World Protests Illegal Detentions

Five-year Anniversary of First Arrivals At Gitmo

From CBC.ca:

"Demonstrations were held around the world on Thursday to press the Bush administration to close the prison at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Protesters gathered in cities such as London, Rome, Tokyo and New York..
..In Washington, D.C., about 100 protesters were arrested inside a federal courthouse, though they had a permit to gather at the building and a judge had allowed them to demonstrate inside the facility..

..Five years ago, the first prisoners from the U.S. war on terror were flown from Afghanistan to the naval base in Guantanamo Bay. Close to 400 prisoners suspected of having links to the militant group al-Qaeda and the Taliban are still being held at the base..

..Guantanamo Bay has become a lightning rod for criticism, with human rights activists saying the prisoners are being held without charge or hope of obtaining a fair trial. Activists have also complained about the treatment of prisoners, alleging that some detainees have been tortured to extract confessions..
..The U.S. military has said it plans to charge 60 to 80 of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and military trials could start next summer. But many of the detainees may never be tried by a military court, and under the U.S. Military Commissions Act, which President Bush signed last October, they could be deprived of the right to contest their imprisonment in a civilian court."

Radio Netherlands Worldwide is carrying this story. So is the BBC. Here's The Guardian's take. The Boston Globe weighs in.

NPR has 'a history of the US military base, and detention of "enemy combatants", plus an analysis of the Bush administration's detainee policies.

Amnesty International describes it as 'a human rights scandal.'

Everybody apparently agrees that it must be stopped. Everybody, that is, outside of the Bush administration and their diminishing number of increasingly ill-informed followers. After five long years, how much longer will it continue?

TAGS: Guantanamo Bay, Detainees, Habeas Corpus, Protests

Bush Defends His Plan..

..NOT!!

pResident Bush's 20 minute speech just ended. My immediate impressions.

The body of this speech was unremarkable to the point of being totally irrelevant. After being given many chances to pull his reputation out of the shitcan of history, he has learned nothing, and there is nothing new here. Given yet another last chance to vindicate himself, he fails miserably. How many last chances does this guy think he has? After a lifetime of having his ass pulled out of every situation, he apparently believes that number to be unlimited. But he has never exhibited any facility with numbers.

When is he going to learn? - Every time he talks at length about the dire consequences of leaving Iraq to the USA, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and 'our other friends in the Middle East', it only reminds people that those dire consequences would not pertain had he never invaded Iraq to begin with.

When is he going to learn? - Pulling Joe Lieberman (Independent - NOT!!) off the bottom of the deck does not constitute an ace in the hole any more (although it sounds something like Ace and Hole.) So a phrase like 'key members of the Congress and Senate' that includes LIEberman's name no longer invokes images of bipartisan co-operation in the American mind. The Republicans' withdrawal of support for their own official candidate, and their endorsement of Joe in the last election are still fresh in everyone's mind. Joe's entire career was well and truly exposed then as a false flag operation - now he has progressed from DINO to IINO (Independent in name only.) Any so-called Democrats that continue to support the pResident's agenda in any way only serve to expose themselves as wolves in sheep's clothing. Come the next election - see ya', wouldn't want to be ya'. In fact, Bush should not be bandying the word 'bipartisan' around at all any more. Increasingly it is coming to mean the defection of more and more Republicans to join the opposition to him.

When is he going to learn? - anything.

Update 2.0: (Jan 11, 4:30 pm, EST) As promised, here's the video from Keith Olbermann discussing Bush's credibility, or lack thereof.

Countdown: 01/10/07

(You can also download WMV and QT versions, courtesy of Crooks and Liars)

When is he going to learn? - That nobody believes a word he says any more.

TAGS: George Bush, Imbecile In Chief, Iraq Speech, Learning Impaired

Surge is a Sham

And Everyone Knows It

Tonight, in an address to the nation, the President will reveal his plan for Iraq.

This morning Edward Kennedy revealed his.


I'm going with Ted on this one.

It's a waste of breath to even talk about this. First of all, "surge" is a ridiculous term for whatever the hell Bush thinks he's doing. Second, 20,000 troops--the amount he's widely reported to be sending--will accomplish nothing other than the addition of 20,000 targets to the country.

From an interview with Leslie Gelb of CFR:

Leslie H. Gelb: I was fascinated in reading Cobra II, the new book by Michael R. Gordon, the chief military correspondent of the New York Times, and retired Marine Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor, where they quote a number of the generals or colonels who are critical of the planning for the war on the record, which is unusual, I thought.

Bernard Gwertzman: Yes, very. It shows the degree of their frustration, because all the military planning over the course of a dozen years for Iraq—and that's how long the planning has been going on there—showed you need at least 300,000 troops on the ground in order to provide basic security. And almost all of it also showed that you needed to keep as much of the Baathist-dominated army intact, after military victory, to support those 300,000 troops. But what we had was about 125,000, and virtually no Iraqi army. So, you know, this was at least—at least—400,000 or 500,000 troops short of what the planning said was necessary.

(more)

Unless these 20,000 troops have the killing power of 20 troops apiece, this ain't gonna work.

So, we're left with the only remaining possibility. Bush is playing us. No surprise there, but it seems clear that Bush just wants to hang on long enough to pass the buck on to Barack Obama when he takes over in 2009.

TAGS: Surge, Escalation, Iraq War, Edward Kennedy

Great Lefty Pitching

..And The Hall of Fame

I'm not an awards kind of guy, mostly because I don't like the ceremonies. To describe the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys etc. as 'the entertainment event of the year' is to me sheer hype. These events quite frankly strike me as death by serial windbaggery.

Here's the thing. Blue Gal just put up a post announcing the Koufax Awards nominations being open. The categories are:

Best Blog:
Best Blog -- Pro Division:
Best Blog Community:
Best Writing:
Best Post:
Best Series:
Best Single Issue Blog:
Best Group Blog:
Most Humorous Blog:
Most Humorous Post:
Most Deserving of Wider Recognition:
Best Consonant Level Blog:
Best Expert Blog:
Best New Blog:
Best Human Equality Blog:
Best Coverage of State or Local Issues:
Best Commenter:

Blue Gal discloses her picks in comments. She picked herself in three categories, and I don't see anything wrong with that. If you don't think you at least occasionally offer something that is at least unique and interesting you probably shouldn't be blogging. Why be in it if all you're doing is increasing the noise level others have to shout over? I like her picks of Quaker Dave's new Daily Darfur for best Single Issue Blog and best Human Equality Blog, because I really like QD and I really think the Darfur issue should be getting more attention. But I don't agree with her pick of Dave as the Best Commenter, and here's why;

Before he mysteriously went quiet on July 23, Sans-culotte of Sans-culotte.org (our inspiration, if all the guillotine images didn't clue you in) was BY FAR the best commenter anywhere in Greater Left Blogistan. Hands. Down.

His comments ( usually at AMERICAblog or Crooks and Liars, sometimes at Moxie Grrrl or Get In Their Face ) often surpassed the posts they were in response to; witty, well-researched, informative - he seldom expressed a thought without providing a link to back it up. More than that he was always incredibly respectful of other commenters on a thread, encouraging them to express their opinions, giving technical advice, even on occasion doing research for them. His comments were so good that they made the comments of those around him better. I. Kid. You. Not. His blog was good, very good. But his comments were unsurpassed.

Even his spelling, grammar, and punctuation were impeccable. Considering that he always seemed to have exactly the right information at hand, and that he would follow up one excellent comment (complete with two or three relevant links) with another just as good minutes later - frankly I could never figure out how he did it. I was so impressed that I wrote an analysis of one of his threads as a post on The Guillotine (Les Enragés.org's short-lived predecessor.) I have moved that post into Les Enragés' archives so I could link to it. Why Sans Has So Many Fans

TAGS: Koufax Awards, Best Commenter, Sans-culotte, Blogger Extraordinaire

The Praetorian Guard

"When fascism comes to America, it will be
wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis --

This recent Chris Hedges article in Truthdig brings back a disturbing subject Les Enragés have addressed since our very beginnings, here, here and here. And more recently here, here, and here. But most especially for today's purposes here, and here. That subject is the deliberate attack by BushCo™ and the mind-controlled minions of the Religious Right on the separation between church and state. If there is anything that ticks off the unruly mob, it's the way these guys treat the Constitution as just a 'damned piece of paper,' and this is a big part of that.

Excerpts:

"The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America’s open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy." (emphasis added)

The article goes on to detail how this is being done: first, by encouraging the evangelical faithful to join the military and police (infiltration); second, by attempting to alter the mindset of those already in positions of authority within the military and police (co-option.)

"They painted the war in Iraq not as an occupation but as an apocalyptic battle by Christians against Islam, a religion they regularly branded as 'satanic.' All this befits a movement whose final aesthetic is violence. It also befits a movement that, in the end, would need the military and police forces to seize power in American society.

One of the arguments used to assuage our fears that the mass movement being built by the Christian right is fascist at its core is that it has not yet created a Praetorian Guard, referring to the paramilitary force that defied legal constraints, made violence part of the political discourse and eventually plunged ancient Rome into tyranny and despotism. A paramilitary force that operates outside the law, one that sows fear among potential opponents and is capable of physically silencing those branded by their leaders as traitors, is a vital instrument in the hands of despotic movements."

Any argument that no Praetorian Guard is in existence falls on deaf ears in this camp. 'A paramilitary force that operates outside the law' clearly exists. They have been kidnapping, torturing, wiretapping, murdering at will for some time now. Any evidence that has been leaked to the public results not in the crimes being investigated, but the leaks being investigated. Hedges goes on to detail the activity of just one phalanx of the guard, the privatized security mercenary forces in Iraq.

"These mercenary units in Iraq, including Blackwater, contain some 20,000 fighters. They unleash indiscriminate and wanton violence against unarmed Iraqis, have no accountability and are beyond the reach of legitimate authority...It was a stark reminder that the tyranny we impose on others we will one day impose on ourselves."

Truthdig has even more disturbing details which I would be pushing the boundaries of fair use to quote further. There would be no harm in leaving you with this quote;

"For in a Republic, who is 'the country'?
Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle?
Why, the Government is merely a servant, merely a temporary servant;
it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong,
and decide who is a patriot and who isn't.
Its function is to obey orders,
not originate them." -- Mark Twain

TAGS: Theocracy, Praetorian Guard, Fascism, First Amendment

If Only..

...Progressives Had More Power

This is in response to a comment Jump to the Left made on the thread below,

"Progressives are going to need A LOT of power to undo the giant mess created by unfettered GOP governing. We will need both chambers plus the white house, and some court improvement, also.

People need to realize we won't be able to fix all the give away programs for the wealthy and the corporate without some REAL power."

I'm afraid that progressives are going to need more than just A LOT of power to undo the mess. If you could magically replace the Republicans in Washington (including the DINOs) with the most progressive hand-picked elements, including the White House, Senate, Congress and the Supreme Court TODAY, it would be like handing over control of the Titanic after it had struck the iceberg the Hindenburg after it had burst into flames.
(h/t Stephen Colbert for the juxtaposition of metaphor)

Problems the new Gore/Feingold administration would still have to face:

-Crippling deficit, public debt, balance of payments, interest on loans from Japan, China, the UK and others.

-Continued dependency on foreign energy supplies, exacerbated by Peak Oil.

-Erosion of confidence in US currency, aka The End of Dollar Hegemony

-Global Warming

-Outsourcing of jobs by multinational corporations who inexplicably have received all the benefits of the American economy they show no responsibility or loyalty to.

To name a few. Notice how all these problems are inextricably linked to one another. For instance, a change in government policy could precipitate a 'capital strike' by the multinationals, who could en masse invest their assets elsewhere...(facilitated by globalisation)....which would increase the outsourcing problem exponentially, driving wages down and unemployment up...which would further erode confidence in the dollar...which would make it nearly impossible to service the national debt...which would force foreign suppliers of oil and gas to look elsewhere for customers. Meanwhile the military is still bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, having accomplished nothing whatsoever in either theater despite the enormous expense and tragic loss of life.

Did I mention the mainstream media needs to be schooled in journalistic integrity, or that the voting system, education system and health care system all need to be fixed, NOW? Those things aren't going to be cheap or easy. Did I mention that the 32% 'backwash' element of the American public, especially the Religious Right, will be fighting this tooth and nail all the way? Did I mention that the threat from extremist elements around the world has gotten worse, not better, since 9/11?

I know that some or even most of you may consider this assessment to be far too pessimistic. If so, I invite beg you to show me where I've gone wrong. PLEASE!!! As I alluded to above, much of the problem extends beyond the borders of the U.S.A. The concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a tiny minority is a global issue that will not be solved even in part by a second American Revolution or even a second American Civil War. The ultra-wealthy can move their assets around faster than court orders can be signed ordering them seized.

Ironically this post was inspired by consideration of a 'best case scenario' where progressives suddenly were given A LOT of power in US politics. It didn't turn out nearly as well as one might hope.

TAGS: Progressives, Power, Scenario, Globalisation

At Our Expense

Through a Mirror Darkly

SadButTrue's story about the much-maligned Canadian health care system saving the life of a friend with lymphoma has its dark mirror in my brother Paul's story.

Paul died this past summer, one of more than 18,000 Americans who die every year whose deaths can be linked to their lack of health insurance. That makes it the sixth leading cause of death for people between the ages of 25 and 64 in the United States. That's the equivalent of six 9/11s every year. And it's just as senseless.
I've begun sharing Paul's story, and news regarding health care reform in the United States, at my blog, Ave Cassandra. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share it here at Les Enragés as well.

---

It was the last Sunday in July, and Paul thought he'd eaten something bad. Or maybe it was the stomach flu.

The next day my other brother Curtis stopped by to find Paul curled up on the couch worrying about whether it would be less expensive in the long run to go to an emergency room or to a doctor.

Self-employed and with a baby on the way Paul could not afford decent health insurance for himself, although he made sure his pregnant fiancée and their baby were covered. The most recent numbers for California show that health insurance for a family of four averages about $11,860 annually.

Paul was a hard-working photographer, caterer, and film-maker — he played "Snake" in "The Real Old Testament," a mockumentary he created together with Curtis that won awards at film festivals around the world.

Tuesday at dawn, he and Sarah finally went in to the nearby UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. Classic appendicitis. But when they gave him a CAT-scan the doctor decided it looked more like diverticulitis.

Although Paul had been vomiting for two days, they sent him home early in the afternoon with antibiotics he couldn't keep down and advice to follow up at the county hospital, in a far-away and unfamiliar part of town.

Standard procedure, we've been told, would have been to admit Paul, since diverticulitis and appendicitis are so easily misdiagnosed for one another, and because that mistake can be deadly.

Sarah brought Paul back to the Santa Monica medical center late Tuesday night.

They gave him another CAT-scan and talked some more about transferring him to county.

They evidently did not compare the two CAT-scans, which showed a dramatic and frightening disintegration of Paul's condition. If they had, the surgeon told us, surely he would have been rushed into surgery. Studies show that the uninsured do not get as good care in American hospitals as do insured people.

Paul finally went into surgery Wednesday mid-morning. His ruptured appendix was the worst the surgeon had ever seen. Paul died, at age 45, a little after midnight, on Thursday, August 3, 2006.

I cannot explain how much we miss him. We were not ready to say good-bye.

His baby daughter was born this autumn.

We so need universal health care in this country. Paul shouldn't have died.

Paul's widow has spent months beating herself up about why she didn't insist, in the face of his balking, on him going to the hospital. But how could she have known? We've all learned to turn away from those what ifs. When my husband reported to me — calling from visiting L.A. from Denver — that Paul and Sarah had canceled dinner due to some kind of food poisoning or something, why didn't I call? Maybe I would have realized it was more than something he ate. My husband kept saying after Paul died that he should have insisted on going over, that he might have realized it was appendicitis, seeing as he'd had it himself a few years back. Paul's symptoms were classic.

And all the if onlys in the world won't bring Paul back.

Americans need health care reform. Our lives depend on it. We deserve to join the rest of the developed world and provide our citizens affordable, basic health care. We're already paying for it, after all.

Every other industrialized country in the world spends far less per person on health care than we do in the United States. And they cover everyone. Their outcomes for many medical conditions are better than ours. Their life expectancy is longer and infant mortality rates are lower. Their people see doctors more frequently. Waits for surgery, depending upon the country, are less than ours. They are more likely to have had the same doctor for more than five years. Far greater percentages of them are satisfied with their national health care.

Even the supposedly beleaguered Canadians, with their under-funded system, say they're more satisfied. Only 8 percent say they’d trade theirs for ours.

The time is right for the United States to legislate universal health care. We can't allow ourselves to be swayed by the expensive television ads designed to frighten us. The health care industry is the single biggest lobbyist on Capital Hill. In the years leading up to 2003, the ten top pharmaceutical companies made more in profits than the other 490 Fortune 500 companies combined. There’s a lot of money at stake.

But a look at Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, and every other industrialized country should reassure us. Universal healthcare isn’t frightening.

The scary thing is already here. And it's at our expense.

Here's an excerpt from the song that a friend composed and sang at Paul's memorial:

Someone's having fun and it seems at our expense...

the things you don't need, you can always hold and touch
and the ones that disappear are the ones that mean so much
and its so funny we're in tears
and will be for years and years
no lesson learned, no wisdom gained
it's so funny that we're in pain

though every story is a treasure, and every memory gold
we'd trade them all away to watch our friend grow old
so he could laugh once again at the absurdity of life
and be a father and a husband to his daughter and his wife...

TAGS: Health Care, Reform, Urgent, Vital

What Country is This?

By now we've all heard about the signing statement Dictator Bush has made giving him the right to read our mail. A few years ago, I had the privilege of visiting Cuba for two weeks as part of a religious delegation. Generally we travelled as a group, but midway we broke up and stayed for two days in private homes. My hostess was quite vocal in her opposition to Castro. To prove to me how they have no privacy, she produced a package she had received from friends overseas. Not only had the package obviously been opened prior to her receiving it, it had been resealed with official government tape. For my hostess, it was an outrage that the government didn't even try to hide that they were opening personal mail.

I'm outraged that Bushco won't be using tape with the presidential seal emblazoned on it to reseal our mail. If only he would, it would be the first honest thing he's done in six years.

TAGS: Fourth Amendment, Rights, Nixed By, Signing Statement

Exxon Paid to Mislead Public on Climate

Off with their heads!

From Raw Story:

Oil conglomerate ExxonMobil paid interest groups to "mislead the public" on climate concerns, a science advocacy organization alleges.

"ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in a coordinated effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming," says the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), according to an Associated Press article.

(more)

Meanwhile...



Tags: Global Warming, Exxon, Betrayal, Criminals.

Crossposted at Ice Station Tango.

Sacrifice?

Olbermann Special Comment on Sacrifice (1/2/07)

"Sacrifice"

More code to appeal to the christofascist base.

(Download WMV or QT from Crooks and Liars)

Keith Olbermann speaking the Truth. It just doesn't get much better than this. Such a rich transcript, so little blog space...

America is not a company; you don't own it:

"Mr. Bush, your judgment about Iraq — and now about 'sacrifice' — is at variance with your people's, to the point of delusion. Your most respected generals see no value in a 'surge' — they could not possibly see it in this madness of 'sacrifice.'

The Iraq Study Group told you it would be a mistake.

Perhaps dozens more have told you it would be a mistake.

And you threw their wisdom back, until you finally heard what you wanted to hear, like some child drawing straws and then saying 'best two out of three… best three out of five… Hundredth
one counts.'

Your citizens, the people for whom you work, have told you they do not want this, and more over, they do not want you to do this.

Yet once again, sir, you have ignored all of us.

Mr. Bush, you do not own this country!"

Though you have lots of experience breaking and bankrupting companies you have owned:

"And the war's second accomplishment — your second accomplishment, sir - is to have taken money out of the pockets of every American, even out of the pockets of the dead soldiers on the battlefield, and their families, and to have given that money to the war profiteers.

Because if you sell the Army a thousand Humvees, you can't sell them any more, until the first thousand have been destroyed.

The service men and women are ancillary to the equation.

This is about the planned obsolescence of ordnance, isn't, Mr. Bush? And the building of detention centers? And the design of a 125-million dollar courtroom complex at Gitmo complete with restaurants.

At least the war profiteers have made their money, sir."

Our guts; your glory:

"First, we sent Americans to their deaths for your lie, Mr. Bush.
Now we are sending them to their deaths for your ego."

Make it stop.

Healing. What is?

I'm sorry, but this has been gnawing at me and I'm setting it free.

A)


B)

(The difference a decade or two makes.)

C)


D)


E) Eva Lowery, Peace Takes Courage, and the 32%.



F) Vice President Cheney Hails Ford's Pardon of Nixon in Funeral Service at U.S. Capitol Rotunda:

"It was this man, Gerald R. Ford, who led our republic safely though a crisis that could have turned to catastrophe," said Cheney, speaking in the Capitol Rotunda where Ford's body rested. "Gerald Ford was almost alone in understanding that there can be no healing without pardon."

Nice try, Dick, reaching out to your christofascist base with notions of redemption and forgiveness. The Prince of Peace would be proud (not).

It was a catastrophe.

Ford was almost alone because he was wrong.

Nixon was not remorseful and never cooperated.

Ford sealed the records, and the whole truth was buried, accomplices, protected.

I'm all for forgiveness and healing. I love a little rebirth and renewal. Mercy? Grace? All good. I draw the line at glorification of state-sponsored protection of criminals. (Actually, I draw it a little further in.)

Why is it that Peace is such a terrorist idea, except when it comes to letting political criminals off the hook?

Awakening as a Cockroach

It seems never to end. Nothing is learned. Old GOP scandals are covered up or spun while new ones are spawned. There is a body of evidence to indicate that Bush and Blair deliberately schemed to make legal --after the fact --the aggressive war against Iraq. The following link --Ministers were told of need for Gulf war ‘excuse’ --is just the latest smoking gun, confirming the much earlier Downing Street Memos. An excerpt:

MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal."

The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier."

The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.

In other words, Bush and Blair are war criminals. These violations of the Nuremberg Principles are prohibited by US Codes, Section 2441 which prescribes the death penalty for war crimes resulting in death.

Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter is vindicated. In 2005, in a 5,000-word speech, Pinter excoriated "...the US government over Guantánamo Bay and its attempts to destabilise Nicaragua in the 1980s."

He also savaged the Blair government for its "pathetic and supine" support of George W. Bush. He likened Blair`s government to a "bleating little lamb" for its support of Bush`s criminal war against Iraq. Indeed, the ICC at Belgium has already received numerous cases against Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld and a host of other senior U.S. officials. The charges include crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan.

...among the other named defendants we also have General Ricardo Sanchez, who was in charge of the Iraq war at the outset and authorized these torture techniques. There's also George Tenet, who was head of the CIA, and that of course involves the CIA's secret detention sites around the world, where waterboarding and other kinds of torture went on. Those are three of the people at the top who we've named as defendants. Then we have the lawyers, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo in particular, who basically set up the legal framework. There was a case during the Nuremburg trials in Germany after World War 2 in which German lawyers were gone after because they implemented the Nazi program of murder.

-US Codes, Section 2441Lawyers File War Crimes Charges Against Rumsfeld and Others in German Court

Bush meanwhile will compound his idiocy having learned nothing. Chaos will worsen in Iraq made worse by the vengence execution of Saddam and by Bush`s planned "surge". Afghanistan, under reported for years, has been lost for years. Hamid Karzai is literally confined to Kabul.

​​One is reminded of Winston Churchill who wrote that the statesman "...who yields to war fever...is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events." At last, what does "staying the course" and "getting the job done" mean? There is, in fact, no course to stay but mere "war fever" itself.

Bush, moreover, has never defined what is meant by winning. Some 650,000 Iraqis are now dead as a result of the US invasion and the wave of civil war that spewed up in its wake. I believe that figure to be even higher than US civil war dead!

Now Bush wants to send more troops to Iraq to achieve a "goal" that he cannot articulate. A "surge" it is called when, in fact, it is idiocy compounded, the criminal repetition of a failed policy. Bush will raise the stakes on a losing bet —and he dares call himself a "Texan"! Bush has made of us mere slaves to uncontrollable events, victims of evil unleashed. We might as well have awakened as cockroaches.

-The Existentialist Cowboy

Saddam Hussein, Imperialism
Bush, War Crimes, Iraq