14 posts tagged “war”

US Christians Apologise [read]
A Call to repentance and resistance (Feb. 2003) [read]
Warcast for Catholics [listen]
Pastor Steve Brown [read]

The featured address is based on the speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam, at Riverside Church in New York City. [read text]

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” (J.F.K., 1962)

Watching a video from American and Iraqi correspondent at "Alive in Baghdad" last month, I got a glimpse of children's lives in a refugee camp in Syria. I was struck most of all, not by the sad conditions they face. Not by the uniqueness of their experiences, as terribly inhumane the conditions that gave rise to their seeking refuge so far from home may be. Instead, what was most remarkable about these children was how much their aims in life are similar to those of my own children. These children have the same day to day concerns, though the obstacles along their paths are so different. Sara, one of the children interviewed by Hayder Fahad, said she wants to be a nurse in the future, while one of the young boy's had this to say about his own dreams:

"I wish to be a soldier and never let anyone touch my country"
Abdulla Karim

Quoting Forbes, Alive in Baghdad Blog posted the following:

"Amnesty International released a statement suggesting that, some Iraqi refugee families have even resorted to forcing their daughters into prostitution to help the family survive. Child prostitution and trafficking of Iraqi children is said to be growing, Amnesty said."

Posted at frankblog.amagama on September 6/7th, 2007

By yet another reckless military action, the entity occupying the Holy land threatened to escalate regional tensions to the level of war. Infiltrating far into the air space of the sovereign state of Syria, the invading terrorists were engaged and ejected from Syria yesterday.

Yahya Bene Dicere at Frankblog.amagama

Recent report:

"This is the beginning of a Syrian-Israeli conflict," said Sateh Noureddine, columnist with Lebanese newspaper as-Safir. He saw it as a follow-on from Israel's war in Lebanon a year ago.

Alistair MacDonald (REUTERS): Syria-Israel bombing incident shrouded in mystery

The sane world hopes and prays you are wrong, Mr. Noureddine. Even though it's track record of terror, cunning and unprovoked attack, point to this conclusion. The circumstances of this incident certainly point to a failed reconnaissance mission by the IDF. The Syrians no doubt, acted calmly so as to avoid an escalation into war.

Related:
Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
Javno World News
BBC News

This post refers to an article by John Yeld of the Cape Argus covering a paper in the Medical Journal "The Lancet".
The authors of the paper (subsequently signed by 260 medical professionals worldwide) conclude that the stance of the American medical establishment seems to be one of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil".
The "Lancet Letter" is entitled
Biko to Guantanamo: 30 years of medical involvement in torture
David J Nicholl, Trefor Jenkins, Steven H Miles, William Hopkins, Adnan Siddiqui, Frank Boulton, on behalf of 260 other signatories
The Lancet - Vol. 370, Issue 9590, 8 September 2007, Page 823

The news report below, appears in full at the allAfrica.com website
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070644.html

theREALsituation

There are strong parallels between the treatment meted out to murdered Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko and detainees held in the notorious US prison at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the so called "war on terror", says a group of more than 260 doctors from around the world.

The group, which includes South Africans, has called for the US doctors involved in treating these prisoners especially those helping to force feed detainees on hunger strike by inserting tubes into their noses to be reported to their professional medical bodies for breaching internationally accepted ethical guidelines.

The doctors express their outrage in a letter that appears in today's edition of The Lancet, the prestigious independent medical journal published in Britain.

The 30th anniversary of Biko's death from severe head injuries is next week.

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Biko was savagely beaten by Port Elizabeth security police while being held in solitary confinement and driven naked in the back of a police Land Rover to Pretoria, where he died a lonely death in a police cell.

Related Articles:
Durban Conference on Racism (Sept 2001)
Medical News Today
Accra Mail Tribute  to Biko - Thirty Years (by Dida Halake)
SA History.org

Hastings Ndlovu: first martyr in 1976 SOWETO uprising

A video on Alternate Focus, entitled THE BASES ARE LOADED, descibes a situation of a permanent force in IRAQ. There seems to be no plan at all to leave Iraq.

Will the U.S. ever leave Iraq? Official policy promises an eventual departure, while warning of the dire consequences of a "premature" withdrawal. But while Washington equivocates, facts on the ground tell another story. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail, and author Chalmers Johnson, are discovering that military bases in Iraq are being consolidated from over a hundred to a handful of "megabases" with lavish amenities. Much of what is taking place is obscured by denials and quibbles over the definition of "permanent." The Bases Are Loaded covers a wide range of topics. Gary Hart, James Goldsborough, Nadia Keilani, Raed Jarrar, Bruce Finley Kam Zarrabi and Mark Rudd all add their observations about the extent and purpose of the bases in Iraq.

Website, Alternate Focus

Related Blog:
This Azanian Blogger known as JEXX, discusse her perspective which she reached while doing promotional work for American clients and a commercial website related to the OCCUPATION OF IRAQ. The article is:
JUSTIFIED INVASION

And amidst all the terror they have created, they lie and lie and lie and lie......
This New Zealand interview shows the legendary reporter, Robert Fisk explaining his reasons for retiring. A seemingly broken man. The inhumanity he has witnessed in 30 plus years, has not turned him into a sub-human, but it may have nearly broken a very good man.

If he doesn't return to his job, his legacy will certainly live on in the journalists who follow his footsteps. This interview brings me to tears. I have long last seen the film called the Road to Guantanamo, and seeing these news clips in the video remind me why I have often turned the film off midway. I apologise for the language in the title, but I couldn't use the"F' word, so we will have to make do with the word "bastards".

Shame on you Bush and Blair and all your cronies. Shame on all who support these lies against all reason. Those who howl down the voices of reason and civilization, and continue to support these tyrants. History will not deal kindly with this generation. Shame on us all, for we have not done enough.

Fallujah_111404_m November 2004

60km west of Baghdad, there is peace. But residents describe it as the peace of the dead. Resistance to the invasion is still common however. Unemployment is at 80%. Car movement is banned. There is no longer freedom of the press. People often go missing and then turn up as unidentified bodies in the streets. Medical supplies are denied to the residents. It is a slow death that residents are being subjected to.

The city sees no more of the kind of resistance attacks of old, and no more of the 2004 kind of crackdown. "We are so happy that our city is peaceful and quiet after all the battling that killed thousands of our citizens," a captain in the local police force of Fallujah, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "We can patrol the streets without fear now, and arrest any person that we suspect to be a terrorist." ...

... Several of those found dead had been arrested earlier, eyewitnesses and families of several of the men killed have said.

"This is fascist behaviour that shows the brutality of the Americans and the so-called Iraqi government," a former member of the Fallujah city council who asked to be referred to as Mahmood told IPS. "Those young guys were executed without any trial. This brutality was not known in our city before this occupation began." ...

... Journalists inside the city are also quiet after a few of them were arrested and held for several days.

One of the detained journalists spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. Visibly shaken, he said that a major in the Fallujah police force had told him that freedom of the media had been misused and that the police would not allow it any more. He said the major told him that "the news you transmit to the world will be what we tell you, not what you pick up from the street". ...

... Medical services also continue to suffer under the vehicle ban. Doctors at Fallujah General Hospital told IPS that the government in Baghdad is not supplying them with medicines and medical equipment.

"The officials of the Ministry of Health tell us we are terrorists, and so we do not deserve their support," a doctor said. "As if they own Iraqi money and it is up to them whether to give it or not."

The Ministry of Health was headed by Ali al-Shemari from the group of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr until Sadr withdrew from the government Apr. 16.

Inter Press Service
By Ali al-Fadhily (August 28th, 2007)

Would you believe this tripe on FOX?

Well, even if YOU didn't believe that first video, I am sure this fine specimen of US AMERICAN beauty, along with her South Carolina neigbours believes all of "FOX's Tales", "Tales by the Tooth fairy", and the story that "Santa Clause is really coming to Town". I bet she even mails Santa a letter each year, and even becomes good in anticipation of him watching to see who's naughty and nice.

May the Good Lord have mercy on us all, for they truely do not know their elbows from their asses. Thank the Good Lord also for GPS, for without it, they wouldn't be able to find their way back from Iraq, and all the other Asian countries. Also, we pray they never get more maps printed in their nation and that they never find Africa south and such as other nations in Africa and then like come over and invade us like they are doing in such other countries without any maps and such as.

The posting of these videos is in no way meant as an insult to the mentally handicapped. The bloggers at "The Beginning of Wisdom" would like to request that the feeble minded be protected from viewing this material or engaging in any discussion concerning this material. We earnestly request that readers of this posting take every precaution to ensure that such individuals are not exposed to this material. In the event that any harm does befall said group of people, we would like to apologise for this. Remember, the feeble minded Such as Like Miss South Carolina, are to be taken care of and loved and protected. The audience at the Pageant are to be applauded for their applause in this case. They are a fine example, as too are the viewers who continue to support The FOX Network, a broadcaster that clearly has a policy of equal opportunity, as it hires people from the Intellectual minority and appeals to the intellectual minority as well. We would hate for the staff at FOX to feel any emotional harm due to a drop in viewership. Please people, love thy Feeble Minded TV producer. They have feelings too, even though their intelligence score may be a a borderline figure. If you love them keep watching FOX TV. Keep the ratings high, and support the war in Iraq or any other cause that they may get behind.

The article leads with this statement:

One of the most durable features of the U.S. culture is the inability or refusal to recognize U.S. crimes.

The statement ends with this relevant observation:

imperial terrorism inevitably produces retail terrorist responses; that the urgent need is the curbing of the causal force, which is the rampaging empire.

In short, the much disliked yet apt words of brother Malcolm concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy remain true today:

a case of chicken coming home to roost

Moreover, apart from seeing their own violence turned on themselves,
Americans are paying the price for:

• their acquiescence of the fraudulent process which ushered in the current US presidency,
• their acquiescence of the assaults on freedoms which were instituted subsequent to Bush's election
• their acquiescence of the obvious deceptions created and then used as pre-texts for the military interventions
  
• their acquiescence of the abuses of the media meant to incite fear, then hatred
  
• their acquiescence of the illegal wars which are being waged today
• their acquiescence of the abuses at secret torture camps including but not exclusive to Guantanamo
  
• their acquiescence of the continued support for the criminal entity occupying Palestine

Sadly, we are all victims of this rampaging empire and we will all pay the price for inaction.

In the humble opinion of this blogger, this is more than natural. It is self-serving and it is obstinant. Another blogger noted that the Holy Quran mentions how the enemies of God will never accept the believers, until [the believers] embrace [the non-believers'] religion (identical in the translation to "way of life"). The Holy Bible mentions something similar in the book of Proverbs and elsewhere, I believe. We must in effect show our allegiance to the great satan by our wanton and obstinant embrace of death, violence, destruction, symbols of allegiance, if you will. Refusal to open one's mind to allow rational considerations into our thinking and our actions, is surely sinful at best, and dangerous at worst. For it prevents our God from using us as instruments in His correction of the wrongs of others.