Frustrated and angry

[Wetzelbill]

Every damn time I turn on the tv or read one of the many papers I check out every day, something awful happens in Iraq, Afghanistan et al.

Everytime they show stories about people out of work. Then I, personally, see others struggling to make ends meet or even myself, because I am barely scraping by due to tuition raises and financial aid reductions which have hit me hard.

Each time I ask myself one question.

Was any of this necessary?

And I get the same answer everytime.

No.

Huh?

NO! NO! NO!

We didn't need to go into Iraq. We didn't really need to bomb the hell out of Afghanistan in the manner we did. We certainly didn't need reckless tax cuts to rich people and blatant favoritism to an elite group of U.S. oligarchs.

None of this was necessary. Were it not for one foolish, malleable man and his group of controlling ideologues. I hate it. It is frustrating. It angers me. Every soldier that dies, every soft target hit and civilian killed, enrages me. It does. I can't help it. I was writing columns last year, screaming at the top of my lungs that everything our administration did was an awful idea. I'm such a rookie to all of this political stuff, but even I knew Iraq would be a mess. I even wrote about it. Now, Will Pitt, Molly Ivins, Paul Krugman and every other columnist worth their salt were all screaming to much larger audiences than I could ever have.

Why were so many people right about all of this, yet it didn't stop it all from happening anyway?

My answer.

This is the most dangerous administration in history. They are obsolete Cold War throwbacks bent on finding an enemy that doesn't really exist, not in the way they want one to exist. They are wealthy privileged brats who want to hand the world over to other wealthy priveleged brats, and they don't mind lying, cheating, stealing and sacrificing lives, in order to do so.

So I read the papers. Watch the news. And see a so-called "jobless recovery"; I see how attacks in Iraq that kill our soldiers are good because that means we are about to win the war and the "evildoers" are desparate, whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

Mythic revelations.

I hope this all changes soon.

November 2004.

I'm counting the days.

You can bet I'll be there.

[leftofthedial]

1. well put

I sometimes get so angry I have to stop myself, take a time out, and relax.

[childslibrarian]

2. I felt like that last week

I took the weekend to get out of town and feel much better. But you are right, we have to realize the magnitude of what is being done to us as a country to get motivated to change this situation...

[Malva Zebrina]

3. Why?--because they have the power and the money

that is the criteria which one uses when trying to bully others. I am convinced that that is what leads to the incredible arrogance. They have money and they, therefore, have power, and they have the ability to hire those who are smart when it comes to propaganda, because of that money.

What to do? Beats me. Stay true to yourself--and try to convince others to stay true to themself. Those who are rich and wealthy--and even those who are not rich and wealthy but have a compulsion to be attached or indentified with , those who are rich and wealthy and Republican, are really shallow and ineffective human beings, from my point of view--there are a lot of them on the road where I live. And they are selling their souls for a bowl of lentils--or a MacDonald's burger and a shake. Many are racist--many think they are of the noble elite, when in actuality they are simply the common man. Nope--not good enough for them--they absolutely NEED to think of themself as better than. I have no idea what will cause the pendulum to swing the other way--it seems to me that people have just lost their souls.

[Frangible]

4. I can agree on the Iraq thing...

But Afghanistan? What were we supposed to do with the Taliban and terrorists, other than 671 grains of diplomacy?

[bicentennial_baby]

6. Hmmm

Let's see...The Taliban is alive and well, and is enjoying quite a resurgence these days. Fighting on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border has increased sharply in recent months. Aghanistan is in a slow-motion decline into chaos once again. We did'nt do shit except satiate our blood lust, and open up a clear line to all that Caspian Sea oil.

[Wetzelbill]

7. Lots of options

Get evidence that bin Laden actually did it. Take a smaller group of special forces and get him. Instead we blew up half the country and missed him at Tora Bora as a result. We traded the Taliban for a bunch of warlords, druglords and pimps. I know a U.S. Customs investigator who has guys from his unit go over and train the new Afghan government's officers on how to track and hunt down drug dealers. Meanwhile, the U.S. is giving vast amounts of aid to the same drug lords that we are supposedly supposed to be catching. Opium production has gone up over 20 percent since the Taliban has left. Not to mention we could have overthrown them from within, but the U.S. wanted to put on a show of power instead. Hamid Karzai, is a former Unocal employee, and now is reduced to being the Mayor of Kabul. We devastated that country and still didn't accomplish our goal. Big humanitarian debacle. Biblical proportions. Our big problem is we'd rather bomb the shit out of a place rather than do it right. I may add that in Robert Fisk's in depth interviews, Bin Laden hinted at suckering the U.S. into a Soviet-style guerilla fight in Afghanistan. Obviously, because sticking it out in that country will be a dubious drain on the U.S. and, plus, it helps increase al-qaida recruitment. Bush answered his prayers.

[Frangible]

8. Very good points, thanks (nt)

[Wetzelbill]

9. No problem

Afghanistan was a tough call, because of outrage and the pain of 9-11. Our populace felt vulnerable and were easily exploited. Leaders are supposed to take the proper avenues and do the right thing. 9-11 needed some sort of action. Definitely. However, nothing we have done since has made a terror threat less likely or done any reasonable amount of good for everybody involved. Quite the contrary on all accounts. It's just madness.

[librechik]

5. it was absolutely necessary

in order to assure a GOP win in the (off year) 2002 elections.

That's the only reason.

Otherwise, it was utter madness.

No doubt they'll try something similar for 2004even though they own the voting machines. Have to make it look like a real election of a "popular wartime president," you know!