The Rag Blog

Being a military thinker of the profoundest sort, I offer the following manual of martial affairs for nations yearning to copy the American way of war. Read it carefully. Great clarity will result. The steps limned below will facilitate disaster without imposing the burden of reinventing it. The Pentagon may print copies for distribution.

(1) Underestimate the enemy. Fortunately this is easy when a technologically advanced power prepares to attack an underdeveloped nation. Its enemy’s citizens will readily be seen as gadgetless, primitive, probably genetically stupid, and hardly worth the attention of a real military.

(2) Avoid learning anything about the enemy—his culture, religion, language, history, or response to past invasions. These things don’t matter since the enemy is gadgetless, primitive, and probably genetically stupid. Anyway, knowledge would only make the enlisted ranks restive, and confuse the officer corps.

Blank ignorance of the language is especially desirable (as well as virtually guaranteed). For one thing, it will allow your troops to be seen as brutal invaders having nothing in common with the population; this helps in winning hearts and minds. For another, it will allow English-speaking officials of the puppet government to vet such information about the country as they permit you to have.

(3) Explain the invasion to the American public in simple moral terms suitable for middle-school children at an evangelical summer camp: We are bombing cities to bring the gift of democracy and American values, or to defeat some vague but frightening evil, perhaps lurking under the bed, or to get rid of a bad dictator no longer of service to us, or to bring freedom and prosperity to any survivors. (This doesn’t work in Europe, which is honestly imperialistic.) The public can then feel a sense of unappreciated virtue when the primitives resist. Sententious moralism should always trump reason.

(4) A misunderstanding of military reality helps. Besides, comprehension would only lead to depression. As Napoleon said, or may have, in war the moral is to the material as three is to one, which implies that unpleasant facts should be played down in favor of cultivating a cheerful attitude. Most especially, it should not be noted that a few tens of thousands of determined, probably genetically-stupid primitives with small arms can tie down a cheerful force however gaudily armed.

If you fancy losing an argument, try shooting down my contention that Mikhail Gorbachev is the leading historical figure of our time. Not one to miss a shooting opportunity, Dick Cheney tried. To my surprise, he won.

Westerners fondly remember Gorbachev for finishing off an ailing Soviet empire left bleeding from its Afghan travails. Defusing half a century of nuclear tension can leave a mark on impressionable minds. On Cheney’s-not so much. The former Defense Secretary had a tender spot for the Cold War and never forgave Gorbachev for ending it with not even a kind word for defense contractors. Cheney is the quintessential warrior, with plenty of dead quails and birdshot-peppered lawyers to prove it. He is the gallant hussar-one day greenlighting “Shock and Awe” to give Guernica a second chance; the next day apprising US Senator Pat Leahy of his favorite sexual technique: “Fuck yourself ! ” (1) Quite the martial wag, the man Maureen Dowd calls Big-Time Dick saluted the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 by persuading his boss to invade Panama (for reasons no one seems able to remember). And today it is anybody’s guess which Caribbean island the United States will invade to celebrate its victory in Iraq.

Dick Cheney is a man of war, and a man on a mission: a crusader who won’t rest until the name Bush Jr is etched in the history books-not lost in the microscopic print of the endnotes section, mind you, as is destined to be Senior’s fate, but glowing in the radiant typeface of a chapter heading. That mission, for once, is all but accomplished. In January of 2001, George W. Bush took-er, grabbed-the reins of an American Empire at its zenith. He will soon hand back a smoldering wreckage of broken lives, enduring hatred, and vanished influence. Michael Ignatieff has called Pax Americana Empire Lite. (2) A better phrase would be Empire Short-Lived, or, if you’re William F. Buckley Jr and the vernacular ruffles your literary feathers, Imperium Brevissimum. At a recent ceremony for his son Jeb, George H. W. Bush was caught on national television sobbing uncontrollably. Pity the man who stands one short letter away from the worst president in US history. The letter is H, as in H for hubris.

The case for adding troops in Iraq — and keeping them there — rests on one basic assumption: As bad as things are now, they would become catastrophic if the United States leaves.

President Bush in his State of the Union address Tuesday warned that an early U.S. exit would create “a nightmare scenario” for America.

In his Jan. 10 address explaining his order of 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq, Bush said a retreat would “force a collapse of the Iraqi government, tear that country apart, and result in mass killings on an unimaginable scale. Such a scenario would result in our troops being forced to stay in Iraq even longer, and confront an enemy that is even more lethal.”

Not everyone is convinced. Some analysts say the apocalyptic scenarios of U.S. withdrawal mirror arguments the administration and many others made for the U.S. invasion in 2003. The premise of the invasion — flawed as it turned out — was that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, posing a direct threat to the United States and the world.

“It’s remarkable how little time people have spent examining the assumptions,” said Kurt Campbell, a former national security official in the Clinton administration, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But the administration is not alone. The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican, and former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, laid out a “Pandora’s box” of dire scenarios of U.S. failure in Iraq:

Sectarian war in Iraq spreads across the Middle East. Neighboring regimes are destabilized, and populations radicalized. A humanitarian catastrophe of refugees and ethnic cleansing follows. Iranian influence rises. Regional war erupts. Oil supplies are disrupted. Al Qaeda claims victory, gains recruits and money and is emboldened to strike again. American credibility is damaged.

“If we get run off, there’s no reason to say it would be a positive thing, OK?” said retired Gen. William Nash, U.S. commander in Bosnia from 1995 to 1997. “But just think of the dire predictions that were made in 1975 when the helicopters were leaving the embassy grounds of Saigon and everybody thinking that the dominoes would begin to fall. Lo and behold, the dominoes not only didn’t fall, but a number of the regional actors started taking some responsibilities for some things.”

Bush said Tuesday night that if the United States withdraws, the result will be an “epic battle” between Sunni and Shiite extremists and the creation of a haven for oil-fueled al Qaeda terrorists. Out of the chaos, Bush said, “would emerge an emboldened enemy with new safe havens, new recruits, new resources and an even greater determination to harm America. To allow this to happen would be to ignore the lessons of Sept. 11 and invite tragedy.”

Terrible things cannot be ruled out, said Michael Mandelbaum, head of the foreign policy program at Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies. “But the relevant question for American foreign policy is, would they be terrible for us? Would we be worse off than we are now? And I don’t think that goes without saying.”

Dutch authorities say an Iraqi-born Dutch citizen, suspected of plotting attacks on American forces in Iraq, has been extradited to the United States.

Wesam al-Delaema was put on a plane and flown to an undisclosed location in the US after losing his final appeal against extradition in December.

He is set to become the first suspect tried in a US court for allegedly plotting attacks on US forces in Iraq.

Mr Delaema denies charges of “possessing a destructive device”.

Authorities say the evidence against him includes a videotape he made of Iraqi insurgents preparing a roadside bomb.

In Dutch court hearings, he argued that he was kidnapped and forced to make the video on pain of death.

Unknown destination

Mr Delaema was arrested in May 2005 in the Dutch city of Amersfoort in following a tip from US authorities.

His lawyers have argued that the US has no right to try him. They say they fear he could be tortured and will not get a fair trial.

But a Dutch judge said there was “no reason to believe that the US authorities will not abide by the commitments they have given or… deprive the suspect of his fundamental rights”.

The US has given assurances that he will be tried in a federal court, not by a military commission, and can serve any sentence in the Netherlands.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

A Dutch justice ministry spokesman said on Saturday that Mr Delaema was on his way to somewhere in the US.

As it turns out, it does not matter if Iran “stands-down” from its attempt to enrich uranium, a suggestion made by Mohamed El Baradei, head of the IAEA, while in attendance at the elitist confab in Davos, Switzerland.

It doesn’t matter because “Iran’s efforts to produce highly enriched uranium … are in chaos and the country is still years from mastering the required technology,” according to Guardian. “Iran’s uranium enrichment program has been plagued by constant technical problems, lack of access to outside technology and knowhow, and a failure to master the complex production-engineering processes involved,” writes Peter Beaumont, citing “a number of Western diplomats and technical experts close to the Iranian program.”

Of course, the revelations will not stop the neocons and the Israelis from attacking the Muslim nation, as the reason for the attack has nothing to do with nukes or any possible threat Iran may or may not pose to Israel. It’s all about taking out the next “rogue nation” on the “axis of evil” roster, a laundry list of mass destruction plotted out years ago, well before Bush stumbled into office, thanks to Supreme Court appointment.

Naturally, the Guardian revelations will find their way to memory hole in short order and the Iran demonization effort, gleefully pimped by the corporate media, will continue in earnest, just as it did in 2002, as the neocons prepared to kill 650,000 Iraqis.

Iraq, after more than a decade of debilitating sanctions, claiming the lives of more than a million Iraqis, 500,000 of them children, was no more a threat to the United States than Guinea-Bissau. Saddam Hussein’s stab at Arab nationalism, and the moderate successes of Ba’ath socialism in regard to health care and education, was considered a threat to Israel, however, as Israel likes its Arab neighbors enfeebled, poverty-stricken, ruled by greedy despots, and wracked by sectarian divisions, this would not be allowed to stand.

Ditto Iran. According to Israel and the neocons, Iran is simply too proud—the primary reason it will not admit its problems with uranium enrichment—and although the country has many a problem, not least of all the alienation of young people from an austere Islamic leadership, it irks Israel that Iran’s influence is growing in the neighborhood among traditionally downtrodden Shia Muslims, kicked around once too often by arrogant Sunni Muslims, from the Gulf emirates to Lebanon and beyond. Israel hankers to knock Iran down a few notches, even by way of “tactical” nukes, if need be.

1-James McDougal – Clinton’s convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr’s investigation.

2 -Mary Mahoney – A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown. The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House.

3- Vince Foster – Former Wite House councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock’s Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide.

4- Ron Brown – Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown’s skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later the air Traffic controller commited suicide.

5- C. Victor Raiser II- Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.

6-Paul Tulley – Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock, September 1992. Described by Clinton as a “Dear friend and trusted advisor.”

7-Ed Willey – Clinton fund raiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.

8-Jerry Parks -Head of Clinton’s gubernatorial security team in Little Rock. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock. Park’s son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.

9-James Bunch – Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a “Black Book” of people which contained names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.

10-James Wilson – Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater.

11-Kathy Ferguson- Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.

12-Bill Shelton – Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancee.

13-Gandy Baugh – Attorney for Clinton’s friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.

14-Florence Martin – Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal Mena Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds.

15- Suzanne Coleman – Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide Was pregnant at the time of her death.

16-Paula Grober – Clinton’s speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.

17-Danny Casolaro – Investigative reporter. Investigating Mena Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.

18- Paul Wilcher – Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 “October Surprise” was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993 in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death.

19-Jon Parnell Walker – Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August 15, 1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty scandal.

20-Barbara Wise – Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.

21-Charles Meissner -Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.

22-Dr. Stanley Heard – Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton’s advisory council personally treated Clinton’s mother, stepfather and brother.

23-Barry Seal – Drug running pilot out of Mena Arkansas, death was no accident.

24-Johnny Lawhorn Jr. – Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.

25-Stanley Huggins – Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.

26- Hershell Friday – Attorney and Clinton fund raiser died March 1, 1994 when his plane exploded.

27-Kevin Ives & Don Henry – Known as “The boys on the track” case. Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, due to falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.

THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:

28-Keith Coney – Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, July 1988.

29-Keith McMaskle – Died, stabbed 113 times, November 1988.

30-Gregory Collins – Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.

31-Jeff Rhodes – He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989.

32-James Milan – Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to “natural causes.”

33-Jordan Kettleson – Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.

34-Richard Winters – A suspect in the Ives / Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.

THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD:
36 – Major William S. Barkley Jr.
37 – Captain Scott J. Reynolds
38 – Sgt. Brian Hanley
39 – Sgt. Tim Sabel
40 – Major General William Robertson
41 – Col. William Densberger
42 – Col. Robert Kelly
43 – Spec. Gary Rhodes
44 – Steve Willis
45 – Robert Williams
46 – Conway LeBleu
47 – Todd McKeehan

Quite an impressive list!

WASHINGTON – From high-dollar fraud to conspiracy to bribery and bid rigging, Army investigators have opened up to 50 criminal probes involving battlefield contractors in the war in Iraq and the U.S. fight against terrorism, The Associated Press has learned.

Senior contracting officials, government employees, residents of other countries and, in some cases, U.S. military personnel have been implicated in millions of dollars of fraud allegations.

“All of these involve operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait,” Chris Grey, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, confirmed Saturday to the AP.

“CID agents will pursue leads and the truth wherever it may take us,” Grey said. “We take this very seriously.”

Battlefield contractors have been implicated in allegations of fraud and abuse since the war in Iraq began in spring 2003. A special inspector general office that focused solely on reconstruction spending in Iraq developed cases that led to four criminal convictions.

WASHINGTON — Convinced this is their moment, tens of thousands marched Saturday in an antiwar demonstration linking military families, ordinary people and an icon of the Vietnam protest movement in a spirited call to get out of Iraq.

“I just can’t sit by and watch the war continue if there is anything I can do to stop it,” said Stefani Barner, 28, of Mt. Clemens, a member of Military Families Speak Out; her husband, Robert, is an aircraft mechanic in the Michigan National Guard.

Celebrities, a half-dozen lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, and protesters from across the country rallied in the capital under a sunny sky, seizing an opportunity to press their cause with a Congress restive on the war and a country that has turned against the conflict.

Marching with them was Jane Fonda, in what she said was her first antiwar demonstration in 34 years.

“Silence is no longer an option,” Fonda said to cheers from the stage on the National Mall. The actress once derided as Hanoi Jane by conservatives for her stance on Vietnam said she had held back from activism so as not to be a distraction for the Iraq antiwar movement, but needed to speak out now.

The rally on the Mall unfolded peacefully, although about 300 protesters tried to rush the Capitol, running up the grassy lawn to the front of the building. Police on motorcycles tried to stop them, scuffling with some and barricading entrances.

United for Peace and Justice, a coalition group sponsoring the protest, had hoped 100,000 would come. Police, who no longer give official estimates, said privately the crowd was smaller than that.

Conyers, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, threatened to use congressional spending power to try to stop the war.

“George Bush has a habit of firing military leaders who tell him the Iraq war is failing,” he told the crowd. “He can’t fire you.” Referring to Congress, he added: “He can’t fire us.

“The founders of our country gave our Congress the power of the purse because they envisioned a scenario exactly like we find ourselves in today. Now only is it in our power, it is our obligation to stop Bush.”

About 40 people staged a counterprotest, including Army Cpl. Joshua Sparling, 25, who lost his leg to a bomb in Iraq.

WASHINGTON — Virginia Sen. John Warner’s words betray the guilt he still carries about the Vietnam War and help explain why this pillar of the Republican establishment is leading a bipartisan revolt against the war plans of a president in his own party.

“I regret that I was not more outspoken” during the Vietnam War, the former Navy secretary said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office. “The Army generals would come in, ‘Just send in another five or ten thousand.’ You know, month after month. Another ten or fifteen thousand. They thought they could win it. We kept surging in those years. It didn’t work.”

Is that a lesson for what’s going on in Iraq?

“Well, you don’t forget something like that,” he answers. There is a long pause, he closes his eyes and his voice gets softer. “No. You don’t forget those things.”

More than 30 years after Vietnam, Warner is once again watching as generals propose additional troops. But this time, he’s not staying silent. In a rebuke to President Bush, Warner is leading an effort to have the U.S. Senate declare a lack of confidence in the administration’s plans to send 21,500 additional soldiers into the Iraqi war zone.

Washington told Tokyo it is displeased with recent remarks by Japan’s defense minister that were critical of the U.S. decision to invade Iraq, Kyodo News reported Sunday.

Last Wednesday, Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma told a news conference that U.S. President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq “based on an assumption that weapons of mass destruction existed was a mistake.”

The proximity of the remarks to Bush’s State of the Union address drew complaints through diplomatic channels in Washington, Kyodo News agency said in a Tokyo-datelined story, citing unidentified diplomatic officials.