Hot Potato Mash

LECTURING OTHER COUNTRIES ON THE RULE OF LAW

Glenn Greenwald rightfully takes issue with The Washington Post's Editorial Page lecturing Russia about "the rule of law." As Glenn points out, the US lost the right to lecture anyone on the rule of law long ago:

What we've done over the last seven years -- at least much of it -- isn't a secret. It's worthwhile to state frequently in clear, dispassionate terms what our country has done. Our Government has kidnapped people off the street and from their homes and sent them to places like Syria to be tortured for months (including completely innocent people) and then invoked National Security claims to bar them from holding our Government accountable in a court of law. We've disappeared others into secret prisons beyond even the reach of the Red Cross, or encaged them in a lawless black hole on a Cuban island. We've tortured them, sometimes to death, even with the knowledge that many were innocent. We attacked and completely demolished another country that couldn't attack us even if it wanted to. And our President openly declared that he has the power to break our laws, spy on U.S. citizens with no warrants, and indefinitely imprison even our own citizens with no process of any kind. Those are all just facts that aren't really subject to dispute or debate.

Worst of all, having done all of that -- not for weeks or months following the 9/11 attacks, but for years, still -- we've collectively decided, without much turmoil or debate, that it should all be forgiven, that none of it should be punished or even investigated, that it's best just to keep these crimes concealed and, when accidentally disclosed, to immunize the criminals. And all of that is being done right out in the open, so that our formal human rights reports are self-evident, almost laughable, farces, and even countries like Zimbabwe, when their governments want to engage in tyrannical acts, can and do rationally point to the U.S. as the leading example which they're following.

See Glenn's entire post

"A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency" (Glenn Greenwald)

OH MY GOD! Does The Washington Post Know Something We Don't?

This line from a front page article in yesterday's Washington Post may be the scariest thing you will ever read:

That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight.

W O W ! ! !

One Sorry Man

Often hysterical and always on target coverage by Dana Milbank of The Washington Post on John Tanner's pathetic performance in front of the House Judiciary subcommittee yesterday.

Brad has more

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GORE VIDAL ON THE MEDIA

GORE VIDAL: “It's when the news starts to break, how two presidential elections, 2000 - 2004, were stolen and the New York Times would not review the book written about it by Congressmen Conyers, nor Washington Post, nor Wall Street Journal -- the great instruments of news were silent. Well, they're saying 'we don't give a damn about the United States.'”

“What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election” (Congressman John Conyers)

“Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace” (Gore Vidal)

“Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta” (Gore Vidal)

The Real news junkies

Pentagon War Games Predictions On Iraq

Video and article are a couple of weeks old but I missed it back then and it doesn't appear to me that many in the MSM picked it up. In the video above, Keith Olbermann discusses the results of the Pentagon wargaming a withdrawal of US troops out of Iraq with Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks. Ricks article on the subject, from July 17, can be read at WaPo. 

Not surprisingly, the exercises produce a far different result than the dire predictions offered by George the Crazy and Dick the Evil, both of whom love to scare Americans with tall tales of an Iranian takeover of Iraq and Iraq becoming a breeding ground for al-Qaeda (ridiculous on its face since al-Qaeda - think 15 of 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia - and Iran are enemies). Ricks even quotes Bush as saying that al-Qaeda would “be able to recruit better and raise more money from which to launch their objectives” of attacking the US which is again laughable considering nothing is a better recruitment tool than the US occupation of a Muslim country for its oil.

So, just what did the war games find? Iraq is likely to split into three separate countries -- Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish. Iran would likely attempt to exert its influence and “become bogged down in southern Iraq. And al-Qaeda is hardly the threat Bush claims:

U.S. intelligence analysts, however, have a somewhat different view of al-Qaeda's presence in Iraq, noting that the local branch takes its inspiration but not its orders from bin Laden. Its enemies -- the overwhelming majority of whom are Iraqis -- reside in Baghdad and Shiite-majority areas of Iraq, not in Saudi Arabia or the United States. While intelligence officials have described the Sunni insurgent group calling itself al-Qaeda in Iraq as an ”accelerant“ for violence, they have cited domestic sectarian divisions as the main impediment to peace.

W., of course, will not take into account the results of the Pentagon war games because he views Iraq as a game that is to be won or lost. Bush's troubled psyche does not even allow him to  consider the facts, common sense, reason or the lives of Iraqis and US soldiers. The only thing on the line as far as he is concerned is his own disgraceful legacy. Thus, he has absolutely nothing to lose by continuing full speed ahead.

Read the Thomas Ricks article

The Pre-Surge Reality (A--holes)

“The inability of the [Iraqi] government to govern seems irreversible.” “The government is unable to govern.” “We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balanced, and it cannot function.” “A government that can govern, sustain and defend itself is not achievable.”

CIA DIRECTOR Michael V. Hayden, November 13, 2006

Bob Woodward has the rest of the goods at WaPo