Tolstoy On Iraq
One of the great pleasures of travel is long uninterrupted stretches of time for reading. I’m on the road for a long trip, including a visit to Russia, and took a copy of War and Peace with me. It’s...
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Three Things: Day 6, Bombs Away, Get Carter 2
As long as my schedule permits I’ll continue to post Three Things each day at least through next Tuesday. Here we go… Day 6: Countdown to Tax Day deadline continues There’s a clear trend in interest...
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10 Years of emptywheel: Jim’s Dimestore
As you saw in Marcy’s posts yesterday, emptywheel is celebrating the ten year anniversary of the move from The Next Hurrah to Firedoglake. You will notice that the current version of the blog comes...
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“Notwithstanding”: How Congress Enabled Chuck Hagel and Ash Carter to Keep...
Back in September of 2015, the New York Times published sickening details on widespread child rape in the Afghan military. The Times’ investigation was centered in part on a victim of child rape who...
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Defense Department Rules Data on Failure in Afghanistan Is Not Releasable
Today, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction released the 38th quarterly report on the “reconstruction” effort in Afghanistan. We need only read as far as Inspector General...
View ArticleMeanwhile, The Pace Of US War Crimes In Afghanistan Accelerates Dramatically
Jim here. Some of you might remember that long ago, I used to blog nearly daily on the never-ending US military misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. The issues of torture, night raids, death squads,...
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Afghanistan: A Trillion Dollars’ Worth Of Lies
Jim here. This morning, the Washington Post published The Afghanistan Papers, so-named as a tribute to Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers. It’s hardly surprising that what we learn from the collection...
View ArticleThree Things: Bounties, Bounties, Bounce [UPDATE-1]
[NB: Update at bottom of post. /~Rayne] There won’t be a quiz but there’s an action item at the end. It’ll be more effort than Trump put into protecting our troops in Afghanistan. You’ll want to brush...
View ArticleMy Veterans Day
In the Summer of 1964 as I prepared to enter the University of Notre Dame as a freshman, the Army ROTC program sent me something about enrolling. I talked to my Dad, a deeply conservative man who...
View ArticleThree Things: Colonialist Carrotage
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne] “What does colonialism have to do with carrots?” one might ask. A lot — and an awful lot if you live in the U.S. ~ 3 ~ First, a bit of history which itself...
View ArticleAfghan Cabinet: Nominate First, Screen Later
Just under two weeks ago, it appeared that one of the final hurdles in getting the Afghan government functioning after the disputed election may have been cleared, as a full slate for the cabinet was...
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Did Obama Order Total Information Shutdown on Afghanistan?
In a stunning and blatantly obvious move to try to hide its failed efforts in Afghanistan, the military suddenly decided back in October that they would classify any and all information on the...
View ArticleWhere IS Abdul Rauf Khadim and Whose Side IS He On?
All of the ladies attending the ball Are requested to gaze in the faces Found on the dance cards Please then remember And don’t get too close to one special one He will take your defenses and run So we...
View ArticleRauf Exploited One Last Time, Now Latest Drone Victim
On January 30, I noted how the varied history of Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim had seen him on many different sides of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His history depends on whoever is describing...
View ArticleMilitary Just Can’t Kick Its Afghanistan Habit, Picks Up Pace of Night Raids
The US military’s addiction to war in Afghanistan is now in its fourteenth year. Such a long addiction can’t just be ended in a weekend of going cold turkey. Much of the effort to end the war has been...
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In War That Didn’t End, UN Finds Afghan Civilian Deaths Up 25% Over Previous...
Washington has tried its very best to sweep the war in Afghanistan under the rug. Most of the press dutifully went along with the fiction of declaring the war to have ended in December. The military...
View ArticleNew York Times Finally Admits US Lied About Ending Afghan War
I will go ahead and say it this time. I told you so. Back in December, the Obama Administration tried its best to create the fiction that the war in Afghanistan was coming to an end. I called bullshit...
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So There Was ONE Cultural Difference the Military Recognized in Afghanistan
Joseph Goldstein broke a devastating story this afternoon in the New York Times: In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in...
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Afghanistan Quagmire Update: Now With Even More Failure
Just before the election this fall, the US war in Afghanistan will pass its fifteenth birthday, making it old enough to obtain a driving learner’s permit in most states. Despite the fact that the...
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The Other Problematic Subject Trump Hid
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne] In this post: Overview Russia’s involvement H. R. McMaster’s observations Olivia Troye’s observations ~ ~ ~ Overview Before the September 10th presidential...
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