1. What a waste:
“Cost of Iraq war will surpass Vietnam’s by year’s end“
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/mayfaire/latimes0213.htm
2. “Vatican blocks Caroline Kennedy appointment as US ambassador
Vatican sources told Il Giornale that their support for abortion disqualified Ms Kennedy and other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.”
3. History is repeating itself, 200 hundred years later:
“Lessons From the Barbary Pirate Wars
And that underscores a key point. The Barbary pirates actually had an ambassador — who met with Jefferson and Adams, no less. The pirates worked for a government. The Barbary rulers commissioned them to rob and pillage and kidnap, and the rulers got a cut. It was all official. And open. It was truly state-sponsored terrorism. And the Western nations’ response was to pay “tribute,” a fancy word for blackmail.
If a country paid tribute, the 18th-century pirates would leave its ships alone. Today, shipping companies fork over as much as $100 million in ransoms to the Somali pirates, a strategy that saves their cargoes but also attracts more underemployed Somali fishermen into the hijacking business.
The United States tried to play nice with the Barbary pirates and even inked a few treaties. That language, too, has a striking ring. The Barbary States were Muslim, as is Somalia. And America stressed that this was not about God.
…
If that sounds like the 1800s, it also invites talk of solving the problem the same way: pound the bravado out of the pirates by taking the battle to them where it hurts most — on shore. But any effort to wipe out Somali pirate dens like Xarardheere or Eyl immediately conjures up the ghost of “Black Hawk Down,” the episode in 1993 when clan militiamen in flip-flops killed 18 American soldiers. Until America can get over that, and until the world can put Somalia together as a nation, another solution suggests itself: just steer clear — way clear, like 500 miles plus — of Somalia’s seas.“
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/weekinreview/12gettleman.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
4. I hope he withers away, just like all the people he starved to death:
“Images of Frail Kim Jong Il Renew Talk of Succession“
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/10/images-frail-kim-jong-il-renew-talk-regime-change/
5. What a surprise – it’s just more murder:
“Pakistan: US Drones have killed 687 Innocents
Pakistani authorities investigating the aftermath of US bombing raids in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan have come to the conclusion that they cause more harm than good:
‘ Of the 60 cross-border predator strikes carried out by the Afghanistan-based American drones in Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders, besides [killing] 687 innocent Pakistani civilians. The success percentage of the US predator strikes thus comes to not more than six per cent.’
6. “Ultimate Insider: We Need At Least TEN MORE Years of War and 100,000 Plus Troops in Afghanistan
Korb is a consummate insider – Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1981-1985 during the Reagan Administration, Vice President of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) from 1998-2002, CFR’s director of National Security Studies, Vice President of Corporate Operations at Raytheon, and advisor to Barack Obama during Obama’s presidential campaign.
Korb said that we need to keep fighting the war in Afghanistan for at least 10 more years, and that we need 100,000 plus troops.
Korb all but admitted that Americans are opposed to a long war in Afghanistan and that the U.S was grasping at straws for a rationale for still being there.“
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/04/ultimate-insider-we-need-at-least-ten.html
7. Dismal – and criminal:
“U.S. shipped 989 munitions containers to Israel week before Gaza invasion
“There is a great risk that the new munitions may be used by the Israeli military to commit further violations of international law, like the ones committed during the war in Gaza,” Wood said.
“Legally and morally, this US arms shipment should have been halted by the Obama administration given the extent of the evidence showing how military equipment and munitions of this kind were recently used by the Israeli forces for war crimes. Arms supplies in these circumstances are contrary to provisions in US law,” he said.”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13149
