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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0811m.asp
or click sig ...
A wonderful article that takes 20 cases by the name of the men. If you are like me, it is hard to keep all the players straight in your mind without a scorecard.
Here is a scorecard.
Armed with the same invincible ignorance and arrogance that have for generations led their imperial forbears to bitter defeat in Afghanistan, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown have both pledged themselves to a substantial escalation of the Anglo-American adventure in Central Asia. Thus these two self-proclaimed "progressive" champions of benevolent change are guaranteeing more of the same bitter fruit already produced by this misbegotten enterprise: more death, more ruin, more suffering, more corruption – and more violent extremism.
The latter, of course, is where we came in, with the Carter-Reagan marshalling of extremist jihadis -- known as "freedom fighters" in those days of yore -- to hotfoot the Soviets and their secular Afghan clients. Indeed, the entire arc of America's bipartisan policies in the region over the past 40 years can be seen as the elaborate construction of a gargantuan, self-propelled blowback machine, producing an endless effluent of violence, threat, chaos and crime that is now sluicing through the entire world. But blowback, as we all know, is not a design flaw of imperial policy, at least not for the most part; it is a design feature. No War Machine without perpetual war and rumors of war; no war profits – and no war powers – without the War Machine. ...
--- by Chris Floyd
So, now that the Democrats are back in charge can we hope for the end of this stupidity? Well, so far Obama and his team of neo-cons have only made 'pledges' so we can still hope that it is all an elaborate rouge to get into the white house. Wait, ..., ha, hmmm. Was he not already elected?
No by God! The electoral college has not met yet! This is all just to fool the Republicans! He is still the One!
regulars here who think Obama is the messiah -- heru-ur
You are angry about the imperial/human rights abuses of our USA. Got that. Near as I can tell, Obama supporters who post regularly here seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach, and that really grates on you for some reason. Got that, too. None of them (except maybe one, but so far, even she gets the benefit of the doubt) has indicated a messianic view of an "Obama, the One" administration, much less a merely myopic view. No, instead you (having opened a door to making wild judgments about people you do not know) seem obsessed with being proven "right" ahead of events, an attitude which could (among many possibilities) reflect a constitutional inability to internalize an understanding (according to studies cited by ondelette, for example) of the innate potential barbarity of virtually all people, including yourself. Somehow in this mode, maybe you think you can exculpate yourself, or at least avoid heartbreak. Since we are making wild contemptuous judgments about people we don't know.
;-)
Maybe, on the other hand, the reference to "messianism" is rhetorical excess. That probably doesn't help whatever case it is you are trying to make, but that is your problem. Or maybe that's just me.
;-)
You are just as guilty as everyone else.
"Regular posters" here are just as innocent as you.
You might be "right." Who cares about being "right" besides you?
Work the problem*.
*Hint: The problem is not in these pages.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/jstreet/385427/left_out?rel=hpbox
or click sig
(It's a very short blog post from The Nation)
If I understand you correctly, your evidence is strong but circumstantial.
Obama has criticized the use of air strikes (e.g., against weddings) as counterproductive. This is something he has actually said, rather than a rumor or a Floydian dramatic monologue.
If he acts on this observation and pushes commanders in Afghanistan to change their tactics, will a ramp-up there still be feeding the blowback machine?
However liberal (or not) Obama may turn out to be, I believe he is a smart guy.
Why don't you address these messianic worshipers directly and when they engage in worship? Baldie certainly isn't one.
With race as religion, we seem to be a country where a large part of the atheists still go to church and speak as if god existed. I am trying to figure out who we don't want to upset.
Public health agencies are still trying to untangle the effects of race, however it's defined---let's say "the effects of racial classification," rather---on the health of populations and the disparities in health that are the artefact of the racial system. And to do so, researchers must always ask people their race, even though they don't believe in it themselves.
The racial system survives the death of its underlying beliefs. But the system is not synonymous with the behavior of individuals---maybe not even the mass behavior of individuals. I don't pretend to understand it all myself.
But the system certainly is not equivalent to its cynical political manipulation by you-know-who. It survives by itself. Fortunately, I think it functions like force and power: just as the use of force subtracts from power, the more the GOP uses race, the weaker it becomes.
Two or three generations from now, I think that people will wonder what all the fuss was about.
Heru Ur:
Why don't you address these messianic worshipers directly and when
they engage in worship? Baldie certainly isn't one. -- omooex
Not a bad idea at all; but how about this:
I am thinking of a wager for regulars here who think Obama is the messiah, but I have not had time to think it over. Something along the lines of if a thing happens in the first year of Obama's term one side or the other will leave here forever. But that might hurt Glenn's mission and I would never want to do that. Maybe something else. I'll get back to you on it. -- heru-ur
Name more than one "regular poster" that said Obama is the messiah or a savior (subject to a finding by a jury appointed from within these pages) and I'll leave here forever. If you can't, you leave forever.
Whaddaya say?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
