Dec 7, 2009
U.S. Not Prepared for Casualties from Troop Buildup
Escalations are such a pain.
By David Goldstein McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration ramps up the war in Afghanistan, veterans advocates say the government must develop a better plan to handle the wounded when they come home. ...
"We're pleased the president made a symbolic gesture, but where is the plan?" said Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a nonpartisan advocacy group. "What is the military doing to monitor casualties so the VA knows what to expect?"
Dec 5, 2009
Tom and Tommy?
The Wisconsin gubernatorial race is wide open, even though the reported Obama backing of Tom Barrett led the heroic Democrat to throw his hat in the ring against two heavyweight Republican contenders.
A Tommy Thompson supporter this weekend described Thompson as a "tremendous bundle of energy," having what appears as a personal inclination to run for governor in 2010. But no official decision is expected until after the holidays and a personal inclination is but one factor among many.
There is growing GOP-muckity-muck sentiment to push aside Mark Neumann [in favor of whom?], a short-sighted move that may not sit well with a guy with razor-sharp, multi-appendaged elbows.
One GOP-leaning blogger in favor of moving out Neumann tries lamely to belittle him for not having finely-tuned field and press operations, as if money and ideology were not the consummate political organization.
Anyway, Thompson and Tom Barrett both culturally fit Wisconsin as does Neumann to a lesser extent.
But will Thompson get in after declared GOP candidate Scott Walker has invested nearly two years in running?
That Tommy is considering a run and is being repeatedly urged is revealing that politicos believe that the too-slick-by-half Walker [an admiring John Nichols calls him the Wisconsin William Buckley] and the ideological Neumann would not fare well against the affable Milwaukee mayor who looks like he belongs in Fondy or Superior downing beers as much as smacking punks in Milwaukee.
See also: One-term Tommy Thompson in 2010 Has Appeal.
A Tommy Thompson supporter this weekend described Thompson as a "tremendous bundle of energy," having what appears as a personal inclination to run for governor in 2010. But no official decision is expected until after the holidays and a personal inclination is but one factor among many.
There is growing GOP-muckity-muck sentiment to push aside Mark Neumann [in favor of whom?], a short-sighted move that may not sit well with a guy with razor-sharp, multi-appendaged elbows.
One GOP-leaning blogger in favor of moving out Neumann tries lamely to belittle him for not having finely-tuned field and press operations, as if money and ideology were not the consummate political organization.
Anyway, Thompson and Tom Barrett both culturally fit Wisconsin as does Neumann to a lesser extent.
But will Thompson get in after declared GOP candidate Scott Walker has invested nearly two years in running?
That Tommy is considering a run and is being repeatedly urged is revealing that politicos believe that the too-slick-by-half Walker [an admiring John Nichols calls him the Wisconsin William Buckley] and the ideological Neumann would not fare well against the affable Milwaukee mayor who looks like he belongs in Fondy or Superior downing beers as much as smacking punks in Milwaukee.
See also: One-term Tommy Thompson in 2010 Has Appeal.
Dec 4, 2009
Obama Appears Serious Attacking Mental Health Crisis
Joining the critics of the Afghan escalation, I do wish to point out one irony: President Obama appears serious in attacking the mental health crisis of veterans.
It's no great surprise to learn that training young adults to kill and put themselves in the line of fire tends to lead to psychological complications later in life, though you would get an argument from Dr. Sally Satel, resident scholar of the American Enterprise Institute and Dick Cheney.
But Obama is earnest in turning around the Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) that has earned the wrath of veterans for decades. Under Bush-Cheney, the DVA went from indifferent to hostile in the face of 25-million American veterans and many for whom supporting veterans mean slapping a flag on their car. But medical care and disability benefits? Damn leebrals.
"We have to understand that for far too many troops and their families, the war doesn't end when they come home. Just the other day our own government's top psychiatric researcher said that because of inadequate mental health care, the number of suicides among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan may actually exceed the number of combat deaths. Think about that.
Think about how only half of the returning soldiers with PTSD receive the treatment they need. Think of how many we turn away - of how many we let fall through the cracks. We have to do better than this."
- President Obama, April 2008
"[I]t's also very likely that some of the veteran baby boomers who have filed claims in recent years did so not out of medical need but out of a desire for financial security ... [T]he rush of applications for long-term disability entitlements reflects the extent to which the culture of the DVA since Vietnam has become fixated on PTSD."
- Dr. Sally Satel, American Enterprise Institute, March 1, 2006
As a young U.S. Senator Obama affirmed in 2005 that veterans suffer decades later and deserve a vastly improved service from the DVA. Dr. Satel, the neocons' psychiatrist-in-chief, advocates that most Vietnam veterans cannot still have PTSD problems from the Vietnam War, a position shared by DVA Director of Compensation and Pension Services, Renee L. Szybala, during the Bush years.
This difference of opinion and commitment is the one reason veterans' advocates maintain hope for a change in direction at the DVA that Obama needs to cleanse of neocons and embedded political-minded civil servants. To sum up the attitude among veterans advocates towards the Bush-Cheney-neocon DVA, I cite the words of one veterans' attorney: "Fuck Sally Satel and fuck Dick Cheney." Linked is a piece in Veterans Today with text from Jason Leopold and Mary Susan Littlepage's report on the Obama administration and its work on changing the DVA.
It's no great surprise to learn that training young adults to kill and put themselves in the line of fire tends to lead to psychological complications later in life, though you would get an argument from Dr. Sally Satel, resident scholar of the American Enterprise Institute and Dick Cheney.
But Obama is earnest in turning around the Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) that has earned the wrath of veterans for decades. Under Bush-Cheney, the DVA went from indifferent to hostile in the face of 25-million American veterans and many for whom supporting veterans mean slapping a flag on their car. But medical care and disability benefits? Damn leebrals.
"We have to understand that for far too many troops and their families, the war doesn't end when they come home. Just the other day our own government's top psychiatric researcher said that because of inadequate mental health care, the number of suicides among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan may actually exceed the number of combat deaths. Think about that.
Think about how only half of the returning soldiers with PTSD receive the treatment they need. Think of how many we turn away - of how many we let fall through the cracks. We have to do better than this."
- President Obama, April 2008
"[I]t's also very likely that some of the veteran baby boomers who have filed claims in recent years did so not out of medical need but out of a desire for financial security ... [T]he rush of applications for long-term disability entitlements reflects the extent to which the culture of the DVA since Vietnam has become fixated on PTSD."
- Dr. Sally Satel, American Enterprise Institute, March 1, 2006
As a young U.S. Senator Obama affirmed in 2005 that veterans suffer decades later and deserve a vastly improved service from the DVA. Dr. Satel, the neocons' psychiatrist-in-chief, advocates that most Vietnam veterans cannot still have PTSD problems from the Vietnam War, a position shared by DVA Director of Compensation and Pension Services, Renee L. Szybala, during the Bush years.
This difference of opinion and commitment is the one reason veterans' advocates maintain hope for a change in direction at the DVA that Obama needs to cleanse of neocons and embedded political-minded civil servants. To sum up the attitude among veterans advocates towards the Bush-Cheney-neocon DVA, I cite the words of one veterans' attorney: "Fuck Sally Satel and fuck Dick Cheney." Linked is a piece in Veterans Today with text from Jason Leopold and Mary Susan Littlepage's report on the Obama administration and its work on changing the DVA.
Chicago Trib Has Killer Series on Agent Orange
Tribune Watchdog Report on Agent Orange
Memories of the Vietnam War are dimming, but veterans and Vietnamese nationals who were exposed to Agent Orange and other dioxin-laced defoliants are still experiencing devastating health effects, and birth defects have brought the impact into a second generation. Yet the U.S. government has yet to make full amends, either in the U.S. or overseas. To report this series, the Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen civilians and former soldiers in Vietnam as well as researching thousands of pages of documents and traveling to the homes of veterans in the U.S.
Afghan Escalation Not Playing
Ben Masel says:
Q:What's the difference between Vietnam and Afghanistan?
A: Agent Orange doesn't work on rocks.
Is there a clamoring for escalating the war from the American people? From the veterans' community? The only people who want this are the neocons, some of the military brass, neoliberals and Republicans. It will be interesting to see if popular opinion is still worth a damn is this country.
Q:What's the difference between Vietnam and Afghanistan?
A: Agent Orange doesn't work on rocks.
Is there a clamoring for escalating the war from the American people? From the veterans' community? The only people who want this are the neocons, some of the military brass, neoliberals and Republicans. It will be interesting to see if popular opinion is still worth a damn is this country.
Dec 3, 2009
War Is Not Over, Even If We Want It
Happy X-mas (War Is Over) - John LennonVictory at Last: Monty Python in Afghanistan - by Tom Engelhardt
MoveOn Petition - "Congress must push the Obama administration to outline firm benchmarks and a binding timeline to bring all of our troops home from Afghanistan as soon as possible."
Let's hope it's a good war, without any fear.
George Will Mostly Correct in Afghan Column
George Will in the Post:
Obama is waging preventive war in Afghanistan to prevent it from again becoming 'a staging platform for terrorists,' which Somalia, Yemen or other sovereignty near-vacuums also could become. To prevent the 'staging platform' scenario, U.S. forces might have to be engaged in Afghanistan for decades before its government can prevent that by itself.
Before Tuesday, the administration had said (through White House spokesman Robert Gibbs) that U.S. forces will not be there 'another eight or nine years.' Tuesday, the Taliban heard a distant U.S. trumpet sounding withdrawal beginning in 19 months. Also hearing it were Afghans who must decide whether to bet their lives on the Americans, who will begin striking their tents in July 2011, or on the Taliban, who are not going home, because they are at home. ...
The president's party will not support his new policy, his budget will not accommodate it, our overstretched and worn-down military will be hard-pressed to execute it, and Americans' patience will not be commensurate with Afghanistan's limitless demands for it. This will not end well.
Dec 2, 2009
Progressives Shun Afghan Escalation Address
Just received my daily Smirking Chimp e-mail and the reviews are not good for President Obama's announced escalation. And I wonder if the Afghans were consulted. A sample:William Rivers Pitt President Barack Obama delivered the best speech George W. Bush ever gave in his life On Tuesday night, President Barack Obama delivered the best speech George W. Bush ever gave in his life. Mr. Bush, if he was watching, would have recognized virtually every facet of Obama's speech, for it was the Bush administration that hammered out the template used by Mr. Obama to deliver the news that he is doubling down on the war in Afghanistan ...
Mike Whitney Worse Than Bush George Bush never pretended to be something he wasn't. The same cannot be said for Barack Obama. Obama exploited the persona of a reformer to the maximum extent. And it worked. He rode into the White House on a wave of public enthusiasm. As soon as he was sworn in, he kicked the left to the curb, expanded the GWOT, and reinforced the regressive policies of ...
David Sirota Some Simple Questions After Obama's Afghanistan War Speech Just a few quick questions to ponder after President Obama's speech announcing a massive escalation in Afghanistan - the very first being shouldn't we be able to honestly answer these queries before mindlessly cheering on a deployment of more troops to a Central Asian war zone? Here they are in no particular order: - What percentage of those kids in ...
Robert Scheer Here We Go Again It is already a 30-year war begun by one Democratic president, and thanks to the political opportunism of the current commander in chief the Afghanistan war is still without end or logical purpose. President Barack Obama's own top national security adviser has stated that there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida members in Afghanistan and ...
Doug Giebel Obama: Sold Out "Suspicion is spreading that Obama has lost some of the character that made him special; that he has taken on the ways of this town, thinking in conventional terms dictated by a brain trust and self-serving, entrenched Washington interests that make this city go 'round." --Colbert King, The Washington Post (Nov. 28, 2009). Colby King's cogent observation ...
Mary Shaw More war but still no jobs It sounds as though President Obama plans to keep us in Afghanistan through most, if not all, of his first term. Is he gambling with his own political future even as he is gambling with our tax dollars and -- more importantly -- our soldiers' lives? In his December 1st address to the nation from the West Point Military Academy, Obama shared his plans to ...
Jayne Lyn Stahl Afghanistan: the Sisyphus War As Albert Camus once said, "The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor." After tonight's speech, there can be little doubt that Afghanistan will be ...
And so on.
The Afghan Rag
A few years' more; this is floating around the net.
THE AFGHAN RAG
Yo, wake up texters, listen in,
Uncle Sam's after more boogeymen;
Dubya left Barack in a terrible jam
Way over in Afghanistan.
So put down your iPhone and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.
Well come on, McChrystal, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta kill all those towel heads —
Though Muslims ain't who we should dread.
Our robber barons, they're the ones
Who blew the Towers to kingdom come.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.
Huh!
Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Since 9-1-1, it's go-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
Supplying both sides with the tools of the trade.
Just hope if they grab a Pakistani bomb,
They drop it on Dick Cheney's lawn.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.
Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Send your child to Afghanistan.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your kid come home in a box.
And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.
--with apologies to Country Joe MacDonald
( http://www.countryjoe.com/feelmus.htm )
THE AFGHAN RAG
Yo, wake up texters, listen in,
Uncle Sam's after more boogeymen;
Dubya left Barack in a terrible jam
Way over in Afghanistan.
So put down your iPhone and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.
Well come on, McChrystal, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta kill all those towel heads —
Though Muslims ain't who we should dread.
Our robber barons, they're the ones
Who blew the Towers to kingdom come.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.
Huh!
Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Since 9-1-1, it's go-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
Supplying both sides with the tools of the trade.
Just hope if they grab a Pakistani bomb,
They drop it on Dick Cheney's lawn.
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.
Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Send your child to Afghanistan.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your kid come home in a box.
And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.
--with apologies to Country Joe MacDonald
( http://www.countryjoe.com/feelmus.htm )
Close Last Night
At least the world was not presented with a swaggering, you-will-feel-American-justice jackass last night.
One does get the distinct impression that President Obama listens, and actually cares about the concerns citizens are wont to feel about war. Obama seems earnest when he says he does not make these decisions "lightly."
Bottom line though: War is hell, and we should in the words of one writer take the off-ramp.
One does get the distinct impression that President Obama listens, and actually cares about the concerns citizens are wont to feel about war. Obama seems earnest when he says he does not make these decisions "lightly."
Bottom line though: War is hell, and we should in the words of one writer take the off-ramp.
Dec 1, 2009
Deceitful Dick Cheney
Laudable journalism demands that when quoting a source reporters should determine first if the source has an ax to grind; does he have a history of honestly commenting on a topic; is he authoritative; in short is he credible? Dick Cheney is obviously not credible. He is a proven, systematic liar.
And yet he is playing the press who uncritically repeat his criticism of President Obama on Afghanistan. Cheney does not hit the merits of Obama’s policy, but rather wishes to politically define the Obama brand as weak, indecisive and so on.
Any mention of Cheney ought to include the very recent history that he and Bush presided over the most demonstrably dishonest, destructive eight years in modern American history that will take several years to repair. Seeking the opinion of Dick Cheney on foreign affairs is like asking a rapist his opinion on reproductive rights.
And yet he is playing the press who uncritically repeat his criticism of President Obama on Afghanistan. Cheney does not hit the merits of Obama’s policy, but rather wishes to politically define the Obama brand as weak, indecisive and so on.
Any mention of Cheney ought to include the very recent history that he and Bush presided over the most demonstrably dishonest, destructive eight years in modern American history that will take several years to repair. Seeking the opinion of Dick Cheney on foreign affairs is like asking a rapist his opinion on reproductive rights.
Afghan Escalation Panned
Bob Herbert - "I suppose we’ll never learn. President Obama will go on TV Tuesday night to announce that he plans to send tens of thousands of additional American troops to Afghanistan to fight in a war that has lasted most of the decade and has long since failed."
Michael Moore - "With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so."
Noam Chomsky (BBC audio) - "It's one of the most immoral acts in modern history."
Norman Solomon - "But 'eventually' [winding the war down] is a long way off. In the meantime, the result of Washington's hollow politics is more carnage."
Robert Perry - "In April, Obama further locked in the escalation by allowing Gates to fire Gen. David McKiernan, as commander in Afghanistan, and replace him with McChrystal, a Petraeus favorite who had led the ruthless 'war on terror' special operations under Bush. McKiernan was regarded as insufficiently aggressive and supposedly lacking the charisma and press savvy of Petraeus and McChrystal. While Obama basked in some praise from neoconservative editorialists for these national security personnel selections – and for dispatching about 20,000 more troops to Afghanistan in the spring – the President was outflanking himself. That is, assuming he really had any serious notion of pursuing a more diplomatic and less militaristic approach to Afghanistan."
Michael Moore - "With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so."
Noam Chomsky (BBC audio) - "It's one of the most immoral acts in modern history."
Norman Solomon - "But 'eventually' [winding the war down] is a long way off. In the meantime, the result of Washington's hollow politics is more carnage."
Robert Perry - "In April, Obama further locked in the escalation by allowing Gates to fire Gen. David McKiernan, as commander in Afghanistan, and replace him with McChrystal, a Petraeus favorite who had led the ruthless 'war on terror' special operations under Bush. McKiernan was regarded as insufficiently aggressive and supposedly lacking the charisma and press savvy of Petraeus and McChrystal. While Obama basked in some praise from neoconservative editorialists for these national security personnel selections – and for dispatching about 20,000 more troops to Afghanistan in the spring – the President was outflanking himself. That is, assuming he really had any serious notion of pursuing a more diplomatic and less militaristic approach to Afghanistan."
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