The Bush administration made it a point to declare that the U.S. military's strategical progress in the Iraq and Afghanistan interventions, would not, could not, and should not, be judged in terms of body counts or other such statistics.
But it is perhaps in the interest of both the American and Iraqi people, as well as the two presidential candidates, to reflect on these numbers and to let the facts and the statistics speak for themselves.
I've been thinking (uh-oh, right?)... not about technology, this week, but about war. You know, the fact that it's full of stupidity, tragedy, and the irony people who are hardly any different from each other are trying to kill each other by any means necessary, whether with the highest high tech gadgets, fifty-year-old rifle and explosives technology, or the simple expedient of hitting someone with a sharp or heavy object.
So I'm going to post a story I wrote, inspired by a painting I saw a while back. The painting showed a man silhouetted against a window, in the background, and in the foreground there was a framed photograph.
You would think that amidst the GWOT we would be taking national security seriously and that seriousness would be demonstrated by a meaningful security clearance process. But not so.
"The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001. It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President’s Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link."
Three words inspire us all. There are "Gonna be wars," and yes, we are going to "Bomb, bomb Iran." As every inhabitant of the globe knows, "withdraw [from Iraq or Afghanistan] means chaos." If Americans and citizens around the world think things are bad now, you ain't "seen nothin' yet." "It, [this war and that one] was ugly." However, each of us can be assured the combat will continue. Engagement may be impossible to escape. The fight may flourish for "maybe a hundred" years. As Presidential hopeful so eloquent stated, that is "fine with me." However, a perpetual war is not satisfactory for those who advocate for peace.
If you're too young to remember the last war fought by the US, this might be an important read. WWII was legally declared by the US Congress, as required by the now defunct Constitution, and the setting for the only detonation of nuclear bombs in the history of human warfare.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are part of some distant past history, and hardly remembered by most Americans. Even fewer understand that these cities were not military targets, annihilated to minimize the fighting capacity of the Japanese in the last months of the war. In fact, these were civilian targets set up to warn the Russians of what they could face in the coming time of 'peace.' The arms race began on two hot, ugly days in August, 1945, when those very terrifying bombs went off.
What in the world is going on? The New York Times reports that the Iraqis are sitting on $79 Billion in unspent cash. So while they are sitting on cash, the U.S. has gone into debt to the tune of $48 Billion to fund Iraqi reconstruction projects.
Here's what Carl Levin had to say about this
“The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large scale reconstruction projects,” said Mr. Levin, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in the statement. “It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves. We should not be paying for Iraqi projects, while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank,” Mr. Levin said.
I just watched this video at The Raw Story site. It is a video that needs to be made available to as many people as possible, because we will never see it on any traditional media outlet. (Notice the use of traditional media, kos, because I ain't no outsider, dammit.)
The walls that we are building in Iraq, and on our border with Mexico, are simply inhumane. Have we just quit trying to communicate and solve our problems with diplomacy? Have we asked the Iraqis' to do the same thing? Is building a wall the only solution this administration can come up?
Sure, the new Ron Suskind book, out today, is already drawing headlines for its revelation about a cooked CIA document linking Saddam to al-Qaeda. And there may be much more in this vein in the book. But Suskind's influence -- with the mainstream -- pales in comparison to that of Bob Woodward.
And Woodward, very quietly, has a new book coming out on September 8. It's so quiet that it is still untitled and is known officially only as his Bush at War Book Vol. IV.
The Amazon page has nothing beyond that and its purported length at 486 pages. Barnes and Noble doesn't even have the length. But wait: there is a strong hint about the contents.
As some of you know, Dr. Jerry Northington, DE-AL, is not only a veteran of the Vietnam War, but an individual who lives by the courage of his convictions against war. Jerry has marched against the war in Iraq, and has been an activist for peace, speaking at vigils and meet-ups, writing some of the most eloquent statements against the misguided war in Iraq that I've ever read.
It is through the true friendship and generosity of time and spirit that I know Jerry well. When I first learned of his candidacy for Congress in Delaware, I knew the meaning of "More and Better Dems." You see, Jerry means what he says and says what he means. He's as honest and principled a person as I've ever known, and when he takes a stand against something, it's more than words. He'll work tirelessly to effect change -- and he won't give up, no matter how difficult something might be, or how "unpopular" an idea may be.
A man of principle and reason, a courageous and truly compassionate individual: This, ladies and gentleman, is what I'd call a Fighting Dem. Why a Fighting Dem? I submit to you that Jerry Northington knows better than most what war is, and will fight to end it as our Democratic Representative AL (At Large) from the State of Delaware.
Newsflash from ObamaClark.com is that they are nearing FIVE THOUSAND signatures recommending to the Obama campaign that Clark fill the #2 spot. OK, so 5K maybe a bit anemic so far, but they're working to double that number, and it's growing toward a mandate, isn't it?! (I can snark on myself in this world, right?)
Seriously, tell me any way McCain can come up with any veep candidate to come close to the shear photogenic pairing of an Obama/Clark ticket - this is a pairing of both style and substance.
McCain is known for many serious character flaws. Betraying his first wife because she wasn't as pretty as he wanted after she was in a traffic accident. Calling his second wife a cunt when she playfully teased him about his hair. Finding jokes about rape knee-slapping hilarious. There is his shocking absence of knowledge in issues that are critical to our world society today (e.g., on the home front, not knowing how to get on the internet; and on the foreign front, not knowing the difference between Suni and Shia, which is Kindergarten Mideast Politics.) There is the arrogance he showed when he said last week that it would be a "seismic event" if the Pentagon interfered with his political stunts to visit the troops. The list goes on and on. But his most dangerous character flaw of all is being played out right now in front of our eyes.
I have asked the question aloud many times here in the last few weeks. However, I have never really felt the need to write about this question at all. That is, until now.
America is a nation divided, Liberals hate Conservatives, Conservatives Hate Liberals, Moderates think they are both crazy, and Libertarians hate everybody.
As some may know, the media treatment of images from Iraq (or lack of) has been a pet issue of mine for over five years, and is featured in my book. Last week, I covered The New York Times' probe of this matter. The news hook was the recent dis-embedding from the U.S. military of freelance photographer Zoriah Miller for allegedly breaking a kind of ban on such photos. He denies this (I also covered that here).
In presenting the story in print and on the Web, the Times published one of Miller's fatal photos.
In his column today, the paper's public editor, Clark Hoyt, notes that this was the first photo of that type the Times had published in at least the past year, and reviews some of the controversies in this area it has navigated in years' past.
A hearse bearing the remains of 25-year-old Staff Sgt. Alex Jimenez came to a halt in front of his father's house in Lawrence, the scene of a 14-month vigil as the family awaited word of his fate. A memorial shrine with floral arrangements and half-burned votive candles was on the sidewalk. (7-25-08)
Here are seven new frames for current topics suggested by Susan C. Strong Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, from the recent Metaphor News, July - August 2008, an occasional publication of the Metaphor Project: www.metaphorproject.org
