America Down The Toilet

This, My Fellow Americans, is what happens when we allow and unelected buffoon of a Con-man to sit in the White House with his gang of thuggish ideologues when he has not been elected.

Of course, even before that, how many of us were paying any attention to Washington at all? Not all that many, unless the news was sexy enough...like the ones about stained dresses and Gooper hypocrites and their mistresses.

We have the god-awful government we deserve, until we are willing to sacrifice for real, for our freedom, our constitution and our souls.

September 13, 2007

The dictate of history: All the Iraq-war predictions are worthless, save one

How very familiar these seesaw samplings are, and from just one story from just yesterday's news alone:

"The battle of words over Iraq intensified today ... as Democrats renewed their criticism"; but, said the White House, "It’s pretty clear that it’s not a war without end.... Victory is defined as helping the Iraqis develop the capability of defending themselves and governing themselves."

"[Their] plan is more of the same," the Senate majority leader said, and "this is unacceptable"; but, said a White House spokesman, Democrats are merely "try[ing] to create a political framework for ignoring the success that has taken place." Another Democratic senator also "said today that the size of the troop drawdown was unacceptable"; but, "Bush is expected to tell the nation that he embraces the recommendations of ... the American military commander in Iraq," which means more of the same; and on, and on.

We've been reading, hearing, watching the same news for months. The Dems criticize; the admin responds; the Dems sharpen their criticism; the admin strengthens its response; the Dems escalate their criticism; the admin escalates its offensive defense; and on, and on.

Meanwhile, every bloody day, another four or five American soldiers lose their lives, another bombing of sectarian revenge occurs, another billion or so gets washed down the drain.

If the subject matter weren't so tragic, the rhetorical ping-pong game here -- in feckless reaction to the savage game played there -- would be comical. Never have so many said so much to so little intentional effect.

The White House strategy, of course, is to rely on this rhythmic sameness -- to ride out the Democrats' ineffectiveness to the very end, then make its problems somebody else's problems. The Democratic strategy is what you might call counter-similarity -- to rely on the White House's intransigence as a campaign prop, and then, having seized the White House themselves, as well as gained stronger positions in the Senate and House, do ... something. The "something" is for another day; for now, repetitious politics reigns supreme.

In short, both contestants are relying on sameness. Both are assuming the reliability of unchanging events and familiar scenarios for at least the next year. Their futures depend on it.

But, if I may venture a prediction: Both will find themselves in radically altered territory a year from now. The sameness they're relying on won't hold. The course of history doesn't work that way -- the only thing predictable about it is its unpredictability.

Most often -- and especially in politics and war -- the comfort of game plans smacks square into the brutality of unintended consequences within the same news cycle, let alone a week or a month down the road. Hence the reliability of a year-long plan is shaky, at best, while to rely on such reliability is downright foolish.

Simply and exceedingly vaguely put, "something" will happen. And that something will alter the face of this war and its politics dramatically. I'm not the amazing Kreskin, so I can't know what the something will be. Perhaps an extended and far more severe regional conflict; perhaps Anbar Sunnis turning on their unnatural allies, sucking in more of the latter; perhaps a Shiite-militia coup. Who knows. The menu of potentials is diverse and explosive.

But I do know this: The one thing -- the only thing -- we can count on is that we won't be looking at the same war a year down the road, as both Democrats and Republicans are settling in for. All the current political and military calculations will be garbage by then. It'll be a whole new ballgame -- a damn-near unrecognizable ballgame -- and today's bleak sameness will seem like wistful nostalgia.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.