War

THE SERIOUS SIDE OF DONNIE TRUMP

Laura Ehrlich — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 08:00:00 -0700

Newt's in, Mitch is out. Haley got out before anyone knew he'd gotten in. But Tim is definitely in, running as "Tim Who?"

But the one I'm going to miss most among the GOP presidential hopefuls is The Donald – a walking gas bag of vanity topped with a head of orange, feral hair. Donnie Trump announced that he would've been the Republican nominee and then would've defeated President Obama if he stayed in the race – but, alas, he said he wanted to spend more time with the one he loves: himself.

So Trump is fading back into the screwball celebrity swirl from whence he came, but I want to give him a proper send off. He was widely ridiculed for his screeching insistence that Obama is a Kenyan, but that nonsense obfuscates the fact that Trump is more than a frivolous buffoon. He's a dangerous buffoon.

In his brief run, The Donald's chief substantive focus was China, which he bashed repeatedly for taking America's manufacturing jobs. "China is raping this country," he demagogued, conveniently ignoring the reality that greedheaded CEOs of U.S. corporations are the ones who're raping America's middle class by gleefully shipping American jobs to low-wage havens like China. But there's another damning reality that Trump never mentioned in his rants: He is one of the job rapers.

Go to the Trump Store in New York City's Trump Tower and try to find something made in the U.S.A. Instead, you'll find $80 Trump sweaters and $70 Trump warm-up tops – made in China. Or, golf caps with the Trump crest on them, cufflinks, tie pins, leather belts, shirts, ties in 50 different patterns, and even the cuddly Trump Teddy bear – all made in China.

A buffoon, yes, but also an obsessive-compulsive hypocrite. Remember, for a while, this guy was treated as a serious Republican contender for president.

THE IMMORALITY OF "AMERICA AT WAR"

Jim Hightower — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Are you aware that America has now been at war for nearly a decade? We've been fighting, bleeding, and dying in two hellacious, multitrillion-dollar conflagrations since 2001 – and our blood continues to flow, with no end in sight.

Well, not our blood. Not yours and mine. We continue to go about our daily routines – go to work, go to the mall, go out to eat, go golfing, go to church, go on vacation, go dancing and drinking. War? Americans pay far more attention to the World Series than to the ongoing carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In a little-noticed speech, Pentagon chief Robert Gates recently pointed out that, "For most Americans, the wars remain an abstraction – a distant and unpleasant series of news items that do not affect them personally." Service in the military," he bluntly says, "has become something for other people to do."

He's right. You see, "we" are not at war. We handed off that awful duty a decade ago to the 2.4 million active and reserve soldiers in the armed services, less than 1 percent of our nation's people. They and their families are the ones "at war," cycled and recycled into debilitating and deadly deployments.

"We the People" are not even making the minimal sacrifice of paying for the burden we've so carelessly stacked on their shoulders. Both the Bush regime and the Obamacans, fully backed by both Republican and Democratic Congresses of the past decade, cravenly put Afghanistan and Iraq on the national credit card, piling up trillions of dollars in debt for future generations to cover.

The widening disconnect between Americans and America's wars is not only dangerous for our democracy, but it's immoral, allowing politicians and corporate profiteers to sink our national soul in the diabolical depths of perpetual war.

THE GLORY OF WAR

Jim Hightower — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Our society, like most others, glorifies war. " For God and Country!" is the cry. "Be all you can be, " is the manly challenge. "Bring 'em on," was George W's machismo war whoop, which drew cheers from "barstool soldiers" like he'd been.

Of course, war must be glorified to make it possible. How else can presidents and generals lure sane young men and women into the voracious maw of deathly chaos and unimaginable horror? As General William T. Sherman put it in 1880, "Young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you boys, it is all hell." For a glimpse of this hell, check out an October 30th Washington Post article, titled "Operation Damage Control" (Washingtonpost.com). It's meant to be a positive piece extolling the wondrous ability of U.S. trauma teams in Afghanistan to save grievously injured soldiers.

But the article also lifts the covers on the raw carnage that is the true story of war, highlighting nine soldiers injured in a single week. Two of them lost a leg; two others lost a leg and a foot; two lost both legs; two lost both legs and a hand; one was paralyzed from the waist down; three also lost their genitals. "Lost" is a euphemism for blown apart.

But as the Post points out, bombs not only shred limbs, "they drive dirt deep into flesh and often peel skin back a foot or more above the bone's jagged end." It takes multiple surgeries over several weeks just to find all the damage. Blood clots, pneumonia, collapsed lungs, and other "complications" often follow, all deadly. Not to mention the brain damage, pain, and psychological trauma.

Some 32,000 Americans have been maimed in Iraq and another 8,000 so far in Afghanistan. And for what? Ask them about the "glory" of war.

PROTECTING AMERICA BY PULPING BOOKS

Jim Hightower — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

One especially-ugly word an author never wants to hear is: "pulp."

To pulp a book is not merely to remove it from sale, but literally to destroy it, reducing the paper itself – and all of your words and thoughts – to a goopy chemical mash. I've had one of my books threatened with pulping even before it went on sale, so I can empathize with Anthony Shaffer, who has just had the first printing of his book gooped by a gang goofy censors in the Pentagon.

Shaffer, a lieutenant colonel who served as an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan, had written "Operation Dark Heart," an unflattering assessment of America's military intelligence bureaucracy. Playing by the rules, Col. Schaffer had dutifully submitted his manuscript to the Army prior to publication, getting its official approval in January to publish.

So, 10,000 copies were printed and placed in a distribution warehouse, about 100 advance copies were sent to book reviewers, and Shaffer even received the endorsement of a former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who hailed the memoir as "one terrific book."

But in July, the goofiness hit the fan. Someone in DIA began objecting to Shaffer's critique, and suddenly some 250 passages were deemed to contain military secrets. These so-called "secrets" were mostly well-known facts already published in news articles, wikipedia, and elsewhere. But Shaffer's permission to publish was abruptly retracted. The Pentagon brass then bought the 10,000 warehoused copies – and, in the overbearing name of national security, had them pulped.

The pulping merely proves Shaffer's point about the heavy-handed stupidity of the military "intelligence" establishment, while also showing once again that the Pentagon brass has way too many of our tax dollars to play with.

THE IMMORALITY OF "AMERICA AT WAR"

Jim Hightower — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Well, not our blood. Not yours and mine. We continue to go about our daily routines – go to work, go to the mall, go out to eat, go golfing, go to church, go on vacation, go dancing and drinking. War? Americans will pay far more attention to the World Series than they will to the ongoing carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In a little-noticed speech, Pentagon chief Robert Gates recently pointed out that, "For most Americans, the wars remain an abstraction – a distant and unpleasant series of news items that do not affect them personally." Service in the military, " he bluntly says, "has become something for other people to do."

FEISTY GRANNIES STAND UP FOR PEACE

Jim Hightower — Fri, 28 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

How grand it was in Washington for Hamid Karzai. The corrupt, inept President of Afghanistan – whose regime is being propped up by 87, 000 of our troops and $7-billion-a-month from us taxpayers – got the red-carpet treatment in our Capitol city in May, including a meeting with President Obama in the grandeur of the White House.

On the same day as the Obama-Karzai chat, about 20 women gathered curbside on a busy Manhattan street. The scene there was less grand, but a whole lot more honest. Inspiring, even. These were "the grannies," a brigade of ladies whose ages range from the mid-sixties into the nineties. They come together every Wednesday to protest Mr. Obama's war in Afghanistan.

This particular Wednesday marked the 331st consecutive week of the grannies' stand, going back to the early months of George W's Iraq war, which is still going on, so they protest it, too. Every week – whether in the cold of winter, or in the searing heat of August – they unfurl their banners, unfold their homemade placards, politely hand out their leaflets, and talk with anyone who'll listen about their deeply-held convictions against the two wars. Occasionally they'll ring out with a chant: "Bring our troops home now... Alive!"

Persistence, integrity, speaking out – it all matters in our country. Yes, the wars go on. And, no, Obama, the generals, the war contractors, and our lawmakers are not listening to these feisty citizens. But others do hear them. "The point is to interfere with the routine," explains one of them. "As people walk down the street, it has an impact on their consciousness."

Thank goodness someone is standing up for peace and justice. Laurie Leon, whose age she simply describes as "very, very senior," cheerfully says, "I won't stop till I drop." The question is not why these ladies are out there every week. The question is why aren't we?

THE PENTAGON'S "INVINCIBLE" DRONES

Jim Hightower — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The people our troops are battling in Afghanistan and Pakistan might be diabolical fanatics willing to use such crude terrorist tactics as suicide bombers – but the one thing we've got that they can't match is the world's most sophisticated military technology. Right?

Well, right – our military-industrial complex is a high-tech wonder, and the primitive tribal forces we're now confronting in Afghanistan, for example, have nothing like it. Take, drones. These pilotless, remote-controlled, missile-firing, killing machines have become America's weapon of choice against the Taliban. Mounted with computerized video cameras that guide the long-distance, unmanned flights, drones cost about $12 million each, but they're devastatingly effective. The enemy doesn't even know they're targeted until – surprise! – the missiles explode on them.

At least, that’s what the Pentagon assumed. However, we now learn that the enemy has been hacking into our drones' electronic systems, allowing them to intercept the live video feeds. Thus, they learn which houses, camps, roads, or other sites are being targeted, potentially letting them escape before the missiles strike. Adding insult to injury, the enemies are able to monitor our flights of the $12-million sophisticated drones with a bit of simple software called Skygrabber, which is meant for downloading music, photos, and other free materials from the Internet. Skygrabber is readily available on websites for only $24.95.

It turns out that the Pentagon has known since the Bosnian battles in the 1990s that drones have this particular vulnerability – but officials assumed that the people we're fighting wouldn't be sharp enough to figure it out. That's a very dangerous assumption it turns out. And it's an odd assumption, teenagers have been able to hack into the military's own massive and heavily-secured computers inside the Pentagon itself.

THE INTERMINABLE PRICE OF WAR

Jim Hightower — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Well, we finally got that Iraq thing done, right?

On the last day of June, the U.S. commander in Iraq transferred military authority to the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who promptly held a day of national celebration. Then, America skedaddled. It wasn't pretty. After six years and 4,300 American deaths, we got no "mission accomplished" moment, and things are still a big mess over there, both militarily and politically – but at least we're through with it.

Only... we're not. Not by a long shot. First, only about 30,000 of America's soldiers in Iraq have actually left, and the Pentagon says it plans to keep 50,000 troops stationed there for years to come.

Then there's the little matter of being stuck with the bill for this reckless misadventure. Rather than paying for the war as we went, George W and Congress put the whole thing on the nation's credit card. According to two top economic analysts, Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz, the direct tab for that war is already at a trillion dollars. But that doesn't count such things as interest payments on the war debt, replenishment of military equipment, and longterm care for the 80,000 troops who've been wounded or traumatized. These items raise the monetary cost to some $3 trillion, so we'll not be "through" with Iraq for generations to come.

Meanwhile, since our military machine was diverted to Iraq in 2003, Afghanistan's Taliban was freed to regain power and grow stronger than ever, so Obama and Congress are now headed down that bloody and costly war trail. About 60,000 US troops and $24 billion have been committed this year to the carnage in this harsh land.

While America is officially "out" of Iraq, we'll be mired in its consequences for a long time. It's a hell of a price to pay for... Well , for what, exactly?

VIDEO: Hightower debates McCain on Afghanistan

Jim Hightower — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:01:10 -0700

[Watch larger version & embed on your site]

Obama's Triple Surge Into Afghanistan

Jim Hightower — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:50:48 -0700

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to war we go!

As President Barack Obama begins winding down the Bush war in Iraq, he is building up his own war farther east. We're told that it will be a new, expanded, extra-special American adventure in Afghanistan, involving a vigorous surge strategy to "stabilize" this perpetually unstable land.