The Washington Post is reporting that the Afghan government is moving to tax U.S. aid to his country — notifying U.S. contractors that the government wants a piece of the aid given . . . to them. The Karzai government is taking this action over the objections of the Administration and conflicting U.S. law. It is also taking this action after Karzai has shutdown corruption investigations against his government. The Karzai family has been denounced as a virtual criminal enterprise with his brothers stealing anything that they can lay their hands on.
Of course, the solution for many of us is simple: end the aid as well as our presence in this country. We continue to have states selling off parks, curtailing school programs, and ending programs due to a lack of money while we burn billions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Karzai has thanked us by repeatedly stating that he would prefer to be with the Taliban and polls show that the U.S. is deeply hated by citizens in both countries despite our loss of thousands of lives.
The Iraqi government stated that it intends to send overdue tax bills to U.S. contractors. Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal said that the announcement shows that the Karzai government is “serious against tax evasion.” Not corruption, mind you, but tax evasion. It seems that the key is that everyone must pay into the government so that Karzai family members and friends can then steal the money with impunity.
The unraveling scene in Iraq is another example of a political failure of leadership in this country. Neither the President nor members of Congress are willing to expose themselves politically by demanding a withdrawal of U.S. troops. Instead, we continue to sacrifice the lives of our military and spend hundreds of billions of dollars. Now that contractors are going to be taxed, they are likely to internalize those costs and then pass them on to the taxpayer in future aid contracts.
It is a good thing the Vice President Joe Biden did not stop over to continue his “celebration” over the status in Iraq this month. The large-party gratuity fees for the party would have been a killer.
Jonathan Turley
FFLEO,
I too will miss having you around and part of that is selfish on my end. You and I played the role here of the two old farts and for now (I hope not long) I’ll have to go it alone. I thank you for your kind words. I must say that what I’ve always found so interesting about you is that you an old western lawman of conservative bent and me an aged hippie/(former)druggie found so much to agree upon. It gives rise to the thought that perhaps the political/social principles are irrelevant to our humanity and ability to connect with eachother. Come back soon and enjoy your grandkids.
To be silent about leaders in my country who openly admit to Marxist principles like redistribution (Obama) and practice it with socialist health care, education, housing, and so forth, would be negligence on my part.
Tootie,
Where have I ever referred to you lacking education or even being stupid? I haven’t, not is it something I think about you.
Frankly, if I thought that I wouldn’t bother to even respond to your posts. Do I think that you are ignorant of some facts, yes I do. Being ignorant though doesn’t imply stupidity to me, it implies someone with a closed mind. I do believe you have a closed mind on certain topics, one of which is what you think is Marxism. Much of what you mention above is not Marxist but actually mainstream liberalism. Marxism may hold such things as ideals, but that doesn’t make those ideals Marxist. Indeed,
they existed as ideals before Karl Marx was even born.
As far as expert opinion goes anyone claiming expertise and publicly advancing their ideas could be considered a pundit, a word which doesn’t necessarily have negative implications. By the was I don’t like Chomsky or many of his ideas, yet we both would agree on certain issues. That doesn’t make me a “Chomskyite” and/or a Marxist. Your belief that the President, his administration or even the Democratic Party are Marxist in nature runs contrary to not only the facts, but the purported political philosophy behind them.
“Indeed the record of the Marxist was many times worse than Hitler.”
Many times? I don’t think so. Equal to, yes for Stalin, Mao not quite up to the loathsome standards of the other two. Yet I’m aware of the millions murdered by both Stalin and Mao. Stalin, as I’m sure you know hated Jews. In those three people you have casebook examples of sociopaths and I don’t think that their actions were the work of their political philosophy. In the case of Stalin and Mao though, they gained power by overthrowing people just as bad as they were. The philosophy of oppression of the majority of people in Russia and China was no different from before or after the Russian and Chinese revolutions.
What bothers me the most in your post though is your assumption that because you don’t have any advanced degree that I would think you were stupid. My father dropped out of school in the ninth grade and my big brother only finished High School. My departed father and my living brother were and are widely read and had/have a great deal of intelligence. While I do have a lot of education, most of what I’ve learned in life comes from living and from independent reading. College and Graduate Schools taught me little, but I was good at playing the game that got me through. I come from a lower middle class background (just barely)and my father had been in prison. Your assumption that I’d put you down because you din’t finish college is unfounded. AS far as your ability to keep up with the discussions here you hold your own. However, I personally think you’re too rigid in your beliefs and unwilling to fully examine them. But in the end what the hell do I know and who am I to judge.
Mike Spindell:
I didn’t take you for a guy who made big assumptions about others.
You wrote to me: “You’ve been buying the propaganda of ignorant pundits, who wouldn’t know a Marxist, or what that is, if it bit them.”
Friedrich Hayek is a pundit?
R.J. Rummel? Paul Gottfried? Thom Sowell (PHD Economist, Standford’s Hoover Inst., wrote a book on Marxism), and so on?
If I applied the same logic to you, Noam Chomsky would be a pundit (if you study his writings).
You know, from the evidence you have witnessed thus far, that I’m not well educated. I also make that known by admitting it. Though it certainly doesn’t take long for real smart people to figure it out.
I’m not so bright and that’s obvious, but I love learning and reading. And to these I commit much time. And I want you to become assured that I don’t get my marching orders from Rush, Glenn Beck, or any other talk jock. And I will continue to spend my time here in blogdom in such a manner so that you might come to understand that.
I cannot help it if they say similar things to what I say. This is likely because they are right wingers, as am I. But I am not a GOPer. Actually, I don’t think Beck is GOP either.
If you are Democrat or a leftist, it is likely that the more stupid members of the leftist media (Olbermann, for example) may say similar things to what you say. And I reckon you would not want to be told that such persons are leading you around by the nose, thus implying that you are too stupid to think for yourself.
I read scholars. Real scholars. And that is where I get my information and ideas. The thing is that you and I focus on the works of different scholars.
Perhaps you made assumptions about me because you don’t think common folks are interested in scholarly pursuits and that led you to suggest I was merely being fed propaganda.
You also assume I don’t know any Marxists. I had two publicly avowed Marxist teachers in college (before I dropped out). This was in the 70s when such things were sizzling hot and indeed somewhat exciting. But I was very apolitical at that time and they were no influence on me.
My offspring had a friend whose parents were Marxists. We were chummy with them for many years. So I’m not completely naive.
I’m for transparency in politics.
And I would be remiss, for example, if I spotted a Neo-Nazi congressman and failed to mention it or criticize him or her. You might be one to jump all over me for overlooking such an obvious fact if I talked about that congressman and failed to mention it.
Likewise, when I spot a Marxist I’m going to be all over it because the record of Marxism is one of greed, overthrow, oppression, subjugation, torture, force, brutality, bloodshed, enslavement, and unprecedented mass-murder.
Indeed the record of the Marxist was many times worse than Hitler. And one very large reason why Americans do not recoil from a Marxist as they do from a Nazi is because the leftist-media/education/government complex in America (and ITS propaganda) supported the Marxists last century. And they supported the Marxists during the time of greatest overthrow and murder.
This large group of American elites (virtually all of them highly credentialed and well connected), is not limited to the New York Times, most of the Ivy League schools, and the FDR administration. But they virtually controlled the entire narrative that raised Hitler up high above the more deadly Stalin and Mao. And they controlled this narrative and propaganda throughout my lifetime. Government controlled the media and the public schools. It wrote the history it wanted us to see. And that history was the other guy was worse than they were.
And they did this for decades even while we become embroiled in the Cold War.
To be silent about leaders in my country who openly admit to Marxist principles like redistribution (Obama) and practice it with socialist health care, education, housing, and so forth, would be negligence on my part.
It would also be a lack of candor, courage, and honesty.
Former Federal LEO,
Yesterday, you wrote:
“Therefore, I resign; simply to retreat from unwinnable domestic and foreign battles while living my remaining years enjoying all the natural beauty that surrounds me every day, to the fullest extent possible, while the beauty lasts, and while I am still able.”
You haven’t said anything about your granddaughter, lately. If you did, I missed it. I hope that she’s doing well and the two of you will be able to spend some precious time together.
Your plan sounds lovely — I wish you all the best and hope you’ll be back. This nurse will miss your strong, gentle voice on this blog, as well as your many musical contributions. Just a bit ago, I forwarded a friend the link to Glenn Campbell’s performance of Mull of Kintyre. I believe you posted it…
The following was a favorite of mine, during younger days… Opted for a non-Byrds version here. Godspeed, FF LEO. Hope to see you back. (Many of us were fooled and/or expected more. These are disappointing times…)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAejkh4rTjs&w=480&h=390]
assignation = assassination
Go to watch that MS spell check, which tries to help too much sometimes.
See why I need a break…
Well said Mike S. in reference to your reply to Tootie.
Former Fed. I hope you are not taking a break because of any of us said here? Hurry back, you will be missed.
Mike Spindell,
I am ashamed that I voted for Mr. Obama—a man who believes he can unilaterally order the assignation of another U.S. citizen without any due process whatsoever. I want to neither make such a terrible voting mistake again nor be associated in any way to such a vile person.
Thank you for your comment, Mike. I am going to take a break from posting here for a while. Among the many genuinely fine people accessing this blawg, you are at the top of my list. Your recovery from such a serious surgery gave me bona fide reasons to smile amid all the injustices that we read here daily.
Thank you for replying to others’ questions—especially answering persons who sometimes experience derision—and although I did not always reply to your posts dealing with other commenters, I tried to read every one of them; rest assured, all here appreciate you.
Mike Spindell,
Jimmy Carter was being interviewed during the 2004 Presidential election and asked if Bush won … why did he think it would happen.
He responded (I’m paraphrasing) “First understand that, historically, 10% of the voting population will, whether they are a member of the incumbent’s party or not, vote for the incumbent because they do not believe in changing “Commander-in-Chief” in the middle of a war.”
Thus it was when Obama announced a couple of months ago that he would end the Afghan War in 2014 that I remembered Carter’s words. Obama would get that 10%, whether they were Rep, Dem, or Indep, and keep those who wanted him to end the war because he was going to do so before his term was finished. Politically a win-win for him.
Your question was: “Why then are we there and continue to remain there is the question? I personally can think of four reasons. … Any others that I’m overlooking?”
I give you #5.
Blouise,
Thanks for #5, but I think the number is closer to 50% when I think about it. The patriotism propaganda scam has taken hold of many people’s minds. A true American patriot exercizes their mind as to what to support or not. How did the my country right or wrong meme work for the Germans or Japanese?
FFLEO,
Having always voted for the last 45 years I’m coming around to your point of view. I’ve begun to feel that it doesn’t make a differnce because whoever you vote for is either going to be marginalized if they’re honest, or corrupted if they’re not.
“but the Marxists are the most deadly (in terms of mass murder of civilians–Americans). So they are my first target. Of course I mean this figuratively.”
Tootie,
Among the many reasons I am not, nor ever was a Marxist is that in the 60’s and 70’s I actually knew Marxists from Stalinists to Trotsyites to Maoists. I also knew Socialists of many stripes. In fact all these groups at one time or another tried to recruit me and I strongly rejected them all. These were people that I knew very well and even mingled with them socially, so I know what I’m talking about when I say that there is noone involved in leftist politics today, with any kind of following, that can be classed as a Marxist or even close to one. You’ve been buying the propaganda of ignorant pundits, who wouldn’t know a Marxist, or what that is, if it bit them. You have a right to your political beliefs, but enough with the name calling already, because you don’t know whereof you speak.
Mike:
I know there are many folks trying to screw us over, but the Marxists are the most deadly (in terms of mass murder of civilians–Americans). So they are my first target. Of course I mean this figuratively.
On the other hand – Republicans don’t like taxes so maybe this will prompt them to finally agree to leave? Maybe not.
Former LEO:
“…there is simply nothing legally tangible with which they or we can wield to stop the madness of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and the rapidly declining Rule of Law…”
🙁
And:
“Therefore, I resign…”
It really is exhausting to watch what is happening.
But do you have kids or grands?
If so they need you more than ever. Regather your strength, if you can. Even if you get it from the beauty of a sunset or a newly fallen snow.
Or you might look one more time at a real solution (and still enjoy the beauty:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2YaTVRR90g&fs=1&hl=en_US]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2YaTVRR90g
Woods is Harvard/Columbia PHD
That band’s my discovery of the day. I try and listen to something I haven’t heard before every day.
Gyges,
I’d normally say it’s pretty hard to improve upon a Paul Simon song, but that was excellent.
There must be 50 ways to leave your country that you’re occupying?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97IKgLt1uJg&fs=1&hl=en_US]
I know it’s a stretch, but that’s just too hip not to share.
Sorry, above “…poled as to the loss of thousands of lives…” SB: “polled as to the loss of thousands of US lives”
——–
Pete, excellent post!
Good link Pete and I agree with the message.
what should we do
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Tiz6INF7I&fs=1&hl=en_US]