Political Bloviation

It seems bizarre that it’s necessary to explain why torture is bad. I found this Rolling Stone piece via Andrew Sullivan on the path taken by a 15 year old prisoner from the early months of the action in Afghanistan. What happened to him at the hands of Americans is flatly, obviously torture. They took [...]

NPR: Britain: Harry’s Afghan Deployment Over
I heard that Prince Harry has been secretly serving with the British Army in Afghanistan since December, this is until he was outed by Matt Drudge. Military officials will now have to pull Harry out of his unit because he’s such a high profile target that he endangers other members [...]

Tim F. over at Balloon Juice, notes that things are not going so great in Afghanistan. Playing into this is the lack of flexibility in dealing with the deteriorating situation because of our never ending commitment in Iraq.

Rice Says U.S. Will Review Aid To Pakistan - washingtonpost.com
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the United States would review its $150 million-a-month assistance program to Pakistan in response to the declaration of emergency rule by the president, Gen. Pervez Mushar.
Pakistan has long been a safe harbor for terrorists in the area along [...]

Jon Soltz: So I’m a “Phony Soldier,” Rush? - Politics on The Huffington Post

Via Crooks and Liars:
Crooks and Liars
This is the tragic irony of our foreign policy over the past six years. Instead of permanently destroying al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan — where they are currently regrouping and emerging even stronger — we decided to invade a country that did not attack us nor have the capability [...]

 Why the hell did we go into Iraq?
Pre-War Intelligence Report on Iraq Released - washingtonpost.com

The U.S. intelligence community accurately predicted months before the Iraq war that al-Qaeda would link up with elements from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime and militant Islamists to conduct terrorist attacks against U.S. forces in that country, according to [...]

Hillbilly White Trash: Dims find no support for surrender
The Democrats confused the American public’s unhappiness with the way the war was being fought with a desire for surrender and retreat. To be fair this was made easier by the high decibel shrieking from their lunatic fringe.
Over the months since the election they have forced to [...]

The Truth And Jessica Lynch - Couric & Co.
Was Jessica Lynch the heroic lil’ Rambo girl from Palestine, WV? She says her vehicle crashed knocking her unconscious and she never fired her weapon. Also it’s been reported that her rescue was delayed for a day so the Army could round up a camera crew to [...]

Bush seeks 8,200 more troops for wars - Yahoo! News
I don’t deny that Afghanistan has been neglected in the mad rush to start a war of choice in Iraq. What I don’t understand is why these war aren’t part of the normal budget process? I suppose it makes it easier to hide how the [...]

Taliban misses Cheney in attack - Nation/Politics - The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper
This is conflicting. While I am sorry that there was a suicide bombing killing workers waiting to get into Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, I hope that at least something got through that dense noggin on the VP. I don’t really think he would [...]

Conservative Cat: Kidnapping and Murder as a Cheap Public Relations Gimmick
I don’t support Israeli actions in Lebanon. It’s not that I don’t believe that Israel shouldn’t defend itself. They have the right to self-defense and the leaders of the nation have a sworn duty to do so. What I find interesting is that the last [...]

I’ve been watching the coverage of the Zawahri tape on the news today. I’m struck by one main point. How is these guy able to mobilize our nation’s military, indirectly cause the overthrow of two governments, and lead our government to trample constitutional freedoms in furtherance of the “War on Terror”? How does the he [...]

A military administrative disciplinary proceeding in Germany reprimanded and fined Army Col. Thomas Pappas $8,000. Brig. Gen. Janice Karpinski was demoted to colonel. Somehow seems insignificant given the damage it did to America’s image in the middle East.
Military punishes key Abu Ghraib scandal figure, Reuters
We were supposed to be the white hats, the good guys, [...]