ISIS Finances

Linking here to an article at CSM on squeezing ISIS financially. We definitely can't do it all militarily.

Air strikes by the United States and Russian militaries show a new focus in international efforts against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: to undercut the group by degrading its ability to use oil as a financial lifeline.

Not a cure-all, but it's part of a strategy.

The leaders of IS “make excellent use of the money they attain…. The more you cut off that money, the more you make it difficult for them to do the funding of all sorts of nefarious projects.”

I had assumed they received money from the Sunni countries in the region as al-Qaeda does. Not so much, tho.

Oil isn’t the Islamic State’s only sizable funding source. Most notable is the extraction of rents (various forms of extortion, fees, and taxes) from populations in IS-held territories.

.....

Other experts say that the extortion of local populations may be the Islamic State’s No. 1 source of income.

Other activities yield smaller but meaningful income: the sale of antiquities, kidnappings for ransom, human trafficking, gifts from rich supporters. Last but not least is the one-time haul of money looted from banks when IS took over places like Mosul, Iraq – a total that may have reached $500 million to $1 billion in that city alone, experts say.

On the cost side of the IS ledger, payroll of fighters alone may run higher than $300 million per year. The group also has to spend on paying oil-field technicians, and on providing some government services in the regions it controls.

Add it all up, and some analysts see the IS financial model as unsustainable in the long run, without further territorial conquests. That becomes especially true if the opportunity to sell oil can be constrained.

And in other news of making Muslims want to kill us, here's John Kerry. 

Secretary of State John Kerry visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today to meet with Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The UAE — a close Western ally with some of the world’s largest oil reserves — is a federation of seven absolute monarchies which base their laws on an extreme interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law). Although it tries to present itself as practicing a semblance of democracy, the roles of the UAE’s president and prime minister are effectively hereditary in nature, passed down to the emirs of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The New York Times has described the UAE as “an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state.”

In his trip Monday morning, Kerry applauded the monarchic, theocratic state for its work in the region.

“We respect what United Arab Emirates has been able to do to be able to accomplish significant progress in Yemen,” Kerry said.

What exactly does Kerry mean by “significant progress”? He means the UAE has helped wage a destructive war on Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.

Supporting autocratic bastards who are raining death on a poor country also filled with Muslims is not going to help us.

Truth From Viggo Mortensen

I wish I could deny that any of this is true. Not going to copy and paste any because it all needs to be read.

Dear God, Get Us the Fuck Out of Syria

No, that really is my prayer. Otherwise I end up saying shit like, "there's no difference between Dems and Reps." Andrew Bacevich has been busy lately. With neo-cons on the Right and Obama doing his best imitation that's all to the best.

First, the United States undoubtedly possesses the wherewithal to topple the regime of Bashar Assad. On this score, the hawks are surely right. Whether acting alone, with allies, or through proxies, Washington over the past decade or so has demonstrated an impressive capacity to overthrow governments. Skeptical? Consider the fate of various evil-doers on whom we trained our gun-sights in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.

Second, once Washington has removed Assad as it did Saddam Hussein, the likelihood of the United States being able to put things right — creating a “new” Syria that is stable, humane, and grateful for American assistance — is approximately nil. Here the evidence supports the doves. Skeptical? Again, consider the course of events in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya once the evil-doers departed the scene.

It's all too good to pick and choose from. If you've stumbled in here from wherever, go and read it. If Barack Obama comes by: leave it to the Russians! If they're stupid enough to get involved: let them have it. 

Charles Pierce on the same subject, being equally vulgar. 

​I am getting ominous 1965 flashbacks again. Robert McNamara and Creighton Abrams are starting to appear in my mind's eye, pointing down a long, dark tunnel at the lights of an oncoming train.​

Today in Treason

Didn't want to miss putting up a post on the State Dept on Capitol Hill. No one better than Chas Pierce to talk about it, tho he links to a very good Bacevich.

I know I missed it on election night back in November, but it seems that 478,819 citizens of the state of Arkansas voted themselves in control of the foreign policy of the United States. They determined in ensemble fashion to visit upon the Senate—and, thereby, the country—the genius of Tom Cotton, who decided over the weekend on his own to lecture the government of Iran on How America Works—and, in fact, to lecture the government of Iran how it should work, for that matter. Put not your trust in Kenyan Usurpers, Tom cautioned the mullahs, for nothing is forever.

Cotton stands revealed as a true fanatic. He's stalwart in his convictions as regards things about which he knows exactly dick.

A tease. Go read it all. And it gets a WTF Obama? label for what Bacevich discusses in his piece.

And besides that: Netanyahu is starting to sound like Tricky Dick.

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks on Tuesday there was a "huge, worldwide effort" to ensure he loses next week's closely contested election.

He has yet to put out a call for "plumbers," tho.

One For Matt

Here you go, you big Green Party loon:

Bringing this fight means openly opposing the president. That’s something most progressives have never done and are still reluctant to do. For many it means conceding a point they’ve long resisted, that on many vital issues his views are those of the very establishment they hoped he would transform. Many will have to forsake electoral politics for a while, and also all its tools and tactics. We’ll win not with slogans or metaphors, but with fierce logic and tireless exposition.

But Democrats are still not the same as Republicans.

And ISIS is losing:

It's certainly true that ISIS remains a terrible and urgent threat to the Middle East. The group is not on the verge of defeat, nor is its total destruction guaranteed. But, after months of ISIS expansion and victories, the group is now being beaten back. It is losing territory in the places that matter. Coalition airstrikes have hamstrung its ability to wage offensive war, and it has no friends to turn to for help. Its governance model is unsustainable and risks collapse in the long run.

Unless ISIS starts adapting, there's a very good chance its so-called caliphate is going to fall apart.

The less help we give them will probably be the better for them.

The Yin and the Yang of Barack Obama

The president is just like George Bush:

The “revelations” from the report poured out to a stunned nation.  There were the CIA’s own figures on the hundreds of children in the backlands of Pakistan and Yemen killed by drone strikes against “terrorists” and “militants.”  There were the “double-tap strikes” in which drones returned after initial attacks to go after rescuers of those buried in rubble or to take out the funerals of those previously slain.  There were the CIA’s own statistics on the stunning numbers of unknown villagers killed for every significant and known figure targeted and finally taken out (1,147 dead in Pakistan for 41 men specifically targeted).  There were the unexpected internal Agency discussions of the imprecision of the robotic weapons always publicly hailed as “surgically precise” (and also of the weakness of much of the intelligence that led them to their targets).  There was the joking and commonplace use of dehumanizing language (“bug splat” for those killed) by the teams directing the drones.  There were the “signature strikes,” or the targeting of groups of young men of military age about whom nothing specifically was known, and of course there was the raging argument that ensued in the media over the “effectiveness” of it all (including various emails from CIA officials admitting that drone campaigns in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen had proven to be mechanisms not so much for destroying terrorists as for creating new ones).

That should finish off the last of the holiday spirit! It's from a report to be published in December 2019 according to the prophet Tom Engelhardt. I feel a ton of guilt just from stupid shit I did as a kid. How people who cause death and destruction to others on the level done by these fucks live with themselves, I'd love to know.

On this level, Obama equals Cheney. Read the rest. It doesn't get better.

Then there's the FDR, Lincoln, LBJ (the non-genocide in Vietnam LBJ); Obama:

However there are a few things that transpired this year that warm the very depths of my cold black heart. I’ve said before that before I shuffle off into oblivion/The Big Empty/infinity-XXL/Bloomington, Indiana, there were a few injustices that I would like to see corrected.

The right of gay-Americans to get same-sex hitched, marijuana to be legalized, and fer-Christ-sakes, accept that the embargo with Cuba was a stupid idea and lets get over ourselves and open up relations and travel with the warm and beckoning tropical nation.

For all intents and purposes, all three happened this year.

As a fellow late-middle-aged, middle-class white male living in America, I join Tbogg in celebrating these 3 bitchin' things America got for Christmas this year.

And some more good stuff from this year from The Nation; including Democrats that are not the same as Republicans. These would be Liz Warren, Zephyr Teachout, Pat Leahy, Barbara Lee, Maura Healey and many more.

There is hope. Yet.

The Christmas Spirit Is Alive And Well

My personal feeling is that 20 or 30 years from now, folks are going to look back on the whole EIT torture shame we are witnessing and will feel about it the same way rational people now feel about Japanese internment, McCarthyism and the lynching of Blacks back in the day. Right now, I hear tell, half the good folks of this here United States are reported to be right there with Dick Cheney in saying it was justified. So, for you future readers of Hometown USA, I present some letters to the Post Star. That was a newspaper. You likely won't have them. I'm going to leave the names off the letters, but provide links.

Isn’t it amazing, time after time we are fed these ridiculous stories, news articles from around the world, while the empty suit occupying our White House lies to us, insults and stabs our allies in the back, demoralizes our military, encourages racial strife, and all but destroys the middle class? Then comes this half-made-up story throwing our CIA under the bus, and bam, front page! Let’s embarrass the Republicans. Surprise all our senators, yes even liberal Democrats went along with these proposals years ago. But now that the voters have embarrassed these snakes, let’s take a last shot at tearing down this country.

We pay our police to keep the riff-raff from our door, then tie their hands. We pay our military to fight these murdering cowards, but our know-nothing liberals must guide them. I lost many good friends on 9/11. I still see the falling bodies. I still see three burning bodies hanging from the bridges. I can still feel the pain of the loved ones who saw the bodiless heads of husbands and children. Do I feel anything for these godless cowards? I only hope the next administration has more guts than this one. Hopefully America will again be respected and feared. We are fighting for our lives.

God bless you, John J. Byrnes III. Thank you for your service. Thank you, America’s police officers, America’s soldiers and the CIA.

Number Two:

I think Mr. Tingley should be ashamed of himself for his commentary concerning the Senate report of torture. First of all, this investigation was done solely by Senate Democrats without any input of many key players involved, most notably members of the CIA. It was obvious from the start that this was a totally biased political ploy concocted solely to distract from the many failures of this administration and he bit on it hook, line and sinker. These “enhanced interrogation” techniques are not torture. If you want to know what torture is, ask some of the POWs of World War II, Korea or Vietnam.

I’m surprised of the views of Sen. John McCain considering what he went through. He mentioned Mai Lai and Abu Ghraib. Sure, there will always be a few atrocities in war, but why not concentrate on the atrocities perpetuated on totally innocent people by the most inhumane barbaric savages of our time?

For anyone to have sympathy for any of this ilk being banged against a wall, have water poured on them or being “inconvenienced” in some way is totally beyond belief.

Yeah, what the hell? They pour Gatorade on coaches all the time. The third contestant for humanitarian of the year:

According to the Dec. 17 Post Star, 141 people, mostly children, were massacred in Peshawar, Pakistan, by the Taliban.

On Page A2 is an article about the killing of at least 25 in car bombings, including a school bus, on which at least 15 primary school students were killed in Sanaa, Yemen, which is blamed on al-Qaida.

Now tell me again why, if some of these terrorists were captured, enhanced interrogation would not be justified to help find the rest of the cowards who perpetrated this outrage.

Yes, won't you think of the children? Of course, if they had grown up she'd have had no problem with their being tortured because they were wrongly "fingered" by someone else being tortured who gave out their names. That's the way the witch trials in Europe and America went, I do believe.

And here is a Christmas gift for Matt Funiciello. This is one of those cases where I cannot argue against the fact that on some levels the Obama WH is absolutely as evil as the Bush/Cheney WH. 

Four years ago today, frustrated Tunisian vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and started a wave of uprisings in the Arab world that continue to reverberate to this day – though not in the way that many expected.

Sadly, the promise of what some call the Arab Spring has not come to pass anywhere yet, except perhaps in Tunisia, the small country where it all began.

Since then, a democracy protest movement has been crushed, with Saudi Arabian help, in Bahrain, the kingdom that hosts the US Fifth Fleet; Syrian protests for change have deteriorated into the world's bloodiest current civil war, with 200,000 dead, millions displaced from their homes, and the US fighting jihadis who became dominant in the uprising, not the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.

Yeah, the evil part:

Yet while President Barack Obama spoke of democracy and a change in the way the US does business in the Middle East in those heady days, today his administration and the US Congress, Republican and Democrat, are getting back to business as usual, with security and strategic concerns trumping the lip-service paid to democracy and open societies.

Earlier this month Congress approved a spending bill that calls for $1.3 billion in US cash and weapons for Egypt's military to be conditioned on tangible progress towards democracy. But lawmakers also allowed Mr. Obama to waive this requirement if he thinks security or other interests are more important. Yesterday, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the administration was delighted with this "flexibility."

OTOH, Obama did take actions in regard to Cuba that neither McCain nor Romney would have done in a million years. And voting for Jill Stein isn't going to make it so.

Oh, and here's Digby on GOP hypocrisy regarding Cuba. 

To think that just last week the man who is preaching today about America’s commitment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was exhorting us all to thank the people who used torture techniques like “rectal feeding” on prisoners in American custody.

..............................................

(A)s Dick Cheney put it a few years back:

“They’re living in the tropics. They’re well fed. They’ve got everything they could possibly want.”

Fidel Castro couldn’t have said it better himself.

 ...................................................

(W)hen you endorse torture, the least you can do is have enough shame not to sanctimoniously lecture others about morality and high ideals of civilized behavior.

Bookmarking Bacevich

Aside from trashing Matt Funiello, this blog exists to bookmark articles I want to save.

Consider the following claims, each of which in Washington circles has attained quasi-canonical status.

* The presence of U.S. forces in the Islamic world contributes to regional stability and enhances American influence.
* The Persian Gulf constitutes a vital U.S. national security interest.
* Egypt and Saudi Arabia are valued and valuable American allies.
* The interests of the United States and Israel align.
* Terrorism poses an existential threat that the United States must defeat.

For decades now, the first four of these assertions have formed the foundation of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The events of 9/11 added the fifth, without in any way prompting a reconsideration of the first four. On each of these matters, no senior U.S. official (or anyone aspiring to a position of influence) will dare say otherwise, at least not on the record.

Yet subjected to even casual scrutiny, none of the five will stand up.  To take them at face value is the equivalent of believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy — or that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell really, really hope that the Obama administration and the upcoming Republican-controlled Congress can find grounds to cooperate.

It's too long for a label, but this might fall under the heading of "shit Funiello and I might agree on." And hey, here's something the neocons will agree with Jimmy Carter on.

Regardless, the assumed energy dependence and “vital interests” that inspired Jimmy Carter to declare back in 1980 that the Gulf is worth fighting for no longer pertain.

I can see why they don't care for Bacevich, tho.

 Like crime and communicable diseases, terrorism will always be with us.  In the face of an outbreak of it, prompt, effective action to reduce the danger permits normal life to continue. Wisdom lies in striking a balance between the actually existing threat and exertions undertaken to deal with that threat. Grown-ups understand this. They don’t expect a crime rate of zero in American cities. They don’t expect all people to enjoy perfect health all of the time.  The standard they seek is “tolerable.”

Random Sunday Thoughts

This just in from poor relation, Kansas. Now that the election is safely over.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the GOP-dominated Legislature will get new revenue projections that are expected to make the state's budget problems look worse and intensify discussions about trimming spending.

The budget problems come after legislators enacted massive personal income tax cuts at Brownback's urging to stimulate the economy. The state has cut its top rate by 26 percent and exempted the owners of 191,000 businesses from income taxes altogether.

Supply-side, voodoo economics fails again. What to do? Maybe Kansas ain't Christian enough. Well, you know what is? Phil Robertson.

Along with eldest son Al, ‘Duck Dynasty’ star and family patriarch Phil Robertson has embarked on a new venture designed to share his faith in God with as many people as possible. Having already faced significant backlash from secular leftists over his Bible-based views of marriage, sex, and other issues, the 68-year-old has joined forces with Thomas Nelson Publishers to release a special edition of the Holy Bible.

I saw somewhere else it's priced at $29.99. I already have a copy stolen from a hotel room, unfortunately without Phil's explanation of how the gay is wrong and probably anyone not buying a copy is going to Hell anyway.

This has to go into the category of "more shit Matt and I probably agree."

A federal judge has turned down a request from a Guantanamo Bay hunger striker to alter the way he is force-fed, including the daily practice of inserting and removing his feeding tube.
 
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler on Friday ruled against Syrian prisoner Abu Wa'el Dhiab, who's been held at Guantanamo without charge for 12 years and was cleared for release in 2009.

This is disgraceful and, in this anyway, there is not a difference between Obama and Bush. If Phil's God exists they are both going to have a lot of explaining to do. Phil, himself, would likely find nothing wrong with force-feeding Guantanamo detainees. Preferably to sharks.

Not That I'm a Greedhead

But it's always nice to have a little extra cash when living in a capitalist society where the government is unwilling to provide for your every need. Unfortunately, Obama hasn't turned out to be the socialist we were promised other than handing out a few phones. That reminds me I never got one of those either. Anyway, in order to better cope and have more dough to donate to liberal causes which will undermine capitalism and bring on the free-loader life where I no longer have to work I've found this article with tips from the "ultra-wealthy."

I've long tried to emulate Warren Buffett because he is a Democrat and has handled his wealth without becoming a total jackass like Donald Trump, the Coors family, the Walton family (not the one on TV) and the Koch's. How many rich people stay in Omaha, Nebraska and drink Coke instead of Dom Perignon?  I did get some laughs out of the Hunt brothers when they went bust after trying to corner the silver market, though. I think they might be dead now and dead rich people are OK.

Onto the wisdom from the mouths of the rich:

1. An equity position is necessary to get wealthy.

Ninety percent of the super-successful say this is true, versus fewer than half of the masses. More importantly, 80 percent of "business brilliant" people say they already have an equity stake in their work.

Definitely important to have some "skin in the game" as they say.

2. I'm always looking to gain an advantage in my business dealings.

About 90 percent of "business brilliant" individuals say they are always trying to grab an edge, compared with just about 40 percent of the middle-class.


There's one to work on, I'm definitely too laid-back on this front.

3. Doing things well is more important than doing new things.

Getting wealthy usually means you've taken an ordinary idea and executed it exceptionally well.

I thought this one was very interesting. I had always assumed that some sort of innovation was needed. Good to know it's not because I'm not particularly creative.

4. I hire people who are smarter than I am.

No problem there.

5. It's essential I really understand my business associates' motivations.

Another one to work on.

6. I can easily walk away from a deal if it's not right.

This seems kind of obvious, but maybe sometimes hard to actually do. Psychologically I think we may get invested in the notion of a plan succeeding. Hopefully, the real estate I'm buying is a deal that is "right."

7. Setbacks and failures have taught me what I'm good at.

Those who are "business brilliant" have, on average, more failures than members of the middle-class. But they use those failures to help them succeed on the next attempt. Just 17 percent of the middle-class say they learn from their failures in this way, which is really a shame. Everything worth trying contains an element of risk, after all. If you fall on your face, you might as well learn from the experience to help you succeed on your next try.

I can certainly say this is true of my investing. During the 1990's I "invested" in tech stocks where I had no idea what the fuck the company did. I was buying high and selling low. Then began my love affair with Buffett and I began to invest in companies that actually produced something and it was something I understood. This was the 2000's. Then toward the end of that decade came the stock market crash and I was holding a portfolio that was about 100% in stocks. Another lesson learned. I did manage to wait for the equity market to come back some before shifting a large portion into bond holdings. Don't panic is another lesson that could be on that list. For good measure I got rid of all my individual stocks. My holdings are now in ETF's and indexes. An investment in Bank of America showed me the folly of individual stocks.

So, until we get a truly Marxist president and turn this country into a virtual paradise it's worth following the rules of life as it exists.

New Blog to my List

Adding a blog I never read, but should have been because they seem brilliant at any meal anytime. Loved this post proclaiming Americans as idiots. That seems a little harsh. But, I’m an American, and an idiot. Some of the folks in this piece live on rungs lower than I, though.

So let's see...they like Social Security and Medicare, but they want spending cut to the bone. They want Washington to be involved in schools, but they want Washington out of their schools. They want Washington to help reduce poverty, but they don't want social programs for "Those People."

These are the people who think they are well-informed because they watch Fox and listen to Beck, Limbaugh and Savage.

Here is the brilliant rant that led me from Tbogg over to Brilliant at Breakfast:

We are a profoundly ignorant. People don't know anything about their own religions. We know little of our own history, let alone our history in context with the rest of the world. We worship sports heroes who torture dogs, but we point at scientists and laugh. A profoundly messed-up woman like Christine O'Donnell can run on a platform of "See? I can't manage my finances either. I'm you." We had eight years of a dry drunk as president because people thought he was the guy they'd want to have a beer with -- as if that were ever going to happen. Now there are people who would vote to give the nuclear codes to an aging high school mean girl because they'd like to fuck her -- as if that's ever going to happen. Smart people are regarded with scorn as "elites." Ignorance is regarded as a virtue.
This is how an empire dies. And we are going to be around to see it.

And from Tom Engelhardt:

If you had told me then that we would henceforth be in a state of eternal war as well as living in a permanent war state, that, to face a ragtag enemy of a few thousand stateless terrorists, the national security establishment in Washington would pump itself up to levels not faintly reached when facing the Soviet Union, a major power with thousands of nuclear weapons and an enormous military, that “homeland” -- a distinctly un-American word -- would land in our vocabulary never to leave, and that a second Defense Department dubbed the Department of Homeland Security would be set up not to be dismantled in my lifetime, that torture (excuse me, “enhanced interrogation techniques”) would become as American as apple pie and that some of those “techniques” would actually be demonstrated to leading Bush administration officials inside the White House, that we would pour money into the Pentagon at ever escalating levels even after the economy crashed in 2008, that we would be fighting two potentially trillion-dollar-plus wars without end in two distant lands, that we would spend untold billions constructing hundreds of military bases in those same lands, that the CIA would be conducting the first drone air war in history over a country we were officially not at war with, that most of us would live in a remarkable state of detachment from all of this, and finally -- only, by the way, because I’m cutting this list arbitrarily short -- that I would spend my time writing incessantly about “the American way of war” and produce a book with that title, I would have thought you were nuts.

And just to make sure future opponents are well armed:

The Obama administration is laying out a new multiyear, multibillion-dollar military aid package for Pakistan as it presses the Islamabad government to step up the fight against extremists there and in neighboring Afghanistan, U.S. officials say.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were to unveil the plan Friday at the end of the latest round of high-level U.S.-Pakistani strategic talks here, the officials said.

What could go wrong?

Pakistan shut down the Torkham border crossing, the most important NATO supply into Afghanistan, on Thursday in apparent protest of a NATO helicopter attack that killed three Pakistani soldiers on the frontier. It was the third such incursion into Pakistan in less than a week.

The other NATO supply line through Pakistan remained open — the Chaman crossing in Baluchistan, where it seemed likely the tankers were heading.

A lengthy closure of Torkham would place intense strain on the US-Pakistani relationship and hurt the Afghan war effort. But a long shutdown continued to be seen as unlikely.

In spite of our country being geographically challenged we have somehow stumbled into the appropriate region.

Democracy Dies in Japan

Our current imperial government under Barack Obama has apparently strong-armed the Japanese government into keeping the military bases at Okinawa.

Hatoyama came to office last September promising to create a "more equal" relationship with Washington and move the Marine base off the island, which hosts more than half the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan under a 50-year-old joint security alliance.

Fortunately, Washington was able to use the conveniently well-timed incident between North and South Korea as a bludgeon.

The joint statement appeared to highlight rising tension surrounding the March sinking of a South Korean ship blamed on a North Korean torpedo. "Recent developments in the security environment of Northeast Asia reaffirmed the significance of the Alliance," it said.

This will not end well.

The United States is on the verge of permanently damaging its alliance with Japan in a dispute over a military base in Okinawa. This island prefecture hosts three-quarters of all U.S. military facilities in Japan. Washington wants to build one more base there, in an ecologically sensitive area. The Okinawans vehemently oppose it, and tens of thousands gathered last month to protest the base. Tokyo is caught in the middle, and it looks as if Japan’s prime minister has just caved in to the U.S. demands.

Let’s go back to using the United States military for the defense of the United States rather than as centurions pissing off people in the far flung reaches of the American Empire.

From 1950 to 1953, the American bases in Okinawa were used to fight the Korean War, and from the 1960s until 1973, they were used during the Vietnam War. Not only did they serve as supply depots and airfields, but the bases were where soldiers went for rest and recreation, creating a subculture of bars, prostitutes and racism. Around several bases fights between black and white American soldiers were so frequent and deadly that separate areas were developed to cater to the two groups.

The U.S. occupation of Japan ended with the peace treaty of 1952, but Okinawa remained a U.S. military colony until 1972. For 20 years, Okinawans were essentially stateless people, not entitled to either Japanese or U.S. passports or civil rights. Even after Japan regained sovereignty over Okinawa, the American military retained control over what occurs on its numerous bases and over Okinawan airspace.

The bases in Okinawa were used to support two wars we should not have been involved in anyway. Good enough reason to close them before we get involved in another. Declare victory in Afghanistan and Iraq while we’re at it.

Bring the military home, make it a Memorial Day to remember!

Gaijin Go Home

The average citizen of Japan certainly does not want our military bases in their country. The average US citizen likely does not want to spend the money to maintain military bases in Japan. Maybe the Tea Partiers do, but they’re below average.

Nearly 100,000 demonstrators attended a rally on Okinawa Sunday to demonstrate against a US air base in a row that is dominating Japan's national politics and souring its ties with Washington.

Okinawan's are at the lowest rung of the ladder in Japan which is why their island has been cursed with the presence of our bases.

"Okinawa has suffered the overwhelmingly heavy burden of US bases since the end of the war" in 1945, he said. "Today, there are few traces of the war in Okinawa. But US bases still remain in front of us. This is so unfair."

Many of the islanders resent the heavy US military presence on Okinawa, a legacy of Japan's defeat in World War II, and complain of noise, pollution and friction with US soldiers.

Chalmers Johnson is required reading on our occupation of Okinawa. The long version is here. And a short version here.

It’s likely that if we don’t change our imperial ways soon the Japanese will be able to foreclose on our bases, at any rate.

The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment and the profligate use of it in missions for which it is hopelessly inappropriate will, sooner rather than later, condemn the United States to a devastating trio of consequences: imperial overstretch, perpetual war, and insolvency, leading to a likely collapse similar to that of the former Soviet Union.

Shout out to the American Empire Project.

Taking Back Religion

The religious left has a long tradition of activism on social issues, including the civil-rights movement. But for the past quarter century, faith-based politicking has been dominated by the religious right, which built a powerful army of activists -- and a formidable fund-raising machine -- on the strength of leaders such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority and radio host James Dobson of Focus on the Family.

The religious left's re-emergence as a strong voice -- with the financial backing to make aggressive media buys -- is a "seismic shift," said D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University who studies evangelical politics. 

If the Republicans don’t even have religion to fall back on anymore, what do they have? 

A religious coalition called the American Values Network spent nearly $200,000 placing the global warming ads. Some political analysts credit the campaign with boosting support for the Waxman-Markey climate bill, which narrowly passed the House last week.

As opposed to the right wing religious view that God gave us the planet to destroy as we see fit. 

Democratic lawmakers representing conservative districts say such efforts help them make the case to skeptical constituents that they aren't simply toeing the party line -- or turning into bleeding-heart liberals -- when they support President Barack Obama's calls for health-care and climate-change legislation. 

Maybe Obama knew what he was doing when he was “palling  around with Rick Warren.” 

 

Of course, as any good pro-victory associate professor of polisci will tell you, left wing types can’t be religious. They are all atheistic nihilist scum from the fever swamp or something like that.

Abu Ghraib, Part Deux

Now that everyone’s appetite has been whetted by the original pg-13 photos from Abu Ghraib comes news of the alleged existence of some slightly more steamy material:

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

President Obama is there to assure us that these are much ado about nothing, though.

It was thought the images were similar to those leaked five years ago, which showed naked and bloody prisoners being intimidated by dogs, dragged around on a leash, piled into a human pyramid and hooded and attached to wires.

Mr Obama seemed to reinforce that view by adding: “I want to emphasise that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”

Glad to hear they’re not sensational. Sunlight is still the best disinfectant. Might as well get them all out. The sooner, the better.

UPDATE: I put this post up with realization that the Telegraph was not the most reliable news source. There seems to be a lot of back and forth over how sensational these photos are. Leaving the content to people’s imaginations is probably not the way to go, though. Digby:

The pictures are not the lurid images the Telegraph said they were.
Of course, this raises the most important question again (for me at least) which is why anyone thinks the withheld pictures will cause some sort of firestorm if they are actually less incendiary than what we've seen before.

The cover-up is worse than the crime. This remains a truism.