The War Room

War is Over

2011-12-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

The end of the (US) war in Iraq makes it all the way to page 3 of the New York Times. Welcome home to all the brave men and women.

Are we going to actually learn something from this completely unnecessary, unjustified, and criminal war?

Now we can turn our attention to more important issues, i.e., was it appropriate to call Newt Gingrich "zany"?

By the way, the answer is yes, but only because the real words can't be printed.

A Conversation we need to have, but won't

2011-09-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Check out the above link, to Thomas Ricks' blog. It's a lengthy, well-thought-out piece by a combat veteran who was a very good student of mine a long time ago. He makes a compelling case for mandatory military service. (I have half-seriously promoted this idea, too, usually when somebody complains about being "yelled at" - sometimes by me, sometimes by others. I think everyone should have the experience of really being yelled at, preferably by a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant and preferably for no good reason.)

This posting, however, gives a dead-serious, angry, articulate and persuasive case.

Who Are the Libyan Rebels?

2011-03-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

It's the question of the day/week/month - especially if, as seems possible, the United States decides to arm them. One thing they ain't, evidently, is a military power. But check out Robert Worth's NY Times magazine article at the above link; some amazing stories out of Benghazi. Jon Lee Anderson also tackles that question in The New Yorker.

World War III Places at Once

2011-03-22T12:07:00.001-07:00

Credit: Anja Niedringhaus, Associated Press, at URL above

I have to admit, I'm shocked, stunned, perplexed by the attacks on Libyan forces. Granted, Gadhafi is murderous scum - but whose interests are we serving here? Who are the "rebels" and what do they want? Do we have any reason to think they care about democracy or women's rights? Is there any reason to think that air strikes alone are going to force Gadhafi out? And if he is forced out, what then? Is there evidence I'm missing of massacres of civilians? The news coverage makes me strongly suspect that we're making a false distinction between "civilian" and "rebel," i.e., if Gadhafi kills someone, he's a civilian; if that someone shoots at Gadhafi forces, he's a rebel.

Our US forces and their allies will undoubtedly do a superb job - but are we going to be on the hook to reconstruct a third nation? We've done such a swell job in Iraq and Afghanistan --

Libya

2011-03-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

On to Tripoli, I meant to say.

Who could have predicted that the gods love Gadhafi and hate the Japanese?

Gone Baby Gone

2011-02-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

What an amazing development - (so much for my scenario that Mubarak could hang on, even in the face of these massive protests). Congratulations to the brave people of Egypt, and let's hope for a democratic, peaceful future.

On to Riyadh!

Photo from:

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/10/live-blog-feb-11-egypt-protests#

Egypt is Shut Off

2011-01-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

Approximately 16 hours ago Egypt's government has completely shut down the Internet and cell phone coverage.

http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/1/28/urgent-egypt-has-shut-off-the-internet.html

Police are struggling to control protests by using tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons. I have heard rumors of a few police officers shooting and killing people while it was all video taped. Whether or not it is true, I am unsure. I've only read blogs from activists posting via satellite internet.

You can follow the updates on the protests in Cairo through the NY Times:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/latest-updates-on-protests-in-egypt/?hp

The (previously) untapped market of immigrant detention

2011-01-27T18:05:00.001-08:00

The perverse functionality of the American penal system has been widely recounted, for which reason the privatization of the prison industry shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The United States spends roughly $70 billion per year on prisons. According to MSNBC, "California now spends more incarcerating 167,000 adults than it does to educate 226,000 students in its 10-campus University of California system." As Bruce Western and Becky Pettit note in their article Incarceration & social inequality, the penal system functions more as an institution of social stratification rather than as a mechanism for crime control. The U.S. prison population is overwhelmingly male, African American and lacking in a High School diploma. Mass incarceration reproduces these inequalities as the time spent in prison is time outside of the job market, outside of education, and away from family. As prisons are privatized it is inevitable that incarceration rates will continue to climb. How else can surplus value be extracted from the market?

NPR has scanned through hundreds of pages of finance reports and lobbying documents which indicate that the private-prison industry helped to draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070.

That private industry is working with law makers to pass legislation which protects their bottom lines is hardly a surprise. The United States Supreme Court recently deemed the unlimited donation of corporate money to political campaigns as protected free speech.

By: Will Charles

Murdering the Present

2010-11-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

The journalist Charles Bowden and his partner, the research librarian Molly Molloy came to our campus last week to talk about the violence on the US/Mexican border, particularly in Ciudad Juarez. Molloy runs a Googlegroups list, La Frontera, that documents the violence, in an attempt to preserve a record of the human cost of the war on drugs and the globalized economy.

http://groups.google.com/group/frontera-list/topics

Check out the link above for a recent Bowden piece in the High Country News; he's also the author of Murder City; hear him talk about that here:

http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2010/04/22/author-charles-bowden-calls-ciudad-juarez-murder-city/

Bowden and Molloy suggest that what we're seeing in Ciudad Juarez is a taste of the future, unless we seriously change our ways: overpopulation, shortage of resources, global warming and energy crises, the despair of poor people and the breakdown of social comity. Are they right? Will we all soon be living in Ciudad Juarez?

Whistleblowers and War Crimes

2010-11-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

On 22 October the WikiLeaks site released nearly 400,000 documents ("SIGACTs," "significant actions) that document the US forces in Iraq between 2004 and 2009. The US government doesn't dispute the information contained in them, but will likely seek to prosecute whoever leaked these documents. What's maybe most surprising to me is how little reaction the American public has had to this information. Why isn't this a bigger deal, either as inspiration to an antiwar movement, or in the form of outrage over the leaks themselves?

OpSec or Democracy?

2010-10-06T02:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_quarterly/purple_dragon.pdf - 3484k

improving the combat effectiveness of the units and operations it surveyed. PURPLE

DRAGON was so successful, in fact, that before the war was over the Joint Staff made

operations security programs, based on the PURPLE DRAGON model, mandatory for all U.S.

commands everywhere in the world. Operations security would prove so successful in the

end that President Ronald Reagan would make it a requirement for every U.S.

government department or agency, military and civilian, with a national security mission.

(U) It is the goal of this study to explore why and how operations security in general

and PURPLE DRAGON in particular came about. It will attempt, furthermore, to show how

the concept and methodology of OPSEC were developed; how OPSEC came to prove itself in

the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam; how it came to win acceptance, first among the

U.S. military in Southeast Asia and the U.S. Pacific Command, then by the U.S. military

establishment worldwide; and, at last, how operations security came to become an official

policy of the United States government. Finally, it will seek to document the vital role

that the National Security Agency has played in the development of operations security,

from the birth ofOPSEC during the conflict in Vietnam to the present day.

From- PURPLE DRAGON:

The Origin and Development of the

United States OPSEC Program

by Redacted Author

This monograph is a product of the National Security Agency history

program. 1993

Not really worth read in entirety because sooo much is redacted but an interesting point is made which is only strengthened by the redactions.

When did Texas Want to Secede Again? And Who Wants to Stop Them?

2010-10-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/education/23texas.html?scp=2&sq=&st=nyt

Remember when Governor or Texas Rick Perry (who, by the way, refused stimulus money) railed outside on the Capitol Building's steps, brimming with messages about the evils of big government, secession from the United States, and misquoting Thomas Jefferson's writings about the tree of liberty and necessary perennial, bloody revolution. Perhaps we should have let the state have its good-bye, because the Lone Star is yet again complaining the texts our American youth read, specifically about the anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-white nature of American's national textbooks used in public schools. The Board of Education suspects that texts portray Islam too positively, much to the detriment of the history of Christianity. All of this should bring back heinous memories when the Texas School Board of Education altered history's curriculum to better portray America positively. For example, slavery became 'triangular trade," "triumphant" capitalism won out as a way to explain proper economic theory in America, Joe McCarthy's egregious behavior was largely ignored, Hispanic leaders and role models were deliberately overlooked, and it was rewritten that men in Congress were most responsible for the granting of women's suffrage (a "fact" that only trivializes and erases the near century of effort on the part of women to gain the right to vote). The list continues and what's worse, the Board of Education (as of March 2010) consisted of no historians, sociologists, or economists. The Board did, however, include a dentist, Dr. McLeroy, who has seen been ousted from his membership on the Board. Worse, the Board of Education (as of March 2010) consisted of no historians, sociologists, or economists. The Board did, however, include a dentist, Dr. McLeroy, who has seen been ousted from his membership on the Board. Video and written record of all these proceedings can be found on Texas' Board of Education Website. (I've read and watched parts ... with proper horror.)

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=5173

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html?scp=11&sq=&st=nyt

This time around, the mention of Islam vs. Christianity in the secondary classroom setting screams to me of the new controversy surrounding the Ground Zero Mosque, Pastor Jones' threat to burn copies of the Koran, FOX News' ranting about 'terror babies,' America's general bouts of xenophobia, and America's fights over immigration in a struggle to preserve what certain people define as out American-ness. To me it also reeks of the Teabaggers' influence. To these sorts of people, the Muslim community appears (and the key work is 'appears') far too foreign and hostile to what America thinks defines its own nation. In my opinion, that definition is far to narrow and arbitrary.

Some articles about Rick Perry's references to secession:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/us/politics/18texas.html
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/News/Blogs/index.html/objID827588/blogID/
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6986402.html

Another Abu Ghraib? A Mini-My Lai?

2010-09-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

Check out the leaked tape of one of the alleged participants in the case against several US soldiers, accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport.

Is this something that we can expect to happen? What will it do to our war effort?

Thoughts on the Current Situation, Iraq and Afghanistan

2010-04-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

The following informal analysis of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is from a former military intel. officer, via a friend. My friend says this source is well-connected, smart, and perceptive and that his broad take on Afghanistan is generally supported by those he knows currently serving there.

“As to your questions about A-stan - I really don't have a basis of knowledge to speak confidently on that situation. A-Stan 2010 is completely different from A-Stan 2004. For the past three years, I've been wholly immersed in countering the Sunni insurgency in Northern Iraq. I can tell you unequivocally that we've won that war - last weekend's killing of Abu Ayyub Al-Masri and Abu Umar Al-Baghdadi in Tikrit was just icing on the cake. We will continue to deal with embers of that insurgency for the next few years, but the back of it is broken and barring a move by the Kurds to assert their independence, the situation in Iraq will resolve itself. A-Stan is a whole different problem, and again it's one that I haven't been involved with since . . . '04. In my view, it comes down to infrastructure and culture. Iraq was/is years ahead of A-Stan in terms of basic services like navigable lines of communication (roads and highways), electricity, power, sewer, education, and industry. Afghanistan outside of the major cities like Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad, and Asadabad seems to be stuck in the 7th century. In Iraq, there was a sense of nationalism that could be tapped into - see the rise of the Sahwa or "Sons of Iraq" (SOI) Sunni nationalists who were willing to step up and defend their Iraqi Nation against the extremist Al-Queda and Islamic State of Iraq interlopers who were seeking to build an oppressive caliphate in their land. I don't see a similar sense of support for nationalism in Afghanistan. The lack of infrastructure and largely nonexistent sense of nationalist support for a viable Afghan nation is daunting. ANA soldiers are drawn from tribes and remote villages - they are largely illiterate, addicted to drugs like hashish, and have no connection or loyalty to anything outside of their own self-interest. Here are some links to the challenges we face as we try to bring the Afghanis on board... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWWWotuUwd0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc8w0IX4UQchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdggP7rw0mghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBslqsP5UJwSo are we winning? I can't say. It's outside of my area of expertise, and perhaps and even hopefully, somebody else whose more qualified than I would be able to portray it in a more positive light. If I had to predict the future of A-Stan, (and I'm by no means a policy maker or predictor) I'd equivocate it somewhat to the DMZ in Korea. Eventually, we are going to draw down to a certain level of troops, but it's always going to be there as that hardship tour, where American Soldiers go for an unaccompanied year to hone the the COIN skills they've learned at home station and in the CTCs. I don't know if A-stan will ever stabilize, but now that we're there, I find it hard to imagine leaving that god-forsaken land completely and re-opening it to the freedom of maneuver necessary to those who would use it against us. So there are my completely un-resourced and off-the cuff thoughts on A-Stan.”

A Different Kind of Learning

2010-03-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

Thomas Ricks was here in Utah, talking about his new book and why he believes that we'll be in Iraq for a long, long time - at the same time that he believes it's the worst foreign policy mistake in our nation's history.

Here's his presentation: http://www.westminstercollege.edu/cultural_events/index.cfm?parent=2077&detail=2100&content=4995

Hard to argue with that. It was a pleasure to see a student of mine from some nine years ago, home and in one piece after three tours of duty. This very moving piece from the New Republic speaks to some of the emotions we feel about this seemingly endless conflict.

Norman Markowitz on Howard Zinn

2010-01-29T10:34:00.000-08:00

Here's Norman Markowitz's tribute to Zinn, which I copied from the H-Labor labor history discussion site at H-Net.
http://www.h-net.org/~labor/
From: "norman markowitz"
*I just wrote this tribute to Howard Zinn for the Peoples Weekly World. Asa longtime subscriber to and participant in this discussion list, I amsending it to all who may be interested*
*Norman Markowitz*
*Howard Zinn: Peoples Historian*
Howard Zinn died yesterday but he will live on as futuregenerations read his “ APeoples History of the United States “ and say wowto themselves comparing it to both the old and new conventional wisdoms thatthey are taught to accept.
I knew Howard Zinn, not well but enough to feel sad at hispassing. His world view was that of the broad left ,what the sociologist C.Wright Mills in the 1950s called a “plain Marxist.” He was both a scholarand an activist, an “organic intellectual,” a “public intellectual,” allsorts of things that others write about, build careers on, but rarely are. He was never an end of ideology no value judgments man in the 1950s and1960s. Concepts like “post modernism,” post Marxism, the new idealisms ofsubjectivity and identity, in there own way more difficult to challengebecause of their slippery nature than the old dogmas, never had anything todo with his work
Born into a working class Jewish family, Howard Zinn was abombardier in WWII and experienced the horrors of war—horrors which neverleft him. The GI Bill enabled him to get a higher education, a PhD ingovernment. He came to teach at Spellman College, an African-AmericanCollege in 1956 as the Civil Rights movement was beginning to advance. Hissupport for radical students at Spellman cost him his job and took when atBoston University in 1964, where he would stay until his formal retirement.
There he began to write books and articles for people’smovements, civil rights and anti-war, that establishment academics largelyignored and newspaper critics baited. But progressives realized that therewas something special here, and young people, then energized by the CivilRights and anti-war movements as many today still are by the Obama victory,read these books to give them intellectual nourishment against the processedand predictable intellectual junk food that they were expected to purchaseand digest for the rest of their lives.
These works included* SNCC:The New Abolitionists*(1965) *Vietnam: The Logicof Withdrawal*(1967) * Disobedience and Democracy*(1968) In 1980, Sinnpublished the first edition of *A Peoples History of the UnitedStates*which has been read by millions through the world and has givenpeopleeverywhere a history of social struggle in the U.S. against those whoadvanced slavery in the name of defending freedom, conquest of the West anddestruction of native peoples in the name of manifest destiny, andexploitation working people and the establishment of a global empire in thename of democracy.
Zinn earned handsome royalties from this work, which he needed,since John Silber the tyrannical president of Boston University, himself aleading establishment figure, froze his salary, denied him teachingassistants for courses which students flocked to, and vilified him in publicand private.
Among other things, Zinn had been active in trying to form a union at BostonUniversity, which Silber successfully smashed. I remember being asked a fewdecades ago to go to Boston University and participate in a PhD defense fora student. I did it gladly in part because Howard Zinn, along with a formerprofessor I knew from my days at the University of Michigan were on thecommittee. I was supposed to receive modest compensation for my trip (thecost of gas and the hotel) and papers were prepared for this. Later I wastold that the history department couldn’t process this because PresidentSilber, learning that Zinn was on the committee, vetoed it.
Actually, I was a little flattered. It was perhaps the onlytime in my life where I had been denied something for political reasons(which has happened and continues to happen many times) in which I wasmerely an “innocent bystander”” to the events.
Silber, once the highest paid college president in the U.S. isgone and fortunately forgotten, except as a bad memory to those hehurt HowardZinn will never be forgotten thanks to his work.
Howard Zinn retired from Boston University in 1988 but kept on writing andspeaking. I would specially recommend “You Can’t be Neutral on a MovingTrain: A Personal History of Our Times” (1994). You can also find him onYouTube declaiming against the U.S. empire; or read his later *Terrorismand War* (2002) on post 9/11; you can even read the silly red baitingattacks on him by the pipsqueak pundits of the right, who come from RupeMurdoch’s central casting office at Fox. You can read and maybe see hisplay, * Marx in Soho. * Howard Zinn is here, there and everywhere.
Let me conclude this tribute to Howard with what are the last lines of anold edition of *The Peoples History of the United States*. MarlinFitzwater, George HW Bush’s press secretary responds to reporters whoquestion him about a presidential dinner where huge sums of money were paidby corporations for the “privilege” of attending. Fitzwater says honestly:“It’s buying access to the system. Yes.” When he is questioned about thosewho don’t have money for that kind of access, Fitzwater replies “they willhave to demand access in other ways.
And Zinn’s final comments are: “That may have been a clue to mostAmericans wanting real change. They would have to demand access in theirown way.” And that today, in the face of the monopoly banks, the rapaciousinsurance companies and the still sacred cow of the military industrialcomplex, is exactly what they with the help of the work of Howard Zinn canand must do

RIP Howard Zinn

2010-01-27T16:46:00.000-08:00

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian who wrote A People's History of the United States, died of a heart attack today at age 89. While it certainly isn't objective - and didn't try to be - it's a book that everybody ought to read, perhaps best as a complement to a good mainstream history text.

You can read this important book online from this site:
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html

Another Report from the U.S. Military in Iraq

2009-10-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Here's another report from my colleague who has two sons who have served in the military in Iraq and also civilian jobs in Iraq. Is this an optimistic picture?

"Both [of our correspondent's sons] have been in Iraq in both their military and civilian jobs. They tell me that the combination of the "surge" and the agreement of the Sunni leaders in Anbar Province to cooperate against the insurgents (probably a misnomer because so many of the terrorists/insurgents are from places other than Iraq) has allowed for significant progress, but that we can not expect a 100% solution. The best we can expect is what they call a 75% solution within the next 24 months, which is Obama's time frame for withdrawal anyway.

They define a 75% solution as a country that is a functioning democracy but still with conflicts and occasional violence between Sunnis, Shia and Kurds; and, unfortunately, continued, but declining, corruption. Oil production is now higher than it was under Saddam Hussein and most of the systems (schools, medical, civil service) are functioning at least as well as they did under Hussein. However, they are not functioning as well as we, as Americans would expect, and there is still corruption within those systems.

Both were there within the last 6 months so probably have a pretty good handle on the situation on the ground. The Iraqis do not want us there. . . but do not want us to leave either. They do not yet have faith in their own police and military institutions to provide security for the country, although they admit that the military and police are improving."

Why?

2009-10-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

The two horrific suicide bombings on Sunday in Baghdad may have killed 150 or more people. What I don't get is the motive. What is accomplished by such acts? Can they really be meant simply to demonstrate the Iraqi government's weakness? Surely they can't be meant to attract any kind of popular support - and it seems to me they only serve to slow down the U.S. disengagement from the country. What possible ends do such atrocities serve?

Photo by Joao Silva for New York Times; at http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/25/world/20091025-BAGHDAD_index.html

1954? or 1965?

2009-09-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

So Bob Woodward does it again, breaking a big story, the classified report from Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Although Woodward is comparing this to the Pentagon Papers, none other than Daniel Ellsberg notes that the present document (unclassified version at the link above) is an official report, not the kind of unvarnished behind-the-scenes material that compromised the PPs.

Nonetheless, the report shows we're at a crucial juncture. Will McChrystal ask for more troops? If so, how many, and will Obama comply? Will this be like early 1954, when Dwight Eisenhower asked Matthew Ridgway (left) to brief his cabinet on the options for intervening in the climactic French-Viet Minh battle at Dien Bien Phu? Ridgway pointed out the size and logistical difficulties of such an operation and suggested that even with seven US divisions and the use of tactical nuclear weapons, long-term success in the war - his real criteria - was far from certain. Eisenhower (who had probably already decided against the intervention) let the general do the persuading. We let the French lose and the Viet Minh war came to a (sort of) negotiated settlement with no loss of American lives.

Eleven years later, Lyndon Johnson faced an even more dire situation and made a very different choice. This time his generals and his Defense Department looked only at the immediate problem - security for air bases from which to launch retaliatory strikes against North Vietnam, rather than the kind of global, long-range view Ridgway had taken. LBJ committed Marines to defend the bases; the Marines asked for and got permission to do search and destroy missions, General Westmoreland asked for more troops to safeguard those already there - and the ball was rolling to a half million men in an ill-defined mission allied with a weak, corrupt, illegitimate South Vietnamese government.

Which way will Obama turn? My hope is that he listens to Joe Biden and others who are saying cut the size of the force and re-prioritize the fight against Al Qaeda, not the Taliban. Obama could even use McChrystal's own words as a cover - note on page 2 that he writes "the key take away from this assessment is the urgent need for a significant change to our strategy and the way that we think and operate."

Does Obama have the guts to a. stand up to the demand for more forces; b. change strategy; or c. the really brave option: say it's not our fight and bring all of our forces home?

Two Soldiers' Views

2009-09-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

[Here's a contribution from a colleague; names have been removed. On a related note, Jon Krakauer's new book on Pat Tillman, Where Men Win Glory, has just been released; see the link above.]

1. Son . . . who spent a year as a battalion intelligence officer in Afghanistan, working daily with the Afghan National Army (and has also spent time in Iraq), tells me that Afghan National Army soldier loyalties are much more complex (with even more corruption) than the Shia v. Sunni issue we see in Iraq. He says that it will take decades for the Afghan National Army to reach the point where it can take over responsibility for the security of the country. Decades in Afghanistan is not politically supportable in either the US or in any of the other countries who are providing troops in Afghanistan. He thinks that had Bush (supported by Tommy Franks) not violated the Principle of Mass, and invaded Iraq while we were still fighting in Afghanistan, it might have been possible in a politically acceptable timeframe. However, when we split forces, we lost momentum and it will take decades to get it back, for a lot of reasons.

2. Other son . . . who has also spent time in both Iraq and Afghanistan tells me that the current mission in Afghanistan is no longer supportable. That is, it would take too long and require too many troops to eliminate the Taliban. Frankly, the Taliban, scumbags though they are, is not a threat to America; Al Qaeda is. He thinks we should change the mission from defeating/eliminating the Taliban to eliminating Al Qaeda. He thinks that can be accomplished with a 75% solution in 2 to 3 years. That is, most Al Qaeda units will be destroyed but there will still be a limited, diminished threat.

However, it can not be done with the present force structure; and sending additional infantry troops is not going to help. Rather, he suggests that the force structure include only Special Operating Forces (Marine Force Rec, Army Special Forces, Navy Seals) operating as insert teams with strategically located logical support bases and air support. Changing of the force structure (with SOF units) to comply with a new mission limited to Al Qaeda destruction, would result in a significant reduction in overall troop strength, not an increase.

I am still reading Halberstam's The Best and The Brightest. My concern about Afghanistan is that the current administration will not listen to [officers like his sons], the same way that General Harkin and President Johnson did not listen to Paul Vann and the other junior officers in Viet Nam who were continuing to provide reports of Viet Cong/NVA increases in control while the ARVN was reporting all good news. Obama has bought into the Afghanistan War; it is his war that he is afraid to lose, the same way that Johnson saw China as having been lost by Truman and was bound and determined that he (Johnson) was not going to lose Viet Nam. Talking to other Marines still on active duty or working (post military retirement) in the intelligence community, I receive the same message that I am receiving from my son: We have to limit our Afghanistan mission to Al Qaeda elimination and change the force structure to support that mission. Johnson refused to listen; I hope Obama is different.

Another Country Heard From

2009-09-15T10:25:00.001-07:00

"The cause of our disagreement with you is your support to your Israeli allies who occupy our land of Palestine." So says a new audiotape purportedly from Osama Bin Laden; translation from link above. He also told the American people that "you are waging a hopeless and losing war, a war in which the end is not visible on the horizon." Bin Laden even provided a recommended reading list, including (evidently) Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid, although he didn't mention it by name.

Eight years into the Afghan war, and six plus into Iraq, is our great enemy right?

Ted

2009-08-27T10:54:00.001-07:00

What a story - it's like some crappy Taylor Caldwell multi-generational potboiler - the big brothers falling one by one, the supposedly useless little brother finding his purpose, the multiple unspeakable tragedies, and the final fall at the climax of a fight over his most heartfelt issue. I talked about this with two of my classes - none of them had ever heard of Chappaquiddick --

Now, who's going to browbeat Congress into passing a good bill as a tribute like LBJ did with the Civil Rights Act? Hey, Orrin Hatch, I'm talking to you - stop saying that if Ted were around that it would be a "real bipartisan bill" - you've been around forever, too, so how about YOU write that bill?

One is the Loneliest Number

2009-07-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

As the (real) New York Times reports above, in two days the United States will be the only "coalition" member fighting in Iraq when the last British, Romanian, and Australian forces are sent home. It was always a rather pathetic coalition - even if John Kerry had remembered Poland in the 2004 presidential debates - with the US contributing the vast majority of troops and thus doing the vast majority of dying and wounding. At least George H. W. Bush put together a genuine multinational force for the first Gulf War, with several Middle Eastern nations (especially Saudi Arabia) contributing financially. W. couldn't even get that part right - few military powers other than Tony Blair's puppet government wanted any part of Bush's War of Choice. So now it's down to just brave American men and women to keep paying the price for the biggest foreign policy mistake in our history. Let's hope they all make it home.

Maybe the fake NY Times headline will eventually come true --

Let's All Come Home and Stay There

2009-07-13T16:27:00.001-07:00

Bob Woodruff, the ABC reporter who was badly wounded in Iraq three years ago, has gone back to report the war and especially the experiences of those who have suffered traumatic head injuries. His story raises a number of important and perhaps disturbing issues, in the light of Chris Hedges' remarkable War is a Force that Gives us Meaning. Clearly Woodruff is a brave and committed journalist who should be commended for his concern for the injured soldiers and Marines. But I can't help wondering why someone who has suffered so would want to potentially put himself and his family through such trauma (or worse) again. And of course this also raises the question of the much higher number of survivors of horrific wounds that would have in past conflicts almost certainly been fatal. Another in a long line of reasons to Get the Hell Out of Iraq Now --

Image from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/arts/television/14woodruff.html?_r=1&8dpc

The Strange Fog Rolls Back In

2009-07-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

Robert McNamara's recent death has me wondering about the comparisons between Vietnam and Afghanistan. (Check out the fierce response to McNamara's death by Joseph Galloway, the co-author of the fine We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young at the above link). Barack Obama as senator and candidate had no real qualms about Afghanistan, and has in fact substantially increased troop numbers and adopted a more aggressive policy. Is Obama the Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush's JFK? At what point will this war become Obama's, and how long will we put up with this particular quagmire?

Victim, Player, Perpetrator

2008-12-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

Now comes the U.S. Senate to tell us what had already become clear: abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba came from the top: a memo signed by President Bush in February, 2002, declaring that Al Qaeda and Taliban taken captive were not eligible for the protections of the Geneva Convention. (It's odd, then - if not infuriating - to see the headline on the linked article, "Rumsfeld Responsible for Torture." What exactly does the phrase "commander in chief" mean?)

The dark humor in all this is the source of the techniques: the military turned to Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) school instructors to learn waterboarding and other techniques. The Air Force created SERE after the Korean War, to offer its aircrews real training in case of being taken prisoner; the program later expanded to include Navy and Air Force aircrews.

I went through SERE training in 1984 in the desert east of San Diego. It involved plenty of sleep deprivation and some mild violence; shaking, banging off walls, but mostly empty threats (they were not, after all, really going to purposely injure a US military officer). Nobody in my group got waterboarded, but we heard plenty of detailed stories about how it worked. What's amazing to me is the circular nature of the torture program: we developed SERE to help our people resist torture; the SERE program involved people pretending to be torturers and pretending to be tortured, and now we've taken that play-acting and used it for real. We've gone from the victims, to players, to perpetrators.

I like General Petraeus's simple summation of what should make us the good guys: "Adherence to our values distinguishes us from our enemy."

"Realism"

2008-12-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

Marc Ash at TruthOut shares this thoughtful analysis of the incoming Obama "national security team" and the ideas they seem to share.

This Little Light of Ours

2008-12-04T08:32:00.000-08:00

Another great one gone - Odetta, the folk singer, who performed songs of the African American experience for decades. Odetta inspired and influenced everybody in the folk music world, from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan to Johnny Clegg and Ani DiFranco. She often said that music - especially the blues - gave her a positive way to express her deep anger. Her beautiful rich voice rang out over the mall in the March on Washington on 28 August 1963, where she sang "I'm On my Way" and "Oh Freedom," drawn from traditional slave blues. She had hoped to sing at Barack Obama's inauguration - but we still have the songs; here's some snippets - listen to the amazing miner's hammer sounds she makes on "Water Boy."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miXQ265dMZM

And this:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/arts/20081203_odetta.html?hp

Be Scared, Again

2008-11-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

The knee-jerk reflexive anti-Clintonism of much of the press still amazes me. Now we're supposed to oppose Hillary Clinton as a potential Secretary of State because of Bill's "baggage." It's part of the larger distress expressed about former Clintonistas being considered for various Obama positions. One more time, people: Bill Clinton was our last successful president. Despite the best efforts of his enemies (aided of course by his own wandering naughty bits) he left office with strong approval ratings, a massive budget surplus, rising wages and profits and general peace and international goodwill. Egotistical? Unfocused? Too willing to compromise principle? Of course. But Bill and Hillary know everybody on earth who matters and are respected by most. Yes, Bill's earned millions of dollars speaking to anyone who'll listen (most recently, that evil National Bank of Kuwait - a nation we went to war to defend). And he has the audacity to spend that money fighting AIDS and global poverty and looking for new, sustainable ways to rebuild our cities. Marxist! Muslim! Radical! Pervert! Socialist! Redistributor! Clinton-lover!

Dammit, why won't Barack Obama listen to the people who hate him?

Wrong Again

2008-11-13T10:05:00.001-08:00

The War Room is proud and happy to acknowledge how Wrong we were about the election. Was it the economy that doomed McCain? Sarah Palin? Or was it a positive affirmation of Obama's appeal? I don't think I care -- it happened, and never in my lifetime have I seen a national and international outpouring of pure, simple joy.

Now all Obama has to do is guide the country through the worst economic crisis since 1929 and pull us out of our disastrous war -- at least he's got no shortage of advice!

"Always Subtract Seven Percent"

2008-10-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

Democrats, despite knowing better, can't resist dancing before they cross the end line. In the article at the link above, Andrew Hacker details some of the ways in which voter turnout is or can be depressed, nearly all of which are likely to cost Obama votes. Hacker suggests that "always subtract seven percent" should be posted on the wall of every Democratic precinct office, where James Carville's "It's the Economy, Stupid" hung for Clinton.

In that spirit, I went to 270towin.com's interactive electoral map and polling site and subtracted 7 points from Obama in every state.

My resulting map (not sure if this will display for everyone) has Obama squeaking by, 277-261.

http://www.270towin.com/

But I'll go down with the sinking ship and reiterate my belief that McCain will win a very close, ugly, dirty election.

Doomed to Repeat

2008-10-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

"Historians Against the War" organized in September 2003 to oppose the lies, distortions, and misuses of history that led us into the war in Iraq. (We at The War Room are proud to have organized against the war in Fall 2002.) H.A.W. has been controversial from the start - not just because of its ideas, but because of the very notion of historians - educators who study the past - taking active roles in political issues of the present. Some of our academic colleagues believe that we have no business taking such a public stand. These are the same quibbles, of course, that were heard about ministers during the civil rights movement and Vietnam and that were brilliantly refuted by Martin Luther King, Jr. Take a look at H.A.W.'s website and sign up!

This cartoon is by Josh Brown, from his 'Life During Wartime' strip, at the above link.

Into the Darkness

2008-10-07T11:42:00.001-07:00

It's that season, folks - short days, cold nights, leaves blowing off the trees, knives flashing on the campaign trail. The economy's melting down and our two wars are getting nastier by the day. So what are the campaigns doing? Resurrecting old scandals, twisting old words, fanning old hatreds. Here in the Great Red Intermountain West, we don't get TV ads, but you can look at them all on the official websites (and notice that McCain's smart enough to put Sarah Palin's smiling face up front) --

http://www.johnmccain.com/

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

I love that the Obama people had their 13-minute Keating 5 film all ready to go for the day when McCain decided it was time to paint Obama as a crazy radical - (and by the way, my friends, have you noticed that he's black?)

The 700 Billion Dollar Tube of Lipstick

2008-09-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

Dick Morris (of all people) had me convinced last night for about an hour that John McCain's latest strategy is a masterstroke. Think about it: McCain suspends his campaign, rises above politics, returns to DC, works the phones and cracks some Republican heads about the need to accept limits on CEO compensation and an equity share for taxpayers. When the new, improved bailout package passes Friday morning, McCain gets to pose as the master dealmaker, the nonpartisan compromiser, the maverick who opposed his party's president to defend the common people. Every Republican (and Joe Lieberman) who steps up to the microphone will praise McCain for his "leadership." Meanwhile Obama twiddles his thumbs and gets ready to do what he does - talk. Then McCain shows up in Oxford on Friday night, looking (understandably) a little tired, with his sleeves still rolled up and his tie askew, because he's been doing the public's business.

Then my head cleared and the Morris-induced fog dissipated. What's wrong with this scenario? Even if some of the positive changes to the package get passed, taxpayers - voters - will still hate this insanely expensive bill (which might not work) and still blame Washington (and especially the Bush administration) for letting the collapse happen in the first place. McCain will look like he tried to use the crisis for political gain, and the Democrats can say that all he did was convince grudging Republicans to sign on to a Democrat-crafted bargain. And Obama scores points for multitasking.

What's the phrase I'm looking for - something about cosmetics and swine?

New Miss?

2008-09-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

The first presidential debate will be held at the campus of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). The above New York Times article notes the changes, and continuity, in race relations at the state's flagship university, where people sometimes still fly the Confederate battle flag and sing "Dixie" at football games. Ole Miss was the site of a seminal event in the bloody history of integration which has been described as the largest armed conflict on US soil since the Civil War: a massive protest turned violent riot against the admission of James Meredith to his home-state university in 1962. Meredith was denied admission, filed suit, and won his case in the Supreme Court, clearing his entry. The historian Taylor Branch has a chapter in his Parting the Waters about this amazing episode, which involved lengthy negotiations between President John Kennedy, his brother Robert the attorney general, and Mississippi governor Ross Barnett, who fought Meredith's presence by every means he could muster.

Meredith's registration was protected by about 200 US Marshals, federal prison guards, and border patrolmen, armed only with sidearms, facing off against (by some estimates) ten thousand angry whites, many well-armed, who descended on the campus from around the country. Before it was over 160 marshals were wounded, 28 by gunfire; one man was killed by a stray bullet and another man, a British reporter, was shot in the back and killed. The battle only ended when federal troops arrived. Check out this site:

http://afroamhistory.about.com/cs/jamesmeredith/a/jamesmeredith.htm

On Friday an African-American candidate for president will participate in a debate on this same campus.

How White Privilege Works: Tim Wise's Take

2008-09-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

The ever-provocative Tim Wise has a great take on how white privilege is operating in this year's election campaign. I think he's about 90% right. Check him out at the above link --

Herbert McCain? John Hoover?

2008-09-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

In the category of "things we already knew," the above article at the Washington Post lays out John McCain's key role in dismantling much of the federal regulatory apparatus that was so painstakingly constructed in the wake of the 1929 financial disaster and subsequent depression. Deregulation let those geniuses at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG and elsewhere make all those brilliant investment decisions.

But now McCain furrows his brow and compresses his lips and promises that as President he'll make the government fight those mean greedy men on Wall Street.

Had enough of the free market yet?

Groundhog Election Day

2008-09-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

My God, we're not going to do this again, are we?

Are American voters really going to embrace a Republican ticket because "they're just like us" - huntin', fishin', drillin', not too uppity, not too much expertise with the economy (except EBay), not too damn bright?

Do they really think you can learn about foreign policy by gazing across the Bering Strait?

Do they really want someone who believes in the talking snake but not the talking ape?

(check out Tony Sachs's piece at the link above)

Who Attacked the U.S. on 9/11?

2008-09-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

The Project on International Policy Attitudes conducted a recent survey in 17 countries; you can find it at the AlterNet link above. Over half those surveyed were skeptical that Al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Check out these results - even among our allies, substantial minorities evidently believe that the U.S. government itself was behind the attacks.

(photo from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/09/060908-9-11-photos.html)

No More Florida 2000

2008-09-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

A colleague shared the VotersUnite website at the link above. They're dedicated to making sure that our priceless democratic voting process stays scrupulously fair and impartial. Check them out and help protect your vote!

Palin for Vice

2008-09-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

The War Room officially endorses Palin for Vice President. Check out the candidate's unmatched qualifications at the above link.

Dan Quayle in a Bun

2008-09-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

Too many Sarah Palin storylines to keep up with. Will she survive the week? My prediction is she will, and there will be the requisite backlash-against-the-backlash stories by reporters who suddenly discover that she has some positive qualities (as if Alaska voters were all dopes).

But what bothers me is the knee-jerk joy of conservatives because of her constellation of "values" - anti-choice, pro-gun, global warming denier, oil business panderer - which are a). egregious by themselves and b). show no evidence of independent thought, character, or expertise. We've reached a point where the things you believe are more important than what you do, or are.

Let's remember that for all the ridicule Quayle deservedly got, G. H. W. Bush won in 1988.

Right and Wrong, Now and Then

2008-04-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

Listened to Phil Donahue on Bob Edwards' radio show this morning, talking about "Body of War," his new antiwar documentary. Donahue reminded me about Robert Byrd's great (if futile) speeches during the debate over the Iraq War resolution, which you can access at the link above. An old man who understood that young men would do the fighting and dying - who remembered the Congress's shameful abdication of its constitutional responsibilities during Vietnam, because he was there for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - who knew that wars cost billions, if not trillions of dollars - and who understood that military power is often the wrong tool. If you never read or heard them, or forgot them, take a look --

(of course, the reptile right dismissed Byrd by reminding us that he'd been a Klansman fifty years ago - which means he can't be right about Iraq - except he was, and is)

Iraqing the Vote: The candidates on their Iraq plans

2008-04-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be worthwhile to check out the official campaign websites to see what Clinton, McCain, and Obama were putting down in black and white. There couldn't be a starker contrast - check them out --

Clinton titles her interlinked pages (some with material nearly a year old) "Ending the War in Iraq"

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/iraq/

McCain's (very short - two pages, plus a timeline and links to speeches) is called "Strategy for Victory in Iraq", and one link is to "The McCain Surge"

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/fdeb03a7-30b0-4ece-8e34-4c7ea83f11d8.htm

Obama's is, perhaps characteristically, the longest - it's called "Turning the Page in Iraq", or alternatively a few lines down, "Obama's Plan to Responsibly End the War in Iraq"

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/pdf/IraqFactSheet.pdf

All three strike me as remarkably short on substance - Clinton's especially. But the question remains: what would ANY new president be able to do?

Unhappy Birthday Dear War

2008-03-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

Another grim anniversary - five years ago today, President Bush gave the orders to invade Iraq. Where do we go from here? Will a new president make a difference in policy? Should we pull out - and can we? Logistically, ethically, morally?

There's a great number of news sites for Iraq information - I've just started looking at the McClatchey newspapers' "Inside Iraq" blog:

http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/iraq/

and the New York Times has lots of cross-linked references and interactive graphics at the above link (including to their own criminally irresponsible reporting before the invasion).

What the hell do I know?

2008-01-09T16:31:00.001-08:00

So much for prognosticating primary results. I should go back to betting on football - except I once lost seven straight Super Bowl picks in the 1970s (something about being a Vikings fan and hating Miami, Pittsburgh, Oakland, and Dallas).

The McCain surge is bad news for the blue team - he's easily the strongest R. candidate for the general election. Not that anyone should believe me, but my original prediction some three years ago is still quasi-viable: McCain will be the R's nominee, Hillary won't make it out of South Carolina, and McCain will end up beating whoever the Democrats put up (I won't pretend that I'd heard of Obama before the 2004 DNC). Unfortunately, looking back at my archived blog posts, I was foolish enough in November 2006 to offer to bet $100 that "neither Hillary nor Obama will make it to the Convention as viable candidates." Hmmm.

I hope Mitt means it when he says he's in the race for the long haul - he's wasting all the right people's money. And someday, Rudy will actually compete somewhere, and Ol' Gator Fred Thompson will wake up and remember that there's a reason they call it "running" for president. Go Governor Huckleberry!

Vote Free or Die

2008-01-08T16:16:00.000-08:00

And on to the next highly representative American state primary. How much will it matter that Hillary choked up (and ended up on the front page of the N.Y. Times)? Is it another Edmund Muskie/melting snowflakes moment? My wife claims that showing emotion humanizes the Iron Lady and makes women relate better to her. Will the Republicans wake up and realize that McCain is far and away their best chance?

New drinking game - a sip every time a Republican promises to "protect" or "defend" America, chug every time a Democrat promises "change" --

Predictions: Obama 38%, Clinton 24%, Edwards 19% --

McCain 34%, Romney 28%, Huckabee 18% --

They're Off!

2008-01-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

Hey, it's the first day of the 2008 presidential election campaign. Never mind all that shit over the last year, it begins tonight.

A frightening possibility: outgoing Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, a close friend of Ralph Nader's, refused yesterday to dismiss the rumor that Nader will run again for president (although he did say the running mate won't be Kucinich). Nader-Rocky? Will we need two big sticks to crack over their heads and finally allow a reasonable human being to run the GOP jackals out of town??

My Iowa predictions, just under the wire: Dems go Obama-Edwards-Clinton; Republicans Huckabee-Romney-whogivesashit.

Ashcroft Willing to Be Waterboarded

2007-12-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

When asked at Cornell University whether he would be willing to undergo waterboarding, John Ashcroft said, "The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do." Wait a minute, buddy. Take a number. It's not that easy to get waterboarded. We don't willy-nilly waterboard every nutjob who wants it; this is a well-thought out, approved-at-the-highest-level procedure which we meticulously document before destroying the documentation. In the meantime, while we're waiting to jump through all the hoops of plausible deniability, the best we can do is secretly kidnap your Second Life avatar, rendition him extraordinarily through democracy-loving Second Life Romania, and send him to Second Life Gitmo http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/3470767/. Our only fear is that within five seconds of being waterboarded, you'll sing like a baby. Torture, indeed!

Cheaters Suck

2007-12-13T15:33:00.001-08:00

What can be more discouraging than grown men - millionaires - cheating at a kid's game?

It's a bad day for baseball, including this Yankees fan. The estimable former Senator George Mitchell (how come he's not president?) has exposed what too many have long suspected. It's especially discouraging to put the word "Yankee" into the search column and see how many times it comes up. Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, Mike Stanton - all insults to the pinstripes.

All Hail the all-time home run champ, Henry Aaron, and the single-season record holder, Roger Maris!

What caliber does God recommend?

2007-12-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

Yet another asshole with a gun and a grudge, this time in Colorado. Good job by the volunteer security guard who killed the shooter - a woman (the guard, that is) who told reporters she was on the third day of a fast and who credited God with steadying her aim. We'll let that speak for itself.

But this toxic bouillabaisse that is fundamental Christianity in the Rocky Mountain West deserves a closer look. One of the shootings took place in Colorado Springs - home of the Air Force Academy, whose officers pestered male cadets to take some time off from raping female cadets to pray that Muslims and Jews burn in hell. Some of the victims are from the same New Life megachurch where the ineffable Rev. Ted Haggard preached before Mike Jones, the World's Busiest Male Prostitute, "blew the whistle" about their "affair" (in the words of New York Times Magazine). The same Mike Jones now says he tapdanced with Idaho Senator Larry Craig, who isn't even a little bisexual, thank you very much Mr. Nosy Parker Matt Lauer, just your average Methodist Republican homophobic married closeted anonymous gay sex-haver, like the ones who represent your state.

Guns? Rape? Jesus? Closeted gay sex? Weenie blue USAF uniforms? (sorry, gratuitous Navy insult)

What the hell are they feeding you people on the Front Range?

Bush Fulfills Promise: "No One Here Is Smarter Than I Am"

2007-12-10T12:42:00.002-08:00

Kudos to W. for employing Dana Perino, who has admitted that she didn't know what the Cuban missile crisis was. The American people are sick and tired of pointy-headed burrycrats who ramble on about "facts" and "history" and other pointless crap that they slept through in sixth grade. Real men - and mildly hot spokesmodels - go with their gut, and their faith in Jesus that lets them see into the hearts of democratic heroes like Vladimir Putin.

In unrelated but equally important news, my dog has sprained his ass, evidently from wagging his tail too hard.

2007-12-10T12:42:00.001-08:00

Who Would Jesus Cast a Non-binding Straw Poll Vote For?

2007-12-07T12:35:00.000-08:00

Today's candidate for Best Thing Anyone has Ever Said about Religion is Chris Kelly's Huffington Post blog about Mitt Romney.

Say Cheese

2007-12-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

Who says nobody learns from history? The CIA clearly has absorbed the major lesson of Watergate (not to mention the maggots who murdered Michael Jordan's father): if you're dumb enough to record yourself committing crimes, destroy the evidence.

Whattaya mean, the destruction of evidence is a crime? Crap - hey look, over there, a debt crisis!

Meanwhile, Beyond the Looking Glass . . .

2007-12-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

For those of us still mired in the reality-based community, learning new facts about Iran's nuclear program might lead to a reappraisal of our bellicose policy. (Let's leave aside for a moment the clear fact that W. is lying about when he learned about the NIE.)

But no - W is attempting to pull off a spectacular rhetorical performance, simultaneously: a. taking credit for closing down Iran's weapons program in 2003; and 2. arguing that the very LACK of a program makes Iran more dangerous.

The blogger Bob Cesca (see the link above) has put his finger on the key phrase, repeated endlessly in Bush's characteristically language-challenged style: we can't let Iran have the KNOWLEDGE necessary to make a nuclear weapon.

W. would have us commit ourselves to a War on Science. I suspect (and hope?) that his anti-Iran campaign will go about as well as his "reform Social Security" campaign: the more he talks, the less support he gets.

Torture Tips (Number 2 in a Series)

2007-12-05T11:36:00.001-08:00

While the CIA Torture Manual of 1983 is supposedly anonymous, careful textual analysis has determined at least the questioning room portion of the manual was written by Hogan’s Heroes actor Bob Crane. One tip-off is that the word “QUESTIONING” is in quotes - wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

A study of Crane’s life would not be unfruitful in understanding the true roots of torture, if you know what I mean – w,w,n,n. And thinking of refreshments is such a nice touch. Details like this really attract repeat clientele.

Torture Tips (Number 1 in a Series)

2007-12-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

I was searching for an online course in torture to fulfill general credits for my major in War on Terror Studies and ran across the training manual for the School of the Americas (I heard they changed their name, hired a new assistant principal, and have a new mascot – Go Vultures!). Talk about open source! They made this 1983 torture training manual available free online for us independent learners. Check it: http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/en-tortures_2.pdf . Here’s a tip I learned from Chapter II on Techniques which includes such well-known strategies as “NOBODY LOVES YOU,” “GOING NEXT DOOR,” and my personal favorite “WE KNOW EVERYTHING.” (It bothers me that when using this technique the subject must wonder why we are so interested in what they have to say if we already know everything.) The new technique is called “DOUBLE INFORMERS:”
“PLANTING AN INFORMANT IN A SUBJECT’S CELL IS A WELL-KNOWN TRICK. LESS WELL KNOWN IS THE TRICK OF PLANTING TWO INFORMANTS (A & B) IN THE SAME CELL. NOW AND THEN. “A” TRIES TO PRY A LITTLE INFORMATION FROM THE SUBJECT. AT THE PROPER TIME, AND DURING A’S ABSENCE, “B” WARNS THE SUBJECT NOT TO TELL “A” ANYTHING BECAUSE “B” SUSPECTS HIM OF BEING AN INFORMANT.”
I love it. I wonder if you could even have three informants (A, B, & C) or if that might be too suspicious. Or confusing.

I hope they changed his oil and filter, too

2007-11-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

It is, of course, deeply wrong to make light of anyone's health conditions.

That being out of the way, I'd like to point out the poetic implications of the "see also" column on the BBC page:

Profile: Dick Cheney

Cheney fitted with pacemaker

Cheney knee surgery 'a success'

Cheney 'fine' after medical tests

Brief stay in hospital for Cheney

Dick Cheney has blood clot in leg

Cheney pacemaker battery replaced

Cheney has heart rhythm restored

How Can You Miss Me When I Won't Go Away?

2007-11-26T16:35:00.000-08:00

So anyway, there we were, blogging away, when we were hit by a meteor. That's what happened, and I'm not changing my story.

Turns out the Bushies made a simple, common, human error that anyone could make: it wasn't Iraq that had weapons of mass destruction, it was Iran. Boy, were there some red faces over at the TelePrompter crew when they found out they'd transposed one letter and got all those boys killed in the wrong spoke of the axle of evil. Could've happened to any of us, I guess - no real harm done, move along, nothing to see here.

But Iran - they're really bad, and we need to attack them right away. Sorry about that "Iraq" thing.

Please get well soon, and we mean it

2006-12-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

Of course we are concerned for Senator Tim Johnson's health and hope for his and his family's sake that he recovers. I can't believe that God has such a twisted sense of humor that he would allow the illness of a senator from one of the smallest states to saddle us with the same fools and thieves who have plagued us the last six years. I don't suppose that there's any chance that the SD governor has enough integrity to follow the voters' will and appoint a Democrat - or even an independent? More importantly, has Johnson been tested for polonium poisoning, and what does Bill Frist's analysis of the video tell him about Johnson's prognosis?

Don't Let the Pitchfork Poke You in the Ass

2006-12-13T08:12:00.000-08:00

An overdue tribute to the late lamented Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, lover, patriot, soldier, traitor, embezzler, murderer, and perpetrator of state-sponsored terrorism on US soil. (But he made the trains run on time.) He overthrew Salvador Allende on three-times-cursed September 11 (1857's Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1973's Pinochet, and 2001). Even Pinochet's supposed economic success was a lie, since the CIA spent millions of our tax dollars in the 1960s and early 1970s, first to keep Allende out of office and then to ruin the Chilean economy once he was elected. Check out "Pinochet: A Declassified Documentary Obit" at the indispensable National Security Archives at the link above.

What does a man have to do to completely forfeit his countrymen's support?

Check out Lil' Bush

2006-12-05T07:59:00.000-08:00

In this episode (click the link above) Lil' Bush, after hearing the elementary school lunch room is serving falafel devises some unique methods to get the All-American Hot Dog, or "Hot Patriot Eagle Jesus Dogs," reinstated.

Which of These Things Belong Together?

2006-12-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

In a simpler time, Keith Olbermann made smart-ass comments over clips of Kobe Bryant slamming the basketball home. Today he's dismantling self-important and dangerous blowhards with the same style and ease. If you haven't seen Olbermann on Gingrich, click on the link above immediately.

But it is to be fervently hoped that Newt actually runs for president for the same reasons I hope Dan Quayle runs: a. he will waste all the right people's money, and 2. he will inevitably say many things so egregious and horrifying that his name will last as a joke and a watchword.

Breaking News

2006-12-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

In a surprise itinerary change, President Bush, traveling to a summit in Latvia, flew to Who-ville where he had a cordial, face-to-face meeting with The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. According to President Bush, he was able to peer into the Grinch's soul and came to the conclusion that The Grinch could never have stole the Who-pudding or ruined the Who-Feast, or poisoned the Who-Hash and roast beast, could never have hurt little Cindy-Lou Who, or make all the Whos down in Who-ville cry out with BOO-HOO.

In a related story, President Bush confirmed his full support of Elmer Fudd claiming he is perfectwy competent to kill the wabbit.

I want my quagmire, dammit!

2006-11-30T10:23:00.000-08:00

In a brilliantly conceived preemptive strike, President Bush has backed Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and rejected the Iraq Study Group's recommendations for phased drawdown before it makes them. No weenie orderly withdrawal or "graceful exit" for this tough-talking Texan. No sir, he's willing to stay until the last somebody else's son or daughter spills their blood.

"[He] remains the only man of stature so far in evidence to guide this country. . . . He has made it clear that he would give first priority to the build-up of his armed forces . . . At the same time, discontent is felt in different segments of the population for varied reasons. The base of the regime's popular support remains narrow. . . . We consider it therefore of importance that we bring strong pressure on the President to reach certain decisions basically in the economic and social fields which have been before him for some months but on which he has not acted. He has resented this and may resent it more, but in ours and his long range interests we must do our utmost to cause him to move forward in these fields."
- U.S. Ambassador Elbridge Durbrow on South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, January 1, 1957

"We will not be defeated.
We will not grow tired.
We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement."

- Lyndon B. Johnson, 7 April 1965

Freedom From Speech

2006-11-28T14:10:00.000-08:00

In honor of his defense of freedom of speech, Newt Gingrich just gave a speech at the Manchester Awards in which he warned against...freedom of speech. According to unionleader.com Newt said we may need a "different set of rules" to limit the terrorists' ability to get out their message. "We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade." So, what we really need to do to keep our cities safe from a dirty nucular bomb is to restrict the availability of words, to prevent words from crossing the porous boarders, to beef up verbal security at our nations ports, and above all to stem the proliferation of highly explosive thoughts. Then we'd all feel a wittle bit safer. Give that man an award!

The Eternal City versus Shining City on a Hill

2006-11-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

American Exceptionalism: We are exceptional, the ordinary rules do not apply to us. We are a shining city on a hill, a light unto the world. Out of the many that we are, we add up to one unit, one big GOOD. And at this unipolar moment we have never tasted defeat. Even Vietnam had been exorcised of its demons by Gulf War I, the new moral authority of 9-11, the extraordinary success in Afghanistan, and Iraq's mission-accomplished moment. Now, contemplate for a moment how the rhetoric of American politics never allows talk of defeat for this young nation, this baby of a state. The sacred agony of the Civil War, the WWII American heroes. Today, the insistence we will win in Iraq, that can-do positive American attitude so unlike old Europe. Yeah, old Europe...they're the ones that have tasted defeat, Bonaparte, et al....not us, US, U.S. But maybe we are afraid of defeat, not sure our adolescent national character can stand it. Maybe our hyper-muscular approach to 9-11 betrays a fear of failure. If we are so strong, why are we not able to accept a small defeat when it is staring us in the face but insist on compounding it, digging in deeper, letting the wound become bigger each day. Compare the shining city on a hill to Rome, the Eternal City. Walk through the Roman Forum where the temple of one god has been built on another, where the foundation of one administration building has been built upon the 1000-year-old ruins of another. Old Europe! Stretch out your American imagination over a longer period of time and breath in the air of one small defeat. Kick the dust off your sandals, stand up, and walk on. You'll survive. You really are strong. It's OK. It's natural. You're just growing up. And that's not easy.

Did the Media Miss This Story!

2006-11-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

Remember when Saddam declared a general amnesty for all prisoners in Iraq? Hmm...rapists, thieves, murderers set free. Could this have played a role in the initial sparking of the insurgency or in its current dependence on crime funding? The Christian Science Monitor headline was "Jailbirds Fly Free in Iraq" indicating that "Tens of thousands of Iraqi prisoners were released from custody this week by the regime of Saddam Hussein." For a blast from the past check out http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1022/p07s01-wome.html. I've never heard another reference to this event since the war began. Just wondering.

Goodbye

2006-11-21T12:45:00.000-08:00

Please forgive my latest indulgence, but I want to say goodbye to yet another long-time animal friend, my little cat Radley. She literally grabbed me from between the bars of a shelter cage and didn't let go for 18 years (again, literally; she never bothered to sheath her claws and always gripped whatever surface she was on, concrete, wood, or flesh). The loss of one leg, the tip of her tail, and several teeth barely slowed her down. She's buried now beneath the bench in the photo, her favorite summer morning basking spot.

Tin Ears on Mullet Heads

2006-11-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

Nice job, Republicans, choosing Trent Lott as minority whip. That should play well in your outreach campaign to black voters. Maybe Macaca Allen could be the new RNC chair (if David Duke isn't available) -- or hey, Ken Blackwell needs a job ----

And . . . . they're off!

2006-11-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

I've got weird synergetic war news clashing in my brain today - teaching about World War II in two different classes, reading Vietnam material for next semester, listening to Rachel Maddow talking about Iraq on Air America, and ruminating about the similarities and differences. Any guesses as to American death count by the time we finally pull our heads out of our asses and our asses out of Baghdad?

But enough about real things. John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Joe Biden, and the immortal Tom Vilsack are running for president and Russ Feingold isn't (see the Washington Post article linked above).

I got $100 bucks that says neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama make it to the Democratic National Convention as viable candidates.

W is for Wrong

2006-11-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

Gloriously, magnificently wrong was I and I couldn't be happier about it. This is the first time we've had something to celebrate in politics since 1996. (I bet $10 on Bush in 2004 in a misguided attempt to jinx him). Not just the House, but the Senate too; George Allen is a dead man walking whether he realizes it or not. Think what this means:

- no more Rick Santorum
- no more Richard Pombo and his badly masked attacks on the Endangered Species Act
- no more Speaker Denny Hastert
- no more Genius Karl Rove
- no more Donald Rumsfeld

The Democrats have even learned the lesson of 2000 in Virginia: they've declared Victory and planned the transition. Never mind the failings and shortcomings of the Democrats, which are legion. Even if we get nothing but two years of gridlock and delay, that's far better than the aggressively stupid and vicious attacks on a century of needed social reform that we've weathered over the last six years. All Hail Victory!

Still More Good News!!

2006-11-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

Congress has snuck a provision to close down the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction's office into the latest military authorization bill. If what we hear is true (in the NY Times' article at the above link) this clause magically appeared in conference but not in either the House or Senate version.

Let's see if we can follow this: a war/reconstruction that we were told would only cost about 3 billion, and pay for itself through Iraqi oil revenue, has proven to instead cost hundreds of billions and feature massive corruption (warehouses full of stacks of hundred dollar bills distributed to all and sundry), cost overruns (Halliburton), shoddy workmanship (see above) and general incompetence with no end in sight - and we're eliminating the one tool that has actually exposed some of this venality. Oh, and we're also losing the war and getting thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed and the nation is descending into civil war and becoming a magnet for jihadis throughout the world who want to kill Americans.

Hey, what time does "Deal or No Deal" come on?

The War on Terror is Over

2006-11-02T16:24:00.000-08:00

At least that is the word on the street. Usually they talk about the "Arab Street" but somewhere in this rambling country is still an "American Street," a Main Street and the sense I get is that the American people are ready to move beyond the perpetual state of war preferring a nice warm bowl of mushroom soup to disingenuous mushroom cloud talk. OK, so there is a real threat of a mushroom cloud from that handful of radicals but is victory in Iraq really have anything to do with this possibility? Maybe in one sense - our presence there is helping to create more radical discontent in the Muslim world. Imagine we were quote victorious unquote in Iraq: would the threat of a nuke being smuggled into our country be any less?
Let me ramble back to my point: the war on terror is over. Americans are moving on, one by one, past the war on terror. Can you rev us up about Korea? No. Could the prez talk us into invading Iran? Doubt it. This administration wants to talk about terror, war on terror, war against terror, war on islamo-fascico-extremos, terrorism, stay the course, finish the job, war on, war on, war on terror. Someone should tell these nutjobs that the American people have moved on!

Vote Early and Often

2006-11-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

Never in my life did I think I'd care this much about a Congressional midterm election. But I'm obsessively following every twist and turn, while trying simultaneously not to get my hopes up. I'm going to stick to my long-ago prediction: despite all the polls (like Gallup's most recent at the above link), and the hopes, and the hard work and money spent, Karl Rove is going to find a way to hold onto both houses by the sagging corrupt purulent skin of his decaying fingertips, and on November 8th, I plan to hunt down John Kerry and kill him with a spear.

Condemned to Repeat It

2006-10-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

Historians Against the War is calling for nationwide teach-ins up to election day. They ask:

Why is the United States still occupying Iraq ? How and when can we withdraw? How does the Iraqi occupation relate to the current crisis in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon ? And what are the prospects for a new war in Iran or Syria ? How is the Bush Administration expanding the powers of the Executive Branch? And what are the domestic effects of its commitment to a prolonged “war on terrorism?”

Check out their website at the above link, including Josh Brown's funny/awful "Life During Wartime" cartoons.

Seldom Seen Sleight

2006-10-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

The great Ken Sleight, my new neighbor and the model for the radical cowboy environmentalist Seldom Seen Smith in his friend Ed Abbey's -The Monkey Wrench Gang-, will be honored this Saturday by the Entrada Institute with its Ward Roylance prize. Check out the above linked story by another new (albeit temporary) neighbor to see what mischief Ken's still up to, and raise a glass of Wild Turkey to our favorite trail rider.

Wake Me on Nov. 8

2006-10-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Election day is two weeks away and I'm too damn nervous to sleep. I don't believe the happy-face talk of Democrats retaking the House (let alone the Senate) like E. J. Dionne in today's Post thru the above link; I still have the scars from celebrating Al Gore's victory in Florida in 2000 and believing the exit polls in Ohio in 2004. I can't help thinking that a lightning strike against Iranian nuclear reactors will knock the whole mess into a cocked hat - or provide an excuse to postpone the election?

Somebody convince me that good news is coming.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

2006-09-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hey, you ever notice how hard it is to get back into Blogger when you forget your username AND password?

How much fun is a Republican congressman who sponsors anti-sexual predator legislation having to quit because he's stalking a teenage boy? Just when I thought Florida couldn't get any more fun than Katherine Harris, along comes Mark Foley --- with any luck we'll be reading his text messages within the day.

Before we were so rudely interrupted . . .

2006-09-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

It's September, school is back in session, and The War Room is back in operation. I can hear the applause of our dozens of regular readers . . .

Since we last checked in (May), a few things have changed: unfortunately, the handsome dog on the right of the photo has left the building and is swimming in the Big Pond in the Sky; RIP, old friend. But Hogan the Rez Dog is thriving.

More to the point, we now have the secret prisons that we didn't have in May, and the administration wants the CIA to be able to use interrogation methods that our own military has rejected. Phrase of the Day in the proposed legislation: “The act makes clear that the Geneva Conventions are not a source of judicially enforceable individual rights.”

Just a reminder, from Article VI of the Constitution: "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."

Happy Happy

2006-05-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

Happy May Day, Anarchy Day, (real) Labor Day, and Day Without Immigrants - the best and most overlooked of all holidays. Of course, coming when it does, with flowers exploding into bloom and clothing dropping off bodies (granted, not always a good thing) almost anything would be worth celebrating on May 1st. The common thread between these disparate holidays is that too many Americans work too damn much/hard. So, step away from the assembly line/broom/computer/fry pan and go outside.
My personal goal is to be more like my dogs, observed at right celebrating properly.

"Never again"?

2006-04-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

Yo, long time no blog.

A colleague asked this question of a student (of mine) the other day: "Why isn't every college student out in the streets every day screaming and jumping up and down about genocide in Darfur?"

Good question, no?

At Pharyngula: War on Expertise and Science

2006-03-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

An excellent article at Pharyngula, describing another excellent article in Esquire, on the war on expertise and science.

The rise of Idiot America is essentially a war on expertise. It's not so much antimodernism or the distrust of intellectual elites that Richard Hofstadter deftly teased out of the national DNA forty years ago. Both of those things are part of it. However, the rise of Idiot America today represents—for profit mainly, but also, and more cynically, for political advantage in the pursuit of power—the breakdown of a consensus that the pursuit of knowledge is a good. It also represents the ascendancy of the notion that the people whom we should trust the least are teh people who know best what they are talking about. In the new media age, everybody is a historian, or a preacher, or a scientist, or a sage. And if everyone is an expert, then nobody is, and the worst thing you can be in a society where everybody is an expert is, well, an actual expert.

Un-Good Americans

2006-03-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

Author of the linked article points out the conundrum of being a modern American comparing us with being a German citizen during the reign of the Nazis. He points out that we are saddling our children with having to explain our generation's inaction in the face of a leader who is clearly violating moral and legal standards.

Every generation or so an evil arises which is so monstrous, so degrading to the human spirit, so morally bankrupt, that even to debate it is a sign of moral corruption. Native American genocide, slavery, totalitarianism, and Jim Crow laws are evils so unspeakable that we cannot understand today how anyone with a shred of decency could have once supported them. Today torture, a practice far more degrading to us than to our victims, represents such an evil.

...

Bush's demand is unprecedented. No leader in all human history, not even Hitler, Stalin, or Mao, has publicly demanded the right to torture. All others have behaved as Bush did before the amendment when he secretly tortured on a scale unseen in American history even while saying he wasn't. Forced into the open by the McCain amendment, however, Bush chose to openly demand the legal right to torture. Most experts assume he will continue to torture.

My Rights are Tired

2006-02-09T17:21:00.000-08:00

Seldom has the "right to a free press" received such a workout as it's getting with the publication of the "Mohammed cartoons" in Denmark and elsewhere. I think publishing these cartoons was the dopiest idea since William Lloyd Garrison burned the US Constitution in public. Yes, yes, the press has the right to publish satire. But in a purely practical sense, why in the world would you do something like this when you know what the reaction will be? There's even less sense in the re-publishing by other outlets. I have the right to burn an American flag (at least until Scalito and Roberts chime in) but I wouldn't do it in front of the Camp Lejeune Enlisted Men's Club. Here's a rule: don't purposely do things as an academic exercise that end up getting lots of people killed.

Double Standard

2006-02-01T14:08:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON — Cindy Sheehan, mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq, wasn't the only one ejected from the House gallery during the State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt with a war-related slogan that violated the rules. The wife of a powerful Republican congressman was also asked to leave.

Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida _ chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee _ was removed from the gallery because she was wearing a T-shirt that read, "Support the Troops _ Defending Our Freedom."

She was sitting about six rows from first lady Laura Bush and asked to leave. She argued with police in the hallway outside the House chamber.

"They said I was protesting," she told the St. Petersburg Times. "I said, "Read my shirt, it is not a protest.' They said, 'We consider that a protest.' I said, 'Then you are an idiot.'"

Reading the entire article, you get the impression that the two women were treated the same. They weren't. Sheehan was arrested, held for several hours, and charged with misdemeanors. Young was not arrested nor charged with any crime.

Now What?

2006-01-26T14:51:00.000-08:00

Hamas has won a landslide victory in the Palestinian elections. We've been told that democracy works everywhere, for everybody - and our president accused critics of the Iraq war of believing that some people "didn't deserve democracy." But now free and fair elections have brought a "terrorist organization" to power - a party at least rhetorically committed to the destruction of Israel. How, exactly, are we (the US and/or Israel) to deal with this?

I Spy

2006-01-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

The Bush administration is in the middle of an aggressive push to defend the NSA-WWW (wiretaps without warrants) program. The President is giving speeches all over the country claiming his right, under the Constitution and the Iraq war resolution, to go around the FISA court.

Here's hoping that this charm offensive in the interests of the worst violation of the First and Fourth amendments since Dick Nixon crawled across the earth is as successful as the one W. launched to "reform" Social Security. Turd Blossom is making a rare political miscalculation - he doesn't understand that 51% of Americans like (i.e., prefer to wimpy Democratic alternatives) W. when he's acting tough, not talking tough. Every time W. narrows his little eyes, gives his inappropriate phony chuckle, and struggles manfully to mouth his speechwriters' platitudes about protecting the American people, his numbers drop.

Ciao

2006-01-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

Italy is pulling off the classic cover for a failed military venture: it's declared victory and going home. See the article at the link above about their withdrawal from Iraq. The best part is Scott McClellan's explanation: Italy is "doing this all in close consultation with coalition members, and Italy had previously committed to drawing down troops. Some of this is reflective of the progress we are making on the ground."

All part of the plan, folks -- pay no attention to that iceberg, we meant to hit it.

www.nosuchagency.gov

2006-01-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

Both the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights have filed lawsuits against the NSA's Wiretaps Without Warrants (WWW). See the link to the article at Salon.com above.

And to put this in context, here's the words of President Bush, 20 April 2004, in Buffalo, NY; it's on the official White House site at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040420-2.html

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."

A thought

2006-01-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

It has come time for our monthly discussion question and I an idea has struck me: why don't we talk about the issue of body armor in Iraq. Was it that long ago that we were discussing this very point, only to come to the conclusion that the troops fighting for "Iraqi freedom" were inadequately equipped to do so? That's right, it was during that pesky interruption in the "March to Victory" (hereafter trademarked by yours truly) called the 2004 Presidential Election. Well, I suppose Sen. Kerry may not have been a patriot for voting against that 87 billion appropriation (part of which was going to go to body armor upgrades), but, if we are still talking about this issue almost a year and a half later, what does that make the Republicans in Congress and the W.? Hypocrites doesn't quite cut it...

I suggest checking out the following links:

http://www.pointblankarmor.com/military_accessories.asp

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101061,00.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060107/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_body_armor

The first link is to a website that sells the body armor in question (specifically armor plates designed to protect the side and shoulder area), the second is to a Foxnews article that talks about the lack of armor only months after the invasion of Iraq, and the third is to a story that ran on the AP only a few days highlighting the pesky problem of body armor in Iraq.

Lynndie England in Bigger Hats

2006-01-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

I hope the Bush administration is paying attention to last week's ruling by the 11th Circuit of the US Court of Appeals. That court reinstated a massive verdict against two Salvadoran generals for torturing civilians (including church workers) during the "dirty wars" of the 1980s. Their attorney says that "in the war against communism, they did what the United States government wanted them to do and paid them to do" (see the link above). There's that pesky Nuremberg Defense again.

A New Southpaw

2005-12-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a toast that I hope we won't regret: to Evo Morales, new President of Bolivia. Anyone who wants to change the rules of engagement in the failed "war on drugs" and describes himself as the Bush administration's "nightmare" can't be all bad. And of course he's a friend of Lula's, Hugo's, and (gasp) Fidel's, who obstinately refused to sit still and let us overthrow or kill him, the rude bastard. Nothing is funnier than listening to the media gasp in horror at the "leftists" who have won recent elections in Argentina, Uruguay, and elsewhere.

OK, Fidel is a scumbag who ran out of ideas in 1963, and Hugo is no democrat. But the people of Latin America have had a gutful of "free trade" and conservative military governments servicing US multinationals and filling their own pockets while they napalm the peasantry. Let's let the left have its chance to prove its incompetence - and I'm willing to predict there won't be quite as many desaparecidos as the generals produced.

But following the Constitution is so darn Hard!

2005-12-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

The judges on the FISA court are weighing in on Bush's wiretaps of international telephone calls (if they've really been limited to international calls). See the Washington Post story via the link above. One FISA judge has already resigned in protest, and evidently a number of others want to hear the administration's justification for their actions. Stand by - this could get big. I look forward to hearing Dick Cheney tell federal judges that he knows the Constitution better than they do.

And I'm reconsidering my opposition to the death penalty for anyone who attaches "-gate" to this scandal.

Speak Up, the NSA Can't Hear You

2005-12-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

The domestic spying revelations look like another example of the malign influence of John Yoo. I know I'm late to this realization, but David Cole in the -New York Review of Books- (see the link) recently described just how important Yoo's incredibly broad interpretation of executive powers has been to Bush administration policy. Yoo, now a law professor at Berkeley, was an attorney within the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. He's evidently the author of Alberto Gonzalez's infamous "torture memo." More importantly, Yoo argues that Congress has almost no role to play in foreign policy, and that the Constitution doesn't mean what it clearly says about ratified treaties having the force of law (or more precisely, Yoo believes that the executive has carte blanche to disregard laws and treaties during times of war). Somewhere Richard Nixon is telling David Frost, "when the president does it, that means it's not illegal."

It was My Idea All Along

2005-12-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

President Bush has done what a smart politician does when he knows he's beat: he made the best of the situation and grabbed a little reflected glory. Once John McCain had veto-proof majorities in both houses for an amendment that would actually require the United States to live up to its own regulations as well as international treaties ratified by the Senate (and thus, by the Constitution, having the force of US law) barring any American, anywhere from using "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" toward prisoners, Bush invited him over for a high-profile signing and some valuable photo ops. See Eric Schmitt's story in this morning's NY Times through the link above.

The deal, however, gives intel. officers and military personnel a disturbing defense against charges of violating this law: they can argue that a "reasonable" person could believe that they were following a "lawful order." What's wrong with that? Well, if all US personnel, military or civilian, everywhere are covered by this policy, it should be obvious that an order to abuse or torture (a distinction with little difference) a prisoner is NOT a lawful order. Oh, and it's also the Nuremberg Defense - and we rejected it when the Nazis tried it.

Meanwhile, somewhere in an undisclosed location, Dick Cheney is clutching his chest and growling curses at Lynn.

1,001 Nights

2005-12-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

We've passed the 1,000-day-long mark in our war in Iraq, just the day before the parliamentary elections. Congratulations to the Iraqis - I hope that you get the government most, or some, of you want - and then I hope that this new government orders foreign occupiers, and foreign terrorists, out of its sovereign territory.

I Feel Better Now

2005-12-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

The state of California put Stanley "Tookie" Williams to death this morning. To me, this raises a series of questions:
1. Why did the state execute this man? Was it vengeance, deterrence, eye-for-an-eye retribution?
2. Does his death make his victims' families feel better? If so, why?
3. Did people protest this execution because Williams was innocent? Or famous? Or "reformed"? Does it matter?
4. Should a civilized society purposely kill anyone? If so, why, and under what circumstances?

And I'm still waiting for response #1 to the question I posted a few days ago:

"Imagine that by some miracle you are suddenly the President of the United States, the most powerful man on earth.

What would you do about Iraq?"