Sunday, September 14, 2014

Truest statement of the week

Obama and his partners in crime would do well to remember the events of September 2013, just one year ago. The United States accused Assad of using chemical weapons as a casus belli. The American people didn’t buy what their president was selling and the no vote in the British parliament crushed the effort to start a hot war.
The signs of desperation in the capitalist West are obvious. Their “rebels” in Syria can’t defeat Assad, they can’t get support among their own people for war and yet they still used Ukraine’s political crisis to take on Putin and failed. The United States is committed to making war on the rest of the planet and uses its military and economic muscle to get its way. Peace is the last thing that the Nobel Peace Prize winning president wants to see.

-- Margaret Kimberley, "NATO Loses Ukraine" (Black Agenda Report).













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Truest statement of the week II


In the wake of events in Ferguson, Missouri, the Obama administration has been exposed as the biggest supplier – more like “pusher” – of military equipment to local and state police departments in the nation’s history. The president’s operatives have displayed remarkable creativity in finding ways to shovel record quantities of weapons, vehicles and gear into the hands of cops, who seem increasingly anxious to prove their killing skills. More than a year before Michael Brown was extrajudicially executed on the street at high noon, the Huffington Post’s Radley Balko described how Obama has left no rock unturned nor federal agency untapped in his quest to transform every police department into a military unit, ready in an instant to do battle with – whom?
We know whom: Black people, mainly young and male, America’s public enemy number one ever since the white settler nation began running out of natives to kill. No sooner had official apartheid ended, in the Sixties, than white society demanded the imposition of what Michelle Alexander calls the New Jim Crow – a mass Black Incarceration State capable of waging constant, preemptive counterinsurgency warfare against an entire people. The Black Panther Party was right all along: in Black America, the police are an occupation army. Obama, like his predecessors, has simply been taking care of the troops.


-- Glen Ford, "The Treasonous 32: Four-Fifths of Black Caucus Help Cops Murder Their Constituents" (Black Agenda Report).












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A note to our readers

Hey --

Yet another Sunday.

First, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:




The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

And what did we come up with?

Last week, we never noted that.

It was a busy and tense time -- as noted at other community sites.

But reader Fran e-mailed to say, "You've got to do a real note this week because that Justin Rainmondo at Anitwar.com is ripping you off."

Yes, Fran, I (Jim) created this note back in 2005 as a way to talk to the readers.

And our "A note to our readers" clearly influenced Justin's recently created "A note to my readers" which he also feels the need to publish on Sundays though with no hat tip to us, with no acknowledgment at all.

It goes to ethics, it goes to manners.

He's not a very good walking advertisement for his parents, is he?

But sometimes, we just don't have time for a real note.

Margaret Kimberley earned another truest this week.
As did Glen Ford.  When this feature first started, Dalia Hashad was the most often named for truest.  These days, it's Glen Ford.
Though it was supposed to end, it continues.  Many can note that.  Including, C.I. points out, Antiwar.com's Margaret Griffis  and Jason Ditz (see how that's done, Justin, just a quick shout and link).   Many can note that.  Why are we the only ones asking did the new PM lie about ordering an end to these assaults on civilian targets or is the military refusing to follow his orders?

Ava and C.I. take on Medea Benjamin and the harem of whores who rush to shield Barack from any and all criticism.  Isaiah loved this so much, his latest comic is inspired by it.
No, he doesn't.  He will spit on the families which using their dead loved ones to promote more war.

What we listened to. 
A quick piece to note Marcia and Rebecca's book reviews.
Goes to Mike Prysner.
Short feature.

And we just realized we didn't title this one.  We'll put a title to it. 
From Great Britain's Socialist Worker. 
From Workers World.

Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.


And for Fran who wished last week's edition had a note with commentary, I'll weigh in on Ava and C.I.'s "TV: The mob attacks Mindy."  I was 100% against this topic.  I wanted Iraq and demanded it.  They said they couldn't do it, they said they didn't have it in them.  They said Mindy and art needed defending and that's what they were going to do.  I said, "I'm telling you, readers want to hear about Iraq."  Ava replied, "I'm telling you, our readers will very much care about this topic."

A week later, who was right?

Me?

I wish.

This became an insta-classic with over 2,00 reads in less than 12 hours.  It only continued to increase in number as the week went on until, finally, early Saturday, it became the 10th most popular article of all time at this site (the nine ahead of it are also written by Ava and C.I.).

Ava and C.I. were correct to cover this topic.  And Ava was right that their readers would care about the topic.



Peace.




-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.


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Editorial: The bombing of civilians continues in Iraq

A lot went on regarding Iraq last week.  You had US President Barack Obama making his ridiculous speech, the rush to more war, US Secretary of State John Kerry meeting with Iraq President Fuad Masum (pictured below), and much more.




Here, we've repeatedly called for an end to the Iraqi miliatry's bombing campaign of civilians in Falluja (and the Iraqi and US military bombing campaign of civilians elsewhere in Iraq).

So we were most interested in Oliver Holmes and Jason Szep's report for Reuters that "Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday that he had ordered his air force to halt strikes on civilian areas, following attacks by both Iraqi and U.S. jets in large areas of the country held by Islamic State fighters."

We'd applaud that decision.

Would.

We can't right now.

Was it sincere?

We don't know what's in his heart but was it sincere in the sense that al-Abadi actually ordered the military to stop?

If so, it appears Iraq's military is not taking orders from the new prime minister.

BBC News reports today that Falluja General Hospital has again been bombed by the Iraqi military.

Since the start of the year, the Iraqi military has repeatedly bombed both Falluja General and Falluja's teaching hospital.


But the Sunday bombing raises serious questions.

Is al-Abadi lying?

Did he not call for an end to the bombing?

Is he telling the truth?

In which case he did call for an end to the bombing but for some reason the Iraqi military is not following his orders?


If the latter is the case, that's even more disturbing than the thought of yet another lying politician.







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TV: Barack's Delusional Love Slaves

Beginning in 2008, we realized the Christ-child who couldn't walk on water still had a following -- The Cult of St. Barack.  We documented their delusions, their outright lies and their never-ending whoring.

We watched as the Cult created an online frenzy, a lynch mob which they could deploy at will.








The lynch mob's got smaller if not smarter.

The whores have gotten tired and look haggard.

Take Medea Benjmain who apparently will never leave the bordello.

Everyone's favorite closet Communist and CIA sympathizer fronts CodeStink with gal 'pal' Jodi Evans.  Jodi, of course, was a 2008 bundler for Obama and didn't think she needed to disclose that to CodeStink members or the public.  Medea's the poor relation to Jodi, the Patsy Kelly to Jodi's Tallulah Bankhead -- although we're not saying Medea, like Patsy, dispense 'vaginal massages.'

Then again, we're not saying she doesn't.

There's little she won't do for money or attention.

Which is how she ended up on the CIA-friendly Democracy Now! last Friday.

US President Barack Obama had announced last Wednesday that he was ramping up war on Iraq and that this latest phase would last beyond his second term.

Two days later, slow and tired whore Medea dragged herself over to spin with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

Asked to "respond to President Obama’s speech and the fact that the vast majority of Americans polled support taking military action in Iraq and Syria?," Medea finger banged her lifeless vag and panted:
I think President Obama has been hounded by the media, by the war hawks in Congress, mostly from the Republican side but also from the Democrats, and is going into this insane not only bombing in Iraq, but also talking about going into Syria, at a time when just a couple of months ago the American people had made it very clear that we were very tired of war.


Yeah, she really said that, the whore said it.


Barack's declared this phase of war against his will, according to Medea.

Those mean old Republicans and some of those mean old Democrats and, of course, the media have forced Barack to do something against his will.

Medea is a carrier who spreads a form of mental gonorrhea every time she opens her mouth.

Gonorrhea, in fact, advanced gonorrhea would go a long way towards explaining her inability to reason or process thoughts logically.

A real peace activist wouldn't be making excuses for Barack.  These excuses make Barack the victim -- not the Iraqi people.

These excuses, lies and cover stories are put out by whores who won't call out Barack and don't want anyone else to.

Medea's no longer just a distraction.  She is part of the War Machine.

A real peace movement would kick the whore out -- all the whores.

Medea couldn't stop revealing what a cheap whore she was.

The (brief) segment was supposed to be about Iraq and Syria but Medea lost all interest in that and began babbling:


Well, the peace movement was really decimated when Obama came in, and has been trying to rebuild ever since. But I think now we have to think of all of us as the peace movement. Now is the time to say, if you’re an environmentalist, you better understand that war is the greatest environmental disaster and the U.S. military is the greatest polluter on the planet. If you care about having money for youth groups or for infrastructure or for green energy, you better understand that sucking money into the military—we’re now paying $7.5 million for just the bombing in Iraq. Imagine if we start going into Syria. We can’t afford this. If you’re people that care about money in politics, this is the time to get out there and say this is part of the subsidy to the military-industrial complex. This is an issue for all of us out there now, and we’ve got to get on the phones, we’ve got to get into the streets, we’ve got to demand town hall meetings, get our representatives and say to them, "We want you to vote on this. That’s your responsibility. And we want you to vote no."


During the long build up this summer to Barack's announcement last week, Medea didn't have time to devote to Iraq.  She busied herself on her pet causes, causes she now wants to pimp and link to Iraq.  She wants to hijack the parade float in an attempt to amplify her issues.

She's a useless whore who needs to step aside. 

And if she won't step aside, she should be shoved.

In fact, maybe it's past time for another pie-ing?

But what you really need to grasp is Medea isn't about peace.


She pretends to care about the state of the peace movement.

But a movement needs something to rally against and Medea repeatedly lies and whores to stop the movement from rallying against Barack.

She does this by peddling one loony conspiracy theory after another -- conspiracy theories which always insist Barack is not the leader of war and empire the people should rally against.

Medea's become a public menace and needs to be quarantined. 

Can you imagine anyone showing up for rallies against the Iraq War in 2003 if peace movement 'leaders' had gone around (lying) that Bully Boy Bush was being forced into forcing war, that the media was twisting his arm?

No, we can't imagine it either.

The refusal to call out Barack, to hold him responsible for his actions, goes a long way towards explaining the state of the peace movement in the United States today.

If you're not calling him out, you're part of his harem and you're selling war.  

Under Bully Boy Bush, Medea and CodeStink appeared to be about opposing war.

Since Barack's been sworn in as president, Medea's railed in column after column against The Drone War -- most of these columns never named Barack let alone called him out, she's insisted US forces remain in Afghanistan and now she's telling people that Barack is the victim.

If you're still not getting how she's the problem, you may be part of the problem as well.  

Us?

We're damn sick of Barack and his harem of love slaves.

It's time to demand accountability -- Barack must be held accountable and so must so-called 'leaders' of the peace movement.







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Barack doesn't feel your pain



To sell the latest phase of continued war on Iraq, US President Barack Obama and the administration have used the deaths of 2 journalists: James Foley and  Steven Sotloff.  The deaths were used to allow hypocritical moralizing by Barack and Secretary of State John Kerry (among others in the administration).

Both men were killed by the Islamic State (Saturday,  British aid activist David Haines, was killed) and the White House used and play to "the inherent vanity of the American press" to  scare Americans (it could be you!) and to whip up a frenzy for more war.

But while (mis)using the deaths, the administration has demonstrated disrespect to the families of Foley and Sotloff.

For example, The Week notes:

 American journalist James Foley was beheaded on video by ISIS in Syria after being held captive there for 21 months. Now, Foley's brother Michael says the Obama administration was "actually an impedance" to the Foley family's efforts to rescue James.
"U.S. policy does not allow for government negotiations with terrorist organizations or ransom payments for Americans kidnapped by them," Fox News reports, and Michael Foley said on the Megyn Kelly Show that the State Department "specifically threatened" him about raising ransom money for his brother.


And Devin Dwyer (ABC News) reports:

 The White House today disputed claims made by a spokesman for the family of slain American journalist Steven Sotloff that he was sold as a hostage to ISIS by the so-called moderate Syrian opposition, the same forces President Obama is now seeking to fund and arm.
“As it relates to the specifics of this matter, based on the information that has been provided to me, I don’t believe that is accurate,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in response to a question from ABC’s Jonathan Karl.

Barak Barfi, representing the Sotloffs, told CNN on Monday that the family believes ISIS paid up to $50,000 to “moderate rebel” tipsters who flagged when Steven Sotloff crossed the border into Syria.


Josh Earnest, you believe or you know?

Because if you don't know, shut the f**k up.

You didn't lose anyone, you piece of s**t.

So just shut the f**k up.

Reality, Barack failed to protect Americans Foley and Sotloff.

Maybe this was due to incompetence, maybe it was due to a plan to use the two journalists' deaths?

Doesn't matter.

The White House failed.

And as revelations emerge of threats to family members, the last thing the White House spokesperson needs to be doing is attempting to 'correct' the statements of family members when, by his own word choice, he has no idea what happened.



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This edition's playlist




roberta flack




1) Roberta Flack's Let It Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings The Beatles.

2) The Beatles' White Album.

3) Prince's LOtUSFLOW3R.

4) Phoebe Snow's Live.

5) Amy Winehouse's Back To Black.

6) The New York Dolls' Too Much Too Soon.

7) White Stripes' Get Behind Me, Satan.

8) 10,000 Maniacs' Our Time In Eden.

9) Carly Simon's Into White.

10) Lenny Kravitz's It Is Time For A Love Revolution.












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Book Corner



Every summer, Marcia and Rebecca team up to cover a book.  This year, they covered Victoria Wilson's  A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel True 1907 -1940.

They offered "Avoid this book!" and "worst book of the century."

For those who might have different tastes, they recommend you judge by this excerpt on how Stanwyck's first marriage was instrumental to the film 1937 film A Star Is Born:

The model for the Vicki Lester-Norman Maine marriage was Barbara's marriage to Fay, which by this point had become Hollywood lore.  Fay had come to Hollywood a huge Broadway star; Barbara's big Broadway sucess in Burlesque had carried no weight in Hollywood.  She was an unknown girl married to one of the biggest draws in vaudeville and on Broadway.  For the first few years in Hollywood, after Fay changed his mind and allowed Barbara to work, he'd guided and supported her career; it was Fay who had Harry Cohn hire his wife for Mexicali Rose and arrange to pay her salary.  Fay brought [Frank] Capra a copy of Barbara's test scene from The Noose, shot by Alexander Korda, when Barbara, after making eleven unsuccessful tests, refused to make another for Capra's new picture, Ladies of Leisure, and it was Fay who insisted that Capra watch the test.  Capra, watching it, had fallen in love with Barbara and starred her in four of his pictures, launching her career.  Wellman and Carson used this in the picture when Norman Maine insists that the producer, Oliver Niles, watch Esther Blodgett's screen test.
It was part of Hollywood lore that as Barbara's star began to rise in picture after picture, Fay's godlike stature as Broadway's Favorite Son began to collapse.  Warner Bros. had put Fay in one improbable movie role after another in an attempt to make the red-headed, brilliant monologuist into the screen's most irresistible Latin lover.
Bill Wellman had watched much of this unfold.  He adored Stanwyck and she him.  They'd made three pictures together -- Night Nurse, So Big, The Purchase Price -- during the years -- 1931-1932 -- when Barbara's marriage was starting to come apart.  In many ways Bill felt that Barbara was a female version of himself: the leanness, the energy, the passion, the toughness, the fierce loyalty.
Hollywood had watched appalled and sniggering as Barbara stood steadfast by Fay's side ("I'm Mrs. Frank Fay," she'd insisted to reporters at the height of her stardom and the low point of his): through his publicized brawls, his string of failed pictures, and his disastrous return to Broadway's Palace, where he'd once he'd played the longest engagement in the theater's history.





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Tweet of the week

Tweet of the week goes to Iraq War veteran and activist Mike Prysner:

I wonder if Obama's "3 years to defeat ISIS" Iraq war strategy will be as successful as Bush's "months, not years" Iraq war strategy
5:34 PM - 8 Sep 2014








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Barack explains all




Above, Barack Obama demonstrates, with his hand, how wide his tiny penis feels when he bombs an area and kills some civilians.  Whatever gives you circumference, Barry, whatever gives you circumference.









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Murray Questions New VA Secretary on Department’s Culture and Accountability

Senator Patty Murray



Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following last week:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 CONTACT: Murray Press Office
Tuesday, September 09, 2014                                                         (202) 224-2834
 

VETERANS: Murray Questions New VA Secretary on Department’s Culture and Accountability
 


 


(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, attended a hearing with Secretary Robert McDonald and Acting Inspector General Richard Griffin focusing on the state of health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Senator Murray discussed the long wait times for primary and specialty care within the Puget Sound Health Care System as well as the wait times for new mental health care patients in Spokane.


 
WATCH Senator Murray question Secretary McDonald and Acting Inspector General Griffin.


 
Senator Murray’s full opening remarks:


 
“Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing.
 
“I would like to start by thanking Acting Inspector General Richard Griffin and the Department’s Office of Inspector General for all the work they did in conducting this review.
 
“Your investigators and staff put together an incredibly important report on what happened at Phoenix. 
 
“Completing the other investigations, at nearly 100 medical centers, is an enormous task. 
 
“So I want to thank the OIG for the incredible dedication it will take to get the job done. 
 
“After many years of making critical contributions to veterans care and benefits, the IG rightly has a reputation of being objective, reliable and thorough in their work.
 
“Your findings will be vitally important to ensuring veterans across the country get the care they demand and deserve.
 
“I appreciate how Secretary McDonald has hit the ground sprinting in his new role and have taken immediate steps to get veterans off of wait-lists and into care.
 
“And while the VA’s latest data continues to show patient accessibility improving across the Department, I am still concerned about some of the facilities in my home state of Washington.
 
“Veterans receiving primary and specialty care within the Puget Sound Health Care System continue to wait longer than national averages for primary and specialty care…
 
“At Spokane, new mental health care patients wait over twice as long – 75 days – for their appointments.
 
“This must change.
 
“As VA continues to focus on providing veterans with timely access to care, it must also ensure veterans receive the highest quality of care.
 
“And as the IG’s report showed, that was all too often not the case at Phoenix.
 
“The IG found that the Phoenix Health Care System struggled with many basic quality of care issues like leaving routine physical examinations and evaluations incomplete or failing to conduct them at all; releasing mental health care patients before their medications were properly stabilized; and struggling to provide dedicated mental health care providers to patients.
 
“When we are talking about caring for our nation’s heroes and their families, we expect excellence.
 
“And as I have said repeatedly -- as transparency and accountability increase at the VA, so will the investigations and reports of additional concerns requiring even more action from the VA, the Administration, and Congress.
 
“So today, I want to hear how VA will address the findings of the IG, the VA access audit, and the White House’s review. 
 
“In addition, I’d like to hear how the VA will implement the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act. 
 
“Yesterday, we heard the Secretary speak about VA recommitting itself to its core values. 
 
“Today, we need to know how the Secretary will turn those commitments into real action, and to improved care for our nation’s heroes.”
 
###
---


Meghan Roh
Press Secretary | New Media Director
Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray
Mobile: (202) 365-1235
Office: (202) 224-2834
@PattyMurray | @SenateBudget | @MegRoh





















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Stop David Cameron's plan to join US bombing of Iraq (Charlie Kimber)

This is from Great Britain's Socialist Worker:

Stop David Cameron's plan to join US bombing of Iraq

by Charlie Kimber

David Cameron and Barack Obama at the recent Nato summit in Newport, South Wales
David Cameron and Barack Obama at the recent Nato summit in Newport, South Wales (Pic: Nato Summit Wales 2014/flickr)
David Cameron, backed by Labour Party leaders and the Lib Dems, is preparing to bomb Iraq again. It will only make matters worse if he does order a return to British attacks.
At last week’s Nato summit in South Wales, Cameron spoke out in support of US president Barack Obama and his disastrous plan to increase US attacks on Iraq.
Cameron pledged that Islamic State would be “squeezed out of existence”.
Government sources also suggested that British soldiers could return to Iraq to help train troops. They would be the first official British “boots on the ground” in the country since the army was withdrawn from Iraq in 2011.
There are a series of reports that British forces are already involved.
Regular soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment were in the Kurdish region in August—despite government assurances there would be no such deployment.
And at least 1,000 Royal Marines were deployed to Jordan in a long-planned joint military exercise with the US.
First we were told that British forces were only and exclusively providing humanitarian relief. Then they were “monitoring” Islamic State fighters. Now they are preparing to bomb.
They are following in the footsteps of US imperialism.
Last week Obama was asked on television, “Are you preparing the country to go back to war?”
Threat
He replied, “I’m preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from Islamic State. Keep in mind that this is something that we know how to do.”
He insisted that he was not returning to war in Iraq.
But US air raids are already spreading to wider areas of Iraq. Last week they hit the Anbar province for the first time since the US withdrawal in 2011.
US Special Operations forces and “advisers” have brought the total US military force in Iraq to over 1,000.
Cameron said British assaults on Iraq are needed to deal with the threat from Islamic State.
But the group is a product of the destruction caused by previous British and US attacks. The West imposed sanctions in Iraq from 1990. George Bush and Tony Blair then launched war against Iraq in 2003.
These attacks caused 1.5 million Iraqi deaths and tore apart the country’s social fabric.
And they increased the threat of terrorism in Britain. Baroness Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5, told the Chilcot inquiry that the invasion of Iraq made attacks in Britain “substantially” more likely.
A recent study by the Royal United Services Institute said  “there is no longer any serious disagreement” over how Britain’s role in the Iraq war “far from reducing international terrorism had the effect of promoting it.”
Islamic State is brutal and offers no way forward for the people of Iraq. But further bombing by US and Britain is no solution. It needs to be opposed.


Payments © Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.     
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War on ISIL? (Workers World)

This is from Workers World:


War on ISIL?

By on September 10, 2014

Imperialist heads of state at the Sept. 4-5 NATO Summit in Newport, Wales, met under U.S. pressure to escalate their anti-Russia maneuvers regarding Ukraine, to schedule their gradual exit from
Afghanistan and to open war on the Islamic State.


The summit’s proposed goals all involved making NATO capable of rapid intervention on three continents, far from the North Atlantic region. While many of NATO’s European members were reluctant to step up military spending, Washington kept up the pressure to mobilize against Russia and to intervene in the Middle East and Africa.


President Barack Obama pushed a proposal to increase military spending by all NATO members to at least 2 percent of their gross national product. With European capitalism in a tailspin and most ruling classes imposing austerity on the workers, all national governments keep a tight hold on their wallets. Most of the NATO countries’ increased spending would be using their national budgets to buy from the U.S.-based military-industrial complex. Europe loses both ways.


Despite Obama’s pressure to maximize economic sanctions against Russia, most of the European heads of state — whose economic interests in Russia are much more significant than those of the U.S. — took advantage of the ceasefire in Ukraine to postpone new sanctions against Russia. German media are reporting that German manufacturers have been finding ways to work around existing sanctions and assure gas supplies from Russia for the upcoming winter.


Still, NATO managed to approve a 4,000-troop rapid deployment force to throw into battle at any point in the world on a few days’ notice, such as in Ukraine, where anti-fascist forces had drubbed the Kiev junta’s army leading up to the ceasefire on Sept. 8.


Regarding the Islamic State, Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron published a joint opinion statement in the London Times on Sept. 4, calling on NATO to confront the organization also known as ISIS or ISIL, which imperialist politicians and the corporate media now depict as the greatest danger to humanity.


Failing to get broad approval, Obama rounded up various heads of state at the summit to set up a new coalition to coordinate an assault allegedly aimed at waging “war on ISIL.” Obama plans to appeal to the U.S. public with a major televised speech Sept. 10 pushing and explaining this new aggressive move.


Coalition members are the usual suspects, that is, the major imperialist powers and a few of their clients: Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.


While the Republican militarists continue to hammer Obama for alleged indecisiveness on war matters, they are beating a straw man. Obama threatens confrontation with Russia, bombing Iraq and/or Syria, and drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. And though he’ll promise not to put “boots on the ground,” what will happen when the bombs prove ineffective? Remember, Washington hasn’t given up on regime change in Syria.


We should always keep in mind that, whatever one may think of ISIL, for the imperialists this organization is just another pretext for aggression.

We’re glad that to counter these war moves, demonstrators outside the NATO meeting faced down the 9,500 police and military guarding the imperialists and other heads of state and raised their anti-war slogans. The imperialist system and its war instruments like NATO are the real threat to humanity. We join with the Wales protesters and answer Obama’s call for “war on ISIL” with “No new imperialist wars! No to NATO!”



Articles copyright 1995-2014 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.


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Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.



"The media exists to sell war" -- most requested highlight by readers of this site.

"So Michael Moore's disappointed in Barack again" -- Stan calls out Michael Moore.

"worst book of the century" and "Avoid this book!" -- Rebecca and Marcia review a book.


"New York Times has explosive exclusive!" and "THIS JUST IN! NYT IMPLICATES SCI FI LEGEND!" -- Cedric and Wally on NYT's smear against Dr. Who.



"Mindy Kaling" and "The attacks on Mindy Kalig" -- Ann and Stan on Mindy.


"Will we have a slice of Turkey?," "The Spread The Blame Around Coalition," "Barack's speech fail" and "Biden's words bite him in the butt" -- Betty, Mike, Trina and Ann on Iraq.


"Time," "Non posted things," "Open doors," "just leave me alone," "The Lamberts," "Slum lords," "It's fixed,"
"How much money do they need?," "Tell me the darn price" and "Dee Jays learn the artist" -- community theme post on recent pet peeves. 


 "Lois Lerner belongs in jail"and "The I.R.S. scandal" -- Ruth on the ongoing IRS scandal.



"Scott Brown, shut up!" -- Mike's tired of nonsense.



"Power ballads, story songs and Cher's blown opportunity" -- Elaine covers music.






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