Author: spiderleaf

So about those hearts and minds… how is that going again?

Forty-five percent of Iraqis believe attacks on U.S. and British troops are justified, according to a secret poll said to have been commissioned by British defense leaders and cited by The Sunday Telegraph.

Less than 1 percent of those polled believed that the forces were responsible for any improvement in security, according to poll figures.

Eighty-two percent of those polled said they were “strongly opposed” to the presence of the troops.

The paper said the poll, conducted in August by an Iraqi university research team, was commissioned by the Ministry of Defense.

And yet this is what we hear today from a leading Democrat…

A new essay regarding Chinese/ American relations brings the neocon strategy vis-a-vis China into sharp relief. A new cold war to enrich their pockets by ramping up military spending and weapons build up.

The Chinese are dangerous to the US as anyone can see. Over a billion people. Economy on the rise. Thirsty for oil. Holds massive amounts of US assets and debt. Very, very scary to the powers that be.

So what caused this recent increase in tensions?

[From the diaries by susanhu. See also tcharles123‘s diary yesterday on UNICEF.]

The UN is urgently calling on all nations to conduct a massive relief effort for the quake victims. Time is not on their side as winter sets in and the roads become impassable.

Write your congresspeople and demand the US (or Canada or the UK or FR or AU… where ever you are from) send choppers and transport planes and fucking marines, I don’t care, send these people help asap before they die.

An Australian TV crew has filmed US troops in Afghanistan burning dead Taliban soldiers in violation of their religious customs and the Geneva Conventions and broadcasting taunts about it into a village suspected of housing more Taliban.

Wasn’t Rumsfeld supposed to do something about this? What the fuck is going on with these troops? These guys are going to be coming home eventually and I am worried for their sanity… and for anyone they run into before or after they get back. My god people enough is enough. How much longer can the American public stand for this? Vietnam all over again all over the fucking place.  

Ah, the good ol’ days of “pet issues” and ideological purity… sweet sweet nothings in my ears…

Let’s see… Kostradamos* has spoken and we must all abandon our ships of principles and just follow the omnipotent ones down the path to glory and salvation that brings us a Dem majority for as far as a bi-focaled 80 year old who’s had 5 too many can see…

Now that I’ve been released of my burdens it got me thinking about “pet” or “single” issues or “ideological purity” and history.

What are some of the favorite pet issues of the past?