Having spent the weekend entirely lacking internet access--lacking, in most instances, a computer even--I am pleased to report to all y'all that nothing has occurred. Alberto Gonzales gone is the same as Alberto Gonzales present: either mute or foolish, but in no instance useful. The wars still drag on, and for the first time in the history of the internet, I agree almost entirely with something that Kevin Drum has written:
Consider two other big counterinsurgency wars that were going badly after a few years: Vietnam in 1964 and Afghanistan in 1984. In both cases, the entangled superpower had the option of either pulling out and taking its lumps or extending the conflict, and in both cases it made the choice to extend the conflict. And both times that was the wrong decision. Staying in Vietnam did immense long-term damage to the national security of both Southeast Asia and the United States, and staying in Afghanistan was a leading cause of the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. For both countries, staying involved in a long and deadly counterinsurgency almost certainly did far more harm than pulling out would have.It's notable that our government speaks of and our press covers Iraq as if it's a restive overseas colony, although they eschew the word occupation.
How did we become such an eager empire while convincing ourselves so thoroughly of our own reluctance?
6 comments:
I'm not completely sure, but I think it's got something to do with Dennis Leary releasing "No Cure For Cancer" as an album.
Ain't it funny, how time slips away...Conquests are like potato chips, can't just have one? Err, how about, it's the fault of global warming?
Actually, Gonzales gone means new fun. Whomever Dubya the Dauphin sends up to the Senate, unless it's a real outside the box candidate --- Barney? Laura? James Madison? Hillary Clinton? Ramsay Clark -- the result will be a bloodbath.
As for continuing involvement in a counter-insurgency...Turn out the lights, the party's over and tomorrow starts the same old thing again.
Actually, Alan, I blame Paul Verhoeven.
Dom we really expect a bloodbath? The Congressional Dimmicrats, so far, seem perfectly willing to defer to the Decider on almost anything of substance. Although, maybe the Attorney General is really not a matter of substance when it comes to the real issue-adding to the powers available to a future War Democrat President.
This seems exactly right:
“Dems would vote for the zombie corpse of John Wayne Gacy as Secretary of Day Care if Bush asked. Anything else might get them yelled at.”
Let’s not forget that Afghanistan c 1985 was also one of the keystones in the American September event. I look forward to living in a small town somewhere on the edge of nowhere when the next flock comes home to roost.
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