Tag Archives: war

Recent links from Historians Against the War

Here are a couple of notes plus our latest set of links to recent on-line articles of interest.

1. Groups or individuals on more than 100 campuses have arranged for local participation in the “Fight Back USA” national teach-in being organized for April 5, to be hosted by Frances Fox Piven and Cornel West and live-streamed. Information is at http://fightbackteachin.org

2. The HAW Steering Committee has voted to co-sponsor a “Ground the Drones, End the Wars” march and rally on Friday, April 22 at Hancock Air National Guard Base in Mattydale, NY (outside Syracuse). Information is at http://upstatedroneaction.peaceworksrochester.org/flyers/Ground_the_Drones.pdf

Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“A Debate on U.S. Military Intervention in Libya: Juan Cole vs. Vijay Prashad”
On Democracy Now, posted March 29

“The Unfolding Crisis in Libya”
By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.org, posted March 28
The author teaches history at Tufts University

“The West’s ‘Double Standards’ in Middle East”
By Mark LeVine, English.Aljazeera.net, posted March 28
The author teaches history at the University of California, Irvine

“An Open Letter to the Left on Libya”
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted March 27
The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan

“American Thought Police”
By Paul Krugman, New York Times, posted March 27
On the Wisconsin Republican Party’s attack on historian William Cronon

“Libya Remembers, We Forget: These Bombs Are Not the First”
By Mark Mazower, The Guardian, posted March 25

“Social Science and the Libyan Adventure”
By Stephen M. Walt, ForeignPolicy.com blog, posted March 24

“Why Nothing Good Will Come of This Intervening in Libya”
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch.org, posted March 23
The author teaches history at Trinity College

“The ‘Kill Team’ Photographs”
By Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker blog, posted March 22

“Libya in the Balance”
By Nicholas Pelham, Middle East Research and Information Project, posted March 15
Has much historical background on the Gaddafi regime

Additional note from EWR:
More on “The Kill Team” at Rolling Stone: How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon

HAW Notes 3/18/11: Links to recent articles of interest

Recent articles recommended by Historians Against the War:

“Revealed: US Spy Operation That Manipulates Social Media”
By Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain, The Guardian, posted March 17
On a Pentagon contract for the creation of false on-line identities, known as “sock puppets”

“Korean War Coverage Was Distorted and Suppressed”
By Sherwood Ross, OpEdNews, posted March 17
Based on interviews with Korean War historian Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago

“How the Japanese Learned about ‘Nuclear Safety’”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, History News Network, posted March 17
On the 1954 “Lucky Dragon” nuclear incident; the author is an emeritus professor of history at SUNY Albany

“Smoking Out Vietnam War Truths”
By Nick Turse, Asia Times Online, posted March 12

“The Mythic Lure of the ‘No-Fly Zone’”
By Ira Chernus, History News Network, posted March 14

“Fissures in the Arab Revolt”
By Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch.org, posted March 11
Historical background on Libya and especially Bahrain; the author teaches South Asian history at Trinity College

“The Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning”
By Daniel Ellsberg, The Guardian, posted March 11

The Arab Spring”
By Rashid Khalidi, The Nation, March 21 issue, posted March 6
The author teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Columbia University

“The Long History of Labor Bashing”
By Nelson Lichtenstein, The Chronicle Review, posted March 6
The author teaches history at the University of California Santa Barbara

“The Middle East Revolutions in Historical Perspective: Egypt, Occupied Palestine, and the United States”
By Herbert P. Bix, Asia-Pacific Journal, February 21
The author is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who now teaches at Binghamton University

HAW Notes, including links to recent articles of interest on US foreign policy, wikileaks, Egypt, Tunsia, Afghanistan

To members and friends of Historians Against the War,

1. The HAW Steering Committee’s statement in response to President Obama’s State of the Union message, which was sent to this list last Friday, has since been picked up by the History News Network (at http://www.hnn.us/articles/135968.html) and by Portside.org (at http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/listserv/wa?A2=PORTSIDE;ca16889.1101d). The statement was drafted by Marty Halpern, Staughton Lynd, and Edrene McKay and endorsed by the Steering Committee after discussion.

2. Carl Mirra of the HAW Steering Committee has passed along a request from Cover Me, a resource center for veterans and soldiers outside Fort Stewart in Georgia. The request is that HAW members and supporters who have written books consider donating a copy that would be put in a library at the center. The address is Monica Benderman/Cover Me, 733 Strickland Road, Hinesville, GA 31313.

Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“Why Washington Clings to a Failed Middle East Strategy”
By Gareth Porter, CommonDreams.org, posted January 31

“President Obama, Say the ‘D-Word’”
By Mark A. LeVine, CommonDreams.org, posted January 29 (from Al Jazeera)
The author teaches history at UC Irvine

“Roots of the Egyptian Revolutionary Moment”
Interview with Mohammed Ezzeldin on the Real News Network, posted January 29
Mohammed Ezzeldin is a graduate of Cairo University and a history graduate student at Georgetown University

“Egyptian and Tunisian People vs. US Dominance”
Interview with Phyllis Bennis on the Real News Network, posted January 29

“The U.S. Is Moving On from Afghanistan, but Its Troops Are Still Dying There”
By Gary Younge, The Guardian, posted January 30
Includes comparisons with the Iraq War and Vietnam

“In America Today, Dwight D. Eisenhower Would Be Bernie Sanders in the U.S. Senate”
By Rachel Maddow, AlterNet.org, posted January 28

“The United States and the Prospects for Democracy in Arab Nations”
By Stephen Zunes, Huffington Post, posted January 27

“The Corruption Game: What the Tunisian Revolution and WikiLeaks Tell Us about American Support for Corrupt Dictatorships in the Muslim World”
By Juan Cole, TomDispatch.com, posted January 25

“Glaspie Memo Refutes Claims Leaked Docs Were Classified for ‘Security’”
By Jason Ditz, AntiWar.com, posted January 20

Historians Against the War: Links to recent articles

“How the Power of Myth Keeps Us Trapped in War”
By Ira Chernus, TomDispatch.com, posted January 20

“Tunisia’s Democratic Revolution”
By Stephen Zunes, Truth-out.org, posted January 19

“Violence Doesn’t Work”
By Howard Zinn, CommonDreams.org, posted January 18 (from the September 15, 2001 issue of The Progressive)

“From Military-Industrial Complex to Permanent War State”
By Gareth Porter, CommonDreams.org, posted January 17

“Ike’s Warning Resonates: 50 Years Later, Obama Should Learn Eisenhower’s Lesson about the Military-Industrial Complex”
By Melvin A. Goodman, Baltimore Sun, posted January 17

“Twisting MLK’s Message of Peace”
By William Loren Katz, ConsortiumNews, posted January 17

“It’s Still the Same Old Story—From Guns to Nukes”
By Lawrence A. Wittner, History News Network, posted January 17
The author is a professor of history emeritus at SUNY Albany

“An Assassination’s Long Shadow”

By Adam Hochschild, New York Times, posted January 16
On the murder of Patrice Lumumba, January 16, 1961

“Historians Criticized as Often AWOL from Public Debate over ‘War on Terror’”
By Peter Schmidt, Chronicle of Higher Education, posted January 12

“How Many Gitmo Alumni Take Up Arms? Not Nearly as Many as the Department of Defense Is Claiming”

By Peter Bergen, Kathleen Tiedemann, and Andrew Lebovitch, Foreign Policy, posted January 11

Educating for Peace in a Time of Permanent War: Call for proposals:

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS

FOR A BOOK ENTITLED

EDUCATING FOR PEACE IN A TIME OF PERMANENT WAR:
ARE SCHOOLS PART OF THE SOLUTION OR THE PROBLEM?

Under Contract
Routledge / Taylor & Francis

Co-editors Paul R. Carr (Lakehead University, Orillia) & Brad J. Porfilio (Lewis University)

Afterword Zvi Bekerman (Hebrew University)

SCHEDULE

1. Chapter proposals due: February 28, 2011
2. Feedback and decisions from editors to contributors: April 4, 2011
3. First drafts due to editors: July 15, 2011
4. Feedback on first drafts from editors to contributors: September 5, 2011
5. Final drafts by contributors due to editors: October 14, 2011
6. Manuscript to publisher: December 1, 2011
7. It is our expectation that the book will be publisher in early 2012

Statement of aims
This project responds to a defined need to add to the literature in a critical manner, providing scholars, educators and others interested in peace and peace education with a nuanced, complexifed analysis and, importantly, strategies to better understand how schools engage with the notion of war and peace, and, moreover, what they can do to become part of the solution related to creating societies that strive to establish peace as a foundational component to socio-cultural, economic and political manifestations framing relations and experiences.

This CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS seeks critical contributions from scholars who are concerned with the unchecked infiltration of the military within schools, whether it be through the curriculum, through pedagogy, through policy, through experiential learning, or through military recruitment. As Paulo Freire and other critical theorists, including Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, bell hooks, Joe Kincheloe, Antonia Darder and others have acknowledged, education is a political process, and it should, necessarily, address human suffering and oppression. The willful neglect, combined with our individual and collective complicity within the military enterprise, sometimes referred to as the military-industrial complex, takes place at many levels, including ignorance of militarization at home and abroad, tacit support for military conflict in spite of alternatives for peace that exist, an uncritical reading of history that glorifies war and patriotism, a lack of critical engagement to promote peace over war, and a general reluctance to infuse a more critical pedagogical experience interwoven into education that would allow for deliberative democracy and engagement that seeks to contextualize and bring to life diverse epistemologies, value-sets, disciplines, theories, concepts, and experiences.

Little is done in schools at the formal and informal levels to address war and peace, especially in relation to what can and should be done to bring about peace, and this volume seeks to provide a range of policy, pedagogical, curriculum and institutional analyses aimed at facilitating meaningful engagement toward a more robust and critical examination of the role that schools play (and can play) in framing war, militarization and armed conflict.

We are particularly interested in the connection between war and peace. Many excellent texts deal specifically with peace and peace education, and we are hoping that this volume will make a more explicit connection between war/conflict/militarization and peace in and through education. We are also interested in nuanced, alternative, critical interdisciplinary studies that bring to light how we know, understand, engage with, and problematize war within our societies, and, particularly, within our schools. This manuscript is intended for an international audience, and we welcome proposals from scholars in diverse contexts, geographical locations and disciplines.

ONE LINE DESCIPTION OF THE BOOK

Ignorance is no defense, and may even be construed as complicity in the quest for what Peter McLaren calls “permanent war”.

If education is not about peace, then is it about war?

Can a society have education that willfully avoids considering peace as its central objective?

FOCUS

This book intends to better articulate how schools are part of the war industry, and, importantly, how schools can do peace education by examining war.

War is not a nebulous, far-away, mysterious venture; we are involved in perpetrating and perpetuating it, and education about and against war can be as liberating as it is necessary.

If war equates killing, can our schools avoid engaging in the examination of what war is all about?

This book shines a light on the pivotal role played by schools and education in ending or continuing war.

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS

1. Submit the following by February 28, 2011, to Paul R. Carr and Brad J. Porfilio: prcarr@gmail.com & Porfilio16@aol.com
2.
a. Title of proposed chapter
b. Author(s) and complete institutional titles and contact information
c. A 150-word biography for each author
d. A 300-word abstract of the proposed chapter, including what research methods are being used, theoretical and conceptual framework used, focus, and findings (or expected findings), and how the chapter is directly connected to the focus of the book.

Co-editor biographies

Paul R. Carr is originally from Toronto, and now resides in Montreal. He was recently an associate professor at Youngstown State University, where he taught courses in multicultural education, the sociology of education, diversity and leadership, and qualitative methodology, and is now an Associate Professor at Lakehead University (Orillia) in the Departments of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies. His current research is broadly concerned with social justice, with specific threads related to critical pedagogy, democracy, media literacy, and intercultural education. In 2007, he co-edited The Great White North? Exploring Whiteness, Privilege and Identity in Education (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers), which won two national awards, and, in 2008, co-edited another book, entitled Doing Democracy: Striving for Political Literacy and Social Justice (New York: Peter Lang). He recently finalized two other edited books: the first in French entitled Les faces caches de l’intercultural (Paris: L’Harmattan), and the second, with Brad Porfilio, entitled Youth Culture, education and resistance: Subverting the commercial ordering of life (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers). He has recently authored book entitled Democracy and critical pedagogy: Does your vote count? (New York: Peter Lang). Paul is the co-founder and co-director of the Global Doing Democracy Research Project, which aims to produce a range of studies on the international level, leading to critical, comparative analysis of how democracy and education can be more effectively connected.

Dr. Brad J. Porfilio is Assistant Professor of Education at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL. He teaches courses on critical pedagogy, qualitative research, globalization and education, multicultural education, foundations of education, and curriculum theory in the Educational Leadership for Teaching and Learning Doctoral Program. The Educational Leadership Program at Lewis University is unique in its critical and transformative focus where students are prepared to become transformative educational leaders who are deeply discerning, knowledgeable and approach the educational system as a potential avenue for challenging and transforming the status quo. Dr. Porfilio received his PhD in Sociology of Education in 2005 at the University at Buffalo. During his doctoral studies, he served as an Assistant Professor of Education at Medaille College and D’Youville College, where he taught courses across the teacher education spectrum and supervised pre-service and in-service teachers from Canada and the US. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, edited volumes, and conference papers on the topics of urban education, critical social studies education, neoliberalism and schooling, transformative education, teacher education, gender and technology, and cultural studies. He recently published three co- edited volumes: The first, co-edited with Curry Malott, The Destructive Path of Neoliberalism (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers), the second, co-edited with Paul R. Carr, Youth Culture, Education and Resistance: Subverting the Commercial Ordering of Life (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers), and the third, co-edited with Curry Malott, Critical Pedagogy in the 21st Century: A New Generation of Scholars (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing).

Paul R. Carr Brad J. Porfilio
Lakehead University (Orillia) Lewis University
prcarr@gmail.edu porfilio16@aol.com

“Empire rots the brains of imperialists, is driven by hubris, racism and arrogance”—R.I.P. Chalmers Johnson

“Imperialism is a form of tyranny, it never rules through consent of the governed. …We talk about the spread of democracy, but we talk about the spread of democracy at the point of an assault rifle.”—Chalmers Johnson

Via Rich Gibson:

So Long Chalmers Johnson (Died November 20, Saturday, San Diego):

“Empire rots the brains of imperialists, is driven by hubris, racism and arrogance.”

Johnson was always an anti-communist, which he equated with Soviet and Chinese communism (he quickly identified the latter as little more than peasant nationalism, rightly so). Probably recruited by Hannah Arendt as a CIA asset, Johnson targeted the east, Japan (“US puppets”) and China. With the implosion of Soviet social fascism, Johnson expected a peace dividend which never materialized. Turning his eyes on the US empire of bases (800 plus), he foretold 9/11/2001 in “Blowback,” then built a trilogy with the later “Sorrows of Empire,” and “Nemesis.” In print and in person, he repeatedly said the US is now a fascist state, one of the few truly reputable scholars with the courage to do so. In “Nemesis,” he said bankruptcy would be the key to the end of the US empire–but warned it would not die with a whimper. He had two suggestions for citizens. The first, take your cat and go to Vancouver. Later, he suggested the US just dissolve its own might, as he said the Brits did. The US, however, does not have the US to hide behind. Johnson’s almost reflexive rejection of a Marxist analysis of imperialism (born almost simultaneously with capitalism, a relentless quest for cheap labor, raw materials, markets, regional control–empire) led him to view imperialism as hubris plus militarism–meaning a change of mind could upend the vampire’s desires. It cannot. Nevertheless, Johnson’s incredible prescience creates a field of land-mines for any of his critics. His research methods should be studied by everyone serious about social change. His book on Revolution, opposing it, inspires those who are for it. Finally, his insider knowledge coupled with a razor wit made encounters with Chalmers Johnson a challenge. He never backed down. So long, and “adios” (his habitual farewell) Chalmers. What you did counted.

Good luck to us, every one.

r

Democracy Now!: Chalmers Johnson, 1931-2010, on the Last Days of the American Republic

Audio interview March 2010 on Media Matters with Bob McChesney

John Nichols The Nation Blog: Chalmers Johnson and the Patriotic Struggle Against Empire

Rouge Forum Update: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda

Rouge Forum Update: The Education Agenda is a War Agenda. (Read full update here.)

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Chicago Whittier Sitdowners Hold Strong For Complete Victory:
“I was ignored, laughed at, intimidated and treated like a criminal by CPS.”

Part of Arceli Gonzalez’s opening remark Wednesday during her allotted time at the Chicago Public Schools board meeting is no longer true. The parents and activists protesting at Whittier Elementary School are not being ignored.

After her contentious exchange with schools CEO Ron Huberman, Gonzalez and over a dozen other supporters of the protest filtered out of the board chamber. In the hallway, a gaggle of media crowded around for an impromptu press conference where Gonzalez said the sit-in would not end even if they received Huberman’s promised letter outlining prior agreements to preserve the field house they call “La Casita.”

For the last 43 days, parents and activists from Pilsen have been living in the field house at Whittier, 1900 W. 23rd St., to protest the plan to demolish the decades-old building – deemed unsafe by CPS – and replace it with green space. It was to be the final part of $1.4 million in improvements to Whittier in the last year. The group demands a library for the school, one of over 160 in the system without a formal library.

“We don’t want 10 books in the school, we want a full top-of-the-line library for our kids, just like other schools are getting,” said Evelin Santos, a DePaul student from Pilsen who has been very active in the protests.

One of the Best Big Test Videos Yet:

“Collaborative Planning”

Male figure: Let’s begin today’s collaborative planning meeting with successes and challenges. Who would like to volunteer some successes? You are all required to volunteer successes.

Female voice: My students are not understanding verse structure. We have been working on it for three days….

Male voice: That is not a success. You need to mention a success for this week.

Female voice: There have not been any this week. Today is Tuesday and Monday was a holiday.

Male voice: See, it was not hard to find a success. Stop being so negative and we can get more done. Does anyone have a challenge to volunteer?

Berkeley Riots Over Education Cuts:

The Education Agenda is a War Agenda: CHULA VISTA, CA – Southwestern College today announced a major new partnership with the U.S. Navy and Department of Labor to train students for long-term, well-paying careers in ship maintenance and repair. The new program is the only one of its kind in California and open to anyone interested in becoming part of the Navy’s civilian workforce.

“Our students want an education that translates into a career. With this new partnership, they have yet another way to get it,” Dr. Raj K. Chopra, Superintendent/President of Southwestern College, said. “Working with our federal partners, Southwestern College is proud to offer diverse learning opportunities to our students and community.”

The program, called the Southwest Regional Apprenticeship Program, is based at the Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado. It includes academic and trade-based training, and provides its graduates U.S. Navy and Department of Labor Journeyworker certifications and a Certificate of Proficiency from Southwestern College.

So You Want to Get a PhD in the Humanities? (Poignant video)

Another Creative Video by Jerry “Gangs in the Hat!”

Stroker Mathis Sentenced: Former Detroit Public School Board President Otis Mathis was sentenced today to two years probation for misconduct in office related to accusations he fondled himself during a private meeting with the woman who was then serving as the district’s superintendent.

More Detroit School Administrator/Gangsters Charged: A federal grand jury today whacked a former Detroit Public Schools executive with new charges in a public corruption scandal involving inflated million-dollar invoices, kickbacks and expensive parties that were thrown on the school district’s dime.

Charged in the superseding indictment was Stephen Hill, 59, a former executive director of the Risk Management Department of the DPS, who allegedly accepted and demanded kickbacks from a vendor accused of looting more than $3 million from the school district by over-billing for inadequate work. Hill also accepted kickbacks in the form of a brand-new Mustang GT convertible in 2005, and a new Dodge Durango SUV in 2006, the indictment said.

Hill also is charged with conspiring to use DPS funds to pay for his $40,000 retirement party when he temporarily left DPS in September 2005.

Also charged in the superseding indictment were Sherry Washington, her sister Gwendolyn Washington, Marilyn White, and Sally Jo Bond — all of whom were partners in company called “Associates for Learning.”

According to the indictment, Associates for Learning contracted with Hill to facilitate a wellness program for DPS employees that was supposed to cost $150,000. The company ended up billing DPS more than $3 million for the program, and gave Hill 5% of the total amount as a kickback, the indictment said.

Read full update here.

Rouge Forum Update: Uprising in France and Victory in Chicago!

The full Rouge Forum Update is here.

Perpetual War

Michel Foucault ( from punishment to surveillance ) + Sarkozy

AlJazeera On the WikiLeaks Release: Working with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London for the past 10 weeks, Al Jazeera has analysed tens of thousands of documents, finding facts the US has kept hidden from public scrutiny.

What has been uncovered often contradicts the official narrative of the conflict. For example, the leaked data shows that the US has been keeping records of Iraqi deaths and injuries throughout the war, despite public statements to the contrary.

The latest cache of files pertains to a period of six years – from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2009 – and shows that 109,000 people died during this time. Of those, a staggering 66,081 – two-thirds of the total – were civilians.

The figures are much higher than previously estimated and they will inevitably lead to an upward revision of the overall death toll of the conflict.

As a result of the information contained in the war logs, the Iraq Body Count (IBC) – an organisation that kept records of the number of people killed – is about to raise its death toll estimates by 15,000: to 122,000 from 107,000.

The new material throws light on the day-to-day horrors of the war. The military calls them SIGACTs – significant action reports – ground-level summaries of the events that punctuated the conflict: raids, searches, roadside bombings, arrests, and more. All of them are classified “secret”.

The reports reveal how torture was rampant and how ordinary civilians bore the brunt of the conflict.

The files record horrifying tales: of pregnant women being shot dead at checkpoints, of priests kidnapped and murdered, of Iraqi prison guards using electric drills to force their prisoners to confess.

Equally disturbing is the response of the military to the civilian deaths caused by its troops. Excessive use of force was routinely not investigated and the guilty were rarely brought to book.

The WikiLeaks Release that the US Did Not Want Seen: At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports (‘The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a ‘SIGACT’ or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 ‘civilians’; 23,984 ‘enemy’ (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 ‘host nation’ (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 ‘friendly’ (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the ‘Afghan War Diaries’, previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivallent population size.

Linked below a CBS Video on the Pathetic San Diego Homeless Vets’ Stand-down: The VA tells “60 Minutes” that, already, there are more than 9,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets who’ve been homeless.

Two million troops have already served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The VA believes there could be thousands more homeless in part because of the combat stress and brain injuries that roadside bombs inflict. Already, a quarter of a million troops have asked for mental health treatment.

“The troops that are gonna come back from Afghanistan and from Iraq, is this country prepared for that?” Pelley asked.

“I don’t think so,” Nachison said.

Secret Wars Hidden From Even Corrupt In-bed-with Journalists: A major military operation involving hundreds of American troops, U.S. Special Forces and heavy bombers dropping 2,000-pound bombs on Taliban command and control centers wrapped up last week, concluding a critical phase in the campaign to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province.

But no journalists were there to witness the operation.

U.S. military officials told journalists who had arrived to Kandahar Airfield for embeds in the Arghandab district between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15 that logistical problems had caused their embeds to be canceled.

US Construction Way Down—US Construction for Afghan Permanent Bases Way Up: analysis of little-noticed U.S. government records and publications, including U.S. Army and Army Corps of Engineers contracting documents and construction-bid solicitations issued over the last five months, fills in the picture. The documents reveal plans for large-scale, expensive Afghan base expansions of every sort and a military that is expecting to pursue its building boom without letup well into the future. These facts-on-the-ground indicate that, whatever timelines for phased withdrawal may be issued in Washington, the U.S. military is focused on building up, not drawing down, in Afghanistan….

Despite a pledge from the Obama administration to begin its troop drawdowns next July, this ongoing base-construction splurge, when put together with recent signals from the White House, civilians at the Pentagon, and top military commanders, including Afghan war chief General David Petraeus, suggests that the process may be drawn out over many years. During a recent interview with ABC News Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, for instance, Petraeus affirmed the president’s July 2011 timeline, but added a crucial caveat. “It will be a pace that is determined by conditions,” he said.

Who Lost the Sunnis? Members of United States-allied Awakening Councils have quit or been dismissed from their positions in significant numbers in recent months, prey to an intensive recruitment campaign by the Sunni insurgency, according to government officials, current and former members of the Awakening and insurgents.
Although there are no firm figures, security and political officials say hundreds of the well-disciplined fighters — many of whom have gained extensive knowledge about the American military — appear to have rejoined Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Beyond that, officials say that even many of the Awakening fighters still on the Iraqi government payroll, possibly thousands of them, covertly aid the insurgency.

War Criminal Rice Lauds Obamagogue’s BiPartisan Wars: Rice said she and Obama “covered the waterfront.” “Despite the fact there are changes and tussles, there is still a foreign policy community that believes that foreign policy ought to be bipartisan,” she said. “It was really great that he reached out in that way.”

The Hitler Exhibit is ONLY ABOUT GERMANS: the show focuses on the society that nurtured and empowered him. It is not the first time historians have argued that Hitler did not corral the Germans as much as the Germans elevated Hitler. But one curator said the message was arguably more vital for Germany now than at any time in the past six decades, as rising nationalism, more open hostility to immigrants and a generational disconnect from the events of the Nazi era have older Germans concerned about repeating the past….

…over and over, the point was spelled out clearly in the exhibit’s plaques like one, near letters written by children who were sent off to concentration camps, that said: “Hitler was able to implement his military and extermination objectives because the military and economic elites were willing to carry out his war.”

The exhibit, with all its photographs of young and old adoring Hitler, also sought to dispel the notion that the Nazi spirit was simply impossible to resist. It held up Johann Georg Elser as proof that “it was possible for an individual to develop into a resistance fighter.”

Mr. Elser was a carpenter who tried to kill Hitler at the outset of the war and was hanged for his actions.

His story, however, left some viewers to wonder why their parents and grandparents had not rejected Hitler. Why everyone went mad.

Tom Brokaw—to the Left of Most Education Reformers: Notice anything missing on the campaign landscape? How about war? The United States is now in its ninth year of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the longest wars in American history. Almost 5,000 men and women have been killed. More than 30,000 have been wounded, some so gravely they’re returning home to become, effectively, wards of their families and communities.

Wikileaks Iraq War Diaries

From Wikileaks:

At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports (‘The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a ‘SIGACT’ or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 ‘civilians’; 23,984 ‘enemy’ (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 ‘host nation’ (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 ‘friendly’ (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the ‘Afghan War Diaries’, previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivallent population size.

The Guardian Wikileaks page (visit this page for various analyses of data from documents released today by Wikileaks, as well as related news stories).

Democracy Now!: Pentagon Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on Iraq War Wikileaks Docs

The whistleblowing group WikiLeaks is preparing to release up to 400,000 U.S. intelligence reports on the Iraq War. The disclosure would comprise the biggest leak in U.S. history, far more than the 91,000 Afghanistan war logs WikiLeaks released this summer. We speak to the nation’s most famous whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the secret history of the Vietnam War in 1971. For a complete transcript or the podcast, visit www.DemocracyNow.org