Meanwhile in Yemen...

As all eyes have been on Libya, there have also been large developments in another country we are bombing, Yemen. Just this week protesters took over a military base aided by military defectors, which brought along with it a death toll of over 50 people.  Violence has continued to rise yet it really isn't clear to people why this concerns the United States or why it is even happening.  

The reasons we have been given for the United State's drone bombings in the country is that we are targeting Al-Qaeda figures.  However, a Wikileak has revealed that there is more to the story than just Al- Qaeda and national security.  The Yemen government has been allowing the United States to bomb their country and claiming it as their own attacks in order to hide the US involvement.  Internal problems have been brewing for a very long time and it seems that the President Saleh can no longer handle it himself as even his military is turning against him.  

The turmoil that has been brewing in Yemen for quite some time now can be summed up to either a separatist movement or a civil war.  The people we happen to be bombing  are those that happen to belong to the separatist camp, or are "anti-government."  Coincidence? Or US-backed regime maintenance?  Given all the military training we have provided Yemen's military, I am going to go with the latter.

Is Lupe Fiasco Right?

In an age where politicians want to be celebrities and celebrities want to be politicians, it is rewarding to witness a rare moment when someone from the entertainment industry actually displays some sort of  consistent political principle in what they say or do.

Chicago based rapper Lupe Fiasco did just that in his recent interview in which he spoke out against the foreign policy of the Obama Administration.  In a moment which falls somewhere between courageous and offensive, Fiasco said "In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama and the United States Of America."  He went on to explain, "I'm trying to fight the terrorism that's actually causing the other forms of terrorism.  You know, the root cause of terrorism is the stuff that the U.S Government allows to happen, and the foreign policies that we have in different countries which inspire people to become terrorists.  And it's easy for us because it's just some oil."

Fiasco's comments, although rather inflammatory, actually sound pretty in line with the views expressed in Chalmer Johnson's book, Blowback, often cited by Ron Paul.

9 Afghan Boys Collecting Firewood Mowed Down by NATO Helicopter

The New York Times reports:

Nine boys collecting firewood to heat their homes in the eastern Afghanistan mountains were killed by NATO helicopter gunners who mistook them for insurgents, according to a statement on Wednesday by NATO, which apologized for the mistake.

The boys, who were 9 to 15 years old, were attacked on Tuesday in what amounted to one of the war’s worst cases of mistaken killings by foreign-led forces. The victims included two sets of brothers. A 10th boy survived.

The NATO statement, which included an unusual personal apology by the commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, said the boys had been misidentified as the attackers of a NATO base earlier in the day. News of the attack enraged Afghans and led to an anti-American demonstration on Wednesday in the village of Nanglam, where the boys were from. The only survivor, Hemad, 11, said his mother had told him to go out with other boys to collect firewood because “the weather is very cold now.”

“We were almost done collecting the wood when suddenly we saw the helicopters come,” said Hemad, who, like many Afghans, has only one name. “There were two of them. The helicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a green flash from the helicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in a second round they hovered over us and started shooting. They fired a rocket which landed on a tree. The tree branches fell over me and shrapnel hit my right hand and my side.”

The tree, Hemad said, saved his life by covering him so that he could not be seen by the helicopters, which, he said, “shot the boys one after another.”

Anyone want to guess what Hemad’s new career choice is going to be?

Here’s a hint:

“I don’t care about the apology,” Mohammed Bismil, the 20-year-old brother of two boys killed in the strike, said in a telephone interview. “The only option I have is to pick up a Kalashnikov, RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] or a suicide vest to fight.”

Am I saying terrorism is justified?  No, of course not.  But dear goodness, America, how long is it going to take us to implement a realistic, humane foreign policy?  Can we please begin to acknowledge the existence of blowback?

Top Military Brass: Blowback Does Exist, Just Not from Our Policies

As everyone other than Bill Kristol knows, actions tend to have unintended consequences. You eat fatty foods and your belly will get bigger; you punch someone in the face and they may pull a knife on you. That's life -- you never fully anticipate all the possible outcomes from your decisions.

Sadly, the official stance of our foreign policy has been that the US government does not make mistakes.  Instead, our government pretends that the people who hate us have no factual basis for doing so -- it's just their heathen religions or different skin color that makes them want to blow themselves up in defience of our god-like wisdom.

Then Wikileaks released their Afghanistan files. The Joint Cheif's Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen claimed that Julian Assange had endangered the lives of American troops and Afghan informants who have assisted U.S. forces by releaseing these documents. On Judge Napolitano's show, Intelligence Agent Wayne Simmons even went as far as to call Assange a terrorist for backlash we will receive from the release of these documents.