Today is Monday, 7 December 2009.

It is the 68th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which signaled the entry of the US into the second world war in a big way.

The Japanese code name for the attack was "Operation Z" -- apparently, Plan A gave way to Plan B, all the way through the alphabet and restarting again with Operation A, then Operation B... Erm...or not.

Click to enlarge. Attribution: xkcd.¹

A further bit of relatively little-known information: in 1944, the Japanese launched another attack against the United States using "Fu-Go Weapons" -- balloon bombs. The US Government knew about the effort and went to great lengths to keep any reports of the attacks out of the media in order to prevent the Japanese from learning of -- and learning from -- reports of any damage. One adult (a pregnant woman) and five children in Oregon were killed on May 5, 1945 when they came across a balloon and tried to pull it free from a tree, setting off the unexploded bomb.

War is, and shall always be, hell.

This is an Open Thread.

Michael Collins

Reprinted with permission; original post here. -- GH

by Robert Gillis, who really has too much time on his hands.

10/2009

Lunar officials declared war on Earth early Friday morning after NASA launched a preemptive strike on Cabeus Crater, home to thousands of Moonies, Moonites, and Moon-Units.

CNN had reported that NASA engineers crashed a rocket and a satellite into the moon's surface on Friday morning in a $79 million mission, to supposedly "kick up enough dust to find whether there is any water in the moon's soil."

That title, adapted from a Raymond Carver short story, should be the question at the heart of all discussions of Quentin Tarantino's new Inglourious Basterds. The movie sits at the intersections of film and our world, history and fantasy, and reality and myth. Yeah, it has unpleasant aspects (what Tarantino film does not), but that, too, is part of another of the crossroads at the heart of the film, the one between bad and good—or, to put it another way, between the human tendency to see what we do as fine and dandy and what the other does as evil.

First let me say it's been a month since I posted anything here on ePluribus, mostly because my other blogs, including a couple of new ones have kept me quite busy and I really hadn't found any subject matter to lend itself worth some commentary here.

That is until now.

Promoted. Originally posted 2009-07-04 10:16:58 -0400. -- GH

Dover 'Old Guard'
Dover 'Old Guard' team shoulders heavy burden

Iraq, Rapidly becoming the Forgotten War!! There have been 4,641 coalition deaths -- 4,324 Americans, 2 Australians, 1 Azerbaijani, 179 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, 1 Czech, 7 Danes, 2 Dutch, 2 Estonians, 1 Fijian, 5 Georgians, 1 Hungarian, 33 Italians, 1 Kazakh, 1 Korean, 3 Latvian, 22 Poles, 3 Romanians, 5 Salvadoran, 4 Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, 2 Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of June 4 2009, according to a CNN count. { Graphical breakdown of casualties }. The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country's governments. The list also includes seven employees of the U.S. Defense Department. At least 31,354 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. View casualties in the war in Afghanistan.

Promoted & bumped; originally posted 2009-06-26 08:09:42 -0400. -- GH

Soldiers on a Live Wire Between Peril and Protocol

If “The Hurt Locker” is not the best action movie of the summer, I’ll blow up my car. The movie is a viscerally exciting, adrenaline-soaked tour de force of suspense and surprise, full of explosions and hectic scenes of combat, but it blows a hole in the condescending assumption that such effects are just empty spectacle or mindless noise........

Trailers follow, after the fold... -- GH

There are such helpers in the world, who rush to save anyone who cries out. Like Mercy itself, they run towards the screaming.

And they can't be bought off. If you were to ask one of those, "Why did you come so quickly?" he or she would say, "Because I heard your helplessness.

The Secret Sentry: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 278

The question above is asked on the site of the Commission on Wartime Contracting as to their recently released report. Remember the meme at the beginning of the War Drum Beating and the easy certain Corporate "No Bid Contracts" in support of the Wars and Occupations: "They're the only ones in the World who can do the organizing and work needed in support of our Military and the Coalition of Willing!" Never mind they were connected by the hips to those beating the drums, never mind they were only paper pushers tens of thousands of miles away and sub-contracting out all the work, never mind the many issues of lost billions, shoddy work, bonuses, waste and corruption that almost instantly started coming to light and even with that they were given more, not even handshakes, just here ya go Pallets with Shrink wrapped Blocks of Cash, Millions and Billions, freshly printed and minted!! I had similar questions as this LTE writer asks, well before the report was issued the other day and this posted today, but than again many of us have had the questions of Defense Spending for years, with extremely little questioning from the greater masses. Especially us Veterans of our previous failed policies as we've watched our brothers and sisters being short changed for their service, short changed and no questions or willingness from the greater masses who don't serve!

No tea parties over billions lost in Iraq? Where are the tea parties? Where is the outrage from the purveyors of the vaunted, unregulated “free market?” The Wartime Contracting Commission reports that tens of billions have been wasted on private sector contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, due to “poorly defined work orders, inadequate oversight and contractor inefficiencies.”...........

The following was released a few days ago, yet I've heard very little talk from the talking heads, Especially the opinionated right wing spinmeisters, they have alot to say about everything else, in this country or so called libertarians and very little from the left, All War Drum Beating Supporters Of, remember there was some seventy five plus percent in favor of destroying an innocent country and many still in favor of occupying two countries while bombing another! Commission on Wartime Contracting

Promoted. Originally posted 2009-06-06 08:15:56 -0400. -- GH

Back on the 25th, of last month, for Memorial Day I put up a post to cover an interview about a new book release I caught on NPR's WBUR Here and Now, out of Boston.

While waiting for them to put up the stream link after the show I did some searching, for information on the book as well as some back information on what's covered in same.

Below you will find that post but UpDated, with a few more links and audio discussion, I've found since the posting.

Today is the Celebration for Europe and the United States of D-Day President will address veterans at American cemetery on Omaha Beach, this is not to celebrate but to Remind, and in many cases Instill in everyones minds, there's other sides, long living results, of All Wars Waged and not only for those who serve in them!

The Greatest Generation’s Troubled Homecoming

I had a first hand view, though very young than, and like the rest of the extended family didn't realize it, of what War does to those that serve in them, and you then have to extend that to those that live in where they occur.

Dover 'Old Guard'

Dover 'Old Guard' team shoulders heavy burden

Special Initiative on Agent Orange/Dioxin

Backround From 1961 to 1971, U.S. military forces sprayed more than 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides on forests and crops in southern and central Vietnam. The campaign had both human and environmental consequences. The immediate effect was to defoliate and destroy vegetation over wide areas. The delayed impact came from dioxin, a highly toxic chemical in Agent Orange that is critically harmful to humans................

‘Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism’

The flag is not powerful in spite of its ambiguity; it is powerful because of its ambiguity. It has stood, at different times, for radical democracy, opposition to immigration, the abolition of slavery, unregulated capitalism, segregation, integration, and a hawkish war policy, among many other things.

Read a selection from the introduction of "Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism" by Woden Teachout

A winter wind swept across New York Harbor on a late after noon the day after Christmas in 1971. Tourists riding the last two ferries from Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty huddled against the bulkheads, sheltering themselves from the gusts. Among the passengers were clusters of long-haired adults in well used army-surplus clothing, looking for all the world like hippies taking in the world-famous landmark. The mission of these fifteen men, however, went far beyond tourism.

Immediately upon docking at the island, the men performed a quick reconnaissance. They wedged open a few doors and then took refuge from sight; some crouched behind the massive supporting columns in the base of the statue. Some found storage closets and tucked themselves away......................Read Rest Here