The Six Most Disastrous Interventions of the 21st Century.

By GARY LEUPP
October 9, 2015

"On October 2 President Barack Obama, alluding to Russia’s decision to launch air strikes in Syria, told reporters at the White House that for Russia to view the forces targeted “from the perspective they’re all terrorists [is] a recipe for disaster, and it’s one that I reject.”

In other words, he was saying that Moscow is not (as it claims) really focusing on ISIL and the al-Nusra Front but on the anti-regime opposition in general, which supposedly includes “moderates.”

Never mind that Obama himself as well as Joseph Biden have on occasion pooh-poohed the existence of a moderate armed opposition that controls territory in Syria. Didn’t Biden say last year at Harvard that “there was no moderate middle [in Syria] because the moderate middle are made up of shop-keepers, not soldiers”?

And hasn’t it been shown that maps showing territory in the hands of the “Free Syrian Army” are the figments of propagandists’ imagination? The FSA has no coordinated command structure and its networks overlap those of groups that Washington would not normally define as “moderate” (unless it wanted to rehabilitate al-Qaeda, which having attacked the U.S. on 9/11 and supposedly the cause of all the—disastrous—post-9/11 U.S. military actions in the Middle East), has gradually become my-enemy-against-my-enemy and hence a new found friend."

Read the rest of this article at: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/09/the-six-most-disastrous-interventions-of-the-21st-century/

The Use and Abuse of Culture (and Children): The Human Terrain System’s Rationalization of Pedophilia in Afghanistan.

By DAVID PRICE – ROBERTO J. GONZÁLEZ

OCTOBER 9, 2015

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/09/the-use-and-abuse-of-culture-and-children-the-human-terrain-systems-rationalization-of-pedophilia-in-afghanistan/

"Over the past eight years, news reports gradually revealed that Afghan soldiers and police officers allied with US military forces are sexually abusing young boys held against their will—sometimes on US military bases. Last month, Joseph Goldstein (2015) published a front page story in the New York Times under the headline “US Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies,” which opened with the disturbing story of Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley Jr., who was fatally shot along with two other Marines in 2012. Buckley was killed after he raised concerns about the American military’s tolerance of child sexual abuse practiced by Afghan police officers on the base where he was stationed in southern Afghanistan. Buckley’s father told the Times that “my son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

The Times story provides the now standard boilerplate narrative that adult men having sex with young boys–some as young as twelve years old–exemplify a culture complex known as bacha bazi, or “boy play.” But it also includes vignettes of US soldiers walking into rooms of Afghan men bedded with young boys, a young teenage girl raped by a militia commander while working in the fields, and the story of a former Special Forces Captain, Dan Quinn, who was disciplined after beating an Afghan militia commander who was “keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave” (Goldstein 2015). The article recounts a number of harsh disciplinary actions taken against other US soldiers and Marines who attempted to stop such abusive practices.

The military’s position is that these are local cultural practices, like differences in dress, diet, or musical preferences, and American forces should look the other way and not interfere with these cultural differences. According to a recent report by Shane Harris (2015), Marines are offered little direction if they witness rape or other forms of sexual abuse by local people in other countries. Harris obtained a copy of training materials in which sexual assault is explicitly described as a “cultural” phenomenon in Afghanistan."

Please read the remainder of the article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/09/the-use-and-abuse-of-culture-and-children-the-human-terrain-systems-rationalization-of-pedophilia-in-afghanistan/

Commentary by Greg Krasovsky on a related article: http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/09/marines-forced-to-retire/# 

"Buckley, Quinn and Martland are heroes for refusing to ignore child abuse and rape.

Their colleagues - fellow soldiers and Marines - who looked the other way (just following orders!) are the ones who dishonored their uniforms and violated a true warrior's code of conduct and honor.

If you're a real man of honor and see a crime being committed, especially a war crime against children, then you have no choice but to intervene, even if at risk to yourself or against your comrades at arms and so-called allies.

Otherwise, you're no better than the perpetrators who you've allowed to harm an innocent man, woman or child.

My heart goes out to the poor & innocent people of Afghanistan who've endured so much death, pain and suffering at the hands of colonial powers and foreign invaders & occupiers over the centuries."

The US Way of War: From Columbus to Kunduz.

By KEVIN ZEESE - MARGARET FLOWERS

October 12, 2015

Please read the entire article at: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/12/the-us-way-of-war-from-columbus-to-kunduz/

"The confluence of Columbus Day Weekend and the Kunduz hospital bombing has us thinking about the deep levels of cultural violence in the United States and what can be done to change it. How does the US move from a country dominated by war culture to one dominated by a humanitarian culture? And, how do we do it in time to avoid war with China and Russia, which both advanced closer this week.

What does Celebrating Columbus say About the Character of the United States?

Popular Resistance has reported on the the legacy of Columbus. Howard Zinn describes the true history of Columbus and the Indigenous people of North America. There is a great need for the Columbus myth to be revised with realities. When the truth is understood, it is evident the US is celebrating a brutal war criminal and that it is time to abolish Columbus Day.

After-all, Columbus lost at sea, “discovered” a continent, or an island near it, where up to a hundred million people already lived. He enslaved the indigenous peoples, treating them as workhorse animals and sex slaves; he fed live natives to his dogs and cut off the hands of those who did not work hard enough; he slaughtered tens of thousands, beginning a process of ethnic cleansing across the continent, and his son was one of the originators of the African slave trade.

Many Indigenous peoples of North America do not celebrate Columbus Day because the reality of his human rights violations make it a celebration of a brutal war criminal. Cities are renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day, or after local Indigenous Peoples. The most recent are Albuquerque and multiple cities in Oklahoma. Others include Seattle, Bellingham, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Berkeley, Portland, Lawrence, and Santa Cruz. Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and Oregon, do not recognize Columbus Day, which did not become a US federal holiday until 1937."

Please read the remainder of the article at:  http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/12/the-us-way-of-war-from-columbus-to-kunduz/

Putin’s “Endgame” in Syria.

Putin’s “Endgame” in Syria.

Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization.

Russia doesn’t want to fight a war with Turkey, so Russian generals devised a simple, but effective plan to discourage Turkey from taking any action that could lead to a clash between the two nations.

Last week, Russian warplanes intruded into Turkish airspace twice. Both incidents caused consternation in Ankara and send Turkish leaders into a furor. 

On both occasions, officials in Moscow politely apologized for the incursions claiming they were unintentional (“navigational errors”) and that they would try to avoid similar intrusions in the future.

Then there was a third incident, a more serious incident, that was not a mistake. It was clearly intended to send a message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Here’s a short summary of what happened from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:

Turkish officials claimed a third incident on Monday, when an unidentified MiG-29 fighter jet locked its radar for four and a half minutes on eight Turkish F-16 jets that were on patrol on their side of the border, in apparent preparation to open fire.

(“US, NATO step up threats to Russia over Syria“, World Socialist Web Site)
 
This was no mistake. The only time a fighter pilot adopts these protocols is when he plans to take down an enemy plane. This was a message, and while it might have been over-the-heads of the politicians and the media but, I assure you, every general in the Turkish High-Command knows what’s it means.

This is a wake-up call.  Moscow is indicating that there’s a new sheriff in town and that Turkey had better behave itself or there’s going to be trouble.
 
There’s not going to be any US-Turkey no-fly zone over North Syria, there’s not going to be any aerial attacks on Syrian sites from the Turkish side of the border, and there certainly is not going to be any ground invasion of Turkish troops into Syria. 

The Russian Aerospace Defence Forces now control the skies over Syria and they are determined to defend Syria’s sovereign borders.

That’s the message. Period.

Please read the rest of the article at:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/putins-endgame-in-syria/5481482

Ukraine to begin long-delayed mass polio vaccination program.

Ukraine to begin long-delayed mass polio vaccination program.
  
Comments by Greg Krasovsky:

The Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk government in Kyiv had a choice in 2014 and 2015 - negotiate a political settlement with the Donetsk & Lugansk Pro-Autonomy/Federalization/Decentralization movements and spend borrowed money on healthcare, education, pensions and other vital government programs.

Instead, they chose to spend government funds on the civil war in an attempt to crush the Donetsk & Lugansk autonomy movements by military force.

The result? War crimes and crimes against humanity, loss of countless innocent civilian lives, destroyed industry and infrastructure and no money for basic services, like Polio vaccinations for Ukrainian children. 

This is what happens when war-mongering politicians have free reign and foreign political, economic and military support.
  
How many more Ukrainian children will have to die from disease, war and malnutrition before the people of Ukraine stop supporting politicians that would sacrifice the lives and well-being of ordinary Ukrainians for the politicians' financial interests, political power and the agenda of their foreign sponsors?
  
Is this what Ukrainian children deserve? 

Protection from polio thanks to a batch of vaccines donated by Canada but possible spoiled due to improper storage? 

Would you want to take the chance and vaccinate your child from such a batch?


See http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.3264765/ukraine-to-begin-long-delayed-mass-polio-vaccination-program-1.3264771

"Ukraine's Health Minister signed a decree today kick-starting a mass polio vaccination program in the country after two cases of the paralyzing disease were discovered in the country last month.

Ukraine currently has 3.7 million doses of the polio vaccine, which were paid for by the Canadian government. But Kyiv has been dragging its feet for weeks on starting a mass vaccination after concerns were raised about the safety of the vaccines.
...
All-Ukrainian Council on Patients' Rights and Safety is concerned that "the vaccines, which have been in storage in Ukraine since being shipped from France in May, are nearing their six-month expiration. They are supposed to be kept frozen, but Kvartiuk says the safety council believes the vaccines were thawed during transport and storage.""
      
"Two children aged 10-months and four-years-old were paralyzed last month after contracting the debilitating disease in the first polio cases in Europe since 2010. Hundreds more are believed to be carrying the virus.

Ukraine was previously declared polio-free, but vaccination levels have dropped to less than 50 per cent of children and 14 per cent of infants in the country. More than three million children are believed to be at risk."

Top 25 Censored Stories by Project Censored.

Top 25 censored stories in Western news media? 

Read the rest at http://www.projectcensored.org/category/top-25-of-2014-2015/

How? Why?

Well, for starters, "6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America"

See http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control…

So what does this mean for Ukrainians, Russians and Americans?

If you want to learn the real truth about important events -- and nor media spin -- then you need to make an effort to find, vet and regularly read independent "alternative" news media.

Otherwise, you could be spoon-fed corporate establishment and/or government-supported propaganda. Afterwards, you'll accept their version of events and support (or decline to object) their policies -- policies that may not be in the best interest of regular people but in the interest of the top 1% (the 1% that owns & controls world's key financial-industrial groups that basically own politicians, their parties and governments).

These policies include

- human rights violations,
- war crimes,
- crimes against humanity,
- militarism,
- development and support of authoritarian or totalitarian police states,
- wars of aggression and for profit,
- state sponsored terrorism
- violent and undemocratic regime change
- disenfranchisement and brutal economic exploitation of vulnerable socio-economic groups, including children and the elderly, and even entire populations,
- irreversible environmental damage merely for the sake of corporate profits
- and on & on.

Are you down with that?

I'm not!

Greg Krasovsky

Syria: As the bombs fall, the people of Damascus rally round Bashar al-Assad.

Syria: As the bombs fall, the people of Damascus rally round Bashar al-Assad. 

The West may oppose Assad's regime, but on the streets of the capital the people fear a greater evil.

Read the rest at:  
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10770311/Syria-As-the-bombs-fall-the-people-of-Damascus-rally-round-Bashar-al-Assad.html

Below's a summary & an excerpt by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque: 

http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/2523-road-to-damascus-an-odd-quack-of-truth-from-the-telegraph.html

"I don’t know what prompts these sudden spasms of truth-telling in such an odious rag — probably moves in some game in the bowels of the Deep State, one faction of apparatchiks trying to undercut another. But they’ve done it again this week, albeit on a smaller scale than the Iraq dirty war piece, with a story by Peter Oborne, reporting from Damascus, where, as he notes, a diverse, secular regime (repressive to be sure, but much less repressive than, say, Saudi Arabia, and far more religiously diverse than, say, Egypt — or even Israel) is being torn apart by monomaniacal extremists backed with money, weapons, bombs and gear from the West. A few excerpts:

… On Palm Sunday, I went to the Old City and walked up Straight Street, following the route taken by St Paul after he had been blinded (Kokab, the scene of his Damascene conversion, is now in rebel hands). At the Greek Catholic church, I watched ceremonies of breathtaking beauty – in precincts that had been struck twice in the past week, though happily causing no injuries. On the way back, I passed a man looking dazed next to his ruined car. A mortar had struck it just a few minutes earlier. When I picked up the shell casing, it was still warm.

… People here see their country as being threatened by foreign powers (above all Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, all backed by the West) who are sponsoring the jihadist groups that make up the opposition. I was struck by the fact that this argument is not made only by the Alawite coterie around the president. I also heard it from Sunni Muslims, Christians and members of the various other cultural and religious groups that abound in Syria.

How can this square with the Western narrative that President Assad’s government, with the aid of a handful of tribal followers, is hell-bent on the destruction of the rest of the country? Consider the facts. Only a handful of members of Assad’s 30-strong cabinet (I was told two) are Alawite. The prime minister is Sunni, as are the interior minister, the justice minister, the foreign minister, even the defence minister. The delegation that travelled to Geneva for the failed peace talks several months ago was also almost entirely composed of Sunni Muslims (though they would probably reject sectarian terms, and prefer to think of themselves just as Syrians).

Nor is it merely the political class that thinks in this way. Last night I had dinner with a young doctor. He showed me a Facebook exchange that he had recently had with a former friend from medical school, who has joined the extremist opposition group al-Nusra. The doctor had put out a public status aimed at all jihadists asking them: “Please stop shooting at us with your mortars.” He was astonished to receive a reply from his friend: “I will put a bullet in your heads.” My doctor friend messaged him back: “I am not afraid of you.” This was followed by a horrifying response. “We love death, we drink blood. Our president is dead bodies. Wait for our exploding cars to kill you.”

… [A shopkeeper] walked me along an alleyway to his home and pointed to a destroyed balcony where his mother had liked to sit. Two months ago, she had been resting there as usual when she was killed by a direct hit from a mortar. “Your government,” he told me, “is the worst ever; they want Syria to be a democracy and ally themselves with Saudi Arabia, which has nothing to do with democracy.”

… I am well aware that the government has committed dreadful atrocities, though I suspect that some of the accounts have been exaggerated. Nevertheless, I do think the words of my shopkeeper friend are worth pondering. If the insurgents who killed his mother win the war, there will be no Christian churches in Syria any more (just as there aren’t in Saudi Arabia at the moment). Life will be similarly terrible for many of the ordinary Muslims who make up the great majority of the population.

There are no “good guys” in Syria’s civil war. But we should not be blind to the fact that there is a project out there to destroy its rich, pluralist and unbelievably intricate culture and replace it with a monochrome version of Wahhabi Islam, of the kind favoured by Saudi mullahs. And for reasons that history may come to judge very severely, Britain, the United States, and the West have been aiding and abetting this project."