David Swanson: Jody Williams, Vermont Girl & Nobel Laureate Who Led World to Ban Landmines

Ethics, Peace Intelligence
David Swanson
David Swanson

Her Name Is Jody Williams

Jody Williams' new book is called My Name Is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl's Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize, and it's a remarkable story by a remarkable person.  It's also a very well-told autobiography, including in the early childhood chapters in which there are few hints of the activism to come.

. . . . . . .

What strikes me most about the first half or so of Williams' book is how hard we always make it for anyone who wants to work for a better world to find appropriate employment.  We dump billions into recruiting young people into the military or into business careers.  Imagine if young people had to find those paths on their own.  Imagine if television ads and video games and movies and spectacles at big sporting events were all used to recruit young people into nonviolent activism for peace or justice.  Williams and many others could have found their way more quickly.  [Emphasis added.]

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Berto Jongman: What Do Afghan Insurgents Want?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Academia, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, IO Deeds of Peace, Peace Intelligence
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Understanding Afghan Insurgents – Motivations, Goals, and the Reconciliation and Reintegration Process

Who Are They? What Do They Want? Why Do They Fight?

This paper presents the results of 78 in-depth interviews conducted with self-identified Afghan insurgents. If the interviewees are indeed representative of broader Taliban sentiments, then the future of Afghanistan is grim. It appears that only the return of a ‘pious’ Islamic government will satisfy them.

Author: Andrew Garfield, Alicia Boyd

Series: FPRI Monographs and Essays Issue: 3

Marcus Aurelius: False Embassy Threat a Preamble to War? + Syria Islam Divide Iran Nuclear Israeli Insanity RECAP Update 1.1 — More Prison Breaks?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius

The retired Marine colonel who cued me to this report opined that, “This is a hell of a lot closer to the mark than any Administration or DoS blathering.”  I would be totally unsurprised to find him 100% spot-on.  I invite your attention to the final para, highlighted.  If that is true, the (in)actions of our government may have rendered us incapable, fiscally and operationally, of effective response.  Another Task Force Smith, another Kaserine Pass could be the foreseeable result.

Unmasking the embassy threat

Embassy closures are a signal of the rapidly escalated intervention in the region by the US

There is one thing certain about the publicized threat to our embassies; it is not what it is presented to be. To accept the official explanation of a nebulous threat from al Qaeda as the reason for closing our embassies across the Middle East and North Africa is being dangerously naive and simplistic.

This is much more serious than what we are being told, but not for the reasons we are being given. We are seeing the consequences of a long running “Cold War” on two major fronts of political conflict that could escalate into military engagement with proxy nations of world super powers. The world, and life as we know it, could change in an instant should we awaken one morning to the news of bombs flying across the Middle East. That is a very real possibility, as we are now in a heightened proxy war environment. We are standing in a thick forest of dry tinder, and the smallest of sparks could ignite a conflagration the likes of which we have never before seen.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: False Embassy Threat a Preamble to War? + Syria Islam Divide Iran Nuclear Israeli Insanity RECAP Update 1.1 — More Prison Breaks?”

Gordon Duff: Israel Hit Hard by EU Sanctions Linked to 1949, Not 1967, Borders, and Lack of Israeli Integrity in Dealing with Palestinian Issue

Ethics, Government, Peace Intelligence
Gordon Duff
Gordon Duff

Israel Hit with EU War Crimes Sanctions

EU sanctions keep Israel guessing

In a surprise last minute move, the European Union set forth a strong set of economic sanctions against Israel, leaving that nation both surprised and reeling.

The sanctions, stimulated by what the EU refers to as “Israeli intransigence” regarding peace talks with the Palestinians, cover all financial dealings, loans, awards, transfer of “instruments” and severely limiting economic cooperation between Israel and all EU member nations starting in 2014.

The sanctions are against any Israeli “economic activity,” not just within what has been referred to as the “occupied territories” but broad areas of Israel that had been designated for the establishment of an “Arab State” in 1949.

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Continue reading “Gordon Duff: Israel Hit Hard by EU Sanctions Linked to 1949, Not 1967, Borders, and Lack of Israeli Integrity in Dealing with Palestinian Issue”

John Maguire: Russia Goes to Full Strategic Combat Readiness (Troops & Bombers) Exercise in Eastern District (Furthest from Middle East)

Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence
John Maguire
John Maguire

While everyone is distracted by the Trayvon Martin case….two stories.

From 14 July 2013:

WW3 Brews As Nation Distracted By Trayvon Martin Case

EXTRACT

Now enter new reports surfacing from the Russian Defense Ministry on orders of Vladimir Putin that the largest military ‘state of full combat readiness’ drill is taking place with around 160,000 troops ordered to report from all corners of the military. Specifically, the translated reports detail how Putin is calling together not just Armed Forces of Russia troops, but all forms of long-range aircraft, 70 naval ships, bomber and fighter aircraft, and so on.

According to a syndicated Russian announcement:

“On Friday, during a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu Russian, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an unexpected military drill, urging all forces to enter a state of full combat readiness on the night of July 13.”

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Continue reading “John Maguire: Russia Goes to Full Strategic Combat Readiness (Troops & Bombers) Exercise in Eastern District (Furthest from Middle East)”

Jean Lievens: New Study War Does NOT Have Deep Evolutionary Roots — Robert Steele Comments 1.1

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

New Study of Foragers Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots

One of the most insidious modern memes holds that war is innate, an adaptation bred into our ancestors by natural selection. This hypothesis—let’s call it the “Deep Roots Theory of War”–has been promoted by such intellectual heavyweights as Steven Pinker, Edward Wilson, Jared Diamond, Richard Wrangham, Francis Fukuyama and David Brooks.

The Deep Roots Theory addresses not just violent human aggression in general but a particular manifestation of it, involving attacks by one group against another. Deep Rooters often contend that–as warlike as we are today–we were much more warlike before the advent of civilization.

Pinker claims in his bestseller Better Angels of Our Nature that “chronic raiding and feuding characterize life in a state of nature.” In The Social Conquest of the Earth, Wilson calls warfare “humanity’s hereditary curse.” The Deep Roots Theory has become extraordinarily popular, especially considering that the evidence for it is extraordinarily flimsy (see “Further Reading” below).

A study published today in Science, ”Lethal Aggression in Mobile Forager Bands and Implications for the Origins of War,” provides more counter-evidence to the Deep Roots Theory. The study’s authors, anthropologists Douglas Fry and Patrik Soderberg of Abo Akademi University in Finland, say their findings “contradict recent assertions that [mobile foragers] regularly engage in coalitionary war against other groups.”

Read full article with links to recommended reading.

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: New Study War Does NOT Have Deep Evolutionary Roots — Robert Steele Comments 1.1”

Anthony Judge: Can NATO Learn to Think for Itself?

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence
Anthony Judge
Anthony Judge

I have been mulling over your post, 2013 Robert Steele Reflections on NATO 4.0 — Key Challenges AND Solutions [Written for NATO ACT Innovation Hub].

My sense, for myself, is that we have moved into a new cognitive space in which issues of comprehensibility, credibility and deliverability become fundamental in a context in which attention time is limited.

I no longer think that rational articulations can be either comprehended or delivered — other than use of missiles, if that is to be framed as rational.

Little attention is given to the decision-making dynamics and what to do with those who disagree — other than to design them out

Also of relevance is how to design in that which others perceive as having been designed out.

I think the scope for dialogue on such matters is now very limited. It is interesting to note the messy range of comments on any proposed scheme in a newspaper article. There is no scope or suggestion to map those in any meaningful way. The assumption is that some are “wrong” and some are “right” — with each variously labeling the other. No use is made of argument mapping techniques. Why is the interesting question.

Continue reading “Anthony Judge: Can NATO Learn to Think for Itself?”

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