Letters to the Editor
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Hmmm... where have we seen this tactic before?
While in custody during the Nuremberg trials, Nazi war criminal Hermann Goerring was interviewed by a psychologist named Dr. Gustave Gilbert. Gilbert recorded Goering's observations that the common people can always be manipulated into supporting and fighting wars by their political leaders:
We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
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He's from South Carolina
South Carolina is the true home of the crazies. A state of war mongers and right wingers. All claim to be war heroes. They all claim they were at Mount Sumter that day. Nuts as all hell! In actuality the whole South is that way.
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I just hope the Dems know how to counterpunch this....
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Yu were joking about this, weren't you. Judging by recent history the Dems can't punch their way out of a wet paper bag left wide open.
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Too late, Senator DeMint
Sorry, Senator, all those lives lost are already spoken for. They are listed on the ledger of GW Bush. 3,800 dead in Iraq plus 2,976 on September 11, plus approximately 100,000 Iraqis, 52 Britons, 200 in Bali, close to 200 in Madrid, and so on. It's why he's going to hell.
As for invading South Carolina, the US Army already did that ... in February 1865. Almost burned it to the ground.
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Here's the Democrats counterpunch....
“The last thing this country needs right now is this kind of disgraceful rhetoric,” Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, said of DeMint’s remarks. “Democrats will continue to insist that this administration accept responsibility for its failed conduct of this war, and that the Iraqi government accept responsibility for its own future.”
Take that, Creme Deminthe!
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He's talking to the true believers anyway
It's not as if he was saying anything his glint eyed zealots didn't already believe.
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This was predictable, and predicted
I hope we all knew it was a only a matter of time before war supporters tried to cover up their incredible mistake by starting a phony "who lost Iraq" debate. It was inevitable they would try to blame the people who opposed the war and made no decisions for the failure of conservative policy.
That said, we deceive ourselves to think only this one senator thinks that way. I've not doubt many do, and their numbers will grow as conservatives move from "we're really winning" "we can still win" to "we failed and need to find out who is to blame --- not us of course". I hope we counterpunch better than after Vietnam.
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Reply to That's All For Now...
Russia under Putin seems to be doing some public sabre-rattling of its own these days. Since we can't be the only great power interested in the natural resources of Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan it makes one wonder what's going on behind the scenes.
Unfortunately, I think you're exactly right. While I don't want to even be seen as accidentally defending the Bush administration, the Russian and French government's opposition to the war was disingenuous in many respects, and had as much to do with their own existing oil interests in Iraq than with the case for war. Ousting Saddam Hussein meant we got to ignore their claims on Iraqi oil and replace them with our own. Of course, it hasn't worked and we haven't even recouped the cost, but that was undoubtedly part of the Neocon logic (if that's not an oxymoron).
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De`going, de`going and de`gone..mos' pretty quick
Dere's de Lay and
da Wine and soon
da Mint.
[no offense here, just couldn't help it]
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He should try saying that here
Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean the liberal rock candy mountain. I mean here like around Ft. Bragg where military families are slowly breaking under the strain of deployment. Just try telling them that someone other than the CinC is hurting them and they will beat you down. They know what's what.
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Wimps in Congress
So, Chuck Hagel is a wimp. I don't know much about Demint (?) but I would be willing to bet he is a chicken hawk. Shouldn't cowards like him always be identified as "chicken hawk Senator, or Coward Senator" so that we could know what type of person is talking...as in 'Chicken-Hawk-Coward Senator Liberman said...in Iraq today?'
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It would have been worse
"And as badly as things have gone in Iraq, he said, "it would have been worse if we hadn't gone in."
Reminds me of a joke.
Guy gets a fortune cookie at lunch. It says, "Today is your lucky day."
Goes back to the office where the boss tells him he's fired. Dismayed, he goes home to find his wife has left him. Stunned, he starts to go to a bar, but is run over by a bus.
In the ambulance, he tells the attendant, "Imagine if it wasn't my lucky day!"
Apparently, it was a lucky day when Bush invaded Iraq.
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DeMint
Could it be that there is an error in there somewhere and that the real name is Demented? Quite possible according to his statements.
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Email DeMint
I enjoy most of your post but why don't you do as I just did and email Jim DeMint and tell him what you are saying in your post.I told him he was an idiot,a traitor, a warmonger and a coward for not going to Iraq himself and that his idiot president should be IMPEACHED