This is such a bizarre post, I had to check the date to confirm it wasn't ten years old. Here in Berkeley, we have seen many of our favorite book spots go the way of the Internet. I'm always puzzled by the nostalgia of tactility. Especially by an educated crowd. I enjoy "browsing" online now, and I can't imagine how the two venues can be compared? Surely no one can think that the corner book store can compete with the information and ability to find a dialog on any subject online?
How is it you even consider Iraq a war? Those people were supposed to shower our soldiers with flowers, and the actual military there ran. The violence began when we occupied the country so to proclaim we "won" that war, seems a stretch. however, if you want to understand what happened, read Cobra II and read page 126 a couple of times. You'll learn that our illustrious General Frank chose to hit civilian targets, shock and awe it's called. Read a bit about what our military does about collateral damage, the software program labeled "Bugsplat." If you're still proud of our boys in uniforms, realize that when Frank heard that the software identified 22 sites as heavily populated by civilians, he decided to hit everyone of them. If you think it's different in Afghanistan, or Yemen, or Libya, you need to get out and read more. Mr. Obama appears addicted to murdering small children. I'm sure our soldiers pay the price for our leaders who aren't able to stop killing children.
Why is no one taking Obama to task for bombing Yemen, killing innocents - 21 babies - and then getting caught trying to cover it all up? Forget Libya, let's hear him explain why he saw fit to have Patreus bribe Saleh millions of dollars to hide the fact it was our bombs who killed all those children.
A Senate hearing maybe five years ago that addressed the U.S. military with respect to the number of accusations of rape against them from both fellow soldiers, male and female, illuminated perhaps the worst accounting of these crimes and the figures showed that war had little to do with the atrocities. Something like 40% of the women who enter military service accuse fellow soldiers with crimes starting with abuse, to multiple rapes and repeated attacks by the same individual. While most Americans have no problem pointing their fingers at other groups, nationalities and cohorts, why is it so difficult to cover ourselves in that context?
Which is why the last few administrations have cultivated their availability. Read Rumsfeld's meanderings about completely re-tooling the lean new military. Make no mistake about our military though, they are totally engaged in shock and awe tactics and deliberately target civilians, as was documented in Cobra II. Our generals affectionately refer to the software program used to determine how many civilians murdered as "Bug Splat." When Gen. Franks was asked in 2003 how many of the targets rated high density for Iraqi civilians, he asked how many they counted, and when they said there were 22 such locations, he said to hit them all. No wonder no Iraqis threw flowers on our soldiers.
If you're saying that you feel 21 Yemeni children are of no value if we can murder a couple of people who hate us, that is staggering. Is that what you are implying?
Perhaps when Americans get over their lust for cool speakers, with cultivated speech patterns, and begin to do some light reading on what the framing, unbalancing and spin doctors weave, we may have a slight chance of one day becoming a real (D)emocracy. Until then, we seem wrapped in the illusion that either one of our major parties is speaking anything other than total rubbish. Obama is a actor but the play is as old as Shakespeare and the dialog is pure public relations. Quit thinking you find answers in MSM and get out and talk to people who have been abroad and who have real experience.
That sounds like "hyper-dreaming." You actually think we can go in, take out the Taliban, and then go home, and everything is hunky dory? The trouble in "Arab country's" or countries, is caused because the U.S. has occupied them for decades and turned the people into slaves to dig our oil. It goes back to 1953 at least, when CIA assassinated Mosadeq, installed the Shah of Iran, and turned the boy children into slave workers in the oil fields. I'm not sure where you folks get your education, but this stuff is not new, not hard to learn or ascertain, yet many here live in a bubble.
Mr. Barkell, I work in Nicaraqua, but we know well that if we so much as mention publicly what we see about U.S. activity, our children and our school suffer retribution. In case you haven't followed the Honduras coup d'etat, there is ample documentation of why you need to learn how people like Lanny Watkins is down there working with the Clinton folks to make sure people are in charge whom we can control. And, in case you aren't aware of it, there is a fairly recent web tool called Google. Intelligent people go there before they demand "evidence" for things that are pretty easily documented if you follow the news even cursorily. My experience is first hand. But just in case you are not able to do all that nasty reading, here is one link I found: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB27/index.html
But if you want to interact in a fashion we all can get behind, stop questioning until you've done some work. This stuff is not secretive here. But go down south of the border and start asking questions and you learn quickly how entrenched we are. Panama? You bet! Guatemala, since the 1950's; etc. etc.
Hopefully, you will no longer appear here as calling anyone an "idiot" ought to get you banned. Far as your comment, it is neither helpful, nor cogent.
The research on this also says it would take decades to actually mine any of it, and it probably would be too costly to get out of the ground. Yet that won't stop us from sacrificing our children, and our soul. But my belief is that we are in a war for the world's energy, regardless of the fiscal or human costs. I've yet to see any rationale for any of our overseas adventures. Unless you accept that a silent military coup has taken place and our leaders are simply lip syncing to some Pentagon theme. Until the American people muster up the courage to reject the two party system and elect someone honest, and smart enough to take on some of this, we are doomed to failure. During the Cold War we said we were fighting because either China or Russia was planning on taking over the world and bringing communism to our shores. Replace them with the U.S. and fascism for communism and you begin to approach an honest appraisal of where we are today.
I've done charity work in Central America and don't let anyone tell you we aren't occupying every single country in the region, as well as South America. That includes both CIA and military and the figures I heard for private contractors in Afghanistan is one for one, one contractor for each U.S. military person there.
For those inclined to believe that our reasons in Afghanistan are noble, or without any validity, may have missed this. I submit this link and a portion here for a reminder: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html
The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
Under the rubble and mire, however, there is purported trillions in minerals and energy. Not that I would ever say that our government would destroy an entire civilization for mineral wealth. I will leave that for others to say.
Do you also approve of the drone attacks in Yemen that killed 21 children, and I believe two putative Al Qaeda? And then do you also agree that the Obama administration's decision to have Patreus pay Yemeni president Saleh millions to say that it was his government who sent those missiles? Is it okay for our President to cover up bombing when the press is harmful because innocents are murdered? This story can be found in The Nation if anyone hasn't done the work on this, and Jeremy Scahill is the author. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll provide the link.
Smoke and mirrors is the way I would define this draw down. While the number of military troops may wane, the number of taxpayer funded mercenaries will fill the gap. For every coalition soldier in Afghanistan, there is at least one mercenary. The whole escapade sounds like the way the plan was drawn out. This administration, just as the past few, doesn't want 'real' soldiers to fill the gap, because those render public opinion badly on the beltway gang. Mercenaries, pick your own label, don't render sympathy.
This is such a bizarre post, I had to check the date to confirm it wasn't ten years old. Here in Berkeley, we have seen many of our favorite book spots go the way of the Internet. I'm always puzzled by the nostalgia of tactility. Especially by an educated crowd. I enjoy "browsing" online now, and I can't imagine how the two venues can be compared? Surely no one can think that the corner book store can compete with the information and ability to find a dialog on any subject online?
How is it you even consider Iraq a war? Those people were supposed to shower our soldiers with flowers, and the actual military there ran. The violence began when we occupied the country so to proclaim we "won" that war, seems a stretch. however, if you want to understand what happened, read Cobra II and read page 126 a couple of times. You'll learn that our illustrious General Frank chose to hit civilian targets, shock and awe it's called. Read a bit about what our military does about collateral damage, the software program labeled "Bugsplat." If you're still proud of our boys in uniforms, realize that when Frank heard that the software identified 22 sites as heavily populated by civilians, he decided to hit everyone of them. If you think it's different in Afghanistan, or Yemen, or Libya, you need to get out and read more. Mr. Obama appears addicted to murdering small children. I'm sure our soldiers pay the price for our leaders who aren't able to stop killing children.
Why is no one taking Obama to task for bombing Yemen, killing innocents - 21 babies - and then getting caught trying to cover it all up? Forget Libya, let's hear him explain why he saw fit to have Patreus bribe Saleh millions of dollars to hide the fact it was our bombs who killed all those children.
A Senate hearing maybe five years ago that addressed the U.S. military with respect to the number of accusations of rape against them from both fellow soldiers, male and female, illuminated perhaps the worst accounting of these crimes and the figures showed that war had little to do with the atrocities. Something like 40% of the women who enter military service accuse fellow soldiers with crimes starting with abuse, to multiple rapes and repeated attacks by the same individual. While most Americans have no problem pointing their fingers at other groups, nationalities and cohorts, why is it so difficult to cover ourselves in that context?
Which is why the last few administrations have cultivated their availability. Read Rumsfeld's meanderings about completely re-tooling the lean new military. Make no mistake about our military though, they are totally engaged in shock and awe tactics and deliberately target civilians, as was documented in Cobra II. Our generals affectionately refer to the software program used to determine how many civilians murdered as "Bug Splat." When Gen. Franks was asked in 2003 how many of the targets rated high density for Iraqi civilians, he asked how many they counted, and when they said there were 22 such locations, he said to hit them all. No wonder no Iraqis threw flowers on our soldiers.
If you're saying that you feel 21 Yemeni children are of no value if we can murder a couple of people who hate us, that is staggering. Is that what you are implying?
Perhaps when Americans get over their lust for cool speakers, with cultivated speech patterns, and begin to do some light reading on what the framing, unbalancing and spin doctors weave, we may have a slight chance of one day becoming a real (D)emocracy. Until then, we seem wrapped in the illusion that either one of our major parties is speaking anything other than total rubbish. Obama is a actor but the play is as old as Shakespeare and the dialog is pure public relations. Quit thinking you find answers in MSM and get out and talk to people who have been abroad and who have real experience.
That sounds like "hyper-dreaming." You actually think we can go in, take out the Taliban, and then go home, and everything is hunky dory? The trouble in "Arab country's" or countries, is caused because the U.S. has occupied them for decades and turned the people into slaves to dig our oil. It goes back to 1953 at least, when CIA assassinated Mosadeq, installed the Shah of Iran, and turned the boy children into slave workers in the oil fields. I'm not sure where you folks get your education, but this stuff is not new, not hard to learn or ascertain, yet many here live in a bubble.
Mr. Barkell, I work in Nicaraqua, but we know well that if we so much as mention publicly what we see about U.S. activity, our children and our school suffer retribution. In case you haven't followed the Honduras coup d'etat, there is ample documentation of why you need to learn how people like Lanny Watkins is down there working with the Clinton folks to make sure people are in charge whom we can control. And, in case you aren't aware of it, there is a fairly recent web tool called Google. Intelligent people go there before they demand "evidence" for things that are pretty easily documented if you follow the news even cursorily. My experience is first hand. But just in case you are not able to do all that nasty reading, here is one link I found: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB27/index.html
But if you want to interact in a fashion we all can get behind, stop questioning until you've done some work. This stuff is not secretive here. But go down south of the border and start asking questions and you learn quickly how entrenched we are. Panama? You bet! Guatemala, since the 1950's; etc. etc.
Hopefully, you will no longer appear here as calling anyone an "idiot" ought to get you banned. Far as your comment, it is neither helpful, nor cogent.
The question was, how do you feel about the cover up? Of course killing children is bad, but the cover up? Got it now?
The research on this also says it would take decades to actually mine any of it, and it probably would be too costly to get out of the ground. Yet that won't stop us from sacrificing our children, and our soul. But my belief is that we are in a war for the world's energy, regardless of the fiscal or human costs. I've yet to see any rationale for any of our overseas adventures. Unless you accept that a silent military coup has taken place and our leaders are simply lip syncing to some Pentagon theme. Until the American people muster up the courage to reject the two party system and elect someone honest, and smart enough to take on some of this, we are doomed to failure. During the Cold War we said we were fighting because either China or Russia was planning on taking over the world and bringing communism to our shores. Replace them with the U.S. and fascism for communism and you begin to approach an honest appraisal of where we are today.
I've done charity work in Central America and don't let anyone tell you we aren't occupying every single country in the region, as well as South America. That includes both CIA and military and the figures I heard for private contractors in Afghanistan is one for one, one contractor for each U.S. military person there.
For those inclined to believe that our reasons in Afghanistan are noble, or without any validity, may have missed this. I submit this link and a portion here for a reminder:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html
The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
Under the rubble and mire, however, there is purported trillions in minerals and energy. Not that I would ever say that our government would destroy an entire civilization for mineral wealth. I will leave that for others to say.
Do you also approve of the drone attacks in Yemen that killed 21 children, and I believe two putative Al Qaeda? And then do you also agree that the Obama administration's decision to have Patreus pay Yemeni president Saleh millions to say that it was his government who sent those missiles? Is it okay for our President to cover up bombing when the press is harmful because innocents are murdered? This story can be found in The Nation if anyone hasn't done the work on this, and Jeremy Scahill is the author. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll provide the link.
Smoke and mirrors is the way I would define this draw down. While the number of military troops may wane, the number of taxpayer funded mercenaries will fill the gap. For every coalition soldier in Afghanistan, there is at least one mercenary. The whole escapade sounds like the way the plan was drawn out. This administration, just as the past few, doesn't want 'real' soldiers to fill the gap, because those render public opinion badly on the beltway gang. Mercenaries, pick your own label, don't render sympathy.