Letters to the Editor
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@WT
I do not argue that it is inevitable, only that I have finally understood what the mission is in Iraq. It's a war of invisibility against the American people for the purpose of breaking down our barriers to cruelty and empire.
There's always hope. I believe in 11th hour conversions and distrust cynicism. But these guys actively hate the American people for our inability to swallow extreme cruelty and our dislike for unprovoked war. I truly believe Bush does his Karla Faye Tucker thing the minute those dead soldier's widows and mothers leave the room.
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@ ondelette
No real argument on the major point. I just don't believe that every elected official, and every corporate board member, accepts that the hegemony we inherited after WWII is a) ours by right, by force majeur, and in perpetuity, or b) that it should follow the model of Rome: solitudinem faciunt et pacem appellant. There are many who do, but at least some of them blundered into it, one step at a time. Perhaps, as the bills continue to come due, they'll be tempted to think more deeply.
Perhaps not, but if you're doing an honest cost-benefit analysis, the price of doing what Reid is doing is bound to go up relative to the advantage accrued.
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Tony Fratto
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/02/20080206-3.html
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 6, 2008Press Briefing by Tony Fratto James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
12:35 P.M. EST
MR. FRATTO: [...] One other reminder, the President tomorrow will have an event talking about the need for the Senate to confirm the President's nominees.
[...]
Q General Hayden confirmed yesterday that the CIA subjected three terrorist suspects to waterboarding [...]
MR. FRATTO: [...] I am not saying anything in terms of how the interrogation was handled specifically with specific detainees. For those kinds of questions, the best place to go is to the Central Intelligence Agency, since they operate the program.
Q And earlier you suggested that it would not be ruled out for possible use in the future?
MR. FRATTO: [...] The President would listen to the determinations of his advisors, and make a decision.
Q [...] You're not ruling it out.
MR. FRATTO: [...] Every interrogation technique used in this program was brought to the Department of Justice, and Department of Justice made a determination as to its lawfulness, and that allowed the Central Intelligence Agency to move forward with their program. [...] We don't torture -- we maintain and as we have said many times that the programs have been reviewed, and the Department of Justice has determined them to be legal.
Q But the General, himself, said in a recent interview that he thinks it's probably torture, and he has said that we have used it.
MR. FRATTO: I don't think that's accurate. [...] Director McConnell in his testimony yesterday in a conversation with Senator Feinstein I think explained those comments, and explained how they were out of context.
[...]
Q So is waterboarding currently authorized?
MR. FRATTO: No, it's not.
[...]
Q Just to clarify, so you're saying that it's not torture and you're saying it's effective -- then why is it not currently authorized, waterboarding?
MR. FRATTO: General Hayden addressed that [...] So it is a decision that the agency made. I could refer you to them, to see if they can explain it further; but it was their decision, they're the professionals.
Q [...] For five centuries it's been known as torture, American prosecutors actually obtained convictions against Japanese after World War II because of what they did to American captives. What about it makes it not torture now? Is it just the circumstances?
MR. FRATTO: I don't think that's a question I can answer. [...]
- - http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/02/20080206-3.html
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How Should a Patriot Act?
http://www.mises.org/story/2834
A great and glowing review of Glenn's book. Well worth a read, even if you have already read the book.
"In this remarkable book, Glenn Greenwald solves a difficult problem. President Bush has for several years authorized the National Security Agency to wiretap telephones ... Greenwald cogently sketches the situation: ..."
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When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, Hurrah, Hurrah!
Whether it's blue suicide or suicide by cop, mass murders of family members or complete strangers, political violence from returning ex-felons, gang members, extremists and white supremacists that were taken into the military when troop shortages required it, we ain't seen nothing yet.
Time to ask the Musical question:
How ya' gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've sacked Baghdad?
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Book Reviewer:
A great and glowing review of Glenn's book. Well worth a read, even if you have already read the book.
-- bucky1
But yet Greenwald's commentariat are warmongers. Go figure.
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@ondelette
That rant as you call it should run on the op-ed pages of major newspapers as should your letter on torture.
You have identified the true purpose of the surge. The war is important only from a political standpoint and how it can be spun for election and party advantage. Only Americans eight thousand miles away are being killed and we are safe from terrorist attack so their ultimate sacrifice is clearly worth it. Who cares if we have to keep our troop strength at surge levels longer. So what if Iraqi politics is so convoluted that no one is headed to a common goal and that democracy is a sham that never could have worked.
Who cares if the surge is really working or not as long as the claim can be made that it is. Who cares about terrorist suicide bombings or the unbelievable suffering by the Iraqis as long as our deaths are down. Who cares that benchmarks aren’t being met as long as we can claim the genius general is succeeding. Who cares about the truth of what is happening and that our troops are stretched way too thin when the political damage to the Republican party is blunted and the war is dropping off Americans’ radar screens. Who cares about the number of our deaths as long as the surge is “working.” Who cares that the Republican presidential candidate says they we may have to be in Iraq a hundred years from now.
The Republicans think that this spinning will keep American heads dizzy and apathetic. I believe they are wrong and the Republicans will be trounced in the November election. When my heavily Republican county had 21,000 more Democratic voters than Republican voters yesterday, that tells me they are wrong, hopefully dead wrong.