Review: We Meant Well – How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People

Peter Van Buren  5.0 out of 5 stars Six Stars & Beyond–Open Heart Surgury on a Corrupt Ignorant Government,September 29, 2011 FINAL REVIEW The author himself begins the book with a reference to Dispatches (Everyman’s Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) followed by Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition, to which I would add A Rumor of War. …

Winslow Wheeler: Elitist Corruption on the Defense Budget

Just as the leaders of US national security thinking led America into the war in Iraq based on the false premise of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and reckless, but politically powerful, rhetoric, Washington’s elite are now circling the wagons around the defense budget.  They are using the same disingenuous tactics and the same kind …

Tom Atlee: Diebold Voting Machines Can Be Hacked Remotely–ONE THIRD of All Votes Can Be Easily Manipulated

This kind of information should be spread as fast as possible. – Tom Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control Exclusive: A laboratory shows how an e-voting machine used by a third of all voters can be easily manipulated Brad Friedman, Salon, 27 September 2011 It could be one of the most disturbing …

Who’s Who in Peace Intelligence: G. I. Wilson

Gary I. Wilson: G.I. Wilson is a retired Marine Corps Colonel and combat veteran with 33 years of military service and several years of experience in law enforcement-emergency services. He is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Marine Corps Intelligence Association (MCIA), Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), American Society …

G.I. Wilson: Killer Drones, Moral Disengagement, + War Crimes RECAP

The Psychology of Killer Drones – action against our foes; reaction affecting us G. I. Wilson Fabius Maximus, 28 September 2011 Summary:  We now have enough experience with drone warfare to study its effects.  Just as in physics, our actions affect ourselves as well as our targets. Social science research shows that drones are a gateway to moral disengagement dehumanization, …

Review (Guest): Confidence Men – Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President

Ron Suskind From Product Description: The new president surrounded himself with a team of seasoned players—like Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner—who had served a different president in a different time. As the nation’s crises deepened, Obama’s deputies often ignored the president’s decisions—“to protect him from himself”—while they fought to seize control of a …

Chuck Spinney: How Incestuous Amplification Leads to Treason

9-11: Incestuous Amplification Highjacks the American OODA Loop Mark Danner has written a brilliant exegesis (also attached below) of how the collective leadership of the United States dragged an entire nation off its moral rails in its reaction to 9-11. It is long but well worth the reading investment. While Danner does not use the …