maintaining an empire by force. "The budget should be balanced. Public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt." - Cicero
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POPSWar is a Racket Wars are really a continuous stream of coordinated acts of terrorism, related to money and power instigated by the people who will benefit from the war and its expected end result. War is an instrument to expand economic power by destroying the national institutions and intelligent people of the victimized nation.
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POPS"You Furnish the Pictures and I'll Furnish the War" Both repeatedly called for armed intervention, then later, all-out war. The atrocities General Weyler committed in Cuba were massively hyped and sensationalized in the US newspapers, then engaged in a practice known as "yellow journalism". The two kingpins of the press at the time were William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, who were embroiled in a vicious circulation war, in which Hearst even "stole" Pulitzer's most popular writers by convincing them to defect through promises of money and positions. Hearst's major publication was the New York Journal and Pulitzer's publication was the New York World. In order to grow their circulations, both men were willing to go so far as to make up stories. The Spanish-American War was not the height of Hearst's power. Afterwards, he continued to grow his media empire for several decades, and even successfully ran for a seat in Congress. Hearst was the rough basis for the wealthy journalist-baron in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.
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POPSSpanish-American War The U.S. government was also moved by the heavy losses of American investment in Cuba caused by the guerrilla warfare, an appreciation of the strategic importance of the island to Central America and a projected isthmian canal there, and a growing sense of U.S. power in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. There was an unspoken threat of intervention. This grew sharper after the insurgents, refusing a Spanish offer of partial autonomy, determined to fight for full freedom. The warfare that commenced was short and very one-sided. Peace was arranged by the Treaty of Paris signed Dec. 10, 1898 (ratified by the U.S. Senate, Feb. 6, 1899). The Spanish Empire was practically dissolved. Cuba was freed, but under U.S. tutelage by terms of the Platt Amendment (see under Platt, Orville), with Spain assuming the Cuban debt. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States as indemnity, and the Philippines were surrendered to the United States for a payment of $20 million.
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POPSBush Cannot Be Held For War Crimes He made sure to pardon himself some time ago, watch the 2nd video in case you missed that! Yes, that's right, HE PARDONED HIMSELF!!! He knew he was guilty, or why would he have made sure that he could not be held accountable!
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POPSBefore The War On Drugs Many medical authorities regarded opiate addiction as far less destructive than alcoholism (some doctors even prescribed the former as treatment for the latter). Many opiate addicts, perhaps most, managed to lead relatively normal lives and kept their addictions secret even from close friends and relatives. That they were able to do so was largely a function of the legal status of their drug use. But even more reassuring is the fact that the major causes of opiate addiction then simply do not exist now. Late nineteenth-century Americans became addicts principally at the hands of physicians who lacked modern medicines and were unaware of the addictive potential of the drugs they prescribed. Doctors in the 1860s and 1870s saw morphine injections as a virtual panacea, and many Americans turned to opiates to alleviate their aches and pains without going through doctors at all. But as medicine advanced, the levels of both doctor- and self-induced addiction declined markedly.
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POPSThe Big Promise of Elections '08 = More War! More Debt! Both McCain and Obama have made it clear, (as Obama has stated) "War with Iran is not off the table." But if we listen, both have also spoken about going into Pakistan, about "protecting Israel" no matter the cost, and even if it involves military action. So what the elections have come down to, on both the left and the right, is that there is no anti-war candidate left, nor is there one who seems to have any ideas that will rescue the economy and recover the increasing deficit.
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POPSWAR IS OVER CONTINUED: For American politicians to suppose that without us it would thrive and grow in Iraq is just proof of their ignorance. Our presence in Iraq is the only thing that made al-Qaeda viable. Our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are the principal selling points in al-Qaeda propaganda. Whatever someone imagines we gain by staying in Iraq and Afghanistan is far outweighed by what we are losing. We are losing lives in dribs and drabs, and we are losing treasure at an alarming rate. We have severe internal problems that our military presence in the Middle East aggravates. Our military is on the verge of being broken. Some Nobel laureates estimate the war will end up costing us $3 trillion. Well, plain and simple, we can't afford it. If we don't change direction in this country, we're going to end up impoverished and bankrupt, and you know what? Iraq and Afghanistan will still be the messes they are today.
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POPS"Nothing to do With War" At one point, they had to shut down a house full of prostitutes, chucking out one john as he was half-dressed in the middle of an appointment. Other stories are more touching, like the family that wanted to personally thank one of Crider's platoons for making the neighborhood safe enough for their son to get married, preparing a feast of chicken, rice and cake for the men. There was also an older lady who proudly showed Captain Nicholas M. Cook, one of the better-known American soldiers in the neighborhood, a photograph of herself decorated by the minister of defense under the old regime. She had been one of the only female generals under Saddam but was too afraid to even display the photograph in the privacy of her living room. But she felt secure with Cook. Says Cook, "we've become so close to all the families. There are some families I'm genuinely going to miss." His unit will be going home in April.
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POPSForeign Policy for America SOLUTIONS? Yes, there are. Like the Founding Fathers, Libertarians know that war is the first resort of political scoundrels, but the last resort of a free people. Libertarians know that government's role isn't to police the world — or even to win wars. Government's role is to keep us out of wars — and to protect us from foreign enemies, not create them. How would a Libertarian government assure our safety? Our foreign policy would be simple: We are always ready to defend ourselves, but we threaten no one.
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POPSIn the Hands of the Military There is a petition circulating. The petition is addressed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. military personnel. It urges them to defy orders to attack Iran. It points out that a pre-emptive war with Iran is a war crime under international law. It reminds military personnel of the statute in the Army Field Manual 27-10, Section 609, and Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 92, that states: “A general order or regulation is lawful unless it is contrary to the Constitution, the law of the United States. ...”The petition notes that any provision of an international treaty ratified by the United States becomes the law of the United States. The United States is a party and signatory to the United Nations Charter, of which Article II, Section 4, states, “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. ...” Iran has not attacked the United States.
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