Compiled, edited, comment by Carolyn Bennett
A schizophrenic foreign relations policy blind to principle, law, human suffering
AMERICA at war with its own
Down with democracy, up with autocracy
U.S. State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley affirmed what the world already knew: the U.S. Defense Department’s treatment of Bradley Manning is ‘stupid’ and ‘counterproductive.’
U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, now being detained and reportedly being ‘tortured’ by the U.S. government has been accused by that government of leaking confidential U.S. documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. Today, two days after he had reportedly criticized the Pentagon’s treatment of Manning, news came that Crowley had resigned his position with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department.
AFGHANISTAN
U.S. ALLY?
Arms
Civilian deaths in the Afghan conflict have reached “numbers never before seen since hostilities began in 2001.” In the past four years, almost 9,000 civilians have died. The UN report figures for 2010 constitute a 15 percent rise over 2009.
As if to push Crowley’s point in a broader context—
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has reportedly acknowledged that the United States, its military involvement in Afghanistan, will likely extend past the planned 2014 end of combat operations. Reportedly, the Afghan government is in agreement with the continued invasion and occupation of that country.
The U.S. Defense Secretary arrived in Afghanistan last Monday in the wake of the previous Sunday’s protests to the killing of civilians. In their demonstrations, hundreds of Afghans chanted, ‘Death to America.’
In the past three weeks in the east of the country, at least four incidents have involved civilian casualties.
BAHRAIN
HOME TO U.S. FIFTH FLEET
Arms
Amidst anti-government protests on Sunday, Bahraini riot police reportedly used tear gas and rubber bullets to put down hundreds of anti-government protesters attempting to block the capital’s financial district. Protesters refused to fall back.
From Associated Press reports, Al Jazeera said another protest on Sunday at the main university in Bahrain “descended into violence with security forces and government supporters clashing with students.”
IRAQ
U.S. ALLY?
Oil and Arms
Like other protesters in the Middle East, Africa and Southwest Asia who are challenging their governments for jobs, responsive governance and basic services, in Iraq hundreds of protesters are continuing to challenge the U.S.-installed government.
Several cities across Iraq saw demonstrations on Friday. Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the city of Fallujah, west of the capital, along with several other cities, including Sulaymaniyah in the north and Basra in the south, reported protests.
“Iraq’s government,” Al Jazeera reports, “has been shaken by a string of rallies across the country since the beginning of February.”
IVORY COAST
Arm, ignore
Protests in the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) continue to challenge government forces over the questionable presidential election of Laurent Gbagbo.
Government loyal security forces on Saturday “launched a deadly attack against fighters backing political rival Alassane Ouattara.”
Gbagbo has refused to step down from the presidency though UN-certified election results show Ouattara the winner. Since the November 2010 elections, more than 400 people have died in the conflict.
LIBYA
U.S. ALLY (?) ENEMY (?)
Arms buyer, oil producer
U.S. turns from anti to pro (oil) to anti Muammar al- Qaddafi within a singular entrench regime and foreign relations policy
In a conflict between Libyan President Muammar al- Qaddafi and “rebel forces,” the Qaddafi forces on Saturday “cleared ‘armed gangs’ from the oil-rich town of Brega in the east.”
In other news from Libya on Sunday, the Libyan government countered the Arab League’s siding with the U.S. and France in supporting a no-fly zone over Libya, saying such action was ‘an unacceptable departure’ from the Arab League’s charter. Although the United States called the Arab League decision, an ‘important step,’ the no-fly zone proposal still faces UN Security Council opposition from member states Russia and China.
Earlier in the week, the U.S. Secretary of State revealed that during her coming travels to the Middle East she will meet with forces in opposition to Libyan President Muammar al- Qaddafi. Clinton’s action followed right wing French President Nicolas Sarkozy who, on Thursday, made his country the first major European country (despite EU opposition) to recognize Libya’s Benghazi-based opposition National Council as the country’s legitimate representative.
PAKISTAN
U.S. ALLY (?) Arms buyer
Thirty-seven (est. 37) people died and 40 suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded at a funeral procession in Matani, 20 kilometers west of the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.
The day before 25 people had died and 125 suffered wounds when a car bomb exploded at a natural gas filling station in the central city of Faisalabad. In the past week alone, an estimated 100 people have died and double that number suffered wounds in similar bombings.
Also in Pakistan, the people are still roiled by another instance of U.S. impunity in crimes of war.
The new U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan met senior officials in Islamabad last week as the U.S. and Pakistan continued to be in conflict over the crimes, detention and prosecution of CIA contractor Raymond Davis. Davis “shot dead two Pakistanis” and claimed they were “robbers.”
Washington has taken the position that Davis has diplomatic immunity and acted in self-defense against ‘robbers.’ A Pakistani court has ruled that Davis does not have diplomatic immunity, and should stand trial.
PALESTINE
U.S. PROXY/ALLY
The Israeli cabinet has approved the building of hundreds of new homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, a day after five members of a settlement family died.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the settler attacks against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and asked the Quartet [the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia] “‘to urgently intervene to stop the actions of the settlers.’”
SAUDI ARABIA
U.S. ALLY
The ‘Day of Rage’ demonstrations planned in Saudi Arabia failed to materialize because of a government security clampdown. The demonstrations here were supposed to start after Friday prayers but, with security forces operating checkpoints in key locations across several cities, there were reportedly no signs of rallies.
However, countries across the Arab world continued to experience fresh anti-government protests.Close to the eastern Ghawar oil field and major refinery installations in the city of Hofuf, reports said more than 200 protesters had rallied. Complaining of discrimination by the country’s dominant Sunni majority, Shia minorities have held scattered protests across this city.
After Friday prayers in Kuwait, an estimated 500 demonstrators took to the streets in Jahra, west of Kuwait City, the capital. Hundreds of stateless Arab protesters demanded citizenship and other rights. Elite anti-riot police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
YEMEN
U.S. ALLY (?) ENEMY (?)
Anti-government protesters have camped out for days at Tagheer Square demanding that Yemeni President Ali Abd Allāh Saleh step down. Early Sunday several thousand people gathered in Sanaa, setting up barricades in an effort to separate themselves from riot police.
The U.S. government “called for an end to the violence at protests in Yemen, which in total over the weekend claimed the lives of seven people.”
U.S.-led
WAR DEAD?
Casualty sites reporting March 13, 2011
(accurate totals unknown)
• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003
[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20,
2009: 211] Information out of date
Wounded 32,987-100,000
U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000
Suicides estimated: 18 a day
Latest update on this site: February 25, 2011
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count
The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation
Documented civilian deaths from violence
99,980 – 109,230
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties figures:
AFGHANISTAN: 1,499 U.S.; 2,364
IRAQ: 4,439 U.S.; 4,757 Coalition
Coalition
http://icasualties.org/oif
Sources and notes
“Crowley quits over Manning comments — U.S. State Department spokesman resigns after calling Pentagon ‘stupid’ over treatment of soldier accused over WikiLeaks, March 13, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/03/201131317356184984.html#
“Afghan civilian deaths jump — The UN report on civilian deaths says the toll increased by 15 per cent compared to last year,” March 9, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/03/2011391229382651.html#
“Gates: U.S. may extend Afghan mission — Defense Secretary says U.S. troops could stay in Afghanistan in training role beyond the planned 2014 withdrawal,” March 7, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/03/20113761614567225.html#
“Footage shows crackdown in Bahrain — YouTube clip appears to show man shot in chest with tear gas canister as police also use rubber bullets on protesters,” March 13, 2011,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/201131375850321229.html#
“Arab world witnesses more protests — Protests seen across many Middle East nations but ‘Day of Rage’ fails to take off in Saudi after major security effort,” March 11, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/2011311141047609595.html#
“Deadly clashes in Cote d’Ivoire — Law and order breaks down, 10 dead and dozens injured in Abidjan as Gbagbo forces fight Ouattara supporters for control,” March 13, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/03/2011313154729798824.html#
“Libyan rebels flee Gaddafi advance — Government forces regain key oil town, state TV reports, as anti-Gaddafi rebels fall back towards eastern strongholds,” March 13, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/2011313101739903833.html#
“Clinton to meet Libyan rebels — U.S. secretary of state says she will meet representatives of opposition council, as France, UK call for Gaddafi exit,” March 10, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/03/2011310101413705407.html#
“Many dead in Pakistan funeral blast — At least 37 killed and another 40 wounded as bomber blows himself up among mourners in the country’s northwest,” March 9, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/03/2011397258740365.html#
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/03/20113761614567225.html#
“Israel to build more settler homes — Plan for several hundred units in occupied West Bank announced a day after Palestinian attacker killed settler family,” March 13, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/20113137914633959.html#
“Arab world witnesses more protests — Protests seen across many Middle East nations but ‘Day of Rage’ fails to take off in Saudi after major security effort, March 11, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/2011311141047609595.html#
“Yemen police fire on protesters — Scores of people injured as security forces shoot at pro-democracy demonstrators in a bid to disperse them, March 13, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/20113131119867820.html#
ʿAli ʿAbd Allāh Ṣāliḥ (also spelled Saleh, b.1942, Bayt al-Aḥmar, North Yemen [now in Yemen], Yemeni military officer who led a coup against the government of North Yemen in 1962 and who became president in 1978. In 1990, he became president of a reunified Yemen,
Ṣāliḥ, ʿAli ʿAbd Allāh. (2011). Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Deluxe Edition. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica
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