Bit of history for you. Major General Smedley Butler (1881–1940) was a U.S. Marine Corps officer known as the most decorated Marine in American history at the time of his death. He earned 16 medals (including two Medals of Honor) for separate acts of heroism. If you serve in the Corps, I am sure you […]
I am not so sure this war will last any longer than Trump and his dwarfs are in office. Once gone, someone will decide differently. I thought we gave up nation – building a decade or so back when! This not a place for the US to be except for an occasional cleanup in Aisle […]
The definition of insanity is making the same mistake over and expecting a different outcome. By that definition, the Trump coup in Venezuela is insane. Maduro was a corrupt and illegitimate ruler. And the same was true of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Bush deposed Saddam, freeing Iraq from one nightmare but plunging it into another. […]
I just finished reading “The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq” by Steve Coll. By the onset of the US invasion and military occupation, I was convinced that (a) Iraq had no WMDs or active WMD programs, and (b) there was no collusion between Saddam and al […]
Was the invasion of Iraq in 2003 a mistake based on false intelligence gathered post 9/11? Well for some that might be a reasonable excuse, say for the Senators who voted for the 2002 AUMF – the Authorization for the Use of Military Force against Iraq. Even they would have some things to explain and […]
Put that way it sounds silly. I mean isn’t ISIS simply IN various parts of Iraq and Syria and wouldn’t US involvement in something like an all out attack on ISIS mean intervening in any number of civil wars? Well that depends on how smart your lawyers are (and I am only kind of smart […]
Rolling Stone (via Reader Supported News) points us to an op-ed in Armed Forces Journal by Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis and the pdf at Rolling Stone. Earlier this week, the New York Times’ Scott Shane published a bombshell piece about Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis, a 17-year Army veteran recently returned from a second tour […]
If Obama’s first term is a different thing than GW’s third term, why is Obama’s Secretary of Defense telling US troops that that they’re in Iraq because the US was attacked on September 11?
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt A Modest Tax Proposal The GOP is all breathless about deficits, but this is the same GOP of Dubya Bush that fought a war in Iraq (unnecessary) and Afghanistan (overextended) funded entirely by debt. So, the following proposal. A 3% surtax on taxable incomes over $75,000 until the cost of […]
We actually appeared to have forgotten we are a nation “at war” if news reporting is any indication from a personal search, except for the DC centered coverage of Gen. McChrystal. Notice it was a music magazine that got the scoop, more power to them, not mainstream media. Here are some thoughts from Tomdispatch to […]