Bogged down over the release of detainee abuse photos, a bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was on track Friday for passage in Congress after a late-night intervention by President Barack Obama.
Negotiations between the Senate and the House of Representatives had been at a deadlock Thursday after the Senate introduced a measure banning public release of the controversial images allegedly showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of US military personnel.
But in a letter to the negotiators, Obama made a last-minute guarantee that he “will continue to take every legal and administrative remedy available to me to ensure the DoD (Department of Defense) detainee photographs are not released.”
Covering up torture- Check.
Continual funding of wars of aggression- Check.
Awareness that imperialism negates democracy- um…
12 June, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Well, I phoned my Rep and his office said he’s still “considering” his vote. FDL has…White House browbeating frosh Dem reps
http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/06/12/leadership-threatens-freshmen-who-wont-vote-for-supplemental/
12 June, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Thanks Jay, must be hard for antiwar dems now the party has the power to stop pretending they were against the wars. And the picture issue, the Whitehouse could of told Lieberman etc where to get off if they were minded to, a bad fucking joke. Endless war devolves into this accelerating brutality. Like they say about Israel the US too is a military with a country attached!
12 June, 2009 at 11:40 pm
RickB: We are corporations with a country attached.
13 June, 2009 at 12:15 am
It’s weird you should say that as I was surfing some wingnut rubbish which amounted to making nationalism synonymous with corporatism ie patriotism is to do whatever corporations want of you. And in a highly privatised war that includes dying for their profits all smothered in nationalistic propaganda, and that really is just imperialism with a shiny focus group tested face. The British drive was also govt and private companies (with handy aristocratic networks of power) telling people it was some great cause to commit mass armed robbery on other nations. Smedley Butler twigged it in the 30’s from first hand knowledge, as the US empire rose as Britain’s fell. This Monbiot piece is interesting
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/08/british-empire-colonies-banks-reform
and maybe shows the way for the US too especially as environmental factors and peak oil/water bite, our nations’ crime sprees are up.