Category Archives: Iraq

Update II: To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question)

Iraq, John McCain, Just War, Neoconservatism, Republicans, Terrorism, The Military

The excerpt is from this week’s column,“To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question),” now on Taki’s Magazine:

“…torturing the torture issue has thrown the country off-scent, to the great advantage of the puppet masters.

The torture kerfuffle is secondary to – and subsumed within – the broader category of an unjust war, waged by George Bush with Democratic assent. Talk about a bipartisan effort; a pox on both Houses!

You can make the case for harsh interrogation techniques in desperate, dire circumstances. But how on Earth do you justify lugging an army across the ocean to occupy a third-world country that is no danger to you and has not threatened you? You don’t, and you can’t.

Forgotten in the faff over “enhanced interrogation” tactics is the invasion of Iraq. Of this war crime, most Democrats are as guilty as Republicans. The torture fracas is like manna from heaven for both parties and their media lapdogs, who cannot be coaxed out of a coma.

Whether to bug Zubaydah’s cage or not: This is a limited, small, relatively safe distraction that allows complicit journalists, jurists, politicians and pointy heads to skirt the real issue – the need to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Kerry for invading Iraq.”

Read the complete column, “To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question).”

Update I (April 24): Some of you have asked about Abu Ghraib. The thesis of the column applies equally to the “GI JOE MEETS GI HO” episode. Get them all on the prosecution of an unjust and illegal war. Incidentally, it goes with out saying that a pox ought to be visited on both Houses—Congress and the Senate.

Update II (April 25): A note to the neoconservatives who frequent this site, and post their ill-formulated fulminations vis-a-vis the war on Iraq: That war is not going to be adjudicated again here, not ever. I chronicled the invasion of Iraq at great length, applying fact and every ounce of reason in my possession to repudiate and denounce that war crime. The case is closed! Neoconservative ideologues stand in the dock for aiding and abetting a war crime. The lazy neoconservative can read my archive on the topic. While I can imagine these ideologues urgently need to make peace with their maker, or consciences, for their role in a crime of such moral and material magnitude, they will not do so on my private property!

Update II: To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question)

Iraq, John McCain, Just War, Neoconservatism, Republicans, Terrorism, The Military

The excerpt is from this week’s column,“To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question),” now on Taki’s Magazine:

“…torturing the torture issue has thrown the country off-scent, to the great advantage of the puppet masters.

The torture kerfuffle is secondary to – and subsumed within – the broader category of an unjust war, waged by George Bush with Democratic assent. Talk about a bipartisan effort; a pox on both Houses!

You can make the case for harsh interrogation techniques in desperate, dire circumstances. But how on Earth do you justify lugging an army across the ocean to occupy a third-world country that is no danger to you and has not threatened you? You don’t, and you can’t.

Forgotten in the faff over “enhanced interrogation” tactics is the invasion of Iraq. Of this war crime, most Democrats are as guilty as Republicans. The torture fracas is like manna from heaven for both parties and their media lapdogs, who cannot be coaxed out of a coma.

Whether to bug Zubaydah’s cage or not: This is a limited, small, relatively safe distraction that allows complicit journalists, jurists, politicians and pointy heads to skirt the real issue – the need to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Kerry for invading Iraq.”

Read the complete column, “To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question).”

Update I (April 24): Some of you have asked about Abu Ghraib. The thesis of the column applies equally to the “GI JOE MEETS GI HO” episode. Get them all on the prosecution of an unjust and illegal war. Incidentally, it goes with out saying that a pox ought to be visited on both Houses—Congress and the Senate.

Update II (April 25): A note to the neoconservatives who frequent this site, and post their ill-formulated fulminations vis-a-vis the war on Iraq: That war is not going to be adjudicated again here, not ever. I chronicled the invasion of Iraq at great length, applying fact and every ounce of reason in my possession to repudiate and denounce that war crime. The case is closed! Neoconservative ideologues stand in the dock for aiding and abetting a war crime. The lazy neoconservative can read my archive on the topic. While I can imagine these ideologues urgently need to make peace with their maker, or consciences, for their role in a crime of such moral and material magnitude, they will not do so on my private property!

Torturing The 'Torture' Issue II

Democrats, Iraq, Law, Military, Morality, Neoconservatism, The Military, War

In the first installment to the ongoing saga of torture under Bush, I asked:

Ever wonder why the Democrats and their media lapdogs never shut-up about the issue of torture, when Bush’s decision to wage an unjust, illegal war ought to be the focus of their ire? The matter of torture is, after all, subsumed within the broader category of an unjust war. Moreover, one can make the case for torture in desperate, dire situations. (I’m not making the case, I’m saying that one can attempt to justify incidents of torture: you were not thinking clearly, you were desperate to avert another disaster, you wanted to save hostages; you worried you’d be blamed if you didn’t extract crucial information.) But how on earth do you justify lugging an army across the ocean to occupy a third-world country that is no danger to you and has not threatened you? You don’t, you can’t.

Democrats are nearly as culpable as Republicans on the matter of the war on Iraq. So they stick with their limited, safe mandate of torture. MSNBC’s Maddow and Olbermann, and their constitutional scholar, are thus careful to skirt the need to prosecute Bush and his bandits for invading Iraq. Instead, they stick to waterboarding.

The current torture kerfuffle was elicited by Obama’s release of CIA interrogation protocols.

(A note to the neoconservatives who stalk this site, and believe their ill-formulated fulminations vis-a-vis Iraq ought to be featured on my private property: The war against Iraq is not going to be adjudicated again on this site–not ever. That crime I chronicled at great length, applying fact and every ounce of reason in my possession to repudiate and denounce. The case is closed! The lazy neoconservative can read my archive on the topic. While I can imagine these ideologues urgently need to make peace with their makers or consciences for their role in a crime of such moral and material magnitude, they will not do so on my private property!)

Updated: Will Europe Resist The Voodoo Child’s Magic?

Barack Obama, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Iraq, Israel, Regulation, War

I’m still coming to grips with the reality of Europe being more fiscally prudent than the US. An American (who else?) think-tank head has framed the European opposition to Obama’s obscene deficit/bankruptcy/inflationary spending, with reference to “a certain backlash against the American economic model,” hubris I find difficult to parse. Such “vulgar Keynesianism” is not a model; it’s a crime!

I worry that Obama will work his magic on Merkel and the rest and convince them to adopt his voodoo economics. Then there really will be no place to run. A pied piper will have enticed the world over a cliff … (And I have family in Europe.)

Chancellor Angela Merkel, to her great credit, has said “Nein” to stimulus and bailouts. Disparagingly, American diplomats put it down to combined “profound German instinct against debt – and its accompanying inflation – with a widely held sentiment here that the US and Wall Street are to blame for creating the global crisis.”

Can’t argue with the Chancellor, can you?!

Obama departed today for London, in advance of the Group of 20 Summit there. Reports The Christian Science Monitor:

“The White House recently signaled it has all but given up hope that the leaders Obama meets this week will make major commitments along the lines the US would like to see – either in terms of big spending packages for the economy or of additional troops or resources for Afghanistan.”

“Obama is expected to encounter an adoring public but a deep skepticism – even resistance – among heads of state.” …

“How well Mr. Obama can parlay his personal popularity into convincing leadership is a key question hanging over his global coming-out party. With many leaders blaming the United States for planting the seeds of the first global recession since World War II, America’s ability to continue as the world’s unrivaled power, whether in economic or other matters, is likely to be an undercurrent of meetings with the G-20 leaders, NATO, and in bilateral meetings with his counterparts.”

[SNIP]

As to “A War He Can Call His Own”; that’s old. Obama has always wanted to “maintain a meaty presence in Afghanistan, and “may even be conjuring up new monsters and new missions” we don’t know of yet. Europeans don’t like that; Demopublican globalists stateside do.

Update (April 1): Naturally, realize we must that, while Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel must be lauded for not wishing to take their respective countries down the road to ruin Obama has set us upon; the two European leaders are still only half as bad as Obama.

Both are working from the premise that unbridled capitalism, the system that has almost never been tried—the Unknown Ideal in Ayn Rand’s words—is the culprit in the meltdown.

The man who married a bimbo said he aims “to give capitalism a conscience, because capitalism has lost its conscience.” “This is a historic and unique opportunity to build a new world,” he added.

Brother Obama is down with that fallacy. So while Europeans will not heed him in as much as spending goes, they will find common grounds “on tax havens, hedge fund regulation, banking transparency and a worldwide cap on bankers’ pay.”

However crippling to capital markets and to financial freedom these and other draconian measure agreed upon in Europe will be—they do not rival the damage of bankruptcy.

Thanks to The Leader the American people elected, here in the US, we’ll be the beneficiaries of a double dose of poison: international regulation, with its attendant implications for national sovereignty, and bankruptcy.

Joy!

Note: Obama is hip to the fact that “United States was unlikely to return to its role as a ‘voracious consumer market.’” That much is true.