Saturday, April 10, 2004
Cheer Up! Ignore Iraq and Listen to Beatallica
Iraq is probably even worse than the major media are telling us (though some reports seem a little better informed than others), and it remains to be seen if
a) this is a sustained, para-military effort that will continue or intensify
b) the current level of violence will subside
c) "terrorist" organizations are being formed as we speak (and occupy)
d) the Iraqi police and "civil defense corps" will turn against us
e) the "insurgents" are simply a small group of Iran-funded trouble-makers
David Brooks, who I don't think actually reads the newspaper he writes for, tells us everything is absolutely fine, and we should get back to feeling bad about living in Blue States and looking down on people from Kansas.
Meanwhile, in reality, people are divided primarily over whether this is Lebanon, Vietnam, or the West Bank.
Kerry is being rightly criticized for not being forceful enough in his Iraq talk, but he's in a tough position because the bastard voted for the war despite being smart enough to know it was a huge mistake orchestrated by people with no concept of how to wage a war, let alone occupy an unfriendly nation full of contentious ethnic/religious groups, violent history, and a great deal of admiration for martyrdom against foreigners. He has to come out and say, over and over again, that the situation is even worse than we're being told, and it's being run ineptly. He can't simply call on the UN and the importance of an international coalition, no matter how reasonable that sounds. He has to explain that we're up against, not a few angry wackos with kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, but an organized resistance that is getting more organized every damn day, and the longer we fuck up the reconstruction of the country, the more general support it will receive. He has to appeal to the military families and their supporters -- they know their kids aren't coming home, that more will be sent, that we're spread thin, that morale is down, that they're underpaid, and that civilian cold-warrior chicken-hawks with no concept of how to run a war are still in charge, despite the absolute worst pre-war planning in modern history (despite having had a dozen or so years in which to fixate on it). He has to get fucking vicious, because these people cannot be left in charge.
Now we're getting a hostage crisis, which, if things go even further shit-ward, should make for a nice October Surprise (though it'll have to take a number -- assasination attempts, Reagan's death, Bin Laden's capture, and another terrorist attack should make for a very busy autumn). Knowing the M.O. of the kids in charge of the candy store, they'll probably offer to sell arms to the insurgents in return for the hostages, then funnel the money to whatever anti-democratic right-wing military Latin American "rebels" they're currently starry-eyed over. It'd tie in nicely with the Death of Reagan retrospectives. Symmetry, sort of. They've won it for the Gipper, after all these years.
And the best part is, Ronnie's estate won't be taxed when it's not passed on to his estranged, embittered children. |
a) this is a sustained, para-military effort that will continue or intensify
b) the current level of violence will subside
c) "terrorist" organizations are being formed as we speak (and occupy)
d) the Iraqi police and "civil defense corps" will turn against us
e) the "insurgents" are simply a small group of Iran-funded trouble-makers
David Brooks, who I don't think actually reads the newspaper he writes for, tells us everything is absolutely fine, and we should get back to feeling bad about living in Blue States and looking down on people from Kansas.
Meanwhile, in reality, people are divided primarily over whether this is Lebanon, Vietnam, or the West Bank.
Kerry is being rightly criticized for not being forceful enough in his Iraq talk, but he's in a tough position because the bastard voted for the war despite being smart enough to know it was a huge mistake orchestrated by people with no concept of how to wage a war, let alone occupy an unfriendly nation full of contentious ethnic/religious groups, violent history, and a great deal of admiration for martyrdom against foreigners. He has to come out and say, over and over again, that the situation is even worse than we're being told, and it's being run ineptly. He can't simply call on the UN and the importance of an international coalition, no matter how reasonable that sounds. He has to explain that we're up against, not a few angry wackos with kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, but an organized resistance that is getting more organized every damn day, and the longer we fuck up the reconstruction of the country, the more general support it will receive. He has to appeal to the military families and their supporters -- they know their kids aren't coming home, that more will be sent, that we're spread thin, that morale is down, that they're underpaid, and that civilian cold-warrior chicken-hawks with no concept of how to run a war are still in charge, despite the absolute worst pre-war planning in modern history (despite having had a dozen or so years in which to fixate on it). He has to get fucking vicious, because these people cannot be left in charge.
Now we're getting a hostage crisis, which, if things go even further shit-ward, should make for a nice October Surprise (though it'll have to take a number -- assasination attempts, Reagan's death, Bin Laden's capture, and another terrorist attack should make for a very busy autumn). Knowing the M.O. of the kids in charge of the candy store, they'll probably offer to sell arms to the insurgents in return for the hostages, then funnel the money to whatever anti-democratic right-wing military Latin American "rebels" they're currently starry-eyed over. It'd tie in nicely with the Death of Reagan retrospectives. Symmetry, sort of. They've won it for the Gipper, after all these years.
And the best part is, Ronnie's estate won't be taxed when it's not passed on to his estranged, embittered children. |
