Openthread
means
open comments ...
Another Whitewash / Cover-up Combo -
the actual cost is a hundred times more ...
Science Budget To Be Slashed by House GOP;
Warmonger budget increased over last year
The Consequences of Peak Sanity May Escalate
During The Desperation phase
I was most impressed by Gates' speech yesterday. Could be he's the only sane one in the administration, who, since he's now "short" as we used to say in the military, is finally unafraid to speak his mind. Not that that will do much good or have much future influence.
ReplyDeleteHistory teaches and my experience in the military reinforces the fact that policy is one long series of blunders, as leaders come go, each one sure that he won't make the same mistakes as his predecessor (it's always bad decision making and never just poor basic policy), then promptly doing just that. The military's "can do" culture is a breeder of institutional hubris. It's how Captains becomes Majors, Majors becomes Colonels, etc.
And the politicians are, of course, infinitely worse, since their timelines are shorter, the benefits they receive are greater, and the fact that they themselves do none of the fighting. War is simply win, win, win, for any pol; so much so that even the dems eventually embrace it.
Afghanistan won't be over anytime soon and even when it "is," it still won't be, as we've already seen in Iraq what such pronouncements actually mean. Substantial numbers of troops left behind who are merely relabeled as "non-combat" or some other such Orwellian "new-speak." The rat bastards are so openly contemptuous of the American sheeple now that they barely even try to conceal it.
Foreign wars as practiced by the US are ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS a pretext for empire expansion and the next "war," whether it be military, economic, or political, that will INVARIABLY follow it. The US is simply hopelessly addicted to its fantasy notion of global military, economic, and political empire, all of which has roots in and is enabled by its Christian triumphalism heritage.
Hey, if God on high has decreed that his Christian followers are the "chosen ones," then who are we or anyone else to argue?
disaffected,
ReplyDeleteWell said.
Meanwhile the Libyans are under fire from their crack head leader.
Disaffected, great comment! Great observation....
ReplyDelete>History teaches and my experience in the military reinforces the fact that policy is one long series of blunders, as leaders come go, each one sure that he won't make the same mistakes as his predecessor (it's always bad decision making and never just poor basic policy), then promptly doing just that.<
One wonders why we cannot develop leaders that can observe that we are a long way down the wrong track, call a time out, reverse direction, and return to the path we should have taken?
Is anyone concerned about the intense censorship that has been growing on Huff Post, one of the most popular sites for commenting on the "news?"
ReplyDeleteApparently, the US Government is actively censoring comments, especially those that contain trus facts and links to support valid concerns.
Several posts with NED (CIA) propaganda, will refuse to post critical comments, and even ban those who attempt to post "correctiopns," ie, the thre facts. I say true facts, as there are those who will claim that "the truth" is a matter of opinion.
Info has now surfaced to show that the Tunisia Revolution had help from gene Sharpe's "manual for a revolution," and this was translated and passed on to Egypt. Folks in Egypt claimed they were influenced by the Serbian revolution, that was also thanks to Gene Sharpe.
Since this info is now widely available in the media, one wonders why any would censor it? Or is it the fact that these "peaceful revolutions" are quite bloody? And what do we have in Tunesia and Egypt today? A free and democratic country, with inclusion, social justice, and "free speech?" NOT
While I do believe that all people who want to be free should be free, I do not believe that inciting ethnic, religious or racial tension is the way to establish a democracy. If it is not true, that our government is continuing to destabelize China, covertly supporting "the Free Tibet Movement," and inciting the Uighur violence, including supporting training camps in Af-Pak that train Uighur terrorists,(sepratists), then it should be possible to state it is not true. there would be evidence that these programs were ended, not just diverted to another program with a different name.
I see no reason why the NED(CIA) or other arms of our Government would ban those who post the truth, unless of course, this is an active covert opperation, complete with domestic propaganda and black ops. (which sen kennedy's staff confirmed to me,when the responded to my inquiry, several years ago.
If Obama has since ended this covert ops against China, why doesn't he issue a statement saying so? Instaed, he has made it very clear to china, that they are next on the agenda.
And who is going to feed the 1.5 billion then?
I know that China has a long way to go compared to us. They are 60 some years old, we are some 200 years old. They are catching up guickly in both economics and political freedom. But they are not there yet. But they are making progress every year.
Compared to life in China, including Tibet before 1949, the life people have in China today has improved 1000% But even if it was "only 100% improved, why would we support a "colour or velvet revolution" in China? Would the people of China, including Tibet, benifit from this? Am I to believe it is because we genuinely care about the people there? Sorry, I am old enough to know better.
Kathy,
ReplyDeleteUS policy has long been compared been compared to steering a giant ship (in our case, definitely an oil tanker!), and that's true for a lot of reasons, some of them even good.
It is true that stability is a highly desirable trait in a good government, especially one that has the lion's share of the world's nuclear weapons. However, over time that same thinking produces ossified policies that invariably favor the rich and the powerful under even the best of circumstances, and our case is MUCH worse than that.
True, unbridled capitalism plays out just like the monopoly board game we played as kids. It's an amoral winner take all system that at its core that is designedeven a fraction of his campaign promise there might still have been a small glimmer of hope remaining. His apparent defection is truly a historical turning point, in that it not only confirms that the democrats are not an effective opposition party, but that they are not even a true opposition party at all, and that further, it’s now open season to represent one's position by saying anything at all on the campaign trail, and then doing exactly the opposite after taking office. Buyer beware!
It's impossible to estimate the number of voters that NoBama has alienated in only two years, but I think it’s safe to say that the youthful idealism displayed in the 2008 campaign will not be seen again in American politics for a generation or more. And given our current problems, I'm certain we don't have that long. The American experiment has run its course I'm afraid, and by 2020 I'm certain that it will no longer be even remotely recognizable to those of us old enough to remember 30-40 years back, no matter what banner remains flying on the flag poles.
The Soviet Union was the first casualty of the 20th century cold war, and the US, almost exactly on cue 20 years later, will now almost certainly be the last. And the real question now is not will our meltdown be even more spectacular - it certainly will - but how much of rest of the world will our grand collapse take with it? That should be the real concern for current and future policy makers who plan to be around in 2012, 2014, 2016 and thereafter.
But as we've seen most notably with Jimmy Carter, no politician can get elected by even acknowledging possible American decline whatsoever, therefore insuring that we get nothing but more of the "America uber alles" crowd at election time. Elections have been co-opted completely and are now best viewed as cheap entertainment for the masses. At least now the rich are paying through the nose for the privilege of lying to us. Give them another decade or two and they won't even need to do that.
"steering a giant ship (in our case, definitely an oil tanker!), and that's true for a lot of reasons"
ReplyDeleteI respectfully dissent.
Dredd,
ReplyDeleteHow so?
Paragraphs two through four of my previous post got truncated somehow in the copy/paste process. Here's what I meant to say.
ReplyDeleteTrue unbridled capitalism plays out just like the monopoly board game we played as kids. It's an amoral winner take all system that at its core that is designed to concentrate wealth among a privileged few and make paupers of the rest. The trouble is, in real life there's very few options to those who lose the game. Absent government regulation and safety nets, dropping out means becoming a bum or a criminal - or both, as homelessness is now considered a criminal activity in many locales, and will guarantee that you are harassed by the law, if not actually incarcerated.
Further, late stage capitalism greatly accelerates the ossification (as we've seen over the last ten years), as the rich consolidate their gains by first buying government influence, then gradually infiltrating and completely usurping all of its functions, eliminating all the ones that don't serve its purposes explicitly (as we're seeing right now in Wisconsin, and soon country-wide). At a certain point the process because self-sustaining, in that no normal democratic process can possibly undo it (as in all over the middle-east and elsewhere). If we in the US aren't there yet, then we're most certainly standing on the precipice staring into the abyss.
In my opinion, NoBama was the last ray of hope we had. The Bush bunch had advanced the conservative agenda so far that it was going to be a multi-decade uphill fight to undo it under the best of circumstances, but if NoBama had delivered on even a fraction of his campaign promise there might still have been a small glimmer of hope remaining. His apparent defection is truly a historical turning point, in that it not only confirms that the democrats are not an effective opposition party, but that they are not even a true opposition party at all, and that further, it’s now open season to represent one's position by saying anything at all on the campaign trail, and then doing exactly the opposite after taking office. Buyer beware!
disaffected,
ReplyDelete"How so" ...
No biggie, I would say it is an aircraft carrier in the middle of a convoy, but an "oil tanker" would be in the convoy.
Guys, all you say has some degree of merit, but I have identified a patten of abuse, in the censorship that I have expierenced.
ReplyDeletehttp://shoe08.blogspot.com/2011/02/banned-from-commenting-on-huffington.html
Ironic that now we see "head" officials, lamenting that they were lied to resulting in the Iraq war. LOL How can they be lied to, unless censorship or all kinds and colours is actively engaged in by those who want war?
Of course, if our "head" officials are so immune to the concept of true facts, how can we expect ate ordinary citizen to care?