US Foreign Policy


Catallarchy Writer Supports government Expansion….

…the nation and blog readers die of shock.
A writer at the noted libertarian oriented site Catallarchy posts this headline and statement:

Bush Supports Free Trade; Nation Dies of Shock

Regardless of any backroom deals and ulterior motives that may have led to it, Bush’s support of Dubai’s bid for P&O is good news.

Perhaps Sean has posted this somewhat tongue in cheek but the post doesn’t read that way.
So, please explain how the expansion of a government owned business in any way qualifies as free trade.

Update: Sean was good enough to reply in comments. Below the fold is his reply and my responses. We still disagree on some aspects of this.

(more…)


Defending the Indefensible

rice seems to be defending rendtion and secret prisons as she:

…chastised Europe leaders today, saying that before they complain about secret jails for terror suspects in European nations, they should realize that interrogations of these suspects have produced information that helped “save European lives.”

Really, some specifics would be helpful here.

…Ms. Rice repeatedly emphasized that the United States does not countenance the torture of terrorism suspects, at the hands of either American or foreign captors.

What exactly does she mean by torture? We know the bushites think about it a bit differently than many of the rest of us.
Reaching for justification and admitting that it is happening she goes on to say:

“We must bring terrorists to justice wherever possible,” she said. “But there have been many cases where the local government cannot detain or prosecute a suspect, and traditional extradition is not a good option.”

Why not? Please condi some details are in order here.

“In those cases,” she added, “the local government can make the sovereign choice to cooperate in the transfer of a suspect to a third country, which is known as a rendition.
“Sometimes, these efforts are misunderstood,” she said.

Echidne responds:

I want to hear a lot more about “the efforts being misunderstood”, a lot more. Like in what way are we misunderstanding them, exactly? Is it that the European interrogation centers were just chosen because they had excellent food and beer?

So much for the transparency the bushies seem to demand from everyone else. For instance, on November 10th stephen hadley said the following:

In terms of intelligence, you know, one of the problems, in dealing with a closed society such as North Korea, is you don’t know what you don’t know, and what you do know tends to be fairly limited. And as you know, we don’t know as much about their enrichment program as we would like. And that’s one of the reasons why, as part of the six-party talks, it will be very interesting to have — and very important to have a declaration, to have dismantlement procedures and verification measures so we can be sure that in a otherwise fairly non — extremely non-transparent society, these commitments to give up nuclear weapons and nuclear programs are carried out.

This is all well and good and we can agree with hadley. However, let’s revise his statement just a bit (italics):

In terms of intelligence, you know, one of the problems, in dealing with a closed administration such as bush’s, is you don’t know what you don’t know, and what you do know tends to be fairly limited. And as you know, we don’t know as much about their rendition program as we would like. And that’s one of the reasons why, as part of the six-party talks, it will be very interesting to have — and very important to have a declaration, to have disclosure procedures and verification measures so we can be sure that in a otherwise fairly non — extremely non-transparent administraton, these commitments to give up torture, rendition and secret prisons are carried out.

Yep, they need to look into the mirror a little more often and we should remember that whenever the bushies decide to accuse an opponent of some foul behavior it is often, if not always, a behavior that one or more of the bushies is trying to hide.
Update: Also see the heretik.


Would You Volunteer for This Group?

If even a fraction of this is true then why would one volunteer for the US military?

The most appealing explanation lies in the motives of those driving this ostensibly schizophrenic conduct. Plainly, they view sexual morals as something to be manipulated for the accomplishment of political objectives. Hence, lewd and offensive sexual conduct can be deliberately used as a tactic against detainees. On the other hand, officers who earn the leadership’s ire will be humiliated and disgraced using innuendo of sexual misconduct as a tactic.
The cynicism and immorality of this mindset is staggering. It reflects a wholesale repudiation of traditional military values.
One can well question the efficacy of sexual humiliation practices as tools for interrogation and intelligence gathering. However, no one can question their highly inflammatory effect in the War on Terror: they tarnish America’s reputation and put our soldiers at risk. And they may well claim another victim. Experts are already noting that at Rumsfeld’s current burn rate, the volunteer army cannot be sustained much longer. Rumsfeld’s cynical sexual policies are destroying military morale and discipline and hastening the volunteer army’s demise.

Yep, why would anyone volunteer for this environment? Unless, well, they think they might like it….
Read all of Scott Horton’s post: Sexual Perversion in Rumsfeld’s Pentagon.


Getting Away With Murder

Or, at minimum, getting away with involuntary manslaughter:

“I have come to realize what I did was wrong”
Thus spoke Spc. Brian E. Cammack, who was sentenced to three months in prison over the beating death of a prisoner in Afghanistan. Cammack plead guilty to charges of assault and two counts of making a false statement. In accepting a plea bargain, prosecutors decided not to pursue a charge of maltreatment (I guess manslaughter wasn’t on the list of possibilities).

A manslaughter charge certainly is a possibility in a military court.
This pat on the butt plea bargain could be the a result of at a couple different things: 1) The guy really is giving up good info that will lead to more severe penalties for others (don’t hold your breath) and 2) this administration and its military still don’t think anything wrong has occurred and believe that too severe sentences in these cases will dampen ongoing behavior in the inquisition centers.