Dylan Ratigan on Wikileaks: 'Difficult to Turn Page When Faced w/ the Truth'

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 08:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqVFtJ1fEkg   Posted on YouTube: October 26, 2010 By YouTube Member: MOXNEWSd0tCOM Views on YouTube: 302   Posted on DU: October 26, 2010 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 932

 
MSNBC The DYLAN RATIGAN Show - 25 Oct. 2010

RATIGAN: "Regardless of what you think about the war in Iraq, you have to question any country that has to kill civilians at a two-out-of-three ratio in order to perpetrate its war on terrorism... 31 a day, 60% of all the deaths. Is that as alarming to you as it strikes me?"

LT. COL ANTHONY SHAEFFER, AUTHOR OF 'OPERATION DARK HEART:' "Yes, it is and I think this is one of the failings of the Pentagon, and I think it was demonstrated by the way they went about looking at my book, and this issue, too. I worked for a general who once said 'Bad news doesn't get any better with age.' And in this case, as I recall, they got caught directly in a lie, where they've said 'We weren't tracking these numbers.' Well, it turns out, they were tracking the numbers. And it was far worse than they wanted people to understand. This was a failure of integrity and oversite, one which needs to be examined."

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[bjobotts]

1. The American people must force our leaders to face their own hypocrisy

[bjobotts]

2. Secrecy is not 'National Security", It is Corruption and Power Manipulation.

[DeSwiss]

3. K&R

It won't stop. The bankers and the MIC "own" the government.

[Poll_Blind]

4. Wow, Mr. Ratigan is holding the torch and I am inclined to grab mine and follow him.

Because in the next few years we're going to have to go through the same kinds of major cuts to our lifestyles that those in Europe are- in absolutely no small part because of this fucking war.

PB

[Shining Jack]

5. K&R

[indimuse]

6. KNR! n/t

[midnight]

7. Lot's of room for improvement on how this country operates.... Well said..

[swilton]

8. Since the wars of the late 20th century

there have inherently been greater and greater percentages of civilians as casualties in the conflicts. These wars are wars where there is a preponderance of technological superiority by one side of the conflict - hence the other (subordinate) adversary must use unconventional tactics a la the Battle of Algiers - where the lines between civilians and combatants becomes blurred.

Also, the more these conflicts are conducted the greater reliance there is on non-human intervention - technology replaces manpower. This is why you get the concept of 'surgical strikes' that are supposed to prevent the civilian casualties. However, the effectiveness of the surgical strike is a total illusion -

It is also our policy makers' illusion to think that our 21st century wars would be a conflict where two equivalent adversaries meet on the battle field as in WWI and WWII. Hence the billions of dollars that we spend for these kinds of conflicts (tanks, aircraft, etc.) are for naught. The 21st century conflicts are resource wars of occupation that necessitate guerilla/unconventional tactics......

It was observed by Bernard Fall in the Vietnam conflict that no matter, how much we try to substitute our technological capabilities for our lack of 'raison d'etre' , we cannot prevail.