Introduction

I lived in Звёздный Городок for about a year, so I think I can kinda understand where the Russians are coming from in their current political actions.

I am not agreeing with what they are doing, nor am I stating that I think they are following a good plan; rather, I am seeking to inform you what the Russians are likely thinking, why they are likely doing what they are doing, and what cultural misunderstandings between Russia and the US are occurring at the present.  To learn more, read across the jump.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to receive the news that your loved one has died while serving his country. But I imagine that it must be even more difficult when no one can tell you how it happened. That's the case with Staff Sgt. David L. Paquet, 26, of Rising Sun, Md., who died "of undetermined causes while conducting a patrol" near Combat Outpost Vegas, Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Aug. 20th.

If everyone could take a moment from the diaries regarding the DNC to read the following article in the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/...

There's one argument for Barack Obama's readiness to be commander-in-chief that Keith Obermann raised once or twice, but otherwise, I haven't heard a lot of, that I'd like to hear repeated, and OFTEN:

Has anyone else noticed, that the Bush administration is co-opting Barack Obama's foreign policy positions, and that this undercuts the Republicans' argument?

The story of the latest war crime in Afghanistan gets even more interesting:

The United Nations has accused the US-led forces in Afghanistan of killing civilians after a US airstrike killed some 90 people earlier.

The UN said in a statement on Tuesday that its investigators "found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, 15 women and 15 men" in the western province of Herat on Friday.

The UN said that "residents were able to confirm the number of casualties, including names, age and gender of the victims," AP reported.

Despite being the beneficiaries of America's Good War, which enjoys broad bipartisan support in the US, and despite being assured by both John McCain and Barack Obama, that their liberation will be escalated next year by about three American brigades, the Afghanis continue to bitch about civilian casualties this, repeated air strikes on villages that. Now Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is ungrateful both for his installation as puppet president and for the generous salary he received as an American oil company exec, is demanding a reevaluation of the status of foreign forces in his country, all because of some silly misunderstanding. While the Afghans aren't acting nearly as uppity as their ungrateful conterparts in Iraq, it is becoming clear that, once again, yet another backward country has failed to appreciate America's greatness and is now starting to reject the hand of generosity reached out to them by the Pentagon. It's the Dominican Republic all over again!

Feel free to read more insults to America after the flip.

John McCain has boasted that he knows how to win wars.  Since he has chosen to make his military prowess a central part of his campaign, it can be exposed for the empty, dangerous bluster that it is with one simple slogan.

The US Army killed about 90 children with a single airstrike in Afghanistan a few days ago, and in a world full of billions of people and trillion-dollar debts, 90 doesn't sound like a very big number.



 

The War on Terror.

Even the phrase itself is a grammatical affront.

The collection of policies, plans, and executed follies that the Neo Con think trust had assembled under this commercial brand are all relics from another era, one where a poorly read and frightened American public (and media I might add) was open to a little sloganeering and a lot of self defeating Shock & Awe. Good times.

But that was then and this is now. With a massive changing of the guard in the offing, do the Hopeful Democrats have what it takes to step into a new era of Geopolitical relations and end forever the chimera that was the War on Terror? Yes? Then there is only one way to accomplish that, and that is in pulling the troops out of Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Frontier Mullahs

A review of Frontier of Faith
Islam in the Indo-Afghan Borderland
By Sana Haroon
Hurst and Company, London, 2007, $34.95

The relevance of Pakistan and Afghanistan seems topical in consideration of  Senator Obama’s Plan for a much needed change in foreign policy toward both of these nations. Understanding the   borderland that affects both countries is difficult due to the characterizations made by both historical British India and their colonial policy successor, Pakistan.  In Frontier of Faith, Sana Haroon traces the role of the key figure in the Northwest Tribal Frontier Province (NWFP) (Map) , the mullah.

Let's count the lies amidst the war crimes.

The headline:

Afghan Leader Assails Airstrike He Says Killed 95

Well, he did say it. But the clear implication in the headline is that it's just his word, his allegation. The truth is actually contained in the second paragraph:

Government officials who traveled to the village of Azizabad in Herat Province on Saturday said the death toll had risen to 95 from 76.

So it wasn't Karzai who "says" that 95 people, including 50 children (!!), were killed, it's people who actually went to the site of the crime (which certainly did not include the "Mayor of Kabul").

Nothing wins those "hearts and minds" like fucking up the friendlies...

President Karzai today accused Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces of killing at least 89 civilians in an attack in the western province of Herat in what could be one of the worst cases of "collateral damage" in Afghanistan since 2001...

But an Afghan minister who visited the area put the civilian death toll at 90, a human rights group which also went to the scene estimated it at 78, and the Interior Ministry reported 76 non-combatants dead, including 50 children.

Link

Back a few years ago I went Absolutely Livid, have many many.................... times from the first beat of the War Drums, this time while watching the CBS 'Face the Nation' sunday show. While the blood had rushed to my head I waited, impatiently, for the transcript to come up on their site. When it finally did, I quickly copied and pasted it to an e-mail and sent it out, but that didn't quell the Absolute Rage. I wanted more who hadn't seen it to get as Pissed as myself so I tried thinking of online News outlets, some just coming into being, to further trying to get this report out to as many eyes and minds as possible, one was a fairly new outlet, the Huffington Post. A few hours later, to my surprise, and still Royally Pissed at what was reported, I receive an E from the Huffington Post that they were going to run with it, saw very little that day and ensuing days from the MSM about this incident as told by Senator Biden to Bob Schieffer.

Huffington posted it on June 20, 2005 at 10:11 PM {you gotta love google, I didn't keep the story, but a quick search and there it was}

  It's easy to get sucked into wondering about Obama's VP choice and figuring out how to exploit each of McCain's many gaffes.  These things DO matter, because the outcome of the election will have a significant impact on the world.  However. . .

 The Afghanistan interior Ministry is claiming that 76 civilians were killed by coalition forces in Afghanistan.  The article is here

 Not only is this another reminder of the violence we seem intent on perpetuating, but the terminology used by the Interior Ministry is very telling.  More after the fold

.... at least two or three or ten homes?

Does that mean that any veteran of WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Granada, Iraq (1), Afghanistan, Iraq (2) and all US military adventures since the beginning of the 20th Century, should have AT LEAST ONE HOME, Senator McCain?

Why do we have HOMELESS VETERANS, Senator McCain?

Why do we have homeless families, homeless children, homeless spouses of homeless veterans, Senator McCain?

You needed a second Coronado beach million dollar condominium so as not to be bothered by the influx of all your children, Senator McCain.

How about building one room apartments for the homeless children of our Veterans, Senator McCain?

The Department of Defense announced five casualties today: four in  Afghanistan and one in Iraq. So far, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, has claimed 578 American lives and according to the Iraq Casualty Count, there have been 4145 killed in Iraq. 109 were women.  

The DoD classifies deaths in combat as hostile or non-hostile.  There have been 18 casualties: 8 hostile and 10 non-hostile so far in August.  Families of the fallen often dispute the findings of non-hostile with the DoD and for good reason.  Vehicle accidents, electrocutions, domestic violence and suicides are some of those classified as non-hostile.  The reality is they served our country and died in a far away place. Their sacrifice is just as heroic and shall not be diminished or forgotten.  

  We Shall Keep the Faith  

      Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
      Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
      We caught the torch you threw
      And holding high, we keep the Faith
      With All who died.

      We cherish, too, the poppy red
      That grows on fields where valor led;
      It seems to signal to the skies
      That blood of heroes never dies,
      But lends a lustre to the red
      Of the flower that blooms above the dead
      In Flanders Fields.

      And now the Torch and Poppy Red
      We wear in honor of our dead.
      Fear not that ye have died for naught;
      We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
      In Flanders Fields.

   by Moina Michael, November 1918

Tonight we remember 3 Marines who were killed in Afghanistan.

The National Security Archive has just released a Load of Files Electronic Briefing Book No. 253 Posted - August 20, 2008 under the title: 1998 Missile Strikes on Bin Laden May Have Backfired with a subtitle: Extensive 1999 Report on Al-Qaeda Threat Released by U.S. Dept of Energy, Taliban Told U.S. They Wanted to Bomb Washington

With backlinks to the PDF's and more links in the sidebar on the left.