Monthly Archives: May 2009

Clinton Cops To ‘Collateral Damage’

Bush, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Neoconservatism, Propaganda, The Military

Under Bush and his backers (who have NO claim to the tea-party movement), it was verboten to mention that nation-building or democracy-spreading—whatever the term du jour to describe America’s assorted missions and monster slaying—costs the people upon whom these “blessings” are visited.

Bush backers in the media became indignant—still do—whenever it was suggested that America’s bravest inadvertently, and unintentionally, killed scores of innocent civilians.

Today, after one of those expeditions that resulted in “collateral damage,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that “Washington ‘deeply, deeply’ regrets the death of Afghan civilians killed by an air strike.”

But what are you going to do about it, Madam? Why not terminate the “mission” to Afghanistan?

That “mission” I summed-up in “A War He Can Call His Own“:

Nations building is Democrat for spreading democracy. Spreading democracy is Republican for nation building. These interchangeable concepts stand for an open-ended military presence with all the pitfalls that attach to Iraq.

Americans are currently training the Afghan army. As in Iraq, it’ll take years if not decades before the training wheels can be removed. The men of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions have made magnificent progress in pushing the Taliban back. But the gains are short-lived. The Taliban invariably regroup. Their stake in that country is simply greater than ours. Always will be. Then there are the costs and the casualties. When Special Forces target the Taliban, they frequently infringe on tribal territory instead. Civilians die. Tribal elders are enraged, and rightly so.

Nation building in that country also entails policing a corruption-riddled police force. Afghani officers of the law are “uniformed thieves.” They run the opium trade by which the impoverished Afghani farmers survive. Somewhere on the food chain sit the drug traffickers. We mediate between them and other crime bosses, or war lords, as they are known. When we supply impoverished farmers with basic supplies, the Taliban first fleece these long-suffering folks and then punish them for collaborating with the Americans. By swooping down to save the locals from the Taliban we cripple them with kindness and deepen their dependency.

Another of the contradictions of occupation: The Pashtun population we patronize happens to disdain the central government we hope to strengthen. So it goes: We help local groups we believe to be patriots but, at the same time, end up establishing an authoritarian protectorate. Pakistan anyone?

Updated: Israelis To Sue NATO For 1999 Air Strikes On Serbia

Europe, Foreign Policy, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Justice, Political Philosophy, War

What a great move, from the only people to have stood by my homeland, South Africa. The tactic taken by the Israelis is aggressive. It accomplishes two things: It makes it a little harder for the hypocrites who monopolize the discourse on justice to get away with murder. It achieves a measure of justice by calling a crime a crime. An added bonus it that an Israeli outfit here is actually bucking American foreign policy.

I can almost sense the bitterness in this BBC News report (sent by john peter maher):

“The Israeli Almagor Terrorist Victims’ Association is about to file a lawsuit against NATO officials who gave the green light for the bombing of Serbia in 1999.

The association elected to take the move in response to the decision by Judge Fernando Andreu of the Spanish Audencia Nacional (National Court) to launch an investigation into Israel’s bombing of Gaza in 2002, when one Hamas leader was killed and 14 people were wounded.

In the suit, Almagor cites the names of a number of high-profile Spaniards, including EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, who was NATO secretary general from 1995 to 1999, as well as the names of certain officials from other European countries and the United States.

Almagor Director Meir Indor told the media in Israel that the lawsuit would be completed shortly.

He confirmed that the Serbian case might open a Pandora’s Box, which could make certain individuals think twice before deciding to accept any lawsuits that the Palestinians filed against Israel.

‘We see this as a case highlighting the double standards of Europeans who are accusing Israel of war crimes, while at the same time, those very same countries, as part of NATO, committed crimes that were a lot worse,’ Indor said.

He stressed that every European NATO member-state would be mentioned and that the suit would be filed in every country that decided to file similar actions against Israel for war crimes recently committed either in the aforesaid case, or, more recently, during the Israeli offensive in Gaza at the turn of the year.

‘Even now Israeli Army generals cannot travel to the UK for fear of being arrested the moment they set foot in the airport,’ said the Almagor president.

The organization’s delegate in Serbia was, he said, a certain Mr. D., an Israeli businessman who was caught in the crossfire when the air strikes began, and who works in Serbia to this day.

Serbian citizens have welcomed the news that Almagor has launched their case, says Mr. D.

Almagor purports to being a humanitarian organization that represents the victims of global terror, not only in Israel, and is endeavoring to obtain authorization from Serbian victims of the bombing to present their case.”

Update: In response to the comment: Sure, this is a self-serving action on the part of the Israelis. Altruism is overrated–and, at times, wrong-headed. You serve others best by serving yourself first and foremost. Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand and all that stuff. Good stuff.

This is why I love this feisty move.

SCOTUS Legalizes ID Theft (While Gun Owner Is Nabbed)

Crime, Criminal Injustice, IMMIGRATION, Individual Rights, Justice, Law, The Courts, The State

The Supreme Court has “ruled in favor of an illegal alien convicted of using false social security numbers, reports BILL TUCKER for CNN’s Lou Dobbs.

“The court said an individual using a false identity cannot be charged unless prosecutors can prove that the individual knew in advance that the identity belonged to a real person. … Do you feel better knowing that it is now legal for an illegal alien to steal your identity if he or she doesn’t know it’s yours?”

“The courts ruled differently in the case of a Wisconsin gun owner, David Olofson remains in prison for something he didn’t know that his malfunctioning rifle would be classified as a machine gun by federal authorities.”

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: David Olofson will remain in the federal penitentiary where he’s been for 10 months. He must complete his 10 to 30 month sentence for illegally transferring a machine gun. Olofson lent his AR15 rifle to a neighbor to shoot on a target range, the semiautomatic gun fired a couple of multi-round bursts after firing hundreds of rounds of single shots.
Instead of simply seizing the gun or ordering its repair, Olofson was put on trial, convicted and given a jail sentence. The judge at his trial said he had shown he was ignoring the law and had considerable knowledge of machine guns. The seventh circuit court heard his appeal in January and now has affirmed his conviction. It’s a ruling that gun rights advocates call chilling.

DAVID KOPEL, INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE: The taking away if the Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco Firearms wants to enforce the gun laws against you with the utmost stringency the courts are not going to provide any protection.

TUCKER: Part of Olofson’s appeal rested on the argument that his gun malfunctioned, therefore it didn’t fit the definition of a machine gun, but the jury, following the judge’s instructions, convicted Olofson.

PROF. MICHAEL O’HEAR, MARQUETTE UNIV. LAW SCHOOL: There is a very high degree of deference to jury decisions.

TUCKER: The court did not accept Olofson’s argument that he did not know he had a machine gun.

“On the same day, the Supreme Court threw out an illegal immigrant’s conviction for identity theft saying the government had not proved that the man knew the documents he received were false.”

KRIS KOBACH, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: It is interesting that the two opinions come down on the same day. The Supreme Court said in the case of the immigration identity theft statute, knowingly means knowingly and you have to know you stole a specific person’s identity.

[SNIP]

As I’ve said, “I know I can always rely on America’s deracinated elites to elevate the interests of the enemy above those of the people. In other words, I trust the government’s untrustworthiness. When it comes to breaching the public’s interests, the government’s track record is better than good.”

Still, the American state takes treason to new heights.

BREAKING: China Cancels US Credit Card

China, Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation, Republicans

We’ve been saying this on BAB for quite sometime: China has been a good sport about bearing the brunt of the American debt. Now a Republican admits the same:

“Representative Mark Kirk, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and co-chair of a group of lawmakers promoting relations with Beijing, said China had ‘very legitimate’ concerns about its investments.”

“‘It would appear, quietly and with deference and politeness, that China has canceled America’s credit card,’ Kirk told the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American group.” By which he meant that “investors in China have sharply curtailed their purchases of bonds.” [My emphasis]

“The Republican lawmaker said that China was justified in concerns about returns from finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were bailed out by the US government due to the financial crisis.”

Yes, it takes a change of fortunes for Republicans to quit dissing the patient Asians for their democratic deficits, and begin to be thankful that they’ve continued to finance America’s non-stop spending and consumption.

I suspect that were Bush at the helm, republicans would be cussing and carrying on in their usual sinophobic manner.

The patient Asians took what we dished–the dissing, the spending, and the exported inflation.

No more.