Wednesday, July 16, 2008

O'Hanlon

I swear, I really wanted to finish this post. I really did. I haven't been writing much lately and thought this would be the one. Well, I ran out of time and want to go to bed. So here's another unfinished post. Deal with it.

The fact that I ever have to hear about Michael O'Hanlon is proof positive that our political system is still very screwed up. Every time I read any story about him, all I can think about is how I can't believe that I'm actually reading about him. But then the next thing I know, I'm reading yet another story about O'Hanlon that was about as embarrassing as the previous one. Not that I blame the people writing about him, and hell, while O'Hanlon really should have slinked back to wherever it is they pulled him from, I guess I understand how someone could be shameless enough to continue advocating moronic policies. The big question is alw

And honestly, under what scenerio would it make sense for us to stop following the time table to withdraw from Iraq? Because sure, what if the whole shitheap starts flaring up into an even bigger shitheap when we start to leave? Is that reason for us to stop pulling out? Of course not. The whole reason we were leaving in the first place is because the place is a shitheap that won't let us go. So under what logic would we use increasing violence to stick around when it was the very reason we were leaving in the first place?

And honestly, I've never understood exactly what was so dangerous about letting our enemies know when we're leaving. I once asked that question on a conservative blog and this nutbag commenter could only repeat some toughguy nonsense about never ever never ever never letting your enemy have any piece of information about you at all. And so it was just a general principle that you shouldn't let anyone know that you're leaving. And that was the best I got.

And really, conservatives don't want to have an honest discussion about this. It's all about the fearmongering for them. They don't care if it's true. They only care because they scared someone. A 16-month drawdown is suddenly recast as the last chopper out of Baghdad, with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard hoisting OBL on their shoulders and rubbing our noses in it. And that's it. It's either that, or we stay until the end of time. There are no other possible scenerios.

And they won't even listen to anything else. They can't. It's their way or the highway and that's all there is to it. But don't you worry, if we pull-out and Iraq eventually does pull out of this, you can certainly bet they'll be right there to take all the credit for it.

1 comment:

Broadway Carl said...

Taking credit for successes and blaming others for failures is what they do, good Doctor. The past couple of days I've been listening to GOP Senators on MSNBC blaming NATO for the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. I suppose "Support The Troops" only means our troops. Fuck the other allies' troops. They can't dso anything right.

And now you have McThuselah claiming that the "success in Iraq" is the model he would use in Afghanistan if he is president, my friends, and that Obama has it "exactly backwards." To which I ask, "What success would you be talking about?!"

It seems that everyone touting success in Iraq is selectively remembering only the post-surge reduction in violence and not the fact that the whole reason for the surge in the first place was to give the Iraqi government time to get its shit together. That hasn't happened and moving the goalposts won't make the surge a success.

And even if you accept McCain's premise that this is the way we'd do things in Afghanistan, one would have to realize that it's impossible to do with the lack of resources we now face. We don't have the troops to send to Afghanistan unless we pull them out of Iraq.

Unbelieveable!