Peace & War: The military and militarism |
Military budgets and contract procurements; conventional and nuclear weapons, weapons in space; recruitment practices. HEADLINES
12/28/08 HOW THE U.S.MILITARY FIGHTS A MERCENARY WAR: LAVISH RECRUITMENT EXPENSES ON THE FRONT END, SCRIMPING ON VETERANS SERVICES AS THE "KIDS" RETURN HOME. North Carolina activist William Collins comments on the way the military uses alluring promises of bonuses and college educations to recruit a "volunteer" army; and how its meagre veterans services preserves the "bottom line." http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/27-1
Websites:
Anti-war.com: Information Clearing House: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/ Citizen Soldier, challenging U.S. militarism: Abolition 2000 (against nuclear weapons): Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition: National Missle Defense: The Arctic Dimension: http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/SEEJ/NMD/index.htm Student Counter Recruitment: http://www.traprockpeace.org/counter_recruitment/ On weapons in space: Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space: World and U.S. military spending: http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp http://www.cdi.org/issues/wme/spendersfy04.html http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm Militarized globalism and empire: http://www.comw.org/qdr/empire.html Institute for Policy Studies on Nuclear Security: http://www.ips-dc.org/projects/nuclear/index.htm Arms Control Association: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Nuclear proliferation issues: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/npp/ Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy: U.S. military expenditures, compared with other countries http://www.truthandpolitics.org/military-US-world.php http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0904504.html World and U.S. military spending: http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp http://www.cdi.org/issues/wme/spendersfy04.html http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm National Defense Strategy of USA (2005 document): http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/dod/nds-usa_mar2005.htm Military recruitment and No Child Left Behind: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=No_Child_Left_Behind_Act http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2002/11/ma_153_01.html Center for Defense Information: http://www.cdi.org/
Small Arms and Light Weapons (CDI) http://www.cdi.org/program/index.cfm?programid=23
Analysis & views: 12/28/08 HOW THE U.S.MILITARY FIGHTS A MERCENARY WAR: LAVISH RECRUITMENT EXPENSES ON THE FRONT END, SCRIMPING ON VETERANS SERVICES AS THE "KIDS" RETURN HOME. North Carolina activist William Collins comments on the way the military uses alluring promises of bonuses and college educations to recruit a "volunteer" army; and how its meagre veterans services preserves the "bottom line." http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/27-1 12/13/08 AFRICOM: command in search of a mission: A New York Times reporter files his report "live" from a "remote" corner of West Africa, Mali, where American Green Berets in this country and 9 surrounding ones are engaged in a multi-country exercise to help Mali and other countries to stave off a supposedly growing Islamic militancy in these countries, on the rationale that the U.S. avoids fighting Al Qaeda in America by opposing it in Africa. The State Department's A.I.D. program kicks in by setting up radio towers for the transmission of anti-terrorist "information" and another program to encourage Muslim teachers to avoid promoting jihad as well as job training for young Muslim men and small business opportunites for Muslim women. A Green Beret colonel admits about the program that “This is crawl, walk, run, and right now, we’re still in the crawl phase.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/world/africa/13mali.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 12/11/08 Mr. Kissinger, you're no Bertrand Russell:. Why have a group of "former Cold Warrior elites" like Henry Kissinger, George P. Schultz and Sam Nunn coalesced around a "nuclear weapons-zero" call for the elimination of all nuclear weapons? Manuel Garcia Jr. ponders this question as he contrasts the "new" opposition to nuclear weapons on a pragmatic basis of their harm to world capitalism and imperialism to the "old" Bertrand Russell style opposition on "humanitarian" grounds of their harm to mankind and their promotion of imperialism. He also offers a "psychological" explanation of the need of these old war-horses of political power to burnish their fading careers by finding updated "causes" that will get them again to the front of public attention. He mentions Jimmy Carter and Al Gore as other examples. http://www.counterpunch.org/mango12102008.html 12/5/08 New UN treaty bans cluster munitions used against civilians in occupied territories; will that help the people of southern Lebanon?: Apparently the treaty would not ban such usage in a region of de facto "occupation" like areas in Lebanon adjacent to Israel where, since the war between the two countries in 2006, Israel has been launching numerous cluster munitions attacks into that part of Lebanon. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44992 12/1/08 "We want to make sure the parameters are right for Iraq and Afghanistan" ...says a Pentagon spokesman of the Fort Stewart deployment of 4,700 members of the Army's 1st Combat Brigade, available for duty since October 1 for "domestic emergencies." The spokesman suggests that these troops"will have some very aggressive training, but will also be home for much of that." This may provide a model for the 20,000 such troops planned for this mission by 2011, the military having its cake while its soldiers eat it, alternating their deployment between overseas combat hot spots and a period of "rest" and "very aggressive training" while they are stateside. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/30/AR2008113002217_pf.html 11/29/08 Active benefit claims of veterans found in a VA shredder? This is only the tip of a very large iceberg, says Jason Leopold, of a pervasive "culture of dishonesty" in the Veterans Administration that has resulted in lengthy delays in the ability of veterans to complete disability claims upon their return from combat. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/11/culture-of-dishonesty-at-department-of-veterans-affairs/ 11/22/08 ON 45th ANNIVERSARY OF JFK ASSASSINATION: COULD IT HAPPEN AGAIN? Of course "it" could, says SSA editor, longtime assassination research, noting that "it" has happened innumerable times, before and after the events of 11/22/63, in acts of atrocity designed by their perpetrators to provoke retaliatory military action against people or countries identified as being "behind" these provocative actions. Therein may lie the danger to any popular leader, an assault on whom is guaranteed to produce strong emotional reaction against the supposed perpetrators. http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/index.php?p=91 11/10/08 "That's an absolute slap in our face. It's a federal holiday. We're taking it personally.": American Legion commander in Palm Beach County FL reacts to school board's decision not to close schools on Veterans' Day, a national holiday. School board defends its action, saying holding school on V Day (as well as election day) allows schools to complete their first semester before Christmas. Besides, says the board, the schools "honor" veterans with many in-school observances. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/schools/sfl-flpschoolvets1109pnnov10,0,7196658.story 11/3/08 Why do the British continue to visit the "killing fields" of World WarI? Rather than consigning the war to the dustbin of history's record of anachronistic conflicts like the Crimean War, Britons have shown a resurgent interest in visiting, on the European continent, the battlefields in which so many of their countrymen died. What is it that still resonates for Britons in a war that ended 90 years ago? Perhaps the still-relevant struggle in western peoples' conscience between an idealistic war that was to "end all wars" (but only started a series of similar ones); and the technological development of instruments of mass destruction which grind under any humanly hopeful outcomes to the conflicts of then and now. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-killing-fields-of-the-first-world-war-979730.html 10/25/08 Want a larger and better equipped U.S. military? Vote for McCain (or Obama): Defense analyst finds the military defense views of the two candidates "remarkably similar" though they differ slightly in their plans to "use" such forces http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/854292.html 10/19/08 Junior ROTC in San Francisco public schools is a subject of intense public interest. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1016/p01s01-usgn.html 10/14/08 If the U.S. is going to be the world's policeman, it's going to need a bigger military force:. This is the gist of the recommendations by the Secretary of Defense and other military experts, operating on the assumption that the wars of the future for the American military will be "counter-insurgency" conflicts like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, which can pop almost anywhere in the world that there are "failing" states in need of "stabilization." http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1014/p03s05-usmi.html 10/9/08 Naomi Wolf raises the specter of a military coup in the United States:. She notes a Congressman's statement during debate on the bailout bill that some of his colleagues had been threatened with "martial law" if they voted against the bill. The decision to deploy a brigade of the 3rd Infantry Divsion for "crowd control" in domestic emergencies is seen by her as an unconstitutional use of military power by the President, and advocates impeachment and possibly civil disobedience if U.S. soldiers were required to do something as drastic as to arrest members of Congress for their votes on legislation. http://www.countercurrents.org/wolf081008.htm 10/1/08 Africa doesn't want AFRICOM, and Congress isn't too thrilled about it either:. The Pentagon plans to begin today its project of consolidating humanitarian, development and military operations in Africa under a single "command." With no African country willing to host the headquarters of the command, deeply suspected as being an instrument of American dominance on the continent, its headquarters is located in Stuttgart Germany and Congress severely slashes President Bush's request for its funding. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/117/story/53234.html 9/29/08 "If we cannot cut back our longstanding, ever increasing military spending in a majir way, then the bankruptcy of the United States is inevtiable.": Chalmers Johnson reflects on the futility of the band-aid bailout efforts of the U.S. political establishment, noting that our excessive and counter-productive expenditure on unnecessary and counter-productive military weapons and adventures is creating a resource depletion from which no bailout will be possible. http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174982/chalmers_johnson_the_pentagon_bailout_fraud 9/8/08 Under U.S. pressure, India gets a "waiver" from international nuclear control agency that critics say will bring India into the mainstream of world nuclear proliferation. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43818 9/4/08 "Majority of the world's nations" expected to sign agreement to ban cluster bobms: However, that "majority" does not include the world's greatest military powers, the United States, China and Russia nor, it seems, would it include Georgia which admitted the use of such weapons in their current conflict with Russia, which has denied but apparently used cluster munitions. http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=327414 8/31/08 Minot, one of our classified launch components is missing. "Security" at the missile base in North Dakota continues to be a problem as Air Force officials fire or re-assign personnel on charges ranging from sexual abuse of a woman officer, to custodians of missile components sleeping on the job to admissions of officers that they took home, after claiming they had destroyed them, band-aid sized launch components, one of which is still missing. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/28/national/main4392286.shtml 8/22/08 FDR said as he took the U.S. into World War II: "I hate war." To the contrary, says Paul Farrell: based on their behavior if not their words, Americans love war, as reflected in everything from their obsession with war video games to their "bomb, bomb, bomb" encouragements to their presidential candidates. All this feeds the voracious appetite for conflict of the country's "outrageous war economy." 8/17/08 Russi'a invasion of Georgia is good business for U.S. arms makers. According to article in Wall Street Journal, Russia's ground and air assaults in Ossetia have bolstered the faltering case of defense industry lobbyists pushing for "conventional" weapons like "flashy" jet fighters and large Navy destroyers in face of new consensus that "lighter" weapons are needed to fight insurgencies. In general, the growing tension with Russia as well as China is creating a more congenial environment for U.S. expenditure on the flashy and the large. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121884933721146317.html?mod=googlenews_wsj 8/17/08 Ukraine joins Poland as a former Soviet state signing on to U.S. and European defense systems. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/08/200881616378983539.html 8/8/08 Tear down these nuclear weapons, Mr. (next) President:. Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's message to be delivered to the White House on inauguration day next January. NAPF features such luminaries as Walter Cronkite and the Dalai Lama. Its director, David Krieger, is critical of the nuclear disarmament views of both Obama and McCain, but considers their views as both more enlightened than those of Bush and expresses some "hope" in those of Obama. As comments to the Common Dreams reprint of the article indicate, Krieger gives no attention at all to the much more forthright views on the subject of a "minor" candidate, Cynthia McKinney. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/07/10870/ 8/7/08 As China attempts to burnish its international image ahead of the Beijing Olympics, it is accused by an arms watchdog group of being a "supplier of last resort" to a number of repressive governments around the world. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43471 8/3/08 "The scene is still in the assessment phase " says a U.S. Airforce officer in connection with another missile-related accident on Thursday in a rural area outside Minot ND as a truck carrying a rocket booster for a Minuteman III missile overturns, leaving the booster in a ditch where it remains 2 days later with no immediate indication of when the "assessment phase" will end. Locals seem unconcerned about this latest indication of the kind of indifferent security for nuclear weapons that has marked Minot and the Air Force generally. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080802/ap_on_re_us/overturned_missile 7/31/08 Scottish members of UK Parliament object to government's plan to privatise services to the Trident nuclear base on the Clyde. 7/26/08 Still another in a series of nuclear safety mishaps occurs at Minot Air Base in North Dakota when three Air Force officers, charged with protection of nation's nuclear launch codes, "fall asleep" and allow a component containing such codes to be moved and stored in unsafe place. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/24/missile.error/index.html 7/18/08 U.S. Air Force has a new strategy for pursuing the war on terrorism:. Counter-terrorism funds have been used for luxury outfitting of "comfort capsules" on airplanes that ferry top military and civilian leaders around the world. One Air Force document says that these should be: "aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule," and a typical one is furnished with "beds, a couch, a table, a 37-inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers, and a full-length mirror." Enjoy your flight, General, do you want a shave before we arrive? 7/7/08 This soldier has an "adjustment disorder," and isn't a post-traumatic stress disorder victim. A Texas psychologist's direction to her staff to use the AD diagnosis because it's considered less severe than PTSD and because so many Iraqi and Afghan veterans are applying for compensation highlights a pervasive cover-up of soldier casualties by the military and the VA system. This neglect of a mental health problem for veterans may be contributing to the fact, asserted by some critics, that more American veterans are dying by suicide than are being killed directly in combat. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/hidden-casualties/ 7/5/08 "This is the first time the Poland has said "no" to the U.S.". A Warsaw think tanker comments on Poland's refusal to accept U.S. missile shield emplacements without an increase in the level of U.S. support for upgrading Poland's military defense system. This comes as Russia, which regards the missile shield program as an anti-Russian provocation, threatens to train its own missiles on Poland as well as the Czech Republic, which has also agreed "in principle" to accept the shield but whose parliament has yet to approve the project. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080704/wl_nm/shield_poland_usa_dc 6/15/08 Ocala native won't enjoy Father's Day breakfast of runny eggs and half-cooked pancakes prepared by his on, age 5, as he's on Iraq deployment and the child and two younger siblings are home in Ocala. 6/4/08 110 world nations agree on a treaty to ban use of cluster munitions. Where is the U.S.A. on this?: It's on the sidelines, refusing to participate in the Dublin conference and twisting the arms of its allies to weaken the treaty's terms. A State Department official in charge of "Military Affairs" holds a press conference to "explain" the U.S. position. Though his comments are somewhat incoherent, they seem to boil down to the idea that the U.S., as the self-appointed policeman of the world, must have such weapons available as an option in case of need in carrying out its constabulary duties, for example, if we were called on to "defend" Lebanon from an invasion from Syria, in which case we might want to add a layer of U.S. cluster munitions remnants to those left by Israel in Lebanon 2 years ago. http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5270 5/29/08 Dublin conference concludes with call for international treaty banning cluster munitions: The six countries that are the world's leading producers and users of such munitions---Russia, China, the United States, Israel, India and Pakistan--boycotted the conference and the U.S. in particular "lobbied" against its allies joining the conference, which Britain for one ignored. Treaty promoters plan to go ahead without the support of these countries, hoping to "stigmatize" in world opinion the use of these weapons. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42554 5/28/08 How will it be when George Bush leaves office next January? Frida Berrigan says that his "legacy" of an embedded Pentagon footprint on the world will live on as the realization of a neo-con dream that came to fruition after 9/11. http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174936/frida_berrigan_the_pentagon_takes_over 5/23/08 Amy Goodman: The world arms race turns inexorably as the U.S. presidential race spins irrelevantly:. Based on her interview with Hans Blix, Goodman asserts that the proliferation of nuclear weapons and cluster munitions is proceeding as the presidential race ignores the issue. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/21/9128/ 5/19/08 Hunger strike in Czech Republic opposes European Star Wars:. Two leaders of Czech Humanist Movement spearhead a grassroots movement to force the government to accede to popular opposition to deployment of missile shield system. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow/321593/no_european_star_wars 5/3/08 $150 Billion missile defense system: Oversight? What oversight?: Pentagon officials appear before congressional defense spending "oversight" committees and are questioned about proof of the effectiveness of the system. These officials tell the committees, in effect, that such tests are so deeply classified that the public will essentially have to "trust the Pentagon on this one." http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/317407 5/3/08 When diaster capitalism becomes disaster militarism:. U.S. General says military will have in place by this fall a "rapid response unit," brigade-sized, to move into action when there is a terrorism attack or other emergency. http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61719&archive=true 4/25/08 Over budget and behind schedule: More rule than exception for Pentagon construction projects: . Delay in the actual completion of a Navy ship that was champagne-launched in 2006 highlights a pattern noted by GAO of very frequent such failures in military procurement processes. 4/25/08 U.S. wants Syria to "come clean" about its nuclear weapons development as pictures of a facility raided by Israel last year are purported to show North Korean support for Syria's nuclear program. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7364269.stm 4/22/08 "We're digging deeper into the barrel than we were before " says a Pentagon official on news of a significant increase in military's offer of "conduct waivers" to allow recruitment of men and women with criminal backgrounds. 4/14/08 U.S. soldiers account for 20% of all the suicides in the country:. This is indicated in a report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, using suicide rates for 2005 (as usual, the CDC is grievously tardy with its reports). Lack of medical treatment for returned veterans, especially those requiring mental health treatment, is cited as a factor. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aqlUKTADVlAM&refer=home 4/12/08 Hot pink balls at Guantanamo:. Not a description of a new form of detainee torture, but of the golf balls used at the U.S. military golf course there, to distinguish the ball from the "barren" terrain. The Guantanomo course is one that the Pentagon "forgets" when it cooks the books to minimize a pattern of hundreds of military golf courses worldwide, first exposed by William Proxmire in 1975. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/82009/ 4/12/08 Launching air strikes in Iraq from a console in Nebada: Recipe for escalating counter-force: U.S. military practice, during ground combat operations, of "calling in" air strikes which are targeted from remote locations is a practice guaranteed to supply the country with an endless supply of newly recruited "enemies." "Precision" strikes based on cyberspace surveillance are very likely to entail "mistakes" in the targeting of innocent civilians, anyone of whose surviving relatives are excellent recruiting material for jihad. http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174917/oops_our_bad 4/11/08 Bush cuts combat deployments to 12 months, but multiple deployments are likely to continue in the manpower stressed military. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0411/p01s07-usmi.html 4/9/08 Somebody close the door: There's a back door draft in here...:. Forget about "stop loss" for a minute, Joshua Frank describes another way in which the U.S. "voluntary" military has become violative of the conditions of soldiers' enlistments. To serve its crying needs for ground troops in Iraq, the Pentagon has diverted thousands of U.S. men and women who enlisted in the Navy and Air Force into combat situations which they never anticipated and for which they have been inadequately trained. The comments on this post morph into a back-and-forth discussion of soldier war resistance generally and the actions specifically of Lt. Watada. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/that-other-military-draft/ 4/4/08 Over Russian protests, NATO backs U.S. plan for missile shield defense implacements in Czech Republic and Poland. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7328915.stm 3/22/08 "Collision of mourning and money " hits some relatives of U.S. war dead. Having coped for a long time with a sense of neglect of themselves, many are having adjust to half million dollar cash settlements for their losses. For many, these sudden arrivals of "wealth" generate a kind of lottery winner syndrome: for those "lucky" enough to win. the "anomie" of abrupt changes in life style, demands and disappointments of friends and relatives who hoped for their generosity, the agony of decisions of how to spend funds that seem so bottomless, but for which the bottom can be discovered all too soon. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/nyregion/22benefits.html?th&emc=thd 3/16/08 Lengthy deployments are beginning a previously little-known way of life for Florida National Guardsmen. http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080316/NEWS/803160322/1002/NEWS 3/15/08 City of Berkely, CA stands up against military recrutiers and against a firestorm of right-wing condemnation of themselves as "counter-military": The City Council and the University of California have asked military recruitment stations to leave their premises. Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department of 2003 in protest of the Iraqi war, says there is nothing unpatriotic about the Berkeley action nor of the counter-recruitment movement across the United States. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/14/7678/ 3/8/08 "The Pentagon keeps two sets of books" on wounded war veterans... says a critic of VA treatment of veterans' medical needs. By separating those wounded "in combat" from the equal number of those wounded in "non-combat" situations (like accidental plane crashes), the severe under-funding of VA medical facilities can be justified. Because of this under-funding there is now a backlog of 400,000 veterans seeking treatment that they have so far not been able to obtain. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003721852 3/7/08 NYC military recruiters say their efforts will remain undeterred after an explosion rocks their recruiting station in Times Square. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0307/p02s02-usmi.html 3/4/08 Over U.S. objection China announces 18% increase in military budget. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7276277.stm 3/3/08 A Tampa-based company leases hundreds of acres of forest and wet lands in Lake County Florida to be used by the U.S. military for combat training. With such environmentally destructive projects as construction of landing pads for helicopters and a mock village for combat in cities training, Sierra Club and other conservationists are expressing concern. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-commando0308mar03,0,5348873.story 3/2/08 The folks at Oak Ride are planning to build more nuclear bombs...But they're calling the plan "complex transformation." A public hearing is held at Oak Ridge to begin a series of public meetings to present alternate plans, all of which would entail expanded production and most would call for a massive new plant, Y-12, at Oak Ridge or elsewhere. Locals turn out in support of an expanded program and lobby for Y-12 location in Oak Ridge, citing the importance of jobs to the area. In his article, Ron Jacobs describes the appearance of peace activists in opposition, some citing the hyprocisy of U.S. nuclear weapons expansion while hurling threats against Iran for even considering nuclear weapons production. Alert to activists: there will be further such hearings around the country before the April 13 announcement of the selected "plan." http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs03012008.html 3/2/08 They didn't make it up for the movie "Atonement". The landmines that killed the two lead characters on Dunkirk beach and in the London underground were but a tiny episode of a long history of inhumane consequences to human populations. Robert Fisk describes these practices across many times and peoples, citing Egyptians' reference to their "gardens of the devil" in which, as in parts of Lebanon, those evacuating an area have planted their bombs on tops of those planted by earlier evacuees, creating perennial gardens which "bloom" with lethal effects for many years to come. 2/23/08 What will the next president (McCain, Huckabee, Obama or Clinton) do about the bloated U.S. military budget? Based on anything they've said in their respective campaigns, absolutely nothing, says William Hartung, noting that each of these candidates would maintain or even increase defense spending; and the needed "debate" on this subject is totally lacking in the campaign. http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5009 2/18/08 Daytona 500: "It's a very strong spot to connect with America": Top recruiter so describes the recruitment opportunities opened to the army by its "Army Strong Zone" recruitment set-up on vendor's row outside turn 4 of the race. He cites the fact that 200,000 people from all over America come to the race, a favorable demographic for military recruitment http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02021808.htm 2/18/08 U.S. military soldiers who give birth to children are likely to receive only brief maternity leaves and re-deployments while their babies are still very young. 2/17/08 Did Saudi Arabia make terrorist threats to UK to stop investigation of bribery for arms sales? This is the allegation in a UK court, as it is claimed that a Saudi Crown Prince threatened Britain with "another 7/7" by withholding intelligence information if the charges, since dropped, were pursued. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade 2/17/08 Russia accuses the U.S. of using its plan to shoot down a disabled spy satellite as a "cover" to test a missile capable of shooting down satellites of another country. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7248995.stm 2/12/08 U.S. ARMY OFFICIAL "VERY DISTURBED" TO HEAR THAT AL-QAEDA IS USING VIDEOS AND OTHER RECRUITING MEANS TO SIGN UP TEEN-AGERS AS INSURGENTS. (Copy and paste the following URL into your web browser) http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/02/innocent-flesh%e2%80%94recruiting-kids-to-kill-2/ Wait a minute, says Ron Jacobs, isn't that what the U.S. military does, recalling his days as a little league coach in Burlington VT when he witnessed first hand the recruiters who used to hang around the games, part of an extensive recruitment project that enrolls kids in Young Marines and other programs of military indoctrination and gets lists of graduating high school seniors to pester for recruitment? 2/11/08 Ecstasy may be just around the corner for traumatized U.S. war veterans. After several years of government-approved field trials using the illegal "party scene" drug as a psychotropic, and with reportedly very favorable results, MDMA could be taking a journey from an outlawed substance to the next "FDA-approved wonder drug" which could help stem the "epidemic" level of ex-soldier suicides and help reduce the anxiety of the terminally ill and victims of violent crimes http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/76576/ 2/10/08 Bush's "slapdash" budget "forgets" to fund a veterans' benefit program he proposed in his State of the Union: In the speech Bush proposed legislation that would allow education benefits to transfer to relatives if vets are unable personally to use them. The budget has no provision for the $1-2 billion that this would cost; and some in Congress look for a way to "remember" the forgotten item in what was apparently an off-hand remark designed to show "support" for veterans. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/08/AR2008020804136_pf.html 2/9/08 U.S. Army defies the statements of it scommander-in-chief that the U.S. will not use its military to engage in "nation-building": It's couched in bureau-speak, of course, but a new Army manual speaks of the necessity for field commanders in combat situations to be more concerned about the "stabilization" of the countries in which they are operating. From his first campaign through all the years of his administration, George W. Bush has denied that the country will be involved in nation-building. The Army seems to be returning to the model of General McArthur after World War II, who spent years in "re-building" Japan, during which time he was in effect a U.S. viceroy. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/08/america/military.php?page=1 2/9/08 U.S. Army is using enhanced and expensive benefits to enlistees to help shore up its flagging enlistments. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/02/09/army_to_boost_perks_for_recruits/ 2/5/08 "Life experience" of years of combat for U.S. soldiers is not likely to be translated into academic credits in American colleges and universities. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/05/vets_often_denied_academic_credits/ 1/25/08 Pakistan fires test missile, tries to allay concerns that nuclear war material might get into the hands of enemies. 1/23/08 If he/she is breathing, sign him/her up: U.S. Army, to meet its recruitment goals, has had to alter signficantly its standards of qualification for military service, with a sharp decline in percentage of recruits with high school diplomas, among other indications of "lowered" standards. 1/21/08 British defense/intelligence firm has a "kinetic" relationship as it snuggles up with the Pentagon:. QinetiQ (pronounced "kinetic") lands a multi-million dollar contract to provide U.S. military security services 2 months after it hires Richard Cambone, former Deputy of State of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld. Cambone was responsible in 2003 for setting up the Pentagon office that has awarded the contract. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40844 1/6/08 Former FBI agent tells UK Sunday Times about rampant leaks in sensitive U.S. nuclear weapons information:. Sibel Edmonds was a Turkish translator who claims to have listened in on hundreds of conversations involving agents of FBI and State Department in collusion with brokers who sold this information to representatives of many countries, including Pakistan. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece 1/6/08 Danish military may use strips of tape on soldiers which will furnish identification to those who fire British weapons in Afghanistan, hoping to prevent repetition of recent "friendly fire" deaths. http://www.cphpost.dk/get/105000.html 1/2/08 Is the U.S. feeding China's military? The U.S. Department of Commerce has "stringent" rules against U.S. companies exporting high tech products to China if these might be used for modernizing the Chinese military. However, some U.S. companies like Boeing are beneficiaries of a Commerce policy of exemption from this rule when Chinese companies are considered "trustworthy" in that they will not share these products and technologies with China's military nor with any of the "enemies" of the U.S. Now a Wisconsin nuclear control watchdog group questions the "trustworthy" character of some companies so chosen. Maybe the U.S. needs to remember the admonition of Ronald Reagan from his days of dealing with nuclear disarmament with the Soviet Union: "trust but verify." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/technology/02techtransfer.html?th&emc=th 12/24/07 U.S. has spent millions in military aid to Pakistan and has mostly gotten military action against Pakistan's enemy (India) rather than its own (Al Qaeda/Taliban): Several government officials from U.S. and other nations make this assessment in interviews for the New York Times. But wait, after 6 years of pouring aid money into an unsupervised rat-hole, the Bush administration finally has a PLAN for bolstering Pakistan's actions against U.S. enemies, and it is located for implementation in the hands of the U.S.Ambassador in Islamabad. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/world/asia/24military.html?th&emc=th 12/18/07 Japan successfully intercepts a dummy missile, the first such accomplishment by a U.S. ally and a response to perceived threat from North Korea. 12/13/07 Congress gives Bush the blank check he demands for military expenditures: House passes, 370-49, a $696 billion military defense bill that will help continue the Iraqi and Afghan wars as well as those ever-costly "weapons systems." Pentagon uses its rhetorical big guns in raising the spectre of Christmas-season layoffs of its civilian employees. Democrats, who muster only 45 votes in opposition, tout the "reform" aspect of the legislation with new "oversight" requirements on Pentagon spending. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/12/12/ap4433640.html THE VOTE: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll1151.xml 12/13/07 Charities to support wounded war veterans are over their heads in overhead expenses: Charity watchdog reports that groups spend as little as 1 dollar on direct serves to veterans of every 100 dollars contributed, with the majority of groups surveyed not meeting the watchdog group's standard of no less than 65% of receipts going for direct service to clients. One charity pays a founder and his wife over half a million dollars to head the group. 11/28/07 The Pentagon wages a war against U.S. soldiers. Wounded war veterans find themselves likely to receive notices from the government of debts owed because, for example, their injuries disabled them from completing missions for which they were given combat pay. These actions are backed with wage garnishments and the close attentionon Pentagon-hired debt collectors. http://www.counterpunch.org/smith11272007.html 11/27/07 A student dismissed from class spends a school period firing the weapons of a simulated Abrams tank in one of the Army's 18-wheeler "Adventure Vans" that go around the country to help in the recruitment of children impressed with gee-whiz military technology. The Army counters parents' protests by saying that No Child Left Behind guarantees them this recruitment "access" to the schools; critics say what they are doing goes way beyond NCLB. Not to be outdone, the Navy and Air Force operate similar recruiting programs. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/26/5440/ 11/26/07 An average of 17 U.S. war vets commit suicide every day: According to a widow of one of those suicides, the U.S. government consistently refuses to "come clean" about these deaths, either their numbers or their causes. Suicides while soldiers are in combat are put down as "accidents," those of civilian returnees as the result of "personal problems" rather than post-traumatic reactions to their combat experiences. The President and other leaders cluck over the "despair" that drives Iraq's "suicide bombers," but can't admit that the country's own soldier suicides, in much larger numbers, are driven by the same results of military combat. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/68713/?page=1 11/18/07 IAEA gives Iran a B- report card on its compliance with UN demands on nuclear enrichment. The UN's watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says that Iran is "reactive rather than proactive" about its compliance and U.S. seizes on that assessment to push for new round of UN sanctions on Iran for nuclear non-compliance (while Israel and Pakistan sail along on their D grades in the subject) http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40092 11/18/07 New York Times admits it kept a secret on Iran's nuclear arsenal secuirty. In a Times article, it is revealed that newspaper staff have known for three years of grave concern of Bush administration about the security of that arsenal and mutual suspicion between the U.S. and Pakistan about Pakistan being offered or accepting a U.S. program to enhance that security. At the administration's request, the Times withheld publication of that information and reveals it now with administration approval in the present crisis of the Musharaff regime in Pakistan. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/washington/18nuke.html?th&emc=th 11/14/07 "As long as we are wanted and welcome." American General in charge of U.S. presence in South Korea speaks at the groundbreaking for an expansion of a "sleepy" air base which is expected to become the "face" of U.S. continued military forces in the area. A Korean "dignitary" thanks Korean civilians who have (reluctantly) given up their homes to make way for the construction project. (Just such bases may become the "face" of future protests against U.S. operations around the world.) http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50263 11/7/07 Defense spending: Ho much is too much? In 1993 an economic think tank report said it would be possible to pare the U.S. defense budget to $67 billion per year if the country gave up its internationally aggressive policy and shelves its expensive and useless weapons systems. In 2008, the military budget will be about $647 billion. Studies ranging from starvation to Africa to America's crumbling infrastructure make the argument that useless and harmful military spending could be re-allocated to pressing human needs around the world. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/06/5059/ 10/26/06 Recession? What recession? U.S. defense companies are doing very nicely, thank you, as profitable contracts for military hardware are fattening their bottom lines. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EARNS_DEFENSE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=customwire.htm 10/20/07 U.S. weapons industry places its bets on the 2008 presidential election:. The industry usually lends its campaign support to a candidate who it expects to win the presidency, as it is so dependent on government contracts. For 08, the choice is a no-brainer: Hillary Clinton, who is one of the most hawkish of candidates of either party, and is widely perceived as the likely Democratic Party nominee and ultimate winner of the White House. Accordingly, she has received far more "bundles" of campaign cash from people in the industry than has any other candidate of either party. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3075691.ece 10/20/07 Air Force finally "explains" an August incident in which an airplane laden with nuclear bombs flew from North Dakota to Louisiana: It was an "unacceptable mistake" that would probably never happen again. Safety procedures were ignored and the relevant people who made the mistakes have been removed from duty. Case closed. 10/20/07 Pentagon officials are concerned that, beyond Iraq, the mine resistant vehicles being deployed there (MRAPs) will become "white elephants" in future missions in which IEDs are not a major concern. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1019/p03s03-usmi.html 10/18/07 Although almost unnoticed in the media, both Russia and the U.S. are now engaged in war games by their respective countries, as the aggressiveness of each seems to stimulate that of the other. These "games" sometimes bring U.S. and Russian forces in dangerous proximity, as when U.S. planes in Alaska are sent to Russian "game" areas off the Alaskan coast to insure the games don't intrude onto U.S. territory. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7098 10/16/07 Chicago; "The most militarized school system in America..." Marine Corps to open a new public school, joining Army, Navy and Air Force in sponsoring schools and Junior ROTC programs. Critics say these schools and programs are motivated by the services' recruitment needs, targeted to enlistment of children in poor and black areas. http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/sf/chicago1.htm 10/6/07 Minnesota National Guard unit comes home after longest deployment of any Guard unit in Iraq to find that that they will be denied education benefits because their deployment orders were written for 729 days and it requires 730 days of deployment for a guardsman to qualify for these benefits. Some soldiers think the 729-day orders were a deliberate ploy to deny them education benefits http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=71741 10/5/07 The grizzled veteran academic discipline which was "enlisted" in past U.S. conflicts (WW II, Vietnam, etc.) is again being employed in Afghanistan with plans to expand to Iraq in the Pentagon's Human Terrain Program. Military commanders praise their familiarity with tribal customs as helping "bring governance to the people" as they are able mediate tribal disputes. As in the past, some professional anthropologists decry this activity as enlisting academic science into the service a brutal occupation, and urge boycott of such involvement http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html?th&emc=th 10/3/07 North Korea agrees to disable its nuclear reactor by end of the year http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7025930.stm 10/1/07 ALTHOUGH CZECH REPUBLIC SUPPORTED U.S. INVASION OF IRAQ, MANY CZECHS ARE ADAMANTLY OPPOSED TO MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD IN THEIR COUNTRY. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/world/europe/01czech.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 9/24/07 Farming or fishing? In dealing with insurgents, US soldiers are accused of doing both:Trial of soldiers accused of murder for having planted terrorist paraphernalia on civilians whom they had shot uncovers a secret Pentagon program that may have encouraged such actions. Special unit soldiers were taught to "bait" insurgents by placing such materials on the ground and then shooting those who picked them up, on the assumption of their "intent" to use the material against U.S. soldiers. Two whistle-blowing soldiers, angered by what they view as unfair disciplinary action for other offenses, describe the program and also the incentives for soldiers to produce high "kill" numbers of insurgents to satisy their superiors. 9/19/07 Child soldiers are becoming common again in Congo's civil war. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0919/p01s05-woaf.html 9/10/07 Former Gainesville FL resident, Bruce Gagnon, moves on to become and international pain in the butt: Gagnon, leader of a Keep Space For Peace organization, goes on international tour promoting this cause and is arrested in Faslane Scotland for attempting to blockade entrance to the Trident nuclear submarine there. http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2007/09/arrested-in-scotland.html 9/7/07 War games which rattle the sabre against China in the Bay of Bengal overshadow the economic talks of APEC in Sydney. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39177 9/1/07 Progressive think-tanker says that President Bush must be "called out" for his strategy of holding hostage the lives of U.S. troops in Iraq as he insists that to urge troop withdrawal is to condemn to death the soldiers who are now there. Disputing Bush's claim that "it's no time for politics" where the war is concerned, the writer asserts that this is exactly the time for responsible politics to try to restrain U.S. war policy. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/31/3537/ 8/27/07 "My sense is that right now, they're willing to take anybidt who is willing to walk in the door and ship by Sept. 30": says a security analyst of new U.S. Army policy of offering $20,000 "quick ship" bonuses for recruits willing to enlist and enter basic training ahead of the normal time interval between enlistment and "shipping out" for training. The bonuses, like the relaxation of certain "standards" of recruit qualification, reflect the recent failure of the Army to reach its enlistment quotas. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601266_pf.html 8/21/07 Taiwanese legislators go on a shopping trip for new weapons sales from the U.S. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IH21Ad01.html 8/20/07 Bangor, Maine, a frequent stop for U.S. troops headed overseas, has reached a milestone in which the 500,000th troop since 2003 has been given recognition gifts by a private group called Troop Greeters. http://www.bangordailynews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=153310&zoneid=164 8/19/07 South Carolina woman pleads guilty to charges that she and her sister (who has committed suicide) profited illegally from their business of shipping military supplies for the Pentagon, including charging nearly a million dollars to send 39 cents worth of screws. (Obviously, U.S. taxpayers got screwed in this deal.) But this is truly small-potatoes corruption beside that of Vice President Cheney who parlayed his government connections into vast profits for his corporate connections. And this is not to mention the systemic corruption of news media and local politicians supporting local defense industries that are deemed as good for the local economy. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=13570 8/16/07 U.S. plans new generation of assault missiles that can strike targets in a fraction of the time required by current missiles. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0816/p03s03-usmi.html 8/14/07 Are war and peace decisions too important to be left in the hands of private corporations? Jeremy Scahill, in a wide-ranging article on the prevalence of out-sourcing security and intelligence activities into the hands of private companies, indicates that precisely this question must be raised. Not just in Iraq, but throughout the world, mercenary operatives not accountable to any public agencies for their operation are threatening to subvert Max Weber's definition of the state as that agency that maintains a "monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory." http://www.counterpunch.org/scahill08132007.html 8/14/07 China eyes with suspicion of personal threat next month's "good will" naval exercises in Bay of Bengal of the "axis of Democracy" in Asia: Australia, Japan, Singapore and India, joined by the United States. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IH14Df01.html 8/14/07 New Mexico's National Guard, under-equipped to operate at home, is warned that it will be deployed to Iraq in 2010. http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/aug/13/nm-guard-gets-iraq-duty-warning/ 8/14/07 Special problems are noted for single parents deployed to Iraq: over 12,000 of them counted on a single day surveyed, the last day of 2006. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/08/14/struggle_starts_at_home_front/ 8/11/07 Is a restored U.S. military draft in the offing? Bush's new "war czar," General Douglas Lutes, in an NPR interview, says this possibility should be considered in light of the high level of "stress" now experienced by the country's all-volunteer military. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/10/america/NA-GEN-US-Bush-War-Adviser.php For transcript and video of this interview, see: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12688693 8/2/07 Donald Rumsfeld is grilled by Dennis Kucinich and other members of Congress on his alleged "cover-up" of Pat Tillman death as well as other events in Iraq. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080107R.shtml 8/1/07 Admiral Mullen, nominee as new Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, wants U.S. to "stay engaged" militarily throughout the world, but to do this in "partnership" with military efforts of other nations. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0801/p02s01-usmi.html 8/1/07 New movie by Dreamworks, Transformers, looks like a work of propaganda for U.S. militarism: Although good and evil robots are the antagonists and they come from alien places, the film evokes the earthly "axis of evil" of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, and of the U.S.military as the "protectors" of people around the world using gee-whiz high tech weaponry. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=105&ItemID=13421 7/26/07 American soliders: Best and brightest, or down and outers? Military apologists like to berate Rosie O'Donnell for her statement that Americans tend to join the services to "get an education," citing some older and questionable data by Heritage Foundation that soldiers are likely to be above average in education and socio-economic level. A recent study tends to exonerate O'Donnell: increasingly, the military services are drawing their recruits from the under-educated and especially among felons and racists. As a symptom of these recruiting practices, blacks are now considerably over-represented among the recruits. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/25/2748/ 7/10/07 Canadian PM Harper plans for a new fleet of ships that will patrol Arctic waters to protect "Canadian sovereignty." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070709.wharper0709/BNStory/National/home 7/7/07 Japanese defense minister says the country must complete a missile shield to counter nuclear threats from North Korea and China. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6275994.stm 7/6/07 RMA (Revolution in Military Affairs) didn't work any better for Israel in Lebanon than it works for the U.S in Iraq and Afghanistan: The idea of RMA---now called Transformation---is that precision weapons aimed at defined targets will replace traditional ways of conducting wars which involve close contact between combatant forces. The trouble is that the "enemy" does not cooperate with RMA, but operates with a mobility and flexibility that makes RMA muscle bound and useless. But never mind, from the Pentagon and IDF perspectives, it works to justify hugely expensive precision weapons systems that sustain the defense industries of these countries. http://www.counterpunch.org/lind07042007.html 7/4/07 "Port call" of USS Nimitz at Chennai India raises a storm of protest of those claiming the visit belies India's asserted stance of international non-intervention and may even have introduced nuclear weapons into one of the country's harbors. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IG04Df01.html 6/29/07 Democratic congressional campaign committee is preparing "attack ads" against Don Young of Alaska and others which will attack their military records as insufficiently supportive of U.S. military operations. http://www.adn.com/news/politics/story/9090478p-9006515c.html 6/14/07 As Congress shows increased propensity to challenge military officers in appointment hearings, Secretary of State Gates declines to offer nomination of General Peter Pace for another 2-year appointment as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2707 6/14/07 Russian deal for return of frozen funds of North Korea may un-freeze the effort to have the country shut down its nuclear weapons plans. U.S. willingness to waive sanctions is the key to the deal. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/070614/world/international_korea_north_dc 6/13/07 New Mexico National Guardsmen get belated apology from U.S. Army after 60 of them were strip-searched in Iraq in a vain effort to locate "hispanic gangland tatoos" that a soldier said he had seen on the body of one man. http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/jun/12/nm-national-guard-accepts-late-army-apology/ 6/12/07 Dilip Hiro notes that, as their international rivals threaten them with "regime change" or "being wiped off the map," countries large, medium and small move to use nuclear arsenals the way they were used by the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, to create a MAD (mutually assured destruction) situation in which the nuclear capabilities of each deters the application of that of the others. The U.S. may wink and nod at Israel's or India's nuclear programs while it pontificates against those of Iran or North Korea, but all nations have learned that nuclear power is the way to national survival. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=67&ItemID=13044 6/12/07 Swedish report says world's nuclear powers, by developing lower-yield weapons, are making nuclear war more likely, as these weapons are seen as "useable" in warfare rather than being simply a "deterrent." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070611/ap_on_re_eu/arms_report;_ylt=AiVyTgAv_YqSNVCBwyGCPFtw24cA 6/11/07 Can enemy soldiers be brought to make love (to each other), not war? Pentagon explored in the past, and says it has abandoned for the present, the idea of producing, as a "non-lethal" weapon, a "gay bomb" that would disperse an aphrodisiac chemical that would make soldiers more interested in having sex than in fighting. http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_159222541.html 6/9/07 With the Iraqi "surge" obviously not working, the media is reporting a "change" in U.S. policy in Iraq to duplicate the after-history of the Korean conflict: a reduced military force settled into low-visibility presence in bases that have lasted for many decades. Actually, says Tom Engelhardt, this was U.S. policy from the very beginning of the 2003 invasion. Media outlets reported U.S. plans to create permanent bases in Iraq and then forgot their own coverage for four years, leaving the U.S. public oblivious to what was really going on the country: the construction and provisioning of at least 4 massive bases away from major population centers. Korea? Iraq? The positioning of such "permanent" bases is but one part of a grand U.S. imperial strategy that has been consistently and effectively pursued by Democratic and Republican administrations in the placements of military installations throughout the world. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/08/1737/ 6/9/07 Italian PM, over the protests of Italy's "radical left" which he accuses of "anti-American" sentiment, agrees to U.S. plan for large expansion of a military base in northern Italy. http://www.italianpressdigest.com/index.php/article/articleview/273/1/460/ 6/7/07 A Washington consensus of both political parties supports a military/intelligence bidget of $1 trillion per year and headed upwards. Democrats vie with Republicans in their willingness to support vast increases in spending for Pentagon and Homeland Security despite the fact that the "defense" of the country does not entail defense against any national entity actually threatening the United States, but only threatening perhaps the country's imperial dominance. http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=202057 6/7/07 BBC probe shows that a UK arms dealer made payments to a Saudi prince for over a decade to facilitate a Saudi/UK arms deal. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6728773.stm 6/5/07 Anti-missile installation? Not in our backyard, please. As President Bush begins visit to Czech Republic, referendums in local communities reject the idea of placement of these facilities in their towns, vote against in one village was 728-10, with residents recognizing that their vote probably won't determine their government's action. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/04/1657/ 6/5/07 Canadian government is considering the establishing of several military cemeteries across the country to accommodate the needs of families who lose relatives in combat. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=05d341d5-1c14-481f-b149-2850336bbc46 6/2/07 "I recognize this is unhealthy" says Greek weapons expert who heads a UN team which is still spending millions of dollars a year looking for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that, it is generally agreed, no longer exist and preparing for inspections in Iraq that will probably never occur. This extended exercise in futility is based on a dispute between Russia, which wants Iraq declared WMD-free, and the U.S., which is still looking for a fig leaf of legitimacy to cover its invasion of Iraq. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102358.html?referrer=email 5/28/07 Process worship cripples operating forces says an internal document of U.S. Marine Corps in which it is reported that only 10% of requests of military forces for defense materiel had been fulfilled. http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2007/05/26/news/news04052607.txt 5/28/07 Blackwater liability case goes behind cloes doors. In a move described as "ominous" for the future of anyone trying to prosecute claims against military contractors for wrongful injury, judge rules the suit filed by survivors of 4 employees of Blackwater Security who died in the Fallujah massacre out of court and into a special proceeding with no transparency. 5/27/07 A new "missile defense" missile "fails to recognize the threat" of a dummy attacking missile as the dummy falls far short of the intended attack target and the interceptor is never launched. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/26/washington/26missile.html 5/23/07 Physiologists have shown that teenage children have "immature" brain structures that don't allow them to make some decisions in a rational manner. U.S. military recruiters take full advantage of this vulnerability in their appeals to teenagers, making grandiose promises about military life style and offerings of the same kind of goodies that drug representatives promise doctors (some of whom must themselves be pre-frontal cortex challenged) in return for yielding to their pitches. http://www.alternet.org/story/51889/ 5/23/07 India continues to depend on Russia as its main arms supplier despite India's "warming relation" with the U.S., but they will pay more for these weapons as Russia demands re-negotiation of a fighter aircraft deal. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IE24Df01.html 5/23/07 BBC News learns that UN "peace-keepers" from Pakistan traded "gold for guns" during Congo's civil war in 2005, as they sold arms to the militias they were supposedly disarming; and that the UN was aware of this and "buried the report" for fear of political fallout. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6681457.stm 5/22/07 U.S. leads the world in arms dealing; and we need a new way of talking about it:. Frida Berrigan suggests we stop thinking about armaments in the language of trade but rather in that of drugs and the drug dealer. The dynamics of the drug industry involve the creating of a perceived "need" of the product and then proceeding to furnish it. Thus a foreign government is persuaded that it "needs" an upgrade in its armaments to meet the competition of its local rivals (also stimulated by the "dealer") and the rest is the history of the thriving international armaments industry in which the U.S. predominates. http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=196017 5/17/07 Gulf War fallout. A rare Pentagon-sponsored study of the effects on U.S. soldiers of the destruction of munitions in Iraq in 1991 provides some of the first official acknowlegement that sarin nerve gas damage may have resulted for Gulf War veterans. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/us/17sarin.html?hp 5/14/07 Japan will soon have a referendum to allow Japan to have a military force, a measure that would amend the constitution imposed on Japan by the U.S. occupation in 1947. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6652809.stm 5/12/07 Casualties of the Cold War fight for compensation. Thousands of U.S. workers who helped dismantle nuclear facilities and contracted cancer are still struggling to have their medical claims honored by a Labor Department that wants to pinch pennies on them. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102277.html?referrer=email 4/22/07 Dissatisfaction is rising in U.S. Congress over the Bush administration plan for a "new generation" of nuclear warheads. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/21/AR2007042101000.html?referrer=email 4/11/07 When life imitates Playstation: U.S. military planners are anticipating a "new generation" of military hardware which features exoskelton armour and other high-tech accountrements to what a well-dressed warrior will wear. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=447631 4/3/07 At schools and aboriginal festivals, military recruiters use their Bold Eagle project to entice youngsters to enlist in a program of military training for those below the age of enlistment in the regular military. Their success is based on improverishment of native American communities, their promises of money and heroic Indian values; a critic calls it an exercise in "mulit-cultural killing." http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=12483 4/1/07 GAO report criticizes Pentagon for its escalating "high risk" expenditures. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033107F.shtml 3/31/07 Have you heard of the "Cluster Munitions Civilan Protection Act"of 2007? If not, don't feel too badly, few others have heard of this legislation, introduced in the Senate in February. The lack of traction so far on this legislation seems to symbolize the overall record of the United States as the last place (or one of the two, along with Israel) in the world to recognize the humanitarian dangers of a weapon that exceeds its "military utility" (the requirement in international law for any weapon's use). http://counterpunch.org/stedjan03302007.html 3/28/07 U.S. general tries to assure Russia that the "missile defense shield" proposed for European locations is not intended as threat to Russia but to help protect that country as well against "rogue states" like North Korea and Iran. Looking at the map and noting the location of these "shields," Russians remain a bit skeptical. 3/26/07 Pravda asserts that other countries, especially in the European Union, are "shamelessly pirating" Russian military hardware. http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/22-03-2007/88540-russian_arms-0 3/19/07 Leader of German Social Democrats says that Germany must stand with the rest of Europe in opposing U.S. plans to locate missile defense facilities in Poland and Czechoslovakia. 3/18/07 U.S./Israeli war games are scaled back in consideration of the tension of a looming confrontation with Iran. 3/14/07 Tony Blair faces parliamentary opposition to his proposal to renew UK's Trident nuclear defense system. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6448173.stm 3/2/07 As usual, the buck stops here. General in charge of Walter Reed Medical Facility is fired after a Washington Post expose of conditions for the treatment of wounded U.S. soldiers. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/washington/02general.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 2/25/07 Anti-cluster bomb treaty may be agreed to. At a conference in Oslo, Britain, a frequent user of cluster munitions, does a policy "u-turn" and agrees to support a treaty declaring a moratorium on the use of these weapons. There is no expectation, however, that other users (U.S., China, Russia and Israel) will ratify the treaty. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2300444.ece 2/25/07 U.S. Navy plans to deploy dolphins and sea lions in Puget Sound to detect terrorists in wet suits making land intrusions near defense facilities in Washington. Animal activists counter what they call this "silly absurdity" by knitting seaters for dolphins to appear at a public hearing on the matter. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/24/AR2007022401040.html?referrer=email 2/23/07 Tony Blair is said by reports to be holding secret talks in which he is "lobbying" President Bush to place a U.S. "Son of Star Wars" anti-missile defense system in the UK, similar to those being plananed for Poland and Czechoslovakia. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6388713.stm 2/22/07 Pentagon's reports on deployment of U.S. active duty personnel document the existence of a world-wide American empire with forces garrisoned throughout the world. http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance103.html 2/22/07 Making Marines out of less-than-men: Former U.S. Marine describes how training takes people lacking self-respect from the "pathology of our class-ridden world" and transforms them into a "lean mean killing machine" that dehumanizes the "enemy" and motivates self-validation on the basis of cruel and sometimes criminal actions. http://counterpunch.org/smith02202007.html 2/19/07 "Fall out for 5AM morning formation!" Washington Post continues its expose of soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Facility warehoused at hospital "facilities" awaiting treatment and disposition and subjected to military routines. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801335.html?referrer=email 2/18/07 "We owe them all we can give them" said President Bush on a Christmas visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A special report by two journalists writing for the Washington Post details just what "all we can give them" amounts to at WR: an overcrowded and crumbling holding facility for wounded war veterans for the whom the word neglect comes easily to mind. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html?referrer=email 2/17/07 Pentagon accelerates deployment of 1000 members of 3rd Infantry Division from Ft. Stewart to Iraq, three months ahead of scheduled June deployment. http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?id=3092 2/14/07 Defense Department report shows that the number of recruits for whom both felony and disdemeanor convictions have been waivered has more than doubled over the last 4 years. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070213/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_recruits_waivers 2/8/07 Pentagon is accused of failing to include in its public information about Iraqi war casualties numbers of those wounded in non-combat situations; numbers which, if included, would double the number of casualties of the war. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020700179_pf.html 2/7/07 US "full spectrum doiminance" in space is suddenlt not so dominant. Last month's somewhat inexplicable action of China of shooting down one of its own old weather satellites was apparently a pre-emptive demonstration to the U.S. that its aim for "hegemony in the heavens" is falling short of realization and that China is fully capable of countering that hegemony were it to be attacked. http://counterpunch.org/blum02062007.html 2/3/07 Is a "non-lethal" weapon just a "not usually lethal" one? U.S. military ignores the distinction, moving smartly ahead with plans for a "new generation" of non-lethals, although the "old generation" represented by Taser guns have produced about 200 deaths. Their non-lethal label may serve to relax the rules of engagement for their use so they can be employed against relatively "innocent" persons. http://www.alternet.org/story/47092/ 1/30/07 Oregon Senator Ron Wyden introduces bill that would prohibit the sale of spare parts for F-14 fighter planes that have reportedly found up in the hands of Chinese and Iranians. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070129/ap_on_go_co/military_surplus_stings 1/27/07 The militarization of US police agencies, one set of fatigues at a time. Budget-stressed enforcement agencies around the country are benefitting from generosity from the Pentagon's glut of "surplus" materials, ranging from rifles to helicopters to double wide trailers. It's a bargain for local agencies, but who pays for it? Of course it comes out of those gigantic "defense appropriations" bills that Congress willingly passes. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070126/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_giveaways 1/25/07 U.S. military unveils plans for a heat ray gun to be used to quell crowds and force enemies to disarm; is compared to a "blast from the oven." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6297149.stm 1/25/07 India now working both sides of the U.S./Russian nuclear rivalry as it concludes a deal with Putin to have Russia assist India in building nuclear reactors. http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=80278 1/23/07 U.S military waives morality in its recruitment policies: Robin Morgan, co-founder of Women's Media Center, comments on former soldiers like Timothy McVeigh and Steven Green, who are accused or convicted of heinous crimes during and after their military service in light of the fact that the Pentagon is increasingly using "moral waivers" to allow men and women with criminal records or mental health problems to serve in a military that is deperately trying to staff a "surge" in troop strength. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/46922/ 1/22/07 U.S. assures Russia that missile emplacements on Polish and Czech soil are not intended as a threat against that country. 1/19/07 U.S. criticizes Russia for providing military equipment for Iran, saying the action sends the "wrong signal." http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070116/ts_nm/russia_iran_missiles_usa_dc_1 1/17/07 Porous control systems for U.S. transfer of military equipment to foreign recipients have resulted in many armaments passing from U.S. to Iranian control. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607B.shtml 1/13/07 Playboy goes military as the military goes ballistic: An Air Force sergeant is suspended for posing for the magazine; AF says: "This staff sergeant's alleged action does not meet the high standards we expect of our airmen (sic)." How much you want to make a bet that these "high standards" officers keep a copy of the "airman's" alleged action hidden away in their desks? http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770112011 1/12/07 To help provide troop needs for conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pentagon rescinds its long-time policy of maintaining a limit on the length of time that reserve forces can be mobilized. |