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POPSMutiny among USA Generals? Revolt over Iran? "KOLKO: Many in the US military think Bush and Cheney are out of control. They are rebelling against Bush and Cheney. Washington Post reporter Dana Priest recently said in an interview that she believed the US military would revolt and refuse to fly missions against Iran if the White House issued such orders. "CENTCOM commander Admiral Fallon reportedly thwarted Cheney's wish to sent a third additional aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf. One paper wrote that he "vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM." "Lt. Gen. Wright, in charge of US forces in Japan, told AP last week that the Iraq war had weakened American forces in the face of any potential conflict with China. He was quoted as saying, "Are we in trouble? It depends on the scenario. But you have to be concerned about the small number of our forces and the age of our forces." ...Spiegel Mutiny in the ranks - at the top!!!
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POPSBush lies again Bremer said the letters prove that in May 2003 he told Bush in advance of a plan to “dissolve Saddam’s military and intelligence structures." Mr. Bremer then told Mr. Bush that he would “parallel this step with an even more robust measure” to dismantle the Iraq military. Bush wrote Bremer back a short thank you letter. “Your leadership is apparent,” the president wrote. “You have quickly made a positive and significant impact. You have my full support and confidence". Damn George, after all this time. Facts and letters and proof that you lied. Don't you just hate that? Don't they know that you are "the decider" and answerable to no one?
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POPSWhy is the U.S. Military Preparing for Civil Disorder?
They are anticipating riots in the streets over the economy. But it could be because or freedoms are beginning to be restricted. Now there is news that Homeland Security plans to start monitoring blogs and message boards all over the United States for any signs of suspicious activity. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-12-23-terrorblogs_N.htm?csp=34 Does that include criticizing the government? We have a long history of voicing our opinion against our government officials, and we are not going to give that up that right without a fight. The prospect of military roaming our streets as they do in our airports is distasteful and it will trigger even more protest. Civil disobedience may have been instrumental in formally creating America but it is the people who use civil disobedience as a cover to loot stores and homes that worry me just as much as my fellow Americans pointing their military issue weapons at me for protesting what they are doing.
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POPSThe Israeli Invasion and Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields In 2001 Ariel Sharon stated unequivocally that "Israel would never buy gas from Palestine" intimating that Gaza's offshore gas reserves belong to Israel. In May 2007, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority." The proposed contract was for $4 billion, with profits of the order of $2 billion of which one billion was to go the Palestinians. Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law.
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POPSLiar? RAPED Female officer Treated 'Like A Criminal' by Army.
(CBS) Few problems have been more persistent or produced more bad news for the military than the issue of rape within its own ranks. Allegations that not enough is being done to help victims or prosecute offenders have been raised from the service academies to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan -- where hundreds of cases of sexual assault have been reported by women in uniform. It was that revelation, plus pressure from Congress, that’s forced the Pentagon to once again examine sexual misconduct in the military – which has been done 18 times in the last 16 years. The result has been more recommendations and sweeping policy changes. "They’ve done nothing but lie to me and treat me like a criminal," says Dyer. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says that he will have zero tolerance when it comes to sexual assault in the military. To that, Dyer says, "I don’t believe it. Zero tolerance would mean that I would not have been treated the way I’ve been treated."
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POPSThe 14 characteristics of a fascist society Dr. Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, wrote an article about fascism which appeared in Free Inquiry magazine, a journal of humanist thought. Dr. Britt studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). He found the regimes all had 14 things in common, and he calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The article is titled "Fascism Anyone?," and appears in Free Inquiry’s Spring 2003 issue on page 20.
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POPSInternet access cut in Myanmar Without being an expert in how international affairs like this should be dealt with, I know that i've recently witnessed the military of one or more countries entering other countries to initiate change. Does the current situation in Myanmar not warrant this type of action!!?? Do the people of Myanmar not deserve some kind of outside help!!??
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POPSTorture planning began in 2001, Senate report reveals The Bush administration has argued publicly that it got tough on detainees to prevent another al-Qaida attack. The Senate report describes another possible motive, and a sobering example of how torture can produce bad intelligence. "While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not being successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq," Army psychiatrist Maj. Paul Burney is quoted in the Senate report as saying about Guantánamo. "The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish this link ... there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."
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POPSThe Stick Figure Guide to Winning in Iraq As described in the article, the creator of this humorous, optimistic cartoon, a young Captain Travis Patriquin, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Iraq just last Wednesday. His creation has been circulating among the troops and, lately, across the internet. PDF version of the presentation .
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POPSOnly 1 thing can slow military-industrial complex Excellent B-1 Bomber example: politically engineered. While voting is essential, it is not enough. “Unless we see our vote as part of a commitment to involve ourselves consistently and unrelentingly in the political process , our vote is wasted. This is because the forces that have led us to this economic, military, and political precipice exert such awesome power over...Washington that no single candidate or group of legislators, whatever their intentions, can possibly go up against them unless armed with an irrepressible public mandate.”
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POPSHow to Lose a War: The American Way An American military spokesman denied that the request for American forces to leave was ever made, either formally or otherwise, or that they had caused most of the casualties. But the episode underlines differences of opinion among NATO and American military forces in Afghanistan on tactics for fighting Taliban insurgents, and concerns among soldiers about the consequences of the high level of civilians being killed in fighting.
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POPSMilitary Hush-up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified "It's baffling to us why this would suddenly change," said one scientist familiar with the work. "It's unfortunate because there was this great synergy...a very good cooperative arrangement. Systems were put into dual-use mode where a lot of science was getting done that couldn't be done any other way. It's a regrettable change in policy."
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POPSU.S. military pushed back against torture regime Then-Captain and now-Rear Admiral Jane Dalton told the (Senate Armed Services) committee that her staff discussed the military's concerns with DoD General Counsel Jim Haynes, one of the architects of the program, and that he was aware of the military's objections. Haynes, meanwhile, testified that he didn't know that the military was opposed and had written memos to that effect. He later qualified that denial to say he wasn't "sure" that he hadn't been made aware. His deputy, Eliana Davidson, also told him his torture project "needed further assessment," but Haynes, again, said he didn't recall Davidson telling him that. (Joint Chiefs of Staff) Chairman Richard Myers met with Haynes, Dalton told the committee, and returned to tell her to kill her review on Haynes' order. It was the only time Dalton had ever been told to cut short a review, she told the committee.
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POPSGet Out of Jail Free: Monopoly's Hidden Maps more (at source): Of all the tools in a military-grade escape kit, the most critical item was the map. But paper maps proved too fragile and cumbersome, said Debbie Hall, a cataloguer in the map room at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. For hundreds of years, even before World War II, silk was the material of choice for military maps, Hall said, because it wouldn't tear or dissolve in water as easily as paper and was light enough to stuff into a boot or cigarette packet. Unlike maps printed on paper, silk maps also wouldn't rustle and attract the attention of enemy guards, she said.
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POPSThe Answer Terrifies Them Foreign terrorism against Americans would disappear along with the need for a "war on terror." Civil liberties that were suspended could be restored. A sense of balance and harmony could return to our lives. Ending interventionism would mean that the era of big government in foreign affairs could be brought to an end.