Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where we hang out and talk about the goings on here and everywhere.
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Good Morning!
Longwood Gardens. (Photo by joanneleon. October 1, 2012)
We want to stop attacks on our embassies? Let’s stop trying to overthrow governments. This should not be a partisan issue. Let’s avoid the hype. Let’s look at the real situation here. Interventions do not make us safer. They do not protect our nation. They are themselves a threat to America.
― Dennis Kucinich
Bruce Springsteen, Seeger Sessions, "John Henry"
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News and Opinion
I think this is important. This New York Times editorial is calling for immediate withdrawal, or as immediate as possible, instead of the two-year withdrawal schedule. I couldn't agree more. Now let's have some definitive answers on when we will leave, how many troops will be left behind when we go, and no more conflicting, weasel worded messages about it. The American people deserve, in our 12th year in this war, to understand whether we are really getting out or not, and an expedited withdrawal. For real.
Time to Pack Up
After more than a decade of having American blood spilled in Afghanistan, with nearly six years lost to President George W. Bush’s disastrous indifference, it is time for United States forces to leave Afghanistan on a schedule dictated only by the security of the troops. It should not take more than a year. The United States will not achieve even President Obama’s narrowing goals, and prolonging the war will only do more harm.
Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. said on Friday that “we are leaving Afghanistan in 2014, period. There is no ifs, ands or buts.” Mr. Obama indicated earlier that this could mean the end of 2014. Either way, two more years of combat, two more years of sending the 1 percent of Americans serving in uniform to die and be wounded, is too long.
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This conclusion represents a change on our part. The war in Afghanistan had powerful support at the outset, including ours, after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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It is hard to be exact about a timetable since the Pentagon and NATO refuse to discuss it. The secretary of defense, Leon Panetta, told us last week that decisions about the timetable would be made after the military command reported to Mr. Obama in December. He would not say much of anything beyond that — whether the withdrawal would be front-loaded, or back-loaded, or how many troops would be needed to secure the election.
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We are not arguing that everything will work out well after the United States leaves Afghanistan. It will not. The Taliban will take over parts of the Pashtun south, where they will brutalize women and trample their rights. Warlords will go on stealing. Afghanistan will still be the world’s second-poorest country. Al Qaeda may make inroads, but since 9/11 it has established itself in Yemen and many other countries.
America’s global interests suffer when it is mired in unwinnable wars in distant regions. Dwight Eisenhower helped the country’s position in the world by leaving Korea; Richard Nixon by leaving Vietnam; President Obama by leaving Iraq.
Kucinich: Want to Stop Attacks on US Embassies? Stop Trying to Overthrow Governments (VIDEO)
Mr. Kennedy has testified today that US interests and values are at stake in Libya and that the US is better off because we went to Benghazi. Really? You’d think that after ten years in Iraq and after eleven years in Afghanistan that the US would have learned the consequences and the limits of interventionism. You would think that after trillions had been wasted on failed attempts at democracy-building abroad while our infrastructure at home Congress and the administration would reexamine priorities.
Today we’re engaging in a discussion about the security failures of Benghazi. There was a security failure. Four Americans, including our ambassador, Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed. Their deaths were a national tragedy. My sympathies are with the families of those who were killed. There has to be accountability and I haven’t heard that yet. We have an obligation to protect those that protect us. That’s why this Congress needs to ask questions.
The security situation did not happen overnight because of a decision made by someone at the State Department. We could talk about hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts for funding for embassy security over the last two years as a result of a blind pursuit for fiscal austerity. We could talk about whether it is prudent to rely so heavily on security contractors rather than our own military or State Department personnel. We could do a, “He said, She said,” about whether the State Department should have beefed up security at the embassy in Benghazi. We owe it to the diplomatic corp, who serves our nation, to start at the beginning and that’s what I shall do.
Security threats in Libya, including the unchecked extremist groups who are armed to the teeth, exist because our nation spurred on a civil war destroying the security and stability of Libya. No one defends Gaddafi. Libya was not in a meltdown before the war. In 2003, Gaddafi reconciled with a community of nations by giving up his nation’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. At the time, President Bush said Gaddafi’s actions made our country and our world safer.
Now, during the Arab Spring, uprisings across the Middle East occurred and Gaddafi made ludicrous threats against Benghazi. Based on those verbal threats, we intervened, absent constitutional authority I might add. We bombed Libya. We destroyed their army. We obliterated their police stations lacking any civil authority or armed brigades to control security. Al Qaeda expanded its presence. Weapons are everywhere. Thousands of shoulder-to-air missiles are on the loose. Our military intervention led to greater instability in Libya. Many of us, Democrats and Republicans alike, made that argument to try to stop the war. It’s not surprising, given the inflated threat and the grandiose expectations inherent in our nation-building in Libya, that the State Department was not able to adequately protect our diplomats from this predictable threat. It’s not surprising and it’s also not acceptable.
It’s easy to blame someone else, like a civil servant at the State Department. We all know the game. It’s harder to acknowledge that decades of American foreign policy have directly contributed to regional instability and the rise of armed militias around the world. It’s even harder to acknowledge Congress’ role and the failure to stop the war in Libya, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Pakistan, the war in Yemen, the war in Somalia and who knows where else. It’s harder to recognize Congress’ role and the failure to stop the drone attacks that are still killing innocent civilians and strengthening radical elements abroad.
We want to stop attacks on our embassies? Let’s stop trying to overthrow governments. This should not be a partisan issue. Let’s avoid the hype. Let’s look at the real situation here. Interventions do not make us safer. They do not protect our nation. They are themselves a threat to America.
After calling out Congress for being derelict in its duty, Kucinich asked Ambassador Kennedy what he knew about Al Qaeda’s growing presence. Kennedy had no answer. Kucinich also asked Kennedy how many shoulder-to-air missiles (MANPADs) were on the loose. Kennedy had no answer.
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Deadly attacks hit southern Afghanistan
At least nine people, including two coalition forces members, killed in bomb attacks in Kandahar province.
A suicide bomber targeted a group of foreign soldiers and Afghan intelligence agents in Maruf district of Kandahar province on Saturday, killing two coalition members and four agents, officials said.
Earlier on Saturday, a roadside bomb ripped through a police vehicle in Qalat, the capital of neighboring Zabul province, killing two policemen and wounding three others, officials told AFP news agency.
Israeli policies of dispossession reminiscent of South African apartheid
Plans to displace bedouins in Israel are reminiscent of the forced removals of blacks in Sophiatown.
During the forced removals of the South African suburb of Sophiatown in 1955, around 65,000 residents were moved and "dumped in matchbox houses" in black townships. Only a few years before that, in 1948, Bedouins of Israel's Naqab/Negev region, who Israel had not expelled, were also forcibly moved "from their ancestral lands into a restricted zone called the Siyag (literally, 'fenced in')". And, just as Sophiatown was completely bulldozed, the Negev village of Al-Arakib was recently razed to make way for a Jewish National Fund forest.
As a South African it is particularly difficult not to see the stark parallels between the experiences of black South Africans under apartheid and of Palestinians today.
Mali rebels threaten France over intervention
Al-Qaeda-linked fighters say they will "open the doors of hell" if France keeps pushing for armed intervention in Mali.
The renewed threats against French hostages and expatriates came on Saturday as French-speaking nations met in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where French President Francois Hollande was expected to urge the rapid deployment of an African-led force to rout the rebels.
Hollande said the threat would not deter France's determination to quash the rebels in Mali.
Benghazi attack: pressure on White House as GOP demands answers
Republicans claim Joe Biden misled Americans by suggesting that he and Obama 'did not know' about security concerns
The Republicans have gone on the offensive over Biden's remarks, claiming he misled the American people by claiming ignorance over security concerns in advance of the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi in which the ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed. Early on in the TV debate, the vice-president said: "We weren't told they wanted more security; we did not know they wanted more security."
Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, came under repeated questioning during Friday's news briefing about what precisely Biden had meant when he made that comment. The Romney campaign has seized upon testimony given to a congressional committee the day before the debate that suggested requests for beefed-up diplomatic security had indeed been made to the Obama administration before the 11 September attack.
Carney said that Biden's "we weren't told" remark related specifically and only to the White House. "The vice-president was speaking about himself and the president and the White House. He was not referring to the administration."
Overwrought empire: The discrediting of US military power
When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, it all seemed so obvious. Fate had clearly dealt Washington a royal flush. It was victory with a capital V. The United States was, after all, the last standing superpower, after centuries of unceasing great power rivalries on the planet. It had a military beyond compare and no enemy, hardly a "rogue state", on the horizon. It was almost unnerving, such clear sailing into a dominant future, but a moment for the ages nonetheless. Within a decade, pundits in Washington were hailing us as "the dominant power in the world, more dominant than any since Rome".
And here's the odd thing: in a sense, little has changed since then and yet everything seems different. Think of it as the American imperial paradox: everywhere there are now "threats" against our well-being which seem to demand action and yet nowhere are there commensurate enemies to go with them. Everywhere the US military still reigns supreme by almost any measure you might care to apply; and yet - in case the paradox has escaped you - nowhere can it achieve its goals, however modest.
Alfred Nobel once had an image problem, now his Peace Prize needs a crisis consultant
The Nobel Prize Committee is distinguished in many ways, but it mainly operates like a Loyal Order of Moose lodge for potty Norwegians, who nowadays know little about literature and even less about peace. The Grand Herder of Oslo is Nobel Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland. Known to his friends as Jurij, the former Norwegian Prime Minister announced Oct. 12 that he would hand his politically bilious and financially bungled European Union neighbors $1.2 million for bagging the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.
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The Nobel Prize Committee is distinguished in many ways, but it mainly operates like a Loyal Order of Moose lodge for potty Norwegians, who nowadays know little about literature and even less about peace. The Grand Herder of Oslo is Nobel Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland. Known to his friends as Jurij, the former Norwegian Prime Minister announced Oct. 12 that he would hand his politically bilious and financially bungled European Union neighbors $1.2 million for bagging the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.
Your Tips at Work: 100 Arrests Through the Use of Social Media The Philadelphia Police Department is pleased to announce the 100th criminal to be arrested through our social media and community engagement initiatives. [ ... ]
The Philadelphia Police Department has become a model for others in law enforcement by using YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to leverage the strong support of our citizens. We have worked diligently over the past two years with our partners in the Philadelphia Field Office of the FBI to train our detectives on how to retrieve surveillance video. Through this Digital Imaging Video Recovery Team (DIVRT) effort, our investigators have the ability to utilize PhillyPolice.com and our social platforms to solve crime.
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We urge every person who lives and works in our great city to take an active role in fighting crime by being part of our social media community. Follow us on Twitter, click ‘Like’ on our Facebook page, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and stand up to crime in our neighborhoods. Together we can get these criminals off of our streets and behind bars using the tools of the 21st Century.
Scenes of Old Philadelphia
Check out scenes from as far back as the late 1800s of everything from the opening of the Ben Franklin Bridge to when the Reading Terminal Food market was home to more than just food to the construction of the Vine Street expressway.
Bruce Springsteen Changes His Mind—Will Play for Obama This Week
If it makes you feel better, as President Obama’s poll numbers in key states continue to slip, ponder this image: David Brooks and Governor Chris Christie spitting out their morning coffee as they read that their cultural hero, Bruce Springsteen, has changed his mind, and will perform for Obama this coming week in Ohio and Iowa. Expressing some disappointment in the man he campaigned for in 2008, Bruce had earlier suggested he would sit this one out.
Messina's statement implies that there will be more appearances by Bruce.
Barack Obama asks Bruce Springsteen to show Ohio voters who's boss
Singer to join former president Bill Clinton at rally in Parma on 18 October as Midwestern state assumes great importance
"Bruce Springsteen's values echo what the president and vice-president stand for: hard work, fairness, integrity," said Jim Messina, Obama for America's campaign manager. "His appearances will help with our get out the vote effort in these critical swing states."
But Springsteen will not be alone in Ohio. He will be appearing alongside former president Bill Clinton, who has been hitting the campaign trail for Obama with increasingly frequent speeches and rallies. He also gave what was widely seen as by far the best speech of the party convention season, outshining Obama's own effort in Charlotte.
Blog Posts and Tweets of Interest
Mrs McGrath (Live For The BBC)- Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions Band
Remember when progressive debate was about our values and not about a "progressive" candidate? Remember when progressive websites championed progressive values and didn't tell progressives to shut up about values so that "progressive" candidates can get elected?
Come to where the debate is not constrained by oaths of fealty to persons or parties.
Come to where the pie is served in a variety of flavors.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." ~ Noam Chomsky
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