We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Afghanistan: What has Fifteen Years of Occupation Achieved

Click here to access article by James ONeill from New Eastern Outlook.


In spite of the article's glaring weakness, the author, who is an Australian attorney, provides an excellent summary of the results of NATO's invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and compares the realities of this conflict with the myths propagated by mainstream media. The glaring weakness: he doesn't provide a single link to any evidence that support a number of his factual allegations. I am posting this for those of you who have been following accurate alternative sources of information for at least since the 9/11 event and know from this experience that most, if not all, of his allegations are correct. 

Still, I would have been elated to find supporting links about the US use of their military bases to transfer opium to markets in the US, Europe, and elsewhere. I think that this is very likely correct because of the security and secrecy that such transfers would provide. I do know that the CIA was using their airline Air America to import illicit drugs into the US during the Vietnam War. And there is no doubt that the US has currently been experiencing an epidemic of heroin addiction in the US as widely reported in mainstream media, but the latter never ask questions about how opium is imported into the US.