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Every once in a while it's good to remember that other nations also have air assets which they regularly deploy for the same purposes we deploy ours.
But, before we take a peek at the latest news from afar, let's catch up with what happened here at home while most of the country was oggling Sarah or focusing on Ike.
Careless. Reckless. Irresponsible. No doubt, the Air Force would reject such a characterization of the latest massacre of people in Afghanistan--and has. The "complete" report on the incident at Shindand has been issued. Never mind that any agency investigating itself is an invitation for a cover-up or, at best, an occasion to plead ignorance.
The massacre was first report as located in Azizabad, a village in Shindand district in Herat province in Western Afghanistan--i.e. not next to the badlands of Pakistan, where the really bad guys are supposedly hiding.
Before we consider the particulars, let's remind ourselves that weapons, that were designed to "kill" tanks and other military hardware and installations, being used to go after individual people and small groups, which caused outrage during the Vietnam invasion, has now become an accepted routine.
While I don't think the location of this enterprise at the old Naval Prison in Portsmouth Harbor has a snowball's chance in hell, it is something to which our Congressional delegation should attend.
When it comes to the United States military, the line between defense and offense has been getting thinner all the time.
This WaPo story on the proposed use of anti-terrorism funds to install better-than-first-class "comfort capsules" for VIPs on Air Force planes is priceless, you just can't make this stuff up. The late Sen. Proxmire would have given this the Golden Fleece Award right off the bat.
Fortunately, these clowns have not escaped the notice of Congressman John Murtha and other responsible citizens who have more respect for those who are truly serving their country in the military. And they call Democrats the party of tax and spend. Good grief!
Take two comfort capsules and call me in the morning...
Over the last several months, I've made an effort to pay some attention to the United States Air Force as an institution that's very much involved in the continuing aggression on Iraq but whose activities are rarely covered on the evening news.
What I discovered was an organization that seems to have significant internal problems--a conclusion I reached on the basis of the fact that only a disfunctional organization would challenge budgetary allocations in public with the assertion that it would get the planes it wanted, regardless of what the civilian leadership considers prudent.
Sixty eight thousand dollars is the latest estimate of the cost of a hellfire missile, the preferred weapon with which the Air Force "takes out" hostile pick-ups and the hapless Iraqis whose heat signature has been detected by the hunter drone.
That's not what the hellfire was designed for. This video purports to demonstrate what one does to a howitzer. Problem is, Iraqi insurgents ride around in pickup trucks.
While I, personally, happen to think that the United States Air Force plans to set up a cyber command is a bunch of hooey, it seems worth noting that, in addition to our own Congresswoman, the Governor of Massachusetts is lusting after the location of this enterprise in his bailiwick.
If you agree that we organize governments at all levels to deal with (prevent and/or mitigate) the vagaries of man and nature we don't want--i.e. man-made and natural disasters, which may be categorized under the seven Is:
incineration
inundation
invasion
infestation
incarceration
injury
ignorance
--then it seems fair to conclude that, since every one of those conditions has been promoted and exacerbated in Iraq, that benighted land is a prime example of government gone wrong. And, though it doesn't get much coverage, the United States Air Force is largely at fault.
There's a reason why witnesses called to testify in a court of law are required to pledge to
Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Things left out or embellishments stuck in pervert the truth and turn it into a lie. We recently saw that happen with Hillary Clinton's sniper fire in Tuzla and it's also been apparent in the stories told by the twenty-two dirty pensioners--perjurers in the court of public opinion--who spread half-truths and snippets of mis-information about the invasion/occupation of Iraq to deceive the American people and enrich themselves.
On monday Secretary Robert Gates joined them. Or maybe he just decided to do his own dirty work. Because the dirty pensioners were a Department of Defense operation.
That's probably why the Air Force, the entity most favored by our flyboy Presidents and president-wanna-be McCain, has committed itself to a fleet of stealth fighters and bombers, despite the fact that they're hard to land and don't do well when there's salt in the air. But, that's not my topic today. Rather, alerted by Laura Clawson to the fact that Huckabee had set up a new PAC in support of Republican long-shots, I was prompted to take a look at what else the fellow, who supposedly gave up on his quest for the Republican presidential nomination in early March, has been up to.
The Strategic Air Command had a slogan, "Peace is our Profession," but what they were really after was "pacification"-- that the peoples of the globe would be obedient to our directives, because, if they weren't we'd nuke them.
The Strategic Command is, of course, a subset of the Air Force and it's my sense that if we want to move our forces out of Iraq, it's the bases that have to be shut down. After all, the boots on the ground have been tasked with "protecting" the Air Bases from being shelled by insurgents who object to having four or five Manhattan-sized islands of death and destruction plopped down in the midst of their country. If we shut down the bases, the troops can go home.
Which is why I have been paying closer attention to the Air Force, an organization that's got grandiose plans about world domination, even as its core activities seem increasingly irrelevant. Besides, it's pretty clear that the goal in Iraq is to gain acquiescence to a long term presence for the Air Force by killing off all those who object. The Air Force is the key to peace in Iraq.
The following is a diary I originally posted on KOS, the political blog. In addition to peace, my purpose is to prompt a discussion of the morality of making assassination by remote control a standard component of our arsenal.
I've long had an interest in "the thing left out"--important information that doesn't get covered. So, ever since I learned that there were plans for fourteen "enduring" bases (for the Air Force) in Iraq before the invasion ever began, I've been trying to keep up with what's going on on the four or five mega bases (each as big as the island of Manhattan) that have actually been built out, along with the bases in Kuwait and Qatar where our command and control facilities are.
It's not easy to keep track because most of the activities, other than recreational assets such as putting greens, seem to be "classified" and all reporters' stories have to be screened. But, during my latest tour through Google, I found a local handle, the announcement that Jim Forsythe wants to be the Republican candidate in the First Congressional District, that would tie some of what I've found out together.
