Chris Hedges: War is a Drug

Dandelion Salad

Sent to DS by David Gutnick, CBC radio

with Chris Hedges

CBC Radio’s Ideas
By David Gutnick
Paul Kennedy, interviewer
February 9, 2015

Chris Hedges (Photo credit: Dandelion Salad)

Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges spent decades as a war correspondent for the New York Times and other publications before the suffering he witnessed became too much to bear.

Now he is minister of social witness and prison ministry at the Second Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a popular public speaker, and an author and freelance columnist who does not shy away from controversy.

1918 by Michael Parenti

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
michaelparenti.org
October 24, 2014

Image by Diego Sideburns via Flickr

Looking back at the years of fury and carnage, Colonel Angelo Gatti, staff officer of the Italian Army (Austrian front), wrote in his diary: “This whole war has been a pile of lies. We came into war because a few men in authority, the dreamers, flung us into it.”

No, Gatti, caro mio, those few men are not dreamers; they are schemers. They perch above us. See how their armament contracts are turned into private fortunes—while the young men are turned into dust: more blood, more money; good for business this war.

Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress by Howard Zinn

Image by Whiskeygonebad via Flickr

It’s that time of the year again. In case you missed reading this, here it is again.

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
October 12, 2009

An excerpt from A People’s History of the United States.

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:

[…]

via Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress by Howard Zinn

US Launches Airstrikes on ISIS Targets in Syria + Stop the Bombing: Bravery in an Evil Cause Is Evil by David Swanson

Image by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

RT on Sep 22, 2014

The US military and partner nations from the anti-ISIS coalition have launched the first attacks on Islamic State targets in Syria, the Pentagon has confirmed.

Untold Truths About the American Revolution By Howard Zinn (2009; repost)

Repost from July 4, 2009

Image by Franco Folini via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Excerpt from The Progressive July 3, 2009
July 4, 2014

There are things that happen in the world that are bad, and you want to do something about them. You have a just cause. But our culture is so war prone that we immediately jump from, “This is a good cause” to “This deserves a war.”

You need to be very, very comfortable in making that jump.

Put Away The Flags by Howard Zinn (repost; 2006)

Repost from July 3, 2010

Image by dfbm via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
crossposted at The Progressive (2006)
July 4, 2014

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Chris Hedges and Dwayne “Fish” Booth: War Is A Business

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

LeighaCohen on Apr 25, 2014

Image by tsweden via Flickr

Chris Hedges and Dwayne Booth “Mr. Fish” spoke on April 24, 2014 at the University of Connecticut. This was part of a week long event sponsored by The Humanities Institute and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The title for today was “War and Its Meaning”. The first 32 minutes of the video Chris Hedges gives an impassionate talk on his personal experiences and political thoughts on this topic. This is then followed by an amazing 25 minute Q&A period where both Chris Hedges and Dwayne Booth respond to several questions asked by the audience and as always what is said is amazingly thought provoking.

[…]

General Mark Kimmitt’s Easter Day Mistruths and “The Sound of Freedom” by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
April 13, 2014

“We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected round the world.” (President Barack Obama, State of the Union address, 24th January 2012)

As Easter was celebrated in the US and UK with, for believers, the message of hope, Fallujah, the region and much of the country is again under siege, not this time by US mass murderers, but by the US proxy government’s militias armed with US delivered weapons.

Boston and Baghdad–Tyranny Abroad is a Washington Export that Defies Our Constitution by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
April 17, 2014

Greater Boston and its citizens are the focus of media attention in recognition of the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings that took three innocent lives and injured over 264 people, some of them severely. City leaders praised the heroism of the first responders and the deepened community spirit (“Boston Strong”). Addressing 2,500 invited Bostonians, including the bereaved families, Vice President Biden said “You have become the face of America’s resolve, not unlike what happened in 9/11…for the whole world to see. People know all about you. They know your pride, they know your courage, they know your resolve, they know who you are.”

Filthy Mayhem in India–Cars, Lorries and Weddings by Graham Peebles

by Graham Peebles
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
April 13, 2014

Along with the choking fumes and piles of putrid waste, sound systems and a constant bombardment of honking horns from cars, lorries and screaming buses assault residents and the unprepared in towns and cities throughout India. Loudspeakers are used to spread political propaganda; celebrate and circulate expensive arranged and prolonged weddings; and, mounted outside temples and mosques, loudly proclaim the jargon of the just and the righteous path to salvation.

Wars in the Guise of “Peace-building” by Daniel N. White

by Daniel N. White
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 29, 2014

Front blew in Sunday, a dry norther, and once again I’m allergy sick. Physically debilitated and mentally impaired too. I know better than to operate power equipment on allergy days, and I try to minimize my driving, and mostly I try and do things indoors to stay indoors and breathe the HVAC filtered air with no allergens in it. Most of the real work I need to do is outdoors and power tools and driving and allergies mean that it all gets postponed, which irritates me greatly on top of the allergy pains and aches.

David Swanson VS Danny Postel: TRNN Debate: Is Humanitarian Intervention in Syria Justified?

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
warisacrime.org
March 5, 2014

I’ve never debated anyone who wants limited child abuse or small-scale slavery or carefully circumscribed rape. It’s always war. It’s always the worst crime, the crime least susceptible to control once begun, and the crime that includes all the others, the crime defined at Nuremberg as the greatest of them all because it includes all the others.  And it’s always in blatant violation of the law.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Offers Financial Bounty to Extrajudicial Killers by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
February 23, 2014

“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.” — Albert Camus, 1913-1960

On September 7th 2012, the US Department of State (“Diplomacy in Action”) assured on their website:

“The U.S. Mission in Iraq remains dedicated to building a strategic partnership with Iraq and the Iraqi people … Iraq continues to develop as a sovereign, stable … country … a voice of moderation and democracy in the Middle East.

Western Imperialism’s Creative Destruction in Syria by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
February 18, 2014

Image by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr

US-led Western regime change in Syria might be described as a process of creative destruction. Like Schumpeter’s economic concept of cyclical creative destruction, so too Washington’s political machinations in Syria seem to be playing out likewise.

We begin with the premise that the humanitarian crisis in Syria over the past nearly three years is largely as a result of a Western covert proxy war inflicted on that country. The objective is to destabilize, terrorize and eventuate regime change in the Arab country.

No Honor in Killing ‘God’s Dog’ by Walter Brasch

by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
walterbrasch.com
February 14, 2014

Image by Jethro Taylor NYC via Flickr

A week before the opening of the Olympics, 759 Pennsylvanians paid $25 each to participate in a sport that would never be a part of any international competition.

These Pennsylvanians carried shotguns, whistles, and electronic calls; most also used dogs to search out their prey.