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POPSObama Stands Up to the Military Despite recent months of Pentagon "leaks," and lobbying the White House is not rolling over to military demands. This action is almost unprecedented, taking great courage and political determination. Our military is suppose to be controlled and led by civilian, political leaders; not by generals. If Obama didn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize award before (and he did); he certainly deserves it now.
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POPSObama and the Nobel Prize: When War becomes Peace
At this critical juncture in our history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President and Commander in Chief Barack Obama constitutes an unmitigated tool of propaganda and distortion, which unreservedly supports the Pentagon's "Long War": "A War without Borders" in the true sense of the word, characterised by the Worlwide deployment of US military might. Apart from the diplomatic rhetoric, there has been no meaningful reversal of US foreign policy in relation to the George W. Bush presidency, which might have remotely justified the granting of the Nobel Prize to Obama. In fact quite the opposite. The Obama military agenda has sought to extend the war into new frontiers. With a new team of military and foreign policy advisers, the Obama war agenda has been far more effective in fostering military escalation than that formulated by the NeoCons. Since the very outset of the Obama presidency, this global military project has become increasin
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POPS500,000 Troops Will Be Required Over Five Years in Afghanistan Congress should immediately convene hearings to discuss alternatives to General McChrystal's proposal for such a massive escalation of the war in Afghanistan. It is time for the administration and Congress to demilitarize U.S. policy in Afghanistan and strike out in a new, sustainable, direction.
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POPSIran Insists on Nuclear Rights
Last week Iran told the UN's IAEA that it has a nuclear enrichment plant under construction (with no nuclear material in it and over a year away from being operational). That's the fact. Iran telling this info was all properly done in accord with the IAEA, the NPT, and the U.N. terms it has signed onto. Note: Some nations, like Israel and India, have nukes but haven't signed these agreements...so just signing onto these agreements is the first step in "trying to do the right thing." But major Western powers and Israel have jumped all over this -- go to war with Iran are now once again the raging headlines -- just like misleading nations into the War in Iraq based on unfounded speculation now the drums of war call for a War in Iran based on unfounded speculation - fabrication - distortions - manipulation. Ah...for the good old days...when we went to war because something actually happen. (Or, at least, it was presented that way) -- tsk, tsk.) More Dying for Lies on th
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POPSThose Who Ignore History... History didn't listen to us," said Tabeyev, who's now 81. "All our efforts to restore peace in the country . . . this was a flop in the end." The fundamental problem in Afghanistan is that it isn't a country in the way the West thinks of countries, said retired Lt. Gen. Ruslan Aushev, who did two tours there and left as a regimental commander. "There has never been any real centralized state in Afghanistan. There is no such nation as Afghanistan," said Aushev, who's a former president of the Russian Caucasus republic of Ingushetia and now heads a veterans group in Moscow. "There are (ethnic groups of) Pashtuns, Uzbeks and Tajiks, and they all have different tribal policies." As a result, any occupation force will spend much of its time propping up a government that has little relevance outside Kabul and trying to corral disparate ethnic groups and tribes into a national army that's often unwilling to fight, Aushev said.
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POPSDemocrats Never Meant What They Said About Afghanistan
even when the president has declared: Al Qaeda and its allies " the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks " are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban " or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged " that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can. That's not the last president; that's the current president, an entire six months ago. Notice this only applies to the use of military force and violence overseas; as we've seen, these same folks have a very different reaction when they hear about a town-hall protester having his finger bitten off. The base of the Democratic party is fundamentally pacifist and isolationist and has extraordinary, although not complete, leverage over this White House.
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POPSWH Response to More Troop Request This incomplete and unconfirmed story, aka "leak," hints that the President may not go along with the Pentagon request for more troops in Afghanistan. Although, that's still just a "leak," right now and there has been no official request for more troops. It seems we're once again in a "battle of the leaks," -- people sending out anonymous ideas and checking out the responses. The rabid right-wing will make up lies and jump on everything to smear Obama...and there are some landmine issues that could cripple any president: 1. Backing down to the Russians....a big American no-no...and that's now claimed, plus: 2. Not supporting troops/war -- 3. Not offering special deals and blind, uncritical support for Israel. Yet, the President appears to be keeping his head straight, despite the rabid right -- defeating Al-Qaeda makes sense, at least. Nation building and long term in Afghanistan....where did that idea come from? Or War in Iraq? -- build on lies. War in Iran?
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POPSThe Neoconservative Resurgency With Obama--Neoconservativism 2.0 Well documented article worth reading entirely. Then there is this article too : That must be the meaning of change. The goal was not to restore the rule of law and constitutional legitimacy, but to transcend the Bush administration's cowboy unilateralism and tactfully reassert a neo-conservative normalcy in America's foreign policy. And this more recent article: ‘No change from Bush to Obama', say Neocons and Liberals 16 Sep 2009 American foreign policy under Barack Obama has not changed course after the Bush years, according to a group of prominent commentators from both sides of the political divide. (except for the breaking missile shield policy)...from a UK media source. Yet the U.S. Media are absolutely silent.
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POPSHey America, WARS ARE STILL GOING ON!
A comment on a clip stated: “preventable deaths…how about Heart, lung disease, cancer, etc.?” Not sure what the clipper was getting at, citing these ills; calling them preventable? Anyway, it occurred to me… what about WAR; shouldn't that be at the top of this woeful list? The Bush admin, wanted WAR so badly, they started TWO! Of course, they could, 9/11, HAPPENED! (I’m still not convinced the attack occurred without a WINK & NOD.) Now 8 yrs later and still young people die because of that infamous day. We can’t blame Bush any longer, so who should bear the brunt of accountability for the bloodletting? Obama won the election, partly due to his stance against war and now he’s ratcheting up troop levels assuring its longevity? If he continues to act like Bush when it comes to WAR; He has not only misled us, he FUCKED us royally! And although I’m charmed by his eloquence, it can’t last… We, who despise war, won’t look the other way while he sends so many to die…& OVER WHAT?
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POPSMoney spent on war vs cost of health care reforms According to the Center for Defense Information, the total cost of the war in Afghanistan will reach $439.8 billion by the end of 2009. The United States, which spent exactly 10 times more on Afghanistan in 2008 ($140 billion) than it spent in 2002 ($14 billion), increased such efforts by $33 billion in just the last year. Obama's escalation, largely overshadowed by the health reform's incendiary spectacle, has been swift and significant. It's also showing no signs of slowing down. On Thursday, a Senate subcommittee approved 2010's $636.3 billion defense appropriations bill. Of this, $128.2 billion has been set aside for "overseas contingency operations." Simple multiplication tells us that the cost of maintaining this rate of defense spending for the next decade would eventually make Afghanistan $300 billion more expensive than the health care overhaul's projected cost. And that's just dollars and cents...
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POPSA new Vietnam quagmire? Today, Washington’s hallucinations rival those during the Bay of Pigs fiasco—when U.S.-backed Cuban exiles were allowed to fend for themselves on the beach during their failed invasion, because President John F. Kennedy denied them the use of their own and U.S. air cover in order to keep U.S. involvement a secret. No matter that everyone in the hemisphere already knew the U.S. was training the invasion force in Central America, because the New York Times had done several stories on it. Not only is the U.S. occupation force in Afghanistan incensing Afghans, it is fueling the resurgence of the Taliban there and aggravating the rise of Islamist militancy in nuclear-armed Pakistan. In both cases, the perceived meddling of “infidels” on Muslim soil is stoking resistance.
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POPSVictory at the Cost of Sanity in Obama’s Forever War The tired old mentality of the U.S. military, actually any military, is “There is no alternative to victory.” What is considered victory, the complete subjugation of the enemy? What would be considered a victory for the U.S. in Afghanistan? If we think we are going to eradicate terrorism and hatred towards the U.S. then we are sadly mistaken. Victory comes in many different forms. At this point in time I would consider it a victory to get our troops home without any further loss of life, our troops as well as civilians at the hands of America’s war machine, accidental though they may be. It really doesn’t matter who rules Afghanistan or Iraq after we leave, assuming there are plans to ever leave. We need to get back home and divert some of the obscene amount of money being thrown at the pentagon and put it towards domestic purposes, like schools and healthcare. We can defend our borders just fine from within our borders.
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POPSObama the Uniter and Post-Partisan an Abject Fraud Pt.II It's like they're channeling Sean Connery in The Untouchables: "They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!" Obama actually did say this on June 14, 2008: WSJ: Obama - 'If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun' This is a reckless and dangerous escalation of the conflict. It raises the stakes to where one fractious event could cause things to quickly spiral out of control. It actually increases the chances of such an event occurring, as someone who's been given the finger by his own government figures he has nothing left to lose. And once that Rubicon gets crossed, it may be impossible to go back. A president with real experience and real leadership skills would know better than this. But all Obama has to fall back on is his rabble-rousing, radical Marxist street thug past. Excuse me, I meant "community organizing." http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/president-of-some-of-the-people/
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POPSBritons find payday advance as a true financial solution Britons are highly fascinated with instant online payday advances as the true financial support availed by the payday lending companies so as to make them competent to struggle through the urgent financial circumstances efficiently. Being a borrower of payday advance, you can definitely observe several exclusive measures towards obtaining instant financial relief and definitely, you will be able to reduce your existing debts to a big extent.
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POPSThe Worldwide H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic. These statements serve to mislead public opinion. There is ample evidence, documented in numerous reports, that the WHO’s level 6 pandemic alert is based on fabricated evidence and a manipulation of the figures on mortality and morbidity resulting from the N1H1 swine flu. The Pandemic serves the interests of Big Pharma. The WHO is planning for the production of 4.9 billion dose, enough to inoculate a large share of the World’s population. Big Pharma including Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis and AstraZeneca have signed procurement contracts with some 50 governments. (Reuters, July 16, 2009). For these companies, compulsory vaccination is a highly lucrative undertaking: The Role of the Military According to CNN, the Pentagon is “to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.”
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POPSPutting The Card Back in The Deck for Future Use No, what could be most damning would be the release of the audio recording of the incident itself. We would hear if Professor Gates was being reserved and collected while this white racist cop went over the line and victimized him, OR would we hear Sgt. Crowley being professional while Gates was in full big mouth, elitist, race-baiting mode? If so, that audio would be all over the world by now. The fact we haven’t heard it yet tells me someone doesn’t want the black mayor of Cambridge who apologized to Gates, the black governor who also insulted the Cambridge PD, the esteemed professor from Harvard, or the president embarrassed. Would a casual beer between the guys be construed as a putting all differences aside, thus putting that recording in the can for good? Should that happen, race pimp Gates will have been spared the humiliation due, and he really needs have a Tawana Brawley comeuppance moment. If he is allowed to walk away after defaming an officer of
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POPSReport: IDF and Iran already Engaged in 'Cyber War' Well if this is true, then it will be a fast paced escalation into other war types. I wonder with all the cyber battles happening around the world, when we will begin to see Cyber Mercenery's begin to offer their services to countries. I suppose the benefit of cyber war for a mercenery is that while they might get zapped online, they don't have the worry of physical damage or death. Could possibly be a very lucrative business in the future for really good hackers looking to be cyber mercenerys or cladestine cyber operatives ;-)
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POPSGermany’s War of Words in Afghanistan It’s war taking place along the Hindu Kush, he explained to the minister. There are good and not-so-good reasons for the German government to shy away from using the word “war” in connection with the killing and dying German soldiers are doing in Afghanistan. It certainly can’t just be the accepted definition of war that is causing the government to so stubbornly reject the term. After all, war can " but doesn’t have to be " a conflict between countries. History tells us that there were innumerable other conflicts that have been referred to as wars. And the Americans have used the word for their operations in Afghanistan for some time. Shouldn’t the deciding factor be how the German soldiers define what they are experiencing? “If we were to talk about war, we would just be focusing on the military dimension,” says Jung to explain his linguistic choice. Apparently, the idea is to not encourage a military escalation with a verbal escalation.
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POPSKurdistan Intensifies Split from Iraq
<<<"This lays the foundation for a separate state — it is not a constitution for a region," said Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Arab member of the national Parliament. "It is a declaration of hostile intent and confrontation. Of course it will lead to escalation." Kurdish officials defended their efforts to adopt a new constitution that defines the Kurdistan region as comprising their three provinces and also tries to add all of hotly contested and oil-rich Kirkuk Province, as well as other disputed areas in Nineveh and Diyala Provinces. Iraq's federal Constitution allows the Kurds the right to their own constitution, referring any conflicts to Iraq's highest court. Susan Shihab, a member of Kurdistan's parliament, said she no longer had faith that the rights of Kurds under the federal constitution from 2005 would be respected. "What is missing the most in the new Iraq is confidence," she said. At the same time, though, some Kurds acknowledge that they have grown frustrated with
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POPSBarack McNamara Obama: Why Can't Obama See His Wars Are Unwinnable?
"We must try to put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes," McNamara warned long after the fact, speaking of "America's enemies" but really just about people--people who live in other countries. People whose countries possess reserves of natural gas (Vietnam) or oil (Iraq) or are situated between energy reserves and deep-sea ports where oil tankers dock (Afghanistan and Pakistan). Why can't President Obama imagine himself living in a poor village in Pakistan? Why can't he feel the anger and contempt felt by Pakistanis who hear pilotless drone planes buzzing overhead, firing missiles willy-nilly at civilians and guerilla fighters alike, dispatched by a distant enemy too cowardly to put live soldiers and pilots in harm's way? In fairness to McNamara, it only took two years for him to call to an end of the bombing of North Vietnam. By 1966 he was advising LBJ to start pulling back. But, like a gambler trying to recoup and justify his losses, the president kept
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