Comments on: Jailed former president of Guatemala blames Joe Biden for his ouster

By: SDPUS

SDPUS — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 06:17:00 +0000

zzzzz & Ken, as far as I am concerned, you two are some of the most well spoken people on here. I really enjoy both your insights!

By: zzzzz

zzzzz — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 04:28:00 +0000

perhaps you can read this little thing, it’s not an authority not proof but it covers a few quick points worth noting
http://www.alternet.org/story/123818/iraq's_shocking_human_toll%3A_about_1_million_killed,_4.5_million_displaced,_1-2_million_widows,_5_million_orphans

By: zzzzz

zzzzz — Sun, 01 Nov 2015 04:20:00 +0000

Ken i believe we are generally on similar paths to peace and fairness but we will disagree on some of these matters. The US doesn’t do right with it’s military or its soldiers. While i’ve met quite a few who were alright and even nice guys, especially reformed ones, a soldier must bear the burden of having joined a truly formidable killing machine with a dishonest mission. Patriotism is a plague on us all my friend. For every ok guy, there is a sadistic murderer and a guy who couldn’t give a shit if you set a baby on fire. And when you talk honor and that kind of shit, you mitigate the truth. Which is what is going on with Americans concerning their involvement in wars. The last justified war was WW2. While the BS is flowing out of American media and commentators, history will not be kind but then again what good does that do?

By: Ken Morris

Ken Morris — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 23:29:00 +0000

As you might guess, you’re preaching to the choir. I so strongly opposed W’s invasion of Iraq that I moved to Costa Rica. Since as they say, “Love it or leave it,” I chose to leave it.

However, I do think it’s only fair to note that different groups produce different estimates of the Iraqi casualties, and all of these groups aren’t spokespersons for the Pentagon.

Also, if we wanted to go there, we could include the ISIS casualties. ISIS is a direct and foreseeable result of W’s invasion.

However, in fairness, the hawks wouldn’t blame ISIS on the invasion but on Obama’s withdrawal of troops after it. They probably have a point. An occupying force might have nipped ISIS in the bud. But then the US would be an occupying force with all that entails.

Anyway, it can all get complicated and contested fast. My own view is not the pacifist one. Sometimes I think military action is necessary, and on occasion I believe that the US military is a force for good. However, I also think that US militarism has gotten way out of control, with stupid and murderous invasions like that of Iraq being among the most vivid recent examples.

And yep, the Pentagon always has an exact count of the US soldiers killed (a comparatively small number) but can’t seem to be bothered to accurately count the people the US soldiers kill. Then it makes lowball estimates. It’s an outfit way out of control IMO.

Although once again I want to exempt the soldiers, even the career military folks, who serve a potentially important role honorably. I find it useful to remember that the last US president to have graduated from a US military academy and been for a time a career military officer was Jimmy Carter. If all presidents were as restrained in the use of military force as was Carter, the situation wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad as it is now.

By: zzzzz

zzzzz — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:01:00 +0000

“the first casualty of war is the truth”
Right from the beginning, the numbers were always estimated very low in a purposeful way by the Americans and as the US army did a lot of the picking up of bodies after bombing campaigns and the media prevented since Bush 1 (that one counts too), it’s hard to believe the country who has consistently lied at every step will take into account and publish the truth when it comes to its epic size abuse.
Iraqis are saying it is over a million since 2003.
And it is much much more If you take into consideration this one of countless instances like the victims who died from the blockade of medicines before and during the war.
There are also deaths from injuries of war.
Even after the war (if that is even the case) the entire infrastructure of the country is in shambles and there isn’t even clean water or electricity for many. How many people are dying from common problems that otherwise wouldn’t. People are dying from common infection because of the war.
“There are lies, damned lies and statistics”
I know a lot of people are confused and can’t really fathom what war is or maybe are not even capable of tabulating the truth especially when the source is blinded by patriotism and racist fever

By: Ken Morris

Ken Morris — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 05:39:00 +0000

Actually, it’s not common knowledge, depending I guess upon who makes up the commons. You got me that some estimates are over a million, but others are a tenth that. Take a look at the different sources cited and their different numbers in Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War

My main point is that the very variability of the counts tells as more than the actual count. Nobody even fucking knows how many.

By: zzzzz

zzzzz — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 03:07:00 +0000

that’s actually an astute and interesting point but in all fairness when i luke at my own typos, i swear i must be retarded because sometimes my brain is working in the background of my other thoughts trying to piece together a word as if it were the first time and it comes out bad
But i love you SDPUS!

By: zzzzz

zzzzz — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 02:52:00 +0000

if anything Obama is a pretty good guy and you wont get better then that.
The country is not run by a person, it is a huge machine and the ongoing strategies such as containing China are far beyond the realm of even a president. A bozo like bush can make a huge mess (as we have seen) and provoke crises but he doesn’t dictate the whole shabang and the ongoing strategies for spying or involvement with funding subterfuge for some ultimate goal that spans presidencies. The change with Cuba might have had more to do with China than anything and maybe Obama was the right guy to do it but look at Guantanamo, just a little prison and he couldn’t close it like he thought, why is that? the machiiiiine

By: zzzzz

zzzzz — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 02:33:00 +0000

That military aid goes in the pockets of those who manufacture and who lobby for intervention/aid. The military industrial complex even decides what the future conflicts will be, how they will prosecuted.
There is no line dividing private interests from the CIA’s for example. We have seen how CIA employees moonlight for private firms or went into private agencies to be hired as torturers at Abu ghraib torture factory.
Just look at the involvement of Haliburton in the Iraq war, the obscene amounts of money they made from selling lunches for soldier to transporting pallets of cash and that was Dick Chaney old hangout. Don’t you think that that alone is the best excuse for that illegal war yet?

By: zzzzz

zzzzz — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 02:18:00 +0000

it’s common knowledge that well over a million Iraqis were killed