Is this true?
 

Did anyone hear this story about the head of West Point (Brigadier General somebody) talking to the producers of 24 and asking them to stop having Keifer Sutherland torture prisoners? Or at least have the torture backfire in cases instead of it always leading to the ticking time bomb nuclear weapon. I heard it on "Countdown with Keith Olberman" (OK Slave and Penske, don't kill me, it is funny sometimes) but haven't heard it anywhere else.

Iraq: Blood and Treaure?
 

Off my corner, ho.

Roll Call
 

Four.

How about you?

Iraq: Blood and Treaure?
 

Let me rephrase, why "slow bleed" the troops then?

Is this true?
 

Yep, that story's making the rounds -- essentially, various military folks going to the producers and explaining please, stop having Bauer torture the shit out of the Islamofascist Fuckhead of the day every other episode, because (1) there's always some ticking bomb scenario on the show, which never happens in IRL situations, (2) other tactics work better, but we have to convince our troops to take the time to learn and do the other tactics instead of just beating the shit out of the prisoner because hey, Jack does it, and look how well it works!

Presumably, the producers learned that it's much more effective for the interrogator to do shit like win the prisoner's trust and then trick the information out of him, but don't want to go that route because it doesn't fit within 42 minutes of airtime. Pity, that.

Also, it appears that Bauer has tortured something like 67 prisoners in six seasons. That guy gets around, huh?

Iraq: Blood and Treaure?
 

How did I miss that? In any event, W. should have spent a lot more money on Defense and spent a lot more political capital on increasing the size of the army and the rest of the military. But he never really was a committed NeoCon. At least now he is coming around to understanding that we need more troops in Iraq and need to vastly increase the size of our military.

Roll Call
 

None yet, but I'm smiling at your publication's declaration that these 17 GOPers have decided to end their career today. Howard Coble? Walter Jones? Good luck. Those guys are so embedded in NC politics you won't get them out with a crowbar.

Is this true?
 

Problem is that wasn't any General.

The quote was from the moonbat lefty producer of the anti-FNC film "Outfoxed"

link

Is this true?
 

I have never seen the show. I hear it is really addictive, and I already have plenty of addictions: The Economist, NYT Crossword, Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome, Six Feet Under, Nip Tuck, Dirt, etc.

Iraq: Blood and Treaure?
 

It's slow bleed of the President's misconceived, misexecuted war. No troops will be slowly bled, except to the extent that they already have been denied things like body armor and armor for their Humvees by a Rumsfeld-led Pentagon that apparently had other priorities.

Iraq: Blood and Treaure?
 

And his actions never lived up to his rhetoric.

Why do you say this? Is the President prepared to advocate tax increases to pay for big increases in military spending? If not, then his war isn't as important to his as cutting taxes for his supporters.

But we all know this.

Is this true?
 

That's all fine and good, Slave, but know that some honest to shit military folks like West Point Deans met with them too.

link

Iraq: Blood and Treaure?
 

I will check it out when I get home, but are they doing this in real terms (i.e., compensating for the fact that our GDP is bigger in real terms than it was then)? Shouldn't things (everything being equal) be cheaper, as a percentage of GDP, when GDP grows?

OK, I just looked it up before going home. Motherfucker, Spanky, nice leaving out of the beginning of the paragraph you quoted:

"Mr Bush's latest request (to which must be added a supplementary $100 billion for the current fiscal year) would bring the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to $661 billion since 2001. That would make them a greater swallower of American treasure than the Vietnam war (in real dollars), though nowhere near as costly to America in terms of blood (3,100 deaths so far, versus 58,000)."

Helpful of you to leave in the "though," though.


ETA the next paragraph is very supportive of the success of the war to date:

"It is not the money that worries Americans so much as the fear that the cause is hopeless. The average number of daily attacks by insurgents and militias in Iraq leapt from 75 at the beginning of last year to 185 in November. Two-fifths of the Iraqi professional class have fled the country. Even America's successes give little relief. Late last month, American and Iraqi troops smashed a Shia cult called the “Soldiers of Heaven”. A victory is a victory, but what struck viewers in Iowa was that Iraq has heavily-armed apocalyptic factions they have never even heard of."

EATA and all of this is from the Feb. 8th issue, not the most recent issue. What is up with you? Or is it that I normally don't read your posts b/c they are too long, and so miss all this misstatement stuff?

Iraq: Blood and Treaure?
 

Nice spin.

Iraq: Blood and Treaure?
 

Ooh, burn.