Antiwar.com Blog

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA – Early in the morning on October 16, word came through news bulletins and blogs from a stretch of highway north of the Sava river, in Croatia. A terrible car crash claimed the life of Macedonian music superstar Toshe Proeski, who had been popular in all of the former Yugoslavia for his golden voice, charity and kindness. TV networks all over the region, from Macedonia to Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia, pre-empted their regular programming and played Toshe’s music videos with messages of condolences. Thousands gathered in town squares, first in Macedonia and then in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia as well, lighting candles and making impromptu memorials. For a moment, Yugoslavia existed once more – united in grief over a man whose voice had brought them together.

Proeski was 26.

“I don’t believe in god any more. How could he let this happen?” growled a man from Skopje on Tuesday night; “God takes the best from us,” said a fellow musician from Croatia. “He was a wonderful man, good and kind, who loved all. I am crushed,” said another Macedonian fan.

Accounts of the accident seem to underscore the cruelty of fate. Proeski was traveling from Skopje to Zagreb by car; having driven all night through Serbia and Bosnia, driver was tired. The thick fog that blanketed the Sava river valley in the early morning made for low visibility as they merged onto the highway leading to Zagreb. It was hard to notice a stopped trailer-truck until it was too late. The Volkswagen SUV ricocheted off the truck and slammed into the guardrail. Proeski had been asleep. He died instantly. The driver survived.

Born in Krusevo, Macedonia, Proeski made a name for himself by singing both traditional tunes and pop melodies. In a fragmented music scene, often influenced by ethnic chauvinism, Proeski was equally welcome in Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo or Skopje – something no other artist managed. In a region haunted by hatred and war, he offered hope. Somehow, with his songs, joy became more joyous and sorrow was easier to bear. His fans didn’t care that he wasn’t Croat, or Serb, or Muslim, or Albanian. He was Toshe.

It is said that as he took off from Skopje on Monday night, Proeski told someone that he was “going up.” He meant Zagreb. He went to heaven instead.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_10_15_greenwald.mp3]

Glenn Greenwald, former Constitutional lawyer, blogger and author of A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, discusses the merger between the U.S. national government and the telecommunications industry, revelations from the trial of former Qwest chief, the “Protect America Act,” the complicity of the Democrats and the media, the history of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the fact that the NSA has been breaking the law since long before the 9/11 attacks, the unprecedented level of secrecy and power in Washington D.C., some more about the sycophantic media, our Orwellian state of permanent war and some reasons for hope.

MP3 here. (40:29)

Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book How Would a Patriot Act?, a critique of the Bush administration’s use of executive power, released in May 2006. His brand new book is A Tragic Legacy.

“This is why I hope we never explore the cosmos, and go to other planets: any intelligent life we find there is bound to be declared an Enemy.” — Antiwar.com blog, October 13

“Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani yesterday said preparedness will be key for all crises, even an attack from outer space. During a town hall meeting in Exeter [New Hampshire], a young questioner asked the former New York mayor about his plan to protect Earth. “If (there’s) something living on another planet and it’s bad and it comes over here, what would you do?” the boy asked….

“Giuiani: ‘Of all the things that can happen in this world, we’ll be prepared for that, yes we will. We’ll be prepared for anything that happens.'” — New Hampshire Union-Leader, October 15.

A fairy tale posted at FrontPageMag.com:

The campaign mounted by campus leftists against Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which is scheduled to take place on more than 100 campuses during the week of October 22-26 has taken a new turn with the announcement of a counter-protest at the Washington Monument. The protest, which will be called “American Fascism Awareness Day” is being organized by Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Students for Justice In Palestine, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee among others and will feature speakers such as congressman Dennis Kucinich and presidential candidate Ron Paul, anti-war activists Cindy Sheehan and Harry Karry and actor Sean Penn. According to a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, one of the sponsors of the event, “This is an answer to the Jew Horowitz and the neo-conservative Zionists who dragged us into an imperialist war in Iraq and are spreading hatred against Muslims to support their war plans against the Republic of Iran.”

Flyers for the American Fascism Awareness Protest were distributed on at least ten campuses which are scheduled to hold Islamo-Fascism Awareness Weeks in 9 days. (The text of the flyer is reprinted below.) Many Americans contacted by Frontpagemag.com were outraged over the announced protest. Latisha Freeman, an African American student at one of the campuses that was flyered commented that all Americans were not racists and that the flyer was generally “unpatriotic and unfair.” American Legion commander K. “Ike” Landsman, was blunter. “These are communist ingrates who don’t appreciate this great country and they ought to be deported to Iran or Afghanistan where they would be welcome." Fox News Channel anchor Alan Colmes, had a different take. “Lighten up,” Colmes said when he was shown the flyer; “this is a parody of views that liberals actually have. No one should get upset. This is just free speech in action.”

Who Hates Americans? We Do.

Your typical American is:

• A racist. A sexist. A homophobe.
• An Islamo-phobe.
• Is willing to invade other countries for oil and pleasure.
• Is easily manipulated by Rush Limbaugh and Jews.
• Is the cause of global warming.

Join Us For American Fascism Awareness Day
Place: Washington (Slaveholder) Monument
Date: November 31, 2007
Time: 12PM-2:00 PM

Speakers:
Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, congressmen
Adam Kokesh, Iraq War veteran
Cindy Sheehan, Harry Karry, peace activists
Michael Moore, Sean Penn, film-makers

Sponsors:

Peace and Social Justice Crusade, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Code Pink, Muslim Students Association, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Students for Justice in Palestine, Revolutionary Communist Party, International A.N.S.W.E.R., Moveon.org, DailyKos.com, Indy-Media.org, HuffingtonPost.com, Ivorypower.com

There is, of course, no November 31, and no such event. "Latisha Freeman" is Horowitz-speak for any old schvartze; I leave it to you to figure out why they named the fictional superpatriot "K. Ike." None of the groups listed have this “event” mentioned on their websites, and a Google search produces only results from the original hoax article. But this failed effort at satire will almost certainly be taken as fact by Horowitz’s vicious, drooling followers. And the insinuation that Ron Paul, in particular, has any affiliation with Communist or Neo-Nazi groups is laughably false.

I see Putin is going ahead with his trip to Tehran in spite of rumors that he’s to be assaulted by suicide bombers or captured. One has to say, however, that if the Russian president is assassinated, he’ll probably be blamed for plotting his own demise. After all, he’s been blamed for the death of practically every Russian “dissident” and half-baked journalist, from the nuclear poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko to the shooting death of Anna Politkovskaya.

 

Antiwar.com regular contributor Aaron Glantz has been working very hard at KPFA Radio with his new project, The War Comes Home.

A sample:

[audio:http://warcomeshome.org/files/audio/005.Aguayo.mp3]

MP3 here.

Army medic Augustin Aguayo refused to load his gun in Iraq and then escaped through a base window in Germany rather than be deployed a second time. He said during basic training he realized that he could never use his gun to kill anyone. But the military turned down his application to become a conscientious objector and when he turned himself in at Fort Irwin in California they shackled him and flew him back to Germany – where he spent six months in a US military prison.

[audio:http://warcomeshome.org/files/audio/004.dean_.mp3]

MP3 here.

Last Christmas, Army Reservist James Dean barricaded himself in his father’s farm-house with several weapons and threatened to kill himself. Authorities responded by cordoning off the house and fired tear gas inside. They brought in armored vehicles and blew a hole in the right side of the house. Just past midnight on Dec. 26, a state police sharpshooter shot Jamie Dean dead.

[audio:http://warcomeshome.org/files/audio/008.casteel.mp3]

MP3 here.

After serving as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib prison, Joshua Casteel traveled to the Vatican where he was given an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Casteel argued for a firmer antiwar stance from the Catholic Church. Church leaders, he says, should actively encourage soldiers to become conscientious objectors when political leaders wage an unjust war.

[audio:http://warcomeshome.org/files/audio/009.bolles.mp3]

MP3 here.

Dr. Gene Bolles has spent 30 years repairing bodies broken by disease, accidents and brutality. Drafted into the military during the Vietnam War, the Colorado neurosurgeon served for two years as a flight surgeon, witnessing the suffering of both U.S. military personnel and Vietnamese civilians. Yet, despite his extensive experience with war, nothing has shaken him up more than the 26 months he spent working at Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany treating U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.