British will release minutes of 2003 Iraq war discussions

link

“There is a widespread view that the justification for the decision on military action in Iraq is either not fully understood or that the public were not given the full or genuine reasons for that decision,” Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said in his ruling on a request made under the British version of the Freedom of Information Act.

…

The Cabinet Office had argued to him that public disclosure of minutes would inhibit free and candid debate about sensitive issues in future cabinet sessions.

Thomas, who was allowed to inspect the minutes as part of his deliberations, said that while he respected the government’s position, “arguments for the withholding of the information are outweighed by the public interest in its disclosure.”

Wow, So that’s how they do it in a democracy. Simply amazing. Just think, there actually was a day when we had the democracy on this side of the pond and Britain had the king. (or, was that a dream?)

If choosing a campaign strategist is a measure of Hillary Clinton’s judgement, she’s wouldn’t be much of a president

Mark Penn, the Clinton strategy guru, has singlehandedly blown up the best laid plans of Hill and Bill. He touted “same”, while the country was just so fed up with Washington it couldn’t even bring itself to impeach Bush. And the senator isn’t getting any younger, people…and neither are her clothes or her hairstyles. So Hillary became “same-old…”.

Now of course, she’s yelling “change, change….” more often then Rudy Giuliani rants “9/11,” but I think she’s a little behind the curve. America has “moved on.” You remember Move-on, don’t you, Hill?

Bush to negotiate with the Taliban

The war against Bin Laden and his allies has been lost.  Because of the criminal assault on Iraq.

Brandon Friedman at dKos summarizes.

On Thursday, Flight Suit’s top guy in Afghanistan, Ambassador William Wood, delivered the message of surrender to America:

The United States supports reconciliation talks with Taliban fighters who have no ties to al-Qaida and accept Afghanistan’s constitution, the U.S. ambassador said Thursday.

William Wood said the U.S. is in favor of a “serious reconciliation program with those elements of the Taliban who are prepared to accept the constitution and the authority of the elected government” of President Hamid Karzai.

Let me be clear about one thing: ALL elements of the Taliban sympathize with and support al Qaeda. That’s their whole purpose. They are both Sunni extremist groups that share the same goal of enforcing medieval Islamic law on whomever they can.

So if I hear another word about how Republicans are “strong on security,” I’m going to ralph on my keyboard. To illustrate what I’m talking about, let’s take a trip in the ol’ wayback machine to September 15, 2001. That’s when the tough-talking, cheerleader-in-chief set the stage for future irony by telling us all:

We will find those who did it; we will smoke them out of their holes; we will get them running and we’ll bring them to justice. We will not only deal with those who dare attack America, we will deal with those who harbor them and feed them and house them.

Make no mistake about it: underneath our tears is the strong determination of America to win this war. And we will win it.

I guess when he said that, his definition of “deal” meant to engage in half-hearted, indecisive military operations for six years, followed by a “serious reconciliation program.”

Bill Kristol and the passing of the Peter Principle

Famously and consistently wrong pundit Bill Kristol, recently booted by TIME magazine, somehow gets a gig at the NY Times.

John Cole:

if the Peter Principle were true, George Bush and Bill Kristol would be the street-cleaner and dogcatcher in Crawford, Texas.

U.S. military study: Invasion responsible for discord among Iraqis

Washington Post

Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of “occupying forces” as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month.

The woman who taught her son to hate the Dixie Chicks

An interesting story.

Torture is torture. Period.

Ezra Klein:

It’s sort of sad that we live in a world where Paul Waldman actually has to write:

Everyone all over the world agrees on what constitutes torture. Torture is the intentional infliction of physical or mental suffering in order to obtain information or confessions. Not hard to understand. Yet Republicans have successfully lured the entire journalistic community into their moral sewer, where there is some degree of suffering (defined not by how awful it is, but by whether it’s fast or slow, and whether it leaves visible scars) that marks the line between torture and not-torture. If I rip your fingernails out – torture! If I tie you in a “stress position” designed to gradually inflict elevating amounts of pain, up to sheer agony, over the course of an hour or two – not torture! ….

But, of course, we do live in that world, and it’s a comfort that we’ve got Paul Waldman to write about it. Now, if only one of the campaigns would adopt him as a speechwriter, and take his advice to respond to the first question about “enhanced interrogation techniques” with “How about we stop this charade and have enough respect for the American people to start telling the truth? The Bush administration made the use of torture its official policy. You, Republican candidate, agree with that policy. You think the United States government should torture people. I don’t. We can argue the pros and cons. But don’t give us this ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ baloney. We all know what it is. If you’re going to advocate torture, have the guts to call it by its name. If you don’t, you’re not only immoral enough to be pro-torture, you’re also a coward.”

US military at Guantanamo vandalizes Wikipedia, sockpuppets themselves

link

These geniuses should be put out of business.

Andrew Sullivan: torture is not a complex issue

There is nothing very complicated about what torture is, or why it was outlawed, or the fact that Bush authorized it. Read Andrew Sullivan today. The issue is whether or not he will be held accountable.

December 7: spare me the 9/11 stuff, please

Pearl Harbor was Pearl Harbor. A lot of people got killed, and they deserve to be remembered. It was the beginning of WWII, and a whole lot of people got killed, but it was something we had to do, and we did it. Everybody sacrificed.

Please don’t, Mr. Bush and Mr. Giuliani, try to roll Pearl Harbor into 9/11 and the Iraq War and the War on Terror and torture and Guantanamo and war profiteering and lying and a bunch of things we as Americans are ashamed of.