Ground Zero

I had read that during the late sixties and early 70's Afghanistan was, if not a "first world" country, actually fairly modernized and prosperous. Then the Soviets invaded, and we funded and supplied arms for a counter-insurgency. We provided training in guerrilla tactics, and poured in weapons and ammunition. The Soviets gave up and left. The Taliban became the defacto government. Then educational descendants of those we trained attacked us, here at home. Then we invaded Afghanistan. It's easy to forget that the Afghani people have effectively lived under a state of continuous war for over thirty years now. And it's freaking mind boggling to actually see the changes wrought by those thirty years.What Would Jack Do? On a related note...
Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr

Wasting Time on The Web

This is the kind of thing this label was meant for...

• Go to Google
• Type in elgoog
• Hit "I'm Feeling Lucky"
• Type in elgoog
• Hit "ykcuL gnileeF m'I"
• Repeat as desired

If that doesn't spin you around in circles, I don't know what will.

Followup: Also too, I was reminded of this: 7 years ago shrub declared victory in Iraq. At that time, if you just typed WMD into Google and hit "I'm feeling lucky," you'd get this page. Now you have to type in "404 weapons not found."

Cheney's Pride and Panic

Welcome to the brave new world.

Here's what the "CIA pros" did to prisoners (the non-CIA pros improvised the president's directive to torture and abuse prisoners in very similar ways): stress positions, nudity, hooding, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, long time standing, beatings, hypothermia, and walling. They key thing, according to the CIA, is to enhance "the potential dread a high-value detainee might have of US custody." Notice the shift from the standards of the past. In the past, the US was known for being a country whose soldiers would never mistreat prisoners; now, the US wants the world to know that US custody is something to be dreaded. That's what Cheney did to America. He's proud of it. If you are ever captured by a US soldier, and suspected of terrorism, you know that torture will be coming soon. The values of Washington and Eisenhower and Reagan are inverted. The reputation of the US as a defender of human rights is reversed. The point is that America must be feared for its willingness to abandon all human rights.

I remarked to a friend recently that all of us were sad and scared after 9/11; I know I made a number of not-very-rational comments. I was also certain, within minutes of hearing about the events, that Al Quaida was responsible; Iraq never crossed my mind. The whole piece linked above is worth reading... of particular note are the passages dealing with prisoners being forced to lie in their own excrement.

Which leads to the point I want to tack on here. Within a week or two after 9/11, as the fear and fury receded, and a touch of rationality returned, I supported the invasion of Afghanistan. I still feel it was necessary, I just wish we'd had some sane leadership. Because Bush, and particularly Cheney, never did get over that bone-chilling, stomach-clenching terror. I guess Cheney felt if he was going to spend nearly eight years crapping in his britches, that'd be fine for the prisoners too. He wasn't strong, his policies weren't determined, the results didn't improve American standing and safety. His reaction was that of a panicked four-year-old, running around screaming and hitting, and fouling his underwear.

The outcome was pretty similar too, but on a global scale. The main difference is that a panicky four-year-old gets over it in a few minutes. Cheney never has.

Bush's Personal Military Force

EB Misfit found the Olbermann video from last night's "Countdown," featuring an interview with Jeremy Scahill, who broke the Blackwater story yesterday. Blackwater is known as "Xe" now.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A number of bloggers this morning have noted that this revelation should be no surprise to those who have followed the Blackwater/Xe stories. I guess I haven't followed them closely enough.

One Toke Over the Line

Okay, this has been a busy news day here at my favorite coffee shop. I have found plenty of amazing and amusing and hopeful and disappointing things to read and ponder today. Sometimes days like that happen. I can never predict when, but I can predict they will. But I have to stop right this minute and ask "What the hell have people been spiking my drinks with?" because this is effing insane! From The Nation via Balloon Juice:

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.

Jesus, if this turns out to be true, I can't even begin to imagine the fallout and ramifications. To begin with, I imagine Iraq will declare war on us...

Smoking Guns Causes Fiscal Cancer

From Oregon Live. So don't start smoking guns. And if you do smoke guns, quit.

A Mercenary by Any Other Name...

...would still smell.

moar funny pictures
I can't bring myself to tag this with "humor."

Followup: I realized that not everyone might have picked up this news bit yet- if the above makes no sense, read this.

And We Get Their Leftovers...

as the dishes slowly turn green and mouldy over the next year or few.
From Oregon Live

Is it torture? Yes.

This is Surreal. Christopher Hitchens, a pro-Iraq war pundit, gets waterboarded... to the tune of some smooth synth-pop music that sounds like Enigma. I don't generally find two things in the Alternet newsletter that I want to address on a single day, but this is 1) not what I pictured, 2) completely riveting, and 3) just so wrong. Especially when you hear Hitchens describe the lingering psychological after-effects. After just a few seconds of "enhanced interrogation."

How Neoconservatives Think

(Click to enlarge)

From Tom the Dancing Bug, via A Tiny Revolution

Supporting our Troops

To show his support for our troops, Shrub gave up... golf. This is all over the blogs today; the pic came from Crooks and Liars, in this post. “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them.” Implying that really, he spends most of his day grimly contemplating the consequences of his Mesopotamian adventure.

First, if he's really worried about what the bereaved see, he should lock himself into Cheney's man-sized safe until next January so no one has to look at his smirking mug. Most of this county is saddened and ashamed by the consequences of our actions. This is incomparable to the grief of those who've lost loved ones, but most of us are grieving over Iraq.

Second, this is the hypocritical bastard who is so supportive of our troops that he threatened to veto a 195 billion dollar bill to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan in part because it included a billion dollars to fund education benefits for returning vets. Support our troops. Magnetic ribbons, not money.

Finally, link over to the Crooks and Liars post above and see the explanation he gave when he actually quit playing in 2003... and the probable actual reason he quit. Here's another good commentary from Badtux the Snarky Penguin.