The Justification and Whitewashing of War Crimes

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/10/feroze-sidhwa-new-york-times-children-gaza-shot-in-head-israel-palestine-doctor/

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/16/gaza_doctor

https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/t%C3%AAte-%C3%A0-t%C3%AAte/20241029-us-doctor-claims-israeli-snipers-target-child-in-gaza-no-child-gets-shot-twice-by-mistakea

https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-doctors-gaza

Eighty years after World War II we have an army (ironically a Jewish one) behaving very much like the Nazis, and yet those who protest its actions and conduct are condemned and castigated for their immorality. The mainstream media supports this army and writes apologias for it and in some cases when it cannot stop the story - it censors photos or does whatever it can to soften the effect and the public's ability to perceive the nature and extent of Israeli war crimes.

Monument to a Court Prophet

https://www.christianpost.com/news/us-capitol-unveils-statue-honoring-evangelist-billy-graham.html

I'm not Roman Catholic and reject the many claims of Rome concerning its apostolic and particularly Petrine foundations. Whether Peter is actually buried beneath the Vatican or not is immaterial. I toured the Scavi back in the 1990's on one of my many stays in the city. It was fascinating but not entirely convincing. I felt like the Vatican had hijacked the history much in the same way one encounters when touring the catacombs.

Dictators and Drug Dealers: America's Dissonant Practice of Celebrating the Fall of its Allies and Activist Deaths that Don't Matter

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/17/the-criminal-hypocrisy-of-hernandezs-drug-conviction-in-a-us-court

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/honduras-president-arrested/

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/01/years-after-berta-caceres-is-there-new-hope-for-justice

The death of Alexei Navalny received around-the-clock coverage and it was simply assumed that Putin ordered it and yet when someone like Berta Caceres of Honduras is killed, virtually no one in Western (and certainly American) media seems to care and suggestions of American involvement are met with scoffs.

Disingenuous Spin Surrounding Biden, 9/11, and Vietnam

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66748670

Biden left the G-20 summit in New Delhi which ended on 10 September and headed for Vietnam. For years the US has been trying to coax Hanoi into a military alliance – to win Vietnam away from China and over into the US camp.

More Just War Lies

https://issuesetc.org/2022/06/29/1802-just-war-dr-jonathan-shaw-6-29-22/

The fact that Jonathan Shaw is a retired military chaplain already discredits him and identifies him as one sold out to the military machine, and one that was willing to make endless compromises in order to do so. Military chaplains are not worthy of any regard or respect. They are to be rebuked.

That said, let's consider some of his points with regard to the Just War tradition.

A Ukraine Miscellany XIII: War and the Destruction of Civilian Infrastructure

In light of battlefield defeats, the Putin regime has turned to punitive attacks, and a form of total warfare. Using airstrikes and drones, he's now targeting Ukrainian infrastructure, primarily hitting water and power stations. The goal is to generate suffering, break morale, and degrade Ukrainian society's will and ability to continue the war. He wants to force them to the negotiating table – all the more as Putin is desperate for a way out of the conflict. NATO can keep pouring weapons into the country but if Ukrainian society is falling apart the will to continue will fail.

War and the Authoritarian Clampdown in Russia

People seem shocked that Vladimir Putin is making aggressive moves to silence dissent and punish social nonconformity. They shouldn't be and I'm not just saying that because it's Vladimir Putin. All states, whether already authoritarian-leaning entities such as Russia and China or even so-called liberal democracies like the United States, resort to some form of internal clampdown whenever the war machine is running under full steam.

Vietnam and Ukraine

You can't make this stuff up. This has happened multiple times and in connection with different media and news outlets. Today while driving home NPR reported that Biden was giving Medals of Honor to Vietnam veterans – men that for whatever reason had been neglected for the past fifty years. Now they're getting their recognition for their bravery and service – or at least that's the official narrative.

The Echoes of War in Asia

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/04/10/indonesia-us-war-games/

Even as the War in Ukraine rages on and the eye of the world is focused on the NATO frontier, there are storm clouds forming over Asia and signs that US militarism is preparing to assert itself on the Chinese frontier as well. Far from being passive, the Biden administration has been at the forefront of the re-assertion of the US Empire.

Idolatry and Spiritual Filth: The Christianity of Richard Land

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/is-the-spirit-of-1776-imperiled.html

In this editorial from The Christian Post, the reprobate militarist and Southern Baptist leader Richard Land continues to beat the drums of war. Land has produced many truly terrible and anti-Christian commentaries over the years. This ranks among the worst. I'm not sure what counterfeit Zion he inhabits but in his idolatrous pseudo-kingdom, the great Christian concern of the hour is whether or not enough young people are going to be willing to take up weapons and kill for the state.

A Ukraine Miscellany (VI): Mackinder's Pivot, Bucha, and Crimea

By demanding Russian rubles as the means of payment, Putin is attempting to 'blackmail' the European nations that still rely upon Russian gas. At least this is the argument we've been presented with by the mainstream media in the West. This is not only an unfair charge, it's incoherent.

ASEAN and the Russian Navy

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/12/01/russia-asean-naval-drills/

The move by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to hold joint naval drills with Russia is a slap in the face to China but on a far greater level to the United States which has earnestly sought to court these nations since the Obama era. It sends a clear signal that the ASEAN members are not willing to simply bow to the US, nor are they willing to trust Washington to any quantifiable degree. They're going to hedge their bets and keep all options open – which for the US represents a diplomatic defeat.

Building the Anti-Beijing Bloc: The Biden Pivot and the Philippines

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/07/30/philippines-us-military-deal/

During the course of his tenure, Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte has lashed out at Washington. Angry at the long years of US domination of his country and the hypocritical condemnation by Washington of his administration for its brutal policies – he may at last be shifting gears. While he officially is maintaining his 'independent' foreign policy, his days of cozying up to China may be at an end. Time will tell but signals suggest Manila may be pivoting back into the American camp.

Asia is Marching Toward War

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/05/20/japan-must-speed-up-defense-says-minister/

Though it is often presented as a preventative measure, a type of peace through strength, the truth is militarism always results in conflict. And Japan has been rattling the sabre for some time. The Japanese Right is eager to re-arm and re-assert its traditional role in the Asian theatre. They view Japan as a great power on par with Western nations and now 75 years after its defeat in WWII – it's time for Japan to re-assume its place.

Vietnam and the Anti-China Coalition

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/04/08/pentagon-vietnam-military-china-us-war/

Just a few years ago it seemed the Hanoi and Washington were on the cusp of becoming formal allies. The controversy that surrounded Bill Clinton's restoration of diplomatic relations with Vietnam in the 1990's is long past. Though Vietnam still suffers the effects of the US war in terms of Agent Orange and the like, they are clearly a resilient people and have moved on – ready to deal with contemporary realities. The American War now belongs to another generation. The fear today is with regard to the ancient enemy – not the Americans across the ocean but the neighbour across the northern border, China.

Ramsey Clark (1927-2021)

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/04/11/Ramsey-Clark-attorney-general-under-Lyndon-Johnson-dies/4201618146028/

Ramsey Clark has died and I must say I'm disappointed.

Co-Belligerence, TBN, and Fulton Sheen

Trinity Broadcasting Network or TBN is the haunt of Evangelical apostates. No serious Biblically-minded Christian would have anything to do with that highly corrupt and heretical organisation and in saying so I do paint with a broad brush.

Trump +1079: Military Schisms, the Legality of Assassination and Iran

There's been something of a military schism at work within the Trump administration. For some time it's been an open secret that the special forces are more or less out of control. Twenty years of endless war, and certainly war of this kind has proven to be a golden age for these groups and they've grown wild and undisciplined.

Multi-Generational Nightmare Weapons

https://theintercept.com/2019/11/25/iraq-children-birth-defects-military/

Though largely discredited in my eyes, I still glance at The Intercept from time to time. There are still some good reporters attempting to produce decent journalism and while the original goals of the outlet have clearly been subverted, the mechanisms of control are not absolute.

Tungsten, the A-10 and Vietnam

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/08/22/Boeing-awarded-999M-contract-for-A-10-Warthog-wing-replacements/2891566482184/?sl=7

https://www.military.com/dodbuzz/2018/05/14/air-force-debates-replacing-depleted-uranium-rounds-10.html

On one level this exemplifies how the military-industrial complex works. The military ends up stuck with programmes they don't want and wish to cancel. Congress argues they want to keep the A-10 because of its tactical importance. For those in the know it is the supreme tank-killer and has a stellar reputation as a tough almost indestructible killing machine. A strange plane, it's relatively slow and quiet and yet its sound is unique, its engines sound like nothing else. During my days of shame when I wore the uniform of the legions and participated in its murderous policies, I was around them on a daily basis. I knew it by sound as much as by sight.