Antiwar.com Blog

From the May 12-18 Economist:

“Soldiers in Iraq: Contaminated“:

Of the 1,767 troops questioned by the Pentagon’s mental-health advisory team last September… less than half (47% of soldiers and 38% of marines) felt that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect, as required by the Geneva Conventions. …

More worrying, only around half said they would be willing to report a member of their unit for killing or injuring an innocent non-combatant….

The more often and the longer that soldiers were deployed in Iraq, the more likely they were to suffer mental-health problems and to mistreat civilians.

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“Afghanistan: Hearts, minds and death“:

THE American army this week delivered an apology, and blood money, too, to the families of 19 Afghan civilians killed and 50 wounded by a special forces unit of American marines near Jalalabad on March 4th. …

In the wake of the … shootings, Afghan journalists were quickly on the scene. Several were threatened or had their film erased by American soldiers. One reporter was told: “Delete the photos or I delete you.”

The Economist encouraged the invasion of Iraq.

I read the Economist so you don’t have to.

Chalmers Johnson, author of Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic discusses America’s descent down the path of militarism, secrecy, empire, authoritarianism and destruction, the role of the military industrial complex and the mass media and hope for a mass movement to restore the constitution.

MP3 here. (37:19)

Chalmers Johnson is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, a non-profit research and public affairs organization devoted to public education concerning Japan and international relations in the Pacific. He taught for thirty years, 1962-1992, at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California and held endowed chairs in Asian politics at both of them. At Berkeley he served as chairman of the Center for Chinese Studies and as chairman of the Department of Political Science. His B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in economics and political science are all from the University of California, Berkeley. He first visited Japan in 1953 as a U.S. Navy officer and has lived and worked there with his wife, the anthropologist Sheila K. Johnson, every year between 1961 and 1998.

Johnson has been honored with fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Guggenheim Foundation; and in 1976 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written numerous articles and reviews and some sixteen books, including Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power on the Chinese revolution, An Instance of Treason on Japan’s most famous spy, Revolutionary Change on the theory of violent protest movements, and MITI and the Japanese Miracle on Japanese economic development. This last-named book laid the foundation for the “revisionist” school of writers on Japan, and because of it the Japanese press dubbed him the “Godfather of revisionism.”

He was chairman of the academic advisory committee for the PBS television series “The Pacific Century,” and he played a prominent role in the PBS “Frontline” documentary “Losing the War with Japan.” Both won Emmy awards. His most recent books are Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000) and The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, which was published by Metropolitan in January 2004. Blowback won the 2001 American Book Award of the Before Columbus Foundation.

Historian and journalist Gareth Porter explains why the “permanent government” – the State Department, the CIA and the military – have decided that there is not going to be a bombing of Iran. The latest is that the new head of Centcom, Admiral Fallon, has refused to allow a third carrier battle group to overlap the two already there as Dick Cheney wanted. Also where Iran fits in the neocon plan for world domination, bogus accusations against them in terms of their nuclear program and “EFPs” in Iraq, covert support for terrorists in Iran, and the time they offered everything including recognition of Israel.

MP3 here.

Gareth Porter is a historian and journalist for IPS News . His latest book is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press).

I hate to give away the introduction to my next article, but this can’t wait. –Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to Sam Tannenhaus Vanity Fair, May 9th, 2003:

“There are a lot of things that are different now [that the U.S. occupies Iraq], and one that has gone by almost unnoticed – but it’s huge – is that … we can now remove almost all of our forces from Saudi Arabia. Their presence there over the last 12 years has been a source of enormous difficulty for a friendly government. It’s been a huge recruiting device for al Qaeda.

“In fact if you look at bin Laden, one of his principle grievances was the presence of so-called crusader forces on the holy land, Mecca and Medina. I think just lifting that burden from the Saudis is itself going to open the door to other positive things.

“I don’t want to speak in messianic terms. It’s not going to change things overnight, but it’s a huge improvement.”

Hat tip to Thomas Woods at LRC.

Not content with attacking him for what he actually said or did, the War Party is now making up stories.

The Hotline, the daily blog of the National Journal, runs the following item:

Republicans have a message for Ron Paul: don’t mess with us.

Since Tuesday’s debate, Mr. Paul’s supporters have flooded the phone lines and e-mail servers at South Carolina State Republican Party headquarters with complaints. A mild annoyance, to say the least. So the party is struck back, sort of. They have Mr. Paul’s mobile phone number, and they invite all complaint callers to leave a message on it. Call it blowback.

I talked to Rob Godfrey, the communications director of the Republican Party of South Carolina this morning. He was quite surprised to hear of the National Journal item.

Godfrey said neither part is true. He said they have not received any complaints since the debate and have not given out anyone’s personal phone number. Godfrey said the debate was a very positive affair that helped to build the South Carolina party and that they had only received compliments about the event.

The second part of the National Journal blog entry is true:

Undaunted, Paul-ites soon moved to another target: outspoken Michigan Republican Party chairman Saul Anuzis, who publicly called for Paul to be banned from further debates. The Michigan Republican Party has been deluged with incoming missives, some inviting Anuzis to go become the Republican party chair of Cuba. They’re even calling his home. Anuzis won’t give him and still plans to circulate a petition.

I guess this second part makes Ron Paul look good compared to the GOP, so they had to make up the first part.

Ron Paul is everywhere — Here he is on CNN, with Wolf Blitzer, who can always be counted on to give out the “conventional wisdom” — and is put to rights by Ron. Blitzer blithers “He [Giuliani] really had some supporters in that auditorium. Are you ready to back away now?” Ron’s answer (I’m paraphrasing): NO way, says Ron: I found two passages in the 9/11 commission report that back up what I say. Blitzer: That [the bombing of Iraq by Clinton] was the reason they came over and blew us up? No, I said that was part of it. There’s also the presence of US troops on Saudi Arabian soil, which Muslims consider sacred soil. Here he is, mayor of New York, bragging about the security, and he hasn’t even read the 9/11 report. Blitzer presses him on this point, and Ron says that he couldn’t say everyting in a sound bit. Talks about the sanctions, hundreds of thousands killed: what if someone did that to us? And then the important part:

“He’s hiding behind “patriotism” and saying I’m ‘un-American’ if I dare to question the policy. But if policy is detrimental and provokes blowback then we have to change it. I don’t blame the American people, I blame bad policy” I think he [Giuliani] needs to back down and read the report, and come back and apologize to me.”

It’s so typical of Wolf Blitzer, one of the major gate-keepers of elite opinion, to try to enforce political correctness — and so typical of Ron Paul that he proudly and articulately rejects this nonsense, and turns the tables on the would-be enforcers.