be the change you want to see in the world

Unfortunately for the USian effort in Iraq, the allegations of limited abuse of Iraqi prisoners will soon grow to a larger allegation. That allegation will be brought by counsel for soldiers pictured in the infamous photos. This will let the cat out of the drowning bag, and the world will see the military culture of interrogation present in all USian attempts to win wars. Quite simple. Quite out of sight…until now. The picture is the thing. The medium is the message.

George Bush’s squandering of global sympathy for 9/11 came home to roost in the Madrid bombings. The horrid example of inhumanity that occurred on the trains there may have been prevented if America’s military and the world’s attention hadn’t been hijacked by the Bush junta in their war with Iraq. As the world protested and Iraqi civilians and US GIs died in the name of oil and vendetta, al Qaeda regrouped and pulled off another stunning example of mass murder in the name of religious zealotry and extremism. Thanks George. Your leadership is showing results.

Here is an enlightening account of the rise of the Office for Special Plans within the Pentagon. The OSP is a pet project of Cheney and Rumsfeld, and it ran the propaganda machine that pushed the WMD disinformation on the world. This is a detailed account of the conscious efforts made to mislead the world in support of a hidden agenda of hegemony. A very good article in interview format.

The Bush Administration’s phoney war on Terror (a lazy label, to be sure) has now killed 13,000 civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s four times the number of US civilians killed since and including 9/11. The Iraq Body Count website provides the details. The number is generated from a survey of mostly non-north american media reports. Its interesting that, since the US Military “doesn’t do body counts,” we don’t hear the number reported. The number is well documented. It isn’t a question of verification. I guess mainstream media outlets think it will just make people feel uncomfortable to know this particular fact, and therefore change the channel to programming that will make them feel better.

I’m sorry, I thought the Coalition of those willing to be browbeaten and bullied by the US was looking for WMD in Iraq. Apparently that’s no longer relevant, despite the fact it was the preeminent stated reason for invading that country. Well, I guess it all fell by the wayside in the semiotic triumph of capturing an old man in hole. The Israelis think he was a prisoner long before his “capture” by the US.