Don't Iraq Iran

So, the drums of war are beating again, and the US military continues with an unmistakeable build-up of forces for an attack on the people of Iran. It's a terrible feeling to see this coming, to watch the preparations, to watch the propaganda campaign gain momentum, and to be unable to do anything to prevent it.

Phone your Senator. Sure, that will help. Reality check - the Senate has already been bribed, the fix is in, the dirty back-room deals are made, and nobody in DC gives a fuck what we think.

Our own government admits on the one hand that there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, and out of the other side of its mouth, we get the endless, brainless propaganda bombardment about the Iranian "threat". Our nation is controlled and owned, lock stock and barrel, by the Zionist Lobby.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

Link to article at Desertpeace

Lt Col Davis Breaks News: Afghanistan Is Lost

First, let me begin with the gratuitous "I Told You So". I have been saying for some time now that the war in Afghanistan is Vietnam II, and I have also been saying for some time now that the USA is headed for another disaster.

Now a currently-serving military officer, one just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, is saying much the same thing. Oh my.

Here is the original article, "Truth, lies and Afghanistan" by Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, in the Armed Forces Journal, no less.

Here are the first two paragraphs of that article -

I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.

What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

The article itself is fairly short, very blunt, and absolutely worth reading.

Also worth noting is the fact that while overseas media are having a field day, US media have mostly ignored this story, aside from one article that I found in the NYT. Then again, in all fairness, this copy of the AFJ was just published on Sunday. Give Amerika time to recover from its Super Hangover.

So, will anyone listen? Will this blunt, brutal dose of Truth-with-a-capital-T have any effect upon the course of events? No, of course not. Washington in general, and the Pentagon in particular, have a constitutional inability to ever admit error. So they will drive off the cliff. Again.

It's been 43 years since the Tet Offensive caught General Westmoreland and MACV with their pants around their ankles, but the Pentagon has apparently learned fuck-all nothing since then. My heart goes out to the line animals who pay the most direct and immediate price for the idiocy of their so-called "superiors". When the brass screws the pooch, it's always the poor gunbunnies who take it in the shorts.

Some things never change.

I'll say it again. The USA will exit Kabul the same way it exited Saigon, with a panicked last-minute evacuation of the embassy as the victorious insurgents enter the capital. Somewhere Ho Chi Minh is laughing his ass off.

Yalta

This weekend is the 67th anniversary of the Yalta Conference, which was held February 4th through 11th of 1945, between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. The (ostensible) purpose of the conference was to decide the shape of the postwar world.

"Boring, Possum, boring...", you say, "that was a long fucking time ago".

Yes, it was a few years ago, but the world we live in today was shaped by the decisions taken at Yalta.

For example, it was at Yalta that the agreement was formed for the structure of the United Nations, in particular the existence of the Security Council, and the provision of permanent seats on that council for the major powers, and the veto power which those with permanent seats would wield. And the only substantial change in the Security Council between then and now has been the addition of the People's Republic of China as a permanent member.

It was at Yalta that Roosevelt and Stalin agreed that part of the "reparations" to be paid to the USSR by Germany would be in the form of forced labor. This was an appallingly cruel decision on the part of the Western leaders, one which doomed tens of thousands of German POWs to years of destructive labor under inhuman conditions. Many of those POW's died or were murdered by their Soviet captors. Read the memoirs of Hans von Luck for a detailed description of what I'm talking about.

It was also at Yalta that the entirety of Eastern Europe was condemned to half a century of Russian occupation, a decision that was made in spite of the fact that not one single representative of any of those Eastern European nations was present.

As an example of how incredibly naive Roosevelt was about Stalin, let me offer you this quote -

I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man. ... and I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.

It's enough to make you shake your head in utter disbelief.

And that, dear reader, is our history lesson for the day. Additional reading here

Welfare Piss Test

A little something on the lighter side today, dear reader.

I do not watch TV, at all, and I haven't for over a decade. In fact, my TV has been unplugged for over two years now, and I even discontinued the minimal cable TV service I once had.

But a fellow 99er in Florida, an all-around good person by the name of Ellen Turner, sent me this link to a Jon Stewart episode that is just too good not to share. It's even worth sitting through the obnoxious commercial that precedes it. Ugh.

But the best part of the issue isn't even mentioned in the video. You see, Florida governor Rick Scott, who has been busted for MediCare and MediCal fraud multiple times, owns the string of clinics where the piss tests are to be performed. Oh wait, excuse me, he recently transferred legal control of the clinics to his wife. Well, that makes it alright then, doesn't it?

Part of what's so scary today is the shamelessly blatant manner in which the elites engage in their corruption. With the elites controlling the MSM to the extent that they do, it seems they don't even bother to hide their dirty dealings anymore.

And so I ask you once again the question I asked in my first blog. Quo vadis, my friends, quo vadis? Where in the name of seven hells are we going from here?

Typhoid Outbreak In Zimbabwe

As if the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe did not have enough problems, with Mugabe calling for new elections, and ZANU-PF beating the war drums against the MDC, now there are reports of a Typhoid epidemic in the making.

The outbreak seems to be centered in the Kuwadzana township of the capital, Harare. Early reports are blaming the out outbreak on poor quality municipal water systems. While this seems obvious, since Typhoid is almost always caused by contaminated water, the true depth of the problem may not be immediately obvious. To quote from the Wiki article linked above, Typhoid is "transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person". In other words, there is raw sewage in the municipal drinking water. And we thought the tap water here in San Diego County was disgusting, just because it contains radioactive waste. And flouride. And chloramines to kill the god-only-knows-what bacteria. And...but I digress.

Let us not forget, four years ago, Zimbabwe suffered through a cholera epidemic that affected over 100,000 people, with officially acknowledged fatalities numbering in the thousands. You can be quite certain that the actual number of deaths was far higher than the Mugabe government was willing to admit.

So now Zimbabwe wants millions from the IMF for improvements to infrastructure. But let us stop a moment and ask, what happens to the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Mugabe government gets from sale of Marenge blood diamonds? Hmmmm?

Zimbabwe, my friends, the nation once known as Rhodesia, is a tragic example of everything can go wrong in Africa. And if it makes me want to cry, you can imagine how the Rhodies feel, in whatever homes they have made for themselves in exile, somewhere in Zaire, or South Africa, or Australia.





Text story at All Africa here.

Open Salon readers can watch the video here.