ENDURING WAR

• I was listening to National Petroleum Radio (NPR) today and they were talking about the US-NATO Patriot (PAC-3) "missile defense" deployments going into Turkey.  They claimed, poorly I'd say, that the systems are only for defending Turkey from an attack by Syria.  Syria attack Turkey?  The US-NATO operations now going on inside and outside of Syria has got that government pinned down in the corner and we are arming fundamentalists to take them down for ever.  Once Syria is checked off the list Iran follows.
• I truly believe that US-NATO will make a more aggressive move on Syria.  Their theory is simple - keep rolling the dice until someone (like Russia or China) who can seriously challenge the Pentagon  does.  Until then keep it rolling.
• Obama keeps the war machine humming along just as well as George W. Bush did - in fact even better because there are no serious protests in the streets.  Why aren't the "liberals" protesting another coming war?  Well it's because their president (the Democrat) is in power.  If Romney won they'd be in the streets pulling their hair out.  Instead they are admiring Michelle's latest dress or getting excited about having Hillary run in 2016.  
• Secretary of War Leon Panetta was in Kandahar, Afghanistan yesterday to thank the troops for giving up their lives on behalf of the corporate interests.  He told them the US is staying there in a big way until 2014 but after that we'd have an "enduring presence" which means Special Ops units and air bases would remain for the next 50 or so years.  Don't worry about the costs - that has been taken care of.....entitlement cuts are on the way back home. 
• We are holding a statewide meeting on Saturday in Augusta, Maine to talk about the Washington austerity budget and endless war spending.  Three of us (Lisa Savage, Larry Dansinger and me) sent out a letter to activists all over the state asking them to sign-on to a public call for the meeting.  Then we sent the letter out statewide through all of our various networks.  I'm excited about the meeting because we will get a real sense of how restive folks are becoming.  It certainly is the right time.