Australian Military Apologizes to Afghan People over Troops’ War Crimes

How can your book help BAR readers understand the current political and social climate?

David Vine: Most BAR readers probably don’t need much help understanding the current climate, but I hope my book will contribute to both understanding and political action around the COVID-19 pandemic, the struggle for racial justice, and the militarization of U.S. life. With the pandemic, my book shows how the U.S. government’s disastrous COVID response is not simply the fault of the Trump administration. Responsibility for this disaster lies in no small part in the long history of U.S. wars. Decades of investment in war have come at the expense of investments in public health infrastructure and the broader health and welfare of the country’s people. The Post-9/11 Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and beyond have cost U.S. taxpayers at least $6.4 trillion. A tiny fraction of those trillions could have saved countless lives by funding adequate supplies of PPE, testing and vaccine-production capacity, ventilators, and other public health tools.

I hope The United States of War helps show how U.S. wars have not provided protection but instead have made the country and the world less secure and more vulnerable to the real threats to our security. So too, I hope the book underlines the urgency of ending what’s become a system of endless war.

As the BLM/M4BL protests have shown, the United States’ endless wars have been fought at home and abroad. The United States of War explains how extrajudicial police murders and other violence inflicted on Black and Latinx communities, Native Americans, other people of color, and the poor are intimately linked with the long history of American warfare waged almost exclusively against people of color, dating to independence and 1492. My book shows how the U.S. military, much like police forces, has largely served the interests of businesses and wealthy, mostly white, mostly male elites.

Outgoing Syria Envoy Admits Hiding US Troop Numbers; Praises Trump’s Mideast Record
‘We were always playing shell games,’ says Amb. Jim Jeffrey, who also gives advice to President-elect Biden.

Far from undermining Middle East allies, Jeffrey said, Trump has sought “to build up our alliance system and basically stop nagging at them, show that Washington has their back including their domestic situations — they can do pretty much what they want, but they’re going to have to step up and do things.”

Buy American!

"You told us to send back the S-400s. We are not a tribal state, we are Turkey," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Malatya, eastern Turkey.

The Pentagon on Friday strongly condemned "Turkey's testing of this system, which risks serious consequences for our security relationship."

Turkey faces potential sanctions under a 2017 law known as CAATSA,  which mandates sanctions for any "significant" purchases of weapons from Russia.

Turkey had already been removed from the F-35 fighter jet program over the S-400 purchase.

Erdogan remained defiant on Sunday, saying: "Whatever your sanctions are, don't hesitate to apply them."

Sudan to Normalize Relations With Israel

President Trump predicts more Arab nations will follow

Dave DeCamp Posted on October 23, 2020 Categories News / Israel, Sudan


On Friday, President Trump announced that Sudan and Israel have agreed to normalize relations. Sudan will be the third Arab country to open up diplomatic ties under deals brokered by the Trump administration, following the UAE and Bahrain.

President Trump said he believes another five Arab nations will move to normalize with Israel, mentioning only Saudi Arabia by name. “We expect Saudi Arabia will be one of those countries,” he said.

The announcement came after Sudan agreed to pay $335 million to victims of the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The payment is being made in exchange for the US to remove Khartoum from the list of state sponsors of terror.

Over the past year, Sudan has been negotiating with the US to be removed from the list since the designation blacklists the African country from international financial institutions. The Trump administration is believed to have recently added normalizing with Israel to the preconditions needed to remove Khartoum from the terror list.

Also on Friday, Israel said it would not oppose any US weapons sales to the UAE, referencing a potential sale of F-35 fighter jets rumored to be part of Abu Dhabi’s normalization agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the US gave him enough assurances that Washington will provide the Jewish state with enough arms to maintain its military superiority in the region.

US urges countries to withdraw from UN nuke ban treaty

could we get this is writing?

something contractual that if he doesn't he resigns?

  libertarians or libertarian leaning voters may be covering the spread in some key states (thus his pitch)

Trump Makes An Explicit Pitch to Anti-War Libertarians

Trump saying he wants to end the war in Afghanistan is a good thing. It would be better if he followed through on his rhetoric.

NIH
US rejects Putin’s offer to extend nuclear arms treaty

US, Colombia stage war games as Pompeo threatens Venezuela

For a critical mass, peace as a concept seems hard to fathom. As anti-war isn't necessarily the same as pro-peace... only a minority will understand this, imo.

 kurtster wrote:
 
Been sniffin' glue again?

As if the Trump Regime isn't intervening in countries.

 Agent Orange wrote: 
Doesn't change his call (or your call) for social intervention by foreign (Western) agents yet has a problem with the Imperialism it would require ...

 The Accusatron 3000 wrote: 
 
But, as opposed to your perception, it's an informed opinion. You have issues, and "opinions" (or rather boilerplate talking points from Wingnut HQ).

 R_P wrote: 
OK, I read your piece.  Doesn't change what I wrote as my perception.  Your bloggist has issues. All he does is offer support for your position in the form of an opinion.

If you want to go solve the regions social problems and nation build, find another country to do it.  Find another country to do it.  You're taking on a religion in doing so.  Richard's Crusaders, eh ?

Again, stop the fighting.  At least in terms of Arab / Israeli.  The things your article discusses are internal domestic issues among Arab nations which are intrinsically bound by Sharia and theocratic states.  There is no democracy there, nor an understanding or a desire for it. 

We are free of the problems of their oil.  They need us more than we need them now, thanks to Trump.  Let those dependent on their oil step up and pay the full price for a change.

 kurtster wrote:
 
Don't believe the hype (see the link). How's that working in Yemen? Or for your mercenaries in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, etc., etc.

A fake Prez creates fake peace.

 R_P wrote: 
Never said you were dumb.  Obstinate is more like it.  I'm going out the door and will read your link.  But for now, life is different over there and you got to start somewhere.  Don't attach western concepts like "Jim Crow" to the way things are over there.  It just gets in the way of solving problems.  The nuances are much different over there.  Remember, women are still pieces of furniture over there.  You can / must do social justice later.  Stop the fucking fighting first, eh ?

 kurtster wrote:
 
I'm not that dumb.

Abraham Accords: The War Pact Among Jim Crow States of the Middle East

 R_P wrote: 
You really should love Trump.  He is the most anti war POTUS we have had in the past 50 years.

Look what he is doing in the Middle East.  He is truly thinking out of the box and has stopped the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, which never happens.  He has tried a new tact in trying to get things sorted out and it is working.

Good for everyone and maybe even your freedom fighters that you love so much, which contradicts your phony anti war pose.

Do you want peace or just want to keep bitching about things ?

Trump: Iraq War Was "The Worst Mistake, The Most Costly Mistake In The History Of Our Country"