Cartoonists With Attitude

The story of U.S. counterinsurgency “success” and military withdrawal is a bed-time tale told to put the American public to sleep. So argues Hannah Gurman in a Salon piece that punctures several propaganda balloons floated by the ObamAdmin, GOP and Dem hawks, and the usual right-thinkers among the commentariat. Here is one to keep in mind as the president seeks to “move forward”:

The oil and gas companies are not the only ones who will profit from the postwar order in Iraq. The United States military and defense industry will make out well, too. Despite claims to the contrary, this is not the end of the U.S. military presence in Iraq. In addition to the several bases that will remain active, housing the soldiers and private contractors whose titles will change to advisors, there will be an indefinite state of dependency on U.S.-manufactured weapons and technology. Defense companies, such as ARINC will continue to make hundreds of millions providing Mi-17 helicopters and other military hardware and logistics to Iraq.

While the Ministry of Information does not advertise the reality of America’s enduring military presence in Iraq, it is quick to announce a civilian “surge” in the country. Along these lines, officials have been boasting about the massive U.S. embassy in Baghdad. “Along with the Great Wall of China,” said Ambassador Hill, “its one of those things you can see with the naked eye from outer space. I mean, it’s huge.” Indeed. At 104 acres, it is the largest U.S. embassy in the world. In addition to six apartment buildings, it has a luxury pool, as well as a water and sewage treatment plant. Stop for a second and reflect on these last two amenities. They give you some measure of what American officials really know but aren’t saying about the state of drinking water and sanitation in Iraq. The State Department has requested a mini-army to protect this Fortress America — including 24 Black Hawk helicopters and 50 bomb-resistant vehicles. Again, stop for a minute and ask yourself what this really suggests. The shadow army says a lot more than the official pronouncements do about the true state of security in Iraq.

We’ll be back. We have barely left. Think of the U.S. embassy in Iraq as a kind of well-armed anchor baby.

As in “blind” and “crazy”:

Instead of “the hammer,” in the words of John O. Brennan, President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, America will rely on the “scalpel.” In a speech in May, Mr. Brennan, an architect of the White House strategy, used this analogy while pledging a “multigenerational” campaign against Al Qaeda and its extremist affiliates.

Yet such wars come with many risks: the potential for botched operations that fuel anti-American rage; a blurring of the lines between soldiers and spies that could put troops at risk of being denied Geneva Convention protections; a weakening of the Congressional oversight system put in place to prevent abuses by America’s secret operatives; and a reliance on authoritarian foreign leaders and surrogates with sometimes murky loyalties.

This is the “realist” strategy proposed counter to the dominant neo-con pipe dreams of the Bush era now put into practice. It begs new definitions of realism, however. Anyone remember the enmity we incurred employing such tactics during the Cold War throughout Latin and South Americas, Africa and Asia? Indeed, as the NYTimes report notes, some of the same players who waged proxy wars in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, hiring such folks as Osama bin Laden as our proxy, are now crafting the covert war strategy.

Yet there is a difference: we have entered a new era of integrated violence by the corporate state. As the report notes, the CIA has become a “paramilitary organization” with little Congressional oversight; the Pentagon has taken a greater role in intelligence activity; and private contractors — a.k.a., mercenaries — assume more responsibility and power. All the while rules of engagement, intelligence verification and accountability wither away.

Also — significantly — there is the greater reliance on technology, a trend we have seen grow since the first Gulf War, when we learned our “smart bombs” were not so smart. Contra the Obama White House’s stated objective of fighting small scale, surgical conflicts with al Qaeda to reduce hostile blow-back from the world’s poor, there is a pattern: Less reliable information, more civilian casualties, less trustworthy informants with greater conflicts of interest, more anger among the survivors, more recruits for jihadist groups.

What do we make of this, Dr. Cox?

My fellow leftoids may rage against FOXNews, but I appreciate the service they provide: putting all the right-wing crazy into one predictable package. Really, I don’t need Media Matters to cherry-pick the offensive and stupid, when all I have to do is look for the FOXNews byline on my Google News reader, and I know the goods will be there.

For instance, consider the inevitable “draws fire” article on Republican responses to President Obama’s support for the construction of a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero. It’s got Peter King, that reliable voice of downstate NY dipshits:

“While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much,” he said. “The right and moral thing for President Obama to have done was to urge Muslim leaders to respect the families of those who died and move their mosque away from ground zero. Unfortunately, the president caved into political correctness.”

Note that it is NOT “political correctness” to defer to the knee-jerk sensibilities of people who confuse a major global religion with the violence committed by a fringe terrorist sect. Forget the Constitution or simple fairness, let the fears and grievances of a handful of victim’s families hold sway. In that light, I refer you to Matt Bors’ excellent cartoon on the subject.

But wait, there’s more! While the rest of the world would rather cram broken glass in their ears than hear what Rick Santorum has to say on any subject whatsoever, FOXNews knows their audience.

Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania told Fox News that Obama seems to misunderstand that Islam is not just a religion, but also a political doctrine. He also said the mosque is being run by a man who accused the U.S. of being an accomplice in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Santorum compared the ground zero mosque to a minister who wants to builds a church near the location where the Rev. Martin Luther King was killed but preaches racial separation and the notion that King brought his death upon himself.

Martin Luther King — such handy rhetorical cover for right wing racism. Ironic, too, given that the good doctor would most likely support the construction of Cordoba House. Ah, but what about that nasty imam whom The Santorum calls out for victim-blaming? That would be Feisal Abdul Rauf, a respected Muslim cleric who has served the diplomatic missions of both Obama and Bush administrations. Insert hypocrisy here:

Oddly, Republicans didn’t complain when the Bush/Cheney State Department partnered with “this radical” to help with our diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. This isn’t complicated — if Bush considered Feisal Abdul Rauf a valuable American voice and representative, there’s no reason for the GOP to freak out now.

Reasons. Don’t make me laugh.

BTW, the “victim blaming” in question — the rhetorical arrow that King and Santorum fire off with all the precision of a drunk aiming for the urinal (coating the floor and walls in a perfect circle, the center target perfectly dry) — derives from an interview imam Rauf gave to the late Ed Bradley many years ago.

Bradley: And throughout the Muslim world, there is also strong opposition to America’s foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East because of its support of Israel and economic sanctions against Iraq.

Faisal: It is a reaction against the US government politically, where we espouse principles of democracy and human rights, and where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries.

Bradley: Are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?

Faisal: I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but united states policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.

Bradley: You say that we’re an accessory? How?

Faisal: Because we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.

Make of that what you will — everyone else is!

Awright! We got Osama!

Or, really, his cook. But how’s he gonna get his lamb kabobs now, huh? Anyway, the cook will get two years, wherever the military decides to finally put him.

The judge, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Paul, said an assistant defense secretary ordered two years ago that the Army and the military’s Southern Command, which oversees the Guantanamo base, develop a detailed plan for housing prisoners after their conviction.”This has not been done,” the judge said tersely.

She said the absence of any written policy or plan was “especially troubling” because another trial was under way for a young Canadian captive and could produce another conviction.

Oh, yes — the Canadian. Torturing false confessions out of child soldiers caught up in a dragnet and shipped thousands of miles away into a legal no-man’s land: such are the values my grandfather fought for in the Pacific Theater of Dubya Dubya Two!

Well, I’m sure the young man will get a fair trial.

The WaPo reports BP crapped 4.9 million barrels (205.8 million gallons) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Or about a quarter of the U.S. daily consumption of oil, per CIA World Factbook 2008 estimate.

But double that of India, whose population is significantly larger than my native land. So per capita, it’s pretty sad .

But not as sad as Canada! Canadians rank 19 by that measure, above the U.S. at 23. Small consolation, though, since Canada consumes only 2,260,000 a day (CIA) or 71.009 bbl per 1,000 people, compared to the U.S. 68.627 bbl.

If we cut down to UK levels (29.008 bbl per 1,000 ppl), we would still out-consume China by about 800,000 barrels a day. (That’s 8.7 m U.S. vs. China’s 7.9 m.) To achieve even that will require Man on the Moon efforts at the government level, not to mention WWII notions of national sacrifice overtaking our consumer culture. Still, after we collect reparations from BP, we should ask the Brits how they do it. After all, at over half the rate of oil consumption, they still maintain a comfortable lifestyle AND contribute to illegal wars of opportunity.

So the ObamAdmin’s response to the WikiLeaks papers:

“We are in this region of the world because of what happened on 9/11,” Mr. Gibbs said. “Ensuring that there is not a safe haven in Afghanistan by which attacks against this country and countries around the world can be planned. That’s why we’re there, and that’s why we’re going to continue to make progress on this relationship.”

Because it is still 2002. Forget the past 8 years. Or the past 16 Friedman Units. By golly, we’ll get it right this time!

“Those policies are at a critical stage, and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent,” said Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and has been an influential supporter of the war.

Damn you, don’t give up on me! Give me those paddles! Clear! (zot, body jolts on the gurney) I won’t let you die! Hear me?!?! (beats on chest) Live, damn you, live!

(Alternately.)

This is indeed the dumbest thing yet said about Shirley Sherrod. So dumb, even Tintin’s shorter parody can not live down to it.

(Title taken from Dylan’s “Idiot Wind.” No decent YouTube vid for it, but Adam Levy does a good impersonator version.)

Oh, and my two cents on how the Obama Admin dealt with this? (Not that you asked….) Breitbart deserves all the feces we can throw at him for distorting the truth and creating a controversy where there is none. Yet it was Vilsack who acted like a good little Democrat and assumed Breitbart was reporting in good faith, willing to throw another hard-working black woman to the dogs rather than risk right wing criticism. To the Obama Admin’s credit, they reinstated Sherrod and apologized. So what are the chances that Washington Dems have learned a lesson here? It’s not like they haven’t had plenty of chances to develop skeptical approach to Repug disinformation. At this point they should be puffing Brechtian cigars.

UPDATE: Oh, wait. I forgot that when it comes to how low can the right wing go, there is no bottom. Blargers are demanding Sherrod apologize to Breitbart for calling him racist. Yes, you read that right.

The Taliban claims to have captured two U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, while U.S. missiles kill 16 “militants” in Northwest Pakistan. Meanwhile my kids’ school district is cutting over a hundred jobs and consolidating schools. Unemployment remains at about 10 percent (which translate up to 16 percent, at least) when it took Congress 7 weeks to approve job benefits.

Really, I don’t have much analysis or insight into all of this. It all just puts me in this mood.

You want something uplifting?

I don’t dispute Dennis G’s simple take on the mid-term elections:

In November we face a choice between the Confederate Party and modernity.

But sweet baby jeebiz, that’s a downer. If “modernity” is defined as the corporate crony Democrats currently overseeing two wars, Plan Mexico, and a continuation of police state policies created by the previous administration, I can only hope that we are in the late capitalist stage my po-mo professors talked about when I was in college.

Yeah, I know: shut up and ride a bike.

News is coming down that Roman Polanski is off the hook:

The Swiss government this morning announced that it has rejected the U.S.’ request to extradite the director back to Los Angeles so that he could finally face up to the charge he fled the country over back in 1977—namely, having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Um, actually it was rape. He raped a 13-year-old girl. There is a pretty broad distinction between consensual sex and rape. I am stickler for these kinds of details, see, especially in my relations with other people.

Anyhoo, Ruben Bolling captured this denouement presciently last year.