(Joshua Holland, AlterNet, June 30, 2010)
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The United States is stalled in a hopeless conflict in Afghanistan in large part because its foreign policy establishment, aided by an often-vacuous media, has come to believe its own spin about General David Petraeus’ “success” turning around the occupation in Iraq. The fact that Iraq remains a shattered country with an active insurgency seven years after the United States invaded . . . That the Iraq surge was a success is almost a universally held belief, despite ample evidence to the contrary. That belief lends unearned weight to Petraeus’ counter-insurgency doctrine, known as COIN. . . .  » Continue reading “The U.S. is Trapped in Afghanistan”

(Muriel Kane, Alternet, June 29, 2010)
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Dozens of U.S. Citizens on Assassination List, White House Adviser Hints

When it was confirmed last winter by then-Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair that the Obama administration had authorized the assassination of American citizens working with terrorist groups overseas, it appeared that no more than three Americans were being targeted in this manner. . . . In an interview last week with the Washington Times, however, Deputy White House National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John O. Brennan suggested the number might actually amount to “dozens.” . . . » Continue reading “Innocent Until Proven Guilty No Longer Applies”

It is not surprising if you didn’t know that your favorite Apple gadgets — your iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac — are linked to the conflict engulfing the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo today and for the past dozen years. Most people don’t know – which is in part why the war in Congo has gone on for so long. With more than 5 million people killed, it is the deadliest conflict since World War II.

When I watched this, Google overlaid an advertisement from an oil company apologist. I didn’t click on it, but after watching this NASA time lapse imagery from the oil gusher in the Gulf, I do wonder what in the world they could say to make me feel good about the unimaginable destruction that is taking place on our little planet.

(Huffington Post, 06-24-10)
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America’s highest-ranking military official thinks the U.S. has bigger security problems than al-Qaeda, suicide bombers and an increasingly deadly nine-year war. . . . ”Our national debt is our biggest national security threat,” said Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a “Tribute to the Troops” breakfast on Thursday morning, according to two staffers at the gathering. He also noted a troubling trend — that veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq are becoming homeless at four times the rate the country witnessed in the wake of Vietnam. . . . Mullen’s national security analysis may sound off the wall, but a large number of Americans agree, according to a recent Gallup poll. Gallup reports that terrorism and federal government debt are tied as the most worrisome perceived threats to Americans, with healthcare costs ranking a close third. Only 26 percent of Americans polled deemed the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to be “extremely serious” threats to the future well-being of the U.S., compared with four in ten who ranked the national debt at that level.

[COMMENT by Lorenzo: WTF, is Admiral Mullen just plain stupid, or does he think we are stupid? With the money and lives he is pouring down the drain on a fruitless war on the people of Afghanistan we could re-build our roads, pay our teachers, and give universal health care to everyone. Hey Mullen, the Pentagon is the problem ... and, BTW, why are you doing so little to take care of your wounded warriors? What are you spending those trillions of tax payer dollars on anyway?]

(Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, Jun 22, 2010)
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The oil giant plans to start drilling in the Arctic this fall — and the Obama administration is doing nothing to stop it . . . Obama’s tough-guy act offers no guarantee that oil giants like BP won’t be permitted to repeat the same mistakes that led to the nightmare in the Gulf. Indeed, top environmentalists warn, the suspension of drilling appears to be little more than a stalling tactic designed to let public anger over BP’s spill subside before giving Big Oil the go-ahead to drill in an area that has long been off-limits: the Arctic Ocean. The administration has approved plans by both BP and Shell Oil to drill a total of 11 exploratory wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas above Alaska — waters far more remote and hostile than the Gulf. Shell’s operations could proceed as soon as the president’s suspension expires in January. And thanks to an odd twist in its rig design, BP’s drilling in the Arctic is on track to get the green light as soon as this fall. . . . Ken Salazar, the Interior secretary whose staff allowed BP to drill in the Gulf based on pro-industry rules cooked up during the Bush years, has made no secret of his determination to push the “frontier” of oil drilling into the Arctic. » Continue reading “BP’s Next Disaster”

There has been a lot of speculation about why someone as savvy as McChrystal would grant so much access to a Rolling Stone reporter. Also, we have been told how brilliant a general he is. Something doesn’t add up.

My guess is that he is smart enough to have read a few history books, and so he knows that there is absolutely no way that the USA, or any other large corporation for that matter, is going to take over Afghanistan. Perhaps he even noticed that it was their war on the people of Afghanistan that brought down the Soviet Union. No, it was no mistake that he granted that interview, my guess is that he figured he could escape the blame for his failed strategy by shoving his problems off on someone else and getting out while he could. If that is what really went down, then it was a cowards way out if you ask me.

(Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown, June 21, 2010)
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Like most Americans, my beliefs can’t be squeezed into either of the tidy little boxes that the establishment provides. . . . Also, most of the big issues that our country faces defy right-left categorization. Take conservatism. It’s a doctrine that classically embodies caution and…well, conservation. Yet the gushing and spreading Gulf Coast oil disaster was caused by people who proudly identify themselves as conservatives–including top executives of BP, Halliburton, and Transocean, as well as the top regulatory officials involved. However, they’re not conservatives, they’re anything-goes corporatists. Likewise, the five Supreme Court justices who recently enthroned corporate money over democracy (Lowdown, March 2010) are routinely labeled by the media as “conservative”–but their reckless rulings destroy our democratic values, rather than conserve them. Again, corporatists all. » Continue reading “Are You Conservative, Liberal, Radical, Progressive, or Populist?”