U.S. war on Afghanistan ended! (video)

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; activist Kathy Kelly (facebook.com), Amy Goodman (DemocracyNow.org, Dec. 29, 2014)

Rural children of Afghanistan look on as they are invaded and stripped of autonomy (AP).

Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence

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13 is lucky

(Paul Fitzgerald and Liz Gould)

Lucky 13, we all know it. Or do we? Before 14 years of formal war, the third Bush White House (called the Obama administration) is changing the name of things. It is a semantic shift. We are no longer at "war" formally. Now it's an "informal conflict" and "peacekeeping mission," a "low-level kinetic dispute," a crossing the t's and dotting the i's "cleanup" and imperial escapade involving lots of the empire's invading military troops and more being sent.

Warlords Obama, Pannetta, Tenet, Gates, Hagel, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Biden, Ashcroft, Bush, and others have failed in disgrace after squandering one trillion dollars and still planning to spend 54 billion in the coming year and more in the future.

Money is the root of all war.

But not all is lost. While taxpayers and official coffers have been stripped of funds, private corporations have been enriched. Contractors had a boon. The CIA made out well. The effort was, after all, a product of the U.S. military-industrial complex, which means the union of the Pentagon (public government) and industry (private corporations). Many multimillionaires were minted by our foreign exploits. U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler said it long ago, "War is a Racket" (published 1935), and it always has been in modern times.

The Afghan War is NOT over but we will be pretending as if it is: U.S. officially ends 13-year formal combat mission, but 11,000+ troops to informally continue the illegal imperial invasion and offensive fight

When peace is a crime
Peace activist Kathy Kelly sent to prison for PROTESTING our drone war
[What CODE PINK's Medea Benjamin calls "war by remote control" peace activist Kathy Kelly protests: Our illegal assassinations, which kill many more innocent civilians ("collateral damage") than "targets," use killer drones. Why?] "At its core, war is impoverishment [impoverishing the needy to enrich the greedy].

"War’s genesis and ultimate end is in the poverty of our hearts.

"If we can realize that the world’s liberation begins within those troubled hearts, then we may yet find peace…What good has ever come from the slaughter of the innocents?" (Americans Who Tell The Truth)

Kathy Kelly is thinking about the U.S. military's insatiable appetite for war in Afghanistan and the stark facts about children near death from starvation (vcnv.org).

Salt and Terror in Afghanistan

(Voices for Creative Nonviolence) Two weeks ago in a room in Kabul, Afghanistan, I joined several dozen people, working seamstresses, some college students, socially engaged teenagers... (vcnv.org)

 

Fire and Ice in Afghanistan

Little Shuba, 3-y.o., Afghan survivor

(HuffingtonPost.com) Shuba, 3 1/2 years old, survived a terrible fire. Her uncle found her and her twin sisters inside a hut that was blossoming into flames. Such relief in the refugee camp that no one was killed. Locked in Winter: As many as 35,000 displaced persons are now living in the slum areas in the capital of Kabul alone. The fire in the Chaman e Babrak camp extended to adjacent homes, swiftly rendering nine families homeless in the midst of already astounding poverty.

The worst narco-state in history? After 13-year war, U.S.-administered Afghanistan’s opium trade floods the globe [and the CIA pockets the profits to fund its illegal missions]

(Democracy Now! FULL episode, Monday, December 29, 2014)

NYPD officer speaks out on fellow racist cops who turned backs to NY mayor and why people of color FEAR police

• U.S.-led NATO occupation formally ends combat role, but war continues
• Racist LAPD officers mock murder of Michael Brown in song parody
• Anti-police brutality protests continue across U.S. 
• NSA discloses trove of violations in Christmas Eve document dump
• Indonesian officials say missing plane likely at bottom of the sea
• U.S. drone strike kills 7 as Pakistani forces expand offensive
• U.S. continues Iraq, Syria bombing; group says ISIS has killed nearly 2,000
• Thousands attend funeral for slain NYPD officer
• Police Commissioner: "Inappropriate" for officers to turn backs on mayor
• Ferguson police spokesperson suspended for calling roadside memorial "a pile of trash"
• Mexican protesters mark 3 months since student disappearances
• Al Jazeera journalists mark 365 days of imprisonment in Egypt
• Egyptian appeals court upholds convictions, reduces jail terms of pro-democracy protesters
• Cuba rejects calls to extradite Assata Shakur to U.S.
• Oregon doctor freed in East Timor, but still can’t return home

Note strategic importance of formerly Buddhist Afghanistan, home of the Buddha (ranajitpal.com) next to Iran, former Soviet Central Asia, Pakistan, India, and China/Tibet. Greek, British, and Russian empires came here to die, now the USA has. China is next.