Wishing it Wasn't So

The New York Times cites Al Arabiya in reporting that hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr. has been killed by Saudi militants affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Is there ANYONE who thinks the world is safer thanks to Dumbya's saber rattling?

Lately, I've been slow in posting--partly because of a swollen elbow, but partly because there's hardly any point in writing about the foolish Bush wars. Only the battiest individuals can believe that our flailing about in Iraq and Afghanistan could possibly serve any good purpose.

Lately, Atrios has linked to a few folks who've finally managed to remove enough of the sand covering their eyes and ears--the pieces I refer to are from, IIRC, the Detroit Free Press and The New Republic (TNR's link is, for me, beyond the registration wall).

I for one think it's good that these folks finally have managed to, at least in part, come to grips with the debacle that is now our "Middle East Policy." It's a goddamned shame, though, that these folks didn't see the light back when they and others were beating the war drum so loudly that it drowned out ANY serious discussion of the consequences.

As I've posted previously, my own thoughts regarding the occupation were that it would take a while--years, in fact--before resentment boiled over into hostility. But this assumed a genuine adherence to the Powell doctrine. I didn't think Rumsfeld would be so cheap.

I guess Rummy has his own ideas about strategery--as well as what constitutes adherence to the Geneva Conventions.

But like a bad musical in the middle of the second act, the show must go on. What Noam Chomsky calls "the limits of debate" is nicely summed up with the John Kerry position--more troops (good luck), more allies (oh yeah--like who?), same occupation. Like two lost men, neither Bush nor Kerry is willing to step out of the car and search on a map, much less ask for directions. Meanwhile, every day we remain in Iraq means more "car bomb derby" as Bill Hicks might say.

General ignorance is the ONLY thing keeping Bush from being vilified as an incompetent Richard Nixon--if not an incompetent Warren Harding, although I think Harding has been pretty much erased from the collective memory of the public. And the media is at least partly responsible for this. Sure, the stresses of modern life take their toll. But it seems these days that being a civic minded person requires the kind of energy that folks invest into serious hobbies--or extra part time jobs. No wonder folks pretty much tune out.

So, without ignoring the Middle East, I'm going to try to broaden my posts a bit since the debate, as it were, is over. Whether or not the public is looking, the United States is seeing the limits of its power. We can blast all kinds of stuff to smithereens--but we can't make people in the Middle East like us--especially when it's their stuff we're blasting away at.

Game over--no reset.