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POPSWar Hero or War Criminal?
This article is written by Robert Richter, who was the CBS political director during the 1960's. He writes compellingly about a controversial issue that is rarely spoken about. Whether or not fighter bombers in the Viet Nam war should be charged as war criminals, due to their flagrant disregard of the Geneva Conventions that prohibit bombing of civilian areas. As it turns out, a documentary on the subject was done by a general back in the day, and CBS refused to show it, because they felt it was too hot. Now that Mr. McCain is running for president, he is holding up his position as a bombing pilot as heroic duty for which he should be honoured. But the facts have shown, that he and his colleagues, have killed many millions of Vietnamese civilians by their incessant bombing of civilian enclaves. If the tables were turned, and Vietnamese pilots were bombing civilian enclaves in the United States, when they were captured, as McCain was, they would have been tried as war criminals.
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POPSChutzpah, With a Capital "CH" Can you believe the audacity of McCain? First he manipulates Obama into taking his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, which also resulted in a successful European tour. When that worked out too well for Obama, McCain declared that his opponent was being presumptuous, and acting as if was already president of the United States. Now that Russia has stormed into Georgia, McCain decides to send Lieberman and Graham to Tblisi to try to work something out. On what authority will the traitor Lieberman, and Howdy Doody Graham discuss anything of substance, with any officials in Georgia? On top of which, Condie Rice, Madam Secretary herself, is on her way to Georgia to assess the situation. She, at the very least, speaks for the president. For whom do these two McCain puppets speak?
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POPSBush & McCain Support the Troops by Saying...F**k 'em! President Bush and Presidential wannabe Senator McCain are always bragging about how they support the troops and honour their service. Oh yeah! This sounds great, but when it comes to actually doing something good and fair for them when they return from the firing line, they say fuck 'em. No money for their education or other benefits. After all, if we make it too good, they will wanna leave the service rather than remain canon fodder indefinitely. Neither of these political pieces of fecal matter stop to think about how increased and improved GI benefits will bring additional people into the service that will more than make up for those who might leave after three years. All they care about is having enough bodies willing to be shot up in Iraq so they can maintain their illegal and tragic war. These war criminals should hang their heads in shame as should anyone who would consider voting for McCain after seeing what a hypocrite he really and truly is.
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POPSAn Israeli Rabbi Thanks Bush for Invading Iraq. I become very angry when I hear Orthodox rabbis thanking President Bush for attacking Iraq and thus supporting Israel. I have no problem whatsoever with America's support of Israel, which is an ally of ours. But I become very annoyed when we are expected to go to war with a country that did not attack us, simply because an ally finds it advantageous for us to do so. I find it very interesting that the vast majority of American Jews (70%) are against the Iraq war, while we are told that the majority of Israeli Jews are happy for it. I understand differences in opinions and perceptions, but to have someone thank a leader for going to war with a country that did not pose a direct threat to that leader's country, and had not attacked the ally either, just seems particularly cold blooded. I wonder how the families of our dead and wounded soldiers feel, as well as the families of the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who were killed and maimed. For what are we being thanked?
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POPSBrattleboro Vt, Wants to Indict Bush and Cheney for War Crimes Of course, such an indictment would not really have any significance, but it certainly would demonstrate the level of disgust some people in our country have for these murdering war mongers. My greatest wet dream is to see these two guys, along with Rumsfeld dragged to the Hague, tried, convicted and thrown into the cell formerly occupied by Hess.
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POPSAre These Neocons crazy or what? This story removes all doubt It is absolutely amazing how myopic these neocons actually are. I sat at my TV watching as Bolton, the president, Dana Perrino, etc, etc, etc, kept spinning the meaning of the NIE with all kinds of reasons as to why it is wrong. Some of them have the temerity to declare that the Intelligence agencies are twisting their findings in order to make Bush look bad. I have come to the conclusion that the neocons and far right Republicans have finally lost it completely. I sincerely believe that the public is fed up with the lies, and manipulations as well as the overt fear-mongering. Bush and his henchmen are bald face liars, and they should be thrown out of office and tried as the war criminals they are.
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POPSOur Brave Democrats Are As Fearful As Ever Once again, the Democrats, who so many of us put into power in order to change the direction of the Iraq policy and to bring our troops out of the hell hole, are going to give Bush his blank cheque to continue his war. Even though better than 72% of the country want this war to end, the Dems continue to be chicken to do anything tangible about it for fear the nasty Republicans, whom the U.S. electorate have all but totally abandoned, might call them soft of terror. Oh come on! This is getting to be not only ridiculous, but criminal. We the people have had our say, and our representatives are ignoring us for their own cowardly political reasons.
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POPSPetraeus/Betray Us Ad Results in A Deluge of Support for Moveon.org Moveon.org really started something with its Petraeus/Betray-Us ad. It actually was able to move the congress into introducing and voting on legislation condemning the organization for running the ad, which is the first bit of activity we have seen there in a while. While war rages and blood flows the most important thing on the minds of our legislators was to codify censorship. We must never speak poorly, especially of a military man in uniform. The Republicans were especially outraged. Yes, the same Republicans who swift-boated John Kerry and Max Cleland who were both Viet Nam vets and heroes. I guess it depends on who is wearing the uniform at the time when we condemn an attack. Anyway, Moveon.org has received a tremendous increase in donations since congress condemned them, so as far as they are concerned, keep the complaints coming Congresspersons.
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POPSGuard Troops in Puerto Rico Wants the War to End The Governor of Puerto Rico gets a standing O from military service people at the mention of ending the Iraq war. 7 soldiers publish an OPED in the New York Times last week explaining why staying in Iraq is a mistake. Petitions are signed by soldiers serving in Iraq asking for troop withdrawals etc etc etc. And yet, when you listen to the Republicans they tell you that ALL the troops wanna stay in Iraq until their job is done and they have procured victory. I have no doubt whatsoever that there are many troops in Iraq that do feel that way, but from all the polls being taken, the majority of them wanna come home.......yesterday. I am sick to my stomach over the way this administration continually uses our brave soldiers as propaganda tools. Just like Ari Fleischer is doing when he didn't even bother learning the name of the soldier who lost both his legs in Iraq, who is appearing in one of their pro-war commercials. They are all shameful to the core.
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POPSAri Fleischer and his crew are dripping with panic Fleischer and his group Freedom's Watch are not only using the overworked and phony connection between the Iraq war and the 9/11 attacks, but they are aiming at their own Republicans who are fleeing the president's Iraq strategy. They are so panicked that Bush is going to be forced into a corner in September, that they are actually trying to intimidate members of their own party with the same bullshit rhetoric and advertising they used to manipulate and scare voters in the past two elections. Ari and his group should be totally ashamed to exploit our wounded and killed vets in such a crass political game.
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POPSMilitary Suicides I wish I could have clipped the article in a more comprehensive fashion. Some pieces just cannot be done justice within the 1000 limit. However, I have tried to give a taste of what the article conveys, and I urge readers to check out the entire piece. The suicide rate is deplorable, and most of it is due to the extra stress of these overly long and repeatable deployments. Our soldiers are not machines, and even if they were, machines do wear out in time. We are draining our fighting men and women of their own internal resources and exhausting their means to cope. This is a horrible situation for which there is only one answer, in my opinion. Bring these troops home from Iraq. Fight the war on terror where and how it should be fought. But asking our brave men and women to referee a religious and ethnic civil war, where the people you are training turn around and become your enemy is too much for anyone's nervous system to tolerate.
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POPSCheney Appears to Want War With Iran Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman have been working their neo-con agenda very hard with Bush. Many believe this is why Bush has named the Iranian Guard and terrorist organization. Thankfully, Condi Rice is against such action, as is Secretary Gates. But Cheney has a way of getting what he wants out of Bush, and from all indications, he is being quite relentless in his pursuit of war with Iran.
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POPSWar Drums Beating Towards Iran Some people think that Bush having named the IRGC as a terrorist organization is just a way of assuaging the hawks in the administration, but does not indicate any particular action is being planned against Iran. Others believe that this is an ill-conceived, reactionary action by Bush that now enables his reasoning for attacking Iran. I happen to personally believe the latter is true, but I hope I am wrong.
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POPSMitt Tries to Glad Hand Iraq Vet Mitt Romney was approached by an Iraq vet who proceeded to respectfully ask the presidential candidate some questions about the Iraq war. Romney offered him some stock talking points, but when asked a specific questions, turned his back and walked away. The vet felt highly insulted. Once again, Mitt is showing himself to be the rich boy, out to buy the presidency of the United States with his money, and to fuck with the people including the vets fighting the war he supports.
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POPSAre The People of Connecticut Happy With Their Decision? I hope the people of Connecticut are satisfied with their undying support for Joe Lieberman in the last election. The Dems voted against him in the primary, so instead of accepting his party's decision, he decided to run as an independent. No matter how much the people were warned that this guy was no longer a democrat at heart, they fell for his loyalty bullshit and re-elected him. Now he says he caucuses with democrats but holds meeting with the top republican leadership to come up with ways stymie the democrats efforts. He is entitled, of course, to his own beliefs about the war in Iraq, but to claim that he is an independent democrat and then to caucus secretly with the republicans against them is just too much.
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POPSCindy Sheehan Really Means It Cindy Sheehan and her fellow protesters really want to see Bush and Cheney impeached, and every day, increasing numbers of Americans are beginning to feel the same way. I am so glad she decided to rescind her retirement from the anti-war movement. She is a hero to many, and an inspiration to those of us who feel congress is simply not doing enough to end this war, and bring Bush and Cheney to justice for the lies they told the American people in order to get our support for this war, as well as their trampling of our Constitution.
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POPSGordon Brown Resurrects John Kerry's Approach to Terror Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, seems to have adapted the approach that John Kerry espoused during his 2004 run for the U.S. presidency. At the time, Kerry was thought to be an appeaser, as well as someone who just didn't see the real threat of terrorism for what it was; an all out declaration of war. It's interesting how slowly but surely, almost all of our allies are beginning to see Kerry's approach as being sensible as well as practical. We shall see who is right as this mess plays itself out. My money is on Kerry and Brown.
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POPSMeet A New Crop of Hypocrites A group of college Republicans who held a convention in a Moonie owned and operated hotel near Arlington National Cemetery, professes undying support for Bush and his war in Iraq. However, when asked why the are not serving over there so we don't have to fight them over here, they had all kinds of reasons for not going. from health to "it's not for me." Meet this new group of phonies in this video, which I could not clip.
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POPSCheney the Draft Dodger Encourages More Brave Soldiers to Die Vice President Cheney has the audacity to stand in front of brave men and women who are graduating after four years of grueling hard work, and spew the same line of bullshit that brought us into an illegal and unnecessary war. He is lying to these dedicated soldiers in order to convince them that dying for this murderous cause is not only honourable, but imperative if we are to protect America from being taken over by terrorists. It is a hard article to clip, and I urge you to read the entire piece in order to get the real impact of what this war criminal is doing. I just have to wonder how many of these brave men and women were thinking in their heads what a lying piece of shit this man really is.
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POPSLieberman Is losing support of those who followed him It seems that Holy Joe has finally crossed the line from someone who war supporters felt had the right views for protecting America into someone who even they say has gone too far in advocating war with Iran. The guy is totally over the top. He has been determined to work with the neo-Cons who believe in the PNAC and is always way to interested in protecting Israel over and above his interest in his own country, the USA. I support Israel as well, but not over the interests of my own country. The guy has become a Zionist fanatic.
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POPSLieberman Feels the Joe-mentum Towards War With Iran Senator Lieberman said he support military action against Iran because of their involvement in terrorism in Iraq, Palestine etc. Once again, Holy Joe goes against his constituency and the vast majority of the American people by urging the president to invade a sovereign nation, even though our troops are tied up in Iraq, where they are bleeding and dying in an illegal war. I wonder how many of his supporters who put him over the top in the last election still believes they did the right thing.
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POPSGlorifying War. Calling John Wayne!! Our children are brought up to believe that war is glorious. Instead of teaching our children that war is the result of political failure, and should only be resorted to as the ultimate last resort, we show them images of marines marching, shooting, running while making war whoops. So many of us express concern over the violence that is portrayed in video games, and I agree, some of it can be pretty nauseating. But what makes violence any more acceptable for our children just because a flag is being waved in the fore or background?
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POPSAnother Indication That Bush is a Sociopath There have been any number of indications that Bush is a sociopath. He does not seem to really be able to relate to the emotions, feelings or consequences of his actions. I sensed this the first time when I noticed that even when this president talks about war, death, blood and guts, he still keeps a hint of a smirk on his face. He also giggles at the most inappropriate occasions. And now here he was, meeting with grieving mothers of sons who were killed in his Iraq war. He hands them a memento of their visit in the form of a presidential coin, and then jokes with them about selling the coin on eBay. Another indication of not connecting with the feelings or emotions of others, or how his words effect those around him.
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POPSThe Military is sending some amputees back into combat I do not doubt the courage of these heroic soldiers who are asking to be sent back into active duty, and sometimes combat after losing a limb(s) in the Iraq war. But isn't it kinda interesting how the military says ALL of our soldiers have talents and abilities that are needed and if an amputee wants to remain on active duty, or combat, and they are able to do so, they will be sent back, and yet at the same time, they see fit to discharge interpreters, translators, combat personnel etc, simply for being gay?
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POPSCindy Speaks Out and Leaves the Dems Cindy Sheehan makes some excellent points in this open letter to Congress. The Democrats were put into power after 6 years of total Republican control of the House and Senate primarily because the voters wanted them to end this war honourably. They have the vast majority of the country on the side of ending the war and cutting off Bush's blank check. Now that they had the chance to do it, they flubbed it and gave Bush what he wanted with the suggestion of "wait 'til next time." The public, I sense, is tired of waiting, and they do not see why the Democrats folded like a house of cards when they finally have the power to do something towards bringing this war to a close.
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POPSA Hero Tells How It Really Is This is a three page story that is enormously powerful. I could never hope to clip enough of it to give you the feeling of this piece. I urge you to go to the original URL and read it for yourself. It is a real eyeopener, and it is the least we can do for this hero.
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POPSCould Bush Be Going Full CIrcle on Ira? This report from the Guardian appears to suggest that Mr. Bush is coming full circle on Iraq. He began with a sham attempt to get U.N. cooperation for his illegal war. He stymied the successful efforts of the U.N. arms inspectors and ordered them out because he was not happy that they were reporting that Saddam had been cooperating with them, and that there, thus far, was no indication there were the stores of weapons the U.S. was insisting were there. Now that Bush has been proven entirely wrong, and his lies have come back to haunt him as well as be responsible for the deaths of almost 3,500 of our youngest and finest young people, and the maiming of many thousands more, he is planning to go back to the U.N. to finagle a way to get them to take over his horrible and tragic mess. Oh how I long to see this man and his pals Cheney and Rumsfeld et al dragged in front of the Hague and tried for being the war criminals they are.
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POPSThe American Public is Sick of Bush's False Bravado The public wants Bush to be accountable and to hold the Iraqi government accountable. They are tired of having the president permit more of our brave service people killed or maimed, and our treasury being depleted indefinitely while the Iraqi government does nothing to reach any benchmarks, and actually plan to go on vacation for two months as our soldiers continue to bleed and die in the stinking heat of Baghdad and the rest of Iraq, I really hope the public stands firm and strong, and insists that the congress force a meaningful set of benchmarks with real consequences for the Iraqi government failing to meet them. They should also tell them that if the Iraqi government takes the summer off, so are our troops. They need the rest far more than the politicians do.
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POPSCBS Has Been Exercising Selective Firing Since the Rather Incident CBS has been on a real Republican leaning path for some time now. To my memory, it seems to have started when Dan Rather was fired, along with his producer, for reporting on President Bush's less that illustrative military career. Rather and company had their facts and story straight. They got hung up on a technicality with one document and the network caved into the Bush camps threats and intimidations. Now, they are firing John Batiste because he is in an anti-Iraq war advertisement, while they permit someone who worked for the Bush white house, and is on McCain's campaign to stay on their network as a commentator. Our MSM really needs to hold its head in shame. It's time for the U.S. media to take lessons from Canada's CBC and Britain's BBC.
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POPSKen Burns Sees the Light Concerning Brave Hispanic Vets Documentary film maker, Ken Burns, has finally settled his differences with the Hispanic community concerning his exclusion of them in his documentary about World War II. I don't know why it took Burns so long to finally acquiesce. I have never known of him to be unreasonable of bigoted concerning these kinds of issues. It appears all sides are very happy about what promises to be a remarkable new Burns film.
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POPSThe LA Times says the time has come for the U.S. to leave Iraq The Lost Angeles Times, which backed the surge originally, has come to the conclusion, as have most Americans, that it is not working, and we cannot expect or brave soldiers to monitor Iraq's civil war. But Bush remains stubborn, even in light of his 28% approval rating and flaunts the will of the people who pay his salary. I wonder how the 08 Republican presidential candidates enjoy sinking into the mud because of their war mad leader.
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POPSTenet Contiues to Profit From His Failures in Iraq. George Tenet is making a fortune off of this war in Iraq that he helped initiate with his intelligence failures and his willingness to help the Bush administration create the "Slam Dunk" marketing plan to sell this illegal war to the American people. He should return his Medal of Freedom and donate a large portion of his profits from this war to the families of those service members maimed or killed in action.
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POPSSoldiers Are Denied the Chance to Hear Baez Sing For Them The powers that be refuse to permit Joan Baez to appear with John Mellencamp at Walter Reed Hospital to entertain the injured troops. Is the fact that Ms. Baez has always been anti-war a problem for them? Many soldiers are anti-War too, and yet thanks to the military, they have to appear there every day. At least they should be allowed to hear one of the great musical artists of our day.
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POPSTenet is Making Us Pay for the Truth What chutzpah. George Tenet, the man who signed-on with the Bush administration to assist them big time with their lying us into war, now, after three years of total silence, has decided the public has the right to know the truth. The right that is if they pay for it. He wants us to dish out 20+ dollars to read his whining about how Cheney and others have turned poor little George CIA Tenet into a victim of their mishandling, manipulation and downright lying. For three years since he left office he said nothing. All the time while he was in the administration, he remained silent about what Bush and company, especially Cheney, were doing behind the scenes. But now that his ego has been hurt, after accepting his medal of freedom of course, he feels the need to come clean and show how poorly he was and is being treated. And yes, you heard right, he insists we pay him to learn what he should have told all of us years ago before all the many lives have been lost and injured. Shame on him
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POPSThe Democrats Have To Stop Fearing Fear Paul Krugman lays it out perfectly. The Democrats are still reacting to the fear the Republicans shoveled on for so long and have not realized how much in the mainstream their base is representing. The majority of the voting public hates the Iraq war, does not trust this president or his administration, and believes they are a bunch of liars. They also are demanding universal health care even if taxes have to rise to pay for it. So the Dems have got to start catering to their base, as the Republicans have been doing up 'til now, if they are going to win the votes of the majority of the public.
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POPSAre We Really Running A Terrific Training Camp for Al Qaeda? This little blurb makes sense to me. The experience the terrorists are getting fighting our incredibly strong military machine can't be bought with all the money in the world. It seems to be we cannot actually win this war in Iraq. Even the majority of our political leaders believe that much. But just think about all the training and experience we are affording our enemies so they can face it even more effectively elsewhere, such as Afghanistan, where we should have stayed to begin with. At least there we could possibly have done them real damage to their numbers and determination.
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POPSAIPAC Continues to Beat the Drums of War AIPAC is lobbying, nay, pressuring congressional representatives and senators to push Bush into bombing Iran's nuclear facilities. Their tactics are identical to those used when instigating war with Iraq. Thankfully, the vast majority of Jews living in America are vehemently against such an action and will not easily fall under AIPAC's sway as they did leading up to the Iraq war. They have learned their lesson, which hopefully will encourage congress to stand-up to AIPAC and tell them know. Their constituents are against attacking Iran, and they will no longer fall for your standard line that not supporting what Israel wants is equivalent to anti-Semitism. It is my sincere hope that congress will have the courage to do this, and to stop permitting AIPAC from essentially blackmailing them with the Jewish vote. Jewish voters will NOT support any member of congress who presses for war with Iran.
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POPSWar With Iran is On Its Way From One Source or Another As George W. Bush continues to deny that he has plans to go to war with Iran, Israel seems to be gearing itself in that direction. Since last summer when the U.S. instigated Israel's over zealous attack on Lebanon's civilian population and took over the control of when the fighting should stop, the two countries appear to be in cahoots to spread the war in Iraq into Iran and who knows where else.
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