In an age when U.S. power can be projected through private mercenary armies and unmanned Predator drones, the U.S. military need no longer rely on massive, conventional ground forces to pursue its imperial agenda, a fact President Barack Obama is now acknowledging. But make no mistake: while the tactics may be changing, the U.S. taxpayer – and poor foreigners abroad – will still be saddled with overblown military budgets and militaristic policies.

Speaking January 5 alongside his Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the president announced a shift in strategy for the American military, one that emphasizes aerial campaigns and proxy wars as opposed to “long-term nation-building with large military footprints.” This, to some pundits and politicians, is considered a tectonic shift.

Indeed, the way some on the left tell it, the strategy marks a radical departure from the imperial status quo. “Obama just repudiated the past decade of forever war policy,” gushed Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings, calling the new strategy a “[s]lap in the face to the generals.”

Conservative hawks, meanwhile, predictably declared that the sky is falling. “This is a lead from behind strategy for a left-behind America,” cried hyperventilating California Republican Buck McKeon, chairman the House Armed Services Committee. “This strategy ensures American decline in exchange for more failed domestic programs.” In McKeon’s world, feeding the war machine is preferable to feeding poor people.

Unfortunately, though, rather than renouncing empire and endless war, Obama’s stated strategy for the military going forward just reaffirms the U.S. commitment to both. Rather than renouncing the last decade of war, it states that the bloody and disastrous occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan – gently termed “extended operations” – were pursued “to bring stability to those countries.”

And Leon Panetta assured the American public that even with the changes, the U.S. would still be able to fight two major wars at the same time—and win. And Obama assured America’s military contractors and coffin makers that their lifeline – U.S. taxpayers’ money – would still be funneled their way in obscene bucket loads.

“Over the next 10 years, the growth in the defense budget will slow,” the president told reporters, “but the fact of the matter is this: It will still grow.” In fact, he added with a touch of pride, it “will still be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration,” totaling more than $700 billion a year and accounting for about half of the average American’s income tax. So much for the Pentagon’s budget being slashed – like we were promised – the way lawmakers are trying to cut those “failed domestic programs.”

The U.S. could cut its military spending in half tomorrow and still spend more than three times as much as its next nearest rival, China. That’s because China, instead of waging wars of choice around the world, prefers projecting its might by investing in its own country. On the other hand, the U.S. under the leadership of Obama is beefing up its military presence in China’s backyard, more interested in projecting its dwindling power than rebuilding its economy.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower once noted that every dollar going to the military is a dollar that can’t be used to provide food and shelter for those in need. Today’s obscene amount of military spending isn’t necessary if the administration wished to pursue the quaint goal of simply defending the country from invasion. Maintaining “the best-trained, best-equipped military in history,” as Obama says is his goal? That’s a different story – for a different purpose. Indeed, as Madeline Albright observed, possessing that kind of military might is no fun if you don’t get to use it, as Obama has with gusto in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Uganda.

The truth is that the Obama administration’s “new” strategy is more of the same—a reaffirmation of the U.S. government’s commitment to militarism for the all the usual reasons: to promote American hegemony and, by extension, the interests of politically connected capital. And U.S. officials aren’t shy about that.

Indeed, throughout the strategy document the ostensible purpose for having a military — to provide national security — repeatedly takes a backseat to promoting the economic interests of the U.S. elite that profits from empire. Repositioning U.S. forces “toward the Asia-Pacific region,” for instance – including the stationing of American soldiers in that hotbed of violent extremism, Australia – is cast not just as a means of ensuring peace and stability, but guaranteeing “the free flow of commerce.” Maintaining a global empire of bases from Europe to Okinawa isn’t necessary for self-defense, but according to Obama, ensuring – with guns – “the prosperity that flows from an open and free international economic system.”

Of course, that economic considerations shape U.S. foreign policy is nothing new. More than 25 years ago, President Jimmy Carter – that Jimmy Carter – declared in a State of the Union address that U.S. military force would be employed in the Persian Gulf, not for the cause of peace, freedom and apple pie, but to ensure “the free movement of Middle East oil.” And so it goes.

Far from affecting change, Obama is ensuring continuity. “U.S. policy will emphasize Gulf security,” states his new military strategy, in order to “prevent Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon capability and counter its destabilizing policies” — as if it’s Iran that has been destabilizing the region. And as Obama publicly proclaims his support for “political and economic reform” in the Middle East, just like every other U.S. president he not-so-privately backs their oppressors from Bahrain to Yemen and signs off on the biggest weapons deal in history to that bastion of democracy, Saudi Arabia.

Obama can talk all he wants about turning the page on a decade of war and occupation, but so long as he continues to fight wars and military occupy countries on the other side of the globe, talk is all it is. The facts, sadly, are this: since taking office Obama doubled the number of troops in Afghanistan; he fought to extend the U.S. occupation in Iraq– and partially succeeded; he dramatically expanded the use of killer drones from Pakistan to Somalia; and he requested military budgets that would make George W. Bush blush. If you want to see what his military strategy really is, forget what’s said at press conferences and in turgidly written Pentagon press releases. Just look at the record.

Charles Davis has covered Capitol Hill for public radio and the international news wire Inter Press Service. More of his work may be found on his website.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and GlobalExchange.

For longtime CODEPINKer Jacque Betz, the answer is the Peace Ribbon Project, with love, tenderness and fabric art.

Following on the AIDS Memorial Quilt and the centuries-old tradition of women’s folk art, the Peace Ribbon contains approximately 400 panels, each memorializing US soldiers, Iraqi civilans, journalists and aid workers who have been murdered in the nearly 9-year war, as well as (satirically of course) oil companies.

As I reflect on what the end of the official US combat war and occupation in Iraq means to me and to CODEPINK, I called Jacque in Gainesville, Florida and asked for her thoughts during this period of transition.

Jacque has contributed thousands of hours of volunteer labor to this important memorial project including making panels, shipping them off, receiving, repairing, communicating about the project, and much more. The Peace Ribbon has been displayed in dozens of locations around the US, including at churches, universities, Veterans for Peace displays, libraries, city halls and most recently at Occupy Tucson.

She said some family members (including Cindy Sheehan) want their loved one’s panel back “when this is done” and Jacque said, “I’m wondering what ‘done’ means.”

I said, “I think we’re all wondering that.”

Jacque’s first response when I asked her to reflect on the ending of the “official” US war in Iraq:
“4,478 US soldiers lost their lives, and an estimated 1 million Iraqis, and I ask, like Cindy Sheehan: ‘For what noble cause?!’”

Her intent with this project:
“I didn’t want us labeled as antisoldier peace group.”

How people respond to a display of the Peace Ribbon:
“Everyone cries… grown men cry. People look at it and realize when someone dies in a war, the entire family suffers a lot and is forever changed.”

On the economic costs of war:
“How much did we spend? Almost a trillion dollars! The Peace Ribbon is shown in Gainesville [Florida] as part of the cost of war display.”

Two panel-making workshops are scheduled for January 2012, and mothers still ask if their sons/daughters can have panels made for them. (The answer is yes, and there is no charge to the families.) Jacque is doing her own self-reflection on how long this “solemn” and very sad project will continue. Most of the panels are at Tucson right now, in the care of local coordinator Mary DeCamp.

To help, or if you have questions, please contact Jacque at  jacque[at]codepinkalert.org.

“The deeds of occupier and occupied alike suggest that there come cruel times when to save a nation’s deepest values one must disobey the state.” ~ Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France

I devoted ten years to a novel about the Armenian community of Paris during the Nazi Occupation, which I only recently completed. I have spent eight years working against U.S.-funded wars and occupations as a part of the staff of CODEPINK Women for Peace. So in July 2011 when Adbusters put out the call to “Occupy Wall Street,” I was skeptical for two reasons. In the first place, it didn’t make sense that a magazine based in Western Canada should be setting the agenda for organizers in New York City. In the second place, the word “occupy”—associated with France during World War II, with Iraq and Afghanistan in the past decade, and with the West Bank and Gaza for over forty years—didn’t seem like the right “meme,” to use Adbusters’ own rhetoric, for the movement we needed.

But by early October, I realized that I was wrong. I went down to Zuccotti to help staff the CODEPINK table, and joined the two mass marches from Foley Square. I donated my novels and other books to the People’s Library. The encampment at Liberty Plaza and the hundreds and eventually thousands of people who flocked there brought new meaning to the word “Occupy.” All over the country, all over the world, people are going to their public squares to take possession of what has been stolen from them. As the writer and activist Grace Paley said, “The only recognizable feature of hope is action.” And the Occupy Movement is a beehive of activity, ideas, and hope. It’s about prioritizing human needs over corporate greed. It’s about creating new communities based on shared values. Occupy Wall Street, not Iraq. Occupy our public spaces, not Afghanistan. Occupy AIPAC, not Palestine.

I arrived at sunset as the downpour ended.
Melanie is moving through the community as if it were her living room.
She has made friends and allies and nurtured relationships of mutual support.
And of course her headquarters is the Wiki-Leaks truck!

As she departs for a good night sleep and some dry clothes my son shows up with dinner just after I got my 30 seconds on the live feed.  We both agree it is shades of burning man.  Mostly because we feel that yummy sense of aliveness, community, support and love.

He offers himself fully to the task of call and response of the general assembly but after an hour wonders how everyone has the stamina.  Yet he comes up with a great idea to organize an early morning action to circle wall street with 5,000 people and is curious if we can make that happen.  He is insistant that Wall Street feel the effects of our presence.  What will their tweets read he wonders?  This is followed by an arrest of a young woman on her bike.   It is awesome to watch as those who are responsible shift from GA to monitoring the event at hand.  Cameras out, people up and like a dance the cameras move forward and those without withdraw.  The police are surrounded by those who are sharing the story in multiple forms globally.  Many in the crowd are telling stories of their recent arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge and the dry night of sleep they got in jail.  No one here is exercising power, instead they are taking responsibility and following through on it.  Beautiful to behold.

The night is full of long conversations about what this is, where it can go, what can be done as the cold moves in, how to be most effective and how to encourage others to join.  All bathed in the richness of the general assembly on one end and the non stop music and dancing on the other.  The General Assembly greeting table has a collection of our pink peace cranes as decorations and the guy from the music side came to complain that we are playing favorites and he wants his own.

The vinyl banners Kristen mothered into being were a big hit tonight, multiple requests to hold them for the cameras as they did their night stories and lots of opportunities to do photos with them.  I did meet a female corporal in the army who had come in solidarity but couldn’t hold the sign because she was in uniform.  But she likes all the messages.

The wiki-leaks truck leaves in the morning to join us in Washington on Thursday.  There is excitement in the square at the news of a push in DC.  Love and curiosity were the threads of my night.  Tomorrow more crane folding to make the welcoming table on Trinity Street feel supported.

Please join us in NYC or whereever you are.

You could say I implicitly understand the limits of imperialism. The unifying principle in any empire is the belief that your way of life is superior and must be spread. Empires are built many ways – by conquering people’s beliefs by imposing religious beliefs through superior weaponry; by conquering people’s lands by introducing diseases that kill the majority of the population; and by the economic tyranny of “free-trade” capitalism.  The macro-historical view I began to see in college was crystallized by reading Chalmers Johnson and Naomi Klein.

I fundamentally believe in pluralism and self-determination. Simultaneously, I believe in universal human rights.

It is on this backdrop that I entered anti-war activism. My focus remained corporate personhood and the root causes of war long after the U.S. put boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. I reasoned that other people were in the streets fighting against these wars and it was important for me to take the long view of history. Eleven years into that strategy, I realized that unless you relate your fundamental beliefs to current events, you’ll be hard-pressed for attention among progressives, let alone The Media. And that’s about the point when I joined the CODEPINK national team.

The ignorance of imperialism is writ large in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American Empire Project published Peter Van Buren’s book today, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. He was interviewed today by Dave Davies of Fresh Air.

Over the weekend, I facilitated a teleconference with Dr. Rashad Zaydan, founder of the Knowledge for Iraqi Women Society. I was frankly surprised to hear how strongly she denounced the veracity of the article “Fight for Women’s Rights Begins All Over Again,” by Rebecca Murray on the Inter Press Service site. Dr. Zaydan challenged us to see Iraqi women’s rights in the context of human rights. She reminded us of the many economic and social rights enjoyed by Iraqis prior to the U.S. invasion — the Iraqi government ensured all citizens had basic food stuffs, free education for both genders, free medical care, and housing. After the occupation, none of those things have been guaranteed, and the killing of many Iraqi men has created an expanding population of widows without means to provide for their families. Additionally, the war and occupation have destroyed Iraq’s electrical grid, leaving most people without access to continuous electricity. She reminded us that there must be justice and peace. It is not acceptable that occupying soldiers rape and murder with seeming impunity, further exacerbating the failed state created by the initial invasion. Dr. Zaydan recommends completely withdrawing all troops and war-profiteering-contractors by the end of the year and allowing Iraqis time and space to re-develop their country.

You can listen to our complete conversation with Dr. Zaydan by calling (661) 673-8609, entering access code 780252# and then entering reference number 1 when prompted.

Unfortunately, the situation in Afghanistan is no better than in Iraq. International human rights lawyer Tzili Mor spoke with CODEPINK LA on International Peace Day. She served eight months as the Gender Justice Adviser based in Kabul for the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) primarily on the establishment of special violence against women prosecution units and related issues around access to justice for women. According to Ms. Mor, there are laws in Afghanistan that protect women’s rights, but the process of implementation is slow and many layers of work must be done. While women have returned to the Afghan legal field as prosecutors and judges, people of all genders can allow their personal biases to affect their job performance. For example, a female prosecutor might suggest to a man that his wife be imprisoned for misbehaving when the wife reports that she was the victim of domestic violence. Additionally, cultural norms can have the force of law – on some roads, police pull women off buses, claiming they have broken a law by traveling without their husband or father. No such law currently exists in Afghanistan, but in some areas women serve 5 year prison sentences for this “offense,” though sentences vary widely. Despite these disturbing anecdotes, there are many areas of Afghanistan where women are respected, equal members of society. It is vitally important to continue supporting women’s participation in Afghan society, politically, legally, and culturally. As Laura King pointed out in the LA Times,  Afghans know the presence of Westerners makes targets of everyone nearby.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to demand an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as part of Occupy Wall Street, the encampment at Freedom Plaza, and throughout the country. Additionally, on October 7, a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan will be speaking at Pasadena Community College, and the event will be video streamed on the Afghan Women’s Mission website. And if you’re near San Diego, attend an in-person Conversation with Dr. Rashad Zaydan at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theatre on October 13.

I hope you will join us in challenging empire. Between the U.S. diplomats based in the Middle East who can’t speak Arabic and the soldiers tasked with killing people one hour and helping rebuild the schools destroyed by the U.S. military the next, it’s a wonder that the U.S. empire hasn’t already collapsed under the weight of its hubris. I remain hopeful because progressives are gathering in the streets to demand fundamental change, to demand Make Jobs, Not War.

Watch Medea’s interview on #OccupyWallStreet with Oz House Alt News:

LA CODEPINK was present yesterday at both Obama LA fundraisers to challenge him to immediately end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bring all troops and contractors home and ensure real human security by creating jobs and ensuring access to healthcare, education, housing and food. Check out the CBS LA coverage of his appearance, featuring a quote from me around the minute mark.

CODEPINK NYC Coordinator Melanie Butler was interviewed on KPFA’s Letters and Politics program today. Listen to it online.