Here’s part one.

Part two will run next week.

Let’s all hope Bradley goes free.  If not after this trial, maybe he’ll get pardoned after the next presidential election.

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Yeah, okay, so I can see how it sounds plausible for a minute: Hey, let’s get the Americans to overthrow all our neighboring governments and replace them with friendly Hashemite kings or, failing that, permanent, low-level chaos forever! It’ll be great! No one will ever threaten us again!

Makes sense. Even though Assad hasn’t done anything to Israel but fund and arm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon a little bit. He doesn’t say jack about the Golan Heights/Sheba Farms and all that or do a damn thing for the Palestinians either.

But I could see how it makes sense to a neocon – for a minute anyway. But then the thing of it is they tried it in Iraq, and now its war has spread to Syria and back again. Either way, Iran and al Qaeda have both gained in Iraq, and now one or the other or both will be gaining big from the war in Syria too.

So Israel’s strategy has been to replace stable secular nation states with their very worst enemies — and in the case of the mujahedeen, people with whom they can never deal.

Stupid.

Anyway, this guy in Foreign Affairs says that the Israeli government now knows how stupid it is and has come away with a saner point of view: leave Syria the hell alone for a while. ‘s worth a quick read.

Update: Heh. Oh, that’s right. “This guy” Halevy is the former head of Mossad

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This question and its correct answer are both misleading and a little annoying. Undoubtedly more people than just the mother and this writer believe they could have come up with something better, more educational. First off, the question asks “Why might” leaving an air of uncertainty in any answer. Of course, the answer is rather certain whether you’d rather hear it from Paul Wolfowitz or Ron Paul. Then the answer states “Decisions we made” opening up another can of worms I’ll address in a bit.

After posting on social media, Kara Sands took her shock and outrage to Fox News Channel as a guest on America Live with Megyn Kelly. Woe is them! Sands got things started saying that the school’s inculcation of her son was all well and good when it came to pledging allegiance to the flag and singing God Bless America but then she says their propaganda runs afoot!

“They blame the US for the [9/11] attacks [by saying] we misuse our power? Well, no!” frets Sands. Megyn Kelly attempts to top that with “Is this what we have to deal with now? We, we America, are to blame for the bad things that happen to us?”

This incessant “we”, “us”, and “our” stuff is fallacious and revealing. Their moral outrage was about the treatment of the United States, then by extension the boy student. Which does Sands value more? Is her son there to worship the state? Is the state there to serve her child? Is she so desperate to prove her loyalty to the state that she would capitalize on her son’s situation?

At one point, Kelly asked Sands if she “pay[s] attention more than most [parents]?” to which Sands replied, “I don’t know. Maybe I just speak out more.”

That is the average Fox News viewer summed up, isn’t it? Sands describes herself on Twitter as “Christian. Mom. Texan. Reagan Republican/Buckley Conservative. Political Junkie, Consultant & GOP Fundraiser.” The words “and Fox News contributor” have not been added yet.

Nobody disputes President Bill Clinton’s sanctions (not to mention bombings) on Iraq killed 500,000 children. Since 2004, 175 children have died from US drone strikes in Pakistan alone. But those parents’ shock and outrage isn’t as good on TV, so maybe that’s why Kara Sands reviles at her son’s quiz question. In addition to the outrage at the notion of blowback, Sands rightfully condemns the Bill of Rights part of the curriculum that claims “food and medicine” are civil rights. Responsibility is for personal actions, not state actions or so she would like to have her son taught.

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Manning is expected to serve up to 20 years in prison. This, after he already languished for over a thousand days in detention. The Obama administration held him in a particularly sadistic form of solitary confinement for nine months, which over 250 lawyers protested in an open letter to the government.

Such solitary confinement was, of course, a form of torture, as most of the civilized world recognizes, despite Obama’s campaign promises to abolish the gruesome practice. Manning’s treatment also calls into question another one of Obama’s political vows: He had pledged in 2008 to rigorously protect whistle-blowers, whose “acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled.”

Instead, Obama has undertaken a war on whistle-blowers that makes George W. Bush look like a civil libertarian. The politician who promised and continues to boast unprecedented transparency arguably presides over its least transparent administration in history, which classified 92 million documents in 2011, and which, according to the Bloomberg News, has “prosecuted more government officials for alleged leaks under the World War I-era Espionage Act than all [of Obama’s] predecessors combined, including law-and-order Republicans John Mitchell, Edwin Meese and John Ashcroft.” Manning is among those so far targeted by this draconian legislation. This crackdown on whistle-blowers almost surely has a profound chill effect, discouraging people from coming forward with information about government wrongdoing.

The legal process Manning has faced has been even more a sham than usual.  …

Read the rest here.

Update: Would you read the comments under the Huffington Post version? Liberals. My God, they’re conservative.

(Plagiarized from LewRockwell.com)

Millions went to war in Iraq, Afghanistan, leaving many with lifelong scars

Whistleblower accuses government of neglecting suicidal veterans and suppressing science

Ex-soldiers more likely to commit violent crime, study claims (video) (UK)

MP3 here.

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It was pretty great for bringing attention to the issue, but really, so what if he had one good day?

Rand still stabbed his dad, and the rest of us, in the back by endorsing Mitt Romney. He’s horrible on Guantanamo and on accountability for torturers. He’s also bad on Iran sanctions; on the Israeli occupation of Gaza; the West Bank and East Jerusalem; and foreign aid — especially to Israel which he’s already granted a unilateral war guarantee. His NDAA amendment only covered US citizens, not all US persons, and though some swear it, I didn’t hear a thing yesterday about non-citizen US persons’ rights to also not be droned (or shot, etc). And some parts were horrible:

“We’re not talking about the guy coming out of the liquor store with a weapon. Even a drone could kill him if the FBI had drones. So my objection to drones isn’t so much the technology. There may be a use in law – for law enforcement here.”

Just to make sure we’ve got that straight.

Rand pals around with Bill Kristol and other horrible neoconservatives, even receiving “briefings” from Dan Senor who may as well have written the Heritage speech demagogueing about the long war against “Radical Islam.”

Two years into his senate term he should’ve/could’ve filibustered 100 things by now, but hasn’t. Yesterday was fine for what it was, but it still only makes him about a tenth of the man/congressman his father is/was.

I suppose it’s possible this is the beginning of some sort of transformation for the better. It could be, but I doubt it. He’s already shown such a willingness to “split the difference” on so many important things, it’s amazing to see how many people are willing to act like nothing he ever did or said before happened or mattered.

Some people love him because of his last name, but that’s faith, not reason, and therefore really no different than kooks loving Barack Obama for sometimes saying pretty things about the constitution and Bill of Rights too.

I didn’t always agree with his father’s votes or positions, but his “right on” to “fail” ratio was a thousand to one. Rand is going to have to start being right a hell of a lot more often to come anywhere near comparable to his father.

Ron was quoted in Time the other day, saying “Well, he’s the best Senator there is!” That may well be true, but as the scene on C-SPAN showed as this played out yesterday — with a handful of liberty-hating Republicans pretending to care for a day and the Dem’s silence only broken by Dick Durban’s cry “But, Nine-Eleven!” — that isn’t saying very much.

Update: The president has backed down, so I give Rand credit (though I still see no mention of non-citizen US persons). Let’s see if he can do two things right in a row.

Update 2: Uh, oh, yeah, uh, not so much really.

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Judge Lind: Pfc. Manning you may read your statement.

Pfc. Bradley Manning: Yes, your Honor. I wrote this statement in the confinement facility. The following facts are provided in support of the providence inquiry for my court martial, United States v. Pfc. Bradley E. Manning.

Personal Facts.

I am a twenty-five year old Private First Class in the United States Army currently assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, HHC, US Army Garrison (USAG), Joint Base Myer, Henderson Hall, Fort Meyer, Virginia.

My [missed word] assignment I was assigned to HHC, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, NY. My primary military occupational specialty or MOS is 35 Foxtrot intelligence analyst. I entered active duty status on 2 October 2007. I enlisted with the hope of obtaining both real world experience and earning benefits under the GI Bill for college opportunities.

Facts regarding my position as an intelligence analyst.

In order to enlist in the Army I took the Standard Armed Services Aptitude Battery or [ASVAB?]. My score on this battery was high enough for me to qualify for any enlisted MOS positon. My recruiter informed me that I should select an MOS that complimented my interests outside the military. In response, I told him that I was interested in geopolitical matters and information technology. He suggested that I consider becoming an intelligence analyst.

After researching the intelligence analyst position, I agreed that this would be a good fit for me.

More.

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Via Laurence M. Vance:

“The Pentagon’s pursuit of the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jet has been a heartbreaking one. If you’re a tax payer, the program’s estimated $1 trillion price tag probably breaks your heart a little bit. If you’re an aviation enthusiast, the constant whittling away of the do-it-all aircraft’s features, which in many cases actually amounts to adding weight and taking away maneuverability, must hurt a little bit, too.

“If you’re just an everyday American, though, you should be downright shattered that after a decade and a fortune spent, the F-35 will actually be more vulnerable than the aircraft it’s replacing. At this point, the Pentagon is literally rewriting its rulebook so that the dumbed-down super jet will pass muster.

Oh, but don’t worry because actually the engine is a complete piece of shit which literally cracks under pressure, and so the whole damn F-35 project has been suspended.

In other new-fighter jet-ripoff news, earlier this week an F-22 test pilot was vindicated from the Air Force’s previous accusations that he was at fault for getting killed in a crash caused by their faulty oxygen system. (The family still can’t believe the government would betray one of their own.)

Oh, but don’t worry. The U.S. government is paying Lockheed 7 billion more to fix the F-22s up real good for you (no word on whether they’ll finally just let these pilots have a tank and a hose like everyone else).

And at least we can take heart that the F-22s are completely useless in the 7 wars we’re currently fighting. For now they wait for the never-ending Cold War to finally get hot.