My Favourite new fact of the day on Mr Maverick, re: 1992, Cindy McCain:
At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said,
"You're getting a little thin up there."
McCain's face reddened, and he responded,
"At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."
The McCain way, Three opposing points of view on Iraq.
John McCain, November 27, 2007:
PBS' Charlie Rose, McCain said, "I don't think so" when asked if South Korea "is an analogy of where Iraq might be ... in terms of an American presence over the next, say, 20, 25 years, that we will have a significant amount of troops there." McCain replied, "I don't think so." Rose then asked: "Even if there are no casualties?" McCain replied, "No. But I can see an American presence for a while. But eventually I think because of the nature of the society in Iraq and the religious aspects of it that America eventually withdraws."
McCain, January 3, 2008:
New Hampshire town hall meeting, a participant said to McCain: "President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years -- " and McCain interjected: "Maybe a hundred. We've been in South Korea; we've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea for 50 years or so."
John McCain, April 2008
"I don't want to keep our troops in Iraq a minute longer than necessary to secure our interests there."
Its all so pointless John, no matter how many conflicting views you have, no matter how you craft your messages from audience to audience, no matter that you can hold all points at all times without the mainstream media bothering to ask how the fuck you can say the opposite of what you just blurted out, there is one thing you cant run from. 82%
82% is the number of Americans who believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, this of course means that 18% of US citizens are currently in the last throws of some deadly brain withering disease.
This also means that those same 18% will look towards the testimony of General Patraeus and Bush mouthpiece, Ambassador Crocker as entirely new and thrilling, rather than what it was, just a reiteration of the same glossy brochure styling of how many different ways the word quagmire can be spun into something a bit more palatable to the 82%.
Without a doubt the most striking part of the testimony was just how one dimensional the outlook of the testimony is, the central and only tenant was focused on the old canard "staying the course", the only diversion from this was the number of troops needed to do this, and even then it was only a give or take of a few thousand. Clearly there has been a blanket ban on any look into the outcome of withdrawal besides the constant repetition of the "Bloodbath/Genocide" line so beloved of those who also told us that up until last year there simply was no civil war in Iraq.
With a constant 70-80% of Iraqis saying that the presence of the US forces IS the cause of the bloodshed, surely some serious, detailed analysis of the alternatives must have been produced by the Pentagon. If the Pentagon can expend its time making up hypothetical reports such as the one where the US is attacked by Canada (its true, its a laugh, but its true), surely there must be at least one or two minor briefing papers which examine the prospect of an American withdrawal, without the regurgitation of Cheneys doom laden voice entwined within. Are there really no independent voices left, has the GOP infiltration of the state department become so complete that it really is just another arm of the Republican PR machine?
The other overriding idea that was not in any way challenged was a simple one, that the US is in charge of Iraq, when clearly it has spun beyond any semblance of control by any one or even any combination of a dozen competing forces a long time ago. Malaki can barely say that he is in control of the green zone, let alone the whole of his capital, Al Sadr can claim to run swathes of the capitol and some areas of other cities, yet he, apparently lives in Iran due to the constant threat of assassination. Sistani, the Grand Mufti of Shiite Iraq, can claim to speak on behalf of all the Shiite, but then we have no way of knowing how true that is until he issues a proclamation that goes against any of the competing Shiite forces. The entire idea of the Iraq testimonies on capitol hill are based on a spheres of lies overlapping spheres of lies in order to create a prism of truth. How Vietnam 1967 is that. Whenever a success is proclaimed, eg Mosul or Basra, a week later it explodes in flames and that is meant to signify victory. It signifies a control over the spin and that's about all.
After 5 years of relentlessly optimistic appraisals the best that can be said by Patreaus is that any gains are "fragile and reversible", while Crocker said "The situation in certain areas is still unsatisfactory, and innumerable challenges remain. I do remain convinced that a major departure from our current engagement would bring failure.” This with a straight face, doing exactly the same as has created the mess will somehow uncreate the mess.
And the reason the remain so relentlessly upbeat, Anbar Province. This little slice of Sunni heaven, where the formerly hostile tribes now enjoy being given buckets of US taxpayer dollars for the privilege of not shooting at each US patrol that passes, given arsenals of weapons to police their own patch of turf. Naturally this will fall apart the second the first wad of cash is late and whatever you do, don't look at the conditions on the ground as these little fiefdoms are created, don't ask after women's rights or human rights or the notion of a freedom as being anything other than the freedom to worship in a very fundamentalist fashion. This is now the definition of victory, Iraq with a hundred Saddam's, Iraq with a hundred torture chambers in each province paid for by the US taxpayer.
"We're no longer staring into the abyss of defeat and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success. Success - the establishment of a peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic state that poses no threats to its neighbours and contributes to the defeat of terrorists - this success is within reach."
This is McCain's view, beside the 18% of US citizens wandering the streets in hospital gowns afflicted by BSE, would you agree with any part of it? Would you describe it as in any way a reflection of any form of reality. And this is meant to be McCain's strong suit, this is meant to be the only reason for voting for the man, his foreign affairs experience. The abyss has not only been stared into, its been lept into head first with a triple pike coming right after his head bit into the blood stained dirt.
Representative Howard L. Berman: “How effective could this effort have been when mortars and rockets can rain on the Green Zone?” he asked. “For more than two weeks, our embassy is bombarded. In all, the past two-plus weeks have seen the worst violence in the Green Zone since the war began.”
Success is not even a relative concept anymore, it is pure fantasy. Success in Iraq is just getting the US troops out, plain and simple, forget anything that may resemble a democracy, the Kurdish regions of Iraq are the best example of. Touted as peaceful and prosperous, the truth is one of a region where the veneer of democracy covers a benign dictatorship, this is the best that a future Iraq can hope for in the medium term, long term it is, as it always has been up to the Iraq people. When Obama questioned Crocker on what constituted a success,
A clearly nervous ambassador Crocker sidestepped the question of what constitutes success. He refused to agree with Obama that a messy democracy with some violent outbreaks was sufficient. It is a question McCain can expect to be asked over and over again if Obama becomes the nominee. It will be a hard question for McCain to answer.
But McCain has answered, not in his fantasy definition of success, but in his constant conflation of Iran with Iraq, success will have nothing to do with Iraq, it will lie in the overthrow of the regime in Tehran, thus fulfilling the dreams of those he surrounds himself with, the same group of neo-cons who created this quagmire in the first place.
McCain today:
"I don't think you could make a blanket statement about pre-emptive war, because obviously, it depends on the threat that the United States of America faces," McCain told his audience at Bridgewater Associates Inc., a global investment firm. "If someone is about to launch a weapon that would devastate America, or have the capability to do so, obviously, you would have to act immediately in defense of this nation's national security interests."
Hence all the pushing/hyping of the threat of Iran during Patreaus testimony by McCain and his loathsome proxy, Joe Lieberman. After 5 years of bloodshed, we return to the same place we were in the run up to the Iraqi fiasco, with a (potential) President just waiting for his agencies to produce the data that he needs to fix the facts around his already formulated conclusion.
As Doug Fieth said on the US 60 minutes last week
"I think the president made the right decision given what he knew. And given what we all knew," says Feith. "And to tell you the truth, even given what we've learned since."
I predict that he will be given a big desk at the McCain Whitehouse because brazen stupidity will be highly prized and much vaunted. To those 18% of zombified US citizens, I can only say eat more brains, the ones you have are clearly not working.
On the upside in the US, these are the top five porn dowloads of last week. At least they represent something like reality:
1. Not the Bradys XXX
2. It's a Mommy Thing 2
3. I'll Toss Your Salad if You Butter My Buns
4. Lesbian Bridal Stories
5. Fuck My Mom and Me 2
Relations between Britain and Iraq suffered “catastrophic failure” after Baghdad bypassed the British military and called in the American “cavalry” to help the recent offensive against Shia militia in Basra, The Times has learnt.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3671530.ece
How about we hook Crocker up to one of these
The Pentagon is planning to give US troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan "hand-held lie detectors" aimed at rooting out potential insurgents and terrorists.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pentagon_issues_pocket_lie_detector_to_0409.html
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