In an opinion piece in today's Washington Post Ruth Marcus poses the question:

"Should Bush administration officials be put on trial for crimes such as authorizing torture?"

The answer to that question is a simple and unequivocal "not yes, but, Hell yes, absolutely, yer darn tootin'."

Bear in mind that I live in a flyover state where many have limited tolerance for carefully parsed, nuanced or constipated prose, preferring instead to "throw it out on the lawn and see if any dogs come up and pee on it."

Ms Marcus says, less pithily and with a bit more ambiguity, that she is:

"just relieved to have this crowd heading out of office and its policies -- on torture, on indefinite detention, on warrantless wiretapping, on overweening executive power -- soon to be inoperative."

I share her delight in the departure of this gang of criminals but I fear that if they do not leave Washington in handcuffs and leg irons aboard a Federal prison bus that the chances of rendering the "policies" stated above "inoperative" are approximately ... zero.

 Ross McGinnis was 19 years old when he died.  Nineteen years old.  I've got ties that are older than that.   They are well made, but nothing outstanding.  That's the difference between Ross McGinnis and my ties.  He was outstanding.  The kid was one in a million.  Actually, more like one in 2 million.  You'll see where that number came from in a moment, but first I want you to really appreciate just how special he was.  If you meet sixty new people every day for the next hundred years, you will be lucky if you meet one like Ross McGinnis.    Think about that the next time you get on a bus, or a train, or a plane.  Every day.  For a 100 years...

crossposted from MacDubya: A Modern Tragedy

ACT I.

Scene I:  Baghdad, 1991.

This dark, grim tragedy begins with Three Witches dancing in the streets of Baghdad.

Missiles, explosions, and screams paint a gloomy picture, setting the tone of this play.  As the "fireworks" fade, the witches agree to meet again at the turn of the century.  They straddle cruise missiles that look decidedly phallic and fly off.

The TV set at the edge of the stage sputters to life. We hear Bernard Shaw reporting from Baghdad on the night of the first attack marking the opening of Operation Desert Storm. This is followed by a series of screen shots and video clips with occasional sound bites that rapidly advance us through the Clinton Years. A minute later, nine years have passed... ...

Everyone is all excited the president admitted we have secret prisons.  Now that this administration and its apologists are busy fessing up to stuff they used to deny, claiming credit for stuff they didn't do, laying blame where it doesn't belong and asking us to blindly trust them to get things right while they keep doing exactly what they used to say they weren't doing...  all I want to know is:  Who do they think they are kidding?  

Here's my problem...actually two problems...actually three problems...well more than three, but for now I will only focus on two.....

Here's an important story that got knocked off the front page as all eyes turn to the Middle East and watched the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, and proof through the night we've no plans over there.

The nomination of the Defense Department's general counsel, William J. Haynes II, to a U.S. appeals court is endangered by concerns about the truthfulness of testimony he gave at his confirmation hearing, senators said.

Their assessment came after the Air Force's judge advocate general, Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, disputed Haynes's assertion that he had consulted career military lawyers before recommending the use of physical and mental coercion to interrogate terrorism suspects."

For all those hysterical polemicists who ignored career military commanders when it came to invading Iraq and career military lawyers when it came to using torture.  Prepare to be shocked ....

1:1  This is the Revelation of a New Doctrine, which Double Ewe received from his base showing the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his operatives to his servants on FOX,

1:2  Blessed is he who reads many news sources, and keep in mind the things that are written, for the time is at hand when events once uncovered are finally seeing the light of day.

1:3  I John Q.  Public, your brother and partner with you in oppression, empire, and faith in the Rule of Law, was on the isle called Gitmo because of the New Doctrine and the testimony of a Cowboy.  

1:4  I was trying to survive yet another day, when I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet saying.

The only generals who support the Bush Doctrine:
General Electric and General Dynamics.

I know there are a few generals making news by voicing their concerns due to all the sabre rattling over Iran.  We need to listen now. People did not listen when a number of generals who opposed invading Iraq made their opinions known. They opposed it because it was strategically, tactically, politically, and legally unjustifiable.  They did not do this quietly. They did it vocally  before we invaded.   I'm talking about these limp wristed, commie sympathizing, terrorist appeasing, treasonous surrender monkeys:

It is a given that Bush very likely will go down in U.S. history as the worst president the nation ever had.  His Iraq War debacle with the likes of Wolfowitz and Perle beating the war drums, along with Cheney and war profiteering allies Halliburton, Bush and his team of destroyers, have demonstrated worthiness for the dubious honor of America's worst ever administration.

But it took a robot Congress to follow the pied piper of destruction, George W. Bush.  While we are at it, let's not forget the Republican right wing fanatics who fantasize they've got God on their side.  Where in their allegedly holy Bible they found validation for killing individuals or warring against nations that have not threatened us remains a mystery.

To hear them singing their hymns in church, praying for God to guide them in this nightmare killing spree that they have been backing is the height of hypocrisy.  Those prayers don't reach any higher than their warped heads.

To generate a civil war in Iraq and dare to claim you have brought democracy and freedom, which might spread across the entire Middle East, is one for the shrinks.  

According to this Knight-Ridder article in the San Jose Mercury News, US troops may have been involved in a slaughter every bit as disturbing as anything that happened in Viet Nam.

Iraqi police have accused U.S. troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

This certainly isn't the first time the US has been accused of war crimes in Iraq.  Until now, most of those accussations have proven (mostly) false.  However, that makes this charge more unsettling is the nature of those making the accusation -- the US-trained Iraqi police.

President Bush has issued a "new" national security strategy reaffirming his doctrine of preemptive war against terrorists and hostile states with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, despite the troubled experience in Iraq.

In his revised version, Bush offers no second thoughts about the preemption policy, saying it "remains the same" and defending it as necessary for a country in the "early years of a long struggle" akin to the Cold War. Some security specialists criticized the continued commitment to preemption. "To have a strategy on preemption and make it central is a huge error," said Harlan Ullman, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Bush has decided to set the example and go on the offensive himself. He is bringing his particular brand of "Shock and Awe" to towns and hamlets across the nation, roadtesting his presentation so he can hone his message for prime time.  Here's a report from the field....

I am putting this up as is for discussion.

   

  First Periodical Report of Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (link to full MHRI document)

  MHRI – November 23, 2005  Baghdad

               

                The Monitoring Network for Human Rights (MHRI), which consists   of more than 20 Iraqi organizations for Human Rights, made this report about the crimes and continuous   violations of human rights in Iraq.

               

                1.      Crimes of War and Crimes Against Humanity 

               

                -  First crime:

               

                Some of the ugliest      crimes committed by the occupation forces and by Iraqi military units are the ones committed in the city of      Fallujah in the battles of November 2004, and which we summarize in the following: