Your Take on the War

Standing by on a hilltop, Soldiers with the 10...

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There are many varying views on the war since its origin. While the events of 9/11 in 2001 connected deeply and resonated in the hearts of Americans, the war in Afghanistan may seem farther away for those who do not have a loved one serving in the military.

It is easy to jump to conclusions or feel confused from the differing reports concerning the war. Some reports don’t seem to match up, and one starts to wonder what is truth and what is merely rumor.

Obviously the government administration has the final and last say concerning the war and all that it entails. It is essential for Americans though to form proper opinions and gain what knowledge they can about the real circumstances of the war.

First off, if you want to have a better understanding of the war and its impact on America, Afghanistan and the rest of the world, it is crucial to know a little of this country’s history. Take out a map, do a little research on line, check out a book from the library. This way when names, dates, and places pop up on the latest news press, you’ll be able to fully comprehend what the news means.

Next keep an open mind to various views. Americans, like all people, take for granted their surroundings and every-day life things. It is easy to take for granted that other places are the same or at least similar. The truth is that various geographical regions, differing cultures and customs, and daily lifestyles hugely contrast, almost to the point of incomprehension. As Americans are used to relative peace, freedom, and safety, it may be difficult to image life in a country that is not peaceful, where rights are not guarantee, and where citizens fear for their lives at times.

Take time to educate yourself before drawing strong conclusions about the war.

Filed Under: War, Weapons Tagged With: , ,

Honoring the Commander

General David Petraeus in testimony

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The war in Afghanistan is on the brink of being a ten-year-long venture. When considering all that has been involved and the grueling day-to-day long activity, the war seems to have gone on a lot longer.

Such warfare has required the time and effort, even the very lives of some of America’s best men and women. Although there are different opinions regarding the war effort and its validity. It can not be denied that those serving our country deserve our heart-felt support and gratitude. They have served well and done the best they can to create peace and stability in a nation with a very rocky history that has been less than democratic or peaceful.

Tackling this kind of challenge has required the very finest of leaders that Washington could produce. Currently, the position of commander of the coalition forces in Afghanistan has been held by the four-star General David Petraeus. Many Americans applaud this great leader’s resume and exemplary qualities. He has credible work experience having worked under two Presidents of the United States in two different wars. He is praised for his work in the Iraqi War when he took command in 2007. Gen. Petraeus is also known for his intelligence and excellent ability to work with others. His public relation skills have been much needed in a country where negotiating and team work have been a challenge.

Although he only took up his current position in June 2010 to replace a former General who was let go for misconduct, General Petraeus is expected to close out his tour sometime in 2011. It is assumed that the administration will allow his release only after the American troops start to withdraw in July of 2011.

Some wonder what will happen since General David Petraeus is not the only top-level official to be nearing the end of his tour. The American Ambassador to Afghanistan will also be expected to leave soon as well as several others who hold high positions.

These leaders will greatly be appreciated for their hard work and contributions to the war.

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Support Military Families

Military families make huge sacrifices for their country. One of the most obvious and challenging sacrifices military families make is a deployment. When a family member is sent overseas into a war zone, such as Afghanistan, the whole family is affected.

It’s hard on children to know that mom or dad won’t be around for several months. It’s hard on spouses to go without the daily support of their husbands or wives. Of course there is also the inevitable worry about whether their family member will return home safely. Luckily, the vast majority of deployed service members do return safely, but that doesn’

t keep their family from worrying while they’re away.

We all want a peaceful world, and we can work towards the goal of a world without war, but the reality is that our military families need our support regardless of how we feel about war.

There are simple ways to show your support, such as merely saying paying for the meal of or saying thanks to a soldier in uniform. These are two simple actions and ones that will surely be appreciated.

However, soldiers aren’t the only ones sacrificing for our country and their families need help, as well. There are organizations you can donate to that help military families. For example, the Air Force Aid Society, a non-profit organization and the official charity of the U.S. Air Force, helps military families financially if help is needed.

The American Red Cross is another charitable organization that provides assistance to military families. They provide assistance to veterans, relay emergency information to military members anywhere in the world, and help in many other ways.

As we work towards a peaceful world, we sometimes need to provide help to the people who need it most, and many times those people can be found in our own neighborhood. Military families need the support of their country and it is a certainty that any help will be appreciated.

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Filed Under: Casualties, Training Tagged With: , ,

Dealing With The Soldiers Home From War

If you are the spouse of someone who is currently serving overseas you are probably excited for the day they will be returning home. You might have heard that it is really soon and for that you couldn’t be happier. You are excited to think about the day they come home and life going back to normal. Well, the sad news is that once they come home things won’t be likely to return back to normal. At least not for some time anyway. If you are anticipating their arrival home then chew on these few things as you deal with a solider returning home.

Their perspective has changed. While it might not be pleasant to think about you can certainly say that you are not going to get back the same person who left. They have seen things that you can only imagine and wouldn’t ever want to. When it comes to the world around them they have their own thoughts and feelings on it and it may not be the same kind that they went to war with.

You have to be clear to them that you want them to feel comfortable at home and normal again but be ready for them to not feel normal anymore. You cannot imagine what they have gone through. They may need to sleep in a separate room or they might not like to be approached from behind. These might seem like quirks but they are essential to keeping them feeling safe.

Just know that making them feel better will take time and they may need to have the help of a licensed therapist. They need someone who has had specialty in dealing with soldiers who are returning home from war. With special help your loved one can deal with coming home form war.

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Filed Under: Operations, Volunteering Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Work Together to Promote Peace

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 07: Peace groups protest t...
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In order to promote peace, people must make an effort to understand and empathize with one another. The ongoing war in Afghanistan is one example of a war that needs the attention and understanding of many so it can end and the peace process can begin.

Peaceful protests are one way people can reach out to each another and show they believe in a world without war. Protests are one of the few ways that just a few people can reach hundreds or thousands of others to promote peace. In their quest for a world without war, protesters should be careful to model the peaceful behavior they wish to see from humankind. Violent protesters detract from the message of peace they are trying to promote.

There is strength in numbers and people that wish to live in a world without war should band together and support each other. Volunteer organizations can play a huge role in the road to peace if supporters take advantage of them. By taking an active role and contributing to the group, a single person can have a huge impact on the organization’s mission. Those seeking to promote peace should work to build a volunteer group to promote peace if there is not one in their area.

Military families bear much of the brunt of war. Since 2001, many military parents have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, forcing them to leave their young children for weeks, months or even years at a time. Husbands and wives are separated, placing strain on marriages. Supporters who wish to promote peace must remember these families and look for ways to help them.

A world without peace is possible, although it will take many compassionate people working together to become a reality. People cannot rely on their leaders to promote peace, they must promote it themselves by setting good examples for others and actively working toward their goal of a peaceful world.

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A Response to the October 7 Airstrikes from Two AAW Members

During a Sensitive Site Exploitation (SSE) mis...
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This morning, we awoke to the news that the U.S. military was bombing Afghanistan.

Our government announced that only “military installations” are being targeted by bombs and missles, yet essential components of the infrastructure of cities, such as power plants and water treatment facilities have in the past been considered “military” targets, and civilians may live among and around these as well as the military installations and “terrorist training” grounds.

There are also well-founded concerns that mistakes might be made. When the U.S. bombed similar “military targets” in response to Osama bin Laden’s embassy bombings a few years ago, a factory producing harmless vaccinations in the Sudan was destroyed based on intelligence information of the sort that informs today’s attacks, depriving millions of much needed medical supplies.

As we watch this conflict unfold into catastrophic proportions, we will continue to be an alternative information source in hopes of providing a more balanced perspective than that of the corporate media. It is of vital importance that we share a compassionate and logical perspective on the downward spiralling futility of violence, even as our families, friends and neighbors are stirred into a war frenzy by selectively presented or false information and nationalist rhetoric issued under the guise of “news.”

A crucial part of our role as a source of information is to portray the activities of our military and intelligence agencies truthfully, even when their tactics are underhanded, and that we explore possible ways in which the underlying agenda of our government might be directed by economic interests to the exclusion of human values.

It has been reported that there is a “100%” chance of another terrorist attack in the United States. The U.S. military’s hostile invasion of a country of starving peasants can only serve to perpetuate this cycle of retribution. Is the possibility that forces behind the September 11th attack might be punished through these actions worth the risk of starting another World War?

There are global stakes on the table here, and important reasons for concern, especially given the prevailing climate of stifling dialogue on this issue. There are several factions competing for control of Afghanistan, and some are known to possess nuclear weapons. Contrary to what is being reported widely, several groups that oppose the Taliban have stated that they will support the Taliban in the interest of national unity in the event of a U.S. invasion.

While the president assures us that the U.S. has the support of the “nations of the world,” we know from past experience that many of our alliances in the Mid-East are tenuous, and contingent upon factors that are not necessarily under our control. While the governments of Britain, Canada, and France dedicate their military support, we know this is not necessarily representative of the sentiments of people living in those nations.

In response, international solidarity among peace movements is growing, and a global anti-war movement is being established that must be reckoned with by the power structures that dictate our participation in this conflict.

Filed Under: Casualties, Operations, Weapons Tagged With: , ,

Austin Against War Statement on U.S. Airstrikes

Austin Against War Statement on U.S. Airstrikes
Call to End Bombings on Afghanistan Cities

Austin Against War has repeatedly called for a judicious response to the tragic attacks of Sept. 11. We were encouraged by Bush’s refusal to implicate Islam as a religion, his seeming reluctance to bomb Kabul, and the acknowledgement of the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Afghanistan. As America began to recover from its initial grief at the horrific atrocities of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, cooler heads seemed to prevail.

Now, however, we are witnessing the sort of indiscriminate attack that we feared most: the bombing of cities with large civilian populations. People are dying simply because they live in the same country as the man the U.S. claims to have coordinated the Sept. 11 attacks.

We share the nation’s desire to bring the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks to justice. But further bombings only add to the tragedy. Kabul does not have sophisticated military technology; there is nothing there to be destroyed, except people. Afghanistan is, as one reporter put it, “the most devastated, ravaged, starvation-haunted and tragic country in the world” (Fisk, Independent, 23 Sept., 2001).

And in any event, the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks were not aided by military technology of any sort in any Afghan city. Bombing cities will do nothing to prevent this sort of unsophisticated terrorist attack in the future. On the contrary, American bombings will only serve to increase anti-American sentiment throughout the world.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S.-directed NATO bombings struck alleged military targets in Iraq. We know the cost: bomb shelters harboring innocent, terrified civilians were destroyed; hospitals, airports, water sanitation facilities, and civilian infrastructures were destroyed; and the result was and continues to be massive civilian casualties. But despite this, Sadam Hussein remains in power.

Autocratic regimes such as Afghanistan and Iraq have caused tremendous suffering among their own people and are consequently not disturbed when the United States causes more suffering. Bombing cities results not only in a tragic loss of life, it is demonstrably useless at achieving American policy objectives.

We call for an end to the bombings at once.

Filed Under: Casualties, News, Operations, Weapons Tagged With: , ,

From an Afghan American

From an Afghan American

Tamim Ansary, a writer and columnist in San Francisco who is a native of Afghanistan

I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about “bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age.” Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but “we’re at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What else can we do?”

Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we “have the belly to do what must be done.”

And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I’ve lived here for 35 years I’ve never lost track of what’s going on there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks from where I’m standing.

I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters.

But the Taliban and Bin Laden are not Afghanistan. They’re not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan.

When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think “the people of Afghanistan” think “the Jews in the concentration camps.”

It’s not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rat’s nest of international thugs holed up in their country.

Some say, why don’t the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The answer is, they’re starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan–a country with no economy, no food. There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban.

We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age.Trouble is, that’s been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make the Afghans suffer? They’re already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that.

New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today’s Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They’d slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don’t move too fast, they don’t even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn’t really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban–by raping once again the people they’ve been raping all this time

So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of “having the belly to do what needs to be done” they’re thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people. Let’s pull our heads out of the sand. What’s actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden’s hideout.

It’s much bigger than that folks. Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, we’d have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I’m going. We’re flirting with a world war between Islam and the West.

And guess what: that’s Bin Laden’s program. That’s exactly what he wants.

That’s why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It’s all right there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he’s got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a holocaust in those lands, that’s a billion people with nothing left to lose, that’s even better from Bin Laden’s point of view. He’s probably wrong, in the end the West would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the belly for that?

Bin Laden does. Anyone else?

- – -

Tamim Ansary

Filed Under: Geography, News, Operations Tagged With: , ,

US ‘Planned Attack on Taliban’

A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week’s attacks.

Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.

Russian troops were on standby
Mr Naik said US officials told him of the plan at a UN-sponsored international contact group on Afghanistan which took place in Berlin.

Mr Naik told the BBC that at the meeting the US representatives told him that unless Bin Laden was handed over swiftly America would take military action to kill or capture both Bin Laden and the Taleban leader, Mullah Omar.

The wider objective, according to Mr Naik, would be to topple the Taleban regime and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place – possibly under the leadership of the former Afghan King Zahir Shah.

Mr Naik was told that Washington would launch its operation from bases in Tajikistan, where American advisers were already in place.

Bin Laden would have been “killed or captured”
He was told that Uzbekistan would also participate in the operation and that 17,000 Russian troops were on standby.

Mr Naik was told that if the military action went ahead it would take place before the snows started falling in Afghanistan, by the middle of October at the latest.

He said that he was in no doubt that after the World Trade Center bombings this pre-existing US plan had been built upon and would be implemented within two or three weeks.

And he said it was doubtful that Washington would drop its plan even if Bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taleban.

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