Lisa Ling

Notes on Military Planning

MatthewHoh War and Conflict , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thanks to Nick Mottern and KnowDrones.com for publishing my notes from a talk I had planned to give a few months ago on the future of US military operations. Unfortunately I was unable to deliver these notes at the conference due to health issues, but Nick published them in the most recent KnowDrones.com bulletin and I have pasted them below. They primarily concern future US military operations in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, but also pertain to other parts of the globe, particularly Africa and potentially the Philippines. One additional thing to note and consider is the high degree of unmanned or drone systems being sold to other nations which will enable those countries to conduct autonomous and remote killing in the (near) future just as we, the United States, do now.

Additionally, below the notes, is an example of the type of television commercials that Nick and KnowDrones produce and run in areas near US Air Force drone command bases urging drone pilots and crew members to listen to and follow their consciences.

NOTES ON U.S. MILITARY PLANNING

In the notes below, prepared for the Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases, held in January in Baltimore, Matt Hoh https://matthewhoh.com/ outlines what we can expect from Pentagon planners, and the role of drones, in the evolving U.S. scheme for war on the down low.  These notes, edited slightly for clarity, provide a context for forthcoming bulletin articles dealing more specifically with drone war.

-My concern is where the US military presence is headed in the Greater Middle East, and Muslim world: Less footprint, greater use of remote or standoff (U.S.- based) attack measures, satellite/space based resources and the use of proxy forces to do the killing and destruction.

-Major bases such as the CENTCOM headquarters in Qatar and the Naval headquarters in Bahrain will remain. Necessary for headquarters staff, refueling and logistics, and as a command hub for operations.

-Necessity of and reliance on other bases outside Greater Middle East will grow.  Variety of reasons, but technological limitations and environmental limitations, such as that atmospheric and curvature of the earth issues limit relay of communications. For example, drone strikes in Middle East that are controlled by Air Force and CIA in  the U.S. are not possible without relay station at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, see Norman Solomon’s article on this in The Nationhttps://www.thenation.com/article/the-most-important-us-air-force-base-youve-never-heard-of/or consult drone whistleblowers like Cian Westmoreland or Lisa Ling. Larger bases outside of Middle East are and will be greater utilized for warehousing and basing of equipment, supplies, munitions and personnel. “Just in time” utilization of logistics allow for lower footprint.

-Exception is example of basing of American combat troops in Kuwait that can be quickly, and secretly, sent into Syria and Iraq. Will see more of this type of pre-positioning of combat soldiers. Keeps deployments quieter, i.e. when troops leave US bases they are going for training and potential peacekeeping” in a country not at war, so less media attention/scrutiny (not like there is much anyway)

-Defer to Bruce Gagnon http://www.space4peace.org/and Will Griffin http://thepeacereport.com/on the following, but continued development of long-range drones and space-based weaponry will limit requirement of drone and manned warplanes stationed in Middle East. Drones will ultimately be able to be launched from bases outside of Middle East, including from the U.S., and be able to orbit/stay on station for 24 hours or longer. Allows for permanent presence of drones overhead and ready to drop bombs/missiles. Space-based weaponry is becoming a reality, particularly with increase in funding and development and desire to have weapons always ready to be dropped on people and buildings without needing aircraft or drones. Also, these cannot be shot down by forces in Middle East or interfered with as easily through electronic countermeasures. New generation of very fast, long-range missiles will be able to be launched from the U.S. to hit and kill in the Middle East.

-Current drone bases are being constructed outside of Middle East in Africa, bases are limited in size and scope, small personnel and size footprint, in areas away from population, they are hidden. Eventually these bases won’t be needed but will be necessary for next ten years or so.

-Construction of new aircraft carriers and submarines emphasize American commitment to utilizing sea-based air and missile attacks. As well as continued use of Marine forces based on ships that can be flown in and out of combat. Such Marine forces have been utilized in Syria and Iraq, particularly to provide artillery and missile attacks. Easy to insert and take out, they are considered “temporary” and are kept away from populations, not meant to be occupation forces. Also, special operations forces based on ships for raids, such as we have seen in Yemen, Somalia, Libya, etc. They fly in by helicopter and murder or kidnap as needed. Persons who are seized are kept aboard US ships to avoid acknowledgment or legal issues.

-Use of proxy forces, whether allied governments: Iraqi army and militias in Tigris and Euphrates River valleys, decimated Iraqi cities and people, and Saudi and UAE forces in Yemen destroying all infrastructure, blockading medical, fuel and food supplies, and causing starvation and disease; or proxy non-government forces such as rebels and Kurdish troops throughout Syria, or militia forces in Libya. Also utilizing outside nations to intervene such as Kenyan, Ugandan and Ethiopian forces in Somalia. Goes into larger shift in American military policies in Muslim world, to simply subjugate and punish people and areas not receptive to American hegemony rather than utilizing political, economic, diplomatic measures to control populations and regions (can speak later on this shift in Trump policy as opposed to Obama/Bush policies in Q&A)

-American forces are of course with these proxies, they help to train, and go on missions. For example, U.S. commandos took part in over 2000 missions in first six months of 2017 in Afghanistan. However, they don’t have their own bases and won’t be doing occupation. They will remain “hidden” from populations as much as possible.

-With exception of the Army, all three services, plus the CIA, gain from these shifts and lower US footprint in Middle East/Muslim world. Army of course gets it due prominence and money in Europe with Russia hysteria and in Korea.

-This reduces US presence in Middle East to a smaller level, allows U.S. forces more flexibility, and lowers the cost. It makes the generals and admirals appear smarter and concerned with the impact of U.S. military in Middle East, however it still deals the same, or greater levels of death, destruction and chaos to the people of the region.

-With understanding of importance of U.S.- located bases to operations in Middle East, how the killing, the pulling of the trigger, is done from the U.S., more actions against U.S. bases located in US, as well as working with partners in other countries, such as Germany, to shut down and limit operations, particularly pushing illegality and unconstitutionally of much of this killing. Although I urge more direct action, to include physical disruption of military operations in order to save lives.

Veteran Suicide is More From Guilt Than From PTSD

MatthewHoh Activism, Recovery, War and Conflict , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s been almost five months since I’ve written anything, and this post is not going to contain much of my writing, but rather sharing with you a note RootsAction sent out to its vast membership containing a clip of me in a talk I gave in London at the end of February:

It should be noted that traumatic brain injury, which in some studies has been found to be present in more than 20% of Afghan and Iraq veterans, and from which I suffer from, also has a very real and significant link to suicide in veterans.

The full video of the talk in London is found below. That talk, titled: “War, Journalism and Whistleblowers — 15 years after Katharine Gun’s Truth Telling on the Verge of the Iraq War”, included Katharine Gun, Thomas Drake, Jesselyn Radack, Silkie Carlo, Norman Solomon and Duncan Campbell, all of whom are really incredible and brave people that I look up to and admire.

I would like to share other parts of that talk later, as we as a panel were questioned by two Iraqi women during the Q&A. Their questions, testimony and witness led to a very emotional and powerful session for many of us.

A couple of days later Tom, Jess and I participated in a panel in Graz, Austria, at the 2018 Elevate Festival. We were joined by Diana Bartelo, Cian Westmoreland and Lisa Ling, as well as by video by Dan Ellsberg.

Below is the note that RootsAction sent out. I hope to begin writing again in the near future. I appreciate all of you following this blog and my work. Peace.

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In this video clip from a recent RootsAction Education Fund event, U.S. veteran and whistleblower Matthew Hoh shatters the popular myth that post-traumatic stress disorder is behind the high suicide rates for U.S. veterans. He notes that PTSD has the lowest connection to suicide of any mental health problem, according to the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA).

Well, then what’s causing so many people so frequently thanked for their “service” to kill themselves?

The answer turns out not to be a secret, but something that most people and most organizations would rather not mention.

Since 1990, Hoh tells us, the VA has known that guilt over participation in killing human beings is the best predictor of suicide. Veterans are killing themselves because they feel guilty for what they’ve done.

Ssshhh! You shouldn’t say that! It’s anti-veterans!

Really? Does it help current veterans or impede the production of more veterans to hush up the problems they face? Haven’t we learned that the first step in addressing a problem is identifying it?

Hoh is himself a veteran who has struggled with a wide array of issues, including guilt, PTSD, brain injury, and substance abuse. He has been certified by North Carolina as a Peer Support Specialist for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder. He knows of what he speaks. His interest is in helping other veterans. In the video he cites the studies that back up his statements.

Will you help us to continue to support whistleblowers like Matthew Hoh and to produce events like the one in the video? Click here to donate what you can, tax-deductible in the United States.

Matthew Hoh had nearly 12 years of experience with America’s wars overseas with the United States Marine Corps, Department of Defense and State Department. In 2009, Hoh resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department over the American escalation of the war and, in 2010, he was named the Ridenhour Prize Recipient for Truth Telling.

Hoh has been a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy since 2010. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Public Accuracy, an Advisory Board Member for ExposeFacts, North Carolina Committee to Investigate Torture, Veterans For Peace, and World BEYOND War, and he is an Associate Member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

Click here to see the video and consider making a contribution.

The event from which this video is taken marked 15 years since the March 2, 2003, story provided by whistleblower Katharine Gun revealed that the United States and Great Britain were working together to spy on other nations’ delegations to the United Nations as part of an effort to coerce them into voting for a war on Iraq.

We cannot create such events or provide support for such whistleblowers if you don’t help. Please donate!

Please click here. Your tax-deductible donation will help us continue.

Interview with Chris Hedges, my friend takes on Israel’s travel ban, summer reading and heroes on film

MatthewHoh War and Conflict , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When I was in DC at the end of May, I taped an interview on Afghanistan with Chris Hedges. Chris is a Pulitzer Prize winning former NY Times reporter and author who has for so many years been a brilliantly dominant force in writing painfully objective, truthful and explosive articles, essays and books on American foreign policy and society. It was my first time getting to spend any substantial amount of time with Chris, as we had the better part of the afternoon together, an afternoon I am very thankful for having had. I basically feel like I got a free graduate seminar 🙂

Here’s the interview:

Here also is Chris’ speech from the previous day at the Lincoln Memorial during the Veterans For Peace antiwar rally:

 

My friend Ariel Gold, who works for Code Pink as their Middle East Campaign Director, is in Palestine to support Issa Amro. Issa is a Palestinian human rights leader who recently was put on trial by the Israeli military. Ariel, who is Jewish and from NY, actively supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). BDS is a Palestinian led, international, nonviolent effort to change the government of Israel’s well documented apartheid policy towards the Palestinian people; much the same way boycotts were used in the American South to support the Civil Rights movement and all three actions were used against the South African government. I support BDS as well. I strongly urge you to do so too. You can find out how to do so here.

Earlier this year, the government of Israel declared that people who support BDS would be denied entry into Israel. Israel also continued to declare BDS to be an anti-semitic movement, which it is not; claiming that BDS is anti-semitic is about as justifiable as claiming the boycott movements that were utilized against the Jim Crow American South or Apartheid South Africa were anti-white or anti-Christian. Upon arriving in Tel Aviv a couple of weeks ago, Ariel was not denied entry. However, after attending Issa’s trial, a right wing newspaper announced Ariel’s presence to the Israeli government, complaining that the Israeli government was not living up to its promise to ban people like Ariel. Of course, Ariel could be deported, but there is also the danger that members of the often violent communities that compose the hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers in the West Bank may identify Ariel and take matters into their own hands. Ariel, true to her self, has not backed down and, showing great courage, is still in Palestine working alongside her Palestinian brothers and sisters. You can read more about this here:

and watch this short video:

 

Peter Van Buren, whose book on his time in Iraq, We Meant Well, got him fired from the State Department has a new book out: Hooper’s War. It is a novel of alternative history, set during an American invasion of mainland Japan. It is an anti-war novel and it is excellent. Peter sent me an advance copy and asked me to blurb it. This was my honest-to-God response after reading it:

“PVB obviously is a scholar and historian both of Japan and America, there is no doubt to that as you read Hooper’s War, a modern day Catch 22 or Slaughter House Five that we desperately need. Peter has obviously been to war, as have I, and his heart has been broken, as has mine. He broke it again, several times in Hooper’s War, I wasn’t sure I had that much left to break. He’s owed a debt of gratitude for this, for bearing such witness and testimony for so many millions who cannot do so for themselves, those who have been so ghastly immolated in our past and current wars and who can only cry out when people like Peter do so for them.”

Peter has done a number of interviews on Hooper’s War over the last several months, but this one, with Scott Horton, is one I very much recommend for Peter and Scott’s deep, thoughtful and moving discussion on war and moral injury. For those who don’t have a full hour or if you only have a few minutes, I recommend beginning the interview at around the 27 minute mark, where Peter defines moral injury and speaks about veteran suicide.

My friend Bill, who runs the blog The Contrary Perspective, recommended B. Traven’s The Death Ship to me. Traven is best known for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Written eighty years ago, Traven’s prose, style and tone is reminiscent of that generation’s cadre of post WWI ex-pats, of which he was one. The book is an excoriation of the world post-war, of the new establishments and conventions that arose post-war, of the stupidity of the war itself of course, but of the new ways of the world in particular. The resemblances and similarities to today’s world are genuine and rattling. My response to Bill upon completing The Death Ship, with a bit redacted so as to try not and spoil the ending:

“I used to keep all my books, however several years ago I decided to unload my library with the exception of the books that had personal meaning to me or with the exception of the books that caused me to think or kept me thinking. I thought about The Death Ship every day I read it and I’ve thought about it in the days since I finished it. I have a feeling, in a few months, when I make a run to the used book store to sell back my books that The Death Ship will remain behind in my house.

As I write this now, I am struck by the prescient savagery of Traven’s thesis, summarized _______________at the very end of the book. All because of bureaucracy, all because of man-made borders; borders that didn’t exist prior to________, borders that were soon to be erased again _________. The nonsense of it all, the cruelty of it all, and it all still plays out now.

I think you are aware that I was just in Palestine in February and March, where I spent time with people who have been ruined by such borders and their attendant walls. In October, prior to that, I was North Dakota, where to my embarrassment and shame, I spent the first moments of my life, ever, and it is half over, with the Native American community, those people who are the living lineage of 500 years of genocide, but whose more modern history and current lives are dominated by these inventions of borders, treaties, walls, reservations, etc. And, of course, my own time in Iraq and Afghanistan, two nations that had their borders drawn by the West, their people corralled, marshaled, divided and amalgamated.

So now I have Traven’s other book’s on my list to look for when I step into used books stores :)”

Finally, Sonia Kennebeck’s documentary on our drone killing program National Bird is available on Netflix. I am mentioning this because I want you to watch it. Not just as it is so well done, so important, and because Sonia does such an admirable and honorable job in informing us of the reality of the brutal, criminal and senseless killings we are conducting with our flying robots against thousands and thousands of innocent people, every day, but also because Sonia documents so very well the lives of three people who were involved in the drone program AND WHAT THEY DID ABOUT IT. One of them, Lisa Ling, has become a friend of mine these last few years, and a hero of mine. So if you haven’t seen it, please give National Bird a viewing, even if you know about the drone program, you’ll see what three courageous people did about something they knew was wrong.

Wage Peace.