Mike Gerber and I have put together a parody of the A&E show Intervention. The person undergoing the intervention is a 60 year-old man named George. You’ll have to watch to find out exactly what he’s addicted to.
Stuff
Dennis Perrin talks with Roseanne Barr on her new radio show.
Arthur Silber writes about how we’re “Sleeping Walking to the End of the World”
Chris Floyd appears on Antiwar Radio to discuss the rendition of a U.S. citizen to Ethiopia.
Mike Davis, writing for Tomdispatch, asks “Have the Car-bombers Already Defeated the Surge?: The Weapon No One Can Stop”
Today’s Tomdispatch
Tom Engelhardt on “Demobilizing America: Outsourcing Action in an Imperial World”:
Excuse me if, at 62, and well into my second era of protest against yet another distant, disastrous, and disabling American war, I express a little confusion. Was it actually like this in Rome while the legions were off fighting on the German frontiers? Was this the way it felt in London while the imperial forces conducted their frontier wars in Afghanistan, or Paris when the Foreign Legion was holding down North Africa? Was this how it felt in Washington when Douglas MacArthur’s father was suppressing the Filipinos and General Jacob Smith was turning the island of Samar into a “howling wilderness”? Is this the way it usually feels in the heartlands of great empires until the barbarians actually do come knocking at the gates?
John Bolton, Robot Killer
A former top American diplomat says the US deliberately resisted calls for a immediate ceasefire during the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
Former ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the BBC that before any ceasefire Washington wanted Israel to eliminate Hezbollah’s military capability…
Mr Bolton now describes it as “perfectly legitimate… and good politics”…
Mr Bolton, a controversial and blunt-speaking figure, said he was “damned proud of what we did” to prevent an early ceasefire.
I hope people don’t condemn Bolton here as a monster. Obviously he would be a monster if the “people” of Lebanon were actual human beings. Fortunately, they’re highly lifelike animatronic robots.
SERIOUSLY, THOUGH: I can barely resist making a montage of pictures of dead Lebanese children, with John Bolton in the corner saying “I’m damned proud of what we did.” But that doesn’t get anyone anywhere. Besides, I’m sure someone else has that covered.
AND: I see from the phonebook that Bolton lives a short distance from where I grew up, and just down the road from my high school. He also went to Yale, and his daughter’s there now.
I find it difficult to come to terms with two aspects of this kind of thing. First, that I’ve spent so much time so close to genuine human evil, mostly without being aware of it. And second, that human evil is so boring. You can understand why Faust would sell his soul, but all John Bolton got for his is the opportunity to shop at Montgomery Mall.
Four years later
Sure, Operation Iraqi Freedom is a catastrophe, but Operation Rewrite History is a resounding success!
THE PRESIDENT: My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.
Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly — yet, our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now, with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities…
May God bless our country and all who defend her.
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Four years ago today, coalition forces launched Operation Iraqi Freedom to remove Saddam Hussein from power. They did so to eliminate the threat his regime posed to the Middle East and to the world. Coalition forces carried out that mission with great courage and skill…