Our esteemed Mr. Perrin:

Here’s the bald face of imperialism. The video speaks for itself. I knew some prime assholes when I was in the Army, but this guy’s beyond belief. Remember, they hate us for our freedom.

As I explained in the daily Guys From Area 51 “waste time at work and erode the foundations of society” e-mail exchange:

I heard this same lecture if not everyday, at least 2 or 3 times a week when I was active duty Army. It’s common negative motivation technique…the fact that he’s using it reveals allot. When our intrepid leaders dragged this old standby out it you could be sure they’d just heard a similar speech from their superiors. The old shit rolls down hill thing. It also means that he’s reach the bottom of his bag of tricks, probably because he’s sick of being in that forsaken stretch of dirt risking his ass for them when they don’t even want him there.

It’s the natural way of things people. There’s an arc. This is not “the bald face of imperialism.” Luckily, via der Pime, the late, great Paul Harvey clears it all up for us:

We didn’t come this far because we’re made of sugar candy. Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and across this continent by giving smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. That was biological warfare. And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever.

And we grew prosperous. And yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves. So it goes with most great nation-states, which—feeling guilty about their savage pasts—eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry up-and-coming who are not made of sugar candy.

This is the bald face of a dying Imperial power. Reduced to begging and pleading and talking to hear ourselves speak. And so it goes.

Happy New Year everyone!

• Bush shoe-ing worst Arab insult
• Bush defends war in trip to Iraq
• Bush Shoe Incident: Video

This is the summation of the Bush pResidency. It should be the closing frames of any montage historical look back. I wonder if we will hear more from the journalist who threw the shoes than his predecessor, the Tiananmen Square tank man.

Defending Obama’s Foreign Policy
Comment
By Tom Hayden
September 29, 2008

It is as if frustration with Obama is greater than anything some people on the left feel towards McCain. I feel their pain, but let me offer this formula: no candidate will move further left than their base demands and public opinion allows.

…

I personally wish he hadn’t, but Obama has decided to close off any possible attacks from the right or the media on his national security policies and credentials. I believe that this stance will have serious consequences, like John Kennedy encountered at the Bay of Pigs. But I also know that his position is a political one, and can be (and should be) taken up by the left after election day.

-Shorter Messer Hayden: Hold your nose and pull the lever you stinking Hippies.

And in other news:

• End of Iraq’s Awakening?
• The Next Step on the Bailout.
• Suspected U.S. missile strike kills 6 in Pakistan

Strip of Iraq ‘on the Verge of Exploding’
Kurds Extend Role Beyond Autonomous Borders, Angering Arabs

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 13, 2008; A01

JALAWLA, Iraq — Kurdish leaders have expanded their authority over a roughly 300-mile-long swath of territory beyond the borders of their autonomous region in northern Iraq, stationing thousands of soldiers in ethnically mixed areas in what Iraqi Arabs see as an encroachment on their homelands.

The assertion of greater Kurdish control, which has taken hold gradually since the war began and caused tens of thousands of Arabs to flee their homes, is viewed by Iraqi Arab and U.S. officials as a provocative and potentially destabilizing action.

“Quickly moving into those areas to try and change the population and flying KRG flags in areas that are specifically not under the KRG control right now — that is counterproductive and increases tensions,” said Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government, which administers the autonomous region.

The long-cherished dream of many of the world’s 25 million ethnic Kurds is an independent state that encompasses parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. All but Iraq adamantly oppose Kurdish autonomy, much less a Kurdish state. Iraqi Kurds continue to insist they are not seeking independence, even as they unilaterally expand the territory they control in Iraq.

The predominantly Arab-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in recent weeks has sent the Iraqi army to drive Kurdish forces out of some of the lands, ordering Kurdish troops, known as pesh merga, to retreat north of the boundary of the Kurdish autonomous region.

The face-off between the Iraqi army and pesh merga has stoked fears of Arab-Kurdish strife just as Iraqis begin to recover from years of sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis.

Without doubt the surge as a military tactic has been a successful exercise. As just a piece of an overall strategy–an ill defined, ideologically bankrupt, failing strategy–it has done all that anyone could ever expect. Now, how do you define victory in an occupation?

Obama “puzzled” by Iraq comment frenzy
Sat Jul 5, 2008 6:19pm EDT
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Saturday his plan to end the Iraq war was unchanged and he was puzzled by the sharp reaction to his statement this week that he might “refine” his timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat troops.

“For me to say that I’m going to refine my policies I don’t think in any way is inconsistent with prior statements and doesn’t change my strategic view that this war has to end and that I’m going to end it as president,” Obama told reporters on his campaign plane.

Obama, who based his drive to capture the Democratic nomination on his early and ardent opposition to the war, said earlier this week he might alter his plan to bring combat troops home within 16 months of taking office if conditions on the ground changed.

The comment drew heavy coverage and sharp criticism from some on the left and the right, with Republicans saying it showed he was vacillating on Iraq.

“I was a little puzzled by the frenzy that I set off with what I thought was a pretty innocuous statement,” he said on a flight from Montana to St. Louis. “I am absolutely committed to ending the war. I will call my joint chiefs of staff in and give them a new assignment and that is to end the war.”

Obama will face Republican John McCain, a staunch advocate of the war, in a November presidential race that is certain to focus heavily on the future of U.S. troops in Iraq.

“What’s really puzzling is that Barack Obama still doesn’t understand that his words matter,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

(my emphasis added)

Let me unpuzzle this for you, Barack. By the end of 2007 you and your fellow Democrats in Congress had completely betrayed we the people who put you in office in such numbers the previous year. You fucked up on Iraq, Barack. Not your initial decision, but your continued support in blood and treasure. It’s a bad idea to fucking remind us of that right now with your waffling and nuancing.

How ever are we to leave now?

Via TJ’s Anti-Contrarian Blog:

“This news sort of flew under the notice of the Lame Stream Media, and I fear the only way the American People will hear of it is through Bloggers:

Saddam Harbored Al-Qaeda according to a Democrat Senate Investigation!!!

The Democrat-run Senate Intelligence Committee, while trying to find wrongdoing by the Bush Administration in their Phase Two Report, actually proved something that I proved long ago in this blog –

Iraq harbored Al-Qaeda before our invasion of March 2003.

Here is the full report: LINK. Now, go and read Conclusions 10 and 11 on Page 71.

Hey libs, told ya’ so…“

So what does conclusion 10 and 11 say?

There one problem with TJ’s claim, and that’s Abu Musab al-Zarqawi didn’t join al-Qaeda untill late 2004, well after the invasion and occupation of Iraq. His claim is just another in a long line of rubbish. Even the pResident knows that:

In 2001, coalition forces destroyed Zarqawi’s Afghan training camp, and he fled the country and he went to Iraq, where he set up operations with terrorist associates long before the arrival of coalition forces. In the violence and instability following Saddam’s fall, Zarqawi was able to expand dramatically the size, scope, and lethality of his operation. In 2004, Zarqawi and his terrorist group formally joined al Qaida, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and he promised to “follow his orders in jihad.”

Soon after, bin Laden publicly declared that Zarqawi was the “Prince of Al Qaida in Iraq” — and instructed terrorists in Iraq to “listen to him and obey him.” It’s hard to argue that al Qaida in Iraq is separate from bin Laden’s al Qaida, when the leader of al Qaida in Iraq took an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

In 2004.

Muddying the water is what the right-wing blogosphere does oh so well. And TJ is tops at that. To illustrate let’s take a look at the next two conclusions that seemed to have been glossed over:

Ya.

So to sum up…was Iraq a bad place with bad people prior to 2003? Yes. Did it harbor al Qaida? No. Did pResident Bush, Vice pResident Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and numerous other villains lie this country into a war for their own perceived benefit? Yes.