Monday, November 30, 2009

Obama’s Big Speech


Obama’s Big Speech by Jeff Huber

"I’d like to see him go on TV Tuesday night and say, "My fellow Americans, I was wrong. Our war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with national security anymore and we can’t afford it, and I’m not sending one more kid into harm’s way to fight there. As of tonight, I’m ordering a complete withdrawal." But the odds of that happening are slimmer than a licorice rope. Obama couldn’t take the heat."



Addicted to Nonsense By Chris Hedges

"We stand on the cusp of one of the most seismic and disturbing dislocations in human history, one that is radically reconfiguring our economy as it is the environment, and our obsessions revolve around the trivial and the absurd."

"The American oligarchy—1 percent of whom control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined—are the characters we most envy and watch on television."

"The working class, comprising tens of millions of struggling Americans, are locked out of television’s gated community. They are mocked, even as they are tantalized, by the lives of excess they watch on the screen in their living rooms."

"We consume these countless lies daily. We believe the false promises that if we spend more money, if we buy this brand or that product, if we vote for this candidate, we will be respected, envied, powerful, loved and protected."



Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh: The Face of Rotted Washington by Glenn Greenwald

"It's impossible to find a more perfectly representative face for the rotted Washington establishment than Evan Bayh. He is the pure expression of virtually every attribute that makes the Beltway so dysfunctional, deceitful and corrupt."




Bill

Friday, November 27, 2009

Going the way of Dubai?


See Dubai's Fantasy Island Gamble in the Persian Gulf Comes to an Ugly End by Numerian

This article about Dubai's falling apart ends with:

"Sound familiar? When do you think global investors will start connecting these dots and ask: exactly what is backing the debt of the United States that has flooded the markets in the past nine years under Bush and Obama? At least Dubai had a presumed rich uncle in Abu Dhabi that would come to the rescue, even though now everyone realizes that was a very costly mistaken assumption. In the case of the US, the United States was the rich uncle everybody else looked to in order to solve global problems. Now that rich uncle has gone crazy in its own orgy of gambling, whoring, and over-indebtedness."


"Except there is no one – absolutely no one – who can come to the United States’ rescue. And if you want to believe that the US would never, ever ask for a little extra time to pay back its debt, or ask for it to be restructured in some way, or debase its currency with inflation in order to throw its debt burden on to those who have financed it, that is your affair. Just remember there are millions of individuals, funds, corporations, and governments around the world who have bought US Treasuries. It only takes a few to wonder long and hard enough about just how safe and secure these Treasuries are to cause a stampede out of them, at which point the US is exposed like Dubai as a naked supplicant in the global market, begging for alms and a little forgiveness for past sins."


Bill

Obama: Profile in Courage, or Cave-In?


Obama: Profile in Courage, or Cave-In? by Ray McGovern

"But as he studied the options, cost, and likely outcomes, Kennedy came to see U.S. intervention in Vietnam as a fool's errand. Few Americans are aware that, just before he was assassinated, Kennedy had decided to pull all troops out of Vietnam by 1965."

"Kennedy concluded that there was no responsible course other than to press ahead for a phased withdrawal regardless of the opposition from his senior national security advisers. He decided to pull 1,000 troops out of Vietnam by the end of 1963 and the rest by 1965."

"So the question is whether Barack Obama is "no Jack Kennedy," or whether he will summon the courage to stand up to the misguided military brass of today. We are talking, after all, about thousands more being killed-and for what?

I would suggest to the President that he give another close read to Goldstein's "Lessons in Disaster" and then ponder the lessons that leap out of Barbara Tuchman's The March to Folly: From Troy to Vietnam.

Obama may also wish to ponder the words of W.E.B. Dubois:

"Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow...."



---------------------------

I'll add my 2 cents here: usually I agree with Ray McGovern, but I think he's missing something here - that Afghanistan is serving a purpose outside of the scope of what appears to be the proposition, specifically that it serves as a diversion of sufficient magnitude (can be "puffed" enough) to move attention from the Iraq (what was to be the 1st of a list of countries that were to fall as our military transformed the Middle East to Israel's liking) debacle to somewhere else, and it had to be something big. Afghanistan fit the bill.


Bill

Thursday, November 26, 2009

nothing less than astonishing


The Blair-Bush Conspiracy on Iraq By Dave Lindorff

"Most Americans are blissfully in the dark about it, but across the Atlantic in the UK, a commission reluctantly established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown under pressure from anti-war activists in Britain is beginning hearings into the actions and statements of British leaders that led to the country’s joining the US invasion of Iraq in 2003."


...

"It is nothing less than astonishing that so little news of the British investigation into the origins of the illegal Iraq War is being conveyed to Americans by this country’s corporate media—yet another example demonstrating that American journalism is dead or dying. It is even more astonishing that neither the Congress nor the president here in America is making any similar effort to put America’s leaders in the dock to tell the truth about their machinations in engineering a war that has cost the US over $1 trillion (perhaps $3 trillion eventually when debt payments and the cost of veterans care is added in), and over 4000 lives, not to mention as many as one million innocent Iraqi lives."


15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at the Seams By David DeGraw

"So let’s break down these numbers.

You have a population of 50 million people who are in desperate need of money, they most likely have no health insurance and can’t afford to get health care or help of any kind. Part of this population probably also has loved ones who can’t get life sustaining medical treatments, or loved ones who have already died due to lack of costly medical treatment. The clock is ticking loud for these people and they are running out of options fast, and time delayed is time closer to death.

While the richest 1 percent have never had it so good, a significant percentage of the U.S. population now has firsthand experience in this. Millions upon millions of Americans are poor, broke, struggling, starving, desperate… and armed.

We are sitting on a powder keg!

We are now witnessing the critical unraveling of U.S. society."


Bill

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Why They Hate Us (I): on military occupation


Why They Hate Us (I): on military occupation by Stephen M. Walt

"One of the many barriers to developing a saner U.S. foreign policy is our collective failure to appreciate why military occupations generate so much hatred, resentment, and resistance, and why we should therefore go to enormous lengths to avoid getting mired in them. Costly occupations are an activity you hope your adversaries undertake, especially in areas of little intrinsic strategic value. We blundered into Somalia in the early 1990s without realizing that we weren't welcome; we invaded Iraq thinking we would be greeted as liberators, and we still don't fully understand why many Afghans resent our presence and why some are driven to take up arms against us."


A Trial That Will Convict Us All By Paul Craig Roberts

"The Republican and right-wing rant that a trial is too good for these people proves what I have written for a number of years: Republicans and many Americans who think of themselves as conservatives have no regard for the US Constitution or for civil liberties."



Bill

Friday, November 20, 2009

Internet Under Siege


Internet Under Siege by Philip Giraldi

"The danger is real. Most Americans who are critical of the actions of their own government rely on the internet for information that is uncensored and often provocative, including sites like Antiwar.com. As the United States generally follows Israeli initiatives for security it is likely only a matter of time before Obama’s internet warfare teams surface either at the Defense Department or at State. Deliberately overloading and attacking the internet to damage its credibility is all too possible; witness the numerous sites that have been "hacked" and have had to shut down or restrict their activities. American citizens who are concerned about maintaining their few remaining liberties should sound the alarm and tell the politicians that we don’t need more government advice on what we should think and do. Hands off the internet."




Bill

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Throw the Money Changers Out of the Temple


Please see Throw the Money Changers Out of the Temple

"Wall Street profits are an obscene affront to Scripture, as Robert Scheer details in an interview with Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now!”"


Bill

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A conspiracy so vast


This video, called "911 missing links" (click here to view) is long (2 hours), but after the first 10-20 minutes, you wouldn't be able to turn it off - assuming you really do care about what's happened - and is happening - to America.

Why should you care? If I were asked to summarize in just 3 words, the words would be: "it's not over".

What can you do? Spread the word. Pass this link around. Show it to your family and friends.

Where should we be headed? To the removal of money, the corruption factor, from our political system. We need to elect people to office who care about America, and throw the Israel-firsters out.


Bill

Monday, November 16, 2009

Prosecuting Bush for murder


Be sure to see this this short video on prosecuting Bush for murder.

I firmly believe that, in addition to withdrawing all armed forces from the Middle East, we must try to make amends for all the killing and destruction caused by Bush and his Neocon handlers. Putting Bush on trial for murder will begin this sequence, because he wouldn't go down alone.

Mr Bugliosi is releasing a film based on his book in 2010.


Bill

Shining a Light on the Roots of Terrorism


Shining a Light on the Roots of Terrorism by Ray McGovern

Unfortunately, we have a long history of being misled and duped by our information supply, but no single issue stands above this one when it comes to providing examples.

Be sure to read this - and think about it.


Bill

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The USS Liberty


There's a slight chance you've heard the story of the USS Liberty, but if you haven't, here's the story from a survivor:

WHY SHOULD MY FAMILY STILL LOVE ME?
Phillip F. Tourney, survivor USS LIBERTY - tonktime5 @ yahoo.com
September 2, 2008

I write this testimony not just about me but about my shipmates as well, what they have told me about themselves. I look in the mirror and I am them. How did we get here together with our lives so intertwined when we all went our different ways, not to see each other for as much as 20 years or more and yet we are the same? I have walked in your shoes, brothers. I was a 20-year old sailor, loving life, enjoying seeing the world. I had great shipmates, family and friends. I was just an all around red-blooded American young man.

At 2:00 on June 8, 1967 my life changed forever. My ship, the USS LIBERTY, was deliberately and savagely attacked by our so called ally, Israel, in an attack that lasted about as long as the attack on Pearl Harbor. In this sneak attack our attackers knew exactly who they were attacking. They have admitted as much on film for all to see. The Israelis attacked their American friends anyway, murdering 34 brave, young sailors and marines and wounding 174 others.

In this vicious attack they used rockets, canons, napalm, 50 caliber armor piercing bullets, and torpedoes against our helpless ship. Our ship was in international waters doing what our government had ordered us to do. We were no threat to anyone, especially Israel.

Our government recalled the lifesaving rescue aircraft sent to our aid from the USS SARATOGA on orders from the chain of command from Admiral John McCain to Robert McNamara to LBJ himself. We were left out there on our own to have the Israelis do to us as they wished and they did. They shot at our life rafts to insure no survivors would be allowed, no one was to be left alive, which is in itself a war crime.

In this 2 hour attack the Government of Israel used jet aircraft, torpedo boats, and troop bearing helicopters against our ship. The helicopters left the scene just as they were getting ready to board our ship and finish us off. They left because of an incorrect message that help was on the way.

What Israel left behind was a ship in distress with over 800 rocket and canon holes in her, thousands of armor piercing bullets in her skin, fire burning us up from the napalm and a 40 by 40 foot torpedo hole in her starboard side. We did not see any help from our government for about 18 hours after the attack, when help was only 15 to 20 minutes away.

A disgraceful testament to the United States Government in their complicity with Israel to let them murder us all and blame it on Egypt. We put a monkey wrench into their plans. We didn’t sink as planned and we could identify our murderers.

Several days after the attack Admiral Isaac Kidd came aboard our ship to get testimony from the surviving crew. He got his testimony and we told him how barbaric our Israeli friends were to us. His stern and repulsive answer to us was to shut up and never repeat a word of this act of treason or the cover up of such by our government and the murdering Israelis.

Admiral Kidd’s order came from none other than Admiral John McCain, Jr., Senator McCain’s father. The orders were if any of us spoke a word about this attack to anyone, including our families, we would go to prison for the rest of our lives or worse and, of course, we all knew worse meant - death! We were treated this way by our own government when we had served our country with dignity, honor, and courage.

The LIBERTY crew is one of the most highly decorated crews in naval history. Our ship is second to none in battle damage. The crew was disposed and we all went our own ways. When I got discharged off the LIBERTY on Dec 12, 1967, my tour of duty was up. I wasn’t that same 20 year old young man with the rest of his life ahead of him anymore. I felt like I was 50 years old and with no future ahead of me. I was married at the time and had a baby on the way, living day by day with the LIBERTY monster on my back.

I didn’t feel sorry for myself, but I didn’t feel good about myself, either. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I went to the VA and told them my problems the best way I could. I was turned away as a ‘malcontent’. They didn’t believe what I told them concerning what had happened to me. They said I was making this story up. They had never heard about the USS LIBERTY and said Israel would never do such a thing. Once again, my government let me down.

I went deeper and deeper into the bottle. I was drunk most of the time. I was mean to my family, not just my wife, but my whole family–parents, brothers, sisters, everyone. Everything I could do destructive to myself, I did. Always chasing other women, fighting with who ever wanted a piece of me. I thought I was bullet proof. No one wanted to be around me, especially my now ex-wife, after 13 years of hell.

The destructive life style stayed with me for about 20 years after the attack, still not knowing how to get out of the hell hole I had dug myself into. Then, I read an article by Master Chief Stan White, a shipmate aboard the LIBERTY, that was in the Rocky Mountain News. I almost fell over! I thought no one would dare speak about the LIBERTY. I knew I hadn’t because of the fear of God the government had put in my soul. I then found out that a few survivors got together and were talking about the injustice that had befallen us.

I was relieved to be reunited with my mates and found out through another shipmate, Ron Kukal, that his life was also just like mine and he said to go back to the VA. They will help you, now. I was very reluctant to do so but I did and found a new door had opened for me. I found out I was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

How could our government betray their service men and allow Israel to get by with murder then, as they are doing to this day, by protecting them? The only explanation that makes sense is that one is just as guilty as the other. It’s disgusting and un-American.

I have been re-married now for 25 years. My wife never knew anything about the LIBERTY when I married her, but, she knows now, BOY, does she know about the LIBERTY. It has been extremely hard for her to live with me, just as it has been for all LIBERTY wives and families. We bring our nightmares upon them on a daily basis. The LIBERTY cover-up has destroyed so many good, loving, caring people.
It’s heart breaking.

Why do our families still love us? I don’t know but they do and they now understand how important that this piece of history be set straight in the history books, where we are nowhere to be found, not in the lies Israel and our government would have you believe. We are very lucky to be alive and loved by our families.

Phillip F. Tourney, survivor USS LIBERTY
Three time president of LIBERTY Vets. Assoc.
Co-host of the LIBERTY HOUR
republicbroadcasting.org
tonktime5 @ yahoo.com



Bill

Saturday, November 14, 2009

A million dollars per soldier per year


High Costs Weigh on Troop Debate for Afghan War By CHRISTOPHER DREW

Just in case you've wondered how to gauge the cost, on top of lives lost and suffering by everyone involved, of the Afghanistan debacle ...

"Even if fewer troops are sent, or their mission is modified, the rough formula used by the White House, of about $1 million per soldier a year, appears almost constant."

...

"Military analysts said the increase reflects a surge in costs for mine-resistant troop carriers and surveillance equipment that would apply to troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But some costs are unique to Afghanistan, where it can cost as much as $400 a gallon to deliver fuel to the troops through mountainous terrain."

...

"Mr. Murtha said he opposed sending more troops, though he would support any decision Mr. Obama made. He said he was concerned that even without a supplemental bill, total spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would surge past $1 trillion next year, which could hamper the economy for years to come."


Bill

Friday, November 13, 2009

Welcome Home, War!


Welcome Home, War! Alfred W. McCoy and Tom Engelhardt

These two articles talk about the largest and most important issue of our time. This matter has been terribly on my mind for too many years now. But lacking the means to do this level of research - and then so well articulate - this problem, I decided I had to wait for someone else to describe it. Alfred W. McCoy and Tom Engelhardt have done this, admirably.

These may well be the most important articles you've read in quite some time. Please read them and thoughtfully consider the implications for you and your family.

There is a (conceptually) simple solution to this problem: remove money from politics. This will allow us to elect people who really care about America and the world at large, i.e. our best people, and not the special interests with the most money. We've been badly duped for a long time, our future is on the line, and we've got to stop them. This is my solution.

I'm surprised and disappointed that my favorite great American institution, M.I.T, hasn't come up with an Internet based kick-ass voting system - it's so easy to imagine. C'mon, you guys!


From this article:

"In a future America, enhanced retinal recognition could be married to omnipresent security cameras as a part of the increasingly routine monitoring of public space. Military surveillance equipment, tempered to a technological cutting edge in counterinsurgency wars, might also one day be married to the swelling domestic databases of the NSA and FBI, sweeping the fiber-optic cables beneath our cities for any sign of subversion. And in the skies above, loitering aircraft and cruising drones could be checking our borders and peering down on American life."


Bill

Obama’s Betrayals


Obama’s Betrayals by Sheldon Richman

"Obama has been doing a lot of “growing” in office. That’s the term the establishment uses when a candidate who apparently holds maverick views gets into office and abandons those views in favor of views more congenial to the permanent ruling elite."


...

"It is instructive that the neoconservatives who gave us the Bush war program are now delighted with Obama’s policies, including his escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As Charles Krauthammer wrote in the Washington Post in late May, "If hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue, then the flip-flops on previously denounced anti-terror measures are the homage that Barack Obama pays to George Bush. Within 125 days, Obama has adopted with only minor modifications huge swaths of the entire, allegedly lawless Bush program." "


Bill

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Who's next?


West Bank rabbi: Jews can kill Gentiles who threaten Israel By Haaretz Service

"Just weeks after the arrest of alleged Jewish terrorist, Yaakov Teitel, a West Bank rabbi on Monday released a book giving Jews permission to kill Gentiles who threaten Israel.

Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement, wrote in his book "The King's Torah" that even babies and children can be killed if they pose a threat to the nation."



Bill

Saturday, November 7, 2009

The Evil Empire


The Evil Empire by Paul Craig Roberts
"Obama’s credibility is shot. And so is Congress’s, assuming it ever had any. The US House of Representatives has just voted to show the entire world that the US House of Representatives is nothing but the servile, venal, puppet of the Israel Lobby. The House of Representatives of the American "superpower" did the bidding of its master, AIPAC, and voted 344 to 36 to condemn the Goldstone Report.

In case you don’t know, the Goldstone Report is the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. The "Gaza Conflict" is the Israeli military attack on the Gaza ghetto, where 1.5 million dispossessed Palestinians, whose lands, villages, and homes were stolen by Israel, are housed. The attack was on civilians and civilian infrastructure. It was without any doubt a war crime under the Nuremberg standard that the US established in order to execute Nazis."


Bill

Friday, November 6, 2009

Nidal Hasan


Killing people can NEVER be justified. No person has the right to take the life of another.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/fort-hood-shootings-7-dea_n_347366.html&cp

Am I talking about Bush and the Neocon gang, who conspired and duped America into launching an invasion to seize authority in the Middle East, killing everyone, hundreds of thousands of innocent people, who were in the way?

No, I'm talking of course about Nidal Hasan.

But you'd be forgiven for thinking the former. After all, the cause and effects are strikingly similar: religious passion and consequential mass murder.

What I find particular fascinating about this story is that Nidal Nasan was a psychiatrist whose patients were soldiers returning from the killing fields with mental disorders. While Bush and the gang used applied psychology to manipulate America into that invasion, Nidel Hasan stood at the receiving end of the psychological consequences.

Nidal Hasan's actions will be condemned, as well they must. And the gang, who didn't blink at giving orders to kill hundreds of thousands of innocents, will surely kill him as fast as they can.

But will they - can they - kill the thoughts that drove him mad - and imagery our enemies will derive from this event?

No. Not by a long stretch. As it happens, Nidal Hasan's beliefs are shared by millions of people around the world. He acted out in a way they can relate to, whether they wanted him to or not. From our enemies point of view, he lived in the belly of the beast and he struck out against that beast. Imagine this new poster child on their wall, jumping out of the belly and all. In the past we've seen copy-cats follow many evil-doers, and the "news" loves it because it sells newspapers. Now think about how many other highly sympathetic people live among our 300,000,000, not to mention the propaganda value of this incident overseas. I can't recall a single incident with the imagery this possesses for motivating our enemies in the Middle East to rally behind ousting the occupier and standing up to Israel.

Nidal Hasan is of Palestinian descent. The "news machine" hides it well, but the fact is that the Palestinians live in deplorable, miserable conditions under the thumb of American armed Israel. Might not be common knowledge on American streets, but other countries have "news" machines of their own, and if you can realize how effective this machine is here, you'll see it's not only here.

Being a psychiatrist, he is aware he was born with a collective unconscious shared with all Palestinians, and the Palestinians know this too, if only instinctively. Thus his story can and will be taken to symbolize the plight of the Palestinians, this time played out on American soil.

How true, how significant this is to you or I doesn't matter. What matters is the imagery our enemies in the Arab/Muslim world will project to their followers. Would they spin and distort it beyond face value? Sure! That's what our gang did, why wouldn't they do as well? Let's not get into calling them stupid. They are not.

Our own propaganda machine, the "TV news", the folks behind the duping of America to get the invasion launched, will play this story their way, as usual, but our concern shouldn't be for our own predictable "news" propaganda, but that which will play and flow through the streets on which 1.3 billion Arab/Muslims live.

In you can imagine our enemies on steroids, you'd be well served to start thinking about a better course for America. Obama promised this and that, but delivered nothing. He's not in charge. He can't change anything. He's just a face.

If we want real change, we're going to have to do something.

Here's what I suggest: we have a hero we can turn to and follow: Vincent Bugliosi. We can demand that, alongside the trail of Nidal Hasan should occur the trial of George Bush for murder which will necessarily expose and include the Gang.

And then we can hope, pray and do everything we can to make amends for what has been done in the Middle East under the American name, Iraq and Palestine at center stage.

What's really matters here is something that everyone demands: justice.


Bill

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Why and To What End in Afghanistan


Why and To What End in Afghanistan by Ralph Nader

In this article, Mr Nader talks about the case of Matthew P. Hoh, a name and a story that every American should be very aware of.

In a larger sense, Ralph Nader is a great American hero. A true patriot whose understandings and vision can do so much good for this country - except he's been the target of the "news machine" for so long that a mention his name results in a reflexive negative reaction.

He is another perfect example of how a sustained propaganda campaign can destroy anyone the "news machine" decides to target. Jimmy Carter is another example. Ron Paul another. The list isn't miles long, but people like these do exist and we must come to terms with the fact that they've been marginalized (at best) by propaganda, but these are the very people with the most to offer.

Former UK ambassador: CIA sent people to be ‘raped with broken bottles’ By Daniel Tencer

Be sure to watch the videos at the bottom


Bill

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Social Decay in America


The "I Didn't Do It" Culture - Social Decay in America By John Stanton

John starts with a quote from Jimmy Carter that's worth repeating:

“The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual..What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends…Our people are losing…the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy.”

--Jimmy Carter, July 15, 1979


What follows includes nothing less then an indictment of politics in America since the Jimmy Carter years. It's a litany that Mr. Stanton doesn't seem to miss too many punches recounting.

One of his points:

What kind of country spends $1.5 trillion on national security every year—and growing-- but has to debate whether to spend $900 billion to make basic healthcare available to all citizens.



Bill

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Afghanistan and the big picture


The Delegitimization of Karzai By Patrick Cockburn


"From Mr Karzai’s point of view he won through at the end and showed that nobody is strong enough to get rid of him. For President Obama the election has no silver lining. It has left him poised to send tens of thousands US troops to fight a war in defense of one of world’s most crooked and discredited governments. “It is not that the Taliban is so strong, but the government is so weak,” was a common saying among Afghans before the election, and one which will be even truer in future. "


I follow Patrick Cockburn because he's one of the better thinkers on the net today. In this case, I think he's not taking into account how the American information supply shifted emphasis completely away from Iraq to Afghanistan, and why. Herein can be found the answer to the riddle of why we're bothering at all with the losing proposition in Afghanistan.

Why would they - anyone - do such a stupid thing?

Answer: To shift attention away from the main losing proposition that is Iraq and the other countries in the Middle East that were scheduled to fall afterward.

That plan unraveled, so what to do? Shift attention away from the losing theatre in Iraq to another losing theater, one that will bog us down long enough to put the original proposition far enough into the past so the subject falls under the "that's old news" trick that kills just about anything that can be said to them.

The original PNAC/Neocon agenda, to use the American military to beat into submission the countries in Middle East that have defied Israel's authority, starting with Iraq, and "real men go to Tehran" Iran, among others.

The gambit wasn't supposed to fail. It was to be a "slam dunk". But it did fail, so what to do? Shift attention to another area of the world that isn't directly connected, so when it fails - as it surely will - all finger pointing will involve the new failure (Afghanistan) and not the original failure (Iraq). This what "clever" looks like, in case you're wondering.

Let's get some points straight: (1) NOBODY cares about Afghanistan, (2) it is ABSOLUTELY a losing proposition, (3) being there makes so sense whatsoever

Until seen through this lens. Then, all of a sudden it makes sense, and it's playing out in real life, right now.

But what about the casualties? What will the Jones family think when they are informed their son, who they loved so much and was such a part of their lives, is gone forever. They'll be told of his heroics, of how he defended some pile of dirt in Afghanistan to the bitter end, and the all the medals these proud parents can hang on their wall and look at every time they miss him.

It seems very much that people just aren't aware of what really happened with the military invasion of the Middle East (let's call it what it was, for starters). The question is whether history will be so kind.

I think not. Reason: the Internet. If it were left to the history books, that would depend upon who writes them (no small point). But the truth, given a path, will find it's way to the surface. This is the power of the Internet.

When this truth does emerge, and the Jones family looks at the photo of their son, at least they will then know what he really died for.

What happened to America is a very sad story, but there is light at the end of the tunnel after all, if you believe in the truth and you believe it will emerge.

One extremely hopeful and positive movement underway as we speak is Vincent Bugliosi's documentary on his book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder"

This case is EXACTLY what America needs, because starting with Bush goes right to the core of what happened, and from that vantage point the entire plot will unravel. As you may be aware, there are a collection of real heroes who have documented large pieces of this plot, but until now lacked the place to bring them together. The trail of Bush would finally get all of this material onto the table for us and the world to see.

The bottom line is that our beloved country, the one that the Jones and so many other families gave the ultimate sacrifice for, has been duped. All that killing and destruction had nothing whatsoever to do with any great and noble purpose, it was all a duping of the masses by the few who frame the context of what's "news" and their cohorts in Washington and Wall Street. Many are Zionists, others are just greedy capitalists with hooks in the MIC, oil and other money interests, who go among for any money ride. But for the Zionists it's a religious crusade, and they supplied the fervor and energy of religious zeal.

These people, the ones who pulled the strings and made that invasion happen, aren't American heroes, they are scourges. And whether it's Mr Bugliosi's movement or another, at some point this truth will out.

And what we will do with this truth? I think the solution is to put the whole gang on trial for war crimes. Only then can America begin to recover the damage they have wrought.

But let's start with Bush. My hat is off to Mr Bugliosi - a real American hero.

And for Israel supporters, the "command central" behind this operation, our message needs to be: "Americans are tired of your manipulations and you're on your own now. We suggest you push the restart button, integrate with your neighbors, and try to earn their acceptance"


Bill

Why the Crisis Isn't Going Away


Why the Crisis Isn't Going Away By Mike Whitney

This is the kind of common sense solution we need to hear more of:

" "Stephen Mihm again: The government - or what Minsky liked to call 'Big Government' - should become the 'employer of last resort,' he said, offering a job to anyone who wanted one at a set minimum wage. It would be paid to workers who would supply child care, clean streets, and provide services that would give taxpayers a visible return on their dollars. In being available to everyone, it would be even more ambitious than the New Deal, sharply reducing the welfare rolls by guaranteeing a job for anyone who was able to work. Such a program would not only help the poor and unskilled, he believed, but would put a floor beneath everyone else's wages too, preventing salaries of more skilled workers from falling too precipitously, and sending benefits up the socioeconomic ladder. ("Why Capitalism Fails, by Stephen Mihm, Boston Globe)"

Here's a map that shows the hardest hit areas:



Bill

Afghanistan: Too Big to Fail?


Afghanistan: Too Big to
Fail? Why All of Obama's Afghan Options Are Bad Ones
By Tom Engelhardt

"In this context, despite all the media drama--Is Obama "dithering" or not? Will he or won't he follow the advice of his generals?--we already know one thing about the president's upcoming Afghan War decision with a painful degree of certainty: it will involve more, not less. It will up the ante, not cut our losses."

There's all kinds of reasons for this, not a one of them good.

From Washington and Jerusalem: more bad news by Stephen Walt

"Back in 2007, we wrote that AIPAC has an "almost unchallenged hold on Congress." Little has happened since then to alter that conclusion, and we will probably get another demonstration of Congressional spinelessness this week."


Bill