Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 29. Juni 2011 / Time Line June 29, 2011
Version 3.006/29/2011
The US Native American Holocaust Memorial Day.
06/29/2011
Generalstrejke i
Grækenland.
06/29/2011
Brown University: ‘Costs of War’ Project: Estimated
cost of post-9/11 wars: 225,000 lives, up to $4 trillion
http://costsofwar.org/
New estimates by the “Costs of War” project provide a
comprehensive analysis of the total human, economic, social, and
political cost of the U.S. War onTerror.
Credit: Department of Defense by Spc. Tia P. Sokimson, U.S.
Army/Released The cost of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan
are estimated at 225,000 lives and up to $4 trillion in U.S.
spending, in a new report by scholars with the Eisenhower Research
Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for
International Studies. The group’s “Costs of War”
project has released new figures for a range of human and economic
costs associated with the U.S. military response to the 9/11
attacks.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Nearly 10 years after
the declaration of the War on Terror, the wars in Afghanistan,
Iraq, and Pakistan have killed at least 225,000 people, including
men and women in uniform, contractors, and civilians. The wars will
cost Americans between $3.2 and $4 trillion, including medical care
and disability for current and future war veterans, according to a
new report by the Eisenhower Research Project based at Brown
University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. If
the wars continue, they are on track to require at least another
$450 billion in Pentagon spending by 2020.
The group’s “Costs of War” project, which
involved more than 20 economists, anthropologists, lawyers,
humanitarian personnel, and political scientists, provides new
estimates of the total war cost as well as other direct and
indirect human and economic costs of the U.S. military response to
the 9/11 attacks. The project is the first comprehensive analysis
of all U.S., coalition, and civilian casualties, including U.S.
contractors. It also assesses many of the wars’ hidden costs,
such as interest on war-related debt and veterans’
benefits.
Catherine Lutz, the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Family Professor of
Anthropology and International Studies at Brown University,
co-directs the Eisenhower Research Project with Neta Crawford, a
1985 Brown graduate and professor of political science at Boston
University.
Among the group’s main findings:
The U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan will cost between
$3.2 and $4 trillion, including medical care and disability for
current and future war veterans. This figure does not include
substantial probable future interest on war-related debt.
More than 31,000 people in uniform and military contractors have
died, including the Iraqi and Afghan security forces and other
military forces allied with the United States.
By a very conservative estimate, 137,000 civilians have been killed
in Iraq and Afghanistan by all parties to these conflicts.
The wars have created more than 7.8 million refugees among Iraqis,
Afghans, and Pakistanis.
Pentagon bills account for half of the budgetary costs incurred and
are a fraction of the full economic cost of the wars.
Because the war has been financed almost entirely by borrowing,
$185 billion in interest has already been paid on war spending, and
another $1 trillion could accrue in interest alone through
2020.
Federal obligations to care for past and future veterans of these
wars will likely total between $600-$950 billion. This number is
not included in most analyses of the costs of war and will not peak
until mid-century.
06/29/2011
America's Bizarre Presidential Campaign Follows Culture
By Don Monkerud
During these difficult economic times, nuttiness floats to the top
of American culture and politics.
On the cultural scale, the high-living guru who led five-day
"Spiritual Warrior" workshops for $10,000 and told participants
"It's okay to die," was just convicted of three counts of negligent
homicide. Whether he will serve any jail time remains to be seen,
but at least one former participant ran straight to a church to be
saved. Does this prove that Americans will go for any nutty
belief?
Also this week, flights from Washington's Reagan Airport were
grounded when a woman told airport workers about a bomb on a plane.
She claimed God told her so. Considering the number of Americans in
direct communication with God, including former presidents and
innumerable GOP presidential aspirants, it's a wonder more flights
aren't grounded.
Recently, Ryan Dunn, one of the stars of the crude gross-out movie,
Jackass, died after crashing his $130,000 Porsche that blew up in a
fireball. The star, who recently played a "party bum slacker" and
became famous for sticking a toy car up his derriere, was found to
have driven 140 mph with twice the state legal limit of alcohol in
his blood. Judging from his popularity, Americans love stupid
stunts that feature jumping into raw sewage, launching
port-a-potties filled with excrement into the air, and playing with
explosives.
On the Christian front, a "non-fiction" best seller by an
11-year-old boy who claims to have died when he was four years old
and gone to heaven, where he met his dead relatives and John the
Baptist, topped the charts of The New York Times. Co-written by
Sarah Palin's ghostwriter, a small Bible publishing company printed
3.5 million copies that are selling like hot cakes. With such
gullible people, Americans will believe anything.
With American cultural life dominated by whacky, outrageous and
thoughtless humor, is it any wonder that politics will follow along
the same lines? The biggest national spectacle includes an
uproariously funny GOP midgets for president campaign. Judging from
the issues they bring up, one wonders if the GOP presidential
contenders are running against Jackass, The Movie, more than
against each other.
Polls bounce like an NBA basketball as each new flavor-of-the-day
aspirant makes an announcement, old favorites backtrack on
positions, and hopefuls genuflect before the cranky Tea Party and
fundamentalist Christians.
The main party pushes the same old GOP mantra-no taxes, no
regulation and turn the economy over to the all-problem-solving
free market-as they huddle together like Nazis in a ditch. Each new
day brings another scheme about how to destroy the government, run
down Barack Obama,
and return America to the 1880s.
Republicans hope Americans will forget about their key role in the
greatest economic disaster since the great Depression. They hope
everyone will ignore the facts that federal tax rates are the
lowest since the 1960s, Bush tax cuts for the rich added almost $4
trillion to the deficit in ten years, and two unnecessary wars
killed over a million people and cost $3 trillion. These erstwhile
Bush Cheerleaders, who seek to destroy Medicare and Social
Security, give 4-year-olds and anus stuffers a run for their
money.
Turning to the candidates themselves, it's hard to keep a straight
face. Now over 40 contenders hope to become the next GOP candidate
for president, although several are already being counted out.
Serial adulterer Newt Gingrich, cheated on several wives because of
how "passionately (he) felt about his country," married one
adulteress, and announced his run for president after achieving
"God's forgiveness." He subsequently disappeared on a two-week
cruise because his wife demanded his presence. Afterwards, he
pledged to include his wife in all his decisions for his "big idea"
campaign, after his whole campaign staff resigned.
Billionaire real estate developer and four-time bankrupt Donald
Trump recently dropped out of the race after loudly questioning
President Obama's American citizenship. The birthers' relentless
campaign convinced 62% of Americans to doubt that Obama was
definitely born in the U.S. Trump dropped out after Obama released
his birth certificate, and now 64% of voters say they will
definitely not vote for Trump.
Former governor of Alaska and media star Sarah Palin has an even
worse rating-65 % dislike her-after she targeted Arizona
representative Gabrielle Giffords with a bull's eye in January,
prompting a Republican nutcase to shoot her. Palin's admonishment
"Don't Retreat, Instead-Reload," gaffs about events such as Paul
Revere's Ride to "warn the British," and recently trademarking her
name so she can sue anyone who makes fun of her, work against her
nomination. Nevertheless, her kooky antics still gain media
attention.
Current headline grabbers battle over who is the best Mormon,
whether we should promote a cross in every schoolroom and a
Constitutional amendment against gay marriage, how to sell off
government services to the highest bidder, and end Medicare, Social
Security and child labor laws. And this is only the beginning of
the campaign.
Stay tuned for more bizarre, strange and freakish footnotes to
America's upcoming presidential election.
Don Monkerud is an Aptos, California-based writer who follows
cultural issues and politics and writes occasional satire.
06/29/2011
Reduction in UK nuclear warheads begins
A Defence Policy and Business news article, 29 Jun 11
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/ReductionInUkNuclearWarheadsBegins.htm
The programme for implementing the reductions in the number of UK
nuclear warheads, as announced in the Strategic Defence and
Security Review (SDSR), has commenced, Defence Secretary Dr Liam
Fox announced today.
Mr Cameron said that over the next few years the current deployed
capability would be reduced in scale and this reduction would be
incorporated into plans for the successor submarine.
Therefore the number of warheads on board each submarine would be
reduced from a maximum of 48 to a maximum of 40, the number of
operational missiles on the Vanguard Class submarines would be
reduced to no more than eight, and the number of operational
warheads reduced from fewer than 160 to no more than 120.
Dr Fox in a written ministerial statement said today:
"I wish to inform the House that the programme for implementing the
SDSR warhead reductions has commenced: at least one of the Vanguard
Class ballistic missile submarines [SSBN] now carries a maximum of
40 nuclear warheads...
"On current plans our expectation is that the subsequent reduction
in our total stockpile to no more than 180 warheads will complete
by the mid-2020s.
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