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About this website

SydWalker.Info is a personal website. I live in tropical Australia near Cairns. I oppose war, plutocracy, injustice, sectarian supremacism and apartheid. I support urgent action to achieve genuine sustainability and a fair and prosperous society for all. I rely upon - and support - free speech as defined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see below).

with the dawg

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers"

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Unless otherwise indicated, material on this website is written by Syd Walker.

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Progress beyond America
July 17th, 2011 by Syd Walker

48 years after the hijack… Jack Kennedy’s America is no more

Space Shuttle Atlantis - Last flight over Bahamas

The space shuttle Atlantis over the Bahamas, prior to docking with the International Space Station on NASA's last shuttle flight. Part of a Russian Progress spacecraft, docked to the station, is visible in the upper foreground.

Excerpt from Air Conditioning The US Military Costs More Than NASA’s Entire Budget in the Huffington Post, 22nd June 2011:

It costs $1 billion more than NASA’s budget just to provide air conditioning for temporary tents and housing in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Gizmodo. The total cost of keeping troops cool comes to roughly $20 billion. That figure comes from Steve Anderson, a retired brigadier general who was Gen. Petraeus’ chief logistician in Iraq.

NASA’s total budget is just $19 billion…

The Alternative lost to two generations

Freedom From War The United States Program for General and Complete Disarmament in a Peaceful World (U.S. Department of State 1961)

 

 


24 Responses  
  • brian writes:
    July 18th, 20111:12 amat

    as a reminder, Huff Post offers has as a regular columnist Stand up philosopher and sometime machievellian war maker Bernard Henri Levy!

      

          Reply  
    • Nick writes:
      July 18th, 20117:18 amat

      Is that comment supposed to question the reliability of the Huffington Post or just an opportunity to have a go at a prominent Jew you despise ?

      I think the fact that the USA needs to spend so much money on air-con in Afghanistan is one of many reasons why they will never will win this totally futile war.

      Eventually they will leave and the Afghans will go back to fighting each other, until another strong man emerges who will bring the various tribes under control. Let’s hope it is an enlightened individual who will not drag the county back to the Middle Ages.

        

            Reply  
      • Syd Walker writes:
        July 18th, 20118:39 amat

        Nick, here’s a video that may serve as a corrective to your arrogant, patronising view of Afghani culture and your insinuation of the inherent violence, backwardness and intractability of Afghan society.

        It’s old footage, from before the CIA’s destabilization of a progressive, secular left-wing government that led, in the late 1970s, to the Government seeking support from the USSR in desperation. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

        Once Upon A Time Kabul – Afghanistan Before The Wars http://t.co/B1KjeLU

        And to Brian… yes, te Huffington Post is a very mixed bag. I chose the quote because it did the job – not to endorse HuffPo. :-)

          

              Reply  
        • Nick writes:
          July 18th, 20119:42 pmat

          Are you on some sort of automatic pilot , Syd, immediately throwing around accusations of me being” arrogant and patronising ” ?

          I was a agreeing with you on this particular issue and unlike know-it-all experts like you and Brian I have actually been in Afghanistan several times “before the wars”.

          I left a week before the Russians bombed (sorry “liberated”) Kabul.

          While Afghanistan was a wonderful country to visit back then, it certainly was no paradise and it was, apart from some small pockets in the main cities, incredibly backwards.There is simply no other way to put it. Outside the main cities it was as backwards as the most backward parts regional India or Nepal and in many ways it still is. That is a fact and you can find many first-hand accounts confirming this.

          If the Russians and the Americans had left the place alone instead of treating it like just another pawn in the cold war, Afghanistan might have developed into the proud, independent and prosperous country it deserves to be.

          I have always had a great love for and interest in Afghanistan. You are the one who is arrogantly and patronisingly making presumptions about me.

            

                Reply  
          • brian writes:
            July 18th, 201110:30 pmat

            what were u doing there? clearly not to liberate the people! as you seem the type whod welcome in the US and their allies the Mujahadeen

              

                  Reply  
            • Nick writes:
              July 19th, 20114:18 pmat

              Brian,

              You are just exposing yourself for the miserable,ignorant fool that you are.

              I was traveling there, seeing the country, meeting the people and not judging anyone or meddling in politics.

              It is called real life experience, which is very different from being an armchair expert like yourself.

              You just repeat what other say and write and you obviously don’t have a clue what you are talking about.

              Trying to hi-jack this thread with some pointless anti-Jewish remark really demonstrates what a narrow vision you have.

                

                     
            • brian writes:
              July 20th, 20118:07 amat

              It seems Nick has finished with his not judging the people, and has moved to the next stage!

              as for ‘miserable, ignorant fool’…thats how i’d read you and your readiness to believe Fleet Street propaganda.

              Oh i know what im writing about about. just go read my comments.

              Take the parallel between one of the worlds darlings and one of its Bernays engendered rogues:

              ‘Mandela retired as South Africa’s president in 1999 after serving one term, handing over to Thabo Mbeki.’

              Gadafi gave up his office in 1977, and like Mandela has been a moral and spiritual head of his country ever since…But that’s not the way the western dictatorial politicians like present it…To them he has been an uberfuhrer till the present day.

              Ed Bernays, the father of propaganda and public manipulation:

              ‘The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society’

              right Ed! Thats why we have the media!

                

                     
            • Nick writes:
              July 20th, 20114:31 pmat

              brian writes:

              “what were u doing there? clearly not to liberate the people! as you seem the type whod welcome in the US and their allies the Mujahadeen”

              “as for ‘miserable, ignorant fool’…thats how i’d read you and your readiness to believe Fleet Street propaganda”.

              You don’t expect to be taken serious when you write crap like that, do you ?

              And who exactly are you liberating with all your quotes and you-tube clips ?

              Have you ever been in North Africa or Lybia or any of those other places you think you know everything about ? Have you been anywhere at all, apart from the nearest cyber cafe ?

                

                     
            • brian writes:
              July 21st, 20118:46 amat

              who am i liberating>? not you….like the libya insurgents(and their hired mercenaries) you are impervious.
              Unlike Nick, i know people in Libya, and most libyans they say support Gadafi and the jamahirya, not NATO or the Butchers of Bengahzi

                

                     
            • Nick writes:
              July 21st, 20113:54 pmat

              That’s fine Brian. Whatever makes you happy. I never pretended I know much about Lybia and, like most people, I am not really sure what is going there at the moment. I take accounts from BOTH sides with a grain of salt and as usual, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

              it seems to me that you are backing a losing horse though, but if you are happy to believe your own propaganda, then that’s fine by me. And of course, because you know a few people in Lybia, then that makes you an expert.Do you know any people on the other side of the conflict or only Gaddafi supporters ?

              Those “rebels’, aren’t some of them Lybians too ? Surely they can’t all be foreign mercenaries ? And why are so many Lybians leaving the place rather than rallying around their beloved leader ?

              As for your weird “Fleet Street’ remark, personally I don’t read Enlish papers, especially not tabloids . Do you ?

                

                     
            • brian writes:
              July 22nd, 20119:25 pmat

              no Nick…the truth doesnt lie in the middle…it lies where the US and NATO are not: with the Libyan people who support Muammar gadaffi.
              http://lizziesliberation.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/libyan-childrens-courageous-stand-against-nato/

              the Libya story has been slowly unfolding over the months, and anyone with a modicum of sense can tell whos lying and who isnt. All it takes is a bit of sleuthing.

              Do i know people on the other side? i do as a matter of fact…like NIZ…theur goal? a Libya ris of gadafi. Are they happy with NATO? sure

              most of the ‘people’ on the other side id prefer NOT to know:
              http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/race-and-arab-nationalism-libya

              im not sure why youer here, as your no friend of Libya, and by your own admission, have no idea whats going on, or youre unsettled by the insurgents violence and obvious collusion with child killing NATO

                

                     
          • sentience writes:
            July 19th, 20111:44 amat

            i agree with nick on this. backward, tribal, and good luck to them. we should respect their ways from a great distance.

            anyway, the allies are only there to keep the opium conduit open, with the unocal gas pipeline as a potential bonus.

              

                  Reply  
          • Syd Walker writes:
            July 19th, 201110:21 amat

            If I misinterpreted your comment Nick I apologize. In haste, I mistook your comment to Brian that he ‘despises’ DSK as a remark directed at me. I certainly don’t ‘despise’ DSK. But it has been my observation that you have a history of making snide remarks about the ‘backwardness’ of some middle eastern countries. I took your comment in this case as similar in kind.

            As you know (we’ve discussed it before) I haven’t visited Afghanistan, but many of my friends in the 1970s did so. The impression I gleaned is similar to what you say. At that time, there was a wide gulf between a quite poor rural population and the emerging prosperity of some urban centres that must certainly have been experiencing a tourist boom.

            Incidentally, I found this article by veteran academic Alfred McCoy quite illuminating. He relates how the narco-state Afghanistan has become is an artefact of decades of war. Back in the 70s, opium production in Afdghanistan was small (most world supply came from the Golden Triangle in SE Asia). Like the rise of ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ in that region from the early 1980s, the Afghani narco-state is largely a direct consequence of malevolent western interference http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175225/

              

                  Reply  
            • Nick writes:
              July 19th, 20114:13 pmat

              Thanks Syd,

              Our views may be widely different, but I do genuinely feel for Afghanistan and its people. Traveling there in the 70′s was like traveling back in time and that was a very illuminating experience. Conditions in Europe would have been similar in many ways a few hundred years ago.

              A lot of their troubles are due to ethnic/tribal strife and of course outsiders taking advantage of that.

              When I said that it was a “backward’ country, I was just stating a fact, not making a derogatory comment. I sincerely hope that , once the current mob of occupiers leave, there won’t be another Taliban-like crowd imposing Draconian rules on the population, especially the women.

              They are a very proud and tough people, but how much war and misery can they take ?

                

                     
            • sentience writes:
              July 19th, 20115:49 pmat

              if you invade, bomb, and generally bully a people, don’t be surprised if their investment horizon shrinks drastically. opium gives a high rate of return, and requires low capital outlay, it’s a no-brainer.

              the other sad side-effect of intervention is the importation of a classic real-estate bubble in kabul. only the drug lords and foreigners can afford to get a foot into the market. more alienation.

              http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/05/29/kabul-gold-rush-western-billions-bear-fruit-in-luxury-property-boom-for-afghan-capital.html

                

                     
            • Nick writes:
              July 19th, 20118:02 pmat

              Syd :

              “Incidentally, I found this article by veteran academic Alfred McCoy quite illuminating. ”

              An excellent article and absolutely spot-on. A lot of heroin (opium) also came from Turkey in the 70′s ( as well as some very good hash).

              The trade was controlled by the Turkish army, but it was shut down in the 80′s. Not sure what was behind that.

              It is ironic that so many wars are being financed by Western junkies (or the people they rob to feed their habit).

              Maybe legalising drugs world wide and treating drug addiction as a medical issue rather than a criminal one might be the first step in breaking up this deadly relationship between war and drugs.

              Certainly a win-win situation.

                

                     
      • brian writes:
        July 18th, 20118:58 amat

        prominent(aka celebratory) jew i despise? well that prominent jew you seem to admire kickstarted the war on Libya by whispering to Sarcozy that it was possible.
        He is now an A1 war criminal.
        http://libya360.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/israels-war-of-agression-on-libya/

        ‘Eventually they will leave and the Afghans will go back to fighting each other, until another strong man emerges who will bring the various tribes under control. Let’s hope it is an enlightened individual who will not drag the county back to the Middle Ages’

        Thats like the Europeans, who spent centuries fighting one another: but even strong men could not unite them.

          

              Reply  
  • sentience writes:
    July 18th, 201111:50 amat

    the whole nasa exercise was not to put a man in orbit, but to develop technology that could put a nuclear device right down on the kremlin.
    http://blog.mises.org/17717/comments-on-the-shuttle-program/#comments

    nasa and the military are brothers-in-arms.

      

          Reply  
    • Syd Walker writes:
      July 18th, 201112:46 pmat

      That’s a glib generalisation that misses the mark, IMO.

      It’s true the origins of NASA were partly in the US military and that military influence was always there. But NASA was about turning that energy to civilian goals. Yes, Kennedy sold the moon landing project using the ferocious cold war competitivism of the times. But NASA had/has higher aims. Its work has also – increasingly over time – entailed co-operation with overseas space agencies, including the Russians.

      President Kennedy should not be deified, but he did represent an era – and a strand of American thought – that was opposed to imperial dominance and in favour of international co-operation. The State Dept document quoted in this very short article is there for a reason. I think it’s the best kept secret from the Kennedy era, – stuff the Zionist media is not at all keen to highlight.

      The Kennedy Administration had a plan for world peace that wasn’t based on domination. It was quite detailed. Although it was re-railed at the time, it has great relevance for our predicament today. It’s a plan that would serve America’s interests just as much as the world as a whole – a quite realistic strategy for demilitarisation of the planet.

        

            Reply  
  • sentience writes:
    July 18th, 20112:41 pmat

    i certainly didn’t intend to be glib. the state department brief was just so much eyewash, and more accurately could be read as the us desiring to maintain its nuclear hegemony.

    any belief that the military-industrial complex (and nasa is part thereof) would voluntarily cede power is panglossian. (the only time this occurred in real, but not nominal terms was in the clinton era. no surprise that the squeals of pain from the pentagon and their contractors played a part in oklahoma bombing, 9/11, and so on.)

    kennedy didn’t deserve what was dealt him by his enemies, but presidential power is no match for leviathan. like all incumbents, he got to the oval office with iou’s that were to be collected on.

    when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you.

      

          Reply  
  • sentience writes:
    July 18th, 20112:55 pmat

    just to be clear, i sympathize with kennedy to the extent that he fought factions within his own administration to avoid a conflagration in the cuban-missile crisis.

      

          Reply  
  • sentience writes:
    August 2nd, 201110:19 amat

    9/11 offers a rare and precious view of the real face of the state, coldest of all cold monsters. fans of government-backed science will enjoy weather as a force multiplier: owning the weather in 2025

    http://csat.au.af.mil/2025/volume3/vol3ch15.pdf

    however it’s not all grim, there’s always one of the power-elite with a sense of humour, as the st-105 mission insignia patch evidences.

    http://is.gd/JGUwrd

    thanks nasa!

    the kursk incident, even putting aside the mooted use of dew, was an extremely murky event. immediately thereafter clinton forgave $10 billion debt owed by the russians, and the press only focused on the latter’s incompetency in the rescue.

    http://www.russiansentry.com/?area=postView&id=1526&mode=print

      

          Reply  
  • Anitra Stuckert writes:
    September 14th, 20112:14 amat

    Hi there could I quote some of the content here in this site if I reference you with a link back to your site?

      

          Reply  
    • Syd Walker writes:
      September 14th, 201110:30 amat

      Certainly. Thanks for asking

        

            Reply  


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