Letters to the Editor
BeOfUse
Published Letters: 45 Editor's Choice: 1
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Don't Get Too GRAPH - ic
[Read the article: A setback in Anbar]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]According to the contorted rigor displayed in the Petraeus success fantasy graphs and the trance-like support from Republicans like John Boehner, there are two (2) issues to resolve:
1. Where does the Sunni leader's death fit in the "violence" calculus? He was not shot from behind or in front, so it must be al Qaeda? Before we decided to fix Iraq, al Qaeda was a local nuisance there. After we leave Iraq (and we will), men like Abu Risha will become heroes again and not, as most Iraqis would say, collaborators in the American occupation of their land.
2. How do the American people reconcile the General's statement calling Abu Risha's death a "tragic loss" with John Boehner's characterization of almost 4,000 dead American's as a "small price to pay". And of course, Dana Perino's predictable commentary was again fatuous if not just incorrect.
Bush, Petraeus, Boehner, Perino - is this what we call the voice of the people. Did we really volunteer for this madness with our vote. I wonder if Ms. Perino knows whether we're safer in America due to this debacle in Iraq.
I remember McMurphy's devastating epiphany in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". He learned that all his buddies at the mental hospital were not placed there under any court order or decree. He, by contrast, was fresh off his most recent collision with the penal system and had made the fatal error of faking mental illness in order to trade his harsh assignment at a work farm for the "cushy" life of the nuthouse. When his pals announced to him "WE'RE ALL VOLUNTARY", the Bull Goose Looney was dumb struck - all HE could do was ask "ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY"?
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It's Not JUST the Oil
[Read the article: Guns, not roses, for Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe this is what New-World-Order Wolfowitz meant when he said Iraq has plenty of money and could "pay their way". So I ask "cui bono" when the Iraqis can lay out what looks to be several Billion for arms while its citizens, under our aegis, can't get water, electricity, or health services. Along with oil, the defense industry is the biggest cash cow on the planet. All this nation-building stuff sounds like so much crap. Can you say Military-Industrial complex? I knew you could!
But never mind all that - the fact is that WE THE PEOPLE are paying for the weapons and arming everybody who can lift a weapon. So I ask you, one more time, who benefits. The President and his General are simply insuring their bet. After this administration has refreshed the Iraqi factions how to corrupt military power, news media and it's own institutions, and then arm them to the teeth, OF COURSE WE HAVE TO STAY THERE to manage the cataclysm (and the profits) we set in motion the day we arrived.
I've written a dozen times about Petraeus' responsibility for the 190,000 weapons lost under his command. It does strain the imagination not just that these lost weapons and the General’s responsibility remain a taboo topic, but that he was since promoted. In fact he’s gotten TWO stars since this debacle, the war in Iraq, began.
Additionally, when informing the Congress "Iraq is becoming one of the United States' larger foreign military sales customers…” it sounds like the General is selling more than just the war itself. In a few years, he’ll probably being playing World Chess at the Carlyle Group while American soldiers are still bleeding and dying for the newest version of the Neo-Con world domination fantasy.