PEACE: Brought by doves?

Sun Tzu: Do you know what I would do if I could do all I can?

Afghanistan Observes 2007 International Peace Day” by United Nations Photo on Flickr via Creative Commons.

WAR: Seduction

Sun Tzu: For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

Battle of Britain Memorial Sculptor: Paul Day  Photo: Some rights reserved by Feggy Art

WAR: Only Black and White

War does not determine who is right, only who is left. ~ Bertrand Russell

Original: A Witness Speaks through Pictures licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

WAR: Bonfire

Sun Tzu: There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

Original image: Some rights reserved by aresauburn™

U.S. Wasting Billions While Tripling No-Bid Contracts After Decade of War in Iraq, Afghanistan

As the war in Afghanistan approaches its 10th anniversary, a pair of new reports reveal how the Pentagon has squandered tens of billions of dollars while tripling the amount of no-bid contracts. The bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting concludes that between $31 billion and $60 billion spent on projects in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 10 years has been lost to waste and fraud. In Afghanistan, the commission found the United States is indirectly funding the Taliban as money diverted from U.S.-backed projects is paid out to militants to ensure safety. Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s use of no-bid contracts has tripled since the United States was attacked on 9/11, in spite of promises to reform the controversial practice. A new investigative report from the Center for Public Integrity says no-bid spending has ballooned from $50 billion in 2003 to $140 billion in 2011. We speak with Charles Tiefer, a member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan and a professor of government contracting at the University of Baltimore Law School, and with Sharon Weinberger of the Center for Public Integrity, author of the investigative series “Windfalls of War.” “There are as many contractors in the war zone as there are soldiers. But we haven’t adjusted our thinking for it. We haven’t adjusted our structure for it,” Tiefer says. [includes rush transcript]
(Source: democracynow.org)

WAR: Fed Up Yet?

Original image: © Copyright John Readman andlicensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.