Military
More than five million children are at risk of famine in Yemen as the ongoing war causes food and fuel prices to soar across the country, charity organization Save the Children warned.
The Costs of War Project’s investigations show that at least 370,000 people have been killed in the post 9/11 wars, and many more people have died indirectly due to environmental catastrophes, malnutrition, and broken infrastructure tied to the wars. In addition, over 10 million Afghan, Iraqi, and Pakistani people have been displaced as war refugees. The Project calculated the US budgetary costs in the post-9/11 wars to be $5.6 trillion.
How did the war in Afghanistan start? And how did NATO become involved in this conflict? These details are never discussed because they have for nearly two decades, been hidden behind a shroud of secrecy. But now, after nearly two decades of lies, the remarkable truth about the secret documents that helped launch the Afghan war can finally be revealed. This is the story of The Secret Lie That Started the Afghan War.
Less than a day after Republicans in the United States Senate rejected a chance this week “to slam on the brakes and stop [America’s] role in enabling the suffering in Yemen,” at least 26 more children were slaughtered by a U.S.-backed Saudi-led bombing in the western part of the country.
War has had a terrible impact on children in Afghanistan. After almost two decades of United States development efforts, with the hopes of helping the war-weary country take a path to stability and self-reliance, little has changed on the ground for children growing up today in Afghanistan. They are not safer. They do not have more rights. And they have never known peace. The truth is, living conditions in the country may be worse than when the “peacemaking” started in 2001.
Here are 8 things that are undermining your freedom that you need to know about (but probably don’t) by Gary Z McGee (The Mind Unleashed).
In the wake of the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition’s horrific bombing of a school bus last week that killed 40 Yemeni children and amid reports on Tuesday of dozens more civilian deaths after a new wave of Saudi bombings, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) has sent a detailed letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General demanding an investigation into whether Trump administration officials violated U.S. or international law by assisting the Saudis in their assault on Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition, which receives essential military support and intelligence from the U.S., “has repeatedly hit civilian targets—including schools, hospitals, funerals, and weddings—nowhere near military targets,” Lieu writes.
The Yemenis mean us no harm and have committed no crime against us. US citizens bear responsibility for the US government’s support of war crimes against Yemen.
Hearing about all of this Russian hacking, Trump, and politics, in general, these days seems to be like eating the same type of food every night, you literally get sick of it. This begs the question, should we even pay attention to it? Of course, we should, the political realm and the corporate stranglehold over it (and above that sit the financial elite) are taking advantage of us because WE are the ones that allow this entire charade to continue.
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader puts check on Laura Bush and Michelle Obama for selective criticism when it comes to kids harmed by brutal U.S. policies: “Would be nice if Laura Bush and Michelle Obama had expressed similar heartfelt concern for the tens of thousands of children killed or seriously maimed by the wars of their husbands in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.”
With a “green light” from the Trump administration and essential military support from the U.S. government, Saudi-led forces plowed ahead with an assault on the Yemeni port city of Hodeida on Wednesday, brushing aside dire warnings from international humanitarian organizations and a small group of American lawmakersthat an attack on the key aid harbor could spark a full-blown famine and endanger millions of lives. Win Without War wrote on Twitter that the attack on Hodeida is “a dark moment of shame for the United States. We could have stopped this.”
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, where every position of power is appointed by either the king or other members of the Al Saud royal family from which the nation derives its name. Trump recently visited Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the U.S., and took the opportunity to deeply criticize the two nations’ mutual foe, Iran, and its commitment to democracy weeks after it held its presidential election. Though clearly hilarious and at the same time appropriately awkward, the incident highlighted the fact that mainstream journalists rarely ask the obvious questions that might so easily expose the glaring hypocrisy of US foreign policy and its leaders.
After Pompeo’s unveiled “Plan B” for nuclear negotiations—which comes around two weeks after President Donald Trump violated the Iran nuclear accord and placed the U.S. on the path to yet another war in the Middle East—National Iranian American Council (NIAC) president Trita Parsi argued that the Trump administration’s demands are intentionally unrealistic and “clearly designed to ensure there cannot be any new negotiation.”
If Any Other Country Was Shooting Civilians Like Israel, The US Would Be Calling For Invasion By Now
The death toll in Gaza increased dramatically on Monday as Israeli Defense Forces opened fire on thousands of Palestinian civilians, killing 41 and injuring at least 1,700, and the United States’ response served as a reminder that if the governments in Iran, Syria, North Korea or Russia had done the same thing, the U.S. would be calling for a full-scale invasion right now. It is hypocrisy at its finest, especially considering the fact that the U.S. has a history of cheering on and aiding protests against foreign governments. In fact, when the mainstream media began sharing reports of protests in Iran in December 2017, President Trump took to Twitter to cheer on the dissidents.
Once again, the Israeli military has turned its guns on Gaza—this time on unarmed protestors, in a series of shootings over the last few weeks. Gaza’s already under-resourced hospitals are straining to care for the thousands of protesters who have been injured, in addition to the 40 who have been killed.
