Lind: Middle East 20** = Europe 19**

William Lind's new article compares today's middle east with europe before world war one. It is worth a read, especially the part about lack of leadership.

I am well aware of Bill Clinton's flaws, but listening to him talk sets of pangs of disappointment about whose hands we have entrusted the survival of the world to.

Psalm 140:1-2

Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men;
preserve me from violent men,
who plan evil things in their heart
and stir up wars continually.

what is with condi and iran?

Some news stories say Condi is pushing a diplomatic solution to Iran. The Sunday Telegraph says she is going to roll over for Cheney. Of course she is.

Now, when has Condi ever done anything that showed a propensity to do the right thing? Her testimony on the August 6 PDB, that the information was all historical, will be her epitaph.

The problem with arguing that Condi is pushing a diplomatic solution to the Iran problem is that the Iran problem is wholly manufactured by the Bush administration. They are manufacturing the problem because they are a bunch of vicious warmongers in the throes of a quasireligious hallucination. There is no diplomacy in the usual sense of the term that could change that. Now if Condi wants to negotiate with her boss to talk him out of war, that would be the only diplomacy that could be worth a salt, but that is not what people usually mean by diplomacy.

If she is serious about stopping the war, she needs to go public. Tell congress what is going on. Resign. Go on 60 minutes and Oprah and tell us what's up. Otherwise, she is just the Rudolf Hess of the Bush administration, coming to her senses too late to make a difference.

Unconscious Absorption of Cultural Detritus

I'm not sure what the title means. I think I was pretentiously pondering various phrases that have entered the vernacular, such as Catch-22 or big brother (A TV show fer crying out loud!), with most of the deeper, counter cultural meaning of the concepts undigested. Or it could refer to stupid pop culture references such as "I'll be back" or "just another snake cult."

What it really describes is the characteristic skill of people who win at Jeopardy!

Going Costa Rican

This article from the AP says, "The Army's 38 available combat units are deployed, just returning home or already tapped to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere, leaving no fresh troops to replace five extra brigades that President Bush sent to Baghdad this year, according to interviews and military documents reviewed by The Associated Press."

So who is defending the U.S., while the Army is off chasing Iraqis around Iraq?

Maybe this goes to show that not only do we not need the huge army we have, we don't need any army. Maybe it is time to disband the Army, like Costa Rica has done.

Virtually Impotent

Frances Townsend, Bush's homeland imcompetence adviser, called Bin Laden 'virtually impotent.' Congratulations to Ms. Townsend for receiving her Ph.D. from the Bring Em' On College of Public Diplomacy.

Beyond the inherent stupidity of the statement, why would you call the leader of Al Qaeda 'impotent' the day before your lap dog general goes to tell Congress we need to stay in Iraq because of Al Qaeda? Is this more stupidity, or is she trying her best to give Congress reasons to withdraw, while keeping her job?

The Bush Administration, home o' da whoppa!

Links for the non-reality challenged: AFP, SMH, Times of India.

Frank Rich uses my line

Frank Rich's Sunday column, As the Iraqis Stand Down, We'll Stand Up, echoes a line that I used in this April post.

Despite using my line (which was really obvious, anyway) Rich's article is very good. Some insightful quotes:

'The "decrease in violence" fable is even more insidious. Though both General Petraeus and a White House fact sheet have recently boasted of a 75 percent decline in sectarian attacks, this number turns out to be as cooked as those tallies of Saddam's weapons sites once peddled by WHIG.'

'Last week the administration and its ideological surrogates were tireless in trashing the nonpartisan G.A.O. report card that found the Iraqi government flunking most of its benchmarks.

'Those benchmarks, the war's dead- enders now say, are obsolete anyway. But what about the president's own benchmarks? Remember "as the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down"? General Petraeus was once in charge of the Iraqi Army's training and proclaimed it "on track and increasing in capacity" three years ago. On Thursday, an independent commission convened by the Republican John Warner and populated by retired military officers and police chiefs reported that Iraqi forces can take charge no sooner than 12 to 18 months from now, and that the corrupt Iraqi police force has to be rebuilt from scratch. Let us not forget, either, Mr. Bush's former top-down benchmarks for measuring success: "an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself." On that scorecard, he's batting 0 for 3.'

In my April article, I neglected to give a link for the Nancy Youssef article that military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable U.S. soldiers to start coming home soon, which inspired the 'stand down, stand up' retort. She also has written some important articles on U.S. troops shot 429 Iraqi civilians at checkpoints and the U.S. arming Sunni militias.

War worth fightin'?

Below are the lyrics from Uncle Tupelo's great, great song, Life Worth Livin'.

The U.S. wants Iraqs oil. George W. wants to be the guy with two beers. Maybe he is, after his dismal gobbering at APEC. The whole damn mess ought to be quite clear, and it will be quite clear despite Petraeus's obfuscations. I wonder whether George Bush really cares. Maybe he is trying to destroy this country as a way of getting back at his dad.

Midnight is coming in Iraq, and we ought to get the hell out, cause it won't be pumpkins that those humvees will be turning into.


Life Worth Livin'

This song is sung for anyone that's listening
This song is for the broken-spirited man
This song is for anyone left standing
After the strain of a slow, sad end

It seems everybody wants what someone else has
There's sorrow enough for all
Just go in any bar and ask
With a beer in each hand and a smile in between
All around's a world grown mean

We've all had our ups and downs
It's been mostly down around here
Now this whole damn mess is becoming quite clear

Looks like we're all looking for a life worth livin'
That's why we drink ourselves to sleep
Yeah, we're all looking for a life worth livin'
That's why we pray for our souls to keep

There's nothing left now but broken pieces
Of one man's broken will to care
And in the end before all is said and done
How many others might follow him there?

This song is sung for anyone that's listening
This song is for the broken-spirited man
This song is for anyone left standing
After the strain of a slow, sad end

Midnight is comin' 'round
Still mostly down around here
Now this whole damn mess is becoming quite clear

Iran: No new war needed

Bush-Cheney continue to pump up a war on Iran. Bill and Kathleen Christison write that the only way to stop it is to impeach them. Meanwhile, the IAEA will report that Iran is cooperating in resolving issues about nuclear program.

No War In Iran

Read This.