Afghanistan : Fast increasing British soldiers' deaths and their crappy US reject military equipment

A further 15 British soldiers have lost their lives in just the last ten days in southern Afghanistan, whilst continuing Operation Panther's Claw, a major assault against the Taliban. At least, 15 is still the number as we sit safely here at home on this sunny Sunday afternoon, and type.

As if this isn't absolutely awful enough in itself, today we are told the astonishing truth by the 'Mail on Sunday' regarding Gordon's Brown's government's continuing fatal, effing fowl-ups.

We wonder what the hell Gordon Brown and his fat-cat & fraudster "honourable friends" want? To beat (once, Great), Britain's 'Bloody Hands' record still held by the traitorous turd Tony Blair?!

Read the revolting rest about our British Army's downright betrayal by it's own boss of bosses.

Read it and weep : and rage.

Then write.

Write to the Queen. Write to Prince Charles. Write to the Prime Minister. Write to your member of parliament. Write to the national newspapers. Write to your local papers. Write on blogs. And write on web sites and forums.

In fact, write where ever you damned well can write.

And when you write, write the same simple things.

Enough is enough. Bring our brave boys (and girls), back home. And, bring them home now. Before many more of them end up being bourne back in bloody, flag draped boxes.

After all, surely we Brits are, at the very least, just as sodding sensible as the Russians?




*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Change?! Sorry : some things never do will

Okay. We know.

It's an old one and it's a corny one. But we're gonna tell it again anyway.

"Whadaya mean there's no demand?

Don't dare moan to me about no demand.

It's the job of salesmen to create demand"...

... said the sales manager of the big, baby buggy and pram manufacturing firm as he scolded his salesmen.

And then there's this.



Get the picture?

Understand what we're saying?

Or do some still need a different damned diagram?

You know, something lots & lots simpler?

Say, for instance, something such as an "In Praise of Instigated International Instabilities ~ for Dummies," diagram?

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

And Now Another American Attack Annihilates Another Afghan Wedding Party

Amid today's unbridled American presidential election celebrations, we learn that another, now all too familiar, almighty US military f*ck up has once again wiped out many innocent men, women and children. Ordinary/regular people whose only 'crime' seems to have been celebrating something special of their own.

And after all, lets face it, such long suffering, sad & sorry civilian souls have had precious little to celebrate since the dark day that the evil Saudi Arabian, Osama bin Laden's 9/11 bait was so eagerly swallowed (hook, line and sinker) by bloodsucking BushCo and mighty M.I.C. mates.

If ever "even the stones cry out" in Afghanistan, then the din will be deafening. And we do mean damned well deafening.

Surely, it must, by now, be more than bloody obvious even to the most moronic among the wantonly warmongering and (futile) cold-blooded vengeance wreaking retards, that criminal negligence and/or incompetence of epic proportions, is, alas, now endemic in America's modern day military.

And so, we wonder if the word 'accountability' is to be included anywhere among Barack Obama's many recently promised changes.

US Afghan air strike 'killed 40'

US air strikes have been blamed for many civilian deaths

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said about 40 people were killed in a US air strike in southern Kandahar province.

Many more were wounded when a wedding party was hit. US officials confirmed civilian deaths and are investigating.

"We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes," Mr Karzai said in comments directed at US President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr Karzai has repeatedly criticised the high level of civilian casualties in such bombings.

The latest civilian deaths underline the challenges facing the US president-elect and future commander-in-chief.

Read the rest of this report right here.

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Gormless, Goofy Generals? Or Godamned Greedy Others?

Some time ago, an extremely powerful world leader learned the hard way, just how costly it is to ignore one's own military generals.

Yet even now, there are still some world leaders who can't/won't either face facts nor, learn from others' catastrophically, costly cock-ups.

White House denies Army's pitch for more brass

By Richard Lardner, Associated Press Writer, Mon Jun 23 2008

WASHINGTON - The Army's march to overhaul its tarnished contracting system has been slowed by an unlikely foe: the White House.

The Office of Management and Budget, President Bush's administrative arm, has shot down a service plan to add five active-duty generals who would oversee purchasing and monitor contractor performance.

The boost in brass was a key recommendation from a blue-ribbon panel that last fall criticized the Army for contracting failures that undermined the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, wasted U.S. tax dollars, and sparked dozens of procurement fraud investigations.

So, is THIS sheer stupidity or is this sheer stupidity?



Well, they got THAT right. Ike WAS right.




(Cross posted at 'appletree')

New study shows US lawmakers have as much as $196 million invested in defense companies

Why do you suppose the US spends as much on military hardware as the rest of the world put together?

From the Associated Press:

Members of the U.S.Congress have as much as $196 million (€126.2 million) collectively invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the start of the Iraq war, according to a new study by a nonpartisan research group.

The review of lawmakers' 2006 financial disclosure statements, by the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, suggests that members' holdings could pose a conflict of interest as they decide the fate of Iraq war spending. Several members who earned the most from defense contractors have plum committee or leadership assignments, including Democratic Sen. John Kerry, independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman and House Republican Whip Roy Blunt.

The study found that more Republicans than Democrats hold stock in defense companies, but that the Democrats who are invested had significantly more money at stake. In 2006, for example, Democrats held at least $3.7 million (€2.3 million) in military-related investments, compared to Republican investments of $577,500 (€372,000).

Overall, 151 members hold investments worth $78.7 million (€50.6 million) to $195.5 million (€125.9 million) in companies that receive defense contracts that are worth at least $5 million (€3.2 million). These investments earned them anywhere between $15.8 million (€10.1 million) and $62 million (€39.9 million) between 2004 and 2006, the center concludes.

I guess this explains why congress tolerates $295 billion in cost overruns on defense contracts.

(cross posted at Liberal Avenger, via appletree)

United States Special Edition : An Eminently Experienced And Genuinely Independent, International Journalist's Summary ...

*
Here's a glimpse of what a genuine 'journalist' looks like.

Here's something that the particular journalist pictured above permanently preaches -- and practices -- period.

"It is not enough for journalist to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and myths that surround it."

Realised yet that it's John Pilger's praises we're singing?

No matter. Read on.

Here's a few tasty teasers from his most recently published piece.

Having reported four presidential election campaigns, from the Kennedys to Nixon, Carter to Reagan, with their Zeppelins of platitudes, robotic followers and rictal wives, I can sympathise. But what difference would the vote make?

Of the presidential candidates I have interviewed, only George C Wallace, governor of Alabama, spoke the truth. "There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democrats and Republicans," he said. And he was shot.

(snip)

Travelling with Robert Kennedy in 1968 was eye-opening for me. To audiences of the poor, Kennedy would present himself as a saviour. The words "change" and "hope" were used relentlessly and cynically. For audiences of fearful whites, he would use racist codes, such as "law and order". With those opposed to the invasion of Vietnam, he would attack "putting American boys in the line of fire", but never say when he would withdraw them.

That year (after Kennedy was assassinated), Richard Nixon used a version of the same, malleable speech to win the presidency. Thereafter, it was used successfully by Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and the two Bushes.

(snip)

Nothing has changed. Barack Obama is a glossy Uncle Tom who would bomb Pakistan. Hillary Clinton, another bomber, is anti-feminist. John McCain’s one distinction is that he has personally bombed a country.

They all believe the US is not subject to the rules of human behaviour, because it is "a city upon a hill", regardless that most of humanity sees it as a monumental bully which, since 1945, has overthrown 50 governments, many of them democracies, and bombed 30 nations, destroying millions of lives.

Ready to read the rest -- right here?

Okay. Seeing as you've sifted through so much serious stuff - and since it's the weekend -- lets end on a lighter note.

But remember this -- many a true word is spoken in jest.

(Cross posted at Appletree )

Iraq War and Ongoing Occupation : Current Coalition Death Count ...

A picture's worth a thousand words?

Not always.

Here's one worth many more.

US military deaths in Iraq at 3,886

As of Friday, Dec. 7, 2007, at least 3,886 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes eight military civilians.

At least 3,165 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

And then there are more.

Nothing follows.

*(Cross posted at Appletree)

Weapons Of Mass Destruction Are All Around America ...

After all the blood spilled, limbs lost, tears shed, and time, money and lives spent wasted searching for hidden WMDs in far off Iraq, it turns out there's an absolute bloody abundance of the buggers 'laying low' all around America.

Moreover, they're much, much closer to home than most folk could ever have imagined.

Quickly cast you eyes across this quote clipped from 'Crooks and Liars'.

It is no secret that the U.S. military has used the ocean as trashcan for munitions in the past. Peter discussed at the Old DSN how federal lawmakers were pressing the US Army to reveal everything it knows about a massive international program to dump chemical weapons off homeland and foreign shores.

“The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.”

Read all about this real and present terror-threat, right here.

We think that to say something stinks here is a understatement -- of massive measure.

But hey, we can almost hear some (suckers) say, the US government's a very busy bunch of guys.

Right?

You know, what with cleaning up & clearing out all the evils of the wicked, wider world and all.

Eh?

Well, we still say something stinks - to high heaven - about this shocking sort of sickening and literally poisonous 'homegrown' shit.

After all, as far as we're aware neither successive American administrations nor the high & mighty crooks and liars of the Military Industrial Complex ever did damn well own either the Atlantic or Pacific ocean. Well, did they it?

Aren't the planet's life giving (and sustaining), waters as just much yours and ours as theirs? And what about our kids and grand kids?

Furthermore, this scandalous state of affairs isn't down to just America's military & political masters. Since, just the same as the seas 'assaulted', this genuine terror threat neither respects nor indeed recognises any borders at all. Least of all it's own.

We bet that you - like ourselves - always thought all those scary sea monster stories were simply silly science fiction, eh?

Then try telling that to your young ones today - with your hand on your heart (or your Bible), and in all clear conscience.


Btw, we bet a lot of old Marines, soldiers and sailors will believe you -- even if the little ones are loathe to.