BartBlog

Author’s note:
It is time to put the chickenhawk, war-mongering idiots out there. America cannot afford another war. If  Netanyahu wants war, let Israel go alone with it. And give the cheerleaders in the media an M-4 and a parachute and drop them in Iran too.

No more Americans dying for Israel

Excerpt:
The U.N. summit this week featured two fiery speeches, one by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the other by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s speech received full media coverage on several networks in the U.S. that included photos of his cartoon-quality bomb drawing prop, while Ahmadinejad’s was cut short on CNN before the section where he said that countries and religions should have no problems with each other.

That is just the tip of the iceberg regarding what the U.S. corporate-owned media fails to report about Ahmadinejad, Iran, and its nuclear program. The deception has been going on for years.

A meeting between Ahmadinejad and Jewish religious leaders during his visit to NYC was ignored by the U.S. media. A video and any mention of it was banned by major media outlets in the U.S., Europe and Israel. (See banned video here). In that meeting he was presented a gift by the rabbis and exchanged well-wishes for all religions, people and cultures. Both the rabbis and Ahmadinejad discussed the distinction between the Jewish people and the Zionist Likud party in control of the Israeli government.

In contrast, but also equally ignored by the mainstream media, is a speech given to The Washington Institute for Near East Policy this month by an Israel lobbyist, Patrick Clawson. Citing false flag operations that began past wars, he openly suggests provoking Iran into firing the first shot in a conflict and if that does not work, “it would be best if somebody else started the war.”

Another story about Iran that was ignored by U.S. corporate media until The Washington Post finally got around to covering it last month is that a plot to provoke Iran into war occurred in 2007, but was foiled by a high-ranking naval intelligence officer named Gwenyth Todd. Gordan Duff, writing for Veteran’s Today, provides an even more detailed account than the Post.

For her efforts, Todd was driven out of the navy, investigated by the FBI, may have been attempted to be assassinated, and eventually decided to move to Australia. “If you want my opinion, I am 100 percent convinced that this is about my thwarting plans to provoke war with Iran,” Todd said at one point.

The U.S. corporate media continually fails to mention that when the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran is compared to the May 2012 report, it reveals that Iran has actually reduced the stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium available for any possible “breakout” to weapons grade enrichment over the last three months rather than increasing it.

Instead, the U.S. media focused on the fact that production has increased. According to Gareth Porter’s analysis published on the global Inter Press Service news agency, however, the reduction of the stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium despite increased production is clear evidence “of a major acceleration in the fabrication of fuel plates for the Tehran Research Reactor, which needs 20-percent enriched uranium to produce medical isotopes. When 20-percent uranium is used to make fuel plates…it is very difficult to convert it back to a form that can be enriched to weapons grade levels.”

Yet another omission by mainstream U.S. media is the fact that IAEA reports in Iran are only possible because Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and allows the IAEA to inspect all of its nuclear facilities. Even Bill Clinton, who has in the past spoken out against war with Iran, did not seem to grasp that concept when he said on CNN’s Piers Morgan, “If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why won’t you comply with the international community’s inspection regime…” Perhaps he has been reading too much “news’ lately.

Phil Weiss raised a great point about the true intentions of the New York Times in his blog, Mondoweiss. In a piece entitled “‘NYT’ serves as echo chamber for Israeli hawks, quoting 7 on Iran, plus 2 Israel lobbyists” he asks, “When do American realists get their turn? When will American experts be quoted who say Iran can be contained or that Israel should give up its nukes?”

Here is a short list of other facts about Iran and Israel’s nuclear programs that have been kept from the American people by corporate media since propaganda about a nuclear-armed Iran began in 2007:

• In accordance with the conditions set in the NPT, Iran informed the IAEA of its intention to build a new uranium enrichment site within six months before it went online.
• The IAEA and all 16 United States Intelligence Agencies are unanimous in agreement that Iran is not building and does not possess nuclear weapons. Documents from the former South African regime declassified in 2010 reveal that Israel not only possesses, but also offered to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa as far back as 1975.
• Last Spring, Rose Gottemoeller, an assistant secretary of state and Washington’s chief nuclear arms negotiator, asked Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Israel refused.
• The United Nations passed a resolution calling on Israel to sign the NPT and to submit to IAEA inspections. Israel refused.
• The IAEA asked Israel to sign the NPT and allow inspections. Israel refused.
• Israel made the same accusations against Iraq that it is making against Iran, leading up to Israel’s bombing of the power station at Osirak in Iraq. Following the invasion of 2003, international experts examined the ruins of the power station at Osirak and found no evidence of nuclear materials or a clandestine weapons factory in the rubble.

It has become clear that the government of Israel, as well as the neo-conservative faction in the U.S., is pushing for a war with Iran, aided and abetted by the U.S. corporate media – the same media that sold the war in Iraq.

Simply putting the information presented in this article out there can get one labeled an “anti-Semite,” but it is a fact that most Israeli people, most Iranian people and most American people do not want this war. Anti-war is not anti-Semite. As the rabbis told Ahmadinejad, there is a clear distinction between Israelis who practice Judaism and the Zionists that control their government. There is no reason all nations and religions involved cannot live in peace (link to video from an Israeli).

A preemptive war with Iran would cost thousands, if not millions of lives. A war with Iran would be devastating to an already fragile U.S. economy – even if Israel goes it alone. It would cause gasoline prices to soar through the roof. Furthermore, a war with Iran could ignite a much larger global conflict, because both China and Russia have geopolitical and economic interests at stake with Iran. A panel of experts concluded that the costs would far outweigh the benefits.

Now is the time for the American people to look at the facts, see the big picture and say “no more wars.” Too many young Americans have died already for special interests. Every politician and talking head in the media that is promoting war with Iran must be called out for what they really are – liars, because lies of omission are still lies. They must keep being told that through phone calls, emails and social media until they realize the American people will not be deceived again. And the level-headed people that are against another war must be supported. Only “we the people” can stop this war before it begins.

Read more, see videos and get links here: Madison Independent Examiner – U.N. summit: What the U.S. media fails to report

Author’s note:
More and more people are questioning the events of 9/11 and it is getting to the point where it is becoming “mainstream” and not just a “conspiracy theory.” Questioning the official story of 9/11 has been taboo and akin to shooting yourself in the foot for journalists for the past 11 years. I think that may be beginning to change. I realize that I only scratch the surface here, because any article on 9/11 can lead to major scope creep and get very long, so I tried to just stick to the point that it is breaking in to the mainstream, but there is far more to this if you choose to look into it.

Excerpt:
More and more people from all walks of life and all professions seem to be questioning the “official” narrative of what happened on 9/11. Those who are questioning the events of 9/11 may be moving under the radar of the corporate media from being labeled “conspiracy theorists” to legitimate investigators with legitimate questions and concerns.

A good example is Jesse Ventura’s recent appearance on CNN’s Piers Morgan. Ventura, who hosts a program on TruTV called “Conspiracy Theory,” appeared on Morgan’s show last week. After discussing 9/11, Morgan tried to dismiss Ventura and said he has “crackpot” ideas. Ventura then asked the audience, “How many people think I make crackpot points?” Only one audience member acknowledged. He then asked, “How many people think I make sensible points?” Almost the entire audience applauded him.

Another good example is Colorado PBS’s airing of a documentary film that was created by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth. It is the first time a major news network has aired anything like it. The documentary, entitled “9/11: Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out,” features dozens of architects and engineers who unequivocally state that the twin towers, and WTC 7 which was not hit by a plane, were brought down by controlled demolition.

If the official story is to be believed, then 9/11 was an architectural and engineering disaster that should have led to an urgent and exhaustive inquiry, along with suggestions for improvements and upgrades for other buildings of the same construction. (You can watch the full-length film here for a limited time before it is only available for purchase on DVD).

The film has a section near the end in which psychologists explain why the media and many of the public are so reluctant to question the official story. The reasons come down to trauma, belief in authority and cognitive dissonance. People simply do not want to believe anything that contradicts their “world view” and their faith in the authorities that provide their security. Confronted with contradictory evidence, people resort to denial as a defense mechanism.

According to Victoria Alexander, writing for Digital Journal, three days before the 11th anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy, the documentary ranked number three among “most watched” documentaries on PBS and number one among “most shared.” “With the presidential election only weeks away, both the Republicans and Democrats, as equally staunch defenders of the official story, stand to be affected if the public’s suspicion of government corruption grows deeper.”

Questions regarding the events of 9/11 and studies are nothing new. They have been taking place for years. For years the internet has been loaded with information questioning the official story of 9/11. Several versions of a documentary entitled “Loose Change” were released between 2005 and 2009 and generated over 50 million hits on the internet.

Another fact that has never been publicized in mainstream media is the amount of credible people that question the events of 9/11. The corporate media publicizes questions by people such as Rosie O’Donnell and Charlie Sheen, but ignore the people listed on Patriots Question 9/11, which include over 3000 professionals from the military, government, academia, engineering, aviation, architecture, etc., that question the official story. A quick browse of the list reveals that these are not a bunch of “crackpots,” but are professionals who have the knowledge and skills in their fields to ask legitimate questions about what really happened on 9/11.

One key distinction between the 9/11 truth movement and conspiracy theorists, however, is that the 9/11 truth movement and many of the victim’s families have simply been calling for a new investigation, not making allegations as to whom are really behind the attacks. Some, however, do go further than that.

Yet another voice bringing the unanswered questions of 9/11 to the attention of the mainstream may turn out to come from Italy. Judge Ferdinando Imposimato, the honorary president of the Italian Supreme Court, has written to the Journal of 9/11 Studies announcing his intention to bring a case before the International Criminal Court citing key figures in the U.S. administration for involvement in the execution of the 9/11 attacks.

Imposimato writes:

The 9/11 attacks were a global state terror operation permitted by the administration of the USA, which had foreknowledge of the operation yet remained intentionally unresponsive in order to make war against Afghanistan and Iraq. To put it briefly, the 9/11 events were an instance of the strategy of tension enacted by political and economic powers in the USA to seek advantages for the oil and arms industries.

Whether or not anything comes of Imposimato’s law suit, the work of the architects and engineers, or anyone else who demands a new investigation into the horrific events of 9/11, one thing is clear. With a slow but steady drip of information coming from the many 9/11 researchers and grass roots movements, more people than ever are questioning the events of 9/11. And by implication, they are questioning the honesty of U.S. government officials who are engaging in costly wars and passing legislation that erodes the U.S. constitution in order to “protect” Americans from terrorism.

If most Americans come to believe that the terrorists responsible for the events of 9/11 are the same people that run huge corporations, banks, the U.S. government’s and Israel’s intelligence agencies, then that could change the dynamics of the political scene for years to come.

I simply encourage readers to watch the documentary that was broadcast on PBS, do their own research and draw their own conclusions.

Read full article, get links and videos here: Madison Independent Examiner – 9/11 official story doubts becoming more mainstream.

Author’s note:
I cannot believe that the U.S. government and media are turning this into an issue about a YouTube video. There are many more reasons for people in Muslim nations to vent their anger. Like this:

Excerpt:
U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans tragically died on Tuesday, September 11th, in an attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Currently, protests have erupted in 49 locations around the world. The U.S. government and media claim that an anti-Islam movie spurred the attack and protests, but recent revelations from other sources suggest that may not be entirely true.

The “film” that sparked this global controversy is supposedly entitled “Innocence of Muslims.” All that has been seen thus far, however, is a roughly 14-minute “trailer” that is posted on YouTube (see video at left). There are versions of the video in both English and Arabic. The original English version entitled “Muhammad Movie Trailer” was posted by Sam Bacile on July 2nd. The New York Times reported that the video was dubbed into Arabic for the first time on September 4th. The version of the video, titled “The Innocence of Muslims” was posted on September 12th.

The timing of the posting of these videos and the time of the attack raises questions as to how this video is to blame. But there is more that suggests that a third-rate film is not to blame for the embassy attacks and the current global protests.

A full-length film may not even exist

According to the New York Times, the writer and producer of the film is Sam Bacile, allegedly an Israeli who spent about $5 million on the film with the help of over 100 Jewish donors.

The Christian Science Monitor reported, however, that there may be no anti-Islamic movie at all:

The online 14-minute clip of a purportedly anti-Islamic movie that sparked protests at the US embassy in Cairo and the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya is now looking like it could have been ginned up by someone sitting a basement with cheap dubbing software.

In summary, the global controversy is not over a full-length film as reported by many media outlets. It is over a poorly-dubbed, less than 14-minute YouTube video.

Confusion over who actually directed and who produced the “film”

Jeffrey Goldberg, writing for The Atlantic, says “Sam Bacile” is not Israeli and that it is not his real name. Goldberg managed to contact one of the few verifiable people involved in the production of the alleged film, Steve Klein, a self-described militant Christian activist in Riverside, California who worked as a consultant for Bacile. Klein told Goldberg that Bacile, the producer of the film, is not Israeli, and most likely not Jewish, as has been reported, and that the name is, in fact, a pseudonym. He said he did not know “Bacile”‘s real name.

Gawker claims that it has confirmed that a softcore porn director named Alan Roberts was listed as director on the summer 2011 casting calls and call sheets of “Desert Warriors.” “Castmembers and crew told us yesterday that Roberts was brought on by producer ‘Sam Bacile’ aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.”

An FBI investigation led to the questioning of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who they suspect to be the director of the film. According to NBC, Nakoula told the Associated Press he was not the director on the film, but rather a logistics manager.

According to The Smoking Gun, Nakoula became a government informant after his 2009 arrest for bank fraud and is currently on federal probation. Under the terms of federal probation for anyone who commits a financial crime, Nakoula would have been required to report all records of his bank and business transactions, including the $5 million allegedly used for film production.

The relevance of the confusion over who wrote, produced and directed “Desert Warriors” is not about finding and placing the blame on any individual. It is the confusion itself that is relevant.

Anyone familiar with Hollywood knows that everyone working on a film with a $5 million budget wants their role in it documented and publicized. It is not illegal to make any film, even if it is anti-Islam. Regardless of his role in making the film, it would not have been a violation of Nakoula’s probation as long as he reported any business transactions. That raises another red flag about the entire story.

The assault on the embassy in Libya was planned in advance

There is much evidence that the attack on the embassy in Libya was not the result of a protest over the video that turned violent, but rather was a planned, coordinated military-style assault. Even NBC news acknowledges that U.S. officials are “probing the possibility that Wednesday’s attack was planned and timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.”

Several media outlets, including the Independent UK, reported that the U.S. had credible information of the attack 48 hours before it occurred.

An eight-strong American rescue team was sent from Tripoli and taken by troops under Captain Fathi al- Obeidi, of the February 17 Brigade, to the secret safe house to extract around 40 U.S. staff. The building then came under fire from heavy weapons. “I don’t know how they found the place to carry out the attack. It was planned, the accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any ordinary revolutionaries,” said Captain Obeidi. “It began to rain down on us, about six mortars fell directly on the path to the villa.”

Other media outlets, including CNN, The New York Times, Russia Today and The Washington Post quoted U.S. officials saying that they believe the attack was planned in advance. CNN’s source claimed “Tuesday’s attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was planned in advance, and the attackers used the protest outside the consulate as a diversion.” Intelligence officials also reportedly said the attack on the Benghazi consulate was too coordinated or professional to be spontaneous.

If the attack on the embassy in Libya was planned at least 48 hours in advance, then that means it was planned prior to the international publicity that the inflammatory video received. Furthermore, the U.S. government acknowledges that rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine guns were used in the attack. Who brings those to a spontaneous protest about a YouTube video?

Blowback from years of civilian deaths and meddling in other nations

Protests are occurring all over the world right now. The consistent theme, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, is that America must leave. The amount of U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan last month should have given our leaders the same message. The rage seen across the world has very little to do with the video. People in nations such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, etc. do not hate us for our freedoms, or for our religion.

Both Libya and Egypt witnessed drastic political upheavals in the past year, in which the United States played a crucial role. The “war on terror” turned Iraq into bloody chaos, causing tens of thousands of deaths and casualties, with millions of people displaced. Those people in the nations invaded and subverted by the U.S. through a decade of overt and covert wars hate America because every time they see their friends and neighbors blown to bloody bits before their eyes, the shrapnel is stamped, “Made in the USA.”

Their countries have been invaded on the basis of lies, their governments subverted to serve foreign interests, their women and children killed or maimed, their places of worship bombed, their cultural history buried under rubble. Some photos of that are available here.

Do the citizens of those invaded nations have reason to hate America, other than that silly little video?

Well, yes, they do.

The attacks and protests should serve as a reminder that it is time for the U.S. government to rethink its policies toward the Middle East or it will face a dead end there. It is time to bring our troops home and stop meddling in the internal affairs of other nations.

Read the full article, get links and video here: Madison Independent Examiner – Embassy attack, protest: Are they really about a movie?

Author’s note:
Teachers across the country should learn from the examples of teachers in Chicago today and in Madison last year. The war on teachers is part of a class war designed to destroy the middle class in America.

A threat to the establishment.

Excerpt:
Former White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, was part of Obama’s war cabinet. As Chicago’s mayor, he is waging a war against teachers. With the emphasis on standardized test results and the voucher system, teachers in Wisconsin are facing a similar assault.

It is back to school time, which means it is also time for the pundits in the corporate media, the Tea Party, the GOP, Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan and politicians such as Rahm Emanuel and Scott Walker to chastise those who have the audacity to work in the public sector, teaching in public schools.

The big headlines are currently being made by the Chicago public school (CPS) teachers and their union, the CTU. The issues that CPS teachers are raising with their strike, however, are part of a much larger national trend.

According to the Occupied Chicago Tribune, there are four primary reasons the Chicago teachers are on strike. Of course, there are other reasons, but these are the four main points of contention:

1. A better school day: A comprehensive education including not only curricula in math, science and history but also art, music, physical education and foreign languages in all Chicago Public Schools.
2. Wraparound services and adequate staffing to support students in need: This includes counselors, social workers, librarians and school nurses with defined job descriptions as well as preparation and break time.
3. Recall rights for educators and school staff: Hundreds of teachers have already been displaced by school closures across the city and more will be by the planned closing of at least 100 more schools in the coming years.
4. Fair compensation: No merit pay, less reliance on standardized tests and pay commensurate to increased time in the classroom as well as inflation. CPS reneged last year on the contractually obligated 4 percent pay raise negotiated in 2007 and is currently offering annual 2 percent raises over the next four years. An independent fact-finder’s report released in July recommended pay raises of 15-18 percent next year.

A closer look at the public school system and those in other states reveals even more disturbing trends in K-12 education. The most disturbing, perhaps, are the trends toward privatization with voucher systems and the reliance on standardized testing in performance evaluations of teachers.

Investigative reporter Greg Palast sums up these two trends in a good example:

In a school with some of the poorest kids in Chicago, one English teacher – I won’t use her name – who’d been cemented into the school system for over a decade, wouldn’t do a damn thing to lift test scores, yet had an annual salary level of close to $70,000 a year. Under Chicago’s new rules holding teachers accountable and allowing charter schools to compete, this seniority-bloated teacher was finally fired by the principal.

In a nearby neighborhood, a charter school, part of the city system, had complete freedom to hire. No teachers’ union interference. The charter school was able to bring in an innovative English teacher with advanced degrees and a national reputation in her field – for $29,000 a year less than was paid to the fired teacher.

You’ve guessed it by now: It’s the same teacher.

The reliance on standardized testing that began with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2004 (a.k.a. No Child’s Behind Left), has become a failed, unfunded policy that teachers are paying for with their jobs.

When politicians from both parties say “children are our future,” do they mean the children of China, who will produce our products and the children of India who will run the IT systems and handle your customer service calls? Of course, we do need an elite few that will handle formulating the complicated derivatives for bankers, some lawyers that will help them get around the laughable regulations, the ones that can invest in Wall Street stocks and overseas business ventures. But what will be left for American children, besides helping feed our fast-food nation, or stocking shelves with Chinese products?

Teachers, politicians, anyone reading: Make no mistake about it. The war on teachers is no accident, it is planned. We are seeing this nation being divided, deliberately, into a nation consisting of a privileged few, and the rest, a lower working class who have absolutely no way up, because the education is not there to give them a chance for upward mobility to give them a way out of working minimum wage jobs. Well-paying jobs in this country are being outsourced by corporations at a horrific pace, so the education for those jobs is considered no longer necessary by the powers that be.

America will end up with a population that thinks in sound bytes, does not read, cannot innumerate and cannot think critically. A population that will accept, without any hesitation, anything the government tells them, and hate every country on the planet the government tells them to hate, to the point of being willing to volunteer to pick up a rifle, and kill anyone the government tells them to kill. The U.S. is almost there already. That seemingly is the plan.

Sadly and unfortunately, teachers may ultimately get the blame for that, when in fact it is not their fault.

Read full article, see slideshow and video here: Madison Independent Examiner – The Chicago teachers strike and the war on teachers

Remember: today was the day when 8 years of deciding pursuing Bill Clinton was the MOST important thing for Republicans to do, and paying attention to ALL THE WARNINGS was something George and Dick didn’t need to do, caused THIS:

And after Dick Cheney went over to the CIA to “straighten them out,” when the CIA WAS THE ONLY GOV AGENCY WHO GOT IT RIGHT PREVIOUS TO 911.

Author’s note:

Here is a look beyond the desensitizing corporate media coverage of last month’s deaths in Afghanistan. One lesson well-learned after Vietnam is to keep the personal details of the soldiers who make the ultimate sacrifice out of the national media, because it creates empathy and fuels dissent against war. That, in my opinion, is a dishonor to those who have sacrificed their lives for our nation and a disgrace to the friends and family suffering in grief. I looked into some of the details of each soldier who died last month in Afghanistan and wrote a little about each. It was a heart-wrenching experience. I am only going to list the first three in this excerpt, but you can read the entire list here.

Excerpt:
With 53 soldiers killed, August 2012 was one of the deadliest months for the NATO coalition in Afghanistan since the war began almost 11 years ago. U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan surpassed the 2000 mark with at least 38 killed last month. And there is no end in sight until at least 2014.

Those who have made the ultimate sacrifice seem to be getting less and less attention from the corporate media. NBC called it a “forgotten war” that “no one really cares” about, but there are hundreds of families who care and will never forget. It is a safe assumption that most Americans who have been paying attention to the news put forth by the corporate media in print and on national TV do not know how many service members died in August, and even fewer know their names. Whatever views one may have on the recent wars, military personnel deserve more recognition than that.

To whom it may concern, here are their names and some information about each one of them:

Lance Cpl. Curtis Joseph Duarte, age 22, Covina, California. 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force. Curtis died August 1, 2012 in Helmand province, Afghanistan following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack during combat operations. Duarte, a 2008 graduate of Covina High School who went on to study at San Diego State University, was on his first combat deployment. Among numerous decorations, he had earned a bronze star. Curtis is survived by his parents, Joe and Gina Duarte, his wife Sarah and their two year-old daughter, Gracie.

Pfc. Jesus Jonathan Lopez, age 22, San Bernardino, California. Company D, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. Jesus died on August 1, 2012 in Paktika province, Afghanistan. He was one of two soldiers killed by a roadside IED on their first combat deployment. A video posted on YouTube entitled “In loving Memory of Pfc. Jesus Lopez” can be viewed here. It says more about Jesus’ life than I can.

1st Lt. Todd William Lambka, age 25, Fraser, Michigan. Company D, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. Todd died along with Pfc. Lopez on August 1, 2012 when their vehicle stuck a roadside bomb in the Bermel district of Paktika province, Afghanistan. Todd was a 2010 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Todd’s twin brother, Jordan, also serving in Afghanistan, accompanied his body home. Todd was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart posthumously, and flags in the state of Michigan were lowered to half-mast on August 15th in his honor. He is survived by his father, Brian, his brother and his fiancée, Cassie, whom he had planned to marry next June.

“I think every parent is surprised when their son or daughter makes that decision, but their love of country is the reason why they’re willing to go over there,” Brian Lambka said. “He thought defending the country was very noble. This is what my kids were called to do.”

Most journalists are required to cover the who what when where and why. The why is my only question. Why are U.S. troops still dying in Afghanistan? Osama Bin Laden is dead. Is it because of the TAPI pipeline?

Everyone mentioned above did what the U.S. government asked them to do and their loss diminishes all Americans. Our leaders need to justify the loss of so many young men and women who died in a place so far away.

Full article, including links and a slideshow is available at: Madison Independent Examiner – U.S. casualties in Afghanistan August 2012: A closer look.