Category: War

House Passes Iraq Pullout Funding Bill

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Hopefully, this will pass the senate too. It funds to the tune of $50 billion, and requires that troops start being withdrawn within 30 days with a complete withdrawal by Dec. 15, 2008.

As I’ve mentioned earlier Reid is promising a real filibuster, where the ‘Phants will have to talk, on this, so it should get interesting.

The voting is interesting, Republicans Phil English (PA), Walter Jones (NC), Christopher Shays (CT) and James Walsh (NY) supported the bill. This was the first time that either English (who once bumped me off a plane flight, not because he was a congressman, but because of the luck of the draw), and Walsh voted for such a bill, so we do have some evidence of a gradual peeling off of Republican support.

On the Democratic side, we had the following Bush Dogs: John Tanner (TN), Brian Baird (WA), Dan Boren (OK), Jim Cooper (TN), Gene Taylor (MS), John Barrow (GA), Jim Marshall (GA), Jim Matheson (UT), Nick Lampson (TX) and Vic Snyder (AR).

Will no one rid me of these turbulent Bush Dogs?

Senate Democrats Plan Real Filibuster

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You know, the whole Mr. Smith Goes to Washington thing, where people will actually have to hold the floor and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, AND TALK.

It would be on the Iraq withdrawal bill.

Some background: for about the past 30 years, when someone has declared the intent to filibuster, they take a cloture vote, and if it fails, the measure is pulled from the floor. No one is actually forced to do the Jimmy Stewart thing.

It was thought that this was a more efficient use of the Senate’s time, since while a filibuster is going on, nothing else can pass the floor.

The side effect of the change allowing filibusters without talking is that they have become far easier, and they are done on the small business too. Here is an illustrative graphic showing the trend:

Note that while I applaud the strategy, I feel that it does not go far enough.

The “non-filibuster filibuster” is a matter of courtesy, and it clear that part of the deal is that it not be abused. The courtesy should be completely eliminated. Require speeches for all filibusters.

FBI Investigation Says Most of Blackwater Killings Unjustifies

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14 of the 17 deaths are deemed completely unjustified.

No big surprise there. But it appears that they will walk:

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter.

Impeach Dick Cheney today, impeach George W. Bush tomorrow,

Brkk: Bush Misses His Poodle

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The Bush Administration is unhappy because Gordon Brown does not ask, “How High”, when told to jump. The comments among people who don’t get it are amusing:

The concerns were revealed as Mr Sarkozy made his high-profile trip to Washington, sparking anxiety that France is usurping influence once enjoyed by Britain. This weekend President George W Bush is host to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, at his ranch in Texas, during which Iran will be a key talking point.

Nile Gardner, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher and an expert on transatlantic relations at the Heritage Foundation think tank, said: “Britain is clearly losing influence in Washington after Tony Blair. Brown is the invisible man in terms of his profile here.

“It should be of concern in London that France is muscling in on traditional British territory.”

Britain has not had any influence on the US since Bush has started squatting at 1600. They have simply gotten photo-ops for its leaders saying what they were told.

More on the Weird Bum’s Rush on the Mukasey Vote

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You remember that the vote on Mukasey was rushed, about 1/2 hour’s notice before the start of debate.

Well, now we have a reason. It appears that Reid cut a deal with teh Republicans to allow for a military funding bill to proceed without money for Iraq and Afghanistan.

I guess that they think that this will provide cover while trying to get the troops out of Iraq. It’s won’t. With George W. Bush at 26%, worse than Nixon, the Bush dogs are still going to fold like wet broccoli when he makes vague noises about “not supporting the troops”.

They still don’t get it. Any opposition to Bush on any issue is both the right thing to do and a political win.

Iraqi State Security Plans to Audit/Arrest US Mercenaries Private Security

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Iraq Plans to Confront Security Firms on Guns – New York Times

The Iraqi interior minister said Wednesday that he would authorize raids by his security forces on Western security firms to ensure that they were complying with tightened licensing requirements on guns and other weaponry, setting up the possibility of violent confrontations between the Iraqis and heavily armed Western guards.

…..

If anyone here does not think that this will result in all out warfare between the Iraqi security forces and the mercs, I want what you are smoking.

Reasons for Massive Nuclear Strike Now Include US Dick Swinging

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The FAS has a has obtained new nuclear strike guidelines developed by the Bush administration:

The 2001 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and White House guidance issued in response to the terrorist attacks against the United States in September 2001 led to the creation of new nuclear strike options against regional states seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction, according to a military planning document obtained by the Federation of American Scientists.

It should be noted that this is not about one or two nukes, it’s about a massive nuclear strike on the country targeted.

The creation of a “target base” indicates that the planning went further than simple retaliatory punishment with one or a few weapons, but envisioned actual nuclear warfighting intended to annihilate a wide range of facilities in order to deprive the states the ability to launch and fight with WMD. The new plan formally broadened strategic nuclear targeting from two adversaries (Russia and China) to a total of seven.

The second draft from March 2005 listed five scenarios where use of nuclear weapons might be requested:

  • To counter an adversary intending to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S., multinational, or allies forces or civilian populations;
  • To counter an imminent attack from an adversary’s biological weapons that only effects from nuclear weapons can safely destroy;
  • To attack on adversary installations including weapons of mass destruction, deep, hardened bunkers containing chemical or biological weapons, or the command and control infrastructure required for the adversary to execute a WMD attack against the United States or its friends and allies; [this was probably the “target base” in OPLAN 8044 Revision 03]
  • To counter potentially overwhelming adversary conventional forces;
  • To demonstrate U.S. intent and capability to use nuclear weapons to deter adversary WMD use.

(emphasis mine)
Let’s be clear about this, the last line basically says that we will engage in a massive nuclear first strike as an exercise in dick swinging. Basically, it allows for nuclear strikes to show that we are willing to make nuclear strikes.

If you are not terrified by Bush and his Rapture driven nuclear policies, I want whatever it is that you are smoking.

Petraeus Plagiarized His Manual

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Should come as no surprise that a man who has spent his entire career as a REMF*, only to be tagged as the next coming of Sargent Alvin York by the wingnuts, plagiarized significant portions of the counter-insurgency manual that he “authored”.

While agree that a military doctrine manual need not be as meticulously footnoted as a PhD thesis, but direct quotes should be marked as such, and any source should be in the bibliography, if just to help people who might want to tweak this later.

JCS Chairman Forbids “War on Terror”

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I have commented earlier about the difference between Naval and Army officers. In the Navy, it is expected that one would have made professional enemies before becoming captain, where in the army, there is more of an Eddie Haskell ethos.

Now that Admiral Michael Mullen is chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, we are seeing an honesty that was previously lacking:

Seems the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, has banned the use of the phrase “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) and has prohibited using it “in any future correspondence,” according to a Sept. 27 e-mail from a Mullen aide.

Personally, I’ve been using Total War Against Terrorism for some time.

Senator Hagel Begs Bush for Negociations With Iran

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Steve Clemons had Hagel’s letter leaked to him. He denies that the source was Hagel. He also notes that Admiral William J. Fallon, Commander, U.S. Central Command (Centcom), the guy who thinks that Petraeus is a worthless Eddie Haskell suckup, has, “allegedly communicated with the Senator that serious articulations of American interests and consideration of the options Hagel recommends are much needed in this current political and policy environment.”

Translation: Someone call off the insane folks in DC.

Not that I think that batsh$# insane Cheney, and the petulant brat will listen, though it is significant that this is getting leaked, and passed around the military.

Revealed: how Blair rejected Bush’s offer to stay – Independent Online Edition > World Politics

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It turns out that the Smiler* had an offer from his master George W. Bush to stay out of the war, but he rejected it. Apparently, he thought that it would look “pathetic”, as if being bush’s poodle was not already the height of pathos.

At least Blair isn’t covered by American laws regarding the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

*Tony Blair