The best friend of the United States

In its headline story today, Defense One reported:

“While animal rescue groups across the globe race to get dogs out of Afghanistan, Pentagon officials want to be very clear: The U.S. military did not leave any of its working dogs behind.”

For the United States, friends and enemies are interchangeable over periods of time according to “interests”, but the police dog remains its best friend. It will not be left behind!

Former US generals enriched off Afghan war

Then U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford prepare to testify before the House Armed Services Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

By PRATAP CHATTERJEE*

(August 26) – Many of the military generals who directed the war in Afghanistan over the last two decades have taken up lucrative jobs as members of the boards of directors of major military contractors that take in billions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon every year.

US: Conflicting authorities in conflict with today’s conditions

 Conflicts among the US ruling factions on the use of force sharpen as protests against racism, police brutality, killings and impunity continue | Voice of Revolution

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 22, 2020.

In the United States, the many conflicts between President Trump and the military are increasingly on open display. So too are those between Trump and state-level authorities, like Governors. These public conflicts, especially in relation to authority to use force, are indications of how sharp the conflicts among the ruling factions have become. They are also serving to further undermine the legitimacy of the claims of these authorities, whether military, federal or state, to have and control the monopoly on the use of force in the name of society.

The military implications of 5G

The Bell and Telus monopolies are being pressured to use Ericsson instead of Huawei even though it will be more expensive and less efficient. In parallel, while Canada has just authorized the extradition of Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of one of Huawei’s leaders, to the United States, the U.S. Congressional Research Service exposes the military component of the 5G technology | MANLIO DINUCCI

Arrival at U.S. AFB Nellis of an aircraft classified for G5 tests.

At Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada – announces the Pentagon – construction of a 5G experimental network will begin in July. It will become operational in January 2021.

Inability to unite the military bureaucracy –a serious problem facing the US ruling elite

By PAULINE EASTON

One of the jobs of the presidency of the United States is to preserve the union, which requires uniting the military bureaucracy. This bureaucracy, which has grown to massive proportions, is part of the state machinery that exists from one presidency to the next.

US media take a pass on Pentagon’s systematic undercount of civilian deaths

Smoke from a US-led coalition airstrike is seen over buildings near the front line on Feb. 10, 2019 in Bagouz, Syria | Chris McGrath/Getty Image

By BRUCE GREENE

The Pentagon released  in early May its congressionally mandated annual report on the number of civilians the US military has killed. The report concluded that the military was responsible for 132 civilian deaths in all theaters of war, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Somalia.

United States. People’s resistance defends the rights of all and opposes politics of division and arbitrary police powers

Migrant solidarity action in Los Angeles, November 2018. (ANSWER)

Women march on the Pentagon

Fed up with ongoing wars depleting innocent lives and the U.S. Treasury, more than a thousand women marched on the Pentagon on Sunday to declare their opposition to the continuing slaughter | JOE LAURIA

War: A community issue

By LYNN MARIE PETROVICH*

War affects everyone. While some are adversely affected more than others, there is no one that escapes the war machine’s reach. One example in the United States is war funding. The defence budget is mind-boggling. The U.S.’s 2019 Pentagon budget supports 883 overseas bases and is lethal to humanity.

Women in US organize march on Pentagon

On October 21 and 22, women in the United States are organizing an anti-war march on the Pentagon to demand the complete end to the wars the U.S. is conducting abroad; the closure of foreign bases; and a significant cut to the Pentagon budget, to instead fund healthy social programs in the U.S. There will also be sister actions across the country.

Trump unable to unite military bureaucracy: growing conflicts among rulers increase civil war danger

One of the jobs of the presidency is to preserve the union, which requires uniting the military bureaucracy. This bureaucracy, which has grown to massive proportions, is part of the state machinery that exists from one president to the next. It is the state and its monopoly on use of force that ensures continuity and rule by the rich, while government changes from one election to the next. In current conditions, where the existing institutions for governance – for example, Congress, political parties, elections – are dysfunctional and no longer serve to resolve conflicts, this problem of preserving the union and uniting the bureaucracy becomes increasingly difficult.

Inside the shadowy US PR firm that’s pushing for regime change in Syria

He who plunders … always lives in terror

At the initiative of the “Syria Campaign”, some communalist organizations in Canada linked with the Trudeau government are supporting terrorist forces in Syria. On October 1st, in the wake of the U.S. war crimes in Deir Ezzor and Aleppo, they held a small rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa as part of an international campaign orchestrated from the United States. A similar rally was held in Calgary. Posing as a non-political solidarity organization, the “Syria Campaign” leverages local partners and media contacts to push the U.S. into more aggressively toppling another Middle Eastern government | MAX BLUMENTHAL*

(October 3) – On September 30, demonstrators gathered in city squares across the West for a “weekend of action” to “stop the bombs” raining down from Syrian government and Russian warplanes on rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Thousands joined the protests, holding signs that read “Topple Assad” and declaring, “Enough With Assad.” Few participants likely knew that the actions were organized under the auspices of an opposition-funded public relations company called the Syria Campaign.

Campaign to elect a war president for the United States (2): The danger of a hot civil war

The concern of open conflict within the military and other police agencies and between them and the presidency has been sharply evident in this election | Voice of Revolution*

At the September 7 “Commander-in-Chief” forum broadcast from an aircraft carrier stationed in New York City, Donald Trump went out of his way to say he had secured the support of 88 generals and admirals. Clinton also often comments on the support she has in the military and intelligence agencies. This public display of contention within the military and between the military and presidency is indicative of the difficulties the rulers face in preserving the union and preventing a hot civil war. The old arrangements, where Congress and political parties functioned and served to help resolve conflicts, no longer exist.

Africa Liberation Day at 53: Pentagon and CIA continue to destabilize continent

Today the African Union faces formidable development and security challenges.May 25, 2016 marks the 53rd anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union (AU) since 2002.| ABAYOMI AZIKIWE

Under the cover of humanitarian aid: The US military is all over Africa

AFRICOM stretches far wider than the public is being told, and it’s only going to get bigger in the years to come. NICK TURSE

In the shadows of what was once called the “dark continent,” a scramble has come and gone. If you heard nothing about it, that was by design. But look hard enough and — north to south, east to west — you’ll find the fruits of that effort: a network of bases, compounds, and other sites whose sum total exceeds the number of nations on the continent. For a military that has stumbled from Iraq to Afghanistan and suffered setbacks from Libya to Syria, it’s a rare can-do triumph. In remote locales, behind fences and beyond the gaze of prying eyes, the U.S. military has built an extensive archipelago of African outposts, transforming the continent, experts say, into a laboratory for a new kind of war.

More on the Pentagon’s falsification of the US defeat in Vietnam

Monument in Da Nang, Vietnam celebrates Vietnamese peoples’ victory in 1975.

In a $30 million disinformation program, the US Pentagon has hijacked the history of the war of aggression against Vietnam, magically transforming it into a memory to “honour” and cherish. The official commemoration will conclude in 2025, the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, when the South Vietnamese government surrendered and the last Americans ignominiously departed Saigon in that helicopter on the roof.

40 years on, the Vietnam War continues for victims of Agent Orange

By MARJORIE COHN*

The war in Vietnam resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and more than 3 million Vietnamese. Twenty years ago, the United States and Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations in an effort to put the terrible legacy of the war behind them. But for the survivors—both Vietnamese and American—the war continues. About 5 million Vietnamese and many U.S. and allied soldiers were exposed to the toxic chemical dioxin from the spraying of Agent Orange. Many of them and their progeny continue to suffer its poisonous effects. 

Pentagon plans to build new military bases in Africa, Southwest Asia and the Middle East

Rumsfeld Redux: GloboCop reconfirmed. The Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz dream of securing bases all around Eurasia and oil-producing parts of sub-Saharan Africa appears well on the way to full realization. JIM LOBE

Recolonization of Africa: AFRICOM’s imperialist culture and violence against Africans

For years, as U.S. military personnel moved into Africa in ever-increasing numbers, AFRICOM has effectively downplayed, disguised, or covered-up almost every aspect of its operations, from the locations of its troop deployments to those of its expanding string of outposts. NICK TURSE*

Six people lay lifeless in the filthy brown water.

It was 5:09 a.m. when their Toyota Land Cruiser plunged off a bridge in the West African country of Mali.  For about two seconds, the SUV sailed through the air, pirouetting 180 degrees as it plunged 70 feet, crashing into the Niger River.

Three of the dead were American commandos.  The driver, a captain nicknamed “Whiskey Dan,” was the leader of a shadowy team of operatives never profiled in the media and rarely mentioned even in government publications.

Recolonization of Africa: US military missions reach record levels after Pentagon inks deal to remain in Africa for decades

2044 or Bust –The U.S. military’s battlefield of tomorrow. In 2014, the U.S. carried out 674 military activities across Africa, nearly two missions per day, an almost 300 per cent jump in the number of annual operations, exercises, and military-to-military training activities since U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) was established in 2008. The number of security cooperation activities skyrocketed from 481 in 2013 to 595 last year. NICK TURSE,* TomDispatch.com

Funding the Pentagon to ‘cover the globe’

Protest against President Obama’s warmongering in the name of fighting terrorism, UN Headquarters, New York City, September 29, 2014.

By WILLIAM D. HARTING*

President Obama and Senator John McCain, who have clashed on almost every conceivable issue, do agree on one thing: the Pentagon needs more money. Obama wants to raise the Pentagon’s budget for fiscal year 2016 by $35 billion more than the caps that exist under current law allow.  McCain wants to see Obama his $35 billion and raise him $17 billion more. Last week, the House and Senate Budget Committees attempted to meet Obama’s demands by pressing to pour tens of billions of additional dollars into the uncapped supplemental war budget.

US special black ops in 150 countries

US Special Black Ops missions already in 105 countries in 2015 – over 60 per cent of the nations on the planet. NICK TURSE*, TomDispatch

US Special Operations Forces around the world, 2012-2013.
Key to the Map of US Special Operations Forces around the world, 2012-2013
Red markers: US Special Operations Forces deployment in 2013.
Blue markers: US Special Operations Forces working with/training/advising/conducting operations with indigenous troops in the U.S. or a third country during 2013.
Purple markers: US Special Operations Forces deployment in 2012.
Yellow markers: US Special Operations Forces working with/training/advising/conducting operations with indigenous troops in the US or a third country during 2012.
Map courtesy of TomDispatch and Google
(Click to enlarge)

In the dead of night, they swept in aboard V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.  Landing in a remote region of one of the most volatile countries on the planet, they raided a village and soon found themselves in a life-or-death firefight. It was the second time in two weeks that elite U.S. Navy SEALs had attempted to rescue American photojournalist Luke Somers. And it was the second time they failed.

US Congress rubber stamped $585 billion bill without reading it

US Congressmen admit to not reading NDAA before voting because “I trust the leadership”

rt.com (Dec. 5) – US House members admitted they had not read the entire $585 billion, 1,648-page National Defense Authorization Act, which predominantly specifies budgeting for the Defense Department, before it was voted on Thursday in Congress.

“Of course not. Are you kidding?” Rep. Jim Moran (D-Virginia) said when asked by CNSNews if he had perused the entire bill, which was just posted online late Tuesday night before it was ultimately passed in by the House by a vote of 300-119 about 36 hours later.

Pentagon falsifies history of Vietnam war

The Pentagon invokes history-as-such to justify aggression and war in West and Central Asia. To maintain its empire, the U.S. must have a compliant working class and people in the homeland. An accommodating working class plays no conscious role in making history in its own interests with its own perspective. Workers who do not question the history-as-such presented by the ruling elite soon lose their bearings in the present. – TS

STANLEY KUTLER*

The Pentagon has hijacked the history of the Vietnam War, magically transforming it into a memory to honour and cherish.

Obama secretly extends US combat operation in Afghanistan

President Barack Obama has secretly signed an order that expands the United States’ direct combat role in Afghanistan throughout 2015, the New York Times reported.

Signed over the last few weeks, the secret order permits American forces to continue to battle the Taliban and other militants that pose a threat to either the Afghan government or US personnel. According to the Times, US jets, bombers, and drones will be able to aid ground troops – be they Afghan or US forces – in whatever mission they undertake.

‘Free Syrian Army’ – ‘for lack of a better term’

Central to US disinformation to justify its war in Iraq and the bombing of Syria is the illusion that the new desert army it is preparing to overthrow the government of the sovereign Syrian Arab Republic led by President Bashar al-Assad constitute “moderate rebels,” who are to be accepted as “legitimate”, as distinct from Islamic State.

Yahoo News propagates and runs today as its prime piece of news a video, which celebrates the use of US-made and US-supplied anti-tank missiles by terrorists inside the Syrian Arab Republic. The propaganda video is also evidently intended as a form of confirmation of the deliveries and the orders fulfilled to the “moderate rebels.”

So much for American exceptionalism: US Navy is threatened by climate change

Pentagon argument to militarize the environment and strategic resources in the name of a “national security threat”

In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina, 125 mph winds and high tides converged to create a storm surge that inundated Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. The military is bracing for a global warming crisis that will cause sea levels to rise by at least 12 to 18 inches over the next 20 to 50 years and make severe weather more common | US Air Force

U.S. military is bracing for a global warming crisis that will cause sea levels to rise by at least 12 to 18 inches over the next 20 to 50 years, the U.S.-based Military Times reports.

That will put at risk port facilities around the world, including some that are critical to the military, such as San Diego, Hawaii and Norfolk, Virginia, the article adds.

US chemical weapons dumped in Okinawa

The US has refused to clean up chemical weapons left on its military bases in Okinawa from the Vietnam War – over 40 years ago – despite their serious threat to the safety and well-being of the people of the Japanese island. “Decades of Pentagon pollution poison service members, local residents and the future of the island,” writes JON MITCHELL.* Reminiscent of CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick, which it sprayed with Agent Orange during the 1960s, “The Pentagon continues to do everything it can to evade responsibility for the damage its bases cause.” When the US ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997, it falsely said it had not left chemical weapons in any other nation’s holdings. The fact remains that it is the US that poses the greatest potential and actual danger of unleashing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons against humanity.

Barrels of unidentified U.S. chemicals lie strewn across land in the Northern Training Area, 1972. Courtesy of Robin Poe. (Click to enlarge)

The Asia-Pacific Journal – In June 2013, construction workers unearthed more than 20 rusty barrels from beneath a soccer pitch in Okinawa City. The land had once been part of Kadena Air Base – the Pentagon’s largest installation in the Pacific region – but was returned to civilian usage in 1987. Tests revealed that the barrels contained two ingredients of military defoliants used in the Vietnam War – the herbicide 2,4,5-T and 2,3,7,8-TCDD dioxin. Levels of the highly toxic TCDD in nearby water measured 280 times safe limits.¹

The Pentagon has repeatedly denied the storage of defoliants – including Agent Orange – on Okinawa.²Following the discovery, it distanced itself from the barrels; a spokesperson stated it was investigating if they had been buried after the land’s return in 1987³ and a U.S. government-sponsored scientist suggested they may merely have contained kitchen or medical waste.⁴ However, the conclusions of the Japanese and international scientific community were unequivocal: Not only did the barrels disprove Pentagon denials of the presence of military defoliants in Japan, the polluted land posed a threat to the health of local residents and required immediate remediation.⁵

Agent Orange was buried on Okinawa

U.S. chemical warfare continues to plague humanity, even while Washington accuses others of its own crimes. JON MITCHELL* reports on “war surplus” found on a U.S. military base on Okinawa, an island off the coast of Japan, covered up by the Pentagon. U.S. forces sprayed Agent Orange at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick during the 1960s, also denied and denied and denied by the American and Canadian governments.

Workers unearth barrels at the U.S. Kadena Air Base, the Pentagon’s largest installation in the Pacific region, January 2014.

Asia-Pacific Journal (Aug. 11) – More than six months after dozens of rusty chemical barrels were unearthed from former U.S. military land in Okinawa City, their contents have been identified – and they appear to offer conclusive proof that the toxic Vietnam War defoliant Agent Orange was buried on the island.

Sighting. Pentagon architecture