The rape of Libya

By Bill Van Auken, Senior Analyst, WSWS.ORG, a socialist organization

Five days after “rebels” entered Tripoli, under the cover of NATO bombing and led by foreign special forces, the abject criminality of imperialism’s takeover of Libya is becoming increasingly evident.

Fighting continues to rage throughout the Libyan capital, whose two million residents have been made hostages of the armed gangs and Western special forces troops that have seized control of the city’s streets.

The focus of NATO operations has become a frantic effort to hunt down and murder Muammar Gaddafi, who has ruled the country for 42 years. A $2 million bounty has been placed on his head, and the British media now openly boast that SAS special forces troops are leading the search for him and his family. A vast array of US armed Predator drones, AWACS spy planes and other surveillance equipment has been concentrated on the North African country to facilitate the manhunt.

The pretense that the US and its European NATO allies were intervening in Libya to “protect civilians and civilian populated areas from threat of attack,” as stated in the United Nations Security Council resolution, has effectively been abandoned. Behind the fig leaf of this resolution the naked imperialist and colonial character of the war has emerged.

The Security Council’s stipulations that ground troops not be introduced into the country, that an arms embargo be kept in place and that mercenaries be prevented from entering Libya have all been flouted in this criminal operation to seize control of an oil-rich former colony and loot its resources. There is barely any attempt to hide the fact that special forces, intelligence agents and mercenary military contractors have organized, armed and led the “rebels”, who have not made a single advance without the prior annihilation of government security forces by NATO warplanes.

After being terrorized for five months by NATO bombs and missiles, the people of Tripoli are now facing sudden death and a looming humanitarian catastrophe as a result of the NATO campaign to “protect civilians”.

Kim Sengupta of the Independent reported Thursday from the Tripoli neighborhood of Abu Salim, which the “rebels” stormed under the cover of NATO air strikes. Known as a pro-Gaddafi area, its residents have been subjected to a reign of terror.

“There was no escape for the residents of Abu Salim, trapped as the fighting spread all around them,” Sengupta reported. “In the corner of a street, a man who was shot in the crossfire, the back of his blue shirt soaked in blood, was being carried away by three others. ‘I know that man, he is a shopkeeper,’ said Sama Abdessalam Bashti, who had just run across the road to reach his home. ‘The rebels are attacking our homes. This should not be happening.

“‘The rebels are saying they are fighting government troops here, but all those getting hurt are ordinary people, the only buildings being damaged are those of local people. There has also been looting by the rebels, they have gone into houses to search for people and taken away things. Why are they doing this?’”

Asked why local residents were resisting the NATO-led force’s takeover of the city, Mohammed Selim Mohammed, a 38-year-old engineer, told theIndependent, “Maybe they just do not like the rebels. Why are people from outside Tripoli coming and arresting our men?”

Meanwhile, other reports laid bare war crimes carried out by NATO and its local agents on the ground in Tripoli. Both the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies documented a massacre perpetrated against Gaddafi supporters in a square adjacent to the presidential compound that was stormed and looted on Tuesday.

“The bodies are scattered around a grassy square next to Moammar Gadhafi’s compound of Bab al-Aziziya. Prone on grassy lots as if napping, sprawled in tents. Some have had their wrists bound by plastic ties,” AP reported.

“The identities of the dead are unclear but they are in all likelihood activists that set up an impromptu tent city in solidarity with Gadhafi outside his compound in defiance of the NATO bombings.”

AP said that the grisly discovery raised “the disturbing specter of mass killings of noncombatants, detainees and the wounded.”

Among the bodies of the executed the report added were several that “had been shot in the head, with their hands tied behind their backs. A body in a doctor’s green hospital gown was found in the canal. The bodies were bloated.”

Reporting from the same killing field, Reuters counted 30 bodies “riddled with bullets”. It noted that “Five of the dead were at a field hospital nearby, with one in an ambulance strapped to a gurney with an intravenous drip still in his arm.” Two of the bodies, it said, “were charred beyond recognition.”

Amnesty International has raised urgent concerns about the killing, torture and brutalization of people being rounded up by the “rebels,” particularly African migrant workers who have been singled out for retribution because of the color of their skin.

In a report from a makeshift detention camp set up by the NATO-led forces in a Tripoli school, Amnesty stated:

“In an overcrowded cell, where some 125 people were held with barely enough room to sleep or move, a boy told Amnesty International how he had responded to calls by al-Gaddafi’s government for volunteers to fight the opposition.

“He said that he was driven to a military camp in Az-Zawiya, where he was handed a Kalashnikov rifle that he did not know how to use.

“He told Amnesty International: ‘When NATO bombed the camp around 14 August, those who survived fled. I threw my weapon on the ground, and asked for refuge in a home nearby. I told the owners what happened, and I think they called the revolutionaries [thuuwar], because they came shortly after.

“‘They shouted for me to surrender. I put my hands up in the air. They made me kneel on the ground and put my hands behind by head. Then one told me to get up. When I did, he shot me in the knee at close range. I fell on the ground, and they continued beating me with the back of their rifles all over my body and face.

“‘I had to get three stitches behind my left ear as a result. In detention, sometimes they still beat us and insult us, calling us killers.’”

A pro-Gaddafi soldier told a similar story, recounting that he was captured August 19 while bringing supplies to his unit. “He said that he was beaten all over his body and face with the backs of rifles, punched and kicked. He bore visible marks consistent with his testimony.”

Amnesty said that “rebel” leaders estimated that one-third of the detainees were “foreign mercenaries,” meaning sub-Saharan Africans. “When Amnesty International spoke to several of the detainees, however, they said they were migrant workers. They said that they had been taken at gunpoint from their homes, workplaces and the street on account of their skin colour.” Several said that they feared for their lives and that guards had told them that they would be “eliminated or else sentenced to death.”

Among those detained were a family of five from Chad, including a minor, who were taken off of a truck while being driven to a farm to collect produce. A 24-year-old man from Niger who had worked in Libya for five years told Amnesty that armed men had seized him from his home, handcuffed and beaten him and thrown him into the trunk of a car. “I am not at all involved in this conflict,” he said. “All I wanted to do was to make a living. But because of my skin colour, I find myself here, in detention. Who knows what will happen to me now.”

The human rights group also cited a report from a Reuters reporting team which saw a “rebel” pickup truck carrying three black men in the back. One of them told Reuters he was Nigerian. “He sobbed as he said: ‘I do not know Gaddafi. I do not know Gaddafi. I am only working here.’”

News reports and statements from international aid agencies warn of a humanitarian catastrophe in the city as a result of the NATO siege. Reporting from a local hospital, the Telegraph said: “As battle raged in the Tripoli streets hundreds of casualties were brought in, rebel fighters, Gaddafi’s soldiers, and unlucky civilians, laying next to each other in bed and even on a floor awash with blood, screaming or moaning in agony. Many died before they could be treated.”

The paper interviewed Dr. Mahjoub Rishi, the hospital’s Professor of Surgery: “There were hundreds coming in within the first few hours. It was like a vision from hell. Missile injuries were the worst. The damage they do to the human body is shocking to see, even for someone like me who is used to dealing with injuries.” Most of the casualties, he said, were civilians caught in the crossfire.

The Telegraph reported that Tripoli’s two other major hospitals were similarly overflowing with casualties and desperately understaffed, as were all of the city’s private hospitals.

The aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned that the city is facing a medical “catastrophe”.

The group told Reuters that “Medical supplies ran low during six months of civil war [i.e., NATO bombardment] but have almost completely dried up in the siege and battle of the past week. Fuel supplies have run out and the few remaining medical workers are struggling to get to work.” The lack of fuel means that hospitals that have kept their power by running generators can now no longer do so.

Health officials in Tripoli report that blood supplies have run out at the hospitals and that food and drinking water is unavailable over whole areas of Tripoli.

Meanwhile the governments of Algeria, Venezuela and South Korea have all reported that their embassies in Tripoli have been attacked and looted by “rebel” gunmen. While the governments of Algeria and Venezuela had opposed the NATO invasion and supported Gaddafi, South Korea, a close US ally, had taken no such positions.

The universal euphoria of the US and much of the European media, which is “embedded” with NATO and its “rebels,” cannot conceal the brutal reality that a war waged under the pretense of human rights and protecting civilians has unleashed immense death, human suffering and destruction.

Far from a “revolution” or struggle for “liberation,” what the world is witnessing is the rape of Libya by a syndicate of imperialist powers determined to lay hold of its oil wealth and turn its territory into a neo-colonial base of operations for further interventions throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

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OpEds // Libya War: It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over

By Stephen Lendman √

Editor’s Note: This article packs serious accusations by the author against Amy Goodman’s DEMOCRACY NOW! (DN), a program we have long trusted and admired. Our own examination of the matter seems to confirm and corroborate what Lendman suggests, that the Libya coverage has polluted even venues regarded as bastions of independent reporting (such as DN). It is for that reason that as a special bonus feature we attach to this piece a DN show aired on 8.22.11 (see foot of this article). In our view, Amy Goodman may have some explaining to do, including her over-reliance on Juan Cole, a controversial academic with a reputation for expertise in Middle Eastern affairs. A few days back, in fact, we published a denunciation of Cole’s role in whitewashing imperial designs in Libya, prepared by the folks at the World Socialist Web Site. Their request for an accounting of his position was met with an arrogant dismissal. (See Professor Cole “answers” WSWS on Libya: An admission of intellectual and political bankruptcy).

MARK TWAIN ONCE CALLED REPORTS OF HIS DEATH GREATLY EXAGGERATED. The same hold for Libyans, not ready to submit to NATO colonization, occupation, plunder and exploitation. Not at least without a fight. The stakes are high – stay free or die socially, economically, politically, emotionally, and/or perhaps physically.

Washington-led NATO is a rogue killing machine plunderer. It comes, sees, slaughters, ravages, and pillages all its surveys.

In March, it arrived in Libya on cruise missiles, bombs, shells, other munitions, fifth column infiltrators, media liars, and other rogue elements, not white horses, not as liberators nor humanitarian interveners.

It came for another imperial trophy at the expense of free Libyans. They know it and won’t submit without a fight, a long-term struggle perhaps that may ebb and flow, but won’t end until NATO’s scourge ends.

It’s the same spirit driving Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, and millions of others throughout North Africa/Middle East/Central Asia/and elsewhere. Live free or die.

On August 22, activist Don DeBar offered hope, saying:

Most of what major media scoundrels report is untrue. Despite daily bombing and deplorable conditions across Libya, “(t)he invaders have been largely turned back. They arrived under severe aerial attacks across (Tripoli), including (bombing and) strafing civilians intended to clear streets for the invasion.”

“They were supplemented (by) landing troops from NATO naval vessels” offshore. A “NATO expeditionary force” comprised “mainly of Qatari and other troops” accompanied insurgent hooligans, given license to shoot civilians on sight, as well as loot freely to create fear and chaos.

They’ve taken full advantage, but not without Libyans fighting back, a committed spirit across Tripoli and most other parts of Libya.

Against them is a typical NATO operation, exposing the evil it represents everywhere.

Nonetheless, as of Monday evening, temporary calm returned to most of Tripoli, except for ongoing bombing, ahead of street clashes resuming Tuesday.

In addition, loyalists showed up with two allegedly captured Gaddafi sons, after which Seif al-Islam, accompanied by huge throngs of supporters, spoke to reporters at the Rixos Hotel. Earlier, insurgents prematurely said he and his brother Mumammed were being transferred to the Hague’s hanging tribunal.

Seif said his father and family were safe in the capital, and that he wished to refute media reports of his capture and detention. He also said, “Tripoli is under our control. Everyone should rest assured. All is well in Tripoli.”

In fact, conditions remain in flux, but Libyans were buoyed by his message, rallying them to stand firm against NATO and thuggish insurgents.

Pro-NATO New York Times Reporting

Throughout the conflict, New York Times disinformation and gloating never quit, so unsurprisingly it headlined an August 22 editorial, “Qaddafi’s Final Hours,” saying:

“For more than 40 years, (Gaddafi) dominated and terrorized Libya – his image plastered on what seemed like every wall and his goons posted on every corner.”

Fact check

Scandalous rhetoric like the above pollutes Times editorials and op-eds in place of accurate, clear analysis, an absent ingredient throughout America’s media.

Admitting possible “dark moments to come,” The Times expressed “awe of the courageous Libyans (read renegade insurgent hooligans) who pressed their fight. (They) overcame incredible odds, battlefield defeats and bitter internal divisions….(Nonetheless, they) showed extraordinary commitment and resilience.”

Fact check

Without daily NATO terror bombing and low-level strafing, much of it targeting civilians and nonmilitary sites, cutthroat mercenaries would have been routed in days at most. Libya is NATO’s war, using them as disposable imperial tools.

No matter, The Times urged them “to build a democratic Libya.”

Fact check

Washington-led NATO, of course, calls the shots, their imperial plan excluding democracy and humanitarian concerns.

Libya needs more support, said The Times. “The challenges of building a stable and representative new country cannot be overstated….When (Gaddafi) is found, he should be sent to the (Hague for) justice.”

Fact check

Times opinion and analysis commentators are so addicted to imperial thinking, they don’t recognize or accept clear facts and analysis others provide lucidly, fully and honestly.

The editorial ended as disgracefully as it began, saying:

“It will be up to the Libyans to build their own future. The rebels’ victory – if followed by the democracy they promise – should inspire others to believe that the battle is worth fighting.”

Fact check

The battle is far from over. Declaring victory is premature and arrogant. Moreover, the vast majority of Libyans, Gaddafi loyalists, are totally excluded from NATO (not “rebel”) plans.

A Times rethink won’t be forthcoming to explain. Nor on its news pages. On August 22 and 23, they reeked of the usual combination of self-assured/I-told-you-so bravado and arrogance, as well as this time some well-deserved crow.

David Kirkpatrick, Kareem Fahim and Alan Cowell headlined the lead August 23 story titled, “Tripoli Uneasy as Rebel Euphoria Fades,” saying:

Renewed fighting spread across Tripoli. Gaddafi’s whereabouts aren’t known, and “his son Seif al-Islam made a ‘surprise’ appearance,” showing perhaps he wasn’t taken captive after all, despite media reports claiming it along with his brother also free.

Since February, in fact, Times and other major media reports proliferated lies about the war, misreported and distorted other information, and omitted key facts, including:

— alleged insurgent victories;
— claiming NATO doesn’t target civilians and nonmilitary sites when, in fact, it’s done willfully;
— ignoring Gaddafi’s overwhelming popularity;
–numerous times alleging his regime’s near collapse;
— leaving unexplained that no humanitarian crisis existed until NATO showed up well before it began bombing in mid-March;
— that under Gaddafi, Libyans had Africa and the Arab world’s highest standard of living and human development index, lowest infant mortality, and highest life expectancy;
— that Libya’s oil wealth was used to provide generous social services, including free high-quality education and healthcare, as well as housing assistance and more;
— that Libya’s Tripoli-based state-owned central bank (replaced by the Benghazi-based HSBC Bank-run private one), financed low or no interest productive economic growth, free from IMF/World Bank/and/or other predatory lending agencies;
— that most Libyan tribes, including its largest, support Gaffafi; and
— most important leaving the war’s illegality unexplained, and why fought – never for humanitarian reasons or liberation.

Instead, numerous propaganda pieces left readers misinformed, in the dark, and unaware why America ever goes to war, let alone so often.

Kirkpatrick, Fahim, and Cowell headlined the lead August 22 story titled, “Qaddafi Son Taunts Rebels in Tripoli,” saying:

“The (short-lived) euphoria that followed the rebels’ triumphant march in Tripoli gave way to confusion, wariness and renewed fighting on Tuesday (as) loyalist units ‘stubbornly resisted rebel efforts to take control of the capital.”

In fact, without State TV and independent journalists able to report freely, what little information slipping out suggests no lost government control over areas earlier Times accounts said were in rebel hands.

Saying it, of course, doesn’t mean it’s so. In fact, Times writers repeatedly falsified events on the ground, shredding their credibility in the process.

This time, they had to admit that “the immediate aftermath of the lightning invasion was a vacuum of power (meaning no insurgent victory), with no cohesive rebel government in place and remnants of (Gaddafi’s) government still in evidence (read Libyans, not NATO in charge).

Other Times articles headlined:

“After Uprising, Rebels Face A Struggle for Unity,” reluctantly admitting destructive internal wrangling and rivalries.

“Rebels’ Assault on Tripoli Began With Careful Work,” providing a falsified account of what didn’t happen. It was a typical Times propaganda piece, so poorly done, in fact, writers Kirkpatrick and Myers should tell readers they’ll try to do better next time.

“Qaddafi’s Whereabouts Still a Mystery as Rumors Swirl,” bemoaning the fact that he’s very much alive, well, and supported by the vast majority of Libyans, many willing to fight to save him. Hardly a profile of a hated tyrant.

“For Obama, a Moment to Savor, if Briefly,” calling him for his involvement for months of planning and orchestrating naked aggression “a reluctant warrior.”

“Parallels Between Qaddafi and Hussein Raise Anxiety for Western Leaders,” stopping short of admitting Washington plans exploiting Libya like Iraq, Afghanistan and other imperial targets.

“The Scramble for Access to Libya’s Oil Wealth Begins,” omitting mention that Western powers want it privatized for themselves, excluding China and other non-NATO participants.

“Rebels’ Sudden Success Sends European Backers Scrambling,” leaving unexplained that Libya is NATO’s war. So-called “rebels” are merely hired hands, disposable, easily replaceable imperial tools.

“US Seeking Ways to Finance New Libyan Leaders,” again with no explanation that Washington stole Libya’s wealth, dispensing billions for its imperial ambitions.

“Journalists Kept in Hotel as Battle Rages Outside,” omitting who’s endangered and who isn’t.

True enough – bombing, strafing, and street fighting might claim anyone indiscriminately inside or outside the Rixos Hotel where most Western journalists stay, as well as fifth column fake ones, pretending to be what they’re not because they’re allied with NATO, supplying bombing coordinates and other intelligence.

In contrast, however, independent journalists are endangered because they’re targeted. Notably they include Mahdi Nazemroaya, Lizzie Phelan and Franklin Lamb, friends of this writer, doing responsible heroic work.

Others from Cuba, Telesur, and elsewhere are also at risk for reporting truthfully, unlike Times and other corporate media propagandists, disgracing themselves shamelessly.

On the ground, events remain fast-moving, chaotic, violent, unresolved, and far from NATO able to claim victory it hoped to achieve by early spring in a walkover.

Millions of Libyans have other ideas, old-fashinged ones like their sovereign right over their own country, unwilling to let imperial predators deny them.

Everyone should support that spirit proudly, denouncing Obama’s led NATO war, an imperial enterprise for conquest and plunder.

They should also avoid media liars, disgraceful guardians of power for their own self-interest.

A Final Comment

Growing numbers know what dominant media sources provide. They expect better from others they trust, notably Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now.

On August 22, it fell far short, hardly for the first time. Reporting on fast-moving Tripoli events, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr was featured, reporting lies about anti-Gaddafi celebrations, saying:

“There’s a feeling of euphoria here. People are shouting, ‘We are free! Muammar Gaddafi has gone!’ The city is now in the hands of the opposition.”

In fact, it was fake footage produced in a Doha Qatar studio – made-for-media propaganda about a nation overwhelmingly pro-Gaddafi, many determined to resist to avoid NATO occupation. You’d never know it though from Democracy Now (DN), leaving an opposite impression.

DN also misreported the alleged capture of three Gaddafi sons, aired illegitimate Transitional National Council (TNC) head Mahmoud Jibril’s bogus victory message, then followed with International Red Cross spokesperson Robin Waudo and pro-NATO Professor Khaled Mattawa.

Conspicuously absent was one or more independent journalists, heroically reporting accurate facts and analysis of events and conditions on the ground. In fact, since conflict began last winter, what DN viewers and listeners most need to know isn’t reported.

It was true on March 29, 10 days after bombing began. DN featured Professor Juan Cole, a shameless NATO supporter, backing its illegal intervention, leaving unexplained reasons why.

Instead he said he “unabashedly cheer(ed) the ‘liberation’ movement on (and was) glad that the (Security Council) authorized intervention” to save Libyans “from being crushed.”

Omitting facts and real analysis, he expressed hateful anti-Gaddafi propaganda, calling NATO imperialism “a popular uprising.” Nor did he explain that SC Resolution 1973 authorizing a no-fly zone assured war, what a Pentagon commander openly admitted before it passed. Yet he shamelessly wrote on March 30, “If NATO needs me, I’m there.”

On August 22, he again appeared on DN, supporting NATO’s imperial lawlessness, displaying a profound ignorance and disdain for international law and right of sovereign people to govern their own affairs, free from imperial interlopers.

Instead he said “Libya, in a way, has reignited the flame of liberty in the Arab world. It’s given new hope, a new charge to people in Cairo, in Tunis, and certainly in Syria.” In fact, what’s ongoing is mirror opposite, an affront to people everywhere yearning to be free.

Shamelessly, Cole is like many other disreputable academics. However, being an alleged liberal intellectual makes it worse. It’s exacerbated by DN giving him air time in place of honest analysts viewers and listeners deserve.

So do consumers of all media, corporate or otherwise. Deserving and getting, however, diverge greatly at all times. Thankfully growing numbers understand and choose wisely. Maybe some day everyone will, or at least a majority large enough to matter.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

DEMOCRACY NOW!
“Libya Has Reignited the Flame of Liberty in the Arab World”: Juan Cole, Khaled Mattawa on Uprising

•••••••

••••••

INTRODUCTION

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Helicopter shootdown in Afghanistan hits Navy SEALs

Chinook attack ships: workhorses of US rapid-injection airborne forces.

As for the soldiers**, there are many reasons for young men (and women) to put on the US uniform these days, when the nation is largely NOT under attack at home, and yet mired in a gruesome unending recession that hits average Americans hardest. Most reasons may relate to rather mundane and sometimes regrettable motives, but which pack great appeal to young people:

a macho, gung-ho personality (exhibiting highly competitive personalities, many had been primed for such endeavors all along and distinguished themselves in sports, etc.)

Nobody should speak ill of the dead, the old adage goes. But the question is relevant. Were these men real heroes? Or were they rather tragic victims of a culture of supreme cynical manipulation serving ignoble goals they hardly comprehended?

* 8.9.11
** See AP report on their backgrounds in the Addendum to the main article.

Helicopter shootdown in Afghanistan hits Navy SEALs

By Patrick Martin, WSWS.ORG, a socialist organization.

The shooting down of a US Chinook helicopter early Saturday morning in Afghanistan killed 38 soldiers, including 30 Americans and eight Afghans. Among the dead were 22 Navy SEALs, an elite special forces squad. Seven helicopter crew members and air combat controllers, a dog handler, seven Afghan soldiers and an Afghan interpreter died along with the SEALs.

According to press reports citing unnamed military sources, the SEALs were called in for a rescue operation after a small unit of US special forces, from the Army Rangers, was pinned down by Taliban fighters. The SEALs flew in on the helicopter and drove off the Taliban attackers, killing eight of them. They had just reboarded the helicopter for the return flight when a rocket-propelled grenade or surface-to-air missile hit the Chinook and destroyed it in mid-air.

A conflicting account of the attack, also citing military sources, suggested that the Taliban fighters were killed after the helicopter was shot down, not before, when a second US helicopter-borne special forces unit landed, attacked the Taliban, and then sought to retrieve the bodies and the wreckage.

Saturday’s disaster reproduces exactly the pattern of the previous worst tactical defeat for US forces in the war, when a US helicopter was shot down in Kunar province in June 2005, killing 16 soldiers. Those troops were also engaged in a rescue operation for a smaller group of special forces who were surrounded and ultimately killed by Taliban fighters.

Accounts by residents of the Tangi valley in Wardak province, interviewed by McClatchy News Service, contradicted both military versions. They said that the helicopter was shot down before it could land, by Taliban fighters who had been given advance warning of the night raid and were on the alert against it.

Obama at Dover: Filling his duties as Homager in Chief.

The Los Angeles Times reported, “In a statement Saturday, the Taliban claimed its fighters had ambushed Western troops after being tipped off to an imminent night raid in the district. If true, that would amount to a devastating breach of U.S. operational security. The Taliban statement, from spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, was unusually specific in some of its details, including the number of troops killed—even before Afghan officials released the number.”

Whatever the exact sequence of events, the military disaster—the single worst loss of life for US forces in the 10 years of warfare—was a direct outcome of the escalation of special forces operations throughout Afghanistan.

Some 10,000 of the 100,000 US troops deployed in Afghanistan are drawn from various special forces commands. They serve as the spearhead of what the media call “counterterrorism” operations—although the campaign would be better described as the systematic assassination of suspected opponents of the US occupation and its stooge president, Hamid Karzai.

The Obama administration is investing more and more heavily in such actions to prop up the unpopular Karzai regime and deplete the ranks of the guerrilla forces fighting the US-NATO occupation. In the second quarter of the year, according to NATO figures, special forces troops conducted 2,832 night raids, double the number during the same period a year ago, killing 834 insurgents and capturing 2,941.

Officials in Kabul and Washington issued statements denying that the incident represented a significant tactical or strategic setback for the US military intervention in Afghanistan, but this posture is belied by the scale of the disaster—the loss of nearly 10 percent of the total manpower of SEAL Team 6, estimated in press accounts as 250 to 300 men.

The losses were the greatest inflicted on Navy special forces since World War II. Each commando is the product of a five-year training program, making the losses that much more difficult to replace. SEAL Team 6 was the unit that carried out the assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan May 2, though US officials claimed that none of those involved in that attack was killed in Wardak.

The location of the disaster also demonstrates the deepening crisis of the US occupation regime. Wardak province borders on Kabul, and the Tangi Valley has served as a key infiltration route into the capital region for Taliban fighters.

Despite the escalation of the US military effort over the past three years, since Obama entered the White House, the anti-occupation forces remain well entrenched in Wardak, only 50 miles from Kabul.

According to a McClatchy News account, headlined, “Valley where US troops died backs Taliban,” the increasing frequency of night raids and assassinations by US forces has deeply alienated the local population.

Roshanak Wardak, a doctor and former member of parliament, told McClatchy the raids occur “every night. We are very much miserable.” Another doctor told the news service, “The Americans are committing barbaric acts in the area and this is the reason that the Taliban have influence.”

A local villager, Abdul Rehman Barakzai, said that as many as three civilians were killed in a US raid in the area the night before the shooting down of the helicopter. He added, “The Taliban are so active in the region that they forced the Americans to abandon a base here about two or three months ago because the base was under attack day and night. The area … is completely under the control of the Taliban.”

Another villager told McClatchy that the anti-US insurgency was broadly based in the province. “From each house at least one person is with the Taliban,” he said.

A separate US news account confirmed this general assessment, citing the statement of a US Army intelligence officer in the Tangi valley, “It’s a stronghold for the Taliban.”

Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the governor of Wardak, confirmed this account, telling the Washington Post, “The Americans left because they were getting casualties with each operation … and since then, the insurgents have increased their activity.”

The British daily newspaper Guardian raised an even more disturbing prospect—from the standpoint of American and British imperialism—raised by the helicopter shootdown.

The newspaper said that NATO investigators “will want to discover whether the aircraft was downed by a lucky shot from a rocket-propelled grenade, a highly inaccurate weapon, or by something more sophisticated,” like Manpad surface-to-air missile systems.” It added: “Classified military reports released by WikiLeaks last year showed that the US military covered up a reported surface-to-air missile strike that downed a Chinook helicopter over Helmand, killing seven soldiers.”

The US decision to supply surface-to-air missiles to the Afghan mujahedin guerrillas in the 1980s played a critical role in defeating the military intervention by the Soviet Union. Similar weapons could be supplied to today’s Afghan insurgents through Pakistan.
The crash Saturday brings the total number of US troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 274, and the total deaths for all NATO forces in Afghanistan to 379, including 42 in August. On Sunday, another four soldiers were added to this mounting toll, with the NATO command reporting two deaths in the east and two in the south, but giving no additional details.

Meanwhile, the bloodbath by the occupation military and their puppet forces against Afghan civilians continues uninterrupted. On Friday, Afghan police shot and killed four people during a protest march in the south, sparked by killings by NATO forces in an overnight raid.

On Saturday, NATO troops attacked a house in Helmand province and “inadvertently” killed a woman and her seven small children, all seven years old or younger, according to an Afghan government statement. The intended target of the raid, a Taliban organizer, was not in the house at the time.

—Patrick Martin

Addendum

Portraits of Navy SEALS killed in helicopter crash

By The Associated Press

Posted: 08/09/2011 02:11:59 PM PDT

Updated: 08/09/2011 03:41:12 PM PDT

The Navy SEALS who died aboard a downed helicopter in Afghanistan came to the special forces from far-flung corners of the country, some motivated by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. They were intensely patriotic and talented young men with a love of physical challenges and a passion for the high-risk job they chose.Thirty Americans—22 of them SEALS—and eight Afghans were killed Saturday when a rocket-propelled grenade fired by a Taliban insurgent downed their Chinook helicopter en route to a combat mission. All but two of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, although military officials said none of the crash victims was on that mission in Pakistan against the al-Qaida leader.

The Pentagon has not yet identified the victims of the crash, but family members and friends have spoken to The Associated Press and other media outlets about them.

Here are the stories of some of the fallen:

———

Matthew Mason

A severe arm injury during fighting in Fallujah in 2004 didn’t keep Matthew Mason off the Iraq War battlefield. Nor did it dull the competitive fire of the avid runner and former high school athlete from outside Kansas City.

Within five months of losing part of his left arm, absorbing shrapnel and suffering a collapsed lung, Mason competed in a triathlon. He soon returned to his SEAL unit.

“He could have gotten out of combat,” said family friend Elizabeth Frogge.

“He just insisted on going back.”Mason, the father of two toddler sons, grew up in Holt, Mo., and played football and baseball at Kearney High School. He graduated from Northwest Missouri State University in 1998. His wife, who is expecting their third child—another boy—also attended Northwest Missouri.

Mason returned to Missouri in May to compete in a Kansas City triathlon, and took his family to Walt Disney World for the first time this summer, Frogge said.

“He loved doing what he did,” she said. “He was the type of guy who thought he was invincible.”

———

Jason Workman

Jason Workman had his sights set on becoming a SEAL as a young teenager. He was about 14 when his older brother graduated from West Point. That’s when he knew he wanted to be an elite soldier, friend Tate Bennett told The Deseret News. Then came the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and Workman’s calling grew even stronger.

“He didn’t become a Navy SEAL by chance,” Bennett said. “He knew that’s what he wanted at a young age and made it happen.”

After returning from his Mormon mission, Bennett said, Workman went to Southern Utah University and later joined the Navy.

Across his small hometown of Blanding in southern Utah, flags were flown at half-staff as residents mourned the loss of one of their own.

Even as a SEAL, Workman came home periodically. During his last trip, he led training sessions with local law enforcement, sharing his military skills, and planned to provide more training during a trip home this fall, Mayor Toni Turk told the Salt Lake City Tribune.

———

Jon Tumilson

Jon Tumilson got an early start on his preparation to join the SEALS. He had been a wrestler in high school and competed in marathons and triathlons.

Neighbors remembered the Rockford, Iowa, man as a warrior committed to the SEALs, no matter the pain he endured in training or the risks he ran on each mission.

“When he did something, he put his all into it,” Jan Stowe, a neighbor of the Tumilsons for more than 30 years, told the Des Moines Register.

Tumilson, who was 35 when he died, “was going to be a Navy SEAL since I can’t remember when,” Stowe said. “He’s like a hero to everyone here.”

Another neighbor, Mark Biggs, said people were shocked by his death.

“You just never thought it would happen to Jon,” Biggs told the Mason City Globe Gazette. “He’s done so many dangerous things.”

Friend Justin Schriever remembered Tumilson as “a die-hard at everything. He’d always go the extra mile on everything. He wouldn’t let anything stop him from accomplishing something.”

———

Brian Bill

Brian Bill had plans for when he finished his military service. He wanted to return to graduate school and hoped one day to become an astronaut.

For those who knew him, such lofty goals were not out of reach.

“He set his standards high. He was that kind of person,” Kimberly Hess, a friend who graduated with him in 2001 from Vermont’s Norwich University, told The Advocate newspaper. “He was remarkably gifted and very thoughtful. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for you no matter the time or day.”

Diane Warzoha, who had Bill as a student at Trinity Catholic High School in Stamford, said it was no surprise that he fulfilled his goal of joining the SEALs.

“Brian just wanted to do his best, to protect other people … Challenge did not deter him, ever.”

———

Spc. Spencer Duncan, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bryan Nichols, Specialist Alexander Bennett

Three of the crew members aboard the downed Chinook were from the same Army reserve unit—Bravo Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment—based at New Century AirCenter in Gardner, Kan.

Spc. Spencer Duncan, 21, of Olathe, Kan., had written to friends about how much he loved working as a door gunner on a Chinook helicopter. But The Kansas City Star reported that he also told friends that he missed Kansas sunsets and lying in a truck bed listening to the radio and cuddling with his sweetie.

He joined the military in 2008 and had been in Afghanistan since late May.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bryan Nichols, 31, a pilot from Kansas City, Mo., was eager to get back to flying after a stint handling paperwork as a unit administrator. So when the word went out that people were needed to train for a mobilization, Nichols volunteered.

Lt. Col. Richard Sherman, former commander of Nichols’ unit, said one of his favorite memories is flying a pace car with Nichols to the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

“My happiest and saddest memories are now tied to him,” said Sherman, who was in command and working as an instructional pilot when Nichols joined his unit.

“He had no enemies. He was one everyone wanted to be around. You just liked flying with him because you knew he was going to improve as a young pilot and get better every time you flew with him.”

Specialist Alexander Bennett, 23, couldn’t wait to deploy again after returning from spending a year in Iraq in 2009. So the reservist moved on his own from the Tacoma, Wash., area to Overland Park, Kan., to join Bravo Company.

“He wanted to be part of our unit when it deployed,” said Sherman. “He was a typical young kid and liked to go out and have a good time with the guys.”

———

Sgt. Patrick Hamburger

Patrick Hamburger planned to propose to his girlfriend, but had a job to do first: a mission in Afghanistan.

The 30-year-old sergeant from Grand Island, Neb., joined the Nebraska National Guard when he was a senior at Lincoln Southeast High School, but this was his first deployment, his brother Chris Hamburger told The Associated Press.

“He didn’t have to go, and he wanted to go because his group was getting deployed. He wanted to be there for them. That’s him for you,” Chris Hamburger said, adding that Patrick always looked out for his two younger brothers and friends.

He was also the kind of guy who helped his girlfriend raise her 13-year-old daughter from another relationship, as well as the couple’s own 2-year-old daughter, and planned to propose marriage when he got home, Chris Hamburger said.

Patrick Hamburger had been in Afghanistan less than two weeks and had arrived at Forward Operating Base Shank a few days before climbing aboard the helicopter to rush to the aid of an Army Ranger unit under fire from insurgents.

“It doesn’t come as a total surprise that he was trying to help people and that’s how it all ended up happening,” Chris Hamburger said.

———

Michael Strange

If someone was sad, Michael Strange tried to make them smile. He loved snowboarding, surfing, scuba diving, running, and shooting guns on the range.

“He loved his friends, his family, his country; he loved making people laugh. He was one of a kind,” Strange’s brother, Charles Strange III, said outside the family’s Philadelphia home, where American flags were planted throughout the neighborhood.

Strange, 25, decided to join the military when he was still in high school, and had been in the Navy for about six years, first stationed in Hawaii and for the last two in Virginia Beach, where he became a SEAL about two years ago, his mother, Elizabeth Strange, told The Associated Press.

But he always told his family not to worry.

“He wasn’t supposed to die this young. He was supposed to be safe,” Elizabeth Strange said. “And he told me that, and I believed him. I shouldn’t have believed him because I know better. He would say, ‘Mom, don’t be ridiculous and worry so much. I’m safe.'”

Charles Strange said his brother loved the SEALS, especially “the competitiveness, getting in shape and running and swimming and all of that.”

He also had two sisters and recently became an uncle. The family last saw him in June, when he came for a weeklong visit for his birthday, his mother said. He was supposed to be back for Thanksgiving.

“It was going to be such a good time,” his mother said.

His grandmother Bernice Strange remembered him as a young man who loved cheesesteaks and the Philadelphia Eagles and always brought her flowers.

“He was a wonderful grandson to have,” she said Monday night. “God truly blessed me with him.”

————

John W. Brown

If Elizabeth Newlun wanted to have a serious conversation with her son, John Brown, she had to shoot baskets with him.

“There’s nothing athletic about me, but I realized that you have to get into other people’s comfort zone to get information,” said Newlun, of Rogers, Ark., explaining that her son, an Air Force technical sergeant, was a “gentle giant” who “just loved anything physical, anything athletic.”

Newlun said her son played football and basketball in high school and went to John Brown University on a swimming scholarship. He had wanted to go into the medical field and become a nurse anesthetist, but decided to join the military after seeing a video of a special tactical unit, she said.

The airman was a paramedic and ready to attend to the medical needs of anyone who was rescued, his mother said.

Arkansas state Rep. Jon Woods went to high school with Brown in Siloam Springs and remembered playing basketball and watching “Saturday Night Live” on the weekends.

“When you think of what the ideal model of a soldier would be, he would be it,” said Woods. “He could run all day.”

———

Aaron Carson Vaughn

Aaron Carson Vaughn was a man of deep faith, insisting to his family that he didn’t fear his job as a Navy SEAL “because he knew where he was going” when he died.

“Aaron was a Christian and he’s with Jesus today,” Geneva Vaughn of Union City, Tenn., told The Associated Press on Saturday. “He told us when we saw him last November that he wasn’t afraid … he said, ‘Granny, don’t worry about me.'”

“He was a tough warrior, but he was a gentle man.”

Geneva Vaughn said her grandson, 30, joined the SEALS straight out of boot camp and was already a decorated fighter when he was asked by the Navy to return stateside to become an instructor. But he applied to SEAL Team 6 after two years, earning his way onto the squad in 2010.

He asked the military to return him to combat and shipped out just six weeks before he was killed, Vaughn said.

“He was doing what he loved to do and he was a true warrior,” Geneva Vaughn said.

Aaron Vaughn leaves behind his wife, Kimberly, and two children, 2-year-old son Reagan and 2-month-old daughter Chamberlyn.

“They will take away his love for Christ. They will take his dream and his love for the country, and they will know what an amazing man he is,” Kimberly said about the children in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Monday.

———

Robert James Reeves, Jonas Kelsall

Robert James Reeves and Jonas Kelsall had been childhood friends in Shreveport, La., where they played soccer together and graduated from Caddo Magnet High School, Kelsall’s father, John, told The Times of Shreveport and KLSA-TV.

Both joined the military after graduation, though the 32-year-old Reeves spent a year at Louisiana State University first, his father, Jim Reeves, told the newspaper.

Reeves became a SEAL in 1999 and served on SEAL Team 6, his father said. During his many deployments, he earned four Bronze Stars and other honors.

Kelsall, 33, was one of the first members of SEAL Team 7, his father said.

He trained in San Diego and met his wife of three years, Victoria, when he was attending the University of Texas out of Basic Underwater Demolition training, his father said.

Reeves placed several American flags outside his home and his neighbors joined in, many decorating their homes in red, white and blue in support of the families.

———

Kraig Vickers

When he was a Maui High School football player, no one could match Kraig Vickers’ intensity on the field.

But off the field? “You couldn’t find a nicer guy,” his former coach remembers.

“He played middle linebacker, so he was really smart, the quarterback of the defense; and when he put on his helmet, no one could match his intensity and aggressiveness,” coach Curtis Lee told the Maui News.

Vickers, who would have turned 37 on Thursday, graduated from high school in 1992 and attended Evangel College in Missouri on a football scholarship. “He decided college wasn’t for him,” and returned home, his father, Robert Vickers, said. After stints in tree trimming and working as a hotel security guard, he became a certified scuba diver and decided to join the Navy in 1996.

He lived in Virginia Beach, Va., with his wife Nani, who is seven months’ pregnant with their third child. Robert Vickers said she is making plans to return to Hawaii because she only has a small window of time before doctors won’t allow her to fly.

“He wanted to be buried near the ocean,” his father said, adding that the family is awaiting details on when the body will arrive on Maui.

———

Chris Campbell

Chris Campbell may have been physically slight, but family and friends said the Navy SEAL was always ready to take on a challenge.

His mother, Diane Campbell, told The Daily News of Jacksonville she remembered him and his older brother learning to ride a unicycle brought back from Okinawa as one example of her son’s determination.

“If Chris thought he could, he would try,” Diane Campbell said.

Former high school football coach Jack Baile remembered Campbell, 36, showing he was up to a test when he tried out for the team as a smallish junior at about 5 foot-7 and 140 pounds.

“When kids come out for football for the first time, the first thing you’re worried about is, are they going to like to be hit, or want to be hit, and like to hit. That was not a problem with Chris. He had no fear with that,” Baile told The Associated Press.

“I remember hearing for the first time when he had joined the SEALS, I thought that kind of fits Chris. He didn’t have a lot of fear of things and I think he always wanted to try to prove to somebody that he could do things. He was an adventurous-type guy.”

Campbell’s work frequently sent him on missions out of the country, and his family asked few questions when he showed up with a full beard or arrived for a visit that could only last three hours. In an email to his daughter Samantha sent days before the crash, he wrote that he was looking forward to coming home in November and celebrating her 15th birthday in January.

Chris Campbell told his family that if he was killed in the line of duty, he wanted the local newspaper to write about his life and death, with a request for donations in his memory to the Wounded Warrior Project. The project helps wounded service members recover from their war injuries.

———

Nicholas Spehar

When 24-year-old Nicholas Spehar said he was going to do something, you could take him at his word.

The 2005 graduate of Chisago Lakes High School was a “quiet leader,” a star in academics and three sports during his time at the school along Minnesota’s eastern border, said Principal Dave Ertl.

“Nick was an active young man, and if he said he was going to do something, he did it,” Ertl said. “I could see him as a Navy SEAL and giving 110 percent to serve his country.”

Younger brother Luke Spehar told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that the family does not want to talk about Nick, the second of five children, until after his funeral. “We need time,” he said.

Craig Swanberg, 46, of Chisago City, a town of about 4,700, said the Spehar kids played football with his own children.

“The whole family is a down-to-earth group … nice, everyday, salt-of-the-earth people,” Swanberg said. “Nick was a big kid, a powerlifter, who was not as soft spoken as his brothers.”

Ertl said Spehar played football and baseball for Chisago Lakes, starred on the swimming team and was an academic letter winner.

“He gave 100 percent in high school,” Ertl said. “And he gave 100 percent to our country.”

¶

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Are We Giant Suckers? While the US Blows Money on the Military, Europe Spends Dough on Social Programs

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet

Robert Gates: Served Bush and was naturally retained by Obama. Keeping reactionary leftovers from GOP administrations is common practice for the treacherous Democrats. Clinton did it big time, too.

Last week, during his final European visit before retiring, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates blasted our NATO allies for spending too little on their militaries.

“The blunt reality,” he told an audience in Brussels, “is that there will be dwindling appetite” in the U.S. “to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources … to be serious and capable partners in their own defense.’’

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But interestingly, conservatives simultaneously argue that lavish U.S. military spending subsidizes Europe’s social welfare programs, andthat we’re the smarter party in this deal. Our kids get the wonderful opportunity to die in distant lands, while theirs are burdened with the horrors of decent retirement security and free health care.

Max Boot, a prominent and utterly pathological neoconservative, went so far as to lament that we, too, are spending too little on the military these days, writing, “It’s hard to remember now, but there was a time when the federal government spent most of its money on the armed forces. In 1962, the total federal budget was $106 billion of which $52 billion—almost half—went for defense. It wasn’t until 1976 that entitlement spending exceeded defense spending.”

What he doesn’t say is that the American Right has long opposed the kind of international security cooperation that might shift some of the cost of policing the world to other states. If we didn’t insist on doing it ourselves, perhaps we wouldn’t have to.

But I suppose that when Americans are waiting in line for food stamps—or waiting to pay their respects to a soldier who died in some godforsaken country thousands of miles away—they can take an abstract pride in being the world’s only superpower. The argument has always seemed to me like the biggest loser in Las Vegas saying that the house is a sucker.

So remember to take pride in American power, and remember that it comes at a very high price.

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Portraits of Navy SEALS killed in helicopter crash

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