After five years plus Americans are not fighting a war in Iraq. Americans are putting in and trying to firm up ongoing decades long(longer you say?...well...sure..OK) American Occupation of Puppet Sovereign Iraq.

Hell...we can move Iraqs "National" government into American Embassy Citadel. Why let them suffer in free fire gameboard the GZ is.Being that Iraqi'National Government' is American owned and serves at/for Americans pleasure alone anyway.

With Iran being put closer and closer to center of American ME 'fly in and phuck'em up' crosshairs Iraq will be comparative paradise after having attacked Iran.

So Hamas and Hezbollah should get some too? Hell...why not? Americans seem quite prepared to fully ensnare themselves into ME briarpatch until Hagee and his fanatics get the Rapture they are so sure must come.

Barack Obama should count himself damn lucky Hagee is not endorsing him. Wolf,Lou and the rest of the CNN "best political team on TV" would have diced and sliced that ten ways for starters. John McCain who does get Hagee endorsement can waffle and wiggle day after day and CNN lets that ride.

I did see Bill Moyers conversation with Rev.J.Wright last night(FRIDAY/PBS/BILL MOYERS JOURNAL) and was fully taken with and impressed with Rev.Wrights comments and observations.

So far today have seen nothing about Bill Moyers and Rev.Wright conversation of last night.

Wolf and Lou at Crap News Now have been chewing on Rev.Wright for week after week and could not find between the two of them one hour each to actually have Rev.Wright on. Barack Obama has nothing to apologise for about Rev.Wright.

Wolf and Lou ought to resign for reasons of shame alone. If they can not find any shame then for gross incompetence.

Rev.Wright surely has a capacity of eloquence and is learned in ways most of what passes as American political media news/punditry and the shallow cut-out dolls that mostly populate that wasteland can only wish or dream of ever coming close too.

Bill Moyers surely deserves much credit for having Rev.Wright on and allowing him to present his views and thinking. To view such a high level of civil,intelligent conversation on American TV is/was truly beyond remarkable in level of integrity and reveal.

Asher Steinberg: If you're going to keep sarcastically calling him the Serious candidate, at least quote someone, anyone, calling him such. And it would help for your argument if that someone wasn't David Brooks or some guy working for the American Enterprise Institute. I don't see this "Serious" meme or bias anywhere.

Here, try this one:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2007/04/john_mccain_serious_candidate.html

You obviously haven't been looking very hard. Or are you just very selective about where you look?

What exactly is the point of feeding Israel billions of dollars every year in military aid if we're going to deem every one of its fights to be our fight, and every one of its enemies to be our Enemy? Is that actually what Americans want to do: insinuate ourselves even more into other endless, intractable religious and ethnic conflicts in the Middle East?

The billions every year are actually about 3 billion, and according to the article that you linked, 3 quarters of that money must be spent in the U.S. By the way, this is support that is lobbied for by American defense contracters, and it is awarded precisely the way U.S. defense contracters want it. That leaves less than a billion a year for the Israelis to spend in their own defense industries. Since their own industries are quite large ( third in the world in exports after U.S and Russia ), it is not particularly large.

By contrast, half a billion dollars would not support the U.S. involvment in Iraq for 6 hours. Also The money we are spending on the Iraq war does not cover the years of rehabilitation for the wounded servicemen that will be billed ( to the U.S. if the servicemen are lucky ), nor do our current Iraq allocations cover and insure support for those dependent on those who die in Iraq for the years to come that they will face hardship.

In fact, the cost of the Iraq war is being felt by the whole country in the form of higher gas prices.

The U.S also supports the Palestinians with cash on many fronts and in cooperation with many other countries and international organizations. A summary of the USAID money to

the palestinians is here:

fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/60396.pdf

To say that accounting for where money to the Palestinians actually goes is questionable is an understatement. The Palestinians say they have no idea where it goes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/11/whamas11.xml

Real Question for John McCain:

If the Senate has no idea what is being done with money we send the Palestinians, how can we really say we are being tough on terrorism?

As a Senator, McCain has accounting responsiblity, and as a Republican, he has no basis for claiming it's an administration problem. This is the administration he proposes to continue.

"You're right, Barry. It would have been a Chinese prison camp."

Well, you can't say McCain wasn't aware of what a lousy pilot he was. Gotta give him credit for that.

-- Derbig Mooser

Post of the day.

Glenn, you're really hanging it out there. Good for you. Sanity is so refreshing!

Thanks for that lengthy Eisenhower snippet, upthread. I'd always thought 'our' response to the Suez incursion was actually due to the Soviet invasion of Hungary, and the (bygone) need for diplomatic synergy. This doc shows, though, that Eisenhower had his own views, considerably more sophisticated than we've grown accustomed to, about the political topology.

About this, though, you have me scratching my head:

Hamas is also a threat to the monarchists, like the Hashemites in Jordan... who are we really there defending? Maybe it's really the Gulf state monarchies and emirates. The Saudis, etc.

Could you say more about why you think Hamas is a threat to Abdullah? The Palestinians in Jordan are by and large middle class and secularized, outside of places like Zarq which security apparatus is more than able to handle. No natural allies among the Bedu or Transjordanians either, as far as I can tell. Maybe you have something else in mind?

Ditto for the Gulf states, who have their own ways of dealing with Islamists, home grown and otherwise ... and who are pretty good at ejecting 'guest workers' who would cause trouble...