The war party

I spent almost four hours last night watching the "debates." They were somewhat more in the form of real debates than all of the previous ones. First, of course, the war party and then the Democrats. I found it hard to believe just how warlike the war party really is. Just more war, more troops, more occupation, more killing, and so on. And with the exception of Ron Paul they all seemed to share this warlike stance. Amazingly, I thought, they even kept saying what a wonderful job Bush has done (made me wonder if we occupy the same planet). McCain, of course, continues arguing that the surge is working and that we will attain a victory. Victory is still to be defined as I, at least, have no idea what victory in Iraq would consist of (having killed every last one of them and stolen all of the oil?). Somewhere I read that McCain is interested in war for war's sake, no matter what it accomplishes. I think that may be right. Poor Ron Paul, the only one that seemed to me to be even half sane, was virtually hooted down every time he mentioned anything sensible. I must say I was truly shocked to hear Giuliani's absolutely astonishing claim that American Foreign Policy has nothing to do with the situation the the Middle East. It is, he claims, "completely irrelevant." No one even bothered to challenge this absurd claim except for Paul but no one listened to him anyway. I was rather surprised they did not paint their faces, drum, and do war dances. It was an incredible performance. Each one trying to outwarmonger the next. It was as if none of them (except Paul) had heard that the vast majority of the American public is sick to death of their "war," and want out as soon as possible. Where does the Brafia even find such characters?

I (happily) missed most of tonight's performance. What I did see was merely a repeat of last night's discussion of immigration and McCain and Romney engaging in their ongoing semantics about what constitutes amnesty. Totally unrewarding. I gather from some of the comments at the end that Romney seems to have done the best (I'm not sure what the "best" is in this context). The most interesting part, in a way, as the end when each candidate was asked to say why they should be President and what they would do as President. Most of them want to build a fence or otherwise keep anyone from illegally entering the country. Tellingly, not one of them mentioned ending the "war," or bringing the troops home. It's like they are all secretly pledged to endless killing and bloodshed. And they want us to believe that things are better now. Better than what? There are over a million innocent Iraqis killed, almost 4000 American troops killed, probably 40,000 injured and maimed in one way or another for life, 4 million Iraqis displaced, no one knows how many tortured, and human misery in the trillions of units (if, that is, there were units for misery). There seems to be a lull in the killing. I guess that's what they have in mind when they claim things are better. The surge is working, they say. But the surge, which was designed to give the Iraqis time to settle their political differences, has failed miserably in that dimension.

Someone, I forget who at the moment, once said that a second marriage was "the triumph of hope over experience." I can't help but think of that when I consider Barack Obama and his "Audacity of Hope." If Obama should get the nomination (and I think it is too soon to tell), I sincerely hope he will surround himself with good, solid, experienced advisers, and will actually listen to them. And I also hope he will hold accountable the war criminals that lied us into this disaster.

This is a new laptop (my regular computer is still not fixed) and I am having trouble getting used to it. The keyboard is a bit different and it has some rather strange quirks. No doubt it will all settle down in a few days.

LKBIQ:
"This interlude of school makes a somber gray patch upon the chart of my journey. It was an unending spell of worries that did not then seem petty, and of toil uncheered by fruition, a time of discomfort, restriction and purposeless monotony."
Sir Winston Churchill