Will Obama Shun Perpetual War?

By Steve Chapman

Midway through his inaugural address, Barack Obama proclaimed, "A decade of war is now ending." A cynical listener might respond: "And a new decade of war is about to begin." Obama sounded pacific notes Monday. But it will be a huge surprise if he can get through four years without going to war.

Military force should not be a frequent recourse for our leaders. For the first century or so of the republic, it wasn't. Leaving aside the intermittent war against the Indians, wars were few and widely spaced.

Beginning with World War II, though, American presidents grew much more inclined to send our forces to fight in faraway places. The "Vietnam syndrome" supposedly cured that impulse. But it didn't last. Since 1989, University of Chicago scholar John Mearsheimer notes, we have been at war in two out of every three years. We are, in his words, "addicted to war."

Being engaged in combat is the norm. Peace is not really peace -- it's just a term we use for that brief interval between invasions.

Obama has a chance to break that pattern, and in his address, he gave hints he might like to. "We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war," he said. "We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully."

Hawks regard those as fighting words. The editors of National Review insisted that "it is clear neither that a decade of war is now ending -- not in Iraq or Afghanistan, to say nothing of Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, or Mali...

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Source: Townhall

Prof calls Zero Dark Thirty ‘propaganda film’ for positive depiction of waterboarding

By Oliver Darcy

A law professor dismissed Zero Dark Thirty as propaganda in an op-ed on Friday, saying the film portrayed waterboarding in a favorable light by depicting it as a crucial tool in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

A law professor skewered Zero Dark Thirty for allegedly portraying the use of enhanced interrogation techniques in a positive light.

Marjorie Cohn, a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law argued in a Huffington Post editorial on Friday that the controversial technique of waterboarding, which some consider torture, had not in fact lead to the death of Bin Laden.

“After showing footage of the 9/11 attacks, it [the movie] moves into a graphic and lengthy depiction of torture,” she wrote, apparently referring to waterboarding. “Responding to the torture, he divulges the name of the courier who ultimately leads the CIA to Bin Laden’s location and assassination.”

“It may be good theater, but it is inaccurate and misleading,” she concluded.

Cohn’s view of the role of…

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Source: Campus Reform

Forget Afghanistan—What was the most brutal guerrilla warfare campaign of all time?

The author of a new “epic history of guerrilla warfare” says Haiti’s independence struggle might hold the distinction as the most brutal guerrilla war of all time.

“There have been many brutal campaigns, but it is hard to top Haiti’s struggle for independence from France from 1791 to 1804,” Max Boot, whose “Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present” just hit book stores, told The Daily Caller.

“It began with a slave revolt. French colonists later testified to a litany of horrors allegedly committed by slaves seeking liberation. … In trying to put down the revolt, French troops were just as inhumane and vicious. … By some estimates the Haitian War of Independence claimed the lives of 200,000 blacks and mulattos, 25,000 white colonists, 50,000 French soldiers, and 15,000 British soldiers.”

“As one scholar notes,” he added, “‘Six times as many Haitians as Americans died during their respective wars for independence,’ even though the population of Haiti was one-fourth that of the North American colonies.”

Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has followed America’s current campaign against guerrillas in Afghanistan closely. He said keeping just…

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Source: Daily Caller

Neoconservative Fallacies in Aggressive Foreign Policy (part 2)

By Zach Foster, resident writer of A Blogging Spot

Al Qaeda certainly needed to be punished for the horrific 9/11 terror attacks and much of the world agreed, but having hundreds of military bases in over a hundred countries didn’t stop the attacks from occurring.  Furthermore, invading Iraq plus getting involved in Libya, Syria, and central Africa isn’t doing much for national security. Both parties in government like spending more money than they take in and both started or got our country involved in wars we didn’t need to fight. Anyone is free to ask any Iraq or Afghan war veteran if he or she really think the Iraqis or Afghans will figure out and embrace democracy and human rights anytime soon, and the response will most likely be “No.”

Many neoconservatives attempt to justify the Iraq and Afghan wars (as well as the African sideshows) by comparing them to the First Barbary War or to World War II.  Their logic is faulty at best as the nature of the centuries-past conflict differs greatly.  The First Barbary War (1801-1805) was initiated after semi-independent sultans of the Ottoman Empire’s buffer states had been authorizing pirates to kidnap…

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Source: A Blogging Spot

Memorial Day Thoughts on Honor and Duty

By Jack Hunter

Today we remember those who gave their lives serving our country.

We must always remember that while it is the soldier’s job to do his or her duty, it is the citizen’s job to make sure that when our government decides to put our soldiers in harm’s way, it is for a good reason. Our leaders must be held accountable for their decisions, good and bad–not simply given carte blanche on foreign policy.

Without fail, America’s soldiers have always done their duty. Today, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country.

We, on the other hand, regular citizens, have done a poor job in holding our leaders accountable for bad decisions in our foreign policy. Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans now think those wars were not worth it. We need to listen to our veterans. They deserve better, particularly given what we ask of them.

The same government that conservatives rightly recognize as being too inept and incompetent to do much good here at home is the same government that regularly makes life and death decisions for our troops abroad.

A soldier can never go wrong in doing what his or her country asks of them. That is their duty. Citizens can never go wrong in questioning their government too much. That is our duty.

Obama: All Americans Must Help Shoulder Burden of War

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Va., May 28, 2012 – Binding the wounds of war is the priority for our nation, President Barack Obama said during the Memorial Day observance here today.

Representing all Americans, the president placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and then spoke at the Memorial Amphitheatre.

“Today we come together as Americans to pray, to reflect and to remember these heroes,” he said. “But tomorrow this hallowed place will once again belong to a smaller group of visitors … following a well-worn path to a certain spot and kneeling in front of a familiar headstone. You are the family and friends of the fallen.”

Those who have lost a loved one “leave a piece of yourselves beneath these trees,” the president said. “You, too, call this sanctuary home.”

The president noted that for the first time in nine years Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq. The war in Afghanistan is winding down, he said, and U.S. troops deployed there will come home. “After a decade under the dark cloud of war, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon,” he said.

With the war in Iraq over, the president put the scale of the sacrifice in perspective. He spoke of the four Marines who died in a helicopter crash on the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy and Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey were the first casualties of the war. He then spoke of the last of the nearly 4,500 casualties: Army Spc. David Hickman who was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad a month before the last Americans left Iraq in December.

The president spoke about meeting the Hickman family at Fort Bragg, N.C. “Right now, the Hickman’s are beginning a very difficult journey that so many of your families have traveled before them – a journey that more families will take in the months and years ahead,” he said.

Obama spoke directly to the families of the fallen and shared what he told the Hickmans: that there is no more wrenching decision as president than sending service members into harm’s way.

“I can promise you that I will never do so unless it is absolutely necessary,” he said. “Then when we do, we must give our troops a clear mission and the full support of a grateful nation.”

Americans need to help the families facing such tragedy, the president said. “As a country, all of us can and should ask ourselves how we can help you shoulder a burden that no one should have to bear alone.

“As we honor your mothers and fathers, your sons and daughters who have given their last full measure of devotion to this country, we have to ask ourselves how we can support you and your families, and give you some strength.”

The best way to help is to remember the sacrifices and to remember the dead as not just a line in the newspaper, but as individuals, Obama said. The country can honor them by meeting its obligations to those who did come home, he added.

“To all our men and women in uniform who are here today, know this: The patriots who rest beneath these hills were fighting for many things – for their families, for their flag – but above all, they were fighting for you,” Obama said. “As long as I am president, we will make sure you and your loved ones will receive the benefits you’ve earned and the respect you deserve. America will be there for you.”