This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook

On this week's show: James J. Brittain is an educator and  activist whose writings are published widely on the internet and in journals. He is co-founder of the Atlantic Canada-Colombia Research Group and author of the book, 'Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP.' James J. Brittain in the first half.

 

Listen. Hear.

 

 

Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to keeps us current with newz from Victoriaz streetz.

 

Today is the darkest on the calendar in the northern hemisphere, and has for time immemorial been a day to celebrate. The celebration is not to honour the dark, but mark its ending through observance of the return of Sol, the Sun, bringer of light and warmth, the nurturer and sustainer of life. Like the Autumnal gloom, the affairs of humankind too dwell in the dark; we are currently conducted to phony wars by phony generals and phony politicians who pretend to represent while truly serving the black intentions of hidden masters. The people do not support the wars of aggression and the occupations that serve only to heighten hatred, belie our shared values, and suborn us to all manner of deplorable wrongs done to innocents, and yet they continue. It's happening here in Canada, and in all the nations we call 'friend,' where what we assumed were our bedrock beliefs, chiseled in law and catechized in our schools, are casually swept aside. And worse, in our darkest hour the great hope of a new dawn, in the form of the president south, is proven false. We are finally on our own, groping for a way back to the light.

One of the many great lies holding sway over us now is the infamous 'War on Drugs.' For generations now, this fabrication has ruined the lives of tens of millions, while proving a powerful profit base for thousands of ruthless criminals on both sides of the legal divide. Nowhere has the phony war on drugs been more destructive than in Colombia, its veritable Ground Zero. James J. Brittain is an educator and  activist whose writings are published widely on the internet and in journals. He is co-founder of the Atlantic Canada-Colombia Research Group and author of the book, 'Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP.' James J. Brittain in the first half.

And; whereas lies and false premise rule the war against drugs, so too lies are the order of the day in the phony wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the burgeoning other fronts of the phony Global War on Terror. But for Canada there's a greater lie behind the lie that has sent more than 130 Canadians and uncounted Afghanis to their death; it is the lie of the nation itself.

 

Canada is a lie, and if nothing else, the phony war in Aghanistan proves it is a nation in name only. Last week, the Canadian Forces revealed a change in strategy. They will no longer stay behind the high walls of base camps, but instead set up smaller strongholds within the towns and villages and neighbourhoods of Kandahar.

 

This the brass argues will make them more accessible to the locals, and help forge stronger ties. No longer, the logic goes, will they be seen as strange interlopers in Afghanistan, but will be suddenly recognized as the benevolent force for good almost a third of the people in faux Canada and the United False States believe them to be.

 

In this effort, the roughly 2,000 strong Canadian Expeditionary Force will be joined this week by a battalion of battle-hardened Airborne troops and by a further 4,000 U.S. soldiers in the New Year. Though Canadian Forces say the Americans arriving this week will be under Canadian command, it makes little difference now that Canada's forces have adopted the U.S. "rules of engagement" whole cloth.

 

Anthony Fenton is a freelance Canadian journalist, activist, and author whose writing appears at ZNET, The Dominion (Canada's grassroots newspaper) and other progressive news sites on the internet. He's also the co-author, with Yves Engler, of the book, 'Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority.' Anthony Fenton and Canada Cheek by Jowl with the U.S. in Afghanistan in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to keeps us current with newz from Victoriaz streetz. But first, James Brittain and the phony war in our back yard.  

 

Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, David Barsamian, Rhoda Berenson, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, William Bowles, Mordecai Briemberg, Vincent Bugliosi, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Juan Cole, David Cromwell, Murray Dobbin, Jon Elmer, Reese Erlich, Anthony Fenton, Jim Fetzer, Laura Flanders, Chris Floyd, Connie Fogal, Glen Ford, Susan George, Stan Goff, Amy Goodman, Robert Greenwald, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Sander Hicks, Julia Butterfly Hill, Scott Horton, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Chalmers Johnson, Diana Johnstone, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Brewster Kneen, Betty Krawczyk, Anthony Lappe, Frances Moore Lappe, Jason Leopold, Jeff Leys, Dave Lindorff, Jim Lobe, Jennifer Loewenstein, Wayne Madsen, Stephen Marshall, Linda McQuaig, George Monbiot, Loretta Napoleoni, John Nichols, Kurt Nimmo, David Orchard, Greg Palast, Mike Palecek, Michael Parenti, Robert Parry, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, William Rivers Pitt, Justin Podur, Lila Rajiva, Jack Random, Sheldon Rampton, Paul Craig Roberts, David Robb, Paul de Rooij, John Ross, David Rovics, Danny Schechter, David Schindler, Vandana Shiva, Norman Solomon, Starhawk, Grant Wakefield, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.