WAR!!!

In the first year after the liberation of Afghanistan, the production of opium, which is now controlled by our warlord allies, increased from 185 tons to 3400 tons/year.

reported by Chalmers Johnson in HARPERS MAGAZINE, November, 2003

During the war for independence, facing a superior force in terms of arms and men, George Washington had by 1778 reached an elemental understanding of military strategy, "...namely that captured ground - what he termed a "war of posts" - was virtually meaningless. A score of genuinely brilliant military leaders who also confronted a superior enemy force - Hannibal, Robert E. Lee and Napoleon come to mind - were eventually defeated because they presumed that victory meant winning battles." The United States was supposed to have learned this in Vietnam.

Washington was a realist who, "...instinctively mistrusted all visionary schemes dependent on seductive ideals that floated dreamily in men's minds, unmoored to the more prosaic but palpable realities that invariably spelled the difference between victory and defeat." When patriotic propagandists were churning out tributes to the superior virtue of the American cause, Washington confided to a friend, "...though virtue was both a wonderful and necessary item, it was hardly sufficient to win the war." Washington wrote on 21 April 1778 to John Barrister, "Men may speculate as they will, they may draw examples from ancient story, of great achievements performed by its influence; but whoever builds upon it, as a sufficient basis for conducting a long and bloody War, will find themselves deceived in the end... For a time it may, of itself, be enough to push Men to Action; to bear much, to encounter difficulties; but it will not endure unassisted by Interest." Will the Magnificent Seven learn this?

    ... from the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Founding Brothers, by Joseph J. Ellis. Vintage Books. 2000. P.131-32 and P. 246.

War begins with Dubya. One wonders, who would Jesus bomb?

Is this...

Photo Copyright by George Weld

...worth this...?

...or this...?

AP Photo by Jerone Delay

Members of the Amer family pray over the remains of their family members in their home after a bomb landed in a busy market in the Al Shula'a district of West Baghdad, Friday March 28 2003.

US troops shoot Iraqi civilians - This admission is enough to make you sick.

Some more evidence that the United States

is winning the hearts and minds in Iraq...

These images also from BuzzFlash.com

Click HERE to see what 30 days of war will cost the treasury of the United States.

Click here to check on the latest US casualties in Iraq.

Here is the real story about saving Pvt. Lynch. I'm sure this isn't the version you will see from Hollywood. Lots of so-called left-leaning publications have shown this account but it is nice to see covered in a mainstream publication - even though it's from Canada.

In other news...

War is good for business. Invest your child.

Here and Here to see what war is really like

- no Hollywood images of bravery Here

Photos of My Lai by Ronald Haeberle

Photo from BuzzFlash.com

"War itself is venal, dirty, confusing and perhaps the most potent narcotic invented by humankind. Modern industrial warfare means that most of those who are killed never see their attackers. There is nothing glorious or gallant about it. If we saw what wounds did to bodies, how killing is far more like butchering an animal than the clean and neat Hollywood deaths on the screen, it would turn our stomachs. If we saw how war turns young people into intoxicated killers, how it gives soldiers a license to destroy not only things but other human beings, and if we saw the perverse thrill such destruction brings, we would be horrified and frightened. If we understood that combat is often a constant battle with a consuming fear we have perhaps never known, a battle that we often lose, we would find the abstract words of war--glory, honor and patriotism--not only hollow but obscene. If we saw the deep psychological scars of slaughter, the way it maims and stunts those who participate in war for the rest of their lives, we would keep our children away. Indeed, it would be hard to wage war." - Chris Hedges (Author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning) in The Nation, April 21, 2003

Do you know your Nuclear Issues?

Check these military Facts at a Glance. Of course, you could always PREVENT a nuclear war. But it  might not cost as much or enrich your friends as much or produce such spectacular explosions.

Compare military spending between the US and the rest of the world here.

I asked for universal health care and all I got was this lousy stealth bomber...

Photo by Tech. Sgt. John Lasky, USAF

Off Course

Over 12 years ago I read an article about the US Naval Academy. Students were rejoicing because the Academy had decided to do away with the freshman or sophomore course on navigation. It seems that navigation was the most difficult class there. Many students were so afraid of it that they waited until their senior year to enroll. They were afraid to take it because so many students flunked it and had to retake it once, twice or more. Of course, waiting until senior year to take such a class could have disastrous results on a student's chances of graduation.

I recall the author of the article asked why the Academy was doing away with the navigation class. The interviewee responded, explaining the problem with students failing the class and then went on to say that with the new technology in global positioning on board navy ships there was no need to use a sextant and charts in order to plot a ship's location on the ocean.

Today there was this article from Fortune Magazine. Ostensibly, the story is about the US tracking down companies that sold prohibited goods to Iraq during the years following Gulf War I. What I found interesting about the story occurs in paragraph one. "In the thick of battle, U.S. commanders discovered that the Iraqi army was able to jam the global-positioning systems the military uses to pinpoint everything from cruise missile attacks to the location of troops on the ground."

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