Military Resistance 10H3: Surrounded

7/31/2019 Military Resistance 10H3: Surrounded

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/military-resistance-10h3-surrounded 1/28

Military Resistance: [email protected] 8.6.12 Print it out: color best. Pass it on.

Military Resistance 10H3

“Almost Every Province That

Immediately Surrounds Kabul IsFirmly In The Hands Of The

Taliban”“While Mohammad Said He Did Not

Like The Taliban, He Thought His Life

Was Better Before The U.S.-LedInvasion And Karzai’s Rule”

mailto:[email protected]





“A Mayor Is Better Off Than KarzaiBecause He Can Leave The City. Karzai

Is A Prisoner In His Palace”

[Thanks to Alan Stolzer, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.]

We tried to travel to Parwan province – its borders are just about six miles outsideof Kabul.

But because it is controlled by the Taliban, we only reached the outskirts; thesecurity team we were traveling with in Afghanistan felt it was too dangerous toventure much further.

8.1.12 By Ali Arouzi, NBC News [Excerpts]

Most Afghans you speak to in Kabul or outside of the capital fear that their country willonce again be overrun by the Taliban or be engulfed by a civil war.

And most of their criticism is aimed at President Hamid Karzai, who seems to have littlecontrol over the country outside of Kabul.

(Of course, NATO troops – especially American forces – face scathing criticism as well).

Almost every province that immediately surrounds Kabul is firmly in the hands of theTaliban: Logar, Wardak, Parwan, Kapisa, Laghman, and about 70 percent of Nangarharare Taliban controlled, according to locals, and they all border Kabul.

I recently traveled to Charai Qamber, a small village just about five miles southeast ofKabul’s city limits, to speak with locals and find out what they think of the securitysituation.

I asked Mohammad, one of the village elders who would only give his first name, whathe thought of Karzai’s control over the security situation in the country.

Did he think he seemed more like the ‘Mayor of Kabul,’ rather than the president ofAfghanistan? He roared with laughter and said, “Not even mayor!”

Mohammad spoke about the president of his country with a tone of disdain. He saidKarzai has done nothing for his village or for the country as a whole – instead, he had

made a few cronies in Kabul rich.

While Mohammad said he did not like the Taliban, he thought his life was better beforethe U.S.-led invasion and Karzai’s rule.

He also believed Karzai had only given the veneer of semi-stability in Kabul, but that itwas beginning to show major cracks.



In the same village I spoke to a man named Babur, which means happiness, but heseemed far from it.

Babur, who also only gave his first name, had a litany of complaints.

He bemoaned the fact that his village had never been visited by an Afghan or American

government official – despite the fact that there was a U.S-funded military academy justa mile away from the village, which should have provided much needed jobs, but hadnot.

Nor did he have a sense of security, even though they were just a few miles away fromKabul where there are checkpoints everywhere and heavily armed security forces.

He also complained that his village did not have electricity or running water – villagershave to walk half a mile to a well near the academy.

He spoke with contempt about America but seemed to be fond of Iran andPakistan. Not a good sign for winning hearts and minds.

We tried to travel to Parwan province – its borders are just about six miles outsideof Kabul.

But because it is controlled by the Taliban, we only reached the outskirts; thesecurity team we were traveling with in Afghanistan felt it was too dangerous toventure much further.

Even on the edge of the province I got the feeling that we were being watched veryclosely. No one approached us to talk, which is unusual in Afghanistan, and wereceived unwelcoming looks.

Dr. Wadeer Safi, head of the political science department at Kabul University, said hehas mixed feelings about the planned NATO draw down in 2014.

I posed the same question to Safi about whether or not Karzai seemed more like themayor of Kabul, rather than president.

“A mayor is better off than Karzai because he can leave the city. Karzai is a prisoner inhis palace,” he said with a laugh.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Michigan Soldier Killed During CombatIn Afghanistan;

Four More Wounded



Aug 3, 2012 The Associated Press

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. — A 25-year-old from suburban Detroit has been killed, andfour others from the state have been injured, during combat operations in Afghanistan.

The Michigan National Guard said Spc. Kyle McClain of Shelby Township was instantlykilled Wednesday when an improvised explosive device detonated near Salim Aka,Afghanistan.

Four other members of the Augusta, Mich.-based 1433rd Engineer Company were“seriously injured” while on the same foot patrol.

The injured soldiers include 29-year-old Staff Sgt. Robert Drebenstedt of Charlevoix, 24-year-old Spc. William Barnett of Ypsilanti, Spc. 26-year-old Steven Nelson of Dollar Bayand 20-year-old Pvt. Joshua Colon of Grand Rapids.

Military officials said the injured soldiers were transported to military medical facilities at

Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

McClain is the 21st Michigan National Guardsman killed in action since 2003.

POLITICIANS REFUSE TO HALT THEBLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE

WAR

“Afghan Soldiers, Policemen, OrSecurity Guards, Largely In Units

Being Trained Or Mentored By TheU.S. Or Its NATO Allies, Have Turned

Their Guns On Those Mentors”“It’s Already Happened At Least 21

Times In This Half-Year, Resulting In 30



American And European Deaths, A 50%Jump From 2011”

[Thanks to Clancy Sigal who sent this in.]

July 31, 2012 By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch [Excerpts]

Imagine for a moment that almost once a week for the last six months somebodysomewhere in this country had burst, well-armed, into a movie theater showing asuperhero film and fired into the audience. That would get your attention, wouldn’t it?

James Holmes times 21? It would dominate the news.

We would certainly be consulting experts, trying to make sense of the pattern, gropingfor explanations.

And what if the same thing had also happened almost once every two weeks in 2011?Imagine the shock, imagine the reaction here.

Well, the equivalent has happened in Afghanistan (minus, of course, the superheromovies).

It even has a name: green-on-blue violence.

In 2012 -- and twice last week -- Afghan soldiers, policemen, or security guards,largely in units being trained or mentored by the U.S. or its NATO allies, haveturned their guns on those mentors, the people who are funding, supporting, andteaching them, and pulled the trigger.

It’s already happened at least 21 times in this half-year, resulting in 30 Americanand European deaths, a 50% jump from 2011, when similar acts occurred at least21 times with 35 coalition deaths.

(The “at least” is there because, in May, the Associated Press reported that, while U.S.and NATO spokespeople were releasing the news of deaths from such acts, green-on-blue incidents that resulted in no fatalities, even if there were wounded, were sometimesnot reported at all.)

Take July. There have already been at least four such attacks.

Note that these July attacks were geographically diverse: one in the Taliban south, oneeast of the capital in an area that has seen a rise in Taliban attacks, and two in areasthat aren’t normally considered insurgent hotbeds.

In 2007-2008, there were only four green-on-blue attacks, resulting in four deaths.

When they started multiplying in 2010, the initial impulse of coalition spokespeople wasto blame them on Taliban infiltrators (and the Taliban did take credit for most of them).



Now, U.S. or NATO spokespeople tend to dismiss such violence as individual pique orthe result of some personal grievance against coalition forces rather than Talibanaffiliation.

While reaffirming the coalition mission of training a vast security force for the country,they prefer to present each case as if it were a local oddity with little relation to any of the

others -- “an isolated incident (that) has its own underlying circumstances and motives.”(Privately, the U.S. military is undoubtedly far more worried.)

In fact, there is a striking pattern at work that should be front-page news here. Green-on-blue attacks have been countrywide, in areas of militant insurgency and not; theycontinue to escalate, and (as far as we can tell) are almost always committed by actualmembers of the Afghan military or police who have experienced the American project intheir country in a particularly up-close and personal way.

In addition, these attacks are, again as far as anyone can tell, in no way coordinated.

Nonetheless, they do seem to represent a kind of collective vote, not by ballot obviously,

nor -- as in Lenin’s phrase about Russia’s deserting peasant soldiers in World War I --with their feet, but with guns.

The number of these events is, after all, startling, given that an Afghan who turns hisweapon on well-armed American or European allies is likely to die.

So it’s reasonable to assume that, for every Afghan who acts on such a violent impulse,there must be a far larger pool of fellow members of the security forces the coalition isbuilding who have similar feelings, but don’t act on them (or simply vote with their feet,like the 24,590 soldiers who deserted in the first six months of 2011 alone).

And scattered and disparate as they may be, they have a distinctly unitary feel to them.

Whatever the singular bitterness or complaint behind any specific attack, a cumulativemessage clearly lurks in them that the U.S. military and Washington would undoubtedlyprefer not to hear, and that reporters, even when they are toting up the numbers, prefernot to consider too deeply.

After all, what could be more devastating 12 years after the invasion of that country thanhaving such attacks come not from the enemies the U.S. is officially fighting, but fromthe Afghans closest to us, the ones we have been training at a cost of nearly $50 billionto take over the country as U.S. combat troops drawdown?

To the extent that bullets can be translated into words, that message, uncompromising

and bloody-minded, would be something like: your mission’s failed, get out or die.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCEEND THE OCCUPATION



MILITARY NEWS

Afghanistan Veterans With GenitalWounds Receive Little Help From

Pentagon:“Pentagon Decision Dashes The Hopes

Of A Growing Number Of YoungAmericans Wounded In Combat”

[Thanks to Clancy Sigal who sent this in.]

07/30/2012 By David Wood, The Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- For the growing number of soldiers and Marines whose genitalsare damaged or destroyed by blasts from improvised explosive devices while incombat, the Pentagon has decided it will not provide some critical reproductivehealth benefits.

To put it bluntly, if you are sent to war and an IED blast blows off your testicles,the U.S. government will not pay for your wife to have in vitro fertilization orartificial insemination using donated sperm.

The new policy, quietly adopted without announcement by the Defense Department,responds to the growing demands of the more than 1,800 veterans with genital woundsthat the government that sent them to war now help them return to normal life, includingraising a family.

The policy authorizes payment for some reproductive procedures for the first time,including limited in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination.

But it also specifically excludes covering males who cannot produce sperm. “Third-partydonations and surrogacy are not covered benefits,” the policy states firmly.

The Pentagon decision dashes the hopes of a growing number of young Americans

wounded in combat and unable to produce sperm who had wanted to start a family. Inone recent U.S. military study, the average age of those with genital wounds was 24years. The majority of those in military service -- 56 percent -- are married.

Pentagon officials were not immediately available to explain their decision to denybenefits to couples like Heather and Mark Litynski, a Marine who lost both legsand his left arm, along with his testicles, to an IED blast in Afghanistan almost twoyears ago.



Heather, 27, and Mark, 26, had decided to use donor sperm to begin their long-planned dream of raising a family.

But the cost of in vitro fertilization can be dauntingly high: at the Walter ReedNational Military Medical Center in Bethesda., Md., where Mark was a patient, it

costs $4,800 to $7,000 for each procedure.

They were hoping the military would cover the cost.

When The Huffington Post contacted Heather Litynski about the new policy, sheexpressed deep disappointment.

Given all the other benefits that combat veterans are given, including medicalcare, housing and educational support, she was shocked that the governmentwould refuse to support procedures using donor sperm.

“This is one ugly hole in the system,” she said. “The only thing I can think of, and to me

it’s not an excuse, is that it might involve some ethical issue. I’m thinking, if a guy losesboth testicles, why would ethics get involved in a family’s decision to use donor sperm?”

Extending other assisted reproductive benefits to families in which the male can producesperm, she said “is a huge weight off a lot of peoples’ shoulders, which is good. I doappreciate that even this is being done. But I don’t think it’s fair for all the families itdoesn’t help.”

Since 2005, at least 1,875 American troops have suffered genital wounds,including 51 so far this year.

They are among the 34,440 American battle casualties caused by roadside bombs in

Iraq and Afghanistan, a grim toll that includes over 3,000 dead and 31,394 woundedthrough May, according to the most recent Defense Department data.

Most of those who suffer genital wounds also lose one or more limbs to IED blast, so thedevastating loss of sexual function is compounded by the difficulties of adapting to life asan amputee with prosthetic limbs or a wheelchair.

For these wounded warriors, the compensation policies of the Pentagon and theDepartment of Veterans Affairs can be infuriating.

For instance, the VA pays up to $100,000 to the severely wounded like Mark Litynski tocompensate for loss of income and to help finance adapting their home to wheelchairs

and other needs.

Late last year, the VA also agreed to pay up to $50,000 for damage to or loss of genitalsin combat.

But the VA’s $100,000 lifetime cap on such compensation does not account for veteranswho have been wounded as catastrophically as Mark Litynski.



He received the $100,000 for his amputations -- but nothing for his genital woundsthat might have helped finance fertilization procedures or adoption, since he’dalready reached the lifetime cap.

For wounded warriors and their spouses, many of whom are unemployed andwithout significant income, the issue of financing a family adds to the other issues

they struggle with.

Heather and Mark agonized over the issue of using donor sperm, the only option thatwould allow Heather Litynski to experience childbirth. Mark was okay with the idea, butHeather said she “spent months going back and forth before I felt comfortable with mydecision.

Nobody,” she said, referring to the Pentagon, “should frown on that decision.”

She and Mark had decided to pay for their own artificial insemination procedure, andlater to adopt a child. They are working to save the $40,000 they believe adoption willcost. They are at home now in Minnesota, where Mark -- now getting around on his

prosthetic legs -- plans to go back to school.

In an effort to prevent more such genital wounds as Mark experienced, the Pentagonlast fall rushed 165,000 pairs of Kevlar-reinforced briefs to Afghanistan along with45,000 sets of armored over-garments designed to blunt the impact of shrapnel andblast on the lower torso.

The measure had limited effect, according to a preliminary study completed inAfghanistan this spring for Task Force Paladin, which is responsible for all counter-IEDtraining and operations in Afghanistan.

The unpublished study found that for those injured by IEDs, 33 percent of those

wearing the protective garments suffered partial or complete destruction of thetesticles, compared to 46 percent of those who were not wearing protection.

DoD Scumbags At Work BetrayingThe Troops, As Usual:

DoD Said For Two Years That

“Beneficiaries Must Bear More OfTheir Health Care Costs In Order ToSustain The Benefit”



Now DoD Grabbing $708 From TroopsAnd Their Families Health Care Plan To

Pay For Afghanistan TransportationCosts “And Movement Of An Extra

Carrier Strike Group To The PersianGulf”

Aug 2, 2012 By Patricia Kime - Staff writer. Army Times [Excerpts]

The Defense Department’s top budget officer Wednesday defended Pentagonefforts to shift $708 million in health funding to other military budget accounts,saying the surplus money — the result of conservative cost projections made two

years ago — cannot go to new initiatives or be saved for the future.

The Pentagon came under fire from military advocacy groups this week afterlawmakers revealed that defense officials want to use Tricare funds to coverunexpected budget needs such as increased transportation costs caused byPakistan’s shutdown of ground supply routes to Afghanistan and movement of anextra carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf.

House Armed Services Committee members sent a letter to Defense SecretaryPanetta July 24 asking for an explanation, given that the Pentagon has argued forthe past two years that beneficiaries must bear more of their health care costs inorder to sustain the benefit.

By law, the funds must be used or will expire at the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30.

The Pentagon must request permission from lawmakers to transfer funds betweenaccounts, because the practice essentially alters spending allocations already approvedby Congress.

In their letter to Panetta, House lawmakers questioned the new Tricare transferrequest, given DoD’s insistence this year that fees needed to be raised forretirees.

Lawmakers also worry about research funding opportunities being lost.

“We have concerns about this reprogramming request because we believe there areserious health issues that our military service members and military retirees are currentlyfacing that are of the highest priority,” wrote Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., chairman of theHouse Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel.

Military advocacy groups such as the Military Officers Association of America and theNational Association of the Uniformed Services expressed outrage that the Tricare



account is showing a surplus when the Pentagon has argued that without fee increases,military readiness will be affected.

“For months, the Defense Department has defended its proposals to punishbeneficiaries with thousands (of dollars) a year in higher Tricare fees by claiming fast-rising Tricare costs are ‘eating us alive,’” retired Vice. Adm. Norb Ryan, president of

MOAA.

“But the reprogramming memo the Pentagon just sent to Congress indicates theseclaims were flatly untrue and DoD leaders should have known it.”

Lawyer Sues Navy On Behalf Of 105Sailors Separated By Last Year’s

Enlisted Retention Boards:“I Am Appalled At What The Navy IsAttempting To Get Away With By

Breaking These Sailors’ ContractsWithout The Proper Authority”

Aug 2, 2012 By Mark D. Faram, Navy Times [Excerpts]

An Oklahoma attorney filed suit before the U.S. Federal Court of Claims Thursday onbehalf of 105 sailors separated by last year’s Enlisted Retention Boards. Roughly 2,000ERB sailors remain on the Navy’s payroll with a month to go before their mandatoryseparation date of Sept. 1.

Attorney E.W. Keller, a former state senator and Army officer, said he became aware ofthe ERB and its fallout when his office started hearing from sailors targeted forseparation at Navy commands operating from Tinker Air Force Base, just outsideOklahoma City.

“After looking carefully at the law and regulations, I am appalled at what the Navy isattempting to get away with by breaking these sailors’ contracts without the proper

authority,” Keller said.

“Additionally, they put in place a selection process that was inherently unfair in the way itmeted out these discharges and didn’t fully take into account these sailor’s rights.”

The Navy conducted two Enlisted Retention Boards in August and September 2011. Atotal of 15,386 sailors in paygrades E-4 through E-8 were in ratings the service projectedwould be overmanned at the end of fiscal 2012. Of them, 2,946 were sent home.



In his Aug. 2 filing, Keller listed eight counts against the Navy. He’s challengingthe Navy’s legal authority to break contracts under these circumstances. Healleges the conduct of the ERB was discriminatory and unfair, and the sailors’rights under existing administrative separation rules were violated.

He also is alleging that breaking career sailors’ contracts will cause them irreparable

harm.

As redress, he’s asking that these sailors contracts be restored and that they bereturned to active duty or, alternatively, that they be compensated monetarily forlost wages and benefits they’d have gotten had they served out their contracts.

Though no hearing dates have been set yet, the case has been assigned to Judge LynnBush, who has been on the Court of Claims since 1998. Bush worked as a Navy lawyerserving as the senior trial attorney for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command from1987 to 1989, according to a biography, and as counsel for the Chesapeake FieldActivity of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command from 1989 through 1996.

DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THEMILITARY?

Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the email address if youwish and we’ll send it regularly with your best wishes. Whether inAfghanistan or at a base in the USA, this is extra important for your servicefriend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growingresistance to the war, inside the armed services and at home. Send emailrequests to address up top or write to: Military Resistance, Box 126, 2576Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657.



Troops Invited:Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service menand women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box

126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or [email protected]: Name, I.D., withheld unless yourequest publication. Same address to unsubscribe.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh hadI the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream ofbiting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom theyoppose.”

Frederick Douglass, 1852





The past year – every single day of it – has had its consequences. In the obscuredepths of society, an imperceptible molecular process has been occurringirreversibly, like the flow of time, a process of accumulating discontent,bitterness, and revolutionary energy.-- Leon Trotsky, “Up To The Ninth Of January”

Hiroshima-Nagasaki

Photograph by Mike Hastie

From: Mike HastieTo: Military Resistance NewsletterSent: August 05, 2012Subject: Hiroshima-Nagasaki

Hiroshima-Nagasaki

The reason most Americans still believe that thedropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and

Nagasaki were justified, is because if they weren’t,the American people would be faced with the mostterrible realization-- National Shame.Once National Shame is exposed, it would dismantlethe American belief system.Our belief system is our national identity, it is ourAmerican flag, and everything that is wrapped in it.So, we go from using the Atomic Bombs on Japan,to the Genocide we committed in Southeast Asia.



From there, we travel around the world to othercountries we have bombed to perpetuate profit.The United States of America is dismantling theentire Middle East, so we can feed our dinosaureconomy-- one country at a time, one day at atime.

Shame, Shame, Shame...That is why the American people will never facethe truth behind the most horrific act of murderever committed in human history.In February of 1947, my military family was sentto Yokohama, Japan after the war.I was 18 months old.When our ship arrived in Japan, the devastation wasbeyond belief. These stories were told to me by myfather, who was a military officer, and my mother.The Japanese were eating out of our trash cans.Such is the nature of American Empire.

Mike HastieArmy Medic VietnamAugust 5, 2012

War is so terrible,it makes the soul sit down.Mike Hastie

Photo and caption from the portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at:([email protected]) T)

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or aso-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizenof Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike HastieU.S. Army MedicVietnam 1970-71December 13, 2004

GET MILITARY RESISTANCE NEWSLETTERBY EMAIL

If you wish to receive Military Resistance immediately anddirectly, send request to [email protected]. There isno subscription charge.







DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

CLASS WAR REPORTS



Zambian Miners Kill Chinese ManagerDuring Pay Protest

[Thanks to Alan Stolzer, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.]

5 August 2012 BBC

Zambian miners have killed a Chinese manager by pushing a mine trolley at him at acoal mine in the south of the country.

A second Chinese was injured, as were several Zambians on Saturday.

The workers were on strike at the mine in protest against delays in implementing a newminimum wage.

They were angry their wages were lower than a new minimum of $220 (£140) a monthpaid to shop workers.

Zambia’s minister of labour has gone to the Chinese-owned Collum coal mine inSinazongwe, 325km (200 miles) south of the capital, Lusaka.

“Wu Shengzai, aged 50, has been killed by protesting workers after being hit by a trolleywhich was pushed towards him by the rioting miners as he ran away into theunderground where he wanted to seek refugee,” Southern province police commissionerFred Mutondo told state news agency, the Zambia News and Information Services.

“He died on the spot while his colleague is in hospital.”

Last year, the Zambian government dropped charges against two Chinesemanagers accused of attempted murder after they fired on miners at the Collummine during a pay dispute.

Chinese firms own several mines in southern African countries, including coal andcopper operations.

Copper mining is one of Zambia’s main industries, providing nearly three-quarters of thecountry’s exports; many of the mining companies are foreign-owned, and China hasinvested more than $400m (£250m) in Zambia.

A 2011 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that, despite improvements inrecent years, safety and labour conditions at Chinese mines were worse than atother foreign-owned mines.



“Many Residents Of Aleppo NowSay Mr. Assad’s Enemies Will

Multiply Every Day He Keeps UpThe Fight”

“I Was Supporting Him Because IWas Looking To Him As A Moderate,Secular And Liberal Leader, But That

Was Until I Saw His Crimes”“With His Crimes,” Mr. Fadi Said, “He Is

Buying A One-Way Ticket Out Of TheCountry”

04 August 12 By Damien Cave and Syrian Staff, The New York Times [Excerpts]

Just before sunrise, a select group of Syrian rebel fighters steps away from the frontlines here for a task their commanders now consider a vital and urgent part of the wareffort: baking bread.

The floppy moons that they produce, pita to Americans, usually go quickly to hungryresidents and rebels. Bread is a mainstay of the Syrian diet - it accompanies every meal- and in a city paralyzed by two weeks of war, the bakery lines show that basiccommerce has become a battleground of its own.

“The regime has tried to deprive our supporters of water and gas, and now they areusing bread,” said Basheer al-Hajeh, a member of Al Tawheed Brigade, one of the mainrebel militias in Aleppo. But he said the rebels had learned how to fight back against thegovernment’s attempts to keep bread and other resources out of opposition-controlledareas.

“We took control of the wheat warehouses in Aleppo’s suburbs,” he said. “We havemany of them, in several areas, and they might keep us supplied for weeks.”

The struggle to keep bakeries operating is part of a much larger fight over the Syrianeconomy, especially in Aleppo, the country’s commercial hub and its largest city.

As the government of President Bashar al-Assad tries to project an image of normalcy,denying reports of runaway inflation, rebels say they are finding new ways to attractsupport from the business class and siphon off government resources.



Kamal Hamdan, a Lebanese economist who has worked extensively in Syria, said bothsides were engaged in efforts to replace the peacetime economy with wartimealternatives.

“They are expecting a civil war that will take a long time and you have to sustain the

daily life of the areas you are controlling,” he said. “It’s part of the game.”

The government has a clear advantage. Its Central Bank reported foreign currencyassets of about $17 billion, one month after the conflict started.

According to an investment consultant in the capital, Damascus, the government nowappears to be asking Russia for loans to continue propping up the economy. Manyanalysts also suspect that the Syrians have found a way to sell oil, despite sanctionsfrom Europe.

But after 17 months of conflict, the opposition is becoming more and more creative.

In Damascus, for example, activists say there are merchants that pretend tosupport Mr. Assad, only to funnel government-supplied cooking fuel, gasoline,bread and water to the other side.

“We ask them not to defect,” said Moaz, an opposition activist in Damascus.“They will be rewarded later.” Like others interviewed, he would not give his fullname for fear of retribution.

Rebels are also managing to create supply chains that route around government-controlled areas with the help of private businesses.

In some cases, merchants donate money.

In others, they said, business owners support the families of rebel fighters or oppositionsupporters, in one case 50 families at once. And especially in Aleppo this week, moreimmediate acts of generosity have emerged, with fresh food suddenly appearing forthose in need.

One woman, a dentist who supports the opposition, said she recently helped distributeplates of schwarma, a local grilled meat dish, to 900 displaced people in five schoolsnear a contested area of southwest Aleppo.

As is often the case in war, food has become almost as important as bullets. Aleppo hasgrown especially desperate.

Several videos posted online now refer to a food crisis, and some confirm thatbakeries there have become opposition outposts, with long, loud lines snakingaround corners as armed rebels keep order, telling customers that they are onlypaying what is needed to cover bakery expenses.

Abu Mohammed, a rebel baker in eastern Aleppo, said that skirmishes sometimesbreak out among customers, especially when there is not enough to go around.



But his squad - seven to nine rebels baking and distributing bread - try to feedwho they can and make sure no one gets preferential treatment, he said.

Mr. Hajeh, the militia member and a spokesman for the main rebel unit in Aleppo,said that top leaders have already appointed someone to run all the city’s rebel-controlled bakeries, arranging grain deliveries and baker schedules.

There is now at least one rebel-run bakery in every neighborhood of rebel control,he said. Usually, there are two or three.

“What we do is open the bakery with the owners’ consent and our own peoplebake the bread,” he said.

Other basic needs have been harder to manage.

The rebels said they provide water to some areas, filling tanker trucks from wells outsidethe city, but milk is essentially unavailable.

Gas prices have tripled to about $11 per gallon. Diesel prices and the cost of cookingfuel have skyrocketed, according to residents and black market sellers, while vegetableprices have also spiked.

Cucumber prices have more than doubled. “We try and help with other goods, but wedon’t have a lot of capacity,” Mr. Hajeh said.

Major businesses in Aleppo are suffering as well. Mr. Hamdan, the Lebanese economist,said that Aleppo usually accounted for about 30 percent of Syria’s gross domesticproduct, slightly less than Damascus. But these days in Aleppo trade has essentiallycome to a standstill.

Several factory owners said in interviews that their exports have dropped to practicallynothing. Abu Abdu, 60, who owns a textile factory in Aleppo with about 55 employees,said 2011 was his worst year in five decades of business. And 2012, he said, willprobably be worse.

A garrulous Sunni who began working in his father’s factory as a teenager, he said hisown views on the conflict have changed with his fortunes. Like many other merchants,he described himself as apolitical, so when the unrest started, the future seemed headedfor a version of the past: in the 1980s, the government of Mr. Assad’s father violentlycrushed an Islamist revolt in Syria, killing thousands of people.

But over time, he said he has begun to question the government’s strength.

“In the 1980s, no one in the country or the world knew what was going on with themilitary crackdown, but today the media and satellite channels are broadcasting andshowing the live photos of the military operations,” he said.

As a result, he said, the rebels have been tougher to portray as defeated.



“President Bashar al-Assad made big promises that everything will be finished in days,then in weeks, then in months,” he said. “But today, here we are after a year and halfand we see and hear the same false words and statements.”

Other upper- and middle-class residents described similar conversions. Many residentsof Aleppo now say Mr. Assad’s enemies will multiply every day he keeps up the fight,

creating more unemployment, more displacement and more hunger in a city whosebusiness is business.

“I was supporting him because I was looking to him as a moderate, secular and liberalleader, but that was until I saw his crimes in Dara’a, Homs, Hama, Dier al-Zour and nowin my city, and against my relatives,” said Abu Fadi, 45, who owns a failing travel agencyin Aleppo.

“With his crimes,” Mr. Fadi said, “he is buying a one-way ticket out of the country.”

“Recent Incidents Of Brutality ByAnaheim, Calif., Police Are

Galvanizing A NeighborhoodResponse Against Police Violence”“There Have Been Six Officer-Involved

Fatal Shootings This Year Alone In

Anaheim”July 30, 2012 By Michael Brown and Danielle Hawkins, Socialist Worker [Excerpts]

Recent incidents of brutality by Anaheim, Calif., police are galvanizing a neighborhoodresponse against police violence.

On July 21, Anaheim police murdered Manuel Diaz by, according to witnesses, shootinghim first in the back of the leg, and then, as he lay on the ground, shooting him in theback of the head.

Police then unleashed a vicious assault on a crowd of residents of an East Sideapartment complex, including small children. Police fired rubber bullets and bean bags,and let loose a police dog.

The following day, another police killing--this time of a young man named Joel Acevedo--added to residents’ outrage.

In response, residents of the Anna Drive neighborhood in Anaheim were joined by localactivists and supporters for two subsequent rallies on July 24 and 29.



Protesters--galvanized by the shocking footage of Anaheim police standingaround while a still-alive Diaz bled to death, as well as the footage of thesubsequent assault on residents--congregated at City Hall July 24 in an attempt togain access to a meeting.

Later that evening, the crowd swelled to more than 1,000 people.

It’s not clear whether Anaheim riot police first gave an order to disperse and then beganto move on the crowd or whether, as was reported by outlets such as the Los AngelesTimes and Orange County Register, the crowd’s outrage boiled over and somemembers of the crowd began pelting police with rocks and bottles.

Windows were smashed at several local businesses, as some 50 to 100 members of thecrowd broke off from the group, according to police. Twenty-four arrests were made.

The righteous anger and resistance expressed by members of Anaheim’s working-classLatino community, according to both Mayor Tom Tait and Police Chief John Welter, were

supposedly egged-on by “outsiders.”

Welter told the Register in an interview, “I think the vast majority were from outside, and Ithink they were here for one reason and one reason only and that is to create havoc,damage property, cause injuries and in effect just attack the democratic way.”

Both Tait’s and Welter’s accusations of outsiders stirring up trouble aremisplaced, and designed to deflect away from the fact that there have been sixofficer-involved fatal shootings this year alone in Anaheim.

Blaming “outsiders” has been a tried-and-true tactic used by racist politicians andpolice officials since the civil rights movement, implying that locals aren’t up to

the task of organizing against inequality.

But of the 20 adults arrested, 18 were from Orange County, including 16 fromAnaheim.

Anaheim police responded to the rally by calling in reinforcements from everyother city in the Southern California area, in addition to the Orange CountySheriff’s Office and people dressed in military fatigues that many believed to bewith the National Guard. They were mounted on horses and had military armoredvehicles.

Saudi Anti-Regime Protesters Rally InRiyadh And Mecca Demanding The

Release Of Political Prisoners And The



Downfall Of The US-Backed PuppetMonarchy

29 July 2012 Islamic Invitation

Saudi anti-regime protesters have held fresh demonstrations across Riyadh as well asthe holy city of Mecca to protest against the arrest of political prisoners.

Chanting anti-regime slogans on Saturday, the angry protesters demanded the releaseof political prisoners and the downfall of the US-backed puppet monarchy.

On Friday, Saudi security forces opened fire and injured several demonstrators in theeastern city of Qatif.

Similar demonstrations were also held against the regime in the village of Awamiyah andthe city of Buraydah.

Tensions have been running high in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province over thepast weeks following the detention of Saudi cleric Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr.

Sheikh Nemr was attacked, injured, and arrested by Saudi security forces, while drivingfrom a farm to his house in the province’s Qatif region on July 8.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis inSaudi Arabia, mainly in the Qatif region and Awamiyah, also in the Eastern Province,primarily calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression andassembly, and an end to widespread discrimination.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the Al Saud regime,especially since November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters andinjured many others in the province.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi regime “routinely represses expressioncritical of the government.”

GOT AN OPINION?Comments from service men and women, and veterans, areespecially welcome. Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New

York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send to [email protected]:Name, I.D., withheld unless you request identification published.





Angola Inmates Are Taught LifeSkills, Then Spend Their Lives

Behind Bars:“Louisiana Leads The Nation InThe Percentage Of Its CitizensServing Life Without Parole”

“Nearly One In 10 Are Locked Up

Forever On Drug Or Other NonviolentOffenses”

“Three In Four Are African-AmericanMen”



May 15, 2012 By Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune [Excerpts]

ANGOLA -- People always said Johna Haynes was lucky because of the white hair thatsprouted from the crown of his head since he was a baby. He acquired the nickname“Patch” from New Orleans police officers, who came to know him all too well.

At 31, the patch has turned into a bald spot, the pale strands now dispersed throughouthis close-cropped dark hair, leaving him prematurely gray.

“And still lucky?” someone asked.

He looked around incredulously at his surroundings -- a late summer Sunday afternoonin the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s west yard, men playing basketball and liftingweights, stray cats sunning themselves on concrete ledges, an idyllic scene if one didnot look to the barbed wire fences in the distance.

“I’m lucky I’m alive,” he finally said.

Something -- the white patch, divine intervention or just plain luck -- spared Haynes froma violent death, the fate of his brother, stepfather, stepbrother, cousin and innumerablefriends.

It did not spare him from another well-traveled path out of the Florida public housingcomplex: the winding, achingly bucolic bus ride to the penitentiary commonly known asAngola, where his own father served more than a decade and where Haynes is slated tospend the rest of his life without the possibility of parole.



Haynes estimates he stole at least 160 cars and committed at least 130 robberies in abrief, prolific criminal career before he was locked up forever at the age of 21. When heworked at a Shoney’s restaurant in Metairie, he never once took the bus -- he alwaysarrived in style on stolen wheels. The guns he took from parked cars at Carnivalparades or the Bayou Classic became the guns he carried while selling drugs and theguns he used to rob people.

He was shot at many times and watched others die, but he was never hit. Nor, he said,has he ever killed anyone.

His dangerous lifestyle caught up to him in a different way -- life without parole forpointing a gun at a man and making off with his car and valuables.

Two previous convictions, for stealing a car and for trying to escape from police custody,made Haynes a habitual offender. A young thug was off the streets for good.

Louisiana leads the nation in the percentage of its citizens serving life withoutparole, fueling the state’s world-leading incarceration rate.

Angola is clogged with prisoners who will grow old and die there.

Some criminal justice experts believe life without parole should be reserved for heinousmurders, solely as an alternative to the death penalty.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently did away with the sentence for juveniles who have notcommitted murder; Haynes was barely out of his teens during his final armed robbery.

Louisiana lifers used to get out on parole after serving 10 years and six months. The lawwas changed in 1979 to “life means life.”

Since then, Angola has been filling up with men who, barring a rare reprieve, will spendthe rest of their lives there.

The pardon board only intervenes in extraordinary cases, and even then, governors arereluctant to sign the release papers, fearing a politically damaging relapse.

Louisiana is one of six states where all life sentences are handed down without thechance of ever going before a parole board.

First- and second-degree murderers automatically receive life without parole, on theguilty votes of as few as 10 of 12 jurors.

Nearly 12 percent of Louisiana inmates, or more than 4,500 people, are serving lifewithout parole -- the highest proportion in the nation, according to a Sentencing Projectreport.

While most have committed violent crimes, nearly one in 10 are locked up forever ondrug or other nonviolent offenses. Three in four are African-American men.

In Texas, less than 1 percent of state prisoners are serving life without parole; the figurein Tennessee is 1.3 percent.



Vietnam GI: Reprints Available

Vietnam: They Stopped An Imperial War

Edited by Vietnam Veteran Jeff Sharlet from 1968 until his death, this newspaperrocked the world, attracting attention even from Time Magazine, and extremelyhostile attention from the chain of command.

The pages and pages of letters in the paper from troops in Vietnam condemningthe war are lost to history, but you can find them here.

Military Resistance has copied complete sets of Vietnam GI. The originals were abit rough, but every page is there. Over 100 pages, full 11x17 size.

Free on request to active duty members of the armed forces.

Cost for others: $15 if picked up in New York City. For mailing inside USA add $5for bubble bag and postage. For outside USA, include extra for mailing 2.5pounds to wherever you are.

Checks, money orders payable to: The Military Project

Orders to:Military ResistanceBox 1262576 BroadwayNew York, N.Y.10025-5657

All proceeds are used for projects giving aid and comfort to members of thearmed forces organizing to resist today’s Imperial wars.



Military Resistance Looks Even Better Printed OutMilitary Resistance/GI Special are archived at websitehttp://www.militaryproject.org . The following have chosen to post issues; theremay be others: http://williambowles.info/military-resistance-archives/;[email protected]

Military Resistance distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always beenspecifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advanceunderstanding of the invasion and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of anysuch copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed withoutcharge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the includedinformation for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. Military Resistance has noaffiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is Military Resistance endorsed or sponsored bythe originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research,education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice. Go to:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site forpurposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

If printed out, a copy of this newsletter is your personal property and cannotlegally be confiscated from you. “Possession of unauthorized material may notbe prohibited.” DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2.

http://www.militaryproject.org/

http://williambowles.info/military-resistance-archives/




http://williambowles.info/military-resistance-archives/

http://www.militaryproject.org/

Military Resistance 10H3: Surrounded

Documents

Transcript of Military Resistance 10H3: Surrounded