41. WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, September 29, 2021
US WAR OF TERROR.
AFGHANISTAN: WAR IS A RACKET.
AFSC: CONVERT WAR PROFITEERING MONEY.TO HUMAN NEEDS.
Over two decades, U.S.’s global war on terror has taken nearly 1 million
lives and cost $8 trillion.
Editor. Mronline.org (9-4-21) Originally
published: The Intercept by
Murtaza Hussain (August 31, 2021.
A new report from the Costs of War Project makes
staggering estimates for the human and financial costs of the global forever
wars.
The U.S Racketeering
[WAR] Enterprise by Steve Fournier (August 16,
2021). https://m.facebook.com/pg/forpinoys/posts/
The war in Afghanistan was a racketeering enterprise from top to
bottom. A responsible judge (if there is such a person) would be compelled by
the facts of the case to find that people at the highest levels of government,
business and the mass media colluded in a criminal enterprise to destroy a
distant people for gain. And there was gain. Untold billions changed hands as
profiteers contracted for everything from sewage to chow, while top public
employees enhanced their material and political prospects.
Title 18 of US Code forbids
racketeering in a section known affectionately by the acroslur
"RICO," denoting the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
Act. The law creates a civil cause of action--a federal lawsuit--for victims of
racketeering. The people of Afghanistan would qualify as plaintiffs, and they
should assemble promptly, while the evidence is still warm, to conduct an
investigation into the criminal conduct of their invaders. Their object should
be to present their findings in a complaint to a US court. They were subjected
by three presidents, ten congresses, a few hundred billionaires and every
commercial news-monger in the western world to nightly terror at the hands of
overpaid mercenary soldiers, and they should not hesitate to seek justice.
Somebody has a legal claim to the profits, obscene by any measure,
realized by private contracting firms custom-created for this lucrative
venture. Those assets and the personal property of the government officials who
facilitated this atrocity need to be subject to confiscation and distribution
to Afghans. Even now, relying on the distracted complacency of the
public, the US government is aiding and abetting private financiers in
the theft of Afghan government assets, an act that fits the definition of
piracy. We can only guess where that money will end up. We'll never know how
much has been looted by private parties from sure-to-be-abandoned government
property. Our law has a process for holding the culpable parties accountable if
anybody has the guts to invoke it.
I used to be a modestly
resourceful lawyer, but I'm damned if I can see how news-mongers escape
liability as racketeers. It's not as if it was a secret that retribution was
being inflicted on Afghans for crimes in which no Afghans were involved.
Reporters were OK with that. They were on board for the unconstitutional
invasion under a recklessly adopted scrap of legislation that was not a
declaration of war but a blank check for profligate destruction. Whether
sponsored by Rupert Murdoch or "viewers like you," news-mongers had
not a critical word to say. The high-profile media people who promoted the
Afghan adventure remain strident and make bigger money than ever. Afghans
should keep a detailed record of the somber, almost tearful lamentations of reporters
over the failure of the Afghan army to kill and die in the last days of the
occupation. Many of us hope that a day will come when the world understands the
role of the mass media (including NPR) in promoting bloodshed and
destruction.
It wasn't just Afghans who were
victimized by the corrupt enterprise in West Asia. You suffered, too, if
you had trouble paying your utility bills or your taxes or your insurance
premiums, all of which carry hidden surcharges to defray the cost of war
contracts. If you depend on government for any sort of social service, you paid
in degraded service and reduced benefits. If you had a good feeling about your
country and its place in the world or if you ever wore a military uniform, you
suffered grievously as your nation's reputation plummeted before your eyes. The
world knows, if we don't, that we tolerated an atrocity that will shock human
conscience for a hundred years and discredit this generation irredeemably.
There's a lawsuit for that.
Tell
Congress: Stop spending our tax dollars on weapons and war!
AFSC (9-4-21)
The House Armed Service Committee also voted to add $25 billion to the
Pentagon’s already bloated budget—even more than what the Biden administration
had requested. Urge Congress to move the money to fund human needs and address
global problems, not war and militarism!
https://www.afsc.org/action/stop-funding-war-and-militarism-and-invest-our-communities
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