Waste is what irresponsible men create; what people who refuse to clean up after themselves leave behind.

Dirt is what Mother Nature provides to sustain life on earth. If we waste it, man's ability to sustain himself is jeopardized.

SOURCE:Los Angeles Times

U.S. report faults Air Force drone crew, ground commanders in Afghan civilian deaths

The investigation into an operation three months ago in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province that left up to 23 civilians dead prompts Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal to punish six officers.

May 29, 2010|By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan — A U.S. military investigation has harshly criticized a Nevada-based Air Force drone crew and American ground commanders in Afghanistan for misidentifying civilians as insurgents during a U.S. Army Special Forces operation in Oruzgan province in February, resulting in the deaths of as many as 23 civilians.

Six U.S. officers will be punished and a sweeping review of counterinsurgency training will be undertaken, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said Saturday.

A presentation with video
excerpts with filmmaker Tom Jackson at the Portsmouth Public Library, 175
Parrott Ave, Portsmouth NH.
Tom was in Gaza from November 28, 2009 through January 6, 2010 teaching a
class in video production to Gazans and doing his own interviewing and
filming. He brings us his personal witness of living conditions in Gaza
under the current siege and footage of his interviews with human rights
activists, families whose homes were destroyed or damaged in airstrikes,
Dr. Mukhaimer Abu Saada who is a noted commentator on networks such as
NPR and Al Jazeera, and other Gazans.

Sunday, May 9, 12 noon - 1:00 pm: Mother's Day Peace Vigil in Market Square, Portsmouth NH.
All are invited to this anti-war vigil led by mothers. The vigil starts with a reading of Julia Ward Howe's "Mother's Day Proclamation," which introduced this holiday in 1890 as a day for women to oppose war.
Sponsored by Seacoast Peace Response, The Seacoast Alliance for Democracy, Durham Students for a Democratic Society, UNH Peace & Justice League, NH Peace Action, Amnesty International Group 550 & First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter Social Justice Committee.
For more info contact amyla44@juno.com or 603-436-7861.

"Rethink Afghanistan", a film by Robert Greenwald, will be shown at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter, 12 Elm Street, Exeter, NH on Sunday, April 25th, at 7 pm. Rethink Afghanistan is a thought provoking and popular documentary produced by Robert Greenwald. Panel discussion will follow the film including guest speaker Terri deLangis, an Exeter resident who just returned from 2 years in Afghanistan, working with women human rights defenders and political activists as Chief Technical Advisor to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Sponsored by The Social Justice Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter, Seacoast Peace Response, Seacoast Alliance for Democracy, and NH Peace Action. The event is free and open to the public. For more info contact Bob at 603-642-4648 or bmoore628@comcast.net.

When it comes to the legal framework for confronting terrorism, President Obama is acting in no meaningful sense any different than President Bush after 2006, when the Supreme Court overturned the view that the president’s war time powers were effectively unlimited.

SOURCE: Reason
Magazine

Barack Obama is operating with the war powers granted George W. Bush three
days after the 9/11 attacks.

Eli Lake | April 6, 2010

If you believe the president’s Republican critics, Barack Obama takes
a law enforcement approach to terrorism. His FBI came under fire for reading
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian national who nearly blew up an airplane
on Christmas, his constitutional rights. His attorney general was blasted for
wanting to give 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed a criminal trial in
lower Manhattan. Republican Sen. Scott Brown rode to his historic upset victory
in Massachusetts in part due to this slogan: “In dealing with terrorists,
our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend
them.” Every sign suggests the GOP will make terrorism a wedge issue
in the 2010 midterm elections. “As I’ve watched the events of the
last few days,” former vice president Dick Cheney said shortly after
the Abdulmutallab attack, “it is clear once again that President Obama
is trying to pretend we are not at war.”

SOURCE:MotherJones

Another Gulf War Syndrome?

Burning trash on bases is sickening soldiers, but the Army refuses to extinguish the burn pits.

— By Beth Hawkins

Before her last deployment, 31-year-old Staff Sergeant Danielle Nienajadlo passed her Army physical with flying colors. So when she started having health problems several weeks after arriving at Balad Air Base in Iraq, no one knew what to make of her symptoms: headaches that kept her awake; unexplained bruises all over her body; an open sore on her back that wouldn't heal; vomiting and weight loss. In July 2008, after three miserable months, Nienajadlo checked into the base emergency room with a 104-degree fever.

Dr. Helen Caldicott, the renowned anti-nuclear campaigner and founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, will speak at Dartmouth College on Wednesday, March 31, at 4 PM in the Filene Auditorium, Moor Hall. Her many books include “Nuclear Power is not the Answer.”

March
6, 2010, By
Joan Brunwasser

For a long time, I've been fascinated by the MRFF, the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation, especially after I read founder Mikey Weinstein's
book. I recently learned that best-selling author and former evangelical
Frank Schaeffer is on their advisory board. I interviewed him several
months ago, so I invited him back today. Welcome to OpEdNews, Frank.
Let's start at the very beginning. Can you tell our readers what MRFF
is?

MRFF's role is to ensure that our government does indeed adhere to the
spirit as well as the letter of the Constitution; that it leads by example
when it comes to not allowing the military to become a place where religion
takes residence as if in a church! Mikey Weinstein, who founded it, has
a passion to protect us from the pitfall of allowing fundamentalists
to hijack our military in order to 1) convert soldiers and 2) use our
military as a platform for missionary work world-wide.

Gov. John Lynch released the following statement today regarding the death of Pfc. Eric Currier of Londonderry who was killed in action in Afghanistan on Wednesday:

“My thoughts and prayers, and those of my wife Susan, are with the family of Marine Pfc. Eric Currier.

“Pfc. Currier served our nation with courage and honor, and he sacrificed protecting all of us. On behalf of the citizens of New Hampshire, our deepest sympathies go out to the Currier family.”

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