For those whose loved ones are there now or who suffer after effects from time they spent in combat, Iraq and Afghanistan remain an immediate concern. For others, like myself, the conflicts are an abstraction. The sufferings of the soldiers and the civilians do not pain my psyche. I have to remind myself again and [...]
Continue reading about Iraq, Afghanistan and the American Psyche
Comes now a military (meaning a U.S. military legal officer, not some outsider) defense lawyer saying he was shown an SOP manual for interrogators provided by the Pentagon that urged them to destroy handwritten notes of questioning to avoid the potential disclosure of harsh interrogation techniques. It just keeps on coming. I don’t think I [...]
I caught a bit of Good Morning America this AM. They featured a story about the seven month ordeal of Amanda Knox, an American student jailed in Italy without charges–apparently on suspicion of complicity in the death of her roommate. GMA painted a grim story, tugging at the heart strings of viewers by interviewing the [...]
Let no one accuse the Washington Post editorial and news staff of fraternizing with one another or perhaps even of observing the same world around them. This is especially true when it comes to their respective observations of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.
Continue reading about The Washington Post Says the Surge Is Working AND No It Isn’t
Forty years ago today, shots rang out in Memphis, killing the Reverend Martin Luther King. I was in Hawaii that day, on R&R from Vietnam. I returned to my unit in Bearcat, the 9th Infantry Division basecamp 25 miles east of Saigon after the riots had spread across America. Things were not much more wonderful [...]
About 18 months ago, U.S. troops deaths in Iraq passed the number of civilians dead as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (which had NOTHING to do with either Iraq or Saddam Hussein). Now the U.S. deaths in Iraq exceed 4,000 people, more than 1,000 beyond the number of Americans killed in the 9/11 [...]
Continue reading about Past 4,000 Dead in Iraq–More than 1,000 beyond 9/11
The full text of the 2008 Peace Proposal of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) President Daisaku Ikeda is now available at the official SGI website. Ikeda reprises concerns he raised in recent proposals regarding the unilateral use of force and the problem of fundamentalism:
The unhinged march of finance-centered globalization has produced a world riven by disparities of [...]
Continue reading about 2008 SGI President Ikeda Peace Proposal now Available Online
The U.S. State Department warns Americans who plan on attending the Olympics in China to not hold any expectations about privacy in hotel rooms, residences or offices while in Beijing. Funny, I no longer have much expectation about privacy in hotel rooms (ask Eliot Spitzer about that), my house or elsewhere here in America either. With all the [...]
Continue reading about State Department Warns Olympics Travelers about Privacy
Five years ago, Dubya lied and mislead us into Iraq. Maybe everyone doesn’t believe that by now, but most people do. There were no weapons of mass destruction. No connection between al Qaeda and Saddam. No legitimate reason to expect an attack on American soil or likely even on American interests abroad by Iraq. Yes, [...]
Not surprisingly, on a virtual party line vote, Congress failed to override Deadly Dubya’s veto of the Intelligence Bill that would have prohibited the CIA from using waterboarding and other forms of torture. Of course Dubya doesn’t think or won’t admit that these techniques are torture. In an exclusive interview with Tomas de Torquemada, your [...]
Continue reading about Torquemada salutes members of Congress too