Author: Laurence Vance

Thousands of U.S. troops have been disqualified from overseas duty because they are considered security risks. One reason: many soldiers are in debt way over their head. According to the Pentagon, there are two concerns: “Financial problems can distract personnel from their duties or make them vulnerable to bribery and treason.”

But never fear, President Bush signed legislation last month cracking down on high interest rates charged by payday lending businesses which often cluster outside of military bases.

Government intervention abroad is never without government intervention at home.

Army recruiters are getting so desperate for cannon fodder in Iraq that they are blatantly lying to potential recruits.

According to an ABC News undercover investigation, Army recruiters even told students that the war in Iraq was over in order to get them to enlist. Students with hidden video cameras visited ten Army recruitment offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Here is a sample of what was recorded:

“Nobody is going over to Iraq anymore?” one student asks a recruiter.
“No, we’re bringing people back,” he replies.
“We’re not at war. War ended a long time ago,” another recruiter says.

Full story and video here.

From The History of Torture by George Riley Scott (London, 1940), we read:

Often in combination with the rack was applied the “torture of water.” This was generally adopted when racking, in itself, proved ineffectual. The victim, while pinioned on the rack, was compelled to swallow water, which was dropped slowly on a piece of silk or fine linen placed in his mouth. This material, under pressure of the water, gradually glided down the throat, producing the sensation experienced by a person who is drowning. A variation of the water torture was to cover the face with a piece of thin linen, upon which the water was poured slowly, running into the mouth and nostrils and hindering or preventing breathing almost to the point of suffocation. In another variation, the nose was stopped up, either by means of plugs placed in the nostrils, or by pressure of the fingers, and water was dropped slowly and continuously into the open mouth. The victim, in his desperate efforts to breathe, often burst a blood-vessel. Generally speaking, the larger the quantity of water forced into the victim the more severe was the torture.

Will the next edition of The History of Torture contain additional water tortures used by the American military and CIA? Impossible you say? Nothing is impossible with this administration. Is there any doubt that the full story of U.S. “interrogation” techniques is yet to be revealed?

National Review (October 9, 2006, p. 4) is upset with Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the lead Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Not only has he said that the Iraq War he voted for was badly planned and badly fought, and that the Bush administration lied its way into it, he also uttered the unmentionable and unthinkable: “The world would be better off today if the United States had never invaded Iraq — even if it means Saddam Hussein would still be running Iraq.”

Well, I can think of some people that would be better off:

• Between 43,799 and 48,639 Iraqi civilians
• 20,468 wounded American soldiers
• 2,737 dead American soldiers

All figures are from the Antiwar.com Casualties in Iraq page.

The bloodthirsty “conservative” warmongers at National Review have now all but admitted that The War on Terror will never end. This is from the September 11th issue:

“Ladies and gentlemen: Our Problems are here, there, and everythere. They will last our lifetime. You have heard of the Thirty Years’ War. This is ours—if not our Hundred Years’ War.”