War Archives - 1Gov.uK - The UK Alternative Government Website

Rep. Barbara Lee, Who Cast Sole Vote After 9/11 Against “Forever Wars,” on Need for Afghan War Inquiry

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.AMY GOODMAN: Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. In the days that followed, the nation reeled from the deaths of over 3,000 people, as President George W. Bush beat the drums for war. On September 14, 2001, three days after the devastating 9/11 attacks, members of Congress held a five-hour debate on whether to grant the president expansive powers to use military force in retaliation for the attacks, which the Senate had already passed by a vote of 98 to 0. California Democratic Congressmember Barbara Lee, her voice trembling with emotion as…

0 Comments

10 September 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

“Humane”: Yale Historian Samuel Moyn on “How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War”

In his new book, Yale historian Samuel Moyn explores whether the push to make U.S. wars more “humane” by banning torture and limiting civilian casualties has helped fuel more military interventions around the world. He looks in detail at the role of President Obama in expanding the use of drones even as he received the Nobel Peace Prize. “What happened after 2001 is that, in the midst of an extremely brutal war on terror, a new kind of war emerged. … It was important to Americans to see their wars fought more humanely,” says Moyn. “Even though this represents a kind of progress, it also helped Americans sustain…

0 Comments

9 September 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

Spencer Ackerman on How the U.S. War on Terror Fueled and Excused Right-Wing Extremism at Home

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re spending the hour with Spencer Ackerman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning national security reporter, author of Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump. Spencer, you begin your book, with the prologue, with Timothy McVeigh visiting the far-right paramilitary compound in Elohim City, Oklahoma, before what you call, the prologue’s chapter heading, “the worst terrorist attack in American history.” Talk about the connection you see between the rise of right-wing extremism in the United States and the so-called…

0 Comments

6 September 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

Spencer Ackerman: Today’s Crisis in Kabul Is Direct Result of Decades of U.S. War & Destabilization

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We turn now to look at the roots of what’s become America’s longest war. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan October 7, 2001, less than a month after the al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Within days of the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, the Taliban offered to hand over Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, but the Bush administration rejected any negotiations with the Taliban. This is Bush’s press secretary, Ari Fleischer, responding to a question in October 2001.…

0 Comments

6 September 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

Was Afghanistan the First “Feminist War”? Examining the Role of “White Feminism” in the Longest U.S. War

With the official end of the War in Afghanistan, we speak with Rafia Zakaria, author of “Against White Feminism,” about how U.S. officials used the plight of the women in the country to justify the 2001 invasion and subsequent occupation. “Feminism has been delegitimized in Afghanistan because it is associated with an occupying force,” says Zakaria. “Now Afghan women are left to pick up the pieces and deal with the Taliban.” Source link

0 Comments

2 September 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

Biden Defends Ending “Forever War” in Afghanistan & Criticizes Using War as Tool for Nation-Building

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show looking at Afghanistan. On Tuesday, President Biden forcefully defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit. AMY GOODMAN: President Biden described the U.S. pullout as a, quote, “extraordinary success,” noting the U.S helped over 120,000 people flee Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power two-and-a-half weeks ago. He called for a new era in U.S. foreign policy. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: As we turn the page on the foreign policy that…

0 Comments

1 September 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

Peace Activist Kathy Kelly on Reparations for Afghanistan & What the U.S. Owes After Decades of War

As the United States ends its military presence in Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation and war, the Costs of War Project estimates it spent over $2.2 trillion in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and by one count, over 170,000 people died during the fighting over the last two decades. Kathy Kelly, longtime peace activist who has traveled to Afghanistan dozens of times and coordinates the Ban Killer Drones campaign, says it will be important to keep international focus on the people of Afghanistan. “Everybody in the United States and in every country that has invaded and occupied Afghanistan ought to make reparations,” Kelly says. “Not only financial reparations for…

0 Comments

31 August 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

“An Inquiry Needs to Take Place”: Jeremy Corbyn on Afghanistan & Preventing the Next War

We get reaction to the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan from British member of Parliament and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, one of the leading critics of the Afghan War in Britain. He says critics who warned against invading Afghanistan, and later Iraq, have been vindicated, and calls for an official inquiry into the war. “It’s horrible to read back to 2001 and 2003 and say all the worst predictions that any of us ever made have all come to pass,” Corbyn tells Democracy Now! Source link

0 Comments

26 August 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

Medea Benjamin: Afghanistan War Is “Cash Cow” for Pentagon. Biden Must End “Delusional” China Rivalry

We look at the situation in Afghanistan, and pressure on Biden to stay longer, with CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, who for years has called for an end to the longest war in U.S. history. “We didn’t want it to end like this, and there should have been better planning in terms of getting people out of the country, but we were very clear we never wanted the U.S. to go in to begin with,” says Benjamin. She also warns the end of the War in Afghanistan will encourage the Biden administration to pour more money and resources into a rivalry with China. “It is a delusional idea that…

0 Comments

25 August 2021

Democracy Now (U.S.A)

Spencer Ackerman on How the U.S. War on Terror Fueled and Excused Right-Wing Extremism at Home

As Republicans raise concerns that Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops will turn Afghanistan “back to a pre-9/11 state — a breeding ground for terrorism,” Pulitzer Prize-winning national security reporter Spencer Ackerman lays out how the U.S. war on terror after the September 2001 attacks actually fueled white, right-wing extremism. Ackerman says U.S. elites consciously chose to ignore “the kind of terrorism that is the oldest, most resilient, most violent and most historically rooted in American history.” His new book is “Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump.” Source link

0 Comments

20 August 2021