We are a country of amnesiacs

By Jack Neworth

America’s foremost humorist, Mark Twain, considered the Spanish-American War rather ironic. (Actually he considered it rather criminal.) Our forefathers had come to America to escape tyranny, and yet we became imperialists.

George Washington warned the country against “foreign entanglements,” but for over a century we’ve been tangling all over the globe. About every twenty years we wage pointless wars as the self-appointed world’s policeman, sacrificing our young and our treasury. (I can hear a right-winger say, “And your point is?”).

As opposed to the bogus rationales of “Remember the Maine,” or “WMDs,” we start these wars pursuing power, money and that hideous black crude called oil. (Which, I believe, is a lyric of the opening to “The Beverly Hillbillies”).

You could say we began with our treatment of the Indians. While the British Proclamation of 1763 forbade colonists from settling west of the Appalachians, after our independence we decimated the Indians. (Later we gave what’s left of them gambling casinos.)

According to University of Colorado studies, the North American Indian population went from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to 237,000 in 1900. I’d call that genocide, but I don’t want angry e-mails from John Wayne fans.

Our religious justification for these atrocities was “Manifest Destiny,” the 19th century belief that God had ordained it that we should expand across the continent. (As the Church Lady from “SNL” said many years ago, “How convenient.”)

I mention all of this because on December 17, after almost nine years, our combat troops finally came home from Iraq. (ABC news calculates the Afghan War is the longest in our history, Vietnam second, and Iraq a close third.) As if an omen of things to come, a few days after we left, 63 Iraqi civilians were blown to smithereens in terrorist bombings.  Lovely.

So I thought I’d tally up the pluses and minuses of the Iraq War. But first please remember that we still have a significant presence there, our embassy. (And we somehow own the land, so it’s rent-free.)

Our Iraq embassy is the most expensive in the world ($750 million to build and $1.2 billion a year to operate). It’s bigger than the Vatican. It’s bigger than 80 football fields should we run out of venues to hold the Super Bowl. (I just hope that the embassy is fortified to withstand angry Iraqis when they eventually storm the gates.)

Some call the Iraq War among the worst foreign policy blunders in our history. (I’m not that charitable.) The total dollar cost is estimated between $3 trillion and $5 trillion by the time we treat the wounded soldiers, many of whom are permanently disabled. (4,487 GIs died and 32,226 were wounded.)

But the wounded statistics don’t include the 300,000 brain injuries, or the tens of thousands of PTSD cases. Meanwhile, 18 vets commit suicide daily and more than 135,000 are homeless. To say it’s shameful is a gross understatement.

I suppose on the plus side of the ledger we got rid of Saddam. But, then again, in so doing we made Iran part of Bush’s “Axis of Evil,” the dominant power in the region. Having feared Saddam for decades, the Iranians must thank Allah five times a day that we did them this “generous” favor.

Frankly, I don’t see any pluses from the Iraq War for U.S. citizens. But corporations like Halliburton, Blackwater and especially Exxon and BP (polluter of the Gulf Coast) with Iraqi oil refinery contracts worth trillions of dollars, made out like bandits. (A description that’s actually too kind.) For those who predicted invading Iraq would help with the price at the pump, when Clinton left office gas was $1.39. Now you need a second mortgage to fill your tank.

Vietnam was another sad chapter in American history. As early as 1965 LBJ admitted (revealed via taped phone calls) that he saw no way we could win the war. It took eight years and 58,000 GI deaths to get the same peace settlement that was on the table back in ‘66.

The parallels between Vietnam and Iraq are striking. In Vietnam we invaded a country whose culture and history we didn’t bother to understand.

In Iraq we seemingly had no awareness that Sunnis and Shias have been fighting each other since 632 A.D.  As George W. Bush said in frustration, “I just don’t get it, they’re all Muslims, aren’t they?”

Another parallel can be drawn to the Roman Empire. It began as a democratic federation of independent farmers but, over time, the Senate wastefully sent Roman legions all over the world. The rich became even richer, but the Republic was replaced by an Empire doomed to fall. I suppose we’re following the adage, “When in Rome do as the Romans.”

Will we ever learn? It’s tough to do when you have amnesia.

Questions Persist As To US Arms Treaty Compliance

By Janet Phelan

Geneva, Switzerland — Questions concerning the compliance of the United States with the international treaty, the Biological Weapons Convention, came to a head recently during the Seventh Review Conference of the Convention, which is being held now in Geneva, Switzerland at the United Nations.

The most recent compliance report, listed in the BWC catalogue as BWC/CONF.VII/INF.2/Add.1, has failed to quash concerns as to the reliability of statements made by the United States as to its compliance with obligations under the BWC.

The specific concerns focus on the United States’ lack of disclosure of a law which amends the prior biological weapons statute. The original statute is entitled the Biological Weapons Statute–Title 18 Chapter 10 Section 175 of the U.S. code. The amended law, which is entitled The Expansion of the Biological Weapons Statute (Section 817 of the USA PATRIOT Act) radically changes the legal culpability incurred by agents of the US government for violating the statute, granting them immunity.

While this most recent report submitted to the BWC by the United States does mention that the original law was indeed amended by the USA PATRIOT Act, The U.S. has once again failed to disclose the revolutionary nature of this amendment, and is instead persisting in reporting the text of the older statute without coming clean about the implications or even the wording of the amended version. The critical amendment to 175 literally removes U.S. agents from liability for violating legal prohibitions for possessing and transporting biological weapons. The implications are serious and deserve careful scrutiny.

Questions have also been raised as to whether or not the U.S. ever reported this legislative landmine on the CBM (Confidence Building Measures) Form E’s. The CBM’s mandate that state parties report the status of their labs, research projects and other matters of concern to the BWC. The form E mandates the disclosure of new legislation relevant to biological weapons and is considered to be politically binding.

Section 817 was passed along with the rest of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001. What is publicly available for this time period reveals that the U.S. reported that there was nothing new to declare for both 2001 and 2002. This is revealed at the following link, on page 97 (http://bit.ly/sVwgOY).

United States Ambassador Laura Kennedy and the CBM unit of the U.S. State Department have been repeatedly contacted with questions as to whether the U.S. ever disclosed Section 817 to the other parties to the Convention. No response has been forthcoming. A United States delegate to the Seventh Review Conference, Chris Park, recently offered assurances that the requests for information about CBM Form E  had been received and were being researched. He also admitted that “there may have been an oversight.”

Here is the complete text of Section 817 of the USA PATRIOT Act, with the questionable subsection underlined: (http://bit.ly/tYv3S4).

Bioweapons Are US

By Janet C. Phelan

The Center for Disease Control has declined to confirm or deny allegations that the United States government is stockpiling biological and/or chemical weapons at Sierra Army Depot, a military base in Northern California.

According to a biomedical engineer who worked at the medical clinic at Sierra Army depot in the seventies, the base at one time contained a stockpile of nuclear weapons that have been replaced by large vats of liquid. In an interview the CDC declined to confirm or deny the existence of biological safety labs level 4, called BSL-4.s that handle the most dangerous germs known to man, some of which have no known treatment or cure and pose a grave threat to human life.

Following 911, and particularly following the anthrax letters which came fast on the heels of the Twin Towers attacks, these “biological safety” labs started to proliferate as silently and quickly as mushrooms. At this point in time, Congress is allocating over one billion dollars a year to fund biological defense research. But is it really defensive research going on in these labs?

According to the Sunshine Project, an international non-profit working against the hostile use of biotechnology, the institutional safeguards put into place to ensure that these labs are doing the appropriate kinds of research are almost nonfunctional and the mandated research was not taking place. Non-authorized research is occurring instead.

The Pentagon did not respond to queries concerning BSL-4’s on two military bases. The possiblepresence of these weapons at Sierra Army Depot augurs the likelihood that these weapons are being stockpiled on other bases, as well.

The apparent “secret” presence of BSL-4s on military bases, coupled with indications of biological and/or chemical stockpiles at Sierra and elsewhere, point to the likelihood that the U.S. is engaged in developing biological warfare agents. This is a violation of the international Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). The U.S. signed the convention in 1972 and is a repository of this international arms treaty, along with Russia and Great Britain. Unlike many other arms treaties, which come with a host of inspection regulations and repercussions for violators, the BWC has no teeth. There is no investigatory capability and no oversight body to assign penalties. In this sense, the BWC is merely window dressing.

It has recently come to light that the United States violated this treaty, at least on paper, through the passage of the Expansion of the Biological Weapons Statute, which is published as Section 817 of the U.S. Patriot Act. This statute largely reflects the language of the BWC, which restricts the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons. However, there is a caveat at the end of 817 which releases the United States government from culpability for violating the restrictions: “ (c) Whoever knowingly violates this section shall be fined as provided in this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both, but the prohibition contained in this section shall not apply with respect to any duly authorized United States governmental activity.” It is through this caveat that the U.S. violated both the letter and spirit of the BWC. What the U.S. has accomplished, through the passage of the Expansion of the Biological Weapons Statute, is to give itself a “blank check” for the deployment of these weapons.

The anthrax attacks themselves belie the declarations that the U.S. is not engaging in this research. It has been generally acknowledged that the anthrax contained in the several letters was cooked up in a government lab. The FBI’s contention that they “had their man” in Dr. Bruce Ivins seemed to be both confirmed and put into suspension by Ivins’ alleged suicide. The mainstream media played down the fact that Ivins, who allegedly overdosed on Tylenol, began to gain strength in the hospital. While waiting for a kidney transplant, he was subsequently removed from life support.

Recently, the National Academy of Sciences released their long awaited report concerning the FBI investigation, which nailed Ivins as the anthrax mailer. The National Academy did not endorse the methodology used by the FBI to determine that Ivins was culpable and was unable to support and endorse the Department of Justice’s conclusions concerning Ivins’ guilt.

The affixing of responsibility to Dr. Ivins, who was a researcher at Ft. Detrick, does have its political perks. The identification of a suspect (conveniently, now dead) removes suspicion from anyone else lurking in these labs. It certainly derails any concerns of a larger, government conspiracy concerning the anthrax letters, which were received by liberal Congressmen and members of the media right before the vote on the U.S Patriot Act. Viewed through this lens, nagging doubts may surface, in which a biological warfare agenda emerges into the foreground as a dark and ominous possibility. And are these toxins being stockpiled on military bases and if so, why?

Depleted Uranium strikes friends and foes alike in Libya

By Karl Abrams

High in the skies of Libya, NATO jets, equipped with uranium bullets and uranium-tipped missiles, are probably being used to assist Libyan rebels in toppling the regime of Muammar Gaddafy.

France, Great Britain and the US regularly employ concrete bunker-busting uranium weapons and have consistently blocked UN proposals to ban them. They won’t admit they’re using them, but they do acknowledge the use of jets that always seem to carry them. When used in jet machine guns, high-density uranium bullets as large as 30 mm (and 70% more dense than lead) can be shot at an astounding rate of 70 bullets per second. This often cuts an armored vehicle or tank in two.

It’s no wonder that such kinetic energy penetrators are called “Armor Piercing Incendiary.” Upon incandescent penetration, such bullets and missiles ignite ordinance stored in the armored vehicle. The resulting toxic explosion decomposes the uranium into a white oxide powder that quickly moves across the wind-swept desert terrain into cities and lungs of the Libyan people.

The dust is uranium dioxide. The uranium in it ultimately comes from uranium ore that is unusable by nuclear reactors. Such uranium is considered unusable or “depleted” because it is not radioactive enough to drive a nuclear power plant. For this reason, it is called “depleted uranium” or DU, and is primarily made up of U-238, a form of uranium that’s heavier but less radioactive than the more radioactive U-235 that is used in nuclear reactors.

But its DU name is conveniently misleading. According to the military, DU is a “mild health risk” outside of the human body. And this is what soldiers and pilots are told. What is generally ignored, however, is what happens when the dust enters the body. By drinking, eating or breathing it in, DU radiation severely damages bone marrow and cellular chromosomes by internally emitting sub-atomic “bullets” known as alpha particles. This causes lung, lymph and brain cancers as well as mutagenic effects such as unusually high rates of leukemia and fetal radiation damage that cause grotesque birth defects. Uranium contamination also permanently impairs kidney, heart and liver function.

Ever since the 1960s, the corporations that own nuclear power plants safely stored tremendous amounts of DU, on average 20 tons/yr. Surely, their CEOs must have wondered more than once if this DU could turn a profit by selling it as a high-density armor-piercing bullet or missile. After all, production cost of DU is cheap – only $2 per kilogram.

Their chance came in the 1970s when the Soviet Union developed tanks with armor that could not be penetrated by ordinary weapons. The Pentagon then developed and perfected DU weapons. The price of DU increased 10-fold, creating a multi-billion dollar industry.

Fortunate for corporate profit motives, first-world war-makers – be they French, British or American – apparently have no problem using DU weapons and spreading poisonous uranium oxide dust into the environment. After all, it does the job nicely and doesn’t hurt the soldiers or pilots who use it, provided they are a “safe” distance away from the DU dust.

While the World Health Organization is vehemently against it, NATO’s war makers are not. They know but don’t seem to care that the half-life of DU is over 4 billion years. This means that half of the DU released into Libya’s environment will, by definition, linger for that same incredible amount of time. In other words, the DU will contaminate the people of Libya forever, or 4 billion years, whichever comes first. How does NATO pretend to help the Libyan people by permanently poisoning them and their precious water supply and farmland?

DU is considered a long-term poison because it is both a heavy metal contaminant and a radioactive alpha-particle emitter. This creates a deadly “cocktail effect”. Both are deadly to combatants and civilians alike, and both should be viewed as a crime against humanity. According to the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW), DU needs to be immediately and internationally outlawed along with dum-dum bullets, poison gas, and cluster bombs.

Developed by the Pentagon in the 1980s at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, it was first used in the Iraq invasions of 1991 and 2003 and probably used in the Balkans and Afghanistan. According to conservative estimates, about 1 in 8 soldiers who served in Iraq have been poisoned by DU, which manifests as Gulf War Syndrome. That’s about 100,000 soldiers who may need life-long medical care.

The UN has dramatically called for a ban on the use of such nefarious military DU weapons because it violates the Geneva Convention. Germany, Belgium, Italy and all Latin American countries refuse to use it. The French, British and US militaries still refuse to ban it. What do we tell the Libyan people when the DU dust settles?

A Tale of Two Wars: Vietnam/Afghanistan

By Clay Claiborne

In the spirit of Mark Twain, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.”  I offer the following combined brief history of the Vietnam and Afghan Wars:

Although the War in [Vietnam|Afghanistan] was started by the previous occupant of the Whitehouse, President [Johnson|Obama] made it his own and greatly expanded it. There were problems from the beginning. The [Diem|Karzia] regime installed by the U.S. proved to be a very corrupt one that became increasingly problematic as it lost all support among the [Vietnamese|Afghan] people. On the other hand, the [Viet Cong|Taliban], having already succeeded in it’s struggle against [French|Russian] colonialism, proved ready for a long struggle against American imperialism as well. The [Vietnam|Afghanistan] War would prove to be the [second longest| longest] in our history.

Support for the [Vietnam|Afghanistan] War, already at an all time low, fell even lower after [Daniel Ellsberg|Julian Assange] released the [Pentagon Papers|WikiLeaks Documents] that revealed much that the government had kept hidden about the war.  By the time reports came out about U.S. soldiers in [Vietnam|Afghanistan] killing civilians and collecting [ears|fingers], most people were ready to bring the troops home.

Instead, the President expanded the war from [Vietnam|Afghanistan] into neighboring [Cambodia|Pakistan] with a series of ‘secret” [B52|drone] strikes and commanding General [William Westmoreland|David Petraeus] called for more troops to implement his strategy of [search and destroy|clear, hold & build] on the ground and still more civilians died and because of the special weapons used by the U.S. in the war, both our soldiers and the people of [Vietnam|Afghanistan] would suffer from cancer, birth defects and many other diseases caused by [Agent Orange|Depleted Uranium] for generations to come. By the time the U.S. pulled out of [Vietnam|Afghanistan], the number of young Americans to die in the war numbered over [58,000|1,445].

The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Lt. Col. Pete Dewey on September 26, 1945. 58,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese were to follow him in the next 30 years, but nine years into the war, fewer Americans had died in the Vietnam fighting than the 1,445 that have so far died in Afghanistan.

Dumping Sidebar: US Military Dumping of Carbon

In 2006 the Department of Defense was the largest consumer of energy in the world – using 1 quadrillion BTU. A standard military M-1 Abrams tank will only go 20 miles on 100 gallons of fuel. Lets not forget the hazardous public health effects of depleted uranium or all the extremely nasty chemicals, like perchlorate, used for explosives.

–The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism – By Barry Sanders, AK Press

New “Pentagon Papers” Describe the Insanity of the Afghan War

EDITORIAL: Time To Pull Out

About 75,000 documents describing a war without a purpose in Afghanistan have been “liberated” from military computers with another 15,000 to come.

The documents describe, among other things, U.S. soldiers randomly shooting Afghan civilians and Pakistan officials funneling U.S. funds to the Taliban. About 180 documents say the U.S. military believes Pakistan’s spy agency, ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), has given support and guidance to the Taliban.

The documents appeared on the website WikiLeaks, which protects the source of submitted material. However, the U.S. Army has arrested Army Specialist Bradley Manning, who apparently tapped into the military’s computers and copied the material on CDs.

The original Pentagon Papers exposing the war in Vietnam were made public by Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo. U.S. Senator Mike Gravel entered 4,100 pages into the Congressional Record, which insured they would be public documents. Then President Richard Nixon authorized a break-in of the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. This revelation contributed to Nixon’s downfall.

Our own Representative Jane Harman took a dim view of the public learning the real story of the war in Afghanistan saying, “Someone inadvertently or on purpose gave the Taliban its new ‘enemies’ list.” But the real danger, as she must know, is that the whole military adventure has been exposed. Harman also voted, July 27, to send more troops to Afghanistan.

One item that will not be found in the 90,000 documents is a justification for the war and resulting deaths and destruction (1,209 U.S. deaths and at least 20 times as many Afghan civilians). It is time for the U.S. to immediately withdraw from this quagmire. It is a meaningless war, as were those in Vietnam, Panama, Grenada and Iraq. It was unnecessary from the beginning.

The Taliban were never accused of being involved in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. In fact, according to CBS News, the Taliban told the U.S. that they would turn over Bin Laden if it would provide evidence linking him to the attack. Had the Bush administration complied, there would have been no invasion or subsequent war in Afghanistan, which is now the longest in this nation’s history.

An immediate U.S. pullout would be a threat to the government of Hamid Karzai, a former Union Oil executive, whose regime, on a good day, controls the capital and outskirts of Kabul. However, the United States has no right or business in deciding who the Afghans have in their government. It is almost a cliché to say that the U.S. cannot be the world’s policeman.

The U.S. should also end the occupation of Iraq for the same reasons. It should withdraw troops from around the world, including Columbia, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and other bases.

The billions of dollars used on these military adventures could be better spent reviving the economy here at home.

We owe Brandon Manning and WikiLeaks a debt of gratitude for reminding us once again of the futility of war.

–The Beachhead Collective

Military-Industrial Complex Now Official

Forty-eight years after the term was coined by a retiring President Dwight Eisenhower, the military and industry have tied the knot in El Segundo.

According to the Torrance Daily Breeze, The Aerospace Corp., a private company, and the Los Angeles Air Force base, celebrated the completion of a connecting pedestrian bridge, Sept. 29.

Jane Harman was there, cheering them on. “Soaring 17 feet above El Segundo Boulevard, the passageway will allow workers from each facility to safely shuffle to and fro across the busy thoroughfare,” said the Breeze. It is not open to the public.

It Did Happen Here: When our Japanese neighbors were sent to concentration camps

By Scott Yuda, Jr.

During World War II, under Adolf Hitler and his Nazi organization’s “rule,” so to speak, ordered for any person 1/8 Jewish or more to be relocated to concentration camps, where they were decimated. Ultimately, approximately six million Jewish citizens were killed in these concentration camps by the order of a crazed dictator who felt that he was doing the work of Providence (Ha!). The United States of America — Darlings that they are — acted as some sort of global police to put an end to this attempted genocide. However, a turn of events occurred on 7 December 1941, when the Japanese Navy launched an attack on the US Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The “day that will live in infamy.”

Shortly afterward, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 and 9102, which called for Japanese-American citizens to be relocated into internment camps. They were given very few days to vacate their own houses and farms, and had to leave all of their possessions behind, except for what they could carry in their arms. There were many of these camps throughout the country, such as Manzanar, which was nearby Sierra Nevada. Other camps included the Santa Anita racetrack, where these “Japs” were forced to live in horse stables, as if it was acceptable for dehumanization of this caliber on American soil, but we were engaged in combat with Germany for the same reasons. “Oh, we’re not killing them, so it must be okay.” If I had to choose between dehumanization or death, I would undoubtedly choose the latter.

My aunt, Akiko Yagi, was one of these loyal Japanese-American citizens. In 1942, she was relocated from her farm in Lancaster, California, to Holston-One (of three) in Parker, Arizona when she was only eighteen years old. They leased their lands to Caucasians, and, after they left, their worldly possessions were stolen, vandalized, and sold.

Thankfully, she was kind enough to elaborate on the conditions in which they were subject to in these internment camps. Parker, Arizona is a high-desert climate, meaning that they must endure the scorching heat of day, and the blistering cold of the night. Upon arrival, they were hauled into barracks, and forced to construct their own mattress out of straw, and were given one blanket a head.

Each barracks consisted of about five people. She said, “It was so hot during the day that we put wet towelettes on top of our heads, but by the time we walked from one barracks to the next, the towel was bone dry.” They were living in a barren wasteland, yet they persevered, and, within time, made their exile a bit more livable. They started planting around their barracks, and gave the deserts of Parker a more vibrant contrast. They made their own tofu and soy sauce to add more taste to their bland food rations of sauerkraut and a greenish stew that passed as curry.

Their rest room was a hole dug in the ground. They were considered aliens. And these were law-abiding, tax-paying, honest, American-born citizens that just happened to be of Japanese descent at the wrong time, apparently. In their absence, everything they ever owned was stolen and vandalized. Even a World War II memorial, showing reverence to Japanese soldiers fighting in U.S. uniforms was demolished, and was not reconstructed until May of 2008, when the Lancaster Rotary Club had a stone from India lasered to re-honor those lost in battle.

Upon their release, between the years of 1945 and 1946, they were thrown back into the world with absolutely nothing. It took my aunt and her brothers almost four years to get back on their feet. They couldn’t even farm, due to the fact that their farming equipment had been stolen, let alone their farms to begin with! Caucasian tenants had moved in during their absence, and refused to let them have their land back. Any who challenged these new tenants were shot or hung. Also, prominent members in Japanese Societies, such as the West Los Angeles Katana Society, were incarcerated without trial and severely beaten because of their affiliations in these legitimate organizations.

However, there was hope. My great-grandfather, George Inagaki, along with his close friend and business associate, traveled from Los Angeles, California, where they owned property on Centinela (the shopping center in between Washington Boulevard and Washington Place) to Washington, D.C., where they were to have a meeting with the Secretary of Defense. Both were active members of the Japanese-American Citizens League (JACL), and were held in high respects. During their travel, they were incarcerated in Alabama for being citizens of the United States that happened to have slanted eyes. Basically, they were incarcerated because their prosecutors held xenophobic-racist beliefs, and were scheduled to be hung. They missed their appointment with the Secretary of Defense due to their incarceration and pending execution, and, luckily, the Secretary had heard of their trouble and had rescued them, for lack of a better word, so they could hold the meeting. By the end of the meeting, George Inagaki and Mike Masaoka had volunteered military service for the U.S.

George was sent to the Pacific Theatre, and became Admiral Nimitz’s personal interpreter, given that he spoke both English and Japanese. Mike Masaoka was sent to Europe and initiated Japanese-Americans held in internment camps to volunteer for service in the 442nd American Infantry Regiment, which became the most highly decorated regiment of American military service in United States history. The 442 Battalion has earned a plethora of Medals of Honor, Purple Hearts, and so on and so forth, and have implemented an unsurpassed display of bravery.

In the end, the five Masaoka brothers all joined the service but only four returned alive, and one permanently disabled from a wound to vital organs. The price to pay for a Purple Heart award, no?

In 1946, the Japanese-Americans were thrown back into a cruel world with nothing to their name, and, eventually got back on their feet. By the end of World War II, six million Jews were killed in the crematory pits and by firing squads, and some 100,000 Japanese-American citizens were subject to the internment camps.

After years and years of racial discrimination and derogatory statements, my family has persevered, and are residing in and around Venice, California. We are members and affiliates of the JACL to this date, and, I guess it’s safe to say that we’re managing up to this point. As my aunt said, “It happened, and it was an experience, but it doesn’t bother me anymore.” I guess we just “moved on.” It’s no use holding fast to it and not letting go; that would only serve as a burden; extra baggage. We just accept it and continue with our lives, like the passing of a storm or something.

Film Review: Vietnam: American Holocaust

By Karl Abrams

This incredible historical-political documentary by Venice filmmaker Clay Claiborne is an eye-opening account of the horrors and atrocities of the Vietnam War. It depicts, scene-by-scene, how misguided, ignorant and xenophobic racist U.S. war policies were mercilessly carried out by political and military leaders, many of whom remained unrepentant. Truman worried about a Soviet Union alliance with Vietnam, Eisenhower lamented that “tin and tungsten would cease coming” while McCarthy, Nixon, Ford, Johnson and McNamara wrung their hands over communist expansion, picking military leaders like Westmoreland to develop the details of military strategies. Many senior officers who championed these early war policies—like Alexander Haig and Colin Powell—rose through the ranks. Some soldiers in the field followed orders because they just wanted to stay alive, some refused to follow inhumane orders, still others deserted.

This is a story that quickly becomes an emotionally spellbinding and compelling must-see film for you and everyone you know. Its purpose is both to reveal the audacity of America’s military policies in Vietnam and its blind and perpetual march into new horrors like our present-day wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

This fast-moving film, skillfully narrated by actor Martin Sheen, begins with the colonial history of Vietnam and the longings of the Vietnamese people to win their democratic freedom. The most basic cultural aspects of the Vietnamese and their years of struggle for independence from the French, the Japanese in World War II, and the French again, for another 10 years were ignored by pentagon war planners. The film points out that Ho Chi Minh, the popular and beloved leader of the Vietnamese people declared independence from France, ironically in words from our own declaration: “All men are created equal…” 

There is dramatic footage showing U.S. Senator Wayne Morse warning us to avoid war. He scolds us that “our country boasts about democracy” yet denies Vietnam their right to vote in 1956 for their own unification according to the Geneva Accords simply because intelligence sources already knew that “if democratic elections were held, Ho Chi Minh would win with 80% of the vote.” There is also some amazing footage that documents the Johnson-McNamara fabrication of the war-provoking Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

Clay Claiborne moves from history to the more gruesome details of the war, while an ironic blues sound track is played the background. Herein is the beginning of a war policy designed to ignore the popular wishes of a society it doesn’t understand and to treat everyone as the enemy. If a civilian is accidentally killed, then automatically that person is considered an enemy combatant. 

American battle cries of freedom and patriotism, once again, are skillfully twisted by our political leaders and fashioned into a war machine that can now be used to dehumanize the “gooks” and the once innocent American soldiers who have become, in the mindless fog of war, too scared to differentiate between peasant and Viet Cong. Their unrelenting approach was to kill as many people as possible and keep track by the now infamous “body count” and the 1000s of civilian villages burned in order to save them. The U.S. would not yield its madness until it lost over 50,000 soldiers and 300,000 wounded. The enduring and prevailing Vietnamese “enemy” of peasant soldiers and civilians lost a staggering 4 to 5 million.

What makes this film great is the riveting footage of events that have, for the most part, been kept out of view for most Americans. Who wants to see war-ravaged soldiers following orders from brazen and brainwashed high-ranking officers to burn villages and shoot escaping innocent peasants? And who wants to see B-52s dropping more bombs than all those dropped by both sides in World War II or generals determined to use Agent Orange and napalm to defoliate one-third of South Vietnam? Scenes of white phosphorous destruction on human beings are also hard to bear. But this time the film deftly depicts dead Iraqis to show how war tactics never end.It is happening again. How can we stop the war machine?

From a critical point of view, the film misses one accusation. The masters of war, the political and military leadership that chooses war over diplomacy, need to be indicted by history as war criminals for their crimes against humanity. See the film and become part of the jury.