Cliff Schecter - How America Lost Its Collective Mind in the Drug War

Towards the beginning of the cult classic Dazed & Confused, a high school senior named Slater, inquires of baby-faced freshman Mitch, "are you cool?" What Slater was really asking--in this ode to 1970s youth and the counterculture--was do you smoke pot?

Ahh the 70s. Back before the Reagan Revolution kicked the kooky, corrupt and thoroughly counterproductive War On Drugs into high gear. Suddenly this country lost its collective mind, suffering a lapse in judgment that vaunted well past ill-advised and just beyond "they have weapons of mass destruction" to what might best be labeled "the mind of Ted Nugent."

By any measure; economically, morally, democratically, we are the worse for allowing special interests, from private prisons to the security industry, take us down this road. It has spiritually hollowed us out, while erecting a prominent prison culture that makes The People's Republic of China seem like Woodstock.

Read More:

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/201242362552429495.html

Lawrence Wittner - The Shame of Nations: A New Record is Set for Spending on War

On April 17, 2012, as millions of Americans were filing their income tax returns, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest study of world military spending. In case Americans were wondering where most of their tax money -- and the tax money of other nations -- went in the previous year, the answer from SIPRI was clear: to war and preparations for war

World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 -- an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion. Some news reports have emphasized that, from the standpoint of reducing reliance on armed might, this actually represents progress. After all, the increase in “real” global military spending -- that is, expenditures after corrections for inflation and exchange rates -- was only 0.3 percent. And this contrasts with substantially larger increases in the preceding thirteen years.

But why are military expenditures continuing to increase -- indeed, why aren’t they substantially decreasing -- given the governmental austerity measures of recent years? Amid the economic crisis that began in late 2008 (and which continues to the present day), most governments have been cutting back their spending dramatically on education, health care, housing, parks, and other vital social services. However, there have not been corresponding cuts in their military budgets.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/23-2

Juan Cole - How America Went Rogue: What We All Need to Know About Our Government's Shadow Wars

Covert operations are nothing new in American history, but it could be argued that during the past decade they have moved from being a relatively minor arrow in the national security quiver to being the cutting edge of American power. Drone strikes, electronic surveillance and stealth engagements by military units such as the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), as well as dependence on private corporations, mercenary armies and terrorist groups, are now arguably more common as tools of US foreign policy than conventional warfare or diplomacy. But these tools lend themselves to rogue operations that create peril for the United States when they blow back on us. And they often make the United States deeply unpopular.

Shadow power has even become an issue in the presidential campaign. Newt Gingrich advocates ramped-up “covert operations” inside Iran. President Obama replied to Mitt Romney’s charge that he is an “appeaser” by suggesting that his critics “ask bin Laden” about that.

Obama often speaks of the “tide of war receding,” but that phrase refers only to conventional war. In Afghanistan, where the administration hopes to roll up conventional fighting by the end of 2013, it is making plans for long-term operations by special forces through units such as JSOC. It is unclear what legal framework will be constructed for their activities, other than a wink and a nod from President Hamid Karzai.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/world/155000/how_america_went_rogue%3A_what_we_all_need_to_know_about_our_government's_shadow_wars?page=entire

Ralph Nader - The World’s Largest Open-Air Gulag

Have you heard much lately about the 1.5 million Palestinians illegally imprisoned by the Israeli government in the world’s largest open-air Gulag? Their dire living conditions, worsened by a selective Israeli siege limiting the importation of necessities of life – medical items, food, water, building materials, and fuel to list a few – has resulted in an 80 percent unemployment rate and widespread suffering from unlawful punishment, arbitrary arrests and imprisonment in Israeli jails.

The horrific conditions were a result of the Israeli invasion of Gaza in late 2008, ignited by Israel’s breaking of a truce with Gaza on November 4. Fourteen hundred people died, nearly three hundred of them children, and thousands were injured. The terror bombing of the Gazan population smashed into homes, hospitals, schools, ambulances, mosques, subsistence farms, UN facilities, and even the American International School. Israeli bombers destroyed over 30 members of one extended family in their home. That toll alone was three times the amount of Israeli fatalities, which included friendly fire.

Read More:

HTTP://WWW.COUNTERPUNCH.ORG/2012/04/20/THE-WORLDS-LARGEST-OPEN-AIR-GULAG/

Timothy McGettigan - The Graveyard of Empires: The Debacle that is the US Mission in Afghanistan

On Thursday, April 19, 2012, the Los Angeles Times published photos of US soldiers posing with body parts of Afghans that they had killed. War may be hell, but sometimes it is also an expression of pure stupidity.

A long time ago, on October 7, 2001, the US began dropping bombs on Afghanistan. Those aggressions were a response to the 9/11 attacks that had been masterminded by a condemnable horde of terrorists who were holed up in the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan. As such, Operation Enduring Freedom, as the military campaign was originally titled by President George W. Bush, proceeded under a legitimate--if not altogether trouble-free--mantle of moral authority.

As of 2001, the US was clearly the aggrieved party. The terrorists had struck first, and Operation Enduring Freedom could be characterized as a measured and appropriate response to an unwarranted act of atrocious aggression.

That was then. In the long years since the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom, endless miscues have transformed the mission in Afghanistan from unprecedented early success into America's longest and, increasingly, messiest war. In the weeks following the launch of Enduring Freedom, the US bombing campaign seemed to be making a mockery of the ancient truism that Afghanistan was the Graveyard of Empires. Where previous would-be conquerors, from Alexander the Great all the way to the Soviet Union, had gotten bogged down in interminable, unwinnable struggles, Operation Enduring Freedom swept the Taliban and al Qaeda out of their mountain strongholds like so much dust before a broom.

Read More:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Graveyard-of-Empires--by-Timothy-McGettigan-120420-573.html

Russia Stunned After Japanese Plan To Evacuate 40 Million Revealed

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Foreign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands during the next fortnight states that Russian diplomats were “stunned” after being told by their Japanese counterparts that upwards of 40 million of their peoples were in “extreme danger” of life threatening radiation poisoning and could very well likely be faced with forced evacuations away from their countries eastern most located cities… including the world’s largest one, Tokyo.

The Kuril Islands are located in Russia’s Sakhalin Oblast region and stretch approximately 1,300 km (810 miles) northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. It consists of Greater Kuril Ridge and Lesser Kuril Ridge, all of which were captured by Soviet Forces in the closing days of World War II from the Japanese.

The “extreme danger” facing tens of millions of the Japanese peoples is the result of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster that was a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011.

Read More:

http://www.eutimes.net/2012/04/russia-stunned-after-japanese-plan-to-evacuate-40-million-revealed/

Rob Boston - Right-Wing Religion's War on America

From a posh residence in the heart of New York City that has been described as a “mini-mansion,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan is perhaps the most visible representative of an American church empire of 60 million adherents and vast financial holdings.

Dolan and his fellow clergy move easily through the corridors of political power, courted by big-city mayors, governors and even presidents. In the halls of Congress, they are treated with a deference no secular lobbyist can match.

From humble origins in America, the church has risen to lofty heights marked by affluence, political influence and social respect. Yet, according to church officials, they are being increasingly persecuted, and their rights are under sustained attack.

The refrain has become commonplace: There is a “war on religion.” Faith is under assault. The administration of President Barack Obama has unleashed a bombardment on religion unlike anything ever seen.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/154929/right-wing_religion%27s_war_on_america

Stephen Lendman - Obama Wreaks Duplicity

Like most in Congress, he serves wealth and power alone. People needs don't matter. Rule of law principles are spurned.

Peace is deplored. War is official policy. So are other duplicitous foreign policies for unchallenged global dominance.

Imagine what's ahead in a second term, regardless of which party controls Congress. Both are in lockstep on issues mattering most. They include pursuing regime change in Syria and Iran.

At the same time, Obama delivers mixed messages on Iran. Conciliatory comments follow baseless accusations and hawkishness, then more threats. In late March, he appealed directly to Iranians, saying there's "no reason for the United States and Iran to be divided from one another."

America seeks dialogue, not confrontation, he suggested, or did he? At the same time, he added:

Read More:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-Wreaks-Duplicity-by-Stephen-Lendman-120409-95.html

Jim Lobe - U.S., Latin America Growing More Distant, Warns Think Tank

"The United States must regain credibility in the region by dealing seriously with an unfinished agenda of problems, including immigration, drugs, and Cuba – that stands in the way of a real partnership," according to Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue (IAD).

The 20-page report, entitled "Remaking the Relationship", described current inter-American relations as "generally cordial but lack(ing) in vigor and purpose". It suggested that Washington, in particular, has failed to fully come to terms with Latin America's strong economic and political progress over the past two decades.

It also concluded that the two sides "need to do more to exploit the enormous untapped opportunities of their relationship in economics, trade, and energy", as well as to work more closely together on global and regional problems.

"They need to breathe new life and vigor into hemispheric relations," it stressed.

"The United States must regain credibility in the region by dealing seriously with an unfinished agenda of problems, including immigration, drugs, and Cuba – that stands in the way of a real partnership," according to Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue (IAD).

Read More:

http://www.nationofchange.org/us-latin-america-growing-more-distant-warns-think-tank-1334209393

Christina Luisa - Battlefield acupuncture offers a safer, more effective alternative to dangerous painkiller drugs for soldiers

Psychiatric drugs and painkillers are now being routinely used across the U.S. military, where violent suicides have skyrocketed to levels never before seen in history. In the military today, soldiers who suffer TBIs -- Traumatic Brain Injuries -- frequently receive treatment with mind-altering psychiatric drugs that have known side effects of promoting violence. An astonishing 200,000 soldiers have already been diagnosed with this condition.

The deadly drugs being widely prescribed often have detrimental effects, especially for those with pre-existing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a history of substance abuse. An example would be the recent Afghanistan massacre of 16 civilians by a U.S. sergeant with a history of psychiatric drug treatment.

Instead of continuing to rely on these overpriced pharmaceuticals loaded with toxins to provide so-called relief for soldiers, the U.S. military has begun to investigate battlefield acupuncture as a safer alternative to various dangerous medications.

Read More:

http://www.naturalnews.com/035544_battlefield_acupuncture_painkillers_soldiers.html