(Still) Alive

... and Kicking

I know it's been a while (two months!) since I last put a post up here on Blogger. Where has the time gone? Lots has happened -- and a lot of it has just downright ticked me off.

In any case, some of you might have seen me commenting around the blogosphere - especially on those blogs listed on the left side of the page. Lately it seems that this is about the best I can do given the constraints of time, family, energy and outrage. Needless to say, given the arrival of spring and my headlong rush into a new phase of life, I've not found the time to put down onto this blog the ruminations that crossed the threshold of my mind.

In the meantime, let me simply comment on General Stan's Spectacular Flame-out. I'm glad General Stan had his head (and job) handed to him. For Obama to do anything less than firing would simply taken away "the babymakers" (thanks FDChief!) and completely given the military dominance over even the office of the President. Frankly, they already dominate nearly all aspects of what are nation does, just as President Eisenhower warned us of. And I remain quite pessimisstic that until a complete and total economic collapse visits our lands, the military and its industrial-congressional-think tank enablers will continue to dominate the development of our national strategy - foreign and domestic. The ability of our current system to think critically, recognize its bias and develop a full range of honest options - much less reform itself - simply does not exist right now. Perhaps in the future it will but I doubt it.

And its not just the military suffering through terminal cranial-rectal inversion. Across the spectrum of our government we see example after example after example of the same malady. Sadly, and in spite of the clear interest in our citizens left and right to put fixes in place, our leaders simply cannot get it together. Each side of the spectrum only wants to win for its side -- and even if they were to win they would probably still try to perpetuate the fight if only to keep themselves employed!

So, for this Patriot, I try to keep my sense of humor and watch a whole lot of John Stewart's show. And I work on moving on to what's next. Perhaps more about that topic in a later post.

Until then friends, don't let the bastards get you down!

Alan Grayson on Wars: We Won, Now Let's Go Home

What else needs to be said? Grayson continues to amaze with his very simple, very direct and very thoughtful discussion of our future direction.

Watch it. Spend four minutes to see how Congress is supposed to act.



And remember, in those four minutes, the other members were probably earning (extorting?) thousands of dollars from corporate lobbyists and PACs.

A Saner Foreign Policy

... Just Leave People Alone

This morning, Howie (Down With Tyranny) blogs about the "green on blue" deaths of two US soldiers earlier this week in Wardak Province, Afghanistan. Sadly, this event has passed with hardly any notice in the broader stream of traditional media blasted at the American people. Howie places this event in a better context, noting the great likelihood that disrespect of and failure to understand your allies (and enemies) culture are the root cause for these deaths.

Howie also highlights comments made by Rep. Alan Grayson several months ago. As with understanding national financial scandal, anti-citizen politics, and blatant unconstitutional governance taken up by Congress, Grayson has been a stalwart proponent of bringing our forces back home and simplifying our foreign policy.

I think that the aid program is a fig leaf trying to make Congress and the American people feel better about the war and about killing. I think that diplomacy in the areas of fig leaf to try to make the American people think that there is some constructive alternative to the war when the war itself is destructive and not constructive.

I think that the basic premise that we can alter Afghan society is greatly flawed. Afghanistan is simply the part of Asia that was never occupied by the Russians or the English in the Great Game. It’s not a country; it’s not even a place. It’s just an empty place on the map. It’s terra incognita. People who live there are a welter of different tribes, different language groups, different religious beliefs.

All over the country you find different people who have nothing to do with each other except for the fact that we call them Afghans, who don’t even call themselves Afghans. They’re Tajiks, or they’re Pashtuns, or they’re Hazzaras or someone else. The things that hold them together are simply the things that we try to create artificially.

The idea that we could transform that society or any other society through aid, I think, is entirely questionable. I’ve never seen it happen; probably never will happen. If you go to the Stan countries north of Afghanistan, and I’ve been to all of them, what you find is that the way that the Russians altered that society was by crushing it. Stalin killed half a million Muslims in Kazakhstan, in Turkmenistan, in Kyrgyzstan, in Uzbekistan.

He simply sliced off the head of that society in order to remake it in the image that he wanted. And I think that we would have to do no less if we wanted to remake Afghanistan in our image. We’d have to destroy it in order to save it, and I don’t think the American people are ever going to do that to anybody. So I think that the underlying premise is simply wrong.

I’ve been to 175 countries all around the world, including Afghanistan and every country in that region, and what I’ve seen everywhere I went is that there are some commonalities. Everywhere you go, people want to fall in love. Everywhere you go, people love children. Everywhere, they love children. Everywhere you go, there’s a taboo against violence. Every single place you go. And everywhere you go, people want to be left alone. And that’s the best foreign policy of all. Just to leave people alone. (Alan Grayson, 10/9/2009)

Think about that for a moment. Just Leave People Alone. A thoroughly American sentiment, one that can be traced all the way back to the wisdom of Washington:

My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the broils of none. To fulfil our own engagements. To supply the wants, and be carriers for them all: Being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so.

A New Post for a New Year

... or is it a new post for a new decade?

Whatever.

So those few of you who do stop by to read my ruminations know that I've been an infrequent commenter on the scene, a ghost who comments on what others write but rarely stands up and makes statements in their own blog. It's true; I've been pretty delinquent in posting my various thoughts about where we are today in our country, where we seem to be headed, and why we are on the course we are on.

The very interested wonder "why"?? Every now and then, I wonder the same thing. Is it too much work? Too many other commitments?? The burning out of the fires of "hope and (or for) change"??? Or simply boredom with commentary on the contretemps of the times????

Others simply shrug their shoulders and move on to the next blog.

The lack of activity here at this blog is probably due to all of the above and more. No doubt I am very unhappy, as are many, many other patriots, with where we find ourselves theses days. Heck, we can't even keep the few, mildly progressive and wholly patriotic appointments made by the new Administration. But yet, "Ben the Beard" Bernanke keeps his job and Wall Street tycoons fleece the rest of us (and each other every now and then). And we have to wonder what the heck this guy has been telling his boss in the wake of this abject failure.

Sadly, we've watched our new president stumble down the path of his predecessors, wading further into the big muddy of Afghanistan and failing to uphold his pledge to shutdown that embarrassing on us all, Guantanamo. To hear how unbelievable (or inevitable) these actions are, simply listen to how Bill Moyers brought to life LBJ's Path to War in a November broadcast. Sigh.

And don't even get me going on the debacle that is health care reform! It's even worse than it was when I last wrote. Apparently we have the best Congress that money and inherent conflicts of interest can buy.

I guess it is not surprising then that I've been silent. What victory is there to speak of these days? Heck, it is so bad that one has to take pleasure in the "morans" climbing to ever higher heights of astroturfed recognition -- so high indeed that they might complete the GOP's ideological purity firing squads in the fallout of the party's failure last year.

At least we've seen a couple of truly upstanding new Congressmen take the principled stands their constituents expect them to take.

And, I even hear Karl Rove is joining the rest of his right wing, family-values buddies in the ranks of the divorced! Maybe the next time he shows up on TV to extol family values, one of the punditry could ask him how long it will be before he marries again? Even that ever pompous windbag Rusty had some sort of medical problem while vacationing in exotic Hawaii that he doesn't want to talk about (too bad it wasn't fatal, but it would be karmic if it were Parkinson's; jus' sayin'). So, maybe things are looking up?

Anyhow, for those who do take the time to read this --- Happy New Year!!! Let's make 2010 a better one than last year --- whether we act individually, with our small circles of family and friends, or collectively. For, as I noted almost a year ago, we have a lot to do in our country and we are the ones who are going to get it done if its going to get done.

And you can bet I'm going to see this if it ever makes it to where I am at!


(PS - you'll note some admin changes to the look of the blog -- and several additions to my blogroll. I hope you'll visit those fine folks too.)

Surge into Afghanistan?? Are you sure?

China Matters points to a recent series from the Asia Times' correspondent Syed Saleem Shahzad who writes about his recent travel through the Northwest Frontier Province ("On the Militant Trail"):

"the disturbing message of Shahzad's report is that the time for a return to the status quo ante, or any other easy solution, may be long past. With the Taliban entrenched, emboldened, and determined to substitute its rule for the government writ that has traditionally run in Pashtun affairs, it will be very difficult for the United States and the central government of Pakistan--two disliked and discredited antagonists--to dislodge them."

This is yet another reason why continuing to do the same old thing, like this

a secret report from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to President Obama recommends a shift in the military mission in Afghanistan to concentrate solely on combatting the Taliban and al-Qaida and leave the "hearts and minds" aspect of the war to other U.S. agencies and NATO... hand [establish[ing] good governance, law enforcement, economics, education, etc., ....over to the State Justice, Agriculture departments and others.

Especially when the militants disrupt your main supply routes

Supplies intended for NATO forces in Afghanistan were suspended [February 3] after Taliban militants blew up a highway bridge in the Khyber Pass region, a lawless northwestern tribal area straddling the border with Afghanistan.

in exactly the same area where those militants are now

strikingly successful in creating an identity for itself beyond a militarized jihadist force, establishing itself as the face of a conservative Islamic movement beyond the tribal areas and in the relatively developed non-urban areas of the NWFP, using its military muscle to promote sharia law, enforce puritanical social norms, advance Islamist ideas of equity and social justice, and even flirting with populism in attacks on the secularized Pakistani political and economic elite, their local adherents, the feudal lords or "khans", and the armed forces that seek to protect them.

Still think an extra 30-50,000 U.S. soldiers are going to make a difference in this losing hand?

Me neither.

(AP photo from the New York Times)

Friday Nite Points

OK. It's been a long week and I'm tired. Mostly, I'm tired of being outraged at how poorly the People's Servants in Washington are actually serving the People. So, some short takes.

One. Digby catches this great quote by Barney Frank: "Having lived with this very right wing Republican group that runs the House most of the time, the notion of trying to deal with them as if we could be post-partisan gives me post-partisan depression." Well Barney, I can sympathize with how you feel. Now, get motivated and get some real help to real Americans in the manufacturing sector, eh?

Two. If this (Worst month for job loss in 34 years) isn't enough motivation, then maybe putting some thought into what the default of any of the Big 3 would mean in the fantastical credit default swap market may be in order. B over at Moon of Alabama has done just that. An automaker default translating into hundreds of billions in CDS losses ... now that is leverage I can believe in!

Three. By the way, we should take heed to what this guy has to say (h/t B). Especially when he says this:

People, especially Americans, started believing that they can live on other people’s money. And more and more so. First other people’s money in your own country. And then the savings rate comes down, and you start living on other people’s money from outside. At first it was the Japanese. Now the Chinese and the Middle Easterners.

We—the Chinese, the Middle Easterners, the Japanese—we can see this too. Okay, we’d love to support you guys—if it’s sustainable. But if it’s not, why should we be doing this? After we are gone, you cannot just go to the moon to get more money. So, forget it. Let’s change the way of living.

Four. This is simply bullpuckey! And if it were so dang important, how come no one sought to question the citizenship of "Panama" John McCain? Over at Stonekettle Station, Jim calls it a "Conspiracy of Stupid." I know the fevered swamp dwellers want nothing more than this to be true... but give it up already! YGTBFKM!

Five. China Hand is looking behind the blaring soundbites of last week's Mumbai attack (has it been a week already) and sees that not everything is as simple as you may think it is. What is simple is that two nuclear armed nations are moving towards a confrontation and defusing the tension will not simply happen because the U.S. advocates calm and caution. If that is what we are advocating.

Six. I started to put some of my own thoughts down about what Bruce Miller has been writing lately about the impending Afghanistan escalation. Suffice it to say, take a few moments to read and reflect on his pleas for a real strategy ("How many times to we have to watch this movie?" and Afghanistan and Pakistan).

Seven. Glenn Greenwald gets up in Tom Gjelten's grill for the sloppy reporting and commentary Tom and NPR broadcast in the wake of John Brennan's withdrawal from consideration as Director of the CIA. Be amazed at the power of teh "left-wing bloggers"! Never mind that Brennan had some other issues that made any potential vetting and confirmation run a bit dicey. Besides, who needs that kind of controversy? Way to go Glenn! Stay on it!

Eight. I think Col Lang is becoming fed up with the global ineptitude in dealing with those scurvy sea-dog pirates of Somalia. His readers certainly are and its a lively discussion!

Nine. I'm with Athenae. Only a few more weeks to wait for this!

Ten. And lastly. Enjoy the snark that emerges from the Rising Hegemon.