May 26th, 2018
Seventeen years ago, George W. Bush launched his war against Afghanistan...because...reasons.
I guess he didn't like he Taliban, didn't like Afghani's...who knows, all I know is B-52's were used extensively to deliver our government's opinion on the former Taliban government...then switched to boots, tires, and tracks to further ensconce our opinion that we no likey Taliban...and oh, by the way, you wouldn't have happened to see a tall guy, thin, gaunt, wear's a turban, Arab fellow...no, well, then a pity we're going to have lower some topography.
War in Afghanistan...it made sense if one just doesn't look at the utter failure of diplomacy, and just stuck to "it's on bitches!" post-9/11
But, no...the splendor of kinetics and energy disbursement amongst mud buildings seems so...quaint...but wait, lo and behold, W. turned his eyes to Iraq...ah yeah, you gonna git it!
And so.../sigh...George W. Bush, with one war in the basket, Afghanistan, starts another fucking war in Iraq...rinse, repeat, toss out the old, set up the new...aaannnd, now let loose the sectarian fighting...because now the Shiites have had enough the Sunni's shit for the last fifty years, so it's on bitches!
Shiites gunning for Sunni's, and then Sunni's gunning for Shiites, throw Al-Qaeda in the mix, oh hey, and throw Iran in for shits and giggles, and then incomes ISIS...like frat boys attracted to a kegger, ISIS fills in because, while Iraq is falling-the-fuck-apart, Syria lights up.../sigh...
And we stood there in the middle of those groups thinking, "uh...wut?!?"
We're supposed to been greeted as liberators, friends, Americana, Apple pie, 4 billion dollars in cash, high-level visits...damn, people, what more do you want?
USA out of Iraq?
And so with a new President Obama, of which I expected small changes, changes that would pull us away from two wars...instead embraces the tar-baby Syria, and commits.
Fuck me!
NOOooooo!
shit.
And so, now, we have...Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Syria.
/facepalm
17 fucking years of war.
And now it looks like Bolton humped Trump into gaming Iran for war.
So this memorial day, lets try to remember that period of time...which seems to be getting dimmer...of when there was no war.
A time of peace.
This is what I point to when I talk to people who insist "the U.S. is not an empire" because it is exactly what empires do - fight endless small wars around the fringes of the imperium. Not a classic empire, but with many of the features of one.
ReplyDeleteBut, since Americans can't admit that to themselves we have to pretend these wars are something they're not; wars of national defense rather than imperial adventures. And that, in turn, helps drive the rhetoric of these as "wars on terror" against an existential enemy instead of old-fashioned colonial wars.
And that is pernicious because of how it justifies doing damage to our own society in the name of "national security". If we're just wog-bashing it's nonsensical to apply things like the "USAPATRIOT Act" to spying on our own people. But if we're fighting the Evil Terror Empire..?
The degree of self-inflicted damage we're doing to ourselves by this is genuinely insane.
"The degree of self-inflicted damage we're doing to ourselves by this is genuinely insane."
DeleteThat there...in one sentence you encapsulate my entire post...self-inflicted...
I don't even know what to think or say anymore...a third of this country done lost it's mind, another third is completely blindsided that, indeed, yes, that doofus up in the White House being investigated has already produced indictments, arrests, and two people in jail...how can that third not even know because all this is splashed over the news, but for some reason, "wait, wut? There really is crimes?"
And the last third...is split 50-50 between rationalists and reactionists(the super-leftwing-Liberals).
I think...even though I know better, but I think I'm about to crawl back into the bottle, or go back to the mountains...maybe both.
Bolton is absolutely insane. But that probably suits the pussy-grabber-in-chief fine. It takes a little bit of heat and spotlight off of him and transfers it to JB.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thewrap.com/dana-carvey-john-bolton-stephen-colbert-breastfeed-puppy/
And being both Viet-Nam Era draft dodgers gives them a close bond.
ReplyDeleteWonder if either of them have been to Maya Lin's wall?
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2018/05/happy-15th-anniversary-of-suck-on-this.html
ReplyDeletebb