Self governance 202

Ok, we’ve almost made it. We’re nearing the end of an extended and painful semester of Self Governance 202. What have we learned? Surely the lessons include some things we shouldn’t have already known yet, this is a new day and age so there are some new wrinkles to old tricks and some brand new tricks.

We’ve learned that we have to take Governmental information with at least several grains of salt. This is a one we should already have known. Looking back through history we could find many instances of the government telling us "Don’t worry, you can trust us" but the most poignant is Richard Nixon’s "I am not a crook" line. We should have already known that naively accepting everything the government says, with no regard for motives and spin, will most assuredly lead to excess if not total chaos.

We’re supposed to keep them honest. The Media, the various branches of the federal government, but mostly the citizens are supposed to keep an eye on activities, question the validity of statements and demand transparency.

We haven’t done that. Nobody has.

We’ve learned that many people do not want to struggle with the complexities of issues. They prefer to have everything neatly stacked in little black and white piles and if the government uses the right buzzwords those stacks will go unchallenged indefinitely.

Here’s another thing we should have learned.. If you want to cripple the efforts of a group of terrorists first, don’t attack an uninvolved country but really before that, Don’t declare a "War on Terror" and surely don’t call every inane idea, occupation, or ancillary attack part of "The War on Terror". It gets ridiculous quickly.

If you attack a Muslim country suddenly all of Islam is against you and anyone who has to live in that part of the world will be hard pressed to assist you. The leaders of those countries have one main goal, to stay in power. They can act like they’re trying to help you while actually providing sanctuary for terrorists through inaction, while accepting lots of money to find the bad guys.

An administration would be much better off going after the actual terrorist group and would do much better with the secret help of the countries involved. It’s worthless to make all of the Middle East choose sides in a dubious conflict. If you’re not from there you will never really know who your friends are.

But the single most important lesson we should have learned in this endless second semester, is that no matter what happens NEVER EVER forsake your countries core values, like justice and freedom, pursuing the goals of a few misguided people. Never give up the moral high ground and always stand for what’s right. Be a force in the world for truth and transparency and only use force when you have to and only for the right reasons. That way your credibility and integrity stay intact and it’s always clear who the bad guys are. That, fellow citizens, will be on the final.

maxP

Scooter Skates!!

Scooter Libby’s obstructions of the investigation into the Valerie Plame affair prevented the special prosecutors from getting to the bottom of that scandal and now it has proven, with the help of the President, to have been well worth it. They easily sidestepped the laws and prosecutions for breaking laws by obfuscating, ‘forgetting’ and covering up the facts and than liberating the person who was convicted of that obstruction. Truly a dirty deed, done dirt cheap.

maxP

Scooter goes to Jail

It's hard to believe some of the blogs. Goofs are actually saying Pres. Clinton got a slap on the wrist while Scooter got 30 months! Hey, Scooter pulled the short straw and is taking one for the team, or more likely for the V.P.

Plus, the Republican hate machine stalked Clinton for years and finally, when they could find nothing else to investigate, investigated a Presidential, consenting adult, dalliance with a female. Wow. This doesn't actually affect the security of the country does it. The difference between Dems and Reps is that the Reps care so much more about their own petty hate than the good of the nation that they dragged us all through a trumped up impeachment trial.

The Dems have plenty they could impeach Bush over but care more about the country than to do that if they can just wait the 15 months, puking daily, until it dies on it's own.

Now Scooter, if that is your real name, is taking the rap for VP Cheney for the blatant and arrogant political hackery of outing Valerie Plame. How can Rudy Giuliani say there is no underlying proven crime. If Scooter obstructs justice enouogh to hide the underlying crime, and lies enough in the process to the Grand Jury, that is THE crime.

But the astounding thing is that there are people out there who turn a blind eye to all the scandals, loyal to the President no matter what, and still have the unmitigated gaul to bring up Bill Clinton! Yeah all that peace and prosperity was tough to bare. Now there are 3500 brave soldiers who have lost their lives , and probably triple that who have lost limbs, thanks to Bush Cheney, and the Neocons. How far up can your head get?

max

Madame Speaker...

Dear Madamme Speaker!

I humbly submit that if the President will not sign a funding bill that has any timetables for withdrawal would he then sign a bill that specifically recognizes the sorrowful operational failures by his former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and by Paul Bremmer. These should include too few troops which we are still trying to correct, the disbanding of the entire Iraqi army, allowing the looting of Baghdad, allowing the loss of so much unaccounted for money, the failure to find WMD's, The failure to plan for keeping the peace, building permanent bases which inflames the native populace, and of course, The failure to avoid 9/11, etc.?

Otherwise I wouldn't provide funding.

max

Bar Graph of Death,, or life,, well actually Sentiment

Bar graph of death,, no Life,, well actually of American opinion of the war.



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If we could assume that the top bar graph (above) represented all the American people we could also safely assume that the second bar, just under that, could just about represent the percentage of Americans that want our fighting men and women in Iraq to have everything they need to keep them safe and effective for as long as they are there.

If we were to make a bar graph of Americans, relative to the “All Americans “ first graph, who believe that America can’t just vacate Iraq (in a mess we helped create) for fear of allowing a huge power struggle implosion to happen, I think the graph would look like this next one.

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The graph under that would, I think, roughly represent, fairly accurately, the number of Americans who also wish there was some way out, where not another American would lose their life. That there would be not one more family left with a big hole in it that is reopened every holiday and missing person’s birthday or anniversary.

The graph of people who think the Iraq war was a poor choice, either because we were not threatened by Saddam or because the loss of life, from all the countries involved, as a result of the trumped up rational for the war, would look roughly like this.

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The next graph is for those who think the “wish we weren’t there” group doesn’t understand the threat posed by the global ring of terrorists. They like to say “fight them over there and not here” (which doesn’t hold any water). They also like to say that those who think our presence is gaining little good while exposing our troops to too much harm are somehow aiding the enemy.

The last graph (invisible above) represents those who feel we should tell all of Arabia and the world that we want just two months to clean up, fix up, and set up whatever we can and then we’re out. We would have to stipulate that if anyone who says they want us out decides to blow something up we reserve the right to start the two months over again but that if they really want us out like they say, they should stop their attacks.

For two months. Of course so far that graph represents only me which is why it is not yet visible but maybe if we can’t start a national “two more months” chant we can get out a little early. Then we can look hard at the people who got us into this war.

max

Could we be a better country?

What if... What if we were a mostly neutral country that would only go to war if threatened or to help protect those who were being attacked. What if every American realized that not only are the thousands of American lives lost a tragedy but so is the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi lives that have been lost.

What if we were enabling other countries to enjoy the fruits of democracy (and capitalism) through support and economic encouragement rather than engaging in violent regime change?

What if we realized that our actions can cause hope and growth or despair and violence? What if we could get the world thinking that America was a good and helpful and not a crazy country but one that could always be counted on to stand for reason and right. Then we could be a constant and dependable force for good and others would want to be like us.

And over time countries like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran will slowly turn westernized, without any shots being fired.

max

Plan B?

So the administration either has no plan B in case the "surge" doesn't work, or it is loathe to talk about it, no one knows. That may be because they : 1) Are not fond of doing the homework of contingency planning and/or, 2)Plan B is to wait it out until the next administration takes over making it their problem (then we'll here forever of how great things were going) or, 3) They might have to admit that any real Plan B would have to include Diplomacy which they have been avoiding all along, because they don't understand how that works.

Max Practical

Before it's too late

There have been lots of lame arguments made about why our troops must not be pulled from Iraq but what about reasons they should be pulled? First there is the argument that they're in the middle of a two thousand year old civil war between muslim sects and can not cure that age old conflagration. Secondly their continued presence is at least partially inflaming the issue. The big question to me, now that we've heard about the use of chlorine gas in Iraq, is what if those brave troops become targets in stepped up attacks including those of a chemical, biological, or nuclear nature? What if the casualties take a sudden sharp upturn into the hundred or two a day range. What then will we have accomplished by staying.

Everyone is wary of leaving a power vacuum but I'd rather do that than lose American Lives, at any pace.

max

Mark my words

Who are We?

With the emergence of indictments in Italy and arrest warrants in Germany for American CIA agents, who nabbed citizens off the streets of those countries and shipped them off in extraordinary rendition style, my old argument once again arises. We will soon be at the point where we will have to decide whether to impeach the President ourselves or watch helplessly while the World Court, United Nations, or courts in who knows how many other countries, takes it upon themselves.

You just can't maintain a decent rendition program these days! Especially when WE are supposed to be the guys standing up for Truth and Justice and there are plenty of foreigners just dying to slap that back in our faces.

If the administration doesn't get phrases like "due process "and "habaeus corpus", Congress will have to rescue our good name from them. And it would be better to do it before more law suits crop up. At least then we could frame the charges, and of course we are already at that point as the indictments show.

max


PS. Have you seen the bumper sticker that says something like "Watch out or we'll bring Democracy to YOUR Country". Scary huh..

C.R.A.P. Commission

C.R.A.P.

What this country really needs is a bipartisan commission to look at the role of America in the Iraq conflict and in the Middle East. It should be called the CTC (Cut The Crap) Commission. The Crap Commission (CC for short) could put out a comprehensive report in short order and on regular twenty pound paper.

And they could just start anywhere.

They could say for example that the real reasons the administration went to war was to wrest control of a large part of the worlds energy supply from someone who was unhinged – Saddam Hussein. They could add that while the spread of freedom and democracy would be a nice byproduct, permanent bases right in the middle of the region are a nice way to project power in that part of the world if need be.

They could say that the supply of oil from the Middle East directly affects our economy and the Administration wanted a modicum of influence over that supply. Unfortunately they might also add that Saddam could possibly have been a useful pawn in the area if that idea had ever occurred to anyone in the White House.

The Commission might find that the repeated calls from the Bush administration asking the Democrats to offer some plans or solutions for Iraqmire is basically crap. Many plans have been offered like that of the Iraq Study Group, or from various Congress People, but all have been rejected or ignored. I prefer my “Two Month Solution” which calls for telling all Arabs, Insurgents, and Allies that if the natives want us out of Iraq give us a two month truce to clean up, fix up, and set up all we can. Then we’re out.

What the ‘CC’ should strive for is the development of some useful dialogue. They might report that Iran is fomenting strife in Iraq to keep us pinned down, thus insulating itself from invasion They could also point out that our presence in Iraq makes Iran and Syria afraid of being invaded which also affects their pursuit of nuclear technology. They could admit that Pakistan and the Saudi’s are not the greatest of Allies but they’re all we’ve got. They all have their private agendas and staying in power is their number one motivation, followed closely by continuing to get along with the other Arab nations.

The administration could in turn admit that they didn’t really think we would be showered with confetti as liberators and that they understand the rest of the Middle East isn’t going to warmly receive democracy as it might not bode well for their Monarchies and Theocracies, but that they thought it was worth the risk.

Part of the report might disclose that the Shiites who are now in power are using that position to carry on a barely veiled war of vengeance against the previously ruling Sunnis who are carrying out their own attacks on Shiites for things they did yesterday in a spiral of retribution which we are now caught up in. The Report may even reflect how little we considered these tribes and their historical savagery and cultural influences before we invaded.

They could even start with a Glossary of Crap. Many know the term “War on Terror” is nothing but an ongoing attempt to continue to link the Iraq conflict with Al qaida and that America is no longer buying it. We also know that the phrase “Cut and Run” is crap because nobody wants to vacate and leave a power vacuum but many fear that the continuing carnage in Iraq may simply not be worth the cost for this administration to achieve their peace with honor. Even the term “insurgents” is considered by some to be intentionally misleading as it groups everyone into an Al Qaida type without ever noting that many, if not most, are Iraqi citizens incited to fight the occupation.

It might be found that going into Iraq with too small a force crippled the effort from the beginning despite the Vice Presidents assertions that everything was great, Rumy did a fantastic job, and all is now rosy. They might find that dismissing the entire Iraqi army and other Paul Bremmer bumbles hurt the effort. The CC might report that there were too many mistakes and miscalculations to number and all have hurt the chances for a victory, or that anything that could be called a victory would have had to have been achieved a few years ago and at this late date, with all the destruction and death that has occurred, no outcome could be termed a victory.

If the administration really thought that “Nothing could possibly go wrong” (the crap corollary) and failed to even consider that their fond visions might not exactly match reality it’s a clear case of extraordinarily crappy leadership. The CC might even find that if our leaders do not quickly begin to use diplomatic efforts to bring the conflict to a close, or they begin to engage in other ventures, the only recourse might be direct indictment.

We could even say that the Commission is one based on the need to “Correct, Reappraise, And Perfect the American strategies in Iraq, but that would be crap too.

Max

The Two Month Solution

Ok. The President is going to send almost all of our remaining available troops into Iraq to try to salvage the unsalvageable. His legacy as the decider.

It doesn't matter that the American people are demanding a change of direction. Forget the definition we've all heard about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. This problem is beginning to look almost medical in nature.

Can we take that kind of chance? Put all of our eggs in one Middle Easern Basket in hopes of securing some kind of victory that only the Decider in Chief can envision?

Let's do this. Declare a national holiday that he hasn't heard about and pack him off to camp Dick or David, for two months.

We'll then tell all Iraqis and all the Middle East and the rest of the world that we need a two month cease fire. Two months to clean up, fix up, and set up all we can, and we're out.

The "insurgents" want us out and The Arab world wants us out so let them prove it by giving us two months. We could repair pipe lines, electrical grids, water supply lines, and schools, and get the hell out.

Just give us the two months.

This administration keeps proving that it has only one tool, the hammer, and they're gonna treat every problem like a nail. If we could get the Saudis and the rest to put pressure on the "insurgents" just long enough for us to prop up the billboards, we could call that a victory and GET THE HELL OUT. Syria and Iran keep supplying arms and fighters just to keep themselves safe so there's no end in sight. So, hey, give us two months. Then we'll bring the Decider back to Washington and say what a great job he did,,, until the hearings start..

max