I just ran across an amazing recount of media censorship during the first Gulf War. Evidently, Cheney, our current Vice President (has anyone seen or heard from this guy lately?), was ruthless in managing the media during the first Gulf War.

As Applewhite photographed the carnage, he was approached by U.S. Military Police who ordered him to leave. He produced credentials that entitled him to be there. But the soldiers punched Applewhite, handcuffed him and ripped the film from his cameras.

The article also mentions how the Pentegon repeatedly touted a 98% success rate of the Tomahawk missle and the precision of “smart bombs.” What they neglect to say is that only 6% of the munitions dropped during the first Gulf War were smart bombs and that in 1999 the Navy confessed the Tomahawks were, in reality, only about 10% effective.

Something I’m just now realizing is that GWI was ran by the same people in charge of GWII. I suppose their still pissed they didn’t get the oil the first time around.

Rumsfeld is a friggin hypocrit and so is the US government. A story outlining the US relationship with Iraq tells how we aided Iraq in its war with Iran because we viewed Iraq as the lesser of two evils.

If we knew he was the lesser of two evils then why the hell did we give him the chemical weapons? Only after he used them, which shouldn’t have shocked us, did we change our minds about his regime.

The above has a perfect analogy. First you find two schoolyard bullies. Then you choose the lesser of the two bullies. After that you give him a large stockpile of firecrackers. Once you’ve set this all up your “shocked” when little Tommy uses the firecrackers (provided by you) to blow up the neighbor’s (and his own) mailbox. Under current US law you would be just as guilty as he is.

A major setback for the US Government today in it’s ongoing “enemy combatant” debate. Jose Padilla has been given the right to meet with his lawyers by a federal judge. For those who don’t know Mr. Padilla is a US citizen who was working with al Qaeda to detonate a “dirty bomb” on US soild.

The decision is a legal setback for the Bush administration, which sought to block Padilla from meeting his defense lawyers under any circumstances, saying national security is more important than a detainee’s right to counsel.

No one will deny that Mr. Padilla is a very bad man, but in the same sense even Jeffrey Dahmer got to talk to his lawyer. The thing that scares me the most is that the US government denied a US citizen a basic right, the right to counsel.