The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Should We Talk to Terrorists? (15 July 2010)
Talking to Groups That Use Terror (USIP, 2011, PDF 105 Pages)
Phi Beta Iota: Both the USA and Israel used terror tactics to achieve their original independence from British dominion. Terrorism is a tactic, nothing more. To demonize it is to betray one's substitution of ideology for intelligence.
Simple math, the cost of one dead Taliban, $50 Million…….
Cost of war in Afghanistan will be major factor in troop-reduction talks
Washington Post, May 30
EXTRACT:
The U.S. military is on track to spend $113 billion on its operations in Afghanistan this fiscal year, and it is seeking $107 billion for the next. To many of the president’s civilian advisers, that price is too high, given a wide federal budget gap that will require further cuts to domestic programs and increased deficit spending.
Phi Beta Iota: The President and Congress do not control the government. They have lost control in part because they lost their integrity. Washington operates on 2% of the relevant information and substitutes ideology for intelligence and corruption for integrity. Absent a compelling narrative rooted in the transparent truth, we expect no change between now and 2016.
Continue reading “Budget Reduction: $50M for Each Dead Taliban. Duh.”
Thank you. This web site now attracts “value-added” searches that help flesh out all that we have not been able to cover in the time we have been exploring “truth” as opposed to twaddle. Rather than integrate a guest review of this book, we are providing here both a link to the book and to several other books along the same lines–the line is now drawn: legalized criminal violent power versus collective non-violent bottom-up non-zero sharing. What astonishes us is how many Nobel Peace Prizes have gone to those who are so deeply engaged in the global legalized criminal violent enterprise. That marks the full extent of the network.
The comments expressed in this interview exactly reflect my views–recommended!
Our finest warriors are often our most reluctant warmongers. They have seen firsthand the toll war exacts. They know better than anyone that force can be like a lobster trap that closes with each stage of descent, making escape impossible. So it was when the liberal consensus lured America into Vietnam during the ’60s, and again after 9/11, when neoconservatives clamored for the invasion of Iraq. With the notorious ferocity of the noncombatant, the neocons banged their tin drums and brayed for blood, as long as it was not their own that would be spilled.
One old warrior looked on sadly, his understanding of combat’s reality tempered by twenty-three years in uniform, including service in Vietnam. A graduate of West Point, Andrew Bacevich retired from the military to become a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, a public thinker who has been able to find an audience across the political spectrum, from The Nation to The American Conservative magazines. In several acclaimed books, including The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War, and his bestselling The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, Bacevich speaks truth to power, no matter who’s in power, which may be why he reaches both the left and the right.
Read rest of interview as published today by truthout.
Phi Beta Iota: The interview was done in 2008 and published today in truthout because of its high relevance to the decline and fall of America today.
Phi Beta Iota: The world is in an interregnum, between “rule by secrecy” and lies from power as the norm, and a very ugly baby Web 4.0 in which bottom-up truth struggles to emerge. We will have a great deal of baby poop to deal with, but over time, public intelligence in the public interest will find its edge, and truths that shock publics into extreme action will emerge. Below is are a few extracts from a very sharp and ably illustrated story, and one expert author's evaluation of that story. Provided for information, “sharing our confusions.” WARNING NOTICE: This story should be read in conjunction with the recent Pentagon declarations that cyber-attacks will be considered a declaration of war. An Israeli virus in US nuclear control systems (attributed to Iran of course), with or without the help of the US Government, could be used to justify World War III starting with an attack on Iran and “precision” attacks on Pakistani nuclear facilities. We believe Israel is “all in” at this point; and we believe President Obama and Congress have lost all semblance of control over the U.S. military-industrial-secret intelligence complex.
Jim Stone Freeland Journalist
Did the Dimona Dozen murder the Fukushima 50?
Fukushima may in fact have been caused by an act of war under the cover of an environmental disaster.
The Digital Citizen Project builds upon the new digital capabilities of television broadcasting and the Internet’s advances in social engagement, to bring an unprecedented degree of citizen participation to news programming for the 2012 election period. The project is premised on the belief that, when offered the chance to appear in media as “informed citizens,” a large number of people will rise to the challenge.
How it Works: Digital Citizen 2012 is a cross-platform and converged media series that seamlessly connects people using social and mobile applications, to television programming of the 2012 campaign. Using well-established online engagement tools, public participants contribute video, audio, text and still images of themselves to the station’s website, stating their opinions and posing questions. Initially, the online community will vet contributions. Producers will join in, to assure the inclusion of representative groups in this process and to track contributors whose posts are popular among the community. Utilizing the digital capabilities of modern studio production equipment, a significant number of the pre-recorded contributor questions and comments will appear on the live programs.
A much smaller number of contributors, whose articulate positions prove popular with the community, will be offered the opportunity to appear live via webcam on the TV program. These participants will be required to take part in a carefully designed online facilitation process that bolsters their arguments with facts, and introduces them to others with different opinions. These “informed citizens” will then be able to speak directly with journalists, experts and candidates during the programs.
The Illustrated 2011 Hurricane Forecast
— By Julia Whitty
Mother Jones, Wed Jun. 1, 2011
Compare that to the average during the 50 years between 1950 and 2000:
See Also:
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Climate Change
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Environmental Degradation (Other than Emissions)
