The PenOpticon

WikiLeaks is offline at the moment, but they are linking to this John Pilger talk — a powerful critique of modern journalism:

Journalism, Politics, War John Pilger

With an apparent lull in Afghanistan reportage, Canadian media have again stuck out their tongues to taste the fetid winds emanating from the Liberal leadership race. That air was particularly thick yesterday after Liberal front-runner, Michael Ignatieff told a Radio-Canada interviewer that Israel committed a war crime in Qana after they massacred 28 Lebanese civilians last July. I’m not a big fan of Ignatieff, but I was both surprised and impressed to hear him make such an unequivocal statement. Harper’s response was more predictable, however. Putting on his best paternal, Judeo-Christian, sour game face, our sociopath Prime Minister droned: “This is consistent with the anti-Israeli position that has been taken by virtually all of the candidates for the Liberal leadership.” And predictably, every one of Ignatieff’s leadership rivals has since walked a well-worn Liberal tightrope by distancing themselves from Ignatieff’s “anti-Israel” stance, while lashing out at Harper’s “classically thoughtless” remarks.

And so the winds blow. And so another issue dissipates into the upper strata of the atmosphere — well out of range of public discourse. So the question remains? Did Israel commit war crimes in Lebanon? And did Hezbollah commit war crimes in Israel?

Yes and yes, according to Amnesty International. On August 23rd, the group reported:

“Israel’s assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong. Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes, including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks. The evidence strongly suggests that the extensive destruction of power and water plants, as well as the transport infrastructure vital for food and other humanitarian relief, was deliberate and an integral part of a military strategy,” said Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

The report includes evidence of the following:

• Massive destruction by Israeli forces of whole civilian neighbourhoods and villages;
• Attacks on bridges in areas of no apparent strategic importance;
• Attacks on water pumping stations, water treatment plants and supermarkets despite the prohibition against targeting objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population;
• Statements by Israeli military officials indicating that the destruction of civilian infrastructure was indeed a goal of Israel’s military campaign designed to press the Lebanese government and the civilian population to turn against Hizbullah.

Add to this the widespread ecological damage caused by this war, including a massive oil spill that threatens much of Lebanon’s coastline and wildlife. Of course, AI also rightly takes umbrage at Hezbollah’s rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. But this was an all out asymmetrical war, in which Israel threw everything it had into it — thousands of troops, billions of American dollars, bunker busters and cluster bombs, all sanctioned by the questionable moral support of Bush, Blair, Harper and the rest. It was a monstrous — and criminal — confrontation between stupidity and madness.

It’s a pity the Liberals can’t offer substantive debate on this issue.

Canadian Politics, War

I just stumbled upon a talented Doctor of Spin. All I can say is this doctor really knows how to articulate my rage! Well done, Doctor!

Canadian Politics, U.S. Politics, War

I put together this slideshow of images from a trip to Washington D.C. we took earlier this year. See Freedom isn’t Free: The Penopticons go to Washingon. Not the most brilliant bit of video on the planet, but at least it dosn’t involve Coke and Mentos! Yuck!

War

A young Canadian soldier took it upon himself to blog the first days of his deployment in Kandahar. He talks about loading software and maps into GPSs, gripes about having to ride in poorly armoured G-wagons and generally talks about how proud he is to be there.

Walking into my commanders office to drop off my frag vest, I look at the board which lists vehicles by section. And there it was, listed beside my sections call sign was written LUVW which stands for Light Utility Vehicle Wheeled, the fancy name for the infamous G-Wagon or “casket-wagon” as some troops call it due to the many soldiers have lost their lives within it’s lightly armoured frame. The G-Wagon, built by Mercedes-Benz, is nothing more than it’s civilian counterpart except with gun racks, radio mounts and in some circumstances, a turret on the top. As great as they may seem, and as expensive as they were pushed into service after we lost two of our troops with a mine-strike on the Iltis, the facts cannot be hidden. The G-Wagon affords troops NO protection from the common anti-coalition weapons. Any caliber over 5.56mm will penetrate the vehicle and little is left after either an RPG or roadside bomb (IED).

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Tonight we zeroed our lasers and now we are ready to fight in day and night. There has been a lot of activity as of late in the local area with significant fighting happening to the West and South. We all wait anxiously for the time when we can leave this camp and head there to join the scrap, we can’t wait to fight.

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The war drums are beating louder.Sunday has been somewhat of an uneventful day as it was my first day “on the job”, not having to train. Helicopters continue to fly in and out of base continuously and some flags are flying half-masted.

Stay safe Matt — you sound like a good kid. I hope you all come back safe. In fact, I hope you all come back tomorrow.

War