Uppity Wisconsin

The next time someone tells you that we must continue to wage war in Iraq or Afghanistan or in some other foreign adventure, to make certain that those who died there did not die in vain, remember the words of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of forces in Afghanistan.

Discussing the US abandonment of a military outpost in an area known as Death Valley, where 42 American troops -- and many more Afghan soldiers -- were killed and hundreds wounded, McChrystal said:

“I care deeply about everybody who has been hurt here, but I can’t do anything about it. I can do something about people who might be hurt in the future."

Do the troops feel we should stay to defend the honor of those who died there?

“It hurts,” Specialist Robert Soto of the 26th Infantry, who spent 12 months in the valley from 2008 to 2009, and saw half of his platoon killed or wounded, told the NY Times. “It hurts on a level that — three units from the Army, we all did what we did up there. And we all lost men. We all sacrificed. I was 18 years old when I got there. I really would not have expected to go through what we went through at that age...

Neil Shively, retired Capitol bureau chief of the old Milwaukee Sentinel, writes a "Where are they now?" piece for WisPolitics.com every now and then. Recently featured was ex-US Sen. Robert Kasten. Shively treats him kindly:

Bob Kasten is still in Washington, however -- and in New York City, and Egypt and the Middle East. And he's still a major player, though now in the field of defense contracting using lessons he learned in the Senate. Heard of Oshkosh Corp.'s bonanza with billions in defense contracts? Well, Kasten helped stimulate deals for Oshkosh with foreign nations, such as Egypt.

“My business is not so much a lobbying business. When I was in the Senate, I was chairman of the sub-committee on foreign operations, security and economics,” he said, offering the path to his business today. “We (the U.S.) give large numbers of military and economic aid … $1 billion to Egypt, for example.“So I work for U.S. businesses and try to help them sell to Egypt and other countries in the Middle East,” he said.

What does that business sound like to you?

I've refrained from writing anything for several days while reading the series of articles by George Stanley, Journal Sentinel managing editor, about his visit to Afghanistan, where his son serves in the Army.

It has been clear that Stanley decided long ago that the war in Afghanistan is a just war, and that the US is justified in sending its troops and spilling blood there for the past eight years. Many of us would differ and question the underlying premise that the Taliban were responsible for the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, but he is entitled to his opinion. He also seems convinced that our troops being in Afghanistan is the reason we haven't had another terrorist attack in the US -- another dubious and debatable assumption.

Stanley is understandably proud of his son and his decision to serve. As someone who served myself in an unwinnable war long ago, I respect both those who are serving and who have served. I don't think that troops fighting in a combat zone are the best people to decide our foreign policy, however, no matter how gung-ho they might be.

When someone's family is directly involved, as Stanley's is, I am more hesitant to speak up.

We have another one of those “amazing history” stories for you today—and this one’s a real doozy.

We’re going to spend the better part of four years in the Italian Alps (or, to be more accurate, what was intended to be the Italian Alps), and by the time we’re done, nearly 400,000 soldiers will have been killed—and 60,000 of those will have died as a result of avalanches that were set by one side or the other.

In the middle of the story: a mountaineer and soldier who was so highly regarded that even those who fought against him accorded him the highest honors they could muster, creating a legend that lives on to this very day.

And even though a young Captain Erwin Rommel fought in these battles...it’s not him.

Oh, by the way: did I mention that there are also some handy object lessons for anyone who might be thinking about fighting a war in Afghanistan?

Well, there are, Gentle Reader, so follow along, and let’s all learn something today.

...as I listen to our talented young president explain why he is adding 30,000 troops -- beyond the 21,000 he had added already -- I can only think: another Vietnam. I hope I am incorrect, but history tells me otherwise.

-- George McGovern in a Washington Post column.

I listened to President Obama Tuesday night.

I heard: This is not another Vietnam. These are different circumstances, and there will be a different outcome.

I'd like to believe that, but I don’t.

It looks too much like Vietnam, when another liberal Democratic president got talked into a war we couldn’t win.   

I heard: this is going to be the shortest surge in history. In 18 months, the troops will start coming home.

I'd like to believe that, but I don’t.

I don't think Obama's lying to us. He's lying to himself. It's wishful thinking, based on what he’s heard from the same old “experts” -- Robert Gates, David Petraeus, and more -- that George Bush was listening to a year ago.

Obama has Joe Biden, not Dick Cheney, and Biden's pressed for a different course in Afghanistan. But Bush listened to Cheney.

Congress does still have a voice in this, however irrelevant that may seem. Russ Feingold has spoken out strongly. So has Tammy Baldwin. Dave Obey says we can’t afford this war.

But my Congresswoman Gwen Moore, who's been great on Iraq, and speaks at our peace rallies, is not yet with us on Afghanistan. She is worried, understandably, about what will happen to Afghan women if the Taliban end up in control.

I worry about that, too.

I have a Thanksgiving story for your consumption that has nothing to do with turkeys or pumpkin pie or crazy uncles.

Instead, in an effort to remind you what this holiday can really stand for, we’ll meet some people who are thankful today for simply being free.

It’s a short story today, but an especially touching one, so follow along and we’ll take a little hop across the Atlantic for a trip you should not miss.

By Abdul Malik Mujahid

According to the CIA World Factbook, an Afghan’s life expectancy is merely 44 years.

That's 20 to 30 years less than neighboring Pakistan and all other surrounding countries. It is just one result of the ongoing devastation in that country.

The war in Afghanistan did not start in 2001 with the US invasion. It began 30 years ago in December 1979, when the former Soviet Union invaded the country. The human toll of the conflict is staggering: more than a million Afghans have been killed and 3 million maimed.

Five million (one third of the pre-war population) were forced to leave their country and became refugees. There are still 3.1 million Afghan refugees today, making up 27 per cent of the global refugee population. Most of them live in Pakistan.

Another two million Afghans were displaced within the country. In the 1980s, one out of two refugees in the world was an Afghan. Most Afghans alive today have seen nothing but war.

He's done it again.  Bill O'Reilly's stalker-producer Jesse Watters conducted another stalking-ambush, this time of Think Progress's Amanda Terkel.  She describes the setup.

 

- The Stalking: Watters and his camera man accosted me at approximately 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, in Winchester, VA, which is a two-hour drive from Washington, DC. My friend and I were in this small town for a short weekend vacation and had told no one about where we were going. I can only infer that the two men staked out my apartment and then followed me for two hours. Looking back, my friend and I remember seeing their tan SUV following us for much of the trip.

This is seriously messed up.

(Kathy Kelly (kathyvcnv [dot] org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the Chicago-based group that organized the walk against war, across Wisconsin last summer, ending at the Republican convention in St. Paul. She recently returned from Gaza.)

 

By Kathy Kelly

People have asked me, since I returned from Gaza, how people manage. How do they keep going after being traumatized by bombing and punished by a comprehensive state of siege? I wonder myself. I know that whether the loss of life is on the Gazan or the Israeli side of the border, bereaved survivors feel the same pain and misery. On both sides of the border, I think children pull people through horrendous and horrifying nightmares. Adults squelch their panic, cry in private, and strive to regain semblances of normal life, wanting to carry their children through a precarious ordeal.

In response to the recent Gaza War, a fundraising page was set up on ActBlue.com in order to contribute to elected officials who have been supportive of the peoples of Israel and Palestine. The page is called A Dream of Peace: Justice and Equality for The People of Israel and Palestine, and can be found here .

The mission of the page states "All of the people of the Holy Land need to live in peace and security. We need to support and elect candidates that are willing to stand up for the rights of the citizens of Israel and Palestine. These candidates support measures to stop violence, increase economic and humanitarian aid, actively engage in negotiation, and promote co-existence among these two Peoples."

On January 28th, Rep. John Olver (MA-01) sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton requesting that the State Department release funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for reconstuction and humanitarian assistance in Gaza. The letter was signed by a total of 63 Democratic House members, including two members of the Wisconsin Delegation.

Milwaukee Congresswoman Gwen Moore deserves a Profiles in Courage award for being one of only five House members to vote against a resolution basically absolving Israel of any responsibility for the violence in Gaza and blaming it all on Hamas.

Russell Wallace at Reform Dem blog has the details of the resolution. Highlights include:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) expresses vigorous support and unwavering commitment to the welfare, security, and survival of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state with secure borders, and recognizes its right to act in self-defense to protect its citizens against Hamas's unceasing aggression, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter;

(2) reiterates that Hamas must end the rocket and mortar attacks against Israel, recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence, agree to accept previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians, and verifiably dismantle its terrorist infrastructure;

The House vote was 390-5, with 16 others either absent and 22 Dems voting "present." Call that profiles in cowardice.

What had been a truce between Israel and the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip seems to have abruptly come to a halt; with the Israelis blaming Hamas and Hamas blaming Israeli oppression of the displaced Palestinians for the simmering hostilities that are now boiling over into military-scale violence. Before the recent holidays and an immoderate amount of snow buried me in things that could not be done on the computer we had been having a conversation about the strategic importance of our relationship with Egypt.