Grenade Or Aid?

A massive version of the above chart can be found here.

War Number Three

"No ground troops." But there will be sanctions and probably within days, cruise missiles and drone attacks. Because two wars are not enough.

Addicted To War

2010: Soldier Suicides Vs. Combat Deaths

For the second year in a row, last year the number of U.S. soldiers who killed themselves exceeded those killed in battle.

One of the problems hindering the military's attempt to address soldier suicides is that there's no real rhyme or reason to what kind of soldier is killing himself. While many suicide victims are indeed afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after facing heavy combat in the Middle East, many more have never even been deployed. Of the 112 guardsmen who committed suicide last year, more than half had never even left American soil. "If you think you know the one thing that causes people to commit suicide, please let us know,” Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli told the Army Times, "because we don't know what it is."

Where To Be After The Bomb Drops

The New York Times reports on the latest advice from the feds on what to do in the event of a nuclear bomb.

Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe. The advice is based on recent scientific analyses showing that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.

According to the report, the safest place to be in a big city is inside the core of large building or in an underground parking garage.

American Family Association: The Medal Of Honor Is Girly Because We Give It To Soldiers That Haven't Actually Killed

"We have feminized the Medal of Honor. According to Bill McGurn of the Wall Street Journal, every Medal of Honor awarded during these two conflicts has been awarded for saving life. Not one has been awarded for inflicting casualties on the enemy. Not one. Gen. George Patton once famously said, 'The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his.'

"When we think of heroism in battle, we used the think of our boys storming the beaches of Normandy under withering fire, climbing the cliffs of Pointe do Hoc while enemy soldiers fired straight down on them, and tossing grenades into pill boxes to take out gun emplacements. That kind of heroism has apparently become passe when it comes to awarding the Medal of Honor. We now award it only for preventing casualties, not for inflicting them. So the question is this: when are we going to start awarding the Medal of Honor once again for soldiers who kill people and break things so our families can sleep safely at night?" - American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer, who closes with a bloody quote about the violent righteousness of Jeebus.

Rachel Maddow On Iraq Withdrawal

Well, that was a few trillion well spent. Thanks, Dubya.

Postcards From Hell

Foreign Policy Magazine has posted a photo series titled Postcards From Hell, which catalogs the world's "most failed states." The list was compiled by the Fund For Peace.

This year's index draws on 90,000 publicly available sources to analyze 177 countries and rate them on 12 metrics of state decay -- from refugee flows to economic implosion, human rights violations to security threats. Taken together, a country's performance on this battery of indicators tells us how stable -- or unstable -- it is. And unfortunately for many of the 60 most troubled, the news from 2009 is grave.

The Global Peace Index

According to the Global Peace Index, Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world for the fourth year in a row. The most peaceful: New Zealand. Interactive timeline, map, and stats at the link. The United States ranks 85th, just above Angola.

(Via - Andrew Sullivan)

104 Months: Afghanistan Is Now The Longest War In American History

And there's no end in sight. Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) laments:

That June 7, 2010, marks the 104th month of US military engagement in Afghanistan and, consequently, America's longest war in history (Vietnam lasted 103 months), would be less significant if we were not fumbling on all fronts in Afghanistan, from security to development to governance. The disconcerting indication of this mile-marker is not simply that Afghanistan trumps Vietnam as "longest war in history," but that there is no guarantee that by the 116th month, in July 2011, the bulk of US presence will leave as promised. Many in Washington warrant that "we are in it to win it". Not only is this paradigm problematic given past precedent of similar, failed attempts by the Russians and the British to "win" in Afghanistan, but we are hardly "winning" now - another 104 months (some suggest we should stay indefinitely in Afghanistan) hardly increase our chances of "winning".

Need it be pointed out that Operation Enduring Freedom began during the Dubya Regime?

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) Introduces The "War Is Making You Poor Act"

Rep. Alan Grayson proposes a bill that:

* Limits the amount of funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
* Eliminates the federal income tax on the first $35,000 of every American’s income ($70,000 for married couples)
* Cuts the Federal deficit by $15.9 billion

The bill requires the president to fund the wars from the $549 billion budget for defense spending in FY 2011. “There is no longer any need to go beyond the exorbitant base defense budget," Grayson said. "It is not necessary. Enough is enough."

Not a chance in hell of passing, but at least somebody is screaming about war spending. Watch this.

SAD MILESTONE: 1000 Killed U.S. Soldiers In Afghanistan, No End In Sight

Yesterday the number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan reached 1000. And the end of the war is nowhere in sight.

On Tuesday, the toll of American dead in Afghanistan passed 1,000, after a suicide bomb in Kabul killed at least five United States service members. Having taken nearly seven years to reach the first 500 dead, the war killed the second 500 in fewer than two. A resurgent Taliban active in almost every province, a weak central government incapable of protecting its people and a larger number of American troops in harm’s way all contributed to the accelerating pace of death.

Dick Morris: Obama Is Anti-American Because He Won't Use Nukes

Former Clinton White House adviser Dick Morris says Barack Obama is the first anti-American president because he's said that he wouldn't use nuclear missiles to respond to a non-nuclear terrorist attack on an American city.