Lies

NPR "Pentagon correspondent" Eric Westervelt reporting on Morning Edition, announces that although many spouses said they were proud of what their husbands were doing you could tell they didn't really mean it. I'm not directly quoting. I'm close though.

There's a great new angle for the media: get audio and video of relatives of GI's. Or better, photos. See here and here. Surely we can expect better than to see stock photos reused as in these two stories? Of course, with still pictures we can put any words we want in their mouths, can't we? We all have our own private caption contests when we see images like those.

The other great new angle: those GIs were extended because of poor planning. The DoD knew all along they'd need more troops in Iraq.

Respectfully submitted: No. There was no plan on our part for an uprising of militants in two cities at once. Since it has happened, what would a sane response be? Send the troops home anyway? Ignore it?

Just curious here. Peruse the stories in today's morning briefing. Lots of headlines. My entry for lowest of the low is from the NY Times: Extended Tours In Iraq Dash Hopes And Raise Fears Among Families. That cries for a direct quote to support it. None follows. We must assume the author is psychic. Disappointed? To be sure. Without hope? Not likely.

We're a nation at war. Odd how the media seems to have difficulty grasping this. Flexibility is the key to victory and in this case means pain. This too shall pass. It would be wonderful if other nations were there sharing this burden. It would be wonderful if American taxpayers over the past ten years had insisted on spending twice the actual budgets to double the size of the military. It would have required protestors ringing every base and post when that location was closed, and refusing to allow the troops to leave. They would have to have piled money at the gate to block the exit.

They would have had to have forced their children to enlist. 'Sign up and be trained, my darling daughter, your nation will need you to be a mid-level NCO in five years in Iraq. Don't worry; I'm going to open a factory to produce bullet proof vests for you while you're in basic. We'll have plenty ready for you when needed.'

Yes, I'm sure we all remember those cries. I'm sure every reader here can tell the tale of the time they took their child to the recruiters and were turned away. The many unanswered letters they wrote to Al Gore demanding he cease and desist inspiring the talent hemorrhage he dubbed "reinventing government" that led to a net exit of traffic through those gates of that Air Force Base up the road...

And how 'bout that Rumsfeld character? He says now he didn't expect the number of casualties we've had this week. How unprofessional. You know a good leader would have come out ahead of time and posted not just the number, but the names of all the troops who would be killed, so they could dodge, or duck, or jump the other way.

Perhaps we expected too much after World War II. You can identify the guys who aren't going to make it, you know. "I can't wait to get home and marry Bess and buy that farm I've always wanted!" They say, moments before the bullet strikes home. At least that's the way of the movies I've seen. And most of the movies I've seen only last a couple of hours. The longest, Band of Brothers, pretty much told the whole story in ten.

It's Bush, you know. He lied, the cad, and we all remember it well. "This will be a quick and painless war" he said those many months ago, "Like Grenada. You'll never even notice it. Go on about your business. We'll be done here in a minute."

Remember that? That's what he meant you know, when he said this:

This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.

Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.

Sounds to me like he was saying we'd wrap up Afghanistan in a week and then we'd be done. And now he won't admit he was wrong. And claims he has no regrets.

Here, review to the whole pack of lies.

What a strange world he must live in, where west is east and up is down and everyone lives happily ever after, regardless of race, color, or creed.

It's just not subtle, is it? It lacks... nuance.