From a Washington Post column by a former interrogator in Iraq who has a new book out about his experiences and about the multiple failings of the Bush torture model: "I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps ...
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In my talk at the school about the foreign policy implications of the election back in September, I noted that neither candidate ever referred to actually diminishing the global American empire and that in most respects the core of their foreign policies were almost the same. Both, in fact, spoke of maintaining or expanding the empire, including Obama's proposed drawdown in Iraq (with its equal increase in Afghanistan, like one of those water snakes you can never quite grab). Keeping Gates at Defense is a clear signal to any and all that there will in fact be no change in the nature, extent, or aims of the American hegemonic order, even if Obama is going to bring a change in tone by closing Guantanamo and generally not being the hated and incompetent George W. Bush. There won't be 'change we can believe in' until there are some questions asked about American empire that aren't even on the table in this supposedly reformist administration (and Clinton retreads won...
James Cobb looks at the meaning of the election for the South: " Although the counties that were redder this year than in 2004 are home to a decided minority of the region’s people, some analysts seem to have fixated on places like Cleburne County, Alabama (total vote, 6468) and Itawamba County, Mississippi (total vote, 9265) in pouncing on the 2008 election results as evidence of the South’s ongoing marginalization in national politics and arguing that the Democrats should stop wasting their time on the region in presidential elections. In doing so they seem unable or unwilling to see that the South is no longer, and, for that matter never has been, simply Cleburne or Itawamba writ large. Although they were not necessary for an Obama victory this time, the fifty-five electoral votes the Democrats accumulated in winning Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia might well come in handy in future contests. Moreover, in Georgia where McCain’s final five point margin was much slimme...
I was interested to read that in Virginia Mexican cocaine is displacing drugs imported in the state from NYC because the Mexican coke is cheaper. What this means for possible new drug violence in Virginia I have no clue, but it is interesting that such a relatively small local market (half a million dollars) warrants the attention of international supply chains. If Mexican cocaine is cheaper in central Virginia than NY cocaine (a nearby and robust market itself), it might lead even non-inquiring minds to consider the cascading failures of the U.S.-financed drug war in Mexico , even with its most recent enormous boost.
It got about as cold as it gets here this past weekend, which isn't very, but is enough for there to be for-real ice on things and to feel the wind snap though the windows in my old house. This is far too early for such a cold spell here, unseasonable since it should still be in the 60s. I don't know what it means but it did make me want to put some more syrup on my bees in case this indicates a rough winter. There was even snow, or a few flakes that the local media called snow, not really even warranting the name flurry, a tiny fluttering of nothingness, that nevertheless was enough for the Elizabeth City, NC schools to close. That is always amusing. The cold weather also brought out the elusive pink bear, a creature best observed in our local park.
Some foreign historians of Korea are not pleased at the nationalist assertion of control over the presentation of Korean history in textbooks. "“History is not supposed to teach pride - unless we are talking the nationalistic versions of history like the ones that dominated South Korea under the late President Park Chung Hee and still dominate North Korea,” Tikhonov said.... Cumings said the Lee Myung-bak administration is “acting like the Japanese, trying to paper over difficult issues while claiming to protect ‘national pride.’”" This process of politicizing history is not unknown in the U.S., of course, but it tends to be a bit more subtle these days. Conflict tends to appear more often in museum exhibits (The Enola Gay exhibit comes to mind). I think perhaps the local control of textbook selection here makes the school districts so incredibly sensitive to the specific attitudes of locals that not too many controversies arise. The textbook manufacturers run off the sam...
People happen on this blog of any number of reasons, most of them probably best described as "by accident" or But this is a winning draw: a google search from Rapid City, South Dakota for: "uses for buffalo eyeballs". The record will reflect that Nunal can officially only think of three uses of buffalo eyeballs.