United for Peace of Pierce County

ANALYSIS: Drone warfare erases boundary between war & peace

Details: Written by Henry Adams; Published: 03 August 2016

Professor David Cole of Georgetown calls President Barack Obama’s record on drones "mixed" in the current issue of the New York Review of Books.[1] -- "While he employed the tactic aggressively in his first term, he has become much more discriminating since then. -- There are likely two principal reasons for this. -- First, over the course of his tenure, and in response to widespread criticism, Obama has become increasingly transparent about the program, albeit fitfully. -- At the outset, the administration refused even to acknowledge that the targeted killing program existed. . . . -- Second, the administration may have come to realize the strategic shortcomings of its initial heavy reliance on drones. . . . -- [D]rone strikes 'have not thwarted leadership succession, ongoing propaganda operations, or local attacks.' -- And if drones inspire resentment and promote support for our enemies, they may be counterproductive. . . . -- Imagine how Americans would feel if another country was executing individuals living among us by dropping bombs from unmanned aircraft hovering overhead -- and refusing even to acknowledge that it was doing so." -- Through drones, 21st-century technology is subverting the basic categories by which we have made sense of the social order: "[D]rones enable 'a kind of permanent, low-level military action that threatens to erase the boundary between war and peace.'" -- But learn to live with it we shall, all the while piously wishing it were otherwise: "Whether we like it or not, drone warfare is the way of the future, and it is in our, and the world’s, interest to establish at an international level a high threshold for resort to such force." -- President Obama now has, Cole dreams, "the opportunity to impose constraint in a meaningful way. If he fails to take it, his legacy will be as the Nobel Peace Prize winner who pioneered a dramatically dangerous and ethically dubious form of warfare." -- COMMENT: Prof. Cole fails to mention one important unintended consequence of secret drone warfare: it generates terror attacks in the homeland that make it difficult, perhaps impossible, to maintain free and open societies, that push those societies toward authoritarianism. -- For UFPPC's two cents on these weighty matters, see our 2012 statement "On the World's First Drone War and Its Consequences, Known and Unknown." -- NOTE: David Cole entitled his article "The Drone Presidency" but failed to mention that it was Cornel West, an academic of a much more radical stripe, who dubbed Obama's tenure in office a "drone presidency." -- The occasion was an Aug. 2014 interview on MSNBC in which he said that Barack Obama had "posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. -- We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency." . . .

NEWS: Erdogan intensifies crackdown in aftermath of failed Turkish coup

Details: Written by Henry Adams; Published: 21 July 2016

In the aftermath of the failed Jul. 15-16 coup attempt, on Jul. 20 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency. -- With his new powers he promised to purge the military of the "virus" of subversion and will certainly extend the crackdown on political opponents that has already been underway for several days. -- The secular education establishment is one of his chief targets. -- "Turkey also said it would close more than 600 private schools and dormitories following the attempted coup, spurring fears that the state's move against perceived enemies is undermining key institutions in the country," the Associated Press said.[1] -- "Erdogan's government said it has fired nearly 22,000 education ministry workers, mostly teachers, taken steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other teachers at private schools, and sacked or detained half a dozen university presidents. . . . 50,000 civil service employees have been fired in the purges, which have reached Turkey's national intelligence service and the prime minister's office," and "9,000 people -- including 115 generals, 350 officers, 4,800 other military personnel, and 60 military high school students -- [have been rounded up] for alleged involvement in the coup attempt." -- (It is worth nothing that before the coup the number of of people in Turkish prisons, whose fearsomeness is notorious, had already tripled in the decade Erdogan has been in power, from about 58,000 to 158,000. -- In 2012, the film "F-Type" called attention to the harsh conditions in Turkish prisons, taking its name from the special prisons that house many political prisoners.) -- Reuters reported Wednesday that "Academics were banned from traveling abroad on Wednesday in what a Turkish official said was a temporary measure to prevent the risk of alleged coup plotters in universities from fleeing."[2] -- "Erdogan's spokesman said on Tuesday the government was preparing a formal request to the United States for the extradition of Gulen," Asli Kandemir and Gareth Jones said. -- "U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the status of Gulen in a telephone call with Erdogan on Tuesday, the White House said, urging Ankara to show restraint as it pursues those responsible for the failed coup." ...

ANALYSIS: WSWS blames 'Left Leave' vote for fueling virulent nationalism

Details: Written by Jim O. Madison; Published: 25 June 2016

In its analysis of the Brexit vote, WSWS observed that "The implications of [Great Britain's] departure from the E.U. are widely seen as potentially precipitating [the European Union's] break-up, with France, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, and even Italy registering majorities for exiting the euro in polls."[1] -- Particularly grave is the constitutional crisis ahead for the United Kingdom, two of whose four constituent parts (Scotland and Northern Ireland) votes heavily to remain in the E.U. -- Within England, "London was the only region to vote for Remain, by 60 to 40 percent," Chris Marsden and Julie Hyland noted. -- "Every other region went to Leave, by 58 percent in Yorkshire and Humberside, 54 percent in the North West, 59 percent in the West Midlands, and more than 50 percent in both the South East and South West." -- "The most significant exception to this voting pattern was among those under the age of 24, where the Remain vote was 75 percent in favor." -- As for the political explanation for the event, the WSWS analysts believe that "There is a large element of social protest involved in the result, which led to a significant increase in turnout in working class areas. -- Disaffection with the Tory government and the Labor Party was combined with hostility to the E.U. to ensure an overwhelming Leave vote -- especially among those earning less than £15,000 per annum. -- However, anger has been successfully channelled behind right-wing political tendencies deeply hostile to the working class, in a campaign characterized by nationalism and anti-immigrant xenophobia." -- Marsden and Hyland reserved special scorn for "George Galloway, the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist Party, Counterfire, and the Communist Party," who stood accused of "urging a 'Left Leave' vote [that] helped subordinate workers to a right-wing initiative aimed at shifting political life even further along a nationalist trajectory." ...