Sunday, June 01, 2008

NOT A TOP TEN LIST


The following is not a TOP TEN LIST, because the things in the list do not deserve to be given a word such as TOP in any portion of the cognomen.
This is a BOTTOM ELEVEN LIST.
1. The tin pot Genghis Khan of Crawford, Texas
2. Shiitization of Baghdad
3. MESSAGE FORCE MULTIPLIERS
4. ENHANCED INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES
(I see Donald Rumsfeld laughing with a death-like grin when he said this.)
5. Non-hostile gun shot wound
6. Collateral damage
7. WONDERFUL WEAPONS
8. The asymmetric battlefields of the 21st century
9. AUGMENTATION not ESCALATION
10. HARSH INTERROGATION METHODS not TORTURE
11. THERE’S NOTHING THAT GETS THE JOB DONE BETTER THAN A CLUSTER BOMB
(“And the new cluster bombs have a 99% definition rate”.)

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!


***

Cluster Bombs, Made in America




June 1, 2008

On Friday, 111 nations, including major NATO allies, adopted a treaty that sets an eight-year deadline to eliminate stockpiles of cluster arms — pernicious weapons that scatter thousands of small bombs across a wide area, where they pose a long-term deadly threat to innocents. The Bush administration not only failed to sign the treaty but vigorously opposed it.

After marching in lockstep for years, even Britain broke with America’s position and agreed to withdraw its weapons from use. That dealt a much-needed blow to Washington’s long-standing opposition to this sort of sensible arms control, and in particular to this treaty-averse administration.
The campaign to ban cluster munitions, pressed by human rights activists, never attained quite the high profile of the one to ban land mines, a treaty that Washington also refused to sign. But the two weapons have this in common: Both wreak more damage on civilians than soldiers and present a threat long after war ends.

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