Chuck Spinney: Corruption in Congress – The Iron Triangle

Revolving Door Syndrome in the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex The Best Government Money Can Buy by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, COUNTERPUNCH, FEBRUARY 11, 2014 Those of you who think it is incorrect to attach “Congressional” onto the the end of Military – Industrial – Congressional Complex (MICC) would be well advised to read “Lawmaker holds stock in defense contractor he …

Chuck Spinney: Is US Starting a New Cold War in the Ukraine? At What Cost to Our Future?

WEEKEND EDITION JAN 31-FEB 02, 2014 Fanning the Fires of Chaos in the Ukraine What is the Real Price of Starting Another Cold War? by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch In the late 1980s, the leaders of the West promised Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev that they would not expand eastward if the Soviet Union pulled …

Chuck Spinney: Corrupt Congress Spends on Contractor Waste Instead of Human Core

WEEKEND EDITION JANUARY 17-19, 2014 The Cockburn Report Defense Spending: Putting Toys Before Boys by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch Being pro-defense in the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles on the Potomac means, in the salty words of my late friend Col. David Hackworth, one of the U.S. Army’s most decorated combat soldiers, putting “the toys …

Marcus Aurelius: Arguments Mount to Terminate the US Air Force

This should generate a lively debate. SNAPSHOT: Ground the Air Force Revising the Future of Flight Robert Farley Foreign Affairs, December 18, 2013 ROBERT FARLEY is an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, founder of the blog Lawyers, Guns, and Money, [1] and the author of Grounded: The Case …

Marcus Aurelius: Government is Pissing Off Its Young Veterans – a Key Demographic for the 2016 Revolution

It’s all about I-N-T-E-G-R-I-T-Y. Younger military veterans are angered by budget cuts to their pension benefits By Lori Montgomery, Washington Post, December 30 After 25 years of service, including combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, Lt. Col. Stephen Preston retired from the Army and began collecting a pension of nearly $55,000 a year. The money made it possible …

Chuck Spinney: Mission Accomplished in Afghanistan — Treason, Looting of the Commonwealth, Destruction of the Millitary, and Wanton Collateral Damage…

Below, Seumas Milne well summarizes the calamitous results of our misbegotten GWOT* crusades in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.  The result is not pretty, but that is hardly surprising. While Milne’s call for accountability applies to the British contribution to the GWOT, it bespeaks volumes for the United States — a country that prides itself on its …