Briarpatch Magazine » war on terror

Mock justice: Why Omar Khadr should walk free

dave — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:17:21 +0000

**By Brent Erickson & Dave Oswald Mitchell Briarpatch Magazine September/October 2008**

"The shaming of one Canadian has shamed all Canadians."

-Liberal MP Paul Szabo, apologizing in the House of Commons for the RCMP's treatment of lobbyist and arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber. (Schreiber's pants had fallen down while RCMP officers led him, in handcuffs, to a waiting cruiser after his testimony before the Commons Ethics Committee.)

You're 15 years old, in the company of hardened militants who are associates of your father. A foreign army has invaded the country and unleashed a massive bombing campaign. Soldiers come knocking one morning and demand entry. The men around you refuse and a firefight ensues, culminating in the occupying air force bombarding the compound you're in, killing everyone but you and one other person.

What happens next is disputed. As the soldiers enter the bombed-out compound a grenade is thrown and explodes near one of them. He later dies of his wounds. Based on witness reports, the thrower could have been one of three people: you, the man lying beside you, or a U.S. soldier outside the compound wall.

The man beside you is shot by an advancing soldier as he reaches for an AK-47 lying beside him. Cowering in the corner, you, in turn, are shot twice in the back. As shock sets in, you plead with the soldiers to kill you, to finish the job.

You are Omar Khadr. Your ordeal has barely begun.

Afghanistan was never Canada’s war

admin — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:48:07 +0000

By Thomas Walkom The Toronto Star January 18, 2008 American Defence Secretary Robert Gates may well be right when he says that Canadian and European troops in Afghanistan are not well equipped to fight a counter-insurgency campaign. But what has been lost in the controversy over his impolitic remarks is that we did not sign on to fight insurgents – there or anywhere else.

Review of Blackwater and The Shock Doctrine

admin — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:24:43 +0000

The Global War On Terror did not give birth to mercenary warfare: the Pharaohs used mercenaries, as did the Persians, Napoleon and Alexander the Great. The Romans and the British deployed soldiers-for-hire to police native rebellions, particularly in the twilight of their empires. Indeed, 19th century American industrialists and statesmen, lionized in so many textbooks and park monuments, made private security forces—particularly the infamous Pinkertons—an integral element in American social and political history. As Pinkerton was to private policing in the U.S. in the 19th century, Blackwater USA is to the American military of the 21st century: a symbolic expression of systemic capitalist forces running far deeper than a single company.

“Unlawful” enemy combatants

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 17:05:33 +0000

What a difference a single word makes. This article only scratches the surface of the absurdity of the US’s efforts to try a child soldier for attempting to kill a soldier of an invading army — who was at that very moment trying to kill him. Never mind that the New York Times, among [...]

The May B-List

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:16:35 +0000

Your monthly media supplement of seven recommended readings from beyond the Briarpatch. Subscribe/unsubscribe to the B-List: http://www.briarpatchmagazine.com 1. Iraq: Send in the Clown by Emine Saner The Guardian May 17, 2007 “It is hard to imagine how Jo Wilding’s kidnappers reacted when she told them what she was doing in Iraq. They were in Fallujah, a city under siege in 2003 [...]