Letters to the Editor
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Armchair Warmongers: How to stop the Iraq war and its spread to Iran
Dear Camille,
A hearty welcome back, and thanks for affecting my mind with positive and edifying thoughts and new ways of looking at the world! (I'm back to Salon again.) Here is my attempt to affect your mind and our fellow readers' minds as to the true reason we are in Iraq and why it has played out pretty much as planned. Realizing this reason gives us a more effective way to counter the war, its escalation, and probable spread to Iran through provocation.
Your quotation as follows assumes that Bush2's team cares about governance, morality, and principles for the public good: "The provincial philistines of the Bush administration blundered into the Mideast....the troops [are being subjected] to an unsustainable and ultimately unwinnable mission, cooked up by armchair cowboys who see the world in simplistic cartoon terms ("good guys" vs. "bad guys"). And they have colossally wasted American blood and treasure on a project that had only a tangential relation to the atrocity of 9/11." Indeed! This is true from a public-good perspective, but for those in power and for those whom they serve, the longer the troops are in Iraq the better those profiting from the situation do.
While Congress dithers, U.S. bases and a huge embassy (spy station) compound is being constructed for billions of dollars, creating facts on the ground. While troops get shot at on patrols through insurgencies and civil war, the country is in chaos. Instability makes oil more expensive for no other reason, such as supply. And oil is much more expensive than during the Clinton and Reagan eras, sometimes by 300% more. Exxon-Mobil keeps breaking its own quarterly profit records for U.S. corporations, exceeding 2,500 million dollars per month in profits recently.
The situation is not just excellent for Exxon-Mobil, OPEC, and Saudi Arabia. Instability and conflict mean that we have to mobilize and arm the war. Our pump price and tax increases are cycled directly into or recycled indirectly via Saudi Arabia or military costs into Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown & Root, United Technologies, Vinnell, Blackwater, and various Carlyle group investments. Power concentrates into the executive branch and wealth into consultants, commodities producers and distributors, and war services and material providers. These are Bush and Cheney's constituencies.
They don't care what we think. Or if they did, they'd laugh to the bank as we call them incompetent, while government in general and the media are tarred with the same brush they ruined with blood, oil, and religious divisions. They want representative government and checks and balances on their power and privilege to be weakened via the cynicism and affirmation of the public.
One thing about these guys, is that they're consistent and effective in getting what they want. Bush and Cheney both held forth strongly in favor of Vietnam and then contorted through loopholes and privilege to let others do the fighting or dying while they curried favor with the powerful and rich, or partied. Meanwhile, their careers around 'public service' got them and their benefactors very wealthy.
We don't have a government by enlightened despots or even an aristocracy trying to make the most good with the least cost. We have an oligarchic kleptocracy that is taking as much as they can as fast as they can before their party stops. These guys assume that they can and will leave before the hall burns down, and the more of 'us' stuck inside the burning crash, the better for them -- they reckon.
The patterns seem quite obvious and consistent. This is a lying and thieving administration of warmongers. We need to kick these guys out of the party they are throwing in our house. And on their way out, we should try to pry some of our stuff they stole from us from their hands and many pockets.
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Emily & Ron: trade e-mail addys and then STFU already
because no one gives a flying fuck about your online pissing contest.
And a note to Joan Walsh:
With the reintroduction of Paglia and the recent addition of Debra Dickerson as well as the annoyingly cloying headlines that have little to do with the story that follows...it's easy to see where Salon is headed. You spend a lttle money...on bomb-throwers and "The Fix." Well, reap what you sow.
Will the last one out please turn out the lights?
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YES!!! I love Camille!
I love her column in Salon & am so glad she's back!!! I'll be back for more.... We need her energy and humor now more than ever.
xo
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RE: hey Spurt! (No Name Given)
To No Name Given:
I guess the whole point is this: Paglia worships creepy, distorted power-mongering freaks like Limbaugh, Hannity, and Bush. These people spread hate, they spread lies, and they are participating in, or instigating, the dismantling of the country. Paglia gloats and fawns over them.
Then, when the wind changes direction, or when the shit hits the fan, she changes her position, re-defines herself, and rages on with the narcissism, self-promotion, and bloviating. Whatever she said yesterday, well, she has now declared herself to be the opposite. I find it sickening -- I'm entitled to my opinion, right? Honestly, when I read her tacit nod to Bush as a contender, back in 2000, I was horrified - mostly because up to that point I respected her. I wondered what the hell was wrong with her and I figured something really weird was going on in CP's head.
She's delusional, she lacks insight, and she lacks foresight. Anyone who could have been charmed by George Bush and his romantic 'black crude' is not living in the real world. The Bush Crime Family is a disgusting stain on America's history. As far as acquainting myself with the latest model, are you referring to the latest model of Camille Paglia? It's only different than the old model, as far as I can see, in that it's more cheaply constructed, and running on fumes.
...and, No Name Given if you are a big fan of CP, why not just come out and say it? Nothing wrong with that....anyhow, I guess that's all I have to say about Camille Paglia. I hope this 650+ BUTTLOAD of revulsion makes it's way past her delusional self-image and rings a bell. Ding ding! Hellooooo, Camille...hellllooooo...are you listening....?