Military Resistance 10C15: Lost War Death Spiral

8/2/2019 Military Resistance 10C15: Lost War Death Spiral

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Military Resistance: [email protected] 3.31.12 Print it out: color best. Pass it on.

Military Resistance 10C15

Lost War Death Spiral:

Strict New Security PrecautionsTurn Breech Between AfghanForces And U.S. Military Into A

Chasm:We Take Efforts To Protect

Ourselves And Distance OurselvesBut By Distancing Ourselves, TheAfghans Start To Distrust Us More

Because They Can Sense That We DontTrust Them
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Americans are ready to accept that troops will be killed fighting Talibaninsurgents, he said, but theyre not at all supportive of having those casualtiescome from the people that were working with.

30 March 2012 AFP

With Afghan soldiers opening fire on their NATO comrades with alarming frequency, USdefense officials on Thursday confirmed that NATO troops had been ordered to adoptstrict new security precautions to counter the insidious threat.

The stepped up security underlines the dilemma facing the American-led force that hasportrayed its alliance with Afghan troops as a cornerstone of the war effort.

The danger with these things is the degree to which they undermine trust between thetwo countries, said Carter Malkasian, who worked as a civilian adviser alongsideAmerican troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It kind of creates a spiral. Some of our members are killed, some of our advisers arekilled. And in turn we take efforts to protect ourselves and distance ourselves.

But by distancing ourselves, the Afghans start to distrust us more because they cansense that we dont trust them, he said.

With 17 coalition troops killed in insider attacks so far this year, US officers acknowledgethe so-called green-on-blue attacks require weighing security concerns with the need tocultivate ties with Afghan security forces.

Reflecting a growing threat, the commander of NATO and US troops, GeneralJohn Allen, issued orders in recent weeks calling for some advisers to carryweapons and for NATO units to designate one team member as a guardianangel, who remains armed and on alert for possible fratricidal attacks, officialssaid.

For coalition troops working at Afghan government or military buildings, the ordersrequire them to move desks to make sure their backs are not turned to the door.

After two US advisers were gunned down last month inside the Afghan interiorministry, NATO officers were withdrawn from government ministries.

Most of the advisers have yet to return to the ministry buildings and now carry outtheir work by email and phone.

Two British soldiers were shot on Monday in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province by anAfghan army officer who had no known ties to the Taliban and five years of experience.

He was sent to the Lashkar Gah base to collect a commander, but apparently theNATO soldiers did not open the gate for them, he got angry and shot them, saidGeneral Sayed Maluk of the Afghan armys 215 corps.


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Its not something that happens in every counter-insurgency fight. But it has been onethat has afflicted countries fighting in Afghanistan, said Malkasian, now at the US ArmyWar Colleges Strategic Studies Institute.

More than a hundred years ago, British troops in Afghanistan faced mutinies orwere shot by their nominal allies in tribal militias, he said.

Malkasian said he believed coalition forces would manage to keep the problem undercontrol but some former officers warned the political fallout could be far worse,particularly in the United States where public support for the war has plunged.

The real issue is you cant sustain casualties coming from your friends, said aretired senior officer who served in Afghanistan, who spoke on condition ofanonymity.

Americans are ready to accept that troops will be killed fighting Talibaninsurgents, he said, but theyre not at all supportive of having those casualtiescome from the people that were working with.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Foreign Occupation ServicememberKilled Somewhere Or Other In

Afghanistan Thursday:Nationality Not AnnouncedMarch 29, 2012 Reuters

A foreign servicemember died following an improvised explosive device attack insouthern Afghanistan today.

Foreign Occupation ServicememberKilled Somewhere Or Other In

Afghanistan Friday:Nationality Not Announced

March 30, 2012 Reuters


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A foreign servicemember died following an improvised explosive device attack insouthern Afghanistan today.

Family Reports N.Y. Soldier Killed InAfghanistan

Mar 27, 2012 The Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. The father of a New York soldier says his son has been killed inAfghanistan.

Sgt. William Wilson III was from the Buffalo suburb of Getzville.

His father tells Buffalo media outlets that he got a call from the Army Monday nighttelling him the 27-year-old Army squad leader was shot by a member of an Afghansecurity force at a checkpoint.

Wilson graduated from Williamsville North High School in 2003 and joined the Army in2005.

NATO said three solders two British and an American were killed Monday intwo separate attacks by members of the security forces.

POLITICIANS CANT BE COUNTED ON TO HALTTHE BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THEWAR

Militia Member Drugs and Kills NineAfghan Colleagues:

Escaping With Weapons Supply, HeRejoins Taliban

March 30, 2012 By FAROOQ JAN MANGAL and MATTHEW ROSENBERG, The NewYork Times [Excerpts]


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KHOST, Afghanistan A member of a militia promoted by the American military toprotect rural villages drugged his Afghan colleagues and killed at least nine of them asthey slept on Friday, a police official said, in the third deadly episode involving theirregular guard force in March.

The killings added to concerns about the militia, known as the Afghan Local Police.

Supported by American military commanders as a way to give Afghans a larger stake inbattling the insurgency, the program has been assailed by rights advocates and manyAfghans as bringing former Taliban and criminal elements into positions of armedauthority.

Fridays killings took place at a small local police command post in the remote YahyaKhel district of Paktika Province, an area of eastern Afghanistan thick with Taliban andallied insurgents.

The suspect in the killings, identified as Assadullah, who like many Afghans goes by asingle name, had on Thursday night laced food being served at the post with crushedsleeping pills, said Dawlat Khan Zadran, the provincial police chief.

He then waited a few hours for the drugs to take effect, and sometime after midnightturned his AK-47 assault rifle on his colleagues, Mr. Zadran said.

Mr. Zadran said Assadullah escaped in a Toyota Ranger pickup truck with most of theweapons from the post.

Officers from the national police force have since arrested two of his brothers and theman who recommended that Assadullah be recruited into the local police, Mr. Zadransaid.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said Assadullah had rejoined theinsurgencys ranks after infiltrating the command post a few days ago. Hereferred to the assailant by what appeared to be a nom de guerre, MujahidSanaullah.

An American military report released in December found that some members of theforce had engaged in illegal taxation, carried weapons outside their villages andcommitted assault. The report was a response to a highly critical study of the program byHuman Rights Watch.

Still, the December report concluded that the American military leadership thinks theAfghan local police have generally been effective. [This guy was definitely effective.]

Two Hundred French Troops SaidGoodbye To The War In

Afghanistan On Wednesday As


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Part Of Frances AcceleratedPullout From The Country

Polls Show Most French Want AnEarly PulloutFrancois Hollande, Running For

President Of France Has Said That HisHope Would Be To Bring Home All

French Forces This Year

March 28. 2012: French soldiers prepare for departure at the Afghanistan airport inKabul, March 28, 2012. Some 200 French troops left Afghanistan on Wednesday, thegroup of soldiers are part of 1000 French troops set to leave the country this year. (APPhoto/Musadeq Sadeq)

3.28.12 By Rahim Faiez - The Associated Press [Excerpts]

KABUL, Afghanistan Two hundred French troops said goodbye to the war inAfghanistan on Wednesday as part of Frances accelerated pullout from the country.

[French President] Sarkozy said France would speed up its withdrawal timetable, pullingout 1,000 troops 400 more troops than its previous target of its current 3,600soldiers by year-end and withdraw all combat forces by the end of 2013.


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His announcement came a week after four unarmed French troops were killed by anAfghan soldier in Kapisa province in eastern Afghanistan.

The French troops waiting to board their flight out of Afghanistan were not stationed inKapisa, but in Surobi district, about 45 kilometers (30 miles) east of Kabul.

They said they were elated to leave and thought the Afghan forces they left behind wereready to go solo.

The NATO-led international force in Afghanistan has been steadily handing overresponsibility for security to the governments army and police ever since the allianceslast summit in Lisbon in 2010. There, NATO leaders decided to move the Afghans intothe lead role in fighting the Taliban by 2014 and end the coalitions combat role.

However, Sarkozy, who is engaged in a tough re-election campaign ahead of theApril vote, has been under political pressure to withdraw French troops evenearlier.

Polls show most French want an early pullout and his main challenger, FrancoisHollande, has said that his hope would be to bring home all French forces thisyear.

DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THEMILITARY?

U.S. soldier in Beijia village Iraq, Feb. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the email address if youwish and well send it regularly with your best wishes. Whether inAfghanistan or at a base in the USA, this is extra important for your servicefriend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing


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resistance to the war, inside the armed services and at home. Send emailrequests to address up top or write to: Military Resistance, Box 126, 2576Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657.

SOMALIA WAR REPORTS

Militants Kill High GovernmentOfficials In Mogadishu

Witnesses Said The Attackers ShotAgeey On The Head And Instantly Died

On The Spot28/03/2012 Mareeg.com

MOGADISHU-Unidentified persons have shot and dead overnight two senior Somaligovernment officials in the heart of the lawless Mogadishu, security officials said.

Yasin, a staff working for Somalia palace was killed on Tuesday evening by attackersarmed with pistols as he walked from work to his house at Hamar cinema in Shibisdistrict under government control.

Similarly, masked militants assassinated Muhaydin Wehliye Ageey, one of the CriminalInvestigation Department CID officials in Mogadishu.

Witnesses said the attackers shot Ageey on the head and instantly died on the spot.

The local administration of Shibis district for Somali government said that they areprobing the incidents and tackle the insecurity acts as soon.

Heavy clashes between Somalia government soldiers supporting by neighboring Kenyanmilitary and Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-shabab militants took place overnight in southwestregion of Lower Jubba, military officials said.

Reports said the battle sparked shortly after the militants attacked with mortars on jointmilitary positions controlled by TFG and Kenyan forces at Hosingo village near theborder line, causing casualties of death and wounds on both sides. A senior Somaliforce commander the region who spoke to the Media on condition of anonymity said thatboth rivals have used each heavy artillery fire and machine guns.


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MILITARY NEWS

HOW MANY MORE FOR OBAMAS WAR?

March 27, 2012: U.S. servicemen on a transport plane leaving for Afghanistan at theU.S. transit center, Manas airport near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, March 27, 2012.REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov

National Guard Colonel Sentenced To3 Years In Prison After PleadingGuilty To Fraud And Theft:

Sentenced For Embezzling Millions FromMoney For Emergency Assistance ToArizona National Guard Members And

Their FamiliesMar 28, 2012 The Associated Press

PHOENIX A retired National Guard colonel has been sentenced to 3 years inprison after pleading guilty to fraud and theft charges after embezzling more than $2million from a charitable fund.


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Maricopa County Superior Court says 66-year-old James Eugene Burnes was alsoordered Wednesday to serve a seven year probation term when hes released from stateprison.

Burnes was the resource manager for the Arizona Department of Emergency andMilitary Affairs. Prosecutors said that between 2007 and 2011 he diverted money fromfunds that were intended to provide emergency assistance to Arizona National Guardmembers and their families.

Prosecutors said Burnes took the money so he could gamble.

DoD Official Sentenced To PrisonFor Taking Bribe:

I Thought If I Did That, I Could WalkAway From AfghanistanHe Took A Cash-Stuffed Backpack

Mar 28, 2012 By Greg Bluestein - The Associated Press [Excerpts]

ATLANTA A Department of Defense official said Wednesday he long resisted the callof corruption while on assignment in Afghanistan before he finally relented and took acash-stuffed backpack as a bribe.

He was made to pay for his crime when a judge sentenced him to 20 months in prisonas his family members wept quietly.

Desi Deandre Wade is an Army veteran who was the Defense Departments topfirefighting official in Afghanistan when he was arrested at an August conferencein Atlanta moments after taking a bag crammed with $95,000 in cash.

He pleaded guilty to taking the bribe to influence a contract, saying Wednesday hewanted to return home to Georgia with enough money to leave behind a three-year stintin Afghanistan.

It was a one-time deal. I thought if I did that, I could walk away from Afghanistan, Wadesaid in an emotional and occasionally rambling statement. I had seen enough.

Prosecutors urged the judge to make an example out of Wade for his behavior.

He shook them down. It was money and greed that led to this, said prosecutorRobert McBurney. He stopped serving the country and started serving himself.

Wade, who is 40, became the departments Chief of Fire and Emergency Services inAfghanistan after years of working as a firefighter.


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He said he prevented millions of dollars in fire damage in that role, but that the job took atoll on him. While he was away, his relationship with his three children grew strainedand he separated from his wife.

He also suffered from mental issues stemming from the stress of living and working in awar-torn nation. The trauma hit home when he saw a fellow firefighter die in a rocketattack, he said, and he eventually succumbed to the desire for quick cash.

Those environments are ripe with corruption. It was as synonymous as the rocketattacks, he said.

People were always saying, Hey, can you help me? People have been offering bribes.

Investigators first began to monitor him in July when they got a tip from anAfghanistan-based contractor.

They say he received an initial $4,000 bribe in Afghanistan to influence amaintenance contract for a firm there, and later proposed steering a $4.5 millioncontract to the same company in exchange for a payoff.

He told the contractor hed feed him quotes from rivals to ensure him he would bethe lowest bidder, prosecutors said.

The contractor and Wade arranged to meet at a hotel room in Atlanta during theFire-Rescue International Conference, and after some bartering Wade agreed totake a $95,000 payment in exchange for his help, authorities said.

Wade took about two steps outside the hotel room when he was swarmed byfederal agents.

Incompetent Bureaucrats InCommand:

New Orlando Veterans HospitalAlready Months Behind Schedule

Will Be Delayed Longer AndCould Cost More Than $100 Million

Extra To Finish


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The Entire Veteran Community,Orlando To The East Coast, Was

Immensely Excited About TheProspect Of Having An AccessibleHealth Care Facility

But Obviously Thats Not HappeningMar 27, 2012 By Ledyard King - Gannett Washington Bureau [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON Contractors building a new veterans hospital in Orlando told acongressional panel Tuesday that the complex already months behind schedule

will be delayed longer and could cost more than $100 million extra to finish.

Officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs have acknowledged it will be at leastthe summer of 2013 before the doors open at the 134-bed hospital in Lake Nona, whichbroke ground four years ago and is expected to serve thousands of Brevard veterans.

Tuesday, contractors working on the project said it definitely wont open bynext summer, either.

During a hearing before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, they blameddelays on the agencys incomplete plans, a flurry of last-minute changes beyondtheir control and a slow bureaucracy that takes months sometimes to resolve

seemingly minor issues.

That prompted central Florida lawmakers at the hearing to blister VA leaders for notmoving faster.

When one agency official told the congressional panel that veterans can continuereceiving medical services by going to other facilities in Florida, Rep. Sandy Adamsfumed.

We have veterans coming back, injured in ways that they may never havesurvived in years past. And yet theyre coming home and this hospital is not ontrack to be completed. Theyre going to have to wait, the Orlando Republican

said.

With these injuries, they cant travel distances. How do you say theyre notbeing affected by this delay?

There are about 70,000 veterans in Brevard County about 21 percent of thepopulation over 18 years old.


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The Viera VA Outpatient Clinic has more than 21,000 active patients, about 1,000 ofthem Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. The clinic serves an average of 1,100 patientsa day.

But if they need hospital services, such as dialysis treatment, they often have to travel toTampa.

Bill Vagianos, a former VA psychologist who is president of the Brevard VeteransCouncil, said the project which once was planned to be built in Brevard remains asource of frustration.

The size, once 164 beds, has been scaled back and the former Vietnam Warveteran is worried that the VA will not be able to offer the mental health services itwas supposed to provide.

Theres a great deal of skepticism (about the VA) and it was abating with the promisesof the Orlando VA (hospital), said Vagianos, who was on the original design committeewhen the facility was being conceived but did not attend Tuesdays hearing.

The entire veteran community, Orlando to the East Coast, was immensely excited aboutthe prospect of having an accessible health care facility. But obviously thats nothappening.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS


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At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh hadI the ability, and could reach the nations ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream ofbiting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom theyoppose.

Frederick Douglass, 1852

Nothing has more revolutionary effect, and nothing undermines more thefoundations of all state power, than the continuation of that wretched andbrainless rgime, which has the strength merely to cling to its positions but nolonger the slightest power to rule or to steer the state ship on a definite course.-- Karl Kautsky; The Consequences of the Japanese Victory and Social

Democracy

Iraq War--More Than A Trillion DollarBaby

From: Mike Hastie


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To: Military Resistance NewsletterSent: March 29, 2012Subject: Iraq War--more than a trillion dollar baby

UN Says Sanctions Have Killed Some 500,000 Iraqi Children(Published July 21, 2000 by Reuters)

Baghdad- A senior official said about half a million childrenunder the age of 5 have died in Iraq since the imposition ofUN sanctions 10 years ago.

Baghdad said the UNICEF survey proved that the sanctionswere killing thousands of children every month and calledfor the immediate end to the embargo.

Anupama Rao Singh, country director for the U.N. ChildrensFund ( UNICEF ) made the estimate in an interview with Reuters.Rao Singh blamed malnutrition for the mortality rate amongchildren.

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq:We have heard that a half million childrenhave died. I mean, thats more childrenthan died in Hiroshima. And, you know,is the price worth it?

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright:I think this is a very hard choice, butthe price-- we think is worth it.

60 MinutesMay 12, 1996

America,you will get away with nothing.Mike HastieVietnam VeteranMarch 29, 2012

Photo and caption from the portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at:([email protected] ) T)

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or aso-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizenof Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike HastieU.S. Army Medic
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Vietnam 1970-71December 13, 2004

According To US Intelligence Estimates,Iran Abandoned Its Nuclear Weapons

Programme In 200327 Mar 2012 By Richard Falk, Al Jazeera [Excerpts]

Santa Barbara, CA - In his important article in the New York Times on March 17, 2012,James Risen summarised the remarkable consensus of the intelligence community inthe United States that Iran abandoned its programme to develop nuclear weapons in2003 and no persuasive evidence exists that it has departed from this decision.

It might have been expected that such news - based on the best evidence on whichbillions was spent due to sensitive security issues - would produce a huge sigh of reliefin Washington and Tel Aviv. On the contrary, it has been totally ignored, including by thehighest officers in the government, and the opposite reality has been confirmed.

The US president has not even bothered to acknowledge this electrifying conclusion thatshould have put the brakes on what appears to be a slide toward a disastrous regionalwar.

After all, Israel became a nuclear weapons state secretly decades ago without awhimper of opposition from the West.

Troops Invited:Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service menand women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or [email protected] : Name, I.D., withheld unless yourequest publication. Same address to unsubscribe.

GET MILITARY RESISTANCE NEWSLETTERBY EMAILIf you wish to receive Military Resistance immediately anddirectly, send request to [email protected] . There isno subscription charge.
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DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

CLASS WAR REPORTS


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SPAIN:

Against The Aggression Of The RichAnd Their PoliticiansSelf-Defense

A demonstrator holds a banner in front of a fire started by anti-establishment groupsduring a general strike in central Barcelona March 29, 2012. Spanish workers staged ageneral strike on Thursday to protest against attackson their living standards by thegovernment. The words on the banner read Against the aggression of the rich and theirpoliticians. Self-defense. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

[Thanks to Alan Stolzer, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.]

29 Mar 2012 Al Jazeera

Spanish workers angry at new laws would make it easier for companies to fire workersand spending cuts the government calls an unstoppable necessity staged a generalstrike on Thursday, bringing factories and ports to a standstill and igniting flashes ofviolence on the streets.

Tens of thousands of protesters packed a square in central Madrid to vent their anger,while in Barcelona, police fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd that had set binsablaze on the sidelines of a demonstration.


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Thursdays strike was called by trade unions protesting against new laws would make iteasier for companies to fire workers and spending cuts which the conservativegovernment says are needed to save the economy, and has resulted in some mildclashes and detentions of at least 58 people so far.

This is a just response to a brutal attack on our system of labour relations, IgnacioFernandez Toxo, leader of the CCOO, one of the main trade unions, said.

The strike is the first major walkout against the governments policies, just three monthsafter Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister, took office. Al Jazeeras Barnaby Phillipsreporting from Madrid said: They have succeeded in bringing a lot of disruption aroundSpain today, theres no doubt about that.

People have talked about trade union influence being on the wane in Spain ... buttheyve hit transport links very hard across the country, many businesses, manyfactories have been closed.

Well have to wait and see the final balance, if you like, of who went to work andwho didnt but on the face of it, this does look like a substantial disruption tonormal economic life in Spain today.

The new laws would make it easier for companies to fire workers, but the governmentargues that in the long run the liberalisation of labour laws will bring unemploymentdown.

Demonstrators, brandishing a sea of red flags of Spains major UGT and CCOOunions, marched down the Spanish capitals main streets towards the centralPuerta del Sol square.

Scuffles broke out between protesters and police as workers picketed the capitals bus

depot early on Thursday.

Around 100 protesters gathered in front of Fuencarrals bus depot and some of themblocked the road as the first bus departed form the depot. Tensions rose as riot policewrestled some protesters to the ground. The interior ministry said a total of 58 peoplewere detained and nine were injured.

A recent poll showed that three quarters of Spaniards are against the governmentproposals, but a majority also believe that a general strike may make the situationworse.

One of the protesters in Madrid, 35-year-old automobile salesman Jose Luis

Rodriguez, said he had chosen to lose a days pay to defend his rights by strikingfor the first time in his life.

This strike day is going to cost me 60 euros ($80). It is not much compared towhat they might take from me tomorrow with the changes. They can throw meinto the street, he said.

They are attacking workers rights. If we dont go into the streets they wont know wereagainst the changes.


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Protesters attack a police van during a general strike in central Barcelona March 29, 2012.Spanish workers staged a general strike on Thursday to protest against attackson their livingstandards by the government. REUTERS/Carlos Ruano

Unions called for protests to be held in about 100 cities and towns on Thursday evening.

Under an agreement between the government and the two main unions, at least aminimum service of a third of local trains and buses is due to run, with one in 10domestic and one in five European flights.

Airlines Iberia, Air Nostrum and Vueling have cancelled about 200 flights each from

Spanish airports.

A minimum service is also planned in hospitals while schools and nurseries are due toopen.

The national strike comes a day before the government unveils its 2012 budget, raisingthe heat on Rajoy who also faces pressure from European leaders to cut Spains publicdeficit and avert further financial instability in the eurozone.

Rajoy, who has promised a very austere budget, has defended his measures,including changes which make it easier for firms to hire and fire and reducedseverance pay for laid-off workers.

Rajoy has so far this year confirmed $11.85bn worth of spending cuts and $8.39bn in taxrises, but economists say total cuts worth more than $66.6bn are needed.

Its undoubtedly been a testing few days for this centre-right government. They didnt doas well as they had hoped in regional elections earlier and now of course theyve hadthese big demonstrations and strikes today, reported Al Jazeeras Phillips.


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But all the signs are tomorrow that they will push ahead with a budget which they say isvery, very austere.

And undoubtedly that will not be popular with precisely the kinds of people who aredemonstrating on the streets today.

Protesters gather during a demonstration against the government in central BurgosMarch 29, 2012. Spanish workers staged a general strike on Thursday to protestagainst attackson their living standards by the government. REUTERS/Felix Ordonez

Protesters crowd in Madrids landmark Puerta del Sol square for a closing rally during anationwide general strike in Spain, March 29, 2012. REUTERS/Paul Hanna


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COMMENT UNNECESSARY

Demonstrators protest against Syrias President Bashar Al-Assad in Kafranbel, near IdlibMarch 30, 2012. REUTERS/Raad Al Fares/Shaam News Network/Handout

Protests Against Indonesias Plans

To Increase Government-ControlledFuel Prices By 33% SpreadThursday

Thousands Joining Sometimes ViolentRallies Across The Archipelago

March 29, 2012 By ERIC BELLMAN, Wall Street Journal [Excerpts]

JAKARTAProtests against Indonesias plans to increase government-controlled fuelprices by 33% spread Thursday, with thousands joining sometimes violent rallies acrossthe archipelago.

While Jakarta has yet to see anything close to the tens of thousands of angry citizensblocking traffic and commerce that some politicians had worried about, thousands ofpeople, often from student and labor groups, have been protesting across the countrythis week. One group clashed with police and looted stores in Makassar on the island of


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Sulawesi on Thursday while on Maluku island, protesters blockaded an airport, forcingairlines Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air to divert flights.

Some unions and student groups warn that the protests are only going to intensify aheadof a vote on the fuel-price increase scheduled for Friday in the countrys parliament.

We refuse to accept this hike, said Fadli Ferrianza, a leader of a group of studentsshouting and waving flags in front of the presidential palace, home and workplace ofPresident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday. Yudhoyono and [vice president]Boediono are leading the country in the wrong direction. Its going to trigger inflation inall the basic goods including food.

The president tried to calm protesters by saying Indonesias economic growth could stallif the fuel-price rise is scrapped. If we take the popular choice, I will only feel guiltybecause the economy will suffer, Mr. Yudhoyono said in a statement.

However as oil prices have surged and Indonesias domestic oil production hasdwindled, the fuel-subsidy bill has ballooned to more than $15 billion a yearmore than15% of the national budget.

Protesters say the government can afford the subsidy, while the more than 100 millionIndonesians who live on less than $2 a day cant afford to pay more for motorcyclefuelor shoulder the higher bus fares or food prices that the fuel-price move is likely totrigger. Economists say inflation could reach 8% year-on-year compared with less than4% now.

An Argument Against Healthcare:From the National Alliance of FuneralDirectors

March 29, 2012 The Borowitz Report

WASHINGTON The following message was released today by the National Alliance ofFuneral Directors:


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This week, several Republican Supreme Court Justices have argued that the AffordableCare Act supported by the Obama Administration is unconstitutional. At the NationalAlliance of Funeral Directors, we couldnt agree more.

It was Revolutionary War hero Patrick Henry who said, in 1775, Give me liberty or giveme death. From that moment on, legal scholars have agreed that the Constitutionguarantees every American the liberty to be dead. Here at the Alliance, we will fight foryour right to be dead to the death.

Lets take a look, if you will, at the Second Amendment of the Constitution, whichprotects every Americans right to shoot another American. It says nothing about givingthe person who is shot health insurance to prevent him from dying. This cherishedconstitutional right to shoot people and make them dead is currently recognized in allfifty states, most recently Florida.

In commenting on the Affordable Care Act this week, Justice Samuel Alito compared theObama healthcare plan to burial insurance.

Coincidentally, burial insurance is the Republican healthcare plan, and one that weenthusiastically support. Under this plan, every American would be mandated to buy acoffin from one of our member-owned and operated funeral homes. May werecommend the Peaceful Valley Royale, a luxury mahogany casket with sienna satininterior and the finest imitation antique nickel handles ($2899).

As the organization representing Americas funeral directors, gravediggers, embalmersand cremators, we are confident that the Supreme Court will ultimately do the right thingand decide that healthcare flies in the face of every Americans constitutional right to thepursuit of deadness. And when they do, well be waiting for you.

Sincerely,

The National Alliance of Funeral Directors

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Be Advised: They will be different issues of Military Resistance to satisfy DODregs that you may possess copies, provided you dont have more than one of the same issue in your physical possession on your person or in your living quarters.

The single largest failure of the anti-war movement at this pointis the lack of outreach to the troops.

Tim Goodrich, Iraq Veterans Against The War

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Military Resistance 10C15: Lost War Death Spiral

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