The Flour Massacre, IDF War Crimes against desperate and starving Palestinians, and the escalating Humanitarian crisis in Gaza

It's 1938 all over again...

The children of Gaza (and the West Bank) are going to need a Sir Nicholas Winton because the IDF, Likud Government, and illegal West Bank Settlers are planning on exterminating every Palestinian they can.

Besides the bombardment and slaughter of children, The IDF and War Criminal Netanyahu are creating multiple human catastrophes in Gaza.  For instance, reduce many in the population to the brink of starvation and then machine-gun down the starving people when they rush to get some of the meager food supplies the Israelis are letting through.

According to the Gaza health ministry, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed at least 104 people and injured at least 750 others as they were congregating in Nabulsi Square near Gaza City, hoping to access flour that was expected to come through in aid trucks. Troops shot at the crowd with tanks and drones, and ran tanks over injured and dead people as they fired, according to Al Jazeera.

Indiscriminate firing into a crowd of starving people and running over the wounded with tanks are crimes so monstrous, even the United States didn't do it during the long Iraqi Occupation.  It's what the villainous Fascist Future Government in The Running Man did at the beginning of the film.  However, the Israeli war criminals know that after each and every one of their war crimes they merely have to say wasn't our fault, our soldiers always avoid civilian casualties, and anyway those killed were Hamas Rapists & Terrorists.

I don't recommend or watch War Porn videos, I've seen enough real shit.  But, even The New York Times stated, The Israeli Military released a heavily edited video to deflect blame...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

Commit War Crime - Repeat IDF excuses - Accuse others of Anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas...

The death toll in Gaza is reportedly 30,000 but, the IDF counters its' killed 10,000 Hamas fighters and blames any other deaths on Hamas using Palestinians as "human-shields".  In their latest indefensible war crime the IDF blamed Hamas for rushing to steal the food, and claimed their soldiers only shot people who posed a threat, and most of the deaths were the result of looters who drove the trucks through the crowds.

Netanyahu and the IDF are going to kill as many people as possible and there's not much anyone is willing to do or can do to stop this.  Whenever this ends, Israel has destroyed their moral credibility for the next 50 years but, it matters little to the leadership of Likud or Hamas.  They see this war as beneficial and absolutely in line with their goals.  I fear the Israelis and Palestinians are doomed.

The US response to the IDF War in Gaza

Zap him again

There were always ample warnings
There were always subtle signs
And you would have seen it coming
But we gave you too much time

Zap the son of a bitch again - Coma, Guns N' Roses (1991)

It's important to try and maintain a grasp on the truth in both in a fundamental metaphysical way and the day-to-day visceral reality during a War.

Wolf Blitzer repeatedly asked IDF Spokesman Richard Hecht about the IDF decision to bomb the Jabalya Refugee Camp, when the IDF knew there were innocent civilians there; 

“But you know that there are a lot of refugees, a lot of innocent civilians—men, women, and children—in that refugee camp as well, right?

“This is the tragedy of war, Wolf. We as you know, we’ve been saying for days, move south..." 

“Yeah I’m just trying to get a bit more information. You knew there were civilians there, you knew there were refugees, all sorts of refugees, but you decided to still drop a bomb on that refugee camp attempting to kill this Hamas commander.”

A day this interview and the bombing to supposedly get the Hamas Leader hiding in the Jabalya refugee camp the IDF struck it again.  Perhaps, one attack could be justified as a military operation but, the second attack?  And apparently the IDF struck it a third time...  The "Tragedy of War" or a deliberate choice?

Former Tea Party Republican Justin Amash said relatives of his were killed in Gaza.  Amash's relatives were apparently sheltering in the 1000 year old Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, which the IDF bombed earlier this month.

I mean at some point We, and more importantly President Biden, Secretary Blinken, Secretary Austen, are going to have to publicly call for the IDF and Israeli Government to stop killing people in Gaza, right?

Whomever, is leading the G-2 in CENTCOM has done a fantastic job of providing President Biden with proper analysis of individual acts occurring in Gaza.  Hamas leadership lied egregiously about the Baptist Hospital, grossly exaggerating the fatalities and worse still lying about the cause of the explosion.  But, the Jabalya refugee camp bombings has resulted in over a 1000 casualties.

How can we justify this?  How can the Israeli government?  Right now, any condemnation of Israel, the IDF, or the current violence in Gaza is met with rapid charges of Anti-Semitism and invocations of the Simchat Torah Massacre.  Every fresh IDF atrocity and the daily violence being meted out by IDF forces is met with 10/07 as a justification.

At some point this has to stop.  At some point I guess the US is going to have to exert itself to stop the apparent IDF campaign to displace or kill everyone in Gaza and annex the land while the Palestinians who weren't indiscriminately killed live in refugee camps.

For whatever it is worth here is the Marine Corps orders distributed to Marines preparing to invade Saipan in 1944;

We must... be absolutely sure in our own minds that a civilian is fighting us or harming out installations before we shoot him.  International law clearly demands that civilians who do not fight back at us - whether they are Japanese or Korean civilians working as laborers or noncombatants in the armed forces, like doctors or nurses, or ordinary civilians - must whenever possible be take alive and must not be injured or have their possessions taken from them except after a due trial by competent authorities.  Neither such a person nor his property are the property of any of us who captures him.  It is one thing kill a Japanese soldier in battle; it is an entirely different thing to kill civilians who have not fought against us, whether they are Japanese or not.  The latter is murder, nothing more nor less.

Never Again for ME... "But" Israeli War Crimes for Thee. The Second Nakba

"Burn them all," he said "Burn them in their homes. Burn them in their beds.  Burn them all."  

Unfortunately we don't have a Jamie Lannister to save the Gaza people from the fury of the IDF and the Israeli Government...

“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said at a press conference on Friday. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”

The entire nation is responsible...

The fear and terror the Israelis suffered last weekend has in one week already led to a total abandonment of humanity, a rush to collectively punish people already oppressed by the Israeli Government and Hamas, and sadly War Crimes.  The blood lust and mindless rush to inflict overwhelming violence shows no sign of abating and the Ground War is now slowly and methodically being prepared.  Look, unlike in a real War the IDF can take it's time because it's build-up doesn't put it any danger of being attacked by an actual army.  The continuing rocket attacks are a tactical nuisance but, convey no operational impediment.  So, then what is the strategy for the Israeli Government and it's military?  Because...

Meanwhile, IDF forces blew up a convoy of innocent civilians, who were evacuating per Israeli Likud instructions on a roadway.  The IDF denies it was their missile strike but, the BBC claims they have verified it was the IDF and not a Hamas bomb.

Meanwhile, illegal settlement in the West Bank and violence against Palestinians not in Gaza increases.

Meanwhile Israel has ordered 1 million Gazan's leave the North and instructed the Palestinians to relocate themselves into refugee camps in the Sinai desert and live in tents...

Meanwhile, anger over the killing of children in Israel apparently resulted in a 6 year old being stabbed to death for the crime of being Muslim.  Did this 71 year old Polish man became an angry Faux News Grandpa when he decided to choke and stab a Palestinian woman who fled the West Bank a decade ago and then kill her US born son?  

If you are against Israeli War Crimes be prepared to face violence here.  Republican Council Member Inna Vernikov, decided to openly display her handgun and call protestors Terrorists.

While, American Jewish people have apparently been shocked, saddened, upset, and outraged at the response by college students and various other inconsequential people, President Biden and Secretary's Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin have given the full-support of the United States to Israel.  With that support as well as vocal support from very angry Billionaires the IDF is planning a so-called full-scale combined "Air, Sea, and Land" assault on the people of Gaza.

So...  I ask when can we tell Israel to stop?  Because it absolutely appears the military operation in Gaza has the strategic goal to kill or displace every Palestinian.  But, to ask the question is to find yourself the target of a coordinated on-line social media campaign which labels anyone pleading for Israel to show some restraint an anti-semite at best, but more likely, a Jew-Hating Nazi full-throated defender of Hamas and the brutality of the attacks who wants every Jew to be slaughtered.

The very simple explanation for this is such accusations place the person on the defensive so their next response has to be 'Obviously I condemn and denounce Hamas' and thereby shut down any rational discourse on the response of IDF and the Israeli government.  Israeli supporters then proclaim they don't support Netanyahu but, put the onus back on those requesting restraint by making the entire response an open-ended campaign in which the Palestinian suffering and ethnic cleansing is a fait accompli.

Displacement and the replacement of everyone in Gaza with Israelis along with mass destruction of the "infrastructure" seems to be the military operation here.  Collective Punishment for 2 Million people, Never Again began in 1948 and 75 years later it's happening again...

President Biden keeps telling the truth about Putin and Russian War Crimes which makes Republicans mad

According to a new book, President Biden correctly labeled Rupert Murdoch and Fox, "one of the most destructive forces in the United States."  President Biden also correctly called Putin a War Criminal.  But, despite Joe's comments being 100% demonstrably true and factual the President garnered pushback from Putin's Poodles in the GOP and rightwing internet. 

One of the rhetorical tools Republicans have used for years is to claim President Joe Biden is a gaffe-machine.  The GQP found willing accomplices in the Corporate Media which was always at the ready to excoriate Biden for his misspeaks.

Well, now that Vladimir Putin's forces have committed documented War Crimes in Bucha, Republicans have fully descended into the QAnon abyss of lies.  Republicans are furious!  No not with the War Crimes!  But, that Putin's military invasion should be going so badly and making Republicans look so bad for defending and supporting a KGB Colonel for so long! 

Petulant Republican children Matt Gaetz and Major Traitor Greene s are so mad at Putin, that they've taken to yelling at US SecDef Lloyd Austin for President Biden's successful rallying NATO and providing Ukraine weapons and support to defeat Russian forces.

Obviously, the Republicans think bombarding the American people with non-stop rightwing agitprop and falsehoods about Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson or Pete Buttigieg or President Biden is a winning strategy and maybe it is... because they goal is to get Americans to believe the lies Republicans tell about Democrats and disbelieve the truth told about Republicans.  Conservatives listen to these Trump rallies which are 100% falsehoods and cheer. 

But, once you've begun to accuse your political adversaries of being child rapists (and it's still unbelievably galling the Party of child abusers Donald Trump and Dennis Hastert and Mark Foley accuses the Democrats) then there's really no backtracking.  There's no way the Republicans can work with Democrats after this.  And since 9/11 this is entirely what we have seen from the Republicans.  Increasing inflammatory rhetoric and a ratcheting up of the wild accusations.  So that now the Republican Party is a wholly fascist organization dedicated to destroying the Rule of Law in the United States and ensconcing a One Party Ethno-Nationalist White Supremacist Country.  The 2022 and especially 2024 elections are going to see a Manichaeist Rule or Ruin Republican Party.

Rightwing Pundit Glenn Greenwald

But, before the next elections Republicans are harming plenty of people here and killing plenty of people abroad.  The images emerging from Bucha in Ukraine are War Crimes.  But, the pushback and defense of Putin and Russian war crimes on-line and by elected Republicans and powerful conservatives in the media is a stark harbinger of the Fascist American future.  

Michael Tracey should have the common courtesy

to remain dead after Maxine Waters murdered him

Throughout this Russian military build-up, invasion and now documented war crimes the Biden White House has shared accurate intel and stated facts about Putin and the conduct of the Russian military; Yet the chattering class of Twitter Reactionaries were having a grand time in February chortling and chastising Biden as Chicken Little but, since the invasion began Twitter right-wingers transitioned to non-stop promoting of Russian War Propaganda.

And the Putin apologists haven't been mollified by the images coming from Bucha.  Every new day highlights how their previous day's twitter rants are 100% wrong, but there's no penalty for being an idiot on Twitter (Michael Tracey and Glenn Greenwald are just the biggest Twitter Propagandists, there are 1000's like them) and these people who were wrong yesterday, wrong today, get to be wrong tomorrow and continue on as though their previous errors don't undermine their current errors.

The GOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian Government

Russia declared War on Ukraine and the feckless American Right just recovering from their Canadian Trucker Tyranny Erections doesn't know exactly how to respond so it's a mishmash but, what became immediately apparent was just how thoroughly corrupted and enthralled the American Right is to Vladimir Putin.

As the song goes,
He's everything they want
He's everything they need

All it took for Republicans to fall for Putin was when Vlad affected a steely-eyed stare down with President Obama.  In that moment, Conservatives realized Putin embodied everything they wanted in a leader; a "christian", capitalist, white ethno-nationalist, authoritarian homophobic, murderous bureaucrat.

Of course, the Republican Party began their flirtation with Vladimir Putin under the W(orst POTUS Ever) Maladministration, then fell in love when Vlad infiltrated and purchased the NRA and Republican officials with Russian petrodollars but, finally gave themselves completely over to him when Vladimir Putin helped steal the 2016 Presidential Election.  

Even the GOP-led Senate was forced to admit conclusively that Russia, the FSB and Vladimir Putin explicitly aided Trump in stealing the 2016 election. 

The Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vladimir Putin.  And every Republican knows it, 

“There’s …there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: [California Representative Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump … [laughter] … swear to God,” Kevin McCarthy said. 

House Speaker Paul Ryan immediately responded: “This is off-the-record … [laughter] … NO LEAKS … [laughter] … alright?!”

On July 4th, 2018 GOP Traitors from all across the United States; Richard Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Thune (S.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), John Hoeven (N.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (Texas), spent Independence Day in Moscow's Red Square effusively groveling and paying Homage to Vlad Putin.  

Despicable Tucker Carlson and Faux News immediately set the tone for their unthinking followers. Lawyers, Guns, and Money have covered Tucker Carlson and his menagerie of war apologists so I will send you there. Carlson's shameless 'Vladimir Putin never called me a racist' is especially vile when you realize it's a rip-off of Muhammed Ali's famous speech denouncing the Draft and the Vietnam War, with the immortal speeches, the Vietcong never called me the N-Word.

The best thing about Tulsi "Putin's Present" Gabbard is she has openly shown herself to be everything I said she was years ago; a violent lying fascist, who loves War, and pretended to be a progressive to undermine the Left and the Democratic Party from within.  The Neo-Tankie Brocialists over at Naked Capitalism continue to talk about the boners she gives them as they support Putin's War Crimes.  Tulsi Gabbard's love missives to Vladimir Putin are way worse than any tiktok "If I was your mother" love poem by former actress Annalynn McCord.

Traitor Trump continues to remain a loyal vassal to Putin repeatedly and effusively expressing his admiration and jealousy at Putin's smarts.

On-line phony progressives remain a mass of gibbering goo belching out their nonsense about Imperialism and then repeating the FSB and GRU propaganda about Ukraine history, about NATO, about "denazification".  Glenn Greenwald has been completely idiotic and schizophrenic until you realize he's a paid Putin propagandist.  I see two other Putin owned Propagandists Matt Taibibi and Edward Traitor Snowden have gone silent after repeatedly claiming there would be no attack by Russia.

The Grotesque Old Putin (GOP) Party yearns to be able to wield power like a ex-KGB Colonel.  If conservatives had their druthers they would right now empower Police and the Military to round-up an massacre every Non-MAGA they could find.  The simple truth is conservatives love Vladimir Putin because they wish they could emulate his murderous actions.

 

What's ironically hilarious is whenever Republicans and conservatives fall in love with a Dictator they imbue them with fantasy powers. Conservatives pretend Putin is an all powerful Moriarty level super-genius.  So Putin scoring 8 goals in a Russian Federation hockey game or claiming to be an olympic level Judo and Sambo fighter is no different than the rightwing claims of Trump's prowess and powers.  Republicans love nothing as much as they love false strength.  Look at all the fantasy toughness they applied to that ignorant tub of orange goo Trump.  Trump doesn't sleep!  He's the hardest working President ever!

But nothing makes Republicans sicker than losing. Republicans have groveled like worms to Putin, have dreamed of asking Spetsnaz forces to parachute into DC to aid the Proud Boys in the next Jan6th style insurrection and seeing Russian forces fail to conquer Ukraine turns them into sniping jackals 

So, while the Republican Party and conservatives want to support Russia, the incompetence of the Russian military, spirited defense by the Ukrainian people and the showmanship of their President Volodmyr Zelensky has conservatives attempting to backtrack and set up a new narrative where they don't support a loser.

What's especially heinous is the Republican response to President Biden's leadership of NATO.  Joe Biden has been judicious and steadfast in keeping the alliances response tight and measured, while slowly ramping up pressure.  Even Condoleezza Rice expressed admiration for Joe's leadership and flatly told Faux News she didn't think keeping NATO together was possible after the damage Traitor Trump had done.

There is so much more I could write about this illegal Russian War of Aggression and the buffoonish response from Americans but, it's still likely, Russia will be able to conquer Ukraine, despite all the missteps, mistakes, faulty thinking, unrealistic assumptions and worldwide multi-phased pressure.  But, it's likely Covid decimated (literally) the Russian War Machine and either way massive damage has been done to the legend of Putin and the image of a renewed unbeatable Red Army.

Trump wants an expanded Military able to fight multiple wars at the same time

"We got two, three, four wars goin' on,
All I can do is sing this song..." - Times is Hard, Loudon Wainwright III, Songs for the New Depression (2009)

According to reporting in the Armytimes and MarineCorpstimes, Donald Trump wants an expanded military able to project military power in multiple theaters simultaneously.

Trump wants an active-duty Army with another 60,000 soldiers in the ranks, an unspecified number of additional sailors to man the 78 ships and submarines he intends to see built in coming years. He wants up to 12,000 more Marines to serve in infantry and tank battalions, and at least another 100 combat aircraft for the Air Force. 

Where is he going to get the extra Americans from? Right-Wingers love to talk up the military but shy away from actually joining and doing the work. Conservatives shirk duty at every opportunity.

But, during the Global War on Terror (GWoT) sometimes known as World War IV to Conservatives (Ronnie Raygun having won World War III against the Soviet Union by himself), Young Conservatives eschewed military service. During W(orst POTUS Ever) misadministration military Recruiters, under massive pressure to make quotas, were driven to signing up gangbangers and white supremacists to fill vacanies which conservatives were reluctant to fill. But, conservatives were more than willing to fight the battle on the homefront; Attacking liberals, defaming anti-war activists, and joining the couch-borne keyboard commandoes.

However, during the year-long 2016 Presidential Race, conservatives adopted a mealy-mouthed anti-war stance, which they really didn't believe. Right-Wingers and their media sychophants assured America that Trump hated Wars, especially Iraq. Of course, Iraq really was entirely the fault of HRC and her 30 year reign as Emperor of America. The vote totals probably indicate Trump's new found anti-Iraq War stance didn't sway anti-war people into Trump's camp but, it did afford ratfvckers like Glenn Greenwald and Jill Stein cover to go after HRC while minimalizing the world-wide danger represented by Donald Trump.

So, what we are seeing is a repeat of Reaganomics. Massive deficit spending on the military. Jobs creation focused on the military; more soldiers, more contractors, more non-military support staff.

Remember that for every soldier, airmen, sailor, or Marine in uniform you're talking at least 9 non-military personnel added.

Trump has promised to build a Marine Corps capable of simultaneously winning two wars. It would be based on 36 battalions, up from the current force structure of 24 active-duty infantry battalions, two active-duty tank battalions and supporting units. That means adding between 8,000 and 12,000 more Marines to the service’s roster, another potentially expensive personnel plus-up dependent on a significant influx of new funding.   Using the fiscal 2017 personnel costs as a base, that could total more than $1 billion per year just in personnel costs, before equipment and training are factored in. 

But, when coupled with the right-wing moronic lunatics Trump is proposing former Marine Corps General James Mattis for Secretary of Defense and General Mike Flynn for National Security Advisor it's time to realize the United States is about to enter two new wars in the Middle East; i.e. An invasion of Syria to unleash Trump's secret smarter than the generals plan to fight ISIS and a ramping up of tensions with Iran under the leadership of Warmonger Senators Tom Cotton and John McCain until Trump declares war to distract the American people.

So, as conservatives get their war back on, challenge them over and over to enlist and put their asses on the line instead just talking tough. But, get ready for Generation: Chicken Hawk 2.0.

American Sniper Chris Kyle was a liar as well as a butcher

Perhaps embellisher is the kinder term, but Kyle did in fact murder numerous innocent Iraqis, whom he referred to as "savages", it's just he wasn't awarded for it as much as he claimed. Kyle couldn't rest on those laurels and so he had to concoct heroic war stories for himself and fabricate a whole slew of extra ribbons and awards.

As conservatives are over-whelmingly chicken hawk cowards they know nothing of the military and didn't care anything about the war crimes committed by the Regime of the W(orst President in US History); what they wanted was jingoism, blood shed and the ability to yell at and threaten liberals.

Chris Kyle gave them that and like George Zimmerman, Ted Nugent, or any other conservative "hero", Kyle was beloved because he murdered enemies of the right-wing hegemony and conservatives got a vicarious thrill through his made-up heroics, i.e. Killing innocent muslims and claiming to kill blacks in New Orleans post-Katrina.

Amongst the lies Kyle told was that he murdered 30 people in New Orleans while stationed atop the Superdome and gunning down two "carjackers" in Texas. Of course, I would not put it past Kyle to appoint himself Judge, Jury, and Executioner and murder, but these tales are beyond belief.

Perhaps, I'm being too harsh on Kyle, perhaps his embellishment/lying was a way of coping with his PTSD, with trying minimize the damage war does to ones mind, body, and soul. But, I don't believe so. The circumstances surrounding Kyle's death indicate he was entranced by guns and violence, and contemptuous of those he deemed weaker than himself.

Therefore, I think Kyle considered himself the next Alvin York, Audie Murphy, John Basilone, or Carlos Hathcock and needed to spruce up his ribbon bar. The truth is Pat Tillman was a American Hero while Kyle has more in common with Charles Whitman and he should be remembered in exactly the same way.

Pat Tillman was a Hero. Chris Kyle was a Butcher. (Updated with Sarah Palin's threat on Michael Moore's life)

Beyond the gross fetishization of every Servicemember being a Hero and every Servicemember having fought for our Freedoms the truth is that very little the US Military has done during the last 15 years has made America any safer, made Americans freer, or turned the world into a better place.

The Iraq War was a Monumental Failure, which has utterly destablized the region, stolen Trillions of dollars from the US Taxpayer, killed a million Iraqis, wounded a hundred thousand Americans, split the Nation asunder, and will be a black spot against the US for decades if not a century.

In the early stages of Iraq, after disgusting puke George W(orst President Ever) Bush declared the Iraq War over and was telling the Insurgency to bring it on, the Republican Warmongers and their feckless conservative lick-spittles needed a Hero to take heat off; Enter Pat Tillman.

Tillman, as most people know gave up a lucarative NFL career to enlist and served as an Army Ranger before being killed in a friendly fire incident in 2004.

After attempts by the Bush Department of Defense to cover up the facts surrounding Tillman's true cause of death and their use of Tillman's corpse to silence anti-war critics, we learned of Pat Tillman's atheism, utter disdain for George Bush, his disgust at the Iraq War, probable support of John Kerry for President and his admiration of Noam Chomsky.

Of course, Tillman was no longer a hero to conservatives. Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter, who had previously gushed and fawned over him, describing Tillman as "virtuous, masculine and pure as only the American Male can be" couldn't believe the man they had lionized would be against the War and read approvingly of works written by leftists.

So, conservatives abandoned the tributes to a fallen Soldier and buried his Hero Legacy with him.

Now, Chris Kyle is different. He massages every sick and twisted conservative pleasure center with his Book of Tall Tales. Blam! He killed so many Iraqis he became the Shaitan of Ar Ramadi... Blam! He gunned down looters in New Orleans during the Post-Katrina debacle... Blam! He punched out Jessie Ventura for bad-mouthing the US of A and President "I'm the Decider" Bush...

Chris Kyle is a hero to conservatives because he killed lots of Iraqis, whom Kyle called "savages". The same Savage Iraqis who attacked Us on 9/11! In reality, did anything Chris Kyle do in Iraq help the Iraqi people or the United States? Nope.

By all accounts he loved killing and thought every problem could be solved by guns. Thus, he lived by the sword and died by the sword... And the world is better off without him.

Update:
Remember when Free Speech Rights were the most important thing in the Universe? Ha, that was sooooo 2 weeks ago.

To Conservatives, "Free Speech" means the freedom for them to insult islam and threaten liberals. Semi-literate, mentally disabled right-wing darling Sarah Palin, not content with getting Congresswoman Gabby Giffords shot (in an attack which killed 6 and wounded 18 people) now is telling her cultists to 'set their sights' on Michael Moore.

Palin, along with MoH recipient Dakota Meyer. What's especially disgusting is the despicable Bush Regime used the natural sense of military brotherhood and camaraderie to stifle anti-war dissent.

The Torturous Bush Presidency was a Cabal of War Criminals

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows..." - Dick Cheney

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. The US finally released a report on the Torture used at the behest and urging of the Bush/Cheney Regime shedding light on one of the most heinous, unconscionable crimes of the 21st Century. Of course, We, the People and the rest of the World have known for over a decade the Bush/Cheney Regime requested, created, oversaw and protected the Use of Torture or as it euphemistically became known as "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques".

Right after 9/11 Dick Cheney told the Nation and the World, the New American Policy was Torture. Who would be tortured? Anyone. Everyone. Innocence and Guilt were non-factors. Bush and Cheney wanted Torture.

Whole sections of the Executive Branch were devoted to making Torture Official US Policy, the Justice Department was co-opted into crafting "legal" arguments for the efficacy of Torture and the rescinding of the "quaint" Geneva Conventions. White House officials made repeated Sunday Talk Show appearances hinting at the dozens of plots stopped by Torture. Jack Bauer would save Fox America through Torture. Torture was the Universal Panacea of the Bush White House.

But, Americans have known since the Philippine Insurrection, that Torture is wrong. Until 2001 and the Bush/Cheney Regime and their duped or willing accomplices. A Harvard Student Research Paper found that when Americans learned of the Abu Gharib scandal suddenly Bush Torture Lawyers began to push the notion of "Harsh" or "Enhanced Interrogation" methods to their media contacts and the Media stopped calling referring to The Bush Regime's War Crimes Torture and began to pretend as though there was a hotly contested debate about what is and what isn't Torture. Thus, we magically invented "two sides" of the Torture issue.

The report is just the latest reveal of the brutal War Crimes committed by the Bush Regime. And those war crimes were enabled by the worst Traitors in American History: Conservatives.

So, while Torture doesn't work it was successful,

"The United States of America is awesome, we are awesome. But we’ve had this discussion. We’ve closed the book on it, and we’ve stopped doing it. And the reason they want to have this discussion is not to show how awesome we are. This administration wants to have this discussion to show us how we’re not awesome." - Andrea Tantaros

Awesome?!? What childish drivel. What codswallop. Either Awesome Tantaros and many conservatives are lying or they don't have the courage of their convictions. Torturing people under the rubric of the Global War on Terror was either harmless Frat Boy pranks or an invaluable tool which stopped hundreds of Terrorist Attacks, saved thousands of lives and led to the kill of Osama Bin Laden.

But, besides giving Cheney Sadistic Thrills Torture doesn't work. Anyone who supported or voted for John McCain should know Torture is not useful in gaining information and gaining information through coercion is not only futile but criminal.

The clearest example of an interrogation practice that will void a confession is the infliction of physical force or pain upon the person under interrogation, because it is an incontestable fact that harm of this nature may produce a confession of guilt from an innocent person. This is also true as regards indirect physical harm - for instance, an unduly prolonged continuous interrogation, especially by two or more interrogators working in relays or the deprivation of food, water, or access to toilet facilities for an unreasonable period of time. A threat of physical harm may have a similar effect --- the extraction of confession from innocent persons. - Fred E. Inbau

Unless, that is, you actually believe that all those woman tortured by the Inquisition were, in fact, really Witches.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Ari Fleischer, Liz Cheney, Monica Goodling, Jay Bybee and hundreds of others in the Bush Cabal are War Criminals. Indeed the worst of sort of war criminals for they, safely ensconced in air-conditioned state-side offices, far from the battlefield, coldly crafted Torture memos and policies. Clear cut criminal intent not influenced by the heat of the moment or fear of imminent danger.

President Obama still cleaning up Dick Cheney's Colossal Blunder(s)

One would be hard pressed to find a single Man responsible for more pain and damage to the American People and the Nation than Dick Cheney; Tojo and Robert E. Lee come to mind.

Cheney and his daughter whose only credentials are she's ridden Dick to further her political career and of being 1/5th of Dick's Deferments wrote an Op-ed in the Wall Street Journal which is a case study in projection and holds the key to the entire Conservative Mindset.

Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. 

This one sentence encapsulates the entire pathological evil which drives the chicken hawk cowardly warmonger criminals who infest the Republican Party. Republicans are everything they claim they hate and are the antithesis of everything they claim to support.

"In the last five years America has receded from leadership in the world. And into that vacuum has stpeed Nations like Iran, like Russia, like China. As we abandoned our allies the consequences has been to make the world a much less safer place."

Chicken Hawk Senator Ted Cruz, proposes what exactly? The US military should have invaded Russia to defend Crimea? Does Senator Croooze think we should station soldiers on micro-islands in the South China Sea? Does he propose we back the Sunni Insurgents agains the Iranian back Maliki Government? Ted Cruz is an unserious boob who wishes he could have voted for the AUMF in 2002 because that's when brave tough REMF could tell libtards to suck on this.

The Bush/Cheney Crusade in Iraq has resulted only in the destabilizing of the region. Everything which has happened in Iraq, happened because of deliberate lies and ignorant fantasies, from W(orst POTUS Ever) and his staff of NeoCon war criminal buffoons stated Casus Belli (Smoking Gun=Mushroom Cloud, Saddam's connection to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden), the ever rotating reason for remaining, all the lies of progress we were making, all the fallout, the loss of American lives, the destruction of thousands of families, a million dead Iraqis and $5 Trillion stolen.

Of course, as Dick Cheney would say, "So?"

President Obama announced today that the US would be providing 300 advisors and established JOC (Joint Operation Centers) in Baghdad and Northern Iraq. Additionally, surveillance elements would be dispatched and re-tasked to provide US additional intel on the situation involving the ISIL/ISIS.

The President also declared he would make Congress take the lead in determining a further course of action. Congress, of course, wants nothing to do with Iraq and will demagogue hoping President Obama will choose an official course of action which, either way they can attack as wrong.

The Bush/Cheney Crusade was naught but a massive list of monstrous crimes against Humanity which continue to this day.

The Nations of Iran and Turkey now must turn a large amount of their attention and resources towards containing the violence unleashed by Cheney's Evil.

The continuing Civil War in Syria will create a stable of potential fighters. Additionally, thousands of displaced innocent people are in a humanitarian crisis.

If the Kurdish People begin a push for an independent state, the Turks and the Persians aren't just going to let the areas of their countries slip away. As late as the 1990's the Turkish Government made the Kurdish language, Kurdish names and Kurdish newspapers and radio illegal.

In Iraq, families haven't yet recovered from Bush's War of Lies and now they face a tripartite Civil War, which will eventually end a mess of semi-functioning states. So, the Middle East will be a cauldron of Death and Mayhem. All thanks to the despicable evil humanoid creature Dick Cheney.

Thom Hartmann wrote a better take down of the War Criminal Cheney,

He lied his way into an illegal war, profited off that war, and shredded the Constitution. He's a war criminal and has the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people on his hands. 

Dick Cheney should be rotting in a prison cell at The Hague, not writing editorials for the Wall Street Journal.

The Rich, their Republican Drones and Conservative Chicken Hawks want a New War in Iraq

"Tragically, all we’ve fought for in Iraq, all that 4,500 American lives were shed to gain, is on the cusp, potentially, of vanishing." - Mitt Romney 6/13/2014

                                         
The Big Loser Romney likes to talk all about War and Sacrifice but, those are for other Americans. Profiting off of the Iraq War that's what Romney and his ilk know.

Via Crooks and Liars comes a demand for More War in Iraq by Tyler Cowan, Chairman and General Director of the Koch-financed Mercatus Center, in order that the Koch Brothers and other Plutocrats may profit.

An additional explanation of slow growth is now receiving attention, however. It is the persistence and expectation of peace.

The world just hasn’t had that much warfare lately, at least not by historical standards. Some of the recent headlines about Iraq or South Sudan make our world sound like a very bloody place, but today’s casualties pale in light of the tens of millions of people killed in the two world wars in the first half of the 20th century. Even the Vietnam War had many more deaths than any recent war involving an affluent country.

Counterintuitive though it may sound, the greater peacefulness of the world may make the attainment of higher rates of economic growth less urgent and thus less likely. Rather, the very possibility of war focuses the attention of governments on getting some basic decisions right — whether investing in science or simply liberalizing the economy. Such focus ends up improving a nation’s longer-run prospects.

War is the Health of the State, especially when the Rich run the Government and profit mightily when the Poor are sent of to die. As Cowan points out it's just the poor dying so he doesn't care.

So, Mitt Romney continued at his at his Utah gathering, "I lost the election, but I will continue to fight." Now you have to understand that when Romney talks about fighting he doesn't mean himself or his sons. It means other, less Rich Americans.

• Mitt protested in favor of the War in Vietnam and the Draft, "served" Overseas in Paris, France instead of French Indochina. 

His five sons obviously inherited Romney's tough guy, We like to Talk the Talk but, we won't Walk the Walk,

"You know, I, ah, wanted to rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him. But you know you can’t do that because, well, first there’s a lot of secret service agents between you and him…" - Tagg Romney, talked about wanting to Punch the President at the second debate in 2012.

Listening to the Romney's is like watching a beer muscle guy at the bar tell his friends to hold him back. He isn't going to fight but he sure wants to appear tough and strong! Tagg is a chicken hawk coward. Just like his father before him and just like his younger brothers,

• Combined Days of Military Service for Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben, and Craig Romney = 0

The 5 Romney "Boys" were born between 1970 and 1981. When their father is added in they have a combined total of Zero Days of Military Service. When asked in 2008 why his sons weren't serving in the military, Mitt stated his dandified sons were too important,

"One of the ways my sons are showing support for this nation is by trying to get me elected. Because they think I'll make a great President." 

Republicans and Conservatives are by and large Chicken Hawks. They will gladly pontificate about the necessity of War while seated on their expansive posteriors, but when it comes to taking the Oath and putting their ass in Danger? Well that's for other people.

Chris Matthews: "Would you like to enlist in this war [Iraq]?"
Jason Mattera: "No."
Matthews: "What kind of people should fight in this war, if not you?"
Mattera: "Those who want to."

See, as Mattera explains in the above linked video, the modern young conservatives are, "Fighting the War for Ideas". The Idea being that other Americans need to die to advance the Right-Wing Agenda of Oppression and Domination by the Rich.

But, it's clear why right-wingers are pushing for a new Iraq War. They will again make Big Money off of Death and Destruction.

George W(orst POTUS Ever) Bush used the Iraq War to funnel Trillions of dollars into the Bank Accounts of the Plutocracy, the super rich and Corporations. His base as he called them. It's another part of the Monstrous Crimes Bush perpetrated which we've lost sight of in recent years and which the American people need to be reminded about. W(orst POTUS Ever), his Republican Guard Dogs, right-wing drones and conservative chicken hawks engaged in a War Crime similar to the Genocide of Native Americans.

Now, President Obama has deployed 170 forces into Baghdad to support the US Embassy, in the old Green Zone. There are an additional 100 waiting in reserve. And apparently there was discussion of inserting Special Forces Operators into the New Iraqi Army to provide support and bolster their flagging morale. Sadly, this has the smell of advisors all over it.

Of course, I'm glad he did it before Republicans Benghazi'ed the President again. For you see Republicans have this nasty habit of undermining the Troops and underfunding security for Agencies and then blaming the President for their despicable misdeeds.

Nonetheless, all across the Conservative Sunday Morning Talk circuit, the Old Architects of the Iraq Debacle were trotted out yet again. Yet again we must watch as the Republican Party Drones and their Conservative Chicken Hawks are allowed to lie about Iraq.

Back to Iraq! Although Conservatives won't be going because they are Cowards

What Bush and the Republicans have done to the Economy, Veterans, and in Iraq are some of the Worst Crimes in US History. We've lost sight of that as the Conservative Media has made it their mission to gin up false scandals.

Thanks to the Lies and War Crimes of George W(orst POTUS Ever) Bush, Dick Deferment Cheney, Donald Rumsfled, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, David Addington, John Yoo, Ari Fleschier, Dana Perino, Douglas Feith, Alberto Gonzales and so many others, The Middle East is now a cesspool of violence, destabilized Nations, with ethnic and religious violence exploding all across the region.

Now, the same warmongering war criminals who have done so much harm to the United States and the Middle East are clamoring for the military to be sent back into Iraq.

One good thing about sending the military back into Iraq is America will once again get to witness the spectacle of Cowardly Chicken Hawk Conservatives pounding upon their jiggily man-boobs while not enlisting and not going into the Combat Zone.

American Conservatives are biggest group of chicken shit cowards ever assembled in the history of humanity.

The current generation learned from Dick Cheney, Dick Armey, Karl Rove, John Ashcroft, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Tom Delay and so many others it was better to "fight" at home than to fight over there.

Conservatives love sending braver men into combat because with those men removed from the US conservatives finally have a chance at getting sex. Of course, women naturally eschew sleeping with Right-Wingers which is why Rape-publicans are always thinking and talking about Rape. Without Rape Right-Wingers would never have sex.

Call it Right-Wing Darwinism, the survival of the shittiest.

There's already a Generation of Conservatives tempered by their avoidance of Fire. Which was spectacularly captured by Max Blumenthal in Generation: Chickenhawk.

Ben Shapiro, Ben Ferguson, Jonah Goldberg, Jason Mattera, Matthew Continetti, Erick Erickson, James O'Keefe and so many other Young Conservatives and Tea Party Terrorists decided their talents were better suited in the rear than on the Tip of the Spear. Because conservatives are cowards.

So, if your blaming President Obama let's see your DD-214 (overseas days) and invite me to your local MEPS so I can watch you take the oath of enlistment.

But, now the Conservative Media is champing at the bit to get all the lying NeoCons, Ari Fleischer, Bill Kristol, Thomas Friedman, Charles Krauthammer, Judith Miller back on the air to talk about what a glorious success Iraq was until That One got into the White House and ruined everything.

So, don't worry the Conservative Media and the Republican Party will spend the precious little time not devoted to Benghazi/Bergdahl, pounding home the narrative that W(orst POTUS Ever) planted the Tree of Jeffersonian Democracy in Iraq only to have it pulled out by the roots by that Kenyan Marxist Traitor in the White House.

Iraq: W Built This! George W. Bush is the Worst President in US History

"I'm the commander – see, I don't need to explain – I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation." - Bush at War, Bob Woodward

11 years after Mission Accomplished and Iraq is about to fall to Muslim Extremist Insurgents. Reports are that Mosul and Tikrit have fallen to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) who "defeated" the American trained Iraqi Army despite facing 40:1 Odds Against. The ISIS states they plan to march on Baghdad and conquer the Country. the Maliki Government has requested drones and air support from the US. A request the Obama Administration has refused, thus far.

George W. Bush is the Now Officially the Worst President in American History. Even surpassing that arch-villain Ronald W. Reagan.

Bush, Cheney and Conservatives had been declaring the Iraq War a Victory for years. Besides the Eternal Progress we always seemed to be making, the Iraq War was declared over and over and over;

"We will be greeted as liberators." - March 16, 2003. 

"And we're making progress. There's tangible, visible progress on the ground there in Iraq," - April 24, 2003 

"Major Combat Operations in Iraq have ended." - May 1, 2003 

"Bring'em On!" - July 2, 2003 

"We're making progress, you bet," - April 30, 2004

"We're making progress. Yet there still is much work to do," - May 24, 2004 

"They're in the Last Throes," - June 20, 2005  

"Is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it and it is vital to the security of our country," - June 29, 2005

"And we're making progress training the Iraqis. Oh, I know it's hard for some Americans to see that progress, but we are making progress," - August 11, 2005 

Saddam's Death - December 30, 2006 

We won. The Iraq War is over. I declare November 22, 2008 to be "Victory in Iraq Day." (Hereafter known as "VI Day.") - Zomblog, Zombietimes

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - George W. Bush, May 24, 2005.

Everything about the George W. Bush Administration has been a total failure. The Worst Terrorist Attack in History occurred under his watch and he couldn't be bothered to think about the mastermind responsible.

Bush and his Regime turned a blind eye to thousands of EPA violations, which we've seen result untold damage to the Country in the Gulf, in North Carolina, in the Great Lakes, in West Texas.

The economy is still in a shambles from the Republican Recession, the Trillions of Dollars wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Billions stolen by the obscene Bush Tax Cuts.

Under Bush and Cheney the top 0.1% got a tax cut of $520,000, 450 times what the middle income taxpayer received. The bottom 20% of Americans only got 1% of the tax cut, a $300 dollars Department of Treasury check. The tax cuts were sold as a way to bring in middle class jobs and rising middle class wages.

Koch Industries and the Exxon/Mobil funded Heritage Foundation rabidly cheered and promoted the Bush Tax Cuts. The Heritage Foundation's 2001 report proclaimed if the Bush tax cut legislation were to pass, it would:

1) Effectively pay off the federal debt;
2) Reduce the federal surplus by $1.4 trillion;
3) Substantially increase family income;
4) Save the entire Social Security surplus;
5) Increase personal savings;
6) Create more job opportunities.

Everyone of those claims was a deliberate lie to sell the tax cuts to the middle class as a job creator and deficit reducer. None of these claims came true because the Plutocracy and their Think Tanks knew they were lies. What did occur was a massive transfer of wealth upwards to the Plutocracy, which were the true goals of the Bush Tax Cuts and part of the Republican plan all along. 

Bush and the Republicans Wars are still costing the Nation. Thousands of American Veterans suffer from PTSD, many of them resort to taking their life, because the Republican Party doesn't care about broken soldiers and hasn't cared since they started the Wars. In total a Million Veterans may require a lifetime of coverage and support which Bush never intended to provide them with and the Republican  Party continually votes against providing.

Torture, the Bush TARP, a Bankers wet dream, wherein another Trillion in American taxpayer funds was grotesquely funneled directly to aid the Rich as a last Bushian Fuck You to the people.

But, you'll be hard pressed to find a conservative who voted for Bush nowadays. They are rarer than Hen's Teeth.

And now, the coup de'grace, the failure of George W(orst President Ever) Bush's Reverse Domino Theory in Iraq.

Two senior Iraqi politicians told Western intelligence that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction on the eve of the 2003 invasion – but their warnings were ignored and then not reported to the subsequent Butler inquiry, according to a major new investigation. 

Vital intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq 10 years ago was based on "fabrication" and "wishful thinking", the BBC Panorama documentary claims. While information from highly placed Iraqis was dismissed as unimportant if it indicated that Hussein did not have WMD, tip offs from low-ranking Iraqis were eagerly lapped up if they reinforced what George W Bush and Tony Blair wanted to hear, it is claimed.

Hundreds of Thousands dead and at least $5 Trillion lost on the Iraq Debacle based on "intelligence" Tony Blair and MI6 and George W(orst President Ever) Bush and the CIA knew was fabricated while dissenting intelligence was ignored.

Update:
John McCain (and others) are pushing the We Won Iraq until That One lost it.

"What about the fact that we had it Won? The fact is we had the conflict won, and we had a stable government, and a residual force such as we have left behind ... but the president wanted out and now we are paying a very heavy price."

Sure, a perpetual "stablizing force" suffering the daily death of one or more military members. The expenditure of Billions of Dollars a day, most of it swindled by the American Plutocracy and shuffled of into Cayman Islands Bank accounts. That is what McCain wanted. That is what the Republican Party wanted.

The Republican Party in all its' iterations is the most despicable collection of scum ever assembled. They and their mindless conservative drones won't be happy until we are all ground down into nothing and the Democratic Republic is obliterated.

Gold Showers on the EGA

"A fate worse than a fate worse than death... Sounds pretty bad." ~ Blackadder IV

The images and video of US Marines urinating on the corpses of (Al Qaeda? Taliban? Unidentified Pashtun Tribesmen?) has elicited the standard reaction of outrage and condemnation from the SecDef, Commandant of Marine Corps, Secretary of State and put into motion a full NCIS investigation of the video and every possible Marine involved from Camp Lejeune. This incident is rapidly degenerating into the Torture "Debate", wherein the Right-Wingers defend something completely wrong because our "enemies" do bad things thereby making it okay. Mainly because conservatives have no compunction about being evil.

Personally, I never understood how it was fine to kill someone but, the follow on act of "desecrating" their bodies was then deemed the actual violation of the Rules of War. This is no doubt because I am not a gentleman.

Marines should know War is a gentleman's pursuit because every new recruit is taught Marine Corps Officers back in the 19th century wore a Barracks Cover with the Quatrefoil embossed on top. Officers were deemed not-legitimate targets for sniper fire and had to have a distinguishing mark on top of their cover to inform snipers of their non-targetable status.

Other ridiculous Rules of War have been tried over the centuries, the infamous Vatican decision in 1139 the crossbow was too deadly a weapon and could not be used, except on Muslims. All the way down to the the Geneva Conventions of the 20th Century.

The currently accepted Geneva Conventions (Right-Wingers orgasmic love of torture notwithstanding) are really a way Large Armies can fixate and maximize their advantage over small armies. Only a foolish military commander would follow rules of war which ensure his destruction. The moment Al Qaeda begins to mass large troop concentrations for a pitched battle is the moment they are obliterated. Such a concentration, training grounds, depot, armory, motor pool would be spotted and targeted with a massive amount of airpower.

Our enemies would be exceedingly stupid to follow the Rules of War.

This latest incident won't change much. Besides not getting the slap-in-the-face Good Conduct Medal, these Marines will be punished for their crimes, but what can never be brought up is that War itself is a Crime. Jingoistic War Profiteers and Chicken Hawks make too much money off of war. It doesn't matter that War breaks minds and bodies, plenty more were they came from, but don't make the War look bad.

Thus the Afghan War will continue for a few more years (or 4 more years if Mitt Romney steals into the White House) and new Wars will be hatched by the Establishment and the 99% will suffer all the costs, fiscal, physical and mental for the profit of the 1%.

Related:
Golden Shower aficionado Dana Loesch, the St Louis Tea Party spawn of Andrew Breitbart, spoke on her radio show and declared "I want a million cool points for these guys" and "I'd drop trou and do it too..."

Loesch is given air time on CNN regularly and was deeply involved in the baseless smear campaign of the two University of Missouri-Kansas City teachers Judy Ancel and Don Giljum. And as for her "I'd drop trou and do it too..." line I don't remember ever seeing her skinny chicken hawk ass on the yellow footprints let alone in Afghanistan.

Related 2:
It is easy to tell when an action is absolutely wrong because all the right-wing, never served a day jingoistic chicken hawks come out in support of the action. Cowardly warmonger Mark Levin declared "count me in as staunch supporter" of the pissing Marines.

Related 3:
Now you can be absolutely sure the action is wrong, criminal and evil because Representative Allen West (known for torturing innocent Iraqis and trying to intimidate Congresswomen) has declared, “As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.” Yes, Congressman West how about reading the Bill of Rights.

The Advocates of Torture

"Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information. It is ultimately self-defeating as a means of control. One wonders it is still practiced." ~ Jean Luc Picard.

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. ~ Dick Cheney.

“The gloves are coming off gentlemen regarding these detainees, [redacted] has made clear it wants these individuals broken,” MI ALWAYS OUT IN FRONT, (08/14/2003)

Americans have known for a century, since the Philippine Insurrection, that Torture is wrong. That was until 2001 and the Bush/Cheney Regime. A Harvard Student Research Paper found that when Americans learned of the Abu Gharib scandal suddenly Bush Torture Lawyers began to push the notion of "Harsh" or "Enhanced Interrogation" methods to their media contacts and those stories began to equivocate and pretend as though there was a hotly contested debate about what is and what isn't Torture.

The reason is simple, Dick Cheney said as much right after 9/11, American Policy was Torture. And who would be tortured? Anyone. Everyone. Innocence and Guilt were non-factors. Bush and Cheney wanted Torture.

Whole sections of the Executive Branch were devoted to making Torture Official US Policy, the Justice Department was co-opted into crafting "legal" arguments for the efficacy of Torture and the rescinding of the "quaint" Geneva Conventions, White House officials made repeated Sunday Talk Show appearances hinting at the dozens of plots stopped by Torture, Jack Bauer would save Fox America through Torture. Torture was the Universal Cure-all of the Bush White House.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Ari Fleischer, Liz Cheney, Monica Goodling, Jay Bybee are war criminals. And they are worst of sort of war criminals for they, safely ensconced in air-conditioned offices, far from the battlefield, coldly crafted Torture memos and policies. Clear intent not influenced by the heat of the moment.

Yet how could it be that a section of the American people not only defend the Bush Regime War Criminals but defend the use of Torture? Well, the Media stopped calling it Torture. And magically we have two sides of the Torture issue.

And worst of all everyone knows that Torture is not useful in gaining information and gaining information through coercion is not only futile but criminal.

The clearest example of an interrogation practice that will void a confession is the infliction of physical force or pain upon the person under interrogation, because it is an incontestable fact that harm of this nature may produce a confession of guilt from an innocent person. This is also true as regards indirect physical harm - for instance, an unduly prolonged continuous interrogation, especially by two or more interrogators working in relays or the deprivation of food, water, or access to toilet facilities for an unreasonable period of time. A threat of physical harm may have a similar effect --- the extraction of confession from innocent persons. ~ Fred E. Inbau

Illinois Law- (720 ILCS 5/12‑7) Compelling confession or information by force or threat.

(a) A person who, with intent to obtain a confession, statement or information regarding any offense, knowingly inflicts or threatens imminent bodily harm upon the person threatened or upon any other person commits the offense of compelling a confession or information by force or threat.

(b) Sentence. Compelling a confession or information is a: (1) Class 4 felony if the defendant threatens imminent bodily harm to obtain a confession, statement, or information but does not inflict bodily harm on the victim, (2) Class 3 felony if the defendant inflicts bodily harm on the victim to obtain a confession, statement, or information, and (3) Class 2 felony if the defendant inflicts great bodily harm to obtain a confession, statement, or information.

Related Disaffected Blog Posts:
Opening Salvo, First Blog Post:

Water Torture was used on the Filipinos ,this was eventually admitted to by future President William Howard Taft.

Torture.

George Bush oversaw the implementation of Torture in the name of the American people. Here is the strangest dissonance from the Pro-Human Pain and Suffering Right Wing: The harsh interrogation methods we used are so wimpy that slapping oneself on air is the equivalent. However, they are so awesome and useful that if need be we can use them and break someone in 35 seconds to save us from the Right Wing Extremist Bogus Ticking Time Bomb Scenario.

So it's both Torture and Not Torture.

Stalag 17, Revisited:

Remember the film Stalag 17? One of the techniques the Nazis use is Sleep Deprivation. Watch the scene. In it Von Scherbach also declares Lieutenant Dunbar is not a prisoner of war. Strange how much Ari "Sleep Deprivation, I have no Problem with" Fleischer resembles Von Scherbach and not Otto Preminger.

Delving Into the Water Cure:

Paul Kramer has a detailed expose for The New Yorker on it's use 100 years ago: Many Americans were puzzled by the news, in 1902, that United States soldiers were torturing Filipinos with water. The United States, throughout its emergence as a world power, had spoken the language of liberation, rescue, and freedom.