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Making Wisconsin Progressive Again
Obama Appears Serious Attacking Mental Health Crisis
Fri, 12/04/2009 - 5:10pm | mal contends
Funny how peace advocates like Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. Tammy Baldwin become leading champions for veterans, and chickenhawks like Dick Cheney and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) take direct aim at our veterans.
This difference of opinion and commitment is the one reason veterans' advocates maintain hope for a change in direction at the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) that Obama needs to cleanse of embedded neocon-minded civil servants. To sum up the attitude among veteran advocates toward the Bush-Cheney-neocon DVA, I cite the words of one veterans' attorney: "Fuck [the AEI's] Sally Satel and fuck Dick Cheney." Linked is a piece in Veterans Today with text from Jason Leopold and Mary Susan Littlepage's report on the Obama administration and its project on changing the DVA.
It's no great surprise to learn that training young adults to kill and put themselves in the line of fire tends to lead to psychological complications later in life.
Under Bush-Cheney, the DVA went from indifferent to hostile in the face of 25-million American veterans and many Americans for whom supporting veterans means slapping a flag on their car.
Iowa Senate Candidate Bob Krause Demands Afghan Pull-out
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 9:18am | mal contends
McClatchy Newspapers reports President Obama to go the LBJ route, 34,000 more troops. If true, perhaps Obama can run in 2012 on a platform of 'not as many dead.'
From Iowa comes sanity and courage. United States candidate for the Iowa Democratic nomination for Senate, Bob Krause, became the first candidate for the U.S. Senate to call for a draw down of troops in Afghanistan at the Iowa Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner this year. Krause looks to knock down incumbent Republican Senator Sen. Chuck Grassley next year.
Posted from Veterans Today, The Fire Flamed by Bush Must be Extinguished by Obama Before It's Too Late, Bob Krause is Leading!
By Raja G Mujtaba, Pakistan
I find it heartening, indeed, when so many voices in America are clamoring for a troop "surge" to bring about that "big win" in Afghanistan, a win so many us know will only end is destabilization and disaster, that there are still voices of reason.
President Obama, Read RE Afghanistan
Sun, 11/08/2009 - 12:52pm | mal contends
On the matter of the pending Afghanistan escalation, a Vietnam War elite Marine combat veteran shoots down this foolish idea of sending in more troops and delaying withdrawal, and proposes direct negotiations with the Taliban in Scotland [Robbie the Pict of Scotland, below-left].
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The Scottish Taliban Talks
by Gordon Duff [below-right]
Forty years ago, 3 of us at Veterans Today, Bill Eckard, Eddie Harris and I were in South Vietnam, serving with an elite Marine Special Landing Team, looking for "terrorists."
Decades later, our memories are less than clear. It was 4 AM, 0400H, and we were searching a village. Bill remembers finding an AK47 in one hut, I think it was a Garand.
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The Scottish Taliban Talks
by Gordon Duff [below-right]
Forty years ago, 3 of us at Veterans Today, Bill Eckard, Eddie Harris and I were in South Vietnam, serving with an elite Marine Special Landing Team, looking for "terrorists."
Decades later, our memories are less than clear. It was 4 AM, 0400H, and we were searching a village. Bill remembers finding an AK47 in one hut, I think it was a Garand.
Obama’s Presidency on the Brink
Wed, 07/15/2009 - 2:04pm | mal contends
And so is our country.
How President Obama reacts to three catastrophes will define his presidency.
And none is the health care crisis, as critical as that is, and as annoying as are the Republican lies about public health care.
The catastrophes are Afghanistan, Goldman Sachs, and Veterans Affairs, none of which show a clear path to an acceptable humanitarian and political resolution.
Afghanistan
“Fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia!’” said Vizzini in The Princess Bride, a brilliant film my girlfriend talked me into watching.
Or as Gregory Feifer puts it in The Great Gamble, The Soviet War in Afghanistan (HarperCollins, 2009), “The Soviet war in Afghanistan again confirmed that no power ever successfully conquered that land … [From] Cyrus the Great [to] Alexander the Great … [to] the British … foreign forces have often moved into Afghanistan with relative ease, they’ve never been able to maintain control.”
Feifer and Vizzini might have added that the difficulties of the invaders paled in comparison to the devastation wreaked upon the invaders’ Afghan victims who after all were slaughtered and maimed on a level surpassing the American imagination.
And none is the health care crisis, as critical as that is, and as annoying as are the Republican lies about public health care.
The catastrophes are Afghanistan, Goldman Sachs, and Veterans Affairs, none of which show a clear path to an acceptable humanitarian and political resolution.
Afghanistan
“Fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia!’” said Vizzini in The Princess Bride, a brilliant film my girlfriend talked me into watching.
Or as Gregory Feifer puts it in The Great Gamble, The Soviet War in Afghanistan (HarperCollins, 2009), “The Soviet war in Afghanistan again confirmed that no power ever successfully conquered that land … [From] Cyrus the Great [to] Alexander the Great … [to] the British … foreign forces have often moved into Afghanistan with relative ease, they’ve never been able to maintain control.”
Feifer and Vizzini might have added that the difficulties of the invaders paled in comparison to the devastation wreaked upon the invaders’ Afghan victims who after all were slaughtered and maimed on a level surpassing the American imagination.
mal contends's blog | 
2 comments | 
Tags: Politics, Afghanistan, Barack Obama presidency, Eric Shensiki, Global Economic Crisis, Goldman Sachs, Gordon Duff, Gregory Feifer, MATT TAIBBI, Robert Scheer, The Princess Bride, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Vietnam Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America
Democratic Dittoheads
Thu, 05/14/2009 - 8:09am | mal contends
PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) scream the commenters across the blogs of those who dare criticize the leader.
The issue is Obama's decision to bar release of torture photos, and you are a PUMA if you criticize Barack Obama. The Party merits your unwavering support.
Some of the shall we say less-than-sophisticated Democrats get right in line behind the leader, a la the most unthinking of the Republican mob.
The issue is Obama's decision to bar release of torture photos, and you are a PUMA if you criticize Barack Obama. The Party merits your unwavering support.
Some of the shall we say less-than-sophisticated Democrats get right in line behind the leader, a la the most unthinking of the Republican mob.
Obama Blew It
Wed, 05/13/2009 - 5:06pm | mal contends
Update: Greenwald on Obama's latest effort to conceal evidence of Bush era crimes. Dittoheads beware, Greeenwald links to John Aravosis (Obama's logic was "a bit Bushian") Steve Hynd ("Obama Trades Our Principles For Cheneyism") TPM ("Obama falls back on Bushisms") Dan Froomkin ("Obama Joins the Cover-Up"). And as Greenwald points out, "Obama now has new cheer-leaders: Bill Kristol, Michael Goldfarb and Max Boot," and some MyDD commenters. Note to readers: You're not dittoheads!
This is a trust-breaking moment, President Obama, and you really blew it.
It's not a mistake. It's an assault against this democracy.
It's not a mistake. It's an assault against this democracy.