Blood on Whose Hands?

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, sitting alongside Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, had the gall today to say that Mr. Assange of Wikileaks might have the blood on his hands of a soldier or citizen in Afghanistan because he released secret documents exposing the absurdity of our making war in that tribal, corrupt, failed imitation of a civilized nation state.

If any have blood on their hands it's the Neocons, the cheerleaders of the Military/Industrial Complex, who love and promote war somewhere, all the time, for the $Billions made in making war.

(Who are the Neocons? That's a good and justified question. Here are the names of some of those I would assign to that category. It's important to know and understand that I can only make these judgments based on what people have had the guts and/or the gall to state publicly. I am certain that there are many more who don't want to be identified and whose motives and agendas are innimical to the values and hopes of decent people all over the world).

In my view SecDef Gates gets an unmerited pass by many Americans who view him as a reasonable man, in contrast to the cynical, shoot from the hip, former SecDef Rumsfeld of the Cheney/Bush cabal. I agree that he makes a good impression, but I also believe that he drinks the same Koolaid as those in Congress and the Administration who seem trapped into playing their role in the War Games tragedy staged by those Neocon criminals, whose loyalty and agenda is to money and power, at the sacrifice of the people of the United States. Gates should be judged, not by his words, but by his actions.

When it comes to judging people by their actions, not their words, that goes for Obama as well. Gates and Mullen serve at his pleasure. Or do they? If not his, whose?

Who really has the blood of America's youth and future on their hands? I think I know. Do you?
It's important that you do.

Leanderthal

The Old "Picture's Worth A Thousand Words" Thing

It's true. All you need to know about making war in Afghanistan you can learn by just looking at this cartoon pictorial.

Not all cartoons are meant to be funny.

Leanderthal

Making Sense

Paul Krugman makes sense to me with this down to earth analysis of Obama's frequent reluctance to deal with the reality that the GOPhers are not his friends and his all too frequent snubbing of those who are.

Leanderthal

The Value of TomDispatch.com

Tom Engelhardt, the creator of the blog TomDispatch.com, continues to publish the very best of essays on the threat of American Imperialism.

Here's the latest, this one by Andrew J. Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University. Tom observes that it's about "Giving up on victory, but not war".

The final paragraph is especially important in its shining a bright light on the shadows of massive corruption in American politics, including our current politicians, of all stripes, and at all levels, from the highest to the lowest.

In my opinion, the Pentagon has become the fourth branch of government, after the Executive, Congress and the Supreme Court. It's the military part of the military/industrial complex which President Eisenhower warned us about in the late 1950's.

It's become almost trite, even naive, to say, "Follow the money", as Deep Throat observed, yet it's still the clue to the Elephant in the Room nobody wants to acknowledge; the rampant corruption in our politics. When we complain about Hamid Karzai's corrupt government it's the pot calling the kettle black. It might be compared to the Mafia, the Cosa Nostra, fighting among its own families, the Americans versus the Sicilians.

The depressing thing is that the Neocons' unending war, somewhere, all the time, has become the modern American way of life; volunteer soldiers and mercenaries trying out the toys dreamed up and manufactured by the Industrial part of the Military/Industrial Complex, and financed by the other half of that complex, the Pentagon's so-called Defense Department; the label which redefines "euphemism".

One can only hope that investigative journalism like what Dana Priest and William Arkin of the Washington Post gave us last week, will arouse the ire of the American public enough to worry bought and paid for politicians that they could lose their jobs if the public were to get on a roll.

That's not likely unless we institute a military draft like we had during the Vietnam War. Then the entire populace became worked up by the reality that families were being torn up by the dead and the disabled against their will.

Today, the Neocons, the Cosa Nostra of our Military/Industrial Complex, would use their vast lobbying money to buy off politicians who might be inclined to vote for a draft, because they don't want to wake that sleeping dog which is the American voter.

There ought to be a sign over the entrance to the Capitol Building in D.C., like that over the entrance to Hell. "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

Still, hope springs eternal.

Leanderthal
Surviving Member of a Homo
Sapien species long assumed
to be extinct.

Where Are The Adults? Here Are Three

There are at least three adults to call a spade a spade in their exposure of Neocon fantasies, one of which is that we can and should "change the world".

William Pfaff, Robert Sheer and Eugene Washington can usually be counted on to speak the truth, loud and clear, when other pundits want to look away, plug their ears and try to pretend that those whose favor they curry are making sense and doing the right thing.

Here is a link to Truthdig.com where you will find the current essays of these truth seeking opinion journalists.

Leanderthal

Israeli Coverup

Here's a fine piece by Roger Cohen in a Times column today. It's heartening to read a Jew talking straight about Israeli coverups of anything potentially damaging to its reputation.

Leanderthal

Shedding Light on Sherrod

Bob Herbert here writes what needed to be said about what the White House didn't do for Shirley Sherrod, and what the bigots did to her. It speaks for itself.

Leanderthal