Hope Against Hope
--Patrick Corrigan (The Toronto Star)Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes
Even the losers keep a little bit of pride
Yeah, they get lucky sometimes
--Even the Losers, Tom Petty
_________________
[1] Mr Madoff's accountant will receive less jail time than did the shoe-throwing protester in Baghdad.
[2] Obama will be a one-term wonder. He'll burn out out as he falls from the stratosphere.
He will be supplanted by Republican party candidate General David Petraeus. The campaign will hinge on the fact that Obama's policies did not allow the U.S. military to win the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©). Petraeus will be the closest thing America can front as a hero.
It will not matter that he lost the war, because Obama will not have let him win it.
Game, set, match, Republican-style. Even the losers are winners. It is the Christian way.
posted by rangeragainstwar at 7:34 AM
15 Comments:
There's no question Petraeus will be on the GOP ballot. He's been jocking and supported in that endevor for awhile now. ( Time mag covers,in 2004 and since , DC treating him as the Army's only general etc.)
The press has done alot to make him a hero, even though his first job of training an Iraqi army in 2004 was a nova bust...even then they asked will this man win the war for us? . Well he didn't.
I maintain the DC higher ups don't want to win anything....you don't get no bid contracts and stars if the battle is over .
If they wanted to win anything they would have toppled Saddam and started paying the standing Iraqi army in 2003etc. instead of waiting many years and many troops deaths and then paying off the warlords.
That's done at the start....not 6 years later.
"It is the Christian way"
I think my snark detector went off...however, there are times when I just wish my side of asile would stfu and not make things worse.
So, Ranger, when you look over to my side of the asile, and you see me doing this...
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/facepalm.jpg
...please know that it's not directed at you, but at my side of the asile.
Understood, Sheerahkahn.
i get all short with people who ask the cliche rambo:
will they let us win this time?
my question is instead:
when the fuck will you quit killing my brothers in stupid, unjustified, unwinnable wars?
we have long past the plan d (or didi) stage.
we have been at didi mau len do ma.
forgot to finish that thought, it's late, just got in from tonight's show.
we have been at didi mau len do ma for over two years.
when the fuck is enough, finally e-fucking-nuff?
Range, you're right, but I'm hoping against hope that Obama can succeed in a FEW things AND wakes up and pulls out of the mideast quicksand. I'd hate to see another Republican presidency after the recent 8-year clusterfuck, though I CERTAINLY am not Pollyanna enough to think that the Democrats are our saviors. I know (and KNEW)that Obama isn't the Messiah. Presidents have to do what the powers that be (unfortunately, NOT the people)tell them to do. I have nightmares sometimes regarding a Petraeus-Sarah Palin ticket. But looking @ history--the "powers" killed Kennedy. One thing that Kennedy was thinking about was pulling out of Vietnam, but look what happened. Johnson supposedly gave us civil rights, but he screwed us with Vietnam. I've often said that I hope, with Obama that we don't get LBJ in Technicolor.
I can agree with the first two points but as a moderate I really don't believe the right will float Petraeus as a candidate. I appreciate your opinion but we didn't send in Powell so what makes you think we would run Petraeus?
I haven't read your blog before and I can appreciate your views on the Iraq war, although I don't fully support them, but the Afghanistan war why? I have a cousin on his 3rd tour overseas in 2 theaters and I'm proud that he's in Afghanistan. We can debate the Iraq war ad-nausium, presence or absence of WMD, what's better dictator that kills millions or invasion that effects millions, but we can't ignore that OBL was camped out and supported by Afghanistan pre-9/11.
I'm on the right supporting Obama's Afghanistan strategy and Petraeus's leadership in theater. Even though I didn't vote for Obama this is one of his policies I think is correct.
Anyway, great commentary. I'll visit again.
subrookie,
We've written numerous articles outlining the phoney war which includes Afghanistan.This is my position and if accepted would keep your cousin in the ranks of the living.All of Afgh is not worth a US rifleman.
You have a bit of hyperbole going with your comment that Saddam killed millions. This is pure propaganda /emotion.
Monetarily how can anyone support continued open ended aggressive wars?
Glad to hasve you as a reader.
jim
We've written numerous articles outlining the phoney war which includes Afghanistan.
I had assumed that you had, but this was my first visit to your blog.
This is my position and if accepted would keep your cousin in the ranks of the living.All of Afgh is not worth a US rifleman.
My cousin is more than happy to spend his time as an Apache pilot protecting riflemen. When he's not all I've heard from him is how well they are doing. Granted, the progress in the past 2 years seen in Iraq has not been seen in Afghanistan but I do believe with re-directed assets we should see improvement in the forgotten theater.
You have a bit of hyperbole going with your comment that Saddam killed millions. This is pure propaganda /emotion.
Like I said we won't debate the Iraq war because we both have different views, will always have different views, let's just agree to disagree.
Monetarily how can anyone support continued open ended aggressive wars?
I stood at ground zero not one month after the WTC fell after the order to run two planes into those towers was given from a remote camp in Afghanistan. When I was there they were still cutting parts of the building down and still finding parts of people on buildings around the site.
Since then I've had family and friends spend time in both theaters. I'm content to fund JDAM after JDAM dropped on a remote cave site somewhere in Waziristan while OBL looks for a way to get dialysis. I'm not a New Yorker, east coaster, whatever, but they brought a knife to a gun fight.
In the interest of understanding why you wouldn't want us in Afghanistan, what would you have done following the WTC attacks? There is no grey area in the argument like there is with Iraq. OBL was there, he was supported by the gov't at the time. Would you have negotiated with a gov't that shot and stoned women in stadiums for adultery?
Again, I'll be back. When we all think alike we all stop thinking. I'm happy to hear an opposing view.
I apologize everyone for the long last post.
subrookie,
Hi and welcome! You never need to apologize for posts -- all thoughtful commentary and inquiry is welcome. After all, we can only arrive at an understanding in a full marketplace of ideas.
Jim is traveling, but stay tuned. He will respond, as Afghanistan is of particular interest to him.
For my part, I will say "stay frosty," and there is always a gray area :)
If I may take a lesson out of the Democratic Congress' book,
"I am not against going to war in Afghanistan, but dammit, I am against screwing it up."
The fact is, if you destroy everything of value in Afghanistan, you still haven't gotten even. I will even accept that the Taliban played a huge role. But what you have to ask yourself, in the wake of 9/11, is "What is the current situation, and what consequences will our actions have?" Then you have to look at the first order consequences and then go beyond them, to as many of the unintended consequences as you can.
So, I know you didn't pose the question to me, but I'll answer it anyway. In the wake of 9/11, I would have taken a moment to consider. Then, I would have tried to form a short, medium, AND long term plan for how to deal with Al Qaeda. I don't know what that would have looked like. But what I hope and pray I would not do is start sacrificing the important things of America and embark on a trampling of the rights of Americans in the name of national security. I would hope that I wouldn't commit the military to a course of action that amplifies its weaknesses (guerrilla warfare) and allows the enemy to negate its strengths (mobility, technology, etc) and eventually leaves the nation less prepared to fight.
Who knows though? I'm willing to cut Bush a tiny bit of slack since it's a tough position to be in. When two skyscrapers just came down and there's a hole in the Pentagon and nobody can tell you jack shit about what's going on, but it's your job to do something. But only a little bit of slack, since if you want the job of Commander in Chief you better be prepared to grab your balls and deal with shitstorms just like that while keeping in mind the oath you swore instead of just doing whatever.
Grant,
Sorry -- I must vociferously disagree with your take on Mr. Bush's response to 9-11.
"When two skyscrapers just came down and there's a hole in the Pentagon and nobody can tell you jack shit about what's going on..."
The Twin Towers had already been attacked once before, and there was plenty of chaff on the radar re. further imminent attacks. However, Bush chose to brush these reports off, in favor clearing brush in Crawford.
It is not the President's job to "grab [anyone's] balls", and it doesn't look like he did, save in the name of torture. But of course, he didn't have the balls to do that himself.
I would have tried to form a short, medium, AND long term plan for how to deal with Al Qaeda.
I think that is very easy to say now but in the wake of the WTC attack not the one many or any of us would have taken. The threat did come from Afghanistan so that's where the troops went. I agree on the lack of a cohesive strategy to deal with Al Qaeda, but much of that was left over from the previous administration. An administration who for 8 years did little following the Cole bombing and the first WTC attack.
Specifically because the "chaff on the radar" was largely intelligence and information gathered during the Clinton era I'm willing to give Bush a lot of leeway in my opinion of how he handled the initial Afghanistan strategy.
Easy to forget the Cole bombing resulted in Clinton firing a couple of Tomahawk missiles at training camps with no real tangible results. And, what did we do during the mid-90s following the first WTC attack to make ourselves less vulnerable to attacks like this? Nothing.
"Easy to forget the Cole bombing resulted in Clinton firing a couple of Tomahawk missiles at training camps with no real tangible results. And, what did we do during the mid-90s following the first WTC attack to make ourselves less vulnerable to attacks like this? Nothing."
Um, actually more than a few; enough to have killed OBL if he was there. And that was in the face of GOP opposition to anything that Clinton did.
An honest person might note, killing OBL was also not accomplished by Bush, despite far more reason, and with far more results, and with far fewer restrictions on his actions.
Instead, Bush almost immediately turned away from Afghanistan, to piss away resources on Iraq. With the full support of every Republican.
-Barry
Post a Comment
<< Home