Speaking as we were about whether the GOP deliberately employs Rove tactics and turns major weaknesses into completely illogical weapons of attack...

Hans Von Spakovsky, whose own colleagues DoJ accused him of radically politicizing the department, is now claiming that Obama will do what...?

Yep, politicize the DoJ!

Link at sig.

Economics is another area where the GOP can't win a debate, I'm sure.

McCain's campaign is going into damage control mode now. It's that bad for them.

I went to Vietnam about 10 years ago. In the middle of Saigon (formerly Ho Chi Minh city) they have a museum to commemorate what they call "The American War". The walls are covered with horrific photos of US soldiers committing atrocities which I am sure most US citizens even today - despite a whole genre of US 'Nam movies - cannot imagine really happened.

For example, one image I clearly recall showed two young soldiers holding up the bleeding, decapitated heads of their victims. They still had their knives in their other hands, and the blood-soaked corpses lay at their feet, but they were grinning at the camera like fools.

The fact that the USA clearly did not learn its lesson in Vietnam is evident from the fact that they repeated it in Iraq. Those soldiers in Abu Ghraib had the same stupid grins on their faces when they hammed it up for the cameras, and no doubt many worse atrocities were committed elsewhere, in places like Falluja where entire cities were massacred.

How is it possible that the mighty USA got itself into the same mess? How it is possible that virtually the same people are in charge, after all these years? I think there are two main reasons, and they are themes which Glenn continually hammers here.

First, the role of the US media in glorifying war, hiding the ugly truth, and burying stories which do not fit the official narrative.

Secondly, the lack of accountability in government, including the US military's inability (now evident in Gitmo's farcical trials and cases like Haditha) to properly hold members accountable.

Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Please learn the lesson this time, America. Face the truth, however ugly and unpalatable it might be. Hold the perpetrators accountable.

Don't let another million people die, a generation from now, at the hands of the same stupid, grinning fools.

@ Good Celery, nice to meet you too sir. And sorry for stirring up painful old memories. I'll have a 333 beer to your good health any day!

What got to me about that "American War Museum" was that you walk through the doors and suddenly you are immersed in a totally different reality. You tell yourself, well, this is just government propaganda from the other side, right? But the pictures do not lie (they didn't have Photoshop back in 68) and there are so very, very many of them... Your mind starts wresting with what you thought you knew, asking "How can this be...?"

There will be a whole new generation of angry, traumatized and confused US soldiers heading home soon, people. Many of those poor, confused boys from Sarah Palin's small town USA are now brutalized monsters. Others will be going through the same strange reality check as they try to adjust back to "normal" life... "How could this have happened?"

@ nuf said

There is nothing uniquely American about such behavior. It is what ALL people do when they resort to war. ALL victors celebrate the destruction of their enemies.

It's God's will...

I was going to add a third fundamental reason why the USA repeated the mistakes of Nam: the general population's continued capacity for self-delusion, and their totally incomprehensible need to cling to this myth of "US exceptionalism". But I thought the first two reasons might help explain this third phenomenon, if not quite excuse it.

IF those responsible for this war are held accountable, and if the media fully covers the horror of what has been done by all protaginists, including the media itself, that would certainly go a long way towards destroying the myth.

What sort of God endorses such meaningless slaughter?

Having just posted a comment on the last thread about US exceptionalism and that whole "God On Our Side" mentality, I thought this comment from your guest was illuminating:

"I would offer the judgment that any theocracy is an irrational system and therefore Iran lives under an irrational government."

The USA has a President who holds daily prayer sessions in the Oval Office, who claims to be performing God's will, who has said he can see into mens' souls, and who has even suggested that God talks to him on a personal basis. M'kay...?

eddy2454,

Thanks for speaking up as a Jew against Zionism. The words "Jewish" and "Israeli" and "Zionist" are all to frequently confused and/or misused, and the Zionist noise machine is so pervasive that nobody can speak up without being labelled "Anti-Semitic". There are a lot of good Jewish people now working to put this extremist Zionism genii back in the bottle. If you ever succeed, people like Sarah Palin and Joe Biden - who once said "I am a Zionist. You don't have to be Jewish to be a Zionist" - will be left high and dry.