Letters to the Editor
Derbig Mooser
Published Letters: 1523
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A little Scenario
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No one will be able to extricate us from Iraq, painlessly.
Look, do you guys remember, from the run up to the war, and then as each facet of the war, the incompetence, the outright lying, the descent into military barbarism, was discovered, the co-ordination between the White House, the media, and the Armed Forces. In each case, the invasion, occupation set up, looting, detaining, well everything, there was an exquisite ballet between the players to concoct legal justifications, obscure or hide information, and finally obscure or abrogate responsibility. All of that, and probably much more.
So what happens if the next President gets in and says: Okay, we're gonna fight this war, I believe in this war, even if we are just fighting our way out of this war. But we are gonna start, from this day, no more lawbreaking, no more obfuscation, and no more contractor stealing, and Oh, the detainees, I want those men tryed or let go.
See, he's not stopping the war, he's just trying to fight it so it won't stain the reputation of the first non-white President. It's a heavy burden, being the first, and Obama's got to at least want that.
"But President Obama", they say, "If we fight the war the way you want, why, we can't fight it! Can't you let us slide a little?"
President Obama says,"Men, Fightin' Men, I'd love to, but the minute I get so much as a parking ticket the MSM and the right-wing noise machine is gonna be all over my black ass. Listen sukas, I'm the first non-white President, I just can't take a chance, besides, they would" and here he chuckles ironically,"lynch me!"
The Generals go away and think about it. They think about accountability and responsibility for their actions, and how you could have a beer with George and about the next day Obama gets a note: "We think Iraq can take care of itself, and besides our men need a serious rest. We'll be out before you know it. I'm sure nothing bad will happen"
Are you starting to get me now. Don't use the enlisted men to hide behind. Upper ranks do that all the time. You don't have to join them. Not for the contractors sake, at least.
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@jkalos
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's a whole lotta hyberbole there. Just an acute hyperbolic episode.
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Oh Lord!
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But I would LOVE for all nationally elected officials to have served in the military. As enlisted men/women
Yup, that's just who I want, too! People who elected to sign away their moral agency and self determination, just as soon as they didn't have their prents, one or both, to tell them what to do.
They'd be wonderful.
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Of course...
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I copuld make a joke about high veteran suicide rates, and term limits, but it would be making light of a tragic situation.
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@Jkalos
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I guess I'm relying on the enlightened self-interest of the Generals to prevent the worst.
I'd rather rely on their survival instinct. Which an Obama administration (they would call it an admonishtration, cause they think it's talking bad about them behind their backs) would, I most definitely feel, do. I hope so.
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A Towel for Mr. Greenwald, please, and some new pants!
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Best one sentence I have seen out of you in some time;
buckyl
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@DClaw1
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Inspiring, very! But who is equal to the story of Christopher Hitchens' war? Think of the logistics problems; the guy has to be tailed by a booze-filled fleet of C-130's! Heroic flying, "over the Hump and straight to the chump" as one pilot put it.
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@Proximity Warning
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Did you find the WMDs? Good for you! Wow, we'll show those doubters now!
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and it's "inscribed on"
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But don't let your language problems dissuade you, I didn't graduate either.
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@RMP
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks, and again you've avoided the question. It must not be worth answering, and a disquisition on the homo-erotic nature of the command structure in the enlisted ranks is always worth having.
I don't think, sir, you are being completely straightforward with me.
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Godless Atheism
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]DCLaw1 bear in mind that Hitchens must do it all, unshriven and unannealed, without the Divine Comfort and Certainty which, perforce, must lead on to Glory. The bastard says he's an atheist! He only makes exception for Allah, the god of the Islamofacists, who doesn't exist but bids fair to assist the Islamist terrorists in establishing their new Caliphate. (or Islamicists, if you prefer, if that's the word I want.)
Anyway, it's two many for me. I stop after one drink.
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@Paroxysm Warning
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have a lot more respect and time for someone who says Iraq was about oil, or energy, or imperial ambition - all of which are true to some degree or another - than I have for reductionist morons whose soap-opera world is no more complex than a Maureen Dowd column.
Proxy
You're so right Paroxysm, my man! I never should have been taken in by that WMD thing! How could I have been so stupid?
I remember back then you telling us it was all hype. Little did we know how profound your insight into these things was!
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Hitchens post
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He's all that, with a good case of the DTs thrown in. It's that old "noble mind here oer'thrown" wheeze. That is how it goes, right?
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Three weeks
[Read the article: Fred Kagan on Monday: "The civil war in Iraq is over"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wait a minute. Is all the time the US spent dropping leaflets on the Iraquis warning them of the coming invasion, and encouraging them to lay down their weapons when they meet US troops, counted in the "three weeks"? Cause that's an act of war, in any book.
Danielgre, my wife's not feeling well and I won't be posting, and I don't feel like being irritable. Listen pal, just do yourself a favor and maybe not post and actually read the posts and the comments. There's no need for you to get chewed to ribbons, rhetorically and intellectually, and you ain't got what it takes to go out any other way. Save yourself some embarrassment. Shit, I'd try to run interference for you if I could be here but I can't.
You arouse sympathy, really "amazing feat"
Dan, tell your feats to do their stuff.