War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
Welcome Memorial Day 2012. In Afghanistan, where war has raged seemingly forever, and where US GIs have been maimed and killed for near 11 years, comes the family-gathering-remembrance of a NATO airstrike that wiped out an entire family — dad, mom, six kids: “Shafi was not a Taliban. He was not in any opposition group…
In the wake of last weekend’s big NATO Afghan pow-wow, the war in Afghanistan has to be considered finished, kaput, wiping-hands-clean, get-the-shit-out-of-Dodge over with and a debacle for history scholars. Except for the Afghan people: Aleema, a sad-eyed girl in ragged clothes, is one of the 447,547 “internally displaced persons†who have fled their homes,…
As if on cue late yesterday afternoon, a thick, moist portion of coastal fog descended upon my little stretch of northern California coastline and eliminated any view of the rare annular solar eclipse which swiped across these parts on its course from Asia. In the quick descending fog, which filled a sunlight sky in a…
After years of the worse president in US history has mostly been under cover. Few know the guy’s even still alive, much less still walking around, acting like a dumb-ass — George Jr. maintains a low profile. Even in throwing a quick, by-the-way-endorsement of the latest GOP noodle: “I’m for Mitt Romney,†Bush told ABC…
In the neurotic groundswell last week of the absorption of gay people and the bullies that define the genre, the wars overseas have lost a lot of its news flavor with American audiences, despite the fact young GIs are still killing and dying over there — now they’re being made dead by their Afghan comrade-at-arms.…
Beyond the gay rights issue and Mitt Romney’s memory problems about being a bullying-asshole, the preposterous-incompetence of the war on terror is near blinding. Hard to fathom, but the frightful state of mind is enormous: Eighteen-month-old Riyanna has been called a lot of things: cute, adorable and now … a suspected terrorist. The US TSA…
“The other day I was listening to the radio. The Afghan minister was assassinated. I’m thinking, What threat did he pose to the Taliban? Who even wants to go to Afghanistan? His phone rings once a month.” — Bob Newhart, quoted in Esquire, January 2009 The continuing wonderland Afghan war caught another shit-storm this weekend…
Although the name of the supposedly “lone service member” who killed 16 Afghan civilians a week ago has finally emerged — Sgt. Bob Bales — the names of the victims of the rampage haven’t seen the light of day. As Paul Woodward wrote at War In Context, the reason: Because they are not Americans. These…
Mitt Romney gave his most-rich thoughts yesterday on the massacre of Afghan civilians over the weekend: Asked whether he agrees with conservative commentators who say the U.S. should accelerate the pullout, Romney said Monday that he “wouldn’t jump to a new policy” because of a “deranged, crazy person.” Crazed, of course. The US Army staff…
Understatement on the crazed shootings yesterday in Afghanistan: It is believed that, some time before the killings, the soldier suffered a nervous breakdown. In a bad situation getting worse, the incident only makes it near-imperative the US and NATO get the shit out of that country, and like way-now. US peoples know, but the powers-that-be…