personal update

This weekend my brother, a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army, leaves to deploy to Iraq. His specialty is communications, which means he’ll likely be going out with patrols as a radio man - not exactly a “safe” job.
I must confess as to being somewhat conflicted as to how to pray about this - I [...]

Support our troops?

This morning, my grandfather sent me an email “action alert” from the American Family Association urging protest of the recent Berkeley, California City Council resolution that declared the downtown Marine recruiting office “unwanted” and urged the recruiters to leave town. This article does not respond to that issue, but rather to the subject line of [...]

Guest article: America the Fascist

My friend Steven Kippel wrote this post, and I requested permission to reproduce it here. Just so no one who has a loved one involved with the military will hear this the wrong way, my brother is in the last stages of mission training before going to Iraq - so this is quite a personal [...]

Defense threatens layoffs in war spending standoff

Washington Post article
What do you think? Who’s playing games with whose jobs at this point?
For my money I think the Administration would prompt Defense to encourage layoffs because they’ve already shown so little concern for the average American in all this that… well, what’s buggering a few more?
I think it’s good to see Congress finally [...]

Bush, Pakistan and the Bomb

This article from today’s International Herald Tribune gives an excellent example of what Chalmers Johnson calls “blowback”, from the title of his 2000 book (revised ed. 2004) Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, in which he essentially predicted a 9/11-like attack as one of the “unintended consequences” of American policy towards so-called “developing [...]

Hidden costs double war bill

Washington Post article
Ignoring for a moment the hypocrisy of the Democrats criticizing the cost of the wars when they overwhelmingly voted for them in the first place and continually approve funding for endless “emergency” appropriations, here’s an excerpt from the article:
The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so [...]

comments from Friedman and Abizaid at Stanford Forum

Stanford’s annual roundtable this year was on “Courting Disaster: The Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet.” Here are some comments from neoliberal economic architect Thomas Friedman and Gen. John Abizaid, US Army (Ret.) from the Stanford News Service.
Concerning the Middle East, Friedman blamed the United States for treating the region as a collection [...]

The obligatory 9/11 post

I wasn’t going to do this, I was just going to let the post about Stirling Bridge stand as my statement about 9/11, but I just wrote this for my Livejournal and thought it was worth sharing here.
“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, [...]

Pentagon draws up plans for air strikes against Iran

I wish I was surprised by this. From Democracy Now.

Report: U.S. Military Planning Massive Air Strikes Against Iran
The Sunday Times in London is reporting the Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive air strikes against twelve hundred targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days. Alexis Debat of the Nixon [...]

the flag of truth

I’m back from Michigan! Don’t forget to register for the Jesus Radicals conference. It’s free!
This is an amazing picture. I got it from Gavin at Make/Shift.

Sergeant Timothy John Westphal, 31, of Denver, 18th Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. In Tikrit on year-long tour beginning February 2004.
“If Soldiers Came From Another Country And Did This To [...]

America’s image

“Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that [...]

This may be the best opinion I’ve seen so far on the Libby verdict

A Libby verdict - International Herald Tribune
I was thinking about writing something up, but most of what I would have said this piece says better.

the Katrina of 2007?

That’s how Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York refers to the current scandal regarding the treatment of wounded Iraq vets at Walter Reed hospital.
While comparisons may be apt on the count of massive government negligence and indifference regarding both the poorer denizens of the Gulf Coast and the wounded soldiers returning home from Iraq, [...]

Surprise, surprise - Intel twisted to manufacture link between Saddam and Al Qaida

Pentagon official’s prewar intel faulted | Top News | Reuters.com
Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, this morning, said, “The intelligence relating to the Iraq/al Qaeda relationship was manipulated by high ranking officials in the Department of Defense to support the… Administration’s decision to invade Iraq when the intelligence assessments of the [...]

and now this

Bush Gave Order for Raids on Iranians in Iraq
And, you know, if Iranian elements are contributing to the destabilization in Iraq, I can understand the argument for specifically targeting them. But at what cost? Especially when the Iraq Study Group, whose recommendations at least ought to be considered, has suggestion diplomatic engagement with Iran that [...]

a short comment on Bush’s speech

The Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq’s provinces by November. To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis. To show that it is committed to delivering a better life, the Iraqi government will spend $10 [...]

Peak oil, alternative energy sources, infrastructure, and the future of America

First, I’m going to assume that people will at least recognize that using sources of energy that create less pollution is generally a good thing, and even if you’re reading this and don’t believe in global warming (you poor, poor corporate dupe) it can’t possibly hurt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So it would [...]

USAmerican self-determination ideals and contradiction

(this is an expanded version of material I have written elsewhere)
I find it odd that the United States celebrates its self-determination as a nation-state on July 4 when politically we have quite a history of denying the same to others when it suits certain political purposes, generally business-related. For example, the Phillippines in that oft-forgotten [...]