WOMANKIND WEB WANDERINGS - 3/17/2012
War
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
War is an organized, armed, and often a prolonged conflict that is carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence. The set of techniques used by a group to carry out war is known as warfare. An absence of war, (and other violence) is usually called peace.
In 2003, Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problems facing the society of mankind for the next fifty years. In the 1832 treatise On War, Prussian military general and theoretician Carl Von Clausewitz defined war as follows: "War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will."
"Top Ten Problems of Humanity for Next 50 Years" - Richard Smalley's list in order of priority is:
- Energy
- Water
- Food
- Environment
- Poverty
- Terrorism & war
- Disease
- Education
- Democracy
- Population
The top 10 threats identified in 2004 in order of priority by the High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations are these:
- Poverty
- Infectious disease
- Environmental degradation
- Inter-state war
- Civil war
- Genocide
- Other Atrocities (e.g., trade in women and children for sexual slavery, or kidnapping for body parts)
- Weapon of mass destruction (nuclear proliferation, chemical weapon proliferation, biological weapon proliferation)
- Terrorism
- Transnational organized crime
Major US Wars Military Deaths:
- 291,557 - American Civil War (1861–1865)
- 53,402 - World War I (1914–1918)
- 291,557 - World War II (1939–1945)
- 47,424 - Vietnam War (1959-1975)
- 4,977 War on Terror - Afghanistan and Iraq Wars (2001–present)
Effects of war
Nations customarily measure the ‘costs of war’ in dollars, lost production, or the number of soldiers killed or wounded. Rarely do military establishments attempt to measure the costs of war in terms of individual human suffering. Psychiatric breakdown remains one of the most costly items of war when expressed in human terms. --No More Heroes, Richard Gabriel
On soldiers
Soldiers subject to combat in war often suffer psychological and physical casualties, including depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, disease, injury, and death.
In every war in which American soldiers have fought in, the chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty – of being debilitated for some period of time as a consequence of the stresses of military life – were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire. --No More Heroes, Richard Gabriel
On civilians
Many wars have been accompanied by significant depopulations, along with destruction of infrastructure and resources (which may lead to famine, disease, and death in the civilian population). Civilians in war zones may also be subject to war atrocities such as genocide, while survivors may suffer the psychological aftereffects of witnessing the destruction of war.
Efforts to stop wars
Anti-war movements have existed for every major war in the 20th century, including, most prominently, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. In the 21st century, worldwide anti-war movements occurred ever since the United States declared wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2001, the US government decided to invade Afghanistan to fight against international terrorism that caused the September 11 attacks. Opposition to the War in Afghanistan spread all over the world. Protests occurred in cities in Europe, Asia, and all over the United States, criticizing its ineffectiveness and illegitimacy. However, they did not stop the US engagement in the war. As of now, the public view worldwide does not seem to favor the war. Organizations like Stop the War Coalition, based in the United Kingdom, keep working on campaigning against the War. They raise awareness of the war, organize demonstrations, and lobby the governments.
There also exist significant worldwide opposition to the Iraq War. The US engaged in the war to eliminate the weapons of mass destruction that the Iraqi government allegedly had developed. Critics oppose the war based on the argument of violation of sovereignty, civilian deaths, absence of the UN approval, and lack of justification. However, they did not stop the involvement again. Since then, the US government has been harshly criticized by the public, domestically and internationally, for its conduct during the war, especially in the killings of civilians. Even though the government has been counting the US soldiers up until now, they have refused to release numbers on the civilian deaths. Individual projects like Iraq Body Count project tries to reveal the actual number of deaths from the war based on journalistic data, showing the civilian effort to face the truth of war.
The Mexican Drug War, with estimated casualties of 40,000 since December 2006, has been recently facing a fundamental opposition.[77] In 2011, the movement for peace and justice has started a popular middle-class movement against the war. It has won the recognition of President Calderon, who started the war, but has not ended it.
Soldier accused of killings was family man
By ADAM GELLER and RACHEL LA CORTE |
Associated Press – 5 hrs ago
LAKE TAPPS, Wash. (AP) — On a winding road of wood-frame homes tucked amid towering pines, Robert Bales was the father who joined his two young children for playtime in the yard, a career soldier who greeted neighbors warmly but was guarded when talking about the years he spent away at war.
"When I heard him talk, he said ... 'Yeah, that's my job. That's what I do'," said Kassie Holland, a next-door neighbor to the soldier who is now suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians. "He never expressed a lot of emotion toward it."
Speaking to his fellow soldiers, though, Bales could exult in the role. Plunged into battle in Iraq, he told an interviewer for a base newspaper in 2009 that he and his comrades proved "the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy."
As reporters swarmed Bales' neighborhood late Friday, Holland and other neighbors shook their heads, trying but failing to reconcile the man they thought they knew with the allegations against him. Military officials say that at about 3 a.m. last Sunday, the 38-year-old staff sergeant crept away from the Army base where he was stationed in southern Afghanistan, entered two slumbering villages and unleashed a massacre, shooting his victims and setting many of the bodies on fire. Eleven of those killed belonged to one family. Nine were children.
"I can't believe it was him," said Holland, recalling a kind-hearted neighbor. "There were no signs. It's really sad. I don't want to believe that he did it."
Until Friday, military officials had kept Bales' identity secret and what little was known about him remained sketchy. But with the release of his name, a still-incomplete, but sharply conflicting portrait of the man comes into focus. Part of it reveals the father and husband neighbors recall, and a soldier quietly proud of his 11-year record of service, including three tours in Iraq.
But it also shows Bales had previous brushes with trouble. In 2002, records show, he was arrested at a Tacoma, Wash., hotel for assault on a girlfriend. Bales pleaded not guilty and was required to undergo 20 hours of anger management counseling, after which the case was dismissed. A separate hit-and-run charge was dismissed in a nearby town's municipal court three years ago, according to records.
Bales has not yet been charged in the killings in Afghanistan. He was flown Friday from Kuwait to the military's only maximum-security prison, at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. When the Air Force cargo jet with the soldier aboard arrived at Kansas City International Airport, about an hour from the military prison, security was very tight, with the terminal completely blocked off. It marked the tragic end of Bales' fourth tour of duty in a war zone, one his lawyer said he had hoped to avoid.
"He wasn't thrilled about going on another deployment," said the attorney, John Henry Browne of Seattle. "He was told he wasn't going back, and then he was told he was going."
A neighbor, Paul Wohlberg, recalled that when he last saw Bales in November the two men talked briefly about the soldier's imminent departure for Afghanistan.
"I just told him to be safe. He said, 'I will. See you when I get back," said Wohlberg, who recalled attending barbeques at the Bales' homes.
Wohlberg described Bales as a man who clearly loved his country.
"I'm sure he still does," he said.
Bales told neighbors little about his brigade's three tours of duty to Iraq. But in a 2009 article published in Fort Lewis' Northwest Guardian, Bales told the interviewer about finding many dead and wounded when his unit was sent to recover a downed Apache helicopter in Iraq.
"I've never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day, for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us, " Bales said.
After returning from his second deployment to Iraq, Bales was elevated to staff sergeant. In three tours of duty, Browne says his client was injured twice. One of those injuries required the surgical removal of part of one foot. In a vehicle accident, Bales suffered a concussion, the lawyer said.
But by last year, the soldier had reached a disappointing juncture. Bales received more than 20 awards and commendations, including three Army Good Conduct medals. But military files show a largely unremarkable service record, absent the Purple Heart awards that would be expected following a significant injury or wound in combat.
Then he was passed over for a promotion, according to a posting by his wife on her blog, The Bales Family Adventures.
"It is very disappointed after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends," Karilyn Bales wrote early last year on the blog, which could not be independently verified. "I am sad and disappointed too, but I am also relieved, we can finally move on to the next phase of our lives."
The best case scenario for that next phase, Karilyn Bales wrote, would be an Army assignment in an adventurous location like Germany, Italy or Hawaii, and barring that, possibly an assignment in Georgia, where her husband could become a sniper instructor.
"We are hoping that if we are proactive and ask to go to a location that the Army will allow us to have some control over where we go next," Karilyn Bailey wrote.
By late last year, Bales was training to be an Army recruiter, Bales' lawyer said. When he learned he would be dispatched to Afghanistan, Bales and his family were very disappointed. Still, the staff sergeant's family saw no indication sign of undue anger, Browne said.
"They were totally shocked," by accounts of the massacre, Browne said. "He's never said anything antagonistic about Muslims. He's in general very mild-mannered."
Bales departed with his unit on Dec. 3 and was assigned about six weeks ago to a base in the Panjwai District, near Kandahar, to work with a village stability force pairing special operations troops with villagers to help provide neighborhood security.
On Saturday, the day before the shooting spree, Browne said, the soldier saw his friend's leg blown off. Browne said his client's family provided him with that information, which has not been verified.
On Friday, a senior U.S. defense official said Bales was drinking in the hours before the attack on Afghan villagers, violating a U.S. military order banning alcohol in war zones. The official discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because charges have not yet been filed.
Browne said his client's family told him they were not aware of any drinking problem — not necessarily a contradiction. Pressed on the issue in interviews with news organizations, Browne said he did not know if his client had been drinking the night of the massacre.
Then, in the middle of the night last Sunday, shots rang out in a pair of villages within walking distance of the base. Soon after, a surveillance camera mounted to a blimp captured an image of a soldier the Army identifies as Bales returning in the dark. A traditional Afghan shawl was draped over the gun in his hands. As he reached the gates of the base, the man in uniform lay the weapon down. He raised his arms in surrender.
Browne said he did not know if his client had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but said it could be an issue at trial if experts believe it's relevant. Experts on PTSD said witnessing the injury of a fellow soldier and the soldier's own previous injuries put him at risk.
"We've known ever since the Vietnam war that the unfortunate phenomenon of abusive violence often closely follows the injury or death of a buddy in combat," said Dr. Roger Pitman, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who heads the PTSD Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. "The injury or death of a buddy creates a kind of a blind rage."
On Friday evening, Bales' neighbors said they did not know what to think. They gazed toward the soldier's home, where overflowing boxes were piled on the front porch and a U.S. flag leaned against the siding.
"I just can't believe Bob's the guy who did this," Wohlberg said. "A good guy got put in the wrong place at the wrong time."
___
Associated Press writer Rachel La Corte reported from Lake Tapps, Wash. and AP National Writer Adam Geller reported from New York. AP writers Gene Johnson in Seattle, National Security Writer Robert Burns in Washington, Phuong Le in Seattle, Haven Daley and Manuel Valdes in Lake Tapps, Wash. Lisa Cornwell in Evendale, Ohio, Dana Fields in Kansas City, Mo., and John Milburn in Lawrence, Kan. contributed to this story.
IMHO: I have never believed the government propaganda of any era in the United States when they've said our nation has gone to some foreign country to protect the American way of life, to defend our country or to help the peoples of other nations achieve democracy, i.e. Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc . The reality is that all war is an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities (read countries), and is a form of political violence. So why do we go to war? To get what we want from other countries. To boost our economy. To make money for our weapons manufacturers. To ensure the Defense Department is always well-funded (and we know how efficient THAT agency is at spending money). To weed out the "lower" classes while the children of the rich and powerful seldom go to war. Instead, they go to college to gain the skills they need to maintain their wealth and power. And what happens to our soldiers? "Soldiers subject to combat in war often suffer psychological and physical casualties, including depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, disease, injury,..." and, for far too many the ultimate sacrifice for their country - death. When are we as citizens of the United States finally going to stand up and say NO MORE WARS. And actually mean it? Because we've been protesting wars for any purpose for decades and yet they go on and on and on and ............
By ADAM GELLER and RACHEL LA CORTE |
Associated Press – 5 hrs ago
LAKE TAPPS, Wash. (AP) — On a winding road of wood-frame homes tucked amid towering pines, Robert Bales was the father who joined his two young children for playtime in the yard, a career soldier who greeted neighbors warmly but was guarded when talking about the years he spent away at war.
"When I heard him talk, he said ... 'Yeah, that's my job. That's what I do'," said Kassie Holland, a next-door neighbor to the soldier who is now suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians. "He never expressed a lot of emotion toward it."
Speaking to his fellow soldiers, though, Bales could exult in the role. Plunged into battle in Iraq, he told an interviewer for a base newspaper in 2009 that he and his comrades proved "the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy."
As reporters swarmed Bales' neighborhood late Friday, Holland and other neighbors shook their heads, trying but failing to reconcile the man they thought they knew with the allegations against him. Military officials say that at about 3 a.m. last Sunday, the 38-year-old staff sergeant crept away from the Army base where he was stationed in southern Afghanistan, entered two slumbering villages and unleashed a massacre, shooting his victims and setting many of the bodies on fire. Eleven of those killed belonged to one family. Nine were children.
"I can't believe it was him," said Holland, recalling a kind-hearted neighbor. "There were no signs. It's really sad. I don't want to believe that he did it."
Until Friday, military officials had kept Bales' identity secret and what little was known about him remained sketchy. But with the release of his name, a still-incomplete, but sharply conflicting portrait of the man comes into focus. Part of it reveals the father and husband neighbors recall, and a soldier quietly proud of his 11-year record of service, including three tours in Iraq.
But it also shows Bales had previous brushes with trouble. In 2002, records show, he was arrested at a Tacoma, Wash., hotel for assault on a girlfriend. Bales pleaded not guilty and was required to undergo 20 hours of anger management counseling, after which the case was dismissed. A separate hit-and-run charge was dismissed in a nearby town's municipal court three years ago, according to records.
Bales has not yet been charged in the killings in Afghanistan. He was flown Friday from Kuwait to the military's only maximum-security prison, at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. When the Air Force cargo jet with the soldier aboard arrived at Kansas City International Airport, about an hour from the military prison, security was very tight, with the terminal completely blocked off. It marked the tragic end of Bales' fourth tour of duty in a war zone, one his lawyer said he had hoped to avoid.
"He wasn't thrilled about going on another deployment," said the attorney, John Henry Browne of Seattle. "He was told he wasn't going back, and then he was told he was going."
A neighbor, Paul Wohlberg, recalled that when he last saw Bales in November the two men talked briefly about the soldier's imminent departure for Afghanistan.
"I just told him to be safe. He said, 'I will. See you when I get back," said Wohlberg, who recalled attending barbeques at the Bales' homes.
Wohlberg described Bales as a man who clearly loved his country.
"I'm sure he still does," he said.
Bales told neighbors little about his brigade's three tours of duty to Iraq. But in a 2009 article published in Fort Lewis' Northwest Guardian, Bales told the interviewer about finding many dead and wounded when his unit was sent to recover a downed Apache helicopter in Iraq.
"I've never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day, for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us, " Bales said.
After returning from his second deployment to Iraq, Bales was elevated to staff sergeant. In three tours of duty, Browne says his client was injured twice. One of those injuries required the surgical removal of part of one foot. In a vehicle accident, Bales suffered a concussion, the lawyer said.
But by last year, the soldier had reached a disappointing juncture. Bales received more than 20 awards and commendations, including three Army Good Conduct medals. But military files show a largely unremarkable service record, absent the Purple Heart awards that would be expected following a significant injury or wound in combat.
Then he was passed over for a promotion, according to a posting by his wife on her blog, The Bales Family Adventures.
"It is very disappointed after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends," Karilyn Bales wrote early last year on the blog, which could not be independently verified. "I am sad and disappointed too, but I am also relieved, we can finally move on to the next phase of our lives."
The best case scenario for that next phase, Karilyn Bales wrote, would be an Army assignment in an adventurous location like Germany, Italy or Hawaii, and barring that, possibly an assignment in Georgia, where her husband could become a sniper instructor.
"We are hoping that if we are proactive and ask to go to a location that the Army will allow us to have some control over where we go next," Karilyn Bailey wrote.
By late last year, Bales was training to be an Army recruiter, Bales' lawyer said. When he learned he would be dispatched to Afghanistan, Bales and his family were very disappointed. Still, the staff sergeant's family saw no indication sign of undue anger, Browne said.
"They were totally shocked," by accounts of the massacre, Browne said. "He's never said anything antagonistic about Muslims. He's in general very mild-mannered."
Bales departed with his unit on Dec. 3 and was assigned about six weeks ago to a base in the Panjwai District, near Kandahar, to work with a village stability force pairing special operations troops with villagers to help provide neighborhood security.
On Saturday, the day before the shooting spree, Browne said, the soldier saw his friend's leg blown off. Browne said his client's family provided him with that information, which has not been verified.
On Friday, a senior U.S. defense official said Bales was drinking in the hours before the attack on Afghan villagers, violating a U.S. military order banning alcohol in war zones. The official discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because charges have not yet been filed.
Browne said his client's family told him they were not aware of any drinking problem — not necessarily a contradiction. Pressed on the issue in interviews with news organizations, Browne said he did not know if his client had been drinking the night of the massacre.
Then, in the middle of the night last Sunday, shots rang out in a pair of villages within walking distance of the base. Soon after, a surveillance camera mounted to a blimp captured an image of a soldier the Army identifies as Bales returning in the dark. A traditional Afghan shawl was draped over the gun in his hands. As he reached the gates of the base, the man in uniform lay the weapon down. He raised his arms in surrender.
Browne said he did not know if his client had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but said it could be an issue at trial if experts believe it's relevant. Experts on PTSD said witnessing the injury of a fellow soldier and the soldier's own previous injuries put him at risk.
"We've known ever since the Vietnam war that the unfortunate phenomenon of abusive violence often closely follows the injury or death of a buddy in combat," said Dr. Roger Pitman, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who heads the PTSD Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital. "The injury or death of a buddy creates a kind of a blind rage."
On Friday evening, Bales' neighbors said they did not know what to think. They gazed toward the soldier's home, where overflowing boxes were piled on the front porch and a U.S. flag leaned against the siding.
"I just can't believe Bob's the guy who did this," Wohlberg said. "A good guy got put in the wrong place at the wrong time."
___
Associated Press writer Rachel La Corte reported from Lake Tapps, Wash. and AP National Writer Adam Geller reported from New York. AP writers Gene Johnson in Seattle, National Security Writer Robert Burns in Washington, Phuong Le in Seattle, Haven Daley and Manuel Valdes in Lake Tapps, Wash. Lisa Cornwell in Evendale, Ohio, Dana Fields in Kansas City, Mo., and John Milburn in Lawrence, Kan. contributed to this story.
IMHO: I have never believed the government propaganda of any era in the United States when they've said our nation has gone to some foreign country to protect the American way of life, to defend our country or to help the peoples of other nations achieve democracy, i.e. Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc . The reality is that all war is an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities (read countries), and is a form of political violence. So why do we go to war? To get what we want from other countries. To boost our economy. To make money for our weapons manufacturers. To ensure the Defense Department is always well-funded (and we know how efficient THAT agency is at spending money). To weed out the "lower" classes while the children of the rich and powerful seldom go to war. Instead, they go to college to gain the skills they need to maintain their wealth and power. And what happens to our soldiers? "Soldiers subject to combat in war often suffer psychological and physical casualties, including depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, disease, injury,..." and, for far too many the ultimate sacrifice for their country - death. When are we as citizens of the United States finally going to stand up and say NO MORE WARS. And actually mean it? Because we've been protesting wars for any purpose for decades and yet they go on and on and on and ............
PROTEST SONGS
Buffy Sainte-Marie - "Universal Soldier"
Joan Baez - "We Shall Overcome"
| PBS IN PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE |
Barry McGuire - "Eve of Destruction"
bob dylan - "The times they are a changing"
Helen Reddy - "I am woman"
New daily updates of today's page will be posted below these songs.
UPDATED 3:15 A.M. PST
David Evans
CONCERNING STAFF SGT. ROBERT BALES
Removing the soldier from Afghanistan was the right thing to do. Understanding how this happens is the next step and applying compassion is the next but not final step for the soldier. Most likely, this tragedy has destroyed the possibility of this man ever leading a normal life. And the same can be said for the loved ones of the dead.
It is important to understand that extended military combat exposure greatly increases the possibility that similar actions are inevitable. Responsibility for the problem can be shared at all levels from the civilian overseers to the uniformed military establishment. I find it indefensible that our leaders did not attempt to provide safeguards against such things by not imposing reasonable limits on the time soldiers are exposed such violence.
CONCERNING STAFF SGT. ROBERT BALES
Removing the soldier from Afghanistan was the right thing to do. Understanding how this happens is the next step and applying compassion is the next but not final step for the soldier. Most likely, this tragedy has destroyed the possibility of this man ever leading a normal life. And the same can be said for the loved ones of the dead.
It is important to understand that extended military combat exposure greatly increases the possibility that similar actions are inevitable. Responsibility for the problem can be shared at all levels from the civilian overseers to the uniformed military establishment. I find it indefensible that our leaders did not attempt to provide safeguards against such things by not imposing reasonable limits on the time soldiers are exposed such violence.
Actor George Clooney is led away in handcuffs from Sudan's embassy in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Clooney, his father, Nick, and others including Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia and NAACP President Ben Jealous, were arrested as they demonstrated to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. (go to npr.com)
Starring On Capitol Hill: The Celebrity Or The Cause?
by Sonari Glinton
March 17, 2012 Washington, D.C., was dazzled this week by a VIP. He visited the White and got the prized seat next to the first lady at this week's state dinner.
No, we're not talking about British Prime Minister David Cameron, though he was in town also.
It was actor and activist George Clooney, in town to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. In addition to getting arrested for protesting in front of the Sudanese embassy, Clooney also testified before a congressional panel.......(go to npr.org for full article.)
George Clooney warns of Darfur-like crisis in Sudan border - YouTube
Hollywood star George Clooney arrested and handcuffed in Washington Sudan protest - YouTube
Hollywood star George Clooney arrested and handcuffed in Washington Sudan protest - YouTube
AN OPEN LETTER TO GEORGE CLOONEY
(coming Monday on WomanKind Web Wanderings)
(coming Monday on WomanKind Web Wanderings)
NOW FOR SOME FUN!
That's it for now.
I'll see you tonight for the Good Night songs.
Or maybe not.
I'm beat and it's Saturday night
and time for The Grand 'Ole Oprey"!
See you in the morning for a fun Sunday afternoon visit.
I'll see you tonight for the Good Night songs.
Or maybe not.
I'm beat and it's Saturday night
and time for The Grand 'Ole Oprey"!
See you in the morning for a fun Sunday afternoon visit.
