Our Safety And Our Ideals

Dennis Trainor, Jr • Operation Itch writer/ editor
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The UpTake is opening up a call for Opinion/Editorial videos. To kick this off, I am happy to say, they have brought me in to provide regular video commentary for them. We do not have a name for the show yet, and look forward to hearing ideas for the show’s name from the audience (leave your ideas in the comments). We also hope that more people feel inspired to send us “video op/eds”. To do just that, follow these instructions:

1) Have something intelligent to say; 2) Record it on a video using your real name; 3) Upload it atwww.tubemogul.com using info@theuptake.org as your log in and uptake411 as your password; 4) Send an email to info@theuptake.org telling us about your video. 

(VIDEO) Continuing Bush Policies in Israel and Afghanistan

Glenn Greenwald    more in NEWS & ANALYSIS

By all accounts, the U.S. is suffering extreme economic woes.  We continue to borrow trillions of dollars simply to prevent financial collapse.  Our military resources are spread so thin that the establishment consensus view blames the failure of our seven-year (and counting) occupation of Afghanistan, at least in part, on the lack of necessary resources devoted to that occupation.  And a significant (though not the only) reason why we are unable to extricate ourselves from the endless resource-draining and liberty-degrading involvement in Middle East conflicts is because our one-sided support for Israel ensures that we remain involved and makes ourselves the target of hatred around the world and, especially, in the Muslim world.

Despite all of that, the Bush administration, just days before it left office,entered into yet another new agreement with Israel pursuant to which the U.S. committed to use its resources to prevent guns and other weapons from entering Gaza.  That agreement cites “the steadfast commitment of the United States to Israel’s security” and “and to preserve and strengthen Israel’s capability to deter and defend itself,” and vows that the U.S. will “address the problem of the supply of arms and related materiel and weapons transfers and shipments to Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.”

Speaking about that new U.S./Israeli agreement on her show late last week, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (in the course of aggressively questioning an absurdly evasive Sen. Claire McCaskill on the wisdom of Obama’s plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan and noting the cadre of Bush defense officials on whom Obama is relying — video below) observed that the Obama administration has enthusiastically expressed its full support for the new Israeli agreement entered into in the last days of Bush’s presidency.  Maddow said (h/t Antiwar.com):

Also, not particularly change-like, then-President Bush made a deal in his final day in office with Israel about the terms of Israel’s relationship with Gaza. I’m sorry – it wasn’t his last day in office. It was within his last few days in office — my mistake.

The U.S. under President Obama is bound by that last-minute agreement between the U.S. and Israel. And a statement from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today says that President Obama supports the agreement fully.

The Nine Year S*%T Storm

America for Kids • Operation Itch Video 
 For the kids, so they know what kind of hell we’ve been through over the past nine years. “He who does not know the past…etc., etc..” 

Report: Munk Debate on Humanitarian Intervention

Global Pundit • Operation Itch Contributor
Toronto, Canada – Christiane Amanpour’s CNN special tonight “Scream Bloody Murder” on genocide was quite timely after this week’s Munk Debate on Humanitarian Intervention.  Both events hinged on the question of whether the international community has an obligation to intervene in situations of genocide and other man-made crises when a country is unable to protect  itself.  The most immediate example that comes to mind is that of Rwanda in the early 1990s. For one hundred days in 1994, a bloody genocide perpetrated by Hutu extremistsresulted in the deaths of 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in Rwanda.  Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda, provided the United Nations with ample evidence that this massacre was coming, yet the UN refused to send him the troops and resources he requested. Weeks before the killing began Dallaire had been tipped off by a Hutu informant that weapons caches were hidden all around the capital city of Kigali and that the names of Tutsis were being compiled into lists in preparation for the slaughter.  All this information was presented to the United Nations numerous times, but to no avail.   Today we can look back and ask ourselves, if Dallaire had been given the 4500 troops he asked for, would the situation have been different?  How many lives would have been saved?  Is it safe to say that the international community, specifically the United Nations, failed General Dalliare, and most importantly, the people of Rwanda?  Asked tonight by Amanpour if he thinks he did enough to stop the genocide, he regretfully says no, he could have done more. 

In 1948, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide  was passed by the United Nations, requiring nations to act to stop genocide.    The word genocide, which literally means race/group killing, was coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, a man who had lost 40 members of his family in the most horrific genocide the world has ever seen, the Holocaust.  Lemkin was instrumental in creating  The Convention on Genocide and hoped it would stop future massacres. Yet since the law officially came into effect in January 1951, we have witnessed the killing of millions of people around the world as a result of genocide.  (WITH VIDEO BELOW THE BREAK)

Pakistan under pressure

The Real News
Saeed Shah investigates origin of Ajmal Amir Qasab; only gunman caught in Mumbai attacks

Kashmir anxiety in Mumbai aftermath

From AlJAZEERA
As tensions between India and Pakistan rise after the attacks in Mumbai, many in the disputed region Kashmir fear what could happen if the tensions boil over. Al Jazeera’s Todd Baer reports from Srinigar.  He meets a man who after seven years of armed struggle realised that violence solves nothing.

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Full Debate: Biden & Palin

So, how did it go? Who won? Did Palin do better than you thought she would/ could? And what was that Biden “I’m going to cry” moment all about?

Bush: “I’m gonna catch Osama before the election”

In the NPR story below, it is clear that GW is looking to give the McCain/ Palin horse a good kick in the rear as we near the backstretch of this pony race. Apparently, seven years after 9/11, the “gloves have come off”. The only question is: how will Uncle Sam replace Bin Laden? Every American child needs a Bogeyman.  - DT      

Pakistan Raid Start Of Concerted Bid To Hit Al-Qaida
by Tom Gjelten and Tom Bowman

NPR.org, September 12, 2008 · NPR has learned that the raid by helicopter-borne U.S. Special Operations forces in Pakistan last week was not an isolated incident but part of a three-phase plan, approved by President Bush, to strike at Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida leadership.

The plan calls for a much more aggressive military campaign, said one source, familiar with the presidential order, which gives the green light for the military to take part in the operations. The plan represents an 11th-hour effort to hammer al-Qaida until the Bush administration leaves office, two government officials told NPR.
“Definitely, the gloves have come off,” said a source who has been briefed on the plan. “This was only Phase 1 of three phases.”

Pentagon and White House officials have declined to discuss the new plan.