Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The war isn't over

Matt Spetalnick (Reuters) quotes the always bitchy Barack speaking Monday at yet another fundraiser for political campaigns: "When I hear Democrats griping and groaning and saying ... 'the health care plan didn't have a public option', and ... 'the financial reform -- there was a provision here that I think we should have gotten better', or, 'you know what, yes, you ended the war in Iraq, the combat mission there, but you haven't completely finished the Afghan war yet', this or that or the other, I say 'folks, wake up'." I am so sick of that bitchy little girl and, point of fact, it's Barack inability to come across like a man that's harmed his polling numbers. The Cult of St. Barack wants to scream "race!" but it's his weakness and his traits which are perceived as feminine and negative feminine ones at that. And he can drop all the "g"s from the end of his words and stab the air with his fingers all he wants, he's a little priss pot and that's why male supporters were the first to begin the exodus from the Cult of St. Barack. (His inability to come across as authentically masculine is also why his Cult attacked Hillary as trying to be masculine. She wasn't trying to be that but how telling that by just being a strong woman, she made him look like a weak little girl. It's a times like these that you wish Bruce Campbell's character in Burn Notice did political commentary.)

It's day two of the bitchy little girl's lies to big money donors. Barack ended the war, he says, and then adds "combat operations." Yeah, Bush tried that two-step lying as well.

The Iraq War is over? Ty Brennan (NWCN -- link has test and viceo) reports, "Over the next two days, 2,700 soldiers with the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team will leave for a yearlong deployment. Of those 2,700 being deployed, 1,500 soldiers are from Idaho and another 600 from Oregon." Where are they going? Iraq. The war's not over. KIVI reports on the "tearful goodbyes" at a send-off ceremony. The war's not over. AP notes Oregon's National Guard is deploying to Iraq again "for the second time in six years." The war's not over. Kansas' KTKA (link has video and text) reports, "A portion of the first Heavy Brigade Combat Team of the Big Red One got their official send off today. 49 News Photojournalist Jon Englert was at Fort Riley to talk with some of the departing soldiers." The war's not over. Vindy.com reports there's a send-off ceremony today at the First Church of God in Newton Falls (11:00 a.m.) for members of the 292nd Engineer Detachment in the Ohio National Guard deploying to Iraq. Jon Edwards, Cindi Remi and Donna Willis (NBC 4i -- link has text and video) report on goodbyes exchanged last night in Marysville, Ohio. The war is not over.

For those service members deploying, for their families, for their friends, it's a little too hard to blindly lie and pretend the war is over just because Barack wants to boost his party's mid-term chances.

Gary Leupp's "The 'Right Thing' in Iraq?" (Dissident Voice) opens bemoaning the fact that a Fox News poll found 58% of respondents feel that the US "did the right thing" in Iraq. Gary's surprised. He's shocked. Is he for real? Why might Americans think that? Because they're stupid? No. Because they're lied to. And Americans believing that lie today? It doesn't go back to Bush or six years ago or seven. It goes to the liar.

Remember the liar? He said:

The Americans who have served in Iraq completed every mission they were given. They defeated a regime that had terrorized its people. Together with Iraqis and coalition partners who made huge sacrifices of their own, our troops fought block by block to help Iraq seize the chance for a better future. They shifted tactics to protect the Iraqi people, trained Iraqi Security Forces, and took out terrorist leaders. Because of our troops and civilians -- and because of the resilience of the Iraqi people -- Iraq has the opportunity to embrace a new destiny, even though many challenges remain.
[. . .]
This year also saw Iraq hold credible elections that drew a strong turnout. A caretaker administration is in place as Iraqis form a government based on the results of that election. Tonight, I encourage Iraq’s leaders to move forward with a sense of urgency to form an inclusive government that is just, representative, and accountable to the Iraqi people. And when that government is in place, there should be no doubt: The Iraqi people will have a strong partner in the United States. Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq’s future is not.

We'll stop there because I'm really not in the mood (can you tell?) this morning for this s**t. Those lies aren't decades old, they're from August 31st. Barack Obama made those statements, you know, the man Gary can't really mention until paragraph 43 of his essay and can't really apportion any blame to until paragraph 46.

Reality, official speak always gets press attention, rarely gets press cricitism. Barack should have been called out for his lies. Instead whores like John Nichols rushed to call his speech "graceful" and others rushed to pretend like the speech didn't take place. Why do so many Americans believe the lies -- the lies that Gary forgets to tell you came from Barack's mouth and made everyone evening news broadcast mere weeks ago? Because a so-called 'independent' media didn't do their job. The most basic push-back that would have taken place had Bush given the same speech was instead set aside for any number of reasons -- none of them having a damn thing to do with peace.

The following community sites -- plus NPR -- updated last night:



We'll close with this from Gareth Porter's "The Petraeus Bait And Switch Maneuver" (World Can't Wait):

In interviews in recent weeks, Gen. David Petraeus has been taking a line on what will happen in mid-2011 that challenges President Barack Obama's intention to begin a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by that date. This new Petraeus line is the culmination of a brazen bait-and-switch maneuver on the war by the most powerful military commander in modern US history.
It represents a new stage in the process by which Petraeus, abetted by his allies in the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, has appropriated much of the power over decisions on war policy that rightly belongs to the commander-in-chief.



The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


















thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends