OMNI WAR WATCH
WEDNESDAYS, #225, APRIL 16, 2025.
Compiled by Dick Bennett.
Stephen Vittoria. The
Gulf War: Christina and the
Whitefish.
Roy J.
Eidelson. Doing
Harm: How
the World’s Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror.
Dick Bennett. “What does a War Watch Weekly have to do with
voting?”
Human Consequences of the Gulf War
Stephen Vittoria. Christina
and The Whitefish.
From Stephen Vittoria (co-author with Mumia Abu-Jamal on the "Murder
Incorporated" series). Please purchase the
book from the publisher-- here’s the link:
https://alternativebookpress.com/product/christina-and-the-whitefish/
“…tackles the toxic reality of the American Empire: its racism,
homophobia, misogyny, and in this story, its warmongering trail of death and
destruction.
It’s 1994. Christina, a young Gulf War veteran wrecked by war and
tragedy, seeks redemption in Asbury Park, the seaside mecca of her childhood.
It’s a place well past its prime... and now reigned over by the self-proclaimed
King of Asbury Park: The Whitefish—a disabled Vietnam-era vet, tavern owner,
and all around oddball philosopher. It’s here, on the Jersey shore, that a
chance meeting leads to a profound and life-altering connection.
The Nation’s Dave Zirin writes:
“Christina and the Whitefish is a joy to read. If
Bruce Springsteen wrote fiction, it would read a great deal like this.”
Nobel Peace Prize nominee, David Swanson writes:
“The characters in this stunning novel stay with you… a
high-spirited, humorous voyage… it will give you chills.”
Award-winning journalist Sonali Kolhatkar writes:
“A gifted filmmaker brings his storytelling prowess to the
pages of this book… what a dramatic and beautiful journey. . . .”
|
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Internal, Institutional Conflict Over US Wars |
A thought-provoking, unflinching, scrupulously documented
account of one of the darkest chapters in the recent history of psychology.
Doing
Harm pries open the black box on a critical chapter in the recent history of
psychology: the field’s enmeshment in the so-called [war on
terror] and the ensuing reckoning over do-no-harm ethics during times of
threat. Focusing on developments within the American Psychological
Association (APA) over two tumultuous decades, Roy Eidelson exposes the
challenges that professional organizations face whenever powerful government
agencies turn to them for contributions to ethically fraught endeavours
[a pleasant euphemism for war].
In the months after 9/11 it became clear that the White House, the Department
of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency were prepared to ignore
well-established international law and human rights standards in
prosecuting the war on terror. It was less clear, however, that some of
Eidelson’s fellow psychologists would become part of the abusive and torturous
operations at overseas CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay. Nor
was it initially clear that this ruthless enterprise would garner acquiescence
and support from the APA’s leadership.
Doing Harm examines how and why the APA failed to join human rights
groups in efforts to constrain the US government’s unbridled pursuit of
security and retribution. It recounts an ongoing struggle - one that has
pitted APA leaders set on preserving strong ties to the military-intelligence
establishment against dissident voices committed to prioritizing do-no-harm
principles.
War,
US Electoral “Democracy,” James Madison
Dick Bennett. “What does a War Watch Weekly have to do with
voting?” Unfortunately, ever since Dec. 7,
1941, both Parties have constituted one War Party. LBJ in starting and sustaining the Viet Nam
War was as culpable as Bush, Cheney, and Rice in starting and sustaining the US
invasion and occupation of Iraq. The idea
of democracy is the choice of having a ruler take us to war, like Johnson
and Bush, or having the People vote for war.
(Jill Stein and the Green Party gave us a choice in the latest
presidential election.) The democratic way to war will not always be wise, but we
trust it will be less prone and quick to war than a powerful single person and
his profiteering cronies. Of course,
Trump with the help of his profiteering cronies, elected, explodes such neat
generalization. Nonetheless, that’s part of the struggle for checks and
balances of the democratic hope.
James Madison believed that while war could strengthen the Union and
demonstrate the nation's capacity, it also posed a threat to the liberties that
the Founding Fathers sought to establish. He argued that war could lead
to increased executive power, potentially subverting the balance of power
within the government. Madison’s argument seems to be
demonstrated by successive bi-partisan war-making presidents, culminating in Donald
Trump’s expanding autocracy. But while democracy
and diplomacy as the basis for politics seem to have been defeated on the
international level, for the moment at least, at the grassroots the Democrats
still promote the ideals and practices of its New Deal of the 1930s to this day,
as I discover at the monthly meetings of AR Senior Democrats.
United Nations Good
Work: April 10, 1972 more than 50 nations signed Treaty outlawing the
stockpiling of biological weapons.
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