US - Obama official: MLK would love our wars!

Why Pentagon Says MLK Would Love War Today
(The desecration of Martin Luther King--especially around the time that his birthday is celebrated--is one of my major objects of antipathy and scorn. I'll have more to say myself on Monday. This gift just fell into my lap. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg) According to the Pentagon's lawyer, Martin Luther King Jr., if alive today, would view the US war on Afghanistan as both the act of a Good Samaritan and as necessary self-defense. Jeh C. Johnson, the "Defense" Department's General Counsel, sai...

Obama official: MLK would love our wars!
With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day right around the corner, attempts to misuse and/or whitewash his legacy are to be expected, particularly on the right.  But this, from Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson, is brazen even in the annals of misappropriations of King: WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2011 - If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, would he understand why the United States is at war? Jeh C. Johnson, the Defense Department’s general counsel, posed that question a...

A Nation Of Cowards
If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, would he understand why the United States is at war? Jeh C. Johnson, the Defense Department's General Counsel, posed that question at today's Pentagon commemoration of King's legacy. In the final year of his life, King became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, Johnson told a packed auditorium. However, he added, today's wars are not out of line with the iconic Nobel Peace Prize winner's teachings. "I believe that if Dr. King were alive tod...

Pentagon official suggests MLK would have supported current wars
At an event commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Thursday, the general counsel of the Pentagon - Jeh Johnson - said that if King were alive today he would support the War in Afghanistan. The remarks, reported by American Forces Press Service, are an unusual claim considering King’s lifetime commitment of fighting against what King referred to in his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech,  the “three larger problems which grow out of man’s ethical infantilism...

Pentagon official: Martin Luther King would support Iraq, Afghan wars
Stumble This! An Obama Administration official said that nonviolent icon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would "understand" and "recognize" the need for the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan if he were alive today. In a Speech commemorating the late hero days before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, the Department of Defense's General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson imputed highly questionable views to the Civil Rights leader. "I believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that we ...

Why Pentagon Says MLK Would Love War Today
According to the Pentagon's lawyer, Martin Luther King Jr., if alive today, would view the US war on Afghanistan as both the act of a Good Samaritan and as necessary self-defense. "I believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and that our nation's Military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the American People vulnerable to Terrorist attack." "I draw the [Good Samaritan] parallel to our own servicemen and women deployed in Ir...

Administration Still Saying Little About Afghan Drawdown
As expected, the White House is still saying little about the pace and scale of the Military withdrawal from Afghanistan that's scheduled to begin in July. Ever since Obama announced the withdrawal plans on Dec. 1, 2009 in a Speech at West Point, the administration has played it close to the vest. Troops will begin to come home then, Obama has said, but how many will leave Afghanistan, and how quickly they will leave it, has been left to be decided in July and beyond. After Vice President Joe B...

Report: Women should be allowed in combat units
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Military advisory commission is recommending that the Pentagon do away with long-standing policies that ban women from serving in combat units. Defense Department policy now prohibits women from being assigned to any unit smaller than a brigade whose primary mission is direct combat on the ground. In reality though, thousands of women have been invovled in the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan because they are allowed to serve in combat support roles, such as medic, logisti...

Save Energy, Save Our Troops
A NATO Oil Tanker truck was blown up by Insurgents at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border last week, and while no one was injured, the incident temporarily closed the Khyber Pass, the main supply artery for Western Troops in the Afghan theater. This has become an all-too-routine occurrence; in the last nine years some 1,000 Americans have been killed on fuel-related missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Until the Defense Department develops battlefield policies recognizing that Energy Efficiency cont...

Christians at War
Jeh C. Johnson, the Defense Department’s General Counsel, posed that question at today’s Pentagon commemoration of King’s legacy. In the final year of his life, King became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, Johnson told a packed auditorium. However, he added, today’s wars are not out of line with the iconic Nobel Peace Prize winner’s teachings. “I believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and tha...

High-Level Military Panel: Ban On Women In Combat Is Discriminatory
WASHINGTON -- A high-level Military advisory panel is set to recommend that the armed services overturn its policy barring women from serving in combat roles, a step that would remove a key structural barrier for women trying to advance their Military careers. Women currently make up 14.6 percent of the active-duty military. Since 2001, 137 female service members have been killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 1994, women have been barred from serving in units at the level of batta...

Why Pentagon Says MLK Would Love War Today
"There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified. I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King Jr. said in this same ceremony years ago: 'Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.'"But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by [King's and Gandhi's] examples alone." There has long...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Helped Plant the Seeds for Environmental Justice Movement, Says Attorney General Holder
Friday, January 14, 2011 By Nicholas Ballasy (CNSNews.com) -- Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped “plant the seeds” of the “environmental justice movement,” which Holder called a “Civil Rights issue” that is a “high priority” for the Justice Department. At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Civil Rights, in an Affirmative Employment and Diversity Staff event to honor Dr. King, Holder said: “

Report: Scientists Encourage Military To Map Genome Of All Personell
What is this? A new report from a secretive, highly influential group of scientists is urging the Department of Defense to begin collecting and mapping the full genome of all Military personnel — a move that could well give the Pentagon the ability to select for certain genetic predispositions. Noting the dramatic decrease in the cost of fully mapping individuals' genomes, the report suggests that some traits relevant to war-fighting "are likely to have a strong genetic component, for...

Report: Women should be allowed in combat units
(01-14) 09:50 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A Military advisory commission is recommending that the Pentagon do away with long-standing policies that ban women from serving in combat units. Defense Department policy now prohibits women from being assigned to any unit smaller than a brigade whose primary mission is direct combat on the ground. In reality though, thousands of women have been invovled in the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan because they are allowed to serve in combat support roles, such a...

Leaders meet to honour Holbrooke
US and world leaders are gathering to honour Richard Holbrooke, the Veteran US diplomat who died last month at 69. Mr Holbrooke, whose diplomatic service reached back to the Vietnam War era, was President Barack Obama's Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mourners in Washington are expected to include Mr Obama, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Mr Holbrooke was credited in part with ending war in the Balkans in the 1990s. The ceremony is ...

Obama eulogizes Holbrooke as clear-eyed diplomat
Obama spoke Friday at a memorial service at the Kennedy Center packed with top U.S. officials and world leaders. Holbrooke was Obama's Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan before dying in December after surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. He was 69. In a storied career, Holbrooke designed the 1995 Bosnia peace plan and wrote part of the Pentagon Papers. Obama said Holbrooke worked to ensure the survival and success of liberty. The president also announced the creation of an annual award ...

Jay Stanley: Combat in Our Genes?
Born Soldiers may say they have "combat in our genes" — but a new report suggests the Pentagon may want to give the phrase whole new meaning by turning DNA into the next Military Battleground. The report, prepared by a defense science advisory panel known as JASON and reported by Secrecy News and HuffPost's Dan Froomkin, among others, recommends that the Military take advantage of the rapidly falling cost of gene sequencing by preparing to engage in the mass sequencing of the ...

Obama's Tucson memorial speech: A conversation in dissent
In part because there's been such rush to sanctify Obama's Tucson's Speech--not just in Versailles, but online as well--I feel a need to end the week with a reiteration of dissenting opinion. To state my case (perhaps too) succinctly: It's not that I object to a speech that makes people feel good. It's that I object to it in place of a speech that makes people do good. But it's not my case that I'm concerned with, as indicated by the fact that I first asked debcoop to refine her thoughts for ...

What man followed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton into the men's room? and why?
Below is the Press Pool report from the Memorial Service for Ambassador Holbrooke. Of course the people you would expect are there...but Vice President Biden? He must be exhausted!  He has been in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq all week...and now, already back home, and at a Memorial service?  I know he flies on an Air Force plane but he could not have slept this week based on this schedule. No signal inside Kennedy Center Opera House, thus had to wait until service over for more repo...

Obama Should Continue Tucson Speech Themes in State of the Union
Aside from the length of the Speech—half an hour rather than the usual five minutes or less—something else made President Obama’s remarks at the raucous Tucson memorial service different from every other Presidential Speech in times of tragedy. If you look as far back as President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, or President Roosevelt’s address immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or President Clinton’s remarks at the prayer service following the Okl...

No Labels meet-up looks for plan of action
It was largely a "meet and greet" and perhaps a bit frustrating for those eager to do more than talk at Thursday night's No Labels Meet-Up in Denver. The non-partisan No Labels organization seeks to build public pressure to convince politicians to end partisan game-playing and work in good faith with each other to find answers to the problems facing the nation. To that end, No Labels has asked its members across the country to meet on the 13th of each month to strategize and plan how to get that...

Alexandria, Pentagon weighing deal on buses for Mark Center
The Mark Center in Alexandria, the site of new offices for 6,400 Defense Department workers, may soon get express bus service to the King Street Metro station. Andrew Harnik/Examiner file The Alexandria City Council approved spending $600,000 on an express bus service between the King Street Metro station and Mark Center, site of new offices for about 6,400 Defense Department workers, as long as the Pentagon agrees to reimburse the city for its expense. Under the proposed reimbursement agreement...

Rep. Mike Honda: What Would Dr. King Do? Remembering Arizona on MLK Day
As our country continues to mourn and heal from Arizona's inexplicable violence, we are reminded of the timeless and transcendental teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, whose life and legacy is remembered this Monday, January 17, 2011. Dr. King's commemoration could not come at a more appropriate time. Arizona's violence is a sad reminder of the culture of violence that pervades this country and propagates such actions, manifesting in a myriad of ways, be it by pistol, pen, podium or a pol...

MLK Jr. "I Have A Dream" Speech (VIDEO)
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday, honoring one the greatest Civil Rights leaders of all time. Celebrated this year on January 17, 2011, the holiday falls on the third Monday of January every year, right around King's birthday, which is January 15. King would have been 82 this year. His "I Have A Dream" Speech was recited on August 28, 1963 during the March on Washington. King spoke in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Perhaps the most famous of King's speeches, the repetition "I have a dream"...