TheDailyBanter.com

The true meaning of Memorial Day

By Ari Rutenberg

For most of us, Memorial Day is just another summer holiday where we gather with our families, drink and eat, and maybe spend 1 second thinking about the true nature of this day.

But for some, this is a day to remember those who they have lost and to reflect on why.

From The Huffington Post:

Our Sacrifice
By Dante Zappala

Sherwood would be 34, still a big brother, a father proud of his ever growing teenage son. He'd be holding it down somehow -- working like a dog, passionate about his family and the people he served. He'd know my son. They'd share on equal measure the endless newness and wonder of life.

Sherwood would be his father's hope as he fights cancer. He would be his mother's calm and his brothers' pride.

"We went to Iraq coz they bombed us, innit sir?"

One of the greatest things about teaching is that you get to witness first-hand the workings of young minds. As any idealistic teaching recruitment advert will tell you, there is nothing better than seeing a young person grapple to make sense of something, only to grab the fucker intellectually with both hands and receieve that sense of satisfaction that us really, really, really smart people get all the time.

On the other hand, there are also few things more frustrating than seeing a child struggle painfully to grasp even the simplest of concepts, no matter how much assistance they receieve. Yet this is part of the job, and despite the frustration it's probably the most rewarding part - assuming that they do get it in the end. When they don't, the best thing to do is just to point at an imaginary angry looking badger over their shoulder and then run to the nearest pub post-haste for a nice, numbing pint. Mmmm, denial never tasted so good.

The focus of this here brain nugget of mine is, however, not so much about the general confusion of young people, but more about the level of bewilderment that Mr Bush has caused children all around the world.

West Point Revisited

By Thomas Hauser

Earlier this month, I wrote an article entitled Hypocrisy at West Point that called into question a policy known as the “alternative service option.” In relevant part, that policy states, “Army cadet-athletes now have options to pursue professional athletic opportunities thanks to the U.S. Army’s Alternative Service Option program. If cadet-athletes are accepted into the program, they will owe two years of active service in the Army, during which time they will be allowed to play their sport in the player development systems of their respective organizations and assigned to recruiting stations.”

In other words, a West Point graduate sufficiently skilled to play professional sports can pursue his athletic career without interruption. As a trade-off, he must recruit other young men and women to enter the military and face the risks inherent in combat that he has not faced.

Hypocrisy at West Point

By Thomas Hauser

Caleb Campbell (United States Military Academy, Class of 2008) is 23 years old and was captain of the 2007 Army football team. Less admirably, he is a prime example of the hypocrisy that attends the war currently being waged at the behest of his commander-in-chief.

Virtually all of Campbell’s classmates will be serving in Iraq or Afghanistan by the end of this year. That’s in keeping with the requirement that West Point cadets commit to five years of active military duty in return for their education.

Students at the Naval and Air Force academies incur a similar obligation. Roger Staubach spent four years in the Navy (including a tour of duty in Vietnam) before beginning his Hall of Fame career with the Dallas Cowboys. David Robinson also served on active naval duty before achieving superstar status with the San Antonio Spurs. Air Force Academy graduate Chad Hennings was on active duty in his branch of the service before playing in the National Football League.

Michael Ware makes case to stay in Iraq

By Ben Cohen

Michael Ware is one of the mainstream media's best journalists. The CNN Iraq war reporter is honest and unwilling to compromise his integrity for the corporate media. On Real Time with Bill Maher, Ware makes the case that the U.S is now morally bound to stay in Iraq having helped destroy it beyond recognition. I do not agree with his position (I don't think the U.S had the right to be there in the first place), but he makes a compelling  and humane argument.

Intellectuals complicit in lack of Iraq War accountability

Daily Banter Special Comment
By Ben Cohen

After having an argument with a close family member about Tony Blair's complicity in the terrorist attacks on London in 2005, it occurred to me how the architects and supporters of the Iraq war have cleverly manipulated events to evade taking serious responsibility. And they have relied on the support of the chattering classes to do so.

The central argument with my family member was that Tony Blair's alliance with George Bush took Britain into two illegal wars, and was a major cause of the terrorist attacks on London. The family member seemed to think that it would have happened anyway, and Blair should not be held accountable. This family member is a well educated, well read and highly intelligent person, but seemed unable (in my opinion) to connect the dots.

Andrew Sullivan on supporting the Iraq war

By Ben Cohen

The gay, conservative and catholic blogger Andrew Sullivan gives a remarkably honest assessment of his complicity in supporting the Iraq war. If you haven't read his blog 'thedailydish', you should. It's one of the best on the web.

Five years. And for what. Do you feel safer?

Daily Banter Special Comment

By Peter Bauer

What haunts me is the idea that these Neo Cons are out to change everything over a generation. They realize that what they’re doing takes time. In their fascist handbook Project for a New American Century, they call for revolutionary change. They said it would need a Pearl Harbor like event as a catalyst, and they got it.

Now I'm not pointing any fingers directly, I just have a few observations that I'm not alone in noticing:

A Triadic Conundrum: Turkey, Kurds, and the United States

Exclusive to The Daily Banter

By Daniel Ritchie

The United States has entered a precarious situation in an area of the world which has been notoriously entangled in historical turbulence: northern Iraq. The Ottomans, the British, the Baathists and now the Americans are playing a deadly game of divide and conquer, with the local Kurds being the major playing piece.

Iraq War Has Cost $3 trillion, says Joseph Stiglitz

This is very, very alarming:

From theaustralian.com

THE Iraq war has cost the US 50-60 times more than the Bush administration predicted and was a central cause of the sub-prime banking crisis threatening the world economy, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

The former World Bank vice-president yesterday said the war had, so far, cost the US something like $US3trillion ($3.3 trillion) compared with the $US50-$US60-billion predicted in 2003.

Australia also faced a real bill much greater than the $2.2billion in military spending reported last week by Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston, Professor Stiglitz said, pointing to higher oil prices and other indirect costs of the wars.

Professor Stiglitz told the Chatham House think tank in London that the Bush White House was currently estimating the cost of the war at about $US500 billion, but that figure massively understated things such as the medical and welfare costs of US military servicemen.