Tuesday, September 14, 2010

My 911 Tribute (3 days late) Or A Big Heads Up To Our Gullib...Oops...Brave Boys In Uniform




From September 9th, we have this lovely bit of patriotic ephemera, guaranteed to warm the cockles of the little red white & blue Uncle Sam in all of us.

WASHINGTON - Twelve U.S. soldiers face a variety of charges in what military authorities believe was a conspiracy to murder Afghan civilians and cover it up, along with charges they used hashish, mutilated corpses and kept grisly souvenirs.

Five soldiers face murder charges, while seven others are charged with participating in a coverup. All of the men were members of a 2nd Infantry Division brigade operating near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010.

According to the military documents, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs and four other soldiers were involved in throwing grenades at civilians and then shooting them in separate incidents. Three Afghan men died.

Authorities allege Gibbs kept finger bones, leg bones and a tooth from Afghan corpses. Another soldier, Spc. Michael Gagnon II, allegedly kept a skull from a corpse, according to charging documents. Several soldiers are charged with taking pictures of the corpses, and one - Spc. Corey Moore - with stabbing a corpse.

Staff Sgt. Robert Stevens is charged with lying to investigators about the deaths, saying the civilians posed a threat.

Other soldiers are charged with assaulting Afghan civilians by shooting at them, and several soldiers face charges of failing to properly account for and dispose of weapons.

Eight of the soldiers also are charged with using hashish and beating a junior soldier in an attempt to stop him from reporting them for misconduct, including hashish use.


Heavens! That's bad. Or, more appropriately, that's hashish smoking bad apples bad, eh?
It's also a bit Gein-dishly fiendish too.
But isn't that always the way? A few over-achievers spoil a war every fucking time, don't they?

Look soldier boys, we don't mind if you kill people. Hell, it's what we pay you fuckers for, isn't it? Personally, as a good American, I understand that the preparation of democracy omelets requires more than a few broken eggs. In war people will die. That's inescapable. If we didn't mind dead folk here the US of A, we wouldn't have mortgaged our great great grandchildren's future stockpiling all these weapons, now would we? And, when you think about it, there isn't anything on God's green Earth more democratic than death, is there?

But Jesus, keeping souvenirs? What are you people? Sociopaths?

So, it's a good thing we Americans have such a sane grasp on this "Kill 'Em All" policy we wield like a pre-teen offing pigeons with his B-B gun. Y'see, there's accepted killing, like, say, lobbing white phosphorous shells into a known terrorist haven. Oh, we may off a few women & children, but that's covered under Subsection 24, Article 6, entitled "COLLATERAL DAMAGE."

Or, you could carpet bomb entire cities, which is covered under Subsection CNN, Article 34, entitled "SHOCK & AWE."

But you must never ever ever wander about, popping caps into random civilians & then commandeering their bones as souvenirs. It's just bad form guys. It makes us look like cannibals instead of your average everyday mass murd...oops...freedom fighter.

Look, I understand. You're under a lot of pressure. Shit happens. I mean, just this morning, this little faggot cut me off on the way to work, and maaaaaaaaaaaaaan would I have loved to hang his finger bones from my rearview.

But did I?

No. There are rules, my man. There are rules.

& last week, when this n...(ahem)...negro ran out & tried to clean my windshield with his dirty fucking water, I started reaching for the Glock I keep under my seat, picturing his head bursting open like a ripe melon...

Look, I envy you. Somebody fucks with you so you waste him. Simple & clean. Here it isn't so simple. Hell, I'd join you in a New York minute, but...ummmm...I have this bad back & all...and, well, to be honest, I'm more career oriented. After all, the homeland needs guarding too, y'know?



Personally, I think that you gentlemen need to reflect back to "The Greatest Generation." After all, these men were thrust, much as you were, into a freedom preserving war of epic proportions, yet they exhibited conduct becoming an American. They never stooped to such atrocities.

“Arizona war worker sends her Navy boyfriend a thank-you note for the Jap skull he sent her.”




Okay, okay. So "The Greatest Generation" had their "bad apples" too. But he was reprimanded, spanked & sent to bed without his supper. Hopefully, we've learned a little bit more about war & the necessity of the Geneva Convention.

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that former prisoners of the C.I.A. could not sue over their alleged torture in overseas prisons because such a lawsuit might expose secret government information.

The sharply divided ruling was a major victory for the Obama administration’s efforts to advance a sweeping view of executive secrecy powers. It strengthens the White House’s hand as it has pushed an array of assertive counterterrorism policies, while raising an opportunity for the Supreme Court to rule for the first time in decades on the scope of the president’s power to restrict litigation that could reveal state secrets.

By a 6-to-5 vote, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a Boeing subsidiary accused of arranging flights for the Central Intelligence Agency to transfer prisoners to other countries for imprisonment and interrogation. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the case on behalf of five former prisoners who say they were tortured in captivity — and that Jeppesen was complicit in that alleged abuse.

Judge Raymond C. Fisher described the case, which reversed an earlier decision, as presenting “a painful conflict between human rights and national security.” But, he said, the majority had “reluctantly” concluded that the lawsuit represented “a rare case” in which the government’s need to protect state secrets trumped the plaintiffs’ need to have a day in court.

While the alleged abuses occurred during the Bush administration, the ruling added a chapter to the Obama administration’s aggressive national security policies.

Its counterterrorism programs have in some ways departed from the expectations of change fostered by President Obama’s campaign rhetoric, which was often sharply critical of former President George W. Bush’s approach.

Among other policies, the Obama national security team has also authorized the C.I.A. to try to kill a United States citizen suspected of terrorism ties, blocked efforts by detainees in Afghanistan to bring habeas corpus lawsuits challenging the basis for their imprisonment without trial, and continued the C.I.A.’s so-called extraordinary rendition program of prisoner transfers — though the administration has forbidden torture and says it seeks assurances from other countries that detainees will not be mistreated.


Shit!



8 comments:

Morocco Bama said...

Who cares about all of that, Richard. What we want to know is "how you originally emotionally responded on 9/11?"

Myself, and I kid you not, thought "wow, this is fucking cool and I as the moments after the planes struck turned into minutes and then an hour, or more, I thought, "come on, this can't be it...we need more than this," so I anticipated and welcomed the towers coming down, not in the way they did, I envisioned them falling over, and then shortly after that, down they came.

I know that sounds callous and removed, but let's face it, the coverage was likened to so many Hollywood Scripts that you couldn't help but respond in that reflexive manner. I had been trained by Hollywood to put my empathy and sympathy aside for 2.5 hours and beg for more adrenaline inducing action and mayhem.

I didn't think red flag at the time. That came in the months afterword when the last vestiges of adrenaline dissipated and I could think clearly.

I think many people are full of shit about what they felt that day, especially the hypocrites at RI. If you have one ounce of anti-establishment blood in you, part of you sees any dent to this system as a good thing. Of course, I believe many over at RI feign to be anti-establishment, but in reality they are as establishment as any conservative christian republican...maybe more.

Morocco Bama said...

On the other hand, that first clip from Apocalypse Now engenders deep feelings of empathy, sympathy and anger.

The magic of the screen.

I watch that movie every couple of years to keep it real.....if that's what you can call it.

Morocco Bama said...

Of course, I believe many over at RI feign to be anti-establishment, but in reality they are as establishment as any conservative christian republican...maybe more.

For example, claiming to be a "peace activist" and attending peace marches, yet being a zealous football fan glued to your t.v. every weekend for 5 months of the year watching a fascist game that promotes warmongering.

How do you reconcile that? You don't.

ericswan said...

I was surprised to discover that Alex Jones was calling it an inside job before the towers collapsed. Now ain't he sweet.

The only thing I felt until 2005 was numb and confused.

I'm still confused but I forget alot of stuff now so it's a different kind of confusion. Sort of like when you start typing away madly and forget where you were when you left off. Now where was I? Oh yeah..confused.

just_another_dick said...

I wasn't watching TV when it happened Shrub, so I had a few hours of blissful ignorance. I found out from a clerk in a music store. Initially I thought the US was just reaping a bit of the shit it had sown.

I still feel that way.

I remember watching the press conference where they announced the names of the terrorists & thinking "Now how the fuck did you folk find that information so damn quickly?"

Apparently that question never entered the minds of those reporters present at that conference since they rolled over into submissive mode & begged for protection.

What I found callous & removed was how every TV station switched to coverage of those burning towers so you had no choice but to watch as all those people died. They then repeated it in an endless tape loop of horror.
This nation of TV addicts had their nose rubbed in that burning shit pile over & over, all day long.


911 imagery has to rank as the single most effective war propaganda ever devised in the history of war inducing propaganda.

Everyone I knew thought that bombing the Afghan rubble pile was necessary & justified, as long as they didn't have to be the ones doing it.

At times, just to gauge their true motives, I'd suggest that we needed a draft. My draft plan was 18 to 40, men & women, no deferments, no excuses, no escape. The first to go would be the professional athletes. Since they've been sold to us as "warriors" for years, this would be a stellar opportunity to prove it.

I'd watch as their eyes grew as big as dinner plates at the prospect of actually having to walk all their bullshit laden talk.

I don't know Shrub, I think most RI-ers just want to go back to 90s America where educated liberals could pay public lip service to opposing corporate schemes like NAFTA, while privately having their brokers reap some of that investment gravy.

Morocco Bama said...

Shit, I love that movie. Most don't get it. Kurtz didn't go insane. He went sane. It's all the rest, who serve the insane system, who are insane.

just_another_dick said...

Yeah, I love it too. But, for all its popularity & critical acclaim, it has changed nothing.

ericswan said...

NAFTA is more than a gravy train. When I got my copy, it came in two parts. One English and the other French. I read it soft cover to soft cover. I recall denim is on the 2010 agenda, milk products including cheese is next.
The lesson to learn here is that if it's meant to screw you, it comes incrementally. Hope your health insurance works out better than NAFTA.