Defense Secretary Gates on Iraq: We're staying!

Its amazing how divorced from reality Defense Secretary Gates and the Bush administration is when it comes to Iraq. His plan for the US in Iraq is a a protracted U.S. troop presence along the lines of the military stabilization force in South Korea. According to him, this "would assure allies in the Middle East that the United States will not withdraw from Iraq as it did from Vietnam." Lt. General Raymond T. Odierno agreed with this plan stating that it would help "the Iraqi security forces and the government to continue to stabilize itself, and continue to set itself up for success for years to come."

Yet the fact is the US presence in Iraq is the real obstacle to stabilization. Our military presence is increasingly resented by the Iraqi people which isn't surprising considering over 600,000 have died since the beginning of this war. A recent poll from the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes found 71 percent of Iraqis want the withdrawal of U.S. troops regardless of the short term breakdown in security. Even the Iraqi Parliament has turned against the US. Early in May a majority of the Iraqi Parliament (144 members) signed a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for military withdrawal. Just recently, they passed a binding resolution requiring parliament to approve an extension of the UN mandate of US and British occupation in Iraq.

Furthermore, the long tours forced on the troops in Iraq with this "surge" has diminished their morale. According to a recent study released by the Office of the Surgeon General of the US Army Medical Command on soldiers' ethics and mental health, 10 percent of the Soldiers and Marines interviewed reported "mistreating noncombatants damaged/destroyed Iraqi property when not necessary or hit/kicked a noncombatant when not necessary)." Those suffering mental health problem (anxiety, depression or acute stress) were twice as likely to engage in such acts. Such issues among soldiers stemmed from the long periods of deployment in Iraq (over a year). Thus "the surge, as implemented by [General] Petraeus, is doing everything exactly wrong for the soldiers and Marines described in this study, namely:

• The surge has increased the frequency of soldier deployments; it requires them to serve 15 months in Iraq on each deployment, rather than 12, and it reduced to 12 months the period they can expect to be at home with their families to recuperate.
• Most importantly, for both soldiers and Marines, the surge exacerbates their already prolonged exposure to combat. It is not just a question of operations being more intense; a fundamental aspect of the surge is to locate soldiers and Marines outside their base camps and garrisons into forward locations, in the middle of towns and cities, in civilian neighborhoods."

So the chance for Iraqi civilian abuse by the US military will increase and lead to further atrocities with this prolongued "surge."

By ignoring the interests of the Iraqi people and that of the US troops supposed to be protecting them, the Bush administration will never have any success in Iraq. Instead they will create more resentment and more violence with their blatant attempt to turn this fight for (what the Bush administration claims as) democracy in Iraq into a permanent occupation existing to steal their oil. As the US constructs the largest embassy in the world in Iraq and several permanent "super-bases" (described as big "enough to have its own 'neighborhoods' ") while putting pressure on Iraq to pass an Oil Law privatizing that industry, such intentions become increasingly clear.

Starbucks and "Ethical Coffee"

It appears that Starbucks is trying to remedy its image by giving some of those that grow their coffee a better deal. According to Corp Watch: Starbucks is creating a deal with the Ethiopian government to create a "a licensing, distribution and marketing" agreement for three of their specialty coffees.

For over a year the Ethiopian government has pushed Starbucks to recognize their legal ownership of the names of its coffees. In the place where coffee was born, 11 million Ethiopians (about 1/5 of the population) depends on this crop for their livelihood and makes up 2/3 of the country's export earnings. Through ownership rights over its coffee, Ethiopia has the potential to increase income in their coffee industry by $88 million.
As of now, Ethiopian farmers as well as other coffee growers across the world make on average 3 cents for every cup of coffee sold. Its bean is considered one of the finest in the world where people pay 26$/lb but those in Ethiopia that grow the crop only get 6 percent of that profit resulting in horrible poverty.

Check out Oxfam's report for more information

Even with this possible "agreement" to help benefit Ethiopian coffee farmers, Starbucks is far from a socially responsible corporation they claim to be. Despite being listed on Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in 2007, they have a record of union-busting both in their shops (against the IWW Starbucks Worker Union) as well as in their US roasting plants.
Strikes against Starbucks in their coffee shops:
- scheduling manipulation ensures that every barista is a part-time worker and isn't guaranteed any work hours per week. For example, a Starbucks employee can get 35 hours of work one week, 22 hours the week after, and 10 hours the following week. As a result Starbucks workers in the United States earn as little $6, $7, or $8 per hour depending on the location, far from a living wage.

- Though Starbucks touts a health care plan for its employees, it covers only 42% of its workforce which is less than Walmart (47%)- a company notorious for its inadequate health care plan among other things

The barriers to health care for employees are two-fold. First, employees must work 240 hours per quarter to qualify to purchases health care through the company. With no full-time workers and no guaranteed work hours, qualifying to purchase health care is far from assured. Second, workers must pay significant premiums, co-pays, and deductibles to participate in the health care plan. With inadequate wages

- inadequate staffing during shifts as well as ergonomic issues put Starbucks employee's safety and health at risk.

If management scheduled an appropriate numbers of workers on the shop floor, workers would not have to work at such an unsafe speed with very hot beverages. The combination of the unduly brisk pace and the ergonomic inadequacies result in repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome for many Starbucks workers.

This is what democracy looks like...

Well I went to the January 27th Anti-War March on Washington DC on a bus from Ann Arbor. Coming into it I didn't really know what to expect (especially since I had never been to one of these) but I was hoping it was going to be big. In Ann Arbor, we had filled up 3 coach buses with both college students and adults and teenagers from the surrounding community. This had exceeded previous expectations for such a trip and seemed like a good sign of things to come at the actual march. Also, I had read a Washington Post article beforehand that said it was expected be one of the biggest anti-war marches since the beginning of the Iraq War.

We left Ann Arbor around 7:30 pm on Friday night for a 8-9 hour drive to Washington DC. After a ride in which I didn't get very much sleep, we arrived at Shady Grove Metro Station at 7 am. I rode in with some other people on the trip to Washington Mall to do some sightseeing before the actual rally and march that started at 11 am. Being from the DC metro area, I had seen many of these sites before but it still was nice to be back, even for a little bit. The weather that morning was below freezing which made it hard to walk around.

We got to the march around 11 am to a large crowd of people right near the Capital. The weather helped out as it became sunny, cloudless day with a high of 50 degrees. Diversity, along with its sheer size, marked the character of this crowd. People of various political groups, the young (even little kids) as well as the old, those of different races and ethnicities, and even war veterans were present. It wasn't just "aging hippies" or "college radicals" supporting this anti-war cause. There were people at the march who didn't look like the typical "activist" which was heartening to see. It made me realize that there really is a broad base of support moving against this War in Iraq. Its one thing to see the poll numbers but to actually see such a variety of people in the streets protesting made me happy. I just hope that Congress responds and does the right thing (though I remain skeptical of most Democrats taking a tough stance against the Iraq War). Apparently there were over 500,000 people present at the march.

Also notable was the small counterdemonstration near where people were marching in support of the Iraq War. One woman was on a megaphone stating that "if you don't support the mission, you don't support the troops." That statement really bothered me and I started chanting "bullshit" which others joined in with me. Someone else was holding up a poster that said "hippies smell." Though I definitely respect their right to free speech and assembly, such an ignorant embrace of this War in Iraq really annoys me.

The actual march began around 1 pm, which was suppose to be a loop around the Capital, and I followed the college student contingency which included people from the newly revamped Students for a Democratic Society as well as the Campus Anti-War Network. The chanting and energy from the people in the group got me real excited. Even though I enjoyed being in that crowd, the group was moving real slow and I was starting to lose my voice. Then, I bumped into a friend from back home who I knew was gonna be there but I didn't actually think I would see him in the large crowd. We ended up walking ahead of the college student group and quickly finished the loop (by that time it was around 4 pm and I was starving and my feet were killing me). After that we got something to eat, talked some politics, and then he had to leave to go back to his school.

When he left, I didn't know where the rest of my group was. I only had one other person's phone number who was on the trip and she was very far from where I was. So I went back to the site of the rally and it was getting darker at the time. Then I noticed a group of you people marching in the actual street on Pennsylvania avenue right in front of the Capital. They had stopped traffic and police were driving behind them. Apparently earlier that day, 300 college students rushed the Capital building, only to be rebuffed by police. I don't think anyone was arrested. I hung out with some other girls that I knew on the trip after that. Then we went back to the bus and left around 8 pm. Luckily I was able to actually pass out and sleep most of the way home. We finally got back into Ann Arbor at 5 am. All in all, it was a great experience and I would definitely want to go to more of them.