Although Moammar Gadhafi was one of the great-cruel assholes of a generation, watching him all bloody, getting slapped around by Libyan freedom fighters, makes for a disconcerting scene — this world doesn’t sugar-coat violence in reality.
Thus, which brings this from Cornell University government Professor David Patel: “I really want to know what Bashar Al-Assad of Syria is thinking tonight. The people surrounding Qaddafi are dead because they went down with the sinking ship. They could have turned their guns and overthrown him, and Al-Assad is thinking the same thing tonight,” Patel said.

Indeed: Al-Assad should be way-thinking about his nasty, long and skinny neck.

(Illustration found here).

Gadhafi is only the latest in a long, long line of rulers who’ve met their fate via the hands of his own countrymen — and in this techno-crazed era, a terrible end can be frozen for all time by a smart phone, i.e., Saddam’s ‘public‘ hanging.
In a so-far non-violent Occupy Wall Street, that 1 percent plastered on a million signs should reflect heavily on at least one small chapter of human history — the French Revolution.
This whole thing could get bat-shitcrazy, and, yeah, I’m talking to you, Koch brothers!

However, Gadhafi and the Arab Spring aside, the news item that popped my eyeballs this morning is a most-terrible blowback for US troops — and reveals whether America is still an animal civilization.
And it’s also shitty that this information comes first from the foreign press and not our own oafish MSM.
From Aljazeera English:

As the war in Afghanistan passes its ten-year mark, sexual assault runs rampant within the ranks, with an estimated one in three female service members raped during their service, according to at least one peer-reviewed study.
This is in a military where women comprise more 11 per cent of active duty service members deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and more than 15 per cent of the total military, with at least 200,000 active duty women currently serving.
This epidemic also affects men: 60 per cent of women serving in the National Guard and Reserve, along with 27 per cent of men, are estimated to have experienced Military Sexual Trauma (MST).
Perpetrators rely on a chain of command that appears to offer virtual impunity for sexual assaults committed against lower-ranking service members.

A civil lawsuit has been filed against Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, charging that under their watch the military failed to adequately and effectively investigate rapes and sexual assaults within the ranks.

However, like Rummy once blubbered: “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
One cold-ass fish.

The big nut in the story is prosecution rates of sexual assault in the military remains at eight per cent vs a 40 per cent prosecution rate for sexual assault charges in civilian courts — which is a sorry record in itself.
And as one female officer says: “No one right now is holding commanders accountable.”
Which could include a shitload of wrongdoings that nobody has been held accountable — hear me again, Koch brothers!

And Gadhafi’s demise reflects the real-true US blowback on armed conflict where young men and women are killed, maimed or raped without a tear being shed from the exact people who put these Americans in harms way.
Jason Ditz at antiwar.com:

In the ultimate reflection of the Obama Administration’s carefree attitude toward entering wars, a chuckling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on television today mocking the death of long-time Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, barely restraining her delight while declaring “we came, we saw, he died.”

Hahahahaha!