Huh?

The Boston Globe reported today that General Casey, the Army commanding general of US forces in Iraq, failed to reiterate that the US would be drawing down forces by next spring.

What does our destiny depend on now?

Army General George W. Casey said prospects for reducing US troops depend heavily on the readiness and willingness of the new Iraqi government to take more responsibility for security....

Casey, who said in July that ''fairly substantial" troop reductions were in the offing for 2006, was unwilling in his testimony yesterday to predict when large numbers of US forces could come home despite several questions from legislators seeking answers about troop reductions.

Then he went on to tell the Armed Services Committee something that sounds so disingenuous I'm surprised the papers printed it.

Casey also reminded lawmakers that insurgencies usually take a decade to defeat. ''There is no reason that we should believe that the insurgency in Iraq will take any less time to deal with," he said, although he did not say US forces would have to stay that long.

Which insurgency did we defeat in 10 years, general? The Vietnamese? The Chinese? Oh! Maybe he means the Cuban? What about the American Revolution? That was an insurgency, wasn't it? The French Revolution? The Russian Revolution?

Sorry, General Casey. You are bullshitting Congress and you are bullshitting the people of the United States of America.

You know better than any of us that we cannot defeat an insurgency of this magnitude in a country half-way around the world, surrounded by hostile countries, and where we don't even speak the language! Just because the newspapers print it doesn't mean the people are buying it!

brownie

My guess is that this guy couldn't pay his mortgage and his credit cards if they bounced him without a golden parachute. So he's getting "corporate welfare." He's on the extended payment plan. He's Bush's buddy, he's fired, but we can still pay him as a contractor and let him "investigate himself."

That way, he can clear up his resume, exonerate himself, and move on to another appoinment, say, in stable management.

Project For the Old American Century

hugo chavez nyc

AFP mentioned today in an article

The outspoken Chavez littered his speech to the UN world summit Thursday with anti-US comments that were strongly applauded. He later accused the US administration of supporting terrorism and of planning to invade his country.

Then, at a South Bronx church today, the Venezuelan leader told an audience

I love New York and I love the Bronx. Today was the first time I was able to see the soul of the American people.

New Con Wedge Issue

As predicted by Kos, the Neocons' new wedge issue is going to be immigration. Looks like they are ramping up to bet the house on it, too.

Raw Story carried this post today, in which Texas Congressman Lamar Smith shared the importance of considering how to proceed on immigration legislation.

Immigration needs to be considered in terms of (1) media bias, (2) animosity towards the President, and (3) feelings of the Republican base.

Hey, let's get our priorities straight.

more of the same (mots)

I didn't watch the Commander in Chief's speech from Jackson Square in New Orleans last night, but I heard it was erratic.

Well, in spite of its possible strengths, I'm putting my 2 bits on Krugman's riposte.

Sick-oid Nazi Police

The New York Times ran an article covering the "Freedom Walk" yesterday, from the Pentagon to the Mall. The coverage seemed a little bit tongue-in-cheek. The things sounds pathetic -- but I guess it depends on your viewpoint, right?

Still, these police tactics are getting out of hand. How do the police put up with orders to do shit like this?

Earlier in the day, several protesters appeared to run into trouble with the large police presence at the Pentagon and along the route. One man who registered for the walk was detained by a Pentagon police officer after he slipped a black hood over his head and produced a sign that read, "Freedom?"

The man was removed from the Pentagon registration area, handcuffed and taken away in a police car. It was not clear whether he was charged or simply detained and the police did not respond to messages requesting more information.

Ann Grossman, 56, from Silver Spring, Md., also carried a homemade sign, which read "Honor Our Troops, Respect Their Lives," that was confiscated by police at the Pentagon. Ms. Grossman registered to participate in the walk, saying she did so to voice her opposition to the Iraq war, and she was allowed to participate without the sign.

"I am totally against this administration and totally against this war," Ms. Grossman said.

who kills?

In the Reuters article, Iraqi Army Seeks to Control Tal Afar, 200 Dead, Nameer Nouredeen quotes Abdelaziz Jasim, the defense ministry official supposedly in charge of operations at Tal Afar:

"Overall 157 terrorists have been killed and 291 arrested since the beginning of the operations," he told a news briefing in Baghdad before the new offensive in Tal Afar.

How do they know these people are "terrorists?" It sounds like the Vietnam body count logic of, "We only kill terrorists, so therefore, anyone we have killed must be a terrorist."

renuclearized

The AP reported today that on March 15th the Joint Chiefs released an updated report on nuclear options.

Among the report's highlights, the AP article notes the following:

One scenario for a possible nuclear pre-emptive strike in the draft would be in the case of an "imminent attack from adversary biological weapons that only effects from nuclear weapons can safely destroy."

The Bush administration is continuing to push for development of an earth-penetrating nuclear warhead, but has yet to obtain congressional approval.

However, the Senate voted in July to revive the "bunker-buster" program that Congress last year decided to kill.

Administration officials have maintained that the U.S. needs to try to develop a nuclear warhead that would be capable of destroying deeply buried targets including bunkers tunneled into solid rock.

still down

This blog is still rendered inactive by the startup of the new school year.

I have not finished the syllabus for one of my classes yet, even though we are in the 3rd week.

I am really struggling to keep up with the workload, the other job, the family obligations, and preparing for my own continuing ed. at the New School later this fall.

So, patient readers, please indulge me in your kindness and return in another week or two, by which time I hope to have resumed bringing you fact and opinion on the enlightenment that dawns to brighten our universe.

I remain your humble, obedient servant.