Acknowldege the Need for Revolution (because "business as usual" only encourages them)

Jeeziz, .... "Death to Canada,"* that's what Afghan protestors are shouting outside Kandahar, where they accuse Canadian soldiers of killing two religious elders during a raid. Canadian authorities claim they were not involved. NATO spokespersons said that the protest was staged by the Taliban, who also inflate the numbers of civilian casualities. Of course, Canada and NATO exaggerate the numbers of Taliban they kill and underestimate civilian casualities, ... so take it all with a grain of salt.

The thing is, they're shouting "Death to Canada" somewhere in the world. FIVE YEARS after we defeated a not-too-very-popular regime, and have supposedly been working hard to bring stability and development to the region.

The point is, that you can't trust the fuckers for anything. The same politicians that created the federal public debt on the engineered unemployment of the workers, and who have used the debt to slash necessary public services for the majority, and who are blaming the people they themselves threw out of work for being "dependent" upon those social programs and therefore causing the debt, ... these are the same politicians who we trust to deliver on the best interests of the Afghan people.

The same people who harassed, slandered, and fired Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gerard Lambert, the veterinary drug scientists who blew the whistle on the dangers of Monsanto's rBGH growth hormone, are the ones we trust to represent us to the people of Afghanistan and Haiti.

The system that allows corporations to produce dangerous products and intimidate the institutions our taxes pay to regulate them is not a system that should ever be trusted. It is not a system we should accept.

The system that sends two unelected presidents, and a duplicitous, unpopular prime minister, to Montebello, to "streamline" the regulatory framework of three supposedly sovereign nations, ... while a sampling of their corporate paymasters guide their hands, ... all behind closed doors and the prying eyes of the people, this is not a system that a free people would typically endorse.

People who are already skeptical about this system, people who vote left-wing, whether they are deluded left-Liberals or NDPr's, have to come all the way through and realize that a system that does these things, and that creates a wall of confusion which perpetuates the two corporate parties, and condemns semi-realistic ones to permanent minority status and irrelevance, is a sick system.

A system that deliberately kills people, and which gladly kills more people if there's a buck to be made, is not a system that can be reasoned with.

I believe in democracy and human rights, and, I think, more than many people. I believe they are the only principles that grant us some degree of security from the system. But they were won by people opposed to the system, ... they weren't granted by the system. They create a cocoon of complacency around the capitalist system though.

Our political-democratic movement has to move forward with the majority of the people, but first the majority of the people have to be convinced that the system has to go. It has to be dramatically changed. And before we can do this, we have to make sure that everyone who critiques the system understands how truly inhuman and monstrous it is.

I could go


* This news was brought to my attention by Alison in the comments section of the last thread. Thanks for the heads-up on this important (and depressing) situation.

1/4 of Canada's Afghan Prisoners Unaccounted For

From the Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 Globe & Mail, we don't know where 50 of the 200 prisoners we've taken in Afghanistan are. We don't know what's happened to them. But Canada's New Government is tapping its toes and thinking happy thoughts:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada still can't account for at least 50 prisoners it captured and turned over to Afghan authorities, several sources say, frustrating efforts to put to rest concerns the detainees were subject to torture.

Canadian sources offered a benign explanation for their disappearance, blaming the Afghans' shoddy record-keeping and suggesting the detainees have likely returned safely to their homes.

Canada's own diplomatic reporting has already warned of complaints that captives are sometimes killed inside Afghan prisons.

“Extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common,” a report last year said.

The sort of thing that could be happening to prisoners we've turned over to the Afghans is reflected in the story of a wealthy Afghan farmer whose brother and another man were arrested in his fields close to a highway where a roadside bomb had gone off, killing one Afghan police officer. The surviving officers arrested the man's brother and the other man, and took them to an illegal prison (one of many, apparently) in Kandahar. The man was able to ransom his brother, but the other man, having no wealthy relatives to save him was found in a gutter, practically flayed, with his throat slit.

This happens to people arrested by underpaid police officers who most likely come from one of the powerful warlord groups that make up "Afghanistan's New Government," and which embody that culture of violence and criminality. The Afghan citizen had some final words for the reporter:

"These problems will belong to the Canadians in the end,” he said. “You have friendships with killers.”

On the very same day that this excellent, sobering reporting appeared, the Globe & Mail's editorial board (containing, I hear, the infamous Marcus Gee, a man whose stenographic talents rival those of the Washington Press Corps) produced a vapid, ridiculous lead editorial about how we have to "stay the course" in Afghanistan.

Why? Why must we continue to create enemies, capture some of them, and hand them over to be flayed alive? The Globe editors don't really have much to say:

There is a strong case for extending the deployment of Canada's troops in Kandahar itself. it is a dangerous place. It is also a place where this country, through the bravery and sacrifice of its soldiers, has been able to make a difference in the world.

I think somebody got confused. That's not a "strong case." That's a weak case. What? If I go into a roadside bar to ask for directions and I find it's full of cannibal bikers I should stay because I've found myself in a dangerous place? Maybe I could "make a difference in the world" by becoming a statistic or something. What the hell is this vague euphemism, "make a difference in the world"? Why don't these dimwits come right out and say what they mean?

Glenn Greenwald had a good critique of the purposefully vague nature of imperialist rhetoric. In one of his screeds, sorry-assed Jonah Goldberg had this advice for dealing with the increasingly stubborn Iraqi insurgency:

As a matter of analysis and prescription, I'm all in favor of the war in Iraq becoming less "liberal" -- as you folks are using the term around here -- and more realistic, i.e. ruthless. No fan of "liberalizing" Iraq can be against winning there first. (Greenwald emphasizes things differently.)

Happily, Greenwald had the time and the clout to call Goldberg on his bullshit. What did he
mean by the US being more "ruthless" in Iraq? Blasting entire civilian neighbourhoods to rubble to root out insurgents? Killing suspected insurgents and displaying their mutilated corpses as grim, graphic warnings to anyone seeking to resist the American occupation?

When pressed, Goldberg bleated the following:

But, what I mean by ruthlessness . . . is a single-minded determination to win.

That's it. He clarifies his gassy machismo with mewling cliche. Greenwald devastatingly rips this to shreds:

By "single-minded determination to win," does that mean we bomb more indiscriminately, forget about ethical restraints, break the law, re-instate the draft, raise taxes to pay for a larger military? Who knows. He won't say. They never do, because their real goal is to sound tough and avoid admitting error ("the Iraq War isn't a failure; not at all. We just need to stiffen our spines, take the kid gloves off, and commit ourselves to a single-minded determination to win").

Obviously, the Globe & Mail editors know they can't get away with that sort of shit in Canada (yet). Rick Hillier and the Harpercons have tried and failed. So they have to talk about what we can positively in vague euphemisms that don't break down to anything at all.

"We have to stay until the job is done." What job? How do we know it's done? What do we need to do to finish the job? How long is this supposed to take? "The long haul"? What the hell does that mean? Commit to something dammit! You're supposed to be the "personal responsibility" monopolists after all!

There are more pathetic rationalizations in the editorial. It remains the case that the above useless generalities was the core of the "strong case" for our staying; that Afghanistan is dangerous and that we can make a difference in the world by staying.

They also say that we owe it to our allies to stay. We started something, we should finish it. This is hypocritical bullshit. We violate the UN Treaty daily with impunity. We abandoned Kyoto. Military commitments (especially imperialist projects like this one) should have no higher standing than any other commitments. And we're only officially "committed" to 2008 anyway.

They say that we owe it to the Afghan people to stay. More nonsense. The implication is that we're staying there rebuilding the country and destroying the Medieval insurgency that is trying to frustrate these efforts. The reality is that we're spending only one-tenth of our resources on reconstruction. 9/10ths of our efforts are dedicated to fighting, to making enemies, to calling in NATO airstrikes that wipe-out entire villages creating more enemies. We've taken sides when there are no real good sides to take. Karzai is a weak US puppet. The warlords in his government have been given immunity for the past crimes against humanity, and they're committing new ones in the present. We've reneged on promised levels of reconstruction aid. We've conducted a disastrous anti-heroin crusade, destroying the economic hope of thousands of families. We turn over the people we fight to rogue police who hold people for ransom and who torture their victims to death.

Certainly we owe something to the people of Afghanistan. It certainly isn't what we've been doing up to now though.

They argue that we need to stay in Afghanistan for our own national security. This is laughable garbage. Control of Afghanistan does not a world power make. The Globe knows this. They mean that we have to defeat "terrorism." But terrorism is a response to something else. And the truth of the matter is that since the Taliban has grown in strength because of the anger created by our broken promises and violence, it's actually the case that we're LESS safe the longer we stay in Afghanistan, because we've created more individuals who might get it into their heads that Canada is their enemy.

This should all go without saying. This Globe & Mail editorial was one of the most miserable pieces of utter stupidity ever to grace its pages. And that's saying a lot after all.

Federal Report Critical of Harper's Kyoto Plan

From the CBC. The National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy issued a report that was harshly critical of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.

The report said that Harper's forecasts for the impact on greenhouse gas reductions of many of the plan's initiativies were wildly overestimated, with most all the rest of the conclusions evidently groundless and probably pulled out of somebody's filthy ass.

Harper responded with the monotonous, condescending drone of his, saying: "Like Elections Canada, we have yet another government bureaucracy overreaching its mandate and inventing reality simply to punish Canada's New Government and keep us from coming into the promised land. Hallelujah, and praise George W. Bush."

To which some unidentified backbencher yelled: "Shut the fuck up you lying sack of shit!"

Why I Hate "Conservatives"

Actually, there's probably some people who call themselves "conservatives" that I wouldn't mind. But there's also a group of people who apply that name to themselves who are positively loathsome.

These are people who vote for morons like Mike Harris, Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day, and bush II. And who remain proud of that fact long after the vast majority of people have decided that such a decision was a stupid, destructive one indeed.

I don't really have the time to say anything profound, positive and new these days. So, like many leftists, I'm spending my time bitching about US "conservatives" and this particular story just sticks in my craw that I can't help myself.

From "Sadly, No!" I find out about this doughy pant-load named Jason Mattera, who has bravely opted-out of the war in Iraq (where, if you've been following the news, the US troops are stretched to the point of exhaustion) to fight the all-important "culture war" for "conservative values" on US college campuses.

In other words, Mattera is a chicken-hawk and an idiot, and a hypocrite, and all manner of disgusting things.

On the "Sadly, No!" entry, it's related how Mattera has responded to the dropping of charges against four of the eight marines implicated in the Haditha massacre, by taking a camera down to the US Senate building to go after US Democratic Congressman John Murtha who had said the following at the time:

"Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood, ... This is going to be a very, very bad thing for the United States."

Murtha is a former marine, who had served in Korea and Vietnam. He's a hawk on defence appropriations, and he retains close ties to the US military. I probably wouldn't like him. But the thing is, he's at least consistent and honest enough and human enough to acknowledge when US personnel have gone bad, why they did so, and to recognize that this is appalling, shameful, and tragic. It's really a no-brainer.

I recall some massacre apologists on the now defunct http://www.tacitus.org/ whining that Murtha's outburst had damaged the marines' chances for a fair trial, which was basically their trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug. ("Can't talk about it because of the trial." "Wait for General Petraeus's report." "There's an ongoing investigation, so I can't comment on it." -- more stalling bullshit.) But that was the most restrained criticism of Murtha on the right. "Shit Skidmark For Brains" (AKA Michelle Malkin) attributed a burning hatred for "the troops," "America," and everything else that the "Gathering of Eagles" human garbage pretends to hold dear.

So, again, now that charges against four of the accused have been dropped (God knows why), our doughy chicken-hawk Mattera waddles down to "confront" Murtha, and, ... well, watch the video:



It's difficult to really know what to say, isn't it? Murtha never accused specific marines. He said that some marines killed civilians in cold blood. Murtha blamed their stress and exhaustion due to their impossible "mission" in this misguided invasion.

As should be well-known, the marines went berserk after a roadside bomb exploded under their humvee, killing their driver. The surviving soldiers went on a rampage:

Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home as Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, recalled hearing his neighbor across the street, Younis Salim Khafif, plead in English for his life and the lives of his family members. "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: 'I am a friend. I am good,' " Fahmi said. "But they killed him, and his wife and daughters."

The marines went into three houses, one after another, and shot everyone inside. Three houses, simply unfortunate enough to have existed near a planted roadside bomb. Three innocent families (and towards the end of it all, four male students and their taxi-driver, who turned a corner, saw the carnage, and attempted to flee only to be fired upon by a barrage of bullets. One house, right after the other. No fire was received from these houses. Each house was found to contain only innocent men, women, and children.

Who does Maretta think killed those Iraqis, now that the charges have been dropped against four of the eight? Did they kill themselves? Did little fairies do it? No, Maretta, you pathetic, pathetic fool, ... US MARINES killed those civilians. Murtha at least can accept this reality.

You, Maretta, are just some smirking, useless, stupid piece of shit.

Check out those comments at the original youtube site for the Maretta/Murtha video:

Murtha is an old fool. Done. Insanity and hate is what drives that mean senile old fart. His hate of Bush incorrectly gives him an excuse for calling our troops murderers. Murtha should be imprisoned for sedition.

fucking coward Murtha! just another DEM traitor!

Murtha is a terrorist loving moron

Murtha's a pussy. Even if the charges were not dropped he shouldn't besmirch our troops. This is war.

Murtha should be shot. He has no right to hold the office he has.

Excellent slam dunk!Jack Murtha should be stood down from congress immediately and should now be tried for treason!

What happens to the "marketplace of ideas" when there's garbage like this in it, screaming louder than all the rest?

September 15th Rallies Against the War ....

They didn't end the war did they? They haven't registered with too many Democrats.

My guess is that elites have learned to ignore crowds of people standing around shouting for an afternoon. Ignored, or abused them, with no penalties.

A rally has to lead to something. It has to have a specific purpose. It has to make a specific statement, and it has to represent people prepared to do something else if they continue to be ignored.

An Oldie But A Goodie (for the mentally and morally challenged

From Scott Neigh's blog, lawyer Andrew Orkin on "the rule of law":

It is far from clear that the Iroquois Confederacy members re-occupying their lands are legally in the wrong.

If they are, why has the federal government spent the last 20 years or so frantically evading having to account to the Six Nations Band Council in Court for the Crown's (mis)handling of the vast Haldimand Grant that it holds in trust for the Iroquois people?

It is time that Canadians remind themselves of ALL of the applicable law, not just the bits that seem to justify our occupation and takings of others' lands.

...

Respect for the law is not a one-way, natives-only street. Non-natives and their governments must respect the law too, and all of it.

No New Info on our Prisoners in Afghanistan?

The NDP's ten-days to find out where General Hillier got the idea he was empowered to censor access to information on Afghanistan have long past. I haven't heard back from the NDP about what they plan on doing next.

And we Canadians have been pretty quiet about this. Too busy expressing outrage about the US in Iraq.

Speaking of which, I wonder if any antes are being upped with the US protests against the war today?