No, this isn’t the opus that I lost when I hit the Preview button yesterday. This is just a nightmare I had last night. Pretty much your garden variety. This time there was a serial killer stalking our neighborhood. He was impersonating a cop. When I asked around about how you’re supposed to tell the real cops from the killer, the response I got was, “it’s anybody’s guess. Stay vigilant.”
Okay, that could be easy. The serial killer is a terrorist and it’s hard to tell them from your everyday Americans. Everybody’s scared these days. On the other hand, when it’s getting harder to tell them from the cops….that’s a little different. Maybe lately it’s getting harder and harder for me to tell the difference between our government and the terrorists. I’m not a radical or a leftist. At my age, I vote pretty much middle of the road moderate. After 9/11, I’ve experienced as much fear and anger as any other American. I have fantasies of being left alone in an interrogation room with some of the terrorists, except that I’m holding a baseball bat. I never voted for George Bush, and I don’t particularly like the guy. But as far as I’m concerned, we’re all Americans standing together when it comes to an outside threat. What I’m saying is, I shouldn’t have to be asking the question. I should know the difference between our government and the terrorists.
But that ain’t happening, folks. The other night I watched the eagerly anticipated Presidential press conference. All I can really remember of it is that I kept hearing “…..9/11……Iraq…..9/11……Iraq…..9/11……Saddam…..9/11…..”
It almost seemed like I was hearing one of those subliminal marketing ads. Does this guy really think we’re that stupid? The week before it was, “….to spread democracy through the Middle East…” (you mean like we did when we liberated Kuwait?). The week before that it was the WMD mantra. This shit flat out makes me uneasy. I don’t want terrorists to get their hands on nukes and chemicals any more than the next guy. So why isn’t the press corps asking what’s gonna happen with Iran and No. Korea? North Korea’s broke, and the only product they have to sell is WMD. Am I the only idiot that’s picked up on that nuance?
Then I’m hearing that the nuclear weapons “smoking gun” papers between Iraq and the African nation were forged by someone. Can’t our leaders tell a forgery? Or, are we now forging documents to make our case? Then there’s this little gem in the
Sunday Herald. Not that I haven’t been suspecting that more and more lately.
I’m sorry. I’m more than willing to attack Iraq if that’s going to make the US safer. But I’m not sure any more. A government that is openly lying to its citizens is not a government that I’m about to trust. About anything. My own personal nightmares are enough for me to deal with.
I don’t need this shit.
First of all, the US policy of regime change in Iraq did indeed originate before Bush took office. It was publicly declared by Clinton in 1998. The same year he bombed Iraq for four days straight (with UK help). The more things change, the more they stay the same?
I think your nightmare advice, “stay vigilant,” is very appropriate in this wide awake world. My position is not too different from what you’ve expressed. I didn’t vote for Bush. Though I still don’t trust him, I trust him more than I did when he was elected. It’s his underlings that give me the willies. Ashcroft in particular.
I’m in favor of disarming Iraq by force, if need be. And after 12 years, capped by 4 months of intense pressure, I think “need be” is here. I think I can trust the Bush administration to handle the “tactical” aspect of this, the actual military actions in Iraq. I have my doubts about if they can handle the more strategic aspects of this, i.e., the aftermath in Iraq, and using that tactical gain to a strategic end. And it’s a critical aspect. This war could end up with tremendous gains, not just in freedom for the Iraqi people, but in our overall Middle East policy, and in the War on Terror. This could be the setup for several huge payoffs, from a Palestinian state to a final accounting with “our friends” the Saudis, and maybe the catalyst to a new revolution in Iran.
This war could also end up an ugly mess, with a tactical victory followed by no strategic vision whatsoever, or simply a really bad one. We are at a real breaking point, with the UN, NATO, and the EU partially at stake, and the hits we are taking internationally have to have a payoff. I think it is there in spades, if played right. I just don’t trust a ship of loose cannons (Perle, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, et al) to play it right.
I’ve got some serious questions and concerns about the Bush administration, and they will be answered in one way or another in the next six months. It would be charitable to call me “cautiously optimistic.”
Fri.March.03 @ 12:09:53
I, on the other hand, seem to be sliding into a deep pessimistic funk. I hope your version of the next few months is what we get, a quick war, Happy Iraqis, democracy rolling through the middle east, Islamic hotheads slithering back into their caves….
And not the increased worldwide chaos, Korean nukes and violence directed toward us from all sides coupled with an economy spiriling out of control because “the vandals took all the handles”, that I feel in my gut.
Fri.March.03 @ 18:08:51
I wouldn’t call it so much “my version” as “my vision.” Whether it is held or attempted by anyone in the Bush administration remains to be seen.
Until not too long ago, I had some perverse faith in the fact Bush would like to be re-elcted. Surely he would do what it took domestically over the next 18 months to set himself up for a big win.
Then I got a look at VooDoo Economics, v 2.0, in the form of the tax cut and rush to huge deficits, and I begin to wonder if he won’t be a One Termer like his Daddy.
But there’s a lot of temporal aspects to all of this. We forget about the public turmoil before Gulf War I, when only 54% of Americans polled supported us fighting in Iraq, the Palestinians backed Saddam, and we were warned we’d set the “Arab street” aflame, and thousands of US troops would come home in body bags. None of it happened. Similiar warnings and concerns came out before we went into Afghanistan, and the weeks beforehand were filled with much hand wringing.
We also forget that with about 18 months before his re-election bid, Pres. George Bush Sr. was riding a wave of 80% poll approval ratings, and wolrd wide acclaim as the leader who forged a coalition to evict Iraq from Kuwait. 18 months later, he was thoroughly whipped by a Governor of a small southenr state, a guy who was largely unknown at the time of the Gulf War.
We face equal variables here. And I don’t mean to minimize anyone’s concerns, but there are aspects of this that remind me of the butterflies I’d feel before a football game. The concerns and worries. With the first contact on the first play, those butterflies flew away, as the game actually played out. We are now in some Valley of Purgatory, where worry is all there is to be found. Time. News of more delays and roadblocks. Worry.
I think everyone is ready for some form of resolution, so that we can all get on with more productive enterprises (locally and globally). I try to remain optimistic, but I’m aware of the ugly potentialities (locally and globally), so I “stay vigilant.”
I’m just happy I have a donkey to talk these things over with. I thought you’d gone Totally Constipated.
Sat.March.03 @ 00:08:45
I actually do forget the turmoil and hand wringing that went on before Gulf War I. My hazy recall summons up memories of a serious congressional debate, which we’re lacking this time, and a couple of protest parades. But I personally had no problem with GW1. I probably had more reservations when Clinton went into Bosnia, except that at least he had NATO with him. I thought Bush 41 did an excellent job of corraling world opinion and resources to get the job done, and there was no certainty that he wasn’t heading for Vietnam II when it all started. After all, the only difference between Iraq invading Kuwait and Iraq invading Iran (or Rwanda invading whoever they invaded) was the Kuwaiti oil fields. It was envisioned by most Americans, I think, as a necessary strategic action to prevent Gas Lines II.
This time, I’ve really been sitting on the fence. I see a scary dictator with WMD and a past history of using them, and I’d like to see him disappear, replaced by some benevelent government which likes ‘murikins. I see France as a country on a power trip, not one with any claim to moral high ground. Then I see seriously scary goings on in Iran and N. Korea. I see Bush 43, continually acting like he sounds in his “speeches”, and I’m wondering if they stopped parcelling out brains in the Bush family after Bush 41. It can be funny and entertaining watching the leader of the world’s only superpower talk and act like Howdy Doody; you can almost see Buffalo Bob’s strings attached over his arms. It can also be very disturbing. It’s increasingly apparent that benevelent ol’ Buffalo Bob isn’t on the other end of this particular puppet’s strings.
I don’t really know who they are, but I know they were smart enough to whip John McCain like a dump dog, send Algore back to Tennessee mumbling to himsel, and able to completely restructure the income distribution in this country along with the First and Fourth Amendments, while muzzling the so-called Opposition Party and keeping a dangerously teetering economy off the front pages.
I’m beginning to think in paragraph-long sentences, which is scary in itself, but I’m beginning to think that there’s been a coup in this country. Not that it hasn’t entered the arena of speculation from way back to the Kennedy Assassination, but it’s beginning to look like something beyond speculation and conspiracy theories. At least where I’m sitting, and I don’t usually fall prey to this stuff.
It would help if there was a decent “side” these days. Once side is giving me premonitions of Nazi Germany, and the other is marching around screaming “Give Saddam a Chance!”
I’m left to my nightmares and the scribbles of a constipated donkey, and happy to have at least one reader. This blog has been relegated to something called “free time”. My HTML work, which used to also fit into “free time”, has now spread into an area encompassing both my job and the supposed “free time”. I’m actually spending so much time keeping products up to date online that when I finish at night, I look forward to watching mindless drivel on tv. Unfortunately, when I turn it on, it’s full of Hardball, CNN, the O’Reilly fucker, etc….. Okay, I guess you can call that mindless drivel after a while. I think I need to rediscover beer.
Sun.March.03 @ 10:24:16
I was going to write about how there was not only Congressional debate, there was a vote for Congressional authorization, as well as about the pity of poor timing to schedule major protests 4 months after that vote … that is if you’re really interested in affecting the democratic process. And a lot more.
But then I read, “I think I need to rediscover beer,” and I knew a good idea when I saw one. It’s a control thing. Because I can control the beer, and I can do something about it. In fact, anything I want. My opinion about the beer is the only one that matters, and I will do with the beer as I please.
See, isn’t that a lot more fun than wondering what will happen at the UN tomorrow?
Sun.March.03 @ 22:15:33
Apparently the only people who are affecting the democratic process these days are the Nader voters and big corporations. The Democrats seem to have learned that you get more money by acting like Repubs and wearing a very flexible spine so you can blow with the wind better.
It’s a tough call on the UN. Let’s see, will we get the 9 votes and go? Or will we not and go instead? To make matters worse, next week or so I’ll probably be competing with 24FC to see who has the biggest flag flying over their driveway. It’s the least I can do.
Mon.March.03 @ 09:53:40
Months pass. Wars are fought. Rare eclipses occur. The donkey stirs not at all.
“Dead Donkey in the middle of the web,
Stinkin’ to Hiiiiiiigh … Heaven.”
[perhaps I should become a motivational speaker]
Tue.May.03 @ 12:30:19
The poor donkey’s been shoveling product out the door so fast his head’s spinning. Someday, Real Soon Now, he’ll be so rich that he can pay some slob to update this site. Maybe it will be his dictation wench, who knows?
LW III’s wife (ex?) and sister produced some fine stuff as well, and it didn’t necessarily stink of the web (maybe they can take dictation?)
Fri.May.03 @ 19:09:31