The Best (anti) War Movie

This is the best war movie, that is to say anti-war movie, ever made.  I've seen all the USA war movies, and every single one is a fantasy, even such realistic movies as Full Metal jacket and Saving Ryan's Privates.  USA war movies must be fantasies to keep the Hegemon happy.

But out of nowhere, in an obscure language (with English subtitles) comes a war movie with subtlety in metaphysics matched only by realistic soldier action.  The acting is phenomenal and better than anything for which the academy issues awards, and the story timeless.  And a great story it is, as opposed to pointless fiction of USA oscar tripe.

Give it a view and tell me if I am wrong:


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Daddy, What Did You Do During the War?

Well, when USA was fighting communists in Vietnam, I was trading with the Chinese Communists who were making the USA defeat possible.  I was trading because the anti-communist Nixon had opened trade relations with China in a political effort to save Mao's bacon so Mao could save Nixon's.

Yes, rather crazy that.  Of course I was never in that war or any war, my participation was limited to objecting conscientiously.

So what did I do during the (Vietnam) war? I traded with the Communists.  Like he Bush family, that traded with the Nazis during WWII.

 Five of the Bush family companies were seized by Congress in this manner. Congressinvoked the Trading with the Enemy Act and seized the Bush-Harriman-managed Thyssen entityHamburg-American Line, under Vesting Order No. 126. Thereafter, under Order No.248, and then Vesting Order No. 259, and ultimately Vesting Order No. 261 various otherbusinesses were seized. None of this is secret, it is all in public records. There isevidence there were more going on, which were not caught.

Yea, my family has been here longer than the Bushes, and did a lot more wicked things too.  People are starting to talk about "white privilege".  That's not the problem, it is entitlement, that you can do what you want.  That is the real problem.

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Catholic Snipers: My Jesus is Bigger

I think of General Boykin who famously noted his God was bigger than Islam's God when I read the thoughts of pro-war Catholics.  The Jesus described I imagine to be a teentsy-weentsy Jesus, with a tiny, squeaky voice...  “Existential threat by Islam! Clash of cultures!” 

My Jesus is so much bigger, H U G E !  He healed the sick, overturned an economic system, raised the dead and when the Romans answered with shock and awe: Ecce Homo! INRI... he transformed life and the world in which we were once bound.  Raised himself from the dead!  Now we could be free!

My Jesus, who is so much bigger than the Jesus of the warmongers,  can also be so subtle.  When American Catholics are insensitive the the unceasing begging of prelates across the middle east NOT to attack their countries for the hell it will bring on them, Catholics in the commanding heights of the USA Wehrmacht soldiered on.  In light of this, Jesus raises up a pontiff named Francis, in memory of the Saint who got Islam relations right.

If the greatest Christian saint since the time of the apostles had opposed the Crusade and peacefully approached Muslims at a time when they were supposed to be mortal enemies, that action can inspire and instruct us today. So should the fact that al-Kamil, a great sultan of Egypt and a nephew of Saladin, was so tolerant of Christians that he allowed one of them to preach to him in the midst of a Crusade. The story of Francis of Assisi and Sultan Malik al-Kamil says there is a better way than resentment, suspicion and warfare. It opens the door to respect, trust and peace.It needs to be told anew.- Paul Moses

The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi's Mission of Peace

Note the many glowing reviews of this book. Note who has NOT reviewed the book.  The prominent National Catholic Register.

Now note the kinds of articles NCR does carry.  I am not making this up: Catholic and Killing for a Living.  A paean to snipers.  Read it for yourself, don’t trust me.  (Incidentally, with 74 comments highlighting weak anti-war vs strong pro-war comments, a tedious editorial tactic, my comment as a Vietnam era conscientious objector is not approved by the moderator.)

Update: My comment is now published and so are a lot of other push-back comments against this article.  Good to see.

Now here is the money shot, literally:

Get it?  Look at the banner ad above the masthead.  Ka-ching!  Military ads in a pro-life rag. Note the poverty draft pitch:  In a country that inherently disrespects black lives as of no matter, you can get respect by joining the army.  And see below, Catholics can be snipers!  And enough money to send you six free issues.

A service of EWTN.  Such content producers as “Sacred Heart Radio” And “Ave Maria Radio” rock the “existential Islamic threat” and “thank you for your service” tropes, and just seem to gain all of the ads.  And those other Catholic media languish for lack of advertising. Our government picks and chooses what media it favors, so why not Catholic media?   And why wouldn’t they eventually find people who want to be successful, measured in money, if not ratings?

About six years ago there was one Catholic business adviser program, where the host apologetically went over  Church teaching and USA actions in the middle east and plaintively begged his audience to call in and tell him where his reading of the facts was wrong, that the USA was the unjust aggressor in the middle east wars?  Crickets.  Not that audience.  I kept tuning in, but sadly, he whose name I no longer recall, was gone.

I know something of online advertising, usually those ads are targeted to the audience, and it is rather pointless to offer me a position as a pro-war chaplain: the gross exposure rate costs more for the advertiser.  These ads are what makes one publication more viable than another, and guess who gets such ads?  Pro-war Catholic press.

When EWTN talks about NFP and pro-life (anti-abortion) I could not agree more.  And the powers that be could care less.  Abortion is a marginal issue in American politics, and the Catholics who matter to the powers that be, politicians, are all solidly pro-abortion, bought and paid for.

Now, to the powers that be, war matters, and there is a solid Catholic anti-war ethic latent that must be starved for oxygen.

Yes, EWTN is putatively pro-life (on the narrow abortion question) but there is no seamless garment...  even on the question of torture, when the Pope expressly condemned it, Al Kreska allowed that among the panickers after 9-11, it was understandable to employ torture, not questioning whether we should have a system where panickers make the decisions.   Further, he will not extend the same flexibility to a young woman in a panic who has an abortion.  The former is no sin in Kreska's world, the latter must be confessed or to hell you go, in the milieu well funded by the hegemon.

Such hypocrisy dissuades people of good will, who want to hear a seamless garment argument on pro-life to keep looking, since prominent Catholic media is not about to offer it.

A Patrick Coffin on his show was interviewing the new director of gay whatever, a former marine, who in reply to Coffin’s direct question on whether torture is ever warranted, his guest noted they were convicted, and punishment may be laid on convicts.

This non-sequitor was allowed to pass by Mr. Coffin, but then, he is clearly uneasy about Church teaching, this the host of Catholic answers (Cafeteria Catholic answers?)  And oddly, Coffin had announced that for this segment, no call-in questions would be taken.  A unique arrangement for a call-in show.

When it comes to ratings, proof of popularity, his website offers:

Patrick Coffin is the host of our flagship radio broadcast, Catholic Answers Live, voted Best Catholic Radio Show in America by the readers of About.com.

Wait, who? Ah yes, that arbiter of Catholic excellence, the self-selected group of those who avail themselves of about.com.  Where no doubt a dozen likes gets you into the winners circle.

My experience is you can tune in just about anytime to EWTN and get a good dose of anti-Muslim blood slander.

I was in the audience at St Monica's Church on Mercer Island, Washington circa 2006 when Fr. Mitch Pacwa, a eastern Jesuit fluent in various Semitic languages was peppered with questions  regarding “ is Islam inherently evil” “Can Muslims be good citizens?”  Oddly the lecture was given in the Church proper, so I refrained from asking Fr. Pacwa if Christians can be good citizens.  Prudence dictated I not introduce contradiction in the sanctuary.  But I think I observed a change in Fr. Pacwa, to what you hear now from him on EWTN.

If Jesus wanted to advocate war in the clash of cultures, never before or since in history did anyone have a better chance for an attentive audience.  Indeed, he was betrayed and abandoned by those who expected to prevail by the sword.  Just as in USA today.

Now back to this Pope named Francis. Not only would it be a rebuke to the American Catholic Church, or the Church of America, at the same time such a Pope would be an inspiration to the vast swathes of Catholics worldwide who are appalled by USA actions, and assume Catholics are a witness to the truth, not players in the violence.

Saint Pope John Paul II issued a controversial vade mecum in which he cautioned confessors not to convert penitents from informal sin (say artificial birth control)  to formal sin (actively rejecting church teaching on same) if in the discernment of the shrive, the penitent is not well catechized enough to embrace the truth.  Bring them along easy, over time, toward the truth.

I wonder if pro-war catholics would remain Catholic if the bishops named USA war crimes for what they were.  Pre-emptive strike is a named war crime, not a matter of prudential judgment.  Sure, Weigel et al can claim it as such, but no, it is a mortal sin.  Would Weigel and others leave the Church, as surely as a Biden or a Pelosi, if told in no uncertain terms that certain actions are mortal sins?

Glad I am not a Bishop, as are countless others.  I'd push it, and not worry about the cross.  

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USA Training the "Enemy"

Yet another "moderate Islamist" force trained and armed by the USA has defected to ISIS.

The Hazzm Movement, associated with the Free Syrian Army, is a secular Syrian insurgent group backed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. It was one of the last of the non-jihadist opposition groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria.
Its leadership has decided to join the Islamist coalition of the Levant Front fighting around the key Syrian city of Aleppo, according to Arab news sources, including NOW Lebanon.

Unmitigated madness.  Then Buchanan says this in passing:

While Reagan sent weapons to anti-Communist rebels in Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan, to the heroic Poles of Gdansk he sent only mimeograph machines.

Yes.  Where you send weapons, horrors.  Where you don't,  peaceful improvements.

If you google "moderate usa trained defect to isis" you'll see this has been going on for years.  Are we just stupid, or evil, meaning this is on purpose, to give Big War a steady income?

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Paris Murders

Sickening

In the Jewish history of the crusades, the Jewish chroniclers point out that on the way to Palestine, the Christians settled scores with the Jews in their path for lampooning the Christ.  It's what religious people do.  It is not a good idea to piss off people about their religion for fun and money.

In any event, why do we allow three murderers to define a religion?  Does not giving 3 out of 1.5 billion people the power to make a definition rather invite their efforts?

And what goes around comes around... if this is not a false flag event, it certainly is an example of western training and equipment... what goes around comes around.  Of course the murderers spoke perfect French, how else would they master Western killing techniques and equipment?

And with total information awareness, we are all getting searched every airplane ride, every single email, letter posted and phone call and step on the street recorded, these guys were never detected?  Or is this another pack of dogs that slipped the leash...?

No one deserves to be shot down like that, but when the West eliminated all of the moderates in their quest for hegemony, what's left is the hard guys.  

And recall, the jihadists insisted the beheaded "journalists" were spies, and their backgrounds are appropriately vague, and we just launched a major movie in which journalists are recruited by the CIA to blow the head off of world leader, and do so.  A comedy.  hahaha... 

If and when media is no longer controlled so as to only state-approved material percolates to the to publication, "journalists" will be state actors and perceived targets.  Do you think a magazine poking fun at religion was subscription and advertising based finance?

Rush Limbaugh quite innocently asserts no one ever tells him what to say. The reason his career advanced is no one ever has to... of all the people in radio, he says exactly what the hegemon wants heard, so his shows gets all the of Go Army ads and other public service, big biz, etc sponsors that 600 radio stations badly need to stay afloat.

To claim to prefer to die standing rather than live kneeling is rather precious when your work is subsidized by the state.  But keep in mind your heroics gets a wounded cop executed on the pavement.

And God help all those who love to view the snuff films the internet players post to corrupt us all...

The middle east wars are for the middle east to sort out.  USA soldiers need to come home and get to work.  Hegemony isolates us, we need to end USA Isolationism and promote world peace and economic justice starting in USA, and be a beacon to the world, instead of a scourge.

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Immigration & War

We've been here before...

Austin offered Parker the opportunity to move to Nashville, Tennessee, where music was becoming big business, but for reasons unknown Parker turned him down.^[9] Instead he decided to stay in Temple Terrace, Florida with his family, perhaps to avoid having to fill in paperwork that could expose his illegal status.^[9] Within a year, however, he had the opportunity to become a legal citizen within the United States by way of the 1940 Alien Registration Act;^[10] a bill passed by the United States Government to allow illegal aliens the chance to become US citizens in return for their promise to fight for the country during World War II, if required.^[10] Parker decided against registering, possibly to prevent his previous Army record from becoming public.

A great place to find good fighters, immigrants.

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War Costs

Laurence M. Vance

 

In World War I. Since this year is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, it will certainly be repeated throughout the year that about 120,00 U.S. soldiers died in the conflict. Although true, that is not the whole story. From Thomas Fleming’s The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I (p. 307) we read:

The Americans had been in combat two hundred days—approximately six months. In that time, 50,300 doughboys were killed. Another 198,059 Americans were wounded in action. Another 62,668 died of disease—an appalling 38,815 of these in training camps in the United States. Another 4,503 were killed in accidents. Almost 1,000 committed suicide. Adding in minor causes, the total deaths were 120,139. In 1930, the Veterans Bureau estimated that war-related diseases, wounds and other kinds of trauma inflicted on the Western Front had raised the total cost to 460,000 deaths. Men disabled by gas attacks were particularly prone to die young. More than 41,000 doughboys were shell-shock victims, listed as pyschiatrically disabled. Many of these men were hospitalized for the rest of their lives.

But even if “only” 120,000 American soldiers died in World War I, that is still too many. In fact, even if just one American soldier died in World War I, that is one too many. The United States needed a foreign policy of nonintervention then and needs a foreign policy of nonintervention now. The best policy to save our young men: noninterventionism.

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Erik Prince Confesses All Crimes at the Acton Institute

I've admired the Acton Institute, and was delighted when Fr. Sirico took apart a torture queen on the topic at one time, and many other initiatives.  I was a little surprised when I learned his institute featured Erik Prince, the mercenary CEO of Blackwater who was paid to do "work" US Soldiers would not.  But, OK, the bigger the sinner the more rejoicing in heaven, when there is repentance.

His book has odd the subtitle "unsung heroes of the war on terror"  You mean no one says "thank you for your service" enough?

Prince, who was raised in the Christian Reformed Church and converted to Roman Catholicism in college, put his faith front and center in his presentation.

What is it about Roman Catholicism that war criminals find so attractive? Newt Gingrich, Tony Blair, Richard Neuhaus, all flocked to RC.  And all of the top death dealers in Bush/Obama are Roman Catholics.  But, never mind, Erik Prince is going to repent and tell all. I like a truth commission.

“My faith has always played a great part in my life,” he said. “If you read the book, you know I’ve made some great mistakes along the way -- terrible mistakes. I’m thankful I have a faith that also includes forgiveness.”

True, true...  but not without repentance, even His Church cannot do that.    So in his confessional, reputation repairing session at the Institute, Erik Prince gets down to business:

Many of Prince’s remarks centered on his insider’s knowledge of the U.S. counter-terrorism effort and the role he played in it. He drew applause when he criticized the Obama Administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi in which the U.S. Ambassador to Libya was killed.

Oh.  Blame Obama.  Blame the black guy. "Bless me father, for I have sinned, Obama did it." Never mind no one ever heard of Obama, some shuck and jive community organizer when Erik Prince was doing his crimes, but that is the required doxology if you want right wing warmonger sympathy, "honestly, I blame the black guy."  And it sells books. Blaming the black guy brings down the house!

Prince, who estimated his company became the world’s largest employer of former special operations soldiers at its peak, defended the work his operatives performed in Iraq and Afghanistan on the behalf of the U.S. State Department.

Yes, in all things the USGovt policy is get big or get out. Given that is when and where the crimes occurred, and given that this was supposed to be a reputation restoring mea culpa, how did it come to pass the Acton Institute became the theatre where he affirms he has not repented, but instead blames Obama?

“In the Sioux warrior culture, they regard a warrior not by how far you could run or how hard you could throw a spear, they regarded by who your enemies were,” said Prince...

Don't blame your war crimes on the Sioux.  The Sioux were wiped out in a series of criminal campaigns by USA soldiers.  Erik Prince was doing to the Iraqis in their homes as what USA did to the Sioux in theirs.    Why bring them up when you are billing your talk as a confession?  What do the Sioux have to do with anything?

“If the Hezbollah, the Taliban, the Al-Qaeda and some left wing people like (U.S. Rep.) Henry Waxman are my enemies, I’m OK with that,” he said, drawing applause from the audience of 200. 

Ah So Henry Waxman, who wanted an inquiry into war crimes, is now in the same crew as al-Qaeda and the Taliban.  Anyone who wants an investigation into war crimes is the enemy.  A real crowd-pleaser, that line.  Wait a minute, that puts me in that crowd as well!

“I’m perfectly comfortable with the job we did and with who my detractors are.”

No doubt, since you were paid unspeakable amounts of money to exact criminal activity on innocent people, who could never defend themselves, you never were in any danger from al-Qaeda or the Taliban.  Some confession of wrongdoing. Your activities were the best recruiters for terrorists ever.  War crimes have that effect.

This is someone the Acton Institute featured?  Here is the Acton's Core Principles.

Acton Institute Core Principles

Integrating Judeo-Christian Truths with Free Market Principles

1. Dignity of the Person
2. Social Nature of the Person
3. Importance of Social Institutions
4. Human Action
5. Sin
6. Rule of Law and the Subsidiary Role of Government
7. Creation of Wealth
8. Economic Liberty
9. Economic Value
10. Priority of Culture

1. Dignity of persons.  This person?  Does her dignity matter?



Maybe Erik Prince did not set precisely this girl on fire, but Fallujah was set on fire after four of his mercenaries were killed by Iraqis defending their country.  Plenty of other little girls were set on fire.

The Church says whether the State goes to war is within the prudential judgment of the state, and offers a just cause and just war test for the benefit of warmakers' reflection.  Very neutral.  Next its loyal  institutes glorify war (see George Weigel and now Acton Institute) and creates a Archdiocese for the USA military.  Hardly neutral on this moral issue.  Do you think any of these people have been called in and instructed they ought not receive communion until they repent?

We have prophets who see what is coming, here Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago says...

I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.

Will the Church faithful be persecuted for not loving war enough?  Or do we love war too much, and having abandoned the teachings of Christ, we get condign punishment?  Is there more the Church can do to facilitate the wars?  The Prophet continues -

His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.

Just so.  Do we imagine this successors' first act will be to re-establish the military archdiocese?  No, it will be the cheering crowds at Acton who will be lighting the matches under an anti-war Archbishop.

How about we avoid all the bloodshed and go to truth commissions.  Give Erik Prince a chance to really repent, and if not, given what people know, let him deal with comes what may after the truth is outed.

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Pope Calls For prayer and Fasting for Syria

USA Bishops have decided to go quiet in the face of U S A aggression around the world, for reasons known only to themselves.  Happily the Pope can talk over their heads to faithful Catholics, indeed to all people of good will.

There are so many conflicts in this world which cause me great suffering and worry, but in these days my heart is deeply wounded in particular by what is happening in Syria and anguished by the dramatic developments which are looming. I appeal strongly for peace, an appeal which arises from the deep within me. How much suffering, how much devastation, how much pain has the use of arms carried in its wake in that martyred country, especially among civilians and the unarmed! 

And specifically,

To this end, brothers and sisters, I have decided to proclaim for the whole Church on 7 September next, the vigil of the birth of Mary, Queen of Peace, a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world, and I also invite each person, including our fellow Christians, followers of other religions and all men of good will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative. On 7 September, in Saint Peter’s Square, here, from 19:00 until 24:00, we will gather in prayer and in a spirit of penance, invoking God’s great gift of peace upon the beloved nation of Syria and upon each situation of conflict and violence around the world.

It's a date... put it on your calendar and invite your preacher-man to join in.

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Mistaking Patience for Approval

My legs were not blown off in Boston the day of the marathon, nor was I killed.  But I certainly would deserve such a fate, and worse.  What goes around comes around, and as an American taxpayer, I am certainly responsible for what happened to Razia, especially when there is not the slightest effort to prosecute the perpetrators of her injuries, nor act on the certain knowledge that our presence in her country is wrong.  I, like you, am personally responsibly for what happened to Razia.




I do not for a second believe two Chechen knuckleheads had anything to do with the bombing, because if they did, someone somewhere by now would have provided evidence somehow linking them to the crime.  Hasn't happened, won't happen. The only evidence you have is the news outlets repeat what law enforcement said a witness said.  Unreliable.  At the same time, there is overwhelming evidence others did it. It doesn't really matter.  In these things, there are bad guys on both sides, and the bad guys on both sides benefit when bombs go off.

It is not enough to vote against war, which is pointless since election fraud is material in USA.  Even if I pray and fast against the war, I still enjoy the benefits of imperialism.  I am guilty as hell.

We all take comfort, and imagine, that the fact that we do not suffer for our crimes must mean that we are innocent.  If so, we mistake God's patience for approval.  I am told God's patience is ordered to our salvation.  Our love of money is the root of all evil, even if we only love seeing CEOs, starlets and ball players get fantastically wealthy, relatively speaking.  How strange it is we in poverty settle on the thrill of vicarious living.

There is a point where our banality will cross a point of no return, when patience is ended and come what may comes.  Afterwards, there must be enough people who say no to letting others aggregate power through usury to the point they can call the shots, literally.  No law against it, just no state supporting it.

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Conscientious Objection to All War

There are wars in the sense we first think, and then there are the wars on drugs, poverty, domestic violence, etc.  I am a conscientious objector in those wars too.  The war on poverty is really a war on poor people, and the war on drugs is a war on people who self-medicate, and the war on domestic violence is a war on the family and so on

Any time the State starts a war, bad things happen.  We need to be an objector to all wars.

هدف قرار دادن ایران

Iran has no nuke weapon program, according to USA intelligence agencies.

Casual conversation that goes unchallenged in USA...

And what is curious is the idea that USA has no hegemonical interests in maintaining troops in over 150 countries around the world.

Here is the people he wants to ethnically cleanse...

And see how tense situation between the dreaded police and pro-freedom protestors is sorted out...

They seem so rational.  I'd rather trade with them than kill them.  I bet they would like to trade with us.  But not missiles.

Another Film Reality

It is important to note that once war is gotten into, the getting out of it is very hard indeed.  Americans ought to consider long and hard these wars they are initiating, because ending them is nasty business indeed.

Better Than Spielberg

Here is a movie made right after WWII, focussing on the rapid, opportunistic espionage advanced by the USA forces.  The movie is extremely well made, although I've need heard of anyone listed as involved int he creation.  Since the movie starts and ends with a tribute to spies, and deals with, among other things, loyalties, I suspect it was a CIA creation.  If so, good work, boys.

Conversations in the movie get to loyalties and motivations, always an interesting topic.

The "production values" are superior to Saving Private Ryan since the producers had the actual bombed out buildings in German cities and plenty of real tanks and trucks and countless extras who were actually there and knew what it was like.

Probably unintended is how the movie shows the very people who ruined Germany, the security services, were active until the very end, and still shooting and hanging up to the last minute.  Both sides had officers willing to sacrifice people because it was necessary in war. Something to keep in mind as we create more and more security services in USA.

I don't want to be a spoiler, but there is a tension in the movie that is superbly delivered.  I spent the time watching the movie experiencing this tension, which no doubt well suggests the tension spies experience.  Youtube, 1.5 hours, enjoy.

Meet My Daughter, Razia

Mahatma Gandhi had a nice teaching: treat every female as a sister, a daughter or a mother, depending on her age, except for your wife, who is unique among all women.  That rather clarifies relationships.

So this girl is my daughter.  I've never met her, but my tax dollars paid for the phosphorus rocket that entered her house as part of the USA-led criminal invasion of Afghanistan, for oil.

Phosphorus will not quit burning, so once it was on her, the burning continued all the way to the her bones, and all the way to the hospital.

Naturally, those who fired the weapon are not about to take responsibility.

A U.S. military spokeswoman with NATO's security force said military officials can't be certain whether it was their own round or an enemy round that hit Razia's house.

"Either scenario is possible, and equally regrettable," Maj. Jennifer Willis said. "One thing is certain: Razia will have the best care that we can give her."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528504,00.html#ixzz1mNaStdtf

Guess which side has phosphorus rockets, and which side does not...  And note there is no reflection on the question as to why we are in Afghanistan.  But gee, isn't this girl lucky to have USA on her side?

We are in Afghanistan so women can go to school and, ummm.. a, for the children.  That's it.  And oil.  We could just buy the oil, but then there would be no conflict, and with no conflict there is no command, and no command there is no army, etc...

Because this man's daughter is not safe, mine are not safe.  As the American bishops teach us their role is  to advance the democratic party agenda, they fail to notice the two Catholic candidates are calling for war, more war, in violation of church moral teaching.

I doubt God-became-man, was betrayed, crucified, died and was buried, and rose again so we could have single-payer health care.  I think He died because there are people in the world who set little girls on fire and then call themselves good.  I think He died to give an example of how to live and what is good. He clearly said no to all of this war. In His case, He did care about the children.  And the adults.

I was in Vietnam in 2010, where I met many daughters, although I'd never been there before.  My government drafted me to go, but I declined on conscientious objection grounds.  Daughters were not safe when the USA military was in Vietnam.  In 2010, with no USA military, daughters were safe.

In 1 Samuel 8, God tells the Israelites if they demand to have a king, their daughters will not be safe.  They reject God's advice, and things go bad.  God advises no-king (an-archy) and the Israelites reject it.

That may be the first recorded instance, but it is a common event in history.

So meet my eight year old daughter Razia.  She was not safe. That's me, her father taking care of her after he could not stop a US-delivered phosphorus rocket came into her home.  I have many daughters in Afghanistan, although I've never been there myself.  They are not safe either.  And as long as these daughters are not safe, mine are not safe either.  Psalm 146, put not your trust in princes...

It Already Begins...

Congress passed, and the president signed, a bill that allows the military to arrest and indefinitely detain, gitmo style, USA citizens las New years Eve.

This of course puts the army in the position of the Roman legions who could then, as is the case now, take over the government.

Now comes an article form an active duty mid-level officer, telling us who the good generals are, and who the bad ones are.  He names names as to "who lost" Iraq and Afghanistan.  Wow.  That did not take long.  The soldiers are calling for who they want to lead us.  Lead us all.

Note he does not say our invasion of those countries are wrong, he is just mentioning his fave generals.

Nor does he note where we get our generals.  The president nominates who he wants, and the congress either confirms or denies them.  Our generals are political appointees.  The president can fire any general he has appointed. Any time he wants.  That is civilian control.

The officer above names current good-guy generals.  What about the past good guys?  There has never been a Bush war where the standing general for the given theatre did not object to the war plans of a Bush.  In every instance that general was relieved of command.  Congress ought to have called those generals in and asked "how come?" Note the officer above is not talking about generals to smart to get into stupid wars, the officer want generals who win wars.

Note he also presumes we would have won those wars if we just had the right generals.  Where have we heard that before?

Nor does he note the founders of this country were against a standing army, because, umm... inevitably, in history, there comes a military takeover.