A Purrfect Storm

[Southpaw Bookworm]

What shall we call this mangy, ill-tempered cat that's just been let out of the bag? Not "the V-word" -- that would be a hopeless cliche. Maybe just "the Analogy," capitalizing the word to indicate the beast's unique status and power. The Analogy is a harbinger -- the same kind of omen that Creedence Clearwater Revival once called "a bad moon risin' " -- and now it's on the prowl. No presidential misadventure is safe.

I'm talking about the Vietnam Analogy, which Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel loosed on Sunday. "We are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam," Hagel said on ABC's "This Week." "The longer we stay, the more problems we are going to have."

Hagel is hardly the first person to use the Analogy, but coming from such a prominent Republican -- one who happens to be both a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a possible presidential candidate in 2008 -- Hagel's words serve as an incantation. Hagel has put the Analogy in play, and that's nothing but bad news for George W. Bush and his policy in Iraq.

Which is a good thing, since the president's policy amounts to the belief that if he concentrates really hard -- and stays in shape by regularly doing the Tour de Crawford on his mountain bike -- he'll be able to summon a miracle.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/22/AR2005082201112.html

I love the image that last line evokes, of the Shrub sitting at his desk in the Oval Office, squinching his eyes shut and trying to think real hard.

:rofl:

[vickitulsa]

1. Yes, that line does conjure an image worth savoring.

But the really scary part is that it's probably literally the TRUTH!

After all, GWB is a "recovering addict" (if you believe that he is still refraining from drinking or drugging). So what he is doing now is something all addicts and alcoholics are VERY familiar with: Indulging in DENIAL!

But we all know that denial doesn't make a thing not true, and the truth is that he is going down. His approval ratings are continuing to slip downward at an amazingly rapid rate for a man who claimed to have been re-elected solidly and thus given a mandate to carry on with his oil war in Iraq and Afghanistan and continue his policies of dismantling the Constitution a la the so-called "Patriot" Act.

I just don't see how he can keep this up much longer. Some have commented on his disintegration under stress, and as a former psych major I can see it very clearly. The man is breaking down under the knowledge which is becoming too evident for him to keep ignoring -- that the people are NOT BEHIND HIM ANYMORE. They have seen through his lies and promises that he cannot deliver on, and even those who have supported him in the past are drifting away.

I just wonder if "the Analogy" might be re-emerging now that Hagel has cracked the door for it again. If so, it will continue to be an issue that will literally HAUNT GWB and compel him to respond in some way. How he will do that is questionable because he IS an unstable man and he knows he's in big trouble with the people.

Since so many of us believe he was NOT legally elected in the first place -- or in the second place either, considering that the theft of votes using the unverifiable machinery Repug companies control almost surely occurred, handing him "re-election" -- I doubt he will find he has an overwhelming groundswell of support during his "time of need."

Lastly, when some of us brought up Vietnam early on in GWB's war-waging ventures, seeing that he was using LIES to get us involved and LIES to keep us involved in live-fire wars, we were shouted down or just ignored by the so-called "general public." But NOW ... NOW things are quite different.

Oh, and btw, where are those "Swift Boat Vets for Bush" now?? Why aren't THEY out there again, loudly proclaiming their support for this war and this president?... Hmm??....

~VV

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[delen]

2. Continuing Catting

'Nam was a continuation of Cold War "tail puffing" and "growling", to prove we'd do anything to save democracy.
Iraq however has a "solid" reason, that being to supposedly secure America's future oil supply.
What no one seems to want to admit is that things in Iraq are going exactly as * and *** planned, there by giving an excuse to be there indefinitely.
Even if our military pulls out the real occupiers will remain with their ever growing private army.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

3. Interesting that you mention the private army

In this month's issue of Utne, there's a snippet of an article from The Progressive about the activities of security contractors *cough* mercenaries *cough* in Iraq. There are like 30K of them over there, with no real oversight from or sanctioning power by the military.

[delen]

4. Of course there's no oversite

the military is just their, the "contractors", support team.
Shock and awe indeed.

[vickitulsa]

6. But without our military as a "support team"

the mercs would be slaughtered en masse. Remember the SUV outside Fallujah? The desecrated bodies of several mercs?

I agree that some of what has developed "over there" was included in the planning by the neocon cadre; but it's pretty hard for me see how the entire "project" as it's going now is precisely what they plotted out....

Too many variables ... too much input from -- shock! -- Iraqis!

Still, it's a good point and we must not forget to consider the silent army, the hidden one, the covert one that most Americans DO forget about. I see articles about this all the time, though, and as more and more Americans want to see the troops back HOME where they belong, there will be more focus on those who work the "Rhodesian Pipeline."

That's the paid warfighters, the "contractors" (such an innocuous term for it), the mercenaries who either believe in the cause or just want to use the skills they've honed for a long time -- or both. A private, hand-picked, better-paid army, however, is still not paid enough to keep them fighting where they can see they are not going to win. I know some of these people -- one in particular, who used to be a Navy SEAL. And he tells me the morale, such as it is with these types, is not very good among their ranks in Iraq, either. Those who can are shifting their contracts to Afghanistan or elsewhere. Many of them count Iraq as an already-lost cause.

~VV

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[BlueJac]

5. Shrub can't think!!!

That is a normal persons function!!


:rofl: