Hiatt must not understand that definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.

Doing for Somalia what we've done for Iraq? That's sure to be popular with the Somalis. But hey, it's only a couple of extra trillion dollars and a few thousand American dead.

What was the reason again?

Has NBC or Brian Williams responded yet to your request for an interview relative to General NBC Pentagon WH Propaganda-Gate?

They haven't. Hard to believe, I know. They also still haven't reported this story in any way. Equally hard to believe.

"While 700,000 people are displaced in Somalia due to internal strife..."

No, 700,000 people are displaced because of a U.S.-supported Ethiopian invasion on behalf of the in-name-only "transitional government" of Somalia that had long been powerless to bring any order to the country. The Islamic Courts Union had been the first entity in years to bring a degree of stability to Southern Somalia and Mogadishu, but our government simply cannot countenance the formation of an Islamic state, no matter what the human cost.

The brown peoples of the world can be the good guys except when they're the bad guys (like illegal immigrants or Iranians or Iraqis or Afghanis or Somalians) . . .

Our rich white guys (Bush regime and the neoconservative members of the legislative branch and punditocracy/stenography pool) are always and forevermore the good guys despite torture as official US policy and "not so smart bombing" of anything standing because they they have the "best of intentions" in protecting us from the constantly massing amorphous hordes of scary brown people who have nothing better to do with their time than think of ways to irritate the great Satan . . .

Nation building really means bombing the fuck out of everything in sight so international (but primarily US) "free market" contractors can bilk US citizens out of bazillions of dollars and offshore both the attendant tax obligations and work (for pennies on the dollar through the indentured servitude of other brown peoples picked from economically depressed places around the globe) . . .

Fred Hiatt is a moron, propogandist shill, and all around warmongering butthead who gets paid to pen his preposterous pap . . .

We aren't really going broke at breakneck speed . . .

Hundreds of thousands of dead people (Americans or the otherwise undifferentiated "browns"), so long as they aren't rich dead people (especially not white rich people), is a morally acceptable price to pay . . .

We really are winning in Iraq and Afghanistan so our foreign policy template is sound and should be followed into perpetuity because there's always some brown people somewhere in need of civilizing (assuming they have something of value on, under, or above their lands) . . .

Congress has the sole authority to declare and promulgate war upon other sovereign nations but has no authority to rein in war so long as it is labeled with a nice euphemism like "police action" or "nation building" . . .

Americas leaders are not completely off the rails morally and economically and totally out of touch with reality because . . .

I'm so confused . . . At least I got my $300 kicker to prop up an imploding economy . . . and just think over time I'll pay it back to the Chinese people with interest . . . these guys really are geniuses or snakeoil salesman . . . I can never keep it straight. Oh well at least I could win big on the Kentucky Derby today.

Maybe America and apathetic Americans would make sense to me if I took LSD otherwise I'm at a complete loss. Viva Amerika and its exceptionally exceptional people and policies. I'd say I wish I had been born Swedish except for the big downside of having to eat Swedish food (if you can call it that).

Actually, Iraq already was a sovereign nation, recognized by the entire international community, before we invaded. Neither it's borders nor its rights/obligations as a nation has changed (afaik).

The borders of Iraq, as with most every nation in world, have been established and internationally recognized for some time now - there are even international standards for 'changing' water/wetland bounderies between nations. (*of course, there Are disputes -ex. Isreal/Tibet- but the geography of the dispute is known.)

So, as always Glenn, my question for Mr. Haitt, re; Iraq, is WTF are we doing there ... (since, we cannot logically be 'building a nation' where one already exists).?. *McCain says oil my friends .. but he don't won't to bug nobody in the u.s.a. unduly.

I think Hiatt et.elk, are... limited in the way they [can] see the world Glenn - indeed, its like a distinct 'mind-set' that is based on, imo, a completely false sense of patriotism.

Clearly, a sense of national autonomy, and the patriotism it inspires, is essential if the excessives of centralization in world affairs are to be avoided.

Still, in this day and age, 'nation building' offers no solutions to the worlds intractable problems - climate, resources, etc. I think ... 'world unity is the goal towards which a harrassed humanity is striving ...The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abondon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.'

bah.

ps. I'd rather bug bop.

"Is there no punishment for negligence? How many civilians can you accidentally kill before it reaches the level of "crime"??!?"

. . .ask the Israelis.

Let's just occupy the entire world and be done with it. We'll teach them the Exxon and Enron and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and job outsourcing and a hundred million $ CEO retirement benefits philosophy of doing things the American Way. That way everybody will be happy.

The creeps in charge of this nation (politically and economically) know they cannot stop waging this and whatever war will come up next because that is the only thing propping up the American economy. If you don't drop the bombs, you don't have to replace the bombs. If you don't fly the aircraft, you don't wear them out. Stop the war? You've got to be kidding!