Tag Archives: War

The Hateful Ten

Six Nine Ten governors have declared NO SYRIANS ALLOWED. Not because they are tending to their own needy and are thus unable provide food, clothing, or shelter for them. Or that their states are strained for space for even their own citizens. But because the refugees are Syrian and brown and how can they possibly know if any of them are terrorists??  You may have already read their remarks explaining why they steadfastly refuse to help victims of war, but if not I want you to read them all now:

Robert Bentley, Alabama: Stated he would “not place Alabamians at even the slightest possible risk of an attack on our people. Please continue to join me in praying for those who have suffered loss and those who will never allow freedom to fade at the hands of the terrorists.

Greg Abbot, Texas: Said to President Obama: “Neither you nor any federal official can guarantee that Syrian refugees will not be part of any terroristic activity. As such, opening our door to them irresponsibly exposes our fellow Americans to unacceptable peril.”

Mike Pence, Indiana: “[Indiana] has a long tradition of opening our arms and homes from around the world but, as governor, my first responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of all Hoosiers. Unless and until the state of Indiana receives assurances that proper security measures are in place, this policy will remain in full force and effect.”

Bobby Jindal, Louisiana: “I just signed an executive order instructing state agencies to take all available steps to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees to LA.”

Rick Snyder, Michigan: “Michigan is a welcoming state and we are proud of our rich history of immigration, but our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents.”

Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas: “This is not the right strategy for the United States to become a permanent place for relocation.”

Charlie Baker, Massachusetts: “No, I’m not interested in accepting refugees from Syria…My view on this is the safety and security of the people of the Commonwealth of Mass[achusetts] is my highest priority.”

Pence and Snyder seem to be suffering from some sort of multiple personality disorder. Both of their statements reduce to “We’re proud of our history of welcoming those in need.” followed by “We aren’t welcoming those in need.” Up until Monday, Michigan was actively working to attract Syrian refugees but Snyder shut that right down.

Governor Abbot feels it is irresponsible to open our doors to Syrian refugees because President Obama is not clairvoyant and is unable to foresee future terrorist acts on US soil and who will be committing them. Pop quiz. Name the ethnicities and religions of the perpetrators who committed the overwhelming majority of the terrorist acts on US soil in the last decade?

Baker seems to not have closed the door entirely. But he’s a Republican, so he has to at least appear to have shut the door and hope no one notices he left it unlocked.

Then there’s Bobby Jindal.

But my favorite quote comes from Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. “This is not the right strategy for the United States to become a permanent place for relocation.” That’s right. The US is NOT a place for permanent relocation. I apologize for using the following cliché: Someone really should have let the Native Americans know.

I understand the concern of allowing wave upon wave of refugees into any nation without a plan for how to house, feed, and care for them but the alternative here is to condemn them to death by leaving them stuck in the middle of a war-zone, one side of which who uses the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children as a measure of success. Possessing the means and ability to help people and refusing not to out of fear isn’t American. It’s cowardice.

It’s not just politicians either. On social media there’s relentless fear mongering regarding Paris, terrorists, and refugees. Blaming Muslim President Obama for aiding the terrorists and criticizing those visibly standing in solidarity with the French simultaneously welcoming refugees as if one precludes the other. Whining that we need a REAL leader to stand up for the American people. Perhaps most insultingly, demanding we keep all Syrian refugees out while at the same time expressing sympathetic and empathetic tendencies to all those whose lives have been destroyed by terrorism.  There are no prefixes needed there. Endorsing genocide and xenophobia is just pathetic.  Neither are traits that should be found in a leader.

As I was about to hit publish on this post, I read an article that says Ted Cruz is calling for admission of Christian refugees only into the US. No Muslims allowed. I literally can’t even.

I am not afraid to care too much. All humans should be humanitarians. All of us should strive to face the challenges we see our neighbors facing and give them a hand when they trip or fall along the way. We live in a big world, with billions of people, we’re separated by oceans, by valleys, by mountains, but what separates us from each other the most are our own prejudices and fears. How sad that it is not the tens of thousands of miles from coast to coast [that separate us] but rather our own ignorance and selfishness. -Christy Mannering

For all the disagreements I’ve had with President Obama over the last 7 years, I can say he is a leader and an adult and acting like both:

“We also have to remember that many of these refugees are the victims of terrorism themselves. That’s why they’re fleeing. Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values. Our nations can welcome refugees who are desperately seeking safety and ensure our own security. We can and must do both.”

“We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.” – President Barack Obama.

Images of War

Yesterday I wrote a little about the images of US soldiers posing with dead bodies in Afghanistan which was published in the Los Angeles Times. I focused on some comments by Bing West, a military analyst, who said that this type of thing (posing with dead bodies) happens all the time in war. In today’s Washington Post, there is a good essay entitled “We’ve seen photos before like ones of U.S. soldiers with Afghan corpses”. Joe Heim writes:

But, however abhorrent these actions by a small group of American forces in Afghanistan are, they are in keeping with the history of conflict. Perhaps we’re surprised because we think we’re more civilized than we are. Or because most of us don’t actually understand what war is.

This war is 7,000 miles away, but its images can reach us in seconds. Many of the gory pictures are tweeted on Twitter. Or liked on Facebook. Or unliked. A great disconnect exists between the horror of the photographs and the nifty devices and platforms we can click on and off to control our access to war. War is the most antisocial of human activities, yet Afghanistan — and maybe all wars from now on — will be experienced by most of us through social media, in the palm of our hand. From a distance, we’ll see war up-close.

Heim’s essay is an important read as it highlights that in the Internet age these images of war will keep on coming and coming at us. Maybe these photos and others like it will give us pause the next time we think about going to war,

Time to End the Wars

The US Conference of Mayors did something on Monday that they haven’t done in over 40 years. They passed a resolution calling for an

accelerated end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What is important to me at least is that the last time the Conference acted on this subject, we were mired in the rice paddies of Viet Nam, fighting another unpopular war. The resolution becomes the official policy of the Conference.

However, the Mayor of Kabul, doesn’t think this is such a good idea.

On Sunday, Muhammad Younus Nawandish, the mayor of Kabul, expressed some reservations about the idea of an American withdrawal. Nawandish spoke to the conference on Saturday. He told HuffPost that his country was still “in need of security from the international community.”

“We understand that the U.S. military will not stay in Afghanistan forever. But still we need your existence for the stability of Afghanistan. If they withdraw now there is a possibility of falling Afghanistan back into during the Taliban regime,” Nawandish said through an interpreter

Maybe I’m too much of a cynic, but what Mayor Nawandish really said was that “we need your money because we have to steal what we can so we can live in luxury once we decide to flee from the peasants.” Then again, my Pashto is a bit rusty these days.

Seeing that this resolution was the first of its kind in 2 generations, I thought this would be a fitting musical tribute:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-2pNCZiNk[/youtube]

Matt Denn on Veterans Day 2010

Here is the text of the speech delivered by Matt Denn on Veterans Day 2010 at the Delaware Memorial Bridge War Memorial. Thank you veterans.

It is an honor to be with you this morning. Our Governor is overseas on a trip designed to create jobs here in Delaware. You have seen him through many Veterans Day commemorations, and you know that he would be here if he could.

Every Sunday, I take my twin five year old boys to Dunkin Donuts. We’ve been doing it for years. My boys think it is the greatest thing in the world, my wife gets some well-deserved sleep, and I get out of the whole deal for less than $10. There are many Sundays that I sit there, watching my boys laugh and eat, and think ‘I am an incredibly lucky guy.’

This past Sunday, U.S. Army Specialist Dale Kridlo from Pittston, Pennsylvania, also the father of young twins, was shot and killed by a sniper in Afghanistan. His father drove to Dover Air Force Base on Monday to claim his son’s body. Dale Kridlo was due to come home for Christmas this year. His family said that he was a Phillies fan, an Eagles fan, but most of all dedicated to his nine year old twin girls Madelyne and Zoe, who will now grow up without a father. This Veterans Day in Pittston is being marked with the flags at half mast for Dale Kridlo. Dale Kridlo sacrificed, his family has sacrificed, so that we might live and raise our families in the same great country, with the same extraordinary freedoms and opportunities, that you and I have enjoyed.

On this Veterans Day we must first and foremost give our thanks and pay our respects, to those who have served, those who have sacrificed, and the mothers, fathers, spouses, partners, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters who have sacrificed along with them. For Operation Enduring Freedom alone, it has been nine years of families sacrificing, often through multiple tours, and thousands of soldiers who have given their lives or suffered life altering injuries.

So today we give thanks, and we pay our respects, and that is important and necessary. But it is not sufficient. To those of you who have served, to the families of those who served or are in harm’s way today, we owe you two things.

First, we owe you our honest best efforts to support our soldiers and their families during their service and after their service. I know that some of you are here every year, and you may remember that a couple of years ago I told you that we got a bill passed in Dover to make it easier for surgeons to come out of retirement to work at the VA Hospital in Elsmere, without losing their insurance. Well, I got an e-mail from Dr. David Axon a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, an orthopedic surgeon who came out of retirement under this new program. He wrote, “I started at the [Delaware] VA in September of 2008….Two years later we’ve done about 500 orthopedic procedures…and I believe we’ve made a major difference in the quality of the lives of many of these vets. We’ve also started a joint replacement program in cooperation with the Lebanon VA ….” That is five hundred surgical procedures for Delaware veterans that otherwise would have had to be done in another state, or wouldn’t have been done at all. That is a great story. Yesterday, I had the privilege of being present for the opening of Fisher House on Dover Air Force Base, a facility that will provide comfort and convenient lodging to the families who travel to the base to receive the bodies of their loved ones killed in action. The opening of Fisher House is a great story. But we should have a dozen more great stories, stories about how we helped veterans get timely answers on disability applications, how we helped veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to find jobs. I think we owe it to you on Veterans Day not just to say “thanks” but to show you our gratitude in concrete deeds.

The second thing that we owe you is a country that is worthy of the sacrifice you have made. We who have the privilege to serve the public owe you our best efforts to mold a country you can be proud of. Because we all revere our flag, but you did not fight just for the flag, and we proudly sing our national anthem but you did not fight just for a song. You fought for the freedoms and rights enshrined in our Constitution, and beyond that, the boundless spirit, energy, and common purpose that have always been America’s hallmark. So we owe you more than chants of ‘USA’ or ‘We’re Number One,” we owe you a sincere effort to work together on fixing this country’s real problems. That doesn’t mean we won’t argue; one of the rights you fought for was our right to argue, to engage in free debate. But it does mean our goal must be solutions rather than confrontation. We owe you at least that much.

Each life newly lost in the defense of our country, each tragedy like Dale Kridlo’s, brings crushing sorrow, and new recognition of the overwhelming burden borne by a select few so that we and our children might have the privilege of living in what is still the greatest nation this earth has known. During World War II, Carl Sandburg said “There are freedom shouters. There are freedom whisperers. Both may serve. Have I, have you, been too silent?” On this Veterans Day, we thank you for the sacrifice you have made, and we loudly proclaim our obligation to honor that sacrifice.

30K New Troops to Afghanistan

The Presidant gave a speech this evening to West Point cadets. The strategy is the surge part deux.  30,000 new troops to Afghanistan to stabilize the situation and support the shitty government there.  Then start pulling the troops out in 18 months.  Many soldiers will miss only a single Christmas.

As much as I have watched, the people that I usually agree with have decried the plan as awful.  John McCain liked everthing except the withdrawal.  Whatever.

This is a tough situation that the President has found himself in.  But I think it has some merit and that Obama has some advantages over others in similar situations.

  • Vietnam – Obama is right, we were not attacked by Vietnam, we did not have a populace that was largely on our side and we didn’t have much of a freaking goal, for that matter.
  • The Soviets – They were there to add Afghanistan to their bloc.  They would have run it just like they ran Poland and Ukraine.  Here’s your dictator, and he will do what we tell him to do.  America doesn’t want to take over Afghanistan, we want it to to be less of a shitty place, but we will leave as soon as possible.
  • George W. Bush – If you are a muslim that didn’t want to kill Americans, George Bush could make you reconsider.  He might not have wanted to take over Afghanistan, but I think he believed that they could all use a good dose of the good word.  More importantly, that is the message that the man on the street in Afghanistan got from the missionaries that flocked to Afghanistan after the invasion.  In Bush’s defense, I think he really believes that he had their best interests at heart, but no Muslim wants to have to hear about the inferiority of their religion from someone coming to help them.  Obama physically looks more like them, he has a name that rings familiar with them, and he doesn’t say things like “we are on a crusade” and call these lunatics “jihadists.”

The key to “winning” in Afghanistan has ALWAYS been to win over the hearts and minds.  Not to love the US, but to not fear the US long enough to spend the blood, money and sweat required to make the place work.  I doubt that Karzai is the guy to do it, lord knows that he is as crooked as the day is long, but they elected the guy (more or less).  We don’t have much choice in who we deal with.  Shit, if Marion Barry can still get elected in DC, who are we to judge?

I have no idea if it will work.  But I believe that if we do fail there, we know what the Taliban is capable of.  They tortured women, gays, children and ruled by a fear that is right up there with the worst of the 20th century.  They can not be allowed to regain control of that country.  And maybe, just maybe, we can lay the groundwork in Afghanistan that the behavior of the Taliban is not tolerated.  There were certainly Nazi’s in Germany in 1950, but each time one of them raised their heads, they were punished swiftly and severely.  Perhaps Afghanistan can get this level of control with a stable government and a strong society.  I don’t know, but I think that if anyone can pull this off, this is the man and this is the time.

War – What Is It Good For?

Matthew Yglesias takes a look at the cost of war versus the economic benefits on the home front and comes to the standard meme that the financial burden of war might have some good on the economy:

But the basic progressive analysis of the current economic situation is that higher short-term debt levels are socially beneficial, right? The story is that World War II—at least from the perspective of the American economy—wasn’t a huge economically wasteful use of resources. Sure it was more wasteful (in economic terms, obviously the “beating Hitler” benefits were quite real) than some other possible projects, but it still on balance was helpful in ending the Depression.

As Yglesias wraps up his post, he discovers this article in The New York Times that looks at President Obama’s upcoming Afghanistan decision and how paying for it all will come into play.

So even if Mr. Obama opts for a lower troop commitment, Afghanistan’s new costs could wash out the projected $26 billion expected to be saved in 2010 from withdrawing troops from Iraq. And the overall military budget could rise to as much as $734 billion, or 10 percent more than the peak of $667 billion under the Bush administration.

So as President Obama searches for an endgame in Afghanistan — insert snide comment here that there has never been an endgame for Afghanistan —, not only will the future of the Afghan government and the lives of our troops factor into Obama’s decision, but so will cold, hard cash.

Quote of the Day

Governments around the world are getting more savvy about excluding journalists from war zones. The US Government partly blamed its failure in Vietnam on the freedom of the press rather than on its military strategy. That led to me being banned from reporting the Falklands war. I had dinner recently with some senior military men from that time who said “we missed you”. There are no images to remind them — and us — of what happened.

— Don McCullin, The Times