Okay, a show of hands -- how many people were the least bit surprised that the essence of General Petraeus's and Ambassador Crocker's testimonies to Congress regarding the fiasco in Iraq boiled down to 1) It's working, and 2) Stay the course?
You thought they were going to disagree in any significant way with George W. Bush?
Really? And how are things on your planet, in that galaxy far, far away?
Maybe because the public doesn't read and has no sense of history, the Bush administration thinks this will fly. After all, it has flown so many times before ...
Here's how you sell a dubious solution to a problem: You hire somebody for whom the public has a lot of respect and admiration. Like, say, Colin Powell. Then you trot him out, have him run with your sack of tar and smoke, and hope he has enough good will to make it across the finish line.
Hey, it worked for WMDs. I can still see Powell pointing at that picture of somebody's trailer-tractor at the UN -- see? Look, right there, why, any fool can see, it's an H-bomb, and a missile next to it that can put it smack into in your barbecue grill, out back.
Be afraid! Be very afraid ...
Got us into a big, fat, ugly war, didn't it? One we started. Kicked in the door, shot everything that moved, and, learned, as they say, that Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam ...
Of course, it cost Powell whatever good will he had amongst a whole shitload of people, me included. He was a good soldier, he did what he was supposed to do for the team, and they won the day. It just cost him his honor.
I hope when he goes to bed each night, he believes it was worth it, but I doubt that he does. I hope it's the last thing that runs through his mind on his death bed, that wonder. Could I have stopped it? And if not, should I have been a part of it?
So now we have Petraeus, another good soldier with a lot of respect, and the Dr. G.B. Feelgood Medicine Show is back in town, peddling the next round of snake oil.
What is the matter with you, America? Has somebody been putting stupid pills in your food?
Wake fucking up!
Mencken was right: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died; more than three thousand American military folk likewise; ten times that many have been seriously wounded; cost taxpayers a trillion dollars -- a trillion! --- so fucking far, and what have we gotten for our money?
In a longer time than it took the U.S. and its allies to beat the Japanese and the Nazis in a full-scale world war, Iraq is still a quagmire.
Guess what -- it's never going to get any better in Iraq. Fourteen hundred years, and the Sunnis and Shiites are still killing each other over the Fourth Caliph. You think anything an American occupying army can do in five, ten, or a hundred years is going to make a difference in that? If you honestly think so, better make a pass by Jiffy Lube -- you are a couple quarts low.
Call your congressman and senator. Tell them you've had enough. If they are men, suggest that they grow some balls, get on their hind legs, and do the right thing. Make some noise. So when you look back from your death bed, you can at least say you did that much.
It was obvious to me ..Petraeus didn't write shit...that whole report was written by the puppets in the whitehouse..Petraeus is just a mouth piece like Colin Powell was. As to writing my congressman..screw them as well..they are as helpful as a fart in a whirl wind.
ReplyDeleteAnarchy looks better every day!
can write heartfelt emails to my senator and congressman, and have done so. I can go stand on the corner in front of the library on Wednesday evening for the peace vigil, and I can scream on my blog high, wide, and repeatedly. That's not enough, but it's better than just sitting there stewing in my own juices. If enough people make enough noise, it makes a difference. It did in the sixties. It blew Lyndon Johnston out of the water because he knew he would lose re-election over Vietnam.
ReplyDeletePeople are not outraged enough this time. No draft, not enough conscripted sons and daughters dying. But this one pisses me off as much as the last one did. Our foreign policy sucks, across the board. Got zip to do with supporting the troops, that's smokescreen is so old it was made with flint and steel.
It was stupid for us to go into Iraq, stupider still to stay there.
I will say so to anybody who will listen. Might not help, but I'm not going to sit quietly and be part of the problem.
Fuck that.
Oh I don't stew Steve..not in the least..I prepare for the eventuality of SNAFU....and it is closer than one might think...I guess all that military training will come in handy!
ReplyDeleteNah, I stew. Or used to. Now I light one candle. Still curse the darkness ...
ReplyDeleteStop obscuring your opinion behind a lot of fancy words, Steve. Give it to us STRAIGHT.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Never thought I'd be able to throw that one back at you.
The fact that Bush and his gang haven't been impeached and aren't in jail says a lot about how much the Congress as a whole cares about the disaster they helped create and are still funding. Sure, I've written my representatives, but being unable to enclose a large check with my letters pretty well assures that my opinion will have no effect whatsoever. I don't see any way, or at least any way that's legal, to solve the problem. The professional political class is making no sacrifices, American citizens (other than those in the military) are making no sacrifices and the war profiteers and scam artists are doing just fine, thank you very much. The way I look at it, you've got about 54,000 more American deaths and a few trillion more dollars to go before the people of this country will have had enough, or at least will have had enough to actually do what is necessary to get the attention of their corporate/political masters.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say you should stick to what you know about (writing) and forget about politics. But it's a free country, despite what you liberals want, so I won't sat anything. But you really, REALLY nee dto examine you undelying assumtions about the "lies". Like who attacked who first.
ReplyDeleteA) Liberals want a free country. Certainly I do, so saying liberals don't want that is wrong.
ReplyDeleteLiberal is not a curse word. Never has been.
B) You want to tell me how many Iraqis hijacked those planes that slammed into the towers, the Pentagon, and that field?
Versus, say, how many of our friends, the Saudis were involved?
Or show me any link that Saddam had anything to do with that attack?
The guy who masterminded that is still running around loose, in case you missed it. The U.S. has pretty much destroyed two countries, unless you missed that, too, and Osama keeps on sending the tapes.
Bad idea, badly prosecuted, inept, criminal. The list goes on and on.
Maybe you should stick to whatever it is you know, which doesn't seem to be history or politics.
Amen Steve.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Iraqis and liberals racked up the biggest debt this world has ever seen, hijacked and crashed the planes, profiteered from oil, didn't help the Gulf Coast(yet!!!),
let our infrastructure collapse, lost all our allies' trust, destroyed the foundation of our country, and still get on the TeeVee to talk about how fucking brilliant they are, and that we should trust them on their next big plan.
Damn liberals....
Oh yeah, and Iraqis...
I'm sorry Steve, you seem to have a mild troll infestation here. Obviously it is the yellow striped "right troll".
ReplyDeleteI recommend sprinkling powdered billy goat testicle around the place, it seems to do the trick. (and it is as close to having balls that most of that particular troll ever gets)
If that doesn't work you can hang up military recruiting posters, which the common right troll finds quite frightening.
Reasonable people can disagree, and debate the merits of their cases, no problem. However: I know snide when I see it, and that's not the way to begin reasoned debate.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of logic in some of the justification for going to war with Iraq is incredible.
If your neighbor two doors down comes to your house and throws a rock through your window, you might rightly feel you can drop by his place and return the favor.
That doesn't give you the right to burn down the other houses on the block.
Using Osama as a justification for invading Iraq? Doesn't play.
That your neighbor on the other side of the rock-thrower *might* have a rock and *maybe* someday he might throw it at your house? That doesn't give you the right to kick in his door and unload your shotgun at him and his family.
Fear is the mind-killer, and it's fear of the Other that allowed this war to crank up. If we don't fight them there, we'll have to fight them at the local Safeway?
Oh, please.
Terry, you forgot a few:
ReplyDelete1) Waged an all out war against science in the government even going so far as to attach a political officer to all bureaus to make sure the science agrees with the President's political agenda
2) Took a dump on the Constitution and wiped their butts with the Bill of Rights
3) Looted the Treasury for the benefit of a few rich Republican donors
4) Declared that one man is above the law
5) Brought in torture as a matter of national policy
6) Got rid of posse comitatus, trial by jury, habeas corpus, attorney-client privilege, the right to examine evidence and confront accusers
7) Enlisted churches in a contingency plan to have clergy crush dissent by preaching obedience to authority
8) Members of the Administration including VP "Swingin' Dick" Cheney directly war profiteered to the order of billions of dollars
9) Destroyed the United States Military
10) Directly stole the critical State of Ohio in 2004. The official record shows that the votes were counted at computers whose IP addresses belonged to *drumroll* the R.N.C.
And all of those are just a taste.