Doctors Without Borders: Airstrike on Aleppo, Syria, Hospital Kills 14
Source: NBC News
by ALEXANDER SMITH and LISA MCNALLY
At least 14 doctors and patients were killed after a direct airstrike destroyed a hospital specializing in pediatrics in Syria, the medical charity supporting the facility said Thursday.
Doctors Without Borders said at least two of the eight doctors working at the Al Quds hospital in a rebel-held area of Aleppo were killed in Wednesday night's attack.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the bombing.
A Syrian military source told Reuters that government warplanes had not been used in areas where airstrikes were reported. The defense ministry of Russia, which is conducting airstrikes in Syria to support President Bashar Assad, did not return NBC News' request for comment. A U.S.-led coalition is also carrying out airstrikes in the count
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/doctors-without-borders-airstrike-aleppo-syria-hospital-kills-14-n563966
For the 1-percent, war is a great thing -- a great return on their investment.
For doctors and nurses and regular folk who give a hoot about humanity, war is the worst thing in the world.
Choose a side.
onecaliberal
(32,861 posts)Some people must be so proud.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)The people who profit from war -- whether financially or politically -- are the lowest of the low.
Silver_Witch
(1,820 posts)Shame on us if we did this. Shame shame shame on whoever did it.
onecaliberal
(32,861 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)War is a Lie, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, War: huh, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)The madness has to stop.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)You abhor
BigMin28
(1,176 posts)Oh I forgot, there is no profit in peace. Carry on. Sadly.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)It seems like there should be.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)Peace could be very profitable. Only thing is, it would be a long hard slog to see the results of the big switch (from war to peace.) We've been building on this MIC since what, 1950? Bases all over the country & world, contractors and their campuses... they employ millions of people. What jobs can all those laid-off MIC workers do? Anyway, it would take many years to wean ourselves from the MIC. And if we don't face up to this, and start backing off the MIC Industry, then
brooklynite
(94,571 posts)...if the people hadn't been inspired by the Arab Spring and protested democracy, they'd be alive today. How thoughtless of them...
Octafish
(55,745 posts)For an hour? Then the US sent in a tank to blow up what was left a couple days after Doctors Without Borders brought it up in the press? I didn't like that then. If Russia or Syria did this in Aleppo, I feel the same way toward them. If the USA did this, it shows why I support Bernie Sanders. He would put a stop to all these wars for PNAC.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)The guy knows how to keep the game going, seeing how their scam needs new enemies to keep on keeping on, Disaster Capital style.
Scholar. Sage. Pro-business. Big ideas of how to make a killing. Heh heh heh. The guy seems to specialize in Big Ticket War Themes:
The Pitfalls of Peace
The Lack of Major Wars May Be Hurting Economic Growth
Tyler Cowen
The New York Times, JUNE 13, 2014
The continuing slowness of economic growth in high-income economies has prompted soul-searching among economists. They have looked to weak demand, rising inequality, Chinese competition, over-regulation, inadequate infrastructure and an exhaustion of new technological ideas as possible culprits.
An additional explanation of slow growth is now receiving attention, however. It is the persistence and expectation of peace.
The world just hasnt had that much warfare lately, at least not by historical standards. Some of the recent headlines about Iraq or South Sudan make our world sound like a very bloody place, but todays casualties pale in light of the tens of millions of people killed in the two world wars in the first half of the 20th century. Even the Vietnam War had many more deaths than any recent war involving an affluent country.
Counterintuitive though it may sound, the greater peacefulness of the world may make the attainment of higher rates of economic growth less urgent and thus less likely. This view does not claim that fighting wars improves economies, as of course the actual conflict brings death and destruction. The claim is also distinct from the Keynesian argument that preparing for war lifts government spending and puts people to work. Rather, the very possibility of war focuses the attention of governments on getting some basic decisions right whether investing in science or simply liberalizing the economy. Such focus ends up improving a nations longer-run prospects.
It may seem repugnant to find a positive side to war in this regard, but a look at American history suggests we cannot dismiss the idea so easily. Fundamental innovations such as nuclear power, the computer and the modern aircraft were all pushed along by an American government eager to defeat the Axis powers or, later, to win the Cold War. The Internet was initially designed to help this country withstand a nuclear exchange, and Silicon Valley had its origins with military contracting, not todays entrepreneurial social media start-ups. The Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite spurred American interest in science and technology, to the benefit of later economic growth.
War brings an urgency that governments otherwise fail to summon. For instance, the Manhattan Project took six years to produce a working atomic bomb, starting from virtually nothing, and at its peak consumed 0.4 percent of American economic output. It is hard to imagine a comparably speedy and decisive achievement these days.
SNIP...
Living in a largely peaceful world with 2 percent G.D.P. growth has some big advantages that you dont get with 4 percent growth and many more war deaths. Economic stasis may not feel very impressive, but its something our ancestors never quite managed to pull off. The real questions are whether we can do any better, and whether the recent prevalence of peace is a mere temporary bubble just waiting to be burst.
Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/upshot/the-lack-of-major-wars-may-be-hurting-economic-growth.html?_r=0
Economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University has seen the future and it looks bleak for most of us. Thankfully, those at the top, though, are in for some more good times. He spoke about his findings with NPR's Steve Inskeep. I almost dropped my smartphone into my coffee while texting during rush hour, listening to the report this morning, I was so steamed.
Tired Of Inequality? One Economist Says It'll Only Get Worse
by NPR STAFF
September 12, 2013 3:05 AM
Economist Tyler Cowen has some advice for what to do about America's income inequality: Get used to it. In his latest book, Average Is Over, Cowen lays out his prediction for where the U.S. economy is heading, like it or not:
"I think we'll see a thinning out of the middle class," he tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. "We'll see a lot of individuals rising up to much greater wealth. And we'll also see more individuals clustering in a kind of lower-middle class existence."
It's a radical change from the America of 40 or 50 years ago. Cowen believes the wealthy will become more numerous, and even more powerful. The elderly will hold on to their benefits ... the young, not so much. Millions of people who might have expected a middle class existence may have to aspire to something else.
SNIP...
Some people, he predicts, may just have to find a new definition of happiness that costs less money. Cowen says this widening is the result of a shifting economy. Computers will play a larger role and people who can work with computers can make a lot. He also predicts that everyone will be ruthlessly graded every slice of their lives, monitored, tracked and recorded.
CONTINUED with link to the audio...
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/12/221425582/tired-of-inequality-one-economist-says-itll-only-get-worse
For some reason, the interview with Steve Inskeep didn't bring up the subject of the GOVERNMENT DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT LIKE IN THE NEW DEAL so I thought I'd bring it up. Older DUers may recall the Democratic Party once actually did do stuff for the average American, from school and work to housing and justice. But, we can't afford that now, obviously.
Shock Jock
By TYLER COWEN | October 3, 2007
Book Review
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
by Naomi Klein
EXCERPT...
Ms. Klein's rhetoric is ridiculous. For instance, she attaches import to the fact that the word "tank" appears in the label "think tank." In her book, free market advocates are tarred with the brush of torture, because free market advocates often support unpopular policies, and torture also often supports unpopular policies. Clearly, by her tactic of freewheeling association, free market advocates must support torture. Often Ms. Klein's proffered connections are so impressionistic and so reliant on a smarmy wink to the knowing that it is impossible to present them, much less critique them, in the short space of a book review.
Rarely are the simplest facts, many of which complicate Ms. Klein's presentation, given their proper due. First, the reach of government has been growing in virtually every developed nation in the world, including in America, and it hardly seems that a far-reaching free market conspiracy controls much of anything in the wealthy nations. Second, Friedman and most other free market economists have consistently called for limits on state power, including the power to torture. Third, the reach of government has been shrinking in India and China, to the indisputable benefit of billions. Fourth, it is the New Deal the greatest restriction on capitalism in 20th century America and presumably beloved by Ms. Klein that was imposed in a time of crisis. Fifth, many of the crises of the 20th century resulted from anti-capitalistic policies, rather than from capitalism: China was falling apart because of the murderous and tyrannical policies of Chairman Mao, which then led to bottom-up demands for capitalistic reforms; New Zealand and Chile abandoned socialistic policies for freer markets because the former weren't working well and induced economic crises.
But the reader will search in vain for an intelligent discussion of any of these points. What the reader will find is a series of fabricated claims, such as the suggestion that Margaret Thatcher created the Falkland Islands crisis to crush the unions and foist unfettered capitalism upon an unwilling British public.
The simplest response to Ms. Klein's polemic is to invoke old school conservatism. This approach, most prominently represented by classical liberal Friedrich Hayek, rejected the idea of throwing out or revising all social institutions at once. Indeed the long history of conservative thought stands behind moderation in most matters of social and economic policy. That tradition does advise a scaling down of free market ambitions, no matter how good they may sound in theory, and is probably our best hedge against disasters of our own making. Such a simple indeed sensible point would not have produced a best-selling screed, however. And so we return to charging Friedman as an enabler of torture. The clash between democratic preferences and policy prescriptions is, if anything, a problem for Ms. Klein herself. Ms. Klein's previous book, "No Logo" (2000), called for rebellion against advertising and multinational corporations, two institutions which have proved remarkably popular with ordinary democratic citizens. Starbucks is ubiquitous because of pressure from the bottom, not because of a top-down decision to force capitalism upon the suffering workers in a time of crisis.
If nothing else, Ms. Klein's book provides an interesting litmus test as to who is willing to condemn its shoddy reasoning. In the New York Times, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz defended the book: "Klein is not an academic and cannot be judged as one." So nonacademics get a pass on sloppy thinking, false "facts," and emotional appeals? In making economic claims, Ms. Klein demands to be judged by economists' standards or at the very least, standards of simple truth or falsehood. Mr. Stiglitz continued: "There are many places in her book where she oversimplifies. But Friedman and the other shock therapists were also guilty of oversimplification." Have we come to citing the failures of one point of view to excuse the mistakes of another?
With "The Shock Doctrine," Ms. Klein has become the kind of brand she lamented in "No Logo." Brands offer a simplification of image and presentation, rather than stressing the complexity, the details, and the inevitable trade-offs of a particular product. Recently, Ms. Klein told the Financial Times, "I stopped talking about (the campaign against brands) about two weeks after No Logo' was published." She admitted that brands were never her real target, rather they were a convenient means of attacking the capitalist system more generally. In the same interview, Ms. Klein also tellingly remarked, "I believe people believe their own bulls---. Ideology can be a great enabler for greed."
CONTINUED...
http://www.nysun.com/arts/shock-jock/63867/
Then, when I thought, maybe, we had reached bottom and were ready to bounce up -- I discovered there may be no bottom -- for me and the large part of the 99-percent.
Oh, the good news is the 1-percent may swell to a 15-percent "upper middle class" while the rest of the middle class goes the other way. Gee. That sounds eerily familiar. Oh..."Commercial interests are very powerful interests" uttered same press conference where Smirko said, "Money trumps peace." Pretty much always the on-message 24/7/366 for most of the last century.
Tyler Cowen, man of the Final Hours.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)we need serious killing?
Judi Lynn
(160,536 posts)We heard them trying out the cover story that "bad guys" hide in hospitals a long time ago, but that one never seemed to work with those who are not criminally insane.
Maybe you should just let go and let evil consume you, Octafish! Lie back and enjoy the savagery conducted for specious reasons.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)How inhumane, right?
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)Mosby
(16,311 posts)Is that what you are saying?
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)IMO, the problems were with US/western actions that exacerbated conflicts without resolving them, such as in Syria and Libya. Pushing war without seeking non-violent alternatives. Arming militants in Syria was never going to over-turn Assad.
Obviously, working for peace is hard, and bombing is easy, arming "rebels" is easy. But FFS, we should have learned the lesson by now that war is not the answer. What on earth have we gotten for our money and trouble? Endless strife and countless deaths? ISIS? Not my idea of a good outcome.
PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)So let's say in an alternate reality that the US supported the Assad government (like Russia has) Would people be complaining about how the US is giving support to a regime that is dropping barrel bombs in the middle of its cities? Take Yemen as an example in which the US is indirectly and perhaps directly supporting the Yemen government fight against rebels. Many of the same groups/people criticizing the US for its action in Syria by saying it's supporting the wrong side, are saying they are wrong for supporting Yemen's government. A lot of criticism seems more like knee-jerk "if the US is doing it, then I'm against it" type of thinking.
While I question the role of the US in Syria and Yemen, but in my case it's me wondering how US involvement has any benefits for anyone.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)and causing untold civilian casualties, and really causing a humanitarian crisis.
In Syria, it is hard to know what is going on. There are so many lies put out during such civil wars. Assad still has the support of most people, I've heard.
My criticism and complaints are about the US promoting wars when peaceful solutions are not pursued. I agree that US involvement doesn't seem to help anyone-- except the weapons manufacturers.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)dinkytron
(568 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)Disaster Capitalism at its finest
walkingman
(7,616 posts)the Pentagon get to decide what is a war crime. This is the second time in the last year. How many times do we overlook it?