Saturday, August 25, 2007

I have your "Surge" right here!



I rarely post about the war in Iraq anymore, because quite honestly, this country has hardened into two camps. And if the Bush supporters saw him cut off the head of a little baby, they would say that the sacrifice was needed to keep us safe from Islamic terrorist.




But as September approaches, and we await the report of General Petraeus with rapt anticipation, I feel I need to throw my two cents into this debate about the fiasco in Iraq once again.



You might have heard the frat boy declare recently that we cannot repeat the mistakes of Vietnam by abandoning the people of Iraq. He passionately invoked the memories of the "killing fields" in Cambodia, the prospects of "boat people' and re-education camps. He even implied that leaving Iraq would jeopardise the lives of millions of our friends who we would leave behind to the enemy, just like what happened in Indochina in 1974. That might or might not be true. But isn't this the same George Bush who declared just months ago that there was no comparison between Iraq and Vietnam? Sure it is. But what else would you expect from the flip flopper in chief. The frustrating thing is that Americans aren't even paying attention. Our attention span is so short, and our ability to engage and understand this war is so limited, because sadly, we spend all of our time worrying about things like Lindsey Lohan's DUI arrest, or Michael Vick and his fucking dogs. Meanwhile, thousands and thousands of people are being killed in Iraq, and hundreds of our soldiers continue to die in a foreign country in the middle of Arabia. All while the frat boy and his minions continue to lie to us and pretend that the fucking surge is working.


"I don't see any progress, just us getting killed" That's not some field Negro writing from the comforts of his home in Northeast Philadelphia, that's Army Spc. Yvenson Tertulien, who is on the ground with our proud men and women in Iraq. Just ask the respected Senator John Warner. He recently said that we should be bringing our troops home now. (see link above) Yes, that tree hugging liberal, and softy Warner, is joining the chorus of the bring the troops home crowd. Even some of the frat boy's generals are now having misgivings about this misguided and immoral war, and are calling for troop reductions. And another General, Colin Powell, tried to warn the frat boy before we even got into this mess. (where is Colin these days?) He tried to draw the analogy with Vietnam to his republican colleagues. He tried to explain that you cannot invade a country like that without having an exit strategy. But shockingly, we did, and we did it with no exit strategy in place. We listened to the neo-cons (operative word being con) and their exulted leader, the "chicken hawk" de jure, Dick Cheney. Now they tell us we just can't pull out, that it would leave the country in an even worse position than when we went in there. Let's see now, that's kind of like saying that I raped this woman, but she can't terminate her pregnancy because the baby will be severely retarded. Think about this for a minute. Just think about what these people did to our country, to the poor people of Iraq, and how it will affect our standing in the world and our foreign policy for years to come. Now we have Iran rubbing their hands together and salivating over the prospects of a little Iran right there in the region.




So as we await word from the new hero of the right, General Petraeus, who will no doubt report that we need more time because the "surge" is working. Let's remember why they think it's working. Let's remember that we are arming local militias in places like the Anbar Province. Let's remember that we are working with former Sunni insurgents who were themselves killers of our own soldiers. Let's remember that while we strengthen the local governments and militias, we are weakening the central government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a man who is so incompetent, he makes Saddam look like Winston fucking Churchill. "He is a good guy". Sure he is George, and "Brownie was doing a heck of a job". "George Bush doesn't care about black people." I know Kanye, but he doesn't care about Iraqis, or white people either.



I guess this wouldn't piss me off so much of there was a draft, and this sacrifice was truly shared. But there is no draft, and people like Mitt Romney can run for President while his five military ready sons drive around Iowa in a fucking Winnebago, and act like they are serving the country. In the mean time, one family in California just sacrificed two of their sons for this fucked up and misguided war.....don't even get me started. -See, this is why I don't like to talk about this war, because I get so worked up. We have all been touched by the horror and the lunacy of it, yet we continue to debate this war like there should even be a debate. Like it's even a question whether we should get out now or not.

Well, I guess if you have a vested business interest like the folks at Haliburtun, and Black Water; or, one of those defense contractors raking in the millions, there should be a debate. But if you are like the rest of us,-at least the sane ones left in this country- you will see this war for what it is, and what it always was; a politically expedient ploy to make a few people very wealthy, and to keep a party in power by playing on the fears and patriotism of the American people.


















21 comments:

Christopher Chambers said...

It's crazy. No other word to decribe it. They have turned it into a holy war. It's beyond politics now. There's really nothing more to say. How can we even remotely shift this mess to a higher level when the die-hards here are merely white versions of the jihadists?

Anonymous said...

So, as was posed to me when I posted about it, what are we going to do about this? How much are we willing to sacrifice to change the way things are happening around us? That's the question we have to ask ourselves. Yes, it takes intensive planning to make something change, and a lot of craftiness at that, but we see atrocities like these everyday, not just in Iraq, but in our neighborhoods. One can even say that the US government got their practice on counterintelligence right in this country.

Anyways, this was a good post. I have a hard time writing about Iraq too, knowing that my taxes directly pay for those actions, and we have no choice as to where our tax dollars go.

The fact that Bush can discuss Vietnam in a positive light is by far the most absurd statement he's made about the war; after all, people like me that disagree with the war have always seen comparisons to this war and Iraq. The only difference is that this time around, it's not taking decades for people to catch up on how terrible Iraq is. Now the geniuses who wrote that speech gave a talking counter-point to those of us who've made that comparison.

See? i'm getting worked up already. Peace ...

Anonymous said...

I find that I am prone to ranting on this topic. One of my biggest issues with the whole war - it how our nation is creating a pipeline of death for low income, young, and/or people of color to go kill other under resourced folks. I just don't see the USA launching this kind of battle in nations with inhabited by folks of European descent... It certainly didn't happen in the killing fields of eastern europe... Oh wait, there wasn't an oil interest or ideological boogeyman there... Its just so wrong that a bunch of primarily white decision and policymakers are sacrificing life after life after life to ensure safe commerce and to preserve rancid self serving ideologies...

OK, thats not even touching on the war as party politics and fuel for the political machine....

Must stop rant..

Anonymous said...

Word, brother. Now I get it.

Christopher Chambers said...

The key also to keep the pressure on. Make sure there's no slippage in our community in opposition to this war (like distracting us by thinking of Mike Vick as a martyr), then leveraging that on white folks.

Caged Lion said...

There is absolutely nothing--short of revolution--that we can do about Iraq. The people who benefit, the same folks building several permanent military bases in Iraq, will never relinquish the wealth that a puppet Iraqi government represents.

Those interests have their dollars in the pockets of folks across the partisan aisle. Like a wraith, when dubya is done, they will simply "possess" hillary or whoever is in line.

And it can get worse. I am wary of an Iran conflict.

field negro said...

Damn you all are scaring me, but you all are so right. Sadly, it's like I am preaching to the choir, because we all know that the folks in the other church will never give up on their religion of Bush.

They are all zealots, and they will do whatever it takes to hold on to power and see their agenda through. Looks like it will take a revolution for real.

Problem is, unless it's televised during American Idol or some shit, no one will give a damn or participate.

Woozie said...

Let's see, it's Islamic terrorists, Arabia traditionally refers only to the Arabian peninsula, not the entire middle east, it's spelled Halliburton, there should be a comma after "Black Water"(not a semicolon), and there's no comma after "or". Grammar Jew :)

What is the point of instituting a draft if for example the Bush Twins and Romney's five sons would just dodge it anyway?

They'd have some mysterious ailment no one has ever heard of diagnosed by the family doctor and a note that says their heart condition won't allow them to serve. "If you have the dough, you don't have to go."

Rent Party said...

"And if the Bush supporters saw him cut off the head of a little baby, they would say that the sacrifice was needed to keep us safe from Islamic terrorist."

True, and a d*** shame. And I agree with Caged Lion's assessment. This does not mean I think we should give up, however - although I have not figured out what to *do*.

And I can't figure out what to think of the draft reinstitution idea: theoretically it is good, fairer, and might actually force people to rethink the war. On the other hand, it gives the government more to work with and sure, the children of the principals would get out of it. Right now what I do on it is try to talk people out of enlisting. Sometimes I succeed. Especially if I can help them find other jobs.

field negro said...

"rent party", I am honestly torn about the whole draft thing, but I am desperate at this point, and will suppport anything that will help us to bring our boys home.

Woozie, what's wrong with the comma after the "or"? And I thought a long pause or break up after Black Water would be fine, thus the semicolon. But I will defer to you on all the rest of corrections-Arabian peninsula included.

And you are more like the grammar Nazi in my book :)

But it's all good, I need that.

Hathor said...

The surge should have been when they realized they had not won the war, the problem with me is that I don't like the fact they will leave the Iraqis worst off; there will be no working government, the infrastructure has been decimated and the economy in ruins. I notice that some point to the Kurds as a success, which they should have been since they were protected by the UN flyovers since '91. I would have liked for the Democrats to come up with a winning exit strategy, not the ideal situation but something the would leave the Iraqis a little better. I didn't like the taste (also the sight of Vietnamese running to jump on the helicopters), when the Americans left Viet Nam. Those Vietnamese that had depended on Americans for jobs and safety were left high and dry. They also had to suffer more for aiding the enemy. We should not have been there or in Iraq, but I don't like the idea of just using people in proxy wars. I just wish someone would come up with a better way to end this war.

Anonymous said...

Field, I don't see how at this point we can avoid an end result in Iraq that we don't like. No matter what we do, Iran is going to be the main recipient of increased power. They are going to be the puppetmaster pulling the strings of their little proxy Shitte government in Baghdad, and they are taking full advantage of the opportunity to send agents and explosive 'shaped charges' to Iraq to blow up and, most importantly, pin down our troops.

Pulling out gives them the country. (They'll have to fight the Sunnis for it, but they know they'll win.) Partitioning the country gives them a large chunk on their border still, plus they know partition is unlikely because it would give the Kurds their own state and the Turks would freak out. And leaving things the way they are now means more dead US troops on top of Iranian influence, so that pleases them.

And you're right about Bush: our shorter attention spans and lax media ensure that he can play hot potato with any analogy that fits the argument he's putting forward that day, regardless of how incongruous it is compared to the shit he said yesterday, excuse my Arabic.

Shrub and his friends used to yell at liberals when we called Iraq a new Vietnam, because we were declaring it a quagmire. Now they themselves are calling it Vietnam, without a trace of irony, because the analogy suits their purposes.

No shame, no leadership, no sense of direction.

Jimbo

Anonymous said...

On Iran---so what?

Some officials have bemoaned them getting involved in Iraq, but what do you expect any rational state to do? There is a multi-faction civil war on their border, for god's sake.

If China invaded mexico and screwed it like we're screwing Iraq, we'd damn sure be getting involved.

We forget that the Iranians has a secular representative government, and we, the U.S., overthrew it and put a brutal dictator up until the Iranian revolution.

Remember when in 79, the Iranians took over the american embassy? That wasn't out of some arbitrary hate of westerners. It was because the american embassy was ground zero for planning and staging the 50s overthrow.

The Iranians tried to negotiate with us early in Bush's tenure. But he called them part of the axis of evil, and spurred every advance they made. Now many of the soft-liners have been voted out of office (wow, in evil Iran, they have elections!) and the Iranian versions of Bush are in.

-Caged Lion

Bob said...

How could anyone believe that Bubble Boy Bush even knows the history of the Vietnam War & its roots in French & Japanese colonialism? & Vietnam's constant fear of domination by China? A history lesson from Bush is like a science lesson from Pat Robertson.

field negro said...

"A history lesson from Bush is like a science lesson from Pat Robertson."

Now that's classic!

And "caged lion' your analysis of Iran is dead on. Calling them a part of the "axis of evil" got a rise out of the hard-liners in that country, and it got them the support of the people they needed to do their thing.

Now Jimbo, I hope you don't mind, but I am going to have to steal that name you use for the frat boy,"Shrub".

I love it!

Anonymous said...

Field, I don't take credit for "Shrub." That's public domain, and I borrowed it shamelessly. You're free to do the same, pass it on.

Caged Lion, I hear you. The Iranian people actually are more pro-American than the rest of the Middle East, and they mostly elected Ahmedinejad to deal with economic problems, not rip on us, but we don't know that because we don't understand Iran.

And you're on the money: we don't know how to deal with Iran because we don't understand what happened in the 1950's with the overthrow, and the 1970's with the Shah. We openly supported and armed a leader that tortured his own people...

Seems we came out of WW2 and thought we could remake the world in our own image. Now how does that sound familiar?

Jimbo

Anonymous said...

"Michael Vick and his... dogs"

I'm sorry to inform you of this, but this blog was the first (and nearly only) place I heard (or still hear) about Vick & his behavior towards dogs.

DJ said...

All the righties are anxiously awaiting the report from Petraeus so he can blow a bunch of smoke up their asses and tell us we should stay in Iraq.

America already knows what's going to happen when he gives his report, and they aren't falling for it.

field negro said...

"I'm sorry to inform you of this, but this blog was the first (and nearly only) place I heard (or still hear) about Vick & his behavior towards dogs"

zimbel, you are kidding right? You must have been living in the Uni Bomber's old neighborhood for the past few weeks :)

cuz said...

On the subject of bringing back the draft. I looked this shit up and below is the latest count of IRAQ war deaths by ETHNICTY:
Race # who have died
Americian Indian 40
Asian 54
Black 347
Hispanic 404
Native Hawaiian 40
Multiple/unknown 62
WHITE 2,173
More whites (7 to 1 ratio)than any other race even more hispanics are getting killed than blacks in Iraq.
Now to the VIETNAM War
Race #who have died
Americian Indian 219
Asian 343
Unknown 106
Black 7,105
WHITE 44,801
Again more whites were killed than any other race (6 to 1 ratio) in Nam.So lets bring back the draft and even this thing out.

Anonymous said...

So, approx. 11 percent of the total are black, and blacks make up approx. 12 percent of the population. That seems pretty evened out to me.