US Sends Billions in War Equipment to Kabul – Neither Country Can Afford It

September 6, 2011 · Posted in Foreign Policy · Comment

Another example of the staggering degree to which western governments are literally dumping armaments into countries that simply can’t afford them:

In an attempt to hide the Afghan government’s military dependency on the United States, the US is sending $2.7 billion of military equipment to the beleaguered, corrupt Afghan government. But neither government can afford it.

Preceding the NATO pull out in 2014, the shipments will include 22,000 US vehicles, 20 Russian helicopters, 120mm artillery guns, and transport aircraft from Italy. It will not include tanks, fighter jets, or Black Hawk helicopters, despite Afghan requests.

Estimates of NATO expenditures on Afghanistan’s security infrastructure are expected to be $11 billion by 2014, and $10 billion for military hardware. It takes approximately $6 billion a year – more than three times the Kabul government’s annual income – to sustain these assets. And the US is unprepared to cover that cost.

The US is finding itself pressured in its attempt to cut costs due to budgetary deficits, while also beefing up Afghan security forces to at least feign some measure of ready independence. A recent congressional report uncovering tens of billions of dollars of waste in Afghanistan warned the losses could continue to accrue if the Afghan is unable or unwilling to sustain US-funded projects after withdrawal.

I’ve said it before. War is a racket, always and everywhere.

Tags: afghan war, afghanistan, war

Socialism for the Rich a.k.a. Neoliberalism

January 3, 2011 · Posted in Interventionism · Comment

Here is an accurate analysis as to why libertarians shouldn’t count on most conservatives out there when it comes to defending what they view as free markets:

Because that’s what “privatization” means, to the typical “free market” wonk at Heritage or AEI: Instead of taxing the public to organize a public service through government bureaucrats who operate as a legal monopoly, you tax the public and hire a private company to perform the service. A private company which — thanks to no-bid contracts and all sorts of legal protections — usually operates as a monopoly and has the same outrageous cost-maximizing incentives as a “defense” contractor or public utility. And the tax burden may well actually be greater, because rather than just paying a bunch of white collar civil servants with GS classifications, you’ve got to pay white collar corporate drones — plus the cowboy CEO’s salary and the shareholder dividends. Taxpayer-funded either way, but with “free market reform” you get two layers of parasites instead of just the one. Woo-hoo!

See, it’s only “socialism” if you give the money to poor folks. If you give the money to corporations, that’s “pro-business.” And “pro-business,” of course, means “free market.”

I would be fully content with lefties using the term neoliberalism if they ever clarified that what they are talking about is a system with heavy government intervention, yet with the bulk of the money being distributed to businesses instead of bureaucrats.

This is really something that liberals and conservatives out there (who think they are oh so different from each other) need to grasp at some point if they care to make any sense:

Us voluntaryists and consistent libertarians are not proposing that extorted money be handed to the rich instead of the poor. We are proposing that aggression, and with that extortion, be universally proscribed; that there be no extorted money to play with in the first place!

You’re not a “free market guy” if you continue to tax people and, instead of paying government bureaucrats directly, you hire private businesses out of the voluntary market to do the job.

Just look at the unspeakable killing sprees, such as the murders of 1.4+ million Iraqis along with who knows how many injured for life or languishing in refugee camps, that had to occur in order to transfer wealth from US taxpayers to well-to-do war contractors.

I would argue that there seems to be a lot of evidence out there that hiring a private business for public money leads to far fewer checks and balances and less oversight and to far more chaos and wealth destruction, than if you use the money to pay government bureaucrats directly.

To be sure, the difference is one in degree not in kind. A shit sandwich is still a shit sandwich.

Tags: neoliberalism, socialism, war

The Origins of War in Child Abuse

November 25, 2010 · Posted in Philosophy · Comment

There is some great and eye opening information in this interview:

I wrote about some of what he talks about in States and Religions – Scar Tissues From Our Childhood.

But he obviously has spent a lot more time collecting evidence to support the thesis at hand.

Tags: child abuse, war

AntiWar Discussion – The Liberty Solution

November 23, 2010 · Posted in Foreign Policy · Comment

To be anti-war is to be anti-government. To be anti-government is to be anti-war. There is no way around that simple equation. So don’t fight it. :)

Tags: war

Iraq War Crimes Surface; Probably Greatest War-Leak in Military History

October 22, 2010 · Posted in Foreign Policy · Comment

Well, war is always a crime, so the headline wouldn’t really surprise anybody at this point I’m sure. I love this tweet on wikileaks’ twitter page:

Pentagon says it expects ‘nothing new’ in next Wikileaks dump. ‘Nothing new’ to THEM goes without saying.

So true!

Here’s the site:

At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports (’The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a ‘SIGACT’ or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 ‘civilians’; 23,984 ‘enemy’ (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 ‘host nation’ (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 ‘friendly’ (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the ‘Afghan War Diaries’, previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivallent population size.

Please donate to WikiLeaks at https://donations.datacell.com/ to defend this information.

Here’s the Democracy Now clip:

“Blood on the hands of Wikileaks” … says a military general. Excuse me, but YOU HAVE GOT TO BE F*****G KIDDING.

Tags: war, wikileaks

Iraq – Mission Accomplished

August 28, 2010 · Posted in Foreign Policy · 2 Comments

Seven years of US led genocide have truly wrecked yet another nation. As a premonition of what’s to come, Iraqi insurgents launched a broad series of attacks on August 25th.

Let’s not forget to thank president Bush and the US Congress for this hideous accomplishment. Let’s also not forget to thank President Obama for keeping US forces stationed in this hell hole …

From JustForeignPolicy.org:

Sign the petition telling Congress that about a million Iraqis have likely been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Help us expose to Congress the true costs of war.

A study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion as of July 2006. Iraqis have continued to be killed since then. The death counter provides a rough daily update of this number based on a rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count. (See the complete explanation.)

The estimate that over a million Iraqis have died received independent confirmation from a prestigious British polling agency in September 2007. Opinion Research Business estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed violently since the US-led invasion.

This devastating human toll demands greater recognition. It eclipses the Rwandan genocide and our leaders are directly responsible. Little wonder they do not publicly cite it. You can use the simple HTML code above to post the counter to your website to help spread the word.

Add your name to the petition telling Congress that about a million Iraqis have likely been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Help us continue this important work with a tax-deductible contribution.

See the list of some folks we know have posted the counter.

I will say it again as I have many times … War is a Racket – Made by Government.

Tags: iraq, iraq war, war

Iran – Next Target in the Never Ending US War Racket?

August 4, 2010 · Posted in Government · 1 Comment

The motivations behind waging wars are always and everywhere the same. A war is always accompanied by an enormous transfer of money from taxpayers to government bureaucrats, government investors (a.k.a lobbyists), and thus of course government contractors.

Since the aggressors in wars generally conduct their operations abroad and in environments of brute force, confusion, and often times pure chaos, oversight by the people funding the effort, the taxpayers, can be kept at a convenient minimum.

But the icing on the cake, from the point of view of those benefiting, is of course the fact that all the brutal murders, aggression, and violence perpetrated during wars can be sold to the very people who are being ripped off as a heroic and necessary endeavor to (believe it or not) protect them from harm.

(As I pointed out before, such seriously and fundamentally twisted perceptions on the part of the taxpayers can only be held under a long term regime of irrational indoctrination via institutionalized public schooling, religion, and blind faith in the virtue of the family.)

Thus the profits that the different parties involved realize are enormous, the margins tend to reach levels that any entrepreneur operating on the free market can only dream of. In addition to that, ongoing costs arise for the treatment of veterans and long drawn out occupations, which in turn justify even more expenditures and raise the bar for government intrusion in the private sector.

A war is always and everywhere first and foremost an attack on the domestic population, with the objective to forcefully transfer money from the majority to the politically connected under minimum oversight. In short, war is a racket – made by government.

It is thus kind of funny to see, for example, modern day Republicans flaunt their supposed allegiance to the free market while at the same time being most supportive of all the efforts involved in waging war. But there is no more anti-free market program than war! It is precisely in war where you can see pure government in action.

Rothbard probably put it best when he said in War, Peace, and the State:

It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. Society becomes a herd, seeking to kill its alleged enemies, rooting out and suppressing all dissent from the official war effort, happily betraying truth for the supposed public interest. Society becomes an armed camp, with the values and the morale – as Albert Jay Nock once phrased it – of an “army on the march.”

Or as the great libertarian peace activist Randolph Bourne once said “War is the Health of the State“.

That having been said, with public support for the imperialistic occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan waning, Washington bureaucrats sure are scrambling to find the next excuse for yet more of the same:

Rep. Charles Rangel may be in trouble because he is your standard corrupt district of criminals opportunist, but that has not killed his mandatory slavery bill. On July 15, Rangel introduced H.R. 5741, the Universal National Service Act, and it was referred to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel on July 23. Even though the bill does not have co-sponsors, it is currently under debate.

“I have introduced legislation to reinstate the draft and to make it permanent during time of war,” said Rep. Charles Rangel.

“I have introduced legislation to reinstate the draft and to make it permanent during time of war. It is H.R. 5741, and what this does is to make everyone between the ages of 18 and 42 – whether they’re men or women, whether they’re straight or gay – to have the opportunity to defend this great country whenever the president truly believes that our national security is threatened,” Rangel said from the floor of the House.

Rangel specifically said the legislation is designed to be used “during time of war.” On the day before Rangel’s slavery bill went to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, Texas Rep. Louis Buller Gohmert introduced House Resolution 1553. It has since been referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

“Expressing support for the State of Israel’s right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within reasonable time to protect against such an immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel,” Gohmert’s resolution states.

Language contained in the resolution condemns Iran “for its threats of annihilating the United States and the State of Israel” (threats Iran has never issued) and supports the use of “all means of persuading the Government of Iran to stop building and acquiring nuclear weapons” (nuclear weapons Iran does not have and does not possess the capability to produce). Gohmert’s bill supports Israel’s “right” to use “all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran.”

In 2007, Mohamed El Baradei, at the time the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran did not have nuclear material and also stated that the country did not have a weaponization program.

Also in 2007, the National Intelligence Council, where U.S. mid-term and long-term strategic policy is formulated for the intelligence community, stated “with moderate-to-high confidence… Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon.”

“There is no evidence that Iran has made a decision to produce nuclear weapons,” said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while speaking out against sanctions on Iran.

In July 21, the day before Gohmert introduced House Resolution 1553, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said the U.S. and Russia know that Iran does not have any nuclear weapons.

Despite the fact there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program and no indication Iran plans to attack Israel, let alone the absurd notion it will attack the United States, Israel and the United States are preparing to attack Iran. The claim Iran plans to attack the United States is ironically reminiscent of the neocon accusation that Saddam Hussein planned to attack the U.S., one of several obvious falsehoods used as an excuse to invade.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel have been shuttling between Washington and Tel Aviv, pushing for crippling economic sanctions that even they concede will not change Iran’s nuclear policy. These sanctions are being put in place, both by the United States and its allies. The open prediction that they will fail is meant to indicate just one thing — military attacks are inevitable,” writes Muhammad Sahimi for PBS. “The rhetorical rationale for attacking Iran keeps coming out of Washington. Most astonishingly, there is a resolution before the U.S. Congress, signed by one-third of the Republican caucus, that urges support for Israeli military attacks on Iran…. The resolution, H. Res. 1553, represents a green light for a bombing campaign. It provides explicit support for military strikes.”

The bomb Iran consensus was underscored late last month when former CIA director Michael Hayden told CNN’s State of the Union that a military attack against Iran “seems inexorable.” Hayden added that in his “personal thinking, I have begun to consider that that may not be the worst of all possible outcomes.” In other words, for Hayden, mass murder is preferable to diplomacy.

“The next step is tough sanctions, economic sanctions. Frankly it’s a last chance for Iran to avoid giving the rest of the world, including the United States, a hard choice between allowing Iran to go nuclear and using military power to stop them from doing that,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman in April.

“We have to contemplate the final option,” said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., “the use of force to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”

“The administration needs to expand its approach and make clear to the Iranian regime and the American people: If diplomatic and economic pressures do not compel Iran to terminate its nuclear program, the U.S. military has the capability and is prepared to launch an effective, targeted strike on Tehran’s nuclear and supporting military facilities,” former senator Charles S. Robb and retired general Charles Wald wrote for the Washington Post on July 9.

Slaughtering innocents is a “terrible thing,” said Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., but “sometimes it is better to go to war than to allow the Holocaust to develop a second time.”

Graham made this ludicrous statement regardless of the fact Iran has never threatened to attack Israel. It is based on a mistranslation of a speech delivered by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad published in the New York Times.

The Times played a big role in the Iraq invasion when Judith Miller published neocon lies about aluminum tubes and other such patently fallacious nonsense. Neocon lies ultimately resulted in the murder of more than a million Iraqis, a total approaching Nazi war crimes.

As should be expected, the neocons figure big in the Iran attack plot now unfolding. “If military force is ever employed, it should be done in a decisive fashion. The Iran government’s ability to wage conventional war against its neighbors and our troops in the region should not exist. They should not have one plane that can fly or one ship that can float.” Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute wrote earlier this year.

In other words, according to neocons over at the criminal organization largely responsible for mass murder in Iraq, Iran should be reduced to a parking lot in order to prevent it from responding to an attack.

Neocon Reuel Marc Gerecht explains how the United States will be sucked into an Israeli-launched attack against Iran. “What is important to understand about this campaign is that the aim of Gerecht and of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu is to support an attack by Israel so that the United States can be drawn into direct, full-scale war with Iran,” writes historian Gareth Porter.

That has long been the Israeli strategy for Iran, because Israel cannot fight a war with Iran without full U.S. involvement. Israel needs to know that the United States will finish the war that Israel wants to start.

Gerecht openly expresses the hope that any Iranian response to the Israeli attack would trigger full-scale U.S. war against Iran. “If Khamenei has a death-wish, he’ll let the Revolutionary Guards mine the strait, the entrance to the Persian Gulf,” writes Gerecht. “It might be the only thing that would push President Obama to strike Iran militarily….”

Self defense is not an option. If Iran responds to an attack — and its leadership has stated repeatedly it will — the U.S. will become directly involved.

“Gerecht’s argument for war relies on a fanciful nightmare scenario of Iran doling out nuclear weapons to Islamic extremists all over the Middle East. But the real concern of the Israelis and their lobbyists, as Gerecht’s past writing has explicitly stated, is to destroy Iran’s Islamic regime in a paroxysm of U.S. military violence,” writes Porter.

This “paroxysm of U.S. military violence” will undoubtedly call for adding a fresh crop of bullet-stoppers and that is where H.R. 5721 comes into play. As Rangel noted, his bill will provide under government imposed mandate that “everyone between the ages of 18 and 42 – whether they’re men or women, whether they’re straight or gay – to have the opportunity to defend this great country” from imaginary and trumped-up enemies.

Rangel’s bill may never make it out of committee. The attack on Iran, however, is all but a foregone conclusion.

And in case you care about the truth, here are Ahmadinejad’s actual statements which, as is completely predictable, the press and government officials immediately feel the instinctive urge to completely and shamelessly blow out of proportion.

This one is about him calling for the “annihilation of Israel”:

…But let’s take a closer look at what Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. It is a merit of the ‘New York Times’ that they placed the complete speech at our disposal. Here’s an excerpt from the publication dated 2005-10-30:

“They say it is not possible to have a world without the United States and Zionism. But you know that this is a possible goal and slogan. Let’s take a step back. [[[We had a hostile regime in this country which was undemocratic, armed to the teeth and, with SAVAK, its security apparatus of SAVAK [the intelligence bureau of the Shah of Iran's government] watched everyone. An environment of terror existed.]]] When our dear Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Iranian revolution] said that the regime must be removed, many of those who claimed to be politically well-informed said it was not possible. All the corrupt governments were in support of the regime when Imam Khomeini started his movement. [[[All the Western and Eastern countries supported the regime even after the massacre of September 7 [1978] ]]] and said the removal of the regime was not possible. But our people resisted and it is 27 years now that we have survived without a regime dependent on the United States. The tyranny of the East and the West over the world should have to end, but weak people who can see only what lies in front of them cannot believe this. Who would believe that one day we could witness the collapse of the Eastern Empire? But we could watch its fall in our lifetime. And it collapsed in a way that we have to refer to libraries because no trace of it is left. Imam [Khomeini] said Saddam must go and he said he would grow weaker than anyone could imagine. Now you see the man who spoke with such arrogance ten years ago that one would have thought he was immortal, is being tried in his own country in handcuffs and shackles [[[by those who he believed supported him and with whose backing he committed his crimes]]]. Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime [Israel] has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world.”
(source: www.nytimes.com, based on a publication of ‘Iranian Students News Agency’ (ISNA) — insertions by the New York Times in squared brackets — passages in triple squared brackets will be left blank in the MEMRI version printed below)

It’s becoming clear. The statements of the Iranian President have been reflected by the media in a manipulated way. Iran’s President betokens the removal of the regimes, that are in power in Israel and in the USA, to be possible aim for the future. This is correct. But he never demands the elimination or annihilation of Israel. He reveals that changes are potential. The Shah-Regime being supported by the USA in its own country has been vanquished. The eastern governance of the Soviet Union collapsed. Saddam Hussein’s dominion drew to a close. Referring to this he voices his aspiration that changes will also be feasible in Israel respectively in Palestine. He adduces Ayatollah Khomeini referring to the Shah-Regime who in this context said that the regime (meaning the Shah-Regime) should be removed.

Certainly, Ahmadinejad translates this quotation about a change of regime into the occupied Palestine. This has to be legitimate. To long for modified political conditions in a country is a world-wide day-to-day business by all means. But to commute a demand for removal of a ‘regime’ into a demand for removal of a state is serious deception and dangerous demagogy.

And this one is about his supposed denial of the holocaust:

What is this assertion based on? In substance it is based on dispatches of 2 days – 2005-12-14 and 2006-02-11.

“The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and the Western states and has denied the Holocaust. Instead of making Israel’s attacks against Palestine a subject of discussion ‘the Western states devote their energy to the fairy-tale of the massacre against the Jews’, Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday in a speech at Zahedan in the south-east of Iran which was broadcasted directly by the news-channel Khabar. That day he stated that if the Western states really believe in the assassination of six million Jews in W.W. II they should put a piece of land in Europe, in the USA, Canada or Alaska at Israel’s disposal.” – dispatch of the German press agency DPA, 2005-12-14.

The German TV-station n24 spreads the following on 2006-12-14 using the title ‘Iran’s President calls the Holocaust a myth’: “The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and called the Holocaust a ‘myth’ used as a pretext by the Europeans to found a Jewish state in the center of the Islamic world . ‘In the name of the Holocaust they have created a myth and regard it to be worthier than God, religion and the prophets‘ the Iranian head of state said.”

The Iranian press agency IRNA renders Ahmadinejad on 2005-12-14 as follows: “‘If the Europeans are telling the truth in their claim that they have killed six million Jews in the Holocaust during the World War II – which seems they are right in their claim because they insist on it and arrest and imprison those who oppose it, why the Palestinian nation should pay for the crime. Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions.’ [...] ‘If you have committed the crimes so give a piece of your land somewhere in Europe or America and Canada or Alaska to them to set up their own state there.’ [...] Ahmadinejad said some have created a myth on holocaust and hold it even higher than the very belief in religion and prophets [...] The president further said, ‘If your civilization consists of aggression, displacing the oppressed nations, suppressing justice-seeking voices and spreading injustice and poverty for the majority of people on the earth, then we say it out loud that we despise your hollow civilization.’”

There again we find the quotation already rendered by n24: “In the name of the Holocaust they created a myth.” We can see that this is completely different from what is published by e.g. the DPA – the massacre against the Jews is a fairy-tale. What Ahmadinejad does is not denying the Holocaust. No! It is dealing out criticism against the mendacity of the imperialistic powers who use the Holocaust to muzzle critical voices and to achieve advantages concerning the legitimization of a planned war. This is criticism against the exploitation of the Holocaust.

CNN (2005-12-15) renders as follows: “If you have burned the Jews why don’t you give a piece of Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to Israel. Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime?”

The Washingtonian ”Middle East Media Research Institute’ (MEMRI) renders Ahmadinejad’s statements from 2005-12-14 as follows: “…we ask you: if you indeed committed this great crime, why should the oppressed people of Palestine be punished for it? * [...] If you committed a crime, you yourselves should pay for it. Our offer was and remains as follows: If you committed a crime, it is only appropriate that you place a piece of your land at their disposal – a piece of Europe, of America, of Canada, or of Alaska – so they can establish their own state. Rest assured that if you do so, the Iranian people will voice no objection.”

The MEMRI-rendering uses the relieving translation ‘great crime’ and misappropriates the following sentence at the * marked passage: “Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions.” This sentence has obviously been left out deliberately because it would intimate why the Israeli state could have forfeited the right to establish itself in Palestine – videlicet because of its aggressive expansionist policy against the people of Palestine, ignoring any law of nations and disobeying all UN-resolutions.

In spite of the variability referring to the rendering of the statements of Iran’s President we should nevertheless note down: the reproach of denying the Holocaust cannot be sustained if Ahmadinejad speaks of a great and huge crime that has been done to the Jews.

Two great examples of how, unsurprisingly, the government and the media continue to lie to us to do their part in keeping up the war racket, that beautifully lucrative and highly profitable money printing machine.

Tags: iran, war, war racket

True Heroism Takes Courage

June 2, 2010 · Posted in Foreign Policy · 2 Comments

After getting impoverished, brainwashed and/or bullied into the murderous cult that is the military, most people get stuck for the rest of their lives and take their families with them. It takes an incredible amount of courage and self searching to do what this fellow did.

On Memorial Day, I do not salute the paid hitmen in green costumes who are killing other humans overseas right now, just because somebody told them to.

I salute those who have been able to see through all the propagandistic and conformist fog blown their way, those who understand the injustice in what they did and who come forth to speak the truth like this veteran. He is a true hero.

Tags: war

Soliders … Paid Murderers in Green Costumes

April 7, 2010 · Posted in Foreign Policy · 4 Comments

The greatest crimes are not performed by petty criminals, thieves or even killers. We need not worry about the people whom everyone knows to be bad. We don’t need to fear them at all. Society is perfectly capable of dealing with such exceptions.

What we do need to fear is the moral concepts in people’s minds that make them not only justify but even cheer on and encourage invading other people’s regions to perform mass murder, if only it is performed by laughing and mindless killers in green costumes, from a safe distance, and against men and children who have done them no harm.

The civilian death toll in Iraq is estimated to be around 1 million. That is about 200,000 times the number of civilian people murdered in the clip above. Imagine witnessing more incidents such as the one in the video. Imagine watching about 60 per day, every single day, 8 years straight, and you would still not have seen all of the cruelties perpetrated in this mindless and cruel invasion perpetrated by the US government.

War is a racket that will continue for as long as people cling on to the mad fantasy that is the government.

Tags: soliders, war

8 Years Later – Most Republicans Now Realize Iraq War Was a Mistake

March 20, 2010 · Posted in Foreign Policy · 1 Comment

From a Cato panel:

In a Thursday panel at Cato on conservatism and war, U.S. Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and John Duncan (R-Tenn.) revealed that the vast majority of GOP members of Congress now think it was wrong for the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2003.

The discussion was moderated by Grover Norquist, who asked the congressmen how many of their colleagues now think the war was a mistake.

Rohrabacher:

“I will say that the decision to go in, in retrospect, almost all of us think that was a horrible mistake. …Now that we know that it cost a trillion dollars, and all of these years, and all of these lives, and all of this blood… all I can say is everyone I know thinks it was a mistake to go in now.”

McClintock:

“I think everyone [in Congress] would agree that Iraq was a mistake.”

Watch the clip:

… and see, because they were so abysmally wrong and foolish, it is very important for you to listen to everything they have to say now about Afghanistan. THAT war was stupid, THIS war is good. :)

Haha, Republocrats are such an adorable and funny little bunch …

Tags: iraq, iraq war, war