Why We're In Afghanistan

Finally Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made it clear why the U.S. is in Afghanistan. He was giving testimony to Congress as a follow up to Obama's order to send an additional 30,000 troops into the meat grinder . He said, " The U. S. must win in Afghanistan because the Taliban defeated the Soviet Union. They were the only other super power at the time some 20 years ago and if they [Taliban] defeat the United States now then they will win a great symbolic victory and become unstopable."

Consider that the old USSR was defeated because it was in a country that it shouldn't have been. Also the U.S. helped the Taliban defeat the Russians. Now we have traded postions with the Russians and the British before them and Ghengis Khan before them and Alexander The Great before them. The take away lesson is that empires don't work for long. In the end they have to go home. But people like Gates and Obama and all the criminals before who indulge in empire building get paid too much for mischief and more importantly never appear at the front lines to catch bullets.

And if the Taliban want to be foolish also then will be made to look like fools also if they show up in the U.S. For now the American effort in Afghanistan has only created more blowback to the foreign invaders.

Obama Talks to Veterans of Foreign Wars

President Barack Obama is in Phoenix today trying to drum up support for his Afghanistan War strategy.He will address the Veterans of Foreign Wars. These guys are mostly old. They range from late the 60's to the 80's. Pathetic. The oldest won the second World War but the younger lost in North Korea and Viet Nam. Which was appropriate. The yet-to-be vets lost in Iraq and are losing in Afghanistan. 

Obama's speech will be familar. We have to make the world secure for democracy.Part of that "democracy"includes the US supporting Israel's slow motion genocide of the Palestinians and America's policy of preemptive war.Sorry pres most people don't like war and increasingly they don't like you for being a stooge of the military-industrial-complex and Zionists.

Iraq Warplanes Request:Here We Go Again

The great peacemakers and warmongers in Washington are looking favorably on Iraq's request for a purchase of 18 F-16s. America's leaders rotate between war and peace because its good for business overall. Iraq is proposing an initial purchase of 18 in what could eventually total 96 warplanes. Iraq's leaders would rather spend money on planes than repair the infrastructure or help displaced people. The poor people of Iraq get no respect from their government or our government. It adds up to another victory for the military-industrial-complex. Iraq rearms, Iran responds, Israel responds, Turkey responds etc etc. and the US sells arms to all .

People of war should not be mourned when they die. They fulfilled their destiny .

Breaking News: Pelosi Talks About Torture

" Good morning. 'Torture, what did I know and when did I know it?' Does that sum it up? Waterboarding? Big deal. When you have had as many hair dye jobs and rinses as I have had waterboarding seems comparable. What about my Botox injections, hair removal, face lifts, tucks, birthing ordeals, being groped by high schoolers and older guys who looked like some of the detainees and now hear rumors of Paul's affairs? Yea there is a little 'it's my turn now'. When the CIA briefed me on torture these are the images that popped up in my mine.

I'm off to Iraq because it's too hot here."

Hamid Karzai and Hillary Clinton Conversation

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan pulled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aside for a quick private conversation at yesterdays state visit.

Karzai: Hey Hill, I need more money. These civilian deaths in my country caused by U.S. airstrikes are getting my people very upset and I have an election coming up and my expenses....

Hillary: Yeah,yeah,yeah ya want me to play a violin ? Bury the fuckin' dead and tell those rag heads to tape an aspirin to the wounds.

Karzai: I WANT MORE MONEY BITCH. It's going to be an additional $10,000.00 per month.

Hillary: OK, OK . Same deal? Bill's foundation gets 10% of the increase via the Afghan woman you send him each month?

Karzai: No problemo.  And I'll throw in a "no grouse" vow for deaths under 5 per U.S. airstrike.

Hillary: Bill says the Afghan woman is very experienced and novel orally speaking. I want some of that. 

Karzai: I've got a person in mind. She's yours.

Hillary: Fuckin' Americans are so stupid. We should have surrended in Afghanistan years ago but the U.S. citizens love to hate someone. So Bill and I will service the account. Later Hamid.

Questions About North Korea & Condi Rice

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was on Fox News Sunday. He said, "The U.S. can do nothing about a North Korea rocket [launch] even though it's a step toward developing an intercontinental ballistic missle that could carry a nuclear warhead". Gee Bob why is this part of the "Axis of Evil"given a pass ? The other parts ,Iraq and Iran, have been invaded, sanctioned and threatened. And they do not have a nuclear weapon as N. Korea does. Could it be that N.Korea was included in the"axis" trio as a red herring? Looks like the U.S. values Israeli security over Japan and South Korea security. As long as those AIPAC checks flow to Congress and the executive branch Israel is safe. But nothing lasts forever. Bye bye Israel.

What ever happened to Condi Rice? Has she voluntarily resegregated herself into a more appropriate non high- profile society? Obama doesn't want a photo-op either. She's too retro in more ways than one.

Dick Cheney's Revealing Comment

Yesterday on a Fox News interview Dick Cheney made an interesting comparison. He was defending the Bush Administration's war policies when he said, " If you think about what Abraham Lincoln did during the Civil War.... [he] went far beyond anything we've done in the global war on terror".

He's right. Lincoln was acting more like Saddam Hussein's treatment of the Shiites and Kurds in his over-the-top punishment and occupation of the American South. The Civil War was not justified nor was its barbaric prosecution.
John Wilkes Booth provided some but not off setting justice to that crime. Now there was an actor who could do more than just act.

Halliburton & Citigroup: Poor Results For Their Greedy CEOs

Halliburton and Citigroup are stocks that symbolize the criminal greed of the past 8 years. Halliburton represents war for profits. Dick Cheney was its CEO before he was sworn in as Veep in 2001. Using his position of power and the life-long relationship he had with Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Halliburton was awarded no-bid contracts in Afghanistan and in Iraq. I think the war in Iraq was largely for Halliburtons benefit along with other war for profit companies.

How did the stock do in these past 8 years ? Well Halliburton was trading at $19.00 when Cheney was sworn in and now the stock trades at $16.00. So after 4200 American lives, app. 1,500,000 Iraqi lives, 2,500,000 displaced Iraqis and app. $750,000,000,000 and counting in war expenditures and 2 or 3 adjustments to asshole Cheney's heart regulator the stock is down app. 16%. How stupid can some monkeys be?

And then there's Citigroup. Under the direction of former CEO Sanford Weill who took the reins in 1998 when the stock was trading at $25.00 Weill used his connections and money to repeal the Depression- era Glass-Steagall Act which mandated a seperation of stock brokers and insurance companies with banks. The Wall Street meltdown is directly traced to the repeal of this Depression-era firewall banking act. Citigroup's stock was trding at $25.00 when Weill slid in to power. Now Citigroup trdes at $ 8.50. That's almost 60% less in value.

A quiet retirement for these 2 assholes is not what they deserve.

Wall Street Journal: Out Of Touch

Sinclair Lewis' character Elmer Gantry said, " I know there is a god because I've met the devil". Which makes me think about the Wall Street Journal. First, the name misses. More acurately it should be titled the Wall Street Urinal because of its pissing on the "better angels" of our culture. For example , today the lead editorial cheers our former Yale cheerleader Bush for the U.S. commando strike inside Syria. Never mind that we are losing in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan let's double down and get in a hot war with Syria also.

I think the Urinal is out of touch. The old Wall Street mantra is that "war is good for business". That may be a fact if you win the war. But losing wars is not good for business.

Will The Russians Control Bush, Cheney Better Than Congress?

"Nature hates a vacuum", is attributed to the Greek philospher Aristotle. The truth of a statement is proportional to its observable applications. Bad foreign or domestic policy bring on unintended negative consequences. Thus a vacuum of sound judgment will be filled out of thin air with a subsequent more appropriate judgment and/or action.

And so the vacuum of Congress as a counterweight to the Bush/Cheney administration has brought back the Cold War. Congress was missing in the Afghanistan overreaction which turned the whole country against the U.S. "liberators". Congress was complicit and more than helpful in the insane invasion of Iraq. Congress was silent when the Administration tore up one nuclear limitation treaty after another with the Russians. And so the Russians response to the U.S. funding of insurrection by Georgia is a massive retaliation.

So now we have a predictable Russian discipline that will be imposed on vacuums or gaps in bad U.S. foreign policy. I think we will all be more secure with that discipline/threat rather than with the bad judgment threat and lack of discipline of our Congress.

USAF & The Ultra Violent Video Game

U.S. Air Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) "Predator" and "Reaper" pilots sit in comfortable booths in the United States. Their UAVs armed with high resolution cameras and missiles prowl the air space above Iraq and Afghanistan. Then the cool, no sweat pilots press a button on their "joystick" and send down laser guided bombs to the unsuspecting below. The victims include combatants, civilians and hapless flora and fauna. This is followed by the pollution of smoke and the detritus of the organisms. At the end of the work day, the "pilot" of the ultra violent video game goes home for a completely different experience. That's cold.

The 16th century writer John Lyly said, " The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war". That's his opinion. The lovers or combatants are either diminished or are enriched by the way they played the game.