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Washington's Wars and Occupations:
Month in Review #82
February 29, 2012
By Alicia Garza, War Times/Tiempo de Guerras

The post-9/11 Neocon dream of Washington running the entire Middle East is crumbling before their eyes. But lunatic as it seems, Republican presidential hopefuls are beating the drums for still another Middle East war.

Afghan "allies" are shooting NATO troops every other day and the U.S. war in Afghanistan is falling apart. In The End in Afghanistan? Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse report that "American officials are talking about not panicking (which indicates that panic is indeed in the air)."

Evidence piles up weekly that the war against Iraq was not only a human disaster for the Iraqi people, but an embarrassing failure for the U.S. Plans for "the largest Embassy" in the world in Baghdad have to be cut in half, and the Iraqi government is closer politically to Iran than to the U.S.

But on the campaign trail here, the foreign policy discussion is dominated by Republicans attempting to whip the American public into a frenzy over Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons (which U.S. intelligence says Iran has not even decided to build!) and pledging 1,000% support for Israeli settlements and threats to attack Iran.

Washington's Wars and Occupations:
Month in Review #81

January 31, 2012

By Clare Bayard, War Times/Tiempo de Guerras

Credit: Photobucket

Welcome to the Year of the Water Dragon. It's time for the 99% to make some serious waves.

This year opened with the first anniversary of the Tahrir Square uprising, which gave birth to a new Egypt and inspired bottom-up movements around the world. We look ahead to what ground may be gained by these uprisings and movements that have not yet reached their adolescence.

This is a moment of new possibilities. The crumbs of empire have dwindled sufficiently that more people than ever in the U.S. are seeing their own interests opposed to the ruling elite, opening the door to building greater global solidarity. From Yemen to Nigeria to small towns in the Rust Belt, grassroots movements have shot up through cracks in the pavement of inequity.

Within the U.S., the 1%'s agenda of austerity and war-making is being challenged in the streets and spotlighted in mainstream media. But the upsurge of popular movements is still fighting uphill. Economic exploitation and resource wars still shape peoples' daily lives worldwide. The elite's austerity programs have not yet been slowed. And though the type of war-making Washington engaged in for the last decade has taken some major hits, the U.S. has only adjusted its approach, not cut back its violence and aggression. Our antiwar strategies must evolve in response, broadening our scope and becoming as much a movement against militarism and the military-industrial complex as a campaign against specific large-scale U.S. wars.

Month in Review • November 2011

Occupy has changed the country.  People are fighting back.  And the developments are happening faster than anyone could have guessed even a few months ago. The Occupy movement has gone from a few dozen in Zuccotti park in New York to thousands of participants in hundreds of cities.  Across the country occupations have become pitched battles between the people’s movement and municipal police forces. 

The speed with which this unfolded, the degree of brutality leveled against the occupiers, and the resilience of the Occupy movement are all remarkable.  In times like this the movement outstrips the best expectations of organizers and organizations.  And while these developments defy simple explanation, their impact is undeniable.  People are no longer talking about deficits and budget cuts, but about Wall Street and the one percent.  Americans have fully joined people the world over fighting against austerity and empire, making 2011 a year of global resistance for the history books.    

Computer model of a neutrino

Occupy has a parallel in the world of physics.  This month researchers working at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland and France have run two experiments in which neutrinos have been recorded apparently traveling faster than the speed light. Neutrinos, the subatomic misfits of the universe, known to pass through matter and inexplicably change form in travel, now also seem to move faster than light, something previously thought impossible. 

So it is with Occupy.  It has bypassed traditional forms of political mobilization, leaving more established organizations trying to play catch up. And the movement has changed form, from public occupations, to marches and rallies, civil disobedience and city-wide strikes – all faster than anyone would have expected.  Occupy, the misfit of the political world, is defying the laws of political possibility.