Billmon:

It’s getting very dark in here — the little bit of light left is primarily the result of me trying to convince myself the signs we saw in the run up to the Iraq invasion don’t have the same significance this time around. Who knows? Maybe doing the same things and expecting different results isn’t crazy after all.

Or, at the least, maybe the use of tactical nukes is off the table.

Only the Beginning

Billmon:

Even if Shrub’s motives were as virtuous as his hagiographers insist, at what point do recklessness and fecklessness, and a petulant refusal to admit — much less learn from — even the most disastrous mistakes, become forms of evil in themselves?

The Road to Hell

News & views  – just another open thread

Billmon:

The Filter

Billmon:

[I]t appears that democracy has degenerated into a synonym for "a government we support."

Up is Downism

Asked point-blank whether the United States is winning in Iraq, Abizaid replied: "Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we’re winning the war."
’06 Cuts In Iraq Troops Unlikely

Billmon:

Under the circumstances, nation building in the Middle East might best be compared to sand castle building — on the beach in the face of a rising tide. We’d probably all be better off if our imperial strategists could come up with a strategy for managing the transition to a more decentralized, fragmented and at times chaotic world, instead of trying to turn back the clock to a earlier day. But, of course, if they were comfortable doing that they probably wouldn’t be imperial strategists.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Billmon:

Gaia: I got the fever. Yeah, I got the fever.

Sailing to the North Pole

Billmon:

I’m guessing the "principles of democracy" will be plenty flexible enough to allow Shrub to give the new military government his tacit blessing.

That is, assuming the generals don’t support Roe v. Wade or stem cell research or anything Satanic like that. I mean, Thailand may be important, but you gotta draw the line somewhere.

Thai Game

Billmon:

Orwell Has a Field Day

Billmon:

The Great White Hope

—
Just read the piece before I saw Billmon’s post on Cheney Says Hopes of World Rest on U.S.. The juicy bits:

Cont. reading: WB: The Great White Hope

Billmon:

Idiocracy Now

News & views …

Billmon:

[I]f Lovelock’s "Gaia Hypothesis" is correct, and the planet really does act like one big self-regulating organism, then what’s coming won’t be the end of life on earth, but rather the fever that kills the germs (think of the human race as a particularly nasty yeast infection) and restores the patient to her former health.

And People Call Me a Pessimist

Billmon:

Maybe there’s nothing to this. Maybe partial data has only created the appearance that the IRS is zeroing in on liberal and/or Democratic groups. Maybe I really am having an acid flashback. But further investigation — by people with their hands clamped around the IRS’s balls (by which I mean its budget) — definitely wouldn’t hurt.

Enemies List

Billmon:

The question on the table .. is whether anyone will do anything about it — or can do anything about it.

The American Disease

Billmon:

I’ll never believe Pangloss again.

Today’s Gardening Tip

Billmon:

There’s only one man in Iraq I can think who would possibly pull something like that off — and his name isn’t Ahmed Chalabi. However, considering how badly the country has fragmented over the past three years, even Saddam might not want his old job back. I don’t think he could stomach the blood.

That the strongman scenario is even showing up in the media chatter is, I suppose, a sign of how desperate the realists are to find a way out of the swamp — one that doesn’t involve a choice between turning Iraq over to the Iranians or going to war with them.

Looking for a Dictator

Billmon:

II. Miracle Worker
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Now we can see why the occupation of Iraq — the toughest foreign policy job taken on by the U.S. government since the Vietnam War — came to be run by the kind of conservative dimwits who post at The Corner. How much more do you need to know to understand that failure in Iraq wasn’t just an option — it was inevitable.

I. The RNC Branch Office on the Tigris

Billmon:

But War President doesn’t really have the option of switching to cable, where the old formula might still prove commercially viable. Maybe the producers can keep the sponsors on board until Shrub’s contract is up. But I guess that depends on how many affiliates are willing to renew in November for next year’s season.

The Late Show

Billmon:

However, doctors say they are puzzled by the fact that some of the worst casualties appear to be among top officials in the Pentagon and the Bush administration — even though these patients typically show no physical signs of injury.

Signature Wound