Pat Tillman Murdered?

When I first heard that Olbermann was doing a show on whether Pat Tillman may have been deliberately murdered I thought to myself "this is a bit too much in the tinfoil hat-vein for me." But strangely this thing may have legs. It seems to me that this would be unthinkable, even though Tillman's atheism and Iraq war opposition might not make him the most popular man in the Bush administration's view. There's just no way that someone would order a hit on a soldier who turned down potentially millions in NFL dollars to serve his country.

And yet the best way to predict the Bush administration's behaviour is generally to imagine the most cynical, partisan position. Of course nothing that's been said thus far proves anything beyond the fact that this was a case of friendly fire. No one knows under whose orders this sort of action was undertaken. There is a certain amount of reading into this that has to be done and may always have to be done.

Free Trade is the only Freedom?

What exactly does the RCMP think that the Council of Canadians will do that is such a security threat to the Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting to be held in Montebello Quebec? And what in the hell does the US Army think it's doing telling Canadians where we can and cannot hold public meetings?! The US Army is not the law here, if Canada sooooo dangerous that our own police, intelligence, and military people can't handle things; then perhaps the US delegation ought not to attend.

These are not radical anarchists or militants or something, as far as trade liberalization critics go, the C of C is about as peaceful as they come. That doesn't mean they don't have sharp criticisms or their wits about them, but they are a far cry from the Molotov cocktail throwers.

It's a wretched irony that those that speak of breaking down trade barriers will erect every other sort of barrier, lest a dissenting voice is heard.

The US Army's Errand-Boy?

Is that what the police are in Canada under Harper now? Given how bad the situation in Iraq is, can the desire to desert the US Army be anything other than an act of clarity and sanity? Why would Canada be in any particular hurry to round up deserters?

I think deep down, no matter what he says now with the advantage of hindsight, Harper wanted us in Iraq. Not because it was a moral or wise place to send our troops - we can now see that this war was neither moral nor wise - but because Harper's foreign policy priority is to keep Washington happy. Since Harper could not send in troops now without his government falling in a matter of weeks and being reduced to a rump in a subsequent election, he will do everything to provide aid and comfort to those in the US government - let's call them dead-enders - who want to stay in Iraq.

Canada cannot, in Harper's mind, be a haven for deserters - much less a platform from which they may critique their political masters.

Let's Give Criminals Weapons and Combat Training

That was probably too cheeky of a title for this NYT article (via HuffPo) that informs us that the US Army is giving more and more people with criminal records waivers to sign up.