Norman Solomon was interviewed on WOSU.

Top Democrats and many prominent supporters – with vocal agreement, tactical quibbles or total silence – are assisting the escalation of the US war effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The predictable results will include much more killing and destruction. Back home, on the political front, the escalation will drive deep wedges into the Democratic Party…

Read the full column.

Is your representative speaking out against escalation of the Afghanistan war?

Last week, some members of Congress sent President Obama a letter that urged him to "reconsider" his order deploying 17,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan…

 One of several journalists in Afghanistan on a tour "organized by the
staff of commanding Gen. David D. McKiernan," The Washington Post's
Jackson Diehl, wrote a March 23 op-ed in support of an invigorated
"counterinsurgency strategy." With journalistic resolve…

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Early this winter, the PBS "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" interviewed the medical director at a community clinic in Northern California. He recalled the sight of military equipment moving along railroad tracks next to his office. "I've joked with my colleagues," Dr. David Katz said, "if we could just get one of those Abrams tanks we could probably fund all the primary care clinics for a year."

The comment didn't make it on the air – it was only included in video on a PBS Web site – and that was unfortunate. We need more public focus on what our tax dollars are buying…

Read the full San Francisco Chronicle op-ed

Hours after President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress, The New York Times printed the news that he plans to gradually withdraw "American combat forces" from Iraq during the next 18 months. The newspaper reported that the advantages of the pullout will include "relieving the strain on the armed forces and freeing up resources for Afghanistan."

The president's speech had little to say about the plans for escalation, but the few words will come back to haunt…

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by
Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 (IPS) – The United States is planning to send an
additional 17,000 troops to one of the world's most battle-scarred
nations – Afghanistan – long described as "a graveyard of empires".

First, it was the British Empire, and then the Soviet Union. So, will the United States be far behind?

"With his new order on Afghanistan, President (Barack) Obama has given
substantial ground to what Martin Luther King Jr., in 1967 called 'the
madness of militarism'", Norman Solomon, executive director of the
Washington-based Institute for Public Accuracy, told IPS.

"That madness should be opposed in 2009," said Solomon, author
of 'War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to
Death.'

The proposed surge in U.S. troops will bring the total to
60,000, while the combined forces from the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO), including troops from Germany, Canada, Britain and
the Netherlands, amount to over 32,000…

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The United States began its war in Afghanistan 88 months ago. "The war on terror" has no sunset clause. As a perpetual emotion machine, it offers to avenge what can never heal and to fix grief that is irreparable.

For the crimes against humanity committed on Sept. 11, 2001, countless others are to follow, with huge conceits about technological "sophistication" and moral superiority. But if we scrape away the concrete of media truisms, we may reach substrata where some poets have dug…

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A few days after the inauguration, in a piece celebrating the arrival of the Obama administration, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote that the new president has clearly signaled "No more crazy wars."

I wish.

Last week – and 44 years ago – there were many reasons to celebrate the inauguration of a president after the defeat of a right-wing Republican opponent. But in the midst of numerous delightful fragrances in the air, a bad political odor is apt to be almost ineffable…

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This week on CounterSpin: The
inauguration of President Barack Obama was undoubtedly historic, and
was covered as such by the corporate media. But what are we to make of
the idea that the media have gone gaga for Obama? And what are the
pundits and editorial writers pushing for from Obama in the first
place? Author and columnist Norman Solomon joins us.

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