A Marine’s Take on the Iraq War

I have no idea if this is legit or not, but here’s a fascinating take on the Iraq war from a Marine’s perspective (as related to the soldier’s father). It’s mostly inside-baseball stuff regarding weaponry, tactics, etc. Worth a read.

The Inconography of Che

Ryan Clancy, in a USA Today op-ed: “Che Guevara should be scorned — not worn.”

Categories
Misc.

El Chinito: Locked Up in Chile

AP:

SANTIAGO, Chile — Peru’s disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori, wanted there on human rights abuse and corruption charges, was arrested during a surprise visit to Chile, Peru’s foreign minister said late Sunday.

Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, has been a fugitive in his ancestral homeland Japan since he fled there in November 2000, when a corruption scandal toppled his government.

He flew from Japan to Chile on Sunday to try to relaunch his political career and run for president next year.

Maybe “El Chinito,” as Fujimori’s affectionately known, should seek the counsel of Ecuador’s currently-encarcerated ex-prez, Lucio Gutierrez.

Fujimori, Peru, Chile

Capital of Burma Myanmar: Rangoon Pyinmana

BBC:

Burma’s military government has begun its move to a new administrative capital Pyinmana, in the jungle 600km (373 miles) north of Rangoon.

According to sources in Rangoon, convoys of trucks laden with personnel and equipment left on Sunday morning.

Burma, Myanmar

Great Moments in Photo Captioning

Wonkette catches this recent screw-up in the LAT.

The CIA’s Super-Secret Prison Sites

WaPo:

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

CIA

Lighten Up, Hugo

BBC:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has urged families not to mark Halloween, calling it a US custom alien to the South American nation.

“Families go and begin to disguise their children as witches. This is contrary to our way,” Mr Chavez said during his weekly radio and TV show.

He also said Halloween was a “game of terror”, the AP news agency reported.

Venezuela

US-Korea Military Alliance

Doug Bandow, writing in Reason, says the US should let Korea defend itself:

The U.S. State Department has never met an alliance, treaty, or aid program that it doesn’t like. As a result, the list of Washington’s foreign policy welfare queens is long. The Republic of Korea, however, must be near the top.

Macgyver 2008

Macgyver for president.

FEMA: It All Starts — and Ends — with Disaster

I saw this recently on The Daily Show and I can’t believe it’s true. Above is an image from the FEMA Web site illustrating “the disaster life cycle:”

The disaster life cycle describes the process through which emergency managers prepare for emergencies and disasters, respond to them when they occur, help people and institutions recover from them, mitigate their effects, reduce the risk of loss, and prevent disasters such as fires from occurring.

At FEMA, I guess it all starts — and ends — with disaster.

FEMA