maraahmed.com

I’d suggest taking a look at this footage from 1964 — a powerful counterpoint to the current situation as the president escalates a war and Congress fails to assert its constitutional prerogatives under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution.

Il est suisse, il s’appelle Guillaume Morand, il n’est pas musulman, il est propriétaire de la chaîne de magasins de baskets Pomp it up et il vient de construire un minaret sur le toit du siège de son entreprise à Lausanne pour manifester son opposition à l’interdiction de construire des minarets, décidée par 57% des votants lors du référendum organisé en Suisse le 29 novembre. Article complet.

Rachel Maddow talks about President Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, and how closely it aligns with President Bush’s speech to cadets at West Point in 2002. Watch video.

I suppose that my parents’ guiding principle was that they had to choose the best neighborhood school. The fact that it happened to be run by Catholics did not scare them–they understood that being in daily contact with another religion is not dangerous. It does not mean you will be converted. It does not mean that you will have to change. Religion is not passed through the air you breathe or the sidewalk you tread or the classroom you share. Full article.

The death toll in two bomb blasts at a busy market in the centre of Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore, has risen to 48, police and medics say.

The attack, which injured over 100 people, sparked a huge blaze at the city’s Moon Market.

The toll has risen with the death of 12 more people overnight, police said.

The blasts came just hours after a suicide bomber on a rickshaw killed at least 10 people in Peshawar when he blew himself up near the courthouse. Full article.

France is not alone in wishing that its Muslims were invisible. As anyone who has visited Western Europe in the past few years will tell you, the “Muslim question” is a matter of grave concern. Full article.

The Reaper “makes it a lot easier to kill,” said Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent who grew up in Syracuse and who wrote “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.” “The more distant you are, the easier it is to kill. It’s finally only the infantry that knows war.” Full article.

Torture is one of the most universal taboos in the civilized world. The treaty championed by Ronald Reagan declares that “no exceptional circumstances” can justify it, and requires that every state criminalize it and prosecute those who authorize or engage in it. But only 25% of Americans agree with Ronald Reagan and this Western consensus that torture is never justifiable. Worse, 54% of Americans believe torture is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Full article.

Protesters oppose Obama military decision
By Gary McLendon
Democrat and Chronicle, December 5, 2009

Hundreds of people, expressing disillusionment with President Barack Obama’s decision this week to send 30,000 additional troops to war in Afghanistan by summer, marched in protest Friday through downtown and rallied at the federal building on State Street.

Many protesters — including former Obama campaign volunteers — concluded Obama is not the “peace president” they envisioned. Many charged Obama with placing more value on the profitability of multinational corporations than on human lives.

Filmmaker Mara Ahmed of Pittsford, a member of Rochester Against War, said the war in Afghanistan has produced more than 700,000 disabled or orphaned children, and called the war “a moral and ethical crisis of historic proportions.”

RAW member Brian Lenzo, 28, said the stated premise of America’s Afghanistan involvement — the 9/11 attacks and the war on terrorism — obfuscates U.S. efforts to control oil and natural gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean.

Signed petitions, opposing continued U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, were accepted by a representative of Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, at the federal building.

The Rev. James Swarts told the more than 200 people gathered that additional petitions will be presented to other area political representatives by Monday.

GMCLENDN@DemocratandChronicle.com

Friday, December 4, 2009
3:30pm Rally at the Rochester War Memorial
4:30pm March to the Federal Building

my speech:

dear friends

the time has come for us to act. a majority of americans oppose the war in afghanistan. it’s a cruel, doomed war waged on the 4th poorest country of the world. a country which has been ravaged by war for more than 3 decades – to give u an idea, the war in afghanistan has lasted as long as the period starting with WW 1 and ending with WW 2. it’s unimaginable. there are 1 million widows in afghanistan with an average age of 35. when we started bombing afghanistan in 2001, there were at that time 700,000 disabled orphans there – children who had lost their parents to war and who had been blinded or crippled by chemicals and land mines. this is the country we went to war with.

an increase in troops will only destabilize the region further. when mr obama tells u that we are trying to stop the counterinsurgency by bolstering the occupation, pls understand that the occupation is what is fuelling the counterinsurgency. it’s a self fulfilling prophesy, a positive feedback loop. when mr obama tells u that we r trying to eliminate safe havens for al qaeda by escalating the war, pls remember that al qaeda is completely portable. the caves were empty when we got to afghanista and al qaeda will relocate once again to any part of the world. how many countries will we occupy to keep a handful of disaffected criminals out? when mr obama tells u that we will be able to build civilian society in afghanistan and democracy in pakistan in 18 months, pls don’t forget to laugh. this is the most ridiculous mission on earth. not only will it fail but it will have the exact opposite effect! finally when mr obama tells u that we will get out of afghanistan by july 2011, just remember that we were supposed to close guantanamo by january of this year! let’s get real.

this is a huge commitment for our country – in terms of lives, in terms of money, in terms of opportunity cost. the american economy is in shambles. people r hurting. the situation is v serious here at home. we cannot afford an additional 30,000 troops in afghanistan on top of countless contractors and private militia. the war in afghanistan is open ended. there r no clear, definitive objectives. it’s another vietnam. most americans understand that at an instinctive level. now let’s do something about this. let’s stand up and be heard. let’s make our voices count. let’s become the change we want!

disturbing…