Donald Trump’s dangerous warmongering

This video from the USA says about itself:

U.S. Drops Its Biggest Non-Nuclear Bomb on Afghans, Already Traumatized by Decades of War

14 April 2017

In Afghanistan on Thursday, the United States military dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever—the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, nicknamed “The Mother of All Bombs.” The 21,600-pound bomb reportedly unleashed an explosion equivalent to 11 tons of TNT with a mile-wide blast radius.

This comes as the United Nations recently published a report saying airstrikes from the Afghan government forces and the U.S.-led coalition killed nearly 600 civilians in 2016—almost twice as many than in 2015. The U.S. war in Afghanistan is the longest war in U.S. history, extending into its 16th year.

We are joined by Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare. She just returned from Afghanistan earlier this month. We also speak with Wazhmah Osman, professor of media and communication at Temple University and member of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who was installed by the US after its 2001 invasion of the country, complained that Afghanistan shouldn’t be used as a munitions laboratory. He tweeted: “This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons”: here.

By Zoe Streatfield in Britain:

US bombing sends world in a ‘dangerous direction’

Saturday 15th April 2017

CND general secretary Kate Hudson warned yesterday that the world is heading in a “very dangerous direction” following the US bombing of Afghanistan.

Ms Hudson told the Star that the incident was “another terrible example of Trump’s escalation of militarism and spiralling policy” following on from “the recent attack on Syria which killed many civilians and his nuclear war rhetoric against North Korea.”

She concluded: “We’re heading in a very dangerous direction and President Trump has to be stopped.”

The “mother of all bombs” used on Thursday is the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the US military and was dropped in the Nanfarhar province very close to Pakistan.

The GBU-43B massive ordnance air blast (MOAB), which contains 11 tons of explosives, was used for the first time to destroy caves and ammunition caches held by fundamentalist group Isis.

Former US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the use of the weapon was an indication of how Mr Trump had given “greater leeway to the military in terms of what it can do” in Afghanistan and Syria.

Mr Crowley, a former US air force colonel, said the bomb was “like creating a minor earthquake in that particular area.”

He said it would have “a profound effect not just in the immediate area, but the concussion extends for a considerable distance,” adding that civilians would have been “impacted in terms of feeling the tremor” of the weapon.

Stop the War spokesman Chris Nineham condemned the “barbaric attack,” warning it “can only increase the already deep and wide hatred of the West amongst the Afghan population.”

He said it was “one more sign that US foreign policy under Trump is going to be aggressive, unpredictable and deeply irresponsible.”

On Thursday, the United States military dropped the biggest bomb since the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Twenty-four hours later, this development—by any standard a major world event—was being treated by the American and European media as insignificant: here.

The ‘Mother of All Bombs’ Is Massive Overkill and Won’t Lead to Peace. More military intervention won’t win the war in Afghanistan. By Medea Benjamin: here.

A sarcastic comment from the USA on Trump’s attack on Syria: here.