Obama's great good war

Start here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/18/AR2010111806856.html

"We've taken the gloves off, and it has had huge impact," one of the senior officials said.

Continue here: http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2010/11/murderous-us-government-explained.html

Uggh! She is repellent.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/clinton-calls-leaked-documents-attack-world/

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic documents is an attack not only on the United States but also the international community.

The Awesomeness that is Obama's Iraq Plan!

Goodness, I wanna stop posting about Israel!

Chris Floyd quotes Uri Avnery:

Immediately after the incident became known throughout the world, the army “revealed” that Hamas fighters had been firing mortars from near the school entrance. As proof they released an aerial photo which indeed showed the school and the mortar. But within a short time the official army liar had to admit that the photo was more than a year old. In brief: a falsification.

Later the official liar claimed that “our soldiers were shot at from inside the school”. Barely a day passed before the army had to admit to UN personnel that that was a lie, too. Nobody had shot from inside the school, no Hamas fighters were inside the school, which was full of terrified refugees.

Required Reading: Israeli Immorality

Chris Floyd: Moloch's Altar: Child Sacrifice and the War on Terror

A Tiny Revolution: How Did Reality Get On My TV? ( w/ video )

From Glenn Greenwald:

• Both parties cheerlead still more loudly for Israel's war
• America then and now
• Bill Moyers on Israel/Gaza ( w/ video )

---

It is not a justification to say that Hamas, if possible, would kill all Israelis. It is not a justification that Jews have been persecuted throughout recorded history. It is not a justification to say that Hamas uses civilians as shields (especially in an urban setting).

Offended? There is no equivalence...

Is someone afraid in Sderot? Probably. Is the terror there equivalent to the terror in Gaza. Hardly. Pay attention:

A tower of white smoke rose from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun after another Israeli bombardment Monday morning, and a half-dozen Israelis, perched on a dusty hilltop, gazed at the scene like armchair military strategists.

Avi Pilchick took a long swig of Pepsi and propped a foot on the plastic patio chair he'd carried up the hillside to watch the fighting. "They are doing good," Pilchick, 20, said of Israeli forces battling Palestinian militants in Gaza, "but they can do more."

Somewhere in Beit Hanoun, Ashraf El-Masri's family cowered in their concrete tenement home, their neighborhood surrounded by Israeli soldiers. El-Masri said that five residents had been killed by Israeli shelling that morning, and the blasts had traumatized the youngest of his nine children into a terrified silence...

On the hilltop overlooking Beit Hanoun, Pilchick squinted into the sharp sunlight. He'd taken time off from his job at a foreign exchange bureau in Jerusalem and driven down to Sderot with a friend on Saturday, the day the ground operation opened...Sderot residents — some of them carrying binoculars — have gathered on the hilltop since the offensive began for a glimpse of the fighting...

In their darkened home in Beit Hanoun, Ashraf El-Masri's children were in utter distress. No one has stepped outside since Israeli ground forces entered the town Saturday night, and more Israeli shelling awakened them Monday morning, including a strike on a nearby mosque.

Israelis, sipping Pepsi, watch bombardment of Gaza town

This post is NSFW

To those who think Israel's current actions in Gaza are justified:

Fuck you.

Israel criticised after 'shocking' discovery of exhausted children

Four exhausted children have been discovered cowering in a house next to the bodies of their mothers by staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which today accused the Israeli military of "unacceptable" delays in allowing medics safe access to injured Gazans.

The Red Cross workers found the small children, who were so weak they could not stand, sheltering next to the bodies of their mothers in a house in Zeitoun, southeast of Gaza City. Another man was found alive, but again too weak to stand. At least 12 bodies were lying on mattresses.

First off the whole discussion is moot: Israel is not at all in danger of being wiped out.

So here is Wikipedia's page on the the current conflict in Gaza. Hmmm, I wonder why there was an increase in rocket attacks in November when before there were nearly none?



Could Israel have started the current conflict? Nah:



So read something.

And just in case you forgot: Fuck you.

Catching Up with Afghanistan

Chris Floyd

• Road to Perdition: Yet Another Atrocity in Afghanistan, More to Come

  No doubt the "NATO-led" investigation of the Helmland "incident" will find that yet another magnificent feat of arms has produced an unfortunate by-product: i.e, the corpses of at least 15 innocent children, including a six-month old baby. But as Seamus Milne points out in the Guardian, the mounting death toll of Afghan civilians is the result of deliberate policy, not "regrettable" accident or the mischance of war:

• The Wounded Shark: 'Good War' Lost, But the Imperial Project Goes On

  Don't tell Obama and McCain, but the war they are both counting on to make their bones as commander-in-chief -- the "good war" in Afghanistan, which both men have pledged to expand -- is already lost. Their joint strategy of pouring more troops, tanks, missiles and planes into the roaring fire -- not to mention their intention to spread the war into Pakistan -- will only lead to disaster.
  
  Who says so? America's biggest ally in the Afghan adventure: Great Britain. This week, two top figures in the British effort in Afghanistan -- Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, UK ambassador to Kabul, and Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the senior British military commander in Afghanistan -- both said that the war was "unwinnable," and that continuing the current level of military operations there, much less expanding it, was a strategy "doomed to fail."

Speaking of Michael

Now Michael Berube is a good guy. So I interpret him as such. I am sure he only wants to kill the bad guys (could not find something more recent via the great Google, sorry):

The anti-imperialist left correctly believes, for instance, that the American bombing of Kakrak in early July (a massive "intelligence failure" that killed about 50 Afghans attending a wedding party) was an atrocity; but it cannot admit that, on balance, the routing of the Taliban might have struck a blow, however ambiguous and poorly executed, for human freedom.

Now we could interpret him as being not too terribly worried about this bombing as it has "struck a blow ... for human freedom". But then so have each additional bombing since. But that would be wrong: Michael is a good guy and means well. I wish he would be a bit more charitable towards others though.

Here is what I have taken away from my reading of Chomsky, Zinn, et al:

War is almost always a net negative thing for everyone involved; and especially the innocent and those on whos behalf the war is being fought.

[ And of course it should be pointed out that we, eg. US, are the ones doing the deciding who the war is for: Particularly galling for the "anti-imperialists". ]

Finally this by Chris Floyd is required reading.

In Other News

 
When Settlers Attack (in Israel)

Nir Rosen reports from Majd al Anjar, where the rage of young men mixes with the sectarian fervour spilling over Iraq’s borders.

Memorial Monday Reading

Start with Winter Patriot's post, but follow the links within:

http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2008/05/yea-though-i-walk-through-valley-of.html

Chris Floyd on Bush in the Israeli Knesset:

http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1513/135/

On Bush's historical connection to Hitler and the Nazis:

http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/228/135/
http://clamormagazine.org/issues/14/feature3.php
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BUC20051102&articleId=1176

Updated:

Robert Perry at Consortiumnews:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/051808.html

War Made Easy

Get it.

Iran, the Downfall of America & More

Culled from various sites:

• Daniel Ellsberg: A Coup Has Occurred (consortiumnews.com)
• Iran Reformist Warns Democracy at Stake:

  One of Iran's top reform politicians said Wednesday that demonizing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — such as in this week's Columbia University forum — only strengthens hard-liners' hand as Iranians rally around their otherwise unpopular leader.

• Gates seeks $190 billion for wars: Any of that going to be used on Iran, hmm?!?
• Glenn Greenwald takes down Dianne Feinstein, but does he realize that she represents the core of the Democratic party?
  

Keeping up-to-date on Iran

I recommend these sites:

• Antiwar.com (good for news)
  
• Informed Comment Global Affairs (good for analysis)
  
• Arthur Silber (good for theory)
  

Indicators on the Road to War with Iran -- The Rumors

Then there are the rumors about impending war:

• BartCop's friend in the Navy
• Barnett R. Rubin's friend
  

Indicators on the Road to War with Iran

First, here is a previous post on the topic. Some links are repeated here.

But a summary so far:

• 7/11: Lieberman certainly wants to "confront" Iran. All of the Senate votes and agrees.
  
• 8/15: Branding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist: Iranian Unit to Be Labeled 'Terrorist'
  
• 8/28: Raw Story: "Study: US preparing 'massive' military attack against Iran"
  
• 8/28: Bush warns of "nuclear holocaust". More details here.
  

There are a number of CIA analysts and others who feel war to be imminent:

• Larry Johnson: Stopping the New War Before It Starts
  
• Robert Baer: Prelude to an Attack on Iran
• Ray McGovern: Do We Have The Courage To Stop War With Iran?

And, of course the neo-cons want it:

• John Bolton: hopes the bombs start falling on Iran real soon
• Michael Ledeen's new book: The Iranian Time Bomb