CapitalistImperialistPig

Ten years ago the United States was attacked by terrorists who were predominantly Saudi, in an attack planned and financed by Saudis. George Bush decided to protect his family's business partners and put the family of the mastermind - including one of the attack's alleged financiers - on a jet and sent them back to Saudi. Insurer's are now suing the Saudi government over its role. U.S. investigators, it said, unearthed a list of al-Qaida's financial backers known as the "Golden Chain." "When Osama bin Laden formed al-Quida," the complaint said, "many of these financiers became champions of bin Laden's new mission to wage jihad globally." "[T]he September 11th Attacks were a direct, intended, and foreseeable product of" al-Qaida's "global jihad," it continued. Thus the financial backers "bear primary responsibility for the injuries resulting from the September 11th Attacks" and must pay the costs...

The lion trainer knew he had a problem. When the big cats left the arena for their cages at the end of his act, the leopard developed the habit of reaching up and clawing the lion's leg. The leg was getting infected. While he pondered how to revise his act in the middle of the season, the lion reached down one day, ripped the leopard's head off, and sent it bouncing across the cage. Pakistan, says Bruce Reidel, has become our leopard . The ISI and the generals think we are on the way out in Afghanistan, and have become ever bolder in their efforts to push us out. Admiral Mullen's candid and stunning testimony that directly links Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, to recent attacks on NATO forces and the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan puts America and Pakistan on a collision course. Why are the ISI and the Pakistani Army making such risky moves? What is the calculation in the generals’ minds? Short answer is, they believe we are on the run in Afghanistan and they...

From the Newsweek story: Inside the Killing Machine It was an ordinary-looking room located in an office building in northern Virginia. The place was filled with computer monitors, keyboards, and maps. Someone sat at a desk with his hand on a joystick. John A. Rizzo, who was serving as the CIA’s acting general counsel, hovered nearby, along with other people from the agency. Together they watched images on a screen that showed a man and his family traveling down a road thousands of miles away. The vehicle slowed down, and the man climbed out. A moment later, an explosion filled the screen, and the man was dead. “It was very businesslike,” says Rizzo. An aerial drone had killed the man, a high-level terrorism suspect, after he had gotten out of the vehicle, while members of his family were spared. “The agency was very punctilious about this,” Rizzo says. “They tried to minimize collateral damage, especially women and children.” Such is the nature of Obama's drone war in Pakistan. T...

I visited the sites of the revolutionary war battles of Lexington and Concord this summer, and was reminded of the old joke about the great game master arranging the terms of the war: OK, you Brits will wear red, march in close formation, and use short range guns. Americans, you wear camouflage, hide behind trees, and use long range rifles. Ready, set, go! So why don't the guerrillas usually win? Because it was discovered long ago that there is another side to the asymmetry. The more powerful force uses its superior firepower to destroy the means of sustenance of the population in which the guerrillas live. Thus Sherman broke the back of Southern resistance in the American Civil War by creating a swath of destruction across the South. Collective punishment is a war crime, but war is always collective punishment. Meanwhile, the world puts up with terrorism mainly sponsored by weak countries. A vast armada is deployed in a mainly futile effort to suppress piracy based in Somalia, b...

It seems that the administration has praised John Stewart for kicking Congress in the pants hard enough to revive the 9/11 first responders health care bill. Meanwhile, the same President, who campaigned for better health care for our wounded veterans, especially those who are victims of traumatic brain injury (TBI), presides over an administration that continues to deny those veterans the gold standard of that care, cognitive rehabilitation. The reason for denial is simple: it's expensive. The Pentagon convened a large panel of experts from both civilian and military medicine, and they unanimously recommended cognitive rehabilitation, but the Pentagon didn't like the answer, so they had a pet contractor write a report disagreeing. Every outside expert reviewing the contractor report found it deeply flawed, but with that report in its pocket the Pentagon continues to deny the wounded the best treatments. NPR and Pro Publica report the details.

There is a religion whose holy book records its God commanding human sacrifice and large scale genocide. These are hardly isolated incidents but part of a pattern of intolerance and violence. So do we owe the adherents respect and toleration? Whether we do or not, we have little choice, since this religion with its multiple branches forms the largest community of believers in the World. Although those acting in its name still perpetrate the occasional mass murder, for the most part its worst deeds seem to be behind it, at least for the moment. That said, some of its fringe elements continue to whip up interreligious hatred and violence. I am referring, of course, to Judaism and its Christian offshoot. Of course some other religions have similarly violent histories and traditions. Notable among them is the "cousin" religion of Islam. Like the JC religions, Islam centers its faith on a Holy book and claims descent from Abraham. Like them, it has a tradition of inter and ...

The latest news from Wikileaks confirms many of our fears and raises new ones. Not News: The Taliban has bases in Pakistan Not News: Elements of the Pakistani government (if not all of it) collaborate with them. Possible News: the Taliban may be acquiring more potent weaponry. Hardly News: We are financing the war against ourselves. The grim reality: There is no hint that anything that could be called victory lies ahead. We are probably fighting this war now because our political leaders lack the courage to end it with victory or retreat. Victory, if possible, would be messy. We would have to smash the Taliban in Pakistan, and quite likely the Pakistani military as well. Wholesale slaughter in the Northwest territories (soldiers, sheep, goats, and civilians) would likely be required. India and US bases in Afghanistan might get nuked. Retreat wouldn't be pretty either. al Quaeda would be emboldened. The mess George Bush left in his wake just gets deeper. America's future ...

It's enough to make a commander-in-chief think twice about appointing a McGeneral to a major wartime command. McClellan, MacArthur, and now McChrystal. My first thought when I heard of McChr's mouthing off was that he might be trying to pull a MacArthur - get fired and try to parlay the experience into a Republican Presidential nomination. The Republicans sure as hell could use a credible candidate. On the other hand, some of his acquaintances say that he is a mouthy guy by habit - so maybe he just got caught for once. Justin Elliott blames the Bud Light Lime - but his evidence is circumstantial Light.