Day: May 13, 2016

IKE Knows Best

My last post of the day will be a little history (I can hear the sighs and see the eye rolls…..buck up….you will get over it)

I am always going on about the Military-Industrial Complex (M-IC)….basically it is the defense industry and all their contracts……and it has destroyed the fabric of our society….

I will admit that I did like Ike….while I am NO Republican or conservative by any stretch of the imagination there was something about Ike and his policies that I can appreciate.  I am not saying that I agreed with everything that he set about doing just there were some parts of his admin policies that I can appreciate.

But mostly I appreciate his warning about the M-IC back in 1961 in his speech to the nation……

But thanx to the magic of social media…..you do not have to take my word for it….instead you can watch the speech for yourself……

Sadly no one would heed his warning and look what we have done today…..perpetual war.

Another thing….how did the Republicans go from Ike to the morons they have today?

But if you are still confused on what Ike was speaking about….I can help with that…….

There are the news stories that genuinely surprise you, and then there are the ones that you could write in your sleep before they happen. Let me concoct an example for you:“Top American and European military leaders are weighing options to step up the fight against the Islamic State in the Mideast, including possibly sending more U.S. forces into Iraq, Syria, and Libya, just as Washington confirmed the second American combat casualty in Iraq in as many months.”

Oh wait, that was actually the lead sentence in a May 3rd Washington Times piece by Carlo Muñoz.  Honestly, though, it could have been written anytime in the last few months by just about anyone paying any attention whatsoever, and it surely will prove reusable in the months to come (with casualty figures altered, of course).  The sad truth is that across the Greater Middle East and expanding parts of Africa, a similar set of lines could be written ahead of time about the use of Special Operations forces, drones, advisers, whatever, as could the sorry results of making such moves in [add the name of your country of choice here].

Source: Washington’s Military Addiction and the Ruins Still to Come | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

The M-IC feeds this beast that we have created…..IKE was very prophetic…..shame his warning was not heeded.

Anchors Aweigh–You’re Fired!

Sounds like something Donald Trump would say, right?  Well, not this time.

A few months back a couple Naval boats strayed into Iranian waters and were captured….of course the normal outrage at such an act….but for me I found it strange that it occurred and ask some questions that others failed to ask….How did both boats get lost?  If one boat broke down why did not the other come to their rescue and tow them to international waters?  What happened to both boat’s GPS system?

There was more to the incident than a simple confusion on navigation.

I mention all this because it seems that the Navy has found its scapegoat for this incident……

The commanding officer responsible for 10 sailors captured by Iran is no longer commanding anybody. The Navy says Cmdr. Eric Rasch of Coastal Riverine Squadron 3 has been fired because of a “loss of confidence” in his ability to command after the embarrassing international incident in January, the Navy Times reports. Sources tell Reuters that other sailors involved in the incident have also been disciplined.

The sailors were held overnight and interrogated after their two vessels ended up in Iranian waters around Farsi Island when they were supposed to be going from Bahrain to Kuwait. Officials blamed a navigational blunder, along with some serious errors in judgment, possibly including a decision to take an unauthorized shortcut. The Navy has yet to release its official report on the incident.

And even with the investigation more questions arise.

Like was the short cut authorized?  If not then why not discipline the sailors on the boats.

My guess is this will be the last we hear of this incident (except when the lunatics want to use it to further a conspiracy)……..we will probably not get to see just what the investigation revealed……

Any thoughts?

From Under A Rock

The big story….not that the media wants to report it……is those 28 pages of the 9/11 investigation…..the story is that there is a debate on whether the American people should know the extent that the Saudis may have been involved in the attacks on that fateful day.

The question is…..should the American people know the whole story?  Should there be total transparency?

A member of the original investigation team has voiced his opinion…..

A member of the official commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks is ratcheting up pressure on the White House to make public 28 pages of a congressional report dealing with suspected Saudi involvement. In an interview with the Guardian, former Navy secretary John Lehman lays it out in blunt terms: “There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers, and some of those people worked in the Saudi government,” he says. “Our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia.” Lehman adds that he’s not implicating members of the Saudi royal family or top civilian officials, but rather lower-echelon employees, perhaps in the Saudi ministry of Islamic affairs.

Last month, the leaders of the commission—former GOP Gov. Tom Kean of New Jersey and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana—cautioned against releasing the 28 pages and noted that just one Saudi official had been implicated in the plot. (That was diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy, who was deported and remains a “person of interest,” notes the New York Times.) But Lehman says he knows of at least five other Saudi employees who were under suspicion. “They may not have been indicted, but they were certainly implicated,” he says. “There was an awful lot of circumstantial evidence.”

What say you?  Should we know the full extent of any participation by the Saudis in that horrendous attack?  Or should we just forget it because they are a valued “buddy”?

 

30 Syrian boys raped at Turkish refugee camp

If you can recall as far back as January of this year you will remember the media story of the gang that was raping people in Germany…..Hamburg, I believe…..and as one would expect the mental midget jumped on this to be an indicator that ALL refugees are rapists, thugs and terrorists….

This story fed their hatred and their conspiracy theory……and I wanted to see if if there were other incidents, from reliable sources, of any further criminal activity……I found one but it will not feed the paradigm of hatred that most of the morons push….

Thirty Syrian children were raped for months at a Turkish refugee camp and government authorities failed to notice, according to BirGün newspaper. It comes amid allegations that Turkey is not a safe country for asylum seekers.

The 30 boys were raped by a cleaner at Nizip Refugee Camp in Antep, from September 2015 until the beginning of 2016.

The rapist, identified only as E.E., has confessed that he lured children between the ages of eight and 12 to have sex with him in return for 2 to 5 Turkish Lira (US$.70-1.80). He is now in pre-trial detention.

Source: 30 Syrian boys raped at Turkish refugee camp – report — RT News

I cannot wait to see how the morons on the Right spin this story…..my guess is we will not hear much about this from them for you see it does not fit well in their hateful mindset.

It is pathetic that reports like this fall through the cracks of the MSM……

Neocons and Neolibs: How Dead Ideas Kill

I hate the idea that we have to tolerate neocons and neo-liberals…..I feel they have done more to put the US in the cross-hairs of every wacko with a grudge…..

These tools have done more to put the US back on their back foot than any time in our history….

Hillary Clinton wants the American voters to be very afraid of Donald Trump, but there is reason to fear as well what a neoconservative/neoliberal Clinton presidency would mean for the world, writes Robert Parry.

For centuries hereditary monarchy was the dominant way to select national leaders, evolving into an intricate system that sustained itself through power and propaganda even as its ideological roots shriveled amid the Age of Reason. Yet, as monarchy became a dead idea, it still killed millions in its death throes.

Today, the dangerous “dead ideas” are neoconservatism and its close ally, neoliberalism. These are concepts that have organized American foreign policy and economics, respectively, over the past several decades – and they have failed miserably, at least from the perspective of average Americans and people of the nations on the receiving end of these ideologies.

Source: Neocons and Neolibs: How Dead Ideas Kill – Consortiumnews

And now we will elect even more people to try and carry on the lousy ideas of the neos……

Despite a painfully expensive and tragically wasteful record of militarized interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and many other countries throughout the greater Middle East, the U.S. military and foreign policy establishment persists in staying its presence course.  Sure, the tactics have changed slightly over the years.  Obama is less enamored of committing big battalions of ground troops than Bush/Cheney were, yet his administration is nevertheless committed to constant military interventions, misguided and one-sided relationships with Israel and Saudi Arabia, and unwavering optimism that this time, maybe this time, we’ll finally build effective Iraqi (or Afghan) security forces while simultaneously encouraging liberty in the region by sending more U.S. troops and selling more weaponry (together with bombing and killing, of course).

Seems we can never learn from our mistakes…..why is that?

Twin Nations–Different Religion

Yes I have been a critic of Israel for many years and for some time I have been a critic of the head choppers we call ally, Saudi Arabia.

For some time now there have been rumblings in the Middle East that the Saudis and the Israelis have been in secret negotiations…..I have written about this occurrence also…..

Source: The New Axis of Evil: Saudi Arabia and Israel | American Free Press – In Saner Thought

I appears that Saudi Arabia and Israel are becoming very similar…..and in many ways……

On the surface, it would seem that Saudi Arabia and Israel would be the worst of enemies and indeed, they have never had diplomatic relations. After all, the Saudis have championed the cause of the Palestinians, who are oppressed by the Israelis. Israelis say they are besieged by Muslim extremists, and many of these extremists […]

Source: Ten Ways Israel Is Just Like Saudi Arabia – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

Now the question is….how will this partnership effect the Middle East?  Can this new found love for each other be sustained?