The greatest strategic blunder in our lifetime

[DainBramaged]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-wilson29oct29,0,4988049.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Joe Wilson commentary in the LA Times, as linked from Ameriblog.

A MUST read.

The war in Iraq has claimed more than 17,000 dead and wounded American soldiers, many times more Iraqi casualties and close to $200 billion.

It has left our international reputation in tatters and our military broken. It has weakened the United States, increased hatred of us and made terrorist attacks against our interests more likely in the future.

It has been, as Gen. William Odom suggested, the greatest strategic blunder in the history of our country.

We anticipate no mea culpa from the president for what his senior aides have done to us. But he owes the nation both an explanation and an apology.

[leveymg]

1. He owes us a resignation and confession.

Any final statement, Mr. Bush, before this court pronounces sentence?

[Arkana]

10. Hee hee...

"Gordon Liddy told me about 'Glory Holes' the other day--I can't wait to see one!"

--George Bush's final statement before his crazy ass was hauled off to Gitmo

[Window]

15. At the very least!

Peace

[ROH]

2. Recommended (n/t)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Worst president ever makes the greatest strategic blunder.

[indepat]

4. None of W's blunders matters a whit to the faithful ideologues

[The Doctor.]

5. That's right... Should Dems regain the White House

and not produce instant and overwhelming successes, the ideologues will wail that they have interrupted W's winning agenda.

If they do produce results, then they will claim that the Dems are 'reaping the fruits of W's policies.

One cannot teach the blind to see.

[RandomKoolzip]

6. At this point, if we get a Dem majority in 06 and a Dem prez in 08...

Our leaders are going to spend so much time, money, and talent cleaning up the messes brought on by the current administration that anything less than a complete and utter end to terrorism, poverty, war and red tape will be deemed a brutal failure by the consolidated media, still in the hands of conservative billionaires. Watch for it.

Shit, we could raise Jesus from the dead, cure cancer, balance the budget, and send every kid in the US to college, and they'd still think we're godless commie bastards who deserve shootin'.

There's a wonderful article in this month's Esquire about "Idiot America," where a majority of Americans are proud to be, well...stupid. And they equate "smart" with "liberal." It's worth a read.

[The Doctor.]

8. Great article.

I may consider posting it as a public service.

[lildreamer316]

17. Please do

(ask admis where of course!) I would love to read this as well.

[RayOfHope]

9. This part of your post:

"anything less than a complete and utter end to terrorism, poverty, war and red tape will be deemed a brutal failure by the consolidated media, still in the hands of conservative billionaires. Watch for it."

I swear, some DUers need to be added to the list (not you, to make that clear). Some folks expect miracles.

[DainBramaged]

11. Great article

http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/idiot_america/

Partial read here

[RandomKoolzip]

13. I'm glad he excerpted this part on his blog:

A "politically savvy challenge to evolution" is as self-evidently ridiculous as an agriculturally savvy challenge to euclidean geometry would be. It makes as much sense as conducting a Gallup poll on gravity or running someone for president on the Alchemy party ticket. It doesn't matter what percentage of people believe they ought to be able to flap their arms and fly, none of them can. It doesn't matter how many votes your candidate got, he's not going to turn lead into gold. This sentence is so arrantly foolish that the only real news is where it appeared.

On the front page.

Of the New York Times.

Within three days, there was a panel on the subject on Larry King Live, in which Larry asked the following question:

"All right, hold on. Dr. Forest, your concept of how can you out-and-out turn down creationism, since if evolution is true, why are there still monkeys?"

And why do so many of them host television programs, Larry?

I got chills up my back and laughed out loud when I read that.

[The Doctor.]

18. Yes, I laughed out loud too....

I tried to put myself in Dr. Forests' position and found that I could not without laughing at King.

{Laugh my ass off @ Larry, take a deep breath...} "Well, Larry, you can have Lions, but still have housecats, you can have wolves, but still have poodles, you can have journalists, and yet still have talk-show hosts... so I don't see what you're asking."

[teryang]

7. Acts undertaken in bad faith are not blunders but crimes

The multinational corporate elites are deliberately destroying both Iraq and the US. Both posited themselves as political instruments of higher authority than corporate executives.

[Gabi Hayes]

12. don't forget....he's on SIXTY MINUTES tomorrow night

trick or treat, Rover

[DainBramaged]

14. I can't wait, and I hope he has more to say

I wonder if Peter King will ever apologize;

"They used eager allies in Congress and the conservative media, beginning with Novak. Perhaps the most egregious of the attacks was New York GOP Rep. Peter King's odious suggestion that Valerie "got what she deserved."

The goons on radio will continue to try and blame him, instead of accepting responsibility. The Cons will never accept personal responsibility for anything, all they do is blame others.

I wonder if this generation of scum is teaching their children the same fouled and decaying ethics?

[unblock]

16. even worse than vietnam, imho.

so far at least, many more died in vietnam, and i certainly don't want to discount that.

however, our motives for being in vietnam were nowhere near as cynical, as concealed, as misrepresented, as corrupt as our motives for being in iraq.

and the world did not begrudge our being in vietnam. indeed, vietnam started as a french conflict, we joined in later. iraq, on the other hand, is supported only by a small number of countries whose leaders have been bought through cynical, concealed, misrepresented, and corrupt means. and some of them couldn't even stick it out.

history will put the invasion of iraq side-by-side with hitler's invasion of poland. the parallels are striking; the key difference is that hitler was able to quickly conquer and control poland, whereas the shrub gang proved only that we can destroy and kill, but not control.