Letters to the Editor
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this is great stuff, anonymust
Thanks for posting it.
But, say the converted liberal hawks, now what?
Here's what. First, we recognize that the Bush administration committed a crime in the name of the American people. Then we do what it takes, both psychologically and financially, to repair the crime. The very first thing that this means is that every American who has in some way profited from this crime must relinquish the fruits of the crime. That means the oil companies. That means the contractors. That means the US government. We cannot keep anything that the Iraqis owned before we took it away from them. We cannot have their land. We cannot have their oil or its profits. We cannot have any sort of power over them. Here is what is preventing the US from leaving Iraq -- the US still wants something from Iraq and the Iraqis that we have no right to. It is the desire to salvage some part of what the Bush administration thought would be easy to claim that is keeping us there, and it is the unspoken complicity of the Democrats and the "prowar liberals" in this that makes it so hard for them to accept the failure of the enterprise.
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Iran 'behind Green Zone attack'
The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets.
He said Iran was adding what he described as "lethal accelerants" to a very combustible mix.
There has as yet been no response from Iran to the accusations.
(...)
In an interview with BBC world affairs editor John Simpson, Gen Petraeus said violence in Iraq was being perpetuated by Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards.
"The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example... were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets," he said, adding that the groups that fired them were funded and trained by the Quds Force.
Continues at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7311565.stm
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A new way to whine?
Omooex, you can't have it both ways. If we're one person, you can't claim you're being ganged up on. If we're not, that makes you either a little dumb, or a little paranoid. I'd also add that advice from Bucky and Chris doesn't confer quite the distinction on the recipient as one might suppose.
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@RMP
Thanks for your concern, and yes, I sure considered the oral surgery factor. I found that my helmet strap augmented the dental appliance used to wire my jaws together, although why my jaws had to be wired together for six weeks, and why my wife was slipping the Dentist $500 just as I went under the gas, I do not know. Modren medicine, who can say? Well, I can't, hell I'm taking nourishment through a straw.
I tried to avoid the pain pills which would interfere with my riding. by prayer, I thought I could transcend dental medication!!! Oy, strictly from hunger!
Anyway, it's all better, and my brain is growing back. And when I get these damn wires off, you can bet I've got a few questions for my Moosette!
Unless, of course, there are complications!
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Glen's Being Kind To McCain
Someone else probably made this point already, but let's all remember that saying McCain has gawd-awful national security judgement is the most charitable interpretation possible. Equally plausible is that McCain knows Mid-East wars make us less safe, but simply places a higher priority on controlling the world's oil.
We can't read McCain's mind so we'll never know, and it's beyond the scope of Glen's post anyway (two reasons I assume Glen left it out) but it's worth mentioning.
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@Buckyl
Just bear in mind, Buckyl my lad, that the above is the kind of stuff you are accusing LWM of authoring. Frankly, if you have to answer to the consequences, don't blame me!
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How's that "principles of democracy" installation going?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/30/ftn/main561005.shtml
FTN – 6/29/03
(CBS) Today on Face The Nation, has Iraq become a guerrilla war? Dozens of attacks on American troops have been reported in just the last week, and since May 1st ["Mission Accomplished" Day], at least 63 Americans have died in Iraq. [...]
SEN. JOHN McCAIN, R-AZ, Armed Services Committee: I think we're in a phase of the reconstruction of Iraq, the installation of the principles and functions of a democratic society, which is incredibly difficult. [...]
- - John McCain, foreign policy expert, 6/29/2003
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@bucky1
I suspect both Proximity Warning and SomeNYGuy but that is still open.
-- bucky1
Consider it closed, shithead. I have never posted here under any other name.
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Yes Chris
Playing "Guess which handles are LWM sockpuppets" is half the fun of reading the comments here.
This is the main reason people come here: To be paranoid and delusional while obsessing over who might be posting as whom.
omooex,
Voila? Is that a magic act? You made something vanish that was never there? If you think you made something appear out of thin air, it was only the certitude that you are a mental defective. Even Prof. Grover Furr doesn't contend McCain is a war criminal for his actions during Vietnam, and he's an American communist.
John McCain Admits To War Crimes? This strongly pro-war and anti-McCain page claims the former Senator and Republican presidential hopeful (in 2000) stated in a Mike Wallace "Sixty Minutes" interview in October, 1997.
Peter Brush sent me the transcript of the Wallace interview (5.1.02). The page takes McCain's statement way out of context. McCain admitted that he confessed to deliberately bombing women and children, but claims that he "broke" under torture. Here is the relevant text from the interview, taken from the transcript.
http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/vietnam.html
Google John McCain war criminal. If you find any credible hits, let us know. These two don't count:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j092999.html
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8221
Unless you agree that torture is a legitimate means to extract a confession from anyone under any circumstances. Apparently you do.
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Herd mentality and fear
McCain reminds me of the big bully with the really bad temper that nobody wants to offend because they fear his wrath. So they all give him a pass and act as his cheerleaders instead, even playing apologist when he does something wrong (e.g. Gaffe on something you're supposed to be an expert on). Better to have the bully on your side than get called out in front of the gang and made a fool/example of by the leader, after at, that would be all your fault for pissing off the gang leader.
Like managers who intimidate their employees to the point where they won't question decisions out of nothing but fear. It isn't because they deeply respect said Manager or like him or her, but because they don't want to be yelled at or embarassed in front of other staff (or at all). Nobody likes to be made a fool of, so they give into their fears and play along with the game. And who knows, maybe after a while they feel that the game really is reality and that their negative nancy attitude was based on "profound distortions of reality" (kind of like the profound distortions of reality that lead one to believe that blowback from Palestine had nothing to do with 9/11).
Of course, that isn't supposed to be the role of the press, but that is how it acts. It is also how Bush operates, subtle disses to the self-esteem in order to let you know just who the decider and the follower really are. The politician is the bully/boss, and questioning the decisions of the decider gets you knocked down a few pegs on the sycophant ladder (i.e. Career Advancement) through public scalding as well as making you look like you are anything but serious (pissing off the bosses and their clients, how dare you! He might remember that you were with us and not let us on the bus!) and don't know what you are talking about.
You look like a trouble maker and who knows, maybe after the public scalding you'll learn to stop worrying and love the warmonger. You may not like the guy, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Kind of like how Obama winks and nods at AIPAC and its foreign policy views while in the context of "condemning Wright", but yet his supporters say that almost everything Wright has said is true, and you just "do what you gotta do" when it comes to Israel.
The reporters "do what they gotta do", i.e. don't piss off Grumpy Old Man McCain and go ruining everyone's nice little propaganda press conference.