As in the vile little pretender who occupied the White House from 2000-2008. That Bush. And the trifecta being Afghanistan, Iraq, and Gaza. All of which are coming unglued and are being convulsed by violence--except maybe Afghanistan which is on the brink of being convulsed by violence on account of a disputed election for president which is ongoing. As we speak, Hamas is firing rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip and the Israelis are responding with their usual air strikes in retaliation. I don't need to remind you how both of Bush's wars to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq have fared. Iraq is alight as parts of it and Syria are now being claimed as the caliphate proclaimed by Islamic jihadists so violent and extreme that even al qaeda spurns them. And yet we never hear anybody raging against Bush and the consummate folly that has brought us to this pass.
See this piece by Juan Cole for gory details on what a massive fuck-up U.S. policy in the Middle East has been for the past 15 years. The whole area is imploding . . . do you entertain any thought whatsoever that this would be going on had the U.S. military not been there during that time?
Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Saturday, September 7, 2013
A Measure of Disgust
My protracted silence of late is a measure of my utter disgust with the course of events in Syria. Or rather what our president's reaction to it has been. Where do I start with a bill of particulars? Here is a guy who for reasons not at all clear to me other than he gave "peaceful" campaign speeches was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, putting him in the same company with Ghandi and Martin Luther King. How can it be? Here's a man who's killed how many civilians with drone strikes? Who killed American citizens in the same way with no due process even considered. Who has yet to get us out of Afghanistan, and who now proposes that the U.S. launch strikes on the Syrian regime as punishment for using chemical weapons on their internal enemies, many of whom are the very jihadists we despise and fear. A man who has presided over the most horrific intrusion of into our privacy by NSA over the past several years, simply carrying on the policies of that crazy man George Bush and enhancing them.
This guy cannot be trusted. The last thing on earth the American people should be doing is even contemplating the idea of getting involved in another conflict in the Middle East? Are you crazy? I trust that Congress will soundly tell Obama that they don't approve of this proposal. Indeed, they would only be reflecting, for once, the will of the majority of the American people, who want no part of this madness.
This guy cannot be trusted. The last thing on earth the American people should be doing is even contemplating the idea of getting involved in another conflict in the Middle East? Are you crazy? I trust that Congress will soundly tell Obama that they don't approve of this proposal. Indeed, they would only be reflecting, for once, the will of the majority of the American people, who want no part of this madness.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Oh, What a Deal!
I just saw this story in Google news, and I'm so pissed off about it, I'm putting another story that I'm pissed off about on the back burner. Here's the gist of it: the U.S. has committed itself financially and militarily to the Afghanistan for the next 12 years. The story gives no indication how much money we're talking, but one cent is too much if you ask me. Here's what the story does say:
. . . the United States expects to make substantial contributions toward the cost of Afghanistan’s security forces beyond 2014. A total figure for the United States of $2.7 billion a year has been discussed, and it could easily be more; there would most likely be aid for civilian programs as well.We got involved in that God-forsaken place in 2001. Now we're on the hook to be coughing up money for those crooks till 2024. We are going to continue to line the pockets of Karzhai and his rotten, corrupt family while in this country, some politicians actively seek to diminish aid to the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, the sick. While their (yes, I fear) millions of supporters don't bat an eye at this obscene waste. But this ain't even a one-party affair. The Democrats are not going to worry about this travesty either.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Playing with the Dead, Chapter II
Following up from yesterday, and the what-I-consider-absurd statement by Leon Pinetta, that "that's not who we are" in regards to American soldiers dishonoring the bodies of killed enemies in Afghanistan . . . here's a take on the reason why the military and the White House is so intent on keeping the American people from finding out about stuff like this. There was an intense effort by the administration to keep the LA Times from printing the pictures. Easy to understand why the government doesn't really want us to know what's going on, but get a load of the bullshit we're being told as to why the American people should not know the kind of behavior they're paying for in our lovely little Middle East war. Does anybody think anybody really believes this stuff?
After they appeared, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the media that he did "not want these images to bring further injury to our people or to our relationship with the Afghan people." White House Press Secretary Jay Carney chimed in: "We're also very disappointed ... about the decision made to publish these photographs two years after the incident."
This refrain, that the overriding concern in Washington was that publication of the photos would inflame Afghan public opinion and provoke an intensification of attacks on US troops in Afghanistan, is based on a lie.
The Afghans do not need to see a picture on the front page of the LA Times to hate the foreign occupation of their country, which has lasted for over 10 years and inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties together with daily humiliation and oppression. The Afghans are living it, not merely reading it in a newspaper.
The real concern in Washington is the impact that the latest photographs, together with the unending succession of atrocities in Afghanistan, will have upon American and world public opinion. In the United States, opposition to the war is at record levels, with barely 30 percent of the population believing that it is worth fighting.
Internationally, people who are incessantly told that the US is engaged in a global crusade for "human rights" can see through these photos what American soldiers and their commanders in Afghanistan are really up to: murder and brutality on a massive scale.
To counter antiwar sentiment, the government and the military have done their best to control the reporting on the war and, above all, the photographic images that are accessible to the American public. (Source)
Thursday, April 19, 2012
That's Not Who We Are
The latest military outrage from Afghanistan--they come now about one a month on average--is the publication of embarrassing photos of U.S. troops with dead bodies of enemies. Mocking the dead, like we've seen before. The L.A. Times printed two of them out of a reported dozen or so sent to the paper by another U.S. soldier concerned, he said, with the breakdown of discipline among his comrades. Gee, ya think?
Anyway, top American officials are expressing appropriate levels of outrage. Leon Pinetta, secretary of defense, was the administration's point man for the required breast-beating. The behavior of the troops was "foolish" and "unacceptable," he said. He seemed to be saying that war is ugly and sometimes young, immature people make foolish decisions . . . in this case, to pose with bloody trophies. Do I sound cynical? That's because I am. We heard this sort of thing before. And we've also heard what Pinetta went on to say, i.e., that such behavior is "not who we are."
Well, sir, I respectfully disagree. This is exactly who we are. How much more evidence do we need that our troops routinely engage in savage behavior? We've had Abu Ghraib. We have had marines pissing on dead bodies. We've had burning of the Qur'an. We've had countless killings of innocent people ("collateral damage"). We've had revelations of massacres by U.S. troops. We've had other pictures of U.S. troops mutilating bodies. We've had just recently a berserk soldier who goes out and murders a bunch of Afghan women and children in their sleep.
This is exactly who we are: a society that was perfectly OK for 10 years with a war built on a passel of lies. That doesn't get outraged when people get shot down in their classrooms, repeatedly over years. A society who has incarcerated over 2 million people, that still endorses the death penalty, that has rampant police brutality, that spies on its own citizens, that has lately been characterized by more than its usual level of meanness in its refusal to endorse a viable safety net for the health and well-being of its citizenry and cannot wait to get at social security for the elderly.
No, Mr. Pinetta. You're wrong about this. Dead wrong.
Anyway, top American officials are expressing appropriate levels of outrage. Leon Pinetta, secretary of defense, was the administration's point man for the required breast-beating. The behavior of the troops was "foolish" and "unacceptable," he said. He seemed to be saying that war is ugly and sometimes young, immature people make foolish decisions . . . in this case, to pose with bloody trophies. Do I sound cynical? That's because I am. We heard this sort of thing before. And we've also heard what Pinetta went on to say, i.e., that such behavior is "not who we are."
Well, sir, I respectfully disagree. This is exactly who we are. How much more evidence do we need that our troops routinely engage in savage behavior? We've had Abu Ghraib. We have had marines pissing on dead bodies. We've had burning of the Qur'an. We've had countless killings of innocent people ("collateral damage"). We've had revelations of massacres by U.S. troops. We've had other pictures of U.S. troops mutilating bodies. We've had just recently a berserk soldier who goes out and murders a bunch of Afghan women and children in their sleep.
This is exactly who we are: a society that was perfectly OK for 10 years with a war built on a passel of lies. That doesn't get outraged when people get shot down in their classrooms, repeatedly over years. A society who has incarcerated over 2 million people, that still endorses the death penalty, that has rampant police brutality, that spies on its own citizens, that has lately been characterized by more than its usual level of meanness in its refusal to endorse a viable safety net for the health and well-being of its citizenry and cannot wait to get at social security for the elderly.
No, Mr. Pinetta. You're wrong about this. Dead wrong.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Piss on US
I imagine there's nobody in the whole world with access to media who doesn't know about the latest outrage perpetrated by US troops, in this case Marines, in one of our endless Middle East wars. Afghanistan. Desecration of the bodies of dead enemies. Four marines pissing on the dead bodies of three Taliban fighters. It's all on video, which if you're interested, can be found on YouTube. The video, placed on YouTube by another marine with the handle "semperfiLoneVoice,"--good for you and Good bless you, man--Tuesday, went viral Wednesday afternoon. (see this story) Official US government spokespeople, including the secretaries of state and defense, have publicly deplored the incident. Afghans and other Muslim nations are outraged, of course, and ever more convinced that the US military are vile, infidel occupiers, not the friends we profess to be. Two of the sadistic blockheads that did this have been identified. And I'm sure they'll run the other two down. And while they're at it, they need to get the guy who videoed the whole disgusting scene.
Listen, these guys are not the whole Marine Corps, but they and the miscellaneous sadists, outright killers, and other psychos that have been caught for crimes against innocent civilians and prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. are representative of the inevitable consequences of war. Unfortunately, they probably represent a goodly number of their comrades. Why? Because saturated in an environment of violence and hatred, people readily shred their humanity. Above all else, war brutalizes people, it gives free rein to the basest impulses of humankind, it robs human beings of their capacity for rational thought. I was about to say it turns them into animals. In fact, animals seem more circumspect than people whose humanity has been distorted out of all recognition by the mindless violence and destruction of war.
So what's the upshot of all this? Yet another demonstration of how callous and cruel a country we've become. These guys might as well have pissed all over this country, because that's the upshot of what they've done in the eyes of the world. The guilty will be punished probably, not as severely as their gross crime deserves, but the memory of what they did and what they represent won't be going away.
Update I: The response of many people to this outrage is almost as outrageous. And really, really disgusting as well as scary. Check this out--read the comments. What a country we live in!
Listen, these guys are not the whole Marine Corps, but they and the miscellaneous sadists, outright killers, and other psychos that have been caught for crimes against innocent civilians and prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. are representative of the inevitable consequences of war. Unfortunately, they probably represent a goodly number of their comrades. Why? Because saturated in an environment of violence and hatred, people readily shred their humanity. Above all else, war brutalizes people, it gives free rein to the basest impulses of humankind, it robs human beings of their capacity for rational thought. I was about to say it turns them into animals. In fact, animals seem more circumspect than people whose humanity has been distorted out of all recognition by the mindless violence and destruction of war.
So what's the upshot of all this? Yet another demonstration of how callous and cruel a country we've become. These guys might as well have pissed all over this country, because that's the upshot of what they've done in the eyes of the world. The guilty will be punished probably, not as severely as their gross crime deserves, but the memory of what they did and what they represent won't be going away.
Update I: The response of many people to this outrage is almost as outrageous. And really, really disgusting as well as scary. Check this out--read the comments. What a country we live in!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Slow Strangulation
I recently found out (here) that WikiLeaks, that notorious or glorious site depending on your political proclivities, is probably going out of business by the end of the year. Reason: American financial companies have refused to process donation payments to Wikileaks. After the site published a quarter million state department cables, U.S. credit card and online payment companies decided they were not going to sully themselves with assisting this activity. Their action of course is slow but sure strangulation of the web site. According to its founder, Julian Assange, "If WikiLeaks does not find a way to remove this blockade, we will simply not be able to continue by the turn of the new year." In order to devote the organization's full time to raising money, Assange said that "publication operations" would cease for the nonce.
I'm sorry, but I see this whole affair as quite sinister, and far more threatening than the public service WikiLeaks is performing by outing the State Department and the Defense Department* secrecy.The reason for secrecy is these agencies, which exist on our tax dollars, don't want us to know, obviously, what sort of activities we're paying for. I worked in DoD for over 30 years, and I saw lots of classified material. And I'm here to tell you there was no rational reason for the vast majority of it to be classified. That said, I think the American people generally would be appalled by the kind of things that are being done in their name by our country. That's why Assange is doing a public service shining a light on this stuff.
More on this later.
*Before publishing the diplomatic cables, WikiLeaks had published nearly a half million military documents, some of which were classified, from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I'm sorry, but I see this whole affair as quite sinister, and far more threatening than the public service WikiLeaks is performing by outing the State Department and the Defense Department* secrecy.The reason for secrecy is these agencies, which exist on our tax dollars, don't want us to know, obviously, what sort of activities we're paying for. I worked in DoD for over 30 years, and I saw lots of classified material. And I'm here to tell you there was no rational reason for the vast majority of it to be classified. That said, I think the American people generally would be appalled by the kind of things that are being done in their name by our country. That's why Assange is doing a public service shining a light on this stuff.
*Before publishing the diplomatic cables, WikiLeaks had published nearly a half million military documents, some of which were classified, from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Dribbling Out
Dribbling out. That's what I would describe Obama's ballyhooed plan to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan. Earlier this week, the president announced that he would withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of this year, and 33,000 total by the end of next year. We currently have 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. In other words, then, by the end of next year, not this year, we will have removed one-third of our troops from a country we have been fighting a war in for over ten years. One-third! When in hell are the other two-thirds coming out?
Are you kidding me? A conflict that has already taken the lives of some 4,500 American soldiers, that has cost our country over half a trillion dollars, that is disapproved of by a majority of the American people, and that is being fought for no discernible reason other than to further enrich the grossly corrupt and incompetent Afghanistan government--do you seriously think the so-called Afghan National Army and the police force will be effective in securing the country from the Taliban no matter when we leave? That is the stated goal. But, as you might recall, the original reason we went into that country was to get Bin Laden and flush Al Qaeda from their haven there. Both those original goals have been accomplished.
But of course those goals have long since been overtaken by first, nation-building (establishing a stable democracy) to the present vague aim of standing up the Afghanistan forces to cope for themselves. An open-ended commitment, actually, with no idea of what the end of the US mission there looks like at all. How in the name of all that's holy has this country let this farcical situation continue?
And I'm sure you'll be surprised to learn that the Pentagon doesn't like Obama's timetable. Naturally. It's too precipitous for them. What else did you expect?
Well, I'm here to tell you that I think Obama has once again wimped out. If it were me, I'd have every last one of our troops out of there by the end of this year, all 100,000 of them. The policy of ever fighting a war there was folly. After ten years, it's madness.
Are you kidding me? A conflict that has already taken the lives of some 4,500 American soldiers, that has cost our country over half a trillion dollars, that is disapproved of by a majority of the American people, and that is being fought for no discernible reason other than to further enrich the grossly corrupt and incompetent Afghanistan government--do you seriously think the so-called Afghan National Army and the police force will be effective in securing the country from the Taliban no matter when we leave? That is the stated goal. But, as you might recall, the original reason we went into that country was to get Bin Laden and flush Al Qaeda from their haven there. Both those original goals have been accomplished.
But of course those goals have long since been overtaken by first, nation-building (establishing a stable democracy) to the present vague aim of standing up the Afghanistan forces to cope for themselves. An open-ended commitment, actually, with no idea of what the end of the US mission there looks like at all. How in the name of all that's holy has this country let this farcical situation continue?
And I'm sure you'll be surprised to learn that the Pentagon doesn't like Obama's timetable. Naturally. It's too precipitous for them. What else did you expect?
Well, I'm here to tell you that I think Obama has once again wimped out. If it were me, I'd have every last one of our troops out of there by the end of this year, all 100,000 of them. The policy of ever fighting a war there was folly. After ten years, it's madness.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
An Ocean of Real Blood
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| Confederate dead at Sharpsburg MD, September 1862 |
Speaking of which, I've also just read a rather longish piece in Salon by Glenn W. Lafantasie, a working Civil War scholar. You might find it interesting. I don't know. It covers a lot of ground. He doesn't have much use for the so-called "reenactors," those (crazed, at least in my opinion) people who dress up as Union or Confederate troops and shoot blanks at each other and fire blank cannons at each other reenacting battles that happened 150 years ago. Basically, he objects to the prettification of what by any understanding was a horribly ugly, bloody, and tragic time in our history. As he puts it, a "war that should, by all rights, repel us and horrify us and send shivers of fright down our spines."
Exactly. Over 620,000 Americans died in the Civil War, a horrific number. This country bled a vast ocean of real blood during those four terrible years, but you would never know it from the way the war is thought about--if it's thought about at all--and portrayed and acted out by grown up boys, who like to dress up and play soldier. The guys in the picture above didn't get up and dust themselves off when the battle was over. The casualties at Sharpsburg were four times the total suffered by American soldiers at the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. More than twice as many Americans lost their lives in one day at Sharpsburg as died in combat in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War combined. The casualties at the battle of Gettysburg surpassed in three days what it took over six weeks to amass at Iwo Jima during the second world war. Casualties in the Civil War are more than the total of casualties of all of America's other wars combined, and, yes, that includes the world wars and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The essay includes a few paragraphs about Civil War books that he likes and recommends. It's a tricky business, this. I can't say I agree with all his choices, but I will say it's nice to see Bruce Catton's marvelous trilogy on the Union Army of the Potomac getting a shout-out. This (and being born in Vicksburg MS with its glorious national military park) was what turned me on to the Wah when I was a teenager, those many long years ago.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sign Me Up
So, did you listen to Obama tonight? My wife told me to be quiet because I started grousing immediately when I heard he was delivering the speech from the National Defense University. Why not the Oval Office? He's the frigging president. He can do that. But, no, that would not be in line with his irrepressible desire to kiss the ass of the military at every opportunity. Notice how often this guy gushes about the saintly qualities of everything and everybody connected with the military. He begins tonight by gushing thanks to the "soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, members of the coast guard and their families." Good grief, man, would you stop it, already!
As you might have ascertained, I am stoutly opposed to this latest military adventure in the Middle East. Why is it in our national interest to get involved in a civil war on the side of people who we don't even know? Sure. Gaddafi is a bad guy, and he's doing nasty things to his people, especially when they get uppity. But what dictator doesn't? And where does it say it is the job of this country to ride in on the white horse every time and everywhere this happens? Who is asking how much this will cost me and great-great-grandchildren? What is the guarantee that we won't be sucked into this mess for years? And then there's the incredible irony of this recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize launching us off into another open-ended, expensive, ill-defined military operation in the Arab world.
And are you ready to send your son or daughter into the military and off to the Middle East to carry out one of our many missions in that part of the world? (Obama would gush for them at the drop of a hint that he would have to mention them at all.) They can help prop up the corrupt government of that despicable toad Kahrzi in Afghanistan, and while they're doing that they can kill a few Taliban and continue the search for that ever-so-elusive Obama bin Laden. Or they can join the 50,000 American troops still in Iraq. And now that the combat troops are gone from there, have you noticed anybody asking when all these thousands of others are going to be withdrawn? Or maybe they could join our latest and greatest adventure. Assisting the Libyans in their struggle for freedom from their resident dictator of 40 years.
More and more I come to share the views of James Kuntsler. I haven't heard his opinion of the speech but I cannot imagine he would approve. He is talking here about what a disappointment Obama has been for him, just in general terms.
Related articles
As you might have ascertained, I am stoutly opposed to this latest military adventure in the Middle East. Why is it in our national interest to get involved in a civil war on the side of people who we don't even know? Sure. Gaddafi is a bad guy, and he's doing nasty things to his people, especially when they get uppity. But what dictator doesn't? And where does it say it is the job of this country to ride in on the white horse every time and everywhere this happens? Who is asking how much this will cost me and great-great-grandchildren? What is the guarantee that we won't be sucked into this mess for years? And then there's the incredible irony of this recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize launching us off into another open-ended, expensive, ill-defined military operation in the Arab world.
And are you ready to send your son or daughter into the military and off to the Middle East to carry out one of our many missions in that part of the world? (Obama would gush for them at the drop of a hint that he would have to mention them at all.) They can help prop up the corrupt government of that despicable toad Kahrzi in Afghanistan, and while they're doing that they can kill a few Taliban and continue the search for that ever-so-elusive Obama bin Laden. Or they can join the 50,000 American troops still in Iraq. And now that the combat troops are gone from there, have you noticed anybody asking when all these thousands of others are going to be withdrawn? Or maybe they could join our latest and greatest adventure. Assisting the Libyans in their struggle for freedom from their resident dictator of 40 years.
More and more I come to share the views of James Kuntsler. I haven't heard his opinion of the speech but I cannot imagine he would approve. He is talking here about what a disappointment Obama has been for him, just in general terms.
And there's Obama at the tippy-top of it serving like a department store mannequin with a Department of Justice that someone has hung a "gone fishin'" sign on. I voted for him in 2008, and I want to start a movement in whatever's left of the Progressive core to get rid of him. Being a decent, presentable fellow with a nice family is just not enough. Even his vaunted speech-making abilities have gotten on my nerves. If I hear him say "make no mistake" one more time, someone will have to restrain me from kicking in the flat screen TV. [Amen, brother!!] Obama, it turns out, is the mistake.Is he ever! Sign me up for the Greens, the Progressives, or whatever party, no matter how small and no matter how hopeless their chance at success. Just so long it will stand up and say no to all this madness. This country is just lurching along. Stumbling, staggering. There was a colorful expression that I learned working for the DoD all those years. It was something you wanted to avoid, i.e., "tromping on your foreskin." I get the idea that this is what Obama's doing. That's what this whole country is doing.
Related articles
Monday, March 21, 2011
Repulsive . . . But What Did You Expect?
Slate reports today that the German magazine Der Spiegel has published photos of grinning U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan posing with victims they have killed. A dozen guys in the Fifth Stryker Brigade--don't you just love the hip hop spelling?--are being investigated for murder of three unarmed Afghans. Five of them are also implicated in a scheme to cover up the crimes by making it look like self-defense. The Guardian reports that they're "also being charged with abusing drugs, mutilating corpses, and possessing images of human casualties*." Der Spiegel has about 4,000 photos that it got from another member of the brigade, who, one supposes can be arrested and charged with treason for blowing the whistle on a gaggle of cold-blooded killers posing in their camis and behind the "hero" label that no attaches to any U.S. soldier these days, no matter what they do. Would it surprise you to know that these guys also took "trophies" such as teeth and fingers from their victims. Along with the thousands of photos documenting all this. Including one of a couple of our heroes holding up the head of an Afghan they killed.
Should any of us be surprised that this protracted and completely senseless war in Afghanistan has brutalized American soldiers? You could argue that the years of fighting in that forsaken country has hardened men to brutality and callous disregard for human decency and morality. But then you would have to explain things like Abu Ghraib, which took place much, much earlier in the wars. No, it's not the length of time these troops have been there that causes this disgusting and debased behavior. It is the nature of war itself. It turns men into animals. It always has. It always will. Some of the animals get caught and become the scapegoats for the rest.
This doesn't excuse anything. But don't think these sorts of crimes are isolated events. They aren't.
*probably an offense under the UCMJ
Should any of us be surprised that this protracted and completely senseless war in Afghanistan has brutalized American soldiers? You could argue that the years of fighting in that forsaken country has hardened men to brutality and callous disregard for human decency and morality. But then you would have to explain things like Abu Ghraib, which took place much, much earlier in the wars. No, it's not the length of time these troops have been there that causes this disgusting and debased behavior. It is the nature of war itself. It turns men into animals. It always has. It always will. Some of the animals get caught and become the scapegoats for the rest.
This doesn't excuse anything. But don't think these sorts of crimes are isolated events. They aren't.
*probably an offense under the UCMJ
Sunday, February 27, 2011
What the Hell is Going On . . .
. . . in the Middle East? I haven't noticed the hugely significant events that have been going on in that part of the world for the past couple of months. As I type, two long-time, iron-fisted dictators in Tunisia and Egypt have been forced out of office and to flee their countries by masses of people demonstrating in the streets. In neither case did these revolutions--and indeed, that's what they are--last longer than three weeks. The most amazing thing is that these revolts were virtually bloodless, and by that I mean there weren't great masses of dead; in fact, though some unfortunates were killed in both countries, by comparison to the great revolutions in China and Russia in the 20th century (and even in the British colonies of America in the 18th), deaths were negligible.
But the most amazing aspect of this story is that it is ongoing because people are rising up against their rulers or are demanding sweeping reform all over the Muslim Middle East: in Yemen, Bahrain, in Oman and Jordan. And most spectacularly in Qaddafi's Libya where his 40-year grip on that country is apparently about to end. But it hasn't yet, Qaddafi is vowing he will not leave. Not much information is getting out of the country, but there has been brutal repression of demonstrators in several places in the country. The government is reportedly in control of the capital Tripoli and other places in the western part of the country. Qaddafi has hired mercenaries to defend his rule, and many of his ambassadors and some of his military have sided with the demonstrators who are demanding a total change of government.
Just a couple of observations: one wonders what the long view of history will say about the significance of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in spurring these revolts? And be it noted that the vaunted U.S. intelligence "community" for which we all pay dearly, brothers and sisters, again was clueless about these matters until they happened. The secretary of state Hillary Clinton is making some pretty bold statements about Libya, claiming all options "are on the table." Don't know about you, but this kind of talk makes me real nervous. Could we seriously be considering the use of force in yet another Muslim country? Even just slightly. Well, of course. That's always an option for the forces of empire.
But the most amazing aspect of this story is that it is ongoing because people are rising up against their rulers or are demanding sweeping reform all over the Muslim Middle East: in Yemen, Bahrain, in Oman and Jordan. And most spectacularly in Qaddafi's Libya where his 40-year grip on that country is apparently about to end. But it hasn't yet, Qaddafi is vowing he will not leave. Not much information is getting out of the country, but there has been brutal repression of demonstrators in several places in the country. The government is reportedly in control of the capital Tripoli and other places in the western part of the country. Qaddafi has hired mercenaries to defend his rule, and many of his ambassadors and some of his military have sided with the demonstrators who are demanding a total change of government.
Just a couple of observations: one wonders what the long view of history will say about the significance of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in spurring these revolts? And be it noted that the vaunted U.S. intelligence "community" for which we all pay dearly, brothers and sisters, again was clueless about these matters until they happened. The secretary of state Hillary Clinton is making some pretty bold statements about Libya, claiming all options "are on the table." Don't know about you, but this kind of talk makes me real nervous. Could we seriously be considering the use of force in yet another Muslim country? Even just slightly. Well, of course. That's always an option for the forces of empire.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
"You've Got to Stop this war in Afghanistan."
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| The real cost of the Afghan War |
For anybody who has any knowledge of this insane war, it's flawed on any number of counts. The US cannot win it. What does winning it mean anyway? Defeat of the Taliban? Forget it. The US would have to occupy the whole country for decades just to seal such a victory. The Afghan government is hopelessly corrupt with a president as crooked as the proverbial snake. Plus the guy pretty much hates the US. And he and his family have made off with billions of our dollars. Neither the Afghan police or their army are worth a candle, and it will take years and more of our billions before that changes--if it ever does.
The fact of it is, we have been here before: we are hopelessly entangled in yet another land war in Asia that's just sucking the lifeblood out of us. Our troops are being killed steadily, for pretty much nothing to show for it. We continue to massacre Afghan civilians with our high tech weaponry. And we're chasing billions upon billions of bad money with yet more billions. Does this make any kind of sense at all? We cannot possibly affect that part of the world in any positive way by remaining. So why don't we get out? Because it would make too much sense. Unless it's nonsense, the leadership of this nation isn't interested.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Merry Christmas, Plutocrats
If you pay attention, you can sense the outrage building among the progressives of the country who in now what seems like a thousand years ago flocked to Barack Obama's banner in 2008 and sent him to the White House with substantial majorities in both houses of Congress. If ever there was a moment ripe for the installation of a progressive agenda for this country which so sorely needs it, it was then. So here we are now, two years later, and the Obama presidency and the hopes of the liberals who so enthusiastically backed him are in tatters. The bill of indictment is long, but here are the major failures of the Obama administration at the halfway point in this most wretched of presidencies. A toothless so-called financial reform bill, a severely watered-down health care act come to mind immediately. On both these issues Obama caved to the Republican party, the hirelings of the corporations, which to this very moment refuses to support the administration. It accepted far less for the broad expanse of the American people than if it had the balls to stand up and vote what was promised during the campaign. We're still in Iraq and we're getting more deeply mired in Afghanistan, endless wars both. There has been no prosecution of the the Bush criminals for the various war crimes committed during his presidency. In truth there's been very little for progressives to be happy about during the past couple of years. We're getting the shaft at every turn.
Just the latest of the outrages is Obama's apparent readiness to cave yet again on the issue of extending the Bush tax cuts to the plutocrats who run the country. What we're talking about here is simply restoring the rates to what they were in 2002. The idea the deficit should be swollen by another $700 billion so as to put yet more money in the pockets of the richest two percent of the country . . . well, it's ludicrous. And yet this is what the Republican party is insisting on before it will consider or vote for anything else. Including extension of unemployment benefits to people who victimized by the plutocrats' recession. Can hypocrisy be more blatant?
No. It cannot. But that doesn't make a difference to people any longer. The bigger the lie, the more willing the gulls that comprise the public are to accept it.
Just the latest of the outrages is Obama's apparent readiness to cave yet again on the issue of extending the Bush tax cuts to the plutocrats who run the country. What we're talking about here is simply restoring the rates to what they were in 2002. The idea the deficit should be swollen by another $700 billion so as to put yet more money in the pockets of the richest two percent of the country . . . well, it's ludicrous. And yet this is what the Republican party is insisting on before it will consider or vote for anything else. Including extension of unemployment benefits to people who victimized by the plutocrats' recession. Can hypocrisy be more blatant?
No. It cannot. But that doesn't make a difference to people any longer. The bigger the lie, the more willing the gulls that comprise the public are to accept it.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Three Monday News Blips
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| How many Pakistani civilians have US drones killed in the past nine years? No one really knows, it's in the thousands. |
- While the prime rates are low and static, the 340 million credit card holders in the US have seen their interest rates go in only one direction. Can you guess which direction that is? Since the new so-called financial reform law is going place limits on the outrageous service and late charges the banks can stick us with, they have simply raised interest rates by about an average of nine percent. Read.
- Latest toll of innocent people killed in Pakistan by an errant strike by a US drone: 20 killed (including 4 women & 3 children), another 13 wounded (several more children). My understanding is that counter-insurgency, the vaunted Petraeus strategy that's going to "win" our war in Afghanistan--eventually, if I understand what the administration and the Pentagon are setting us all up to hear. Read.
- Up to 15,000 dead fish have turned up at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Tests are underway to determine if the kill was caused by the oil spill. What do you think? Drum, crab, red fish, eel, sting rays, speckled trout are among the victims. Read.
Happy Monday!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Our Hero . . . Whoops, Not So Fast
Have you ever heard of Representative Mike Rogers? Of course you haven't, unless you're reading me from the depths of the 3d district in the great state of Michigan. And even then, you may not have heard of this guy. I just learned of him myself when I read that he has called for the execution of Private Bradley Manning. I'll refresh your memory of him, too, because alas, he's probably already had his alloted fifteen minutes of fame. He's the guy who leaked to Wikileaks all those documents about the war in Afghanistan, which tend to show, not to my surprise and probably not to yours, that the war there is not going all that swimmingly. Earlier Manning had also leaked a horrifying video tape of a trigger-happy U.S. Apache helicopter crew gunning down about a dozen Iraqis in the street. Although several of the killed were armed, it's not at all clear they were enemies, and clearly several of the dead, including two children and two employees of Reuters News Service, were not. Think about this for a minute: for the crime of exposing the wanton savagery of some of our military and bringing to light the none-to-encouraging everyday of the war in Afghanistan some yahoo in Michigan wants to execute a guy who is actually a hero, a person with the balls to do what is right, regardless of consequences. And the consequences for such action can be serious indeed. As one writer at Alternet observes:
This is not the usual tack I take with the military. In many circles I would be considered "unpatriotic" because I don't fall all over myself in gratitude and worship for our military heroes. As I've said before, I consider the U.S. military to be principally an arm of the empire. As such it will be continually employed in wars against our enemies, which if you haven't noticed, never seem to be defeated because they just keep multiplying. This is the nature of empires. They must constantly be at war. First, to keep their gigantic, bloated military machines occupied; and second, because since they are so despised by the rest of the world, there will always be enemies on every side. For the individual soldier, airman, sailor, or marine--more than likely not by choice but by economic necessity--caught up into the froth of patriotism and the endless billows of smoke being blown up your butt about being a hero and a "professional," I have nothing but sympathy and pity for you. You're just a tool, an eminently disposable tool, of forces far beyond what any of us can control.
Regardless of whether he is found guilty and sentenced to prison, Manning’s life will be irreparably destroyed. “If you are deemed a whistleblower in the Army, there is a very good chance of it ruining not only your career but your life,” says David Debatto, a U.S. Army counterintelligence special agent who saw several such instances while serving in Iraq in 2003. Manning was already "pending discharge" when he made the complaints, but now, even if he isn’t charged, he will most likely be dishonorably discharged. This will mean a loss of all benefits and difficulty getting a decent civilian job, a bank loan or a lease.
Manning is not the first such military whistleblower to face serious repercussions and retaliation; not just from the military, but from the government, fellow soldiers, friends back home and even the general public and the media. The military is infamous for trying to silence soldiers who speak out against the war. Each whistleblower who is publicly denounced and punished acts as a prohibitive warning silencing any other soldiers contemplating coming forward.
Blowing the whistle while overseas is particularly risky. You are completely under the control of the military. As of mid-2008, almost 3,000 soldiers have filed complaints with the Inspector General’s office for retaliation against them when they tried to expose information. That number does not include the multitudes who were too intimidated —or simply too despondent — to make reports.Guys like Manning in the U.S. military are the ones I consider the real heroes. People who do what's morally right, even in the most uncongenial circumstances. There are far too few of them. And you can bet this poor guy is going to pay a heavy price for being a hero.
This is not the usual tack I take with the military. In many circles I would be considered "unpatriotic" because I don't fall all over myself in gratitude and worship for our military heroes. As I've said before, I consider the U.S. military to be principally an arm of the empire. As such it will be continually employed in wars against our enemies, which if you haven't noticed, never seem to be defeated because they just keep multiplying. This is the nature of empires. They must constantly be at war. First, to keep their gigantic, bloated military machines occupied; and second, because since they are so despised by the rest of the world, there will always be enemies on every side. For the individual soldier, airman, sailor, or marine--more than likely not by choice but by economic necessity--caught up into the froth of patriotism and the endless billows of smoke being blown up your butt about being a hero and a "professional," I have nothing but sympathy and pity for you. You're just a tool, an eminently disposable tool, of forces far beyond what any of us can control.
Friday, July 30, 2010
If Anybody's Watching
Over there on the right, a little bit down the column is a counter for the cost of the Iraq war to the taxpayers of this country. If anybody's watching, you will have noticed that it turned over to $800 billion recently. And that, brothers and sisters, does not include the cost of the war in Afghanistan, both the enduring legacies of that vile little fraud who occupied the White House during most of the past decade. Might I also observe that it's fine by most people to spend these obscene sums of money to kill people halfway around the world, and engage in a conflict that apparently will never be over, but it's not fine to extend the unemployment benefits for some of the millions of people who cannot find work because of a global financial crisis also abetted by the same vile little fraud and his administration. Yes, I know the Congress did indeed vote to extend the unemployment payments, but no thanks to the Republicans; all but the Maine lady senators voted against it.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
We've Been Here Before
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Who among us remembers the Pentagon Papers? This was a top-secret history of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam from right after World War II until the mid-1960s. The New York Times got hold of them and began publishing excerpts in 1971. What this document showed was the depth of the duplicity that had been and was still being practiced by the government to conceal the fact that early on in the war, it was determined that it could not be won. The hero of that hour who made sure that the document got out to the public was Daniel Ellsberg.*A similar hero, as yet unnamed, has been responsible for leaking 92,000 documents on our present war in Afghanistan. These documents, and apparently there are yet hundreds of thousands more, have been put on the Net via Wikileaks simultaneously with articles in the New York Times, The Guardian, and the German magazine Der Spiegel. What these are telling us is that Pakistan, our erstwhile ally in the war, has been working with the Taliban to kill American troops. They are also documenting a lot more killing of civilians by US troops. In general, this vast collection of mostly boots-on-the-ground reports verifies that the war in Afghanistan is not being won and probably cannot be won.
What's the most disturbing about this document dump is that it is essentially causing a huge collective yawn in the mainstream media. As in: oh, the war in Afghanistan is not going swimmingly? Tell us something we don't know. But as one writer asked, "Am I alone in thinking that the fact that this document dump has prompted so many in the media to simply admit that the war in Afghanistan is not going well is an extraordinary development in itself?"
Oh, no. You're not alone, sir.
*Ellsberg was brought to trial under the espionage act, but when it came to light that the Nixon administration had carried out a systematic campaign to discredit him--raiding his psychiatrist's office for files, tapping his phone--the judge dismissed all the charges.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Just Like That: Another $33 Billion
Did you know that our esteemed leaders in Washington just appropriated another $33 billion for continuation of the the war in Afghanistan? It just so happens that this is just about the same amount of money required to fund an extension of unemployment benefits for the next six months for about 5 million Americans trying to survive this recession. Not that the US has a very generous unemployment setup as it is. But now the Republicans in the House and Senate have advertised once again their true selves as exemplars of the worst of the meanness and cruelty in the American character.
Nobody in the Congress of the US is poor, but the Republican party is especially the friend of the rich Americans, and this sort of grinding down of people already down plays very well with the well-to-do classes. A large majority of whom would, if they had their way, allow no unemployment benefits, no food stamps, no social programs at all.
But I'm losing my train of thought, which was to point out once again, what this country could be accomplishing with $33 billion if it were not pissing it away in a useless, pointless war in Afghanistan. First, there's the matter of who is getting this $33 billion. Well, it's like this: the soldiers get some; corrupt Afghan warlords (who are squirreling their blood money away in Swiss bank accounts) get some; we give some to the poppy farmers and drug lords so they can create heroin; we give some to the very people we're fighting, the Taliban, bribes not to attack our people and convoys; and let's not forget the war profiteers, all those armaments and munitions manufacturers who never, ever saw a war they didn't support.
So what could be done with $33 billion if we weren't wasting it in fruitless war? Well, for starters there's the horrendous oil spill in the Gulf. It's reported that BP is spending a billion dollars a month on clean up. Just think how many of those unemployed people could be employed in the cleanup operations with just a small portion of that $33 billion. What about part of $33 billion to shore up local school districts who are laying off teachers all over the country in frantic efforts to cope with this recession?
But, no. It's in our national interest to continue a wasteful and scandalous war that has already gone on longer than any other this country has fought. Killing people half a world away is more important than anything that needs doing in this country.
Nobody in the Congress of the US is poor, but the Republican party is especially the friend of the rich Americans, and this sort of grinding down of people already down plays very well with the well-to-do classes. A large majority of whom would, if they had their way, allow no unemployment benefits, no food stamps, no social programs at all.
But I'm losing my train of thought, which was to point out once again, what this country could be accomplishing with $33 billion if it were not pissing it away in a useless, pointless war in Afghanistan. First, there's the matter of who is getting this $33 billion. Well, it's like this: the soldiers get some; corrupt Afghan warlords (who are squirreling their blood money away in Swiss bank accounts) get some; we give some to the poppy farmers and drug lords so they can create heroin; we give some to the very people we're fighting, the Taliban, bribes not to attack our people and convoys; and let's not forget the war profiteers, all those armaments and munitions manufacturers who never, ever saw a war they didn't support.
So what could be done with $33 billion if we weren't wasting it in fruitless war? Well, for starters there's the horrendous oil spill in the Gulf. It's reported that BP is spending a billion dollars a month on clean up. Just think how many of those unemployed people could be employed in the cleanup operations with just a small portion of that $33 billion. What about part of $33 billion to shore up local school districts who are laying off teachers all over the country in frantic efforts to cope with this recession?
But, no. It's in our national interest to continue a wasteful and scandalous war that has already gone on longer than any other this country has fought. Killing people half a world away is more important than anything that needs doing in this country.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Oh Goody! Minerals!
I suppose you may have heard on television or read in the New York Times story about the $1 trillion treasure trove of minerals the geologists say are hiding in the rocks in Afghanistan. Oh, there's supposed to be tons of iron, cobalt, copper, gold, lithium, and all kinds of other valuable minerals there. The story says these deposits are: "far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials."
Fundamentally, indeed. Wanna guess what this means? It means we are never going to get our troops out of Afghanistan. Because now they will have to stay. Can you imagine any U.S. president letting the "terrorists" getting their hands on all that wealth? Hell, no. Plus Kahrzhi and his gang of thieves are probably swooning over the potential bribes all this ore is going to generate. Goody!
Fundamentally, indeed. Wanna guess what this means? It means we are never going to get our troops out of Afghanistan. Because now they will have to stay. Can you imagine any U.S. president letting the "terrorists" getting their hands on all that wealth? Hell, no. Plus Kahrzhi and his gang of thieves are probably swooning over the potential bribes all this ore is going to generate. Goody!
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