After 8 Years, U.S. Officials Still Recklessly Lying To Troops In Iraq

By MARC McDONALD

The disastrous Iraq War was originally built on a colossal lie. Now, eight years after George W. Bush ordered the invasion of that country, American officials are still lying to our troops. And the Big Lie today is just as dangerous and reckless as when Bush first told it.

On July 11, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, during a visit to Baghdad, sounded very Bush-like when he connected U.S. invasion of Iraq with 9/11.

Speaking at Camp Victory, Panetta said, "The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked," Panetta told the troops. "And 3,000 Americans--3,000 not just Americans, 3,000 human beings, innocent human beings--got killed because of Al Qaeda. And we've been fighting as a result of that."

After eight horrific years of war in Iraq, it's clear that Panetta is still peddling the same lies Bush told in 2003.

It's clear why Panetta follows the Bush party line. After all, the truth would be too terrible. We certainly couldn't tell the troops that, all these years, they've been fighting an illegal, immoral war that had absolutely no connection to 9/11 or Al Qaeda. We certainly couldn't tell the troops that the Iraqi people want them out now. Not to mention the U.S. public. (Or, for that matter, the entire rest of the world).

No, the truth is too horrible. It'd be too depressing and demoralizing for both the troops and their families, who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

It's a Big Lie that Bush/Cheney peddled endlessly when they worked to sell their war to the American people. Recall how Bush worked tirelessly for months to try to connect Saddam to 9/11.

And (as it usually does for Republicans) the Big Lie worked. One poll, in 2006, revealed that nearly 90 percent of U.S. troops believed that the Iraq war was retaliation for Iraq's role in 9/11.

If we're going to send young people into battle, I've long believed that we at least owe them the truth. That was one thing America never offered our soldiers in Iraq.

But, as the Iraq War has shown, Bush's lies to the troops have also had dark consequences for the people of Iraq.

As author Mark Crispin Miller noted in his 2004 book, Cruel and Unusual:

"Bush sent a very different message to our troops....by harping on Iraq's alleged complicity in 9/11, and by hyping the fictitious `terrorist threat' posed by that nation. Because of such inflammatory propaganda, our troops were motivated mainly by a craving for revenge, as after the destruction of Pearl Harbor. Throughout the march to war, and through the first year of the war itself, payback was on everybody's mind. `The only thing that motivates all the soldiers fighting in Iraq is payback for Sept. 11, 2001,' reported Reuters."

Miller continued:

"That lust for righteous vengeance has helped push our troops toward barbarism---which is often frightening even to themselves."

When you have a situation in which troops are filled with anger and a desire for revenge, you increase the odds that atrocities will occur. And of course, we've seen plenty of horrific atrocities in the eight years of war in Iraq. And we'll likely continue to see atrocities on the battlefield as long as our leaders brazenly lie to our soldiers.

Progressive Music Classics. The Pop Group's "Rob A Bank"

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By MARC McDONALD

Welcome to another edition of Progressive Music Classics, a salute to left-leaning music that champions the cause of working-class people around the world.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away from dogsh*t like "American Idol," music really mattered. Back then, there were artists who followed their own muse, commercialism be damned. If it meant toiling away in obscurity, then so be it.

The late, great The Pop Group, from Bristol, England, were a fantastic example of a band that refused to ever compromise in the slightest bit. They refused to compromise on their radical message. And they refused to compromise on their abrasive music and make it radio-friendly.

I've heard critics of the band over the years who've said that The Pop Group were simply too extreme. But that's what I always enjoyed about them.

Early punk bands laid the groundwork for this sort of music. The Pistols and The Clash tore up the rulebook and called for an end to the lazy, complacent, radio-friendly pop scene of the late 1970s.

But punk also raised a question: what to do afterwards? After all, three chords and a lot of rage will only get you so far, musically.

And after The Clash made the definitive punk statement, with their first album, it was clear that there needed to be a new music that'd be worthy to pick up where punk left off. Regurgitating the Pistols and the Clash over and over simply wasn't a worthy successor music (despite what dullards like Green Day and their fans believe).

Bands like The Pop Group took up this challenge in the late 1970s. They mixed up the punk template with abrasive noise, dub, funk and avant-garde sounds. They sounded (back then, and now) like a hurricane of hand grenades, threatening to blow up in the listener's face. First and foremost, they tried hard to create something totally new.

And then there was the message. The Pop Group grabbed you by the collar and forcibly showed you the evils of the world and how you were getting f*cked by The Rich and Powerful. The band raged against a wide variety of worthy targets: social injustice, racism, fascism, hunger, war, evil multinational corporations, inequality, and much more. The Pop Group didn't do love songs.

Of course, The Pop Group's deeply uncommercial records sold poorly. And they weren't even released in the U.S. But in the intervening decades, the band's message has only grown more powerful.

If anything, the world is a far more f*cked up place today than it was when The Pop Group was around. Inequality, for example, has grown dramatically, in both Britain and the U.S.

And multinational corporations have, if anything, grown even more evil and soulless (see monstrous entities like Halliburton and Goldman Sachs).

Between the horrors of George W. Bush, Gitmo, state-sponsored torture, Fox "News" and the Iraq War, it's clear that The Pop Group wasn't exaggerating when they implied that a whole new form of fascism was on the horizon.

In 1980, The Pop Group released their second, and final, album, For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? Featured in the video above, "Rob a Bank" is a song that has grown increasingly ironic over the past three decades.

But as we all found out, after the economy collapsed in September 2008, it was the banks who wound up robbing us. The Bush administration took $1 trillion of our tax dollars and used it to bail out the crooks on Wall Street.

It was an outrageous crime against the people. And it shows that The Pop Group weren't being overly pessimistic in their indictment of corporate capitalism.

Incidentally, The Pop Group recently reformed to do some gigs in Europe. The band now plan to release a new studio album in the fall.

If you like what you hear in the video above, I urge you to check out both the band's studio albums, as well as the compilation, We Are All Prostitutes. All the band's records seem to be (at least in the U.S.) only available as imports from Japan (where the band has long had a sizeable audience). Band front-man Mark Stewart has also released a number of phenomenal albums as a solo artist, since 1980.

Today's Bible Verse: "Listen, You Rich People, Weep And Wail Because Of The Misery That Is Coming On You"

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"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty."

---James 5:1-4, The Bible, New International Version.

By MARC McDONALD

One of the great political mysteries to me has always been how on earth the money-worshipping, screw-the-poor Right Wing in today's America have somehow managed to convince many people that the Bible supports their twisted beliefs.

In reality, the Bible is full of hard-core socialist messages as radical as anything I've ever written on this blog. To be sure, I've blasted America's greedy rich on a number of occasions on this site. But I've never said that, simply because one is rich, one will almost certainly burn in hell (like Jesus did).

After all, the rich who I target are those who (like the Koch brothers) who seek to destroy organized labor and America's already skimpy social safety net, simply so they can pad their already fat pockets. But I don't condemn all rich people. For a start, I admire George Soros.

Anyway, back to the Bible. It's one thing for deluded Right-Wingers to wrap themselves in the Scripture and to claim that the Bible somehow supports their beliefs. But what disappoints me far more is that the Progressives allow them to get away with this.

The fact is, the vast majority of the Bible is full of archaic, obscure verses that only a fool would claim to understand. However, the Bible does contain a number of verses that are quite clear and unambiguous.

James 5:1-4 is a good example of the latter. This passage doesn't beat around the bush: it very clearly issues a warning to rich oppressors. It condemns the greedy, exploitative rich ever bit as much as anything Marx ever wrote.

The problem is that Bible verses like this languish in obscurity. Right-Wingers carefully tip-toe away from such explosive verses that they no doubt find deeply disturbing. Instead, they dig through the Old Testament, looking for passages that seem to validate their homophobic, bigoted views. And Progressives, as always, sit around passively and allow the Right-Wing to get away with it.

We Progressives need to reclaim the Bible from the bigots, the hate-mongers, the money-grubbers and the supporters of brutal dog-eat-dog "capitalism."

Every time one of these bigoted money-grubbers claims that the Bible supports their views, we need to take crystal-clear Progressive Bible verses like James 5:1-4 and throw it into their faces.

While Texas Kids Go Hungry, Rick Perry Lives Large On Taxpayers' Dime

By MARC McDONALD

Child poverty is rising sharply in Texas. But while Texas kids go hungry, Gov. Rick Perry is living a lavish lifestyle on the taxpayers' dime.

Since 2000 (the year Perry became governor) the number of Texas children living in poverty has climbed 17 percent, even as the state has gutted spending on programs for kids. Currently, an astonishing 1 in 4 Texas children lives in poverty. The infant mortality rate is also up 10 percent since 2000.

Like George W. Bush before him, Perry demands steep sacrifices from ordinary working people---while living a luxurious taxpayer-funded lifestyle.

Take Perry's mansion, for example. While Texas is facing an eye-popping $27 billion deficit, Perry is spending $9,000 per month in taxpayer's money to live in one of Austin's most upscale estates.

When the Texas governor's mansion was damaged in a 2008 fire, Perry looked around for another place to live. With the state in financial meltdown, one might think Perry would have shown a little restraint in picking his new digs.

But no such luck. In fact, as of May 2010, Perry, according to AP, had already spent nearly $600,000 in tax dollars living in a lavish 5-bedroom, 7-bathroom sprawling rental mansion the previous two years.

As AP noted, Perry's mansion is 6,386 square feet and sits on more than three acres in the hills overlooking the Texas capitol.

Here's what Perry has been spending with our tax dollars:

• A 6,386-square-foot rental property that sits on more than three acres and was advertised in 2007 for sale at $1.85 million.
  
• $18,000 for household supplies and cleaning products.
  
• $1,001 in window coverings from upscale retailer Neiman Marcus.
  
• $1,000 for "emergency repair" of the governor's filtered ice machine
  
• A $700 clothes rack.
  
• A $56,000 stipend for food and beverages.
  
• Maintenance on the heated pool has cost taxpayers at least $8,400.
  
• The tab for grounds and lawn maintenance has topped $44,000.
  

Of course, none of this comes out of Perry's own taxpayer-funded salary, which is $150,000 per year.

While Perry spends our tax dollars generously on himself, the state of Texas is sinking into an ocean of red ink. The state's deficit is one of the largest of any state and puts it in the same league as California and other states facing fiscal meltdowns.

Even though Perry is living like a king, he still demands extreme sacrifice and fiscal restraint from the rest of us. And, of course, poor people rank at the top of Perry's list among those who should "sacrifice."

For example, despite rising child poverty, Texas ranks dead last among the 50 states in its extremely miserly and Scrooge-like food stamp program.

As the Houston Chronicle noted:

Texas does not have enough workers to process food stamp applications and is one of only three states that fingerprints applicants for food assistance. The state also imposes a time-consuming and complicated assets test that impedes the effort to help desperate and hungry people, Concannon said.

As Democratic state Senator Eliot Shapleigh noted in his "Texas on the Brink" report, it's a wonder that Texas has a budget deficit at all, considering how meager the state's programs are. Texas has abysmal rankings on just about every quality of life issue that exists for working people.

Here's how Texas ranks, in comparison with the other 49 states:

• Progressivity of Tax Revenues: 44th.
  
• Average Teacher Salary As A Percentage of Average Annual Pay: 49th.
  
• State Aid Per Pupil in Average Daily Attendance: 47th.
  
• Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Scores: 46th.
  
• Percent of Population 25 and Older with a High School Diploma: 50th
  
• Percent of the Population Without Health Insurance: 1st.
  
• Percent of the Population with Employer Based Health Insurance: 46th.
  
• Percent of Uninsured Children: 1st.
  
• Air Pollution Emissions: 1st.
  
• Rate of Incarceration: 2nd.
  

If Perry is elected president in 2012, we can expect a big, hefty dose of his "screw the working class" policies to be implemented at a national level. Perry is nothing less than Bush on steroids. If you think America is increasingly Third World-like now, you ain't seen nothing yet.
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Remember the Iraq War? It's Baaack

By MARC McDONALD

The U.S. mainstream media, as well as the American public, grew tired of the Iraq War a long time ago.

Americans got weary of the depressing, mind-numbing stories of daily violence and bombings. So sometime around 2008, we just started tuning out the Iraq War. After all, we had other, more pressing issues. Like Paris Hilton's latest hairstyle. Or Britney's new boyfriend. Or Charlie Sheen's new porn star lovers.

Never mind that we Americans had been responsible in the first place for plunging Iraq into the violent hell that now consumes that nation. And all for a war based on lies and bullsh*t.

Gradually, the Iraq war just disappeared off of our radar screens. Oh, sure, we the American people, were still paying billions of our tax dollars a month, for ongoing war costs. And, of course, our troops were still dying there.

But by and large, we just lost interest. Never before in U.S. history has a war been so invisible to the American public (at least invisible to the people who aren't actually shedding their blood on the battlefields of Iraq).

But guess what?

The Iraq War is baaack.

A new savage cycle of violence is again wracking that country. And it's going to make it awful difficult for Americans, as well as the MSM, to tune out this ongoing fiasco much longer.

Consider the violence and bloodshed that has torn through Iraq in just the past month:

1. On Monday, five U.S. service members were killed in a rocket attack near Baghdad in the worst single toll for American troops in the country in at least two years.

2. Elsewhere in Iraq on Monday, violence killed 16 people, including 12 struck by a car bomb driven by a suicide attacker in Tikrit.

3. On Friday, attacks killed 24 at a Tikrit mosque and hospital where victims were being treated.

4. On Thursday, 10 people died in at least three explosions near provincial government offices in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi.

5. On May 27, an Iraqi official in charge of keeping former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party out of government was assassinated in Baghdad.

6. On May 23, a car bomb killed five policemen and two bystanders in the city of Kirkuk.

7. On May 22, at least 18 people were killed and 80 wounded in a series of roadside and car bomb bombing attacks in Baghdad.

8. On May 19, back-to-back bomb blasts in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk killed at least 27 people and wounded another 70 Thursday, officials said.

9. On May 5, a suicide bomber attacked a police training center in Hilla, killing at least 30 people and wounding 75 Thursday. 95 people were killed or injured in a series of other bombings that day.

And so it goes, on and on, day after day. And keep in mind, the above examples are only the tip of the iceberg. Dozens of smaller violent attacks occur daily.

The spiralling violence makes it difficult to believe that the U.S. will honor its agreement to pull out the remaining 46,000 combat troops by Dec. 31.

The problem is, if the troops do stay, it's difficult to imagine how the Iraq War doesn't descend into even greater chaos. Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is already rallying thousands of his supporters on the streets and vowing to lift his ongoing cease-fire and battle U.S. forces should they remain in Iraq after Dec. 31.

The latter pretty much seems inevitable, given the increase in violence in Iraq over the past few months. It's clear that the Iraq War will be grinding on and on, for a long time to come.

Film Review: "Tokyo Gore Police"

By MARC McDONALD

Recently, I popped this 2008 cult film into my DVD player, not really expecting much. From the box, it appeared to be yet another Japanese film based on a manga graphic novel (which I generally don't find that entertaining--save the odd exception, such as the classic Battle Royale). In any case, I watch loads of Japanese films, as I'm learning the language.

As the opening credits rolled, I was a bit bored and distracted. But five minutes into the movie, Tokyo Gore Police had my complete and full attention. I was stunned at what I was seeing. I've seen a lot of Japanese horror films and a lot of blood-soaked gorefests. But this eye-popping film takes it to another level.

Tokyo Gore Police has the ability to shock even those who are jaded and think they've "seen it all." It's incredibly bloody and violent---maybe the most gory movie ever made. By contrast, the films of Takashi Miike seem tame.

And it reminded me, once again, why I am a huge fan of Japanese cinema. Whereas today's Hollywood movies are dull, predictable and follow tiresome rules, you never know what to expect with a Japanese movie. Just when you think you've got the plot all figured out, some totally unexpected development will come out of left field to surprise you.

Do you think critics' darling Quentin Tarantino is radical, cutting-edge and dangerous? If so, watch Tokyo Gore Police. It makes Tarantino look like the over-rated, predictable bore that he really is.

Tokyo Gore Police stars the dazzlingly beautiful Eihi Shiina, who also appeared in Miike's classic, Audition. She plays a ruthless cop on the beat in a violent Tokyo of the future who relentlessly goes after bizarre, murdering monsters called "Engineers." There's a bit of Blade Runner in this film, as well as some Paul Verhoeven-style social commentary. In fact, I'm sure Verhoeven would approve of the over-the-top violence.

Throughout Tokyo Gore Police, the film takes potshots at the relentless IMF-style pressuring of nations worldwide to privatize anything and everything. In this case, the Tokyo police are privatized.

Although Japanese culture and social commentary can be alien and difficult to fathom, I'd like to at least think the film is satirizing the IMF "free market" policies that brought devastation to many East Asian economies in 1997. Personally, I'd like to see Shiina take her lethal sword to the Chicago School/Milton Friedman disciples who've been responsible for so much heartache and suffering across the planet, with their misguided deregulation schemes.

And there is blood. Lots and lots of blood.

If you like horror, blood & guts and bizarre cinematic surrealism, along with a dose of subversive social commentary, be sure to check Tokyo Gore Police out.

Tokyo Gore Police (Japanese title: 東京残酷警察).

Unions and Competitiveness: My Interview on Labor Radio Program, 'Voices at Work'

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By MARC McDONALD

On Friday night, I was interviewed by Ron Gonyea, co-host of the labor radio program called Voices at Work, broadcast in the Houston area on progressive station, KPFT 90.1 FM.

The focus of the interview was organized labor and how unions make a nation competitive, a topic I wrote about in my March 10, 2011 article.

Thanks to Ron and his crew for having me on their show. We need more vital, informative programs like this in the right-wing propaganda echo chamber/wasteland that is known as talk radio today.

Media Snoozed When Glenn Beck Called Cindy Sheehan a "Slut"

By MARC McDONALD

MSNBC host Ed Schultz has been suspended for a week after he called conservative radio host Laura Ingraham a "right-wing slut." The episode has caused a huge uproar in both the mainstream media, as well as the right-wing blogosphere and talk radio. Ingraham herself has waded into the controversy by accusing Schultz of "misogyny."

But how many people recall back in 2005 when Glenn Beck called Cindy Sheehan a "slut"? Don't feel bad if you don't remember this. Unlike the uproar over Schultz's remark, the mainstream media snoozed when Beck called Sheehan a "slut." And of course, Ingraham was silent about her good buddy Beck's remark back in 2005.

Beck faced absolutely no punishment or reprimand for his 2005 remark. Indeed, this episode is completely forgotten today. Since then, Beck has gone on to enjoy an astonishingly lucrative career. For example, in 2009 alone, he pulled down a cool $32 million, mostly from his vast radio and publishing empire.

The moral of this story, of course, is this: if you're a Republican, you can pretty much say anything you want these days (including using violent rhetoric against Democratic politicians). But if you're a Democrat, you've got to be very careful and watch what you say---or you will be immediately punished, as Schultz found out.

It's all just another sad example of the double standard that exists in public political discourse in this country.

Newt Gingrich Borrows Chapter From Reagan's Racist Playbook

By MARC McDONALD

Like his hero, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich has become a master of using subtle racist messaging techniques to rally support on the campaign trail.

And like Rush Limbaugh, Gingrich has learned to skillfully dance around the "N" word and other racist language, without actually using overt racist language. At the same time, Gingrich uses race-baiting language that would warm the heart of any KKK member. Recall when Gingrich made his bizarre claim that President Obama has a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview?

But nowhere is this racist appeal more potent than when Republicans imply that the government is "taking hard-working white people's money and handing it out to lazy black people." Like attacks on affirmative action, this is a proven technique that rallies deluded white working-class voters to the party of billionaires in election after election.

Of course, Reagan was hardly the first racist Republican politician. But he was the first to realize that using racism to appeal to bigoted white voters works best if it is subtle.

In 1976, Reagan gave a presidential campaign speech in which he attacked a "welfare queen" from Chicago's South Side. Reagan never explicitly said that this "welfare queen" was black. But then, again, he didn't need to. His speech skillfully got that message across to white voters.

And it proved to be a powerful message. Many Republican voters continue to believe to this day the twisted fantasy that there are millions of lazy blacks who live all their lives off welfare. (Never mind the fact that nobody lives off welfare indefinitely, thanks to Bill Clinton's 1996 "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act," which gutted the welfare system).

Of course, tens of millions of Republican voters don't grasp this reality, any more than they grasp the reality of Global Warming or evolution.

Like Reagan, Gingrich has learned that there is no better way to rally "Conservative" white voters than subtle race-baiting propaganda techniques. He has begun attacking Obama as "the food stamp president."

True, Gingrich didn't specify that the food stamp recipients were black. But he didn't need to, any more than Reagan needed to when, in 1976, he talked about a "strapping young buck" using food stamps to buy T-bone steaks at the grocery store.

Of course, like Limbaugh, Gingrich vehemently denies that he is a racist. And indeed, his despicable racist techniques do raise a question: just what does it mean to be called a "racist" in 21st century America? As far as I can tell, you're not really considered a racist unless you're stupid enough to use the "N" word near a tape recorder.

And even then, it's debatable as to whether that would really hurt your career these days. Mel Gibson, for example, continues to make movies and earn multi-million-dollar paychecks. And former L.A. cop Mark Fuhrman has enjoyed a nice lucrative career, between writing books and hosting radio programs.

In today's America, if one dons a white hood and joins the KKK, they're considered racist.

And yet the subtle racist techniques employed by the likes of Gingrich, Reagan and Limbaugh are actually just as contemptible as anything that goes on at a Klan rally. In fact, I give the KKK credit for one thing: they're at least upfront and honest about their racism. The likes of Gingrich and Limbaugh are nothing more than race-baiting cowards.

Mike Malloy: A Beacon Of Truth Against The Flying-Monkey Right

By MARC McDONALD

With his fury and righteous anger, Mike Malloy is a bit like right-wing talkers such as Michael Savage and Mark Levin.

Except Malloy is a progressive.

And he doesn't tell lies.

And he is well-informed.

And he tells the truth (unlike the right-wing talk radio hate-spewers).

Actually, come to think of it, Malloy is nothing like fascist nutbag sleazeballs like Levin and Savage. But he does get angry. And Malloy's rage has been a beacon of truth and sanity for many of us since the darkest years of the Bush era.

Malloy continues to speak Truth To Power today (even though he's had a devil of a time finding a permanent home on the radio dial).

First he was unceremoniously booted by Air America (which left a big black mark on that network in the eyes of many of us progressives). Then he lost his subsequent gig, when the progressive network Nova M folded.

In the spirit of "if you wanna get something done, you've got to do it yourself," Malloy bravely set up shop on his own a couple of years ago and is now self-syndicated.

I suppose some timid listeners will find Malloy too abrasive. But I think Malloy's hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners style is exactly what we need to counter the likes of Limbaugh and Levin. It's time we Democrats grew a pair. It's time we started fighting fire with fire. And last, but not least, it's time we started getting angry. Why, I've always wondered, is it that the Right-Wing talkers are the ones who're always angry. We on the Left have a lot more to be angry about, for Chrissakes!

And if you're a progressive, please consider signing up and supporting Malloy's program, which currently exists solely through the subscriptions of its listeners. It only costs 25 cents a day. I call that a great investment to keep Malloy on the air, spreading the truth that you will never hear elsewhere (certainly not in the corporate mainstream media).

America Finally Got Bin Laden, But Along The Way, We Lost Our Soul

By MARC McDONALD

I was unable to bring myself to join in the recent jubilant celebration over the death of Osama bin Laden. Nearly a decade after 9/11, I can't help but think that America is a nation that has lost its soul. Once, we were the good guys in the world. Now, we're not.

It's hard to fathom how much America has changed since 9/11. We've inflicted an enormous amount of senseless damage on other nations---far more damage than we ourselves suffered on that terrible day.

Yes, "we" finally got Bin Laden. We shot dead an unarmed man. A man who was never even charged with anything, much less tried or convicted. In fact, the FBI, in its "Most Wanted" list, never even mentioned the 9/11 attacks in its entry for Bin Laden.

Bin Laden was clearly no angel. But once upon a time in this country, we considered people innocent until proven guilty. And Bin Laden is hardly the only person America has killed in recent years, without any sort of charges or trial. It's now become routine for the U.S. to fire drone missile attacks in remote Pakistan, killing people we believe are "terrorists."

And just who says these people are terrorists? The CIA?

We all know what a stellar track record the CIA has for accurate information. After all, these are the incompetents who were completely blindsided by the 9/11 attacks, the most deadly terror attacks ever launched against any nation. The CIA also signed off on George W. Bush's case for war on Iraq.

It seems to me that, for all the hundreds of billions of dollars we've lavished on the likes of the CIA, this agency has been bumbling and incompetent for many years. I'm unclear what we've gotten back for all the billions we've spent on the CIA. Certainly not national security.

I can't help but think that the CIA has been symbolic in many ways of how much America has changed since 9/11.

Once, it was unthinkable that the U.S. would officially embrace torture as a means of policy. Now, it's routine. What's worse is that, an increasingly bloodthirsty public, fueled by HateWing radio and Fox News, now supports it.

Before 9/11, the Constitution was held with reverence. Maybe it wasn't always followed to the letter, but it was still regarded as the bedrock of our democracy.

Today, after eight years of Bush, the Constitution lies in shreds. Between blatantly illegal warrantless wiretaps, waterboarding, and the "Patriot" Act, it's clear that this nation simply no longer holds the Constitution in high regard. Of course, things are better under Obama, but the damage remains.

Yes, the U.S. finally took out Bin Laden. But how many innocent people did we murder along the way? Since 9/11, hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi and Afghanistani civilian men, women and children have died violent deaths at America's hands for no good reason.

With the death of Bin Laden, Americans proclaim that "Justice Has Been Served."

But what about justice for the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghanistanis, slaughtered with American Predator drones, Tomahawks, and Hellfire missiles?

Watching the jubilant crowds celebrating Bin Laden's death frankly left me with a queasy feeling. Something, I thought, just didn't seem right. In fact, I've increasingly felt this way ever since 9/11. America is today a vastly changed place. It's no longer the America that I grew up with.

Once upon a time, the random execution of civilians without trial was something that other nations did----usually corrupt dictatorships. Torture was something that only occurred in places like Stalin's Gulags. Warrantless wiretaps only took place in totalitarian states, far away from America. Unprovoked warfare was something only other nations like Hitler's Germany engaged in.

But 9/11 changed all that.

We Americans could have responded to 9/11 like we've always done during crises in our nation's history. We could have shown the world that American democracy and respect for the rule of law is always stronger than any crisis.

But instead, America took a darker path after 9/11. In many ways, we became the bad guys.

So, yes, we did finally kill Bin Laden. But somewhere along the way, in the decade after 9/11, America lost its soul.

Update:In the piece above, I wrote: "America finally got Bin Laden, but along the way, we lost our soul."

Two days later, Michael Moore was being interviewed by CNN's Piers Morgan. Moore talked about the death of bin Laden and said, "We've lost something of our soul." In the interview, he made many of the same points I did in the article above.

Interesting. Clearly, Moore and I think alike.

Obama's Birth Certificate Release Won't Change Birthers' Minds

By MARC McDONALD

Conventional wisdom has it that President Obama's recent decision to release the long-form version of his birth certificate will finally silence the birther crowd. After all, these are the same people who've been clamoring for years for Obama to release the long-form certificate.

However, conventional wisdom in this case is wrong. It assumes that the birthers are reasonable people, who think logically and aren't blinded by irrational hatred.

Have you ever tried to argue with a birther? If so, you'll know that these aren't reasonable people. They simply can't be reached. They suffer from what Bill Maher has described as a "cone of silence" that acts as a shield to prevent factual info from entering their brains.

These people harbor a white-hot, intense hatred for Obama. They don't care about the facts. Rush and Fox News have told them that Obama is the source of all their woes. The fact that these people are racists just intensifies their hatred of our nation's first African-American president. You'd sooner persuade a KKK member to donate to the NAACP.

I don't expect the birther controversy to go away. Fox News and HateWing radio are already spinning the story to sow doubts. Last week, Fox News ran an analysis by an "expert," who concluded that the recently released long-form certificate shows signs of being Photoshopped.

If you need any more evidence that the birther conspiracy story is alive and well, consider this: Jerome Corsi's upcoming book, Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President already ranks 44th on Amazon.com's Top Bestsellers list. The book is scheduled for release on May 17. No doubt, it will sell truckloads, fueled by the hatemongers on wingnut radio.

Birthers are like all wingnuts in that they exist in their own information bubble. They never get viewpoints outside of those presented by the likes of Limbaugh and Fox News. While the birther "controversy" has been a complete non-issue for non-wingnuts for years, it's still an article of faith among the HateWing radio/Fox News crowd.

These are the same people who fiercely reject the idea that Global Warming is real (while the rest of the world as long accepted it as the documented science that it is). In fact, these are the same people who continue to believe that Bill Clinton was somehow connected to the "murder" of Vince Foster.

Foster died 18 years ago. Yet right-wing kooks continue to sow doubts about his death. I expect the birther "controversy" will continue at least as long.