Review: Waging Peace–The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement

5 Star, Iraq, Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class

Wagin PeaceClever Not Pretentious, Useful and Focused–Valuable to All

June 20, 2007

Scott Ritter

This is a clever useful book. I *like* it. It is not pretentious nor is it convoluted. It does a very fine job of explaining to the non-military average activist or leader of activists the utility of Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, and John Boyd in developing a national and global strategy, national and global campaign plans, and local discrete tactical “events” that can achieve impact *only* if done in the context of a strategy and a campaign plan.

The author does a fine job of gently and respectfully pointing out that the current anti-war and pro-environment movements, projects, and individuals have a severe handicap in not understanding the connection between a strategy, and operational campaign, and tactical events planned and executed in the larger context.

The author does a tremendous job of clearly and concisely describing how the extreme right has managed to define its ideological war plan as “Guns, God, and Gays,” while none of the thoughtful but complex, lengthy and somewhat disjointed progressive messages stand a chance.

The author understand that the war for the soul of America and for the stability of the rest of the world is about belief systems, and about capturing as many individual minds and hearts as possible. The extreme right is winning with ideological fantasy while the extreme left is losing in detail for lack of a message that can be adopted by the mainstream, which remains largely apathetic.

The author goes on to articulate a distress that I myself have experienced, politely pointing out that most progressive movements have too many self-named leaders, not enough disciplined followers (for lack of a strategy and campaign plan), and are generally too focused on feel good events or actions. I myself respect all these people, but think of them as the huggy huggy tea party set. They don't know how to bring an enemy system–a domestic enemy system–to a screeching halt in a showdown over time and space.

The author is brilliant–utterly brilliant–in pointing out that there is only one message that can win over the mainstream and the apathetic middle, and that message is “uphold the Constitution and the sovereign power of We the People, with liberty and justice for all.” He *nails* it. I am moved by this book. It is *not* a clever marketing book to add to anyone's financial kitty, this is a book by a patriot, for patriots, and it is useful–actionable–and therefore priceless in value to all of us.

In the middle part of the book, after describing Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB), an Army standard, but not discussing the intelligence cycle, the author emphasizes the importance of both psychology, and intelligence: the progressives must “be able to accurately track what an opponent is doing on the battlefield.” I tried to explain this to Howard Dean's staff back in the day, and could not get anyone to listen. Our politicians running for President are not only not qualified to be President, they are not even staffed to offer the voters a coherent range of policies within a balanced sustainable budget. All they can do with all their tens of millions is fire broadsides of platitudes at one another. This is one reason I created the Earth Intelligence Network, in order to both teach the progressives how to create intelligence and policy matrices (the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight challengers) and to do so in a very compelling manner using serious games with embedded reality-based budgets. All this is free, so please; do not interpret this as advertising for profit.

The author draws to a close with three hugely important points:

1) The only message that will resonate with *all* of us is upholding the Constitution (Romney, to his eternal disgrace, has refused to sign the pledge to uphold the Constitution–all others need to be pressed on this point).

2) The progressives need training in both leadership and followership, and I am hugely impressed by the author's provisions on pages 75-77 of specific URLs for specific Incident Command System (ICS) training courses as well as leadership courses. He is very complementary of these materials provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Wildlife Coordination Group (funded by taxpayers, naturally, but not now in the active service of taxpayers).

3) The author's third important point in closing is that activism must be global, not just local or national. Most activists understand this intuitively, but the *only* group to actually do something along these lines is the World Index of Environmental and Social Responsibility (WISER) under the conceptual leadership of Paul Hawkin and the technical leadership of Peggy Duvette. Indeed, combining the author's advice and concept of organization with my own vision for the “six bubbles” (see image) of the Earth Intelligence Network is in my mind a useful starting point for the yet to be developed WISER (Self) Government module.

The author offers other useful tidbits in passing, including a definition of how the progressives could organize administrative, intelligence, operational, planning, logistics, communications, and public relations teams with proper training and recognized leadership. He may not be familiar with all the training that is being done along these lines by some, for example those taking on the World Trade Organization, but in general his observations are helpful.

The book ends with two appendices, the U.S. Constitution and the United Nations charter. The author is NOT Jane Fonda on steroids. He sees, quite clearly, that the Republic is in the battle of all time for the soul of democracy and the soul of (moral) capitalism. He understands that the center of gravity is the huge disengaged apathetic “middle” and that until that middle understands that what is being done in our name by the U.S. Government is illegitimate, illegal, immoral, and imprudent, we will not be able to mobilize effectively.

This is a truly fine book, of, by, and for We the People.

See also:
Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life
Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Bk Currents)
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest

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Review: Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush

5 Star, Diplomacy, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Iraq

Web of DeceitThe One Book No US Politician Will Read, That You SHOULD Read

June 18, 2007

Barry M. Lando

This is one of two books that I have read together, both documenting the decades of deceit by both the US and UK governments, and to a much lesser degree, by France, Germany, and Russia, among others.

The two compelling facts that stay with me as I put the book down, are two:

1) From Churchill to Kennedy to Bush (Cheney), all of our Presidents in the US, but most especially Reagan, Bush, Clinton (Brzezinski), and the current and failed crew of neo conservatives that use Bush Junior as a talking doll, have been complicit–let me spell that again–complicit in the mass murders, the massacres, the torture that we first condoned and now practice ourselves. The US White House denizens are all long overdue for formal indictment, at least by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The author documents, very ably, a long string of broken promises (e.g. to the Bedouin leader for a free Arab state in return for help in WWI, to the Kurds, etc.) and complicity in mass murder. In the author's views, the sanctions are a war crime against the children, women, and elderly of Iraq, a war crime that lasted thirteen years.

2) Salaam Hussein was a creature spawned in large part by the CIA. Although I have spent 30 years in the intelligence business, it was not until I embarked on my broad non-fiction reading program that I have been able to understand that the CIA specifically, but all the rest of the classified intelligence community, is complicit in mass murders, genocides, running cocaine into the US to wipe out poor communities now addicted to crack, made affordable by the CIA's drug runners, and made politically kosher because Wall Street demands drug money–laundered drug money–for its liquidity.

I join Lee Iacocca in asking, “Where is the outrage?” There is not a candidate for President today, not even Ron Paul, who can outline in chapter and verse, as I now can on the shoulders of the 900+ authors whose hard-earned insights I have absorbed these past six years, the evil that Lionel Tiger and others show is inherent in industrialization and the centralization of power. We need to destroy the current corrupt elections process, implement electoral reform across the board, and start putting bright honorable people in office, instead of these nakedly immoral and profoundly evil creatures who will inflict any sacrifice, impose any burden, on We the People so that they may profit.

A few of the many gems from this superb work:

1) All our Presidents in recent time have lied to us, and the most humiliating of all of these lies was not the weapons of mass destruction, but the abandonment of the Kurds and the refusal to listen when Iraqi generals approached Iraqi dissidents who in turn came to the Department of State only to be shunned away. Salaam Hussein promised to leave Kuwait, but US wanted to destroy his army, and refused to hold off on what proved to be 40 hours of pure slaughter. Gulf II was not only more lies, but the active suppression of facts and dissident views, not least of which were General Tony Zinni's views–he was called a traitor by Condolezza Rice, who appears to know nothing of honor, decency, and truthfulness.

2) CIA is creating more long-term havoc than it is worth. I am finally persuaded, with absolute certainty, that we need to get out of the covert action business. CIA should become the National Analysis Agency, and the small clandestine arm should be limited to multinational operations against transnational crime and terrorism, with an Inspector General in every Station.

3) Jimmy Carter, advised by Zbig Brzezinski, comes out of this book looking both more ignorant and more unscrupulous than Reagan or either of the Bushies. Brzezinski not only masterminded the tacit okay for Pakistani development of nuclear weapons in return for aid in Afghanistan, he also began the process of helping Salaam Hussein acquire, develop, and utilize weapons of mass destruction, and I hold Brzezinski directly accountable for the mass murder of Kurds, Iraqi Shiites, and Iranians.

There are many other notes from this book that I have, but rather than lay them out here I am going to simply say that this book moves to the top of my list of books on evaluating the Iraq misadventure that has given us a $2 trillion debt and 75,000 amputees whose lives are forever shattered ***for no good reason***

The betrayal of the public trust by both the Executive and Congress, by both politicians and senior civil servants and military flag officers, has been outrageous. The author uses the words ignorance, arrogance, incompetence, amorality, illegality, hypocrisy, and cynicism sparingly. This is not a vendetta book. This is a reasons indictment and joins a host of other books that demand the immediate impeachment not only of the sitting President and Vice President, but also of the Republican ***and*** Democratic leadership in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

I am ashamed of our Republic and what these amoral thieves have done “in our name.” I am disheartened by the knowledge that all of our brave troops have died, been disabled, and suffered for ***no good reason.*** This makes me very angry. Angry enough to begin speaking out, pleading with America to wake up and find within itself the means for a non-violent restoration of the Constitution and We the People as individuals with liberty for all, lest America be disgraced, and our children's' futures sacrificed, forevermore. Shame, shame, shame.

Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (American Empire Project) (American Empire Project)
Unintended Consequences: The United States at War
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution, and the Industrial System
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
Statecraft as Soulcraft
Why the Rest Hates the West: Understanding the Roots of Global Rage
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025

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Review: At the Center of the Storm–My Years at the CIA

4 Star, Biography & Memoirs, Corruption, Crime (Government), Diplomacy, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Iraq, Justice (Failure, Reform), Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Security (Including Immigration), Terrorism & Jihad, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), War & Face of Battle

Center StormDeceptive Beginning, Vital Middle, Disappointing End,

May 5, 2007

George Tenet

This is a very good book. There are some extremely important nuggets in here that essentially put the final nail in Dick Cheney's coffin while certifying the importance of holding Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, and Cambone accountable for their high crimes and misdemeanors. Condi Rice continues to be depicted, in this book and others, as a zero in the sense of having been ignored, sidelined, or run over by Dick Cheney and his minions.

The book loses one star for a lack of prior context. George Tenet was Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) for many years, and then Intelligence Director for Bill Clinton. He avoids any mention of his long-standing role in helping dismantle the very IC he ended up leading, and he is terribly deceptive when he says he asked for more funding for anti-terrorism, but fails to mention his inability to redirect funds within the $35-40 billon he had at the time. Today the IC has $60-70B and we are no safer–these clowns cannot even put together a consolidated accurate terrorist watchlist five years after 9/11.

The bottom line on the author is that he is a big-hearted staffer, not a leader and not a strategic thinker. He was a place-holder in a job that two presidents saw fit to relegate to losers–a mouse, a pit-bull, and a turtle.

He takes credit for months of redesign dialog but fails to point out that there was no substantive contact with iconoclasts, published author-practitioners. I am especially angry that he placed Buzzy Krongard in as Executive Director. In my view, Krongard was there to look out for Wall Street interests and ensure Brown and Root did not get caught smuggling drugs into the USA through New Orleans and heavy equipment being returned to the USA “for repairs.” I've come to the conclusion, after thirty years in this business, that there are four CIA's: 1) White House sychophants; 2) Wall Street support via Carlyle Group and a small network of retired intermediaries; 3) the “front” of earnest people working out of official installations, incapable of actually doing serious spying (I was part of this group); and finally, a multinational “dirty deeds” arm that does terribly immoral and illegal things with Saudi money, Egyptian sodomy of children (photographed so as to force them to spy on their fathers), and so on.

In many ways, this book is a capstone account of the death of US secret intelligence. It's gone. The DNI, DCI and USDI are earnest men, but they will fail because they simply do not comprehend the “paradigms of failure” (essay online) and are not willing to contemplate a clean-sheet fresh-start. On page 26 the author confirms that “time and technology [have] passed us by.”

As fascinating as his claims are of ramping up on Bin Laden, I go with Michael Sheuer's damnation as published by the Washington Post. Condi Rice blew off warnings, Dick Cheney focused on energy conspiracies with Enron and Exxon, and the plain truth is that the CIA refused to read the book by Yossef Bodansky or view the PBS broadcast in 1994 by Steve Emerson. They closed themselves off from open sources (called “Open Sores” within the now near-moronic secret world).

The middle of the book is sensational. Chapter Thirteen on “The Threat Matrix” and the succeeding chapters in Part II of the book are superb and contain many nuggets that restored much of my respect for the author.

The author damns Cheney on page 138 for taking over the National Security Council and it is clear that if there is one person to be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, it is not the President, but rather the Vice President.

On page 317 he tells us that “Policy makers have a right to their own opinions but not their own set of facts.”

He slams Rumsfeld for blocking several 737's full of State people and language-qualified individuals specifically trained and organized to get the post-war reconstruction off to a good start. He does not mention Rumsfeld's idiocy in allowing Pakistan to evacuate 3,000 Taliban and Al Qaeda people from Tora Bora, but he does mention that General Tommy Franks refused to put the Rangers in Bin Laden's path, claiming he needed weeks to set it up (this is of course baloney, they could have been air-dropped in 24 hours with a 3-day resupply 24 hours after arrival).

He defends himself on the “slam dunk” as applying to the presentation plan for the UN, not the intelligence. I want to believe this, but the fact that he took imagery and other materials to the first NSC meeting, significantly on Iraq rather than terrorism, gives me pause. I certainly do believe that Dick Cheney hijacked the White House and closed out the entire policy process, but George Tenet, Colin Powell, and our generals all failed us by not resigning and screaming out at the top of their lungs against the high crimes and misdemeanors they witnessed Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, and Steve Cambone commit, day after day.

He lays bare Cheney's misbehavior in stating on 26 August 2002 that “there is no doubt” on Iraq's having weapons of mass deception but very strangely does not mention that both Hussein's son-in-law who defected to the US, and every one of the 25+ line crossers that Charlie Allen sent in, all said the same thing: kept the cook books, destroyed the stocks, bluffing for regional ego's sake.

He slams Paul Bremer for de-Bathification and confirms that “Iraq came at exactly the right time for Al Qaeda.”

The author avoids major criticism of Stephen Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, but he reveals the DoD operations against Iran. He tells us about Chalabi hoaxing DIA for millions, and that President Bush ordered Chalabi off the payroll.

He confirms Paul William's view on Al Qaeda having nuclear capabilities.

Pre 9/11 air travelers believed “be calm, see Cuba” when hijacked. Pre 9-11, and today still, our senior government executives are still confusing loyalty with integrity. We can do better. We need, right now, a “Smart Nation.”

On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World
Intelligence Failure: How Clinton's National Security Policy Set the Stage for 9/11
Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America
First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan
Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander
A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies
Osama's Revenge: THE NEXT 9/11 : What the Media and the Government Haven't Told You
The True Cost of Conflict/Seven Recent Wars and Their Effects on Society
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest

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Review: Petrodollar Warfare–Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar

5 Star, Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Complexity & Resilience, Congress (Failure, Reform), Country/Regional, Economics, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Iraq, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Survival & Sustainment

Petrodollar WarfareA summative work, focus on fall of dollar versus rise of euro,

February 18, 2007

William R. Clark

I was tempted to give this book only four stars, because as some reviewers suggest, it is mostly a summative work, drawing heavily on several books I have already reviewed, as well as a number of studies and article. In the end I decided to go with five stars because this is the only book I have found that really drew my attention to the turning point in US-Iraq relations: not Gulf I, but rather Iraq's declared intention to break the dollar monopoly and begin trading oil in Euros. Today of course we have Iran, Russia, and Venezuela trading in currencies other than the dollar.

First off, this is one of those rare books where in addition to carefully studying the table of contents, which is superbly devised, almost an executive summary on its own, you should also *first* read the End Notes and also the Afterword by LtCol Karen Kwiatkowski, now retired, who earned lasting recognition for resigning and challenging the lies coming out of the politically-appointed Pentagon officials.

Although this book is labeled by some (who would have us ignore it) as part of the “conspiracy” literature, I find myself reading more and more books in this vein, spanning 9-11, peak oil, corporate personality, and Wall Street-Washington corruption. I have to say, with all humility, if there is one privilege I would claim as the #1 Amazon reviewer of non-fiction, it is the privilege of stating clearly and on the record that this book, and other books in this vein, are NOT conspiracy literature, but rather the survivors, the vanguard that has avoided censorship. This book may not be perfect, it may overstate the case (personally I think Bush is as dim as Feith and did not understand the Euro issue while having a childish mind easily led by Dick Cheney), but it is part of an emerging literature that cannot be denied and must be given full attention.

The book highlights and reminds that we have lost the Republic to four interacting influences: concentrated wealth including perpeptual compounded wealth concealed in corporations improperly given personality rights; a completely corrupt Congress serving corporations rather than the public interest; the end of a free press with five media conglomerates happily practicing perception management on an ignorant and inattentive public; and a Federal Reserve that is not part of the government and not acting in the public interest, but instead creating credit out of thin air, and selling that to the government at a price that is both dear, and unconstitutional.

Having come late to much of this literature, the term “proto-fascism” was new to me, but it fits: Wall Street wealth, plus political corruption, plus a military too eager to follow orders without thinking. I remind all who care to understand a military perspective that General Smedley Butler's book, “War is a Racket,” recounts his disdain for being a an “enforcer” for corporations.

The author of this book on petrodollar warfare does an excellent job of recounting the history of the dollar, setting the stage for both the end of the gold standard under Nixon, and the manner in which petrodollars from the 1970's were recycled as loans to the Third World.

There are two really superb charts from other sources in this book, one on page 105 showing “The Lie Factory” led by Dick Cheney and Doug Feith; and another on page 112 showing the claims by Cheney and others about Iraq having Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), both before (of course they do) and after (none found).

Today an attack on Iran looms. I have done everything I could as an individual citizen, including a protest package to the Senate, press releases, a fax to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and a posting at OSS.Net of Howard Bloom's memorandum on a potential nuclear ambush by Iran, and Webster Tarpley's powerpoint on the fragile ground supply line from Kuwait to Baghdad. I share his view that the Siege of Baghdad will make the Siege of Stalingrad look like mercy killings. Think Black Hawk Down times a million.

This is a very fine book. It took me a year to notice it, but I will be more attentive now. New Society Publishers is in my view a national treasure. I admire them and will look forward to reading and reviewing many more books that they publish for the right reasons: to inform citizens and improve society.

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Review: My Year in Iraq–The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope

4 Star, Diplomacy, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Iraq

Bremmer IraqMicrocosmic Partial Picture in the First Person,

February 14, 2007

L. Paul Bremer III

I took great care to read this book slowly. See my list on Iraq Evaluations.

Bremer is clearly a decent man, hard-working, totally clueless about Middle Eastern and military affairs, and put in a no-win situation by George Bush and Dick Cheney. Bremer bugged out after a year, and now, two years later, the Administration we have a quagmire and a possible attack on Iran building up.

Quite incredulously, for me at least, Bremer actually sees Iraq as the crux of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and yet is totally oblivious to the fact that we created this battlefield opportunity for Iran and Al-Qaeda. See At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA

Early on the book makes it clear that Iraqis were delighted to be liberated, dismayed at the occupation, and completely unable to agree among themselves about how to achieve a legitimate government capable of stabilizing and reconstructing the country.

This is a very self-serving book, extraordinarily selective in its recollections. A few things that really struck me:

1) This book starts without reference to the path to war paved by lies from the Vice President and other members of the Bush “team.” It begins by saying that it was “widely accepted” that Weapons of Mass Destruction were the proper cause of the invasion. BALONEY. See instead Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq and Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

2) There is ZERO discussion in this book of the massive role played by Halliburton, Bechtel, and others. There is ZERO discussion of the 18 billion dollars he had to work with and managed to lose, completely apart from the contracting. There is ample discussion about the pretense of progress, but ZERO discussion about the thousands of contracting failures, the abysmal failure of the entire reconstruction effort. See Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation And the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq and a host of other books on our failures there, such as Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

3) There is a lot of blame to direct elsewhere, clearly justified but not at all making up for the fact that Bush-Cheney lied to America and the world and created this mess:

a) Chalabi was a constant irritant, obstruction, and general twit. This is the man who was fired by CIA for being a thief and a liar, convicted in Jordan of bank fraud, and still allowed by the US to be very active in Iraq.

b) Wolfowitz's rosy predictions are labeled as “fantasy,” and the author on more than one occasion talks about Doug Feith in a manner that is the diplomatic equivalent of General Frank's blunt statement in his own book: “the dumbest bastard on the planet.” See Tommy Franks “American Soldier.”

c) The Governing Council created early on was lazy, working quarter days four days a week. They simply did not compute the demand for hard serious work.

d) He takes General Jay Garner to task for allowing looting (ultimately 17 of 20 Ministry headquarters buildings were completely looted, as well as electrical and water plants and petroleum pumping stations), and also calls General Garner's 15 May turn-over plan a reckless fantasy. I posit instead that the neo-cons were sucked in by Iranian agent Chalabi and never realized how deep they were into fantasy land. I think Garner was close to getting it right early on.

e) He very properly points out that he inherited a deep structural crisis, a country coming off fifty years of neglected infrastructure, with virtually every sector of society dysfunctional. For context see The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World and The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)

f) The CIA and the Marines shut down his attempt to arrest Muqtada Al-Sadt, the Shi'ite cleric that has since then completely disrupted the country.

g) On more than one occasion the Spanish Army elements refused to fight and refused to follow direction. The Ukrainians also come in for direct criticism from Bremer.

There are a number of absolutely fascinating tid-bits, a few of which are listed here:

1) The Iraqi military had 16,000 generals while the US military (all of it, worldwide) has only 300.

2) The military consisted largely of Sunni officers who abused enlisted Shi'ite soldiers.

3) Saddam Hussein had implemented virtual starvation genocide against the Shi'ites, with severe malnutrition being the norm within that majority.

4) Because of the complete breakdown of all sanitation measures, he estimates that 500,000 tons of human waste each day were dumped into the two rivers.

5) Hussein printed money with inflation up to 100,000 per year–at the same time, 50% of all Iraqis said by the author to be unemployed when he arrived. [On this later point, he does not address the fact that the contractors received billions and instead of employing Iraqis, imported many other nationalities as slave wages.]

6) In his view, there were three sources of instability: looters, die-hard Bathists, and the Mukhabarat paramilitary.

7) Saudi Arabia was known to be egging the Sunnis on and in my view; this makes the Iranian interest in Shi'ite self-preservation completely appropriate. The author also notes that Syria and Lebanon were training and sending in foreign fighters (in the low thousands). Saudi Arabian royalty is EVIL. See See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism and also Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude

8) The author blames the French (and to a lesser degree the Russians) for keeping Saddam Hussein in power, while making no mention at all of the strong support provided by the USA to Saddam Hussein in his genocide against the Kurds and his genocidal chemical war with Iran.

9) On an extremely important point, I found it beyond belief that the author, the “Viceroy” was put into Baghdad without a command & control communications and computing set of vans, tents, generators, and so on. The military incapacitated him with quiet scorn.

The author claims in this book that the insurgency was “largely unpredicted” (page 223) and this is of course not true. However, I do believe him when he says he tried over and over again to get Washington and the military to take the insurgency seriously. His problems with Washington are very similar to those described by General Wesley Clark in Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat

The author has 164 references to Bush and only 26 to Cheney. He really did deal with the President on many matters after the fact, but I credit Dick Cheney will totally trashing our entire global program. See Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency

The author has good things to say about the World Bank (this is prior to Wolfowitz taking it over). They completed 15 assessments in six weeks instead of six months, and were very helpful.

There are only 12 mentions of Iran in this book. That is the epitaph for our failed invasion and occupation of Iraq. Iran wins, we lose.

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Review: After Iraq–The Imperiled American Imperium

5 Star, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Iraq

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Ethical Sanity, Sensible Guidelines,

January 23, 2007
Charles W. Kegley Jr.
I am in Boise, Idaho, where I came to hear Al Gore deliver the single most sensational and sensible lecture I have ever heard in my lifetime. The DVD and the book titled “Inconvenient Truth” do not do him or his message justice.

It was in this context that I discovered that Boise, Idaho is a hotbed of ethical sanity. The Frank Church Institute (sponsor of Al Gore's visit to Boise) and these two authors, one of whom is the Frank Church Professor of International Relations, the other the Corporate Secretary of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, have all of the moral credibility and legitimacy that the Bush-Cheney regime lacks.

I bought this book while visiting Boise State University, and I believe it may well be one of the most important works relevant to recovering from the enormously mis-guided, inept, and corrupt practices that Bush-Cheney have forced upon all of us. As a moderate but estranged Republican, I heartily embrace the solid reasoning of these two authors.

The most important part of the book is the final section that I have marked very heavily. The authors highlight the number of military interventions the US has undertaken, making the important point that Bush-Cheney are not the first to abuse military power, but perhaps the first to do so in such an outrageously ill-conceived manner.

They draw respectfully on historian Niall Fergusson's summary of American interventions and this is worth repeating here:

1. Impressive initial military success
2. Flawed assessment of indigenous sentiments
3. Strategy of limited war and gradual escalation of forces
4. Domestic disillusionment in the face of protracted and nasty conflict
5. Premature democratization
6. Ascendancy of domestic economic considerations
7. Ultimate withdrawal

There you have it. The authors go on to outline “Rules for Rivals” and I will not summarize those–buy the book. The most important observation made by the authors is that if one pays attention to an idea new to me, the Composite Index of National Capabilities (CINC), then one can quickly see that the US pales in comparison to China, and simply does not have the capacity for sustained global warfare in the conventional sense.

The authors outline several characteristics of the emerging collapse of US foreign policy and credibility and effectiveness, not least of which is their proper emphasis on the failure of American education.

This is a very important book, and it deserves to be noticed by the varied book sections, especially the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

As one who can be bombastic at times, I especially admired the manner in which the authors made their case in an even-handed relatively neutral manner. Boise, Idaho is a very sensible place! America would do well to absorb and act on the common sense thinking they are doing here.

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

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Review: VICE–Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency

7 Star Top 1%, Atrocities & Genocide, Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth, Biography & Memoirs, Censorship & Denial of Access, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Democracy, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Environment (Problems), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Iraq, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Priorities, Privacy, Public Administration, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

Amazon Page7 Star Life Transformative Showing True Perfidy in White House = 23 Documented High Crimes That Should Put Cheney in Irons Immediately,

January 9, 2007
Lou Dubose

EDITED 5 September 2007 to add ten links to other related books.

This book is vastly more detailed, and covers more high crimes and misdemeanors, than either State of Denial, which misunderstands Bush as being in charge, or Crossing the Rubicon, which focuses primarily on Cheney's role in first permitting 9-11, and then working assiduously to cover up his malicious malfeasance. See also Ron Susskind's book, “One Percent Doctrine,” which crucifies Cheney, Rumseld, and Rice.

I take this book so seriously that I urge everyone to get the “Do It Yourself Impeachment” kit. He should be required to immediately resign or be impeached. He should not be allowed to serve another month in office.

For the sake of brevity, here is a list of impeachable offenses documented by this book:

1) Secret meetings in violation of the law to include exclusion of government experts
2) Refusal to honor demand from Congress for a list of participants
3) Lies to the public about Iraq, while holding maps of oil fields and already having in mind a US-only domination of those oilfields (he first focused on Iraqi oil while serving Secretary of Defense Brown)
4) Over-ruling of the Environmental Protection Agency on very important matters including its concern over Halliburton's reliance on hydraulic fracturing that uses chemicals that contaminate aquifers–Cheney personally ensured that the EPA's wording was replaced with Halliburton's wording.
5) Consistent and pervasive usurpation of Congressional authorities and consistent and maliciously deliberate avoidance of appropriate disclosure.
6) Fostered attacks on Sy Hersh, and considered authorizing a break-in on his home.
7) From the 1970's, see also Ron Susskind's One-Percent Doctrine, subverted the authority of the Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, and teams with Justice Scalia (then an assistant attorney general) to increase executive privileges and push back reforms.
8) As a Congressman personally blew off Russian offer in 1983 for arms cuts, and subverted the authority of the President and the Secretary of State then serving.
9) As an extremist Republican, supported Ollie North and the White House in violating the Congressional prohibitions on aid to the Contras, and obstructed justice thereafter.
10) Page 78 has a lovely discussion of how Cheney and North were “in the zone” in deceiving the public and Congress during the televised hearings.
11) Adopted as his own the lunatic report by Khalizad (who is a very lazy scholar, see my review of his rotten RAND book on revolution) and Libby, on how the US as a superpower should be able to do ANYTHING.
12) Attempted to undermine due process and keep tactical nuclear weapons in the Army inventory.
13) Subverted the authority of the Secretary of State (Colin Powell) by allowing his daughter to overrule Ambassadors and meet privately with various heads of state.
13) Lied repeatedly to the public about his continuing financial equities with Halliburton, and was so involved in giving Halliburton up to 16 billion in no bid contracts.
14) Shut both foreign competitors and more cost-effective indigenous contracting solutions, severely harming the national security of the United States by fostering an environment of unproductive looting by Halliburton, Bechtel, and others.
15) Ignored his dual mandates on terrorism and intelligence. The book suggests that Bush was not briefed on Al Qaeda for the first eight months he was in office (the Vice President's priorities were energy and missile defense).
16) Personally impeded negotiations with North Korea after they proved amenable to diplomatic engagement.
17) Personally rejected Iranian overtures for negotiation conveyed by the Swiss in 2003
18) Personally reinforced Rumsfeld on use of torture, by-passing the President's more measured restrictions.
19) Conspired with Speaker Hastert to subordinate the House of Representatives, using a special office of his own (first time in history) so that Representatives could be brought to him rather than his calling on them.
20) Manipulated the President into numerous “signing statements” inconsistent with the will of Congress that ignored legislation then in force.
21) “Bureaucratically emasculated” the President (page 177–if the President has a friend that reads this review, PLEASE get the book and the review to the President–he really may have no idea his balls have been cut off)
22) Contemptuous and manipulative of the CIA, refusing to accept their best professional judgments based not only all source intelligence, but on a extraordinary effort by Charlie Allen in running line crossers into Iraq to document beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were no weapons of mass destruction there.
23) Lied repeatedly, over and over, to the public, to Congress, to the President, to foreign leaders, even after the lies were exposed he continued to repeat them.

The book does not discuss the 9-11 situation and emerging findings that place the Vice President at the center of our deliberately inept response.

Two gems apart from the impeachable offenses:

1) The search for a Vice President was a complete fraud, he was picked from day one, and made a fool of every serious candidate, while also personally leaking to destroy Keating just to ensure the only real rival would not be considered at the last minute.

2) The discussion of Joe Lieberman's refusal to confront Cheney with all that was known to be wrong with him was explained at the time as “taking the high moral road.” I am not so sure. I speculate that Lieberman is actually a neo-con and has been playing the Democrats for fools while minding the interests of his Wall Street masters.

On page 147 the authors discuss how Cheney accused Clinton and Gore of “extend[ing] our military commitments while depleting our military power.” Lovely. And now?

The authors conclude that Dick Cheney is “nakedly amoral.” I agree.

One final scary note: in the many doomsday drills that Cheney participated in across his career and inclusive of his Vice Presidency, they always failed to reconstitute Congress.

Dick Cheney has done more damage and is a greater threat to our Republic and others, than Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein combined.

The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory
9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, Fourth Edition
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
9/11 Mysteries Part 1: Demolitions
9/11: Press For Truth
9/11 – The Myth and the Reality
Aftermath: Unanswered Questions from 9/11

For those wondering why Congress failed to do its Article 1 job (hence all Members are impeachable for dereliction of duty as well):
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)
Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders

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