Category Archives: Military & War

Open letter to Congress, the Pentagon and leaders of the free world

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Bottle_beach_letter_inside2We need your help. We need your help to stop George W. Bush from starting a war with Iran. George W. Bush no longer represents the will of the American people. 77% of Americans disapprove of Bush’s job performance and do NOT support attacking Iran. But it’s been a long time since Bush cared what the American people think.

You could say we have the kind of leadership we deserve and you’d be right. Even if you believe –as I do– that Bush and his cronies stole the 2000 election, we allowed the vote to be close enough for him to get away with it. We know we fucked up and a lot of us are trying to rectify our mistake.

But it now seems clear that George Bush plans to launch some sort of military strike against Iran before he leaves office. Dick Cheney has been conspicuously absent for months, working on this disastrous scheme.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, we –the American people– can’t stop our president because it’s been a long time since he cared what we thought.

But maybe you can buy us some time. We just need keep him in check until November. Assuming McCain doesn’t win. In that event, America –and Iran– are fucked.

Our congress probably doesn’t have the balls or the votes to stop this madness. Our generals and admirals –with a few exceptions– will put their careers ahead of their country. So it’s up to the rest of the world to stop Bush.

We just need a little time to clean up the mess that is the Bush administration.

PS: I’m hoping for some six-degrees thing here. J-Walk gives me a link.One of his readers emails it to a friend in Germany. She knows the woman that cleans the home of German Chancellor Angela Merkel…. and so forth. It could happen.

Doc’s “story none dare tell”

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Doc Searls says we need a new leadership narrative:

“…what’s “super” about U.S. superpower — a near-limitless ability to make high-technology war, backed by a fighting force of finite size with few allies — is an anachronism. I’m not sure the people of any Great Nation are ever ready to face the fact that the height of their military and economic powers has passed. Or that the leadership they most need to assert is no longer only a military and economic one.”

If we can no longer win every war we start and our economy isn’t Number One… is it possible for the U.S. to still be “super?” Let’s hope so.

This is a thoughtful and insightful post on America, leadership and journalism. Worth a read.

Scott Adams: War

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“One view of the near future is that terrorists will get nukes and set the atmosphere on fire, or global warming will kill us all, or bird flu will create a pandemic, or the world economy will melt down, or all of those disasters will happen at once. I suppose that’s possible. But I think it’s more likely we are entering a golden age.

My Golden Age prediction assumes technology will continue to surprise us, especially in the energy realm. The high cost of oil has generated a seemingly endless parade of energy technology research and subsequent breakthroughs.

Wars appear to be shrinking too. World Wars I and II will probably be the final wars between major powers. The biggest powers of today are more interested in being trading partners than foes. As nations become more connected, via economics and the Internet, the risk of war decreases. All war requires a certain degree of lying to the citizens, and the Internet will continue to make that harder.”

[Full post]

Bruce Sterling: State of the World 2008

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“Some people still think that there’s an “Islamo-fascist tyranny” somewhere that hates our freedoms and can organize Islam-dom into a coherent fascist state… There’s just no way. Al Qaeda and the Taliban aren’t true “fascists.” Fascists can at least make trains run on time. Even Communists were better-organized. The mujihadeen have no organized army and no industrial policy and they don’t know where to find any. Because God was supposed to handle all that for them. You’re supposed to die nobly in a crowd of unwitting strangers, and then God’s supposed to make that all better. That’s the big plan.”

“But when you blow up the china shop, God doesn’t reassemble the plates for you. Being faith-based doesn’t trump reality.”

“Now the Americans have clearly lost the thread… the Americans are really just horribly out of it, they’re like some giant fundie Brazil, nobody takes their pronunciamentos seriously or believes a word they say… Whereas the world is much more seriously global now. China and India are real players, they’re part of the show and they matter.

“Serious-minded people everywhere do know they have to deal with the resource crisis and the climate crisis. Because the world-machine’s backfiring and puffing smoke. Joe and Jane Sixpack are looking at four-dollar milk and five-dollar gas. It’s hurting and it’s scary and there’s no way out of it but through it.”

From Bruce Sterling’s State of the World, 2008