Wrong Priorities

Calls for War with Iran

The Cost of Iraq War

Iraq War Ends, Bradley Manning Pre Trial Begins

Troops' Remains Dumped in a Landfill

The Washington Post broke the story of this scandal, and then added more reporting to it this week.

Obama and his Wars

Republican Pledge, 2011

The True Legacy of 9/11

Dick Cheney's Memoirs "In My Life"

A totally - and literally - shameless old bastard to the end.

9/11 Ten Years Later

9/11 Ten Years Anniversary

Great essay in New York Magazine by Frank Rich on the ten years since 9/11. It all seems very clear with hindsight, but the smoke signals were ambiguous on that day. PZ Myers here and Glenn Greenwald here.

Westboro Baptist Funeral Protests and Free Speech

Final Ruling on Westboro Baptist Funeral Protests

HuffPo on the Supreme Court Ruling is here. I'd link to these odious extremist Christians' website, but amusingly it was taken down by the activist group "Anonymous".

Woodward's Obama's Wars Revelations Shocker!

US Mission in Iraq Ends

And please don't forget to vote for my cartoon, number 10,here!

How Much do we Think about our War Dead?

Aftermath

Have you forgotten yet?...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked a while at the crossing of city ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heavens of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same—and War's a bloody game...
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz—
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench—
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, 'Is it all going to happen again?'

Do you remember that hour of din before the attack—
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads—those ashen-gray
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?

Have you forgotten yet?...
Look up, and swear by the slain of the war that you'll never forget!

March 1919.

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)

See also the excellent poem here.

Our Medicated Military; what keeps the Wounded Platoon fighting

Response to various things I read and saw, but mostly the incredibly moving and enraging "The Wounded Platoon" on PBS Frontline. What a great system - we exploit vulnerable young men, drive them crazy, kick them out with dishonorable discharges for being crazy, and then say that they are not eligible for VA care since they were dishonorably discharged. Fucking magnificent.

The Army's Problems

9/11 Remembered

The Song Remains the Same

Story is here at the NY Times. It was Wilfred Owen, killed in the final week of World War One, who called the Horace line 'the old lie'. Picture below is from the Times story; quote is from Hemmingway's story "A Natural History of the Dead".