tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post2016893500276858990..comments2023-10-20T09:13:15.862-04:00Comments on Swedish Meatballs Confidential (pNSFW): Losing The NarrativeM1http://www.blogger.com/profile/05394503964463278951noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post-19578758419799108872007-11-22T06:42:00.000-05:002007-11-22T06:42:00.000-05:00I agree, actually it would be sweet for many if al...I agree, actually it would be sweet for many if all could become both out of sight and out of mind.<BR/><BR/>And sure, and just as you say: it's not any foreigners getting all that money we're spending. It's going to what are largely American owned corporations and their owners. The war is a great instrument for the transference of wealth from one party to another. Why would the winners of that equation want the spending spree to stop?<BR/><BR/>And all polls I've been privy to show that Iraqis by far want the U.S. out, and that more or less immediately or yesterday. Their opinions must reflect some sort of locally embedded understanding of what would make for less unsettling circumstances for them, non? ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post-40643252385752631032007-11-22T03:39:00.000-05:002007-11-22T03:39:00.000-05:00My immediate take is that the admin would like not...My immediate take is that the admin would like nothing better than for Iraq to disappear from the public radar screen. Sufficient pronouncements of rosy developments to offset the horror realities of the week (how many dozen innocent civilians will be killed by US mercenaries this week?) will be forthcoming until the interest level drops to a manageable level.<BR/><BR/>Meanwhile, billions continue to be appropriated for the war. Those billions aren't burned in a bonfire. They go directly to those who have profitted greatly from this exercise.<BR/><BR/>Oddly enough, I hear that the most peaceful area in Iraq is the one where foreign troops have left.stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13137529614319346972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post-82314473890173663922007-11-17T12:59:00.000-05:002007-11-17T12:59:00.000-05:00BTW, DDCheck out these sites (they're on my short ...BTW, DD<BR/>Check out these sites (they're on my short list): <BR/>matter-of-factly <I>Haft of the spear</I>,<BR/>unrelenting <I>MountainRunner</I>,<BR/>and the ghosts in the machine at <I>Kent's Imperative</I><BR/><BR/>No flags, few slogans, highly critical of the status quo, yet definitely potent and hardly whussy. <BR/><BR/>Note that the MountainRunner is on Dipnotes' very very very short blogroll, despite the fact the MR constantly rips into State. I think there's a lesson or two in this...perhaps.M1https://www.blogger.com/profile/05394503964463278951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post-39662431657480984082007-11-17T11:58:00.000-05:002007-11-17T11:58:00.000-05:00That's one way of looking at developments and dyn...That's one way of looking at developments and dynamics in Iraq.<BR/><BR/>I must confess however that the intelligence substrate that you're privy to, and your subsequent analysis, doesn't quite line up with the impressions OSINTly scavenged or personally conveyed to me (yeah yeah, I know that doesn't lend greater cred or fidelity to my opinions), by in-country folk among the FSO and an IC.<BR/><BR/>Nonetheless, such tattlers unanimously speak rather <I>matter-of-factly</I> of administrating a lost war while the statesiders figure out how to do anything substantive about the reality there upon us.<BR/><BR/>DD, you know that I believe Iraq was an ill-conceived and atrociously managed adventure from scratch - and that it's just gone horribly downhill since then, jusged by most any metric I've ever heard of. We could have f'cked with Iraq so much more competently and constructively - of that I harbor zero doubts - and come out perhaps somewhat bruised as opposed to bashed & battered.<BR/><BR/>Why one with tenure would stoop to defending such atrocious management of a decisively strategic undertaking, an undertaking many have intelligently argued was imperative upon us, instead of devoting their academic tool sets and tenured freedoms of salaried critical expression for voracious engagement in patriotically critical analysis ...well, and as you know, it just baffles the diced onions outta my tiny meatball.<BR/><BR/>Iraq will certainly not comprise our last decisive adventure: shouldn't we be extremely critical in our assessments of this chapter (even as we still fight it) so as to minimize the risk of effing things up once more the next time an imperative de l'Iraq is upon us?<BR/><BR/>I hope you find time to get back to me on this, though I know you have a plateful of obligations upon your shoulders.<BR/><BR/>Cheers DD.M1https://www.blogger.com/profile/05394503964463278951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19661405.post-46192347627732271572007-11-16T15:33:00.000-05:002007-11-16T15:33:00.000-05:00Funny how everyone says the 2006 election was a re...Funny how everyone says the 2006 election was a referendum on Iraq. That was only a year ago. Now with the improvement on the ground the liberal opinion manufacturers are trying to take attention off the progress of the surge, in hope that the Democrats won't look any more foolish on national security.AmPowerBloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18236333181889271910noreply@blogger.com