UnEmbeded!

Zoriah, who was an embeded photojournalist in Iraq, blogs:

A few hours after posting my story on the suicide bombing in Anbar Province, I was woken up by a young marine who took me to receive a phone call.  A high ranking Public Affairs Officer told me that they were requesting that I remove my blog post immediately.  I asked on what grounds, as media rules state that wounded and killed soldiers may be portrayed in images as long as their name tags and identifiable features are not shown.  I made very sure my images followed those guidelines, and questioned a large number of soldiers on base to see if they could find anything at all that would identify the dead.  I did this primarily out of respect for the families.

I truly labored with the decision to post these images and I still do.  But in my heart of hearts I know that people need to see and feel the reality of this horrible situation.  How can things change if all that comes out of Iraq are sanitized, white-washed images of war designed for mainstream media outlets who focus on making money, not on the quality and truth in what they report?

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Candian Parliament Votes for Asylum

Sean Purdy blogs:

Yesterday, the Canadian parliament voted 137-110 to give asylum to U.S. war resisters (known in the mainstream media as “military deserters”) and allow them permanent resident status. Officially, there are an estimated 200 U.S. soldiers who have fled to Canada in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan but there are probably many more resisters who have not come forward yet.

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is free to ignore the decision since it was an unbinding motion. He has said as much. However, it is an extremely important victory in the campaign by the anti-war movement in Canada and the U.S. and will certainly put substantial pressure on Harper…

When Bengal Cried

Vidrohi, of Red Diary, blogs about the war for Bengali independence:

The 1971 war against the Bengali population, paved on the “good intentions” of keeping the Pakistan together, was carried out in a classical genocidal fashion. “Kill three million of them,” President Yahya Khan reportedly said in February of 1971, “and the rest will eat out of our hands”. The genocidal war initiated on 25th of March with the attack on University of Dhaka where hundreds of students were murdered. In the subsequent months, hundreds of thousands of the Bengali people was exterminated, millions of women were raped, and millions were displaced from their homes. History has not forgotten the atrocities committed in the East Bengal by the Pakistani Army and their stooges in Jamaat-e-Islami.

The Future of GI Resistance

Justin Cliburn blogs at the Winter Soldier LiveBlog, which was apart of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War:

We have heard heartbreaking testimony this weekend, but we have also heard and seen these things firsthand in Iraq and Afghanistan. Until we eradicate homophobia, sexism, and racism in the military, we will not be fully united as a military and as a nation. IVAW will not rest until we reach the three goals of our three points of unity: withdrawal of American troops from Iraq; reparations for the Iraqi people; and full benefits for the veterans when they return home.