August 7, 2014 archive

More Dispatches From The Good War

Killing of U.S. General by Afghan Soldier Underscores Obama’s “Deep Problems” in Winding Down War

Democracy Now

8/6/14

“A Recipe for Civil War”: Journalist Matthieu Aikins on U.S. Military Legacy & Afghanistan’s Future

Democracy Now

Transcript

Transcript

U.S. General Is Killed in Attack at Afghan Base; Others Injured

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and HELENE COOPER, The New York Times

AUG. 5, 2014

For the first time since Vietnam, a United States Army general was killed in an overseas conflict on Tuesday when an Afghan soldier opened fire on senior American officers at a military training academy.



The general was among a group of senior American and Afghan officers making a routine visit to Afghanistan’s premier military academy on the outskirts of Kabul when an Afghan soldier sprayed the officers with bullets from the window of a nearby building, hitting at least 15 before he was killed.



There was no indication that either of the attackers were members of the Taliban, or that their acts were coordinated. The insurgents did not claim the attackers as their own, instead hailing them as hero soldiers. American officials said they had no reason to suspect the gunman at the military academy was anything but an ordinary Afghan soldier whose motivations remained a mystery.

But scores of these so-called insider attacks have plagued the American military in recent years, and Afghan and American commanders believe the vast majority have been carried out by Afghan soldiers and police alienated and angered by the protracted war in their country, and the corrupt and ineffectual government that the United States has left in place. Few of the attacks are believed to have been results of coordinated Taliban plots.



With foreign troops having largely ceded their front-line role to Afghan forces in the past two years, training and advising Afghans is one of the few crucial roles still played here by the coalition. American soldiers largely stay out of the Taliban’s line of fire, but they must still maintain close contact with Afghan soldiers and policemen. Foreign forces have few options for protecting themselves, short of cutting off contact with the Afghans.

But that would make the training mission impossible, as General Greene, 55, most likely knew. He was one of the most senior officers overseeing the transition from a war led and fought by foreign troops to one conducted by Afghan forces. His specialty was logistics – he was a longtime acquisitions officer – and he had been dispatched to Afghanistan to help the Afghan military address one of its most potentially debilitating weaknesses: an inability to manage soldiers and weaponry.

Compared with the infantry grunts who did tours of duty in the Taliban-infested hinterlands of Afghanistan, General Greene had an assignment that appeared to carry far less risk. Yet on Tuesday, he became one of the more than 2,300 American service members killed in Afghanistan.

Afghan troops’ rocky past offers clues into shooting that killed U.S. general

By Pamela Constable, Washington Post

August 6, 2014

The army, the most professional and popular of the new defense forces, has drawn recruits from across the country who have been expected to replace local and ethnic loyalties with adherence to a national government and its defense. The aim has been to forge an army of about 80,000 men and officers who could be weaned from foreign tutelage by now and prepared to take on the Taliban alone, then gradually grow to as many as 120,000 troops.

From the beginning, however, the project has been plagued with problems. Soldiers have gone AWOL and deserted in high numbers. Ethnic imbalances between officers and troops have been sources of envy and friction. Equipment has been old and expensive to replace.



The fatal attack on Tuesday was an acute embarrassment to the Afghan military leadership, because it occurred inside the Afghan equivalent of the U.S. military academy at West Point, and was aimed at a Western VIP delegation that had come to assess the army’s progress in being able to defend the nation as Western forces prepare to leave.



Officials said there was no indication that he was part of a conspiracy or had Taliban sympathies. But the timing of the attack was particularly sensitive, with presidential elections derailed by charges of fraud and an audit of all 8.1 million ballots repeatedly suspended by disagreements. Afghans are hoping to have a new leader inaugurated in time for a NATO summit in early September, and a stalled bilateral security agreement between Afghanistan and the United States is on hold until a new government takes office in Kabul.

The number and scope of Taliban insurgent attacks has been increasing in recent months, with dozens of deadly incidents involving unusually large numbers of insurgents. Officials have said the Taliban is testing the strength of Afghan security forces as U.S. and NATO troops continue their withdrawal and prepare to place the nation’s defense largely in Afghan hands.

Several analysts in Kabul said the attack exposed deep flaws in the control and competence of Afghan military leaders, who had apparently not prepared adequate security for the foreign visit. They also said it revealed ongoing problems with the army’s lax recruitment policies and faltering efforts to build a loyal, unified fighting force after more than a decade of foreign investment and training.

“This sad event is a major blow to our international alliances, and it shows that we cannot build trustworthy and credible military institutions,” said Javed Kohistani, a military analyst, former Afghan army officer and former national intelligence officer. “Whoever was behind this attack has achieved their highest goal. It is no coincidence that a two-star American general was killed.”

Mocking the Maven

(note: So I found this little gem in this piece-)

Thomas Friedman has no soul: The New York Times’ quasi-journalistic Wall-E does it again

Richard (R.J.) Eskow, Salon

Monday, Aug 4, 2014 04:45 PM EST

After our last disquisition on Tom Friedman we thought we were through with him for good. But the violations of decency have become too great, or our spirit has grown too weak. Whatever the cause, a soul cries out at last:  In the name of all that is decent and holy, will this man never stop?

The latest outrage is a column about Madagascar titled “Maybe in America,” and it goes beyond parody – and even beyond that entertaining automated Tom Friedman column generator someone created a while back – to give us a distillate of Friedman in his purest form.

Friedman has usurped the column generator’s role. In the globalized and digitized world he celebrates, he seems to have finally outsourced himself.

Yes- random Bucksbaum!  Ersatz but virtually indistinguishable from the real thing!

Check it out.

New Rules

Not by Mr. Bucksbaum, nor published in Izvestia

August 4, 2014

Imagine if industrial giants sat down with ordinary people like you and me and ironed out some real solutions to our higher education crisis.

With the election season over, maybe you’ve forgotten about higher education, but I certainly haven’t. It would be easy to forget that the problem even exists, when our headlines are constantly splashed with the violence in Uruguay, the authoritarian crackdown in Syria and the still-unstable democratic transition in Honduras. But the higher education problem is growing, and politicians are more divided than ever. Republicans seem to think that higher education can just be ignored. Democratic politicians like Harry Reid, on the other hand, seem to think that shrill rhetoric will substitute for a solution.

But the Democratic party of Harry Reid is not the Democratic party of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR wouldn’t refuse to budge, he’d break ranks with members of his own party because he’d understand that the fate of the country, and his own political career, depended on a lasting solution to the problem of higher education.

It’s good to see the talks between the president and congress getting off to a solid start, but we know there will be plenty of partisan fireworks before any deal is cut. If I had fifteen minutes to pitch my idea to politicians, I’d tell them two things about higher education. First, there’s no way around the issue unless we’re prepared to spend less: and not just spend less, but spend smarter by investing in the kind of human capital that makes countries succeed. That’s going to require some tax cuts as well, but as they say, “Ya gotta get down to brass tacks.”

Second, I’d tell them to look at Sweden, which all but solved its higher education crisis over the past decade. When I visited Sweden in 2002, Mwambe, the cabbie who drove me from the airport, couldn’t stop telling me about how he had to take a second job because of the high cost of higher education. I caught up with Mwambe in Stockholm last year. Thanks to Sweden’s reformed approach toward higher education, Mwambe has enough money in his pocket to finally be able to afford a soccer ball for his kids.

That’s all it takes. Don’t expect to see any solutions as long as industry captains insist on playing a high-stakes game of ping pong with one another. America has to become a first world country again.

Iron Empires and Iron Fists in Australia

Not by Mr. Bucksbaum, nor published in Izvestia

August 4, 2014

What has been going on in Australia is unbelievable, and it has been on my mind ever since it began. It is impossible not to be tantalized by the potential of these events to change the course of Australia’s history. What’s important, however, is that we focus on what this means to the people. The media seems too caught up in spinning the facts to pay attention to how their people are doing. Just call it missing the battle for the bullets.

When thinking about the recent problems, it’s important to remember three things: One, people don’t behave like computer programs, so attempts to treat them as such are a waste of time. Computer programs never suddenly blow themselves up. Two, Australia has spent decades as a dictatorship closed to the world, so a mindset of peace and stability will seem foreign and strange. And three, freedom is an extraordinarily powerful idea: If ethnic conflict is Australia’s curtain rod, then freedom is certainly its flowerpot.

When I was in Australia last August, I was amazed by the variety of the local cuisine, and that tells me two things. It tells me that the citizens of Australia have no shortage of potential entrepreneurs, and that is a good beginning to grow from. Second, it tells me that people in Australia are just like people anywhere else on this flat earth of ours.

So what should we do about the chaos in Australia? Well, it’s easier to start with what we should not do. We should not let seemingly endless frustrations cause the people of Australia to doubt their chance at progress. Beyond that, we need to be careful to nurture the fragile foundations of peace. The opportunity is there, but I worry that the path to stability is so narrow that Australia will have to move down it very slowly. And of course Canberra needs to come to terms with its own history.

Speaking with a small business entrepreneur from the large Suni community here, I asked her if there was any message that she wanted me to carry back home with me. She pondered for a second, and then smiled and said, respre austee, which is a local saying that means roughly, “A sly rabbit will have three openings to its den.”

I don’t know what Australia will be like a few years from now, but I do know that it will probably look very different from the country we see now, even if it remains true to its basic cultural heritage. I know this because, through all the disorder, the people still haven’t lost sight of their dreams.

Time for Leadership

Not by Mr. Bucksbaum, nor published in Izvestia

August 4, 2014

An interesting thought occurred to me today-what if industrial giants sat down with ordinary people like you and me and ironed out some real solutions to our same-sex marriage crisis?

With the election season over, maybe you’ve forgotten about same-sex marriage, but I certainly haven’t. It would be easy to forget that the problem even exists, when our headlines are constantly splashed with the violence in Maldives, the authoritarian crackdown in Mexico and the still-unstable democratic transition in Spain. But the same-sex marriage problem is growing, and politicians are more divided than ever. Republicans seem to think that same-sex marriage can just be ignored. Democratic politicians like Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, seem to think that unscientific rhetoric will substitute for a solution.

But the Democratic party of Nancy Pelosi is not the Democratic party of Lyndon Johnson. Johnson wouldn’t just filibuster, he’d reach across the aisle because he’d understand that the fate of the country, and his own political career, depended on a lasting solution to the problem of same-sex marriage.

Let’s make America for the world what Cape Canaveral was to America: the world’s greatest launching pad. If I had fifteen minutes to pitch my idea to politicians, I’d tell them two things about same-sex marriage. First, there’s no way around the issue unless we’re prepared to spend less: and not just spend less, but spend smarter by investing in the kind of national infrastructure that makes countries succeed. That’s going to require some tax cuts as well, but as they say, “Ain’t nothing to it but to do it.”

Second, I’d tell them to look at Singapore, which all but solved its same-sex marriage crisis over the past decade. When I visited Singapore in 2001, Mwambe, the cabbie who drove me from the airport, couldn’t stop telling me about how he had to take a second job because of the high cost of same-sex marriage. I caught up with Mwambe in Singapore last year. Thanks to Singapore’s reformed approach toward same-sex marriage, Mwambe has enough money in his pocket to finally be able to afford a soccer ball for his kids.

That’s all it takes. Don’t expect to see any solutions as long as politicians insist on playing a high-stakes game of ping pong with one another. America has to rise above it all.

In Turkmenistan’s World, it’s the Past vs. the Future

Not by Mr. Bucksbaum, nor published in Izvestia

August 4, 2014

Yesterday’s news from Turkmenistan is truly historic, and it raises questions about whether there might just be light at the end of the tunnel. What’s important, however, is that we focus on what this means to the people. The current administration seems too caught up in worrying about their own skins to pay attention to what’s important on the ground. Just call it missing the fields for the wheat.

When thinking about the ongoing troubles, it’s important to remember three things: One, people don’t behave like muppets, so attempts to treat them as such are going to come across as foreign. Muppets never suddenly blow themselves up. Two, Turkmenistan has spent decades as a dictatorship closed to the world, so a mindset of peace and stability will seem foreign and strange. And three, capitalism is an extraordinarily powerful idea: If corruption is Turkmenistan’s glass ceiling, then capitalism is certainly its flowerpot.

When I was in Turkmenistan last June, I was amazed by the variety of the local cuisine, and that tells me two things. It tells me that the citizens of Turkmenistan have no shortage of courage, and that is a good beginning to grow from. Second, it tells me that people in Turkmenistan are just like people anywhere else on this flat earth of ours.

So what should we do about the chaos in Turkmenistan? Well, it’s easier to start with what we should not do. We should not lob a handful of cruise missiles and hope that some explosions will snap Turkmenistan’s leaders to attention. Beyond that, we need to be careful to nurture the fragile foundations of peace. The opportunity is there, but I worry that the path to peace is so narrow that Turkmenistan will have to move down it very slowly. And of course Ashgabat needs to cooperate.

Speaking with a local farmer from the small orthodox community here, I asked him if there was any message that he wanted me to carry back home with me. He pondered for a second, and then smiled and said, ahim bin tal, which is a local saying that means roughly, “A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no responsibility at the other.”

I don’t know what Turkmenistan will be like a few years from now, but I do know that it will probably look very different from the country we see now, even if it remains true to its basic cultural heritage. I know this because, through all the disorder, the people still haven’t lost sight of their dreams.

Why Nations Fail

Not by Mr. Bucksbaum, nor published in Izvestia

August 5, 2014

An interesting thought occurred to me today-what if industrial giants sat down with ordinary people like you and me and ironed out some real solutions to our health insurance crisis?

With the election season over, maybe you’ve forgotten about health insurance, but I certainly haven’t. It would be easy to forget that the problem even exists, when our headlines are constantly splashed with the violence in Bhutan, the authoritarian crackdown in Rwanda and the still-unstable democratic transition in Luxembourg. But the health insurance problem is growing, and politicians are more divided than ever. Democrats seem to think that health insurance can just be ignored. Republican politicians like Rand Paul, on the other hand, seem to think that shrill rhetoric will substitute for a compromise.

But the Republican party of Rand Paul is not the Republican party of Ronald Reagan. Reagan wouldn’t refuse to budge, he’d reach across the aisle because he’d understand that the fate of the country, and his own political career, depended on a lasting solution to the problem of health insurance.

Let’s make America for the world what Cape Canaveral was to America: the world’s greatest launching pad. If I had fifteen minutes to pitch my idea to politicians, I’d tell them two things about health insurance. First, there’s no way around the issue unless we’re prepared to spend less: and not just spend less, but spend smarter by investing in the kind of human capital that makes countries succeed. That’s going to require some tax cuts as well, but as they say, “them’s the breaks.”

Second, I’d tell them to look at Norway, which all but solved its health insurance crisis over the past decade. When I visited Norway in 2000, Mwambe, the cabbie who drove me from the airport, couldn’t stop telling me about how he had to take a fourth job because of the high cost of health insurance. I caught up with Mwambe in Oslo last year. Thanks to Norway’s reformed approach toward health insurance, Mwambe has enough money in his pocket to finally be able to afford a playground for his kids.

That’s all it takes. Don’t expect to see any solutions as long as fringe bloggers insist on playing a high-stakes game of blackjack with one another. America’s got to call a time-out.

The Other Arab Spring

Not by Mr. Bucksbaum, nor published in Izvestia

August 5, 2014

Last week’s events in Kiribati were earth-flattening, although we may not know for years or even decades what their final meaning is. What’s important, however, is that we focus on what this means to the citizens themselves. The current administration seems too caught up in worrying about their own skins to pay attention to the important effects on daily life. Just call it missing the myths for the lie.

When thinking about the ongoing turmoil, it’s important to remember three things: One, people don’t behave like migratory birds, so attempts to treat them as such inevitably look foolish. Migratory birds never suddenly blow themselves up. Two, Kiribati has spent decades being batted back and forth between colonial powers, so a mindset of peace and stability will seem foreign and strange. And three, hope is an extraordinarily powerful idea: If authoritarianism is Kiribati’s ironing board, then hope is certainly its flowerpot.

When I was in Kiribati last June, I was amazed by the level of Westernization for such a closed society, and that tells me two things. It tells me that the citizens of Kiribati have no shortage of human capital, and that is a good beginning to grow from. Second, it tells me that people in Kiribati are just like people anywhere else on this flat earth of ours.

So what should we do about the chaos in Kiribati? Well, it’s easier to start with what we should not do. We should not lob a handful of cruise missiles and hope that some explosions will snap Kiribati’s leaders to attention. Beyond that, we need to be careful to nurture the fragile foundations of peace. The opportunity is there, but I worry that the path to stability is so narrow that Kiribati will have to move down it very slowly. And of course Tarawa Atoll needs to cooperate.

Speaking with a up-and-coming violinist from the unpopular Protestant community here, I asked her if there was any message that she wanted me to carry back home with me. She pondered for a second, and then smiled and said, shakka-do-lakka-the, which is a local saying that means roughly, “That tea is sweetest whose herbs have dried longest.”

I don’t know what Kiribati will be like a few years from now, but I do know that it will remain true to its cultural heritage, even if it looks very different from the country we see now. I know this because, through all the disorder, the people still haven’t lost sight of their dreams.

The Breakfast Club (Canção do Mar)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

The Breakfast Club Logo photo BeerBreakfast_web_zps5485351c.png

This Day in History

U.S. embassies bombed in E. Africa; Congress OKs powers to expand the Vietnam War; The Battle of Guadalcanal begins; Kon-Tiki ends its journey; Comedy icon Oliver Hardy and news anchor Peter Jennings die.

Breakfast Tunes

Song of The Sea

I went to dance on my little boat

There in the cruel sea

And the sea was roaring

Telling me I went there to steal away

The peerless light

Of the beautiful look in your eyes

Come to find out if the sea is right

Come to see my heart dancing

If I go dancing on my little boat

I won’t go to the cruel sea

Nor will I tell it where I went

To smile, dance, dream, live… with you

On This Day In History August 7

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

Click on images to enlarge

August 7 is the 219th day of the year (220th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 146 days remaining until the end of the year.

The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through its summer and the Southern Hemisphere half way through its winter on this day.

On this day in 1947, Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti. Heyerdahl wanted to prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands by drifting on ocean currents.

Heyerdahl and his five-person crew set sail from Callao, Peru, on the 40-square-foot Kon-Tiki on April 28, 1947. The Kon-Tiki, named for a mythical white chieftain, was made of indigenous materials and designed to resemble rafts of early South American Indians. While crossing the Pacific, the sailors encountered storms, sharks and whales, before finally washing ashore at Raroia. Heyerdahl, born in Larvik, Norway, on October 6, 1914, believed that Polynesia’s earliest inhabitants had come from South America, a theory that conflicted with popular scholarly opinion that the original settlers arrived from Asia. Even after his successful voyage, anthropologists and historians continued to discredit Heyerdahl’s belief. However, his journey captivated the public and he wrote a book about the experience that became an international bestseller and was translated into 65 languages. Heyerdahl also produced a documentary about the trip that won an Academy Award in 1951.

Cartnoon

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning


Local Colors 2

Late Night Karaoke

TDS/TCR (Alarmingly-Named Wolfman)

TDS TCR

Branding

Old People Talk

For this week’s guests and the real news join me below.

The CIA Still Trying to Cover Up That It Tortured

When the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) agreed to declassify and release the executive summary of the 6,000 page investigation into the CIA’s use of torture last April, it also agreed to allow the White House to review the 480 page document for review. The White House announced that the CIA would take the lead in that review, virtually leaving the decision on what if any incriminating evidence that they tortured in the hands of the accused.

The writers at Techdirt have been joking about the “buckets of black ink” that would be “dumped” on the report. After weeks of waiting, no one should be surprised that the heavily redacted document that was returned to the SSCI on August 1 was barely coherent.

Late Friday, Senator Dianne Feinstein announced that the White House had returned the executive summary, but she’s a bit overwhelmed by all the black ink and is holding off releasing the document until her staff can look into why there were so many redactions:

   “The committee this afternoon received the redacted executive summary of our study on the CIA detention and interrogation program.

   A preliminary review of the report indicates there have been significant redactions. We need additional time to understand the basis for these redactions and determine their justification.

   Therefore the report will be held until further notice and released when that process is completed.”

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper responded that Sen. Feinstein’s complaint was unfounded stating that there were “minimal redactions,”  claiming that 85% of the document was not blacked out. Techdirt‘s Mike Masnick thinks Clapper may have been counting the margins

Of course, as Marcy Wheeler has pointed out, this is just about the executive summary of the report — which was specifically written to be published. In other words, the really “secret” stuff is in the rest of the report, but the 408 page exec summary was written with public disclosure in mind — meaning that the Senate Intelligence Committee staffers certainly wrote it with the expectation that it would need few, if any, redactions. So the fact that large chunks of it were redacted immediately set off some alarms.

SSCI Chairperson Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) released this statement:

After further review of the redacted version of the executive summary, I have concluded that certain redactions eliminate or obscure key facts that support the report’s findings and conclusions. Until these redactions are addressed to the committee’s satisfaction, the report will not be made public.

I am sending a letter today to the president laying out a series of changes to the redactions that we believe are necessary prior to public release. The White House and the intelligence community have committed to working through these changes in good faith. This process will take some time, and the report will not be released until I am satisfied that all redactions are appropriate.

The bottom line is that the United States must never again make the mistakes documented in this report. I believe the best way to accomplish that is to make public our thorough documentary history of the CIA’s program. That is why I believe taking our time and getting it right is so important, and I will not rush this process.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), a member of the SSCI, also released a statement condemning the redactions as nothing more that a cover up of “embarrassing information:”

The redactions that CIA has proposed to the Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA interrogations are totally unacceptable. Classification should be used to protect sources and methods or the disclosure of information which could compromise national security, not to avoid disclosure of improper acts or embarrassing information. But in reviewing the CIA-proposed redactions, I saw multiple instances where CIA proposes to redact information that has already been publicly disclosed in the Senate Armed Services Committee report on detainee abuse that was reviewed by the administration and authorized for release in 2009. The White House needs to take hold of this process and ensure that all information that should be declassified is declassified.

Another committee member, Sen Mark Udall (D-C)) thought it was very clear that Director Clapper’s intentions were to distort the record

While Director Clapper may be technically correct that the document has been 85 percent declassified, it is also true that strategically placed redactions can make a narrative incomprehensible and can certainly make it more difficult to understand the basis for the findings and conclusions reached in the report. I agree wholeheartedly that redactions are necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods, but the White House must work closely with this committee to reach this goal in a way that makes it possible for the public to understand what happened.

According to a report in McClatchy, the summary carefully used pseudonyms of covert CIA agents and foreign countries that was much of what was blacked out:

Tom Mentzer, a spokesman for the committee’s chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told McClatchy on Monday that the blackouts _ officially known as redactions _ were made to pseudonyms used for both covert CIA officers and foreign countries.

“No covert CIA personnel or foreign countries are named in the report,” he said. “Only pseudonyms were used, precisely to protect this kind of information. Those pseudonyms were redacted (by the administration).”

All of the pseudonyms were excised from the version of the executive summary that the White House returned to the committee on Friday, a person familiar with the issue said.

Lawmakers seem willing to accept some redactions, but others made by the CIA and the White House would make it difficult or impossible to understand the subject being discussed, especially when a pseudonym appears in multiple references, said the knowledgeable person, who requested anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

The Intercept‘s Jeremy Scahill joined MSNBC’s Alex Wagner on “NOW” to discuss the dispute over the redacted report

The CIA tortured and the US government approved it and still continues some forms of torture It is now actively engaged in the continued refusal to prosecute the crimes and still trying to make it sound like it was just a “mistake.” Waterboarding someone 183 times is not a mistake, it is a crime, a war crime. No amount of “awe shucks” statements by President Barack Obama that “we tortured some folks” or calling the perpetrators “patriots” will excuse the fact that they broke the law.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence should just release the executive report. The Justice Department should do its due diligence and prosecute the tortures and those who authorized it. Director Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan should be fired and prosecuted for lying to the Senate and their roles in the torture program. Pres. Obama should uphold his oath of office or be impeached.

The Great War (an introduction)

Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.

There are two problems with history.  The first is a mechanical problem, causation.  There is a Newtonian attraction to start with the Big Bang and Universal Inflation and see everything as logically and inevitably proceeding from there since in our own lives Entropy’s Arrow is writ so large.  The second is a failure of empathy, to see our own situation as so unique and without precedent that hsitory is nothing but a dull, dusty recitation of dates and dead people with no relevence at all.  The fact that these two instincts are contradictory does not prevent people from holding them simultaneously true as a manifestation of our quantum nature where cats are neither/both dead/alive like brain craving Zombies.

There are many ‘Guns of August’ as you can see by scanning our content for the last few days.  This date, the 6th, is notable in terms of the Great War because it marks the next to last formal declaration of war of the initial phase, that of Austria-Hungary against Russia (Japan declares war against Germany August 23rd).  As of 100 years ago today the combatants are-

For the Entente Cordiale: Serbia, Russia, France, Belgium, Britain.  For the Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary.

But at this point we are already almost a thousand years in medias res because to understand the Great War you need to go back to Napoléon and the Congress of Vienna and to grasp the motivations of the British while redrawing the map of Europe you need to start at the Battle of Hastings and take into account their experiences in the Hundred Years War and the Armada.

That’s just the Anglo version, there are other important narratives.

So this is a warning (or a threat, take it how you will) that I’ll be talking about the Great War and not always with much attention to anniversaries because it’s a big, complicated, and messy subject, though the broad outlines and outcomes may not surprise you much (it’s been a whole century after all).

I anticipate at least 3 pieces to bring us up to the Congress of Vienna, one focusing on Western Europe, one on the Ottoman Empire, and one on Russia.  After the Congress I will look at German and Italian unification, the Second Age of Colonialism, and the Industrial Revolution and the Ironclad.  Finally in the run up to the Great War I’ll look at the establishment of the Entente and the retreat of the Otttomans from the Balkans.

And this is all before Princip fires a shot truly heard around the world.

For the most part I’ll be documenting my story based on Wikipedia, not because it’s the best or most insightful, but simply because that by the nature of its anarchic editing process it represents the lowest common denominator of facts we can all agree on.

And they’re not what you think they are if you had a typical Anglo-American education.