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This week on Uprising:

* Daniel Ellsberg Sees Promising Opening in Afghanistan War Strategy
* Why the Honduran Accord Failed
* Black Agenda Report on Honduras
* The Failure of Capitalism After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

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Daniel Ellsberg Sees Promising Opening in Afghanistan War Strategy

After months of meetings, President Barack Obama is expected to announce a decision to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan. There is some speculation as to how many troops he will add, but according to a senior military official quoted by the Wall Street Journal, a likely number is 30,000-35,000 extra US troops. Ten thousand of those troops could be used to train the Afghan National Army with the idea of transferring military control to them eventually. However, the recent election debacle in Afghanistan has called into serious question the legitimacy of the central government and President Hamid Karzai who has been implicated in serious counts of fraud. US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry has reportedly urged Obama not to send any more troops until the central government regains credibility, according to news reports of a leaked cable transmission this past Thursday. As a result the White House is for the first time openly admitting that it is looking for a way out of the war. Matthew Hoh, a former Marine Corps captain, recently became the first known US official to resign over his opposition to the Afghan war. In stepping down from his Foreign Service position in Zabul province, Hoh publicly expressed his frustrations that the war was viewed by most Afghans as an unwelcome occupation. Hoh’s statements are reminiscent of a man who most famously went public over his opposition to a similar war more than 35 years ago.

GUEST: Daniel Ellsberg, a former US military analyst who leaked the so-called Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. Ellsberg is now one of the Afghanistan war’s most fervent critics

Daniel Ellsberg will join Matthew Hoh, Robert Greenwald, and Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar at a panel discussion on Afghanistan on Thursday, November 12th

Why the Honduran Accord Failed

A recent accord aimed at resolving the four-month long political impasse in Honduras has failed. Ousted President Manuel Zelaya declared the deal effectively dead after disagreements surfaced on the formation of a new “unity” government. Just ten minutes before the end of a deadline last week, de facto regime leader Roberto Micheletti announced that no Zelaya ministers were named into the newly formed cabinet. Seeking to restore his position prior to the formation of a unity government, Zelaya refused to present nominations for ministerial posts. The accord set the authorization to return him to the presidency in the hands of Congress, but no vote on the matter was convened before last Thursday. The Honduran President forced into exile on June 28th told Radio Globo, “We have decided not to continue with this theater of Mr. Micheletti.” The United States has said it will recognize the legitimacy of the upcoming November 29th elections, though other regional leaders have made no such assessment. As the disintegration of the accord continues political instability in the Central American nation, women have suffered greatly during the coup. Honduran women’s organizations presented testimony recently that pointed to many instances of rape, sexual abuse, beatings and murder by the coup regime’s security forces against women involved in the resistance movement.

GUEST: Laura Carlsen, director of the International Relations Center Americas Program in Mexico City, where she has worked as a writer and political analyst for the past two decades

Black Agenda Report on Honduras

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on the situation in Honduras.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

The Failure of Capitalism After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Monday the 9th of November marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, symbolizing the end of Communist power in 1989 and the beginning of a reunification of Germany. The wall was a separation created between East Berlin and West Berlin as a result of the agreement between the four post-World War II allied powers: the Americans, British, French and the Soviet Union. After concerted grassroots resistance, the East German leadership announced on November 9th 1989 that East Germans would be allowed to travel freely to the West. That night, tens of thousands of Germans from both sides gathered and crossed the wall, picking apart pieces of it. The wall was eventually removed altogether and pieces of it are now enshrined in museums across the world. The 20th anniversary was marked with world leaders participating in ceremonies and thousands of Berliners and tourists flocking to the streets of the city. But in the context of today’s global recession, what can be said about the promise of capitalism? And, what about walls that exist today, such as the US-Mexico border, and the so-called Separation wall in the Palestinian territories?

GUEST: Victor Grossman, American journalist and author, is a resident of East Berlin for many years. He is the author of Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany (I spoke with him the day after the 20th anniversary).

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.” — Jawaharlal Nehru