Those who object to a mosque near ground zero are a bunch of MORONS!

I don't give a damn what your faith is: According to our "Constitution", we are all equal under our law: Not the one pumped by our idiotic news media, but the hallowed treasure which separates most of us from the rest of our troubled world. Anyway, that's the one I, and my Advisory Teams fought for, and a few of us failed to return from that conflict without our limbs entirely intact.
But I digress: After my reasonably unspectacular return from that terrible war zone, and seeing one Chinese Adviser killed just a few feet in front of me: I did a lot of thinking. What are we REALLY fighting for? My wonderful black Sergeant, and Medic knew the answer: We are here, as always, to help each other survive for another day. I have no idea what you perceive a medic's job to be, but after a lot of bullets disturb the tranquility of your mission, he is the one who stitches your wounds, and does so under fire, so that you have at least an even chance to survive that particular mission, and so that you can earn your meager salary as an Advisory Team Leader. In that capacity, you have a lot of people counting on you: The tribesmen in your AO (Area of Operations), your team, and the assholes who want you to recover, and do it all over again. Please forgive my ramblings, but that is what war is REALLY all about.

Our Country's Sins in Iraq

After our 20 year occupation, while stationing 50,000 soldiers, 18,000 mercenaries, and 84,000 support contractors in massive and permanent military bases in Iraq, Barack Obama has certainly not deserved his "Nobel Peace" prize. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, who lived from 1833 to 1896, a brilliant chemist, inventor, and philanthropist, established the peace prize since he apparently felt guilty for his invention of dynamite. A few years later, in 1867, he produced ballistite, one of the first smokeless powders. At the time of his death, he controlled factories for the manufacture of explosives in various parts of the world. His will provided that the major portion of his $9,2oo,000 estate be set up as a fund to establish yearly prizes for merit in physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, literature, and world peace. After his death, a prize in economics was also awarded from his fund. Nobel specifically stated that money should only be awarded to those persons who shall have contributed most materially to the benefit of mankind during the year immediately preceding. Having corresponded with many of the readers of my blog, I am ABSOLUTELY certain that not a single one of these would have considered a president who appears to enjoy stirring up wars for our troubled planet as a worthy recipient of Nobel's legacy! As Mr. Dees, Jeff Rense's illustrator commented at the time of the award: "Nobel Peace Prize with Oil Change". As they say here in the American South: "NUFF SAID"!!

The Withdrawal of US Troops from Afghanistan in June 2011 is Impossible

That is the sad news from US defense officials, who allege that there is a "misunderstanding" in comprehending a "complex, nuanced" message from Obama. There "may be"the "beginning" of a "withdrawal" starting in July, but in fact, the word "withdrawal" itself may not even be "optimal".
Indeed, US officials "prefer" to speak about the "process" and "transition", rather than "withdrawal". As all of our US citizens, who are not totally brain-dead are certainly aware, this carefully worded adventure in "double-speak" is par for the course for our current deceptive US administration, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already stated that there is NO precise date for the withdrawal of the US contingent from Afghanistan at all. Gates told ABC news: "Draw downs" early on will be of 'fairly' limited numbers, and will 'depend on the conditions on the ground'. Analyst Lisa Curtis at the Heritage Foundation believes that setting the pull-out date on July 2011 was a mistake (like the vote to elect Obama as President). President Karzai is one of those who will joyfully welcome our departure: Many of the 'Blackwater soldiers' have looted his country, and otherwise created a serious hardship for his Afghan people.

Difficult Life Awaits Returning American Soldiers

As thousands of American troops prepare to return from a war zone, many will wind up homeless. In San Diego, California, thousands of vets from the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars are sleeping on the streets. According to RT (Russia Today), Navy Veteran Brian Little, who has been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome since his discharge, he has not been able to find work in his city, so he has now become suicidal. A female veteran, Pamela Brisson, who has been taking care of her 9-year old son, Chris, "A lot of people really don't know what to expect or where to go to get the help they need." She served in Afghanistan and has been homeless for two years. The largest growing population of homeless women in San Diego consists of veterans returning from current combats, according to those who operate shelters in that city. Her son has been able to maintain straight A's, even while bouncing around from shelter to shelter, and often sleeping on the street. Brisson admits it is easy to become discouraged when our government doesn't want to help. According to our federal government, help is NOT on the way! SHAME!!!

Obama Must Dismantle America's Empire: America's Last Best Hope.

According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our costly empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas US territories. "We" deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In Japan , at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 people connected to US military forces living and working there - 49,364 members of our armed services, 45,753 dependent family members, and 4,178 civilian employees. Some 13,975 of these were crowded into the small island of Okinawa, the largest concentration of foreign troops anywhere in Japan. These massive concentrations of military power outside the United States are NOT needed for our defense. They are, if anything, a prime contributor to our numerous conflicts with other countries, and they are also unimaginably expensive. According to Anita Dancs, an analyst for the website Foreign Policy in Focus, our United States spends approximately $250 billion each year maintaining its global military presence. The sole purpose of these expenditures is to gain control over as many nations on our planet as possible. Like the British at the end of World War II, we are desperately trying to shore up an empire that we never needed, and can no longer afford.
Please check Chalmers Johnson's new book: Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope, from Metropolitan Books, 2010.

Did "We" REALLY WIN in Iraq????

The soldiers of the US 4th "Stryker" Brigade, high on synthetic Bravado, shouted "We won", "It's over!!" Is "it" REALLY?? Now it's time to once again pour out the same stale pablum for the kids in our country, who are destined to lose arms and legs, as well as a few other body parts in the same misguided adventure for our iron Fatherland, and we are also forgetting Iraq and her people. Foreign wars lead to a complete polarization of decent discourse. First of all, there are still 50,000 American military personnel in Iraq, and the majority are still combat troops, but now they are called something else: The major units still in Iraq will no longer be called "brigade combat teams" but will instead be "advisory and assistance brigades". When I served as "advisory team leader" in Vietnam, I did much of my "advising" with the bullets from my rifle, and our remaining "enemies" were usually kind enough to accept my well-meant advice, though on a few occasions they decided to return "their" kind reminder that this was, after all, their country, by responding with AK-47's and B-40 rockets. My advice to our valiant warriors is to keep their weapons handy, and respond to the other side's advice with their own. Anyways, that is my honest opinion, and I'm stuck with it!

What You're Not Supposed to Know about WAR

Even just, defensive wars inevitably empower the state far beyond anything any strict constructionist would approve of. War means central planning, heavy taxation, fascist or socialist economics, attacks on free speech and other civil liberties, and the destruction of private enterprise, which provides the durable structure of all solidly based economic systems, while a war 'economy' robs the essential resources for all viable economic enterprises. The alternative means central planning, heavy taxation, fascist or socialist economics, attacks on free speech or other civil liberties, and the destruction of private enterprise. "We" must advocate and accept Big Govern- ment for the "duration" - for neither an offensive nor a defensive war can be waged except with a totalitarian bureaucracy within our economy. In reality, antiwar factors are only a threat to the military, industrial, and congressional complex, which profits from war, but can not conceivably exist without starving the general public.
Please read the rest of the story by clicking on my headline at http://mises.org/daily/4659