Posts by ZP Heller

ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.

President Obama's Heroes: A Bunch of People Who Would Not Approve of War in Afghanistan
Posted by ZP Heller on October 23, 2009 at 12:33 PM.

On September 8, 2009, a school girl named Lilly asked President Obama who he'd have lunch with if he could pick anyone alive or dead. The president chose Gandhi, explaining that Gandhi's nonviolence inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez in the United States.

All three of these men--Gandhi, MLK and Chavez--were committed to nonviolence and opposed war as a foreign policy tool. Similar to his invocations of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount during the campaign, the president continues to cite "inspiration" from luminaries of nonviolence, only to reject their philosophies when it comes time to govern.

Learn more about the war in Afghanistan at http://rethinkafghanistan.com.

Mr. President, your heroes are watching you.

General McChrystal Defines "Success," and Fails
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on September 30, 2009 at 6:00 AM.

Warning: Some graphic images.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal told Congress that the measure of success in Afghanistan should be "the number of Afghans shielded from violence." If that's the case, then his strategy is clearly failing.

Learn more at http://RethinkAfghanistan.com.

Troop Increases Help Drive Spread of the Insurgency in Afghanistan
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Foundation on September 24, 2009 at 3:40 PM.

The International Council on Security published maps of the insurgency's presence in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The United States added troops in Afghanistan in each of these years. ICOS's maps show that none of these troop increases arrested the growth of the insurgency. In fact, analysts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and UK's DFID suggest that the presence of foreign troops drives Afghans to join the insurgency.

Learn more at http://rethinkafghanistan.com.

Music: "The Day the World Went Away" by Nine Inch Nails, War Distortion Remix by RavenThe SkyKid (http://www.ninremixes.com/index.php?sho wonly=The%20Day%20The%20World%20Went%20A way)

Right-Wingers and Some Military Leaders Want to Pressure President Obama into an Immediate Escalation
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on September 23, 2009 at 6:41 PM.

Over the last several days, folks like Sarah Palin, Joe Lieberman, Bill Kristol and others have tried to join forces with escalation supporters in the military to pressure the president into supporting a strategy that will undermine American security and increase human suffering in Afghanistan.

Visit http://rethinkafghanistan.com to find out how you can help push back.

Don't Let Wells Fargo Be a Roadblock to Economic Recovery
Posted by ZP Heller, Open Left on July 14, 2009 at 12:52 PM.

Wells Fargo is a roadblock to economic recovery. That's what members of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) are claiming, as they literally blocked a busy Rock Island, Illinois, intersection late last week to protest Wells Fargo's decision to cut off credit to the Quad City Die Casting factory. 100 Quad City factory employees risk losing their jobs if Wells Fargo doesn't extend tens of thousands of dollars in credit to continue day-to-day operating costs. So why won't Wells Fargo use some of its $25 billion in bailout funds to keep this factory afloat, particularly when the Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities region is losing $6.1 million in wages and tax revenue annually? According to UE organizer Leah Fried, "[Wells Fargo] want[s] to get out from under the TARP money because they want to get out from the scrutiny. They're hoarding." Wells Fargo has even gone so far as to prevent the company from paying the wages and benefits owed to its employees, which prompted UE to file charges with the National Labor Relations Board last week.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Juan Cole on Iranian Protests and the Reform Movement's Future
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Foundation on July 9, 2009 at 3:00 PM.

Thousands of Iranian protesters marched toward Tehran University today, both to commemorate the 1999 student uprising and to continue their opposition toward the recently stolen presidential election.  Once again, the Iranian regime has responded with violence, as Basij militia members dispersed demonstrators with live fire, tear gas, and other brutal measures.  It's clear though that Iran's reform movement is still alive and strong, despite the regime's best efforts to thwart protesters and the fact that the US media have largely buried this story beneath coverage of Michael Jackson's death.

Though instantaneous social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter helped spark and coordinate last month's protests, we simply can't expect Iran's reform movement to succeed as quickly.  Any success will be slow going, a point Juan Cole emphasized when he discussed the chaos in Iran with The Huffington Post's Nico Pitney yesterday at Brave New Studios.  Cole, the author of Engaging the Muslim World, told Pitney that while the Obama administration definitely can't intervene to the point that they enable a reformist victory, they must continue engaging Iranian hardliners if the current regime remains in power.

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US Military Escalation Leads to Record Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Foundation on June 29, 2009 at 3:41 PM.

According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and a newly released UN report, there were 800 civilian casualties between January and May 2009. Armed clashes between insurgents, the US military, and the ISAF are up 24 percent this year, and have displaced tens of thousands more people. With over 1,000 recorded incidents of violence in May alone, Afghanistan is experiencing the worst security since the war began. And to make matters worse, the UN reported concluded, “The next period will likely experience an increase in the level of violence compared with the same period last year, including complex suicide attacks, intimidation and assassinations carried out by insurgents.” That period, unfortunately, coincides with the Afghan presidential and provincial council elections slated for August. The deadly consequences of militarizing the political crisis in Afghanistan may seem logical, but they're no less disturbing as we see staggering numbers of civilian casualties from this war. Complicating matters is the fact that insurgents have been targeting NGOs and aid workers. In the past six months, there were over 60 security incidents involving NGOs, with many aid workers reported killed or kidnapped. Such violence undercuts the chances of already underfunded humanitarian efforts, and yet the Pentagon has responded with more troops and airstrikes, creating more violence, more casualties, more anti-American sentiment, and the need for even more aid.

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Comedian John Hodgman Declares Obama the "First Nerd President"
Posted by ZP Heller, AlterNet on June 22, 2009 at 7:53 AM.

At Friday night's 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner, comedian John Hodgman declared President Obama the first nerd President.  Hodgman got into the war between jocks and nerds, tackled the tougher differences dividing nerds and geeks, and then questioned the President on comic book characters.  Enjoy! 

How to Help Afghans When Congress Approves $100 Billion More in War
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Foundation on June 17, 2009 at 7:11 AM.

$100 billion more in wartime spending.  That’s what Congress is hellbent on approving despite valiant efforts from a growing number of Progressives led by FireDogLake’s Jane Hamsher to derail this legislation’s passage in the House.  $100 billion, and for what?  To bring more troops to Afghanistan without an exit strategy?  To further US foreign policy that fails to address the humanitarian needs of the world’s third poorest country?  To escalate military operations that directly result in Afghan civilian casualties?

Recently, Anand Gopal, who has been covering the war in Afghanistan for The Christian Science Monitor, dispelled the myths about troop escalation at the America’s Future Now Conference in Washington, DC.  The reality, Gopal grimly assessed, is that more troops will mean more incidents of violence.  More troops will also mean the need for more airstikes, which, as you can see in the sobering trailer for part four of Rethink Afghanistan, will mean more civilian casualties.

Gopal’s logic follows that of the Carnegie Endowment’s Gilles Dorronsoro, who has said for months that the increased presence of US forces in Afghanistan is the single greatest reason for the Taliban insurgency.  And the more they surge, the more Congress will fund more war.  To see exactly how US foreign policy is perpetuating this cycle of violence, read Ralph Lopez’s recent blog post and watch the accompanying al Jazeera video.  Taliban extremists are using US airstrikes as a recruiting tool, preying upon the survivors, particularly children, who have lost everything in these bombings and suddenly have a chance to act upon their hatred toward the United States.

Fortunately, there are ways to take immediate action and address Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis.

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Did Michael Moore Just Ask Us to Save Our CEOs?
Posted by ZP Heller, MichaelMoore.com on June 16, 2009 at 7:28 AM.

Check out the surprise teaser for Moore's newest documentary about the economic meltdown.  I always love his ability to bring much-needed attention to serious issues using humor.  If you think the bailout for AIG, Goldman Sachs, CitiBank and Bank of America simply wasn't enough, it's time we dig deeper and help out those poor, struggling CEOs!  Apparently, when this teaser aired in select theaters in LA, New York, Washington, D.C, and Chicago, ushers walked down the aisles with collection jars and some audience members actually contributed.

Moore's new film will be released October 2.  For more Moore, visit http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Take Action This Weekend: Urge Congress to Vote "No" on the War Supplemental
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Foundation on June 13, 2009 at 9:34 AM.

Want to know what 21,000 more US troops and $96.7 billion more in wartime spending will go toward?  Gen. Petraeus says insurgent attacks in Afghanistan are at their highest level since 2001; there were 400 attacks in the last week alone.  Both Generals Petraeus and McChrystal expressed the desire to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, but how can they possibly achieve that lofty goal with more troops on the ground?  It stands to reason that more troops will mean more incidents of violence, increasing calls for more US airstrikes, which in turn will mean more civilian casualties.

Fortunately, there's a chance to defeat the war supplemental and you can even take action this weekend.  Here's what FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher recommends:

There won’t be anyone to pick up the phone at congressional offices this weekend, but you can write letters to the editor in time for the Sunday edition, urging members of Congress to vote against the Supplemental Appropriations Act.

• The war supplemental shouldn’t be held hostage to a $100 billion European bank bailout
• Conservatives don’t like the bailout
• Progressives don’t like the bailout
• Four billion in “Cash for Clunkers” is being added to the bill to force progressives to vote for it
• Let’s separate these bills and talk about them honestly
• The administration has committed itself to transparency. This is not transparent.

Rahm Emanuel is threatening Democratic freshmen if they don’t vote for the bill.  We need 39 Democratic votes to defeat it.  Already 32 have committed to oppose it.  Please write your local paper and urge them to support your member of Congress in voting against the supplemental.  (If you don’t know who your member of Congress is, you can look them up here.)

Write letters to the Editor and say “no” to the supplemental

You WILL See This on MSNBC: Director Robert Greenwald Talks Afghan Civilian Casualties on ‘The Ed Show’
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Foundation on June 12, 2009 at 9:21 AM.

Director Robert Greenwald appeared on The Ed Show yesterday to discuss the civilian casualties of war, the fourth segment of Rethink Afghanistan. To my knowledge, this was the first time Brave New Foundation’s exclusive footage from an Afghan refugee camp reached mainstream news audiences. And Greenwald was right there to hammer home the message that the war in Afghanistan is militarizing what is actually a regional political problem.

It’s so crucial for more people to see this exclusive footage because it puts a human face on the war, US military airstrikes, and indiscriminate bombing. Gripping images from Afghan refugee camps remind us that Afghanistan is the third poorest country in the world–a country that, as Greenwald said, needs teachers, educators, doctors, and humanitarian aid instead of more soldiers and wartime spending.

It’s not easy for the mainstream media to report the situation on the ground in Afghanistan. The images and subject matter are deeply upsetting, and they fly in the face of policies set by a popular White House administration. What’s more, it’s literally difficult for reporters to access the real story, considering the stringer hired to film this refugee camp was arrested by the Taliban. Now that Brave New Foundation has made this footage available and it has aired on The Ed Show, however, hopefully other networks will follow MSNBC’s example.

Why Isn't This on CNN? Afghan Refugee Describes Recent US Bombings
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Foundation on June 11, 2009 at 7:40 AM.

Why isn't this footage on CNN or MSNBC?  Why can't the American public have easy access to it?  Those are questions we should be asking ourselves as we watch the powerful images of Abdullah Khan, a refugee from Afghanistan's Helmland province forced to seek shelter in an IDP camp outside Kabul.

Innocent people who lost loved ones and limbs, homes and all possessions during recent US airstrikes are now living in tents, unable to provide food or water for themselves or their children.  It's no wonder Khan, who lost two or three family members himself, resents the US military presence so deeply.  "Americans don't do us any good," he says.  "When the Americans came these atrocities happened. When the Americans were not here, things were calm; there was the same earth and sky. When the Russians came, they bombarded us, and also now the Americans are bombarding us. What benefit did the Americans bring us?"

This exclusive footage is from the soon-to-be-released fourth segment of Rethink Afghanistan, which focuses on civilian casualties.  Brave New Foundation is releasing it in the hopes that others use it to raise awareness about the dire situation on the ground in Afghanistan right now, but thus far, it appears the corporate media is not doing their job in covering this war accurately.  When US airstrikes killed up to 143 civilians in Farah province last month -- an attack that was the direct result of military error -- FireDogLake blogger Siun discovered CNN was merely repeating the Department of Defense's spin on the story.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Air Raid Victim Tells Obama to Leave Afghanistan
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Foundation on June 9, 2009 at 3:25 PM.

Here is a face of the war in Afghanistan. Najibullah, an air raid victim from the Malwand district of Kandahar, points to where three bombs shattered his home during a recent US airstrike. His message to President Obama: Withdraw US forces from Afghanistan at once. "They're going to leave anyway," Najibullah says. "It's better for them to leave Afghanistan on their own terms now rather than later. To leave our country voluntarily. We're all deformed, people are missing fingers. Look at my finger." He points to a missing index finger on his right hand. "Some people are missing eyes, some people are missing legs. Some are missing their arms. They destroyed the whole nation."

This exclusive footage, which Brave New Foundation released today as part of the soon-to-be-released fourth segment of Rethink Afghanistan, stands as an unflinching testament to the rampant devastation wrought by recent US airstrikes in Afghanistan. It should be seen by everyone who attempts to write off the civilian casualties of this war with the dehumanizing phrase "collateral damage." It should be seen by everyone in Congress considering whether to escalate this quagmire with $96.7 billion in supplemental wartime spending. And it should be seen by Gen. Stanley McChrystal as he submits his review of US strategy in Afghanistan--the fifth review this year--and tries to pretend the war in Afghanistan is not a quagmire that's destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians like Najibullah.

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Ex-Interrogators Are Mad as Hell About Torture, and They're Not Gonna Take Cheney Anymore
Posted by ZP Heller, MoveOn.org on May 30, 2009 at 8:51 AM.

More and more former interrogators and counterinsurgency experts are using Dick Cheney’s recent ubiquity to expose his iniquity regarding the torture and abuse of detainees. Earlier this week, I wrote about Major Matthew Alexander, the former Senior Interrogator who conducted over 300 interrogations in Iraq and supervised 1,000 more. Alexander relied upon conventional means of interrogation, and his efforts led to the capture and killing of al-Qaeda leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi. Yet Alexander also witnessed the perilous consequences of Cheney’s torture policy.

In an exclusive interview with Brave New Foundation, Alexander said, “At the prison where I conducted interrogations, we heard day in and day out foreign fighters who had been captured state that the number one reason they had come to fight in Iraq was because of torture and abuse, what had happened at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.”

Today, MoveOn.org and VoteVets.org joined the growing movement to amplify the testimonies of former interrogators and reveal the repercussions of treating prisoners inhumanely. Their joint campaign features a video with Jay Bagwell, an Afghanistan veteran and counterintelligence agent, who reaffirmed Alexander’s assessment of Cheney’s torture policy. According to Bagwell, “Torture puts our troops in danger, torture makes our troops less safe, torture creates terrorists. It’s used so widely as a propaganda tool now in Afghanistan. All too often, detainees have pamphlets on them, depicting what happened at Guantanamo.”

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