[pjw] US Dropped 23, 144 Bombs on Muslim-Majority Countries in 2015 (Alternet 1/10)

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hi again
The below article speaks volumes as to how the post-Cold War foreign 
policy of the US turned into perpetual war in the "Middle East."

In today's history of 25 years in Iraq, we've posted a link to the 
announcement / flyer  for our Gulf War 20 Years Later event in 2011, 
which included a walk over the Hawthorne Bridge.
http://www.pjw.info/gw20yl.html

Later that year, based on an agreement signed by George W Bush before he 
left office, President Obama withdrew many of the American troops from 
Iraq, but left behind over 16,000 personnel staffing the world's largest 
embassy (the US embassy in Baghdad). Our event in March 2012 marking 9 
years of Iraq War II made note that the US was still, in that sense, 
occupying the country.

http://pjw.info/iraq9yl.html

Please be sure to let people know about Friday's action marking 25 years 
in Iraq...
http://www.pjw.info/gw25yl.html
--dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group


  http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/us-dropped-23144-bombs-muslim-majority-countries-2015
U.S. Dropped 23,144 Bombs on Muslim-Majority Countries in 2015
    Nobel Peace Prize-winner President Obama dropped a serious amount of
    ordnance last year.
    By [30]Adam Johnson / AlterNet   January 10, 2016

    Council of Foreign Relations resident skeptic Micah Zenko recently
    tallied up how many bombs the United States has dropped on other
    countries and [34]the results are as depressing as one would think.
    Zenko figured that since Jan. 1, 2015, the U.S. has dropped around
    23,144 bombs on Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and
    Somalia, all countries that are majority Muslim.

    The chart, provided by the generally pro-State Department think tank,
    puts in stark terms how much destruction the U.S. has leveled on other
    countries. Whether or not one thinks such bombing is justified, it's a
    blunt illustration of how much raw damage the United States inflicts
    on the Muslim world:

[Chart]
    Sources: Estimate based upon Combined Forces Air Component Commander
    2010-2015 Airpower Statistics; Information requested from
    CJTF-Operation Inherent Resolve Public Affairs Office, January 7,
    2016; New America Foundation (NAF); Long War Journal (LWJ); The Bureau
    of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

    It does not appear to be working either. Despite the fact that the
    U.S. dropped 947 bombs in Afghanistan in 2015, a
    recent [36]analysis in Foreign Policy magazine found that the Taliban
    control more territory in Afghanistan than at any point since 2001.

    The U.S. has entered its 16th year of war in Afghanistan despite
    several promises by the Obama administration to withdraw. In October
    of last year, President Obama reversed his position and decided to
    keep [37]American troops in Afghanistan until the end of 2017.

    The last four U.S. presidents have [38]bombed Iraq, and that includes
    the current one since airstrikes were launched on Aug. 7, 2014. The
    war against ISIS was originally framed as a "[39]limited,"
    "humanitarian" intervention. Since then, former Defense Secretary Leon
    Panetta has insisted it will be a "[40]30-year war" and the White
    House has [41]spoken vaguely of a "long-term effort" in both Iraq and
    Syria.

    Another red flag Zenko noted was the complete lack of civilian deaths
    being tallied as a result of those 23,144 bombs.

      Remarkably, they also claim that alongside the 25,000 fighters
      killed, only [42]6 civilians have ÒlikelyÓ been killed in the
      seventeen-month air campaign. At the same time, officials admit
      that the size of the group has remained wholly unchanged. In 2014,
      the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [43]estimated the size of the
      Islamic State to be between 20,000 and 31,000 fighters, while on
      Wednesday, Warren again [44]repeated the 30,000 estimate. To
      summarize the anti-Islamic State bombing calculus: 30,000 Ð 25,000
      = 30,000.

    So after more than 20,000 bombs, the U.S. Defense Department only cops
    to the deaths of six civilians. This is a position largely accepted by
    the media, which rarely asks who is actually being extinguished by the
    airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

    In October, 30 civilians died after the U.S. [45]bombed a hospital in
    Kunduz, Afghanistan. The incident is still being investigated, but it
    has already been [46]revealed that many elements of the original story
    were either false or deliberately misleading.

    Adam Johnson is an associate editor at AlterNet. Follow him on Twitter
    at [47]@adamjohnsonnyc.

   34.
http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2016/01/07/how-many-bombs-did-the-united-states-d
rop-in-2015/
   35. https://donate.alternet.org/SP15-SPLASH4-1/
   36.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/04/mapped-the-taliban-surged-in-2015-but-is
is-is-moving-in-on-its-turf/?utm_content=buffer5561f&utm_medium=social&utm_s
ource=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
   37.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/world/asia/obama-troop-withdrawal-afghanis
tan.html
   38.
http://theweek.com/speedreads/446411/watch-last-4-presidents-announce-plans-
bomb-iraq
   39.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/obama-weighs-military-str
ikes-to-aid-trapped-iraqis-officials-say.html
   40.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/06/leon-panetta-memoir-w
orthy-fights/16737615/
   41.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/27/is-the-u-s-ready-for-an-endless-war-agai
nst-the-islamic-state/
   42.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/25/the-u-s-air-campaign-in-syria-is-suspici
ously-impressive-at-not-killing-civilians/
   43. http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/world/meast/isis-syria-iraq/
   44. http://www.defense.gov/Video?videoid=445185
   45.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/25/afghan-hospital-death-to
ll-rises/74580386/
   46.
https://theintercept.com/2015/11/06/u-s-journalists-who-instantly-exonerated
-their-government-of-the-kunduz-hospital-attack-declaring-it-an-accident/