IN APRIL, the US Army published the “Commander’s Guide to Money as a Weapons System,’’ a handbook that provides guidance on how to use aid funding to win the support of the “indigenous population to facilitate defeating the insurgents.’’ This summer the US government indicated that it plans to nearly double (to $1.2 billion) the main fund military commanders in Afghanistan use to support projects intended to “win hearts and minds.’’
This remarkable collection of commentaries from five distinct political perspectives does not achieve the structure we are looking for (see On the Issues) for a sense of that, but it is a very fine offering that we are happy to point out.
First, a link to the translated Al Qaeda message. Then Chuck Spinney's commentary on the rmessage (there is no assurance it is actually from Bin Laden, who may be long dead). Finally, a Phi Beta Iota comment that will outrage the lame of mind and resonate with every average American.
The American people have been taken hostage to a broken system. It is a system that remains in place to this day. . . . . . . .
It has become startlingly clear that we as a country, and I as a journalist, had made a grave error in affording those who built and ran those banks and insurance companies the honorable treatment of being called capitalists. When in fact the exact opposite was true, these people were more like vampires using the threat of Too Big Too Fail to hold us hostage and collect ongoing ransom from the US Government and the American taxpayer.
This was no unlucky accident. The massive spike in unemployment, the utter destruction of retirement wealth, the collapse in the value of our homes, the worst recession since the Great Depression all resulted directly from these actions.
Phi Beta Iota: The following accompanied the story: “Ratigan departed CNBC last spring under circumstances many believe were not he result of his contract coming up for renewal but because he started speaking out against what he was seeing from his perch at CNBC.” Our own comment: had John McCain listened to his better angels instead of the Bushies bent on wrecking the Straight Truth Express, he would be President today. All he had to do was respect the inherent common sense of the House conservatives and tell President Bush (Junior): “over my dead body will you bail out Wall Street.” See ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig for our October 2008 recommendations, as well as the prefaces by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Thoma Hartman, Tom Atlee, and our own “Paradigms of Failure.” America is a wreck because we have given up our Integrity. All it takes is one simple fix: the Electoral Reform Act of 2009.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Intelligence activities across the U.S. government and military cost a total of $75 billion a year, the nation's top intelligence official said on Tuesday, disclosing an overall number long shrouded in secrecy.
Phi Beta Iota: So much for all those who questioned our long-standing repetitive statement that secret U.S. intelligence is costing the U.S. taxpayer $65 billion a year. We were deliberately off by $10 billion. Now that we have established this, perhaps the time has come for both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Accountability Office (GAO) to ask the obvious question: What does the taxpayer get for this vast sum, and how could it be spent better?
Phi Beta Iota: Admiral Dennis Blair, USN (Ret) has signed off on the 2009 update and revision of the National Intelligence Strategy of 2005, and on balance we give it a solid C with the observation that there is no “break-out” in this documents. (Continued below the fold–A for school solution, F for real-world need, C over-all)
