Looks can be deceiving

When I see a picture in the newspaper of Christopher Jordan Dorner, I think of someone who one could swap lots of funny stories with.  It's hard to believe that he is a former LAPD officer who has gone on a rampage, killing at least three people and wounding others.

Quote of the day: sex is more sinful than killing

"The real scandal is that we're scandalized by sexual escapades, not by the license to kill given to the CIA's drone program." - a paraphrase inserted in bold in "Real spies don't behave like Bond. Or do they?", David Rothkopf, Star Tribune, 2012-11-14, originally published in Foreign Policy as "Shaken, Not Stirred by CIA 'Values'", 2012-11-12.

I just find it amazing that we are willing to upset people's lives to suit our own purposes, whether it is with subpoenas to ransack houses of people we don't like or with drones to demolish houses of people we don't like.

Afghanistan - Cycle of violence continues

When you reach the end of this entry, you may feel that I could have written more.  I agree, but I felt that anything more would dilute the message.

A single U.S. soldier goes on a rampage in Afghanistan killing 16 civilians.  The Taliban vows to avenge the killings.  When the Taliban attacks the U.S. military, more Afghanis will be killed.  The the Taliban seeks vengeance again, and more Afghanis will be killed.  Each act of violence by one side increases the resolve of the other side to continue the fight.  And on and on it goes.

In the land of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, everybody becomes blind and toothless.

A better strategy to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan would for Afghanis to drop off single flowers at every U.S. base in Afghanistan and simply say, "Please go home."  Every time an Afghani sees a U.S. soldier, he or she should say, "Please go home."