Month: December 2006

According to the web site Icasualties.org, the number of U.S. servicemember casualties in Iraq has reached the 3,000 mark. The web site, which tracks American deaths in both Iraq and Afghanistan, reported the latest casualty this afternoon. He was Spc. Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Texas and died of small arms fire in Baghdad on December 28th. The death takes the monthly total to 111 deaths. December was the third bloodiest month since the invasion and the deadliest of the year.

Long Live Live Leak. WARNING: GRAPHIC. This shows Saddam Hussein dropping through the hanging platform, and then a closeup of his face immediately after. You know you want to see it.

HBO: Rome: About the Show

Founded on principles of shared power and fierce personal competition, the Republic was created to prevent any one man from seizing absolute control. It is a society where soldiers can rise up from provincial commoners to become national heroes, even leaders of the Republic.

But as the ruling class became extravagantly wealthy, the foundations have crumbled, eaten away by corruption and excess, and the old values of Spartan discipline and social unity have given way to a great chasm between the classes.

Rome: Episode Guide: Summary: Season 1: Episode 10

“Let this be an end to division and civil strife.” After a unanimous vote in his favor, Caesar declares the war over and announces five days of feasts and games honoring his ‘triumph.’

For his first ceremony, the new emperor presides over the public execution of his former adversary, the King of Gauls, who has been kept alive–just barely–in the dungeons of the city. 

In the woods outside Rome, the body of the King of Gauls, rescued from a trash heap in the city, burns atop a bonfire. 

Triumph (episode of Rome)

Vercingetorix of the Gauls is depicted as being executed as part of the Triumph, although this does not seem to have been the practice. Such captives were held, or executed at the Tullianum, not in public as part of the ceremony. Also, had he been executed publicly, he would have been beheaded (or possibly have had his throat slit), not strangled. Stranglings were commonly used to dispose of people, but were done in the tullianum, as said above, not in public. It is generally assumed that Vercingetorix was executed by strangling in the prison after being featured in the triumph, though the possibility he may have been publicly executed at the Gemonian stairs is not completely excluded.

Chuck Hagel, one of the few sane Republicans left standing, will not run for President, according to this source. Heck, he’s not even going to run for reelection to his Senate seat.

While some neocons may hold up the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia as a “model” for American strategy in Iraq, the reality on the ground is proving them wrong (once again!):

Hundreds of Somalis flooded into bullet-pocked boulevards to hurl rocks at the Ethiopian soldiers, set tires on fire and shout anti-Ethiopian slogans.

“Get out of our country!” they yelled. “We hate you, Ethiopians!”

In northern Mogadishu, residents said men with scarves over their faces and assault rifles in their hands lurked on street corners. Mogadishu has plenty of gunmen, of every age and every clan, but gunmen hiding their identity is something new and may be a sign of a developing insurgency.

“We’re going to turn this place into another Iraq,” said Abdullahi Hashi, a construction worker who said he was part of a new underground movement to fight the Ethiopians.

“Tamdiu discendum est, quamdiu vivas.” — a maxim that does not apply to our neocons.

Question: How long before American soldiers — in the role of “advisors” — start appearing on the front lines of this new “war on terrorism”? Place your bets now ….

“We got him!”

No, sorry, not Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri – the men responsible for the mass murder of September 11th, 2001. They are still chillin’ in the Hindu Kush, occasionally sending out podcasts predicting American military operations in Africa and such, but otherwise laying low.

But we got Saddam! Former loyal tool of the CIA dating back to 1959 and mass murderer in his own right.

And it only took America killing as many Iraqis as he did to “bring him to justice.”

USA! USA!

Love/Hate welcome at Stress.