Disturbing but true
From Talking Points Memo:
Cheney and the rest of the crew at the White House can’t even seem to get clear on what side they’re on or even what war it is they’re fighting.
That takes strategic incoherence into truly uncharted territory.
Marshall concludes:
. . . at the most basic level, the folks running the show can’t even decide who’s side we’re on. There’s no real strategy here or grand aim or even stable aim — more like a rather panicked set of improvisations aimed at finding a way to retrospectively justify the mistakes that got us here in the first place.
I think there’s a direct connection between George W. Bush’s electoral success and his failure in Iraq. Winning an election is gruelling, yes, but ultimately short term. Elections are basically a year of work - the kind of work Bush excels at - schmoozing. Any mistake, any problem is a problem of words and can be fixed with words. Bush is good at messaging - he stays on message ruthlessly. George W. Bush is a gift politician and winning elections requires gifted politicians. Bush the candidate can be managed effectively by the likes of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. A president who is managed is a disaster - as we’ve seen. Bush the politician is in over his head when it is time to be Bush the President.Â
George W. Bush’s life has been a long series of elections - ultimately he has won (even if he had to have fixers) every election he’s ever faced. Wars however are not elections. Staying on message won’t win the day, and being able to focus for a while then move on doesn’t work. The kind of strategic planning required to win an election is radically different than the kind required to win a war. The strategic planning that has built the conservative movement in the US could have won a war. But George W. Bush is a beneficiary of the movement - one that has enabled conservative politicians to focus on short term elections. And so he and his team who had never had to think beyond an election time frame couldn’t handle and had no experience planning for a war.
February 27th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
There’s a scene in Woody Allen’s old movie Bananas (1971) where the USA is sending paratroopers to intervene in a Central American civil war. The CIA is taking no chances this time, they are instructed– the soldiers on one side of the plane will be fighting on the side of the government, and the other half will be fighting on the side of the rebels. It was a joke, now we’re doing it for real.
February 27th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Sounds about right. Bush manages to fool a lot of people when he campaigns, but can’t do nearly so well when he’s trying to show himself as a leader.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
They’d better hope and pray they don’t support the terrorists (even inadvertantly), they’ll be snapped up by homeland security in a flash and shipped off to gitmo. I can see them in thier orange jumpsuits now.
Hey, a fellah can dream.
February 28th, 2007 at 6:16 am
We must be winning.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=43911
February 28th, 2007 at 6:19 am
The Bombshell. Get ready for domestic terror, od some kind of Gulf of Tonkin false flag.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=COL20070225&articleId=4920
February 28th, 2007 at 6:23 am
and just for you Cliff, and your Dad.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=830250&contrassID=25&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=1&listSrc=Y&art=1
February 28th, 2007 at 6:39 am
And finally, for you military wonks, a new Russian jet. This can be the launch platform for the fire and forget Sunburn SS-22, or SS-26 Onyx, fire and forget Supersonic cruise missiles. The Russian ropadope has been complete. Nothing we have can touch this plane in one on one combat.
Russian SU-30MK Stunning,
Total Air Superiority Fighter
2-26-7
SU-30MK
On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 14:34:09 -0800, MGEN Hank Stelling USAF Ret wrote: “This is for those of you who will understand how remarkable this really is. Any way you slice it, pretty impressive. Great camera work. This remarkable aircraft and its pilot demonstrate what I thought impossible for a high speed jet fighter. In the SU-30MK, Russian aviation has surpassed that of the US and its NATO allies. This truly impressive fighter can stall from high speed flight to stop in less than a second. It can fall back on its tail, without compressor stall, and go into a flat spin and recover in less than a minute. There is no aircraft in any country’s inventory that could stand up to it in a dog fight.”
http://www.crazyaviation.com/movies/CA_SU-30.wmv video
copy and paste the link, the video is awesome.
February 28th, 2007 at 6:40 am
disregard paste and copy. Roger out. Good job Cliff, convenient.