Unspeakable U.S.- prolonged Afghanistan-Pakistan tragedies

Body of burned Afghan child

Whose lives have value; who is prized, who despised, who is cherished, who discarded?

Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

Background

Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11.

Afghanistan has never threatened America. If the U.S. occupation ends, Afghanistan, still, would not threaten the United States of America.

International law is clear: No nation may attack another nation except in self-defense.

The U.S. war is lawless. Neither the UN Security Council nor the U.S. Congress authorized this invasion and occupation. The United States has not fought a legal war since World War II.

‘Al Qaeda’ is a U.S. creation.

Body of Afghan

The U.S. ‘War on terrorism’ [begun in 2001] … has not removed religious fundamentalism, which is the main cause of all miseries,” says the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.” The U.S administration reinstalled warlords in power in Afghanistan, thus replacing one fundamentalist regime with another. Together with [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai, the U.S. government relies mostly on Northern Alliance criminal leaders who are as brutal and misogynist as the Taliban.

“RAWA believes that freedom and democracy cannot be donated; it is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values.  Under the U.S.-supported [Karzai] government,” RAWA says, “the sworn enemies of human rights, democracy and secularism have gripped their claws over our country and have attempted to restore their religious fascism on our people.

“Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved.”

ONGOING AGGRESSION

U.S.-Afghanistan
to take
U.S.- Iraq model

Perpetual Occupation (agreed under force) and grant of impunity

U.S./Afghanistan presidents’ secret in the dark

‘Status of forces’ or SOFA agreements set a framework under which United States forces operate abroad. These agreements, bilateral or multilateral, define the status of visiting military forces.  Wide-ranging particulars regarding the status of visiting forces may be set out “in a separate agreement” or the SOFA may be “part of a more comprehensive agreement.”

U.S. Defense (Pentagon) officials — negotiating with an ‘independent host nation’ — draft the provisions of a Status of Forces Agreement. “Occupied countries” have little say in the matter.

Stephen Lendman describes these agreements as “a modern-day version of 19th century China’s ‘extraterritoriality’ agreements, granting foreigners [visitors, occupiers] charged with crimes the ‘right’ to be tried by [the foreigners’] government and under that government’s domestic law.”

Host countries’ local courts are precluded “from exercising legal jurisdiction over American personnel.”

Impunity

With its enormous occupation of hundreds of known, shared, and secret bases in more than 150 countries, the U.S. presence “assures trouble,” Lendman says, that “includes murder, rape, theft, drunken driving, and other crimes.” This mass occupation also subjects local people to “unacceptable noise, pollution, environmental destruction, appropriated public land; and flagrant disregard for local laws, customs, and rights of ordinary people.”

Permanent U.S. occupations

Under “Status of Forces” agreements (mostly secret, some infractions “too embarrassing to reveal,” total number unknown), even U.S. foreigners who commit murder and rape are exempt from local judicial process — unless U.S. officials yield to local authorities. “Offenders,” Lendman says, are usually whisked out of countries.”

Endless lawlessness, endless aggression

Local people “have no say and virtually no chance of redress.” The most harmed in permanent occupations, the peoples of host countries, “lose control of their lives.”

Permanency is not built to be abandoned. Bases as in Iraq are “city size,” having “extensive infrastructure, command-and-control centers, foreign family accommodations in combat-free areas together with hospitals, schools, recreational facilities — virtually everything available in their native country.

The U.S. came to stay in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

UNSPEAKABLE SUFFERING

NATO under fire - Pakistan

 Death

Though it seems not to matter, the Afghan people want the United States out of their country and Americans, for different reasons, say they want the same; but, as Lendman puts it, Americans are mostly complacent and indifferent.

Together with impunity, atrocities seem unchecked and unending.

The annual report released today by the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said, “Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war in ever-increasing numbers.”

A total of “3,021” civilians died last year, an 8 percent rise from 2010.

A total of “11,864 civilians” have died in the conflict in Afghanistan since 2007.

The report said most deaths attributed to NATO forces resulted from “attacks from the air” and the UN mission urged the 130,000 NATO force to review its tactics — particularly regarding aerial attacks — aimed at preventing civilian loss of life in all military operations.”

Afghanistan protest

Pakistan-based analyst Ali Sukhanver reflected on a truth too simple to avoid yet it is senselessly avoided.

“What if I hand over a loaded gun to a hungry teenager; naturally he would turn that gun on me and run away with all that I have in my pockets.

“This is what is happening in Afghanistan and in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“While commenting on the ever-increasing flames of violence — mistakenly called terrorism — we find it very easy to shift the whole blame on to the ‘hungry boy.’ No one blames the hands that hand the gun to him instead of taking care of his hunger.

“The situation in Afghanistan regarding the blazing fire of terrorism is never going to change unless the hands are cuffed which mock at the helplessness of Afghan people.

ANSWER Coalition

“Whatever is happening in Afghanistan is not terrorism but is instead a reaction and response to U.S. atrocities against the people of Afghanistan: paying back in the same coin… The hungry need bread not guns.” Kindness returns in kindness.

Hunger

In this foreign war of aggression, the people of Afghanistan also suffer hunger, conditions particularly threatening to people living in the mountains, people who are poor, and people who are very young. Afghanistan is one of the highest ranked countries in the world when it comes to problems with food security, says a report released today by the World Bank and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Economy.

iCasualties
War in Afghanistan5-5-2012 update

Children below the age of five are hit the hardest. “At least 54 percent of Afghan children face serious challenges in getting adequate food and nutrition. At least 29 percent of the country’s population received insufficient calories and 20 percent have a poor diet.

U.S. IN AFGHANISTAN

Foreign raids, local resistance

It is unacceptable,” said an Afghan villager, “that they are coming and conducting night raids on the homes of innocent civilians.” Known by one name, Quasimullah said, “We want the president to put a stop to night raids as soon as possible.”

Today in a night raid in a residential area of Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar Province, U.S. forces arrested five other people and killed a school teacher.

Over the past few months hundreds of civilians have died in U.S.-led operations in various parts of Afghanistan and Afghans have become increasingly outraged at what seems to be an endless number of the deadly assaults by the foreigners.

While the U.S. and Afghanistan presidents on Tuesday signed an agreement paving the way for retaining the U.S. presence through 2024, rallies across Afghanistan continued to press their condemnation of the endless killings and their demand for complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Tuesday morning in Afghanistan hundreds of Afghans demonstrated over the deaths of four children killed on Monday in the crossfire of Taliban, NATO and Afghan security forces in the southern Zabul province. They accused NATO troops of killing civilians.

Carrying the bodies of the four children (ages 8 to 12), protesters stopped traffic on the Kabul-Kandahar highway and chanted “death to America, death to Karzai.”

U.S. drone

U.S. IN PAKISTAN

Foreign strikes, local resistance

Earlier Saturday in Pakistan, an unmanned U.S. aircraft targeted a residential area less than 50 miles west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The attack killed 20 people and injured many others.

The people of Pakistan as Afghanistan have continued to press their condemnation of U.S. assassination drone strikes.

In their recent defense of the use of killer drones, U.S. officials failed to give evidence of how killing people “saves lives” and continued killing with impunity.

Pakistani protests

Pakistani human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar told Press TV that more than “2,800 of the 3,000 people killed over the past seven years in non-UN-sanctioned U.S. assassination drone strikes in Pakistan were civilians.”

Only 170 of the people killed in the aerial attacks on the northwestern tribal belt of Pakistan “have been identified as ‘militants,’” said the director of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights. What this means is that “over 2,800 people were civilians” killed on suspicion of being militant.

At the recent International Drone Summit sponsored in Washington by non government representatives, Senior Staff Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Maria LaHood, is reported saying, “As the Obama government expands its use of killer drones around the world, so must we increase our demands for transparency and accountability.”

Whatever else happens among Americans — how they feel and what they do — concerning the U.S. foreign relations model in violence, there is substantial evidence in news reports that the countries under aggression and occupation will not sit idly by.  


The longer U.S.-led fighting persists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen and in other theaters of war, the stronger grows the resistance.

Sources and notes

RAWA

http://www.rawa.org/rawa.html

RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan

Before the Moscow-directed coup d’état of April 1978 in Afghanistan, RAWA’s activities were confined to agitation for women’s rights and democracy, but after the coup and particularly after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in December 1979, RAWA became directly involved in the war of resistance.

Since the overthrow of the Soviet-installed puppet regime in 1992, the focus of RAWA’s political struggle has been against the fundamentalists’ and the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban’s criminal policies and atrocities against the people of Afghanistan in general and their incredibly ultra-male-chauvinistic and anti-woman orientation in particular.

The U.S. ‘War on terrorism’ [begun in 2001] … has not removed religious fundamentalism, the main cause of all miseries. The U.S administration’s reinstalling the warlords in power in Afghanistan is replacing one fundamentalist regime with another.  The U.S. government and [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai mostly rely on Northern Alliance criminal leaders who are as brutal and misogynist as the Taliban.

“RAWA believes that freedom and democracy cannot be donated; it is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values. Under the U.S.-supported government — the sworn enemies of human rights, democracy and secularism have gripped their claws over our country and attempt to restore their religious fascism on our people.

“Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved.

“Today RAWA’s mission for women’s rights is far from over and we have to work hard for the establishment of an independent, free, democratic and secular Afghanistan. We need the solidarity and support of all people around the world.”

http://www.rawa.org/rawa.html

Bay Area Indymedia, May 3, 2012

Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai (b. Dec. 24, 1957, Kandahār, Afghanistan) is an Afghan politician and (2004 -) first “elected” president of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was the son of the chief of the Popalzai Pashtuns. Both his father and grandfather served in the government of Mohammad Zahir Shah.

Amid discontent among Afghans, the Afghanistan Supreme Court in March 2009 ruled that Karzai could legally retain his position until the August election. Several opposition candidates emerged which the pro-Western Karzai “neutralized.”  The presidential election was held on August 20, 2009, and was followed by weeks of political turmoil. In September a preliminary count awarded Karzai almost 55 percent of the vote. [Britannica note]

Stephen Lendman in Chicago (U.S.) is author of How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War

“Afghanistan: Permanent Occupation Planned — besides elsewhere, America came to Iraq and Afghanistan to stay. Permanency is planned on city-sized super bases” (Stephen Lendman), May 3, 2012, http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/05/03/afghanistan-permanent-occupation-planned.html

“UN mission in Afghanistan says 2011 was fifth straight year that number of dead has risen, with 3,021 civilians killed, February 4, 2012, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/02/201224101046976807.html

“U.S. atrocities in Afghanistan —  While commenting on the ever-increasing flames of violence, mistakenly called terrorism, we find it very easy to shift the whole blame on to the ‘hungry boy’: no one blames the hands that hand over the gun to him instead of taking care of his hunger” (Professor Ali Sukhanver) April 22, 2012,

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/04/22/us-atrocities-in-afghanistan.html

“Concerns Over Lack of Food Safety in Afghanistan,” May 5, 2012, TOLOnews.com, 

http://tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/6121-concerns-over-lack-of-food-safety-in-afghanistan

TOLOnews, its terrestrial broadcast launched in August of 2010, is Afghan owned and operated and the country’s first 24-hour station dedicated to domestic and international news and current affairs. TOLOnews is an extension of Afghanistan’s TOLO TV, both part of the regional media organization MOBY Group. http://tolonews.com/en/about-us/4081-about-us

“U.S-led night raid kills teacher in Afghanistan,” May 5, 2012,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/239749.html

War in Afghanistan by the numbers (AP and var. news sources)

“The Afghan war by the numbers —President Barack Obama arrived in Kabul on Tuesday to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The deal outlines the next phase of the U.S. role in Afghanistan after combat missions wind down at the end of 2014”  (The Associated Press), Tuesday, May 1, 2012 

Start of the war: October 7, 2001.
 Number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan: 88,000.
 Number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan at the war's peak: About 101,000 in 2010. Allies provided about 40,000.
 Withdrawal plans: 23,000 U.S. troops expected to come home by the end of the summer, leaving about 68,000 in Afghanistan. Most U.S. troops expected to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, though the U.S. is expected to maintain a sizeable force of military trainers and a civilian diplomatic corps.
 Number of U.S. casualties: At least 1,828 members of the U.S. military killed as of Tuesday, according to an Associated Press count. According to the Defense Department, 15,786 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
 Afghan civilian casualties: According to the United Nations, 11,864 civilians were killed in the conflict between 2007, when the U.N. began reporting statistics, and the end of 2011.
 Cost of the war: $443 billion from fiscal year 2001 through fiscal year 2011, according to the Congressional Research Service.
 Number of times Obama has visited Afghanistan: 3 as president, including Tuesday, and 1 as a presidential candidate.

“Hundreds Demonstrate over Civilian Casualties, Blame NATO” (TOLOnews.com) May 1, 2012, http://tolonews.com/afghanistan/6073-hundreds-demonstrate-over-civilian-casualties-blame-nato-?lang=en

May 1, 2012, http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/may/01/us-us-afghanistan-by-the-numbers/

“Deadly Afghan-NATO raid sparks protests — one of her sons came out and the American forces shot him and killed him. Then her other son came out, and they killed him,”

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/05/01/deadly-afghan-nato-raid-sparks-protests.html

ICasualties notes

IED Fatalities

Period	IED	Total	Pct
2001	0	4	0.00
2002	4	25	16.00
2003	3	26	11.54
2004	12	27	44.44
2005	20	73	27.40
2006	41	130	31.54
2007	78	184	42.39
2008	152	263	57.79
2009	275	451	60.98
2010	368	630	58.41
2011	252	492	51.22
2012	45	91	49.45

U.S. Fatalities in and around Afghanistan

Country of Death	Fatalities
Afghanistan	1792
Bahrain	1
Germany (from wounds in theatre)	27
Indonesia	1
Kuwait	1
Pakistan	15
Qatar	1
Southwest Asia	1
USA (from wounds in theatre)	30
Uzbekistan	1
Total	1870

Coalition Military Fatalities By Year

Year	US	UK	Other	Total
2001	12	0	0	12
2002	49	3	18	70
2003	48	0	10	58
2004	52	1	7	60
2005	99	1	31	131
2006	98	39	54	191
2007	117	42	73	232
2008	155	51	89	295
2009	317	108	96	521
2010	499	103	109	711
2011	418	46	102	566
2012	95	18	30	143
Total	1959	412	619	2990

http://icasualties.org/oef/

Pakistan

Pakistan-based Ali Sukhanver is a bilingual analyst on national and international strategic and defense affairs.

“Ten suspected insurgents were killed in a U.S. drone strike in a house close to the Afghan border on Saturday, Pakistani officials told media,” May 5, 2012, TOLOnews.com

“Pakistan condemns U.S. drone attack in North Waziristan, May 5, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/239761.html

Waziristan

Wazīristān tract was under British political administration beginning in 1892 and it was the scene of several large-scale British military operations against the tribes from the late 1800s until Pakistani independence in 1947.

Bounded on the west by Afghanistan, Waziristan is a geographic region of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. This is a barren, mountainous country occupied by part of the Sulaimān Range and bounded north by the Kurram River and the south by the Gumal River.

The Pashtun inhabitants of Wazīristān are divided into two principal groups, the Darwish (or Wazīr), the main tribe in the north; and the Maḥsūd, the dominant tribe in the south.

“U.S. defends drone attacks despite civilian deaths — The United States has defended its assassination drone strikes in several countries despite the deaths of a large number of civilians,” April 30, 2012,  http://www.presstv.ir/detail/238859.html

“Drone summit in Washington highlights the aircraft expanding use to discuss the growing use of the unmanned aircraft by the U.S. in surveillance as well as targeted killing operations carried out in foreign countries,” (Press TV reports), http://www.presstv.ir/detail/238651.html

“U.S. Drone Kills 10 in Pakistan,” May 5, 2012,

http://tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/6118-us-drone-kills-10-in-pakistan

Images

Afghan image caption-RAWA

Disbelief: Two grief-stricken Afghan men look into the van where the body of a badly burned child lays, wrapped in a blue blanket. 17 innocent civilians were massacred by US soldiers on March 11, 2012 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Photo: EPA)

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/04/22/us-atrocities-in-afghanistan.html#ixzz1u1RAALvk

Status of forces agreement Iraq, http://www.blackcommentator.com/284/issue_284.html

http://www.setyoufreenews.com/2011/06/25/permanent-us-iraq-and-afghanistan-occupations-planned/

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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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Making matters worse — U.S. in Africa

U.S.-occupied
Africa - Asia 

“Occupy” not-quite- “comfort women” end thought

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Uganda

From The Independent (Uganda) interview with Columbia (U.S.) and Makerere (Uganda) universities professor of anthropology and international affairs Mahmood Mamdani

Uganda

Uganda in situ

“Even when [Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph] Kony has no more than a few hundred fighters around him, the LRA has become a justification [pretext] for the entry of U.S. forces into the region, leading to its militarization.

Somalia

 Somalia

IN THE CROSSFIRE
Somalia's Displaced

“Everybody knows the solution in Somalia is political not military. Even if there is a military victory in Somalia, it will not be sustainable without a political solution. Every attempted military solution in Somalia has made the problem worse because it has ignored the centrality of the political dimension.

We all know that the Union of Islamic Courts was beginning to turn around the situation in Somalia. It was creating law and order yet it was branded some kind of al Qaeda and demonized by the U.S. The military intervention instead created the political space for al Qaeda to come in. It pushed those in the Union of Islamic Courts unwilling to capitulate into a corner. As they became desperate for allies, al Shabaab was born; which is still more an umbrella of various groups than a single solid organization.”

Somalia in situ

Bid for the region

“… There is a competitive element in this regional bid for Somalia. There is a competitive element to militarization. 

“South Sudan has shown that there is a peace dividend and [a] commercial one after war.

“Ugandan officials have been asking what’s going on since Uganda supported the war but the oil refinery is going to Kenya. We seem to be in place in times of war but clueless when guns go silent.”

South Korean discounted
women casualties of
WW II
900th vigil for redress

End thought on "Occupy"

Mahmood Mamdani said in The Indepedent interview

“The …West is learning from the rest.

“The Occupy Movement was an effect of the Arab Spring in Egypt. They were inspired by Tahrir Square.

“The history of protest in the West as elsewhere is very long; protests were an event. People would come to a particular place, make or listen to speeches, sing and march, and then go home.

What is new in the “‘Occupy Movement’ is [to] go to a place and stay there: the idea … for a small dedicated group to maintain a constant presence like a magnet that could attract others as supporters.”

Not quite

South Korean women's
900th vigil for redress

900th protest vigil

In January 2012 in a protest vigil that began in 1992 (every Wednesday), a group of South Korean former World War II sex slaves and their supporters gathered for the 900th time outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, to demand compensation and an official apology from Japan. Up to the 1945 surrender, Japan had run a system of military brothels using these women, so-called “comfort women.” 

Sources and notes

“Somalia, Museveni, and militarizing the region” (interview, Andrew Mwenda and Mubatsi A. Habati), April 29, 2012, http://www.independent.co.ug/column/interview/5677-somalia-museveni-and-militarising-the-region

“Armed struggle: Mamdani tells politicians to learn from Luwero,” (interview, Andrew Mwenda and Mubatsi A. Habati),  April 21, 2012,  http://www.independent.co.ug/column/interview/5639-armed-struggle-mamdani-tells-politicians-to-learn-from-luwero

Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, Dr. Mahmood Mamdani teaches courses on major debates in the study of Africa; the modern state and the colonial subject; the Cold War and the Third World; the theory, history, and practice of human rights; and civil wars and the state in Africa. His most recent publications are: Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (2009); Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror (2004); When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and Genocide in Rwanda (2001), http://www.columbia.edu/cu/anthropology/fac-bios/mamdani/faculty.html

Mahmood Mamdani is an academic specializing in the study of African and international politics, colonialism and post‐colonialism, and the politics of knowledge production; an author and political commentator who was born (1946) in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, and grew up in Uganda. In addition to his work at Columbia, he is Professor and Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmood_Mamdani

See also

SOMALIA, MUSEVENI AND MILITARISING THE REGION

Interview by Andrew Mwenda and Mubatsi A. Habati with Mahmood Mamdani

“‘Everybody knows the solution in Somalia is political not military. Even if there is a military victory in Somalia, it will not be sustainable without a political solution,’” http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81818

Map images from World Atlas

Former comfort women protesting in Seoul , South Korea, beryl-pieces-asia.blogspot.com

Korea's "Comfort Women" Rally at 900th Protest - OhmyNews ...
Korea's "Comfort Women" Rally at 900th Protest: Survivors of Japanese Military ... from Amnesty International, the Korean Women's ... Who stole a 15-year-old girl's chastity?" ...
english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?...
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2010/01/south-koreas-comfort-women-stage-900th-weekly-protest/

http://www.usaraf.army.mil/NEWS/NEWS_100110_FORWARD_AFRICA.html
Questions Surround Third U.S. War Theater: AFRICOM
salem-news.com

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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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99ers? … Hmm

Suspect and inspect the brand

Excerpt, editing, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

From Arun Gupta’s thoughts on MO’s slick maneuver

Will U.S. voters be

Fooled twice?

Domestic affairs (breakdown)

Four years ago, Barack Obama vowed to repeal the Bush tax cuts, make union organizing easier and put America back to work, Indypendent Newspaper founder Arun Gupta writes. Instead, his administration has attacked teachers and autoworkers' unions.

Divide and Conquer

The real unemployment rate is close to 15 percent. As non-financial corporations are hoarding $1.24 trillion in cash, social services are being strangled nationwide. In 2011, one in 69 homes entered a foreclosure filing and “not one Wall Street or bank executive has been jailed for perpetrating the biggest economic crime in history.”

Foreign relations (violence)

U.S.-occupied
AFGHANISTAN

Barack Obama, the candidate, “wrapped himself in an antiwar mantle” but by 2011, Obama, the president, was waging war on six countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen; asserting the right to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process; and continuing policies of indefinite detention and warrantless surveillance.

The demise of the U.S. Iraq antiwar movement is a warning to the Occupy movement.

STOP THE WAR

Many liberals now celebrate [President] Obama as “‘one of the most militarily aggressive U.S leaders in decades’ [and] liberal groups like MoveOn have fallen silent on the issue of illegal wars and war crimes.”

Suspect, inspect rebranded brand

“For anyone involved in Occupy Wall Street, the menu of upcoming corporate targets is an appetizing line-up” (Wal-Mart, Bank of America, Peabody Coal, Amazon, WellPoint and Occidental Petroleum); but noticeably absent, likely intentional, are politicians.

“Protesting corporations but not the politicians who work hand in hand with them,” Gupta says, “is a crafty way to redirect Occupy’s energy away from the Democratic Party, which is as much an object of Occupy Wall Street’s ire as are the Republicans. …

“The 99% Movement [backed by MoveOn dot Org Civic Action whose 501(c)(4) status prohibits political candidacy endorsement activity]  employs the ideas and language of Occupy Wall Street [but] toward ends diametrically opposed to OWS.”

This 99% brand supports Democratic Party candidates — up to and including President Obama.

99er ‘Movement’

“…The real story,” Gupta writes, “is how the main groups behind the ‘99% Spring’ — such as MoveOn and ‘Rebuild the Dream’ — have created a meta-brand known as the ‘99% Movement’ that encompasses a product line including

99% Power,

99% Candidates,

99% Uniting,

99% Voter Pledge and events like

All in for the 99% and

99% Spring Bank Protests

“‘Rebuild the Dream,’ MoveOn and SEIU [Service Employees International Union] sponsor nearly every formation. And their broadening of the coalition to include radical left organizations that reject electoral politics is a sophisticated way to enhance the overall brand: radical left groups can feel confident of maintaining their independence from elections by participating in the ‘99% Spring.’” However, “they are still building the 99% brand, which will then be used in forms like the 99% voter pledge and 99% candidates to boost the Democratic Party’s fortunes this coming fall.”

Mea culpa?

MoveOn’s executive director Justin Ruben responds

“‘We are the 800-pound gorilla and we work very actively on elections, including supporting Barack Obama and other Democratic candidates,’” Gupta quotes the MoveOn director.

“Ruben claims the 99% Voter Pledge drew inspiration from Occupy Wall Street. However, “the pledge,” Gupta says, “is so watered down from OWS’s original Declaration (e.g., ‘Make the wealthiest 1 percent pay their fair share,’ ‘Create good jobs now,’ ‘Stop cuts to vital services,’ ‘Represent people, not corporations’)  that, and here again the likely intent, incumbent Obama could endorse the pledge.”

Missed Progressive moment

Veteran antiwar activist and OWS press team member Bill Dobbs responds to MoveOn’s response 

We need a resistance movement — not more Democratic Party-aligned advocacy.  

This kind of relationship needs to be approached with healthy skepticism. There are benefits, but also perils because...social movements often wind up in the Democratic Party junkyard.

That’s where contemporary feminist organizing has ended up. That’s where civil rights struggles have ended up. 

I think Dobbs and Gupta nailed it.

Sources and notes

“How to rebrand Occupy” (Comment by Arun Gupta), May 2, 2012, http://socialistworker.org/2012/05/02/how-to-rebrand-occupy

Also at AlterNet

“The 99% Movement Has Something for Everyone -- But Is it Occupy? How will the 99% Spring impact the Occupy Movement? (AlterNet / ByArun Gupta), May 3, 2012  |  

http://www.alternet.org/story/155227/the_99_movement_has_something_for_everyone_--_but_is_it_occupy/

Version of this article appears at other sources including Salon dotcom.

http://www.alternet.org/story/155227/the_99_movement_has_something_for_everyone_--_but_is_it_occupy/

Arun Gupta and Indymedia

Arun Gupta is a founding editor and member of the board of directors of The Indypendent Newspaper, a New York City-based free newspaper published 16 times a year. The Indypendent is affiliated with the New York City Independent Media Center, which is part of the global Indymedia movement, an international network that is dedicated to fostering grassroots media production, and to IndyKids, a children’s newspaper. NYC IMC is an open publishing website (nyc.indymedia.org.). Board of Directors:  Arun Gupta, John Tarleton, Ellen Davidson; Senior Editor/Coordinator, Elizabeth Henderson, http://www.indypendent.org/about/staff

Images

From the ashes http://crcc.usc.edu/blog/public-conversations/from-the-ashes-the-1992-civil-unrest-and-the-rise-of-social-movement-organizing/

The Center for the Study of Social Movements was founded in 2006 to provide ...

cssm.nd.edu

economy for all, http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/category/tea-party/

http://endrunlv.blogspot.com/2011/12/leadership-and-politics-2012.html

_________________________________

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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“There is NO immigration problem”

TomSpot Weebly

Only propaganda, irrational reaction

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

In fiscal year 2011, the United States deported a record-breaking 397,000 people and detained nearly that many. According to federal data acquired by the Applied Research Center (ARC) through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, a growing number of deportees are parents. In the first six months of 2011, the federal government removed more than 46,000 mothers and fathers of U.S.-citizen children.

In its 2011 investigation, the Applied Research Center found 

At least 5,100 children currently living in U.S. foster care  are prevented from uniting with their detained or deported parents.

If nothing changes, 15,000 more children [in the United States] may face a similar fate in the next 5 years.

This is a growing national problem not confined to [U.S.] border jurisdictions or states but involve at least 22 [U.S.] states.

Applied Research Center

Families are more likely to be separated where local police aggressively participate in immigration enforcement.

Immigrant victims of domestic violence are at particular risk of losing their children.

ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention obstructs participation in Child Protective Services’ plans for family unity.

Most child welfare departments lack policies in their systems to keep families united when parents who are detained or deported.

ARC recommended

Federal, state and local governments create explicit policies to protect families from separation.

Polices should stop the clock on the child welfare process and the immigration enforcement process to ensure that families can stay together and allow parents to make the best decisions for the care and custody of their children. 

Latinalista

In the course of ARC’s investigation, researchers found, according to author and principal investigator Seth Wessler, repeated instances of families being excluded from “decision-making [concerning] the care and custody of their children. As a result, children of detained and deported parents are likely to remain in foster care when they could be with their own family.”

Colorlines

Applied Research Center President Rinku Sen said, “Immigration enforcement greatly increases the chances that families will never see each other again.… Detaining and deporting parents shatters families and endangers the children left behind. 

It is unacceptable, un-American, and a clear sign that we need to revisit our immigration policies.”

Another view

A British writer observing the raging fear, immigrant bashing, and continuing irrationality surrounding this issue took a fundamentally different [less begging and pleading] approach to thinking about difference in general, and immigration in particular. 

Though Tom Randall was writing about Britain, his words apply equally to the United States. He said the consistent bombardment of propaganda has convinced us “that immigration is getting out of control [and] as a result … we are losing our national identity by the flooding of foreigners into our country [but] … the following puts to rest the complete lies that are being fed to everyday Britons: “There is NO Immigration Problem.” 

It is in Britain’s best interest to not put a stop to immigration. Our country would not be able to survive without it.

We need to aim for the title of citizens of a continent, or of the world, where a global society has molded together from advances in travel technology and the freedom to live anywhere on our planet.

Sources and notes

“Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System, http://arc.org/shatteredfamilies

One of the first to report on the Obama administration’s unprecedented build-up of immigration enforcement, Seth Freed Wessler is a senior research associate at the Applied Research Center and an investigative reporter for Colorlines.com covering immigration, criminal justice, economic and workplace inequality and the safety-net.

Wessler has been awarded the Hillman prize for journalism in the service of the common good specifically for his report on thousands of U.S.-born children separated from detained or deported immigrant parents.

Exposé on Immigrant Children among Recipients of Hillman Journalism Prize,” May 2, 2012,

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/2/headlines#5211

Seth Freed Wessler

Seth Freed Wessler is a senior research associate at the Applied Research Center and an investigative reporter for Colorlines.com covering immigration, criminal justice, economic and workplace inequality and the safety-net.

Wessler is author of numerous reports and investigations including ‘Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System,’ a groundbreaking study that provides the first national estimates on the number of children in foster care whose parents were detained or deported. He also authored ‘Race and Recession: How Inequality Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules,’ as well as reports on organizing strategies, transportation equity and workplace discrimination.

Seth’s reporting and research has taken him across North America, and he was one of the first to report on the Obama administration’s unprecedented build-up of immigration enforcement.

ICE

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the [United States’] border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security. The largest components within ICE are Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations, (ERO)” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement]

THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES SHATTERED

The Applied Research Center’s ‘Shattered Families’ (a report released November 2, 2011, New York) offers groundbreaking national research on the perilous intersection of immigration enforcement and the child welfare system. Historic levels of detention and deportation, combined with a clear lack of child welfare policies are resulting in the separation of thousands of families across the United States. These families face formidable barriers to reunification, and in many cases will be permanently separated. Before this report, there had been no national data available on the numbers of children directly affected by the intersection of immigration enforcement and child welfare systems. http://arc.org/shatteredfamilies/

ARC’s “Shattered Families” provides evidence, for the first time, on the scale and scope of this growing national problem, consequences not confined to border jurisdictions or states.  

 “Shattered Families” analyzes these problems, identifies key barriers, and presents policy recommendations for Department of Homeland Security, various levels of legislature, state child welfare departments, and juvenile dependency courts on how we can better protect families from separation and reunify families in a timely way. Information on events available at http://arc.org/shatteredfamilies/

Applied Research Center (ARC

The Applied Research Center (ARC) is a 30-year-old racial justice think tank that uses media, research and activism to promote solutions. ARC’s mission is to popularize racial justice and prepare people to achieve it. By telling the stories of everyday people, ARC is a voice for unity and fairness in the structures that affect our lives. ARC also serves as the publisher of Colorlines.com; www.arc.org.  

http://www.arc.org/content/view/2297/180/

http://www.arc.org/content/blogsection/4/200/

Images

TomSpot March 30, 2012,

“There is NO Immigration Problem,” 

http://tomspot.weebly.com/there-is-no-immigration-problem.html

“We are consistently bombarded by propaganda, convincing us that immigration is getting out of control in Britain. As a result, or so we are told, we are losing our national identity by the flooding of foreigners into our country. There have been many calls from major and minor political parties to create tougher immigration barriers, with some going as far to say as having an immigration freeze for five years. The following is finally going to put a rest to the complete lies that are being fed to the everyday Briton; there is no immigration problem.…

“It is in Britain’s best interest to not put a stop to immigration, as our country would not be able to survive without it. In a globalizing age, where the world has become smaller and labour is able to travel more freely, there is no room for nationalism. It is a concept which we, as a country, are stupidly holding on to, when it is holding our whole economy and integration into the world back. Ethnic mixing should be encouraged, slowly wiping out any form of nationalism. We should no longer claim to be citizens of a country. Rather we need to aim for the title of citizens of a continent, or of the world, where a global society has molded together from the advances in travel technology and the freedom to live anywhere on our planet.”

No human being is illegal, http://colorlines.com/droptheiword/resources/en/about.html

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security. The largest components within ICE are Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement & Removal Operations (ERO).

We are here: http://latinalista.com/2009/11/analysis_reveals_driving_out_undocumente

“In the past two years, there has been an irrational vengeance by some state legislators to drive undocumented immigrants out of their states. It didn’t matter that these migrants were the main workers in industries that had little appeal to the average American worker, regardless of salary increase, or that these migrants were the only ones keeping Small Towns USA still on the map.

“It didn’t matter that these same migrants were paying taxes every time they bought food, gas, clothes, furniture, etc. It didn’t matter.

“Rather, what this shows is that the narrow minded fear that motivated these punitive actions in states like Oklahoma, Arizona and the rest actually do nothing to make those states safer, their economies stronger or their voices heard in the one legislature where it does count to have as many representatives as possible …”.

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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