US War Crimes

Last month the number of Amercicans killed in Iraq exceeded those killed in the 9/11 attack.

The civilian Iraqi deaths far exceed that number. In fact the latest report shows that 1 in 40 Iraqi's have died since the American invasion.


Around 655,000 people have died in Iraq as a result of the US-led coalition invasion, according to the largest scientific analysis yet. That is 2.5% of the country's entire population.The death rate before the invasion was a fairly normal 5.5 per thousand people per year. Since March 2003, that figure has averaged 13.2, the researchers found. More worrying, the death rate has risen every year since the invasion: this year reaching 19.8 per thousand people per year, a near-fourfold increase over pre-invasion levels. Despite disruptions in sanitation and health care, death from non-violent causes do not appear to have climbed significantly.Enormous death toll of Iraq invasion revealed

Bush's wish to fight terrorism in Iraq rather than at home in America has meant that 220.31 Iraqi civilians have died for every person who died on 9/11.


This is more than those killed by Sadam Hussein who is on trial for war crimes.

The Bush Regime should be tried by the same standards.

Today in his press conference, President Bush applauded the courage of Iraqis, stating that he is “amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to — you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate.”

Of course there are always quizzlings willing to apologize for Amerika's war crimes.

RFE/RL: The top UN rights envoy on torture, Manfred Nowak, speaking a few weeks ago, said that torture may be worse now in Iraq than under Saddam Hussein. What do you make of this, as someone who is very well known for documenting the abuses of the Hussein era?

Kanan Makiya: Well, human rights abuses are widely, widely prevalent, if not the norm, in Iraq. The difference between the two situations is that one was officially sanctioned. Torture was the pinnacle of a system for whom that was almost a desirable form of punishment for breaking the rules during the Saddam Hussein state. Whereas now, torture is occurring because of a general breakdown of authority, left, right, and center, because of the inability of the state to essentially exercise control, to exercise law and order.

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Why We Fight Redux

This past weekend was the fifth anniversary of the American led invasion of Afghanistan. And in a stunning report from Sarah Chayes; who is one of the few American Journalists to have stayed in Afghanistan for the whole time, comes this story of why we are fighting in Kandahar. Not because of the Taliban, but because American political machinations that failed. It is a tale of Americans undermining the Karzai government for their own ends. Which end up with Canadian troops having to clean up their mess at a cost of our soldiers lives.

Sarah Chayes, former NPR correspondent who covered the US invasion of Afghanistan. She left journalism in 2002 to run an aid organization in Kandahar called Afghans for Civil Society. Sarah’s new book is "The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban." She now runs a cooperative called Arghand that sells hand crafted products in Afghanistan.

AMY GOODMAN: You, very early on in your book, talk about a report you couldn’t do or didn’t get in onto NPR. What was that story?

SARAH CHAYES: It was really this story. It was, I watched -- there were U.S. Special Forces that were embedded in a group, a kind of tribal militia, which was directed to put pressure on Kandahar from the south. President Karzai also had U.S. Special Forces with him. He was coming down toward Kandahar from the north. The Taliban surrendered to him. They left. Al-Qaeda left the city. The city was in the hands of President Karzai and his chosen representative, and then these U.S. Special Forces urged this warlord to take the city by force from President Karzai.

AMY GOODMAN: Wait, now, explain how this went down and how you understood what was happening. You were on the border with this --?

SARAH CHAYES: I was on the border. I was not with this group, but I was on the border, and I was listening to the radio, where a lot of this played out, and I was speaking to people who were coming back across the border, and I knew that President Karzai had designated a certain person whose name is Mullah Naqib to be governor of Kandahar. And then, suddenly this warlord is in the city. And then, there’s this huge and angry standoff, which is being played out on the airwaves of the BBC actually, of their Pashto Service, and this warlord is saying, “No, I’m going to be governor of Kandahar.” And I knew there was something strange. And eventually that’s what happened. And Mullah Naqib basically pled old age and said, “Oh, I’m too old.” And I thought, “That’s not right.” You know.

AMY GOODMAN: The Karzai appointee for governor.

SARAH CHAYES: The Karzai appointee, that’s right, said, “Okay, this other guy is going to be governor. I’m too old to be governor.” And I knew that something had happened. And then I rode into the city maybe two days after this with somebody who had been with this warlord, so I asked him, “Well, how did it go? How did you guys happen to go and take Kandahar?” And He was a very young kid, you know, so he’s kind of all excited and enthusiastic. You know -- Speed! Speed! -- we went up the road, you know. And then I said, “Well, what about the Americans who were with you?” He said, “The Americans? They told us to do it.” I thought, “You have to be kidding me.”

And that, I thought, was a really emblematic story to tell that would help show us the direction this thing was going in, because it seemed to me -- remember, this was before Iraq, Afghanistan was it -- and I saw the eyes of the world riveted on how we were going to operate in Afghanistan, how Afghanistan was going to turn out, was going to be crucial to what happened in the next decade or the next half-century even, you know.

AMY GOODMAN: So, he’s saying the U.S. Special Forces had put this other warlord up against the U.S.-backed Hamid Karzai.

SARAH CHAYES: Right, exactly. So the United States was working at cross purposes with itself, number one. Number two, you’re already constraining the power of the person that you have designated to be president. You’re saying, “Okay, you can be president, but you can’t name -- you don’t have the power to name your own governor.” And this dogged President Karzai for the first two years of his administration, when he was trying to limit the powers of some of these warlord governors that we had brought, we had allied with them.

AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. government had.

SARAH CHAYES: The U.S. government, that’s right, had allied with these guys, supposedly in the interest of the war on terror, and President Karzai was trying to limit their power and constrain them or even remove them, and he was told repeatedly that he couldn’t do that. And so, now he’s pretty much given up trying.

Also See:

Afghanistan






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Chickens and Super Bugs

Another reason to challenge capitalist factory farming and the use of antibiotics as growth hormones , whose only purpose is to increase the profitability and surplus value of the end product. They result in superbugs.

Poultry consumption a risk factor for antibiotic resistance in humans
Antibiotic use as a livestock growth promoter increases the risk of human antibiotic resistance, a Marshfield Clinic researcher and his colleagues have found.

"We need to have drugs to treat sick animals but we should not be using antibiotics to promote growth."

"We've known for a long time that resistant bacteria can be found on retail poultry products, but our study is one of the first to show an association between human carriage of antibiotic resistance genes and eating poultry or handling raw poultry. "


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Fear Of Women

Here is a revealing statement from Japan in response to the growing social equality between men and women. A concept that of course challenges the very basis of the social construct of masculinity. Is it any wonder that fascism is not just a political economic system but a psycho-social construct to defend the fragile male ego and its artifical gender construct. To define a relationship of equality as masochism, says much about the fragility of the masculine construct. It is the little man complex.

Japan's concept of free love lost in translation

Japan has also been swept up in the whirlwind of a "pure," or true love boom, the weekly says, adding that it's probably the result of more guys obeying whatever women tell them to do.

"Recently, there have been more guys who make masochistic statements. Actions that would once have been regarded as girly are common and men find life easier if they do what women want," columnist Asato Izumi tells Weekly Playboy. "We're living in an age where it's better off for men if they choose to live like masochists."

To reassert the little mans male authority, fascism, demands dominance over and the deeming of the other (women and girls) by making them the object and subject of the male warriors power. War is rape after all. And all other relationships of course would only belittle the power of the little man, making him a masochist.

Ex-Fukuoka TV reporter given 40-month prison term for gang rape

Wooden frieze carved into the side of the pulpit depicting Jesus standing next to a helmeted German soldier and Aryan women and children.

See:

Rushton Is A Fascist

Life Is A Video Game

Nazi Gay Killer Wanted to be a Cop

SOME REMARKS ON WAR SPIRIT

Feminism



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Burma Shave

So much for caring about the moral economy, the IMF (under the control of the U.S., which says it is all about promoting democracy and capitalism) has this to say to the military autarky/ dictatorship in Burma;

IMF warns Burma on high inflation

Call it a Burma Shave. The IMP wants Burma to shave a few points off inflation, who cares about the exploitation and oppression of the Burmese people. Yes I know it's now called Myanmar, but that was the headline.






See:

Burma

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Send Fentie To Negotiate With the Taliban

The Yukon has re-elected Canada's only sitting Narco Premier. Yukon Party gets majority

It shows Canadian values are not Conservative values. They want a war on drugs, we reward drug dealers by electing them as politicians.

Dennis Fentie, who began his career in crime, which is the origin of all primitive accumulation of capital, had been convicted and spent time in prison for heroin trafficking in 1974

Of course as a smart pusher he didn't use. He went on to to use his wheeling and dealing skills in Construction, another business that is part of the under the table/ underground economy. And his natural instinct for opportunism, going from the NDP to the Yukon Party to Premier, makes him perfect for the job.

So lets get him to negotiate with the poppy growers in Afghanistan.


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Hastert Fires Himself

Those in glass houses.....Hastert Vows to Fire Anyone Who Hid Page Info


See:

Foley

Congress, interns, pages, Foley, Hastert, Speaker, Ethics, Republicans, sex-scandal, email, sexual-harassment, US, politcs, gay, homosexuality, sex

Ambrose Lies, Should Resign

Welcome to New Green Government of Canada ala George Orwell and Jonathan Swift.

Sun Parliament Hill columnist Greg Weston, in his latest column, outlines another lie from our MIA Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, unabashedly presented as fact in front of the parliamentary Environment Committee last week.

In what has become an all too predictable process when she is caught without facts Ambrose doesn't just make them up as she goes but in a true Hegelian fashion turns facts on their head. She fudges facts and outright lies. But that is not an offense under the Conservatives new Accountability Act.

Her other lie in front of the committee was deliberately misquoting from an American pro-environmental document.

And as usual true to form our MIA Environment Minister was not available today for media interviews. Despite the PM announcing that she would have an announcement next week.

These are just two more reasons, in a six month litany of deliberate falsification and lies about facts by Ambrose. Whose first lie was to say she represents Edmonton Spruce Grove when she lives in Edmonton Strathcona. The woman is a compulsive liar.

I am still waiting for someone to set up a on line petition for her to resign that we can all sign.

As it is let your MP and the Opposition parties know we expect them to call for her resignation next week.

Its the least we can do to help cure her of her moral turpitude.


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Ending Child Labour Means Child Exploitation

India has announced a further ban on the use of child labour. This time in domestic service industries. The problem is that children are already working in these industries and the government has no rehabilitation plans. Which leaves these children open to far worse exploitation in the underground economy and the sex industry.

Child Labour laws need to be enforcable, such as being able to offer children an alternative to work, that is having families able to support themselves without using their children, a living wage, and public education.

Which is not occuring in India. Instead this is another example of the State passing legislation that is useless except as a PR effort. Thus what is good for Alberta should be good for India, when it comes to the domesitic industry.

Flip-side to the child labour ban

Toral Varia

CNN-IBN

Posted Tuesday , October 10, 2006 at 19:18Updated Tuesday , October 10, 2006 at 20:32

NO REASON TO SMILE: 15-year-old Arjun had come to Mumbai to earn a living to support his family.

New Delhi: The Labour Ministry notification banning employing children below 14 years as domestic helps or at eateries came into force on Tuesday even as the children had little to cheer about in the absence of a comprehensive rehabilitation package.

The fresh notification prohibits employment of children as domestic help or as servants in dhabas, restaurants, teashops, resorts, spas and recreational centres. But does this notification take into account the problem of rehabilitation of the millions of child workers in India?

“I work from 10 to 3 during the day and then from 6:30 till 11 in the night,” says Child Labourer, Arjun working in a small restaurant in Mumbai.

What exactly is the child labour law?

The Child Labour Act prohibits employment of children below the age of 14 years. According to Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, those found violating it could face a jail term of up to two-years and a maximum fine of Rs 20,000.

His everyday work includes sweeping the floor, cleaning and serving food in the hotel. “There is no money at home, that is why I am here,” says the 15-year-old who had come to Mumbai to earn a living to support his family. He will be just one amongst many children who have nowhere to go after the implementation of the SC ban.

“There are children from Kolkata and South India, Karnatka and Mdaras who work here. Where will they go if they don work?” the hotel manager says.

Though the ban makes sense, very little thought seems to have gone into the future of the children most of whom are breadwinners for their families.

See:

Child Labour In Alberta

Child Labour Returns to Alberta

Kielburger Wins Nobel

Kids Are Commodities

Wal Mart Exploits Child Labour

Big Brother Wal Mart

CPP Funds Wal Mart

Private Property=Child Labour

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Truckin

Change the speed limit and you reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced by commercial trucking. And you don't need a new clean air act to do it. Just the will to do it.

Trucking Alliance Leader says "Canada could do better"


Vehicle Emissions Canada Transportation Act Review Panel
The trucking industry is a large and growing contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, currently accounting for about 27% of total emissions from the transport sector.

Canada's Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990 - 1999

GHGs from Transport, driven by increases in trucking activity and the number of private Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and vans on the road, rose by 24%. Emissions from light duty trucks, which include pick-up trucks, SUVs and vans, have increased by 57% since 1990, while emissions from cars have actually decreased 7%. The Canadian vehicle fleet is growing and shifting towards more light duty trucks that, on average, emit 40% more GHGs per kilometer than cars.

Report to Parliament Under the Energy Efficiency Act 2004-2005

Chapter 6 – Transportation

Total transportation energy use increased by 25.7 percent (483 petajoules) over 1990 to 2003 freight transportation energy use increased by 40.1 percent (271 petajoules).

The transportation sector accounts for 27.9 percent (2361 petajoules) of secondary energy use and 33.6 percent (169 megatonnes) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. From 1990 to 2003, transportation energy use increased by 25.7 percent, and GHG emissions increased by 25.0 percent. The change in GHG intensity of transportation energy use was negligible.

And it appears some in the industry are willing to go with a reduced speed limit. Typical of Canadian environment policy when it comes to commercial trucking our policy is made in the USA using NAFTA as the excuse to not create a made in Canada policy around road speed reduction. Ironically as the American trucking industry lobbies for such a reduction it uses the Ontario Trucking Association lobbying for exactly this as an example....


Carriers join special interest group in petitioning for made-in-America speed limiter rule

Bill Graves, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, has submitted a letter of support for this measure to the FMCSA. The petition will be available for public comment as soon as it is docketed for rulemaking by the federal agency.

Last year, the Ontario Trucking Association was the first trucking lobby group to propose speed limiters on trucks. The group pledged at the time it would export its idea across North America. Since then, the OTA -- which has argued speed limit set at 105 km/h would reduce accidents, save fuel, and cut emissions -- has been successful in getting the endorsements of other provincial trucking associations and continues to market the idea nation wide under the banner of the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

The fear that Independent operators have is that this will mean longer trips, more time on the road and the incease possibilty of accidents and burnout from long shifts. So coincidental with lowering the speed, new hours of work regulations need to be applied in the NAFTA transportation corridor.

Th industry lobby wants to reduce road speeds to 70 mph. When in reality 55-65 miles per hours would produce even greater reductions in emmissions as we learned in the 70's.


See

Kyoto

Ambrose

Green Plan



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