Tom Engelhardt: Lowering America’s War Ceiling?

By Tom Engelhardt
Posted on August 2, 2011, Printed on August 2, 2011
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175425/

Imperial Psychosis on Display
By Tom Engelhardt

By now, it seems as if everybody and his brother has joined the debt-ceiling imbroglio in Washington, perhaps the strangest homespun drama of our time.  It’s as if Washington’s leading political players, aided and abetted by the media’s love of the horserace, had eaten LSD-laced brownies, then gone on stage before an audience of millions to enact a psychotic spectacle of American decline.

And yet, among the dramatis personae we’ve been watching, there are clearly missing actors.  They happen to be out of town, part of a traveling roadshow.  When it comes to their production, however, there has, of late, been little publicity, few reviewers, and only the most modest media attention.  Moreover, unlike the scenery-chewing divas in Washington, these actors have simply been going about their business as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening.

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John Tirman: 1 Million Dead in Iraq? 6 Reasons the Media Hide the True Human Toll of War -- And Why We Let Them

By John Tirman, AlterNet
Posted on July 19, 2011, Printed on July 20, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151703/1_million_dead_in_iraq_6_reasons_the_media_hide_the_true_human_toll_of_war_--_and_why_we_let_them

As the U.S. war in Iraq winds down, we are entering a familiar phase, the season of forgetting—forgetting the harsh realities of the war. Mostly we forget the victims of the war, the Iraqi civilians whose lives and society have been devastated by eight years of armed conflict. The act of forgetting is a social and political act, abetted by the American news media. Throughout the war, but especially now, the minimal news we get from Iraq consistently devalues the death toll of Iraqi civilians.

Why? A number of reasons are at work in this persistent evasion of reality. But forgetting has consequences, especially as it braces the obstinate right-wing narrative of “victory” in the Iraq war. If we forget, we learn nothing.

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Jack A Smith: The True Costs of America's Wars

By Jack A. Smith

Global Research, July 11, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25589

During his speech on Afghanistan June 22, President Obama revealed that "Over the last decade, we have spent a trillion dollars on war." He knew this was a deceptive understatement, as did everyone who keeps close watch on the Bush-Obama wars all these years.

Few Americans , however, have closely followed Washington's 21^st century wars of choice, so a trillion probably sounds right to them, but that amount in 10 years — when the annual cost of air conditioning alone for the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq amounts to $20.2 billion a year — is  way off base.

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“ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY and BASSEM MROUE” - Syrian crackdown on town may be war crime

http://www.salon.com/news/syria/index.html?story=/news/feature/2011/07/06/ml_syria_40

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY and BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press

Wednesday, Jul 6, 2011

Amnesty International condemns Assad regime for brutal tactics in border city of Talkalakh in May

The rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday that Syrian security forces may have committed war crimes during a deadly siege of an opposition town in May, citing witness accounts of deaths in custody, torture and arbitrary detention.

The Amnesty report focused on a crackdown in Talkalakh, a town near the Lebanese border that was overrun by army tank units, security forces and pro-regime gunmen after weeks of protests calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad. Some activists place the Talkalakh death toll as high as 36. Thousands of people also fled to Lebanon to escape the offensive.

The report by the London-based group could boost international pressure on Assad's regime as it presses attacks on various fronts against a four-month-old uprising, including sending more forces this week against a string of towns along the Turkish border seen as potential anti-government strongholds.

Amnesty called on the U.N. Security Council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court.

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Veterans For Peace Endorses the April 15th Rally and Protest in Union Square Park

Veterans For Peace has joined in endorsing “Sounds of Resistance,” a concert and protest against Wall Street banks that draws the connections between militarism, Wall Street, the wealth divide and the downward spiral of the wealth of most Americans. The event, on April 15 at 11:00 a.m. in New York City’s Union Square Park, is part of a democratic awakening that more and more Americans are joining.

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Obama Raises American Hypocrisy To A Higher Level

What does the world think? Obama has been using air strikes and drones against civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and probably Somalia. In his March 28 speech, Obama justified his air strikes against Libya on the grounds that the embattled ruler, Gadhafi, was using air strikes to put down a rebellion.

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Hark The Angel Speaks -- Obama Explains War To Nation Tonight

President Obama is slated to give a big speech to the Nation tonight celebrating the great Libyan offensive. As you may recall, the President already has cast the mission solely in humanitarian terms on his Saturday radio show, as the LA Times reported: "President Obama said Saturday that he sent U.S. warplanes into Libya a week ago to avert a 'humanitarian catastrophe' and a 'blood bath', and he denied that the U.S. is being drawn into a wider war there.

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A global energy war looms

Here’s an alarming chart to ponder (click to enlarge). HSBC has calculated what would happen to energy consumption by 2050 given plausible forecasts for economic growth and assuming no constraint on resources, or that humans carry on using energy in the “taken for granted” way they do at the moment.

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India #1 for Arms Imports Over Last 5 Years

Arms importers: You would probably be surprised to know that over the last five years, the most weapons have been imported by India.

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Ray McGovern: Pvt Manning -- Is Army Aping Mafia?

Is the U.S. Army acting like the Mafia in seeking to imprison 23-year-old Private Bradley Manning for the rest of his life? Is the primary aim of the abuse being dished out to Manning that of deterring other U.S. soldiers who might be tempted to put conscience, compassion, and commitment to truth ahead of going by the book regarding classification restrictions?

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