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Thanks to WikiLeaker, Afghan War Will End Soon
MUMBAI--"An appalling irresponsible act." That's how General James Nattis, fresh at the helm of U.S. Central Command, characterizes the release of more than 76,000 classified Pentagon reports released by the website WikiLeaks.
You may recall that the Pentagon, headquarters of the Department of Defense, is the same outfit that loaded $24 billion in $100 bills onto shrinkwrapped pallets and loaded the cash onto C-130 transport planes bound for Iraq--guarded by enlisted men who earn $20,000 a year. Not one of those Benjamins has ever heard from since. Which, given that the money was supposed to be paid to corrupt tribal sheikhs, is just as well. Don't be surprised if you see contractors installing one of those great a new Gunnite pool at the house belonging to your recently discharged veteran neighbor.
So anyway, when a Pentagon biggie calls someone irresponsible, take them seriously. These guys know from irresponsibility.
Speaking of behavior that falls short of the highest ethical standards (and is highly amusing), the involuntarily declassified material contains some real gems. My current fave--there will, no doubt, be others, for I am fickle and the material is vast--comes from an August 2007 report that explains some of the ways Pakistan uses the billions in U.S. taxdollars Bush and Obama send it.
Based in Waziristan in Pakistan's western Tribal Areas, the Haqqani network is a neo-Taliban-affiliated Islamist organization led by Sirajuddin Haqqani and his father Jalaluddin Haqqani. Officially, the Haqqanis are American targets because they harbor members of Al Qaeda and are involved in weapons smuggling across the Afghan border. Unofficially--on the ground, as they say--things are different.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (its equivalent of our CIA), is supposed to help the U.S. arrest and/or kill the Haqqanis. That's why the U.S. pays the ISI. Instead, the ISI pays the Haqqanis. With U.S. money.
Which is why, when you lose your house to foreclosure, the only help you get from Obama is a feigned expression of vague concern.
Anyway, the ISI hires the Haqqanis to carry out interesting projects. For example, Pakistan used your money to hire Haqqani assassins to kill Indian road engineers and workers in Nimruz province, in western Afghanistan. Going rate: $15,000 to $30,000 each.
Hey, the Haqqanis still have their houses. No doubt with Gunnite pools.
The coolest and weirdest ISI-Haqqani business deal concerns 1,000 motorcycles. The ISI shipped the bikes to the Haqqanis for use in suicide bomb attacks in Khost and Logar provinces. Let's hope they at least had the decency to buy cool, American-made Harleys so that some of our dough makes its way back here. Besides, who wants to spend the afterlife tooling around on a moped?
So, back to the issue of irresponsible behavior. U.S. government, meet kettle.
It has been pointed out that the WikiLeaks documents don't reveal much that is new. We already knew that Pakistan was our frenemy. We knew that drone planes kill more wedding guests than terrorists. We didn't want to admit it, but we already kind of knew we were losing. The starred headline involves the likelihood that the Taliban have surface-to-air missiles.
But the Wikileaks leaks are nevertheless a game-changer. They confirm what those few of us who opposed this war from the start have been saying all along. They prove that the military sees things the same way we do. So that's the end of the debate. The war is an atrocity and a mistake. Everyone agrees.
Public support for the war was already waning. Just 43 percent of the public still backs "the good war." The leaks mark the beginning of the end of one of a stupid country's countless stupid misadventures. I don't see what else might have accomplished the same thing so quickly.
Thanks to the leaker, thousands of lives will be saved in Afghanistan. Hundreds of U.S. soldiers will live out normal lives. Billions of dollars will stop pouring into the pockets of the Pakistanis. If that's irresponsible, well, call me a fan of irresponsibility.
- Posted in
37 Comments so far
Show AllTed, I'd never have taken you for such an optimist!
Your right Ted, if the rest of the main stream media buys into the same philosophy,but how many main stream stations earn advertising dollars from the running adds that sell security , weapons, , and etc. paid for by the military industrial complex via our tax dollars.
This is a huge battle of perception,for doing the greater good, and being patriotic.
Sure the lies are being uncovered one by one, now you to convince the American public that doing the Patriotic thing is to end the wars, and that we will be a lot safer because of it,
Of course, you know, the damage is done, because to be safe once the wars end means 3 million spy analysts in Washington, 5000 private security contractor, and 50 million spys throughout the USA reporting on anything and everything.
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave !!!!!
The United Stazi of America, land of opportunity, fake patriots who dont protect the constitution, and every James Bond wanna be and their sister.
Live Free or Die , takes on a whole new meaning.
You could have wiki leaks until there was a wiki lake and the mainstream media would still have you swimming to get a glass of water.
The leaks mark the beginning of the end of one of a stupid country's countless stupid misadventures. I don't see what else might have accomplished the same thing so quickly.
The war in Af-ganef-stan is lost. That's obvious. But I disagree that we are getting out any time soon. It is virtually impossible for us common folk to understand the arrogance, stupidity and utter, brutal swinishness of the USA government and military. A boy scout like Barack Oilbomber can be likened to someone who opens a restaurant in an area saturated with restaurants. He believes without question he will succeed and will continue believing it even when he fails. A tweak here, a tweak there; that'll do the trick. However, unlike an ordinary failed restaurant owner, Barack Oilbomber has access to nearly unlimited amounts of money. And so failure becomes indefinite and the indefinite becomes a success in the minds of these lip smacking, knuckle dragging sociopaths. The military is basically just interested in killing and smashing things and playing with its expensive and lethal toys. Somewhere out there in the ether lies the unexpected, something that Barack Oilbomber and his civilian and military goombahs could never guess in a million years. A great novelist might see it but not these murdering and prosaic jackals. The unexpected will fall on us like a ton of bricks . . . and then we'll get out.
P.S. Kudos to the CD commenter who thought up the name "Oilbomber".
Thanks to this "war on terror," our rights are being lost almost as fast as our money.
I would be more optimistic if not for what happened in Iraq.
No weapons of mass destruction (Wow! Who knew?) but no change in war plans except a surge.
The scariest aspect of our times is that the government no longer bothers to be covert or deceitful.
The attitude is "Yeah. We are corrupt as all get out. What are you going to do about it?"
One picture - Time magazine's current cover - is worth more than a thousand words. It's worth 91,000 documents. That picture, of the disfigured Afghan girl, will remain in the minds of USAns long after this whole WikiLeaks flap blows over. Until the mainstream media shows us images of the broken bodies of Afghan children, the victims of our air strikes and night raids, there will be no hue and cry from the public to end these atrocities.
Agree.
Additionally, the media is doing its best to attack Wikileaks and ignores the essence of the documents. The Democrats and Republicans won't make an issue of this since they both support the war. The war story is going back to the back pages, if covered at all.
The real heroes are the whistle blowers, they should be given medals of honor and lots of respect.
The old order must learn to be very careful. Secrets are going to become a thing of the past. Dirty dark secrets have no place in humanity's future. The truth is a wonderful thing. It will bring peace and prosperity to all. They must stop bullying other nations to keep enemies and their war machine going, they must stop killing women and children, and they must stop trying to hide the truth from the American people, or they'll be tried and convicted.
August 03, 2010 Julian Assange Responds to Increasing US Government Attacks on WikiLeaks
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/3/julian_assange_responds_to_increasing_us
Fantastic Wikileaks Hitler parody - don't miss this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_k7WPv2EvY
WikiLeaks will soon post the classified film of the bombing of Granai village in Afghanistan, May 2009 that killed ~140 civilians, including ~92 children, when the US Military dropped 500lb and 1,000lb bombs on them.
Keep up with Wikileaks: http://twitter.com/wikileaks
Ted: how does private property drive all of this?
How is our ruling class so powerful as to be able to do whatever they want, even domestic and worldwide murder, after they are exposed?
In his article “Liberation Psychology for the U.S.: Are We Too Demoralized to Protest?” psychologist Bruce E. Levine quotes Chomsky here:
“In the question and answer period that followed a Noam Chomsky talk (reported in Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky, 2002), a somewhat demoralized person in the audience asked Chomsky if he too ever went through a phase of hopelessness. Chomsky responded, ‘Yeah, every evening.... If you want to feel hopeless, there are a lot of things you could feel hopeless about. If you want to sort of work out objectively what's the chance that the human species will survive for another century, probably not very high. But I mean, what's the point?.... First of all, those predictions don't mean anything—they're more just a reflection of your mood or your personality than anything else. And if you act on that assumption, then you're guaranteeing that'll happen. If you act on the assumption that things can change, well, maybe they will. Okay, the only rational choice, given those alternatives, is to forget pessimism.’"
And also here:
"When I got involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement, it seemed to me impossible that [we] would ever have any effect.... So looking back, I think my evaluation of the 'hope' was much too pessimistic: it was based on a complete misunderstanding. I was sort of believing what I read."
Maybe we at Common Dreams should read Levine, because while much of the populations has fallen into ignorance, we seem to have sunk into a quagmire of hopelessness, the old foregone conclusion, and could use a little reality check on the effect of our despair amidst the constant barrage of horrendous news.
That’s the good news. The bad news is the fact that we USians do seem too demoralized to protest. Levine notes that while hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the disputed 2009 election, to their great risk, few USians did so when the 2000 elections were clearly rigged—a fact reported throughout the MSM. Levine writes that “The U.S. corporate-government partnership is increasingly unafraid of its citizens hearing truths because it has increasing confidence that, even when social inequity is thrown in their faces, U.S. citizens are too broken to act on truths.”
The article is from Z Communications: http://www.zcommunications.org/liberation-psychology-for-the-u-s-by-bruce-e-levine
And by the way, if you know anyone who has been on psychotropic medications long-term, Levine’s newest book is a must-read. It’s called Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. Big Pharma and the APA definitely don’t want you to read this.
Terrific article!
Thanks a bunch.
Working in law enforcement, I was amazed at how officers readily accepted poor working conditions and unfair treatment of themselves, not to mention abuse of civilians. Here are people sworn to uphold the law and yet they found it very difficult to speak out for their own rights and protect the rights of citizens. Physically these people are often quite strong and physical when handling obstreperous citizens. Yet, they commonly said little about abuse, including their own abuse at the hands of superiors. The financial threat mentioned by Bruce Levine is huge. The fear is so monstrous that even the strongest of individuals cower and readily comply when challenged.
My understanding from the Democracy Now interview with Assange this morning is that the Wikileaks story is being treated mich more seriously in Europe where investigations are underway, and and they are all getting cold feet about Afghanistan.
The US's "hunting" of Wikileaks workers is also souring EU attitudes toward the US. Iceland is quite proud to be the host country for Wikileaks.
So, I think that the US is going to soon find itself rather isolated arould the world over both Wikileaks and Afghanistan - in the same way it found itself in Vietnam and there is cause for optimism.
Hey, I'll take the optimism wherever I can find it. You may be right.
The public is only "against" this war because they are bored with it. According to the most recent polling data, the US public fully supports an attack on Iran, with 71% believing that the Islamic Republic already possesses nuclear weapons, even though not a single US official has actually made that claim.
The left loves to get its panties in a twist whenever public opinion seems to validate the left's cause, as the most recent polling data on Afghanistan (and the forgotten war, Iraq) currently indicate. But look a little closer and you will find that the public is not anti-war at all, it's just bored with the current war.
The blood-thirsty Americans just want a new victim, they are bored with killing Iraqis and Afghans.
You pretty much nailed it.
I was maybe hoping we could attack North Korea. You know spice things up a bit. We've been killing Muslims for what now, going on ten years. Maybe we could blow up some East Asians, and those South Americans have been getting a little too big for their britches too- I suppose we'll at the very least be needing a CIA sponsored Coup'. War just hasn't been getting the ratings that it used to do.
We already had the coup. Honduras. And our proud School of America graduates did a wonderful job once again. Next, Venezuela. We got those seven bases in Columbia cooking now to keep an eye on the rogue states down south, the ones who won't buckle and stay under our thumb to keep our neo-liberal policies in place.
"...Asia's crowded, Europe's too old, Africa is far too hot and Canada's too cold, South America stole our name, lets drop the big one, there'll be no one left to blame us... We'll save Australia, don't want to hurt no kangaroo. We'll build an all American amusement park there, they got surfin, too..."
Randy Newman wrote that back in about 1970, but he was making fun of that attitude. Now, people seem to revel in it. He wrote several songs that had what he called "pinhead views of the world", this was one of his best. So much of what we used to make fun of suddenly has become standard American thought, which is to say lack of thought.
The US will not attack North Korea.They know that unlike the sentimental,ineffective,tormented Arabs,the Koreans are cold,deadly and violent persons when provoked.And they have some nasty weapons including the Bomb.Missiles,subs etc. Terrible fellows,the Koreans.The American generals still have not forgotten the Korean war and the hiding they got. Better not risk it.
And Israel is not goading them to attack it.And there is no oil there.
Huh ! One day they say the Wikileaks didn't work and now they do ! Miracles can happen !
Here's something whacky: It's how long this information has been known. I wrote a letter to the editor back in 2007 (on file in their archives) to the Seattle P.I. outraged about the ISI paying off the Taliban and subsequently Al Qaeda with billions of U.S. tax dollars. I had read about it in several sources available to everyone. I'm certain they only published it because they thought I was nutz. Funny, huh? Hilarious. And maybe even funnier is that we're funding BOTH sides and killing our own troops and....wait for it...NO ONE gives a sh*t.
How does one go about nominating the WikiLeaker for a Nobel Peace Prize? Better choice than the last one . . .
Ohhh Snap.
We lost the day we started and we win the day we stop.
As far as the missing money being taken by GIs, I sure as hell hope so. And more power to them. I hope they are living really, really well somewhere, hot and cold running women, the works. If they do not have it, the big corporations and/or the crooked shills we employ in Irqaq got. However .... I have reason to believe the GIs did NOT take it. As for this Wikileaks ending the war over there .... dream on. Ain't gonna happen. Not until our corporate crooks have bled everything out of it they can.
If you missed NedB's brilliant comment, I'm reposting: "You could have wiki leaks until there was a wiki lake and the mainstream media would still have you swimming to get a glass of water."
Its brilliant and very funny! Sadly True!
The free press in the USA is anything but free, and certainly not vigilant in seeking and reporting the truth, rather, they report what they are paid to report.
If anything, they are the water falls at the end of wiki lakes where all truth falls down , hits the rocks , becomes mist , and evaporates in to thin air.
Freedom of the press/ msm ? Its as stupid as one of the mass murderer in chiefs deadly lies !
Did the pentagon papers stop the Viet Nam war? Congress had it for a year and did nothing with it. When published the war went on for three more years, Democratic leaders still say, "Give Obama's plan a chance. Democratic candidates, even those of the "progressive" wing like Dan Connolly campaign for the war. They must think it will gain them votes. Apparently this is credible This war is going to continue for a while. Oh, by the way all those ISI stories are about the bad old ISI not the good new one that actually fights the Taliban. Believe that? If your Congressman or Senator is a Democrat he likely does.
Just because it's called Wikileaks, doesn't mean you should suspend your critical judgment.
A lot of useful information about wikileaks can be found at http://cryptome.org.
What is the government to do? The war industry is the only one left. Bring all those guys home, soldiers and mercenaries alike to no jobs and there will be real problems. Demobbed Russian armed services created the largest criminal organization in the world. I've talked to Canadian servicemen who have told me that the only jobs they can get after they leave the service is as enforcers for the bike gangs. Who created the bike gangs in the first place? Ex servicement are like left over mines or cluster bombs. At least only some of the people unemployed now know how to use guns.
Society won't move away from war until the collective consciousness allows us to. When mothers drag their children to the other side of the street at the sight of a man or woman in uniform. Because the mature soul needs no guards nor posturing, nor leaders, nor worshippers. We are our own guardians.
When we spit on generals in the streets and warn our children to behave lest they grow up to become throwbacks to a violent age, because the mature soul needs no fight or argument or victory or loss. We have answered each other's questions.
When small, freckled children look up from their history books in school and ask the teacher disbelievingly, "Oh, come on! Surely they didn't kill each other, Maam? Didn't they know how precious life is?" Because the mature soul values all life, all sentient life, even rocks, with delight and awe, because it knows how fleeting and fragile this lifetime of ours is.
And I believe there shall be such an outpouring of compassion and golden light that it shall send a message throughout the universe - "we are almost done with this experiment."
onemantribe said "Society won't move away from war until the collective consciousness allows us to. When mothers drag their children to the other side of the street at the sight of a man or woman in uniform."
I agree and it has been said before:
"I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It’s time to lay the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier."
Lots of great comments here...One of the best is - "... When mothers drag their children to the other side of the street at the sight of a man or woman in uniform..."
NOW ALL OF US HAVE AN ASSIGNMENT - WE CANNOT ALLOW THE PRESS AND THE GOVERNMENT TO SUPPRESS THE INFORMATION ON WIKILEAKS. We also have to let it be known that if Assange is harmed, in any way, there will be an uprising unlike anything ever seen in the US. The Bush Executive Order authorizing assassination (of even US citizens) is still in force. Time to demand that it be rescinded.
"Billions of dollars will stop pouring into the pockets of the Pakistanis"
This war could wind down but people will still get rich.
Wikileaks a game changer, maybe, but plenty $$$ will still go missing somewhere else in Afghanistan. The us govt still isn't transparent about out what happened to the missing $8.7 billion for rebuilding Iraq. No problem, Obama still has the austerity program for the regular citizen class and the coming Social Security cuts to compensate for the losses.