Democratic Party: Get Your Dumb War On
I don't oppose all wars.
After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this Administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
I don't oppose all wars. And I know that on this blog today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income -- to distract us from corporate scandals and an economy that has just gone through the worst year since the Great Depression.
That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.
I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.
So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president today. You want a fight, President Obama? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.
You want a fight, President Obama? Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe.
You want a fight, President Obama? Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.
You want a fight, President Obama? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil.
Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance, corruption and greed, poverty and despair.
I know that even a successful war against Afghanistan will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an escalation in Afghanistan without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.
Having said all that, let's get this dumb war on. How'd I do? Think they'll buy it in Peoria? Ah, who cares.
After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this Administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
I don't oppose all wars. And I know that on this blog today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income -- to distract us from corporate scandals and an economy that has just gone through the worst year since the Great Depression.
That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.
I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.
So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president today. You want a fight, President Obama? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.
You want a fight, President Obama? Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe.
You want a fight, President Obama? Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.
You want a fight, President Obama? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil.
Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance, corruption and greed, poverty and despair.
I know that even a successful war against Afghanistan will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an escalation in Afghanistan without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.
Having said all that, let's get this dumb war on. How'd I do? Think they'll buy it in Peoria? Ah, who cares.
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All wars are dumb. Ask anyone who participated in one. The expression of we agreee to disagree is a cop out to an intractable position that specifies only one idea is acceptable even if it is harmful to millions of people. At the most basic level this approach to problem solving is inherently flawed. The establishment of the idea that one group must be superior over another endorses the notion of inequality. You cannot formulate a relationship based upon the premise of inequality. That assures failure of the relationship.
November 27, 2009 5:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
The all volunteer military the US has today was a stop-gap measure undertaken in the late 1970's after Vietnam and the end of the draft. It reduced government spending so drastically we ended up with a surplus instead of a deficit. And the National Guard's purpose is only to fill in the void when the US goes to war while new fresh and raw recruits are learning the ropes in boot camp. Bu$h and Rumsfeld abused active duty soldiers, reservists and guard units by not creating a draft to meet the number of troops necessary to fight a two front conflict. Our troops are worn out and depleted. Those no longer up to the task are discarded like a worn pair of shoes on to the trashpile.
Also, Bu$h lowered taxes, never budgeted the expense of the war effort and used borrowing on the world markets as the means to sustain the effort. These actions will come back to haunt our children and grandchildren's future and their way of life - paying off the debt incurring by their fathers and grandfathers who didn't want to pay more in taxes to support the war effort when it was going on.
And there is recent news out of Pakistan that makes the picture much more clearer what we're really up against. The Pakistani government and military are two distinct and separate governments that rule the nation. And the military is not a friend of the US - one could say hostile. If the elected leader of Pakistan isn't able to control the military and it's leaders, then our task of gaining the upper hand with the Taliban, Al Quida and Osama bin Laden in western Pakistan is no longer possible.
You can be as bellicose as you want, just make sure you're willing to wear a uniform and volunteer for service at the front lines until its over.
By the way, if you bother to look, most of our imported oil does not come from the Middle East - it comes from Venezuela cause it's much closer. Also, no two barrels of oil are alike. Oil from Venezuela must be processed differently from oil out of the Middle East. Refineries aren't setup to change their refining processes on the fly neither if the source oil is from a different region without costly changes to their infrastructure.
There's more involved in going to war than being patriotic and waving the flag or looking for nuance between a war of means and a war of futility.
November 27, 2009 6:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who are you talking to?
November 27, 2009 9:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's much bigger than Democrats, republians, Bu$h, Cheney or a dumb war.
November 27, 2009 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think we need to stay the course. After all, Cheney promised that the Iraqis would welcome us with flowers. That hasn't happened yet. And we'd be quitters if we didn't stick it out, no? We're not quitters, and so we must stay. Doesn't our national security hinge upon us being welcomed with flowers in Iraq? I'm kinda' partial to chrysanthemums. How about you?
And in Afghanistan, we can't quit there until we get that bastard bin Laden and the rest of Al Qaeda. What? Al Qaeda is no longer in Afghanistan? Well, let's identify the Taliban as the enemy then so we at least have someone to kill. I mean, what good is a war if the enemy moves away before you get a chance to kill them? Can't we at least come up with some reason for being there? Maybe identify some other enemy that needs killing? Or maybe we can just keep redefining the objectives until we at least find ONE that we can accomplish so we can then declare victory and go home?
{end of snark}
How could we be so incredibly and demonstrably wrong about our justification for getting into a war and the consequences of doing so, and yet still believe (after 8 years, for chrissakes!) there remains justification for expanding the war(s) and continuing to send other people's kids to die? Do we just make these things up as we go along?
November 27, 2009 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
NO FLOWERS? FUCK YOU. WE'RE STAYING.
The fundament of our new foreign policy.
November 27, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm partial to: POPPIES....poppies...poppies.
November 27, 2009 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheery. Can you post a similar picture with Congress?
November 27, 2009 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shaking their butts at us? I imagine it's live on C-Span if they happen to show up to work.
November 27, 2009 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't Ben Franlin say something to the effect of "there are no good wars and there is no bad peace"?
Wars, even those that are justified because they are waged solely in self defense, are always evil. No one who engages in war escapes the taint of evil or the negative effects. No victory in war ever adequately compensates for its cost. Sometimes, rarely, it is a necessary evil that cannot be avoided. But the truth is and always has been that almost all wars are unnecessary and every war is a long string of crimes against humanity.
In the final analysis, war is the enemy of all humanity and civilization.
November 27, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like most Americans I have not had the opportunity to read the entire file.
I watched Russians fight an Afghan War that seemed to go on forever while we armed Saddam to help the opposition fight the Russian invaders.
I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IN THE FU WE ARE DOING THERE.
November 27, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm, how nice it would be if we would "cut off funding" for the AQ or whoever the "enemy" named for the day.
We can do that easily, WE fund the enemy. We pay bribes to the Taliban to let our supply trucks drive anywhere in Afghanistan...our American dollars buys all the insurgent activity we can ever need every day, every month, every year.
We make our enemies, we fund our enemies, we get our kids killed with our funds to our enemies.
But, we will stand up to a non-profit somewhere in our country and freeze their donations so they can't operate, whether they are legit or not.
We're big shots.
We can't afford health care at home, but we can assure the existence and success of any and all mercenaries and war profiteers from here to Timbuktu.
30,000 more soldiers at $1 million more a day...hmmm, but healthcare will break the bank.
November 27, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance,"
OMG, did you use every cliche ever mouthed to demonize the ones that supposedly effected the 9-11 take down of the WTC?
You didn't mention anywhere the reasons AQ had for making a statement that the whole world would finally hear...that the US and Israel have stirred up trouble in the ME for decades and refuse to consider the plight of those who suffer our "slaughter of innocents in the name of intolerance" and Imperialism and genocide.
November 27, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did anyone get that this is Obama's speech from 2004?
November 27, 2009 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just sit back and snicker, pal. I think you put the high, hard one past a few.
Me? Naw. I got all them speeches memorized. Something something... sit down with all the health interests and the lobbyists... something something... transparency... under the bright lights... something something... televised... in the public interest... something else... disinfectant.
So, ummm, mostly, it's all about disinfectant. Afghanistan too.
You got a problem with that?
November 27, 2009 6:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought that was my slow ball, but no, anything that starts with dis- or des- I'm completely for. I'll even throw in Dizzy Dean for good cheer.
Luv, Dis/Des
November 28, 2009 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink