World Anti-militarism Newswire Archive

Composed of roughly equal parts racism, war-mongering, fawning and fabrication, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress on May 24 was received with adulation by the assembled Democrats and Republicans alike.

Netanyahu devoted a considerable part of his speech to a call for more aggressive action against Iran, which is surrounded by U.S. military power and has been subjected to several rounds of United States and European Union economic sanctions.

He called for a policy stipulating “that all options are on the table.” This position, shared by the Obama administration, is a coded way of saying that Iran could be the target of military attack, including the use of nuclear weapons.

It was quite a week for America's Nobel Peace Laureate President. After a speech to AIPAC, there was the major, pre-UK arrival "interview" with the BBC's political commentator, Andrew Marr. Less an interview, in fact than a breathlessly adoring audience.

As the U.S., and British body bags returned from Afghanistan continue to mount, the BBC's audience learned that troop levels had been: "plussed up" and that: "the Taliban is now back on its heels." The occasional minor glitch of entire prisons inmates escaping, U.S., bases under attack, supply convoys routinely incinerated in industrial numbers (he didn't put it quite like that) had been because the U.S., had been: "distracted by the war in Iraq."

Police arrested CODEPINK peace activist Rae Abileah at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC. Abileah was taken to the hospital after having been assaulted and tackled to the ground by AIPAC members of the audience in the House Gallery during Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.

Abileah interrupted Netanyahu with a banner that said “Occupying Land Is Indefensible” and shouting, “No more occupation, stop Israel war crimes, equal rights for Palestinians, occupation is indefensible.” She rose up to speak out just after the Prime Minister talked about the youth around the world rising up for more democracy.

As this 28-year-old Jewish American woman spoke out for the human rights of Palestinians, other members of the audience—wearing badges from the conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee—brutally attacked her. The police then dragged her out of the Gallery and took her to the George Washington University Hospital, where she was being treating for neck and shoulder injuries.

Heavy military training today in the Valley

Structural violence is the effect of a systemic imbalance in society that prefers the interests of some over others. Its dynamics are less visible than that of direct violence, where the causes are generally easier to identify. The use of direct violence is mostly a state affair manifested in armed conflict. The participation of the general population is predominantly one of inaction. Structural violence, however, tends to involve the participation of the general population which is both a cause for concern and optimism.

“Turkey pioneers the process aiming at normalization of politics and history in the [Middle East] region”

[Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, interview on ‘TRT Haber’ TV channel, 25 May 2011]

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is "the most powerful and feared lobby in Washington." For years, it's "drawn on a well-organized, well-connected, highly visible, successful, and wealthy Jewish population," subverting potential opposition.

Obama's May 22 AIPAC speech affirmed rock solid support for a "strong and secure Israel," leaving Palestinians entirely out of his equation, despite paying disingenuous lip service to their interests.

An official AIPAC statement expressed gratitude for his assurance that Washington doesn't expect Israel to withdraw to June 1967 borders, besides explicitly calling Hamas a terrorist organization, ignoring its January 2006 electoral victory as Palestine's legitimate government.

Friday 27th May - 4pm-6pm

On May 1st, Zionist groups held a vigil in front of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York City to use the memory of the Holocaust to condemn Iran. Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews showed their opposition to this provocation by demonstrating on the opposite side of the avenue.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo "sought arrest warrants" for Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and brother-in-law intelligence chief, Abdullah Al-Sanous, on "charges of orchestrating systematic attacks against civilians (amounting to) crimes against humanity."

Moreno-Ocampo is an imperial tool, following orders. Claiming ample evidence shows Gaddafi "personally ordered attacks on unarmed Libyan civilians" is gross hypocrisy with no credibility whatever. His announcement was strategically timed to justify war by accusing government victims of crimes, portraying NATO lawlessness as a noble initiative to deter them.

The former Georgia Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney is “saddened that our first African-American President presents a false perception of the Black political consensus in the U.S.” She told the peace conference in Tehran: “We cannot bring our country to peace and respect for human dignity without the solid foundation of the truth.”

No conclusive answers this week, as we consider possible motivations behind the recent attacks on Libya that underlie the rather overused cover story of humanitarian intervention. As an introduction, we read Ellen Brown's article Libya: All about Oil or All About Banking?. This sets the stage for our main presentation, by Vijay Prashad, a professor of international relations, whose invaluable insights and pieces of history you are unlikely to hear on commercial media.

Each year, the US State Department publishes human rights reports for over 190 countries. Its April 8-released 2010 China assessment can be accessed through the following link:

Unsparing in its harshness, it calls China "an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) constitutionally is the paramount authority,"

Indeed, China's no model human rights champion. However, America's record is far worse at home and abroad, yet self-criticism is absent. Moreover, rarely do major media reports discuss abuses. Instead they regurgitate managed news, suppressing full and accurate disclosure of Washington's most deplorable human and civil rights record at home and abroad.

On April 10, two days after the State Department's report, China's Information Office of the State Council published its own comprehensive report titled, "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010,"

In its report, the US State Department charges were mostly without corroboration. In contrast, China, under six major headings, used data from the US Justice Department (DOJ), FBI, other US agencies, state ones, and think tanks, as well as international and US media reports. They reveal a far different America than official Washington and managed major media reports, concealing dark side truths important to reveal.

A brave woman stands up to a war criminal while American sheeple try to shout her down. This must happen every time someone from the Bush administration, and now the Obama administration is speaking in public! Stand up and walk the opposite way of the sheeple around you!

With the death of Osama bin Laden, there is a perfect opportunity for the Obama administration to bring to an end the decade-long “War on Terror” by withdrawing from Afghanistan and closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The past month has been a difficult one for anyone who wants to be at all knowledgeable about our world. First it was necessary to avoid the endless and endlessly useless reporting of the British royal wedding. No sooner had that media monstrosity ended when we were told that the United States government had succeeded in killing Osama bin Laden. The orgy of hatred and rancid triumphalism was immediate and a sickening sight to behold. Crowds of rabid Americans descended upon “ground zero” the world trade center site, to wave flags and chant as if they were the winning football team.

You see people will accept lies if their lives get better. As their lives get worse, they will inevitably ask questions. And as their lives disintegrate, they will start looking for both answers and suspects. That was and is the swimming pool full of gasoline that Barack Obama is lighting matches in.

If the United States of America does not immediately announce a massive drawdown in Afghanistan, the world will keep asking questions about OBL because our lives will be getting worse, not better, by the day. And every time Mr. Obama opens his mouth about 9-11, he pours more gasoline into the pool and asks for another box of matches.

It was not my choice. Barack Obama has placed 9-11 back on the table again. Mainstream media, of course, can't say Jack Diddly about this theater of the absurd, even though they’ve been cornered into asking a few pseudo-hardball questions. They are, after all, criminally culpable for the endorsement and concealment of something they damn well knew was a lie, murder, and high treason ten years ago.

An estimated 2 billion people watched the lavish wedding of Kate and William in London that cost the British economy $10 billion from a national day off work. We all wish the best for the happy couple. However the TV coverage permitted by the Royal Family involved massive censorship of the Australian ABC and indeed all other media. The Royal Family and the British Establishment survive through censorship, lies (of commission and omission) and slice (spin-based untruths) and this latest British censorship demands exposure of Britain’s horrendous past and continuing imperialist crimes.

The story in pictures

This article highlights a shameless Washington effort to compound one lie with others. Ad nauseam accounts continue, contributing to war on terror fear mongering that's changed America dramatically post-9/11 disturbingly. It suggests worse yet to come, including perhaps more war besides others now raging, while popular needs go begging.

Despite poll data showing opposition, they continue because people focus more on bread and circuses than activism, the only way to achieve constructive change. It's high time opinions became anger enough to significantly make a difference. It better because the alternative is too dire to imagine.