THOU SHALT NOT BE STUPID – The Bible of Common Sense sez, “Know what you’re doing before you do it.”
Colin Powell warned the Bush administration about their twin Wars of Error with the Pottery Barn Rule – “You break it, you buy it.” Unfortunately, the Bush and Obama administrations chose long term leases with options to wreck the US economy.
Anyone who denies there are big flaws in our military’s procurement practices is light on scruples and probably the CEO of, say, Boeing (among others)… or maybe both.
Anyone who believes that if America had no military the world would live in peace and harmony is suffering from dementia. There’s always disagreement over the list of bad guys, but make no mistake, there are creatively evil people out there. Like it or not, America needs a military that can defend and support our interests. The problem is how we buy it.
Need more be said…
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Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says in his new memoir that some Bush Administration officials should face an international criminal investigation for their actions in starting Gulf War II.
He makes a strong case based on confirmed information that has come to light since the War of Error began. For example:
Were there really WMD? Why did the Bushies take the word of an informant, already believed by his German handlers to be sketchy, over ElBaradei and other nuke monitors? Why was the war originally about WMD? Then, about non-existent Al Qaeda meanies before morphing into a campaign spreading the wonders of democracy to a country that still can’t govern itself after almost 9 years and counting.
More importantly, why are we still there? If the answer that Bush still clings to was removing a, “homicidal dictator pursuing WMD,” then the question was settled long ago. No WMD and the homicidal dictator is dead. Let’s go pack our bags.
That war, along with the one in Afghanistan, has cost many lives and much national treasure – enough treasure to make them major causes of our current debt crisis. And, they continue to be albatrosses around the nation’s fiscal neck.
Most people have concluded the war was a colossal blunder at best and a war crime, as Elbaradei believes, at worst. What is certain is that the King of Personal Responsibility and his cabal of inept minions have never been held to account for any of their actions and they’re unlikely to.
People don’t talk much about Iraq anymore. If they’re extremely well-informed they might be vaguely aware that bombs still explode and soldiers still die. Most Americans are more worried about who’s going to get bounced from American Idol than how many Americans are still stuck the world’s largest sand traps. America has a giant case of war fatigue. You can only watch just so many car wrecks before they’re no fun anymore. Just ask Dale Earnhardt fans.
We can lay some of that malaise at the feet of Congress and Barak Obama. Nancy Pelosi came into power and immediately took impeachment off the table. Obama campaigned extensively on winding down both Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the end of his term is coming up and we’re still there – in Afghanistan, in fact, more there than when Bush was bumbling along.
We’re still bleeding money from both suck holes while arguing if we can afford schools, roads, and Grandma’s Alzheimer’s meds. We’re still under the dark provisions of the comically named Patriot Act and each day government power grows at a rate second only to America’s corporatocracy.
I didn’t expect Obama’s promises of Hope and Change to be totally true. After all, campaign promises always melt when high-minded rhetoric meets reality. However, I did expect some action, even if no more than token resistance, to counter the smoking hole Dubya bequeathed us.
Instead, there’s no change in trying to reclaim our burgled civil liberties. No progress in getting out of Afghanistan and scarcely more in leaving Iraq. We’re still bleeding money on the disgraceful wars to the detriment of almost everything the government does. But worst of all, there’s no hope any of that will change.
So maybe ElBaradei has a point. Maybe Big Bush and all of his little scrub brush should be hauled up in front of the Interrnational Court. But in the interest of true American justice, Obama, Congress, and any other jackwads who helped this happen should be in their best orange jumpsuits right along with him.
And we should make sure we do it without starting some new war upon ourselves.
TWO BOMB HANGOVER - He's not going to go easily, but should we be the ones to try to make him?
In the midst of the crapstorm that has become life in these United States, I sometimes feel as if I’ve slipped into a parallel dimension populated exclusively by tea partiers, Glen Beck clones, Sarah Palin stand up comedians, and our reigning dizzy queen Michele Bachmann. That’s why when I agreed with one of her statements, I headed straight for the antipsychotics.
Please God, don’t let me die a “dittohead”!
The Maybe I’ll Certainly Run for President in 2012 Unless I Change My Mind Before Deciding to Redecide Again candidate laid into The Messiah™ for leading his uncoalesced coalition into Libya. Not surprisingly she’s against it, though I’m confident she would’ve been for it if Obama had decided against intervention. But this this time? I agree with her.
Doin’ the Tripoli Tango
Obama made a mistake in entering the fray. Michele and I agree there seems to be little compelling strategic US interest involved. As for the humanitarianism angle, there are places that DO involve strategic US interests AND plenty of poor wretches being ground under the jackboots of a dozen Col. Loony Toons and DickTaters. We aren’t feeling particularly humanitarian there, so WTF? The US simply cannot be the world’s cop. There’s an infinite supply of bad people and you can’t wipe them all out without weakening yourself. Even Bush the Lesser understood that, though he sometimes didn’t act that way.
I think Michele’s a little weak on the whole “al Qaeda” is afoot angle and by referring to the fiasco in the making as the “Obama Doctrine” she’s ignoring the fact that one decision does not a full doctrine make. These decisions should and are based on the conditions at the moment, whether they’re good or bad.
Now, we’re seeing the ghosts of neo-conservatism on Obama. He’s apparently signed a “secret order” authorizing covert support for the Libyan rebels. We’re slow learners about this whole, “let’s have a big freedom party and call all the poor kids over for punch, cookies, and purple thumb votes” thing. See Exhibits A (Iraq), B (Afghanistan), C-Z (dozens of other places where we’ve intervened to no great or lasting effect).
