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, Powell and Blair from England
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.
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
Iraq A Deadly Deception – War Documentary 2018
WAR DOCUMENTARY: IRAQ A DEADLY DECEPTION ALJAZEERA DOCUMENTARIES
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.
Study admits that hasty efforts to set up liberal democratic institutions are likely to fail
Britain’s big postwar era foreign interventions have not relied enough on striking bargains between sometimes unsavoury regional elites, a Foreign Office study endorsed by ministers has found.
“There will be times when we have to hold our nose and support dialogue with those who oppose our values, or who may have committed war crimes,” said Alistair Burt, a Foreign Office minister who commissioned the report.
The study is the British government’s most comprehensive analysis of what makes external diplomatic and military interventions succeed or fail. It represents a repudiation of many of the assumptions behind British actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Based on studies of 21 different global conflicts, in which Britain often played a part, the independent report has been published by the cross-government Stabilisation Unit, bringing together the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and Department for International Development.
It admits that hasty efforts to set up liberal democratic institutions from scratch are likely to fail, especially if any new arrangements do not reflect the political context and reasons for the existing distribution between the elite.
The report states that Britain needs to be more willing to deal with powerful unsavoury elements even if they do not share British values, or are guilty of war crimes.
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Government forces are on the brink of seizing the last part of southwestern Syria still in rebel hands, having taken control of the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a war monitor and a media outlet close to Damascus said on Monday.
A military media unit run by Iran-backed Hezbollah, which fights alongside Damascus, said the Syrian army had secured the entire border with the Golan Heights.
Advancing government forces have seized all but a few villages held by an Islamic State-affiliated faction, the Khalid Ibn al-Walid army, that controlled the Yarmouk Basin, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Earlier in July, the Syrian government and its allies, backed by Russian air strikes, widened their offensive on the southwest to include the region which borders the Golan Heights and Jordan.
“Khalid Ibn al-Walid army now controls three small villages, which constitute less than one percent of the area it once controlled in Yarmouk Basin,” Rami Abdelrahman, director of the British-based Observatory, told Reuters by phone.
BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad’s path to a final victory in the war in Syria is strewn with diplomatic landmines that will complicate his attempt to recover “every inch” of the country and may leave big areas out of his grasp indefinitely.
Assad’s advances have accelerated this year in the conflict that began in 2011. Russian and Iranian military power helped deliver the defeat of the last rebels near the capital Damascus and the city of Homs, and allowed him to recover the southwest in a matter of weeks.
Rebels who once reduced Assad’s control to a small fraction of Syria now pose no military threat to his rule. With his allies’ help, Assad controls the bulk of the country and is inviting investors from “friendly” nations to help rebuild it.
Declaring the return of “normal life”, his Russian allies are urging refugees to come home, saying there is nothing to fear from Assad’s government, though many people continue to flee areas that are falling back under its control………….Almost all of northern Syria and much of the east remain outside his grasp. But in these areas a new test awaits: hostile Turkish and U.S. forces that have carved out separate spheres of control on Syrian territory.
Russian priorities, particularly its ties with Turkey, may largely determine how the war unfolds from here.
The Taliban have long said that only with the US will they discuss peace.
Direct talks with the militants, without Afghan officials present, marks a major turnaround in Washington’s policy as it seeks to end America’s longest war.
The meeting was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Two senior Taliban sources confirmed it to the BBC’s Mahfouz Zubaide, in Kabul. They said a six-member delegation was led by Abbas Stanikzai, who heads the group’s political office in D.
An air strike by the Afghan Air Force on 2 April killed 30 children, a UN investigation found
The helicopters arrived shortly after midday and sent a rocket hurtling into an area at the back of the crowd where children were sitting.
As people began to flee, witnesses said, heavy machine gun fire followed them.
It was the latest deadly example of how a ferocious new air campaign against the Taliban has caused a spike in civilian casualties from US and Afghan air operations.
This Afghan Air Force attack on 2 April in north-eastern Kunduz province killed at least 36 people and injured 71, the UN says. Although witnesses said Taliban fighters and senior figures were in the crowd, 30 of those killed were children.
Hundreds of people had gathered outside a madrassa in the Taliban-controlled district of Dasht-e-Archi to watch a group of students have turbans tied around their heads in a traditional ceremony to recognise their memorisation of the Koran.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb struck a passenger bus in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people, including women and children, officials said.
The morning attack in the Bala Buluk district in western Farah province also wounded 31 people, all civilians, according to Abdul Jabar Shahiq, the provincial health department chief.
Shahiq said the bus was on its way from Herat province toward the capital, Kabul, when it hit the roadside bomb………..The latest report by the United Nations says the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan in the first half of this year increased by 1 percent, compared to the same period last year. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said the number — 1,692 killed by violence — is the highest 6-month death toll since the systematic documentation of civilian casualties started in 2009.
Since the United States and NATO formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, a resurgent Taliban have stepped up attacks across the country and an Islamic State affiliate has also emerged, staging high-profile attacks that have claimed scores of civilian lives.
Farah province has seen heavy fighting in recent months, with local officials and tribal elders requesting additional government forces to support the overburdened army and police.
In May, more than 300 Taliban launched a multi-pronged attack on the city of Farah, the provincial capital, before they were repelled. At least 25 government troops were killed in the fighting.
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Latest on developments in Afghanistan
An Afghan provincial official says a coordinated attack is underway by the Taliban in the city of Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province.
Zabihullah Zemarai, a member of the provincial council, says there was first a car bombing — likely an explosion set off by a suicide car bomber — near the city’s provincial hospital and health department on Tuesday, followed by gunfire.
He says a refugee and repatriation department is also located in the same area of the city so the immediate target wasn’t clear.
Zemarai couldn’t confirm any casualties but says a heavy gunbattle is taking place between Afghan security forces and the attackers.
HERAT, Afghanistan — As many as 11 people were killed and more than 30 wounded when a bus in western Afghanistan hit a roadside bomb, officials said on Tuesday.
Mohibullah Mohib, a police spokesman in the western province of Farah, said the incident occurred at about 4.30 a.m. in Farah province on the highway between the city of Herat and Helmand province in southwestern Afghanistan.
He said at least seven people were killed and 27 wounded but a Herat ambulance service spokesman said the number of dead was 11, with 31 wounded.
The victims add to a growing toll from roadside bombs and other explosive devices, which are among the main causes of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.
At least eight militants were killed and a suspected Pakistani militant was arrested during the operations of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces in southeastern Paktia province.
The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in a statement said the Afghan armed forces conducted operations based on intelligence tip in Zurmat district, leaving at least eight militants dead.
The statement further added that at least twelve militants also sustained injuries during the same operations and a suspected Pakistani militant was arrested.
The detained Pakistani militant has been identified as Mirza Khan son of Sardar Khan who is originally a resident of Balochistan province, Thunder Corps added
The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman who was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve.
Staff Sgt. James T. Grotjan, 26, of Waterford, Connecticut, died July 12 at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, from injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident July 8 at Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates.
He was assigned to the 4th Civil Engineer Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Andrew Celiz, 32, from Summerville, South Carolina, died, July 12, in Afghanistan, of wounds sustained as a result of enemy small arms fire while conducting operations in support of a medical evacuation landing zone in Zurmat district, Paktiya province. The incident is under investigation.
Celiz was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, California, died July 7, 2018, in Tarin Kowt District, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan from wounds sustained during an apparent insider attack. The incident is under investigation.
Maciel was assigned to 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Georgia. Task Force 1-28 Infantry is currently deployed in support of the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade.
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.
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