L. Reichard White - Antiwar.com Blog

Help put ’em away – – –

If you don’t know yet, the German Court system, claiming world-wide jurisdiction over torture, is re-hearing a complaint against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA Director George Tenet and others, alleging that many of the “interrogation” techniques they authorized at Guantanimo and Abu Ghraib amount to torture and violate the Geneva Conventions.

Previously the German prosecutor declined to investigate on grounds that the U.S. Government would look into these allegations itself.

Since that ruling however, just the opposite has happened: Passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows a continuation of such secret “interrogations,” — and amending the “War Crimes Act” retroactively immunized those authorizing them.

Will the German system have cojones enough to take on the Bush Administration?

And that’s where you can “help put ’em away!”

It will help the German system pluck up it’s courage if enough people show support for the investigation. Former U.S. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski has done just that — and you can join her.

Go to THIS PAGE from the website of the Center for Constitutional Rights and send a letter to the German prosecutor encouraging him to look into the matter. (The english translation is at the bottom of the “Read & Edit the Message” window.)

This is your chance to make a difference.

Do it now!! (BIG TOOTHY SMILE — think Gary Busey)

P.S. The case could not be brought with the International Criminal Court, because the United States is not a member, and could not be pursued through the U.N. because the U.S. has veto power.

If they really cared . . .

Senator John Kerry blew a joke. The context makes it clear he was referring to Mr. Bush when he said, “If you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Mr. Kerry meant to say, “If you don’t, you get US stuck in Iraq, Mr. President.”

By spinning Kerry’s flub into an attack on the intelligence of U.S. soldiers rather than on Mr. Bush — and holding down the “REPEAT” key — it’s the Republicans, not Kerry, who keep sending the message to the troops, “If you’re not smart, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Are these Republicans smart enough to know that message will destroy morale? Do they care? Or is it more important to them to take a cheap-shot in hopes of winning in the up-coming elections?

But will the Democrats, as characterized by Mr. Kerry — who wanted more troops and a longer stay when he was Mr. Bush’s opponent in the 2004 presidential race — get us out of Iraq any faster than their Republican cohorts?

Will either major branch of the war party slap this bumper sticker on their government limos?

“Support Our Troops: Bring Them Home Now!“

Why Goliath is the Underdog #001

The parable of David and Goliath has re-emerged on the world stage. Ironically, the most recent battle cast the Israeli State as the heavy. The “David” of the piece was decentralized “4GW” (4th Generation Warfare) as deployed by an estimated 3,000 Hezbollah fighters.

The outcome of that battle is a serious blow to central governments everywhere. If one of the most effective government militaries in the world can’t protect its people from 3,000 militiamen, what good is it? The inevitable outcome of the ill conceived U.S. Government action in Iraq will almost certainly deliver a second and much more lethal blow to Goliath.

Hezbollah won

“The central secret to Hezbollah’s success is that it trained its (global) guerrillas to make decisions autonomously (classic 4GW), at the small group level. In every area — from firing rockets to defending prepared positions to media routing around jamming/disruption — we have examples of Hezbollah teams deciding, adapting, innovating, and collaborating without reference to any central authority. The result of this decentralization is that Hezbollah’s aggregate decision cycles are faster and qualitatively better than those of their Israeli counterparts.” Global Guerrillas, Sunday, July 30, 2006 THE SECRETS OF HEZBOLLAH’S SUCCESS, Organizational Improvements

Israeli Ambassador and Republican Nat. Chairman Ken Mehlman explain WHY Hezbollah Won

“Several years ago, a Marine friend went down to Bolivia as part of the U.S. counter-drug effort. He observed that the drug traffickers went through the Boyd cycle, or OODA Loop [decision cycle], six times in the time it took us to go through it once . When I relayed that to Colonel Boyd, he said, ‘Then we’re not even in the game.'” William S. Lind, More on Gangs and Guerrillas vs. the State, April 29, 2005

Rumsfeld explains decentralized warfare

In fact, this effect — Goliaths being in trouble at the hand of more decentralized structures — isn’t limited to military operations. Lacking mercantilist links to governments in the current age, all economic structures (corporations, etc.) larger than justified by “economies of scale” are vulnerable.

Micro-power (termites of power) is spreading to all areas of human endeavour. Rather than the bi-polar world of the 20th century, we are entering a hyper-polar world — a world with hundreds, thousands of smaller centers of power. Central Banks used to call all the shots, but now there are hundreds of independent hedge-funds that limit central banks, for one example. I don’t know what the ultimate outcome will be and I don’t think anyone does. –Moises Naim, Venezuelan Minister of Industry, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria, July 25, 2006, 12:21:36