Category Archives: the war

anti-patriot

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“Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged.”
— Rep. Don Young of Alaska, in debate on this week’s non-binding resolution.

This is anti-patriotism. It’s un-American, anti-American, subversive rhetoric. We have to find it in the weedchoked and fetid hollows where it lives, and drag it out where our children can get a look at it, before it dies of exposure to clean air and sunlight.

Look kids, you have to be careful of men like this. They hate the truth, they do not love our freedoms. They are afraid of the democratic process because it sometimes unearths truth. They love war and death, and the sight of our armies rolling over people they consider inferior. For pity sake, don’t repeat our mistakes; stop electing asshats like this.

iran this

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I’ve done it. I’ve sat here and pondered and come up with the perfect way to deal with the impending problem with Iran:

The very next US Government official, at any level, who mentions any Iranian peccadillo should be beaten fiercely with rubber hoses, slathered in hot tar and feathers, and set adrift on a small rudderless raft on the nearest convenient river.

That oughta do it.

$300 billion — with a B

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That’s what Bush wants slipped into his checking account, to run his wars — not including the one he wants to start with Iran — through fiscal 2009. Now I could break that down by the population of the US or the world, or tell you that’s roughly $2,143,000 for every solider presently serving in Iraq. But I won’t. Let’s take a more astronomical approach, shall we? I found this on Google Answers:

Number of visible stars, visible with the unaided eye 

Everyone's eyes differ, but a figure of around 6000 visible stars is
often quoted (with around half visible from any point on earth). At
sea level in a rural area you might see around 2000, and in an urban
area you might be lucky to see 20.

You can't count the stars directly. Due to the rotation of the earth,
more keep appearing on one side and disappearing from the other. As
atmospheric conditions change, some stars become visible and some
become invisible. Instead, people look through a tube, count the stars
in that field of view, and scale that figure up to obtain an estimate
for the total.


Let’s take a liberal perspective, and say that you’re lying in your sleeping bag on a mountain top in the high Sierras in mid-summer (low humidity), late at night when the moon is not up. I’ve been there, it’s amazing. So maybe you can see 3000 stars. The Shrub wants $10,000,000 – Ten Million Dollars – for every star you can see. Picture it.

So Bush wants more than all the stars of the heavens we can see, to a factor of ten million. Shall we give it to him? Yes? For what?

To save us from the evil communists who want to smother our American way of life? No, that’s not it.

WMD? Nope.

To get our oil out from under their sand? Maybe. It’s the most plausible reason I’ve seen posited to date. But that’s some pretty expensive crude, Dude, especially just for the oil rights, not the oil itself.

To stop Saddam? Ha ha ha.

To find Bin Laden? That’s not even funny.

To fight them over there, so we don’t have to fight them over here? That’s sick. Twisted and warped and foul and sick. That’s evil, boys and girls. Pardon us y’all, but we’uns was hopin’ might we bury – I mean borrow – your country … since we’re over here over anyway, pulling down statues of your megalomaniac. You see, we need a place to throw a rather messy hoedown, and well, we like to keep the carpets clean back home. And our dog bites. So no no, it’s not at all convenient. Can’t possibly have a good Texas BBQ back home just now. It has to be here, because we’re invitin’ some fellas that tend to get sloppy with their ribs and sauce. But we promise to rebuild — er, clean up — after ourselves.

It’s not just that we can’t afford another half a trillion bucks. And you know that’s the least it would be; this is just the estimate. It’s that we can’t afford another 3000 lives. We can’t afford to stagger on as a country torn asunder by protracted and untreated mental illness and unremitting grief and stress. We need to rebuild what’s been damaged here, of the fabric of what passes for our civilization. We need to build a place for ourselves in the world’s community and economy. And, maybe on Saturday mornings when time permits and the sun is out, make some attempt to teach our children not to repeat these unconscionable and stupid mistakes.

hidden costs of bushsurge

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This news item seems to need a little help. It’s not exactly making banner headlines.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A report from the Congressional Budget Office says President Bush’s plan for a troop increase in Iraq could cost up to $27 billion for a 12-month deployment.

The plan could mean sending thousands of support troops in addition to the 20,000-plus combat troops the Defense Department has set for deployment.

the power of king george

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Interesting Salon article about Bush’s juggernaut of power grabbing.

Crisis is what we are facing now. Public opinion has decisively turned against the president’s war in Iraq, with voters dissenting where our system says they should — at the polls. Congress, the supposed locus of the power to “declare war,” is belatedly registering its disapproval of Bush’s inept conduct of that war. Even the normally secretive military and national-security bureaucracies are busily signaling their objections to the commander in chief’s plans.

In virtually any other advanced democracy in the world, government personnel and policy would by now reflect this political earthquake: Either the chief executive would have resigned, or the parties would have coalesced in a government of national unity. But here, the repudiated leader is escalating his war and proclaiming, “I’m the decision maker.” Regarding Congress, Bush said during a recent “60 Minutes” interview, “They could try to stop me from doing it. But I made my decision, and we’re going forward.” And now the president appears to be barreling toward a confrontation with Iran.

unacceptable

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The latest from the indominable Rep. Jack Murtha. I love this guy.

Unacceptable. A rapid escalation of troops is just simply unacceptable. About five months ago, we put more troops in Baghdad and unfortunately, attacks increased and a record number of Americans and Iraqis were killed. President Bush’s “new strategy” just demonstrates his plans to once again ignore the will of the people, the advice of his commanders, the Baker-Hamilton commission, and even some in his own party.

If you want to read the whole thing and sign his petition, e-mail me and I’ll forward it to you.

we’re not convinced

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Sorry, Mr. Bush, but it appears that your pleading may have fallen on deaf ears last night.

Oh pawleeze let me keep my little war. It’s not a big big war, but it’s so important and it’s the only one I’ve got, mostly. I’ll cure aids and fix Darfur and give health insurance, sort of, to the tattered remnants of the middle class. Just please please please don’t cancel my war.

But in the cold light of day, the applause has faded, and the Senate is considering doing just that.

Aw shucks, y’all are just no fun anymore.

party?

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In a couple of weeks, I’m going to roll over 1500 posts on this blog since about the time the war started in 2003. Are you guys going to throw me a party? Wait, I don’t want to know. Let it be a surprise!

Speaking of the war, I’m aware that I didn’t mention it in my cursory assessment of the SOTU speech. I didn’t forget, I’m just leaving it to the bloggers more qualified to untangle that twisted morass. I keep getting the earbuds of my iPod in a knot. A man’s gotta know his limitations.

orange you

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glad you opened this blog? . And I’ve just been sitting here sitting about the philosophy of shared moral intuitions – normative ethics – and I just might decide to impart my thoughts. Or not. I don’t feel like I necessarily ought to. You know what I mean?

I picked an orange from the tree in my parents’ back yard this afternoon, and just a little while ago I ate it. It was good.

You never know about an orange. You bite into it, it might be sweet or bitter. But I peeled this one, broke it open and stuffed a big chunk in my mouth, because I trust an orange to be the best it can be; to be sincere, without deception. An orange does not have a nefarious hidden agenda. It might make up pucker up, but it won’t get you killed for no good reason. I trusted that orange more than I trust the good intentions of President Bush tonight.



Yeah, I watched the speech. Couldn’t help myself. And he said some good things. He wants to make things better for the people. But I don’t trust him. He’ll mandate progressive programs, maybe, but he won’t fund them. And that tax break for health insurance thing is a sick joke. What about the millions of people who can’t take advantage of a tax break because they don’t make enough to pay taxes in the first place, let alone pay for insurance. What about the poor and the working poor? No, I don’t trust him. And more’s the pity.

Tzu-kung asked, What is leadership?
The Master said: “Food enough, troops enough, and a trusting people.”
Tzu-kung said: “Were there no help for it, which could best be spared of the three?’
“Troops,” said the Master.
“And were there no help for it, which could better be spared of the other two?”
“Food,” said the Master. “From of old all men die, but without trust a people cannot stand.”

future history

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So I was reading Eckhart Tolle tonight: “Usually, the future is a replica of the past,” which in our present context is a rather disturbing prospect. The past is, in pertinent part, a long line of madmen who lead their hapless tribes and countries into senseless bloody conflict, and it has never solved a thing or served a reasonable purpose, and it’s still going on. At least, that’s the way I read history.

This gave me an idea: history!

We have, perhaps for the first time ever, a chance to really effect how history records what is going on. We have the technology to create a viable grassroots record. We can write it ourselves, and make it much harder for Big Brother to claim “Oceana has always been at war with Eastasia.“

So here’s a start:

Bush’s Legacy: The President Who Cried Wolf. This is a special comment by Keith Olbermann. We should save this, and everything else we see that captures the truth, and keep it moving around the net. Create a repository of the truth.

Speaking of which, check out truthout.org.

swimmin with sharks

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Back in the early weeks of 2003, I predicted that, war being hell, no good could come from this insanity. I said that many would lose their lives for the unpresident’s quixotic clusterfark, while others would lose their minds, and some would lose their souls. Now, with the sideshow fatal hazing of The Decider of Baghdad, I take no pleasure in being proven right. The latest big stone head has fallen, in a long line of those who learn it’s a hard thing to lose an Americorp franchise. Don’t screw with the head office, boys.

Of course, the execution was appalling, disgusting. Inhumane. Big deal. Par for the course in Iraq for four years. What’s happened to the Iraqi children alone makes this hanging look like a stroll through the park.

I’m reminded of an old adage from my days as a litigation paralegal: “If you’re swimmin’ with sharks, try not to look like bait.” Saddam’s mistake. He bluffed and had to fold, or punt or something. The question of the night is, now that Bush has the bait swinging from the proverbial hook, what do you suppose he’s going to catch?