http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2008/03/21/8027

So many publications have expressed such overwhelming interest in the perspectives of those of us who opposed the Iraq War when it had a chance of doing good that I have had to permit multiple publication of this article in most of the nation’s elite media venues....

(via fafblog)

To repeat a tragic and dismal observation: one of the many pernicious effects of militarism and warmongery is that it pulls, or chews, on the seams and borders of law, order, and human decency like the storied fox cub inside the Spartan lad's tunic gnawed the boy's vitals.

There are so many clichéd metaphors to be invoked, e.g. the "slippery slope"! But I believe it is fair to generalize that the Sweat of War leaches out, and depletes, our highest ideals and standards of civilized social intercourse.

In the delirium of war fever, one can't scruple to rigorously and precisely detail the exact circumstances and consequences of military operations. The sanitary, anaesthetic patch called "Collateral Damage" is one-size-fits-all, and covers the territory. Niggling questions such as who exactly suffered and died are too trivial and inconsequential to venture, and "impossible" to determine. (Did you see how that turns into a circle there at the end?)

So shut up about this-- I mean, that's the essence of any official response to expressed concerns or criticisms. Don't you know there's a war on? Furthermore, warmongers see themselves as exclusively giving account, creating those "new realities", and imposing faits accomplis upon a hapless citizenry; being taken to account is way off the radar. First things first.

In lizard-brain warrior proto-thinking, trying to draw clear and consistent battlefield distinctions, ultimately trickling down to micro-command & control of combat operations, is fatally stupid. From the warrior's perspective, it's insane hand-wringing-- or the equivalent of stopping to check one's gig line when taking fire. Shoot first; ask questions later!

The reprehensible propensity to cry havoc! and let loose the dogs of war is also reprehensibly manifest in the oxymoronic application of "military justice" as a revolving-door for combatants who commit war crimes and atrocities. (And cops who do the equivalent-- but that's another outrage.)

There's a pro forma process riddled with exculpatory subroutines, from lack of rigorous initial reporting and investigation, ubiquitous mendacity and deceit in the chain of command, and a consequent deficiency of competent evidence to build a compelling case-- given that the bar is raised higher, and wrapped in the barbed-wire of an egregiously sympathetic tryer-of-fact, whether judge or jury.

I wish I could think of a cheerer-upper to rescue this tenebrous rumination, but failing that, I might as well note that I believe that our Ruling Class of political, military, and financial elites act on the assumption that "conscience" is too valuable and tender a thing to lavish on the dirty work that Good Men must do in the name of virtue, and that it must perforce be sensibly switched off until things are properly sorted out.

As Thomas Jefferson, I think, once said: "It takes a hell of a lot of broken eggs to make a Freedom Omelet."

Has NBC or Brian Williams responded yet to your request for an interview relative to General NBC Pentagon WH Propaganda-Gate?

They haven't. Hard to believe, I know. They also still haven't reported this story in any way. Equally hard to believe.

-- GlennGreenwald

____________________________________

Though normally reluctant to intrude with a personal note, I cannot forbear but to wonder aloud, as it were, whether Glenn's bubbeh never warned him that a tongue held often and firmly enough in the cheek will grow into it permanently.

Just sayin'.

Let all the savages be savages. 700,000 here, 1 million there. Screw them. I am with you 100% on this. We have no business worrying about or interfering in countries who's problems are fundamentally broken and unsolvable. Somalia, Congo, Iraq, all of them - they've been chopping each other up for 60 years and they will continue to do so whether liberals blame the US for that or not. What's insane is trying to make any sort of difference at all. I can't believe all the ZPG fans here aren't cheering at the genocide. After all if you want to reduce world population what better way than to encourage people who are ALREADY doing that?

These neocon clowns are so brazen with the lives of others.

To fight aloud is very brave

But gallanter I know

Who charge within the bosom

The cavalry of woe

--Emily Dickinson

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_050208/content/01125110.guest.html

Rush Interviews Andrew McCarthy
May 2, 2008

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, as you know, folks, we don't do too many interviews here. We're not on the author circuit. Friends of mine, however, do write books; and I try to have them on, especially in this most recent example. Andrew McCarthy has written a book entitled Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad. Its timing is beautiful, because we have been so successful in thwarting another attack, terrorist attack on our country, that it is easy for people to assume the threat has subsided when it really hasn't. I welcome to the program, Andy McCarthy, good friend, how are you sir?

MCCARTHY: Is this the C-in-C USOC?

RUSH: This is C-in-C USOC: Commander-in-Chief US, Operation Chaos.

MCCARTHY: Happy to talk to you, sir.

RUSH: It's great to have you here.

[...]

RUSH: We're in the middle of a presidential campaign, and the sum total of discussion on this focuses on distorting McCain's statement that if we have to stay in Iraq a hundred years, we'll do it; talking about ending torture (of course we're the guilty ones); closing Guantanamo; getting out of Iraq. There is literally hardly any discussion about the war on terror other than the Democrats promising -- just as they promised to lower gas prices after they won the House in 2006 -- that they're going to get Bin Laden. It's not part of the presidential campaign. Granted, there are more pressing issues daily that people face and see now with economic circumstances as they are. What's it gonna take? (chuckles) I almost hate to hear the answer to this. What's it going to take to wake people up again to the existence of this threat, and just because we've thwarted one on our soil for seven years; however we've done it, doesn't mean the threat's gone away or is any less intense. What's it going to take?

MCCARTHY: Well, I hope it doesn't take another attack, but it's probably going to take at least a sense that we could be attacked that certainly isn't present for us now -- and in terms of what you're talking about now, you know, I haven't been the biggest McCain fan to the planet, but let me give him this much of his due. He wants to get the job done in Iraq at least insofar as it means defeating Al-Qaeda there. I can't stress to people how important that is. Even if you don't agree with why we went to Iraq in the first place -- and, you know, say we should never have been there --the fact is that the worst thing we ever did was pull out of Lebanon in 1983 when the Marine barracks got hit. The next worst thing we probably ever did was pull out of Somalia when that got ugly. These people -- and when I talk about "these people," I mean people like Bin Laden and the Blind Sheik -- if used to a fair thee well as a recruiting tool this notion that they're the strong horse, we're the weak horse; and if they make it ugly enough and bloody enough for us, that we will pull out. It's like when a very strong team plays a very weak team in sports. The strong team can never give the weak team a sniff, because the minute you do and they start to think they can win, and they start to believe in themselves, they become much more efficient. It becomes much more easy for them to recruit, to raise money, to do all the things they have to do to take on a superpower. What they have going for them that we don't, is they have basically eradicated our threshold idea of what is civilized behavior. They are willing to do anything to win, and they're absolutely sure that history is on their side. Unless we become more sure than we are now that we're right, and that we have a need to show them that however long it takes, we're going to do what has to be done to win; you know, we can't rely on the fact that we're a super power and that it's inevitable that we'll win this thing.

RUSH: Andy McCarthy, thanks so much for your time. This is a book that if you don't want to get scared too much, you should read. It's timely and it's important, and we just scratched the surface. The title of the book: Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad. Best of luck with it, Andy, and thanks so much for your time here today.

MCCARTHY: Rush, thank you. I appreciate it.

RUSH: You bet. Andrew McCarthy.

END TRANSCRIPT

- - Andrew McCarthy and Rush Limbaugh, Friday, May 2, 2008