“A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Pentagon’
No More “King-Washing” the Pentagon, Please
Posted: January 16, 2012 in UncategorizedTags: Brave New Foundation, budget, debt, deficit, Derrick Crowe, Jr., Martin Luther King, Pentagon, Robert Greenwald, spending, video, war, war costs
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Pentagon Assertions of “Progress” In Afghanistan Are a Bad Joke
Posted: March 9, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, COIN, counterinsurgency, escalation, Gates, insurgents, Obama, Pentagon, Petraeus, propaganda, Rethink Afghanistan, Robert Gates, spin, Taliban, targeted killings, troop increase
The Pentagon wants you to ignore some inconvenient facts about the failure of the escalation strategy in Afghanistan. The latest Petraeus/Gates media tour is under way in preparation for the general’s testimony to Congress next week, and they’re trotting out the same, tired spin they’ve been using since McChrystal was replaced in disgrace last year. [...]
Afghanistan, Year Ten
Posted: October 8, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, afghanistan year 10, Brave New Foundation, COIN, counterinsurgency, McChrystal, mckiernon, Pentagon, Petraeus, Rethink Afghanistan, war in Afghanistan, white house, year 10
Watch Rethink Afghanistan’s latest video at RethinkAfghanistan.com. I spent several days last week giving guest lectures about the Afghanistan War to freshmen and seniors at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas. It’s no secret that I loathe this brutal, futile war that’s not making us safer. So, when I talk to kids about it, I [...]
Plagiarism and Afghanistan
Posted: May 4, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, Brave New Foundation, civilian deaths, COIN, counterinsurgency, Defense Department, failure, Kandahar, Marjah, McChrystal, Michael Flynn, Michael McMahon, Pentagon, Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, Rethink Afghanistan, Russ Carnahan, war in Afghanistan
Last week, the military published an ironically titled “Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan” that wrapped blunt admissions of strategic collapse in typical Pentagon happy talk. Short version: Violence is up 87 percent (p. 39), the insurgency has population sympathy/support in 92 of 121 key regions, and local support for International Security [...]
“Militarized Christianity is a Lie”
Posted: May 19, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Jesus, nonviolence, Pentagon
Good news (I guess) from the Pentagon! WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration. …“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of [...]
A Bad Week for the U.S. Military
Posted: January 7, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: John Doe letters, military recruitment, nuclear weapons, Pentagon
For those considering a military career, two good reasons to think again: You might be a guinea pig for horrendous mad scientist-type experiments. If you die, your family may get a letter referring to you as “John Doe.” To top this all off, the Pentagon was slammed this week for poor security and oversight of [...]
Read It and Weep
Posted: December 24, 2008 in UncategorizedTags: militarism, military-industrial complex, Pentagon
A must read in The Washington Post: We no longer have a civilian-led government. It is hard for a lifelong Republican and son of a retired Air Force colonel to say this, but the most unnerving legacy of the Bush administration is the encroachment of the Department of Defense into a striking number of aspects [...]
Jerusalem, Washington and Babylon
Posted: November 27, 2008 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Jesus, nonviolence, Pentagon
The scripture for the Eucharist for Thursday: Luke 21:20-28 The Destruction of Jerusalem Foretold 20 ‘When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.* 21Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not [...]
Wall Street and Hell’s Bottom*
Posted: September 30, 2008 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, bin Laden, Jesus, nonviolence, Pentagon, Wall Street
Chalmers Johnson published a scathing, dead-on column on TomDispatch regarding the Wall Street bailout and the massive military spending bill passed by Congress during the chaos. Some excerpts: …This is pure waste. Our annual spending on “national security” — meaning the defense budget plus all military expenditures hidden in the budgets for the departments of [...]
But Who’s Counting Anyway?
Posted: September 28, 2008 in UncategorizedTags: Congress, defense, Pentagon
The U.S. Congress continues to burnish its pro-militancy credentials. They just passed a “record” budget for the Pentagon, which included a 6 percent increase from last year, according to the AP. This huge defense bill was, apparently, barely a blip on the Congressional radar: Such a huge bill usually would dominate the end-of-session agenda on [...]
