And it wasn’t even close! He got 61% of the vote.

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From Nether World

“Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties [in Iraq]”

“I don’t have the foggiest idea about what I think about international, foreign policy”

“It’s amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity, and incumbency”

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Since you’re trying to spam our post on Jimmy Carter’s new book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid with comments telling us what a horrid man Carter is for having the effrontery to criticize poor little Israel, you might try to make your comments not appear like they came from a cookie-cutter Zionist rapid response factory - which of course is precisely what happened. You lack imagination, among other things.

Here’s another tip, try responding to what Carter says instead of just sliming him.

But since you won’t, none of your comments will appear. Hey, that wall pictured on the front of Carter’s book? It is an apartheid wall, no question about it, which is something the rest of the planet increasingly understands.

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Chris Floyd has written for the Moscow Times and the St. Petersburg Times. In Empire Burlesque, his blog, he details the Litvinenko case and the various players with the knowledge of someone who knows the territory well.

A key conclusion.

Almost every single player in the Litvinenko killing could have had access to the sophisticated technical means necessary to deliver Polonium 210 as an edible poison. It’s not clear at all that any of them had a compelling reason to do so.
…
But it’s clear from all the facts available that the one person who would benefit least from the murder is the one who has been most widely and confidently accused of ordering it: Putin.

Some educated speculation on who could have ordered the poisoning shows a murky, treacherous shadowlands indeed.

More: Now it’s claimed Litvinenko might have been about to blackmail senior Russian officials, which would certainly be motive enough to kill him, assuming it’s true, and given the murk here, who knows?

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Reader Ken Larson comments on our post, The US in Iraq. Can’t stay, won’t go.

You make many good points in your article. I would like to supplement them with some information:

I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.

If you are interested in a view of the inside of the Pentagon procurement process from Vietnam to Iraq please check the posting at my blog entitled, “Odyssey of Armaments.”

The Pentagon is a giant,incredibly complex establishment,budgeted in excess of $500B per year. The Rumsfelds, the Adminisitrations and the Congressmen come and go but the real machinery of policy and procurement keeps grinding away, presenting the politicos who arrive with detail and alternatives slanted to perpetuate itself.

How can any newcomer, be he a President, a Congressman or even the Sec. Def. to be - Mr. Gates- understand such complexity, particularly if heretofore he has not had the clearance to get the full details?

Answer- he can’t. Therefor he accepts the alternatives provided by the career establishment that never goes away and he hopes he makes the right choices. Or he is influenced by a lobbyist or two representing companies in his district or special interest groups.

From a practical standpoint, policy and war decisions are made far below the levels of the talking heads who take the heat or the credit for the results.

This situation is unfortunate but it is absolute fact. Take it from one who has been to war and worked in the establishment.

This giant policy making and war machine will eventually come apart and have to be put back together to operate smaller, leaner and on less fuel. But that won’t happen unitil it hits a brick wall at high speed.

We will then have to run a Volkswagon instead of a Caddy and get along somehow. We better start practicing now and get off our high horse. Our golden aura in the world is beginning to dull from arrogance.

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