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In Texas, They Just Execute Them

More than two dozen suicides by U.S. troops in Iraq, and hundreds of medical evacuations for psychiatric problems, have raised concerns about the mental health of soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Now, it appears that the Army "inappropriately" deployed soldiers to Iraq who already were diagnosed with mental problems, according to documents obtained by UPI.

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:34 PM

The Sisyphus Thing

The images from Madrid are a grim reminder that "terrorism" is a permanent feature of modern life. In fact, it's always has been part of life, ever since the first cavemen noticed that the village next door had twice as many women and half as many men. Only the rationalizations and the degree of destruction change. Declaring war on terrorism is like declaring war on earthquakes--you can strengthen the infrastructure, improve detection and prediction and organize first-responder teams to minimize casualties but you can never stop them from happening.

That is the fallacy the American people are struggling with and the myth that the Bush administration has tried to sell us. If we are tough enough, the rightwing logic goes, then they will leave us alone. But, military power alone will not make terrorism go away. We can conquer--at great cost in human lives--the entire Middle East and it will still not deter some loser with an irrational grievance like Timothy McVeigh from striking right here in the homeland.

At some point, we--the American people--have to decide whether we want to effectively contain and minimize terrorist attacks or whether we simply want revenge. There is a place for military action--Afghanistan was one--but our military is already stretched to the limit because of the Iraq misadventure. What we need is a genuine partnership with other democracies to strengthen and share intelligence-gathering, law enforcement, and emergency response capabilities. When military action is required--say, absolute confirmed intelligence that a dangerous group has acquired a "dirty" bomb--there should be a NATO rapid response force ready to move in 24 hours or less.

It's time to level with ourselves--terrorism cannot be stopped entirely and any politician who says it can is a liar. We can minimize the number and deadliness of the attacks, however, not by getting meaner, but by getting smarter.

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:51 PM

One day in Spain

I wonder how my fellow bloggers are reacting to the news of the bombings in Madrid and their characterization as "Spain's September 11."

I must confess to a certain grim numbness. To a friend on an e-mail list who wrote,

Ultimately the world we live in is secure because the vast
majority of people are decent human beings. But the
amount of damage a single person can do keeps growing
(this is sometimes refered to as force multiplyer
effect of technology.) Facism isn't the answer though,
there is very little evidence that totalitarian
regimes any safer than liberal democracies and plenty
to the contrary, but I fear that we may learn that the
hard way.

I replied, as follows,

You are, I fear, all too right, and the only "cure" I can think of is
to adopt a kind of olympian callousness, noting, for example, that far
more people die each year in major earthquakes all across Asia, from
Turkey to China, from typhoon-induced flooding in the Bay of Bengal,
from AIDs in central Africa, or from traffic accidents in the USA or
Japan, and the chances that any one of us will wind up a terrorist
victim are measurably smaller than those that we will die of household
accidents or an unexpected illness. As a British friend who lived in
London throughout the period in which IRA bombers were making things go
boom there remarked, you learn to carry on and not think the sky is falling.
Terrorism loses much of its point if martyrdom is received with public
indifference (while, of course, serious police work and preparation for the worst
goes on).

posted by John 8:34 AM

The China Card

As the twin towers of foreign debt and negative trade balance get taller, Beijing is taking a hard look at how Washington runs its bait and switch game on "free trade." Unfortunately, for the Dems, the "free trade" charade finds the "usual suspects" on both sides of the aisle. The Chinese say this is their first attempt at an in-depth analysis of the subject matter... these guys are good.

posted by Groom 4:24 AM

Free Howard Stern

I’ve never been a fan of Howard Stern. Not that I find him particularly offensive; just too much self-regard without a leavening sense of self-deprecation for my taste. But, I admire his willingness to push the limits of free speech because, frankly, I trust Stern a lot more to decide what’s indecent than I trust John Ashcroft to do so. Indecent to me is not puerile sex jokes or Janet Jackson’s tiresome fake boob, but Justice Department lawyers subpoenaing women’s health records.

It should escape nobody’s attention that Stern’s problems with Steppin Fetchit Jr. at the FCC and the Bush Rangers who own Clear Channel began not long after he started to seriously get on Shrub’s case. Clear Channel is owned by the same Texas facists who banned the Dixie Chicks from their stations for exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech; the same crony capitalists who made the Shrubster wealthy through reciprocal sweetheart deals with the Texas Rangers and the University of Texas; the same unindicted co-conspirators whose goal is to sanitize and homogenize every media outlet in America.

The whole Howard Stern affair has nothing to with indecency or obscenity and everything to do with silencing a Bush critic who has credibility with NASCAR dads.

When John Kerry says “crooked,” this is what he talking about.

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:01 AM