Tue 24 Aug, 2010
Really?
“The only people that don’t want to disclose the truth are people with something to hide.”
I guess this is his justification for prosecuting more whistleblowers than Bush.
Tags: I Wonder Which Corporation Allowed Him To Do This, Obama, PrivacyMon 23 Aug, 2010
Our home away from home.
U.S. special operations forces in Iraq will remain at current levels even as the number of American troops there is nearly halved over the next five months, the top special operations commander said today.
As the 98,000-strong force in Iraq is reduced to 50,000 by Aug. 31 in accordance with a U.S.-Iraqi agreement, roughly 4,500 special operations forces will maintain a presence there, military officials said.
“The special operations forces are not experiencing a drawdown in Iraq,” said Navy Adm. Eric Olson, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. “Supporting them is a continuing mission of the rest of the force.”
[...]
As of last week, he said, special operations forces were engaged in 79 countries globally, including six “at-risk” countries where danger is probable, if not imminent. The number of forces engaged around the world was about 12,000 — about 10,000 of which were assigned to U.S. Central Command, an area of operations that includes Afghanistan, Iraq and the greater Middle East.
This is what I think is going to happen. Obama will tout the Iraq withdrawal during the next presidential election. He will talk about how he delivered on his promise of bringing home the troops. Then once he gets reelected, BOOM, he’ll send the troops back to Iraq.
Don’t believe me? Ask General Odierno.
Tags: Iraq War, US Special Forces, War on Terror, We Have Been Fucking With Iraq For 70 YearsMon 16 Aug, 2010
Does Petraeus own anything that doesn't have camo on it?
Democrats are the new Republicans.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of American and NATO forces, began a campaign on Sunday to convince an increasingly skeptical public that the American-led coalition can still succeed here despite months of setbacks, saying he had not come to Afghanistan to preside over a “graceful exit.”
In an hourlong interview with The New York Times, the general argued against any precipitous withdrawal of forces in July 2011, the date set by President Obama to begin at least a gradual reduction of the 100,000 troops on the ground. General Petraeus said that it was only in the last few weeks that the war plan has been fine-tuned and given the resources that it required. “For the first time,” he said. “we will have what we have been working to put in place for the last year and a half.”
In another in a series of interviews, on “Meet the Press,” General Petraeus even appeared to leave open the possibility that he would recommend against any withdrawal of American forces next summer. “Certainly, yes,” he said when the show’s host, David Gregory, asked him if, depending on how the war was proceeding, he might tell the president that a drawdown should be delayed. “The President and I sat down in the Oval Office, and he expressed very clearly that what he wants from me is my best professional military advice.”
Unpopular war, General Petraeus, midterm elections. Where have I heard all of this before?
Such voices are mostly muted now, if only because so much is riding on his mission. Petraeus rarely fails to tell Iraqis that it was the president who appointed him: “When the president personally tells you something is important—and I was still a two-star at the time—you know he’s serious about it and we’re serious about it.” Both the president and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz met with Petraeus before he was sent back to Iraq with his third star. “They told me, ‘Whatever you need, you’ve got it’.”
[...]
Nobody seems neutral. His fans believe he’s a new-style officer for a new type of warfare, where battles can be won with superior technology and firepower, but true victories can be secured only by good peacemaking and politics. They say he proved himself—and his methods—in the aftermath of the war last year. (It’s widely accepted that no force worked harder to win Iraqi hearts and minds than the 101st Air Assault Division led by Petraeus.) These boosters include many in the White House. “People’s body language shifts” when they talk about Petraeus there, says one official. Yet critics regard Petraeus as one of a type they call “perfumed princes,” a derisive term for officers who have advanced from one staff job to another, essentially working as efficient courtiers to the four-stars. They say he won a short-term peace in Mosul at the expense of allowing insurgents to organize themselves mostly unmolested. They rankle at Petraeus’s penchant for self-promotion and PR.
[...]
Petraeus’s strategy now is to rebuild the Iraqi forces from the top down—”to support, assist and enable good Iraqi leaders.” Instead of rushing to build up the numbers of foot soldiers, training programs have been changed to concentrate on officers and noncoms. Separately, Petraeus is pushing to get body armor and good weapons to the Iraqis. Money is not an issue: a billion dollars has already been spent on Iraqi forces, and an additional $2.4 billion is in the pipeline for the rest of the year. In just the last week, 13,500 Gluck pistols, 850,000 rounds of ammunition, 900 vehicles, 50,000 flak vests and 60,000 Kevlar helmets were delivered. “It’s really flowing in now,” Petraeus said.
This push to stay in Afghanistan by the White House shouldn’t surprise anyone since the White House hates their base.
Tags: Afghanistan, War on Terror, White House Hates LiberalsFri 13 Aug, 2010
This incredibly racist photo was the first thing Google brought up when I searched for 'Bringing It Back'.
This is one of the many reasons why I consider Glenn Greenwald to be the best political columnist. [Glenn Greenwald]
Goddammit, I can’t believe I agree with Glen Beck. [Huffington Post]
Obama hates people who want to end the Afghanistan war. [The Daily Beast]
Fuck BP! [Washington's Blog]
Goldman Sachs isn’t afraid of the financial reform law, which means the financial reform law’s a joke. [Matt Taibbi]
Tags: But Because It's Over The Top In Its Racism, Fuck, Is It Wrong I Laughed At That Picture, Not Because I'm A Racist, Weekly Link Dump, You Think I'm RacistWed 11 Aug, 2010
This isn’t the first time America has funded it’s eniemies. We did it in the 30′s with the Nazis. We did it in the 60′s with Ho Chi Minh. And we did it in the 80′s with these ‘terrorists’ . Creating enemies is in our blood, it’s who we are. And we will never stop doing it.
Tue 10 Aug, 2010
Everyone hates these people.
The flooding just keeps getting worse and worse. On Saturday, the UN estimated that 4 million people were affected by the flooding in Pakistan. By Sunday they revised that estimate to 6 million people. Today, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that over 13 million people are affected.
It is no wonder that a UN officials are saying this is bigger than the 2004 tsunami. In fact, that would make it bigger than the combined number of people affected by the Tsunami, Haiti earthquake and 2005 Kashmir earthquake…combined. Make no mistake: this is the worst natural disaster in recent history. Here is a map of affected areas from OCHA. That is alot of tragedy.
Where are all the fundraisers with Hollywood movie stars crying about the massive human suffrage? Where’s the super mega concert with U2, Coldplay, Jay-Z, Kayne West, and every other A-plus musician? Where’s the commercials interrupting the NFL Hall of Fame game asking people to donate to rebuild a village?
Oh, that’s right, people only give a shit about Pakistan when Al Qaeda’s involved.
Tags: Everyone Hates Brown People, Flooding, PakistanMon 9 Aug, 2010
Shazam!
After throwing all of my wife’s shit into the back of a U-Haul, driving two hours in the 100 degree heat without air conditioner, and unpacking an entire factory worth of shoes, I’m back. And goddamn does it feel good. (Not the unpacking shoes part, because that sucked John Boehner’s orange dick. I mean seriously, how many shoes does a person need?)
I’ve been gone so long I have no idea what to write about. Should I write about how WikiLeaks proved to the world how retarded the Afghanistan war is? Or should I write about the whole Shirley Sherrod fiasco? Or should I write about the collapse of the American empire?
You know what? Those stories are too depressing. I need a feel good story. One that tugs at the ol’ ball strings and actually gives me hope for the future. Something like this happy-go-lucky story.
Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.
Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents.
Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s. Infant mortality in the city is more than four times higher than in neighbouring Jordan and eight times higher than in Kuwait.
[...]
In the assault US commanders largely treated Fallujah as a free-fire zone to try to reduce casualties among their own troops. British officers were appalled by the lack of concern for civilian casualties. “During preparatory operations in the November 2004 Fallujah clearance operation, on one night over 40 155mm artillery rounds were fired into a small sector of the city,” recalled Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster, a British commander serving with the American forces in Baghdad.
He added that the US commander who ordered this devastating use of firepower did not consider it significant enough to mention it in his daily report to the US general in command. Dr Busby says that while he cannot identify the type of armaments used by the Marines, the extent of genetic damage suffered by inhabitants suggests the use of uranium in some form. He said: “My guess is that they used a new weapon against buildings to break through walls and kill those inside.”
If that story doesn’t warm the cockles of your heart and make you want to stand on the nearest street corner and chant ‘USA! USA!’ then you aren’t human.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have a street corner to go stand on.
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