just another guy who served in the military
thanks to rising hegemon for the find. this is the break down of break downs on why the situation in iraq is the way it is.
Iraq was to the neocons what Afghanistan was to the Taliban: the one place on Earth where they could force everyone to live by the most literal, unyielding interpretation of their sacred texts. One would think that the bloody results of this experiment would inspire a crisis of faith: in the country where they had absolute free reign, where there was no local government to blame, where economic reforms were introduced at their most shocking and most perfect, they created, instead of a model free market, a failed state no right-thinking investor would touch. And yet the Green Zone neocons and their masters in Washington are no more likely to reexamine their core beliefs than the Taliban mullahs were inclined to search their souls when their Islamic state slid into a debauched Hades of opium and sex slavery. When facts threaten true believers, they simply close their eyes and pray harder.
thanks to jiacinto for this great idea.
here is the books for soldiers site.
unless you have served, you have no idea how much a good book, hell any book, is appreciated when you are overseas. it really can be a mind saver. just don’t send bibles. the military already has those for free for the soldiers. anything that takes the soldiers mind off reality is great.
thanks to SeltzerDuke for the link:
Rivalry between Argentina and Brazil led the two South American nations to embark on nuclear weapons programs in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, however, they concluded a series of treaties that bound them to end their nuclear weapons development and to seek greater cooperation and transparency in their nuclear programs.
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Brazil and Argentina’s actions to reverse their nuclear programs are generally cited as a success story for nonproliferation. However, some doubts remain. Both nations, particularly Brazil, remain nuclear capable, and some analysts have questioned whether Brazil has entirely renounced its weapons program. For the time being, however, most indications are that the two countries are sincere in their efforts to prevent a nuclear arms race in South America. In fact, Brazil is part of the New Agenda group pushing the Nuclear Weapons States to uphold their NPT commitments to nuclear disarmament.
be sure to click through the links at the bottom of the article for more information on both argentinas and brazils nuclear history.
so i posted this on my diary at dailykos, with some additional dialogue:
there comes a time when we have to ask ourselves, are we stopping nuclear proliferation or perpetuating it? too soon, every major industrialized nation in the world will acquire weapons because it is neccessary for their countries survival. otherwise they will have no bargaining power.
we invaded iraq on the grounds that saddam was building the bomb (which was a lie). meanwhile the rest of the world is in fact doing just that. i don’t think we will invade any of these nations because the stakes are too high. no sane person wants a nuclear confrontation. that said, i don’t think bush is sane.
i guess since Brazil has the ability to build a nuclear weapon, they are now on our “to invade” list.
Brazil has the world’s fifth-largest known natural reserves of uranium, and the plant at the center of the controversy, in Resende, 100 miles northwest of here, would allow it to join a select group of about a dozen nations that produce enriched uranium. Both the plant and the enrichment program are partly operated and controlled by the Brazilian Navy, and therefore are considered to have possible civilian and military applications.
Brazil’s official position, as expressed by Defense Minister José Viegas this year, is that it deserves a “dignified and differentiated” treatment, recognizing that it is not a rogue state and that its nuclear program exists exclusively for peaceful purposes. But arms control analysts in the United States and Europe have rejected that approach.
“If we give Brasília a pass at the same time that we are bearing down on Tehran, it not only will send exactly the wrong message to would-be proliferators, but will sharply diminish any prospects for success with Iran,” Brent Scowcroft, a former United States national security adviser, wrote in June in an essay in The Washington Post.
why is it important to know about these weapons? because they may one day be used against you when you legally try to protest your government. imagine standing there chanting “no more war” and suddenly your skin starts to burn, or you get dizzy and fall to the ground helpless. non lethal means it can get around treaties and existing laws.
our government isn’t the only one pushing this. most of europe is on board too.
Non-Lethal Capabilities Facing Emerging Threats
Several countries are currently developing and implementing new non-lethal capabilities. They do so in the belief that this will enable many emerging and non-traditional threats (which may appear in low intensity, asymmetric conflicts and non-combatant operations) to be countered with a progressive response. Non-lethal weapons are of interest to the military and to law enforcement agencies as, in many cases, the character of the scenarios is similar. Non-lethal weapons can be seen as having dual-use application and they provide armed forces and law enforcement agencies with additional options to respond in a tailored and graduated manner.
if ever any company was evil incarnate, Dyncorp (now owned by CSC) is that company. this jewel of the devil has brought humankind such wonderful gifts as agent orange and whatever the hell they are really killing the rainforests with. i had read about them a while back, but this news tidbit popped something in my head.
i have been wanting to post this for some time but have been missing one critical piece. but i found it! as mentioned in the last post, go read this. the point is that Dyncorp makes chemical weapons.
Still, who knows if Fort Worth is far enough? It has been in the past, for those seeking asylum from the military and paramilitary groups that have been fighting a civil war in Colombia for decades. But these new refugees cannot be so sure. After all, only a few minutes as the crow flies from Rondon’s office, the name of one of their attackers is emblazoned high above a busy Fort Worth freeway — DynCorp, the company whose planes have rained down poison on their animals and fields and homes. And DynCorp’s partner and employer in such attacks is the same entity whom these refugees must now ask for asylum — the United States government. More than that, Texas is home to many of those who have lobbied for these onslaughts, the companies that would like to develop the rich fields that lie below now-poisoned farms.
still following the venezuela story. it would seem that the economy there is picking up inspite of what the opposition proclaims. i hope so. the nations of south america went through hell during the cold war. i do find it amusing that the us supports democracy far away in the middle east while fighting against it closer to home. well maybe not amusing but sad.
i think this is extremely important because venezuela is one of our chief sources of oil in this hemisphere. if shit does hit the fan in the middle east, we will be all the more dependant on venezuela for oil.
its like a bad record. we are still blowing the fuck out of fallujah.
He wondered how these children could be considered followers of al-Zarqawi or that their houses belong to “terrorists” as claimed by the US.
Dr. Hamadani pointed out that Shaikh Abu Shenater, whose house was the target, was a prominent and well known tribal leader in the area and it was customary for people to congregate around him and his house especially on a Friday.
“The fact is that the US is pursuing a scorched earth policy that destroys everything on the ground. What has happened in Najaf, Falluja, al-Sadr City and Tel Afar is clear proof that this policy has failed,” Dr. Hamadani said.
A cleric in Baghdad, Shaikh Abd al-Ghafur al-Samarrai, lashed out at the US military for the bombings.
“If you have intelligence on the location of al-Zarqawi and his elements why don’t you surround and capture them?” he asked during his weekly sermon on Friday.
good question.
just another vet 