Nothing unites people like slaughter.

Looks like Admiral Fallon was right.

That and the fact that Fallon called starting a war with Iran insane is why he was shuffled to the back fairly quickly. Can’t have our military leaders speaking the truth when they are supposed to be catapulting the propaganda. I guess all Patreaus needed from Obama was the commitment to allow him to keep slaughtering people.

The radical fanaticism of Cheney and Rumsfeld still run this country!!

Yep. I understand Rummy still has an office in the Pentagon. Change we can only imagine…

But if he backs away from it, he’ll be cutting against a dynamic he himself established.

That’s a good one. Obama has been in reverse since he got in office. He reminds me of the old bluegrass song called “Backing to Birmingham” by Lester Flatt that puts an unqualified driver in a semi. Here are three of the verses:

Read an ad in Chicago’s Sunday paper
Help wanted, semi driver needed bad
I walked in I said I’d like to see the foreman
I told him all the experience that I had. . .

Well I finally got inside and got it started
Put it into gear and started backing up
Tried every way to get it going forward
Oh, but I ain’t never drove a big old truck. . .

But if I keep it up I’ll finally make it
And I’ll bet I’m the first truck driving man
That ever left Chicago in a semi
And backed it all the way to Birmingham

And still drawing a paycheck!!!

Are country and our Democracy has been stolen from us; Financially and Morally!!28 Trillion for World Banking interests and 0 trickle down droppings for the rest of us!!

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post ready: Celebrity Organizing: Stewart, Colbert, Gaga

Great read, thanks Spencer.

I think Iran is still safe and will continue to be safe for all the OBVIOUS reasons, but it WILL be dangled like a piece of candy on a string to rile and incite and play psy ops with China, Russia, and our own Muslim hating masses.

Birds of a feather.

Amy Goodman interviewed Johan Galtung, founder of the field of peace and conflict studies and author of “The Fall of the US Empire.” Here’s some of what he had to say:

- AMY GOODMAN: What do US congressmen respond?

JOHAN GALTUNG: They shrug their shoulders, and they say,[among other things, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan]“Dear Professor Galtung, it’s impossible to convey to American voters, because that means that we have to concede that the other side has a couple of good points and that we have a couple of wrong points. It’s very difficult to do that.” And one of them, a very famous one, who shall remain unmentioned, put it this way: “Our instinctive reaction whenever there’s a problem is to send the Marines and not to try to solve the problem. We have done that too many times.”

- AMY GOODMAN: What do you think he [Obama] has gone back on, in terms of his promises?

JOHAN GALTUNG: Practically speaking, everything. Guantánamo is still there. Rendition is still there. There is the saying that no torture should take place; I haven’t seen the mechanism to ensure that that’s the case. The withdrawal from Iraq, with 50,000 remaining. Stepping up, escalating the war in Afghanistan. And as we know, whatever withdraws from Iraq essentially goes to Afghanistan instead.

I think it’s very contrary to the kind of thing that he was exuding, including the nuclear point. What kind of thing is this, to get rid of old-fashioned weapons with the Russians and then arguing for $180 billion to modernize the nukes—$100 billion for the weapons carriers, $80 billion for new warheads? What kind of nuclear-free world is this? He should have had the decency, when Norway made the mistake of giving him the Nobel Peace Prize, of saying, “I graciously, gratefully decline. I haven’t earned it yet. Let’s come back when possibly I have earned it.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/16/johan_galtung_on_the_wars_in

More Galtung: While Galtung’s academic research is clearly intended to promote peace, he has shifted toward more concrete and constructive peace mediation as he has grown older. In 1993, he co-founded “Transcend – A Peace, Development and Environment Network,”[13] an organization for conflict transformation by peaceful means. There are four traditional but unsatisfactory ways in which conflicts between two parties are handled:

1. A wins, B loses;
2. B wins, A loses;
3. the solution is postponed because neither A nor B feels ready to end the conflict;
4. a confused compromise is reached, which neither A nor B are happy with.

Galtung tries to break with these four unsatisfactory ways of handling a conflict by finding a “fifth way,” where both A and B feel that they win. The method also insists that basic human needs – such as survival, physical well-being, liberty, and identity – be respected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Galtung

Silly Olde European, and some wonder from where the Prof. Left get their crazy ideas.

Two things temper my finding the NYT report credible about the actual relationship:

1. Obama effectively demoted Petraeus and to told his to show the world how it’s done. And apparently got agreement on a timeline.

2. Obama must have been reluctant to send more troops for McChrystal; otherwise McChrystal would not have tried to go to the public and Congress by using the media.

My reading of the relationship between Obama and the military on Afghanistan is something like this. Tell me how long it will take you to deliver results. Tell me what you need as resources. OK. You’ve got the resources. Now deliver the results within the timeframe.

In order for Petraeus to be in Obama’s good graces, he has to deliver. The Petraeus NYT article seems to be a Petraeus kiss-up article, having understood clearly from McChrystal’s experience who exactly is commander-in-chief.

That damn dyslexia, I saw that headline and it read “Obama and Petraeus, smell the lube”.

I suppose it is time for another Digby rehash of how this is all a ploy by BetrayUs to take over the GOP. Much more likely to see Petraeus join the Obama WH, but what else is new?