Billmon:
If it was as easy to win wars as it is to hoodwink the voters, our troubles in Iraq would have been over long ago.
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October 29, 2006
WB: Tell Me Lies
Comments
“President Bush declared this last week that the administration was putting the Baghdad government American people on notice…”
Here’s a direct link to the enrolled version of HR5122: John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate) and Here’s a link to the relevant page in the PDF of the bill.
See you in the camps!
L’Etat c’est moi ~Louis XIV
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 29 2006 6:45 utc | 1
If it was as easy to win wars elections as it is to hoodwink the voters, our troubles in Iraq America would have been over long ago.
The US code section on Insurrection (TITLE 10 § 333) has been expanded to a more general definition of the conditions under which the President can federalize the National Guard in a state, and includes a key new provision allowing him to federalize troops over the head of a Governor in the case of public disorder and “inability to enforce the laws”. This is what we may call the “Blanco clause”.
“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.” H.L._Mencken
I once physically fought a bully in 9th grade whom I was sure would whip my ass, he did, and the time after that too, but it became clear to him, the first time, (after he said the second time that he was going to kick my ass) and I replied, ‘you very well may , but, your going to have to’…
He never tried it again.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 29 2006 7:03 utc | 2
Americans seem to have the notion that the group of elected officials in Baghdad is soime kind of functioning, representative government.
They are little more than an expression of optimism on the part of the American occupiers that Iraq can be goverened at all by an elected parliament.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Oct 29 2006 7:03 utc | 3
If it’s not tragic it would be a hell of the laugh…If they can fool more then 20 percent of Americans (morons that every nation has) then Americans are laughing stock as a nation or they are just total moral creeps cause they really do not care about simply anything as long as they can live their lives “American (bloody) way”. I know American politicians always were senseless , brutal mob but there was movement of protesters ashamed of what has been done in their name …I don’t see that movement now after more then 3 years of war that stained American hands with blood again. Shame on you America!
Those clowns of yours are entertaining the whole world with statements like this just not those dead Iraqis and rapidly growing dead American solders and their families…
Posted by: vbo | Oct 29 2006 14:35 utc | 4
To Whom It May Concern
I was run over by the truth one day.
Ever since the accident I’ve walked this way
So stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Heard the alarm clock screaming with pain,
Couldn’t find myself so I went back to sleep again
So fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Every time I shut my eyes all I see is flames.
Made a marble phone book and I carved out all the names
So coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
I smell something burning, hope it’s just my brains.
They’re only dropping peppermints and daisy-chains
So stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Where were you at the time of the crime?
Down by the Cenotaph drinking slime
So chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
You put your bombers in, you put your conscience out,
You take the human being and you twist it all about
So scrub my skin with women
Chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
— Adrian Mitchell
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 29 2006 16:55 utc | 5
The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H.L. Mencken
Posted by: Fiat Lux | Oct 29 2006 18:56 utc | 6
As an occupier, in the old rules, the US has no rights to demand anything of whatever Gvmt, it installed in Baghdad. This is all spelled out in Int’al agreements (not respected today.) It is the occupiers job to run the country with minimal disruption and pain, according to its Constitution, laws, etc. (Illusory, but form is form..)
The US is aiming, as always, for ‘client states.’ Its ideal is an instituted Gvmt. (democratic or no, see Saudi Arabia, but demo. is more respectable) that obeys orders without showing its people that it does. It is the ‘franchise’, of Mafia, system – you pays your dues, obeys the rules, and can get a tiny return.. Provided there is an elite who agrees to take that return, just for themselves, taking on the risk of instability, civil war, strife, unrest, being murdered, and the possible future dumping or worse by the mother company.
While the Saudis have agreed to such a system since Roosevelt shook hands with Ibn Saud, in Iraq it is proving difficult go set up. The only strong man, Saddam, had to be vilified, and no replacement is available, because occupiers cannot legitimately confer power; the risks of the position are all too clear, and only temporary nobodies who want to profit financially in the space of 6 months will apply. They all live in London anyway.. by now there is nothing much to be squeezed from Iraq. No one will invest there, what existed has been destroyed, it is all over. Game over. Of course the US will stay forever in what is now Badlands – an interesting experiment for them, the Israelis will advise. The oil in Iraq will stay in the ground – or be extracted bit by bit – it is no matter.
Posted by: Noirette | Oct 29 2006 19:03 utc | 7
letter from iraq
“Rather than attempting to sum up the last seven months, I figured I’d just hit the record-setting highlights of 2006 in Iraq. These are among the events and experiences I’ll remember best.
Worst Case of Deja Vu — I thought I was familiar with the feeling of deja vu until I arrived back here in Fallujah in February. The moment I stepped off of the helicopter, just as dawn broke, and saw the camp just as I had left it ten months before — that was deja vu. Kind of unnerving. It was as if I had never left. Same work area, same busted desk, same chair, same computer, same room, same creaky rack, same… everything. Same everything for the next year. It was like entering a parallel universe. Home wasn’t 10,000 miles away, it was a different lifetime.
Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.”
Posted by: r’giap | Oct 29 2006 22:23 utc | 8
RGiap: Thanks for the Adrian Mitchell. That truly is a fine poem: it has a proper resonance in these times of disaster. How many more poems are receiving a second chance at usefulness – that in itself is a cause for mourning, when the decently buried words of defiance are set to shudder and stir in their crypts. Revenant verse, a fit subject for another heedless Halloween: welcome back, though I wish we didn’t need you.
Posted by: Tantalus | Oct 29 2006 23:13 utc | 9
This piece places the whole Iran situation in a larger global context, which I don’t recall has been much discussed here. I found it interesting and also sobering, to say the least. I’d love to hear what others can contribute about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization or any aspect of the facts in here — are they accurate?
Is Attacking Iran a Viable Option?
Posted by: Bea | Oct 30 2006 3:00 utc | 10
Profiles of Iraq Today
Two in-depth portraits of how grim the situation in Iraq has become, from people who have just been there. (H/T TPM Cafe/America Abroad)
Marie Colvin – Sunday Times online
Anthony Shadid – Washington Post
Posted by: Bea | Oct 30 2006 3:28 utc | 11
Anthony Shadid link, Take Two:
Anothony Shadid – Washington Post
Sorry about the duplicate link above.
Posted by: Bea | Oct 30 2006 3:31 utc | 12
Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets.
Can’t have a carny without midgets — and clowns. But we got more of those than we can use. Plus a bearded lady (Lynne Cheney) and the CNN minstrel chorus.
Hot damn, we should take this show on the road. Oh wait . . .
Posted by: billmon | Oct 30 2006 7:04 utc | 13