Oct 21

By Laura Rozen, Politico

View Original Article at Politico.com

Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political science professor and former Air Force lecturer, will present findings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that argue that the majority of suicide terrorism around the world since 1980 has had a common cause: military occupation.

Pape and his team of researchers draw on data produced by a six-year study of suicide terrorist attacks around the world that was partially funded by the Defense Department’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency. They have compiled the terrorism statistics in a publicly available database comprising some 10,000 records on some 2,200 suicide terrorism attacks, dating back to the first suicide terrorism attack of modern times — the 1983 truck bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 241 U.S. Marines.

“We have lots of evidence now that when you put the foreign military presence in, it triggers suicide terrorism campaigns, … and that when the foreign forces leave, it takes away almost 100 percent of the terrorist campaign,” Pape said in an interview last week on his findings. Read the rest of this entry »

Jul 27

Congressmen Embrace Escalation as Evidence of War’s Folly Grows

by Jason Ditz, July 27, 2010

Though one would have expected that the massive release of some 92,000 classified documents Sunday underscoring just how poorly the war is going would have changed some minds, the Obama Administration has gotten its way once again, with the House of Representatives approving the $59 billion emergency funding bill to keep the war going by a 308-114 vote.

There was, at the very least, some vigorous debate in the House today, with Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D – OH) and Ron Paul (R – TX) at the center of the opposition to continuing the war. At the end of the day, however, all the new evidence about the disastrous war was ignored in favor of pumping tens of billions of dollars into the conflict.

The 308-114 vote was saw a majority from both parties supporting the war, with only 12 Republican and 102 Democrats opposing the conflict. A secondary vote calling for US troops to withdraw from Pakistan was voted down 38-372.

The House was forced into the direct vote last week after the Senate rejected a number of domestic spending amendments attached to the bill in a procedural effort by the House early in the month. Read the rest of this entry »

Apr 15
Original Editorial by HALC member Jeff Larson
Enjoy the Switzerland of Central Asia

Can you find Kyrgyzstan on a map? Hint - it's in green, just northeast of Afghanistan.

I know many of you are psyched about the big Tea Party Rallies today, and I hope you have a great time and really show everyone the spirit of taking back your country.  I also hope you don’t run into any phony Tea Pary activists.  Hey, maybe you could carry a fold-up sign that says, “Phony Tea Party Activist” with a big arrow pointing to one side.  Than way, when some faker holds up a big sign for the camera with all sorts of swastikas and hate speech all over it to prank all the Tea Partiers, you could sneak up behind him and hold up your sign for the camera, pranking him.  It’d serve him right.

But if she gets there first, she gets to use her whip on him all the way back to the starting line.

But hey, all this organizing for freedom and liberty is hard work.  If it gets you down, you need a break.  You need to go to some nice, pleasant place to relax, unwind, and just get away from it all.

I recommend beautiful, sunny Kyrgyzstan.
Read the rest of this entry »

Oct 3

Freelance journalist Danfung Dennis was embedded with Echo company, one of the first wave of 4,000 marines that invaded Afghanistan.