War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
(Illustration found here). In reality, a picture is indeed worth a shitload of words. One haunting face, that 4-year-old Iraqi kid — the above photo has been on Google Images for years, and has always caused me to hurt whenever I spotted it (used it a couple of times on blog posts to epitomize, or…
Opened with a big bang — ‘shock and awe’ — and closed with a deceitful shudder. The US ended its military misadventure on Iraq yesterday awash in bullshit. Leon Panetta has got to be one of the most disingenuous and hypocritical assholes this side of Newt Gingrich, claiming the Iraqi debacle was worth the price…
Announce that whatever new approach the U.S. decides on, the U.S. is doing so on a trial basis. This will give us the ability to readjust and move to another course, if necessary, and therefore not “lose.†— Donald H. Rumsfeld memorandum, Nov. 6, 2006 (Illustration found here). In the annuals of world history there’s…
“The issue is not whether the Iraqi people will greet U.S. soldiers as their liberators, but what will they do six months after that. I find it naive and disingenuous to claim that you can create democracy in Iraq any time soon. The administration has already assured us that the U.S. will not stay there…
“How can we let this happen? How is that acceptable in the United States of America? The answer is, it’s not. It’s an outrage. And it’s a betrayal — a betrayal — of the ideals that we ask our troops to risk their lives for.” — Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, April 2008, reacting to the suicide…
In the last few years there’s been a momentous outburst of gall — the audacity of some people to bullshit despite incredible evidence to the contrary — which has touched just about every aspect of US life, especially in politics. Two such unrelated examples occurred this past weekend, one involved GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry…
“If this works out, we’ll have the ability to track people persistently across wide areas,†says Tim Faltemier, the lead biometrics researcher at Progeny Systems Corporation, which recently won one of the Army contracts. “A guy can go under a bridge or inside a house. But when he comes out, we’ll know it was the…
Even as Vermont drowns in its own water, the politics of war still plays on the airwaves, especially after The Dick Cheney made the rounds boasting of his new literary efforts in disengaging the truth from a lie. Seemingly, the further away from the invasion of Iraq and closer to the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11,…
In the annals of US armed conflict, George Jr. and his gang is way-unique — they’re obvious war criminals. If their actions had taken place in another country, the whole bunch would have been hunted down by now and shipped to The Hague for trial — instead, they write books, blubber nonsensical bullshit and lounge…
UPDATE BELOW George Jr. and his boys apparently pissed away more hard cash than was originally reported, maybe three times as much — displaying the dumb-ass norm for the entire Iraqi debacle. (Illustration found here). In that photo above, a guard stands next a few pallets of shrink-wrapped $100 bills. Twenty US C-130 aircraft flew…