Last March, as U.S. troops were preparing to launch the invasion of Iraq, a much quieter war was taking place inside the Pentagon. Karen Kwiatkowski, a lifelong conservative and career military official, was knocking heads with what she called “the neoconservative coup, the hijacking of the Pentagon.” Kwiatkowski recently wrote of the war and occupation in Iraq and what she… return to article
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Reader Comments (43)Page 1 of 1 pagesI enjoyed the article as always enjoy Karen’s work. Although I agree with the Libertarians on some issues I wished she had joined the Constitution Party.
Posted by Ron Parker on Apr 13, 2004 at 12:07 AM As another Ex-Army Vet, Karen’s commentaries strike a deep chord in my thinking.
America should return to demonstrating to the World how our internal and external policies make things work better for all, instead of imposing our views and values on cultures unready to embrace them.
Our current Admininstration appears to be insistent on responding to protest of our presence in Islamic holy places with an F__K Off attitude backed with military force. This instead of removing the offending presence, and the reason for the Islamic attitude of defending their shrines. Te remain militarily established in Saudi Arabia is an offense to many Muslim followers, being the region holding Mecca, their holiest place. Osama bin Laden has made mention of this occupation as one of his primary points of offense against America. Until American forces withdraw from Saudi Arabi, bin Laden will have fuel to fire his suicide bombers to attack the US and our interests.
Removing our forces from Saudi Arabia would cut a major support point from bin Laden and his followers, but the Bush Admin refuses to do that, instead choosing to fight battles over a point we need not defend. Militarily, we can project force over the region from many other Air bases and allied nations, so maintaining forces there is not a requirement.
Iraq was the wrong thing at the worst time. Everyone from the Pope on down condemmed the entire concept of Regime Change based on such flimsy evidence, most of which has been disproved before and since. Bush 1 offered the opinion after the first Gulf War that taking Iraq would be more trouble than it was worth. One can be sure he gave that advice to Bush 2, only to be dismissed.
The basis presented to America for invading Iraq was invalid well before it was offered as a reason. Nuke Weapons, Nigerian Yellow-cake, disproved in 2002. al Queda connections, also disproved in 2002. The UK attributions used in Bush 2003 SOTU speech were also proven false by US Intelligence before Bush spoke.
If Dubya says the sun is shining, be sure to look out the window before you take his word.
Vote in 2004.
“While there may be nothing you would wish to vote for, there will always be something you will wish to vote against” Robert A Heilien.
All the Best
Bruce
Posted by Bruce Wade on Apr 13, 2004 at 12:46 AM I wonder if Karen would consider a run for president with Ron Paul. Either at the top of that ticket would make a pair that could save this country and maybe the world.
Posted by Dennis Gaudet on Apr 13, 2004 at 5:08 AM Wonderful, wonderful interview with a great American and human being. Of all the things Karen mentioned, the concept of “mercantalism” is perhaps the most important.
Mercantalism (or should we say, neo-mercantalism?) is a subject ALL Amercicans need to learn much, much more about in the very near future. It drives U.S. foreign policy more than any other single issue--it’s just not openly discussed (ever!). Thanks for your efforts on behalf of truth justice and peace. Kirk Tofte
Posted by Kirk Tofte on Apr 13, 2004 at 5:48 AM The thing that jumps out at me in this story is the Neocon plan to control the resources and a good share of the World.
We do no have an Empire and should not be building one.
Wonderful story from a credible source.
Posted by MaryAnne Helton on Apr 13, 2004 at 6:00 AM Karen Kwiatkowski sees things as they indeed are. She is a courageous American. Our country is in extreme need of people like her.
Posted by Dr. L. Smithson on Apr 13, 2004 at 6:04 AM I find Karens stand against
the neocons courageous and enlightening. The fact that she has been on the pentagon inside track also gives her credibility and it is truely fine of her and others who have come out as the really fine patriots inb America and not just another group of policy snakes. Those who came out from the cold.:) came out without a cold.:) Best Regards Rolf KrogsÊther
Posted by Rolf KrogsÊther on Apr 13, 2004 at 11:28 AM karen kwiatkowski : an illuminating beacon of hope in a degenarate nation of warmongers and deceivers.----bravo----karen....let your light shine----so people have somebody again to look up to-------actully ----SHE should run for president wolf
Posted by wolfgang maus on Apr 13, 2004 at 12:15 PM Great interview Frida...you just left off some vital information....Is she single? And does she like Arizona?
Posted by Treg Loyden on Apr 13, 2004 at 6:31 PM excellent article...i wished our leaders would listen to your common sense.We need an American first policy,,,,armed neturality and control over our ports of entry and borders...not “patroit acts” and foreign wars and more money for Israel!
Posted by gary barney on Apr 13, 2004 at 6:42 PM I love Karen Kwaitkowski, she is a inspiration and most of all a real American Patriot.
Posted by John A Lappart on Apr 14, 2004 at 2:03 AM This interesting and informative interview of Karen Kwiatkowski is something that should be read by all who revere this great country and are concerned about the direction in which it may be going. Both the interviewer and interviewee are remarkable women. Frida Berrigan is a highly respected journalist, as is Ms. Kwiatkowski a patriotic whistleblower. The first time I became aware of Bush’s “National Security Stategy of the United States” (NSS) was when I read about it in an article by Huck Gutman: http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1009-01.htm For those wanting a more comprehensive analysis of the NSS, I recommend Chalmers Johnson’s “The Sorrows of Empire:...” and Noam Chomsky’s “Hegemony Or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance”. If those publications don’t curl your hair, I don’t know what will. And for all of you who have submitted your well informed “Reader Comments”, thank you. By the way, that photo at the top of the page...is it of Ms. Berrigan or Ms. Kwiatkowski? Perhaps the editor will let us know.
Posted by Gary Kimball on Apr 14, 2004 at 3:16 AM Make her the next President of the United States!
Karen is thorough, well-founded, extremely intelligent, an excellent communicator, knows the whole power apparatus, and able to see and set her topics into the bigger context.
Posted by Ole Engholm on Apr 14, 2004 at 3:38 AM Karen is, as always, simply marvelous. Her insights and analyses are right on target and she is a national treasure whom we need to listen to as a nation.
Posted by Alfred Wamsley on Apr 14, 2004 at 7:08 AM Go Karen Go!
“At last, an alternative to the Bush/Kerry ticket” - Aaron Russo
Posted by Tom Mayhew on Apr 14, 2004 at 9:12 AM Nothing sickens me more than to see retired government employees suddenly turn into freedom loving Libertarians when the pension checks start showing up in the mailbox. Where was all that smug, rightous indignation during her 20 years in the military? Is she still collecting her blood money?
Posted by Juvenal on Apr 14, 2004 at 10:30 AM Karen writes from the knowledge of being there and concern for what the future has for our country.
My only concern is that her being out there with the truth might put her in harms way.
We do need more people like her to come forward and expose how this Corporation, we call Government, is taking us down the road to serfdom through total control of our rights to own and manage our own property and life.
I fear that it makes no difference who is elected to the oval office, the only electable people that will be allowed are the ones that are ‘Selected’. The ‘New World ODOR’ wil march on regardless of whom is ‘Selected’
If you can find the time, a good subject for exposure might be how the ‘CORPOATIONS’ have gained control and where they are taking us.
Lloyd
Posted by Lloyd C. Smith on Apr 14, 2004 at 11:43 AM Juvenal does not appear to have extensive military experience. If he had, his comment might have been different.
Like Karen, I am retired Air Force. While on active duty. I tried to do my duty as a patriotic American. Even while living through presidencies such as LBJ whom I thoroughly detested, I naively viewed government and country almost as synonyms. It was years after retirement before I realized that rather than thinking of them as near synonyms that they were antonyms. Empire building, the justice system, the Patriot Act, and most facets of government are not American ideals but mock the spirit of the country.
Everyone has their own epiphany - sometimes when it’s least expected .
Posted by Ray Isaman on Apr 14, 2004 at 11:48 AM The biography appended to Kwiatkowski’s first article at lewrockwell.com, dated April 9, 2003, says she “is a recently retired USAF lieutenant colonel.” Assuming Kwiatkowski put in the minimum twenty years, she would have worked for the Department of Defense during all of Reagan’s, Bush’s, and Clinton’s wars.
She claims to have registered Libertarian in 1995. Where was all the angst back then? Is it no coincidence that the evil finally dawned on her when she became elible for a pension? Fitting she should live in West Virginia, the state Lincoln created in exchange for its citizens support of his war.
I suppose she is none too happy these days cashing her blood-money pension checks while lecturing us on topics of freedom and the evil Bush administration. Karen gets to have her cake and eat it too. Another Slice of Cake, Karen?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/kwiatkowski5.html
Posted by Juvenal on Apr 14, 2004 at 12:08 PM I read several articles by Karen and I find her reviews refreshing compared to other officers who appear on CNN. I was in the Air Force and would have loved to serve under her. Yes, I also wish she would go into politics. We need more good people Ron Paul and Karen. They both served their country well and back our Constitution unlike those now who have sworn to serve the people and the Constitution and could care less what either say. The latter are Hypocrites. May God guide Karen to do His will. That is the ultimate anyone can say.
God Bless;
Bill
Posted by Bill Richer on Apr 14, 2004 at 12:35 PM I have been reading Karen’s comments on what is happening to the conservative party under GWB for quite some time now. she like I are both “abandoned” conservatives under the Neocon Administration that is not conservative at all. I find Karen courageous, refreshing and a beacon of light in these dark times for traditional conservatives.
Posted by Richard Wolowski on Apr 14, 2004 at 1:54 PM A couple of weeks ago in an article on Lew Rockwell, I sure thought I read that Karen was endorsing Kerry For President. This week she is a Libertarian. I like good looking women, but I need to know who to vote for *smile*
Posted by Tom Hartley on Apr 14, 2004 at 3:57 PM I just recently discovered Karen Kwiatkowski. Nearly two weeks ago, I attended Henry Rollins’ (punk rock/hard rock entertainer/author/actor) Spoken Word show in Providence. He spoke about current events and urged people to research Karen and her views. He indicated that her articles made a lot of sense to him, and I have to agree. I like reading her articles and I definitely like the Libertarian ideology - except for the immigrants freely coming into the country. I think we need to stop that for a while - at least until we get our domestic shit together.
Anyway, Karen rules!
Posted by Chris on Apr 14, 2004 at 6:01 PM Excellent commentary, Ms Kwiatkowski, and thank you for the diligence and courage you regularly show in speaking truth to power on these vitally important issues. I have been reading and admiring your writings since signing up to receive Lewrockwell.com. Please keep up the good work!
A note for the writer on this feedback thread identifying him/herself as “juvenal”: You would do well in advancing whatever your point of view is if in the future you managed these two achievements: 1) engage in substantive rather than ad-hominem exchanges, and 2) develop reading comprehension skills sufficient to distinguish “western Virginia” from “West Virginia”.
Posted by Steve Koenig on Apr 14, 2004 at 9:54 PM I did not challenge her published opinions. I agree with those opinions for the most part.
I merely noted that a person, whom you and others here have described as “courageous”, registered as a Libertarian in 1995, yet continued to serve Bill Clinton and George Bush for the next six or seven years. Then she retired. She did not resign her commission in disgust or protest; she retired with a pension and full VA health benefits. In addition, as far as I know, to this day, she gratefully deposits those pension checks and sustains her happy retirement on her farm in Virginia.
So where is the courage? Am I the only one here who calls those pension checks “blood money”? Not only is the money forcibly extracted from me through taxes and inflation, the money is also compensation for her assistance and loyalty to the evil men she now derides.
Where was the courageous whistleblower three years ago? Where was the beacon of hope when Clinton was bombing aspirin factories in Africa? I suspect your courageous hero was putting in her time so she could collect a pension and VA health benefits, whatever those benefits are worth.
So, do you think her opinions are valid because you think she is “courageous”? Is that not ad hominem? I mis-read the Western Virginia quote. Big deal. Who says “Western Virginia”, anyway? None of the Virginians I know would ever say “Western Virginia”. Too easily confused.
Kwiatkowski should get a clue from Charley Hardman, also at Lew Rockwell:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/hardman/hardman12.html
Posted by Juvenal on Apr 14, 2004 at 11:42 PM Lady K’s a clear thinker and, even more important in the contest of ideas, an articulate writer/speaker. I submit the following quote to aqddress a fundamental phenomenon:
“Human beings love to be told what to do, but they love even more to fight and not do what they are told, and thus they get entangled in hating the one who told them i the first place.”
Posted by The Blue Raj on Apr 15, 2004 at 12:03 AM Ol’ Juvenal’s got a point, although it’s rusted with the kind of corrosion that comes from grinding an axe with too much irony.
For years, infection can lie dormant then swarm into a rapidly fatal case of blood-poisoning. Such seems the case with Lady Kay (rhymes with Lady Day, as in Holliday, swings it brother, swings). She enjoyed fortuitous timing, escaping with full pay before the disease completely overwhelmed her tenure—or she is simply the hypocrite Juvenal describes. If the latter, she is simply one of us. If the former, she is what she appears to be: someone with a story to tell that just happens to be true (or so I believe). Her history is her history; her truth is her truth. Most history is an abominable series of absurd injustices that rarely manages to tell the truth. No creature’s history has been so bad it should be denied the power to tell the truth. (Your namesake would surely agree with this.) Even the mythological Devil should know something true we need to hear.
‘Blood money’: life feeds on life. It’s ALL blood money. That someone attempts to transcend this with whatever means at hand is not necessarily a sin, I should hope.
Even if one accepts Juvenal’s reasoning that La Kay is a rat, one would be foolish to forgo the maxim: rats are the first to leave a sinking ship. That a rat should endeavor to tell of the horrors in the bilge as the water rose makes that rat a better rat than it was before.
All God’s creatures gotta swim in the water or drown, Juvenal.
We’re all in this together.
You’n’me’n’flotsam’n’jetsam’n’na apalm’n’dismembered limbs’n’blank eyes in dead faces…...the very worst you have said of Ms. Kwiatkowski—the VERY worst—is that she is not a hero. I suspect she’d agree with that. She’s no hero. She’s just another human rat trying to make her way through the latest collision between LEVIATHAN and the Titanic.
Perhaps you really have done enough heroic good in your life to justify a sneer at someone who, you say, has done enough craven evil in her life that she should now be denied the right to any degree of redemption.
You could be right; you could be wrong. Either way, she still writes a good stick and expresses certain labyrinthine, Byzantine aspects of the current neoVulcon infection with elegance, wit, and clarity.
Besides, as others have noted, she’s HOT.
She’s also married...sigh…
The Blue Raj
The Blue Raj
Posted by The Blue Raj on Apr 15, 2004 at 1:33 AM “Ms Kwiatkowski, who retired this year [2003] after 20 years service, was a Middle East specialist in the office of the Undersecretary of Defence for Policy...”
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/29/1067233251576.htmlHypocrite, I say.
When LTC (RET) Kwiatkowski, began writing for LewRockell.com last year I was suspicious, but gave her the benefit of the doubt. Yesterday, however, I discovered she had registered Libertarian in 1995, eight years before her retirement. An intelligent person like Kwiatkowski does not register Libertarian without knowing the score.
She supported the machine with her talents for twenty years and then retired happily to her farm in Virginia. Now she berates the evil men she served. And she does it with a venomous, rusty axe that awes even ol’ Juvenal.
Look how she labels Wolfowitz:
“Paul Wolfowitz: Statist, Warmonger, Art Aficionado”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski24.htmlShe even pokes fun at Bill Bennett’s hypocrisy:
“like Bill Bennett at a slot machine”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski16.htmlIn this article Karen lectures us about war profiteering:
“...Oil-greased friendships of George W. Bush, Richard “go to war for Halliburton” Cheney, Richard “Trireme and Defense Policy Board” Perle, George “Bechtel and Defense Policy Board” Schultz, the list goes on and on. Insider trading, whether for straightforward oil, engineering and services profiteering, or the political leverage of energy and weapons sales...That this was a key reason for the invasion and occupation of Iraq is moot.”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski15.htmlHey Karen, Middle East Specialist, how can you berate Cheney and others for war profiteering when those very same wars provided for your livelihood for twenty years and now fund your happy retirement? Tell us what were you doing when Clinton was planning his Lewinsky impeachment bombings in Iraqin 1999. Did the Evil Man need Middle East Specialists? Did he pay you well?
Redemption requires an apology and contrition. I will not bother to ask her to donate her retirement checks to the children killed and maimed in all the unconstitutional wars of the last twenty years. But is it too much to ask for an apology and some humility and empathy when berating the evil warmongers? Maybe she can focus her articles on explaining how a Libertarian can stomach eight years of government employment.
Posted by Juvenal on Apr 15, 2004 at 12:26 PM It is a truism here in the cyberworld that any site established for the free solicitation of opinions will, left to its own uncensored devices, soon devolve to a jabbering squabblefest of irrelevant hooey. Far be it from me not to do my part toward that end…
Juvenal, it is now obvious you are bereft of the power of reason, and are simply wielding your own venomous axe. A quote from you:
“Hey Karen, Middle East Specialist, how can you berate Cheney and others for war profiteering when those very same wars provided for your livelihood for twenty years and now fund your happy retirement?”
That a chief purpose for the Pentagon is the administration of our nation’s engagements in armed conflict is not grounds to conclude continuing armed conflict is therefore essential for the Pentagon to exist, and to be funded, and to have thinking, conscientious, career employees who earn a living there, who make a valuable contribution while there, and can honorably retire from there. Your contention that it is war which provides the livelihood for those who are warriors is simply wrong. You claim to be acquainted with people from Virginia; perhaps you also know some people in the military.. Ask some of them if they feel war is their livelihood. You may get an eye-opening reply. Conflict and readiness for conflict are not the same thing. One is amoral, the other, moral. Neither Ms Kwiatkowski nor anyone who has served as she has will have trouble distinguishing which is which.
A question for you: If Ms Kwiatkowski had never declared herself a libertarian, in 1995 or at any time, but had instead remained a Republican, and upon emergence from her career service at the Pentagon had embarked on the same right-minded denunciations of those evil, Neocon forces as she is doing now, would you be having such a problem with her as you are? Answer that please.
Posted by Steve Koenig on Apr 16, 2004 at 12:16 AM How does an individual soldier determine whether his livelihood depends on unjust war or true defense? Even if LTC Kwiatkowski, Middle East Specialist, did not directly assist with Clinton’s bombings in the Middle East, her presence freed someone else to do the work.
Kwiatkowski career “ended with 10 months of duty in a strange new country, observing up close and personal a process of decision making for war not sanctioned by the Constitution we had all sworn to uphold.”
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/kwiatkowski.htmlKwiatkowski career also ended when she became eligible for a pension and health benefits. Tell us Karen, were Reagan’s, H.W. Bush’s, or Clinton’s wars and bombings any more constitutional or justified than G.W. Bush’s?
Plenty of people resign their commissions or refuse to re-enlist. Kwiatkowski waited until she was eligible for a pension and then she bolted. If Kwiatkowski was offered another commission, would she decline for moral reasons?
“In the spring of 2002, I was a cynical but willing staff officer, almost two years into my three-year tour at the office of the secretary of defense, undersecretary for policy, sub-Saharan Africa....In December 2002, I requested an acceleration of my retirement to the following July.”
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/kwiatkowski.htmlCynical? LOL! Maybe Kwiatkowski is not the freedom loving Libertarian she claims to be. I suppose the blood money pension was just too precious. Karen, tell us again the price of public service. http://www.sftt.org/dt028.html
“I ,_________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
So help me God…
Posted by Juvenal on Apr 16, 2004 at 12:53 PM karen-
i give hard copies of your wirtten material to people in my community 25 miles east of seattle.
i wish you would come and speak at the anual ‘veterans for peace’ conference in boston just before the demos convention. your voice has lifted me many times. thank you. keep up the good work.
www.veteransforpeace.org
Posted by garrison davis on Apr 16, 2004 at 4:21 PM Words clear like a crystal stream. How America’s mighty civilian and military energy was hijacked by ideologues is The Tragedy of the new millennium. Their gaining control over a new president (with a strange smirking disorder) (and who pummelled the world with lies) was no contest. However, the challenge will be to remove those pillars of power who are seeding hate in future generations and in their genes. Genes carry more than eye colour. They carry with them, for better or for worse, the experiences of the previous generation. In 1844, Marx thought, “religion is the opiate of the people.” Today he might have cited sitcoms and pro sports. Lies, bombs and unbalanced foreign policy are no recipe for peace. Thanks to crusaders like Karen, a path may somehow be developed.
Posted by Terry Lys on Apr 16, 2004 at 7:46 PM Juvenal, please try to focus. You completely ignored the one question I pointedly asked you to address.
Here it is again, verbatim:
‘If Ms Kwiatkowski had never declared herself a libertarian, in 1995 or at any time, but had instead remained a Republican, and upon emergence from her career service at the Pentagon had embarked on the same right-minded denunciations of those evil, Neocon forces as she is doing now, would you be having such a problem with her as you are?’
It is not a rhetorical question, so please do me and anyone else reading along here the courtesy of a reply. We can then proceed to my reply to YOUR interesting question, from the first sentence of your most recent post.
Posted by Steve Koenig on Apr 16, 2004 at 10:14 PM I did answer it. Apparently, your reading comprehension skills are not up to snuff. LOL. I will speak plainly: A hypocrite is a hypocrite, regardless of what label she gives herself.
Having research this topic some more, I see here that she concedes:
“...purists might criticize me for not just throwing a few hand grenades over the office dividers and letting the chips fall where they may. But by this time I already had submitted my retirement request, and selfishly after my twenty, I wanted to spend the money, not time in Leavenworth. “
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski28.htmlPut the pieces together from her other biographical comments and you get a good picture of Karen Kwiatkowski. Enjoy that blood money Karen.
Integrity, Courage and Honor. “Have I been a good man?”, is an unwelcome reflection for a dishonorable man. “Oh, that my children never know...” Virtue is its own reward and rarely does a scoundrel escape the regret of selling it.
Posted by Juvenal on Apr 17, 2004 at 8:23 PM Here’s Charley Hardman’s answer to Death Star employees.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/hardman/hardman15.htmlWhat the career bureaucrats have a hard time understanding is that just because their work may provide a just and valuable service, they are not absolved from the evil they aid and facilitate. Karen Kwiatkowski helped plan the neo-con wars. She did it for money. She helped every president of the last twenty years do the same. She is a hypocrite for berating others for doing the same thing. What is even worse than the money is her frequent referral to being a “protector and defender of the Constitution.” She skirted that duty throughout her entire career and she knew it the whole time.
If the good and honorable men and women in the military would just walk away, then the evil doers would be left with many fewer resources to carry out their evil schemes.
“But,” you protest, “if we leave our defenses in the hands of the immoral and the incompetent, then our enemies will surely attack us.”
Possibly, probably, presumably. It does not matter to me. In fact, Bring ‘em on!! I would rather take my chances fighting an invasion of foreigners than participate in that evil monstrosity. How is that for integrity and courage and honor?
Posted by Juvenal on Apr 17, 2004 at 8:27 PM Apparently, Juvenal knows two moral settings: on & off. Apparently, he disallows Lady Kay the right to power of propaganda. She writes her pieces for, I believe, the purpose of persuasion. At face value, it is difficult to persuade oneself that her goal is other than to undermine a cabal that surely, we agree, deserves undermining.
She tells the truth regarding herself and her topics, insofar as I can tell. That she doesn’t don sackcloth and ashes to Juvenal’s satisfaction, pleading forgiveness for her tenure and her retirement therefrom, is of great concern to Juvenal and perhaps a few others reading these comments, probably including Lady Kay (assuming she reads these), but of little relevance to the purposes of her propaganda, which propaganda appears to me to be a form of warfare.
In war, one does not feature one’s weaknesses. One leaves it to one’s enemies to do so, as well as those jackals and vultures one finds in the battlefields feeding off carrion.
Apparently, the pickings down at the gates of hell are so slim that Juvenal has taken to the citizens’ sidelines to pick on those advancing the cause, however quixotic it may be, of reforming our government.
You’re right, Jjuvenal, she’s a hypocrite.
You’re merely irrelevant.
The Blue Raj
Posted by The Blue Raj on Apr 20, 2004 at 12:35 PM Epilogue:
Juvenal, your Spartacus emulation is, for me, highly unconvincing. We’re only words in here. Brandishing your sword and shouting the equivalent of ‘Live Free or Die!’ is only so much rhetoric as is everything else within this domain.
Only logic, wit, elegance & style prevail. Your logic fails by overemphasizing that which is already obvious: Lady Kay has turned traitor to the institution for which she once swore fealty; that is, she has turned on those who are in command of said institution. Uh, we get it.
Beyond that, you attack her personal morality in participating in an institution whose track record is uneven and whose theme is that of war, be it prosecution or prevention thereof, or both. You feel clean by staying away from an Army career. Welcome to that tingly fresh sensation. Does she share your belief? Apparently not. Amazingly enough, she is true—or false—or intermittently aligned with—her OWN moral code. Amazingly, it ain’t yours. That this somehow renders false or insincere her disapproval of the current regime’s murderous adventures abroad and batterings of civil liberties and economic wisdom at home, is something that fails to be proven by your assertions. That she is a hypocrite by YOUR standards is easily true; that she is a hypocrite by her own standards is likewise likely, as it is of most of us. That this somehow renders her statements less valid is patently illogical. We are judging her actions toward a shared problem, not her personal relationship with the moral fiber of her own soul. While I’m the kind of dirty-minded rascal who likes to imagine what she looks like nekkid, I am not so voyeuristic as to publicly explore via imagination the inner realms of her soul.
You’re an interesting guy, Juve.
Your elegance regularly succumbs to your lust for vitriol; likewise your wit. Your style shines best in your signature motif ‘at the gates of hell’, but fails to begin any sooner.
But, like the wag says: “That’s just my opinion. I COULD be wrong.”
The Blue Raj
Posted by The Blue Raj on Apr 20, 2004 at 1:02 PM Adbusters recently revealed that 26 of the 50 top neocons are Jewish. These guys have close family and other ties to Israel and their first loyalty is to the Likudniks there. As Mahathir Mohammad declared at an OIC meeting in Kuala Lumpur, they use America to fight their wars. Now we all know that they were the chief instigators of the war on Iraq and their targets include other Muslim nations as well. By bombing one Muslim nation after another and killing thousands upon thousands of Muslims, they imagine the world will become a safer place for Israel. As for Mahathir’s point, what more proof does one want than to note that you will not find one Jew among the 700 plus bodybags that have come from the desert.
What sort of representative democracy do they have in America, when 2% of the population can have control over a country’s media and a highly disproportionate share in politics, business and government. Note that there is not one Black American(13% of the population) in the Senate. CNN for instance appears to have a JEWS ONLY policy, because from morning till night one sees no one but Jews.
Just look at the bias in the U.S. media. Palestinians, men, women, children are slaughtered every day; hardly a mention on TV; and when one Israeli is killed its headline news. An estimated 1500 to 2000 Iraqis have been killed in Fallujah; hardly a mention. The U.S. networks today are the world’s biggest madrassas which are brainwashing millions of Americans. Isn’t it time the American people just woke up and wrested their democracy back from the hijackers.
Posted by Shahid Salam on Apr 22, 2004 at 3:37 PM Juvenile makes much hay about Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski’s “hypocrisy,” apparently unaware that serving members of the military are legally and traditionally discouraged to exhibit or implement overtly political views.
Indeed, that’s the very thrust of her outrage; that in becoming politicized, the Office of Special Plans became a cancer within the Pentagon.
At the end of the day it is the job of the military to obey civilian authority - but self-delusion is no part of that duty; indeed, it’s utterly counter-productive.
Sometimes; indeed, often, it’s the duty of solders to undertake tasks they find personally distasteful, for various reasons, be they moral or ideological. They are expected to keep that reaction to themselves, until they retire, if at all possible.
The Civil and Foreign Services have similar cultures of apolitical service; the function of government depends upon it; it is a commitment rarely violated.
Indeed, I cannot think any time during my lifetime when so many people have stepped up to criticize, not so much on political grounds, but on starkly practical and factual grounds relating to their service expertise.
And this goes a long way to show how delusional the NeoCon agenda is. It’s not just that they lie to us - they delude themselves or ignore realities that have to be seriously considered in order to successfully implement any agenda.
I do not quite understand Juvinile’s objections - hypocrites.com seems to be the usual stew of lite left outrage that would seem to welcome some validation for it’s dark suspicions. (It’s not a bad site, actually...)
Maybe he’s annoyed she didn’t have the “moral fiber” to quit in `95 and register as a Green?
I’m glad she stuck with it; I’d rather have an informed inside view than an outraged outside view any day.
Posted by Bob King on Apr 25, 2004 at 10:50 AM I fjound this article very interesting. I totally understand where she is ocming from. Suprisingly a conservative registers with the libertarian party? I have always considered myself liberal, but in ways I am not. There used to be a Goldwater Repulican faction, and even though he was somewhat before my time, I think his policys were very relevant and apply to these times. I think you can compare Goldwater’s views to Libertariasm. If only the party could get stronger. They have no clout. More people need to wake up to what is really going on, but most do not pay attention to what really is going on. They just get the mainstream bullshit, and do not delve further. That is what is ruining this country. Most of us are so involved in “our world” and too busy to really make a big difference. Something will give someday, nations don’t last forever. Scary but true.
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