JJG Journal

• Did the Iraq war increase security for the US?

On 11 Sep 07 Senator John Warner (R-Va) asked Gen. David Petraeus whether the current strategy in Iraq “will make America safer.” Petraeus replied, “I believe that this is indeed the best course of action to achieve our objectives in Iraq.”

Warner repeated his unanswered question: “Does that make America safer?”

Petraeus said, “I don’t know, actually. … I have not stepped back. … I have tried to focus on what I think a commander is supposed to do, which...Continue Reading »

Without irony, the Bush administration and the media charge that Iran is “meddling” in Iraq, otherwise presumably free from foreign interference. It is instructive that Washington’s propaganda framework is reflexively accepted in US and other Western commentary and reporting, apart from the marginal fringe of what is called ‘the loony left.”

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Picture this: You are the mayor of a large city and you need to find a safe location for the city’s Emergency Response Command Center. The sole purpose of existence of this Emergency Response Command Center is to…you guessed it…coordinate the rescue and recovery efforts in case of a major city-wide emergency. 
Do you put this vital and potentially life-saving center

a) right inside a known high-value terrorist target that has been attacked before, or

b) safely away from any potential high-value installation, if possible underground so as to provide maximum...Continue Reading »

The most reliable source I can find regarding the level of violence in Iraq is the Iraq Body Count Project (IBC). Starting from day one of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, IBC has updated, compiled and published highly reliable and verifiable numbers documenting the state of terror that we have unleashed in Iraq. Our own sacrifice of almost 4000 dead and more than 20,000 wounded U.S. soldiers pales in comparison to the hardships and suffering of the Iraq people. According...Continue Reading »

Recall the Words of the Generals Who Brought You Vietnam…victory is just around the corner.

read more | digg story

Currently the United States and Iran are run by increasingly unpopular and obviously incompetent leaders. Both leaders can derive political benefits by painting the other in a negative light. Thus they ratchet up the rhetoric; in Mr. Ahmadinejad’s case the United States presents a common enemy that stirs patriotic sentiment in the otherwise disillusioned Iranian population. In Mr. Bush’s case the “axis of evil” member Iran can be used to distract from the Iraq fiasco and may even (from Bush’s point of view) redeem Mr. Bush’s entire mid-east strategy with has so far been a disaster....Continue Reading »

What happens if suddenly you are being judged according to your own haughty standards? Case in point: Conservative Idaho GOP Senator Larry Craig, who pleaded  guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct, received a $575 fine, a 10-day suspended jail and one-year unsupervised probation sentence for behaving in an airport men’s room like a man soliciting sex from other men. Senator Craig says that he is innocent, NOT gay (of course not) and simply pleaded guilty to make the issue go away....Continue Reading »