Disillusioned with the war? Here's why
By CARL HIAASEN
Al Qaeda's No. 2 beard appeared on Al-Jazeera television the other day and urged all Muslims to join a holy war against Israel.
Ayman al Zawahri told the faithful that the whole world is their ''battlefield,'' and that they must keep fighting until Islam prevails from ``Spain to Iraq.''
Spain seems stable, for the moment. Unfortunately, Iraq is a bloody mess, and the rest of the Mideast is erupting.
The fact that al Zawahri is still alive and ranting nearly five years after 9/11 sums up the botched and misguided war on terror.
No less undead and chatty is al Zawahri's boss, Osama bin Laden, the loon who headed the conspiracy that targeted the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Osama has delivered five videotaped messages already this year, exhorting followers to pursue the jihad.
Polls say that, by a large majority, Americans are disillusioned with the president, his foreign policy and the grinding war in Iraq. It's hardly surprising.
So much of what we've been told has turned out to be bull, starting with the reason for the invasion. Who can forget these solemn declarations from the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld brain trust?
 Saddam Hussein is stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
 Saddam's regime has secret connections to al Qaeda.
 U.S. troops will be ``welcomed as liberators.''
 Forget what experienced battle commanders say. We've got more than enough forces on the ground to assert control in Iraq.
 Major combat is over!
 The insurgents in Iraq are just pesky ''dead-enders'' who will be vanquished in short order.
 American soldiers have been issued the top-of-the-line body and vehicle armor for protection.
 The training of Iraqi military and police forces is progressing smoothly.
 The rebuilding of Iraq will be financed by revenues from its vast oil holdings, not by American taxpayers.
 Don't worry -- this isn't anything like Vietnam.
So far, the president and his team are batting .000 in Baghdad. They haven't been right yet...http://tinyurl.com/o38bv
*
OK, here's some general principles to live by.
All Republicans are lying, all of the time.
Either that or they're blindly repeating lies they've heard their leaders tell them.
They do that. It's because of very bad things that happened to them way in their pasts; doctrines of parental infallibility, authoritarian churches & schools, corporate hierarchies, that Nazi shit that pervades our lives. They bought it. They drank the kool-aid. It's sad but what can you do? Hope that somewhere along the line they have an experience that sets them on the road to becoming real, functioning citizens of a Republic.
There's such an opportunity now.
Think of the ever-changing, never-ending stream of bullshit that descends from the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-etc cabal. One doesn't have to go along with it. They're saying this shit because it accrues and concentrates power and wealth in the hands of themselves and the few hundred households with annual incomes of 200+ million dollars.
Theses are the most unnecessary people in our society. Paris Hilton is getting tax cuts and the power's going off all across the country. Millions of people are living without health care so she can have a massage everyday.
Sitting by the pool, waiting for the dividend check is not a valuable contribution to society.
Poor kids from the US are fighting (and dying) with the poor kids of_____(fill in the blank) for the benefit of the rich.
It really is that simple.
The other day Republicans tied a tax-cut for the uber-wealthy to a bill that would raise the minimum wage two dollars over the next two years so that Democrats would vote against it and they could say, "See, Democrats voted against raising the minumum wage?"
Is this really the time for this kind of cynical politics?
But you know?, people don't have to buy into it.
It's not about security or patriotism or any of the other false conservative values they talk about. It's about wealth and power.
There's a mechanism to change all this; free elections and an informed populace. Do we have those things? Not at the moment. But things change. You can count on that.
November '06 is a chance to throw some of the bastards out. If the elections are tainted as the last few have been, something else will have to be done.
The war with the phantom enemies of empire must be ended and the war with the real enemies at home must begin.
*
By CARL HIAASEN
Al Qaeda's No. 2 beard appeared on Al-Jazeera television the other day and urged all Muslims to join a holy war against Israel.
Ayman al Zawahri told the faithful that the whole world is their ''battlefield,'' and that they must keep fighting until Islam prevails from ``Spain to Iraq.''
Spain seems stable, for the moment. Unfortunately, Iraq is a bloody mess, and the rest of the Mideast is erupting.
The fact that al Zawahri is still alive and ranting nearly five years after 9/11 sums up the botched and misguided war on terror.
No less undead and chatty is al Zawahri's boss, Osama bin Laden, the loon who headed the conspiracy that targeted the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Osama has delivered five videotaped messages already this year, exhorting followers to pursue the jihad.
Polls say that, by a large majority, Americans are disillusioned with the president, his foreign policy and the grinding war in Iraq. It's hardly surprising.
So much of what we've been told has turned out to be bull, starting with the reason for the invasion. Who can forget these solemn declarations from the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld brain trust?
 Saddam Hussein is stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
 Saddam's regime has secret connections to al Qaeda.
 U.S. troops will be ``welcomed as liberators.''
 Forget what experienced battle commanders say. We've got more than enough forces on the ground to assert control in Iraq.
 Major combat is over!
 The insurgents in Iraq are just pesky ''dead-enders'' who will be vanquished in short order.
 American soldiers have been issued the top-of-the-line body and vehicle armor for protection.
 The training of Iraqi military and police forces is progressing smoothly.
 The rebuilding of Iraq will be financed by revenues from its vast oil holdings, not by American taxpayers.
 Don't worry -- this isn't anything like Vietnam.
So far, the president and his team are batting .000 in Baghdad. They haven't been right yet...http://tinyurl.com/o38bv
*
OK, here's some general principles to live by.
All Republicans are lying, all of the time.
Either that or they're blindly repeating lies they've heard their leaders tell them.
They do that. It's because of very bad things that happened to them way in their pasts; doctrines of parental infallibility, authoritarian churches & schools, corporate hierarchies, that Nazi shit that pervades our lives. They bought it. They drank the kool-aid. It's sad but what can you do? Hope that somewhere along the line they have an experience that sets them on the road to becoming real, functioning citizens of a Republic.
There's such an opportunity now.
Think of the ever-changing, never-ending stream of bullshit that descends from the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-etc cabal. One doesn't have to go along with it. They're saying this shit because it accrues and concentrates power and wealth in the hands of themselves and the few hundred households with annual incomes of 200+ million dollars.
Theses are the most unnecessary people in our society. Paris Hilton is getting tax cuts and the power's going off all across the country. Millions of people are living without health care so she can have a massage everyday.
Sitting by the pool, waiting for the dividend check is not a valuable contribution to society.
Poor kids from the US are fighting (and dying) with the poor kids of_____(fill in the blank) for the benefit of the rich.
It really is that simple.
The other day Republicans tied a tax-cut for the uber-wealthy to a bill that would raise the minimum wage two dollars over the next two years so that Democrats would vote against it and they could say, "See, Democrats voted against raising the minumum wage?"
Is this really the time for this kind of cynical politics?
But you know?, people don't have to buy into it.
It's not about security or patriotism or any of the other false conservative values they talk about. It's about wealth and power.
There's a mechanism to change all this; free elections and an informed populace. Do we have those things? Not at the moment. But things change. You can count on that.
November '06 is a chance to throw some of the bastards out. If the elections are tainted as the last few have been, something else will have to be done.
The war with the phantom enemies of empire must be ended and the war with the real enemies at home must begin.
*
posted by Dan at 3:22 PM
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