Time to Declare Independence

From the Military-Industrial-Complex, which is not only bankrupting the Nation it demands Americans sacrifice themselves.

Sometimes my epigrams come a little too soon. Case in point, no sooner than I referenced the Loud Mouthed Cowardly War Proponents propensity to blather about the necessity of sacrificing someone else's life in war than did Michael Steele comment about the idiocy and uselessness of the "War" in Afghanistan. The comments received national media attention and the War Mongering Neo-Cons and Chicken Hawk Republicans immediately responded about the necessity of sacrificing more Americans' lives.

Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol, and Karl Rove, those three incomparable assholes, stepped forward first demanding Steele withdraw his comments and resign. The Republicans, led by John McCain and Sarah Palin, then followed and jumped at the chance to proclaim their support for Never-Ending-War. Tom Cole and Jim DeMint called on Steele to apologize and resign. Cole and DeMint are real republican chicken hawks they love war now but sure couldn't be bothered to serve in Vietnam when they were young men. You see it is their job to convince the American People that Endless War is good and necessary. A War which they know they and their families will never have to sacrifice anything for...

Republicans support War because they don't serve in the military. They won't have to shit in a hole in the desert. They won't have to go 7 weeks without a real shower. They won't have put rounds down range at another human being.

Now, of course, I believe from the total context of Steele's quote, as 'Obama's War of Choice', Steele was trying to use the increase in American deaths as a political tool against President Obama. But, if there's one thing the Republicans want to own it's the Wars. Because Republicans know they won't be touched by those wars.

The Wars begun by Bush and Cheney with the lockstep support of the Republican Party were for one reason; A Two-fold transfer of Wealth. There are too many Trillions of dollars to be taken from struggling American families and too much land and resources to be stolen from innocent people overseas by sending Americans there to kill the brown peoples.

If Obama does begin the drawdown it will mark a clear difference in 2012 for the American people. If he doesn't...

Waaaaaaaar
Propaganda war ensemble
Sport the war, war support
The sport is war, total war ~ Slayer, War Ensemble

Trust the "Obama" Government?

And now, folks, it's time for "Who do you trust!" Hubba, hubba, hubba! Money, money, money! Who do you trust? Me? I'm giving away free money. - The Jack Nicholson, Batman (1989).

President Obama is not the Progressive Superman, a mythical hero fighting for social justice and against tyranny, hoped for and it's not that much of a surprise. Any politician who rises to the level of the Upper branches of the Federal Government can only do so via Matrix-esque Corporatist implants. Obama's no different in fact in continuing many of the previous president's policies he appears to be Bush-lite. The really disheartening thing for me is the Warfare State continues.

Marines are still dying and Americans still don't give a fuck except that they should be shielded from their deaths.

My chest aches at listening to the monologue accompanying the heartbreaking images of the LCpl Bernard but it's 1 of the 5163 dead Americans sacrificed for American Interests. And so few, seemed to give a fuck when any of the other faceless pumped their heart's blood onto foreign soil for Interests...

The Corporatist Kleptocracy cares more for money than blood. This is well known, that Obama allows this to continue is not an unexpected punch to the gut but a dismissive hand flip from the War Machine.

My own active involvement ended, thankfully, four full years ago, but my tacit approval continues to this day. It continues because I have a good (nicely paying) job now, a home, free time and a settled life... I'm too afraid to make any big waves which would overturn what I've got and that's the problem that's what the Government relies on. Because America is such a land of plenty, most Americans are comfortable with the status quo. My kid didn't die in Iraq, I'm not facing unpayable medical bills, I've got a Silverado and a 50" LCD, why fight?

Of course, Birther Teabaggers are making waves but only so Dick Cheney can regain power and he can continue their subjugation at a faster pace than Obama is pursuing...

The Cool Parent

Poor people get bored, too... ~ JCvD, Hard Target (1993)

During the last dreadful months of Tipsy Canoe's Reign of Terror, at the behest of the economic bastards who control him and his party, the American people experinced a smash-n-grab pilfering. As a last kick to the coccyx a scheme was concocted to push through the TARP and directly funnel Billions of dollars to the rich (My Base as Tipsy calls them) while Oil companies gouged people with super-inflated gas prices, reaching over $4.50 a gallon in the Chicago-land area in 2008, which to this day no one in the Bush regime has explained or seems to have any inclination of explaining.

The battle between the parties* is like the battle between two divorced parents over their kids. Each wants the kids to choose them over the other, each uses dirty tactics. Each wants to use the government to enrich themselves, their cronies and their masters. The Republicans, have, developed a very clever idea. Be completely irresponsible and when the bill comes due leave it to the Democrats. They want to be the "Cool Parent".

Over the last 8 years Bush, like all Republicans, ran the country into the ground using the Piss Down Your Back Reaganomics. The clean-up is now in the hands of Obama. And wouldn't you know it, before he even took office the Republican Hounds began barking and yelping at the uncool Democrats who want to raise taxes and be fiscally irresponsible. Heres what Jack Cafferty has to say about Republican "fiscal responsibilty".

Will Obama's plan work? I don't know. But, the Republican party is a criminal Corporate Welfare Gang, they work tirelessly to Privatize Profits and Subsidize Losses. The Republicans know if they're honest about their Socialist plans to funnel Trillions of dollars to the Gang of Corporate Hacks, the people would rebel.

*- Libertarians are like your uncle who drops by every few years smelling like Denmark.

Suicides continue, No One Cares

The U.S. Army said the number of soldiers who committed suicide last year has increased for a fourth straight year.

Does anyone not connected to the victim care? Blog posts are meaningless. I can't name a single soldier who took his own life.

I'm sorry they didn't receive the help they needed but even those words taste as a chalky hollow platitude. Like something a Chickenhearted Warmonger would say; while not contemplating the underlying causes or questioning his rabid support for the murder of innocents in far away lands by the American Military and the toll it takes on the minds and bodies of those who never truly return home.

Republican Hatred for the Individual

Do I Hate You? Do I Hate You? Yes
Do I Hate You and Placate You? Ohh ~ H8Red Anthrax

This might as well be the lyrics for the Republican Party, because they clearly hate the individual and want them to die an early death after having squeezed every ounce of labor from them.

I thought the Republicans wanted people to earn as much as possible, I thought they were the party of the individual. Isn't that what they've been telling people for years? We want you to keep as much of your money as possible. Well it's obviously bullshit.

The Republicans so-called principled stand against the bad business model of Detroit has been shown to be a lie with the recent news Toyota is going to run a loss of $1.7 Billion USC this year.

The real reason the Republican Party lead the charge against the UAW and the US Auto Industry is because they represent a small cadre of plutocratic elites who wish to re-instate a feudal dictatorship in America in which the rarified 1% control the majority of wealth and ensure no one else earns a living wage.

To Republicans the people of this nation are cogs for the gears of industry or war to be used up and worked to death so they can't retire as useless eaters, draining the coffers of the state from which the Republicans enrich themselves.

This is why the Republican party is committed to destroying the middle class. Because a middle class exercises political power and votes against being squeezed and worked to death by the Republican Feudal Overlords.

David S. Chu stated benefits to wounded veterans and retirees, "are taking away from the nation's ability to defend itself." Meaning stop spending money on soldiers who can't be sent to fight and gain money for Republicans.

The son of auto executive, not a filthy line worker, Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney wants Detroit to go bankrupt and millions lose their jobs and benefits. That way the poor will have to take whatever wage he and his Kleptocratic friends deem them worthy of, which is just enough to ensure they work themselves to death before the age 67. Romney even cites the Toyota Avalon being superior to Detroit autos. The same Toyota which is losing $1.7 Billions USC this year.

Conservative bloggers strive for the deaths of workers. Confederate Yankee offers this insight seemingly taken from Romney's Op-Ed:

"What separates the successful companies that aren't asking for a bailout from the leaches grubbing for tax dollars from your already empty wallet? Greedy, bloated, self-serving and uncompetitive union labor, particularly the United Auto Workers (UAW). Non-union car factories are cranking out the smaller, higher-quality, more fuel efficient fleets that America wants to buy, while the unionized Big Three are cranking out bloated beasts that carry and estimated $2,000 of overhead per vehicle because of concessions the automakers have made the unions over the years in noncompetitive benefits and pensions."

Of course, he's not satisfied with just crushing the UAW,

"For that matter, much of the manufacturing in this country doesn't deserve to live, particularly that created with non-competitive union labor so prevalent in the Northeast and upper Midwest."

You see we need to reduce workers to the status of wage slaves as we find in Vietnam or Nigeria, receiving whatever their feudal lords deem them worthy of earning, i.e. just enough to live; while using up their youth and discarding the workers as worthless when they get old, sick or injured. (Sadly, No has an excellent dissection of Confederate Yankee's H8Red of the plebeians)

Republican Richard Shelby, who spent more than $1 Billion USC in taxpayer money to lure in foreign auto manufactures to Alabama doesn't want taxpayer money to help domestic auto manufactures. Why? Because Republicans want to destroy the political power of workers in the US to reduce them to the status of workers in Indonesia.

And the mouthpiece of the Republican party Rush Limbaugh clearly stated how dare the individual not work until his death. Limbaugh "You're not supposed to retire when you're 55. You sound to me like you are totally capable of still working." (From Crooks and Liars 11/19/08)

And to point out the irony of Republicans working for the Death of Individuals, Pat Buchanan points out while Shelby and other Republicans are trying to destroy Detroit and impoverish individuals, General Motors didn't bomb Pearl Harbor, Mitsubishi did. So Republicans support companies that directly killed American Troops.

Iraq War Costs

A US soldier in Iraq allegedly shot and murdered two other US soldiers.

I don't know the facts in this case so I won't speculate on the reasons this happened which could be almost anyhting.

But the fact which I can comment on is; Two More Deaths.

Does anyone not connected care at all? Does the politician who uses the War (pro or against) know about this situation? Does any of the true cost and horror being visited upon people register at all? The Surge (and the disgusting rush to capitalize upon it's success in lowering violence) has allowed people the ability to compartmentalize the War costs.

A la the narrator speaking with Tyler Durden in Fight Club, "That's the last sofa I'm gonna need. Whatever else happens, I've got that sofa problem handled."

To many of the American People that Sofa is the Surge. "Golly gee I sure don't need to worry about that darn Iraq War anymore."

Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo called the deaths "a tragic and senseless loss of two professional soldiers..." The problem is the entire war is a tragic and senseless loss of thousands of lives.

Feels like Suicide

With an ounce of pain
I wield a ton of rage
Just like suicide - Soundgarden, Like Suicide

Update 04/23:
CBS News is reporting Two US Senators are calling for the resignation of Bush Regime Liar Ira Katz. Of course, Katz will step down apologizing for his misstatements over such a trivial matter as wounded vets taking their own lives after Bush's War of Conquest and Choice. And Bush will delude enough people into believing he's not to blame for the mistreatment and abuse of veterans.

So the VA for some unknown reason is lying about the number of vets who have taken their own lives. Now why would the Department of Veteran Affairs lie about what happens to veterans post-war? To keep the American people in the Dark about the human toll of war because the Surge is working.

How much evidence needs to come to light to show the disdainful indifference Bush and his cadre has for Veterans.

Veterans benefits are hurtful to national defense: "The amounts have gotten to the point where they are hurtful. They are taking away from the nation's ability to defend itself," says David Chu, the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel and readiness.

When the VA continually (here and here) loses Veterans personal information.

And when Veterans groups get together and sue for better health, the Bush Regime fights to have the case dismissed.

Armen Keteyian has emails, from the VAs Head of Mental Health, Dr. Ira Katz lying and covering up the number of suicides by Veterans. Here's the CBS transcript which claims Dr. Katz made efforts to hide the information from CBS News and lied during testimony.



So the words about noble deaths and sacred blood and honor and such are all put into dead lips by grave robbers and fakes who have no right to speak for the dead. Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun

Another Year Down. Another Year To Go!

Views on the Continuing Occupation.

Five Years of Iraq Lies by Juan Cole.

Each year of George W. Bush's war in Iraq has been represented by a thematic falsehood.

The Sixth Year: The tragic, futile war in Iraq grinds on - A Salt Lake Tribune Editorial.

Saying that the war was "necessary," as the president did the other day, or that "our objective here is victory and we need to be prepared to do whatever it takes in order to achieve that," as the vice president said, doesn't change this basic fact: The Iraq war is an open-ended cycle of bloodletting with no positive end in sight.

War advocates like Anne-Marie Slaughter demand that you forget the past by Glenn Greenwald points out the current Warmonger petulant temper tantrums.

And that's the point. This plea that we all just forget about the unpleasant past -- stop trying to figure out who was responsible for the Iraq War -- has become the principal self-defense weapon of the pro-war political establishment.

Joseph Galloway points out the unfortunate truth, Iraq surge has failed in its main purpose.

The surge was intended as a short-term escalation of troop strength to buy a bubble of better security so the Iraqi government and parliament could make progress toward reconciliation among its own warring, revenge-minded communities.

The brave, smart, and attractive Karen Kwiakowski skewers the Imperialist Warmongers in her piece The Art(ifice) of War:

This motion picture, this designer occupation, this expensive excursion into the lives of others, is what the war-supporting chattering class debates. Iraq is an artificial war, expending other people’s lives, other countries’ livelihoods, other mother’s children, and blood that doesn’t seem quite real to those in the velveteen theater.

The talented and ebullient Rachel Maddow concluded her scathing dissection of Dick Cheney's SO? with "I know you think it's been well worth the effort, mister vice president. But why on earth should we?"

And finally, Leading To War: How did the U.S. government lead its people to war?

Positive Battlefield News

“How could Democrats possibly hand McCain a better issue than to let him run on his record of advocating a robust U.S. presence in Iraq with all the positive battlefield news that is filtering out of that country?” asked Michael O’Hanlon.

From the Politico article, Support for war effort highest since 2006 by David Paul Kuhn.

O'Hanlon is, of course, one of the chief Chicken Hawks, who has been touting how well the Occupation has been going since the War began.

From a 09/28/2003 interview with NPR: "I think the counterinsurgency effort is going fairly well." Hey Mister O'Hanlon why don't you tell the families of the 3667 US killed, since your interview, how well the effort is going?

Glenn Greenwald has two excellent articles (here and here) collecting many of the Happy Happy Joy Joy We are Winning comments from O'Hanlon.

O'Hanlon has supported the War, the Occupation, The Surge and continuing the Surge all throughout.

3 US soldiers killed in a rocket attack? O'Hanlon would say: It's okay because the counterinsurgency effort is going well overall...

A 10 year old girl killed by US soldiers because of the Fog of War? Oh well, shrugs O'Hanlon, at least the counterinsurgency effort is going well overall...

And unfortunately, since the War is so removed from the eyes of America, we can allow ourselves to be coaxed into believing violence is down and the War in Iraq is going well overall...

Boring Evidence

Which doesn't support Warmonger claims, so just ignore it.

An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report.

See! See! The words are right there in print! To quote: "Saddam... provided... support... to... terrorist groups". Bam! What more do you do you need you anti-war terrorist lovers! The war in Iraq has nothing to do with the Trillions being given to the Military-Industrial-Complex.

Update:
Surprise the US Government doesn't want the Pentagon Report showing no link between Saddam and Al Qaeda placed on the web. Where the definitive proof of the Bush Regime's lies could be accessed and referenced forever.

Mission Accomplished 2... This time it's for real...

Lieberman and McCain have spoken, The Surge Worked. Mission Accomplished all over again.

And apparently America should believe Bush with his upbeat assessment of the Surge calling it "incredibly successful beyond anybody's expectations".

Well, after being treated to repeated claims of progress by Bush:

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

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

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

August 11, 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."

I could go on posting links to the Bush mantra of progress but The Eye of The Witch blog has already done an excellent job of documenting the White House press releases hailing progress.

Here is Keith Olbermann's Progress Retrospective from Countdown:


I'll wait to proclaim success when Americans aren't dying.

Why do Americans ignore the last 5 years of death, mayhem and destruction in Iraq?

Probably because Neocon Warmongers and Warfare State supporters, who predicted the Surge succeeded back in March or April before it began, Surge Results Visible by Charles Krauthammer. Surge's Success Going Unnoticed by William Kristol and others spend all their time bombarding Americans with the Progress and Mission Accomplished meme.

Remove Brain. Wash Brain. Reinsert. Repeat as needed.

The Surge occurred to save Bush from the prospect of having to pull troops out under his presidency. Now, he'll be able to keep troops in Iraq until he slinks his way out of the White House and down onto his ranch in Crawford or Paraguay.

And if the next President is so foolish as to try and limit the amount of money being made by the peddlers of death and lobbyists of destruction he (or she) will find themselves the subject of brutal and non-stop "You lost Iraq" attacks until the uninformed populace believes...

Human Terrain Teams

Prior to my deployments, I received a 6 hour block on Iraqi culture. It was in a large lecture hall and most of the marines in the back had difficulty hearing the 3 instructors. I do not believe the class was of much help.

But, now the Universities of America are being combed for Anthropolgists!

Enter the Human Terrain Team. Armed with their knowledge of the social sciences, the HTTers use the Etic approach to teach young americans how to interact with the Iraqi populace. Dr. David Matsuda seems to be the current front man (via this news story and this release) for news coming out of Iraq.

This has caused much strife amongst the Academic community. The American Anthropolgists Association opposse the HTT system. I can understand the expressed concerns, instead of promoting cultural understanding the HTT system enables the continued occupation of Iraq. Danger Room has a series of posts and should be referenced.

I am conflicted about this, if the professors help limit Hadithahs and incidents such as the killing of two Americans by an Iraqi soldier it could be considered a success. But, the adoption of HTT program should be viewed by the American people as nothing less than another indicator we are in Iraq for the long haul. Again think of occupation of the Phillipine Islands.

Of course, this also highlights the American predliction to snear and disdain learning. If Americans had a little more knowledge of History and Anthropology they might have known about the 1920 Iraqi revolt against British Rule. Then they would have laughed at Dick Cheney when he promised, "We would be greeted as liberators", instead of cheering on the Warfare State.

However, the use of state funded education to turn Americans into cogs for industry or the military is a topic for another post.

This means they can come home now, right?

Al-Qaida in Iraq 75 percent destroyed.

Oh, but Gen Petraeus states the gains are, "tenous... and could be reversed".

And so the cycle of almost success continues. The cycle of just another six months and We're makin' progress which will keep us in Iraq for... 50 years?

Chapter 3 : Offensive Strategy

To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence.

Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy. Next best is to disrupt his alliances by diplomacy. The next best is to attack his army. And the worst policy is to attack cities. Sun Tzu.

So, due to the intractable "bravery" of the Mighty War Leader, the US is using the 2 worst strategies and Al Qaeda is employing the 2 best.

WE WILL STAY THE COURSE.