Not another Vietnam

State of denial: After the big Leak, spinning for war

Washington’s spin machine is in overdrive to counter the massive leak of documents on Afghanistan. Much of the counterattack revolves around the theme that the documents aren’t particularly relevant to this year’s new-and-improved war effort.

The White House seized on the timeframe of the documents released by WikiLeaks. “The period of time covered in these documents (January 2004-December 2009) is before the President announced his new strategy,” a White House email told reporters on Sunday evening. “Some of the disconcerting things reported are exactly why the President ordered a three month policy review and a change in strategy.”

Unfortunately, the “change in strategy” has remained on the same basic track as the old strategy -- except for escalation. On Tuesday morning, the lead story on the New York Times website noted: “As the debate over the war begins anew, administration officials have been striking tones similar to the Bush administration’s to argue for continuing the current Afghanistan strategy, which calls for a significant troop buildup.”

Afghan War Leaks Expose Costly, Deceitful March of Folly

The brutality and fecklessness of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan have been laid bare in an indisputable way just days before the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on whether to throw $33.5 billion more into the Afghan quagmire, when that money is badly needed at home.

On Sunday, the Web site Wikileaks posted 75,000 reports written mostly by U.S. forces in Afghanistan during a six-year period from January 2004 to December 2009. The authenticity of the material published under the title "Afghan War Diaries" is not in doubt.

The New York Times, which received an embargoed version of the documents from Wikileaks, devoted six pages of its Monday editions to several articles on the disclosures, which reveal how the Afghan War slid into its current morass while the Bush administration concentrated U.S. military efforts on Iraq.

Why Stewart Brand is wrong on nukes---and is losing

Stewart Brand has become a poster boy for a "nuclear renaissance" that has just suffered a quiet but stunning defeat. Despite $645 million spent in lobbying over the past decade, the reactor industry has thus far failed to gouge out major new taxpayer funding for new commercial reactors.

In an exceedingly complex series of twists and turns, no legislation now pending in Congress contains firm commitments to the tens of billions reactor builders have been demanding. They could still come by the end of the session. But the radioactive cake walk many expected the industry to take through the budget process has thus far failed to happen.

The full story is excruciatingly complicated. But the core reasons are simple: atomic power can't compete, and makes global warming worse.

Was Rove's thumb on Ohio' scale? Haas' new novel suggests yes

The new novel by the Clinton family's favorite Ohio political consultant, Greg Haas, is entitled "The Butcher's Thumb." It begins and ends with the same four words: "The campaign never stops." Coming from arguably the Buckeye state's most accomplished political operative, this thinly-veiled memoir gets closer to the truth surrounding Ohio and national politics than any nonfiction autobiography could approach.

The novel opens with Democrat Al Thornton and Republican Will Kensington in a too close to call presidential election. Haas accurately captures the fear and fervor of Florida 2000 as well as the Ohio Kerry debacle four years later.Echoing the reality of Bush's first cousin John Ellis of Fox News, who prematurely called the election for Bush, our protagonist Matt Risen hears the key phrase that secures the election for Kensington: "We're reversing our earlier prediction and are now declaring Republican William Kensington the winner in Ohio...."

Have a look

Thailand's government faces possible collapse from trial

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's military-backed government, a U.S. non-NATO ally, faces possible collapse because of two corruption cases, but the army is trying to install a hawkish commander while Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva remains in power.

Mr. Abhisit, who took office in December 2008, hopes he and his Democrat Party will escape termination if found guilty by Thailand's powerful Constitutional Court, which received the corruption cases from aggressive prosecutors in the Office of the Attorney-General.

"We will respect, and follow, the decision of the court," the soft-spoken prime minister said. His Democrat Party allegedly received illegal donations worth more than eight million US dollars in 2005 from a major cement corporation, TPI Polene.

In a second case, the Democrat Party allegedly misused a grant worth about 900,000 US dollars from the Election Commission's political development fund.

Illegal donations, and the misuse of the commission's money, violate the Political Party Act.

The crematorium of empires

On Wednesday U.S. senators from both political parties asked the president's representative to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke what in the world the goal could be for the ongoing war. He had no answer.

Senator Russ Feingold pointed out that our ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, opposed the escalation (at least until he agreed to oppose his own views). Holbrooke had no response.

Senator John Kerry noted that Taliban assassinations in Kandahar began when the United States announced a coming assault there. How then could the assault stop the killings? Holbrooke had no explanation.

I was reminded of General Stanley McChrystal's comment at a press conference in Washington together with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. A reporter asked if those who helped the US forces tended to get their heads sliced off. McChrystal replied that they did but that this was only to be expected.

Senator Kerry on Wednesday noted that the assault on Marja had been a test for Kandahar and had failed. So why was an assault on Kandahar moving ahead? Who knows. Not Holbrooke.

Revenge of the weeds

Today’s big news stories — the wars, the eco-disasters — all seem to have the same gaping hole in them. This hole is lack of awareness, and its thrum, once you begin to hear it, soon becomes deafening: We can’t go on like this.

We can’t keep playing conquering fool, arrogantly ordering the world to our liking by killing everything that doesn’t fit into it. We can’t keep throwing more of the same at our problems. We can’t keep fighting nature, or one another, and expect somehow to win in the end. We can’t keep buying time at an increasingly horrific price. Time is running out. And petroleum isn’t the only thing we’re addicted to.

“Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds,” the New York Times informed us several months ago.

“To fight them . . . farmers throughout the East, Midwest and South are being forced to spray fields with more toxic herbicides. . . .”

The USDA can stop Monsanto - No GMO alfalfa

Although it was reported as a wholesale victory for Monsanto, the recent Supreme Court decision on "Roundup Ready" alfalfa has actually put food activists in a good position to maintain the ban on Monsanto's genetically engineered GMO seeds.

The court ruled that the planting of GMO alfalfa is still illegal, but it assigned authority to the USDA to determine whether to allow some provisional planting to go forward as soon as next spring. The responsibility for maintaining a total ban on the GMO seeds — and protecting organic crops from likely contamination — falls squarely on the shoulders of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Tell Secretary Vilsack to stand up to corporate agribusiness and protect organics for future generations. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

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