Brown University – War deaths reach 173,000 in Afghanistan, Pakistan

The combined, cumulative death toll of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2001 is 173,000, with 183,000 others seriously injured, according to a new study. The Costs of War, based at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, released the data on the human costs of a decade and a half of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The …

J.Hawk, Daniel Deiss, Edwin Watson – WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY – NATO INFORMATION OPERATIONS

The beginning of interest in post-Cold War information operations can be traced to the UN intervention in Somalia and the Rwanda Genocide. Relatively honest and direct reporting from these war zones meant that the public opinion of Western countries was a factor that had to be considered by the political classes. Hence the  complaining at the time about the so-called …

Alfred W. McCoy – How a Pink Flower Defeated the World’s Sole Superpower

After fighting the longest war in its history, the United States stands at the brink of defeat in Afghanistan. How can this be possible? How could the world’s sole superpower have battled continuously for 15 years, deploying 100,000 of its finest troops, sacrificing the lives of 2,200 of those soldiers, spending more than a trillion dollars on its military operations, lavishing a record hundred …

Ralph Nader – Afghanistan and Iraq: Lessons for the Imperial

The photographs in the New York Times told contrasting stories last week. One showed two Taliban soldiers in civilian clothes and sandals, with their rifles, standing in front of a captured U.N. vehicle. The Taliban forces had taken the northern provincial capital of Kunduz. The other photograph showed Afghan army soldiers fully equipped with modern gear, weapons, and vehicles. Guess …

Project Censored – 08.18.15

This week’s program offers two perspectives on global capitalism and permanent war. Sociologist William Robinson makes the case that the present state of capitalism may be a “systemic crisis,” something not seen in centuries. Then peace advocate Kathy Kelly relates her experiences from Afghanistan to US prisons, and refutes the notion of”humanitarian war.”
William Robinson teaches Sociology at UC Santa Barbara. Kathy Kelly is the founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

Eric Draitser – ISIS in Afghanistan: Proxy War against Iran and China

The nature of the war in Afghanistan has shifted dramatically in recent months. While the US and NATO continue to be actively involved in the country – their strategic objectives having changed very little since the Bush administration launched the war nearly a decade and a half ago – the complexion of the battlefield, and the parties actively engaged in …

Sonali Kolhatkar – We Have Failed Afghanistan Again and Again

The 2013 death of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, confirmed this week, should have marked the end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. But the fates of the two main leaders identified as responsible for the 9/11 attacks—Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar—are only milestones. Thanks to the destructive nature of the U.S. war, many newer and more formidable enemies …

Have Millions of Deaths from America’s ‘War on Terror’ Been Concealed? by JACK BALKWILL

How many days has it been Since I was born? How many days ‘Til I die? Do I know any ways I can make you laugh? Or do I only know how To make you cry? ― Leon Russell, Stranger in a Strange Land The mass media in the US have covered up the most important fact in America’s ongoing …

Mandarin for the Warlords: The Harvard School of Empire Building – Prof. James Petras

Harvard professor Joseph Nye, a former senior Pentagon functionary, is one of the longest serving and most influential advisers to US empire building officials.  Nye has recently re-affirmed the primacy of the US as a world power in his latest book, Is the American Century Over?  And his article, ‘The American Century will survive the Rise of China’ (Financial Times, 3/26/15, p. …

Afghan Mission accomplished: more heroin for the world

The Guardian reports statistics on opium agriculture in Afghanistan (“Former Blackwater gets rich as Afghan drug production hits record high”): “…the US counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan stands out: opiate production has climbed steadily over recent years to reach record-high levels last year.” “Far from eradicating the deep-rooted opiate trade, US counternarcotics efforts have proven useless, according to a series of …