Letters to the Editor
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No argument from shooter242 or anonymoose yet.
I put odds 60-40 against us hearing from them on this particular subject today.
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this particular subject today.
Your clearly underestimating their ability and desire to utterly change the subject.
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Stunning loss of focus
It is amazing to watch as the country's mind-set shifts from the Iraq war to the economy and maybe a little bit of global warming concern. The war has become a much quieter sub-text in the daily conversation. Are we really about to drag this out for 10 to 15 years?
I haven't heard anyone say the name Patraeus for about a month and a half. What's happening up North with the Kurds and Turkey...did that just go away?
It looks like there is nothing we do internationally that can't be wiped from the minds of Americans by a good old fashioned recession...let's plan to have one, just to do something different.
cliff
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The question
..."is the glass half empty or half full" is now replaced with "The water in the glass doesn't matter. Look at the shiny glass. Doesn't it sparkle."
Afganistan. There was universal group think that invading Afganistan was a good idea. My reason for thinking invading Afganistan was a terrible dumb fuk idea was that the Russians were there for 10 years, before they said this sucks, this is useless, and just left. There's a model worth following.
The Afganistan group think spawned out of Bushes most blantantly facist declaration of his term, that any country "harboring" terrorists were enemies of the United States and would face dire consequences. Nobody really knew what "harboring" meant, so it could mean anything, and opened the door to all kinds of war "opportunities".
Yep that glass sure is shiny.
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it'll be interesting...
...to see what all the reporters in MSM and all the ignorant hawks in the Bush administration say when the Taliban re-takes Afghanistan with the help of their pals in Pakistan's ISI, using money WE gave to the Pakistani military.
I would give a lot to see someone like Cheney fully pinned down with the futility of the facts on the ground in Afghanistan. Bush wouldn't be any fun, he'd just start gabbling like an idiot. That's his specialty.
But Cheney, Cheney's different. I'd like to hear what he'd say when pinned completely on the subject of Afghanistan.
He'd probably blame everything on Hilary Clinton.
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Permanent Bases
GG: In 2003, anyone who suggested that the outcome of the U.S. invasion of Iraq would be the establishment of permanent military bases was dismissed as a paranoid, conspiracy-obsessed, American-hating radical. All of the Serious People knew that the Bush administration had no such designs. We were invading in order to Liberate and would not stay a day later than necessary.
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Of course, this permanent occupation was precisely what was proposed (in writing, for everyone who might bother to read it)in the Project For A New American Century (PNC). In 2000. (Earlier draft versions date back to Cheney's/Wolfowitz's Defense Policy Initiatives from as early as 1992). Signed by Rumsfeld, among others. But, nevertheless, no Serious Person should question that this was the Administation's intention from the beginning.
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Perfect Success
In all seriousness with no sarcasm at all, this is precisely what Smirky, Darth and the neocons planned all along:
- A destroyed Iraq vastly increases terrorism through the Middle East and the world, thus justifying Permanent War.
- Permanent War requires the Smirky Permanent Dictatorship and enriches all of Smirky's and Darth's BFFs in the Oil and Military-Industrial complexes.
- Destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan enormously empower Iran, thus making it look like an existential enemy that must be attacked, thus enlarging the Permanent War.
- Permanent War on the cheap destroys the military, allowing Smirky his revenge on the masculine institution his failure in which reveals his innate cowardice and impotence.
It's perfect!
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Mr. Greenwwald,
Yellow Dog has a couple of good points. Anyone who has seen Zeitgeist will understand the financial rationale, which is the real reason behind a continuous war that can not be won. The Federal Reserve, a private corporation, lends the government money to wage the war. They collect their interest in the form of federal income tax, and the rich get richer. Since the war is un-winnable, and the armaments used must be replaced, the Fed will keep up the loans, and the cycle will go on.
The only solution is education, and your government has a vested interest in making sure that doesn't happen. Educate people too much, and they might realize that the guy they are killing looks just like them, has a wife and kids, and doesn't really deserve an early death. Zeitgeist is a film everyone should see. But remember, once you have seen the light, it is impossible to go back.
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Starting In March 2003 - January 2004
USAID took bids for 10 permanent bases at $1 billion a pop. Rumsfeld lied. I don't know how to use the memory hole to look for documentation - but it exists somewhere.
Here is a map of where the bases are http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm
Here is a map of the oil fields http://www.judicialwatch.org/IraqOilMap.pdf
We are there for the long run, even, given the futility of guarding pipelines while attempting to rape the Iraqi treasury. What we have done is criminal, and cleaning it up will take a very very long time.
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A bit off-base on Michael Totten
You are a bit off-base on your criticism of Michael Totten.
I'm not going into a line-by-line debate, but you use language like "revealingly points out" or "admits" to describe what Totten is actually reporting on - he doesn't hide that he's an embedded reporter, and his descriptions are his personal observations.
I was embedded myself as a freelancer in Bayji, Iraq over the summer. If I were to write that the center of the city was bustling and busy it would be accurate. It would be equally accurate to say the main street in front of the U.S. manned JSS was devasted and blasted from car bombs and battles.
As somebody with experience on the ground, I believe none of Totten's reports ring false, and while his personal viewpoint is "right wing" I think it's fair to say he is more objective than most.
It's very easy to get embedded, Glenn - much, much easier than you think. Despite your history with Col. Boylan, I bet you can do it. That's not a dare, and I mean no sort of an "I'm better than you" type of intepretation. I think you owe it to yourself to see some part of the war yourself - then you will be absolutely above reproach.