WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER

An Afghan child burned in a NATO bomb attack

 Except in purely self-defense situations, war is the answer to nothing.

Thanks in large part to our self-censoring media, we never really see the horrors of war and have not had a war on our soil in a century and a half.

I went to Google Images and looked up "civilian casualties." Permit me to share some of what I found. This is the horror we should not only not turn away from, we should actively do as much as we can to purge it from the planet forever. In nearly every situation that results in war -- including Libya -- there are other alternatives. It is not an either/or question.

All of these images are of civilians. Many were caused by the forces of the U.S. and its allies. But we aren't the only warmongers, that's for sure. We just happen to be top of the heap these days.

Iraq

Afghanistan

Bosnia

Hiroshima

Iraq

Dresden (WWII)

Korea (Korean War)

Afghanistan

How was your day?


Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING, you might like to take a look at THE MASS MURDERERS OF WASHINGTON D.C.

VALE HOWARD ZINN

This blog entry is way overdue.

On January 27, 2010 we lost someone very special. That day, historian and activist Howard Zinn passed away.

If you are really interested in "great Americans," here is one you should read more about. Zinn was a brilliant, courageous and gentle soul who affected many lives in a very positive way and left a legacy that will be with us always.

It would be simply too much to try and tell this man's story here. Below I have listed some URLs if you wish to learn more about him -- and I dare say you should. But here are a few "highlights":

-- Zinn came from humble beginnings in Brooklyn, the son of Jewish immigrants;
-- He worked in the shipyards before becoming a bombardier in WWII, an experience that would shape his later political views;
-- He earned his B.A. at NYU and his M.A. and PhD at Columbia University;
-- From 1956 to 1963 he taught at Spellman College in Atlanta, a black women's college. Here he was both an inspiration to his students and a civil rights activist. One of his students, the famed novelist Alice Walker, called him "the best teacher I ever had";
-- In 1980, Zinn published his best-known book: "A People's History of the United States." A brave departure from the standard American history book, "A People's History" looks at the struggles of the country's true heroes and denounces the invaders and demagogues, tyrants and rulers. With an original print run of just 5,000 copies, the book has sold more than 2 million copies, including condensations such as "The 20th Century" and "A Young People's History of the United States." (His one-time neighbor, actor Matt Damon, mentions the book in the Academy Award-winning movie "Good Will Hunting.")
-- Zinn published several other important books, including his autobiography, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train."
-- Zinn's activism included brave stands against racism, the Vietnam War, and labor injustices. He was always willing to back up his words with his deeds.

It is a sad commentary on our culture that a great man like Howard Zinn isn't a household name. But this is also a tribute to the perceived threat he was to the elites who run the U.S. Folks like Zinn are too dangerous to give Oprah-like exposure to. Sad also that "A People's History" is not a standard textbook in every American high school.

And it is very sad that we have lost Howard Zinn.

But he would not have it that way. The always-smiling Zinn would not want us to be sad at his passing. But that would be out of humility. In fact, we should celebrate this great man's life and give thanks that he lived for 87 years, setting us an example with they way he used his life on Earth.

So take the time to read some Zinn. And smile. His was a wonderful life.

VALE J.D. SALINGER

Ironically, on the same day that Howard Zinn died, author J.D. Salinger also left us.

Since the 1960s Salinger was a recluse, publishing nothing (though still writing for himself) and refusing interviews.

He is best remembered for his masterpiece "A Catcher in the Rye," widely regarded as one of the 20th century's great novels. Published in 1951, the book is narrated by 16-year-old Holden Caulfied, who has just been expelled from prep school.

The voice of the book was groundbreaking and grabs the reader right from its powerful opening:
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

It is unfortunate that Salinger decided to withdraw. One imagines that he might have been a great teacher or lecturer. But he chose not to go that way and we must respect that.

May he rest in peace.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

Links for Howard Zinn:

Obituary article in The Washington Post

The Howard Zinn website

"A People's History of the United States" full version online

Go here and scroll down to "Editorial Reviews" for two synopses of "A People's History"

“THEY’RE BEING EXECUTED ON THE BATTLEFIELD.”

We are murderers too.

By “we,” I mean the government that supposedly represents us after we supposedly put its members in power by means of what is supposedly a democratic process.

It’s easy for us, as poorly informed citizens who live relatively comfortably, to think that life is good and all the bad guys live in other countries. We know the names of the big ones: Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao. We were taught these things in school and by the History Channel.

But “we” are the bad guys too. In fact, what other nation can claim as much multinational malfeasance around the world since WWII, the era of the American Empire?

Our leadership through the decades is a rogues gallery. As preeminent socio-political intellectual/dissident Noam Chomsky has pointed out, if we applied the Nuremberg laws (from the Nuremberg trials of the head Nazis) to our U.S. presidents, you’d have to hang every one of them going back at least as far as WWII. I want to look at that in my next blog entry.

Today I want to look at the “micro” level. The level of the individual soldier.

To see a TV commercial for the Marines, you’d swear you were watching some cross between a Biblical epic and a superhero movie. A lot of “motivational” nonsense and BS. Trying to rope in the kids of the gaming era.

And you yourself might think it all looked pretty good. This factory that makes fine citizens who are tougher, smarter and better than the rest. The BS merchants propagandize us as much as they do those they seek to enlist. If the commercials showed more blood and entrails and honesty, well, they might not work so well.

The point is, our guys do bad things on (and around) the battlefield too. Please take a look at this news excerpt from the very fine website Democracynow.org:


‘Hersh: U.S. Carrying Out “Battlefield Executions” in Afghanistan

…investigative journalist Seymour Hersh (pictured above) says U.S. forces are carrying out battlefield executions of prisoners in Afghanistan. Hersh made the comment during a discussion at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva. In 2004 Hersh broke the story about the abuse and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Seymour Hersh: "And the purpose of my [Abu Ghraib] stories was to take it out of the field into the White House, and where it -- you know, it’s not that the President or the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Rumsfeld, or Bush or Cheney -- it’s not that they knew what happened in Abu Ghraib. It’s that they had allowed this kind of activity to happen. And I’ll tell you right now, one of the great tragedies of my country is that Mr. Obama is looking the other way, because equally horrible things are happening to prisoners, I mean, to those we capture in Afghanistan. They’re being executed on the battlefield. It’s unbelievable stuff going on there that doesn’t necessarily get reported. And things don’t change.”

Seymour Hersh went on to say that he had been told about the battlefield executions by five or six different people.’

The issue here is that our Commander-and-Chief, his key people, the Congress and the top brass of the military, create a “war culture.” They unleash the dogs after feeding them raw meat and training them to kill. They have their military tactics (pretty easy stuff when you’re clearing a path with the most advanced military technology on the planet) but out in the field, as far as they in their ivory towers are concerned, whatever happens happens.

And so you have the My Lai massacre (another story Hersh broke back in 1969), Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, fragging in war, rape in war, and on down the line. None of us are made up of good alone. And under extreme pressure, our demons can be loosed.

The military personnel who commit these atrocities are not innocent. But more culpable are the decision-makers who put them in the position in which they act out. And the socio-economic system – fueled by corporate greed and political power lust – that creates and promotes those decision-makers.

Of course, saying this sort of thing out loud (or in a blog) will always be labeled as “unpatriotic” by some. Or it will be personalized at the micro level: “How dare you say that about our brave fighting men and women.” But I am not questioning the courage of the individual soldiers. I am admitting, on their behalf, the fallibility of their humanity. Whatever awful deeds they have done (and of course, the majority don’t commit war crimes – but they are willing to kill in illegal “wars” if ordered to), it is OUR duty to declare war on those who have used them like pawns.

So email your senators and congressmen and President Obama (who is the commander-in-chief and who recently ok’d another 30,000 troops be shipped to Afghanistan) and tell them that you are outraged. By atrocities in war and the wars (invasions!) themselves.

Do it for those who cannot do it themselves. Just as you would want someone to speak up on your behalf if you were losing your mind at one end of a barrel or another in a distant land.

Some people will say Hersh’s claims are all BS. But to me they’re absolutely plausible. In this violent world, why would this be so hard to believe? Under that kind of duress. Our guys crack under pressure too. And out leaks their id. I mean, even if you just look at it from the point of view of percentages, you’d have to bet that these things happen.

To me it would be ridiculous to think that you could send thousands of young people into a war zone and it wouldn't result in a few of them losing their minds at some point.

Unless you believe those commercials for the Marines and think our men and women are bulletproof. But who’d be dumb enough to buy into that?

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at THE MASS MURDERERS OF WASHINGTON D.C.

LEST WE FORGET -- PART 1

This is a very hard blog for me to write.

It is hard because it involves elements of my heritage and upbringing, and so there is the risk that emotion could cloud objectivity. Which is something any serious activist must be careful of.

I am from Australia and in that country (and New Zealand) April 25 is, for all intents and purposes, a holy day -- at least for the Anglo population. ANZAC Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand (ANZAC) forces at Gallipoli, Turkey, during the First World War. 1915 to be precise.

What happened on that day, and in ensuing months, is well documented in books and on the Internet. There are many monuments in the Antipodean countries dedicated to this battle. Countless songs and poems have been written and stories handed down. It has also been the subject of various movies, most notably one of Mel Gibson's earliest efforts simply called "Gallipoli."

And every April 25 the two nations fall almost silent in a collective act of reverence almost without par anywhere else in the world.

Gallipoli was a military blunder and a foregone slaughter. These sorry elements, however, are what also turned the battle of Gallipoli into the stuff of legend. The task for the landing troops was a nightmare: take the higher ground from the Turks who were dug in with machine guns at the ready.

The suicidal bravery of the ANZAC troops -- many just teenagers -- is ingrained in the psyche of most white Australians. We were taught about it in school. Many of my own generation had fathers who'd fought in WWII and/or the Korea War, and so we were predisposed to focus on this pivotal moment in modern Australian history.

It is difficult to walk the line between reverence and criticism -- but one must remember that these things need not be mutually exclusive. I have nothing but respect for the courage of the ANZACs. But I feel compelled to question any war, any battle, any loss of life. For, too often, wars are fought by good and often naive young men on behalf of greedy men who are not concerned with loss of life -- provided the loss isn't theirs or their loved ones.

I believe that defensive wars are morally justifiable. But even in these instances, for that moral justification to exist, someone has certainly mounted an immoral offensive to begin with. So it is our obligation, as free and privileged citizens of the world, to search for root causes of war -- and to tear out those roots for all time. These causes are not generally found in the fluff of high school history books, sadly. The truth is not only harder to bear, it is harder to find.

But if we do indeed acknowledge a debt to those who fought and died in wars -- and to those who simply died -- then it is to not only pay our respects once a year, but to make the effort to learn about the true causes of war and do all in our power to eradicate them.

I have experienced many ANZAC Days and I am not anti the occasion. Far from it. But care must be taken, as emotional beings, to make sure that our emotion is spent on love and remembrance and not romanticizing the conflict. It's easy to fall into the latter and I have done it myself in the past.

But I've also seen documentaries in which ancient ANZACs were interviewed. And for most of them the romance of going off to war -- the great adventure of the time -- soon evaporated as good mates were cut down with machine gun fire at Gallipoli. The men who were actually there were likely more objective about this moment in history than anyone else. And I imagine this goes for most battles.

Something to think about. More on this very important subject soon in Part 2.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp