Terrorists, Children, & Afghanistan War
Terrorists, Children, & Afghanistan War
This article is actually part 2 of War, Fort Hood Massacre, & Ungrateful Americans like Jayson. This past week we find that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the soldier that carried out the massacre at Fort Hood, “had been in direct correspondence with a notorious preacher of violence, Anwar al-Awlaki, whose enthusiasm for the teachings and actions of al-Qaida has long been well-known to researchers and intelligence agencies” as reported by Christopher Hitchens in his article Hard Evidence: Seven Salient Facts About Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Mr. Hitchens is building an argument that Maj. Hasan being a Muslim was a salient factor that caused his deadly behavior upon learning he was going to be deployed to Afghanistan. I think it is fair to say that Maj. Hasan did not want to go to war and fight his fellow Muslim brothers for what he saw as an unjust war. Let me say again, that in no way do I support how Maj. Hasan acted and my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the victims and their families. However, I am not afraid, and I think it necessary, to try and understand the internal conflict that the military will cause by ordering people to fight at the expense of something that the soldier holds dear to their heart. Obviously, Major Hasan was conflicted by his orders to deploy to Afghanistan. The question to be contemplated: Can a soldier’s psychological conflict be justification for disobeying orders to deploy and fight the so-called war on terror? Let’s look at another military order that caused a soldier to be conflicted.
Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, 21 who is an Army Mom and Refused Deployment so that she could Care For her Child. She claims that she had no choice but to refuse deployment for there was no one that could take care of her child. The Army advised her to deploy anyhow and to put her child in foster care. The question to be contemplated here: Is the War On Terror more important than a female soldier caring for her child? Should this mother abandon her child so she can obey orders to deploy to Afghanistan? If you were this child’s parent, would you see the fight with the War On Terror more important than the welfare of your child? Obviously Specialist Hutchinson was conflicted. In my humble opinion, the United States Armed Services is asking for trouble by putting soldiers in a position where they have to make these type of decisions. Officer Hutchinson handled her conflict a lot differently than Major Hasaan, but still, if the Army came to pull this mother from her child the result has potential to be very volatile. Everyone knows that you don’t mess with momma’s babies, don’t they?
Muhammad Ali, probably one of the most endeared person on the face of the earth, refused to obey orders to join the military which meant that he might be deployed to fight the war being waged by the United States military in Vietnam. Muhammad stated that why should he go to Vietnam. No Vietnamese ever called him the N-Word. The decision caused Muhammad’s boxing career to slide into the depths of despair. No state would allow him to have a professional fight. Four little girls had been killed in Alabama when a church was bombed by some racist who did not want Black people to have equal rights in America. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X assassinated because they had the nerve to stand up to the United States government and say enough to the unjust treatment of America’s Black citizens. In this climate Muhammad was order to join the military so that he might possibly be deployed to Vietnam. Yet, Muhammad made the decision not to deploy. His belief in Islam, and the love he had for Black people, prevented him from being able to psychologically go fight for America in an unjust war, when at the same time America was waging war on Black people in America. I know personally how this dichotomy made those of us that went to Vietnam be conflicted in waging that war. We questioned why we should fight for America in Vietnam when America was fighting us in America. Barack Obama being elected President has really helped me, and I bet many other Black people, especially Black soldiers with this dilemma. This next part is really going to be tough, especially for ungrateful Americans like Jayson.
The language “War On Terror” was given to the nation and the world by George W. Bush’s administration. Terror is defined as “the systematic use of terror, manifesting itself in violence or intimidation, for generating fear.” Some want to say that Maj. Hasaan is a terrorist. I will go as far as to say he committed an act of terror, but calling him a terrorist is for me, going too far. Most of us are aware of this definition. However, terror is also defined as a “technique used by government to manipulate public opinion in order to further an agenda.” After watching the following video it strengthened my resolve to call for a halt to the War On Terror.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J37jQLIPuqY&feature=email
The war on terror may have been use as a technique by the Bush/Cheney government to manipulate public opinion so that our rights could be eroded. President Obama, it is truly time for a change. Do not give us more of this Bush/Cheney dogma. Tell us all there is to know about what happened at Fort Hood. Do not send more troops to Afghanistan. Do not continue to make soldiers fight an unjust war that is making the soldiers kill themselves in unprecedented numbers. Strangely, it is reported by the New York Times that 40% of the military suicides were committed by people dealing with psychological counseling. Hearing the tragedies of this unjust war is almost as heavy as having to experience the unjustness directly. If our soldiers are to expend their lives let it be for defending the very shores within which we live. When these soldiers are brought home don’t let them become homeless, don’t allow them to go without the counseling services needed, do not allow them to be hungry and on the streets. These are our warriors, our protectors, the ones that have put our lives on the line so America can stay America. Treat us with the respect we deserve. Do not be ungrateful to our warriors. Increase the love, decease the hate, especially for our veterans. Thank you for listening to AjabuSpeaks.
Rev. Ajabu
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This morning, I sent this letter to President Obama:
"Mr. President:
I are writing to urge you to announce an immediate cease-fire followed by a withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in the fastest way consistent with the safety of our forces.
I urge you to end the use of Predator drones that kill civilians.
I call upon you to cease all covert operations in Africa, Asia, and North and South America.
Too many of your military advisors are implicated in torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the peace. Your Justice Department operates at the zenith of injustice, defending Bush Administration criminality in U.S. Courtrooms.
I wrote to you earlier suggesting that if you did not investigate the crimes of the Bush Administration, you would be viewed as their accessory. Sadly, war crimes and torture are now committed with your name on them.
Please bring our troops home now."
A peace demonstration is being organized for December 12, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally, also known as the End US Wars Rally, is scheduled for 11am at Lafayette Park at the White House. I wholly endorse this rally and encourage all who can to participate in Washington, DC or to help a local peace organization committed to ending U.S. wars on that date.
For more information about the Washington, D.C. December 12, 2009 demonstration, please visit www.endUSwars.org, currently under construction.
P.S. President Obama's Department of Justice, unlike President Clinton's that refused to even prosecute, just took Lynne Stewart to prison and is trying to extend her sentence from 28 months to 3O years. Please take a moment and write a letter of encouragement to Lynne Stewart, the people's attorney, who is now Prisoner #53504-054 at MCC-NY. Her address is:
Lynne Stewart
53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
--
http://www.livestream.com/dignity
http://dignity.ning.com/
http://www.twitter.com/dignityaction
http://www.myspace.com/dignityaction
http://www.myspace.com/runcynthiarun
http://www.twitter.com/cynthiamckinney
http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinney
I think she should have chosen another vocation if the Army had to change the rules for each individual person the country would be in a bad shape which it is anyway. She knew her chances of being deployed she should have chosen a job where she could have been at home to take care of her child. I'm sure she wasn't forced to join the services.
E.Sept,
So you are taking the position that she should have left her child and deployed because this was the profession that was chosen? Wow!! Under the circumstances that sounds so cold. The army is a volunteer army. If she did not want to continue to volunteer why was it a big thing if she decided to quit? Would you have left your children? What kind of parent would you be? Help me to understand your position.
She never should have gotten knocked up. I did read however that once she was thrown in jail, her mom was watching the kid. Funny.....she said her mom could not watch the kid. It appears that she just changed her mind about fulfilling her duty. I'm sure she spent every penny of the tuition money uncle sam gave her. Maybe she should give back all the money they gave her to enlist.
Lynne Stuart is a traitor and deserves execution. That would be the best way to deal with her. Render to Ceaser what is Ceasars.....you know the rest of that one momoja. She would cut your throat in a heartbeat. Why do you defend her?
Abdul,
Her mother said she could not watch the child. To my understanding tuition comes after service. So you have a child out of wedlock. You are in the military. No one that you trust will watch the child while you deploy. So you tell me you would leave your child and deploy? What kind of parent are you?
Ajabu-
Thank you Ajabu, for I am grateful for your demonstration of what is to be a TRAITOR and Betrayor of FREEDOM to America on a daily basis.
As much as you try to weaken our country, to blame America, to offer solace to terrorists, support corruption of our government, work to remove liberty and freedoms that American citizens have been granted by our founding fathers, to betray proud Americans who have sacrificed for FREEDOM- you will never win.
God is not on your side, we know whose side you are on. The side of the LIAR.
Thank you Ajabu- we need your example for all PROUD AMERICANS to see, shameful as it is. YOU HAVE ALREADY FAILED.
I am thankful, and proud of all Americans who have PROUDLY FOUGHT for FREEDOM, and who have PROUDLY FOUGHT FOR OUR CONSTITUTION.
Jayson
Jayson,
You say the following: "I am thankful, and proud of all Americans who have PROUDLY FOUGHT for FREEDOM, and who have PROUDLY FOUGHT FOR OUR CONSTITUTION." This is a simple question. Have you been in the United States military and fought for the freedom that you are experiencing? Have you!! You come off as a very ungrateful American who will not support a veteran when you are in the position to do so because of the veteran. You are just ungrateful. I pray that God blesses you with what you deserve. God bless.
Mmoja --
Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, Americans across the country will sit down together, count our blessings, and give thanks for our families and our loved ones.
American families reflect the diversity of this great nation. No two are exactly alike, but there is a common thread they each share.
Our families are bound together through times of joy and times of grief. They shape us, support us, instill the values that guide us as individuals, and make possible all that we achieve.
So tomorrow, I'll be giving thanks for my family -- for all the wisdom, support, and love they have brought into my life.
But tomorrow is also a day to remember those who cannot sit down to break bread with those they love.
The soldier overseas holding down a lonely post and missing his kids. The sailor who left her home to serve a higher calling. The folks who must spend tomorrow apart from their families to work a second job, so they can keep food on the table or send a child to school.
We are grateful beyond words for the service and hard work of so many Americans who make our country great through their sacrifice. And this year, we know that far too many face a daily struggle that puts the comfort and security we all deserve painfully out of reach.
So when we gather tomorrow, let us also use the occasion to renew our commitment to building a more peaceful and prosperous future that every American family can enjoy.
It seems like a lifetime ago that a crowd met on a frigid February morning in Springfield, Illinois to set out on an improbable course to change our nation.
In the years since, Michelle and I have been blessed with the support and friendship of the millions of Americans who have come together to form this ongoing movement for change.
You have been there through victories and setbacks. You have given of yourselves beyond measure. You have enabled all that we have accomplished -- and you have had the courage to dream yet bigger dreams for what we can still achieve.
So in this season of thanks giving, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to you, and my anticipation of the brighter future we are creating together.
With warmest wishes for a happy holiday season from my family to yours,
President Barack Obama
Mr. President,
Thank you so much for this greeting. I pray in your announcement projected for this Tuesday that you tell the world that you are bringing the troops home. It is the best givings of thanks that they could receive. God bless.
Rev. Mmoja Ajabu
American Are Deeply Involved In Afghan Drug Trade
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“U.S.-allied drug dealers are put in charge of the police and border patrol, while their rivals are placed on American hit lists.”
If you’re looking for the chief kingpin in the Afghanistan heroin trade, it’s the United States. The American mission has devolved to a Mafiosi-style arrangement that poisons every military and political alliance entered into by the U.S. and its puppet government in Kabul. It is a gangster occupation, in which U.S.-allied drug dealers are put in charge of the police and border patrol, while their rivals are placed on American hit lists [2], marked for death or capture. As a result, Afghanistan has been transformed into an opium plantation that supplies 90 percent of the world’s heroin.
An article in the current issue of Harper’s magazine [3] explores the inner workings of the drug-infested U.S. occupation, it’s near-total dependence on alliances forged with players in the heroin trade. The story centers on the town of Spin Boldak, on the southeastern border with Pakistan, gateway to the opium fields of Kandahar and Helmand provinces. The chief Afghan drug lord is also the head of the border patrol and the local militia. The author is an undercover U.S.-based journalist who was befriended by the drug lord’s top operatives and met with the U.S. and Canadian officers that collaborate with the drug dealer on a daily basis.
The alliance was forged by American forces during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and has endured and grown ever since. The drug lord, and others like him throughout the country, is not only immune to serious American interference, he has been empowered through U.S. money and arms to consolidate his drug business at the expense of drug-dealing rivals in other tribes, forcing some of them into alliance with the Taliban. On the ground in Pashtun-speaking Afghanistan, the war is largely between armies run by heroin merchants, some aligned with the Americans, others with the Taliban. The Taliban appear to be gaining the upper hand in this Mafiosa gang war, the origins of which are directly rooted in U.S. policy.
“It is a war whose order of battle is largely defined by the drug trade.”
Is it any wonder, then, that the United States so often launches air strikes against civilian wedding parties, wiping out the greater part of bride and groom's extended families? America’s drug-dealing allies have been dropping dimes on rival clans and tribes, using the Americans as high-tech muscle in their deadly feuds. Now the Americans and their European occupation partners have institutionalized the rules of gangster warfare with official hit lists of drug dealers to be killed or captured on sight – lists drawn up by other drug lords affiliated with the occupation forces.
This is the “war of necessity” that President Barack Obama has embraced as his own. It is a war whose order of battle is largely defined by the drug trade. Obama's generals call for tens of thousands of new U.S. troops in hopes of lessening their dependency on the militias and police forces currently controlled by American-allied drug dealers. But of course, that will only push America's Afghan partners in the drug trade into the arms of the Taliban, who will cut a better deal. Then the generals were argue that they need even more U.S. troops.
The Americans created this drug-saturated hell, and their occupation is now doomed by it. Unfortunately, they have also doomed millions of Afghans in the process.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com [4].
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com [5].
Minister Ajabu,
Once again you raise issues that cause us to think clearly and critically. Many of us do not like to think in this way. We prefer to be told what is right and what is wrong. We need someone to tell us what to do and what to believe. You are a threat to people unable or unwilling to think, especially in a highly hypocritical, two-faced society as ours.
One the one hand, we have a 'volunteer' army. Actually, these poor kids are those with limited opportunities who 'volunteer' because there are no jobs. Then, our government declares war on 'terror', which is undefined, and unwinnable. The world has always had to deal with terror. How do you win a war on 'terror'? When do you say, "Well, we have conquered 'terror' and can now all rest easy."? It's impossible to define, but that's exactly what the military/industrial/governmental complex wants - an unwinnable war.
An unwinnable war plus the Bush administrations historic policy change, "pre-emptive strike" means we can declare war on anyone we choose. Witness what happened in Iraq - a million innocent people were killed by Americans and for what?
9/11 was an inside job. America knows that, but is unwilling to admit it because the thought is too evil and horrible to contemplate. Yet, we had a Hitler and a Stalin that no one wanted to believe was perpetrating horrendous acts of murder and plunder. We witnessed the genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda, yet America did not want to believe it.
So, your speaking truth to power is refreshing although you are probably causing a lot of headaches for those of us who are not accustomed to thinking, clearly and critically. Keep up the good work. Perhaps one day America will wake up and realize that we all work on the same plantation and pay dearly, one way or the other, for the privilege. Peace and love to you and yours, my brother.
Reverend Ajabu
I sent you a lot of articles from Glen Ford's Black Agenda Report during the elections last year. Mr Ford was very critical of Barack Obama and he said that Obama is really a war hawk. He also stressed the detachment of Obama from Blacks in America and that he didn't specifically appeal to Blacks for support. Blacks supported him mainly because he was an intelligent Black man.
I hate to say it but so far, Glen Ford has been correct on Obama when it comes to uplifting Blacks openly and escalating the war in Afghanistan. I am struggling to support our president during these early months in his administration but my concern is his unyielding desire to please his enemies, the Conservative Republicans. He would risk losing his progressive liberal base just to bring one or two conservatives on board.
I know he is not a fool and he has a very bright team of people around him but it seems they are walking a tightrope and their political positions can cause them to crash to earth any day. I am very unhappy about Barack sending 35,000 troops into Afghanistan. We don't have the manpower, we still have about 180,000 soldiers stuck in Iraq and we are broke.
The conservative Republicans are so happy to spend $1 million a soldier in Afghanistan but they are all having seizures about saving 45,000 American lives by voting for the public option healthcare bill. They didn't ask for the cost of the two Bush wars and his tax cut for the richest 2% of Americans but they have detailed every penny for healthcare. Four Democrats are threatening to fight any health bill that has a public option in it because of the cost and the burden that will be put on our grandchildren. i am waiting to see if Landrieu, Nelson, Lieberman, and the Democratic Senator from Arkansas will complain about the cost of more troops into Afghanistan.
We will not win in Afghanistan and many innocent soldiers will die over there. The liberals are against more slaughter of our troops for nothing. We will not be any safer if we escalate the war in Afghanistan; so why do like Bush and Cheney. Barack Obama will look just like Colin Powell did when he let conservatives talk him into going to the U N with that lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
I like our president and I voted for him in the general election [I voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries] but I was worried about him in the primaries because we had not known of him as long as we have known Hillary Clinton. I am afraid we might be greatly disappointed to find that Obama is not who we thought he was.I pray that I am wrong! But going into Afghanistan with 35,000 more troops is frightening to me and I hope this president has a serious escape plan.
john
John,
Your point is well taken and one with which I agree. I didn't support Hillary, as you know, and I really don't think that her position would be any different on Afghanistan than is President Obama's. I bought into the rhetoric that it was time for a change. And it truly is time for a change. The way I read your support for Hillary in the primary was that you didn't believe that Senator Obama could win because the nation, specifically the south racist element, was ready to elect a Black man. The way I read your position was you didn't think a Black man could win a Presidential election in America. Well, that has proven to be wrong.
Although this was a point of our contention, Barack's race was not the salient factor that caused my support for him. I admit that him being a Black man did not hurt my supporting him. However, it was his stated policies that really was the ultimate foundation of my support for him. It was his rhetoric. It was his "time for a change" montra. Now, I am just as disapointed, if not more so, as you are.
If President Obama sends more troops into Afghanistan then I am going to be ardently opposed. I have written him to let him know so. That war in Afghanistan is making our soldiers become very conflicted in their concepts of self. This is what the above article is about. To ask soldiers to fight and kill their religious brothers, or expect a mother to leave her child in strangers hands in order to follow orders to go fight a war that is clearly unjust is not good policy. This policy is not a change from the Bush/Cheney policy which was to go fight in Iraq under the guise of there being weapons of mass destruction when no weapons of mass destruction existed.
The same goes with Afghanistan. The key to that war is a change in United States policy. The changes are clear, Get U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia, stop clandestinely support Israel's expansion through out the West Bank, Get out of Afghanistan. If the U.S. policy changes to these positions then Al Queda and whoever else will not see the U.S. as an enemy. This policy lays the foundation for genuine cooperation. To sustain the previous policies to to show America as being its traditional arrogant self. It's time for a change.
Influential Americans such as Rush Limbaugh, former New York Mayor Juliane, and even the present mayor of New York are against trying in New York the terrorist who supposedly broght down the World Trade Buildings. Limbaugh says that the terrorist will put the United States on trial. So what? If the U.S. policy is a just policy then it should be able to stand being put on trial. For Limbaugh and the bunch to show a fear of this indicates that they question whether U.S. policy is a just policy. I saying that the policy is not just. That is the reason why it is time for a change. And if President Obama does not change it then he will not get a pass because he is a Black man. I will oppose him like I oppose Bush/Cheney and who ever else who supportted and supports this unjust policy. It is time for a change. That change starts with us. God bless.