We’re fighting in a war we lost before the war began

It shouldn’t surprise anyone, but support for the longest U.S. war is dropping further and faster than ever. The latest national U.S. poll, released on May 9, shows 66 percent of Americans are against the war in Afghanistan – with 40 percent “strongly opposed.”

And it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the wars continue since [...]

Does the US have an economy based on war?

Eddie Vedder. Hollywood antiwar rally. 2003

The United States seemingly has endless wars, conflicts, and invasions. In 2010 the United States accounted for a staggering 41% of worldwide military spending, dwarfing spending by any other country. We have military bases in dozens of countries and spend at least 20% of our entire budget on [...]

Susan Sarandon. My phone was tapped

It goes with the territory. If you publicly oppose government policies, you will be watched. Both parties do it.  Susan Sarandon also says she was denied a White House security clearance.

I took this photo of her at a Hollywood anti-war rally in 2003 that I helped organize. (As you can see, she looks very [...]

Afghanistan: mammoth delusions and deliberate lies

Brick by brick– together you can build a new Afghanistan (Leaflet produced by the U.S. Department of Defense for air drops over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, a response to the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on September 11, 2001. Source: The Library of Congress)

Gregory Djerejian at The Belgravia Dispatch views our 10+ [...]

Afghanistan. Lone psychos and blown missions

Afghanistan: The wheels are coming off

This is a dead Afghan parrot

Atrocities, however regrettable, are always the fault of lone psychos and must never be allowed to interrupt the mission. It is certainly not the fault of the military if soldiers get pushed into derangement by too many tours in war zones and the homes [...]

Afghanistan sergeant shooter

The government is going to great lengths to imply the atrocity shootings of civilians in Afghanistan were the work of a deranged lone gunman. The spin is, as always, that the mission of our wars are sacrosanct and must not be questioned. Thus any derangement must only be due to the sad actions of the [...]

Afghanistan slaughter

Yet another rogue soldier in an isolated incident of regrettable violence. Seems to be a lot of that going around.

The sergeant’s name has not been released, which seems odd to me. Afghanis say there must have been more than one shooter. The base is described as most troubled and was home to Thrill Kill [...]

Supernatural? Unreal? Enchanted?

Interesting news analysis on Iran in today’s New York Times:

Dispite a decade of war, most Americans seem to endorse the politicians’ martial spirit. In a Pew Research Center poll this month, 58 percent of those surveyed said the United States should use military force, if necessary, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Only 30 percent said [...]

But let’s have a war anyway

America’s top spy: We don’t know whether Iran is even trying to build a bomb

The Afghanistan War that never ends

The US is ‘winding down’ the Afghanistan war by pulling out regular troops and boosting the number Special Forces. Gosh, that should work.

Three things. 1) You just knew this whole new “combat mission ends in 2013, troops out by 2014″ was election-year spin, didn’t you?

2) This is yet another example of how special [...]