Political-don't look if you don't care

[blackwidow]

Lost Down The Memory Hole

On September 10, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference to disclose that over $2,000,000,000,000 in Pentagon funds could not be accounted for. Rumsfeld stated: "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." According to a report by the Inspector General, the Pentagon cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends. Rumsfeld admitted. $2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America.

Today is the 10 year anniversary of that announcement and I wonder whatever happened to that investigation?
If you would like to see what a trillion dollars looks like...http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

Pentagram.jpg (41.95 KiB) Viewed 3887 times

Now resume your regularly scheduled programming.

PEACE

[NewCoach]

So William Cohen lost 2 Trillion dollars and Rumsfeld pointed it out. Whats your point?

[blackwidow]

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

New Coach..
I think the point was pretty clear in the original piece...we are a country currently 14 trillion dollar in debt. I care about 2.3 TRILLION dollars unaccounted for. I care fore my kids future. 2.3 trillion is HUGE. Just missing?
Since there was never any investigation done you don't know when or how it happened so your statement regarding Cohen is not based in fact.

As I said in the title.... don't look if YOU don't care.

debt_dees.jpg (88.83 KiB) Viewed 3656 times

[blackwidow]

Report: $6B missing in Iraq may have been stolen

The man Congress put in charge of auditing the billions of dollars dumped on Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled has told the Los Angels Times he can't rule out the possibility that $6.6 billion in cash sent from the U.S. was stolen.

Read on...http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162- ... 03543.html

LA Times

Missing Iraq money may have been stolen, auditors say
U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion, sent by the planeload in cash and intended for Iraq's reconstruction after the start of the war.

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 4060.story

FuckYeah!.jpg (59.41 KiB) Viewed 3562 times

PEACE

[jonriv]

[quote]The White House decided to use the money in the so-called Development Fund for Iraq, which was created by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to hold money amassed during the years when Hussein's regime was under crippling economic and trade sanctions./quote]

Not that it makes it any better- but it appears that the money that was lost/stolen/unaccounted for was saddam's frozen assets from OFAC- nice

[LOGS10]

God is busy

If you don't know GOD, don't make stupid remarks!!!!!!
A United States Marine was taking some college courses
between assignments. He had completed 20 missions in Iraq
and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who
was an avowed atheist, and a member of the ACLU.


One day the professor shocked the class when he came in.
He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "GOD, if you are
real, then I want you to knock me off this platform...
I'll give you exactly 15 min."

The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed,
"Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting."

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got
out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him;
knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.




The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently.






The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there
looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to,
noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked,
"What in the world is the matter with you? Why did you do that?"


The Marine calmly replied,
"GOD was too busy today protecting America's
soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid
stuff and act like an idiot. So He sent me."




The classroom erupted in cheers!




Thought this would envoke some conversations.

L

[softballaddict]

Semper Fi!

[blackwidow]

God is busy

Thought this would envoke some conversations.

L

Protecting our Freedoms from the dreaded Goat Herders of Afghanistan.



Cult of Military Exceptionalism that was hatched and nurtured by George Bush and the Neocons after 9/11. Which then become normative across the body politic.

Martial sensibilities have been elevated to an Olympian ideal by the Neocons, and the American military leadership has been only too happy to bask in the accolades of Exceptionalism.

Under the rubric of Military Exceptionalism, anyone who wears a uniform is a “warrior” and a “hero”. Regardless of whether or not they actually went into battle or did anything heroic. Wearing a uniform makes one braver, smarter, wiser, more disciplined and more patriotic. America is the new Sparta with its elite and privileged Warrior Class. Having worn a silver star on one’s shoulder’s implies Presidential timber. Witness the lionization of David Petraeus, whose accomplishments amount overseeing the failed COIN doctrine in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Military Exceptionalism rationalizes the huge bloated DoD budgets that fund Mission Creep, Cheap Talk, Big Guns. Because to challenge any of the underlying ownership claims of the military is to challenge the gods themselves.

Obama has been caught up in the Power of the Cult. Because he’s too feckless to resist. Too much is never enough when it comes to “Supporting the troops!”

America may be tiring of War, but it has not tired of supposing that the American war-making apparatus is pristinely noble and omnipotent.

As long as the Cult remains in place, the opportunities for reactionary war are boundless.

[joaquinjunior]

God be with us.