Thomas Paine's version of "you didn't build that":
"Separate an individual from society,and give him an island or a continent to possess,and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end,in all cases,that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore,of personal property,beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice,of gratitude,and of civilization,a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came"
Submitted by Leah
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The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell who sold us the war still go on doing what they do.
How many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago? Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again.
The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in our country as a “blunder,” or even a “colossal mistake.” It was a crime.
Those who perpetrated it are still at large. Some of them have even been rehabilitated thanks to the horrors of a mostly amnesiac citizenry. (A year ago Mr. Bush was on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” dancing and talking about his paintings.)
We condemned children to death, some after many days of writhing in pain on bloodstained mats, without pain relievers. Some died quickly, wasted by missing arms and legs, crushed heads. As the fluids ran out of their bodies, they appeared like withered, spoiled fruits. They could have lived, certainly should have lived – and laughed and danced, and run and played- but instead they were brutally murdered. Yes, murdered!
The war ended for those children, but it has never ended for survivors who carry memories of them. Likewise, the effects of the U.S. bombings continue, immeasurably and indefensibly.
The McGlynn
War News
GUARD: Yemen Photo
Three years of war in Yemen have eaten away at the safety nets available to millions of people. Both major parties of the conflict have caused civilian deaths and suffering, and obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid. More than two million people are displaced from their homes. Among the victims is baby Radwa. Her father, Abdullah, says: ‘I was advised to take [Radwa] to hospital as she was suffering from malnutrition … You see your child dying in front of you – why don’t they let us live our lives? We want them to stop the blockade and the airstrikes, so we can live normally’
Foreign Office minister says government will give decision on judicial inquiry within 60 days
The UK government will give “careful consideration” to calls for a renewed judge-led inquiry into the country’s involvement in human rights abuses after 9/11, the Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan told MPs on Monday.
He made the pledge after two reports published by parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) laid bare the extent of British involvement in rendition and the torture of detainees.
The ISC found that the UK had planned, agreed or financed 31 rendition operations.
In addition there were 15 occasions when British intelligence officers consented to or witnessed torture, and 232 occasions on which the intelligence agencies supplied questions to be put to detainees who they knew or suspected were being mistreated.
The former home secretary Ken Clarke led calls for the establishment of a judicial inquiry, saying the ISC had been prevented from completing its work by taking evidence from intelligence officers “who had been on the ground at the time” of the abuses. “Why was that done? What are we trying to cover up of what was done in the time of the Blair government?”
SANAA, Yemen — A Yemeni journalist critical of the Saudi-led coalition waging war on the country’s Shiite rebels was released Monday, just hours after his detention in the port city of Aden, officials said.
According to the officials, Fathy bin Lazrq, the editor-in-chief of Aden Al Ghad newspaper, was arrested earlier on Monday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The newspaper, citing a witness, reported that bin Lazrq was driving a car when the authorities arrested him. The coalition has been at war with Yemen’s Houthis since March 2015 on behalf of the country’s internationally recognized government.
Bin Lazrq is known for his online posts and articles critical of the Saudi-led coalition. In a recent post, he accused the coalition of failing to provide basic services and contended that reports of the coalition providing millions of dollars in aid were allegedly untrue……………..The United Nations considers war-torn Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The impoverished country has been pushed to the brink of famine by the stalemated three-year civil war.
The conflict has also left around two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 27 million relying on aid, and over 8 million at risk of starving.
BEIRUT (AP) — An international watchdog says a local group working to uncover mass graves in Syria’s northeastern provinces until recently controlled by Islamic State militants needs international support.
Human Rights Watch says help is needed to preserve evidence of possible crimes and identify remains found there.
The New York-based watchdog says thousands of bodies — both of civilians and extremists — remain to be recovered in an unknown number of mass graves in the city of Raqqa and nearby areas.
According to HRW, the Raqqa Civil Council is “struggling to cope with the logistical challenges of collecting and organizing information” on the bodies recovered and providing it to families searching for missing or dead relatives.
It says identifying missing people and preserving evidence for possible prosecutions is critical for Syria’s future.
AMMAN (Reuters) – The number of people forced to flee their homes in southwestern Syria as a result of the two week escalation in fighting has climbed to 270,000 people, the U.N. refugee spokesman in Jordan said.
The United Nations said last week 160,000 had been displaced as they fled heavy bombardment and mostly took shelter in villages and areas near the Israeli and Jordanian borders.
“Our latest update shows the figure of displaced across southern Syria has exceeded 270,000 people,” Mohammad Hawari, UNHCR’s Jordan spokesman told Reuters.
NPR travels with a U.S. general as he tours the remote border of Iraq and Syria, where U.S. troops are shelling ISIS targets and trying to secure Iraq.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Islamic State group on Monday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan that killed at least 19 people, mostly Sikhs and Hindus.
The bomber targeted a delegation from the minority communities as it was traveling to the governor’s residence in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday for a meeting with President Ashraf Ghani.
Avtar Singh Khalsa, a longtime leader of the Sikh community, was among those killed. Another 20 people were wounded.
In a statement released Monday, IS said it had targeted a group of “polytheists.”
Sikhs and Hindus face discrimination in the conservative Muslim country and have been targeted by Islamic extremists in the past, leading many to emigrate. The community numbered more than 80,000 in the 1970s, but today only around 1,000 remain.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the Jalalabad attack “in the strongest terms” and underlined the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors “of these reprehensible acts of terrorism” to justice. A council statement on Monday urged all countries to cooperate with Afghan authorities in finding those responsible.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the Jalalabad attack stressing that “any attack deliberately targeting civilians is unjustifiable and in clear violation of international law,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
“The United Nations stands with the people and government of Afghanistan as they strive for peace and reconciliation for their country,” Haq said Monday.
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan official says a suicide car bombing that targeted a NATO convoy has killed two civilians in eastern Logar province.
Shah Poor Ahmadzai, spokesman for the province’s police chief, said the bomb attack in the provincial capital Monday evening killed a woman and a child and wounded three other women.
Ahmadzai said the NATO armored tanks were damaged in the blast.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone interview with AP and said five U.S. soldiers were killed.
The police spokesman, however, said there were no casualties in the NATO convoy.
KABUL, Afghanistan — In downtown Kabul, from a large mural painted on blast walls at the end of a busy shopping street, the piercing eyes of Komal Singh, now a fourth grader, peer out at the narrow junction.
For the past couple of years, the mural has carried an anticorruption message: “Bribetakers are not hidden from the eyes of God and the people.” Now, that mural carries a further, unwritten reminder: Another Afghan child is deprived of a father.
On Monday, Komal traveled to the eastern city of Jalalabad with her mother, Preeti, sister Pari and brother Prince to cremate her father, Rawail Singh, who was among the 19 people killed this weekend in a bombing outside a compound where President Ashraf Ghani was holding meetings.
Fourteen of the victims, including Mr. Singh, were Sikhs — members of a tiny religious minority in the country — who were just arriving for an audience with the president when a suicide bomber ripped through the crowd.
Afghan Sikhs gathered at their temple in Kabul on Monday to mourn the deaths of relatives and fellow Sikhs in a suicide attack in Jalalabad. Here, relatives of Mr. Khalsa comforted one another.CreditJim Huylebroek for The New York Times
The death of Mr. Singh, who, as part of an activist group of artists had beautified many of the ugly blast walls that have turned Kabul into a maze, devastated friends and activists in the city, where he lived.
But the blow was much larger to Afghanistan’s shrinking Sikh population.
Years ago, before the country sank into a four-decade war, there were as many as 65,000 Sikh families across Afghanistan, community elders estimated in the absence of official numbers. But decades of war and persecution have shrunk their numbers to about 800 people, according to Charan Singh, a member of the central Sikh temple in Kabul.
“No one is a stranger — everyone is a cousin or a distant relative,” Mr. Singh said.
KABUL — Many among Afghanistan’s dwindling Sikh minority are considering leaving for neighboring India, after a suicide bombing in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday killed at least 13 members of the community.
The victims of the attack claimed by militant group Islamic State included Avtar Singh Khalsa, the only Sikh candidate in parliamentary elections this October, and Rawail Singh, a prominent community activist.
“I am clear that we cannot live here anymore,” said Tejvir Singh, 35, whose uncle was killed in the blast.
“Our religious practices will not be tolerated by the Islamic terrorists. We are Afghans. The government recognizes us, but terrorists target us because we are not Muslims,” added Singh, the secretary of a national panel of Hindus and Sikhs.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani says the Taliban group has no excuse to offer for the continuation of war and to refrain from peace talks. Speaking with the religious scholars in Laghman province, President Ghani said he is prepared to hold talks with the Taliban group in any place they want. He said if the declaration
The First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum has warned of dire consequences over the arrest of a top commander of Junbish Milli party. In a statement posted online, Gen. Dostum claimed that Commander Nizamuddin Qaisari has been arrested based on incorrect tip off. Gen. Dostum further added that Commander Qaisari has become a victim .
At least five civilians were killed or wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in central Logar province of Afghanistan, the local security officials said. The incident took place on Monday evening in the vicinity of Puli Alam district, the provincial capital of Logar province. Officials in Logar’s security commandment said at least two civilians
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
Spc. Gabriel D. Conde, 22, of Loveland, Colorado, was killed in action April 30 as a result of enemy small arms fire in Tagab District, Afghanistan. The incident is under investign.
Conde was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Alaska, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
All VA Medical Centers provide PTSD care, as well as many VA clinics.Some VA’s have programs specializing in PTSD treatment. Use the VA PTSD ProgramLocator to find a PTSD program.If you are a war Veteran, find a Vet Center to help with the transition from military to civilian life.
WAR DOCUMENTARY: IRAQ A DEADLY DECEPTION ALJAZEERA DOCUMENTARIES 2018 On the evening of 9/11, George W Bush made a vow to the American public – that he would defeat terrorism. Unknown to those listening in shock to the presidential address, the president and his advisers had already begun planning their trajectory into an invasion of Iraq. It was packaged as “holding responsible the states who support terrorism” by Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser between 2001 and 2003. “I believe it represented a recognition that we would never succeed against the terrorists if we went after them one at a time and as long as governments were facilitating the organisation, training, equipping of, financing of terrorist organisations, we were never going to get it under control,” says Perle. After 100 days spent fighting those who had become publicly accepted as the culprits – Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan – the US set the ball rolling for war against Iraq. On the evening of 9/11 the president is saying: well, maybe we’ll be going after Iraq now and somebody said, well, that would be against international law. The president responded: I don’t care, we’re going to kick some ass.
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