12 Army Captains: Bring back the draft, or leave Iraq ASAP

I have been asked some tough questions regarding my support for Ron Paul. The toughest of these is regarding the Iraq conflict. Ron Paul's "just come home" message sounds great, but people ask me, "How can we let the country fall into total chaos? What will happen when we leave?"

I don't have a good answer, because there is no good answer in Iraq. I can't promise them that Iraq will begin calmly moving towards order and functional government when we pull out.

The Real Iraq We Knew

Increasingly, military people have come out against the war. In this article from the Washington Post, 12 Army captains flatly state that we should get out now.

From the article:

U.S. forces, responsible for too many objectives and too much "battle space," are vulnerable targets. The sad inevitability of a protracted draw-down is further escalation of attacks -- on U.S. troops, civilian leaders and advisory teams. They would also no doubt get caught in the crossfire of the imminent Iraqi civil war.

Cheney in 1994: AGAINST an Iraq invasion

It seems that Cheney was a lot smarter 14 years ago, or at least a lot more honest.

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On a related note, here's what one of our generals makes of the situation in Iraq, and what the recent 400-person-killing insurgent bomb means for US "stabilizing efforts":


Attack that killed over 400 might 'unite Iraqis,' general says


:) :(

Bleeding Guns

U.S. cannot account for 190,000 guns in Iraq

From the article:
"US commanders often accuse foreign powers such as Iran of supplying arms to illegal militias fighting in Iraq, but the report shows they cannot fully account for the hundreds thousands of weapons they brought in themselves."


RawStory is a great news source, btw -- my dad got me into it :)

Congressman Ron Paul for President 2008

Yeah, I'm coming out and saying it.

I can't wait to say it any longer on this humble Blog: The guy is a godsend. He is SO dedicated to the Constitutional principles of this country and he speaks like a founding father. Watch this video from the Congressional debate about the troop surge in Iraq. Ron Paul lays out everything I believe to be true about America's duties to itself and America's role in the world.

Christian Fundamentalists disrupt Hindu morning prayer at the US Senate

Crazy fundamentalists. Boy, yeah, that Hindu man is WICKED. Wicked wicked.

Hurray for a real journalist! (she refuses to cover Paris Hilton)

I give a lot of credit to this woman, Mika Brzezinski*. Her producer and her cohosts expect her to kick off the newscast with a Paris Hilton clip. She refuses, on camera, and (unsuccessfully) tries to light the story on fire. Eventually, she feeds the sheet of paper into a paper shredder. You go girl!

Finally, a journalist with some inner strength!

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* Mika is the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to Carter. He's widely known for his reasoned foreign policy insights, and also for giving hope to all of us awkwardly-named citizens.

I came across INSURGENCY , a soon-to-be-released computer game that lets you fight insurgents in the middle east. The visuals look GREAT. That being said, do we really need this? Far too many kids (some of them now soldiers) have already fallen in love with warfare and the terrorism narrative thanks to Counterstrike.

What's YOUR "News IQ" ?

http://pewresearch.org/newsiq/

It's a quick quiz about current events. At the end, you get to make demographic comparisons: How'd I do compared to other men? People age 18-35? High school grads? Kinda cool.

Pew research has more statistics than a person would ever want to know. For stats whores like me, it's great! ;)

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On an unrelated note, I found this iPhone video review from the new york times. I didn't know the ny times were doing much video, but this was a high-quality, entertaining clip, well-suited for the web. The print-era dinosaur! New York Times! Making web videos! I must say, I'm surprised and impressed.