[Peace] AOTA tonight 10-11pm, cable channel 6

[C. G. Estabrook]

	“AWARE ON THE AIR” FOR TUESDAY 9 JUNE 2009,
	is presented by members & friends of AWARE,
	the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana
	on Urbana Public Television, 10-11pm, cable channel 6.

(On this day in 1650 the Harvard Corporation is established, the first legal 
corporation in the Americas.  Just over a century ago, corporations were given 
the civil rights of persons in American law.  And of course corporations have 
done very well out of the US war in the Middle East, even in the midst of a 
recession. Also on this date in 1915, William Jennings Bryan resigned as Woodrow 
Wilson's Secretary of State, in protest of president Wilson's manipulation of he 
US into the First World War.)

Each Tuesday evening AWARE presents comments on America's Long War in the Middle 
East, and on the resistance to it, locally and nationally, by Americans appalled 
at their government's betrayal of our democratic principles.

Tonight's "AWARE On The Air"  features the following commentaries:

   --Ron Szoke considers and applies the argument of David Neiwert's recent 
book, "The Eliminationists";

   --Wayne Johnson "Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice / Cry 
'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of anti-war" (which doesn't scan but makes more 
sense); &

   --yr. obdt. servt. considers Obama's general (an eliminationist & a dog of 
war), with the help of retired US Navy officer Jeff Huber:

    Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, our new [AfPak] war chief, may be more 
dangerous and even crazier than his boss, Gen. David Petraeus of Central 
Command. McChrystal reportedly eats one meal a day and sleeps three hours a 
night. We can’t know for sure if that’s true, but we can assume McChrystal wants 
us to think it is because it comes from the New York Times, who almost certainly 
got it from the press kit McChrystal’s public affairs colonel gave them.

    Unconfirmed rumor also has it that McChrystal only drinks rain water to 
avoid the effects of fluoridation on his precious bodily fluids, and that he 
takes acai berry purgatives to maintain his purity of essence. However much of 
this is true or merely legend-crafting, it’s all loony enough to make Petraeus’ 
one-arm pushup contests with teenage privates look dignified in comparison.

    From the sound of McChrystal’s recent confirmation hearing testimony, the 
insanity is just leaving the station. He told the Senate Armed Services 
Committee "I believe [the Afghanistan conflict] is winnable, but I don’t think 
it will be easily winnable.” It won’t be easy to win because it will be 
impossible to tell when we’ve won. “The measure of effectiveness will not be 
enemy killed," McChrystal told the SASC, "it will be the number of Afghans 
shielded from violence." How many shielded Afghans will equate to victory? More 
importantly, who is going to shield them? Certainly not McChrystal.

    As commander of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), 
McChrystal was directly responsible for the assassination strikes that have 
killed so many innocents in [AfPak]...

    The strategy’s stated aim to "disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda and 
its safe havens in Pakistan" is as hallucinatory as it is poorly written. You 
can’t "defeat" a safe haven any more than you can climb a tennis ball; but even 
if you could, there would be no point in doing it. Modern evildoers can run 
their operations from the sanctuary of the pockets that hold their Blackberries. 
Averting "the possibility of extremists obtaining fissile material" is a snipe 
hunt. Evildoers are about as likely to convert Pakistani nukes into suitcase 
bombs as they are to find a cure for herpes.

    Yet Stanley McChrystal has sworn to Congress that he can accomplish all 
these things and more if only he can shield enough Afghans from violence. The 
House and Senate Armed Services Committees had a golden opportunity to 
decapitate McChrystal and the Pentagon over their [AfPak] plan and torture of 
detainees and the Pat Tillman cover-up and a host of other mortal sins ... Sen. 
Carl Levin (D-Mich.) made a show of growling at McChrystal for a few minutes 
before he rolled over and begged for a tummy scratch...

    And where does our commander in chief Barack Obama stand on all of this? 
He’s the one who blessed the resumption of the errant air strikes and who 
nominated McChrystal to take over in [Afpak]. Our self-anointed "agent of 
change" has changed into what his predecessor was: a fawning servant of 
America’s warlords.

[For more of this article see "Obama's General" on the peace-discuss list, or
<http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2009/06/08/our-mcman-in-bananastan/>.]

And as usual we begin with a calendar of recent & upcoming antiwar events,
with thanks to Randall Cotton for the minutes of last Sunday's AWARE meeting.
(AWARE meets every Sunday 5-6:30PM in the basement of the old post office in 
Urbana. Visitors and new members are welcome.)

	Recent Events Calendar
  	**********************
June 6 (Saturday) 2-4PM Main St & Neil St, Champaign "The Main Event" - AWARE's 
monthly anti-war street demonstration.

June 7 (Sunday) Monthly People's Potluck at IMC, 202 S. Broadway, Urbana

	Upcoming Events  Calendar
	*************************
June 13 (Saturday) 8AM-noon, AWARE's weekly presence at Farmer's Market (Urbana 
Market at the Square), providing literature, expression (bumper stickers, 
buttons, etc) and conversation to further AWARE's mission.

June 23 (Tuesday)  6-7:30PM Free Community Veterans Clinic at Urbana-Champaign 
Friends Meetinghouse, 1904 E Main St, Urbana As an outcome of AWARE's panel on 
PTSD in 2008, this free acupuncture clinic was started in February 2009 and is 
held the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month for stress reduction. This free 
clinic is open to U.S. military veterans, current members of the Armed Forces, 
or their immediate support network. Sponsored by Acupuncturists Without Borders 
<www.acuwithoutborders.org>.

**NEW** Court date is set for June 24th regarding charges arising from civil 
disobedience by Catholic Workers and others at the Stockton anti-Blackwater 
event earlier this year. Some folks from the area are planning to attend.

**C-U 4th of July Parade is officially the "Champaign County Freedom 
Celebration" <http://www.july4th.net/>.  AWARE has a tradition of excellent 
entries in the July 4 parade -- none better than last year's splendid effort. 
People in AWARE have worked hard over the years to combat the jingoistic 
assumptions of the parades' themes.  This year's theme is (predictably) "The 
Lasting Legacy of Lincoln"...

**Planning going forward for a "Midwest Liberty Festival", possibly at Du Quoin 
in southern Illinois. For more information: <info at midwestlibertyfest.com> and 
<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119830955184>.

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