Antiwar literary and philosophical selections

U.S. European Command
February 27, 2013

NATO allies participate in Proud Manta
U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs

USS Barry Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer

AUGUSTA BAY, Sicily: Exercise Proud Manta 2013 (POMA 13), NATO’s largest anti-submarine warfare exercise, began in the Ionian Sea, Feb. 23.

Participants in POMA 13 include four submarines, 16 aircraft and eight surface ships from 10 NATO nations, including the United States.

POMA is an annual at-sea exercise focused on training submarines, ships and aircraft in their NATO Response Force (NRF) roles and missions, including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and precursor operations.

“We are very excited to participate in NATO’s Proud Manta, the world’s largest annual anti-submarine warfare exercise,” said Rear Adm. Frederick J. Roegge, Commander Submarines, Allied Naval Forces South. “While the participants will have the opportunity to exercise a wide range of tactical military objectives, the real value of Proud Manta is improving our ability to work together in a dynamic environment.”

Training with other military forces enhances mutual awareness and maritime capability of the partner nations. POMA 13 helps…interoperability among participating nations.

“Operating any ship, aircraft, or submarine in the maritime environment is never routine, so it’s even more challenging to coordinate eight surface ships, 16 aircraft and four submarines,” said Rear Adm. Roegge….

U.S. 6th Fleet units participating in the exercise are the guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52), homeported in Norfolk, Va., and a P-3 aircraft from Patrol Squadron 4 out of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Participating countries include Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

POMA 13 continues through Mar. 8.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Henri Barbusse: Selections on war

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Henri Barbusse
From Under Fire (1917)
Translated by Fitzwater Wray

War!

Some of the invalids break the silence, and say the word again under their breath, reflecting that this is the greatest happening of the age, and perhaps of all ages. Even on the lucid landscape at which they gaze the news casts something like a vague and somber mirage.

The tranquil expanses of the valley, adorned with soft and smooth pastures and hamlets rosy as the rose, with the sable shadow-stains of the majestic mountains and the black lace and white of pines and eternal snow, become alive with the movements of men, whose multitudes swarm in distinct masses. Attacks develop, wave by wave, across the fields and then stand still. Houses are eviscerated like human beings and towns like houses. Villages appear in crumpled whiteness as though fallen from heaven to earth. The very shape of the plain is changed by the frightful heaps of wounded and slain.

Each country whose frontiers are consumed by carnage is seen tearing from its heart ever more warriors of full blood and force. One’s eyes follow the flow of these living tributaries to the River of Death. To north and south and west ajar there are battles on every side. Turn where you will, there is war in every corner of that vastness.

One of the pale-faced clairvoyants lifts himself on his elbow, reckons and numbers the fighters present and to come — thirty millions of soldiers. Another stammers, his eyes full of slaughter, “Two armies at death-grips —that is one great army committing suicide.”

“It should not have been,” says the deep and hollow voice of the first in the line. But another says, “It is the French Revolution beginning again.” “Let thrones beware!” says another’s undertone.

The third adds, “Perhaps it is the last war of all.” A silence follows, then some heads are shaken in dissent whose faces have been blanched anew by the stale tragedy of sleepless night — “Stop war? Stop war? Impossible! There is no cure for the world’s disease.”

Some one coughs, and then the Vision is swallowed up in the huge sunlit peace of the lush meadows. In the rich colors of the glowing kine, the black forests, the green fields and the blue distance, dies the reflection of the fire where the old world burns and breaks. Infinite silence engulfs the uproar of hate and pain from the dark swarmings of mankind. They who have spoken retire one by one within themselves, absorbed once more in their own mysterious malady.

But when evening is ready to descend within the valley, a storm breaks over the mass of Mont Blanc. One may not go forth in such peril, for the last waves of the storm-wind roll even to the great veranda, to that harbor where they have taken refuge; and these victims of a great internal wound encompass with their gaze the elemental convulsion.

They watch how the explosions of thunder on the mountain upheave the level clouds like a stormy sea, how each one hurls a shaft of fire and a column of cloud together into the twilight; and they turn their wan and sunken faces to follow the flight of the eagles that wheel in the sky and look from their supreme height down through the wreathing mists, down to earth.

“Put an end to war?” say the watchers. “Forbid the Storm!”

Cleansed from the passions of party and faction, liberated from prejudice and infatuation and the tyranny of tradition, these watchers on the threshold of another world are vaguely conscious of the simplicity of the present and the yawning possibilities of the future.

The man at the end of the rank cries, “I can see crawling things down there” — “Yes, as though they were alive” — “Some sort of plant, perhaps” — “Some kind of men” —

And there amid the baleful glimmers of the storm, below the dark disorder of the clouds that extend and unfurl over the earth like evil spirits, they seem to see a great livid plain unrolled, which to their seeing is made of mud and water, while figures appear and fast fix themselves to the surface of it, all blinded and borne down with filth, like the dreadful castaways of shipwreck. And it seems to them that these are soldiers.

The streaming plain, seamed and seared with long parallel canals and scooped into water-holes, is an immensity, and these castaways who strive to exhume themselves from it are legion. But the thirty million slaves, hurled upon one another in the mud of war by guilt and error, uplift their human faces and reveal at last a bourgeoning Will. The future is in the hands of these slaves, and it is clearly certain that the alliance to be cemented some day by those whose number and whose misery alike are infinite will transform the old world.

Voice of Russia
February 28, 2013

The US built Al-Qaeda and Osama’s encampments – exclusive interview Kathy Kelly
John Robles

AUDIO

In Afghanistan any 15-30 year-old-male is a target for US “elimination”, activists were arrested and sent to prison in the US for attempting to deliver a letter to Whiteman Air Force Base, where drone operations are conducted, stating why the United Nations believes drone are illegal, war and killing people is profitable for war-profiteers and the US government knew about war crimes and the stealing of US weapons by former Blackwater-XE Academy but looks the other way. All of these matters and more were discussed in an interview with three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly, the co-coordinator for Voices for Creative Non-Violence.

Part I

Robles: Do most Americans know, or is the “man-in-the-street” in the United States right now, are they aware of the fact that al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and even Osama bin Laden, they got their start in a large part thanks to the United States when they were fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan? Do Americans know that?

Kelly: Well, if they do it’s not because they heard it on the mainstream media; they would have had to do some investigating. One of the reasons why initially the United States knew where to bomb potential encampments for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was because the United States built them.

Robles: Recently there was this white paper came out justifying drone attacks on US citizens and basically it says: “…anyone who is a senior…A US citizen who is a senior al-Qaeda operative or associate…”, back to al-Qaeda: how many American senior operatives of al-Qaeda do you know in the world, or have you ever heard of, or known about?

Kelly: You know there’re some real tragedies associated with that. There was a 16-year-old boy who had gone to a conference in Pakistan and at the conference they had given the youngsters cameras and said: “Try to – because we can’t get journalists into North and South Waziristan, we can’t document what’s happening but maybe you can, and then send the footage out.”

And he was targeted for assassination and killed. He wasn’t an American but al-Awlaki of course was, and this means that people with no due process, with no judge, jury, no trial, sometimes no charges whatsoever, people are targeted for assassination.

They actually say that if you are a young man between the ages of 15 and 30, you potentially could be a figure that the United States could eliminate, without any consultation. The president has a Tuesday morning meeting with about 100 people sometimes, on a conference call, and then they draw up their list.

Robles: Medea Benjamin told me that’s called Terror Tuesdays, is that correct?

Kelly: Yes. She has done such a wonderful job. I hope people will read her book. And of course she stays on top of these issues.

There are many people all across the country right now who are protesting drone warfare. Our co-coordinator Brian Terrell is serving a six-month prison sentence because he crossed the line at the Whiteman Air Force Base where they are operating drones. And he just wanted to deliver a letter with Mark Kenney who served four months in prison for the same action, and Ron Faust who was given five years probation. They had a letter showing the Air Force, how it is that the United Nations believes that the usage of drones is a violation of international law.

Robles: Before we started the interview you mentioned some peace volunteers in Afghanistan. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about them and what they’re doing? And some of the things you are doing on your trips to Afghanistan?

Kelly: Well, a group of youngsters have decided that they want to live without wars. They are not interested in revenge and retaliation, even though some of them lost their fathers, their brothers, uncles. Even though they’ve been among those displaced by the war.

Young Abdullah, when he was just a toddler had to be held over an open flame so that they could thaw out his body when they lived in a wretched refugee camp.

But these kids – I shouldn’t say kids – these young men and women have decided that it is in their best interests by far to try to overcome ethnic divisions. So, the young men living together inter-ethnically and every morning they welcome seamstresses and students from different tribes and backgrounds and ethnic groups to come into their home, and some are heading to an English class and some are part of seamstress cooperative. And they delivered 2,000 very heavy quilts (they’re called duvets) to the neediest of families, and they fanned out up the mountainside and into the refugee camps to find out, where these duvets would most be needed.

The women seamstresses made them: they came every day and collected materials and then they’d send their little kids with wheelbarrows bringing back the finished duvets. And it is a very astounding project to me.

All the duvets were delivered free of charge and the women were paid a meager salary. And it was international, through Voices’ outreach, that paid for the materials and for this meager salary.

So we see small microcosmic examples of people wanting to work together to alleviate suffering, to build a better world. I find it so hopeful when I go to Afghanistan, but I’ll tell you it’s also really cold, and the harsh winters are hard even if you are in a room with a wood-burning or coal-burning stove, and people have respiratory diseases all across the country.

The conditions are very, very hard because the infrastructure is so awful. I mean the electricity goes out and your water might be dependent on a well linked to the electricity, and then you are without water. And you know, that’s how people get cholera; they can’t flush down their own wastes.

Robles: Who is causing all this suffering in your opinion?

Kelly: Well, I do want to remind us that the United States has been spending $2 billion a week, much of it lining the pockets of corrupt warlords. $2 billion a week on its military presence, while right across the street from some of the military bases there are sprawling refugee camps.

So, I think any time the US public wages a war of choice and chooses as its target civilians who are living in one of the poorest countries in the world, then I think we have to do with the cause of a great deal of suffering. We may not know it, but we are not innocent.

Robles: $2 billion a week. How many years has it been, over 12 years now? You’d think that every single Afghan person would be living in a mansion driving a Bentley for that much money.

Kelly: Yes, of course there are people who have ammassed huge fortunes, and before we point fingers at Afghans who have, through corruption amassed fortunes, we should look at the war profiteers and major US companies in the United States and the universities that take their contracts and the faith-based communities that look the other way and the media people that refuse to tell the story. So, there is plenty of blame to go around, and there are plenty of other countries that have fought their wars within Afghanistan.

Pakistan and Iran are fighting proxy wars as we speak today, and in many ways there are Cold War competitions going on between the United States and China, the United States and Russia, and all of those could be solved through negotiation and dialogue and coming to our senses, but instead people like to continue these wars because there is profitability in killing people.

Robles: You talked about war profiteers. Can you tell us a little bit, because we are almost out of time, about the former Blackwater who was then XE, and are now called Academy I believe?

Kelly: This is a group of mercenaries. They are people who have contracted themselves out at great profit. I mean, the going rate for the high-end security contractors is a salary of $129,000 a year, first $89,000 of it tax free. And uh, they’re adapted Special Forces Operations, and Academy, the new Blackwater incarnation I suppose, is building Camp Integrity on 10 acres of land just outside of Kabul which will train people in Special Forces Operations.

They got the contract from the United States government, even though the US Government certainly knew that their antecedents in Blackwater had been convicted of killing Afghan civilians and also allegedly killing Iraqi civilians, in Tahrir Square and also of stealing weapons from the United States military, but they must have fantastic inner connections to keep getting these contracts.

Robles: Before they changed their name to XE they were being investigated for war crimes in Iraq. What percentage would you say there are of private mercenaries and contractors in Afghanistan? And are those counted in any way when the US government talks about a drawdown or a withdrawal of forces?

Kelly: You know, it is so hard to learn that information. I honestly don’t know. You don’t see Westerners at all in the neighborhood where I am, when I’m moving around the city. It’s odd because when you are in the airports you see plenty of Westerners and most of them seem to be connected to some kind of military or security group. But I don’t have any numbers.

I think that also the CIA must have many, many operatives and they don’t have to give that kind of information out, but it is a good thing to keep exploring and trying to better understand. At one point there were as many security contractors in Iraq as there were US military, and the same could be true for Afghanistan.

Robles: Last point, this training base they are building, I was going to ask, is this supposedly to train Afghan peacekeeping forces or Afghan security services?

Kelly: I certainly wouldn’t call it peacekeeping. I think that would be euphemistic.

Robles: Yeah sure!

Kelly: The different versions of Afghan armed troops are staggering in their number; there is the Afghan local police and the Afghan National Security Force, you’ve got special operations now being trained amongst quite a few different military branches. So, it is not certain that the more armaments, the more weapons that flow into the country the more rage that is being felt between different ethnic groups, the more of a prescription for civil war there is, and so it is very alarming to see more sophisticated weaponry coming in and people being trained, to train their weapons on their own people.

Robles: Ok, thank you very Kathy. Unfortunately we are out of time. I really appreciate you speaking with me.

Kelly: Thank you!

This is John Robles you were listening to an interview with Kathy Kelly the co-coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Thanks for listening, and I wish you the best.

Voice of Russia
February 28, 2013

‘I salute the former Soviet Union’ – interview with Dr. Zalmay Gulzad
John Robles

AUDIO

The former Soviet Union built everything in Afghanistan including the bases which the U.S. is now occupying. The United States is supporting radical Islamic groups, including Chechen terrorists, to destabilize countries they are targetting. Syria is the most progressive secular country in the Muslim world yet is being attacked by the West and all of the U.S. actions are back-firing on them; they believe that quick victory is the proper route. They are worng. All of theses issues were discussed in an interview with Dr. Zalmay Gulzad, an Afghan native who teaches political science at Harold Washington College in Chicago.

Part 1

Gulzad: The point is that what the United States is doing and NATO is doing: they want to prolong this war with the collaboration of the Pakistani army. The very government in Pakistan is a joke, it’s silly, is nothing. The decisions are made by the military; the military is with the United States.

Robles: What are the reasons, I mean, why does the US want to be in Afghanistan and in your opinion, resources or what?

Gulzad: It is very important geopolitically and I will tell you why. Afghanistan is now very poor and I salute the Soviet people because the Soviet Union (the former Soviet Union) because Afghanistan has so many resources and now they have revealed how many resources they have. The Soviet Union did not take any of it. They did not take advantage of it, because we have petroleum, we have copper, we have so many things now.

They gave the biggest copper mine to the Chinese now, and in central Afghanistan they have steel and all that kind of stuff.

So anyway, the reason that United States wants to prolong this war and stay there is because, first of all, we have a 150-mile border with China. Then we are very close to Russia, if you pass Tajikistan, it’s Russia, and then we have Iran, then we have the Persian Gulf, so Afghanistan is a very important.

Now I’ll tell you that these bases that United States is using today which were made by the Soviet Union. One in the north of Afghanistan is an American base now. Shindand, the Soviet Union built it, it is bordering with Iran and Pakistan. Then Kandahar, then you have Bagram, which is north of Kabul, now they are building a base almost everywhere including Badakhshan. Badakhshan is not too far from Tajikistan and the Chinese border.

And also the United States is supporting the Uyghur Muslim group and Tajiks in Xinjiang Province, which is bordering Afghanistan. They are making trouble for the Chinese Muslims. And also the United States is supporting the Chechen group in Russia.

Robles: Which group did you say in Russia?

Gulzad: In Russia, the Chechen group.

Robles: Sure.

Gulzad: And also in China they are supporting Uyghur and Tadjiks.

Robles: I think they would support any group that will destabilize or weaken any country that they want to attack, I think.

Gulzad: Absolutely. My point is that when they are saying that the Cold War is over, they were anti-communists. What the hell? I mean today Russia is not a Communist country.

Robles: No, we are not.

Gulzad: But the point is that United States has a phobia and they want to be the imperialist power. What they are doing with the world today, my God!!

I always discuss with my colleagues here that: Okay, how many countries did the Soviet Union invade? How many countries has the United States invaded in our lifetime? How many wars? Just recently: Panama, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iraq, for no reason, for no reason.

Robles: Iraq, Iran, the list goes on and on.

Gulzad: In Syria, they want to know, why doesn’t the United States want to – if they are such champions of human rights and democracy – why don’t they say anything about Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, all these kingdoms?

Robles: Sure.

Gulzad: Why Syria? Syria is a more secular, more progressive country.

Robles: I don’t understand… Okay Syria; they were just attacked, about 50 people, this was yesterday, 53 people are said to have been dead by an al-Qaeda group.

Israel is bombing Syria, and the United States, so we have Israel, al-Qaeda and the United States working together (Working together right?) to destroy Syria. Doesn’t that seem strange?

Gulzad: Absolutely. And how it’s backfiring!! Let me tell you something. Just a few months ago I gave an interview on American television here, on the so-called Arab Spring. So what’s happened? I told them, the United States is not supporting the progressive group, intellectuals. They don’t have to be left group but just regular progressive, secular groups.

What they did, they supported the most radical Islamist group, the problem was Mubarak, because they were sick and tired of Mubarak. They wanted to find a new puppet. What happened is it backfired. Guess what? Who won? The Islamic fundamentalists.

In Libya they did the same thing because they are too stupid here because they think that quick victory will bring them happiness and glory. So, what they did in Libya. they did the same thing. Guess who took over? Islamic fundamentalists.

This is what happened in Tunisia: Islamic fundamentalists.

Right now, yesterday, the Congress of the United States decided to give millions of dollars to the radicals of Syria. They are not giving it to intellectuals, to secular groups, though they claim that they are fighting for democracy and secular regimes. But they are giving it to them because they want to get overthrough…

A lot of this is backfiring, so thre, four countries backfired on them. And then after Syria, mark my words for it, it is Iran. It’s not that I love Iran, Iran regime is a fascist regime, but my point is that the United States will go there because if you look from Morocco to Iran, to Afghanistan, to India and everything, guess what? All of them are pro-American except Iran and Syria. These two places are not puppets.

And the expansion of NATO, against who? Now the Warsaw Pact is not there! Against who? Why do you expand this? You took Saakashvili from Chicago. Do you know Saakashvili is from Chicago, he was a lawyer here, they picked him up and made him the president of Georgia, and now they find another puppet. Do you know that Karzai’s brother had a restaurant in Chicago? They picked him up from Chicago and gave him the same thing.

Robles: Bashar Assad was a dentist in London. I couldn’t understand why they went against him.

Gulzad: It is amazing, isn’t it? If you look at Lithuania, so many places, look at Ukraine, the guy who was the former president of Ukraine, his wife was from the United States, from Chicago.

Robles: I’ve talked to many people and it seems like most of the world is being controlled by some part of Chicago for some reason.

Gulzad: Chicago is the mafia city. It is just amazing.

Robles: Now listen, here is a hypothetical that I don’t think anyone has ever talked about, but… You say the plan is backfiring. We see, everybody sees: ok, they are funding these terrorists, they are promoting terrorism actually. They are creating more terrorists. They are financing radical-Islamic-violent-people, right?

Gulzad: Absolutely.

Robles: Is it possible that that is what they want?

Gulzad: Well, they want to destabilize their enemy. The only way you can weaken a country and society is with a civil war, and how you do it? Like for example in China, you promote Tibet, you promote the idea of Islamist Uyghur and Tajiks, it’s one problem.

You go to Russia, make Russia very busy with the terrorists through Georgia, which Sakashvili was helping. From Georgia you head then to Dagestan, and the Chechen area and you could create problems for Russia. That is the only way, see?

And then you make excuses that I am staying in Afghanistan because the Taliban are still in power and al-Qaeda is still alive.

Robles: That is what I am talking about. And then they can continue the endless War on Terror because they keep creating more and more terrorists themselves.

Gulzad: You know there is a theory, the weak countries in the world, what they do is they are diverting attention from the inside misery of the people, from internal forces because inside it is empty and miserable and worse economy, so what they do they tell the people that outside is going to…

That’s the history of United States, think about it. Castro is going to attack Florida. The Soviet Union is going to come and get us. The Russians are coming. Okay? Then Saddam Hussein is going to come and invade the United States. Then they created this man, this stupid man with a beard called Osama, Bin Laden, okay?

So, what they did, they made Americans wave the flag! “We are Americans!” And the became very patriotic and all this. So, they continue finding these external unbelievable forces.

And their motive is this: as I said before and just recently I gave another interview, that what they want to do is they want to stay in Afghanistan. They want to stay in Iraq. Permanently. They will stay in Afghanistan because of Russia, because of China, because of the BRICs: China, India, and Russia, in this part of the world.

Plus they don’t like Iran, so they want to destabilize Iran through Afghanistan. These are all excuses.

Where are these terrorists? If you want to finish this thing, tomorrow you tell Pakistan that: “You will not get a penny.” Pakistan is a very poor country, and it is all over, give me these terrorist groups, one by one.

You were listening to an interview with Dr. Zalmay Gulzad, a Professor at Harold Washington College in Chicago. Thanks for listening, and as always I wish you the best.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 27, 2013

NATO Secretary General holds talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen held talks with the new US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday 27 February in Rome in the margins of a Transatlantic Dinner on global issues. “Today we discussed many key issues on NATO’s agenda. These include the progress of our mission in Afghanistan, maintaining NATO’s robust partnerships, and a fair burden-sharing in our Alliance,” the Secretary General said.

Mr. Fogh Rasmussen said he was delighted that Secretary Kerry chose Europe for his first official trip. “We have often met in Washington, so I’m delighted that he’s chosen Europe for his first trip abroad. And I’m looking forward to working with him closely in the future,” he said.

The bilateral meeting took place just ahead of a “Dinner in Transatlantic Format” hosted by the Italian Foreign Minister, Giulio Terzi, which included foreign ministers from NATO and European Union nations, as well as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.

The Secretary General thanked the Italian Foreign Minister for hosting the event. “We face many challenges and we have a lot of work to do,” said Mr. Fogh Rasmussen. “Europe and North America are separated by an ocean but are united by core values and interests because our partnership is vital for our own security and the security of the world.”

Estonian Public Broadcasting
February 28, 2013

Paet and Kerry Talk Air Bases, Cyber Defense

NATO Baltic Buildup Threatens Belarus And Russia

In his first meeting with newly-appointed US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet raised a range of bilateral issues from development aid cooperation to defense.

The Rome meeting, in which the foreign ministers of Latvia and Lithuania also took part, was undertaken as part of Kerry’s 11-day tour of Europe and the Middle East – his first junket to the region since taking office on February 1.

During the meeting, Paet expressed Estonia’s desire to continue defense cooperation with the US, both bilaterally and within the framework of NATO. Speaking about NATO’s Baltic air policing mission, Paet suggested that one of its rotations be conducted from Estonia’s Ämari air base starting from 2015, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Since it began in 2004, the mission has been conducted from Lithuania.

Speaking on Afghanistan, Paet said that the goal of handing over security responsibility to local troops by the middle of this year was realistic, as they already conduct 80 percent of the operations. He added that Estonia has decided to increase development aid to Afghanistan and send more civilian experts for police and NATO training.

Paet told his US counterpart that Estonia was interested in continuing cooperation on cyber defense, and suggested that the countries put down their plans for bilateral cooperation on cyber development in a joint declaration.

The Estonian foreign minister also noted the successful joint development cooperation projects that the countries had undertaken in Belarus and Moldova, and suggested that such projects be extended to Central Asia.

Paet invited Kerry to take part in a meeting of the Internet Freedom Coalition – a group devoted to keeping the internet free of government interference – to take place in Tallinn in 2014.

Cyprus Mail
February 28, 2013

AKEL wastes no time in slamming PfP proposal
By Elias Hazou

Cyprus: U.S. To Dominate All Europe, Mediterranean Through NATO

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“Our people know all too well that NATO and its arms, like the Partnership for Peace, promote anything but peace. Instead, as events themselves have demonstrated, NATO is responsible for waging unjust wars, promoting juntas and dictatorships, and bringing death and bloodshed across the planet.”

Cyprus is the only EU member state [indeed the only European state except for micro-states] that is neither a NATO member state nor a member of PfP.

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…AKEL yesterday censured President-elect Nicos Anastasiades for his stated intent to apply for Cypriot membership of the NATO-affiliated Partnership for Peace.

A party spokesman warned such a move would backfire on the divided island.

It was the first skirmish between the soon-to-be opposition AKEL and the Anastasiades government which takes power in a few days.

In announcing plans to join the Partnership for Peace (PfP), Anastasiades has manifested a major foreign policy shift from the outgoing administration of President Christofias.

AKEL is strongly opposed to any links with NATO, holding it responsible for what it says was a conspiracy to split the island in 1974.

Through its spokesman, AKEL reiterated yesterday that joining the PfP would constitute a major strategic and diplomatic blunder.

The move would cast doubt on the Greek Cypriot side’s commitment to demilitarising the island subsequent to a political settlement, Giorgos Loucaides said.

In addition to undermining Cyprus’ credibility, he said, the move would play into the hands of Turkish diplomacy by taking the spotlight off Ankara.

Loucaides dismissed the notion that Cyprus was being blamed for its absence from the PfP programme, which is said to be causing problems in EU-NATO defence relations.

“We would actually be scoring an own goal because, by joining, the pressure would be taken off Turkey and shifted onto Cyprus,” he argued.

“Our people know all too well that NATO and its arms, like the Partnership for Peace, promote anything but peace. Instead, as events themselves have demonstrated, NATO is responsible for waging unjust wars, promoting juntas and dictatorships, and bringing death and bloodshed across the planet,” said Loucaides.

The matter should be debated at the National Council before any decision was made, he urged.

Anastasiades’ intentions, said Loucaides, served to expose DISY’s dogmatic persistence to “deliver Cyprus into the US-NATO tentacles.”

There was no immediate response from the DISY camp.

PfP is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) programme aimed at creating cooperation between NATO and other states in Europe and the former Soviet Union; 22 states are members.

Cyprus is the only EU member state that is neither a NATO member state nor a member of PfP.

In February 2011 parliament voted to apply for membership in the programme, but President Christofias vetoed the resolution.

…

The Cyprus Center of Studies, a foreign policy and strategy think tank, favours joining the programme, and has compiled an extensive report on the subject.

Their report concluded that the cons of joining PfP were “virtually nil,” said Christos Iacovou, the think tank’s director.

On the other hand, a major drawback of not joining, he said, is that Cyprus is not eligible to receive classified information as part of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).

Iacovou dismissed also the notion that joining the PfP would drag the island into NATO-led military operations.

Neutral states such as Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Ireland and Finland are all members of PfP, but have no intention of joining NATO, he said. [All have sent troops to Afghanistan]

What’s more, most of the former Warsaw Pact nations (including Russia) are now members.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

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Arturo Arias
From After the Bombs (1979)
Translated by Asa Zatz

[Guatemala, 1954]

As soon as the bombing ended a new government was in. The distinguished man of arms, Colonel Castle Cannons, was in the Big Chair. The great colonel had been lifted into power by the first explosion right after he completed the long marathon from Fort Leavenworth in the wheatfield state of Kansas, covering the full distance in purple trunks and checkered socks. Upon reaching the palace he found the Big Chair adrift. Not losing a beat he jumped into it, shouting “If you can’t take the heat, you won’t hold your seat.” He settled back, comfortably, holes in the socks and all. After recovering his breath, he immediately ascended to the presidential balcony to explain to the people why bombing was necessary for the country’s progress. The days went by and he continued preaching against the horrors posed by the enemies of democracy. He delivered his sermons from dusk till dawn with a two-hour break between twelve and two.

***

The bombs. The bombs have stopped.

He already knew that. He knew what bombs were. His mother had shown him. Dropping gently from the sky like feathers and about the size of a thumb. And she was right. They had stopped. He hadn’t seen any for days now. Maybe months. Maybe even years. Did it make any difference? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen one. But for sure, for sure, not this day. No. If it had been this day he wouldn’t have been able to come out. It had to have been some other day. Yes. The bombs had stopped. His mother had said the very same thing, now he remembered. The bombs had stopped.

***

His mother had told him about streets. Streets were where the houses didn’t grow. He was walking on one, looking for the fountain. He wanted to tell the little fountain his name. He knew his name. That was something else his mother had told him. His name was Máximo Sánchez. And if anyone said his name he knew they were talking to him. That’s how easy it was. He knew how old he was, too. He knew so much already! He was nearly five. Four and a half, actually, but he felt older when he said nearly five…Everything had its own name. He had to learn the names of a lot of things, especially now that he could go outside. To the street. Street was what they called where he was now. It was narrow and dark and zigzagged between the ruins of the houses. And there were bodies everywhere. They didn’t move. They were called corpses. And his mother had told him not to touch them. You got sick if you touched them. They were full of worms and worms were bad. He had asked his mother if he was full of worms, too, but she said only corpses. Poor little corpses! It was too bad they were dead. He couldn’t play with them…

Trend News Agency
February 27, 2013

Cooperation with NATO discussed in Kazakhstan
D. Mukhtarov

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Steppe Eagle…exercises are annually held on Kazakh territory each year with the participation of Kazakh servicemen and representatives of foreign countries within the Individual Partnership Action Plan between Kazakhstan and NATO. In September 2012, the exercises were carried out in the spirit of the Partnership for Peace programme. Units of the Kazakh, U.S, British and Tajik Armed Forces as well as representatives from Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, France, Ukraine and Switzerland took part. [Kazakhstan is the only nation outside Europe, with the South Caucasus included, with a NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan.]

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Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev and NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Astana: Kazakh Defence Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov has today met with Latvian Ambassador Juris Maklakovs on the occasion of the Latvian embassy obtaining the functions of the NATO Contact Point Embassy in Kazakhstan, the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.

‘The sides discussed the prospects of bilateral cooperation within the Partnership for Peace programme’, a statement said.

In this case emphasis was made on the development of the peacekeeping potential of the Kazakh Armed Forces.

The cooperation between the Kazakh Defence Ministry and NATO within the Partnership for Peace programme is aimed at developing a national peace-keeping potential, participation in joint training and exchange of experience in planning, implementation and comprehensive support for peacekeeping operations.

NATO contact embassies are not diplomatic missions, but play an important role in spreading information, its goals and directions of policy. Contact embassies also help in organising visits of the Secretary General, members of the International Secretariat and other NATO members to the country.

Steppe Eagle 2012

Steppe Eagle peacekeeping exercises are annually held on Kazakh territory each year with the participation of Kazakh servicemen and representatives of foreign countries within the Individual Partnership Action Plan between Kazakhstan and NATO. In September 2012, the exercises were carried out in the spirit of the Partnership for Peace programme. Units of the Kazakh, U.S, British and Tajik Armed Forces as well as representatives from Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, France, Ukraine and Switzerland took part.

The Partnership for Peace training centre of the Military Institute of Land Forces (KAZTSENT) was established to train Kazakh servicemen to NATO standards and procedures.

In 2008 KAZTSENT was recognised as the 19th Partnership Training and Education Centre.

More than 30 courses and workshops have been held on the basis of KAZTSENT with the participation of Kazakh servicemen, NATO member states and partners, including the courses ‘Military terminology of the English language in multinational operations’ and ‘NATO staff procedures’.

The course ‘Familiarising with Central Asia and Afghanistan’ was successfully held with representatives of NATO international headquarters, the NATO School, NATO member states and partners, as well as representatives of the Defence Ministry of the Republic of Korea in 2012.

Russian Information Agency Novosti
Febuary 27, 2013

Strategic Balance Being Disrupted – Putin

MOSCOW: Systematic attempts are being made to undermine the existing strategic balance of forces, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday at a meeting with senior military staff at the Russian Defense Ministry.

“Systematic attempts are being made from the outside to disrupt the strategic balance in this or that manner. In fact, the second stage of the US global missile defense system is being launched, and the possibilities for further NATO eastward expansion are being explored,” Putin said.

“The danger of the militarization of the Arctic also persists,” he added.

Those challenges affect Russia’s national interests and determine the priorities of its foreign policy, Putin said.

Those priorities include Eurasian integration, expanding the single economic space and possibly turning it into an economic union, strengthening ties with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) partners and the BRICS group of emerging economies, and boosting the military capabilities of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Moscow has consistently opposed NATO’s US-led missile defense program for Europe, claiming it undermines Russia’s nuclear deterrent. NATO maintains the program is aimed at emerging nuclear weapon states such as Iran and North Korea.

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Itar-Tass
February 27, 2013

Russia to build up defenses proportionately to threats – Putin

MOSCOW: Russia will keep building up its defense capacity proportionately to the forecast threats, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Ministry of Defense board on Wednesday.

Instability zones are multiplying and expanding around the world. Armed conflicts continue unabated in the Middle East and in Central Asia. The risk of radicalism and chaos spilling over into regions neighboring Russia is increasing, Putin warned.

“At the same time we regularly see attempts at undermining the strategic balance. The US has launched the second phase of building a global missile defense system; NATO is probing into the possibility of its further expansion to the East. Some countries are pursuing policies aimed at militarization of the Arctic,” Putin said.

“All of the above-mentioned challenges directly affect Russia’s national interests and determine our priorities,” he said.

Putin pointed to such national priorities as close integration in Eurasia, stronger common economic space and transition to creating a future Eurasian Economic Union. He also mentioned deeper partnership within the SCO and BRICS, promotion of genuine multi-polarity and mechanisms of collective, allied response to likely challenges to regional security, including the OSCE. “In a word, Russia will be building up its defense potential proportionately to the expected threats,” Putin concluded.

Voice of Russia
February 26, 2013

US plans to deploy another radar in Japan

X-band radar (Boeing image)

The USA plans to deploy another radar in Japan to keep an eye on missile launches, the Japanese NHK TV and radio company said Tuesday.

It says that a relevant agreement was reached last week at a meeting in Washington between Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama.

It is planned that this radar will be deployed on the Kyogamisaki Base of the Japanese self-defence forces on the coast of the Sea of Japan.

It is also planned that it will be able to locate and track down missiles launched by North Korea.

The first radar is already functioning in Aomori Prefecture in the northern part of Honshu Island.

…

Voice of Russia, Interfax

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Xinhua News Agency
February 26, 2013

U.S. to deploy second X-band radar in Japan

TOKYO: Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said here Tuesday that Japan and the United States have decided to deploy the second X-band radar in Kyoto to cope with missile development of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Onodera told a press conference that the decision was made in recent Japan-U.S. leader talks and the deployment of such missile-tracing radar is to deal with DPRK’s missile development.

Japanese Self-Defense Forces’ Kyogamisaki base in Kyoto’s Kyotango city was considered the best place to install the radar.

However, local government said that if the central government could not relieve anxiety of local residents over the installation, it will not allow the radar to be deployed in the Kyogamisaki base.

The United States has deployed an X-band radar in north Aomori Prefecture and will tremendously improve the accuracy of the second one, said the defense minister.

Press TV
February 26, 2013

‘US-led NATO forces perpetrated crimes against Afghans’

AUDIO

U.S.-led NATO forces have committed crimes against the Afghan people since they invaded the country more than a decade ago, an analyst said.

“NATO has perpetrated any number of crimes against the people of Afghanistan since the invasion of that country in October of 2001”, Rick Rozoff, manager of the organization Stop NATO, told Press TV’s U.S. Desk on Tuesday.

“It’s clear that NATO has been an occupying power, an abusive occupying power, has done nothing for the Afghan people, has exacerbated their condition in terms of refugees, in terms of deaths, in terms of national humiliation and it’s time for NATO to leave the country entirely”, he added.

On Sunday, the Afghan government called for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces from Wardak and Logar within two weeks, accusing them of fuelling “insecurity and instability” in the volatile provinces.

Residents in the Wardak province have complained to human rights groups and provincial leaders of being terrorized in recent months.

Kabul said that the foreign forces had been involved in the torture and murder of innocent people.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Anatole France: Selections on war

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Anatole France
From his preface to the French edition of Jack London’s The Iron Heel

For various reasons the War, which showed itself so cruel to the lower middle classes, stripped them without forcing from them a single cry, for they are dumb creatures! The war was not too harsh to the workman employed in the greater industries, who by turning shells found the wherewithal to live, and whose wage, meagre enough when once the War was over, yet never fell too low. The masters of the hour saw to that! And after all, these wages were nothing but paper which the wealthy industrial chiefs, themselves in close touch with the higher powers, had little difficulty in procuring. And so the workman managed to exist the best way he could. He had heard so many lies told that he was no longer astonished at anything. It was just this time that the Socialist party selected to break up and reduce itself to dust. It was a grand defeat for Socialism, and accomplished without either dead or wounded! How came it about? How was it that all the forces of a great party fell asleep? The reasons I have given are insufficient to explain the matter. The War must count for something.

***

Do not let us jeopardize the future; it is our own. Plutocracy will perish. Already, in its very strength we can perceive signs of its ruin. It will perish because all caste government is vowed to death. It will perish because it is unjust. It will perish swollen with pride and at the height of its power, just as slavery and serfdom have perished. Even now if one observes it attentively one can see that it is decrepit. This War which the great commercial interests of all the countries of the world desired, this war which was ITS war, this war in which IT placed ITS hope of new riches, has caused so widespread and so deep destruction that international Oligarchy itself has been shaken, and the day is drawing near when it will crumble down upon a ruined Europe. I cannot tell you that Oligarchy will perish at once, and without a struggle. She WILL struggle. Her last war will perhaps be long, and of varying fortunes. Oh, you heirs of the Proletarians! Oh, you generations of the future, children of the days which are to come! You will struggle, and when reverses begin to make you doubtful of the success of your cause, you will again take courage and say with the noble Everhard:

“Lost for this time. But not for ever! We have learned many things. Tomorrow the cause will arise once more, stronger in wisdom and in discipline.”

Stop NATO
February 26, 2013

Extrajudicial Killings through Drones
By Sajjad Shaukat

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U.S.-led coalition forces have failed to stop incursions of heavily-armed insurgents in Pakistan from the Afghan side who have killed more than 100 personnel of Pakistan’s security forces in the last two years, while targeting the infrastructure of the affected area. In fact, the U.S. seeks to make North Waziristan a scapegoat for NATO’s defeat in Afghanistan by continuing the illegal mass murder of innocent people through drones.

The CIA-operated strikes which have continued in Pakistan’s tribal areas since 2004 have intensified under the Obama administration. In one of the major drone attacks, more than 40 civilians and policemen were killed on March 18, 2011 in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan. In the past few months, these unmanned aircraft killed more than 150 people, especially in North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

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Predator drone firing Hellfire missile

Under the pretext of America’s so-called counterinsurgency programme, US President Barack Obama has broken all records of human rights by the extrajudicial killings of innocent people through CIA-operated drone attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen in general and Pakistan in particular, while the United States claims to be the protector of human rights not only inside the country, but also all over the world.

Recently, the United Nations has opened a a probe regarding the Predator drone strikes. In this regard, Ben Emmerson, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, said, “A UN investigation into targeted killings will examine the legality of drone strikes…will investigate 25 strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian territories. It will also focus on civilian killings by the strikes.”

For the first time a U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of the Predator attacks, openly admitted that 4,700 people have been killed by raids in America’s secretive drone war. The number exceeds some independent estimates of the death toll. According to the research of the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, between June 2004 and September 2012 these unmanned aerial vehicles killed between 2,562 and 3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom between 474 and 881 were civilians, including 176 children. In this respect, a report published by The Guardian pointed out on August 11, 2011: “The CIA claims that there has been not one non-combatant killed in the past year…it is a bleak view: more people killed than previously thought.”

Nevertheless, details collected by Pakistani journalists show that civilian casualties through unmanned aircraft are higher than indicated by U.S. officials. In the last four years, more than 900 innocent civilians and only 22 al-Qaeda commanders have been killed by these aerial attacks.

While justifying these air strikes by the spy planes, counterterrorism advisor to President Obama, John Brennan, who faces a Senate confirmation hearing for his nomination for CIA director, is the main player, advising Obama on which strikes he should approve.

During his first presidential campaign especially, Barack Obama had pledged to reverse the excesses of the Bush era in relation to the war on terrorism. He also promised to reformulate a counterterrorism policy in accordance with the legal and moral values of the U.S. Contrary to his assertions, Obama followed the Bush approach to counterterrorism in its worst form by expanding and accelerating the Predator strikes.

In this context, The New York Time on May 26, 2011, in an article which was written with the assistance of several counterterrorism advisers of the administration, revealed: “President Obama has become personally involved in the process” and “has normalised extrajudicial killings from the Oval Office, taking advantage of America’s temporary advantage in drone technology. Without the scrutiny of the legislature and the courts, and outside the public eye, Obama is authorising murder on a weekly basis.”

Notably, the American constitution explicitly grants the right to declare war to the Congress so as to restrain the president from chasing enemies around the world, based solely on his authority as commander-in-chief by waging secret wars. But instead of capturing militants alive and to avoid giving the right of due process of law to them in a court, President Obama has openly been acting upon a ruthless policy of targeting killings by supervising the CIA-controlled drone warfare.

Besides, a report by the New America Foundation disclosed that President Obama has “authorised 193 drone strikes in Pakistan, more than four times the number of attacks that President Bush authorised during his two terms.” The report explained: “When the U.S. drones attack Pakistan’s tribal areas, it is not just the 10, or 50, innocent civilians they kill; these killings provide reason to the young for joining terrorist groups waging war against U.S. and of course Pakistan…[W]hile killing 10 militants, the U.S. has murdered more than 1,400 Pakistanis not involved in any terrorist activities. Could it not imply that it gave birth to another 1,400 militants?”

Based on research, a report, “Living Under Drones,” prepared by experts from Stanford Law School and the New York University School of Law disclosed that the U.S. campaign of drone “strikes in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt is terrorising civilians 24 hours a day and breeding bitter anti-American sentiment [T]have killed thousands of people…even stopping their children going to school for fear of being targeted.” The report urged Washington to rethink its drone strategy, arguing it was counterproductive and undermined international law.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, The Washington Post reported on January 21 of this year: “The Obama administration is completing a counterterrorism manual that will establish clear rules for targeted-killing operations…the guidebook would contain a major exemption for the CIA’s campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan to continue striking Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan.”

Recently retired defense secretary Leon Panetta has defended these attacks on Pakistan’s tribal areas under the pretext of North Waziristan-based Haqqani network militants whom he blamed for several assaults on American and NATO bases in Afghanistan. On the other hand, U.S.-led coalition forces have failed to stop incursions of heavily-armed insurgents in Pakistan from the Afghan side who have killed more than 100 personnel of Pakistan’s security forces in the last two years, while targeting the infrastructure of the affected area. In fact, the U.S. seeks to make North Waziristan a scapegoat for NATO’s defeat in Afghanistan by continuing the illegal mass murder of innocent people through drones.

It is notable that Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam, who visited America in August, 2012, emphatically told then-CIA Director David Petraeus that Predator strikes which are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty must be stopped. He pointed out that these strikes were proving counterproductive, giving a greater incentive to fundamentalist and extremist elements in Pakistan, and are increasing anti-U.S. sentiment among the people.

However, setting aside the parliament resolution, rallies and processions by Pakistan’s political and religious parties, and ignoring the new Pakistan-U.S. rapprochement, without bothering about any internal backlash, these aerial attacks keep on going on in the Federally Administerd Tribal Areas (FATA).

In fact, such a duplicitous American practice contains a number of covert designs. The fresh wave of strikes by the pilotless aircraft has thwarted the offer of militants and the Pakistani government for peace talks. And, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has accelerated subversive activities in the country. Now, the U.S. wants to incite the Haqqani network as it has over the past 15 months, as most of the drone strikes have targeted North Waziristan. So, these aerial attacks are provoking the tribal people against Pakistan’s security forces, and increasing the recruitment of insurgents. Another aim is to create a rift between Pakistan’s armed forces on one side and the political and religious parties on the other. Besides, Pakistan is the only nuclear country in the Islamic world. Hence, the U.S., India and Israel are determined to destabilise it. The drone campaign is also part of this game.

The CIA-operated strikes which have continued in Pakistan’s tribal areas since 2004 have intensified under the Obama administration. In one of the major drone attacks, more than 40 civilians and policemen were killed on March 18, 2011 in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan. In the past few months, these unmanned aircraft killed more than 150 people, especially in North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

On the one side, top U.S. officials have repeatedly said that America needs Pakistan’s help not only for the peace process with militants, but also for stability in Afghanistan in the post-2014 scenario, while NATO troops have started transporting their equipments via the Pakistani route as part of the exit strategy; but on the other, U.S. spy planes flying over Pakistani tribal regions are undermining international efforts of stability both in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including a prospective peace dialogue with the Afghan militants.

Recently, ex-U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have opposed Obama’s faulty drone strategy. Even, new Secretary of State John Kerry has also criticised the unabated use of uniateral drones in Pakistan, saying, “The U.S. engagement with the world is not just about drones.”

Besides, there is widespread criticism from some U.S. allies and human rights groups which have remarked that these aerial attacks are illegal and unethical and a violation of the targeted countries’ sovereignty, the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international law, but the U.S.’s warrior President Obama remains obstinate in continuing extrajudicial killings through drones.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

Global Times
February 26, 2013

NATO reaches into Asia-Pacific on behalf of US foreign policy interests
By Clifford A. Kiracofe*

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With respect to the Asia-Pacific, NATO developed the Tailored Cooperation Packages which took in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. This led to these nations cooperating in the Afghan war, extending NATO’s reach through Central Asia to the Pacific Rim…NATO advocates have called for a formal expanded security mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region which could expand to include more “democratic” states…NATO as an instrument of US global policy will play a significant role for years to come as Washington eyes the Asia-Pacific.

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First nations recruited into NATO’s Partners Across the Globe, initiated last year: Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Korea.

Will NATO become a key factor in the US pivot to the Asia-Pacific? Some leading circles in the US and in Europe see it as part of a system to contain a rising China.

The Obama “pivot” policy, now called “rebalancing,” aims to step up security cooperation with “democratic” Asia-Pacific states. Though some cooperative relations with China have been developed, an edgy tone appeared in Washington’s more forward regional diplomacy, along with visibly stepped up regional military activities and deployments.

The globalization of NATO is integral to the Obama administration’s Asia-Pacific policy, and reflects continuity with several decades of US policy.

Though many believe NATO is an anachronism whose mission ended with the end of the Cold War, powerful transatlantic circles keep it going and search for new missions and news areas of operation outside the North Atlantic. International terrorism and the rise of China, for example, serve as justifications.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen does not hesitate to preach the globalization of NATO. In his remarks to the recent annual Munich Security Conference, Rasmussen emphasized this process, and praised the work of former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright for assisting NATO’s globalization.

How has NATO evolved historically? NATO began in 1949 as a Cold War mechanism aimed at the Soviet Union. At the end of the Cold War, in 1991, intense debate began in the US over the future of NATO.

Critics said that its time was over and that the US should wind down participation. After all, it is a large financial burden on the US. Europe had fully recovered from World War II and was in fact an economic and diplomatic competitor of the US.

Europe enjoyed a free ride for its security over the years because it spent relatively little on defense and NATO than did the US. US taxpayers picked up the tab, and still do.

Debate focused on the NATO mission. The dominant transatlantic elite pushed for “out of area” missions outside the geographic North Atlantic region. Afghanistan is an example of such mission creep reflecting NATO concern with Central Asia.

To expand areas of operations, NATO created new mechanisms such as the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue, and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.

In 1992, NATO developed ties with Japan and also newly emerged Central Asian nations. The Central Asian nations participated in the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, later renamed the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. Additionally, Central Asian nations began to participate in the NATO Group of Defense Ministers.

With respect to the Asia-Pacific, NATO developed the Tailored Cooperation Packages which took in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. This led to these nations cooperating in the Afghan war, extending NATO’s reach through Central Asia to the Pacific Rim.

What about today? NATO advocates have called for a formal expanded security mechanism in the Asia-Pacific region which could expand to include more “democratic” states.

There are several ideas for increasing security mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific. For example, some would like to turn ASEAN more toward security issues and then toward relations with NATO. Others believe the new Trans-Pacific Partnership could evolve into a military partner of NATO.

Some observers see Washington’s strategy as one of phased encirclement of China so as to “manage” the Eurasian and Asia-Pacific security environment, especially the rise of China.

Some Western strategists go so far as to argue that to make such a strategic concept more effective in the long run, it is necessary to nudge Moscow away from too close ties to Beijing. They believe that cutting against Moscow’s Eurasian option aids the long range containment of a rising China.

While strategic concepts and mechanisms are evolving, NATO as an instrument of US global policy will play a significant role for years to come as Washington eyes the Asia-Pacific.

*The author is an educator and former senior professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Voice of Russia
February 26, 2013

Countries will start to shoot down US drones – exclusive interview with Rick Rozoff
John Robles

AUDIO

The world is just starting to take notice of the expansion of US drone usage worldwide. US drones are becoming increasingly larger, deadlier and greater in number (now at approximately 8,000) and pose a threat to world peace. In addition, for the US’s AFRICOM and NATO, Mali is important due to its strategic location near uranium reserves, hence the recent military operations in the country, which are characterized as another “energy grab” by Voice of Russia regular contributor Rick Rozoff.

This is John Robles. I am speaking with Mr. Rick Rozoff, the owner, manager and editor of the Stop NATO website and mailing list.

Part I

This is part 2 of an interview in progress.

Robles: There were reports that Iran captured a US drone last year and they reverse-engineered it and are now producing massive quantities of their own drones. Would you like to comment on that?

Rozoff: It would serve Washington right if they did, I mean it truthfully would. The US has pioneered international drone warfare; this is something that has developed over the last decade, actually over the last 12 years. It is a new form of warfare, it is global in scope, it is deadly, as we know.

My personal estimates are the amount of people killed by the drone missile attacks, Hellfire missiles fired by drones in no fewer than six countries at this point, John – in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen – is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000. By some accounts, including Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper a couple of years ago, they estimated the 96 percent of those killed in Pakistan were civilians and had no connection with al-Qaeda.

So, the fact that the US is covering the globe, including our own country I fear, with surveillance drones, but also with lethal drones capable of firing missiles is something the world should counteract, and if one of their drones gets taken down and is duplicated by another country, I don’t see how the US could complain, except for copyright violations.

Robles: How are they going to react if one day Iran decides to assassinate somebody in the United States with the drone?

Rozoff: That’s an unlikely possibility. Unfortunately, there is only one nation that has done that, at least on any scale. I don’t know what Israel has done in that respect with Heron drones but I believe that the US is really alone.

And we have to keep in mind, incidentally, that in the year where the so-called Global War on Terror was inaugurated, or launched, in 2001, the Pentagon had 200 drones in its arsenal. These are almost entirely surveillance drones.

As of last year the estimate is the Pentagon had 8,000 drones, which is a 40-fold increase.

These are increasingly larger, capable of carrying more, and larger, and more lethal weaponry, we are talking for example about the Predator drone, the most common one, now being superseded by the Raptor and perhaps even more sophisticated and deadly versions of unmanned aerial vehicles in the future.

So, this is something the world is finally, if a bit belatedly, taking note of, is that once again one country and one country only reserves to itself the right to launch aerial assassinations around the globe without having to account to its own laws, its own Congress, much less to the international community.

Robles: So, you don’t think it is possible that in the coming years other countries will start countering US drone strikes with their own?

Rozoff: I think they will shoot them down. I mean as has happened in Afghanistan. It was brought down by the Iranians evidently according to the account you related.

There will be anti-drone measures taken by other countries. I don’t know of any other country that evinces an interest targeting people for murder around the world.

Robles: Sure, they could start targeting the people who are running the drone programs as being a threat to their citizens.

Rozoff: I would hate to speculate on that score and I would probably end up in penitentiary somewhere if I did. Sorry.

Robles: Let’s not do that.

Rozoff: We do have to see that the US is substantively engaged in supporting the French military operation, indeed the French war in Mali, that US aircraft are refueling French war planes, Rafales and Mirages, for air attacks inside the country, US cargo planes are transporting…the US Air Force is running an operation in France to transport troops and materiel, including weapons, inside Mali for the campaign.

And we have to recall that the US military has been involved in Mali itself for several years now. An incident perhaps four or five, perhaps even more, years ago occurred where a US military transport plane was shot at, and caught fire, that is, gunfire from the ground by Tuareg rebels in the north where the US was aiding and abetting the government of Mali against the rebels in the north, engaged in a counterinsurgency war.

So, that is something not new to the United States and it is part of what is called the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative, which is a misnomer. It grew out of the Pan Sahel Initiative of the US State Department supposedly to combat Islamic terrorism in the Sahel region, that is, the area south of the Sahara Desert that runs all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Horn of Africa; that is a very strategically vital part of the world. And US Africa Command, AFRICOM, has run any number of special forces war games, military exercises in Mali, but in the general region under the code name of Operation Flintlock, so the US has been involved pretty substantially in that.

The same US air units that are supporting the French in Mali currently are those who supported AFRICOM and NATO’s war against Libya two years ago. You know, operating out of Britain in the first place.

So, what we see is a further expansion of military operations inside Africa, which have included in recent years NATO air-lifting Burundian and Rwandan troops into Somalia for the ongoing fighting there, the US assisting that, including with air strikes and drone missile attacks.

So, what you are seeing is kind of a war front extending around the same latitude that Sahel is at, but all the way from West Africa and Mali to East Africa and Somalia, and in between increasingly in areas like the western part of Sudan, Darfur, the Central African Republic.

The US and its NATO allies, and its NATO allies are, we have to recall, all the major colonial powers that had formally divided up and ruled the African continent – Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, later on Germany and Italy, also Turkey during the Ottoman period – and this is a force that is not going back to supposedly restore order or pacify Africa again. I am sure the Africans on the ground, if not their governments, are nervous, they recollect what happened the last time these guys were there.

Robles: Now, Rick, back to Mali there for a minute: a few minutes ago you mentioned something about NATO being a guarantor of energy supplies. Right?

Rozoff: Uh huh.

Robles: I read an article by somebody, I can’t exactly remember where it was, they said the whole purpose for the French assistance of the Malian government was to ensure the delivery of Uranium to France from Niger. Do you know anything about that?

Rozoff: It is an extremely good point. The estimates I’ve read is that 80 percent of energy produced in France is from nuclear power plants. They are dependent, of course, on uranium to run those plants, and Mali and neighboring Niger are sources for a good deal of that uranium, and the fighting that’s been going on for a number of years in the north of Mali with the Tuareg rebels – in large part the Tuaregs wanted not only autonomy and a certain degree of participation in the central government in Bamako, but also wanted some say into what happened with the proceeds of the uranium mines in the north of the country where they reside. So, in large part I think we can see this, as being another energy resource grab.

You were listening to the interview with Rick Rozoff, the owner, manager and editor of the Stop NATO website and mailing list.

End of Part 2. Please visit our site in the near future for the third and final part of this interview.

Missile Defense Agency
February 25, 2013

Arrow-3 Interceptor Successfully Conducts First Flight Test

Arrow-3 missile (Image from Boeing)

The Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) completed a successful flight test of the Arrow-3 interceptor missile today.

This is the first flyout test of the Arrow-3 interceptor and was conducted at an Israeli test range over the Mediterranean Sea.

At 00:52:31 EST, the Arrow-3 interceptor successfully launched and flew an exo-atmospheric trajectory through space, according to the test plan.

The Arrow-3 interceptor was designed to provide another layer of defense against ballistic missiles, to add interception opportunities to Israel’s Arrow Weapon System…

The successful test is a major milestone in the development of the Arrow-3 Weapon System and provides confidence in future Israeli capabilities…

IMOD and MDA officials conducted the flight test. The main contractor for the integration and the development of the Arrow Weapon System is MLM of the Israel Aerospace Industries in conjunction with Boeing.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Aldous Huxley: Selections on war

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Aldous Huxley
From Ends and Means (1937)

The first of the political causes of war is war itself. Many wars have been fought, among other reasons, for the sake of seizing some strategically valuable piece of territory, or in order to secure a ‘natural’ frontier – that is to say, a frontier which is easy to defend and from which it is easy to launch attacks upon one’s neighbors. Purely military advantages are almost as highly prized by the rulers of nations as economic advantages. The possession of an army, navy and air force is in itself a reason for going to war. ‘We must use our forces now,’ so runs the militarist’s argument, ‘in order that we may be in a position to use them to better effect next time.’

The part played by armaments in causing war may properly be considered under this heading. All statesmen insist that the armaments of their own country are solely for purposes of defence. At the same time, all statesmen insist that the existence of armaments in a foreign country constitutes a reason for the creation of new armaments at home. Every nation is perpetually taking more and more elaborate defensive measures against the more and more elaborate defensive measures of other nations. The armament race would go on ad infinitum if it did not inevitably and invariably lead to war. Armaments lead to war for two reasons. The first is psychological. The existence of armaments in one country creates fear, suspicion, resentment and hatred in neighboring countries. In such an atmosphere any dispute easily becomes envenomed to the point of being made a casus belli. The second is technical in character. Armaments become obsolete, and to-day the rate of obsolescence is rapid and accelerating. At the present rate of technological progress an aeroplane is likely to be out of date within a couple of years, or less. This means that, for any given country, there is likely to be an optimum moment of preparedness, a moment when its equipment is definitely superior to that of other nations. Within a very short period of time this superiority will disappear and the nation will be faced with the task of scrapping its now obsolescent equipment and building new equipment equal to, or if possible better than, the new equipment of its neighbours. The financial strain of such a process is one which only the richest countries can stand for long…

The fact that armaments are to a great extent manufactured by private firms and that these private firms have a financial interest in selling weapons of war to their own and foreign governments is also a contributory cause of war.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe
February 25, 2013

First rotation of U.S. Air Force personnel, aircraft arrives in Poland
By 2nd Lt. Katrina Cheesman
52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

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This increased cooperation between the two nations will strengthen international interoperability for NATO allies through regular combined training exercises.

The Av-Det in Poland makes it possible for Poland to host other Allied Air Force elements and to serve as a regional hub for air training and multi-national exercises. The Av-Det also facilitates and enables combined U.S. and Poland training and exercises to increase air support to NATO.

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C-130J Hercules aircraft

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany: The first rotation of aircraft to the Poland Aviation Detachment (Av-Det), Detachment 1, arrived at Powidz Air Base, Poland, on Feb. 22. For this first rotation, a number of U.S. Air Force 37th Airlift Squadron C-130J Hercules and personnel from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, will train with the Polish Air Force at Powidz Air Base from Feb. 22 to March 9.

While types of U.S. aircraft will vary, up to 200 uniformed military personnel and civilian contractors rotate on a quarterly basis. Sixty-six U.S. Air Force personnel from Ramstein Air Base will interact and train with the Polish Airmen. This increased cooperation between the two nations will strengthen international interoperability for NATO allies through regular combined training exercises.

The Av-Det was activated in November 2012 and marked the first enduring presence of U.S. military members on Polish soil. The Av-Det in Poland makes it possible for Poland to host other Allied Air Force elements and to serve as a regional hub for air training and multi-national exercises. The Av-Det also facilitates and enables combined U.S. and Poland training and exercises to increase air support to NATO.

“We’re going to see for the first time the fruits of our labor,” Major Matthew Spears, Detachment 1 Commander, said on the occasion of the first aircraft and personnel rotation. “Having the 37th Airlift Squadron deploy, execute, and redeploy successfully will bring a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment to the members of the Av-Det.”

Although U.S. Air Force aircraft have trained previously in Poland, this first rotation differs from other occasions. “The Av-Det focuses on opportunities to engage with [the Polish Air Force] on all fronts,” said Spears. “The Av-Det seeks to increase interoperability, not just with our aircrews but across the entire spectrum of both air forces’ capabilities.”

Trend News Agency
February 25, 2013

Turkish police disperse pro-Syria demo in Hatay

Clashes have broken out between Turkish police and supporters of the Syrian government in Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, Press TV reports.

Police on Saturday used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the demonstrators who were calling for an end to Ankara’s interference in the internal affairs of Syria.

The demonstrators also protested against the presence of US forces in Turkey.

Over the past few months, Turkey has also been witnessing demonstrations against the deployment of NATO’s Patriot missiles and the presence of foreign troops in the country.

Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States have each deployed two missile batteries along Turkey’s border with Syria.

The missile systems became operational about a month ago. Ankara says the deployment is necessary to counter ‘threats’ from Syria. However, Damascus has called the move ‘provocative.’

On February 15, the Syrian government sent a letter to the United Nations, censuring Turkey’s ‘destructive’ role in the turmoil that Syria has been experiencing for nearly two years.

Interfax-Ukraine
February 25, 2013

Lebedev: NATO asks Ukraine to increase peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, Liberia
Ukraine is considering the issue of increasing its peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and Liberia

Chernihiv region: Ukraine is considering the issue of increasing its peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and Liberia, Defense Minister Pavlo Lebedev has said.

“We have been asked to consider the possibility of increasing the number of our peacekeeping forces, including in Afghanistan and Africa, as well as in other hot spots,” the minister said at a briefing at the Desna military training center in Chernihiv region on Saturday.

Analyzing the results of his visit to Brussels for a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, Lebedev noted that relevant proposals were passed to the president of Ukraine, who would consider them and make a decision.

Indo-Asian News Service
February 23, 2013

NATO may keep up to 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014

Brussels: NATO is considering maintaining a residual force of 8,000-12,000 troops in Afghanistan after the end of 2014, the Afghan defence minister said here Friday.

The details of the plan are still under discussion, Bismullah Khan Mohammadi told reporters after a NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

Pentagon chief Leon Panetta declined to discuss numbers, but stressed that any residual force would include troops from other NATO members as well as from the US.

His comments came after German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that Washington planned to keep up to 12,000 US troops in Afghanistan after the scheduled end of NATO combat operations.

“The reports that the US told allies that we are considering 8,000 to 12,000 US troops after 2014 are not correct,” Panetta’s spokesman, George Little, said.

“A range of 8,000 to 12,000 troops was discussed as the possible size of the overall NATO mission, not the US contribution,” he said. The post-2014 residual force is supposed to concentrate on training and advising the Afghan military.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan now stands at around 100,000 personnel, down from a peak of 140,000. Washington plans to reduce the US contingent by 50 percent over the course of this year, to 34,000 troops.

Voice of Russia
February 24, 2013

The West is adept at demonizing whoever they want to go after – exclusive interview with Dr. Edward Herman
John Robles

Audio

Renowned author Dr. Edward Herman spoke with the Voice of Russia’s John Robles regarding the facts surrounding the Srebrenica massacre. In part 2 of the full interview, Dr. Herman speaks about how the West, the CIA and NATO manipulate the media to demonize whoever they want to attack and how friends become evil enemies at the drop of a hat. His opinion of the War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is something you have to listen to or read for yourself. Enjoy.

Part 1 of the interview

Robles: Hello! This is John Robles, I’m speaking with Dr. Edward Herman. He is a Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. And he is also the author of several books, namely “The manufacturing consent”, he wrote that with the Noam Chomsky, and “The Srebrenica massacre: evidence, context and politics”.

You said the West or the US wanted a reason to get Serbia. What exactly were those reasons?

Herman: After the fall of the Soviet Union the West – the US and its allies – no longer wanted to support an independent Yugoslavia. It was a social democratic state, it was relatively independent and they didn’t want it to continue and would prefer to have it broken into pieces which they could control. So, they encouraged Slovenia and the Bosnian Muslims and the Croatians to leave Yugoslavia. And the only ones who wanted to keep Yugoslavia together were the Serbs. So, the Serbs did try to keep them together but there was mutual fighting and there were efforts to settle the whole business and let them exit more or less peacefully, but the West sabotaged those agreements.

This is a famous set of episodes: There was an attempt for the Lisbon agreement in 1992 to sort of solve some of the problems with a peaceful resolution and the Bosnian Muslims were encouraged by the United States to reject that agreement. So, they fought one another mutually, trying to establish land control and this caused a tremendous amount of killings. The Srebrenica massacre was part of this mutual ethnic cleansing and struggle for land control. But behind it all was the fact that the West supported the dismantling of Yugoslavia. And the Serbs were their enemy because the Serbs opposed this dismantling. So, the Serbs were the victims of all the West’s activity.

Most important, possibly, apart from the sabotaging of this peace agreement, was the setup of the Yugoslavia Tribunal. And the Tribunal was and remains a complete instrument of NATO and the United States and it went almost entirely after Serbs, and it actually helped to sabotage peace. It was really a judicial arm of NATO with the Serbs as victims. And so, eventually they went after Milosevic. All these efforts of the Tribunal were to dismantle Yugoslavia and a proper political life. If you could criminalize all the Serb leaders, you could prove that Serbia was the bad guy and that NATO and its deeds, including the bombing war against Kosovo, that NATO would look like it was engaging humanitarian intervention with this judicial backup of the Yugoslav Tribunal which was a fraud, which was a travesty.

There is a wonderful book by John Laughland entitled “Travesty”. It is a study of the Yugoslav Tribunal and its devastating. Actually another good book is by Michael Mandel called “How America Gets Away with murder” which also has a very good discussion of the Tribunal and International Criminal Court, and the extent to which they are effectively arms of the West, they are not judicial institutions at all, really public relations arms of the West.

Robles: After WW II there was an agreement not to reorganize Europe. And I’ve read some materials saying that Yugoslavia was the first experiment for the U.S. in their game of geopolitical chess to reestablish or redefine the borders of Europe. Do you think that was successful and where do you think that has led us today?

Herman: I think it was a very successful operation from the standpoint of the United States and NATO because this independent social democratic entity was destroyed by the West and it left a series of states that are dependent, allied states to the West. Serbia, which was once an independent group is now a groveling, kind of pathetic failed state, they failed. By the bombing and by the long blockade or sanctions against Serbia, it is now groveling before the West trying to get into the European Union. It was dismantled and taken apart.

Robles: There are some people in Serbia who are as you say groveling for the West. But there is a large percentage of Serbians who know the reality of what happened and really hate the West because they know that their country was destroyed.

Herman: I agree with you completely. I’m talking about the people who run this, those in power. It is true that there is a very significant minority, or maybe it is even a majority…

Robles: I think it is a majority, but you just said the key word there – those in power. Right.

Herman: You know, I think that vast number of Serbs are resentful of what has been done to them. But the West has arranged that the power structure has been picked so that friends of the West retain political power and they do the groveling.

Robles: And there is so much of a media blackout of anything that counters that evil Serb stereotype that they promoted in the West.

Herman: Absolutely, yes. The standard procedure of the United States and the NATO powers is to demonize whoever they are going to go after. So, Milosevic was made into a devil and the Serbs were made into an evil population. And of course the Bosnian Muslims love that and latched onto it and they’re still using it to achieve some of their ends. Countries find it extremely difficult to throw off the burden of demonization and hatred by the West. After the first Vietnam, we allegedly lost that war, but we damaged Vietnam horribly, we actually succeeded in maintaining an 18-year boycott of this victim to whom we ought to have been paying huge reparations. We actually should be paying gigantic reparations to Serbia for the illegal bombing war. But the West does this demonization and the demon charge hangs on.

So, in each successful target you find this demonization process at work and the hypocrisy involved here is absolutely mindboggling because sometimes you have us changing our mind in midstream as with Saddam Hussein, when he warring against Iran in the 1980s, he was a friend if the United States and they actually provided him with weapons of mass destruction. And then he became worse than Hitler. But the media doesn’t stress this and avoid it; they ignore the fact that he was our ally and then the next day he is a demon.

Robles: Same thing with Muammar Gaddafi. I mean he became a friend, again, what you were saying. Disarm! Disarm! Oay, he disarmed. The same with Hussein, he disarmed.

Herman: I don’t think we ever really loved Gaddafi or Assad but we did get along with them at least for a while. But Gaddafi was always a handy villain we could turn to, like in the Lockerbie case, that was really an amazing business, after Pan Am 103 was shot down.

Robles: Sure! Do you think he was behind that? Do you believe that?

Herman: No, no, absolutely not! Right off the bat, the shootdown of Pan Am 103 followed six months after the U.S. shooting down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 people. And six months after that was the Pan Am 103. Everybody knew and in fact the CIA claimed for two years that Iran and Syria had been behind that bombing. But the geopolitics changed and suddenly we had to deal with Saddam Hussein, we needed Iran and Syria to be our temporary friends and Gaddafi was brought into the picture. The convenient villain. I’ve studied that Lockerbie case and he had nothing whatsoever to do with the shooting down of Pan Am 103.

But it is like the Srebrenica massacre. The capability of the West and the media and the CIA to manipulate facts and demonize and to have an effective case against whomever we have demonized – it is amazing how the West does this.

That was the end of part 2. You can find part three on our website at english.ruvr.ru

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 23, 2013

NATO Defence Ministers visit Patriot deployment

The German, Dutch and Turkish defence ministers paid a joint visit to NATO Patriot batteries in Turkey on Saturday 23 February, in a signal of Alliance solidarity.

The Turkish defence minister Ismet Yilmaz thanked Allies for their support. ”We are very pleased at how quickly NATO responded to our request to reinforce our air defences. I personally want to thank my fellow Ministers from Germany and the Netherlands for their important contribution,” Mr Yilmaz said.

The three defence ministers visited both the Dutch and German Patriot sites at Adana and Kahramanmaras during their two-day stay, and received an operational briefing from the Dutch and German Patriot commanders. They also met with local Turkish officials and officers.

…The Dutch defence minister Jeannine Hennis-Plasschaert said the joint visit demonstrated the Alliance’s resolve and solidarity. ”The strong solidarity that exists in NATO is very evident here today. The Netherlands are ready and pleased to serve and help our fellow Ally Turkey,” Ms Hennis-Plasschaert said.

The ministers travelled to Turkey immediately after attending a defence ministerial in Brussels at NATO headquarters on Friday. The visit comes after the last of the deployed batteries became operational under NATO command and control on 15 February. Germany, the Netherlands and the United States provide two batteries each to augment Turkey’s air defences. The systems are deployed in Kahramanmaras, Adana, and Gaziantep.

Dutch Patriot missile battery in Turkey

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Voice of Russia
February 24, 2013

Turkey Patriots will cost the country $8.5mln a year

The Turkish media have quoted the Defence Ministry as saying that hosting the six Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries sent to southeastern Turkey by NATO will cost the country $8.5mln a year.

Two of the batteries are from the US, two, from Germany, and two, from the Netherlands. They are supposed to protect Turkey against an air attack from across the country’s border with Syria.

In a series of incidents last autumn, artillery shells fired from Syrian territory killed 5 people in a village in southeastern Turkey.

Voice of Russia, RIA

Voice of Russia
February 23, 2013

The USSR brought peace, the USA brought war – interview with Dr. Gulzad
John Robles

Ronald Reagan hosts Afghan Mujahedin leaders in the White House in 1985

Dr. Zalmay Gulzad spoke to the Voice of Russia’s John Robles about the history of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and about how the USSR assisted the Afghan people and built almost everything there is in the country. Dr. Gulzad details how the U.S. turned their own “freedom fighters” into the very “terrorists” that they are now fighting and he says the U.S. wants to stay in Afghanistan for a very long time due to its strategic geopolitical location.

Hello. This is John Robles, I’m talking with Dr. Zalmay Gulzad. He is a professor at Harold Washington College in Chicago, in the political science department.

Robles: Hello Sir. How are you this evening?

Gulzad: Very good, thank you very much.

Robles: First question I’d like to ask you. Now, you were born in Afghanistan and live in the U.S., you work in the U.S. How do you feel about the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States of America?

Gulzad: Let me start with this: I was a young member of the PDPA (People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan). I supported the Afghan revolution. Unfortunately at that time I was in the United States, but I did support the revolution in Afghanistan and I supported the Soviet Union’s support for the Afghan revolution.

There was one Soviet Union journalist, Vladimir Pozner, during the Soviet time; he and I did a review, “Question and Answer for American people”. I was a student, I was getting my PhD and he came to Madison, Wisconsin. I know Vladimir Pozner very well and we met.

So, my point is that it is an aggression. These are the people who the United States supported, they are the criminals, they’re bandits, the so-called “freedom fighters,” because they were fighting the Soviets and communism and all this.

And today the same people are attacking the United States and they call them terrorists. Why didn’t they call them terrorists in the 1980s?

Robles: I’ve been trying to get that point across to a lot of people and people are missing that for some reason.

Gulzad: 15,000 Soviet troops were killed in the fight against these bandits, but the United States always went with the short victories, went with the criminals. The criminals that they trained: Bin Laden and the Arab terrorists, and the Pakistanis, and all these Taliban and Mujahidin, and they turned against them (U.S.).

Unfortunately, this land of democracy that I live in is a joke because nobody is asking their leader: Why did you make that mistake? “I used to call them freedom fighters, today they are terrorists.” How come it changed in one day?

Robles: Do you have any details yourself about how the Taliban got their start, how al-Qaeda got their start, how Osama Bin Laden got his start fighting the Soviet Army in Afghanistan?

Gulzad: After the 1978 Afghan revolution, the Soviet Union recognized us and most progressive countries in the world recognized that revolution.

Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States. He started it, with Zbigniew Brzezinski. Yhey started it to arm, to find the people to oppose the Afghan state because they considered, they thought, that this is the soft underbelly of the Soviet Union.

They thought that from Afghanistan they were going to infiltrate into the Muslim Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

So what they did…Now, they couldn’t find too many Afghans, very few Afghans opposed it, because the Communist government gave them land and everything else, so they couldn’t find too many Afghans.

So, what they did is they went to Anwar Sadat and to the Arab reactionary regimes, they found unemployed Arabs, unemployed Pakistanis. (The Pakistani regime was a dictatorship, not only military, but it was a religious Zia-ul-Haq regime in Pakistan.)

What they did, they brought all these criminals to Pakistan, which is bordering with Afghanistan for almost 1,000 miles. So what they did, the CIA started training them and sending them to kill the Afghans, destroy the Afghan revolution.

So, then naturally, naturally, it is a very natural thing, the Soviet Union had to…because there was a friendship treaty with Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union and Afghanistan signed the friendship treaty in September 1978.

So according to that treaty the Afghan government was able to ask the Soviet Union, in case they were in trouble, to ask for the Soviet Union to help and the Soviet Union provided that help.

So, the point is that the United States taught these criminals, dropped them there to fight not only the Afghan Communists, but then they thought they will make it the Soviet Union but now…And that is how all that process started through Pakistan. Pakistan was a reactionary regime of the military.

So, Afghanistan became a sandwich between two, Shia and Sunni, Muslim fundamentalists.

Robles: Can you give us a few more details? Can you compare what the United States is doing now and what the Soviet Union was doing when they were in there, in Afghanistan? Because now some people are trying to say: “Oh, well!! The Soviet Union “INVADED” Afghanistan…The Soviet Union…

Gulzad: I fight it every day. I fought it even at that time when Ronald Reagan was in power. Vladimir Pozner will be a witness on that.

We had a Progressive Afghan Student Organization and I was the head of it.

My point is that you cannot compare the Soviet Union because Afghanistan People’s Democratic Party had the same ideology as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

So, the idea was that Afghanistan’s PDPA was giving land – Afghanistan was a very poor country, an almost feudal society – so we were giving land to the poor. What person is going to rise against you if you give them a piece of land? If you teach their daughter and son?

They (the U.S.S.R.) built schools, they built everything that is in Afghanistan today, I am telling you as an Afghan. Every road, highway, dam, factory, airport that you can see, the infrastructure of Afghanistan was made by the USSR.

Robles: Few people know that.

Gulzad: Including Bagram where today the American imperialists are sitting there. It is the Soviet Union that built everything.

Thousands of Afghan students, including my brother, became educated in the Soviet Union. I mean “what the hell?” people are going to…It was not the people!

Do you know that there was a recent interview on BBC and on CNN. They went to Kandahar and to Ghazni, two cities in Afghanistan. They were asking people…An Afghan farmer he spit on the American journalist!

He said: “The Soviet Union brought a lot of things to this country, peace, but you brought war.”

Certainly! And they showed it on TV, I saw it on BBC and Aljazeera.

Robles: So, what is the real situation in Afghanistan right now, after almost 13 years of U.S. occupation?

Gulzad: My point is this: that if you want to stop this war, you should go to Pakistan. Pakistan is a very poor country. Pakistan is controlling the Taliban, al-Qaeda, everybody.

If the United States wants to stop this war, then the United States could squeeze Pakistan economically and in many ways. Pakistan is a joke.

So, my point is that the United States wants to prolong this war because they want to stay in Afghanistan.

The United States has total control economically and militarily over Pakistan.

End of part 1

You were listening to an interview with Dr. Zalmay Gulzad – a professor at Harold Washington College in Chicago. You can find part 2 on our website at english.ruvr.ru.

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Michel Corday: Selections from The Paris Front

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Michel Corday
From The Paris Front (1934)
Unknown translator

1918

– Ah, this frantic desire to continue the war! Who would believe it! Remember that the Temps recently uttered the cynical warning : “The price of War Bonds is falling.” There you have it all. And one may imagine how many people are grinding their teeth in despair – the sub-contractors of munition factories, the business men, all those who see  the golden springs drying up…And also, I repeat, all those whom the war suits – the wife freed from the burden of a husband…And, finally, that mad instinct for conflict, violence, and revenge, which is part of human nature.

In our village are some Belgians who, you would imagine would want to get back home, after four years, as soon as possible, hoping to find their houses safe and sound. Far from it! The men want their country to be recovered by force of arms, even if it is devastated in the process!…

And yet how horrible is that unparalleled butchery, which the regular officer regards as a mere opportunity for professional advancement, for brilliant exploits, for mentions in dispatches, while the average civilian regards it as a guarantee of a “more advantageous” peace. And if all these negotiations are a mere piece of window-dressing arranged between Wilson and the Central Powers, what a hideous consummation to all this long insanity, these massacres that might have been avoided by a mere signature!…

No. The strife goes on. Every day they fling fresh fuel on the fire of hate.

– The vile campaign against peace is still active. The Civil League has brought out a poster: “The Trap.” No discussions, no compromise, peace without conditions, absolute victory. Not one word about the deaths we might avoid. Those are the most repulsive people, who sit comfortably in an armchair while they goad young men to slaughter merely to satisfy their own passions or interests.

Pamphlets breathing hatred have been distributed in the munitions factories. “People of France, your hatred is not as burning and passionate as it ought to be…Germany is a nation devoted to the Devil…You will have to lick the bloodstained Prussian jackboot…”

-Alas! Nobody will admit that it is not decisions on the field of battle which are settling this war. The Germans are still in possession of our territories. Their retreat – at present stabilised – has left free only a strip of the occupied territory. And yet they adopt the tone of a beaten foe. Really, the course of events is being decided and controlled by their economic conditions, their hardships, their suffering, and the blockade. But people insist on disguising these facts under the semblance of purely military defeat.

– The newspapers are still making enormous efforts to construe this breakdown in a purely military sense. The military correspondent of the Oeuvre displays subtle ingenuity in proving that Turkey was defeated by force of arms. It was just the same, he declares, with Bulgaria. They are writing history in advance. So much the worse for the truth. And also for posterity. For this glorification of slaughter is the beginning of future armaments. To declare that all these nations now appealing for mercy were dying of hunger and hardship would be to rob the war of its crimson halo.

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts