Sanctioning Iran: Foreign Policy 101

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Tuesday April 29, 2008 · 8:01 AM PDT

2008/04/29 · 08:01

Philip Agee died on 9 January of this year in Havana, Cuba. He was 72.

Agee joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1957 and worked as a case officer in several Latin American countries. He later claimed: "My eyes began to open little by little down there as I began to realize more and more that all of the things that I and my colleagues were doing in the CIA had one goal which was that we were supporting the traditional power structures in Latin America. These power structures had been in place for centuries, wherein a relative few families were able to control the wealth and income and power of the state and the economy, to the exclusion of the majority of the population in many countries. The only glue that kept this system together was political repression. I was involved in this. Eventually I decided I didn't want anything more to do with that."

Source

truong son traveler

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Wednesday April 09, 2008 · 5:00 AM PDT

2008/04/09 · 05:00

In 1948 George Kennan, who at the time was a senior US State Department planning official, wrote:

We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security.

To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction.

Later on, in April of 1974 President Gerald Ford, who had replaced Nixon, issued National Security Study Memorandum 200. The title was Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security and Overseas Interests. President Ford signed an Executive Order making NSSM 200 official US Government Policy. It dealt with food policy, population growth and strategic raw materials. The NSSM was the work of Henry Kissinger and was secret at the time it was issued.

truong son traveler

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Wednesday February 27, 2008 · 9:50 PM PST

2008/02/27 · 21:50

Now that more than a million individuals have contributed to the Obama campaign there is a realization that this political movement could represent a more revolutionary change than previously understood. This is sparking a resistance among defenders of the status quo and prompting harsher and more frequent attacks on Obama. The Establishment is very concerned.

Robert Parry has written an article which has appeared at Middle East Online, and elsewhere, in which he notes:

Powerful lobbies – from AIPAC to representatives of military and other industries – also are recognizing the value of keeping their dominance over campaign cash from getting diluted by Obama’s deep reservoir of small donors. It’s in their direct interest to dent Obama’s momentum and demoralize his rank-and-file supporters as soon as possible.

Most of us are aware of the earlier smears from the right-wing bloggers. We've seen or read about the emails, the Madrassa smear and the recent photo of Obama in tribal garb. Now we are beginning to see the attacks ratcheted up and originating from higher levels.

truong son traveler

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Monday February 25, 2008 · 10:05 PM PST

2008/02/25 · 22:05

Many are aware of the decision handed down on Friday by a Federal Appeals Court in New York. The court ruled that the Vietnamese plaintiffs could not pursue claims against Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto and nearly 30 other companies for ailments caused by the use of herbicides which
the plaintiffs appealed a lower court decision that dismissed a civil suit seeking class-action status on behalf of more than 3 million Vietnamese people against the chemical companies.

The lawsuit contended that agent orange caused ailments, including birth defects and cancer.

The United States has maintained there is no scientifically proved link between the wartime spraying of herbicides and the claims of dioxin poisoning by more than 3 million people in Vietnam.

By 1983, 9170 veterans had filed claims for disabilities that they said were caused by Agent Orange. The VA denied compensation to 7709, saying that a facial rash was the only disease associated with exposure.

truong son traveler

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Sunday February 24, 2008 · 2:57 AM PST

2008/02/24 · 02:57

One of the least reported issues in the continuing war and occupation of Iraq is that of plans for permanent military bases and a long term occupation of Iraq by the US Military. John McCain has made the statement that the US should stay in Iraq for the next 100 years.

As per CNN last month, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, a crowd member asked McCain about a Bush statement that troops could stay in Iraq for 50 years. "Maybe 100," McCain replied.

Let's look at the responses from Hillary and Obama.

truong son traveler

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Friday February 15, 2008 · 7:54 AM PST

2008/02/15 · 07:54

George W. Bush, his neo-con backers, his supporters in Congress, from both sides of the isle, in the establishment media, the MIC and on Wall Street have accomplished their mission in Iraq. If there was ever any doubt about what that mission was then perhaps this article from Asia Times will make it clear. The article is rather long and so I'll try to provide some of the highlights here. The blockquotes are from that article.

And, as former Fed Chief Alan Greenspan wrote in his memoir - The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World. "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: The Iraq war is largely about oil."

It appears that John McCain might well get his wish - 100 years of US occupation of Iraq.

truong son traveler

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Sunday February 10, 2008 · 11:54 PM PST

2008/02/10 · 23:54

There are some things one never forgets. I'll never forget my brief encounter with torture 40 years ago. Our patrol engaged some VC hidden in a tree-line and a firefight ensued. The tree-line held a small hamlet. Predictably the village people fled in our direction. They fled because they knew their village would most likely be shelled, strafed or bombed. It was.

Our Viet counterparts detained a young lady they suspected of being a VC, a nurse they claimed. We brought her back to our dilapidated compound where they bound her, stripped off her shirt and attached wires to her nipples and proceed to use a crank operated electrical device to shock her. Needless to say it was thoroughly disgusting. Through it all she refused to talk. I admired her courage. I don't know where they sent her but I hope she survived.

In April 2004, Americans were stunned when CBS broadcast those now-notorious photographs from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, showing hooded Iraqis stripped naked while U.S. soldiers stood by smiling. As this scandal grabbed headlines around the globe, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted that the abuses were "perpetrated by a small number of U.S. military personnel"...

What was it that led the US to embrace torture? When did it begin? Let's take a look.

truong son traveler

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Friday January 25, 2008 · 4:50 AM PST

2008/01/25 · 04:50

In August of 1967 General William Westmoreland claimed to have hurt the enemy so badly that "their major efforts" were limited to the periphery of South Vietnam.

"We have reached an important point when the end becomes to come into view," General Westmoreland said in his speech to the National Press Club in Washington on November 21, 1967. "We are making progress...it (success) lies within our grasp, the enemy's hopes are bankrupt."

Meanwhile -

General Vo Nguyen Giap explained how and why the Hanoi leaders had enticed the American forces to the borders of the South in an extended two-part article published in Quan Doi Nhan Dan (The Army of the People) published in September 1967. Giap cited the fighting along the DMZ and in the Central Highlands as principal examples of Hanoi's strategy at work.

Quoted from A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan

The Offensive began on the eve of the lunar new year, 30 January 1968. In it's early hours Westmoreland still contended that the Tet attacks were a diversion and that the real objective was Khe Sanh.

truong son traveler

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Sunday January 13, 2008 · 1:55 AM PST

2008/01/13 · 01:55

Wikipedia tells us that the concept of a "permanent war economy" originated in 1944. Such a war economy, it was predicted, would be one in which there would be a post-WWII arms race. It was argued at the time that:

the USA would retain the character of a war economy; even in peacetime, American military expenditures would remain large, reducing the percentage of unemployed compared to the 1930s.

The concept was also used by U.S. businessman and Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson to refer to an institutionalized war economy, a semi-command-type economy which is directed by corporation executives, based on military industry, and funded by state social spending...whereby the collusion between militarism and war profiteering are manifest as a permanently subsidized industry.

Wilson warned at the close of the war that the U.S. must not return to a civilian economy, but must keep to a "permanent war economy." Wilson was made Secretary of Defense under Dwight D. Eisenhower, and was largely instrumental in reforming the Pentagon as an instrument for facilitating a closer relationship between the military and industry.

truong son traveler

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Sunday January 06, 2008 · 1:00 AM PST

2008/01/06 · 01:00

Which benchmark you might ask? I think you'll remember the much discussed benchmark, the so-called "Oil Revenue Sharing Law". President Bush has said that passage of the oil law will result in the sharing of oil revenue among all Iraqis and that its passage will help unify the country. The oil law has broad support in Congress among both democrats and republicans. The Iraq Study Group supports its passage as does the IMF.

The legislation of the new Iraqi Oil & Gas Law by the Iraqi parliament has become the most important benchmark of the US Administration, its oil lobbies, the IOCs, the IMF, and the occupying forces. The Bush administration wants this law to be passed as soon as possible, whatever the cost to the Iraqi people.

Source

A year has passed since the landmark deadline of December 2006, for the Iraqi government to deliver the long awaited Iraqi oil law. The Iraqi Parliament has not passed it. Let's take a look at what has happened.

truong son traveler

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Friday December 28, 2007 · 12:53 AM PST

2007/12/28 · 00:53

Juan Cole, in his 27 December 2007 column, noted that the banner under all CNN stories on Iraq from the previous day in the US was "Progress in Iraq 2008," with the 'reduction in violence' the subtext. He goes on to write "This is not news, it is propaganda" and proceeds to provide undeniable evidence to back up his statement.

This diary is not intended to single out CNN nor is it intended to finger anyone in particular as being responsible for an obvious lack of forthcoming information provided to the American public by the establishment media. I hope to provide some facts and examples which might serve to promote further discussion on this topic.

We're all aware of important stories relegated to the back pages of the NY Times and the Washington Post, Judith Miller of the Times hyping the non-existent WMDs in Iraq, "Fair and Balanced" Fox News and fake reporter Jeff Gannon. There are endless other examples we see every day.

Where did it all begin, how did we arrive at where we are today and why don't we get the truth?

truong son traveler

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Sunday December 16, 2007 · 5:25 PM PST

2007/12/16 · 17:25

A change of pace. Light reading and an attempt to provide a few eye-pleasing images and brighten your day.

This is not about domestic politics, the economy, the presidential primary campaigns or foreign policy. The boomers among us will see some historical relevance. This is a diary about a simple but elegant hat, a hat that some might consider to be symbolic of a poignant era in history.

The hats are traditionally known as a nón lá or a nón bài thơ. The former term refers to plain conical hat made with latania leaves, the latter refers to a conical hat with poetry and decoration placed between the two layers of leaves.

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Sanctioning Iran: Foreign Policy 101

Food as a Weapon - The Rape of Iraq

The War on Obama

The Agent Orange Court Decision

The Candidates and the Occupation of Iraq

Mission Accomplished - The Door to Iraq's Oil Will Soon Be Open

Torture Amnesia - Shame on America

40 Years - Remembering Tet 1968

The Military Industrial Complex and the Power Elite

What Happened to the Oil Law Benchmark?

The Establishment Media - Embedded with Power

A Change of Pace - The Poem Hats of Viet Nam