In reply to “Why We Fight,” by Philip Giraldi, 01/21/14:
Yes, war (and in particular the US “defense” budget) is a racket.
Like most government rackets, it includes a hefty “swag for THE PEOPLE” component. Military “service” these days is really just a welfare jobs/education program whose main function is to keep both military personnel and their families/friends complacent about the real purpose of government — funneling as much money as possible from taxpayer pockets to politically connected “defense” contractors.
Sam Cruft
In reply to “Iraq: Al-Qaeda Has Firepower to Occupy Baghdad,” by Jason Ditz, 01/20/14:
Greetings. I appreciate your work and I hope you don’t take this criticism as indicative of overall dismissal.
1. Your maps are often unspecific and come across as slapdash, like a version of file footage. The map for this particular article shows neither Ramadi nor Fallujah. Wouldn’t it be easy to Photoshop them in?
2. Maliki’s government is currently trying to get as much military aid as they can from the US. They have every reason to hit the panic button because the louder they are the more weapons fall into their hands. As an antiwar site, weapons acquisition-related hysteria must by now be in your list of diagnoses, and it should be considered here.
3. More generally, your casualty statistics for any given incident are almost always the highest on the Internet. Figures for the neverending bombings in Iraq are a good example. As the years go by and your aggregate lead over other sites increases, this tarnishes your credibility.
William Earnest
