Editorial:
The Age of War
The Democrats who control Congress, joined by an increasingly vociferous group of Republicans, are on record opposing this escalation of the American-Iraqi War. According to CNN.com, the extent of formal plans on Capitol Hill to block the President's initiative are thus:
"[S]enators are working on a nonbinding resolution opposing more troops... The House plans to raise a similar resolution."Such is the materially meaningful scope of countervailing force currently confronting President George W. Bush and his neo-conservative war-makers.
In a January 4, 2007, Special Analysis published here, I wrote the following:
Mr. Bush is going to get his wish: we'll stay; and for now, not only will we stay, but he will escalate this American-Iraqi War.The will to end a bad war is insufficient: war, once born, has a life of its own. Both those who embrace it and those who oppose it stand in the shadow of its thrall. Mr. Bush bids that we walk deeper into its consuming flames, and so we shall. What strength we have to turn away is insufficient compared to the weakness already within our leaders to fight the vortex pulling us deeper into the maw of that which will be our undoing.
And the Democrats will not cut off funding for the war...
[W]e'll stay in Iraq... until we're bloodied beyond recognition of our hubris, beyond recognition of our preeminence, beyond recognition of our once unquestioned status as the leader of the free world; and then we shall leave. We shall leave, not when we want to, not when we need to, not when we've had enough, but instead when we are no longer relevant to the history of the future of Iraq and perhaps no longer greatly relevant even to the history of the future of places far from that awful land.
Should the Democrats be unable in the months ahead to find the wherewithal to stop this madness, waste not every ounce of energy in rage at their impotence, but instead reserve a modicum for pity of their ignorance: when first they had their chance to draw a sword against the god of war, perhaps they truly believed that a "non-binding resolution" was a weapon.
The Dark Wraith welcomes America to a war without end that cannot be stopped by a leadership without courage.
Published 1/11/2007 12:28:00 AM
<< 26 Comments Total
Frist!
...once again you put it all together. Anyhoo, just dropped by to mention that I "shouted" one of your articles on shoutwire.com:
"The TRUTH About America's Economy - Backed up With Pesky Facts"
http://tinyurl.com/y7kwae
It now appears the attack on Iran is a set piece.Bush claimed Iran and Syria have suppied material support to the insurgent forces in Iraq...another 5 persians were detained carrying dip. passports and what will be shown to the world as proof of Iranian help of all resistance...Die is cast,get ready for TEOTWAWKI.Now we see what the rest of the world is going to do.If god,and the grim fates are fair,we have a hellava payback comeing
Good Morning Dark Wraith,
"Non Binding Resolution"???!!!!!
Good Lord, what are they thinking?
When Cheney refuses to answer their subpoenas, will they fire right back with a NON BINDING RESOLUTION?
PHFFTTTT $@@(*&)%$# (my head is exploding)
I got back here as fast as I could, but it looks like I'm too late: SB Gypsy already detonated.
Cripe, I was going to try to get her a meeting with Mr. Bush before this happened so she could go off right in his ear. Put a few Democrats in the room with him, and she could have had a field day tossing twits.
Oh well, maybe next time.
Yes, SB Gypsy, a non-binding resolution is all they have even close to the table right at this moment, and that's why Bush is able to get this "New Way Forward" underway.
And forgive me for sounding harsh, but while the Democrats were playing a media blitz with their 100 hours of legislation deal, they got out-maneuvered. More charitably, there was almost no chance they could have played a front-end card to stop him this early in their majority control of Congress, but I smell a hint of the same fear they've had in the past of ending up being accused of obstructionism. What I fear more, though, is that some Democrats are thinking that they need to let Bush's guaranteed-to-fail policy in Iraq proceed still further so it becomes evident to everyone in the United States that he's not just incompetent, but instead, that he's a complete and dangerous idiot.
That would be the way to make a possible impeachment process coming later look to the American people not like revenge so much a mercy killing.
The Dark Wraith just hopes Democrats aren't cold enough to let this war go on with that calculus in their minds.
Good morning, snuffy.
Something is most definitely brewing with respect to an attack on Iran. Whether or not it's just dust being stirred up by the story in the Sunday Times, too many military personnel to whom I've been talking the last couple of days think this troop surge in Iraq is about more than Iraq.
Scuttlebutt being what it is, you have to take that kind of talk with a grain of salt, but it's still giving me cause to pause.
Sunblock (SPF one million), anyone?
The Dark Wraith should probably put his microwavable popcorn in a lead container before the fireworks begin.
Good morning, rcg.
Yes, I think this is the first time you've been at the top of the comments. And I have seen a bit of traffic coming in from Shoutwire this morning.
I was thinking about your term "Pesky Facts," and brought to mind a rather heated exchange in an economics seminar I was in last month. Some fellow was presenting a few preliminary results from an empirical study he's doing, and the subject of the data vector of consumer inflation he's using as an explanatory variable came up. An occasionally troublesome fellow at the meeting asked what, exactly, it was that made any researcher think any data coming from the government these days is reliable enough to use in statistical analysis. Boy, did that make things uncomfortable in the room!
I'd already eaten my doughnut, so I was in the mood to move on. So was everyone else. It seems that, these days, facts are what they are, even when provided by a government for whom facts are what they aren't.
The Dark Wraith should probably avoid seminars on empirical research until the facts get straightened out by the next Administration in charge of them.
Good Morning, Dark Wraith.
Good thing you had that doughnut finished or you might have choked on it in a fit of laughter. Whew, that could have been the end of the Dark Wraith. And although, not a heroic death, it would have been symbolic tragicomedy for your many friends.
Hello DW,
Changing the subject a little, currently listening to Condi's testimony.
Sad to say but I truly believe those people have absolutely no intention of leaving Iraq no matter what happens. So then I wonder, what if they are denied most of the money they are asking for? Will something suddenly happen in the Straits of Hormuz, will there suddenly pop up more "evidence" that Syria needs "dealing" with?
I laugh sarcastically at her responses and all the while my stomach just churns.
The NY Times called it "symbolic"
So much for the weenie new congress. Get your feet in shape. We'll be taking on DC on Sat Jan 27th.
Good Afternoon Dark Wraith:
I too, was listening to Dr. Rice before Congress. I saw many different things about this testimony. Before the 9/11 commission and in previous appearances she has had that whole "schoolmarm" imperiousness an, if you will, "how dare you?" attitude when confronted with a question she didn't like. Today, however, she has been far shriller, yet less strident. Trying to pretend to answer while staying off the answers she knows are true, yet unpleasant. She has finally realized that for her, for this administration, for this government, the jig is up. It reminded me of conversations I would have with 2ndX when she would begin an explanation of her day by telling me how much she had "saved" at a store all the while disregarding the topic of how much had been spent. She has that same, stupidly scared look on her face that the President wore last night. Maybe they're both swiping Miltowns from Laura.
I can only off up a recommendation to dig a little deeper in the purse and go with the Xanax. They're the little pale blue ones that look like a football. If Laura's out or hiding them better call Jeb's daughter. Haven't heard anything about her for a while so she must have a steady connection.
The Dark Wraith just hopes Democrats aren't cold enough to let this war go on with that calculus in their minds.
Since they lack the veto-proof majority they need to make the power of the purse actually bite where it must, oddjob feels compelled to hope precisely that.
How else does this madness end??? (Don't answer that!)
- oddjob
Minstrel Boy,
Picking up on what you said about Condi's demeanor, Dr. Elsewhere over at Cannonfire had this to say about gigologeorge:
"Did you guys notice how unbelievably nervous Bush was last night? He got a little better as the minutes passed, but not much. He went from looking perfectly petrified to simply dying to get it over with. There was no swagger, no smile, no attempt to charm the audience. It appeared it was all he could to to just read the prompter with something resembling prosodic consistency."
It's all in a post entitled
Surging toward Armageddon.
Just to add another log to the fire, there was a caller towards the end of the Diane Rhem Show this morning who stated that two of her husbands co-workers, who were special forces trained, had gotten notification to get their war on. The caller further stated that these men were well past their contract time, and had been discharged years ago. Backdoor draft is starting....
Will Bush’s hubris lead to a constitutional crisis?
Will the Dem Congress subpoena documents from the first 6 Bush years?
Will Bush Admin refuse to turn over subpoenaed documents?
Will Congress issue contempt citations?
Will the Dem congress worry that the American public will not follow them?
Will the Dem congress ‘cave in’ figuring half a loaf is better than none?
On what basis do individuals in Congress base their decisions? Framing issues?
I do not have any confidence in Bushco yielding if Congress strongly opposes him. Will Bush 41 or Carter publicly disagree with Bush?
Good morning, Chief.
I have no doubt whatsoever that the Bush Administration will do whatever it can to obstruct and stonewall the Congress with respect to investigations. Bush's people can play that card for quite a while; but sooner or later, issues will reach the Supreme Court, where a Right-wing bloc comprising Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito will need only one mush-headed "moderate" (or "centrist" or whatever the others are called these days) to thwart any hope of a resounding slap-down of this rogue Presidency.
Of more immediate import, though, is an inherent asymmetry to the advantage of the President in his role as Commander-in-Chief. He can effectively initiate and prosecute war by different name by virtue of everything from simple directions to his joint chiefs on through to secret Executive Orders.
I am trying to get some information this morning to corroborate a report I've seen by what are less-than-reputable (but often reliable) sources about something Bush did a couple days ago that's a necessary predicate to some really bad stuff in the hopper. I'm pretty sure the rumor is accurate because it looks like several congressmen already know about it, know that it's secret (which means they cannot tell what they know), and are boiling over because they see it as a nasty end-run around their ability to keep wars from happening unless they are fully consulted and provide consent.
Essentially, then, it looks like the Bush Administration is still able to hog-tie the Congress, and the Democrats are just too inexperienced as the party of the majority in the Houses to know what to do to effectively and resolutely stop the neo-cons from taking the country to the next level.
Although it might look to the casual reader like I engage in hyperbole, I assure you that, in my written analyses and editorials, I do not. When I wrote last week in "Neo-Con End Run" of the prospect of "...a regional war of which the Iraqi theatre was only the first and perhaps the least bloody phase," I was giving a thoroughly straight assessment of what, in my judgment, is coming.
And I shall point out once again that, on balance, I'm right quite a bit more often than I'm wrong.
I suppose I should also stipulate that this is part of the reason why, even though my articles are getting aggregated by news services fairly frequently, you won't see me getting picked up by any of the syndication services.
Certainly not when they have far more reliable and credible columnists like Ann Coulter and Cal Thomas to tell people how things are.
The Dark Wraith couldn't resist getting a little snide there at the end.
Good morning, Marcus.
Yesterday, I started getting the e-mail and calls from students in the armed forces who've just been told to saddle up. There's a lot of confusion, right now, because there was an incident early last month when they were getting something similar to this, but the whole thing fizzled out. However, at that time they were told to keep themselves ready in terms of gear packed up and all that. In fact, that got most of them spooked enough to go high and tight and stay that way even over the Winter holiday break.
Now these young men are getting all kinds of worked up again, but they aren't sure whether it's going to be another bust or if it's the real deal this time.
These are, by and large, combat soldiers who've already been to Iraq at least once, but there's no certainty even about where they would go: stateside, maybe; Iraq; Afghanistan; Somalia? None of them are talking about Iran, but that's because even the most insane neo-con isn't going to try to project regular Army and Marine ground forces into a grinder like that, not right away. It would be more likely that ground troops would serve as a containment force, while Air Force, Navy, and Marine flyboys and missile crews, and all manner of Special Ops folks, would do the aggressive work within the borders of Iran and/or Syria.
That's how I see it coming down, anyway, but I'm just feeling around here in the dark right now. I do not know yet even whether or not the mustering is a real deal.
The Dark Wraith doesn't like being in the dark without a flashlight.
[And the one Bush keeps trying to shine up our butts doesn't count, by the way.]
Now these young men are getting all kinds of worked up again, but they aren't sure whether it's going to be another bust or if it's the real deal this time.
Or for how long...Pentagon abandons active-duty time limit
I've seen other comments online today on other blogs that roughly concur with the messages your students are getting.
I realize this would seem to contradict your assessment of the Democrats, but I nonetheless hope it's accurate since it's hopeful. Murtha's a nasty piece of work when he wants to be.
- oddjob
"...there's no certainty even about where they would go: stateside, maybe..." -- Dark Wraith
Which statement causes me to remember what you said on the blog a few weeks back when, speaking to one of your students, he made the comment that while on leave from Iraq, he had been working on "crowd control". I also at this time am reminded of the
Kent State Massacre.
Oh, I encountered further good news today (which I hadn't been aware of):
Patriot Missiles? Why??? (Hat tip, Attytood.)
- oddjob
Good evening, OddJob.
I brought up the "Patriot-type interceptors" in the comments to last week's article, "Neo-Con End Run, pointing out that they are more or less unreliable as a defensive weapon. The scuttlebutt about Patriot and similar missile batteries being beefed up in targetable areas under U.S. control has been swirling for a few weeks, now, which was why I mentioned them in passing. Israel's reliance upon them is their business, but the Pentagon is playing a fool's game using a system it knows to be flawed to stop a flurry of missile attacks it knows will be launched by Iran if we or the Israelis hit those nuclear fuel production facilities.
Personally, if I had my choice between trusting a Patriot battery to protect my butt and renting a fast, cheap car to get out of harm's way, I'd take my chances with the car on the road south and do my darnedest to swerve around the IEDs along the road and hanging from the overpasses.
As long as I have a half-a-tank of gas, a half-a-pack of cigarettes, my sunglasses, and the whole night ahead of me, I'm betting I'd make it.
The Dark Wraith sings the Blues on the way to Kuwait.
Come to think of it, you did mention that, didn't you?
Apologies for being so slow on the uptake......
- oddjob
Good afternoon, OddJob.
Way too many signs are pointing toward preparations for a widened conflict.
As Marcus said, Special Ops are on the move. Truth be told, those cats have been in and out of Iran already. A lot of ground work is being laid for an attack, some of it having to do with ground-level prep of targets, some of it having to do with disrupting command and control in the hours leading up to the strike. They're also getting psy-ops and social-disruption stuff going, but I would imagine they'll rely to some extent on the local trouble-makers, such that they are with respect to organization, professionalism, and even experience. The idea is to create as much confusion as possible. Blowing up the nuclear production facilities is only one part of an overall attack, which must circumvent and/or neutralize anti-aircraft batteries, directly degrade communications, create havoc to further degrade communications quality, cripple retaliatory strike capabilities if possible, perhaps interrupt certain key transportation and logistics flow channels and nodes, and maybe even set the stage for internal provisions to move into positions where they can at least briefly make people aware that alternatives to the central leadership are active if not visible.
Of course, everything I just wrote above is the product of fevered imagination. Actually, nothing whatsoever of the kind is happening.
But I'm sure you knew that already.
The Dark Wraith went on a flight of fantasy there for a minute.
Good Morning Dark Wraith,
I hear that with the 100billion the 109th congress just gave him, Bushco doesn't need any more money to do the surge. Codpiece himself confirmed on the 60 minutes fawnfest.
My recommendation to Congress: don't give him a dime more, force him to spend it on what he's already got going. (he'll do what he wants anyway - the Cartman presidency). Perhaps he'll hesitate before he goes into Iran.
My take of his character? He'll keep making war as long as we don't impeach and remove him. He will do anything to prompt Iran and Syria into attacking him. If they do, he'll nuke them.
If we do impeach, he will become desperate enough to push that button and make nucular war on his own, without provocation.
I've been dreaming about what Mr Goat said on another thread.
Good afternoon, SB Gypsy.
You are correct: George W. Bush will not be stopped, nor will he even be slowed down, unless and until he is impeached and removed from office.
Furthermore, the destructive policies of this Administration won't be stopped unless and until both he and Dick Cheney are impeached and removed from office.
What we are now seeing is the short-term power of the madness of the few over the reason of the many; and we shall remain in this term that is awful and short-sighted despite the hopes of the majority and the will of thier elected representatives in the Congress.
It is as stark as that.
The Dark Wraith has seen this madness before.
Cheney and his chief of staff (Addington?) are the heart of the problem. They are the ones who believe the president has the constitutional rights of a despot and they have spent all their careers doing everyithing they can to see their interpretation of the Constitution brought into being.
- oddjob