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April 27, 2007
OT 07-33
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High level fragging in the Armed Forces Journal by one Lt. Col. Paul Yingling: A failure in generalship
In 2007, Iraq’s grave and deteriorating condition offers diminishing hope for an American victory and portends risk of an even wider and more destructive regional war.
These debacles are not attributable to individual failures, but rather to a crisis in an entire institution: America’s general officer corps. America’s generals have failed to prepare our armed forces for war and advise civilian authorities on the application of force to achieve the aims of policy.
For Remebering Giap — or anybody else who knows —
In April, French reporters usually visit General Giap in Vietnam, and then report on his latest views on Iraq, etc. Have the reporters written any stories so far?
Posted by: Owl | Apr 27 2007 10:13 utc | 2
Krugman (liberated): Gilded Once More
One of the distinctive features of the modern American right has been nostalgia for the late 19th century, with its minimal taxation, absence of regulation and reliance on faith-based charity rather than government social programs. Conservatives from Milton Friedman to Grover Norquist have portrayed the Gilded Age as a golden age, dismissing talk of the era’s injustice and cruelty as a left-wing myth.
Well, in at least one respect, everything old is new again. Income inequality — which began rising at the same time that modern conservatism began gaining political power — is now fully back to Gilded Age levels.
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Naomi Klein in defense of Wolfowitz: The World Bank has the perfect standard bearer
“Who wants to be lectured on corruption by someone telling them to ‘Do as I say, not as I do’?” asked one journalist. No one, of course. But that’s a pretty good description of the game of one-way strip poker that is our global trade system, in which the United States and Europe – via the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation – tell the developing world: “You take down your trade barriers and we’ll keep ours up.” From farm subsidies to the Dubai Ports World scandal, hypocrisy is our economic order’s guiding principle.
Wolfowitz’s only crime was taking his institution’s international posture to heart. The fact that he has responded to the scandal by hiring a celebrity lawyer and shopping for a leadership “coach” is just more evidence that he has fully absorbed the World Bank way: when in doubt, blow the budget on overpriced consultants and call it aid.
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The truth is that the bank’s credibility was fatally compromised when it forced school fees on students in Ghana in exchange for a loan; when it demanded that Tanzania privatise its water system; when it made telecom privatisation a condition of aid for Hurricane Mitch; when it demanded labour “flexibility” in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami; when it pushed for eliminating food subsidies in post-invasion Iraq. Ecuadoreans care little about Wolfowitz’s girlfriend; more pressing is that in 2005 the World Bank withheld a promised $100m after the country dared to spend a portion of its oil revenues on health and education. Some anti-poverty organisation.
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Russia under the leadership of the recently departed Boris Yeltsin was a case in point. Beginning in 1990, the World Bank led the charge for the former Soviet Union to impose immediately what it called “radical reform”. When Mikhail Gorbachev refused to go along, Yeltsin stepped up. This bulldozer of a man would not let anything or anyone stand in the way of the Washington-authored programme, including Russia’s elected politicians.
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The Financial Times reports that when World Bank managers dispensed advice, “they were now laughed at”. Perhaps we should all laugh at the World Bank. What we should absolutely not do, however, is participate in the effort to cleanse the bank’s ruinous history by repeating the absurd narrative that the reputation of an otherwise laudable anti-poverty organisation has been sullied by one man. The bank understandably wants to throw Wolfowitz overboard. I say: let the ship go down with the captain.
From your AFJ article b :
The system that produces our generals does little to reward creativity and moral courage. Officers rise to flag rank by following remarkably similar career patterns. Senior generals, both active and retired, are the most important figures in determining an officer’s potential for flag rank.
The views of subordinates and peers play no role in an officer’s advancement; to move up he must only please his superiors. In a system in which senior officers select for promotion those like themselves, there are powerful incentives for conformity. It is unreasonable to expect that an officer who spends 25 years conforming to institutional expectations will emerge as an innovator in his late forties.
If America desires creative intelligence and moral courage in its general officer corps, it must create a system that rewards these qualities…
Congress should require the armed services to implement 360-degree evaluations for field-grade and flag officers. Junior officers and noncommissioned officers are often the first to adapt because they bear the brunt of failed tactics most directly. They are also less wed to organizational norms and less influenced by organizational taboos. Junior leaders have valuable insights regarding the effectiveness of their leaders, but the current promotion system excludes these judgments. Incorporating subordinate and peer reviews into promotion decisions for senior leaders would produce officers more willing to adapt to changing circumstances, and less likely to conform to outmoded practices.
The end point of this argument is for an armed force of civilian soldiers. I agree with that. The present military is as corrupt as the present political class. The military is essentially an arms buying enterprise with a revolving door between the customers and the senior management of the producers.
And the tendency is to build arms that kill civilians. To make war on civilians. The Navy and Air Force are offensively aimed exclusively at civilians, only defensively at other combatants.
The repulsive, stinking carcass of the US military is fit only for burial.
If we must have a military it has to be built up from below, officers chosen by those they are to lead. Just as the government itself “is”. Anything else is the antithesis of democracy.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 27 2007 11:20 utc | 5
The Guardian also weighs in against the World Bank.
The Real Scandal At The World Bank
While the world’s press has been fixated on the teeny-weeny scandal over whether the World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz helped to get his girlfriend a $300,000-a-year gig next door, they have been ignoring the rancid stench of a far bigger scandal wafting from Wolfie’s Washington offices.
This slo-mo scandal isn’t about apparent petty corruption in DC. It’s about how Wolfowitz’s World Bank is killing thousands of the poorest people in the world, and knowingly worsening our worst crisis – global warming – every day.
Let’s start with the victims. Meet Hawa Amadu, 70-something, living in the muddy slums of Accra, the capital of Ghana, and trying to raise her grandkids as best she can. Hawa has a problem – a massive problem – and the World Bank put it there. She can’t afford water or electricity any more. Why? The World Bank threatened to refuse to lend any more money to her government, which would effectively make it a leper to governmental donors and international business, unless it stopped subsidising the cost of these necessities. The subsidies stopped. The cost doubled. Now Hawa goes thirsty so her grandchildren can drink, and weeps: “Am I supposed to drink air?”
She is not alone. Half a world away, in Bolivia, Maxima Cari – a mother – is also thirsty. “The World Bank took away my right to clean water,” she explains. In 1997 the World Bank demanded the Bolivian government privatise the country’s water supply. So Maxima couldn’t afford it any more. Now she has to use dirty water from a well her villagers dug. This dirty water is making her children sick, and she is sullen. “I wash my children weekly,” Maxima says. “Sometimes there’s only enough water to wash their hands and faces, not their whole body … This is not a nice way to live.” The newly elected socialist government of Evo Morales is planning to take the water back – and he is, of course, condemned and threatened by the World Bank.
These victims are not merely an anecdote soup; they are an accurate summary of the World Bank’s effect on the poor. Don’t take my word for it. The World Bank’s own Independent Evaluation Group just found that barely one in ten of its borrowers experienced persistent growth between 1995 and 2005 – a much smaller proportion than those who stagnated or slid deeper into poverty. The bank’s own former chief economist, Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz, says this approach “has condemned people to death… They don’t care if people live or die.”
The bank’s head is invariably American, the bank is based in Washington, and the US has a permanent veto on policies. It does not promote a sensible mix of markets and state action – the real path to development. No: the World Bank pursues the interests of US corporations over the poor, every time.
While the elites huff and puff about Wolfowitz’s alleged small corruption and ignore his organisation’s proven immense corruption, there is something we – ordinary citizens – can do. In the summer of 2001, at the global justice protests in Genoa, I met Dennis Brutus, a former inmate of Robben Island prison alongside Nelson Mandela. He had been repelled by the bank’s actions in South Africa, and started his protests against them by asking a very basic question: who owns the World Bank? It turns out we do. Ordinary people in the West – through their trade unions, churches, town councils, universities and private investments – own it. The bank raises nearly all its funds by issuing bonds on the private market. They are often held by socially minded institutions, the kind who signed up to Make Poverty History. So, Brutus realised, we have a simple power: to sell the bonds and bankrupt the World Bank. “We need to break the power of the World Bank over developing countries just as the disinvestment movement helped break the power of the apartheid regime in South Africa,” he explained.
The campaign to make World Bank bonds as untouchable as apartheid-era investments has already begun. The cities of San Francisco, Boulder, Oakland and Berkeley have sold theirs. Several US unions have also joined. Even this small ripple has caused anxiety within the bank about the threat to its “AAA” bond rating.
This is the fight we should join. Not some petty squabble over which Washington technocrat is morally pure enough to lead the forces of subsidy-slashing and starvation.
And… oh yeah… the World Bank’s current president is War Criminal
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 27 2007 11:25 utc | 6
NRA TALKING POINT: MY RIGHT TO HAVE A GUN IS THE SAME AS A WOMAN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE.
Great! Let’s put the same restrictions on gun sales that we have on a woman’s right to choose. Finally – a waiting period in most states!
You’ll have to get signed permission from your partner to buy the gun, you’ll be informed that buying a gun may lead to breast cancer even though there’s never been a correlation.
In 38 states, you’ll have to travel to another state to buy the gun, and abide by that states waiting period, even if it causes financial hardship to your family.
If you’re under a certain age, your father or stepfather will be informed that you are buying a gun, and you’ll need his permission, even if you need the gun because he raped you.
Finally, the Supreme Court can place limits on when you can buy the gun, even if you didn’t know you needed it until now. Even if you are going to DIE without it.
Enjoy being a girl!
Posted by: jcairo | Apr 27 2007 13:52 utc | 7
The Courtmartial of Colonel Steele
Today there is a report of a courtmartial which is being initiated in Iraq. It serves to underscore the message of official complicity in the abuse of prisoners in the most compelling way. By bringing charges, command authority sends a message about the sort of treatment it wants for detainees.
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Today’s charges are extremely revealing. Lt. Col. William H. Steele, the commander of the MPs at the Camp Cropper detention facility, is being charged with “aiding the enemy.” What’s the basis of the complaint? It turns out that he committed the offense of being nice to the detainees, and that’s punishable with a potential death sentence.
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So, this case fits a consistent pattern: as with Captain Ian Fishback and Chaplain James Yee – expressing any degree of sympathy for the detainees, and insisting that the rules to protect them be enforced will get you into a heap of trouble.
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Related: Tribeca Film Festival – Down a Dark RoadMovie Uses Afghan’s Death to Ask Tough Questions About U.S. and Torture
The movie borrows its title from Vice President Cheney’s observation not long after 9/11 about intelligence gathering: “We also have to work sort of the dark side, if you will. . . . It is a mean, nasty, dangerous, dirty business out there, and we have to operate in that arena.”
Shedding light into that shadowy zone, “Taxi” puts a human face on the complex “unlawful enemy combatant” court cases and legislation of the past few years. It focuses sympathetically on grunts who were court-martialed in connection with Dilawar’s death. Much of the narrative is constructed through interviews with these interrogators and the New York Times reporters who suspected a whitewash after Dilawar and another Bagram detainee died within a week. Avoiding political polemic — a flaw of many anti-Iraq war and anti-Bush documentaries — the film instead illuminates characters we can relate to, both the 22-year-old victim Dilawar and his victimizers, people such as Spec. Glendale Walls. He believed the taxi driver was innocent, but says he was told by a superior to take Dilawar “out of his comfort zone.”
John Kerry: WTC Building 7 Was Controlled Demolition
hardly anyone reported it.
Posted by: annie | Apr 27 2007 18:50 utc | 9
So the Euro hit another record high against the dollar again, topping $1.36 this afternoon.
Can someone explain why the euro, tied to the sluggish, over-regulated, high-tax-rate economies of Europe is kicking butt against the dollar, with its dynamic, low-regulation, low-tax system?
Posted by: ralphieboy | Apr 27 2007 19:24 utc | 10
Read The United States of Europe, ralphieboy.
sometimes cooperation, rather than winner-takes-all competition is the more successful and smartest form of capitalism. for instance, with cell phones.
plus, the U.S. is not going to pull troops out of Iraq and thus will be going further and further into debt and if the U.S. were Argentina, the IMF would be telling us to bend over so the fiscally stable countries of the world could…spank us. or sell us to the highest bidder.
oh wait, that’s already been done. Now all that’s left in the takeover/leveraged buy out is to gut all assets. that’s that s.h.t.f (having to do with dung velocity and an air circulating system) moment, I suppose.
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 27 2007 21:04 utc | 11
Via The Telegraph’s propaganda machine aka Link to ACLUCon Coughlin:
For Iraq to remain a unified state, a different type of strongman is required, one who has the interests of the whole country at heart, not merely narrow sectarian concerns. Coalition commanders on the ground are only too well aware of the threat that Sadr and his allies pose, which is why the Mahdi army is one of the main targets of the “surge” in American military activity in Baghdad.
Like Sadr and the US Congress, there is nothing the military commanders would like more than to withdraw their forces from Iraq at the earliest available opportunity. The difference is that they want to leave once threats to Iraq’s long-term future – such as Sadr and the Mahdi army – have been dealt with, not before.
Hey you British MotherFucker, Saddam was there …………
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Apr 27 2007 21:27 utc | 12
I left a link to this video from Hometown Baghdad on the thread about the home invasion by Nogle and company. But I think it is worth posting here too:
Link to Video
This in on the blog called Iraq Today, a continuation of Today in Iraq blog. It is a daily compilation of security incidents and news stories in Iraq. You may have to scroll down to see the video.
Posted by: Susan | Apr 28 2007 0:44 utc | 13
Apologies if this has been posted already, I didn’t see it.
Ecuador deports World Bank Representative
It’s little things like this that give me hope for the future for some of the poorer, more oppressed countries of the world. Leaders with the backbone to end the economic slavery of their people are starting to emerge.
Posted by: Chemmett | Apr 28 2007 4:51 utc | 14
this doesn’t really belong here, but after chemmet’s ecuador comment, i can’t help myself. i just read that the randall tobias, the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator, just resigned today because he got busted by the d.c. madam. seems his name was on the list of clients she gave to abc news. he says there was no sex, just massage. sure. and, to top it off, he told abc that more recently he has been using a central american massage agency instead. i wonder if then he considers it part of his job description.
Posted by: conchita | Apr 28 2007 4:57 utc | 15
They call him crazy…
…but he makes a lot of sense to me.
How things have changed! Within recent memory, no Democrat could hope to get near the nomination unless he endorsed a “no first use” policy regarding nuclear weapons. Now, Mike Gravel is the only one taking that position. And people are calling him nuts.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 28 2007 5:01 utc | 16
State to Decide Who is a “Dangerously Unstable” Person
Recall the establishment of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in April 2002 and its “recommendations” issued in July, 2003. Bush’s commission found that “despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed” and the way to address this so-called problem was to screen “consumers of all ages,” especially preschool children, for mental problems, or what mental health “professionals” and drug company executives consider mental problems. “Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders.” According to the commission, schools are in a “key position” to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.
The commission commended the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) as a “model” medication treatment plan that “illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes,” in other words, more people on expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, the sort of drugs that worked so well in Cho Seung-Hui’s case. It should be noted, as well, that the “Texas project started in 1995 as an alliance of individuals from the pharmaceutical industry, the University of Texas, and the mental health and corrections systems of Texas. The project was funded by a Robert Wood Johnson grant—and by several drug companies.” Allen Jones, an employee of the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, “revealed that key officials with influence over the medication plan in his state received money and perks from drug companies with a stake in the medication algorithm,” reports BMJ, a medical journal. For his effort, Jones was fired.
Now we have Bush directing “federal officials to conduct a national inquiry into how to prevent violence by dangerously unstable people” in the wake of Virginia Tech, according to CBN News. Of course, in a free society, there are few ways to prevent “dangerously unstable people” from going postal, especially if they are law-abiding beforehand. No doubt we will see yet another commission recommending the widespread use of so-called antidepressants, never mind these SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are reported to cause “anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania … in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants for major depressive disorder as well as for other indications, both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric,” according to David Healy and David Menkes from Cardiff University, and Andrew Herxheimer from the UK Cochrane Centre. In other words, in certain individuals, presumably such as Cho, SSRI drugs act as a catalyst for violence, both “self-directed” (i.e., suicide) and outward toward the community. Apparently, Bush and the pharms want to make sure every Cho in the country goes postal. It is a small price to pay for record pharm industry profits.
“President Bush has directed three cabinet secretaries to huddle with educators, mental health experts and government officials across the nation to recommend ways to avoid a repeat of Monday’s shooting rampage at Virginia Tech,” reports the Washington Post. “The review—to be headed by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings—comes as educational institutions debate how to deal with early warning signs that a student may be dangerous to himself and others.”
Here we have a gaggle of bureaucrats, including one who specializes in legalizing torture, directing “mental health experts and government officials across the nation,” in other words figuring out how get the government even more involved in the lives of ordinary people who, after all, might have another Cho or any number of Chos in their midst. Leavitt will “summarize what they learn and report back to me with recommendations about how we can help to avoid such tragedies,” Bush said. Asked how long the review will take, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said: “Not long. This is a new tasking by the president, and so a lot of the details are still being worked out. Secretary Leavitt said he plans to get started quickly.” Translation: expect “recommendations,” similar to those reached by the Texas Medication Algorithm Project, to drug the population at large, that is after mandatory “screening.” It should be noted that Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, has empanelled a gaggle of “experts” of his own, including former Ministry of Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge.
According to Universal Health, “people with chronic mental illness or with exacerbations of symptoms could be guided directly into supervised and therapeutic settings…. Nurses learn early on that just because a patient says ‘no’ to care, doesn’t mean that it goes unquestioned. When ‘no’ isn’t based on rational decision making, or when cognition and judgement are suspect, we have clear and ethical processes to use to determine substituted judgment.”
In other words, “mental health” experts, in league with government bureaucrats, will decide who is mentally ill. “There is, of course, a balance to be struck between civil liberties and treating the mentally ill,” writes Rich Lowry for the Salt Lake Tribune. “But that balance is now badly off-kilter. Cho Seung-Hui was basically abandoned to his private mental hell at Virginia Tech. While he hatched his lunatic and hateful plot, everyone tried to ignore the scary guy in class behind the sunglasses.” It was Cho’s “poetry” and “plays” that supposedly provided the tip-off to his insanity.
“Certainly in this sensitized day and age, my own college writing—including a short story called ‘Cain Rose Up’ and the novel RAGE—would have raised red flags, and I’m certain someone would have tabbed me as mentally ill because of them,” writes the novelist Stephen King. “For most creative people, the imagination serves as an excretory channel for violence: We visualize what we will never actually do.”
Of course, in an era when “a balance” is “to be struck between civil liberties and treating the mentally ill,” there will be no tolerance for such “excretory” channels for violence. Is it possible, if now just coming up as a writer, Stephen King would be “guided directly into supervised and therapeutic setting” and force-fed massive quantities of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors? “On the whole, I don’t think you can pick these guys out based on their work, unless you look for violence unenlivened by any real talent,” King concludes.
Is it possible “Bush’s New Freedom Initiative, which recommends mental health screening for all Americans, could ultimately be used to institute ‘political psychiatry’ in this country”? muses blogger Mack White. “This practice is not without precedent, the most notorious examples being the Soviet Union and present-day China. Also, it is a fact that political psychiatry has been recommended by at least one psychiatrist working for the CIA. In 1974, MK-ULTRA scientist Dr. Jose Delgado, Director of Neuropsychiatry at Yale Medical School, stated in testimony to Congress: ‘We need a program of psychosurgery for political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated.’”
In our brave new era, surgical mutilation is no longer required.
Instead, our government, working with the pharm industry and psychiatric “experts,” can “guide” the officially designated paranoids, be they deluded writers or political activists, into “supervised and therapeutic settings” where massive doses of Paxil will be administered.
My name is Allen Jones. I am a “whistleblower” who has sought the protection of the federal courts to tell the following story. (pdf)
Wikipedia: Psychiatric Hospitals as Political Tool
Washington Post, 2006: Psychiatric Hospitalization As Political Tool Creeps Back Into Russia
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 28 2007 5:23 utc | 17
Part II
Political Use of Psychiatric Hospitalization in USSR (pdf)
Wikipedia: Duplessis Orphans, several thousand orphaned children were falsely certified as mentally ill by the government of the province of Quebec, Canada and confined to psychiatric institutions.
Soviet Psychiatry for Prisoners of Conscience
Don’t worry, be Happy.!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 28 2007 5:26 utc | 18
“Some legal experts said the charge against Allen Lee is troubling because it was over an essay that even police admit contained no direct threats against anyone at the school.”
A high school senior is arrested for a a “disturbing” essay in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 28 2007 5:44 utc | 19
Gravel’s the sanest of the bunch. $cam!
Gravel Won’t Be Buried
“Some of these people [the other candidates] frighten me. When you have mainline candidates that turn around and say “there’s nothing off the table with respect to Iran. That’s code for using nukes, nuclear devices. I’ve got to tell you, if I’m President of the United States, there will be no preemptive wars with nuclear devices. In my mind, it’s immoral, and it’s been immoral for the last 50 years as part of American foreign policy.”
“Joe, you have a certain arrogance, you want to tell the Iraqis how to run their country. We should just play ‘get out.’ It’s their country, their asking us to leave, and we insist on staying there, why not get out. You hear the statement, ‘the soldiers will have died in vain.’ The entire deaths of Vietnam died in vain. You know what’s worse than a soldier dying in vain? More soldiers dying in vain.”
Well, first off, understand that this war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis. Understand that. Now with respect to what’s going on in the Congress, I’m really embarrassed. So we passed – and the media’s in a frenzy right today with what has been passed. What has been passed? George Bush communicated over a year ago that he would not get out of Iraq until he left office. Do we not believe him?
How do you get out? You pass the law, not a resolution, a law making it a felony to stay there.
“We’ve sanctioned them [Iran] for 26 years. We scared the bejesus out of them when the President said they’re ‘evil.’ These things don’t work. We need to recognize them.”
“You know who the biggest violator of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is? The United States of America! We signed a pledge that we would be begin to disarm and we’re not doing it. We’re expanding our nukes. Who the hell are we going to nuke?”
“We are mischaracterizing terrorism. Terrorism has been with civilization from the beginning and will be there until the end. We’re going to be as successful fighting the war on terror as we have been with the war on drugs. It doesn’t work. What you have to do is to begin to change the whole foreign policy.”
“This invasion brought about more terrorism. Osama bin Laden must have been rolling in his blankets, how happy he was, our invading Iraq.”
Also in 1971, Gravel introduced most of the Ellsberg-leaked Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record after the White House got an injunction against the publication of them in the New York Times.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 28 2007 5:51 utc | 20
More Gravel:
Gravel Dismisses CNN, WMUR-TV And Union Leader Statement
Also see,
CNN Bars Candidate From Debate
CNN, the Manchester Union Leader and the Hearst-owned WMUR-TV have formally decided to exclude Democratic Presidential Candidate Senator Mike Gravel from the debates they will be sponsoring in New Hampshire. This decision calls into question media censorship and goes against a fundamental American belief in “Fairness,” which is especially critical in the political process.
Obviously the ban did not stick.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 28 2007 6:52 utc | 21
Forgive me if you all have already had this discussion……
But if not, it may be worth considering the possiblity that Baghdad is fast becoming the new Warsaw.
Riverbend, I think, says it best.
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Salim Lone on Somalia: Inside Africa’s Guantánamo
This December resolution actually contravened the charter itself, because it made the security council the aggressor and turned a clearly peaceful situation into war. The resolution linked the Islamic Courts government to international terrorism and mandated peacekeeping force, on the basis of chapter VII of the UN charter, to address the “threat to international peace and security” that Somalia posed – when every independent account, including Chatham House’s on Wednesday, indicated that the country was experiencing its first peace and security since 1991.
The resolution paved the way for the Ethiopian invasion that has led to the bitter conflict that many independent analysts, including those at a meeting in Addis Ababa organised by Ethiopia’s Inter-Africa Group, had warned would be the inevitable result. A government imposed through force by arch enemy Ethiopia was never going to hold sway.
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Work must begin to derail the astounding proposal from the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, which is to be discussed by the security council in mid-June. He would like to mount a UN-sanctioned “coalition of the willing” to enforce peace and restore order in Somalia – in other words, the UN would help Ethiopia and the United States achieve what their own illegal military interventions have failed to accomplish: the entrenchment of a client regime that lacks any popular support. Such an operation is unlikely to succeed in any event, but it could further threaten the turbulent Horn of Africa, which is already teetering on the brink of chaos.
The Somali government is busy crying “al-Qaida” at every turn and offering lucrative deals to oil companies, in a bid to entice greater western support. But this war was lost long ago. In turning to the arch enemy Ethiopia, the transitional government’s fate was sealed: the nation will not abide an Ethiopian-US occupation.
faux,
my question about the dollar vs. euro was more a rhetorical one.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Apr 28 2007 11:12 utc | 24
Now, if you were Alice, and you were accused of suicide, and you were fairly certain of your innocence, would you want your day in court?
Posted by: DM | Apr 28 2007 13:04 utc | 25
Interesting: Iraq: The Worst Lies Ahead
In addition to the debate about military tactics, the Administration is being advised by petroleum experts to soften its pressure on the Iraqi government to conclude the hydrocarbon law governing access to oil resources. They are concerned that the “production sharing agreements” set out in the law are so favorable to foreign companies as to be “unsustainable.” “Even we are concerned,” one oil executive told us. “This could be Russia all over again. That is, we would invest heavily, only then to be dispossessed once Iraq recovered from its present weakness.”
Remember that other war?
Attacks Spark Fears of Taliban Defeating NATO
In Afghanistan, the Taliban insurgency is spreading, even reaching some provinces in the north that had never been its strongholds. Last week, Taliban fighters attacked a district only 45 miles from the capital, Kabul. Afghans increasingly fear that NATO and Afghan forces will lose the war.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 28 2007 16:13 utc | 27
Moyers did exactly what he accused the bad guys of doing- he pursued a willful ignorance, refusing to recognize or reveal that many of us were right, and were loud and were ubiquitous, and were purposely ignored by ALL of those who benefited from the war. The facts were all out there. WE were not bamboozled. WE were ignored, vilified, and hounded by Homeland Security. The press did not snooze. The press was not fooled, nor bamboozled nor tricked.
It is not enough that these whores apologize.
Apology NOT accepted.
Posted by: jcairo | Apr 28 2007 17:37 utc | 28
Trouble in Bandar Bush land?
A Saudi Prince Tied to Bush Is Sounding Off-Key
Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by Prince Bandar’s uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington.
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Most bitingly, during a speech before Arab heads of state in Riyadh three weeks ago, the king condemned the American invasion of Iraq as “an illegal foreign occupation.” The Bush administration, caught off guard, was infuriated, and administration officials have found Prince Bandar hard to reach since.
Posted by: Hamburger | Apr 28 2007 21:33 utc | 29
Is the Zeitgeist Changing? or is it just wishful thinking?
after reading the comments of annie and conchita irt to organizing people to get their pictures taken at the beach, I am not so optimistic.
Posted by: dan of steele | Apr 28 2007 22:16 utc | 30
Reagan’s NSA Adviser General Odom Rips George W. Bush Over Iraq War
Odom charges Bush with being AWOL and “playing games” in the “strategic mistake” by invading Iraq
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 28 2007 22:29 utc | 31
khalid jarrar, iraqi blogger
the nightmare in Iraq worsens daily. It’s make-or-break time — but next Thursday in Egypt, we could start to turn the tide. Because on May 3rd – for the first time ever – top US and Iraqi leaders will meet with Iran and Syria
…. to debate Iraq’s future. Join thousands of Iraqi Avaaz members sending messages telling these leaders to follow a NEW course: negotiations and the withdrawal of US troops…..
hope?
Help us demand to give Iraq back to Iraqis, and to prove to the future generations once more, that occupations don’t last, that occupations are wrong, and that the will of people is invincible. Help us clear to them that our hearts and minds, our values and sense of justice, are stronger than any tank, battleship or rocket. Help us by singing AVAAZ petition that will be presented to the politicians discussing the future of Iraq security, help by asking your friends to do so, let our voices be louder than the roars of weapons and the madness of greeds, help us, sign AVAAZ petition now, let our voice be heard, support Iraq today, and once the last occupying soldier leaves iraq, and once we rebuild our country with out own hands, we will reciever you in Baghdad, and you will see the love and gratitude competed by nothing but Iraqi hospitality. Together we can prove that our brotherhood is strong, together we can prove that our bonds are real, I can see that day coming, really soon.
Avaaz is a global organization with almost 1 million members from every country in the world. Our goal is to to make the values and view of the world’s public opinion heard by global decision makers on important world issues, using technology and the Internet. Thousands of Iraqi Avaaz members were invited to participate in developing this campaign, which is already supported by over 75,000 people and key international experts.
petition.. from avaaz.org
Posted by: annie | Apr 29 2007 1:10 utc | 32
don’t use the “H” word annie, it upsets dos.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 29 2007 2:31 utc | 33
sorry dos:
I’m just trying so hard to be optimistic that I see pessimism as… alien to the “reality” I am trying to project. Same ploy the Neocons tried. That sends a chill through me, truly.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 29 2007 3:21 utc | 35
Most Katrina Aid From Overseas Went Unclaimed
Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina’s victims.
Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.
Who will give the next time something happens?
i must have forgotten that converstaion
this one
JFL, “hope” does not upset me, but as a person I once worked with said, hope is not a plan. there is a lot of hard work to do to turn around the present situation. I see signs that people are trying, Glenn Greenwald is doing one hell of job exposing lies and propagenda as are others. Perhaps I refuse to get excited about early progress because I really hate coming down from a high when faced with bad news. every one copes in their own way.
Posted by: dan of steele | Apr 29 2007 7:43 utc | 37
Why the war in Afghanistan is lost for the “West”:
US ‘halted Taliban’ by ending British ceasefire
American forces in Afghanistan claim they have blocked the Taliban’s planned spring offensive by overriding British deals with the insurgents and launching an aggressive air and land campaign.
…
British commanders made ceasefire deals with local leaders in a number of areas of Helmand last year, arguing that a halt in the fighting would strengthen the hand of the tribal elders.
But America believed that the ceasefires merely allowed the Taliban time to re-arm and reinforce its positions, and American commanders and diplomats criticised the deals.
…
US aircrews show Taliban no mercy
As the boat reached the shore, Captain Larry Staley tilted the nose of the lead Apache gunship downwards into a dive. One of the men turned to face the helicopter and sank to his knees. Capt Staley’s gunner pressed the trigger and the man disappeared in a cloud of smoke and dust.
By the time the gunships had finished, 21 minutes later, military officials say 14 Taliban were confirmed dead, including one of their key commanders in Helmand.
The mission is typical of a new, aggressive, approach adopted by American forces in southern Afghanistan and particularly in Helmand, where British troops last year bore the brunt of some of the heaviest fighting since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
…
In his column of April 15, 2003, Cal Thomas wrote:
When the Berlin Wall fell and Eastern Europe escaped from the shackles of communism, I wrote that we must not forget the enablers, apologists and other “fellow travelers” who helped sustain communism’s grip on a sizable portion of humanity for much of the 20th century. I suggested that a “cultural war crimes tribunal” be convened, at which people from academia, the media, government and the clergy who were wrong in their assessment of communism would be forced to confront their mistakes. While not wishing to deprive anyone of his or her right to be wrong, it wouldn’t hurt for these people to be held accountable.
That advice was not taken – but today we are presented with another opportunity in the form of scores of false media prophets who predicted disaster should the U.S. military confront and seek to oust the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein. The purpose of a cultural war crimes tribunal would be to remind the public of journalism’s many mistakes, as well as the errors of certain politicians and retired generals, and allow it to properly judge their words the next time they feel the urge to prophesy…
All of the printed and voiced prophecies should be saved in an archive. When these false prophets again appear, they can be reminded of the error of their previous ways and at least be offered an opportunity to recant and repent.
Posted by: jcairo | Apr 29 2007 12:00 utc | 39
US artillery pounds south Baghdad after Karbala carnage
BAGHDAD (AFP) – American forces fired an artillery barrage at targets in southern Baghdad on Sunday while Iraqi rescuers scoured wreckage for the victims of another deadly car bomb that left more than 70 dead.
As the sun rose over Baghdad, a series of massive detonations could be heard from southwestern districts, where Iraqi security officials said a US operation was under way in support of the capital’s joint security plan.
“Eighteen rounds of artillery were fired from Forward Operating Base Falcon,” said US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver, without identifying the target of a salvo that could be heard 10 kilometres (six miles) away.
They are shelling the city of Baghdad.
Large explosions hit Baghdad
Large explosions rocked the capital of Iraq today, apparently an artillery barrage in the south of the city.
The blasts began after 9am in Baghdad, but the cause was unclear.
The size and the pattern of the explosions suggested they were caused by a US artillery barrage directed at Sunni militant neighbourhoods along the city’s southern rim.
Such blasts have been heard in the evenings but they are rare at that time of day.
It later emerged that US-led forces had fired the artillery barrage in Baghdad.
In a brief statement, the US military said it fired the artillery from a forward operating base near Iraq’s Rasheed military base southeast of Baghdad, but provided no other details.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 29 2007 12:14 utc | 40
WHERE IS THE LOVE?
The Honeymoon’s Over for Bush and the Saudis
By Martin Indyk
What has happened to the love affair between Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and President Bush? Two years ago, down on the Texas ranch, they were photographed walking hand in hand. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship: Bush dropped his demand for democratization in the puritanical kingdom, and Abdullah did his best to moderate oil prices. The dowry was a new U.S. arms deal for the Saudis. A second honeymoon was scheduled for this month, when Bush planned to host Abdullah for his first state visit.
Many interesting details re trouble in Bandar-Bush Land
Posted by: Hamburger | Apr 29 2007 13:13 utc | 41
@Hamburg
1. welcome back
2. NYT also had a piece on Bandar: A Saudi Prince Tied to Bush Is Sounding Off-Key
Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by Prince Bandar’s uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington.
…
Nice bribing detail:
A few nights after he resigned his post as secretary of state two years ago, Colin L. Powell answered a ring at his front door. Standing outside was Prince Bandar, then Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, with a 1995 Jaguar. Mr. Powell’s wife, Alma, had once mentioned that she missed their 1995 Jaguar, which she and her husband had traded in. Prince Bandar had filed that information away, and presented the Powells that night with an identical, 10-year-old model. The Powells kept the car — a gift that the State Department said was legal — but recently traded it away.
The move was classic Bandar, who has been referred to as Bandar Bush, attending birthday celebrations, sending notes in times of personal crisis and entertaining the Bushes or top administration officials at sumptuous dinner parties at Prince Bandar’s opulent homes in McLean, Va., and Aspen, Colo.
As both WaPo and NYT come up with this today, someone is likely to have launched a campaign to make it more public.
Bandar was Cheney’s man – clearly on the side of the Neocons – they’ve lost big time in this.
Thanks b. Been here (almost) every day, reading – distracted with stuff including an upcoming trip to China.
You have been on fire of late – lots of great posts and discussions.
Posted by: Hamburger | Apr 29 2007 14:01 utc | 43
i second that hamburger
b’s been a beautifl bonfire of news from the front(s)
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 29 2007 14:22 utc | 44
wonder if Petraeus’s manual mentions using artillery on populous urban neighborhoods as a counterinsurgency best practice.
Posted by: ran | Apr 29 2007 15:29 utc | 45
The troops apparently call him “Betray us”.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 29 2007 15:48 utc | 46
general betray us?
Military ethicist indicted Gen. Petraeus in suicide note
an excellent read, i recommend
Posted by: annie | Apr 29 2007 17:33 utc | 48
dos #37, i noticed your link led to the lennon song and realize this just seems like pissing in the wind. none the less, lennons message about war comes from the same message as ‘imagine’. for ordinary people here whose actions seem futile and hopeless the realization, the visualization that peace CAN exist, that love CAN conquer hate.
there is a lot of hard work to do to turn around the present situation
of course. this goes w/out saying. hope is not a plan, love is not a plan, food is not a plan, cooperation is not a plan, but when making a plan shoot for the stars, have a true worthy goal, do not underestimate the power in the goodness in people any less than underestimating the cruelty and potential of evil in our foes.
reinforce the positive constantly. i believe in the power of love.
Posted by: annie | Apr 29 2007 18:17 utc | 49
A good piece in AP about over a million protesting today in Turkey:
I’ll probably write about it later. It shows the dnager of overemphazising “democracy” when much more is at stake.
More than one million rally in Turkey for secularism, democracy
More than one million people took part in a mass rally here Sunday in support of secularism and democracy amid a tense stand-off between the Islamist-rooted government and the army over presidential elections.
…
The Istanbul demonstration followed a similar one in Ankara on April 14 that attracted up to 1.5 million people, according to some estimates.
Tensions rose after Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), narrowly missed becoming the country’s next president in a first round of voting in parliament on Friday.
The AKP dominates the 550-seat parliament, but does not have the required two-thirds majority to get Gul elected in the first two rounds of voting.
The opposition boycotted the vote because of Gul’s Islamist past and because they were not consulted on his candiacy for the non-partisan post.
The army, which has carried out three coups in the past, issued a statement saying it was determined to protect Turkey’s secular system and was ready to take action if the need arose, making it clear, according to many analysts, that Gul’s candidacy was not welcome.
A really great picture of “Friedman Units” at the Agonist.
From a Time/AP piece on Iraq: link
Leaflets signed by a separate insurgent umbrella group calling itself the Mujahedeen of Samarra warned against oil exploration in the area and were posted on the walls of mosques in central Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
hmmm – what do they know that we don’t know?
Hahahahaha…
Pentagon Report Predicts New Age of Religiously Inspired ‘Superterrorism’, June 24, 1994
[United Press International, 5/17/2002] It also postulates the use of planes as weapons, but this is not put in the report, partly for fear of giving potential terrorists ideas (see 1993-1994). The study is presented to officials in Congress, FEMA, the CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, Justice Department, State Department, and senior executives from the telecommunications, banking and computer industries*. State Department officials consider publicly releasing the report but ultimately decide not to.
* the italicized emphasis is mine (think Amdocs/Cramer Ltd.)
It’s not the hysterical laughter and tears that bothers me, it’s my inability to stop.
More to come, so says Dante …
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 30 2007 6:57 utc | 53
Troops kill ‘scores of Taleban’
Nato-led forces and Afghan troops have killed scores of Taleban fighters in the western province of Herat, a coalition statement says.
It said 87 had been killed in a 14-hour battle in Shindand district on Sunday – 49 died two days earlier.
The troops called in air support which dropped “multiple munitions on several identified enemy locations”.
“A total of seven enemy positions were destroyed, and 87 Taleban fighters were killed during the 14-hour engagement,” the statement said.
“Taleban fighters are no match for ANP [Afghan National Police] and coalition forces,” coalition spokesman Army Major Chris Belcher, told the AFP news agency.
Afghan peasants are no match for NATO. I assume that’s who they’ve murdered… again.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 30 2007 6:59 utc | 54
annie:
At your #48
“In September 2005, the Army’s inspector general concluded an investigation into allegations raised in the anonymous letter to Westhusing shortly before his death. It found no basis for any of the issues raised. Although the report is redacted in places, it is clear that the investigation was aimed at determining whether Fil or Petraeus had ignored the corruption and human rights abuses allegedly occurring within the training program for Iraqi security personnel. The report, approved by the Army’s vice chief of staff, four-star Gen. Richard Cody, concluded that ‘commands and commanders operated in an Iraqi cultural and ethical environment often at odds with Western practices.’ It said none of the unit members ‘accepted institutional corruption or human rights abuses. Unit members, and specifically [redacted name] and [redacted name] took appropriate action where corruption or abuse was reported.’
Who ya gonna believe, an the ethical philosopher from West Point or one Army general invesigating two others charged with overlooking corrupt practices of “Virginia-based U.S. Investigations Services, a private security company with contracts worth $79 million to help train Iraqi police units that were conducting special operations. (The owners of USIS include the Carlyle Group, the powerful private equity firm whose investors formerly included George H.W. Bush and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III.)“?
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 30 2007 7:37 utc | 55
From the ‘you can’t make this shit up dept’:
DR. Rice: I won’t testify. Further, don’t ask me about my job performance until I write my book.
WOLF BLITZER: You were the National Security Advisor to the President. (Tenet) says you did not do your job.
SECRETARY RICE: Well, look, not everything went right. This was a very difficult circumstance. There were some things that went right and some things that went wrong. And you know what? We’ll have a chance to look at that in history and I’ll have a chance to reflect on that when I have a chance to write my book.
WOLF BLITZER: And we’re going to be looking forward to your book as well.
And I thought they couldn’t appall, flabbergast nor surprise me anymore…
Excuse me, I’ll be over in the corner of the bar trying to recompose myself, I think I just burst a blood vein in my head, and am having a personal little Hiroshima moment.
Does anyone have any blue valium? I’ll take two please.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 30 2007 10:42 utc | 56
Troops in Iraq could get two months’ funds, not 12: US lawmaker
“I’d like to see two months. I’d like to look at this again in two months,” said US Representative John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), a retired Marine colonel. “Fund it for two months instead of a year, and then look at it again.”
Now just make it clear that those funds are to spent ONLY on the repatriation of American troops and that all the troops in Iraq will be HOME in America at the end of those two months and you will have accomplished Mike Gravel’s plan.
Whatever happened to Steny Hoyer? Looks like Murtha got the job, if not the title, after all.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 30 2007 13:08 utc | 57
wrt somalia
this is a strange report.
Somali troops accused of looting and carjacking
Mogadishu 30, April.07 ( Sh.M.Network) People in Mogadishu reported massive lootings committed by men in army uniforms although there is stillness in the city where Somali and Ethiopian troops fought with Islamic insurgents for eight days.
Abdulahi Irro, a father of four in Arafat neighborhood, north of the capital, told Shabelle Monday, as he and his family were shifting back to the capital, that his house was looted in daylight by government soldiers. “Men wearing military uniforms attacked my house and took my car, TV Set and clothes, money and other things, breaking the furniture. I happened to be there while they already were in my house,” Irro said, complaining that the government should have disciplined the soldiers.
…
Somali Prime Minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, warned government soldiers on Friday that any soldier who is caught plundering private properties will be punished. He also stressed yesterday in a press conference he held in the capital that the Somali police and military force that are lately operational in the capital would shoot anyone caught with looting if necessary.
Men wearing army uniforms attacked a bottling plant and looted the property after shelling it overnight, said Ali Abdi Yusuf, the chairman of Somali Human Rights Action group, said on Friday.
Residents said men in army uniforms and civilian clothes also broke into houses in un-patrolled areas a day after Ethiopian soldiers seized key fighters’ positions in the Somali capital, ending eight days of heavy clashes.
Salad Ali Jelle, the Somali deputy defence minister, who went to the areas last Friday where government and Ethiopian soldiers seized after they defeated the Islamic fighters, conceded that looting was taking place, but denied the army was involved.
He said the looters had stolen army uniforms. “Government forces are now in firm control of the capital and it’s their responsibility to bring to a halt any violation against the civilians and their properties. Those who are looting are civilians wearing army uniforms.” Jelle said.
Amran Omar, a coordinator of a project to train Somali women about health care and media funded by the government of Finland said, “A government property was stolen. Computers and other expensive equipments sent by the government of Finland were ransacked by people in government army uniforms.”
another paragraph in that article quotes an essentially anonymous individual
With the government’s army uniforms easily available, at least four men in army uniforms were arrested yesterday around Black Sea neighborhood after they were discovered by government soldiers in the area. According to Ahmed, an eyewitness, the four in the army uniforms with AK 47 guns were surrounded after they were suspected. “I was there shocked because I realized that everyone can pose as a government soldier. The men were asked questions and identification cards and when they failed to show one. Their guns were confiscated and arrested,” Ahmed said.
not quite sure what’s going on here. are there really that many easily-accessible army uniforms around & that many civilians willing to put them on for whatever purpose? or is the army, largely made up of clan members loyal to yusuf & the TFG, opportunistically looting/further destructing the hawyie-dominated enclaves of mogadishu? or is this an effort to discredit the TFG army? will have to wait for more info to get a clearer picture.
aside from the looting issue, most of the western coverage of mogadishu over the weekend carried ethiopian, TFG, & united states spokespersons declaring that the TFG has defeated “the islamicists” and now control the city. barely any mention at all of the gross crimes & violations that were used to get to that point. sounds like there are attempts underway to gain acceptance for TFG rule from some business groups & moderate hawiye subclans. speculation that the resistance is hiding weapon caches & preparing for a drawn out struggle.
and in ogaden, the ONLF safely released the chinese oil workers to the ICRC as they said they would.
Posted by: b real | Apr 30 2007 15:13 utc | 58
DR. Rice: I won’t testify. Further, don’t ask me about my job performance until I write my book.
lol, personal little Hiroshima moment indeed
Posted by: annie | Apr 30 2007 15:55 utc | 59
@ $cam 56,
Remember that this is a woman who testified under oath, as National Security Advisor, that she hadn’t read the National Security Estimate. Her levels of incompetence and ass-covering can’t surprise me after that.
Posted by: Rowan | Apr 30 2007 16:25 utc | 60
JFL Who ya gonna believe
the timing..05, salvadoran option..i remember when this news first came out it seemed awfully suspicious to me. he was one month away from coming back, w/a family he loved. it seemed he could do a lot more to deter what he saw as unjust once he was back home. i smell murder. of course i believe Westhusing.
Much of the speculation focused on USIS and the contractors. Did Westhusing have evidence that the contractors wanted to keep quiet? There were conflicting stories from the contractors about how they discovered Westhusing’s body. One manager said that the first time he went to find Westhusing after lunch on June 5, the door to Westhusing’s room was locked. But on a second visit, he said, he found the door unlocked. Further, one of the first people to find Westhusing in his room, a military contractor, moved Westhusing’s pistol from its original position, claiming he had done so for safety reasons. That person was never checked for gunpowder residue.
While there were some odd details about his death, the Army’s investigation quickly concluded it was a suicide.
Posted by: annie | Apr 30 2007 17:06 utc | 61
oh, that first blockquoted paragraph was mine.
the rest from texas observer
Posted by: annie | Apr 30 2007 17:10 utc | 62
oh my. we have some real wingnuttiia going on in utah. this is from the daily herald
Convention ends with Satan and immigrants
Utah County Republicans ended their convention on Saturday by debating Satan’s influence on illegal immigrants.
The group was unable to take official action because not enough members stuck around long enough to vote, despite the pleadings of party officials. The convention was held at Canyon View Junior High School.
Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan’s minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.
In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants “hate American people” and “are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won’t do.”
Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to “destroy Christian America” and replace it with “a godless new world order — and that is not extremism, that is fact,” Larsen said.
At the end of his speech, Larsen began to cry, saying illegal immigrants were trying to bring about the destruction of the U.S. “by self invasion.”
Republican officials then allowed speakers to defend and refute the resolution. One speaker, who was identified as “Joe,” said illegal immigrants were Marxist and under the influence of the devil. Another, who declined to give her name to the Daily Herald, said illegal immigrants should not be allowed because “they are not going to become Republicans and stop flying the flag upside down. … If they want to be Americans, they should learn to speak English and fly their flag like we do.”
talk about self destructing!
Posted by: annie | Apr 30 2007 18:43 utc | 63
secrecynews: Special Operations: 2007 Posture Statement
Across the globe from Iraq and Afghanistan to Africa to Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago, U.S. Special Operations Forces are deployed to conduct unconventional warfare, psychological operations, and other activities in support of U.S. military and foreign policy objectives.
In Fiscal Year 2007, U.S. Special Operations Command has total authorized manpower of 47,911 persons, according to a new SOCOM posture statement, which provides an overview of special operations capabilities and missions.
See “U.S. SOCOM: Posture Statement 2007” (3.13M pdf), April 2007.
Posted by: b real | Apr 30 2007 20:46 utc | 64
11 comments Moratorium f
Perhaps, this post will deflect and take some of the heat off the thought experiment of the ‘In Favor of Killing American Troops’ post… or perhaps not. As provocative as it is (and I am not one to shy away from the provocative) it accomplishes nothing but heated feelings and imaginary scenarios that I personally do not appreciate, however nor do I appreciate censorship of it in anyway.
I would also imagine the ptb who concocted this knew exactly the implications this catalyzing and alienating event– this whole nightmare– would produce, and they did it anyway.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 1 2007 5:38 utc | 65