Category: Global Issues

It’s Illegal Stupid!

On By WinstonIn Discrimation, Global Issues, Personal Responsibility, Politics, Religion, Society, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

The ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice) wants everyone to sign its petition demanding that Iran free Pastor Saeed Abedini. Mr Abedini is a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and went on to become an ordained minister with the American Evangelist Association. He also became an American citizen through his marriage to an American woman.

Because Isam is the state religion of Iran, it is illegal to preach any other faith there. Very illegal. Pastor Abedini is in jail in Iran for working with an underground Christian group there. Now the ACJL are up in arms demanding his release. They are also demanding that the U.N., the U.S. State Department and everyone else also demand his release.

I’m not sure what grounds they have for demanding his release other than him being an American. Oh yeah… he’s a Christian spreading the word amongst the unbelievers. That makes him a big deal to the ACLJ. You see they are the legal arm of the empire of rabidly anti-gay, failed politician and televangelist Pat Robertson.

What does the ACLJ get up to when not attempting to rewrite the Iranian legal code? They fight against equivalent to spouse benefits for same-sex couples. They fight to keep prayer in schools (specifically Christian prayers). The ACLJ supports the funding of faith-based social services, religious proclamations in the public domain, and often equates religious expression with patriotism. ACLJ strongly opposes the right to legal, safe abortion and provides legal help to pro-life protesters who harass women seeking reproductive services. You get the idea.

So of course they’re outraged that Iran had the temerity to lock the nice Pastor up for spreading the Gospels. One somehow doubts they would have been so outraged had he been proselytizing the joys of the Hindu faith. More to the point, I don’t think anyone should be surprised or outraged by this. It’s not like that law is any kind of secret. Especially for Pastor Abedini… He’s Iranian by birth.
He traveled to Iran with the express intent of breaking their laws. He was arrested and put in jail. What about this is surprising to anyone? How is this anyone’s problem except for the pastor, his family and friends? Should Iran embrace religious freedom? That’s up to them, not the rest of the world. It’s certainly not up to Pat Robertson and his legal goonsquad.

To all those who are outraged that he was arrested for spreading Christianity in Iran there’s just one thing to remember…. It’s Illegal Stupid!

Cheers, Winston

How To Scratch Your Own Back

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Politics, Rants, Society, U.S. Election 2012, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

There I was peacefully reading a Reuters article about the looming “fiscal cliff” in the U.S. When I stumbled upon this gem that almost passed tea out my nose.

With the clock running down on the budget negotiations, everyone who’s anyone is weighing in on the subject. So it’s no surprise that the chairman of the Business Roundtable would have an opinion on it. In his opinion, “We encourage both sides to work around the clock, if necessary, to avoid the severe repercussions that inaction would have on U.S. economic growth and job creation,”

Sounds good so far right? It’s just a hard working bureaucrat expressing his concern for the future of the country. We need more like him. More people who put the good of the nation ahead of their own interests. Am I right, or what.

Turns out to be “or what”. You see, the chairman of the Business Roundtable is a gentleman by the name of Jim McNerney. That’s nice you think, but so what. Here’s what… Mr. Jim McNerney just happens to be the Chief Executive Officer of Boeing. That’s right, the same Boeing that proactively cut a ton of jobs the day after President Obama was re-elected. Now Mr McNerney is lecturing about job creation because there’s nothing ironic about that. Oh yeah… Boeing also stands to lose billions of defense bucks if the U.S. sails blissfully off the fiscal cliff.

So what’s a person to do? If you’re Jim McNerney, you put on your Business Roundtable chairman hat and demand a solution to the problem so that Boeing CEO Jim McNerney can keep getting rich off of defense contracts.

That ladies and gentlemen is how to scratch your own back.

Cheers, Winston

Bring Them All Home Alive

On By WinstonIn Canadian Military, Global Issues, Politics, Society, WarfareLeave a comment

The NATO mission in Afghanistan just sustained another giant kick in the groin. The head of the NATO mission has just announced the immediate cessation of joint Afghan/NATO patrols. To date, these joint patrons have been the norm and represented the cornerstone in the UN plan to train indigenous police and military forces to assume security duties from UN troops.

Why are these patrols being discontinued? Mostly, it’s because in the past year 51 UN troops have died in so called “Green on Blue” attacks. That’s the term they roll out when “rogue” elements of the Afghan police/military kill their UN trainers. This is probably the single greatest tacit admission yet that the Afghan mission is a total bust.

So how can they fix this problem? They can’t. This is the sad truth. The NATO commander is doing the only thing possible. Refusing to put NATO troops into unnecessary danger. The mission is ending shortly, so why risk lives for no gains? Keep the troops as safe as possible and let them ride out the end of the deployment with absolute minimum exposure possible.

There have been enough deaths to assuage the U.S. rage over 9/11. NATO may feel honor-bound to stick it out to the very end of their commitment, but that’s no reason to sacrifice more troops in this un-winnable debacle. Afghanistan isn’t changing any time soon. There are some parts of the society who long for change. Unfortunately those who want to maintain the status quo are much more aggressive about it. Contrary to all the propaganda that came out later, Afghanistan only got invaded because the Taliban refused to turn over Osama bin Laden. Saving the Afghan people from the Taliban only became a mission when Osama proved harder to locate than a socially conscious Republican.

They never set out to save Afghanistan. That was the worst sort of mission creep. With the impending drawdown of NATO involvement in the Afghan theater, it’s small wonder the indigenous troops are increasingly susceptible to Taliban recruitment. It’s one thing to have joined up to fight side by side with the invaders. It’s a whole other deal if you can show that you just wanted to get close enough to kill them.

Refusing to let the locals build credit with the incoming regime by killing NATO troops is probably the first smart decision made since the invasion. Now let’s make another one and get the hell out before anymore troops die for nothing.

Bring them all home alive.

Cheers, Winston

Thank You Rachel Carson

On By WinstonIn Environment, Global Issues, Politics, Society, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Miss Carson during the demi-Centennial year of her book “Silent Spring”. For those unfamiliar with it, the book described a very near future in which one could walk through any suburban neighborhood without hearing a cicada, sparrow, or any other natural sound. All due to the rampant and uninformed use of DDT.

It was a brilliant and terrifying book and it led to an eventual ban on the residential use of DDT and limited its use in many other areas as well. Before you write her off as some sort of “green” nutjob, look a little closer. Rachel never advocated a ban on DDT, only a requirement to place responsible limits on its use. She was fully aware of the benefits of chemical pesticides particularly in the fight against insect born diseases such as malaria.

The chemical industry however paints Miss Carson in a different light. They portray her clinging to the lunatic fringe, hysterically demanding a ban on DDT. They also tend to hold her personally responsible for every malaria death in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the pro-chemical crowd, DDT spraying in Africa was stopped because she got DDT banned. That’s not quite the truth. Spraying programs in Africa stopped for the same reasons as any other aid program, a lack of funding and political will. It’s perfectly legal to export DDT to Africa and countries there don’t have the same environmental restrictions we do here.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, DDT is a neurotoxin. It is also a cumulative toxin, which means it is stored in fat tissues and builds up in the system over time. Beyond simple deaths, sub-lethal levels present a more insious hazard. It causes reproductive issues and subsequent developmental problems in the offspring.

But wait, it gets better. It also accumulates in the food chain. One bird eats a thousand bugs. One cat eats ten birds. One fox eats four cats. The fox now has roughly forty thousand doses of DDT in its system. That can’t possibly be a good thing.

But wait, it’s about to get better again. It’s also environmentally persistent. So after you spray, it’s in the water, it’s in the soil, it’s in the air. Oh goody. Now that can’t possibly be a good thing. Eventually, all those little droplets make their way through the environment into the food chain. Once they get into there, it’s only a matter of time until they make their way into you and I.

So yes, I think “Silent Spring” was an important book and Miss Carson did us all a huge service by writing it and putting up with a lifetime of vilification. I don’t know what the world would look like without her work, and but I firmly believe it would have been one hell of a lot quieter……. and not in a good way.

That’s why we should all say, “Thank you Rachel Carson”.

Cheers Winston

Welcome To the Mittbot-Gerbil-Zombie Apocalypse!

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Humor, Media, Politics, Society, U.S. Election 2012, Uncategorized1 Comment

Earlier today I was reading an article about Ann Romney’s speech at the Republican National Convention. This was the latest of the ongoing efforts to “humanize”, her husband, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This raises a couple important questions for me.

The first question that springs to mind is, “Why should I believe anything she said?” Mrs Romney admitted that she was speaking from a prepared text. So she wasn’t giving any deeply personal insights into an incredibly sensitive and deeply misunderstood Mitt. She was just the most convincing voice-over they could find for their product endorsement. It’s not about authenticity or sincerity, it’s just another cynical marketing ploy. It’s like using Justin Bieber to sell acne treatments or having Brooke Shields front for La-Z-Boy. Teens who are losing their minds about acne (or Justin Bieber [or just losing their minds]), are more likely to identify with the Biebs, while Ms Shields and her Calvin Klein jeans are going to resonate better with an older demographic more interested in home decor than zit zapping.

The larger question here is, “Why does Mitt need to be ‘humanized’ in the first place?” If he’s not human, just what is he? Is he a gerbil or a wildebeest? Perhaps he’s a llama and his handlers go about in constant fear of catching a face full of llama loogie. Not to worry, I’ve got a theory. He’s a gerbil. He’s a gerbil piloting a (mostly) human-looking robot. Think anime but without the giant guns or swarms of scantily clad young girls. Then again he is running for the Republican party so there may be a giant gun in there somewhere but Ann isn’t commenting on that. (Come on, could you have resisted that one?)

Here’s the setup. Decades ago, a race of space faring gerbils arrived on the planet. Realizing we are hundreds of times their size they developed a plan to infiltrate us and destroy us from the inside. They want to take over the government (Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin were trial runs at getting someone on the inside.). Romney’s track record at Bain Capital is a preview of the Gerbil plan to destroy the morale of the United States by undermining its economy, creating mass unemployment (shipping jobs overseas), and working hard to widen the gap between the ultra-rich and the peasants they rule.

Because Hollywood assures us the U.S. is the only country able to withstand an alien invasion, once Mittbot has completely ruined and destabilized them, the invasion will begin in earnest. Swarms of Gerbil piloted Republican robots will pour out of their secret underground bases at the poles. To supplement these R-Bots, the Gerbils have developed a technology that allows them to burrow into dead people’s heads and pilot them like bots. Together the R-Bots (patent pending), and their zombie cohorts will complete their conquest of the free world.

While average Americans spend their lives in the grinding poverty of union-free, sweatshop labour camps, China and India will continue to reap the benefits of having been the first to welcome the Gerbil invaders.

It hasn’t happened yet but it could. If Mitt Romney wins, watch for the signs……. like the corridors of power being lined not with rich, soft carpets, but with wood shavings. Then you’ll see that I’m not crazy. Then you’ll see! Then it’ll be too late!

Welcome to the Mittbot-Gerbil-Zombie Apocalypse!

Muaaahahahaaa!

An Exercise In Futility On A Grand Scale

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Politics, Values, WarfareLeave a comment

I usually enjoy my morning news read. It’s not always good news, I but it always makes me think. That’s normally a good thing, but not this morning. This morning its just frustrating. This morning I was reading about Afghanistan.

According to the Associated Press, Afghanistan is set to receive $16,000,000,000 through 2015. This is intended to show the Afghanistan that even though we’ve gone home, we haven’t abandoned them. While this may ease our consciences, I doubt it’s going to be much comfort to the dead on all sides in this most pointless of conflicts.

Before everyone rushes to remind me about Osama bin Laden, or the evils of the Taliban let me clear up a couple of things. Osama bin Laden wasn’t captured because we invaded Afghanistan. He wasn’t found livng in an Afghan cave, he was found and murdered in a nice suburban compound IN THE COUNTRY NEXT DOOR! That’s probably why it took ten years to find him. The second punchline in this comically unfunny joke is the Taliban.

When it became obvious that they weren’t going to find Osama any time soon, the invaders needed a new justification. That’s when they hit on the brilliant idea of saving Afghanistan (especially its women), from the Taliban. This is such a noble idea that I feel mildly embarrassed calling it idiocy. Unfortunately, it’s idiocy. Yes we kicked the Taliban out of power and installed our own little puppet regime (YAY!) but that hasn’t worked quite the way we thought it aught to. You see President Hamid Karzai is much more aware of local realities than are the minions of the invaders states.

What this means in practical terms is that he has been negotiating a power sharing plan with the Taliban. Ummmmm yeah, those same Taliban we invaded Afghanistan to get out of power. The guy we put in power is offering to bring them back into the government. That sounds like success to me. This is the same puppet president who announced a while back that if Pakistan went to war with the U.S. he would side with Pakistan. Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds (or in this case created) him, he went for the nice, solid groin kick instead. That’s political reality in Afghanistan.

Sadly, it takes more than ten years of warfare and half-assed social initiatives to undo centuries of cultural norms. That’s been the painful lesson learned by every invader of Afghanistan. You can defeat the army and capture the cities, but Afghanistan is neither of those things. Afghanistan is a proud, defiant people bound by centuries of tradition regardless of what anyone else does or thinks.

This was made painfully evident in another news story I read this morning. Al Jazeeara has a story about a woman who was accused of adultery and executed in the street in front of a cheering crowd. Earlier in the week, a woman and two of her children were beheaded by her ex-husband. This was described as the latest in a string of “honor killings”. Violence against women has increased sharply in the past year according to an independent human rights group. Odds are, it’s only going to get worse with the impending withdrawal of the invading armies that have encouraged at least the pretense of change.

The sad truth is that it can’t be changed from the outside unless you’re willing to commit to the long haul which is more in the nature of fifty to one hundred years of unrelenting effort both military and socio-economic. That’s how you make changes. We’ve once again proven that walking in, shooting some people and dropping a pile of cash is nothing more than a tragic and heartbreaking exercise in futility on a grand scale.

Cheers, Winston

The Uncritical Thinker

On By WinstonIn Discrimation, Global Issues, Personal, Politics, Rants, SocietyLeave a comment

A post has shown up in the Facebook updates of a couple of people I know which got me a little wound up.  Being me, I quite naturally fired off a response and moved on, but I couldn’t get it out of my head.  It kept nagging at me, so I did a bit more digging.  Turns out it’s good thing I did.

The gist of the post states that the Prime Minister of Australia made a public statement that Muslim immigrants who want to live by Sharia Law should go elsewhere.  It alleges that she then went on to say that if they wish to stay, they should learn english and accept that Australia is a Christian country founded on Christian values etc.  Basically, the entire rant is blatantly racist and offensive to anyone who takes the time to think it through.  The idea of the leader of a major nation saying something like this was frankly nauseating.  To see it re-posted and applauded by people I know and care about was even more so.

When I saw the post I only had my phone with me, so I just replied from there and made a note to check it out later.  Well, later is here and here’s what I learned.  It’s a fraud.

It was originally attributed to then Prime Minister Howard back in 2005 based on some much more generic comments made by one of his cabinet ministers.  Over the years, it has mutated and been expanded to include material from an article written by a retired U.S. airforce pilot for a newspaper in Georgia.  Absolutely none of it has anything to do with current Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard or her government.

What is fascinating about this to me is the context in which I encountered it.  The people who posted and endorsed this stance are themselves the descendants of immigrants.  Those immigrants certainly didn’t learn the language or respect the culture, or religious beliefs of the people who were already here.  In point of fact, our ancestors murdered them in wholesale lots, deliberately destroyed their culture and beliefs and forced them to learn the language of the immigrants.

So what is the difference between the immigrants of today and those of yesterday?  In both cases, they dream/dreamed of building a better life for themselves, their families and descendants.  Each considers/considered their way of life to be one worth maintaining.  They want/wanted the freedom to be who they are, live how they want to live, speak their own language and worship as they see fit.  Oh yes, that sounds evil to me too.

The whole point to this post is to underline the need to actually think things through.  Instead of just accepting what we read or see as being the gospel truth, we need to be willing to look a little deeper.  We need to see if someone isn’t just playing us and feeding off our dissatisfaction to push their own agenda.  We need to be just a little more critical in our thinking and step outside of our comfort zone.  It’s important to listen to people we don’t agree with to help us understand why we think the way we do.

Uncritical thinking is dangerous.  That’s the kind of thinking that leads to wars, genocide, prejudice and hate crimes of every sort.  That’s not how I choose to live and I hope it’s not how the rest of society chooses to live.  The greatest threat to our freedoms and our way of life is, “The Uncritical Thinker”.

Cheers, Winston

The NCC Rolls Over, The Occupation Rolls On

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Occupy Movement, Personal Responsibility, Politics, Pop Culture, Society, Values2 Comments

Here in Ottawa, the National Capitol Commission (NCC) issued an eviction notice to the Occupy My Last Nerve crowd in Confederation Park.  The official midnight deadline passed and the Occupiers are still Occupied Occupying a park they have no right to camp in.  Kudos to the NCC for being spineless bureaucrats worried about offending a couple of dozen campers while ignoring the rights of every other person in the city.

We all have the right to use and enjoy Confederation Park.  My tax dollars help pay for that park, and I don’t enjoy having it full of tents and the twerps who put them there.  Seriously, these people have got to have reality explained to them.  The longer this idiocy drags on, the more annoying they become.  As witness this gem from Paul Boudreau the group’s spokesperson.

“We decided that we would politically resist eviction.  What that means is the NCC’s eviction notice is wrong and we don’t consent to it.”

Really?  You don’t consent to the eviction order?  Really?  Go to jail.  Go directly to jail.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect two hundred dollars.  Who exactly do you think you are?  This isn’t Libya, or Egypt or Syria.  You aren’t protesting a repressive and unjust regime that refuses to let you choose your government.  Hell, they’ve allowed you to camp in a public park for two months.  That’s pretty much the opposite of repressive.

An un-named protester shared this bit of genius. “I’m graduate of the University of Ottawa and I lost my job and I’m about to lose my apartment.  The system is wrong and we have to get it fixed.”

Really?  A university graduate?  Really?  If the best plan you’ve got in the face of unemployment and imminent homelessness is to camp in a park, you should ask for you money back from U Ottawa.  It’s pretty obvious they didn’t teach you anything useful.  Just out of curiosity, was the system wrong before you lost you job or only after?  It’s a fair question.

Speaking of fair questions, here are a couple more.  Are you politically active?  Not camping wise, but actually campaigning for these dearly held values of yours.  That’s how you we fix systems in this country by actually working at it.  Not whining and hoping someone will fix it for us.

Now this second question is the tricky one.  Have you considered going out and getting a job?  I realize that with your grand education and all it’s a bit beneath your dignity but you might give it some thought.  I lost my job because of greedy, stupid people at our U.S. parent.  If anyone should be out there camping and protesting the system, it’s me.  The difference is, I’m a grown up.  I don’t believe the Fairness Fairy is going to come along and evenly divide all the money in the country.   That’s why I went out and got another part time job where I’m scrambling to get every hour I can to help pay my mortgage and hydro and keep a roof over my daughter’s head and keep her in college.

Everywhere I go, I see help wanted signs.  Is there some reason you can’t take one of those jobs instead of joining the walking waste of skin which is the occupy movement?  I’ll grant they don’t pay as well as your chosen field, but I bet they pay better than the Occupy Idiocy people do.  I’m getting that if you did get an actual job, you might have better things to with your free time than camp in a public park and say stupid things to the press.

As for the other half of this debacle, the NCC needs to get it’s act together and deal with this now.  I realize that in our media centric society you have to be very careful not to be perceived as trampling their democratic rights.  The short version is, they should never have been allowed to set up tents in the first place.  Sure they have a right to freedom of speech and peaceful protest.  I’m all for those things so let them have at it.  What they don’t have a right to do is build a tent camp on public property.  I understand that sometimes the squeaky wheel get the oil, but I think this one just needs to be removed.  Their squeak is really getting on my nerve.

Cheers, Winston

Welcome To Pavillion Wyo. Population: Poisoned

On By WinstonIn Environment, Global Issues, Personal Responsibility, Society, Values1 Comment

A story on MSNBC caught my eye today.  For years now, the residents of Pavillion Wyoming have been complaining about their drinking water.  They claim it’s turned black and stinks of gasoline.  Many are claiming serious health issues relate to the problems with the water.  Why am I writing about this?

Well, aside from the genuine tragedy of the situation, there’s a Canadian connection to all of this.  You see, Pavillion sits on a large natural gas deposit.  The only practicable way to get to that gas is process known as “fracking”.

This process involves pumping a mix of water and toxic chemicals under high pressure deep underground to fracture the rock strata and release the gas.  Residents have long been convinced that this is the source of the problems with their water.  Not least because the start of “fracking” and the problems with the water were too close together to seem entirely coincidental.

What does all that have to do with Canada?  Well, as you may know we have a companies here with a lot of experience at pulling fossil fuels out of the ground regardless of the cost.  At least the environmental cost.  One of those is called EnCana.

When the people of Pavillion originally spoke up about their concerns, the company that owned the drilling rights decided it was a good time to cut their losses.  All they needed was a buyer with more cash than ethics.  Fortunately, EnCana fit that bill perfectly.

For years now they have been insisting that the issues with the local aquifer have nothing to do with all the chemicals and toxins they pump into the ground.  I mean really, what are the odds that toxic water pumped into the ground could possibly contaminate the groundwater?

Apparently, they may have miscalculated.  Responding to the ongoing concerns of the residents, the Environmental Protection Agency drilled a couple of deep monitoring wells in the area.  Can anyone guess what they found?

If you said nothing, go buy some EnCana shares.  If you said seriously life threatening levels of exactly the sort of toxins one associates with “fracking”.   These include 2-Butoxyethanol, commonly used in the “fracking” process, fifty times the safe levels of Benzene, Phenois, Acetone, Toluene, Napthalene and Diesel Fuel.  Despite attempts at damage control by EnCana, there were no traces of Nitrates or fertilizers which would have pointed to an agricultural source for the contamination.

Nope, there’s only one source, and in the words of Battlestar Gallactica’s Starbuck, “It’s pretty “fracking” obvious!”

The EPA has released the raw data, but to minimize any claims of error, they are holding off publishing findings pending further analysis.  They want to have all their ducks in a row before it all gets tied up in court for the next thirty years or so.

Meanwhile back in Pavillion Wyoming.  EnCana has denied any culpability for the contaminated ground water.  It is an act of pure charity that sees them supplying drinking water to the townsfolk.  At the same time, they are said to negotiating the sale of their local wells to an outfit from Texas.

The previous owners may not have taught them a clean way to get gas out of the ground, but at least they taught them to cut and run when the going gets tough.

Let’s be clear on one thing though.  When I talk about EnCana’s underhanded dealings with the nice folks of Pavillion, I’m not just talking about a greedy CEO or even a greed Board of Directors.  I’m talking about the greedy shareholders who don’t waste a lot of time looking at the ethical stance of the companies in their portfolios.  They just look at the bottom line and congratulate themselves on backing a winner.

If the EPA rules that EnCana and it’s predecessor and probable successor are responsible for the issues in Pavillion, then their stocks should be frozen the moment the handwriting is on the wall.  The people who wanted to profit off the misery of others shouldn’t really be given a chance to sell out.  Maybe losing some money will make them a little more sympathetic to those who’ve lost their health, their peace of mind, their homes and for  some, their lives.  As for the executives and their boards of directors, all of their assets should be seized and turned over to their victims and they should be banned for life from holding such positions of authority and abuse.

Just one person’s opinion.

Cheers, Winston

Just A Quick Note… And Major General Peter Fuller Gets The Boot

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Politics, SocietyLeave a comment

Working on catching up on my NaNoWriMo project so not a lot of time for the blog tonight.  Serious backlog of writing to take care of.  The timing is however quite excellent.  I had not idea what to write about tonight.

Of course, this is also true of the novel I’m supposed to be writing.  This whole idea of randomly deciding to write a novel in a month may not be my most well thought out plan ever.  Still, if I don’t try, I’m guaranteed not to do it.  Of course, deciding to go ahead with it only slightly increases the odds.

So now it’s time to get back to it.  But first, the news.Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller is being yanked from Afghanistan for making some wildly inappropriate, entertaining and true comments.  Fuller said something terrible about Hamid Karzai.  According to the general, who was the deputy commander of training for Afghan security forces, the Afgan President is a little erratic.  Why would he say such a thing?  Probably it has a little something to do with the Prez saying Afghanistan would side with Pakistan in a war against the U.S.

You know the same Afghanistan the U.S. just spent billions of dollars saving from the Taliban.  Yep their puppet just bit the hand that put him on the throne.  And the nasty general called him on it.  Bad General Fuller.  So says the State Department.

These are  people who should have pyramids beside them and crocodile insurance.  Yep, they spend that much time in “de-nial”.  When the president of your client state says he would help another country go to war with you it may be a sign.  Pretending it isn’t is…. what’s the term?  Oh yeah.  Delusional.

The evil general also mentioned that contrary to expectations among some Afghan leadership, U.S. pockets are not bottomless.  In his words “They think the streets are paved with gold and everyone lives in Hollywood.

So basically, a man who put his life on the line to bring freedom to the Afghans  is being punished for telling the truth.  That is what we commoners refer to as irony.  Mostly because we’re too polite to call it utter stupidity.  If they really want to punish someone, how about replacing the ungrateful wretch who just offered to go to war with them.  They’ve replaced one Afghan leader, why not go two for two?

That seems like common sense to me.  That’s why it isn’t going to happen.  There’s one thing we all know about government, military and the situation in Afghanistan in particular; common sense isn’t.

Cheers, Winston