NINE PARADOXES OF A LOST WAR (Tom Engelhardt)

[Zlatko Waterman]

( from AntiWar.com)


(personal note)

When I was marching the streets every week in late January and all through February 2003 until the BUSHKO invasion of Iraq, several topics were part of every week's teach-in. One of these topics was the probable failure of the US policy to use an overwhelming amount of physical, destructive force to unseat Saddam and reconcile the people of Iraq, factionally, with each other.

Many speakers warned that "de-stabilizing" Iraq could have grave unintended consequences-- consequences we are seeing enacted today.

In short, all of the paradoxes described by Tom Engelhardt were foreseen by the brave anti-war organizers to whom I listened. They had heard all the lies before-- about Vietnam, during Reagan's murderous machinations in Latin America and Iran-Contra. And they recognized in BUSHKO's new lies the first step on a long and bloody and futile path.

The fantasy of bombing your way to peace has very, very seldom worked. In today's asymmetrical warfare, the rules for winning a "victory" have changed from John Wayne war movie fantasies:

(interesting article about actor Wayne as an American icon here):

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_18827116

and the Tom Engelhardt article can be read here-- with all its hyperlinks, which are, in themselves, always interesting:

http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=9870



from : BRIANTAYLOR.com

[mnaz]

Regarding the debacle and blatant lie that is the Iraq invasion and occupation, which in many ways is more unfounded than our bloodbath in Vietnam (and is starting to become just as tragic), I have to start putting some of it "on the people" and not just the Administration, the longer "we" (in large numbers) continue to fuck around with partisan bickering and fail to pull our collective head out of our collective ass and show up to vote these fascist thugs out of office in such large damn numbers that no amount of cheating will whitewash it. Show me something at the polls, people. Now.

[Doreen Peri]

Yeah!

If we can trust the voting machines.

I'm seriously worried...

[Zlatko Waterman]

Yes, mnaz:

I have less and less faith in "the electorate" which gave us eight years of Bush, and in California here, Arnold Schwartzenegger. Not to mention Ronald Reagan before him, and even George Murphy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Murphy

Of course any gubernatorial election featuring a Las Vegas stripper and a cutesy African-American child tv actor as candidates can't be taken too seriously. The main reason California typically has a long list of voter referendums each election is that the politicians don't seem in contact with the people. The Latinos are the only group that seems to elect half-way decent leaders. The current mayor of LA, however, is having a struggle.

And Phil Angelides is having his own problems trying to get Democrats back into Sacramento:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... LS7VU1.DTL


Not that I expect much from Democrats.

--Z

[stilltrucking]

I expect a lot from the democrats if they win control of congress. I expect them them to be the scape goats. I imagine it will sound something like this:
See we were winning in Iraq until those treasonous democrats took control, the economy was doing terrific and so on and so forth.

[mnaz]

Not that I expect much from the Democrats

True. But the ship is sinking fast, and we know for sure that the Republican-controlled Congress won't do a damn thing about it. Think of it as one time when the "lesser of two evils" might actually make a difference. Think of it as damage control, or perhaps trying to get Democracy hooked up to life support before it flatlines...

[Zlatko Waterman]

Yes, ST:

( paste from you)

I know you don't watch TV
Do you ever listen to radio?
( end paste)

I listen to NPR and Pacifica selectively.

The left ( Pacifica) gets like a loud, banging drum after a while too.

I am a big Amy Goodman fan, though.

When I was in college in the wild 60's, I went to many political meetings. I used to go to the American Communist Party meetings in SF then, to hear Mickey Lima

http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/lists_arc ... /2566.html

( speaker ban article mentioning Lima among others during that historical period)

and after awhile, one almost might as well have been listening to Republicans, the gaggle got so bureaucratic.


I listen to NPR more now that Ken Tomlinson was forced to resign. Bush appointees are everywhere. As I think you said once-- they have "tentacles."

Here's a little more on "bright boy" Ken Tomlinson and his coercive doings:

http://barkingdingo.blogspot.com/2006/0 ... -ever.html

I do catch the NPR news pretty regularly, however, blurred as it is from having to rely on corporate feeds.

When one looks into the corporation for "Public" broadcasting ( ironic quotation marks mine), one finds quite a few little wigglies:

http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/05/he ... inson.html

Good comments, however you choose to characterize them, from Bill Moyers.


--Z