Dan Lyons

SILLIEST RELIGIOUS RULES & BELIEFS:
It's hard to pick out the very silliest, but here are some candidates (sticking just to the 3 'religions of the Book' ) :
--US Prot. fundamentalists endorsing Zionism because they think that the Jews retaking Palestine will make Jesus return sooner. (Israelis must get a great chuckle over this.)

--Muslim rule that a man can go to whorehouse, 'marry' the whore for a couple of hours (paying of course for her compliance) then divorce her, thus evading the rule vs. fornication and adultery.

--The Orthodox Jewish rule that you can walk only so many paces from your home on the Sabbath--BUT if you string up wire or rope around a huge area (supplementing telephone wires to complete the circuit) then you can walk all over that huge 'home area' on the Sabbath.

--US Catholics bragging that they alone respect Jesus' condemnation of remarriage after divorce (He dared to contradict Moses on this issue ! ), then having the bishops give out 'like candy-bars' annulments to couples with many children.

--Before VAticanII, Catholics could drink Martinis BETWEEN MEALS IN LENT, but couldn't EAT the olives.

--The INDEX (before Vat-II) forabade you to read entire books that were forbidden, but you could read excerpts. One priest I knew, who could have got an exemption as a profesor, instead bought, say, Hume in paperback, ripped book into a set of 'excerpts' and read them with no qualms.

--Loony Iran Pres. built a great highway to the Capital from the shrine where Shia Messiah is supposed to touch down on his return.

A CHRISTMAS STORY: Around 1940, my father sold auto insurance to farmers, when he didn't own a car himself--walking around to farms nearby the towns he reached by bus. His sales were respectable--but, as an alcoholic, he had to take a job that paid very poor commissions.

I at that time went door-to-door selling magazaine subscriptions. One Christmas eve, he was 'on the road' and we had no reason to think there'd be any money for Xmas turkey.

I sold a couple of subscriptions and embezzled the money temporarily to buy turkey & fixings. He came back home on the bus; turned out he also had embezzled money temporarily from insurance sales to buy food.

So we had two complete meals; I got a refund for mine.

Later on, Dad had emphysema--but from all that walking, his lungs were so huge that the emph. was mitigated.

CARD ALMOST FROM THE GRAVE:
[letter to all the relatives:]
we opened an Xmas card, finally decoded the origin name: it was fromMary's cousin George Chambers (80 yrs old) , youngest of Babe's, who was youngest of 22 children of Mary Dundan Sexton-
Babe was sibling of Mary's gramma, The Gripper. (Still called 'Babe' in her 90s.)

--George was one of twins. His twin Susan realized that she was destined to be the Home Daughter (drafted to care for aged parents.) So she fled to Britain at age 15.
Then George was IT. He brought home a fiancee--Babe said, "He can marry when I die." (at 92.) After all, SHEhad been 'home daughter.' Fiancee handed back the ring. George still thinks he loves 'Mum's'memory.

When we visited in Bally-na-kelly , County Clare, in'72, there was no faucet in kitchen,only a pump outside. Jean, aged 7, asked, "How do you do thedishes ?" Babe had dealt with young US relatives before; she said, "We're so rich, we break them after every meal." Jean was enchanted.
We visited again after Babe died. George was handyman by trade; he had the cottage modernized luxuriously.

George fiddles badly. He is revered by all traditional Irish musicians in every tavern in County Clare. He belongs to Father Mathew Society,(Irish AA)." They love me; I'm the only fiddler
they can count on being still able to play at closing time."

His brother's grandson is a well-known 'hurling' athlete in Ireland. Atage 12, he rode while I drove on tour around Clare. "This is the mostboring day I ever had."
I told him my job as driver was to see that he stayed bored. Around a hilly, blind curve, you might find an old lady leading some sheep, or a huge articulated lorry.

Custom was that 'rich' American visiting cousins had to buy hosting local relatives a big restaurant meal.Sean's Mom said there was no need for that. He objected, "C'mon, we're supposed to get a Slap-up Supper !" We've added that adjective to our vocabulary.

Anyway, we thought sure that George was dead by now. What a delight toreceive his card !
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My father grumbled to his youngest son, Dave, "You should have been a girl,to be the Home Daughter."
Dave replied, "Ever if I was a GIRL, I wouldn't take care of you !"
American Irish are different.

SHIA TAKEOVER:
Baghdad is being taken over by the neighborhood Shia militias, and sending over tens of thousands more GIs will only make it worse (with the Shia opening up a 2d front vs. the sitting-duck GIs.)Over 1 in 4 of senior commanders of the 'all/Iraq forces' have ties to these militias.UnitedPress
http://upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061227-014924-2879r

Another story told of 100,000 new refugees this month (mainly Sunnis fleeing Baghdad, apparently).

Ethnic cleansing is proceeding apace, leading to deFacto Secession of Shia ministate. (which will apparently include Baghdad, and the half-billion-dollar US embassy there! No great loss to America: of 1000 functionaries in that great complex, only SIX ARE FLUENT IN ARABIC !)

PARLIAMENT STALLED AS GI KILLS SADR AIDE:
Maliki is furious; he was trying to get Sadrites to end their boycott of Parliament (making quorum impossible)--but then American shot one of Sadr's top aides !

Also embarrassing was fact that the shooting was in Najaf , supposedly handed over to Iraq forces earlier--but the guy was shot by an American !

http://upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061228-012945-1220r

[This post is important enough to deserve repetition.]

"NEVER WANTING TO GIVE UP THE FIGHT": a typical war-mongering headline in rMtnNews (28Oct), misleads as to content. (It's deliberately misleading, trying to get us to admire the chcken-hawks cheerleaders like Bush who are determined to stay the hopeless course in Iraq!)

The story is about a US medical team in Iraq, 'fighting' to save the life of a critically injured GI. But you don't ' fight' to save a life--you work, persistently and intelligently, to save a patient's life. Nor does the plucky cancer patient 'fight' his illness; he tries persistently to heal his body. But this headline exemplifies a typical confusion among many Americans.
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There are many modes of vigorous human activity: hunting or fishing seek out a vulnerable victim to kill (once to eat; now, often just to let rot.)

But the fighter seeks out opponents roughly equal to himself to conquer or defeat.(no one would
say the hunter 'fights' the helpless pheasant!) Big game hunters, cannon-armed, pretend that the huge stupid bear is their equal, so the clash can be misinterpreted as valiant fighting, not predatory hunting. But the unbalanced ratio of hunters killed vs. bears killed tells the story.The big fish struggles to escape,challenging the fisherman--but the man is facing a challenge,not countering a foe who has a real chance to kill him !

So, similarly, B-52 bombers, dropping 500lb bombs on invisible insect-humans below, with no danger to themselves , say they're fighting a war, when actually, they are hunting down helpless victims.-
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Two runners are competing against each other, not hunting or fighting.The only harm each wishes to the other is the humiliation of losing.The winner might wish fervently that his friend come in second.He might even regret somewhat that his winning means logically that someone must lose.

The bull-rider doesn't face a foe or victim;he faces inevitable, quick defeat by the bull. He is competing with fellow-riders to see who can stay on longest. The bull ridden by the champion doesn't 'lose' !--any more than would a mechanical bucking 'bull'.
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When one 'faces a challenge' he need not be facing a human or animal; he could be struggling to get an MD ! The standards are not designed to eliminate a certain number of contestants, but perhaps to guarantee that every applicant successfully masters the level of knowledge and skills required. (The masters would perhaps rather produce competence without entrance-competition, were this possible.)

Or consider mountain-climbing: adepts sometimes talk of 'conquering ' the mountain--but the mountain is completely unaware of them, uninterested in resisting their 'conquest'. Success should count as courageously and strenuously 'overcoming a challenge', NOT conquering or defeating a foe.

Finally, the word 'achievement' applies in many ways: the big-game hunter is said (only by his peers and sick admirers) to have achieved. The winning boxer is said by some to have achieved, as is the winning runner, or the impressive mountain-climber. But if I disdain the activies of mountain-climbing, running, boxing or hunting, then I would not say they have attained REAL Achievement, this is doing BETTER THINGS better !

(I would claim that the mediocre ethicist making some progress in showing how wretched humans should treat humans, --e.g.,perhaps,, myself ! --outranks in achievement the the ethicist who is the world's top defender of the rights of laboratory rodents-- Doing trivial things obscenely well is rat-race.)
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Even more wrongly admired as achievers are the geniuses who figure out how to harm humans in a brilliantly innovative way. Einstein, for instance, should NOT BE ADMIRED for his mass/energy discoveries, which paved the way for H-bombs. In fact, he advised President Truman to speed up the development of nukes; nor, I think, did he call for an end to such research when Hitler was defeated!

Doing harm is NEVER AS SUCH an achievment--it's too easy. (Harming a rampaging murderer might accidentally count, redescribable as rendering the murderer harmless.) Socrates shocked his Athenan listeners when he said that even just killing, though necessary, is never glorious.
A burly fellow bragged to St.Augustine, "I can kill a human not needing any weapons!" Augustine: "So can any bad mushroom. You're no stronger than a bad mushroom."
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Top achievement may NOT involve facing a difficult challenge. Mozart is said to have just written out his noble compositions, not even needing to erase! This does not count against the quality of his achievement.(In the movie AMADEUS, Mozart cruelly ridicules the agonizing effort Salieri needed to produce his high-mediocre works.)

When we say that mastering the multiplication-table is a 'great achievement' for the slightly retarded person, we're saying he did suprisingly well considering the small resources he had. But we don't restrict admiration for Mozart just because perhaps he could have done even better with his staggering talents. His achievement-praise survives even finding out that his pieces were written without much effort, as were Rossini's.
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Many Americans are obsessively prone to admire aggression (hunting or fighting)..in fact they phrase any admiration for energetic activity as admiration for aggression. It's only a matter of time before some American reveres the 'aggressive' way Mother Theresa strenuously and effectively helped her wretched clients !

This US foible probably accounts for the stupid idea that the best defense is ALWAYS a good offense, even against invisible terrorist individuals.--in the belief in Victory thru (bombing) Airpower!
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We should train our children to distinguish between aggressive hunting, competitive fighting and running, strenuous facing up to challenges, and top-value achievement, doing better things better--with or without effort or opposition.

This would be a very difficult social challenge to face, and also a tremendous social achievement.

TWO GOOD NOTES ON ROMAN HIERARCHY:
1) Vatican warns Paraguayan EXbishop not to 'get involved in politics', i.e., not run for office vs. right-winger.

2)Pope Ben. names Henry Kissinger as his political consultant.

Maybe it's just more obvious in universities and churches than in corporations that scum rises to the top.

PAPER TIGER FACES BALLISTIC MISSILES: At least 8 nations are developing OFFENSIVE ballistic missiles.
http://upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/

Why? All nations know that crazy Pentagon could wipe out any 2 nations in a day. But if other govts. can show Bushies that they could retaliate by wiping out a US city or two, then, IF Bushies are half-sane, their fabled power will mean little.

Already, 6 or 7 nations have deterrent nukes. Soon more will be built. Nations that can't afford to develop nukes will develop 'the poor man's H-bomb', germ-war.

SEN.JOE BIDEN'S HEARINGS WILL DUCK-NIBBLE BUSH:
He's incoming honcho of Sen.Foreign Relations Committee; he's the only big pol to endorse inevitable (and least evil) outcome: splitting Iraq into 3 ministates: Kurdland, Shialand and Sunni/Arab land.
He absolutely opposes Bush's zany proposal to send to Iraq 30k more GIs as sitting ducks for insurgents to snipe at or bomb.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/26/news/biden.php

Biden will hold hearings, a potent weapon. If they treat only one Bush scandal a week, the hearings will extend till his wretched reign expires.

LAX RULES FOR CHEMICAL PLANTS: 5 yrs after 9/11, after Dems have screamed, Bushies are finally demanding that dangerous chem.plants be protected from terrorists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/washington/22chem.html

But the new rules are vague and lax. Bushies also have pretended to tighten security for vulnerable nuke-waste-ponds of our 104 nuke power plants; but these new rules don't demand that they be protected from small planes loaded with explosives--our skies are full of stealable planes;this type of attack could happen tomorrow. (And they want to build THIRTY MORE potential disaster-areas!)

It's not that Bushies don't care at all about Homeland Security. It's just that they care more about tax-breaks for the wealthy, patronage for favored pols, and staggering hundreds of billions shoveled to Pentagon (useless vs. attacks by terrorist INDIVIDUALS).

We can't afford adequate Homeland Security.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & a non-nuked New Year.

NEW ARMY MANUAL TALKS SENSE: Counterinsurgency must emphasize diplomacy and intelligence over military action. 'Few problems have been settled by military alone." DUH !
http://upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061218-035816-8088r

Too late for Iraq, but maybe in future wars? Nonsense ! AirForce runs Pentagon, not the miserable army (which will shortly be converted to robot infantry). And diplomacy and intelligence can't shovel trillions to war corporations, as can fancy new billion-dollar bombers.

NO ANTI-SADR COALITION: (which US has been pushing for): 'Pope' Sistani vetoed the idea and any proposal that would 'split the Shia." he also said, "No Iraqi wants foreign troops on our soil for a long time."
PM Maliki's big DAWA party then rejected this US-advocated alliance with Kurds and Sunnis.
BOSTON GLOBE

One Shia leader said they wanted the thousands of new US troops coming in to attack, not Shia, but the Sunni insurgents lurking at the edge of Baghdad.

You'd think that's what US would want, since these insurgents have been causing about 30 GI casualties EVERY DAY, with snipers and bombs. But far more than cutting our casualties (now that election is over) , Bushies want to torpedo Sadrites, who emphasize driving out Americans; they also want to sabotage emerging, oil-rich Shia ministate, allied with hated Iran.

Sadr (along with nearly all Iraqis--except those on US payroll!) want us OUT NOW.So do 60% of AMericans. Sadr is ALLY OF MOST AMERICANS, hated only by alQaeda and treasonous Bushies.

IRAQ COMMANDERS REVERSE THEMSELVES, (perhaps under Bush-pressure),
CALL FOR MORE TROOPS --20k or more !
(JointChiefs of Staff are skeptical: what is the new mission?)

Present Iraq commanders have not shown star quality in strategy, tactics.

Some want new troops to sit in Sadr City, blocking militia-activity there. So Sadrites will just wait till the troops have to be withdrawn.

Others want new troops to stop murders in neighborhoods. Right now the Shia are chasing Sunnis out of Baghdad. How will new troops stop that?

Bush will have to announce a new strategy that makes these extra troops seem unnutty.
BLOODY LIKELY !
LATIMES

INSURGENT SNIPERS hit 4 out of 40 GIs at one post in Ramadi. They can aim just outside the protective vests. They have night-goggles. "Some are better than our snipers!"
SeattlePI
We're training jihadist warriors in Iraq; the longer we stay, providing moving UNIFORMED targets, the better they get trained. And Bush may send in thousands more of sitting ducks.

'Pope' SISTANI WON'T SUPPORT COALITION OF SUNNIS/SHIA
EXCLUDING SADR:
US announced that he would, but now admit he won't. He says (sensibly) that he'll endorse no moves that would split Shia against each other.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq.html

Civil war between different factions of Shia would serve admirably the interests of SaudiArabia, US, and Israel.

GOOD SENSE REJECTED:
OUR FOES LIKE IRAQ QUAGMIRE: TALIBAN,Iran, Syria, N.Korea, Russia, China--they are all more free to maneuver worldwide than if we were not wallowing in Iraq quicksand.
http://upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20061222-094209-9473r
Obvious good sense--rejected in D.C.
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Millions being spent on computer-translators for Arabic. But we must also understand Farsi(Iran-language), Urdu (Pakistan) ,all the languages of Indonesia,etc.

FEARLESS VS. RABBITS !
We just turned over Najaf province to Iraqi forces. To show their fierceness, a commander ripped apart a live rabbit, ate its heart, then passed the remainder around for his troops to munch on.
Some soldiers bit the heads off frogs. SeattlePIhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq.html

Well, that's reassuring. If only they prove equally effective against HUMAN INSURGENTS, who tend to shoot back.

PRESSURE ON BUSH?
ANY HOPE TO PRESSURE BUSH? If anyone could, it would be the billionaires behind the GOP, worried about the collapsing US image. Two unjust and stupid wars, refusal to help in curbing global warming, the blatant use of torture, the likelihood of a slump from refusal of the wealthy to share at all with the poor (thus boosting aggregate demand), our insane health-system, Katrina fiasco, and so on--such a display of wickedness-PLUS-incompetence is bound eventually to crimp our exports.

And these exports are already dwarfed by our greedy imports. So one can imagine the fat cats pressuring those few whom Bush heeds (e.g., Cheney) to set him straight on the need for extensive reform.

Impeachment seems impossible. So otherwise we have two more years of disaster ahead.
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WORD-GAMES: Bush noted with seeming approval the formula "We're not winning, we're not losing"--but then went on with usual Bushshit about 'achievable victory'.

But Colin Powell introduced a new formula: "We're not winnin; WE ARE LOSING--but we haven't yet lost." Oh yeah? NYT,21dec

"SHARE THE OIL !" preaches the InternatlCrisisGp. Emergent Shialand and Kurdland should be able to control search for new fields, but revenue should go to central govt. so Sunnis will get fair share. BLOODY LIKELY! ICG admits Iraq doesn't now HAVE an effective central govt.How would the share for Sunnis (hated by both the other groups) be ENFORCED?UnitedPress
http://upi.com/Energy/view.php?StoryID=20061221-033144-9431r

Likely outcome: Sunnis will not make peace, not without oil. Kurds and Shia will have to set up DEFENSIBLE BORDERS. US will move bases to Kurdland, will defend their borders; Sunnis will be driven out of Shialand; then their borders should be defensible; they outnumber Sunnis THREE TO ONE, and have military guidance from ally Iran.

If SaudiArabia is so concerned, let them share some of their oil trillions with Sunni/Arabs in Iraq. BLOODY LIKELY.

EXCITEMENT MOUNTS as number of Iraqi GIs killed nears 3000. Forget it; relevant number is of those killed in BOTH wars (remember Afhganistan?) That number is already over THIRTY-TWO HUNDRED. [Time mag/21Dec ] Never mind the wounded; they don't count here.

HAWK RANTS: Kagan, a long-time hawk, wants us to send in 30,000 more troops for 2 more years (until next election, of course !)

He says US can't tolerate defeat. Of course we can; we're used to it--Pentagon hasn't won a war in 60 years!
He means the neocons can't tolerate defeat--that would fix them in history as a paradigm of ruthless stupidity. Why not throw good resources after bad, hoping for a miracle? It's not THEIR money, it's not THEIR lives !

He points out that we have one million men/women under arms. That does raise an interesting question: why does Pentagon make wretched Iraq soldiers serve again and again, while GIs in over 100 overseas bases are exempt ?

He says that failure would demoralize army (but the longer the struggle, the more demoralizing will be the inevitable bugout !)

He says bugout would imperil 'US interests'. Presumably he's referring to CORPORATE interests, not to interests of ordinary Americans.

He says failure would enable alQuaeda takeover. A familiar spin. alQuaeda would have no chance in Shialand or Kurdland! And SaudiArabia (finally hostile to alQaeda) would help secular Saddamites slaughter AQ in Sunni/Arabland.

No good reason offered to postpone our inevitable bugout.
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He just assumes that the extra troops could put down the insurgents and sectarian militias; no military experts think that.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061221/edit21.art.htm
What would these added troops DO? ! Bush says they'd have to have a specific mission, but he couldn't say what that was. Troops in search of a credible mission ? !

By the way, this article just assumes added troops would NOT come from other bases, but from using and reusing the poor suckers who are fighting there now !

WHAT IS GATES SAYING?
"Our support troops will be here a lot longer than our combat troops." But support troops need supplies, and supply convoys are subject to insurgent bombs.

"Iran & Syria are doing harm." But SaudiArabian rich are openly buying weapons for insurgents to use vs. GIs. And both S.A. and Jordan complain that their youths are going into Iraq to help the insurgents vs. GIs. Iran has NO reason to help hated Sunni insurgents!

"We'll stay around--in Gulf region." i.e., perhaps, NOT in Iraq proper. Our staying around will motivate MORE terrorists to attack us all over the world.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-12-21-gates_x.htm
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"Iraqis can count on our steadfast support." Toward the end of Viet war, a cartoon showed a pompous US bureaucrat, talking thru a translator, assuring ROK officer (our allies) of our continued, steadfast support. Translator says to ROK officer: "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE !"

EXTREMIST GALL !
BLAIR CALLS FOR 'ALLIANCE OF MODERATES' TO TAKE ON IRAN IN A 'MONUMENTAL STRUGGLE BETWEEN DEMOCRACY & EXTREMISM.'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2087585.ece

Such extremist gall ! He's really calling for an alliance of SUNNI DESPOTS to battle Iran.

But each despot must deal with a large SHIA MINORITY in their own country.(S.Arabia's Shias are in their oil region!)These Shia would disrupt the despotic regimes if a huge Sunni/Shia regional war breaks out .

ltr toRMtnNews: DON'T ADMIRE SCROOGE !

Vincent Carroll's admiration for Scrooge(20Dec) comes as no surprise for those who have followed his right-wing maunderings. He says that misers serve the community by employing few servants and consuming few goods.

Centuries ago, deMandeville's FABLE OF THE BEES showed the economic fallacy displayed here. Misers who could afford servants but don't hire them lower the jobs available for potential servants. Misers who skimp on consumption lower the aggregate demand which must be constantly increasing in a 'free-market' society--especially now that megatech advances have resulted in hugely excessive productive capacity, so every industrial country worries about how to export their surpluses.

The main reason we face recession now is because so large a share of our income has been shovelled to the very wealthy, who couldn't spend their surpluses if they wanted to. Instead, more should go to the poor (e.g., through raises in the minimum wage)--the poor who would love to consume more if they could, increasing the necessary aggregate demand.

Frugality threatens the collective economy, but saves the frugal individual from much suffering. That's why TV has to addle our brains, to get us to buy mountains of unneeded junk. Unfortunately, these muddled brains are also called on to vote.

WHY THE GULF NAVAL BUILDUP? This writer thinks it is to counter Iran's threats to respond to an attack by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, thu which 40% of world's oil passes. In other words, by blocking possible Iranian retaliation, the way would be cleared for a US/Israel attack on Iran.

He notes the oddity of Saudis threatening to 'back Sunnis' if we pull out of Iraq. He says there's no quicker way for Saudi royals to undermine what's left of their legitimacy than to publicly back continuing US infidel presence in Muslim Iraq! (Earlier, US had to pull out its base in 'sacred' Arabia, fearing the rage all over the Muslim world.)GUARDIAN
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dilip_hiro/2006/12/dire_straits.html
How would this 'straits unblocking' work? Short-range Iranian missiles (hidden by the thousands) could sink oil tankers in the narrow strait. Suicide bombers in PT-boats could attack such tankers. How would a second aircraft carrier help counter these threats (itself now vulnerable to Iranian non-nuke missiles) ?

'SADRITES THE BIGGEST THREAT TO COALITION PRESENCE !' Pentagon now says officially--IF VAGUELY ! UnitedPress

http://upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061218-064213-7798r

But 7 in 10 attacks are vs. GIs, and they have never claimed that these attacks are by Sadrites !
And it's admitted that attacking Sadrites headon (with 40,000 warriors) would 'raise the level of violence' in Iraq (especially in Southern Iraq, where Shia guerillas could cut our supply lines from Kuwait.)

Why this goofy insistence on an obviously false claim? Bushies just can't face inevitability of oil-soaked Shia ministate in South, allied with hated Iran. They just can't admit that IRAN is wining Bush's war !

US NAVAL BUILDUP IN GULF ? (to warn Iran against 'provocative' naval maneuvers there). JerusalemPost

Another really silly move. Iranians know that we bombed hell out of Afghanistan from Kansas! And new war secy. admitted we have nukes in Gulf already.

It's hard to imagine the real reason for moving a second aircraft carrier into range of Iran's missiles! You can bet it relates to more billions for Pentagon.

GERMAN GENERAL DENOUNCES AFGHAN PESSIMISM: "After ONLY FIVE YEARS, nobody should say we're failing!" It turns out that German troops are restricted to the peaceful Northern region, not venturing into the bloody regions where Taliban are attacking 'coalition' troops fiercely and effectively.

Americans are calling for more Nato troops, but not offering more US troops.France is pulling out its 200 combat troops. Canadians are calling for a pullout of their troops.UnitedPress
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GUARDIAN writer says we'e losing Afghan war. He quotes Kharzai in tears: "We can't stop the terrorists coming in from Pakistan. And we can't control the (NATO) bombers...our children are dying..cruelty at the highest level.."
Observers say Taliban camps in Pakistan, joined by Jihadists from several countries, are preparing for a violent Spring attack.

SUNNIS are OUR foes: Attacks have spiked in last 3 months (AFTER US plunged into Baghdad, to straighten things out !) Seven in Ten attacks were aimed at our troops--obviously by Sunnis.
Yet the Pentagon insists that Sadrites are the main enemy ! CNN

IRAN SWITCHES TO EUROS from dollars. Some have said that this prospective switch was real reason for US threats to attack Iran, NOT its move toward nukes. alJazeera

New war secy Gates has nixed US attack on Iran. But if we let Israel attack, Iran will retaliate also vs. US.

FAILURE OF 'SPLENDID LITTLE WAR' (conquest of Phillipines) Guerilla war vs. US occupation. 4000 GIs killed; Pres. said God told him to 'civilize' the Phillipines. Americans turned against campaign. Independence granted in 1916. Observer
WHAT DID WE (vs. corporations) GAIN?

SOME BASE ! Phillipines immediately fell to Japanese attack. Hundreds of captured GIs endured years of prison-horror. More casualties 'taking it back'.

After WWII, islands did not do as well as other Asian nations. (Incredible corruption from our puppet govts.) We pulled out finally, acknowledging hostility, abandoning super-costly bases.

We did use Phillipines as supply base for our foolish Korean & Viet wars.

New Phillipine constitution bans any 'help' from outside (ie., US) military. Jungles now harbor alQaeda-type guerillas.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS: Some general just said that the 'anti-terror war' will last 100 years.
He's right that the threat of terrorist attacks on our Homeland will last for decades.
But of course he's really saying that unlimited Pentagon budgets should last for 100 years.

However,the Pentagon is totally useless for preventing terrorist attacks on our Homeland.
Its only real talent is bombing--useful only vs. nations, not vs. thousands of terrorist INDIVIDUALS who are not loyal to any nation.
It's draining our National Guard for overseas wars.

It's wrecking our economy, by running up huge debts overseas.

And of course it means we can't afford the obvious precautions for Homeland Defense: e.g., inspecting all the thousands of huge ship-containers entering our ports every day--or subsidizing the training of medical personnel to prepare for inevitable germ-war attack.

US TRADE DEFICIT JUMPS: Now 7% of gross domestic product. UnitedPress
One can't find out what proportion is caused by Pentagon overseas expenditures.

PUNDIT WANTED SEPARATE PEACE WITH SADDAMITES: Long ago, (Mar./05) this writer deplored Bush unwillingness to grant amnesty to Saddamite insurgents--(even those who had killed Americans!]-- to split them from the jihadists and justify a US bugout.

ForPolInFocushttp://www.fpif.org/commentary/2005/0503forward.html

This could go 2 ways:
--sensible: split Arab/Iraq into SunniLand & Shialand ministates. Hand Sunni/land over openly to secular Saddamites and help them slaughter the fanatic jihadists, their erstwhile allies.

--or goofy: try to restore Sunni dominance over all of Arab/Iraq, from loathing for a Shia ministate allied with hated Iran. This Shia ministate will happen, whatever we want; the only question is the amount of suffering involved.

ANONYMOUS GUNMEN KIDNAP DOZENS OF 'RED CRESCENT' WORKERS (Muslim parallel of RedCross)--just days after a R.C. honcho said that Americans were interfering with their work more than insurgents were ! FORBES

GOOFY DEM ! Harry Reid says he'd support sending a few thousand more troops into Iraq 'for only 2 or 3 months' IF all troops were to be pulled out in early '08.

Military experts correctly ridiculed this proposal. Frothing Gen.Keane says we need more than 30,000 extra troops, for at least one & 1/2 years! SeattlePI

In fact, Bushies have already sent a couple of thousand new troops to Kuwait, to be sent in to Iraq.
Their absolute failure will make more vivid the nuttiness of continuing this fiasco.

FRANCE HAS ONLY 200 COMBAT TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN, and they're PULLING THOSE OUT ! They say they'll continue to support the 'coalition' effort with airpower, and they'll help train Afghan troops. SeattlePI

France, unlike Brits & Bushies, has the good sense NOT to throw good lives after bad in a hopeless battle vs. native Afghan Taliban.

So much for goofy McCain's demand for MORE Nato troops to be sent to Afghanistan !

RECONCILIATION? Maliki held a 'conference on reconciliation' behind the fortress-walls of the Green Zone. Before, only Baathists up to 'major' rank were welcomed in his army; now ANY Basthists will be welcome (because of US pressure, most likely).

However, the conference was boycotted by the Sadrites (militia of 60,000),the representatives of insurgents, and the exiled opposition.SeattlePi
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq.html

Insurgents may still be sulking over recent US 'double-cross'.
---------------
It was stupid of Bushies early on to shun all Baathist troops & officials. But that doesn't mean it's smart to take them into army now ! (They may be frozen in hatred of US, and may be infiltrating for the insurgents.)

And imagine the rage of the Shia /Kurd soldiers if they are asked to serve under hated Saddamite officers !
-----------------
"RECONCILIATION FALLS FLAT !" says writer in ChicagoTribune . The only solution (and the inevitable outcome) is the dissolution of any 'all/Iraq' regime, and the split of Arab/Iraq into SunniLand & ShiaLand (Kurds have already seceded.)
Americans will fight against this, but they can't stop it.
-------------
Sunni Insurgents declare (back in Oct) separate govt (including AlQaeda). NYSUN,15 DEC This was not talked of in America--first sign that Sunni recognize inevitable split of Arab/Iraq into 2 ministates.

MORE THAN 3 A DAY GIs KILLED IN DECEMBER. At the usual ratio, that's 25 wounded each day. The 'signature injury' in this war is brain-damage--GIs who would have been killed in another war have their torsos protected from road-bombs--but NOT their heads and vulnerable brains!

'INTELLIGENCE SVCES MUST DO BETTER !' says Baker report. WashPost
They could hardly do worse! We're lunging around Iraq blind, not able to tell friend from foe.

PERCEPTIVE WRITER says neo-cons are now not hawks, but vultures, feeding on a war-effort that's DEAD !

The Baker report is not a prescription for defeat, it's an acknowledgement of defeat. If Bushies had any brains left, they'd welcome it as a bipartisan figleaf to cover our bugging out.http://upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061215-112411-3701r

Instead, Bushie neocons are ranting against the report. So we'll have to bug out without any fig-leaf.

POWER NOT FROM MATH/SCIENCE: A flood of ads & articles telling us that our lack of power is because our youths are ignorant of math & science.
But true power is being able to benefit our country. We can't do that because our youth are ingnorant of foreign languages and knowledge of other cultures.

The basic problem is narcissism of Americans, uninterested in the outside world--except for foolishly wanting to rule it!

RED-HOT STORY ! US IN BED WITH INSURGENTS?
US WANTED ALLIANCE WITH SUNNI INSURGENTS (who were killing GIs !) to slaughter the Shia in Baghdad. But then when our ambassador publicly went for talks with IRAN...angry insurgents backed out of any alliance..

Insurgents had proposed a 'cease-fire' with US forces for 10 days; obviously it never happened; now they're killing more GIs than ever. London Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2496369.html

(Some in D.C. want temporary surge of US troops in Iraq, to wipe out Shia Sadrites.
All that will happen is that the SIXTY THOUSAND SADRITES will be attacking our GIs also, with or without coordination with Sunni insurgents !
Shia insurgents can cut our supply lines from Kuwait.)

Ltr to USATODAY:Your story on 15 Dec [p.13a / no link ]
says that 'much' of the sectarian bloodshed in Iraq is caused by the Shia militia under Moqtadr al Sadr. This ignores the obvious fact that most of the victims, by far, are Shiites ! (700 casualties in just two days of bombing.)

Bushies push these silly claims onto our tame media because they are covertly trying to align themselves with Sunnis (who are killing our GIs!) to block creation of a Shia ministate allied to hated Iran. Their clumsy tricks will just make 60,000 Sadrites turn on our GIs, and hasten the deFacto secession of Shia.

WHEW! Only death can give GOP the Senate! Even if Sen.Johnson is incapacitated from his stroke, GOP gov. can appoint replacement ONLY IF JOHNSON DIES. CNN

DUMB HAWK PRESCRIPTION UnitedPress
--"ally with local tribe leaders, undermine Iran regime." --when only 6 in 1000 embassy-functionaries are fluent in Arabic? How many understand Iranian language?

--'rally Americans for a long campaign' A little late: 60% want us out in 6 months. No history of reversing such a slide in support for a war !

POLONIUM: IDEAL STUFF FOR 'DIRTY BOMB' UnitedPress
One expert worries that the Russ 'victim' was part of crew trying (clumsily) to sell polonium to terrorists.

PROMINENT S.ARABIAN CLERICS PRAISE IRAQ INSURGENTS, URGE REGIONAL SUNNIS TO SUPPORT THE 'IRAQI SUNNIS'. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Saudi_Iraq.html
An earlier story said that rich Saudis are buying weapons for Sunni insurgents to use against GIs !Saudis themselves complain that their youths are crossing into Iraq to fight with the insurgents (against GIs !)

It has long been obvious that Saudis are 'harboring terrorists'. Yet Bushies are silent on this issue, saying that main problem is 'sectarian' (i.e., Shia) violence. Bushies want a return of Baathist (Saddamite) rule over all Iraq, or at least over Shia (No chance they'll rule over independent Kurds!)

BLOODY LIKELY ! Such moves by Saudis will just trigger more clearly the Iranian meddling.In a war between Saudis and Iranians, Saudis will be fatally wounded. (Iranians have huge, war-seasoned army. Saudi rulers are so insecure they once stupidly allowed a US base on 'sacred' Arabia, to protect them from their own people ! Their oil region contains mainly Shia population!)

What the Saudis could do is to flood world with oil, cut price in half, ruining Iranian economy.
But it would also ruin economies of other oil-producers, including Russia & Venezuela--who have no interest in supporting Sunnis vs. Shia.
This would presumably wreck OPEC's power as a united cartel controlling oil-prices.

'WIDENING RICH/POOR GAP AN URGENT PROBLEM' say 3 in 4 Americans. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/295840_polleconomy14.html
Finally, they're waking up that the owners are screwing even the elite workers !

TWENTY KIDNAPPED BY 'POLICE COMMANDOS' (wearing outdated uniforms): ChinaView
Not said: whether victims were Sunni or Shia. If Sunni, it still remains true that Shia kill Sunni retail, Sunni kill Shia WHOLESALE.
-------------
48 businessmen kidnapped in SHIA district, says Agence France-Presse

POLL: AMERICANS DISENCHANTED with our 'joined-at-the-hip' relationship with Israel.
UnitedPress

A writer in TIME (16Dec/link unavailable) took it for granted that it would be bad if the Iraq fiasco (he admits it's worse than the Viet fiasco ! )--if this new fiasco results in a turn by our people to isolationism.
He thinks this needn't happen. After all, following Vietnam, we have productive relations with Asian countries--even with Vietnam !

Of course he doesn't mention our staggering trade deficits with China and Japan, nor the fact that these Asian countries have pegged their currencies to the dollar--so we can't cut our imports and raise our exports by devaluing our currency.

Nor does he mention that it's said that China and Japan have enough of our dollars in bonds that they could buy every corporation in America. True, if China started selling dollars, it would lose as the value of our bonds plummeted. But in such a situation, the first nation to sell our bonds off suffers the least. A recipe for a panic.

Why should the Iraq disaster make us isolationist? Hopefully, it would make us realize that we have no sizeable elite competent in foreign languages (in our half-billion-dollar Iraq embassy, out of 1000 functionaries, only SIX are fluent in the langauge!) Nor do we have an elite learned about other cultures. So we should realize that our lunges into world affairs are blind.

So we should back out of world affairs, close our 100 military bases overseas, cut the Pentagon budget and spend our attention and money on moves to defend our Homeland from terrorist attack.

We won't, of course--too bad.

"OUT OF IRAQ; INVADE IRAN !" seems to be the msg of deBorchgrave, a long-time friend of US hawks. He actually quotes approvingly a US hawk's call for 'a major invasion of Iran.' !UnitedPress.

deB. admits that BOMBING Iran would likely mobilize Muslim opinion worldwide even more strongly than now. (As if invasion wouldn't !!)

But he thinks that pulling out of the region, or forcing Israel to 'make nice' with Palestine would be also disastrous.

So the most likely outcome, he suggests, is an invasion of Iran to distract Americans from the Iraq fiasco.

Look for a spike in oil-futures price if savvy speculators figure Bushies are really going for this nutty option. Also, say goodbye to GIs now in Iraq, who would have to man this new fiasco.

CONGRESSMEN DEMAND ANTHRAX INFO: Five yrs ago, several offices and post-offices suffered attacks by anthrax-filled envelopes. The culprits were never found and charged. Now 30 Congressmen (of both parties) demand that FBI tell them about the investigation.

FBI refuses info, 'worrying about leaks'. But legislators point out that Congress is supposed to have 'oversight' over FBI, and this can't happen if FBI feels free to refuse info !
SeattlePI

NEARLY 300 BOMB-VICTIMS, MOSTLY SHIA : 2 coordinated bombs (on East--shia side--of river !) killed over 56, injured over 220. NYTIMES

US chatters about danger from SHIA 'death-squads'; US is now covertly allied with Sunnis.

But it's still true that Shia kill Sunnis retail; Sunnis kill Shia wholesale.

The only remedy: Shia deFacto secession from Iraq, since Shia-dominated 'central govt.' can't protect Shias. Shias will have to expel all Sunnis from their region, while Shia flee from Sunni neighborhoods.

US could protect refugee convoys, but they won't--because they don't want an oil-rich Shia ministate set up, allied with Iraq.
---------------
2 THINGS NECESSARY for us to prevail, says US general:
1) MAKE JOBS for idle youth tempted to join militias.

2) to RECONCILE Sunnis, Shia and Kurds. In detail, he talks about Shia 'making nice' with Sunnis. [UnitedPress, 12Dec]
BLOODY LIKELY, after Sunni bombs just slaughtered Shia youth LOOKING FOR JOBS !-------
Sunnis also tried again to bomb sacred Shia shrine in Samarra !!
-------
These preposterous attacks may be rational tactic of Sunni jihadists to block any alliance between Shia Sadrites and Saddamite Sunnis, to chase out Americans.
(Sadddamites could still share weapons and intelligence with Shia insurgents, to chase out Americans. They could cut our supply lines from Kuwait.)

The attacks will also block parliamentary alliance between some Shia & Sunnis to block Sadrites from govt. power.

BOMBS SUNDAY KILL 4 GIs, wound others: CNN

Pentagon chatters about all the anti-road-bomb devices it is developing. But the toll of GI bomb-victims stays up.

Even when we pull back our 'combat troops' to fortress-bases, these must still be supplied mainly by roads from Kuwait. Now we've enraged the Sadrite Shia; they can increase attacks on our supply convoys.

Attempts to supply the bases by air are problematic. In last 2 weeks 3 US aircraft went down in Anbar province.

MOST AMERICANS NOW AGREE with what I've been saying since '02:
Bushie war-mongering has made many nations increase armaments so they'd have a SECOND-STRIKE DETERRENT vs. rabid US military. UnitedPress

We're now far less safe than before Bush took over !

PARTITION is the only answer, says a UnitedPress writer. US must help Sunnis take over their own separate ministate, and guarantee their 'fair share' of oil-money.

The SunniArab ministate is a good idea, run by SECULAR Saddamites, on condition that they slaughter their erstwhile jihadist allies. But there is only one way to GUARANTEE Sunni share of oil-money; that is to cede to Sunni region some rich oil-lands--e.g., the Kirkuk area.

US could perhaps pressure Kurds (in return for US protection vs. Turks) to split the Kirkuk oil-lands with the Sunni/Arabs. But it's doubtful if Kurds would accept this.

Shia will certainly NOT share their oil-lands with hated Sunni !

OUR NEXT WAR:
WILL WE FALL FOR NEXT WAR?
For a few years, Americans will remember the humiliating defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, and will resist siren calls of the Pentagon to go to war again.
But then, with our famously short memories, we'll fall again.

For many Americans, 'thinking' about war consists of running a picture of heroic WWII fighter-pilots, or Rambo, above these slogans: 'The best Defence is a good Offense' and 'Victory through airpower.'

Pacifists sometimes say that Truth is the first casualty of war. Not so: good-sense perishes first; then there' s no demand for truth

MALIKI OUT? Rumors fly that a new Parliamentary alliance will oust Maliki for failing to control militias. Sadrites will be excluded from the new alliance. SeattlePI

Sadr recently suggested allying his faction with the Sunni insurgents, intent on one project: chasing Americans out.

That probably accounts for US puppets making this new move.

This will probably accelerate motion toward alliance between Sadrites and insurgents.

It's said that Sadrite boycott of Parliament made it unable to raise a quorum. How will they vote to oust Maliki if they can't raise a quorum?
-------------------------
Shia driving Sunnis out of a mixed neighborhood. Speculation is that they're trying for an all-Shia path between Sadr City and the Shia areas east of the river. SeattlePI

3d US AIRCRAFT DOWN in a week--one an F-16, costing nearly $20 million, all in Anbar province (the hotbed of insurgency). US denies that any of these were downed by insurgents.
SeattlePI

SEPARATE SQUABBLE OVER KIRKUK: Lots of oil there ! Election soon by Kurkuk 'residents' will likely annex Kirkuk to Kurdland.

Kurds, Turkomen & Sunni/Arabs are all trying to infiltrate the area--and chase rivals out--to bolster their voting power.

(US,Israel support Kurds; Turkey hates Kurds, backs Turkomen; Saudi Arabia may back Sunni/Arabs. ) A huge conflict may explode here.

WAR SECY TALKS SENSE !! GATES STATES THE OBVIOUS:
--the crazy President does not control Iran; the mullahs do.

--If they insist on developing a (Model-A) nuke, it's NOT for launching a first-strike at Israel. They're completely surrounded by nuke-armed powers (including nuke-armed US Navy in Gulf); they want nukes to deter some of these other nations from attacking them ! http://upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/

Earlier Gates warned of Iran's formidable NON-NUKE deterrent power; e.g., with nothing to lose, they could slaughter our GIs next-door in Iraq.

So it looks like we won't bomb Iran; but if we let ISRAEL bomb them, they'll retaliate also vs. US; Pentagon/Israel are joined at the hip.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE! Sunni spokesmen complained that the (largely Shia) police/army of the (Shia-controlled) central govt.--that this force protected Shia from Sunnis, but not Sunnis from Shia ! SeattlePI

Ethnic cleansing (preparing way for split into 3 ministates) is proceeding vigorously. Americans could minimize slaughter by escorting convoys of refugees to safe regions..but that would admit inevitability of partition, anathema to D.C. (including 'Baker' commission) because result would be an oil-rich Shia ministate with most Iraqis, MOST OIL, sole seaport, and alliance with US/Israel-hated Iran.

AFGHAN POPPIES WILL BE HERBICIDED: SeattlePI
That will enrage farmers, many of whom will now be supporting Taliban attacks on 'allied' foreign invaders. A given GI in Afgh. has about the same chance to be killed/ maimed as one in Iraq.

FT.COLLINS COLORADOAN finally printed a letter of mine, on winning/losing:

ONE HUNDRED A MONTH (GIs now being killed in Israq) says 'Baker' report. OBSERVER
(Usual ratio: 8 wounded for each GI killed.)

If that rate continues, then we'll have 12,000 more killed and nearly 100,000 MORE wounded by the '08 bugout schedule envisioned by the bipartisan Commission. (And even more will be returned shell-shocked, with family breakups and job-ineptitude.)

Both hawks and doves have noted that a report with 'bipartisan' approval is in no way assured to be correct in its proposals. Someone has noted that a duck-billed platypus is an animal designed by a bipartisan committee.
---------------------
Zionist Americans are furious at the Commission's demand that we negotiate with Iran to get their help stabilizing Iraq. But now IRAN REFUSES such talks until the Americans decide to pull troops out of Iraq. ChinaView

OIL CHATTER [ UnitedPress] Pundits pontificate on necessity of assuring the Sunnis a 'fair share' of oil money. But the present constitution really puts oil in defacto control of Kurds and Shias; present constitution allows deFacto secession of Shias, as Kurds have already achieved.
And the constitution certainly cannot be changed without the consent of Shia & Kurds !

US is threatening to cut off subsidy for central govt. if Shias/Kurds don't cooperate. This might influence present parliamentarians if their salaries depend on US. But it will not influence them enough to give up the right to 'their' oil. Shias have good reason to hate the Sunnis, especially after one recent attack that caused 400 Shia casualties.

Outcome will likely be: a paper compromise giving oil-money to Sunnis--but a compromise unenforced on Shias/Kurds.

US is strangely siding with Badr militia, vs. the Sadrite militia. (1000 'coalition' troops just attacked Sadrites in Basra.) But the Sadrites have been unenthusiastic about secession, while the Badrs have been favoring secession.

US is also favoring the Sunnis, encouraging Saudi Arabia to support the Sunnis. (Rich Saudis are buying weapons for insurgents to use vs. GIs !) But meanwhile we're 'training & arming forces of the central govt',most of whom are mainly loyal to some Shia militia.

It's hard to see any coherent US strategy at work here.

"'BAKER' COMMISSION REPORT IS NOT HELPFUL" says a plausible commentator in LEBANON STAR.
Stripped of all the vague and ambiguous phrasing, it's designed to give Bush a cover for bugging out and BLAMING IT ALL ON IRAQIS.

Who cares about the blame? (Historians will allot the blame to Bushies!)
It would be great if Bushies used the cover to bug out !
Of course we'll bug out before the big '08 election!
That's really all this pompous document says.

UNGOLDEN SILENCE:
ltr to RMtnNews (it WON'T be printed !)
You gave a tiny space to the recentAP poll about Iraq--but you totally ignored the surprising finding that 60% of Americans want us to pull out within six months !

In another place, you quote a Scripps-Howard pundit as saying "The middle (between Bush and John Murtha) is where MOST Americans are." However, 60% of Americans line up with Murtha, saying we should pull out now.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/295297_iraqpoll09.html

Ft.Collins COLORADOAN ran 2 big stories 9Dec on slipping support for war--but they didn't mention this poll at all !!

BRITS, DANES LAUNCH HUGE ATTACK VS. BASRA SADRITES:
Independent

Why only the Brits & Danes? Air-support was surely American. Can they all be so dumb they don't think the Sadrites will retaliate vs. Americans?

This may be signal that the 'allies' are siding with Shia BADRA militia against Sadr's Mehdi.

Badra are even more obviously allied with IRAN than are the Sadrites !

Sadrites can cut off our supplies from Kuwait.

US AIRSTRIKES: US says they killed militants; local Iraqis say they killed 5 children.Locals elsewhere say that US troops killed a family up close, then called in airstrike to destroy evidence.WashPost

It doesn't matter what really happened. The local Iraqi story will be believed, not the US version, and will circulate instantly around the Muslim world.

As long as we try to fight guerillas with airstrikes, we're going to reinforce Iraqi agreement (among Sunnis AND SHIA) APPROVING OF ATTACKS ON GIs, and we're going to help terrorist leaders recruit new volunteers to die killing Americans all over the world.

Pentagon has learned nothing from Vietnam--has not learned that airstrikes don't work vs. guerillas, indeed are counterproductive.

Airstrikes are really the Pentagon's only talent; when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

BUSH CHATTERS ABOUT 'VICTORY' but only 9% of Americans expect that.
SIXTY PERCENT WANT A SIX-MONTH TIMETABLE FOR BUGGING OUT !
(HOWEVER: After optimism about Viet war sank to 7%, WAR CONTINUED FOR 8 MORE YEARS !) SeattlePI

'IN SUNNI/SHIA REGIONAL STRUGGLE, US IS JUST IN THE WAY", says retired general.

He seems to side with Sunnis vs. Iran; but he points out that the Sunni nations can't intervene against Iran while their intervention seems to be siding with universally-hated US.

Another reason to bugout and leave this quarrel to the natives.

UnitedPress

(Before we decide that Sunnis will win, we should remember that ONLY IRAN has war-seasoned army.)

IRAN CALLS FOR MUSLIM UNITY VS. US:
"Iran is not the main enemy of Sunni countries; that's ISRAEL !"
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iran_Arabs_US_Military.html
It's sad but psychologically true generally: devout believers hate heretics closest to them more than they hate 'infidels'. (Catholics and Lutherans warred for 100 years over doctrinal differences imperceptible to outsiders, or to modern theologians.)So Sunni leaders probably resent new Iranian power even MORE than they resent open foe Israel.

New US Defense Secy just admitted that Iranian retaliatory powers block us from attacking Iran.

(Coming Shia ministate in Iraq, plus their ally in Iran, will control about as much oil/gas as does SaudiArabia!)

However, every Sunni government (puppet to US) has a large Shia MINORITY that it must not enrage (Saudi Shia occupy the main oil region ! ) ; also, ordinary Sunnis admire Shia Hezbollah driving Israel again out of Lebanon, and Shia Iran's help in giving hotfoot to US in Iraq.

SADRITE BOYCOTT WRECKS PARLIAMENT: No quorum possible. The boycott was originally called to protest Maliki's talk with Bush. But now they say they won't come back until a timetable is set for bugout of US troops. SeattlePI

Rumor has it that Sadr is promoting an alliance of Sunnis, Christians, and Shia--agreeing on one proposal: US TROOPS OUT !

BLACK HUMOR: The Baker Commission noted that in our half-billion-dollar embassy in Baghdad, out of one thousand functionaries, ONLY 33 understand Arabic at all; only SIX are fluent !
We keep meddling BLINDLY in world affairs.
----------------
"NEW MOVE FORWARD !" Don't you just love this bullshit euphemism for our bugout of Iraq?
We're not retreating, just ATTACKING BACKWARDS !

Poodle Blair just said that our coming bugout is a STRONG move forward !

Once again, the shame is NOT in our finally bugging out; the disgrace is our government (i.e., our Pentagon) constantly BARGING INTO POINTLESS, winless wars.
--------------------------------
NON-HUMOR: Today, on 6 Dec., ELEVEN GIs were killed. (The usual ratio is EIGHT WOUNDED for every GI killed.)

EXIT IN '08? Suppose we pull out in Feb.'08, as the 'moderate' Baker commission suggests. Suppose our casualties continue at the present rate of around 23 a day (killed, maimed wounded--besides those thousands returned with shell-shock).

That's 420 days, or a total of about 10,000 MORE casualties, besides the 25,000 we have already incurred.

What's moderate about that?

Around 20 GIs injured each day (half seriously), along with 2 or 3 dead. Altogether, nearly 3000 killed in Iraq (others in Afghanistan) and over 22,000 injured in Iraq (i.e, number admitted by Pentagon.) UnitedPress

Sunni insurgents can inflict that many GI casualties each day; and nothing Pentagon has done has lowered that number.

3 OUT OF 4 AMERICANS want talks with Iran & Syria, 'making nice' to get their help in stabilizing Iraq. SeattlePI Prestigious, bipartisan 'Baker' Commission agrees.
But our Israeli masters say NO!

Which way will Bush jump?

NO HANDOVER WORKABLE: In D.C. , chatter is about 'handing over security' to 'Iraq forces'--but there are few forces loyal to central govt, and these are incompetent (in ways that will take years to remedy.) Pols are divided: Sunni blame Shia for turmoil; Shia (with far more evidence!) blame Sunnis for most killing. And even if pols agreed, they don't control the militias!
MercuryNews

AFGHANISTAN: Brits are main fighting force--and for the 1st time they admit that a Brit force has RETREATED after a ten-hour battle with Taliban ! [ABC/TVNEWS, 5 Dec]
Taliban now launches ten attacks each day.

Two experts on JIM LEHRER NEWS said the Bushies have bungled fatally. Our 'Kharzai' govt. is totally corrupt and ineffective.'Only a cohesive international effort' could save the country--but NO nations now--including US ! --will invest blood and money in such a doomed effort.

Only the Brits are still pretending. (They invaded Afgh. 3 times in 19th century, bugging out each time. Once not a single invader survived. They're slow learners.)

SUNNIS ARE MAIN KILLERS: US spin tries to de-emphasize this (for some strange reason), pushing the idea that the big problem is 'shia death squads'. But whenever sect of victims is known, victims are usually Shia. FOUR HUNDRED SHIA casualties from one Sunni attack!

And the people killing Americans are mainly Sunni insurgents.
NewStraitsTimes

PENTAGON TRIGGERING $ FALL?
US 'imports' 50% more than it exports each year. So the $ has to fall, perhaps 20% more, to make our imports more expensive and our exports cheaper to the rest of the world. A gradual decline of the $ would help us; but a catastrophic RUN on the dollar would hurt everyone. GUARDIAN

Nobody asks how much the Pentagon contributes to this imbalance. First, it imports staggering amounts of oil, now at a much higher price. Secondly it maintains over one hundred expensive bases overseas; all the huge local expenses of these bases count as imports.

We don't NEED these bases. We managed to dumb tons of bombs on Afghanistan from bombers based in Kansas ! So why do we maintain them? NOT as spy bases; we have very few operatives who even speak the foreign language of the host country.

One possibility is that Pentagon buys cooperation from foreign governments by subsidizing these nations in such a generous way. (Similar bases at home would bolster demand here and help domestic economy.)

WORLD'S YOUTH DON'T ENDORSE US 'WAR ON TERROR':
71% in cities around the world think this 'war' has made the world LESS safe.
Guardian

IRONY re Gates hearings: the Congressional hearings about Gates as new 'defense' secy will involve rereading an old classified memo in which Gates claims that the 'Monroe Doctrine' entitles US to 'change regimes' in this hemisphere by every method short of invasion.
UnitedPress

The irony is that the hamhanded conduct of the Bush administration has triggered a wave of anti-US regimes in Latin America: Ecuador and Venezuela being the most obvious. Chavez just got re-elected by a HUGE MAJORITY for 6 more years !)

(In fact, the left-wing ruler Gates was trying to remove in Nicaragua has just been elected there !)

And of course our old bugbear, Communist Cuba, is thriving more than ever, now that Venezuela is subsidizing it.

"$ THREATENED BY LOSS OF FAITH IN US ELITE" says James Galbraith. And that faith is undermined by that elite's enthusiastic endorsement of our 2 needless, pointless, heartless, brainless, winless WARS ! Guardian

ARE WE TRAINING AQ INSURGENTS? Just the other day, a US F-16 (millions of dollars) crashed in Iraq, killing pilot. Insurgents claimed they downed it.
This weekend a US copter crashed into a lake, killing 4 GIs. US said 'it didn't think' it was downed by guerillas. StraitsTimes 13 GIs died altogether this weekend.
----------------------
UN honcho says Iraqis worse off since invasion. Supporting this claim is the fact that each DAY, several thousands of Iraqis 'vote with their feet' by fleeing the country. No mass flight like this happened under Saddam.
--------------------
ATTACKS DOUBLED: "When I first proposed a pullout, attacks were 400 a day," says John Murtha. "Now they number EIGHT HUNDRED A DAY. They want us out of there !"
UnitedPress

SILENCE ON THE BEST OPTION: USATODAY editorializes on the need for 'new Iraq options', a need admitted in Rummy's farewell memo.

But not once does it mention the least-bad option, which is also the inevitable option: Iraq splitting into 3 ministates: Kurdland, Sunni/Arabland, and Shialand. This option has been recommended by Sen. Biden and by expert Peter Galbraith.

GIs should guard convoys of Sunnis fleeing Shialand, and Shia fleeing Sunni regions, to facilitate ethnic cleansing with the least amount of slaughter.

Separation of Sunnis from Shia is inevitable. Each DAY 2000-3000 middle-class Iraqis (who can afford it, whom Iraq can't afford to lose) flee the country. BostonGlobe
They'll return only to safe, segregated neighborhoods.

DeFacto Partition is happening: over 1,500,000 Iraqis have moved within the country (a similiar number fleeing country) since the invasion,--presumably to allied neighborhoods. Baghdad is being split by the Tigris river (Shia on East side, Sunnis on the West.) Kurdland is treating outside Iraqis as foreigners. SeattlePI
--------
Why the silence? Because our tame media, in thrall to Israel, can't bear to think of the new oil-rich Shialand being allied to hated Iran. But this will happen, whether we want it or not. Bushies in their ignorance set up the Constitution so the Shia, like the Kurds, can go into deFacto secession. Iran will be the real winner in Bush's war.

IRAQ: NOT SO COMPLEX !
SanFranChron.
This article lists options, says situation is 'too complex' for simple solutions. Among all the possibilities, it BURIES the situation as seen by a huge majority of Iraqis: that US troops are doing more harm than good (that's why Sunnis & Shias both APPROVE OF KILLING GIs !)

The article mentions gradual withdrawal: first from cities, then only on borders, then to Kuwait. However, A.Cordesman ridicules idea that our THREAT to withdraw would motivate and ENABLE the Maliki regime to squash all the militias.

The possibility is mentioned, in only one sentence, of using our troops to complete the 'ethnic cleansing' with minimum slaughter, by guarding convoys of Sunnis fleeing from Shia region and Shias fleeing from Sunni neighborhoods. (Bushies don't want to admit necessity-and INEVITABILITY--of Iraq splitting into 3 ministates:Kurdland, Sunni/Arabland, and Shialand--because Shialand would end up as oil-rich ally of US/Israel-hated Iran.)

What about worries that Anbar province would provide a training-base for AlQuaeda, necessitating a re-invasion in ten years? Nothing stops the US from handing over Sunni/Arab/land OPENLY to secular Baathist Saddamites, on condition that (with help from US and SaudiArabia) they wipe out their erstwhile allies, AQ.
Also, AQ has plenty of other 'failed states' for training; Somalia, Sudan--not to mention Indonesia, the most likely location.

(Besides, AQ is already training its warriors in our continuing, feckless war ! Insurgents say they just shot down a US F-16 fighter-bomber costing $14-18 millions. )

The article scolds Shia for not accepting 'necessary compromises' with Sunnis. The only compromise Sunni leaders would accept is a GUARANTEED share of oil-money; the only way that could happen is for Shia to cede some of their oil-rich TERRITORY to Sunnis

..never happen !(Sunnis inflicted 400 Shia casualties in one day recently ! ) Shialand--outnumbering Sunnis 3 to 1, with military advice from seasoned Iran army-will instead set up a defensible border against raids by Sunnis.

So the situation is not that complex. Facilitate inevitable split and pull out--the sooner the better, the later the worse.

TRICKS TO MINIMIZE US CASUALTIES:
--Army deaths are separated from Marine deaths.

--Huge number of wounded, maimed, crazed GIs is kept silent.

--Iraq casualties are never aggregated with GI casualties in Afghanistan:
total killed is ALREADY OVER 3000 !

UnitedPress writer explains patiently why 'sending more troops to Iraq' is a zany idea. But he recalls that many nations, when loss of war is certain, do zany things rather than admit defeat: zepplins in WWI, kamikaze pilots and V2 rockets in WWII, cavalry charges in earlier wars..all express nutty denial on the part of cornered rulers.

TWO HUNDRED IRAQI CASUALTIES IN BAGHDAD TODAY ! CNN

OWNERS VS. WORKERS: The owner-strategy in a 'democracy' has always been
to split the ranks of the (huge majority of) workers by giving good wages and security to the elite workers who vote (technicians, skilled workers, middle management), to make them identify emotionally with the powerful, sneering at the 'lazy losers'.

This strategy works well: the libertarians (whose central doctrine is "DON'T tax the well-to-do, to help the poor')--the ranks of these libertarians have always included many technicians and workers above the bottom level.

But now the owners have got so self-confident and arrogant that they feel they can put the screws on the elite workers, not just the bottom ones. (The real median income--the income of half of households--has been sinking for several years.)

Outsourcing replaces thousands of college grads, and mergers lower the number of needed middle-managers--these devices make elite workers share somewhat the impoverishment and insecurity of the unskilled workers. The next war will use infantry-robots; the owners won't even need human cannon-fodder ! (They will need a small number of technicians to control the robots.)

The chatter of 'bought' economic journalists is that the big gap is between the skilled and unskilled workers, that the remedy is more college graduates, especially in technical fields. But the HUGE gap is between the stock-holders (mainly the super-rich) and all the workers, elite as well as nonelite. It won't be long before youths realize that a college degree is not worth the huge amount it costs.

The 'liberal' hope might be that the elite workers would finally join the ordinary workers to outvote the tiny number of the very wealthy owners. Some motion in that direction happened this month, when a majority joined together to defeat the GOP allies of the very wealthy.

But this was only a small majority; many 'upper-class' workers still identified emotionally with the wealthy 'winners' and voted GOP. They feel secure because they still think their houses are valuable. When the housing bubble collapses completely, when the foreclosure rate surges, many elite workers will see that they also are 'one paycheck from financial ruin.'

We can only hope that at some point (in the coming recession) elite workers will identify emotionally with the ordinary workers, NOT with the wealthy owners who scorn them secretly.

SAUDIS VS. IRAN: Saudi rulers are firmly in US/Israel camp, opposing Iranian influence. Their spokesman says Mideast conflict is NOT Shia vs. Sunni; it's PERSIAN (Iranian) vs. ARAB (everyone else). SeattlePI

What cards does each power hold? Saudis could spike oil production, cut world oil prices until Iran's more expensive oil can't be sold, wrecking Iran's fragile economy. (Such a move would enrage Russia, Venezuela, & other oil-producers; it would delight Israel, America, China and Japan--huge oil-consumers--and it would wreck 'alternate-energy' stratagems. But China might continue to back Iran, for long-run reasons.)

IRAN could stir up Shia minorities in S.Arabia and other Sunni-run nations--Shia happen to inhabit S.Arabia's vulnerable oil-regions. Saudi Shia undoubtedly are proud of Shia power in Lebanon and Iran; unlikely they'd buy they 'Persian vs. Arab' line.

Iraq's Shia honcho Maliki refused to meet with Bush & Sunni King Abdullah together. Iraqi Shia (60% of population, in control of Parliament) will NOT accept Saudi/Sunni influence.

If pro-US Kurds in parliament turn vs. Shia, Shia will hurry process of deFacto secession: Shialand will have most Iraqis (after ethnic cleansing), MOST OF THE OIL, the only seaport, and Iran backing.