World-News

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Obama Had Rejected His Own Speech's Surge Rationale
//www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/02-0

Afghans Unimpressed by Obama's Troops Surge
//www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/02-1

Between the Lines, an Expansion in Pakistan
//www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/02-8

US Anti-War Activists Step Up Protests
//www.commondreams.org/video/2009/12/02-0

Obama: War President
//www.commondreams.org/video/2009/12/02

Obama's War
//www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/02-1

Obama Has Spoken; Now, Let's Have a Debate
//www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/02-0

Here We Go Again
//www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/02-11

Obama with Blood on His Hands
//www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/02-12

Kucinich: Afghans Want to be Saved from Us, Not by Us
//www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/12/02-7

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Obama's "Empire"

By Real News

Obama says US is not an empire as he sends 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24104.htm



Why Obama's Surge in Afghanistan?

By Shamus Cooke

Obama is compelled to tell the really big lie because the truth is too damning. If he remotely approached the real motives behind the war, the public would be pushed into total defiance - Obama's new $660 billion military budget for 2010 would have caused mass demonstrations.

//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24101.htm



Some Simple Questions After Obama's Afghanistan War Speech

By David Sirota

Would you be OK sending yourself or a loved one over to face combat and potentially death for the mission Obama articulated in Afghanistan? If not, how could you support sending other people?

//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24102.htm



Full text: Obama's Afghan policy speech at West Point

Following is the transcript of President Obama's speech Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

//snipurl.com/tj40r



Afghanistan war tax met with skepticism on Capitol Hill

Lawmakers from both parties reacted with skepticism Tuesday to the idea of a war surtax to pay for the Afghanistan troop surge, a sign that the White House may have to look elsewhere to fund the effort.

//snipurl.com/tj412



Obama quietly authorises expansion of war in Pakistan

CIA has submitted its plan to widen its campaign in Pakistan to the White House and has asked for commitment to jack up the agency's budget for operations inside the country.

//snipurl.com/tj41x


From Information Clearing House



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- EHS Zone Refuge ACTION : Base Internationale d'Études et d'Échanges (reportage)
//www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/EHS_Refuge_Zone.php#1

//www.russfeingold.org/get-involved/afghanistan.html

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Dems wary of Afghan commitment; Obama needs GOP

Boston Globe

12/02/09

President Obama last night made the argument for 30,000 more US troops in Afghanistan with a heavy burden: He cannot count on his fellow Democrats for support. Key Democrats yesterday offered tepid endorsements or were openly skeptical of the president’s deployment decision. After Obama’s speech, Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada praised Obama’s ’sound strategy,’ but pointedly noted that ‘our resources are not unlimited and our commitment is not open-ended.’ The Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, offered no promise of support, and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin threatened to try to block funding for the troop increase...

//tinyurl.com/yhr7h7g


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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Es ist ein Skandal: Der neue Bundesumweltminister Norbert Röttgen beruft einen der führenden Atomlobbyisten zum Leiter der Abteilung Reaktorsicherheit und damit zum obersten Atomaufseher der Republik. Gerald Hennenhöfer ist berühmt-berüchtigt, weil er immer wieder in seinem Berufsleben zwischen Atomaufsicht und Atomwirtschaft pendelte und hauptsächlich damit beschäftigt war, Risiken von Atomanlagen zu vertuschen. Sein jüngster Coup war die versuchte Verschleierung des Asse-Skandals noch im Jahr 2008.

Wir wollen die Entscheidung des Umweltministers nicht hinnehmen. Deshalb rufen wir Sie zu einer Eil-Aktion auf: Unterzeichnen Sie bitte den Offenen Brief an Röttgen und forderen Sie ihn auf, die Berufung Hennenhöfers umgehend zurückzunehmen!

//www.ausgestrahlt.de/aktionen/atomaufsicht

Bitte tragen Sie auch dazu bei, dass möglichst viele Menschen von dieser Eil-Aktion erfahren.



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US-Präsident Obama hat sich für den Klassiker unter den US-Militärstrategien entschieden: Mehr kämpfende Soldaten und engere Zusammenarbeit mit der umstrittenen Führung des besetzten Landes.

//www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/31/31627/1.html



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War Profiteers Calculate Windfall, Activists Plan Mass Protests
//www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/01-13

Familiar War Justifications: Bush's Iraq vs. Obama's Afghanistan
//www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/01-4

As Obama Sends More Troops, Giant Shadow Army Of Contractors Set To Grow In Afghanistan
//www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/01-14

In Afghan Debate, Few Antiwar Op-Eds
//www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/01-1

Obama to Unveil Escalation Plan
//www.commondreams.org/video/2009/12/01

A Troop Surge Can Only Magnify the Crime Against Afghanistan
//www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/01-3

Six Alternatives to a Troop Surge in Afghanistan
//www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/12/0114

Veterans for Peace: United Anti-War Movement Tells Obama: NO ESCALATION!
//www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/11/30-1

National Priorities Project : Afghanistan Fact Sheet: The Numbers Behind the Troop Increase
//www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/12/01



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The Supreme Court on Monday vacated a lower court ruling that would have required the government to release photographs showing the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

//www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/politics/01scotus.html


From Information Clearing House



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By Raj Patel

If war is God's way of teaching Americans geography, recession is His way of teaching everyone a little economics.

//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24097.htm



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Video

Rep. Hinchey: Bush Administration 'Intentionally Let bin Laden Get Away' In Order To Justify Iraq War.

//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24094.htm



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By Gordon Duff

Tonight, I will listen to the President tell me that it will take years to withdraw from Afghanistan. He will, out of political necessity tell a series of lies. He will lie by omission, failing to tell people that this war, our "good war" was, when the facts are examined, a farce.

//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24095.htm



A Foreign Invader and Occupier

The U.S. Government Is Taking Us Down

By Jacob G. Hornberger

What will those additional troops do? They will kill and maim and incarcerate and torture people. That's their job. Sure, they'll call it pacifying the country, establishing law and order, spreading democracy, and waging the war on terrorism.

//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24091.htm

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When truth no longer matters

Liberty For All
by Ed Lewis

12/13/09

Truth is the best defense, or so people think. It is said — and are accepted Maxims — that the truth sets you free and that the truth will always out. And, then there is another truism, that a lie may only be defended with another lie. Once upon a time in the great new land of America, and for perhaps a century and a half following its creation, that the truth did matter, and that the truth would set one free when wrongfully accused...

//www.libertyforall.net/?p=3508


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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Nicolas Baverez, Le Monde (Translation: Leslie Thatcher): "The developing world at this yearend 2009 is emerging from the most violent recession since the deflation of the 1930s, with growth of 0.9 percent in the United States and 0.2 percent in the Europe of the Twenty-seven. The end of the recession, however, comes nowhere near marking emergence from the crisis. The recovery is fragile - dependent as it is on inventory restocking and cash-for-clunkers - and unbalanced: economic activity is growing 8.9% in China, 6.1 percent in India, 2.9 percent in Korea and 1.9 percent in Brazil, while the recession persists in the United Kingdom and Spain."

//www.truthout.org/1201096



"Commission" Is Washington Speak for Cutting Social Security and Medicare

Dean Baker, Truthout: "The 'experts' who could not see the $8 trillion housing bubble that wrecked the economy are now telling us that we have to create a special commission so that they can cut Social Security and Medicare. With much of Washington's punditry behind this effort, they could succeed."

//www.truthout.org/1201095



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//www.lewrockwell.com/baldwin/baldwin11.1.html



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//www.lewrockwell.com/rogers-j/rogers-j59.1.html

Brotherhood of Plunder
//www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w117.html



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As President Obama begins to share his plans for the future of US operations in Afghanistan, Truthout will be following the developments every step of the way. Our Surge in Afghanistan feature will provide readers with complete coverage of Obama's speech on Afghanistan, as well as the surrounding debate. Please be sure to visit throughout the evening and beyond!

//www.truthout.org/surge-in-afghanistan



Afghanistan: Our 177th Colony

David Swanson, Truthout: "During a televised football game on Sunday, an announcer welcomed the members of the US military viewing the game in 177 nations around the world. When the news came on, the topic was the same one it's been for weeks, speculation as to whether and how much a single individual will escalate war by sending tens of thousands of additional troops to nation number 177, Afghanistan."

//www.truthout.org/1201094

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Man-of-Peace Obama Has an Xmas Present for Afghanistan: Death
//www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/lindorff4.1.1.html

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Obama's Afghanistan escalation speech is unconvincing PR
//www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9185/

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Obama pledges 30,000 troops, two-year extension of Afghanistan debacle

Houston Chronicle

12/01/09

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he will send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan by next summer and begin withdrawing forces in July 2011 after nearly a decade of battle. … The 30,000 additional U.S. troops amount to most of what Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, requested at the end of August. But by setting a date to begin removing U.S. forces, scheduled to number about 100,000 by next summer, Obama is effectively holding McChrystal to the timeline he laid out in his bleak assessment of the situation...

//www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6748068.html



Needed: New national security thinking

The Nation
by Katrina vanden Heuvel

12/01/09

Tonight President Obama will announce his new Afghanistan policy. By all accounts it will be one of military escalation. This is a tragic moment — both for the nation and his presidency — and it is one I had hoped the President would avoid by courageously leading us in a wiser direction, one that views 21st century challenges anew, in fresh and necessary ways. It is true that Obama would have needed real political courage to extricate himself from his predecessor’s war. … But in a war-weary nation, amidst great economic trouble, he could have used his great oratorical and political skills to marshal people of all kinds to his side. Instead … Obama will now be held hostage to this mindset as a war bequeathed to him by a reckless and destructive administration becomes his own war...

//tinyurl.com/ye2ph8p



Anthropologists and the war in Afghanistan

CounterPunch
by David Price

12/01/09

A core feature of the Obama administration’s plans for victories in Iraq and Afghanistan has been an increased reliance on counterinsurgency, as Americans try to win the hearts and minds of peoples whose countries they’ve invaded. Some critics highlight similarities between Kennedy’s and Obama’s interest in counterinsurgency as a tool to conquer peoples who have historically been difficult, if not impossible, for outside colonial powers to dominate. President Obama’s reliance on old Harvard hands to socially engineer conquest justifies many of these comparisons. Even counterinsurgency’s lustiest cheerleaders, such as the political scientist David Kilcullen, admit that historical instances of successfully using counterinsurgency for military victories have been extremely rare in the past half-century. But Washington’s counterinsurgency believers share a certain hubris, or vanity, that they are clever enough to overcome this daunting record of historical failure...

//counterpunch.org/price12012009.html



Obama, conflicted Commander in Chief

National Review
by Rich Lowry

12/01/09

Prepare for the advent of Barack Obama, neocon. On the Afghan War, he is throwing in with the lying, warmongering running dogs of neoconservatism by ordering a surge of some 30,000 troops. Obama has to become a president of victory even though he hails from a party of defeat. The responsibilities of office separate him from a political base that only sounded stalwart on the Afghan War so long as it was a handy political tool with which to beat George W. Bush about the head and shoulders...

//tinyurl.com/yk6qadg


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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