I went into journalism to do journalism, not advertising

glenn reviews michael hastings' book, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan and, as usual, provides a razor-sharp perspective on the bought-and-paid-for crowd of puppets that pass themselves off as exemplars of news journalism...

(note: the post title is a quote from hastings' book...)

[T]here is a perverse, inverse relationship between the amount of power someone wields in Washington and the willingness of most establishment journalists to engage in reporting that exposes or embarrasses them. These journalists love to swarm with contempt on the marginalized and powerless in their world (people and groups like Julian Assange, Occupy Wall Street, Christine O’Donnell, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, etc.), but when it comes to those who exercise real power and are members in good standing of the Washington establishment — war Generals, senior White House officials, corporate officials and lobbyists — they tread with extreme caution when they do anything other than obediently convey messages.

reading glenn gives me some hope that my own grip on reality is maybe not as tenuous as i sometimes get to thinking it is... as most of us know all too well, when the prevailing societal norm is insanity, it's hard to keep believing in oneself...

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Sickening

Robert Gates and Stanley McChrystal
(AFP/Jim Watson)

the spectacle of one of the super-rich elites' puppet masters heaping praise on the poor bastards who are giving their lives so that the super-rich can become even richer while those whose lives are on the line will very likely remain trapped forever in the poor underclass makes me want to run to the toilet and regurgitate my bran cereal and fruit breakfast...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FRONTENAC, Afghanistan – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a hard-hit battle unit Tuesday that its heavy losses have helped the U.S. begin to push back against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Gates visited a small, remote outpost 30 miles north of Kandahar, where the Fort Lewis, Washington-based Stryker unit has lost 22 men and suffered an additional 62 wounded since arriving here last summer.

The latest injuries came Monday night, and the latest death three days ago.

Gates praised the 800-soldier unit and told the troops that as the fight shifts toward securing Kandahar itself later this year, they will again be "at the top of the spear."

so there gates sits, telling these guys that their nation is ever so grateful that they're dying, all the while knowing that, among those he's talking to, several more will undoubtedly die, some within days... how can a deceitful bastard like that look himself in the mirror in the morning...?

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Corruption in Afghanistan...? D'oh...!

you gotta be shittin' me...

The top commanding officer in Afghanistan has revealed a belief that “rampant government corruption” has given the Taliban and al-Qaeda an edge in the war. The conclusion came in a recent secret document put together by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. officials told the Associated Press. Though the document requests more troops, it warns that more troops may not prevent the Taliban from taking back Afghanistan.

Corruption in Afghanistan became public knowledge after the presidential election in Afghanistan was revealed as rigged by independent election observers. Fraud investigations discovered that 1.1 million 'questionable votes' were given to President Hamid Karzai, and that the subtraction of these votes was enough to push Karzai below 50 percent.

"Corruption in Afghanistan became public knowledge after the presidential election in Afghanistan was revealed as rigged by independent election observers..." WHAT...? great god almighty...! i can't believe any responsible journalist could write such a statement with a straight face... i've been coming here to afghanistan since march of last year and corruption is as omnipresent as dust in the air...

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A view from Kabul: "Protecting Afghans?" Not so much...

some of the warmest relationships and friendliest people i've ever met are among the afghans i deal with on a daily basis... some of them are my professional colleagues, some of them are drivers, and some of them are guards tasked with keeping me not only safe but alive... and i've noticed that they don't respond to all americans the way they respond to me...

i'm not trying to paint myself as anything special but i do go out of my way to smile, ask them how they're doing, how their families are doing, and just generally engage them as decent, fellow human beings... what's stunning is just how much they devour such simple, genuine, person-to-person contact... they're starving for it, particularly from those who are ostensibly here to "help," from those who all too often look down on them as a kind of sub-species...

why would anyone NOT want to engage with these wonderful people and go out of his or her way to extend cheer, a friendly smile and that most lovely of all gestures of friendship common in this part of the world, the right hand over the heart...? isn't expressing warmth to the people we're here to help a large part of what anyone who chooses to be here would want to be sure to do...? unfortunately, most of the ex-pats i know all to often neglect those basic human gestures, opting instead for the look-right-through-you indifference reserved for the general run of fast-food counter employees, airline check-in agents, supermarket cashiers, and the like... my response to those people...? go home... you don't belong here...

meanwhile, the afghans continue to die in record numbers, deaths that have continued unabated for well over thirty years of war, civil war and armed insurgency... the u.s. response...? send more troops, more men with guns... when are we going to wise up...?

Gen. Stanley McChrystal told Congress that the measure of success in Afghanistan should be "the number of Afghans shielded from violence." If that's the case, then his strategy is clearly failing.

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Yeah, let's make the Mad Max environment of Afghanistan even worse

just what's needed here - more guys with guns - like that's going to fix anything...

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says emphatically: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible."

driving back to our guest house from the office here in kabul yesterday, we did a little right-of-way mexican standoff with a heavily armored humvee, not a particularly wise move on the part of our driver... fortunately, the team aboard the humvee must have been in a gracious mood or just been plain too tired to care because they chose not to either run us over and crush us flat or, alternatively, to shred us into tiny, blood-spattered metal fragments... somehow, i just can't see how adding more such mad max contraptions to the streets and roads of afghanistan is going to magically make things better... but, hey, what do i know...?

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