Syria News - Mar 21
Syrian govt, rebels urge UN investigation into ‘chemical attack’ - RT News
West stalls Syria chemical attack probe in U.N.: Russia - chicagotribune.com
Report of chemical-weapons use in Syria being investigated, Obama says - The Washington Post
VIDEO: Obama on Syria: Chemical weapons a 'game-changer' - vancouversun.com
Israeli official: Chemical weapons used in Syria - Yahoo! News
Chemical weapons likely used in Syria, but detection window closed, expert says - Fox News
Alleged Rebels' Web Page Adopting and Proud of Chemical Attack in Aleppo - Real Syria Updates
VIDEO: Syria Rebels Caught on Tape Discussing Chemical Weapons Attack - LeakSource
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PYD: Hitto does not represent Kurds - ANF
Syria’s Oil a Source of Contention for Competing Groups - NYTimes.com
Syrian Christians turn to Turkish churches, not refugee camps, for help - Catholic Philly
Jordan king warns Syria could become jihadi state, says Assad's days numbered - Fox News
Recent videos show international makeup of Syrian jihad - Threat Matrix
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
Talk Nation Radio: Wenonah Hauter on Foodopoly
Wenonah Hauter is the executive director of Food and Water Watch and the author of Foodopoly. She discusses the 20 companies that make our processed food -- and the 2 companies, both foreign, that make our beer (despite the hundreds of brands all pretending a diversity of origins and owners). Hauter tells a story of how we got here and how we can get out of here.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
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Teach the Children War
The National Museum of American History, and a billionaire who has funded a new exhibit there, would like you to know that we're going to need more wars if we want to have freedom. Never mind that we seem to lose so many freedoms whenever we have wars. Never mind that so many nations have created more freedoms than we enjoy and done so without wars. In our case, war is the price of freedom. Hence the new exhibit: "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War."
The exhibit opens with these words: "Americans have gone to war to win their independence, expand their national boundaries, define their freedoms, and defend their interests around the globe." Those foolish, foolish Canadians: why, oh, why did they win their independence without a war? Think of all the people they might have killed! The exhibit is surprisingly, if minimally, honest about imperialism, at least in the early wars. The aim of conquering Canada is included, along with bogus excuses, as one of the motivations for the War of 1812.
The most outrageous part of the opening lines of the exhibition, however, may be the second half: ". . . define their freedoms, and defend their interests around the globe." The exhibition, to the extent that I've surveyed it online, provides absolutely no indication of what in the world can be meant by a war being launched in order to "define our freedoms." And, needless to say, it is the U.S. government, not "Americans," that imagines it has "interests around the globe" that can and should be "defended" by launching wars.
The exhibit is an extravaganza of lies and deceptions. The U.S. Civil War is presented as "America's bloodiest conflict." Really? Because Filipinos don't bleed? Vietnamese don't bleed? Iraqis don't bleed? We should not imagine that our children don't learn exactly that lesson. The Spanish American War is presented as an effort to "free Cuba," and so forth. But overwhelmingly the lying is done in this exhibit by omission. Bad past excuses for wars are ignored, the death and destruction is ignored or falsely reduced. Wars that are too recent for many of us to swallow too much B.S. about are quickly passed over.
The exhibit helpfully provides a teacher's manual (PDF), and its entire coverage of the past 12 years of warmaking (which has involved the killing of some 1.4 million people in Iraq alone) consists of the events of 9/11/2001, beginning with this:
"September 11 was a modern-day tragedy of immense proportions. The devastating attacks by al Qaeda terrorists inside the United States killed some 3,000 people and sparked an American-led war on terrorism. The repercussions of that day will impact domestic and international political decisions for many years to come. At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, a passenger jet flew into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Fire and rescue crews rushed to the scene. As live TV coverage began, horrified viewers watched as a second plane slammed into the south tower at 9:03 a.m. Thirty-five minutes later a third airliner crashed into the Pentagon. Another jet bound for Washington, D.C., crashed in Pennsylvania after its passengers challenged the hijackers. The nation reeled. But Americans resolved to fight back, inspired by the words of a passenger who helped foil the last attack: 'Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.'"
If you talk to non-sociopathic teachers, you discover that the sort of "teaching" engaged in by our museums has a horrible impact on students' understanding. A new book called Teaching About the Wars is a great place to start. It's written by teachers who try to present their students with a more complete and honest understanding of war than what's expected by common text books, many of which are far worse than the museum exhibit described above. These teachers / authors argue that when a teacher pretends to have no point of view, he or she teaches their students moral apathy. Pretending not to care about the world teaches children not to care about the world. Teachers should have a point of view but teach more than one, teach critical thinking and analysis, teach skepticism, and teach respect for the opinions of others.
Students should not be taught, these teachers suggest, to reject all public claims as falsehoods and the truth as absolutely unknowable. Rather, they should be taught to critically evaluate claims and develop informed opinions. Jessica Klonsky writes:
"One of the most successful media-related lessons involved an exercise comparing two media viewpoints. First I showed the first 20 minutes of Control Room, a documentary about Al Jazeera, the international Arabic-language television network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Students were shocked by the dead bodies and destruction shown on Al Jazeera. For many it was the first time they realized that it wasn't just soldiers who died in war."
U.S. soldiers were 0.3% of the dead in the 2003-2011 war on Iraq. These students had been unaware of the other 99.7% of the dead. Learning what war really looks like is perhaps the most important lesson missing from our usual education system.
Another important lesson is who engages in war and why. Bill Bigelow presents a model lesson through which teachers can present students with true situations, but with the names of the nations changed. They can discuss what the nations ought to have done, before learning that one of the nations was their own, and before learning what it actually did. Then they can discuss that reality. Bigelow also begins his teaching about the "war on terrorism" by asking students to work on defining "terrorism" (and not by attacking each other, which is presumably how the National Museum of American History would recommend "defining" such a term).
One teacher ends such a lesson by asking "What difference do you think it would make if students all over the country were having the discussion we're having today?" Clearly, that question moves students toward becoming potential teachers wanting to share their knowledge to a far greater extent than, say, teaching them the dates of battles and suggesting they try to impress others with their memorization.
Can good teaching compete with the Lockheed Martin-sponsored Air and Space Museum, the U.S. Army's video games, Argo, Zero Dark 30, the slick lies of the recruiters, the Vietnam Commemoration Project, the flag waving of the television networks, the fascistic pledges of allegiance every morning, and the lack of good alternative life prospects? Sometime, yes. And more often the more it spreads and the better it is done.
One chapter in Teaching About the Wars describes a project that connects students in the United States with students in Western Asia via live video discussions. That experience should be required in any young person's education. I guarantee you that our government employs drone "pilots" to connect with foreign countries via live video in a more destructive manner who never spoke with foreign children when they were growing up.
David Swanson's books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War.
The Ugly Truth Behind Obama's Cyber-War
By Alfredo Lopez
March 19: The Anniversary Iraqis Can Never Forget.
by World Can't Wait Director Debra Sweet Early today, I'll be driving to Highland Falls, NY, near the US Military Academy at West Point, the site of many protests over George Bush's Global War on Terror. Six friends will be sentenced tomorrow in local court there for protesting Obama's expansion of the war on Afghanistan in 2009, and because it's the tenth anniversary of "shock and awe" we feel compelled to throw up a protest.
Native peace activist John Boncore found dead
Chase resident John Boncore tried to arrest George Bush, and led the 1972 Attica Prison riot
Political activist John Boncore, whose native name was Splitting the Sky, was found dead near his home in Chase, near Salmon Arm last week.
America's Genocidal Iraq War
America's Genocidal Iraq War
by Stephen Lendman
March 19 marks its 10th anniversary. Permanent occupation is policy. Killing, destruction, toxic pollution, and human misery remain unabated. Pre-2003 Iraq no longer exists.
America's Iraq war is one of history's greatest crimes. It followed Gulf War devastation and punishing sanctions.
Grand Theft Cyprus
Grand Theft Cyprus
by Stephen Lendman
Cyprus is tiny. Its population numbers about a million. Its GDP is miniscule by Western standards. It's 0.2% of Europe's economy. It's entrapped under Eurozone straightjacket rules.
They impose financial tyranny. Dissimilar countries surrender monetary and fiscal control. Doing so abandons effective ways to combat recessions.
Syria News - Mar 20
At least 25 dead in Syrian 'chemical' attack as govt and rebels trade blame (PHOTOS) — RT News
U.S. evaluating Syria chemical weapons charges - Reuters
Russia says Syrian rebels used chemical arms near Aleppo - Reuters
Photographer says Syria attack victims suffocating, they could smell chlorine in the air - Reuters
Al Qaeda has employed crude chlorine bombs in the past in Iraq - The Long War Journal
VIDEO:(Arabic) Syria Chemical Weapons Attack Leaves 86 injured and 25 dead - SYRIAN STATE TV
VIDEO: Syria condemns rebels' 'chemical weapon attack' – guardian.co.uk
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Syria opposition PM rules out talks with Damascus (VIDEO) - FRANCE 24
US welcomes election of Syrian rebel PM - NOW
Russia "deeply regrets" election of Syrian rebel PM - NOW
Syria’s Salafi Insurgents: The Rise of the Syrian Islamic Front - Syria Comment
In Rural Syria, Christians Eye Revolution Suspiciously - Rudaw
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NATO Commander: Contingency plans under way for Syria - US News and World Report
Top Democrat endorses Syria no-fly zone - The Cable
Iraq turns blind eye to Iran arms flights to Syria: US - Ahram Online
In Syrian shadow, Iraq jihadists resurgent - UPI
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
Escalating Syria's War
Escalating Syria's War
by Stephen Lendman
Syria is Washington's war. It was planned years ago. At issue is regime change. America tolerates no independent governments. It wants pro-Western puppet ones replacing them.
Death squad terror is policy. Washington upped the stakes. Headlines suggest chemical weapons use. Both sides trade accusations. Nothing's verified.
Peace Groups Declare Opposition to Missile Base in Maine
The Obama administration’s announcement that a “missile defense” base on the east coast of the U.S. will now be studied is the perfect example of a corporate-driven “solution” searching for a problem.
The studies have been justified by the supposed “nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran”. Using North Korea and Iran as justification for new missile defense deployments is sketchy since neither of those nations currently have the ability to launch a rocket able to reach the continental U.S. Nor would they likely fire one even if they had the capability considering the massive nuclear response that the U.S. could then unleash.
The east coast basing location for the technically challenged missile defense interceptor system appears to be either Caribou, Maine or Fort Drum, New York.
Wounded Marine humiliated by TSA, by Wendy Thomson
Phoenix’s Sky Harbor has had its fair share of TSA complaints.
Targeting Asia
Collection of recent articles courtesy of Joseph Gerson and the Working Group for Peace & Demilitarization in Asia & the Pacific
U.S. Policy:
Transcript: Thomas Donilon at Asia Society New York
Korea:
International Crisis Group: The Korean Peninsula: Flirting with Conflict
Who Did You Rape in the War, Daddy?
A Question for Veterans that Needs Answering
By Nick Turse, TomDispatch
On August 31, 1969, a rape was committed in Vietnam. Maybe numerous rapes were committed there that day, but this was a rare one involving American GIs that actually made its way into the military justice system.
And that wasn’t the only thing that set it apart.
War is obscene. I mean that in every sense of the word. Some veterans will tell you that you can’t know war if you haven’t served in one, if you haven’t seen combat. These are often the same guys who won’t tell you the truths that they know about war and who never think to blame themselves in any way for our collective ignorance.
War Without End
By Kathy Kelly
U.S. Marines occupy Baghdad, in March 2003, in front of the Al Fanar hotel that housed Voices activists throughout the Shock and Awe bombing.
Photo credit: Iraq Peace Team
Ten years ago, in March of 2003, Iraqis braced themselves for the anticipated “Shock and Awe” attacks that the U.S. was planning to launch against them. The media buildup for the attack assured Iraqis that barbarous assaults were looming. I was living in Baghdad at the time, along with other Voices in the Wilderness activists determined to remain in Iraq, come what may. We didn’t want U.S. - led military and economic war to sever bonds that had grown between ourselves and Iraqis who had befriended us over the past seven years. Since 1996, we had traveled to Iraq numerous times, carrying medicines for children and families there, in open violation of the economic sanctions which directly targeted the most vulnerable people in Iraqi society, - the poor, the elderly, and the children.
Remembering Rachel Corrie
Remembering Rachel Corrie
by Stephen Lendman
Rachel represented the best of courageous activism. She put her body on the line for justice. She did so because it matters. She's gone but not forgotten.
Ten years ago on March 16, an Israeli bulldozer driver murdered her in cold blood. She tried stopping a Rafah refugee camp home demolition.
Israel's Fascist Government: Part II
Israel's Fascist Government: Part II
by Stephen Lendman
On March 18, Israel's new government was sworn in. Doing so hardened fascist rule. A previous article explained.
Israelis elected their most extremist government ever. It's hugely over-the-top. It's militantly hardline, racist and unscrupulous. It menaces the region.
Local Peace Group Welcomes Pakistan Peace Delegates for Air Force anti-Drone Demonstrations This Week
CONTACTS: Jim Haber, 415-828-2506 Nevada Desert Experience Coordinator Toby Blome, 510-541-6874 Ann Wright, Ret., 818-741-1141 March 18, 2013As Nevada Desert Experience makes final preparations for its annual desert sojourn known as the "Sacred Peace Walk," a group of demonstrators are converging on the gates of Creech Air Force Base to hold constant vigil against the rising tide of robotic hunter-killer air systems like the Predator and Reaper "drones" controlled by crews at the Indian Springs installation.
10 Actions on the 10th Anniversary of the US Invasion of Iraq
- Send a letter for peace. Write a letter to the Iraqi people or an Iraqi individual and we'll be sure it gets delivered. Learn more.
- Attend a bridge vigil and presentation by IARP Executive Director Kathy McKay and Board Member Steve Clemens marking the anniversary on March 20 in Minneapolis. Learn more.
- Share stories of Iraqi citizens and US veterans affected by the war. Read, watch, and share the stories here.
- Provide life-saving clean water to Iraqi children. Learn more.
- Start a new Sister City relationship between an Iraqi and American city. Learn more in our report here.
- Write a letter to the editor about the ongoing human costs of the war. Check out the template provided by Iraq Veterans Against the War here.
- Organize a race or walk with your community to raise awareness and funds for clean water in Iraq or support for peacemakers in Iraq. Learn more.
- Share the new website, Costs of War, by Brown University.
- What do you dream about for Iraq's future? Write it here.
- Forward this email to a friend.
Syria News - Mar 19
Kerry says US won't stand in way of France, Britain or anyone else arming Syria's rebels - Fox News
An internal rift at the NSC on Syria? - Foreign Policy
UK Pulling out Special Forces from Afghanistan to Help Rebels in Syria - Daily Star Sunday
French minister to visit Turkey for talks on defense ties, Syria - todayszaman
Fundamental rift growing inside Syria opposition: German spy chief - PressTV
Russia strengthens its presence in Mediterranean Sea - Voice of Russia
Syria crisis is tipping Iraq into civil war, says minister - The Times
VIDEO: Croatian Weapons Arrive In Homs - Brown Moses Blog
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Syrian opposition elects interim prime minister - Boston Herald
Assad: We Negotiate under Our Conditions, Battle in our Favor - almanar.com
Assad sends letter to Zuma, asks BRICS ‘to intervene’ in Syria crisis - Yahoo! News South Africa
Pro-Assad group hacks HRW website, Twitter page - UPI.com
VIDEO: Asma Assad Makes Rare Appearance - Yahoo! News
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Key Lebanese export route through Syria to remain shut: Rebels- THE DAILY STAR
Tensions High in Lebanon After Assault on Sunni Clerics - ABC News
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Muslim Brotherhood Chief: Kurds Should Join Fight Against Assad Regime - Rudaw
Syria Kurds will seize control of Qamishlo: website - Mesopotamische Gesellschaft
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
Iran War Weekly - March 12, 2013
Iran War Weekly
March 12, 2013
Ten Years After: How Not to Teach About the Iraq War
By Bill Bigelow, Common Dreams
In 2006, with U.S. troops occupying Iraq, the great historian and humanitarian Howard Zinn expressed his desire for what the end of the war would bring: “My hope is that the memory of death and disgrace will be so intense that the people of the United States will be able to listen to a message that the rest of the world, sobered by wars without end, can also understand: that war itself is the enemy of the human race.”
At least in a formal sense, our country’s memories of war are to be found in school history textbooks. Exactly a decade after the U.S. invasion, those texts are indeed sending “messages” to young people about the meaning of the U.S. war in Iraq. But they are not the messages of peace that Howard Zinn proposed. Not even close.
Let me offer as Exhibit A the textbook adopted for global studies classes in Portland, Oregon, the district where I spent my career as a social studies teacher, and which is used in countless school districts across the country: Holt McDougal’s Modern World History.
The section in Modern World History on the U.S. war with Iraq might as well have been written by Pentagon propagandists. In an imitation of Fox News, the very first sentence of the Iraq war section places the 9/11 attacks and Saddam Hussein side by side. The book presents the march to invasion as reasonable and inevitable, while acknowledging: “Some countries, such as France and Germany, called for letting the inspectors continue searching for weapons.” That’s the only hint of any anti-war sentiment. In fact, there was enormous popular opposition to the war, culminating on Feb. 15, 2003, a date that saw millions of people around the world demand that the United States not invade Iraq—if you’re keeping track, the largest protest in human history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. This, of course, is a pattern in corporate textbooks: Conflate governments with the people; ignore social movements.
Just as textbooks fail to begin the story of the Vietnam War in the 1940s (or before), so that students might have some context to evaluate later U.S. military intervention, today’s textbooks similarly ignore an earlier U.S. relationship with Iraq. For example, Modern World History says nothing about the role of the United States in aiding the Ba’ath party and Saddam Hussein for years, as they crushed all opposition and later waged war against Iran—a history summarized in a recent article by Iraqi sociologist Sami Ramadani, who fled Saddam Hussein’s repression in 1969. As Ramadani writes, “But when it was no longer in their interests to back him, the U.S. and U.K. drowned Iraq in blood.”
The official title of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Modern World History uses this term without any discussion of the “freedom” that this invasion might offer. The section ends with the terse conclusion that “the coalition had won the war.” And what about that supposed freedom? Silence.
Holding Harvard's Crimson Accountable
Holding Harvard's Crimson Accountable
by Stephen Lendman
Harvard's motto is "VERITAS." It's shield and class rings display it. At issue is anti-Palestinian bias.
2003-2013: Iraqi Resistance, American Dirty War, and the Remaking of the Middle East – PART 1
by Dirk Adriaensens on 18-03-2013
The crippling devastation of Iraq today overwhelms all else. It is difficult, given the facts on the ground, to recapture the imperial vision that was to make Iraq an exemplar of American sponsored democracy and a model for the American remaking of the Middle East. Iraq, after all, was to be a test case for the display of American pre-eminent power. That imperial vision is in ruins and Iraqi nationalism has reasserted itself.
Hawija February 2013
2003-2013: Iraqi Resistance, American Dirty War, and the Remaking of the Middle East – PART 1
- Decline of American Empire
- The Iraq war was illegal under International Law
- The real reasons of the Bush administration for invading Iraq and occupying the country
- The dramatic consequences of “blossoming democracy” for the nation and the people of Iraq.
The story of Iraq has become a tale of the total collapse of the original American objectives and the unintended consequence of the rise of a persistent Iraqi national resistance movement that, as American power declines, has demonstrated far more resilience than almost anyone imagined.
1. Decline of American Empire
On March 18, 2003 ECAAR (EConomists Allied for Arms Reduction) prepared a statement against unilateral initiatives for war in Iraq, which was endorsed by more than 200 US economists including seven Nobel Laureates and two former Chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers. The text of the statement formed the basis of an ad in the Wall Street Journal. A few excerpts:
As American economists, we oppose unilateral initiatives for war against Iraq, which we see as unnecessary and detrimental to the security and the economy of the United States and the entire world community.
TSA’s VIPR at it again — fear mongering in Chicago, by Lisa Simeone
The TSA's VIPR teams, about which we’ve written countless times, have been at it again — this time in Chicago.
According to this CBS report (presented in an embarrassingly credulous, golly-gee-whiz fashion), a VIPR team slithered onto the Metra system and started manhandling bags and questioning people. Why? Because they had detected a nuclear isotope.
RToP calls on International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli crimes
Brussels, Sunday March 17th 2013
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine ends its 4-year examination of third party complicity in Israeli violations of International Law.
The Tribunal concludes that it will support all initiatives from civil society and international organisations aimed at bringing Israel in front of the International Criminal Court. It calls for the ICC to recognise Palestinian jurisdiction and for the organisation of a special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Israeli Apartheid.
Other key Recommendations issued by the Tribunal include:
- A reconstitution of the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid
- Further criminal investigations of corporations aiding and abetting Israeli violations such as the police raid on the Dutch construction equipment company Riwal [1]
- The establishment of an international committee of former Political Prisoners to campaign on Prisoner issues
- To support civil society in using the tribunal’s findings to undertake direct actions aimed at confronting state, institutional and corporate complicity with Israel’s crimes.
Washington Post Anti-Bolivarian Propaganda
Washington Post Anti-Bolivarian Propaganda
by Stephen Lendman
Western media scoundrels waged war on Chavez. They did so throughout his tenure. Managed news misinformation substituted for truth and full disclosure.
Chavez is gone. Misreporting continues. Post editors march in lockstep with other media scoundrels. Doing so betrays their readers.
UN Human Rights Council: US Imperial Tool
UN Human Rights Council: America's Imperial Tool
by Stephen Lendman
In 1945, the UN was established:
- "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war;
