17 Years of Getting Afghanistan Completely Wrong by David Swanson

Stop the Wars!

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Sept. 28, 2018
September 30, 2018

We expect 17-year-olds to have learned a great deal starting from infancy, and yet full-grown adults have proven incapable of knowing anything about Afghanistan during the course of 17 years of U.S.-NATO war. Despite war famously being the means of Americans learning geography, few can even identify Afghanistan on a map. What else have we failed to learn?

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Chris Hedges: A Socialist Soldier’s Tale of Resisting the American Empire

Resist Imperialism

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Sep 29, 2018

Journalist Chris Hedges interview former combat veteran and US Army officer, Spenser Rapone about bravery and morality. The second lieutenant was given an “other than honorable” discharge June 18 after an Army investigation determined that he “went online to promote a socialist revolution and disparage high-ranking officers” and thereby had engaged in “conduct unbecoming an officer.”

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What If Governments Obeyed Laws? by David Swanson + Merchants of Death: How the Military-Industrial Complex Profits from Endless War

What If Governments Obeyed Laws? by David Swanson + Merchants of Death: How the Military-Industrial Complex Profits from Endless War

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
September 19, 2018

Do we need new laws or adherence to the old ones?

Yes.

Both.

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Howard Zinn: We Should Welcome the Collapse of the US Empire

U.S. Out Of Everywhere

Image by Danny Hammontree via Flickr

with Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
September 16, 2018

“Some day people will look back on 9/11 and sure they will see it as you know the first terrible act of terrorism committed in the United States by some foreign group but they may also see 9/11 as the beginning of the disintegration of the American Empire. Because from 9/11 came the war on terrorism, so-called, the bombing of Afghanistan and now the war on Iraq and the bloating of the American military machine and the war budget and the deprivation of civil liberties. And I believe that there will be a victory in the short run and defeat of the American government in the long run. And that defeat should be welcomed. We need regime change in the United States.” — Howard Zinn

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Leave Syria the Hell Alone by David Swanson

21

Image by Ron F. via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Sept. 11, 2018
September 13, 2018

Last weekend I was on Iranian TV being asked about the meeting in Tehran at which the presidents of Iran and Russia had refused to agree with the President of Turkey to stop bombing people in Syria. I said Iran and Russia were wrong.

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Howard Zinn: Hidden History of The American Working Class

Diego Rivera Mural at the DIA

Image by Amarnath via Flickr

with Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
September 9, 2018

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

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Celebrate Mass Slaughter on Patriot Day! by David Swanson

16.DorothyDay.WhiteHouse.WDC.29December2004

Image by Elvert Barnes via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
September 7, 2018

I went in search of anything the United States was number 1 in that it shouldn’t be ashamed of, and came up empty. But I did find that the United States is number 1 in believing it is number 1. So, that’s something.

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Warning Sign to Anti-war Movement: Behind the Assassination of Donetsk Leader Alexander Zakharchenko

Warning Sign to Anti-war Movement: Behind the Assassination of Donetsk Leader Alexander Zakharchenko

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Dandelion Salad

by Greg Butterfield
Workers World, Sept. 3, 2018
September 4, 2018

Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the anti-fascist Donetsk People’s Republic, was assassinated on Aug. 31 when an explosion ripped through the Separ restaurant in the capital city of Donetsk.

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Celebrate the Kellogg-Briand Pact–Banning All War by David Swanson

No More War

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
August 30, 2018

Dan Shea – Veterans For Peace on Aug 27, 2018

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and the Campaign Coordinator for RootsAction.org

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Meet the One Percent: Peter Phillips’ Giants: The Global Power Elite by Marc Eliot Stein

Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe, 1934, detail.

Image by Joaquín Martínez via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Republished with permission from David Swanson at World Beyond War

by Marc Eliot Stein
World Beyond War, Aug. 25, 2018
August 26, 2018

Peter Phillips, professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University and media researcher for Project Censored and Media Freedom Foundation, presented a summary of his groundbreaking new book Giants: The Global Power Elite last week at Fordham University’s campus in Manhattan. This was an information-packed session that explained the unique purpose of this new book: exposing to public view the private workings of the influential investment partnerships, global councils, think tanks, consortiums and other non-governmental organizations that translate the agenda of the wealthy one-percent into policy plans and proposals that the most powerful governments in the world can act on.

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Chris Hedges: The Falling of the American Empire, interviewed by Ralph Nader

On the walls of the former American embassy

Image by Babak Fakhamzadeh via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges and Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Aug 18, 2018

Ralph spends the whole hour with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, Chris Hedges, discussing his book “America: The Farewell Tour.”

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Frankly, The United States Does Not Have A Government — It Is A Regime + US Sanctions Are Pushing Russia to War by Finian Cunningham

Frankly, The United States Does Not Have A Government -- It Is A Regime + US Sanctions Are Pushing Russia to War by Finian Cunningham

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Updated: Aug. 15, 2018

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Sputnik, Aug. 12, 2018
August 14, 2018

American politicians provoke a slew of emotions, from tears of rage to tears of laughter. But perhaps the uppermost emotion is one of pity.

With a few honorable exceptions, it is such a pity that the American people are misled by such buffoons. It is such a pity that the American and Russian people — who have so much in common as human beings — are nevertheless being driven towards a state of war by these buffoonish politicians.

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Chris Hedges: No Tyranny in History has Crushed the Human Capacity For Love + Love is the Most Potent Enemy of War

19/365

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Dandelion Salad
Originally posted Jan. 26, 2010
August 10, 2018

with Chris Hedges

TheWritersFestival on Jan 26, 2010

Chris Hedges reads from his book Empire of Illusion at the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

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David Swanson: An Actual Break with American Exceptionalism is not on the Agenda of Trump or his Advisors

Chicago Anti-War Protest

Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
August 1, 2018

RT on Aug 1, 2018

On this edition of CrossTalk we consider only one question: Is Donald Trump’s “America First” policy in contradiction to the Washington Consensus idea of American Exceptionalism? The answer to this question will likely define Trump’s presidency and change the world in the process.

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MFTN: Poverty Will Kill More Of Us Than Terrorism

20110928 Class War

Image by Chris Piascik via Flickr

The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published March 13, 2017
July 27, 2018

Curse the war culture! It leaves us at a loss for words, bereft of metaphors to describe our situation. Our minds become blank slates, unable to recognize dangers at the door unless they carry assault weapons or drop bombs on our heads.

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