YOUR MOTHER WEARS ARMY BOOTS

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SUPERMOM REPORTS FOR DUTY WITH THE LITTLE SOLDIERS, TOO

ARMY STOP-LOSS KEEPS COMBAT VET & FAMILY ON CALL FOR ANOTHER FOUR YEARS

It's Not Just A Job. It's More Like Slavery. With Kids.

I guess this "Army of One" thing is literally true. Apparently, there is no one else in the whole country who can be depended upon to defend us from the imminent danger posed by destroying somebody else's country for no reason, six thousand miles away. Unh-hunh. So they just had to drag Mrs. Soldier back to Fort Benning, despite all her appeals for clemency. Convicted murderers get more consideration from the system.

See, the thing is, none of those conservative Republican blow-hards wants to go fight the wars they start. Like Dubya and Dick, Gingrich and Armey, they're much too busy and far too valuable serving their country at the Chicago Board of Trade or the New York Stock Exchange or in the Awl Bidness or Warshenden DEE-cee to waste their time or their blood defending their country. Besides, that's what poor people are for. And now the Middle Class, too.

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Seven years in, Obama says, "Oops, my bad, we're not leaving after all." In fact, we're staying in Iraq, doubling our forces in the black hole of Afghanistan, and bullying our way into Pakistan on the sly, too. So we're going to be needing every last Mommy to stand in for those loud but cowardly Republican males hiding in the business districts.

Of course, with the Republicans putting the whole world economy in the sh*tter, and doing their goddamnedest to keep it there, there should be lots more economic draftees pretty soon. Millions of people have lost their jobs, and millions more will lose theirs before the Bush Depression is over. That's your ideal cannon-fodder, right there. Recruiters say business is picking up for them, after a few slow years when everybody realized the war was bullsh*t, nothing to do with Osama, 9/11 or WMDs. I mean, even a right-tard doesn't want to die for oil, right? But he might have to take a chance on dying to keep his family fed. Or to satisfy a stop-loss order.

Well, apparently, the economy isn't getting bad enough fast enough for the Generals. They're still using the "unlimited commitment" in the fine print of everybody's enlistment contracts to keep dragging our citizen-soldiers back into the worst Hell-holes on Earth. In the past, this meant Daddy was going to be away for a while, and he might not come home. Now it means Mommy might not come home, either. Does anyone care?

Does anyone care?

Does anyone care?


Hello?



YAHOO NEWS
"NC military mom arrives at Fort Benning with kids"

' A North Carolina mother who reported for Army duty with her two young children in tow is waiting to see what happens next. Lisa Pagan, who was recalled to the Army four years after being honorably discharged, drove nearly 400 miles and braved a Southeastern winter storm to report for duty Sunday at Fort Benning, Ga. She says she has no one to take care of son Eric and daughter Elizabeth, so she brought them with her. She has reserved a motel room for a week and doesn't plan to stay in the barracks. "Them being away from me is not an option," she said. Master Sgt. Keith O'Donnell, an Army spokesman in St. Louis, said earlier that the commander at Fort Benning will decide how to handle the situation. "The Army tries to look at the whole picture and they definitely don't want to do anything that jeopardizes the family or jeopardizes the children," O'Donnell said. "At the same time, these are individuals who made obligations and commitments to the country." '

(Cross-posted at blog me no blogs by cosanostradamus.)
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"Empty Sky" -- Dave P. von Eber and a few questions

There are many eloquent memories of September 11, 2001 flourishing on the internet. And there is no lack of analysis.

Here is a link to Dave von Eber's blog, "Journal of the Plague Year".
http://journalplagueyear.blogspot.com/

It breaks my heart to hear that people still think the US invasion and occupation of Iraq is a response to 9/11 or that it is "protecting" us from further violence.

How can we say that it is the "first" terrorism on this soil, when enslaved people were kidnapped, and brought on a hellish journey to experience "servitude" in this New World?

Were not the acts of domination (to be euphemistic) committed against the Indigenous people of this continent (and all of the islands)terrorism?

There's more: ""Empty Sky" -- Dave P. von Eber and a few questions" >>

Subjects and Verbs in Iraq

This week's status report on Iraq from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker has featured more of the same: the same vaporous platitudes, the same determination to avoid any measureable definition of 'victory.' Apart from a few particulars of dates, names, and places, their claims are the same claims made month after month since at least 2004: things are getting better, but the war/occupation must continue unabated.

Here, Petraeus outlines his policy for Iraq -- funny how an army general seems to be running US foreign policy:

This approach does not allow establishment of a set withdrawal timetable, however, it does provide the flexibility those of us on the ground need to preserve the still-fragile security gains our troopers have fought so hard and sacrificed so much to achieve.

With this approach, the security achievements of 2007 and early 2008 can form a foundation for the gradual establishment of sustainable security in Iraq. This is not only important to the 27 million citizens of Iraq, it is also vitally important to those in the Gulf region, to the citizens of the United States and to the global community. It clearly is in our national interest to help Iraq prevent the resurgence of al Qaeda in the heart of the Arab world, to help Iraq resist Iranian encroachment on its sovereignty, to avoid renewed ethnosectarian violence that could spill over Iraq's borders and make the existing refugee crisis even worse, and to enable Iraq to expand its role in the regional and global economies. [emphases mine]

Note the subjects and verbs in that boilerplate, several of which I've bolded: there are tasks the US has accomplished and many more Petraeus expects the US to accomplish. Nothing is clearly expected of Iraq's government -- the idea of benchmarks serving as enforcement mechanisms for the surge policy is now expressly vacated, exposed for the lie it always was. The purpose of the surge was always to continue the war so that the Bush-Cheney junta would not have to work out a responsible exit. The point was always to kick the can down the road to the next president. Dead US troops, dead Iraqis, and vast borrowed outpourings from the treasury are trifles when set against Bush-Cheney's martial virtue.

Iran and al Qaeda are actors in this, and they have been invited to continue draining blood and cash from the US indefinitely. Of course any enemy of the US can play this same game, not just Iran or al Qaeda: if only they find a way to bomb a marketplace, a government building, a stretch of highway, a hospital, a pipeline, a school, a factory, a power plant, or anything else somewhere in Iraq, then the Crocker-Petraeus "security gains" will be thereby proven "fragile," and the rationale for extending the US occupation secured.

crossposted at faith in honest doubt

There's more: "Subjects and Verbs in Iraq" >>

War is Peace, 2008 is 2006, etc.

Just yesterday, I heard one of the dozens of interchangeable pro-war talking heads declare on tee-vee that the civil war is over in Iraq and that talk of ethnic, religious, and political violence is "2006 news." Since the pro-war talking heads endlessly recycled on tee-vee are never wrong, it follows that it is still 2006, despite what our calendars seem to indicate, because this is what's happening now:

Heavy fighting broke out Tuesday in two of Iraq’s largest cities, as Iraqi ground forces and helicopters mounted a huge operation to break the grip of the Shiite militias controlling Basra, and Iraqi forces clashed with militias in Baghdad. The battles, along with indications in recent weeks that militia and insurgent attacks had already been creeping up, raised fears across Iraq that Moktada al-Sadr, the renegade Shiite cleric, could pull out of a cease-fire he declared last summer ... There were also serious clashes in the southern cities of Kut and Hilla.

Adjust your calendars accordingly.

As it was in 2006, so it is now: whatever set of facts are presented, the Bush-Cheney junta's answer will be the same as the McCain answer: continued occupation, indefinite occupation, ceaseless occupation, war without end. This war can only end when we deprive the warmongers of political power.

[this is cross-posted at my personal blog, faith in honest doubt]

There's more: "War is Peace, 2008 is 2006, etc." >>

General David Petraeus To Iran: “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” Notes on a personable administration military mouthpiece

Cross-posted @ My Buffalo River Home, and McClatchy

From McClatchy:

"Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in Iraq, who briefed the president on Iraq along with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, also spoke out against Iranian intervention.

"Iran's senior-most leaders promised Iraq's that they would stop funding, arming, training and directing of militia extremists and other elements in Iraq that were creating security challenges," Petraeus said. "We are waiting, frankly, to see that carried out."


The Iranians said that they would attempt to prevent the aforementioned behavior. They NEVER admitted to arming ANY Iraqi insurgents with ANY weaponry, EFPs, or anything else!

You know the old saying: "Have the Iranians stopped beating their wives yet?"

David Petraeus is quite simply a personable administration military mouthpiece with a limited logical/rhetorical repertoire.

How DO you disprove something you aren't doing?

Do they have to start arming Iraqi militants (patriots) to stop and say they did, but they aren't anymore?

Anyone with a living brain can see that this is utter B.S.

The U.S. has not produced a single speck of physical evidence to back their claim, and there is NO DOUBT it would be just as fabricated as the "Iranian speedboat tape."

Perhaps using those 1/4 million missing AK47s lost by the Pentagon's favorite air carrier, Victor Bout... Former KGB, now Russian mobster with connections to AQ & the Taliban...

Mr. Petraeus had the temerity to say it was just "..a bookkeeping error"

His time is up. He lies too much, just like his boss, George W. Bush.

Da' Buffalo

Related @ Technorati: Abuse Of Authority, Ahmadinejad, American Military Occupation, American Occupation, Amoral, Arms Race, Arms Smuggling, Arms Trader, Arrogance, Baghdad, Black Ops, Bogeyman, Breaking Politics News, Bush Administration, Bush Family Ranch, Bush War, BushCo, BushWar, Cognitive Dissonance, Commentary, Corporate Ethics, Corporate Mafia, Corporate Society, Corporatism, Corrupt, Corruption, Counter-Insurgency, Counter-insurgency Operations, David Petraeus, Department of Defense, Destabilization, Diplomacy, Disinformation, Dog and Pony Show, Endless War, Ethics, Explosively Formed Penetrator, Faux News, FauxNews, General David Petraeus, General Petraeus, George W. Bush, Global Domination, Global Empire, Global Hegemony, Global War on Terror, Government Accountability, Government Corruption, Government Destabilization, Government Disinformation, Gun Running, GWOT, High Crimes, Humor, Hypocrisy, Hypocrite, Ideology, Imperial Rule, Imperialism, Imperialist, Influence Peddling, Integrity, Iran, Iran War, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Iraq War, Lobbying, Low Intensity Warfare, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mass Media, Media, Media Concentration, Media Coverage, Media Disinformation, Media Spin, Middle East, Militarism, Occupation Army, Oil Wars, Pentagon, Persia, Persian Gulf, Petraeus, Petraeus Report, Philosophy, Preemptive History, Pre-emptive History, Preemptive War, Pre-emptive War, President Bush, Professional Standards, Propaganda, Psych-ops, Psy-War, Realpolitik, Regional War, Republican Apparatchik, Republican Family Values, Rhetoric, Sarcasm, Satire, Scandal, U.S. Diplomacy, U.S. Forces in Iraq, U.S. Government, U.S. Government Corruption, U.S. Government Propaganda, U.S. History, U.S. Intelligence, U.S. Military, U.S. Military Operations, Victor Bout, War Crimes, War On Terror, War Pigs, Warmonger, Warmongering, War-mongering, World War III, World War Three, WW III

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BushWars Inc. - We Finance Weapons For EVERYONE! No Money Down… EZ Payment Plan!

Cross-posted as a comment on Juan Cole's Informed Comment and my site - My Buffalo River Home:

From the USG Open Source Center translation of "an article from an opposition Afghanistan newspaper alleging that Washington it (sic) deploying Pakistani tribal levies against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.":

"When the White House attacked Afghanistan in 2001 and occupied this country, it dispersed the Taleban and Al-Qa'idah in the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. In the second phase, it maintained direct contacts with the senior leaders of this group. Therefore, America has been using Al-Qa'idah as a tool since the symbolic and self-made event on 11 September 2001."

What part of this doesn't the American public understand?

The U.S. Government is backing almost EVERYONE'S insurgencies in the Middle East. Even organizations that have goals diametrically opposed to the stated 'needs & goals' of U.S. foreign policy.

Two examples:

Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups

New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the single most explosive element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni groups.

Hersh says the U.S. has been pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.

Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of three Sunni jihadist groups who are connected to al Qaeda but want to take on Hezbollah.

Historically:

"During his stint as NATO Supreme Commander (1997-2000), Wesley Clark was in permanent liaison with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Under Wesley Clark's command, NATO directly sponsored a terrorist paramilitary army, with links to Al Qaeda and the trans-Balkan narcotics trade."

That gem is from Project Censored (there's more about AQ, NATO and the West on their site): CIA Double Deals In Macedonia

Lets not forget the PKK and affiliated Kurdish rebels (BushCo WILL abandon them again too... already have.): Professor Cole on the topic

John Robb @ Global Guerrillas on the topic: How to bait Turkey Into A Regional War...


What we have going on globally are 'Straw' insurgencies. I mean... If we can't make peace with them... sell/give them weapons and money through back channels that destabilize their region, give them enough local social control to allow their group a modicum of western media coverage, and maybe NEXT YEAR (or the year after that...) we can make a boogey-organization out of their actions and cut one of those AC-130 gunships and a DynCorp air crew loose from the Horn of Africa (or the Colombian drug wars) to supress them, an organization we initially allowed to prosper.

Here's a writeup one of the (Weapons/Logistics) movers & shakers...
Central Asia, Middle East, Africa.

Victor Bout, the Russian Mobster/Former KGB officer whose Bosnian airline 'vanished' 200,000 AK-47s in Iraq which the Pentagon/CPA contracted for shipment to the Iraqi Security Forces: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Bout

All General Petraus had to say about that was essentially... 'The bookkeeping was bad'.

Petraeus blames bookkeeping for missing weapons
Thursday, August 9, 2007

Bookkeeping problems are to blame for the inability to account for nearly 200,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said late Tuesday.

In Full @ Stars & Sripes

Bout has worked for the U.N., NATO in Kosovo (the KLA connection?), AND the Taliban.

Extrapolate!...At some point in recent history, Osama bin-Laden's buddies flew Victor Bout's air transport network.

We're dealing $$$ with the world's 'finest' thugs in the name of some dysfunctional 'democracy'. An affluent 'democracy' so dysfunctional & callous that can't even willingly supply housing for it's own disabled homeless INCLUDING veterans of their nasty little wars.




Perhaps this is what the government has in mind for our Veterans:



Just add weapons and send 'em back into action.

Just like they do when they've seen one too many of their buddies blown to bloody mush and have to be medicated into submission.

Las Vegas Sun:

September 06, 2007
Rushed back to the front

Experts: A depressed soldier on a potentially dangerous drug needed more time

By Ed Koch and Mary Manning

A Las Vegas Army infantryman who was prescribed Prozac for depression and several weeks later killed himself in Iraq should have undergone at least three months of observation before returning to normal duties, psychiatrists and other medical experts said in interviews Wednesday.

Family and friends of Pfc. Travis Virgadamo say he told them he was prescribed daily doses of 12.5 milligram s of the anti depressant Prozac beginning in July. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound last Thursday outside of Baghdad, the military said.

Medical experts interviewed by the Sun said anyone given prescription anti depressants should be watched carefully and kept out of high-stress duty for at least three months. In Full

More thugs, American thugs... Blackwater... Not just killers of 'in-the-way' Iraqi civilians but implicated in the smuggling of CPA Glock pistols to the Kurdish PKK and onward into the Turkish underworld.

This is one of the secretive parts of Henry Waxman's Blackwater investigantion we may NEVER hear about again.

"Officials in Washington said the smuggling investigation grew from internal Pentagon and State Department inquiries into U.S. weapons that had gone missing in Iraq. Turkish authorities protested to the U.S. in July that they had seized American arms from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, rebels." In full @ the WaPo Archive ($$$)

Another take @ McClatchy:

A former Blackwater employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the investigation includes a look at whether Blackwater shipped weapons from its Moyock headquarters to Iraq hidden in pallets wrapped tightly in shrink wrap.
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"In December, the prosecutors obtained guilty pleas from two former Blackwater employees, Kenneth Wayne Cashwell of Virginia Beach, Va., and William Ellsworth "Max" Grumiaux of Clemmons, N.C. The men and their lawyers either refused to comment or did not return calls.

The court files are stingy on details of the crimes..."

"...the federal (Nb. criminal) investigation of Blackwater is proceeding behind closed doors," In Full

It's called feeding the voracious maw of the military industrial complex.
The only major "industrial industry" left in America.

You can thank twenty or more years of federal job non-creation negligence for this outcome.

The government's motto for all those years?

"The private sector will provide".

They did... for their corporate friends.

Meanwhile, Detroit and other American cities are becoming ghost towns.



We need a reality check here people.

FoMoCo sells a few cars...

But the REAL $$$ is in Hydrogen powered military UAVs.




I'll bet you wish they spent those R&D bucks on H-powered Excursion SUVs...

...But they won't. Unless the American people DEMAND IT.

That would require Americans to actually DO SOMETHING besides watching '24' & L.A. Law re-runs on the tell-unh-vision.

It will require MORE than simply voting for the hand-picked (just like Iraq) candidates offered up for U.S. presidency.

Truly unlikely, which leaves us rather permanently 'screwed' into war, and rumors of war...

--Da' Buffalo

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