04 Inter-State Conflict – Page 99 – Public Intelligence Blog

Dozens of US and allied forces' military installations dot the region, from Oman, UAE and Kuwait to Turkey and Israel.

Doha, Qatar – US military bases continue to form a strategic envelope around Iran, although the American withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2011 may have changed the regional balance somewhat towards Iran's favour. While US forces are scaling back in many parts of the globe due to budget cuts – and have begun a gradual depature from Afghanistan to be completed by 2014 – their international presence remains vast.

From an active-duty force of 1.4 million soldiers, the US has deployed some 350,000 troops to at least 130 foreign countries around the world. Some are at Cold War-era installations, but many are in or near combat zones in the Middle East. At more than 750 bases internationally, private contractors and third-country nationals also form a large percentage of the staff, in addition to military reservists and civilian employees of the Pentagon.

US military installations in the Middle East serve to keep an eye on Iran, but their regional footprint was significantly expanded well before Iran became the most publicly cited foreign “threat”.

There were three reasons why the US sought a presence across the Middle East, says Mehran Kamrava, Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar:

“Securing oil resources, guaranteeing the security of the state of Israel and combating threats to American interests” were the initial priorities of US military activity in the region prior to the first Gulf War, Kamrava says.

“Subsequently, direct military presence wasn't in the form of impositions, but the [security umbrella] was a conscious policy decision on the part of the Persian Gulf states.”

See Interactive Map

Earlier Version with Black Dots: Graphic: US Bases (44) Surrounding Iran

2012/05/02

DefDog: Leaving Afghanistan – As Ignorant As When We Invaded

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government

What an IO goldmine for the Taliban……ending a war takes two just as a Tango does. By saying we are done it provides an opponent with victory. There is no other way to spin it. Now the questioning begins (as it should have. Lack of intelligence on Pashtu culture is the root cause of this war. If we had understood Pashtunwalli and the meaning of sanctuary we would have understood Omar's obligation to bin Laden. We didn't because it is not found in the classified enclaves of the intelligence
community….it is found on the many websites regarding Pashtuns and Afghanistan though.)

In Afghanistan, President Obama signals end to the war

WASHINGTON — Speaking to a war-weary nation from the epicenter of the fight against terrorism, President Obama signaled the end of what he called “a decade under the dark cloud of war.”

“This time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end,” Obama said before a backdrop of armored military vehicles and a draped U.S. flag at the Bagram air base.

Obama's address to the nation capped a surprise visit that coincided with the anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden, a mission that has become an unexpected focal point in his campaign for reelection.

PHOTOS: Obama makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: What DefDog forgets is that the Taliban offered to give up Bin Laden, but the Bush-Cheney regime refused that offer. Below are a few headlines to that effect. In retrospect, we now realize that the Taliban's demand for proof was one that Cheney could not accept because Cheney knew with precision that 9/11 was a controlled false flag operation for which Bin Laden was a patsy. Who would have thought we would one day consider the Taliban more honorable (at the time) than our own Administration? The core point is valid: the US went into Afghanistan ignorant, and leaves Afghanistan just as ignorant. The same was true of Viet-Nam. The ideologues in policy dismissed the educated views of the intelligence community in both instances. What we consider important is that between AF-IQ and Libya, this may well be the last tolerated invasion of any country by the US acting unilaterally. Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela — and many others, are now not only in a position to slam down on US acting up, but highly motivated to do so. The era of US carpetbagging is coming to an end, but the USG will be the last to realize this, and will destroy is domestic economy as a final desperate action.

Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over

US Refusal of 2001 Taliban Offer Gave bin Laden a Free Pass

Book Reviews:

9-11 Truth Books & DVDs (38)

Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback (226)

Impeachment & Treason (123)

2012/04/222012/04/22

James Wall: Israel to Palestine is as Britain to Slavery – “Throw Their Dirty Little Ships Out of the Water” — Tide Turning Against Israeli Atrocities

04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 11 Society

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 | Posted by Veterans Today

“Throw Their Dirty, Filthy Ships Out of the Water!”

Historical parallels are never exact. But it is not unusual for us to see moments from the past resonating with moments of the present.

by James M Wall

About the author: James M. Wall is currently a Contributing Editor of The Christian Century magazine, based in Chicago, Illinois. From 1972 through 1999, he was editor and publisher of the Christian Century magazine.

He has made more than 20 trips to that region as a journalist, during which he covered such events as Anwar Sadat’s 1977 trip to Jerusalem, and the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. He has interviewed, and written about, journalists, religious leaders, political leaders and private citizens in the region. Jim served for two years on active duty in the US Air Force, and three additional years in the USAF (inactive) reserve. His website: Wall Writings.

EXTRACT:

I propose no firm historical linkage between slavery and Occupation, but I do propose a linkage between the demand for action called for by John Newton against slavery, and the passage of a divestment resolution by United Methodist General Conference delegates as a 21st century demand for the UMC to halt its financial support of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people.

It is well past time to “throw this dirty, filthy Occupation out of United Methodist waters”.

Full article with video and illustrated inserts.

Phi Beta Iota: The continuing economic and political crisis in the USA, one that may escalate to a civil war as well as a national crime wave in 2013, has limited US public outrage against Israel. However, there are many weak signals that the tide has turned — not only are Americans outraged the role played by Goldman Sachs and the Jewish Chairmen of the Federal Reserve in the destruction of the global and the US domestic economies, but also at the role played by Jewish money and Israeli dominatrix methods in US politics. We see the day coming when Israel is treated to financial sanctions much as South Africa was. The Israeli government is to the Palestinians as the white South African government was to the people of color in South Africa. Justice will have its day in Palestine; we pray this be so.

2012/04/152012/04/15

Theophillis Goodyear: US Veteran Suicides: 25 for each combat death, 18 a day every day year after year + Meta-RECAP

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call

According to the New York Times, for every U.S. soldier killed on the Battlefield this year, 25 committed suicide.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/15/veteran-death-nation-shame_n_1427263.html

The whole story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-veterans-death-the-nations-shame.html?_r=1

A related topic:

MDMA (known on the street as ecstasy) is showing promise as a psychotherapeutic tool for helping people with post traumatic stress disorder. Here's some info from Vanderbilt University:

http://healthpsych.psy.vanderbilt.edu/2008/PTSD_MDMA.htm

Some more info on MDMA therapy:

http://www.maps.org/research/mdma/

http://www.military.com/news/article/study-ecstasy-treats-ptsd.html

Of course, conservatives tend to resist this kind of psychotherapy, even if it has shown promise, because they had a hard time getting beyond the fact that the drug produces euphoria. But one psychotherapist got special permission from the U.S. government to do a study using MDMA to treat PTSD. I think it's past time they expanded the program to try to start helping soldiers NOW. Before MDMA was made illegal, it was being commonly used as a tool of psychotherapy. So there's plenty of collected information on the subject, going all the way back to the eighties.

Phi Beta Iota: 18 US veterans a DAY succeed in killing themselves. A 1000 a month attempt to do so. This is a problem that in a properly managed government would lead to the firing of everyone from the Secretary of Defense down through the Army Chief of Staff to the head of Army personnel. Post-traumatic stress syndrome is a factor, but cognitive dissonance is a greater factor. We also need to remember depleted uranium and bio-chemical left-overs. These people cannot live with what they have done in our name and they live with the toxic environments we fund for them. Because military flag officers have lacked the integrity to dispute illegal unconstitutional orders to wage war on the world, they have put their troops into situations that did not warrant the insertion of our military, and that drawn out over time have destroyed our military and our veterans and therefore our society.

2012/03/232012/03/23

David Isenberg: The Liberty Exhibit & The Iraq We Left Behind

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Government, Military

LIBERTY: PDF 169 pages, released to public after redaction and down-grading from mix of confidential, secret, and top secret.

Liberty Exhibit

The Iraq We Left Behind

Ned Parker

Foreign Affairs, March/April 2012

Nine years after U.S. troops toppled Saddam Hussein and just a few months after the last U.S. soldier left Iraq, the country has become something close to a failed state. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki presides over a system rife with corruption and brutality, in which political leaders use security forces and militias to repress enemies and intimidate the general population. The law exists as a weapon to be wielded against rivals and to hide the misdeeds of allies. The dream of an Iraq governed by elected leaders answerable to the people is rapidly fading away.

Article Summary

2012/03/182012/03/18

Berto Jongman: Economic Consequences of War

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, IO Impotency, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Economic Consequences of War

New report released by the Institute for Economics & Peace analyses the macroeconomic effects of US government spending on wars and the military since World War II.

The IEP’s latest report, Economic Consequences of War on the US Economy, analyses the macroeconomic effects of US government spending on wars and the military.

The report studies five periods – World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Afghanistan/Iraq wars – exposing the effect of war financing on debt, consumption, investment, jobs, taxes, government deficits, and inflation.

The findings of the report show devastating trends for US tax, debt and deficit debates.

Download the report here

Key findings

The U.S. has paid for its wars either through debt [World War II, Cold War, Afghanistan/Iraq], taxation [Korean War] or inflation [Vietnam]. In each case, taxpayers have been burdened, and private sector consumption and investment have been constrained as a result.

Report highlights

The report shows the following economic indicators experiencing negative effects either during or after the conflicts:

Public debt and levels of taxation increased during most conflicts

Consumption as a percent of GDP decreased during most conflicts

Investment as a percent of GDP decreased during most conflicts

Inflation increased during or as a direct consequence of these conflicts

The higher levels of government spending associated with war tends to generate some positive economic benefits in the short-term, specifically through increases in economic growth occurring during conflict spending booms. However, negative unintended consequences occur either concurrently with the war or develop as residual effects afterwards thereby harming the economy over the longer term.

Phi Beta Iota: There appears to be a continued reluctance to address the real causes of our terrible situation: corruption across the board. No amount of intellectual posturing, whether in a book or in a conference, is a substitute for full transparency and the truth — the whole truth. The lack of integrity across all eight tribes — academia, civil society, commerce, government, law enforcement, media, military, and non-government/non-profit — is the ROOT CAUSE of our collapse.

2012 THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Trust

2010 The Ultimate Hack Re-Inventing Intelligence to Re-Engineer Earth (Chapter for Counter-Terrorism Book Out of Denmark)

2012/03/16

Chuck Spinney: Investigating NATO’s War Crimes Against Libya

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, DoD, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, Non-Governmental, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

Investigations Around Libya

NATO’S Craven Coverup of Its Libyan Bombing

by VIJAY PRASHAD, Counterpunch, March 15, 2012

Ten days into the uprising in Benghazi, Libya, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council established the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya. The purpose of the Commission was to “investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law in Libya.” The broad agenda was to establish the facts of the violations and crimes and to take such actions as to hold the identified perpetrators accountable. On June 15, the Commission presented its first report to the Council. This report was provisional, since the conflict was still ongoing and access to the country was minimal. The June report was no more conclusive than the work of the human rights non-governmental organizations (such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch). In some instances, the work of investigators for these NGOs (such as Donatella Rovera of Amnesty) was of higher quality than that of the Commission.

Due to the uncompleted war and then the unsettled security state in the country in its aftermath, the Commission did not return to the field till October 2011, and did not begin any real investigation before December 2011. On March 2, 2012, the Commission finally produced a two hundred-page document that was presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Little fanfare greeted this report’s publication, and the HRC’s deliberation on it was equally restrained.

Nonetheless, the report is fairly revelatory, making two important points:

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Investigating NATO's War Crimes Against Libya”

Category: 04 Inter-State Conflict

Reference: Surrounding Iran – Updated with Pop-Up Info Boxes