Marines Get The Sieg Heil Treatment in Berkeley

The Fun Never Stops In Berkeley (photos from ZombieTime)

Zombie covers the ideological sewer that was the 21 June World Can't Wait protest in Berkeley, and these confused, idiotic youngsters choose to give the nazi salute during the Star Spangled Banner. Whether or not this was directed at the Marine Recruiting station, the Pro-America bikers, or just society in general is as unclear as where these people are getting their free time and money from. However, if this crass display was directed at our beloved USMC, then it should be noted that the last 3 Sergeant Majors of the Marine Corps (the head enlisted Marines) were not white, ergo you probably aren't going to see any Marine recruiting ads at Stormfront in the near future. Truth be told, the U.S. military was lightyears ahead of the rest of the country in race relations. They were fully integrated in 1948 by President Truman, while the land of fruits and nuts (i.e. California) didn't have their racist policy of "restrictive convenants", which ensured neighborhoods remained lily white, ruled unconstitutional until 1954.

Of course, I have no idea why I'm drawing from history or constructing this post, since these protestors clearly used no reason to arrive at their conclusions and are only out on the streets to start trouble like the stray dogs that they are. Sometimes you just have to step away from the computer and punch a hippy in the face.

Oh wait, except leave this young lady alone. She's attractive, so she gets a free pass on this blog (yeah, I'm a dumb guy, whatever). Also, this furthers the commonly-held axiom that all good-looking women are crazy.

Iraq News (23 June)

The Good: The Christian Science Monitor talks about Sadr calling for restraint of his Mahdi Army during the Maysan province offensive; however, this could indicate they are trying to regroup. Parliamentary blocs are pushing for resolution on the Provincial Elections bill, which is viewed as a major step forward for political progress in Iraq. 6 more international oil companies have been added to develop Iraqi oil infrastructure. These companies are non-Western (Turkey, Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Angola and Algeria), which kind of puts a hole in the "No Blood For Oil!" meme. Jordan has returned 2,500 antiquities which had been looted from Iraq. Looted artifacts are symbolic of the chaos and poor strategy of the initial invasion of Iraq, and returning antiquities can help make amends.

The Bad: A female suicide bomber has struck a courthouse in central Baqubah, killing 15 near a courthouse. A subsequent mortar attack has killed 10 Sawha fighters at a checkpoint. Iraq has lost to Qatar, 1-0, in the world cup qualifying round. However, McClatchy reports that the Iraqis can still pummel the Americans in soccer, as the guys from the 10th Mountain lost 9-0 to a Sahwa team. Obviously, it was a friendly game designed to promote mutual cooperation.

The Ugly: The NYT reports that news coverage of Iraq is in the crapper, as far as major news networks in America go. That's why you'll find a lot of links on these posts to Iraqi news sites that are in English. Frank Rich says that opinions by Americans of Iraq were decided in early 2007. If that is the case, Americans need to re-evaluate the situation as reality has changed immensely since then.

Atrocity in Diyala (photo from NYT)

Transitions: George Carlin

George Carlin, known for his raunchy and hilarious humor, has passed away in Los Angeles (h/t Crooks and Liars for this sad news). Of course, his best role, IMHO, was as Rufus in Bill and Ted's, which conveyed the simple message our society should live by: "Be Excellent To Each Other".

R.I.P. George Carlin (1937-2008)

Obtaining Information From Iraq

Hilzoy at ObWi cites the NYT article on the declining coverage by traditional media for the war in Iraq. The decline of adequate American media coverage in Iraq has been a problem since around the Petraeus/Crocker testimony in September 2007. Lucky for us, there's a host of international media outlets and blogs still devoted to one of the most important issues of the decade (see the sidebar to your right).

Of course, television is so 20th century. Blogging, Youtube, and other forms of web media have become the new Videodrome. It meets all the wickets of being 1) a bioelectronic addiction, 2) the ultimate addiction, and 3) shattering your reality.



Long live the new flesh.

Iraq Not Going to The World Cup

Mexico VS. Portugal - More amazing videos are a click away

As evidenced by this Simpsons clip, the enjoyment and mania over soccer is confusing to me: "high-kickin', low-scorin', and tiiieeesss". But it's very obvious that soccer is a big deal to the Iraqis (seen last year during the Asia cup win), and it sucks that they lost 1-0 to Qatar and won't go to the world cup in South Africa (h/t Inside Iraq). Sorry, Iraq.

Petraeus Guidance And Application in the Punditsphere

Multi-National Force Iraq has released COIN guidance from General Petraeus. The directives are nothing new to people who follow counter-insurgency doctrine or soldiers with boots on ground. But two bullets of interest are applicable to bloggers following events while in our underwear back stateside:

• Be first with the truth. Get accurate information of significant activities to your chain of command, to Iraqi leaders, and to the press as soon as is possible. Beat the insurgents, extremists, and criminals to the headlines, and pre-empt rumors. Integrity is critical to this fight. Don’t put lipstick on pigs. Acknowledge setbacks and failures, and then state what we’ve learned and how we’ll respond. Hold the press (and ourselves) accountable for accuracy, characterization, and context. Avoid spin and let facts speak for themselves. Challenge enemy disinformation. Turn our enemies’ bankrupt messages, extremist ideologies, oppressive practices, and indiscriminate violence against them.
• Fight the information war relentlessly. Realize that we are in a struggle for legitimacy that in the end will be won or lost in the perception of the Iraqi people. Every action taken by the enemy and United States has implications in the public arena. Develop and sustain a narrative that works and continually drive the themes home through all forms of media.

Petraeus is speaking of countering the enemy's information war which seeks to portray the U.S. as bloodthirsty savages (frequently seen in Iranian media) or uses simple, emotional messaging about complex issues to incite indiscriminate violence (as seen with Al-Qaeda messaging). These information apparatuses are fair game under current military doctrine, but domestic media and DC politics remain off-limits for the military. This policy is designed to prevent military subversion of democracy, and even the superb COIN-themed Small Wars Journal steers clear of politics like a teenage couple from a prom night dumpster baby. Most high-ranking officers may harbor their own opinions, but are terrified of having their politics being broadcast...even to the point of not sharing them with subordinates during dinner at the chow hall. With this lack of engagement through mediums such as the blogosphere, a certain willful ignorance of the nation's punditry class is fostered. This has had terrible consequences over the past five years due to our apathy:

• Incompetent Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld fails to listen to Gen. Shinseki's recommendations of having a much larger invasion force for Iraq, which would have crushed the Fedayeen and hindered the immediate outbreak of chaos. "Speaking Out" from former military leaders may have prevented much of the carnage and suffering the Iraqis have had to bear due to the destruction of infrastructure and the beginning of the insurgency.
  
• The American left continues a campaign of misinformation and propaganda to denigrate military achievements for the purpose of electing "anti-war" candidates. Today's example is Juan Cole saying the U.S. has killed 310,000 Iraqis since 2003, despite complete lack of evidence. He even suggests an equivalent in America would be the total firebombing of Chicago...creepy! This Kos-like rhetoric mirrors propaganda in our enemy's media designed to subvert public support in the West.
• A saber-rattling campaign against Iran exercised by the American right, despite overlooking any sort of "soft" options to isolate or remove the Iranian theocracy and not acknowledging that the current structure of the U.S. military would have immense difficulty supporting this mission.

Ignoring the political forces stateside that result in our foreign policy has negatively affected our country's military and ability to carry out the mission (see Admiral Mullen on Afghanistan). Career-driven military officers may fear reprisal from their civilian masters for speaking their mind, but the blogosphere provides a unique outlet, which most importantly can be done in anonymity.

And the rest of the world was ignorant, Because they weren't told more

Avenue Q Complains Up A Storm in Seattle

This is the "Sucks To Be Me" dance number from Avenue Q, which has its last showing at Seattle's badass Paramount theater tonight. The Stranger reports that some sensitive types walked out of the theatrical production because of the "offensiveness" of muppets singing about sex and booze. Seeing how "Meet The Feebles" already set the bar for grotesque and hilarious puppetry, these playgoers may have walked for a different reason. It "Sucks to Be Me" when you're a farmer in Zimbabwe, and Mugabe and his band of murderous thugs have just announced that they will stay in power through a campaign of brutality and intimidation (see Hot Air for details). It doesn't "suck" to be a college-educated, urban hipster who's biggest anxiety is that a burly construction worker gave their beloved golden retriever a stern look while walking on Park avenue. This generation has a knack for attaching melodrama to the most mundane of life's details (see the Twitter phenomenon), which effectively creates an atmosphere of self-absorption and neglect for pressing world issues. Pardon me for not making the show. Tix on the floor are 140 bones and the show starts at 8pm.

Although, I do empathize with the "Internet is For Porn" message below:



heh heh. Damn Straight!