Glass Foer: Separated at birth?
" He handed us fiction after fiction and we printed them all as fact. Just because... we found him "entertaining." It's indefensible. Don't you know that? " -- Shattered Glass
I'll soon have more to say about how the entire pile of ever-escalating lies coming out of the New Republic over the Scott Beauchamp incident illuminates the brave new way of treason without consequences in the United States today,
Continued...
[Note: First published on September 22, 2004 as WHY WE ARE IN IRAQ : Military Bases Are A Requirement, Democracy is Merely an Elective. Only the names have changed. The songs remain the same.]
"Did you ever get the feeling that you wanted to go?
And still get the feeling that you wanted to stay?"
-- Jimmy Durante
Resolved: To safeguard the personal and economic wellbeing of the civilized world in the 21st century, it is essential for the United States to control Iraq for strategic and tactical military purposes alone.
Let's take a step back from our always entertaining electoral circus to cast a cold eye on what needs to be done in Iraq beyond November and far beyond 2005. Don't watch the hand waving the magic wand around, watch the hand held behind the back. It holds what is going to be pulled out of the hat.
Instead of spending untold hours listening to this or that speech from the two sides of the American coin, it's more instructive to take down an atlas, turn to a spread displaying the middle-east and meditate on what needs to be done to control that section of the world.
And while you're at it here's a couple of things you can forget about:
- 1) Democracy in Iraq at all costs. Forget that "We" are in Iraq to bring the blessings of "democracy" to the people. It would be a nice gift to instill "democracy" in an Islamic state of the middle-east. We will spend a lot of money trying to achieve this. We will be sincere in our desire for it to be born. It will make our task easier in the short and long term. But "democracy" is not strictly necessary for the current strategic interests of the United States in the region.
"Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a 'cowardly' attack on 'civilization' or 'liberty' or 'humanity' or 'the free world' but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions?" Susan Sontag, September 24, 2001
A more cynical person might believe that the only reason Obama is in the race is to make Hillary look like an actual patriot, and is, in fact, working for the Clintons on a nod and wink for 2012. But why would I believe something like that?
Continued...
Since the Democrat Party seems to be having problems coming up with a way to end the war in Iraq, it may be time to look into folk wisdom to help these afflicted souls out.
According to Old Time Cures and Remedies here's how people dealt with wars when people were self-reliant.
Wars [Stopping them]
- Make a paste of baking soda and spirits of camphor and apply every night. Cover with a bandage. Remove in morning. Removes all kinds of wars, even stubborn planter's wars that resist every "medical" treatment.
- Rub the war with a rock.* Put the rock in a tobacco sack and throw it over your left shoulder.
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- Li[f]e Imitates Shattered Glass
- Out? Not So Fast. Our Military Bases in Iraq Are Essential
- Obama: The 9/10 "Patriot"
- Old Time War Remedies for New Age Democrats