Experts Say Iran Attack Is Irrational, Yet Hawks Are Winning the Debate. [Peter Beinart | The Daily Beast] - From the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to the head of Mossad, the experts are speaking out against attacking Iran over its nuclear program, but hawks like the GOP presidential candidates are drowning out the warnings.
We are still at war.
U.S. Soldiers with 1st Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the Afghan National Army, and members of the Community Based Security Solutions police organization, climb a steep path above Pata Tili village, on January 29th, 2012. U.S. Navy photo by MC1 Bill Steele, 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Inside Homs, ‘The Blood Is on the Floor’. [The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS] - Reports from the besieged Syrian city of Homs paint a dire picture. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that dozens have died there in the last 24 hours, 14 of them children. The assault by Syrian government forces came after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Assad regime. “Assad is using the veto as a license to unload on the opposition,” said Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute.
Sgt. Jared Dillon, a member of the Personal Security Detachment for 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, carries a duffel bag full of cookies, candy and personal hygiene products for the Soldiers of Forward Operating Base Pacemaker on Dececmber 25, 2011. On Christmas Day Sgt. Dillon and the other Warhorse Soldiers traveled to five different forward operating bases delivering gifts and holiday cheer.
Throughout our decade of war in Afghanistan (and, indeed, throughout the war in Iraq), there has been an eerie disconnect between the reality of the situation for those who have been called upon to serve and the experience of the vast majority of the rest of us in American society. It is like we have been sleepwalking.
I, for one, am redoubling my efforts in 2012 to be mindful of our service men and women, of their families, of the Afghan People and of all others around the world who are living with war.
It is way past time to wake up.
What’s Happening in the Persian Gulf Explained. [Mother Jones] – Why Iran is talking tough, the US is maneuvering warships, and gasoline is getting more expensive by the hour.
