Military
The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs reports (pdf) that by the end of the 2019 fiscal year, the U.S. will have spent $5.9 trillion on military spending in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other countries, as well as veterans’ care, interest on debt payments, and related spending at the Homeland Security and State Departments.
CLN Editor Note: It seems pretty clear that the U.S. Government has no intention of stopping their endless wars. It’s all about nation building and money for our war machine contractors. The sanctity of human life doesn’t appear to be a factor. We the people need to do something about it. Our consciousness MATTERS. Join […]
Amid reports that civilian deaths have “surged dramatically” in Yemen since June, when the Saudi-led coalition launched an offensive to take control of the port city Hodeidah, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Wednesday officially introduced a highly anticipated resolution invoking the War Powers Act of 1973, in hopes of ending American support for the coalition’s attacks and the resulting humanitarian crisis.
Just days after the Yemen-based human rights group Mwatana gave CNN documents showing that U.S.-manufactured bomb fragments have been found at the scene of at least 11 separate Saudi-led attacks on Yemeni civilians since 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo opted to continue American military support for Saudi Arabia over the objections of his staff in an effort to preserve $2 billion in weapons sales to the brutal monarchy.
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.”
