Want to know why we wage war? Follow the money - to Halliburton

and here ya have it...

Halliburton Co. continues to benefit from placing greater emphasis on its operations in the Eastern Hemisphere, where expanding business helped the company post a 19 percent rise in third-quarter earnings.

The Houston-based oilfield services company said Sunday its net income rose to $727 million, or 79 cents a share, in the July-September period from $611 million, or 58 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

The most-recent results included a favorable income tax benefit of $133 million, or 15 cents a share.

Third-quarter revenue rose 16 percent to $3.93 billion.

can you think of anything that could possibly be more euphemistic than "continues to benefit from placing greater emphasis on its operations in the Eastern Hemisphere, where expanding business helped the company post a 19 percent rise in third-quarter earnings"...? you've got to admit that it sounds one hell of a lot better than "continues to cash in on the war in iraq"...

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Hard on the heels of the previous post: "You are the law. You are God."

from an article in the uk observer via juan cole...

ok, the article is about israeli soldiers in palestine and gaza, but it could just as well be about u.s. troops in iraq...

Nufar Yishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem: [...] "At one point or another of their service, the majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence. They enjoyed the violence because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction and the chaos. They also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence and the sense of danger."

in the soldiers' own words...

(note: not for the squeamish...)

• The truth? When there is chaos, I like it. That's when I enjoy it. It's like a drug. If I don't go into Rafah, and if there isn't some kind of riot once in some weeks, I go nuts.

• The most important thing is that it removes the burden of the law from you. You feel that you are the law. You are the law. You are the one who decides... As though from the moment you leave the place that is called Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and go through the Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, you are the law. You are God.

• We were in a weapons carrier when this guy, around 25, passed by in the street and, just like that, for no reason - he didn't throw a stone, did nothing - bang, a bullet in the stomach, he shot him in the stomach and the guy is dying on the pavement and we keep going, apathetic. No one gave him a second look.

• With women I have no problem. With women, one threw a clog at me and I kicked her here [pointing to the crotch], I broke everything there. She can't have children. Next time she won't throw clogs at me. When one of them [a woman] spat at me, I gave her the rifle butt in the face. She doesn't have what to spit with any more.

• After two months in Rafah, a [new] commanding officer arrived... So we do a first patrol with him. It's 6am, Rafah is under curfew, there isn't so much as a dog in the streets. Only a little boy of four playing in the sand. He is building a castle in his yard. He [the officer] suddenly starts running and we all run with him. He was from the combat engineers. He grabbed the boy. I am a degenerate if I am not telling you the truth. He broke his hand here at the wrist, broke his leg here. And started to stomp on his stomach, three times, and left. We are all there, jaws dropping, looking at him in shock. The next day I go out with him on another patrol, and the soldiers are already starting to do the same thing.

the conclusion of the report cited in the observer article was that israeli soliders suffered from poor training and lack of discipline... no... i'm sorry... what's depicted here is only to be expected when a society uses war and the dehumanization of its "enemies" as tools for advancing its "interests..." the real tragedy is that most of us do not want to acknowledge the brutal and horrifying truth...

juan cole agrees but, unfortunately, fails to include our own troops in his condemnation...

The idea that these sorts of actions derive from 'lack of training' is absurd. They derive from hatred and from being able to act with impunity. They are a burden of the strong who have the opportunity to abuse the weak.

The US political elite and media that conceals the brutality of the Israeli occupation for sectional political gains are accomplices to this sadism, and their silence endangers the security of the United States. When we cannot understand why Arab audiences, who are perfectly aware of what the Israeli army has been doing to Palestinians for decades, are outraged, it leads us into policy mistakes in dealing with the Middle East. No one in the US media ever talks about Zionofascism, and the campus groups who yoke the word 'fascism' to other religions and peoples are most often trying to divert attention from their own authoritarianism and approval of brutality.

the hope for peace in this world can only be realized when these kinds of nightmares come to an end...

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a special Democracy Now!

Today is Friday's show, so if you cannot muster the moral courage to watch today's program now, you'll have the whole weekend.

So heads up! You should see this one.

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"Someone else's blood" and "we were right to be wrong"

from tony judt, writing at the nyt, via atrios...

Tony Judt is director of the Remarque Institute at New York University and the author of “Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945.”

Yes, [the liberal hawks] concede, President Bush messed up his (our) war. But even if the war was a mistake, it was a brave and good mistake and we were right to make it, just as we were right to advocate intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo. (“The difference between Kosovo and Iraq isn’t between a country that wanted peace and one that didn’t,” the Slate editor and onetime war cheerleader Jacob Weisberg, now tells us. “It was a matter of better management and better luck.”) We were right to be wrong — and that’s why you should listen to us now.

[...]

[R]emember what Albert Camus had to say about his fellow intellectuals’ propensity for encouraging violence to others at a safe distance from themselves. “Mistaken ideas always end in bloodshed,” he wrote, “but in every case it is someone else’s blood. That is why some of our thinkers feel free to say just about anything.”

the big mistake the war supporting dems and r's, the neocons and the liberal hawks, make is thinking that why our country invaded iraq was actually in support of higher principles... well, yes, that's true, it WAS in support of higher principles, just not the ones they would like to think... those who truly call the shots in the united states (and in many places around the world), the moneyed elites, serve the twin principles of money and power... democracy, freedom from oppression and basic human dignity have no meaning for them except as slogans to serve their own ends... war, particularly in the context of modern warfare and weaponry, is the largest profit generation machine the world has ever seen, and it's being used to maximum benefit by those who stand to gain the most... when i read about liberal hawks and necons and their support for "just wars," i can only shake my head ruefully and think just how badly they've been suckered into believing the bullshit they've been fed...

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"Thou shalt not kill........

........Unless it maketh thee a profit"

Exodus 20:13 NERV (Neo-conservative Evangelical Revised Version)

I am a man who stands firm and secure in his faith. Those that know me, either personally, or by my writings, are aware that I am NOT a proselytizer. It matters not, to me, if you are a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. I try (tho' I sometimes fail) to show MY faith by my works, deeds, and actions. I make an honest attempt to treat everyone with love, understanding, compassion, and respect. I strive hard, to be the embodiment of my teacher, Jesus, the Christ.

If some people have a propensity for iniquity; to kill, commit adultry, covet another's resources (like oil and water), or lie through their teeth with unabashed shame, I can understand and live with it. However, don't insult my intelligence by claiming to be a Christian, when your actions speak otherwise. It not only denigrates Christianity, but also my opinion of you. Jesus (the One you claim to follow) taught: "Ye shall know them by their fruits".

The title and lead-in are pure snark, as you may have guessed. ALL versions of this scripture are short, and to the point: Thou shalt not kill. The word, 'kill', is translated from the Hebrew, ratsach, meaning, 'to kill, murder, slay'. To take an innocent life. When God inspired those words, He made no caveats. He didn't say, "If you THINK someone MIGHT try to kill you, then kill them first". Calling it 'collateral damage', or a 'cost of war',is nowhere to be found. Neither is 'beyond reasonable doubt', in defense of capital punishment; for by who's standard of reasonable do we apply? We are but mere mortal humans, and it is a proven fact that we are definately not infallible. Death is final. It is one of the few things that are irreversable. You can't get a 'Mulligan' on death. All life is precious, it is a gift from the Creator; it should not be taken by mortal men, nor by the evil governments they have formed.

It never ceases to amaze (and sicken) me, to hear the Republican mantra of 'The Sanctity of Life'. They are pro-life only in regards to abortion, embryonic stem cell research (I still fail to understand THAT one), or Terri Schiavo. They seem to have no problem letting people die for lack of healthcare or from poverty. They seem also, to love sending our young soldiers and civilian contractors into an illegal, un-Godly, immoral war; knowing full-well that thousands will never return alive. The present leadership of this country is a disgusting disgrace at best, and despicably hypocritical at worse. This current band of criminals running our government, the chicken-hawk war-mongers, were afraid to serve in the military themselves, and went to great lengths to avoid service. How can they command people to do something that they, themselves, were/are too scared to do? Have these people no conscience whatsoever? How do they sleep at night?

George W. Bush is arguably the most hypocritical of all. As Governor of Texas, he refused to commute Carla Faye Tucker's death sentence to life without parole. It was universally acknowledged that Carla Faye was a changed person, making a positive impact on many lives, even as she sat on death row. Even the Pope had tried to make intercession on her behalf. And what did Bush do? He made jokes and snide remarks about her execution. He stated he would not interfere with a jury's decision. Yet, he had the unmitigated gall to overturn 'Scooter' Libby's judge and jury, by saying he felt the sentence was 'too harsh'. Say whaaaaaat?????? Three years in a Federal Country Club for Libby is harsher than death for Tucker? To paraphrase Yakov Smirnoff: "Wow, what a Christian!"

What has this once-great nation become? The Republican's lies and deceit have apparently paralyzed the Democrats as well, as they refuse to put the brakes on this runaway freight train disguised as the Executive Branch. What, exactly, are they afraid of? Not getting the support of the 20% that is Bush's base? What about the other 80% of us?

I will continue to bang the drum, sound the trumpet, and beat the dead horse; but I believe we may have already crossed over the threshold, the point of no return. The Neo-cons, Republican and Democrat alike, are willing to kill anything, or anybody, that stands in their way. This includes the country that birthed them, and the Constitution it was founded on.

How, in God's name, can these people have the audacity to call themselves 'Christian'? That is ludicrous, absurd, and down-right farcical, and I might add, sacrilegious and blasphemous, too.

As Jesus (remember Him?) said, "Many are called, but few are chosen".

That's my opinion. What say y'all?

(Graphic courtesy of Jolly Roger @ Reconstitution 2.0)

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I should know better than to be reading about why the U.S. needs a "warrior mentality"

it's a big mistake to start off the day reading crap like this... i should have known better from the title of the article, the source in which it was originally printed, and the author...





points of visceral nausea...

• War is a fact of the human social condition...

• [A]ny policy lacking martial vigor—any policy that fails to communicate a warrior spirit—only makes war more likely.

• [A] leader ... sanctions every manner of deceit provided it is necessary to gain strategic advantage [and]is never swayed by public opinion...

• Americans as a people are ever further removed from any semblance of a warrior spirit...

and if those weren't bad enough, he keeps right on going...

[O]ur near obsession with finding ways to kill others at no risk to our own troops is a sign of strength in our eyes alone. To faithful or merely nationalist enemies, it is a sign of weakness, even cowardice.

[...]

Never-say-die faith, accompanied by old-fashioned nationalism, is alive in America. It is a match for the most fanatical suicide bombers anywhere, but with few exceptions, that faith is confined to our finest combat infantry units—and to specific sections of the country and socio-economic strata from which these “warriors” (as they like to call themselves) hail.

[...]

That kind of faith is receding in America among a social and economic class increasingly motivated by universal values: caring, for example, about the suffering of famine victims abroad as much as for hurricane victims at home. Universal values are a good in and of themselves, and they are not the opposite of faith. But they should never be confused with it. You may care to the point of tears about suffering humankind without having the will to actually fight (let alone inconvenience yourself) for those concerns. Thus, universal values may pose an existential challenge to national security when accompanied by a loss of faith in one’s own political values and projects.

kaplan, in this 5000+ word article, loaded with multi-syllabic, professorial jargon, literary and historical references, and examples drawn from his time spent with "real warriors," is a perfect example of the phony intellectual justification of a military-industrial complex, and money and power-hungry elites forever focused on endless violence, war, death, and destruction to maintain the world they've created for themselves... it's worth reading if for nothing else than to gain a full appreciation for the minds behind our country's behavior in the world... remember, it's men like kaplan who provide much of the theoretical horsepower for those in our government who are calling the shots... i find it to be a profoundly cold and twisted world view, particularly in its repudiation of universal values, but certainly accurate in depicting the mindset that drives our foreign policy...

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