Things that go “baa-baa”

FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

Stafford, Va.: Where does the crux of the blame for the FIASCO lie? There were a lot of efforts to incorporate lessons learned and new “ways of thinking” into military concepts, doctrine, education and training prior to OIF. Why did these efforts fail to take?

Tom Ricks: I’d say the book argues that you don’t get a mess as big as Iraq from the failings of one or two men, such as President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.

Rather, I think there was a systemic failure. Sure, the Bush Administration made mistakes, and failed especially to recognized the nature of the conflict in which it was engaged (which as Clausewitz says, is the key task of the supreme leader).

But I would would say the military establishment bears much of the blame, especially for the flawed occupation.

In addition, the media and the intelligence community made mistakes.

Finally, I think that Congress was asleep at the wheel. That’s crucial. Congressional hearings provide oversight and accountability and (when done well) pump information into the American system. In other wars, you had hawks and doves. In this war you had the silence of the lambs. (emphasis added)

Hippyphobia

Digby examines the pundit class’ Pathological Fear Of Hippies

The political issues were just a small part of why people voted for Nixon both times and why the political establishment moved to the right (as the culture itself grew ever more liberal.) Broder and his pals’ facile rendering of that history has pretty much crippled liberalism for almost 40 years and it’s long past time that we ignored those who persist in perpetuating it.

My conservative Texas neighbor still uses “hippy” as a generic term of disdain for anything he doesn’t like — generally political stuff, but not exclusively. Anything out of his scope of experience, dirty, eccentric, contrary to his idea of middle America — which he thinks is personified in the Waco atmosphere, apparently. It really pisses me off.

Stop Kinky!

You really shouldn’t vote for the Kinkster no matter how funny you think it would be to have a guitar-playing “Jewish Cowboy” for Gov. Enough with the damn cowboys already. Let’s let someone who believes in government run things for a while. M’kay?.

Good questions

From Cenk Uygur at Huffpo:

How Many Civilians Do You Have to Kill Before You Become a Terrorist?

The United States and Israel love to throw around the word “terrorist.” It’s hard to name any of our enemies who we have not called a terrorist yet. I was led to believe that a terrorist was someone who killed innocent civilians for their military or political goals.

First, how is capturing two soldiers an act of terrorism?
Are Israel’s enemies not allowed to fight at all? If they have to audacity to challenge Israel in any way, do they automatically become terrorists? Is arguing with Israel also an act of terrorism? These days I wouldn’t be surprised. I imagine they’ll call it verbal terrorism. Sorry, I didn’t mean to give them any ideas.

Why is Israel allowed to take bold and aggressive military action (let alone the US) and no one is allowed to respond? If anyone has the nerve to fight back — terrorists!

I wonder how many of us would be “terrorists” if we were attacked and occupied by a foreign country?

Was the resistance to German occupation in France during World War II a terrorist operation? Oh no, that’s right, they were on our side, so they couldn’t possibly be terrorists. They were freedom fighters. Has anyone in history ever been more right than George Orwell?

But put all that aside and just answer this one simple question: How many civilians do you have to kill before you become a terrorist?

Right now, Hezbollah has claimed 17 civilian lives during their shelling of Israeli towns. God damn terrorists!

Israel has claimed 350 civilian lives in their bombardment of Lebanese towns.

I’m not making a value judgment or a statement on who started it or who had it coming. I’m asking a simple question — when do you become a terrorist?

Corner turning

Unclaimed Territory – by Glenn Greenwald: Even neoconservatives now accepting defeat in Iraq

So that’s what our mission in Iraq has been reduced to — ceding most of Iraq to Iranian control and acknowledging that a civil war is now inevitable and we can do nothing to stop it. Worse, the only thing we can possibly hope to accomplish is to prevent Al Qaeda from turning Iraq into its new terrorist training ground, something it was entirely incapable of doing prior to our invasion.

Put another way, in exchange for the thousands of lives lost, hundreds of billions of dollars squandered, and destruction of U.S. credibility as a result of our invasion, the best we can hope for is what we already had — a situation where Al Qaeda cannot run free in Iraq — along with a vicious civil war and control by Iranian mullahs over most of Iraq. And that is what one of the leading neconservative advocates of the war is saying.

The Bush boom

I know absolutely nothing about the stock market, but I think I can read a chart fairly well, and this does not look good to me.

But, no worries; President Bush, in St. Petersburg, Russia, for a bike ride the G8 summit, assures us that “By pursuing pro-growth policies and restraining government spending, we will keep our economy the envy of the world.”

Nieman Watchdog > Commentary > Fighting back against the PR presidency

WaPo’s Walter Pincus, veteran of 50 years of DC journalism, has an idea for his colleagues.

Nieman Watchdog > Commentary > Fighting back against the PR presidency
The truth of the matter is that with help from the news media, being able to “stay on message” is now considered a presidential asset, perhaps even a requirement. Of course, the “message” is the public relations spin that the White House wants to present and not what the President actually did that day or what was really going on inside the White House. This system reached its apex this year when the White House started to give “exclusives” — stories that found their way to Page One, in which readers learn that during the next week President Bush will do a series of four speeches supporting his Iraq policy because his polls are down. Such stories are often attributed to unnamed “senior administration officials.” Lo and behold, the next week those same news outlets, and almost everyone else, carries each of the four speeches in which Bush essentially repeats what he’s been saying for two years.

A new element of courage in journalism would be for editors and reporters to decide not to cover the President’s statements when he — or any public figure — repeats essentially what he or she has said before. The Bush team also has brought forward another totally PR gimmick: The President stands before a background that highlights the key words of his daily message. This tactic serves only to reinforce that what’s going on is public relations — not governing. Journalistic courage should include the refusal to publish in a newspaper or carry on a TV or radio news show any statements made by the President or any other government official that are designed solely as a public relations tool, offering no new or valuable information to the public.

Deposing the president

Never thought I’d say this:
Thank you, Paula Jones!?

Our Wilson-bashing friends also don’t seem to have thought through what’s likely to happen in plaintiffs’ discovery. Libby and Rove are going to have to answer the same questions in deposition they answered in front of the grand jury. Only this time it will be on the public record. And of course their ability to prevaricate is limited by the threat of perjury charges if the two stories don’t match. In addition, Robert Novak is going to have to come clean, again in public, or face contempt charges.

But that’s not the best of it. Rove will be asked whether it’s true, as Murry Waas reported, that GWB personally ordered him to reveal classified information in order to discredit Joseph Wilson. And when he says “yes,” as he presumably will, plaintiffs will then have a strong basis for deposing Mr. Bush himself. [Yes, I'd rather "depose" him in the other sense of that term, but you take what you can get.]

Shitty writing

…literally.

I’ll even forget the political nonsense in this article, I’m so appalled by the language and style — although calling it that is just wrong.

And to think I gave up the idea of being a professional writer because I wasn’t good enough!

Slogans

Found in a comment thread at Firedoglake. May be useful for signs and banners.

Sorry for the ALL CAPS — in the original and I don’t have time to edit it right now.

AT LEAST IN VIETNAM, BUSH HAD AN EXIT STRATEGY

BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM

IF YOU’RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION

IF YOU SUPPORTED BUSH, A YELLOW RIBBON WON’T MAKE UP FOR IT

POVERTY, HEALTHCARE & HOMELESSNESS ARE MORAL ISSUES

OF COURSE IT HURTS. YOU’RE GETTING SCREWED BY AN ELEPHANT

BUSH LIED, AND YOU KNOW IT

RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: A THREAT ABROAD, A THREAT AT HOME

GOD BLESS EVERYONE (No exceptions)

BUSH SPENT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY ON HIS WAR

PRO AMERICA, ANTI BUSH

WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?

IF YOU SUPPORT BUSH’S WAR, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? SHUT UP AND SHIP
OUT

FEEL SAFER NOW?

I’D RATHER HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO SCREWED HIS INTERN THAN ONE WHO
SCREWED HIS COUNTRY

JESUS WAS A SOCIAL ACTIVIST – THAT IS A LIBERAL

MY VALUES? FREE SPEECH. EQUALITY. LIBERTY. EDUCATION. TOLERANCE

IS IT 2008 YET?

DISSENT IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTISM — Thomas Jefferson

DON’T BLAME ME. I VOTED AGAINST BUSH — TWICE!

ANNOY A CONSERVATIVE; THINK FOR YOURSELF

VISUALIZE IMPEACHMENT

HEY BUSH! WHERE’S BIN LADEN?

CORPORATE MEDIA = MASS MIND CONTROL

STOP MAD COWBOY DISEASE

GEORGE W. BUSH: MAKING TERRORISTS FASTER THAN HE CAN KILL THEM

KEEP YOUR THEOCRACY OFF MY DEMOCRACY

DEMOCRATS ARE SEXY. WHOEVER HEARD OF A GOOD PIECE OF ELEPHANT?

ASPIRING CANADIAN

CORPORATE MEDIA: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION

DON’T CONFUSE DYING FOR OIL WITH FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM

STEM CELL RESEARCH IS PRO LIFE

HATE, GREED, IGNORANCE: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

HONOR OUR TROOPS – DEMAND THE TRUTH

REBUILD IRAQ? WHY NOT SPEND 87 BILLION ON AMERICA?

FACT: BUSH OIL
1999 – $19 BARREL
2006 – $70 BARREL

THE LAST TIME RELIGION CONTROLLED POLITICS, PEOPLE GOT BURNED AT
THE STAKE

I’LL GIVE UP MY CHOICE WHEN JOHN ROBERTS GETS PREGNANT

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS – IMPEACH BUSH

HOW ON EARTH CAN 59,411,287 PEOPLE BE SO DUMB?