Well, John the Baptist after torturing a thief
Looks up at his hero the Commander-in-Chief
Saying, “Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?
-- Bob Dylan, "Tombstone Blues"

One can only assume that the regular editors of the New York Times were all out at a party, or left early for a weekend in the Hamptons, or something -- but somehow, the paper published a front webpage story that stated -- without the usual thousand excuses and extenuations -- that American troops are routinely slaughtering Afghan civilians at checkpoints. What's more, the story unequivocally ties the civilian killings to the "surge" ordered by the noble Nobel Peace laureate, Barack Obama.

Here's what the Times says:

American and NATO troops firing from passing convoys and military checkpoints have killed 30 Afghans and wounded 80 others since last summer, but in no instance did the victims prove to be a danger to troops, according to military officials in Kabul.

And what is the paper's authority for this astounding admission of atrocity? Not the usual "unnamed sources" or "senior official in a position to have knowledge of the situation," but none other than Obama's hand-picked commander on the Af-Pak front, General Stanley "Black Ops" McChrystal his own self:

“We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat,” said Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who became the senior American and NATO commander in Afghanistan last year. His comments came during a recent videoconference to answer questions from troops in the field about civilian casualties.

Let's repeat the much-media-lauded general's statement again: “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat." Now, what would the authorities say if you or I shot "an amazing number of people who have never proven to be a threat?" Why, they would call us murderers -- even mass murderers. Yet this is precisely what "the senior American and NATO commander in Afghanistan" has just declared, on videotape.

The story goes on to make the extraordinarily straight -- and indisputable -- point that these wanton killings of civilians who have never even "proven to be a threat" is fanning the very "insurgency" (which is the Beltway term of art for any resistance to American military presence") whose quelling is the ostensible reason for the Laureate's "surge" in the first place:

Failure to reduce checkpoint and convoy shootings, known in the military as “escalation of force” episodes, has emerged as a major frustration for military commanders who believe that civilian casualties deeply undermine the American and NATO campaign in Afghanistan.

Many of the detainees at the military prison at Bagram Air Base joined the insurgency after the shootings of people they knew, said the senior NATO enlisted man in Afghanistan, Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Hall.

“There are stories after stories about how these people are turned into insurgents,” Sergeant Major Hall told troops during the videoconference. “Every time there is an escalation of force we are finding that innocents are being killed,” he said.

The story even states plainly that the official figures of admitted killing of unthreatening civilians -- already unconscionably high -- might not be the true extent of these atrocities:

Shootings from convoys and checkpoints involving American, NATO and Afghan forces accounted for 36 civilian deaths last year, down from 41 in 2008, according to the United Nations. With at least 30 Afghans killed since last June in 95 such shootings, according to military statistics, the rate shows no signs of abating.

And those numbers do not include shooting deaths caused by convoys guarded by private security contractors. Some tallies have put the total number of escalation of force deaths far higher.

A spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, Zemary Bashary, said private security contractors sometimes killed civilians during escalation of force episodes, but he said he did not know the number of instances.

The story also presents an example of one slaughter of civilians, and shows how it leads directly to the rise of resistance against the American military presence:

One such case was the death of Mohammed Yonus, a 36-year-old imam and a respected religious authority, who was killed two months ago in eastern Kabul while commuting to a madrasa where he taught 150 students.

A passing military convoy raked his car with bullets, ripping open his chest as his two sons sat in the car. The shooting inflamed residents and turned his neighborhood against the occupation, elders there say.

“The people are tired of all these cruel actions by the foreigners, and we can’t suffer it anymore,” said Naqibullah Samim, a village elder from Hodkail, where Mr. Yonus lived. “The people do not have any other choice, they will rise against the government and fight them and the foreigners. There are a lot of cases of killing of innocent people.”

Finally, the story depicts McChrystal -- again, the handpicked commander of the commander-in-chief -- stating flatly when it comes to the widely ballyhooed "counterinsurgency doctrine" that is supposedly now governing the military occupation of Afghanistan, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. In other words, it's a full-scale, four-star FUBAR:

More recently, General McChrystal moved to bring nearly all Special Operations forces in Afghanistan under his control. NATO officials said concern about civilian casualties caused by these forces was partly behind the decision, along with the need to better coordinate units and ensure that local commanders were aware of what was happening.

One unit could be doing counterinsurgency, while another carried out “a raid that might in fact upset progress,” General McChrystal explained during the videoconference.

Beyond the bare facts reported by the story -- i.e., the top American commanders acknowledge that their forces are killing scores of innocent civilians who pose no threat to the occupiers, and that their own incompetent policies are actually breeding more hatred and resistance -- there is also the astonishing circumstance that we have a story on the Laureate's "good war" in Afghanistan that is almost entirely nothing but bare facts.

Of course, the story appeared late on a Friday, and will no doubt disappear down the memory hole in short order. (What, you think the Sunday talk shows will be filled with heated discussions about "McChrystal's astounding admission"?) Still, I must admit that when I read the piece, I honestly did a double-take; I thought it was a hoax -- or perhaps a hack. Not because the story seemed implausible -- but precisely because it didn't, and because it was shorn of most of the self-serving, empire-justifying bullshit that surrounds accounts of the "Peace Prize Surge."

Again, just think of it, let it sink in, attend to the word of the commander: “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat." Again: “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat." Again: “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat."

Again: what do you call it when innocent, unarmed, defenseless people who "have never proven to be a threat" are gunned down in cold blood? What do you call such an act?

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DPP said:

The Good American I recall reading how soundly the German citizenry were castigated and vilified for standing by and letting Hitler do what he did. Even though Germans who complained could and did end up in concentration camps as political undesirables or conscientious objectors. Looking at the indifference of Americans to their army's civilian slaughter as they waddle the mall with their fanny packs browsing for worthless Chinese knick-knacks made by virtual slave labour, the hypocrisy is breath-taking. In the age of the internet it's not like they can claim they don't know what is going on... I expect in 30 years there'll be some sort of five minute public apology like that made to the interned Japanese Americans and the shopping will continue.

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March 27, 2010
Votes: +42

derekmann said:

	We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun, and have it out on Highway 61 a person just gets to the point where you don't know what to say anymore. our country is collectively insane, like a dog that has been beaten so much it has gone crazy. this is what happens when a country engages in war for so long, it loses its soul, atrocity becomes so commonplace that it is hardly remarked upon.
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March 27, 2010
Votes: +28

Neil McLachlan said:

So what's he trying to achieve with this? McChrystal is the guy who went very public with his demand for 40,000 more troops, even before he had officially asked for them, and it left Obama no choice but to comply. That little episode was portrayed in lots of places as a significant politicization of his job description. I saw this as him honestly realising that he did need more troops and therefore doing whatever it took to make sure he got them. However, he has continually pounded the table in briefings demanding that his commanders produce less civilian casualties. He's always peddled the truth that every civilian death makes counter-insurgency much more difficult. So again he gives the impression of genuinely wanting to succeed in this thing. But then I read about the fact that he was commander of some base (can't remember the name) in Iraq where some of the worst torture was carried out and from accounts of people stationed there he didn't do anything much to stop that. So I became a lot more suspicious of his motives. And now we have this, another direct-to-the-media announcement of something that would normally be concealed, but I am certain he doesn't actually care about the individuals being murdered. So what's his game? How is this outrageously truthful bull-session with the press going to improve his leverage to get what he wants? And what does he really want? More troops? I can't think of anything else.

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March 27, 2010
Votes: +8

FUBAR. It's beyond belief? goon squads for commander-in cooks, Low-rated comment [Show]

Neil McLachlan said:

Derekmann By the way Derekmann, you may think the country is batshit insane and can hardly stoop any lower, but you are very much mistaken. As a race we are capable of truly monstrous cruelty to people and even have these acts elevated to normal behavior. Think, for example, of the Roman Empire. The practice of crucifixion was a common punishment, if a slave did something not quite bad enough to warrant immediate death, they would be suspended with nails through their hands on a heavy wooden spar, like just the horizontal part of the normal crucifix. This would be chained up so their feet couldn't touch the ground and they would be left there for a few days to make sure they learned their lesson. Roman nobility would consider any objection to this treatment as completely insane. These days it would easily be equally evil as any of the torture committed by the US in recent years. We are already partway there, given that a decent slice of the population think torture of so-called enemy combatants is just fine. But we are not yet at the point where the army could do it at a local shopping mall with children watching. Not yet. Speaking of the Army; Remember the tales of Roman commanders lining the roads with crucified enemies? Of course they used the word 'enemy' exactly as we do today: Those whose land we have invaded and dare to resist, or even not obey (And I mean 'obey' in exactly the sense that Arthur Silber has written about extensively.) Hundreds, and in exceptional cases thousands, of enemy soliders, peasants, women and even children would be crucified the proper way, like Jesus, with nails through hands and feet and left to suffer the most excruciating agony for as long as their body could sustain them. Our army admits that some of it's members seem to enjoy firing at and killing random civilians who pose no threat. This is appalling and in my opinion merits life imprisonment as premeditated murder. But you have to admit they are not nailing women and children to trees and leaving them to die in the baking sun. (In the cases where the US armed forces *have* committed similarly vile atrocities to a smaller number of innocent victims, they are conducted in dank dungeons as far from sunlight as possible) But more to the point, our public is not yet at the point of approving of mass crucifixions of our purported enemies (Again, 'enemies' being the innocent citizens who had the sheer nerve to live in places where the US wants to be the controlling power) I'm not trying to make *any* sort of argument that what has been going on is any any way less evil simply because it could be more evil. Don't try and interpret this rant in those terms. I'm just trying to illustrate the following point: If you think we've lost our moral compass and society is but a hair's breadth from complete depravity... you ain't seen nothing yet. This atrocious behavior may well continue for decades, slowly getting worse and worse. If we allow it.

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March 27, 2010
Votes: +18

Expat said:

Essayist and a Clown, respond to Art James, bebop-o, bad radish Chris carefully presented message clear peril near meaning dear Answered with pom thought erudite, pom trite pom shite pom out of place weed words without order senselessness without intent other than what the reader provides infinitely open limitless, elastic measure useless noise, indefinite pointless rap purposeless crap empty jive void of substance incognisant distraction an empty universe talking with itself how lonely it must be to author gibberish, autistic syllables conversing not no melody of meaning no contribution of sense only displacing of space only occupation of time boundaries arcane merge into inane, insane allusion clouded fog.

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March 27, 2010
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john kelley said:

	... Shooting an amazing number of people or winning their hearts and minds. Dig the psychotic counterpoint? It's a work in progress. It's the policy.
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March 27, 2010
Votes: +1

DWIGHTBAKER said:

How Can How Can! The Rules of Law be neglected in America? By Dwight Baker March 26, 2010 Dbaker007@stx.rr.com Birds Eye View Pointing the Finger for We the People Advocates Chris made the case and that is that. We can all agree that the tea party folks will not read it. Nor will those in the Congress and Senate maybe NO ONE in Washington DC for it is not savvy to walk around with blood on ones hands. And that is exactly the point We are and have been for a long time a Nation dead set to be what we are a Warmongering Empire for the Predator Beast the elite dietist led by the group called Bildberbergs. And the proof of truth what Chris had to say in the last line what else can you call murder but murder. And that implies those guilty of commanding then those doing should be held behind bars or in chains while their capital crimes are prosecuted. If not done can any of us claim to be civil? We the People the few in the many --- stand today as one Voice and declare to All—“Our Laws have been ignored, neglected and flawed”! Some folks to get what they want will turn a blind eye and deaf ear to respect and honor the Rule of Law. In doing --- those and many more others like them are on a fast track to give up their rights as freemen and women and in the long run lose their rights to be sovereign. For despite what many want think the majority of people around the world respect and want self-governing. Using the rule of conscience among communed folks is common law. Thus give and take is all about humanitarian needs of each in that community. In our Rich and Abundant America give and take has become the yardstick to measure how much theft can go on with out some one calling out FOUL PLAY and demanding that the Rule of Law be followed exactly in due process. And because of those things we live in a hostile intimidating and fearful atmosphere run by lazy lustful laggard bunch of Politicians that have set us on a course as a doomed society to fail. Wall Street factual accounts of what went wrong by who and too what degree have been glazed over and put on the back burner. Yet money has gone out of our communed held wealth [treasury] in record measures. Some say $2 up to $6 trillion is UN accounted for HOW COULD THAT BE ---- lazy lustful laggard and lackey Politicians have had our checkbook and wrote a lot of checks while NO BODY was watching our backs. Seems each day we find out more of our money has gone out to the same ones who stole from us in acts of fraud in the Ponzi scheme created by the Wall Street gang of thugs. Sounds a bit like double dip. The world’s greatest and richest nations are naming names of those guilty and many of them are right here in our own back yard. Our Justice Department seems to be on an extended and well-paid vacation. Does the Rule of Law still have a deep and abiding meaning for us any longer? Do we as a society want to endure this crisis by fighting back and demanding that the Rule of Law use every ounce of justice to bring down the high level thieves and demand that high crimes such as treason against We the People read as some of the charges in the indictments? But has fear, intimidation, lack of courage got us down? If so we need to re-think the common law of self-governing. In essence that means ‘sovereignty’ without that we are just a bunch of misfit humdrum subordinates waiting for some tyrant to come along and take us over and then take us out. The Housing Crisis presented long ago was about our People needing help with crooked loans created by the Ponzi bunch of mafia type thugs on Wall Street. And that was the cry out by Hank Paulson that got the first $700 billion approved by our Politicians. Yet look at where We the People are today ‘Still stuck in that deep mud hole’. Read on. Reforming a broken mortgage system POLITICO BREAKING NEWS http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35030.html Under Pressure on Foreclosures, White House Pledges Aid New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/business/27modify.html?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1 How harsh is HARSH and how loud can we SCREAM and who is going to be OFFENDED when and how we SCREAM? This nation is ours not theirs We the People are the POWER not them --- those folks work for us and they have simply not done their jobs --- so time for all of us to Stand up, Shout out STOP THIS MADNESS. CONTACT dbaker007@stx.rr.com for a copy of the plan for legal action We the People Advocates

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March 27, 2010
Votes: +1

Expat. huh?, Low-rated comment [Show]

Michael B said:

Massacre is an acquired taste The United States is arguably the only country on the planet whose national personality and self-image is rooted in centuries of unremitting expansion through race war punctuated by massacre. There have always been “free-fire zones” all along the coveted, ever moving peripheries of white American power, from the “Indian country” surrounding the settler beachheads of Plymouth Rock and Jamestown to the “Sunni Triangle” of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. Whole peoples – millions – have been erased in the glorious march of American Manifest Destiny. The “American” mission is clear, manifest: to endlessly expand through the elimination of impediments posed by the External Other (“savage” Indians), while keeping white society safe and separate from the “debauchery” of the valuable, Internal Other (Black slaves, Muslims etc.). This is the foundation on which the American iconography and celebration is based. Lacking any other, it is the template of white American identity and purported “civilization.”

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March 27, 2010
Votes: +7

Sean O'Neil said:

	the satire that tells it all http://pezcandy.blogspot.com/2...istan.html
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March 27, 2010 | url
Votes: +0

Mike Smith said:

	Patraeus for President It seems he's thinking about it. He's quick to point out that he's a "Rockefeller Republican." That's nice. If things don't lighten up, he could be the next President, either in a suit or in uniform!
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March 27, 2010
Votes: -1

Angelo Klockner said:

	? ? ? What do we not know about? Once a black/ops guy always a black/ops guy.
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March 27, 2010 | url
Votes: +3

derekmann said:

collective inconscious? neil, and to those who it may concern. as pretty much of an auto-didact i know a smattering of the history, spartacus, the appian way, and the practice of decimation. i just wonder if because of the brutalization of the populace by an unjust economic system, the militarization of society, the constant exposure to violence, if our society is not collectively gone nuts. like victims of domestic violence, we either go passive, or are prone to rage. notice the lack of empathy for the afghan victims, typical npd, only on a national scale; or the attitude that, well they are muslims, they had it coming, total lack of empathy. i know this is a generalization, but when you talk about this stuff you pretty much have to generalize, there is always the exception that proves the rule.

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March 27, 2010 | url
Votes: +4

Bill Jones said:

	I've said this before There will always be war until someone finds a way to make peace as efficient a means of looting the taxpayer.
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March 27, 2010
Votes: +7

Dan Stevenson III said:

Why Stan is being so open. To answer the question of why this candor from McChrystal at this time may have to do with the fact that WickiLeaks, the web site that post top secret documents from whistle-blowers in a way that the whistle-blowers' identity can not be traced, is posting a video on the subject on April 5. My thinking is that this is the Pentagons attempt to get ahead of the news curve so as to act like they were going to bring this out to us all because they are so transparent.

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March 27, 2010 | url
Votes: +2

Jimmy Montague said:

Why Stan is being so open -- That's a nice theory, Dan. Only problem I see is: What makes you think the WickiLeaks story will grow any legs? I mean, I'd be happy if it played on front pages globally for a month or six weeks, long enough to force McChrystal's resignation and drive Obummer to end the war. But that ain't gonna happen. NYT, WaPo, LAT and the rest will ignore it just as they've ignored everything else important about the war. The TV networks -- I don't even wanna go there. If you watch the CBS Evening News for two weeks in a row, you'll see at least 14 human-interest stories and maybe -- MAYBE -- one story about the war that was concocted from DOD propaganda press releases. McChrystal could go on record saying HE'S the one who killed Kennedy -- news media would ignore his confession.

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March 28, 2010
Votes: +3

Neil McLachlan said:

Wikileaks is taken more seriously than I thought The recent posting of Greenwald's was quite informative, and it does seem plausible to me that McChrystal's actions are a pre-emptive defense. http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/03/27/wikileaks/index.html It will be very interesting to see how damaging the video is. The description of US soldiers and contractors simply firing at random people in the street as they speed by in their armored SUVs is pretty chilling but I think a lot of people won't quite realise how cold-blooded and inhuman this is until they see it happening on-screen. It's the same reason why the Abu Guraib photos needed to be released, because no verbal or written description could overcome the inherent desire to think of ourselves as the good guys. Photos and videos are unambiguous in that respect. Yes, I know photos and film can be doctored and manufactured, but so far no army official has *ever* claimed this to be the case for any of the evidence that has been uncovered. I would *love* wikileaks to get it's hands on the full set of torture photos that Obama decided to keep secret at the last minute. It would be less a case of shit hitting the fan, more like throwing a running V8 with a propellor attached into a swimming-pool of shit.

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March 28, 2010
Votes: +1

Sean O'Neil said:

... I'm with Jimmy. Neil, Glenn Greenwald pretends at a political savvy/awareness that he simply doesn't possess. He's wrong most every time he ventures into political prediction. His "strength," if you can call it that, is pure legal analysis -- and I'd even suggest he mis-steps there too, because he's so naive politically. The fact that he's at Salon tells you a bit about whom he writes for -- self-satisfied dandies who imagine themselves cultural savants. Salon is not where I'd look for political realities -- it's where I'd look for criticism of cultural fads, especially those regarding such things as art and fashion.

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March 28, 2010
Votes: -1

Neil McLachlan said:

... Sean, I agree with you on Greenwald's political analysis. He personally cannot identify with anyone willing to sacrifice principle for political gains so he has little insight into the minds of those who do just that every day. But the article I linked to contained no political analysis, or if it did, that wasn't what I wanted people to read. The point was the leaking of a government document showing that they do in fact take wikileaks seriously and if they know a very bad video is going to be leaked there, this pre-emptive defence of McChrystal's might make sense in that context. Ignore everything Greenwald writes in that post, and just click on the images of the leaked document.

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March 28, 2010
Votes: +1

Art James, bebop-o, GoodCelery! said:

Expat okay. Thanks for the smack down. If I should apologize? to Chris Floyd. I always say`A smack on a snout is better than flatulence. M. de' Montagne wrote`Life is a dream. We waking sleep. While sleeping we wake. I ask? I awake? Who is `Expat? We live and we can learn. I can decide to Easily shut up. Maybe on some unconscious level hat is my goal. Quiet. Maybe I should hang-out more with children under six. I actually enjoy them. Adults (not Chris) lecture and kill. Where can one find more clear Expat's superior wisdom? Is Expat Chris Floyd? Who's sentient? I agree that we need Common Sense. My banter can go out-of-control too. I don't do Out Of Control $ Bail-Outs. It is silly to try to predict the weather. It is real 'dumb' to do "predator" chat. In dealing with our fellow human, huh? Human can delete, call shots, and kill! It's wise to practice`Silence. I hear you. Lecture. You are not condescending, huh? This may be the Age Of Decadence, crash? I love to 'aim' to respect, or believe/behave? My sense is`Folk callin shots disrespect Self? They don't even Believe in their wastrel Self? Fakes in positions of "power" sit in lazy boys? Lazy Boy Chairs. They sermonize as academia? ` P.S. There was one Notion I wrote ref `Biology & Stagnation. It's when nothing progresses. Often Evolving? Regression? I am No scholar. There are some sad personal Experiences. Respectfully, where or who? a note to Expat.

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March 28, 2010
Votes: -1

Dan Stevenson III said:

Who can say...? Jimmy, I like nice theories and that is exactly what it is, so thanks. The WickiLeaks story has already grown legs. You and I and Neil are talking about it. And you can bet if we are considering it then others are as well. And if McChrystal actually spoke out about this issue as a pre-emptive defense then the information is out there for all to see and it has come from McChystal’s mouth. As you stated, the mass media won’t pick up the story in any real way, and may I add, even if we had McChrystal pulling the trigger. But the fact that he himself has made the claim may be something that will be built upon at a later date. Who can say for sure. The entire 911 issue is just starting to be spoken about in the main stream press now only because people have continued to investigate it to a point that there is just too much to ignore. This too will happen with issues like this. It’s a cumulative effort.

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March 28, 2010 | url
Votes: +3

john kelley said:

... We all remember the Nisour Square tradgedy. Around that time numerous stories circulated about Blackwater goons indiscriminately shooting civilians. There were even videos to support the claims...check out this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZX1odzHdAo The Nisour Square story even grew legs...which eventually walked it off stage. What was it? Mistrial? No trial? Aquittal? Exoneration? Whatever. It's all second rate theatre.

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March 28, 2010
Votes: +1

Neil McLachlan said:

Nisour Square John, this case is the one that was recently thrown out due to misbehavior by the prosecution, and the judge had literally no choice. The prosecutors looked into files they weren't allowed to, or something, I can' remember the exact details. So the entire roll of defendants got off scott free, leaving the lone guy who had the decency to confess, hanging in the breeze. And for me, one of the saddest, most poignant moments came after this, when the father of one young boy who was killed in that slaughter, said he understood why the case was dismissed but believed the civil case he himself was bringing would succeed. He only wanted an apology, he had already turned down an offer of $20k compensation from the corporation (or the government, same thing anyway) He said 'I believe in the American justice system, the right decision will eventually come, we just need to be patient'. As I said, one of the saddest things I've ever heard. A man whose son had been slaughtered for no reason actually thinks the justice system is going to punish those responsible.

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March 29, 2010
Votes: +4

nina said:

... General McChrystal, easily a PTSD victim, thinks he is still dealing with the old Obama, not the new Obama healthcare reform executive signatory, about whom its been said by pundits 'now he's got a wind behind his back'. McChrystal will wind up exactly as Taguba did, shuffling papers at a military issue metal desk in the USA. His representative-self may not think this is what he wants, but its exactly what his unconscious self requires. Thus, he will vanish quietly from the pomp emerging at home flipping steaks on Saturday afternoon in the backyard next to a cement Buddha in the koi pond.

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March 29, 2010 | url
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Michael B said:

George Bush gives important speech, Ronald Reagan gives... John Wayne... Empire generates simple computer program to have errand boy with good diction recite rationales for wholesale techno-slaughter of the 21st century Injuns. Meanwhile back at the ranch... Eat your heart out John Wayne. Guess who said the following: ... You are part of the finest military in the history of the world, and we are proud of you. And so I want you to know that everybody back home is proud of you. Everybody back home is grateful. And everybody understands the sacrifices that you have made and your families have made to keep America safe and to keep America secure in this vital mission. And I know it's not easy. You're far away from home. You miss your kids. You miss your spouses, your family, your friends. Some of you, this is your second or your third or your fourth tour of duty. I'll tell you right now the same thing that I said at West Point last December. If I thought for a minute that America's vital interests were not served, were not at stake here in Afghanistan, I would order all of you home right away. So I want you to know, I want every American serving in Afghanistan, military and civilian, to know, whether you're working the flight line here at Bagram or patrolling a village down in Helmand, whether you're standing watch at a forward operating base or training our Afghan partners or working with the Afghan government, your services are absolutely necessary, absolutely essential to America's safety and security. Those folks back home are relying on you. We can't forget why we're here. We did not choose this war. This was not an act of America wanting to expand its influence; of us wanting to meddle in somebody else's business. We were attacked viciously on 9/11. Thousands of our fellow countrymen and women were killed. And this is the region where the perpetrators of that crime, al Qaeda, still base their leadership. Plots against our homeland, plots against our allies, plots against the Afghan and Pakistani people are taking place as we speak right here. And if this region slides backwards, if the Taliban retakes this country and al Qaeda can operate with impunity, then more American lives will be at stake. The Afghan people will lose their chance at progress and prosperity. And the world will be significantly less secure. And as long as I'm your Commander-in-Chief, I am not going to let that happen. That's why you are here. I've made a promise to all of you who serve. I will never send you into harm's way unless it's absolutely necessary. I anguish in thinking about the sacrifices that so many of you make. That's why I promise I will never send you out unless it is necessary. ... http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/28-9

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March 29, 2010
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Art James, bebop-o, GoodCelery! said:

	Michael B. You ask us to Guess? ` Big Bird, Bunny rabbit, Barbery sheep (aoudad), Big Horn sheep, Border collie puppy, Boar hog, Buddha, Bullfighter, Michael M. (tease), delete? Butterfly, Buffalo, Bacchus and the winebibber? Respectfully. The world is getting base craziest! signed, Bug bunny, baby skunk. ay apology.
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March 29, 2010
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Sean O'Neil said:

	... Trey Stevenson amuses me. I'd bet he's a cipher for Glenn Greenwald. They share a surreal belief that their predictions are relevant and probable.
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March 29, 2010
Votes: +0

Debbie Kimlin said:

... What a lying piece of excrement! Obama, Nobel Peace prize winner, my ass. Warmongering, corporate and military whore, more like it. MIchael B , do I win a prize.(i'din't follow the link, knew after the first sentence). 'Keeping America safe" HA. "This was not an act of America wanting to expand its influence; of us wanting to meddle in somebody else's business." BS I knew he was going to be way more scary than Bush. BUt this I could not imagine.

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March 30, 2010
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Dan Stevenson III said:

The cipher speaks. . . Sean, you are more fun than a barrel of monkeys. I’ve just posted two comments so far and I have already graduated to “cipher”. Man, that is progress. It is said, Sean, that ones projections are reflections. I find nothing surreal about the facts that the Pentagon's admissions and Wikileaks pending video release are related. How often have you seen McChrystal tell the truth about anything? Do you think that he has just seen Jesus and is repenting? Do remember, we ciphers only writes in code.

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March 30, 2010 | url
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scott douglas said:

	... The Times publishes a story about the established mass-murderer Stanley 'The Knife' McChrystal admitting that American boys shoot Afghan tribes people down like cur dogs in the road, mostly for sport, and believe me, we are the only ones remotely concerned about the implications -- all Palace intrigue aside. I think THAT'S the really sick part!
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March 30, 2010
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Jon said:

	... ... You mean they actually get mad when we kill their family members? They must not realize that we are Americans, otherwise they would be happy to lie down in front of our bullets.
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March 30, 2010
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