Our Secret Syria
Revolt and civil war. A government that poisons its rural population with chemical agents and directs death squads to deal with the political opposition. Hundreds of thousands of dead. Millions of internal refugees and more hundreds of thousands who have fled to neighboring countries.
Syria?
No. It’s our bloody best buddy Colombia, the Syria just to the south of us.
As opposed to the endless news reports from that distant Arab country, coverage of the horrors that go on in Colombia range from miniscule to non-existent. Instead, what we’re told about Colombia is that it’s a ‘developing’ democracy and our best ally in Latin America. If pressed, our leaders admit that Colombia could do a tad better when it comes to human rights. But don’t worry, they’re working on it.
There are lots of reasons for our media blackout on Colombia. One is that Washington doesn’t want the truth out about its sponsorship by way of billions in weapons, training and direction of what other Latins call a “death squad democracy.” It doesn’t fit with our pretense of being a champion of freedom.
Another reason is that to acknowledge the millions of Colombian refugees is to admit to the enormity of the evils being committed there. It also turns our propaganda upside down. We are supposed to believe that people are fleeing from leftist countries like Ecuador and Venezuela. How do we explain hundreds of thousands flocking into those countries to escape Washington-sponsored ‘democracy?’
Thankfully, the latest news from Columbia isn’t all bad. The current president, Santos, is a shade more reasonable than his murderous predecessor Uribe. And there are peace talks going on in Havana between the rebels (who have been at it for 60 years) and the government. But still atrocities go on as in Catatumbo.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Gasus Belli
vv
I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.--Winston Churchill, 1919
Old Winston was cogitating about the most effective ways to punish Iraqis (nee Mesopotamians) who had the impertinence to rise up against rule by Perfidious Albion.
Back in the day, it was permissible for colonial powers to use any weapon. no matter how horrible, to teach the wogs a lesson. We gringos, for example, pioneered dive bombing back in the 1920s. Our targets were refractory Nicaraguan peasants. The Nazis adopted the technique as a central element of their Blitzkrieg strategy.
In Indochina we ended or extended the misery of millions of Vietnamese with the chemical Agent Orange. Then we helped our erstwhile ally Saddam Hussein gas Iranians and Kurds back in the ‘80s. And all of our recent wars have included the use of depleted uranium weapons.
So it should be difficult for Washington to threaten war over alleged Syrian gas attacks on civilians with a straight face. But, then again, who in Washington has a straight face?
I have no idea about why such a self-destructive decision was made, but it appeared a couple of days ago that Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama was on the verge of making war on Syria, yet another distant country that has done us no harm.
It seemed so because the media, in place of the usual political drivel, started rolling out the warhawks to salivate about weapons and tactics. Their jingoism was tempered this time by the worry that Syria may have means to defend itself. Picking fights with those who can fight back has long been a no-no for the Pentagon and its contractors.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the media was announcing war by tomorrow, Thursday. Now they seem to be backing off a bit. There’s talk of giving the UN inspectors more time. A NY Times headline finds the U.S case for war “muddied” by the refusal of the Arab League to endorse an attack on Syria.
After a dozen years of blood-letting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the world’s most powerful empire only managed to make everything worse. It's all but guaranteed that a more awful result will result from a war on Syria. But, hey, the Pentagon contractors make a ton of bucks every time we fire off a million dollar cruise missile. So it's not all bad.
vv
I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.--Winston Churchill, 1919
Old Winston was cogitating about the most effective ways to punish Iraqis (nee Mesopotamians) who had the impertinence to rise up against rule by Perfidious Albion.
Back in the day, it was permissible for colonial powers to use any weapon. no matter how horrible, to teach the wogs a lesson. We gringos, for example, pioneered dive bombing back in the 1920s. Our targets were refractory Nicaraguan peasants. The Nazis adopted the technique as a central element of their Blitzkrieg strategy.
In Indochina we ended or extended the misery of millions of Vietnamese with the chemical Agent Orange. Then we helped our erstwhile ally Saddam Hussein gas Iranians and Kurds back in the ‘80s. And all of our recent wars have included the use of depleted uranium weapons.
So it should be difficult for Washington to threaten war over alleged Syrian gas attacks on civilians with a straight face. But, then again, who in Washington has a straight face?
I have no idea about why such a self-destructive decision was made, but it appeared a couple of days ago that Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama was on the verge of making war on Syria, yet another distant country that has done us no harm.
It seemed so because the media, in place of the usual political drivel, started rolling out the warhawks to salivate about weapons and tactics. Their jingoism was tempered this time by the worry that Syria may have means to defend itself. Picking fights with those who can fight back has long been a no-no for the Pentagon and its contractors.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the media was announcing war by tomorrow, Thursday. Now they seem to be backing off a bit. There’s talk of giving the UN inspectors more time. A NY Times headline finds the U.S case for war “muddied” by the refusal of the Arab League to endorse an attack on Syria.
After a dozen years of blood-letting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the world’s most powerful empire only managed to make everything worse. It's all but guaranteed that a more awful result will result from a war on Syria. But, hey, the Pentagon contractors make a ton of bucks every time we fire off a million dollar cruise missile. So it's not all bad.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Tales of Terror
WASHINGTON — The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda [since identified as Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of the global terrorist group, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] in which the terrorists discussed attacks against American interests in the Middle East and North Africa...
The above lede from the NY Times raises some questions. For instance:
It’s been 12 years since the world’s most powerful military, informed by the world’s most expensive intelligence apparat, began waging relentless war on Al Qaeda. Yet this latest alert implies that the longest war in our history hasn’t accomplished much. Washington is tacitly admitting that, after all those drone strikes and special ops, Al Qaeda still has “senior operatives” able to plan wide-ranging attacks by way of conference calls.
Were these Al Qaeda confabs conducted in clear or in code? If it was the former, Al Qaeda executives are among the stupidest terrorists ever. If they were in code, then U.S. intelligence operatives are the stupidest counterterrorists ever for revealing by their alert that they had broken Al Qaeda’s code.
And why, 12 years after 9/11, do the terrorists still “chatter” about their plans even though they know they’re being listened to? Why do they alert Washington by increasing that chatter whenever an attack is said to be imminent? You think they should have learned better by now.
Popular fiction about terrorism tends to be far more plausible than the nonsensical stuff put out by Washington. Would that our leaders could rise to the level of the writers for Chuck Norris movies. Then again, why should they when their tired old tales still work? Consider that it’s been 34 years, a third of a century, since Washington started warning us that Iran was on the verge of developing a nuke? And that inveracity remains serviceable to this day.
Meanwhile, the Times did not completely give itself over to the terror tattlers. It reported deep in the same story cited above that, “Some analysts and Congressional officials suggested Friday that emphasizing a terrorist threat now was a good way to divert attention from the uproar over the NSA's data-collection programs, and that if it showed the intercepts had uncovered a possible plot, even better.”
That’s a take I can take.
WASHINGTON — The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda [since identified as Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of the global terrorist group, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] in which the terrorists discussed attacks against American interests in the Middle East and North Africa...
The above lede from the NY Times raises some questions. For instance:
It’s been 12 years since the world’s most powerful military, informed by the world’s most expensive intelligence apparat, began waging relentless war on Al Qaeda. Yet this latest alert implies that the longest war in our history hasn’t accomplished much. Washington is tacitly admitting that, after all those drone strikes and special ops, Al Qaeda still has “senior operatives” able to plan wide-ranging attacks by way of conference calls.
Were these Al Qaeda confabs conducted in clear or in code? If it was the former, Al Qaeda executives are among the stupidest terrorists ever. If they were in code, then U.S. intelligence operatives are the stupidest counterterrorists ever for revealing by their alert that they had broken Al Qaeda’s code.
And why, 12 years after 9/11, do the terrorists still “chatter” about their plans even though they know they’re being listened to? Why do they alert Washington by increasing that chatter whenever an attack is said to be imminent? You think they should have learned better by now.
Popular fiction about terrorism tends to be far more plausible than the nonsensical stuff put out by Washington. Would that our leaders could rise to the level of the writers for Chuck Norris movies. Then again, why should they when their tired old tales still work? Consider that it’s been 34 years, a third of a century, since Washington started warning us that Iran was on the verge of developing a nuke? And that inveracity remains serviceable to this day.
Meanwhile, the Times did not completely give itself over to the terror tattlers. It reported deep in the same story cited above that, “Some analysts and Congressional officials suggested Friday that emphasizing a terrorist threat now was a good way to divert attention from the uproar over the NSA's data-collection programs, and that if it showed the intercepts had uncovered a possible plot, even better.”
That’s a take I can take.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Just Throw Money
WASHINGTON -- The House passed a defense budget Friday that exceeds the deal cut by Congress and President Barack Obama last summer, and that would have to be paid for with cash taken from poverty programs, health care and the federal workforce.--Huffington Post
One of the oddest anomalies about us Americans is our willingness to endlessly spend treasure and blood and to sacrifice our living standards in a vain effort to rule a world about which we are otherwise ignorant and indifferent.
Typically, a few months back, there was a brouhaha about security screw-ups at our consulate in Benghazi that cost the lives of four Americans. An informal poll showed that the Congress people making the loudest noise about the incident had no idea of where Benghazi was.
Rightwingers and liberals might seemingly be at each other’s jugulars in Washington, yet still bloated budgets for the Pentagon and its endless overseas adventures pass with massive majorities by both Reps and Dems.
And this goes on, decade after decade, no matter the failures of the empire. I’m old enough to remember a time when, if we lost a war or yet another country turned “anti-American,” there was consternation in Congress with charges of treason and betrayal flying everwhere. If I recall, it was our “loss” of China in 1949 that fueled McCarthyism and the great big red scare.
Today, no one seems to care that the empire is shrinking. Where’s the anger over the fact that our corrupt and incompetent military has been humiliated by feudal tribespeople in Afghanistan, or that we’ve left Iraq a messier and more dangerous place than when we stupidly invaded it?
Such anger no longer exists because our interest in the world--never very high--has all but disappeared. What’s replaced it is the belief that if we throw trillions at the Pentagon and our spying and security apparats, we need bother ourselves no further about the other 95 percent of humankind. Why worry when Hillary and now John Kerry are so good at their jobs?
Where will these endless trillions come from? Ordinary Americans, of course. How will they be accounted for? They won’t. Who will tote up the results, good and bad, from the constant intrigues, insurrections, coups and wars launched from Washington? No one.
And who will get the blame when the debacles of our martial and financial regimes again sink the economy? The usual suspects, meaning the poor and powerless who serve as our national scape goats.
So, it’s on to liberate Syria, or will it be Ecuador? No reason for us common folk to think about such stuff. The pols and generals know what they’re doing. And even if they don’t, zillion dollar drones will make the world obey us again.
WASHINGTON -- The House passed a defense budget Friday that exceeds the deal cut by Congress and President Barack Obama last summer, and that would have to be paid for with cash taken from poverty programs, health care and the federal workforce.--Huffington Post
One of the oddest anomalies about us Americans is our willingness to endlessly spend treasure and blood and to sacrifice our living standards in a vain effort to rule a world about which we are otherwise ignorant and indifferent.
Typically, a few months back, there was a brouhaha about security screw-ups at our consulate in Benghazi that cost the lives of four Americans. An informal poll showed that the Congress people making the loudest noise about the incident had no idea of where Benghazi was.
Rightwingers and liberals might seemingly be at each other’s jugulars in Washington, yet still bloated budgets for the Pentagon and its endless overseas adventures pass with massive majorities by both Reps and Dems.
And this goes on, decade after decade, no matter the failures of the empire. I’m old enough to remember a time when, if we lost a war or yet another country turned “anti-American,” there was consternation in Congress with charges of treason and betrayal flying everwhere. If I recall, it was our “loss” of China in 1949 that fueled McCarthyism and the great big red scare.
Today, no one seems to care that the empire is shrinking. Where’s the anger over the fact that our corrupt and incompetent military has been humiliated by feudal tribespeople in Afghanistan, or that we’ve left Iraq a messier and more dangerous place than when we stupidly invaded it?
Such anger no longer exists because our interest in the world--never very high--has all but disappeared. What’s replaced it is the belief that if we throw trillions at the Pentagon and our spying and security apparats, we need bother ourselves no further about the other 95 percent of humankind. Why worry when Hillary and now John Kerry are so good at their jobs?
Where will these endless trillions come from? Ordinary Americans, of course. How will they be accounted for? They won’t. Who will tote up the results, good and bad, from the constant intrigues, insurrections, coups and wars launched from Washington? No one.
And who will get the blame when the debacles of our martial and financial regimes again sink the economy? The usual suspects, meaning the poor and powerless who serve as our national scape goats.
So, it’s on to liberate Syria, or will it be Ecuador? No reason for us common folk to think about such stuff. The pols and generals know what they’re doing. And even if they don’t, zillion dollar drones will make the world obey us again.
Monday, July 1, 2013
-----------
Where’s Jack McCoy
When We Need Him?
He’s killed Americans with no more than an emperor’s thumbs down in place of due process. He’s committed or condoned countless war crimes. He’s rewarded rather than prosecuted the authors of the greatest financial ripoff in history. And now it looks like Barack Obama and his meta minions are also violating the national security and privacy laws of just about every nation on the planet.
And not just countries. The latest is that the U.S. was spying on the European Union’s offices. NSA spooks got a tip that the EU was full of foreigners and they apparently assumed that some were terrorists disguised as pencil pushers. Who knows if drone attacks on Brussels were contemplated? The Europeans, who take privacy a lot more seriously than we ‘let it all hang out’ Yanks, are so furious they’re contemplating canceling trade deals.
As I noted in my last missive, when you tote up the billions being spent and vast facilities being built by the United Stasi of America, the logical conclusion is that, just as Washington seeks military mastery of Earth and space, so does it demand access and control over all the world’s electronic communications. That, of course, is megalomania, not to mention against a load of laws from here to Hobart.
What’s needed from the illuded 95 percent of the world are prosecutors as gutsy as Law and Order’s fictional JackMcCoy or Spain’s actual Baltasar Garzón who are willing to indict Obama and his henchpersons. Edward Snowden, his laptops loaded with primo proof, would make an excellent witness for the prosecution.
It was Garzón who filed charges against Washington’s good buddy and bloody dictator Augusto Pinochet of Chile for the torture and murder of Spanish citizens. Pinochet was visiting the UK at the time and Mrs. Thatcher’s government detained him in luxury before allowing him to go back to Chile. He avoided a host of charges at home by getting sick and dropping dead. Not being a right winger accused of torturing 30,000 men, women and children, it’s doubtful that Edward Snowden would be accorded such genteel treatment by our UK flunky.
Doubtless the leader of the world’s most lawyerful empire would find ways to avoid or beat the rap. But just having indictments hung around Obama’s neck like leis from his Hawaiian home place might well dissuade future presidents from playing Ghengis Khan with a keyboard.
We've seen brave hackers like Edward Snowden step forward to challenge the empire. Now it’s time to see some brave jurists join the fray.
When We Need Him?
He’s killed Americans with no more than an emperor’s thumbs down in place of due process. He’s committed or condoned countless war crimes. He’s rewarded rather than prosecuted the authors of the greatest financial ripoff in history. And now it looks like Barack Obama and his meta minions are also violating the national security and privacy laws of just about every nation on the planet.
And not just countries. The latest is that the U.S. was spying on the European Union’s offices. NSA spooks got a tip that the EU was full of foreigners and they apparently assumed that some were terrorists disguised as pencil pushers. Who knows if drone attacks on Brussels were contemplated? The Europeans, who take privacy a lot more seriously than we ‘let it all hang out’ Yanks, are so furious they’re contemplating canceling trade deals.
As I noted in my last missive, when you tote up the billions being spent and vast facilities being built by the United Stasi of America, the logical conclusion is that, just as Washington seeks military mastery of Earth and space, so does it demand access and control over all the world’s electronic communications. That, of course, is megalomania, not to mention against a load of laws from here to Hobart.
What’s needed from the illuded 95 percent of the world are prosecutors as gutsy as Law and Order’s fictional JackMcCoy or Spain’s actual Baltasar Garzón who are willing to indict Obama and his henchpersons. Edward Snowden, his laptops loaded with primo proof, would make an excellent witness for the prosecution.
It was Garzón who filed charges against Washington’s good buddy and bloody dictator Augusto Pinochet of Chile for the torture and murder of Spanish citizens. Pinochet was visiting the UK at the time and Mrs. Thatcher’s government detained him in luxury before allowing him to go back to Chile. He avoided a host of charges at home by getting sick and dropping dead. Not being a right winger accused of torturing 30,000 men, women and children, it’s doubtful that Edward Snowden would be accorded such genteel treatment by our UK flunky.
Doubtless the leader of the world’s most lawyerful empire would find ways to avoid or beat the rap. But just having indictments hung around Obama’s neck like leis from his Hawaiian home place might well dissuade future presidents from playing Ghengis Khan with a keyboard.
We've seen brave hackers like Edward Snowden step forward to challenge the empire. Now it’s time to see some brave jurists join the fray.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Honest, We Only Do It To Foreigners
Ever since Edward Snowden gave his fellow Americans more proof that our spy services were busily turning the country into an East German-style surveillance state, the Obama administration has been trying to placate us by lying that it’s only snooping on foreigners.
That wasn’t very bright, given that 95 percent of the world are foreigners. Not only that, many live in countries that take citizen privacy seriously and have laws against bugging that render the U.S. an outlaw.
On his stop in Germany last week, Obama got an earful from foreigners, who, after experiencing the Gestapo and the Stasi, weren’t too happy about Uncle Sam violating their laws by emulating those awful organizations in their own country.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe in Hong Kong, the same snoops we lavish with billions to secure us from the bad guys, were embarrassing Obama and the government by letting the desperately wanted Edward Snowden, formerly one of their own, slip through their nets and get away clean. It makes one ask how efficient these expensive spooks really are? In the end all they could do was to hurl empty threats against the nations that helped Snowden.
And which countries were they? There was Russia, which we are continuing to surround with military bases 20 years after the Cold War. There was China, whose emergence on the world scene Washington and Wall Street expected to “manage.” Instead, the Chinese committed the horrible anti-American act of managing themselves. There was Cuba, a country we’ve been trying to starve to death for half a century. And there was Ecuador, whose highly popular government is not exactly in love with us since we tried but failed to overthrow it and kill its president back in 2010. Are those any reason for them not to love, cherish and obey us?
What’s shocked official Washington is this outright disobedience of the great empire, beginning with the hitherto pliable Hong Kong authorities who let Snowden board a Russian airliner. Typical were the angry remarks by New York’s Senator Schumer, berating Russia’s Putin for defying the empire on Iran, Syria and now Snowden. He sounded like a plantation overseer fuming at an onery slave.
Given a carte blanc budget and the massive facilities it’s building, it’s an easy guess that our super duper surveillance state is not all about terrorism, so far a minor problem in the big scheme of things (In fact, since 9/11 we Americans are more likely to be run over by a Hupmobile driven by Judge Crater than fall victim to terrrorism.).
Rather, it’s apparent that NSA and its public and private confederates want to mine all the world’s data. Not because it would somehow protect us but simply because bureaucracies are infinitely ambitious and treat those who would limit their limitless power as treasonous.
As usual in such scandals, our corrupt media focus on discrediting the messenger and ignoring the message. The secret documents revealed by Snowden, Bradley Manning, Daniel Ellsberg and others tell us that Washington and Wall Street operate a global criminal empire that spawns cruel repression, coups and conflicts, endless wars, and untold misery--all to the profit of a tiny few.
I know, most Americans don’t want to know that. They'd rather remain blissfully ignorant or indulge the fantasy that our leaders always mean well despite the evils they commit.
Snowden has done us a great service at the risk of his life. I hope he enjoys a long one. I can picture him as an old man rocking contentedly on the porch of his finca somewhere special south of the border.
Ever since Edward Snowden gave his fellow Americans more proof that our spy services were busily turning the country into an East German-style surveillance state, the Obama administration has been trying to placate us by lying that it’s only snooping on foreigners.
That wasn’t very bright, given that 95 percent of the world are foreigners. Not only that, many live in countries that take citizen privacy seriously and have laws against bugging that render the U.S. an outlaw.
On his stop in Germany last week, Obama got an earful from foreigners, who, after experiencing the Gestapo and the Stasi, weren’t too happy about Uncle Sam violating their laws by emulating those awful organizations in their own country.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe in Hong Kong, the same snoops we lavish with billions to secure us from the bad guys, were embarrassing Obama and the government by letting the desperately wanted Edward Snowden, formerly one of their own, slip through their nets and get away clean. It makes one ask how efficient these expensive spooks really are? In the end all they could do was to hurl empty threats against the nations that helped Snowden.
And which countries were they? There was Russia, which we are continuing to surround with military bases 20 years after the Cold War. There was China, whose emergence on the world scene Washington and Wall Street expected to “manage.” Instead, the Chinese committed the horrible anti-American act of managing themselves. There was Cuba, a country we’ve been trying to starve to death for half a century. And there was Ecuador, whose highly popular government is not exactly in love with us since we tried but failed to overthrow it and kill its president back in 2010. Are those any reason for them not to love, cherish and obey us?
What’s shocked official Washington is this outright disobedience of the great empire, beginning with the hitherto pliable Hong Kong authorities who let Snowden board a Russian airliner. Typical were the angry remarks by New York’s Senator Schumer, berating Russia’s Putin for defying the empire on Iran, Syria and now Snowden. He sounded like a plantation overseer fuming at an onery slave.
Given a carte blanc budget and the massive facilities it’s building, it’s an easy guess that our super duper surveillance state is not all about terrorism, so far a minor problem in the big scheme of things (In fact, since 9/11 we Americans are more likely to be run over by a Hupmobile driven by Judge Crater than fall victim to terrrorism.).
Rather, it’s apparent that NSA and its public and private confederates want to mine all the world’s data. Not because it would somehow protect us but simply because bureaucracies are infinitely ambitious and treat those who would limit their limitless power as treasonous.
As usual in such scandals, our corrupt media focus on discrediting the messenger and ignoring the message. The secret documents revealed by Snowden, Bradley Manning, Daniel Ellsberg and others tell us that Washington and Wall Street operate a global criminal empire that spawns cruel repression, coups and conflicts, endless wars, and untold misery--all to the profit of a tiny few.
I know, most Americans don’t want to know that. They'd rather remain blissfully ignorant or indulge the fantasy that our leaders always mean well despite the evils they commit.
Snowden has done us a great service at the risk of his life. I hope he enjoys a long one. I can picture him as an old man rocking contentedly on the porch of his finca somewhere special south of the border.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
The Longest War In Short
Q. How long was America’s longest war?
A. Twelve years (2001 to 2013), or three times the length of World War II.
Q. Where was it fought?
A. Mostly in Afghanistan and partly in Pakistan?
Q. Who was the enemy?
A.The Taliban (meaning students), a reactionary Islamic movement composed mainly of Pushtoons, a medieval and largely illiterate tribe armed only with light infantry weapons..
Q. How many died?
A. Over 2,000 Americans, and the rest we don’t count.
Q. How much did the war cost?
A. A trillion or so, but, as I said, who’s counting?
Q. Anything special about these costs?
A. Yes. Afghanistan was so backward that it didn’t have a banking system. So Washington flew over shrink-wrapped pallets of $100 bills, each pallet worth a million. It’s estimated that up to $12 billion in cash disappeared, often right off the tarmac as the planes were being unloaded.
Q. Where did the money end up?
A. A lot went to the Gulf states, where well-connected Afghanis built mansions and invested in businesses. Some of it came back here to finance the boom in private military contractors we’ve been enjoying.
Q. Was anyone ever prosecuted?
A. A few Wilmers for show.
Q. Can you give me other examples of misdeeds?
A. Sure, at one point a shipment of 180,000 rifles and pistols disappeared, a lot ending up with the Taliban. And then there was the revelation that our military was paying up to $400 a gallon to the locals for gasoline. Talk about high test.
Q. How was the war fought?
A. A main tactic was busting into houses in the middle of the night, looking for Taliban. Since, without banking, Afghans kept their valuables at home, this tactic was very popular among U.S. troops.
Q. What’s happening now?
A. U.S. forces are pulling out by 2014. And Washington is negotiating Afghanistan’s fate with the evil Taliban. But, in fact, everything's iffy and likely to blow up in everyone's face.
Q. So who won the war?
A. We don’t talk about that.
Q. Wait a sec. You mean the world’s most powerful, not to mention expensive, military couldn’t beat a ragtag feudal tribe! That’s an epic scandal. There should be inquiries and investigations. Heads should roll.
A. As I said, we don’t talk about that.
Q. How long was America’s longest war?
A. Twelve years (2001 to 2013), or three times the length of World War II.
Q. Where was it fought?
A. Mostly in Afghanistan and partly in Pakistan?
Q. Who was the enemy?
A.The Taliban (meaning students), a reactionary Islamic movement composed mainly of Pushtoons, a medieval and largely illiterate tribe armed only with light infantry weapons..
Q. How many died?
A. Over 2,000 Americans, and the rest we don’t count.
Q. How much did the war cost?
A. A trillion or so, but, as I said, who’s counting?
Q. Anything special about these costs?
A. Yes. Afghanistan was so backward that it didn’t have a banking system. So Washington flew over shrink-wrapped pallets of $100 bills, each pallet worth a million. It’s estimated that up to $12 billion in cash disappeared, often right off the tarmac as the planes were being unloaded.
Q. Where did the money end up?
A. A lot went to the Gulf states, where well-connected Afghanis built mansions and invested in businesses. Some of it came back here to finance the boom in private military contractors we’ve been enjoying.
Q. Was anyone ever prosecuted?
A. A few Wilmers for show.
Q. Can you give me other examples of misdeeds?
A. Sure, at one point a shipment of 180,000 rifles and pistols disappeared, a lot ending up with the Taliban. And then there was the revelation that our military was paying up to $400 a gallon to the locals for gasoline. Talk about high test.
Q. How was the war fought?
A. A main tactic was busting into houses in the middle of the night, looking for Taliban. Since, without banking, Afghans kept their valuables at home, this tactic was very popular among U.S. troops.
Q. What’s happening now?
A. U.S. forces are pulling out by 2014. And Washington is negotiating Afghanistan’s fate with the evil Taliban. But, in fact, everything's iffy and likely to blow up in everyone's face.
Q. So who won the war?
A. We don’t talk about that.
Q. Wait a sec. You mean the world’s most powerful, not to mention expensive, military couldn’t beat a ragtag feudal tribe! That’s an epic scandal. There should be inquiries and investigations. Heads should roll.
A. As I said, we don’t talk about that.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Back In Business
First, heartfelt thanks to the hordes of you who wished me luck and a rapid recoup. I've had my fair share of the first and I'm now taking the second to heart.
May 10, the day after
“Bed goes up, bed goes down” was Homer Simpson’s delighted observation on the American health care system. I like that part, too. There are other things I like about it as well. For one, people who work in hospitals want to help other humans more than those in the hedge fund and drone trades. And that makes them nicer to get to know.
I marvel at their learning and skill--at the fact that cardiac bypass, such as I experienced, is both routine and revolutionary with new tools and techniques coming along all the time. I’m alive because of all that.
Unfortunately, all those smart and good people only partially make up for an institution in big, bad trouble. A quote in the NY Times tells it the way it is:
"The "system" [meaning health] we have is not a system at all but a morass, a mess and a mind-boggling maze of incomprehensible fees and charges that no one can untangle without changing the "’system’" itself.”
That reminded me of the fat manila envelope I have at home stuffed with forms filled with numbers that make no sense. These are from Medicare’s private contractor and the only important thing on them is the box that says: Patient Responsibility. You always want that to be filled with zeros.
We dearly need a world class health care system to match the world class care that a few of us lucky ones manage to get despite our broken system. That’s something we should all be working towards.
First, heartfelt thanks to the hordes of you who wished me luck and a rapid recoup. I've had my fair share of the first and I'm now taking the second to heart.
“Bed goes up, bed goes down” was Homer Simpson’s delighted observation on the American health care system. I like that part, too. There are other things I like about it as well. For one, people who work in hospitals want to help other humans more than those in the hedge fund and drone trades. And that makes them nicer to get to know.
I marvel at their learning and skill--at the fact that cardiac bypass, such as I experienced, is both routine and revolutionary with new tools and techniques coming along all the time. I’m alive because of all that.
Unfortunately, all those smart and good people only partially make up for an institution in big, bad trouble. A quote in the NY Times tells it the way it is:
"The "system" [meaning health] we have is not a system at all but a morass, a mess and a mind-boggling maze of incomprehensible fees and charges that no one can untangle without changing the "’system’" itself.”
That reminded me of the fat manila envelope I have at home stuffed with forms filled with numbers that make no sense. These are from Medicare’s private contractor and the only important thing on them is the box that says: Patient Responsibility. You always want that to be filled with zeros.
We dearly need a world class health care system to match the world class care that a few of us lucky ones manage to get despite our broken system. That’s something we should all be working towards.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
What, We Worry?
I bet the nine questions below do not top your list of worries.
1. How can we keep China from replacing the U.S. as the dominant power in the China Sea?
2. How can we keep Persia from replacing the U.S. as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf?
3. Does rising Indian influence in the Indian Ocean pose an incipient threat to U.S. interests?
4. How can the U.S. reverse the trend of Latin Americans taking over Latin America?*
5. How can the U.S. make the North Koreans give up their nukes so that we can intimidate them again?
6. How can the U.S. strive harder to do whatever Israel tells us to do?
7. How can the U.S. get Hamid Karzai, the president Washington installed in Afghanistan, to do what we bribe him to do?
8. Ditto for the regime the U.S. props up in Pakistan?
9. Will the CIA finally succeed in assassinating Fidel Castro before he dies of old age?
With our busy schedules, scurrying between the unemployment office and the soup kitchen, few Americans have time for foreign policy. They leave that to President Obama and his administration. Since we already know from grade school that we’re always the good guys, we assume that anyone Obama is warning or warring on must be bad guys.
Not only are they bad, they’re so evil that we have no choice but to violate every law of God and man to combat them. Many of us don't enjoy torturing people, but sometime it’s just plain necessary to waterboard someone 183 times.
Not only that, fighting the bad guys invariably requires stupendous sums of tax payer money, even if our enemies are impoverished feudal tribes living in mud huts. Lots of Americans can’t understand why Washington has no dough for civic and social needs, but unlimited moolah to zap $10 mud huts with million dollar missiles. That’s because Americans are unsophisticated. It’s the same reason few of us fret the questions above.
The solution: I know it’s not easy, but to be better informed we have to begin spending less time with Jerry Springer and more time with Wolf Blitzer.
*Produce The Deed, Secretary Kerry
In recent days, John Kerry, our Secretary of State, revived the long standing claim by the United States that it owns Latin America, presumably including its 500 million people. He described the Western Hemisphere as "our backyard," headlined in the south of the border media as "el patio trasero de los Estados Unidos." But as in past, the U.S. official supplied no paper work supporting this claim.
I bet the nine questions below do not top your list of worries.
1. How can we keep China from replacing the U.S. as the dominant power in the China Sea?
2. How can we keep Persia from replacing the U.S. as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf?
3. Does rising Indian influence in the Indian Ocean pose an incipient threat to U.S. interests?
4. How can the U.S. reverse the trend of Latin Americans taking over Latin America?*
5. How can the U.S. make the North Koreans give up their nukes so that we can intimidate them again?
6. How can the U.S. strive harder to do whatever Israel tells us to do?
7. How can the U.S. get Hamid Karzai, the president Washington installed in Afghanistan, to do what we bribe him to do?
8. Ditto for the regime the U.S. props up in Pakistan?
9. Will the CIA finally succeed in assassinating Fidel Castro before he dies of old age?
With our busy schedules, scurrying between the unemployment office and the soup kitchen, few Americans have time for foreign policy. They leave that to President Obama and his administration. Since we already know from grade school that we’re always the good guys, we assume that anyone Obama is warning or warring on must be bad guys.
Not only are they bad, they’re so evil that we have no choice but to violate every law of God and man to combat them. Many of us don't enjoy torturing people, but sometime it’s just plain necessary to waterboard someone 183 times.
Not only that, fighting the bad guys invariably requires stupendous sums of tax payer money, even if our enemies are impoverished feudal tribes living in mud huts. Lots of Americans can’t understand why Washington has no dough for civic and social needs, but unlimited moolah to zap $10 mud huts with million dollar missiles. That’s because Americans are unsophisticated. It’s the same reason few of us fret the questions above.
The solution: I know it’s not easy, but to be better informed we have to begin spending less time with Jerry Springer and more time with Wolf Blitzer.
*Produce The Deed, Secretary Kerry
In recent days, John Kerry, our Secretary of State, revived the long standing claim by the United States that it owns Latin America, presumably including its 500 million people. He described the Western Hemisphere as "our backyard," headlined in the south of the border media as "el patio trasero de los Estados Unidos." But as in past, the U.S. official supplied no paper work supporting this claim.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Terror, Terror and Terror
"Their way of life is collapsing: kids are too terrified to go to school, adults are afraid to attend weddings, funerals, business meetings, or anything that involves gathering in groups. Yet there is no end in sight, and nowhere that ordinary men, women and children...can go to feel safe.”
Boston last week? No. Northwest Pakistan any week. Or Guatemala in the 1980s. If you were focused on the Boston bombing, you might have missed a couple of other terrorism stories in recent days:
In Pakistan, former close American ally, Daily Show guest and all-around tyrant, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, thought it was safe for him to go home and run for office. Instead, he was arrested on charges ranging from murder and abuse of power to treason. It was Musharraf who secretly authorized the ongoing droning by the U.S. of his own country. The effect on his own people is reflected in the quote from CNN at the top of this blog.
In Guatemala, former dictator General Efrain Rios Montt, a sub-commander of Ronald Reagan in our never-ending war on the leftists of Latin America, is finally standing trial for genocide. Roughly 200,000 men, women and kids, mostly Mayan Indians, were butchered by his regime in the 1980’s, their villages flattened by troops advised and armed by the U.S. and Israel. The crime of the Mayans was that for millenia they practiced a communal way of life. We don’t permit socialism in our backyard.
Including the Boston Marathon bomber, that’s three terrorists facing judgment. Imagine if we could prosecute all of them. That would make work for every lawyer in Washington.
"Their way of life is collapsing: kids are too terrified to go to school, adults are afraid to attend weddings, funerals, business meetings, or anything that involves gathering in groups. Yet there is no end in sight, and nowhere that ordinary men, women and children...can go to feel safe.”
Boston last week? No. Northwest Pakistan any week. Or Guatemala in the 1980s. If you were focused on the Boston bombing, you might have missed a couple of other terrorism stories in recent days:
In Pakistan, former close American ally, Daily Show guest and all-around tyrant, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, thought it was safe for him to go home and run for office. Instead, he was arrested on charges ranging from murder and abuse of power to treason. It was Musharraf who secretly authorized the ongoing droning by the U.S. of his own country. The effect on his own people is reflected in the quote from CNN at the top of this blog.
In Guatemala, former dictator General Efrain Rios Montt, a sub-commander of Ronald Reagan in our never-ending war on the leftists of Latin America, is finally standing trial for genocide. Roughly 200,000 men, women and kids, mostly Mayan Indians, were butchered by his regime in the 1980’s, their villages flattened by troops advised and armed by the U.S. and Israel. The crime of the Mayans was that for millenia they practiced a communal way of life. We don’t permit socialism in our backyard.
Including the Boston Marathon bomber, that’s three terrorists facing judgment. Imagine if we could prosecute all of them. That would make work for every lawyer in Washington.
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