The U.S. military lives by the rule: “Leave no soldier behind.” The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) seems to have operated according to a different principle: “Out of sight, out of mind.”
The Sins of Walter Reed
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War & Peace
Americas Musharraf Dilemma
Stung by a spree of suicide attacks, Pakistan’s military junta this week had to take in an unannounced guest bearing ill tidings. The United States wants General Musharraf to do more to crush al-Qaida, Vice President Dick Cheney told his host during a surprise secretive trip to Islamabad. After being defeated in Afghanistan, America’s bin Laden-led enemies are regrouping in Pakistan’s tribal region, said Cheney. He is reported to have warned Musharraf that if Pakistan does not produce more results, the Democrat-dominated Congress may review and revoke the American military assistance program resumed after September 11, 2001. The military’s status as a major non-Nato ally of the United States could also be in danger.
Lt. Watada-an American Hero
Lieutenant Ehren Watada is like many other Americans; as the intentions behind invading Iraq have become more obviously spurious, he has reshaped his perceptions of the war. He originally supported the war with so much vigor that he voluntarily enlisted in the Army, but he came to conclude that the Iraq War is both illegal and immoral. Unlike millions of his fellow Americans who have changed their minds he does not have the luxury of simply swapping out bumper stickers on his car. Instead, he faces potentially ruthless consequences.
Villagers Challenge U.S. Military in South Korea
In Pyongtaek, a small rice-farming town 31 miles south of Seoul, Korea, an extraordinary struggle is taking place. Villagers are refusing to hand over their land to the U.S. military, which plans to expand its base Camp Humphrey by three times and occupy 2,470 acres of prime farmland. The villagers didn’t imagine four years ago that their struggle would force policymakers to reassess the role of the U.S. military on the peninsula. But it has.
Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, and the Rest of the World
The Self-Destructive Logic of War
“You go to war with the army you have,” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously noted.” “They might not be the army you want or have at a later time.” Echoing Rumsfeld, President Bush said in his 2007 State of the Union Address, “This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in.”
Round-The-Clock Voting
The American electorate spoke out in no uncertain terms, saying that they do not want permanent war. Nor will they accept the Bush administration’s mantra of terrorism that has cavalierly torn at the very fabric of the Bill of Rights and the rule of law.
Surging Right Into Bin Laden’s Hands
Lost in the "surge" debate is the unfortunate reality that escalation in Iraq, just like the invasion itself, plays into al-Qaida’s ultimate strategy to eliminate America. As revealed in a 2005 strategy document, al-Qaida hopes to repeat Osama bin Laden’s victory over the Soviet empire in Afghanistan by eliminating the chief obstacle in the way of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. The goal is not, as Bush administration and right-wing pundits proclaim, to conquer or directly destroy America. Osama bin Laden wants to provoke the United States into destroying itself.
The Vishnu Strategy
“The Supreme Lord said: I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world, out to destroy.” According to the great Hindu text Bhagavad-Gita, Vishnu delivered that speech to Prince Arjuna before a great battle almost eight millennia ago. Physicist Robert Oppenheimer paraphrased it in 1945 to describe the explosion of the atomic bomb. The latest channeling of the Hindu god can be found in an Israeli commander’s evaluation of last summer’s war with Lebanon: “What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs.”
Museum of Spies
Since launching his Âwar on terror, George W. Bush has touted the need for extraordinary measures in battling shadowy foes such as al-Qaida. However, revelations that such measures include torture, warrantless wiretapping, and the extra-judicial jailing of alleged terrorists in a network of secret CIA prisons have unsettled many Americans. Although such unsavory activities have tarnished the image of America’s covert forces, a snazzy museum in downtown Washington, DC is doing its utmost to remind people just how vital the spooks corps is to the very survival of the republic.