What do 100 of America's most respected foreign-policy experts think?
The “Surge” is failing.
Pakistan is a far greater threat than Iran.
And when it comes to putting the B.S. to Bush administration propaganda, these are only the tip of the iceberg. Get this MUST READ report.
948 OTHER soldiers attempted suicide in 2006, the highest level in 26 years of record keeping. 88 soldiers killed themselves in 2005 and 67 soldiers committed suicide in 2004.
Now that I have your attention, click your way over to Anything They Say, where Bhc has returned after a short hiatus with a powerful sweeping piece, PIPELINES AND IMPERIAL MISSIONS, on the Bushies and the Middle East that will take your breath away. I cannot remember an article so breathtaking in its scope and I read Harper's!
Bhc covers all the well-known angles and facts, starting with the now familiar 1992 Defense Planning Guide which outlines the case for American empire. Additionally, he pulls in his unparalleled knowledge of all things oil, from pipelines to the Iraqi Oil Law, which are key to understanding the Bushies foreign policy. And before all is said and done, Bhc takes readers on a tour de force of the ever important currency and commodity markets and the actions and reasoning behind moves from recently emerging powers Russia, China and Iran. And this is but a cursory view of the subjects covered in the post. Like I said, it is truly sweeping.
But, don't let the scope and length of the article scare you away. Where Bhc shines, and has always shined, is in tying so many seemingly disparate facts into one wholly readable story. By the end, what now appears to be a tangled web of unrelated stories, propaganda and political maneuvering, is unraveled into a perfect web that is supported by the facts and common sense. All of which makes it odd that this story will be entirely new to many, if not, most.
With the above in mind, those who get their news solely from the mainstream media are advised to proceed cautiously and prepare themselves to be shocked by the truth. Of course, we Americans don't much like the truth. “We'd rather be lied to about war and then get pissed about the lie than admit to why we really went there.”
Kevin Tillman speaks publicly for the first time since his brother's death in Afghanistan on Truthdig. Two words: MUST READ! It begins:
It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out.
Much has happened since we handed over our voice:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.
And somehow Iraq was only the beginning of our depravity. Tillman excoriates our leaders as "parasites" and warns that our entire generation will be remembered as traitors for allowing all the inhumanity. However, Tillman ends optimistically by imploring Americans to make our voice heard on November 7th.
But that is a lousy summary so do yourself a favor and read Kevin's entire report.
Technorati Tags: bush, kevin tillman
I highly recommend revisiting Donald Rumsfeld's "Beyond Nation Building" speech, delivered one month before the beginning of the Iraq war on Feb. 14, 2003. Some choice parts include:
The objective is not for us to engage in "nation building"-it is to help Afghans, so they can build their own nation. That is an important distinction.
A long-term foreign presence in a country can be unnatural. It is much like a broken bone. If it is not set properly at the outset, eventually, the muscles and tendons will grow around the break, and the body will adjust to the abnormal condition.
Some ask what lessons our experiences in Afghanistan might offer for the possibility of a post-Saddam Iraq? The President has not made a decision to use force in Iraq. But if he were to do so, that principle would hold true: Iraq belongs to the Iraqis-we do not aspire to own it or run it. We hope to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and to help liberate the Iraqi people from oppression and terror.
This is not to underestimate the challenges the coalition would face. But Iraq has several advantages Afghanistan does not. One is time. The effort in Afghanistan had to be planned and executed in a matter of weeks after September 11th. With Iraq, by contrast, there has been time to prepare. We have set up a Post-War Planning Office to think problems through and coordinate the efforts of coalition countries and U.S. government agencies.
A second advantage is resources. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq has a solid infrastructure, with working networks of roads and resources, such as oil, that will help give a free Iraq the means to get on its feet.
But let me be clear: whatever happens elsewhere in the world, we will not abandon Afghanistan.
