Scott Horton Interviews Jason Ditz
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Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the tendency of UN Security Council resolutions to greatly exceed their initial mandates in both time and scope; the token military contributions of Qatar and UAE; the UN critics in Congress who have nothing disparaging to say about world government when war is approved; Saudi Arabia’s fake GCC “coalition of the willing” in Bahrain; how excessive government violence has prompted some Yemeni tribes to ally with the protesters; another deadly US drone strike missing the mark in North Waziristan; and the great divergence in Afghan War support between Congress and the public.
MP3 here. (18:37)
Jason Ditz is the managing news editor at Antiwar.com. His op-ed pieces have been published in newspapers and other media around the world.
wHu
March 21st, 2011 at 12:43 am
I would have thought the U.N. would have stalled with statements and committee meetings until Qaddafi had killed all his enemies. Can't wait til that thug and his army are finished.
Congressional Leftists oppose unconstitutional Libyan war | Southern Nationalist Network
March 21st, 2011 at 2:49 am
[...] see: UN Declares War (Jason Ditz interview), Libya’s Slippery Slope, Neo-con Bill Krystal Calls for Ground Troops [...]
dink
March 21st, 2011 at 3:31 pm
1. Name four Libyan cities off the top of your head. Name at least two of the tribes. Give me the rough population of Libya. What is the population in the capital where Qaddafi controls? Without studying it , you can't can you. Have you ever been to North Africa? What do you know about it?
guest
March 21st, 2011 at 3:37 pm
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, in a way. But, you know, history doesn’t repeat itself exactly twice. What I did warn about when I testified in front of Congress in 2002, I said if you want to worry about a state, it shouldn’t be Iraq, it should be Iran. But this government, our administration, wanted to worry about Iraq, not Iran.
I knew why, because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, "Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second." I said, "Well, you’re too busy." He said, "No, no." He says, "We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq." This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, "We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?" He said, "I don’t know." He said, "I guess they don’t know what else to do." So I said, "Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?" He said, "No, no." He says, "There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq." He said, "I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments." And he said, "I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail."
So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, "Are we still going to war with Iraq?" And he said, "Oh, it’s worse than that." He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, "I just got this down from upstairs"—meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office—"today." And he said, "This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." I said, "Is it classified?" He said, "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, don’t show it to me." And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, "You remember that?" He said, "Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gitmo still open
- Military tribunals ongoing
- Indefinite detention still in use
- Extraordinary rendition to brutal foreign intelligence agencies for EIT
- Renewal of the Patriot Act
- Tripling the number of combat troops in Afghanistan
- Stepped up use of drone asssasssinations
- Dramatic increase in private military ‘contractors’
- Flexible and expanding Afghanistan withdrawal date
and now …
- Threatening to attack Libya
Yes an act of war within its own country. Not outer. Gaddafi isn't invading other countries or has 1000 bases around the world like the US. Nor is Gaddafi in multiple wars with other countries or have clandestine spec ops in 75 countries like the US. Don't you understand how the US wants to add Libya to that list? Do you know how much mega bad corporations have business in Libya?
============
wHu
March 21st, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirt, Ajdabiya. There's the Gadaff tribe which seems to be loyal to their leader, then there are the others. Tripoli has around a million and a half, I'd guess Libta has a population of around 10 million off the top of my head. I've been to Morocco.
I also know that Gadaffi is a sociopath, and the one thing pacifists do not understand is that around 1% of the population has no conscience, and dealing with them is exactly like dealing with a pack of wolves. They can only be frightened, killed, or allowed to prey at will. That is the history of the human race. In Libya, that 1% is the national army – that's how he's able to order them to exterminate their own countrymen, house to house, or zenga! zenga! as he puts it.
You happy now?
whu
March 21st, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I should have said a hungry pack of rabid wolves, otherwise it's an unfair insult to wolves
Claus Eric Hamle
March 22nd, 2011 at 5:18 am
Trident missile engineer Bob Aldridge -www.plrc.org-wrote on the missiles which the US is now deploying on ships in the Black Sea in Bulgaria and in Romania and Poland, finished by 2015: "Whether they are on ships or land, they are still a necessary component for an unanswerable first strike". This leads to Launch On Warning.
Bianca
March 22nd, 2011 at 8:50 am
The psychopath with no foreign military basis, and no drones to zenga with. And then there are psychopaths with drones, misiles, aircraft carriers. They get very excited when given the chance to use it. It takes one to know one.
dink
March 22nd, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Weak. Very Weak. You assumptions that the majority of opponents are pacifists is equally as weak. You didn't name the tribes, cause you can't. I'm not even going to believe you named the cities off the top of your head. It is not the job of the United States to change the human race. Your war fever and understanding of this situation is a mile wide and 1/4 of an inch deep. You need to read this website a little deeper before making assumptions.
whu
March 22nd, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Yup, the people running the U.S. govt are psychopaths too – isn't it great when they kill each other off? The opponents of this war are sissies who have done nothing agaisnt the illegal wars they claim to oppose except perhaps march around in parades. Sure, this war is illegal too, but even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day and likewise occasionally the U.S. actually bombs people the world is better without – like gadaffy and his loyal helper monkeys.
dink
March 23rd, 2011 at 4:16 am
Ok. I don't know if your monkey reference is racial or something else? If you read the "Who we Are" part of this websight (Blue color, 2nd column down, you will see how long they have rejected wars. Marching around in Parades some do. They also participlate in Government, they write, and they do interviews. That is what a Republic is supposed to be about, citizen participation. Yes, there is some arrogant political class that doesn't seem to change from Administration to Administration. I personally am not a pacifist. It has became too easy and these commitments too expensive and too long. They always lie, and they never withdrawal. All Empires fail. It is getting so bad, they just have a meeting with some Senators, and attack whoever they damn well please, seems like a Emperor to me, especially if you study ancient Rome or other history. Then you see all these apologist pieces in the newspapers trying to shrug off how this is the new-and-right way things are done. Next President gets away with more.
Buhl
March 23rd, 2011 at 7:46 am
War is shit !
IP Khalifah
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:40 pm
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