Militias in Afghanistan funded by the United States are terrorising the communities they were supposed to protect, murdering, raping and torturing civilians, including children, extorting illegal taxes and smuggling contraband, according to a damning new report from Human Rights Watch.
Above quote from: Militias funded by US accused of rights abuses By Julius Cavendish in Kabul Independent.co via ICH,Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Now, with the United States about to enter the 11th year of the longest war it has ever fought, far more of my neighbors in Pakistan have joined the list of America's detractors. The wave of anti-Americanism is rising in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, even among many who once admired the United States, and the short reason for that is plain.
The common resentment is that American plans to bring peace and development to Afghanistan have failed, the killing is still going on, and to excuse their failures Americans have now expanded the war into Pakistan, evoking what they did in the 1960s when the Vietnam war moved into Laos and Cambodia. Moreover, while Pakistanis die for an American war, Washington has given favored deals to Pakistan's archenemy, India. So goes the argument.
Above quote from: And Hate Begat Hate By Ahmed Rashid at today online via ICH, sept. 13, 2011
Paul Simon sings Sound of Silence at 9/11 Memorial
Since 9/11 one of the big lies told by the Bush Regime and never questioned by the Obama Regime is that the abuses and torture of prisoners was an isolated case at Abu Ghraib or that only high level Terrorists were tortured their or at Gitmo this was a lie.
Torture according to the victims and by US military personnel became the norm in Iraq and Afghanistan whether done by US personnel of by proxy through Iraqi or Afghan personnel.
Gitmo Video - Guantanamo Bay
pursuitofinjustice
DISCLAIMER:
In case of any confusion on the part of those who have or are now reading this blog let it be known I do not ascribe to any sort of conspiracy theory that is that the Bush Regime and Neocons or the non-existent members of the New World Order or the Illuminati or whatever.
The only sort of conspiracy if you will was possibly that the Bush Regime wasn't paying enough attention to the intelligence reports concerning Al Qaeda-if this is true one could accuse George W.Bush and his staff of dereliction of duty which does not entail necessarily anything criminal on their part. As some have said you can't lay charges against someone for being distracted or just plain stupidity.
I also do not believe that any member of the Bush/Cheney regime decided to invade Iraq so companies they owned or were shareholders in would be able to make an increase in profits.
So I don't believe that Halliburton or other corporate interests pushed for the invasion of Iraq to increase their profits.
Once the war began as usual the war profiteers were all too eager to land contracts with the US government.
With abuses and torture of large numbers of so called "detainees" in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Gitmo and secret prisons around the globe and with the use of proxy states in rendition cases and combine this with the utter lack of concern over civilian casualties and deaths if the peoples in these regions didn't hate America before 9/11 they do now. Though of course the authoritarian regimes and their elites are still prospering and still in power thanks to the USA. And note President Obama has not made any real substantive changes in how "detainees" are treated. In Obama's case this is even more telling since Obama is considered an expert in International Law. Like John Yoo, Bybee et al Obama should at some point be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity though of course it will never happen in his case or in the case of others such as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove , Bolton, Condi Rice, former Pres. Bush et al . If any country dared to arrest and put one of these criminals on trial they could then expect the US to declare war on that nation and maybe drop a couple of baby nukes on them. So as they say lots of luck with that.
When it first became public knowledge that the US was condoning the use of torture on "detainees" part of the concern was that this might lead to a trickle down effect in which average US soldiers would start using these torture techniques on all those incarcerated in Iraq and Afghanistan which is what in fact happened whether by official policy or just a wink and a nod -anything goes just don't record it on video or photos.
The main reason the Bush regimes was bothered about Abu Ghraib was mainly because photos and videos ended up on the internet. President Obama has the same dim view of leaks to the press or on the net whereas the criminal actions are of little concern to him as it was to Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney defends and even brags about his decision to torture detainees.
The other prediction was that abuse and torture of prisoners might trickle down to America's own prisons and this appears to have happened. And do authorities do anything about it well yes they tell their guards to make sure videos and photos not end up reaching the American public.
America is one could argue if anything fairminded when it comes to to abuse and torture of prisoners and so does not just torture Non-Americans and Muslims and Arabs etc. but also has its own home style form of torture for those imprisoned in America's regulat jails and penitentiaries.
Prison Abuse and Torture in U.S. Prisons
Costs of wars in iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya will cost about 4 trillion dollars Alyona argues that Congress should cut back on money spent on defense and perpetual war-
MSM: Palin Movie v. War Costs
TheAlyonaShow videos
Militias funded by US accused of rights abuses By Julius Cavendish in Kabul Independent.co via ICH,Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Militias in Afghanistan funded by the United States are terrorising the communities they were supposed to protect, murdering, raping and torturing civilians, including children, extorting illegal taxes and smuggling contraband, according to a damning new report from Human Rights Watch.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In a 102-page report entitled 'Just Don't Call It a Militia' the group documents how the Afghan government and the US military have provided guns and money to paramilitary groups without adequate oversight or accountability. Because of their links to senior Afghan officials, many of these groups operate with impunity.
Their behaviour fuels support for the Taliban, and creates insecurity rather than decreasing it. But, under US General David Petraeus, who recently left Afghanistan to head up the Central Intelligence Agency, Nato aggressively pursued a strategy of raising militias as a security quick-fix ahead of its departure in 2014.
The common resentment is that American plans to bring peace and development to Afghanistan have failed, the killing is still going on, and to excuse their failures Americans have now expanded the war into Pakistan, evoking what they did in the 1960s when the Vietnam war moved into Laos and Cambodia. Moreover, while Pakistanis die for an American war, Washington has given favored deals to Pakistan's archenemy, India. So goes the argument.
And Hate Begat Hate By Ahmed Rashid at today online via ICH, sept. 13, 2011
September 13, 2011 "Today Online" -- IN their shock after Sept. 11, 2001, Americans frequently asked, "Why do they hate us so much?" It wasn't clear just who "they" were - Muslims, Arabs or simply anyone who was not American. The easy answer that many Americans found comforting was equally vague: That "they" were jealous of America's wealth, opportunities, democracy and what have you.
But in this part of the world - in Pakistan, where I live, and in Afghanistan next door, from which the Sept. 11 attacks were directed - those who detested America were much more identifiable, and so were their reasons.
They were a small group of Islamic extremists who supported Al Qaeda; a larger group of students studying at madrasahs, which had expanded rapidly since the 1980s; and young militants who had been empowered by years of support from Pakistan's military intelligence services to fight against India in Kashmir. They were a tiny minority of Pakistan's 150 million people at the time. In their eyes, America was an imperial, oppressive, heathen power just like the Soviet Union, which they had defeated in Afghanistan.
Now, with the United States about to enter the 11th year of the longest war it has ever fought, far more of my neighbors in Pakistan have joined the list of America's detractors. The wave of anti-Americanism is rising in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, even among many who once admired the United States, and the short reason for that is plain.
The common resentment is that American plans to bring peace and development to Afghanistan have failed, the killing is still going on, and to excuse their failures Americans have now expanded the war into Pakistan, evoking what they did in the 1960s when the Vietnam war moved into Laos and Cambodia. Moreover, while Pakistanis die for an American war, Washington has given favored deals to Pakistan's archenemy, India. So goes the argument.
The more belligerent detractors of America will tell you that Americans are imperialists who hate Islam, and that Americans' so-called civilizing instincts have nothing to do with democracy or human rights. A more politically attuned attitude is that the detractor doesn't hate Americans, just the policies that American leaders pursue.
But both groups feel trapped: Afghanistan is still caught up in war, and my country is on the brink of meltdown. And so now there is something beyond just disliking America. We have begun to ask the question of 9/11 in reverse: Why do Americans hate us so much ?
Ten years is a long time to be at war, and to be faced with a daily threat of terrorist attacks. It is a long time spent in an unequal alliance in which the battle gets only more arduous and divisive, especially for the weaker partner on whose soil the battle is playing out.
Under such long strain, resentments about intrusions, miscalculations and feckless performance make a leap to an assumption: That Americans must hate Pakistanis because they would otherwise never treat them so carelessly, speak so badly of them, or distrust them so much.
Americans should not be particularly surprised by this. War diminishes everyone and all states, even the victors, and that is especially true if the war is characterised by broken promises and dashed hopes, perceptions of betrayal, and disappointment in an ally. For the people living in this theater of war, the litany of such disappointments is long.
It seems that again we must take time to explain the situation in the Middle East and America's involvement over the last sixty years which for the most part has caused more harm than good.
From the engineering of the Coup d'etat in Iran in 1953 to supporting Saddam in Iraq in the 1970s & 1980s to the two gulf wars America has acted to defend its interests ie oil and protecting Israel and Saudi Arabia for political and military purposes and to expand American power, influence and hegemony.
Part 2 US foreign policy and blow Back and making things worse by Invading Iraq and threatening Iran America has a history of supporting authoritarian regimes in the region going back over the last 60 years ie Bahrain, Saudi Arabia , Egypt (Mubarak), Pakistan (Musharraf) , Iran (The Shah of Iran) , Iraq (Saddam)and so forth.
Here's a little summary continued from my last post 0n Sept. 13.
And it should be noted that Saddam invaded Iran and so was the Aggressor and the war would have ended within a few months but the US egged him on and supplied him with Arms while also selling arms secretely to Iran.
Note the Iran/Contra drugs/money/arms/hostages scandal.
The Great Game begun in the latter part of the 19th century continues and there's no end in sight.So the arms industry in the US and in Europe profited handsomely. The US also made intelligence data such as satelite imagery of Iran throughout the war.
The US at that time viewed Iran as an enemy.
Iran became America's enemy after the Iranian people rose up in 1978 replacing the American backed brutal dictatorial Shah of Iran. The American government in supporting the Shah besides not recognizing the will of the people of Iran were embarrased as they did not see it coming.
The Americans were further humiliated by the Iranian take over of the US Embassy which led to Embassy staff being held as hostages for over a year .
The US government it could be argued missed an opportunity during this period of upheaval and a popular revolution by insisting on taking the side of the Shah. This became another case in which the US instead of doubling down in favor of the Shah and that if they had not done so once they knew the Shah's days were numbered the US could have shifted their foreign policy away from the Shah and instead sided with the Iranian people thereby using the opprtunity to establish good relations with the new government. But America due to its arrogance and stuborness instead was seen as an enemy of the new government.
What happened in Iran under the rule of the US backed Shah was the elimination of many of the more liberal reform elements in Iran so that the more extremist groups such as that headed by Ayatollah Ruhaollah Khomeiniwere left to jockey for the governance of Iran.
This situation worsened when the US and other Western nations did nothing to condemn Saddam's illegal unprovoked attack on the sovereing state of Iran.
During the period of the Iran/Iraq war the US and other Western nations were supporting the resistance and insurgency against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Again the US made a major blunder in Afghanistan by supporting Islamic Jihadist extremists including Osama Bin laden's Al Qaeda and the Taliban in order to defeat the Soviet Union without giving any consideration to the aftermath once the Soviets were driven out of Afghanistan. After ten years of being involved in Afghanistan's internal affairs the US and other Western Nations did little to help with the rebuilding of Afghanistan to ensure it would not become a failed state or become captive to extremist which is exacly what happened. The most extreme group the Taliban were able to crush all other competing organizations including more moderate organizations. The Taliban then enforced their extremists religious form of Islamic governance on all of the people of Afghanistan.
It should be noted that Iran and iraq were not supporters of the Taliban or Al Qaeda . Iran is ruled by Shiite muslims while The Taliban are Sunni Muslims and Sunnis and Shiites thogh both groups are Muslim tend to be at odds with one another.
Iraq on the other hand is Sunni but Saddam's Regime was secular in nature and so rejected any form of Islamic religious form of governance.
Saddam himself was in fact on Al Qaeada's hit list.So Iraq under Saddam and Iran under the rule of the Ayatollah khomeini were not supportive of the Taliban or of Al Qaeda which became located in Afghanistan and protected by the Afghan Taliban Regime.
In the Afghanistan war with the occupying Soviet army
Abu Ghraib Saddam's notorious torture facility has become America's Torture facility. There is evidence that US personnel over the past ten years of The Global War on Terror have denied basic human rights and civil rights not just to a few so-called high level "detainees" at Gitmo or Abu Ghraib but to thousands of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It should be noted that these human rights violations were justified by the US government, the White House and its department of justice as being necessary and supposedly legal in the name of National Security.
But we have also discovered that these detainees were not being tortured to give out information on recent attacks or planned attacks but rather to further bolster or invent as it were connections between Saddam and Al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks and Saddam's supposedly secret(though non-existent) development of Weapons of Mass destruction that is chemical, biological and nuclearweapons program.
From what we have seen in leaked documents VP Dick Cheney and President Bush and others including Condoleeza Rice, Don Rumsfeld, karl Rove and others in the loop were desperate to find some evidence of Saddam's involvement with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups and to gather evidence after the invasion of Iraq of Saddam's WMDs programs and stockpiles.
For instance the Bush administration in its propaganda and lies in order to get the American people to back the invasion of Iraq often referred to Saddam as either already or close to being able to manufacture nuclear weapons .
They also demonized Saddam as being "Evil" and as insane as Adolph Hitlerand so he could not be ignored since his aim was to take control of the Middle East. Given the dire straits of Iraq in 2003 this would have been laughable except that the Bush Regime and its Neocon supporters were quite serious about invading Iraq and taking out Saddam and they were as we know now willing to stoop to whatever lies and propaganda they neede to get the approval of Congress, the Senate and the American people.
To give people an idea of how great of a threat Iraq was to the Middle East and especially Israel and the West the Bush regimes spokespersons talked about the danger that proof of Saddam's WMDs could be a mushroom cloud rising up in Saudi Arabia or Israel or in Europe or the US. But the problem was that Saddam had complied with international law and had destroyed his WMDs as such in the earyl 1990s and abandoned any further WMD program.
Prisoners referred to as "detainees" have been held for months or years without formal criminal charges being laid. They are held indefinitely and arbitrarily and are denied the right to a lawyer or to inform their families or friends of their situation and meanwhile are beaten, tortured, sodomized, humiliated, deprive of sleep for prolonged periods, denied the right to perform their religious duties or even to read their Holy Book the Qu'ran all of these actions are considered crimes under international law . But the US claims that International laws or the Criminal Court in the Hague have no jurisdiction over American personnel
and so it goes,
GORD.
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