Category: Iraq

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

Some really great news, all be it, in the grand scheme of things not all that earth shaking but a win for an wounded Iraq veteran and her bomb sniffing dog, Sgt. Rex who will be reunited thanks to the efforts of New York Sen, Chuck Schumer and an animal loving blogosphere.

Wounded combat dog to rejoin Marine veteran

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday night that the Air Force has agreed to release Sgt. Rex into the care of former Cpl. Megan Leavey, of Rockland County, just north of New York City.

Leavey was injured with Rex in 2006 while trying to disarm an explosive. They convalesced together.

Rex is credited with saving lives and uncovering explosives that saved more.

Schumer had intervened when Leavey, a Purple Heart recipient, was first denied in her effort to adopt Rex in 2007. Rex had recovered with Leavey from their injuries, and Rex was returned to service.

Now Rex, a black and brown German Shepherd, is 10 years old and can’t continue his military service, but Schumer said bureaucracy still stood in the way of the adoption.

“We salute the Air Force and the Marines for doing the right thing and allowing Rex to be with Corporal Leavey,” Schumer said Monday night. “One canine, one human, both heroes. They should be united shortly, and we’re glad it’s happening.” [..]

Schumer, a Democrat, had sought to help Leavey cut through red tape to reunite the pair. He also started a national online petition to help persuade the Air Force to act quicker.

“It’s only appropriate and right that the two of them enjoy their retirement from the service together,” Schumer said. “I again want to thank the Air Force and Marines for moving so quickly, and I want to thank the thousands of New Yorkers and Americans who showed their support online.”

Leavey recently told MSNBC that Rex is her partner and she loves him.

“We have been through so much together,” she said. “… I’ve spent day and night with this dog. It’s a very strong bond.”

Thank you, especially. to our dear friend and blog partner, davidseth, who brought this to the attention of our readers at The Stars Hollow Gazette, Docudharma and Daily Kos, with his website, Dream Antilles.

Thank you to our dog loving friend, noweasels, at Daily Kos who had a recommended diary to get more signatures on the petition.

Thank you to Sen. Schumer, who has worked to petition the Department of Defense to reunite Cpl. Leavey and Sgt Rex.

And thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who signed the petition, sent an e-mail, recommended an article to reunite these two veterans.

My late, beloved dog, Mulder, would approve.

Watch  The Humanitarian War.    Curveball strikes again.  It’s the same damned playbook.

“Responsibility 2 Protect” is the witty handmaiden of imperial power, and it’s easy for liberals to text.

RU4 R2P?

Gaddafi got in the way of Empire!    Gaddafi wanted an African Union, independent banking.  We wanted AFRICOM (and light, sweet crude).  Bang, bang.  You’re dead.  “We came, we saw, he died.  Ha, ha.”  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, R2P is slick and sleazy.  Most liberals not only fell for it, they continue claiming bragging rights!  Don’t tell that to Obama supporters, unless you want to be labeled a purity troll and hear inept comparisons to taking out Dillinger.  That’s how these hypo-criticals roll.

When the media claimed Gaddafi was handing out boner pills so his soldiers could rape more effectively, you had to be an idiot not to still smell the bullshit from the Iraqi incubator story.

This is not a momentary lapse of reason, but simple alternation, resulting in a continuous lapse of reason: conduct wars that liberals like, then conduct wars conservatives like, and so on.   Vilification of the victims is “a cakewalk” with threshold public support.  

Now a majority of Americans want to go to war with Iran, if they try to get nukes, which I’m certain we will assure ourselves is true, despite any lack of evidence.  We have informants we trust in MEK.  Ask Howard Dean!  Yee-argh!

I’m looking forward to the shoot-out in the bathtub.  I’ve never seen modern, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers sink.  Besides, killing a million (more) Iranians, a massive land war in Asia, sky-rocketing oil prices, and some heavy duty military spending are just what we need to get this economy rolling (faster, downhill, backwards, with no brakes).

Maybe the commies have us in their mind rays, and are just paying us back for their collapse.  Nah, we’re just that stupid.

Update:

Libya is fucked up, just like Iraq.

First the list which was first revealed to General Wesley Clark in 1991 by neo-con Paul Wolfowitz. The seven countries which were to be invaded and blessed with regime change were Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, and the big prize, Iran with its wealth of resources and potential market of over 70 million persons.

This same plan was revealed again to General Clark during a visit to the Pentagon ten days after 9-11, the event that presented the neo-cons, and no doubt others behind the scenes, with their Pearl Harbor, their justification to proceed with the plan, somewhat conveniently.

Video is below. In the last minute of the video General Clark said that it was necessary to elect democrats to keep this from happening. This was in 2006.

I wonder what he is thinking now.

http://www.youtube.com/v/iuVVm…

apologies – I cannot get the embed code for this video to display properly.

Current status: Iraq – done; Libya – done; Lebanon – fail (2006); Syria – underway (more details in the video below); Somalia – underway; Sudan – planning stages??

Back to Syria. Please watch the video below from Sibel Edmonds of the Boiling Frogs blog.

It appears that Syria is in line for the next “humanitarian intervention” or whatever the policy elite choose to call it, having been planned and with military preparations having been underway for more than one year across the border in Turkey.

As Sibel Edmonds says in the video linked below – unable to embed and display properly – the corporate media, for whatever reasons, choose not to report on it. As General Clark said in the above linked video “if they can keep us from knowing the truth they think they can win.”

Link to Sibel’s video: http://www.youtube.com/v/XNzSm…

with a description of preparations now underway in bordering Turkey.

In the late 90’s I shared an office with a Chinese academic who, because of the fact he belonged to a family of scholars going back many generations, was put in a work-camp on the Mongolian border during the Cultural Revolution during most of his adolescence. This was not a happy experience for him and had left deep scars in him. But he still was a Chinese patriot and we would have friendly arguments about Chinese/American conflicts. He expressed doubts that the U.S. would respond to provocations or crises in any muscular way–he saw us as “soft.” I told him that should we ever be attacked the perpetrators would experience a storm of violence beyond their imagining.

I felt, in those days, an underlying sense of frustration and repressed violence that was a result of being the lone superpower in the world yet, we weren’t able to just assert our superiority and, so it appeared to us, not get the proper respect and deference we deserved. I sensed this in American culture. Here we were, the most successful people on earth and we had no national mission like we did when we “fought” and won the Cold War. Capitalism triumphant, prosperity, but what did it mean? Who are we? Why was the most important news story for months a blow job? Neo-conservative intellectuals did write that only a “a new Pearl Harbor” would bring the U.S. out of its lethargy. They made much of our moral decline and need for a unifying enterprise and I think they were right–they saw us as drifting into hedonism and triviality which we were then and still are doing only now much poorer because of the way we reacted to 9/11.

WAR TAX NOW, and call it that

Some of this I posted last night, under a different subject heading, I’m adding more to that with a change in the VVA press release link.

Add in vitter trying to block the VA budget in the Senate {below} and the tepubs are continuing their decades long obstruction of Veterans Issues while laying blame constantly on the VA and their supporters love that, including veterans among them!!

Since the 110th congress and with Gen. Shinseki in they’ve been trying to play catchup with What Wasn’t Done Nor Mentioned in the 108th and 9th while they rubber stamped two more wars of choice and with Still No Demand from the Country as to their own Sacrifice now over a decade, added to the previous decades!!

I’m sure though they still have a supply of those ‘purple heart bandages’ they so enjoyed, pointed directly at us in-country Navy personal, while sending those troops into these two conflicts!!

Add in vitter trying to block the VA budget in the Senate {below} and the tepubs are continuing their decades long obstruction of Veterans Issues while laying blame constantly on the VA and their supporters love that, including veterans among them!!

Since the 110th congress and with Gen. Shinseki in they’ve been trying to play catchup with What Wasn’t Done Nor Mentioned in the 108th and 9th while they rubber stamped two more wars of choice and with Still No Demand from the Country as to their own Sacrifice now over a decade, added to the previous decades!!

I’m sure though they still have a supply of those ‘purple heart bandages’ they so enjoyed, pointed directly at us in-country Navy personal, while sending those troops into these two conflicts!!

No New Taxes or Tax Loopholes Closed!!!

Those who brung us these two wars of choice and rubber stamped the cost for including no bid contracts, that’s their message!

Those who cheered on these wars of choice, teabaggers and more, that’s their message! As they still claim almighty patriotism with their flags, dress up history costumes, magnetic ribbons, flag lapel pins and the great time and laughter with their purple heart bandages as we were sending soldiers into two occupation theaters!

Their wealthy funders, who reaped huge wealth over the decade from these wars either directly or indirectly as well as from huge tax cuts, and the FOX no news 24/7 war drum pounding and cheer leaders of these wars of choice, that’s their message!

Their once #1 grifter riding during a solemn motorcycle procession, just the roar of the bikes, sitting on the back of one waving and smiling, like Memorial Day in Washington was a parade for her highness, that’s her message!  

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

One of the many things that PFC. Bradley Manning has been accused of is the release of the “Collateral Murder” video which depicted the indiscriminate murder of innocent civilians and two Reuters journalists by an Apache helicopter crew in a suburb of Baghdad. Now former soldiers who were members of the ground troops are coming forward and speaking out about the video, illegal orders and how the media is unfairly depicting Manning to to cover up war crimes. These brave men are calling Manning a hero if he is indeed the person who released that video.

One of the responses was a criticism of how Manning is being used to propagandized the war by journalists, specifically referencing a personal profile of Manning by Stephen Fishman in the New York magazine. The article written by former Army Specialist Ethan McCord, who served in Bravo Company 2-16, the ground troops involved in the “Collateral Murder” video, is published in its entirety by Glenn Greenwald. Here is just a little of what Spec. McCord wrote:

Serving with my unit 2nd battalion 16th infantry in New Baghdad Iraq, I vividly remember the moment in 2007, when our Battalion Commander walked into the room and announced our new rules of engagement:

“Listen up, new battalion SOP (standing operating procedure) from now on: Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every [expletive] in the street!”

We weren’t trained extensively to recognize an unlawful order, or how to report one. But many of us could not believe what we had just been told to do. Those of us who knew it was morally wrong struggled to figure out a way to avoid shooting innocent civilians, while also dodging repercussions from the non-commissioned officers who enforced the policy. In such situations, we determined to fire our weapons, but into rooftops or abandoned vehicles, giving the impression that we were following procedure.

snip

The video released by WikiLeaks belongs in the public record. Covering up this incident is a matter deserving of criminal inquiry. Whoever revealed it is an American hero in my book.

snip

Fishman removes politics from a story that has everything to do with politics. The important public issues wrapped up with PFC Manning’s case include: transparency in government; the Obama Administration’s unprecedented pursuit of whistle-blowers; accountability of government and military in shaping and carrying out foreign policy; war crimes revealed in the WikiLeaks documents; the catalyzing role these revelations played in democratic movements across the Middle East; and more.

Demonizing and discrediting those who expose the criminality and corruption is now the weapon of choice by journalists and the media that wish to be subservient to a corrupt government. As Greenwald said in his article:

Who needs White House fear-mongers, propagandists, plumbers and character assassins when so many in the establishment press compete so vigorously to perform those functions instead?

Manning is now being held at Ft. Leavenworth, KS after being subjected to months of conditions that amounted to torture in the brig at Quantico Marine Base. The U.N.’s top official on torture, Juan Mendez, announced last December that his office would formally investigate those conditions and has repeated requested private access to talk to Manning. He has been repeatedly refused permission by the Obama administration. Mendez is publicly accusing the Obama administration of violating U.N. rules. Considering the Obama administrations attack on whistle blowers and the continued refusal to prosecute the crimes they expose, they are very likely afraid of what Manning would say to Mendez.

The Young Men of The Old Guard of Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery’s Old Guard Carry A Heavy Burden



The Old Guard

And for my own long held thoughts on, Especially as related to Wars of Choice!

Not adding anything, no need, been saying for over a decade now and most folks just move on, “what on reality tv tonight”, without a thought unless something comes up about, like a speech about by the President, complain about and then wonder about things like “what’s that grifter from Alaska up to today”, hint: wanna know visit huff post.

And yes I do realize there are ‘Gold Star Children’ who have lost Mothers, especially in these two long conflicts, not minimizing the fact that many of the women soldiers killed were possibly Mothers as they all were Daughters, Sisters or Nieces and Aunts, the greater numbers killed still in war are male.

CBS sought out a message with meaning for Fathers Day, that aired June 17 2011, and I totally agree with the one they found which among many messages it should send ties our long war of choice, Vietnam where this Country said it would remember the lessons of, to both current wars of choice, Afghanistan and Iraq, lessons forgotten five minutes after Vietnam and so many DeJa-Vu’s of then repeated with many enhanced and coming on faster.