War

Firstly, please read an update on this post. I took what can only be read as a swipe at Chris Hedges which I was unfair and wrong of me.


Over a hundred civilians were killed by - what appears to be - American air raids in Afghanistan yesterday. Pictures of the results are linked here with a warning that they are sad, sickening, and heartbreaking.

I am not going to write about what I think of this particular war - which is now clearly Obama's but it must be made clear over and over again that - whether the Afghanistan war is right or wrong - that innocents die. Young innocents.

Obama's stance on this war is one of the many things that was ignored by the Obama Pod-O-Sphere. His duplicitous stances on Iraq were also papered over by the dutiful minions on the Move-On Left. His strategy has always been to expand the Afghan war and move it when necessary into Pakistan. All along he stated that we would get out of Iraq. Though the timetable for that is now no different than Bush's. I've stated before what I believe to be true: He won't exit Iraq - or won't be able to - and there will be a continued expansion of troops into Afghanistan through out his term.

Of all the shuck and jive (go on call me racist, I'm well past giving a shit.) Obama and his minions threw down last year, the double and triple speak on Iraq, which made room for false hope regarding Afghanistan is the most despicable.

A long time ago reasonable people realized that we will be in what amounts to a permanent war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. A permanent war, that is, until this country simply has no more resources to fight it. I do not like the willy nilly use of the word "imperial" by anti-war commentators - but the war is about power and resources much more than it is about "radical Islam". We control the region or someone else does. That is how it goes with powerful countries in a world with other powerful countries.

Geo-politics were not changed on January 20th. No one should kid themselves.

It is the Code Pink ninnies and the other adjacent jackasses on the Left that refused to press Obama on the wars that deserve our contempt and a severe comeuppance

Make no bones about it. They sold their souls and their principals. Not by supporting Obama over McCain but by refusing to see the reality of their chosen one and demand answers before handing him the keys to the kingdom.

Lunch Break

Obamabush: He's often much dumber than MSNBC is letting on.
Bushbama: President Hopeful has blocked legal challenges to government wiretapping.
Pea brains at war! Kos bird brain attacks the Code Pink brain dead!!!
Ruthless: Tarheels make my friend's mother Ruth very happy by dispatching Michigan State swiftly. Go Tarheels! Go Ruth! (did not care so much about March Madness after the second round-my brackets were busted early - but pulled for N.C. by default cuz i know some peeps from there...)
Music: After a year of harassing insistence that I watch Mad Men by a friend in the advertising business I finally turned the DVR toward AMC a few Sundays ago. Gotta say that MM had me by the half way point of the opening credits. Wow. It is some good television. Bitch about Hollywood all u like - when the talent here gets together to make something worthwhile no one can touch it.

The precision of M.M. is breathtaking. Season One opens during the 1960 presidential campaign. I am told the only fudging in the production design was in using IBM Selectric typewriters which would not show up until the mid sixties...there was not enough of the previous generation typewriters still around to fill the ad agency's office....

Oh my and don't start me on the acting... hmmm hmmm good... not a weak link anywhere.

Now I have a riff/post on why the lead character's name, "Don Draper", will soon enter the American lexicon as a short hand for an entire genre of American Maleness - the true antecedent to this tv character played by Jon Hamm is Jay Gatsby.

Okay enough! An Itunes gift card later I am working through season one with the same joy I felt upon my first read of Love In the Time of Cholera - too happy to stop and too happy to keep going for long without a pace about to work off the skittering pleasure of being alive...

A You Tuber put 2 Mad Men characters to music...

Lunch Break

Photos: L.R. Reader Roberta sent me these pictures of Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th Century. I really love stuff like this. From anywhere. The fact that it is my home town makes it all the more interesting to me. But I just like seeing pics of places...real places..Send me photos of your towns. Please. john@liberalrapture.com

Quote:

When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.

- Marquis de la Grange

Bush3: Greenwald on ObamaBush's Terror policy.

Bush3 - part 2, BHO's mini surge: ObamaBush deploys more troops.
So sorry Code Pink. Please go crawl into a corner, and smash your Hope Bongs. Buck up, Code Pinksters, you'll always have Nader!

Music - today from the 70s: Lola. The Kinks. I do believe this may be a perfect piece of pop music.

What about Iraq?

Republicans have been surprisingly fierce in opposition to Obama thus far. Barring an unforeseen event that brings the country together, I can't imagine this will taper off much. The GOP can't stand being out of power - which they truly believe is their God given right.

Though I have taken some joy in Obama's screw ups, I certainly don't count the guy out yet. Still, his support among his "non base" is in no way personally connected to him. It is all about results. His fervent base (25-30%? maybe) will follow him anywhere. But the middle that is still giving him the benefit of the doubt will peal away if things don't turn around. And do so quickly. Despite all his P.R. he does not connect on a personal level, like Clinton or FDR. With out the noise of the media at his back he is testy and effete. Again, the kool aid drinkers don't feel this way. But they are hypnotized.

We'll see how things go after the stimulus bill passes.

I do wonder about the other constituency that all Presidents must nurture: the military. No Quarter featured a piece on Iraq yesterday. It reminded me of what I have been saying for over a year: Obama mislead by omission and commission on Iraq - deluding his followers into believing the war would be over quickly. This was, and remains, nonsense. Regardless, even with his shifting stances, the pods willy nilly proclaimed him the "peace" candidate. We'd be out of Iraq quickly if BHO won and the great wrong would be corrected - so the Pod tale went. Tom Ricks author of the compelling Fiasco and the new book The Gamble - thinks otherwise. He says we have 5-10 years left in Iraq and from this corner, I see no other logical - or sane - conclusion.

I still believe the fundamental reason for the invasion was oil - and its macro-implications. We needed a secure base (or bases) in the Middle East to ensure the steady flow of oil to the West. Saudi Arabia is not secure enough. Besides, if we didn't get Iraq's oil - then China just might have. Of course, other reasons for invading were plentiful - but remove oil and the investment required makes an invasion much less appealing. Of course, W and his crew botched the war for years. But the essential reason remains - and we may well come out of it okay in the very long run. "Okay" being relative. We may be bankrupt - check that - WE ARE BANKRUPT - but barring a quick departure - the oil in Iraq will travel west.

I don't think Obama has the cojones to get us out of Iraq quickly. Nor do I think he has the final say. (Yes - there are institutions more powerful in the U.S. than the White House.) General David Petraeus is, almost alone, the brain trust behind Iraq now. From the NQ post: For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the war. Thomas E. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten years-and that that outcome is a best case scenario.

For the Code Pink crew who mindlessly drove gasoline powered vehicles to mindless "peace" rallies for Obama - and saw no disconnect - a cold,cold, shower awaits. It is probable that the Lightbringer will stand for re-election in 2012 with the U.S. still fully engaged in Iraq.

It certainly makes Obama's dash to the middle politically explainable. It may be all he has in 2012.

But by then the GOP will be at more than full speed.