“What a strange position I find myself in,” he wrote a friend, “having been assigned the mission diametrically opposed to my own personal opinion, with no choice but to push full speed in pursuance of that mission. Alas, is that fate?”

"BOTH pacific and martial currents run through American culture, and pacifism has struggled as much with its own principles as it has with the nation’s abiding militaristic streak."

"All of this makes for a gripping read. Too gripping I thought to myself."

"the authors [senior members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] make the case that America continues to rely far too heavily on its military as the primary tool for how it engages the world"

not really so much about the *PowerPoint* as it is about the inanity of military bureaucracy.

"For several decades, the Jewish establishment has asked American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead."

"In the end, my age and gender were no handicap. As Agatha Christie's Miss Marple knows, people will say almost anything to an old lady they assume to be stupid." appalling stuff, really.

Fascinating & depressing. The modern update to Bomb Power.

also: Team America? Really? They use that nickname w/out any sense of irony? O the humanity.

"In twenty-five years as a civil rights and human rights lawyer, I have never handled a case of more egregious abuse." incredibly sad and infuriating.

"We have provided credible evidence of a crime. When that threshhold is crossed, it then becomes the responsibility of the responsible authorities to thoroughly investigate the allegations."

btw, MOST LUDICROUS TERMS EVAR.

in which powerpoint continues to be evil.

creeps me out.

"However, even with the material at hand, Zazi still apparently couldn't figure it out, and he frantically contacted an unidentified person for help several times. Each of these communications was "more urgent in tone than the last," according to court documents."

including a seven-step program for recovering from militarism.

"The government owes Americans a full investigation into the orders to approve torture, abuse and illegal, secret detention, as well as the twisted legal briefs that justified those policies." yes.

"McNinch told Salon that the pressure to misdiagnose came from the former head of Fort Carson's Department of Behavioral Health. That colonel, an Army psychiatrist, is now at Fort Lewis in Washington state." ugh.

I concur.

"He called his approach “MindWar” — using network TV and radio to “strengthen our national will to victory.”" !!!!!!!

"Few of the archaeologists who authored the plan have made their identities public, fearing being branded traitors by their own people, losing their jobs, or even being killed" -- thinking that the whole idea of holy places is deeply fscked up.

I want to see this movie, and yet I'm afraid to. (Fog of War is possibly one of the best movies I have seen, ever.)

Lots of references to Terminator, Star Trek, and I, Robot in the comments, as one might imagine.

Yes, this would've been my preference too.

I hope Chia actually sent this to the city council, and didn't just post it to OlyBlog, because that's a damn good point. There's got to be ways to engage all that energy into something that builds rather than blocks.

"If we give the Pentagon a giant space laser, why do we have to send troops at all?" "because we haven't found any giant space sharks yet..." heh. a little wigged abt military running something like this.