Two wrongs don't make a right

The Congress shall have the power ... [t]o declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal,  and make rules concerning captures on land and water.  

-- US Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 8

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WAR noun, often attributive

a (1) : a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations (2) : a period of such armed conflict (3) : state of war

b : the art or science of warfare

c (1) obsolete : weapons and equipment for war (2) archaic :soldiers armed and equipped for war
2
a : a state of hostility, conflict, or antagonism

b : a struggle or competition between opposing forces or for a particular end war against disease;

c : variance, odds 3— war·less  adjective 

-- Merriam Webster dictionarynoun, often attributive \ˈwȯr\

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War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y'all
War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me. 

-- "War" by Edwin Starr

I don't care what you call it. Limited strikes. Targeted strikes. It doesn't matter. It's still war. Whether you want to say the bombing campaign will only last a few days. So fucking what. You're still declaring war on Syria.

And why?

Because somehow the national security of the United States of America is at stake? Really? I don't care if you made some ad lib about chemical weapons and a red line. That's a "you" problem. Do you really expect us to buy your argument that because you made a comment about a red line that it's now a matter of national security that we drop bombs and fire missiles on Syria?

I still can't fathom how Barack Obama not only won, but was even nominated, for the Nobel Peace Prize. He has taken George W. Bush's lead and run with it. Instead of ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he extended them. Instead of closing the US torture camp at Guantanamo Bay, he kept it running. Instead of looking for a humanitarian way of ending the slaughter in Syria, hr has chosen to perpetuate it.

No one has ever deserved the Nobel Peace Prize less than President Obama. There are few bigger hypocrites than our President (though John Kerry rates a close second).

Syria has descended into a brutal civil war. That's what happens with dictatorial regimes. No one in Washington cared as a hundred thousand Syrians were killed. No one cared until someone used chemical weapons. What difference does it make how a civilian is killed. You are just as dead if you are shot in the head as if you breathe in poisonous gas. What makes the use of chemical weapons so special?

Back in 2012 I had to sit through a presentation at the Rusty Duncan Advanced Criminal Law Seminar (put on by the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association) in which TCDLA President Gary Trichter introduced a man who piloted a plan whose mission was to drop bombs on Tokyo in World War II. We were supposed to hail this man as a hero since he was able to eject himself from his plane and make it to safety.

But how much honor is there is dropping bombs from high up in the sky on cities in another country? This wasn't the story of a war hero - it was the story of a war criminal. I was appalled at the presentation. We look at the Japanese pilots who dropped bombs on US ships in Pearl Harbor as evil people, yet we celebrate people who set out to drop bombs on civilians.

There is no justification for dropping bombs or firing missiles on Syria. There is no humanitarian purpose served by dropping bombs or firing missiles. The military's function is to destroy - not to build.

The militarization of elementary school

Every Wednesday

Military shirts

Spring Branch T-2-4 Plan 

By 2017, SBISD will double the number of students completing a technical certificate or military training, two-year or four-year degree.

Pine Shadows Elementary School will support this plan by encouraging staff and students to wear a technical school, military shirt or two or four year college shirt/t-shirt every Wednesday, beginning September 4, 2013.

And so begins the indoctrination into unquestioning support of the military in our schools. I guess they have to learn somewhere that we should all cheer and support the murder of innocent men, women and children and the wanton destruction of property and land around the world. Who couldn't get behind that?

Our schools are for learning. Violence is the last resort of those who can't think of a better way to get what they want other than destroying someone or something. Shouldn't our goal be to get away from that kind of mindset? Shouldn't we be teaching our children why war is not the answer?

It's got to start somewhere. At some point we have to get away from trying to solve every problem with a gun or a bomb. Our role as stewards of the earth is to leave it in better shape than it was when we came along. Is perpetuating a war mentality the way to do that?

We've seen President Obama and the other cheerleaders for bombing Syria talk about the women and children who were killed by the alleged chemical weapon attack from their own government. Yes, we should be appalled. But where is the outrage over the innocent men, women and children who have died at the hands of American artillery and armaments? Where is the outrage over the scores of people killed by drone attacks who had absolutely nothing to do with any terrorist plot?

I'm pretty sure that won't be a topic on "wear your shirt supporting death and destruction" day at my daughters' school. I'm sure they won't be talking about the hundreds of thousands of people around the world killed as a result of our government's militaristic policies and support of right-wing dictatorships.

I cling to the belief that one day we will live in a world without war. I doubt I will see that day but I hope that someday my grandchildren or their children will live in that world. Encouraging unquestioning support of the military and war culture gets us nowhere near that goal.

Lies, lies, lies

The Big Lie began ten years ago this week.

There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Bush administration knew it was a lie. They were just looking for a justification.

There were no ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. The Bush administration knew it was a lie. They were just looking for a justification.

Yes, there were chemical weapons. But that, too, was just an excuse. Our government looked the other way when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds when Iraq was our ally.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq costs tens of thousands of Iraqis their lives and their homes. Missiles and rockets were fired indiscriminately into residential neighborhoods. No one has ever been charged for those war crimes.

The lies led to the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan where tens of thousands more have died needlessly in a war built upon deception. The US mission has ended in a stalemate. President Obama has announced that the troops will be coming home next year. He's hailing it as a successful conclusion to the war. Just like Richard Nixon ordered the evacuation of US troops from Vietnam and called it a victory, too.

Every one of those deaths was unnecessary. There was never any reason for our government to send our young people to die on foreign soil so that American-based transnational corporations could move into the region and rape and pillage in the name of profit.

I was down in Seabrook the other day to run a marathon. Before the race began someone called Brother Something-or-Other took the microphone and asked for a moment of silence for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. This supposed man of the cloth couldn't have cared less about the slaughter of the innocents that has taken place over the last decade. He only cared about those wearing a uniform with our flag on it.

I was as sickened by his actions as much as I am by all the "Support the Troops" festivities at football and baseball games. I was as sickened as much as I am when college basketball teams accept offers to wear camouflage uniforms and play on aircraft carriers to ramp up support for a war built upon lies.

As much as I would love to put the onus for the needless death and destruction on George W. Bush, I can't. He may have been the one to put things in motion but President Obama has continued the war unabated. Thus the longest war in American history continues with the guarantee that the world won't be any better for it.

And that's no lie.

Give us this day our daily opiate

From the "ignorance must be bliss" files we have this bumper sticker found in my daughters' school parking lot that gives us the potent mix of guns, god and the GOP.

This idea that god is on our side because we are more righteous than anyone else is key to they way in which religion is used as an organizing tool by those in power. Forget that little commandment that tells us not to kill. That's just a technicality. 

The logic is flawed from the get-go. You say your god is a loving god. You say your god loves all of "the children." You tell us that your god is pro-life. Yet you believe that this god of yours would, and should, cast his blessings on the people carrying guns around and firing on other folks because of the color of their skin, or the clothes they're wearing or the religion they practice or whatever reason we're at war somewhere in the world.

Enjoy your opiate.

Peace is in the eye of the beholder

Yesterday, in Oslo, the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

And just what did our friends in the EU do to deserve such an award? For one, its members, collectively, account for about one-third of the world's arms trade. Those arms have been used by repressive regimes to quell dissent around the globe. Through NATO, the nations of the EU have provided troops for the murderous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, to top it off, the EU has imposed crippling austerity measures on Greece and Spain.

As a result of the EU's mission to protect international lenders, the people of Greece and Spain have seen spending on education and health care plummet. Greece and Spain are being pressured to privatize industry - handing over control from the populace to unaccountable foreign corporations. The people have responded by taking to the streets.

Of course the bar in Oslo isn't very high. How else can you explain Henry Kissinger in 1973 and Barack Obama in 2009?

Mr. Kissinger was the architect of Nixon's policy of bombing Vietnam back to the Stone Age. He gave the Indonesian dictator Suharto the go-ahead to slaughter the people of East Timor.

President Obama won the award despite his status as one of the world's great warmongers. And, as if to show the prize wasn't a fluke, President Obama has declared himself to be judge, jury and executioner in his use of unmanned drones to murder civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

Over the course of his administration, President Obama continued the torture program created under George W. Bush. He sent more troops to Afghanistan. He went after whistle blowers who exposed the human rights abuses committed by the United States.

Once upon a time Alfred Nobel decided to reward the person who did the most to promote peace and understanding in the world. Today the prize that bears his name has become a parody of itself. 

Bashar al-Assad might just find himself on the short list for next year's award if he can bring an end to the unrest by murdering the entire populace.

H/T Democracy Now!

On faux patriotism and propaganda

This weekend a number of college football and basketball teams will wear what Uniwatch blogger Paul Lukas' refers to as their G.I. Joe uniforms. The ostensible purpose is to commemorate Veteran's Day. The real purpose, however, is to serve the needs of the war industry's propaganda machine.

Last weekend the NFL went all gung-ho for war with special ribbon decals on helmets and gaudy displays of faux patriotism at stadium after stadium. The NFL said it was to celebrate Veteran's Day. Nope. It was more pro-war propaganda.

This entire notion that we are "supporting the troops" sprung out of President Bush the Elder's war in the Persian Gulf. You remember that one, don't you? Our government supposedly sent our young people to die in the desert to "liberate" Kuwait from Iraq. We went to "liberate" a dictatorship that repressed dissent. Now that's something to die for.

In order to sell this war to the American people the war industry's propaganda machine came up with the idea of "supporting the troops." Not supporting the war, mind you, just supporting the young men sent to die so a dictator and his family could profit from oil in the ground. The military had learned its lesson in Vietnam. It was somehow deemed unpatriotic if you didn't support the troops. Of course, supporting the troops was the same thing as supporting the war - it's just that a whole bunch of folks bought the propaganda hook, line and sinker.

Now with interest in the Afghan war cratering by the minute - and with some calling for massive cuts in defense spending - here comes the war machine again. Dress up those college kids in camo uniforms. Convert helmet logos into desecrated flags. Parade soldiers in their uniforms around the stadium. Celebrate the killing of young people around the world.

The kids do as they're told. The coaches and administrators have the power to stop this charade - but they are too enticed by the money being waved in front of them by ESPN and the uniform makers. They are the ones raking in the bucks - and they should be ashamed of themselves.

War is not glorious. War is not civilized. War is about death and destruction. If we're going to force pro-war propaganda down peoples' throats then we also need to see the caskets bearing the remains of dead soldiers being offloaded from the planes. We need to see pictures from the battlefield of young men on the ground bleeding and dying. We need to see pictures of the civilians killed by mortar fire and bombs. If the American people were to see those pictures on a nightly basis the pro-war hysteria would disappear in a hurry and we would stop burning money by handing it to the Pentagon and their crooked contractors.

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day. It's not pro-war day. It's not support the latest war day. It's a day to remember those men and women who wore a uniform and went where they were told to go and did what they were told to do. It's about remembering those men and women who fought on the battlefields of Europe and Asia fighting the fascists in World War II. It's about remembering the men and women who manned the lines in our proxy wars with China in Korea and Vietnam. It's about remembering the men and women who were exposed to enemy fire in the Bushes' wars for oil. It's about remembering the men and women who faced death in Afghanistan and Iraq because President Obama didn't have the will to end those wars.

The last war this nation fought that had a noble purpose was World War II. The wars and conflicts since then have all been about defending American imperialism or making the world safe for oil companies.

And in each of those conflicts our leaders in Washington had no problem sending thousands of our young people to their deaths. I can't help but think those decisions would have been different had the men who chose to go to war had to fight on the front lines. Or if their children or grandchildren would have to carry out their wishes.

If we really want to support the troops - and honor those who have served in the past - then it's time to bring them home. It's time to stop sending young men and women to their deaths to satisfy the needs of corporations. It's time we realize that war serves no other purpose than to show how little respect we have for life.

A couple of Saturday morning thoughts

Remembering George McGovern

George McGovern, the Democratic nominee foe the Presidency in 1972, who ran on an anti-war platform is near death. One can only wonder how much better a place this world would have been had he won the White House instead of Richard Nixon.

On Friday, Democracy Now! ran excerpts from Steve Vittoria's documentary One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern. And, to honor the memory of Sen. McGovern, here it is...



Rest in peace, Senator.

Big Tex burns

Yesterday Big Tex, the iconic 60-foot cowboy at the State Fair of Texas burned. All that was left was the metal frame.

I happen to think it was an act of self-immolation because Tex couldn't take any more of the incompetence that is Manny Diaz running the defense (or what passes off as the defense) for the University of Texas. It would have seemed a bit more appropriate had the fire occurred last Saturday as the boys in orange trudged off the field after being humiliated by that band of dirt thieves and traitors from north of the Red River.

Book review: The End of War - how waging peace can save humanity, our planet and our future

Paul K. Chappell's latest book, The End of War, isn't on the newly released list - but I just found out about it a couple of weeks ago. And, although I may be late to the party, the wait was well worth it.

Mr. Chappell was a captain in the US Army so his is a very intriguing look at the causes of war and the ways we can avoid war in the future. As Mr. Chappell sees it, peace activists and soldiers have a lot more in common that you would think - they both want peace and an end to war. Those striking the drums of war aren't the soldiers; they're the politicians and others who have something to gain from sending young men to the deaths in other parts of the world.

War, according to Mr. Chappell, results from fear. Fear tends to provoke one of two reactions: one either runs or one displays warning aggression. Warning aggression is a way for animals, and people, to try to scare off a perceived aggressor. For instance, if you're out in the woods and you see a bear, the worst thing you can do is run. If you run, the bear will chase you down and you'll have a very serious problem on your hands. On the other hand, if you act aggressively toward the bear, the bear will leave because the bear isn't looking for a fight.

Warning aggression is what the nuclear arms race and mutually assured destruction was all about. Neither the US nor the Soviet Union ever intended to use their vast arsenals of nuclear weapons. But the existence of those arsenals prevented the other side from even thinking of launching an attack.

Address the issue of fear and you address the cause of war. If you have any doubts, just look at how politicians and some in the media instill fear in the minds of the American public while beating the drums of war.

For many animals, warning aggression ends any potential conflict. But, if an animal is backed into a corner with no escape, conflict will ensue. And that's the way in which countries get dragged into wars. When a nation has no way of backing down from a conflict - war will come.

Mr. Chappell also posits that there are three universal laws of conflict that sow the seeds of war. The first of these laws is the more complex something is, the more things there are to go wrong. Human society is very complex and our relationships with others are complex. With a multitude of political and religious beliefs, there are many ways these relationships can break down.

The second law is very similar to the concept behind chaos theory - in a complex system, one small problem can create a very big problem. As the saying goes, a butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause a hurricane in the Gulf.

But there is hope still. For, increasing understanding can overcome increasing complexity. The more we understand ourselves and our neighbors the easier it is for us to get past the two laws of complexity. The more you understand someone else, the more you realize that your differences are far smaller than your similarities. We all want three things: food, shelter and clothing. The ways we go about getting those items may differ, but our needs are all the same.

Throughout the book, Mr. Chappell makes reference to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., and their nonviolent struggles for freedom. He points out that both men taught understanding, patience and tolerance. Their goal was to transform a society, not to rip it apart. We have this perverse notion that the only way to obtain peace is through war, but, as a soldier, Mr. Chappell has seen the incredible devastation that war brings. His mission is to fight for peace without the use of violence. His "weapons" are understanding and unconditional love.

Sure, there are parts of the book that might seem pedantic and simplistic, but, if you sit down and think about what he's saying, you will come away with a greater understanding as to what fuels conflict and what we can do to end it.