… The images of the Boston bombing reminded me of things I saw in southern Helmand province, not the streets where I usually do my Christmas shopping. Many witnesses described the marathon carnage as “a war zone,” and indeed it was: mangled flesh, shocked faces, splattered blood.

 … I deployed to Afghanistan believing my presence in that country would help stop attacks such as Boston’s from happening. But instead, my war has spilled over, striking the city where my 22-year-old brother goes to school and where my mom, until recently, felt perfectly safe eating lunch outdoors.

The sad thing is, while we (rightly) condemn the actions of the 19 year-old who detonated a bomb at the Boston Marathon, we send 19 year-olds overseas to drop bombs on people in situations that all-too-frequently lead to the deaths of innocent children, women, and men. Far from facing condemnation for their actions, however, this latter group of youths are either given immunity or outright praise for their violence.

This is an incongruity and contradiction which America cannot sustain if it ever wants to see peace, at home or abroad.

This is a photo taken in Watertown, MA, as cops and soldiers go door-to-door looking for terrorists

===

From Iraq and Afghanistan to your front door.

Right now in Watertown, Massachusetts.

What the people of Iraq and Afghanistan have lived with for ten years.

 … Americans still see terrorism as a high-stakes public policy issue, though it has almost disappeared altogether from their list of the nation’s top problems. A Gallup poll released Monday — which was conducted in early April — found zero percent of Americans volunteering “terrorism” as the country’s most important problem. Terrorism has ranked at 1 percent or below in six separate priorities polls conducted before the Monday Gallup poll, compared to above 20 percent in the year after the attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

 … “It’s just a sense that since nothing’s happened since September 11th, the guard has been let down a bit,” [director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Health and Homeland Security Michael Greenberger] said in an interview. “The silver lining from this is they’re going to be built back again.”

===

I find this incredibly interesting, especially because certain members of America’s ruling political class seem to be yearning for a return to the climate of lockstep fear and obedience which prevailed in the months and years after 9/11/01; a “better” time when people were more afraid of Muslims “over there” than the bankers and bigots who rule our country “over here”.

The fact of the matter is that, far from the notion that “nothing’s happened since September 11th,” the reality is that most Americans’ perspectives on the “war on terror” have changed because so MUCH has happened — decades-long wars on Afghanistan & Iraq, Guantanamo, PATRIOT Act, financial collapse, CEO bonuses, corporate bailouts, yawning economic inequality, multiple revolutions in the Middle East, the Occupy movement, and so on.

Yes, we have all learned much from the aftermath of 9/11/01. But I would submit that the most important of these lessons is that to voluntarily acquiesce one’s humanity to the forces of fear, racism, xenophobia, militarism, and blind-obedience to authority, when confronted with tragedy, hatred, and violence, is to ultimately do worse injury to oneself than that which was inflicted in the first place.

(We need only recall that more Americans lost their lives fighting to militarily control Iraq than were killed on 9/11 itself, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis snatched from the world by that imperialist misadventure and its consequences).

From Children in Iraq

I just can’t even… I mean, can you imagine? The U.S. is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, including countless children, as a result of its recent barbaric invasion and occupation of that country. Yet these Iraqi children somehow find it in their hearts to express solidarity with the suffering of regular American people. If only all people everywhere had the courage and compassion of the two young souls pictured here.

also, i don’t know if the child on the right is consciously using American Sign Language, but that sign he’s making with his hand means “I love you,” in ASL …

There were hundreds of heroes in the aftermath of Monday’s tragic bombing attacks in Boston. Doctors, police officers and even former NFL players responded with tremendous courage and saved lives. Carlos Arredondo — easily recognizable in photos and videos because of his cowboy hat — was one of those heroes and is prominently featured in two of the more memorable and traumatic images from Monday’s attack.

In the above photo, Arredondo can be seen apparently holding together the femoral artery or tourniquet of a victim who had lost both his legs in the attack. “I kept talking to him. I kept saying, ‘Stay with me, stay with me,’ ” Arredondo told the Press Herald.

And at the 1:45 mark of the video below, you can see Arredondo rushing to help victims just seconds after the first explosion.

But who is Arredondo? As several tipsters and and publications have noted, the 52-year-old has quite the past.

Arredondo was watching the race to support a runner who was running the marathon in honor of Arredondo’s son, Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, who was killed in Iraq in 2004. When Arredondo was told (on his 44th birthday, no less) about his son’s death by a group of Marines, he didn’t believe them. From a 2007 New York Times article:

“I just screamed,” he said. “I said ‘No, no! It can’t be my son.’ “

Mr. Arredondo said he “lost it.” He ran to his garage and grabbed a gallon of gasoline and a propane torch.

He took a sledgehammer and smashed the government van’s windshield and hopped inside. As the officers tried to calm him, Mr. Arredondo doused himself and the van with gasoline and lit the torch.

There was an explosion, and the officers dragged Mr. Arredondo to safety. He suffered second- and third-degree burns over 20 percent of his body.

“I went to my son’s funeral on a stretcher,” he said.

The incident – and the 10 months he spent in the hospital recovering – spurred Arredondo to a life of activism protesting the war in Iraq. He drove around the country in his son’s truck, which was carrying a coffin and was decorated with pictures of his dead son at his funeral. “As long as there are marines fighting and dying in Iraq, I’m going to share my mourning with the American people…Every day we have G.I.’s being killed, and people don’t really care enough or do enough to protest about how the war is going,” he told the Times. “Some people say I’m dishonoring my son by doing this, but this is my pain, my loss.”

That loss grew exponentially four years later, when Arredondo’s surviving son killed himself at age 24, partly out of grief from losing his older brother. Now, Arredondo has again found himself in the midst of tragedy and again responded with resiliency and courage. Below is an interview with Arredondo taken after the bombings.

Ten years after the US war against Iraq, our two countries remain connected in tragedy …

===

A wave of attacks across Iraq on Monday, including a brazen car bombing on the way to Baghdad airport, have killed 50 people and injured hundreds more, just days before the country’s first elections since US troops withdrew.

The violence, which mostly struck during morning rush hour amid tightened security ahead of the polls, raises further questions about the credibility of the April 20 vote, seen as a key test of Iraq’s stability and its security forces’ capabilities.

Officials said more than 30 bombings and a shooting hit 12 different areas of Iraq, leaving 50 people dead and nearly 300 injured, making Monday the country’s deadliest day since March 19.

The tenth anniversary of the Iraq War was marked by a procession of mostly liberal pundits solemnly apologizing for supporting the ill-fated invasion in the first place. As the issue of gay marriage goes in front of the Supreme Court, we’re treated to the sight of the former president who signed the Defense of Marriage Act arguing that it should be overturned. Let’s talk about what courage and cowardice in politics really mean.

 … Let us be clear about what this is … The Clintons, and many of their fellow Democrats, made a calculated choice to spit on the civil rights of gay people until they knew that the issue was no longer dangerous to them personally. Then they came out in support. This reveals a fundamental aspect of the character of these politicians, just as breezily failing to raise a voice against a plainly misguided march to war reveals a fundamental aspect of the character of those political pundits: they value their own careers over everything. They are willing to go to indecent lengths to keep themselves situated comfortably. This trait can manifest itself in their conduct towards any number of political issues, of course; but knowing that they are willing to discard what they know to be right even in cases of war or basic civil rights is good to know. Remember that, the next time these people ask for your attention, or your vote, or your trust.

Iraq before and after “democracy”

Today Marks 10 years since the American invasion of Iraq. More then 600,000 deaths and a beautiful country destroyed by American imperialist greed.

Baghdad, March 19-21, 2003. Never forget

===

Year: 2003 
Photographer: Jean-Marc Bouju
Nationality: France
Organization / Publication: The Associated Press
Date: 31-03-2003 
Country: Iraq

Caption
An Iraqi man comforts his four-year-old son at a holding center for prisoners of war, in the base camp of the US Army 101st Airborne Division near An Najaf. The boy had become terrified when, according to orders, his father was hooded and handcuffed. A soldier later severed the plastic handcuffs so that the man could comfort his child. Hoods were placed over detainees’ heads because they were quicker to apply than blindfolds. The military said the bags were used to disorient prisoners and protect their identities. It is not known what happened to the man or the boy.

Damn. The U.S. is actually trying to go to war with Iran. This is ludicrous. For real, though, this is some George W. Bush type shit that Obama’s starting to pull …

===

Secret legal advice states pre-emptive strike could be in breach of international law as Iran not yet ‘clear and present threat’

• Military action not ‘right course’, Downing Street says

Britain has rebuffed US pleas to use military bases in the UK to support the build-up of forces in the Gulf, citing secret legal advice which states that any pre-emptive strike on Iran could be in breach of international law.

The Guardian has been told that US diplomats have also lobbied for the use of British bases in Cyprus, and for permission to fly from US bases on Ascension Island in the Atlantic and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, both of which are British territories.

The US approaches are part of contingency planning over the nuclear standoff with Tehran, but British ministers have so far reacted coolly. They have pointed US officials to legal advice drafted by the attorney general’s office which has been circulated to Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence.

This makes clear that Iran, which has consistently denied it has plans to develop a nuclear weapon, does not currently represent “a clear and present threat”. Providing assistance to forces that could be involved in a pre-emptive strike would be a clear breach of international law, it states.

“The UK would be in breach of international law if it facilitated what amounted to a pre-emptive strike on Iran,” said a senior Whitehall source. “It is explicit. The government has been using this to push back against the Americans.”