Other News

Bush Wars has several good links to Iraq news. One story is about how the Bushista "exit" strategy--actually more of a revolving door approach--shows about the same level of piss poor planning that characterized the invasion and aftermath itself. Another reminds us that Iraq is much more complicated than the idiots pushing for invasion realized. My god, don't these folks have ANY sense? And this link to a Robert Fisk article offers some evidence that the British are just as capable of brutality as anyone.

Mark my words: The war in Iraq is a pivotal moment in recent history, and not a good moment. We'll be paying for this one for a LONG, LONG TIME, and not merely in terms of dollars. For instance:
Today in Iraq carries a story from The Oregonian about a soldier on leave from the combat zone. In spite of being relatively well-adjusted, small things are capable of producing intense reactions. I highly recommend reading the article itself.

Some Commentary of My Own

You know, the latest "meme" concerning the Democrats in general and Dean in particular is that they are "angry." As if anger is somehow unjustified. Let's look at the record:

A biased Supreme Court, in one of the most shameless acts of judicial partisanship, fraudulently declared George W. Bush to be President.

Thanks to what can only be described as wanton, willfull ignorance, Bush was essentially asleep at the wheel when the worst act of terrorism in history occurred on his watch.

When the Administration should have been working overtime on eliminating the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, they instead pulled back in a bait-and-switch manuever in order to attack Iraq. Meanwhile, bin Laden successfully escaped to the porous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

At this point, even the head of bin Laden being paraded around on a pike will do little to supress fundamentalist Islamic political movements. Osama is merely a figurehead, no pun intended--but what a figurehead. He got away.

The unprovoked attack on Iraq was the final straw in squandering the sympathy of those around the world who saw the September 11th attacks as what they were: brutal acts of terrorism. Now, the United States is perceived as the bully.

To date, our adventure in Iraq has cost almost US$95 Billion, with another US$65 Billion in the pipeline. Our expenditure has produced the following:

Chaos in Iraq
Chaos in Afghanistan, where, new constitution or not, Karzai is NOT the president--he is mayor of parts of Kabul, and requires massive security anytime he ventures outside the palace. The rest of the country is dominated by warlords and/or drug traffickers--and the resurgent Taliban (so much for women's rights over there).
Increased terrorist activity in countries like Turkey and Indonesia.
Regular "heightened alerts" right here in the United States.

And I haven't even gone into the disaster that is Bush's "domestic agenda." Anyone remember the California energy scandal in 2001? How about Enron's retirement benefits for their employees executives only? Then there are the job losses. The cutbacks in environmental regulation. The slaps in the faces of the elderly (the sham Medicare "reform") and Veterans (cutbacks in the VA budget). The "jobless recovery," which means it ain't a recovery at all, but a ridiculous shell-game of on-paper profits in the financial sector.

This isn't even the half of it.

And, we're not supposed to be angry?

We should be livid. In any other industrial country, people would be rioting. The press would be relentlessly hounding the government over the lies, big lies, damn lies, blatant lies, and just plain bullshit that's been coming out of the Administration since DAY FUCKING ONE (recall the ridiculous story about the trashing of the White House? Ari Fleischer should be placed in a public stockade and be subjected to a barrage of rotten fruit and vegetables over that one).

Angry is almost too nice an emotion after watching, in order, Bush, the SCLM, and the various corporate sponsors trash our democracy in furtherance of their own pea-brained, narrow-minded vision of power--which, on a world-wide scale, is doomed to failure. Hell, if we can't even take over Iraq, what makes them think we can assert our influence elsewhere? Especially as we spend down the national treasury to the point where we're going to end up like Argentina, except on a more massive scale.

But the media is bemusedly crowing about how "angry" the Democrats have become.

Let's see what happens to their bemusement if their readership continues to decline, as the alternative media begins to assert itself. Happy New Year, you fat, lazy, sodden, blood-sucking leach of a commercial media. Here's hoping 2004 puts you where you belong: in the slag-heap of history.