What the.....?!

Hering:

The news that Iraq has been able to amass a $79 billion budget surplus from oil revenues says a couple of things.

The first is that the war has been won...

What fucking planet is that man on?

... more calmly: There is no necessary connection between Iraq squirreling away money and "the war" being over. Certainly Hering doesn't make one.

[Iraq] Sick of It - March 19th

Found on the Alt2War website:

Sick Of It Day is a day for everybody who is SICK OF THE LIES, SICK OF THE CORRUPTION, SICK OF THE WAR to make their statement in a way it will really count—CALL IN SICK on March 19, the 5th anniversary of the Iraq invasion!

In our own Declaration of Independence, it says, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

Calling in sick on March 19, “Sick Of It Day” is a powerful way for every one of us to withdraw our consent from a government that continues an immoral, illegal and SICK war.

Join us! Call in sick! Withdraw your consent! Stop the war!

I am beginning to think that it's more effective, more attention-getting, more "out there" to simply participate in local, state and federal government and use those platforms to lobby against the war than it is to protest outside official changes.

This is a new opinion for me, and it seems pretty counterintuitive. Who knows - people are pretty good at ignoring folks standing on the street these days. It seems like news of anti-war folks simply changing policy by taking over official channels would be more shocking than another protest in front of the federal courthouse or local recruiting center or whatever.

Thoughts?

Being Tough

Because everyone knows that men who ask for help are really just pansies:

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A soldier facing his second tour of duty in Iraq said in a jailhouse interview he was at a hospital seeking mental help when he was arrested in the middle of the night for allegedly being absent without leave.

Spc. Justin Faulkner insists his superior officers at Fort Campbell knew about his mental problems but refused to provide adequate treatment.

On Thursday, Faulkner checked into a Lexington VA hospital, where doctors told him they wanted to keep him until Monday for observation. Police showed up at the hospital shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday to take him to jail.

"It's humiliating, degrading," Faulkner, 22, of Stanton, said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press minutes before his release from the Fayette County Detention Center. "It's made me lose respect for the military. To come and arrest me at the VA, it wasn't like I was trying to hide, trying to run. I was getting help. I am being punished for getting help."

Do you get it yet, America? There is no nobility in this. None.

Via Dohiyi Mir.

This Might Be a Problem

Shameless linkage.

I am done for the day. The ignorance here is astounding, as is the hubris. To think that Iraq is some sort of mission from god - well, I'm just going to stop there. My brain, it hurts. Real bad.