This was first posted as a reply to Patrick Lang’s diary Re-Training Support People?, a military eye’s view of the rumor that one way the BushCo people and their few remaining pet generals are going to try to maintain a physical presence in the Middle East if to “retrain” support specialists and let them take over heretofore semi-combat tasks such as perimeter guard duty, etc.
Col. Lang thinks that this a bad idea.
Me too, except that I think it will never come to that. Not in any broad way, at least.
Frankly, I quite seriously think that we are facing the distinct possibility of (another) covert coup d’état of some sort before these kinds of things are extensively implemented. (JFK, Nixon and Clinton being the previous three. With Carter’s “Crash In The Desert” and Clinton’s sex sting being close relatives.)
THAT was what so troubled the administration about Jack Murtha’s public change of heart, and that was also why they so quickly backed off of their original offensive against him when they realized for whom he was speaking. They are under the gun. Neither side of this standoff in Washington wishes to abandon Iraq to chaos, but they disagree on the tactics that should be used to forestall that from happening.
The REAL problem is that neither side is seeing the bigger picture, and this is a problem that might have no possible resolution. We have gone so deeply into economic imperialism and dependence of foreign oil that I am sure the movers and shakers think that this country and its economy would literally fall apart under the pressure that would ensue if we left the Middle East to its own devices and the depredations of OTHER superpowers.
And they may just be right.
Read on…
But the alternative…a constant war against an ever stronger Third World that outnumbers us 4 to 1…is equally bad if not worse.
I see only one possible hope, and it is a slim one because:
1-It would require an effort from the American people that would have to equal or surpass that of W.W.II, and I am not at all convinced that we have the backbone for it anymore.
Maybe…maybe not…
and
2-The people who control this country…the PermaGov…are not willing to take that chance or even apparently consider it. I say this because there is no major, likely candidate for office right now who is saying anything resembling “OK. That’s it. OUT of the economic imperialism game. Time to tighten our belts, even if it means rationing for 5 years or even more. Time to regain our own self-reliance. Time to find new ways to conserve energy and new ways to produce it. Time for a new austerity. We are drawing back, and we will defend ourselves from further incursions on OUR territory by any means necessary, up to and including nuclear retaliation. You have been warned. We will not fuck with you anymore, but God HELP you if you continue to fuck with us.”
However, in a country where people are trampled in shopping riots….I dunno…
And neither do they. If “they” did think this…if a sufficient number of the people who hold the real money here were of this opinion…then there would be a major candidate with major financing (synonyms really, those two ideas) saying this in public. But they have been hoist by their own dumbing down petard, and now have a population that may very well be too media and market stupefied to be ABLE to mount such an effort.
Live by the dumb, die by the dumb.
It’s an obvious alternate strategy, and I am quite sure that it has been gamed at the highest levels. My belief is that it WOULD work, and my further belief is that the gaming and planning is being done by (conscious and unconscious) racists and classists who FAR underestimate the capabilities of minority Americans…including the working white lower middle class and poor.
However…here we are.
Overtly discussing ways to continue our dominance of the Middle East without being driven insolvent, which is beyond a shadow of a doubt the basic tactic that our enemies are now using against us.
And covertly…bet on it…discussing how to get rid of this administration by any means necessary because they are about to completely break this system if they continue on their present course and they show no signs of understanding the mistakes that they have made so far.
Have fun…
And may you be born into interesting times.
Fasten your seat belts.
It’s going to be a rough ride.
AG
