"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion, but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.”" ~~~~Samuel P. Huntington
Showing posts with label Activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Activism. Show all posts

Monday, February 28, 2011

Be The Change You Wish To See... ..And The Revolution WILL Start Now (So what you doin' standin' around?)

"Listen people I don't know how you ever expect to stop the war if you can't sing any better than that!" (Country Joe, of "The Fish" fame, at the Woodstock Festival... Three Days Of Mud And Music)
♬ ♪ Sing it LOUD! ♪ ♬
(...or you'll end up singing THIS song.)

"Last night I had a dream
That the world had turned around
And all our hopes had come to be
And the people gathered 'round
They all brought what they could bring
And nobody went without
And I learned a song to sing
The revolution starts now

Yeah the revolution starts now
Yeah the revolution starts now

In your own backyard In your own hometown
So what you doin' standin' around?
Just follow your heart
The revolution starts... now"

Here's a more Electric, eclectic version, again live.


Friday, February 25, 2011

When Only Automatic Weapons Will "Contain" Those Pesky Legally Protesting American (or Iraqi or...) Demonstrators

"The army's existing crowd-control rounds are single shots fired from handheld grenade launchers with a range of about 50 metres - the XM1044 would double this range. It would be supplied in belts for the Mk19 grenade launcher, a truck-mounted weapon that can fire almost six rounds per second."

Army wants rapid-fire rubber bullets for crowd control

By David Hambling

New Scientist
17 February 2011


THE US army is planning to field "rubber bullets" for machine guns. Military officials claim the ammunition will allow them to more effectively quell violent protests without loss of life, but human rights campaigners are alarmed by the new weapon.

The final design for the XM1044 round has not been selected, according to an order placed on the Federal Business Opportunities website last month, but the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has been working on a ring aerofoil projectile for some years. The round is a hollow plastic cylinder 40 millimetres across, looking something like a short toilet-paper roll. In flight its shape generates lift, giving it a longer range.
o
o
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Firing rapidly at long range is likely to be dangerously inaccurate, says Angela Wright of Amnesty International. "Such a weapon system would allow for a burst of non-accurate fire at a crowd, with high risk of hitting bystanders, ricochets and of hitting vulnerable areas of the body," she says.

Despite being hollow and plastic, if a round were to strike someone in the head, it could severely injure or kill them, she adds. [More @ NewScientist]


Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Of Wars, And Rumors Of Wars: It's Been Said That The War On Iraq Is Over... Then Why Is The Pentagon Coming For Your Children?

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people." ~~Howard Zinn, Historian
Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."

Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."



The alleged U.S. "Withdrawal from Iraq" and the much parroted statement: "President Obama reaffirmed on Monday that the US would have all combat troops out of Iraq by the end of August," is a MYTH and a LIE!
"Obama did not say that all the combat troops were leaving (Iraq) this month. He certainly didn’t say this yesterday, and to my knowledge he has never said it."
The six units are thought to be:

• 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
• 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division
• 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
• 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division
• 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
• 4th Brigade, 1st Armored Div

I’m going to be just a bit repetitive and say this as clearly as possible—just in case any journalist comes slumming through FDL and actually reads this. Here goes:

Each of these units will be in Iraq after 8/31/10, and each will be as fully combat-capable as any brigade combat team or armored cavalry regiment currently in Iraq.

They have all the guns, bombs, rockets, tanks and artillery required to pound the living crap out of anything or anybody they choose.

For any journalists who haven’t left to write about how some people think Amanpour is probably a taliban sympathizer, here is the DOD press release from October of last year announcing four of the above units for deployment.

They’re described by DOD very clearly as “combat brigade teams”—because that’s what they are—but also listing them as “advise and assist brigades”. [In Full]
...And of course, our ONGOING war consists of MORE than just soldiers. Blackwater, Armorgroup, and their Mercenary friends need work too!

Jeremy Scahill:
There are also—the State Department also has plans to remake some US bases into what they call “enduring presence posts,” EPPs. And so, you’ll have these outposts around the country that are essentially—what is essentially unfolding here is a downsized and rebranded occupation, Obama-style, that is going to necessitate a surge in private forces. The State Department is asking for MRAP vehicles, armored vehicles, for Black Hawk helicopters and for these paramilitary forces.

So, yes, you can say that officially combat has ended, but in reality you’re continuing it through the back door by bringing in these paramilitary forces and classifying them as diplomatic security, which was Bush’s game from the very beginning. (Source)
Also see: Obama Drops 2009 Pledge to Withdraw Combat Troops from Iraq

So, it IS NOT over... Worse still, they are coming for your children, for their next illegitimate war. Afghanistan, where MOST of the soldiers removed from the field of combat in Iraq will be going, or perhaps our dirty not-so-covert war on Somalia and the Horn of Africa, or the war soon to be fought next door in Latin America...

After all, it would be so much less expensive to be able to drive from America to our resource wars.

Fortunately your children can learn how to resist, vocally, and more, thanks to organizations like We Are NOT Your Soldiers:
War is terrorism. Soldiers are not heroes. Presidents are not saviors. A powerful call to action, to move from ritualized 'protests' to sustained rebellion. Filmed at UC Santa Barbara on May 7, 2010. Thanks to Emma Kaplan and Matthis Chiroux.
End. the. Wars.

[Pop Out Player]

Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned -
Everywhere is war -
Me say war.

That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes -
Me say war.

That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race -
Dis a war.

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained -
Now everywhere is war - war.

[It Goes Like This...]


Sunday, July 4, 2010

This 4th 0f July Take The Pledge To Stop Thinking Like An American

"The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together." ~~Hannah Arendt
Stop Thinking Like Americans


Take The Pledge... Stop Thinking Like An American

[Pop Out Player]


This A/V montage is brought to you courtesy of Vietnam Veterans Against War (historic footage), OuterNational, Sir NO SIR! (Tom Morello, Rage Against The Machine) and The Asian Dub Foundation for the credit music, Rivers of Dub from Adbusters: Live Without Dead Time CD [Torrent, currently showing 4 'seeds']

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Memorial Day? It's About War! (...And Something's Gonna Give)

The war to liberate Southeast Asia from communism resulted in the deaths of 3.5 million Vietnamese, 2 million Laotians & Cambodians, and 58,000 Americans.

Rather than raping and pillaging the lands for its resources, the American military napalmed its jungles, carpet bombed its cities, defoliated the jungles with 20 million gallons of herbicides (including Agent Orange) and slaughtered women and children (My Lai Massacre).

It was easy to rationalize these acts when referring to the inhabitants as gooks, dinks, tunnel rats, and Uncle Ben's boys. Racism makes it easy to treat human beings as objects and dehumanize your acts of horror. ~~Jim Quinn, Charlie Don't Surf, OpEd News, February 2009

Here's a little something Auntie Imperial lashed together for Memorial Day 2010. It's Dedicated to those who have fallen, and Americans still at risk, in our ongoing IMPERIAL wars.


[Pop Out Player]

(Also See: Vietnamistan - PoP dEFECT Radio, Agitational Propaganda For A 'Failed State')

Peace HelmetThis A/V montage has been brought to you courtesy of Vietnam Vets Against War (historic footage), OuterNational (Tom Morello, Rage Against The Machine) and The Asian Dub Foundation with the credit music, Rivers of Dub, Adbusters: Live Without Dead Time CD (onebigtorrent.org, currently showing 4 'seeds')

Some photos pulled from various sources follow the Outernational credits

War, What Is It Good For? Not ABSOLUTELY Nuthin'...


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