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
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy
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.)
The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell who sold us the war still go on doing what they do.
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.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s yearslong war between Shiite rebels and a Saudi-led coalition backing its exiled government has escalated with an assault on the insurgent-held port city of Hodeida.
Here’s a look at Yemen, its tangled history and the combatants involved in a war that’s sparked what is now the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemen is an arid nation on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, just a little larger than Spain. Its coasts run along the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, as well as a crucial chokepoint between the two bodies of water called the Bab el-Mandeb strait. The strait is one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors and leads to the Suez Canal. It also narrowly separates Yemen from the African nations of Djibouti and Eritrea.
Unlike neighboring Saudi Arabia to the north, Yemen has little oil and natural gas reserves. Yemen also is one of the most water-scarce nations on the planet even in peacetime. Three-fourths of its 22 million people now need humanitarian assistance to survive. Nearly 80 percent live on less than $3.20 a day, according to the World Bank…………..A United Nations report said coalition airstrikes were responsible for 60 percent of civilian deaths over a yearlong span starting in July 2015. Saudi airstrikes hit civilian markets and hospitals, sparking international outrage. A coalition decision to block ports in Yemen, a nation reliant on food imports, pushed the country to the brink of famine, according to aid groups.
The UAE has set up secret detention centers in southern Yemen where prisoners were reportedly tortured, something denied by the Emirates. The UAE has worked with secessionists in south Yemen who have engaged in deadly clashes with Hadi’s forces. Most recently, the UAE faced anger for deploying troops to the Yemeni island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea.
UK calls emergency UN meeting as UAE claims Hodeidah offensive has reached area within five miles of airport
Forces loyal to the Yemeni government, backed by Saudi and UAE airstrikes, claimed on Thursday to have breached the first line of defences of Houthi rebels defending the strategic port of Hodeidah.
The UAE claimed its operation – dubbed Golden Victory – had reached an area within five miles of the airport, amid reports of terrified civilians trying to flee the city.
The Hodeidah deep sea port on the Red Sea is the base from which badly needed food, water and medicine is distributed to more than 8 million Yemenis, and all sides fear the fighting may result in the destruction of the port’s infrastructure, either by Houthi mines or airstrikes directed by the UAE.
Britain has called an emergency closed-doors meeting of the UN security council to discuss the offensive, and is facing calls from Russia and some EU countries to agree a statement condemning the attack on the port.
The Russian foreign ministry said an assault on the port would be a disaster for Yemen, and would halt the peace process designed to end the three-year civil war.
ADEN (Reuters) – Arab warplanes and warships pounded Houthi positions in Yemen’s Hodeidah for a second day on Thursday, as a Saudi-led alliance tried to seize the main port in the largest battle of a war that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations is struggling to avert disruption to the port, the main lifeline for food aid to a country where 8.4 million people are on the verge of starvation in what potentially would be the world’s worst famine for generations.
The Arab coalition also struck the main road linking Hodeidah to the capital Sanaa to block reinforcements, residents and anti-Houthi Yemeni military officials said.
The Iran-aligned Houthis control the capital and most of Yemen’s populated areas. The Arab states have been fighting since 2015 to unseat them, restore an exiled Saudi-backed government and halt what they see as Iranian expansionism.
“People are scared. The warships are terrifying and warplanes are flying overhead all the time,” university student Amina, 22, who lives near the port, told Reuters by telephone.
“People are fleeing the city to the countryside, but for those with no relatives there or money, there is no escape.”…………..Western countries have quietly backed the Arab coalition, but the threat of humanitarian catastrophe on an historic scale could unravel that support. The United Nations says 22 million Yemenis need humanitarian aid.
The number at risk of starvation could more than double to more than 18 million by year end, unless the situation improves.
Syrian women share personal testimonies of rape by regime soldiers.
“I didn’t know what was happening to me except that I was screaming and I was in pain. I felt like my thoughts no longer belonged to my body and my body no longer to my soul. My soul was elsewhere and my body was in the hands of the monsters.”
In Silent War, Syrian women break the taboo surrounding rape to speak openly about the abuse they endured at the hands of government soldiers.
In basements, prisons and their own homes, they were repeatedly raped for “crimes” such as participating in peaceful demonstrations or to send a message to their husbands, fathers and brothers.
“Every free citizen or any citizen engaged in the revolution has had one of the women of his family sent to detention … His sister, his daughter, his wife. The message is, ‘Either you surrender or we keep your wife or your daughter’. The regime used rape to humiliate the Syrian men,” explains one woman who served in the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for eight years before defecting.
They started to rape women at roadblocks, at home in front of their husbands, their children …. At some point, the regime took a new approach. It recorded videos of the rapes of women in detention and sent them to the fighters.
Defector, Syrian army
She describes the evolution of the use of rape as a weapon of war during the Syrian conflict, explaining how something that initially took place only inside prisons became more widespread and systematic.
The global chemical weapons watchdog says the nerve agent Sarin and chlorine are very likely to have been used in attacks on a Syrian village last year.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded Sarin was used as a weapon in the south of rebel-held Latamina on 24 March 2017, and chlorine at its hospital the next day.
It did not assign blame for the incidents, in line with its mandate.
But activists said at the time the area was under attack by government forces.
The government has repeatedly denied ever using chemical weapons.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has attacked Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim militias in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, casting such actions as potentially helping to stem a Syrian Sunni Muslim refugee exodus to Europe.
Israeli officials have previously disclosed scores of air strikes within Syria to prevent suspected arms transfers to Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah guerrillas or Iranian military deployments.
But they have rarely given detail on the operations, or described non-Lebanese militiamen as having been targeted…………“Obviously we are not going to let them do it. We’ll fight them. By preventing that – and we have bombed the bases of this, these Shi’ite militias – by preventing that, we are also offering, helping the security of your countries, the security of the world.” ………………..Netanyahu did not elaborate. About half Syria’s pre-war 22 million population has been displaced by the fighting, with hundreds of thousands of refugees making it to Europe.
Syria’s population is mostly Sunni Muslim. President Bashar al-Assad is from the Alawite religious minority, often considered an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian soldiers who flew a Nazi swastika flag over their fighting vehicle in Afghanistan more than a decade ago were “wrong” and punished at the time, Australia’s prime minister said on Thursday, after a picture of the incident emerged.
The flag was “briefly raised” above the vehicle in Afghanistan in 2007, Australia’s defense department said in a statement. The flag was clearly visible flying over the bonnet of a jeep in a photo published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“The flag obviously was removed and the personnel involved were disciplined,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in the Tasmanian state capital of Hobart, without specifying their punishment.
“It was absolutely wrong and their commanders took action at the time,” he said.
Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, has had troops in Afghanistan for 17 years fighting against the Taliban and other Islamist militants.
Their behavior between 2005 and 2016, including accusations that they used illegal force and showed a disregard for human life during missions, is being investigated by defense authorities.
KABUL, Afghanistan — The governor of eastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan Province says a clinic that was providing medical facilities for more than 2,000 people has been burned down by insurgents.
Hafiz Abdul Qaum says the attack happened early Thursday in Kamdesh district and seven staff members were taken hostage, with five later freed.
Qaum says two doctors are still being held by the insurgents. He said all the facility’s equipment was burned.
Zakiullah Storay, head of the health deportment in the province, said the facility was important, with 20 beds for people living in the rural area.
At least 58 people have been arrested on charges of forgery in voter registration process for the upcoming parliamentary and district councils elections. A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office Jamshid Rasuli told reporters that investigations are underway regarding the 24 cases of alleged forgery in the voters registration process. Rasuli further added that 58
The Minister of Interior Wais Ahmad Barmak says the Afghan forces are committed to respect the government’s decision for the ceasefire but ready to defend against the aggressions. Speaking during a press conference, Barmak expressed hopes for the extension of the ceasefire duration as he called on Taliban to respond positively to government’s offer for
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Octave Shield.
Staff Sgt. Alexander W. Conrad, 26, of Chandler, Arizona, died June 8, in Somalia of injuries sustained from enemy indirect fire. The incident is under investigation.
Conrad was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
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
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 14th, 2018 at 7:36 am and is filed under United States Wars.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.