The death of the 100th Georgian in Iraq

A grim milestone has been passed, the 100th Georgia service member has died in Iraq. The most recent fatality was a Sgt. Brian Ardon from Acworth, who died this past Monday in Baghdad. Another of our fellow citizens, neighbors, family members and friends; who is gone forever. How many more are we going to lose in a war that was justified through intentional and blatant lies? The forged yellow cake documents that scream of being faked by someone who is or was from the Intelligence Community. The pack of bald faced lies that were created by the people in the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon. All of those OSP members were placed in their position with the expressed reason of circumventing traditional methods of Intelligence Analysis.

In the Vietnam War we lost 1,584 Georgia citizens, another war precipitated on lies, fear mongering and corporate greed. A generation later and we are once again in a war that has the same foundational legacy. Lies, fear mongering and corporate greed. How stupid can we be to allow things like this to happen all over again, in almost the same way?

The Democrats that were elected 6 months ago with a true "mandate" in their hands, end this war now, have turned their backs on the will of the American public and the men and women who have died in Iraq. The numbers of the dead keep rising, American and Iraqi. The politicians hand wring and keep on raking in the dough for their campaigns, hand over fist. I guess there is no time for crying when there is money to be made.

I wonder how many of that 100 from Georgia who have died ever got the chance to stand in downtown Atlanta in front of the Capital building, look up through those trees at the beautiful gold dome and at the numerous statues that surround our state house, and feel a certain twinge of excitement and pride at what our system of government represents? Reality is brutal and the fake smile of the "way things are" is cruel. If only we could live up to our potential and see through the smoke and mirrors and bullshit.

Another day, another 100 men and women gone forever. We are the poorer for their passing.

Commentary - When conspiracy theory becomes conspiracy fact

Are you a true believer of conspiracy theories? Are you a skeptic? Or are you like me, a friend of Bob who loves a little spice in their life? The world of conspiracy theory personalities is broken down into those three groups. The true believers provide the theories, the skeptics debunk the theories, both of those side battle and the friends of Bob float between the two depending on the wind, claims of both sides and mood.

What makes a person become a conspiracy theorist or follower of conspiracy theories is hard to define. I have noticed from my own experiences that in many cases what seems to spark a person down this road is an event or series of events that causes the person to question what is really going on in this world. Take legendary CT activist Mae Brussell for example. Her interest in the Warren Commission report was the key to her involvement in this sub-culture. The inconsistencies in the Warren Commission findings are many and one of the subjects I will be blogging about in the future. As if we need another Kennedy conspiracy theorist?

Mae was the first of the serious JFK researchers and her work is invaluable to this day and just as vital in a time of war on terror, war on the citizenry and Big Brother as it was in the 60's and 70's. Her work on government conspiracies was groundbreaking and of all the CT subjects it is the one area I feel most strongly about. It's easy to dismiss this field as being full of kooks, but it's impossible to deny that groups of individuals within our government are active in conspiring against the very people they represent and serve. All one has to do is look at the formation of the Office of Special Plans (OSP), it's manufactured intelligence, the events that transpired based on that false intelligence and you have conspiracy fact rather than theory.

The X-Factor of the OSP's bogus intelligence is "why" this was done. What agenda is advanced by manufacturing intelligence that will cause war to be waged? Is the motivation financial? Is the motivation expansion of power? Is the motivation xenophobia? Are all three of those things interconnected? This is where the typical theorist trips themselves. They postulate a motivation that is clouded with their own bias and leads them to conclusion that can be shot down for lack of proof.

Slowly the information is being uncovered and while we may never be able to piece together the true motivation behind the invasion of Iraq we are slowly seeing the apparatus that is used in a conspiracy. This is a real world example of how these things are created and how they are operated. Knowing this information can help us in future events and when we look back at events of the past.

News - Stovepiped intelligence

Truthout.org is reporting on the cooked intelligence that led the US into war in Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040607A.shtml

The Defense Department's Inspector General has issued a report on this which backs information that many of us have known for a long time. Officials placed within the Pentagon intentionally provided the White House with false intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion. Congress may have seen the same intelligence that the White House saw but that intelligence was blatantly false.

The war on terror will be a major CT subject for many years to come.