The President's Iran deal is bad because, well...
War is the only American export we can always rely on!
And if you take that away from us, and by us I mean our defense contractors, who will be able to bribe our congressmen at the level they've come to expect?
Besides the Koch brothers, I mean.
After all, steak dinners at The Palm don't pay for themselves.
Remember when old Ike warned us about the Military Industrial Complex? (Eisenhower, by the way, was our greatest general who never actually saw combat--which makes him a model for all Republican chickenhawks past, present and future.)
Of course, he warned us as he was going out the door. And after allowing 8 years of non-stop growth for the Complex and their good buddies over at the CIA.
But still...
Anyway, JFK, who had seen combat, was in the process of removing us from Vietnam and reaching out to both Cuba and the USSR when he went down to Dallas.
LBJ quickly undid all that. And some of his Texas buddies made a killing building military bases in Southeast Asia.
Nixon gave us more of the same in Vietnam. Though detente and the opening with China must have scared some of our war lovers silly. Ford was a cypher and a punchline. Carter started the supplying of the mujahedin. Reagan was a godsend for defense contractors, what with the Evil Empire, Iran-Contra, and Star Wars. Like pigs in slop. Old Bush had his war. Clinton was the best Republican president of my lifetime. Dumb Bush/Cheney was another godsend for the war machine, after September 11th gave us a shiny new enemy to carry us forward.
And Obama wants to take some--not all--but some of that, away!
What, is he crazy?
War is what we do best. We've had a lot of practice.
Thank God we have the brave (well, chickenhawk brave) men and women of the Republican Party, and their partners over at Fox News, to stand in the way of anything even remotely looking like peace.
Showing posts with label Vietnam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vietnam. Show all posts
Monday, July 20, 2015
Sunday, June 29, 2014
The More Things Change
As the neocons rage about a "lost" Iraq, some of us remember how we were lied into that war by Cheney-Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, McCain and the gang, including The New York Times, and some of us obviously don't.
Before we go all goofy with the USA! USA! chant, and more stupid country songs about how tough we are, perhaps we should pause and consider the events of June-August 1914.
A whole bunch of smart people, many of whom were related to each other, somehow managed to get their countries into a war that none of them anticipated, killed off a generation of Europeans, started the Russian Revolution, created random boundaries throughout the Middle East, and sowed the seeds of Fascism.
Which led directly to the Spanish Civil War, and World War II.
Other than that things worked out pretty well.
When I was a mere youth, there was a best selling book entitled "The Best and the Brightest". It was all about the really smart people who initially got us mired in Vietnam. Because they were so sure of their superior intelligence, they arrogantly ignored history and every single warning sign. No matter what, they were certain they could think their way out of trouble. Think and/or bomb...
Now, no book about the Cheney-Bush years could possibly be called the best and the brightest--not even in jest. But the results were the same.
And so we find ourselves in what looks like a lose-lose situation, with no clear solution. Partition Iraq? Okay, that would make the Kurds happy, but who gets the oil? What about Iran and Saudi Arabia? They'll have something to say about it. And what about our "friends" in Israel and the Palestinians? Most of us would probably be happy to sit back and watch the Shias and Sunnis kill each other off. After all, they've been doing it for over 1000 years. Why not finish the job? Of course, that could easily spill over into Egypt, Turkey, and all of the 'stans'. And that means Russia and China and India all conceivably have skin in the game.
Considering everything, I think we are very lucky that we have a cautious, intelligent man in charge, and not a hair trigger cowboy nitwit.
Before we go all goofy with the USA! USA! chant, and more stupid country songs about how tough we are, perhaps we should pause and consider the events of June-August 1914.
A whole bunch of smart people, many of whom were related to each other, somehow managed to get their countries into a war that none of them anticipated, killed off a generation of Europeans, started the Russian Revolution, created random boundaries throughout the Middle East, and sowed the seeds of Fascism.
Which led directly to the Spanish Civil War, and World War II.
Other than that things worked out pretty well.
When I was a mere youth, there was a best selling book entitled "The Best and the Brightest". It was all about the really smart people who initially got us mired in Vietnam. Because they were so sure of their superior intelligence, they arrogantly ignored history and every single warning sign. No matter what, they were certain they could think their way out of trouble. Think and/or bomb...
Now, no book about the Cheney-Bush years could possibly be called the best and the brightest--not even in jest. But the results were the same.
And so we find ourselves in what looks like a lose-lose situation, with no clear solution. Partition Iraq? Okay, that would make the Kurds happy, but who gets the oil? What about Iran and Saudi Arabia? They'll have something to say about it. And what about our "friends" in Israel and the Palestinians? Most of us would probably be happy to sit back and watch the Shias and Sunnis kill each other off. After all, they've been doing it for over 1000 years. Why not finish the job? Of course, that could easily spill over into Egypt, Turkey, and all of the 'stans'. And that means Russia and China and India all conceivably have skin in the game.
Considering everything, I think we are very lucky that we have a cautious, intelligent man in charge, and not a hair trigger cowboy nitwit.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
All Apologies
Here's a thought for the Dark Lord Cheney and his daughter Liz, who is a particularly nasty piece of work in her own right:
President Obama doesn't have to apologize to anyone for anything until lil' Dick Cheney apologizes for the following: all of the lies about WMD's and yellow cake uranium that led to the bait and switch war with Iraq; the billions of dollars that Halliburton subsequently made in Iraq; the secret energy policy meetings with his oil company buddies; the secret, unrecorded testimony to the 9-11 commission where he sat Simple W. on his lap just like a ventriloquist's dummy; the instituting of torture as official policy; being a chicken hawk despite the five draft deferments he got during the Vietnam War; about a million dead Iraqis; and well, anything else he ever did as a member of the US government. Oh, and for generally being just a no good lying sack of shit.
That ought to keep the old prick busy until the mechanical heart finally gives out.
President Obama doesn't have to apologize to anyone for anything until lil' Dick Cheney apologizes for the following: all of the lies about WMD's and yellow cake uranium that led to the bait and switch war with Iraq; the billions of dollars that Halliburton subsequently made in Iraq; the secret energy policy meetings with his oil company buddies; the secret, unrecorded testimony to the 9-11 commission where he sat Simple W. on his lap just like a ventriloquist's dummy; the instituting of torture as official policy; being a chicken hawk despite the five draft deferments he got during the Vietnam War; about a million dead Iraqis; and well, anything else he ever did as a member of the US government. Oh, and for generally being just a no good lying sack of shit.
That ought to keep the old prick busy until the mechanical heart finally gives out.
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