Man alive, if only I could do some deep thinking here.
If only I had the smarts enough to figure this whole thing out.
What to do or what not to do, is the question. Do you know? see link below…
Seeing Baghdad, Thinking Saigon, I can sortta of see it… BUT truthout
I hate to say this, but it is a day late and a dollar short. This kind of situation explaination is rather late. It should have been deliberated…oh lets say about three years ago, if you ask me. They knew this was bound to happen….
Personally, I think that everything that Bush has attempted to do has failed is because he is little incompetent rich kid who had the skids greased for him his entire life by an America run by and for the investment class. Imagine the little prick’s horror when he found out that the rest of the world didn’t give a shit about every stupid, idiot word that came out of his mouth.
That being said, and I actually don’t feel much better, we should take a couple lessons from the British who were expert at empire building.
The American elite doesn’t have enough pride in America to be a real empire. Like Bush, they are dilletantes who play at everything they do. Unlike the British who brainwashed the children of their “better classes” to take on functionary roles in the empire, American elites just want to be left along to prey upon the rest of us.
The rich will always take care of themselves or buy someone else to take care of them. That’s why the rest of us have to band together to look after ourselves. And we can even define “ourselves” as including anyone who has a wad of money, a trust fund, etc. etc. as long as they define “ourselves” as including all the rest of us.
….and this is just out today,via the AP
That Peter pace is such a hoot!
Thanks for this.
We’re in a place with no good options, no good outcome. Still, not facing the reality, It’s a civil war – all declared but in name. And since we’re now considered by Shias and Kurds as taking sides, we’ll be turned upon as we deplete our resources – human and fiscal.
Bottom line is, the chaos suits our neo-con plans. We have no intention of leaving any time soon. We can’t. Not from Afghanistan, we’ve to protect Karzai and not from Iraq, we’ve to protect the Sunnis. We broke it so now we own two very hostile countries, surrounded by equally hostile neighbors. It didn’t work out the way we’re told it would.
We’ve been neo-conned
I think you got that one right!
I hate to burst Mr. Biddle’s bubble, but it’s already failed. Even if one operates from the presumption that the entire adventure was driven by an altruistic motive, which is patently false, it has deteriorated to the point that, no matter how many ‘new’ rationalizations and strategies are devised, there is only one solution…withdraw. This essay is, as you say Brenda, a day late and a dollar short. IMO, it still embraces the fundamental idea that a military victory is achievable. I do not believe that.
The cabal that is BushCo™ must be brought to account, through impeachment and trial for treason, as well as being called to the dock at the Haig for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Reparations will be necessary and apologies will have to be forthcoming. It’s going to be very hard for America to regain the stature that it once held in the world…suspect as it may have been before RE: the meddling in the ME.
The only solution to this is us. We, the people, must force an end this war and bring these criminals to justice. Failure to do so will contribute to a further decline of not only the ME situation as well as the stature and survivability of our republic.
I am not hopeful.
Peace
Now, Dada, that is what I like to hear. I just had to bring fuel to the fire.
Amen. That’s Iraq.
But, let’s stumble unto Iran. We’ve not benefited from our mistakes as it’s revealed in the Timesonline, Monday’s edition 03.06.
So far on Iran, the hawks are divided. This will be an interesting week as the issue goes to the UN. Trigger happy Bolton and Condi are at odds. I thought she said he’d be supervised?
Thing is we, joe and jane, will pay for this at the pump and with our jobs.
Thanks for the link, I don’t check The Times often enough.
Yet another crack in the wall that BushCo™ has built. Their inconsistent policies, blustering and saber rattling re: Iran, N. Korea are not having the desired effect. Combine this stumbling and mismatched rhetoric with the acquiescence to India’s Nuclear Enrichment Program, which is nothing more than supporting the proliferation of nuclear weaponry, and you get a glimpse of an administration whose foreign policy is adrift and headed for the shoals.
Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, otherwise BushCo™ will have to play the “terrorist event” card to dial up the fear factor.
Interesting week indeed.
Peace
Right on. As I mentioned in another comment, Bush was so desperate for some good headlines he caved-in to India on the nuclear issue; a definite bolstering for Iran.
But true to form with this administration, they talk tough on security – their cover to bag in corporate profit$.
I don’t think so. This was another business decision, as well as policy. It should prove to be the long sought final nail in the coffin of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, though Bolton & Ilk will grab the shards in their fists in order to continue flogging Iran.
Next thing they’ll be saying that we are “seeing the light at the end of the tunnel”!
I’ve been waking in the middle of the night for a long time now, thinking of Vietnam, Cambodia. Of a dear friend who died, in the slowest, final months of that terrible mistake. In my dream I walk downstairs, and he’s standing there, by the fireplace,in his uniform. I’ve been called up again – I’m off to Iraq. Or is it Iran? We are working hard, making room behind that Black wall.”
It’s a sick dream, and I make myself wake up,just to be sure he really isn’t here. I wish he were, then he would not have his name on that wall.
a recurring dream about my Uncle too this past week that leaves her feeling haunted. Sorry about your friend and sorry about your loss.
Thanks, but I am over him – it was many many years ago, and if he were really here he’d be teasing unmercifully at even reporting a dream – he knew I planned to be a scientist. His death did play a part in making me a different person, some of which is a good thing. I’m not as content to suffer fools, and fiddling while Rome burns is not on the agenda.
Tracy, this again just goes to prove how PTSD goes to affect, not only the vet him/herself, but to eveyone that person had surrounding him/her in life. I personally had to watch myself carefully [see post below], or I would not be any better off. I still suffer from my own personal hell from this said subject. It is not a fun thing to have to deal with on a daily basis. Sadly to say it is neverending for some of us. As a matter of fact, I personally tried what your Uncle tried but in a different manner. I got to live to help others see thorugh this farse. I only hope I can do some good in being given a second chance. My heart is so sad today. What hell we all have to live through! :o(
the only survivor in my family due to an accident….not anything that anybody did with intent. It “got me” when my daughter was born and it was very humbling and very very scary. My Aunt has copies of my Uncle’s medical records (amazingly) and I guess sometimes she pours over them looking for answers. Most of the answers she finds seem to place blame on herself. Due to my PTSD experience I understand that in order for the organism to survive the trauma that can’t be processed at the time of the event, the memory and all the unresolved feelings become encapsulated and isolated within the brain. Then someday or sometime along comes a trigger that opens the door to the isolated event. Because the trauma has been isolated though there aren’t many neural connections to it and for most people they get stuck in the closed circuit that is that sealed area of memory and all those neurons are connected to each other and hardly anything else, the “thing/trauma/event keeps replaying in a loop. Closed off from the multitude of connections to other areas and experiences stored in the brain that would enable the person to process the experience and the over and over playing of horrible trauma eating up all of your endorphins and neurotransmitters like a Packman has ended so many lives. My Aunt picks apart things that he said not understanding that even though he was physically with us at the time, that his mind was in a completely different place trying to process and come to terms with a completely different set of events and traumas he was terrified to share with anybody. He was also very much in control of himself too and from my own experience dealing with my own stuff, he was probably so terrified to just lose it and lay there sobbing for however long he would have had to that to unburden himself and accept how powerless we can all find ourselves in the face of horrors. I’m so glad you are here with us Brenda……just about every day I’m so glad you are here!
Tracy, My dear friend, I remember that diary you wrote on your Uncle and that very sad day. I could hardly read it without crying my eyes out. I do remember so very clearly! All I could think, is if only! but that was not available to him at that time. The if only’s are always with us, aren’t they? I feel so sad to day for you and your family and those who are like kidspeak. For you see, I do understand..so very well, I do…all my love and hugs to you all…
Kidspeak, I too ahve a very dear friend who’s aircraft went down in Feb of 70 in the mountian range just north and east of Laos. Still considered MIA to this day. I mourn for him. I never have a Feb that I go through that I can’t sleep as if he is calling out to me for whatever it is he might be calling out to me for. This is such a nightmare to have anytime of the year at any night. I know it is my own mind that makes me suffer through this, but I still can not help think it is true and so real for me. What is war good for but nightmares. ;o( I am still angry over this. So when someone such as pat lang tries to coherce me into thinking things are just like VN in Iraq, I let my mind wonder. Same thing here in this article. I do think it is not the same. I still do wonder tho. I do know that the aftermath of all this mess, is yet to come for us all as a society. I hope the formers of this government pay a very dear price for what they have done to all of us alive in this great land of ours and that they do not get any reprievement from a God, if there is one, and they suffer through a hell for eternity. I want to see that suffering start here on earth while they are alive so I can be a witness to this and pity them to the end of time for the sins or bad deeds they have done. I hope I have said this correctly so you get my drift, without hurting anyone’s feelings. I simply can not stand pat lang’s ideas anymore. He does not help any of us forget and help us go forward without reminding us of the days past.
I still ahve a friend that used to call me int he middle of the night, drunk as a skunk crying for forgiveness from his own maistakes he made and the ppl he killed while working int he same area of pat lang, while in VN. His sleep is much more haunted than mine, sad to say. His night time visions of the past is never ending. I finally had to ask him not to call me and deliver me all the sadness in his mind and heart, for I could not deal with it any longer, either. Some of the things he said to me I think of always…not a good thing to have on ones mind or heart. So to end with this, is I believe, is not to have war for the sake of things like this. I do believe in defending ones self, but to go and do what this administration and others have done, is unforgivable. This is the short of it, not the long of it. Hugs, kidspeak, I do know what you feel like…I really do.
Kidspeak, have you been to that big BLACK WALL? Awesome! The first time I went, it was the most demanding thing I have ever had to do. I felt such a hurt. Such a yearning. I cried till I could not see any longer. The apex is so full. It really is a mirror for looking through to see that which was. It is not for those who can not CARE. It is not for those who want FREEDOM from their hauntings. It is a constant reminder of what should not have happened. I see things there that others can’t. I am sure there are those who do too. Such a waste of life and heart.
Oh, yes. I’ve been there several times. I go at dusk or at night – can’t recall going during the light. The first time, I took about 8 of my friends with me (we were there for a conference). They didn’t know that I had a person there. But we went, 7 women and a 9 month old baby. I needed the courage of the group.
You are right, things happen there. I always see things, and feel drawn in. I can walk straight to his name, now, and I have to touch it, and see the other names, the guys who died with him, most likely. I always think they are still here, so I have to be, to do. . .more, somehow.
I don’t cry easily, or much. But there, and thinking about the Black wall, the tears do rise. So much life, joy, gone. A terrible beauty is born, as Yeats said.
We could attempt to draft but I don’t think it’s going to fly. If we would have gone in there on day one armed with the truth working within reality who knows where Iraq would be today…….but if we had been armed with the truth and working within reality we wouldn’t have gone into Iraq to begin with. Osama would be behind bars too. My husband might be doing a rotation out of Darfur right now…..gone for six months ending a genocide! I would probably be a little frightened but six months is a hell of a lot easier than “endless”. We seem to do pretty well stopping genocides too……civil wars though just suck the marrow right out of America.
Can none of you conceive of absolute evil?
We whinny on past the concept like a herd of frightened horses at every turn, despite the fact that IT IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE EXPLANATION FOR THESE KINDS OF EVENTS.
Absolute evil.
Every great religious movement has recognized its existence during all the millions of years of human evolution.
During Prohibition they used to sing “Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.”
Well…how many BILLIONS have recognized this force as it presents in the pathology of human life?
Absolute evil…the banality of:
How much more plainly can it be presented?
We speak of “mistakes”, of “bad planning”, of “wasted opportunities”.
BULLSHIT!!!
If it walks like a duck…
When a set of forces CONSISTENTLY AND FOREVER creates death and chaos on the face of the earth (No matter WHAT myth you need to create in order to objectify what is truly non-corporeal in form.), the only question that remains is…
How best to DEAL with it.
We are not doing so hot, right now.
And why?
Because “the devil”…and again, call it what you will, it’s all the same to me…has this trick.
His BEST trick.
Convincing you that he doesn’t exist.
Well, babies…he DOES.
Bet on it.
He’s a shape-shifter.
A multipler inhabitor of human forms.
He’s always BUSILY at work.
And…he’s a trickster.
“Get thee behind me” said Christ.
And “NEWSTRIKE!!!” say I.
You liiterally cannot believe a thing he says.
Not goddamned THING.
Nor can you use his own tools against him.
From the Richard Wilhelm translation of the I CHING
In a resolute struggle of the good against evil, there are, however, definite rules that must not be disregarded, if it is to succeed.
First, resolution must be based on a union of strength and friendliness.
Second, a compromise with evil is not possible; evil must under all circumstances be openly discredited. Nor must our own passions and shortcomings be glossed over.
Third, the struggle must not be carried on directly by force. If evil is branded, it thinks of weapons, and if we do it the favor of fighting against it blow for blow, we lose in the end because thus we ourselves get entangled in hatred and passion. Therefore it is important to begin at home, to be on guard in our own persons against the faults we have branded. In this way, finding no opponent, the sharp edges of the weapons of evil becomes dulled.
Yup.
This is nothing new, this situation.
Just another set of changes.
“Evil must under all circumstances be openly discredited.”
But…you cannot do that if you do not recognize the very EXISTENCE of evil.
Read the above comments again.
“Personally, I think that everything that Bush has attempted to do has failed is because he is little incompetent rich kid who had the skids greased for him his entire life by an America run by and for the investment class.”
“Their inconsistent policies, blustering and saber rattling re: Iran, N. Korea are not having the desired effect.”
Etc. etc. etc.
Please.
Step THROUGH the mirror with your eyes in the air.
“It” is working PERFECTLY.
For “its” own aims.
Which ARE chaos and destruction.
Wake the fuck up.
Nothing could be plainer, once you see what’s up.
And…HOW do you “openly discredit” evil?
By NAMING it. For what it is.
“Nor must our own passions and shortcomings be glossed over?”
Yup.
Think on it.
Thank you and good night.
And…
Sweet dreams.
AG
AG, makes one want to puke, doesn’t it?
P.S. I have posted the above comment as a diary. Here.
AG
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