U.S. allied with despots and killers
Armed against world’s peoples
By Carolyn Bennett (re-reporting, editing)
The United States is allied with autocratic leaders of Turkey,
Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel.
The United States by occupation, sanctions and or bombs
(remote, air, ground, and/or sea) is allied against peoples of Bahrain, Jordan,
Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Palestine, Iraq… and
the numbers keep rising.
Worldwide war-made and exacerbated crisis
The United Nations refugee agency said this week that major
new conflicts and unresolved conflicts around the world are putting great
strain on humanitarian resources.
More than 800,000 people already in 2011 had crossed borders
in search of refuge. That amounted to “an average of more than 2,000 refugees
every day.” Opening the annual meeting of UNHCR’s Executive Committee in Geneva,
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said the numbers were
“higher than at any time in the last decade.”
B
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ut despite human suffering, despite the flooding of women, men and children across borders
throughout the Middle East and East Africa (and beyond), the U.S. (NATO)
slaughter and its impact at home and every place its military might lands is
callously unending.
At home (soldiers and society suffer)
Veterans today on the Pacifica Network’s Democracy Now
program said the notion that “Johnny
comes home” from deployment in war and commits suicide because he cannot
balance a checkbook or cope in a relationship is far from the whole story of
veteran suicide now at epidemic levels. “People get on a path,” retired sergeant Georg-Andras Pogány
said, “a path that continuously deteriorates their mental state”; and at some
point, “they are so compromised because of the emotional pain that they are
suffering that they see no other way out than to take their own lives.”
We as a nation, he said, “must ask ourselves ‘what is the cost’ … a cost not just in bombs and
bullets; but in the psychological costs: the human scars from war and the psychological injuries
borne by those who survive.”
Afghan War veteran Graham Clumpner took the issue of harm
from home to the world and back. “The violence that we are participating in,
whether actively or passively,” he said, is “being done to people of color from
other nations and we never talk about those people.”
He acknowledged that while he can return home from war and
go to the Veterans Administration for healthcare and remove himself from the
source of trauma, “People in Afghanistan and Iraq and all of these other
countries where we’re dropping drones — or having drone strikes, they cannot
remove themselves from the source of their trauma. They do not have a Veterans
Administration. In a lot of cases they don’t have access to basic healthcare.
We lose sight of having that conversation every time we sit down and talk about
this. It is very important that we acknowledge this is larger than just an
American problem.”
 |
Bagram Air Base
one of the largest U.S. military bases
in
Afghanistan
|
AFGHANISTAN
More than a decade of war against them, hundreds of thousands of foreign
troops on their soil, and Afghans are too traumatized to leave their homes.
Political analyst Fazel Ghani Haqmal says in a Press TV news
article, “Eleven years of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and ‘a large
number of our innocent people have been killed by them. They (The United States
and NATO) cannot bring peace and security to us.’”
But the killing continues. Yesterday, 15 people died in a U.S.
airstrike on Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province. At the time of the
report, Press TV said this airstrike was the second in a 24-hour period. The day before four people had died in a U.S.-led
airstrike in eastern Afghanistan.
“Since last week, more than 20 other people have been killed
in similar attacks in Wardak, Helmand, Kunar and Herat.”
Reported August 25, 2012, “Two NATO airstrikes in eastern
Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan killed at least 12 people.” In the southern province of Kandahar, six
civilians died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
Though NATO officials continue to claim their airstrikes
target only “militants,” civilians are being killed by these attacks.
 |
| Pakistan's civillian dead |
PAKISTAN
October 1
Pakistani tribal regions have been the constant target of
U.S. terror drones, the remote controlled weapons, costing the lives of
civilians wherever they land or deposit their lethal materiel.
This week began with the U.S.-led forces’ killing of at
least three Pakistani civilians near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In an
earlier incident, three more Pakistanis lost their lives when another U.S.
assassination drone hit the Khaider Khel area of Mir Ali district 30 kilometers
(18 miles) east of Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan tribal region.
There were also reports that NATO forces arrested ten
Pakistani citizens in the border areas.
Background
UNITED STATES NATO
The United States is a founding member of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), the world’s largest military alliance comprised of
28 nations: Canada and much of Europe inclusive of the United Kingdom, the
nation with the alliance’s second largest military.
Starting in 1989, the United States also created a major
non-NATO ally status (MNNA) for five nations. The number of U.S.–designated
non-NATO allies began increasing in the late 1990s and today the list includes
14 nations.
Major non-NATO ally (MNNA) is a designation given by the
United States government to countries excluded from NATO membership that have “strategic
military and economic partnerships or alliances with United States Armed
Forces.”
Countries designated (i.e.,
countries designated as a matter of caprice, expedience or convenience)
major non-NATO allies of the United States (in order of their appointment)
Named by former U.S.
President George H. W. Bush
Australia (1989)
Egypt (1989)
Israel (1989)
Japan (1989)
South Korea (1989)
Named by former U.S.
President William Jefferson Clinton (orig. name: William Jefferson Blythe
III)
Jordan (1996)
New Zealand (1997)
Argentina (1998)
Named by former U.S.
President George W. Bush
Bahrain (2002)
Philippines (2003)
Thailand (2003)
Kuwait (2004)
Morocco (2004)
Pakistan (2004)
Named by U.S.
President Barack Obama
Afghanistan (2012)
 |
| Yemenis protest United States |
YEMEN
October 4
A U.S. assassination drone strike in the southern Yemeni
province of Shabawa left five people dead. News accounts report witnesses saying
the drone fired four missiles at two vehicles traveling in the town of Saeed on
Thursday.
“The United States uses assassination drones for combat and
espionage in several countries including Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan.”
(U.S. allied with)
TURKEY
(U.S. allied against)
Syria
October 5
Amid the destabilization in the Middle East, U.S. ally Turkey
is committing aggression against Syria. “The Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has warned that his country is ‘not far from war’ with Syria
amid intensified tensions fueled by fresh cross-border attacks.”
The country’s leader made his remarks as “the Turkish
military continued pounding targets inside Syria for the third day.”
BAHRAIN
October 5
Since February of last year Bahrainis have been protesting
their oppressive government. Scores of people have been killed, hundreds more
injured in the regime crackdown on protesters. News reports have repeatedly told
stories of opposition leaders and human rights activists being given long jail
terms as part of the government’s crackdown.
 |
| Bahraini funeral |
Nevertheless, today, after attending a memorial service held
in the capital suburb of Jadhafs for a young anti-regime activist who had died
in custody, hundreds of Bahrainis again took to the streets and tried to march
toward the site of the demolished Pearl Square.
The Bahraini government is a regime, backed by Saudi Arabia,
at war with its people; it is a nation that is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth
Fleet. Witnesses told reporters that today’s demonstrators were met with regime
forces armed with and firing tear gas, water cannons, sound bombs and buckshot.
JORDAN
October 5
Like Bahrainis, the people of Jordan have been demonstrating
since early last year for freedom and voice in governance: a parliamentary
system where the prime minister is elected by popular vote instead of by a
monarch. Demonstrators have demanded that in place of the current electoral law
allowance of 17 seats in parliament (or 12 percent), party lists be granted 50
percent of seats in the House of Representatives.
Today following King Abdullah II's dissolution of the
parliament, Jordanians in the tens of thousands took to the streets of the
capital, Amman, calling for a new electoral law, an elected government,
effective measures against corruption, an independent judiciary and an end to
the security services’ interference in political life.
In this “‘Friday to Rescue the Nation’ rally,” protesters
chanted, “‘we demand constitutional reforms before the people revolt. The
people want to reform the regime’ [and] Listen, Abdullah, our demands are
legitimate.’”
ALLIES LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS…?
30,000 Somali children suffer and have died from famine,
says the Global Enrichment Foundation, but that does not stop the United States
from bombing these people back to antiquity.
 |
| U.S. drone attacks Somali capital |
AFRICA HORN: SOMALIA
October 5
Thirteen people died Monday when a U.S. assassination drone hit
Kismayo, a strategically important port city on Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast.
Press TV correspondents reported that shortly after the
strike, al-Shabab fighters carried out a surprise attack on Somali forces in
the outskirts of Kismayo and a number of high-ranking military officers died,
dozens were wounded in the attack.
September 30 ─ A U.S.-led drone strike killed at least four and
injured at least twelve people in southwestern Somalia.
September 7 ─ U.S. assassination drones killed eight and wounded
21 in southern Somalia.
August 29 ─ U.S. drone attack killed 26 and injured dozens
in Somalia.
IRAN
October 3, 2012
U.S. Sanctions warfare
U.S. dismisses diplomatic, political solution
 |
| Anti-American protests Iran |
This week, a representative of the U.S. executive government
bragged (as the U.S. president has done about killing) that ─
The [Iranian] currency is
plummeting and firms all over the world are refusing to do business with
Iranian companies.
These are the most punishing
sanctions we have ever been able to amass as an international community
The “‘most punishing sanctions ever’ is saying something,”
Finian Cunningham writes in a Press TV column, “given that the U.S.-led
sanctions against Iraq between 1990 and 2003 were reckoned to have caused over
one million children to die from preventable causes.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran, Finian Cunningham said, “is
facing economic warfare from the United States and its European allies … in
financial terms, equivalent to attacking the country with a weapon of mass
destruction” and the disruption and hardship being inflicted on the Iranian people
“is criminal and unspeakably callous.”
Their suffering is unquestionably “the direct result of
conscious decisions being made in Washington, London and Brussels” ─ decisions
based on “specious and malicious claims about the Iran’s legally entitled
civilian nuclear development.
“The sanctions are unwarranted, criminal acts of war and
crimes against humanity.”
Democracy Now headlines today, “Report: U.S. Has Dismissed
Iran’s Plan to End Nuclear Standoff ─ Reports have emerged Iran has been
attempting to gather support for a plan to end its stalemate with the United
States and its allies over the country’s alleged nuclear program. Iranian
officials have outlined a nine-step plan whereby Iran would end work at one of
two uranium enrichment sites in exchange for the easing of sanctions that are
devastating its economy. U.S. officials however have dismissed the plans as
untenable. Protests have erupted this week in Iran amidst a worsening financial
crisis that saw the collapse of its currency.”
Sources and notes
“Global crises severely straining humanitarian resources,
warns UN refugee chief,” October 1, 2012,
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43154&Cr=refugees&Cr1=
Home (U.S. soldiers’ pain of war)
“On Afghan War
11th Anniversary, Vets Confront Mental Health Crisis, Soldier Suicides and
Violence,” October 5, 2012, http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/5/on_afghan_war_11th_anniversary_vets
“On Afghan War 11th Anniversary, Vets Confront Mental Health
Crisis, Soldier Suicides and Violence: Veterans on Democracy Now from Colorado
Sprig, Colorado, October 5, 2012,
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/5/on_afghan_war_11th_anniversary_vets#transcript
Guests: Afghanistan
War veteran and Colorado regional organizer for Iraq Veterans against the War, Graham
Clumpner; retired U.S. Army sergeant first class and independent veterans’
advocate and investigator, Georg-Andreas Pogany; investigative reporter and
author of ‘Lethal Warriors: When the New Band of Brothers Came Home’, Dave Philipps
Afghanistan
“Afghan civilians pay real price of U.S. war,” October 4,
2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/04/264938/afghan-civilians-real-victims-of-us-war/
“U.S. forces kills 15
Afghans in Kandahar airstrike,” October 4, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/04/264933/usled-airstrike-kills-15-in-afghanistan/
“Two NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan kill 12 people, “August
25, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/25/257994/12-militants-killed-in-afghanistan/
Pakistan/Afghanistan
“U.S.-led forces kill 3 Pakistani civilians on Afghan
border,” October 1, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/01/264487/usled-forces-kill-3-pakistani-civilians/
RESISTANCE AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN October 5
“Two NATO supply trucks torched in southwest Pakistan,” http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/05/265061/nato-supply-trucks-torched-in-pakistan/
PAKISTAN: Pakistani Politician Vows to Proceed with
Anti-Drone March ─ Pakistani political leader Imran Khan has vowed to move
forward with a peace march this weekend aimed at highlighting the impact of
U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Activists from Britain and the
United States, including CODEPINK leader Medea Benjamin, are joining the march
from Islamabad to South Waziristan despite concerns over security (Democracy Now Headlines, Friday, October 5, 2012)
“8 rockets hit US Bagram air base in Afghanistan,” http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/05/265060/8-rockets-hit-us-air-base-in-afghanistan/
Yemen
“U.S. assassination drone kills 5 in Yemen,” October 4,
2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/04/264915/us-assassination-drone-kills-5-in-yemen/
Turkey and Syria
“Turkey not far from war with Syria: Erdogan,” October 5,
2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/05/265152/turkey-not-far-from-war-with-syria/
Bahrain
The Global Enrichment Foundation, http://www.globalenrichmentfoundation.com/aboutGlobalEnrichmentFoundation/Team/index.php
“Bahraini forces clash with anti-regime protesters in
Manama,” October 5, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/05/265150/bahraini-forces-attack-manama-protest/
Jordan
“Jordanians hold largest demonstration in years to demand
reforms,” October 5, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/05/265144/jordanians-rally-to-demand-reforms/
Somalia
“U.S. terror drone kills 13 al-Shabab fighters in Somalia,” October
5, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/01/264431/us-terror-drone-kills-13-in-s-somalia/
“U.S. assassination drone strike kills 4 in southwestern
Somalia,” September 30, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/30/264309/us-drone-attack-kills-4-in-somalia/
“U.S. assassination drones kill 8, wounds 21 in southern
Somalia,” September 7, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/07/260369/us-terror-drone-kills-8-in-somalia/
“U.S. drone attack kills 26, injures dozens in Somalia,” August
29, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/29/258829/us-terror-drone-kills-26-in-somalia/
Iran
“U.S., allies wage economic war on Iran,” October 3, 2012,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/03/264778/west-economic-war-on-iran-doomed-to-fail/
Democracy Now headlines, October 5, 2012, http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/5/headlines
Finian Cunningham
Finian Cunningham specializes in Middle East and East Africa
issues has written extensively on international affairs, with articles
published in several languages.
He was based in Bahrain and witnessed the political
upheavals in the Persian Gulf kingdom during 2011 as well as the subsequent
Saudi-led brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests. The author and media
commentator was expelled from Bahrain in June 2011 for his critical journalism
in which he highlighted many human rights violations by the Western-backed
regime. Finian Cunningham has given several American radio interviews as well
as TV interviews on Press TV and Russia Today and many of his recent articles
appear on the renowned Canadian-based news website Globalresearch.
For many years, he worked as an editor and writer for such
publications as The Mirror, Irish Times and the Independent. Originally from
Belfast, Ireland, he is now based in East Africa where is writing a book on
Bahrain and the Arab Spring. His interests include capitalism, imperialism and
war, socialism, justice and peace, agriculture and trade policy, ecological
impact, science and technology, and human rights. (Press TV profile)
Context
LEADERS OF THE MIDDLE
EAST:
Portraits of Authoritarianism (Pierre Tristam-Ask dot com
and Wikipedia notes)
“From Pakistan to Northwest Africa, and with a few
exceptions along the way (in Lebanon, in Israel), people of the Middle East are
ruled by three varieties of leaders, all of them men:
Authoritarian men (in most
countries);
Men creeping toward the standard authoritarian
model of Middle East rule (Iraq); or
Men with more proclivities for
corruption than authority (Pakistan, Afghanistan). And with rare and at times
questionable exceptions, none of the leaders enjoy the legitimacy of having
been chosen by their people.
Gaza: Government City (from 1994); Head of Municipality:
Rafiq Tawfiq al-Makki
Gaza Strip: The Gaza Governorate governed by Mohammed
Qadoura: one of 16 Governorates of the Palestinian National Authority located
in the north central Gaza Strip which is administered by the Palestinian
National Authority aside from its border with Israel, airspace and maritime
territory. All of its seats were won by Hamas members in the 2006 parliamentary
elections. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the
district's population was 505,700 in 2006; the governorate consists of one
city, three towns and a number of refugee camps.
Palestine: Khaled Mashaal, Plaestinian Political Leader of
Hamas
Since the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004, Khaled
Mashal, also transcribed Khaled Mashaal, Khaled Meshaal and Khalid Mish’al has
been the main leader of the Palestinian organization Hamas. In addition, Mashal
heads the Syrian branch of the political bureau of Hamas.
Palestine - Palestinian National Authority: Government
Semi-presidential (elections not held since 2006) President Mahmoud Abbas;
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Jordan: Government Constitutional monarchy: King Abdullah
II; Prime Minister Fayez al- Tarawneh
Syria: Government: Unitary semi-presidential constitutional
republic: President Bashar al-Assad; Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi
Lebanon: President Michel Suleiman
Iran: Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader; Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iraq: Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki
Turkey: Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Kuwait: Government: Unitary, hereditary and constitutional
monarchy:
Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah; Prime Minister Jaber
Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah
Pakistan: President Asif Ali Zardari
Afghanistan: President Hamid Karzai
Qatar: Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani
United Arab Emirates (UAE): Government Federation of seven
emirates with one advisory body (Federal National Council): President Khalifa
bin Zayed Al Nahyan; Vice President and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum
Saudi Arabia: Absolute monarchy: The government of Saudi
Arabia is led by the monarch, King Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, who acceded to the
throne in 2005. No political parties or national elections are permitted.
Bahrain: Constitutional monarchy: King Hamad bin Isa Al
Khalifa; Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; Prime Minister Khalifa
bin Salman Al Khalifa
Yemen: President Ali Abdullah Saleh
Egypt: President Hosni Mubarak (UPDATE: Government Semi-presidential republic: President Mohamed
Morsi; Vice President Mahmoud Mekki; Prime Minister Hesham Qandil)
Morocco King Mohammed VI
Libya: Muammar al Qaddafi (UPDATE: Government Provisional parliamentary republic; President
Mohamed el-Magariaf; Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib; Prime
Minister-designate Mustafa Abushagur)
Tunisia: President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (UPDATE:
Government Unitary semi-presidential republic: President Moncef
Marzouki; Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali)
Somalia: Government Federal parliamentary republic:
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud; Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali
http://middleeast.about.com/od/middleeast101/ig/Mideast-leaders-in-Photos/;
Middle East, South Central Asia, East Africa, http://en.wikipedia.org/
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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