Hunter S. Thompson 2.0
If you like the way Hunter Thompson (RIP you nutty bastard) wrote about politics, and you aren't reading Matt Taibbi- you're really missing out. Mr. Taibbi writes for Rolling Stone- Thompson's old rag- and he does just as good a job of cutting through the bullshit and laying bare the decrepit bones of American Politics. In a rare bit of corporate largesse- you can read a lot of his stuff for free on the RS website.
A link to his latest piece here. It's about the Democrats and not ending the war- telling us the soldiers have to keep dying for no reason until 2009- when presumably the country will have elected more democrats.
The final 2 paragraphs are as follows:
"How much of this bullshit are we going to take? How long are we supposed to give the Reids and Pelosis and Hillarys of the world credit for wanting, deep down in their moldy hearts, to do the right thing?
Look, fuck your hearts, OK? Just get it done. Because if you don't, sooner or later this con is going to run dry. It may not be in '08, but it'll be soon. Even Americans can't be fooled forever. "
Amen brother.
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Thursday, April 19, 2007
SNAFU
A little information is a dangerous thing. As such, I don't claim to have any "unique" insight into warfighting, but I've read a few books on military history, and now that I'm a little over half way into the nearly 800 page history of the Iraq War called, Cobra 2- I have to say, if we were able to "win" the war in a couple of weeks after screwing up nearly every single aspect of every single stage of the non-civil war portion of the Iraq war, I would love to see how quickly we might've won if the equipment we were using actually worked or if the people in charge knew their asses from their elbows.
The subtitle of Cobra 2 should probably be called, "Yes, I know we spend BILLIONS of dollars every year on fancy military stuff, but it's almost all total shit." The entire book is just an endless cacophony of broken everything- broken tanks, broken helicopters, broken radios, and broken plans. Nothing works properly, nothing is where it is supposed to be, and I can't tell you how many times you read the phrase "XXXX had lost control of the battle and his troops." The other most popular phrase is "XXXX couldn't get a hold of XXXX by radio or by telephone." I know war is chaotic and requires constant adaptation on the ground, but I cannot believe that it is "normal" to have so much equipment failure not caused by direct fighting.
And that is another thing. The early insurgency should've been predictable. If not before the war- certainly by the second or third day of it. Most of the battles were against Saddam's Fedayin (Too lazy to look up proper spelling) and they were wearing civilian clothes and (for the most part) driving civilian vehicles. From this account, it is clear there was never a real "war" at all. It was a counter-insurgency against an occupying army from Day 1.
The other aspect the book focuses on, planning and intelligence, also shakes out to be a comedy of errors. There's so much wrong I don't even want to get into it. Bottom line, this book should be required reading for anyone interested in the war- and interested in why it went so badly. Even at the point I'm at, half way in, it is clear that Rumsfeld is a total jackass who probably deserves jail for gross incompetence, if not war crimes.
Oh yeah, and the one other thing this book makes crystal clear- they were going to find an excuse to go to war in Iraq from the first day of Bush's presidency. If it wasn't 9-11 it would've been something else. At this point, I really cannot take anyone who says otherwise seriously, too many people speak on record in this book to deny this simple, yet massively damning fact.
A little information is a dangerous thing. As such, I don't claim to have any "unique" insight into warfighting, but I've read a few books on military history, and now that I'm a little over half way into the nearly 800 page history of the Iraq War called, Cobra 2- I have to say, if we were able to "win" the war in a couple of weeks after screwing up nearly every single aspect of every single stage of the non-civil war portion of the Iraq war, I would love to see how quickly we might've won if the equipment we were using actually worked or if the people in charge knew their asses from their elbows.
The subtitle of Cobra 2 should probably be called, "Yes, I know we spend BILLIONS of dollars every year on fancy military stuff, but it's almost all total shit." The entire book is just an endless cacophony of broken everything- broken tanks, broken helicopters, broken radios, and broken plans. Nothing works properly, nothing is where it is supposed to be, and I can't tell you how many times you read the phrase "XXXX had lost control of the battle and his troops." The other most popular phrase is "XXXX couldn't get a hold of XXXX by radio or by telephone." I know war is chaotic and requires constant adaptation on the ground, but I cannot believe that it is "normal" to have so much equipment failure not caused by direct fighting.
And that is another thing. The early insurgency should've been predictable. If not before the war- certainly by the second or third day of it. Most of the battles were against Saddam's Fedayin (Too lazy to look up proper spelling) and they were wearing civilian clothes and (for the most part) driving civilian vehicles. From this account, it is clear there was never a real "war" at all. It was a counter-insurgency against an occupying army from Day 1.
The other aspect the book focuses on, planning and intelligence, also shakes out to be a comedy of errors. There's so much wrong I don't even want to get into it. Bottom line, this book should be required reading for anyone interested in the war- and interested in why it went so badly. Even at the point I'm at, half way in, it is clear that Rumsfeld is a total jackass who probably deserves jail for gross incompetence, if not war crimes.
Oh yeah, and the one other thing this book makes crystal clear- they were going to find an excuse to go to war in Iraq from the first day of Bush's presidency. If it wasn't 9-11 it would've been something else. At this point, I really cannot take anyone who says otherwise seriously, too many people speak on record in this book to deny this simple, yet massively damning fact.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Dr. Strangelove Throws in the Towel- Sort of...
Henry Kissenger has declared that military victory in Iraq, is, at this point, impossible.
Of course he also says that we cannot pull out- or there will be chaos. Does anyone in this country except John McCain really think Iraq isn't in chaos now? Can he really be serious? I love that McCain went out on a walking tour of Baghdad. In body armor, in armored vehicles under "heavy guard." Now THAT is safe!!
Henry Kissenger has declared that military victory in Iraq, is, at this point, impossible.
Of course he also says that we cannot pull out- or there will be chaos. Does anyone in this country except John McCain really think Iraq isn't in chaos now? Can he really be serious? I love that McCain went out on a walking tour of Baghdad. In body armor, in armored vehicles under "heavy guard." Now THAT is safe!!
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